And the Winner Is...

Wow-eee...I got a whole bunch of requests for the free tote bag, 31 to be exact, from comments and email, which is a lot for a little ol' blog like this.
Here's how I picked the winner: I assigned each person a number and then used the random number generator to pick a random number.

And The Winner Is....

drumroll...

Deb from Montana

Congratulations & Enjoy!

(Deb wrote in her email that "a while back I was addressing the fact that (my husband) would get so chilled in the winter (laying block, ice fishing....) that a blanket around his shoulders and neck would warm him faster. He agreed, but said that he would never ask for a shawl. But, if I would knit him a 'shotgun', so that he could ask in a very manly way for someone to hand him his shotgun, that would be acceptable. Of course, it couldn't be lacy or pinned..."

I love that! I immediately told the big knitter he should be making shotguns.

I got so many nice comments and emails, I wish I had 30 more totes, I would send one to everybody. Thanks for entering. And Deb, I will get this mailed to you as soon as I round up a box.

Now, here's a little preview of Big Knitter's Big Swatch from his Big Ball O' Yarn:

In contrast, my offering, a little itty bitty hat that I made from this free pattern (thanks, I love it) from Hello Yarn. I didn't add the anime face, but I made it from a softer-than-soft Sublime yarn, merino/silk/cashmere blend that I picked up at Kiwi, my fave lys.

And now, last but not least. Isn't this one cute face?

I thought you'd say that!

Danger! Male knitter in the household!

OK, so the big knitter handed me this (the yarn, not the mug)

You know, I gotta tell you it's challenging enough to have a big knitter in the house (just think of the yarn storage, for one thing); then he walks into the room holding this HUGE ball of yarn.

After laughing hysterically,while simultaneously admiring the yarn, I said: "You know what they say about men and compensation!"

I had to take out the measuring tape and check it out! This big ball o' yarn is 6 inches!

As a little knitter, I was duly impressed. I told big knitter it's only fair to share this with the world, geesh, so it can be appreciated, for goodness sake!

Enjoy!

(And, oh, one thing I do respect about the big knitter is that he's secure in his place in the knitting world, so he's a pretty safe target. Another thing is he never reads this blog anyway so I pretty much have wide latitude.)

What we have here, is a beautiful, gorgeous skein of hand-dyed Fleece Artist wool/silk, worsted weight. Wow, I'm pretty sure I remember laying claim to the finished project when we first saw the yarn during our Canadian Yarn Tour for Stash Enhancement. The big knitter ordered enough yarn for a big blanket and we got the box today from Threads In Time, along with a nice letter from the owner, Lynn.

There's no yardage info listed on the skein. (but I estimate LOTS). There are EIGHT skeins! I'll try to post some progress photos when we see how fast big knitter can knit this up.

Speaking of big boys, er, I mean...
I found this today, stashed in the spare bedroom. (Well, not this exact one, but I was too lazy to take the actual one out of the box for a photograph).

I would love to gift this totebag to a new knitting home, ASAP. It's a very big bag and made from heavy canvas; too big for my projects and the big knitter doesn't like the thick canvas. Here' a link to the same bag being sold on QVC.

Oh, yeah, another thing, I'll throw in the postage to get it to you. (in the U.S., that is.)

If you want a chance at this humongo...yeah, I guess that's the theme for the night...bag, just do this:

Leave a comment here or send me an email at: mostlybears at liveline dot com and I'll include you in a random drawing as soon as I get enough responses to make it fair.

Good luck and happy knitting.

One Tofutsies Sock completed

I'm making some progress on my Favorite Socks merino lace "anklet adaptation". I used a round toe but I left needles on the last 4 stitches just in case I change my mind after I finish sock 2.
I have to say, I didn't really think I'd like Tofutsies, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the way they feel. In the future, I'd probably do a k1,p1 rib instead of k2,p2 for a little more tightness, but all in all I'm happy.

Gratefulness

I came across this article about near death experience and heart attacks:

"Back From the Dead. Doctors are reinventing how they treat sudden cardiac arrest, which is fatal 95 percent of the time. A report from the border between life and death." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19751440/site/newsweek/)

Which flooded me with the memories of the Big knitter's Sudden Cardiac Arrest five years ago. He is one very, very lucky person to be alive. If you don't believe in a higher power...you just might have to consider it had you witnessed this event. As for me, I believe.

Suffice it to say, so many factors had to be exactly in place to ensure his survival that night, one must be compelled to ponder. After reading the article, I decided to make a list:

1) I had to be home. I had seriously considered running to the post office that evening to mail some bills and for some reason didn't.
2) I had to walk down the hall for no apparent reason and find him on the bed just before he died. Really there was no reason for me to go to the bedroom at that moment.
3) I had to know CPR.
4) Our daughter had to be home to run out into the street and flag down the paramedics. She also had to make the 2nd call to 911 after he stopped breathing.
5) EMS was not out on another call and arrived within 5 min. and immediately defibrillated. ***** MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR***** (actually two ambulances showed up at the same time, along with a fire truck)
6) Husband's heart had to respond to defibrillation. *******2nd MOST IMPORTANT******
7) Heart hospital was less than 5 minutes from home.
8) Husband's cardiologist was on call, early angioplasty took place within 1 hr.

He came home just under 48 hours later with a new stent.

We immediately purchased our own AED, which we still take with us when we travel.

He doesn't remember a thing after the initial chest pain. I suffered nightmares for several years afterwards. I believe I had PTSD.

But...

I also believe we were being watched over, somehow, that night.

"Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God." - Seneca

On a more knitty note, it occurred to me that I've been neglecting the Big Knitter's projects here on this blog. So I secreted a few of his WIP's away to the living room and took these pics:

And here's a little owl who has been seen frequently of late, in the rafters on the back porch:

He was hiding out today from our lovely afternoon monsoon rain. It cooled off a whole, ah, say 10 degrees. (105 to 95, whew!)

A new gadget from Blogger

I added a rudimentary poll to the blog just for fun. Don't forget to vote! If this works, I might try a political poll one of these days...

So much yarn...not enough lifetimes

I often wonder (now that we're finished with the stash-enhancing tour) just how long it would take me to knit up every skein of yarn in my stash...a year? two? More??? Arrgh! I simply cannot think about it in terms of hours or days, not even projects...surely I would never walk into a yarn shop again I would feel so defeated.

No, I think the best way to approach ones' yarn stash is to realize that a portion of this stash will most likely never be knitted up, at least not by me. Undoubtedly, I will lose interest in a some of these projects before they get near the needles.

Just like certain teddy bears in my store... they're filler on the shelves and help create an inviting atmosphere in the store. But the reality is, some may never find a home. Or they might be donated for charity events or given away as gifts.

Some of my yarn will be used similarly. I just got two very nice thank you notes from Wooly Wonders and the Knitting Ladies program for the yarn/needles I donated to them. Both are excellent causes. And an excellent way to de-stash without guilt.

Here's a bit of progress on my Tofutsies anklets, adapted from Favorite Socks Merino Lace sock pattern. I cast on 60 stitches, did a few rows of stockinette followed by a few rows of ribbing, then immediately started the heel following the 30-stitch lace pattern. After doing the heel flap, I used the same 30 stitch heel pattern (but substituted a knit stitch for the slipped stitch) for the instep. My friend Mary Ann (who is a teddy bear artist and a sock knitter) made the bear. She calls him "Tucker ~ bear with an Attitude". He's a pretty good foot model!

Progress on Cabled Baby Sweater

Here's a last look at my Puddle Jumpers sweater before the sewing and finishing step takes place. I'm trying to decide if the sleeves are too short before I do the actual finishing...

Back in the U.S., Back in the U.S, Back in the....

We had a great time in Canada and just the most lovely scenery. And some wonderful yarn stores. But, there's nothing like the feeling of coming "home" to the United States of America! Despite all its flaws (which maybe we'll have a chance to do something about next election...but that's another story), we really do live in an amazing country. It is my hope all of us could feel the same feeling every day that we felt when Customs officials said "welcome back!"

Anyway, a couple of yarn store stops happened in Seattle while we were waiting to get on the big cruise ship with our family. (To see photos of our cruise, etc., visit my bear store blog here)


First up was a place called So Much Yarn, a little alcove right in the middle of the city. Some lovely yarn and fun books. As soon as we got there, one of the sales ladys offered Big Knitter a seat on the couch at the back of the store! Wow! I couldn't resist telling them that he was a much Bigger Knitter than myself. (what I wanted to say, was, geesh, you just lost a big sale, but I refrained)

I found this...

...which I've been looking for ever since I got that really amazing organic cotton yarn from the Green Mountain Spinnery...thousands of miles and more days ago than I can remember. So now I'm ready to make the adorable kimono sweater.

Later, I asked Big Knittter if he felt discriminated against as a guy knitter?! His response: "Who cares, I'm just glad they had a bathroom." So that was that.


Next up was Tricoter, a high class knittin' joint located just north of the city center. What a great store if you like the most wonderful yarn. And who doesn't?

There was an amazing staff person (a guy) whose name I can't remember, who was just finishing up a lovely lace shawl. And I got interested in the beauty of that piece. It was gorgeous. (And he was getting ready to teach that shawl in an upcoming class at the store). Anyway, long story short, I got a basic primer on lace knitting from him and I got this:
And someday, I will make a shawl.

And the Big Knitter wasn't discriminated against for being a guy. He saw an incredible blanket with these huge cables in it, like 20- stitch cables all the way across the thing. It was a large throw size. And we found the pattern in one of Tricoter's own books. The saleslady who was helping Big Knitter showed us the cashmere yarn that it was made from. Some little balls of cashmere, 50 gm., using three strands held together. And all you needed was 66 of them for the blanket! And that would have cost just a little under a thousand dollars for the yarn!! No joke!


Oh, I also found some Socks That Rock yarn here:


Colorways Titania (greens) and Ruby Slippers (reds)


And that's it for our cross-country-and-back trip. And now it's off to home, back to reality, gotta pay the bills for this trip for awhile before we do any more stash enhancement. Next up, I will give a little update on my cabled sweater project, which is Almost Done!

CYTSE Part Three

On to Calgary!

With several stores to choose from , we had to try to find a shop that was sorta on our route, so we opted for Knit One Chat Too. We expected to find a little internet cafe with coffee and muffins and yarn. Instead, we found a lovely and quiet shop with some friendly sales people and great yarn! I did get to take some photos of the shop:

And Big Knitter scored Big with some gorgeous Blue Sky Alpaca cotton:
And later that day he started his first cabled blanket project.As we left Calgary and headed toward the amazing Canadian Rockies and Banff, we decided to make a pit stop about 30 miles shy of our destination at a town called Canmore. Well, it turned out they were having an artwalk that weekend and so we decided to stay at the local RV park so we could check out some of the events the next day.

It turned out Canmore had a yarn shop too, called Knit & Caboodle. BK found some gorgeous Misti Alpaca worsted weight hand dyed that he's been eyeballing the whole trip at various places. But he couldn't resist this colorway:
Another blanket project awaits.

And here's two of our fave quilts from the show we attended the next day.

Sunflower Pot by Sharon Carmichael:

Kalaidescope by Waltraut Kraemer: