On the Road

Big Knitter is attending a conference in Albuquerque for a couple of days. It's our first road trip since last August. 

It's cold here!

But I'm trying to keep warm by "poddin' around"...here and there...while he's in class...

My first stop was a new little fabric store on the NW side called Hip Stitch.

Wow they are super friendly and have some of the fabrics I love the most. (like Free Spirit, etc.)

And, I happened upon this:

It's a Gotta Have.

Weekend Sewing New From Heather Ross.

I spotted a little baby kimono in the back that jumped off of the page. (literally, I swear, honey, it did, I had no choice but to buy it!)

And of course, I needed a little piece of fabric for my first kimono:

"Starling", a pretty pink background for my soon-to-be-new granddaughter.

And I did actually look at the rest of the projects in the book (after I bought it) and pretty much loved them all.

I highly recommend this book! And I love Heather Ross' fabric anyway. In fact I just got this in the mail before we left for Albuquerque:

Purchased on Etsy, 7 fat quarters from A Fabric Outlet A Sewing And Quilting Boutique. Most of their fabrics are $7.49 / yd.

These 7 fat quarters were $15.75 plus, I think $3.75 for shipping. And a wonderful person named Deborah shipped pretty much instantly. Love it!

How 'bout some knitting?

Well, I am going to be brave and drive the motor home myself, (eeek!) to Village Wools and see their new location here on the NW side. 

They went ahead and moved a few years ago, from their little hole in the wall that I loved...I can't believe it's been so long since I've been here...time flies!

I'll report back on the new digs later. (That is, if I can find a Big Enough place to park...it's a little motor home, but since I'm not used to driving it, I will need a Big place to turn around! Watch out!)

The big knitter brought his Manor Care blanket with him to knit on. One of these days he will complete it. We call it that because he started in when my Dad was in the nursing home and he really only worked on it while we were there. 

Now, he brings it along rarely; it's a slow project, I guess.

Something an Oregon Duck Fan would love: Cascade 220 in green and yellow. And it's one of Big Knitter's "mystery stitches", as I call them, one strand at each end of the circular needle.

I almost hate to sign off, it's been so long since I blogged on BigKnitterLittleKnitter, but I have to if I'm ever going to get to Village Wools!

Finally, A Blog Entry!

The knitting slump is over! I have scaled the highest peak and planted my knitting needle triumphantly at the top! What a moment! Whew, that feels good! (ooh, oops would you look at the dust up there...oh, well, I'll get to that in a little while)
First I must bask in the glory.
Yeah, it's just a baby hat, but sheesh, it's been months or centuries since I've knitted. I'm happy to see something! And I do love this hat pattern. This is the third hat I've made from it. This time I used a lovely soft hand dyed wool from Blue Sky. It is so soft. Now I just have to do the little tassels.


It all started with our recent road trip...passed through Austin...and our happening upon a fab place called Hill Country Weavers (and which was just a hop skip and jump down the road from CraftORama, we got directions from the girl there, more about that later.) Anyway, if you do happen to be in Austin sometime, the big knitter and I highly recommend that you seek out Hill Country Weavers. And here's why! The big knitter's been sorta on a yarn buying break, due to the fact that he has about 10 blankets worth of yarn still waiting to be knit. (and storage of 2000-2500 yards of worsted weight yarn for each blanket is a bit problematic!) However, he couldn't resist the above finds. Blue Sky handpaints and a tweedy-looking alpaca/merino blend from The Fibre Company. Both in big-knitter-friendly-colors.

Hill Country Weavers is a place like no other. Located in a big old house on Congress street, each and every room is stuffed full of every kind of yarn you can imagine. And a room just full of books. Really a knitter's oasis. And the people are ultra friendly too.

And then the icing on the cake, literally, to the left next door, what could be better ... the Hey Cupcake stand!
and of course the cupcakes!
...which was great fun to buy and photograph. But once we had a minute to think about it, you know these aren't on any kind of cardio diet in the world. And we just couldn't bring ourselves to devour them even though we paid 2 bucks apiece for them. So we compromised and split the bottom half of one just so we could say we got cupcakes in Austin at Hey Cupcake!

And then there was CraftORama, a great little eclectic fabric/craft place up the road from Hill Country. Here's my haul for my little crafty thing I'm into right now:
The pattern for the tote bag is from Amy Butler and the other two are Favorite Things pattern designs. I'm gonna try the circle skirt for my granddaughter. CraftoRama has a bunch of Janome sewing machines and a big cutting table set up at one end of the store. Sewers and crafters can rent time on the machines and the sales staff share their technical assistance. They also provide basic tools like rulers, etc. And the fabric is fabulous! I asked if they were going to sell on line and the (very, very friendly) sales person said they are working on a web store. Can't wait!!
Here's a little bitty knitting kit I picked up also. Everybody needs a felted ant! Well, the actual purpose of our trip was to visit Big Bend National park, which is in far western Texas. We just got there in a roundabout way. And our last knitting related stop before heading on to Big Bend was to visit the Old Oaks ranch, which is outside Fredericksburg. What a lovely place, with the alpacas, the ranch, the sculpture garden and of course the store. I picked up a brand new project...braided wool rug made from roving. The roving is from Interlacements. Don't know when I will get started with this one, I'm thinking reading the detailed directions would be a good place to begin.The Old Oaks Ranch offers a multitude of fiber related classes and also a yoga class, what a great idea for knitters, spinners and weavers!

And oh, yeah, Now On To Big Bend..
Since the park is literally on the US/Mexico border, we got to see a bit of the Rio Grande river. We also learned some about life on the border and the many changes (not necessarily good ones) that have come about since the border closed in 2002. This cliff is on the Mexico side: And here's a cool sandy little path we hiked to the old hot springs: And some petroglyphs: The Rio Grande: And an unfortunate sign of the times: Most of the dirt roads in the park are not recommended for motorhomes, even little ones like ours, so we will have to return sometime with a Jeep or 4wd car so we can see more.
And lastly...

Knittin' Blues

Well, I'm still in a knitting funk, even though I did get my Cat Bordhi book last week at Kiwi. Lynn was kind enough to sell me her copy so I wouldn't have to wait for the next shipment. (Or maybe she sensed my desperation for new inspiration.) I also picked up a little bit of Maizy yarn to sweeten the deal.

And although I've read Cat's book from cover to cover (and I'm certain now that her brain is wired in a much different way than mine), I still haven't cast on a stitch.

So......I figured if knitting wasn't' going to do it for me here in the waning days of August, maybe I should tackle a whole different project. So here's what's going on instead of knitting:

1)Bathroom re-do (here's the progress photo, demolition almost complete. Shoot, I forgot to take a before photo.)

2) Recycled denim bean bags for my grandson. I found a whole unopened bag of sushi rice so I'm going to try using that instead of beans. Since we live in a dry climate, I'm thinking it just might work.As for the big knitter, he's still knitting away, unfazed by my current slump. Happy Sunday!

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.

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.

Free money for yarn

We spent a couple of nights in Laughlin, Nevada in late March for a conference that Big Knitter had to go to. I gotta tell you Laughlin's not my fave place in the world to visit. I think you hafta love to gamble to enjoy that place.

(However, I'm sure the good citizens of Laughlin and their neighbors across the river in Bullhead City are some really nice people. And there might even be some fellow knitters there, which we all know are usually really, really nice people.)

But, that weekend I just wasn't feelin' the slot machine karma. And I tried real hard to pass the time on those slots while Big Knitter was conferring away all day. I guess I just reached a point at which 1.) I didn't want to lose any more money and b.) I didn't want to suck down any more second hand smoke and I just cashed out, put the voucher in my bag and went up to the room for a nap.

Unfortunately (trying to make a long story short here), I forgot I had that voucher and we booked it out of town as fast as we could when the last session ended.

So here I am, with a $40 voucher for the Aquarius resort (formerly the Flamingo) and no way to cash it in and no plans to revisit Laughlin by the time it expires on May 24th, 2007.

So, that's where those really, really nice knitters came into my mind. I thought somebody should be spendin' this cash if they can. Heck, they could just walk into the Aquarius and slip that voucher into the cash machine, walk out and go spend the $40 on yarn somewhere.

So here's my proposition: if anyone lives in Laughlin, near Laughlin or is visiting Laughlin in the next few weeks and would like to have this $40 voucher, just post a comment below.

Assuming I get more than one response, I will pick the lucky recipient at the end of this weekend or early next week using a random number generator.

If I get only one response, then it's your lucky day and maybe, just maybe, you should throw that voucher into the first slot machine you come to and give it a spin.

Short story done. Except this: I'll throw in the first class stamp to get it to you too.