And the Winner Is . . .

Congratulations Kristen! My wonderful upstream pal from the Fall Felted Bag Exchange wins the Christmas knitting story contest. Thanks to all of you for your comments and stories. I put all of your names in to a holiday gift bag and Mom drew Kristen's name. I'll be sending some goodies to her shortly. On December 23rd we went to my nephew's bowling birthday party in Pacifica and it was the most glorious day. On the way home I just had to pull over and take some photos. My kids gave me the "not again" rolled eyes as I jumped out to snap this. It was just so amazingly beautiful I had to take a photo! Also pictured are Mom's socks that she was working on Christmas Eve modeled by lovely Horsey Girl (hence the teenaged chipped nail polish look). She is making them with some fabulous yarn called Baywood Yarns made by someone locally in San Mateo. Her yarns are amazingly soft. I think Mom is going to enjoy wearing these socks. Of course her shoes might fit better without the silver decorations!

Merry Christmas

To all of you who celebrate Christmas I hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends. For those who celebrate other holidays I wish you a joyful day as well. For all of you I wish you happy knitting and lots of yarn!

Holiday Hat

Keep those holiday knitting stories coming. Remember there are 2 more days to enter and you can even create a new story by starting say an Afghan or sweather tomorrow or better yet - on Monday! I'll be pulling the name out of the stocking on Christmas day. Thanks so much for sharing your stories with us - I've really enjoyed reading them. This is another hat I am making with some yarn I purchased on my trip. Thanks to Jennifer who sent me an e-mail with a list of yarn stores in Singapore. I have no idea what the yarn is - the label is completely in what I believe to be Japanese. I think it might be some sort of mix of cotton and wool but it is very soft and is knitting up quickly. I'll have to find someone who can translate the label! Now I need to figure out who to give this one to. Hope your shopping, wrapping, cooking and the like are going well. Take some time to relax and enjoy the season.

Hat's Off

Hat's off to all of you for your great holiday knitting stories. I will leave the contest open until Christmas day. You can leave comments on this post as well and then I'll put all the names in the proverbial hat to draw a winner. I've really enjoyed reading your stories. Good to know I'm not the only crazy one to start a project at the last minute and stay up late to finish it or delude myself in to thinking that it will be quick and easy! And all of us are going to call Alison H. when we need to tell someone how we really feel!


I finished the hat for Horsey Girl's friend Jenny and I'm very happy with how it turned out. This is the second hat I've made with Classic Elite Inca Print. The first one "blobbed" colors but this one went in a spiral so that was pretty cool. The top of both have similar striping so not really sure why the difference but I did use different patterns. Now off to start some Christmas presents . . . .

Holiday Contest

Wow - it has been 2 weeks since my last post. I think this is the longest I have gone between posts. For those of you who might have actually missed me - I had to go to Singapore last week unexpectedly to close a deal. While it was sort of exciting it was also exhausting and a week of my life disappeared. I did however have two very long flights in which I thought I would get a lot of knitting done but I ended up sleeping, reading and watching the movies. I did knit a bit on my Cozy to continue with it's international history. I may never finish it but at least it will be well traveled!

I do have another hat to show you. This one is for Horsey Girl's friend Jenny. I just can't keep up with the demand! It is very nice though to have the girls wanting my knitting. I have also finished the second blue fetching so now that it's a pair I will be giving it as a holiday gift.

To celebrate the holidays I am having a contest. Leave a comment about your holiday knitting story and I'll draw a random name out of the stocking to win a yummy yarn prize. My craziest holiday knitting idea was two years ago when on December 23rd I decided that I needed to knit a scarf for a friend for Christmas. I went to my LYS and got some of that crazy yarn that is made of all sorts of different yarns tied together. I decided to knit a really long, thin scarf so I cast on about a zillion stitches and knit all day and night to finish it. It turned out REALLY long but I got it done and she loves it. I still ask myself though what I was thinking starting a gift just two days before Christmas!

Eye Candy Friday

Progress continues on the Secret of the Stole. I'm rounding out Hint #6 and I only have 2 hints to go. Technically I was "supposed" to finish by today but I knew when I started that I would not finish on time. I told myself that if I only had 2 Hints left on November 30th then it would be a great victory. I technically have 2 and 1/3 Hints left but I figure that's good enough. It's funny how you play mind games. Rather than count every row, my friend Jennifer suggests only counting the difficult rows. That cuts things in half right there! Also I discount the rows where there are long stretches of plain knitting. Then of course in Hint 8 you are reducing every other row so there are fewer and fewer stitches each time - so I can practically consider Hint #8 already done! But this is further than I've made it on any shawl I've started so I hereby declare VICTORY OF THE STOLE! For more eye candy visit Fryday Photo.

Fetch Me Some Yarn

We're still in Oregon for Thanksgiving week and having a wonderful time. I decided Mom and I needed a project we could do together so, motivated by Janice's wonderful Fetchings, I brought yarn for Mom and I to try this project. I got the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran called for in the pattern and they have been very fun to knit. The first one I made I - GASP - actually followed the pattern. It knit up quickly and is quite cute but it is not long enough for me. I think it will be perfect for one of the girls or a friend with smaller hands. So the next one I decided both to make it two tone (why pick when there are so many wonderful colors) and also to make it longer. I added a row of cable to the bottom, 4 extra rows in the middle and a row of cable at the top. Oh I guess I lied before, I didn't totally follow the pattern even the first time. The piquot bind off makes it too floppy in my opinion so I did a cable row and then bound off. I like the way it makes it lie flatter on my hand. It has been really fun making a project at the same time as Mom. She however actually started the second mitt for the first pair before starting a pair in a different color - what's with that???

Mosaic Mittens

Mom has been making these adorable Mosaic Mittens for Miss K who is all about green. The pattern is from from last year's Holiday Interweave magazine and she says it's pretty easy. I think knitting all those slip stitch ballband purses helped because these mittens are pretty much just slip stitch but aren't they pretty? They are made from Cascade Cloud 9 which is OH SO SOFT! Also the Little Man finally got a chance to wear the hat I made for him. We've come up to Oregon for Thanksgiving and we got some snow last night. My kids and my niece and nephew were definitely California kids scrapping the bits of snow up and trying to make snow balls. I did draw the line at trying to make snow angels in the mud!

Schizophrenia of the Stole

I continue to toil away on the Secret of the Stole. It has definitely been an emotional project. I have had highs, I have had lows. I feel like I'm knitting quickly and getting through the clues only to realize I'm 100 rows behind. I'm happy with my results, I'm frustrated with my results. It's getting too long, it's going to be too short. I love mystery shawls, I'll never do this again. I have luckily gone forward a lot more than I have gone backwards but I have had my share of visits to the frog pond. The yarn I have chosen is a cashmere blend and is fingering weight rather than lace weight so the bit of fuzz and the thicker yarn does not show the pattern as well as the lace weight yarns. My hope is that when it is blocked the pattern will show better but it still is turning out fairly well. I'm on Hint #6 but only a few rows in to the 94 rows for this week and Hint #7 comes out tomorrow! Oh well, I will continue to plug along! Here is a photo on someone else's blog that shows you what the Stole should look like!

Tres Bien

Thank you all for your kind words for Mom's birthday. I think Janice gets the suck up award and I now am feeling guilty about not giving Mom any of the yarn from the photos! Mom had a wonderful birthday and enjoyed all of your messages.

My hat craze continues with the latest installment pictured here. This summer Horsey Girl's friend Kelly spend a few days with us while her parents were out of town. It just so happened that I finished HG's hat while Kelly was here. She ooo'd and ahhhh'd over it so I asked if she would like one. Her face lit up and she asked me if I could make her a beret. A Beret??? Well I set off to find a pattern and found the lovely Snowflake Beret in a Vogue Caps & Hats Two. I had some trouble with it in the beginning so I surfed around the web and found several additional beret patterns which I love. But I was determined to make the Snowflake Beret as it was my favorite. I finally figured it out but now I have all these other patterns I want to make. Question is - how many folks truly wear berets? We may be finding out!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is Mom's 70th birthday. My Mom is the greatest. She is a beautiful, smart, kind, talented, thoughtful and fun person and everyone who knows her wants to be adopted. In fact I know that Bonnie and Janice are already on the waiting list. Mom is an excellent cook, can sew the most gorgeous of quilts, knits incredible sweaters and can fix a water heater with a blow torch! She is a woman of many talents. As many of you have noticed, I'm lucky enough to share my love of knitting with Mom (she taught me) and to spend a fair amount of time with her. She and Dad live only an hour away so we get to see them quite often. She is always there when I need help with the kids or a buddy for a yarn sale (I think I'm a bad influence on her). My kids are very lucky to grow up knowing their Granny so well. She is definitely a very special part of their lives and they adore her. Recently when she was here it was like she had 4 arms that people were pulling in different directions. Everyone wanted Granny to help them with what they were doing. I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful Mom and I love her very, very much. So please join me in wishing Mom a wonderful birthday. You can leave her a message in the comments or visit her on Ravelry - code name Grani. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Soccer Sophie

Now that all three kids are playing soccer I am spending A LOT of time at soccer games on the weekends. I needed something simple to make so I could continue to focus on the games so I started another Sophie bag. I love this pattern, it's easy, quick, doesn't take a lot of yarn but looks really nice when it is done. I am using some Paton's soy yarn and I'm really enjoying it. I am interested to see how it felts both because I haven't used this yarn before and because the colors are so light. I learned awhile ago that dark yarns felt better and quick than light yarns and this bag is pretty yarn. However, I really haven't gotten that far and the season is almost over . . . Last weekend the little man and I took a behind the scenes tour of the San Francisco zoo and had a wonderful time. We saw the lemurs up close, got to feed a bottle to a baby giraffe, pet a koala, went to the back of the bear cages and fed celery to a rhino. I's so glad we did it. Here is the little Koala we met. He was very soft with thick, thick fur - ever heard of koala yarn? I bet it would be wonderful. Check out Fryday Photo for another zoo photo.

Shake it up Baby

Tonight we had an earthquake. Welcome to California! It was 5.6 on the richter scale and the epicenter was about 30 miles from our house. At first I heard a loud noise which sounded like a plane flying lower over our house. Then the house began to shake and you should have seen the look on the girls' faces! It rolled along for about 30 seconds and then was over. Having grown up in California and having survived the big quake of '89, this one was not even scary. But to my kids who have never felt a bigger quake they were - well - a little shook up. No damage here. I still haven't heard the reports from close to the center. I hope everyone is alright.

In other news, I have taken a short break from the Secret of the Stole to make yet another hat. This one is a Sharks hat. Anyone who lives in the range of the earthquake knows how we love our hockey team. My husband is taking my daughter and her friend to the Sharks game on Friday so I decided she needed the perfect hat in team colors. The yarn is Moods from Universal Yarn in a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend. It is very soft to work with. I used the Foliage pattern from the Fall Knitty.com and I am now in love with this pattern. It is so simple and quick yet it looks like an intricate design. I'm definitely going to make this one again! I'm now also inspired to make more Sharks items - I got this yarn from the Yarn Pirate thinking it was worsted weight. It is actually fingering weight. Any suggestions of what I should make?

SLOC

The thing I have noticed while working so diligently on the Secret of the Stole is that I don't have much time to work on other projects. This then leads to a serious lack of content (a.k.a. SLOC) for the blog! I guess it's just the yin and the yang of knitting. I'm making good progress on one item which naturally causes another project to fall behind. If you catch up on reading the knitting blogs you fall behind in your actual knitting. Many nights I try to work for awhile on one project and then switch to another. After all, I wouldn't want one of my yarn babies to feel like I loved the others better now would I? I did have time last weekend during Horsey Girl's horse show to start yet another hat. I got this new yarn by Skacel - yes - the makers of those wonderful Addi turbos - and it is so yummy. It is a silk/wool blend and I got one skein in brown and one skein in a turquoise blue. I figure I can make two mirror image hats - I sure hope so. I'm really loving working with this yarn. Also a special benefit of the horse shows is that the owner of one of our LYS' has a daughter who rides at the same stables. She and her hubby knit during the show and they are a great place to turn to answer on the spot questions! Nothing like instant gratification. And because even more than my yarn babies I love my real babies - I have to brag that Horsey Girl won 7 ribbons in the show. We are so proud of her. Now if I could only figure out how to knit her a horse!

Back to the Basics

I have been working hard on the Secret of the Stole and it has been a good challenge. She is giving us a lot of rows each week and it has been hard to keep up. I've slipped a little behind but not too far. I'm now on row 183 but have to get to row 258 before Friday! Jennifer suggests only counting the lace rows and not counting the purl back rows (since they are easy) and then it sounds like you have less to do. I like that idea but still have 38 rows to do! But I must admit that lace knitting takes A LOT of concentration. So I need to temper it with something simple and mindless. After all - we knit for relaxation right? So I'm back to my passion of knitting hats! Horsey Girl wore the hat I made for her to a Stanford women's soccer game the other night and now all of her friends want one. I must admit it was very gratifying that (a) she wore it, (b) people liked it, and (c) her friends actually want one! Say no more, I was off to the LYS and snooping around on-line for yarns for hats. I probably over did it (big surprise) so I may be making hats for the next decade and may have to find random people on the street to give them to but I'm having lots of fun. The turquoise one is Horsey Girl's finished hat (don't think I ever posted a photo) and the purple one is the first one finished for one of her buddies. Off to the next one!

THANK YOU Kristin!

The Fall Felted Bag Exchange has come to a close and I have received the most wonderful bag from Kristin. It came in the mail this week and is made out of purple and red nubby yarn. My two favorite colors! It has nice and thick handles which I like. None of those scrawny things! It is sort of like a booga bag or a coco bag - basically rectangular and great for so many uses. I'm very excited to use my new bag! Check it out on her blog - it is interesting to see what it looked like before felting - the colors appeared much lighter. She also sent me lots of goodies including a knitting magazine, two great skeins of yarn with purple and red colorways, dragonfly stickers, a pretty candle holder that I think she made for me and the cutest little metal dragonfly (see him on the magazine?) She also sent me some clear vanilla so I can try her famous frosting recipe. I 'll be making some soon. There was also a yummy bag of chocolate in there but for some reason it doesn't seem to be in the picture! Thank you Kristin - I love everything and I've especially loved getting to know you and look forward to getting to know you better. Also my downstream pal has her box now according to the delivery service so I'm just waiting to hear from her. I hope she likes it!

A Tale of Two Knitties

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the Secret of the Stole. I have spent the last 10 days struggling my way through the first two hints for the SotS KAL. I have experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows. I go from pride to suicidial tendencies. All of this emotion around a piece of lace! I got off to a good enough start, moving fairly quickly through the first 52 rows which were the two points that then became joined at row 53. All seemed good and I finished the first Hint - 84 rows worth - two days ahead of the arrival of Hint #2. And then I stood back and took a look. Something was wrong, my piece did not look like the photos I had seen on line. I closed one eye, looked from the side, stood on my head but there was no escaping the fact that it was not quite right. I tried to convince myself that no one would notice, I wouldn't notice, but I knew that was not true. Problem was the mistake was almost 20 rows back! What to do, what to do? Ignore it? Fix it? Throw in the towel?

Thanks to the wonderful support of Jennifer and Mom I sucked it up and pulled back 16 rows. There is no way I could unknit that much so I pulled out the needles and slowly pulled out row after row winding up the yarn every 4 rows so I didn't have a tangled mess. Then as I pulled out the last row I followed behind with some scrap yarn on a needle and picked up the stitches as I went. If only I'd had a life line! Then I figured out the problem and re-knit those 16 rows but not without incident. More than a few times I realized I'd made other mistakes and had to un-do a row or two (or three). It has been quite a frustrating weekend of knitting and after many, many hours I am now about 20 rows in to Hint #2. Problem is that leaves 64 rows to do between now and Friday and given it's back to work in the morning I think I'll be falling behind. Stay tuned for the continuing saga of Survival of the Stole. Will the Stole survive or will it be voted off the island?

On a happier note I share with you my orchid which bloomed in my kitchen window. I love orchids but I can almost never get them to bloom a second time. However this little beauty bestowed three gorgeous blossoms on me and I'm just tickled pink about it.

Guest Blogging

Well actually not guest blogging but truly guest knitting. I thought I would share with you the gorgeous sweater that Mom made for Horsey Girl. Isn't it great?! It is made with Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton and is their pattern for the eyelet cardigan. She did such a wonderful job and since she doesn't have a blog to show it off I thought I would share it with you and you can leave her kudos in the comments. The most amazing part of it is that a 13 year old actually likes it and wore it to school today! Will miracles never cease?

I am working on the Secret of the Stole but will not share that with you just yet as I messed it up and the pattern is not right. I truly don't know what to do given that if I frog it back I'm afraid I'll mess it up even more. So instead I leave you with beautiful glass pumpkins from the glass pumpkin patch I attended over the weekend. It is a wonderful event where all sorts of artists have their work on display and you can buy the pumpkins. Shown here are fairly traditional colors but you name the color and they've got pumpkins to match. This is my second year attending any my glass pumpkin collection is growing!

Yes Virginia, the Shawl really does end

We all thought this day would never come. The day that the shawl that never ends actually - well - ENDED! Yes, it's finished, cast off the needles and almost ready to wear (it just needs some blocking). It is however, very, very, very long. The pattern says 18" wide and 58" long but it is really more like 70+" long. It does make for a good wrapping shawl though. Not quite sure where I'll wear it but I'm trying to come up with something. Since I've got one shawl off the needles I was forced to get another one on. I just started the Secret of the Stole. It's really fun to be working on something along with hundreds of other people at the same time. I'm sure as I start to fall behind it won't be as fun but so far so good. I am however intimidated with respect to the people who finished it the very first day! Also I've started a new blog called PhotoFryday - come visit me there and see a new photo every Friday. Hope to see you there!

Just Bag It

I'm very thrilled to have completed my bag for the Fall Felted Bag Exchange. I must admit the gorgeous finishing is once again thanks to Mom. Isn't she wonderful? She found the most perfect lining with gorgeous turquoise and purple colors and it even has leaves on it. How perfect is that for a FALL felted bag exchagne? It is the Little Coco Bag Pattern in two colors of Cascade. The bottom and top are a heathered purple and the middle is the turqouise 220 Paints. The entire bag is knit double stranded so it is nice and sturdy. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I'm really hoping that my pal will like it. It will go off in the mail this weekend. If you are visiting my blog from the FFBE - you never know - this could be yours! I'm so excited to see what my pal has been making for me. Her code name is Purple Sweet Pea and she seems like a truly wonderful person. I have enjoyed getting to know her in this exchange and can't wait to find out her true identity. In other news - it finally happened - I'M ON RAVELRY! Come visit me there as AllisonDragonfly and leave me a note. Also let me know in the comments here if you're on and what your Ravelry name is so I can add you to my friends. Mom is on too - her name is Grani. Her profile is - well - empty at the moment but I'm working with her on that! Now the real issue is how to make sure I don't get totally sucked in and end up with a zillion new projects on my "to do" list!

Awesome Autumn

You guys are in trouble now! I downloaded Picassa from Google and now I'm learning to make collages. I can impose even more of my photos on you this way! This collage is meant to signify Fall.

What brought this all on? Well I'm participating in the Fall Felted Bag Exchange and they now have a weekly question we are supposed to answer on our blogs. This week's question is:


As of this weekend, the season has officially changed on the calendar - but what makes Autumn feel like Autumn to you, and why?

First of all- the word Autumn is very special to me. I grew up on Autumn Drive and was probably one of the first in my class to be able to spell that word. So truly the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word Autumn is the street I grew up on. I had a wonderful upbringing and remember it fondly. As for the Autumn that comes to everyone else's mind - in California one season pretty much blends in to the next but this weekend I went around looking for signs of Fall. First of all - soccer is on every field every moment of every weekend day. This is probably the most prevalent indication of Fall. Now that I have 3 kids playing soccer it is also an indication that all of my weekends are occupied! There are also changing leaves on some trees, especially the Liquid Amber which can be truly beautiful. Then there are apples and pumpkins waiting to be picked. I love the Autumn and am looking forward to the cooler days and nights but that won't be for awhile yet.

What do you like best about the Fall?

Beware the Cephalopods

The what you ask? Cephalopod - a word known mainly to marine biologists and mothers of little boys - are the family from which come octopus and squids. After having two daughters it was a whole new world having a son. I now know more about the mating habits of crocodilians than any human should really know and I am coming to know much about the little man's current obsession which is none other than Cephalopods. So imagine my surprise when I found the most adorable patterns for the little critters at Hansigurumi's Etsy store! They are called amigurumi which is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuff animals. Who knew? I have borrowed this picture from her store so I hope that's OK. She makes the most amazing little animals and I purchased the pattern for the Octopus and the one for the squid. I really had to restrain myself from buying others as well but there are only so many hours in the day and no matter how cute I think the seahorse is he really isn't interested in those! She makes all of them out of Cascade 220 and so I was just planning to sift through the stash as I have lots of Cascade left from a broad variety of felting projects. But noooooo, I had to go to the yarn store to get some more yarn for my pal's FFBE bag and there was this gorgeous purple malabrigo in slight variations that just looked to me like a sea creature. Pair that with some ultra soft white Cascade for his underbelly and I was sucked right in! But I swear I'm not going to start him until I finish the shawl that never ends and another hat I'm working on. Really - I mean it!

Sock it to Me

My work on the Boot Socks for Horsey Girl is ongoing. I have not worked on it non-stop but it still seems to be going very slowly and I still have another entire sock to knit! I know that many people get hooked on socks but so far I'm not feeling the attraction. Maybe after I turn the heel - I hear that is a monumental occasion. I do think the sock will be pretty when it is done but I'm bummed at how the striping is turning out. The stripes were looking nice and then the pattern calls for a decrease from 80 to 70 stitches. As you can see, then the yarn started pooling. Oddly enough, when I decreased from 70 to 60 it started striping again. It seems amazing to me that a mere 10 stitches - barely over a 12% change - can make such a difference. I think this pattern should come with a warning to use a solid color. I'll let you know if I'm hooked after I turn that heel!

Also many thanks to Janice for teaching me how to post a button (it was a seriously remedial course that I needed!) I have also just started a blog roll. I've only had time to add a few but am planning to add several more. I'm so excited to learn these new technological tricks.

Rock On!

I'M SO EXCITED!!! My good buddy Bonnie nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. You like me, you really, really like me! OK maybe I got carried away but I saw Sally Fields on the Emmy's the other night and I was really hoping she would say that in her acceptance speech! It was so sweet of Bonnie to nominate me. I have gotten to know her so well since we started the International Tote Exchange and I feel very lucky to have a friend like her. I just hope that I get to meet her in person some day soon! Thank you Bonnie - I really appreciate the nomination.

So now I get to nominate five more Rockin' Girl Bloggers!

I'll start with Jennifer who is another friend I met in the International Tote Exchange. She was my downstream pal in the second exchange and I made the surprise backpack for her. We stated exchanging e-mails during ITE and then when I went to Boston we met in person. She is a wonderful writer and the mother of 5 - yes FIVE kids. I'm so impressed with how she does it all.

I also want to nominate Brooke who was my SP9 secret pal and what a great secret pal she was. She sent me so many wonderful things and I really enjoyed getting to know her in the exchange. Her humor is just so fabulous and I love reading her blog. Then we got to meet in person when she came to the Yarn Harlot visit at my LYS. Turns out that even though she lives many hours away she grew up in this area. We have stayed in touch and I think she Rocks!

I also met Alison at the Yarn Harlot event and have gotten to know her through mutual blog comments and e-mails. She has written this fabulous book Wrapped in Comfort and if you haven't read it you should totally check out her gorgeous shawls. Her blog shows all of her amazing knitting and it is clear that she is a very generous person.

I'm also going to nominate a relatively new friend Lisa in Alaska. We have been visiting one another's blogs and she gave me some good tips when I went to Alaska. I'm hoping to get to know her better. You have to check out her blog and see how great she looks in all her beautiful knitted items.

Finally, how about the Yarn Harlot herself? No one seems to have nominated her. Can that be? She is the ultimate Rockin' Girl Blogger so I'm going to try to nominate her.

I would nominate Janice as well but she's already a Rockin Girl Blogger! Janice participated in the ITE and we've gotten to know one another through our blogs as well. I love visiting her blog for yummy recipes and just because everyone there always looks like they are having so much fun!

I would also nominate Hakucho who leaves the nicest comments and has such a beautiful outlook on life. In fact when I went to her blog to find out if she had been nominated yet I actually found out she nominated me awhile ago. I'm so embarassed that I hadn't seen it before but thank you Hakucho!

Now as Bonnie said I REALLY have to figure out how to post this button on my site. Janice explained in Bonnie's comments but it still sounded pretty technical to me with lots of HTML involved!

As to your questions and comments on the shawl that never ends, never ends, never ends - thanks for all the great feedback. WELCOME to all the new commenters and I believe I used the 42" length cord from options. That was perfect in the beginning but now it's a little on the long side (as is this post!)

The Shawl that Never ends

I have been working on my Elann Pacific Waves Shawl for many, many weeks. I have not been working on it full time for sure but it is the shawl that never seems to end. I really like how it is turning out but wonder if I'll ever get to wear it! It started with casting on 541 stitches which in and of itself was quite the challenge. Then it reduces by about 2 stitches each time you knit a row. I've knit about 50 rows by now so it's now only 441 stitches per row! As funny as it seems, that really makes the rows go much faster - but not quite fast enough. I think about 20 more rows and I'll be done. I will hang in there - I will!

In the Eye

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You know what I mean. You could give the same felted bag pattern to 5 different knitters and you would end up with five totally different bags. So different sometimes that you wouldn't even know they started from the same pattern. They would be different colors, someone might add beads or fringe or something totally wild while someone else would tell you they hated fringe. They say that your taste buds change every seven years - can your "beauty eye" change too? For instance, when I started knitting I really didn't care for felted bags. I thought they were ugly and I couldn't figure out why someone would spend all that time knitting something big just to shrink it down. Now I love felted bags and make lots of them. I find the same goes with color. I have never particularly liked green and I find lime green a very unappealing color. However I recently went to a big sale at a LYS and kept finding myself drawn to this lime green Malabrigo. I went back to it several times and finally decided I HAD to have it. I convinced myself I would use it to make something for my daughter who loves the color green. But you never know - you may see me wearing something lime green very soon! So how is it that my visual taste buds have changed so much?

Fall Felted Bag Exchange

Yes, I've done it, I've joined ANOTHER felted bag exchange! I'm not quite sure what I was thinking but I like making felted bags, there are only so many I can use myself and it's so fun to make new friends in these exchanges. I have decided to make something that is very functional so I will be making the Little Coco bag. The bottom, top and handles will be purple and the midle will be the multi-color yarn in the photo which has blue, pink and purple in it among other colors. It is the new Cascade 220 painted yarns and I'm excited to see how it looks. Hopefully my pal will enjoy having something functional and maybe I can even convince Mom to line it for me! Anyone else joining me in the exchange? Hope to see you there! For those of you waiting to be adopted by Mom - it's like ravelry - the list gets longer but you never quite make it in the door . . . .