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Talk to the Palm

Yesterday I learned that the lovey Palm green Bernat Satin that I’m using for Hailey’s star afghan has been…wait for it…discontinued. Can you say panic? My usual supplier (Stitches from the Heart) was sold out, and had been out for quite some time (damn you, tedonitis, for making me skip the summer!), so when I got home last night I’d barely put my keys down before heading for Google.

Fortunately not everyone is sold out yet, and I found a lovely store in Tennessee named Decherd Needleworks that was still listing it. I ordered five skeins, not because I expect to need five skeins, but because I love that green and want to stock up before they’re all gone. They emailed me today to let me know they only had four skeins left and did I still want them (Hells yes!). Here’s to hoping their follow-through is as quick and efficient as their follow-up, since I only have two more rows to go before I need the green again (although I probably have enough left to last me about three rows before running out).

Honestly, I’ve been using that green for nearly four years now, about as long as I’ve been knitting–never in a million years would it have occurred to me that they’d discontinue it! Such a pretty color. *sigh* Sad now.

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Links

I'm back, baby!

It finally happened–the PT gave me dispensation to start knitting/crochet again! Woot! I’m on the easing-back-into-it program, started at ten minutes, a couple of times a day, and I’m up to about 20 minutes at a time now. I’m working on a crocheted star afghan in Bernat Satin for my niece, and it’s now large enough that I can’t finish a full round in my allotted 20 minutes, but that’s ok. I don’t want to rush it and ruin all the progress of the last four months, not when we’re this close to Christmas and winter knitting.

In knee news, it’s also progressing slowly. I’m back at work, but I’m still using a cane, as I can only go so far before the knee gets very, very tired. PT has banned me from big stores (Target, Michael’s, etc.), given how much walking one can do there without even realizing it. The couple of times I tried Target, I came out totally exhausted. But I can walk around my office suite without the cane and not feel pain, so that’s a plus, especially since the cane use is starting to screw with my back and hip.

I’ve been slowly, slowly emptying the shelves of the bookcases that I’ll be swapping with the entertainment center. I have no idea where I’ll put the bookcases in the interim, but they need to go somewhere so I can paint that wall, hopefully next weekend. I was going to paint it green like the attached smaller wall, but I’m also considering a complimentary blue. It will most likely be green, though, since I already have the paint for that, and I’m more of a path-of-least-resistance person.

That’s the it for now. Hopefully now that I’m back with the yarn I’ll be updating more frequently again. Yay yarn!

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Knitting and Crochet Shopping

Off the yarn wagon….again

So last week, as I had mentioned, I went yarn shopping at Stitches from the Heart, and as we all knew would happen, I bought more than I’d planned. That’ll teach me to carry my vacation credit card with me when I’m no longer on vacation! First it took me forever to decide on a yarn for Haley’s blanket–cool colors, soft texture and machine washable is a tough combination to find!–but I finally chose Universal Yarn’s Classic Worsted LP (20% wool/80 acrylic) in the variegated “purple allure” (aka 11418) palette. But before I decided on that, I’d kept returning to the Bernat Satin wall o’color. So many bright and beautiful colors! I’d been wanting to do some amigurumi work, but you need a good acrylic for that, so the stitches don’t stretch and leak stuffing all over the place. In the end, I couldn’t resist all those beautiful colors, and ended up with twelve balls of Bernat Satin, in twelve different colors.

Of course, now that I have all I need for a cute amigurumi doll, I can’t decide on a pattern. Sigh.

But yes, I bought a ton of yarn last week, so hopefully that’ll carry me over the summer. There have been many yarn sales lately–at WEBS and at Unwind (one of my LYSs), but I haven’t even glanced at either one, so as not to tempt myself.

So back to Haley’s blanket–I started a crocheted log cabin, but so far I don’t love it. The yarn is great, but it’s the pattern–no matter how many of these I do, I still can’t nail the right number of stitches to add when crocheting across the side of a row, so some sides are longer than others, and there’s a folding/pinching issue where I picked up too many/didn’t pick up enough. I’m thinking of frogging it and making a star afghan instead. If I do that, then I think I’d switch to the Satin, ’cause the pattern would benefit far more from different colored yarns than from one variegated palette. And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a “Haley’s Comet” blanket. Hmm….

In other yarn news, I haven’t done anything lately with the sparkly market shawl, the too-big pink slouchy hat, the pseudo fair isle tam from Knitty, the scratchy my so-called scarf, or Kristen’s hat. I really suck at finishing, yo.

And finally, on a completely unrelated tangent, I rejoined Weight Watchers this week, and had my first meeting yesterday. My plan is to relearn how to eat properly. Lindora did great things for me the first six months I was on it, but it just went downhill from there, and I’d like to be able to look at a potato again without freaking out or binging on them (or is it bingeing?).

That’s all I got for today. Have a great Memorial Day tomorrow!

Egads, a month! I used to be good at this.

Ok, it’s been a month since my last post. I suck. There, I’ve addressed it, and now I’m moving on.

As before, little has been accomplished on the yarnwork front. Oh, except, I have a picture! This is me at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs two weeks ago.

Me @ Garden of the GodsNote that I’m wearing the pink cammo slouchy hat that in my previous post was still waiting to be blocked. It’s not so slouchy in this picture, due to the fact that the wind was FREEZING and my shiny new hat was the only thing protecting my ears from a nasty earache. It did what hats are supposed to do, though, so I was ever so grateful to have it with me. And yes, that’s my Patons soy/wool scarf wrapped ever so tightly around my neck. (Did I mention the FREEZING?)

While I was in Denver, I started yet another slouchy hat, in hot pink; and once again, I went too big and will probably have to frog it, much like the cammo one.  I could’ve sworn I stuck to the final cammo specs, too, given that it’s the same yarn. Phooey. There’s been no progress on the shawl–well, not much, anyway. And I think that’s all I’ve done yarn-wise since my last post. Sadly, I didn’t even get to any of the local Denver yarn shops, even though I had a rental for half the trip. I suck. I did, however, get my hair cut–it’s super cute, even though you can’t tell from this pic (or any of them, for that matter).

My new niece was born a few weeks ago. I was going to give her the log cabin blanket I was working on last summer, but now I’m thinking of starting something new just for her. Oo! Maybe I’ll stop at the yarnstore after PT today! It’s allowed, since most of my stash is made up of natural fibers, which is not good for something that’ll need frequent washings.

That’s it for today–have a marvelous weekend, and try to stay cool!

Bored with my projects

I haven’t updated in awhile because, well, I’m bored with my current projects. They’re taking too long, and as usually happens with my short attention span, I’m losing interest.  On occasion I’ve even found myself staring at my purple Dakota and wondering what I can do with it, but I stop myself from picking it up, because I have four projects that need finishing, dammit!

And really, “four” is a conservative number, given the other projects I’ve dropped before they’re completely finished. Even from where I’m sitting, I can see the tank top that is only half a back; the My So-Called Scarf that’s about six inches long that I’ve since forgotten the stitch for; and the red and white purse that has a few more rows to go before it can be bound off and felted. And I know, hiding behind those, are a couple of to-be-felted purses that need handles either kitchener-stitched together, or attached to the insides of the knitted bag. Not to mention the UMass granny square scarf; the spring-colored granny square scarf I started last summer; the felted purses that need holes punched for the i-cord handles; the log cabin blanket I haven’t picked up in months–oh, and that reminds me that I have a niece due to be born next month who’s going to need a blanket! Gah!

But first, there are two hats and two scarves to be finished. How to get my mojo back, I do not know. 🙁