DISH RAG TAG THE SEQUEL!

Oh how I have waited for today. The box arrived from Emily for the start of its journey to the rest of the team. Knitting Fools we have named ourselves. I was getting a bit anxious when our always on time mail man was running a bit late. He arrived and so did the box. The box was a joy to open I found wonderful goodies inside. From dear Emily some beautiful patchwork hand made coasters, and candy. I sat right down with the ball of yarn she included, fixed a cup of coffee and began to knit. I loved every minute of it. Ate candy, drank coffee and knit. A great way to spend the morning. Then it was off to the post office and it is on its way to Martha in Virginia. I included a couple of things for her to enjoy. The box is quite small this year and you really have to squeeze things in but I did it and now I get to sit back and wait and watch the progress. I still do not have it figured out as to how to put the progress "thingie" on this blog but if you check out Yarn Miracle you will find our progress. I shall keep all of you who read this posted.

NEW AND EXCITING KNITTING STUFF

At last a few minutes for an update on what is on the needles here. I am absolutely thrilled with the latest from ChiaoGoo, last June at TNNA I put in a request for 7" long straight needles with good points to knit the latest thing I love. MODULES! Imagine how thrilled I was when someone listened to an old knitter. They have arrived! So now I have a couple of new projects in the works. First all those balls of sock yarn left over and what to do with them. Well I took the needles in size 2. (they come in size 1 up to a 10). I cast on 31 stitches and made the first square. Wonderful. Now I will continue to add squares with all the left over sock yarn and I shall have a "sock yarn stole" at some point. Might even write a pattern at some point as I progress. The needles make knitting these little squares pure joy. Light in weight, good balance and nice sharp but not to sharp points. I liked them so much I even have a back up set in case I loose one in my travels. Thank you ChiaoGoo. All this praise from me who owns no straight needles before this with the exception of double points. I am a big fan of circular needles normally.

I am also working on another project but since it is nearly finished will save it for another day.

I have had little time to knit this past week as my sweet grand daughter Lillie has been here and we have been very busy going out to tea. Swimming and eating I lost count of the happy meals. We return her to home tomorrow so she can start kindergarten.

Have a wonderful week end and watch out the dish rag tag boxes hit the mail tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

SEWING NOT KNITTING TODAY

I have with out a doubt the most fantastic neighbors a person could wish for. While I was in Buffalo I missed out on Joe's birthday. He is a Penn State graduate and every thing is Penn State there. His wife gave me the idea to make Penn State Bean Bags for their game. Now one would think living in PA finding the fabric would be so very easy. Guess what I had to buy it on ebay and have it shipped from Florida. Makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Now I find that tomorrow I need to make a bag to hold the bags. Now I am off to knit and watch the Buffalo Bills football.

ALL WOUND UP!

Yesterday I showed you all the yarn from the Buffalo Show. Last night and this morning I worked at warp speed. I wound it all. I wound last night until I just got tired. Can you imagine I wound the two 3 large balls for Lou, each one of these had 420 yards and then I did the jumbo hank. I had 12 balls of yarn from that dandy skein. The big blue Rigoletto. That beauty was 1400 yards. Worst part of all it was too large for the swift and I have two and neither one was big enough. So it meant winding from the back of two chairs, not my favorite way to wind. However if you do not have a swift this works quite nicely. By using two chairs and placing the hang around both you can adjust the size and the yarn stays at the top of the chair backs. Huge improvement over it dropping down by the seat.

The second yarn in the multi and also the green is for me. Those 4 hanks had 420 yards in each. Enough of this winding stuff. Now to knit a bit.

What am I making you ask. Well I am really into this modular stuff. That plus some new needles I will show you later on has me really hooked. This yarn is for a jacket for me. Something I don't do often. Older posts will show you the "Crayon Box Jacket" I did for Lillie and I fell in love with this kind of knitting. I am also working on a pattern to share with all of you in a while.

Hubby has the weekend off so I won't get to any of this until the first of the week. Have a great weekend.

If you have yarn to wind think of me!!

WHAT A WEEKEND !

Now I feel it is time to catch up on what has been happening in my life. I left a week ago today for Buffalo, NY and the Knitting and Crochet Guild of America summer convention. The company I work for was helping out in the booth for this shop . www.haveeweanywoolyarnshop.com/

I just love these shows where fiber artists congregate. A couple of exciting things went on I need to share. One was discovering fantastic hand dyed yarn. Bjorn Coordt and Rex Tannahil from www.coloraturayarns.com/had this fabulous giant skein of yarn. The one shown here belongs to my friend Lou and I brought it home to wind. I love the fact these all have the name of an opera. I am a big opera fan. Just for the color alone I chose "La Boheme". This is my favorite opera and as chance would have it the colors I love the most. The one pictured I need to wind is called "Rigoletto"

I work as a sales rep for ChiaoGoo knitting needles and they surprised me with something I had on my wish list. Wonderful 7" single pointed needles. My current passion is knitting modular things like the crayon box jacket which started it all. They are wonderful. Light and with a great point and beautiful balance. How nice to see something I asked for become a reality. They certainly were well received that is for sure. I am working on a couple of projects which are not quite ready for me to show you yet.

Naturally there were other yarns and here is what I bought not that I needed yarn. I am winding, winding, winding.

Saw some really fantastic things. I was particularly amazed at the great number of crochet people who attended. I get the feeling Tunisian crochet is big right now. I don't know how yet but apparently those hooks are not easy to find. Linda had them in her booth so I learned a lot about this form of needle work. I saw an amazing sweater that for all the world looked like knit but in fact was really crochet. You never know!

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!

Dishrag tag is back. If you have not signed up get with it. You will have more fun and meet some of the best people out there. I just got home and it was the first thing I did. Now until tomorrow and a bit more time. Yarn Miracle is the place to go.