In Sickness and in Health

Alright, I have to be the worst person to be around when I am sick. Any little sniffle and I am complaining to anyone within range. My poor DH must be pretty grateful that I don't get sick often! So other than sniffling and feeling like a zombie, I managed to get some knitting done. This is my square for Grandmother Purl ready to be shipped off.


It's just a simple basketweave pattern made with some Sugar and Cream cotton. My Birch is coming along; I'm on row 68 now so maybe I'll make my deadline. I'm going to take more medicine and wallow. Hope you have a good weekend.

My new love

Meet Giles, my wonderful new Mini Cooper. I am so in love! I have been having a ton of fun driving him and my DH predicts I'll get a ticket within 6 months. We'll see about that.

My spinning class was ok but we only spun during the last 20 minutes. I'm on row 34 of Birch and am now a little worried that I'll get it done on time. The wedding I want to wear it to is on Oct.20. So, now I'm getting serious!

I also signed up to knit a square for Grandmother Purl and that needs to be done by Nov.10. But I'm not too worried about getting it done on time since it's only an 8" square.

Insane Surprise

Okay, I haven't posted because I have had the most incredible week! Over the weekend, my DH said he needed to talk to me. I said okay and sat down at the kitchen table with the kids. He says, "We have decided on your Christmas present, but we need a little help. We are giving you a key."

Big pause. I'm thinking,"What? A key to my own room?". We had been talking about making a room in the house my craft room, so that's what I'm thinking.

He continues, "It's a key to a Mini Cooper, but we don't know what color you want." I'm sitting here thinking, " a little model car? He can't be serious! There's no way!"

He's still looking at me, not laughing and saying OK, joke's over. It slowly sinks in that he is serious. OH MY GOD!! I start crying and laughing at the same time. I don't remember much after that. So on Monday, we drove down to Oklahoma City to pick up my Mini Cooper. Oh wow, I love this car! Don't get me wrong my old car was great, but this is so much fun! I will have pictures soon.

In other news, I signed up for a spinning class (yes, again) and it starts this Saturday. I haven't spun on my wheel because I don't want to ruin my nice roving until I know what I am doing. Still knitting on my Birch, I'm on row 28, so I'm making progress, but I found a mistake way back on Row 1. No, I'm not going back. I'm learning to live with it.

Mail surprise

My not-at-all -suspicious husband came in and asked, "What did you order this time?" I am innocent I tell you! I was not even expecting my STR club shipment. Here is the club packet:
And a closer look at the yarn



This time they included 2 patterns; one that is more challenging and a regular one. Well, back to watching college football. Go OU!

I need to stop buying yarn

Okay, I don't think this should count as me getting more yarn, because this actually was ordered before the yarn crawl. I couldn't pass up the 30% off sale that Knit Happens was having a couple of weeks ago. The reason I hadn't posted about the yarn was that I was missing a skein of Koigu in the original shipment. The people at Knit Happens were very quick and kind about getting the lonely skein her buddy, so now I can post what I got; 2 skeins of Fleece Artist, Cherry Tree Hill in Peacock, and the 2 skeins of Koigu, p524.
For the 2 of you out there who might be wondering, here is my wheel:

Yep, I got a Lendrum DT and I didn't realize how lucky I was that I didn't have to wait for a backorder. I absolutely love it. Here is a pic of the first yarn I spun on my wheel. It's the free 8 oz. of Welsh top that I received with my order.
The hank in the front was plied normally, but the hank in the back was my feeble attempt at Navajo plying. Definitely can't do that one to save my life. And in my defense, that isn't all just my spinning. Of course, my DS and DD had to take a stab at it when they saw how much fun I was having. I only have one tiny little strip of roving left and my trip to Lawrence got canceled, so what am I to do? Yeah, I ordered some roving over the internet on Tuesday around 3:00, pretty soon after I posted. I can't believe that I received my order today! I ordered some pencil roving because I read that it is good for beginners, and now I can't use it. Just look at how beautiful it is!The little white bit is Blue Faced Leicester top just so I can try it. Based on how gorgeous the roving is and how fast it got to me, I can't recommend Crown Mountain Farms enough. So I think I need to go spin.

Now what?

Yes, I got my wheel on Friday about 6 pm. No, I didn't get any pictures because I was too excited and forgot. I have spun all 8 oz. that came free with my purchase and now I am sitting here wondering if I can wait until Thursday to get more roving. I'm going to Lawrence on Thursday for a friend, but since the Yarn Barn is there, I might as well go. :) Well, I have to wait I guess because if I ordered anything now over the internet, it wouldn't get here until Friday at least. I'll have pictures soon of my first yarn, I even plied it and everything. It feels like rope, though. I think I have to work on not so much twist.

On the Birch front, I was doing okay until I realized I had an extra stitch and the whole pattern was a stitch off. I ripped back 3 whole rows and now I'm back to knitting.
Gotta get back to it!

Anxiously waiting

I seem to be forgetting a lot of things in my posts lately. I forgot to mention that both The Woolie Ewe and Yarns2Ewe were both nice places, but I think because of the sheer size of them, they just didn't have that same intimate feel of Simpatico Yarns and Yarn Palette. I have been to Carol's Knitting Studio before, so I knew I liked it and I had some idea of what she carried. She has expanded since last Christmas and now the store is twice the size it was and she carries Malabrigo. I hadn't seen Malabrigo before and it is gorgeous. I also love the way that Carol's Knitting Studio smells. I don't know what she does, but the smell is wonderful.

Ok, I haven't mentioned the big news yet, but...I ordered a spinning wheel. After my time in Dallas, I decided that yes, I think I would enjoy spinning. So, here I sit, waiting for the UPS truck and trying to decide if this was a good idea for my knitting or not. I have tried to curtail the time I spend on the internet, but now I keep trying to find links to help me learn how to spin. So, if you don't hear from me for a little bit, it's because I have been sucked in by my spinning wheel.

Texas-sized Yarn Stores

To continue on my yarn crawl through Texas, my next stop was The Woolie Ewe in Plano. The Woolie Ewe is a HUGE store. There was a ton of variety; Artful Yarns, Noro, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, it just goes on and on. I was totally overwhelmed and wandered around for about an hour. In the end, I left with only these 4 skeins of Lorna's Laces. That's River on the left and Jay Pond on the right. After a little talking that night, we decided to drive to Houston in the morning and go to Yarns2Ewe. My DH had been there earlier in the year and purchased some of the Mother's Day yarn. So he thought I should at least see it. Yarns2Ewe was another massive store, but here they had Koigu! I found two other colors I really liked, but they only had 1 skein of each, so I left them behind.

We decided that was plenty of yarn stores for the time being and went to the Museum of Natural Science to see the BodyWorlds exhibit.

Carol's Knitting Studio in Oklahoma City was the final stop on my whirlwind yarn tour. This is where I picked up my Lantern Moon bag along with just a bit of Lorna's Laces in Watercolor and some Blue Sky Cotton.



So...That wraps up my yarn tour!

Wichita Falls and DFW

Alright, the first stop was Yarn Palette in Wichita Falls, Texas. This store had the best setup for relaxing with your knitting that I have ever seen. There were three big, comfy sofas all positioned around a coffee table that had snacks and magazines on it. There was even additional lighting all around this sitting area.
I found this Rowan Cashsoft Aran on sale for 25% off. I couldn't believe the yarn selection this store had (plenty of Rowan!) and the owner was incredibly friendly.


The next stop was in Bedford, Texas. Bedford is a small suburb on the Northeast side of Fort Worth. Simpatico Yarns was hands down the friendliest store I have ever visited. The owner, Mary Jane, made me feel welcome and at home as soon as I stepped in her store. I wandered around for awhile before I heard my DH calling me over. I walked around a small display and there was a spinning wheel sitting there in all her beauty. It was fate! Mary Jane graciously offered me a mini-lesson and she was such a wonderful, encouraging teacher! I, of course, was totally uncoordinated; couldn't keep the wheel going and have my hands work at the same time.
I totally wished I lived in DFW so this could be my LYS, but oh well. The yarn is Soxie in Nantucket Blue by Great AdirondackYarn Co. I also picked up Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I will continue with my visit to one other yarn store in the DFW area next time.

I forgot

I almost forgot! I loved seeing the skein all laid out on Tapmouse's blog, so I thought I would do the same thing to show all the beautiful colors of STR's Love-In Idleness. If you like it, just call or email them and ask for it.

Yarn Crawl

So my kids are visiting their grandparents in Oklahoma and what do you think I want to do with all this free time? Yarn Crawl!! My DH is a great guy and he was game for it so off we went.

Guess where I went on my yarn pilgrimage? That's me at the base of the statue of Sam Houston. Yep, we went to Texas and all the yarn stores I visited were in Texas except for one in Oklahoma. We had a great time and visited 5 yarn stores over 2 days in 4 cities. My big dilemma before we left was what projects to take with me. I just took 2 projects; socks and my first attempt at lace.

This is the beginning of a Birch shawl in one of my new acquisitions, a Lantern Moon bag. And here are the socks:
I have plenty of pictures, but I want to make them last so I'll add a few on each post this week along with my opinions on the various shops.
Have a great Labor Day Weekend!