Sorry to hear about your car & keys - that's a bit scary. I can't believe you had something stolen in Yarmouth! At least the RCMP are on the case, and hopefully your locks are all changed by now. And it's a small enough town that if you see someone running around in your work-out clothes you'll know who to nab.
Clay's photos from Barbados look great - that is a lot of goats. I'm not sure about the obsession with documenting the frog though - or, looking back through his album, the many many pictures of food. There are a surprising number in there...
Congratulations on your success with the fund-raising calendar too - I know that was a lot of hard work. And how great to have so many mementos of the project sent in. I know it will bring back lots of great memories whenever you pull out those crazy lobster mitts! It really would be great to have the pattern for those too.
While here in San Francisco it is really just rainy and cold, we have had snow in the area up on Mt. Diablo. This is such an event that people are actually driving up (about 2 hours from the city) to 'visit' the snow up at the peak! I asked Nathan if he wanted to go too but truly after being in Chicago so long (not to mention my growing up in Ottawa) we have seen more than enough of our share. If we go for snow, it's going to be in Tahoe where we can enjoy it to its fullest!
I am already back from Stitches, still trying to decide if I want (need?) to go back to actually pick up some yarn. In the end I only managed to make it through the Thursday set-up of the A4A booth (which was slightly more hectic and emotionally trying than I had anticipated - its a great project with a wonderful mission, which I had to keep reminding myself as
I struggled to handle the personalities involved in the actual management) and didn't stay over for Friday shopping. In the end I was only followed home by a single skein of the much sought-after Socks That Rock lightweight sock yarn, in a gorgeous purplish red color called Jasper that jumped in my knitting basket. There is more there that I want to check out, largely so that I know what to put on my list for future orders since this is a great place to see in person what I otherwise know only from the internet. But I actually have no need for more yarn at present. The question is whether it is worth another drive down to Santa Clara and back just for that purpose. I'll keep you posted.I'm actually busy slowly but surely making my own 'yarn', not by spinning or dyeing or any of the other creative ways that you are learning to do (I am jealous, I admit) but with a pile of t-shirts and a pair of scissors. Now that my box has arrived with all of the shirts I bought at Frenchy's over the holidays I am getting ready to make the t-shirt rug from Alterknits. This has been on my mental to-do list for quite a while so I'm excited to finally be able to start it. The first step was to sort out the order of all the colors - there are 18 t-shirts, each of which will be it's own color stripe in the finished rug. Here is my color plan, with the first t-shirts already cut and balled up at left:
Now I am in the cutting phase, adding each t-shirt as it was turned into yarn onto my ever-expanding ball - I decided to just cut them all at once, make a giant ball, and then knit it straight off in one go. This actual 'yarn' preparation is slow going - I have been at it a week, and think I will need another week to finish - but it is kind of fascinating to watch the ball grow and grow and grow. This is definitely an at-home project! As the pile sinks down (I am now through 10 shirts, with 8 to go) the ball has slowly started to overpower it. Hopefully I can actually lift it when all is said and done. Here it is 6 shirts down, and as it stands now with 10:
Just to be sure that this will work out the way it should I have also swatched on my jumbo size 19 needles (which I bought last week along with an extra skein of Noro Silk Garden, which the salesperson patiently explained could not actually be knit successfully on the size 19's so did I want to trade them for another pair? It took a while to explain they were for different projects...) It's a bit open so hopefully that will mean the rug will be something that can be washed and dried successfully. We'll see.
I am also making slow but steady progress on my entrelac stole - I am through 10 tiers so far, with only 30 or so more to go! At a tier a day (and I'm not even knitting that steadily so far) it will take over a month, so this is definitely another slow-goer but I'm still happy to plug along on it for now. I am worried that the extra Ottawa yarn I ordered got lost in the mail - Handmaiden was again oh so generous to send me another shipment, which hopefully will get here next week, but now I'm slightly fretful. Without it I'm not sure that I will have enough to finish - and definitely not enough for the fringe which looks so beautiful in the photos of completed shawls. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.(Hmmm, notice how the color of the shawl and the color of the socks that rock is basically the same? I must be on a color trend again... Last fall it was for bubblegum pink, so hopefully this purplish red will get a better reception with Nathan...)
I do keep thinking that I need to start something else, something lacy and more intricate than the stockinette and squares upon squares of the entrelac or the ongoing scissor-work of the rug (to be replaced with garter stitch once it's finally cast-on) but for now these are keeping me more than entertained. I think that my next project will be the short-sleeved Rowan sweater, but that will be three big projects at once. Yet I'm not in the mood for more socks. So for now I'll just keep plugging away!
Hope all is well and that you & Dad are still safe at home,
Megan
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