Oops! I Did It Again

I bought more yarn. Got lost in the thrill. Oh Baby Baby. . .

The yarn on the left is one of many lovely hand-dyed yarns by Yarntopia Treasures, an eBay shop. I bought a ton of it. It's reasonably priced. It arrived today, and it's lovely. I can't wait to work with it.

The yarn on the right is from Yarn Paradise (or Yarn Paradise on eBay). They have an internet store and they also sell on eBay. This particular yarn I got in a huge lot package of 40 balls for $40! They had dozens of such offers. Their shipping is high because it comes from Europe, but it still ends up being cheaper most of the time. The first time I bought from them, I bought over 100 balls of yarn and with the shipping, it was about $250, so it was still only about $2.50 per ball, which is quite competitive, and they have some awesome yarns. I've found the quality to be excellent so far, and I've bought a lot from them. They ship super fast. Even coming from overseas, I usually have my order in about 5 days.

Good thing I sniff out bargains. A person could go broke buying this stuff. If only I could knit as fast as I can buy the stuff. Sigh.

Another Current Project

The other project I'm doing, which I mentioned previously, is just a rectangle shawl. No pattern. Just a big rectangle with some fringe. No skills required. Garter stitch, size 35 needles. Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I've discarded the label that came with the yarn. I just went to their website, and I don't see the exact yarn color that I've got. They tend to turn over the colors on this yarn fairly regularly. The picture above, in the color called "Fiesta" is the closest, though the yarn I'm using is darker. Same basic colors, greens, purples, reds, and gold, but darker shades of them than that in the picture. I will eventually get a picture up.

I've been too busy lately taking pictures of all the flowers in my yard to do pics of my projects. Plus project picture-taking is, let's face it, a pain in the ass. Flowers in the yard are easy. Just point and shoot, but shawls and dolls and jewelry require a setting, lighting, and a model sometimes. In my house getting a shot without a dog trying to get in it is a challenge. I can never get shots of the dogs when I want to, but they're always in the way when I'm trying to shoot something else.

I got in a shipment of gorgeous hand-dyed yarns today. As I was emptying the box onto my mother's lap my Pomeranian Taz (see post below or the pic at the top of the page) dove into her lap and started grabbing and biting and generally making a mess of things. He just can't resist yarn. He has to be part cat. I laughed out loud when I first discovered the knitting blog "Dogs Steal Yarn". I thought I was the only one out there who did daily battle with my dog over my yarn. He has on occasion managed to totally trash a project before I could get it away from him. He's little and very fast! He does the grab and run technique. Because of his size he can run under furniture and into small spaces and manage to do quite a bit of damage before I catch him. I've had to learn to be very mindful of my dog and my stash and/or projects to make sure that the twain do not meet. Because he's so skilled at the grab and run, and he'll grab and run with just about anything he can get his little paws on, "You little bastard!" has become a common outcry in my house.





On another note, you'll see pictured an elbow splint by Aircast. I just got one of these to help with the tennis elbow problem. It's been quite a great help! I only got it yesterday, and I can already feel a difference in the amount of pain in my arm. You can get this nifty device here:

Elbow Aircast at Amazon.com

Keep on a'Craftin'!

TraZey

Today In My Yard

I took these shots today in my yard. Spring is certainly here!

Enjoy!

One Of My Current Projects

I'm currently attempting this shawl, with major variations. Since I'm still a beginner knitter, it's a really basic pattern. The pattern calls for a woolly specialty yarn on 10.5 needles, but I'm doing it on size 13 needles with a threading boucle, to make a summer weight lacey kind of shawl. I've also doubled the size. I'm a plus size so I like my shawls to actually go around me. I'm funny that way : ) Especially when it looks like the chick in the demo pic is about a size 2 at best. I never trust the pictures that come with patterns. They always show them on the smallest models possible to make the item look bigger than it is.

The yarn I'm using is cool. It's a thready boucle with a touch of metallic in it. The colors remind me of sherbet. It should be pretty. I'm only on the second row, so it's hard to see how nice it is yet. I've made several shawls with thready yarns already and I love how they turn out, so this one shouldn't be any different. I have yet to get pictures of them, but I just got a new digital camera, so hopefully I'll have pictures of them soon. My only gripe with this particular yarn is that it's a bit sticky. The fibers in it grab onto everything! They even grab onto my cuticles while I'm knitting. That might make for an ultra-clingy shawl. I'll see what happens after a few more rows. If it looks to be too dreadful, I'll have to pull it out. This yarn might not work well on its own. Will see.

I also have a shawl going with Lion Brand Homespun, which is one of my favorite yarns. One day I'll be a good enough knitter to work in the more expensive, natural fibers, but for now I stick to the cheaper, fake stuff, and as far as that stuff goes, I love Homespun. It's kinky, colorful, soft, wooly, and a pleasure to knit with for a beginner like me. And at $5-6 a skein, it's reasonable, though I actually try to get my yarns cheaper than that if I can. Ebay can be a great source for good buys. Once I get better at knitting and take on higher quality projects, I'll start using higher quality yarns as well. I like the stuff I'm doing now. The shawls are pretty, and I love the novelty yarns, fake or not. They're just so much fun!!!

I've made good progress on that Homespun project, so I'll get some pics of that up later.

I've got a bunch of stuff I need to get photographed now that I have a decent camera. I have a load of dolls that need to have good pictures taken. I tend to go back and forth on my enthusiasms. Right now I'm a knitting fanatic. Then I move away from that and into dolls or jewelry, then on to something else. I just go where the muse leads me, lol. I've been knitting so much lately that my tennis elbow is acting up big-time.

Time for dinner. Supposed to nice here tomorrow. Maybe a photo session and get some pics up.