Last Wednesday was party day and I hope you were able to come by. Aunt Karen, Lori Palmer, Judy Sumner, Alyce Hemphill and Co. brought treats and we celebrated my birthday. There were lots of people in the store also, and they helped us celebrate!

Many people are working on the Knitting Pure and Simple Summer Cardigan and quite a few (like Aunt Karen and Sarah Weeks) are speeding past me. Aunt Karen used Ty Dy cotton and Sarah is using Bamboucle. I'm using Aslan Trends Pima Classico.

Classic Elite KAL knitters remember the finish date is June 1. I put part of my vest to block yesterday and am trying to finish the other front. Let me know if you have already joined Laura Apgar in the finishing ring. We will have to arrange for a time for pictures, too.

The book from last summer's Think Outside the Sox competition came in today. They have some wild and crazy socks in there.... Pearl

Greetings!

After about 6 months and hundreds of phone calls (okay, maybe not hundreds) Jinka has finally got the website up and running again and is updating like crazy. She finished her A-line tank out of Urban Silk and is starting on another sleeveless pattern using Wach'i cotton.

Wednesday was a little raucous this week as usual. Aunt Karen brought cookies from the Fresh Market, so no one had a reason to complain. Many stories were told and laughter was heard. Oh, yea...people were also knitting. Alyce is coming along with her Feather and Fan Cardi for the Classic Elite KAL.

Thursday evening Linda blew in from North Carolina and we had to have a look at the new Kureyon sock yarns. Laura Apgar is the first one finished with her KAL project and the rest of us are trying to get there. Every one is at a different place in their projects, but all are progressing.

This week we got in some fun summer patterns from a new designer, C2 Knits. There is a tank, a cap-sleeve tee, and a skirt that Jinka swears she's going to make.

Remember sock monkeys? This week we got some patterns for making animals out of sock OR worsted weight yarn that look sort of like ballon creatures. They are very cute and you get the patterns for all the animals in one set.

That's all for now...Pearl

Scattered Thoughts in Spring

Today at Loopville...
The Handpainted Yarns lady came by today and Jinka picked out some sock yarn and scarf kits in really neat colors.

Interweave has sent out a Knitscene magazine for new knitters with some easier patterns in it.

I finished the back of the baby sweater and have started on the fronts.

On the Classic Elite Yarns knit-a-long Laura Apgar is going to be the first to finish. She was putting her vest together last Thursday. Sherry Kaspar and I are on the backs of ours. Some people haven't really started yet, but I think they'll get on it soon.

Skacel is coming out with a set of Clics in the Lace Needles, and I can't wait. We are restocking our turbos and they should be in soon.

See you on Wild Wednesday! -- Pearl

This is crazy

I haven't posted in 18 months...I promised not to get boring but this is ridiculous. I've been working on crochet and have finished my first ball of Paper yarn. My crochet skills have progressed from laughable to passable. The edges are straight and it has a recognizable shape. The web page is a disaster. Looks fine on Firefox but useless in Internet Explorer.

Better than Sox Scarf

Last week one of my first customers came by to see me. She's from Norway and we'd spent a few evenings downloading patterns written in both in Norwegian and English so that I could find yarn for patterns that she could follow. Her husband was doing research at Oak Ridge but was retiring and she hadn't expected to come back from to Knoxville. I was so happy to see her again. She showed me a scarf she was knitting that she'd seen in a shop in Great Britain. It was so simple and clever and she showed me how she'd done it in less than a minute. As I walked out of the shop on Saturday, I picked up a skein of Noro Cashmere Island to try the scarf pattern. I rolled the skein into a ball on in the movies and cast on before I went to sleep. In the morning on the way to church I grabbed the yarn and ran. As I knit, I knew it was the perfect little on the go project, like a sock only its a scarf...the better than sox scarf. As I'm working on it I can think of a dozen variations...more later.

Conquering mesh stitch

I'm one of those keep your head down and keep moving knitters, so its rare that I admit defeat. Mesh stitch had me baffled, I made a hemp shopping bag, every round seemed to have a different number of stiches so I'd make up some kind of compensating decrease or yarn over and keep going. When it was done, it had a line up one side that looked like a bad surgical scar. I wound it back ito balls and shoved it in the bottom of my bag. Next I tried a beaded scarf in a mesh stitch. I strung the beads onto a slippery rayon yarn first which was no small feat, then began to knit. There were only thirty stitches but any slip up resulted in the all the knitting unraveling.

Bowed, bloodied but still not ready to admit defeat, I asked for help from Linda Michaluk and Patricia Landry of Swallowhill Creations. After about five minutes working with big yarn and pony beads, I got it. I've been working on a short rowed scarf with mesh stitch and I can really do it now.

Don't unravel get help! It really is true.

The Loopville sign will be placed over our new door on Monday and that will make our move complete. Things have disappeared and re-emerged in the new space and fall yarns are trickling in. My brain was fried but now I'm ready to tackle a real knitting project again. I picked up two new pattern designers, Kate Jackson and Figheadh, both are good for smaller projects with a little challenge. Hope to see you soon!