FYI-the best pot scrubber you can get is actually one you make yourself. For $1.49/yard you can buy tulle netting from JoAnn's, less if you have a coupon. Cut this into 2" wide strips and knit the strips into a small rectangle. Voila! Non-stick pot scrubber that works really well.
That's what I've been doing. Cutting up 5 yards of tulle into strips and knitting little potscrubbers for stocking stuffers. I'm not really a "Christmas all year" type, but this project is worth doing.

Otherwise, I'm at a point on the mitred square shawl where I don't have enough of any one colorway of sockyarn to complete a whole row of squares. I will have to start buying skeins just to finish this project.

I'm working on a pair of birthday socks for someone in the family these days. I'm turning the heel now. The socks are black and white, but this person wears black jeans often, so they should be the perfect color.

When I find the box of yarn, I want to start a dark blue sweater. It's MIA in the craft room somewhere...

So far my sewing efforts have produced two dresses and a blouse I'm not entirely happy with. I have another blouse pattern and two lengths of fabric to work with. One is striped shirting in blues and greens. The other fabric is a dark red hawaian print. The pattern is a collarless, 3/4 sleeve, buttons in front shirt pattern. Wish me luck!

Frenetic activity

Okay, I've been busy.  And I'm away from my trusty mac six days a week and then trying to cram all my work into half a day.  Last week it was a six hour half day.  This week I'm hoping for less.  Now I'm on a PC at home that technically belongs to my daughter.  It's like blogging in a foriegn language.

I have been knitting.  I finished the purse and sewed the lining and it looks gaaa-geous!  It pleases me, at least.  I am still making little mitered squares on the shawl, which looks more interesting with each addition.  I am knitting on a fingering weight vest in dark green, but don't know if I like it.  May not finish that one.

Most of my time has been occupied by sewing.  I made the first blouse (yuck!) and the second (really pretty!)  and a dress based on the second blouse pattern, which I like a lot.  I'm now working on blouse no. 3, a mixture of print fabrics in peach, mint green and off-white.  Should be different...I'll let you know if my inner vision in any way resembles reality.

For now, back to knitting!

New summer projects

I'm working on three knitting projects at present:

1) Mitered square shawl
2) mitered square blanket of cotton yarns
3) handbag of jewel-tone ribbon yarn

I have finished the main body of the handbag and started on the side panels. A few more rows and I will be sewing it up and looking for fabric for the lining. This bag has a zipper at the top between two wooden circular handles. It's big enough to hold a small knitting project and a paperback book. Perfect for summer.

Unfortunately, the academic year has ended for us and that means on to summer pursuits. This summer, I am determined to make the most perfect, best fitting blouse pattern I can. It will be fitted to my wide shoulders, long back length, and long arms, while still fitting in the bust and collar. I want to wear it with calf-length skirts and pants. It is my project for the summer. I'm afraid the knitting will have to go by the wayside for a while, but there are still Tuesdays at noon!

Garage sale yarn

Mostly, my time and skill is too good for cheap yarn. Call me a snob, but I own a big bag of "gifted" acrylic that will just have to find a new home. I don't like knitting it or wearing it and it's too scratchy to turn into a blanket. So I don't often even look at garage sale yarn. But this weekend I did. In fact, I went to the local church rummage sale for just that purpose. I've been short on cash lately, and hope does spring eternal...

Except, this time, my trip paid off. I scored two skeins of charcoal marled Koigu sock yarn for $2.00. It was awesome. There, at the bottom of a cardboard box turned on it's side was a lonely little plastic bag with the afore mentioned yarn. I snatched it up like a starving woman will snatch food for her young'uns. And then I found half a dozen magazines (Knitter's mostly) and some sewing books on draping and pattern instruction. Always good reading. I also found some cheap fiction reads for this summer at the beach (When I'm not knitting).

Just when you think there's no yarn in your life for the summer...

Will work for yarn...

The school year is almost over here at the college, which means I haven't too many more days of work. Secretaries don't work summers here, which is a serious financial crimp. Normally, I would just tighten my belt and keep on truckin', but during the summer is also the time for most of the annual sheep and wool festivals. No money = no yarn. Hence, I need a job.

I could just knit out of the stash, but what about all that lovely yarn just waiting to be discovered at tiny booths in the vendor's markets? Yarn of every dazzling color and texture. Yarn of silk, wool, bamboo, corn, soy, and seashell fibers. Not to mention the poor lowly cottons and acrylics. It all calls to me, beckoning me to take it home and feast visually on the colors and dine on the tactile feel of merino's softness and bamboo's luxurious drape. Oh, the ideas I have just dreaming about yarn. I am an addict.

Don't worry, yarn. I'll find a way. I'll sell my blood or something. You will be mine!

Stop-gap knitting

As a stop-gap measure, I have cast on a purse made of Yarn Bee ribbon yarn in jewel tones. I came across a lovely set of wooden handles at JoAnn's fabric store this weekend, and knew they would be perfect for the project. So, I've not actually stopped knitting. More like a stray stitch here and there on my cotton blanket while I watch the news. But I am fully entrenched in puzzle-mania for the time being and making ZERO progress on the mitered square shawl.

The purse is cute though. There may even be pictures eventually.

I'm not knitting...

I must confess, I haven't blogged about knitting for a while because I haven't been doing much knitting for a while. Oh sure, I'm still going to knitting on Tuesdays and Fridays, but I haven't been making knots with my every spare moment like I usually do. I'd like to blame my knitting intensive vacation, but the truth is something else has caught my eye.

It's true. Oh, this isn't like the times when I've picked up a quilting project or worked on painting one of the houses we've owned. I've been having a fling with an activity not even remotely related to knitting. And worse, I have absolutely nothing to gain from this activity. It may be the least productive crush I've ever had.

I'm addicted to puzzle magazines.

There. I said it. It's the truth. I've fallen hard for the variety and mental stimulus the good folks at Penny Press are putting out. I've gone so far as to register at their site and I've been downloading free daily puzzles like a coke whore who just can't get enough. I'm scheming ways to tell my husband that I need $7.99 for a new variety puzzle magazine, since I've done all the ones in my last one. This time I want one of those giant omnibus publications. More puzzles! More variety! I can see that I'm spiraling out of control, but I can't help it.

Help me!