|
|
March Smarch |
|
Daily Links:
World
of Julie
|
28 March 2003 Look! An unprecedented even in our household! While wandering around the knitbloggers ring Wednesday, I saw that Jenni is making Bob out of Lion Brand Cotton Ease instead of the recommend Rowan All Season’s Cotton (which is beautiful, but beyond my budget at the moment.). Being the lemming I am, I realized that, while the stores in my area didn’t have enough of one dye lot for Sitcom Chic, there was enough to make Bob. So I went ahead and bought some and cast on Wednesday night. Yay! Finally something bright and spring-like to work on. Jenni and I are doing a knit along (although, as slow as I knit she’s sure to finish before me.) On a few blogs lately people have mentioned yarn stores that are less than customer service oriented. I’m thankful that I’ve never had an experience like that. I had a problem recently with an Addi Turbo needle.
It was rough at the tips and literally a drag to use. The problem was, I
couldn’t remember where exactly I’d purchased them.
I sent an email to The Web-Sters,
telling them about the needle and that I thought I had purchased it from them
but I wasn’t sure. They said,
“no problem, send it back and we’ll get you a replacement.”
So I did. Due to the needles
being on backorder, the process took a little over a month.
They sent me the replacement needles at no charge, not even for postage.
Then the next day I got another pair in the mail, only they were also
flawed in the same way (or they could have been the same needles I had
originally returned.) This time when I emailed them they said not to worry, as long as I got at least one good set, I could do whatever I wanted with the flawed set. The people at the Web-Sters are great!
I visited Ashland, Oregon last fall, and popped into their store for a
look. They could not have been more
helpful to me, a new knitter, needing help with yarn substitutions.
I’ll bet I got 45 minutes of personal help looking at different yarn
combinations. And their store is
beautiful and chock full of yarn, buttons, weaving and spinning stuff.
Check ‘em out if you’re even in Ashland. The two yarn stores in my area, Rumplestiltkin’s and A
Time When… are also very nice and extremely helpful. I recommend both stores if you’re ever in the Sacramento
area. And, last but certainly not least, I had a very pleasant
email exchange the other morning with Rob of Threadbearfiberarts.
Talk about helpful! I have
been contemplating making a felted purse, but could not find just the color
combinations I wanted. Rob knew
exactly what I was looking for, and even sent me pictures of the yarn knitted
and then felted. And I’m not even
an official customer yet! And, while I do advocate patronizing local shops over
shopping the Internet, sometimes the deals, and the service, are just too good
to pass up. 24 March 2003 I know this is the most boring site on the knit bloggers ring. There is just nothing interesting going on in my life right now that seems worth talking about. I was moving right along on the Lorna's Laces sock, when I decided to try it on. It seemed a little tight. So I checked my gauge and sure enough, instead of the 8 stitches per inch I was getting with my swatch, I was now getting 10 stitches per inch. So, I went back to my original plan for this yarn and am going again try knitting two toe up socks at a time. This time I'm using my #2 needles instead of #1s. I find the #2s so much easier to use. So far so good: I have been searching all my local stores for Lion Brand Cotton Ease to make Sitcom Chic, but none of the stores in this area have the color I want. They don't even have enough of one dye lot in my second choice color. I might have to order it from an online source. Has anyone made this pattern yet using a different yarn? 15 March 2003 Well, my Mother is doing fine and healing nicely. She was even able to go to the new Target in her town and drive around on one of those scooterized shopping baskets. The doctor says she should be completely healed in about two weeks. This week, I started the Family Circle sweater, twice, and ripped it out, twice, as
is par for me. The first time I simply lost count and was unable to rip
back and keep my place in the pattern. The second time, everything was
going along just fine, but I realized that the thing was turning out huge.
I had forgotten that when I originally knitted my swatch, I went down one size
needle to get the gauge. Oops. I simply couldn't bring myself to start
again. Instead, I cast on for a quick pair of
socks. Here's what I have so far: I was so sad to see that Dangerous Chunky has said good bye. DC was the first knitting blog I came across when I started knitting and looking for resources on the web. You will be missed Carolyn! 8 March 2003 Where to start? By now it’s old news, but the Spring issue of Knitty
is out, and it is most excellent. I
swear as soon as I get money I am making a donation.
I love Julie’s catnip toys,
and really want to make “Sitcom
Chic.” March started off bad:
Emergency surgery for my 69-year-old Mother. She developed an abscess on her abdominal wall due to
stitches from a previous surgery becoming infected.
This previous surgery happened 12 years ago. Weird huh? She’s
now home from the hospital and getting better every day. I spent some time in the park near our house today looking
for this little guy.
It seems he’s taken a side trip from his annual migration.
One of the birders who was at the park said that this was the
first sighting of the Cape May Warbler in Sacramento County. The
little bird (who local bird watchers have named “Tony”) has been hanging out
in the park for a couple of weeks now. Sean
was able to see him through the binoculars really well. I saw him, but not
with the binoculars. I have very poor binocular skills.
|
