Request Permission to Panic

I experienced #4 in the Top 10 Knitter's Worst Nightmare over the weekend. Wanting a change from the simple baby blanket knitting, I had dug out Celtic Sage. It is at a relatively easy lace section, but there was enough lace there to stretch my knitting muscles. 

In the evening, I went back to my knitting, left in assumed safety on the sofa, and saw two needles and the knitting. . . In two different piles. No where near each other. Oh, the horror!

I couldn't help it. I broke down. The details are a bit fuzzy, but I remember tears, and screams of "this is lace!"  There may have been more, I don't remember. 

I was still staring at thin yarn and tiny needles when a little boy timidly approached to apologize for touching Mommy's yarn. While I was replacing a couple hundred stitches, he had been gently interrogating the most likely culprits.

The apology didn't put stitches back on the needle, but I appreciate the effort. And I am pleased to announce that the knitting is back on the needles, no worse for wear. 

Today, it is all about the return. 

With Time to Spare

My sweetie's cousin is pregnant, and every baby deserves some knitted live to welcome him or her into the world. So, of course, I started knitting. 

I started small: a car seat blankie. One of the most useful gifts that I received as a new Mommy was a small blankie, just big enough to tuck around a baby in the carrier.   Not large enough to swaddle or wrap around the baby, but no falling corners or dragging seams either. 

I figured that a small blankie would ensure that I could finish before the baby was born. I was right. Too right. I finished the blankie in only a few weeks, with months to spare. So now I have decided the knit matching normal baby blanket. 

Why do I feel like I have set myself up to miss the deadline?

Today, it is all about the impending success or doom. 

I love a garage sale!

Every other summer, my LYS has a "garage sale".  The best garage sale EVER!  Customers bring in their unloved yarn and knitting accouterments in the weeks before.  On the day of the sale, customers find hidden treasures at discount prices.  LYS gets the money; sellers get gift certificates to the LYS, sellers get great bargains.  WIN-WIN-WIN!  I learned several lessons from last time: get there early, bring more cash.  This year, I learned another lesson: bring a bag to place your treasures while still searching through the pile. 

My sweetie and I had decided to split up the children for our day's excursions.  He took Doodlebug to a gun show, and I took Bugaboo to the yarn sale.  When I got there, 5 minutes before the start, the stage was set.  Tables of yarn etc lined up on the sidewalk in front of the store.  A line of potential customers dutifully lined three feet away from the tables, at the edge of the sidewalk.  The clock struck 10am, and everyone took two steps forward and descended on the tables, now able to touch the yarn.  I had some delays getting started, because I had to set up Bugaboo at a table inside the store, with his Leapster, but that turned out now to be too bad a thing.  I probably missed out on something delicious that ended up in someone else's hand, but it also gave me a place to put some of my finds, so I could empty my hands to go searching more.  He was prepared to defend my yarn, but it was not needed.  I spent $76, and ended up with some nice finds.  Lace weight yarn, some bamboo needles, some lovely Cascade 220 that I am not sure what I am going to do with but at $2 was too much of a bargain to pass up, and some baby yarn (in the back).  My sweetie's cousin is currently pregnant.  They are not close, but we do have children around the same age, and I really should make something for the new baby. 

 

More on that project later. 

 

Today, it is all abut the bargains.