Oceans, Cotton, and Cross-Stitch, Oh my...

Here's an interesting diversion a friend just sent me... Oceangrams! Go to the site and you can send a message in a bottle...or just wait for a little while and you'll pick one up! These can come from anywhere in the world!

Now on to the cotton. Our guild is bringing in Judy Pascale this fall to teach her Vertical Vest class! I'm very excited about this class, but now find myself with the following dilemma... We got the materials list the other day - here it is:

For the beaded vest you will need between 1050 and 1300 yds of fingering weight yarn (Koigu or something similar). She sells the beads she uses in her class, but if you want to purchase your own, you will need to buy size 6 seed beads. I did not ask how many oz of beads needed, but can do that.

For the other vests, you can use any weight yarn from fingering to worsted. You will be doing a gauge swatch so will be able to make it to whatever size you want. She said that Cotton Classic is a great yarn to use for our area, she loves how it works up, but cotton or wool is okay. No chenille or textured wool, cotton, etc.

So, I did some hunting online the other day to get an idea of what I was looking for, and found a few options. First, I'd like to stick to cotton or a cotton blend, but I WILL be doing the beaded vest, so fingering weight is a must. I'm also going to reserve a decision a bit, since I will be going to the Fiber Festival in three short weeks in NY, so may find something there that I'd like to use. I am a little afraid though, that they might not have much cotton, since it's a spinning fest in NY in the fall... Will keep an open mind however!

In the meantime, this is what I've come up with:

Yarn possibilities:

Mississippi 3 Print

$6.10 - 230 yds

Meilenweit Cotton or Cotton Fun

$7.35 - 207 yds

Mayflower Cotton 8

$3.59 - 186 yds

Rowan CashSoft

$8.50 - 197 yds

Stork by Dale of Norway

$5.00 - 195 yds

Mondial Cotton Soft Yarn

$6.95 - 196 yds

Ringspun Cotton

$12.00 - 700 yds

Also in my stash I found Paton's Grace mercerized cotton. I don't have enough for this project, but it's a lovely yarn and another that I might consider.

Edited to add:
Two more links that Janette (aka - my enabler) sent...so I have them when I'm in NY ;)
KnitPicks Gloss
$3.99 - 220 yds

And a SALE! on Mississippi 3
$2.50 - 230 yds

Oh, and I know that the CashSoft doesn't have any cotton in it, but it looks SOOO lovely that I had to consider it... No idea what color I want to do this in either...but will let you know all of that as soon as I figure it out!

As for the Cross-Stitch? It's actually going pretty well! I worked on it for several hours last night...the good news is that there isn't really ALL that much to it! But, off to stitch now!

Closer and Yet Farther Away...

Oh, I am SOOO nuts!

Completed:

• Baby Afghan!! Yep, it's actually, totally done!
• 4 pair Booties - sewn up, ties in place!
• 3 hats - still need their tassels :(
• 7 Bibs! - picked up the buttons for them this evening!
• 5 Burp Clothes - two more in progress...
• 1 Scarf - Started and Finished today!

I know, I know, where are the pictures??









And here's the scarf...

Ok, so what's this about "yet farther away"?? Yeah, well...dropped by Joann's today to pick up buttons for bibs... and found a few other things... Actually, they were having a GREAT sale on a whole lot of different things - picked up a bunch of cotton yarns on deep discount - 400 yds sport weight cotton for $2.10!! But, I also found a pair of very nice little Counted Cross Stitch patterns - marked $5 and $7, then 30% off that! So, one of those will also need to be completed by the shower...the other is a birth announcement, so it'll have her name, Ava Rose, as well as her birthdate. I'll be able to do everything except the date in advance, then I can take it to them when I go to visit after she's born. Here's the bad photo of the first one...two weeks to get it finished!...you can get the idea anyhow...

Progress!!!

Wow, busy weekend!! Knitted Saturday Morning. Knitted at lunch Saturday Afternoon. co-Taught a knitting class with 16 learners (and 3 teachers!) late Saturday Afternoon!

Woke up Sunday and started crocheting the border around the afghan squares. Crocheted through two movies. Crocheted through lunch. Crocheted through the KnitWits meeting. Came home, crocheted a border around the afghan.

Sewed in ends of afghan. Sewed in ends of remaining booties. Made Plyed yarn ties for booties.

Ok, so sum total COMPLETED for baby shower:

• Baby Afghan - DONE!
• 4 pair Baby Booties - Sewn up/Ties made - need to insert Ties
• 2 Baby Hats - Need tassles on tops and a third hat
• 6 Baby Bibs - Need buttons and to tuck ends on two or three of them - will make 1 more
• 4 Baby Burp Cloths - Need to make 3 more

Whew! The only thing totally not started is the scarf for mom-to-be...that'll go up quick.

Sorry no pics...will try to take a few tomorrow night and get them up. Right now need to get to bed...Job interview for a "dream job" of sorts tomorrow!

Baby Knitting

Wow, what a month!! Yes, that's all it has been is 4 1/2 weeks since I started baby knitting!! You've all been carefully following the saga of the Log Cabin blanket. The squares, are DONE! Here they are:


Once I completed them, I laid them out on the floor and with the help of several other people, we balanced colors, checked for duplication, etc. I'm pretty happy with the final arrangement, shown above.

Now that the knitting is done, I have only to finish it. How to do that you ask? I'm going to do a single crochet border around each square, slip the squares together, then do a full single crochet around the entire afghan. So, the only remaining question is, do I crochet in blue, or in pink?

The verdict is in, I bought my final ball of yarn this evening...and it is....


Yep, that's right! 90% certain they're having a baby girl! Ok, lots of work to get done now. The shower invites are all printed, envelopes are printed, and I picked up "It's a Girl" sparklies to glue to the invites.

In other related knitting news, I've been making baby bobble hats...will make a third one to include my new color! Still need to add tassles or squiggles or something to the top...planning on the squiggles actually.

Made three pair of baby booties last weekend...one more to go...in pink. These little puppies are AWESOME, and knit up in about an hour and a half. They also have an eyelet row just at the ankle. I'm planning to twist two strands of yarn together to make ties - two of the other colors...so they'll bring the multiple colors of the blanket and hats down to the booties!

Am also working on a box of bibs and burp clothes...will go through my remaining colors of cotton and pick out the best baby girl colors. My goal is 6 and 6. I'm at nearly 5 bibs and 3 burp clothes. Making good progress.

So, that's the update for now. Have to be up early tomorrow, but wanted to share the great news!

Spinners Day Out!

This report is also somewhat overdue, but hey, better late than never, right? Last weekend, 7 brave souls set out on a three hour tour, a three hour tour... Ok, so it was really only 2 1/2, but who's counting? We went to visit with Ella, a lovely woman, fantastic spinner, and awesome cook! You see, Ella used to have a Fiber business for various spinning fibers, from washed, uncombed naturals all the way up to Quiviet combed top!

Ella graciously opened her beautiful home to us (Look at the living room lamp!! - and it even turns!), preparing a lovely (and completely South Beach friendly!) lunch of various finger foods, dessert, and WIDE array of beverages ;) It was nearly 1pm when we arrived, and after a brief visit to the restrooms (we stopped at a "gas station" in Bartow...oooh, SCARY place!), and an ever so quick glance around at the piles of fiber so lovingly laid out, we sat down to lunch. Candace shared stories of her experiences with Hurricane Katrina animal rescue, and we all shared other stories and got to know each other.

Once the food was sufficiently demolished, and we'd all had a few bites of Ella's lovely (healthy!) dessert, we attacked the fiber! I wish I'd taken pictures before we hit it, as it really was a lovely sight - boxes full of beautiful fibers... Instead all I can offer is these photos of what it looked like after we were through... Needless to say, the prices were excellent, and we can all feel good about helping Ella to clean out some of her overflowing closets! Now WE'RE the ones with the overflowing closets! I have had three bags of fiber (one for me, one for SOS, and one for Melody who was unable to join us) in the back seat of my car all week. I delivered Melody's yesterday, and today brought mine and the guilds fiber into the apartment...trying to find space was really quite frightening!

After we made our purchases, we were able to find a few minutes to break out the wheels and spin. Candace got to try out Ella's Electric Spinner, and was so inspired that she immediately came home and started planning how to make her own! We'll all look forward to hearing how her creativity turns out. Ella surprised us all a bit by standing up at her wheel! (She usually does sit down, though at the electic spinner, she uses the entire living room!!) Ella also shared with us how she does hand spun BEADED yarns! We suggested she come up to the Fiber In and give a demo, but in reality it might not be until next year. What a lovely person!

Ellen spent some time playing with her new drop spindle!

Nancy showed us all how to Navajo ply on a drop spindle - definitely a good person and great technique to know!

As we were wrapping things up, Ella brought out a bag of vegetable scraps from lunch, for us to go "feed the animals" Huh? Yep, it seems that her neighbors have their own little mini-zoo of sorts (animal rescue I believe), including two deer, a goat, and an emu! Ella warned us before we went out to beware of the emu, since he just sorta bites at anything in reach. I should have listened better - he was trying to get me and my camera while I was taking these!

Long Past Due Photos

For various reasons, all related to the "surprise element", there are a few photos that never made it up here. So, if you didn't get to see the Grape Arbor Shawl, here it is!! I'll of course post photos of the first one once it's complete. I hope to finish it while on vacation to NY. The plan is to have all baby shower knitting done before I leave - more on that later. So, the final photos of the Grape Arbor Shawl II, as well as some of the other items I made, a Chemo Cap and bookmark for Dale.