Assembly Lines and Needle Addictions

I took a few days off at the end of this week to help my mom who was having cataract eye surgery. I packed my knitting expecting to be waiting for a while. I had a good hour of knitting. Is that all? You might be asking. I was surprised too. Apparently, there was an assembly line of patients going in and out. Things have changed quite a bit since I had eye surgery as a little girl. What used to be a 3-day hospital stay, is now an hour long out- patient procedure and you don’t even have to take off your clothes… or your shoes! Yes, believe it or not, she had all her clothes on during the surgery. I wasn’t kidding about assembly line. No time is wasted changing clothes.

One hour or so was all I needed to finish my Baby Surprise hoodie. My first results was ripped out as I thought it was a little short, and at my second attempt, I extended it two inches and put in some even space Yarn Overs to make holes I could thread a drawstring through, just in case my extensions prove to be too large. The drawstring could be pulled snug to fit her face and keep the hood on.

I’ve been keeping busy learning how to work Ravelry. I was able to put some of my projects on it with pictures. The thing I am having difficulty with, is to have it read my blog. I thought I had finally figured out how to set up an RSS feed through Feedburner, but it still hasn’t displayed the entry titles on Ravelry for members to access and read. I’m not sure what I did wrong.

I joined a few groups on Ravelry, but I am not very active yet. I spent a good time recording all the knitting needles I have that are not on any projects. You can call me a “needle addict”. Whenever I have an itch to start a project, and the desired size needle is already being used by an Unfinished Project, I would rather buy a new set of needles than finish the old project to free up the needles. Is that crazy or what? Is there a rehab for this kind of needle addict? Sure, there is…..they call them Knitting Retreats!!! Ha! Ha!. I confess that I’m hopeless. I recall buying at least 4 sets of needles at the recent TKGA Knit and Crochet show. I even bought a new needle gauge because I get crazy when I can’t find it when I need it.

Finished Baby surprise Jacket...or is it?

I hate finishing my projects. I love to knit, but I struggle with sewing up seams and buttons. Today, I finally took a break from my knitting and made the commitment to finish this jacket. Although.......now I'm thinking it would look really cute with a hood. Only I don't think I have a pattern to do this.....yet.

Fabulous Fiber Fair-Santa Monica

Saturday I went the the Fabulous Fiber Fair in Santa Monica. There are so few fiber event on the west coast. We didn't attend Lambtown, USA this year, so I made sure I went to this Fiber fair.

The Fabulous Fiber Fair held at the Civic Center, has workshops and vendors designed for knitters, spinners, dyers, felters, weavers, beaders, bobbin lace, and quilters. There are demos going on all day in these crafts. This year, the number of animals displayed increased. There were alpacas, angora bunnys, a dog(unknown breed) and chinchillas. The market was filled with vendors to suit all the types of crafters. I took home some Superwash wool roving from Custom Handweaving, and a deliciously soft skein of fingering weight Alpaca Silk in the Olive tones colorway. I can't wait to knit a lace shawl with this. The colorways and yarn of this vendor, Lisa Souza Dyeworks, was simply wonderful and it was hard not to buy more. Although it seemed pricey, $44 for 750 yds of fingering wt, and the luscious softness, it will be worth every penny. I'l have to knit something very special with it.

On Sunday, I got so frustrated with reknitting again and again the border of my pi shawl, I decided to take a break. Low and behold, I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket. I just need to sew up the shoulders, and I think its just the right size of my 1-year old granddaughter. How perfect is that timing?

A strange thing happened when I tried to take a picture of the surprise sweater. It is made with a rich colored varigated Caron Acrylic Simply Soft yarn named Embroidery Print. In artificial light it looks red but in natural light it turns blue. How amazing is that?