Please! Make it Stop!

I swear this will never end.  I've been knitting on it for so long that I can't remember when I started it.

It's a Kauni triangular scarf/shawl (because I need one more) and I think that the size of the balls of yarn has not decreased by even one gram.  It's all garter stitch, and as a bonus, the yarn is pretty scratchy.  

I have this idea that I should finish the projects I have started even as I start new projects.  This project is determined to never end.......

Mink Yarn, Nose Jobs and Bras

Knitting friends and I went to Stitches South yesterday and spent EIGHT hours wandering around, looking at yarn and knitting/crocheting-related, uh, stuff, accessories.

The find of the day was this yarn which is, be still my heart, 100% MINK!  Yes, mink!!!  It is s.o.f.t.  and then soft some more.  When I was paying for it, I asked the vendor if she was sure that this was the 100% mink, and not the mink/cashmere blend, because, well, THAT wouldn't be 100% MINK. Cashmere-pah.

I've done research this morning and found that the mink yarn is made from the fur that comprises the undercoat of the mink animal.  That's why it doesn't look like a mink coat.  And depending on whom you listen to, the mink like being combed/brushed occasionally to relieve them of the undercoat, or the mink are sedated in order to be brushed.  Also I have learned that mink yarn is fragile, and really should be knit up with a fine yarn---silk or ....cashmere.

I could have bought the mink/cashmere blend and saved myself a little work...

And lest you think that a yarn convention must be a snore, full of boring, little old ladies,we met these two interesting? women.

One (a vendor) asked YarnGurl if "that is your real nose."  Well, yes, she answered.  Then followed a ten-minute monolog about her life.  She is having a nose job.  She would have had one earlier in her life, but she just wasn't "superficial" then, but now she is.  There was a lot more, but we were rescued by Sallyknit who came looking for us.

While we were eating lunch, a woman in her 60s or 70s at the next table opened her shirt so that her friend could take a picture of her bra.  She explained that she never wears one, but had that day, and she wanted photographic proof that she does own one and does occasionally wear one, when she didn't want to look as if she "was swaddling a bunch of puppies in my shirt."

Alrighty then.

Ruffles

I have finished the first two of three ruffles for Elizabeth's dress---after a few problems, like making each of the ruffles an inch longer than the pattern calls for.  I don't know what I was thinking---or not thinking.

I spent Sunday un-knitting and then started over today.  I think the colors will work well together and now that I'm not making each ruffle one inch longer than called for, I won't run out of yarn, which was a definite possibility before I discovered my mistake.  Whew....

Who Knew?

I spent part of yesterday in Dahlonega, GA, which is a cute town at the southern end of the Appalachian trail and is the site the nation's first gold rush (in 1828).

Among the usual types of shops and cafes was this small store:

I had no idea that there were so many types of jerky...

Good News!

Baxter likes Wingspan.  All is not lost.

Wingspan

Finished....sort of. There are supposed to be eight wedges of color, but I ran out of yarn after seven.

I don't much like it AND it's too small........score.....

Stash

This is my stash. My entire stash. For those non-knitters out there, I am not even bragging. This is a SMALL stash, nothing compared to some knitters I could name (but I won't, because I'm nice--nice and jealous, that is).

Mine doesn't even take up the entire surface of this queen size bed, and some of the yarn doesn't count as stash because it's leftovers from projects or it's sock yarn, which never counts as stash. Who says? Me? I? Knittergran says.

I pulled all of this out because I've seen a couple of moths lately and I don't know where they came from. I read Yarn Harlot's blog post about "tossing" her stash, and decided I should do the same.I haven't come across any evidence of moth activity, so they must be coming from finished projects or store bought wool clothing.

Drat.

So I still have the problem of moths, just no solution.

Time for denial.

What moths?

Swatched!

I made a gauge swatch. I really did! Most of a swatch anyway. Well, half of a swatch?

Did I wash it and dry it?

Get serious.

I don't like swatching. I consider it pointless knitting. Not making gauge swatches has caused me the occasional problem, but my knitting has survived. Basically.

Everything about this project, the dress for Elizabeth, is sort of just off. I bought the Tahki yarn, but not in the original yarn colors. When I got home, I discovered that the blue yarn was the correct weight; the green was Tahki LITE, so it knits up at a different gauge on a different size needle. The pattern makes sizes 2/4/6/8. Three-year old Elizabeth measures a bit smaller than size two, but that just seems so wrong. My daughter says to make it in a size 4 and Elizabeth will grow into it if need be---but what if she grows into it during the Texas winter?

So, I am dealing with the whole thing by knitting the green ruffle for size 6 and then doing ten extra decreases (k 2 tog) so that I can join the green ruffle to the blue ruffle. This sounds like nonsense, I realize, but in my weird head, it does make sense. Also, I measured the gauge swatch and I am getting a slightly tighter gauge than the pattern calls for; I figure that that will make the dress a bit smaller. Right???

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it until proven wrong. And then I'll rely on denial.

Shopping When Old

I am referring to myself.

Last week a J. Jill catalog arrived in the mail and I went through it, bending page corners back for all of the gorgeous things I just knew I wanted. And that I knew I would look wonderful in. No shorts---two knee surgeries on one knee have rendered that knee, um....unattractive. So dresses! Perfect solution! (Sorry for all the exclamation points---I was really, really excited to find these clothes.)

Look at this dress. Isn't it Gaw-Jus?!
And with this cropped sweater? Even GAW-JUS-ER!
And this dress! I must have it!!!
And this dress!
Look at the colors! I love the colors!!!
They would all look great on me. I just knew it.

And then I went to the store. And then I tried them all on. And OMG....not what I expected. AT. ALL.

They looked great on the models. They even looked great on the hangers. On me, they didn't look great. They didn't even look good. They looked awful. Can you say frumpy? Can you say dowdy? Can you say Old Lady in MuuMuu?

Oh, dear.

But I did buy two tops. Tops that are tunic length. Tops with sleeves. Long sleeves.

How to recover from the realization that I am not twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter? How to stop the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the moaning, the whining?

Thank goodness for knitting friends. SallyKnit called while I was still at the store to see if I wanted to join her and Lucille to go to a knit shop, not our LYS but a different one.

Perfect. So off we went and I bought yarn to make this dress for Elizabeth, my three-year old granddaughter.

She is young. She is slim.

The dress will look GREAT on her. And this time I know I'm right.