The Yarn Spoke!

I finally made something out of the yarn (Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Yarn, Willow Creek, in greens) I bought in LA many, many months ago. It was supposed to have been a scarf, but I learned the hard way - on size 2 needles no less - that there was only enough yarn for a very small scarf.

But the yarn finally told me what it really wanted to be: Autumn Leaves Fingerless Mitts designed by Abbie Tilden (available on Ravelry). See the leaf?

And Baxter vs Miss Babs? Because inquiring minds want to know:

Baxter is alive and well and continuing to tear up our home. The Miss Babs yarn has yet to appear in any form. I don't know where it is. (Although I admit that since Baxter seems fine, I'm not looking very hard.)

Buyer Beware?

I bought this Pagewood Farm, Hand Dyed Yarn, Willow Creek Green at Wildfiber in Santa Monica; younger daughter picked it out for a scarf. Now I suppose that this is partly my fault, but I made the mistake of ASSUMING that there were four ounces/400 yards of yarn because someone had corrected the printed label and written in the correct yardage for 4 ounces by hand.

Apparently I should have understood that all the label really meant was that for each stated weight, there was the stated amount of yarn.


When I weighed the yarn at home, after I became suspicious that the small ball I had wound could truly be 400 yards, I discovered that the ball contains only 2.29 ounces. Nowhere on the label is there printed any other weight/yardage than what is shown in the photo above.

I have bought some mohair to use with this yarn in order to have enough for the scarf, but I'm wondering, are we supposed to carry gram/ounce scales with us to yarn shops now???

(And can I blame making this mistake on the intoxication caused by yarn fumes???)

Update: I have heard from my knitting friend, L, who also works at the LYS, and she says that the label tells me (in handwriting) that I am buying 400 yards of yarn, not four ounces, and that the 2.29 ounces I got when I weighed the yarn sounds right. So it's just confusing labelling (in my not-so-humble opinion) and I did get what I paid for.

So.......... never mind!!!

Update #2: I've just had an e-mail from Pagewood Farm, and in part it said: We believe that we should have made the label clearer and we are doing that in the future . We appreciate you taking the time to let us know this.

And they didn't even call me an idiot or anything!!!

First of All

And now...

From this:

(Blue-faced Leicester Sheep-thanks, Sheep!)

To this:

To this:

And this!

Traveling Woman Shawl, designed by Liz Abinante, available on Ravelry, made from Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Sock Yarn, St. Elias, Spring Brights.

As the Heel Turns

Finally! I have turned the heel on this second sock of the pair I started in June. JUNE!

I’m now working on the gusset, and then I’ll be in the home stretch. Socks are my carry-along project, and this pair is taking the longest of any pair I have ever made. But now I have a motive to get them finished; I need the yarn for a project I started for older daughter, this center of a circular blanket made from leftover sock yarn:


I say I started it, but that’s not entirely accurate. The reason I volunteered to do it for older daughter is that it is nearly impossible to do, and I always like a challenge. It’s a chance to learn something.

But in this case, what I learned is that I can’t do it. I tried, over and over and over. I took the yarn and size 2 double point needles to knit night last Thursday to take advantage of the advice and help from the knitters who have already started these blankets. The center of the blanket requires a circular cast-on, which everyone says is really difficult, so difficult that they advised me to instead make a crochet chain of nine loops, and then attach the beginning and end of the chain to make a circle. From there I needed to pick up nine stitches with the double point needles. And then start knitting yarn-overs? Yarn-overing? Making yarn-overs? Doing yarn-overs? OK, it’s like this….
K1, yo, K1, yo….and so on until there are eighteen stitches.

Only I couldn’t do any of it past the making a circle of nine loops. I spent about an hour and a half struggling with it. Ever try to yo between dp needles??? I say it can’t be done, but Lucille, bless her heart and soul, took over and got me started. Now I can work on it since there are more stitches and I’ve rearranged them so that NO yarn-overs are between the needles.

Once it is large enough to fit on 16-inch size 2 circular needles, I’m mailing it off to older daughter. It’s a great project because it requires little attention, and with four children in her life, she sometimes can only devote partial attention to knitting. It will be beautiful when it’s finished – all the different yarns randomly used throughout the blanket make for a one-of-a-kind, colorful project.

Have fun, H!

It's a Sock!

Yes, it's only one sock, but the second is already on the needles and ready to go. This took forever; I started it, hmm...one, two, no three months ago, while I was in Texas. This is a record-breaking slow sock. But I was distracted by grandchildren, a sha...wrap, grandchildren, and a couple of bits of fluff.

It (they) is made from Pagewood Farm Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn, Yukon, and the color might be called Serendipity (the label is smudged). I love the yarn despite the fact that there was a knot in it.

Now on to the second!