Category: Rambles

a ChicKnits Dirty Little Secret Presentation
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Has this ever happened to you? You have a couple of spare moments in an unlikely place – mine was the Student Center @DePaul University where they have networked computers in their coffe shop. My truck was parked outside with my camera waiting to do a live shot and I had, like, 10 minutes to get coffee, a banana ( nature’s perfect food, Dude! How about that biodegradeable wrapper?) and maybe a cookie which left just enough time to bid on an EBAY AUCTION!

And this was no unique eBay auction. It was an auction for a CONE OF YARN! They’re all over the yarn section like lawn mushrooms after a spring downpour only exceeded in quantity by the proliferation of EYELASH YARN vendors. And you better believe that the Eyelash Craze is just BEGINNING in the US. When I went round to the Walmart in Cadillac, MI last week in search of TLC Cotton Plus, I came up empty handed.

However, ahem, the lovely stock lady had not one, but TWO CARTS full of skeins of eyelash yarn and was busy placing them on the shelf. I asked about the lowly cotton and just got the BLANK STARE of disbelief: “what – you’re one of those weirdos that knits and you want COTTON!???!??!” kindof half turn of the head. She didn’t even answer me so great was her pleasure in fondling the soft acrylique delight of the eyelash FLUFF~

But I digress –

I placed a bid on that auction, then forgot all about it, then of course, WON IT!

And now that I’ve had a chance to play with it, I kind of LIKE IT!

It is worsted weight 100% Softball cotton in a nice non-baby light blue – I think it shall make a perfect LoTech for work. I’m going to whip it up on the Bond USM that I have.

The USM is good for making those Stockinette portions of a project – then you add the ribbing and detailing later. I used mine alot a couple of years ago and have set it up in a permanent space in the flat so now I don’t have to keep taking it down and we shall see what springs forth.

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In Other News…

RIP Audrey!

I have retired my Audrey sweater, I believe permanently. I worked on it several days on my vacation and don’t think I have the stamina to finish it!

The design is not going to be attractive on someone of my build. I knew this going in, but only this morning when I held it up to myself in the bathroom mirror did….

Oooh – you know the rest….

Monday Morning Mirth

Before

After – hey – Claudia – your ThinkPad might need one of these!

The best thing about Mother’s Day last week, was that my Mom was still with us…

As many of you know, she beat Ovarian Cancer this past year. I am happy to mention, her sister has gotten the all clear too! She has been fighting Uterine Cancer the past year as well. WE ARE SO THANKFUL and OVERJOYED it’s AMAZING!!!

I enjoy the time I spend Up North with Mom more than ever. She’s been busy gardening up a storm. Much of it is with rocks that local farmers drop off after they are done clearing fields. So far, she’s built a circular flower bed about 6ft across and planted a *rock garden* next to her front door, which she has started to fill with all sorts of tiny goodness. She promises me pictures when they’re in their glory around July.

It is still so cold at night up there, the furnace runs.

Not too cold during the day that we didn’t spend a great amount of the late afternoon sitting on the swing. After the *chores* were done, you could find us out there, me knitting on Audrey and she reading the paper. Mom has a new puppy and it is a cheap thrill to watch the grass grow ( and this time of the year Up North you almost can!) and see her new puppy romp around the yard.

BooTwo is half Jack Russell and half Chichauha and if you look at her with your eyes sqinked, she looks like a Baby Joey. She is the successor to the beloved BooBoo, who months ago, when my Aunt was first ill, was hit by a speeding car after she got off her chain in the yard. It broke our hearts beyond measure. My Mom spent a lonely winter without her pal and we were all so happy when puppy season came round this year because we were hoping she might find another friend.

And, thanks to my sister, she did! Cat found dog at the local shelter in Greenville and now we are happily amused to sit on the swing and watch Boo leap like a joey around the place.

IMHO, a swing is much better than a rocking chair. It requires mainly just your weight to keep a movin’.

I had to have one and when we saw the Meyer’s *Fresh!* store in Cadillac had them on sale, off we went. Mom came to the rescue with her Red Chevy Station Wagon. The whole swing was disassembled and boxed but that package would never fit in my Jeep Wrangler! So the plan of attack was to drive it the 20mi. home from the store in Mom’s car, then I would break it down into digestable portions for ze Jeep trip back to the City.

Mom was waiting to pay for her other purchases when I said “See you later” – I had tied the box down and would go ahead to the house and remove all the crap from the back of my car.

I left her standing in line but before I moved away, she started turning over all the magazines on display that showed thong or button, so their covers faced backwards. And believe me, for mostly women’s mags, there were quite a few! The young woman in line behind us was open mouthed with glee!

I went to my corner store back in Chicago last night to get some milk and about half of the mags were turned around – my turn for the toothsome jaw drop! Moms are EVERYWHERE! Love them…

a ChicKnits Gallery Presentation
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I love Ann’s choice of colors in this wonderful ChicKami
AND her mods to the bod section…

Ann writes:
“The solid magenta was the only stash yarn I used; everything else I bought in one visit to a LYS, most of it 50% off. I was amazed that two of the variegated yarns had almost identical colors, even though they were different brands/fibers/weight. Cool!

I changed it from stockinette to ribbed to avoid Sweater-Standing-Apart-from-Body syndrome (which has happened to me in the past).”

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Around the Ring in 5 Cups of Coffee or less…

check out Rachel’s fantastique combo tank made from SOY YARN! I was lucky enough to finally meet Rachel in person at the MDS&W and must say, her eyes are as blue or bluer than her lovely tank!

Kerstin debuts a lovely Peace Fleece ensemble which includes a fantastique BucketO… CHIC!

check out Thuy’s fabulous pictures camping AND KNITTING on the Beach in California at her new blog Schmeebot! Oh how I miss the Pacific…

welcome to new ringer Donna who is knitting GIGI!

a huge shoutout to Melissa who is also knitting Gigi and helped me fix a typo – I’ve sent *freshened* patterns to y’ll – if I missed you, please contact me here…

Join the Gigi Knitalong sponsored by Stella over at She Who Knits. Visit HERE to get details and learn how to sign up…

lastly, here’s a groovy graphic for all of you knitting Gigi…

just right-click and choose “Save Picture As” to save this picture to your hard drive.

THANK YOU all so much for making this pattern!!!