Challenge-day two

Moving along here, I did get some progress on the blanket yesterday. It wasn't as much as I intended to do..but..there were reasons. Good reasons. OK, I procrastinated.

First of all, I was bothered by the feeling of this yarn. I said so yesterday. So, I spent a bit of time over in the yahoo groups asking for a bit of 'wisdom' from others who have used this yarn in the past. I got the answer this morning. Yvette says that once you're finished with your project, give it a bit of a swish in some shampoo and conditioner and it ends up very soft. Now, Yvette is a very wise knitter. Therefore, I shall renew my enthusiasm for this project and do as she told me in the BSJ earlier...follow directions, don't ask, and have faith. And then you'll like it! OK Yvette...I'm diving in, eyes closed...and holding on.




Secondly, the more I knit yesterday, the more I got the feeling that this was getting 'springy' or 'spongy' for another word to describe what I was creating. Remember back in high school, when you got to decorate the gym for the big dance? We would use all kinds of rolls of crepe paper. (Truth be told, I used it for my wedding, too..down the cars...in the reception hall-I think I can feel my daughters cringing now). Well, if you remember that stuff, as you unrolled it, it had some 'give' to the paper. That's how the blanket is beginning to feel. I found this interesting yesterday. Which makes me think all the more about this yarn being used for a 'Grandma's Favorite' pattern for a baby blanket. Spongy, springy, should make a very cuddly blanket when Yvette's advice come true!. Right?




Now I can't wait to get these two blankets finished and then the other two Feather and Fan blankets for the middle daughter so I can test my theory. Except it appears that I might have to redo another pink heart blanket. Oldest daughter picked up her last two blankets from the house over the weekend on her way to a gathering of sorts. ON the way, she had to make a sudden stop on the good old LA Freeways (Gotta love 'em!!!!!) and the red wine she was bringing broke and spilled all over the pink blanket. (OY!) At last contact the now red-pink blanket is sitting in a soaking solution.


Now to the procrastination 'reason'. I went to my Ravelry page to update the progress on the blanket. One thing led to oh about a hundred things (kind of like running into Costco and Sam's club when they were new back in the 80's for just one thing and coming out of the $100 dollar club with a car load of stuff in the large economy packages...) and I started adding up the books that I could remember in the book list. Let me just say, Ravelry is going to slow down my actual knitting here...but I'm going to be veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy organized!

Now, today I found a comment from Yvonne. She had a good question, too. She wanted to know if I had a favorite yarn. Well, Yvonne, yes I do! There are only two problems with this found treasure. #1-it's been discontinued and #2 - my wallet is breathing a sigh of relief that it has been discontinued. What is this loverly stuff? It is Plymouth's Silk Merino. I 'found' the treasure a couple of years ago at the Yarn Lady's Bag sale. I had no idea what I was going to do with it at the time, but I bought up all that I could lay my hands on that Saturday. I ended up with some light turquoise, navy, lilac and grey. What did I do with it all? Well, the first 3 things were to knit up some scarves for my mom and her sisters. Then I made a beanie, too. By the time I was finished with these projects...I wanted to frog them and start all over again. As Mike Myeres used to say on SNL in his best Barbara Streisand voice....it was like knitting with 'buttar'.!

In case you're asking, the lilac scarf is the feather and fan pattern in the book, Scarf Style. I can't remember the name of it. Sorry. The turquoise is from the 2005 Holiday issue of Easy Knitting (I think) and the navy one is a variation of the Irish Hiking Scarf that I found in a published book. It's nearly identical, but had different ends to keep them from flaring out. The Navy and Yellow scarf is made out of Regia's Nations sock yarn, and the beanie is the adult large size in my Cathy's beanie's patterns.



Yvonne, thanks for asking! It was really nice to go back to remember those projects and the fact that I still have some of that yarn (especially in the light grey color) left. Now, how do I fit it into the list of things with deadlines, so I can enjoy it all over again?



Ahhhhhhh...ok..enough for today. I have some major knitting to be done. I should have been at the half way point yesterday if it weren't for discovering Ravelry parts! Thank goodness, I have some built in time of 'waiting' today where I can't be near the computer. Let's see how much I makes a difference this time. (ya...I know...I have my Paula Deen's book, Christmas with Paula Deen sitting here staring me in the face and I haven't cracked it opened yet.)

What's that expression? If excuses were dimes, I'd be rich by now? ahahahahaha ha.