Mystery yarn mixing it up...

This is a picture of two yarns I am thinking of combining - once I learn how to do it without the tangled mess you see here!


I know these are crap pictures, but I'm not too good with the camera, esp. indoors. The colours are really the dark not quite navy blue ball of cotton, and the spool is a super thin fillament embroider thread (for sewing machine I think , I just had it for some reason)

It is a blend of purple navy, plum and copper - sounds odd but it quite dark and not to flashy but it does add a mysterous sparkle as you don't really see the thread at all when it is combined - just these little shimmers. I will put a swatch up here when I can get it done.

I just keep wondering if I should be combining them in a more strenuous way like something a spinner would do to twist them up together - not that I am a spinner (yet - one obsessive addiction at a time, go back and wait in line Spinaholicism...) so, any tips would be fab! If anyone ever reads this - you never really can tell can you?


I am also trying to find good suggestions for someone who wants to do some charity knitting for local women's shelters, maternity hospitals and so on... I know I read about the whole "Prayer Shawl" idea for charity knitting. I would like to help her find a pattern that would be good for a mom and baby during breast feeding (as a cover up if the mom wants to do that) and that would still be non-babyish enough for the Mom not to feel like a walking burping pad/tent draped feeding station!

So, something stylish but practical - I don't have kids so I don't know that much about breastfeeding, but I wuold imagine you would want something washable and simple to care for at that time! Not sure as well what shape would be best - semi-circular? square? Triangle? rectangle? And not too heavy as it will be worn in doors and not so much for warmth. Thanks fo any ideas guys!


This is the wrap I am knitting for myself with the Blue Jean Knit Picks Gossamer-It is light, lovely and soft. Extremely (well for me anyway!) thin and fine, but I find the Denise needles work well for me (the needles are certainly large for the yarn weight - but I wanted it light and airy for the lace effect - I have the feeling that it is going to be alot warmer that it would look... Wool is just so great like that. And I can see how some lace patterns would be lost under the stripes of varieagated colour but this is I believe an almost perfect stitch for the colour.

I'm surprised t how well this is going actually as when I was trying the triangle shawl Wave and Shell type pattern and I swear on the lives of cat and 2 rats, that I must have done the first 40 rows about 75 or more times. Literally. Why I'm confessing this I don't know. I would work on it and start then frog then re-start each day abou 6 or so time and it was a long long long coupla weeks knitting wise! (patterns I am discussing in this entry are linked in an earlier post to their source if you are looking for them..

My futile efforts and continual repetion of the same mistakes reminded me of my two roomates in University - there we were about 2 and 1/2 degrees between the two of us, and could we manage to set up a dollar store bait and spring snap mouse trap without having it snap on our fingers 3 or 4 times each... So, so, so very very sad... And - the final insult.... The mouse got the peanut butter bait and not the guillotine. Apparently he was one of those rare Croucihing Tiger Hidden Mouse martial artists who could hover in the air? Anyway were were definitely outgunned.


(dont read this part if you get grossed out easily)
One late night / early morning writing a paper I was looking for a snack so I made some toast and Peanut Butter... In the little toaster oven.. It was a little burnt I thought, but hey, no problem. I was rather shocked to be awoken a few hours later with the shrieking banshee howls of my roomate who was gonna make some toast too, but unfortuantely the mousie beat him to it. so he might have escaped the trap but in the end he got the death penalty. And me ? I got one of the rarest taste sensations in the area... Mousie Smoked Toast and Peanut Butter - by the way the kitchen was dark so that was why I didn't notice the mousie. I swear it was an accident. MOral of this - clean you crumb tray often - or if you are having mouse problems put the trap in the toaster oven...

(end gross out)
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For some reason I've always had this love of wave/shell/ocean motifs and textiles. To me this totally looks like an abstract white capped Nova Scotia windy day - Little white caps on alot of the waves... I am kind of torn now. I had this other knit picks yarn and I was going to use one colour (2 skeins) of the one type and one colour for another project - one to be given away

... but now it turns out that I need to do this rectangle wrap to really get the hang of simple lace before dealing with the increases or decreases and changing stitch count of the triangle - will I be greedy and keep both - maybe!