The highs and the lows

    All weekend, I was really looking forward to going to Kingston with Hubs. We were going to hit Walmart, Sam's Club, Gander Mt., and Michaels. I wanted to hit that Michaels in particular because the last time I was there, They had the yarn I want to use to make a baby thing for the new grandbaby. I didn't buy it then because we didn't know the sex of the baby yet and I wanted to wait until we knew for sure.


    So now we know it's a boy, and I'm ready to start knitting. We go to Walmart first, Hubs needs new jeans. Then at long last I get to go to Michaels, while he's in Gander Mt. I search the whole fracking store. Not only do they not have the yarn they had for the baby stuff, they don't even have any JIFFY that I want for my arm warmers. I walk over to Gander Mt, practically in tears. I tell Hubs I'll be waiting in the truck. He is outta there in less than a minute. (that was the low...)


    We finally get to Sam's Club. We got the most awesome Rib Eye steaks from there last time, they were the best steaks I've ever made at home. We were there for more of those, as well as a few other things. As we wandered through the store, I spy with my little eye the most awesomely colorful display. I go over to it, and it's a display of brightly colored coffee makers and toasters. They come in red, blue, bright pink, yellow, orange, purple and more!


    Hubs actually let me get a coffee maker! I am so happy that I now have a purple coffee maker. I took a couple of photos of it, on my counter, which is not cleaned off, so don't pay attention to anything but the awesome coffee maker...

    Isn't that cool? Behind it is my red rice cooker that my son Jesse got me for Christmas a few years ago. He really likes sticky rice. I don't think I've used it since he moved out last year.


    I can't wait to get the coffee maker all clean and use it. I have to read the manual yet....


    As for the yarn, I will be making a trip to my local Michaels to look for the yarn I wanted. Maybe even tomorrow. If I can find some gas money....

new projects started

    Today was quite the day. I got to spend some time with my daughter, doing my favorite thing. Yarn shopping! We found yarn for her sweater, and some for a new one for me too!


    Hers is a really pretty dark purple with a little dark blue speckled into it. Mine is called hot pink, but it's a little bit darker than that. I love it, it's my favorite color, along with purple.


    I have actually done the gauge swatch for Sara's sweater, and cast on both already!
I want to do mine, but feel guilty about it, so I'm gonna try and do both, working on each one a little bit at a time. It's going to be confusing, but I'm willing to give it a go.


    I'll keep you updated on my progress!

And So It Begins

     First, I feel I must assure you all that I am still working away on the Gamer Gloves, but I've begun the yarn selection process for my sweater.  I had thought that perhaps I could begin the sweater, with yarn from my stash, just to make sure I could do it. It doesn't even have to be in gauge, or anything. I desire to make sure it's doable for me, before I invest money in any amount of yarn.


     So I got out some Lion Brand Cotton Ease, in purple, and began to swatch. I know I said I wasn't going to, but to me this yarn is a contender. It's so soft, I imagine it would make a sweet sweater. Unfortunately, the gauge was off. I would really like to use Size 9 needles, as I have these circulars in many sizes from a past cardigan. I ended up putting aside the Cotton Ease.


     Then I picked up my latest copy of the Patternworks catalog. I flipped to the back page where they have the chart for the different yarn gauges. I need a heavy worsted/aran weight yarn, so I went through all the yarns of that weight in the chart, one by one, and picked out two that I really liked. One is called Elements, and it's gorgeous. It comes in heathered colors, and I can't decide which one I like best. The other is N.Y. Cotton.


     After all that, I went to the KnitPicks website, and looked at their heavy worsted/aran weight yarns. I found one there that's perfect, and it's not even horribly expensive! I can't remember the name of the yarn right now, but I did put it on my wish list on the site. I think I picked out a purple. I put in that I want 10 balls, because I want extra to make the sweater longer.


    Now I just need to inherit some money, or win the lottery or something. Then I could afford to get the yarn for my sweater.