Nothing extra in my scarf!

Dear Laura:

I miss SO much since I don't have kids! I was, however, glad to read that it was drool on the scarf. There are other things that would have been even less pleasant! A little "pre-chewed" chocolate never hurt anybody....

I finished my red scarf on Friday night. I attached the tag and mailed it off "Priority Mail" on Saturday morning. I had looked up the closest Einstein Bagels...and it was a two-hour drive to Indy, so getting it in the mail on Saturday was very important to me. I'm not opposed to driving to Indy, but my weekend was a little full already.

On Saturday, I packed my knitting and some snacks and pj's, and headed to Berne, Indiana to the Schug House Bed & Breakfast.
The Knit-In group from the Wool Barn had rented the whole house for the night. There were 9 of us...and 9 rooms, so we each had our own room with private bath. Not that we spent much time in our rooms!

We pulled extra chairs into the parlour, and the yarn and needles just flew! Several people brought new knitting books to share, so we all got to browse those. Debbie and Sally brought a couple of books and yarn shade cards so that we could pick out items to make as samples for the Wool Barn Grand Opening in April. We'll get a 25% discount off the book and yarn to make a project and they will display it for 4-6 weeks. Then it is ours to keep.

I'm going to make a fair-isle hat from the Green Mountain Spinnery book. It's the stained-glass pattern, and looks very much like the cover on the book. I'm thinking of using it as my project for the Knitting Olympics hosted by the Yarn Harlot. It's doable, but it will be a challenge, especially with my schedule.

So, it was a grand weekend and we're already planning to do it again. We also formed a local guild for our area. We are the Noble Knitters (The Wool Barn is located in Noble County...) and we'll be meeting the 2nd Monday of each month. We are going to focus on opportunities to do some knitting for charity, so I'm excited about that.

I am so glad that you took up the red scarf project! Your scarves looked great (mine looked like yours, so you can do a mental picture, since I forgot to take a picture in all the rush!!) It's a cause that tugged at my heart as well, and I'm going to keep an eye out to see if they offer the opportunity again.

Well, more later...

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

A Little Something Extra...

Dear Cynthia,

I am so glad that you shared the information about the Red Scarf Project. And so, I made one:

Then I realized that there were still several days before the cut-off date of January 31st for dropping them off at Einstein Bros Bagels, so I made two more.

This photo shows all three scarves, having been washed, hung to dry, and then having little tags carefully tied on them that say "Handmade for You". Very soon after this photo was taken, I walked into the room where the scarves were and noticed they were strewn about the floor. I picked one of them up, and it had a wet spot on it, in an otherwise very dry area of the house. And so, I asked my dear son if he might know how the scarf got wet. He demonstrated, on a clean area of the carpet, how he can lean over and let drool fall out of his mouth. Since he had shortly before eaten some M&M's, that explains the faint chocolate scent I detected in the wet part of the scarf. It also explains the blue spot I now have on the carpet.

I can't take all the credit for the talents my children possess.....

Moving on...I checked the phone book to figure out where the closest Einstein Bros Bagels place is. It gave an address of 6092. Having taken quite a few math classes, I felt confident I'd be able to locate this address... Well, no. The entire 6000 block could not be found. I finally called the place, and they described where they are located. Apparently when the phone book SAYS '6092', it MEANS '7062', a code I never would have cracked. Next time I want to get within a mile of someplace, I'll use the phone book. In any case, the scarves have been delivered, on time, and with a little something extra from my son.

Thanks again for letting your blog readers know about this opportunity! It is a cause that pulls at my heartstrings.

Warm regards,
Laura (aka YarnThrower)

Life Changing

Dear Cynthia,

It's hard to figure out ahead of time which life events are going to be life changing. I mean, some of them are obvious, like joining the Peace Corps (haven't done this, but I imagine it would be life changing), or graduating from high school (have done). But, in the day-to-day, it's really difficult to predict which people we meet will become life-long friends, which trips that we take will change us forever, you get the picture...

And so, here are a few things I remember about our trip to Duluth in November 1999:

• We went to a yarn store and I bought the materials to make one of these:

• A book was purchased called "Knitting Without Tears"
• There is a reason the book isn't called "Knitting without throwing your knitting across the table in frustration"
• I called my dh and mentioned that I had been having some dizzy spells and I wondered if I might be pregnant

After returning home from that trip, I took a few classes at the LYS, forced myself to learn how to "pick" so that I could knit color using two hands (though I'm confident my strong preference forever will be to "throw"), started knitting with needles smaller than size eight (something I wouldn't have done without taking the class on fair isle knitting), and a couple months later was knitting things like this: This baby blanket for my firstborn child represents two of my current obsessions, which are my kids and knitting. Both of these I "discovered" while on a quick and simple trip to Duluth.

I'd like to visit Duluth with you again, but I'm not prepared to go back in the too near future. Life changing, indeed!

Warm regards,
Laura (aka yarnthrower)

Dear Laura:

Well, here we are...our "team blog!"

I'm pickin' (I knit continental) and you're throwin'! I'm always fascinated watching someone who knits American....

When we were trying out various names for the blog, one of your suggestions was "It all started in Duluth..." It didn't make the final cut, but it is one of my favorite stories....so maybe we could start the blog with stories from that trip.

Ruth: "I'm not starting any new projects until I finish a few..."
Laura: "I'm not buying any new projects until I finish some..."
Cynthia: "I'm not doing projects at all. I've stopped completely."

Ruth bought nothing at the yarn store.
Laura bought yarn for a stranded ski band.
Cynthia spent $100 on yarn for a zillion projects. (Some of it is still in my stash....)

It hasn't been safe for me to be in a yarn store since.

Cynthia

PS - The red scarf is finished!!