Monday, January 28, 2008

Sarah Jane's Yarn Shoppe - Birthday Bounty!!

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Oh, I love the subway mittens! That little heart button is just the right touch.

I am quite pleased to report that Fort Wayne now has TWO yarn stores! Sarah Jane's Yarn Shoppe opened January 19th(when I was out of town, so I missed the grand opening!) Knitting at Lunch was there, and provided a great report on her blog. I was really pleased to see Noro there, along with Cascade and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and Baby Cashmerino!! The atmosphere is really bright and cheery, even on a grey winter day. They also have one of the nicest selections of baby yarns that I've seen. (The only two yarns that I can't find locally now are Dale of Norway, (especially Baby Ull) and Koigu, but rumor has it that Koigu is in the works.)

My first trip to Sarah Jane's was made even more wonderful by the gift certificate in my pocket! I had a birthday last week - I turned 28 for the final time!! (Next year is a biggie, and I'll have to switch to my "biological age" since it means that it is time for my "on my 50th birthday I will be parasailing" goal!) Knitting at Lunch gifted me with a guilt-free trip to a yarn store - THANK YOU!!! Here's the haul:

IMG_4022.JPG


Puffin by Crystal Palace (I'm going to try a swatch and see what I think it wants to be, but it has a wonderful feel!)

IMG_4021.JPG


Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (I love to make baby hats from this!)

IMG_4023.JPG


And a big bottle of Eucalan wash. I emptied my bottle last time I did blocking, so this was quite timely! THANKS LAUREN!!

I also picked up a few things in Kenosha last weekend at Fiddlehead Yarns. This is one of my favorite not-so-local shops. The first time I went, I was a bit disappointed in the sock yarn selection, but they have really beefed that up! I was there in November and fell in love with a new sock yarn, Araucania Ranco. I was strong and resisted the urge, but later regretted it. I was quite excited when I returned to see that they still had the colorway that I loved, so I snatched that right up!!

IMG_4020.JPG


I also grabbed a great project bag - I had been looking for something that would hold a larger-than-sock project and this really fits the bill. Inside you can see my current progress on the Lozenge-Look Baby Blanket.

IMG_4024.JPG


Now then, my mathmatically-gifted friend, I have a challenge (favor?!?) to ask of you. I'm working on my "Ribbons" baby blanket again. (Yes, I have project ADD...)

IMG_3853.JPG


This project starts in the center with 8 stitches, and is worked in the round. Every-other round is an "increase round" where I increase 8 stitches. I just finished an increase round with 280 stitches, and I know that when I am finished, each round will be 488 stitches. Is this the sort of information you can take and figure out:
1. How far along I actually am?
2. How much I should knit each day to be done by March 10th?
If you could, I would be eternally grateful!!

Keep knitting!!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

4 comments:

Lauren said...

You're welcome!!!!! Glad you could get some cool stuff! Don't forget to tell me how that Puffin yarn ends up, it felt sooooo soft!

Marie N. said...

Parasailing sounds fun!

I enjoy the posts about knitting and the posts about yarns equally. I can always glean some new information. And I love to dream about spending some time in a yarn shop, sans children, with time to look around, and ask questions.

Anonymous said...

i was in knitting off broadway about a month ago and picked up baby ull, just fyi!

SoreLoser said...

Doing some quick math, you have 57% of the stitches right now, so you could say you are 57% done. I believe you have about 52 more rounds to go. And from the day you posted this that would be about 41 days until the due date, so you should have done about 1.3 rounds a day.

I just realized that this is an old post, but since I already did the math I felt compelled to respond. It looks like lovely blanket by the way and I will be searching you blog to find the final product.