Coin Purse

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Thank you for the information about the Hiya Hiya needles. At half the price of Addi's, it sounds like I should check them out the next time I need more needles, though it seems with all of the needles I own, I should have a "complete set" by now...but really, does anybody?

One of the comments I received on my Seamless Bottom Up Baby Booties pattern really caught my attention. Knitting Guy (author of Knitting On The Road) just happened to be designing his own seamless bottom-up pattern at roughly the same time I was, and his ideas regarding construction were very similar to mine. He is a long haul trucker, I am a stay at home mom/student, yet we each formulated a pattern for baby booties which was the same concept... Really! Follow the link to his blog and check it out! Very fun!

I spent a few minutes yesterday making a little coin purse:I've been throwing my small change into a pocket in my back pack, and I have to go digging for it when I need it, and I'm too cheap to buy a coin purse, so I made one out of stuff I had on hand. I followed a pattern I found in this book. Also, a little key ring may be placed on the ribbon shown on the top of this photo... It looks sort of weird, but it's quite functional.

Well, I'm two weeks into the fall semester. Earlier this week, my eight year old told me he was out of shorts. I suggested that he wear pants, because the weather is cooler. So, yesterday morning, he told me that not only is he out of shorts, but he is now *also* out of underwear. Then my five year old piped up and started telling me that he is running out of clean clothes to wear, too. I think I need to implement some sort of "process" for housework here, because I don't think my family is going to like my initial thoughts: "I'll have time for your laundry when the semester is over." Needless to say, it will be a weekend devoted to laundry...

Nothing else too exciting. I blocked Ibenholt, but it is still in three pieces, waiting to be sewn together. I'm contemplating my next projects, and have it narrowed down to three, all having yarn available in my stash:

• 1.) Must Have Cardigan, in the Patons "Street Smart" booklet, using Patons Classic Merino in the standard "Aran" color.
• 2.) Basic Chic Hoodie, by Bonne Marie Burns, using a two-tone (blues/grays) colorway of Cascade 220.
• 3.) Sienna, by Ann Smith, from Interweave Knits Fall 2006, using Mary Maxim 2-ply chunky weight acrylic.

I'm probably the least excited about option 3.), though acrylic doesn't necessarily mean "bad," though perhaps it does mean "not as nice?" The yarn was given to me by my son's preschool, because they had so much acrylic yarn on their hands and they were trying to just get rid of it. This yarn actually feels okay to the touch (meaning that it doesn't stick to the dry skin on my hands). Any inputs for which project to tackle next?

Well, time to get cracking on the stuff I put off until the weekend... It's raining right now, so it's a perfect day to be indoors...

Have a great weekend!
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)