This is my basket find from the NQA show in Peoria yesterday. If it gets dirty, all I have to do is take it outside, hose it down and reshape it. Now, the big decision is what yarn do I put in it. Do I put a project and yarn? Do I put leftovers in it? Why did I buy this basket? The colors and some day I am going to decorate with it.  

Today, I went with my knitting buddies to the NQA Quilt Show in Peoria. What a great show! Just looking at all the quilts while I was there made me want to go home and pull the fabric out, lube the sewing machine and sew one up. BUT--by the end of the show, the feeling was lost and I was ready to knit again.

While we were walking through the quilts, over to the side sat a lady, knitting on a dishcloth. When Norma gave her the thumbs up, she said she had spent the whole day before sitting at her station and she figured she could knit up at least a dish cloth today while she sat at her post. Norma wondered if I had my knitting with me? But of course, I said, it is very rare that in my bag that I don't have at least a sock to knit on, just in case. The other thing I always have with me is my Palm. Where would I be without it? Last week, I bought some cool software, eKnit-Kards for my Palm. I have loaded and still am working my way through it all, hopefully will get to start entering some things this weekend.

One of the neat things, besides the database you ean enter books, needles, magazines etc into is the info screens, such as Kitchener Stitch, decreases, increases, yarn yardage estimator and more. Now, I don't have to carry that reference book along with me every time I go out of town. I just will pop the Palm out and use it. I love technology!

A couple of other things caught my eye today as we walked the vendors. One was a great basket (picture tomorrow) for only $35. A couple of vendors also had some scarf yarn, but the biggest hoot today, was the vendor who was selling Hand Crocheted Scarves for $30, yes $30 and they were crocheted out of Lionbrand Homespun. Amazing! I had to make sure at least of my friends saw this too, cause I just could not believe my eyes. Just imagine if they had knitted one out of some really cool yarn?!

 

And here they are up close and personal. Notice how I positioned them so you can't tell that the toes are different? (Chuckles) 

The Tiger Sox from Opal that took me three years to complete. I first started them for my friend, Maria shown here modeling them, after she and her husband took me tubing on the Illinois River one Summer. Patient she has been! In spite of the fact that the toes are different, she is so appreciative. 

My Epihany Socks. I started these Tiger Opal Socks for my friend Maria, three years ago, after she and her husband started taking me tubing on the Illinois one summer. And here she is modeling them. Even though I could not for life or money get the toes to be the same. 

Yippee Skippee! I made it. I am now an official knitblogger. Now, I will break the news gently to my knitting friends. They will be able to keep up with what I am doing (as if they don't already).

And I had an epiphany on Sunday night. I have been trying how best to organize my knitting projects. And my latest idea is to work on one at a time. Knit it to completion and then work on the next one in line. I know, I know, I won't just be working on one, there will be several, because one needs a truly idiot type knitting project that can be thrown down at will. But, I will consentrate on one really hard at a time.

That in mind, I am currently working on the mate to the Opal Tiger sock for my tubing buddy, Maria. I started these sox about two years ago. When I started them, I told her it would be a while, and now, I just plain have to get the mate done before this year's boating season is done. Hopefully, by weekend it will be done and I can move onto the mate of my Mexico vacation sock.... more on that saga when I get to it.

The other color I love after Carribean Blue! 

I am having a real case of starting new things. I was going to call it startitest, but I am not sure that is a word. I have all these projects that I want to be working on while I am working on something else. Most of them are all tied to wanting to wear or take them to Stitches Midwest in August.

Then this wild hair, rears it's ugly head. The said hair is designing a couple of my own patterns that are swirling around in my head. I am so tired of looking for the perfect pattern for what I want, that I figure I am a smart and semi-knowledgeable knitter and I ought to be able to do this, thanks to Judy Chan from Mosaic Yarn Studio in Des Plaines, IL. Judy taught me and my original knitting buddy, Julie, how to knit almost anything to fit. I have used that class that took about a half of year of traveling to Chicago from Central IL, more than any class I have ever had.

But that is another day for this blog as will be a listing of all of those projects that are swirling around in my head. I need to retire, but that is not for about 20 years! More than that I need to win the lotto, but first, as my good friend, Norma would say, have I bought the ticket? I guess we all know the answer to that. Back to knitting--- and dreaming.

Why Blog?

Because it is alot like family. The blogs I read almost daily number around 20. Soon links will be found on the side of my blog. But I love reading about what others are doing in the knitting world. Matt and Rob, from Threadbear Fiber Arts keep are in the process of getting another retail space and home. Matt posted pics yesterday and it was wonderful to see. Just like being there. When they get it all together, I am going to take a pilgrimage over to Indiana and check it out. Without blogging, I never would have even known about them.

And then there is all of the inspiration I get from the pictures my bloggers are knitting on. They got me started on Charlottes Web Shawl. They send me in directions I never would have found otherwise. Some of my bloggers actually live in my same state and belong to the Windy City Knitting Guild I belong to.

But why do I post? It gives me something to diary to. And someday, I hope someone will say I was an inspiration for their knitting, but first I have to finish something and take a pic of it and then get here. Soon, real soon!

Lately, when there is a semi new and different yarn in my local yarn shop, I buy one skein and test it out and see how I like it and decide if it should turn into a scarf or should I go back and buy more for a sweater. That has served me well, up until the last couple of times. Has my mind and good sense left me?

Last week when yarn shopping with my friends Norma and Jan, I bought 6 balls of Berroco Suede. I had been waiting for it. Jan helped me pick out a color that looked good on me, not my first choice mind you. I bought enough for a tank top, went home casted on and did a swatch still not blown away. Then when I was looking through my catalogs, I ran across the Suede yarn in Patternworks and a simple little shawl pattern. So I decided to turn said 6 balls into a shawl for my son's girlfriend's college graduation! I thought it would be a good choice and so did my son.

BUT---today, while knitting on it at lunch at work and still not bowled over by the feel of it, Jo, another knitter and fellow co-worker who has not retired and left me dry at lunch, echoed my thoughts that the garter stitch ridges ruin the feel of what we think the suede should feel like. So, I am about to rip it out and begin again AND--I am going to try to stop being such an impulse buyer and go back to one skein of the new and fabulous before I commit myself to something I am just not happy with! That is the moral of my story at least for now.