in a land far away …… Yes, I have a knitting story and it even involves a fairy godmother. And potential monsters!

Years before I met her, a non-knitting friend commissioned a young lady to knit her a cabled Rowan cardigan. And this young woman worked hard and diligently and completed all but one sleeve and the button band/collar. At some point the young woman was unable to finish the sweater and the project was set aside for years. The non knitter did not have the heart to question what would become of the sweater.

Enter me. I meet the non knitter about five years ago. I heard about the cardigan, but was very busy with all my many projects. Well, recently I seem to have hit a knitting lull, where there is nothing that I am simply dying to knit. I have been filling this lull knitting away on dishcloths ala Mason Dixon.

So I tell my non knitting friend that I will take a look at this long neglected project. Right away, I see that the yarn situation is very dicey and I weigh the sleeve that is complete against the weight of yarn remaining and come up a few ounces short – and that doesn’t take into account the collar and button band.  The yarn is Rowan Magpie, which has been discontinued for a few years and as far as I can tell, the color I am after has been discontinued even longer.  (cue foreboding music)  I mention the shortage on my blog and have a few of my knitting friends mention it on their mystical Rowan and Yahoo lists.

The wonderful LesleyP is in Australia, knitting away and cruising the internets and she sees the cry for help.  And what do you know, she is sitting on a stash of Magpie!  But that is not even the most amazing part.  There she is all down under, sitting on a stash of Magpie in the color Sealord ….. I need three, she has six and she is willing to split them up.  Not only that, but she doesn’t want to be paid for any of this, the thrill of the good deed is enough for her.  Can you believe it?! Is this woman covered in fairydust or what?!   Of course, I had to shower her with heaps of praise and also a few well chosen thank you gifts.

So, the cardi would seem to be back on track, no?  NO!!!

I am working on it the other evening and notice a little buggy flitting around.  When the sweater came to my house the first thing I did was to wash all the pieces, but I did not wash the yarn that came with it. These little beasts are definitely from the yarn that came with the project – I took a good look at the skein and there seems to be some bits of stuff in there.

First I panicked.  Then I googled wool moths and read that they are not attracted to light – my little monsters do seem to flit around the light.  Who knows what the hell they are.  There are not a lot of them, just a few … but these are the equivalent of buggy scouts, I am sure there is an army behind them.

OR all of this could be a total coincidence and they could have nothing to do with the yarn and are simply coming in through the window screens that have holes in them courtesy of the pugs.

to be on the safe side, the entire project is spending some time in the deep freeze ……

btw … does anyone know the effects of freezing on Addis?  In my haste to getitoutgetitout!!!! I threw the whole project in the freezer, needles and all!

It has been a little over a week since I’ve last posted, but it feels like it has been months! I don’t know why it should feel like that since nothing much has been going on around here. Everything has been in a holding pattern, including my knitting!

I have been working through lots of smallish projects, clearing out stash as I go. That is a very good feeling indeed and makes me think that maybe I should go through the trouble to post stash pictures onto Ravelry. That couldn’t hurt in the clearing out of stash.

I would love to have very little stash and dream of the day where I **think of a project, then buy the yarn for the project and then knit the project and repeat from **. Is this only a foolish fantasy? Will I actually have to set my stash on fire to have any hope of living that dream?

The truth is I am sitting on a larger project and a very good knitting story, but I need to take pictures and take time to tell it, so I will regale you all with that sometime next week ……

On the family front — when I last left you D#1 was enrolled at The Academy. I am pleased to tell you that she completed the course and got 100 on her final. Yes, that’s right my daughter got a perfect score on the Bar Exam.

D#2 leaves for college in 8 days. I cannot believe it! According to me, she is nowhere near ready (packing wise that is). According to her she is totally on top of things. We drop her off on August 9th. I keep telling her that August 10th I am having a dumpster delivered to clear out all the crap she leaves behind.

What am I going to do with my empty life house? Fill it with puppies?

Fill it with *** friends that’s what! friends and their daughters!! It’s true – Vicki, along with two of her lovelies is planning a trip to NYC and is including me in her plans and Cara & My Client will be here too.

I think this will be better than puppies.

Here is the problem with knitting loads of dishcloths …. your kitchen drawer will be full and you will need to cull the herd. The next problem is that the dishcloths that will be culled are simply worn a bit, they have faded. No rips, holes or any other insult. Old and faded is their only crime. Do you have no heart? Is there ice water in your veins??? poor old cloth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although blogging might be slowing down, my love affair with Rinaldo is still smoldering. What, you don’t know about me and Rinaldo?? Let’s just say, we have a history.  Rinaldo is a computer geek extraordinaire and has decided that I need more GB.  I think the GB stands for good lovin’.  I know it’s a B and not an L, but in computer talk it’s Good Lovin’!

thanks Nancy Rinaldo!! ;)

I have an uber personal question. Can I see the backside of your garterlac dishcloth? I’ve tried to make that so many times but keep giving up because the back looked funny. I want to see what the back of somebody else’s looks like. Please???????????

Kris left this comment on yesterday’s post. So here it is ……

tips on picking up stitches:

• always have the right side of your work facing you. Picking up stitches leads to a ridge and you will want that ridge to end up on the wrong side. Picking up with the right side facing you will make sure that it happens.
• when picking up, insert the needle/hook (I use a crochet hook to pick up stitches) under both strands of the edge stitch. Inserting it under just one may lead to a lacy little hole, which is usually not the effect you are going for.
• I did tweak this pattern a bit. The way this is knit, certain sections will end up with stitches being picked up with the wrong side facing. And this will lead to the ridge being on the right side. Whenever this was going to happen, I simply twisted the work around, and did a backward sort of pick up (from left to right instead of the usual right to left) and that put the ridge on the wrong side where it belongs.

I hope that last bit made sense. If I knit another of these, I will take pictures as I go along.