Long Night...

Last night was a long night. Hubby snored all night long. I know I slept, because there were times when I didn't actually "hear" him snoring, but when I was roused from slumber, there he lay, snoring.

I'm exhausted.

In the meanwhile, I found out some things at JoAnn's yesterday, that I want to share with you.

Firstly, as more local folks have known for a while, Threadbear, the yarn store is no longer in business, and there are people who are very divided about loving/hating the men who operated the store--I won't go into it any further than to say that a fair number of suppliers, employees and other obligations went unpaid, and no one seems to know where the money went.

Secondly, a couple of employees got together, called the suppliers (plus a few new ones) and opened a store--a much smaller, quainter store in Old Town, across the street from Elderly Instruments.

Apparently, this group meets for a Wednesday night knit in, a Friday night knit in, and then on Sundays, some of the group, plus a few others meets at various places around town--which gives a little flexibility in where I could go to knit night, rather than having to drive every week in inclement weather, to Lake Odessa.

This is good in some ways, not so good in others.

Firstly, no idea who attends these particular "groups", and I care not to run into some of the people who have hurt my friends from my Monday night knitting group--so I have to tread lightly there.

Secondly, I don't want to abandon my friends at the Lake O group. The store owner needs to keep her store afloat, too.

Thirdly, I can't support five stores on my own...considering I already spend a fair amount of change at JoAnn's!

So I am waiting for my friend to get back with me on the "attendees" at the more local store--which has apparently been open since November (and no one ever told me!). We shall see. More later on that front.

As a segue, and not a lot of a segue, I found THIS in my mittens--

Now this is not a horrible problem--and is much easier to fix than, say, a hole in the heel of your sock--my plan is to cut off the thumb, add a lifeline, tink back to the bottom of the hole, re-insert my needles and start knitting again. I bought some yarn to do this yesterday.

As you can see, it's the same color, same yarn and everything. I was lucky to score this, what with dye lots and such, and I might still come up with a dye line, but they are my favorite mitts! I thought I might also take apart the tiny amount of crochet at the cuff, and add on a better/longer cuff, but this is as yet undecided. I will make do.

I also bought yarn to make a fuzzier pair of mittens--more on that after I bring the dog inside and feed her.


This is the yarn I purchased to make a new, fuzzier pair of mittens...I figure that they will end up looking like a dusting glove--but you know, who dusts these days? I wanted mohair and wool, so I got mohair and wool. I think this will work in some cool ways together.

Lastly, my purchase from Sticks and String, the ladies who opened when Threadbear closed. I spent a little more here than I wanted to, mostly because I wanted to show my support of their endeavor, and mostly because I felt badly that their last two payroll checks bounce into oblivion.

This is some GORGEOUS stuff, somewhere between sock and laceweight. My plan is to use both for a nice cowl by ArtYarns--

I think it looks like feathers, so I purchased yarn that made me think of peacocks. I'm hoping for a bright noose for my neck. I could have bought a tie and spent less, I think. But my heart was in the right place.

Between church, reknitting my mittens, knitting a fuzzier pair and this cowl, I think I have my work cut out for me--this is not even counting the shawl, the Wallaby and other items that I'm dying to get started on, and still have Rhiannon...dear Lord. I forgot about Rhiannon. Still languishing in the WIP pile. I've considered ripping it all out and restarting with the newer pattern so that I can get the cables to match up, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just finish it where ever it manages to finish. I'm a lot hurt by this. They changed the pattern in the middle of the boat while I was thinking that I was going ahead full steam, and I haven't gone back there to so much as show my face, that I'm still thinking about Rhiannon. I hate to continue only to find that it won't end where I want it to end, and therefore have to rip out, but I have to try. I have something like 72 more rows to go. Perhaps I will pick it up later this evening to work on it.

Beyond that, I purchased two skeins of Fisherman's Wool (no pics, since I don't care for the colors) for a knitting class at JoAnn's. I got a little way into the scarf, and decided that I didn't want just a plain, old ordinary garter stitch scarf, so I added a cable (an 8 row cable, since I was working two strands at once). I don't care enough about this type of project to continue, so I'm going to rip it out and use the yarn for something different, but I have no idea what I will make this scratchy wool into! I'll check into Ravelry for some ideas. I don't want to waste the yarn, since it's $10 a skein, and I have 16 ounces of it, but it's so scratchy, there's no way on this earth that I would knit something out of it that will sit next to my skin. And after knitting, when wet, it smells like a sheep barn that hasn't been mucked for many weeks. Believe me, I know what that smells like. So the stuff needs to be gently washed in some water with lavender or eucalyptus to get rid of the smell. I've already made a scarf out of this stuff, and I don't need another scarf this winter (and so now I'm asking myself why I need a cowl...) since I have 5 or six of them already, but there you go. Beyond that, I haven't a clue what to make--I don't have enough to make a sweater, and probably not enough to make a shrug--but the material does make nice cables--so I will check out Ravelry for other projects. Maybe it will become a new fishing net? Some boot toppers for my husband? Something felted? I will need to look into it.

Beyond that, today is church, and I purchased an NIV study bible for my Nook. I will take that with me to church. The Bible itself is a tad big and heavy. I like the smaller size of the Nook. I finally figured out how to make a bookmark that I can come back to (which I marked the table of contents so that I can find the old/new testaments, and the books of the Bible REALLY QUICK, because the minister doesn't wait but a couple seconds for you to find stuff in your good book.). Last time I went to church (yes, I missed last week--hush!) I was totally lost, and almost didn't make it to the reading in time. I'm prepared this time, except that I didn't plug it in last night, and now I'm worried there may be no battery left...must check that.

 Whew, glad I did--I was down to 25% power! Plugging in that puppy!

Let's see, beyond all of that, I have some dishes to do before I can make breakfast, so it's time to empty out the dishwasher and get a sink full of hot water going for these pots and pans. I'll be busy for the next few hours, so until next time--