Archive for February 2008

from http://members.tripod.com/~keallaigh/Catiquette.html

bedcats.png

In no particular order my favorite yarns are… 

  1. Carron Bliss
  2. Red Heart Light & Lofty
  3. Trendsetter Liberty (discontinued!!!)
  4. Lion Brand Homespun
  5. Bernat Alpaca

There are more, but these are the ones that I can come up with off the top of my head.

I love Sharpies.  I have just about every size that they make.  I have 1 in my knitting bag, I have 1 in my camera bag and I have a complete color set in my desk at work.  I use them for marking my film as I use the rolls so I know what they are when I get the film developed.  I mark my knitting labels with the project for which I bought the yarn.  But, Sharpies aren’t as permanent as they might suggest they are.  The ink can be rubbed off of plastic or certain glossy surfaces.

The ink from Sharpies can be removed from non-porous surfaces such as wall, plastic, etc.  Just use alcohol.  Rubbing alcohol that is.  It might take a couple of passes but it will come off.  If you get the ink on cloth, concrete, stone, wood, sponge, anything porous, it is as permanent as the earth.  It’s not going to be removed.  Faded – eventually, but not gone.  Trust me, I exploded on on a dress, which is now a rag.

Ok.  You knit that really cool shawl for Aunt Cattie and now Aunt Bill wants one.  You can remember the pattern but can’t remember the yarn.  Here’s a tip for remembering.  I keep all (I’m a little obsessive) my yarn labels.  Eventually this can become really massive.  Unless you use the same yarn over and over (which is very possible).  I keep them in 2 Ziplock bags  One bag has labels and the other has labels with a yarn sample attached.  Some labels have 1 sample attached, some have more depending on whether there is a pattern or like in the case of Lion Brand Homespun is really cool when it unravels.  I also write on the label with the sample what I made using that yarn.  Use a Sharpie… and if it’s a really glossly label try to write on the inside.  On certain glossy labels Sharpies aren’t as permanent as they would like you to think they are.  This way you can take the label and sample of the yarn to the store to buy the yarn for Aunt Bill.  Also if you have a favorite yarn, you don’t have to try to remember the name and the manufacturer.  You can just go to your baggie and pull out the label and get some more.  And that’s what it’s all about… more yarn!

I put all my knitting “stuff” in ziplock bags.  I have a bag for tools & stuff, bags for projects on needles, a bag for current yarn wrappers/labels, a bag for old labels and a bag for old labels with samples.  All of this is in a lovely quilted tote bag.  Mom made the total bag.  She a great quilter!  There’s a couple of reasons for the zip bags.  1) they are clear – I can see what is in them.  2) the stuff is contained for when I dump the tote bag – accidentally or on purpose.  and 3) the stuff is kept clean and free of cat fur or other dirt that just might fall into the bag.  And they are inexpensive and if they get a whole in them, toss ’em and get a new one.

The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.
Ogden Nash, author, (1902-1971)

Ok.  Here’s another shameless plug for www.kalarhythms.org

I just wanted to get on record, before super Tuesday, what My beloved has been telling me for the last 4 years.  This election year was going to rock and roll.  (his time frame, my words).  He has told repeatedly that the 2008 election was going to very exciting because it’s in the cycles.  The most exciting since the 1960’s.  And looking at all the hoopla that we’ve been seeing, he’s been right.  So I figured since politics really is all about shameless plugs, I’d put my shameless plug in for www.kalarhythms.org   Go there, learn more.