Accessorizing a Community

The other day when my Holiday parcels and I were taking up residence at the local Post Office, I noticed a woman in the line. She was wearing a blue tweed, garter stitch scarf...that I had knitted! I didn't know who she was and she didn't recognize me either. Now, I have been in the situation where I am surrounded by family, friends, or co-workers wearing scarves and hats that I have knitted for them. I'm guessing most knitters eventually experience this, too. But this was different: A complete stranger was wearing my scarf at "my" post office and she didn't know that I had made it. I've become the phantom knitter who is accessorizing my community.

Not so phantom is Evelyn Clark who designed the little bears that I knitted into a scarf for my Mother Bear. You can find her pattern in Interweave Knits, Summer 2005 issue.

No snow day

All day Sunday, there were excited whispers among the people at the Holiday Crafts Fair that Monday would see snow on the ground. It's the first snow of the (last eight or ten?) seasons. The last time we had snow--a good layer it was, too--Howard the Cat was in his prime. Of our three cats, he was the only one to embrace the cold, white stuff. I got some adorable white cat on white snow pictures for Christmas cards that year. So, last night, I was more than ready to have a white winter. I spent the evening peeking out of the curtains hoping to catch the first snow flake fall, but it was just foggy. This morning, I got up early and rushed to the window, but it had only rained the night before and it was still so foggy that I couldn't see the hills. By mid-day,the fog had cleared and we could see that the surrounding hills got a dusting. It's all very pretty and very, very cold.

Mother Bear IV

I'm getting better. Little Bear IV, is closer to scale and comes with his own little friend. The tiny bear is a pattern from an earlier issue of Interweave Knits. (I will look up the issue and give proper credit soon. I put it in too safe a place and can't lay my hands on it right now.) I basically extended his arm and made it the scarf that all Mother Bears sport. I may have to keep this fellow around for a little while as he is a nice model and I can base the bears that are to come on him.

Hallo-treat!

Thank you, Great Pumpkin! I got a "Spooky Cool" card at Halloween from my pen-pal that was one of the best treats ever! We lost touch around 2001 and she found me again. I am so happy! We've known each other since the 4th grade, but have always been on opposite sides of the US. One of these days, we'll have to connect face-to-face. But for now, I'm happy to have the chance to e-mail.

That Woo-Hoo Moment

Well, after the fiasco with the miscalculated yardage, I decided to do nothing. Calm down, you know? Since I wasn't going to be able to continue knitting with the yarn that was cast on, I decided to unravel the scarf and roll it into a ball. When it all came off the needle, that scarf was yards long. Even taking my own lack of rigid gauge adherence into consideration, it was still long enough to wrap around the moon. So--woo-hoo!--maybe the pattern has a misprint. We can only hope.

Woolly brain fog

It was quite humid last week, which was very unusual for this part of the country. We might have a day or two, but never a week's worth of high humidity all at once. Perhaps, that was why I kept casting on the same scarf two...three times with two different yarns and it never worked out. I would finish a skein and realize I was only a third of the way through. Then I went to our yarn shop's special Third Thursday of the Month sale--tweed yarns @ 40% off this month--and got a hank of pretty blue flecked tweed from Australia. Well over the 200 yards I needed. So it finally rained and the humidity went away and I read the pattern again. Yes, you guessed it! I needed 2...TWO...hanks or skeins of 200 yards each. DUH! The dilemma is now do I go back and buy another pricey skein of Australian wool for full price? Well, it would be a 20% over all discount. Maybe I'll find another nice scarf pattern. Sigh!

Where's ... what's his name?

Finally! That young man with the over sized glasses and red-and-white stripped shirt was FOUND atop a San Francisco office building. Can you spot him?
No, not Harry Potter. It's W _ _ _ _!