blackthorn dpns

when i ordered the yarn for the latest mystery shawl KAL, i also ordered a pair of blackthorn needles.  i got an email notice that they were on backorder (altho when i ordered them, they were still in stock).  blackthorns are elusive to come by and not many places sell them, so i resigned that i'd get them a few months down the road.  so imagine my surprise when these showed up on my doorstep last week:

what do these needles have in common with the blackbird jet?  both are made of carbon fiber composite - not metal, plastic or wood.  very light yet very strong.

promptly i exchanged the needles on my cheeky monkeys and knitted away.  the needles make a pleasant skritch skritch sound when they rub together.  now, i find the sound pleasant, but other knitters dislike it, comparing it to scraping something across a chalkboard (which is interesting becos that's my most heinous sound in the world).

my initial thoughts - maybe i'm spoiled by my signature DPNs, but i do like a pointier needle, and these aren't as sharp as i like.  now, they're pointier than, say, a pair of bamboo or plastic DPNs, but i like how pointy tips make my knitting fly.  after knitting a few rows in stockinette the needles felt more comfortable but

maybe it's the yarn i'm using, but the needles drag.  again, i'm used to my metal signature needles which help with speed.  the blackthorns act more like my old bamboo needles.  perhaps with a slippy yarn, they are quicker.  i also read that you can buff the needles with a nail buffer, a mr clean sponge or a piece of wax paper.  i'm not sure if i'm ready to buff up my virgin needles.  i need to work with them a little more before making that decision.

lastly - and i'm being picky here - these are 6 inch needles, and i'm used to my 5 inch needles.  the makers of the needles will produce custom length needles for you, but since i ordered these from WEBS, i got what they had.  if i order another set of needles, i'd get a pair of 1s in five inches.

here's a great point - the makers of the needles stand behind their product, and are quick to make suggestions or replacements if you have trouble with your needles.  the blackthorn group on ravelry is pretty active and a good source for information.

an arty shot of my blackthorns with my very berry hibiscus tea and cookie...


...and poor cheeky monkeys got frogged.  the sock was knitting up to make a really slouchy sock, and i wanted these to be more fitted.  oh well.

i'll find a heavier sock yarn and try my blackthorns again!

more treats from the mail fairy

i can't be trusted on etsy.  i keep finding new cool things.  like these:





i found this little cutie on knitterella's blog.  knitifact's glass stitch markers are like perfect little jewels.  hootie is currently earning his keep on my KDO cap.  i love him.


then these arrived:




i found LadyDanio via an ad at the bottom of a page on ravelry (gotta love those ads).  she creates stitch makers from deconstructed jewelry and reclaimed beads.  her work is exquisite and i love the fact that i have a one of a kind set of stitch markers.  it was the shamrock that sold me, but i am most intrigued by the hammered rings.

then goodies from my favorite british etsy shop, fripperiesnbibelots:








not stitch markers, but a big splurge for me:



signature circs in size 4 and 6.  i got 40 inchers, useful for shawls, ML socks or mittens or whatever.  i hope to add more circs to my collection, but these seem to be the most used needle sizes for me.  i love my DPNs.  i love the stiletto points.  once you use them it's hard to go back to blunter needles.



and another skein of ella rae merino lace.  so i can attempt citron #2, and perhaps make it longer with salvaged yarn from citron #1.

a yarn diet splurge

nothing cheers better than finding this on your porch during a particular craptacious week:

i've been sticking to my yarn diet,  but as i couldn't find the proper yarn for petunia's sweater, i ordered some knit picks swish worsted in lotus. 

and knit picks dishie in melon becos i like to road test new yarn.  

and nickel tips in 5, 9 and 10 becos i'm tired of my harmony tips coming apart mid knit.  

extra cables as i threw away a couple 32" becos the couplings were loose, and i can always use extra 24" ones.  

and the Big Book Knitted Monsters.  becos knitted monsters would be an awesome way to stash bust, right?

look at that box full of happy!!!

my latest object of lust

i have a new object of lust, courtesy of franklin habit:

i want these:




images courtesy of myfavoritethimble.com


they look like wood, but they're not.  they're made from carbon fiber.  lightweight, but strong.  supposedly they have the "give" of wooden/bamboo needles, so they'd be easier on my wrists than my beloved signatures.  i bet the points don't splinter and get picky like my bamboo DPNs.

hey, if carbon fiber is good enough for our military, it's good enough for my dainty fingers.

the ghosts of knits past

this weekend we got new bookshelves for the kitchen.  i unloaded a crate and a cupboard of cookbooks onto 3 of the shelves.  the rest were for kitchen gear, knickknacks and things that make me happy.

the bookshelves went into a corner where we had a stool.  i kept my trapper keeper and odd things on that chair, plus i had a big felted bag hanging off of it.  the stool gets neglected and i forgot about the bag until i looked into it.

it was like looking into a time capsule.  i found 2 other knitted bags, a frilly pink swingin' apron (think mad men), a nylon drawstring backpack and t-shirt from my college reunion four years ago and a toy gun that i think came from the boy's transformer toy.

i was intrigued by my bags - they were some of the first projects i ever did.  to wit:




this is zeeby's bag, from the first stitch and bitch book, knit with brown sheep lamb's pride in chocolate souffle and cream.  i remember starting the bag, then quitting becos it was boring.  several months passed before i picked it up again and finished it within a day.  woof, what a lousy knit job!  well, the knitting's not so bad - it was the sewing that sucked!




this was one of my first felted purses by bev galeskas.  i remember i bought the yarn at mrs. strausser's, a lady who sold yarn out of her home here in norry.  i used a strand a piece of forest green and sage green. after it was felted, the bag resembled a watermelon or a squash - i ended up calling my bag the watermelon bag.  the shamrock pin i got at the kutztown festival - it's a fimo clay pin and looked really cute on the bag.

ack, look at how misshapen that bag is.  i probably threw the bag in the washer a couple of times then spun it out.  obviously i hadn't heard of blocking.




now this was a bag to be proud of!  the tab top tote, another bev galeskas creation, i wanted to make an even bigger felted bag.  this used double stranded brown sheep lamb's pride.  i remember having made the i-cord strap, sewed it end to end, only to realize i had to feed it through the tabs, so i had to cut the i-cord, thread it through the tabs, then kitchener the ends together.  after i felted the bag i thought it would look really cool with needle felted flowers on it.  this was before clover came out with their needle felting tool with the multiple needles - i did all this with one needle, baby!




ugh, some of the wool is coming off the bag already!  guess now i have a reason to get the tool out (along with the brush mat!) and finish what i started!


i got a big kick out of rediscovering my old knits.  it showed me how far i really came.


today was "the boy's day".  hubby and i took him to harrisburg to see the new harry potter movie at the IMAX theatre at the whitaker center.  i planned to take some knitting along, in case we had to wait, and had barely left the house when this happened:






yeah, that's my KP's harmony exchange, in two pieces.  we barely got to the ATM when i picked up my knitting and the damn needle broke in my hand.

i got my interchangeable needles 3 years ago - i have one of the first generation sets.  not long after i got my set, i discovered the wooden needle would fall out of the metal coupling.  set after set, the needle would fall apart during my knitting, and i did lose a lot of stitches.  i was pissed becos they were brand new needles and i am not a hard knitter.  the worst needles were the larger gauge needles - larger than a 10.5, although my 9s fell apart too.  KP was great with replacing them free of charge, but week after week i'd email costumer service to complain about another broken needle.  i probably replaced half of my needles within the first two months.  crazy.

it got to the point that even the replacements were breaking, and at that point i did self repair.  i'd rough up the edge with an emory board then glue the needle back into the coupling with either some e-6000 or duco cement.  i had to take such care doing this, becos if a little glue got on either the metal coupling or the wooden needle, it would leave a smudge or worse a rough spot. i know a couple ravelers used gorilla glue to fix their needles.  it was really frustrating to spend so much money on a product, only to have it not perform well.

so anyway, i had a broken needle,  i was too stubborn to go home for another project (there wasn't anything i wanted to take along to knit in a dark theater) and hubby commented that i was stewing and fidgeting with my hands.  i tried to knit with the broken needle but the needle kept falling apart.  ugh.

i made it through the drive and the movie without knitting (!!!).  i dug around for the stupid e-6000 (which naturally i couldn't find even though i bought a new tube a month ago!) but found the free circular needle i got with my door prize at KDO.  the cord was hopeless tight and coiled so i boiled water to straighten it out (remember doing that?)  i managed to pick up the few stitches i started knitting and luckily i didn't lose any over the course of the day.  unfortunately i got the needles too wet, and the bamboo lost a bit of the polish and were a big snaggy, so i had to run some wax paper over them.


the day was a good day tho.  here's one of my favorite views from the parking garage:



the steeple is so close to the garage, you can practically touch it.  the boy enjoyed the views from the roof.  it's amazing what is beautiful to a little kid's eye.

snow day

like these DPNs?

how 'bout these?

now these are DPNs!    actually they're the same DPNs!

a few years ago my aunt gave me these.  she found them when she was cleaning out her attic - she lives in the same home my nana and pop-pop lived in.  she was doing the purge of her own, and thought i'd like them.  we don't know who they belonged to, but someone did some serious circular knitting with them.  they are at least 18 inches long.

there were also smaller DPNs (sock knitting ones), buttons, a bag full of spools of thread, and a box full of lace.  some day i'll go through the lace, and see if i can salvage it - it might be useful for edging something.  there were also bobbins and shuttles - someone tatted lace.  i'd love to learn that.  it's a disappearing art.  maybe next year at KDO, someone will teach tatting again.

i love carrying on the family tradition of crafting.  nana crocheted, and i knit.  hopefully petunia or the boys might want to knit or crochet too.  not a bad legacy to pass on.



we're in the midst of the big snow #2.  we have at least 8 inches on top of the 6 we got over the weekend.   i have to laugh when people call this cluster of storms "snowmegeddon".  obviously they never lived through the blizzard of '93 or the month of winter hell that was january '96.  i remember those storms fondly.  we had just moved to sunbury  days before the '93 blizzard, and dad couldn't preach his second sunday because of state snow emergency.  and in '96, we had a big snow, a heat wave (i remember running around campus the middle of january wearing nothing but a baby doll dress and clogs), which led to flooding, then a big freeze that froze the flooding and made ice jams.  that was especially fun - i had school registration, and we drove over a road that was closed becos of frozen flooding.  and the isle of que got hammered with flooding.

i hate to admit it, but the snow is pretty.

the bird bath's under there somewhere...

any water in those barrels are popcicles now.

poor hubby.  the snow coats him like a second skin.  and may i add, he shoveled the front,  plus the back, our driveway and part of the alley, by hand.  no snowblowers here!

thank goodness for snow days.

spazz out in the international aisle

i am nowhere near having pms in my cycle, but i almost had a panic attack at the grocery store today. i wish i knew why. i had one last week at walmart too (altho that place is enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown). maybe it was finding out that chicken breasts now cost $8 a pound instead of $5. maybe it was becos my club card wouldn't work. maybe it was becos i almost forgot my bags and had to double back to the house to get them. i don't know what it was, but i took my receipt back to the customer service to get money back for my club card and using cloth bags. the guy took his sweet time, and in the meantime i'm trying my hardest not to cry. i wish i knew why.

hubby had a bad morning too. he was grumpy. he went to get his hair cut and left early only to find 10 other guys waiting to get their hair cut too. why this morning?

went to school for the annual egg hunt. i checked the guest list this morning and only found **4** people registered, only to find HUNDREDS waiting for the hunt. seriously, how hard is it to register for something? it's so rude to just show up at an event. the same thing happens for santa. anyway, as usual, they started the egg hunts early, and i missed seeing the boy get his eggs because i had to backtrack to find my sunglasses. he got a decent stash. everytime i go to school (whether it's an event for the boy or i go swimming) but i always feel incredibly inferior to the others who are there. every time i feel this way (come to think of it, i think i had a panic attack when we saw santa at school a few months back. maybe it's just the damn school!) i'm an earth mother, and the parents who come are sleek, rich, baby talking to their precious little ones. ugh. that's so not me. the school really did change. it's not my imagination.

i dialed up and am listening to paradise radio. the lady who owns mad about ewes was playing this station at the magic loop class, and i'd always been meaning to listen to it and this is the first i've done so. i'm listening to (new to me) new radiohead from their last album.

i don't know what it was about this week but it seemed to be a tarts and old men news week. first the ny gov who got caught with a hooker. then i found out a family friend left their family to shack up with someone 30 years younger (MY age) and then heard that a state congressman is engaged to someone 30 years younger than him (MY age). i find this so incredibly disturbing. i know it's none of my business - people can do what they want with their lives - but my question is, why would someone MY age go with someone whose old enough to be their parent? i mean, yeah, i think sean connory and harrison ford are good lookin' in their old age, but i don't want to fuck them. eeeewwww. that's all i have to say about that.

my size 8 harmony options needle bit it, so i emailed KP and requested a new needle. this sucks. i was in the middle of a square, too.

i'm sure i'm missing something. oh well. more for next post.

a package for me

my knitpicks finally arrived! 3 sock yarns, the chisholm, new needles, sock book.

**squeals in delight, claps hands and skips**

mr. ball winder is going to be very busy this morning.



speaking of balls. hubby got me the new goldfrapp cd for my bday. i got to listen to some of it last night. she sounds more mellow instead of disco-y. and that's all right with me.

but from the looks of the pics in the lyrics booklet, she needs to get LAID. and BADLY.

i want my needles and yarn NOW!

i ordered long circs and yarn from knitpicks. i wish it was here.

i got the books i ordered from amazon - confessions of a knitting heretic, knitting for anarchists and knitting for therapy. now i have some reads to occupy my mind whilst grams recupes.

the shipment of thomas came, and i gave the boy sir topham hatt's car. i gave it to him for being a good kid (altho impatient) since yesterday.

i still didn't get my clothing returns yet. they were supposed to be here a few days ago.

i wish i was more patient.

mash up

just some little tidbits to share...

i thought i had a bug infestation when i found a little worm (?) shell stuck on the glue of a yarn band of the granny socks i'm knitting. i store my sock yarn in an acid free box and a straw wicker box and wound some balls of yarn while checking for nuisances. i didn't find anything but one ball of yarn kept pulling apart as i wound it (it was towards the beginning of the ball, maybe it was defective from the beginning. i think i'll start a pair of socks with that yarn (as soon as my needles arrive) and see what happens. i also cleaned out a wicker picnic hamper that's storing the afghan yarn, entrelac pillow yarn and odd yarn that i got at the farm show. i wound that too and didn't find anything. i made lavender sachets with old knee highs (good thing i didn't throw them away when i was cleaning last week) so hopefully that's a preventative measure. i have some other sock yarn that could be wound (my trekking yarn) but my shoulder was killing me and i stopped winding for the day. maybe i'll finish those skeins later.

secondly, i started swimming laps at my old alma mater a couple times a week (hence the sore shoulder, definitely not from knitting). when did college people become so damn rude? nobody says hello when you pass them on campus, and the secretary in the gym complex (yes, it's become a complex) wasn't very nice. bad case of the mondays? try treating your alum a little better. and smile for damn sake.

thirdly, i have very ungreen neighbors. they threw away a toddler bed with mattresses, a fan, a kiddie dressing table amongst other things. now i don't make a habit of picking around people's trash, but the stuff looked serviceable to me. i wonder why they didn't take the stuff to salval or goodwill or something. i hate seeing people through stuff out like that. i feel guilty trying to figure out what to do with old lingerie that i can't send to the church rummage sale (for obvious reasons) or salval/goodwill (i don't think they take that kind of stuff). well, at least my red teddie won't be hanging out of a garbage can, that's for sure.

i ordered knit picks needles to see if they're better than the addi turbos. i also bought more sock yarn (who knows why) and some worsted weight called chisholm (my tartan surname). can't wait to get my hands on the stuff.

funny. when i started this post i thought i had a lot to say. guess i don't have much to talk about at all.

anything for free stuff AKA ode to ***8502485

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7Ka8d2B_mugKJgjmPDljtZd1IUl_n6MlyQqCm_cAK9BsY9cB_EWzFgtpM1Vka_fyywlipoN9YvzAhIGSX7aIBdodnx0lgk50BQNsVcDjenM72tUm05zuuWkcfl8KGeU5EwVybW1yG34/s1600-h/CRLpromoart+copy.gif

my apologies if the image isn't showing. i suck at importing pictures/links/etc. am i still eligible for free yarn? pretty please, some vegas or verigated rock? with yummy cashmarino on top?

hahahaha. her yarns really do rock. i got mine at webs.com. i have rock in siouxsie, love in joel & clementine and craft in cathie and steve. so tasty.

foist of all i FINALLY finished my SIL's hooded scarf (after only about a million frogs and buying 2 more skeins of yarn praying that they'd match). it's mushy, warm and has a point at the top of the hood so my SIL will look like a kewpie doll when she wears it to penn state games.

i also started a hat for the boy's scooby-doo constume - lion brand wool-ese thik N quick in brown. could NOT find a pattern in any of my knitting books for making a kid's hat with ears. so i'm just doing a quick garter knit (switching it up by knitting flat instead of in the round, i'm too lazy to purl), stitch up the seam and will (attempt) to make triangle ears. since his winter coat this year is brown and he's been badgering for a hat this should be perfect. i also need to knit a blue dog collar. the rest of his costume is fleecy brown sweatpants and a brown shirt i bought on the fly from oldnavy.com. at least his hat and collar will be made with love.

let's see...got the rest of the needles from KP's harmony set (am currently using the 13 on the hat). also got the KPs harmony DPNs (and saved a boatload of money - can't wait to try them!). they are a little longer than my other sock needles (i use 5" ones and these are 6"...) so this ought to be interesting. got some knitting books on dishcloths and snowflakes (hubby offered his crochet thread for the snowflakes, aww...) got my favorite british knitting magazines at B&N yesterday...found out that they have coupons inside to give your local bookstore so they can order you issues so i'm going to do that. borders doesn't always carry my favorite one and i don't get to B&Ns very often.

i'm in another "don't feel like knitting" mood. i know i have 2 months til xmas but i'm feeling a bit overwelmed. 3 pairs of socks, a purse, gauntlets, a shawl, a pillow, 2 hats, the ice scraper...okay, take a deep breath. i'll get it done. i WILL get it done. my K&C group is starting tomorrow at church. i have several people interested but so many are saying "can't come that night for whatever reason, and i'm afraid i'll be sitting there from 4:30-8 with just me myself and my basket full o' projects. i hope this thing flies. i just don't feel too good about it.

to quote one of my favorite tv shows (yes dear)

"get the earplugs and some jagermeister. we're going to see the wiggles."

yes. my kid will be having an "experience" for xmas (seeing that half his thomas cars are getting recalled). we're seeing the wiggles at wacovia on friday, with a side trip to chuck e cheese beforehand. please pray for me. i have to do this again on black friday when we take him to see the doodlebops at the kirby.

on good note: next week we get to go to philly (even if it's just overnight). continental midtown, buddakan, ludwigs, rosie's reading terminal, philly cheesesteak - i need you!!

oh, and i wound up having to buy a NEW CELL PHONE and get a GO PHONE plan. turns out TRACFONE CAN'T PORT OLD NUMBERS AND MINUTES TO NEW (ALBEIT REFERBED) PHONES. JACKASSES. so now i have a new number and my old number (which i've had for almost 12 years) will go to someone else. hope they appreciate it as much as i did. hope they enjoy getting VMs from crazy message lady who had the wrong number (mine) and would leave messages for whoever she was calling and then she'd leave these nasty messages when they didn't return her call. lady i would have called you back...IF YOU HAD LEFT YOUR NUMBER (and didn't have your number blocked) I COULD'VE TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAD THE WRONG NUMBER TO BEGIN WITH! enjoy!

crow with a side order of creamed corn

i must clarify some things that i posted in my last notey:

1. i wound up using the case that my KPs needles came in. it's not too bad. i numbered the needles on the metal base and also labeled each slot for each pair (too anal retentive). i also ordered the size 13, 15 and 17 except one size (the 13 i think) won't be out until this wednesday (same as the DPNs). so i'll have to order those later. i also ordered more cords (the 24s and the 32s). dumbass me ordered them AFTER i put in an order for 3 skeins of fingering yarn (for bookmarks for the boy's teachers) on the same day. so now i have an $8 bill and a $30 with KPs. duh.

oh yeah, the needles are like buttah. just wonderful. BUY THEM.


2. how was i to know that people don't dress up for retirement dinners? thank goodness i didn't wear my bridesmaid's dress (it's dressy without looking to wedding-y). so i wore my blue slinky pantsuit and put a pin over the hole in my top (unfortunately purls (heh - freudian slip) don't go with sapphires so i couldn't wear my necklace). at least i didn't wear a girdle to this thing (which i would have done had i worn the dress) i would have been really pissed. bad enough i wore my choos which by the end of the night my feet felt like i was wearing bear traps on them. ugh.


3. my neighbors are back after being gone for 3 months. i don't know if they were camping or trucking or what but now they're home. (i'm such a stickybeak). and they finally got rid of the weed patch growing in their flower bed.


4. i spent an obscene amount of money on PUMPKINS this year. got pissed last night and chucked a cheese pumpkin into the street. to my neighbor whom part of it landed in your yard, i'm sorry. better to throw the pumpkin than hurl my kid.


5. why can't i get thru to my kid that he NEEDS TO NAP OR ELSE HE MELTS DOWN? that stuff made with white flour is BAD for you? and no, you can't have cranky after i spent $40 on getting lady, harry and burt and rocky AND my folks got him spencer which cost $20? what is with his martyr complex?


6. i discovered a new yarn shop about 15 minutes from my house. yesterday i went to see what it was like. they sell LION BRAND YARN. RED HEART YARN. nothing fancy (not that there's anything wrong with lion brand and red heart). but i can buy these yarns at ac moore or ben franklin if i really wanted them. what a disappointment.


7. sara lives. big oops on my part for guessing she'd die. i'm glad she didn't. she's actually one of my favorite characters on there. sara reminds me of me - smart snarky science geek. i have no idear what will happen to the character on the show but i'm glad she was spared.


8. my head hurts and my eyes feel like someone poured acid on them.

where's my hamburger and chicken sandwich?

little bits of blah blah blah

it's been a while since i've posted - i've been sick (courtesy of my kid) and just all out busy. i have a lot to talk about and i know i'll probably forget half the stuff i want to post but whatever i forget can be for another post.

first off, knitter's day out was a BLAST!! how liberating it is to go where other rabid knitters meet and greet and learn new skills (better than nun chuck skills!) i took an entrelac class and a mitre square class. now i only have to find projects so that i can use those new skills! speaking of which, does anyone have an entrelac sock pattern? or any entrelac patterns at all? i can't find any books with entrelac projects, and the one sock pattern i had i wound up throwing away (actually recycling). that was my only criticism of my entrelac teacher, i wish she had a pattern to go with her instructions. my MIL really liked the entrelac sample i made so i think this means i'll have to make her something entrelac for xmas. perhaps a pillow? shouldn't take long at all to do that. mitre squares, now i can do the cool afghans i see in the mason-dixon book! KDO had a yarn market where several vendors sold yarn, books, doodads, etc. i was so proud of myself. i went with $175 for shopping. i came back with $35. i got yarn for MIL's gauntlets (KOIGU!) and some gorgeous handspun from a lady from down around york. can't wait to knit with that. the chunky yarn still has lanolin in it and can't wait to use it on my wooden needles. 2 hanks of gorgeous fall colored lusciousness. also got an ebony circular (size 8), a holder for my dpns, and an magnifier for my magnetic pattern board, which has already come in very handy for my sock pattern.

for more info on knitter's day out go to: http://www.knittersdayout.org/


secondly, i got the most kickass set of interchangeable circular needles! knitpicks came out with a wooden interchangeable needles set with the cool colored swirly wood like my favorite scottish barrette (i forget what it's called but they're made by squishing differently dyed pieces of heather branches together and then sealing them together to make jewelry and stuff. please someone out there tell me what it's called!) i got my needles on saturday and am currently using the size 8 on my cousin's afghan square. they are like buttah to use. nice point to pick up stitches, cord doesn't curl, join is seamless and heavenly. only a few criticisms - the case they come in looks like a glorified see-through plastic make up bag with slots to put the needles in. i'm sure the see-through part is fine but there's a ton of pockets for the needles but nothing for the extra cords, end caps and lock pin. i wound up using the case for my bamboo convertible set for the KP set, as it had some extra pockets and the new needles can share pockets with my other set. my second complaint (and i saw this posted on knitty.com) is that the needles aren't marked with their size or measurement. most (wooden/bamboo) needles have the size stamped on them but these don't. i can remedy that by writing the size in tiny indelible marker (as i did with some other metal circulars i have) but i feel that this will ruin the beauty of the swirls. oh well. just call it set 1.0, with room to improve. otherwise, i'm so happy with the new set. i plan on buying sizes 13, 15 and 17 as well as some extra cords, and also a pair of the double points (they go on sale at the end of month). for more info on these needles go here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/wood+knitting+needles_NL300306.html

they are similar to the darn pretty needles that i am lusting after but unfortunately can't find around here:
"http://www.graftonfibers.com/needles.htm

hopefully someday.


i'm starting a knitting/crocheting group at my church. a kind of christian s&b with some community projects to work on. the notice went in the newsletter and bulletin. i have several people interested and some are interested in learning to knit too. i feel like i fell off a cliff even tho this is by my own doing. there's no turning back now! my problem is that i have incredibly low self esteem. thanks previous employers who laid me off and made me feel worthless! nice parting gift! anyways, ever since i started knitting and people comment on how nice my socks/purses/shawls/etc. etc. are it helps me feel like i'm actually worth something and contributing something, even tho it's knitted for me or someone else. i've always wanted to be arty. my medium just happens to be yarn.

what else? i'm sure there's other stuff to talk about but i can't think of what it can be. like i said, it can wait until my next post.

don't forget, new seasons of csiX3, grey's, house, er, housewives, etc. etc. start this week! and no one come callin' thursday at 9 - my bet is that sara's dead. imho.