Now Norma Knits

For All Those Who Have Theorized That The New Gentler Front-Loading Washers Do Not Felt Things....

2009-11-22T00:07:00-05:00

...I'm here to tell you, tain't true.

Exhibit A:

It may not be all that evident from this photo, but believe me, it's felted -- ESPECIALLY the alpaca tummy-piece. I wanted it to shrink a bit because it had stretched a lot, but this is way overdone -- about 40% shrinkage, I'd say, and the neck is almost as stiff as cardboard. It's definitely too small, even for teeny-weeny little Mr. J.

This is after only one run through the machine, using hot water and with several towels in the mix. (friction is the key with felting) It's kind of a hoot, because back when I was doing all those felted bags in that old energy-guzzler SUV of washing machines, that top-loader I had -- the one that's supposed to be so powerful and the one that used tons of water and wore the clothes out sooner -- I'd have to put items through often as many as FIVE TIMES to get them to felt fully. This one is almost "there" after only one run.

Good thing these are fun and fast to knit. I'll cut off the buttons and use them on another one.

-----------------

Blue Fair Isle "Mom" Sweater Update:

I've finished the right front.

I Am Pleased To Announce That All Our Troubles Are Over. You Don't Need To Donate Any Longer

2009-11-21T00:01:00-05:00

The day before yesterday, Cookie and I got the following email in our RedScarfFund email account. It was from the Senate's Official Mail, and the subject line was GOOD NEWS.

It is indeed GOOD NEWS, and it's all official and everything. Please note the gmail address to respond to -- it starts with "sec," as in, you know, Securities and Exchange Commission, so it HAS to be all on the up and up. THANKS, LINDA HILLS! (Though I do notice that the email is signed by David Mark. I guess Linda Hills must be Mr. Mark's assistant.)

Good day

This is to officially inform you that ATM CARD(54373639574387474) with pin
number 822 worth $6.8 Million Dollars has been accredited in your
favor,Please Contact:Miss Linda Hills at
(seclindahills@gmail.com) With the following,

Full Name:
Delivery Address:
Age:
Occupation:
Sex:
Country:
Direct Phone Number:

Payment Mode:
1) Delivery of ATM card by courier
2) Bank to bank Transfer.

Regards,
Senate President
David Mark.

So, no worries. Cookie and I have decided to split it three ways with the Orphan Foundation. Though I really had to pressure her to agree to that. She said she'd rather just give a million to the orphans and split the rest with me. This is why I have to keep right on top of her.

BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS: The total from the patterns that you purchased from Susan for this cause, and that she will forward to the OFA, is $259.64!!!! What a highly successful idea as a way to get something nice, while at the same time indirectly donating to a cause. I am sooooo appreciative of your generosity, Susan and all!

And I was kidding in the title. We still need you to donate. :D

I Have a Wee Problem

2009-11-20T00:36:00-05:00

Alrighty then, so I started that seed stitch scarf in that gorgeous red Cascade 220, which I LOVE, by the way. And I never ever ever (never ever say never ever) buy just one skein of Cascade 220. I never.ever.do. I almost always buy two skeins -- I don't know why. If I don't buy two skeins, I buy a sweater's worth, plus an extra. (That'd be seven, for me.)

And so I'm blithely knitting along, and I go to locate the 2nd skein. I can't find it anywhere. It now appears that I used it last year or the year before, for a Red Scarf that was color-block, sort of. I ended up not liking the way it came out -- the gauges of two of the yarns (both Cascade 220) were different enough from the third yarn that it really wasn't nice enough to send to the OFA. So it's been in my closet all this time, and I just pulled it out to send to the Salvation Army, but it hasn't gone yet.

In the meantime, I searched Ravelry for this yarn, and I was lucky enough to find two people who have it in their stashes. I wrote to one person, who only has one skein. I figured she probably wouldn't mind selling me the one skein. She wrote me back to say that she was sympathetic to my plight but all her stuff is in storage and she'd have to try to see if she could find it. So there is still hope, but, well, I know how *I* would be if all my stuff was in storage -- no way would I be able to locate a single skein of Cascade 220. Another person has six skeins. She might not want to break up her lot, but I'm willing to buy the whole thing if she wants to help me out. I love this color enough that I'd happily knit scarves in it till the cows come home, and I'd even love to knit a sweater for myself in it. But there is no contact ability in her account. So no go there.

And here's the hilarious (well, I guess that would depend on your definition of "hilarious") part of this story: I started writing this post to ask you all if you'd check your stashes for Cascade 220, Color No. 9404, Dye Lot 5433, and before I was finished the 2nd paragraph, I thought, "Well, you dummy, why don't you rip out the red portion of that uglyish scarf and reuse the yarn." Doh.

So. Problem sort of solved, and I was going to delete this stupid story. But then I decided that I guess this peek into the snow globe of my mind still makes for a blog entry.

Not blonde anymore; just slightly flaky.

More Prizes and a Special Offer from "I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can" Susan! (updated at end!)

2009-11-19T00:01:00-05:00

I might be starting to lose my organizational skills a little bit. I'll deny I ever said that, so don't quote me.

Anyhoo, if I've already blogged this prize, please forgive me -- she didn't donate it twice, and I thought I had already blogged it, but now I'm not sure, and I'm way too lazy to go through all my prize posts to find out. So just to make sure all the bases are covered, Kathryn K. has added a new copy of Reversible Knitting to the prize pool. Thank you, KMKat!

---------------------------------

What's knitting without reading -- or more appropriately for many of us listening to -- books? K. Gormley has donated the following amazing prize (Just wondering -- can I enter? Probably not, eh? Phooey.)

A Recorded Books audiobook of your choice - no longer than fifteen (15) cds (adult or children's titles). Winner: Go to www.recordedbooks.com and browse! (This is donated by K. G. privately, not sponsored by Recorded Books)

-----------------------------

And then of course (life is so complicated!) you need a gorgeous artisan tote bag to carry all your prizes and books and knitting in; am I correct?!

Margaret K. has donated one tote bag featuring her friend Catherine Fridey's artwork (maximum retail value $22.99). These bags are made of sturdy canvas and would be excellent for toting a project. The winner may select a design from either of Catherine’s shops:

http://www.printfection.com/enchantefantasy

http://www.cafepress.com/enchantefantasy

Catherine Fridey was born in France, where she studied fine and graphic arts, but has lived in the U.S. for most of her life. She has always had a special fondness for Medieval and Renaissance Art, and feels they still generate strong emotions from people with themes that transcend time. She also enjoys painting birds, butterflies, and flowers, which stand alone or show up in the borders of her larger works.

Attached is a sample of her artwork, a painting entitled “Alsace” (she has given her permission for this image to be used in connection with this prize).

I can already hear all the ooohs and ahhhhhhs over this one!

Donate, and let us know the amount of your donation at redscarffund@gmail.com, for more chances to win!

-------------------------------

And then we have a wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL special offer for you. Susan has made a super-generous offer: If you order any of her patterns between 6 a.m. Eastern Time today (November 19, 2009) and 6 a.m. Eastern Time tomorrow (November 20), Susan will donate all the net proceeds to the Red Scarf Fund!!! This way you will get a beautiful pattern (or however many you want) AND the OFA will benefit. There is no limit to the number of patterns you can purchase, but you must put "Red Scarf" in the comment line during checkout. [UPDATE, at 9:17 a.m. Eastern Time: WE ARE SMOKIN'! $50 already! Please keep it coming, and thank you, thank you, thank you Susan! It turns out that no comment line is coming up, so Susan is going to just donate all sales proceeds today to the Red Scarf Fund. And here is a link to her Ravelry patterns for your ease of finding them, and here is a photo of her very popular Feather Duster pattern to lure you in:]

Thank you, Susan! And thank you to all who donate and who buy Susan's patterns in support of this cause!

Blogging Lite, or Come On In, The Water's Fine!

2009-11-18T00:41:00-05:00

Over the years, many of my readers have expressed that they'd like to have a blog, but they don't know how to go about it. Some others have said they aren't sure they'd have something "interesting" to say (not that I ever let that stop me), or they couldn't keep up with it on a regular basis, or various and sundry other things along those lines.

Does that sort of describe you?

Do you also feel, though, that you'd like just a bit more space, and your own personal space -- decorated to your liking and where you are in charge of content and format -- to allow you to express yourself or share something with others? To have an option that falls somewhere between that of being a full-on blogger and the status updates on the networking services such as Facebook and Twitter?

If any of those thoughts has ever crossed your mind, you might want to check out the new blog platform that Typepad launched yesterday. It bridges the gap between the 140-character one-liner status updates of a networking site and a full-length blog. And best of all, it's all fully integrated with all those other services -- you can have simultaneous posting to multiple sites at once. It's FREE! And it looks really nifty.

I'm even thinking of changing my Red Scarf informational blog to the Micro format because I like the look of the Chroma design so much, and the micro format really fits what I'm now doing in that blog.

It could look something like this:

So what are you waiting for? Go take a look at some of the new Typepad Micro blogs, and try it for yourself. It's FREE! It's cool! You can blog from your iPhone or your BlackBerry. It's like a little black dress -- fun and sexy and suitable for every occasion!

Did I mention, it's FREE?!