The Mailman Was Good to Me

But my LYS wasn't.

I have two new knitting projects that need to be started soon.

First, several months ago I promised my soon-to-be sister in law that I would knit her mittens. But, to be sure that she would like the mittens, I wanted her to pick out the colors and the pattern. We looked at a color card together, and this is what she chose. Fortunately, I already had the blue yarn in my stash, so depending on how much yarn the mittens take this could help remove yarn from the stash. I'm not sure I like the red/orange color on top with the purple heather, but hopefully it will look good in the mittens. What mittens did she choose? Well, I showed her about 6 books of possibilities (I have a lot of mitten books), and she picked some very simple ones that are a combination of a couple of patterns. You'll have to wait and see them knitted up.



I also need to knit a baby blanket. My aunt just gave birth to her second son over the weekend. The baby was four weeks early. I was planning to knit a quick blanket in the last minute, but now I really need to get going on it. I have a pattern picked out (the fish blanket from Knitter's magazine #51), and I went to my LYS today to buy some yarn for it. I thought I knew just what I wanted- a few more skeins of gems merino opal to add to the colors I already have. However, their color selection was terrible. Half of the bin was filled with pink, and the rest of the colors were too dark for a baby blanket. So I asked one of the women working there what other worsted weight, superwash yarn they had. Instead of pointing me to a few choices, she informed me that washing instructions are printed on the yarn labels. She was then shocked when I suggested that she might know off hand what superwash yarns they had. What service! If I have time later in the week to drive across town to a much better LYS, I'll buy some yarn there. Otherwise, I'll have to buy it online. If local yarn stores want to stay in business, then they need to provide better service than the internet. Not worse service.

On the wedding shawl front, I am almost done with the fourth of four shawls. Here is an unblocked heap of red yarn that just needs a border across the top edge and a good blocking. There are a couple of design challenges left to go, but I'm optimistic that this one will be done soon.