Totally Incredible News!

There is a new LYS* opening up right near Brian's house either this week or next week! I hope they are open late one evening each week and not "late" like 7 PM, either, so working people who aren't bartenders or teachers can't ever actually make it there.

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Wrap Style is out soon, which is yet another affront to our anti-poncho sensibilities. First Debbie Stoller trying to glamorize crochet and "make it sexy" and now Pam Allen trying to make FUCKING PONCHOS "stylish". I am dubious about this one but will still look to see if there is a miracle within all of those afghans with squares in the middle in that book.

While I was at Michigan, I went into the crafts area (basically a shopping mall of mostly faaaabulous crafts and some other crap) and wandered into a booth selling cute crinolin skirts and asked if they had one in my size (a 24). The woman in the booth said "No, but I do have THIS!" and she whips off a rack with a flourish a FUCKING PONCHO.

My friend Megan started laughing OUT LOUD. I said, "You are trying to sell me a PONCHO for $100!!"

"Oh, but NO! This is so much MORE than a PONCHO. It has this! It's a CAPE!" She drew her hand across the slit in the front with a flourish.

It is a FUCKING PONCHO WITH A SLIT. Which makes it a wrap, which can be cute in some instances that are entirely isolated and never ever worth $100. It's a PIECE OF FABRIC.

Anyway. They had a different styled cape/jacket thingy that was on display for $1100.00. US Dollars. It had a lot of bead work on it, though, and individual strips of ruffly fabric between the beading. It was quite beautiful and looked intricate and I noticed someone had purchased it by the end of the week. This was far more than a piece of fabric.

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In other, knitting related, news, I finished "My Constant Companion" in March and felted it at my mom's house. So it's long overdue for a post but whatever.





This was the first bag I ever felted. I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in (insert fancy name for) red and (insert fancy name for) black.

The purchase of the pattern was reasonable and fast and it came in a nice plastic covered sheet thing so my (pattern destroying paper eating) cat wouldn't eat it. And I learned a lot about I Cord finishing and made my first I Cord for the strap (though I recommend doing 2 or making a wider strap because it is a really heavy bag. I followed the pattern but mine is way bigger than the ones in the photos so maybe next time I should make the sides shorter.

It took forever to knit (months) but it was a great project to have around the house as the 18 inches you simply knit in the round was a perfect brainless knitting circle/being at a meeting project to keep along where distractions don't really matter.

The pattern does not give the design for the pocket they used, so being the punk rock knitting girl I am and wanting a tough knitting bag, I ganked a skull chart I'd liked on the internet and used that, cutting off the top part of the head.

Since the pocket was fair isle I had to felt it longer than the cords or the bag, but it all worked out and how cute and marvelous is my knitting bag??

The pets often sleep on it, too. Which I guess is a testament to the cuddliness of Nebraskan Sheep.

*Local Yarn Shoppe