Thursday, April 3, 2008

Kelp Me!

I have so much to tell y'all!

I have been plugging away at the Hated Bed Jacket. On the way to Vegas, I started the binding-off stairstep back thing you do for the sleeve. I was halfway through when I figured out what the designer meant when she said, "Make the front shaping match the end of the back shaping then start binding off". Paraphrasing but it was equally clear to me. Clear as mud. What she meant is that when you finish stairstepping out with the cast-ons that create the sleeve, count the rows you have for the back cuff and make sure you have the same number of rows on the front cuff before you start your bind-offs. That's probably not much clearer to you but if you ever attempt this cruel pattern, email me and I'll walk you through it.

Anyway, as I said, I was halfway through these bind-offs when I realized what she meant. What took 45 minutes of plane time to do, took 3 hours of vacation time to undo. But I did it.

Then after everything is bound off, you come to the instructions for the collar, "Beginning at left shoulder end, cast on 5 stitches." But. But. But, there's no where to cast this on to. Everything's bound off. It took me a few days and one sleepless night to figure out you have to knit the collar separately and sew it on. It doesn't say that anywhere in the pattern! It never once mentions sewing the collar on to anything! Bollocks!

So now I'm 1/4 through making this collar and I'm. Running. Out. Of. Yarn!

of course.

So I do what any knitter would do (after I stop sobbing), I call Jen at Purls of Wisdom because I know she carries Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (the place I bought this stuff last Sep. does not carry it anymore). She doesn't have the color I need but she says she'll call and order me a skein or two (as I still have about 3 miles of edging I need to knit. Then sew on.)

When I get to the shop, she's calling the mill and they don't have that color. They put her on hold for a bit to check the old color cards to see when it was last produced. The lady went through the color cards all the way to 1993 and there is no Kelp Green Cotton Fleece!

Now my skeins don't have a color or a dye lot number so I don't know what the hell to do now. Ravelry to the rescue! There's 65 pages of people on Ravelry who have Cotton Fleece. Out of all that, there are only 2 others that have this mysterious and elusive Kelp Green. One of them is the ever lovely Marly! My friend and fellow blogger who lives on the other side of Denver! She's bringing them to me on Friday when we go see the Harlot!

What are the stinkin' odds??

She got hers when she went on a yarny field trip to the Brown Sheep mill in Nebraska.

Whew!

I had a great weekend last weekend. I got to meet up with Wanda and we had lunch and knit for a couple of hours on Saturday. She also gave me 4 skeins of sock yarn for my Yarn Bouquet for the Silent Auction at my kids' school (thanks Wanda, you're entries into my contest are noted and deeply appreciated)! Then on Sunday, I went to Purls for the Sit-n-Knit. I was there for a few hours and then went home because we were taking the inlaws to meet up with the other inlaws (brother and wife type) at The Fort.

We had a lovely dinner of different kinds of buffalo meat and drinks and desserts and drinks. The appetizer sampler we had contained bison tongue (which T really liked. So did I!), little deep-fried pieces of Rocky Mountain Oysters (which D2 really liked. eesh!) and my favorite, peanut butter stuffed jalapenos. I know it sounds disgusting but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten! They take pickled, whole jalapenos and stuff them with a mixture of creamy peanut butter and mango chutney. So. Tasty!

My FIL turned 80 last Wed. and we were celebrating. They put a buffalo hat on him and sang. It was really spectacular and a fun evening.

For those who live in Colorado and are both A) going to see the Harlot on Friday, Apr 4 (tomorrow!) and B) planning on participating in my Contest/Fundraiser - you can save the postage and hand me the yarn at the Harlot event.

See you there, Ruth!

7 comments:

yarnivorous said...

Ah the fun of knitting.
Jeez, I missed out on the yarnharlot again in Denver - last year she was there a week before I arrive, this time at least it is months since we left Fort Collins...

Olga said...

I hope you give her a big ol' hug and get a PICTURE doing it- reminder: BRING CAMERA!!!!!!

Yarnhog said...

That is an almost miraculous yarn save. What are the chances?

I almost--almost--bought yarn to cast on the Bed Jacket last night. And then I remembered something about Ruth not liking the pattern...and I didn't.

Unknown said...

Knitters to the rescue!!!!! I love it!

The picture of your FIL in the buffalo hat is too cute!

Chris said...

You are FAMOUS!!! I just saw your picture at YH. Way to go with the hand massage. :)

Anonymous said...

Peanut-butter-stuffed jalapenos? Wow. I have never heard of those before, but they sure do sound good!

Anonymous said...

You are going to see Yarn Harlot -oh tell us more, more, more.