I am a Raveler

I have been sucked into the world of Ravelry. And what a world it is! I am truly amazed in so many ways. Not the least of which is as a former computer geek type, as I am truly impressed by the user interface. I can see that maintaining my presence on Ravelry is going to take some effort, but I think it is going to be worth it. Who knew?!?! Well, I guess the founders, that's who! So my ID is "entrelacqueen", come find me and say "HI" if you are a Raveler too!

A Successful Submission

So earlier this week I sent off my first magazine submission in quite sometime and the first "done to spec". All other submissions were based on something I had already completed and they just happen to like! So this was a different experience for me. And if I were to say it was easy, I would be lying. I had to do a significant amount of ripping a couple of times, because the garment wasn't coming together quite the way I wanted and decided to take another approach (twice)!

But it turns out in the end all the effort was worth it! It arrived at the Knitters' magazine office yesterday and apparently they were very happy with the result. These samples have to be knit in small sizes (for the models) and I AM NOT A SMALL SIZE. So I wasn't able to try it on before it left to make sure it "fit". But apparently it got put on to an appropriate sized body and walked around the office -- YAY!!!

So you can all watch for the garment in the upcoming Summer issue of Knitters. The yarn was from Berroco called Bansai. It is a bamboo ribbon wrapped with a light strand of nylon. The drape was amazing. The garment is entrelac (natch) and ripple stitch which makes a nice combination.

So I guess that wasn't too hard! I only have to do it a few dozen more time for the upcoming entrelac book!!

You Can't Always Get What You Want

You can't always get what you want (sing it with me...), you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want...but if you try sometimes...you just might find...you'll get what you need!!!

This was my theme song on Saturday. We headed out to go shopping for Arlis (about an hour and a half away) and working to a deadline, my knitting was with me. But as I got started I discovered that the short circular just wasn't going to work and I needed DPNs. How hard could it possibly be to find US#7 DPNs? Even though I do not prefer to purchase knitting supplies at a chain craft store, desperate times call for desperate measures. My local knitters have often told me that Michael's has a HORRIBLE supply of needles, but I generally try not be negative and have never looked closely enough to really evaluate -- maybe it was just our local store. Ah...but no...of the THREE, yes count'em, three Michaels we visited they only carried Clover DPNs in US#8 and US#10.5 and Boye DPNs in US#3 and US#6. No more, no less; how ridiculous is that?!?! So then we went to find a JoAnn's and I am happy to report that they have a much more reasonable selection.

So the moral of the story is: "In desperate times go to JoAnn's because Michaels is uselss".