Clearance Yarn is a Wonderful Thing...

Christmas came early to my house. I strolled into my local AC Moore a couple of weeks ago and found an entire aisle of clearance yarn! Everything was marked $1.00 a skein. There was a lot of furry novelty yarn that I wasn't too crazy about. I'm just not a fan of the furries. But, I found two skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy Thick and Quick in Catskills color. I'll probably use this for a hat or scarf.

I also found a hand dyed 100% Cotton yarn from Chile I've been admiring from afar. It was a little too expensive for my blood, but at a buck a skein, I pounced on it. It's called Pehue'n distributed by Araucania yarn and is distributed by Knitting Fever here in the US. I grabbed a pile of it.

There should be enough for a sweater here. My New Year's resolutions include knitting a sweater, and crocheting a sweater. I've been afraid to since I royally messed one up around 20 years ago. Gauge was a foreign concept, but now that my skills are better, I'm working up the courage to try apparel.

Also at the clearance sale, I found some Aunt Lydia's New Wave Crochet cotton in a peach color. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I'm sure I'll find something.

Last, but certainly not least, I'd been eyeing this King Tut cotton yarn that was also a little expensive at its regular price. It was also in the clearance bin. I didn't buy it my first trip, because I'd gotten the other three items. However, I wandered back in there yesterday to check out the Christmas decorations-floral picks I can use to spruce up the wreaths at the cemetary, and it was still there, in the clearence bin. Before I knew it, it had jumped into my basket and I had to take it home. I felt so bad for it, just sitting there- the other clearance shelves were nearly bare.
Granted, I'm not a huge fan of the bright orange color, but I'm sure I can find something else to put it with to mute it a little.








Yesterday, I also found a skein of Lion Brand Incredible for a buck. It was the color Purple Party and is pretty cute. I dragged out my size 50 knitting needles and started a scarf/shawl. It looks pretty cute if I do say so myself.

I haven't done a whole lot of knitting or crocheting due to the holidays and the increased migraines and vestibular symptoms.
I had been knitting squares from an old stitch pattern book I found at a local antique co-op.
I've had a lot of fun trying the different patterns. I've stuck to the easier patterns, since the brain fog from the CFIDS and from the vertigo makes it harder for me to interpret complex directions. I used a piece of paper to track my rows when I did the one at the top right. I'll have to do something similar if I try to tackle something more complex, since I can lose my train of thought in the middle of a row and forget what I've done.

As far as crochet goes, I've done more work on the baby blanket from Lion Pound of Love. I don't have a picture to post yet. It's about 1/2 way done, so I'll take one after I do a little more.

Baby Blankets and the Holidays

I know it's been over a month since I last posted. I got sick, had an allergic reaction to the medication, and have been fighting a flare up of my CFIDS. Toss a few more migraines and Thanksgiving into the mix, and I've been down for the count.

Also, my brother needed a baby blanket for a friend who's expecting. I found a pattern I've used before-Cauliflower, from the ASN leaflet A Garden of Baby Afghans designed by Sandy Scoville.
The person who received the first one I made loved it, so I figured I'd do it again. I did it in Caron Simply Soft, Soft Pink. Here's a close up of the design:


Here's a photo of the finished blanket:

It took me a good hunk of November to do, and I finished it last week. Normally, I can do a baby blanket in about 2 weeks, if I can crochet every day. I guess four weeks wasn't too bad.
My brother really liked it, so I hope the recipient does, too.

On the knit side, I went back to making squares from an old stitch pattern book I found at our local Craft-Antique Co-op. It's from either the fifties or the sixties (I stink at interpreting Roman numerals- I know the X, V, I, but once you get to the L, M, and C, I'm lost!). I've got three of them done and will probably stitch them together for an afghan once I've finished. I'll have to take photos of them once my new camera arrives. The one I used to take these photos with, died shortly thereafter. It was only a 2 megapixel, so it's not worth getting fixed.

Sewing wise, I really need to get the night shirt I cut out a couple of months ago sewn together. Then I want to make my brother and S-I-L, a couch protector for Christmas. They have three great dogs who love to sit on the couch. They've been using bed sheets to cover the sofa, but they would like something that looks a little nicer. I'm not the world's best sewer, but I'm going to give it a go!