It has been a long week and very busy with very little time for knitting unfortunately. I did get some time in Lula's Shop and I am in the process of trying to figure out a horrible pattern. As I posted a while ago, Lucille and I went to the Knit Show in PA in July and one of our favorite booths was the Decedant Fibers Booth (see pictures in earlier posting). The yarns are reasonable priced and just the most gorgeous fiber and all hand dyed. I forgot to take a picture of a shrug I fell in love with that was displayed. When I bought the yarn I received the pattern for "free". The pattern has been a nightmare! Lucille and I huddled over it for quite a while and I ended up having to rewrite it because it was so badly convuluded!!! There was not even a flat sketch to help out! ARGH!!!! Lucille said that getting patterns from yarn companies can be a nightmare as they are often more worried about selling the yarn and the pattern is not a huge concern! You learn something new every day! I STILL say Decadent Fibers had fantasic yarn and their employees were wonderful and helpful and I will definitely order from them again but they could use some improvement with their patterns. A flat sketch at a minimum would certainly help you demystify the convuluded writing of the pattern at least! I hold out hope and I have started the pattern and am going to brave it! The yarn is a wonderful red verigated color. I love it and hope to finish the shrug soon and share with all of you!

Meanwhile I am working on a large vest as a surprise for my husband for our anniversary and it is my first chance to tackle cables in a full project and am looking forward to posting that - it is knitted on 17 needles and I will have it done before the end of the month and will post photos!

Guild News!: There is still tons of room for the NYC trip on Sunday! Anyone interested can show up as late as Sunday morning at the Bridgeport train station BY 8AM. For those interested and want a ride to the station - please call me and we will be meeting in front of Lula's at 7:15 and driving down in my suburban! It should be a great trip and we are all excited for it! I will be taking tons of pictures and posting them so you can all see them.

I am working on finding a Saturday for the Big vest class. Everyone wanted a Saturday Afternoon so I am working with Lucille to come up with a date and she has orderd the yarn for the same.

Now the real reason for this posting ...............................

I had a real thought while talking to my cousin and fellow Guild Member Peggi last night. Peggi is a great knitter and has been knitting scarves for a while and with some begging she joined the guild. She has moved onto felted purses. She has done great and after one "Knitting 911" session she has been cruising on these purses!!! She emailed me yesterday that she was suffering from a moment of delusion and wanted to try a sweater vest for her husband. I got right on the phone with her and encourage her and commit her before she changed her mind. She is a great knitter and I KNEW she could do it and had the perfect pattern for her and it turns out that she had pulled the same pattern off of Berroco that I had (Peter Easy - a great vest pattern) . She is petrified and is second guessing and not sure and positive it will take her a decade to complete. She said she was not me -


WWWWWELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLl... I am here to tell you... The awful pictures above is that of a blanket I made. Ok have you syopped laughing yet?????? When I was first learnning to knit from a wonderful woman at our local Senior Center she kept encouraing me and kept telling me not to worry abnout the holes the GAWD awful pattern developing (it was NOT intentional!) I casted on way too many stitches and ended up with the most BIZZARE pattern throughout the blanket - when I wasn't dropping stitches!! She ended up putting a silk border all around it to hide all the awful flaws on the edges. The thing is I DID just kept knitting and knitting and knitting. It was great practice and I just ignored how horrendous it looked! When it was all done I gave it to my daughter who was 8 at the time - she cried!! She LOVED it and has slept with it every night since then (that was three years ago!)- So it goes to show you a few things....

First: Most people appreciate a hand made item. In our world of buying and rushing and just trying to "get it all done" there is nothing more refreshing than a wonderful hand made gift.

Second: It shows that you CAN get better and move to more advanced projects. I hope this proves inspirational to all of the knitters and crocheters out there!! Lucille and I spoke about it today and she said she finds it sooo frustrating the fear and lack of confidence so many of us show her (myself included) . Trying something new is always frightening! Lucille always reassures and says "You can do this!" She is right - it may take time but as we tackle each new project and try new stitches, patterns, techniques and fibers we are not only opening all kinds of possibilities for ourselves with more new projects but we are learning. To me that is the best part of this craft. I hope that has inspired you all to try that pattern you have fallen in love with but have been too anxiuos to tackle!! Remember you CAN do it and when all else fails.... Lucille is always in that cozy shop of hers waiting to help you out!!

I hope to see some of you on Sunday and look forward to seeing you on Thursday, the 21st for the next Guild Meeting!

Keep the hooks and needles flying!!

GUILD NEWS:

Sunday September 17th - NYC Knit Out Trip

Thursday September 21 6:30 at Lula's - Knit Happens Meeting