Hmmmm...

Maybe yarn is not my only stashing problem......

I think I found something!

I bought this yarn what seems like an eon ago, but it was probably only sometime last year. It was love at first sight! The pinks, the purples, the black to set them off. What wasn't to love? It came from Baby Long Legs on Etsy (although rustling up an URL for you all I notice she has moved). The colourway is called Gothika and it is even more beautiful than the picture might indicate.

I had kept this skein as trophy yarn. Just way too good to actually knit! Why do we do that? It is as inexplicable as never using the good china and not wearing your good shoes. What is the point of keeping these things? Well I bit the bullet and started knitting. Let me tell you. Just as bangers and mash are far more special on the good china, this yarn was going to make any pattern look great.

I needed something with some interest that wasn't going to override the gorgeousness of the yarn. Tyro provided the solution. I have done one sock and as I read the pattern, the other sock spirals around the other way. No danger of Second Sock Syndrome here. I can hardly wait to get it started.

Oh and I finished these:

Plain vanilla with a forethought heel - an interesting process that I am glad I have tried. The yarn is from Happy Spider. Not the softest of base yarns but the striping is excellent.'

And work continues on my Hope jumper and my Granny Square blanket but I can hear another shawl calling....

Now What?

I feel the knitting emptiness of an addict without a dealer... I suppose I will need to get back to my Hope Jumper and Stripy Socks but I have to confess that they are just not the same.

For the record.....

Pattern: Candle Flame Shawl (Archived) by Dean Crane
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, 150g, EQ colourway
Mods: None
Comments: I think I am in love! What the yarn lacks in softness it more than makes up for in colour.

Knitting Crack.

Kauni Effektgarn 8/2 (EQ colourway) that is. I swear this stuff is the knitting equivalent of crack. It is so addictive! If I have said "Just one more row" once I have said it a dozen times but then I look at the unravelling ball and see the next colour coming.

"Just until the colour change" she says menaing it full well at the time but I think you know what happens. Yep, then you see the next colour coming.

"I wonder what it looks like with the next colour added" she asks herself curiously and then proceeds to knit a whole other repeat.

There are at least a dozen other things that need to be done in this house but I just can't drag myslef away from the crack! Maybe I will just knit to the red.....

Thank you all so much.

The out pouring of support after my last post was overwhelming and much appreciated. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes.

If you prick us, do we not bleed?

Earlier this week I was contacted via email by Craft with a request to feature my Seamless Kimono Pattern. I was honoured and, as a long term reader (and linker) or Craft, I agreed immediately. I eagerly awaited the post and was pleased as punch when it was up.

Last night I decided to read the comments on the post. I shouldn't have....

"The only differences that I can see between this knit and the baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting is that the Mason Dixon kimono is in garter stitch, while this one is in stockinette, and it ties at the bottom instead of using sewn-on ribbons like the Mason Dixon pattern.

It's not *quite* the same pattern, but it's certainly close enough that it shouldn't be called an original pattern. It's more like a variation"

And

"That looks remarkably like the baby kimono in Mason Dixon Knitting. I'm not a big fan of copyright infringement and suggest CRAFT check this out."

There was one comment of support, pointing out the obvious differences in construction. I am a huge fan of the Mason-Dixon One-Piece Kimono. In fact a browse through my archives will show that I have knit it twice. Suggestions that I have "ripped it off" are insulting to me and insulting to the Mason-Dixon ladies as I have not at any point had any contact from them with similar concerns. To suggest that I would change the MD pattern from garter to stockingette, call it my own design and post it on the Internet are deeply hurtful.

One problem with the Internet is that it is all to easy to post an anonymous comment about someone's integrity and walk away with little thought as to the person you are defaming. I realise the I could comment back on the Craft blog but I am loathe to look like I need to defend myself.

All that I ask folks is that next time you are about to type first and think later, remember that the person on the other end of the computer is a real person and that this real person was very upset.