Goodies In The Mail

Monday's mail brought a package from Birdsong with lots of beautiful chunky yarn for our K4 project at the Sr. Center. Thanks, Birdsong! There were actually two more skeins of the cream color but one & a half of them went into the scarf that's pictured below. I just couldn't wait to knit with it! {g} Notice the cute card she sent with sheep quilting.



This batch of hats and scarves will be turned in at tomorrow's meeting. The set on the right is done with a strand of tan yarn combined with a strand of a rather wild variegated in teal, magenta & gold with touches of white. I made the hat with 40 stitches on my new size 15 bamboo circulars and finished it off with a 3-needle bind-off as I don't have double points that large for the decrease section. The scarf is worked on size 17 needles. These are both child sized as FISH, one of the local charities that we donate the finished items to, asked for more hats & scarves for kids.

The two navy & variegated hats in the center are also child sized. The scarf to go with one of them is on the needles and the other scarf will be solid navy. I've found that one skein of solid and one skein of variegated will make two sets like this when the hat is 42 stitches worked on size 11 circulars and the scarf is 15 stitches on size 15 needles.

The hat just above them is adult sized and worked with three strands of yarn - brown, tan & cream - on a size 15 circular. I used my largest size dps (10½s) for the decrease rows. (Note to self: get at least some size 13 dps with the next JoAnn's 40% off coupon!) This hat will match the three strand scarf that Gloria just finished. The scarves on the left are all worked on size 15 needles - there are completed hats in the bins at the Sr. Center that will go with each of them to make winter sets.

In an effort to get organized, I bought a couple 30 gallon storage containers this morning. One will corral the odds and ends of the K4 yarn that's left over from all the hats & scarves until I get them crocheted into afghans. I had hoped that the other one would hold the wool yarn I've recycled from garage sale sweaters along with the sweaters waiting to be frogged. I underestimated how much yarn I already had wound into balls - it barely fit into the container (the lid is fastened down, but bulging a bit) and there's no hope that the sweaters or the yarn from them will fit. I'm thinking that maybe I'd better go get another container while they're still on sale for $7.

Afterthought: I forgot to update my progress list - 1) the first sleeve of Megan's sweater is complete and I've picked up the stitches for the second one. 2) The silk and wool felted basket is complete and now I just need to put a load together so I can felt it. At the same time, DH wants his pair of Fuzzy Feet felted a little more so the toes don't stick up in the air. 3) I think I'm on washcloth #16 for the Cloths For Katrina project, but I need to do another count. 4) I picked up 8 skeins of Kmart Sayelle (which gives you an idea of how old the yarn probably is) in Terra Cotta at a garage sale last Friday and may abandon the cranberry cabled yoke sweater in LoveKnit (I need one more skein and the yarn is no longer made) and make one in this pretty rust shade.

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped this week because after getting my flu-shot last Friday morning, I had a reaction (sore throat, cough, fever, aches) starting that afternoon and I basically slept from then until Sunday evening. When I called the county nurse, she thought that I'd picked up a cold and it was a coincidence that the symptoms showed up a few hours after the vaccination, but I've since corresponded with someone who teaches physiology and she told me that some people have a reaction to the body's production of interferon after the shot. Maybe that explains why I caught the "flu" every time I was vaccinated back in college. Since then (and that was the early 60's) this year is the first flu-shot I've had other than the one for the Swine Flu scare back in the Ford Administration. Now that I know what's causing it, I'll simply plan on a couple days of aspirin & sleep after a shot.