Spring at the Inlet

I went for a beautiful walk yesterday. The weather was perfect, warm enough for a short-sleeved tee, but cool enough that I didn't get hot.



The scenery was perfect too...



A very peaceful time.



If you like this kind of thing, then you really must check out Benne's brand new blog. Benne is a duck-whisperer, and she writes with grace and humour about her feathered friends. I am so excited that she has started up a blog to share her stories and her wisdom. Please visit her HERE. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Isn't It Ironic?

No pix for this post, but I'm going out for a walk on this beautiful sunny day, and I'll bring a bit of it back to share with you all later.

This is so weird, bizarre, cool, mind-boggling:

Etsy is a big place. People come from all over the world. I have posted that I am from the Vancouver area, and the other day I received an email from a fellow-Canadian. She asked if perhaps my shipping charges to Canada could be reduced because she lived in Port Moody.

I laughed out loud.

"How about free shipping?" I asked her in my reply, "I live in Port Moody too."

Turns out, and you're not going to believe this, but not only does she live in my immediate neighbourhood, our kids are in the same class at school.

!!!!!!!!!

We haven't met, but she visited my blog and saw my little smiling face and recognized me from walking my daughter to school.

Amaaaaaaazing but true.

I have one that is even better than that, but I'll save it for another time. :)

Help! I Want My Blog Back!

And my knitting...and parts of my life...

Well, it only makes sense that I've spent most of my waking hours over at etsy this week, but it's not going to stay that way.

I want to blog, and I want to knit, and I don't want to spend all my time on the computer.

I can keep up with dyeing and mailing and the other details of running an online shop. but I can't do it in two places at the same time. Can't be done. Not by this woman at least.

So here's the scoop: I've moved the business to etsy. If you want to buy my yarn, please go and buy it over there. I've had a great week. Etsy is so easy. I list the yarn, and I mail the yarn, and they take care of everything else. If you click on my shop, you'll see that it has been greatly simplified, and the etsy link is there. You can still email me for special orders, but everything else is at etsy. Don't be scared. Etsy is fun. You'll like it. I promise. :)

My new true love (don't tell Doug): This came in the mail yesterday and guess what it is???? Well, can you guess??

This...well, these...are two 1-kilo cones of Blue Face Leicester 2-ply Sportweight.

Sock knitters, you can start drooling now.



This stuff is amaaaaaazing. It's soft and strong at the same time. It has luster and great twist. It has body (or is that wine) and substance. And it dyes like a dream. Oh, I am going to have fun with this. Two kilos. That's a whole lotta socks.

I was in a spring fling kinda mood last night, and I had to get my hands and some dye onto some of that BFL. The outcome: LemonLime.

This one's called: Jeans And A T-Shirt

The one at the top of the page is: Mexican Blanket. And you know where you can find these if you want 'em.

I've had some good suggestions from blog readers this week. I am hoping to install some flicker boxes over on the side with pix of my yarn and sold yarn. I know I'm well over 100 skeins sold since opening up here in March, but I don't have a firm total on that until I update my records.

And I want to get back to the business of knitting. Sockapalooza has sent out the invites, and so has Lisa -- for the elann shawl'along. I'm going to knit!

Help, I've Been Sucked Into The Etsy Vortex!!

And I think I might have left my knitting-mojo there.

No kidding, etsy is a fun place to hang out. I have my shop up and running, and things have been going great. Even with serious technical difficulties, I have already made eight sales, and one of those was a custom order. People come and check out your wares, and if they like your shop, they leave you a heart. Gotta admit, it's fun to check and see who "hearts" my shop. But even better is when I follow the link back to the person's other favorites and find all kinds of things I love too.

Yesterday, I did a little shopping...Wanna see what I bought????

Okay, I bought THIS, and THIS, and THIS, and THIS!

Bet you were expecting yarn. Oh, there is a lot of that too, and it is all very tempting, but I'm staying away from it for now. Tooooo dangerous.

I did work on my Butterscotch sock for a bit last night. Doug and I rented The Lost Room. We watched it on the Sci-Fi network when it aired, and we really enjoyed it. So this week we rented the DVD and watched it again. I think it was even better the second time around.



I knit the heel flap, turned the heel, and picked up the instep stitches. That's not bad I guess.

And I did some dyeing yesterday. I've posted two new yarns in the blog shop.

Happy Knitting!!

The Happy Wanderer

Not a lot of knitting going on around here lately. I have a big basket o'chaos in my family room. There are several layers of recently started projects that get my attention for about five minutes at a time.

Here's a funky hat I'm knitting in Project Spectrum Pink. I really like the yarn. I bought it at Birkelands, my new favorite LYS.



So what have I been doing?

Among other things, I've been wandering around blogland. There is no particular method to my madness; I just wander where the links take me. Sometimes I follow new commenters on my blog back to their sites and then follow some of their links or comments down the rabbit trails of blogdom. Other times, I look at the link lists of new and interesting blogs I've found and see where those go. Yesterday, the lines were all down at etsy for hours and hours. Hundreds of etsy buyers and sellers were chatting up a storm over at the etsy blog, so I invited some of 'em back here for a visit and a mini yarn contest. I have really been enjoying seeing what else is going on in blogland and meeting some new people.

Here are a few fun things to check out:

Go and visit Alyson's Blog. Alyson has knitted the most amazing stocking (leg stocking, not Christmas stocking). You will goggle with disbelief. I don't know how she is going to get the second one made, but I'm going to be watching for it. Alyson has also posted a link to an online yarn shop with some irresistable deals on Malabrigo (7.00), Tilli Tomas (30% off), and Lorna's Laces (various excellent deals). I visited and was sorely tempted. Oh, and Congrats to Alyson, who won my wee etsy contest. I will be sending her a free skein of worsted.

Another fun blog to visit is Rabbitch's site. Rabbitch has fun cartoons and great links. She has a wicked sense of humour too. She is in process of filling up a window display over at Birkelands with her hand-dyed yarns and knitting/spinning accessories, and I'll get to visit these things in person! I can't wait to see what she's made.

Rabbitch's site led me to Jacey at Insubordiknit. Jacey runs a blog and a shop. I've mentioned her before, and you'll be hearing about her again. She has a great sense of humour, and her yarns are amazing! I have a swap going with Jacey, and I am sooooo excited. I'm sending her out some sock yarn, and she is sending me....Well, you'll just have to wait and see. More on this later.

These are just a few of the fun sites I've found. I'll report on others in other posts.

Etsy is fun, or at least it was until it went down for hours and hours and hours. They're doing some major renos over there, and when the site went back up, it was really limping. I'm avoiding the place for now, but once it's working again, I'll introduce you to some fun sites and people over there.



I wish I could claim this beautiful knitting as my own, but alas it was done by another knitter. Karen/Lunadog bought this yarn from me to knit a shawl for a charity auction. Yesterday, she came by to pick up her skein of prize yarn from my draw last month, and she brought the work in progress to show me. The shawl is amaaaazing. Karen is an excellent knitter, and the yarn looks and feels beautiful in this pattern.

Karen is knitting her shawl with four skeins of the 100% Mercerized wool worsted in Twilight. She's using the pattern that CatBookMom recommended in her blog a while back. It's a free Lion Brand pattern that does not look so hot in the LB pictures, but that is really a lovely shawl. Check out CBM's blog post on this shawl HERE.


Finally...and true to my word, I have posted three new sock yarns to my shop here at the blog. You can check them out over yonder. I'll move them over to etsy in a day or so.



Hope everyone is getting more knitting done than I am!

Happy Sunday!

Daisy says: Hi everybody! Mom is busy knitting, so she said I could post today. Now I'm going to do my favorite thing and sleep alllllllllll day. eep!

The Learning Curve Goes Up and Up and Up

News and Announcements for See Jayne Knit Yarns:

The dyeing business is going well. I believe that I have passed my personal trial period of seeing if this is something I enjoy doing enough to pursue it on a regular basis. The reaction I've had from knitters tells me that I am on the right track with the work I'm doing. I have invested in a wonderful variety of yarns to dye, with exciting new packages continuing to arrive at my house. I've ordered Blue-Faced Leicester sock yarn, and I can't wait for it to get here!

As I've learned each new thing I've had to learn, I've made changes to my blog, my shop link, and to my routines. For those of you who follow my doings here closely, you've probably noticed that I'm constantly tweaking things.

And I'm going to tweak some more. These are the changes you might want to know about:

I have opened an Etsy shop. I got it set up yesterday and listed a number of my yarns there. The interest is high, and I have already sold the three skeins of Green Tea Sock Yarn that had been listed here. Ope! There goes the Blood Orange Sock Yarn while I sit here typing. I welcome you to visit my etsy shop and to shop there if you like. You can visit my etsy shop HERE.

I will continue to sell yarn from my blog shop. I will continue to do both as long as it is working out. If one venue turns out to be significantly more convenient/successful than the other in the long run, I may move all my business to that one venue, whether it turns out to be here or at Etsy. It's all a big experiment after all.

I have listed my SALE YARNS over at Etsy at the original prices, except for the two skeins of mohair, which I reduced in price at Etsy. I will reduce the mohair here to match the Etsy price, and if you buy it here from the blog, you can also receive the discount until/unless the mohair sells at Etsy first.

Evicting Ladder Lace:
I have decided that Ladder Lace does not really fit my profile of dyeing all-natural animal fibers. I returned five bags of Ladder Lace to Elann this week. All currently dyed Ladder Lace is now 5.00/skein, and I will be moving it over to Etsy on Monday.

For the Customer Appreciation Event this month, I am offering either four skeins of Ladder Lace (my last four as yet undyed) or One Skein of Sock Yarn from in-stock sock yarn. This month's event ends on May 8. See shop for details.

The prices at Etsy will be the same as here at the blog, but there are a few advantages to you to shop at the blog:

It is easier to deal with custom orders here. That seems to be the majority of my business here at the blog so far anyway.

You get in on Customer-Appreciation draws and contests here only.

I will list yarns at discount prices from time to time here only.

I will list new yarns (if I have any) here first on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Mornings -- in order to give my friends here the first look at them. This is not meant to put pressure on you in any way. After a day or so, I will list the new yarns at Etsy also.

Please feel welcome to browse and shop at either location, or not. I value the blogging relationship more than the sales relationship.

As always, I value your comments and feedback. If I've missed something important, or you have helpful suggestions, please do let me know.

The skein of mohair at the top of the post is Copper Penny
The next photo is of Melons Love Sunshine (four stitch markers and a gift charm)
The third photo is of Just For You gift charms

All three items are new listings here -- and at Etsy. I did this because I have two of each item. On Monday morning I will list some new sock yarns here.

Project Spectrum Eye Candy

Project Spectrum colours for April/May are: Yellow, Pink, and Green

Yellow: A very dear friend dropped in on me yesterday. She brought me this beauty that she had made herself in chef-training. We had to eat it, of course, but it broke my heart to cut it up.


Pink: I went to a favorite wool/yarn store today and could not leave without buying this. It is Rio De La Plata hand spun, kettle dyed Uruguayan wool. I saw it and felt it and saw a vision of a cute winter hat (that I'll have to knit in April or May, of course). And then it stuck to my hands and wouldn't let go, so I had to buy it.

No, I did not dye this one myself, and no, you cannot buy it.

Green: I know, I know, I've posted this photo before. But I love it, and to me, it is an example of the perfect green. I'm not tired of it, so here it is again in all its glory.

Yes, I did hand-dye these, and yes, you can buy them. :) But you'd better hurry up 'cuz I'm starting to waffle.

Wren Is Starting To Sing

Like many knitters out there in blogland, I am working on Berroco's Wren Cardi. Like many knitters out there in blogland, I am finding Wren to be something of a (boring) knit. If you object to the word boring, you can insert: dull, tedious, mindless, unmotivating, repetetive. Whichever.



In an effort to motivate myself to finish, I put together what I have so far. I steam blocked the pieces, did a three-needle bind off on the left shoulder, and sewed up the left side and sleeve. Then I tried her on.

Oh my! She's a lovely top and she's going to fit like a charm. The top photo is inside the house; the next one is outdoors. The outdoor shot shows the colour better.



I love the shaping and fitting details of this top, and I really love the way it's turning out in the Filatura Di Crosa Adhoc Sandalo.



I particularly love the little ribbed sleeves. Stole that idea from Blue Sky Cropped Cardi. The ribbing makes the sleeves fit snug without any pooching.



The only other mod I've made so far is that I did the sleeves/front in the smallest size, and the back in the the next smallest size, but with a few more decreases through the waist. This was in an effort to get a 34" bust.

I also do not plan to knit the shawl collar. I love the neckline just the way it is. I'm planning to do a very minimal finish on the opening edge.

Now I just have to knit the right front, and she will be nearly done! Can't wait!!!

A Whole Lot Going On Around Here

Where to start...

Doug's work has been a rollercoaster since before Christmas, and while I can't say it is settling out now, at least he is working and getting paid again. He has some very exciting job possibilities coming up. I'll post more on that when I know more. For this month, his contract takes him OUTSIDE the house to work. This is very good news for me. I love my man, but you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all of that.

I mentioned yesterday that Doug has started up a blog. You need to know that he is a programmer guru, and his blog reflects that. If you have a bit of techy-geek in you (or know someone who has), you will probably enjoy his blog. If not, well then probably not. You can visit Doug's blog HERE. He has invented the coolest internet browser that displays inside a dryer. He calls it Dryer Fox. Get it?

I also mentioned that I joined the coolest yarn club ever. Have you ever seen those funky Monster Hat Kits for sale at KPixie? Those are made by Jacey over at Insubordiknit Yarn. Jacey sells beautiful hand spun, hand-dyed yarn and Monster Hat kits over at her online shop. On Sunday, she opened up sales for her first-ever Insubordiknit Yarn Club. Ten spots in the club plus a raffle for the eleventh spot. I wanted one of those spots in the club but figured they would sell out before I could even get to the "Pay" button. Well, they sold out fast alright, but I got in anyway. You can read about the club and the raffle over at her site. She's going to do it again in July. I'll post about my Insubordiknit yarns as they come in. I am so excited, I might pee my pants.

Wren Update!! I have knit the back, the two sleeves, and one front. Today I plan to sew up the left side and sleeve so that I will have some decent progress to show. And hoping that will give me the momentum I need to finish. Wren will be a nice cardi to have, but it is a boring knit. Check back later as I'm planning to add a photo sometime today.

Shop Sale Continues!! This is what is left: two skeins of mohair and several skeins of worsted. 15% off these yarns, or 20% off these yarns if you place an order (sale stock/new stock/custom or combination) of $60.00 or more.


Shop Update:
I've decided that I will post new yarns to the shop on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. The focus for the spring/summer will be on sock yarns and lighter weight yarns like DK and fingering. You can custom order worsted yarns at any time.

I have heard back from two or three people knitting the Mercerized Wool Worsted (currently available in several colours in shop) that it flows through their hands like butter. Very soft yarn with excellent drape. And it takes dye very nicely too. And did I mention that it is machine washable?

New Yarns For Wednesday, April 18:
GREEN TEA (3 skeins available): One of my favorite greens ever! These are super-soft 100% merino Superwash Fingering (32st. on 2-2.5mm). The base yarn has been compared to Dale Baby Ull. 100g/414yds. 21.00/skein


SHORELINE TRAIL (five skeins available): The colours came out amazing on this beautiful luxury yarn (70% merino/20% alpaca/10% silk DK). 100g/250yds. Hand wash. 21.00/skein.


I'll post more yarns on Saturday, April 21.

Knitting Content On The Way

Things I plan to do some show and tell about after sleep and a cup of coffee:

Progress on the Wren cardigan

Funky sock yarns for the shop (and a nice luxury yarn too)

Super cool yarn club I managed to join before it sold out

Doug's new blog! (but unless you're a techy-geek like him, it's super boring)

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

SJK Yarns is Having a Sale!!

Sale! Out With the Old, and In With the New: I would like to clear out some early yarns so that I can post some new products and colours I'm working on. All yarns posted with a March date are now 15% off (any size of order). Orders of $60.00 or higher (of old stock/new stock/custom or a combination) will receive 20% off all March dated yarns.

Edited Sunday April 15, at 9:45 pm.

As of this update, I have sold off quite a few of the sale yarns. The yarns in the photo above are all that remain. Look for any yarns that still have a March posting date.

There are still two skeins of mohair in pretty Purple/Magenta(Boysenberry), and Blue/Purple/Red/Pink (Blue-Raspberry). There is just one skein of Debbie Bliss DK, and one skein of Optimum DK, and the rest of the yarns are worsteds/aran. Lots of pretty colours in the worsteds, and all are feltable (except for the Tresko sock yarn).

Sockapalooza 4

I have joined! I have actually joined my first online knitting exchange. Check out the details HERE.

I would like to offer a 15% discount off sock yarn from my shop to participants of Sockapalooza 4. Offer applies to in-stock or custom sock yarn orders, but cannot be combined with other discounts.

I have often teased Karin about all the KAL's and ___Topias and ___Stravaganzas she participates in. But now it is my turn. Okay, I'm going about this in a more conservative manner than she does, but I'm still in.

How did this happen? I was reading Grumperina's blog, and she asked if people had signed up. Signed up for what, I wondered. I hit the link, and was transported to an invitation to join. And it wasn't too late. I'm in! I am quite excited about this, and we haven't even started knitting yet.

I don't think I'll have any trouble coming up with yarn for the project, but now I might have to learn to do something fancy with socks. When I get the information on my pal, I might be back, DPN's in hand, to ask your advice about what pattern to use.

Of course, when I told Doug about it, his first response was to ask me when HIS socks would be finished. "You're going to knit socks for a total stranger before you finish mine, aren't you? You're going to start those socks before you even start my second sock aren't you??" Then he pointed at his lonely right foot.

"J'accuse," the foot muttered.

Maybe I should get that sock knitted up this week -- before I meet my pal. Just to get the ruddy foot off my back.

Introducing...

Blood Oranges:



BLOOD ORANGE

In Superwash Sock Yarn: 100g/350yds


In Cascade 220 Superwash Worsted/Aran: 100g/220yds


Scarlett O'Hara:



SCARLETT O'HARA (Cascade 220 Superwash: 100g/220yds). She's a semi-solid maraschino-cherry red with light and medium highlights. Scarlett had moods too.


Fiddle-Dee-Dee!

Confessions of a Lapsed Gardener

I am coming out of the closet to admit it.

I used to be a gardener. And I haven't touched my garden for over four years.

I used to be a gardener. I knew the latin and common names of a huge number of Pacific Northwest Perennials. Thirteen years ago, we moved into our first house, and within the first three days, before many of the boxes were unpacked, I had begun to dig up a large section of the backyard lawn to plant a vegetable patch. It was April, and I wanted to get my peas in before it was too late. My son Colin was only eighteen months old at the time, but the neighbour girl was three. She loved to come over to my yard to eat snow peas right out of the garden. Sometimes I passed them to her through the fence. A woman who lived over the fence on the other side loved to dig around in her yard too. We joked that we worked each season moving plants from one part of the yard to another. We used to stand at the fence in dirt mode, chatting and laughing and trading chunks of plants back and forth. We joked that one day the garden would be "perfect" and we would simply sit back in a lawn chair and enjoy.

"Have you gotten to enjoy yet?" She would call over.

"Not yet, what about you?" I'd reply.

"Nope. Not yet."

When we moved to our current house eight years ago, the woman who sold us the house had been unable to work in the yard for several years on account of a bad back injury. The yard, front and back, needed a lot of work. I transformed front beds full of weeds into beautiful flower and shrub beds. Around back, I put in climbing plants, apple trees, pots and containers of all kinds full of summer annuals, and an herb garden. I climbed up and down the built up slope of our back yard, making it beautiful, and of course, never quite making it to "enjoy." When you love to garden, you never really get to the point of sitting back to enjoy. The process is all the enjoy you need.

I can't remember the last time I worked out in any part of our yard. I know it was over four years ago, and probably closer to five. When I hit burnout in my life, the garden had already been neglected for a season, and I have not touched it since. An avid-gardener friend of mine felt sorry for my poor dilapidated garden that was rapidly going to seed and weed. She knew I wasn't well and came over one Saturday afternoon to weed and prune and fix up the front beds. She probably hoped I would maintain that bit, but I did not. As my life became as weedy as my garden, her friendship withered and fell away too, into the compost of life and the way things go.

I am allergic to people who can only relate to me (and others) as a garden to be weeded. But I get rid of them easily enough. It only takes a season or two for them to get fed up and find someone else to work on.

Around this time of year I usually start to think about maybe doing a bit of puttering out there. Sometimes I feel a pang or two, of guilt possibly, or longing -- to lose myself in digging, in crawling around on the ground, in planting seeds and herbs and flowers. It usually doesn't last for too long, and then hotter weather sets in, and I am relieved that I didn't begin something I would have to maintain.

This morning I looked out the window and saw Doronicum. Leopard's Bane. A very hardy and popular perennial flower in this part of the world, and one of the earliest spring bloomers. A cheerful flower that has hung on despite me. I had to go out and capture it for Project Spectrum.

In Which I Join Project Spectrum

I worked all morning dyeing up a batch of skeins in Butterscotch, Fuzzy Peach, and BCA Pinks. Took a break for lunch, and then did the finishing touches on the skeins. Got them all re-skeined, tied and nicely draped, ready for the trip downstairs to dry.

Spent some time with my feet up reading blogs. Seems I see those Project Spectrum posts and buttons wherever I go. I punch a button to see what's up.

A project all about creating with colour? Why wouldn't I want to participate? And then I look to see which colours are currently featured. Green. My favorite colour of all. And Yellow. And Pink. I laugh out loud. It was meant to be.



And speaking of yellow. And Orange. Hop on over to Trish's blog and check out the sweet felted bag she made with a skein of dyed yarn she bought from me. Oh I am so proud! Trish did a beautiful job on her bag, and the yarn colours did a happy dance in the knitting. This is the first finished project I have seen made in SJK yarn.

101 Uses For Ladder Lace Part 2

In yesterday's post, I showed a picture of ladder lace knitted up in a basic garter stitch. It looks pretty, and it would work out fine, but last night I frogged that swatch for an idea I like even better.



This is the same ladder lace, and I'm working it in a simple eyelet lace pattern. I like this a lot, and it makes the knitting more interesting for me.

I cast on 26 stitches on 6mm needles.
Row 1: K2; then YO, K2tog until last two stitches; K2
Row 2: K2; then purl until last 2 stitches; K2

That's it. You can make it as wide as you like for scarf, wide scarf, stole, shawl, whatever. My 26 stitch scarf is about 7 1/2 inches wide.



I'm also going to get fancy with it. It will have a beaded fringe. I am tying a strand around the bar between each eyelet and beading both ends of the strand. It is easy to string beads onto the ladder lace. You just poke one of the nylon strand bits through the bead, and it pushes up and over the flag bits very easily. I have a bead sitting on each flag bit and I tied a knot after the final beads.

The beads give the ends of the scarf more weight and drape, and they swing like a bead curtain. And then there is the elegance factor. And the show off factor.



Not sure yet how much ladder lace the scarf will take, but I'm thinking two skeins. I will let you know how long it is when I get to the end of the first skein.

101 Uses For Ladder Lace

But First!

Congratulations to Karen J./Lunadog!

Karen is "Q", the winner of the shop contest announced yesterday. Karen lives quite close to me, as it turns out, and she came by this morning to pick up her yarn order and to choose her yarn prize. She picked the blueberry coloured Ultra Alpaca/Recycled silk and wool combo.

Karen bought the yarn from me in order to knit a shawl for a fundraising auction for: Big Heart Rescue. Karen volunteers, drives and fosters dogs for this organization that finds new homes for abused dogs and cats in BC. You can read more about Big Heart Rescue HERE. Karen says they are always in need of new foster parents.

What was I talking about before? Oh yes, Ladder Lace. I had no intention of buying, dyeing and adding Ladder Lace to my shop, but I have done all three of those things. I don't think I will regret it, even if I turn out to be the only person who ends up knitting this stuff.

I had serious reservations about buying it in the first place since I am not much for novelty yarns. And when it arrived, it was, eh. White. So what.

But then I started dyeing it. Oh my. Even if I never knit it, I want to own it just to look at it. Pretty. Pretty. Pretty. It is so much fun to dye. The fun pretty much pays for the yarn in entertainment value for me.

I've dyed up five different colorways of LL so far, and all are photographed and available in my shop. The pictures don't really do justice to the rich colours and just sheer fun of the stuff. When Karen and her friend J came by today, we all oogled and gushed over the stuff.

But what do you make with Ladder Lace? I plan to focus some attention on this issue over this next month, and to make it more fun, I have offered a new CUSTOMER APPRECIATION EVENT in my shop. Go have a look at how you can enter to win four skeins of Ladder Lace in the colour of your choice. By the time the contest closes, we should have come up with all kinds of possibilities for it.



Here are some things I plan to try:

Above, I have cast on thirty stitches on 6mm needles and plan to knit a basic garter stitch scarf. I have certain people on my Christmas list who love a bit of bling in their lives, so this will likely go to one of them. I plan to put fringe on the ends. This colour is Black Light. I first swatched it with black shiny cotton DK. It looked very dramatic and quite different from above. In the end, I decided to do the scarf delicate and lacy in just plain Ladder Lace.

Below, plans to knit up a simple garter triangle shawl with one strand of Nasturtium Ladder Lace and one strand of a nice merino sock yarn I've had hanging around.



Other ideas I've thought of: Fly fishing lures. Gift wrapping ribbon. Craft ribbon for any number of projects. I can picture really cute hair doomies for girls who like it fancy. If Hayley was younger, I would cut a bunch of it up into streamers for decorating the ends of magic fairy wands (we used to make these at her birthday parties). I also want to hang skeins of it from my ceiling in front of a slightly open window, but that's just me.

I'd love to hear your ideas for Ladder Lace.

A quick Wren update:

I've knit a sleeve. I decided to go with a four inch stretch of the 1x1 ribbing. I really like the way the sleeves look on the Blue Sky Alpaca Cropped Cardi, and I thought I could do something similar with Wren.



I think this will look really good.



So far, I've done the back, a sleeve, and most of the second sleeve.



Moonlight Sonata is still waiting for the rest of the repeat I'm working on. I'll post when the moons are full. :)