Inspiration, Entrelac and Reinventing Ourselves.

I just got a package in. The joy of ripping open the overstuffed plastic and investigating the fibery goodness contained within is hard to contain. I wish the DHL man safe travels and begin exploring.

I like what I see. The rayon has sparkly bits intertwined and the cotton is smooth and shiny and the carry-along yarns are just perfect to add a hint of color and shine to some soft mohair....it is all perfect. These were ordered sight unseen (or at least untouched; via the web), except for the reorders....anyway, its all good and I am delighted.





The entrelac portion of our post is brought to you by the Tuesday night knittig group. We are entrelacing along.
The basic instructions are coming along but we are working this a piece at a time; part of the joy of entrelac; bite-sized pieces, you know.

Etrelac-A-Long
Yarn 1.5-2 balls Noro Silk Garden or Kureyon (pronounced Crayon)
Cast on 60 sts on US 8 16” needle
Work 1.5” 2 x 2 ribbing


Get ready for entrelac.
Turn work,
If you want you can switch to US 10 needle, or stay with the 8s, its ok.

K2, M1 all the way around (90 sts)
Now turn your work so you are looking at the inside of the hat.

** purl two, turn
Knit two, turn
Purl 3, turn,
Knit 3, turn,
Purl 4 turn
Knit 4, turn,
Purl5, turn
Knit 5, turn,
Purl 6**
Repeat from ** to ** around.

Base triangles made.

if your yarn is at the same color as the base triangles, you can use you second ball or pull from the other end of the ball to use a contrasting color…or just continue with the color the current yarn is now)
♥ Pick up 6 stitches along the left edge of the triangle you are closest to from the top down to the bottom left edge.
Now turn and purl your picked up stitches (or knit them backwards, if you are ready for that), turn
K5, ssk. (Your ssk will be the last of these 6 sts and the first of the next triangle. As you proceed you will be getting rid of these triangle sts by ssking them to the current rectangle), turn
p6, turn
k5, ssk, turn
p6, turn…etc until all of your triangle stitches have been used up.
return to ♥ and repeat until all triangles have been worked and you have 15 left-leaning rectangles.

More will follow shortly, stay tuned. We will work the right-leaning rectangles next.

♥*♦^♦*♥

Today is beautiful and can become exactly what you desire. Stay open to inspiration, where it may hail from, allow it to light on your shoulder, back of your hand, cerebral cortex. Notice when it does. I love you.

How Nangellini was Born

How Nangellini was Born

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New Slideshow of Images

I have been busy crocheting and knitting but don't often stop to photograph or share...so here are few new pieces concatenated into a slide show. Enjoy, and peace, and love,
Nancy

Check out my Slide Show!

Leaf Tess

Leaf Tess
Originally uploaded by cedison

Amazing paper folding; Illuminated from behind. Simply gorgeous!

Visit form the Yarn Fairy!

I have been playing with the latest booty from the yarn fairy, really fun stuff.
He brought some Lantern Moon knitting bags which are gorgeous and clever, one even has a pin cushion hidden inside the basket. There are also a couple of messenger bags which look to be made of some recycled material from Cambodia, really fun with fish prints on them.
Also got lots of fabulous yarns and needles most of which are on sale now, and some cute knitting themed mugs. Lots of fun stuff. I made a hat with some of the samples he brought...I am very pleased. We are still sorting things out now.
Also have some boucle on the way. Oh an d more interesting yarns, I will post again soon and describe in detail...:)

Did I mention...Colinette, Prism, Blue Heron, et al

As I am sorting through the new yarn, I thought I might just share...there are three Colinette Vintage Kits. These retail for $140, but we are going to offer them for much less since we got a price break on them, everyone wins! Also found lots of Blue Heron which is hand dyed (various textures of that, have not yet sorted or inspected what they all are) Also some Claudia's, which I recognized.

I am thinking I may want a Colinette kit for myself.
I had that same thought about the Prism. I have 4 half skeins of Cool Stuff in Tea Rose colorway. It is very pretty and I may just have to keep one for moi.
Each fabulous yarn that I have never tried yet calls to me...saying "How can you sell me if you never tried me yourself. Don't you want to knit me NOW?

I know at most of the novelty and onsie balls are going in our sale bin, which should be fun for those that peruse them on a regular basis...basically new balls are finding there way in there every day. If I didn't have this store, I would be customer here for sure. :)
I am starting to sound like one of those car salesmen on TV commercials. "We must be CRAZEE to sell this stuff so CHEAP." Ok Maybe I feel more like Tom Waits singing "Step Right Up."
Always wanted to feel like Waits, er, maybe that was I always wanted to feel Tom Waits. Close enough.

Amazing Abundance of Yarn

It is almost unbelievable the abundance of gorgeous yarn that has come into life of late.
I have been fortunate enough to purchase the contents of two, not one, but TWO closing yarn shops.
Well, not the entire contents but you can be sure I got the best, most yummiest, most fantastic yarns they had. Not only that, but the lovely women with whom I was trading were quite generous. I use the term trading loosely. I was trading cash for yarn, which is pretty much how that works for me. I have cash, you have yarn; we trade; I am happy.
Anyway, I got lots of hand painted goodness, lots of silk and silky things, lots of gorgeous bulky wool and super bulky winter time fun stuff and of course novelties, needles, and notions, scarf pins and more. It is too much to believe.
After the first round with the Jenkintown ladies, Nicole, my assistant, and I were kind of rolling around the floor in all the hand painted Great Adirondack and Schaefer yarns, when Carolyn called, so she came in and proceeded to lay on the floor...with the yarn. It was a nice afternoon.
By mid-week we had everything sorted, tagged and entered into inventory and onto the shelves and racks.
Then it started all over again; just last night I went visited another woman with the contents of her shop spread between her beautiful finished knitting room/basement and her garage, all the boxes in the garage were labeled with the intricate contents of each box marked with quantities of each and the circles and the arrows and a full color glossy photo of....sorry, no, I digress...anyway, we got some amazing things there and I look forward to sorting thru it all to see what we actually purchased. :) I know we will be pleased in the long run. Getting it all into inventory as 'assorted' or as what it actually is...is another feat all together. Oy.
Well, by the time we got out of there, we were drenched with sweat, it had begun to rain, and my Tupperware bins were nearing capacity with yarn and the cardboard box was getting wet in the back of my truck, but we pressed on...we had another stop in Jenkintown with the original and first yarn-store-going-out-of-business-whose-inventory-I-must-obtain.
We were late but I knew the yarn was patient, it always is.
Just as expected, it was waiting shelved and bagged politely with its people and pets occupying themselves amongst the books and notions. Good yarn. No wait, bad yarn, all vying for my affections and wooing me like that.
Damn it, I want you all. OK Focus, Focus. (That was heard quite a bit last night)
Now the fun will really begin, as we do the sort, catalog, enter data and tag portion of this adventure. We got through the first round so this shouldn't be too bad--although this latest haul is twice as big.
I am happy to report that I spent less than 5K. If your SO ever gives you a hard time about your yarn shopping, or yarn acquisition addiction, you can him/her about me.

Love and blessings,
Nancy