Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

Vacuumed, then soaked and scrubbed the front hall hooked rug, then vacuumed through 5 of the rooms and up the hall runner, scrubbed the downstairs hall floor and wiped, wiped, wiped everything in sight. Like I said, boring housework.

That front hall hooked rug has a story, as do many things in the house. Got it at a yard sale for $5, many years ago - maybe even before we bought this house. Someone, or something had pulled on one of the hooked loops and, of course, it came up. And it/they didn't stop there, they pulled up an entire large section and another small section. BUT it was a wool rug, not synthetic. They just didn't know how to fix it - what people *don't* know about textiles and fibers is amazing - so the $5 was a bargain and I knew it was an easy fix - just hook the yarn back through the backing fabric.

It's drippy out, which is just fine, as I didn't get to water the seeds I planted yesterday. That in itself is a hassle until hubby get the pump into the pond and hooks up miles (well, many sections) of hose. I gotta *hike to the pond with a watering can, inch down the slippery sloped edge (that somehow always has poison ivy hiding here and there) and dunk the can 'til full, then hike back to the garden; repeat from * until everything's watered.

I DO wish my LYS was open on Sundays. I can't usually get out until then and so, I hardly ever get to the yarn shop. I don't see why yarn shops can't keep antique shops' hours - you know open Wedn. to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Who cares about Monday and Tuesday, when the weekend is the only 2 days most of us have any kind of free time, and not even the entire weekend, not when kids and errands and other stuff eats up most of Saturday, then come 5 pm, bam, they're closed, when we might have been able to squeeze out at 7 or 8 pm for a yarn fix.

I had a great idea a couple weeks ago, but hubby doesn't think so, because *he'd* be the one driving and listening to women go on about yarn - I know he'd lose his mind!

I think there should be a franchise of yarn buses, like the bookmobile and meals on wheels, and other such services. It would be advertised on the web and locally, that on certain days the yarnmobile will be in town at whatever central location or, better yet, have each day's route advertised, so that women in rural areas or areas where there just aren't yarn stores around, know that at a certain day and time, they can get a yarn, book and ndl fix.

Then again, if a bus just wandered around, with one of those ice cream truck bells, I could see women running out of their homes, purses in hand, to flag it down! What a hoot it would be - "If you can't come to the yarn, let the yarn come to you!"

Got the Peace Fleece in today but I don't like the Tundra with the Georgia Rose - at least not for this design - so I went to buy a couple hanks of the Negotiation Grey, but didn't want to pay $7 postage for 2 hanks (to think of how little I charge knitters for their postage...), so I googled and googled for other shops that sold the PF and particularly that color, ONLINE. If there are a lot of shops carrying it, they haven't put it online. But Halcyon's postage wasn't bad, so I got the 2 hanks, a new color card and the color card for their Deco rug wool - to see how thick it is.

When I did rug hooking from my handspun, I plied together 2 or more colors, so that when hooked, it gave an interesting blended effect. I don't want to use solid-color rug wool for my rug designs. It just won't look as nice as the blended yarns. So, if the Deco is the right weight, I can use 2 strands together in coordinating or contrasting colors to give the same effect - hopefully!

Planted 1/2 a bed in lettuce mix and an entire bed in hollyhock seeds - but not until I wheelbarrowed 2 full loads of compost into the beds and mixed it in.

I washed the PF, spun out the skeins in the washer, and they're on the line now drying. I also just finished scrubbing (and I do mean scrubbing, on hands and knees - there's no damp mopping wide pine floors!) the upstairs hall floor, and have downed a cup of tea. So, 3 floors done so far and only a gazillion to go!

Now to strip the bed, get them washed and make the bed again. Then to knit on that 2nd sock awhile and browse the new Woodland Woolworks catalog. But this is their Spring catalog with the blended, silly Spring yarns - aack. If I dig deep, maybe I'll find something nice. I'm just not a spring and summer knitter. Not that I don't knit all spring and summer and every other season, but it's always with protein fibers - wool, wool and mohair blends, cashmere. I did do 2 belts recently - one in a rayon ribbon and one in a cotton blend - BUT they're just belts, 2 days' knitting tops. I'd never knit an entire sweater in plant or bast fibers. I hear another cup of tea calling me - energy's ebbing.
Back to work.

Have been wearing out my all-wool socks, as usually happens by springtime. So, I CO a sock yesterday using both Briggs and Little's Tuffy and Bartlettyarns 2-ply in wide stripes. Got one sock done, and am just about to CO its mate.

Spent part of the day weeding more of the veggie garden beds. Did 2 yesterday and 1.5 today. But already the bugs are biting and I had to hike back to the house and find the bug spray in the basement before heading back out. Also began scrubbing through the house. Have many rooms to do and hope to get about 2 done per day, without wearing out my fingertips and ending up with splits. I know I should wear gloves, but I just can't function in gloves.

Have been in a Harry Potter mood and as my son bought me the trilogy for Christmas, I can watch them anytime I want. I'd reread all the books, if I had the time, but I don't and the movies *are* charming. So, yesterday, I played all 3 and I'm playing the first one again now, while I knit and eat my yogurt.

Pickles is unsettled, as it's thundering out and he doesn't like the rain, the wind nor the thunder! So, he sits as close to me as he can get and makes little *er* sounds* so I have to stop and keep petting him! He's not spoiled!

I'm awaiting Peace Fleece for the cardigan design for the book. I'll work the kinks out of the design using the PF, before I work up the pullover in the Emmanuella. The PF Snowmaiden color that I wanted has been discontinued, so I'm using Tundra as the trim color against the Georgia Rose body.

Been thinking about expanding into hooked rug designs/kits. I designed and made small hooked rugs from my handspun, naturally dyed yarns eons ago, and I have 2 charts long since worked up for large area rugs. But I think I'll punch those, not hook them, or they'll take too long.

I'll need to get monk's cloth and have it silk screened though, and work up the samples, so it's not something I can venture into tomorrow. It'll have to wait until after we move. But, I definitely want to do it - hooked area rugs and chair pads - wool yarn, not wool fabric strips. That's just too primitive, even for me. And I can't stand the thought of cutting up perfectly good yardage for hooking kits - what a waste.

Not when recycled materials last a long enough time. The stair runner I wove from old sheets on a rug warp, about 17 years ago, has been used and machine washed and dried every few weeks for all those 17 years, and is just now starting to fall to bits. The runner had long ago been cut up into area rugs, after we moved here and I put in a proper front hall stair carpet with brass rods. But I haven't had a loom for these 11 years, so hooking or punching some new rugs looks to be a timely need. These rugs won't be trashed though, they just keep getting cut into smaller and smaller rugs - they're now heading for a new life as door mat sized rugs! All I need to do is unravel some of the rag weft and retie the knots.

Well, back to work....

Worked on another belt over the weekend in Knit One Crochet Too's 2nd Time Cotton. Washed it this morning and I laid it out to dry, after patting it into shape.

Need to weed the garden tomorrow. Today is too cold and nasty, tomorrow's supposed to be 70 degrees. Also need to get compost into the beds, *and* I still have more raking to do. Hubby wants veggies, so although I'm not doing tomatoes this year (would have had to start the seeds back in February), I'll be getting the snow peas in soon and lettuce of course, and later, the zucchini seeds. Need to order them today. We'll just have to settle for tomatoes from Adams.

I always grow heirloom, non-hybrid varieties, and how wonderful they taste! I also keep a small diary of what gets planted where, so that each year, I rearrange the plantings. Each bed gets planted with a nitrogen-producing plant like peas or beans, then the next year it can be planted with a more demanding (nutrient-wise) veggie like zucchini or tomatoes. I never grow the same plants in the same bed 2 years in a row.

This year, I'll have 2 free beds and thought I'd fill one with hollyhock seeds and if I get them in soon, I may get flowers this year. I'll also put in forget-me-not's and baby's breath, as those are the seeds I have! So, I should have plenty of cutting flowers for the house showings.

Well, back to working on creating charts and writing up patterns for the book - also need to swatch the edging for the pullover, and order the yarn soon. Busy, busy!....

the bleakness tarries
as life insists on springing.
past the structures
past the cedars, past the garden
that other-world frosty grey sky melds with the grey and brown
of winter-tinted brush
as tufts of wild onions sprout humorously
and white blossoms frost a pear tree.
new deer nibble new green.
she rises.

Worked on another brooch yesterday for the new book. Took the chart for the four-lobed escuctheon and completely revamped it - making it smaller, removing the interior cables and, of course, shaping the entire perimeter. I'll be filling it with ribbon embroidery. Naturally, it took many edits and erasures to get the shape and size just right, so that designing one small, 2-3" item *can* eat up an entire day.

There's going to be so many neat projects in this book, but few are for the faint of heart. There's MORE than enough easy-knit patterns and pattern books out there as it is. If I see one more, I'll scream.

NOT all knitters are newbies or willing to be satisfied with basic knitting just to keep our hands busy. There *are* those of us that have been *challenging ourselves* in our knitting, for years, but intricate knitting patterns seem few and far between. I hope this book gives knitters like myself something to sink their teeth into!

Today I must go weed the garden beds that won't be planted this year, for lack of time. Hubby bought black plastic to encase them in, to hopefully keep the weeds from overtaking.

Once we're ready to list the house, the last thing I need is to have to weed all the time, as it'll be enough to keep all 13 rooms, the 65' long front porch and all the bluestone paths clean and neat.

If this was the city, it would be easier, but it's the country, and that means nature to deal with, particularly the bugs - spiders and all those flying things that insist on making our home *their* home. Then the pine pollen flying around and the dirt that gets kicked up from the road and ends up on the windowsills and screens. I don't know why people crab about winter and love spring and summer so much, all it means is extra work to keep things clean, not to mention constantly mowed and edged.

Work awaits, and I've fed the dog and rubbed the kinks out of hubby's neck, but first need to do laundry, vacuuming and dishes.

Finished one headband yesterday in The Shearer's Yarn natural white. I did one the day before in doubled cashmere. Both for the new book. It's certainly interesting working kitchener stitch in knit and purl. I don't like working with live sts in knit and purl, so I don't.

I use my usual Long Tail CO and I BO the last row of the rep in pattern. Then I duplicate stitch the CO and BO edges together. BUT, I do the knit sts first from the RS, then I turn it over and do the purl sts which are knit on the WS. This seems to work well and without that half stitch glitch that usually occurs. I work it by always coming up from the center of a stitch along one edge and going around the post of the stitch along the opposite edge. This worked really well for this last cabled sample, but I'll be redoing the join on the cashmere sample, as I didn't do that one in 2 bouts, I went straight across and it's not as neat.

I'm in an itchy yarn-buying mood lately. As if, if I don't get my hands on massive quantities of wonderful woolly yarn, I'll burst! But I'm not finding any great sales online, not for the types of yarn I prefer anyway, and the yarns I've been designing with lately aren't available at wholesale.

This recent burst in new yarn shops, whether real or online, has meant I can't open any new accounts. Yarn manufacturers simply are not taking any new accounts, which can really put the pinch on designing. And then others, the smaller yarn manufacturers, don't have wholesale pricing - it's retail or nothing.

I don't expect free yarn from manufacturers, even though my patterns specifically name the yarn company, yarn name and colors used (which *is* free promotion!) (and yes, I do list the substitute yarn weight needed), but I *do* need to get yarn at a discount in order to afford to design. It takes a *lot* of pattern sales to recoup the massive amounts of time and money spent on creating a design.

That belt came out so nicely, I almost ordered 2 more hanks of Glacé from Elann last night. If only they had some other yarns I liked. I hate ordering just 2 hanks of yarn.

Shipping is higher when amortized over 2 skeins than a sweater's worth or more. But they seem to always have much of the European import yarns, which I have no interest in whatsoever and discontinued yarns, which I *can't* use.

I can't even foresee talking hubby into taking me to Amazing Threads on Saturday - he needs to work on the bathroom redo. There's also 2 knitting shops in Woodstock I've not even seen yet. That's the only downside to not seeing well and therefore not being able to drive - is not being able to take myself to the knitting shops to fondle and buy yarns - but, it's good for my wallet!

Took a photo of the 12 pair of CIC socks before I mail them off:



Got the Goddess Yarns in today's mail - oh yum!
The Emmanuella is the 100% merino yarn. I made a gauge swatch with US size 8 (5 mm) ndls) and hand washed it. Got my usual 4.5 sts and 6.5 rows/1" (2.5 cm) heavy worsted wt. gauge, as knit. After the bath, it relaxed to 4.5 sts and 6 rows/1'. I may give it a brief toss in the dryer to tighten the fabric up again. The yarn also wouldn't be adverse to doing 5 sts/1".

It is lovely to knit with! And when I undid the end of the strand I saw why.

It is composed of, 8, count 'em, 8 strands each having 2 plies. 16 little strands of merino, nicely plied and cabled, but no typical cabled appearance in this yarn. It looks like a smooth, round, even yarn.

It doesn't split while knitting with it and it feels buttery soft. This is not a a given with merino yarns. Some merinos feel dry, like cotton, and I have a hard time getting the gauge I know the yarn should get. One shouldn't have to *fight* with a merino yarn!

And, other merinos are fuzzier - not this one. This one is smooth.

I *did* briefly toss the swatch into dryer on permanent press, just about 2 minutes while I was in the basement doing laundry and rinsing some sweaters. The gauge tightened back up and the fabric looks lovely. I do that on occasion, with my sweaters that stretch from being washed. I put them in, inside out, knits or permanent press cycle, just a few minutes, and voilá.

I have more swatching to do with this yarn and there's also the Ellen skeins I bought - 55% cotton and 45% wool blend - also a very nice yarn. I'm going to enjoy using the Emmanuella - oh and I did a quick estimate of the # of skeins I'd need for a plain sweater, 38" finished chest meas. x 20" long with long sleeves, and it came in at 8.7 balls at $5.95 each = $54 - a bargain for such lovely luxury! This design won't be plain, but even if it uses 11 balls at $66, it will look far more expensive than that!

I bought them here:
Goddess Yarns, but there's also 3 or 4 other shops that carry the line and the links are on the GY site.

All 12 pairs of CIC socks are done and the last 3 pairs are on the line drying. Should have them in Tuesday's mail. Was scrounging through my yarn bits for the last pair when I found a hank of the Norwegian Hifa 3 yarn, in a nice lavender doing nothing, so I used half the hank more or less. Such sticky yarn, just like Shetland wool, but different yet - not the same softness that Shetland has, and not the tweedy and heathered colors - just solids.

So, back to work - finished the belt, washed it and laid it flat to dry and the rayon ribbon is holding the shape, so no pressing will be needed. That's good - the less finishing a knitter has to do, the less opportunities for problems to surface!

I'll do another belt in an alpaca/silk blend - it should have nice drape.

But first some headbands. I have a millspun heavy worsted merino I'll give a go with. And I've inquired after 2 hanks of the aran wt. Jamieson's Shetland wool. I also have 2 odd hanks of the Mushroom color cashmere to use. Always need to use lighter colors for design samples.

I began raking up yesterday, after the willow trees' prolific limb and leaf mess that's here each spring. Got 5.5 huge piles raked in 2 bouts and today am feeling it. Was going to to more today but wasn't up to it, so maybe tomorrow. Can't put it off too long - there's SO much to rake and other outdoor work that needs doing soon.

Yarn still not here - maybe tomorrow. I do dislike waitinggggg!

Am so proud of myself - not for anything design-related, but I had a printer prob this morning. A stupid little plastic clip on the side of the media tray broke off so the printer's control panel flashed with its red light and said - insert tray. It didn't know the tray was in, when it *was* in. So, hubby made an attempt to remedy the problem with some duct tape! - a single piece over the lower of 2 holes on the side of the tray.

It would print, but it would print either too far down the page or too far up the page and then after spitting out the sheet, would go clunk. He thought it was an un-related problem. I thought otherwise. he went to work and I undid his taping and fiddled with this silly clip and couldn't find a way to get it to be reattached enough so that it worked right.

Searched online for cost of new media tray. The $100 is would cost sent me back to the duct tape. I wasn't going to pay $100 for a new tray when it's only a 5 cent plastic clip that broke off. I never paid attention to which slot the clip sat in, so I tried the top slot, but instead of one thin strip of tape over the hole, I layered 4 pieces of tape, to emulate the stiffness that the surface of that clip provided. And not only did it work and the pages printed *where* they are supposed to, but no more *bang* after each page shot out! I'm sure that, after awhile, the tape will come undone, even though it *is* duct tape, but I can just redo it - no biggee. But most importantly, I didn't have to spend any money, nor wait days or a week to be able to print again.

Too many sad movies on lately - The Hours and Sylvia - both on today. Thanks goodness for the BBC channel and their comedy shows.

Been wanting to get outside to begin the endless raking up of winter's mess, but it's still too cold and windy - day after day.

Almost done with a belt design sample for the new book. Then to block and press it. But I gotta do a swatch first to test the pressing on. It's make with Berroco's Glace, the rayon ribbon. I figure I should be able to steam it from the wrong side with a cloth covering it.

I think some headbands are next - more small projects, until the yarns get in and I plot the cardigan and pullover designs for the book. I did a brooch, well, it was supposed to be a brooch, but it came out more like a patch that one might sew onto a bag, so I need to plan another brooch. And maybe retry this one in another yarn....

Turning 46 today - on that slippery slope sliding into 50!

A great house just came on the market today. Several have been coming on every day for a week or so, but most are the usual ranches, this one's an antique. But no more trips are planned until this house is painted, reappraised and listed. Getting there, getting there.....

On my 8th pair of CIC socks.

Spent yesterday fine-tuning the shaping on a piece for the next book and creating the chart with color symbols. When I'm fiddling with an idea, I work with light-colored thick yarns, so it's easier to see, then I knit up the final design piece in the desired yarn. In this case, I'll be swatching first in linen and cotton yarns, to see which will work best.

Am hoping those Goddess Yarns come in soon - I'm eager to feel them and swatch them up for the pullover.

I have the 2 purse samples done, next is the belt. I don't usually do belts. I never wear them, as I'm short waisted - no point in horizontally cutting myself into 2 short bits! But this one motif will make an ideal belt, esp. knit in the drapey rayon yarn I bought, and would look nice on a slender, taller-than-I knitter!

Well, work awaits...

Hello Cheryl Ann,
I'm writing this in here instead of adding to the comments area, as this was getting lengthy!

I'm glad you find my yarn posts to be of interest! I live, eat and breathe yarn, especially wool and other protein-fiber yarn. (There are mnay new yarns in which I see nothing to be joyful about.) With every project comes days, and sometimes weeks, of looking at the options to find the best choice I can make at that time.

Like my choice for a substitute for the cashmere yarn in my kits.

The *only* yarn I've found that has a soft feel, gets the gauge necessary, isn't horribly expensive, is available for me to buy at wholesale (or a really good discount) and is in a form which I can easily dye (or already comes in my preferred colors) is the Blueface Leicester / Alpaca blend that Webs has, BUT they have less than 200 lbs of it and may not be able to get more, as it comes from the UK, and the horrible exchange rate is not in its favor. I can't use a yarn that isn't likely to be around for very long. So, it's back to the drawing board, hoping another yarn comes on the market that will be doable. I've spent ages looking for a substitute yarn, and buying sample skeins to test. And it's not looking like I'm going to find it.

The Shearer's Yarn is OK, but for the same gauge range and nearly the same price, I prefer Peace Fleece - it's softer and has great tweedy blends. But it's nice to promote the small farms' yarns, like Helvetia and the Shearer's Yarn, just to give knitters, who like homespun-type yarns, other options besides the farms that advertise in the pubs, that we're all familiar with. I particularly enjoy seeking out breed-specific yarns, but they're few and far between. There's lots of small sheep breeders in the US, but not many producing yarn. The blended yarns, like Bartlettyarns, The Shearer's Yarn, etc all have a similar medium-grade feel - OK, but not distinctive, not special.

I saw another site that sold Cotswold yarn - now that might be great for socks, as it's not a soft yarn, but it is a long wool breed, and is shiny and sleek, so certain garments might do really well in it. I haven't bought any yet to try it, tho, but will, eventually.
Nistock Farms
Also there's that Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia yarn that Woodland Woolworks has. Haven't tried that yet either, but I'm not expecting Columbia wool to feel uniquely fabulous.

The new hank of yarn that was drying yesterday got swatched today. Before I washed it, I pulled off enough length for a small swatch to compare it to the washed swatch to come. So, today knit the unwashed length and the washed length ad both got 4.5 sts/1" on size 8 (5 mm) ndls. The unwashed (in the lanolin) felt nice to knit with, which surprised me. It had just enough lanolin but not so much as to feel gummy, and of course, it lightens in color after washing.

It's slightly better quality wool than Helvetia Shepherds wool yarns, but then again, their's is just $3.95/ 4 oz hank and who can argue with that!

This yarn is from The Shearer's Yarn and is $6/4 oz hank and comes in 35 colors. DO spend the $3 to get their color card. The colors online are much murkier/darker than in person. They don't take credit cards. I sent a check on the 4th for 1 hank and the color card, and they only charged $3 for postage, but it came Priority Mail, which means they're not charging full postage. And it arrived yesterday the 7th. How's that for quick snail mail service?!

I can see using it for an outdoorsy or otherwise not next-to-the-skin sweater, but I was hoping for a bit softer. It's supposed to be a blend of Blue face Leicester and other wools. It'd definitely got other wools. It has character, which I like to see in a straight-from-the-farm wool yarn, as well as the requisite bits of vegetation. 6-7 hanks for a med. size sweater would only be $36-$42, which is rather good, and helps to support a small farm.

It's not what I needed, though, for this book project. And I've been hemming and hawing about getting the Beaverslide. As is typical for a millspun Merino or Merino Rambouillet yarn, it does have a softened surface, slightly blurred, not crisp, more down-home in appearance, which is fine for many projects and for the many places they could be worn.

I think I'm looking for something a bit more elegant. Something I could put with a nice air of slacks or a skirt and go to dinner in. The design will not be a fussy one, no colorwork, just unusual accents on a stockinette body and sleeves. So, the stockinette part is the largest part and must look nice - drapey and defined.

So, I broke down and finally ordered 5 skeins to swatch from the Goddess Yarns site (which is processed through the Handworks Gallery). I bought 3 skeins in Ellen, the cotton/wool mix and 2 skeins in Emmanuella, the Merino yarn. But first, I looked at their kits and figured out that, in the size I would knit for myself, about 38", a cap-sleeved top takes only 7 balls, the 3/4 sleeve top took 9 I think, and the long sleeved top only took 10 balls. At $5.95 each, that's just $59.50 plus shipping. I've got my Patternworks "Pocket Yarn Yardage Guide" and the #'s aren't close, but the cards give bust size, not finished sweater size, and who knows what sweater length was used when determining the yardage.

I'm interested in seeing how the yarns swatch up, wash up and hold up to some rubbing. Then I'll calculate how far they'll go. Will let you know.

On the 5th pair of CIC socks. While I had dial-up, I'd keep the CIC sock knitting near the computer, so I could knit a row or 2 waiting for, well, *everything*! But not now. Hi-speed access means no waiting, so CIC knitting will have to be done at night.

I had ordered a hank of a small farm's yarn and their color card, which I had found while searching the web. As with many millspun yarns, it needed a bath first. I don't like the feel of a lot of lanolin or oils in yarns while knitting.

It's actually hanging outside drying in this - oh my - 70 degree weather!

So, the yarn should be dry any minute now and I can swatch. It feels like a good outerwear yarn, like Peace Fleece or other mid-range wool yarns. So, it looks like I'll be ordering the Beaverslidefor the pullover design for the upcoming book. I *really* want a wear-next-to-your-skin pullover. And the bulky pullover I designed recently in their worsted wt. Rambouillet Merino, used double, I've worn next to the skin and it's very comfortable - no itch whatsoever. I'll just have to deal with whatever pilling it decides to do. Everything comes at a price.

I'm thinking, though that I may *also* design a cardigan variation and use the Peace Fleece in that singing color I mentioned the other day - Georgia Rose, and either the Snowmaiden white or the Negotiation Grey, which has flecks of teal and purple in it. Yes, I think a cardigan would be nice, as well.

I have a new email addy. Dial-up access has finally been replaced with something a lot faster. So, dbdesign@ulster.net is kaput and
dawnbrocco@hvc.rr.com is now active.
dawn@dawnbrocco.com remains active.

Have 4 pairs done for CIC so far. Am casting on the 5th.

I've looked through every book, catalog and online for ideas for what to plant out front in the beds flanking the front bluestone walk and along the porch edges. Was thinking of Annabelle Hydrangea or Azaleas. I've not had luck with either hydrangeas or azaleas in other spots in the garden, but the azaleas I have were cheap and, so, I'm guessing weren't the best variety for our climate and the few hydrangeas were macrophylla - again, not the best choice.

So we went to Adam's the other day and scoped out the azalea varieties. Then I looked through my 2 gardening tomes to determine which variety would be best, then I searched online to double-check. Looks like the Hino Crimson of the Kurume variety should do OK in our zone 5 climate. But I'm checking with the nursery to make sure. 20 bushes is too costly to make an error.

Had horrible house-selling dreams last night, *all* night! Just the anxiety of not yet finding *our* ideal next home. I've found *mine*! but he's not crazy about it, so that's that. We've got 2 houses under our belts, but neither we've loved when we bought them. The first house we never came to love and this one is a love-hate relationship! I'd *really* like it if our next (and hopefully, last) house is something we both feel at home in, right off the bat. I'm not looking to have to do this move thing again in a few years, and we always have to pack and move ourselves - great for weight loss, bad for tension!

Oh well, that purse is still not done yet and then I need to write the pattern up before I forget it. And Pickles needs a bath. I've pulled out the shampoo and hair dryer and he promptly goes into hiding behind the furniture. Either I have to move stuff and literally pull him out or wait until he comes out for water and snatch him!

Started another batch of thick wool socks in small sizes for CIC. There's another trip planned to Russia at the beginning of May, so there's only this month for everyone to knit up a storm! I did tons of vests for the last trip, so I'm doing socks for this one (besides which my yarn stash is pitifully low!). I began last night and have 2 pairs done so far.

Been wracking my brain over the best choice of yarn for a pullover design for this book I'm working on. I like the tweedy heathers that Peace Fleece has, but it's definitely not a wear-next-to-your-skin yarn. I wanted something soft, with a decent amount of stitch definition, but won't also break the bank for a garment's amount of yarn. I'm intrigued by Goddess Yarns' Emmanuella - which is 100% merino, but it's $6/50 gram ball and 22 or so would be needed - ouch! And they're solids. I DO love heathers and tweeds, but try and find them in soft yarns - ha!

I may use Beaverslide's 90% fine wool/10% kid mohair again. I chose 2 colors. One is an accent color and the main color would be Wood Rose Heather. It's just that it doesn't *sing* like Peace Fleece's Georgia Rose does. That color blend is lighter, less murky and has tweedy bits of yellow in it. When I hold it against my fair skin, it looks SO lovely. They *do* have really great colors.

SO, which do you prefer - an ideal color in a less than ideal yarn or a more ideal yarn in a less than ideal color?

Maybe I can change the pullover to a cardigan, in which case, the Peace Fleece would do nicely *and* maybe do a pullover version in the Beaverslide, though maybe in their Glacier Heather - a light, greyed blue.... hmmm what say you reading knitters?

Has anyone used both these yarns and have a preference?