Learning Curves

I'm learning. Patterned dishcloths are best done on solid colors, especially if the pattern is an OBJECT. The first photo is a nurse's hat, as my mother was a nurse (and so was HER mother), and the second is a Mothers Day tic-tac-toe board. Sigh. Live and learn. I bought lots of solid colors today.

I also bought the yarn for my husband's summer/cotton blanket, which won't likely be done for THIS summer. It's a Lion Brand Pattern. If you search under "fireman" you'll find it. (It is of the for sale variety, so there are no good pictures, really.) The pattern says to "cross stitch" the designs over the finished sections, but I've decided I don't think that will look right, nor will it stand up to a man who likes to have his dogs sit with him. So, I'm going to attempt to turn it into my first intarsia work. Joy! I also had to order the yellow, the black, the grey and the taupe I'm using instead of the second grey, because fire hoses aren't really grey, except right after a fire. My husband also wants the engine to be green and white, because our station's fleet is indeed green with a white top, and he wants the helmet to be white, because he's a battalion chief. We'll see about that one; I wear black, he's worn black, red, yellow and white, so he'll get whatever helmet I feel like giving him. The white might not happen simply because I'm not buying skein # 18 just so he can have a white helmet. If the dalmation doesn't use up all the white, he'll get a white helmet. I'm using Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece.

I also need to do the dishcoths for my mother inlaw's Mothers Day gift, but I had the yarn for that. It's just flecked with color, so I hope it will work out okay. I bought some Lions Brand Cotton Ease in terracotta to try, because it felt great. I also bought a linen cotton blend to try, because another customer in the LYS whispered that she liked that best. Same customer also recommended Knitter's Stash, which I then rushed to my local bookstore to buy, as the LYS was sold out. I grabbed three knitting magazines while I was there, and one of them will go to my secret pal, so I can't tell you about them, or about the other goodies I picked up today. I plan to ship out on Monday, so maybe by the end of next week, I won't be anonymous anymore.

Since Michael's is next door to my bookstore of choice, I had to go in. I picked up a book there too, on felted bags, but I'm not even saying which one, because there's a chance I'll make one out of there for THAT pal, when the time comes! I picked up some Wool Ease there, in Ravenclaw (book) and Slytherin colors for my Charmed Knits projects. I'm generally not much on shopping, but I had to shop for my pal, and I had to buy that yarn to start hubby's blankie, so it's not my fault the other things found their way home with me. The LYS owner even agreed that the yarn bought for hubby shouldn't count as part of my yarn purchases, because he asked for it!

So, not much excitement here, but there will be a few FOs this week and next, and since blankie is done in sections, progress reports are possible too. I'm also kinda' waiting patiently to begin the socks TBL, The Pro and I are going to start in due time. I have enough yarn to keep me out of trouble for a while.

Did I mention it is finally spring here??