Gotta Share

OK, I have wanted to do this for a while but I have, as usual, put it off. Tonight I took pictures of the two vases I have sitting on a table beside my loveseat in my livingroom. One holds my straight bamboo needles with a couple of extra special items. Sitting in the vase are two needle cases hand-made for me by my wonderful Prez LB. Inside one sits my alpaca needles (look close!) and the other holds my penguin needles. Both of these I purchased from a wonderful talented knitter Tami who sells a bunch of great needles etc. at her website Designsbytami.com and I plan to get more there and eventually fill the vase with Tami needles. :) This is the picture on the left below this rambling. On the right is a picture of my "twisted" needles in a vase with a butterfly. Yes, the pink theme runs rampant. :) Each set is a different color and therefore a different size. I bought only what I would use. These I picked up at Joann's. My first set came from Modesto and the rest I purchased in Chico. Here are the needles:






OK now I have to share something else. My Secret Pal (Kaylee - hi Kaylee!!) sent me some beautiful alpaca yarn in my first package. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it but I wanted it to be something special and something for ME. Brooke kindly pointed me to a very nice pattern for a scarf so I printed it out and the first time I tried it, got very confused. The "yf" is a yarn over (easy enough) but the pattern says to knit 3 stitches then pass the 1st over the other 2. It doesn't say "Oh yeah, once you've passed it over, drop it" but I figured that out for myself. I have a philosophy that if it's handmade, it shouldn't be perfect. Well this scarf is far from perfect but I don't care... it's pretty and soft and I have figured out what I was doing wrong and hopefully won't do it again. The latest round of being off count was due to my own stupidity... I was trying to knit and answer the phones at noon. Bad idea. :) Anyway, I am going to post a picture here of the scarf (being done on size 9 "twirly" needles because I knit tightly so I went up a size). Hope you can see the needles. Then I will try to post up a picture of the pattern up close. Sometimes blogger doesn't like to let me put too many pictures. Cross your fingers. And btw, yes, the large doily under the vases is one I made. It wasn't as hard as it looks but it was time consuming so it's a one-of-a-kind. I have never made another. There is a big one (I call it the doily with wings) which I have made several of and I am thinking if I can get back into crochet this summer while it's supposedly too hot to knit, maybe I can finish the first big doily I have sitting in the thread basket and then try to make another one like the one above (started with motifs, joined and then just worked around) or one with wings. Anyway, I feel kinda bad that I haven't given doilys for a while but this year I think it'll be felted bowls unless I catch doily fever. Right now I am still in the throes of felted fever. :) Anyway, hopefully I can post the scarf pictures. Well apparently blogger won't let me so next post, scarf pictures!