WHAT IS RAVELRY?

I have been asked what is ravelry? WELL for those of you who do not know, ravelry is a knit and crochet community.
Now this is directly from ravelry and is their words from their site so it is in quotes "Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.
The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. The Yarn Harlot wrote recently about Representing, showing the world the power of our community, and I believe that on this site we can really show the strength of our numbers and the depth of our creativity.
So what can you personally do on Ravelry? You can talk about your own projects, integrate that information into your personal website and contribute to someone else's project a world away.
If you are not a blogger, we give you a great way to share and show off your projects, participate in -alongs, and socialize with other crafters. If you are a blogger than Ravelry is the perfect complement to your online journal; it provides structure and organization. All of your information is easy to enter and easy to find. You will not need to update your own FO album again- it is all here on Ravelry!"
You can check it out and sign up here: https://www.ravelry.com/account/login.
You can read the ravelry blog here: http://blog.ravelry.com/.
It looks like it might be a lot of fun to join. A couple of the gals in my knitting get together group already belong. Others in the group are hoping to get their invites soon. Since my last post I have moved up 201 spots on the list with now ONLY 8251 people ahead of me instead of 8452 and a lot more behind me. At the rate of about 200 invites being sent out daily it is going to be at least 41 or 42 days until I get my invite to ravelry. In my last post there were 4037 behind me waiting for invites and now there are 4577 waiting for invites. Boy is word getting around about this new community.

I still have not received my Knit Picks order but any day now is when I expect it to arrive (you don't see those crossed fingers on the keyboard do you)? Here is a photo of my finished ITE4 tote which is waiting to be filled with some of those Knit Picks items.

The outside of the bag.


The inside of the bag.

As you can see there is a lot of room for me to put goodies. I want to fill it up to the top but still be able close the three snaps. I chose snaps instead of a zipper as I thought the snaps looked nicer. There is also a snap on the pocket. The bag is a sage green and navy blue. It is not grey and black as it photographed.

AAHHHHH My ebay sales are over and two of the three auctions received bids and sold. One item is going to the states, one item is going to Australia and one item (the tote bag) is staying with me. Maybe I priced the tote bag too high or maybe no one was interested at this time. I have some more items I will try to list on ebay Saturday afternoon or evening.

Tired eyes say enough I need sleep.

FILLING IN SOME MISSING LINKS

HMMM I almost didn't get to do this post and who knows if this will even go through. Does anyone else have problems with blogspot? Everytime I tried to upload a photo it would ask me to sign in, so I would and then I would find the photo again, click upload and yup I would be again asked to sign in?????? This went on and on and on and on...... Anyway I finally shut the computer down and now it seems to be working BUT for how long?

I will start with showing the finished hat or cloche I knit for the Maise Dobbs whoduknit project. I felted it Saturday while visiting my friend Cathy in Transcona. What do you think? Is it finished or do you think it need a flower or something? Yes you can see the glitz even if you can't tell from the photo. It is quite close to the head like a big beanie hat.


This next photo is a close up.
The hat is from the book Knit it! Felt it! There are some other interesting patterns in this book. I would love to make the Shades of Blue Wristers. In the photo of them in the book it shows them felted but you can see the ribbing pattern very distinctively. I wonder how this happens when you felt. I thought when you felt you loose any and all pattern and the finished piece looks like a piece of fabric so to speak. If anyone can help me figure this out I would love to hear how this happens.

So I went to Transcona to visit Cathy and while there I threw some of my dark summer clothes in her washer along with this hat and went home with a few clean clothes in addition, to my hat having been felted. Oh I did two loads of wash today but have a couple more to do. Thanks Cathy for letting wash some of my stuff while visiting. AND Cathy made me two pom poms for my bag for the ITE4. For whatever reason I can't make pom poms. I even purchased the pom pom maker that was for sale in Avon. I do have to own up I didn't try to use it. I wanted the pom poms to look good on the bag as it is a gift. I will have to get around to trying to make some with this pom pom maker one day.

Okay so now you know I was at Cathy's. Getting to Cathy's by car isn't really too far. It is about 20 minutes. Unfortunatly I don't own a car so I have to take the bus which means it is about an hour each way. If I go via one bus I have about a 15 minute walk from the bus which is how I went Saturday. I can also get there on one bus and be dropped off just around the corner but that is only at rush hour or I can take two buses and the second one will also leave me just around the corner but the connection to the second bus isn't always that great. Who is "this Cathy" since I know several Cathys online.

I removed the photo of Cathy for those who are wondering where it is. A better photo will be in this spot I hope soon,

Thanks Cathy for the pizza. Did you know I took another slice while I was sitting at the computer?

About those three items I put on ebay I want to let you all know where you can find them if you are interested. Here are the photos of what I listed.

Here is the link for the 5-piece bathroom dollhouse furniture: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280134110916&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:CA:31 and the listing number is: 280134110916

Here is the link for the minature shoe and bag: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280134114236&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:CA:31 and the listing number is: 280134114236

The black and white canvas tote can be found at: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280134098576&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:CA:31 and the lsiting number is: 280134098576

So if any of these are of interest to you, check them out. With a link and number you should have no problems. This is only #2,3,4 I have listed with ebay which is also very new to me.

I have been selling Avon a long time and I have lots I can sell so if anyone is interested just let me know and I will check and see if I happen to have it. Now I don't have everything. Oh and for those in the states when you order online you cannot put my phone number in with your order to give me the credit. You can only do that if you live in Canada. AND Avon is global????

I have given a lot of thought to my ITE4 bag and have decided that snaps would look better than a zipper so after the lining has been completed I will sew in the snaps. Then when it is completed I will upload a photo for you all to see. We have to mail our totes and bags by July 18 but since some of the goodies I want to include with my bag will not have arrived by the time the bag needs to be posted I have decided to send the bag first and "all" the goodies after seperately. They will probably only be mailed a few days apart but the bag needs to be received by by partner on August 1. That means "my" bag will be arriving soon also. I have been some beautiful bags on the blog and I love lots of them but my favorite so far I think was done by Deb. She wrote: it is going to another part of the country, can't say which state but since I don't live in the states it won't be coming to me. BOO HOO!! BUT I am sure I will love the bag I receive from my partner just as much. I hope my partner loves her bag. Here is a teaser photo of my bag. If you want to see it put together but not completely finished you will have to search the ITE4 to find it.

Oh since I am filling in blanks I guess you think I am going to list which books I ordered from Knit Picks BUT you are going to have to wait a while for me to tell you.

Shelagh how was your kintting camp? Did you come home with some money or did you have to buy another piece of luggage to bring home all the yarn and goodies you purchased? I look forward to seeing you and all your new goodies on Tuesday before we go to our knitting get together.

Boy was I having problems with Firefox today so I am back using Explorer. I will use Firefox when I am working on ebay. I had problems reading mail, uploading photos and sending emails. It could partly be my computer which is eight years old and I am still using the NOW unsupported windows 98 (2nd edition). One day I will get a newer model computer and monitor but until then I baby this one.

Look at the time. No wonder I am tired but being tired and trying to get to sleep and staying asleep are totally different things.

Well What should I Call this Post

I don't know what to call this post. I thought of frustrations, no knitting I've been at the frog pond swimming instead or decisions decisions decisions.


Let's see why decisions decisions decisions? Remember those books on sale at Knit Picks. Yes, those all books that are 40% off. Well I wanted them all. Almost all of them anyway. AND I didn't think I was going to be able to make a decision and chose only one, a couple or even a few. Especially when they are 40% off. It was just terrible. I did finally get it down to only 11 books (there were over 100 to choose from) and them I was stumped. Remember I wanted them all. I paced, I thought while I paced, I crossed out one or two and then changed my mind and crossed a different one or two off and then would change my mind again. BUT finally I did make up my mind on which I would get for me and one for a swap. I also got some yarn for socks for me. Not that I need any more sock yarn. HEY what does need have to do with it anyway. I also got some yarn for a swap pal. I finished my order off with something else for my pal in one of the swaps I am in, something that was asked for. Last but not least I ordered the Baby Surprise DVD for me which I've previously ordered but wasn't available yet. HMM!!! I wonder if that will that help me finish the UFO baby surprise sweater I have in my LR staring at me. All it needs to no longer be a UFO is to sew up the two seams. Of course that is unless I want to add a collar and cuffs. It then will be ready to give away to someone. I also ordered some items from Knit Picks for my friend Cathy. One of the books she wanted wasn't available and if she wants it she will have to wait until next month to order it but they said it would still be on sale. So instead she ordered extra yarn. They only ship to Canada on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope it comes quick so I can add those goodies to my swap. It is funny. I called and spoke to someone in Vancouver Washington who took the order but it is shipped from Ohio I was told. I thought the sales rep on the phone said it went from Ohio to somewhere in NY close to the border and comes over to Canada that way. A very around about way but by doing it this way it is brokered through a craft company for a 10% fee and it is delivered directly to me with no customs fees or duty. Apparently the 10% covers any taxes and the extra $5.00 delivery fee charged when ordering from out of Canada. AND with the dollar so strong here it is even a better deal than it would have been a few months ago or last year even. BUT boy did I sweat over which book I should get. And as soon as my package arrives oh my some more knitting goodness.



Now why the frustrations and why I knitted very little. Last night I thought I would use up that last half ball of yarn on my Noro serape shawl and then put it away, unfortunately in the UFO pile until I can purchase some more Noro on sale. There I am knitting merrily along doing several rows of garter stitch for a while with no problem until I get to the pattern row and it doesn't work. YUP I was short a stitch. Now how could that be. I had to tink it back to fix it and when I thought I had it fixed and started to knit the tinked rows again after counting three times the correct number of stitches it still was short a stitch when I finished that first reknit row. I even found the original missing stitch that seemed to have been dropped but wasn't really running down the shawl which would have made it obvious to find without going to the frog pond and getting my feet wet. It was strange. I would count one way and it was correct but when I counted the other way I was a stitch short. I just wasn't getting anywhere. It was like when you knit and knit and measure and then knit and knit some more and when you measure you haven't seemed to have gotten anywhere. There must be a little knitting frog or elf somewhere above sprinkling some magical dust on the knitting and us just to make sure we do not get to full of ourselves thinking how wonderful the knitting is going along and what a great knitter we are especially when the knitting we are doing is a very easy pattern. So no knitting for me on Thursday. AND no knitting for me on Friday.

Friday I put three new items on ebay. I had to talk with the live chat computer ebay person three times. I had to clean out my history again and I had to install Firefox. I have to admit ebay was easier to list items with Firefox. I wonder if blogger will also work better with Firefox. Only it is something new to get used to. It has messed up all my favorites which were in alphabetical order. No I do not have an A personality, just check my apt and you will agree with me but it is easier to find what you are looking for when it is in alphabetical order. And it is difficult with Firefox to have my two yahoo email programs open. It keeps changing the one to the other leaving me with two screens of one email program. I also worked on my tote for the ITE4 this evening. I am putting a lining in and am fighting a mental block on it and the zipper I want to put in the bag. It is not that I haven't made bags and totes before or put zippers and linings in them. AARRGHHHH!!!!!

And now I can't sleep. BUT I better try again. I am going to visit by friend Cathy in the nether regions of the city sometime Saturday. While there and watching her walk (she had a total knee replacement about six weeks ago and will have the other done in a Sept) I am going to felt a hat for the whoduknot group Maisie Dobbs project and put Cathy to work on making me two pompoms for my ITE4 tote. Gotta keep Cathy out of mischief.

Solara who was bugging me while I was trying to make a test lining for the tote this evening says MEOW and will you get to bed already again.

Gotta say bye for now..