When I'm Stressed, I Knit!

Pattern for Lotus Leaf Scarf

I have shared with you about my love of and addiction to YARN.  About a year ago I purchased a scarf pattern from e-patternscentral.com and have enjoyed making these scarves sooo much.  Every skein of yarn is a new adventure to see how the yarn will look made up into a scarf.  Last winter I made and gave away about 30 scarves.  I currently have 12 scarves on consignment at the Victorian Rose in Heppner.  And I recently made six more.

A couple weeks ago my patient hubby and I went into a relatively new yarn shop in The Dalles, OR called The Whole Ball of Yarn.  Sisters, April Bachofner and Paulette Brook opened their yarn shop on East 2nd Street last December.  They have a beautiful assortment of very nice yarn plus offer knitting, crocheting and spinning classes.  No ladies, that's not spinning as in exercise class, it's using a spinning wheel to spin yarn:))) If you click on their link below you will see new yarn arrivals plus special sales.

Four scarves on left made from Elsebeth Lavold's
Silky Flamme` yarn.  Top right made from Lion Brand
Homespun and bottom right made from Deborah Norville
Serenity Chunky weight yarn.

Okay, now to the reason for our visit to the yarn shop.  I wanted to make scarves for the ladies at Hire Electric where my husband works.  They are always so helpful to Bob and I love doing things for them. We were looking for some nice bulky weight yarn that would knit up nicely into scarves for the ladies.  I ended up purchasing Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Flamme` made from 50% Peruvian Wool, 30% FS Alpaca and 20% silk.  It is sooo soft and I just knew it would be nice and warm.  The yarn has varying thicknesses so didn't knit up as smooth as I had hoped but still very nice.

One of my daughter's dearest friends just had surgery this week so she asked me to make her friend a scarf in blue--just finished it this morning. Will mail it out today.

A scarf takes me about six hours to knit.  I am not a speed knitter.  While knitting I feel relaxed but productive.  I knit everywhere--in the car (not while I'm driving), in bed, at meetings, while "watching" TV or a movie, while visiting with friends.

Recently I gave two scarves as gifts that were not appreciated:(  At first my feelings were hurt but then I was reading an article by Belinda Acosta called "Changing the World in a Stitch" (Knit Simple magazine, Holiday 2010 issue) and she captured how I feel when I knit or crochet something for someone I love and I guess my "friends" missed the point.  Belinda said, "Is there a better way to show tangible evidence of love than by knitting someone a pair of socks or mittens to protect them from the cold?"  I would add scarves.  So know this.  If I knit you a scarf, it is my way of showing you I love you.  Simple as that!

I am so thankful for each one of you who take your time to read my blog.  One of my Thursday blogs will have to be on the enjoyment I get from writing this blog.  Keep warm!  Kat

www.thewholeballofyarn.com
www.lionbrand.com
www.e-patternscentral.com