Q & A

My last post resulted in two questions that I thought were best answered in a separate post.

First, Rani asked:

Can I hire you to teach me cables????

You don't need to hire me. Will you be at the usual place on Saturday? My DD#1 will be there most of the day for National Dance Week festivities, so I could certainly show you how in, oh about 15 minutes. Right, Guinifer? Just bring along some knitting supplies and a cable needle or a double pointed needle, if you don't have a cable needle yet. I'll show you both the cable needle style and how to do it without a cable needle. You can e-mail me if Saturday won't work.

Guinifer would like to know what yarn I'm using for the eye pillows. Now, I didn't make a big to-do about this but I've generally been trying to follow the "Knit from your Stash" guidelines this year. I knew if I officially joined, the desire to purchase yarn would become overwhelming and I'd fail miserably. So I tricked myself and "unofficially" joined. I know, I know, I'm a loonytoon but mental games like these work for me.

All that to explain the fact that I'm using some truly ancient Luster Sheen yarn from my stash. My Mom is the greatest bargain hunter in the world. She scours second-hand stores and scores great bargains. This yarn happens to be some that she found at a second-hand store for pennies on the dollar years ago. I suspect it was because it was because "pure aqua" had slipped from favor as a popular color back then. It eventually found its way into my stash, where it's been marinating ever since, waiting for the perfect project to come along.

I had some beautiful wool/cotton blends that would have worked for the eye pillows but I was concerned about people being sensitive to the wool. Since these pillows are used on the eyes and face, I especially wanted something that would be very non-irritating. I searched my stash for cottons or linens but didn't have anything in my stash that was fine enough to knit to gauge. This Luster Sheen is 100% acrylic, it knit up to gauge perfectly, and the color seems very appropriate for the project. Voila, stash-busting and gift knitting in one.

Thank heaven there aren't acrylic moths.