WhiteStar

More on our "Fine" Postal Service...

The mail arrived here at the house about 45 minutes ago. In it was a kit and patterns that I ordered from Blackberry Ridge in Wisconsin. According to the postmark they were mailed Tuesday afternoon. Not even two days ago.

Meanwhile the certified letter that I mailed 8 days ago has still not reached Washington state.

And YES, as Laurie points out in the comments, the USPS "tracking system" is a joke.

The only point at which something is REQUIRED to be scanned in is when it arrives at the destination post office. Most post offices scan when they receive the mail but it is NOT a requirement. Some post offices scan along the way but again, it is not a requirement. So I continue to sit here, entering my "tracking" number and having the USPS web site tell me "There is no record of this item."

Anne at 2:43 PM

|

Rant About the US Postal Service....

In what alternate universe should it take MORE THAN A WEEK for a first class letter (mailed certified mail no less) to go from Colorado to Washington state?

When I mailed it last Wednesday afternoon I was told the recipient would get it by Monday, Tuesday at the latest. It is now Wednesday and it has still not been scanned in at the local post office in Washington.

I made several calls to various post office departments today and they can't tell me why it's not there, where it is or when it might get there, and I was also reminded that "mail delivery is NEVER guranteed".

For this service I paid $7?

I sent another copy of the letter via Fed-Ex tonight. It was after pick-up so it won't go out until tomorrow but they absolutly positively gurantee it will be there by the deadline, which is Friday. And if it's not there, well, I'm screwed, but at least I'll get my money back from Fed-Ex because they do have a clue what customer service is all about.

Please note my over the top ire towards the post office is not due to just this one incident... last week I had two important items that were delayed in their delivery to me... one for God knows what mysterious post office secret reason, the other because the local mail carrier just flat out left it at the wrong address.

Anne at 9:48 PM

|

Finally....

...sewed the buttons on Ivy and photographed it and the Tasha II shawl as well.

The colors on Tasha II did not photograph very well, they are actually much more muted. These pictures make it look a bit "harsh".

VERY pleased with Ivy. That Silky Wool is nice stuff.

I have decided I really really really do need a dress form. It will be handy for fitting and for taking pictures. This is the one I'm looking at. Anyone ordered from this place?

Anne at 3:42 PM

|

I Promised Pictures...

... and I'm delivering!!

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom is getting so big....

.... it's hard to believe I'm only about 30% complete. At least, assuming I will need all 5 balls of Kidsilk Haze that's about where I am. Someone PLEASE tell me it takes just a tiny bit over 4 balls! If that were true I'd be closer to halfway there!

It is going to be gorgeous. Beautiful pattern + beautiful yarn. I wish I could better capture the color of the Candy Girl colorway. The silk just GLOWS thru the mohair fuzz.

Sampler Shawl

Now this really is just flying off the needles. Each row is 401 stitches long but the yarn, Alice Starmore Scottish Campion is super easy to knit.

There are only 150 rows in this pattern so I figure every 7 rows I've completed another 5%. Seven rows is NOTHING!

Birch

I succumbed. I am a lemming.

Two things did me in. This picture on Teresa's blog and then I saw the acid green Kidsilk Haze at my LYS. All she wrote.

Peacock Feathers

Yes, I am insane.

How could I resist, it is the Summer of Lace, isn't it?

I can't say enough good things about the Fiddlesticks pattern. Great chart, easy to follow and a terrific design. So far it is flying off the needles just like the Sampler. Well as much as anything knit with THREAD can fly.

When I decided to make this I knew I had the perfect yarn in my stash. I thought it was handdyed Zephyr silk/wool in blues and purples. But once I unearthed it, I realized it was thinner than Zephyr and it appears to be 100% silk.

I'm not sure how thin it is. I have exactly 4 ounces which is what the pattern calls for. If I have a little left over then I'll know it was an optical illusion and it really was about the same weight as Zephyr. But if I have a LOT left over then I'll know I really was knitting with THREAD.

Estes Park Wool Market

First I gotta give a big MWAHHHH to my husband. On MY birthday he went with me to Shuttle Spindles and Skeins where I indulged in my addiction. On HIS birthday he went with me to the Estes Park Wool Market where I again indulged in my addiciton. What a guy!

What did I get? 2 pounds of Alpine Meadows fiber from Bountiful. More lace weight yarn then you can shake a stick at. Some from Textiles a Manos, some from Cherry Tree Hill, some from Skaska, and some from a local vendor and I CAN'T FIND THEIR CARD right now But it's great! And some Brooks Farm Mohair.

And these:

Left to right: Greensleeves Mjolinor in Spalted maple, Polymer whorl from Foxden Fiber Arts and a Llama Top Whorl from Woolly Designs. All spin fabulously!

Pupdate:

Wow did you make it this far? Your reward is some TDC* pictures:

Introducing... WhiteStar's Beyond Thunderdome aka Max...

.... and WhiteStar's Brazilian Carnival aka Rio

Babe and her best friend Kira the Token Siberian enjoy a nap together

*TDC = Too Darn Cute

Anne at 7:40 PM

|

Excuses, Excuses...

Let's see if I can come up with some good reasons for my recent absenteeism...

1) 5 straight weekends of dog shows finally caught up to me and I was swamped at home with stuff that "needed" to be done.

2) I had to get ready to send puppies off to new homes. That's more work than you might think. I had to get 5 sets of eyes checked, 5 sets of shots done and there there is the putting together of puppy packets... pedigrees charts to be made, photos to be copied, contracts to be put together, etc, etc. And let's not forget.. trying to figure out which puppies go where and which one stays here!

3) I was oncall. Once every 3 months or so I am oncall at work for every database system at MCI (Yes, the phone company). That's about 5000+ databases on about 70+ DB2 subsystems on 29 mainframe computers all over the country. If I'm paged I have to return the call in 5 minutes and be on my computer working the issue within 10 minutes. I live 15 minutes from the nearest grocery store and 45 minutes from "town" so that means for 7 solid days and night I'm literally a prisoner in my own home. You'd think I'd get a lot of stuff done since I can't go ANYWHERE but instead I find the whole week to be "stressful" and I get NOTHING done.

4) When things finally settled down I went into a knitting frenzy. I finished Tasha II. I made significant progress on the Cherry Blossom Shawl and the Sampler Shawl. I started the Peacock Feather Shawl. And I'm casting on for Birch tonight. In this case Missing Blogger = Busy Knitter!

Pictures tomorrow. Really. Of knitting AND puppies. And Estes purchases.

P.S. Interesting... Bloggers spell checker flags the word "blogger" as an error....

Anne at 4:56 PM

|

Time for a Quickie....

Where I'll Be Tomorrow!!

Yeeee-Hah!!!!!

Anne at 10:34 PM

|

Lace Illusions*

I've been making steady progress on the Cherry Blossom Shawl. I LOVE the pattern and I LOVE the Rowan Kidsilk Haze. For years I wondered what all the fuss was about when it comes to this yarn. Now I know. Yum.My.

I have finished all the repeats required of Chart B!

I have completed the last increase row!

I have only 12 repeats of Chart C (8 row repeat) and the edging to go!

Yay! Are you impressed???

Now back to reality... I have also not yet used up one entire ball of the Kidsilk Haze. It takes 5 balls. That means I am only about 20% complete. sigh....

Circular and Triangular shawls will fool you that way....

Because it is so hard to create intersting photographs of unblocked lace I give you instead a picture of my favorite sterling silver and Austrian crystal stitch marker adorning Cherry Blossom...

9 Weeks Old

The first puppy goes home on Saturday. Another on Sunday, a third on Monday. I will miss each one, but it's time they start their new lives.

*I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall,
I really don’t know clouds at all.
-Joni Mitchell

Anne at 10:59 PM

|

Lace Knitting and Blogging Don't Mix

Lately I have been obsessed with lace knitting. As if you can't tell from the finished projects and works in projects lists in the side bar. 6 of the 7 projects I've finished this year are all lace or have lace trim. And 4 of the 11 projects in progress have something to do wtih lace.

And look what I just got from Kirtland's Yarn Barn?

That would be three Fiddlesticks Knitting LACE shawl patterns (with a 4th that was back ordered arriving in the future) and two LACE patterns by Margaret Halas.

And I also ordered and downloaded several patterns by Mary McCall.

The problem with lace knitting is that it does not photograph well while being worked on. A lace shawl in progress looks like nothing other than a misshapen bag.

I could show you day after day of detail... but that never looks good either...

Of course this does not apply if you are Wendy. She knits everything so fast, including huge lace shawls, that her blog is never at risk of displaying week after week of pictures of a slowly growing misshapen bag.

8 Week Old Sammies are Just Plain CUTE

Better than pictures of unblocked lace knitting, don't you think?

Anne at 12:00 PM