Saturday will be a great day to head north for yarn!
I’m having another destash sale as well!

Craft De-Stash Sale
Multiple sellers

Tools and supplies for all sorts of crafts including:
Knitting, Crochet, Weaving, Spinning, Sewing, Beading, Woodworking, Soapmaking,
Cross-Stitch, and Embroidery.

Lots of great yarn!
Kimono fabric, books and lots more!

Saturday April 25th
10am-3pm
12102 Arrowwood Dr
Austin, TX 78727

Craft De-Stash Sale
Multiple sellers

Tools and supplies for all sorts of crafts including:
Knitting, Crochet, Weaving, Spinning, Sewing, Beading, Woodworking, Soapmaking,
Cross-Stitch, and Embroidery.

Lots of great yarn!
Kimono fabric, a knitting machine
and lots more!

Saturday March 28th
10am-3pm
12102 Arrowwood Dr
Austin, TX 78727

The Here Comes the Sun Sock pattern is now for sale. You can buy it now through Ravelry using the link on the right sidebar. Or you can go on to Ravelry and buy it there. If you are logged in to Ravelry at the time of purchase, the pattern will be added to your library. This works even if you use the buy it now button.

The Details:
Here Comes the Sun Socks $7.95 USD

Originally introduced to the Griffin Yarns Sock Club in October 2007,

The Here Comes the Sun Sock pattern is designed to showcase self striping fingering weight sock yarns or other strongly patterned sock yarns. It has an easy moebius cuff, and garter stitch accents.

Techniques Used : Knit, Purl, Knit 2 together, Purl 2 together, yarn over, slipped stitch edge, stockinette grafting, garter stitch grafting, crochet cast-on or other provisional cast on.

This are my 2 new kitties now 8 months old. Maia is the top cat in this picture and Lino is the bottom cat . Excuse the expressions, I woke them up taking pictures.

lucy laundry

Originally uploaded by knitrn

This is my first baby, Lucy who died in February.  Her Favorite place to sit was on a pile/stack of clean laundry.  When the top was no longer clean due to cat hair, she would move on to the next stack of clean laundry.

The good news is I graduated from Nursing School in December, and moved back to Austin. Since then I have been settling in to my new place, new job, and new cats. Back in February I had to put my 13 year old cat Lucy to sleep. She had something like kitty COPD and the medicine quit working for her. I am just glad I got to spend a few more months with her and she was happy during that time. I got Lucy when I was a junior at LSU (for my first degree). Then when I decided to go back to school away from Austin, my parents offered to keep her at their house. This was for the best, I had moved back in with them already so Lucy was comfortable there. Also we had a vet that we loved taking good care of Lucy with her health issues- no stressing the kitty with breathing problems. This meant for the last 2 years I have lived without a cat in the house, only to visit on vacations. I have had a cat since I was 3. In that time, the only time I did not have a cat actively in the house with me were my first 2 years in the dorms at LSU, and the last 2 years in Houston. But, I always knew that I had my cat at home waiting for me to get back to them. After a few restless nights without a cat around I went to Town Lake Animal Shelter and began to look for a pair of relatively young cats or kittens to adopt. I ended up with two Maine Coon littermates, Lino and Maia, that are 5 months old in this picture (see my next posts). They have certainly kept things hopping around here.

My place is almost fixed up enough for visitors to come over. I am working on installing the living room floor right now, and the bathrooms just need some touch up painting, hardware installed, and a little decorating.

In Griffin Yarns News -

The Represent! Hat is now available through Ravelry. I am doing a final check on the first Sock Club Pattern to be available for sale to the general public and it will be for sale in the next few days. It will be available as a Ravelry download (links coming), and print copies can be ordered by your local yarn store. I’ll post when it is up.

In Griffin Yarns news- The first shipment of the Sock Club went out a week ago and we have reports of the packages being recieved. If you are a member of the sock club please let us know that you have recieved the package, if you have not done so already. You can contact us by email, comment on this blog, or on the forum board we sent you the link to. This is a private bulletin board for members of the sock club. In a few days I will post a picture of the sock pattern included in the package and some more information on the pattern and my design process.

There is also a slight redesign/refocus of the website coming. I will be incorporating Griffin Yarns updates in with my technique/educational posts and other general posts. The blog title may change, and we will have better access to the free pattern downloads. There are more free patterns that will be posted along with the Represent! hat pattern, but we are waiting until the new page is set up.

That’s all for now, I hope I don’t take as long to post next time.

1. Use full spectrum compact fluorescent bulbs in your work lamps. They allow you to see more detail, and make color matching easier. And they are kinder to the environment and your pocket book.

2. Ride public transportation. Sure it may take longer than driving yourself, but you have time to knit and/or listen to podcasts while in transit. Another reason I like riding public transportation is that I am not the one dealing with the other yahoos driving on the roads. I’m in Houston, TX, not much public transportation here, but I still manage to use public transportation for a major portion of my commute to school and clinicals. This also saves me money on parking in the Medical center which can be up to $10.00 per day.

3. Use reuseable bags at the grocery store. There are a number of patterns out there for you to knit your own reusable bags. The one I use is the stow away shopping bag from Oat Couture – it folds in to a pouch. I have 2 that I currently use and a third in progress.  I have loaded the bag with library books and it is still comfortable to hold and use.  

4. Recycle your yarn (1). Save your scraps for another use. I save all my sock yarn scraps for trying out new patterns, and to make repairs. I use other yarns for general swatching, cast ons, waste yarn, and scrap projects. Some people make amazing things with their scraps while others use the scraps for decorating. There was a big discussion with lots of ideas on Ravelry this week. I have scored some beautiful silk yarn that I am going to redye for only $6.00 for three sleeveless shells worth(approx 600 yards or more each).

5. Recycle yarn (2) Unravel and repurpose the yarn from ufo’s that you are not going to finish or find sweaters made of nice yarn at thrift stores and unravel them. I scored some beautiful silk yarn for only $6.00 for three sleeveless shells. I have approximately 600 yards or more from each shell. I am planning on overdyeing the yarn.

I’ll be back as soon as I get through all this work I have to do to pass my comprehensive exam to graduate.