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I love Men with Accents!

ChicKnits got mentioned on ABC Australia and I just played it one more time to hear these guys say "ChicKnits" with such sexy phrasing!!!

Hear a RealAudio copy of the Broadcast...

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Comments (6)

Friday Five:

1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from?
HE: Irish; SHE: Polish.

My favorite Ms. Mix-Alike is none other than the fabulous Dovima:




2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit?
Since I know less about my Irish family, I would like to visit there. My father always told me about all the relatives I could go stay with - around Tipperary County. Once my GrandMother Katherine Mary and my Great Aunt June went overseas and came back with rubbings off of tombstones in a family cemetary and started to record the Tree. I really want to get my hand on those but the person I think has them won't share or even suggest where they could be! (OKC: because I *think* Ireland is more of a knitting country, I fantasize about all the yarn I could score as well...)

3. Which would you least like to visit? Why?
I know less about Poland - but I still would like to visit there someday. All of my heritage is a huge curious oppurtunity. I know more of my Polish family here in the USA. There is a community in Michigan where I am related to 98% of the people.

It was a big scandal when my parents got married. He was from St. James Parish (Irish) and she was from St. Adelbert's (Polish). It was an intermingling of the species of some sort that, in the day, was frowned on by all (especially my Polish grandmother (Busia)). My Father was a Red-Haired Blue-eyed Handsome Devil and eventually wore the family down by bringing them expensive fresh-roasted mixed nuts every Friday (Payday). Why this worked, no one could explain but he was always offering to do things for my grandmother as well, and always carried through. Doesn't HURT to be kind to your future MiL...

4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? Since we are like many modern families, we are mostly scattered to the Four Winds at this point. Being in Chicago, there are plenty of Irish things to do - my favorite being the SouthSide St. Patrick's Day Parade. I live in a partially Polish community here so enjoy just the familiarity that brings but am partial to calling my feet "Pierogi's" when they get puffy from this hot weather...

5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? The Polish Family of Gigowski came first and settled in rural Eastern Lower Michigan. That was Five Generations ago...

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Comments (1)

A fun Game for You...

Interested in seeing how colors look together in a patterned sweater? Look no further than this Cool Site from Patons yarn. (needs a browser Flash Player Plug-in - site links you up!)

After you pick your colors, this program creates a fabulous Fair Isle Sweater Pattern for you to make! Save and then print out your instructions using the created PDF file for best results...

You get a lot of different patterns that can be seperated to make headbands, sections in a sweater like a border, or the yoke of a sweater! Try making a purse with a Fair Isle Flap or Top Edge!

I've been going through my stash to see what's up to poach for some Fall Knitting fun and found that I have alot of Worsted Weight Wool leftovers. I think Felted Purses would make great Christmas presents (Hey - it's never too early for a Type A person to start making their Xmas presents in the air-conditioned splendor of their own apartment...) Fair Isle felts down very beautifully!!!

Try it you'll like it!

Comments (1)

I missed Christmas in July

So we'll have to make do with Xmas in August...

Dontcha just want to fantasize about getting your gifting projects done early???

Yeah, like that'll happen...

I do have a couple rockn' Wool You Order felted bag patterns I got at a yarn store earlier this year. Very interesting things - I'd like to meet the brains behind the designs sometimes.

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Cool Felted Purse Patterns, etc.

Free Felted Bag Pattern

OMG - Janet Scanlon Designs

Wool You Order (check out all their patterns!)

Designs by Shelley

Another Free Felted Bag Pattern by Vivian Hoxbro!

Ready-Made

 

 

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Or, you could live a little, make a swatch, measure the gauge, felt it, measure the gauge, then design your own big, little, shaped, flapped original Bag...

My first Felting Project

Comments (1)

Monday Morning Mirth

Shining star for you to see...

I just had to show you my new sale shoes from Payless!

I LOVE THEM!!! I love Star Jones - I have a feeling with her onboard there might be some surprises in the stylings at your local ShoeBox...

Comments (8)

This Little Piggy Went to Market

My very favorite Chicago Yarn Store

the Knitting Workshop
2218 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
773 929-5776

is having their Summer Sale:
40% off all Summer Yarns.

Now that I've already gotten mine (!) be sure and stop by;
they have a fabulous selection...

From Left to Right:
Rowan HandKnit DK Cotton and Cotton Glace.
YUM!!!

 

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Read Erica Lee's Review in Knitter's Review
(used to be called the Weaving Workshop)

the Knitting Workshop

 

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seen @Park West Monday Night
Performance to tune-up
MTV Awards appearance on
August 29th...

Watch for Jimmy doing an
80's song montage to the
back-beat of Hammer's
Can't Touch This...

 

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Comments (8)

======   ChicKnits Hmmmdinger   ======
or knitting ideas that made me go Hmmm...

the Anatomy of Pandora's Box

How did

THIS

become

THIS?

Because Somebody is determined to teach me to respect the DRAPE & FIBER CHARACTERISTICS of the yarn I try to substitute in a pattern that calls for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TYPE OF YARN!!! Even when the substitution yarn knits to the same GAUGE as the called for yarn!!!

This is a valuable, although painful, lesson. Yarn substitution is the norm for me, it seems. Either the yarn called for is unavailable, as in this case, or I have something in the stash I want to use and think is perfect (not), or maybe I want to save some $$$. Lots of knitters just can't afford the designer yarns called for in patterns. (There's been a lot of discussion on the YahooKnitList about this if you're interested.)

Even I, with my piggy ways, have acquired most of my yarn on sale. That's right. I'm ususally one or more season's off with yarn purchases. Only if I see something that makes me faint at this point, do the purse strings open.

SO, I tried to use a non-stretchy, linen blend yarn better suited for a tunic in a piece that should've been very CLINGY and body-shaping to the point of NoBra.

Imagine my chagrin, after my happiness in Mattress Stitching the piece, in pulling it over my head and having a heinous sack of potatoes hanging on my frame!

What me worry?! Hell no...

I just ripped it back to the armhole shaping and redid it so now it will respect it's original nature. A fitted tunic with sleeves...

Lucky me, I had to buy a couple more skeins for the sleeves and now it was 40% off...

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Notice the Low-Rent stitch holder I made out of a out-of-order old bamboo needle and two rubber bands to hold the back stitches...

 

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Comments (1)

Everbody Knows even City Grrls have to Rough It...

My idea of camping is going way up North in WI where you lay like butta on some dock onna lake during the day and at night go to the Water Skiing Show...

Where you eat many grilled bratwurst while beer might be foamin out of your nose because it's the bad habit of your friend's to make you laugh with a mouth full because they know and abuse your wonderful talent ever since the night you passed a single grain of rice at the local Vietnamese restaurant..

Where you've slathered yourself with sooo much skin so soft that your avon lady has bought herself a Land Rover...

And when the campfire and all the fun dies down, you sleep in a nice clean bed at your friend's house! Bathroom to the left...

Comments (4)

Monday Morning Mirth

If UR Ready to Dance...

READ Why I am Raquel!

Comments (0)

I am an AirWave...

Maximum Big Sky Country demands Maximum Respect...

When you're sitting on the dock, with a cool breeze and chubby clouds just softly drifting by, the only thing to do is float right along with it. Sometime in the month of August, even the Far North becomes the Caribbean, and although a pine tree will never be as exotic as the palm, we are as buoyant in the breeze. Strong. Powerful. Positive. Hemispheric Irie...

Even though I was almost in Canada, Tomahawk, Wisconsin was my tropical paradise. The temperatures were balmy hot, and my slowdown came easy. Lost was the City. Found was just the rhythmic peace in your brain when there are no demands.

Where the hardest thing becomes the sleeve you're trying to knit because you don't need or want to count. Your eyes are magnetized to the cyclic lapping of the water at your feet and it's color and movement rule your will.

For some reason, I brought my most difficult project with me. Instead of a nice little in-the-round cami or shell, I selected the Trellis Lace Gargon to take on the road and finally, after a few adjustments (right...) I ended up with:

THIS

Once I decided to really relax, look into it, get deep inside the pattern and shape, it all came together...

 

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Brain Waved

Reggae Name Generator

Island Speak

 

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Comments (4)

Main Entry: sou–ve–nir

Pronunciation: 's¹-v&-"nir, "s¹-v&-'
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, act of remembering, from Middle French, from (se) souvenir to remember, from Latin subvenire to come up, come to mind...
Date: 1782

something that serves as a reminder...

I love souvenirs! I've saved most of the ticket stubs from concerts, plays and special events I've been to. Lately, if it's possible I buy a little(!) yarn and make something that reminds me of the place I visited.

Usually, I don't wear Tshirts with anything printed on the front, but lovely Tomahawk did not have any yarn anywhere. But what Tomahawk did have, I could not find anywhere in Chicago - a very cool T from the Harley-Davidson factory in Tomahawk!!!

They did not have a gift shop either, but two nice guard ladies at the front desk of the main building had two shirts left. I took the last black one...

Get Your Motor Runnin'

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Harley-Davidson USA

WI who knew???

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Comments (1)