Episode 10: Monsters Monsters Everywhere

Episode 10:  Monsters Monsters Everywhere

I’m hooked, I’m obsessed…I don’t even have one off the needles and I’ve already started another.  What am I thinking except that I want to make every single monster in that book!  I am making great progress on these monsters too.  Cecil now has a head, two ears and an arm.  His body is complete and I am ready for the rest of the limbs.  I ended up with some funky stitch counts along the way but I kept working through them and so now he is a little wonky but he’s a monster so I figured….that’s going to be just fine.  Monsters aren’t meant to be perfect.

My new monster creation is Lurleen.  She is going to be a tiny thing.  Along with Lurleen with be a little journal/photo album because she will be used for my traveling monster this summer.  She will fit into a little priority postage box and mailed around the country.  I am hoping she keeps up her travelogue.  I am really looking forward to her making friends all over the place.  If you have a monster friend that would also like to travel the country you should check out this thread on Ravelry.  There is still plenty of time to participate.

Don’t forget if you are making any kind of monster or critter in March there are plenty of groups using Monsters as their KAL and you can even win prizes.  Check out these links:  I am really loving all the monsters that are on the Rav boards.  They are just too cute.

Stockinette Zombies: Enter this one if your monster is made with self striping yarn

Wolfe Farms:  Any finished object in March can be entered here.

Knitabulls:  March Monster Madness using any monster or critter pattern

Dramatic Knits:  Any finished object in March can be entered here.

My Weekly Yarn Enhancement

Last weekend was the Boston North Shore Yarn Crawl.  That would be great only I live on the South Shore and the closest store to me was an hour away and finding anyone to go and keep me company was not an easy task.  Seeing how sad I was that I could possibly miss this spectacular event my husband agreed to take the ride with me.  He is the sweetest thing!

There were really only two stores I had heard about that I really wanted to check out.  Of course one of those was the one furthest from my house. 

So we took a ride to Coveted Yarns in Gloucester MA and Butterfly Yarns in Wakefield MA.  Each was a good choice but for very different reasons.  Below is a picture of all the stash I picked up on the crawl.  Now I will tell you about each store:

  

 Coveted Yarns, Gloucester MA:  You can order from them online.  Shipping is a flat $5.  Great deal.Although this store was the furthest one away I cannot wait to go back there.  They had a great selection of high quality yarns and specialty yarns at some very reasonable prices.  Lots of their yarns were on sale because of the Yarn Crawl, so it will be interesting to go back at a regular business day.  The carried your regular LYS yarn stock but also some brands you don’t usually see around here one of which is Blue Heron Yarns. 
  

Butterfly Yarns, Wakefield MA:  This was a small store with a limited selection and very nice staff. I would definitely stop in again if I am in the area.  I managed to pick up some Cascade Fingering which I had never seen before so that was a plus.  Great prices to.  If you are in the area definitely stop by.  As part of the Yarn Crawl they were giving away stitch markers with each purchase.  Check out this cutie.  There are actually two of them but the other is in use.  I just love the little heart and bead.  They have a bunch of these stitch markers for sale.   

 

My First Review - Yarn-U app for the I-Phone

I was gifted an I-phone application called Yarn-U by MaryBeth Klatt.  As a beginning knitter I find this app to be very useful.  There are so many yarns out there that I know nothing about and this app has all the information you need to know when selecting yarns for specific projects.  I really like this application and I think the benefits of having it on my phone when I am shopping at an LYS is great.  It does have some negatives as well so these are what I feel are the pros and cons:

Pros:  A great data base of all your yarns.  There are so many name brands that its mind boggling.  Lots of yarns I never even heard of.  With each yarn you are given the weight and yardage of a regular skein.  It tells you the material used in this yarn.  It also provides you with links to the company website or a website that distributes or sells this yarn.  There is a great description of the yarn along with some patterns that are made using that yarn.  Everything you want to know in one push of the button on the i-Phone.    I also liked the comments section.  If there is a comment about a yarn being on sale somewhere, or a new pattern posted, that information is available immediately.  

Cons:  The map section of the app did nothing for me.  I can click on a yarn and it will tell me of a store 1300 miles away that carries that brand.  It would be nice to get some more LYS databases hooked up to this so that the app can send me somewhere local to buy the yarn I am looking at..  I also noticed that this is a great and extensive catalog for the pricey LYS yarns, but there is no information about the yarns available at the Big Box Stores.  I would love that information as well.  I can be at Michaels or JoAnns looking at something I never saw before and I would love the capabilities to see patterns and get to corporate websites for these yarns as well.

Overall Iam impressed by the search capabilities and the wide range of yarns and yarn companies searchable on this data base and all the information about these yarns.  I think this is a very handy resource to have on you when yarn shopping and I thank MaryBeth for the download and think everyone who is a yarn enthusiast should hop over to i-tunes and download this Yarn -U database for reference.  I rate this a 4 on a 1-5 scale.  I know MaryBeth is always improving this so if you try it tell us what you think.

In closing I just want to say that I am thrilled to have finally reached 60 followers.  That was such a big deal to me because I was stuck at 59 for so long.  I have a friend who just started making stitch markers to put in her Etsy Store with her jewelry and she promised me a set of stitch markers to use as a prize so I am going to have a giveaway.  It is a membership drive contest.  The winner will receive a set of stitch markers.  Here is the set she made me:   They are so pretty.  Starting next week I will host a contest to brag about this blog to your friends to get them to join.  I would love to see these numbers push 100 followers.  You and your friend will have chance to win.  I will post details next week and a set just like this can be yours.

Thank you again for reading and taking the time to spend with me.  I am going to get better about posting weekly.  Sorry for missing a couple of weeks in there.

Until Next Week

Lisa