Another Axis of Evil Speaks Out

With a country as unstable as North Korea attempting to send off long-range missiles, it makes the "one percent" possibility that Iraq could have had Weapons of Mass Destruction seem kind of silly now.

Japan Must Be Concerned
With a seemingly mentally unstable leader of a neighboring country launching test missiles and the strongest allies in the world spending billions of dollars in Iraq, I can't imagine Japan is feeling too safe and secure.

What a freakin' mess the next president of the U.S. will have to clean up. Maybe Bill Clinton could come back to clean up another Bush family mess.

Current Knitting
I've finished over ten inches on the first sleeve of the Faux Rib sweater.



I only have another six inches to go, but they're also an ever-widening six inches of knitting. Currently I'm about 121 stitches across the row, working my way up to 153 stitches.

Yarn Store Purchases
Twist Knitting and Spinning, one of my local yarn stores is kind of a magical place. It's a small store about 2 miles from my house that has knitting, spinning and weaving merchandise, and while the owner Deborah's inventory is limited by space, she always has exactly what I'm looking for.

I went there initially to buy yarn for a baby blanket for a coworker. I didn't care what weight the yarn was, but it had to be pink and machine washable wool. As many of you know, I also prefer finer gauge yarns.

She had a bag of Debbie Bliss' Baby Merino in a very nice pink practically waiting for me with my name on it.



I couldn't have found a more perfect yarn for the project.

Since I was there, I asked about wooden swifts. My old plastic/metal one isn't large enough to hold hanks of yarn that I wind on my niddy noddy, so I was in the market for a larger one. Again, Deborah had exactly what I needed.



And at a very fair price.

Finally, she asked me if I'd like to try out a new roving she just got in that was a mixture of Merino and Hemp.



The combination is a very good one. The hemp makes the merino more lofty and the merino makes the hemp more soft. A perfect complement that I can't wait to spin.

All-in-all, a very successfuly visit to my local yarn store.

Ted Fans
For those fans of the incredibly talented spinner and lace knitter (among other talents), Ted, Franklin chronicles his visit and stay in Chicago. The combination of Ted's lace knitting and Franklin's photography is stunning.