Coming Clean

Okay, I don't really find John Karr attractive...even a little.

In Fact...
...I've never seen pictures of a man who can look quite so sallow and clammy at the same time. I can't imagine what all the boy-whores in Thailand felt about having to touch his disgusting skin.

Fresh Air Fund For Ted Update
Thanks again to the amazing generosity of readers, we have reached our goal of $300 for Ted's visit to Rhinebeck.

As Rhinebeck gets closer, the goup of folks that goes each year will post a place where folks can meet Ted and any of the other members of our acerbic little group who will be there this year.

Thank you all for helping with this.

New Yarn Source For Canadians
Crazy Lady Barb has started her own web site, called Wild Geese Fibres (see, you can tell she's not American with her spelling of fibres) with some lovely looking yarns. The prices seem surprisingly inexpensive for such lovely fibers.

I need to find out if she ships to the states.

Current Knitting Crocheting
I did some additional work on the filet crochet, and I have to admit that without the written instructions, I would have been quite unable to do the design exactly as it is shown.



Mostly, filet crochet can be thought of as a grid of single chains of crochet going across and double crochets making up the vertical lines of the grid. The filled in blocks of the grid are just two extra double crochets.

However, this pattern calls for some odd combinations of chain 5's topped with chain 3, single crochet, chain 2's. These I never could have figured out from the picture.

I also did some additional work on the test-swatch of the corner-to-corner afghan stitch.



Even though I don't have enough yarn to ever make this into a full-size afghan (unless any readers have some discontinued yarn by Novita, called Florica in the colors of the afghan), I figure I complete a square as large as I can. If I can find some complementary colored yarns I'll try doing some border that will turn this into a full-size lap blanket or something.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Catsmum asks, "What gauge hook are you using for the filet and which thread?"

The hook size was easy, but the yarn size not so much. The hook is a steel Boye hook, size 7, which I believe is 1.65 mm. The yarn is an old leftover cone of yarn with an NM value of 2/28 (which I think means 28 meters for 2 grams of yarn, or 14 meters per gram). The content is listed as 50% CC and 50% SLKF, and was spun in Scotland by T&D.