did I mention I knit too?

Mostly, I get my yarn from Joann's in the Columbia Crossing shopping center. I do this for several reasons:

• they have a great selection of yarn (the local Michael's doesn't have as good a selection)

• they always have sales on yarn


• they have coupons in the paper and online all the time


• the yarn is on the inexpensive side


• sometimes they're out of or low on a particular yarn I'm looking for, and if I order yarn from them online through Amazon, I don't pay any shipping if my order is over $25


• Borders is right next door and Target is a short stroll across the road (this makes for a green habit instead of driving all over the place)

There are 3 other local yarn stores (hereinafter referred to as LYSs) within a reasonable driving distance - Celtic Knot Yarn Shop, All About Yarn, and Cloverhill Yarn Shop.

Now, I am all for supporting local businesses, but I can only venture into a LYS once in a pink moon because their yarns, although wondrously luscious and pretty, are far more expensive, and I am a single working girl on a budget.

Still, the pink moon was about due, and my friend Gwen-the-technical-writer wanted to learn to knit.

Celtic Knot was having a fundraiser for breast cancer patients. If you made a donation of $3 (in cash), they gave you a yarn kit, which consists of a skein of a pretty pink yarn in a large magenta Chinese takeout box, along with patterns for knit and crochet. You make a scarf out of the yarn and attach a tag to it, bring it back to Celtic Knot, and they give it to Survivors Offering Support. SOS then puts a care package together that includes your scarf, and the package is delivered to a cancer patient on the day of her surgery.

Gwen likes pink, so we decided this would be a great way for her to learn to knit, for us both to do some good, and to have an excuse to use pink yarn.

Yarn stores are like book stores for me - I can't get out of one without buying something, despite the stash I have at home. So in addition to the pink yarn, I got 2 skeins of slightly more expensive yarn than I usually buy, and 3 skeins from the bargain bin.

We took the yarn back to my place, ordered sushi, popped in a DVD of Jeeves and Wooster (I've mentioned before how much I love Stephen Fry), and had a stitching session. I showed Gwen the basics, and she quickly got good at the casting on and the knit stitch (a darn sight faster than I did when I learned), while I wrestled with the patterns the shop had provided.

I think there's a mistake in the crochet pattern because I got these huge loops on the sides that didn't look right, and the ruffle knit pattern doesn't tell you how many rows to knit before doing the second ruffle. I modified the crochet pattern a bit and finished the scarf that afternoon, but it didn't look long enough for a scarf, and I didn't think blocking would help much. I frogged it all (yep, I am insane) and started again with the intermediate knit pattern. I love the ruffle on the end, but I want to make sure I have enough yarn to do the second ruffle. I've sent an e-mail to the shop to ask for help with the patterns, and hopefully, I'll get it all figured out.

In the meantime, here's what the scarf looks like so far (is that a cute ruffle or what?):

Here's another scarf I started as well. This is the yarn from the bargain bin, and it's sooooo soft.: