#69 - A perfect party for a 7 yr. old and what is a ply anyway?

I realize, after being sent the yarn I am to use for my design that has been accepted in IK Fall '09 (pause for loud stadium style hooting and hollering of happiness), that I do not know a whole heck of a lot about the medium I use. When I am experimenting with designs and grabbing yarns I go for color first and don't think about whether something is 4 -ply or 10-ply, a single or multi-ply. I just grab what is around me and learn as I go.

When I was trying to describe to the magazine editor (Eunny herself) the kind of yarn I used for a particular part of the design and was wondering via e-mail whether the yarn she had sent would respond the same way as the yarn I submitted in I was embarrassed to find that I couldn't describe the yarn any better then when trying to describe to the car mechanic about the doo-hickey that was making the bang bang noise while making a right turn.....if you catch my drift...I felt like a real moron and am not sue where to turn. For now I have picked up my Knitters Book of Yarn to look for some initial answers. Do you know the ply and twist of the yarn you are using...could you describe it accurately. Well, then again you probably don't necessarily need to, do I?

I had one of the best birthday parties I have ever had for one of my kids. It was so low key and manageable and fun for all. I highly recommend you keep the amount of guests manageable, enlist the help of older kids, gets loads of inexpensive wrapped candies and "shtuff" from the $1.00 bins at Target....write up some clues that will run kids upstairs downstairs and all around (without shoes of course) and finally end up in the kitchen for cake and to let them blow those party horns until their hearts content, or until the 16 year old (in this case) older sister turns to the group and kindly asks them to stop...and they don't...and then she tells them" If one more of you blows your horn even just one more time, I will take it from you" Did they listen you ask? All but the birthday boy...which she then announced was acceptable as he was the birthday boy.

#69 Post TNNA

TNNA was so wonderful! I felt like an old timer, I mean after all this was my 2nd whole time going!

I am percolating with designs that I am submitting to many different publications...I hope I hope I hope they like them.

Have you seen my newest design in Knitscene? It is called the Ariadne Scarf. I didn't name it and have to be honest and tell you when they busted the not yet out on the stands magazine in the Interweave booth at TNNA where I saw it in print it for the first time and saw the name for the first time. I thought the scarfed looked purdy in the magazine, but the name was bizarre. I asked someone in the booth if they knew what it meant and they didn't. When I got home I e-mailed the editor and asked her what the deal was (in a kinder way then that of course) and when she explained what it meant it completely turned a weird name in to a wonderful one. Here is what Lisa Shroyer said:

The title is Ariadne Scarf. Ariadne, a heroine in Greek myth, used a piece of string unrolled behind her to find her way into and then back out of a labyrinth. The undulating lines on the scarf, plus the mythical/whimsical nature of the story, reminded me of this myth. There you go!

After reading this e-mail I felt both inspired and like a bleeding idiot as I had never ever ever even heard of this myth. Please tell me I am not the only one. Now that I have heard of it, it makes me want to study the Greek myths more....maybe there will be some inspiration there! I do have one other design that is a messenger bag that was named by one of my good cyber friends Lorri...she suggested calling it the Mercury Bag as Mercury was the messenger! You can buy the Ariadne Scarf Kit to make the one shown in my SheknitsforKnitters Shop...or you could do some serious stash diving. I will be putting up additional kits that are different price points in different color ways that don't have hand painted yarns but rather subtly shaded (beautiful) yarns soon