Chickenlips Knitting

Since I'm a wiener dog person, I got a huge kick out of this. This and many other quaint designs can be printed on a t-shirt, hoodie or tote bag, and are available at noisebot.com for your shopping pleasure. I'm not a t-shirt gal, but I can never have enough tote (read: project) bags!

Thank you for the positive responses to my little marketing plan for the clutch bags and lace-up mitts. I've decided to make one more set before putting them up on Etsy. But in the meantime, of course, there are WIP's. I enjoyed the heck out of my freedom, and today is the last day of it, because J. comes home tomorrow--don't get me wrong, I loves my man and I'm glad to be spending the 4th of July with him--but I got a crapload of knitting done! Major progress has been made on the "Cherry Bomb" tank top from Big Girl Knits:

(voice of Lucy Ricardo) No, Ricky, I didn't buy more yarn, honest! This is stash which I'm off-loading to another swapper. Erika at The Write to Knit came up with the idea, and I am having a blast picking out things I think the swapper will enjoy. I'm not quite finished yet--I understand the lady likes hot chocolate, so I want to swing by Moonstruck this week and get her something yummy. At the bottom of the box is an old sweater pattern book that's like new. I have other books I would have liked to include, but the spines didn't survive Jimmy's puppyhood, and are all gnawed and ratty. So I'm stuck with them.

I forgot to mention last post that I visited Portland's newest yarn shop, Twisted. I'll tell you the same thing I told the co-owner, Shannon: "This place is off the hook!" It's a nice space, with a friendly vibe and supportive-guy presence. Opening day (Friday, 6/29) coincided with Emily's birthday, and her sweet guy (I'm assuming he was hers) brought out a cake and got everyone in the shop to sing "Happy Birthday." As for the yarn, there's lots of Debbie Bliss, Araucania and Noro, and there are some exotic handpainted sock yarns from makers I hadn't heard of, such as "Yarntini" and "Woolarina." I picked up a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Birches--I have been coveting that yarn and colorway for months. Another LYS had it, but there was only one skein and it looked to have been over-fondled, so I didn't buy it. Twisted's, however, was nice and fresh. One of the things I love most about Twisted, is that they are open until 8:00 pm, and not just one night a week for open knitting, but every day that they are open for business! Ya gotta like that. I mean, I love all the LYS's as though they were my own children, and I know the owners and employees have families and lives and all that, but dang! I've done the "gotta get to the yarn shop before they close" thing, and I don't always get to leave work at the same time each day, so it's nice to know they are willing to stay open later for people like me.

Woof! I've blogged the evening away. I actually did cook myself something tonight, a bit of stew, so I should probably go and eat it. Have a great holiday--hope it brings you some quality time to knit, crochet, barbecue, be with loved ones, or whatever is your heart's desire.