Good Timing!

My shopping cart is broken! (sad face)

It happened because my webhost was changed by Costco. I had, up until then, been extremely happy with the webhost provided by Costco, mainly because of the excellent customer service.

This new one has foreign customer service, what Leo Laport calls 'customer no service'. They couldn't help me, but took several hours on 3 separate occasions to tell me, and of course, blamed my shopping cart itself.

Excuse me - but you lost the file while transferring and now my shopping cart just loops around until it gives up.

I never liked my shopping cart, anyway. It was a program written by sadists who liked feeling superior to their users. Also had 'customer no service'.

So I'm having whole new website built by my favorite webmaster, Peter Eastwood, who will be putting in a new, user friendly shopping cart and will be hosting it himself. I took advantage of this opportunity to redesign the website and can hardly wait to be able to invite you (my 11 regular readers) to view it.

Stay tuned! And in the mean time, if you want to buy something from my site, contact me at info at ellenewarren dot com, please, and I will hand process your order.

Free Crochet Pattern

Meet Yarnartist's Granny!
Inspired by the scarf nurse Jackie has been wearing over the last few weeks, I got out all my Claudia scraps, a skein of her Mohair, and created this very easy scarf.

I am offering her for Free from the e-boutique - use coupon code GRANNY!

Enjoy!

Another Knitting Disaster Story

I just listened to Knitpicks Podcast #101, in which Kelley discusses knitting disasters with some other knitters. (BTW - it's the only knitting podcast I have stuck with - it's really very good!)

Anyway, it reminded me of one of my worst disasters, which occurred when I was 17 years old and working on my first fairisle project. Back then, I just called it a ski sweater. It was 3 colors - natural whitish-cream background with pink and black. It had overall patterning, but only used 2 colors at a time.

I quickly completed the front and back, not knowing that it was supposed to be hard and take forever. Then I had to go to the hospital for an extended stay. I brought the yarn and pattern with me, but left the completed pieces at home. I worked both sleeves at the same time - 6 balls of yarn all going at once!

By the time I went home, I had completed the sleeves to the armhole decreases. But to my horror, I had put the black where the pink had been on the front and back and the pink where the black had been. I decided it would be okay - a design element!!! I finished the sleeves and sewed the sweater together (with sewing thread! sigh!)


No matter how I tried, I could not live with the mistake. It bothered me so much that I knew I would never be able to wear it. So I took it all apart, frogged the sleeves, and remade them with the colors in the proper places.


It has taken me many, many more knitting disasters to learn that I am a person who can't live with a mistake in my knitting. no matter how determined I am to just keep going. I may as well start ripping the minute I discover a mistake because I will just be throwing good time after bad.

What amazes me now is that I still have this sweater - 42 years later! Agghhh!

Crazy Lace by Myra Wood

Myra's new book is ready for pre-order on Amazon!!!

It is an amazing new concept, dreamed up by the genius mind of one of the most talented fiber artists in the world!

I have been so inspired by her Crazy Lace concept - it has changed the way I design Lace and will blast open new creative channels of any lace-knitter's mind!

I can't wait to hold the finished book in my hands!

Pre-order yours here.

Want to ChaCha?

This baby was a difficult birth. Tech editing problems. Test knitting problems (due to errors left by tech editor and also operator error)

Sometimes it just be's that way. But I persevered and I am so happy with the results. Actually, it is an easy and fast knit.

This pattern is available as part of a kit only, with Claudia's gorgeous mohair and boucle. The nice thing about it from the retailer's standpoint is that it is interchangeable with the French Scarf Kit, so if a customer wants a certain color of yarn, the pattern can just be switched out.

The nice thing about it from the knitter's standpoint it that this lusciousness retails for under $40.

The nice thing about it from my standpoint is that IT IS DONE so I can move on to one of the 1,278,962 projects in my planner.

Want a ChaCha of your own? Order it here.

Hanne Falkenberg Blues 1 Kit For Sale

I totally love this design. I love a lot of Hanne Falkenberg's designs.

But I will never make any of them. What was I thinking when I bought this kit?

Anyway, my folly could be your good luck. Here are the details:

Blues 1 by Hanne Falkenberg

The kit contains sufficient yarn (50% cotton/50% lambswool) to knit one of the following sizes - S, M/L, XL. The finished garment measures 35", 39" and 43" around the chest.

Please note the pin is not included in the kit, but you will get an actual Hanne Falkenberg label to sew in your finished garment.

You will also need 2 x 3mm circular needles (80cm length) and a set of 3mm double pointed needles.

Regular retail price is about $85. I will sell it for $70 including priority mail postage in the US.

SOLD!

Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary

See this woman? Her name is Kay and I read about her amazing contribution to the world, rescuing wild cats, in More magazine. The way she described the tragic existence of these wonderful creatures and the transformation that came over them after they began to live with her moved me to tears. I checked out her website and immediately donated to her cause.


When I read that she also rescues senior domestic cats who have lost their owners or their homes, I began crocheting some blankies for the senior cats.


I need to always be making something - it keeps me from going out of my mind. Sometimes I need simple, mindless projects that do not contain any of my designer's ego. Kitty blankies fit the bill perfectly, with the added benefit of usefulness. Kitties really LOVE laying on little blankies.

I also have a ton of yarn!!! What better use is there for yarn I will never need? The kitties don't care about color, stitch pattern, or matching.

I finished 8 of them and will be sending them off to the senior kitties at Cedarhill.