Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Counting Down to KAN

Napier's getting ready for all those 'Bright Sparks' coming to KAN
Knit August Nights is now just  a few weeks away and I am at that nice place where oodles of swag is starting to arrive and my living room is starting to resemble my office at Skeinz - and even greater dumping ground of knit paraphernalia!  Mother Buscke is arriving next week as my ultimate bag stuffer, sorter & keeper of the peace between the Macdonald boys.

The mysterious Crochet Hairpin
 The best part is opening all these boxes and seeing what interesting and weird and wonderful things there are out there.  One such item from Mike at Arthur Rowe Ltd was a 'Hairpin Crochet Staple'.  Now I admit my crochet skills are rudimentary, but even all my years selling knit & crochet accessories I have not come across such a device.  Looking slightly gynecological in nature (you can tell I'm married to a doctor!), my friend Sapphire & I were quite intrigued by this mysterious 'Hairpin'.  The packaging suggested it was something from the 'retro' collection at Arthur Rowe (I have some FAB-O items from the Retro collection - Thanks again Mike), so I was well and truly stuffed to think what on earth it was for.

Sapphire following "Uncle Google"
Since dear darling Sapphire is a fully blown member of "Gen-I", she took one look at the mysterious 'hairpin' and announces, lets Google it.  And what do you know, it appears that our 'Hairpin' or Crochet Loom as they are now know, are very much alive, well and making a come back on You Tube.  Used to make those long elongated stitches & fringes in crochet, we both then set out with our You Tube to figure out how exactly it worked.  It was great fun, so if you are one of the lucky ones who gets one of these gems in your KAN goody bag, just remember "Uncle Google" has the answer to this mysterious device.

The Epic bedspread
Speaking of crochet, I have finished my epic "Broken Claw" crochet project.  A king sized crocheted bed spread.  It was perfect to keep from going insane and not being able to knit.  The needles are now back out & yesterday was the first day that I was able to knit for any length of time without feeling like my finger was going to drop off.  What I need to do now is figure out how to keep the bulldog off my cream master piece!
Five minutes after it was placed on the bed. Really Renly?!