PhoenixPalme, and Anna Magazines

A quick update; Round 275 completed tonight. I'm getting VERY impatient to get this monster finished!

No pics till then ...

I went over to the mainland yesterday, and spent the day in Vancouver. Was wandering down Granville Street and found a magazine shop which specializes in foreign-language magazines. Hmmm ... do they have Anna magazines?

The short answer is "yes"!

In front of me, as I type, is the November 2007 issue of Anna. Some lace knitting, no Niebling, but it's an Anna magazine! I paid $6 CAD for it. To subscribe (if you live in Europe) is about 42 euros per year. Buying it in Canadian dollars from a news stand is a very good deal!

I will be posting contact info on the laceknitters' yahoo group tomorrow, as well as the Niebling group. I have no idea whether Burda will be publishing Niebling patterns in upcoming Anna magazines, but at least we'll all have the contact info.

Back to the sticks ... one more hour, one more round!

PhoenixPalme, Part Trois? Quatre?

Ok, so the French I took in Grade 9 (lo those many years ago) has faded into a distant memory.

No pictures, just an update. Last night I completed Round 255 of the PhoenixPalme. There are nearly 1400 stitches to a round, and it's taking about an hour and 15 minutes to knit one round. That's some mighty fast knitting!

There are 300 rounds, so I'm in the home stretch, although if you do the math, I have roughly 50 hours of knitting ahead of me, and this thing needs to be finished in time to mail to Alberta for Christmas.

Wish me luck!

Mmmmm .... silk ........ mmmmmmmm

You just never know what you'll find when you're out for a drive in the country.
Last Saturday, I turned left off the highway rather sharply, after seeing a sandwich board which I had passed many times. "Wool" was the word that grabbed my attention, so like any true addict, I followed my craving (previous rants about addicts notwithstanding ;-).
Not just wool, but baby alpaca wool, skeins and skeins of it. Baby alpaca wool spun with silk, skeins and skeins of it. Silk yarn, skeins and skeins of it ... mmmmm .... knitter's porn!!
And what a disappointment ... it was all HALF PRICE !! So I forced myself to get some Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, seven 50 gr. skeins (approx. 125 metres to a skein). The Addi needles were half price, too ... man, it was awful. Dorne had to drag me out of the shop, kicking and screaming, grasping at the door frame, me shamelessly begging the shop owner to lock me in for the night, or forever!
Dorne convinced me of the error of my ways, so we came home. Above is the silk thread and needles, situated on top of my PheonixPalme (round 228!). Mowzer Kitty is giving the needles his squint of approval.

The baby alpaca wool (and the baby alpacas who supplied it were right outside the door of the shop!) is incredible ... soft and drapey, much moreso than any other wool I've touched. I think if a person were going to start knitting with that, they'd have a hard time going back to any other kind, even merino.

And for your viewing entertainment, pics of our haunted-looking house with our carved pumpkins. We distressed the paint to give the genuinely-haunted look (I have some land in Florida for sale, too). Note the doggie-pumpkin, a portrait of Mr. Innu.

The aluminum siding was removed (by Dorne) and revealed some great woodwork beneath. Our neighbours are awaiting the upcoming paint job on the house!