this and that

We're rounding out the week with winner #6 from my give-away!

Mackenzie Snader! You are the sixth winner with this comment:

"Oh man, those look fabulous. I've been wondering what my next cast on should be!"

Please email me at romi(at)designsbyromi(dot)com! Congratulations!

(As I noted before...I will post the winners each day, and I will try to get in contact with each winner as best I can. If I cannot, and I don't hear anything within two weeks of my posting a winner's name, I will draw another name. As the list of winners progresses, it will be completely first come, first serve. In other words, if you are the third winner, but contact me first, you get first choice. :) As of right now: one eBook, the Penny Farthing Sock and Spark Lace are taken, but the other prizes are still there!) There are a couple of winners MIA at the moment, so if you know Nidhi or Judith, please let them know they won!

One of the fun things about this area is the number of antique stores. There's a very cool one in town, and it inhabits an old fashioned yellow house. I love going through there! Here's the latest treasure I've found.

It was marked as a picnic basket, but I don't think so! That fabric heart on top is cushioned underneath with foam and I'd say it's meant for sewing pins. And the whole inside of this old fruit basket is lined carefully with fabric.

On the top are leather hinges, and the heart handle looks hand finished.

I love it. :)

And on to my other great find! I bought these some months ago and have been using them ever since. Can you guess what they are?

No? Dryer balls made of locally raised wool! How cool is that??? I just happened to be at the lys at the exact right time when the lady who makes them brought them in. They are felted balls of wool from her sheep, and you can still feel a little lanolin in them. Apparently they fly out the door as soon as they come in and I can see why! No need for dryer sheets or fabric softener. There is no static and no harsh feeling to the fabric when your clothes come out of the dryer. These are the coolest thing ever!

Signing off now; please keep my poor iPhone in your thoughts. It's still packed in rice, and I'm not going to touch it until Monday (the first day of school!), at which time I may burn a few candles in offering to the iPhone gods. 

Title Here

Last Friday (here you must forgive me for being on Sonoma County time and not posting earlier about it), Therese and I went down to Knitterly in Petaluma for a Habu trunk show. It was fabulous, although both of us missed dear Susan, who had hurt her back that very morning, and was in some serious pain (good vibes to Susan everyone!).

I forgot my camera. :sigh: But you must believe me when I say it was a gorgeous sight. As always, Takako was wonderful: kind, helpful and gracious. She had extra yarn and sample garments to try. And she was looking cool and unruffled as ever, although it was an absurdly hot day.

Even though I have a healthy Habu stash, I couldn't leave without another cool little item. It followed me around the store and begged me to take it home.

Isn't it nifty?

It's rayon, if you can believe it.

It is fairly stiff, but softens dramatically when knitted and worn.

I am planning on pairing it with some black silk/stainless steel in my stash.

In other news, Faroese Muir is progressing, but my progress at this point is about as interesting as watching paint dry! Here it is all rumpled.

And as "The Blob."

As my friend, blogless Dana knows, lace looks like cr*p until you block it! :)

I am in the home stretch. So much knitting to do, so little time!

My Finnish Friend

I have been remiss in blog posting lately; y'all may have noticed. :/ But I really wanted to share one of the coolest things that happened to me all last year. A man emailed me late last year and said that his Finnish girlfriend was coming out to visit, and asked if I had a store, since she had wanted to see my pins in person (my head may have gotten a little big right at that moment). I wrote back to say no, but told him when I would be at my lys (she carries my pins) for our little Saturday morning knitting get-together, and invited them to join us.

Well, they did come! We had a lovely visit, petted yarn and looked at pins together, and talked about Irma-Riitta's daughter, who is a knitter. I tried to convince Irma-Riitta herself to pick up her needles once again, but my powers of persuasion fell sadly short. :g:

And where do you suppose they were going after their stop in Windsor? Muir Woods! :) I thought it only fitting to show Irma-Riitta in the original Muir, which, I understand, her daughter quite likes.

Happy New Year, Irma-Riitta and Gene! It was wonderful meeting both of you. :)

Edited to add a NEWSFLASH: Saara (Irma-Riitta's knitting daughter) comments that her mother has picked up her needles again! Yay!!! That's excellent! :) Thank you for writing, Saara!

Cool Sheep

Go! Take a look at these sheep!

Isn't that the coolest?!

Link courtesy of Elizabeth (who needs to blog more). :)

And answers to a couple of questions:

"Anonymous" asked if I am a Secret Pal vendor. No, the deadline passed me by while my head was full of other things. But if you would like to get something for your secret pal from me, email me and I will include something extra in the package (like some cool stitch markers).

Michelle said "So how do we jump on the secret pal bandwagon?"
Signs-ups for SP11 are now closed, but watch the SP blog for the next one!

Note to Lorraine about the blackcurrant KSH: bwahahahahahaha! ::eg::