Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

Lyda here, your Intrepid Fiber Reporter. Now that I’ve posted about the Big Adventure (not going to link, it’s right below this post, ya’ll. Hint: I met a Big Time Author!), here’s more of the weekend news.

Friday evening, I went to the Evil Empire also known as Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription. It was a long drive in the traffic, but I needed the meds. Gorgeous and Available Engineer brother took my other prescriptions to Wal-Mart when he was here, because their prescription prices are usually much cheaper than other places. He rants against the Evil Empire often enough that one of his friends gave him a Wal-Mart tie as a gag gift for his birthday. It was a real act of brotherly love to go there for me. But I digress… Unfortunately, this new prescription was not one of the $4 ones. Fortunately, I had my AAA card which got me a bit of a discount, and a generous gift card from a friend - I ended up paying $4.44. Trying not to think about paying for this next month… Breathe. Just breathe.

On the way home from the Evil Empire, I stopped at JoAnne’s for quilt batting. And there was a sale on fabric. And I may have gone a little nuts. Because I have been working with the same fabric all these months on the Prince Quilts, and I want to play with something different! But I only got a yard each, and the most expensive fabric I got was $2.50 a yard - some of them were a dollar, I love the clearance section! -  and the batting was 50% off, and I spent less than $20 for a lot of batting and tons of fabric.

And then I stopped and got some cheap Chinese food to eat at home.

I deserved it for not crying at the Evil Empire when the clerk told me the total for my prescription. She was very nice, and so was the other person behind the counter. Not brainless zombies of the Evil Empire at all, either of them. It was my first time in a Wal-Mart. Considering what I’ve heard about this corporation, I was amazed there wasn’t blood dripping down the walls. But I digress…

So that was Friday.

Saturday, I went to the book signing, and watched TV, and read. And I unpacked a big plastic bin of craft stuff. I had completely forgotten about this bin, and found it in the garage while making room for all of the yard-sale stuff. See, the cleaning obsession has good results! So now, I have all my really-new fabric, and my forgotten-so-it’s-like-new fabric. And two cross-stitch embroidery kits that I will do… uh… sometime. Wish I’d found them when I was recovering. Although the counting would have been severely impaired. I haven’t done cross-stitch for so long, I will have to relearn the stitches. Oh yes, just what I need, more WIPs. But I digress… At least I digressed about fiber that time!

Saturday evening, I also frogged the Lumberjack of the Lake / Airspeed of an Unladen Wooster Scarf. I had dropped so many stitches during the book-signing (and maybe before), and it wasn’t that far along anyway. I’m knitting it lengthwise and cast on 120 stitches this time, so the scarf will probably be seven feet long. Nothing but knit stitch. It looks better now.

Sunday, I watched the news analysis shows, then a movie on tape, and then several movies on TV.

I also worked on the Frog Prince Quilt. I added the batting needed and stitched the edges together to keep them from separating with use. I pinned the quilt layers together with big safety pins, and then I began working on tying off the quilt.

Tying off a quilt is quicker than quilting, and these quilts are already too long in the making. I threaded blue cotton floss onto a big embroidery needle, and made one 1/4″ stitch in each square. I cut the floss and then tied each stitch with a square knot, leaving the floss about two inches long. I may make it shorter later - I have to look at it fresh to decide.

All this took all day, although I let myself take a couple of breaks. Of course, I had the Dread Cat Tommy’s supervision for the whole process. Which made for slower going, but more laughing.

The Frog Prince Quilt now only needs the edges finished. I will fold over the edges of the back fabric to create the binding edge. I’m still deciding how wide the edge will be, and I will need to trim the batting a bit first.

In case you are keeping score: The Cosmic Prince Quilt still needs to be tied and then the edges finished. I’m going to try putting it on the table to tie it, so I don’t have to crawl around on the floor. I’ll let you know how that works.

Monday, the Resident Sith Master came home, and we played video games a bit. Later, we watched a movie on DVD and ate. One of my favorite ways to spend a day. And then I went to the grocery store - which I had been putting off because I hate it. All those decisions about food, all that standing in the aisles figuring out the best deal, all those people to dodge. Plus, I find it exhausting physically. The refrigerator was really bare, so of course when the Sith Master got home I was… cleaning the frig. In my defense, it needed it. But I digress… I cooked a real dinner for us, and we watched another movie.

During the movies, I worked more on the scarf, and finished the first stripe in Lumberjack - about six rows wide I think, yes, I’ll count when I get home - and started on the gray yarn. I sure hope it turns out okay - I can’t tell yet how I like the colors next to each other. This is only my second time to use more than one yarn, and the first time I’m knitting stripes narrower than the whole yarn ball. Newbie.

So, I know ya’ll are waiting on the movie reviews, and that will be the next post. I promise action and adventure.

And zombies.

Always leave ’em wanting more…