Friday, January 09, 2009

Great Blue Heron?

Today Mom, Rachel and I were meeting Dad for lunch and took a wrong turn. We pulled into an apartment's parking lot to try and figure out where to go, and saw what I believe to be a great blue heron:
IMG_0026
He or she (apparently males and females look the same) was just hanging out there. I wasn't close enough, so I had to take this picture with the digital zoom, but you get the idea. I had no idea these guys live in San Antonio, but sure enough, we're well within their range.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

I saw a ball of Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton at Joann's and had a coupon, so I thought, why not? So yesterday evening I started playing with it. Here's what the ball band said:


This was a lie. Here's the yarn on my WPI tool (which was a Christmas gift!):



Below I've helpfully drawn red lines between each wrap and numbered them so you can see.



That's 6 wraps per inch. And on the recommended needle size, I don't get 4 stitches per inch. I get just about 3, or maybe as many as 3.25. Either way, this is decidedly not worsted. This is not even Aran. This is straight up bulky yarn, or possibly even super-bulky. So what's the deal, Lion Brand? Did you not realize that numbers have meaning to knitters and crocheters?

It's fine for me, as I'll be using this yarn to make chemo caps and bulkier yarn just means the project works up more quickly, but if I had wanted to make a top from it and had ordered the yarn online going by the information provided I would be a little bit upset.

OH WAIT, something exactly like that DID happen to me back when I made my Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell from Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. Now, that yarn wasn't as bulky as this, but it was definitely beyond worsted and I ended up making an entirely different size top than I would have.

Is this an organic cotton thing? The Plymouth stuff I used to make my bobble dishcloth seemed to be the actual weight stated, so... uh... was it not really organic?