Knit 1, Purl 2

I still don't know how to "purl" ... I suppose I'll stumble across a YouTube video on it soon and then I'll know. For now, I'm perfectly content with my basic knitting stitch. Plus the "yarn over" stitch-adding trick.

Here are the photos I promised yesterday.

My latest project, a diagonal stitched, striped baby blanket. I'd make it larger than baby size but I only have three balls of this type of yarn (pink, grey and white). Pattern.

This is my ball of quilt fabric garbage. It will be a rug someday. I need to do more quilting to produce more scraps.

The most exciting thing I did today: I finally got to go to the Bismarck yarn store. It's called "ce designs and Yarn Shop," the address is 417 East Broadway, downtown Bismarck. I had a bit of a bad attitude about it before my visit today - but that's another story - one about parking and lack thereof. But after my visit today, I have to say - the store is wonderful. They have all sorts of yarn and every single one of them beats the quality of the "big box store" yarn by leaps and bounds. I expected the prices to be high ... which some were ... but she also carries yarn that is quite reasonable. Yeah, it costs more than the "bog box" yarn, but it's so worth it. It's 100 percent cotton. It's real wool - not an acrylic blend. It feels so soft (yes, you can feel the difference).

When it comes to yarn quality, my belief is exactly that of the quality of my quilt fabric: if I'm going to spend hours and hours (and hours and hours) making something, I want it to last and I want it to be nice. 

I once made a quilt with fabric from the infamous "Joann's quilt fabric wall" ... after a few washes the color bled and dramatically faded and to make matters worse, little holes formed in the fabric. Joann's offered to give me my money back ... but really, I was just bummed out. I didn't care about the cost, I cared that I spent so much time and put so much love into something that would soon fall apart. I should mention that I still buy fabric at Joann's but now I make sure that the fabric I buy is good quality. I thoroughly check the color and feel before buying it. So far, I've had good luck with this method, but it's tricky. There are some sneaky fabrics out there.

Ok, I'll step off my soap box now ...

Back to knitting.