What's up, buttercup?

Alrighty, February contest time! Since spring is right around the corner (and last year was my busiest knitting season!) let's think happy spring thoughts! Hopefully, we can banish any dreary, gray, and slushy thoughts we're having!
Here we go:
tell me your upcoming projects or plans. They could be remodeling, crafting, hair color change, or health-wise changes you will be trying in the near future. These are different than resolutions, in that we will actually DO them!! Haha! The prize will be a skein of natural 100% pure fiber (either wool or alpaca) shipped to the winner. Heck, I'll even wind it for ya!
I'll go first. My plan is to sew more projects. The two in mind are recovering my sofa pillows shabby chic style, and sew up some project totes from some fat quarters I impulse bought. My little girl picked one to, so we will make them together. I'm pretty stoked to create along side her!
K, you go!!
Please  have a good day, and remember God gave you this day to show your love to somebody else!
Eileen

December Contest!

Hey, all. I couldn't think of a contest... can ya tell?? Anyway, it finally occurred to me as to what the contest could be!! Tell me your favorite Holiday song! That's it! And you may win. I will just pick a name from the list, and voila, you will win a cute little.....???? Oh, it is a surprise!!

Btw, mine is Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses. ca.1980?

Now you GO!!!
~contest ends December 17th and I will mail the prize that Saturday.

Seriously Reconsidering Shop Theme

Hey, it is a cruel fact of life that we are not good at everything we try. And ya know what? Practice doesn't always make perfect!! OMG!? I know.
I am refering specifically to my sewing, and a little to my attitude towards my Etsy store, KloseKnit.
Oh, and another thing, just because you enjoy doing something doesn't mean that you are necessarily good at it either.  Wow, i am a bitter (old) woman today!
I am spread too thin, and things are suffering. I have also realized that you get what you put into your shop/hobby. So instead of knitting anything that strikes my fancy, I need to stop the ADD knitting and FOCUS.
So the shop will be stocked with things I like to knit, and am Good at knittng! I hope to offer more colors of same things. And have them ready to ship this time, instead of knitting frantically when I get an order. I can do this! I can manage my time! I can offer a great product that I am excited about!
It will be better for me and better for my customers.
Oh, well that is all I have time for today.
Back to work.
~ Eileen  ♥

New (to me) Bind off technique

After running out of yarn on those curly scarves, I thought, hey that really sucks. My friend Sandy once used a WHOLE SKEIN to bind off a scarf. 

Ridiculous!!!

So out of thrifty-ness and sanity (who can gauge how much yarn is needed to B.O anyway??) I dug thru my needle case and pulled out my never been used size I crochet hook. Documented below with pictures is the comparison.

This is the end of the Shoulder Sarong. Preparing to bind off!

This is how the traditional bind-off looked. Using the knit two, slip the first over the second, and proceed. 

Here is a Close-up:

This is the result after "crocheting" the remaining loops of the garment. I knitted to the end of the skein leaving a 3-4" tail and started on the opposite end and looped the last stitches off of the knitting needle with the hook. When I got to the end, I used that little tail to close off the bind-off, and weaved in the end. Voila!

 Close-up ==>

I can't tell the difference, and maybe there would be a problem if the pattern called to Bind off loosely. I've seen that before and thought, okay..bossy. :-)

Maybe crochet hook size matters. Maybe your last
row of stitches matters. Either way, this worked for me. Try it and see if it works for you! And let me know!  Have A Great Day!!!!
Here are the images side by side, for easy comparison:


Knit bind off

Crochet Bind-off