Are You Getting Phat?

This is probably one of the few times in life where the preferred answer to that question is a resounding "yes!" I'm not talking about putting on a few pounds (that's a whole other conversation). I'm talking about the amazing new Phat Fiber sample boxes.

I'm a little reluctant to share this secret, since there are a limited number of these boxes available each month (it's a bit like finding a store that sells cashmere at $2 a skein --- how many other people do you really want to know about that?). But, in the interest of helping a fiber-related business to grow, and just because I can't keep a bargain to myself... here you go.

Phat Fiber is a fabulous idea. It's actually hard to believe no one has thought of it before now. Jessie works with a variety of indie fiber artists to assemble a bunch of very generous samples each month and creates individual boxes on either a yarn or fiber theme. Each box is chock full of fiber samples (only in the fiber box, obviously), samples of handspun and/or hand dyed yarn, a bit of candy, a stitch marker or two, perhaps a fancy button or a shawl pin, a pattern or two, or maybe a complete back issue of a knitting magazine. All of this for just $33, including shipping!

In my February box, I had at least 6 or 7 samples of fiber (I forgot to count because I started spinning too fast!). They were all at least a quarter ounce (some more), and spun up to a skein of 20 - 30 yards. I also had a number of sample skeins of various yarns (some handspun), an indie knitting magazine, some fudge, a stick pin, a couple of stitch markers, a kit for making felted beads, a chocolate-coated spoon for my coffee, and a pattern for pasties (how did I survive until now without those!). It also comes with lots of discounts for the vendors who participated.

Once I spun everything up, I was unsure of what to do with all the mini-skeins I'd created. Finally I hit on the idea of making a ten-stitch blanket. It actually varies from 10 to 20 stitches, depending on the thickness of the yarn I'm using at the time. It does take a little adjustment of needles and numbers of stitches to accommodate the various weights of yarn, but nothing too challenging. And, since the colors in the February box were mostly Valentine-themed, it's easy to create pretty transitions from one to the other.

All of this would be much more interesting with some pictures, I know. Unfortunately, my camera is still with the police. I'm hopeful that we'll hear something this week. Slowly but surely, things are getting back to normal around here, although it's till a bit weird at times to think of a stranger going through all our personal things. Many thanks to all who posted and emailed your support. It really helped.

You're Gonna Need a Good Imagination for a While

No pictures here for a while. You see, my home was broken into last week. They caught the guy (in my bathroom) and, we think, retrieved most of our stuff (although you know if you've ever been robbed that it's almost impossible to know what's missing until that day in the future when you look for something that isn't there). The unfortunate thing is that many of our things are now evidence (as in "locked up at police headquarters"). That includes my camera.

Since this will probably end up as a plea bargain rather than a trial (after all, it's hard to say you weren't here when they caught you in the act), we may get our things sooner rather than later. And, the police tell me that the DA will ask the defense attorney if they can return the physical items and retain pictures as evidence. I think they usually say yes. So, we're hoping we'll see our things in a few weeks rather than 6 months.... but who knows.

In the meantime, I shall try to sharpen my descriptive powers to make things a bit more fun. Who knows, I may be drawing stick figures before we're done! Stick with me, and hopefully we'll have pictures again soon.

(by the way -- I know you're out there... and you're not alone... I have the analytics, and I know that there are folks in Texas and Massachusetts and England and lots of other locales who are reading regularly, even if you're not commenting.... so please continue to hang around and I promise some great pix of FOs when the camera comes home!)