Seeing Red

...but not in a bad way.

The other day Joe and I went into town. We were running the usual errands, one of which is to go to UFS. Let me tell you about UFS, it is a, um, "unique" store. It has just about everything you can think of from appliances, furniture, stationary, household goods, clothing, food and alcohol, personal care/makeup, toys, construction materials, the list goes on and on and every bit of it is "displayed" in a no frills fashion. Completely without frills, picture huge dump bins and boxes with the tops cut off that on occasion have some sort of alignment that almost reassembles rows and aisles. The lighting is poor, the flooring is, well, mostly non-existent and what is there is waaay older than me even though they sell flooring! It's also in lousy part of town.

OTHO I love it. It is a family owned business. I can't be sure when it was first established, but it's been in the same location since it opened it's doors and is now with it's second (third?) generation of owners. I wouldn't be surprised if generation #3 (#4) won't soon be taking over. The original name was the "Unclaimed Freight Store", thus the variety and variability of the inventory. To be fair though nowadays there is a substantial portion of their inventory that is constant having picked up distributorships of some name brands ie GE appliances, Ashley Furniture. They also have an excellent liquor/wine department. That is the reason we visit UFS so frequently. No other store can touch their prices and if you buy by the case, well nuff said.

Sooooo the other day while doing our wine run at UFS I poked around the boxes and bins and found a perfect knitting bag for $7.99.




Technically it is a tool "box". It is made of canvas and has a tough plastic tray like bottom, all the better not to stain when placing it on the floor at knit night right?. The interior has pockets all around, there are pockets on the outside, and it comes with a removable shoulder strap. Oh and the coolest part, notice how the zipper across the tops curves down the side giving the whole bag a shape similar to a Doctor's bag? When opened the zipper kinda pops open wide exposing everything making every corner of the interior easily accessible.



Isn't that the coolest???? In the last pic is one half of a bulky weight sweater plus all the yarn needed to make the second half. All zipped up the dimensions are 16 x 9 at the base and it is 9.5 inches tall (remember the doctor bag/triangular shaping) Open it is 16 x 9 x 11.5

Moving on from small thrills to bigger ones, I finished Pretty in Red. Here is Vivian wearing it. I couldn't stop her, she just had to put it on before I got it blocked.


I struggled it away from her and it's now blocking on the day bed in my workroom.



Pretty in Red specs:
Pattern: Drops 105-1
Yarn: Classic Elite Four Seasons 9 balls (927 yards) 70% cotton 30% wool
I also held a strand of a random lace wt. mohair blend to meet gauge.
Needles: size 6 & 7

Modifications: Not too many, pretty much stitch for stitch per pattern til I came to the sleeves. I found the sleeve directions leaving something to be desired, um, like an ending stitch count. Granted I could have figured it out knowing what I started with and calculating what would be left after the decreases, but given the occasional iffy translations I winged the sleeve cap on my own. I also originally placed 5 buttonholes but then decided to close up the lower 2 button holes, partly cuz I only had 3 of the buttons I wanted to use. Oh yeah and I also made the sleeves a tad bit longer cuz their 3/4 sleeves hit me just above the elbow. If you plan on making this yourself, check the sleeve length I do have freakishly long arms.

The Four Seasons was a pleasure to use. I used it cuz this is a sweater for Gillian who doesn't need heavy winter woolies living in Savannah. If she doesn't like it I'll keep myself. :o)