About Me

   I've had to write/revise my bio for the shop's Facebook page for some time now but kept putting it off.   I finally got around to it last night and I sent it to Theresa, our Facebook Guru.  When, just before I went to bed,  I found a question about it that she had emailed back,  I sent off an answer right away.   But when I got up to let Fanny out at 4am, I had a different idea on how to answer her question so I sent another email.  That surprised her!  Hey, what else am I suppose to do at 4am while I am waiting for the dog to finish outside???  [Jeff goes outside as Fanny's armed guard but I sure don't!!]  Anyway, this is what I sent and what will be appearing in a somewhat modified version on Cooper Country Crafts' Facebook page complete with photos soon:

"I'm a 60-something knitting fool, changing occupations every ten years or so as I worked to support my knitting habit until I retired as a senior library clerk a few years ago. Now I'm trying to support it by designing and selling children and baby sweaters for the shop in Cooperstown.

I have knitted for as long as I can remember, teaching myself to knit as a child after my mom taught me how to cast-on the long-tail method to keep me busy while she rested, recuperating from pneumonia. I even used knitting as therapy after carpal tunnel surgery! I usually have a baggie in my purse with a sock or hat going for when I get stuck in traffic or a doctor's waiting room.  I've been lucky to find a guy who enjoys wearing wool socks and I try to make him several pairs a year even if he is 6'3" and wears a size 12 shoe!

I use mainly 1 pattern, a raglan-worked-from-the-neck-down, that I found in an old Leisure Arts booklet 30 years ago that I modify and add details to that I see in other patterns.  I use raglans because they are more comfortable and fit kids better and longer and have few or no seams coz I hate sewing, and also have a larger space for designs worked from a chart like sheep or a baseball

While I like working on baby and children's sweaters and hats because they take less time to finish and just look so cute, I enjoy knitting anything because the textures and colors available in yarns today make the simplest items look unique."

Too bad I can't add this:
I have knit on a boat and when there's a mouse in the house I do knit with a mouse!   
   Then this morning I really got ambitious and edited this bio down to 1200 characters so it would fit in this blog's "About Me" space.  Now that wasn't fun!!  But it was fun was ordering yarn this morning!  One of my Crocus Shawls sold this week and that left a hole in my display. (Actually, a rather large hole, since the other Crocus shawl is in the display case at the Key Bank on Main St., in Cooperstown.) So I started asking other shop members what color I should use for the next shawl and after a phone conversation with Sharon this morning I decided to see what
yarn JoAnn's Fabrics had in stock at the New Hartford store before I drove up there.  What a good idea!  By using their 30% off on-line coupon,  the 2 skeins of Iced Aqua Love yarn by Red Heart--complete with tax and shipping--was cheaper to order than if I had driven to New Hartford and picked it up off  the shelf! And since I'm waiting for a new set of size US 10's interchangeable needle points that I ordered from KnitPicks last week to get here, I can't start the shawl right away.  With a little more luck, the yarn and the needles might arrive at the same time!!  Now I just have to find something else to knit.  What skein of yarn that's just sitting next to my chair shall I start???  Decisions, decisions!  A baby sweater?? Socks for Jeff??  Socks for me??  A baseball hat??