APRIL 18, 2009

In the past month or so, I've received some yarn in the mail. They've come from different sources for different reasons, but I wanted to share them with you all and explain about them. I'll go in the same order I received them.

Here is what I saw when I opened the box:



Here is what was in the box:



Coats and Clark sent me this yarn because of a letter I wrote to them. You see, over the past year or so while working all my projects, here and there I'd find a section of a skein that was unusable because of fraying or it was cut and knotted, etc. It was quite disrupting to my knitting, especially given that it usually happened right in the middle of a row. So, I started saving the yarn pieces and the band that went with the yarn showing the lot # and color. After I had quite a few, I wrote a letter to the makers of Red Heart yarn and explained why I was writing and that it seemed to be becoming a regular thing, something which never used to happen to me with their yarn. I attached the little snippets of yarn and the bands with the color information to the letter with some tape and sent it on it's way. A few weeks later, I received a nice letter of apology and the box of yarn as replacement! Now that's customer service!

I was recently reading on Crochetville about how a person had trouble with a certain brand of yarn and she couldn't even get them to reply to an email. Well, I've heard many people put down Red Heart yarn for various reasons, but I've always been happy with my dealings with them. This is the second time they have replaced yarn this way and any time I've contacted them, they were always courteous and quick to try to resolve the issue.

Ok, on to more yarn!

Here is a box of yarn I received a few weeks ago from my mother:

Pretty cotton yarn, huh? I could only find a few solid colors here in northern Maine, so after telling my mother about the empty search for colorful yarn, she went shopping in Augusta and then sent me these beautiful skeins of cotton yarn. She knows how much I love to knit the graphed dishcloths and bibs and she spoils me because I'm her baby girl (j/k!). There were nine skeins of solid colored cotton and I love it! I have already made a bib out of the green and am in the process of knitting a cloth with the orange. Thanks, Mom - you rock!

This box just arrived yesterday:





Allyn, a woman in one of my Yahoo groups sent me this yarn for my charity knitting. Last year I was able to give out quite a bit of things one of the local Head Start programs, as well as the Battered Women's Project. Most of the things were for children (hats, mittens, slippers, etc.) but some were in adult sizes. I do tend to make more for the children, though. Anway, she gifted this yarn to me and I really appreciate it. It gives me more to work with and I'll be turning all that pretty yarn into some very nice, warm mittens, etc. to keep lots of little hands warm this coming winter. Thanks, Allyn! You're very thoughtful!





I bet you thought I was almost done showing you yarn I've received, huh?
The following was sent to me as part of wishes that we grant on my Yahoo groups.

From Sabrina V. - This was a wish she granted for me. I've used almost the whole cone already! I'll post pictures of the completed items as soon as I can finish up the one last thing I need to do.










This cone was sent to me from Janette, another woman who granted a wish of mine for a cone of cotton:












And finally, here are skeins of cotton sent to me in a box of things from April:










Now that I've caught up on my posts about the yarn and the comfortghan squares, I've got to take a break before showing more projects, both that I've made and those I've received.
I've received the last two packages of squares for Mom's comfortghan.

I am quite surprised with how evenly the colors and combinations ended up being.
It breaks down like this:
Warm Brown: 21
Ranch Red: 21
Multi-Colored, finished with Warm Brown edge: 9
Multi-Colored, finished with Ranch Red edge: 7

Isn't it funny how that worked out? Everyone sent in the color schemes they had made and no one knew what anyone else was sending to me and it ended up quite even! I'm quite impressed, to say the least! I will even it up by making a couple more with both colors, edged in the red.

Here are the squares I received from April and Patricia. Both of these ladies are in Yahoo crochet groups with me. Thank you so much April and Patricia! I really appreciate your time and thoughtfulness.





I received these 8 squares in the mail yesterday for Mom's comfortghan. You did a great job on them, Kelly. Thanks so much!

I laid out all the squares today and found that all the color schemes are pretty much even, such as the number of solid colors of each, the number of multi-colored with same colored edgings, etc. Isn't that cool how that worked out?
Today I sent these three squares to a fellow Crochetville member who is making a comfortghan for her mother.





UPDATE: If you'd like to see the completed comfortghan that "heart" made with these and the others she received, you can see it out HERE.