Economic Education

So what has the gas been doing in your state?

Last month the national average was $3.29 and now it's $3.75 ... Up like 13%

Ours has jumped about 90cents in the last MONTH but FNC had the following states listed this morning on their news:

For REGULAR unleaded (the cheap crap)

HI: $4.28
CA:$4.16
IL:$3.92
MI:$3.91
IN:$3.86
WV:$3.84
NY:$3.98
DE:$3.94
CT:$3.96
AK:$1.86

WHAT?? $1.86 for gas???!!!

Yup

Now just think what it would be like in states where they might also allow drilling ...



Just a thought

Cool News For Scrappers

It's been a really long time ... A lot has happened in the world ... Even more in our personal lfe ... But I just had to share this for any readers who scrap:

You know when people look at your scrap book pages and then comment on how they would "love a copy" of that photo that's been glued/adhered down?

Now at Archivers (check their website for your nearest location) you can get full sized 12 inch copies ... Yes you can get a copy of the entire page! You can even get it shrunk down to a smaller 8 inch size if you want to make a sort of "souvenir" album.

I called my local store and they said that copies start at $3.49 a sheet ... I would assume (but I could very well be wrong) that to shrink it might cost a tad more.

I can see where this would come in handy for weddings - one main album for the bride/groom, and copies for the parents and the people who stood up - maybe even the officiate if they are a personal friend ...

Maybe that favorite aunt who couldn't make it ...
One for each of the kids later in your life ...
Or grandiose ...

How about baby books? Make the main one for your family and copies for each set of grandparents ...
Ones for the Godparents ...

What about bridal/ baby showers? Same thing ... Main one for mom/dad/baby ... Some for the grandparents .... Maybe a book that not only has pictures of things like baby's sonogram but also photos of mom &dad as kids thru the years for comparison ... What a precious gift this would be! Just make copies of the parents baby pictures so that the grandparents can get their photos back ... Most grandparents will have them either loose, in some of those albums where the photos just slide in, or in one of those albums that had the tiny sticky dot pages ...

HINT: if you do have photos on those old photo books with the sticky dots,be very careful removing them ... after being there for 20-30 years we found that they will be PERMENATELY stck and maybe damaged while trying to remove them from the page.

Check at Archivers (sorry but they are the experts on this one) and see if they have a product to dissolve the glue without damaging the photos.

I mean I know there is something out there - it's like Goop-Off or lighter fluid ( BUT DON'T USE THOSE) but it's a liquid that comes in a nozzle bottle that you squeeze on and it will gently eat the glue but the photo has minimum damage to it.

Any how ...

Just wanted to share about the copies ...

I think it's a wonderful idea ... Even if it is expensive - you are probably only to need/want this type of service so price will be a smaller factor in the long run.

Numerology Class

A bunch of new numbers came out today so lets get to it ...
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February Unemployment Rate

8.9%

Wow! its a lot lower than they figured - they had thought that there would be a surge of people entering back into the job market with the new jobs created ... but the unemployed are still skiddish, I guess.
Lowest since Apr2009
#####

New Jobs Created in Feb

192,000

Not a lot of jobs, but its still a growth.
#####

222,000 private sector jobs also created

30,000 goverment jobs lost

(funny I thought we wanted to cut government, so wouldn't this be a good number?)
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Underemployed

15.9%

24,400,000

(now they gave this a down arrow which should be good, but they colored it red which means its a bad number)
#####

8.3Million

Part-Time workers

#####

2.7Million

"Marginally Attached"

(not counted in unemployment numbers ... looking for job but can't find one)
#####

Total Public Debt

14.1Trillion

Up

#####

Mortgage Rates

Down

4.87%

#####

Forclosures

UP

3.586 K

#####

New Home Sales

DOWN

12.6%

#####

Existing Home Sales

UP

2.7%

#####

US. Government Budget

UP

$424Billion

#####

GDP

UP

2.8%

#####

Gas Prices

UP

$3.471/gallon nationally

UP

10%

since protests in Libya began

(up 5cents in 24 hrs ... second time there has been such a jump in about a week)
#####

Oil Prices

$101.9/barrel

#####

Heating Oil

DOWN

$3.493/gallon

#####

Wages

UP

$0.08

#####

Inflation

UP

0.4% January

#####

Talk of killing Frannie/Freddy

will kill 30-yr mortgage

will raise mortgage interest rates

#####

Budget Cuts

$6.5Billion

new cuts agreed to by WH to Congress to help balance budget
#####

7 days

amount of time allowed by FL judge for WH to appeal
ruling on Health Care Law
I'm not sure the judge can do this ... granted the ruling came down 1 month ago, but I'm not sure the judge can dictate the appeal time.
#####

17,000 Acres

Are on fire in FL

1 acre = 4840 sq. yards = approx 22ydX220yd (1chain X 1 furlong = 4rods X 40rods) = the amount of land oxen could plow in one day
@@@@@

YEAH

It was tough to come up with a name for this post ... because I hate to feel good about someone else's misfortune ... but I can't help it.

About 2 yrs ago (april 2008) I bought 12 skeins of yarn (Berroco Crystal FX) for $1.47 USD each ... I thought it was a great deal at the time, it even came with a plastic storage case ... was a tad disappointed when the case came gummy from the stuff they used to hold down the flap of the case ... but the yarn was still good and it will make a gorgeous to-die-for shawl for my daughters to BORROW (hey for the work that's going into it, its staying mine).

Well I was checking for projects on Ravelry and came across someone else's stash ... and found they paid $7/skein!!!! Either that or they are trying to sell a single skein for that much -- ummmm ..... no thank you.

I know that this has more to do with the yarn being discontinued .... even with the price including s&h that would still come out to be about $5/skein - yarn is light, you can put it in an envelope and get the lowest shipping rate (I think its like $2). Sheesh!

but its a free country and people can pay for yarn what they are willing to pay for it .... but me? If it isn't under $3 these days, its going to have a tough time making it into my stash.

Au Natural??

So I get this email from MaryMaxim.com about the new yarns they have from Bernat...they are called "Natural Blends"...okay I'll bite. Bernat makes great yarn, I love it, so the idea of them making some natural yarns sounds like a great idea....natural yarn that is affordable--not $25 a hank, I can live with that.

At least it sounded like a good deal....what it did was raise the question in my mind of what exactly defines "natural" in a blended yarn?

In my mind, in order to qualify enough to use the term "Natural" in my mind the yarn should contain no less than 60% natural fibre....why so much? Because it is enough to allow the addition of synthetic threads to increase the wear and tensile strength of the fibre yet still allow a person to enjoy the texture/weight/sense of the natural component with out it being over powered by the non-natural.

So what did I find when I pulled up the Bernat Pages???

Bernat Alpaca---70% acrylic, 30% Alpaca
Bernat Cashmere--65% acrylic, 30% nylon, 5% Cashmere
Bernat Soy--50% acrylic, 50% soy

Bernat Bamboo--89% bamboo, 11% acrylic
Bernat Felting-- 100% wool
Bernat Organic Cotton--100% organic cotton (funny, I thought all cotton was organic by nature)

So as you can see, only half the yarn would qualify by my standards and I think at least 2 of them would make people wonder about the honesty of calling them "natural" at all!

I understand that they are trying to give us a product they can keep low priced, but why use the word "natural" at all? Why not simply give it a snappy name...like "Billie" since Cashmere comes from goats or maybe "Kashmir" since that's the breed of goat it comes from.

This would remove the stigma of "natural" yet still tote the fibre content with out being misleading. How many people do you think are going to buy the Alpaca and be disappointed when they find that they paid $5/skein for only $1.50 worth of actual Alpaca!! Or worse, if they got the Cashmere....where they paid $5/skein and only got $0.25 worth of Cashmere!!

How did I get these numbers you might wonder....MaryMaxim has the skeins for $4.99, which I divided by 100 to find out what 1% of the cost was, this I multiplied by the %age of the fibre in the yarn (5% cashmere, 30% Alpaca).

This would be quite the surprise for any one who has a sensitivity to acrylics like my sock partner does. I know when my son was young he was real sensitive to wool (don't see it so much anymore), so sensitive in fact that he had 3 bouts of bronchitis and 2 of pnuenomia before we discovered that the carpet in the living room, while acrylic had an old wool carpet being used as padding underneath...we also discovered that one of the toys he got from his grandparents (an old one of his father's) was made of wool as well.

I would rather they had kept the name more generic making people look at the content...I'm waiting for the first complaint of "false" advertising...which I at least feel it is skirting.

Jimmy Beans Update 4

Yea!!! The last of the order came yesterday...didn't dare write anything about it for fear of hubby finding out.

Final delivery came in soft mailing envelope (the vinyl water resistant kind)...Inside it were my single ball of "Ducky" colored aMAIZing and my 2 hanks of Lorna's Laces in "Bee Stripe".

I was a little surprised when I took a really good look at the receipt...I DID pay for the signature service...but no one told the post office that! Both times the package was dropped off in the mail box without a sig being sought after. Looking at the package it does say "e/ USPS DELIVERY CONFIRM" so I don't know if that's just a tracking service or if that is the post office's way of saying "Get a damn signature" that got ignored! Either way, I'll save the $2 extra bucks next time and just go regular delivery...since I don't know which side goofed up on this, it hard to tell who to be disappointed with...but since I paid Jimmy Beans most people would blame them--not crying over $2...this time.

It was so funny, last time my daughter found they had included two pieces of "Whether's Originals" as a thank-you gift...perhaps as an apology for not getting it all off at the same time (?)....any ways, there was no free gift this time...LOL...why do I find this amusing? Because this was the part of the order that I was really waiting for and had let them know so...if anything this is the order where I would have expected a little something extra.

But that's okay....if you go thru life expecting things you will be (a)disappointed, (b)shunned by your fellow man and (c)less as a person, in my opinion--you get what you pay for...well, mostly.
Now about the yarn:

aMAIZing:

It is actually a flat ribbon yarn about 1/8 of an inch thick (don't have the accurate ruler handy) and is woven instead of spun by the looks of things. It doesn't seem to have much "spring" to the fibre so it would be useless as a sock yarn. The texture reminds me of crochet-cotton, it seems very soft at first feel until you start to really feel the fiber of it all...like crochet-cotton it has a firm, almost rough feel to it...I'm not sure I like this brand at all. I'm glad I only bought a single ball....it will likely go onto the "need a quick grab" shelf of my stash...to collect dust....maybe I will find a use for it.

aMAIZing by SWTC (South West Trading Company);

cost $9/ball;

size 50g/130m or approx. 1.75 oz/142 yds.;

gauge 6 sts & 8 rows= 1" (24sts/32 rows=4") US size 7 needles;

care machine washable/dry;

Content 100% Corn Fiber;

company website: SWTC, Inc-The Home of SoySilk Yarns

Lorna's Laces, Shepherd Socks:

Actually I'm glad the photo was inaccurate on this one. The yellow is actually a very nice dandelion gold...no wait, dandelions aren't deep enough...its almost a marigold color and the black appears to be a true black....as opposed to just a very deep green...I like the looks of it.

It comes in a hank form, so there is some balling that needs to get done before stitching can begin. It is very soft and will make the most luscious socks! It would also be great for thin mittens or light scarf...a sweater would be wonderful too, but at $11/hank it would come out rather expensive!

The coloring I find unique--but then I've never used a hand dyed yarn before--one half of the skein is this lovely gold and the other is the luxurious black with a band of intermingle...okay that part is just muddy and ucky, almost an olive or grass stained color (so I guess this means the black really is a deep green, the standard in the industry) but I suppose it is the nature of the beast.

The hank itself is roped upon itself...not familiar with roping? That means they have put the yarn into a large circle and then pulled it out taught, twisting it tightly then letting it naturally coil upon itself--one end is then tucked into the other and the natural tendency of the yarn to both work with/fight against the twist keeps it all in place without over stretching the yarn fibers themselves.

I had heard praises of the yarn from others and being that it sounds like a rather rare issue...JBW says there are only 100 skeins produced a year in each color, 2 skeins needed per pair of socks...I had to give it a try.

I don't usually like working with wool as it seems to cut into my hands, but unlike Wool-ease, this has a very nice flow to it. As I have typed I have been running it over my fingers to get an idea as to how it will play on my fingers during stitching...it seems to slide well, but I can see I will have to take a few breaks at the beginning to get used to things. Still it is better than I expected for wool. As I get knitting I will keep everyone updated on how well it takes to small needles (which it is supposed to be made for)...frequent "frogging"....and how well the stretch/ease is.

Shepherd Socks by Lorna's Laces;

cost:$11/hank

weight: sock weight/standard 1 size: approx. 215 yds/2 oz or 196.5m/56.5 grams

gauge: 7 sts/1" (no listing of needle size): JBW gauge: 7sts/1" size 2 needles (28sts=4"); neither wrapper or JBW gave gauge of row.

care: machine washable;no drying instructions given

content: 80% Superwash wool 20% nylon company

website: Lorna's Laces:All Natural Hand-Dyed Yarns Well off to start some balling!

JBW RATING
Customer Service: started out stronger than most, but kind of lacked off with the second part of the order

Prices: A tad high for my tastes, but a lot lower than most of the places I've seen offering hand-dyed yarns. If the prices were a little lower I would probably shop here more often.

Delivery Service: orders arrived within 2 days of shipping notice, since my order was fairly small the envelopes worked okay but would have preferred getting the order with the wooden needles in a box of some sort to guard against breakage (the needles are fine, nothing got broke).

Shipping Fees: very reasonable! $4 up to $75, and then its free....I really like this. Most places I shop with have a sliding fee scale based on how much you spend, usually an order under $35 will add an additional $10 in shipping...I absolutely love this feature, I can make a small purchase and still pay less than the yarn for shipping. This means that I would probably buy from the company a LOT more than the others.
Over All Rating:Well, JBW shines in customer service and shipping costs; its just too bad that the prices are out of my normal comfort range. While the shipping costs would bring me back time and again for small orders, the high prices stop me dead in my tracks. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by the $3/skein deals that acrylic, nylon, and blended yarns give me but if the price gets higher than a cup of coffee I am much less likely to buy it.

There is no real invoice, just a detailed register slip...which is fine in many aspects, but I would like something a little less flimsy for my records.

Waiting is the Toughest part

I don't know how the gargoyles do it....just sitting and waiting....being so patient. I have sent off my application to the Hogwart's Sock Swap (I'm a first year since I missed the deadline for the last one)....well okay I have sent 2 applications.

I would love to get in on this deal....as long as I don't have to spend a ton on sock yarn & needles. As you can probably tell from my other posts I am a bit cheap when it comes to paying full price for things. I was looking at some of the photos the original swap had and found that some of these ladies paid $25 a skein for their yarn!!! GET OUT!!!

Well at least that was the prices I came up with online, perhaps they had a better deal. Although I have to say they did make for some really pretty socks.

The other thing that worries me is that each person has to send a set of new, unused sock needles to their partner in their partners preferred size. Now I've seen some sets out there that cost as much as $14 or so and I'm sorry but that's a tad much....granted they were the ones made with the special woods...but for that money they should be gold plated in my mind!!!

Maybe I will get a partner who likes to use tw0 circulars....I wonder what you do then....do you have to get them two circs then? or will one cover your obligation? I would think two since that's what would be needed to finish a sock, but that could get costly as well....some circs can be $20.

I know hubby won't allow me to spend quite that much...okay not even close to that.
The stitch markers I'm not too worried about.....I can make those myself...as a matter of fact I should have everything I need to make a set for any house using genuine gemstones.

Well, off to knit and wait some more.

Waiting. waiting. waiting.

New Stash Arrivals-2007Jul8-14, part5

So finally....I had to add to the embroidery/cross-stitch pile as well. A few years back, before gas prices went thru the roof, my husband decided that he wanted to see all the light houses in the USA...so we started with the nearest one and have yet to see any of the others, but knowing his passion for the sea we will see them all. {have I mentioned that I'm deathly afraid of water?}

So I got this wall-hanging/lap quilt when it was on sale at http://www.herrschners.com/ and decided that in order to give him some incentive I will only do the light houses that we have actually visited...well okay that HE has actually visited.

So right now the only one I can do is Split Rock in Duluth, MN. It is the one in the middle on the top row. We, okay he, had to walk all the way to the end of the pier there. He had our oldest take a photo of the rest of us....under the pier beacon so that I could hold on tight to the supports because I hate water...our son had to back up so far on the pier that I thought for sure he was going to slip off the edge (he had one foot half way off).

Now last I checked the site they had sold out of them, they were on clearence for $5.97 so I can't blame the ladies for grabbing them all up!

New Stash Arrivals-2007Jul8-14, part4

This is actually my biggest weakness when it comes to sock yarn these days....Brownie Socks. My youngest is a Brownie scout (entering her second year) and I just refuse to pay the prices they want for the extended uniform parts. I know it goes to support the cause, but still I just can not bring myself to pay $5 a pair that she will just out grow and I can't recycle the yarn. At least if I make them myself I can "unstitch" them and then make them to fit her leg & foot again using the same yarn! AND each pair will only have cost me....get this....$1.94 with the Starlette Chocolate, and $3.98 with the Mellowspun Camel & Cocoa! And depending on how well they work up, I may even get two pair out of each....we will have to see. Both yarns are available at Mary Maxim's online.

I can't find a pattern online yet for the official Brownie pattern, but I don't think anyone in her troop will grimace if I find something close (currently the online GSA catalog are out of stock of them and they don't know when they will be coming in... So making is my only other option...the local store didn't have any either).
Well, that's it for stash adds for now! More next week....yep, more!
I've heard of ladies going on "yarn diets"....but remember....as Richard Simmon says "the first three letters in the word diet spell the word DIE!"