What’s on the Needles?

You would think that I would choose to finish any of the many other started projects…. but no…

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Valley Yarn “Deerfield” – an Alpaca & Silk blend - that I purchase (ummm wait I think my daughter paid for it?) for this Morning Bells Shawl.  We were wandering around in Webs (Northampton, MA) a few weeks ago when I was up in New England and they had this shawl done up in the natural as shown in the pattern – oh my it was lovely… so lovely.  My girl liked it and I was happy to offer to knit it for her.  Although the natural was very pretty (they didn’t have it in stock at the time) - she choose the charcoal yarn.  I am almost done with the first ball of yarn… only another 5 to go…

I washed and blocked all the stuff I talked about last week.

I had to bring down a section of my design wall to lay out the Leftie Shawl.  The shawl measures approx. 32 inches along the longest leaf and 62 inches across the top (diagonal) edge.  The BUN hat is at the other end. 

I do need to take a ‘rolly sticky’ to that board to get rid of those threads… or take the picture from the other end where the old towel is - LOL.  I left everything to dry over the weekend and then spent a morning weaving in any yarn ends that I hadn’t done yet.

Check out what others are knitting over at Judy L’s Patchwork Times Blog.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I had high hopes of getting out of making much for Thanksgiving dinner since it’s just The Engineer and I around this year… but no… he wanted turkey.  So I spent the better part of 2 days cooking for 2 people… the up side is I don’t have to cook again this weekend.  I’ll just dish us up a couple plates and throw them in the oven to heat up.  I don’t know about y’all but I don’t like using the microwave to heat up my food… everything warms up better in the oven and since the plates are hot too – it all stays warm while you eat.  Yum!

A Lot of Knitting…

I’ve got a small pile of stuff I’ve finished recently to wash and block… lots of little things.

I started and finished this BUN Hat (Bottom Up Neckflap) on Wednesday.  It is a very quick knit in a bulky weight yarn.  I used a ball of Ester Bitran Hand-Dyes Talinay that I had picked up on sale several years ago.  I really like this hat and will make more – love having the coverage on the back of the neck!  I have lots of leftover hunks of Baby Alpaca Grande’s from fingerless mitts I’ve made in the past – I might try and use up some of those on the next one.

Back on Columbus Day my local yarn shop had a 20% off sale on all their Alpaca Yarns… so I went armed with several patterns from Ravelry and picked out yarn for a couple projects… one of which was these Susie Rogers Reading Mitts.  I used Plymouth Yarns Baby Alpaca DK.  These are the small size which will be good for my older daughter as her hands are smaller than mine.  I’ll be digging through my stash to see what other DK yarn I have and make a pair in the medium size soon… they also knit up quick and turning under the hem along the top and bottom edges was quick and easy. 

 

While I was in MA & NH for those 3 weeks I had worked on and finished this feather and fan scarf using a Louisa Harding Grace Hand Beaded wool and silk yarn.  This is also a very quick knit… I need to block it and then weave in the ends.  I think the color matches well with the mitts above so it will go along to my daughter. 

I finished the Leftie Shawl while I was gone.  I had a hard time weaving in the colored ends from the leaves – it looked so sloppy – but with some expert guidance from my friend Sue in NH I was able to finish it off nice and neat.  I think I’m going to start hunting for a good ‘finishing’ book for knitting as I don’t think Sue will come to visit every time I need help.

This is for my next Leftie Shawl… I love this brown (A Knit Picks Stroll Fingering Tonal) and it will look great with the colors from the Zauberball yarn.

I finished these Montgomery Mitts for my sister-in-law this week.  We picked out this lovely turquoise color Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky the other weekend to go with her chocolate brown coat when I was down in VA. I hate to sound like a broken record but I did like this mitt pattern with a tiny bit of a lacy look on the edges and it worked up very quick.  I think I actually like the way they increase for the thumb and I may try this method on some other mitts

The mitts will go with the Shawl Collared Cowl from Alana Dakos (I made one of these last year for my daughter) and I’ve got some yarn to make one for me this year as well.  Money well spent on the pattern.  This only takes a couple days.

I did finish the Turbulence Cowl while I was in MA but forgot to get a picture of it before I gave it to my daughter.  I made it with Knit Picks City Tweed in the Lemon & Snowshoe.  It was fun to knit and I still have yarn (Jacquard  & Snowshoe) to make me one so I’ll have a picture of that down the road.

I finished this Gathered Scarf before I headed up to New England… but I don’t have a finished picture.  It was made with the Plymouth Baby Alpaca DK… love that stuff… so soft!

So you say… “what’s still on your needles?”  Oh there are several things still in the works.  The Triplicity Shawl… I have made no further progress on that as I need to pay attention to the pattern and I haven’t felt focused enough to sit with it.

Multnomah Shawl is still hanging out… all the easy stuff is done and the lacy patterned edge is holding me up… same reason as above.

 

Oh and these silly things from last winter… I am about 3/4 of the way done with the second of these Felted Clogs – I need to pull that bag out and get them done… because it’s chilly and they would be cozy!

These socks are still right here… feet are done…

I picked up some yarn and a very cute pattern for my daughter while up in New England… but I’ll have to tell you about that project later after I get it started.

To see what others are knitting go over to Judy L’s Patchwork Times blog.

Really - Late November Already?

There are times when I just don’t know what happened to the day…

Or month… and a half…

Well - all right Yes… I was up in New England for 3 of those weeks and had the opportunity to hug on some quilty friends, work at Southampton Quilts during the Massachusetts Shop Hop, hang out with my kids, visit some friends I hadn’t seen in a couple years… eat some wonderful foods… knit… and spend a long quilty weekend at my annual retreat with friends at “A Quilters Gathering” quilt show up in Manchester, NH.

Then I came home… spent one day unpacking and doing laundry and the next day throwing up.  Goodness… being sick can sure knock you for a loop.  Then - that very first weekend I was back - we traveled down to VA to visit with my sister-in-law and attend a business related event with The Engineer.  Before leaving VA on Sunday we helped my SIL with a mountain of leaves from all those blasted lovely trees surrounding her house.  I spent a fair amount of time using the leaf blower… which I paid for over the next several days with an arm that was next to useless.  That blower didn’t seem like it was too heavy… all I can figure is that the vibration in it drowned out my muscles telling me they were done working.

This week I’m suppose to be painting the master bedroom… which needs to be done before we can install the new flooring we hauled home this weekend. 

Have you ever driven your car with the seat pulled ALL THE WAY UP?  I did on Saturday with approx. 210 square feet of bamboo flooring in the back.  If the air bag had gone off it would have crushed me flat… I was so close I couldn’t even see the speedometer… I had to duck sideways to put the visor back up as I couldn’t see to drive with it down.  I had to keep my hands at 11 and 1… and I had to remove the head rest so I didn’t feel so claustrophobic.  The Engineer who was suffering the same situation in the passenger seat wanted to stop for lunch on the way home… HA!  I told him we would drive home – leave my car in the driveway and take his car to lunch… I had to get out of this car and wasn’t getting back in until I could move my seat back.  For a short person I don’t sit close to the steering wheel… so this was way too much for me.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of knitting and need to get some pictures… hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be back to show you what I’ve been working on and have finished!

Here are a couple of pictures from Halloween from South Carolina.  Looks like a western theme for my daughter and the kids… not sure who (or what) their friend is… LOL

And here are my daughter and son-in-law… she always loves to dress up for Halloween.