Temporary Leave

 I will be away from the blog for a bit.  We are dealing with a family emergency and need to be away from a lot of computer activities for a bit, but will blog when I can soon.

Thanks for sticking by!

Happy Father's Day

My Dad who is no longer with us for over 37 years now, with this first born grandson

And with his second and third grandsons, who he barely got to know.

You can tell how much he loved them!  He would have had so much fun with all three!

Tomorrow - It's Official

 The first official day  of Summer starts!

That means Summer of Shawls starts and goes through Tuesday, September 21st.  Post your shawls in the Ravelry group under Summer of Shawls 2021, tell us what you are knitting, what shawls you finished or what shawls you wish you had time to knit.

Also, use the #summerofshawls on Instagram.

I finally narrowed my shawl knitting down to start with these two:

The Half + Half Triangles Wrap, a free pattern from Purl Soho out of their finger weight Linen Quill yarn.  I am knitting this in conjunction with the CadyJax Knits podcast on you tube.  It needs to be done in time for Rhinebeck, even though, I won't be attending. But, I have high hopes that it will be done long before that, because I have several other shawls that I am dying to cast on and several WIPS in the closet that I want to do this Summer.

This is going to be my Riverfront knitting and mostly all knitting in public or while watching t.v. or knitting on the porch until I get it done.

The second one is the Spanish Christening Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book.  This book is my all time fave, not just because I know Cheryl, but because I am a total fan of almost all of the shawls in this book.

The Christening Shawl is for my new grandson that will be born sometime in July and is the first of some Christening Shawls that I want to knit for all of grandkids as keepsakes for their children, but lets do one at a time for now.

This one is out of Dale Baby Ull, which I totally love, but unfortunately, no longer available. dang.

I've blogged about this one before, and it's not bad to do while watchng t.v., so I will be motoring along on it at night.

Shawls are the best for Summer knitting, aren't they?  You can always use one for in the AC, now that we are opening a bit up and if not ready for Summer, you will be set for Fall when we Fall for Shawls again.

Hope you will join us!

Episode 60 Summer of Shawls 2021

 is up on my You Tube channel, pjknits and you can find it by clicking here

I'm super excited for the first of two Shawl seasons this year to start on Sunday!

Some Fun T-Shirts - Knitting Related

to get you through the rest of this week!

I do love my collection of knitting t-shirts and am always on the look on for a new one!
 

Setting Aside

 Usually on Sundays, I sit down and gather my thoughts for the coming week, along with where I want to go with my knitting.  This week, it took me a few days, partly because I was all over the place with my knitting, partly about what I thought I should be knitting on, given the self imposed time lines that I have given myself.

I think it is still a good practice for me, to have a sense of timelines, otherwise nothing would ever get done.  That is also the down side of having many WIPS, so many possibilities! 

One of the projects that I have been taking to the river, was a new larger poncho for Miss M.  It's not a whole lot of fun to knit, but it is some nice public knitting.

And I was thinking it would be a great addition to her birthday presents for next month, but really when I got to thinking about it yesterday, I realized a couple of things.

1. She is not going to be able to wear it until this Fall (which gives me plenty of time to knit it, later)

2. I've got other more pressing knitting that I want to be doing.

3, And by setting it aside, it will give me a chance to measure the one I knit for her several years ago, and has grown too small, to make sure I get the measurements right on it.

So, I've put it back into it's bag.

And feel so much better about setting it aside.

For now.

Scrappy Sunday

 I was a bit bored the last weekend with my current knitting projects.  Maybe because there is a lot of knitting stockinette in the round on two sweaters, and the other  a shawl that is  a 12 row repeat which seems like forever until I will be done with it.

I was very close to casting on something new, but talked myself out of adding another WIP to my knitting, so I pulled out my crochet scrappy blanket that really needed some work done on it.

I made a bit of progress on Saturday, and surprisingly, enjoyed the rhythm of the crochet. 

Crochet brings fond memories of when we were just married a year and moved into apartments across the street from myAunt Ellie.  She was a crocheter and we would spend many a night in her cool swing that my Uncle Ben built for her, swinging and crocheting and watching the cars go by. 

So when Sundays come around, I have decided to crochet at least a row on super wide scrappy blanket. For those who don't know, first the scrap finger weight yarn goes into the mitered square blanket, then into the basket for a row on the crochet blanket (or until the tiny ball runs out) and then into a baggie for Allison who is also knitting a mitered square blanket, but smaller size squares.

Again, it was kind of fun crocheting a couple of rows ( I couldn't just stop with one) and I might do some more today just for fun.

And of course, another square went into the mitered square blanket.  This yarn, I believe was Taiyo, which is a bit rougher than the others, but, I am not being a snob at all about the yarns that go into it, I'll use any.

Then, to finish out the day (the Tall Guy just had to remark that I was doing yet another project, which yielded him a bit of attitude from pjknits), a couple of colors into the Habitation Throw.

Which brings me to today's knitting..., but I'll save that for tomorrow's blog. Hope you are having a great start to your week! 

World Wide Knit in Public Day

 Were you able to get out with friends and knit together today?

I had great plans and a couple of invitations to do just that today, but, it was so stinking hot here in Central Illinois today, that I decided to do the laundry and air out some shawls and blankets instead.

So, my version of Knit in Public Day ended with some knitting on the porch, with a glass of cool refreshing lemonade.

Even this evening it was still 93 degrees, so I didn't stay out too long, but it was fun to sit out for a bit and enjoy some sunshine.

Here's hoping that wherever you are, your area is opening up and your comfort level of gathering with friends to knit is getting better too.

Finally Finished Friday

 Sandpiper by Imagine Knit Designs out of Plymouth Yarn Baby Bunny from deep stash.

It's going to be great over sundresses when in the air condition, which is sounds like we will be doing fairly soon here in Central Illinois.

By not seaming the sides up, I now have two possible options for wearing, with the point, or straight across. 

Use of stash and a pattern from my library. Win Win for the Top This 2021 KAL

Episode 59 - Yarn in a Basket

 is up on You Tube and you can watch it by clicking Here

Grab a cuppa and knit while I tell you about some more Summer Sweaters for the Top This 2021 KAL

Just Some Weekend Knitting

Sundays here at Chez PJKnits have me knitting on a couple of scrappy things.

I promised myself at the start of the year, that I would, at the very least knit one mitered square on my blanket on Sunday.  So far, I have kept up on my promise.

I had been keeping track of my progress each month with a progress keeper, but got some monthly ones in the mail last week, and now I am switching them out and putting a monthly marker at the end of each month so I can keep tabs.

This week, I added a stripe to my Habitation Throw. Not because of anything in particular, I just wanted a bit of something different mixed in with my regular knitting.

This week is Hospice week, so I thought I would spend a bit of time on a blanket that I am knitting too while watching some baseball.

As you can tell, my Sunday was a bit all over the place with my knitting.  I am having a bit of a problem focusing on one particular thing to knit.  No particular reason, just feeling like I want to knit/cast on all the things.

Mail Call!

 I haven't been ordering as much fun stuff lately, not that I haven't wanted to.  It's just, need is overcoming want right now.  I don't need anything new in the yarn/project department, I am really trying to make a dent in what I have and use some of it up.

But, I had to have these new progress keepers.  And look at the patching, isn't this the cutest little sack ever?

I'm going to use the monthly progress keepers in my scrappy blanket, to document each of the month's set of squares that is going into my mitered square blanket.  

So far, I am happy to report that I have completed the first five months of 2021 on schedule on my blanket, working a square every Sunday so far this year!

Pats herself on the back!

Have a great weekend!

Some of This Week's Knitting

 I wanted to share a couple of projects that I am working on right now.

First is a new poncho, for Miss M.  I knit her one in 2016.  When we were over there last weekend, she wore it quite a bit, and not only I noticed, but her Aunt as well, that maybe it was time for a new one.

She really liked the yarn from her first one, and I thought maybe I would look for something similar, and there was one contender, but when I looked at the cost, I did have a bit of second thought, which normally, I wouldn't.

 And I wondered if I had anything in my stash, that would fit the bill.  As luck would have it, I have quite the quantity of Plymouth, Jelli Beenz.  I thought I'd just cast on and see if I liked it.  I did and had further confirmation yesterday, when I took it to knitting.  

Two of my knitting friends want to knit the poncho for their granddaughter/niece and wanted the exact same yarn, so I am pretty sure Miss M will like it too!

 

I had a bit of a rude awakening last weekend. Our new grandson is set to arrive earlier in July than originally planned, and if I want to have the Christening Shawl done by the end of July, I need to get on the stick and knit a bit more on it.  So I devised a plan to knit at least 8-12 rows every day on it. 

That shouldn't be too hard as I am working on it during baseball games at night.  I can knit, look at the chart which is pretty easy to read and listen to the game, especially when my team is playing so badly.

And lastly, I have cast on a new Summer Tee out of stash yarn.  I have had to go down to a size 3 needle from the original size 5.  I still am not getting gauge, but I refuse to go down any further.  I will just adapt it later on.

Today was a beautiful day to sit on the porch and do some knitting, but first I started out with a nice cup of coffee and a fun book to read.

It was the perfect Wednesday!

Is It Really Tuesday?

 

Before I retired, I always knew what day it was. I based it all on the weekends.  Thursday nights was knitting night and I looked forward to it, because I knew the next day was Friday, jean day at work and then the weekend followed with Saturday knitting and inevitably Sunday rolled around, and there would be a bit of a change of attitude, since the work week was about to begin all over again.

But now, all of sudden, it is a three day weekend, it is Tuesday and I keep thinking it is Monday and I want to post my Monday Mail Call...only it has to be Monday Mail Call on a Tuesday. LIL

The second edition of the Shetland Journal arrived today from Schoolhouse Press.

I knew it was coming soon, since I had a heads up post from Meg on Facebook that they had been sent out. I love reading about Shetland, a place I only know from knitting, the t.v. series, and my friend Denise who has actually been there.  

I would love to go there someday and soak it all in. 

A girl can dream, right?!  Where would you like to travel to?