It's A Penny Week

That is what my friend Debbie called it.  I took this week off (4 days) for me.  It all is centering around knitting and shopping!

All too soon it will go by, but in the mean time, I am enjoying it.

As we leave May 2016, I want to share with you a most delightful podcast I found by accident yesterday, while testing out my new Amazon Fire Stick.  There are only six episodes so far, but Andrea and Andrew have turned me onto and back onto some unbelievable sweaters and tutorial.

Find them here:  http://fruityknitting.com

What's up next?  Tomorrow starts the Summer of Shawls!

Memorial Day

Memories of My Youth

When I was in Junior High, my Mom finally let me go to the Indy 500 with my brother and Dad.  The only reason I got to go was because my new sister-in-law  was going and so there was another female to watch over me.  I had begged and pleaded for several years before, but because there wasn't another female going, I was resigned to staying home and watching a condensed version of it later that night.  It just wasn't the same.

In my Junior year of high school, my dad was transferred to Indy and I was so excited.  I was ticked though, when we didn't buy a house in Speedway.  I figured if I was going to be uprooted from all my friends, we should at least live in the city where I wanted to work.  You see, if I couldn't be a race car driver, I figured I could at least work at the track or the museum where I just knew I would meet one of those race car drivers and well you know there was my destiny.  Mom and Dad blew that one for me.  But, hey, I got a pretty good deal out of marrying the Tall Guy!

Since that first trip to the Indy 500, the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend is mine.  We no longer go, but the Sunday during the race is still my time.  Nothing, well, almost nothing will take me away from the t.v.  I plop my butt in front of the t.v. and watch the opening festivities all the way through the race to the very end.  I am a fan!

And so during that me time, it is a great time to get some knitting done.  Today's knitting features the current Hospice shawl.  You can see by the hamburger progress keeper, how much I have gotten done since last week.

This lap blanket is really my entry in the KAL #batterupKAL16 over in the  inaSknit group  on Ravelry.  It is supposed to be what I am knitting on while I watch the Cardinal games which I have been doing a bit, but not as much as I should be.  There are so many things to knit these days, wouldn't you agree?!

Hope your Sunday was as lovely as mine was, nice and relaxing with a few tears during taps and remembering.

It's That Time of Year

When the Caribe Blue (aka Turquoise and all it's facsimiles) comes out to play.

And yes, that is a new bag from Thirty One for my knitting and some new Skechers

Finally Finished Friday!

Not in objects, but in work.  I have a whole week off and I've got plans for nearly every day.  Every other day involves knitting with friends almost, now how cool is that?!  Also, there are plans for shopping.  I desperately need new work clothes, new play clothes, maybe scouting out a day bed or futon for Miss Mona Lisa to sleep in.  And perhaps at the end of the week, I'll head out on a road trip to see Mona Lisa and Poppy.  All too soon, it will be over with and I'll be back to work.  But for now, it's

Have a safe one and enjoy!

Who Says

 I don't know what's in?  Look what showed up on Ravelry this morning.

Look what I cast on this past weekend.

Look what colors are still looking good from my Mother's Day Bouquet.

And look at my 3 Color Cashmere Shawl Colors.

I win at least for this week!

Wednesday Website

The Yarniacs Podcast

On the Rack

Yes, this is a Special Issue and yes, there are a lot of Fall things in it, but I am loving these projects that fit cowls for the Girl's Holiday Bash gifts in 2020 and shawls for next Fall/Winter wearing.  And there are some great articles in this special issue as well.

I have a few gradients in my stash from Knitcircus Yarns, that I think would be great in this shawlette.

And a fun little ensemble.

Another cool shawl that would be great out of a hand dyed yarn or Madtosh where you don't mind some pooling.

I love the design of this cowl!  Wouldn't gradient sets be cool in this.  Why, yes, I have one or two of those in the stash as well.

And well now, how about these next two cuties.  It is time Poppy has some cute knits knit by Grandma Penny.

Wait for it, this is just too dang cute!!

See what I mean?!  Knitscene, you blew me away!

New Magazines on the Rack

There are some new magazines on the rack at my LYS, the Fiber Universe.  Best of all I can look at them, decide if I want to buy and she gives a 20% discount on them.  I picked up a couple of them last Tuesday and thought over the next couple of days, I'd blog about what I like out of each.

  First, you will notice Interweave is not among them.  I was totally unimpressed with the Spring issue, it was more like Fall and Rustic then Spring.

First up is Vogue Knitting.  What I liked.  I like this little shell. But, of course, I would need to wear a tank under and there is no way I could get by without added sleeve length.

A design by Romi Hill.  This shawl is gorgeous and I can see this in a lovely turquoise Handmaiden Yarn.

I kind of like this one, interestingly enough.  It looks like something that you could just wrap up in on the porch some late Summer evening.  It is knit in two pieces and then joined at the back with kitchener.  One would be very proficient at kitchener when you finished this one.

This sweater is out of Heritage Silk and very much reminds me of a design by Bonne Marie Burns (Chic Knits) that I have admired.  You know what is the coolest thing?  This pattern is sized from Small to 3X.  Kudos Vogue!

This would be a perfect Hospice Wrap and has all kinds of possibilities.  I think I have to cast it on first.

What I don't like!  Seriously, I mean seriously.

Tomorrow,  Knitscene Handmade, Special Issue.

Coming In June

I know I know, it is a couple of weeks away, but I'm a planner and I'm planning my Summer already.

Knit Camp

Stitches Midwest

A road trip to some other fiber venue, who knows?!

But in the meantime what's coming to the blog in June?

I'll be starting my Summer of Shawls.  Shawls are such good Summer projects.  They are portable projects and they can go to the porch at night for knitting under the street lights and aren't terribly hot to knit on.  They make a good toss in your purse wrap when heading into the air conditioned places all around us!

During the Summer of Shawls, I'll blog about the new shawl patterns that are out there this year, along with my favorite styles, designers and some cool yarns to knit them out of.  And of course, there will be Hospice Shawls this Summer as well.

Wednesday Website will convert to Wednesday WIPS for the Summer, in an attempt to get some of those off of the needles.

Fridays will still be Finally Finished Friday, and hopefully, there will some knits to report.

And not that I have a hope of winning, but Sundays will be set aside for Sunday Stash Dash Report.  I'll hopefully have some numbers of yarn yardage to tally up.  Every year, the Knit Girllls host Stash Dash.  If you are interested on reading what it is all about, head over to the thread on Ravelry here.

The days in between, I'll share some books from my Library, because don't you love a good book in the Summer!

I'm super excited for Summer knitting, stay tuned!

Wednesday Website

http://www.knittingpipeline.com

Local to me podcast.

What's On Tap This Week?

I'll bet you all expected to see a couple of new sweaters cast on today, am I right?  After spending the morning, trying to decide which one to cast on next, I decided to put both into a bag that has some other lovelies waiting to be knit this Spring.  Fact is, I gotta few things on my knitting plate, from now until August, and I've really got to stop going off casting on new things every time something shiny pops up.

Buttttttt, I could not resist re-casting on Hermoine's Everyday Sock for the Fancy Feet KAL over on the  Grocery Girls Podcast group.   The thing I like about sock knitting is that it is an easy pick up project for a few minutes before work in the morning.

I'm putting progress keepers in each of my projects this week to see what really gets the love in a week's time.  This one is the macaroon from Sucre Sucre.

It's home is my sock project bag my dear friend Norma made for me many years ago.

I'm finally to Band C on the Three Color Cashmere Shawl.  It is a super bright lime green and I can't wait to see it in the shawl.  The colorways of the yarn are all Willy Wonka names that I ordered from StevenBe.  It's a bright one, but I am loving it!

Another progress keeper from Sucre Sucre is a nice cuppa.

Being housed in my Mrs. Browns Bag.  I love Jodie's bags and have another one on the way!

The last two are Hospice Shawls.  This one goes to work with me for lunch time knitting, even though I rarely take lunch.  The yarn is Folio and is so soft.

Let's just say all of my progress keepers are from Sucre Sucre, okay?!

And another bag maker that I blogged about which is also a favorite maker is SilverShed USA.  I love Snoopy and I am not changing this out even though Easter is over.

And finally, another Hospice Shawl.  This one is knit on during Cardinal games and is part of the inaSknit KAL for the Summer.  It's progress keeper is a cheeseburger, my version of an all American food.

I'm knitting on one other big project that I'll show later this week.  In the meantime, Happy Knitting

I'm Thinking Sweater Weather

Blue skies and green leaves can be deceiving!  In between periods of clouds today, it has been a beautiful day when you look out from inside.

In actuality, it was a bit nippy and the wind has been blowing since last night.

I wore long sleeves, a sweatshirt and my fur lined shoes today to knitting.  Tonight, I hauled out the flannel jammies for what I am hoping is the last time this Spring that I have to do that.  Who would have thought mid May in IL we'd be doing that!

Which got me to thinking, that maybe a sweater or two may be needed for some events I will be going to this Summer that will be held in freezing, air conditioned hotels.  Couple that with the "I am dying to cast on something new", I hauled out a couple of Hannah Fettig patterns that I've must have cast on or thought about a dozen times each.

Featherweight.  I went so far on this one as to have printed out the Custom Fit version of it over a year ago.  The swatch has been done for longer than that,  when I thought I would knit my first custom fit sweater as a simple v-neck cardigan.

Then, Amy and Hannah collaborated on a Custom Fit version and I converted my then swatch info for a v-neck to Featherweight.

The yarn is Madtosh Light that I had Debbie scarfed up for me when it came in at Knit 4 Tog several years back.  This will not be a quick knit as it is done on some small needles, but will be nice for public knitting and talking.

A month or so back I was listening to Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls podcast and she mentioned how she had been wearing the death out of her Breezy cardigan.  This is one of those patterns that Hannah has patterns in a couple of weights that I've been wanting to knit as well for sometime.  When I heard Jasmin talk about the sweater and the yarn she had knit it out of, I had an epiphany.

I've had yarn from Chris at Briar Rose Yarns for a couple of years and went so far as to cast on Gnarled Yoke with it.  But had not gotten very far with it, because of the cables that were around the neck.  My mind kept telling me that no one was ever going to be seeing those cables on me for my long hair, so why bother.

As I was driving along, it hit me that I could re-purpose this yarn into Effortless.  Best of all, I've all ready got a pretty big swatch to go by.

At the moment, both of them are sitting down at my feet.  Not sure if either will be cast on tonight, but just in case they are at the ready!  That beige thing to the left, that's my heated throw, I might need it tonight!

Hospice

Twice a month, I try to tell you about what happened at  Prayer Shawl Ministry.  Some Thursdays it is a bit hard to put into words what it was like.  What I want to really say is, you shoulda been there!  There were shawls and blankets and patterns and cool yarns and laughter and tears and food and coffee  and prizes and conversations and new people and fun!

Today, we heard from Bruce, a volunteer and member of the VFW, who thanked us for our blankets that are given to the Vets.  I've blogged before of how he does a little ceremony for the Vets that are in Hospice.  Today, Bruce was even choked up  and you could tell he had a hard time, conveying to us all how much our service means to them.  Voiced by one of the knitters, and in most of our minds I am sure, is how small of a token of gratitude the hospice blanket knitted in patriotic colors is, compared to their service to us as a country and also to Bruce's  service for recognizing the Vets as well.    It just makes you want to knit one up for the next time.

There were several impact stories today.   One was a wonderful thank you card from one of our sister knitters who is going through some health problems of her own.  Her card thanking us for our thoughts, wishes and the prayer shawl picked out just for her was especially poignant.   As it would be, it was one that I knit.  I am so pleased that she liked it and it warms my heart to hear her kind words.

Becky's husband, Jeff had a surprise presentation of a  plate that Becky helped to design and that Jeff painted and fired to recognize our work, his wife's passion for Hospice Shawl knitting and how very aware they both are of this wonderful facility and how lucky we are to have it near by.  The photo above is the plate and it will be displayed in the room where we meet.

Victoria told us of her hope for the very first meeting over a year ago, her vision for the Prayer Shawl Ministry, hoping that at least a few people would show up and how this was really a homage to her mother to start this ministry.  All she wanted was some help to knit "some"  shawls.  I don't think she ever thought how big the turnout would be!

Victoria posed to  us a question why do we keep coming back?   I don't really need to think too hard on this question.  It makes me feel good.  I am making tons of new friends who have a mission in common share the love of knitting.  When I leave the Hospice Home and head to work, I feel good.  I can tackle life and work.    I am filled to the brim with new ideas for prayer shawls.

Most of all, I want this ministry to go on forever.  Not to be maudlin or bring you down this Thursday night,  but should I ever need Hospice,  I want to go to this Hospice Home,  and I want to hear the laughter of the knitters down the hall!  And I will feel the love.