Finally Finished Friday

These are not all mine, only one of the 49 in this pile, but I just had to share what a great bunch of shawls and blankets came in this week at Hospice.

I am so proud to be a part of this amazing group that meets twice a month at our local Hospice Home.

Wednesday Website

Let's talk stash.  We all have one, right?  Well, what if you are like me and actively wanting to use your stash or as I like to call it now My Personal Yarn Shop?  What if you don't have the yarn called for in your current want to cast on right away project or your local yarn shop doesn't carry the particular yarn called for?

Try searching for a yarn substitution at https://yarnsub.com

Enter a yarn and see all the possibles!

Happy Hump Day!

Episode 38 - The Weekender

Episode 38 is up on You Tube.  You can find it here

In this episode, I show you my Knitmas gifts and all about The Weekender sweater I finally finished.

Show notes can be found in the pjknits group on Ravelry.

Morning Has Broken

I love Cat Stevens, and so his song this morning, 🎼 Morning has broken 🎼 is a perfect backdrop to the scene that greeted us this morning when we woke up.

Since then, the sun is shining and it is a blue sky, and a bit of the snow is starting to melt.  With temps tomorrow in the 40's and rain forecasted, we should have a bit less of the snow around.

And if it is Sunday, I am taking it easy with a cuppa, my knitting and some planning.  Since I finished The Weekender, I have been all over the place with my knitting, with probably a half a dozen different things that I want to be knitting.  I won't bore you with all of them, but I do want to share a couple that I am really excited about.

First up, I really want to finish some projects that have been hanging around for awhile, and first up is Ouzo by Baby Cocktails.  I bought the yarn specifically for it from Stitches Midwest at least three years ago and knit the back right away.  The front has been cast on for some time, and recently, I was looking at my friend, Susan Rainey's finished object on Ravelry, and her notes made me think about the pocket.

The pattern has you knit the pocket separately and then sew it down, but Susan knit a pocket lining, and knit the lace and rib as part of the front.  Genius move, so I copied hers and now I can motor along to the top.

Two new cast ons have happened this weekend...what can I say I could not resist.

Regular readers will remember that when Debbie and I were at January Thaw, she gifted me two skeins of yarn.  A little plotting and planning occurred while we were together that we would knit a wrap together.  We chose Shadows in the Rain, by Nomadic Knits.  We picked out some yarns and she went off to Florida with hers and I cast on mine.

I wasn't too sure when I cast on yesterday that I was going to like the blue to start with and maybe I should recast on with gray, but the more I knit with it the more I like it.

Stay tuned to see the other colors as the shawl continues.   It's going to be a bright one and perfect for Team Unicorn at ZK.

For a couple of weeks now, I have been searching my stash for just the right yarn in DK or Sport weight to knit Shot Reverse Shot as part of the ZK contest for February/March.  The pattern is one of the Designers in the Designer Showcase and gives bonus points for using one of their patterns.  And additional bonus points for using Vendor Market yarns and even more bonus points for February/March if you knit a wrap/shawl/poncho.

What a win, if only.  I do pretty good about adding my stash to Ravelry, and so was pretty bummed that I did not have something in DK.  I just don't tend to buy DK, but it seems like every designer is using DK.  So, I gave up.

I had a couple of other options, maybe holding two finger weights together so I headed up to my personal yarn shop this morning to look.  Et, Voila, why was only one of these listed in my stash and where did the others come from?  I don't care, all I know is I am loving them so far and cannot wait to see this all evolve.

My head is swimming with all the knitting I want to do.  Now, I just have to decide what project to work on first or the most.

Hope your are having a great weekend!  Catch you on the purl side!

It’s The Weekender!

The perfect sweater to wear for the weekend - The Weekender by Andrea Mowry.

I am totally going to get a lot of wear out of this.  The yarn has been in my stash for several years, purchased from Chris at Briar Rose Fibers sometime ago.

It is a departure from my normal colors, but still has my signature blue in it, and it totally goes with the green turtle neck.

I have made a few mods on the pattern to fit me, I'm just not the positive ease kind of person along with I like my necklines close.  The mods are on my Ravelry project page, so you can check them out there.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentines Day

Sure You Can

celebrate Christmas in February!

We just got home from Iowa where we finally got to celebrate Christmas with my kids and grandkids.  I'll share pics of them later next week.

But, when I arrived home my Knitmas present came from Becky out in Virginia.  I was hoping for a box and Santa Mail delivered while we were gone.

It was so much fun digging into the box for all the reveals!

The knit was dead on, and I will get so much wear out of it.  I have been wanting to knit this cowl from Curious Handmade and now I don't have to.  Becky sent along the leftovers and they are being saved for a mitered square blanket for me that I want to do out of all the colors of the ocean...you know Caribbean Blue/Turquoise!

Becky added so many goodies including a cross stitch for my knitting room, a tuft soap, a snoopy ornament for my snoopy Christmas tree, some wonderful chocolates from Finland, sock yarn for socks just for me

And this Calma Llama that if it doesn't cure stress and make you laugh, well there is just no hope for you or me!