Winter GET AWAY

I have been very busy--Traveled to West Palm Beach and had a wonderful vacation. We call ourselves "The Divas" and we are linked through High School Years, you either went to High School with us, married someone who went to highschool with us, or are a new diva friend. Mind you we graduated in 1971 and since our 2001 reunion we have been traveling together. The group began with 10 members and has grown to 17. There is always room for more. Many of us are knitters so of course there was the visit to the local knitting shop, in this case "Great Balls of Yarn (Love the name). It is a wonderful shop and within walking distance of the rented house. Could it get any better then that!!!! Sun, warmth, friendship and knitting!!!

Here's the finished poncho.

Boy is it cold outside!!!!

It's been a while and I've been busy knitting - crocheting and staying warm. We have been so spoiled here, with a warm, very warm winter, but boy is it cold outside NOW. The prediction is 10 below for tonight and single digits tomorrow. It's a good thing I finished this sweater (one of my 2006 projects) It's big, bulky and sooooooo warm. Lion Bulky Oh that's Pumpkin, never realized she loves to pose for the camera.

Jan 9 2006

The poncho has been started and I was right, the yarn is lovely to work with. Now I am crocheting this piece and although this is a knitting blog, I will be showing (off)my crochet skills also. (I'm not really this boasterous in real life, trust me!!!) Photos to follow.
What I really wanted to chat about was the wonderful book that arrived at my doorstep yesterday. Totally aware that the box contained knitting books, I kept my hands off till all the chores were done. (sounds like we're in a past century!!!)
"Confessions of a Knitting Heretic" by Annie Modesitt validated my knitting style. I "discovered" the combination stitch on my own, when friend Donna taught me the continental method of holding yarn, over 25 years ago. Nothing else felt right, or smooth or fast enough. Now mind you, I didn't realize I was doing it wrong, until my recent knitting research began. My stitch is even and the yarn flows so effortlessly. Thank you Annie, wish I had discovered you and your ideas earlier. Better late then never.

Treats!!!

This book has been hard to find, so I wasn't looking for it. Yesterday, on a visit to a local craft store, as I waited on line---It was there on the shelf!! "Knitting on the Edge" Nicky Epstein's wonderful book. What a resource! what beautiful stitches!!! I will never rib stitch an edge again!!!!

Gifts Equal Knit

I actually made it back. Let's hope the pattern continues. I have so much to share but decided to do so, a little at a time. Today's topic is gifts equal knit. This year my lovely daughter give me 2 bags of beautiful yarns. Dark Lime Cascade Magnum and Browns/Rust/Green/Gold hand dyed 100% wool by "chasing rainbows dyeworks". Both lucious to the hand. She picked the yarn up in Pennsylvania on one of her Bead Show Jaunts (She is a jewelry designer and will travel hours for a show-more about her craft in another post) The hand dyed is for me and I'm considering the short poncho (crochet). The green is hers, What shall I knit?

Back to blogging

Here I am back to blogging and a commitment to add posts to this site on a regular basis. Well, let's see what would be considered regular? Shall I say once a week? or once a month, at minimum. For all the time I spend here at the computer, that is so much less time I spend Knitting!!!!. This has been a busy year. My goal has been to finish projects, knitted and otherwise. I will post pictures of the sweaters, bags and hats that I still have in my possession soon. Glad to be back and looking forward to sharing. Any machine knitters out there? I'm looking for instructions, (visual preferably!!) for an singer LK-100.

The finshed product. Made with love 

Working on a sweater

Do you ever begin a project with all good intentions of getting it done within a time limit and it just isn't going to happen. Life gets in the way of knitting!!!!
Thought you would like to see the finished afghan though.

Vacation Week

Hi, the kids have finished the afghan and it is absolutely lovely. The greatest thing is that the ladies are sooooo proud of the work they have done. I love how well they worked together and the fact that they are ready for a new project- Not for themselves but for someone else. Project Linus perhaps.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's been a busy day. Bought 3 skeins of alpaca yarn and spent a good 2 hours rewinding one of the them. Any tricks I should know about? The yarn has absolutely the most delicious feeling in my hands. It will be a lace scarf, I have about 2 inches worked up and I just can't wait to finish it....but I still have my sweater to finish. Well I'm off to knit.