Wonderful Trip!

This past weekend, I had a wonderful time visiting some knitting friends in Massachusetts. It was the first time I've flown in over 12 years, so I was a bit nervous about hopping up in the sky again. :P But, I survived.

I stayed in the home of Amy and Sheldon Finlay. They were such charming hosts, and took great care to keep me happy and comfortable. That was quite a task actually, because my luggage was delayed. :(

So, my overnight stay was interesting. Amy provided a toothbrush, toiletries, cosmetics, and pajamas. She certainly deserves a blue medal for all that improvisation! :D

The next morning, my luggage was at their doorstep, kindly delivered by the airline. So, after changing clothes and freshening up, I felt much better. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting their beautiful home. Sheldon is a master at "keeping the home fires burning" at their charming woodstove, and has a beautiful Irish lilt to his voice. I think I could listen to him talk every day.


On the previous day, after picking me up at the airport, Amy took me to WEBS, the largest yarn shop I've ever seen. Very nice!


I didn't have much cash with me, but I couldn't resist buying some heavenly soft Misti Alpaca Lace, and some skeins of mohair blend (Valley Farms "Wildwood"), which was on sale half price.


On my second day there, some other knitting friends came to visit as well, and we all enjoyed sitting around together, knitting and talking.






We even had some furry creatures around to entertain us.


All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and my trip home was uneventful, with luggage safely travelling all the way to my destination. Excellent!

MORE Bulky Alpaca Goodness!

:D

Last night, I made myself complete a set of wristwarmers to go with my hat and scarf I made earlier.

Now, I have a nice set to keep me warm. Yippee!

My Handknit Hat and Scarf!

Yay! I finally finished knitting a project! Woo Hoo!!!!


I've been so busy on charity projects, that I never had time to work on my own things. But, I made it a priority to get my scarf finished, and I did it! Yay!

I used an alpaca blend yarn that I got in a Nicky Knits kit in the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. It was originally about 50 dollars for the kit, but I got it for about 12. Great deal, and the yarn is SUPER soft and warm and wonderful. Lucky for me.

Anyway, I had made the hat back when I was in the mountains last year. And I really wanted a scarf to go with it, to make the set complete. I was so pleased to bind off the stitches last night. Nice and warm.

And I really needed it today, because it was snowy and cold in Charlotte this morning. :D

More Knitting for Charity

For the past couple weeks, I've been hard at work, getting some more Oddball Baby Blankets started. Right now, we have 8 blankets started, and they are travelling all over the world, to be completed by other knitters. Each knitter knits for 4 inches, then sends the blanket to the next knitter, until it is complete. When they are finished, they will be given to a children's hospital.

Here are the blankets we're working on:

Peppy Pastels - ALMOST FINISHED!!


Fruity Loops


Sunny Day


Mexican Fiesta


Neon Fun


Circus Fun - Our Blanket in England!


Patriotic Party


(the 8th blanket, called "Crayola Box" has disappeared. I hope it turns up soon!)

We are about to start 4 more blankets as well. Our Knitting Help Forum knitters really like making these baby blankets! :D

Purple Paradise

Shamrock Hills

Fairy Dance

Gorgeous Grapes

Craft Room Chaos

My poor craft room suffered a bit during the holidays. :(

I was busy at church, with all our Christmas music (I'm the organist), and was busy with Christmas music for all my piano students as well. I was also involved with learning how to be a moderator on the Knitting Help Forum. And, there were lots of Christmas gatherings to attend for church and family.

On top of all that, all of our charity Oddball Blankets, Oddball Shawls, and Oddball Baby Blankets were going strong. (I started those projects in February of 2007).

So, the only thing I did in my craft room was to throw bags of yarn in there occasionally. So, it didn't look too good yesterday morning.


I decided to get in there, and set it all right. I was tired of avoiding piles of projects, just to sit in my knitting chair.

I didn't have to do anything to my bookcase, which contains my knitting patterns, books, and magazines. It looked pretty good.


But, the rest of the room was in bad shape. So, I dove in and started moving things around, just to make sense of it. After a couple hours, it was looking much better!


I'm really glad I did it. Now, I can actually walk into the room and sit in my knitting chair, without worrying about falling down, or causing a yarn avalanche. :P

And good thing I did the organization, because I found a LOT of knitting patterns sitting around, that need to be put in my binders.




They are a mish-mash of different patterns I have bought or printed from the internet. They really need to be organized, so I can find them. What a novel idea! (tee-hee)

And I finally got all my vintage Workbasket magazines in one stack, instead of all spread out on the floor. Now, if I could just USE those patterns! I have been collecting those magazines by watching eBay auctions for the past few years. Now, I own 382 copies of them (that includes SEVERAL duplicates). I need to get together all the duplicates, and sell them on eBay myself!


But, I still have another project I need to work on in there. Organizing a BOATLOAD of yarn I've been throwing behind my knitting chair. Ha!

Knitting for a Lost Baby

Sadly, sometimes babies don't make it to term. So, I decided to knit a set for wrapping a lost baby with a bit of love for it's burial. :(

This set is for a tiny, one pound baby.

White Christmas Squares

Since my last post, I've been continuing to work on more charity projects in the Knitting Help Forum.

Here I am, seaming together squares that were handknit by members of the forum. These squares are all white, and make beautiful blankets!


Seaming is very tedious work, but not hard at all. The only trouble I have is SEEING what I'm doing, so I'm using my reading glasses.


Here's a view of how lovely the blankets are:

Knitting In the New Year

It's been very cold lately, and I've been taking advantage of the indoor time to get more knitting done. I'm still working on those December projects, so I didn't accomplish my goal of completing even ONE of them! Ha!

Oh well....at least I'm still working on them.

We recently had a fun project in the Knitting Help Forum. On New Year's Eve, we all met in the Knitting Help chatroom, and brought in the new year by working on a dishcloth together.

Here's mine in progress:


One of the members of the forum designed the pattern for us, and we each had fun making our own cloth! :D