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Erin asked about the yarn in my Scrappy Lengthwise Something in my last post. I'm using leftover Cascade 220 and choosing the color for each of the rows. It's a fun process!
Time to get dinner in the oven. I'm looking forward to catching up on the Olympics. It will be sad when they're over. Have a great weekend!
Lately my knitting has been mostly about prayer shawls. (I am still knitting on Palindrome and it is growing, slowly but surely. Only 20 inches left to go!)
I've finished knitting my friend's Hamamelis Shawl. I bound off, using this method, but it was still too tight for as much as I wanted to block it. So I "unbound" the whole thing and am now using a sewn bind off. This is much stretchier and matches the other shawl edge well. But it's taking me forever! I've left a really long tail with which to sew and it takes time to pull the whole tail through the loops. I'm sure there is a better way to get a stretchy bind off (suggestions?) but I'm glad I found something that does work.
This is the prayer shawl that probably will not be. I really like how it looks and I love the color combo but it will take too long to finish this by Easter. I'm using the Scrappy Lengthwise Scarf pattern and it may end up being a scarf after all.
So today I started a ripple shawl, using a modification of Debbie Bliss's Zig Zag Stripes scarf from Scarf Style. The color changes will be at the ends and the middle will be a solid color. I'm still playing with the colors. I've cast on for a rainbow progression at each end (because I have lots of different colors of yarn) but I'm not wild about rainbows. (I love real rainbows but don't really like using all those colors at once.) I may just end up choosing a few colors for the ends that complement the green I have available for the middle. To be honest, I'm not wild about the ripple pattern either. But I've seen several projects that turned out beautifully so I'm hoping I'll be happy with this when it's done.
Have you been watching the Olympics? I've watched new sports (to me) and old sports but I think my favorite right now is short track. It could be because I like watching Apolo Anton Ohno skate. He seems like such a nice guy and boy can he skate!
Natchez Trace (Old Trace) - 1987
It appears that the official Ten on Tuesday has ended. So from now on you can assume that the great topics come from Carole. For today's topic, she chose 10 Places You've Been Meaning to Visit.
The Redwoods - I have always loved trees and really want to see these enormous ones. I think they grow in more than one place, don't they? Not sure where I'll see them but I do want to see them.
The Pacific Northwest - I picture it as being very beautiful. With the Twilight books being set there, Emma wants to see it, too. :)
The Pacific Ocean - I've been able to see the Atlantic Ocean from the East Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and from England. But I've never seen the Pacific Ocean. Where's the best place to see it?
Back to the Rocky Mountains - One of my favorite places on earth is Glacier National Park. We'd love to share this place with Emma.
Prince Edward Island - I loved reading the Anne of Green Gables books and think it would be nice to visit the place in which they are set.
Charleston, South Carolina - Everyone I speak to who has been to Charleston recommends it!
Savannah, Georgia - I would like to see Savannah, too. It's right here in our state but we haven't made it there yet.
Washington, DC - Can you believe that I have never been?! My desire to go started when I was little and heard about the Hope Diamond.
The Grand Canyon - I have a feeling the enormity of this place will make me feel insignificant.
Niagara Falls - This was such a cool place to visit when I was little and I think it would be great to take Emma there. Aside from the falls, I remember driving into Canada and eating at a Dairy Queen where they had malt vinegar on the table for the french fries. That was new to me!
North America has so many wonderful places that I still want to see. Then there's the rest of the world, too! Where do you want to go?
This weekend we saw quite a range of weather! It started snowing on Friday afternoon and accumulated quickly. On Saturday morning it was beautiful and sunny so the snow started melting right away. Last night we grilled out. Going from snow to grilling out in that short amount of time - wild! Things are swinging back the other way and snow is expected tonight.
But I'm ready for it because my socks are finished!!! After some weekend knitting while watching lots of Olympic coverage (mostly the opening ceremonies), I was able to bind off the second sock last night and put them both right on my feet. They haven't left there yet. :) But soon I'll be needing to shower and they'll get a nice bath in the sink. Hopefully I'll have photos later in the week. The ones I took this morning are too bad to post.
We have this week off from school and I have a lot I'd like to get done. Guess I'd better get to it. Have a good Monday!
Have you joined any Knitting Olympics? I never have and decided not to again this year - until Estella announced the Finish or Frog It Olympics! The goal is to finish a project you've been putting off. Come join in the fun if you have a project you've been meaning to finish. I've committed to complete my Moss Socks (Rav link) and Vestpa. This will be a good excuse to watch some TV and to knit a lot. We have winter break next week - good timing!
I recently joined a couple more Ravelry groups lately, too. (What's that called - Rav Group Startitis?) One is Prayer Shawl Knitters and Crocheters and the other is Fans of Through the Loops. The prayer shawl group is having a 40 Shawls in 40 Days project where the group knits at least 40 shawls during Lent. I signed up for that, too. I'm going to have to start finishing and stop starting now!!!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Hamamelis Shawl in Dream in Color Smooshy (November Muse)
Hamamelis Shawl in Patons Classic Wool (Cognac Heather)
After having lunch with a friend yesterday, I decided to knit a prayer shawl for her. I chose to knit Hamamelis since I love it so much. I want the shawl to be a little heavier and decided to use Patons Classic Wool. I'm happy with how it looks and feels.
Vestpa in Cascade 220 Heathers (Green)
And I grabbed this on the way out the door to go to my yearly physical. The doctor was way behind and I added 19 rows while waiting. So now it's starting to look like a vest even though it doesn't look like much in this picture!
I hope you are all working on fun, beautiful projects where you are!
Relaxed dog!
Is that not the most boring post title?! I couldn't think of anything very original and I'm in a hurry to get this posted. It does seem rather late to be posting my Monday weekend review when it's almost Tuesday!
We had a great weekend. I managed to get yarn for my shawl on Thursday evening: Dream in Color Smooshy. This is my first time knitting with this yarn and I love it! There was some knitting over the weekend and I'm through the first repeat of Chart 2. Picture later!
I do have a question about this yarn. Are the colors on the web site true to the yarn colors? My label says the color is November Muse but it really looks like Cocoa Kiss. Maybe my yarn is mislabeled.
There was some pretty Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine that somehow made it up to the register, too. Again, picture to follow...
Saturday was supposed to be spent cleaning for friends to come over on Sunday. I spent several hours sorting through piles of papers. Nothing looked much better but it felt good to have that done! The cleaning did eventually get done and we enjoyed a nice Super Bowl evening with our friends. I taught one of them how to knit. She was a natural and had perfect stitches right away!
Sunday was also our new pastor's first day. She jumped right in and gave a very inspiring message. I've probably said this before but I'm very glad she's here now.
I had an interesting experience today. I don't talk about my faith much on my blog but this is something I want to share with you. Jesus spoke quite a bit about putting others' needs ahead of our own, being a servant to others, etc. I was reading a devotion book this morning and that was the topic. I usually think of servanthood in relation to those in need. But it occurred to me that I even put my needs ahead of the ones I love or care about. During a typical day I check my email and Ravelry frequently, knit if I feel like it, leave chores undone, etc. Today I decided to think like a servant and to do things for others. My daughter got breakfast in bed. My husband got the kitchen cleaned up and the counters sealed. My Worship & Music team at church got a caught-up team leader and minutes from yesterday's meeting. Usually I feel stressed out by the things I haven't done during the day. But now it is only 8:00 at night and I feel content with what I accomplished, I have time to blog, and better yet - I have time to knit!
And speaking of knitting, that's what I'm off to do!
