Knitting Club

"Niting Club" was a lot of fun, and C learned to knit! Look at her progress!



And look at those smiles. Everyone at the group was very proud and impressed by how well she did. She came home and told her mama "you can knit too, mom, all you do is "in, around, through, off." That is the chant we said for each stitch. She stuck with it too, as you can see by the progress. (It is a scarf for Isabella.)

I did get a little time to work on my project:



It is also a scarf, worked in hexagonal motifs, picking up stitches from around the previous work so there is no seaming at the end.

Working from the outside to the center is what makes the cool spiral, but it is not the easiest knitting.



There are just a lot of sticks and a lot of skinny thread to deal with. The yarn does tend to fall off the needles, too, which usually means pulling out the motif and starting over. Luckily it doesn't take that long per motif! I am enjoying the knitting, but will probably give away the scarf. Are you interested?

Update

I don't really have any stitching to show for the last week and a half. I did finish two chemo caps, and I started a medallion scarf, but there is not much to look at there yet.

We have been busy, though. Last Tuesday my annual cancer check-up was scheduled, which was cancelled just 2 days before. I always prepare myself for this visit, so it was quite a let-down for the appointment to be cancelled. DH had taken the day off, and we had plans to spend the afternoon with DD1 and have dinner with her and C in the city. DH and I decided to go ahead and keep our plans; I will go to my appointment alone next week.

DD1 showed off the new office she designed (gorgeous, elegant and welcoming) and had a tour of the building it is in, which is not completed yet. It was somewhat of an eye-opener to see how the other half lives. The penthouse will be a very elegant residence with gorgeous views of the city.

The rest of the afternoon we shopped a little bit. We found a futon store and bought a cover for our futon in the basement, we stopped at the bead store to pick up beads for a beaded knit hat, and explored Whole Foods. I got a pound of cherries, the first I had seen this year, but they were expensive. $7.00 a pound! Those may be the only cherries I get this year.

After shopping we went to see J & C's new apartment. It was looking much nicer than last time I was there, on moving weekend. It is much brighter and roomier than their old place, and the furniture was not all in pieces on the floor (like it was on moving weekend). We went to dinner at an upscale pizza place within walking distance of their house. The pizza is cooked in a wood-burning oven, and the crust was crunchy good. J and I shared a pizza with cheese sauce and asparagus, C had sausage & mushroom, unlike any I have ever had before, and DH had the special with prosciutto and olives. On the walk home we stopped for an ice cream cone. We were enjoying each other's company so much we didn't want to leave, but we still had quite a drive to get home.

I have been training on how to do the ordering for our local food pantry. I have not been able to log on to the website to do it yet; that will have to be sorted this week. The scheduling for the pantry and thrift store is done for the next quarter, and I have been asked to be in charge of grocery packing on Fridays. It helps quite a bit that I am the oldest of 5, I got used to bossing people around at a young age. Everyone is always so helpful and cheerful, it is always a pleasure.

The rest of the time this past week (actually, for the past couple of weeks) has been preparing for DD2 to move in with P & C.

Here is a partial list of what we have been doing: build a deck in the basement for the drum set. Move the music room from the spare bedroom to downstairs. Make curtains for the music room. Paint the spare bedroom. Replace the shower head. Change the curtain in the bathroom. Change the toilet seat. Buy and assemble the bunk bed. Move more music stuff to the basement. Decorate the music area. Shampoo the basement carpet. Move DD2 from old home to new. Hang new pictures. Empty the storage closet to make room for DD2's extra furniture. Make room in the bathroom for toiletries for 3 additional people.

We are very excited they are finally here.

We contracted for new gutter covers... hopefully that will happen this week, we will be sorting and organizing, and C is very excited: she will be learning to knit (or as she wrote on the calendar: "niting with granma").  Knitting group extended an invitation to anyone who wants to come to join us, with no age limits. The only request is that anyone younger than junior high bring their own adult.

My medallion scarf is very interesting to knit, but takes quite a bit of concentration, so it is not getting worked on all the time. You pick up stitches from the existing work, and knit from the border in. I am using a very pretty variegated yarn in coral, green and blue.

Yesterday my sister and BIL stopped by on their way back home in Ohio; we had a lovely meal together and a chance to catch up and talk about temari (and other hobbies). It was lovely to see them!

Ruthie's new outfit

Last week I made a sweater and hat for Ruthie. (She's my 18-inch-doll who's main job is to try on outfits for C's doll Isabella.) Doesn't this color look good on her? It only took a couple of hours to make the sweater, and a couple more to make the hat. I have another pattern with a cable in the front (same designer, also a raglan sleeve). I got some yarn today to make a pink sweater.



I finished my 4th pair of granny slippers. for our group we have 12 pairs made, 8 to go. All of us are finding it difficult to knit with the doubled yarn. My elbow gets sore, another's hand hurts, and another has problems with her wrist. (It is much easier to knit with baby yarn... see above.)



I actually worked on a temari this week. Barb Seuss has a new book out!



You can order it here. One of the techniques helped me to get past my brick wall; I am working on a multi-face (around 132 faces, I'm not quite sure yet). The marking is done, and I'm ready to start the stitching. I will get pictures for you next time.

Feels like a Garden

Between the funeral and Mother's day, it feels like a garden here:

Yellow daisies, snap dragons and mums for my SIL:




Lilies, daisies & Iris in another arrangement:



Roses for Mother's Day from church:



A little tiny rose plant...



and tulips from DD1.



It smells wonderful too!

This has been a very different week!

I don't think I have ever had a week like this past one before in my life. So this is going to be a very odd blog post too.

Last Friday DH and I went to 2 different wakes, parents and grand parents of friends. Neither was very sad, but running between two wakes in one afternoon was different.

On Saturday DH and I judged the Chamber of Commerce parade, that we have been attending for years and years. That was a new experience! DD2 and C came with us, and C made out like a bandit! She had a grocery bag of candy! plus a stuffed animal, two pom-poms, a tiny Frisbee, and several tissue flowers. The grown-ups collected the coupons and ads, the fridge magnets, and coozies.

The judging was interesting to do. It took quite a bit more concentration than I expected, and the parade seemed to rush by. Everyone was happy with the results, and we were asked to do a repeat performance next year! C was very pleased too, with her haul.

Sunday was quite normal, but Monday I was invited to bring my pick-up to Ikea to help DD1 haul 2 wardrobes home to her new apartment. An Ikea run is always fun (even though I didn't buy anything!) but my truck is not used to running on the expressway any more. Plus it was a rainy day...

I had the forethought to pack a tarp, so even though the wardrobes stuck out of the bed, they were so well wrapped that the cardboard didn't even get damp. It was a real adventure getting them up the 2 flights to the apartment! I look forward to seeing DD1's apartment after she gets everything unpacked, it looks like it will be quite a bit nicer than her old apartment.

Unfortunately, while I was out and about with DD1, we received the news that DH's only sister had passed away. She had been in a coma in January, and had made a miraculous recovery, but they were never able to say what the problem had been or what to do to avoid a future problem. She was found unresponsive again. So that took up a big portion of the rest of our week. Thursday was the wake, and Friday was the funeral. DD2 was able to spend Thursday with us, and DD1 was able to come on  Friday. My SIL will be sorely missed; she was always real, and she kept me honest. It is even worse for DH, of course: he is the only person left in his family.

We also had to go to another wake for a former co-worker on Wednesday, so that took up an afternoon as well. And Thursday early afternoon I was involved in a work party for a non-profit organization, preparing tags for Mother's Day flowers for the holiday.

DD2 and P & C will be moving in with us in a couple of weeks, so we are changing things around. DH's music room is moving to the basement, and we wanted to build a deck to protect the instruments from occasional seepage down there. We have been discussing hows and whats for weeks, but ended up doing something different anyhow. The deck is built, between yesterday afternoon and today, so now we will be moving drums and other accessories down stairs. We replaced the shower head to make it easier to use for "shorter" people. There is a bunk bed in a box sitting in the middle of the house waiting for the music room to be emptied so we can build it in what will be the new kids room. So we are in flux.

Amazingly, DH and I are feeling quite well, after all that.

In-between all of that I finished a chemo hat, a pair of "grandma's" slippers (double strands of acrylic yarn, the kind I had when I was a kid) for a knitting group project; and a pair of felted slippers in hot pink to match my bathrobe, for me. I felted all the pieces for my hydrangea purse too, but that is not assembled yet.

I hope next week will be more usual.

Talent Show

Last night was the talent show at church; it was a lot of fun. Along side the piano, French horn, and trumpet solos, skits and slide shows, we had a table set up with all the talents from the knitting group. I was rather amazed by the variety of knit objects, 3 scarves, 2 bags, 4 pairs and 2 singles of knit slippers, plus a pair of felted slippers, 3 afghans, 2 teddy bears, 7 chemo caps, and 3 or 4 baby hats. One member also brought her baskets. Isn't this a beautiful display?



The Halestones also presented a couple of Bluegrass numbers: Man of Constant Sorrows, and I'm using my Bible for a Roadmap. We had a guitar, violin, bass, banjo on the keyboard, and a washboard for instruments.



Unfortunately, our "banjo" player was sitting in the back but here she is in the group  photo. I was present as "Seamstress for the band" (also known as "ma").  I made a blue jean case for the washboard, the camouflage vest, and my gingham apron. My part in the performance was to rock and knit. I nailed it!



The smiles show how much fun we had. Hopefully I will be able to give a link for the video (it won't be on You Tube).

Finishing progress

I have been working away and making good progress on things this week. Last night, at guild meeting, I finished my needle book. I had finished the cover in one swoop when I got the kit, but there were several things I wanted to do to it. The edges were fraying a little bit, so I wanted to do blanket stitch around the edge. It turned out good, no?



I had seen the needle pages labeled on another blog, and I thought that was a very cool idea, and since my sewing machine knows how to print, I decided to do it on the machine. You can see the "sharps" label isn't quite complete. I think that is one of the first ones I did, and it is missing a few stitches. Even so, I am very pleased with how it turned out.



The pages are not exactly in alphabetical order, but I think I will be able to figure it out.

We are having a talent night at church tonight, and our knitting group is presenting a table full of knitted objects; I wanted to finish as many hats as I could to put on the table. If my reckoning is correct, this makes 15 in all. I didn't knit one of those, and I didn't embellish a couple out of that number, but I am excited about the progress.



I have blocked (and mended!) my black lacy shawl, and a pair of knit slippers, so I hope to have pictures of those soon as well.

I have been busy making a couple of other things for talent night as well, but those are secret until the performance. Hopefully I will have pictures tomorrow. (Maybe even a video?) Stay tuned!