What A Girl Wants

Well, here is the Diva herself in her new poncho!  You can also see the matching hair scrunchie which is being worn on the wrist (naturally!).  She loved her poncho and we had a hard time convincing her that she needed to take it off at least while she ate spaghetti.  Tomato sauce would not go too well with the purple and pink!  She did take it off during the spaghetti, but put it right back on afterwards.  This poncho was a total surprise -- she had no idea I was making it for her.  I wish I had a picture of her face when she saw it!  It was priceless!  It is really a nice feeling when the recipient of a knitted gift really likes and appreciates the gift!  The chemo hats are going to the cancer center next week.  Pictures of those later!

Megan's poncho is finished!

Megan's poncho is finally finished!  I crocheted the last of the fur trim last night and then made a hair scrunchie with some leftover yarn.  I will take pictures tomorrow and this weekend I will try to get some pictures of Megan in the poncho  -- if I can catch her in the right mood, that is!  You know how those Divas are!  ;)

When the going gets tough, the tough get knitting!

What do you do when you just can't get to sleep at night?  Why, you knit of course!  Last night I was awake long after my regularly scheduled bedtime. I had a lot on my mind anyway, and I had also just returned from the funeral home.  A friend and coworker's husband died earler this week and last night was visitation night for the family.  It had been a long, sad week and I was too tired to be sleepy.  So I decided to knit.  And since I needed to perk up my spirits, I decided to make a frilly little confetti colored boa for another friend's little girl who turns 2 this month.  The cheerful yarn and rhythmic clicking of the knitting needles did the trick, and one hour later, I was finished with the little boa and ready for the Land of Nod. This morning, I convinced The Illustrious Ms. Precious to do a little modeling for me.  Although she was not thrilled with the idea that I had not finished weaving in the ends, she reluctantly agreed to the indignity "just this once."  We should be grateful.  After all, Divas demand perfection!

"Whoops, I did it again!" or "A Tale of Two Ponchos"

Here I go again.  Starting another project!  First, let me say that it wasn't my idea!  At least, not at first.  It all started when I got the Fall issue of Knitter's magazine.  I had it at work looking it over at lunch when I saw the poncho/cape on page 63.  I commented on how pretty it was, and that I would like to knit it sometime. A couple of other knitters in the group also expressed an interest in it.  Suddenly, a knit-a-long was planned!  I don't know how it happened -- honest!  In my defense, I must say that I am using yarn that I already had in my stash.  I am using Homespun in the color Navajo, a pretty wine, navy, and tan mix.  Megan's poncho is still coming along, as are the hats for the cancer center.  There hasn't been as much knitting as I would like lately for 2 reasons.  First, I just seem to be so busy lately that I come home too tired to do much knitting, or reading or anything else for that matter.  And second is the return of the humid, tropical weather.  We were spoiled by that all too brief taste of fall where the humidity and temperatures were low. Now the humidity is back again, no doubt prompted by the weather patterns that keep pushing the hurricanes along their all too familiar path through Florida and on up into the Carolinas and Virginia. What's left of Jeanne is forecast to dump from 2 to 4 inches on us tonight and tomorrow.  The wind has already started to pick up and it has begun to rain. As miserable as all this is here, I simply cannot imagine what all those poor people in Florida are going through right now!  But this weather can't last forever, and soon will be the cool, crisp, knitting-friendly weather of fall.  I am ready!

Poncho Progress

As promised, here are the pictures of the progress I have made on Megan's poncho so far.  The pattern calls for 2 rectangles to be sewn together and trimmed along the neckline and bottom with fun fur.  The pattern is a free one from the Lion Brand Yarn website.  The majority of this progress was made on Labor Day during the CSI marathon.  I have been so busy lately that I have not done much more since then.  September starts the fall festival season around here, and last weekend was the first in the series.  Now, I love fall festivals, so I will be going to as many as I can for the next few weekends.  This weekend will be no exception.  Unless............  another hurricane is lurking.  The latest forecasts for our area show the remnants of Hurricane Ivan will dump from 5 - 10 inches of rain on us somewhere around Friday.  Depending on how fast he moves out of here, that could easily extend into Saturday.  In that case, the festival will be washed out, and there will be a lot more poncho progress to post by the end of the weekend!  As tired of all this rain as we are here, I can't even imagine how those poor folks in Florida feel!  But I am hoping against hope for the rain to be gone by Saturday.  Friday is my birthday, and I am stuck working a 12 hour shift that day, so I really wanted to have some fun this weekend.  Is it time for the fall weather yet?????????????

Marathon Knitting

My niece's poncho is about 60% complete now.  I have been concentrating on that so that once the weather finally changes here, it will be ready for her to wear.  I got most of that done on Labor Day during a CSI marathon.  There were lots of outdoor plans for that day, but the rain ahead of Hurricane Frances put the brakes on those.  So instead, I marathon knitted.  That poncho is really going to be cute!  I went to Michael's on Friday and picked out a lavender fun fur to crochet the trim around the bottom and the neck.  Yesterday a group of us went to a local craft show and Megan went beserk over the knitted scarves and scrunchies (which it seems you do not wear in your hair anymore -- now you wear them on your wrists.  Who knew???)  I will make her a lavender fun fur scrunchie to go with her poncho. I have still been working away on the chemo caps during lunch at work and during the waiting for a doctor's appointment Friday, etc.  I have slowed down on the Carnival Scarf in order to concentrate on the poncho, so there is no more progress on that to share.  I wanted to have pictures to post, but it is a gloomy, foggy morning and I thought I would wait until the sun comes out later on (which the weatherman promises it will!) and I will post them tomorrow.  Well, better go get some laundry and cleaning done so that I can make some more progress on that poncho!  And take another walk, if the sun comes out, that is!  Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Knitting Progress (or lack of!)

So why the lack of knitting progress to blog about?  Two reasons.  First, work.  A couple of 12 hour shifts, to be exact.  Ugh.  I really hate those.  Then there is reason #2 -- the fun reason. A few weeks ago, a group of friends from work and I started walking on the nearby bike trail.  We go anywhere from 3 to 6 miles.  We go a minimum of 3 times a week and we try to go as much as 5 times a week.  The bike trail is actually part of an old railroad that was taken over by the city and paved over and coverted to a bike trail.  It is part of Virginia's "Rails to Trails" program.  I have posted some pictures that I took on one of our walks this past week.  It is really very pretty.  On the knitting front, I actually have been doing some knitting in the last few days, just not enough progress to post pictures of.  I am still working away on those chemo caps.  I will make a couple more and then take them over to the Oncology center.  And I am working on the Carnival Scarf.  As Spunknit said in the comments from the other day, it really is a "feel good" knit!  And I need that today -- sort of in the doldrums.  But between knitting on the Carnival Scarf and this afternoon's walk on the bike trail, that should cheer things up considerably!