Red Hot Jackie!

I finished Jackie P's Red Hat Lady Scarf and gave it to her yesterday at work.  She was thrilled!  She paraded it all over the lab.  She has a meeting of her Red Hat group at lunch today, and she couldn't wait to wear it. 

Also last night I finished knitting the Beach Vacation Scarf.  All that is left to do is to weave in the ends.  I think that I will change it's name, though.  I will explain in my next entry which will be all about the scarf and what I learned while making it and what I would change, etc.  I used the free pattern for the Stock Pot Scarves from the Knit Picks website to make it.  I have added that link to the Favorite Sites sidebar to the right. 

I feel like I need a bit of a change, so to cheer myself up, I have decided to turn my spare bedroom (which is currently being used as a storage area) into a sort of "Art Studio" complete with my painting and knitting supplies all gathered around and easy to get to.  It will be my little creative retreat!  Now, the only thing standing in the way of this little bit of heaven on earth is all of the junk that is currently in the spare room! It is a daunting task, and one that will take a while to accomplish, but it will be worth it, and I am really very excited about it! 

Slow Going

I am slowly trying to get back into the swing of things, but I must admit that it is very hard to do.  Losing Precious has been a terrible ordeal.  I have not been doing as much knitting these last 2 weeks.  I just haven't felt like doing much of anything.  It doesn't help matters that the temperatures have soared back into the 90's again.  The first day of fall was 86 degrees!  Certainly not very fall like. 

 The knitting I have done during the past 2 weeks has been on the Red Hat Lady scarf that I am knitting for Jackie P., a lady at work.  She is big into the Red Hat Society, and she has an absolute ball everytime they meet.  Their next big outing is the end of next week, so I plan to finish her scarf this weekend and get it to her so that she can wear it then.  I will take a picture of it before I give it to her. 

I have been trying to perk myself up by looking through some fall fashion magazines and I have seen lots of things that can be knitted that will fit right in with the trends.  I have bought several knitting magazines and now there are so many things that I want to knit that I don't even know where to start!  But my first priority is Jackie's scarf, and I really want to finish the Beach Vacation scarf that I started a few weeks ago.  It got put aside when I started another (actually several) other projects.  I need to get myself organized and get a grip on those knitting needles before the Christmas Knitting Rush arrives in full force!!!!  Maybe doing so will help me to move forward again.  Knitting has always helped me during difficult times in the past, and it will help me to overcome this heartache, too.  So, without further ado, I am headed off to work on that Red Hat Lady Scarf.  Nothing like a bit of bright color to liven up the day, and you can't get much brighter than red and purple together!

Good Bye Precious. I will miss you.

My Beloved Precious lost her battle with kidney failure today, and I lost a beloved family member and friend.  I will miss her. My heart is broken.

Hello. My name is Lisa, and I am a Knitaholic!

I am out of control again!  I spent this morning digging through my yarn stash and patterns looking for ideas for Christmas presents.  I had forgotten how many projects currently reside in "The Pile of Undone Projects."  Seeing some of them made me want to resurrect them immediately.  I counted everything up, and including the items in my WIP list on the side of the blog, there would be 18 projects on the knitting needles if I worked on everything I wanted to work on!  I would never get anything done!  Sigh.  So much to knit, so little time!  One of the projects that would definitely be on the "Must Knit List" (aka my "Wish List" -- I wish I had time to knit it!) is in this book pictured above.  The pattern on pages 102-104 of the book is for a scarf called Knotted Burgundy Sparkles.  It uses the yarn Paton's Brilliant in the color Burgundy Sparkles, and it is gorgeous!  The knotted fringe is the perfect finishing touch.  Guess what I just happen to have in my "Outta Control Yarn Stash"????  Yup.  You guessed it!  Patons Brilliant yarn in Burgundy Sparkles!  OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The Knitting Gods are conspiring against me again!

It Was a Beautiful Wedding!

Saturday was a beautiful day!  The perfect day for a wedding!  And the wedding was beautiful, too!  Some of our relatives from Canada came down for the wedding, and it was wonderful to all get together and catch up on each other's lives.  Cheryle made a beautiful bride and my nephew Bill a handsome groom.  The unusual thing about this wedding was that the wedding party colors were black and white.  I had never seen a wedding where the maids of honor and the mothers and grandparents of the bride and groom were dressed in black, but it was very beautiful!  Many of the guests wore black, too, knowing the wedding party's colors.  I have to say that I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be really elegant and beautiful.   

On a knitting note, I have begun the first Christmas knitting project of 2005!  I am knitting a poncho for baby Kayla, seen in one of the photos above.  I am using a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarns.  The yarn in the pattern is no longer available, but I am using Bernat Breeze in the color Summer Breeze.  I am going to depart a bit from the pattern and add a row of lavender fun fur around the hood and the bottom of the poncho.   I used this same Bernat Breeze yarn in Violet Crush last year for Megan's poncho.

Here is the pattern link:

http://freeknittingpatterns.lionbrand.com/patterns/kts-1108AD.html

here is the yarn link:

http://www.pagelinx.com/cgi-shopper/loadpage.cgi/smileysyarns/ezshopper?user_id=id&file=iriot.htm

 

Change of Plans!

No, the wedding has not been cancelled!  It is still on schedule for this coming Saturday!  What has changed is what I plan to wear. Again. Last Thursday, I found another outfit that I liked better than the original one I had planned to wear to the wedding. Blame my sister, Paulette!  I showed her both outfits and she picked the new one, too.  I hope I do not see anything else before Saturday that I like even better!  Luckily, I already had accessories and a bag, etc. that matched the new outfit, so it was not hard to pull it all together.  Unfortunately, the shawl I was knitting will not go with this new outfit.  So I have stopped knitting on that shawl and frogged it.  I was not completely satisfied with it, anyway, so it all turned out for the best.  But since I stopped working on that shawl, I have been kind of scattered in my knitting thoughts.  I have several projects in various stages of completion, and it seems like I jump from one to the other and never get anything accomplished.  I need to get myself a little more organized! 

Actually, there has been precious little knitting time this past week.  I had to work this past weekend, so I was off on Friday.  Rich was off, too, so we took the opportunity to ride our bikes the full length of the bike trail - a 14 mile round trip.  And, my sister Paulette and I joined a walking group from the hospital where we work, and every Tuesday and Thursday, we meet to walk one of the many walking trails around Lynchburg.  Paulette and I also walk a couple of times a week on our own at our favorite walking trail, Blackwater Creek.  We usually walk from 3 to 5 miles, depending on how much time we have and how hot or humid it is.  Sometimes it is so bad that we can barely stand to go the 3 milies.  But it is the end of August, so that should be over with soon.  I am looking forward to the cool fall weather! Once the weather gets cool and crisp, my energy usually returns in leaps and bounds.  I don't do well in this awful August weather. Between all the walking and biking, I have been pretty tired at night, and I don't get to knit very long before I start to nod off!   

After work on Sunday, I went to Barnes and Noble.  I found a couple of knitting magazines and a new knitting book as well as the 2006 Knitting Calendar.   Just what I need -- 365 MORE ideas to get me into trouble next year!  I glanced through it, and I see several things right off the bat that I want to do!  Actually, I like the 2006 one better than the 2005 one that I currently have.  I have honestly not found that many patterns in the 2005 one that I want to knit, but it has still been a lot of fun all through the year to turn the page every day and see what the next pattern will be.   I have posted a picture of the 2006 Knitting Calendar, as well as a picture of the India Sunset Scarf.  I just realized that I never posted a picture of the finished product.  So here it is, better late than never! 

Now about those knitting magazines......................................................  (to be continued!)

Extra, Extra, Stop the Knitting Needles!!!!!

Uh oh!  Another knitting project is on the horizon!  Another one of those last minute, whoops, I need to knit this like yesterday projects!!!!!  My nephew Bill's wedding is Saturday, Sept. 3rd, and I have just decided that my outfit needs a shawl to be complete!!!!!  I finally finished picking out and purchasing an outfit, complete with shoes and assorted other accessories, but it still lacked something.  Now I know what it is!  Luckily, I already have in my stash what I need to make a loose knit shawl, and the yarn matches my blouse perfectly!  The yarn is Eros.  The shawl will be just like the one that I knit for my friend Debbie last Christmas.  I have posted the picture again so that you can see what I am planning.  Since I have already knit this shawl once, I know that I can do it in a fairly short period of time, but ALL other knitting projects have temporarily been put on hold until its completion.  This shawl is knit on large needles, size 19's, so the knitting is pretty fast.  I have added a link to pattern that I am using.  It is a free one off the Lion Brand Yarn website.

http://freeknittingpatterns.lionbrand.com/patterns/ktr-triangleShawl.html