a prayer for april

not the month. a person. a friend of a friend. she's very ill. i agreed to make a prayer shawl for her, through a mutual friend of ours. I'll be sending her this shawl.



so any one who reads this, who has the faith of prayer.... please join me in sending prayers of love, well being, and peace of heart to april.

thanks.

a koolaid shawl!

it's done - and it's funny, it looked SO scrunched up when it was done, but not blocked.

blocking is magic. that's all there is to it.






so i'm off to the post office - benny lost his arm before he got back to his home in new york, so he's all fixed now.

then i need to finish the big thing for the knitter's swap, get the medium thing made, the smalls should be easy - i will probably knock them out today, just to get them done... i'm usually one of the first to send out swap packages, i think i'll end up being one of the last! and it goes to norway, which will take a little time - sorry henriette....

on frogging and quitting

i'm not a quitter. at least, i don't think i am.

i started a KAL about 4 weeks ago - dyed up my own yarn for it, the whole thing.

i've tried to do clue 4 nine times.

ripped it out 9 times.

i'm done. i frogged the entire thing tonight. i re-wound the yarn, for use in some other project (no sense in wasting 880 yards of fingering weight)

i'll figure out something else to do with the yarn. i am SO not enjoying the pattern, it's no longer worth it to me.

so i quit.

and ya know? i think it was the right thing to do, this time. not always. but this time? yup.

i'm turning 50

yuk.

it sounds so old!

my daughter spun me some yarn - that was pretty cool. first time ever.

so i think i want to run away for my b'day.

i don't do idle

so i had to start something new.

i had this fingering weight merino yarn that i dyed with koolaid, and it came out an awesome blue-green (that's blue raspberry and lime)



but what to do with it? It was only 440 yards, which wasn't enough for the tuscany.... aha, swallowtail shawl. says it uses 437 yards. i can do this. it looks like a fairly small shawl, but i can always block the heck out of it!

here's what it looks like with the beginning chart, and 3 repeats of the second chart... i'm really liking this one, and SO happy I finally figured out what to make with my koolaid yarn!

tuscany done!

i love this pattern - it's a simple set of repeats, so it's supremely portable, and on laceweight, the whole thing fit into a gallon sized plastic bag to carry along.

the yarn was dyed for me by a craftster member in Germany, which means the color will never be replicated....

and i'm done. it's blocking, and it's done. yay me!

definitely a yarny day!

it's dreary out there.

but in here, it's a yarny beautiful day - in a craftster swap, my friend amanda was perusing my wists, and saw that i really wanted some of those old time wooden soda crates for yarn cubbies. and she found some on ebay!

check this out, is this too cool? i just rearranged things in my craftroom, so that these are on the top of a dresser, and i have other yarn boxes (sport weights, and sock yarns) on top of those - it looks like i have my very own private yarn store!! WOO HOO!!

huh - too much time gone by

now i know it's been a hectic, busy week. i haven't posted anything in all that time.

updates on the crafting - Benny the monbkey is done. i hope alie likes him. she apparently liked the purse with 'stuff' that i sent to be there ON her b'day... 5 year olds can't be expected to understand that i'm making this thing for your b'day but it isn't done yet.






on the mystery stole - i finished clue 2. still not sure i like *this* yarn with *this* pattern.... but i keep reminding myself that the handpainted merino, flower basket shawl worked out really well. so here's the end of clue 2, and clue 3 comes out today - 5 clues in total.



and i'm still working on tuscany - up to the 11th repeat, which i think is the original size, but i have more yarn, i'll keep going - i tend to like the shawls to be bigger. this one might be for my stepmom. depends on if it's done in time.

i guess that's all for now....