Prayer Shawl

I just got back from my prayer shawl group, so now I am super motivated to keep on knitting.

This is about the 3rd meeting I've attended now, and love the fact that it is perfectly acceptable to sit around and knit for 2 hours, without feeling guilty for not doing something more necessary. (like cooking, cleaning, blah blah blah)

The women who leads the group informed us that they have given out 115 shawl/Lap robes since they started in 2008. Awesome!!!

Unfortunately I have only finished 1 so far. :(. I will probably spend tomorrow evening looking for patterns on www.ravelry.com. I gotta catch up!

This such a great way to give back to the community, and would LOVE to start something like this for those with mental illness and/or homeless. However, I'm thinking scarves and or blankets. Although blankets would take a lot of time, it could be very interesting to piece together a patchwork blanket made from several people knitting squares of various patterns.





Well, time to get back to my knitting! Goodnight!

Another Christmas Countdown

Now that its mid-October, the Christmas panick has set in.  This year I decided to branch out my Christmas knitting to those, not in my immediate family.  After all, my family is probably getting a little tired of the same knitted projects (How dare they!) 

 I am now working in a residential facility serving 8 adults with mental illness and substance abuse issues.   So, I decided to attempt to knit 8 scarves before Christmas time.  A lot of the people I work with have very strained relationships with their family's, and have not had a Christmas present in a long time.  Most have had very unstable housing from stays in homeless shelters, jails, hospitals, family members, and sometimes the street.  Because of this they have very few possessions.  They also have little to no money, so their only hope of new clothing is a voucher to receive used clothing from the Good Will.

So begins the Christmas knitting countdown...

Scarf #1:  the Scrunchable Scarf 

This is a free pattern found on Ravelry that is super-easy, reversable, and unisex.  This can also be used with almost any yarn or needles.  I am using Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Forrest Green Heather, and size 8 needles. 

ADD

My knitting ADD has me working on yet another project: a Lacey shawl.

I got an email from Uncommon threads about a knit-a-long using a downloaded pattern from ravelry. Www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/Nancy--judy. It is called Nancy & Judy by Heather Zopperti.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to post links on my iPhone yet. I would absolutely LOVE if ravelry added a feature to be able to send a page, pattern, project, ect as a tweet with one click (or tap with an iPhone).

For those of you unfamiliar with ADD. That last paragraph is a major symptom.

So, I went to Uncommon threads, and found bamboo yarn from south west trading company. I got an orangish shade called tequilla, that is now making me a bit thirsty.





The pattern isn't too difficult, but consists of several charts, so it is easy to forget where you are if you're not careful.

I could not resist casting on immediately, and it has been very difficult to pull myself away from it. I ended up putting it down at about 2 am when I realized I was messing up due to exhaustion.




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Not a celebrity scarf in 3 days

Unfortunatelyl I won't be able to post a finished pic of the not a celebrity scarf I was knitting with the Noro because I ran out of yarn. :(

I tried getting more from my LYS, but they didn't carry it. Another :(
BUT they did have super soft Mochi plus in shades of fusia. This is one of my mom's favorite colors, so I thought this may be a great mother's day present.

Well maybe not as great as I would hope, bit there is no way I would be able to knit the socks she wants in only 3 days.

This scarf turned out better than the one I started in Noro. It is VERY soft, and the colors are beautiful. I couldn't get any pics yet, but will plan on getting some within the week.

I also just finished my son's green socks. I used Fannies fingering weight in the rainforest colorway.

I have been holding this yarn for almost a year since I got it at my favorite yarn store: www.loopyarn.com. I refused to let them wind it because I love holding (and petting) new yarn. I even wore it around my neck. I guess this is all part of my creative process, (not insanity!) and to give proper respect to the yarn. The other reason is that it just doesn't look nearly as beautiful in a ball as it does in a Hank.

Before:



After:



Finished:


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Not a Celebrity Scarf

The yarn from the last blog is the yarn I am using to make this scarf. I was given a copy of the pattern, and was not sure where it came from. After doing some research it looks like it was a free pattern from the Skacel yarn company, but was unable to find it on their website: www.skacelknitting.com . I was able to find the pattern on another blog though: http://crazyforewe.blogspot.com/2006/09/not-celebrity-scarf.html.

This is an awesome pattern! It is very easy-every stitch is knitted, and it requires basically no counting. However, it is more interesting than a plain jane garter stich scarf.

It uses short rows, which can be confusing at first, but just do EXACTLY what the directions say. When it says turn, do just that. Turn the needles around as if you were going to look at the opposite side of the work. (there is no right side/wrong side, but if you were working on right side, turn the work around as if you were about to knit the wrong side). Then knit back across the stitches you just knit.





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I'm baack

I'm finally blogging again. Things got a little hectic with moving, and giving up my laptop.

But I have still been knitting up a storm. I will try to post some of those projects.

I'm currently working on about 5 projects, so I will be working on taking and uploading some pics.

One of my current projects is an interlac scarf made with Noro Kureyon yarn:



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moving

Well, I have been looking for a job for the last 4-5 months and have gone on numerous interviews. I am in the process of moving to my hometown, and have started the moving process. 1/3 of my stuff is moved, and another 1/3 is in boxes. I now just found out that one of the jobs I interviewed for called 2 of my references. YAY!! I have gone on at least 8 or so interviews, and no one has called any of my references until now. How great it would be to get a job offer for my birthday--could turn it into a not-so-bad birthday....
Anyway, I am still knitting away at my Layered Berry Surprise socks. I just started decreasing the toes, so I will probably finish them tonight. I got a couple other socks Im going to start in September, but I will have to find something else to work on for the next 4 days.......