Mad Tosh ~

Yes, I am beginning to respect the madness of Tosh yarn. It is knitting like a dream!Here is just the wee start of my shawl, and it is lovely!

Winner ~

On Thursday there was an amazing track meet. My youngest daughter was running the mile as part of the varsity team, even though she's only in 7th grade ~ 12 years old. As she was on the last lap of her mile run, the sky opened up with sheets of rain and, at the same time she burst into a sprint of speed. A beautiful sight to see, long legs pumping and long hair flying. Soaking wet, she came up to me at the end of the race and said, "I love running in the rain, this is great!" and she had another great event that day. (this picture is from a previous meet, as the rain prevented any good pictures - she is in the blue)At the end of the meet, I asked her if she wanted to go to my favorite yarn shop, just a few blocks away, to celebrate. She gave me a big smile and said, "Yes!" and really meant it - to my big BIG surprise. So we went, both soaked and happy, and now up for another adventure. I told her she could pick out whatever she wanted and I'd knit her socks, and she checked out the Hazelknits, the Madelinetosh and the Black Trillium and then held this skein up with one word, "Winner!!!!! Winner!!!!"
She was right - this yarn is beautiful, and I couldn't have chosen a more perfect color for her. Rain City Fiber, and it is lovely!
Around the corner we were checking the sale bin, and she found some screaming orange/red, so we decided we should get that, too....More lovely yarn for our champion track star! On to district meet next Thursday, and hopefully more great races and more yarn, please!!!

Spinnin' fool ~

I do not want to stop spinning this superfine merino in these wild and happy colors. This weekend I plyed what I had spun last weekend. Then I starting spinning more of the fiber.The plys are lovely, and I'm even drafting while the spindle is spinning some of the time, with out "park and draft" as the only method - I do hope I'm improving!!

Tosh Madness ~

I keep hearing about Madelinetosh yarn. Some people say there is no better yarn, some even say they must have more Tosh as it calls to them. It says, "Bring me home to be with my other Tosh colors"....
I have a skein of Tosh, truly vintage or classic (or, some would say "old") that I bought for $10 in a sale bin at the 2009 Sock Summit... so I thought I should start knitting with it so I could see, for myself, what all this craziness was about.... so I cast on Forest Canopy, a pattern I purchased on Ravelry.Well, there is a bit of madness in the air... no doubt about it....

198 Yards of Done ~

Well, the shawl that started in the emergency room in Michigan is now blocking quietly in my dining room.

It had some fits and starts, but I had a great coach that never gave up on me, and so I continued with the knitting until casting off last night.I think it looks great, and mum will love it.

I even had a wee bit of yarn left over, so no freaking out about not enough yarn during the cast off....

Cat Hat Two ~

I finished the blue cat hat today - this one is a bit different than the grey one, as it has a rolled brim. It seemed that a blue cat hat would need to have blue eyes, so I found some fun buttons in my stash. This guy has some character, eh?
Still cute, and I'm sure it will be appreciated by Shirley's daughter.

198 Yards of Progress ~

After a tutorial and private lesson with Jitteryknitter, I was able to make it past my problem row on 198 Yards of Heaven. So far, the shawl seems to be working out fine, now that the secret of the messed up written version was explained to me (apparently the chart is fine....but the written pattern is bad news.... thankfully I was able to Phone a Friend!)

So, I was able to spend some time getting past the second repeat of rows 1 - 21, and now I'm on the first 12 of the 3rd repeat... and then the edging...
P.S. Rumor has it that Jitteryknitter has ripped back her lovely 198 shawl due to some unfortunate garter stitch.....oh dear....say it isn't so!!!!

Cat in the hat ~

I'm working on the second Cat Hat for Shirley's daughter who is going through chemo treatments for breast cancer. Shirley gave me the yarn for the knitting, and it is acrylic but soft, and a little splitty. But, this is what she would like another Cat Hat knit from, so cast on I do.
This morning it looked like this with my sheepy coffee cup, outside on the back deck. First day of real sunshine I can remember this month.
Here is some progress, already decreasing the crown. Still drinking coffee with sheepy mug, and my sweet Shadow cat is keeping track of the progress, and wondering what color whiskers will be on a blue cat hat.... Shadow, that is a very good question....

Mother's Day Gift ~

I had a feeling that I might not get a wheelbarrow full of yarn for Mother's Day....or, perhaps not a shopping cart full of roving, or some new Signature Needles.... but I thought, perhaps, if I did not get any yarnie goodness, I needed a Plan B.... Thank heavens that JitteryKnitter needed a Plan B too!
We ended up at Serial Knitters, our favorite yarn shop, and did some shopping for ourselves, as our own gift for Mother's Day - sort of a reward for making it through another year of motherhood! My gift to myself was several 1 ounce roving samples. From top to bottom: 1 merino/Tencel (lavenders); 3 BLF/Tussah silk (purple/red/yellow); 2 Polwarth (greens/blues/orange); 1 superfine merino (blue/yellow-green/berry)
Here is the first of the spinning, my youngest daughter chose the superfine merino in the wild and happy colors, and I love the colors! This is so lovely! I wish my spinning would improve faster!!!

198 Yards and warning ~

As I mentioned, I cast on 198 Yards of Heaven while waiting with my mum in the hospital. It will match her winter coat, so that's a double bonus. The pattern was going smoothly and I thought this would be as easy as most on Ravelry have posted. Until I made it to row one, again, for the beginning of the second time through rows 1-22. I checked the pattern, I checked my knitting, I checked the chart....no way could I get row 1 to line up with the center stitch with my row 22.....I decided to cast on again, with larger needles... and while at my favorite yarn shop, Serial Knitters, I learned from one of the wonderful employees that there are problems with the written pattern, but not with the chart....gosh, I wish I could read charts.....

Clapotis unwrapped ~

The good news is that I did finish the Clapotis before Mother's Day, and the other good news is that Mum loved it.
The bad news is that she was in the hospital when she opened it. She's home now, and feeling better.

P.S. While I was waiting with her on Day #1, in the emergency room, I cast on 198 yards of heaven...and in the 3 days I was with her I was able to get the set up rows and rows 1 - 22....

Go Red Wings ~

Part of my Sweet Jazz success was due to Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Red Wings are still in the race.
The last two games against the Sharks were nail biters! Go Wings!!! We want Stanley!

Sweet Jazz Done ~

After many many hours, I cast off Sweet Jazz - all 750 stitches! This shawl turned out to be lovely, and the Hazel-knits yarn is a Must Have!
I will need to search for my next Hazel Knits yarn - the colors are wonderful, and the twist is tight yet the yarn is very soft..... it is hard to choose which color!!!!

Points, too - I love points on my shawls!!! Hurrah!!!

Sweet Sixteen ~

Happy Birthday to you!

...and many more!!!!!!