The last week, how sad. I didn’t take one of my famous “veggies on the counter” pictures this week because by the time that I got home from the cold farm and brought everything upstairs, it was all I could do to put everything away!
Fall has done its number on the farm – the leaves were in full color, the fields were mostly bare, the darkness came early, and as I mentioned before, it was COLD! Continue reading
I finished Manta Ray yesterday during knitting group. Well actually, by finished I mean I still have to weave in the ends. Gist, Katy & the kids were the first to see her. I was really happy to finish with the kids around – they always get to see us working on our projects but we usually finish at another time and then they never see them again. They were all impressed and I told them that, with their current skills, they could also make one. Continue reading
Here she is 5.5 balls in. Yes, that means that I only have a measly half-ball (about 80 yards) left to go. So why am I stuck? Ball #4 went so quickly but it seems that ball #5 is destined to tortue me – I am ready for this project to be done!
Well, I’m still at it and almost done. I have just finished my fifth of six balls of yarn – phew. This has been a banner week for knitting: staff meeting, bar trivia, strategic planning, a variety of lunches, and knitting with the kids. I added ball #5 during Tuesday’s staff meeting and I finished it today while I was knitting with the kids. I am hoping to continue working on it tonight and Sunday should be knitting-rich with the drive to Mansfield and spending time with Gist’s parents.
Yup, I’m hooked:
I’ve become obsessed with dishrags/washcloths this week. This is such a great pattern and it’s a great instant gratification project. Colorful, fun, quick, easy, and useful – what more could you ask for?
I have been working on Manta Ray for sooooo long that it has been nice to take a little break. It is still fun to knit but I’ve been at it for a long time. I started it right around my birthday, I am 2/3 of the way through and, while I want to finish it, I am losing steam. Big projects are really, really hard for me – I just don’t have the follow-through and I love the excitement of starting something new.
One thing that has really kept me at it is that Manta Ray has become my “Strategic Planning” project; most of my knitting has been done during strategic planning meetings and retreats – in many ways it has made the process (strategic planning not knitting) bearable. Good thing there’s a meeting this week!
Well I am continuing to plug along on my Manta Ray. I am more than halfway done at this point – yay! I am 3.5 balls into it with about 2.5 balls to go. I am getting to the point where everyone that sees me is commenting on how long I’ve been working on it. It is really the perfect project for meetings or in front of the teevee (where I do the bulk of my knitting) because the pattern is easy and mindless – just a lot of knitting with a few YOs and K2TOGs thrown in for fun.
I just started the Petal Bib from One Skein. This will be my second project from this book. I am liking it so far but I got to the beginning of the short rows section in yesterday’s staff meeting and, while I’ve done short rown many times in the past, I couldn’t remember how to do them and the instructions in the back of the book made no sense to me. I am going to look at how I’ve done them in the past and move on from there. Once I do that, I think it’ll be a quick project and a nice break from Manta Ray.
Remember this yarn? Well, it has been re-purposed into a Manta Ray – not the sea creature, the shawl:
It has been a delight to knit. It is an easy and quick pattern that is perfect for meetings, the car, the bar, & in front of the teevee – basically all of the places I like to knit.
I didn’t have enough of the original yarn to make the whole shawl so I am adding in some of the same yarn in a pinker color – next to it, my main color looks downright purple! Finding the yarn has been a bit of a drama – I just assumed that Hub Mills would have more of my original yarn but they didn’t and that specific brand is now discontinued. The lovely clerk told me that the same mill made the same yarn for another company and that she probably could get more. I told her it was pink, she ordered it and when I went to pick it up we realized that one person’s pink is another’s purple. Anyway, she also tried to track down the purple. While she was doing that, I brought Yovani & Gist in to look at the pink to see if it would be okay to add a stripe in the middle. They, and I, thought it would be so when I finished my second ball of purple I decided to add in two balls of pink and finish with two balls of purple. We’ll see how it all works out…
Art is the Handmaid of Human Good 