Finishing, Starting, and Busy in Between

First the finishings...  My youngest daughter, Shelby, graduated with honors from high school Thursday night. We are very, very proud of her. And, I think we were all ready for this chapter of her life to come to an end. She’s ready to move on to college, Michigan State University, and I was ready to be done with school. My girls are 4 years apart, so I’ve been in high school for 8 years. Definitely time to close that book of fond memories, vigilance, lunch money, dances, swim meets, soccer games, choir concerts, etc.

Here's a picture of the happy graduate and me.

As for knitting, I finished my Oaklet Shawl. Click here for pattern details: RAVELRY. I’m very happy with the finished product, both the yarn and the knitting. It was my first experience blocking points out on wires, and I learned much through trial and error. Isn’t that usually the best way? Anyway, if you look closely, you can see some of the loops made when I fed the wire through the lace. I need to feed and pin those better next time around. One cool thing about working with yarn is that I can fix the loops by getting it wet and re-blocking. Right, I’ll get on that in my spare time.

Here’s a picture of my shawl on blocking wires.

Lucky for me the weather turned chilly so I could wear my shawl right away. I think I’ve covered Michigan’s crazy weather in a previous post. Anyway, it really is not a huge exaggeration to say you can be in a swimsuit one day and a snowsuit the next. So, below is a picture of me wearing my shawl and long sleeves on June 2, which happens to be hubby’s and my 12th wedding anniversary. No need for a shawl 12 years ago in Las Vegas where we were married. Lest you think the worst of me, we planned to get married there. It was not a drunken-regret-it-the-morning-after-affair. We had a lovely chapel wedding, a minister called Rob, and I wore a shimmery pale pink dress that still fits!

Sorry. I’m getting off track. Now for the in between. Finished my shawl on Tuesday or Wednesday, blocked it, and cast on another project. Shelby graduated Thursday, my 29th (again) birthday was Friday, and our anniversary was Saturday. 

Which brings me to starting. I began a blanket buddy for my dear friend who’s expecting her first child, Calvin James, the end of this month. This is the same friend I knit the booties and mitts for in April. A blanket buddy is part stuffed animal and part blanket. I found this adorable elephant/blanket pattern for 3 bucks - and, well, did not even try to resist. Click here for pattern details: RAVELRY. This has got to be the most adorable thing I’ve knit yet. Although I think I’ve said that about every baby project.

Here are the pieces so far.

Adorable, right? Thanks so much for reading. Hope your week wasn't too busy and you had time to enjoy something just for you :) ~ Christina

Unwinding!

First and most importantly, hope you all are unwinding on this long Memorial Day weekend. Thank you to all of our service men and women both past and present for your many sacrifices. Honoring you this weekend!

“What have I been up to the past couple of weeks?” you ask. Or, maybe you didn’t ask, but please humor me here as I catch you up. Oh, and my goings on are in no particular order.

Starry Night colors

I’ve finished knitting my lace scarf. See the picture above. I am going to add beaded fringe so it’s not officially finished, but it's finished enough to blog/blab about. I used blocking wires for the first time. It does take forever to guide the wires through the knitting, but the result is fantastic. My scarf is light and lacy, and I’m in love with the Van Gogh inspired colors. This is a free pattern. Click here for details: Ravelry.

Blocking with wires

I’m also (still) stash-busting and am determined not to buy anymore yarn until I use up (most of) what I have. With this in mind, I dove into my stash with the intention of knitting a pair of socks. But, just look at these amazing colors. The photo does not do justice. Too gorgeous to hide in a pair of shoes, I agree. So, I did some surfing on Ravelry and Pinterest and found this free pattern for a shawl. I have about 7 rows left and am up to about a million stitches per row or maybe 247. Click here for information: Ravelry.

Oaklet Shawl

Last weekend we went to Indiana to see my younger brother graduate from Indiana Tech. I’m very proud of him. He’s been working hard to get his degree and has given up much in terms of time: family time and time for himself. Hopefully he’ll get some time to unwind soon.

My little bro and me

I’ve also sent in a square to participate in my first ever yarn-bombing. I knit this square using a pattern from the book “100 Afghan Squares to Knit” by Debbie Abrahams. The charity is in Ireland and is raising money to provide service dogs to people in need. I must say I am very impressed with the U.S. Postal Service. I mailed my square Monday and it made it to Ireland (yes, that Ireland - the one across the Atlantic Ocean) by Friday. No more snail-mail jokes from this knitter!

Next, just call me Heloise, because I’m about to give you a helpful hint about unwinding yarn. After spending one too many hours untangling gargantuan, colossal yarn knots, I tried an unwinding suggestion from a friend: use a chair. It worked beautifully. Here’s a picture.

No more tangles!

It’s beautiful beach weather here again in Michigan. Spent yesterday afternoon unwinding on the beach with our dear beach friends and am headed back today. Thanks for spending some of your weekend with me. Hope you are unwinding as well. Would love to hear about your goings on. ~ Christina