Good news

We had a stormy weekend, and it has been over cast, partly cloudy and rainy ever since. Not a complaint, although a ray of sun shine would be nice. I have good news, the results of my CT scan I had on my lungs Monday is stable, so if I have a stable scan this coming November, I can stop having them again. I have spots on my lungs that are said to be non cancerous nodules, but if any changes are detected along the way I have to have CT scans every six months for two years to make sure everything is okay.

Ted Kennedy seems to be carrying on well, Lots of good thought for both he and his family, He had really been a champion for health care.

I have been queuing a a few things on ravelry, and working on hand warmers and my campanula socks. I think the next pair of campanulas I make will be on size one needles, I like my socks more fitted. I know I have said it before, but I love this pattern. I look forward to wearing them later this year.

I am knitting a series of hand warmers that are a collaborative effort of fellow knitters Sara D., Tamara D. of http://www.clickitysticks.com and myself. the hand warmers are decorative and lovely. I am experimenting with positive and negative ease with them, since I have chubby wrists, I want to see what will work best for me. I have listed the hand warmers on my notebooks project page in my Ravelry notebook, right now there are just pictures of the yarn I am using; jitterbug sock yarn by Colinette and Karabella lace. Pictures of yarn Below.









Linden Hills Yarn shop in Minneapolis's Linden hills area is a welcoming environment, I have been stopping now and then for a quick fix for my yarn and knitting needs, as well as following related threads on Ravelry. knitters are welcome to go and sit with their knitting and enjoy conversation.

Happy knitting/crocheting to all and to all a good stitch.

Yarn trial and progress.

So I thought I thought I had enough yarn, Oh, how wrong I was!
I was looking at my Ravelry queue and thinking AI should try to get something moved into projects and going so I could get it done. I thought, ah, the Luna scarf. Crochet so its quick, a simple and lovely pattern, finished it would make a lovely gift.
I had two skeins of Lana Grossa in a worsted weight, that should be enough; here was my first of a few mistakes in my yarn trial this weekend.
By the end of the first skein I knew that two would not be enough, my poor judgment came out of knitting more than I crochet and underestimating my yardage, soooo, I popped into the NU Outlet on Sunday and YES! they had more in the same color way. Now my second trial error; overconfidence regarding how much I would need was rampant in my brain.
The very pleasant person in the shop suggested taking two skeins, oh no, I would only need the one. By evening I could see i was cutting it close, by the time I came to the end, 14 stitches shy of being finished, I was telling myself, I knew better than this, why not the other skein, how goofy of me.
So, here on Monday, I sit with a scarf not yet complete, 14 stitches shy of finished, and praying that last skein will be there tomorrow and believe me, I will be there when they open! The outlet is only open four days out of the week, unfortunately for me, today is not one of those days.

In the upper right hand corner of this photo, you can see the loop where I had to stop because I ran out of yarn.

It is a beautiful scarf pattern I found on Ravelry, this was originally designed for a Harry Potter swap by: Pinkleo and published in the Craftster.




Here is the full scarf folded up a bit; I will keep it for my self if the additional skein cannot be had, I will just work a picot and run the end in, but I am hoping to find the next skein tomorrow and if there are two skeins I will get them and make some quick little wristlets to go with the scarf, which will round it off as a lovely gift.




Here is progress, I pulled my X an O socks out of hibernation and finished them! Ta DA!

These socks are sooo soft, they are made with Cherry Tree Hill hand dyed Louet Gems yarn. Soft and smooth merino yarn.
These are for me and will be wonderful to wear this winter.


I am not an expert on deities of India, but, I have so many things lined up , cued up and in progress that I need all the arms o Kali to make good progress.

Well off to dig in the project pile and pop up with wrist warmers to knit, have to wind the yarn first, but would like to get these done quickly, so I can keep moving through the projects. Yeah!

Free skin cancer screening

This is a short post that I want to put out as a single topic post, because it is important and it's good to be screened.

Olay is again sponsoring a free skin cancer screening. If you go to the web site below, you can go to the site, follow the link to find a Dr. in your area to receive a free skin cancer screening,

http://www.skincancertakesfriends.org/sctf08/

We can make sure that not only ourselves, but the people we care about are skin cancer free.

urban sprawl in who ville

I spent yesterday doing some cleaning. I decided to do some laundry and began by stripping the bed, it had been a week since changing and so I washed bedding. Before remaking the bed I thought, hey, flip the mattress and box spring to access cleaning the floor easier.
HOLY WHO VILLE BATMAN, urban growth and sprawl had hit Who ville, It had become MUCH larger than a microcosm. I guess its been awhile because dust bunnies does not even begin to describe the dust carpet I found (there will be NO pictures).
Undisturbed the allergen blanket was not much of a problem, disturbed, I was in trouble. I am feeling better today, but I can't get the screams of the who's, resounding over the whir of the vacuum cleaner out of my head.
I need to find a decent mask that does not allow dust in the sides of it, nothing I buy seems to fit well enough to not allow air seepage through the sides, even the heppa ones, maybe just need to walk around like a space alien in a respirator.
Too bad I don't have a neighborhood kid I can hire for those dust jobs.

New books, Whisper shawl

The mail came and I am now the proud owner of a couple new knitting books, plus the Wonderful Wallaby leaflet.

I purchased a pre-signed copy of the Yarn Harlot's Things I learned from Knitting and had it shipped (I have had a bad cold and did not go pick it up) with a copy of the Wonderful Wallaby Sweater. The two books from the Yarnery came in the mail today with my Amazon order, containing a copy of Wendy Knits came in the mail as well and I am going to be busy going over my buys.

Sadie is whimpering and watching a squirrel out side the window, running up and down the tree gathering nesting material.


Whisper shawl, modeled by Kimberly.









My Whisper shawl is complete and Kimberly modeled it at knit night, She looks so cute and wears the shawl well.
The shawl still needed to be blocked at that time, the blocking is now complete. I am so proud of it, that I can't seem to let go to borrow it out. A local shop wants to borrow it and I was going to let them, but I am so unreasonably attached to it I am having a tough time thinking of letting it go for a few days over Mothers day weekend.

Finishing this shawl has given me renewed energy to get back to finishing two other shawls I have in progress. One is the Highland shawl form the Folk Shawls book and the other is the Angel lace shawl form fiber trends.

Sadie, socks and more

Sadie went to the groomer today, and she is so cute in her little bows, I just had to take pictures.
Sadie's usual MO is to wiggle and move so much that she does not hod still for bows.



I think this is good that she is comfortable with her groomer and was calm.






This is a side view with a little bow on her ear.

She was not yet dressed, there are little panties to go with her top, and there are little ties that keep them up with the top, I just did not put them on.


I just bought a very cool pattern on Ravelry called Severus, it is a lace sock pattern with buttons on the side. so awesomely cool, I need yarn to knit them.
I don't think I can publish a Picture because I am not sure of copyright laws, however I will publish a finished picture of the socks I knit from the pattern.
My new favorite yarn for socks is Louet gems, the colors and solids are lovely, I will knit Severus in solids, there is a cute ruffle at the top of them in a contrast color.
Ravelry is my favorite place on the net, I may have said that in a prior post, but there are so many wonderful features and people to chat with.
interweave knits summer issue is coming out soon, I saw the preview notice on Ravelry. So many cool projects, if only to have twelve arms to knit several projects at once.

I just received my booby socks pattern in the mail, a breast cancer sock. I need six arms just to knit socks with.

I have made good progress on my whisper shawl, the main body is finished, Wednesday I broke the yarn and added the beads, reconnected and began the picot bind off on the bottom, I am about 80% finished with the bind off, then I will need to pick up for and knit the lace edging around the sides and neck.
My blocking wires came yesterday so I am all set to block when I finish knitting.
I will post pictures of the finished shawl soon. My knitting queue is bursting at the seams, I have tops and socks and shawls , oh my!

Back to the bind off, so much knitting to do.

Making progress and other info.

I am making great progress on my Whisper shawl, about 10 rows to go in the main body, then it's the bottom bead trim and lace edging around the sides.
I can't wait to wear it and now the weather is warming, I might wear it anyway.

Needlework unlimited http://www.needleworkunlimited.com/Outlet had a yarn sale this past weekend, I was sick but did sneak out. I now have 32 balls of Lana Grossa Riso in Pink. $2.00 per skein, it would have been $1.50 per skein since I bought more than 30 skeins, but I did not buy them all at once, I had to go to the bank and bought the rest the next day.
I love doing things that help and keeping them a secret, and I will continue to do this; I want to find a good knitting turn to make, and keep it a secret, this is my new mission since the sale on Saturday. it's because of my knitting Angel, whether or not you believe in Angels or good Samaritans or whatever you call them, I had on e Saturday.
I had not gone to the bank and forgot my check book when I went to the NU sale on Saturday, I found myself standing next to a fellow knitter and we talked about the 30+ skein prices, I found the Pink Lana Grossa Riso,and wanted to get as many balls of it that I could, so like a goof I pulled out the $ 28.00 I had and was going through and counting out the change in the bottom of my purse to maximize my purchase, found that I could not get two boxes (each box has 10 balls), and my knitting Angel handed out the money to make sure I could get two boxes, I tried to say no, wanted her name to pay her back and she refused. Knitters help each other she said, now you can help someone else, I know who to help specifically in turn for this.
I was just so impressed by a stranger wanting me to have yarn! bless her and her whole family.





Here is my yarn





Mock crab corn chowder

In sauce pan, saute:
1/2 med to large onion chopped
1 celery stalk chopped

when caramelized add:
1/8 tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp. chopped garlic
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 C. orzo pasta
1 package chopped mock crab
1 1/2 C. corn
4 C. skim milk
stir in two tsp. cocktail sauce

Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Yummy!!!!