Not Really a FO for Friday………..

even though I did finish my Trixie Cowl except for kitchnering it together, but….. I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of doing this but I’m glad I thought of doing this for myself. I hate all the waste we all generate and like to try to re-use whatever I can when I can. I always put stuff in the re-cycle bin  and hope that that it doesn’t end up in the land fill or worse yet in the creeks, streams and oceans of the world.

Here’s my thing………. (with another pair of Monkey Socks I started last night in Hazel Knit yarn)

Off to SF today ( 2nd trip this week) with a friend to an art gallery where she is showing two of her paintings. Also, Loops is sponsoring a Knitting in Public photo contest today so I’m taking my sock project and hope to be photgraphed knitting in public so I can post on their site. If I get a picture I’ll post on my blog as well.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

WIP Wednesday……….

More than half done with Trixie Cowl. Started it last week and it’s coming along nicely I think. The yarn is a Brooks Farm blend of Alpaca, Wool and Mohair in fingering or light DK (they didn’t really know).

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My friend Eileen purchased some Manos del Uruguay Aran and has asked me to knit something with it for her. I plan to do the worsted weight version of this pattern when I finish this one.

It’s late and………….

I should really go to bed. I have had a great couple of days and thought I’d write about them now before I forget. Thursday David and I went to the movies, something we seem to have started doing. David isn’t really a go to the movies guy, or so I thought. He just didn’t want to see rubbish that Hollywood is putting out these days. We saw a foreign film in January (or was it earlier) at an “artsy, fartsy” theater down town. It was French and actually quite good, even if I can’t remember the name of the movie. We saw Old Goats at the Cinequest Film Festival a couple of weeks ago which was an indie  as in independent film as not made by a big studio. We went to see Fly Fishing in the Yemen on Thursday. At first I just thought it was a good movie (actually really good). Then I started thinking about it and my take away is that if you are really rich you can choose to use money for good or be selfish. At first I thought the Sheik was being selfish but then he gave his reason for what he was doing and I realized he was up there with Bill Gates and perhaps Steve Jobs.

Friday I got my hair cut, ran some errands and then made my self go to social knitting at Green Planet Yarn. Very happy I went as I got to see several gals I hadn’t seen a few months. Spent about 3 hours knitting and listening to table talk about just about everything other than knitting.

Today was a “workday” for the Walk to Emmaus that takes place April 26-29. “Work days” are for planning the event and also listening the the speakers who will be presenting to the “pilgrims”. What is always amazing is when these women (there’s a men’s group too) share their stories you never know what you’ll learn about them. So many on the outside look like they don’t have a care in the world, but when they start to tell you their story in the context of the subject they are speaking on, you get blown away and also inspired. I always realize that even though I have had a pretty boring, non inspirational life, I am blessed with the life I have through mostly not my own doing.

Tomorrow is church in the morning where I’m presenting the Moment for Mission about the One Great Hour of Sharing. After the generous donations that were given for the Adopt A Chaplain project I feel guilty presenting another opportunity for the members to make donations. However, it’s not about me, it’s  about their relationship to God and following his order to take care of the less fortunate.

Nest week will be busy. Monday night I’m going to San Francisco with Nanci and Lynn to the SF Cheese School for a class about cheese and wine from the Pacific Northwest. Wednesday night is Knit Klub and Friday afternoon I’m going back to SF with Kathleen to the art gallery where her food paintings are part of an art show about food. Oh, and I’m working Monday through Wednesday.

Of course in between everything I’ll be knitting. My Trixie Cowl by Lulu Bliss is coming along. Hopefully next Friday I’ll have another FO to share.

Now it’s time to go read for a bit before falling asleep. I’m reading My Sisters Keeper by Judy Picoult.

Have a good weekend and good week.

FO Friday……….

Two finished projects this week. Actually the Texelle was finished last week but I didn’t get it photgraphed in time. I did the Purl SOHO Bandana Cowl in just few hours last weekend. My first short row project. It’s bigger than I would like so I’ll try a different yarn and gauge next time.

 

 

 

This week I started Trixie Cowl in Brooks Farm Alpaca,Wool and Mohair that I got at Stitches last month. I’m treating is like a fingering weight (that’s what Brooks Farms “thought” it was). Hope to have pictures for WIP Wednesday.

FO Friday……

What happened to the text? I did this post yesterday and scheduled it for release this morning. All that came through were the pictures. Ffor those (few) of you who subscribe I’m sorry if you get this twice.

I have spent the last two weeks working on and frogging a project that the yarn didn’t want to be. I used two different yarns do said project and it just didn’t look right. Sometimes that happens. You have a vision and the yarn has other ideas. I’ll get back to it sometime and try another yarn.

Anyway, here’s the Lost in Transit Scarf that I started a month ago. I just got tired of knitting it and took a break. That happens a lot. I get tired of the pattern and put it down. I currently have two other projects that I think I will frog as I really don’t like knitting them. Life is too short to knit what you don’t like.

Have a great weekend.

Adopt A Chaplain………….

Last Sunday, March 4th, was Faith In Action at my church, Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian Church. I have participated in day of service activities before but this was the first time I was “in charge” of a project. I baked cookies for this project when West Valley Presbyterian did this project in conjunction with Immanuel Presbyterian a couple of years ago. STHPC was looking for a project to add to the others planned for the weekend and I mentioned this organization. I instantly became “in charge” of investigating and reporting back to the World and Local Missions committee.

The Adopt A Chaplain is headquartered locally at Calvary Presbyterian Church. I contacted them and they were very happy to support our project. They guided me on what I need to do and offered to come on Sunday and help us pack the boxes.

I got sign ups for cookie and brownie baking, paying for postage to send the boxes and people to come on Sunday and pack the boxes. I was all set. That’s when I began to worry…what if not one made cookies, if no one came to pack, if I didn’t have enough money to pay for postage? You know what? God had his own plan. We had so many cookies, lots of donations for postage and 17 people came to pack boxes. We packed 34 boxes of cookies, brownies and Girl Scout Cookie donations!!!! It was overwhelming!!  If only I had remembered my own postscript on my email:

Good Morning! This is God. I will be taking care of all your needs and problems. TRUST IN ME!
or…Waste a perfectly good day worrying if you have everything under control

Here is a picture (minus Glenda) of those who packed (and many of them also made cookies and brownies)

Pinterest………..

is a time sucking machine. Worse than Facebook!! But I LOVE it and want to suck all my friends into the same abyss that I find myself in several times a day. I have to set time limits on my time spent there. During the week I usually spend half an hour from 11:00 PM to 11:30 PM on the site. On the weekends I find myself drifting to the computer on my way to do laundry, put something away, do dishes, I think you get the picture. It’s a “chore avoider”. I just left the site and realized I was on my way to do something and now I can’t remember what it was I was going to do! Now I’m blogging about it! The site can be all consuming. I have to admit, I have gotten some really go recipes from it and DH is pleased with that aspect of the “time sucking machine”. I also started thinking of myself as “crafty” in the sense that I picture myself making things. But then I remember the craft disaster of Christmas 2011. But that doesn’t stop me from “pinning” things I think I can make.

This week I sucked my dear friend Carole Ann into the abyss. She has so many projects going that she barely has time to sleep. In the last 3 years she has designed and been her own General Contractor for the re-model of two bathrooms, the front and back yards and most recently the remodel of her kitchen, dining room and living room. She also has a Creative Memories business, does 2-3 craft fair’s a year, does bunka, glass work, and a host of other things. Anyway, she didn’t need this time sucking website to invade her life. When I showed her the site she couldn’t wait to get “invited” by the website to join. She spent a day and a half looking at my site while checking ever 5 minutes to see if she had received her invitation. Finally she’s on!! Thursday night while pouring over crafts that others had pinned she found something that she can make for her craft fair booth later this month. And away she goes!

If you’d like to be sucked into this world, and if you have a Facebook or twitter account (they are different companies but Pinterest seems to be using FB/twitter as part of their platform) you can go to www.pinterest.com and ask for an invitation to be sucked into the abyss, I mean join their site! You can also just browse the site and not join but that’s no fun. How will you remember all the things you want to make, cook, places you want to visit, etc.? Welcome to the Time Sucking Machine!!

WIP Wednesday…….

on Thursday. I (sometimes) hate WordPress blogging@#$$%^&. I spent forever writing a post and couldn’t get the photo’s to post correctly. I started Tuesday night and spent about an hour this afternoon linking the referenced patterns and yarns and adding photo’s only to have the photo’s be out of sync with the text.

Ok, I’m going to make it easy not not add so much to this post.  Here’s the Texelle Shawl by Phydeux with Valley Yarns Deerfield in Sea Spray. I got the yarn and pattern at Stitches West last weekend. The hardest part of this pattern is/are the  yo’s before and after purls. The seed stitch section took me forever. I must have knit those 8 rows 32 times between knitting and tinking! I am about to start the bobble section and hope that works out! If you click on the picture of my knitting you can see the detail of the different sections I’ve already completed.

Last weeks WIP is coming along. I have about 1/2 skien left to knit and then it will be done, whether it’s 60″‘s or not!