Black Friday?

No, I stay away from crowds. But I guess I did sort of participate. Tuesday or Wednesday, I got an email from Michael's giving their hours for the weekend, along with specific coupons for each period. On Thursday, they were open from 4 to 11 pm, and offered a coupon for 30% off entire purchase, including sale items. Since I was coming back through Paducah after 4 pm, I stopped there for the yarn I needed to complete Christmas stockings. Bob stayed in the car and made phone calls to his siblings in NJ (he doesn't get service in Mayfield, but does in Paducah), but Lexi came in with me. The store was busy, but they had a system set up so the line moved pretty quickly.

After that, I dropped Bob off at his apartment in Mayfield, and Lexi at her grandparents about five miles this side of Mayfield. I had reset the trip odometer before I left home that morning, and it read 110.2 when I got home.

Yesterday, I knitted on a pair of owl mittens one of Carmen's friends ordered from me and also on Christmas stockings. Alyssa wants a little drummer boy (like I put on Bobby's 23 years ago) on Brady's stocking and an orange cat on Stephen's. Sara wants a ten-point buck (head only) on Reggie's, but she hasn't decided yet what I should put on Lily's.

Today has also been spent mainly in knitting. A little bit of housework each day, but not much. You know, don't you, that the only place housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary.

Progress

The bear is finished and on its way to Florida.

The loom is dressed (that is, the warp is completely on),

and it's folded, ready for someone from the church to come for it next week.

They will also take these 'miniature rugs' (mugrugs?) and strips of cloth (book marks?) I've woven this year for the children to 'buy' in the rug stall, with the 'dinari' they are given when they enter Bethlehem.

There are 209 pieces in all.

My basket of stuff to weave with, fingerless gloves, etc is ready for me to carry.
I just need to get my costume out of the closet, and I'll be all set.

"Red and yellow and pink and green . . ."

You don't really want me to sing a rainbow - I didn't inherit the singing voice gene. But I can knit a rainbow.

It's going to be a pie-are-square shawl, a la Elizabeth Zimmerman. It's something I've had in mind for a long time, but I really shouldn't have started it now when I have:


1) a toy to finish and mail to my sister in Florida. I need to duplicate stitch the facial features, stuff it and sew on the ears. She wants to give it to one of her new great-grandchildren for Christmas.

2)  two Christmas stockings for my two new great-grandchildren.  I have the knitting done on one of them and started on the second. When I finish that, I need to duplicate stitch the names and designs - Alyssa wants the drummer boy I used for her brother's stocking 23 years ago on Brady's, but Sara hasn't told me yet what to put on Lily's. Of course, Lily and Brady won't know or care if I don't get them done by Christmas, but their older siblings will.

3) a baby blanket to give to a baby being baptised at church; I don't know when it will be needed. As you can see, I've only done 16 or 18 rows.

4) a little girl's sweater. I'm making it a size two for a girl who was born in June, so there's no rush.

5) three other shawls in various stages of completion.

This one needs a lace border on the bottom in the yarn pictured with it.

This is probably about 1/5 done.

And this may be about 1/4 finished. Yes, I'm using about 20 different yarns. I call it a random shawl, although it is not completely random.

6) And then there's Carmen's blanket that I;m still only about 15% done with. She will get it sometime.

7) I also need to finish warping the loom before someone from the Nazarene Church comes to pick it up next Monday or Tuesday. I have the warp wound onto the warp beam and threaded through the heddles. I just need to sley the reed and tie on to the cloth beam. I decided to do a rather narrow warp this year - only 100 ends. Sleyed at eight threads per inch, it will weave close to a foot wide (there's always draw-in). I think it will be small rugs/mats to give to the animal shelter.

I that ten pictures? Do you think that's enough?

119.4 miles

That's how far I drove yesterday - Milburn to Metropolis to south side of Paducah to downtown Paducah to west end of Paducah to Sedalia to Milburn.

In Metropolis, I looked through three knitting books for a teddy bear pattern, but didn't find what I wanted, and picked up the claim checks for Bob's luggage (It hadn't made one of the changes enroute from NJ on Monday). On the south side of Paducah, I picked up Bob's luggage at the Greyhound station. In downtown Paducah, I went to the eucharist service at Grace Church. In the west end of Paducah, I met several knitting friends at Panera Bread. At Sedalia, I dropped Bob's luggage off at Sara's house. Bob was there. He had spent the night in his apartment and said it was very quiet. He also said the camp cot I lent him was too low. (I agree; I don't think I could sleep on it.) Sara is going to borrow an air mattress from Reggie's grandmother for him to use (on top of the cot?) until they can get out here in daylight to get the bed that's in the back shed.

It was good to get home. I've spent the whole day today in my house. I don't think I've even unlocked a door. I've gotten together a box of handknit items to send to NJ for victims of Superstorm Sandy. I plan to go into Fancy Farm tomorrow to mail it.

Bearded lady

This is the hat I knit for Carmen recently. She requested it! I also made a silver-gray beard for it.

Recent Knitting

 No, my couch is not really tilted - only the camera was to try to get the whole shawl in. This is made with some yarn that was donated to my church, so of course, the shawl goes to the church to be blessed and given to someone who is ill, bereaved, or otherwise in need of a hug.

 These scarves are for the KY Special Olympics. The colors were dictated by someone on the state level; I'm going to put a note with the scarves saying that black and other very dark colors are difficult for old eyes to work with. The scarf on the left is a simple slip-stitch pattern. Doing two rows at a time of each color made knitting the black bearable. The one on the right has long pieces of gray at each end, with the Special Olympics logo worked in garter stitch. The middle section is alternating single rows of each color, again to make knitting with the black bearable.

This is a hat for Lily that I made up as I went along. I started with three-stitch I-cord, then increased at the beginning of each row until I had fifteen stitches, and worked a few more rows for the earflap. Knit another cord and earflap, then added stitches between the two (more for the front than for the back) and knit the rest of the hat. I hope it fits her well. There really is some pink and blue in the yarn, but it washed out in the picture.

Now working on:

Carmen's blanket - it will get finished some year.
A girl's sweater.
A baby blanket for church.
Two shawls.

I've been using my kitchen timer and working on a project for an hour. Then I get up and move around - put clothes in the washer, fix a meal, etc., then sit down in a different spot and work on a different project. They'll all get done eventually.