Happy Easter

I've been quite productive in the past few days. In addition to completing warping the loom, I have woven three mugrugs.

The filler is from an old thermal undershirt of Dominic's. The spacers between the mugrugs are cut from Styrofoam egg cartons. (Did you know Styrofoam is a proper noun?)

This shows my method for keeping the warp from spreading out too wide - L-shaped brackets held against the warp-beam by metal hose clamps. You don't see much of the clamps because they are covered by the venetian blind slats I use to keep the layers separated. This is the first time I'm using the brackets and clamps - so far, so good.

Yesterday, I completed two of the shawls I've been working on for a while. One is a Pie-are-square shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's books.

Do you think it's colorful enough? Sorry some of the pictures are a bit fuzzy. I've thought about doing a rainbow Pie-are-square for some time. I actually have another one in the works, but in a BGYORV order rather than this ROYGBV one.

The thing I like best about Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns is that she doesn't expect you to knit them exactly like she did. Her prototype for this is in garter stitch in one color, but she suggests using other stitches to make your shawl your own. I sort of think she'd have liked this one.

The other shawl I finished is what I call a random one.

I cast on 131 stitches and used a different yarn in each row, leaving the ends to be fringe. This one really is more purple than anything else - somehow the pinks and blues in the variegated yarns show up better in the photo.I still need to trim the fringes.

And today I have finally filed the 3/4 inch stack of patterns, etc, that I have printed out from various websites since I last filed them. I think I need another binder.

Nothing much happening

Cathy reminded me today that I haven't posted anything here for a while.

When I started this blog almost six and a half years ago, I intended to write about my knitting and gardening. Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and it became mostly about my medical problems. The myeloma has been in remission for almost three years, so there's mot much to write about that. I still see the oncology people about every six weeks to get my port flushed and every three months for blood work, etc., but that's about it. I was at the family doctor's office because I had run out of my blood pressure medication. I shouldn't have been, and the nurse straightened things out with the pharmacy, so I didn't even talk to the doctor. I had the nurse check my blood pressure, since I had been a week without the medication.  At the oncologist's office in January, it was 128/64 (good); yesterday it was 150/90 (not good). I guess I really do need the medicine.

I'm still doing a lot of knitting, but very little gardening/yard work. I'm getting very lazy in my old age! The latest knitting project I have completed is a christening blanket for church.

It looks rather white here, but is really yellow. It has a plain cross in each corner, worked in four different simple stitch patterns. The other symbols are a crown (representing Christ the King), a scollop shell (used to pour the water of baptism), a heart (love), a butterfly (representing the Holy Spirit), and a chalice and host.

I have five shawls and a queen-size blanket on the needles. I keep switching from one to another; I'll finish them all sometime.

I've been spending some time at granddaughter Alyssa's playing with Brady, so she can get more of her work done (she works from home).

He looks like he's praying, doesn't he? At almost six months, he's getting more interesting (I'm not much of an infant person). He already has his bottom front teeth, and has fairly good control of his hands. He also is sitting up for more than two seconds.

Another sign of sping.

Wednesday, on my way to Paducah, I saw a robin, and Thursday I saw one in my yard. It's warm today (it was yesterday, too), but the forecast is for cooler temperatures for the next couple of days - not cold, but cool.

What could be more cheerful

than a bed of yellow daffodils?

They're in my side yard, where I see them from my kitchen window. They started blooming about a month ago. They've been sort of beaten down a couple of times by cold, rainy weather, but they're still going strong.

Of course Lexi's lamb (that she likes to sleep with at my house) in the hat she made for it last weekend will put a smile on your face, too.

I've done it again . . .

and no one reminded me that I hadn't posted for ages.

That ice I mentioned in the last post disappeared by 9 am the next day. We've had one dusting of snow since then, but most of the precipitation has been liquid. That suits me just fine. The daffodils started blooming three weeks earlier than usual, but they are still going strong. They are always such a cheerful sign that spring is coming.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading, mainly on two series: one by Julia Spencer-Fleming in which the main character is an Episcopal priest in a small town in upstate New York, the other by Phil Rickman in which the main character is an Anglican priest in an English village on the Welsh border. The Spencer-Fleming series has titles that come from hymns, with the words of the hymns printed on the page before the story begins. I find myself singing them before I start reading (you don't want to hear it).

And of course, I've been knitting.

I've never liked anything on my head, but recently I decided I wanted a hat to keep my ears warm. I knit this with some of my handspun yarn. I like the pentagon on the top.

And here are some shawls I've finished. Lexi said she'll probably take one of the red ones for her teacher. I don't know what Rose, Kyra and Devin will want. I will have others for them to choose from, too, before school lets out in May. Whatever ones the kids don't want for their teachers will go to the church to be blessed and given to people who are ill, bereaved, etc.

Lexi took these pictures when she was here last weekend. I asked her if she wanted to be the model or the photographer - she chose photographer. She's actually better than I am in both jobs.