PRE-THANKSGIVING DAY

Today has been a busy day at our house, and I'm sure at yours also.

However, I did manage to get a lot knit on my Buttoned Cowl and hope to finish it up in the next day or so.   I'll have to wait until next Tuesday to go to a craft store for 2 buttons before I can call it "done".  It's been a very fun and challenging knit.  I learned several new-to-me stitches, such as "Crossed Braid Stitch" and "Slow and Easy Cable Stitch".  I'll take another photo of the finished product - outside in the sunshine so you can see the "true" color!  

Speaking of outside - we're expecting 82 degrees tomorrow, and then staying right around 80 for another week or so.   Can't beat Arizona weather!!!

Here's a photo of the 24-hour fruit salad I spent 2 hours cutting up fruit for this afternoon.  Now, one aching back later, I'm relaxing here on the computer.  Our street gets together for holidays and all the orphans (those with no family coming) have a potluck - so we're looking forward to that.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogging and knitting friends out there.  I know I have so much to be thankful for and it will be a great day!

A WINNER!

It seems I never win anything, but I am participating in the Ravelry Gift-A-Long until the end of this year and my name was selected this evening to receive a free pattern from designer Margaret Kendall.   I hurriedly went to her designer page and picked the "Third Rail Cowl" as my choice.  It looks beautiful and I'll look forward to casting on probably not until after the Holidays.  Photo by Margaret Kendall and posted with her approval.  Her designer page is:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/margaret-kendalls-ravelry-downloads/patterns
I might even use this same yarn - I'm busy "shopping" right now, because, of course, I don't have anything in my stash!!

SOCK YARN!!!!

Look what came in my mailbox from Dizzy Sheep today.  A skein of Opal Ladies & Gentlemen in markant (striking) color, which is actually a forest green variegated - not a blue.   I tried taking the picture inside and outside and it still came out blue!  I'm going to knit socks out of this, probably after the first of the year since I have way too many WIP's to finish before Christmas.   The Meyer lemons will be ripe in a week or two, but I did sneek one off the tree today and it tastes pretty good!!

SUNDAY PROJECT

Today I've started my Buttoned Cowl, which was designed by Galzanne Knits and called the Dorothy Jean Neckwarmer.  I'm using (from stash, believe it or not!) Juniper Moon Farms Moonshine which is a Worsted 40% alpaca, 40% alpaca and 20% silk.   Talk about a yummy, soft but good definition yarn - I'm loving it.   This may just have to be mine, although it would get little wear, if any, here in Arizona.

VETERANS DAY 2014

I'm posting this same picture, again, of the many flags lining the roadway entrance into our senior community.  A local Boy Scout troop places these flags every Veterans Day, as well as other holidays, such as the 4th of July.  It is so impressive and brings a tear/choke every time I pass through.  Thank you hubby, and all the other veterans and active duty service men and women!

SUNDAY'S PROGRESS

I've been knitting away on this scarf, and am still not sure I like it.  For those of you who haven't seen my earlier post(Nov. 3rd) you can see all the mini skeins I will be using.  I love the pattern of the scarf and the constant changing colors, but not sure about the overall color yet.  (I apologize for the quality of the picture - will have to take one out in the sunlight tomorrow).

"UNATTRACTIVE COLOR SCARF"

I've been excitedly working on this scarf using the 20+ mini skeins of yarn shown in the previous post.

I'm thinking this might be a scarf to wear out in the backyard in the wintertime.  So far, it's a fun knit, but the colors just aren't doing it for me.    What do you think?  Be honest.   

Maybe as I get farther along, it'll start to make some sense or whimsy or whatever.

WHAT I'M UP TO?

I've been working along on the knit hat for the girl in our community just diagnosed with leukemia.  It seems like it's taking forever, but I really like the way it's turning out.   The "swirls" show up in the variegated yarn better than I thought they would.  I'm only a row or two short of where I'll start decreasing, so it'll go fast then.

However, I started another project!!!!  I certainly have a bad case of "startitis".  I think I can be forgiven a little bit though, because I'm using up some 5g mini skeins I purchased in 2007 as part of a KAL, which I never started.   At meetup yesterday, I asked for suggestions as to what I could do with these 20 skeins (about 18.5 yards each).  One of the ideas I liked was a chevron stripe scarf.  One skein knit about 2.5 inches, so a 50" scarf - which isn't long enough.   I started going through bins this afternoon and found lots of fingering yarn leftovers from socks, etc.  I'll mingle these into the scarf, also, to make it somewhere between 60" and 70" I've been working on it since last night, but haven't decided if I want the color changes to be wherever I run out of a color, or if at the end of a row to make it look "neater", rather than "wilder".   I'm more of a "neater" look to the rows, where if I gift it to a one of my 3 granddaughters (all teenagers), they would probably like the "wilder" look.  Such a dilemma.