Pumpkin Sunrise

I am still reading Water for Elephants.   I am find it interesting especially since my son really enjoyed the book.  We frequently have similar tastes in novels.  I was doubting the similarity when I first started reading and then last night the plot thickened! So I must say it is too soon to give an opinion, I need to finish the book!  On my needles is my cardigan  which I just blogged about here . The progress is slow and I am getting a little impatient to have it finished. I am also working on a scarf but will post about it tomorrow if I do not rip it out first.  I am feeling quite wishy washy about whether I want to continue knitting. Today I have a lot of errands to run.  They should not take me long to do.  All of the regular tennis matches are finished.  Now it is just practices the next two weeks for district play offs.  May is such a busy month with tennis, prom, and end of the year banquets at the school.  It always flies by! Joining Ginny for her Yarn Along.

After my big lace shawl was finished, I wanted something easy and on much bigger needles.  I did a pattern search on Ravelry and found the Infinitude Scarf . I already knew that I wanted to use Alpaca with a Twist  in my stash.  With spring around the corner, I wanted to knit something green.  I picked this yarn up when I was in Pittsburgh.  I cannot remember when......maybe my sister will remember.  Anyways, so far it is relaxing just knitting and purling and not following a chart.  I know eventually I will want something that is complicated but for now easy knitting is just dandy. This yarn is Mirasol Tupa .  It is a wool/silk blend that I think would make a lovely cowl or hat or pair of mitts.  I have yet to find which pattern I would like, I only just started looking today. The best aspect of knitting is deciding what to make.  I always buy yarn I like with a general project in mind then afterwards I decide on the specific pattern.  Vary rarely is it the other way around.  Unle

As promised, I have some photos of the scarf all blocked and beautiful.  I am quite pleased with the scarf.  I soaking just makes the yarn super soft. The first photo is me taking a picture of me!  Quite a chore when you are by yourself.  I highly recommend knitting the Advent Calendar Scarf .  It is well written and the lace knitting was fun.

Well as I was guessing, I ran out of yarn.  I was knitting Day 22 and felt that I would not be able to repeat the 14 row pattern twice.  So I only did one repeat and then knit my final four rows of garter.  Yippee for me!  Here are pictures of day 17 through 22 (well half of 22). I already soaked the scarf this morning and it is currently blocking in the guest bedroom.  It should be dry by tonight.  So hopefully I can post some finished pictures in a day or two.  If you want to see some more beautiful Advent Calendar scarves, check out Girls in Sheep Clothing !

Today is the yarn along over at Ginny's blog-- Small Things .  Sometime during this day, I will make a cup of green tea and browse everyone's postings of what they are knitting on this week.  It is always inspirational and interesting to see what everyone is creating and what they are reading. I am still working on the Advent Calendar Scarf and am so close to completing it.  I am on Day 21 and I am also running out of yarn.  So it will be interesting to see if I can make it to day 24 or not.  It is already quite long enough so I will not be disappointed if I do run out of yarn.  I continue to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog .  Had you asked me two days ago if I liked it I would have said "ummmmmm" But yesterday, I was hooked on the plot line.  It is an interesting read, I think because it is translated from French, the sentence structure at times seems odd.  It is not a "light" read at all.

Some more photos of the Advent Calendar Scarf!  These are days twelve through sixteen: I just could not resist a photo of the best dog EVER!

Just a quick post of two more days of the calendar scarf.  I can honestly say I have not been working on it much this past weekend.  I am now on day 12, maybe this week I will have more lace knitting time!

I wish my pictures were perfect :)  I have completed the clues for day five through nine of the   Advent Calendar Scarf . This is such a fun project!  If you would like to see more scarves, please check out Girls in Sheep Clothing you will love what you see.

Today is the Yarn Along with Ginny at Small Things .  I have diligently been working on my Calendar scarf and I'm on day eight.  My phase of making mistakes seems to be a thing of the past.  I have been on a winning streak with no ripping out rows.  Also on Sunday at my Sit and Knit I worked on the Seamless Hybrid sweater.  It was the perfect project to work on because I have no problem talking and knitting in stockinette :D Isn't Frodo so funny?  He is the nosiest dog we have ever owned.  He has to see what everyone is doing in the house.  Anyways, I am still reading Fannie Flagg's Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man .  I have not read as much as I wanted to this week but next week looks promising because everyone will be back at school and I will not be distracted.  I also have been leafing through Knitted Gifts  that I received as a present from my sister.  The projects are lovely! We had four-five inches of snow fall last night. I snapped some photos this mornin

Frodo, our miniature schnauzer apparently loves being out in the snow.  Yesterday we accumulated about three inches of snow and he was in and out of the house constantly.  This is a picture I took through the screen because he never stays still long enough for a good photo inside the house.  He desperately wanted inside.  He also did not know how to get the clumps of snow off of his lovely beard and his back legs.  So I had to help him! On the knitting front, I have completed the clues  for days one through four.  For some reason, I had difficulty with day three.  I just kept making mistakes and had to take back knitted rows.  Yesterday I finished day three and four and did not have any problems so maybe it was just an off knitting day? I am enjoying the project immensely.  Check out Girls in Sheep Clothing  for progress on their scarves.  Both of the scarves they blogged about are beautiful!

Today is Ginny's Yarn Along!   I really enjoy having a glimpse of everyone's projects and books.  It gives me many ideas for some of my future projects.  I have been on a lacy scarf knitting streak.  This week I started an Advent Calendar Scarf from Ravelry.  For some reason, I was making mistakes that required ripping out and redoing.  I finally figured out the problem was not sitting long enough and getting the pattern memorized.  I also did not want to print out the pattern, so I saved the directions into a pdf file and am reading it off of my ipod touch.  That could be the problem too!  My eyes deceive me even with correction lenses because the print is small. I started reading Fannie Flagg's book, Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man.   The beginning was a little slow going but now I am enjoying the story.  I have read all of the other books she has written.  I also just had to mention that the Knitting for Peace book in the photo I snagged at a thrift store for $1.99!!!

Another year has past and a new one has begun.  My knitting goals are pretty broad.  I want to knit a lot.  I want to knit projects that I like.  Of course I would love to knit through my yarn stash.  I usually do but I do own lots of yarn that is decades old (you read correctly).  I was successful at donating a box of it last year.  Maybe if I manage a box a year, then the 10 year old yarn might be gone! This month I am joining TwoKnitWit and her friends in knitting the Advent Calendar Scarf .  She will be posting her progress at her blog:   Girls in Sheep Clothing .  Last January I made this lovely scarf: For this month's scarf, I decided on lace weight yarn.  I also went into the yarn stash, as I was determined NOT to buy more yarn.  I have two and a half skeins of Knit Pick's Gloss Lace in a beautiful silver gray.  

The very best part of Christmas break is the lull after the official holiday.  I thoroughly enjoy having no pressing matters on my mind.  I think the week or two before Christmas gets hectic with all of the last minute items that need to be bought or wrap.  I am a very detailed list maker but every year I seem to forget to put something on my list and it usually happens very close to the due date.  Part of me wants to be a better list maker (as if!) and the more rational part of me wants to simplify my holiday.  This week after Christmas I am leaning towards simplifying. I have been dutifully working on the Purple Majesty sweater .  So far it is extremely easy because I am working on the body.  My son wanted a hemmed edge instead of a ribbed edge.  I am super excited at how nicely the edge turned out :D  I decided to do a contrast color for the inside hemmed edge.  Here is a picture: My Elderberry Wine Shawl is making some progress.  I am on Chart C.  I think I will always be

Today there is a little bit of snowing going on.  It is just beautiful!  Of course, it will not be measured in inches or feet because it is just a tiny amount of flurries.  It does put one in the holiday spirit.  When we returned from our trip from visiting family, I decorated the main floor for Christmas.  Let me tell you, I was sore from head to toe.  The next day I decorated the media room which is much easier because the tree is smaller and there are less knick knacks that get placed.  At the time I thought I was nuts decorating.  However this morning I am thoroughly enjoying the effort I exerted. On Ravelry I participated in a year long Lace Scarf KAL .  A clue was released once a month.  I saved the November and December clue for this week to complete.  I had already decided to NOT do a border since the scarf/shawl was wide enough for me.  So when I sat down to start the November clue I realized that I would probably have to ball up another skein of yarn, approximately 400 yar

I thought I would squeeze in a tiny posting today.  Tomorrow we have weekend company arriving and I am sure come Monday I will be in a massive clean the house state of mind.  I really am caught up on what needed to be finished for the company.  I like to do a little bit each day rather than everything all in one day.  So I made a list about a week or so ago and I have been crossing each task off.  I feel quite accomplished at the moment :) Anyways, I have finished two Christmas presents!!  I decided to make two hats for an uncle and a dear "adopted" father-in-law.  The pattern is called Seaman's Cap . It is a wonderful pattern that knits up very quickly.  I decided to use an acrylic/wool blend from the bottom of the stash.  The yarn is ancient.....20 years old?  What is sad is that I bought it so that definitely ages me. Thankfully tweed yarn seems to stay in style. I also started on a scarf for another adopted family member.  I wanted a skinny worsted weight sca