Pumpkin Sunrise

  Good morning! How are you doing on this fine morning?  I've been happily knitting on two projects. I started a Christmas stocking for my grandson for my house a few days ago. It's wonderful to be knitting again without pain, but I am still limiting the amount of time I am knitting to make sure I don't return to any arthritis flare ups. The other project is a simple rib hat for me.  What are you working on this week?

  How was your weekend? Mine was so great that I only have one photo. The best news of the day is that I can knit and my hands are healed. I know, you are wondering if I learned my lesson. Yes I have. I will not marathon knit gnomes while having an arthritis flare up. Over the weekend I was able to knit and enjoy my knitting. I started a Christmas stocking for my house for our grandson. I'd like to knit one for our granddaughter but I am taking the knitting slow and easy. I've been reading mostly if I'm not knitting. My current read is Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano which is so good I cannot stop reading. I will be sad when this book is finished.  The rest of the weekend was socializing with my family, doing the laundry and weekly cleaning like I always do. I have a lofty goal of being 'done done' with the holiday shopping by the end of the week. I need to start wrapping gifts soon.

  Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I started an easy cowl  project for a Christmas gift and one that was gentle on my sore hands (my hands are mostly recovered from the manic gnome knitting). This simple, yet elegant cowl was perfect! My hands are happiest with circular needles and wool yarn. The wool is from deep stash and I am lucky to have another skein of this pretty yellow colorway to knit something for myself if I choose to do so.  What are you working on this week?

  Good morning! I have finished the gnomes !  Of course, this achievement came with great sufferings. My hands and wrists are painful and I'm waiting out the healing process. I am knitting limitedly and trying to be patient with myself. I have shelved all other holiday knitting and probably will not do it. I have always listened to my body and when it screams rest, I rest. I'm confident that this wrist/hand pain is autoimmune related and so it will go away eventually. In the mean time, I casted on a little 1x1 rib hat for myself to keep me busy. Aren't these little gnomes adorable? This time around I used double knitting and sport weight left over wools to create these little wonders. 

  Good morning! How are you? I am tired from the time change even though the time change was to my benefit. Sadly I am waking up at strange times and then having trouble going back to sleep. Also one of the many smoke alarms decided to chirp at 3:30 a.m. (grrr) I have FIVE gnomes completed and would like to make two more. I had to take a knitting break yesterday due to hand and wrist pain as well as neck pain. Too much of a good thing ends up being a problem. I feel a lot better. What are you working on this week?

  Good morning!! For a few weeks now, I've been working on my gnomes for this year. My plan is to make eight of them, all of them gifts for Christmas except for one to keep at my home. I'm using up scrap yarns in sport weight and in DK weight wools. I do love pairing colors and eeking out as much yardage as possible from the scrap yarn bag.  What are you working on this week?

  Good morning! I am so happy to share with you my granddaughter's little cardigan ! I loved working on this and enjoyed how speedy the knitting was. I decided to make the six month old size knowing that the garment would grow with soaking and blocking because the wool is super-wash. 

  I am so close to finishing my granddaughter's holiday sweater . I had every intention to finish it yesterday but I didn't knit at all. I have high hopes and pipe dreams that today I will finish that sweet tiny sleeve. Also, I was so busy that I forgot to take a photo in natural light, hence the above early morning photo. What are you working on this week?

  After being away last weekend, this whole week was kind of a catch-up week where I didn't quite catch-up but kept adding more to my to do list. I am behind in my holiday knitting but then does it matter? I don't think so, only I know of my arbitrary goals.  This week, I started my granddaughter's Christmas sweater and I have been thoroughly enjoying working on this little project in the evenings and even during the day. Maybe it's the wool maybe it's the pattern or maybe it's both at the same time. So far, I don't think I have any mistakes but then again you never know. My husband and I received our flu and covid shots on Wednesday late afternoon. Yesterday was a challenging day. Tylenol fixed everything, but golly,  I was dragging myself around.  I only have a sore arm this morning, I am grateful. Of course my husband had a minimal reaction, grr. Autumn is fully here, the leaves are changing and the mornings are quite cold. Frodo and I moved our early mo

  I finished our grandson's Christmas sweater last Thursday but only just photoed it yesterday. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I made the 2-4T size and since he already is wearing 2T as I type this up. He's only going to grow! What are you working on this week?

  How has your creative pursuits been this week? I've been making great progress on my grandson's Christmas sweater. I was torn on what size to make. My choices were 1-2T or 2-4T. He already fits into 2T so I did the larger size and now wonder if this will be to big. My brain says better to be too big than too small and I continue to knit away. I finished the first sleeve last night and hope I finish the second sleeve tonight. What are you working on this week?

  I finished this sweater last week and once I was finished blocking the sweater, it took forever to dry. Well, it felt like forever. Boy, did I eke out the yarn usage of this project. I only had five skeins of the main color which was wool bought by my husband when he was in Italy in 2018 (??). Why I thought five skeins would be enough yarn for a sweater is a big mystery because he called me from Italy while in a yarn store to make sure I had enough. I blame it on me! I used a skein of knitpicks palette to stripe in at the body of the sweater and for extra measure I used another 'mystery yarn' that is nearly an exact match to the main color. I have about 100 yards left over of the main color (phew!). Now all I need is some cold weather because this is a WARM sweater. What are you working on this week?

  How was your weekend? Thank you so much for the well wishes, I am feeling much better. Modern medicine has yet to fail me.  My weekend was fun! On Saturday, we had my sister and brother in law over for dinner and dessert. I made chili, cornbread, salad and a pumpkin pie. I celebrated fall.  On Sunday, we drove to southeastern Ohio for the day for our granddaughter's baptism. Afterwards we attended a little luncheon. We had fun seeing everyone and being with family. Our grandson was great fun, full of smiles and hugs. Our ride home was slightly delayed due to a major accident on the highway, my family in another car was stuck in that traffic jam due to the highway being shut down for over four hours. I am grateful I was home by dinner time and felt awful for my aunt and cousins who didn't get home until 9:30 - 10:00 in the evening. I worked on my grandson's Christmas sweater  in the car and had a wonderful time knitting a short project.

  Well lookie see, I finished the last hitchhiker shawl last night. This is the third hitchhiker shawl from my summer knitting series and it is the last one for quite some time to come. I enjoyed this knit as all the other shawl knits but I am looking forward to not knitting a shawl for quite some time. It's time to start knitting for the grands for Christmas. What are you working on this week?

  Good morning! How was your weekend?  Mine was relaxing. After we returned home on Thursday from seeing the grandchildren in Indiana, my Friday was a catch up day. Saturday and Sunday were completely relaxing.  Saturday I fiddled about with organizing my online photos for 2020, 2021 and 2022 (yes woefully behind but done!). I still have to save some photos on this computer to save to a flash drive yet. Isn't it silly to be virtually organizing? Remember when we had physical copies of everything and would place the photos in photo albums? Saturday afternoon, I read books and worked on the last hitchhiker shawl (still not done). Sunday after Mass, I did laundry and cleaned the house somewhat. I read some more and knitted some more. That last hitchhiker shawl is taking forever but I am so close to being finished. I'm sure we are still going to have hot weather but honestly it's been refreshing to be cold in the mornings and see the changes in the trees. Fall is rushing in and

  I'm making slow but steady progress with striping in my 'back up' wool for this sweater . So far, I am loving the way it looks and hope I have enough of the off-white yarn to make it to the ribbing. However, I do have another 'back up' skein to get me through the yarn shortage if there is one. I'm thoroughly enjoying this game of yarn chicken only because I am winning. What are you working on this week?

  Our sweet little granddaughter, Esther, was born over the weekend and so I need to stitch her name and her birthdate on the sampler as well as looking into framing it. We cannot wait to meet her in person and see our grandson! We are lucky that her parents are sharing lots of photos with us until that day comes. How was your weekend? I started striping in my 'other' yarn to finish off my sweater. So far I like how it's looking and hope I have enough with these two colors, I have a plan if I do not but let's hope adding the off white is all I need to do!! While knitting, I've been thinking about all that I want to knit for the holidays and realize that I need to start knitting soon if I want to knit all that I want to knit.

  I'm all in for Autumn arriving and I know I've got a ways to go. Yesterday we went for a walk at the park and I delighted in the soft signs of the leaves changing. I was blessed with overcast skies and a cool breeze which helped me pretend we are closer to the change of seasons than we really are. Today it feels like summer but I have my memories of yesterday. I've been working on my sweater that doesn't have enough yarn. Have you noticed that I am facing reality and have quit saying 'might not have' enough yarn? I am accepting what is and planning how I am going to fudge the body along. I'm nearly done on the second sleeve and will return to the body of the sweater and begin my problem solving striping of a different brand and color of wool.

  Well now, I finished two pairs of fingerless mitts for us! For weeks, I've been knitting hitchhiker shawls as gifts for the holiday season and still have the third but last one on the needles. I enjoyed switching my attention to knitting for me and my husband instead. I've knit this mitt pattern numerous times and the pattern is just one of my all time favorites to knit. What are you working on this week?

  This week I've been working on this last hitchhiker shawl of the summer. I have been enjoying the ease of this project, so simple for me to pick up and knit a little bit and put down. I have not tested this with talking at the same time, I'm sure I would make mistakes under those test conditions, ha ha. The sock yarn for this shawl was F R E E. Yup! my sister asked me if I would like the yarn that was given to her by someone who didn't want the yarn. Lucky for me I thought it would make a great shawl. What are you working on this week?