Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk

I have decided to join my daughter Kim and her team, and do the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in August. I started the year with some health issues and vowed to make this year the year where I lose weight, make healthier food choices, and get my body back into shape.

Making the commitment to do this walk will be a huge incentive for me to really work hard to improve my physical body, and also raise money to support this cause. I have a sister in law who just a few weeks ago found a mass in her breast and will be biopsied any day now. My grandmother was a breast cancer survivor. My sister's best friend is a breast cancer survivor. A coworker from the post office where I used to work lost her battle to this disease at a very young age. A current coworker is a survivor. This touches all of our lives in some way, often numerous times during our lives.

I am going to be walking (or crawling) 60 miles over the course of three days, for a cause devoted to helping women discover breast cancer early enough to beat it and committed to finally finding a cure. As a condition of participation, I must raise at least $2,200. I have set my personal goal at $3,000.00 Proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

If you would like to donate a handknit item (or kit, or anything you can think of) for one of our fundraising/auction events, that would be AWESOME! Any way you can help our team, no matter how large or how small, will be greatly appreciated. Email me to let me know!

So, yes, this is a plea for your emotional and financial support. (A dollar for every mile that I'll be walking would be wonderful, but of course is just a suggestion) I thank you in advance for whatever you can give.

If you'd like to donate online, just click the link below to go to my personal fundraising webpage. This certainly promises to be an unforgettable challenge and rewarding experience for Kim and I.

If you can think of anyone else you know that would be willing to help me make my donation goal, I would love it if you would put out the plea. Send them to my blog to click the link below.

Let's keep giving
So more can keep living!

Thanks for your support,

Trish

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support The Breast Cancer 3-Day

Class samples

"Knit with Wire and Beads" is a class I have coming up soon. I am finally crossing things off on my "to do" list and got a couple of these done to take to the shop tomorrow. The one on the left is done with 26 gauge wire and the one on the right is 24 gauge. I like the looks of the 24 gauge wire better, but it is harder to knit with. Both of them made my hands hurt after a little while, so would not try doing one of these all at once. Take a couple of breaks and give your hands a rest. You could adapt this technique to whatever size you want....I am thinking a cuff bracelet might be kind of cool. Or covers for jar candles. Anyone else have an idea?

Socks in the snow

Yes, it is white in Michigan again. Thank goodness....I had gotten quite disgusted with the brown/gray look of everything in sight, and way too much rain. This is winter, folks....let the landscape be covered in white, please!

I started this pair of socks on Thursday. Got enough done (past the toe increases) so that when I went to sit 'n knit with the BeeGees that night I could do so without counting ...just knit around and around. I knit for a short time on them on Friday, didn't touch them Saturday. I spent a good amount of time knitting Sunday during the pregame and Super Bowl (I figure I knit pretty close to 7,000 stitches on Sunday) and spent several more hours on them on Monday. So in 5 days (only 4 knitting days) I have a pair of socks. I am impressed with myself, let me tell you! And the best part, they actually fit! This has not been an easy thing for me to accomplish. Every time I make socks, I am so afraid they will be too small that I make them too big. These fit great. I did a short row heel for the first time and got it to work after frogging the first attempt. I hadn't knit quite enough length in the foot. Nice thing about toe-up socks...you can try them on and see how they're fitting.

I wish this picture had turned out a little better. The sun left before I got a good shot. I'll replace it when I get a better one (after the socks have been washed and don't have fold marks in them!)

Catching up with photos--in no particular order

Every year Mike gets me a Hummel figurine for Christmas. I usually give him a hint about which one I might like that year, or a couple of choices. I found this little darling on ebay and sent him the link. Can you believe he was the only one to bid on it and got it at the opening bid price (which was WAY lower than what it's worth)? I am not a smoker, but as you can see, she's sitting on the table next to the couch where I do all my knitting, and holds various knitting essentials which change from time to time.
This is a felted change purse I sent to Diane for Christmas. I have several more clasps sitting here waiting here to become something similar. I loved this project. The pattern is from a Paton's booklet, and I got the clasps from Victorian Cottage Treasures. Cute, no?
This is a small moebius basket that I knit for the shop. Below it is a larger one that I knit using Berroco Foliage. We thought that in this color (Carnation) it could be a really cute Easter Basket. These baskets are both shop samples for my Moebius II class coming up in March



Another shop sample. This is the Tote Around bag from Knit Kit. It is one of the choices for my next Felted Tote Bag class. Once this sample went into the shop, we sold out of the patterns and these colors of yarn and had to reorder. It's a hit! Quite large...would make a great market bag.

In the fall I took a Russian Punch Needle class at the shop. I chose this pattern because I wanted to send it to Diane for Christmas. I think it came out pretty darned cute for a first try. I used hand dyed floss which has great shading properties. I like it so much better than if the colors had been solid. A couple weeks ago I bought some weaver's cloth at JoAnn's and plan on designing a few of my own RPN items soon. I recently got another kit to do for my mom for her birthday. Which is on the 18th, so I'd better get cracking on that, don'tcha think? I imagine it might be a wee bit late. Ooops!

This pair of Fast Florida Footies (pattern by LynnH) is now off the needles and has been worn several times already. What a fun pattern and it was interesting to knit with Cascade Fixation for the first time.






This is a shop sample of the B4 Bag for Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion. I had the yarn for this since fall and thought I would get it to Joan much quicker than I did. I had plans to do SO much knitting between Christmas and New Year, but with Mike off work, not much knitting got done. Joan had some great dichroic glass buttons that matched the colors of the yarn so perfectly. This one was done in Lamb's Pride Bulky. I dropped it off last week along with some more patterns.


I just love how this Midwest Moonlight (from Scarf Style) came out. I used a hand dyed wool/silk blend from Heritage and never grew tired of knitting this fun pattern. I have entered the scarf in Heritage's Fiber Arts Show, which benefits breast cancer research. Voting starts Sunday, so if you're in the area, stop by and see the beautiful works of fiber art that will be on display. Vote often...each time you cast a 50 cent vote, you support breast cancer research and let the artists know you love their creations!