Dr. Visit

Yesterday I had an appointment with a (male) doctor that I had never seen before. As I was in the exam room waiting for him, I was knitting along on this: (Roxy Lady....LOVE this pattern!)

So in walks the doctor.

"What are you knitting there?"

"It's a purse" I hold it up to show him the cool pattern, because, admittedly, I am unable to stop myself from doing so... I am so in love with this project!

"Very nice"

Doctor then spies my B-4 bag on the floor next to my knitting tote.

"Is that bag felted?"

"You know about felting? I'm very impressed!" I boast a little and tell him that I work in a yarn store, and that I designed the purse pattern. He raises his eyebrows and nods with a smile.

Doctor explains that his mother used to knit a lot but arthritis has slowed her down, and that his wife is also a knitter.

By this time I am getting up onto the exam table and he says

"You've got some great socks there too"

You've just gotta love a man/doctor who appreciates your knitting and will initiate the conversation about it!

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!

Long time no post

Yes, I know...I have been remiss. 20 lashes with a wet felted i-cord if you must.

Well, Happy New Year everyone...a little late, but still heartfelt!

I have lots to write about, but little time to do so. Hopefully this weekend I can sit down and write a long entry, with lots of pictures of holiday knitting, class sample knitting, shop samples for stores that sell my patterns, etc. I am SOOOOO SOOOO SOOOOOOOOO ready to knit something for ME! Is that selfish? I think not. Every time I start something for myself it gets put aside and rarely finished. I have so many things on the needles it isn't even funny. Time to finish up some UFOs. And I am REALLY itching to start a new pair of socks. I have been collecting sock yarn at a rate far removed from the rate I knit socks. Cuz, like, I only have 3 pairs of socks that I knit and I have yarn for at least 15 more pairs.

My first UFO tackled is going to be Midwest Moonlight (why do I ALWAYS want to call this scarf Moonlight Madness or Midnight Madness? LOL) I have been working on it quite a bit and am about 2/3 done with it. I'm using a wonderful handpainted wool/silk blend that is like heaven to touch. I want to hold it so much (it's just too good to be true) Sorry if I got that song stuck in your head now :-) Anyway, I am in love with this pattern from Scarf Style, though the picture in the book does it no justice at all. I love the way the stitches seem to be drunk and all over the place in this scarf. It's like magic how you can knit straight across a row and have it turn out so wonky as it comes off the needles.

Anyway, off to bed, with high hopes of getting some test results tomorrow so I don't spend another weekend with bizarre thoughts going through my head of bizarre things going on in my body. Not knowing is worse than any kind of news that might come my way.

There must be a time warp!

Ok, seriously...there really canNOT only be 3 days left before the Christmas festivities are upon me....I mean really, how DID this happen? We are having Christmas Eve with my side of the family, here in this house, in a mere 90 hours. Am I even CLOSE to being ready? Hell no! Right now I am taking a break from some Christmas knitting....yes, I'm still knitting...and I'm almost done with this project, which then has to be felted. Crazy? Wait til you hear this! It's got to go in the mail ....out of state! HA! Funny, huh? And then am I done? Hell no! I still have at least 3 more things to knit. I have come to the conclusion that 2 of them will be New Year's gifts rather than Christmas gifts, but I have to at least get the one done. OMG.....WHEN???

So, I'm going to give those stress-filled thoughts a little rest....

Saturday evening the BeeGees got together and had our little Christmas celebration. It was SO much fun. Tamara put out quite a spread....about 72 different appetizers and desserts (only a slight exaggeration if you must know). We ate til we burst, the wine flowed freely, and there was much laughter and merriment. Tam provided us with Christmas crackers (not Wheat Thins, silly, the ones you pull the ends, there is a small explosion, and inside you find goodies....THAT kind of cracker) These are not the cheap (Cracker Jack prize) variety....these were the good ones....with REALLY nice prizes inside. Of course each one also holds a pink tissue paper crown, and here we all are, sporting them in good humor.

Cute, aren't we?

Front row, sitting: Kim, Tamara, Sharon A., me, and Tamara's immensely talented dog, Chloe.

Back Row, standing: Clare, Frankie, Sharon H., Linda (hiding behind Sharon!), Miri and Pat.

Missing BeeGee: Debbie....sniff... Thanks for a wonderful time, Tamara!

So, today I worked. What a day! Things were definitely hopping. Today is Kim's 23rd birthday (ok, another time warp.....). She came to have lunch with me at the shop, but it was so busy that she had to sit there and eat by herself, my lunch got ice cold while I helped customers, and 2 hours later I finally got to eat. Blech. I decided to keep the shop open an hour later than normal since it was so busy, and that was a good idea because there were several more GOOD sales during that time. Then I spent the next hour washing salt marks off the floor. So much fun. Hopefully the girls have just as busy a day tomorrow as I did today. It's a good thing!

You want to know another good thing? I'm off for 2 weeks! WOO HOO! Well, I may go in for a couple hours one day next week. After Thursday the shop is open only by chance until January 4th. We were going to close down completely but we'll be open....hit and miss...next week. I am glad I'm done for this week though....I need all the help I can get to finish up.

We are having Kim and Drew here for dinner tomorrow to celebrate her birthday. Then it's really crunch time....planning dinner and everything else for Saturday, and making sure everything is taken care of for Sunday. Whew! I'd better get back to my knitting so I can felt and get those puppies drying overnight ....so hopefully they can go in the mail tomorrow!

Oh, and one more thing....I got a package in the mail today from my dear friend Jane. I couldn't help my excitement....I had to open it. Inside was one thing that I kind of expected, and one thing I definitely did NOT expect. The expected....a wonderful repeat of last year...a calendar with each month featuring one of her wonderful photographs. Jane is quite a talented photographer, and each time I get correspondence from her it is written inside a card that has one of her photos on the outside. I treasured her calendar last year, and this year will be more of the same. The unexpected? A beautiful, oh-so-soft baby alpaca scarf that I have around my neck right now just because it's so wonderful. It's in the most beautiful shade of turquoise, and if I could get a decent photo, you'd see it below. But at this time of night, nothing will do it justice. Hopefully tomorrow I can get a decent shot of it and post it right here. Take my word for it....it's awesome. THANKS JANE. Love ya! MWAH!

Jake's been knitting

Here's Jake as he went off to school this morning, sporting the scarf he finished knitting yesterday. He started it Thanksgiving weekend, and I am so proud of him for finishing it. All morning we both kept saying "Thanks, I made it myself!" so that it would come naturally to him when he started gathering compliments at school for his cool new scarf.

I'm doing a lot of knitting too, but most of it cannot be shown here. It's that time of year, don'tcha know? SHhhhhhhh....................

Ornaments

This weekend Romeo is kicking off the holiday season with a village-wide Open House Weekend. We changed the window to reflect the change from fall to winter. That's always quite a job but it looks really nice. Sprucing up the shop was in order and things are looking quite festive now.

We decided to have a couple "Make & Take" workshops today at the store. Here is a picture of the Cookie Cutter Needle Felted Ornaments that I taught the workshop for . These ornaments are so fun to do. Easy with great results, especially after embellishments. I dyed the gold, brown and green roving. The pink and purple came from my stash. I really had a good time making these, and I can see myself making a LOT more of them. I just need to get my hands on a good selection of roving colors. I bought a tub of 40 holiday cookie cutters last week at Michael's with my 50% off coupon, so I'm good to go. Wouldn't these be a nice added touch, tied to the top of a gift? Or enclosed in a Christmas card to someone special?

Want to make some?

Here's what you need:
Cookie Cutters of your choice
Felting Needles
Wool roving in assorted colors
Foam block
Embellishments.....such as buttons, beads, etc.

Place cookie cutter on top of foam block. Fluff your roving by pulling small tufts. Place evenly into cookie cutter, making sure to fill to the edges, and keeping cookie cutter pressed onto the foam.

Start poking the roving with your felting needle. I start out with the 36 gauge needle, and then use a 40 gauge later on if I have some detail felting to do, such as the 'icing' on the gingerbread boy. Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke and then poke some more. Pay attention to the outside edges so that when you remove the cookie cutter the edges will be firm. When it looks like your ornament is starting to look more solid, remove the cookie cutter, and gently peel it off the foam. There will be lots of fibers that you have poked down into the foam, so when you turn over the ornament it will be fuzzy on the back side. Use your needle on this side now, cleaning up the fuzz. Keep felting on one side and then the other until you are happy with the appearance and feel of the ornament. You can clean up the edges by poking sideways into them, but just be careful of your fingers! Those needles are sharp and they WILL make you bleed. If you've poked enough, you will have a solid piece of wool felt.

Now add your embellishments. The gingerbread boy was embellished with thin white wool yarn for the icing, and small bits of colored roving for the eyes and buttons.Use your imagination to make each ornament a work of art. Add a hanger of your choice. Have fun!

Kim's Raglan Cardi-Cape

My friend Kim has a new pattern. Isn't it cute? Perfect for fall! Get your pattern today at Knitting Matters.

While you're there, browse around her site. (Aren't those mini sweaters just the cutest? Make some up to hang on your tree, or tie onto holiday gifts!) There's lots of helpful information that Kim has spent a lot of time gathering for this site. And watch for new patterns....I'm sure she'll be getting creative again real soon!

Stuff happens

Yes, I know it's been 2 weeks since I said a word. 2 whole weeks since my birthday celebration. Lots of stuff going on here. Stuff that leaves me little time to blog, and stuff that also leaves me little desire to.

Still working on a million projects at once. I have the jacket sleeves going. I have one clog still 'almost done'. I have another B-4 bag ready to come off the needles (still need the handles) and into the washer for felting. Still plugging away on the Silk Road shrug (oh how tired I am of that endless ribbing!) It will be good to finish one of these projects, one of these days!

Halloween was fun. We had an absolutely perfect night for Trick or Treat-ing. I was walking around in my short sleeved shirt. The 8 o'clock siren had barely gone off, ending the festivities, when the rain started. I'm so glad it held off because it was so beautiful up until that point.

Jacob was a Halloween chocolate chip cookie. He had a milk mustache, and we wrote "Got Milk?" on his cheeks. We walked with Jake's best friend (and his mom), and they got caught up on all the things they don't get to talk about anymore since they aren't in the same class this year. They were so cute, just slowly strolling down the street chatting, while all the other kids were racing past them to get MORE CANDY MORE CANDY MORE CANDY. The candy was way down on the list for these 2 buddies who just were happy to spend the evening together. Isn't it great when your child finds a friend like that?

Happy Birthday To Me!

Here are some knitting related items I got for my birthday when we celebrated last night (even though my birthday is today...but I have to work all day and teach tonight.....you get the picture)
First is this very cute snowman whose body is a ball of yarn and it's holding knitting needles. It's adorable, but I'm wondering if he/she is thinking of knitting herself into something else! LOL
This came from my mom and dad. How cute is this? And I wonder what Coco thinks of it! Mom said there was also a Santa with a yarn body too, so I might just have to go get him to keep this one company.


Next is this book that I had on my amazon wish list. My sister Diane sent it to me. I haven't had a chance to check it out thoroughly, but I do know there are some very funky looking garments in this book. I don't know that I'll make anything that is in this book, but I DO know that I'll be inspired by some of the ideas and will make other things.


Then there are 2 pairs of Born clogs to show off my hand knit socks. Not that I have that many pairs of hand knit socks, but I plan on having many more. They are so comfy and I'm glad Jane told me about them, because I had never heard of Born shoes before. I have big and wide feet and I have such a hard time finding shoes to fit and that are comfortable that I tend to just live in my Etonic Trans Am Trainers that come in a wide width and I know fit. So I keep buying the same shoes over and over and over. When I found a pair of Danskos at the thrift store last year and they fit me, I at least had another pair to switch off with. But I'm not a shoe girl, and don't go looking for shoes. When my old Etonics are looking sad, I just hop on over to Meijer and get another pair. When I found the Danskos, at that time I hadn't heard of them either, but they fit, and when I saw they were from Denmark I figured they were good shoes. Did some research online when I came home and found out I had gotten quite a deal for $5.00!

I got a few other non-knitting related gifts too which are just as worthy of mention...a pair of beautiful purple suede gloves from mom and dad. Kim and Drew gave me a Johhny Depp DVD and a candle from BBW/White Barn that I have been wanting for a while. Every time I go to the mall I have to go into White Barn and sniff the Buttered Mashed Potatoes candle. I know...it's weird. What a scent for a candle. But I can't help myself...I just stand there for 5 minutes or so, sniffing the candle over and over...then I leave. Now I can sniff in private. I have it sitting next to my computer right now so it can waft over to my nose. Mmmm.........