Waffle knit dishcloths

Waffle knit dishcloths
Originally uploaded by lavaughn

My mother-in-law had seen my first effort at a knitted dishcloth and admired it. She said she had had some many years ago that had worn like iron. As her 82nd birthday was coming up on July 5th, I rushed into production, taking the July KAL as my guide. I picked up another cone of yarn (Peaches & Creme shaded brown) as well as a small gold ball and decided to use them with my natural colored yarn. I finished them in time for her birthday and earned a big hug and a smile.

More progress on a new project

Having finished both shrugs, I decided to try something a little different - a tank top in deep plum. I'm using Caron Simply Soft Eco, "helping to save our planet one stitch at a time." The label states that "NatureSpun is a high-quality polyester fiber made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles." I've never worn a bottle before. LOL! Tonight I made it to the neck decrease as you can see in the 2nd photo.I might have been a little further along, except I got invited to join a lovely forum on Ravelry known as Dishcloths R Us. I had absolutely no idea that so many people knit so many different dishcloths. Here's my very first venture, a pattern known as Grandmother's Favorite.It knit up quite quickly and gave me a sense of accomplishment that might hold me until I finish the tank top.

Shrug 2 completed... onward to my third project!

I'm here to report back that I've completed my second shrug. It took just over a month of steady knitting during the PBS Newshour and an occasional podcast. I had a terrible time understanding what the directions called for in the collar. I must have picked up stitches, knit and ripped out 3-4 times before deciding to just do what seemed best to me. I'm much happier with this shrug than my first. It fits much better and feels much softer than the first. I can wear it over so many outfits because it is white. I've received many compliments on it and several people said they thought it was store bought.

So, I'm on to my next knitting project: a tank top knit in rib stitch in plum out of Caron Simply Soft Eco. A small percentage of the yarn is actually made from recycled material(more specifically, 80% acrylic, 20% nature spun post-consumer recycled polyester; each skein is made with 0.6 recycled plastic bottles.) Hard to believe when it feels so soft. I'll let you know how this project develops, so stay tuned! Here's a link to the pattern, if you're interested.

Project completed!

Here's a picture of my first completed shrug (flash and all.) It's a bit heavier than I thought it would be, but it's done. My stitches are regular - the stockinette stitch is easy - simply knit one row and purl the rest. The first part of the week is supposed to be somewhat chilly, so maybe I'll wear it to work. Here's the picture that inspired me to knit the shrug: She's SOOOO much more photogenic than I ever thought of being!


I began my next project, another shrug, on May 12th. Here's a link to the pattern site www.canandianliving.com and a picture showing my progress to date:

Re-igniting an old interest

I'd been to one of my favorite websites, the Pioneer Library System, and downloaded the audiobook, The Friday Night Knitting Club. It was a very engaging book, so much so that I found myself picking my knitting needles back up and starting a project.

Then, being me, I simply had to roam the world wide web to see what had transpired in knitting during the intervening years. Whoa!!! What a plethora of patterns are available, some for free, some not. And the types of yarn that are now available to order simply by clicking a few keys. (I grew up using Red Heart knitting worsted that I bought at the Wolcott Bargain Center.) This is a whole new world of wool with access to yarns I had not been aware of. And the materials they now use to make knitting needles - it boggles the brain. I saw lovely handcrafted rosewood needles and some that seemed to be made of glass. And the websites that are devoted to knitting - a Google search pulls up 20,900,000 that are currently indexed and available.

I've located an excellent site, Ravelry - A knit and crochet community. It not only has searchable patterns, but it functions as a living community with forums, groups and a place to share the project that you're currently working on. I'm a neophyte there, but I did see that what I blog about here can appear there. So, I'm once again inspired to blog.

On becoming a Squidoo lensmaster

No, I'm not one yet, but I have created my first lens at Squidoo.com. Translated into English that means that I've created a web page on a special topic, in this case it's about our basset hound, Zeke. The website can be found here.

Squidoo gives you a forum to share on topics that you're passionate about. Because Google ads appear on each Squidoo page, a little bit of money is generated each time someone visits the site. That money can be deposited into your checking account or donated to whatever charity you'd like. I'm the only one that's looked at my site to date so I'm not getting rich anytime soon!

I found a widget

Maplight.org has a configurable widget that tracks donations to Presidential candidates and graphs them on your web site. Let's see if I can insert the proper code (exciting stuff for neo-geeks)!

Presidential Money Race Widget

OK, I must not be understanding something. I can't get the object to embed correctly. This is a work in progress.

Later that night: I went back to the website and saw that they had changed the embed code. Let's try again:



Eureka! Success!