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Yesterday, I posted the blocking "Wide-Eyed Shawlette", which I'm not too pleased with. Across the top it is straight, but the two sides still roll up a little. Don't know if I stretched it too much or not enough. That was my first attempt at blocking.

Here's my second attempt today - the Simple Things Shawlette

Summer's Coming!

We finally have some sunshine that's going to last more than part of a day. Today it's supposed to be in the 70's and up to the 90's in a couple of days. Then it drops back into the 80's next week. Just had to go out and take some pictures of things in my yard - they look so good with the sun shining on them!
Hubby's golfing, and I'm spending the day working on my One Row Lace Scarf (see post below), finally blocking my Peony Wide-Eyed Shawl, making a run to the grocery store, and catch up on paying bills and bookkeeping. All in all, a great day!



My first attempt at blocking: Wide-Eyed Shawlette - sorry for the poor picture quality - it just blends right in with the comforter. Better picture tomorrow after it dries.

Tour de Fleece/Team Sasquatch

I originally "signed on" to the Tour deFleece (July 3-21) in the Team Sasquatch group and was going to knit a couple scarves for the next Special Olympics in Washington State. Their requirement is that the yarn must be Red Heart in cherry red and in white. That yarn is so scratchy and hard on my hands, I gave up.

I already had been working on a One Row Lace Scarf and after tinking it back several times (while riding in the car home from Boise), and again today at knitting meet-up, I tinked all the way back and started over. So........it's going to be one of my TourDeFleece projects.

I also got some beautiful bamboo/wool blend yarn to make a second One Row Lace Scarf. For some reason, it's also green (called "Willow"), I guess I'm in a "green" mode. This yarn is so drapey and soft I can hardly wait to start knitting it. I'll try to get it done during the "Tour" also, but maybe not.

Home from Travels

We had a great time on our recent trip to Boise, Idaho this past week. We spent the first night at our daughter's home in Richland, then drove south from there to Boise. We had our oldest grandaughter and one of the younger ones traveling with us, which made for some cute and interesting discussions in the car. The first night of the family reunion was a pizza party at Louie's, where we had wonderful food and a crowd of 30-40 family members. Lots of good time chatting with everyone. It's been 9 years since we've had a reunion, so lots of catching up to do. Friday, we all went to Julia Davis Park where the kids played softball and the grownups sat around doing more visiting. We had a great picnic lunch with the usual lots of food. I spent a good deal of the time talking with a cousin who is very excited about genealogy (which I do in my spare time), so we compared notes and I've promised to send her what information I have on parts of our family. Sunday afternoon after lunch at a brother-in-law's house, we traveled on to Nampa, Idaho and stayed with friends for 2 nights. Hubby played golf on Monday in the 100 degree temperatures! We also went to a barbecue at another friend's house.
As for knitting, I worked on my One Row Lace Scarf and it was up to 30 inches long when I discovered an error back down at around the 10 inch length. Because it is a lacy and columnar looking pattern, the mistake really showed up, so riding home in the car, I tinked it clear back to the mistake and corrected. This is a photo from the front seat of the van as we neared home, showing the trees and beautiful sky (and much cooler).

Road Trip - Boise, Idaho

We're leaving tomorrow (Thursday) morning for Boise, Idaho (around 550 miles from here) for hubby's family reunion for a couple of days, then visiting friends and golf for another couple days, so will be "out of the loop" here for a week. I don't know how much Baby Kina knitting I'll be getting done (I hope a lot!). Today I had to rip back 8 rows just because I didn't read the pattern correctly, but have made most of that back up now. I'm to the part where there are all the increases to make the yoke look like it's gathered. In doing so, I found out/realized I had the buttonholes on the wrong side, but decided not to start completely over. I think since the Mamma will be the one buttoning the sweater, she'll appreciate the buttonholes being on the right side - so it's just a design element! Right? I'm still loving this knitting backwards technique - no purling - yeah!!!

So...I'll be talking to you in a week or so and may have some good pictures and some good knitting progress to talk about.

Not Too Old to Teach New Tricks

I can't believe I'm posting two days in a row, but I'm so excited that I learned a new knitting technique: backwards knitting! I taught myself from this YouTube video. This stitch, for those of you who follow me and are not knitters, is to knit backwards to avoid having to purl a whole row, particularly when you are doing lots of stockinette stitch. Also, I understand your knit stitch and backwards knit stitch are a more even tension.
We're having sunshine today (first time in quite a while), so I cast on the Baby Kina sweater this morning, and have only done two rows of backward knitting so far, and hopefully, I'll be speedier at it as I knit more rows. Loving this yarn and the color (see yesterday's post for yarn and color information).

Baby Kina

Baby Kina is the name of the baby sweater I'm going to cast on today. The yarn is from Sunshine Yarns and I'm participating in the Twilight Sunshine-A-Long (SAL). The starting date was June 15th and the ending date is July 15th. I may not get it done in time, but that's fine with me. This yarn is so scrumptious that just to be knitting with it is enough pleasure for me.

This is a picture of the baby sweater, for which I have no upcoming babies (to my knowledge) to give it to. But it'll be a fun knit and one of these days I may become a great-grandma!