Hello!

 (Frantically looks for calendar to confirm it is still May.).  Whew.  Second post for May.  Still looking good.  Life is busy and the days flow past, quickly.  I do not know where all my time goes, but it has slipped past.

Remember the fire truck blanket I made for my grandson in Arizona?  Upon completion, I realized that I had made something for the eldest grandson, several items for the granddaughter, and the blanket for the Arizona grandson.  The little guy in Virginia had been overlooked.  This would not do.  When the Virginia crew was up visiting the store, I asked the little guy to pick a yarn.  When I cleared my needles, I called him and we decided what he would like in a sweater.  This is the result!

I used two skeins of James Brett Fairground and 4.0mm needles.  The pattern was a basic crew neck pullover with raglan sleeves.  The young man and I had decided that there should be a pocket, so I figured out how to do that.  (I counted in some stitches sadly I do not remember how many, and then did a knit front and back until I had the same number of stitches left before the end.  Half of the stitches went onto a stitch holder while I knit the body.  Then I went back and knit up the pocket, working 4 stitches at each edge in garter stitch and making decreases to shape the pocket.  When the pocket was as tall as the body, I joined the pocket and body by knitting the two layers together.  Easy peasy!) He has seen a photo of the sweater, and seemed pleased.  I will get it to him this fall, when the nights are getting cooler.

We also took the Victoria Day weekend and traveled to Virginia.  Both grandsons have been playing flag football and I very much wanted to see them in action.  Saturday was cool and wet, but both teams played — and won their games!  The little guy turns out to be a pretty solid quarterback!

Because I “needed”a store project, I cast around and decided that we needed a sample knit in Noro Viola.  It was the perfect  weight wool for the Sommerknus. I had been wanting to knit that design for two years … Now was the time!  I did a gauge swatch, and then ignored the result and cast on.  About 30 rows later, after a discussion about gauge during a Wednesday Sit & Stitch, I checked and sure enough.  I was off.  Way off.  Frogged and restarted, on May 22.  Others at the table were a bit distraught, but I promise I was philosophical about the whole thing.  i only had myself to blame.  In any event — progress to date!

In other news, I have been steadily knitting my quota of socks for *THAT* holiday.  Pair number 6 is finished, and it isn’t even June yet!   These are Gedifra cotton, knit from the top down.

Finally, my little granddaughter will be SIX MONTHS OLD tomorrow. She is such a total sweetheart.  Her uncle and family (from Arizona) will be visiting soon to meet her — which also means that I will have the opportunity to squeeze my son, daughter-in-law and grandson again!  Whee!

I hope you all are having a good spring and early summer.  Cheers!

Happy Mother’s Day!

 And what a beautiful day it is.  The weather is very steadily improving, and there is SO MUCH GREEN outside.  We can proceed with dock installation, followed by boat lifts and boats.  I am so very excited for all these things.

I have actually gotten caught up on my sock knitting for 2024.  I finished these two pair —

Sorry the picture isn’t great.  This is partly an effort to maintain some element of surprise for the recipients.  The pair on the left are Koigu, with a cast on of 68 stitches.  The other is a combination of Wisdom Yarns Pace for rib, heel and toes and some Noro for the body.  Deep stash projects, both.  

Barb had been doing some stash reorganization and discovered a skein of Noro something or other, which had mohair.  No idea how or why it was in her stash as she is allergic to mohair.  So she handed it to me with a request to “do something!” I obliged. 

This is a basic beanie, with the addition of Lion Brand Fun Fur for the ribbing portion.  All in all, I thought it was a nice use of wool.  Enough to make the hat, too little left over to save.

I have gotten the urge to clean and tidy of late.  I started in the bedroom, and have made great headway.  A corner that was filled with boxes, gift bags and tissue paper is now vacuumed, dusted and clear.  I moved around the corner and worked on my reading pile.  Also dusted, vacuumed and tidied. 

And now the embarrassing part … I tackled the yarn hoard.  I did find some yarns to donate to a local charity; I decided that my collection of straight and double point needles need not remain in my possession.  I even found some balls of yarn that were ridiculously small and should never have been saved. Which leaves me with this —

Oh my word, stars and garters.  I suppose you would not be surprised to read that I am heading back into the fray to find storage for these beauties.  

There is some good news out of all this — My daughter had brought an assortment of socks and a scarf to me in hopes of having them mended.  I have found them, and now have a good understanding of how to make the repairs.  She WILL see them again!

Cheers!