Rrrrrip!

 

I was about 3/4 of the way finished with this scarf for one of my 7th grade girls, when I decided to rip out my work. Oh, I noticed that I had made a mistake way back near the beginning. I thought no one would notice... no one but me! I just couldn't take looking at the mistake, so I ripped out about 2/3 of my work.

I had several non-knitters at school say that a 7th grader would never notice. That could be true. However, I'm hoping to encourage these girls to take up some sort of handwork... knitting, crocheting, tatting, weaving, embroidery. If I'm to make something that looks hand-crafted and beautiful, I need to put my best foot forward. I have no regrets when it comes to taking out mistakes. I want to set a good example!

School knitting

 

I have about a 25 minute break between the two high school lunches that I supervise, so I've been taking knitting with me for something to do during that time. This scarf pattern is from one of my favorite knitting books, Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Compochiaro. The book is expensive, but it is one of the best investments I've ever made. The pattern is Ruddock, one of my favorites in the book.

Two middle school girls have been asking me about my progress on the scarf on a regular basis. They're fascinated by knitting. I've started another scarf. It's easy to stay motivated with an audience!

Back to work!

Drama club took over my life for the last several days, and I loved it!

The cast of Mamma Mia! did a fantastic job! All three performances were outstanding, and it seemed to me that there was record attendance at each performance.

While tatting was not my priority over the weekend, I did manage to finish a couple of Ice Drops.

I mailed off all of the St. Patrick's Day themed Ice Drops to Mom today. I'm sure she and her lunch bunch will love them!

My shuttle collection increased over the past week... surprise! These pretties are from Middy Clark of The Knotted Vine. Aren't they gorgeous?

I'm very happy with my new goodies from Grizzly Mountain Arts: one pyrography doodle art shuttle, and two picot hooks (fine crochet hooks set into wood handles). Dave has another shuttle listed that I am really tempted to purchase, but I'm going to wait a day or two to give someone else a chance at owning one of these beauties!

My newest Lorraine Kolasa shuttle arrived from Tatting Corner. This one is textured with no pick. I only have one left to order to have a complete set! That will happen after I make sure I have all my bills paid.

I finally finished my Wortham scarf from Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro. There are many mistakes in this scarf. If I saw the mistake within two rows I fixed it, but there were several mistakes I didn't see for a dozen or more rows. Those stayed!

Daughter Joanne has decided to pick up her crochet hook again. She's found that spending time crocheting helps with her writing process. Sophia is modeling her new sweater. Aren't they cute? I mean Sophia and the sweater! ;-)

Janko loves his new bunny blanket toy. Joanne had fun making it, so the girls will each get one too!

Thinking ahead

I made it to the post office today and mailed off Mom's Mardi Gras Ice Drops. I still have some Boysenberry Dk left, but I started thinking ahead to St Patrick's Day.

Lizbeth #187, Green Ice, isn't exactly what I had in mind for St. Patrick's Day, but it was the first green thread that caught my eye, and I decided to go with it. The center is a glow-in-the dark gem that I found at Hobby Lobby. I think these gems have to have a certain amount of sunlight in order to glow in the dark. Luckily, my jar that's filled with them is in the sun room!

I'm still knitting. I watched a lot of YouTube videos last night in an effort to improve my technique. I did a lot of experimenting! Because of that, my stitches are pretty uneven. I don't mind. I look at this scarf as a learning experience, and I'm hoping that when it's finished blocking will help even things out.

It's pretty chilly here tonight, so I stole Dave's blanket to keep my legs warm. He laughed!

And then there were nine

Yes, I now have nine Mardi Gras Doodle Ice Drops for Mom! I'll try to get them in the mail tomorrow.

We dealt with high winds today, and although I never felt the wind in the house, I feel very tired from listening to it all day. I made progress on my "Wortham" scarf from Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro. There's something very comforting about yarn on a blustery day!

Mellow yellow

My goal yesterday was to finish knitting the yellow section of the Mandala yarn I'm using before moving on to something else. While I don't really consider these shades of yellow to be mellow, the song by "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan kept going through my head as I was knitting. There was more yellow on the ball than I thought, so I didn't finish the yellow portion until this morning. The scarf pattern is "Wortham" from Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro.

A few days ago, my lovely new Valentine shuttles arrived from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. Rita has announced that she is no longer taking custom orders. However, she will still be listing shuttles in her shop as she makes them. After seeing all the beautiful guild shuttles Rita has created in the past year, I can understand why she needs to take a break from custom orders. I imagine it's great fun designing new shuttles, but a little tiresome to be making multiples of the same design.

I'm still busy making Mardi Gras Ice Drops for Mom.

I plan on mailing them off to her on Monday. I hope I have time to tat some more by then!

Knitting day

Today I totally focused on knitting.

I started with blocking my Reyna shawl. I love the way the pattern shows up!

Next, I spent a lot of time going through knitting books to choose a new project. I was really tempted to start another Reyna shawl. Instead, I chose to knit the Wortham scarf from Sequence Knitting by Cecelia Campochiaro. The yarn is Mandala Thunderbird. So far, the color has changed from light yellow to medium and then a darker yellow. I'm not sure if I like the way the color changes work in the scarf, but I think it will be interesting to see what happens.