4 Hours

 Between last night, this morning and afternoon I spent 4 hours beginning to organize my knitting room.  I went through every basket, plastic box and drawer on 2 sides of the room.  The net result so far is 5, yes five kitchen size trash bags full of yarn.  These will go with a friend up to Northern Arizona when she visits her family next time.  

The knitting room is down one rolling cart which will be for sale at the next Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting which is themed Christmas in July.  If you are in Tucson this coming Wednesday July 17th join us at St. Phillips Church at the corner of River Road and Campbell Avenue at 9:30am.  I will also have some of my hand spun yarn packed into kits that will include the yarn, a pattern and stitch markers.  I will price the yarn at hand dyed prices, instead of hand spun prices.  Now I have to spend the weekend pricing everything. 

I have also come to the realization that I have about 20 years worth of shawls for me to knit.  While I was busy clothing the community with winter hats and scarfs, I totally forgot about my needs.  I also have a few sweaters that will be knit after I make a dent in the shawls.  I have also come up with a brilliant idea for a lot of little skeins of sock yarn.  I will set up that bag after I finish all the pricing.  

So I have been talking about what is leaving the knitting room today.  Here is a visual for you.  

A Busy Day

 Today was fantastic. We went to another venue of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  We went down to the Kino Sports Complex on Ajo Way.  We skipped the main tent and went to wonder around the back tents.  Some of the awesome things we saw included the Australian mineral exhibit.  The stones were so colorful.  They were very different from the stones from other parts of the world.  If you ever get a chance to see stone from Australia don’t pass up the chance.  Of course I found some more charms for stitch markers.  We walked around until John thought I might be running out of spoons.  I was having so much fun, that after 3 hours of walking and looking I did not want to go home.  

In other good news I tried on my largest size blue jeans in my closet today.  Only have to lose 3 more inches on my waist until they will zip up.  This is a lot better than the last time that I tried them on.  Last time the would not go over my hips.  So I consider this major progress.   

In knitting news, I finished a charity scarf tonight. I will take pictures tomorrow.   I am almost finished with the thumb on the first glove to match new shawl. Now I just have to weave in the ends, take pictures and publish the pattern.  No problem except that I either need a model or someone to take my picture.  

I have picked out the yarn for the next shawl. I just need to cake one huge skein of lace weight silk.  No it’s not going to be a lace weight silk shawl.  I will double strand she shawl with a pretty mohair yarn, I got both of the yarns at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson.  The changes in yarn happen so fast that sometimes you might have to pick a different yarn combo than I am using.  More pictures tomorrow.  

Well it’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.  

A Surge of Activity

 Some how getting rid of the 6 cubic feet of yarn created more open space in my knitting room.  Which has lead to me being able to think more clearly. Find the projects that were missing in clutter. Found among the now less cluttered room was a knitting pattern and yarn bought almost a decade ago. It is a modular shawl  and I am using Koigu wool. Specifically the KPPPM wool which when I purchased it sold for $14.00 a skein.  I have no idea what it costs now.  

As you can see I do have a red themed stitch marker on one end which tells me in Sheri speak that this is a working row with stitch changes.  The other end is not red, so that is a resting row.  I also put a right side marker on the right side.  I will be doing a lot of casting on for this pattern and I want the seems all on the same side.  

There is not much shape to the first shell yet.  That will come towards the end of the shell.  

Would you believe I found another shawl from that same time period. I put it away because it vexed me.  I asked for help and even offered to pay for a lesson for the help. I was told then I should know how to do something that basic.  Well I did not and it sat on the shelf for years.  Fast forward to today and I know the person did not know how to do the stitch either and was to lazy to ask for help.  I know that now as a teacher of knitting.  I wonder if this was a contributing factor of the store closing down.  Since I can only knit 2 different shawls at a time and keep the patterns straight, this is number 3 and will have to wait. So you will have to wait for pictures too.  

I will have 3 new shawls finished soon.  

The photo was deleted at the request of the pattern writer. No further photos of this project or mentions of the shawl will ever be posted again. Sheri

Waiting for Supplies

 I am spending about 2 1/2 hours a day cleaning up the mess I made by wanting a second shoe rack and storage boxes.  Today I organized my shawl collection, I really think I need to knit other things. I found a place on the shelf’s for my double pointed knitting needles. Put smaller project bags in a repurposed hanging shoe bag. 

In addition to cleaning, I filled up the back of my car with snacks for Eric’s old day program and dropped them off. After lunch John and I made a Goodwill run.  The the rest of the day was spent on laundry and knitting.  

All and all a good day.  

Shawl's

I seem to make fewer shawls for myself than some of my friends. I was thinking about this today as I reorganized my shawls and scarfs. I have the first shawl I knit for myself about 17 years ago, I still use it a lot. I bought some high quality mohair yarn from Kathy Withers of Withers Wool she also has an etsy shop at this link . Kathy used to be local and I loved going to her farm when it was in Tucson. I was like a candy store for me. Kathy has moved to the east coast and still offers classes.

All my shawls seem to be made from high quality yarn straight from the farm or my local yarn shop. There seems to be a direct correlation of the quality of yarn with how long the hand knit or hand woven item lasts. So even though it is more expensive it is worth spending the extra money for high quality yarn. After all how often can you say my hand knit item is 17 years old when you use cheep, low quality yarn?

So if you are planning to make something for yourself or a family member Please remember to buy your yarn directly from the farm or you local yarn store. They have a vested interest in the outcome of your project. These are also small businesses that deserve your business.

*These are my own opinions and I have not received any compensation from anyone or any business.