Embrace the Lace

I joined Woolgirl's Embrace the Lace club. Shipments every other month - beginning this month! The notice is up - all orders have been shipped. And of course, there's a ravelry group. The nice thing about these groups is the posts are noted if they contain pictures. All nicely labeled "spoiler."

All last year, I peeked at the RSC spoiler pictures. The first Embrace the Lace spoiler was up Sat night when I logged onto ravelry. And I actually didn't look! We'll see how long the willpower lasts. But right now, I don't want to know ahead of time. I'm looking forward to the surprise. So far, the only "clue" given was color - a lot of green hints!

Crochet!

I was about 12 when my great aunt (my paternal grandmother's sister) taught me to crochet. Using a small metal hook and thread I attempted to make pot holders. It was that last blasted stitch in the row that was my downfall. I'd miss it. Which of course meant that I was making an ever decreasing potholder. My aunt taught me that ripping out mistakes is always the right thing to do. Now, there are occasionally mistakes in my knitting that I'll happily let live in peace. But ripping something out doesn't usually bother me at all. Heck, I ripped out the same sock (totally finished once, past the heel a second time) at least three times before I was happy.

But I haven't been crocheting much lately. It's been the knitting that travels around with me. Which is partly why I'm so happy to be part of the Pot Holder swap! The swap reached their limit on co-authors of the blog and I can't post there. But that sure doesn't stop me from reading.

Thanks to a post on the pot holder blog, I was introduced to Attic24. I love her attitude and cheerfulness. The colors she uses are absolutely wonderful and I really enjoyed her post on 3/25. I can so completely relate to the need to balance everything in my life. Mine is very off-balance right now. It feels like I'm just working, working, working. Which (un/fortunately) is fairly accurate. But anyway....be sure to check out her flowers too. Both the horticultural kind and the crocheted ones.

Hot Pad swap

I am really looking forward to this swap. My great-aunt taught me to crochet making potholders from crochet thread. I think I'll be using something a bit heavier for this swap!

I've found several patterns that I like. The rules are to knit five of the same pattern, but I'd like to keep track of these patterns.

First, go check out Purple and Paisley. She claims to be a beginner, but look several posts down at her wonderful samples! This one I especially like.

This potholder reminds me of ones my aunt made. Not exactly the same, but similar. But the pattern is in a Japanese book. This pattern is called Gehaekelte Topflappen is looks really cool. Right before leaving for this trip, I printed off the pattern for these Orange Slice Potholders. I can see I'll have my work cut out for me just deciding on a pattern!

edited to add....Oh, no! My first Ravelry pattern search was for "hot pad." I just typed "pot holder" into the search box and and got even more designs to choose from!

Drat!

I'm a member of the Harry Potter Lover's group in ravelry. Several months ago, someone got the great idea to swap knit or crocheted squares to reproduce Ron's blanket. I'm hosting the second block swap. Well, we're in Ohio right now for a quilt show. Down time while getting to and from Ohio, so I brought along several selected patterns, yarn and needles.

Well, the drat part is the yarn! It's yarn I received in a swap from a fellow raveler. Nothing wrong with the yarn. And it's a color that would be great for the swap. But the blocks are to be made from worsted weight yarn ..... and this is bulky. Drat, drat, drat. Thought I'd have a great start on the blocks I need for the swap. Hopefully, I'll be so incredibally busy during the show that at night I'll be too tired to knit.

Couldn't resist another one

I was looking through some of my photos from the Chihuly exhibit and fell in love with them all over again.



I know, I know. Absolutely nothing to do with the glass exhibit. Try this one:



Rowing anyone?



I'm not making any promises not to pull out more of these later! Nothing new to show on the knitting front. The sweater body is done. But I'm not near a sewing machine to sew the steeks before cutting. The old sock is ripped, but the new sock isn't started. The yarn was in the hotel room, the needles in the van and the pattern at the convention center! Sounds rather like "who's on first?"!

Joining Fever

Guess what I just joined??



Crocheted pot holder swap info can be found here. But hurry - deadline is 3/21.

But that wasn't all. Apparently I caught the joining bug tonight. Rather like cast-on-itis, but without the actual knitting! For many years, I collected tins. And then it got out of hand. There were tins literally everywhere in my house. When I got divorced, I bought a 900 sf home. And the majority of the empty tins were given to the local thrift shop. Who were very excited of course. Anyway...awhile ago, a thread started on Ravelry titled "What's in your altoid tin?". The thread was popular, spawned a group, spawned several swaps. Round 2 is just starting. Send a small tin, some things to fit into tin and some special something. Limited to 50 people and I got in early. Just think - a small tin in your knitting bag that holds scissors, tape measure, needles, stitch markers, etc, etc. I hope it is going to be as much fun as I think it will be.

Oh, that's not too bad after all! Somehow, I thought it was worse than that.

Holy Progress, Batman!

With the magic of stealth knitting, I present to you.....A Body!



This was taken a week ago and I am about thisclose to being done with the body (I think!). Which would leave cutting the steeks, sewing in sleeves, knitting button bands and a collar!

Oh, and finishing pockets: