The Holidays are Coming!

What brings it into focus for me is that next week is Thanksgiving and I have to get 
my scarves in the mail to Dawn for this years shipment to military personnel.  Each year for the last several, Dawn has coordinated with military personnal in her hometown to see that folks who do not get packages at the holidays get something.  Her crochet family has done a great job of providing scarves, and other businesses in her community provide extras, like toothpaste, candy, shampoo, etc.  About a year ago, my local Hancock fabrics went out of biz, and I bought several skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease at closeout prices.  I have been trying to make scarves out of 1 skein, using all kinds of methods.  I have used stitch pattern books, patterns, elements from afghans, etc.  Whatever I found interesting at the time.  So here are this years scarves.

Good News, Bad News sorta day

Only 11 a.m. and already one of those days.
I got up to the news that Diane has finished the pattern testing on Butterfly Kisses and it is ready to publish to my pattern store in Ravelry.  Got that done.  She is still working on the Pinwheels pattern.  Hopefully, it will be approved later this week.  Good stuff!  And, by looking at her Ravelry profile, I discovered we have the same birthday.  How cool is that?  I have had friends with b-days all around me, but never right on mine.
And just to keep me from getting too full of myself, reality checked in.
My friend, Peter Penguin (not Franzi) went in to the hospital yesterday to have surgery on his pancreas.  Never did understand exactly what the problem is, but he has been waiting months for this surgery.  When they opened him up, they found cancer in a lymph node, so instead of doing what they went there for, they are trying to find the source of the cancer.  Damn!
It has been 7 weeks since my last cigarette!  Now, that is good news.

Pattern Tester Needed

I finished the Butterfly Kisses scarf and I need a pattern tester.  If you are interested, please email me at  cayscrafts@gmail.com.  I found this scarf fun to make but a little challenging to assemble.  But once I got the hang of it, I think it worked up nicely.

 

Better and Better

I am so excited!  Several month ago, I designed a baby ghan that I donated to Project Linus.  Very simple pattern but it makes a real cushy blankie.  Anyway, I talked to Alice, my local PL coordinator, about submitting the pattern to Project Linus.  She got the info for me, and I sent it in to them a couple of months ago.  About a week ago I heard from them and they accepted the pattern.  And, today it is posted on their site!  Baby Bobbles Afghan  So very exciting for me.  I hope everyone who gives it a go donates one to Project Linus.
For more info on them, go here: http://www.projectlinus.org

Fun, Fun, Fun

Friday I went to PYA with Peter so I could show Bente my newest creations and talk to her about the washable wool that I want.  We found one wool that is perfect, but it comes in 50 g balls.  So many ends!  Bente is going to contact the manufacturer and see if that is the only option.  She says sometimes it is available on cones, but they do not advertise that little fact.  We shall see!
And, I sold a felted messenger bag that I had there on consignment.  Yea!
I showed her the Pinwheels scarf and she set it aside for display as soon as the pattern is tested. No pressure, Diane!   I also showed her the beginning of Butterfly Kisses made from sock yarn that she personally dyed.  She handed me a ball of Noro sock yarn and said, can you make a scarf with various size flowers out of this.  Oh, yea! 
I also turned in 2 baby ghans and a lapghan for consignment.  Then I sat myself down and joined the Fiber Artists Friday group and worked some more on Butterfly Kisses.  Before the evening was over, we had a surprise trunk show from a local spinner and dyer.  So much yummy yarn and not enuf money.  There was one alpaca there that I really wanted.  Maybe next time.
Here are a couple of pics of the baby ghans and the newest scarf, for your entertainment.

UFOs

Recently I have been very good at starting projects but not finishing for one reason or another.  So, I have decided to post them all as WIPs on Ravelry.  Maybe that will shame me into finishing these.

I have an 3 color afghan that has gotten too big to carry around.

A mam that needed more green and I bought the wrong one.

 Squares that I work on in my spare time.

A Teddy-ghan that needed more pink than I had.  Thanks, Laurie.  I think I can finish this one now.

Another ghan from squares in cotton-need more yarn

A diagonal box stitch ( I actually did not know what was in this tub).

And, this does not include the WIW bags and in a tub in the garage.  I have no idea how many are there, patiently waiting their turn to come in the house.

Patience

This is a lesson that I am still trying to learn!  It has never been one of my strong suits, and right now it is being tested to the max.  I have this fab idea in my head that I want to do.  I have sketched, done some very rough estimates on the yarn yardage and it is a lot.  Probably between 3 and 4 thousand yds of sport wt or maybe light DK wt yarn.  That is a lot of yarn!  But it is a substantial piece.  And I really want to do it.  But right this minute, that is cost prohibitive. But I can see it in my minds eye and I want to wear it!  On top of that, I took pics of my latest project this morning, went to transfer to my computer, and the %$^^%$ batteries are dead.  So now waiting for them to recharge.  Patience, my child, patience.

So, to entertain myself a couple of evenings ago, I was flipping thru one of my Harmony guides and found some really cool motif patterns.  I have never been real fond of motifs cuz you have to attach them somehow to each other to make anything.  But a couple just kept drawing me back.  So, I picked one and some really pretty wool fingering wt yarn that was gifted to me by a good friend and gave it a go.  I was right.  Attaching them to each other was the challenge.  I tried sl st, sc, a faux braid and none of them gave the right look.  Amazingly, the old stand-by, whipstitch, was just what this needed.  The yarn I used made all the color variations seen in the scarf  I think it turned out very pretty.  Anyone want to test the pattern?

So, now I am playing with the other motif that was calling my name.  I am also crocheting it in a beautiful hand dyed wool sock yarn gifted to me by the same friend.  It has a different contruction than the first, so I am actually able to attach them in the crochet process, kind of a join as you go. Not sure where this is taking me yet, but it sure is a fun ride!