Back from our Camping/Hiking trip

OK we are ba-ack!!! Had a wonderful time hiking in Southern Illinois, beautiful weather, saw some wildlife, got bit by some bugs, have some poison ivy..great time had by all.

We stayed for several nights in a cabin, (wonderful, with a hot tub and lots of wildlife, including some icky centipeds, but that is what a man is for ..right? To take care of bugs)

I did get quite a bit of knitting done, was quite pleased, I have about 17 balls of Rowan Big Wool in a light green, that was bought for another project and has been knitted and frogged several times. Well I finally found the "perfect pattern" in "KNITTY" Blackberry Shrug in Aran design by Jennifer Thurston, I am soooo excited it is beautiful so far, and going along quite quickly.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTblackberry.html (see pic from Knitty article above)

Hope I can find time to work on it, I actually got the fronts, back and one arm totally done.

I have been in a big knitting slump, we got two puppies we rescued from the animal shelter and they are about 1.5 years now. Suppose to be one half Min Pin, and one half Rat terrier, OK, they were soooo cute I guess I wasn't thinking that 10 lbs for a 8 week old puppy is a little large for what they were suppose to be.....but as you can see, they were ours, a male and a female. So most of our time has been taken up with training and repairing things that have been chewed, eaten and destroyed.

I will take some pics to post of my version of the shrug, are you like me and nothing turns out like it was in my head????

Keep knitting away to your happy place..

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Fibonacci and Knitting

Some time ago I learned that Fibonacci can be applied to knitting. If you are not familiar with Fibonacci, he was a mathematician from the middle ages. He figured out the relationship of proportions, now known as the golden ratio (or number), Fibonacci sequence or 1.618 or Phi. This sequence is seen in practically everything. I’ll link to several articles if you wish to learn more. From reproducing animals, to sea shells and galaxies, the human form and sunflowers. (Mona Lisa, Parthenon, and the pyramids of Egypt, just to name a few). This ratio is present in many, many more surprising things. The first time I used this was in my felted bag. I loved the random look of it. This pattern is The Big Bag Pattern (free on Ravelry) by Maia Discoe (link ) Below are a couple of links if you wish to learn more.. Fibonacci Numbers and Nature The Wiki and Fibonacci Mona Lisa -- Da Vinci's Use of Sacred Geometry (you tube link) In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers or Fibonacci...

Hills and Valleys Cowl/Hood (free pattern)

I was searching for the perfect cowl that I had in my mind to knit. Trawling on Ravelry, I wanted one, just the right size around, only once around my neck and not too tight, loose enough to pull up around my face and tall enough to get it around my ears during a windy dog walk, but able to squish it down into my collar of my coat and not be too thick and bulky. About a third of the way into the pattern I decided to make it long enough to pull up as a hood also. I finally just un-vented this one, as Elizabeth Zimmerman would say. Add caption This is a simple stitch textured cowl/hood (you decide the length). Suitable for beginning knitters. Purl ridges make the cowl easy to scrunchy down or pull up. You can wear the ribbed end on top if you are wearing it as a cowl to make it snuggie around your neck or, wear the purl ridges on top if you are pulling it up as a hood. If you have any questions or find an error please let me know so I can correct it! I’ve added some tuto...

Warm Snuggly Cocoon Shrug

This is one of my long term projects that I just wanted to get off my needles. When these types of patterns started showing up I was interested in making one. It looked simple and fast and cozy. What more do you want? Described as a wrap, shrug, bolero, and even sweater, it is just a large rectangle, either crochet or in this case knitted. When the rectangle is large enough. Just fold it in two, sewing the sides together. . Easy concept. I picked out a free pattern, The Lion Brand, Speckled Shrug ( free pattern here ) I always like to look at the finished projects on Ravelry and read the comments everyone has made that knitted the item. Seems like knitters were split into two camps. The make it smaller and more fitted and Bolero jacket like. The other group was to make it bigger. I noticed that the problem with this shape of this pattern is a baggy bottom after sitting. (like once). I had already made another pattern that was a bolo jacket so opted to make mine fairly large ...

Knitting Dragonflies

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