Knitting Dragonflies

Pictures are of my grandmother's handiwork..... I love that fiber is fragile and treasured. Quilts are passed down through the generations. Archeologists consider woven fiber products especially prized when they are found. Over time all people have saved and treasured their handcrafted items. From ancient Egypt lace to the humble scrap quilts of the Appalachian area of this country. It is a time honored tradition to handcraft something special and personal to gift or to use ourselves. I started thinking about this while teaching some friends to crochet and knit. While we sat and stitched on whatever work we have, the chatter always seems to settle on the memorable handcrafted items either made by us or given to us. "I can't believe I had the patience to cut out all of those little pieces and sew that quilt for my sister's wedding! My three boys were under the age of five." This statement was accompanied by funny tales of missing pieces and where they were found...

We are having fun at work, stitching. Any stitching is good. I started knitting on break and lunch. This expanded to one girl who wanted to learn to knit, that turned into 4 to learn to knit. Now we have 2 learning to crochet also, with another making noises about learning. We have total newbies. Women who "used" to crochet, and a occasional spontaneous person who sets down and learns to knit one or two stitches. Usually we would sit and put our feet up for awhile and grump. Now I hear chatter and see smiles. I even had a illicit meeting in the locker room, for a emergency baby blanket stitch consult. LOL Keep on Knitting....

A lovely sunset...

Yes this is my husband impersonating a pixie. Don't tell him I said that. I have started a Earflap hat. My husband loves these hats, i have knitted them and crocheted them. Ended up having more luck with the crochet ones. This pattern is from the Lion Yarn Company Website. Free pattern but there website makes you register and log in, which is slightly irritating. Check them out. Lots of fun things. Here is a pic of of the arms of my Bridesmaid wrap from the Wedding Knits from Suss Cousins. They are coming along. I think I should have made them on larger needles. My body of the wrap is on #11, in K1, P1, these are ss on #8. We will see. I am not going to frog them. (at this point, talk to me later on LOL) For a lovely free bridesmaid or bridal wrap pattern see here. Here are my pups, both 2 years, Penny and Syd. Syd is the piggy one (75 lbs) in the lighter crate. It is about 1 degrees outside and they are spoiled. I have kidded that I was going to knit a doggy bag ...

Yes I am going to cast on something with my frogged yarn from my pyramid sweater this weekend. Really I am.....the yarn has been in a pile on my shelf silently mocking me, and making me feel guilty. Beautiful yarn, and it needs to become something beautiful. so I will search on the Internet, and magazines and books until I find the pattern that whispers to me, make me..... I am looking at this pattern right now, I think I would like something like this yet with row by row color changes, maybe more like this ?? I hope. So more on that soon. When I was having some fun I found this blog , as I am always trying to organize myself. I found this interesting. OK well maybe I don't want to be that organized, seem like it would take away from my knitting time. I have been having thoughts about quilting again. Today I was so excited, my girlfriend is pregnant!! This will be her 2ND, her first little girl is 9, and is a trisomy 8/cp. I am trying to decide if I should quilt, crochet or knit ...

I found this Etsy seller while shopping around and having my coffee this am. staceyrebecca.etsy.com . These puppets are so cute and afforable. They make me smile. Check this store out. I think this is a original and fun idea.

Here is the finished baby blanket, just in time for the shower. I ended up crocheting the picot border in a sc in 3, then chain 3, sc in next 3 stitches. Pretty, but took me a long time to get around it. Now on to the bridesmaid wrap, still working on the first sleeve. Since I bought the yarn from Handpainted yarns.com, it comes shrink wrapped with very little info about it, just the dye name. So I cannot remember what the estimated yardage was, and it does not say on my receipt. I decided that I should do the arms first and then see how much was left for the wrap part. And I am thinking about doing a little roll collar. More to come soon. I cannot believe that is all I have on my needles right now. I am usually a 5 project at a time girl. I better start casting on something. That means digging into the stash.... Keep on knitting!! And stay warm.