Knitting Dragonflies

It is so disappointing to pick out a knitting pattern, agonize over the yarn choice. And then complete the sometimes long process of swatching for gauge. Only to discover that you are so confused by the pattern that you give up. I’m sure this has happened to many of us for many reasons. Skill level of the knitter, and skill level of the pattern author, may be the foremost. Pattern writing is not easy, nor is understanding patterns. On the knitters side of things, I’ve found a good resource to help understand what the pattern is telling us to do, take a look at Dummies.com Understanding Knitting Patterns and Techniques. It covers abbreviations and knitting terms, common phrases and how to follow written stitch patterns, and also charts. This and your local yarn store, (along with Ravelry, I like to look there and see if everyone that is knitting the pattern is having any trouble or it is just me), will help you discover your way. Don’t forget to Google and print out the errata page

Finished up my Christmas trees, have a pink one and a white one. Pattern is from Helen Free, it is a fun and fast pattern. I would recommend it. White Christmas Tree, no ornaments yet, I’ll pick those out next year. I used snowflake buttons and some sparkly glass beads for this tree. I’ve been listening to Stash and Burn podcast while driving back and forth to my Dad’s house, which is about a 4 hour drive one way. I’m getting inspired to get knitting and am going to keep track of the yardage of yarn I knit up this year. *grin* see the KnitMeter.com , on my side bar, this tool is available for crochet, spinning and knitting, you can add it to your ravelry page and any blogs. Have fun and keep track of how much you knit with me this year! Now that I’m done with the holiday projects, I’m ready to start working on my Zuma tunic from Wendy Bernard’s Custom Knits 2 book. I’ve gotten to just below the arms, and I’m ready to get going on it again. Zuma tunic is a top down knit in the

My husband is retired now, and in the middle of painting the walls of the bedroom. He says he is going to remodel the whole inside of the house. *yay*  So far at only days into retirement he is working at a breakneck pace like he is at work. I told him he will have to slow down and enjoy himself. I picked out and bought the paint for the bedroom so long ago, (about 3 years minimum) I had forgotten what color it was. I called from work and he said he had started painting. So it was a pleasant surprise when I got home and discovered I still liked the paint color we had picked out. Now I think I will make curtains for the bed room. Paint is called silver grey and it is actually a warm grey, looks like it has a purple undertone to it in real life. Our bedroom had been lavender, maybe you can see the color at the far end of the photo past the bottom of his legs, back wall. Ugh, it was a paint color that I thought I would like but when it got on the walls, ick, I never liked it. Tree ab