May May Be a Maybe

May's project may or may not be completed...ever. It may be one of those rare "it's just not worth the time and effort to finish something that is artsy but relatively useless" objects. Knitting for me is mostly a practical useable or wearable art form. I know there are plenty of patterns out there for knitted "objects d'art" -but I prefer the real thing when it comes to fruit and flowers. I don't know what possessed me to buy the kits. They must have been purchased in the dead of winter!!! Anyway, I felted the second flower yesterday and have gotten this far on the third flower.

I thought this flower was going to be my favorite, but the instructions are not very clear and neither is my brain. I may just leave the flower growing up to God.

Charity Day in the Mountains

What a delightful way to spend a gorgeous Saturday in May! About 16 ladies from our local Knitting Guild gathered inside (when it was cold) then outside on the deck and screened porch (after it warmed up) of a gracious member's home on the side of a mountain in North Carolina. As the second of our 3 charity projects for the year, we concentrated on knitting chemo caps for both women and men. We had a number of patterns available, as well as yarn donated by a local manufacturer. It is restful for the eyes to look up from knitting every now and then, but when this is the view, it is hard to get back to knitting!


After a few hours of chatting, laughing, knitting, and eating pizza, we made a mass exodus down the mountain to the LYS. After all, cap knitting does not take much time, and we needed new projects! This is a photo of some of the caps I have finished recently. Most of the patterns are found here and here and most of the caps were knit in the round with Caron Simply Soft (leftover from the rainbow prayer shawl.)

The end of the rainbow

What was intended to be a giant stash buster ended up needing more additional yarn purchases than I thought! Now, I have to think of projects to use up the new stash. Knitting is the Never-Ending Story....

Project: Rainbow Prayer Shawl

Specs:
Caron Simply Soft: red, mango, lemonade, berry blue, limelight, iris, and violet
Fun Fur: red, mango print, tangerine, mexicana, bright yellow, soft yellow, lime, bright blue, indigo, and violet (plus a few odds and ends)
Needles: Size 13
Cast on 147 stitches
Pattern: K3P3
12-14 rows per color

I hang my head in shame- I did not do a real swatch before I started out on this journey. The shawl is much longer than need be, but in this case, better too long than too short!

Finished dimensions: approx 26 x 80
The wearer will be enfolded totally by a rainbow of love.

I am thrilled with the results. It feels so light and airy and happy. It smiles. I smile.

Flower Power

I still can't get my Mom's ring over my knuckle, but at least my finger has unjammed enough to start knitting! I finished this tulip last night- it still needs to be felted. (The white ribbon is to keep a hole in the stem so I can thread some wire for stability through it later.)

Two more weeks and one more flower- there's hope for the timely finish of another monthly UFCO...

Edisto girls

I am blessed to have amazing circles of friends-"make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." I have church friends, neighborhood friends, knitting friends, college friends, and an incredible group of friends I have known since elementary school. My group of friends from school has managed to get together many times over the years, even though we are spread through 3 states. We have gathered at each others homes, in the mountains, and most recently at the beach. This time there were only seven of us- one friend from Virginia could not get down here. We are all celebrating (!?!) turning 60 this year, and had a wonderful birthday bash. Trips down Memory Lane, stories of current joys and sorrows, and dreams of the future filled our days and nights, along with beachwalking, bike riding, eating, and napping. Before we left, we had an amazing prayer circle on the porch. To know these girls as not only friends but sisters in Christ is an incredible gift.


I spent more time packing knitting projects than clothes! I did get several inches completed on the Waterfall prayer shawl, but an unfortunate incident involving me, the bicycle I was riding, and a fence left me with 2 skinned knees, a fat lip, a jammed finger, and a badly bruised ego. And no more knitting while chatting!



Then, to add insult to injury, I was splattered by a seagull while we were standing on the beach watching a wedding in the distance!

All in all, though, it was a wonderful weekend.

May Flowers

At some point last year I purchased these kits because

• I liked them


• I thought that once I used the yarn provided, I could use bits of wool from my stash to make a veritable flower garden

Obviously, only one of the three flowers has bloomed. May is a good month to fertilize and water (ie felt) these other seeds into their full glory.

Tomorrow I am going to the beach with seven of my friends from elementary school. The problem is not what clothes to pack but what knitting projects to pack!