Christmas

May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Christmas is a very busy time of the year with shopping and baking and...but we have to remember the true meaning of the holiday that it is a holy day and that Jesus our Savior was born on this day.

The afghans are almost finished. The fringes are a real job, it takes almost as long to do the fringe as it does to knit an afghan. Obviously, they will be late but next time I will remember how time consuming a fringe is.

I am going to set some New Year goals this week--one of them will be to write my blog at least twice a week and hopefully three times a week.

Merry Christmas

The Not-so-wonderful world of knitting

I have been making an afghan for a Christmas gift. After I finished the last panel--Panel No. 7 and laid out the rest of the afghan, I realized I had 2 left outside panels and no right outside panel. So now I am knitting frantically trying to finish the right panel in time to mail the afghan!!! When will I learn that knitting under pressure never works? The last time this happened, I was making a sweater for a gift and the back was longer than the fronts (Yes, I had planned to make the whole sweater 2 inches longer than the pattern stated, but forgot my plan halfway through). There must be a law somewhere that states that knitting is only to be done as a hobby or at your leisure otherwise it will not cooperate. Oh well, humility is a virtue and my knitting is often humiliating.

The wonderful world of knitting

Once again, I was reminded of how much of our learning to knit is in the mistakes we make. One of my students had to rip out a good portion of her vest last night because she hadn't understood the pattern. However, she has really advanced as a knitter; when she first came to me she would argue if I used the word "Rip". Now she very calmly rips it out and corrects her mistakes. She is becoming a more experienced knitter and as such knows that (All together now) "As we knit so shall we rip"!!! The other students refer to her as the "Advanced" student and she is becoming a very good knitter.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a very blessed and safe holiday. Hopefully, the roads will stay clear and we will all arrive safely at our destinations whether it is near or far. Have a very good Thanksgiving.

Knitting and crocheting Group

Several of us have been talking about starting a knitting and crocheting group. We would meet on Saturday afternoon, probably one Saturday a month. Right now we are looking for a location that is centrally located. It would be open to anyone who is interested in knitting and crocheting--even those who just want to sit and talk about knitting or crocheting. It is still in the discussion stage, nothing more will happen until after the first of the year but I think it is exciting.

I tried one of my old and favorite fudge recipes tonight and it was really a flop!!! For some reason, I doubled the amount of butter I was supposed to use so I have this greasy, chocolaty goop in the pan. Oh well, back to the basics. Next time I'll be more careful with my measuring. At least I know where I went wrong...

The bazaars were very informative. The variety of items and prices was amazing.

More Morris books

I have been reading the House of Windsor series by Gilbert Morris and really enjoy it. I finished book four "The Gentle Rebel" and liked it although it's a little hard to believe that a girl could have passed as a man for that long. Although the same premise was in "Ahab's Wife". I guess they didn't develop hips and breasts as early as some of us. Anyway it is a very good book.

I am also reading Marian Coel's "Drowning Man" and really like it. She has a very good mystery series that takes place on the Arapahoe Indian Reservation.

My knitting is coming along. When I am working on a large item like this afghan, it seems that every evening runs into the previous one, I know that I am accomplishing a lot and eventually it will be finished but only after a long, long time!! Maybe I'll work on my socks for awhile tonight to break the monotony.

Lots of bazaars are on this weekend. I think I'm going to several to price the knitted items.

Knitting Magazines

I love knitting magazines and I think I have every knitting magazine I ever bought. For years I subscribed to Vogue Knitting but then became so busy with classes, working and everything else that I couldn't justify it. I still buy it occasionally, however now that I'm in an apartment storage has become an issue. Often I would buy an issue and find that every pattern in it was just what I was looking for. I have an old Vogue magazine that's at least 12 years old that has a great tree sweater pattern in it and also a nice sock pattern that I still use.

I also like Knitter's Magazine and have found their patterns are exquisite. I knitted the Scoopit sweater in the Spring 2005 issue in a pale raspberry. It turned out so nice that I made it for my daughter in a chocolate brown.

I copy the original pattern from the magazine so that I can fold it up and put it in my knitting bag; it protects the original and the magazine lasts longer.

If you find a pattern that fits and is easy to make, keep it for all eternity. Styles may change but the basic fit doesn't and some of your basic classic patterns will always be popular.