I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell from the exclamation marks in the title? My blog has not only been read but there is even a comment which I responded to. Makes me feel good.

Knitting Goodness

There is always knitting goodness to report. Today I finished my cloche I knitted for the Whoduknit group I belong to after reading the June book called Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. I am looking forward to reading her next three books she has written about Maisie Dobbs and see how the character Maisie evolves. This is a very very very fun group. We read a mystery each month. We discuss the book the first two weeks in the following month. We do a project based on something in the book. I was going to knit some vegetables since in the book Maisie's dad is a costermonger but chose to knit and felt a hat. The story takes place in England just after WWI with some flashbacks to the war. Maisie wears a cloche. I was going to knit socks as her feet are always cold but didn't think I could finish them in a week with all my ongoing projects. I now need to felt the hat. I may put a flower on the hat but that depends on what the hat looks like after felting. As you can see from the photo there is some fancy yarn (Plymouth Eros) knitted along with the wool (Plymouth Galaway) both which came from my stash and with this fancy yarn the hat may not need a flower.

Thank-you Janice for modeling the hat for me. The color is a little darker than the photo shows but it is not navy.

A little more clarification about this group. The mystery we read in a specific month is voted on by the members of the group. We are not just told this is the book we read. Everyone in the group can nominate one book and we each get one vote to pick which we would like to read. The book with the majority of votes becomes the book we read. I am a new member and if I am correct the book with the second most votes is read in the following month. Only in August there won't be a specific book to read. It is a month to catch up and read books that were voted on but didn't get enough votes to be chosen to be read. The project we do also is totally our own decision. We post photos of the project we make on the Whoduknit blog and in the photo section of the yahoo group. There are also optional swaps. I love swap. I am so addicted to swaps. There is a new swap now in the group. It is a tag/garage sale swap. We can spend no more than $10 not including postage. We are to see what goodies we can find for only $10 but we can raid our own stuff. I have been given two items (read not part of the $10 allowed to spend) from my friend Genie that are perfect for this swap. One item was an ugly hat (90% wool & 10% nylon). I say was because I unraveled it into a ball of ugly yarn and the other is a knitting mystery I never heard of by Jill Churchill. It is quite old. We will get our partners in a few days and we have until the end of August to mail out our packages to our partner.

********Oh does everyone know Knit Picks is having a sale on their books? All their books are 40% off through August 17. This is going to be a problem for me especially with the Canadian and the American dollar so close.

As soon as I figure out how to link to another page on the sidebar I will list what I do have in my knitting library. Until then the list is in my head and the books are all over my apartment. I love owning books. AND the more pictures the better.

I heard from my swap partner Sharon in the weluvknitting group today (read Wednesday). She received the package I mailed her July 3. This is a swap where we have a partner and we send four packages to each other over a year. This was our second package we sent to each other. I love putting together packages as much as I enjoy receiving them. There is something special about trying to figure out what your partner would like, finding it and sending it to her. AND it is really neat waiting for packages and wondering what goodies your partner has chosen for you.

I had hoped to finish my Noro Silk Garden Serape Shawl by the end of July but it looks like I will have to wait until Ram has another good sale. I have about two skeins of yarn left but the colors do not blend well with what I have already knitted. The serape shawl calls for 10 balls of Noro Silk Garden but with two and a half balls left to knit my serape shawl seems only half completed. Below is a photo of what is completed on my shawl. I hope you are able see from the photo how large it already is. At this stage of completion it won't wrap around me and yet it is just shy a couple inches of the actual measurements given in the pattern instructions. I think when completed it will be like wrapping myself in a small blanket. I tried to take a close up photo to show the stitch pattern but it came out blurry. Oh and this photo shows the back of the serape shawl. When completed I promise to photograph the right side of it.

AND as soon as I put it on the floor to take a photo my knitting kitty Solara decided she should check it out. You have to admit she is very pretty even if she isn't a small and delicate kitty.

And I guess she figured well now that you have taken my picture on the shawl I think I will get down to business and clean my foot and where better to do that than on a partly finished knitting project lying on the floor.

I think that will be all for this post. Believe me I have much more I could write......