Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Bloggitty, Blog, Blog, Blog....

Have you ever visited one of your favorite blogs only to find that there is nothing new posted? 
Of course!
Everybody, including myself, has times when they don't update their blog.
So, what if you could collect all your favorite blogs in one place, and be able to see immediately which ones have new postings? 

For years, Google Reader has provided just such a service.  

Unfortunately, Google Reader has announced that they are shutting down on July 1st. 

I've been looking around to find an alternative to Google Reader, and noticed that a lot of people have joined Bloglovin.   I've liked what I have seen so far, and have decided to join up.  To "claim" my blog on Bloglovin, I have to have a post with the following message:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

There.  Now it's official.  I hope that you will be kind enough to click on the link above and add my blog to your Bloglovin list of blogs you follow.

Now that the business portion of this post is over, I hope to leave you with a smile.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Just keep knitting, knitting, knitting

The shawl I was working on is finished. (well, except for dealing with some loose yarn ends.)  Here is the front view, on my highly sophisticated hanger-over-the-door display.

This is the back:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this shawl is knit from the top down.  After straight stockinette stitch for many rows, I threw in a row of  (K2tog, yo) just to change things up.  I liked how it looked, so I did it two more times as I neared the bottom, giving it 3 rows of openwork.  The last couple of rows were straight knitting to prevent the bottom from curling up.

I like the way the shoulder shaping helps to keep the shawl on my shoulders.

Alternately, I could wear it more like a scarf if I wanted to keep my neck warm.

As you can see from the green grass coming up in the background,  Spring weather is finally here, but the nights are still quite chilly and I have already wrapped up in the shawl for watching TV at night.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Out with a Bang

Spring has been a very long time coming this year, and  parts of the country are still getting snow even this week. With the wintery weather outside, I wasn't in any real hurry to put away the "few" snowmen decorations that I left out after Christmas.  I finally got into the mood last week and collected them from around the house.  What I thought were just a few snowmen, turned out to be this:

There were 13 snowmen, a nutcracker, a skater, a cardinal, even a couple of Santas.  I should have taken more notice of the number 13.  Perhaps it was a warning of what was to come.

I went up to the attic to get an empty box to store them in.  It was already awfully hot up there from the bit of Spring weather we were having, so I left the door open when I came down, hoping a little cool air would find it's way up there.  Our attic is accessed by pull-down stairs.  So imagine a stairwell coming down from the ceiling.

On my way back with the now filled box, I had my head down and forgot that the door was open.  BONK!  I hit my head on the stairs and fell over.  (Don't worry.  I'm fine.)

As I lay on the floor, getting my bearings and trying to decide if I was bleeding, or had a concussion, (nope and nope)  Toby came bounding over.  At first he was excited, thinking I was on the floor to play with him.  But then I guess he sensed that something was wrong, and he just laid down at my side.  I only remained there for a minute or so, feeling kinship with the "Fallen but can't get up" lady,  but all the while,  there was my faithful little companion right next  to me to  keep me company.    You know he got extra treats that day!

I think the moral of the story is to put away the Christmas stuff before April comes around.  I should stitch that into a Christmas pillow.
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Friday, April 5, 2013

A Girl's Gotta Knit


I've had idle hands in the evening while watching TV.  Hands that like to be busy doing something.  I haven't let myself start a new knitting project until I finish my son's sweater. The sweater that I have come to hate.  The sweater that I just can not make myself pick up and work on. Yeah, THAT sweater!

The torturous tedious task of knitting that sweater has haunted me been my project for almost a year now.  I finally decided that in order to get my momentum back to finish it, I needed to remind myself that knitting can be FUN!   My son is not growing anymore.  The sweater will still fit him whenever I get it done.  He is not shivering for lack of something warm to wear, either.

So, with clear conscience, (the yarn was on sale!) I started a new knitting project.  A lovely green shawl.

The pattern is knit top down.  It starts at the neckline with about 20 stitches, and then increases every other row after that.

It has two pattern stitches that consist of a simple yarn over, knit 1, yarn over to create a bit of shaping in the shoulders that helps the shawl stay put when wearing it, and also creates two lines of openwork that run down the length of the shawl.  The rest is just a comfortable, relaxing, back and forth knit-a-row, purl-a-row.

It's hard to get a pretty picture of it, because the fullness gathers up on the circular needle, but I think you can get the idea.

There are no pieces that have to fit together.  I can just keep knitting until I think it is long enough, or I run out of yarn, whichever comes first.   It's been so enjoyable to sit and knit without having to put a lot of thought into it, or stopping to check my directions every two minutes.  

Oh, yes!  
It's all  coming back to me now.  
Knitting is fun!

In what seems like no time at all, this shawl has already grown many, many inches.  I may just keep knitting  until if becomes a full blown cloak!

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