Finished Projects

I have been occupying my time on weekends by attending Swim Meets with MG. I can barely swim myself, but MG swims like a fish. She decided that she wanted to learn to swim and she has taken to it. She has said that she wanted to try out for the swim team. Wellll, swim team starts the end of September and we at the Marshall house have some pretty important things going on the end of September (harvest) and I didn't push the issue at home. Enter school swim lessons at which she announces, "I want to try out for swim team" and they tell her that she can join, anyway, she loves it, GCM tells me that he "did" archery and I get to do swim team - not a problems for me, as it provides lots of opportunity for knitting. I finished....Clapotis for Maureen, started in the spring, March, April, May




And I finished the Brioche Hat using my friend Ellen's handspun yarn.




I finished my "All Shawl" (Doris Chan) using a single skein of hand dyed sock yarn. I would have liked to put more on the bottom so that it is lacier and closer to what the pattern called for.


Huge thank you to Lori Nicoli for taking the pictures for me, she is an awesome person and an awesome photographer.

In case you are wondering, the glasses are from Target Optical, believe it or not, $99, purchased in 5 minutes flat. I lurve them and get lots of compliments on them (that is nice).

The February Lady Sweater

She is done. Thank you Lor-raine on Ravelry (Lori for you non-Ravelry) for the awesome pictures. My normal body double (Julia Roberts) was busy, so I had to model the sweater myself...9 skeins of Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% wool). I made the xxl size, #6 Knitpicks chrome plated. I am not too crazy about the neckline, I think it is a little saggy, but perhaps I used the wrong cast-on. I used long tail. I bought the yarn at www.littleknits.com, it was a second because they said the color was a little off from the card, I didn't have the card to compare it to, so that didn't bother me, it was about 1/2 price making the yarn for this sweater about $40! Yippee! I received 2 unsolicited compliments on the sweater before I even got home! I did put the buttonholes in, but until I find the "perfect" buttons, I plan to use a dpn or cable needle as a closure, I think it is fitting.

An advertisement for Ravelry. If you are a knitter, get thee immediately to Ravelry.com and get thyself on the waiting list. While you are waiting, think hard about your log-in name, they are about 2-3 weeks behind. Ravelry is a blast. Want to see how many versions the February Lady sweater are done? Go to the pattern tab, type in February Lady and search = pages and pages of sweaters, if you click the yarn tab you will see all the yarns that folks used to make the sweaters. Want to see how many designs Brooklyntweed has listed on Ravelry? Go to the people tab and type in Brooklyntweed, you can search for patterns, download patterns into your ravelry library, there are free patterns and patterns for sale. It is awesome, however, beware, if you think blogs are a time suck, Ravelry is a HUGE time suck, but it is fun, fun, fun....

An update on the kitten. It was fading fast this afternoon, but my big, burly, Grumpy Farmer husband stuffed the helpless kitten into the front of his shirt to warm it and got it to eat some very watered down cows milk until I could get home with the milk replacer. He/she is sleeping and I am feeding it every hour about 8cc's of replacer and it seems to be improving, the recouperative powers of little bodies. As I type this, it is inside the front of my shirt twitching in its sleep and even growling a little bit. For now, all is well with the world. I hope yours are as safe as this baby kitten.

His Senior Prom

Friday, May 2, 2008 was JLM's Senior Prom. Where did the years go? The kids were all decked out in their finery and paraded in the decorated HS gym to the delight of parents, grandparents and etc. His date was Heather who is completing her first year at Monmouth College. As you can see she is a lovely girl on the outside and inside as well (as far as I can tell). We got to meet her parents and both sets of grandparents. I persuaded JLM to take a nice picture with MG , but I had to take it fast before the "bunny ears" entered the scene.

On Sunday, MG made her First Holy Communion. I completed her bolero at 1am on Sunday morning. I don't really have a good picture of it (yet), and it isn't that exciting anyway, but it is my 2nd finished garment and it fits her beautifully. She gets cold in the summer in restaurants and the like due to the low airconditioning, so I hope she will get some good wear out of it. It is made from Berroco Comfort yarn (which is Acrylic, but a really NICE Acrylic), DK weight, US 4 needles. From the Summer 2005 issue of Interweave, purchased at Wild Fibers, Galena, IL the first weekend in April. started April 13, completed May 4. Hat tip to Wild Fibers for finding the pattern for me, it was exactly what I wanted.

Hermoine Mittens and Hat

I finished!

The Hermoine hat and the Hermoine mittens.

The Stats:

Misson Falls Wool

Burgundy/red colorway

December 2006 - about 2 weeks to complete

I used #5's for the mittens and I used a #7 for the hat, should have used #7's for both, but they are beautiful and I love them.

I hope the weather here in IL doesn't get cold enough to wear them... :)