On the Needles, Oct. 11, 2013

I have an almost finished, so close that I can taste it Dreambird Shawl. I think I have enough of the main colour yarn to do one more repeat, and then another feather, and hopefully enough of the burgundy to finish off the edge of the next feather. And then it is done. Woohoo!! Maybe by the end of this weekend.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles and then I'm going back to knit some more.

On the needles.

This post was supposed to have been written yesterday. I had every intention of writing it yesterday. But, it was a gorgeous day outside, and I wanted to take advantage of it. So, I sat outside and knitted. I told myself that I'd do this after I came in from outside. When I came in, it was time for something to eat, so I said to myself, I'll write it after I have something to eat, after all, who can think when they are hungry. Then the pieces for the border of Orca Bay caught my eye, and I said to myself, I'll write the past after I do a few of the border sections. Next thing I knew, all the border pieces were done, which is great, and it was 11:30 at night. And this is how days go by without anything getting written here. So, today, before I do anything else, I will write this post.

 In my knitting, I am focusing on working on Dreambird. I did end up having to go out and buy another 50 gram skein of the grey for the feathers. I will keep going until I run out of either the pink or the grey. It's going faster now that I'm really familiar with the pattern, and there are too many hours invested in this thing to quit now, when it is over halfway done.

These pieces of a quilt to the left here are the culprits that distracted me last night, the border units for Orca Bay. Today, in addition to doing another feather or 2 on Dreambird, I'm going to start sewing these together and getting the borders onto that quilt.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the needles one day late.

Dreambird Progress

I haven't made a lot more progress, but some. I'm up to 7 feathers. I have no idea how many more feathers I'll get out of this yarn. The ball of grey seems to be going down fast, but it might get twice as big as this. And, I suppose if I have lots of the fuschia left, I could always go get another ball or 2 of the grey, and use whatever is left for socks. The bigger this gets, the more I'm liking it.
I made the mistake yesterday of clicking on a link while reading this post , which makes it all Judy's fault. I ended up buying 12 skeins of this yarn, 6 each of 2 different colours, a green and a rusty red. I have plans for this yarn, because, it's impossible to look at yarn without looking at patterns. I have 2 sweaters that I really want to do. One is called Pinery, which is appropriate, since it is named after the park we go camping at a lot. We might be going there at the end of the month. If the yarn is here by then, wouldn't it be cool to be working on a sweater called Pinery at the Pinery? The second sweater is called Central Park Hoodie. I'm beginning to think I'm getting as bad with too many knitting projects as I am with quilting projects. I have a really bad case of start-itis. I need to get some finishes to go with it.

On the finish subject, I did get border number 1 onto Road to Brenham. Only 8 more to go.
I'm linking up to Judy's Dreambird Progress Report

On the Needles..

Today has been an in the kitchen day. I wanted to do up some more peaches for the winter. There are now thirteen pints and 2 quarts of peaches to add to the growing supply of canned goods in the cold room. It feels so good to be doing this. The ones that I did up a few weeks ago tasted so good, that I simply had to do some more. They taste so much better than the commercially canned peaches, for a whole lot less money.

I haven't gotten a whole lot further on the Dreambird shawl that is currently on my knitting needles..... 2 more feathers done. Now that I can see more of it, I'm starting to like the way it's looking. And I think this is what I'm going to be working on for the rest of the evening. Scott picked up the newest Star Trek movie yesterday, so I think we'll sit and watch it tonight, and I'll knit.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.

Saturday News

I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks. We took a week for vacation, and after we got home last Tuesday, I've been really busy up in the studio. I've had a couple of quilts come in that have really tight deadlines. Maureen is coming to pick hers up tomorrow, although hers didn't have a deadline, other than I had to finish it before I could work on the others. I'll post some pictures of it, once she sees it.
While we were away, up at Awenda Provincial Park, we got to spend some time with our son and grandson. Our son, Noel, was in between his summer theater job, and his winter theater job, so he came to stay with us for a few days. It was wonderful to see him, and spend some time with him. I'm not sure he thought it was quite so wonderful. He was sleeping in a 2 man tent, during several quite rainy days and nights. He showed up in the trailer one morning, shortly after 7 am, saying he'd been "damped out" of the tent. Nothing was soaking wet, but everything was damp.

While we were away, I got lots of chances to do some hand work, both stitching and knitting.
 This is Avery's Bunny Balaclava, so far. I think I'm up to where the decreases for shaping the top of the head start. I like the amount of coverage this one gives for over the face to keep him warm.

 This is my Dreambird I have 2 1/2 feathers done. It's been pretty slow going, due to the need to count closely, so I need to be focused while working on it. I wasn't too sure about the colours, and how they were working together when I finished the first feather, but now that I see it here, it is starting to grow on me.

 And I made some progress on the Road to Brenham quilt along I finished step 6 last night. Judy posted step 12 today, so I'm halfway there. I'm hoping to spend most of today working on this and maybe get close to being caught up. However, I want to go out and see if I can pick up a bushel of tomatoes, so maybe I'd best get moving and get the day started, especially considering it's almost noon. I'm going to link up to Judy's Dreambird progress post where everyone is way ahead of where I am, and they look so pretty.

On the needles, August 23

I think I'm starting to get the same affliction with knitting that I have with quilting.... too many projects going at once. And I'm not sure, at the moment, that I even know where they all are. I have a pair of socks going, no picture because they are currently buried under something. I have a sweater going, and a really fun and cute scarf/hat/balaclava for Avery.

 I'm combining 2 patterns for this one, both of them free downloads from Ravelry. The bottom of it is from this pattern Hat in Alpaca I'm hoping that it will substitute for a separate scarf for him. And the the rest of it is from The Bunny Toddler Balaclava I like the way that one has the ability to cover the mouth and nose, and have a section that comes down further on the forehead. And the bunny ears are just so cute.

And then today, I made my second attempt at the Dreambird Shawl I tried it yesterday, and messed up somewhere, so ended up ripping it out. So today, after doing up the rest of the tomatoes and getting 5 more quart sized jars, I sat outside and started attempt number 2. The first time, I just went by the written instructions, which didn't work out very well, so today I combined the written instructions for the how-to, with the line counts for the exact numbers, and it worked. I have one feather done. It's hard to tell, at the moment, how well the 2 yarn colours are going to contrast. They both have grey tones in them, but I'm committed now. And the backdrop to Dreambird is the pile of my 4 completed blocks to Road to Brenham. I'm starting to put together some of the other blocks, as well, so that I'll have some done and won't be quite so far behind when we get back from vacation.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles There are more Dreambird Shawls to see there.