Month: January 2016

January Thaw

Only in Wisconsin is there a 45 minute + wait for the car wash when the temperature gets up to 28 F!

Which means this is officially a January warm up.  Just in time to show off some of my new knits

First up is the Cedar Leaf Shawlette.  I cast this on right around Christmas.  It actually started out as a kit for another shawl, but I didn’t like the way the pattern and yarn were behaving.

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The pennies are a sorting project Lily was doing. I just thought it was kind of pretty.

The main body of the shawl is knit in Knit One Crochet Too Douceur et Soie and Elfin Tweed.  I absentmindedly kept knitting in garter stitch far enough into the body of the shawl that I decided to call it a design element and move on.  I kind of like how squishy the garter stitch makes it.  As I approached the border I was a little afraid I was going to run out of the Elfin Tweed (probably because of the garter stitch) so I switched out to JoJoland Melody keeping one strand of the Douceur et Soie with it.  I love how the JoJoland changes colors along the edge.

The other knit I have to show off is the Hitch Pullover.

To be fair, I knitted this over the summer and even sewed it together but just couldn’t get the ends woven in and the buttons sewn on before finding something else more interesting to work on.  I think it was really the button issue that was stopping me.  I wasn’t sure which buttons I really wanted.  So I pulled it out and started weaving in ends during one of the last Packer games.  Before the game was finished, the ends were woven in.  I decided I really kind of like it without the buttons.

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Out take #39

 

Ask the Wee Ones:  (the part of the blog where you get to ask questions of my children and they’ll answer you.)

Q:  Lily, when did you start knitting and why?

A:  I starting knitting at about 1st grade.  I decided to knit because Momma knitted.  Right after I learned to knit, Momma and some of her friends decided to teach a knitting class at the school.  I’ve knit a bunch of cowls, 2 hats, and a scarf for an American Girl Doll.

Send me any questions you have for Addie or Lily and we’ll answer them on the blog.  Lily would like you to know that while Addie doesn’t knit, as an eleven year old she does have very definite ideas on most things.

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

creativeI’ve been thinking a lot about creativity lately.  It might be the super fun adult coloring books that all the cool kids are doing right now, but it makes me think, “when’s the last time you did something truly creative?”  “When’s the last time you thought waaaay outside the box or just daydreamed about what you would like to see happen?”

I was at a presentation a couple of months back and the presenter made the statement

Planning requires Imagination.

Whoa.  Planning is all black and white, and dare I say, boring?  It’s “you must do this and you must do that.”  Or is it?

Because planning feels better than flying by the seat of my pants and feeling like you’re always chasing your tail.  So I am planning on letting my creativity out of the box this year.  I’m going to read more of what make me happy (not just what the book club is reading).  I’m going to play with color – coloring with the kids in their more grown up coloring books, coloring while I’m on the phone, playing in color with my knitting.  I’m going to make an effort to get back to knitting with my Thursday night knitting group.  It’s the group that is the most comfortable for me.  I’m going to be more intentional about playing with creativity.

And… I’m planning on knitting a scarf or a shawl every month.  I’ve created a bundle on my Ravelry Favorites called Italy.  Because, well, I’m going to Italy in November and I might just need a new wardrobe of scarves to wear when I travel.

I’m also planning on having a bit of fun with the blog.  Lily has agreed to help author a section called “Ask the Wee Ones.”  Readers could ask questions of a knitting 9 year old and a non-knitting 11 year old.  I think it could be interesting.  I’m debating about starting a group on Ravelry for the blog so that all the questions are in one spot, we can do Knit-a-longs together or just talk about general chit chatty stuff.  Your thoughts?