Yarns - Preparing For Project Peace and My TGV Shawl

     I started a TGV in September, but with gift knitting, it's taken a back seat.  I'd grab it almost every day and do one row.  It's so soft and squishy in KnitPicks Preciosa Tonal Worsted in a deep blue and I really had a hard time letting go every time, but I pressed on with my gift knitting.  To my surprise, it's actually grown!  Probably because it's a worsted yarn on #8, but I'm pleased.  It's a joy just to hold.  (Please note Preciosa Tonal Yarn is out at KnitPicks now and I read that they will be offering it again this new year in new colors.  I did notice that there is Bare Preciosa Worsted available if you want to try your hand at dyeing yarn.)   

     Update from yesterday's blogging.  I realized I was getting too big today on my TGV Shawl.  I'm supposed to knit half my skein and then weigh it and switch to the rib then, but my scale is a kitchen scale and not reliable.  So because this skein is 273 yds. of worsted and the original pattern suggests 100 grams sock yarn (about 400 yards) I figured I didn't have enough for the whole shawl.  I had planned to finish my shawl with another skein of something and just knit till I was finished with this skein.  Then today I vaguely remembered there was a suggestion that you can knit till the middle is 7" and then switch to the flange.  I'm over by almost 2" and I'm about to rip out!  Hopefully, I have plenty to finish the ribbing part or I'll still get another skein of something like Malabrigo's yarn in Whales Road and finish it.

Multi-Colored Noro TGV

My previous TGV Project Page - Multi Colored Noro TGV

I've gotten far with my Sockhead Slouch Hat in Patons Croy Sock yarn in Celestial.  And I'm not mentioning the recipient, just in case the person is reading this.

Yarns - A Sockhead Hat

Hat knit for son in color Canyon (Maggie my daughter the model).

Project Peace 2018

   

     For the third year, I'm doing the Project Peace, a 21 day Knit-Along where we knit on a peaceful project and read blog posts from The Healthy Knitter on attaining peace and passing it on.  Project Peace 2018 is a cowl this year and planting seeds of peace is the theme.  You can do a one loop cowl (my choice) or a double loop.  I tend to lag behind so I choose the shorter project to give me more peace, less stress.

     But this year I couldn't get the expensive yarn but I fell in love with the look of the yarn.  So I ordered some Bare Stroll Sport Yarn and I'm going to Black Bean dye it very light blue and also add beige areas with a tea stain to try and make it look like this:

Hedgehog Fibres Sock Yarn in Dove

     Talk about getting sidetracked and with a genre, I've rarely read before!  Except for last year I read Nora Robert's "Year One: Chronicles of The One" Book 1, which was good, I don't usually go for dour Apocalyptic books, but this was advertised in Facebook for .99c and I wanted something different and maybe exciting.  I got it.  It's non-stop action, just when one situation is wrapped up, another crisis hits.  A real adrenaline pumper!  "After the EMP: Survival in a Powerless World" Boxset by J.S. Donovan. 

     I am really enjoying this book, but it is very violent.  So much so I guess I don't really connect with the violence as real, so it doesn't bother me.  But what does bug me is the basic premise the book is founded on.  That if a disaster happened then with the collapse of society most people would go violent and crazed.  And I can't help wonder well what about those that do good after a disaster?  Or people who try to organize and recreate an orderly existence when all falls apart?  I mean yes, there are those that loot.  But I believe better of humankind, that many would also rise up and try to do good.  Bind people's wounds.  Create a temporary government.  So while I'm enjoying the character, a tough Army reserve supply sergeant and her teenage boy and the interaction with her estranged husband who wants to get their family together, I don't believe society would collapse like that.  Yes, life could be tough without creature comforts like electricity, but that doesn't mean we'd shoot each other up.

     Oh, and about my violent action filled book; I've given myself till the Project Peace starts on December 1st. to finish this series of books.  I can't go from clutching my armrests (or knitting) while reading to trying to attain peace.  I have cued up more peaceful books on my tablet.  One on nature, another on decluttering.  Or I'll get back to reading about hiking the Appalachian Trail.  Something to take me away.

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Yarns - Thanksgiving Cooking and Knitting and Reading Breaks

  

     How to cook for Thanksgiving. Chop, prepare, Bake, mix and knit for a while and read, resume and redo all over again.  So many times in my life my knitting and reading are my refuge.  And a definite stopping point.

 Details on today's knitting - Yarns - A Shawl Amidst Gift Knitting

Autumn Ridge Shawlette in Malabrigo Mechita in Cielo Y Tierra

and

Sockhead Slouch Hat in Patons Croy Sock yarn in Celestial

      So I'm taking a break sometime today to snap a picture and then press on.  Which I might literally be doing.  Pressing my dough today.  My husband after several weeks of anti-biotics last winter became gluten intolerant. So this Thanksgiving I need to make a gluten-free pie crust with almond and rice flour.  The sad part is my Pate Brisee was so perfect, before with A.P. four (I added 1 Tbl. cider vinegar).  I have a feeling the gluten free will not roll out.  But I'm pressing on.  Husband loves my apple pie.

     I cleaned out all my Kindle downloaded books and samples one night (clearing half of them out) and came across this cute book, a romance with a knitting theme - "How to Knit a Heart Back Home: A Cypress Hollow Yarn Book 2".  It's the second in a series, but I already had it so it was a good choice late at night.  It's a fun tale about Lucy who runs the bookshop and seems unassuming but also is an on-call paramedic.  She and a whole slew of characters knit in this town that is famous for Eliza Carpenter, a made up legendary knitter like Elizabeth Zimmerman.  The beginning of every chapter has a quirky pithy quote from Eliza.  The story starts with a bang (you'll see) and the bad boy from High School is on the scene and, of course, love ensues.  Cute and funny and fun to read a story with knitting stories knit in.

     The first book looks good too - "How to Knit a Love Song: A Cypress Hollow Yarn Book 1".  Both books are inexpensive, $2.99 on Kindle.

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Yarns - A Shawl Amidst Gift Knitting

      I think knitting on my shawl is a gift to me as I squeeze it in among knitting gifts. 

      It's not very big so far, but it gives me joy.  The new pattern Autumn Ridge Shawlette out in August 2018 hasn't been discovered and it should be!  It's a little gem of a pattern hiding in plain sight, just waiting to be discovered!  It's got a great texture, variety to hold your interest, and as it grows the simple rows of knitting are relaxing.  I'm in love with it and I hope other's give it a try.  Ravelry Project Notes: Autumn Ridge Shawl.

     One gift I'm working on and should just have enough time to finish before Christmas is a Sockhead Slouch Hat.  I made one for my son this summer, intending it to be a Christmas gift but because he was Salmon fishing in Alaska I sent it to him early to keep warm (yes, and now I'm busy on another gift for him).  I hear he wears it all the time.  It looked great on him when we Skype with him the other day, and I hear that his girlfriend steals it at times!  Little does she know I've been busy making her one.

     They're great made out of Patons Kroy Sock Yarn.  They go up in a month for me if that's all I'm doing (I'm a slow knitter).  But the knit is automatic enough that I can knit and read at the same time.  If the book's not on a tablet I use a large hair clip or this Leather Book Weight my mom got for me decades ago from The Vermont Store (thankfully they tend to carry the same old-fashioned items over time and it's still there).

     I'm still reading "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes and enjoying this book about a painting in WW I and then a hundred years later.  When I finish I'll be moving onto a book I missed last year in the Book of the Month club and I regretted not getting.  Then it showed up on sale on BookBub and I quickly downloaded it.  "The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce is a quirky romance that takes place in a music shop in a dilapidated part of town, but the owner has an uncanny sense of what a person needs to hear.  Goodreads - "The Music Shop"

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Yarns: A Fall Shawl

   

     I've missed working on a shawl, specifically on size #6 needles and with Malabrigo yarn.  These are my favorite go-to knitting ingredients and I'm a shawl fanatic with one wrapped around my neck at all times.  I have a personal goal of actually having all the different colors of shawls I need to complete an outfit; which might just be jeans or stretch pants but the shawl gives it a classy edge and keeps my neck warm.

Previous Shawls:

Ripples of Peace Shawl in Teal Feather Silky Merino yarn

 Just Knit It in Stripes in mixed Hawthorne yarns

Garter Stitch Shawl in Stroll Tonal Sock Yarn

Spring Ardent in Malabrigo Sock yarn Indiecita

The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief in 

Teal Feather Malabrigo Silky Merino

      I picked out a Fall toned Malabrigo yarn last year, but I couldn't swing it then.  I'd stare at the color photo of yarn and promised myself, one day.  So I finally got my yarn Malabrigo Mechita Yarn - Cielo y Tierra in September and then I needed the perfect pattern.  I had considered Citadel by Janina Kallio which I love:

Citadel by Janina Kallio 

© Janina Kallio

 But when I saw the new pattern Autumn Ridge Shawlette by Lilybet Designs it was love at first sight.  

© Lilybet Designs

  Autumn Ridge Shawlette

© Lilybet Designs

     Also, my chosen patterns need to not only look right, but they need that quality of easy, simple, rhythmic knitting.  I think my most successful knitting has been where I can rest in the process and read a book at the same time.  It's therapeutic, a meditative quality to just knitting, almost mindlessly.  I think this pattern will fit the bill and add enough different patterns to add interest also.

     I've returned to reading "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes, my fourth book by her.  She's a great writer and I love her choice of words and descriptions.  Now we're in Northern France at the beginning of WWI, the Germans invaded 18 months before, they barely eat.  Sophie is dreaming...

"I was still dreaming of food. Fresh baquettes, the flesh of the bread a virginal white, still steaming from the oven, and ripe cheese, its borders creeping towards the edge of the plate. Grapes and plums stacked high in bowls, dusky and fragrant, their scent filling the air. I was about to reach out and take one, when my sister stopped me. "Get off" I murmered. "I'm hungry". "Sophie. Wake up." I could taste that cheese. I was about to have a mouthful of Reblochon, smear it on a hunk of that warm bread, then pop a grape into my mouth. I could already taste the intense sweetness, smell the rich aroma. But there it was, my sister's hand on my wrist, stopping me. The plates disappearing, the scents fading. I reached out to them but they began to pop like soap bubbles." p. 3  

     I haven't got far.  I know the book revolves around a painting of Sophie by her husband (who is at The Front) and the second half of the book moves forward in time, almost a century to someone who receives the painting as a wedding gift.  Loving the book.

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Yarns - A Cup Cozy

     It's a snowy day here in Colorado, not unusual for October.  But the sun is shining and the yellow leaves looked like they survived in some spots.  I'm knitting and drinking tea, as usual, and fighting with my tablet and laptop to get my storage down to post pictures.  Sigh, I give up.  They were really nice pictures.

 Button Up your Cup

© Julie Tarsha 2009

     I started knitting a nice cup cozy in a beautiful orange, a nice rusty tone of Heartland yarn in Yosemite.  The pattern has cables entwined in it and as the name implies, it buttons up - Button Up your Cup.  Just looking at the color is an autumn treat.  It also is the starting color on a wrap I'd like to start making when I have cleared off some of my WIPs.  Coffee Shop Wrap is a free pattern of a knitted huge shawl, but this one uses Lion's cotton yarn and I want to use the Lion's Heartland yarn used in the crocheted version - Tea House Wrap, but maybe colors close to the Coffee Shop Wrap.  I love the colors of Heartland; after my own heart, all named after National Parks.  Yosemite is a start when I feel free enough to do it.  For now, Christmas presents rule the day, my cup cozy just snuck in.  I guess dreaming is harmless.

Coffee Shop Wrap

© Two of Wands

Tea House Wrap

     I'm reading an oh-so-good book on Kindle.  Oh my, excellent.  It's on sale and I got a heads up through BookBub.  "The Mountain Between Us" is a riveting read of two people stranded in a snowy wilderness after a small plane crash.  A doctor wants to get home after his flight is cancelled because of a snow storm.  Instead of waiting it out at a hotel he walks next door to a private airport and hires an old man to pilot him to Denver for a connecting flight.  He invites a stranger he just met to join him in the flight, a young woman who is rushing to get home for her wedding.  During this whole experience the doctor is talking to his wife on a recorder, recounting their past together.  So continually the story of the doctor's romance with his wife comes out as the two in the present try to survive.  Enough said, I hate the plot being given away and I find even the jacket cover description too in depth.  Just take my word for it, it's great.  If you like to know more - "The Mountain Between Us" GoodReads

 

     Today I'm also finishing the last details for a fundraiser I've run since last year's devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico.  Last year we had just joined a group that meets in a local Coffeehouse on Sunday mornings to discuss almost anything and everything.  Led by a Philosophy professor from a local college, most of us are Christians, but many of us are much more Liberal than many Christians found in Colorado Springs, the mecca of Fundamentalist Christianity.  I appreciate the time to openly discuss and bat around concepts.  We were invited to come by a longtime missionary friend.  By the time we joined this group, they were already contributing to another missionary that was going into Puerto Rico to help after the hurricane of September 2017.  He takes groups of volunteers for week trips into Puerto Rico and the local government hosts them (The volunteers only pay for airfare to get there).  Each time they go they target homes that need repair.  I came up with the idea of running a Night of Music for Puerto Rico.  The cafe was also a hot spot for musicians with a stage.  So began our efforts.  Our first Night of Music helped a newly widowed old woman get the second story of her house fixed after the roof blew off so it could now be the roof.  Also, it paid for the paint for her bathroom.  She was very happy!

"The Storys"

     Next Monday night at Jives Coffee Lounge in Old Colorado City we'll run the third music night from 7 - 10 PM.  We have a great lineup of musicians, including a well known Folk Group "The Storys".  Also, the mayor of Cayey, P.R. Rolando Ortiz will speak and philosophy students from the local college on Puerto Rico.  If you're not able to join us please consider donating.  To the right, in the margin is a picture of the PR flag on a house, push it and it'll get you to a GoFund Me page that directly gives to the mission's PayPal account (not me).  We often get feedback on how the money is used and I'm impressed with how great it is to have a direct way to give money to help and Puerto Ricans still need lots of help.  "On Hurricane Maria Anniversary, Puerto Rico Is Still in Ruins"

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Yarns - Knitting in Plaid

     Shopping at Target I found a beautiful poncho, a perfect in-between coat for Fall.  Then going onto Michaels I had this on and of course, there's this beautiful skein of yarn that perfectly matches my poncho.  Yarn - Loops & Threads® Impeccable™ Yarn, Ombre

     At first, I thought of fingerless gloves, but I realized the yarn wasn't right for that and I thought a matching thin scarf would be perfect for around my neck to keep that Fall wind out.  I hadn't thought of it at the time, but it was a variegated yarn that if knit or crochet just right it will come out in plaid.  I found a knit scarf that did that: Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf, but this was more complicated than I wanted.  Not that the pattern is that hard, I just wanted mindless knitting for downtime.  I wanted to do something simple.  This crochet scarf also goes up well- Christmas Gifts.  It was made based on this crochet technique described here - Crochet Planned Pooling but I find knitting more peaceful.  So I decided to try and unlock whatever mix of stitch count would give me plaid. (A technique described in detail in my blog post - Pooling Plaid Scarf and a video tutorial - Knit Argyle Color Pooling, but to do a thin scarf I do half the colors and half the cast on.) 

Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf

© SierraK

Christmas Gifts

RHWL Renaissance & LTI Stillness © LizSvoboda

     I followed my last pattern where I was successful - Pooling Plaid Scarf.  Well, this time I was stumped.  It's probably possible, but it alluded me.  After 2 days and MANY rip outs, I gave up and settled for at least a pleasing design emerging.  In a way, this pattern (or lack of) might work better in complimenting the square pattern of my poncho.  Bottom line, it's pretty and I like the squishy feel of a K2, P2 design.  I basically followed my instructions for casting on in  Pooling Plaid Scarf and then pulled off till 34 stitches.  It's not perfect because you start with a knit on one side and a purl on the other and I prefer a knit start both sides.  To get the perfect knit start on both sides you need to cast on a multiple of 4 stitches which gives that K2, P2 evenly across.  But doing that this time didn't produce a pattern.  I was stuck between the colors marching straight up, or being a dappled Monet.  Giving up I decided I could live with doing a purl first on one side, as long as I looked at the previous stitches to remember where I was.

 My Pooling Plaid Scarf

     I'm currently reading the third book in the Rose Island series by Kristen Noel Fischer Bianca's Joy.  I'm really enjoying this one.  The second book "Jillian's Promise" was good, but lagged halfway through - Goodreads' Review.  

      Bianca's Joy has a theme I can relate to.  She's struggling with her weight and how to have a good attitude and not feel unlovable.  It's a thoughtful piece and I love that the guy who loves her, sees only her and he thinks she's beautiful.  Makes you realize that our self-image as American women might be very formed by the media and a "skinny jeans" culture and guys might not see as we do.  I was floored when my husband decades ago told me he liked a woman with meat on her bones and that I was too skinny when he met me (we have our 40th anniversary since our first date Oct. 28th).  It's an endearing story. Goodreads' Review of "Bianca's Joy"

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