There's No Place Like Home

'Tis the season!  A belated happy holidays to you all, and wishes for a very Happy New Year!  The Husband and I just returned from a week-long trip to our hometown in Ohio and while it was wonderful to see family and friends (and especially my granddaughter, Nora), I am so happy to be home where the sun actually shines.  As much as I love my home state in the spring, summer, and fall, my love waxes cold (pun intended) during the winter months.  Interestingly enough, the temperatures were warmer than usual for the first part of our visit, although skies were the typical dismal winter gray that drove me South to begin with (any other Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers out there? Can I get an "amen"?).  The day before we left, down came both the rain and the temperatures.  It was 33 degrees the morning we departed.  We were at 65 degrees on the coast yesterday.  

Ohio

At a rest area in Alabama

I. Am. Home.

I didn't knit many things for Christmas gifts this year, but I did do a few things for Nora:

Nora's Happy Cardigan

Corkscrew Tassel Hat
Mittens I improvised based on THIS pattern

I've linked to my Ravelry pages for all the projects because I'm just too lazy to link to both the patterns AND the yarns used.  The cardi is not as visually disturbing in reality as it is in this picture.  And I have to say, I had to split the plies of yarn down to one ply to make the tiny corkscrews for the mittens, but it was so worth it.  

I also knit hats for both my son and my daughter-in-law:

For my son

And for my DIL

The hat for my DIL is knit from soft, wonderful, 100% alpaca.  I may need to do another colorwork hat in this stuff.  It's absolutely scrummy.

And a pair of felted slippers for my mom:

French Press Slippers

The slippers are a little wonky, but not bad for my first attempt at felting.  The felting took forEVER.  Okay, not really.  What really took forEVER was waiting for them to dry.

The best part of my trip north...my heart - baby Nora:

Lisa

xoxo

Out of Season

Hellloooo!

Tuesday morning on a very COLD day in South Mississippi, which of course means we’re sitting at a blustery 45 degrees.  Okay, so not exactly frigid but the current “cold” snap was enough for The Husband to light our first fire in the fireplace the night before last.  Every year, the cooler temps also make me long for woolen things to place upon my person.  Also every year, I find that I’ve knit no woolen items for myself besides socks (but I am oh, so grateful for those socks).  Perhaps I should engineer a sweater made entirely of socks.  Instead, I continue to work on my Summer Blooms shawl  made of lace weight yarn.  Yeah, I’ve never been really good at working on items that actually fit the needs of the current season.  Meh…

You can see that the shawl is growing.  I inserted a lifeline a couple of days ago and began work on the short rows and I’ve made pretty good progress on it.  Once the short rows are finished, I’ll insert another lifeline before I begin the final beaded lace section prior to the cast off.  I usually hate blocking things, but this is one item I can’t wait to block.  That’s the thing about lace.  You plug along and think things look good but you never really know what that scrunchy bundle of labor-intensive, tear-inducing, on-the-edge-of-losing-your-religion project looks like until you’ve stretched it all out.  

Along with that anxiety, why not add another issue that brings me to a perilous road not-yet-traveled?  You can see in the photo that my ball of yarn is tiny.  So tiny that there is no way to get out of the fact that I am going to have to join new yarn in order to finish this thing.  Folks, this is LACE. WEIGHT. YARN.  I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it.  Somehow, internally, I just knew that the more common methods of joining new yarn were not going to work for this, so in a rare moment of actually thinking ahead before a crisis, I turned to the all-encompassing storehouse of knowledge - Google - and found these instructions by Eunny Jang.  I must admit, I am still quite apprehensive about trying it, but hey…Eunny wouldn’t steer me wrong.  Right?  RIGHT?!?

Turning my mind to happier things, look what showed up at my house yesterday:

Happiness delivered right to my door!

My lovely daughter got me a WEBS gift card for my birthday back in October.  It took me this long to decide what to purchase with it.  I mean, come on, it’s WEBS.  If I ever get to visit the actual store, I’m taking provisions in with me, lest they find me two weeks later buried under some beautiful merino.  I’d be dead but I’d have died happy.  There is SO MUCH to choose from.  Then add to it that I’m not working right now, so I have to make that gift card go as far as I possibly can.  Two words:  sale yarn.  

I purchased the Berroco Fiora in a beautiful blue-gray shade to make the Trapeze Tunic/Dress by Irina Poludnenko.  I want to get some knit dresses into my wardrobe that I can wear with leggings and a toasty turtleneck or the like and this pattern is free which is in my budget.  With my expanding middle-aged waistline, a dress that flares a bit is a must and this should work nicely.  I got the Sirdar Country Style 4-ply because it was on sale and because I absolutely love this color of blue.  I don’t know what this will be yet, but I got enough to make something nice.  And finally, I bought two skeins of Plymouth Yarn Company’s Holiday Lights because, hello…sparkles.  

You’ll notice I have not mentioned anything about Christmas knitting.  That’s because there isn’t much of it happening and even what is happening is a secret because of the whole gift thing, you know.  

How are you doing on YOUR Christmas knitting?

Lisa

xoxo

There's No Place Like Home

Hello everyone!  Lots has changed since I last posted.  Assuming anyone is still out there, here’s what’s going on:  I quit my job.  And then I quit the one I quit the first one for.  Ridiculous?  Well, probably.  Long story short is, I thought I’d found a job with more possibilities and I took it.  Then I realized I was wrong in my initial assessment.  It was decidedly not a match made in heaven.  So what am I doing now?

Knitting!

Yep, I’m staying home, cleaning my house (sorely needed), working on a writing project, and knitting.  I may pick something up down the road, but for now, this is it.  

In the meantime, if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have seen a few photos of my battles with a lace shawl.  The shawl is a lovely pattern from Interweave Knits Spring 2012 - the Summer Blooms Shawl by Susanna IC.  I’ve wanted to make it ever since I saw it THREE years ago.  But three years ago, I was quite the novice at knitting and attempting a 400+ stitch cast on with fuzzy alpaca lace-weight yarn was a bit beyond me.  Throw in the beads the pattern calls for and it was doomed to fail.  Fast forward three years - 8 weeks ago I decided to try again.

As of my last Instagram post, I was getting ready to start my fourth attempt.  After the huge number of stitches to be cast on, there are 34 rows of beaded lace work.  For the first three attempts, the furthest I ever made it was to about row 11.  I’m happy to report, on attempt #4, I finally made it through all 34 rows of lace!  I was so determined to make it work this time, that I would pick the thing up and knit one row.  Then I’d put it down.  Some days I’d live dangerously and do two rows.  It was slow, but I have climbed Mt. Lacerest, and have declared victory!

Mt. Lacerest

If only the shawl was actually done.

Okay, so after the 34 rows of lace, there are many, many rows of stockinette stitch short rows (no wraps, thankfully) and then a pretty beaded lacy (but smaller) bind off.  The shawl has been sitting for a couple of weeks untouched now.  I figure, it would just be my luck that after I finally made it through all that lace and beads, I’d screw the whole thing up on an easy stockinette section.  Therefore, as I have practiced so well on other past projects, I am procrastinating.  My intention is to put in a lifeline prior to continuing because there will be no cast on #5.  Seriously, if something goes wrong with this thing at this point, I’m going to bury the yarn and the pattern in the back yard and erect a little monument to commemorate its passing.

Since I’ve been avoiding the shawl, I’ve been plugging along here and there on some socks that were kind of a happy accident.  I was out at Hobby Lobby looking for some inexpensive sock yarn because I was having sock withdrawals (it had been a while) and I found a skein of Red Heart, Heart & Sole in colorway Jellybeans.  The colors looked so festive and I had to have it.  Then I brought it home and realized there was simply no way I was actually going to wear a pair of socks knitted with just this colorway.  What to do, what to do?

As chance would have it, I came across a pattern called Ugly Duckling Socks by Karin Aida on Ravelry.  Now here’s a useful idea.  Here is what to do with that skein of yarn you thought was great in the store but brought it home and wondered why you ever bought it.  The pattern is free and utilizes mosaic knitting.  That’s a fancy term for colorwork without the hassle of stranding - the look is created by using slipped stitches.  I loved the idea, but decided to kind of do my own thing, so I used a cream colored yarn along with the Jellybean and came up with this:

I really, really like this sock!  Of course, I’m only on the first one and for the sake of the continuity of the mosaic knitting, I’ll be trying my hand for the first time at an afterthought heel, but I’m thrilled with the result.  I think this will be my go-to technique for any time I wind up with ugly yarn.  

Karin Aida’s other colorwork socks are stunning, so be sure to check her designs out.

And I’m off.  I’m a bit hungry.  The one bad thing about staying at home is that I tend to eat.  A lot.  In fact, if I don’t motivate myself to either curb my appetite or start training for a marathon (yeah, THAT’S gonna happen), I’ll have to find other uses for the yarn in my stash that I bought thinking I’d make a sweater.  My middle has expanded enough that the size I purchased yarn for has been called into serious question (she says as she heads to the kitchen).

Lisa

xoxo

Right on Queue

It's Saturday evening.  The day flew by.  Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?  I cherish my weekends, but they always manage to drive by like a NASCAR driver on amphetamines.  I did get some things done today, like finally hanging up the $10 wall hanging I got from Hobby Lobby that had been sitting in my yarn room/office since I bought it over a month ago.  Actually, it sat on my dining room table for at least half that time until we had guests over and I was forced to hide it.  I KNOW I'm not the only one who's hidden stuff in a spare room...right???

Speaking of my yarn room/office, I had a horrible experience a couple weeks ago.  It seems that all of a sudden, my eyes were opened to the disaster that this room had become.  These pictures were taken some months ago and it only got worse from there:

Yes, that is an exercise bike on the left and no, I don't use it.

Shame. On. Me.

And so, having had my eyes opened to the atrocity of what should be my favorite space, I decided I had to act.  I did what any marginally creative person would do.  I went to Target and bought some cubicle-type shelves so I could organize my space.  Et, voila!

Okay, it still needs some straightening, but I think you'd agree it looks much better than the before picture, yes?  Gone are the massive loads of fiber, miscellaneous boxes, bags, and scraps from the floor.  All I need now is a comfy chair and I'm set.  

Once I got my yarn stash put into their little cubbies (yes, that's actually all of it - I've been pretty good about not yarn hoarding lately), I found myself inspired.  It was kind of like Christmas, since I found stuff I had forgotten about.  Anyway, seeing all of that beautiful yarn makes me want to knit.  A lot.

Of course, when you decide you must knit, you have to make a decision about what to knit.  For that, I turned to my Ravelry queue.  It became clear immediately that I needed to do another "cleaning".  My queue was filled with over 75 potential projects.  This, in and of itself is not a problem, especially in light of the fact that I have well over 3,000 patterns in my library on Ravelry.  No, the problem comes in because, dear readers, menopause has not been kind to yours truly and I have gained enough weight around my middle (see caption about exercise bike above) that at least 1/3 of these patterns would no longer complement my slightly expanded frame.  Yes, I have learned that positive ease is now my best friend.

A bit thick around the middle...

Thirty minutes later, my queue has been revised and I'm down to 55 patterns I've decided I simply MUST knit at some point - hopefully sooner rather than later.  And number one in my queue is a pattern I just found today.  It's Atlantique by Anne Hanson.  

I absolutely love her designs - her style is so parallel to my own.  I absolutely have to knit this pattern!  Now I am just trying to come up with the most affordable way to make it.  The pattern calls for Bare Naked Wools's Hempshaugh Lace which is a blend of 40% merino wool, 30% hemp, and 30% silk in a lace weight yarn which is a pretty hefty $48 per skein.  As much as I love Anne's yarns (I knit a blanket for Nora from BNW's Confection), I simply cannot afford to sink that much into this project.  So I'm looking for a reasonably-priced alternative.  Your input is very much welcomed.  

Anyway, we'll see how far I get in knitting down my queue.  There's a good mix of stuff for me and of course, granddaughter stuff.  Not to mention, I've got to get my Christmas knitting list together (yes, I know, it's kind of late for that), assuming I decide to knit for folks this year.  Of course, Nora will get a good share of hand knits regardless.  

How many items are in your queue?

Lisa

xoxo

The Thing About _____ Is...

The thing about this blog is…

I’ve decided I stink so much at blogging lately, I’m going to try and make regular posts on Instagram.  You can find me as @knitwhimsy.  Same on Twitter, although I’ve never really mastered the whole tweet thing.  So the crickets are chirping on my Twitter account, same as here on this blog… (she sighs with no small amount of discouragement)

Speaking of which, the thing about Twitter is…

I’m WAY too verbose.  Seriously, 140 characters?  I can’t say hello in 140 characters. 

The thing about food bloggers is…

Remember a few months ago when I was so excited about my new food blog?  It turns out, food bloggers are blogging machines.  No seriously, the good ones manage at LEAST three posts a week.  And so, I’ve decided that if I need to tell the world about a great recipe I found on Pinterest, I’ll stick it in here and ask for the die-hard knitting enthusiasts to bear with me.  Besides, food blogging requires keen photographic skills.  Since I can’t seem to photograph yarn well, I have no idea what made me think I could graduate to food photography.  Ah, to be old-ish and delusional.

The thing about knitting is…

I have been busy.  I finished and sent three items to Nora:  a wool/alpaca jacket, a game day outfit for football season (with matching headband), and Beans the Cat.  Behold:

The big picture

Is he saying "ribit" or "ripit"??

Ready for game day, baby!
Go Bucks!
(They won their first game, incidentally)

Admit it...he's so homely, he's cute.

The jacket pattern is the Snug pattern I mentioned in my last post.  I love the frog buttons.  The little game day dress was whipped up out of the depths of my own mind.  Same with the headband, although it’s a simple garter stitch headband, started with a provisional crochet cast on and then grafted together once I got it as large as I wanted it.  Then I made my first attempt at pom-poms.  Well, actually, what you see is like, my fifth attempt.  The internet said to wrap the yarn around a fork.  Um…no.  I ended up just using my fingers.  Oh, and Beans?  My embroidery skills are lacking.  That didn’t stop me from sending him to Nora.  

The thing about knitting rules is…

Sometimes you have to break them.  While knitting the Snug for Nora, I cam across a yarn join and, completely losing my head, I actually tied the two ends together.  I admit it.  I did what should never be done.  And I’m glad, I tell you, glad.

I'm so knotty...

The thing about you all is...

You are awesome and wonderful and I thank those of you who have stuck around during the blogging famine on this site.  

Lisa

xoxoxo

Whirlwind

How in all of the earth could it possibly have been over a freaking month since I blogged?  I'm missing large blocks of time!  Quick, someone call someone!  I must have been taken ill and don't realize it.  Or I've been caught up in some sort of space-time continuum - abducted by aliens, perhaps.  Where is David Duchovny when you need him????

Or maybe I've just had a few things going on.  Like...

C.H.A.N.G.E.

And I don't mean loose change.  Like, real life change.  I know, becoming a grandma was a major life change but yes, folks, there's more.  Let me see if I can fill you in without boring you.

While my mom was here back in July, I mentioned in my last post that I'd taken a couple of Fridays off so I'd have long weekends with her.  Well, on one of those Fridays, I managed to drop off a resume at a financial planning/accounting firm on a fluke.  My daughter had noticed their sign which advertised they were looking for an administrative assistant, and she drew it to my attention.  I figured, why not?  What do I have to lose?  I also mentioned before that we were short-staffed again at the doctor's office and I'd be working OT every week (which did not make this lady happy at all), so again, I said, why not?  And here's what's funny...

I got the freaking job.  

No, seriously, I did a group interview, then a one-on-one interview a week later, and two weeks after that, voila!  I started a new job.  If I hadn't actually gotten a paycheck from the new job this past Friday, I may have remained convinced that I was dreaming.  Yay!

So, no more overtime; no more 30 minute drive (one way) to work; no more 30 minutes to scarf down a lousy hospital cafeteria lunch.  I get to wear normal clothes.  My new job is only 7 minutes from my house.  I work with wonderful people.  I'm back to my administrative and accounting roots.  So far, so good.  Ask me again during tax season...the honeymoon phase may be quite over by then.

In the midst of all of this, I've actually managed to continue knitting.  First, I was on a dishcloth kick.  I think I was missing Paul's grandma.  I completed three of them:

After these, I ran out of cotton and decided I NEEDED to get some more, so I ran to my local Hobby Lobby and picked up this:

I shall make more.  Indeed.

I also decided I needed to make Nora a winter jacket to keep her warm this winter.  I found a really cute pattern, Snug by Hinke.  I did a prototype to begin because I wasn't sure I could pull this off well.  The pattern has some interesting construction elements.  It is knit entirely in garter stitch, vertically instead of horizontally.  I found after working the prototype, I was not "getting" how the hood construction was supposed to come together, so I ignored the thing for over a week, then did what makes perfect sense:  I went ahead and started the one for Nora.  Um...yeah.  The good news is, when I got to the hood construction for Nora's jacket, it became clear all of a sudden and behold, a jacket was born.  I'm shipping off Nora's tomorrow, which I'll show you in another post, but here is a picture of the prototype:

It's not completely finished, but I'll keep it around for the next little boy baby who needs to be kept warm.  Incidentally, I found that this different construction ended up being about the easiest thing I've encountered.  I think the provisional cast on freaked me a little when starting it but no more.  I've become quite good at a provisional crochet cast on.  

I have much more to share, especially on the knitting front since I've actually gotten quite a bit done over the last couple of weeks, and since I've gotten through the first two weeks of the new job, I hope to have time to tend to this blog.  

Until next time,

Lisa

It's A Girl!

When last I posted, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first grandchild.  I am thrilled to introduce you all to Nora Marie, born June 30th.

Cutie patootie!

She’s decked out in the Welcome to the Flock sweater and hat I made for her and isn’t she adorable?  Of course she is!  I knew it would be great to be a grandma, but I didn’t realize HOW great!  Best. Job. Ever.

My mom and Nora

The last three weeks have been wonderful.  On July 4th, I drove up to my son’s to meet little Nora, my brother brought my mom over from Ohio and my daughter flew in as well.  We spent a week there (SO hard to leave - I cried) and then my mom, my daughter and I made the drive back to Mississippi.  Mom stayed for two weeks and she just returned to Ohio yesterday.  It was wonderful to have her here and I miss her already.  I had to return to work when we got back to MS, but I was able to take a couple of Fridays off to spend with her.  Wish I’d had more time but work was ridiculous since we are officially short-staffed and I’ll be working OT every week until extra help starts.  Yay.

As for knitting, of course I took way more than I needed to my son’s but I did manage to finish a little cotton hat of my own imagination in The Ohio State Buckeye colors because, HELLO…GO BUCKS!  The child will have no option but to be a Buckeye fan so we are starting on that particular family obsession early.  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it.  Just as well because it will be months before it actually fits her.

I started a little dress for her while there, but pulled it out at least twice to restart because I wasn’t happy with something or other.  The basic pattern I used is the Baby Lucia Dress by Suzie Sparkles.  I used Heavenly Fiber's Stellar Sock in colorway Rose Garden.  I changed a couple of things but liked the end result and it will be on its way to Nora within the week.

My next planned project for Nora is to knit her a little wool jacket with a hat and mittens for the upcoming winter.  I’ve waffled on the yarn, but I think I’ve settled on something that will work well.  Or not.  Um…yeah.

Love my mom!

And there’s my life at the moment.  Since Mom has gone home, it will be work, work, work with maybe a little knitting mixed in there.  My perfect reality would be knit, knit, knit with maybe a little work mixed in there.  A person can dream, can’t they?  :o)

Lisa

You Spin Me Right Round

The Husband loves me.  Seriously loves me.  How do I know this?  Well...

I can't remember if I told you that a couple of months ago, I talked him into swapping me my iMac for his Macbook Pro.  My thought was that if I had a laptop to sit in a comfy spot with (rather than sitting up to my desk with the iMac), I'd write more blog posts. You see how that turned out.  Anyway, he moved a TON of files between the two and made it happen.  Fast forward to three days ago and I asked him how much he loved me (always a good opening).  He immediately figured out I was about to ask for something big (he's very smart that way), and I asked if he'd be willing to swap me back.  You see, not only did it NOT motivate me to write more blog posts (it seems exhaustion at the end of a work day is not contingent on what type of computer you use), but I also missed my high resolution ginormous iMac screen.  It really is a thing of beauty.  Bless his heart, he only let out one big sigh and half an eye roll and dutifully transferred all of the files back where they were originally over the last couple of days so now I have my iMac back.  I did have to promise I wouldn't change my mind again, which I won't.  I think.  Just kidding, honey...

The color of this graphic is not an indication
of my preferred grandchild gender.
I just thought it was cute.
Seriously, stop it.

In knitting news, there is none.  I'm avoiding blocking my Steampunk Pullover because I'm afraid the colorwork section will not block out like I hope (read: won't cover my shoddy work) and I'll have to pull it back out and re-knit it, which will be a colossal pain and I just can't think about that right now because, holy cow, my first grand baby is due in less than three weeks and how could I possibly focus on a sweater??  I'd knit more grand baby stuffs but I have drawn the line until the wee one makes an appearance so I know if I'm doing baby boy knitting or baby girl knitting.  I've been singularly uninspired by the selection of unisex patterns available.  I've browsed Ravelry and added pattern after pattern to my queue of small projects but I can't seem to settle on anything.  And so, I've been working on a children's sweater for charity that I started a while ago and is enough to at least satisfy my itch to do something.  After that, I may just do a generic baby blanket in order to have something for the next time a co-worker gets pregnant which may be anytime since it seems to have been an epidemic in the last two years I’ve worked there.  

Aside from that, I had a report from my son yesterday that my DIL and the baby are doing great!  I am a bit excited.  I know I needed to tell you that because I hide it so well and I'm sure you couldn't guess it.  But I am.  Excited.  A lot.

The other thing I've worked on is my spinning.  My persistence is paying off, as you can see in the picture below.  

Yes, those are what you think they are.
Hey, they work and they're in plentiful supply.

The middle roll is my first attempt.  The pinkish-purple one on the right is my second attempt.  And the one on the left is my last attempt.  You can see the yarn is getting more even.  I've kind of stalled on it though, as I'm having trouble sitting up in a position where I am able to park and draft without developing a terrible back ache.  If any of you spin with a drop spindle, do you have any suggestions?  

If I don't cast on a new project soon...  Ba-BEE! Ba-BEE!  Ba-BEE!  :o)

Lisa

To Spin, Or Not To Spin...

I spent last weekend with two great friends at the Magnolia State Fiber Festival.  It. Was. Awesome.  Seriously.  Not only did I get to take two great classes, I also shopped for fiber, stayed in a lovely B & B, and ate so much my doctor would have an absolute fit. Sad thing is, I only got one picture.  That’s right, just one.  And what is it of?  Yarn?  Fiber?  My classes?  My good friends?  No, dear readers, it was of this:

Walnut Hills, I love you.

My cheesecake.  Turtle cheesecake from my dinner at Walnut Hills (which we go to every year).   I KNOW, right????  It’s like a whole, personal cheesecake just for me.  I couldn’t finish it.  *sigh*

Let me repeat:  It. Was. Awesome.

I took two classes, the first on Fair Isle knitting with instructor Donna Peyton.  She was such a good teacher, that before we left to come home, I’d finished this:

Look!  No puckering!  Woot!  Unfortunately, I did not take the class in time for this:

My Steampunk Pullover.  It is puckered.  You can see from the picture that there is something decidedly wrong with the neckline.  Or rather, I think the neckline would be fine if the colorwork wasn’t puckered from my pre-class stranded colorwork skills.  Will I pull it out and reknit it?  

Heck no.

I am still hoping for the best with blocking.  I’d appreciate your warmest woolly thoughts sent in my direction for a favorable outcome.  If not, I WILL be forced to pull out the neckline and see if I can make it look like it was meant to fit a human instead of some sort of alien creature with no shoulders…

The second class I took, also by Donna Peyton, was on drop spindle spinning.  It was fun.  And informative.  And didn’t help my lousy spinning efforts one bit (no fault of Donna’s - she was awesome).  I think I have a spinning disability.  It’s not just about thick and thin yarn.  It’s about not being able to keep the darned drop spindle spinning, as well as not being able to keep what yarn I DO spin from slipping off the spindle.  I hacked my own spindle last night and placed a notch to help prevent the problem, but then I developed a new issue with actually breaking the yarn (she sighs with deep frustration).  

I MUST learn this skill.  Why, you ask?  Because of this:

This was my haul from the festival.  Yes, I was so optimistic about the class that before I even took it, I bought this absolutely lovely and incredibly soft and yummy Corriedale roving.  I HAVE to learn how to spin this fiber.  If not, I’ll have to pull it out of my stash at least once a week to pet it.  How sad…

You’ll notice my haul was relatively small this year.  That’s because my favorite vendor, Denise with Lost City Knits, was unable to attend the festival due to a family emergency.  She was sorely missed and she’s on my heart as I write this.

I had a wonderful time and was inspired all over again for my knitting (and spinning - sort of) and I can’t wait to see what’s next.  Colorwork is definitely in my immediate future!

Lisa