Short charity update

Remember those hats I told you about last week? The ones that I needed to find a good use for since I couldn't use them for my chosen charity?  A good use has become clear.  Tomorrow they will be on the way to my mom, who will raffle them off in a church fundraiser!

In other news, today I finished a hat for said charity in a more appropriate acrylic/nylon blend yarn ... and my husband loved it so much that I gave it to him.  As soon as it came off the needles I cast on an identical one that *will* be for charity.  We took a long walk around town today, and I knitted as we walked so I got a fair amount done.  Here it is in process:

I just LOVE the color.  I knitted up the rest of the yarn that was left after I finished the hat that I gave to my husband Found a couple skeins of this color from a fellow knitter on Ravelry and bought them from her. Really looking forward to knitting with this yarn some more in a few days.

I'm also knitting this one:

 

This yarn is SO soft. I wish I could remember where I got it.  It's been in my stash for so long ... I'm happy to finally put it to good use.  

And now ... back to knitting!

-mz

Before ... and after

You know how you go to "clean up" a room, but you end up making a much bigger mess in the process?  That's what happened to me last weekend. My yarn room/art studio was a colossal mess and I attempted to clean it up.  Here it is, mid-mess:

... and here it is once everything is moved around and put away. Much better!

Last week I talked about the dilemma I had with a stack of hats I knitted for charity, which can't go to the charity I planned to send them to due to the high wool content.  I haven't yet figured out what to do with them, but in the meantime I went stash diving and found find a few balls of more appropriate yarn that I can use!  I'd show you but I don't have photos of it yet.  I found a ball of Berroco Comfort yarn in a deep cerulean blue (worsted weight, I think), and a ball of Dark Horse Fantasy yarn in a sage green (also worsted weight). I cast on 2 hats, one in each color ... I couldn't help myself! I'm not using a pattern; I just cast on 112 sts with US 6 needles and am doing 2x2 ribbing for a few inches.  Then I may switch to stockinette.  Or maybe I'll continue in ribbing.  Or maybe I'll pick a pattern from a stitch dictionary.  Who knows! ALSO, I remembered that some months ago, a friend gave me a big ol' bag of yarn that she no longer wanted.  I dug through that and found several full and partial balls of stuff like Plymouth Encore (shout out to @knitonepurltoo!) and Lion Brand Wool Ease so all of that should keep my charity efforts going for a bit. I may also go in with a friend on an order from WEBS so I can get some more Berroco Comfort -- I really like how it feels and how it's knitting up so far. 

Right now, though, it's way past bed time. Good night!

-mz

I blew it.

So ...

You remember those hats I knitted for charity?  Well.  I was all set to send the hand knit goodies off in the mail this week, and went to the blog to look for the address to send to.  Aaaaannnnd while I was there I looked at the requirements for donations.  Aaaaaannnnnnd figured out that donated items should not be 100% wool.  So .... now I need to find something to do with the hats and scarf I knitted. Yes, I realize (now) that I should have looked this information up BEFORE I started knitting, but I think in my excitement to get started it slipped my mind.  I'm sure the internet will come to the rescue, and help me identify an organization that will accept my donation.  And in the meantime, I've done a bit of stash diving and found 2 balls of yarn that will be appropriate for the charity I originally chose:  The Bridge Project, which collects knit and crocheted items for the homeless in central Ohio. 

Now that my yarn room/art studio is cleaned up and organized, I'm going to get showered and go do a bit of shopping before I settle in for a little knitting!

-mz

Nice haul

Every so often, my friend Jan and I go on these very awesome, very therapeutic yarn crawls. This past weekend we had a much needed trip, which coincided with the beginning of spring break on the campus where we work. Our afternoon adventure started with hanging out at Black Locust Farm yarn shop in Lodi.  If y'all have been paying any attention at all, you know that I love to knit socks. And that sock yarn doesn't count as stash. Soooooooo these pretty things came home with me:

The ball of yarn on the left is to knit my husband some socks.  He is one of those guys that doesn't really wear colors aside from black, blue, gray, and occasionally some brown. I got yarn to match his wardrobe.  The self-striping should keep it as interesting as it could possibly be ;-)

Last year on a trip to the shop I fell in love with a project bag made by Aimee of Cackleberry Creations.  I met Aimee in person at the Great Lakes Fiber Show last spring, and mentioned my love of elephants and Doctor Who. And then I promptly forgot about that conversation! Well I was pleasantly surprised to get a message from Aimme via Ravelry, that, despite some life challenges, she completed the bags for me!  Look!  Elephants ....

... and a close-up of the matching stitch markers!

And then TARDIS ....

... and matching stitch markers!

As I was paying for my yarn, I also spied these beautiful pearl stitch markers near the register.  Some of y'all know how much I love pearls too, so I couldn't leave these in the store!  

I have since messaged Aimee to ask for a couple more bags ... one with a coffee print, and one with FIREFLY.  Actually I might need two Firefly bags if possible, one for me and one for a dear friend who got me hip to that show in the first place.

After hanging out at Black Locust for a few hours, it was time to head down the road to Wooster, where we had dinner at one of our faaaaaaavorite places, Broken Rocks Cafe.  Wild mushroom pasta for the win! That's a standout favorite dish of mine, especially when it's followed up with pecan pie for dessert. 

It was a lovely day, indeed.  Guess I need to get knitting and FINISH some stuff before I start something else.  Well I DO have that cowl I'm knitting for a store sample.  I'll post pics of that next time. Until then ... good night!

-mz

Charity check-in

I won't bore you with all the stuff I've been up to (particularly work-wise) that has kept me from blogging lately, but here is a charity check-in post.  The last few weeks have been all about the chunky hats (my own design!):

I've got a black & gray one on needles now, and I'll try to remember to post a pic next time. That's about it for knitting at the moment.  I've gone pretty far down the rabbit hole of coloring (particularly swear word coloring books!), and drawing Zentangles. I think that's how I shall spend part of the afternoon until it's time to go knit with a group of friends.

Until next time,
-mz