Preparing a move.

I don't think you can see a lot from that photo... I took it with the iPod and it doesn't have a great definition and the light is weird from this angle. This is what I see from the computer while typing this. Our living room looks like there was an explosion there... things are everywhere. Suitcases and boxes that are already packed fill the rooms and hallways.
Things that are on their way to be packed or donated or given away to friends are in piles all over the place. Things that we haven't got around yet, change places as we need to clear out furniture to be taken away.

It is hard to see your things go. That table or book shelf that have been with us since we started our life together... that chair we bought on special or a cute thing that we got at a fair... and so on.
I listed our furniture on Craigslist... we've sold a few things. Friends had also come and bought several things, some others have come and taken a lot of things, hangers, food, kitchen ware, etc.
We'll hope to have a few more friends over to take things with them. I'm making an appointment with the Salvation Army to come and pick up whatever is left at some point mid next week.

We bought a couple of suitcases from Good Will and non of our suitcases match and I don't recognize those that we bought... so I made suitcase tags! just to have something unifying and be able to recognize them all.

Just a few rounds of sc in 3 different yellows and a last round of red, then a chain. Made out of cotton, they came out great.

We are moving mainly with suitcases... and shipping some boxes of books and things, specially yarn and jewelry crafts.

I'm sad because yesterday we found out that my dearest friend from this place, the owner of the shop, won't be here when I leave. She's been out of town for the past week on a family emergency and it seems totally unlikely that she'll be able to come back before our leaving. It might be easier to not say goodbye... but I know it'll be hard on both of us.
Since she's away, I'm taking care of the shop today and tomorrow for a part of the day. I've never done it for more than half an hour on my own!
We are having a farewell party at the shop on Sunday... it'll be really hard without her there... but I'll be very happy of having all my friends there to say good bye. It'll be really special and I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Finally, I finished a top last week. (well, 3 actually but haven't take a picture of all of them)
It's crochet... no pattern. although I hope to write it soon.

It's made with Shepherds wool. Such a nice yarn!!! perfect top for a cold spring day.

See you soon!
S.

Project Finished: Van Ness Scarf

Hello friends!!! How are you doing??? I hope you are very well, warm and happy wherever it is you are... Here we've had the weirdest weather... Last week we had a couple of days in the high 60's and for a little bit we actually got to 70F!
Today we are at 30, that with the wind shield and all that actually feels like 22F!!! I'm freezing!!
I'm should be doing laundry, but I don't want to go out of the apartment because it's cold. I'll wait for MG to go out with him, and that way when we come back he can hug me and warm me up...

How was your weekend??? ours was pretty great!
We started Friday night with a concert by Carrie Newcomer... have you ever listened to her? We play her all the time at the shop and I love her... and MG got to listened to her a couple of weeks ago when we went to another concert (Krista Detor). So we went to Carrie's concert with some friends, and bought several of her CD's at the end...
Here's a song I like a lot...

But really, I think she has a lot of good songs, check them out if you can.

After the concert we went to a party to one of my yarn-y friends house, that happens to be a good friend of Carrie, so she came too, and we had a good time talking to her. MG got one of the CD's signed from her and a photo too!

But down to the point of this post... The Van Ness Scarf. I've been eyeing the pattern on Ravelry for a long time, finally I gave it a try, right in the middle of several other projects... but hey! I need variety, and change between knitting and crochet, larger and smaller projects.

I like this pattern because::

+ It's pretty!!!

+ it's eeeasy peasy... The central motifs can be a little challenging for a beginner but they are not bad. 

+ it has a pretty edging.

+ it's worked from the center-out, so the shells go in the same direction when you're wearing the scarf.

+ it's fast!

So that's a lot of good things.

I used 2 skeins of Lustra in a pretty apple green color, I had 1 skein from another project that got frogged and I wanted to use it up. I like the final choice.

I did something different for the center motifs, as I didn't like the idea of cutting the yarn to make the individual motifs and weave the ends... just lazyness... but here's what I did.

Alternate start for a 4 pattern repeat scarf.

*pattern is a multiple of 8+1 (+3 for the initial dc formed of chains)

Ch 35

Side A:  (3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in 7th ch from hook, *sk 3 ch, dc in next ch, sk 3 ch, (3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in next ch; repeat from * twice more. ch 3, sk ch 3 (from the base, not the ones just made), sl st in last chain of base chain.

Side B: working on the other side of chain. ch 3 (count as first dc), *(3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in corresponding shell chain from side A, dc in correspoding dc chain from side A; repeat from * to end of row.

With a ch 3, you'll be ready to start the first side of the scarf.

Right now, the scarf is blocking...
Well, I'm off to update a little bit my Ravelry projects while MG comes...

See you soon!
S.

PS... I did do the laundry while writing this post!

 

Late Crochet

It seems that I have way to many projects going on at the time... which also means that there is some times when a bunch of projects get done one right after another...
And I haven't post about them.

Here's a cowl I made in the summer... I wrote the pattern, I just have to edit it and make it pretty to share or sell.

Here, a whole bunch of squares for my friend wedding blanket... they are all done (all 80 of them) and joined together and now just waiting for the border, will come back with that soon.

 I finished another Seafoam Shawl... I love this little pattern! I think is the 3rd one I've made...

 

And lately, this cute panda hat!!! We have it in display at the shop!!

See you soon!
S.

Yarn Bombing

Here are the photos of the other 22 trees that we dressed around the Downtown Square with help of a lot of volunteers who knitted, crocheted and wove their sweaters.
The sweater for my tree was all crocheted.

If you'd like to know more about the project go to www.knittingtoheal.org
And if you'd like to vote for your favorite tree and help with the fundraiser, you can do so at the website. You can vote for my tree!!! It's tree #2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you soon!
S.

Knitting to Heal - Yarn Bombing - My Tree

So as I expressed in my last post, I spend the summer working in a sweater for "My Tree"... My tree was sponsored by my loved Yarn Shop, and since I spend so much time there learning and teaching and building stories and friendships, I thought the least I could do was to make the sweater that would represent the shop's sponsorship.

It all started with a bunch of blue yarn and experimenting with free form and I had share it with you here and here. I then added all kind of fun "corals", sea creatures, glow in the dark beads and even a felted Nemo (it is super fun to see little kids looking all the way around to find Nemo)... I had a couple of girls (age 13 and 16) help me with the fishes and sea creatures. And a dear friend made the A.M.A.Z.I.N.G Sunset/Sunrise!!!!!! it's the perfect complement for my sea bed piece. We are so happy inhow it came out.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, on Oct 4th, we installed my tree... I'll leave you with a bunch of pretty photos.
I'm so proud!

 

 

 

 

See you soon,
S.