I've got a finish!!!

Finally!

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the colors are 
a minty green, white and light gray 

(the edge and long stitches are in gray)

This Hexagon Baby Blanket ended up being a happier project to work on than the one I started out doing a month or so ago.    I'm so glad I switched.  It's a very easy pattern that went fairly speedily when I applied myself to it.  I will probably make this pattern again some day.  

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I recently found a place that was a ready recipient of my baby and child-size blankets.  I've made a number of them over the years with no recipients in mind - just because I love making blankets.  That said, I was starting to feel a bit burdened about having so many around.

Well, I finally decided to get serious about finding a place to donate them, and after calling several places that didn't have need of them I began to think my blanket days might just be drawing to a close.   And then I was talking with a friend from Michigan who'd recently begun serving on the board of a Foster Closet, and she suggested that idea as a possible donation site.  That hadn't occurred to me!   Within a few minutes of searching on the internet I was able to find several foster closets within a 30-miles radius.  But digging deeper I found a fairly new one just up the road from me.  I e-mailed them, and within minutes they responded with a hearty "Yes! We'd love to have your blankets!"   

So just like that - I'm back in the blanket making business!  I'm glad, too, because blankets are a great way to burn through stash.   I'm happy making them, and hopefully children in trauma and experiencing terrible upheaval in their lives are in some small way comforted by a fresh new soft blanket of their own.

~~~~~

On a different note...  last week I  became the temporary holder of  I-can't-even-count-how-many vintage cross stitch magazines.  Here's just a sampling (seriously, I don't even want to count how many there are):

Eventually, they will be on their way to a fund-raising event, but being the transporter of them I get to enjoy the eye candy for now, and have picked out a few patterns I think I might like to make. 

And wouldn't you know...  just this week Sandra of farmgirlsam, and Jenn of Jenn's Crafty World, mentioned in her latest Flosstube video Stitch Maynia (a cross stitch challenge during the month of May).  All kinds of cross-stitchers are posting about this right now, but these two ladies in particular have inspired me as they include cross stitch into their various projects.

So...  While I'm not officially participating in Stitch Maynia, I am hoping to start some small cross stitch projects.   We'll see how far this interest really goes - and frankly, we'll see if I actually cross stitch anything.  But starting May 1st, I'm going to be following along - mostly just watching other Mayniacs as they start new projects, and hopefully gathering inspiration from them.

~~~~~

Since it's the last Sunday in April, here's a picture of ten dishcloths I knitted up this month:

I've been in a pastel sort of mood...

And now, I have a confession to make...  I had to make a trip to Hobby Lobby to get some more gray yarn to finish the blanket above, and when I saw on their weekly flyer that crochet thread was on sale, I told myself I could buy a few balls of it.  And I did. I bought 6 balls of pretty colored thread.   And one skein of yarn for the blanket.   I know none of that matters to anyone but me, but it has set me back a bit in reaching my goal.   That said, overall I'm still ahead of the game so I'm not hanging my head too low.  😉 

To see what other YOPers are up to 

visit our group on Ravelry!

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  39.4/100 skeins

A happy birthday it was...

I want to thank everyone who commented last week with warm wishes for a happy 60th birthday.  Thursday was the big day and a good one it was.

Hubs had spilled the beans to everyone who might be interested, so I was treated to lots of well wishes.

The funniest thing, though, is that first thing Thursday morning I received a phone call from my bank with a personal Happy Birthday wish.  Now, that has never happened before.  

I should have asked the caller to sing to me.  😄

I got the nicest messages from friends and family via e-mail and Facebook, was sung to at Bible study, ate lunch with two girlfriends, had flowers and Shari's Berries waiting on my front porch when I got home, and in the evening enjoyed supper with my husband and two of our sons at The Bosphorus Cafe in Indy.   What fun.

After sharing a large appetizer plate of Hummus, Ezme (a finely chopped tomato and pepper salad), Tabouli, Turkish Salsa, Babaganush (eggplant, tahini and yogurt salad), and Dolma (stuffed grape leaves), we each had a different lamb dish.  Husband and youngest son ordered the Adona Kabob and the Beyti Kabob.  But the best, in my opinion was my other son's Lamb Shish Kabob.  I also enjoyed my Lamb Mediterranean.  So many things to sample!  And their rice and warm, soft flat bread (looked like this Bazlama) was amazing.  Mmmmmm...

We discovered this restaurant last year when my son (pictured with me above) suggested it for his celebratory meal after his college graduation.  It is such a happy, bustling place with so much character.   It immediately came to mind when my husband asked me where I'd like to go for dinner.  It did not disappoint!  

I wish I had taken more pictures, though.  I  always wish I had taken more pictures...

And that was my birthday.   It was the best.

(happy sigh here)

~~~~~

And now I suppose I should share my latest yarny project since this is a YOP post.  I didn't accomplish a whole lot in that department, except for starting on a blanket redo.    

Here's a peek:

I definitely like this project better than the blanket I had started a week earlier.  I suspect I'm going to need to buy some more gray yarn to finish this, but hopefully I can do that and get the border finished this next week.

~~~~~

And that's all I've got!  

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry.

More small things...

Some things I'm working on...

Marsha Leftycrafter recently shared with me the DW David Waltrip Dishcloth pattern and after a few rows I fell in serious like!  I especially like how this stitch pattern plays with variegated yarns:

Thankfully, the pattern has been archived here.   I have way too much variegated kitchen cotton yarn I bought that looked pretty in a ball, but worked up is sometimes less than I hoped for.  This stitch pattern hasn't disappointed me yet when using a short-segment-variegated yarn.    The pattern is quick. It's easy.  It's fun!

~~~~~

I also made a little progress on a Fairly Islelish Cardigan (baby sweater):

I'm heading into making the yoke where I will introduce another shade of gray in the stripe pattern (or another color).  I'm open to suggestions on a contrast color.  I want this to be suitable for a boy (though I'm having second thoughts about how well this pattern truly suits a boy - more on that when I'm finished).  And I am going to finish this.  I think.

~~~~~

And I started this:

But... as okay as that looks, I'm fairly unimpressed.  I think I'm going to rip it out as soon as I finish writing, and start this pattern.  The yarn I'm using is pretty nondescript so I'm thinking I need to make something fun with it.  

~~~~~

And lastly...  

Someone's having a birthday this week!   

I'm turning 60 and I'm actually kind of excited about it.  I know... is that weird?  Getting older is sometimes for the birds, but there's something about this milestone birthday that has me kind of eagerly anticipating what's next in life.  

I'm still trying to figure out how to ring this birthday in and it may, in the end, be very low key ('cuz I'm a pretty low key kind of gal), but I'm hoping my birthday this year lives up to the anticipation I'm allowing myself to have for it.  So wish me well in that.

To see what other YOPers are up to 

visit our group on Ravelry.

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  43.86/100 skeins

Small things...

A very short post this week.    I present another small (7-inch) doily from the book, 99 Little Doilies:

 While it holds the distinction of being Doily #1, 
I'm calling it Octagonal Pineapple Doily

Other than that, the only other yarny thing I did this week was discover a new dishcloth pattern:

It's called Blissfull Moss Rib Cloth.   It is a bit blissful of a knitting project - working up super quick (for a knitted cloth).  I like how it forms a ribbed pattern, but I kind of dislike how small it is when finished because it puckers up (like ribbing does).   But then again, I prefer smaller dishcloths (somewhere between 7.5 - 8 inches) so when I finished it, I didn't mind that it was on the small side.  But then I washed it and it puckered up to hardly anything.  I pulled and tugged on it as I folded it, but it looks so very sadly shriveled atop the stack of newly washed dishcloths.  Then again, when it gets wet it stretches out to nearly 8 inches.  So I don't know...  For now I'm a bit ambivalent about my blissful new cloth pattern.

And that, friend, is all I've got.    To see what other YOPers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

~~~~~