A Plan.

Can you believe Labor Day is next weekend? I really can not. I had planned on several projects to get done around the house this summer. Somehow time flew, life interrupted and all of a sudden here we are. One week before Labor Day the end of summer.
I am trying to figure out where the time went. Not on getting the stuff I wanted done apparently. Maybe a plan of some sort to help with this. Or a vacation.
But a plan may work much better. At least it seems to be working well with my knitting and cross stitch projects. Let me explain.
A few weeks back, after getting settled in the evening and then trying to decide what to work on first, a dear friend suggested that assigning a day for each of seven of them might work. This way there is no boredom and something gets done on each every week.

So after looking through all of the projects in progress and choosing seven the list was created:
Sunday - Santa's Magic  counted cross stitch
Monday - cross stitch quilt for Vincent
Tuesday - Shawl edge
Wednesday -  Winter Wonderland coat
Thursday - Fall counterpane sweater
Friday - Plisse' sweater
Saturday - Norwegian Lusekoft sweater

Now it has only been a few weeks, maybe 2 since starting this. But the shawl edge may actually get finished this Tuesday! Once it is done it will be replaced with a Christmas project.
This is working so well that Sharon suggested we start a group on Ravelry. Thus the group Seven WIP's in Seven Days was born.

So back to the projects around the house. For this more than one day may be needed. Possibly a week is best so not to overwhelm myself.
The first project that is in dire need is the front porch. It will take some time, but if we devote some time on Saturday each week this may get done much faster. Next Sat we do not have much scheduled. It will be the first semi free weekend in a long long time. Should be a good time to start.
Wish me luck.

A very special boy

 Yesterday I had a chance to spend the day with a very special young man, my grandson Vincent.

Next weekend he will be 17 mos old. Hard to believe how much he had grown in that short period of time. His smile just makes me melt.

He is such a joy and so pleasant to be around. Watching things through a young ones eyes is just amazing. Sometimes we forget to stop and see everything like it was the first time. Lets try to remember that.

Knitting Disrespects the Olympic Athletes?

Did you know? Have you heard? Knitting denigrates and is disrespectful to the Olympic athletes.
Shocked?
The US Olympic Committee sent a cease and desist letter to Ravelry.com asking that they change the name of Ravelympics. In 1978 the US Congress gave the USOC the right to trademark the word and images of the Olympics. Okay, they need to protect their trademarked word and symbols. I understand that. If they don't go after any infringements they loose the right to do so. So it is important for them to pursue that. The wording of the first part of their letter was pretty simple. It was disappointing, but I think most would have dealt with a name change.

Until the USOC's letter stated: "We believe using the name 'Ravelympics' for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."

 Wait a minute. You are telling me that by knitting and watching the games, encouraging others to do the same and suggest they try to finish a project is going to disrespect the athletes? Knitting is an activity that, when the Modern Olympic games were started, were actually part of the games! Now it is disrespectful?

 This is where the Ravelry community has a issue. The wording was just nasty. Many went to twitter, emailed, phoned, and went on Facebook to let the USOC know how upset this made us. They responded with an attempt at an apology which can be read here.
Sadly, asking people you just insulted to send you free things, when the executives of the Non-Profit USOC are making 300 Thousand dollars a year, and the CEO making 742 Thousand a year is even more of a slap in the face.
They did add a 2nd apology a few hours later. That too missed the mark in my book.

To think that the community on Ravelry will be happy to listen to the USOC put down the skill, effort, time and energy needed to make a knitted item was a mistake.  No it was a huge mistake. Do not mess with people who carry pointy sticks.

I do have a suggestion to the USOC if they want to be able to get out of this tangle. Why not, in a show of goodwill and a way to extend an olive branch, sanction the Ravelympics and use them as a way to  "represent ideals that go beyond sport to encompass culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony."which is what the games are to do.  But I suspect that they will not.

There are now calls to boycott the games and sponsors, which this blogger is going to support.
I urge all knitters to let the US Congress know that the USOC apparently needs some over site when it comes to the writing of cease and desist letters.  Apparently they need to have their hands held so they do not get into another huge controversy.

Some things.

I have been working on several things and finally have some finished items to show:

 

This is for a person who is expecting her 2nd daughter any time. As its the summer, I figured making the sweater a bit bigger than newborn would give more use of the sweater. I really love the buttons on it.

 The scarf started out as just a practice piece until my coworker saw it and fell in love. When she mentioned she did not have a scarf for winter the scarf became hers! She was so surprised I would give it to her that I am very happy it found a home.
 The lace project I have on the needles is a kit I got from MD Sheep & Wool. It is coming along well but I was not able to get a good picture of it as I am working on the lace edge. But its the last part of the pattern. So will be done soon.
I did work on the Santa's Magic cross stitch pattern some. At least you can tell a bit of what it is.

Taste of Spring Weather

Yesterday was in the 60's. Beautiful weather for the early part of March. One thing people can not complain about this winter is the snow and cold. It has been suggested it is the warmest winter on the record for over 100 yrs of more.

So today I had planned to do several small things around the house, along with some errands. I decided to do the errands first delighted in the ability to wear sandals and no coat. It felt great. Beautiful weather and some sunshine is wonderful for the attitude.

Only bad thing about the beautiful spring like weather is it spurs me into a major cleaning mode. So what was going to be a small amount of normal cleaning turned into rearranging of some furniture, deep cleaning some areas that are rarely touched (think junk drawers) and some walls getting wiped down.

The taste of spring weather was short lived today though as some rain moved in and the temps are dropping back to the more normal range. The house looks a bit fresher now too.

Days like this are wonderful giving us just a taste to remind us to appreciate the warmer weather still to come.

Still Stitching...

In a perfect world (which I obviously do not live in) I would have posted a picture a few days ago of the stitching currently done. This did not happen for two reasons.

The first - I have lost my ability to tell what day it is at times. This is partly due to some things going on in the personal life, and the fact I have had so many appointments and errands I have not had time to stop and think about what day it is.

The second reason - and more the reason of it all, I have had to tear out one section now 2 times. Make that three times, as I have to tear out the same section again tonight. Before I do that I wanted to show how much I have done:
Do you see the part towards the right side? Above the line of the deep blue? The grey/brown and the gray/blue, that is one whole line down - and needs to be moved up one line. So tonight I shall take that all out.


On another note, my darling dog Cheyenne.. a German Shepherd who has my heart, is currently having some issues with her hips. She started on a new supplement this week to try to help her some. She is a constant companion when we get into the hot tub, not just there to keep an eye on us, but she just loves to chase water drops. I tried to get some pictures of her in action earlier this week:I am hoping the supplements will help with her hips. We have known she has hip dysplasia since shortly after we adopted her from the Humane Society. The hope it to give her the best life possible before this horrible thing takes her quality of life away.

So far we have given her over 5 years. I am being very selfish though and want to have her around longer.

Vincent loves having her keep an eye on him when he visits!

Cross stitching

Last week my son and I went to do a few errands and ended up stopping at the local needlework shop, Moore Stitches. I had planned on getting some yarn to do some of the mittens that the Yarn Harlot had designed.
I did get the yarn and was merrily heading out the door when I got to chatting with the owner and a old friend. The talk eventually went to the Mirabilia pattern I had started about 10 yrs ago.

It was the Santa's Magic pattern and had about 2/3rds done with it when I put it away so it would not get messed up over the holidays. Somehow, it has disappeared. I have found the original pattern, envelope, and photo of it. But, the project is still missing.

When I was looking to see if the shop still had a copy of it I found the newer Santa pattern - Winter White Santa. It was beautiful, and part of me wanted to buy it, however, I had just bought the yarn for several pairs of mittens.

Nope, I was not going to buy this pattern.

I don't need to get back into cross stitching. Not going to go there, or look in the UFO bin of projects I have to finish. So I went to put it back on the rack when my son asked to see it.

He proceeded to go to the counter and purchase it for me.

I was sunk.

But, I decided I would finish the 2 projects on the frames before I even think about starting the new project.

So once home the frames were pulled out and I started working on the "Queen of Freedom". It was the project with the smallest amount done on it at all. Only a bit of the stitching by the small red area was done. Which satisfied my desire to start a new project while not really starting it.
Right?

This is being done on 32 ct linen. Stitching done 2 threads over 2.

Anyhow here is the current amount of stitching done so far:


Its going well, and I am enjoying it.

The mitten yarn is still in the bag. Lets not discuss it.