Knitting Needles – The Never Ending Mitered Squares

I knit.  What’s your superpower?
 – Author Unknown

I am not someone who has been knitting since childhood.  A loving mother or grandmother didn’t teach my while sitting at her feet.  I learned to knit to fill a void.  My last child had gone off to college.  An empty nest!  What are nests made of?  Bits and pieces of twigs, leaves, feathers, twine and YARN!  I must knit!  A logical choice.  I started with scarves and moved quickly into blankets.  No sweaters and socks.  The recipient of my gifts would outgrow the sweater by the time I would finish and socks wear out too quickly.  No, blankets were good and much loved by everyone.

My constantly rearranged mitered blanket project.

This is my latest labor of love and it is based off of a pattern developed by Ann and Kay of Mason Dixon Knitting.  I love their books.  I have added the black and white because the eye needed a rest.  The nice thing about this pattern is the ease of transport.  One square at a time can easily fit in a purse or small satchel.

My travel bag with current mitered square and yarn.

This blanket has worked it’s way through listening to many books, favorite television shows, road trips, hospital visits and even meetings at work. I find my listening skills improve when my hands are busy.

Attic stash discovered… more cotton classic!

This weekend I decided to sort through all the containers of yarn I have in the attic.  Going through all the yarn that moved south with me, I found even more of the cotton yarn I use in this blanket.  Does that mean this blanket might not ever be done?

I did this scene in ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ where I was in a room full of old ladies who were knitting, and it was an all-day scene, so they showed me how. It was one of the most relaxing days of my life.

Ryan Gosling

 

Bats, Bees, Trivia and Knitting

One of the things I discovered when I moved to a new city is that without small children, meeting new people is not as easy as it used to be.  I missed my coffee buddies and knitting groups.  So, of course, I turned to the Internet.  I found Meetup!  The site offers groups for almost everything  I needed.  My first foray into the groups was a photography group.  I went to a meeting and then went to the wrong spot for a nature walk for photography.  Bummer.  That group is still on hold for me.  I didn’t have the time (because I was working) to make the meetings and didn’t want to attend unless I could be more involved.  My second was last night. I attended the Weeknight Wind-down with a Stitch and Bitch group.  I had no idea what I would be find.  We met at a cute little coffee corner with lots of art and interesting beers and wine.  Great little artsy spot complete with a lending library of books.  The group of women was very diverse and very welcoming.  There were four knitters, two jewelry crafters, and one needle point.  Conversation varied from one person’s trip to China and search for yarn that ended up in an Indigo fabric shop…. drool… photos were wonderful… to bee keeping and bat houses, not the Adam West kind.  What a fascinating group of women and smart!

The evening was topped off by a Trivia challenge that consisted of three themes and 12 questions each.  Looney Tunes (there is an advantage to being of an age)

1. Do you know who this guy is?  We didn’t get to see a photo, just a verbal description.  Everybody missed this one.  (Answers at the bottom)

2. A description of a little guy with a roman soldiers helmet and a funny way of talking was the next stumper for some, but not my group of ladies.

Next theme was famous last words.  I can’t remember any of the examples, but we aced the category.

The final group of questions were based on Board Games…. ugh… not my specialty.  There were bonus questions in this segment.

Bonus question one – On what city was the board game Monopoly based?

Answers – Sorry I don’t know how to put these upside down.

1. Gossamer – who knew?
2. Marvin the Martian
3. Atlantic City

The Knitting ladies won the top two spots!  We were also a little more sober than the rest of the crowd.

Life is too short to not have fun; we are only here for a short time compared to the sun and the moon and all that.

– Coolio

It’s Been a While….

What a year!  I’ve missed blogging, but life just seems to get in the way and that’s okay, too.  My summer is packed with baby quilts.  Four of my friends or their children are having babies.  I love to create baby quilts, so full of color.

I love how colorful it makes my space.  The daybed is covered with all kinds of starts and almost finished quilts.

When time allows I am also working on my Matrix knitted quilt.  I’ve been working on this for quite some time.  I need to learn how to create an icord so I can put a border around it.

It feels good to be back.  I don’t think I will stay away so long this time.

 

My quote for the day:

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.”
― Allen Ginsberg