Knitting is Good for Your Health

It has finally been "studied" and, according to the Mayo Clinic, knitting is good for your health. The report I saw was on CBS News, click on this link to see it for yourself.

Now it is not only fun, but good for you. How many things can we say that about?



Happy Knitting!

Happy Easter

Easter morning started out with white rain and progressed until it looked like this by noon. It was a welcome sight to see so much slush because the we have had such a dry warm winter.

It was a good day for housecleaning and knitting. I did more of the former and a little of the latter.

Duckers had her family around and we needed to do the spring family portrait.

What was missing from my Sunday was my faithful sidekick, Pedro. He is spending the week at Camp Mouse with his grandparents because they are doing unit inspections this week that include fire alarm and sprinkler inspections. I thought he might not need the stress. I do miss him though.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter. I am glad to get some serious spring cleaning done and am ready to spend this week catching up on my knitting. I am starting the lace section of the FLS and am experimenting with a swatch sample of the newest rage, the K1b by Duvekot.

I have attempted the cast on about 8 times and still have not figured out what instructions are trying to get me to do. I looked for videos and have not found any yet. I am signed up for a class in May to master this technique so I can teach it later this year. I love the look of the fabric it creates. I hope everyone had a "Hoppy" Easter, ate lots of candy and had a great time.

Flower Class: Cabbage Roses

The second flower class, Cabbage Roses, went well. It is a fun knit with lots of possibilities for its use. At some point we decided that these will make fun hair barretts with a button sewn in the middle.

I will be creating some of those for my nieces to go for stocking stuffers this year. Will have some pics to show later when they are assembled.

Have a great weekend!

FLS Update: Yoke

I am making progress on the February Lady Sweater. And, so far, I like it.

I have to send out a thank you to A Knotted Yarn blog for her insightful hints that she shared from her knitting experience of the FLS.

I read through the pattern then read her hints and made the following adjustments before I cast on: decided to make the size smaller because it has been reported that this sweater "grows"; marked the right side of the garter yoke after the second row so I would not be guessing all the time; looked at the suggested video about the described M1 increases; reviewed the buttonhole on a sample swatch along with the M1s and reviewed her notes about where she decided to make the eyelet increases.

So far I am pleased with the look of this sweater, however not pleased with the buttonholes. I think I will be researching buttonhole techniques before I knit another one. I am not going to rip out what I have done so far to redo it, my plan is to clean them up with some crochet edge and camouflage the sloppy parts. I think I am to the eyelet increases and definitely to the place that this project has to stay at home. It has gotten to bulky to be portable without the fear of it creeping off the needles.

I hope everyone is enjoying the first hints of warmer weather.

April: Days to Celebrate!

Lucy Neatby's birthday on April 4th, I think that is big and she should be celebrating for at least the whole month. Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Of course, we had April Fool's Day, for me it came and went quickly with no ill pranks. It was followed quickly by National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. Now, there is a comfort sandwich I can get behind. I wonder when National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day is?

Hoppy bunnies will celebrate Easter on April 12th this year. That is the moving holiday discussed earlier in this blog. After that National Pecan Day will be on April 14th, followed by National Cheese Ball Day on April 17th and Garlic Day on the 19th. I think I see a pattern here.

Then we skip along through Earth Day on the 22nd and sharing that day is National Jelly Bean Day. Tree and shrubs are celebrated on the 24th - Arbor Day. It is also National Pig-in-a-Blanket Day.

Rounding out this month, that seems to be mostly about food, is National Pretzel Day on the 26th and National Shrimp Scampi Day.

The month is also known as National Kite and Frog Month.

I hope you find a way to celebrate the days of this first full month of Spring!

Note: Days brought to you by hoops&yoyo (Hallmark) since my apartment complex failed to deliver their monthly newsletter to my door.

Weekend Update

With the kid cardis completed and packaged for shipping, I decided it is time to start a project for me.

I am casting on the February Lady Sweater for my house project and I will be working on the Plain and Fancy Scarf pattern I got in Taos as my car project.

Around these items I will finish more samples for the shop and some small gift items I need to prep for upcoming birthdays. All in all, it has been a very productive year so far.


For the rest of my weekend I worked on seasonal clothing changeout and reduction. Then I took the folks to the Butte Opera House in Cripple Creek for the production of Arsenic and Old Lace staged by the Butte Players Community Theater.

Even though over the years the productions have become more professional with paid actors for the parts in the Thin Air Players, this group showed their mettle and hard work under the tutelage of the director, our favorite Mel Moser. I hope we see more of these kind of productions in conjuction with the season of "professional" productions.

Finished! Kid Cardis

Duckers is happily modeling the last kid cardi and kerchief, all finished and ready to head to the Midwest for Easter apparel.

These were a really fun knit, and got me all geared up to knit a sweater for myself.

The original cardi that got me started on kid sweaters is finished as well and ready to ship across the big pond to the niece in Germany, along with some other goodies for her birthday.

Duckers is going to get the first attempt at the Baby Surprise Jacket that I want to make. I borrowed the DVD that explains the construction of the BSJ from CatWithCats and it now makes so much more sense to me. (Thanks, Cat)

Once I make the first one, I may try to downsize it to actually fit Duckers. I think he will look so cute in a sweater come next winter.

Well, I am off to finish changing out my seasonal closet in anticipation of warmer weather. It has been a great day to stay home and get all these things done, as the blizzard winds shook the windows and the occasionally snowflake scurried by. Pedro napped between gusts and the occasional bout at the window to jump at the snowflakes. I wish I had video. Have a great rest of your weekend!