The finished wedding afghan

Here is the long awaited wedding gift. It was received in time for the wedding on July 19th in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

I'm now working on a 12 square afghan for one of my younger granddaughters. You will remember her as Megan, an advanced knitter in her own right.

New to knitting life, a followers widget

I'm returning to knitting life after a long absence due to illness and a long vacation.

As a way of welcoming my readers to return, I've added a Followers Widget. Please add your name as a follower and let me know your thoughts. Let us make a community of healing and joy as we create.

Blessings,
Judy

Update on Family Project - part 2

We are close to the deadline and there are problems.

Panels one and two completed and joined using a crochet technique. The third panel I finished up to the last six rows of knit. My husband decided that this is where he will put in his touch of love. David is a new knitter. He received tips from Meg Downey on how to hone his skill in using the continental style of holding the hands. Still waiting on this strip to be completed. I am impressed with how quickly David is learning the knitting stitch and how involved with our family project.

Panel number four, Megan's column. She was doing great until she reached the last square, the Spider Web. Meg has knitted this pattern and does very well, yet when she was in the last three inches, she messed up. She was ill with fever and could not figure which row she was on and recognized that she had made mistakes which deemed it unlikely she would be able to recover the pattern when she would be well.

Meg handed the fourth column to me and I couldn't figure out which row she was on or the mistakes made. Sooooooooooooooooo.....................I ripped it out.

Now I was down to the fourth square in the fourth panel, the square nobody likes, the square that sticks out like a sore thumb. Don't get me wrong, Megan did a fantastic job in knitting the pattern, but IT was the only block in the whole afghan that was made with muticolord yarn.

Down at the yarn shop, the knitters are kind and generous in their praise for this beautiful work, yet each one would ask about That Multicolored Block and nobody likes it.

Mistakes and ripping out offer possibilities for better design choices. I'm choosing this opportunity to have one square in pink, our bride-to-be's favorite color and I will use the pink to crochet around the the finished afghan. Oh, will we get there in time?

This brings us to the fifth panel being knitted by Paula, our daughter. Busy, stressed, and not being able to pick it up for a few days, I offered to finish her last square. Why did I do that? Although I worked on it, I put it down to attend to the fourth column.

Maybe, I will be able to have Paula pick up her panel and finish it, that would be a great help.

My friends at the yarn store will pitch in and help me - I will ask that they weave in the ends and help with joining the panels. They have already said they will help with the blocking.

The time crunch, will we be able finish the gift this week and ship it off to Cleveland? The wedding is on July 19th.

Wish us well.

Congratulations to Darcy

Congratulations to Darcy's Knotty Knitter for her 200th post on her blog. She is celebrating by having a drawing for prizes. Visit her at http://darcyknottyknitter.blogspot.com/

Please tell her that you learned about her drawing from "knitting life."

I learned of Darcy's celebration from http://ponyknit.blogspot.com/

What is your answer?

Happiness is . . .

Leave me a comment.

Judy

Knitting the Family Project - Part 1

David, Megan, Paula and Julia.

David learning and Judy working on a panel.

Our family is working on a wedding blanket, 60" x 60", 25 squares knitted in five panels. I am responsible for three panels. Megan, 12 in July, is committed to one panel. Julia, 10 in July, is deciding which square she will do on the 5th and last panel. Paula, our daughter, is doing the last column with some help from Julia. David, my husband, is learning the knitting stitch and will contribute to the last of the two squares I am on. The gift is for our second oldest granddaughter, Katharine and her soon to be husband, Jim.

I've made lots of mistakes and marvel at the fluidity of Megan's knitting. Meg Downey says that the mistakes are our "signature stitches." This helps to look at it this way. To give myself some slack, I had put down knitting over 25 years ago and then didn't much enjoy doing it. When we moved to Pocatello, I quickly realized that one of the ways to spend quality time with my family would be to pick up knitting. I have thrown my self whole heartily into it and enjoy many hours at the Mustard Seed Dreams yarn store.

Mustard Seed Dreams - Pocatello, Idaho

Megan, my 11 year old granddaughter has been knitting for six years. She taught me how to knit again. I hadn't knitted for more than 25 years, and then was not an eager knitter. Our family knits in the continental style. Having benn taught by Ruthie Brutz, our son's wife. Hanna Peck, Ruthie's mother came from the Bruderhoff and knits in the Continental style.

These photos were taken at the Mustard Seed Dreams Shop in Pocotello, Idaho. I hang out there. Megan, 11 years, teaches classes there.

Megan is working on a family project with me, Paula, Julia, Meg's 9 year sister. David, my husband says he wants to be involved also. So far he hasn't initiated learning how to do the knit stitch. I have only two and a half blocks to do. So we will see what happens. Later in the summer I will be able to post pictures on this special family project.

Paula Phelps, our daughter, is also in these photos. As busy as she is, she always has knitting projects going on. She just finished chemo hats for the cancer society and now is taking up the family project.

Summer Knitting Goals

My Summer Knitting Goals:

1. complete a 60" x 60" blanket. It has 25 squares, differing colors and block designs.
2. knit a 12 block blanket for my granddaughter who will be 12 years old in July.
3. knit a vest for myself.
4. complete 2 scarves