Last day of June, so a look back at the month isn't a bad topic. I've also been wrapping DNiece#1's birthday gift because I will be out of town, and want to give it to her father (my brother) today so it's waiting for her. He's coming over to my parents' house so we can help them put back all the things moved out of two rooms where they had carpeting replaced with flooring in the last week.
I was at a conference in Denver for three days. I'd been asked to co-present a session on negotiations, and then was asked to fill-in on another session, plus I wanted to attend a few of the other topics. However, it was not just end-of-month but end-of-quarter and work was crazily busy. I was pulled out of a couple sessions and look forward to viewing the recordings so I can learn what I missed.
Even though it was hot, the mornings were nice enough for walks:
Progress on Things: Not much accomplished in terms of reading, because I am working on an anthology and it is long and slow. I like Ellery Queen's short stories, but these novels read as if he is still writing to get paid by the word. It's his style, not my favourite, but not so bad that I am ditching the book. As of today I am mostly through the fourth novel and the final one looks shorter.
Just before going to Denver I finished these bags:
A lady posted to our neighborhood e-list that she wanted help to make something. She has very basic crocheting skills, and didn't want to learn how to do these, it turned out she wanted somebody else to make them for her. A granddaughter made some and gave her the pattern, but was going overseas for the summer and wouldn't be able to make them. I thought it was an interesting pattern and said I would help. The bottom is a double thickness with an opening so the bag can tuck inside.
The lady purchased the yarn/string and a hook (wrong size) and dropped them off. I took these to St. Louis and it was perfect not-pay-attention crocheting. I told her that I have some green so she didn't need to get a big ball for the few yards the leaves would take, and I found some cute blue strawberry buttons in one of my button jars that were perfect for these. As you can see, the pattern is supposed to make a citrus fruit result but she liked blue better, so received giant blueberries. I didn't tell her that there was enough string to make two bags, deciding to surprise her, and when she called to see how I was coming along I just said that it was almost ready. I dropped them off at her house during one of my morning walks before going to Denver and she was quite thrilled. I returned the pattern but have it memorized in case I want to make more.
I took a super-simple hat of wild yarn to work on at the conference and traveling, plus a surprise project for a friend, and am finally back to this:
I took the photo after my yoga teacher said that we should find something to look at during balancing poses that makes us happy and isn't moving. I love rainbows, I love knitting, and this made me happy despite the struggles. A friend who makes socks gave me a bunch of leftovers to share with another friend who makes a lot of hats and things for charity. While waiting to deliver the box (to which I am adding some of my own leftovers) I decided to use some of the yarns to make things. I thought about how to use striping yarn in a way that highlights the stripes, instead of muddles them. Often a yarn made for socks will have stripes calculated based upon foot-width, not head-width, so you lose the effect or it's just very skinny stripes. Plus since these are leftovers there isn't enough of one to make a hat, so I have to combine things.
The first part, shown above, was to knit what I call a "vertical ribbing" which is done on a narrow width in repeats of knit a row, purl a row, knit a row. I started and ended with orange. Next is to pick up around the edge, which I started and stalled and then did the blueberry bags. So now it is back to this hat - I thought knitting a rainbow hat during Pride Month makes a lot of sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment