Danido Crafty » friends

I am working on the Hey, Teach pattern for the Ravelympics. The Ravelympics run for the duration of the Summer Olympics (17 days), which means I have 17 days to knit this sweater.

You were supposed to pick things that would be a challenge for you. Well this sweater has been a challenge.

First of all I’ve never done a sweater flat to be seamed, because I hate seaming. So I always do my sweaters top down raglan so there is nothing to seam.

Secondly I’ve never done a lace pattern that involves shaping as well. All the lace I’ve done has been a scarf or other flat pieces of fabric that doesn’t involve working shaping into the lace pattern. That has proven to be the most difficult part of this sweater, however I must say that I felt like the Best Knitter IN THE WORLD when I did get the arm shaping to work out without messing up the lace pattern.

I’m nearly finished with the back panel, as of bed time last night I had only four more inches to go on the back. I’ll finish that part today and hopefully get a fair amount done on the first front panel. If I continue in this manner, I’m hoping to have the knitting done by Thursday of this week, so that the seaming can begin over the weekend, for a finished product by this time next week.

If that happens, that will leave me another week worth of Ravelympic time to do the Toe Up Jaywalkers that I had slated to do during the Ravelympics as well. These would be for Mike.

I finished the Express Lane socks that I was working up in the Pagewood Farms Yukon sock yarn that I showed ya’ll in the last post. Since my readers failed me and only one of you suggested a sock pattern, I went ahead and did the Express Lane pattern with that sock yarn, which I ended up gifting to my friend Bethany anyway because she fell in love with the colors in the sock.

 

The beautiful Befany with her socks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The yarn was quite divine to knit with, I will be purchasing more in various color ways. I wasn’t totally in love with these colors for myself, which is why I didn’t mind giving these up to Bethany.

Now I have this sock yarn that needs to be worked up. I’d like a nice fall/winter style sock to work this yarn in. It’s not too stripey, so this is good yarn for lace and cables. Any ideas, ya’ll?

 

 

 

Dream in Color Smooshy

 

 

 

I’m headed back to work on the Hey Teach sweater. Updates forthcoming!

I know that fiber folk of all types are caring and giving people, well right now there are some little faces that need some help.

Right now in Pima County in Arizona there are almost 800 animals that have been seized from a home there in what has been described as the worst conditions some of the responders have ever seen. These animals are victims who cannot help themselves. They are being cared for by the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. Humane Societies are notoriously under staffed and under funded and I’m certain that this crisis has put a tremendous burden on them. I hope that each of you can find room in your hearts and bank accounts to donate a few dollars to help the Humane Society in Arizona continue to give these animals the care and attention that they need and to help them find forever homes instead of being euthanized. Please also forward this email on to anyone you think may be able to help.

If you would like to adopt one of these animals that would be even better and I am offering to personally drive to Arizona (only a few hours from my home in Las Vegas) to pick up an animal and I will help arrange to get the animal to you if you need the help.

You can read about this story and donate to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona at the following link:

http://www.hssaz.org/

Thank you!

 

** Some of you have may already seen this as I have sent out an email similar to this to my contacts and I have also posted this on a few boards on Ravelry. I cannot  begin to express how upset this story has made me and I will not stop asking for you to reach out and give a little to help these poor animals. If I had the ability to, I would be on my way to Arizona as we speak to rescue one or two (or 800) of these little faces myself. If you or anyone you know wants a dog, thinks they want a dog or wants a baby but would settle for a dog, please PLEASE share this with them. These animals are in danger of being put down if they cannot find homes for them. I will make the ‘puppy run’ to Arizona myself to bring one back if you cannot make the trip.