Crafting for Charity Update

I seem to be getting the hang of this whole knitting thing. Last Thursday (7/23) I went to Yarniverse and learned how to cast off and weave in the ends. Here is a look at the finished project, my first eco-friendly scarf. It kept .6 plastic bottles from a landfill and took about a week and a half to finish. Wednesday night I started my second scarf. I didn't have as much yarn in my skein as I had hoped, so it's a little shorter than the first but still works. I used larger needles (13s) so it only took me about 4 days to complete. I just need to weave in the ends once I get the proper tool.

And here is my 3rd scarf. I started it on Sunday afternoon and was able to get a lot done while hanging out and playing Wii with LadyBoyd and friends. I should be finished by week's end even though I plan on making this a longer scarf.

I think I'm about ready to make scarfs for some of my friends and maybe learn some more advanced techniques. We'll just have to wait and see.

Weekend in Words & Photos

On Thursday evening E, J & I ate a quick dinner that consisted of Whole Foods sushi and then made our way across the parking lot to see the new Vatican approved Harry Potter movie. We got there early so we could find three seats together. While most everyone else was playing on their cell phones waiting for the movie to start I did what any other self respecting 30-something would do: I put on my glasses and started knitting. Below is a pic of my progress taken just before I went to sleep on Thursday night. (BTW, great movie; can't wait for #7.)

Friday evening was spent studying to teach the earliteen SS lesson, making ice cream, and knitting. In preparation for Saturday night's Ice Cream Social, I borrowed E's ice cream maker and tried my hand at Avocado Ice Cream a la Alton Brown and a Vegan Butter Pecan. Here is photo evidence of what got accomplished Friday night. If you make the Butter Pecan, I recommend using half of the vanilla that the recipe calls for. I found it a bit overpowering. But it might have been just me since I got compliments and there was none left over.

Who doesn't like green food? I know that some people were a little bit skeptical of avocado ice cream, but I think that they ended up being pleasantly surprised. And besides, I have to shake things up every once and awhile. There were some leftovers, but I put them to good use in an avocado milkshake on Sunday.

And finally, here is the status of my knitting as of Friday night.

Saturday brought rest, busyness (teaching SS, doing announcements, & children's story) and the church social. I was happy to see that quite a few people came out for the festivities and sampled the ice cream. Most people left before the games started but a few of us stuck around. There was a nice group of us who brought our knitting/crocheting and worked on our projects while socializing. This is what I ended up with by the end of the night.

After such a busy week I decided to play hermit on Sunday. I slept til 10a, made breakfast, and settled in to a day of laundry, DVR watching (yay for Eureka, MI-5, Royal Pains, Mission Impossible 3, etc), and knitting. I don't feel so guilty watching so much TV anymore now that I can multi-task. Here is my almost finished scarf. I'm down to the last couple of yards of yarn in the skein and will have to stop soon and wait to meet up with S so she can show me how to finish off the scarf. I should be starting on my next project sometime this week. I'm going to try for a larger needle size and some bulkier yarn. I might even be really geeky and check out Yarniverse.

She's Crafty...

Yesterday was a long but fruitful day. The Women's Ministry group at church started a Crafting for the Homeless/Halfway House residents project. There was crocheting, knitting, and fleece blanket/scarf tying. Since I tied a few blankets last year and once knew how to crochet (and by once I mean about 20 years ago--dang, that makes me feel old!), I figured it was time to learn to knit. I brought along my newly purchased needles and yarn and was ready to learn! It wasn't nearly as easy as I had hoped. It took me a little while to catch on when it came to getting the loops from one needle to the next. But after a bit of practice I was ready to start my scarf project for real. Since I was using small needles and a thinner yarn, I found some great yarn make out of recycled plastic bottles, I went with 35 stitches. Somehow that morphed into 37 stitches by the time I was ready to head home. After a couple of hours at home, my stitches numbered 42. I have no idea how that happened. I did discover a hole and when I tried to pull out the stitches, I couldn't put them back on the needles. So I did what anyone who had spent 4 hours on a project would do, I unraveled the whole thing and started over. After another 2.5 hours, I was back to where I had been before. Here is a view of my progress: Knitting Day 1

This pic shows a little more detail.

This one shows the beautiful Forrest Green color