Plain Jane Knits Up A Storm

A few musings about my needlecraft hobbies - knitting, crocheting, quilting, & cross-stitch along with my other love, genealogy. While growing up, I used to HATE the term "Plain Jane", but when it comes to knitting & crocheting, I've realized that I really *am* a Plain Jane in that I don't use fancy yarns.

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Location: Northern Detroit Metro area, Michigan, United States

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Lucky 13

Another K4 Thursday get-together and I was able to turn in 13 sets of hats and scarves since our last meeting two weeks ago. You know that you're hooked on an activity when not even Thanksgiving dinner keeps you from regretting that the holiday is on a Thursday and there's no meeting that day. {g}

I have 5 scarves made by others that need hats, so after finishing the scarf I'm working on, those will be my first priority. After that, I brought home some more skeins that will blend with the various Rainbow Dreams colorways. I'm not sure if I can keep up with the almost one set a day pace that I maintained these last two weeks because I'd like to get some things made for the grandchildren, but we'll see.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Turkey Day Come & Gone

I've been busy the last couple days. Thanksgiving dinner was a success and we have lots of leftovers so I won't have to cook much for the next few days other than maybe mix up another batch of instant mashed potatoes. The fruited cheese salad (recipe in the last post) evaporated as usual. That's one of the reasons that I only make it for special holidays - it's too good to leave alone {g}

I've also been knitting & crocheting a lot with six sets plus the hat for a seventh finished and 5 days to go until the next K4 meeting. These first three were made with a solid color scarf and the same solid plus a standard type variegated yarn for the hats.




The second set of three are the same except that I used Rainbow Dreams for the variegated "windows" in the hats. The hot pink set uses the Rosy Forecast colorway and the turquoise & orangy gold sets use the Maritime colorway. It was interesting to see how the different solids brought out different shades of the Maritime. It appears mainly blue in the turquoise hat while the gold solid brings out the greens & golds in it.



The scarf isn't finished for this pale pink set using Rosy Forecast as the contrasting variegated.



These sets are fun to do, plus they make up quickly. It usually takes less that five hours to both knit the hat and crochet the scarf. Some of them are the regular sized pattern with 66 stitches while I made others more child sized by using 60 stitches and only 4 repeats of the "windows". The scarves are worked in double crochet with a size K hook and are between 44" and 50" long. Widths vary from 7 to 8 rows depending on how much yarn I had of the solid after making the hat.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

This & That & Turkey Day

I've been a *bad* blogger recently in that I haven't posted much and have taken even fewer photos. I have been knitting though - lots of hats and scarves that pretty much look like the photos I posted a while back. I mentioned that our K4 group was working hard on sets to donate to the shelter for homeless veterans in Detroit. Last Thursday we sorted and packed *50* each of hats and scarves that Gloria & her husband Paul delivered over the weekend. Now we're back to making sets that will probably go to FISH, a local charity, for distribution before Xmas - I have three sets finished since last Thursday and the hat almost finished on the 4th set. I've been crocheting the matching scarves because that goes faster than knitting them.

On the reading front, I'm reading, but I haven't been keeping very good track. I need to update, but there have been several books that I've started and then put down (the nice thing about library books is that I can do that without feeling guilty). I've read the first section of an extremely good space opera by Elizabeth Moon - I think it's actually three novels printed as one huge book, so I may list that one on it's own as it was longer than many stand-alone books. Tonight I started Nora Ephron's "I Feel Bad About My Neck".

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We normally eat around 1 in the afternoon so I need to pull out the turkey size baking bags and see how long they say it takes to roast a 21# turkey. There's only three of us for dinner, but we do like leftovers {g}.. The rest of the menu will be mashed potatoes (instant), gravy, dressing (I tore up two and a half loaves of bread - about 1/5 of it will go into the turkey where it will get horribly soupy and then be mixed in with the rest of the dressing and nuked in the microwave. It's a strange method that always turns out quite well and provides enough dressing that we might have some leftover until Friday), broccoli, carrots & brussel sprouts. Oh, and fruited cheese salad: 1 container of cottage cheese, 1 container of cool whip, 1 pkg of orange jello (dry) and 1 can each of well drained pineapple chunks & mandarin orange slices. Mix together & chill. It's been a family favorite for over a quarter century.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

When All Else Fails..........

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Ok, it doesn't really qualify as a "real" post, but there hasn't been much to write about lately that's cheerful and I hate downer posts. I've been knitting - still working on "guy" type hat & scarf sets for the shelter for homeless Veteran's in Detroit. I think that I had 48 or 49 hats at the point where I joined the Cover Your Head KAL, and I'm now up to 89 with at least 5 more to turn in before the deadline on Thursday. Unfortunately, while I have access to the KAL blog, I haven't been added to the sidebar yet so I can report the number of hats. Ah well, that's sort of minor compared to being sure that these men who have served our country have something to help keep them warm this winter. Once our K4 group finishes with this dedicated set of hats, we'll probably be working on children's sets for Christmas and after that, I'll be back to using up all the leftover balls of yarn in Ragtag afghans. Right now, my house seems to be overflowing with leftovers.






What Color is Your Brain?





GOLD:

At work or in school: I like set routines and organized ways of doing thingsl rules and directions are a great help to me. I prefer to stay on one topic at a time. I need to know what is expected of me, and I always want to know if I am on the right track. I like subjects that are useful and traditional, such as business, accounting, history and government.

With friends: I prefer people who are careful with their money and who make plans ahead of time. I like my friends to be loyal, dependable and on time. I am serious about love and show it in many practical ways.

With family: I like stability and security and enjoy traditions and frequent celebrations. I like to spend holidays with family members, and I plan ahead for such gatherings.
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