Time just goes by so quickly in the summertime doesn't it? I think it's been only a few days since I've posted, and wham! Days and days have gone by!
Here's a sneak peek at a project I start tomorrow! The Milkweed Shawl KAL is beginning July 15...and I bought some lovely yarn from Stef at The Backwards Loop...take a look:



I am planning on the extensive use of lifelongs along the way...I just cannot "unknit" lace patterns...no way, no how...I'd have to rip the whole thing out...so, luckily I found a fab way for using lifelines...a fellow Ravelers hint...

So for now I'm off to wind the yarn for this, get my needles out and ready to cast on. I'm about half done with a little shrug for my granddaughter, pics to come of that soon.

My "miraculous" Mara shawl is all but done! And I love it...I have a few ends to weave in and then I'll do a nice blocking this weekend...but I do love it...so soft and squishy! I only call it miraculous because I think if I would've been doing this alone I would have given up in frustration and frogged it long ago. I don't know why, just had a lot of issues with the yarn-overs...I think maybe because of course being a shawl, the triangular nature of the pattern, along with the yarn-overs maybe compounded the problem. But because I did this via a knit-a-long on Ravelry, well, that saved me...so nice to have the online knitting community to bounce questions off of, what a difference it makes! Ah well, all is good now, I'm so happy to have the shawl off the needles...so without further ado here is my Mara shawl...



now I'm awaiting my yarn for the next KAL I've joined...this time the Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau...can't wait!

A bit of a lapse here in posting all the photos...never could seem to remember the camera batteries when I was out and about. But now...here's a smattering of photos...take a look!

First off, my lovely Kindle cover! Beautiful, just beautiful...I wasn't sure how I'd like it, and it is kind of pricey, but oh, it is gorgeous! This is the Avenue of Trees design in Fern color, and attached is the little Tree of Life charm (freebie)...inside is my sleeping Kindle :-)



Next off, wanted to share the blooms from my garden...this is the first year bloom for the clematis.



Here's a coiled yarn attempt (first time) using a single spun from a TerraBellaSpun Party batt...lots of fun, slow going, but the results are lovely I think...I've named it Gypsy...



And lastly, photos of yarns I'm using this week...Madelinetosh yarn, from Stef of The Backwards Loop, in the Fig colorway for the Mara shawl KAL on Ravelry (on The Backwards Loop forum) and also a DK weight hand-dyed yarn I bought for test knitting a little preemie jacket...I'm thinking this yarn will be oh-so-cute, so we'll see!

for Mara shawl:


for Paxton Preemie Jacket:


Ooops, don't want to forget this cute little crochet pot I made, pattern from Ravelry...link to follow...

Nothing too terribly exciting to post about...working on spinning up some roving I bought last August at the Midwest Fiber Festival. It's a nice blend of merino and tencel...really makes it kinda slippery to spin with the tencel in there, but such beautiful colors I'm having fun with it. I'm hoping I get enough yardage to use it in a little Baby Surprise Jacket (Zimmerman).

Working on some flower motifs (crochet) for the May Flower Swap on Ravelry...should have those done by tomorrow. The colors my swap partner requested are reds with medium greens. The colors I requested for myself are Halloween inspired: pumpkin orange, purple, fuschia, hot pink, wee bits of yellow, grays and lime green. My idea is that I will then crochet these together with chaining (like netting) with black, then I'd be able to use it as a table runner of sorts...hmmmm...I hope it looks as nice as I envision it being.

And, have another repeat or two of the lace pattern on the Boheme sweater. I'd think this will be done by tonite, there's a Red Wings game on and I'll be knitting/crocheting thru-out.

If all goes well I'll have some photos to post by tomorrow.

Pay it Forward...
joined from the Blogging group on Ravelry and I'm doing it just a wee bit different...
So, for my rules, only the first 3 comments participating in the Pay It Forward Giveaway will receive a gift, but they have to be comments on 3 of my currently comment-less posts okay? So look down the list, I just started my blog a bit ago :-)

Recap of the Rules:
1. Be one of the first three to leave a comment to any three comment-less posts, with the link to your Pay It Forward Giveaway post.
2. Be willing to follow through on sending out one prize each to three lucky winners of your contest.
3. Make sure your profile has contact information available.

So that's it then! I'll just wait to see what happens! I love getting comments, I try to respond to all and need the enticement of comments to encourage me to blog.

Well, to start with, I'm trying, striving to achieve a good amount of organization for 2009. We'll see how far I get, but I have made progress.

Knitting lures me away from a lot of my routine tasks but I have started cracking down and trying to do the routine first, then reward myself with knitting or crafting time.

And another thing...I get so far off track that I seldom post my finished items on Ravelry...well, that has to change...so I've just posted a small dishcloth that I did, it's for St. Paddy's Day, a shamrock of course, and I'm just a wee bit away from finishing the larger cloth! These two cloths were posted as a freebie by the very talented Kris from KrisKnits. And here is my smaller one:



ahhhh...isn't it just so cute??? Can't wait to finish up the large cloth tonite...just a few rows to go!

I'm anxiously awaiting Kris' Springtime Cloth collection, and I'll be starting those pronto!
Oh, by the way, there's a link to KrisKnits on the sidebar...be sure to look at all her luscious cloth collections she has for sale on the right hand side of her page....yummmmmmm!!!