My one and only

At the moment I have only one project on my needles. I'm diligently working on my Circle Squares (that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?) for the blanket I will donate to the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-thon this year.


My progress is so very slow. As hard as I have tried to date I have only cranked out 16 squares. I need 35 to make a blanket.


I'm anxious to start joining the squares, but I must restrain myself. I need to finish all the squares first so I can decide on their placement. Can't wait. The knit-a-thon takes place on Sunday, November 6th. It's not in the cards for me to attend this year's event, so I guess the pressure is off. I will send the completed blanket in once it's finished, when ever that may be, hopefully before the end of the year.

Are you thinking about adding some new yarn to your stash? If you think you do need more yarn, be sure and check out the auction going on to benefit the Pine Street Inn and to help end homelessness. There are lots of great yarns up on the auction block.  Thanks for looking :)

Last, but not least a special note to let everyone know that my Circle Baby Blanket Pattern is now available in Spanish with charts on Ravelry. Special thanks to Carmela Salcedo, my knitting friend from Spain for translating the pattern. To download the Spanish Translation just click on the Ravelry download link.

I think that's it for now. Once I finish my blanket I hope to have more to show you. Have a great weekend with lots of happy knitting :)

Copyright ©2006-2011 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.

Trying to turn over a new leaf

I've really been trying to be a better blogger, reading and posting, but it isn't working out. I guess I'm just not motivated enough. My only excuse is that I've been distracted by other things. I have way too much on my to-do-list that I get paralyzed ;)

Since this is a knitting blog,  I'll show you some of my finished items, so you can see I am accomplishing a few things. First a baby blanket for my husband's niece whose baby is due in November:
I love this pattern, for it looks great on either side.
It's a pattern from Debbie Macomber. In fact this particular blanket was mentioned originally in one her (Hannah's List (Blossom Street) books that I read  this summer and  I found the pattern in  Knit Along With Debbie Macomber: Hannah's List. This Leisure Arts book has other interesting patterns as well. In the future I'll definitely be making this one again. It's easy, plus the pattern keeps you interested and it doesn't get boring.

My sister, who visited me this summer, had a birthday in the beginning of October, so I sent her a little package.
I made her a couple of my favorite dishcloths (ballband and DW), a toilet paper cover and a set of crocheted  potholders. I included some notecards and chocolate. She seemed pleased.

I also made a set of  potholders for a friend. I used the same crocheted pattern.
They make nice hot pads. Decorative and useful...a very good thing.

I'm still reading listening to my audio books. I've really been enjoying Debbie Macomber's books. I've just finished the Blossom Street series and will start the Cedar Cove series soon. I've taken a little break from Debbie Macomber and I'm presently reading Room: A Novel. Initially I almost gave up on this book until I realized what it was about and then I had a hard time putting it down. Won't spoil it for you should you want to read it, but I recommend especially the audio version. If you are interested I've been keeping track of my books with Goodreads. Its ravelry for reading. Be sure and check it out as it is very clever!

Miss Pink is no longer blooming. She made me quite happy for over 6 months and is now working on a new leaf.
Hopefully she'll be nice to me and make me some more flowers. I've been feeding her, but not sure what else to do to get her to blossom again. I'll have to get her a new pot soon, too.

I was not very happy to find that my poor Christmas cactus had been attacked. I think the culprits may be either our resident chipmunks or the squirrels that live in our back yard. I've caught a squirrel digging up my daffodil bulbs. Not sure what happened, but I'm not happy. I potted some of the broken off pieces in hopes of salvaging the plant. Luckily it is all budded up, so I think the main plant should survive. Big difference from last year
though...how sad.

One of my main distractions lately is my interest in my family's history. Encouraged by my sister, who is an expert in her own right, I've been bitten by the search bug and at some point couldn't help myself. I've found out some interesting things I didn't know. It's so much fun. It's like solving a  big puzzle. Now I have to put it all together with the photos and documents I do have. Once again I wish I had more time to do it all justice.

Not willing to make a promise I may not keep so I wont tell you I will post more often, but I will tell you I'll try not to wait so long in between posts. Guess I'm in a rut. Maybe my knitting is just not as exciting as it was before. I'm still working on the circle squares (my only project on the needles right now) for my Pine Street Inn blanket. I'm not going to be able to attend the knit-a-thon this year and I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish all the squares in time to assemble the blanket in time for the knit-a-thon. I'm determined to keep all the squares together, so I can donate a finished blanket. Last year I almost had enough squares, but decided to donate just the squares i did get done. It was hard to see them split up. I had envisioned a blanket with just my squares. Do you remember the ones from last year? Hopefully I'll get it done in time to send in, if not it will be a little late. Better late than never, right?

That's pretty much it for now. Bye for now.....Happy Knitting :)




Copyright ©2006-2011 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.

Still knitting

The summer really flew by and now I find myself right smack dab in the middle of September. Can't believe the month is half gone. It really feels like fall already. It is actually cold here with the temps yesterday barely reaching 60 degrees.

I have not been a very good blogger. At the beginning of the summer I thought I'd have so much time to do everything I wanted to do. Never happened. I did have a wonderful visit with my sister and husband, but the rest of the summer just flew by.  We spent a little time at the cape. Then, once home had an extended power outage due to that nasty "lady" named Irene, mean Irene, as I have heard her called. The hurricane that hit New England pretty hard. We didn't have much damage, a few minor branches down, but we lost power, phone, cable, internet for almost four days. That was hard. We managed ok. I bought ice to try to save our food. Lost some, but not due to spoilage. Just couldn't refreeze what had thawed and couldn't cook and eat it all. Lost the ice cream I had. We sacrificed it, knowing the if we opened up the freezer to eat it, we definitely would lose what was in the freezer.

I have been knitting. I've been listening to audiobooks. Early in the spring/summer I discovered them and have not looked back. It all started when I borrowed one of those playaways at  my library and I liked it! I also tried downloading audiobooks from my local library. My middle son was kind enough to let me borrow his MP3 player, a sansa fuze, and I loved it! Totally awesome and I found myself not only knitting with it, but cooking and doing my household chores while listening to my books. This takes multitasking to a whole new level for me. Doing something you enjoy while doing things that are not, well, exciting, makes me stay focused and I easily get the jobs done with less distraction. I also found when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep, I really liked listening to my books. Since my husband didn't know what I wanted for my birthday in June, I suggested he get me my very own fuze. Which he did. I did a little research and found that the best model for audiobooks is the older model of the  Sansa Fuze (See all MP3 Players), the same one my son has:
I found it surprising that the newer and "improved" fuze was not so good with audiobooks from the reviews I had read. Thankfully new models of the old fuze are still available. I bought mine on amazon. I have got to tell you I LOVE that little thing.

Now this leads me to tell you about what I have been knitting, well actually if you really must know know I did do some crochet, not knitting this time. I needed something to hold my fuze when I would listen to it in the middle of the night. I came up with this, a bed sling for my fuze:

Perfect to hang on the bedpost. It keeps it nice and handy for when I need it during the night. I can listen and I don't disturb my husband. Perfect!

Then I realized I could use a sling for me to wear around my neck. Most of my pockets don't hold much and some of my pants don't even have pockets. I didn't want to buy a special case so I crochet a similar little pouch to wear around my neck. The neck sling is ideal for a mobile fuze holder while I'm actively doing housework or just for sitting and knitting and when I knit and listen in the car. It's always handy. Can you tell how happy I am with the way both of these slings turned out?


The other project I worked on was a poncho for me to wear in the house this winter. I can wear it over my multiple layers when I get cold. I made it on the suggestion of my sister when she was here this summer. I used some of her handspun wool, plus some of my odds end ends of wool yarn that I have accumulated. It is a real stashbuster! She even furnished me with the pattern. Not sure where she got it from....have not been able to find it on the internet anywhere. Here it is:


I'm sure to be nice and warm this winter :)


Currently I am working on a baby blanket for a niece whose baby is due in November. It's a new to me pattern and I'm liking the way it is knitting up. I'm also still working on the circle squares for a blanket, but I have to admit there has been very little progress on this project. I In addition I have to get going on some gift items that I'll be needing soon. You may not be hearing from me, but I assure you ....I am still knitting away....happily :)

Bye for now....Happy Knitting :)

P.S. I'm getting very forgetful. In my last post, I forgot to show you the pepper mill my brother-in-law made for me:
It looks like a lighthouse and I love it!


Copyright ©2006-2011 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.