I've gone through a number of life changes in the past 4 years including staying in Virginia to care for my 92-year-old mother.  I have had no time to keep up with my blogs, but things have settled down and I am back in Florida and intend to start a couple of my blogs up again.

This site is under construction, so please be patient.2016

UFO:
Jane Eyre Shawl - might have to take out the flame pattern and make a leaf.  Difficult directions.
Infloresense I decided to make another repeat of the lace.
Black & Pink Cowl
Green Cowl
Red/Yellow baby sweater
Mary Hoyer doll clothes
Preemie dresses
Reader's scarf
Rasta hat
Eli's Sweater
Kids Aran sweater
Oddments vest
LolliePop hat
DNA hat
DNA scarf
Oliver Twist scarf
Pastel blanket
Super Hero Hat
Tilden Hat
Felted purse
Felted vase
Felted bowl
Terry baby sweater
(Some of these are not actually UFOs, but things I have kitted and in the bag and they need to be done by Christmas.)

New:
Black or Red sweater
White Aran sweater: Aidez
12 Cowls
20 Hats - done! I still have several more I want to try, so I'll change this to one a month.
12 Mitts
Knit-a-long shawl To be decided

Oddments - 16 Patterns to be used with a "bag of 1 skein oddments of yarn  We found we needed to use more patterns because several were for wool and my group Amelia Knits is from Florida.

YIKES!  I'D BETTER GET GOING!

Slytherin Socks

Scrap Yarn Sock Advent Calendar pattern by Anna Johanna - lace or Fair Isle.

Green graded yarn from BJ (shawl) ???  Which, I don't know.

Some progress

Actually, I have knit quite a lot since my last post, but I haven't been very good at taking pictures and posting on my Blog. As for my goals... One of my goals for River City Knitters was to knit a Fair Isle sweater this year. When I wrote that down, I was thinking of a sweater for me. A couple of months later, I was thinking about knitting one for one of my 11 year old granddaughters. By June, I was thinking about knitting a Fair Isle sweater for my 4 year old great granddaughter...now, well, we have to dress a teddy bear for our Christmas charity project, so I'm thinking my bear will be wearing a Fair Isle sweater! Can anyone say "downsizing?" I have knit tons of scarves with some railroad yarn and I am happy to say that I think that I have knit the last of it. That is a major stash buster. I'll post the pictures on Ravelry soon and post them here also. I've knit about 12 Fair Isle hats for charity and one for a Christmas present. Which reminds me, I have to have at least one Christmas project per month in my Christmas box...which I have done. I need 12 charity hats turned in and I have done that also along with 3 baby blankets. I needed 20 items made completely from stash yarn and I have done that also. So...maybe Alina will get her Fair Isle sweater after all...but then, I have a spider sweater to knit for Eli, and a shrug for my daughter and Fair Isle hats for Travis and Jessica...it looks like I will be knitting to the last minute after all.

These are the goals I put together for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup (HPKC).

This group has done more to improve my knitting that anything I have done for the last 20 years

 Personal Best Quest for 2013

Once I wrote these down, I could see that there might be problems, but I left it as it is. This is what I would like to accomplish. Since a lot of these things overlap, I’ll see how it goes. 

Academic:

Three classes a month plus OotP (Order of the Phoenix)
First class posted by the 10th
Storytelling with most posts
Yardage bonus
OotP (Jane Eyre Shawl)
Knit UFOs on every Friday
1 WIP for Detention every month (post early in month if possible)

Extra-Curricular:

Quidditch
Headmistress’ challenge
Hufflepuff challenges

Personal: Knit down stash - all projects from stash this year

Keep up with 8 forums: HPKCHC, The Den, Frankensocks, Knitting Like the Dickens (Keep up with reading), One Day a Week for UFOs, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, One Day a Week for UFO, and Hats, Hats, Hats.

12 Projects in Christmas Box:

January: Green Fana Hat
February: Green Fana Hat
March: Black & White Wingspan
April: Green Wingspan
May: Red Novelty Scarf

25 Stash projects completed:

Blue Blanket, Basketweave Ipod Scarf, 3 Fana Hats (2), 5 Olympic Hats (5), Steeked Mug,
Red novelty Scarf, Addie’s Bulky Vest, Baby Terry Sweater, Alina’s Aran Sweater, Adult Aran, 10 Charity Hats (5), Red Crayon Hat, Purple Crayon Hat & Boa, White scrap vest, Blue Chunky alpaca Scarf, Qiviut Cowl, Jan’s Shawl, 2 DNA scarves, 2 Hogwarts Uniforms for 18" Doll,

Jane Eyre Shawl

1 Fair Isle Sweater (Kids)

60 Charity items (17)

5 Olympic Hats
5 pairs of Mock Cable Mitts
4 Hats
2 blankets
1 Preemie Blanket

Organize Wool stash - Maybe??
Photograph all stash and UFOs - Maybe??

Keep up with 3 Blogs:

Twaddle
Give Me a Needle
Give Me Two Needles (Post at least twice a month)

(This one is going to be hard. Give Me a Needle only once a month.)

A Knitting Assessment

I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow and have spent the day packing up all the knitting projects I'll need to last through Christmas. My mom has had a small stroke and I don't know how long I will be there. I've spent the last week making the final decision on my Christmas knitting and then gathering everything I need. (And then some!) I will also be turning in my charity knitting to From the Heart in Richmond. Going through this process is very revealing. The first thing I noticed was that I have enough needles for myself and 3 more very active knitters! Why do I have so many needles?

Reason #1 I got some needles on eBay and they contained the needles I wanted and a whole lot more! It was like Christmas when they came. I was looking for some very small but long double point needles and at the time, they were very hard to find. What I bought was some knitter's stash of needles and tools. It was so exciting when the package finally arrived. Along with the needles were all sorts of tools from the UK which we don't have here. That was about 15 years ago and a few months ago I finally figured out what one of the last tools was for...a knitting machine.

Reason #2 I have been working on UFOs for the last 3-5 years. As each project is finished, I collect the stitch markers, the needles and the stitch holders. I had NO idea how many needles and such that I had tied up in UFOs! It's very gratifying, but what am I to do with all these needles? I gave some of them to a young knitter in my group, but she is moving to Seattle in a few days and won't be settled for a while. I need to sit down on the floor and take inventory and then cull, cull, cull.  When that is done, I need to find another new knitter and and make her very happy!!

I've been going through my projects on Ravelry to see what I am going to knit for Christmas presents.  I have a fairly large stash and I have been working through it..  Here's what I've done.  First, I brought down about 16 plastic see through storage bins...about the size two shoe boxes, and put them along the wall that I face when I am on the computer.  Next, I pulled up my queue in Ravelry and started deciding what I already had yarn for.  I couldn't believe how much easier it was to do it that way.  Usually, I either see a pattern and then go upstairs to find some yarn.  Of course, that usually means I will get distracted and spend hours up there and finally come down stairs having forgotten why I went up there.

After I paired the yarn with the pattern, I put them in a bag to start to swatch.  Decisions, decisions.  After going back and forth a few times, I finally decided to get the yarn first and see what other people in Ravelry had made from it.  That was a whole lot easier.  I settled for some patterns that would work on my yarn and then started swatching.  When I got what I liked, I made up a project in my notebook (on Ravelry) and put them first in a bag, and then back in the plastic boxes so I could see what I had lined up.  This was much better.

About 10 days ago, my mother had a small stroke.  I have the idea that I will need to go to Virginia and be with her.  My two sisters are in VA and have been taking turns being with her, but I am the only one free enough to go up there and stay.  She has made a remarkable recovery, but she isn't ready to be on her own.
I was just there for several months and I enjoy just sitting and knitting with her.  She has handed down a love of knitting to three generations and I feel very blessed.

I have been working on lots of charity projects this year and also trying to get some of my Christmas presents done ahead of time.  I knit like the Dickens during the Olympics and I had a lot to turn into the Ravellenic Games:

My fingers were about worn to nubbins, but I had a great feeling of satisfaction.

My granddaughter has a new blog. It's called Smile Its Harry Potter.