Dear Sis,
It’s been a very sleepy sort of start to the year here. I’ve been under a bit of a haze of appointments, crafting, and a really awful cold that’s been going around. I, of course, caught the cold; and it went straight to my lungs and set up camp. I’m much better, now, though so not to worry! I went straight to the doctor and he gave me medicine to cure the infection. I cannot believe it’s March already, though. It feels like forever since I’ve written to you, and I wonder how the time got past me so easily.
First things, first, I suppose! Tea:
It’s a new tea that I was gifted in a recent swap package, and it’s really yummy! Even ArmyC will drink it with me when I make a pot.
Now,onto the crafting…
January, I made these dishcloths for the winner of a charity auction:
She was kind enough to gift me the pattern to make them, even! And was so thrilled with them that she stated “these will never see the inside of a sink!” in response to my telling her not to be afraid to use them b/c they will be very hard wearing. (You know how I crochet, haha.)
I also finished both my pink and turquoise prayer shawls that have been flying about my UFO (UnFinished Object) files for almost a year now! They’ve already been sent off back home to Gram(ma), and taken to the church.
I was less than pleased with the turquoise one. It’s just a plain simple stole shaped shawl, but as it was one of my first projects I failed to properly guess the center. The seam actually runs a bit down one side, but there was nothing I could do to fix it other than unravel quite a bit of it. Between you and me I was a bit tired of looking at the blue at this point, and found the Q sized crochet hook more cumbersome than I used to. It’s been a long time since I picked up that large hook!
At the very end of January, my knitting group had a day where we made baby hats for charity. You could also choose to make something for the seafarers, but those items would have taken me weeks! They were things like sweaters (for grown men, no less!) and scarves in dk weight yarn. I simply knew I’d never make it through one of those projects so I settled on making about 5 hats for babies of all sizes.
In February, I finished my teapot cozy:
I know, that’s not the camel teapot you gave me! And it’s not the clear glass teapot I received in the Tea swap we took part in! This seems to be the year of the teapot for me. I’d seen the cozy pattern before, and it was one of my favorites, but I was not ready for the colorwork or the steeking or any number of other scary new knitting techniques that this project encompassed! So I left it in my queue to make “someday”. Besides, I reasoned, it will not fit either of my current teapots. But a friend gifted me the pattern and asked me to knit it along with her for moral support. How could I say no to that?! It was great fun, and while it’s not perfect, I find it absolutely lovely. And it turns out that having 3 teapots is a blessing. I use the glass one for the especially pretty brews when I know I can sit and watch and refill it with hot water as needed. (It’s a bit smaller than these other two.) And the other two take turns being clean. Since I have my pot of tea almost every day, there is always one that needs cleaning.
The theme of February seems to have been to learn new knitting things! I made these blocks, and for them I had to learn to duplicate stitch. It took quite a bit longer than I expected, but the results were very pretty for the most part. And where the prettiness runs thin, I still like that they look a bit like worn wooden blocks with the paint coming off where they’ve been loved a bit too much.
These were for a swap where my partner has one little girl and one on the way. Please ignore the poorly thought out photo that has the elements P, O, and S in that order. I was taking these photos hurriedly, as the shipping deadline was the next day.
And lastly, March has been a month of finishing what I’ve started earlier, but have put off for one reason or another. My knitting club is working on some Frankensocks where we each make a bit of a pair, and then swap every two weeks. We started back in February, and I’m on the heels this week. I’m currently working on a sweater, a doily, and a bag, each that I started back in December. The only exceptions to this “finishing” of previous UFOs are some charity projects I’ve been whipping up (because I’ve been remiss about hooking up charity projects; I really have been), and this hedgehog that ArmyC requested especially:
Isn’t he just the cutest? He now lives on ArmyC’s desk, in a nice pile of unfiled paperwork. Hedgehog loves it. And bonus, I’m getting much better at picking up stitches because of him.
Well, that’s pretty much all the news from out here in rainy Washington.
For now, I think I’m going to toss some laundry in to wash, make an early lunch, and see if I can’t settle in to watch my very favorite version of Little Women.
(I just received the DVD version in the mail from a friend! My VHS version was on it’s last leg, and I’ve never found this version on DVD myself so I am eternally grateful to her. I’ve already watched it once since receiving it just this past weekend!)
Then it should be about time to drive over, and pick ArmyC up from work. (I have the car today since because I had an appointment this morning. I have to go once every week now for my allergy immune boosting shots. It chops up my day a bit to drive him to and from work so it’s hard to remember to get laundry in sometimes to be done before I need to leave again or I’ll get right into the middle of a chore and I’ll have to stop, but as it’s necessary and only one day per week I really cannot complain too much!)
I miss you so much! And I really do hope you can get away to visit. Tell Buffalo and Zeus and everyone that I say “hello”. =)
All our love from ArmyC and me,
❤ K
PS – Talk to you soon, I hope! 🙂
2crazysisters 