One Olive or Two?

Author: Soul Traveler /


A lot has gone on in my little world of knitting since the last time I posted here. I actually finished the shawl for Afghanistan and got it shipped out in time! YAY! It was such a relief to be done with it! The day after I mailed it out I started making a ribbon purse that I had bought the material for way back in April. It is a Louis Harding purse from her "Gathering Roses" collection of accessories. It was fast and easy! I got it done in just a few days. It was so much fun working on the big 17 needles again!

As far as my charity knitting projects go, I have been involved with a "Warm up America" group at a local yarn shop called Recycled Lamb. We've been working on the afghan project since June and have nine afghans thus far thanks to many generous contributions of squares. The afghans will be donated to the Denver Rescue Mission's Family Division. It's fun to be helping a local cause. This past week I switched from knitting squares to joining strips! Rick our fearless and self proclaimed OCD victim has everything color coordinated so the afghans look beautiful. The man has vision! He has a picture of one of the afghans on his Ravelry if oyu are interested in seeing what they look like. His Ravelry name is RickMartin. His other finished pieces are worthwhile to look at as well. He does some incredible work! I am going to take a lace shawl class from him in September. He promises that I CAN be taught. We'll see LOL.

While working on the squares, my friend Lois found out about a project to Knit For the Troops in Afghanistan so I am working on a scarf for that as well. The deadline for that project is September 15Th and I am more than halfway done. YAY! I have a vision of the soldier who is wearing my scarf, somehow rescuing the woman who is wearing my pink shawl and they fall in love and get married. IMAGINE!

For myself, I have started a shawl! It's a beautiful somewhat muted multi colored hand dyed wool I bought from a friend who was unloading some excess from her stash. Since I wear a lot of black (Ya think?) I thought a splash of color would be fun. I am doing it in a simple design I came up with that is a modification of a pattern I saw. I am doing the shawl in stockinette with a garter stitch border to keep it flat. The SS really shows off the colors well.

I would love to make a nice warm scarf for the upcoming cold weather but that is on the back burner for now. Too many things on the needles!!

I plan on knitting squares for the afghans while sitting on the beach in California. I am also bringing a Koigu scarf with me on the trip that I've been working on since the winter. It's a pretty multi pink purple mix of colors. It's a good plane project because it's small.

My wild and crazy knitting group has been all around downtown Denver and North Denver this summer. There has been much drinking (not by me of course) a lot of bitching and a bit of stitching. Linsey, our head honcho or HBIC (as she likes to be called) comes up with the most interesting bars to go to and this past week was no exception! The Horseshoe Lounge is a no nonsense bar service only kind of place specializing in Rockabilly music. LOL I will say that the olives in my martinis were some of the best I've ever had! The pizza was excellent as well and they have a Spiderman pinball machine! One of the gals in the group reads the runes and I read Tarot cards. Together we gave one of the gals a double reading! She laid runes down on top of my cards to see how they correlated and the result was amazing. I can't remember if I got a lot of knitting done that night. I lost track after my third martini but I do vaguely remember Linsey "fixing" my scarf for the troops, TWICE. WOW LOL

We have started doing spinning classes at people's house once a month on Saturday nights. I am looking forward to going and finally learning how to use my spindle! Tam and Shellie are our experts who are willing to teach the rest of us. Why I am not sure. These gals are too nice for their own good! I can guarantee that I will put their patience to the test! I'd better bring some good food or booze to the party when I finally show up. LOL

September brings the return of Angelique who has been gone all summer doing production work for a rock group. YAY! I love the energy of this wild group of knitters. They know how to party and they know how to bitch. Knit? Oh yea, that too. See you in September!!!!