Knit One, Purl What?

I think I mentioned in the first Knit One post that I had decided to knit most of my Christmas gifts this year. Well, I overcame my procrastination (just a little) and persevered!

Katie, my 13 yr old niece, got a soft, fuzzy scarf in purple and black.
I think she likes it, judging from the pictures!

The 16 year old, Kristen, was gifted this scarf and hat (the first one I made) in chunky greens, blues and purples. She declined to model it, but harassed me all Christmas Day to teach her to knit.

I'm going to start teaching both of my nieces to knit in the near future....

stay tuned, as I'm sure the experience will be humorous!

See the cute little munchkin in the photo below?

This is Zackary.

He's the son of my friends, Sunshine & Brandon.

He has an affinity for beanies.

He will steal them off of his father's noggin.

Now he has his own.

The pattern called for a pom pom at the top,

but I switched it out for a big tassel.

Several folk got dishcloths, too. Plus, I'm still working on dishcloths since I ran out of time.

No! I didn't procrastinate! I swear upon my knitting needles!

I'll keep posting pictures as I finish.

And wish me luck teaching the nieces...I'll need it!

Let Them Eat Cake...Bakery

I met Trinity a couple years ago when she came to me at work to order business cards and make some gift certificates for her baking business. She'd been renting kitchen space from a restaurant in town until about a year and a half ago when she and her husband Michael got a line on a small location that could be converted into a small bakery...The shop is cute and cozy and always smells good. Trinity started filling the case with a few different cupcakes and cookies, brownies, dog treats (gotta give the puppies a treat too!) and people could special ordercakes, pies and cheesecakes.

Doesn't that all look yummy?!
Come on, you know you want to call and order your holiday treats!!

Then her friend Shawn began baking and selling bread.
Her Challah is to die for and makes really tasty French Toast.

Then they decided to start doing healthy dinners 4 nights a week and call it What's For Dinner! Every Monday morning they post the menu on Facebook and through an email blast. People can call or email in their order before a certain time and then pick it up after 5.
The dinners are really yummy and priced reasonably.
It's been quite the success.

The holidays are coming.
You're gonna be busy with activities,
you're going to be too tired to cook.
You'll want a nice, healthy dinner to serve your family.
You'll need some cookies.
You'll need a pie...or two.
How about a festive pumpkin cheesecake?
Call Trinity!!!

Their hours are:

Mon thru Thurs 9:30 to 5:30
Friday 9:30 to 4:30
Saturday 11 to 2

1069 Idaho Street
775-401-6640

Stop in and say Hi to Trinity.
And you might just see her cousins Tandy & Bree,
who come down and help her out during the day.
And you can usually find me there on Saturdays.

Knit One, Purl What?

Back in 2005 my Momma gave me a knitting kit for Christmas. I perused the book, grabbed the needles and yarn and started knitting a scarf.

The knit stitch is as far as I got. The purl stitch was eluding me. I looked on YouTube, knitting websites and Roomie Jeff's mom tried to show me. But it was still eluding me. I couldn't wrap my brain (& fingers) around it. So after garter stitched scarf was done, I put the knitting away.

Until this past May, when I decided to quit smoking. It would give me something to do with my hands. I picked up another knitting book, some yarn, some needles and casted on.



I loved the thick chunky yarns I chose....What a nice, warm scarf they would make. This would be my crazy sampler scarf, trying new stitches, changing between yarns. But the purling was still giving my brain & fingers trouble. Grrr!!!

Then Momma came to visit me at the end of June. She showed me how to Purl. I got it! I really really got it!

While Momma was here, we went to check out the local yarn store...Hook, Yarn & Needles, a small shop owned by the wonderful Eva (a.k.a. Crochet Queen). She has the most amazing yarns. I want them all. Eva told us about a really neat knit/crochet online community -- Ravelry. They have tons of patterns and useful info. I've gotten a bunch of projects saved to my favorites already.

I've been back to Hook, Yarn & Needles a few times since then. One of the things I love about the shop & Eva is that she gets just as exited as I do about me mastering a new stitch or technique, no matter how simple. (as a former smoker, she's also given me some of her tips for quitting, too...double bonus)

This Christmas I decided to make people handmade gifts since money would probably be tight. And people love getting gifts made with love. I found a bunch of simple and fast, yet good-looking dishcloth patterns on Ravelry, bought some cotton yarn and started knitting away.

I'd wanted to try my hand at a hat, but most of the patterns I found used double pointed needles and I was hesitant to try them. So I found one that didn't use them...


I just added the tassels to both but haven't taken a picture yet....

One day I will use double pointed needles and make lots of socks in a rainbow of colors.

One day I will make a sweater out of a luxurious skein of Malabrigo yarn.