Rather than go back through ancient history, let's just pick back up where I am now and see how it goes.
I'm still dyeing yarn and fibers with Fiber Charmer. Last year was both great and bad for my business. I did 4 shows that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I also had some challenges, mostly family related, as both of my grandmother's died at the age of 92+. I attended yet a third funeral out of love and respect for someone. Funerals and grief have a way of making thinking difficult.
I've been president of the Atlanta Knitting Guild. One day I was working away on guild items, and Keith asked just how much time I was spending on the guild. It seemed like a lot, and his response to me was that they called it volunteer work for a reason. No one called it volunteer fun. That's very true, but for the most part I've enjoyed my time on the board, both as president and as vice president of programs before that.
I've been struggling with going gluten free, and it is a struggle. I think in order to be successful, I'll have to give up most grains. I tend to overeat rice bread when I don't have wheat bread, and right now I've got all sorts of gluteny goodness in the house. In other words, I'm failing miserably at staying gluten free, and I have to remind myself that each day, each meal I can make the choice to be healthy or be stupid. Right now healthy wins more often than stupid, but the fact that stupid is still making choices is what I have to work on eliminating.
So, for now let's look at some knitting projects instead!
First up we have the Roller Coaster Cowl designed by Barbara Benson, a.k.a. Tumped Duck. It's knit in Fiber Charmer's Shangri-La yarn in the Diwali Rangoli colorway. This is actually a skein I'd not been as happy with the dye job, so I'd set it aside for me to use. Roller Coaster is a fun knit, and it works well on even the wildest handpainted yarns.
Next is Boundless by More Than Knotz. She designed it using 4 colors of Fiber Charmer Valhalla yarn. It's a large square shawl that is amazingly cozy. I love the way all the colors work together in this shawl. Susan designs using lots of different textures, and she loves working with color, but I also think many of her designs would be stunning in a single color as well.
Finally is Saroyan, a free pattern that you can find online. When you look at Saroyan on Ravelry, you'll find it knit in just about every yarn weight. It's knit from end to end, and the lace edging is knit as you go, so there's no picking up stitches later. It's worked by proportions in that about 25% of your yarn is for the increases side, nearly 50% is used for the middle, and 25% for the decreases side. This allows you to knit it in laceweight up to bulky and still have a terrific scarf.
This one is knit in Fiber Charmer Galadriel in the color Emerald. I still need to block it, but I was more concerned with having a sample ready for the spring shows. Now that it's warming up, I'll have time to properly block it before the fall shows.
I hope you have a lovely, lazy Sunday afternoon. I wish I could, but I have to update the shop and catch up the laundry.
