Happy Saturday!

It’s another weekend and another Saturday; our weather is very “Fall-like” today-leaves on the ground, sky filled with what look like ‘snow clouds’ and temperatures around 47-49; the kind of day for snuggling up with a blanket and a good book (or knitting!). I’ve been ‘out and about’ doing errands which included delivering an emergency diaper & baby wipes to oldest son at work; today is his work halloween party and my 2 yr old grandson did #2 and Dad forgot to bring diapers, a trip to the Post Office and grocery store. At the end of my errands I stopped at my favorite haunt: Tim Horton’s for a great cup of coffee ‘to go’. The house is quiet today, just hubby and I-the boys are gone (for a very unusual change!). Been working on both “Momma’s” shrug and another afghan, then perusing a few blogs. In my wanderings on line I came across this:

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofsandwichareyouquiz

Just a little something to amuse you on a dreary weekend. Turns out I’m a:

Ham Sandwich! You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast.  And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation – from fancy to laid back.
Your best friend: The Turkey Sandwich
Your mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

How funny!

I ran into this the other day and thought I’d pass it on:

“If you planted hope today in any hopeless heart,

If someone’s burden was lighter because you did your part,

If you caused a laugh that chased a tear away,

If tonight your name is mentioned when someone kneels to pray,

Then your day was well spent.”

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs;

Pammie

We’re Growing!

As many of you are aware, my afghan ministry: “The Ghana Project” has been making afghans and sending them to Ghana, as many as I could assemble and send. It appears that I/we am/are so good at what we do (I say “we”, because this whole ministry wouldn’t be possible without all the help from the wonderful people who knit/crochet squares and mail them to me) that we are actually making more afghans than they are able to use in a trip! The last time I took four big garbage bags full of afghans, I found that there was still 1 1/2 bags left in the doctors office from the PREVIOUS delivery! This had an effect on me; to say I was disheartened would be to put it mildly. Yes, it’s good that we are able to do this, but to see the bags just sitting there and not ‘doing the good to which they were created’, bothered me.  I began to pray about this and this week became aware of another needy/worthy ministry. This one is in Durban, South Africa and is run by the son of a friend. This young man, his wife and four little daughters sold their house and moved there to begin this ministry to very needy ‘street children’ who are the victims of AIDS. He, and others, are reaching out to these children through various means: they’ve started a soccer group, after school groups, and will eventually be starting a children’s choir. To read about the living conditions of these children makes me cry; many of them are parentless, the older children attempting to raise their siblings. Here is part of the email I received from my friend:  “We could definitely use some of those afghans here – the winter nights can get down to the 30’s, and then there’s the rainy season (which we’re in the middle of right now). Having not just a blanket, but a warm, cozy (not to mention totally unique and personal) afghan to sleep under would be a huge blessing to these children. It would be one more thing that would help us to continue to build relationships with them and to show them the love of Jesus Christ. We are sending a shipping container full of supplies from Michigan over here sometime in January, and we will take as many of those afghans as you can spare!”

My thought in all of this is this: I/we can supply afghans to BOTH groups! Needy children in both groups; afghans to warm and comfort them all. I am thrilled to have a renewed hope in all of this; I’ve gone from disheartened to greatly excited. God gave me this gift of knitting and sewing to use for HIS purposes; I’m just grateful that I can still do this and bless others as well.

Hugs;

Pammie

PS:  My friend’s name is: Dan Smither and his blog site/ministry is at:

http://keyofhope.org

I hope you’ll stop by there and see what they’re doing, for the children.

Find the Hidden Knitting!

Here is the beginnings of the next shrug for “Momma”. Since it so closely resembles the fall colors, I thought I’d “hide” it in the photo.

The last of the hanging basket flowers

It’s another gorgeous Fall day…in the very low 60’s, breezy and sunny (a perfect day for raking leaves…if you’re so inclined, I’m not). I remember as a child helping neighbors rake the brilliant-colored leaves into great big piles, then jumping in them. Ah…the memories; obviously, I’m not going to be doing that again any time soon, but it’s nice to reminisce.

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

It’s Done

Lousy picture (I blinked…as usual), Ok photo of the shrug. (My middle son was standing on his tip-toes for this shot…it was shot #5 or 6…we gave up). I’m about 4 or 5 inches into the shrug for “Momma”, the colors are coming out a lot nicer than on the skein; they remind me of fall leaves, all shades of tans and a dark brown-looks really pretty.

It’s in the 50’s today, a slight breeze and nice sunshine; the ground is beginning to be covered in fallen leaves (especially my car, which stays parked in the driveway).

It’s looking like a rather quiet weekend, so far; there’s a funeral tomorrow morning for my husband’s friend, then in the evening a fun fund raiser for a friend’s son’s former college-I know that sounds confusing but the fund raiser is for a scholarship program in her deceased son’s name. He was an Olympic-level archer who died before going to the Olympics and his family started a scholarship for other archers at his college: James Madison University. Each year his family chooses a different theme for decorating and for the clothing style. Last year was a beach theme, this year it’s the 60’s! Drag out your old tie-dye shirts, the bell bottoms and beads…it’s HIPPIE time! (actually I don’t have anything like that hidden in my closet, so I’m going to wear the current ‘boring’ fashion I usually wear…or, in my case: non-fashion). They have a great chicken dinner, lots of silent auction items to bid on, and several door prizes throughout the night. It’s a fun evening for a good cause and my husband and I get to see other people we used to work with at the telephone company (I’m retired, he’s still working there); ought to be a great time.

That’s what’s happening around here at present-Have a great weekend!

Hugs;

Pammie

Two More Inches to Go!

Only two more inches and the shrug will be very close to finished (just have to sew it together). It’s very soft and warm (tried it on to make sure the length was correct). My next knitting project is another shrug-this time it’s for my very dear friend, “Momma”. It was going to be a surprise, but then it occurred to me that I should probably make sure I was knitting it in a color she liked, so I called her. “Yes, she said-tans & browns will work out just fine”; good thing I called-I was kinda guessing shades of greens!

Last night was another Knit Night with the group I started; it’s coming along just fine, we average between 9-12 people per meeting. Another new person joined us and fit in just fine. We’re a very diverse group of people, but we all seem to blend together wonderfully; sharing projects, patterns, ideas, books and enjoying each other’s company as well as lending support, prayer, and fellowship-what more could one want in a group? I’m thrilled it’s turned out this well after a year.

That’s about all I have time to write about now; my 2-yr old grandson’s due here any minute and that doesn’t lend itself to time on the computer!

Enjoy your day; Fall’s definitely here with the dropping temperatures and changing/falling leaves. Happy Fall!

Hugs;

Pammie

And the Saga Continues…

For those of you who have kept up with the continuing saga of my middle son and his car problems, there is now hope (we hope!)! When we last left the undaunted lad and his ‘flammable’ car (read that: he was driving it short distances to avoid the car bursting into flames from the ‘excessive oil leak onto the manifold’. After much thought (and, for him, this means DAYS & DAYS!) we: (a) went to look at another used car for $1,700 (b) deliberated about taking it to various repair places (too expensive) and (c) finally heard from a friend that they knew someone who might be able to fix it…CHEAP! Long story short: took it to friend’s friend, they got the whole thing fixed in a matter of about 6 hours…total costs? $180!!! Sure beats the $1,400-1,800 that had been quoted from 2 reputable auto repair sources! He’s happily driving it and very eager to test it out on longer distances (still carrying the small fire extinguisher, ‘just in case’). We’re thrilled; this frees ME up for many other driving ‘jobs’…sigh.

As to the ‘shrug’, I have approximately 13 more inches to knit, then sew the seams together and VOILA! We have a shrug! Pretty neat; I’m happy.

It’s a lovely Fall day; in the 50’s, sun shining brilliantly, leaves changing colors and falling to the ground, slight breeze blowing. So far, it’s been a relaxing day-let’s hope it stays that way! (in my household, that doesn’t happen very often).

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

A Little Over Half-Way

As of today I’m at the 29 inch mark; only 21 inches to go! (Then, of course, comes the stitching it up but that doesn’t worry me.) This is turning out to be a fun project; had to switch to circular needles today as the weight of the knitting was too much for one needle/hand (made my wrists hurt). The circular is doing great-actually made it much easier (and I thought I’d never say that as I really don’t like knitting with circulars…learn something new every day!).

Hugs;

Pammie

Shrug? What’s a ‘Shrug?’

The longer I’m a member of my knitting group, the more I feel the need to learn/explore/create new things. On the ladder of ‘knitting experience’, I’m about the second to last bottom rung in this group. We have all levels: beginner, intermediate, experienced, VERY experienced, and ‘almost teacher’. Since the total of my knitting projects mostly consists of ‘squares’ and square-type projects (fingerless gloves, simple tam hat), I decided to try to expand my projects a little…not a lot, by any means, but at least give it a good try. I give to you “Rena”, from Berroco. It’s a very simple (according to the ‘Skill Level’ marked on the pattern) shrug. A Shrug is a sort-of sweater, without all the trouble of having to knit the collar, button panels, button holes, etc…just my kind of simple pattern! Since you also know that I’m known far-and-wide for my frugality, I decided to knit this in a yarn I’ve had around (called my ‘stash’ to those of you who knit/crochet). It’s the same yarn I used for the knit tam hat; sort of a fuzzy varigated burgundy. I already had 1 1/2 balls of this yarn (it’s sold in HUGE balls of 11oz, 312 grams each which run $8.99 at JoAnn’s or Michaels); I’m guessing this project will take about 3 of these balls.) The original pattern from Berroco states that this pattern will take 8 balls of 50 grs each, so we’ll see how this comes out.

I started it Saturday, while feeling “frisky”…that inner feeling you get that says: “I need a new knitting project!” You know the feeling; it’s almost like an itch that needs scratching right away. Now, I don’t ‘really’ NEED this shrug, but it would be nice to have for the coming cold months; something to slip on while in the house (and I’m ‘in the house’ MOST of my daily time). I currently have three rather ragged sweaters, gleaned from garage sales, which are doing the duty to keep me warm, but it would be nice to have a shrug that I (attempted) to knit. We’ll see…it’s a very easy pattern: Broken Rib (Knit 2, Purl 2, Knit 2, etc. repeated for 89 stitches per row, ad infinitum=”to infinity”) Right now I have something like 2 feet knit and need to knit a total of 50 inches. It’s beginning to feel heavy on the needles (they suggested #11 straight needles, but I’m contemplating purchasing circulars because it’s a lot of weight on one needle when you get to the end of the row…makes for sore wrists.) Yes, I can hear you saying: “Nobody is MAKING you knit this!” True…so true, but it’s soft! And Easy! As I’ve said before: “We’ll see…..”  Will attempt to keep you apprised of my progress.

Hugs;

Pammie

(please forgive the photo placement-having trouble with WordPress on this)

Rena, from Berroco (back view)

Wow! It’s Award Time!

My friend, Ren, from: http://renknits.wordpress.com gifted me with these awards! I’ve seen them on other people’s blogs, just never thought I’d get one, let alone two! Thanks, Ren! She’s a very clever/crafty young lady and I enjoy keeping up with her blog.

I’m not very clever with some of the newer items on blogs, but she also provided the ‘rules’ of these ‘gift awards’. It seems that when one is given them, you are to ‘give them forward’, so to speak to other bloggers who will, (you hope) in turn gift them to people of their chosing. Here are the ‘rules’:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (as shown above).
3) Nominate at least (four) other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Not difficult rules to follow, so now I have to put my thinking cap on and begin my nominating! (Drum roll inserted here)

“AND THE NOMINEES ARE:

1.  “Momma” of    http://mommascorner.com

2.  Diane of    http://mrsdof.com

3.  Linda of    http://theknitoriousmrsb.blogspot.com

4.  Dar of  http://toomuchtosay.net

5.  http://usedyarnchronicles.blogspot.com

I read each of their blogs faithfully and know how much effort goes into trying to come up with new/interesting materials to blog about. I’m sure there are others I could have listed (as I read quite a few blogs), but the ones above either know me, personally, or have become friends through the ‘wonderful world of blogging’.

Thanks for reading with me; enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie