Elegantly Simple Triangle Shawl KAL

Ok, this is the 3rd time I have tried to post this in the past few days. I am hoping that I can actually make it happen this time! I have surcome to the allure of a KAL. Margaret from Heritage Yarns just has a way with words or else I am just too easy to convince (or maybe both?). She has such lovely pictures of the shawl on her website and I thought it was just gorgous. I am going to dye some yarn from KnitPicks soon, I hope tomorrow???? with my daughter Natalie, the dyeing queen. I am shooting for some pink/purple/blues. The thing I did though was to "test" out the pattern with some yarn I just got off of eBay. The "test" is now on its second repeat of the B chart and doesn't look like it wants to stop anytime soon. I can at least hope that I can set the "test" down and start on the "real" shawl on May 1st. I gave away most of my yarn that was just sitting around the house, trying to reduce my stash and not take up so much space. What did I do? I acquired 2 lbs of sari yarn and 3 cones of mixed yarn off the ebay. Then there was the Knitpicks yarn and whatever I will spin up if I can ever get back to there. What was I thinking? It was fun though.

Natalie is still spinning away. She was finding it hard to find the time to spin so I scheculed some time for her. Now if I could make sure she practices her piano on the same day, I will be doing well. She loves piano, but like all kids, the allure of outdoors and tv is too strong and it is difficult to do creative stuff, but we are getting there.

Starting the Spinner's Early

As I have said before, I have a Babe Production Wheel. As such, I really don't worry about the kids wanting to play around with it. I don't let them abuse it, but I don't feel like it is the "priceless heirloom" that I hope to someday get (I will explain that thought soon). I had bought some pencil roving last September for the girls to use spindle spinning as that was all we had. It never really used, but I kept hoping. One day about a week ago, my youngest daughter told me she wanted to spin by herself instead of helping me. So I got out some of the pencil roving and let her go. She is so proud of herself and wants to get on again soon. It is soooo twisted, but I am as proud as punch at her for trying. She wants me to buy her a little spinning wheel for her to use!

My middle daughter is working on some roving that she is dyeing herself and will soon be spindle or wheel spinning. I think she wants to work on a hat for herself. She is very creative and really sees herself as being almost an equal partner in the local guild. She goes with me to all the meetings and went to the state wide meeting as well. I don't want to let such interest die so I need to make time for them to work on their projects. My oldest daughter wants to weave so I need to get one of my looms set up for her to work with. I have met so many women my age that say their hobby is "working out". I think our generation has lost sight of their creative side. Everything must be productive or it cannot be allowed. No "art for art sake". But on the other side of the coin, I should be more productive in my home duties! So I need much prayer!

More SWIFT PICTURES

I realize it has been over a month since I updated, but I really think I want to post more pictures of the Indiana meeting. There was a teenager there with a presentation that I thought was awesome. She works as an interpreter at Conner's Prairie with the weaving and stuff and wanted to get more skills. She wrote a proposal for a grant to attend a Navajo weaving seminar and received it. She then worked up story boards and weaving sample to (hopefully) create a children's book based on the Navajo legend of the Spider Woman. What she had worked up was so neat to see and her art and story board were entered in the Indianapolis Children's Museum contest and she won so her artwork was displayed for about a month. I really hope to see the book some day.