The Afghan Begins Its Journey

I've finished up the big green child's blanket for Afghans for Afghans.

I had a great time knitting it -- it was perfect to pick up when I wanted to do some mindless knitting. And there are so many times when that what I need! If I'm attending a meeting or presentation where I just need to listen, it's perfect. And on those days when I've worked long and hard but want to do something while I sit and relax... well, it's perfect for that as well.

I've got the afghan all boxed up and will take it to the post office tomorrow. From there it goes to a collection facility in San Francisco. Once the current "campaign for newborns" ends in late May, all of the knitted and crocheted items will be packed up and sent to the CURE Hospital in Kabul. From there it's given to a baby who needs a warm blanket for the winter.

Godspeed.

Michigan Wine Month

Yep, work is ruling my life right now.

It's Michigan Wine Month, so of course there's lots of activities and events planned during these few weeks. We've got a couple of events at the winery, a wine trail event next weekend, and lots of wine tastings scheduled around the state. This week I had 6 events scheduled over 7 days...!

I haven't had time for much else. It's nice to be busy but it'll be very nice to be able to breathe again...

Typing test

60 words

Speedtest

Not too bad... I should try it again and see how I do... (I tend to freeze up when I'm tested on things like this).

The Big Bag

I got word from my "spoilee" that she received my package for The Big Bag KAL & swap. So now I can post about it and not spoil any surprises!

I had a lot of fun with this bag. Of course, it's right up my alley -- a bag that's felted. One of my favorite things to knit.

The only problem I ran into was running out of yarn. I ran out of 3 out of the 4 yarns. I'm a loose knitter, and I'm sure that's part of it. But the yarn I used (Cascade 220) has 20 yards more per skein than the yarn in the pattern. So you'd think they'd even each other out.

Anyway, I was so low on the 3rd color (lime green) that I ended up adding a 5th color (yellow) so the bag would be tall enough. I think it worked out fine, but I'm glad I happened to have a color in my stash that looked good with the others.

My "spoilee" gave me lots of leeway with the color choices. She just said that she likes bright colors. I looked at her Ravelry profile and found that she had knitted with a lot of blue, so I decided to use blue as the base color. And... of course.... I love lime, navy, and aqua together!

One of the nice things about the pattern is that it narrows at the top a bit. This seems to take care of the problem with so many felted bags -- the top felts wider than the rest of the bag.

Spa-in-a-Box

I recently hosted a small swap on Swap-Bot. The theme was Calm & Comfort. Participants were to make up a small parcel filled with goodies that were calming and comforting.

It was interesting to try to figure out various goodies that were based on the theme. I basically ended up with a spa-in-a-box.... or basket, as is the case.

Included inside the basket are various "jams and jellies" (as Candace Olsen calls them) for the bath, soothing teas, a small dream journal, a hand-knit washcloth in natural cotton, and other goodies including a handmade eye pillow. I ended up making extra eye pillows to include in my Etsy shop.

The basket was fun, and I loved how it ended up!