A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber

This is my 3rd book about a knitting shop and it's owner; though my first of Debbie Macombers. It's interesting to me how similar they are. Lost souls come together knit and the world is all wonderful again. Ok, that might be an over simplification; as there are other details involved...but it does seem that's the type of book they all have been.

Now they all have different problems and solve them differently and together they seem to bring out the best in each other. That's interesting to me given the ladies involved are different ages, come from different backgrounds, and initially really have nothing in common. One book was The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood, and one was Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.

When I think of clusters of people who only associate with one group, say their church group; their neighbors, only their family, or perhaps only their work group or only the people at their childrens school, it makes me think how much they're missing out by not being with people different than them. This book was perhaps the sappiest of the 3, and the furthiest from reality it seemed to me. Though I did enjoy it. I think maybe I'm getting into the rhythm of these books. I read this sitting poolside and on the beach on a recent trip to Myrtle Beach. One needs a fluffy book I think for that setting.

There were emotional ups and downs and even when I thought them a bit unbelievable, I found myself wanting to pick up the book and see what happened to the silly teenager, or the UPS deliveryman. This is a series I think. Believe the others might be too. Will have to double check that and see what books are next so I can have them on hand for the next poolside or beach side adventure.

Have you read this one? Did you like it? Do you plan to read others by this author?

I had yarn of course with me and worked on the wedding ghan, but one really can't knit or crochet at the poolside or at the beach...so reading about it seems to be the way to go.

Squares, counts as Done?

Ok, so this might be a bit of cheating for FOF (finished object Friday). Or is it.... showing 4 finished objects? lol You see before you 4 finished squares.

Plan A was doing the designs on the light color and doing good old garter stitch squares with the darker color, to provide contrast both with color and with texture. After completing the first square (lower left which is a frog in case you can't tell), I wasn't sure this was going to work. So, wondered if the design would show up better with the darker shade. Figured I'd do one square in the darker shade and see, and then flip my 2 colors. Well...I did the one in the lower right (sunflower), and I still was unsure; so I did 2 more, one in each color. Cardinal is the 2nd light color and a bea skep is the 2nd darker color. Then, I re-calculated and decided I wasn't going to have enough yarn anyway. Ok, I could get a 3rd color to blend and do garter stitch squares with that. Still....if I didn't tell you what the designs were, could you tell? DD and I discussed it after sending her email pics and well..........I don't think so. Oddly enough I think they show up better here in the pictures then when you actually see them in person. Well, that's really not good.

Bought 3rd color, but you'll have to wait til I get a photo of it. Discussed the problem with the lady at the yarn shop. She thought maybe using a smaller needle would make the design pop more. If I'm going to frog these 4 finished squares....do I want to do that...or come up with what will now be plan C?

I can tell you the 3rd color is a darker brown, DD and I thought sticking with earthy colors was best. She suggested a chocolate brown and or forest green. Green didn't exist, so I got brown, though not sure I would call it chocolate.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Here it was laid out as a WIPW

Follow up on my question regarding the graphs from Rav. I've messed with it a bit and have determined it only lists projects you have listed as work in progress projects from your Rav. page, so my question about more recent projects not showing up is because they are listed as complete. I tend to only list them at that stage, or at least lately that's what I've done. So, conclusion is if one wants to follow and have projects staring at them as a reminder of what you've got going is to list your projects in the beginning and as you work on them change the percentage, they will show up on your graph until you mark them as completed. Even if you show it as 100% done on your project page on Rav it will still show up on the graph on your blog until you change the drop down box that has the option of completed/done. For those who responded via comments and said they didn't know how to add the graphs, here's the LINK on Rav.

**Pop back in on Monday folks, thought I'd try my hand again at a linky to help us all out with visits and spread some linky love. **

Wedding Ghan

Got the idea from this from doing the butterfly dishcloth you may have seen HERE. My DD's best friend is getting married in a few months and I wanted to make her a ghan. I've been after my daughter now for several months to find out her colors, and she's failed to do so. She tells me she's not a bright colors person; but beyond that....argh. So, I decided something subtle was the way to go. The plan is to use the lighter solid tan for the design squares and alternate that with the sorta tweedy darker tan for a subtle color contrast. The darker squares will basic garter stitch so that should also provide a texture contrast square to square. My hope is that will also help the designs pop out a bit more.

Using nice washable wool, Plymouth Encore Chunky, size 10 needles. The yarn is 75% acrylic and 25% wool. That should give it nice body, a good soft feel, be warm, and several steps above A Red Heart type yarn. The skeins have 143 yards; which surprised me when I got home ...as I thought it was 200 yards. I know some fleck Plymouth I was looking at was 200 yards, hope I have enough yarn, as I got all they had of the darker tweed.

**Question, notice the graph I've recently added from Rav? It's not showing as many projects as it did when I first added it yesterday. Why is that? AND, how do you get it to show more recent projects? Those listed above are super old projects.**

Blogging

People often ask, why would I want to write a blog. My life isn't all that interesting, who'd read or be interested in what I have to say. Have you heard that? Bet you have.

If you look up the definition of a blog, you'll find lots of information, but, basically it's a combination of the word web and log. It's an interactive means of communication. The communications is on going, it is updated...it is not static like a webpage. Some people blog like they're writing a personal diary, other's are more topic focused, others full of passions and causes.

Webpages are written, updated once in awhile but are read only. There is no interaction between the writer of the blog and the reader of the blog. A blog has that interaction. You write something as a blogger, you want people to read it, you want people to comment on it, others may in fact even comment on the comments. That's the interaction. That's what makes a blog a blog, and not a one sided static and often stale webpage.

So, my question to all bloggers then is this. If the point is interaction, why then do people make the interaction difficult, time consuming, and delayed? If you want you blog to be read, and you want people to comment, why do you put up road blocks for them to do so? I know you've all seen a blog that requires you to join, before you comment. Often those are here's my thoughts in your face, controversial type topics. They want to be read, but don't really want to encourage you to counter, to correct in some cases. They really don't seem to want the dialogue--so what's the point? You've probably also seen where comments aren't even an option........when I hit blogs like this, I never join and try not to return back. I'm not one that wants to blindly read and not communicate back. I also don't want to give them the readership they so crave. Blogging is a give and go. We all want readership, so reciprocate I say...go read other blogs, do for them what you want them to do for you.

Comments, anyone who says they don't care if they get comments, they blog for themselves....nah, I don't buy that. They want comments, they want followers, they want to know they've been read...chances are them saying they don't care if they get comments is their way of saying....I'm not taking time to reciprocate your comments. I often will read, comment several times; and if that blogger doesn't do the same, I move on. Blogging by definition is interactive. Interactive is not one sided.

Continuing on, we write to be read, we know we've been read, if we receive comments. Invite them, don't discourage them with those silly, hard to read, time consuming numbers and letters. They're annoying, they sometimes don't work. And, do they really keep you from getting spam? No, your filter does that. Do the professional spammers still spam you when you use them? Yes, they do. Comments need to be approved, more annoyance. This again takes time, this limits interaction, this delays communication. If you use the captchas because you think it prevents spam, why then do you also need to approve the comments before it's published? Do you need to approve the comments so you only print those that agree with you? If so, aren't you also limiting the interaction? To my way of thinking, yes you are. You're building road blocks and discouraging people to comment. Information grows as people read a blog and make comments. So if you're the 4th or 5th person leaving a comment you often have the ability to pick up additional information/opinions and interact with those commentors as well as the original blogger; but if your comment has to be approved first, that doesn't happen until much later, if at all.

Visit the blogs of those that visit you, don't read them in a reader. Do for them what they did for you, take the time to visit. Reading in a reader doesn't give the blog traffic, the traffic you got when they visited you. Don't take the easy way out and click reply via email to a question they've asked. Visit them, comment back, give them the time they gave you; the traffic they gave your blog. Be a reciprocal blogger, be an interactive blogger.

Being an interactive blogger is fun, that's how we meet new interesting people.

This is my B post for the Z-A challenge

Growing through Crochet

I can see it now, a ball of mint green yarn (possibly rug yarn from memory), and a red crochet hook. Boo-boo gave me this special ball of yarn and plastic crochet hook. Boo-boo, no..that wasn't her real name. I never knew her real name. She was a rolly polly person, as wide as she was tall. She, I think was Pam's Aunt. Ok, so now you wonder who the heck is Pam...ok, I'll start at the beginning.

I was young, grade school age, probably 7 or 8 from memory. Pam was my best friend, and she lived right next door. Boo-boo, I think was her Mother's Sister. She'd come to visit and sit and crochet, hour after hour after hour. I'm not sure she could move around well, as she was always in the rocking chair. She made dollies, lots of them. I was in awe of her making what appeared to be knots with this hook thingy. I'm sure I must have bugged her death, asking question..."what's this, why do you do that, what are you going to do next, why are you doing this...you get the picture. I remember sitting watching, staring. She probably wished this little girl would go home and leave her alone; but...one day she presented me with a ball of mint green yarn about the size of a softball and my very own red plastic crochet hook. She taught me to make a dollie. I'm sure it was..................."lovely!" Mom said so, and we all know, Mom's don't lie about such important things as kids accomplishments. lol

I think then I bugged Mom for yarn. Yarn was not in the family budget, but one day she bought me Red Heart Variegated Yarn...looked sorta Mexican, and in fact, I think I've seen this variegated since. A whole skein...all 4 oz. She bought or had (I don't remember) knitting needles. She taught me to knit and purl. I made a fabulous, stylish, and very trendy scarf. We called them half scarves in those days. They covered the ears and tied under the chin. I think she cast off for me, and she crocheted the edge and a tie. I wore that thing! Really, I wore it. I've not found any pictures in the family photo's to prove it, but I remember it.

So now, I know how to crochet and knit! A child prodigy really, all the neighbors said so.

A lady who lived several blocks-- away, within walking distance in those days anyway. Now days I'm sure people would hop in the car. Anyway, this lady, who's name I would love to know had a shop in her basement/cellar. I'm pretty sure there was an outside entrance and so, it being an older house was probably a cellar. I also remember the ceiling being really low. Somehow, I found out she had this shop. It was right next door to drug store. I'd go and look, lovingly touch and dream of making such things Some were knitting, most though I think were crocheted. She made those dolls with big dresses, afghans, baby layettes, coat hangers and so much more. I don't know how much stuff she sold in those days, but her basement cellar was a favorite place for me to go as a young girl. I think I managed to buy one or two items. Maybe she let me, cause I was there so much.

We moved away from that darling little town, and I never saw Boo-boo or the shop lady again.

Fast forward, I'm now married and hubby is going to school during the day and working full time in the evenings. I'm working full time first shift at the hospital. I had lots of alone time, I needed a hobby. I remembered back, went to the store, bought some yarn and a blue metal crochet hook size J, and one book. I struggled to get my hands right, looked at the picture..........this was long long before the internet, long before u-tube. I made an afghan after some doing. Nothing fancy, double crochet stripes, 3 colors for my Grandmother who needed a lift. They were colors that matched her furniture. I felt like I had accomplished something very special. If only Boo-boo and the shop lady could see me. I think they might like to have known, the little girl that pestered them so long ago, the little girl they took patience to teach..........remembered.

I have this afghan now. Grandma is gone, Boo-boo, and I'm sure the shop lady is gone. Sadly, so is my Mother, who taught me to knit. But, I remember.

I remember this green, is about the same color as my first special ball of yarn. I've continued to grow, and so has my crochet.

Are you Energized?

Energize, to give energy to, to activate or invigorate. That's the definition I found when I looked up the word. I knit and I crochet each and everyday; but I'm not the one that makes the most to donate, nor are my skills the best of those that donate to Bridge and Beyond.

Bridge and Beyond is a grassroots charity I started to aid the local homeless in Central Ohio. Through the help and generosity of many other knitters and crocheters, we've accomplished quite a bit over the last couple of years. My blog, Bridge and Beyond focuses on the need, documents the donations, and reaches out to attract others who can help.

I knit and crochet hats, scarves, mittens, slippers; and I assemble afghans from donated squares. But, I believe my biggest asset is that I Energize, Activate, and Invigorate others. Through my blog, my computer...I Energize others into action, and together through the help of many pairs of busy energized hands we make a difference.

*This is my E post for the Z-A challenge.
**Apologies if this post seems conceited, it's not my intent to sound self important; rather to draw attention to how we knitters and crocheters come together**