Last Day of January

We finally made it to the end of January -- it always seems like a really long month each year. We had a little bit of snow all day and I was able to snap a quick photo of this beautiful male cardinal while I was eating my lunch today. There's nothing like a brilliant red cardinal to brighten up a gray winter day.

Yesterday I finished a little shawl that I started last August. This is the Multnomah Shawl, and you can find the free pattern by clicking here.

I like these little wool shawls because they're nice to dress up any outfit, plus they're actually pretty warm too. An added bonus of this shawl is that the green in this variegated yarn is an exact match to this godawful green blouse I bought on clearance at JCPenney's a few years ago. Now I know I'll be wearing this green blouse much more often (notice my happy face!)

The other neat thing about this shawl is that I got the chance to use one of the new shawl pins I purchased last week from one of my fellow Etsy shop owners. This cute little flower shawl pin is perfect on this shawl. If you're looking for a shawl pin, please check out some of Amy's other cute designs at this link to her website.

A couple months ago, a new yarn shop opened in Winona, Minnesota. It's called Yarnology and I've already made several trips down there where the wonderful shop owners have everything I need to satisfy my knitting addiction. Last weekend they had their grand opening celebration so Mr. Johnson and I made the drive to Winona again so I could take part in the grand opening event and sign up for a drawing. The really nice thing about going to Winona (in addition to Yarnology) is that we have usually have time to drive through the scenic Whitewater WMA and look for birds & wildlife, plus Winona has lots of restaurants and we get a chance to try a new one on each trip. Anyway, getting back on track here, last Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from Gaby (one of the Yarnology owners) letting me know that I had won a prize in their drawing. Woo-Hoo!! And look at this fabulous prize I won.......

A beautiful lacy shawl pattern and 10 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool yarn to knit it with (plus a little package of T-pins for blocking). On the way home, I also picked up 2 tubes of glass beads that will look beautiful on this shawl. I was so happy to receive such a wonderful prize and can't wait to get started on this shawl (as soon as I finish a dog sweater for a co-worker and the last Special Olympics scarf). I'll be sure to post pictures of this shawl once I get started on it.

Fixes for My Fiber Addiction

One good thing about our cold Minnesota winters is that I can wear sweaters for at least 6 months. I haven't started or finished a sweater for myself in quite a while, so a couple weeks ago I rewarded myself by starting a new sweater (since I managed to finish 8 projects in January). This is called the Big Sven Sveater, but since it's for me, I'm calling it the "Big Lena Sveater!"

The nice thing about being an experienced knitter is that you can make revisions to the pattern. This sweater has a circular patterned yoke, but I decided to add an element of the yoke pattern at the bottom of the sleeves and body of the sweater also. As you probably know already, I really like doing two-colored knitting and the thought of all those rows of just one color till I got to the yoke was just more than I could bear. I really like this yarn--a nice heavy worsted weight wool from Canada. It's a little rough when you're knitting with it and sometimes I even come across a small piece of grass the sheep picked up out in the pasture. I used this yarn in a hat a while back and found that once I washed it, the yarn softens up really nicely. I'm making pretty fast progress on this sweater and hope to get it finished by the end of February, so stay tuned!

I completed a few more items for my Etsy store and hope to get them added to the inventory after supper tonight. Here are some wool half-mitts in a nice variegated colorway called "Rosewood."

How about this groovy granny square ensemble? Fortunately, I didn't throw all my old patterns away and when I went through the pattern box downstairs I found this awesome pattern that my mom bought for me when I first started crocheting. Remember years ago when Simplicity sold crochet and craft patterns? I checked the date on the envelope and it was from 1971 and the cost of the pattern was 85 cents! We picked out the pattern because it featured a granny square poncho and I recall making several of those for myself and friends. I really love this hat and probably will make several more (including one for myself!)

In case you're wondering......my model's name is Larissa.