and fun we had at our first summer knit/crochet get-together at the Azusa Senior center. I have a group of twenty-six knitter/crocheters. Seventeen showed up at our first get-together for the summer. What can I say? We had a great time...
I made this vest for Suzie my daughter’s friend. The vest is made of Ella Rae Amity, color 8. I only needed 2.5 skeins and completed it in three days. The front bands, knitted together with the front ribbing and after 30 rows, I placed 13 of the front stitches on placed on stitch holders and continued in stockinet stitch. After I finished each front and the back piece, I sewed them together. I now knitted the front bands separately all the way up each covering half of the neck. Closing the front bands seam in the back and sewing them onto the front pieces was the next step. The sleeve bands also knitted separate and sewed on afterwards. The vest does not have buttons. It is my own design and I really like the way it came out. The bands are 13 stitches wide in a K1, P1 rib and the ribbing has 30 rows.
and husband was kind enough to model it for the picture. The vest is a fathers day gift for the grandfather. Husband likes it so much that he now want one too. I must admit he does look very handsome in it.
Below are pictures of our beloved friends and customers Fran and Sherry; I sincerely can say my friendship to Sherry and Fran is something I treasure very much. Because of these two wonderful women, ALL ABOUT YARN is involved in not only donating yarn but also knitting scarves for the Kaiser Cancer Foundation in Baldwin Park. This is one way for us to give back to the community where we live and work in. I made several scarves, but unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures before I gave them to Fran to take to the hospital. Pilar will take part tomorrow in a knit-crochet group at Kaiser. Once a week, a group of employees comes together during lunch working on their projects. I am at the shop working on another scarf for the foundation. When finding out someone has cancer, it is the most horrible and frightening news a person could hear. I only can imagine how difficult it is to go through all the treatments. I feel comfort that one of my scarves is comforting a person in such a trying time in their lives. When in treatment, a person can easily feel lost and lonely. With a comfort, such as a scarf, that is made by someone who cares I believe can ease the feeling of being alone. 
Changing things around is an all-time favorite of mine when I am tired of looking at the same old things repeatedly. For a while now, I was not happy about the way my store looked from the outside in. Since I am on duty every Saturday, I decided to deep clean the shop and also went and did changes I thought would look attractive. First, I removed all blankets from the rack, folding them and placed them neatly in an empty shelf. Second, I removed all winter articles from the window and stored them in a drawer. I neatly highlighted the shelves with crochet squares Pilar did with a group of her students. Next, I removed this dreadful (but useful) looking folding table from the middle of the store and replaced it with the more attractive smaller side table from the window. I moved our round glass table closer to the window. That way we gained some extra space between the bookrack and the counter. We replaced the blue carpet with a more colorful one we purchased at Ikea. It looks much better now; it is not too crowded and not too empty. Yesterday Pilar went and created a little showcase table next to the table on the window. The plan is to change the display every week with new items made by either our students or ourselves. When looking at the pictures below, you may agree with me that it is a job well done!
on a number of different projects. First, I finished the bouclé sofa throw I made on the machine. 
Secondly, I completed the blue sweater for Mona. Lena nicely modeled for the picture here. 
Last but not least... I am almost done with the lace scarf I started last week. I am getting better with the machine and knitting goes so much faster. I am doing some blankets for the shop and the machine comes in handy. Although, I use the machine to knit the blankets, but the crochet edges are still made by hand. I've worked in the past few weeks on several projects. For starters, I bought myself the book from Nancy Bush called "Estonian Lace" and started to knit the Raha Scarf on page 63. The original yarn used in this Raha Scarf is Moco Yarn consisting of 45% Quivut (musk or ox) and 45% merino wool and 10% added silk. I never heard of ox yarn. So I looked it up... although it really looks nice and soft but when I saw the price tag on the mentioned yarn I had to take a deep breath. I opted instead to use Sirdar Aran yarn a 30% wool/70% acyclic. The pattern is lovely and easy to knit.
Karin, my friend from Germany was giving me a lesson on short rows the other day over the telephone. During my "lesson" she noticed that I never made a crochet cast-on. So she taught me how to do it. What can I say? I didn't manage quiet how to knit short rows on the knitting machine, however, due to the fifty or so tryouts on short rows I've learned the perfect crochet cast-on as you can see.
Trying myself on crocheting a rose. It came out O.K I think. 
Baby planked for Tamara soon to be born baby girl. Now I have made several baby items and the parcel is almost ready to be shipped to Germany. I am still working on a white dress for the Christening for the new baby. Yarn used in the blanket... Sirdar Snuggly baby yarn. The blanket is knitted in stockinette stitch and the boarder is crochet with little half shells.
Josselyn's jacket with matching beanie. Yarn used, Araucania 100%wool, hand painted yarn from Chile.
Madelyn, Josselyn's sister picket the rose 100% wool yarn from Argentina for her sweater/beanie combination. The yarn is bulky and very comfortable to knit with. Because it's bulky, it knitted up rather fast.
I added to both beanies a nice looking crochet rose.
to keep busy. I was working seamlessly one three projects and thanks heavens completed all three of them just in time. I am home early today because I wasn't feeling well. Doing better now I though posting the newest pictures and updating the web is time well spend. I am still working on the purple diagonal scarf. Somehow that project became somewhat boring to work on.
Pilar made a lace shawl and I a knitted one. Both turned out to nice looking.
Little girls jacket for Josselyn... 
and the pink one for her sister Madelyn.
This jacket I made for my friend Robin for her birthday.
Today is one of those days where I have planned to be very productive and determined to cross off some items urgently waiting to be scratched off my TO DO LIST. First thing was checking mail, and been made painfully and bluntly aware of, that I expected a thank you note from someone who did actually post one in a forum, which I didn’t read, or even worse, read and forgot. It is somewhat embarrassing, and I am ashamed of myself for asking for a thank you. I did something no one asked me to do in the first place. I thought I’d like to be nice, and since I had this part and it was useless for me just lying around, I could easily give it to someone who needs it. Anyway, I am not so sure if I should go back to the forum and apologize again. I have to think about that.
On my TO DO LIST, which actually is getting longer every day I am not working on it, the most pressing item is preparing for my teaching evaluation, which is creeping up very fast. Since I picked the subject of my assessment, it should be easy to prepare for it. It will happen this week on Thursday morning in my knitting class. I have 29 students enrolled, and I asked each of them to bring an item made in this class. So far, so good. For my lecture, I have chosen to talk about the differences of yarn and yarn quality. I’ll Start with natural plant fiber, then I’ll cover animal fiber, and last putting emphasis on manufactured fiber . From there, I will discuss the differences of yarn weight and what fiber is used for different fashion items and projects, such as felting or Afghans. It sounds good to me. At least I have it all in my head lined up and ready to be written down. Now I “only” need to put it on paper, and most importantly, use the forms (find the forms) given to me for this purpose. I will go through my stash of yarn and pick yarn to show and then explain the variation of fiber. I will put together some handouts, and of course will post everything on our class website and web blog.
Item #2 on my list is buying a vacuum cleaner. Somehow, I manage to break them always around my birthday. As if I would need a reason to go shopping…. I like to get one of the new energy saving vacuums. On the other hand, if I like to save energy, I should let my husband or daughter do the vacuuming. Both have a certain talent to miss the corners. Therefore, both are faster than I am and thus save more energy.
A third item is to set up the standard knitting machine with the double bed and continue learning to use it properly. The reason for that is I promised my friend a rib-sweater made with very fine silk fiber and cashmere. Anyone who ever worked with this type of fine fiber knows it will take forever and ever to finish such a project in a woman’s size. However, before I start, I really need to learn how to work the machine without ruining the fiber and/or breaking the machine. I need to do that early today in case I need to call my friend Karin in Germany. Karin is so patient with me, even after asking the same questions twice in a row, she still explains it again. In fact, most everything I know about the subject of machine knitting I have learned from her. She is really one of a kind, and I can’t wait for her visiting me in California.
Last item on my list for today will be reading up on how to set up moodle. Moodle is a management software which will replace Blackboard at the end of this school year. I teach most of my computer and life skills classes with an online component. I have to start setting up my classes in the new system so that I do not rotate and scramble for time that I may not have at the beginning of next semester.
Last but not least… I am starting a third project called SHADOW knitting. I would like to give a workshop on shadow knitting in May. I have not done it in such a long time, so I have to make a swatch and a little project to refresh my memory. I also have to find the sweater and a scarf I once made using this technique.
... two at a time...
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