Pretty Beads All In A Row

If you ask me:

Danette, Danette, How does your knitting grow?

I will tell you:

With yards and yards of sock yarn and

Pretty beads all in a row!

My mother is thrilled. I FINALLY finished this beaded scarf I promised her some time ago!

It's knit from a 100% wool, hand~painted sock yarn and glistens with approximately 2400 irridescent glass beads. Although the beading adds a little weight to the scarf, it's still comfortable to wear. And the beads give the scarf a lovely drape. They make those vintage looking scallops on the ends hang beautifully.

While this is really an easy pattern {it's actually knit in a garter stitch}, it's slow going on size 4 needles with all the pushing the beads down to get enough yarn to work with, then pulling the beads up to place them where they're needed. But the end result is fabulous!

While I've been a little under the weather, I've concentrated on finishing up some set aside projects. This afternoon, much to Chelsea's delight, I will FINALLY be finishing her pair of Waving Lace socks I started when she was pregnant. Let me remind you ~ Gabby will be 2 years old on April 5th!!! It's about time I finished these socks! I made the first one, then knit about 3 inches of the second sock and shoved them in a bag which has hung in my supply closet {ignored but not forgotten!} for all this time! I'll show a picture of them some time this week. ***Chelsea and I both must thank Claudia from "Mr. Puffy's Knitting Blog" for encouraging me to go ahead and finish these socks!***

I have several things to show everyone. While I was nursing a sick Gabby, and being sick myself, God continued to lift my spirits through all of you. First I recieved the beautiful watercolor painting from Kathy of "Welcome to MiMi's Garden" and then a package full of all kinds of goodies came from Becky of "Holiday in the Sun". I promise a peek at everything before this week is over.

Plus I have recieved several e~mails and lovely comments from many of you and even gained some new followers and friends. God is SO GOOD!!! He knows just what we need when we need it. You all mean so much to me and I'm always so happy {and surprised} when someone is interested in the simple things of my life. I enjoy all of your blogs and encouraging words that touch my daily life. You all continually inspire me and add a whole new facet of joy to my world.

Speaking of my world~ this is what it looked like when we woke up this morning. I remember wondering sometime in the wee hours why I was hearing "garbage trucks" outside. Well, in my dreamy state I didn't realize it was SNOW PLOWS!!! AGAIN!!!!!

HELLO~ DID ANYONE GET THE MEMO???!!!!???!!! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING!!!

May you all be blessed today and in the upcoming week, no matter what's going on outside or around you. It's what's inside you ~ in your heart~ that really matters anyway! I pray a blessing on each one of you, that your hearts may truly know the JOY OF THE LORD!

"But the steadfast love of the Lord is

from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,

and His righteousness to children's children,

to those who keep His covenant

and remember to do His commandments.

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,

And His kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O you His angels,

you mighty ones who do His word,

obeying the voice of His word!

Bless the Lord, all His host,

His ministers, who do His will!

Bless the Lord, all His works,

in all places of His dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul." Psalm 103:17-22

P.S. I am actually posting this on Sunday, March 29. I started it as a draft a few days ago and didn't realize the date would be incorrect when I posted it and not being overly computer savvy~ I don't know how to make it right now!!! Oh, well! Happy Sunday everyone!:0}

Death By Chocolate Cake

Last week my very dear friend Krista had to have a little bit of surgery. {If you're a woman, you can probably guess what kind!}. So, I decided she should have something completely decadent to help soothe herself with. And what could be better than a rich, lavishly intense chocolate cake?! Although I am allergic and cannot eat chocolate these last 20 some years, I sure do love to feed it to others. That way I can enjoy the splendid aroma and pure beauty of chocolate, while creating something sumptuous, without having the reaction!

Anytime anyone in my house has had an illness or surgery through the years, Krista is always the first person at the door with a huge meal in hand. Knowing that Gabby has been so sick, plus now Grammy has been sick too {GO FIGURE!}, Krista flatly refused to let me make a big meal for her. But I insisted on the cake.

I chose today to bake it because all three of her college aged children are home for the weekend at the same time, something that doesn't happen too often. I knew if I sent this cake to an empty nest house while all the chicks were away it may very well kill her and hubby! And since she just survived her first time ever of going under the knife, I really didn't want my chocolate cake to be the death of her!

For some reason this picture makes it look a little lopsided. It really wasn't though.

I wish you could see how pretty the vintage cake plate underneath the mound of chocolate is. It was a Christmas gift from my girlfriend Karen, who knows how much I love such things, and occassionally scours antique malls on my behalf!

The cake was baked in my favorite heart shaped pans given to me by Pat, my lovely Mother~in~law, years ago. They belonged to her mother~in~law before that. I raked grooves into the sides with an icing comb that was another gift from Mom~in~law!

Hmmm...... I sure seem to get a lot of cake related gifts from everyone. Wonder why?

FINAL NON~CHOCOLATE NOTE:

Thanks to all of you for missing me! And for your well wishes on Gabby's behalf. She is much better. She's just fighting the tail end of the head cold now, which she unfortunately shared with me, therefore I remained missing in action even longer!

I plan to spend the next couple of days visiting all your blogs and making some comments along the way. I sure am anxious to see what you've all been up to. I really have missed each and every one of you!

There are even a couple of you I owe e-mails or even phone calls to. I promise ~ I'll get around to it before the weeks over!

Hope you are all well and being blessed!

Silky Cinnabar Shawl

How exotic does that sound?!

After finishing up another washcloth and scarflette for my Etsy shop, I began to wander around the house somewhat restlessly last night in search of my next project. Normally I have so many things on the needles or hook that this is not a problem. I've done so many instant gratification projects lately though, that I found myself {dare I say it?} caught up. Don't know exactly how that happened!

We were ready to settle in front of a movie and, of course, there AIN'T NO WAY I can do that without some kind of yarn something going on!!! I started crocheting a dishcloth for myself, because I'm running low, but... that wasn't working for me. {I'm sick of thinking about doing dishes!} Then I worked a bit on a Christmas gift I already started with that lovely yarn from Knit Picks. It's something worked in the round with 312 stitches cast on. After 3 rounds I realized I wasn't in the mood for that either. After all, Christmas is a long way off. I don't want to take all the fun out of the last minute knitting frenzy just a week before the big holiday!

Hmmm... what to do?

Suddenly a vision of this luxurious cone of yarn, sitting in a storage container in my supply closet, danced through my mind. I jumped up and ran {like the addict I am} for my yarn stash. After rescuing it from a bottom corner, where I've been saving it for something special, I headed for my books. For at least 2 years I've planned to make myself the "Meadow Flowers" shawl out of a book called: "Knitter's Stash ~ favorite Patterns from America's Yarn Shops".

This lovely, exquisite lace weight JaggerSpun yarn was a gift from a dear friend. She made a shawl for herself out of it and I loved it so much that she insisted on giving the rest of the cone to me. A very generous gift indeed! The cone holds 5040 yards of yarn and will make, well ~ I'm not sure how many more lovely items! The color is "cinnabar", a rich~dark red. This yarn is a 50/50 blend of merino wool & Chinese tussah silk.

Aaaahhh!

It has a lovely sheen and when knit up renders a garment with beautiful drape. Another nice feature is that it is so light and airy that it meets the Shetland lace standard of being able to pull a shawl through a wedding ring. However, it's much softer and silkier than Shetland wool.

As I've mentioned before, I have a great love affair with knitted lacework. After crocheting and knitting bulkier items for awhile, I get to the point where I need a lace fix. I love the sheer, delicate femininity of a garment knit in a lace pattern when it's finished. Plus, I really prefer working with smaller needles and lighter weight yarns for the most part.

If you've never worked with yarn from a cone, give it a try. You can work in one continuous piece without any joins, which is a much faster and more fluid knitting experience. Plus, the yarn stays put and doesn't knot easily.

As my shawl grows, in between other things that will come my way needing to be made, I will periodically show my progress. I'm really enjoying it so far. The pattern is easy and straight forward. There will be a knitted border all the way around it when the body of the shawl is completed.

Also in the picture are a couple of my favorite goodies from Anthropologie. My lovely porcelain teacup with my initial and a darling set of salt & pepper shaker birds. I had to show the teacup, because a good cup of tea is always part of anything I'm creating and the red & white birds just looked so pretty with all the red in the picture!

While working on this shawl this afternoon, I finished listening to the audio book: "Tall Grass"

by Sandra Dallas. What a great story! It's done in the view of a 13 year old girl.

One of my favorite lines is one that reflects my feelings exactly.

While saying that, although her dad would always be the center of her mothers world, it was "her women friends who eased her life".

Now, I know a little something about that!

Hope all my "women friends" out there are having a nice, peaceful, relaxing Sunday evening.

I look forward to visiting with all of you as we start another new week together tomorrow.

TaTa For Now!