MEMORIAL DAY

Good morning and Happy Memorial Day! 

I hope you all have great plans for today - barbeques beaches and blue skies.  Today is not a holiday in our company so I am "working" today however I will be attending a BBQ at one of the local stores.  That will be a nice break in the day and something special that we don't do every day.

I have been working on a little patriotic piece by Handwork - the America pillow. It is on BOAF Sparrow and done in the called for overdyed cottons. It is so fun to work on something like this - I don't typically do these colors. I've made good progress in the past two days. I think I am going to keep it out this summer and make it my "fun" piece to break to when I am tired of working on my samplers.

I promised a photo of the new persian oriental rug I started last weekend in my workshop.  Here it is - I need to do some tweaking here and there.  I'm not happy with how the larger red flower came out - not enough contrast so I need to add some outlining of a lighter shade of red or perhaps that yellow green. Overall I'm very pleased with how it is coming out.

Here is a closer photo - you can see what I mean about the larger flower needing some enhancement.

I did not say before but this is hooked in a 5 cut and some stems in a 4 cut.  I am proud to say that all the wool except a few pieces came out of my stash cupboard.  I had purchased all the yellow greens from the teacher Eric at a previous workshop so I definitely wanted to put some of that in the rug and I also wanted some of Linda (the workshop director) in the rug so the beigy brown center of the pomegranate is from her lovely wall of wool.

This is a KAL I have been doing on the Madeline Tosh board on Ravelry - only knitters will understand all this jargon.  It was called MADMAY and the object you chose to "knit a long" was supposed to be finished in May to be eligible for the prizes - oh well - it won't be finished in May but I have enjoyed working on it - I need to put on a longer circular needle - that one is getting crowded with stitches so it would not lay flat.  The yarn is MT Pashmina in a color called Wash - the yarn is yummy to work with and I would highly recommend it.  There was as great article in the new Vogue Knitting mag that just came out about the Madeline Tosh company.  Take a read if you are a fan of this awesome hand dyed line out of Texas.

I'm going to leave you to celebrate the day in whatever way you enjoy most.  Whether it be quietly stitching or lounging around the pool, lake or ocean.  It's a day that we Americans should all hold dear to our hearts and always remember those who have given their lives for our freedom.