What's on my needles (week 66)

At The Knitting Garage

Classes

I hope you have had a chance to look over the classes offered this summer. 
There should be something for everyone.  If you would like to learn something you don't see listed here, you can always set up an appointment for a private lesson.

The first class is for the Easy Boxy Lace Top.  This is very cute layered with any color T-shirt.  You will want to make more than one for yourself and others.  This class can be taken by anyone who knows the basics of knitting (i.e. cast-on, knit, purl, bind off).
The class will be held both on Wednesday, June 10th and Saturday, June 13th.  There is a limit of three participants per class and you must sign up prior to the class.  So far I have one person who signed up for the Saturday Class.
I will be knitting this up for my daughter-in-law.  She will be stopping by this weekend to choose the yarn.

Easy Boxy Lace Top

Country Living Fair

If you are planning to go to the Country Living Fair this weekend, make sure to stop by Leah Stickle's stand; she has a lovely selection of goods from both AL Stickles and The Knitting Garage

At Home

I have finished two projects and made good headway on one.

Owl Square (Finished!)

My local library in Tivoli is working on a wall hanging.  Most squares are hooked, some knitted, felted and crochet.  I volunteered to make one square and last Monday I added it to the canvas next to the water tower.
I used stash yarn for this.  First I crochet a 4"x 4" square on a size 7 (1.65mm) crochet hook.  Then I embroidered the moon and tree branches.  Last I knitted an owl on US#6 needles, sewed on button eyes and let him sit on the branch.

Knit Your Love Shawl (finished!)

I finished the shawl for my sister last Tuesday.  Now it is blocked and ready to be mailed.  Her birthday is only in another two months, but I want to mail it with the baby blanket and bonnet.
So far everybody I have shown it to is head over heels with it and I hope my sister will like it as much, after all it is her favorite color.

Leftie (15 leaves done!!!)

With the Knit Your Love Shawl finished, I got back to working on the Leftie.  I am having SO MUCH FUN deciding on all the colors.  My goal is to have each color just once.  I have a lot of left over yarns and also found some samples which have more than enough for one stripe and leave as you just need a couple of yards.  Some friends have given me some yarn, too (thank you, Deborah!) which is great.

deciding what to use next

some yarn samples and one unicorn tail

so far so beautiful!

I want to add some of the left over yarn from the red shawl I just finished, but noticed that the color bleeds a lot.  Can you imagine how devastating it would be to have the red run into the white and other colors?! 
I decide to go for it anyway taking two precautions: 

• I will soak the yarn in a vinegar solution prior to knitting to set the color more.
• When I need to wash the shawl I will use the color catcher sheets I just heard about from a good friend of mine.

By default I already had to try out the color catcher sheets:  As I was moving some boxes at The Knitting Garage (looking for bits of left over sock yarn weight yarns some of the dye of the boxes rubbed off onto my sweater and shawl.  I washed it immediately with one of those sheets and it all came off.

Before ( see the red stains?!)

After