Oh, No, Another Hobby?

I can’t believe I am investing time and money into another hobby but here I am.  I used to knit but then the arthritis in my fingers caused me to stop.  For several years I machine knit, a truly fun hobby, but the company that made my machines stopped producing and my teacher/knitting group disbanded.  To add to that it was at the same time I fell into quilting and it took over my spare time life.  But the knitting bug never quite left and I am trying again because I want to knit socks.  So what you see above is the yarn I got with my Craftsy knitting class.  It is sock yarn and it didn’t take long for me to know that that wasn’t what I should be relearning on. 





I was delighted to find this in my machine knitting leftovers.  It is a ball wander and I have put it to good use already.  This is after I paid a visit to the new yarn shop that has just opened in our very small town is South Alabama:  Pale Moon Yarns.  One should never visit a yarn shop when one already has a fiber addiction.










Anyway, I bought some orange, of course, DK weight yarn and #10 needles to begin my practice piece.  I have always knit the English way but decided that maybe my hands would do better using the Continental method.  I have to tell you that it is not easy, at 70 years of age, to make that kind of change.  However, I think that I do not hold either the yarn or needles as tightly with this new to me method and thus my hands have not complained as much.  I am still having some difficulty holding on to the yarn coming off the ball but am confident that I will get that figured out  with practice. 






Complete change of subject:

Some time ago our DIL sent me this owl butter dish.  She has been great at finding unique owls and this was no exception.  It has sat on the counter, unused, because we have been using tub butter and because DH does not like the butter to be left out (I do because I like soft butter).  Recently I bought light stick butter and just this week put in in this little beauty.






And it works GREAT!  I have had toast almost every morning just so I could use it.  However, I have noticed that she and DS have not been doing so much antiquing since their daughter (see header picture) was born last Dec.  Do you think that is the end of my great owl gifts?


I did get the rest of the Weave blocks sewn but have not decided on an arrangement, yet.  That will probably be one of my weekend projects. 

As for today, I am determined to begin quilting on the Funky Chickens.  I have been avoiding that room because I am afraid of messing up my beautiful quilt top.  Of course, this is not going to work so I did pick out the thread yesterday.  I will need to wind several bobbins this morning so I can begin quilting “ready or not.”  Oh, my……………