I finished a project.

I've had a rough day.  I want to whine, but I've already done that elsewhere.  I just can't wait for today to end, so I can sleep, and hope for a better day tomorrow.  Anyway, on to happier topics.

I finished the Laura shawl I was knitting for my friend Leann!  She dyes and sells gorgeous, soft, squishy, lovely yarns, and she asked for volunteers to knit some samples with her yarn to help customers to get a better sense of how the yarns look knitted up.  I volunteered, and chose a large project.  I feel like I took so much longer than I had planned.  But it's done now, and just in time, since the movers will be here in three days. 

 The yarn I used was from Forbidden Woolery; Sparkle, in the colorway "Dumbledore"  It's a lovely mix of blues and grays.

 I used a US7 circular needle.

 The pattern is Laura.

The shawl ended up roughly 24 inches wide, and five feet long.  I forgot to measure it.  Oops.

An "oops" fixed.

Okay, I know I said that Princess's dress was second...and I totally intended for it to be. I was knitting along, spacing the buttonholes exactly how I far apart I spaced them for Kitty's, and I decided that would be fine, and I would just make it so that it had five buttons instead of four. Then it would be long enough for Princess. So that's what I did. And it turned out too long for Princess's torso. It hung to her hips. I wanted the bodices to all end just a bit above their natural waists. So I tried it on Angel, and it fit perfectly; she and Princess have the same chest/waist measurement right now. But Angel's torso is longer than Princess's. For that matter, so are her legs. Long, and slim. She's built like my younger sisters. Anyway, Princess was disappointed that it wasn't hers, but I assured her that I'd be able to get hers done pretty quickly, and without any mistakes...at least that's the plan. So, yesterday, I got the skirt attached, and I'm glad I made it two inches longer than I'd originally planned. My girls love long dresses, and it should fit her all summer. And here's a pic of Angel, in her Olympic dress!

I've got less than half a week to finish the third one. Anybody want to take bets on whether I get done before the end of the Closing Ceremonies? I cast on for Princess's dress (again) last night, and got into the beginning of the stranded "USA" section, before my hands cramped up and made me quit. Planning on making some serious progress today. Gotta love the pressure...why did I take two days off from my project to work on something else?!? I'll post about the "something else" next time. ☺

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In completely unrelated news...Laura(of the "Laura Shawl") had her final chemo treatment yesterday. She'll have surgery again soon, this time to reverse her colostomy, and then after recovering from that, she'll be able to move back into some semblance of normalcy. I'm so happy for her. To my readers who joined in praying for her, thank you.

Praising God, and dancing with joy!

Laura went home from the hospital on Sunday, and on Monday she got the pathology results....there are "NO RESIDUAL CANCER CELLS!" No cancer. Anywhere in her body. At all. When I read the news on her Facebook page, I was crying tears of joy. I am so happy for her, and so thankful to God. Every step of the way, she has experienced the "best case scenario"; almost no side effects of the chemo and radiation, better-than-expected tumor shrinkage, and now she is recovering well, with the knowledge that she no longer has cancer. Any time that I see what looks like a miracle, I believe that it is one. God used the doctors and the medicine to heal Laura. All glory to God!

Beginning of a new week.

It's a new week. I really enjoyed the worship service this morning. I love my church; we worship passionately, and the Word is preached without being watered down. Speaking of my church, my pastor's wife, Laura, had her cancer surgery last week, and from the reports we're getting, everything looks good. The tumor had shrunk dramatically before the surgery, and the doctors are confident that they got it all out. Laura should be out of the hospital in another day or two. You can read more about her journey at http://www.laurashooksblog.blogspot.com/

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We went to a church "splash party" this afternoon. It was a lot of fun....for the kids. Actually I had a pretty good time, too. But I don't think I need to go for a walk this evening, after chasing Dolly all around at church. She's pretty fast for a two-year-old. My legs are tired.

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After a major tinking experience last night, I have regained my momentum with Ichthus. I've finished the second skein, and I'm on the last row of fish before I start the edging. I'm not sure if It'll take one or two more skeins. I'm just glad it looks like I'll have some yarn left over; I want to make some socks with this yummy yarn.

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The kids are ready for more schoolwork tomorrow. Guess I need to get ready. Angel read "Swiss Family Robinson" today, in it's entirety. Yes, it was abridged, but even so, it's a fairly long book. I know she loves to read, but I was surprised with how quickly she finished it. Princess told me a few minutes ago, "I didn't do any schoolwork today!" She was very concerned about this oversight. I had to explain to her that we don't do schoolwork on Sundays. She showed me a little coloring book that Angel had drawn for her and she had colored. As I praised her coloring skills, she informed me that she had the "most fantastic" pictures. How many four-year-olds talk like that? It made me smile. And ask hubby to repeat what he had said earlier about our girls not going to "a real school". Our school is plenty real, thankyouverymuch! Time for me to sign off now; I need to go print some math worksheets for Angel to do tomorrow.

The pattern for "Laura" is finally available!

Y'all thought I forgot, didn't you? Well, I didn't. I was just trying to figure out how to upload it, since Blogger does not have an option for uploading PDF files. So I uploaded it to box.net, and linked to it on my pattern blog. This blog, "LovelyKnits" has turned out to be more about me than just my knitting, and will continue to be. My other blog will be just for my patterns. So if you want to knit your own "Laura", visit http://christineolsonoriginals.blogspot.com/ .

After spending hours and hours yesterday working on it...

Laura's shawl is done! It is blocking right now; I washed it and laid it out last night, but it's still not dry. Well, it is cotton, after all! But it should be dry later today. So I can give it to her on Sunday. Now I just need to get some pretty wrapping paper... And I'll post pictures later.

Now, just because I'm done knitting the shawl, that doesn't mean I'm done praying for her. I'll keep praying as long as she needs the prayers. And I'd like to ask my readers to continue praying for her as well. You can follow her journey on her blog at http://laurashook.com She updates it every day, or almost every day.

As soon as I get the pattern refined and turned into a PDF file, I will post it on my other blog, and link to it on this one. Now I'll turn back to my big project. I've been neglecting it for two weeks so I could focus on "Laura".

Okay, I know I haven't posted anything since Thursday...

so here's a general update on everything. Laura's shawl is progressing slowly; I need to focus and spend a few hours today working on it. My goal is to finish it this week so I can give it to her on Sunday. Which means I'd have to finish by Friday, so that I can block it on Saturday. Which means I have to get busy!

I didn't knit a single stitch yesterday; I was too busy. I did 6 loads of laundry; ironed 6 shirts, 5 pairs of pants, one pair of shorts and 3 perler bead creations; sewed one split seam, 9 buttons, and one small hole; and attempted to felt two sweaters in my washing machine. It's a front-loader, and it doesn't look like it worked. Oh, well. I can just fall back on my original plan; taking them to the laundromat and felting them there in the top-loader.

I am on day 14 of the Love Dare. I should be on Day 15, but I fell a little behind. I'm caught up now, thanks to yesterday. I'm changing. This dare is all about doing what I can to improve my marriage. I can't change my husband; I can only change myself. I can only hope and pray that he decides to change for the better as well.

I think we're planning on going to the pool later today; it's supposed to be really hot out. I'd much rather stay in the air conditioning, but the pool might be fun, too.

Knitting and Designing...

Here's the WIP(work-in-progress) picture of Laura's shawl. I know I promised to post it on Monday, but I got distracted and forgot to take a picture until today. Sorry about that. It's almost three feet long now, so just over two feet to go. I think if you click on the picture, you can see it bigger. That way you can see the detail better. The lace pattern is a very simple eyelet diamond. Easy, pretty, elegant, but not showy. I love showy shawls, but my skills aren't quite to that level yet.

I am working on another design, using a different lace pattern that I came up with myself, but I'm not sure yet if I want to make it a shawl. Maybe something smaller...I've got some ideas, but I haven't settled on anything yet. I'm enjoying this new foray into designing. I've been designing my own stuff almost since I learned to knit last year, but I was designing it for myself, not for anyone else. Now I'm keeping track of my ideas, and refining them. Hopefully, I can come up with a few patterns that other people will want to knit.

As soon as I get this shawl done, I'm going back to my big project: the pattern I want to submit to Knitty. I set it aside near the end of knitting the second size, and I need to get back to it. September seems like a long time away, but I know that I can't procrastinate. I need to get this pattern written and get test knitters lined up, so that I will be able to make any edits to the pattern before the deadline. My goal is to be finished knitting all five by the beginning of August, so that my test knitters will have at least a month to do theirs. It is a pretty quick knit; when I was working exclusively on the smallest size, I finished it within about a week. I just have to keep myself from getting distracted, once "Laura" is done. Wish me luck!

Nearly halfway done...

with Laura's shawl. Hooray! I'm really enjoying the lace pattern; it's so easy. I'll try to get a good picture taken and posted tomorrow. Update on Laura: after more tests, they now know that the cancer is only in her colon and one lymph node. It's considered Stage 3. She's starting chemo and radiation treatments tomorrow; she'll be doing both at the same time. Everyone is staying upbeat, praying instead of worrying. If you want to, you can read her blog at http://laurashook.com

Started another prayer shawl.

This morning, my pastor announced that his wife Laura has cancer. What a shock. She's young, and healthy, but she found out this week that she has colon cancer. Not what you expect to hear in a Sunday morning sermon. At the end of the service, we sang an awesome worship song; some of the lyrics are:

So I'll stand, with arms high and heart abandoned,
In awe of the One who gave it all.
I'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered;
All I am is Yours.

I couldn't sing; I was crying too hard. I was reminded of my mother-in-law, who passed away about a year and a half ago, from cancer. I don't even know Laura very well, but I still felt like we were about to lose another family member. So I cried for Laura, as I attempted to pray and to worship. And, again like before, I felt God speaking to me. He told me, "Make a shawl for her."

So this afternoon, I again searched through patterns, and I debated with my myself over which color of yarn I should use. In the end, I decided to design my own pattern, using an easy lace pattern that I have memorized. And I decided to use the same yarn I had used for Rebekah and Allyson's shawl; the variegated blue recycled cotton. I've only knitted a few inches on the "Laura shawl", so I won't post pics yet. But I will after I get it about halfway done. And I intend to put the pattern on my other blog, which I'm still working on. I want to have a separate blog, just for my original designs; when it's ready, I'll link to it here.

To anyone who reads this, if you believe in the power of prayer, I'd like to ask you to join me in praying for Laura. I'll be praying with each stitch of this shawl.