My last post

It's not often that I go back and reread my blog posts, and I'm not sure why I did this time. If you were a first time reader and don't know me, I'm sure it probably didn't make any sense. That's what I get for blogging sans coffee! So, let me clarify things a bit. My ex-husband and I moved from California to Kentucky, and two years later, he decided his life needed to go in a different direction, and he filed for divorce. It was after that time, that I began going out with my youngest daughter to karaoke, on my visits back home to California.Two years after my divorce, and my move back home to California, I met and began dating a man, which you know as 'Scooter'. My previous post made it sound like I was dating him while I was still married to my ex-husband. I assure you, that wasn't the case!

Hopefully, I have cleared that up a bit. Moving right along.....I'm still working on the dress for my oldest granddaughter, but I did take a break last week to get over a bad cold. I'm not one to sit with idle hands, so I did get some knitting and crocheting done. A girlfriend from back in high school has asked for a summer shawl to cover her shoulders in the evenings when she wears her sundresses. Her birthday is this next week, and I'm pretty sure I can get it done in time. I chose the Multnomah in Fino, which is 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. Oh my goodness gracious...this yarn is amazingly soft with beautiful drape!!! It's a laceweight, so I'm holding two strands double to get somewhere close to fingering weight. She informed me she is allergic to wool and that she wanted it in white. Since this pattern is a feather and fan design, I knew I needed to have the yarn in an animal fiber, or at least a blend, in order for it to block out well, so you can see the lace. My only other option would've been a soy product, but I also knew I wanted something a little lighter than soy. What a challenge this was!!!! It's very hard to find an animal fiber in white, but when I spotted this Fino at my LYS, I knew it was perfect! As soon as I have some good light to take a picture of it, I'll post it.

Last Sunday, I discovered a whole box of crochet thread I had forgotten about, that was packed away upstairs , much of it inherited from one of my aunts and grandmother. I remember them crocheting their own potholders and since I'm getting ready to re-do my kitchen with a more vintage flair to it, I decided to peruse the patterns on Ravelry and see what was available that I liked. I found a designer that has a whole e-book of vintage crochet patterns for sale, many of them just as I remembered from my childhood, or at least very similar! I chose more subtle colors than the designer, but since I was destashing, I used what I had on hand. They are crocheted double, meaning with a front and back, and while I don't remember ever hearing my grandmother or aunts complaining they burned themselves while using them, I do know there is a fabric available to use in them if you are concerned about that. Since mine are going to be more for decorative purposes, I didn't bother. I will definitely be making more of these..they are just too pretty not to!! You can see the pattern I used here. There are a total of 25 different ones, so one down, 24 more to go! I apologize for the thumbnail size of the picture above. For some reason, blogger isn't wanting to cooperate with uploading my pics, so I had to copy and paste.