Sue's shawl pattern and a little giveaway from Vicki

Thank you all so much for your wonderful Birthday wishes, each and every comment meant so much to me.  So how is your weekend going?  Mine feels slow and a bit dragged out, both my older boys are away, so my house seems so quiet.  I am used to Mr. 20 being away, but when my teenager goes to I almost can't stand it.  We have been home just doing this and that, nothing major or all that important.  

One thing I just have to share with you is my friend Sue of Mr Micaber's Recipe for Happiness has published two amazing patterns in the current issue of Love of Crochet.

  

Sue is an amazing designer, gosh I wish I had an ounce of her talent.  She designed this gorgeous shawl, The Olive Twist Shawl, it is brilliantly constructed.  

I am a firm believer of being honest, it took me a bit to get this one going.  Actually I am also a bit daft as I crocheted the shawl up and it looked like a piece of pizza, I forgot to do the increases on the odd rows after row seven, oops! I frogged the whole darn thing on my birthday, wow,  Happy Birthday to me and got started again.  Reading patterns (or directions for that matter) has never been my strong point, especially crochet patterns that is.  So my suggestion is to pay close attention to the middle (corner) and put a slit ring there to remind yourself where you need to increase just like Sue suggests, see she really knows what she is talking about.

I am just amazed by those of you out there who can design something so fabulous, or frankly design anything at all.  Based on my 20 or so starts on this shawl I can not even follow a pattern.  This shawl will be worth all the false starts because the twisted stitch is a beauty.  You can find more about this pattern on Sue's blog here, she also has another pattern in this very same issue called the Honeydew Scarf, it is also stunning.  Great job Sue.  Be sure to visit Sue on her blog and congratulate her for her beautiful designs.  Sue is also biking to raise money for MS, she is a lovely, lovey person, go and check her out.

I also received this little surprise in the mail this week, a giveaway from Vick at 2 Bags Full.  It arrived earlier this week but I waited until today to open it.  I have been a bit frazzled this week with some parental stuff, I just wanted to wait until I was calm and ready to see the beautiful items inside.

Vicki is the famed Grow Your Blog genius, she is so wonderful and caring making nests and  raising money for Breast Cancer research.  She also collects pink scarves for the very same reason, she is giving, loving and lets us travel with her on amazing vacations.   Vicki's friend Marsha hand painted these nest tags, aren't they gorgeous?  So thank you Vicki and Marsha for your wonderful giveaway.

On the home front besides making my shawl and knitting two pink sweaters, I have started a table runner for my two SIL's on my loom.  They have just returned from Africa, a trip to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, those two are amazing.  I wanted to send them positive thoughts while they were gone, so I started this table runner made from Berroco Boboli Lace yarn.  They like more jewel tones so I thought it would look good on their oak table.

So that is where I am at today, a bit of this and that.

I have to get my house ready as we are having friends over for dinner to celebrate my husband's birthday today.  He turns 60!  He is an amazing man, ready to take on a 3 year old at this stage of his life, I think he gets all of that from his Mom.  Thankfully I am not cooking, he is, which he truly loves to do.  I am just on clean up duty.

Have a great day.