Quilts

This is my newest finished quilt.  It is just a simple 8 x 10 inch blocked quilt in pretty fall/Christmas colors.  It is in flannels and I purchased it as a kit from our local knit shop...Hickory Stick of Hannibal, MO.  In fact a number of years ago this shop was one of the top ten shops in our nation.  Many new shops have opened since and I have been to many but this nice sized shop in historic downtown Hannibal is a most for me to visit often.  Sometimes I just go in to visit with the ladies and see what they are up to and tell them what I am doing.  Sometimes I even take my finished projects in to show them off.

Quilting, to me, is like painting with fabric.  You are planning the color scheme, texture, media, design.  I do oil paint and some watercolor, and I find that quilting, like painting and even knitting or other hobbies I have, is just a wonderful way to express my creativity and style.

Knitting In Circles.....

It would be an acknowledgment that I am an avid knitter since I have knit since I was 12 years old and am not 67.  I have knit most of my adult life every single day, but way back then in my teens I made socks for skiing, sweaters and even a coat.  My best memory of that coat is that I ordered the yarn and my dad held his hands up for the hanks so I could wind them into balls.  It was a soft blue with a black fleck and I did a piping edging of black.

Since those days I continue to knit socks,  my favorite.  I also knit mittens and caps and infant caps and scarves, shawls, sweaters and some coats.  I knit a box of caps/scarves/mittens each year to ship out to the Native American Elders Program.  I also knit infant hats for the newborns at our local hospital.  I have knit sweaters a few years of another charity that sends them to underprivileged children, here in the U.S. and also abroad.  My last ones went to the country of Congo.

With knitting lots, come yarn shopping lots and I do most of it online.  Recently I was able to also order a winder and a swift.  You see, my knitting in circles is taking on a new scale.  I have purchased a circular knitting machine from Erlbacher/Gearhart and pick it up this Friday at a Cranking Conference (what they call their get togethers) as the machines are threaded and then you knit by cranking the machine.  My machine is brand spanking new, but is made from the design of the old gearhart machines.  It is metal, and has two cylinders, a ribber, and is red in color.  (Just a nice touch seeing red is my favorite color)

Once I get my machine and set it up, I will post pictures.  For now, I am excited to be on to a new adventure.  Life can be so full of it, so get out and enjoy it.