Not exactly extraordinary...but functional !

Dear Cynthia,

The first week after my class was done, I knit like a fiend. This week, I decided that it's time to make the house a functional entity again. (I once had dreams that my home would be "house beautiful", but the reality of four people coming and going, and all the paperwork which goes along with that, has made me realize that "house functional" might be more of an achieveable goal for me...especially having a knitting addiction, too.)

And so, though knitting progress continues, sort of being just one of those things I do every day, like brushing my teeth, and cleaning up the kitchen, and breathing, there is nothing extraordinary about what I'm sharing today, except for the fact that having this hobby continues to keep me sane and is part of the reason I don't see a therapist (so far, anyway).

Two dish rags! Combined with a couple other items I'll pick up at the grocery store today, here is a housewarming gift for some friends from Fort Wayne who will be moving here in the next week or two. This is the "standard" Grandma's Fav pattern, and I took the optional suggestion and did a row of single crochet around the edges, which I like.

Then I switched to the pattern which was printed on the inside of the Kitchen Cotton label, except casting on 34 instead of 46 stitches. (I like my dishrags to be about 7 inches square - any bigger than that, and I find them cumbersome.) I like the way the pattern looks, and it is a simple four-row repeat. Thank you for overlooking the whole "Kitchen Cotton thing"! As a small consolation, I thought you should know that I feel a bit conflicted knitting it using Addi TURBOs...

A final note: The sweater underneath this dishrag in the photo is done except for installing the zipper, and the pattern is halfway written. I'm going to try to get that all finished this week, and I'm thinking of putting a tutorial together for how to install zippers. It continues to be my favorite method for closure on a cardigan. More on these developments as they happen.

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)