Remember my post about deconstructing my Master Knitter project from the latter part of the 1990s? Thanks to my friend Shirley in Calgary I had a little nudge. She wanted to know how the knitting project is coming along… I am happy to report: I have completed two, more or less, traditional Gansey sweaters with the turquoise and yellow yarns. Here are the finished sweaters:

They both fit well and I had a fantastic time working on them. I was worried that I might run out of the yellow yarn so decided to add the last of the turquoise and I made the body of the sweater a little shorter. I love both sweaters! I have worn the turquoise Gansey several times already. The yellow sweater was just washed and blocked a few days ago and with the warm temps and high humidity I have not had to need to take it out yet.

As you may recall, I had ordered a new and revised edition of “Knitting Ganseys” by Beth Brown-Reinsel. It was worth every penny. I read it cover to cover and made the suggested tiny sample Gansey and I learned so much. Well worth the time invested! The turquoise and yellow sweaters were inspired by some of the Ganseys in the book but in the end I added the saddle shoulders and customized the bands, cuffs and neckbands to suit my needs and wants. Creating the little sample Gansey was exactly what provided me with the confidence and understanding to alter existing patterns… not to mention, the yarns in the book are not something I was able to obtain. I made my recycled yarns fit the project. All around I am very pleased. I still have blue, red and green from the gigantic blanket… I am sure I can find something to do with them soon.

Do any of you knitters out there remember this book? I recognized it immediately when Colin’s Eagle Eye spotted it and pointed it out to me at the bottom of a shelf tucked into a dark corner at our favourite antique store in Great Village during one of our excursions. It was priced at $ 5.00 and with a price like that for an out-of-print hardcover edition of “Knitting” by Meg Swansen (Elizabeth Zimmermann‘s daughter!!) I quickly and quietly claimed this unexpected find. Yes, it is still available used but I scored it for a fantastic price.

I have been perusing the book and decided to embark on another knitting project. This time I am using Briggs & Little Heritage weight yarn. I am working on a sweater for Colin… hoping I can get it completed for his birthday in September.

I am making reasonable progress… considering that I have been out of commission for about 12 days with an episode of Cluster Headache. I guess all the stress from the past few months have finally caught up with me and I ended up in emergency last Monday (I have great timing when it comes to getting sick… it usually happens on a long weekend). These days I am trying to rid my body of the strong medications that were administered and morning headaches are still a thing… except for yesterday.

I woke up clear-headed and with some energy. That was the cue for me to follow through on a long overdue task: I had not taken much time for grooming the pups. I must have hit a good day for all of us, they were golden in the tub during their bath and afterward they behaved so well on the grooming table. I did have lots of treats in my pocket just in case…

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Hope I didn’t bore you too much with the update on the pups (who are pups no more!). The grand-kids are holidaying in Ontario and there has been little contact and no new images lately. They are having fun kayaking, swimming and hanging out with friends and cousins they had not seen in a long time.

There has been little news from my family in Germany. It’s a real struggle there. The damages have been assessed and I don’t know if they have decided to rebuild. I hate to be the one pushing for news all the time. I know they will let me know when decisions have been made.

My concern these days goes to family and friends in Western Canada, especially BC. I have close friends there that were on evacuation alert yesterday… my heart goes out to everyone in the wildfire zones. Sending positive energy and much love! Anna

08 Aug This entry was published on August 8, 2021 at 9:41 am. It’s filed under Journaling and tagged Blog, blogging, creativity update, Journaling, knitting, personal stuff. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.