A Marvelous Monday!

 Today I crawled out of bed hours before the sun showed up and hit the road to help a friend by taking her for an early morning surgical appointment.  Eleven hours later she and I were both safely home. I expect as I write this she is in bed recovering. I will soon be in bed myself.

During the day I spent in the hospital waiting room my fingers and knitting needles were flying.  I have been working on a sample shawl, having now used three balls of Big Twist Carousel yarn in colors  Amethyst and Wildflower.  Since more was needed to make the shawl as long on my arms as I desired, I purchased two balls of local yarn from Hobby Lobby in Orange Rust or some such thing.  The name is probably on my Ravelry page....

Anyway, today I spent nearly seven hours knitting and finished the first half, spliced in the second ball of Hobby Lobby yarn and managed another couple rows on the second half of the shawl.  Earlier I think I showed a picture here of my thought on how to make the shawl more rounded at the bottom by using short rows.  Today I put that into practice.  I did short rows in both directions.  This is what it looks like currently:

You can see the spine of the shawl here with the first half rounded by the short row shaping on the right.  Well, the photo is not really very good but I think you can see it.  The part that is more towards the top is actually the bottom of the shawl. I did not want to continue knitting the shawl with a sharp point at the bottom and I think it worked.  Eventually I will be showing the full shawl, including the nice "tree" shawl pins that arrived today, 

So, it was a great day helping a friend.  This time I received my own help by being able to knit for hours with no interruptions or self-guilt-tripping.  So great.  Having gotten so far today, I am inclined to really go to town on finishing the shawl. I now have the goal of completing the shawl by the end of the week so I can wear it to Church on Sunday.  I love the cool temperatures in our church building but sitting for a few hours makes me cold...so the shawl will be a blessing.

To top off a nice day I had just arrived home when one of our grandsons FaceTimed me to say he received the socks I made for him and that he wore them to school today.  He had them on under his braces as we spoke!  So nice of him to call.  How I love all our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It makes me so happy that they like the things I make for them.  That is the whole reason I make those items.

AND ON TOP OF THAT CALL!!!  I saw a note that our missionary elder grandson had sent a video!!!  Is that not the coolest...!. Truly it is.  He sent a sweet two minute video which was the absolute coolest thing.  He actually did receive the washcloth I had woven on our 16" Ashford rigid heddle loom and sent as a Christmas gift.  Earlier this very week our oldest son sent a picture where he used his cloth as a placemat under his healthy-filled dinner plate.  So happy.  So very happy.  I miss our family and friends so much.  These notes and calls and videos take the sting away and make me smile from ear to ear.  If you are fortunate enough to have family and friends nearby, give them hugs as often as you can.  Don't let them wonder if you love them.

The nice thing about moving to South Carolina, besides the no snow and ice on a regular basis, is that the people here are so nice and have taken us in.  The pain of leaving lifelong friends is covered up in the loving kindness of our new friends.  What is that adage: Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other is gold.  So very true. I love love love the silver and gold in our lives.  May you all be safe and happy.