It's all good

Well, they're back.  School started today and the excitement is still in the air.  Both grandchildren got good teachers this year ( although I am not sure there are any bad teachers at their school - but there are preferred teachers, I guess). The knitting has started and coming along nicely.  I joined Ravelry on line and organized all my knitting projects, yarn, needles and my books/ patterns.  I really like this site...it can be a time waster if you let it, but so far I have controlled my urge to "just browse". Now I can see what I have going and what I have queued up.  This is a change from my first bloggings on the "unfinished " piles I had and should keep me organized.  As an ex project director ( may explain a few things) this is right up my street and fits with my knitting life.  How lucky am I to pull these two together. We will see if this makes me more productive...what I am hoping for.

I have not only cleaned out my stash of knitting yarn and patterns but found old ones that are tried and true and that I still like. I fondled the pages of the books that I love and looked at the projects on the pages that I have done before and do not have any pics of...just warm memories. I was given some patterns that my dear mother-in-law had when she passed away many, many years ago now...one was Beehive for Bairns Series 50A. I may not use this pattern but then again it does have some great shawls and  "pram" covers...however it is treasured as it came from a devoted knitter so I will be keeping it regardless.

Now Ravelry takes all your patterns and books (once you  input the info)and stores them on a "shelf" so you can see the front cover or you can change this to a list.  These patterns need to be on their database ( I have lots that are not - but the majority made it). For needles and yarn it is fantastic as I can take a list with me to the store and know what I have on hand.  The fact that I must have 6 pairs of size 10 needles means I won't need to buy any of those but there are some sizes I don't actually have and some are not as popular as others either depending on what you are/ have been knitting.  When it came to the Beehive for Bairns booklet I decided to key it into the Ravelry Library with the notion that there is no way this is in there, it is way older than my mother-in-law too ...what surprised me was that this is Volume 3...Volume 2 and 4 showed up...can you imagine there are others out there.  The other thing about this book is that it has a price of 40 cents on it and explains it has been divided up from the previous printing to make it more affordable or as they say" made available at so popular a price".  They (Patons) separated the patterns by age and this one fits 0-9months ( the 1-11/2 year olds was separated). There is no date on it that I can find. It was produced by Patons and Baldwin Ltd, Toronto.  I live an hour from Toronto now, but this pattern came from Scotland.  There is no UK price on it so I am assuming someone sent it over there...but maybe they were available in UK, I don't actually know.  Anyway I am not parting with it anytime soon and there are some notes in it too that make it interesting.  Back in the days folks swapped & lent patterns to each other and this one has been well used....isn't that great.  As the nights are "drawing in", here we are again, although now we pick and knit what we want with the best of yarn and colours...but I am thinking it is the same feeling and the getting it done that keeps us all in the game.
Start of school, nights drawing in, old is new again, after winter there is spring...it's all good!