It's Spring in Georgia and there's pollen everywhere!

Yes, it's been several weeks since I posted. However, the pollen here in Georgia has me sneezing green. It's turned my black cat, Francis the Fat Feline, green. My two dogs are, can you guess? Blue b/c my dogs are always inside and my cat is an outside pet.

Hubby built a yarn winder for me by himself! My son directed the task. It works beautifully. Here are the directions and supply list.

Materials:
--Lazy Susan hardware (I used a 6” X 6” one, they do come bigger) Found in hardware store.
--(2) ¾” X 1½” X 2’ piece of lumber (I used poplar, you could use pine)
--(2) 6” X 6” pieces of wood for base. (I used leftover plywood that happened to be faced with poplar)
--(4) Shaker pegs
--(8) ¾” wood screws (round head)
--(4) 1¼” wood screws (flat head)
--(4) felt or rubber pads, ½” to 1” in diameter
--Wood glue

1. Cut a notch in both pieces of lumber with a table saw so they fit together flush in an X pattern.
2. Drill holes in each arm of X 6”, 8”, and 10” from center. Use drill bit the same diameter as base of Shaker pegs.
3. Cut pieces of wood for base to fit base of Lazy Susan.
4. Sand and stain all pieces.
5. Glue X pieces together with wood glue, let dry.
6. Varnish all pieces and let dry. 2 -3 coats should be good.
7. Place X on table so top is facing down. Place one 6”x 6” base on X so corners of base piece are centered on each arm of the X.
8. Screw into place with 4 1¼” screws (one screw into each arm). Screw X and base to lazy Susan hardware using 4 ¾” screws. Screw second wooden base to the other side of the lazy Susan hardware.
9. Glue felt or rubber pads to bottom of base.

Good Luck! I use my swift at least 4x a week.

It's Good Friday today and I have only three days left with my Lenten obligations--Forty days of charity knitting. Four scarves for the Soldier Connection (local charity in Loganville, GA that sends care packages to deployed soldiers). I have knitted about 12 chemo caps in Lion Brand Fun Fur yarn for www.headhuggers.org. One in particularly was splashed with holy water b/c it was, well, possessed.

I was innocently knitting a blue fun fur cap early last month while chairing a church blood drive. I was almost finished--I had two stitches left when a large plastic pink My Little Pony flew through the air and beaned me on the head. Immediately, the needles slid out of the yarn and the cap came apart to all the way to the third row. In my haze of not trying to poke the four year old boy who tossed the pukey pink thing, the yarn twisted around my feet causing mayhem in the blood collection room. After the concussion eased, I patiently rewound the yarn and restarted the hat two days later while waiting to pick up my daughter. It immediately fell underneath my car seat and when I reached to get it, I beaned myself--in the same bump. Unfortunately, there is no patron saint of yarn or frogging so I couldn't pray to them. The next Sunday, I threw holy water on it. I didn't want to give to some cancer patient without exorcising the Demon of Frogging.

My next projects are to use up my increasingly huge stash of yarn. Also my knitting group, the Knit Wits, will be visiting an alpaca farm on 4/14. I'm bringing my kids so it should be entertaining. Let's just hope there's no Demon of Alpaca Spit nearby!!