A Nice Surprise!

Ann nominated me for Rockin'Girl Blogger! Pretty nifty! So now I get to nominate 5 other girl bloggers that I read.

1. Sherie at http://whimsyknits.lightshines.net/
Love her charity knitting projects.

2. Marguerite at http://stitchesofviolet.blogspot.com/
Who does CIC knitting and makes wonderful patterns.

3. Margie at http://www.fairisle53.blogspot.com/
Who does really incredible socks and inspires me to make my own!

4. Wool Winder at http://woolwindings.blogspot.com/
I love the spinning info and pictures of the flowers.

5. Lisa Grossman, AKA the Tsarina of Tsocks at http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/
She talks to her yarn and gets it to do wonderful things!

There are many others, of course, but I do enjoy these for the variety. Probably my favorite blog is Sheep Shots. But Ann has been nominated already by Mariella.

Knitting:
Mittens for Cora's classmates.
Thick wool socks for Akkol.
A hat for the Rez.

Sewing:
Cool ties for the troops.
Some shorts for myself, but I keep putting them on the back burner! Maybe I should make them pants for the winter!

Material Arrived

Well, the material arrived for the cool ties--but not the crystals! Maybe early next week. I'm not sure the material is going to work out. It is homespun gingham check and the color is okay, but I will have to make a test cool tie to see if the material is dense enough. I ordered some more cotton material in case it is too thin. This time, 200 ct cotton. That should work just fine. I couldn't find a thread count on the homespun. If I can't use it for the cool ties, I'll use it to make summer shorts/pants for the kids on the Rez. Nice medium green that boys or girls can wear.

The yarn for the Mitten Stash is full of as many bright colors as I could find for Cora's class. I'll probably put stripes across the palms to make them into pairs, etc. Cora wants her's to have a string so she won't lose them. Probably a very good idea! The ones for the mitten box will just be singles, though. Easier for the teacher to dole them out. And the kids won't necessarily care whether they match or not as long as they get to go outside for recess!

That's about it for today. Still writing letters to the troops.
Check out
http://www.halosandheroes.com/Ways-to-participate
I joined the Letter Writing Team. They send me addresses each week and I write at least one letter to them. Sometimes they write back and we become penpals. I'll be sending cool ties to them when the crystals FINALLY get here! I just write about ordinary things going on in my life. To someone who is getting shot at, "ordinary" sounds pretty good. And gives them a little break from the stress.

It doesn't matter whether you approve of the war or not--these guys and gals deserve to know that someone cares about them. They are young (18-20 yrs old), in a hot miserable country (whether Afghanistan or Iraq)and truly in harms way. When I watch the news and hear about more troop deaths, I can't help but wonder if one of them was one of my soldiers.

Happy July 4th!

We are having a rainy 4th of July--nice and cool but I think it will delay the local fireworks until this weekend. Cora is excited about seeing them. And of course doesn't want to wait.

No pics today. Will try to add some next time. I'm making mittens for Cora's class and the Mitten Box we are making. I have neon green, bright orange,variegated yarns and of course, pink, for Cora.

I bought some material for cool ties for the troops. I hope my crystals and other material arrive soon so I can get started on them. The temps in Iraq are really hot now.

I have 5 new soldiers to write to this week, so will let this do and get to the letter writing. Mail call is important to them and some of them don't get much mail.