**Very picture heavy post** 

To bring you up to speed, here’s a little backstory. So, without further ado - the KB5 is finished! Well, all but the flatbed (I’ll save that for another post).

1949 International KB5 - The horn and electric windshield wipers even work.

My Dad spent three weeks buffing this grill - by hand. Began as a very dull nickle - now it’s so shiny I could use it to apply eyeliner.

Overheard:
Dad: It makes sort of a gurgle sound (insert more mechanic speak here).
Red Hat: Throw a couple marbles in there, that’ll fix her.
No Hat: Nah, burn some kerosene.
Dad: I was just thinking that.
Me: What?!?!?!

How do I make this go? (Of course I had to have some nephew shots…. they were all over this place like white on rice).

Love Granpa’s truck

Yep, I drove it. I had to - he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Dad’s John Deere B (with spoke wheels, apparently that is a big thing) - this was also a hit, but not as much as the truck.

More nephew shots…. Totally can’t resist (He spent most his time up a tree).

Earlier in the day: Garden omelete - sans cheese. Wheat Challah toast with strawberry compote with…….

Ashley and her breakfast. Sorry Ashley - I’m can’t remember for sure what the name of this was, but it certainly looked tasty. Almost as good as the knitty conversation. Then, there was just a smidge of yarn buying:

Jade Sapphire 6ply - 40% off!!! 5 skeins totaling 750 yards.

Had to throw in an action shot.

After the down pour - Of course there was rain (and another power outage!).

What’s your favorite way to spend a summer weekend?

Local berries - there really is nothing better.  These became strawberry shortcake, freezer jam and bags and bags of frozen berries. I can taste the smoothies now. What are your favorite foods of summer?

Remember this post? The eternal question of what to make for dinner? You guys came up with some fantastic ideas…. I just happened upon Supercook. Have you seen their site? It’s almost like a game, seeing what the site comes up with. Some pretty random recipe ideas, along with some basic ones.

3 x 1 Ribbed Sock

We’ve been up to our eyeballs with family events, which means lots of sitting, waiting and riding in car time. These have been my constant companion. Perfect social knitting, no thinking required.

First full skein of handspun. 

I’ve now knit five sweaters. Four adult (the first of which was significantly too large, the second one landed in Plucky Girls hands and the third, well, there was a raglan issue, the fourth, the bind off was too tight - I’ll eventually get around to fixing that) and two baby sweaters. While following a pattern doesn’t intimidate me in the slightest (really, it’s just like reading a map) it’s the whole…. what size do I make?  Is that really my gauge? Let me measure for the 10,000th time….

Which brings me to - my LYS has a class on Friday mornings called You Pick It, You Knit It. Sounds pretty perfect for the gun shy sweater knitter. I just need someone to point me in the right direction. And, because I’ve been so obsessed with knitting a wearable sweater, I have quite a Q built up. Help me narrow it down, pretty please?    

Should I knit:

• February Sweater - Simply gorgeous!
• Francsis - Perfect for a Michigan Fall & Winter
• Asymetrical Cabled Cardi - so cute!
• Marilyn’s Not So Shrunken - I have the yarn for this

Or, am I totally missing a great pattern that I should be knitting? Suggestions? Recommendations?

On another note, I will be opening up a few spots in Plucky Classics for the next three month round. The spots will open in the next couple days. I will give a heads up before posting.

Hitchcock Heroines it is!  

Seems so long ago….. that I started dyeing. Can it really be that it’s only been a smidge over a year since I started experimenting? And, it was a year ago yesterday that I opened my shop and sold my very first skeins of yarn. What a thrill it’s been! I have each and every one of you to thank…. and you know how I love a contest. So, to thank you and show my appreciation let’s have a contest. How’s that sound?

I’d love to know how your life has changed in the past year. Did you get a new job? Become a new knitter? Start school? Get married? Really, anything and everything. Leave me a comment - tell me what small or very significant thing is different in your life than it was a year ago.  I’ll close comments on Friday at 12:00 EST - at that time I will enter the comments in the random number generator and choose a winner. Plucky goods, of course.

Cowl - the particulars.

Up next: Things I’ve learned while being a work-at-home wife/mom.

Is it yarn? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ll find out this week when I go to my very first spinning class. Going to stop while I’m ahead as I don’t want to ruin all my roving…..

Anyone up for a Plucky Knitter KAL? I sure am! Starting June 1 (hey, that’s today already!!!!) it will be all about Plucky Cowls - you know, it’s been all about the cowl ’round these parts - so let’s knit some together!

Here are the details:

KAL timeframe: June 1 - July 31.
KAL Type: Cowls
Yarns: You can use ANY of The Plucky Knitter Base Yarns….you can use existing yarns from your stash or brand new yarns you purchase from her for the KAL

Prizes: I’ll be giving away one skein of yarn per prize category plus an extra goody in each package to the winner(s) that will be chosen at the end of the KAL

There will be a thread in Ravelry entitled Plucky Cowl KAL that will be stickied for you to post links/pics of your completed cowls.You must post to this thread with your completed pics/links to pics in order to qualify for a prize.**

Prizes will be given away for the following categories:

~Most cast on and finished cowls with Plucky Yarn in 2 months
~Best Picture/Pose with finished Plucky Yarn cowl
~Best use of yarn/pattern for a cowl

After July 31st there will be some judging and some name drawing and the winners will be posted here along with your fabulous prize.

Need some help coming up with patterns?

Here are some examples of cowls and yarn choices you may want to use for the KAL, however, feel free to make a pattern up or use any cowl pattern you’d like:

Purl Cowl - lace weight
Renaissance Palm - fingering weight
Lovie Cowl - fingering weight doubled
Gloria Cowl - fingering weight
Confection - sport weight
Beech Wood - fingering, sport, DK, or worsted
Impressionist - worsted
Birthday Cowl - worsted
Aibhlinn - worsted
Celtic Cable - worsted
Tudora - worsted
Cherry Garcia - chunky/bulky
Chickadee - chunky/bulky
Luxe - chunky/bulky
Dolores Park - chunky/bulky

Edited to add: Sorry about that. Apparently the links were working. Should be all better now.

Please feel free to share with the group what projects you are going to make so we can keep a running list and update your progress on the photo thread. Really can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Tomorrow I’ll show you what cowl I’m working on and another little project. Oh, and, shop update later this evening - 9:00 p.m. EST.

Megsy - Merino Superwash Fingering

Lil’ Miss - BFL Superwash

One more thing…. this is a big week here at Plucky HQ. Anyone venture a guess as to what the fuss is all about? Besides, of course, the actual knitting content as of late and the beginning spinning.  

Two days. Two finished objects. 

Shocking, I know. OK, I’ll wait while you pick yourselves up off the floor.  

What a sport Mr. P is - modeling Felicity for me. Though, I imagine if I would have told him the name of the pattern he would have politely refused. Shhh. We won’t tell him.

• Pattern: Felicity
• Yarn: Plucky Knitter Merino Superwash Worsted
• Needles: Size 6 and 8

Followed pattern as written, except went up a needle size. It was coming out more toddler sized, as opposed to something more suitable to a teen/adult, but going up a needles size did the trick.

• Pattern: Gloria Cowl
• Yarn: Crumbs handspun and Posh cashmere
• Needles: 9 US (5.5mm)

The droop is just right. 

Big thunderstorm went through last night - woke to **gasp** no power. So decided to go stash diving and found fun handspun from Crumbs and a skein of pink cashmere from Posh. Cast on 76 sts and used size 9 (5.5mm) needles. Once I decided on yarn, neeldes, etc. took about four hours. Had our power not gone out in the middle of the night I would certainly not have finished a cowl today, in addition to Felicity yesterday (amazing how much knitting, reading, cleaning, etc. you can actually get done when you aren’t browsing mindlessly and hitting the refresh button…but, I digress).

Hope everyone had a lovely, relaxing weekend. Thank you for visiting my sale. Don’t forget… free shipping on anything and everything through midnight tonight, Tuesday at Noon.