Author: LindyBeir

New Pattern: Knitted Turban Style Chemo HatNew Pattern: Knitted Turban Style Chemo Hat

October 1, 2017October 1, 2017 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 2:55 pm

To all the women that read this post: When was the last time you had a mammogram? Are you overdue? I was one of those women that put off getting my mammograms done — and when I was diagnosed, I had just had my two years overdue mammogram done. Please ladies, if you are over due for your mammogram, schedule it and get it done as soon as possible.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I am celebrating my seventh year as a breast cancer survivor. I feel blessed and very lucky that I am cancer-free.

In honor of my being cancer-free for seven years, I am making a pattern for a turban style chemo hat that I created available on my website. I created this pattern because I have knit a number of different patterns for chemo hats, but I wanted something that was a little more stylish for an older woman.

I knit this hat using one of my favorite cotton yarns: Knit Picks Comfy Sport Weight Yarn. Chemo hats knit in cotton are washable and are very soft — they feel good on the head that is sensitive due to chemo and provide a degree of warmth as well.

The pattern is here: Turban Style Chemo Hat.
Please feel free to knit this hat for any loved one going through this experience with my blessings.

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New Page AddedNew Page Added

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 3:54 pm

You may or may not have noticed a new page showing up in the top menu. It’s the Stitches Library Page. I have decided to copy the instructions from some of the posts I wrote back in 2010 on various stitch patterns into downloadable pdf files and make them available in my new stitch library. So far there are only four: Elfin Lace, Trinity Stitch, Waffle Check, and Zig-Zag Eyelet.

I plan to add a new stitch pattern about once a month going forward. I will start with a couple from 2009, but after that I will be swatching new patterns. Please check back from time to time to see what is new. 🙂

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New Local Yarn ShopsNew Local Yarn Shops

October 13, 2014October 13, 2014 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 2:00 pm

I recently visited two new yarn shops that opened in my area.  They are both lovely shops and filled with some lovely yarns – some of which aren’t carried by the local yarn shop that has been the only shop in the city for a number of years. Each shop offers a different variety of yarns than the other, so I am hoping that both of them can be successful.  We certainly have a growing number of knitters in our community, so having new yarn shops is quite appealing.

ImagiKnit Yarn Shop is located in the Bel-Air Plaza at 120th and West Center Road, Suite 602, Omaha, NE. This shop does not have a website, but does have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ImagiKnit-Yarn-Shop/263171999129. The owner of this shop moved her business to Omaha from Hastings, NE.

Wooly Mammoth Yarn Shop is located in Rockbrook Shopping Center at 108th and West Center Rd, Omaha, NE. This shop also does not have a website, but does have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wooly-Mammoth-Yarn-Shop/150211221662670. The owners of this shop recently moved from Kearney, NE.

I’m sure the knitters in Hastings and Kearney miss having the shops in their towns, because they are both wonderful yarn shops and we are very lucky to have them here in Omaha.

Appealing, as well, are the yarns I purchased from both shops. (I couldn’t resist).

From Imagiknit, I purchased a skein of Smooshy fingering weight yarn from Dream in Color. The colorway is 2014 September and it just spoke to me of autumn.  It has this delightful mix of fall colors: reds, purples, golds, greens in various shades. See the swatch below

.Swatch with yarns

I also bought a skein of Fabjous Fibers Cheshire Cat in the colorway Off with Her Red – which blends perfectly with the Smooshy colors. I am using these yarns to knit a shawl using the Merlot pattern, which I purchased at Ravelry. This will be the topic of another post.

From Wooly Mammouth, I purchased 4 skeins of Addiction yarn by Claudia Hand Painted Yarns – also fingering weight yarn. I bought 2 skeins in the colorway Teal and 2 skeins in the colorway Prussian Soldiers. I plan to knit another two color shawl using these yarns, but I haven’t decided on a pattern yet. I like the Merlot pattern, so I may choose to do that again – but there are so, so many lovely shawl patterns in my queue…

If you are in Omaha: check out our new local yarn shops.  🙂

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I’m still here — just haven’t been bloggingI’m still here — just haven’t been blogging

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 | LindyBeirLindyBeir | 0 Comment | 6:37 pm

I am a wee bit astonished that it has been over a year since I wrote a blog post. A Year? Really?

Yeah – really.  Life intervenes at times and changes your focus and demands your time for other things.  My apologies for my long absence in the blogosphere.

This post is just to let everyone know I getting started blogging again and promise to do so more often than once a year…. 🙂

I am in the process of changing the theme for this website.  The current theme is one I created as a learning project so that I could understand how WordPress themes work.  This theme has served me well for a number of years, but there are lots of coding and technical changes that I simply don’t have time to study up on and recode my theme — so I am moving to one that is produced by the pros.  I hope to have the changes made in the next couple of weeks and then I will start posting about knitting, crocheting and lace…

I have gone through and checked the links on my References page and removed the ones that are no longer functioning.  I also removed a couple because when I went to the site, I found that the site had become over-run by ads.  Now, ads are okay if you want to allow them on your website — but when the ads take up more space on your home page than your actual home page content — it’s gone to far. (MHO) I removed another because the owner had converted it to a paid subscription site.   Anyway — those updates have been published, so the references are now current.

Off to work on other updates to this website.  Please check back in a few days.

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