TRU Love

Since today is St. Valentine's Day, I want to send everyone sweet valentine wishes, and I couldn't resist a play on words of my Ravelry user name - Truknit!  TRU is sort of an acronym of my name, and both my husband and I use it for different stuff.  

It seems everyone nowadays is shortening words and this magazine advertisement certainly caught my eye.

In honor of the day I started thinking about all the knitting and crochet projects I've loved making over the years, especially those in my favorite pink, lavender and red.  

The project shown in the top photo is one of my most favorite projects, the Little Arrowhead Shawl by Pam Allen from Interweave Knits.  

If you've never knitted a lace shawl before, I recommend this as a good one to start with.  

I enjoyed knitting it in this rich, deep red Plymouth Suri Merino wool/ alpaca blend.  OK, ok, I know this is an old project - although it hasn't been posted to my blog yet - but I think it's cool how if you look at the picture just right, the shape of the shawl looks like a heart! 

 I used a stretchy bind-off for the edging and adapted the last row to add a bit more 'give' and depth to the points.  You can read my notes on my Ravelry page here.

To my way of thinking, Valentine's Day is not just an occasion to celebrate romance, but to celebrate all kinds of love, whether it be for significant others, family, friends, God, pets and (it's a stretch here, but humor me) hobbies.

I love to knit!  And spin, and crochet, and lots of other artsy things.  And I recently read an article relating the feeling we get from knitting to some of the same feelings we have in relationships as a result of brain chemicals called endorphins.  

According to Dr. Herbert Benson, a physician and author of Relaxing Revolution, knitting reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins that make you happy.  So that 'love'  feeling that makes you just want to knit, knit, knit, is a valid one!  

I promised a rundown of our trip to northern Michigan earlier this month, and I thought I'd start today with a quick mention of our stop en route at a fiber shop called The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan.

This shop has a nice selection of rovings and processed fiber, 

spinning wheels, looms, bags, drop spindles, and whole fleeces.

Owner Beth Smith wields her wheel here in the back room, where classes are held. She is sporting magenta-hued hair, a la Lucy Neatby...

The Spinning Loft regularly hosts spinning, knitting and weaving classes and workshops, including an upcoming one with Stephanie Pearl McPhee, so if you are in the area, check them out.

I'll have more shops and luscious yarn to show in upcoming posts.

And speaking of luscious, If you like to bake like I do, you might want to check out the Bettycrocker.com website for loads of ideas, recipes and meal planning tips.  I found this photo and a delicious recipe for their Traditional Glazed Brownie Hearts, here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful valentine's day, celebrating the thing in life that really matters - love in every fashion.