Update

Well I finally started picking up stitches for the border. I am making up my own border. A little from this and a little from that. What i'm doing is this- the seed stitch on the top all the way around with a knit stitch that would be carried all the way down going in to the ruffle. So it would be like this- row 1- k, p, k, p, k- row 2- k, k, p, k, k, (remember I'm knitting in the round) row 3- k, p, k, p, k. The seed stitch will only be 3 stitches. I don't know how many rows or inches I will make it. I will decide as I go along. The knit stitch (highlighted in red) will be carried down into the ruffle. Once I am happy with the length of the seed st area I will start adding stitches. I am doing the ruffle in rev St St. I've tried different ways of adding stitches. Yarn overs, making one, and in different spots. The way I liked it the best was to add 1 st at the beginning and end of the knit stitch that is carried down (highlighted in red) every other row. And again I don't know how long I will make it until I see it and feel it's long enough. I also for the increases, as I get bigger, might change to every 4th row. We will see. As for the corners I am going to add a stitch at both sides of a twisted knit st by doing a yarn over. This will create a lace effect hole and I will do this every other row working it into the pattern. There was alot a calculations in working out how many stitches to pick up because the golden yarn was a little bit heavier and I'm using a bigger needle. Along the sides a picked up every other row & across the top & bottom every 5th row I skipped. So it worked out to be 144 stitches on each side, 124 stitches on the top & bottom, with 1 stitch in each corner. Total pick up 540 st to start. With a 4st repeat.

Dyeing day- March 19
My knitting group was invited to a fellow Raveler's house who happened to live on Fire Island to learn how to dye yarn. She is a very talented knitter who also spins her own yarn and then dyes her yarn. It was a very special day for all. We learned how to dye with Kool Aid & food coloring. It was much easier then I thought. I don't think I would be spinning my own yarn but I'm sure I would be dyeing more yarn again. It was a lot of fun. She was a great teacher and I'm sorry that she is leaving us at the end of April. However, since Ravelry has brought us together, I'm sure we will be able to keep in touch.

Dying day- March 25 (no pun intended)
On Wed 3/25 we had to put our beloved cat Mr Missy to sleep. She had cancer. A big fat tumor on her kidney. We are broken hearted. She was the best cat we ever had. She found us about 3-4 years ago. Everyone in our community loved her. She was Robbins Rests' mascot. She came to all our communities parties. She played hide and seek with me, which was so funny. She would hide behind a door, I would look for her, once I found her she would run to another door. Then it was my turn to hide. And so on. She only went outside. She was so smart. When she had to go she went to the door and waited for us to open the door. To come back in she would go to the window and look for us. I miss her little face in the window. By the way, she turned out to be a he. I never knew until the end. RIP Missy

All for now-