Wednesday, October 19, 2016

October Reader Who Knits: Dawn Leonard

It's the third Wednesday of the month, our time to feature another Reader Who Knits. DestiKNITters, say hello to loom knitter Dawn Leonard!

Dawn, what are you knitting right now?  
I’m knitting a green hat to be donated to a needy person at a local soup kitchen through my parish’s knitting ministry.  My parish has a group that has been serving lunch and giving out sandwiches once a month at that soup kitchen for more than 11 years.  I’m blessed to be able to help serve those meals when my schedule permits.  I’m in the process of finishing a baby hat I hope the knitting ministry will give to a newly baptized baby at church.

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?  
My greatest knitting accomplishment was finally finding a way for me to knit.  I’ve never been able to learn to knit or crochet with needles in spite of many, many attempts and books.  Loom knitting is easy and gives me a sense of accomplishment.  My favorite is a hat I made for an elderly friend that her high school age granddaughter permanently borrowed.  It’s great that a high schooler thinks a hat I made is cool enough to wear.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice youve ever made?  
Because I’m a beginning knitter, I still don’t know how to fix mistakes like holes if I miss a peg.  Sometimes I have to decide to leave it or unwrap the rows until I get back to it.  Getting the yarn back on the pegs correctly isn’t easy.  My worst choice of yarn happened when I didn’t think ahead when I made a very warm hat with thick, pink yarn.  It looked great and I had planned to donate it to a child or woman with cancer because it seemed so warm.  Unfortunately when I finished it, I realized that the thickness of the yarn made a circle at the top that I can’t close.  I still haven’t figured out what to do.  

Tell us about your knitting loom and how you discovered using one.  
Knitting looms come in circles for hats and rectangles for scarves, shawls, and afghans.  I was in A. C. Moore (craft store) after Thanksgiving looking wishfully at all the yarn and knitting and crocheting supplies.  Another customer came into the aisle to get a round loom set because” it was a really good price.”  I asked her about them.  She told me that they were very simple and told me she runs a class for kids at her local community center.  I figured if kids could do it, it was worth a try.  I read the instructions and was hooked.    

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate? 
Always milk chocolate, if absolutely necessary dark chocolate, but never white chocolate.

Coffee or tea? 
Tea - Constant Comment or English/American Breakfast.  I don’t even drink coffee.

Whats your favorite Allie novel? 
I love all the books in the Blue Thorn Ranch series.  If I have to pick one, it would be The Texan’s Second Chance.  I enjoyed Jana and Witt’s romance and thought the whole food truck storyline was great.

What are you reading now?  
Jessica Keller’s The Ranger’s Texas Proposal in paper and the holiday romances in the Mistletoe Memories collection as well as Jill Kemerer’s Yuletide Redemption on my Kindle.

Do you have a favorite knitting character from a book, movie, or television show? 
Bethanne Hamlin and Libby Morgan from Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street series.




Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:  
A. C. Moore
360 Patriot Place
Foxborough, MA 02035 www.acmoore.com  
I’m sure that there are some lovely independent yarn stores in my area but I shop at the chains - A. C. Moore, Joann’s, and Michael’s.

Dawn chose my new ebook My So-Called Love Life for herself and a copy of Bluegrass Christmas for a friend.  As a thank you for being featured, Dawn also receives 10 hanks of Cascade 220 in Sparrow.  If you'd like to be featured in a future DestiKNITions Readers Who Knit/Crochet, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com.

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