02 January, 2010

Stuff that needs to be finished...

So I poked around a bit in the wool room and found a few unfinished projects but; Ah geez... I really want to start knitting something NEW. Like the baby leggings found here. What? I was taking a break... and look... OMG they are just too cute! I don't think I will be able to resist long.

To Finish... so far I have found...
The Red Sweater...
An Afghan (little over a third done)
Socks for the new DIL (about 1/2 way) two socks one circular needle.

Found.... Two baby sweater kits that I have had in the stash for awhile... they jumped off the shelves screaming "Cast me on!"... So, they are now both on the desk, waiting for me to search for the proper needles.

Wait, wasn't I supposed to be finishing stuff? Ah well....

Knit Happy!

01 January, 2010

Hello 2010!

Hope that everyone had a safe New Year's Celebration. We had a rather quiet one here. Out for a nice supper, then back home where hubby played on the computer and I knit until I couldn't see my stitches any longer. Unfortunately that meant that I didn't "knit-in" the New Year as I was in bed and fast asleep by 10pm. Also quiet as there weren't a lot of fireworks either. I assumed there would be more noise, being the end of a decade and all, but no.

I will be taking stock this weekend of the projects still on the needles from last year and getting them organized for either completion or a trip to the frog pond, whichever seems appropriate. The red sweater for the niece is moving along nicely, working on that all this weekend as it is overdue for it's delivery. No, it won't be finished this weekend... but it will be farther along.

Happy Knitting!

25 December, 2009

Happy Merry!

Hope everyone has a Blessed Christmas!

21 December, 2009

Fall is Finished!

Yay! We have reached the last turning point of the year. Fall is my favorite season, but I am glad that it is finished now for the colors have faded and it seems the past few days have been rather dark and gloomy. Tomorrow the Sun will be lighting the sky just a titch earlier, and with it's light increasing every day perhaps new changes will come. Only 1o days left in this year, and 4 till Christmas morn... so just where did all the days go?

We had an awful lot happen around the Thanksgiving Holiday, so that was our big celebration this year and Christmas will be pale in comparasion, but that is fine. All the family was together at TG. and that was what made it special. K3's first birthday party was celebrated on the Saturday following TG. and the third Family Celebration of that weekend occured on Sunday, and that was the wedding of our eldest son and his sweetie. Awesome! I have two of the best Daughter in law's ever! I am blessed!

Knitting... I know I did plenty, but blogged about little. Heck, I have rarely blogged at all since October. I doubt that I have any readers left. Finished 4 hats just before Thanksgiving for some of the kidlets and am working on a 5th, for my grandsons' cousin. Hers is going to be a pink beret with a flower. Almost halfway finished with the hat and still have to look for "flower"patterns. This will mean moving "Bella" (the CPW) out of the Wool Room as she is parked right in front of the bookshelf. How inconvenient. ;-/

New Year's Resolutions...
1. Knit More!
2. Try to blog more consistantly.
I have others as well, but those are the ones I am sharing for now. Who knows, if I keep up with #2, then you may find out.

Have a Wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year Celebration!

27 October, 2009

Cell phones and Cats

Cell phones are such useful little things. We don't tend to think much about them unless they aren't working properly or we can't find them. Mine isn't working properly... well it isn't working at all. Ichabod vomited on my phone the other evening, sometime after I had gone to bed and the phone sat in a puddle of cat sick all night. Lovely sight first thing in the morning I can tell you that. So... cleaned the outside, opened it up and cleaned out the inside removing battery and sim chip, cleaned them up and left them out to dry. Two days later and still doesn't work. Purchased a new phone today as soon as I got off of work and they tried to copy data from my old sim chip. Nothing... absolutely nothing on the chip. ARGH! So I am with out my contacts. Family will be easy to replace... as they are all on the hubby's phone too, but I had plenty of numbers that aren't in his contact list and they are all gone now. ::::pout:::: So, if I am in your phone contact list... give me a call... my number is the same. (or shoot me off an email) Those of you who know me well know that I don't use my phone that often, but being without it for the past few days has made me realize that I was still quite attached to the thing.

I went with the Motorola Karma as it is hearing aid compatible and was one of the VERY few phones that didn't insist that you added a data or text package to your phone service. I've spent the past half hour or so figuring the thing out, and except for the fact that the actual keys are tiny (and I do mean TINY) I like it.

I lost more than phone numbers tho... also missing the photos of the grandbabies and my ring tone. Hoping that son #1 still has access to the ringtone. (he downloaded it to my phone in the first place) The photos can be replaced with a phone call as well. (probably easier than the ringtone to replace) Can also download photos from the computer if I can find my halfsized USB that is around here somewheres.

Knitting... Yes, still doing that. ;-) Nothing to report from the last knitting update however. Slower than molasses here.

29 September, 2009

Spinning... more than normal

I am really loving my CPW "Bella" she spins so nicely and quietly that I have found myself spinning much more than normal. Have been sitting down with her for at least 30 mins per day this past week. I think that my spinning may be improving with the practice. ;-)

Plied up the bit of Crown Mountain Farms singles that I spun on Bella, and Navajo plied it on the Babe. Looks like it will be a fairly balanced yarn. I was really, really worried as I had a kinky mass of yarn. Couldn't hardly get it on the swift to wind it into a ball. Of course that might have helped take some of the twist out of the singles as well. hmmmm. Next time I ply the yarn that I have spun on Bella, I am going to release the tension on the drive band and ply it directly on the Babe instead of winding off Bella's bobbin to a niddynoddy then to the swift and then a ball and finally plying. Too many steps in that mess there. There is half a bobbin spun up from this evenings work of the dark chocolate brown Romney (cross?... can't find the information, thought it was in the bag with the fiber.) Feels like Romney, a bit coarse, will see if I get a decent yarn and yardage and may attempt a pair of socks. They should be warm even if they may be a bit itchy.

Knitting news... same old stuff on the needles. A few stitches here and there on the Helmet Liner. A few rows here and there on the DIL Socks, a few rows on the sock yarn afghan... like I said... same old shit. Haven't fixed the stitches on the Ninja Mask yet... I did a rip back and just threaded a smaller needle through. Still have stitches that are mounted incorrectly and a few that I missed in the pick up. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I will get around to some of that. ;-)

Also have to repair a commercially knit hat for a friend. She brought it to me to work on in late spring early summer and I have just started to isolate the stitches that need repair work. What? It has been too hot to wear a wool hat anyhow... shush! Have run a sewing thread through the rows where there are stitches to pick up. Will duplicate stitch over the "missing stitches" using the sewing thread as a base. Found this neat tutorial quite awhile back and refer to it when ever I have to do fix up work like this. (my mind requires refreshing with stuff I don't do often) It relates to sock darning, but stitches are stitches. It is Judy Becker's blog, Persistent Illusion... check it out. I linked to the tutorial, but do take the time to browse her blog if you are unfamiliar with it.

Gosh... here it is an hour past my bedtime. Yikes! Morning comes far too early!

Happy Knitting!

26 September, 2009

Been Awhile

I need to get a regular posting schedule going I think. Seems like I've only posted once or twice a month for awhile.

Just a recap here of what I have been up to. Left for a week in Hawaii on Saturday the 12th of September. Had an interesting morning at the airport. The fun started at the security checkpoint when they scanned and re-scanned and then sat staring at the x-ray photo of one of my carry on bags. Poor TSA lady had a confused look on her face. I knew what she was seeing and I started to smile... she looked over at me with a puzzled look on her face and said, "It looks like you have pick up sticks in here." "Circular knitting needles and a hell of a lot of yarn" I replied. A smile replaced her quizzical look and she said, "Oh"... scan over.

Stopped at *bucks and got my coffee and then sat down at my gate pulled out my knitting and knit while I waited. A fellow and his wife, probably just a few years older than myself, sat down in the seats next to mine. After getting settled, he went and got his wife a coffee and himself a big bottle of juice. Now I wasn't really watching them, but did notice when he bent down and pulled out his quart baggie of liquids... he was sitting right next to me... pulled out a mouthwash bottle, opened it and dumped the 3.5oz of "Mouth Wash" into his OJ. I could smell that it wasn't mouthwash, LOL, and I also noticed that he had another 4 bottles of the same "mouthwash" in his baggie. He proceeded to drink a total of three more bottles before the plane landed in Maui. They were sitting one row in front of me and on the other side of the aisle. I suppose that is one way to get your "liquids" past the TSA and have an adult drink on board the plane and not have to pay the fee for the alcohol. Luckily he didn't turn into a noisy drunk. He did talk quite a bit more as the flight went on, but he kept his voice down and spoke only with his wife, and was just a bit wobbly in the aisles as we were disembarking after the flight.

Finished up the Babies and Bears cardigan in a 0 - 6 month size. Ends woven in, just needs buttons. Heads up to anyone wanting to knit this pattern, there are a bunch of ends to weave in, one section to kitchner up, but nothing to actually seam up. Knits up fairly quickly and is an easy straight forward knit, all sizes have the same amount of stitches... so gauge in this pattern really does matter.

The Orange Ninja Mask was frogged part way back. Going to base it on the Helmet Liner pattern especially for the face opening area. It was a sagging and a bagging and trying to curl up on me the way I was attempting. Riiiiiiippppiiiiiittttt!

Need to sit down with pad and paper and figure out what all needs to be knit before Thanksgiving and what can wait till after Christmas. Thinking that I need to do this real soon. (I don't do actual Christmas knitting, I don't need the stress that would cause!)

Spent 8 days in Hawaii visiting with my DIL and the grandkids. Had a blast. Didn't want to return home, but alas, work must be done if I want money for yarn and fiber. ::::pout::::

Didn't get as much knitting done in Hawaii as I would have at home, but did managed to knit the Hat for Hat Wars and send it out to my target the morning after the pattern was released. My own Hat "bomb" arrived on Wednesday afternoon. Was fun but short lived, ah well, I wouldn't have had time to keep up really anyhow as I was back to work the day after I got home.

Spinning at the Fair on Sunday, tomorrow, I signed up for all three shifts so 10 - 10. Should be fun. Taking my babe wheel and a spindle and also a small knitting project. Just a bit more fiber to be spun up on this bobbin and then will need to navajo ply. That should go fairly quickly. The fiber is a Merino X in grey. Purchased this fleece last year at the Black Sheep Fiber Festival in OR. It's a nice grey color. Intending to spin up enough for a sweater, hat, scarf, and wrist warmer/gloves. It's a big, big, fleece... ~8 pounds of it after cleanning so no worries about running out.