Whoops...there it is

Time flies when you're having fun!!! Frankly, I'm not even sure how time gets away from me most of the time! But there is it...I was MIA again.

It was craft show time so a little trip to Huntly with my SIL was in order for this amazing craft show at some old peoples Over 55 community. It was really quite amazing. This community center of theirs provided all kinds of activities for the, erm, retired? Any there was tons of unique pottery, some beautiful sewn items, very cleverly crafted items as well as the usual, knit and crochet stuff. Lots of old men crafting. Very interesting and fun day...topped with a trip to the outlet mall!

I realize Halloween (samhain for those Celtic folk) kinda came and went with no noticeable activity in my house. Usually Raine and I have a scary day date but this year my partner in ghoul had other plans...REALLY???

She had her own gruesome twosome this year-I guess that means my baby is growing up :(

Sarah did carve a jack for me and Brodie -complete with candle and cinnamon :)

And she did send this picture to me on my phone...to prove that my girl was in the zone...( oh I really didn't mean to rhyme) and it did scare the bejeezes out of me when it popped up on the screen. ( I wasn't expected...OK)

A special project, this brown and pink baby blanket made to order. My SIL needed a gift for one of the gals at her school and she had "colors". This is my favorite baby gift pattern, however I usually prefer to do it in baby yarn. This one was done in Vanna's Choice since I couldn't find her colors in baby yarn. Still I am happy with how it turned out and the recipient was excited.

I finally finished this one up too...it has been on the needles since...Feb 2009??? Ended up going to Sarahs friend who just had a baby.

Selfish knitting alert!

This scarf is for ME! I know, not exactly a news flash is it. Gathered Scarf fun and easy knit. I made it from a beautiful natural alpaca I picked up at Stitches Midwest this year. New Era Fiber's out of Tennessee, Dawn. I really enjoyed chatting with them when I was at Stitches too. It was a little on the pricey side but well worth it! I got the scarf, and also completed a headband ( no pic yet) and I think I should have enough for some fingerless too (maybe).

I have been working on Traveling Women but I am struggling for some reason with Chart B. *shrug*. I only have 5 or 6 rows and I am done... soon..I promise. In the meatime - or rather in between times, I sneak in a few rows on the shawl that Raine wants.

I've been in scarf mode again!

Because a girl can't have too many scarves right??

Recently completed - Curly Q Scarf . I had some Knit Picks Simple Stripes sock yarn that had been laying around for ever, so I figured it would work well for this pattern, Curly Whirly. The pattern for this scarf was very loosely written, so if you are not a crocheter, it would be impossible to follow I think. Easy enough inspite of that and quick to complete and a fun little piece. I used 2 skeins of sock yarn. I think it would look great done in a mohair.

A fun scarf, and I thought it looked pretty cool how it curled around itself to lay almost flat.

My friend Amy modeled this one for me - just your basic red ( a girl always needs a red one- or several) done in chunky Jiffy.

And another done in purple heather. And Rose for Raine, with a hat to follow. She always needs extras since she is forever leaving them at school in her cubby.

Now this one was special... I actually did this one while on my blogging hiatus - 2 skeins Mystery yarn bought at Stitches Midwest made Slanted Sparkle. I did not realize that it had no label until I was winding the yarn. I know that it is wool and has sequins woven into it... and that is pretty much it, besides the fact that it is the prettiest sea foam green. I am guessing the skeins were maybe 150 yards. The pattern for this one seemed perfect for this yarn, Diagonal Lace. Once I got the hang of the repeats I was even able to watch TV while I knit it.

I'm thinkin' anyone of these would make a great accessory to a cute little red Vespa...doncha think? Oh yah... I'm definately in scarf mode again... with another one on the needles.

You guys all probably think I am excessive with my scarves, and I do have a lot of them and like a variety of choices, but the reality is many of what you see here end up being donated...either to charity or my daughters household...they seem to misplace them on a regular basis!

I think I need a Vespa!

Ms Golightly here! She kinda looks like an optical illusion dosen't she. Really it is a complicated series of intricate stitches.. Yah Right! I am full of it and you all know it.

Super simple pattern - Once I figured out how the pattern was supposed to have been written... slight error in the writing. I did have to Google the zigzag lace stitch pattern for the missing instruction. I did notice while writing this today the pattern author Lucinda Campbell posted the errata on her pattern page.

I did this in MacKintosh sock yarn called Witching Hour...I really just bought it for the name ;)

Love the color too..I think it is appropriate for this project don't you? It did end up being a great TV project too. See...I am getting the hang of that whole lace knitting thingy.

Pretty hot looking isn't she!! Yep...NOT that I have worn it yet, just waiting for the right ...erm ...weather, or...accessory?

4 Score and...

...A couply years ago (3), if you've been around that long, you might remember this wall hanging. A woman I know, had a small herd of - alpaca's and this was the very first yarn she had made from her first alpacas. I ran into Alpaca Barb yesterday at my friends shop and she just told me she had to sell her herd, (very sad) and she realized she had not given me yarn from her very first alpaca Savannah (also very sad).

Alpaca Barb's herd had grown to 15 before she had to give it up. After a nice long chat yesterday, we decided another wall hanging for Barb will be in order. Not sure when I will be starting it yet, but I will have to see the yarn before I plan the blocks, like I did last time. Might be that I could even just add on to this one since the numbers are right.

I started this shawl a little while ago. I got pretty cocky having successfully made those other two shawls, so I thought I would try my hand at something a little more challenging- The Traveling Woman's Shawl. While not really a difficult piece, it has been challenging for me. I am learning the value of not only counting stitches, but counting rows...even more importantly - using a row counter!
Ya'll know I am not really a fan of lace knitting, yet because of the very nature of conceding defeat...I keep right on trying! I've had to frog back a couple of times, to figure out mistakes but so far so good...I am on my second lace chart (this pattern is charted and spelled out for us chart dummies), and nary a one design feature!!

Now that I have said that crap will surely hit the fan ;)

I'll have to slide the knitting back into the basket for now. Looking forward to a weekend with that hillbilly cousin of mine, I just got a call that he was comin' up.

Moving right along...

Moving forward, a couple more projects I completed while I was MIA.

Katy Scarf was a kit I purchased last year at Stitches, started and put away because it is beaded and beads get heavy to work with and I got lazy. On this one the beads had to be strung onto ribbon yarn. Of course I was constantly pushing the beads back because obviously, you use more beads than yarn.. low and behold...then damn yarn broke. So it sat for quite a while NOT being worked on. I finally started the whole thing over because I also discovered a dropped stitch somewhere along the line...grrrr , then realized somewhere in the move...(yup that is how long this one has been in the works,) I lost half the directions.

This scarf should be called Calamity, not Katy! It all turned out in the end, after I figured out how to make the end of the scarf look like the beginning part, one would never know I lost part deux of the directions. Which I naturally found about two weeks after I finished the scarf! Go Figure!

But...in any case, she is finally finished...and I will probably never do another ribbon yarn project again.

I enjoyed making the blue shawl so much that I tried my had at another one. This one is one skein of Knit Picks Shimmer. Loved this yarn! I used the basic shawl start from Clara's pattern and threw in some repeats of yo's and basically knit until I ran out of yarn. I did add a crochet border after the fact.

You can almost see the border in this picture.

Until next time...

No Idle Hands

Even though I have not been blogging, my hands have not been idle. I have not been as productive as I might have been, but non the less, I do have something to show for my current absenteeism.

This is from Clara Parkes' One- Skein Shawl pattern. I followed her basic shawl pattern and added more repeats at the border. You know me...always gotta change up something.

The picture never seems to do the colors justice! This "mystery yarn" is from Stitches Midwest a couple of years ago. I want to say it was about a 1000 yards or some craziness like that. I still have tons of it left. Pre-wound photo here. Naturally I have lost the label so I only have a vague idea of the weight. I'm gonna go with that cobwebby lace weight!

I also finally finished the Van Ness Scarf. This was supposed to be a quick use of a couple of stray balls of alpaca...emphasis on quick... Riiiiight!

A couple more pictures of Niagara, for your viewing pleasure. This is the Horseshoe Falls up close and personal! This I believe was the last picture I was able to take before I had to ditch my camera under my poncho to save it from being wet! Hindsight of course makes me realize that I could have taken pictures through the transparent blue poncho. Duh, would have made for some interesting pictures. I believe at this point in the boat ride we were actually in Canada.

Raine on the phone with her mother of course...blah,blah blah ,blah blah...blah blah!

Scariest rapids in the world...'most deadly' I believe is what the guide told us!

I did a couple more pattern uploads to Ravelry this past week. Easy Peasy Charity Hat (PDF download), which is also free here on my blog, and Petunia Socks.

I am proud to say, Easy Peasy seems to have generated a good amount of interest!

Next time- I'll sneak ya a peak at some other stuff completed while I was away.

I'm Baaaack!

Ok... Yah I know.. been gone for a while. And frankly I kinda figured my bloggin' days were done. Those of you that know me know that I was stuck in perpetual limbo...in otherwords, I worked the overnite shit shift. I merely existed. I certainly didn't know what day of the week it was much less have a clear thought in my head. It has to be the most bogus type of existance anyone can have. I am now actually on the hunt for employment...normal employment. Well...enough of that silliness.

I was going to try to do this whole blog thing on my Mac in IWeb but I am not really getting the hang of that whole ordeal yet...I'll let you know if when I get it all figured out. It will mean a web addy change when I do figure it out.

Anyway...this summer Raine and I went to New York! Wooot!!! Niagara here we come...or went...were there! Went on a boat ride on the Maid of the Mist (best 14 bucks I ever spent! ) Got some great pictures and got to see my BFF, Tammy who lives in New York...or BBF as she calls it ;)

Being that I've had a little time on my hands...and well some quality sleep, I started going through some old notes I had in a couple of journals. Chicken scratch mostly of projects I have knit/ thrown together. I have busy translating my chicken scratch into some ledgible form of instruction and have just uploaded my very first - and second patterns to Ravelry. So I officially have a design store!!

The Twisted Drop Stitch Scarf is my first pattern upload...offered free of course! Clearly from my pre blogging days, however I did make one last year also.

And my favorite 80's Slouch Sox which was just uploaded yesterday! I am pretty excited about all of the hits I have been getting on them, not to mention the downloads. And THANK YOU EVER-SO- MUCH to my good friend Dawn for doing all that proof reading for me!!!

Expect to see some changes here - I can see that a good deal of house-keeping is in order. Bear with me while I sweep under the rug.

Little bit of this...

...and that.

I decided to dress up my deck a little bit this year. I bought four fuchsia hanging baskets to last weekend, and made myself and herb planter to sit on the table out there. Of course there is a dual purpose for the herbs naturally. Not only will they smell nice but hopefully keep me in enough fresh snips from time to time. Maybe I will have some to dry.

And the fuchsia to hang from the rail on the deck. But it is always so windy out there I may have to move them to the front of the house.

I also tackled my basement. I don’t know how they even classify this room as a basement. I guess it is an “English Basement” you know, the kind where most of it is above ground- whichever! I had wanted to paint it this sage color when I first moved in, and I let Mark talk me out of it (he thinks it is too dark) What ever! It is a dark color but I have 9 foot ceilings and I felt the room could handle a dark color. I still have to finish the doors and rehang them and touch up the boo-boos.

And HA! Guess what Mark...I was right, I think it looks terrific, in spite of the fact that I am clearly not the most talented painter in the world. In fact, I downright suck at it. But I still love the room!! Not that I actually use this room. Naturally I had to go and buy too much house. Left over syndrome from living with Mark I guess...he always has to have the biggest and best.
So anyway Brodie’s room looks darn good to me! I’m thinking of moving all my craft crap, things down there. It has a nice big window for light. Next step- sew lace curtains.

I swear my socks are getting shorter and shorter... or am I getting lazier and lazier? But in any case here are the completed Faceted Rib Socks. (Rav link)

And the next pair....Zauberball Slouch...previously frogged Broadstreet Mitts...

And Welcome to Lake Flood?? This was this morning - 8 feet of water folks, under that bridge, and that was just a small part of the flood we had in town. Took me over an hour to get home from work this morning. What possesses people to try to drive through something like that???

Let the good times roll!!!

A better month I've had!

Isn't it so true that you never really appreciate someone until you no longer have them, or almost don't? It kinda puts your own life into perspective when someone you love almost dies. It is frightening to think that a man barely in his 40's would need a second bypass. But there you have it, after 12 years those damn arteries failed again, gotta watch that cholesterol. He is doing much better but still has a long road to recovery, but after the 5th he won't need a chauffeur anymore so that is progress.

So anyone would think that if a knitter spent better than a week at hospital beside, a whole lot of knitting would be going on. Not so much in my case. Oh I did knit! However I am still working on the same pair of socks I started while Mark was in surgery, almost a month ago.

Out of my Little Box of Socks comes this little beauty, the Faceted Ribbed sock! I'm really diggin on those slip stitch patterns! So easy yet they have such beautiful patterns. I'm diggin on that Cherry Tree Hill yarn too!

You'll notice, as usual I made a pattern mod...my sock feet must be in stockinette...pretty much always or it really bothers me to wear them. Otherwise I followed the pattern as per written, with no design features ;)

And in all actuality, I did complete sock #dos while I had movie fest with myself tonite...completed pic next time.

I did consider giving up my blog since this nursemaid stint with Mark kept me away from it ( and just about everything else) for so long, but tonite I reconsidered since I figured there could be a couple of people that might object to a defection. So here I am, back again, same bat-channel.