My new favorite thing!

For the past week I have been obsessively knitting these wrist cuffs. I have endless little balls of yarn in my stash, as we all do, and what better way to use them up? They are super quick and super portable.
Now that my fingers have learned the linen stitch, I can sit in the back yard, enjoy the weather and knit mindlessly.

Now the closures. Hmmm, I don't have a stash of buttons anymore so I went on a quest. I hit up the Red Barn ( our local flea market) and wandered all through that to find buttons. Somebody must have a jar of buttons like the one my momma had - right ? Oh sure, I ran across them, 18 bucks for a Mason jar full... really? I might have considered it if they had been some really old buttons, but they were just your run of the mill buttons cut off of run of the mill shirts! Bull Ca!!

Oh well... I guess if I want a button collection like the one mom used to let me play with, I'd better start saving them myself! 

I ended up at Michaels and Hancock Fabrics and found some cool looking buttons there. Some nice guy at Michaels gave me a 50% off coupon so that was a bonus!

~Hahaha here is the start of my collect~

I still have one cuff on the needles but here are my finished Pretty Twisted cuffs. My first one I used a size 1 needle, since that what I usually use for socks, but I discovered it was a pretty tight weave.

 Cuff # 2 ( the green one) was on size 3. It turned out to be quite a bit looser, so just like Goldilocks, I found size 2 to be just right! I was going to make all three but I decided 70 something stitches was too much to fool with on a single couple pointed needle and was too lazy to find a circular in a size 2.

I still have one on the needles but last night I went back to my wimple to finish the lace repeat I was on before I forget and loose my place...must knit wimple, must knit wimple, must knit wimple...


I am already looking for something new to get into, my affair with wrist cuffs is now over- no longer my favorite thing.

I keep thinking there must be something I can get into with the sea shells I keep picking up on the beach...ideas welcome!

A done do-over!

I think one of the most heart breaking things for me to deal with here, besides watching my formerly robust father fade away, is to watch him struggle to maintain a measure of independence.

I come home from work yesterday to discover this. Scared the bejeezes out of me I can tell you!

Dad trying to cut down a tree, with a reciprocating saw. I felt like I was the parent watching over the child while he was trying to cut the branches. [ the whole experience was nerve positively nerve wracking] 

Dad was trying not to notice me hovering while I was pretending not to hover over him.  Finally I managed to convince him to let me do it, without hurting his pride. "Let me try" I say.

Tomorrow I get to help him fix the leaky toilet tank! Yay!

I had some trouble getting the rhythm of the linen stitch [video link] Not because it is hard, but because my mind didn't want to pay attention to my work until my fingers got the memory down pat. Eventually I did get it down pat after I ripped the first one out and started over. No more bumps on the right side or rather in pattern speak, the wrong side (ws), or wait was that really the right side?? Like I wasn't confused enough in the first place! 

Bumpy side aka the side that started with row one ;-)

The only way I could get through it was to stop looking at the ws' and rs' and remember the purl side needed a stitch marker! Because to me the whole thing felt backwards. 

Cuffed is one of the Pretty Twisted Cuff's posted in Knitty's First Fall issue. What a great way to use up all those great little balls of sock yarn leftovers (Dawn your girls will love these).

Starts with a cable cast on [video link] and ends with icords. Clever little pattern!!

I am on to the next one. 

I am thinking of trolling the thrift stores for some really cool buttons. I think we have a thrift store damn near on every corner around here...like Kenosha with bars...haha

I think Raine needs some cuffs too!

'Cuffed' sans buttons.

Big Scary Bridge !

Last week I had to drive across that big scary bridge again...aka the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

This is me on the way up...

This is me at the top...(white knuckled of course)

And starting the descent- for some reason it is not quite as scary on the way down.

I know my pictures leave a lot to be desired, it is very difficult to take a picture while keeping both hand in a death grip on the steering wheel.  But I think the this next picture courtesy of Wikipedia gives a much better view!

SEE!?!?!? I told you... BIG SCARY BRIDGE!!!

Just over 4 miles of sheer terror...for me at least. Unfortunately my doctor happens to be on the other side of that bridge from me.  Did I happen mention they close  that bridge on a regular basis due to high winds?

In the mean time...

I am still plugging away at my wimple, I am nearing the end of the second repeat...geez louise!

And I decided to try something a little more, erm mindless...riiiiight

  I am trying my hand at a wrist band...specifically one of these Pretty Twisted Cuff's.

'cept, this will be my first attempt at linen stitch, and you know how I hate to pay attention. So while I'm thinking it looks pretty good on the 'wrong side',,,the 'right side' looks like this!

Not supposed to have bumps on this side...grrrrr!!

Do over!

Sh...Happens

It's kinda funny how things happen. I have really been making some headway on my wimple- determined to finish it right this time round.
I should just really just expect a comedy of errors when it comes to my knitting.
Yet again a small tragedy has befallen my wimple.

Picture this - knitting laying on the bed- I throw the covers back- grab my MacBook - ready for some quality FB time (Bejeweled Blitz doncha know ) and lean back- craaaack- loud expletive ( insert imagination here) and then, without a second glance, I throw it on the floor!
Yea...That was adult like behavior!

Today I remembered my little tantrum and picked my knitting up off the floor only to discover about 4 inches worth of stitches hanging in the breeze. Ouch! Weell that's what you get for acting like a spoiled brat!
That was a lot of yarn overs to put back on the needles! But still, I must have done it right since all of my purls ended up in the right places.

I'm really glad that I had bought an extra set of Harmony's!

I think I am nearly back to where I started over from. And looking pretty good too if I do say so myself. 

My dad says " What are you knitting now??" Hmmm how do I explain to him what a wimple is? 

"Well...it's a kind of hood" I say,

"  A hood?? for what?? "

"Um..to wear in cooler weather?"

Yup- he still looks at me like I'm from Planet X.

Eat your heart out!!! Yes.. I have a Tangerine tree in my back yard...with...wait for it... 22 tangerines!!

Yup ...Dad counted them.

Then we have this pathetic little orange tree that we are going to try save. It seems to have only one good live branch, it even has some viable oranges on it.  Kinda looks a little like it was struck by lightening, the poor thing.

Got my toes in the water...

And my ass in the sand.         Thank you Jessie for making that song stuck in my head!

Somebody told me the other day that I look like a Floridian. What exactly does that mean?? What? I'm fat? Ugly? Dress funny? Frizzy Haired (hehe)... Okay, I am guessing they are referring to that perpetual mango-ey color my skin has now become from my frequent "day off at the beach" sojourn. 

Some people call it red but I like to call it mango...my son's word, I used to call it apricoty. I'm trying to be careful with my skin so I don't end up wearing shoe leather on my face. That would be a serious tragedy!

My friend Rick, back home thinks I spend all of my time there, All of his phone messages start with " are you at the beach?".  But the reality is maay-be once a week is about all I go.  

The other day there was a guy who was flying a kite at the beach. Now I have seen people fly kites but never quiet like this. This kite had two strings and two handles.


Kite Dude was would let the kite fly high in the sky then swoop, low over the water and just make it hang there.

Pretty dern cool to watch while I walked in the surf and tried to take pictures.

It was kind of funny to see how the "real" birds reacted to the kite bird. They didn't like this large "bird" so much.

This is Kite Dude, playing with his bird and getting in the way of my sailboat shot.











More Kite Dude getting in the way...

Since I couldn't keep Kite Dude out of my picture  I finally decided to crop him out! 

However- after taking another look, I thought to post this original just because I think it looks kinda cool.

Here is the sun hat I keep thinking I am going to work on while I sit on the beach...Oh yah, like that was really going to happen! I keep bringing it and thinking about it. Sometimes I may even crochet a couple of stitches.

But then I realized I had this birds nest and said Eff it and put it away.