Challenges

To start with... here is the reason why I needed Maria's help with this scarf...I could not have been more dense when it came to reading the end of this pattern. I must have frogged the last section a dozen times before I cried "Uncle". Seriously...does this look like a triangle to you? All I kept getting out of it was something that looked like a sock heel.
Thank God for Ravelry! I was at a loss. I get it now. I saved Maria's instructions but I think it is stuck in my head for good/ We'll find out for sure when I make my next one.


My Baby Love blanket is finished. I completely underestimated the amount of yarn it was going to use. I ended up using four full skeins of Red Heart Soft Baby. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to knit with the last bit of yarn as I finished the blanket when I realized I did not even have enough left to make an IPod sock out of it. This one turned out to be a good stash burner for sure. I decided this one will be earmarked for the Linus Project. It was a quick enough knit that if I need a gift I can whip one up in a short amount of time. This project has put me over the mile and damn close to the two mile mark.
I see that a lot of the girls are close to their mile if not over it already and still with 20 more days left in the Knit a Mile Challenge.

Every one has started talking about the February Challenge but I think I am going to bow out of that one. I have even looked to see what it is yet.

I have a couple of other projects in mind that I want to make. Plus I have Sarah's shower to concentrate on.
Invites have been sent, and for anyone that cares, they do happen to have been made out of recycled paper :)

I finally got back to my Bagstopper too. I have only the four balls of Isabella so I modified the pattern a little and decreased by 10 so that the bag would be taller this time. Super easy pattern. I gotta say though, the cotton in this yarn is not very fun to knit with. It kinda drags on my fingers and makes them sore. Not like the Peaches N Cream I buy for face cloths. Good thing I am not going to be wearing this yarn.

So on Saturday night Kelp has a few of her co-workers over for a knitting party. Kelp is a fairly new knitter and is trying to teach these gals how to knit. Good luck with that I say. So I am on my way home, giver her a call to see how things went and she says, still knitting. EXCELLENT!

Well I am almost home (1100 pm mind you) when I decide to take a detour and run over there. Really, all I had waiting for me at home was the usual brother's Saturday night in witht the WII golf. Like I was going to miss that fun!

Of course I have some knitting with me, that is a given. Usually I am a solitary knitter, or maybe knit with one other person. I have never been in a knitting group before. Well I guess I am in one now!! We had such a good time that the girls all want to do it again. I love it when I can teach someone new to knit and In fact, both girls were so hooked they stayed up half the night knitting when they finally got home, and can't wait for the next time. Kelp had them on a good start by the time I got there, and boy oh boy, talk about some ambitious newbies, they are both making afghan's for a first project. Of course, given tonite's blizzardy cold weather, an afghan souds like a damn good idea!

Oh and by the time I got home I think it was 1:30 am and the brother's were just leaving. And oh shucky darns, I missed all that colorful swearing because they can't golf worth a shi-ot!...LOL

I think I will truly be looking forward to my own Saturday night diversion!

1 Mile and still counting

YAY!! I knit the mile - and with plenty of time to spare!!
I am almost done with the Baby Love blanket. I will do the math when it is completed, but it should be right around another 500 yards to add to the count. Such a lot of yardage for such a small item :)

I was going to put this away for when I need another baby shower gift, but I decided to add this to the charity basket for the next group of items to take to the homeless shelter.
I had planned on sewing up a bunch of fleece hats for the charity basket as well, but instead I slept away the first half of my days off, then I sat and made invitations for Sarah's shower with Kelpy (who happens make the bestest ever cards I might add). Needless to say I got no sewing done on my days off and very little knitting. And I probably should no cleaning or cookling either.

Last night I finished my multi-directional scarf! Boy that was a long time coming. I read and re-read those ending directions and that last half triangle was not going to happen right. I found this very nice lady Maria on Ravelry, who very kindly re-wrote the instructions and drew me a diagram on her own scarf to show me. I must be part-tarded because plenty of other people out there have made this scarf according to the directions posted on line. They just did not make a lick of sense to me. I am not usually so stupid when it comes to instructions, but for some reason these were just beyond my simple comprehension!

It turned out perfect thanks to Maria! Obviously I still have to weave ends, wash and block but here it is!


Of course, as if I did not have a host of other things to be doing, I decided I have to have another beaded scarf and while Kelpy and I were shopping for card stick, I also shopped for glass beads to string. Yes, you have to string the beads and then transfer them onto the yarn. I am not finished with the beads yet, no hurry because my Noro for them that I just ordered isn't here yet. Do you suppose it is a little backwards, buy the beads first then find a yarn to go with them?? That's me, a back- asswards Virgo... go figure.

I did the one thing I said I wasn't going to do. I was pretty firm on this too, so I thought. Not going to post my stash on Ravelry...well guess what..I did it. Ok, so not all of my stash but a goodly portion of it. And in doing the prep for it, ie; photographing, sorting and such, I realized that I have already made a damn good dent in it. All those hats and scarves I have been making for the last couple of years have depleted quite abit of my stash. How exciting is that??? Mind you, the following two pictures is not by any means all of it, but I am starting to get it down to a respectable quantity. In fact, I purchased some guilt free yarn just this week!

A few years ago, I ran out of places to put my stash, which I do try to keep centrally located in my craft (read to mean junk) room. So I bought these handy dandy wire baskets to load up with yarn (see how empty they are getting?). Great idea right? Well no not really. Over time as they sat up there not getting used, some of the velour types faded dramatically and yellowed from smoke (yes we are evil smokers, hence the reason I keep my yarn sealed in plastic and away from light) unfortunately, I never thought of the long term effects of my basket solution. Actually, I never even thought they would be hanging up there for several years. I am salvaging what I can, but some of it will have to me 86'd I'm afraid. Ah well, live and learn.

I think it is time to empty out the baskets, don't you? Maybe use them for onions or something.

Baby Love

I am on the downward slope of the Baby Love Blanket now, and feeling a bit more comfortable in my mile goal...I am so going over it.. I just know it.

Dawn called me the energizer bunny the other day. Oh how I wish that was true! In my younger days I could say I resembled that remark but not so now. There was a time when I could stay up late and get up early and keep right on going through out the day.

Working close to a hundred hours in a week was common place back in the day, and then go out and dance the night away. Now I am happy to be able to get through a 50 and sometimes a 40 hour work week, and still be able to crawl out of be the next day and function. And on top of being older (notice I did not say old) I have to watch what I eat so carefully that if I don't, I am laid low for an entire day. That was the case the other day. I have gotten so good at pretending that I feel fine, people (myself included) tend to forget that I am not until I have one of those days. Sleeping is such a waste of time in my opinion I feel like I am missing out on the rest of the world by sleeping. I always figure I can sleep when I am dead.

Hmmm, maybe I better not say that too loud.

Thank God for mindless knitting. I just don't feel right if I had not knit something every day! I happen to be one of those unusual people that like garter stitch! I like the mindless part, since I think most of my knitting is done when I am half comatose. And I like the way it looks. I am not surprised when I read reviews on this blanket. All the things that people disliked about it are the things I like about it. And to boot, this makes a great stash down project! Sure it is not a challenging pattern, but I have plenty of that going on too.



Knit a Mile Challenge

Now that I have knitted an acceptable amount of mileage, ( can now add an additional 1125 yards to my count) I can get to work on some finishing up that scarf. I can barely deal with the guilt involved in leaving UFO.

If you look to your left, you can see the Blog Roll I started for the people involved in the Knit Mile Challenge. I thought it would be a fun way to keep an eye on everyone else's progress. Not that this is everyone involved, just the ones that are, so far, keeping track of their progress online. Challengers- I highly recommend that nifty little knit meter button. It very nicely calculates everything for you!!

There have been a number of factors lately that have kept me from knitting as much as I would like. work, being numero ono on the list losts to do this time of year. Then there is Blogger. I have been doing a little housekeeping here too (or at least trying to), Blogger can be frustrating to say the least. When I have nights like last night that challenge me to figure out a way of faking Blogger out, (it is that whole button issue all over again, WTF!) I become tempted to move my blog .

Ravelry has been taking up a good deal of my time as usual. Another good reason for mindless knitting. I can browse the boards there and not worry about losing track of my project. Kill two birds-so to speak. There is so much to see and do there and a gazillion groups to check out. I am fast becoming a group groupie. And that Casey is a genius!!! See the nifty progress bars??? I wish I new how to write code, if I did I sure as heck wouldn't be using Blogger.. hehe

Happy V-Day to me!

Yup - I have bought myself a Valentines present. Yes I know it's early. No you can't know...it is a surprise... :) It is a really big surprise and you will just have to wait til Valentines Day to find out...lol a little suspense is good for the soul. I personally, can barely stand the wait. ;)

No ... it is not Red but, It probably could be.

Hopefully I will have some FO's to share next post.

FLITTING TO AND FRO

FLIT! FLIT! FLIT!

My ADD has kicked in again. I am suffering from the too many project in my queue syndrome.
I started Clapotis the other night, but this project (which at this point is an unexciting looking little triangle with a bunch of purty stitch markers). And it requires a bit of concentration so it is completely unportable at this point. And having cast this one on in a finger weight, I expect it to take more time that my self gratification gene will allow. Knit Picks Shadow in Heather Sunset, (Still knitting from stash) was actually purchased for this pattern in mind so now I feel like I am on my way to completing something I started. (Hey girls, it is on clearance right now) I have been wanting to cast this baby on for a long time but never got around to it.



I treated myself to a couple of books this week too. I bought the Opinionated Knitter, Elizabeth Zimmerman of course, which has been on my wish list for a long time. I used the gift certificate I had won from 25 Things for Charity towards that purchase :) aaaannnnnnd I also bought No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting because I am a geek ;)

FLIT!

Bam - here I go again! Oh sometime around two-ish am I was working on my unexciting multi-direction scarf when I could not stand to look at it any more and threw it on the floor. (The dog did not even lift his head because he is used to such unbecoming behavior from me. ) I am bored bored bored with and it and it is taking toooooo long to finish. I want it to be done. The yarn does nothing for me in this pattern, or anything thing else I have knit it into to later frog. I need instant gratification!

So I pulled up an easy baby blanket from Lion Brand and cast that on is some of the over abundance baby yarn I have laying around. (In this family someone is always having a baby it seems.) The pattern calls for a worsted weight but I am using double strand baby weight. Soft and yummy in New Mint and White Red Hearts Soft Baby yarn. Hey and each skein is 575 yarns! that will really boost my mileage won't it. Plus I am needing a quick knit to get over the scarf. See- I have all kinds of justification for this one!

No I am not giving up on this scarf, it just seems like it is taking for-ever to finish. It is currently my only take a long project, not that I have been able to take it along with me anywhere lately. Still, I will finish it is it kills me.

Maybe it is because this is such a busy month for me at work that I need to feel productive at home too. January is when we pack up all the files and start fresh. I love that! I feel like that is the point where I can feel free to stream line things, and it is easier for people to accept any changes because it is all fresh anyway. I need to feel like I am accomplishing something and this scarf is not doing it for me.

Oh well, one has to knit an ugh once in a while.

BUTTON BUTTON WHOSE GOT THE BUTTON

Well -I never understand Blogger, in my mind it does some crazy and unpredictable things. For the last several days I have been trying to get my Stash Down button to work, WTF. Blogger is seeming to want to add extra characters to my code and fudges up the button. I have removed element and redone the whole damn thing more times than I can count. I am almost ready to give up. I hate to let an inanimate object get the best of me. It just makes me even more determined to win.

You may have noticed I have been doing a little "spring" cleaning on my blog too. Adding stuff, moving stuff around, re-arranging the furniture so to speak. I have added a new blog roll for those of us that accepted the Knit-a-Mile challenge on Ravelry. There are a few of us ( as you can see- quite a few) that are going to be posting progress on their blogs too. No- that is not everyone in the group, just the ones posting their mileage in blog-ville.

I feel very good about making it to the finish line.

Knitting A Mile?

There is a Stash Knit Down 2008 group on Ravelry that is having a January challenge to knit a mile. A mile you say??? Yes I said a mile! That will be 1760 yards (holy crap) of yarn by Feb 15. Completely doable - I think. The challenge started Jan 5th and I have since knit a total of 280 yards. Not an auspicious start, but not bad none the less. And what a great idea!

Most of my week end was spent clearing out crap from of my junk room and turning it back into a craft room. What a feat! I had boxes of crap that had never been unpacked (I hate to admit we have lived here for 7 years). Stuff my dad sent me of my mothers after she passed away was in that closet along with a number of other mystery boxes. It was a wonder I had any room in that closet for my yarn stash! Which is probably why I had an avalanche nearly every time I tried to take something out of it. I repacked mom's scrapbooks and what not's. I went through every scrap of paper as well, old tax forms (more than 7 years old I might add), my 17 year old divorce papers, a few profit and loss statements from when I was a store manager, and training manuals from my old dispatch job. Talk about being a pack rat!

Needless to say most of that went into the trash. Along with a goodly number of dried out paints, some infinitesimally small pieces of material I had been saving for who knows what, and a number of other things that I am sure the garbage man was swearing about this morning...hehe

Things that needed to be stored went into Rubbermaid containers, condensed and repacked, and nicely placed in the bins. Plenty of room for fresh stash now!

I did do some knitting too. I have been plugging away at the multi directional scarf. I enjoy the pattern, and as long as I remember to go up-hill, it works out fine. I am getting bored with it tho because the yarn that so excited me in the skein is very un-exciting when it is knit up. The pattern has some wonderful possibilities, and I can see some of my stash being worked up this way, if I ever get through this particular scarf.

So naturally I started something else, as most of us do when a project becomes a chore.

I found another nifty pattern on Ravelry for this headband. I had two balls of Sugarloaf in burgundy that I also bought 2 years ago at Stitches but did not have a clue what I wanted them for. I loved this one, quick knit and the yarn is soooo yummy and soft. It was a dream on my head. Too bad someone has not invented feel-a-vision yet.

Of course I foo bared it and forgot an increase but it is still plenty wide enough. It took very nearly the entire ball of 81 yards. And since I had two, I immediately cast on my second one, which I intend to make correctly this time.

Most of Saturday was spent at the courthouse, waiting for it to be Sarah and Greg's turn to get married. For all that it was a civil service, the Judge was fantastic, and made it a very lovely ceremony. And even though we had to wait around most of the morning with a bunch of strangers, some wedding parties were in formal dress even, we had a blast. Sarah got a little upset when she lost my mother's ring (her something borrowed) but this nice lady turned it in and all was well.

The happy couple...Don't they look sweet!

A little New Years Bling

I see that everyone has been posting their new years resolutions so I thought I would jump on the band wagon. Generally speaking, I never make any resolutions, at least ones that I know I can't keep. Cheating? Yes well, I know, but it works for me.
2007 was a brutal year in so many ways. For myself, I had a couple of near misses which made me realize that life was very precarious, and very precious!


So I guess my New Years Resolutions is simply this: Live to get healthier to live a longer life and to love life more.

I have learned that I am mortal (damn, who made that rule), and as such, I really have no time to dwell over the things that I cannot change, but to focus on the things that I can change. Since change comes from within, that is something that I have control over. I shall be as happy and healthy as I choose to be.
2008 will be a year for me to try thing that I have always wanted as well. Not really a resolutions but goals. I always put things off, like learning to spin, I have wanted to since I was a child in my pastors living room and saw my very first live spinning wheel. I have always wanted to own one. Well, and learn to use it of course. I did buy a hand spindle kit but the one time I tried it all it did was keep falling on the floor. I need to keep working on that I guess...lol


I have already branched out of my usual lazy, safe knitting and tried a couple of new things.

I started the multi directional scarf I had in my queue on Ravelry, and it seems to be coming along quite nicely. Still a lazy project, but with a new direction, so to speak..hehe



And I finished my beaded shell scarf, twice actually. Yup it was so much fun I frogged it and did it again. Ok, so no-not really, but I did frog and I did want it longer and I plan to make another one with the 5 shells instead of 4, but longer that the kit provided. Surprisingly it was much warmer than I thought it was going to be with all those glass beads. Good thing too since it damn near got down to 0 degrees the other night.
It was a big hit at work too, (ok bragging a little) Even the Chief oohed and aahhed over it. :)

Dawn, you so need to make one of these!!! I think it should be in every girls wardrobe!

IN THE NEWS!

Tomorrow morning my little girl is getting married! No, this is not an after thought, and I am only telling you just now because, well, I am sad and happy at the same time. This means my baby girl has grown up. :(

It will be a small intimate wedding held at the Babcock Center (court house), but I understand they do a very nice ceremony there. My sister in law is already crying, and if I was off today and thinking about it too hard I probably would be too. It seems like only yesterday she was just a baby, and even though she have her own baby, the whole married thing makes her so adult now. does that mean I am old now? NOT!
Nothing fancy, she said she doesn't want a bunch of people gawking at her, and frankly I feel the same way. But they plan on having a reception of sorts sometime this summer so it can be out of doors and they can invite all their friends and family. I personally believe that most people could put a sizable down payment on a house with the money spent on elaborate weddings. Some times it is good to be of average income. ;)
The wedding shower will come after the wedding. I was not too happy about that but they chose tomorrow because that is the only Saturday I have off this month. I tried to talk her into waiting for another month, they waited this long already, so that it could at least give me a chance to give her a proper send off into grown-up hood. But then I decided, it is her day, her way and what ever way she wants to go about this is fine with me. I got the consession of making it happen on my day off and that is good enough.
I know I have been going on and on like she is some little kid, which she always will be to me I guess, and she thinks she is grown up already.... she is 27 after all, as she likes to reminds me. What - Ever! She is still just a baby!

Me And My Shadow

Friday was a terrific day! To start with it was my day off, (sorta) what could be better! Then the gods were smiling on me and gave me a nice little snow storm to play in :)


I was able to get caught up on a number of things around the house, listen to a book for a while and play in the snow some with Bingo. He loves it as much as I do.

This is just me playing with my new little red camera!! Bingo likes to play sno plow as I call it, and he borrows his face into the snow and tosses it. He cracks me up but unfortuately I could not quite capture it on camera. You would never guess he is almost 10.


I even got to visit with my brother and his family for a belated Christmas. I got him a foot massager with heat for his poor diabetic feet and he got me a pedicure spa for mine. It is scary how we sometimes think alike.


I finished making the tassels for my shadow hat. I love this pattern, it has such a huge range of possibilities. I cant wait to make another one! The tassels are two Icords with fringies on the ends. I have plenty of other yarn to try it out again. It gave me a chance to try shadow knitting, which completely intimidates me, as well as trying a new stitch. I love that little braided thing it has going. Like I said before, those Canadians really have it going on!


Still stash busting I located four balls of a cotton yarn that I picked up a couple years ago at Stitches Midwest, and thought I would give Amys Everlasting Bagstopper a try. It is very like the bag I made a few years ago for my yoga mat. All y/o and knits.




Of course, since the yarn I bought was a bigger gauge, the bag came out wider, no biggie, but I only had 4 balls of it, Classic Elite, it turned out short and squatty. Just as I was about to sew the webbed handles on it, I changed my mind and decided to frog the whole thing and start over, decreasing the width of the bottom to make it taller. Maybe I will do that next weekend.

I also had this Shell Beaded Scarf kit laying around from Stitches. I was soooo afraid to try it because of the beads, but it was a must on on my list. The shadow hat inspired me to pull it out of hiding. What a dream to knit. Super easy pattern. The hardest part was picking up all the beads off the floor after I twice spilled a whole strand. The entire pattern is knit. The beading was so much simpler than I thought. I finished this bad boy in one day, Ok so I did nothing else but knit, but still. It was so much fun, I could not put it down, til I realized that I did not read the entire directions. The scarf measures 32 inches... who the hell wants a cool scarf like this to be 32 inches. Frogging again, and started over with only four repeats instead of 5. I want a much longer scarf. Teach me to read the whole page won't it....probably not, that would be me plunging in head long and suffering the consequences.

I don't mind really, I had so much fun making it the first time, and I am having fun the second time around too. I will definitely make another one of these!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe New Year!

It's all about the Red

This year the Christmas Season seemed to sneak up on me. I struggled alot with my health this year and, curse those physical weakness', it made me realize I could not single handedly move the earth.

I did manage to finally get the stockings hung on the mantle.



And with Sarah and Ethan's help, I got the tree up and decorated, but not much else, I did manage to get the house looking somewhat festive, in one room at least, right before Christmas. and house presentable enough for the company coming over on Christmas Eve. As per usual, I worked both days! Christmas was a big buck day since I had to work 12 hours (oh darn) and rake in all that holiday pay (oh darn). The day after was a killer tho, another 12 hour shift. I was ever so tired when I finally met my pillow.
I did get to see a few family members on Christmas Eve when I came home from work. I was wished a HAPPY FELIZ NAVI KWANZAA as they were going out the door. (gotta cover all the basis, right?)

Santa really surprised me this year. We opened presents before I had to rush off to keep the North Shore safe. It was all about the red this year. He surprised me with the new Ipod Nano, (RED) and a new digital camera, the Olympus FE-280 (also red).

Even the jammas I got were red plaid! LOL

Expecting a slow day at work, and with my few holiday projects completed, my fingers were at a loss, so I rummaged around in the stash bag and Surprise to me...I found a kit I purchased at Stitches MidWest this year for this cute little hat that I had all but forgotten about. The T-4-2 hat. If anyone has this one laying around, get too it...it is a must.

Those Canadians really have it going on when it comes to knitting. I find their patterns and colorways most intriguing. I think all Canadians must come from the womb already knowing knitting 101.

I started this on Christmas Eve, after everyone left. I did not have a clue what I was doing, just blindly following the pattern without trying to comprehend it ( I should try that more often). I have never done shadow knitting before nor have I done this braided stitch either. Two firsts for me. I finished the band on Christmas night. I was surprised at how quickly this pulled together.

Almost done, While I sat listening to my new Santa toy last night, I finished the crown. I have only the tassel left to do and it will be Happy New Hat To Me!

You can see here the braided portion (red arrow) I did a little ad-libbing of course with the pattern and added two more braided sections, my Virgo mind needed to tie all the colors together somehow...lol.

The shadow part, ( white arrow) well that was hard to photograph. I must have taken a dozen pictures and this was the best I could come up with. Can you see the diagonal stripes at this angle? What a great pattern, I think I am going to make another one. It actually gives you a choice of fair isle band or the shadow band.

Quite fun, and the best part is that it was all about me!

I hope everone else and a Wonderful Christmas too!!

Merry Christmas Bag

Now that the recipient has her gift, I can post the pictures of the completed bag. This was a fun project, I find most felting projects fun, I guess because they knit up so fast, and take shape fast. Then the end piece is so much different than what you started out with, even in color.

Here is what it looks like per the pattern. Now, having made one, this is how I would change it. To start with, I have to have inside pocket, so I would have to add one on inside as well. The bag is roomy enough on the inside to accommodate an extra pocket. The felting instructions called for the bag and pocket to be felted first then sewn on. What a pain in the patutey! I have to use a tapestry needle with a point to get it through both fabrics, thing 2 to change, sew pocket first, then felt. I think given the size it came out, it would have been fine to do it this way.

Here is a shot of the inside and snap closures.

The striped part is actually a pocket.

There was an error in the pattern when it came to the trim, no biggie, I just had to add 10 more inches to the icord for the trim. I like my bags to hang off my shoulder so I would have made the straps much longer for my self and perhaps even thicker.

When I put the snaps on I went to the fabric store to get the kit since I did not have a tool to put them on with. Well I never dreamed it would be so damn difficult to get them on right. I think I ruined 3 snaps in my attempt to put them on.

Plus I smashed my finger and broke a nail. There must be an easier way to do them than having a stupid little "anvil" and hitting it with the hammer. Obviously JoAnne Fabrics did not have the easier answer.

To felt the bag in the front loader I did something a little different this time. My previous felts took for-ever to become felted. I zip everything up inside a pillow case cover to protect my machine (yes I know, that is a given) then I zipped myself over to Walgreen's and bought a pair of those spikey blue dryer balls for softening. Threw the bag, balls and a heavy towel for balance in the machine, used the Express Wash setting on hot/cold and went to work. I had to run it a second cycle, but it was mostly finished the first time around. I dry flat on my shoe rack in the dyer and that is that. Could not have been easier this time. If I had not been so pressed for time I would have turned the machine off mid-cycle the second time round.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out, as was the recipient.

Just In The Nick of Time

Nephew Socks Complete!! Phew!! I was starting to think that I wouldn't make it! Right down to the wire I was.
Now, you may look at this picture and say...hmmmm are those two different colors? It is hard to tell in this picture but, ah, yah... weeellll.... It would seem that once they were knitted up., these two skeins of yarn (same dye lot I might add) have two distinct flavors. The second sock came out much darker. There is more of a color variation in the first one ( on the left).



You can see it a little better in this picture. Now, while I was not entirely happy over that, since they are a Christmas gift, they are for my nephew who happens to be somewhat bohemian (like his Auntie ) so I am sure he will not mind, if he even notices.

The bohemian streak in me doesn't care either, but the Virgo in me is disappointed. This is the first time I have had a Lorna's Laces be so different in the same dye lot. I am thinking it was just my luck grab the one out of the four that didn't quite match.
No chance of being able to whip out another pair before Monday.


Yesterday I spent a maniacal day wrapping gifts. What was I thinking... leaving them all for the end. And as per usual, once I had them wrapped, I realized just how overboard I went...again! I do this every year, and every year I say I will cut back. Raine is so spoiled by her Mimi!
My whole dining room was full to the brim. I kinda looked like a war zone.
Finally by mid afternoon I was finished, gifts sorted out according to their respective homes, bagged up and rready to go. Then the man of the house comes home with a $100 in doggie treats that need to be wrapped for the family pets. Bingo, gives treats and stuffies to his little cuz-er doggies and cats every year. I was so exhausted by the time it was all said and done all I wanted to do was take a hot bath and go to bed.
At the last minute today I decide, because of my schedule this week and lack of time, I packed up my truck with all the gifts, minus the ones for my home of course and take them to work with me. I had to laugh on my way in, because with all those packages piled up in the back seat, All I could think of was that my little red truck looked more like Santa's Sleigh!

Luckily my daughter took pity on me and she and the fam drove to my work to pick up all the gifts. Usually I make a midnight trip to her house and haul them up 3 flights of stairs. She did make mention of the fact there were so many packages ear marked for her house, and that she only had a two bedroom apartment...whatever.

I am now officially done! Signed sealed and delivered! Since I work on both Christmas and Eve, I won't get to join in the festivities but, I feel quite relaxed right now with only something to make for myself.


Now to finish that poor little stocking I started oh-so long ago.

I notice that Blogger-ville has been pretty quiet lately, and small wonder why, since I am sure we have all been on the same self impossed deadline with our knitting.
My Christmas wish to you all..... May all your projects turn out right, and may they all be complete by Christmas Eve night!


P.s. My thanks to all of you who posted on my little poll.

Holy Crap only 12 days left!

Can you believe it? Only 12 days left until Santa comes!!! Well this Santa doesn't even have her tree up yet. I cannot believe how far behind I am in my usual self imposed Christmas schedule. I think maybe I will blame it on blogging...and give the Work Monster a break since, well...every year at this time is busy at work. Along with that mad dash around the stores to finish shopping, I still have to decorate the house, wrap all the gifts, and send out those cards!

I only got a little bit knit on my nephew's surprise sock (I know I am safe posting this since he doesn't read my blog) I'm going to have to knit fast to get these done in time. I was hoping to have time to make a pair for my brother too but that just isn't going to happen.

Surprise to me!

I funny thing happened on the way to the forum... I was checking my email the other night after work and there was an email from Cindy (?). When I opened it she said I had won a gift certificate for this post,(My Homeless Project) on 25 Things for Charity! Apparently I won the November contest she was having on that blog. Woo Hoo! I did not even realze there was a contest. Merry Christmas to me. $15 to spend at Amazon!!

Thank you Cindy for the wonderful gift! I will have to look and see what knitting book I have on my wish list at Amazon now.

Now back to my knitting...

Times a flyin'

Time flies when your having fun! It also gets away from you when the Work Monster has a strong hold! The Work Monster has had it's grip on me for some time now. What with all the prep for our re-accreditation and in addition to my other additional assignments, one of our own taking a powder on us a couple of weeks ago, all that has created an extra strain on everyone involved.

The assessors are now in the building, which means even more work and stress. To top things off, the closer we get to Christmas, the more demanding my job becomes, what with the area's lawless looking for their own peculiar type of Christmas cheer. Then Five minutes from walking out the door last night ( and I was soo ready, believe you me) I get an armed robbery call with two down. Of course that ensued a flurry of activity that was so adrenalin pumping that I had no idea how I was going to get to sleep when I finally got home just before 3 am.

Needless to say- I did not get to catch up on my show and knit last night. :( And with Christmas so close.
I did get my Knit Picks order (Yay) and now that I am finished with the bamboo socks, I have a set of size 1's that I don't have to be in fear of breaking! I also got this very pretty sock yarn in Grass to make those cute little anklets out of. And the I have cast on my nephew's surprise socks. Not that I got very far with them yet, I started them on the 1's and knit for about an inch when I decided nah, then ripped them out again and re-cast on the 2's.



Yesterday I made some real headway on the Blue Sky Bag!
The thing about felting is that it knits up real fast, when you sit down to do it. This was a fun one too. Easy and classic looking. I added the I-cord trim and handles the other night after work. The pattern had a misprint for the trim and was off about 10 inches, but there is really no guessing what is involved in this pattern so it was an easy adjustment to correct.


Since the Work Monster woke me up at the crack of dawn (so to speak) yesterday morning, I put that time to good use and worked up the pocket for the bag.

And this is the Pre-felt stage. I only have to weave in the ends and throw it into the washer. The pocket and bag are felted prior to sewing it on. My nice Sears repairman and I had a lengthy conversation about how I could control the felting process in my front loader. It should make it go faster this time.

I am so close to wrapping this one up I can practically taste it!

I just have to mention the wonderful gift that one of our residents dropped off at the station the other night. A gentleman and his son came in with several Croft and Barrel bags full of brand new toys and clothing for the needy. I am not just talking bout a few small bags, it was those large purchase bags. They each carried about 4 bags in full of items, then told me there were clothes also in the bags. They both made several trips from the car and brought in two boxes of toys as well.

When I removed the bags from the lobby, I could not believe the booty! Each bag was full of an assortment of toys, hats, gloves, and a variety of shirts and sweatshirts and several bottles of shampoo, all of it was BRAND NEW!! I separated the items, as the clothes will go to the homeless shelter along with the shampoo. ( We actually have two separate charities we are collecting for.) I can tell you, it brought tears to my slightly jaded eyes. I truly believe the human touch can make a difference in a homeless person's life.

A little Poll fo you.

I was on Knitters Review Forum the other day, and there was a discussion about how comments should be answered. The answers seemed to be pretty varied. What is the proper protocol for answering comments. Do people want their comments emailed to them? answered back on a comment? Or maybe they just don't care. Do people really go back and look at the comments to see if they have been answered. I know that you can subscribe to a comment, but there just seems like there should be a better way of going about it.

I am not very consistent in how I answer but I always try to answer some one who is kind enough to comment. (I love getting comments by the way so feel free).

So I thought I would place a poll on the side bar get the general opinion of how you would like to see comments answered back.

Feel free to leave a comment explaining your poll answer.

Happy polling!

A little this and a little that

The work monster had it's evil grip on me over the weekend, the Friday thru Monday part of the weekend that is, so no quality time was spent with anything but my laptop. Fun project with a short deadline, but still work none the less.
Tuesday was my day off which started with a conference call / webinar (more work stuff) but once that was over the fun started.

I was surprised my by an early morning visit from my daughter with my pseudo daughter in tow. WOO HOO! Lori has flown out from Washington to spend her 21st birthday with family and friends!!! I'm thinking along the lines of a night out at the Sugar Shack for her birthday ;) She looks TERRIFIC! It was so good to see her happy, when she first went out there she was very unhappy, but now that she and her new husband are in their own place, everything seems to be falling into place. Well at least until Kasey gets deployed in April.


As you can see Bingo is a happy boy too. We went for our weekly vet visit and they decreed he could have his bandages off! YAY!!!! And look...he still has hair on his head! He still has stitches in his ears but he doesn't have to go back for three whole weeks. Now I can clean the inside of my truck and de- paw print and de- fur it and remove the puppy nose prints from the windshield. Hmmm Maybe I should ask Santa for some seat covers.

A little winter weather advisory happened on Tuesday too. Mild blizzard conditions started while we were at the vet's. I am on of those freakish people that love this kind of weather. The more snow the more I like it. (it is the sub zero weather I hate)


So after the vet visit I drove over to the local P.A.D.S (homeless) site in the next town over (yes- in the severe weather) and dropped off my meager donation of 12 hats and 6 scarves, along with the new baby clothes someone had dropped off at the PD. Then I drove over to the Library to donate a crap load of books I had been hoarding. Out of the three bags full, one of them was all crafty books.



Here is Lori with the girls' shopping booty, wearing the hat and scarf that I made for her.

I love coming home from work and finding packages waiting on the table for me.
My mail lady brought me this nice package of yarn- Isn't she wonderful!! 4 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock yarn in Charcoal, for that last minute gift I decided was a must. (still waiting for my Knit Pick's order- it is probably in my mailbox but I did not want to dodge the traffic and cross the road to find out).



So Wednesday after a hard day of panic Christmas shopping I dragged out my two favorite toys and set to work winding yarn so that it is ready as soon as I finish Bamboo socky #2.
Which I plan on doing tonite after work.

I love solids that are not quite solid don't you?

Here is where I am at with the Bamboo socks. Socky #2 is almost done. I am down to the toe. As you can see I was not able to match the stripes. The two skeins are vastly different in that regard. I attempted to match them but the dark blue sections were much longer on the second skein and that was so not going to happen. No big deal in that, since I am a little off beat, so therefore should be my socks!.

The first skein had a knot in it. I was none too happy about that but I decided not to mention it in my last post. But one I got to the second skein... well, the second skein had not one but two knots in it. That is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to yarn. Nothing pisses me off more than to find a knot in the yarn while I am knitting. I had to stop, untie it and then continue with the new end. Just what I wanted...more ends to weave in! Then it happened again on the heel gusset! Grrrrr!

You would think that for the amount of money I paid for this fancy smanchy yarn that it would be all in one piece and not three!!!

Don't get me wrong. I still like the yarn but it just erk's me no end when I find it has been knotted.

Dawn asked How many stitches I cast on for these socks. 56 , it is the same amount I used with the size 2's. I was a little bit nervous about it since these were done on needles one size down. and considered that I might need more stitches or they would be too small, but they turned out fine. Socky #1 looks a wee bit bigger than socky # 2 but that is because I had to take it off my foot for the picture...hehe.




I still haven't worked on the bag, ok- I guess I have been a wee bit busy lately- but until I get the bag and the surprise socks finished I will not be able to relax. Plus- now I will have to force myself to go Mall shopping next day off to finish X-mas shopping since I could not find everything I was looking for this week. Not really looking forward to it - I don't like the holiday crowds, so I usually try to avoid it whenever possible. There were so many people out in the stores on Wednesday I am beginning to wonder if anyone has a normal 9-5 job anymore.

My Blog is Possesed!

Do you ever have one of those days where it takes you three times as long to finish a post because of some wonky stuff going on in Blogger-ville? Today is one of those days. I write, I spell check, I preview and then, BAM. All of a sudden Blogger has decided to add some weird-ass html code and shrinky dink everything I just wrote. Then in trying to fix it, I loose two of my pictures. WTF!!!
Not the first time this kind of thing has happened. Does anyone else have that problem? Or is it just me. Sometimes it seems like Blogger is playing a practical joke on me.