Update on me…

What is going on around here? um… lets see…Preparing for the holiday. I love Thanksgiving, growing up it was a bigger deal than Christmas and it is one of my all time favorites still. As I have gotten older and had a family of my own, and a place big enough, I have started hosting holiday celebrations. I totally love this. I love having friends and family come, the time we spend together and cooking the big feasts for us.  This morning I did the last of my shopping, except for salad for not one but two meals, one on Thursday, very traditional, Turkey, dressing, etc. and one on Sunday, with prime rib, YUM.

I have also been working on knitting and crocheting some Christmas gifts, I have almost all of them done, I am working on my last pair of socks, as well as a sweater for myself,  and tonight I crocheted up a scarf, the whole thing in just a couple hours, out of a skein of yarn I bought just to check out. Not sure who that will be for yet, but it is in the gift bag.

I have also read several books in the last couple of weeks, for more details on those, check out Book Central, the link is over there —>

I also have started writing my second book. Not that I have done anything with the first one yet, but the second story is one that has been haunting me for several years. I dreamed it um… 3 houses ago so at least 3 years ago, and it keeps coming back with more and more details popping into my head. I have spent most of the last week, since I finished the first book, working out details, developing characters, and a basic story line. Something I didn’t do with the first one, so we will see which works better for me.  I can tell you that so far (and right now I am still on the first chapter) it is much easier to know basic details like how a person looks, and what they do and where they live, before you start instead of trying to come back later and fill those in.

The repurposing of a bag…

Last month some time, I picked up one of the several one skein knitting books that are out there, at my local library. I liked several things out of it, and I made a couple of them.. One of the things I made was a soap sack. I don’t know why, we haven’t used more than 3 bars of soap in the last 5 years, we are just a liquid soap family… But the urge struck, and I figured if nothing else, I could always give it as a gift. So I finished the bag (really fast knit, took me less than a day) and it has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to decide what to do with it.

Fast Forward to yesterday. I was sitting at my desk, watching my NCIS DVD’s and knitting when my 3yo runs up to me… both hands overflowing with marbles, telling me he needs a bag to keep his “Marmles” in. So, I looked around, and spot the soap sack. Solid fabric, so the marbles won’t fall out, good size, and drawstring top. Perfect. We dumped the marbles out of his hands into the bag, then we went into the play room and gathered the ones that he had dropped. He has been hauling it around ever since. As if it were his favorite blanket. I am guessing this is a repurposing win. At least this is putting the bag to us, and he loves it..

Remnant Socks.

I am working on my 25th pair of socks so far this year. This pair is a little bit different from what I have done the rest of the year, as they are made using remnants of sock yarns. I will walk you through how I have done them, and then, if I remember, I will post pictures once they are done.

1. Gather up all sock yarn remnants and sort. I don’t want to mix fingering with worsted (yes, I have made worsted weight socks this year.) And I don’t want to mix fibers, mixing a merino/nylon blend yarn with an alpaca blend yarn will lead to wonky results after you wash them. Not to mention that the alpaca felts and the merino/nylon does not.
2. OK, now I had 13 balls of merino/nylon blend yarn. Most balls are around 30 yds, and I have  a decision to make… Do I want them to be totally miss matched, meaning I grab a ball and knit till it is gone, then grab another, for both pair… or do I split each ball in half and use in the same order to make an actual matched pair.
3. I decided to split the balls.. but with such small balls of yarn, and no yardage meter, how do you split them evenly (or at least close?) I used my ball winder, first I wound the ball into a cake, then I took the yarn from the outside and the center of the cake and wound them again, together, when I reached the end, and a loop of yarn where the middle was, I cut it and began rolling it into 2 balls. I did this with all 13  yarns.
4. Next I took two bowls. I put all the balls into one bowl and cast on my first sock, the matching ball to the yarn I was using went into the second bowl. When I ran out of yarn, I would go to the first bowl and choose another yarn, taking out both balls of that yarn, one was added to my sock in progress, and the other is added to the second bowl (second bowl just makes it easier to do the second sock later on, since you don’t have to dig and hunt for the matches.)
5. Once the first sock was done, you just use the yarns from the second bowl, in the same order (or different if you choose) as the first sock.

Simple…

I think I may have enough yarn remnants here for a second pair of socks… I will see, I am just over half done with the second sock, and should finish this weekend.

small knitting obsession….

I am a big fan of Knitty. For those of you who don’t know.. Knitty is a free, online knitting magazine. It comes out  quarterly, but not on any set date that I have been able to discern.  And then, some time between the time an edition is published and the next edition, there are bonus patterns that just seem to *appear*.

Anyway… the Fall edition of Knitty came out last Friday. I browsed through it, several times, and I really liked several of the patterns in it. I usually really like one or two patterns per edition, but this one was great, I really liked at least 6 of the patterns. All of the shawls, and several of the sweaters. One of the shawls was Colonnade. I LOVED it… The more that I looked at it, the more I had to make it. But I had to make changes.

#1. I live in southern Arizona. It does not get cold enough here to warrant aran weight wool. 

#2. I don’t want to BUY yarn for this, if I can help it. Wool is hard to find here, all we have is Jo-ann’s and Michaels, and that limits availability.

#3. I don’t have 10’s needles.. I don’t like working with them, but if I had them, I would use them, even with worsted.

Because of the smaller yarn and needles, I didn’t get gauge, being unable to use larger needles to get gauge, I had to adjust the stitch count, doable, but more work mentally.

I hunted through my stash and found several skeins of Patons Classic Wool Merino one in Peacock, and two in Too Teal, perfect! I cast it on and got started on Saturday night, and by the time I went to bed on Sunday, I was 3/4 done. I haven’t had time to pick it up today, but once the kids get in bed, I will work on it more. I can’t wait to get this finished.

Help!

ok, I have decided I want to make pillow covers for my couch, not cushion covers, just covers for the 4 throw pillows that match my couch and loveseat. I have determined I am going to knit them, and button them closed. I am pretty certain I am going to do a mitered square on one side and the Op Art pattern on the other.. The problem is colors… I have no clue what colors to use with my couch/living room.

My walls are white (we have been in the house about  2 1/2 months and just don’t have the money right now to repaint) the only other upholstered item in the room is faux suede, in a med to dark brown. All other furniture is wood finish. Here is the couch.

those leafy pillows are the ones I want to cover.. I want to use something other than the brick color of the furniture.. and I need 2 colors, hopefully something to lighten up the pieces.

Help me… Suggest colors..Please…

Some days I wonder…

why I bother to get up in the morning.

First, let me state that it took me over two hours, yes HOURS of laying in the dark, listening to Hubster snore,  last night to be able to get to sleep. Part of it, I admit, was enjoying the feeling of having Hubster back in bed with me. Have I mentioned that I really missed him? And then there was that whole pesky, my brain won’t shut off problem.

So I finally drift off to sleep.. only to be awakened this morning (like most mornings these days) to kids fighting. Unlike most days, I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. I was aware of Hubster getting up, telling the kids to zip it,  and I heard him on the phone, trying to straighten out business that I was unaware of while he was gone. I still pretended, and tried, to sleep.

Hey, school starts next week, and days of sleeping past 6am will be severely curtailed, I was just trying to enjoy it while it lasted….

Anyway, eventually Hubster comes in and starts trying to get me out of bed… Why? Because he wants coffee… Why can’t he make his own coffee you say? Because he’s to lazy, I mean, because mine tastes so much better. *roll eyes*

He eventually sics our 3 year old on me, sets him up on the bed with me, and quickly leaves the room. Said 3 year old proceeds to jump and bounce and tickle me until I get up.

So, I am up, and dressed, and make his coffee… I know I have to go get Hubster’s uniform first thing, so I head out to do that…. After I get back from that Hubster decides he needs gas in his car, and sends me out to get that.

Ok, I know some of you are asking why he can’t just get gas on the way to work? Well, we get gas at Sam’s Club, much cheaper than anywhere else, and it is in the opposite direction from his work, but well worth the trip out of our way for the savings. Yes, we actually save more than the cost of the trip to get it.S

So, Here it is less than 2 hours after I got up, and I have spent less than a quarter of it at home. Blah. At least it was coolish out side this morning (by coolish, I mean it was under 100, barely.)

The rest of the day hasn’t been too bad, just normal day stuff, feeding three house apes,  packing a lunch, searching for missing uniform components, searching for missing locker key, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, gathering up and sorting laundry, feeding three house apes, cleaning up the mess they have made today, maybe a little time for reading and knitting (Currently working on another pair of socks, this one out of Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dye, in the Bordeaux color, they are working up nicely.)

As Hubster was getting ready to go to work, he was all dressed in his uniform, and bent over his desk, which sits directly in front of mine, checking something on his computer. Something about the uniform and the pose, and well, HIM, just made me go YUM, and I grabbed my camera and took a snapshot… No, I am not going to share it, because of the uniform, and what is visible on his uniform, it is just not a good idea. But trust me, it is a good picture, and is the highlight of my day, and probably several others.

Lacy Cotton Shopping bag

I have a large amount of cotton yarn around the house, and in an effort to work on knitting down my stash, I determined I needed to make something from it. I always need more shopping bags, so I started on this, and I really like it. So I decided to post the pattern, incase someone else likes it as much as I do.

Materials,

Cotton yarn, I used Sugar N Cream Confectioners colours. it took about 7 oz,

size 9  24″ circular needles, DPN’s of same size if you don’t magic loop.

stitch marker

Cast on 9 stitches, join, being careful not to twist, and knit one round.

place marker so you know where round begins, yo,k1 around (18 st), k3 rounds. yo,k1 around (36 st), k6 rounds. yo,k1 around (72 st), k 12 rounds. yo,k2 around (108 st), k for 3 inches, begin lace pattern.

Lace pattern:

R1: yo,k2tog around

R2: k around

repeat rounds 1 and 2 until lace measures 12 deep, garderstitch (k 1 round, p 1 round, repeat) for 1.5 inches.

Straps: on a knit round, k16 stitches, bo 38 stitches, knit 16, bo 38, you should be back to your first set of 16 knit stitches, knit these, then turn and purl them, continue knitting in stockinette stitch until approx. 20 inches long, kitchener to the 16 stitches still on the  cable on other side of bag. Weave in ends.

shopping bag, filled, has a box of saltines and two canisters of oatmeal, still has lots of room.

Sweet Gadget

Check it out —————> in the tool bar to the left, it is my knitmeter, each day I go to the site and enter how many yards I have knit, and it automatically updates the picture. This is too cool… Just don’t tell hubby.

Windy and “cold”

listening to the local weather the other night, they used this as a forecast. After living here for a year, I have determined several things, not all of it having to do with weather.

1. Wind is not an event here, it is a fact of life, and is therefore unremarkable unless it is getting ready to blow you away.
2. There are days in January when you wish you didn’t have a moral problem with turning on the AC in January.
3. Cold? Yeah, right, it never truly gets cold here. If you hear “cold” as part of the weather, it means the high for that day was under 70. Seriously.
4. I miss real winters, and I am not even from a place that regularly gets snow, or even extreme temperatures, but I do believe that you should get regular, if not nightly, freezes from October through February or March.
5. I miss rain, that moisture falling from the sky is truly a wonderful thing and I miss it. Heck, I even miss the mud it creates.
6. Prickly pears should be purple and growing everywhere around you, so that you can go out and pick bucketfuls to make jelly with,  not green and $1 each at the grocery store.
7. Here, tank tops and flip flops truly are year round wear, ask me how I know?
8. There is something wrong with a city that has 16 golf courses and not a single LYS, I am forced to resort to Michaels and Joann’s which are ok, but are for commercial, mass produced yarns, not really great hand dyed stuff.

ok, I admit it, I am just rambling on now.  I will go.

I realize I am totally nuts.

but it got in my head tonight to see exactly how fast I knit… so I knit for 10 seconds then counted the number of stitches I made in that time… then multiplied by 6 to get my # of stitches per minute…
54 stitches per minute, but while knitting socks magic loop, it takes time to flip from one side to the other, and that slows me down some…

I said that I totally realize how nuts I am… but it was fun to do…