Treats

Sometimes in life we get treats. You know, like that first big ice cream cone. You just sat there looking at it, marveling that it was all yours. (I had siblings, it was a big deal to be able to enjoy it by myself). I got a package in the mail this weekend. I opened it and I've been marveling at it ever since.


Good to be girl had her blogiversary this month and she sent out gifts!! Handmade gifts. Gifts that required talent. I just love them. My kids have tried sneaking the dark m&ms, but I've kept them away. (so far). You can go to Amy's blog and read about how she made all these very cool things. Then go look through her archives. She takes some of the best pictures. I think I want to be like her when I grow up.

Gotta show the shawl again

My shawl is dry and I'm in love. I think what makes it much more special is that another knitter picked this yarn out just for me. She saw it and thought of me. I searched for the perfect pattern and now when I wear it, it will remind of the kindness and generosity of friends.


(There is a picture below that shows a close-up.) Thank you for the compliments.
And Lauren, the garter belt pattern is from Lily Chin as well. (wedding accessories from Fiber Trends). It took me 3 Gilmore Girls episodes to knit. My soon to be sister-in-law is tiny, her garter needed to be 16 inches. Yes. Umm, let's go measure our thighs and wow! But it's a quick pattern and I wish I had reason to knit more. They would be fun to sell.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! Amazingly enough, IK has there Fall preview on-line. I like the socks. I may save my Mountain colors yarn for these.

Shawl close-up

Blocking party

The shawl and the garter are finished and blocking. I did fix the tip of the shawl after looking at this picture. Do you like the spiderman sheets as a background? My sons room is the only place I can safely block without the cats having access to what they think is their newly made nap spots.
Both were really fun and easy to knit. I always have mixed feelings when I finish knitting things I really like. Sad because I don't want to end the fun process, but excited to see the finished product. I love the colors in the shawl and love the yarn (Lucy Neatby's Celestial Merino; Sea shell color). It reminded me of Koigu. The pattern was great because it was easy enough to work on anywhere and not make mistakes.
The sun seems to finally be peaking out. Perhaps we will have a sunny Memorial Day weekend afterall!

Wedding beginnings

My big brother is getting married next month. My whole family is thrilled and thanking our lucky stars that he picked a truly wonderful girl. And much to my amazement they picked my youngest son to be their ring boy. He is so excited and is taking his task really serious. I took him to get measured for his tux yesterday. A tux! My kid! And true to his self, my older son sighed and was incredibly thankful that he will not have to go through this ordeal of tux wearing. Amazing how different kids can be.
Realizing that I needed to get going on my wedding knitting (meaning that I needed to stop swatching with various yarns and get a move on it), I started the garter. The bride's favorite color is red, so I used that (my son's bathrobe) as a background for the progress pic. The garter will also have a red ribbon through the top.


Can you see the leaves? I hope that she likes it. She liked the pattern, but I still have the knitter insecurity thing going on. We are keeping it a secret from my brother. (hehe).

Easy Shawl

After almost being disowned by my sons for 'just-one-more' garage sale afternoon last week (they were satisfied after the first 2, but I needed to keep the treasure hunt going), I dragged them into Ben Franklin Crafts. What has happened? Since when did Ben Franklin start carrying all this great yarn? I noticed they started carrying some specialty novelty yarn a year ago, but haven't been in since. Now suddenly they have Plymouth and Classic Elite yarns (plus lots more), and a ton of really nice patterns. And much to my glee they had Lily Chin's Easy Shawl pattern.
So this weekend I started it with the gorgeous yarn my knitting buddy gave me.


It's not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. I really like the pattern and love the yarn. This is, however, not something you can knit and read. Which is why it was a good thing that we had our family movie night. Lots of knitting time. Plus we watched Star Wars 2 last night, which meant more knitting time.
I'm also trying to comprehend the fact that my 'baby' is almost done with 1st grade. Where does the time go?

Missing keys

So on Mother's Day my Dad borrowed my van (in order to bring me my gift - their 'old' patio set for my 'new' patio). As my parents were leaving, my Dad could not find the extra set of car keys he had been using. We looked everywhere.
Today my grandmother stopped by. We sat chatting, admiring the wonderful job my Dad and sons had done with the new patio tiles. I looked up at my flowers and look what I saw:


Can you see my keys? I will not spend time wondering how this happened. (Ok, I did. I also laughed harder than I have in ages.)
So the case of the missing car keys has been solved.

Finished Hayden

Hayden-brought my mojo back-hat is done. It was really fun to knit and Laura's pattern was perfect. I made it longer because that's how my son likes his hats. I used Encore yarn in black, blue, and the blue/black combo. The colors matched his coat from this year, the one he has outgrown now. The good news (?) is that with this weather he should be able to actually wear this hat now.

Wrong knitalong and more socks

Although I figured out the measurements, drew up a picture, and did more math for my Cable 8 - I cast on for the wrong knit-along! And I'm not even signed up for Laura's Hayden-along.


(note the too lazy to get up and take a picture away from my laptop pose). So, what went wrong? Well, I suddenly looked at my knitting, looked at the sock that will need frogging again (scroll down for pic), looked at the Berroco-softwist tank that is just not knitting up to be the beauty that I know it's capable of being, and lost my mojo. (I may be using the term wrong, but just pretend it's correct. I turn 30 next month and am desperately trying to show that I have some semblance of a cool person left in me). I sat there not knowing what to do. How could I not be desperately trying to complete another knitting project in the attempt to beat my own self-inflicted dead-lines? All the projects I had been dreaming about, planning, trying to design suddenly no longer appealed to me. I was worried about myself.
So, I did what any desperate knitter would have done. I cast on for a quick "show me I still got it, let it be done quick, and be a little more complicated than plain stockinette" hat. And after watching the Season Finale of Gilmore Girls while knitting on the hat, I was back to my old "I can't spend a minute without knitting needles in my hand" self. Even my kids were relieved.
So scroll down for 2 pics of socks and I'm off to bond with Hayden-brought my mojo back-hat at the doctor's office.

Here we have more socks!! Son#2 is graciously showing me some sock while trying to eat breakfast and wake-up. These were made from LB Woolease, Denim Twist. It will be interesting to see if the Encore or Woolease holds up better. (Size 3 needles; toe-up pattern customized to fit his requests).

In an attempt to prove to myself that I can think independently, I decided to incorporate my "own" pattern for a sock. I had to frog this pattern 2x, but love the way it looks now. Of course the one thing that I thought would just happen (cause the sock should just do this on its for me), is that it would fit me. Who cares that I seemingly have big ankles? After finally letting reality speak, I discovered the sock is not going to fit me. (Sob).


The foot fits great (it's a toe-up), but I need to frog and incorporate more stitches so that it will fit my ankle. Or start slyly measuring everyone's ankles around me. (Dee? Are your ankles smaller than mine?)

Cable 8 attempt

Awhile ago I signed up for the Cable 8 knitalong. I have been trying to figure out which yarn to use, although what I really wanted to do was to buy some new yarn for it. Today I realized that new yarn was not going to happen anytime soon. So, I knit 2 samples with yarn I have at home.


The top swatch is out a Lion brand yarn using 2 strands held together. (I think it's the Baby Soft?). I don't really like the way it looks though and I'm not sure if the color is me. (Not being pink and all).
The bottom swatch is kind of a peach/pink. It is Patons promise, really old yarn that I found on a treasure hunt awhile back. After washing it, it is soft. But it is also kinda mohairy (making up words now), although this does not hide the cables like I thought it might. It's smaller because I only used 1 strand. I'm planning on changing the pattern a bit anyways, this would just mean more cable 8s.
So, both swatches are still drying on my bed. Now I must decide if I should go ahead with knitting this using the Patons or if I should keep waiting for a different yarn. (so many decisions!)
Next pic shows close-up....

cable 8 

The things we do

So I thought I'd attempt to change things on my blog, only I forgot that I should know what I'm doing first. I like the look better and am going to attempt to add the things I lost.
In knitting news: I'm almost done making a pair of socks for my youngest son. I had no luck finding the Lily Chin shawl pattern here in town, so I bought a big book of different stitch patterns at Joann's (with 40% of coupon, gotta love those). I seem to think I'm capable of writing my own shawl pattern. I also have no idea why this seemed easier (faster maybe?) than ordering the LC pattern on-line.
By the way, go check out Amy Lu's blog. She has a picture of her LC shawl in progress. And she has the same saying that I just copied onto my blog at the bottom. (one of the many great ones I found in the Weekend knitting book).
At the moment I have way too many projects on needles: a wedding/ring lace pillow for my brother's wedding; mountain color bearfoot socks; game bag from weekend knits; Phoebe-Bamboo; 2 tank tops - both of which are knit in the round up to the neckline; headband for Dee; ribbon scarf or Dee; Shoalwater shawl - which I started in Helen's Lace, but I'm not sure I like the pattern for this yarn; and some socks for my mother. Yikes. I should put a chart on here or by my desk to show my progress and inspire to finish these things.
Now I'm going to do more housework and attempt to work on my blog some more.

Finished socks are fun

I know it's been awhile since I posted. I blame allergies and rainy weather. ;-) I did get alot of knitting done. I've only got 1 picture, the rest tomorrow. These are my son's Regia cotton socks.


He loves them. One of my knitting buddy gave me the yarn, which I believe she bought in Germany. This son wears socks all year round, so these cotton ones should be great in the summer. And for the first time I tried to match them. I did good until the toe. I decreased more on the last one, so it's a little shorter. But the important part is that he loves them and has picked out the yarn for the next pair.

I've also fallen in love with 2 patterns.
1. Bonne Marie's new SCOOP du JOUR. I need to get ink for my printer before I buy this pattern. I was wondering if it would look cool to do the ribbing in a different color. Any thoughts?
2. Lily Chin's easy lace shawl. My knitting buddy gave me some very yummy yarn for my birthday last year and I've been debating what pattern to use. The yarn is Celestial Merino by Lucy Neatby. I love the yarn and colors and wanted the perfect pattern. I've looked at other shawl patterns, but I think this will be a good one since I can just knit until I run out of yarn. Now I just need to call my LYS and see if they have the pattern.

I love your comments. I laughed about Felicia's idea to start a Rent-A-Son-So-You-Can-Knit business. They are just getting into the whole making money for odd jobs thing. This weekend they were picking dandelions at my parents house. And Jennifer, I am using size 7.00mm (10.75) needles for my Phoebe Bamboo. The pattern calls for 6.5mm (10.5) and these are the closest I have.

I'm off to get laundry and knitting done. The sun is finally out again, so I'm going to attempt to get some pictures of other FO's.

Shrug

I've completed the shrug. I really like it, although it's a little odd to wear. I'll have to get used to it. (Trying to figure out how to get a picture that really shows it well). I barely used the 3rd ball, making me wonder what I'll do with the leftover yarn. I'd love to knit a tanktop to match, but first I should complete 1 of the 3 I'm working on now. Right? Yes, I seem to have a bit of the 'I need to start something new every day' thing going on.
Yesterday I started my Mountain Colors sock again. This time I am doing it toe-up and trying a new heel. I've been looking for patterns for toe-up socks, as well as different heels. Does anybody know of any good ones?

New projects

So, I ventured out to a local craft store this weekend. I had a coupon and wanted to find yarn for the things I'm knitting for my brother's wedding. I found some Patons Katrina on clearance and after reading about Lauren's shrug on Almost Felted, I was excited to make my own.

The shrug is from the new Interweave Knits, the one that Pam Allen designed. I actually really like this yarn, although I'm a little afraid that it will snag easily. But it will be a fun thing to wear with jeans or a dress (which I actually think she says in her description?).
We then ventured to the next craft store, since I did not find any yarn for the wedding things. There I found these little boxes on sale. One is already holding the red beads for the wedding knits, one will hold my T-pins, and I think the other was for my safety pins.
I found the Daniela yarn on clearance. This was the closest to what I wanted. It is very soft and think enough to hold the beads. Believe it or not, there are 1000 yards on this thing. I was tempted to buy the huge ball with over 2000 yards, but seriously what would I do with it? Can you make a shawl out of this stuff? Would you want to? This will be my first experience working with crochet thread and I hope it works out. The pink yarn you see was $1 for 300 yards. It was pink, I could not leave it. No idea what I'll do with it.
It was a fun shopping trip. My brother ended up using the coupon for a new canvas. And my sons are now trying to figure out what their "thing" is. My younger son tried to tell me it was watching TV, since he is good at that. Nice try.

Waiting

What would cause our cats to look both surprised and perplexed? (By the way, Miss Thang likes to crawl into plastic/paper bags and then she will sit like this for hours, thinking she is very cool.)

Cooking too?

This is my younger son. He is determined to become the chef in the house. His pancakes were delicious and quoting his older brother: "Better than mommy's". ;-)
What does this all mean now? While the boys take over my kitchen, I can sit by the perplexed cats and knit away. Can it get any better?

Washing dishes?

Look at my son go! Washing dishes has now become part of his routine. Splashing water and other experiments that go on are, I suppose, just part of being an 8 year old.
But look what else is happening...