R is for...

Rest!

It's been a nice vacation. Unfortunately tomorrow is the last official holiday and then we gradually return to normal. I've been reading a lot of year end reviews on blogs, and I thought about it, but figured I'd be better off just catching up, so I can start the new year fresh (at least in blog-land).


The Christmas Knitting:

For the niece and nephew:


For the Brother-In-Law:


For the Sister:





I tried to be sneaky and get their hand sizes (before I had completely decided what to make) and so I had some fun cutting and pasting some art projects.


All of the information on these is on Ravelry, feel free to ask me for pattern information though if you aren't able to access those!

All of these were done and shipped before Christmas. Yay for me! I then kept working on my husband's socks and started working on his slippers again, neither was done for Christmas, and neither are done yet, but that's okay, he knows he'll get them eventually.

I received many wonderful Christmas presents, but I have to show one now... My two daughters knew what they wanted to get for me. They engineered a trip to the LYS with me sitting quietly in the front and not watching them while their daddy helped them shop. I received some beautiful colorful wool to spin from Lily. My sweet husband purchased the matching roving, so I got two! ...and he also picked me up some clear clogs so I can safely wear my pretty socks around the house. My youngest daughter Curly, however, gave me the gift of work. She gave me this:



And then informed me that it was to be a hat for Lily (who had no idea what her sister chose). She's been telling me I need to knit, and today she handed me both balls, and asked me where my knitting needles were, so I finally started... Much progress was made today (as I think I'm starting to come down with the cold husband and Lily had this weekend, so most of today was spent sitting), however, it was a bit big, so some ripping was also done. I am now reknitting as I wait for the new year.



R is also for...
Resolutions.

I had toyed with the idea of Clean Slate 08 (finishing or ripping all projects before the new year). I knew it wasn't Realistic for me though. (see, another R? :)) I am trying to work on old projects, and I am gradually getting there. I will still be casting on little projects here and there, but I am really trying to finish everything up before the third child comes. I currently have:

Husband's homespun socks (so close and yet huge amount of knitting left on the legs)
Slippers for husband (alpaca currently being spun)
Mystery Stole 3 (not ripped out! I'm about 1/3 to 1/2 way done, I need some time to fiddle with it)
Lace scarf (I keep chugging away between things - probably more than 1/2 done, hard to tell - working on it until yarn runs out)
Lily's New Pink Hat (should be done within the week)

I think it's do-able to finish all of these by early to mid march (or at least finish most of them and have major progress made)... but like I said, it's not unlikely I will have a couple other things beginning between now and then - just hopefully nothing big until they are done!


R is also for...
Ravelry!

I just got access to the photo slurper at Ravelry, which means (for those of you not involved in this wonderful website) I can now take some of my older photos which aren't on flickr and have them appear with all of my organizational information. Old projects... some stash... whatever... I'll be playing with that and adding some of those to my information there. It was a blast to play with today though, I already added a couple of projects that were already here on the blog.


Have a great new year!

Q is for...

Que Sera Sera.

I just made a couple of people in my life very happy by making it so my blog feed will go to their reader completely instead of making them click over to my site. Such is life. Merry Christmas!




For those of you on Ravelry - I just wanted to mention a cool swap I signed up for (I know, I said no more swaps until after the baby is born and a little grown, but this one sounded so cool). It's a birthday swap - so they are trying to match people share a birthday (or close if it's not exact). It'll be neat to get another birthday present in the mail, and I can hopefully get it ready and sent before the baby is born. Just wanted to get a mention in, as they are closing it in about a week (the 27th I think?).

P is for...

Procrastinate!

Yeah, that's me. I did the whole month of November - posting every day, and then I take half of December off. I was sick, I got better, I packed my husband off to the other side of the world for a week, we welcomed him home and are still readjusting to normal schedule. I finished Christmas-knitting and have everything mailed off (as of today) - even the cards are all out. We've gotten all our shopping done and now just have to wrap and bake. Pictures were taken of a couple of the super-secret Christmas knitting and will be posted after Christmas. I'm still trying to finish a couple of things for my sweet husband, but without a definite deadline.



P is also for Pal

....I found out who my SP11 spoiler is, through a couple sneaky clues. I'm still waiting for my last package (no rush, no problem) and will post links and such after that gets here.



P is also for pregnant

I'm showing enough of a belly that people are now asking when I'm due (end of March), do I know what I'm having (no, we don't find out, never have - the results of the ultrasound said healthy), do we have names picked out yet (nope, not enough a blog name picked yet, definitely not a real name yet). Yes, the girls are excited; no, I'm not knitting for it yet.



P is also for (knitting in) Public

I think we finally have a local S&B. I've gone 3 or 4 times now and I've missed a couple times that others showed up. Unfortunately the place we've been meeting at is closing, so... next Wednesday we won't be meeting (day after christmas), the week after is the first Wednesday of the month and so will be at a nearby LYS, so hopefully by January 9th we'll have a new place to meet at! It's been fun getting out of the house for just a couple hours (thanks to my husband for enabling) and just knit and drink some hot chocolate and chat.

O is for...

Open!

One of the secret presents was opened over the weekend. My husband had a birthday and opened up a package of a bunch of handkerchiefs I had hemmed and then put his initials on. Curly chose a number of the colors of floss that I used, and Lily even did one herself. Perhaps pictures within the next couple of days?



O is also for off.

This weekend was definitely OFF. Like I said, my husband had his birthday and then took Monday off of work. We enjoyed some time together ice skating (well, I didn't skate... I sat with Curly and watched big sister and daddy skate at a local indoor rink). We also had a very yummy turkey dinner. Oh, and the birthday cake was carrot cake - so good. There's still a bit of left overs in the fridge. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make great cakes without a ton of extra work. The carrot cake and the chocolate covered cherry cake are both ones I have made multiple times. I keep trying others too... but those two - yum! It was nice to take a break from the daily blogging - it make this weekend feel like a real vacation after a whole month.



O is also for... umm... shrug

I started another mystery knitting project. (The first being the handkerchiefs that I didn't mention at all since I wanted them to be a surprise). I've knit up almost two skeins of knit picks shine worsted today. ...and for those of you on ravelry, I'm in the middle of stripe 10 out of 11! I'll probably finish the stripes before heading to bed, but not finish it off. ...plenty more to do with it before I move on to the next mystery project. Just a couple of projects to do before Christmas.


oh right, I also spun a bit today on a different mystery project. (to my husband: no sweetie, not the slippers yet!)

November 30 - Finished

I made it! I survived a November of posting every day. I discovered that I really have nothing to say after about a week and a half of working on my projects - especially if I am not really knitting every day. I'm not planning to blog for the next day or two... after that we'll see next week if blogging has become a habit or not.

While I haven't knit (much) today I did do a handful of rounds on the socks. I also watched Ghostbusters. Wow is that a weird movie. I also wasted a lot of time tonight relaxing while playing a cat game and a tower game. Both of these games you are trying to make sure nothing makes it off the screen... just very different ways of ensuring that.

Thanks for reading and commenting all month, hopefully it hasn't been too useless! Enjoy the games!

November 29

No knitting today. I'm hoping to get a little in tomorrow and then a ton on Saturday.


We did however get a new game from LooneyLabs. If you haven't played any of them before you should take a look. Fluxx is an awesome game - as is Chrononaughts and any of the pyramid games (many different games with the pyramid pieces. The new game is Zombie Fluxx - which is similar to normal fluxx, but with random zombie-ness thrown in. Amusing. We played one hand tonight and I look forward to playing more later.


We're also watching Shrek 3 tonight. I don't think I'll tell the girls about it yet... they've seen the first two, but this one seems to have less kid jokes.


I also made it through my week (2 days) of teaching joyschool to a handful of 3 and 4 year olds. We spent both days talking about service and sharing. Very enjoyable actually.


After doing a bit of grocery shopping today I was able to get to the library and pick up (among other books that were held for me) Knitting nature by Norah Gaughan. I looked through the first part of the book quickly today - more looking in the morning!

November 28

I'm in the middle of a very busy week. It's not completely crazy, but it is quite full and so less knitting is getting done. Unfortunately it is also the last couple of days of my daily blogging. This is probably when I would normally not post for most of the week - sorry about the filler. I can't wait to skip a day and not feel badly about it, most likely this weekend.

Anyway, I did knit a bit more on the socks today - I'm past 2 1/2 inches which is not bad, but like I said a couple of days ago, working both socks at the same time is slow. SO slow.

I also went and made copies tonight for a hand out for the kids at church. Once it's all put together it will be an advent calender with little things to do for the month of December (at least until Christmas). It will be nice when those are done also.

The big news of the day is that I'm back on my laptop (Thanks sweetie!) and it is all fixed up and better... of course, since I'm using Ubuntu (and not windows) it was not a software issue... no, it was a hardware problem... but a bit of time, a screwdriver, and some smarts and my husband fixed it for me. Yay!

November 27

I am slowly making progress on the socks. Slowly. I also have nothing really to blog about, but since it's the 27th and I only have 4 days left to make a full month I figured I really shouldn't miss it.

Homemade minestrone lentil soup tonight for dinner.

...back to the current netflix (Ocean's 13) ...very odd, but not as odd as I thought it would be, of course, it hasn't finished yet.

November 26

Knitting-wise I got about an inch and a half done on each leg of my husband's socks. I've got it worked out so that I am working on both sock legs at once, so I don't have to do any counting or measuring. Because of that I feel like I'm crawling along - I just keep reminding myself that when I am done, I will really be DONE with the pair... so it will be worth it.

Other-wise I didn't get much done today. I thought I was supposed to be full of energy now? Nope, not really. ...or maybe I used it up ummm - sometime? That's okay I guess. I had enough energy to help the girls get their work done (each day - piano practicing, school workbooks, and cleaning chores). I also planned for joy school tomorrow (the preschool co-op, it's my turn to teach two days this week). Unfortunately my laptop is having issues, so I feel a little disconnected, but I am lucky to live with my own computer guru, so the desktop is fine for now and hopefully the laptop will be great again soon. (right sweetie??)

Each day is its own adventure.

November 25

I did it. I finished the heel for the second time on my husband's second sock (since I redid the whole thing up through the heel does that mean this is really the third sock?) It was a bit of a stretch to get it finished tonight, but it's 11:30 and the heel is complete. Yay!

Now I just need to work both socks until the yarn is gone (home spun, remember?) or until they are too tall. It'd be very cool to get these done for his birthday, but since that's a week away it might be almost done instead. Of course, once these are done I have a bit of Christmas knitting to get done....

I think it's bed time before I start to overwhelm myself - I really am in good shape for the amount of time I have left before deadlines, just a lot going on this week.

November 24

I actually knit today. It's been a couple of days... which is usually what happens during a holiday - especially a holiday with a road trip. I'm about to start the second heel of my husband's second sock again. It is definitely matching at this point, so hopefully between tonight and tomorrow I'll be able to finish the heel and be ready to start both legs.

I've also been playing around with a music program on the computer. It's called Lilypond, and it allows you to program code to compose music and then takes that code and makes it into a lovely pdf file. I've only done a bit of the tutorial, enough to do some single note piano pieces for Lily to play, but it was pretty cool. Of course, I use Ubuntu Linux, but it also says it works on Mac and Windows.

My husband lit up a fake log fire tonight. It's the first in a long time and it does make the room so nice to be in - especially with a movie on, husband knitting, knitting on my lap and girls in bed (one sleeping, the other one reading). Have a great rest of the weekend!

November 23 - Contest Winner

I didn't craft much today. I did go shopping. I know, most sane people try to avoid stores on black friday, but if there are good deals that I want I actually enjoy the whole hustle. This morning, however, I slept in a bit and only hit a couple of stores.

I then spent most of the afternoon filling in white space with a black sharpie. There was a map in a book. It wanted to be turned into a quilt (not by me, not for me). So it got blown up pretty big and a lot of the black in the black and white map turned out to be grey, therefore when it got big it had a lot of white in it. It is now black again. It actually looks pretty cool, now that the white specks are gone. It can now be taken, made into transfers, put onto cloth, and then sewn and quilted. It will have a happy life now. (I think I'm a bit tired).


Oh right, the contest is over. Thanks for all the entries. Although some of you tried to sneak a little guilt in with your entries (yes, I remember all my non-knitting UFOs), I did enjoy reading them. ...and the winner is?

ummm.. boogeyman's wife. I'll email you soon, or you can email me first, and we can discuss your prize. Sorry Jbb - someday you'll win.

November 22

Happy Thanksgiving.

This is your last chance to enter the contest - tomorrow (friday) when I sit down to blog I will also try to remember to pick a winner.... but it might be saturday before I pick. We'll see. Either way, the contest closes tomorrow night when I sit down and blog.

No knitting done today. Instead I slept in a bit, then rode up to a family meal and let the kids play and rode back tonight. I love thanksgiving. It is nice to get together and be thankful. I dislike it because it signals the beginning of the commercial aspect of Christmas. I try to get the shopping and planning done as early as I can so I can then enjoy the rest of the season, because no matter how hard I try I can't get rid of these material aspects completely. My husband and I are trying to get all the gifts and *things* planned out now... wish us luck!

November 21

I managed to work about half of the gusset increase rows in my husband's second sock today. This daily blogging doesn't give me much time to make progress in between posts. I'm looking forward to doing the heel and hoping that they match this time.

I also made a cheesecake today. That is our contribution to the meal tomorrow (and serves as one of my husband's birthday cakes.. the other one I believe is a carrot cake on his actual birthday - correct me if I'm wrong sweetie?)

The other thing I did today (in a crafty way) is to finish (with Lily's help) a secret birthday gift (Curly helped the other day). Pictures in about a week and a half.

In the mail today I got some superwash merino laps from Flawful Fibers. She was destashing a bit so I got a bit over a pound of white. I look forward to using that sometime.

...and finally, yesterday my SP11 spoilee received her final package. Hi Casey! It's nice to have that reveal done. Now I am done with swaps until after the baby grows a bit - probably... you never know.

November 20

Today has been quite a strange day. We got the first snow of the season - just a couple of inches. The girls were very excited. They made sure their work got done quickly and were out playing just before lunch, as the snow stopped falling. The back yard got trampled with foot prints everywhere. I love the look of freshly walked through snow.


In knitting I am making progress on my husband's second sock. I am within a handful of rows of starting the gusset increases. So far it seems to be matching the other sock, so all is well. I'm planning to make sure those get started tonight and then do a couple of rows on the lace scarf.


Don't forget to enter the contest before Friday!

November 19

I spent most of the day taking care of my least favorite responsibilities. I cleaned, folded, loaded and unloaded, and cooked. I also helped the girls with their chores. Fortunately I finished everything up and got a chance to start this tonight.




See the toe? Sorry for the blur. It's the same size as the other toe though. It's also done with increases, so the next day or two will be spent knitting around and around. I need to go several inches before I start the gusset increases. At that point I will be working 7 stitches in pattern, increasing every 3 rows, and knitting otherwise. Pretty boring, but I'm excited that it's started again - and if I want some exciting knitting I can just pick up either of my lace projects, right?

November 18

Today was a long day. Usually Sundays are. No knitting was accomplished. I'm really looking forward to this next week. Thanksgiving is something I really look forward to, and the rest of the family is really excited about it to. Since we drive up to have the meal with extended family I don't even have to cook a whole meal. Another reason I'm excited about this week is the fact that very little is planned, so it should be a nice break.


I've been enjoying the contest entries so far. It will be open until Friday sometime, since I start Christmas preparations as soon as Thanksgiving is over, and this prize will be the first gift of the season.


I'm hoping to be able to squeeze some knitting in tomorrow, or some spinning... or both. Stay tuned, and good luck!

November 17 - Contest

Since you've been waiting patiently, here are the contest details. To mark both my one year blogging anniversary, and the fact that I am now over 150 posts total (posting every day really helps that move quickly, eh?), here is the contest that was delayed due to health.


How to win: Comment on this entry telling me how old your oldest WIP is and what it is. Two entries if you also give a good excuse on why it is still a WIP and not an FO. An extra entry if someone else enters and says you sent them here.

The time frame: This will stay open until the day after Thanksgiving. So the winner will be drawn sometime on Friday!

The who: anyone is eligible (yes husband and jbb, you too). Even if you googled here for something else, you can enter. If you want to win though, you do need to make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you, otherwise I'll skip you over if your name is drawn.

The prize: Either some handspun yarn, or something equally nice from my stash (if you would rather not have handspun). An amount possible for making a hat/scarf/small bag. Some negotiations will be possible, but final decision on what gets mailed to you is mine.


For those who don't know still, a WIP is a Work in Progress. A FO is a Finished Object. These do not have to be craft related, although that is the intention. If you aren't a crafter and still want to enter you may. We all have things we start and mean to finish and need to finish but end up sitting for a long long time.


Have fun thinking of things - good luck!

November 16

A bit of knitting did get done today - more lace scarf - you really don't want to see endless pictures of that in progress, right? It's just been sitting in my basket for ummm... a long time now, and it's nice to feel that it's finally moving a bit. It also helps, of course, that my other three WIP (husband's socks, MS3, and spinning for husband's slippers) are just not calling to me right now. There's a chance it might actually get done at some point in the future.

My girls also wanted to do crafts today. Lily insisted that we cut off lengths of pretty embroidery floss colors so she could show Curly how to do Chinese staircase. They each started a necklace/bracelet. Lily finished and chose colors to make one 'for the baby'. She of course chose two different sets, as we aren't finding out in advance what gender it is. I tried to explain that she'd have plenty of time once the baby was born to make things for it, but.... Curly actually enjoyed tying knots with big sister, and wasn't too bad at it. I'll have to let her experiment more. She kept wanting me to help, and then wanted to do it by herself - until it got completely knotted up, and then she wanted me to help fix it. Life for a three year old.

November 15

With this post I am half way through the month. I think this blogging daily thing will not continue into December - I don't want to feel like I have to every day - but it is good practice, and almost a habit now!

Today I did manage to knit half a pattern on the lace scarf during Lily's ice skating. She reached her goal (10 times across the width of the rink and back - my little marcher, she only fell umm.. 4 times?) so instead of re-casting on the toe to my husband's sock we made ginger snap cookies. Want to see? Not the cookies from today, but almost the same... yummy.

Tonight was the church craft night - with the help of some people, we managed to cut out pieces for 6 complete costumes (mary, joseph, 2 shepherds and 2 wisemen) for a still nativity that the children will do for our Christmas party. Now I just need to make sure each packet has everything it needs and then hand them out to the willing victims to sew. They do look fairly simple, but they still need to be done, and I don't want to do them all! No way that's happening. I think I'll keep Mary to do.

Now I can go watch a bit of Les Miserables and zone for a bit before sleep.

oh right, I did find some safe sick meds. I got some vicks and some similar shower steams. ...and I did sleep last night and feel much better today. Amazing what some sleep will do.

...and don't worry. I didn't forget that I mentioned a one year blog-anniversary contest. It will just happen a bit later in the month than my actual anniversary, but it will happen. (I know you were all just so worried - right jbb?)

November 14

Today was at least slightly more interesting than yesterday. I'm still sniffling (I feel like a broken record, always barely sick, never really ill, but just annoying). I pulled together the rest of the stuff for my last swap package. It'll be ready to ship within the next couple of days. I managed to work a pattern or two on the lace scarf - some of that was done tonight at the first real meeting for the pioneer valley s&b. It was fun to meet Deb and the place is nice enough (and I had a great hot chocolate), so I look forward to doing that again!


I stopped at the store on the way home and grabbed some vicks and other safe sick stuff, and some snacks, so now I get to go feel better and knit while watching Life.


Tomorrow night is a church craft night at my house - we're planning to cut out some patterns for nativity costumes, and then divvy them up to be sewn. So probably not much knitting tomorrow - much cleaning and then socializing and cutting.


I think there's a good chance that SP11 will be my last swap for a while - I've had great swap partners in the past, and I LOVE the people and stuff this time around too, but with the pregnancy revving up and the holidays to take care of, I shouldn't plan on being dependable until summer at least. I've realized this over the past couple of days and that makes the end of this current swap somewhat bittersweet. I want to know who's been spoiling me, and I want to ship off my own reveal package, but I don't really want it to be over. I'll look forward to when I feel up to swapping again.

November 13

This is the first time I've felt like I've had nothing to blog about during this November daily blogging thing. I skipped a couple days of vitamin C drops, and am now paying for it. I worked on my current projects today, but nothing much. That did include washing all the fabric for the big quilt though.


Today was a big deal however, Lily had finished the majority of her workbooks that we use to supplement homeschool over the past couple of weeks, so today she started a bunch of new ones. We also watched The Court Jester, which was very enjoyable.


Ok, that's enough babbling. Go do some more free rice, and tune back in tomorrow for more entertainment (well, hopefully it will be more entertaining than today!)

November 12

Not much knitting today. I had the car all day, so it was mostly spent grocery shopping and running other errands. However, the way I get the car all day is I drive my husband to work. This means that I need to go pick him up afterwards.


...it just happens that there is a lovely yarn shop almost on the path between his office and the highway. ...and it worked out that I was kid-free went I picked him up, so I got to browse through the shop without kids and then have a great dinner out with him.


What I got in the shop was for swaps and gifts.... and my husband picked up two beautiful sock yarn hanks. I'm sure pictures will eventually end up on his blog (but they aren't there yet). Laura (owner of the shop) had some new sock yarns and some lovely fiber!! They were all so pretty. She just started spinning and so hopefully what was there was just the beginning of a whole fiber corner :). If I hadn't just gone to Rhinebeck and come back with tons of fiber I would have gotten one or two there tonight.


I want to go knit, but I probably won't tonight. I just keep reminding myself that I was crazy and did everything today so I can knit and do other stuff the rest of the week. Hopefully I will have some progress to show tomorrow!

November 11

First up today, I hope everyone remembered Veterans Day - observed tomorrow in the US of course, but today is the 11th day of the 11th month, take a minute to remember.

Next up, I have swatches to show. These have been done for a while. I need to finish measuring and make sure I know which type my husband wants for his slippers.


The three swatches are a brown alpaca, a dark almost-black wool, and a mixture. Spun up, and then swatched up, and then felted. I guess I should get moving on these, since it's colder now and his birthday is soon (early December).



And finally, since I have not restarted the sock, I have done a bit more on the lace scarf. It is now slightly longer than my arm rest on my knitting chair (big recliner). Since this has been the project that sits in the basket whenever there is something else to do, it has taken me quite a while to get this far, and will perhaps be longer before I finish. Because of that, I believe the gauge will be different between the beginning and the end, but that is completely fine with me.


The scarf, after all, is for me, and it is pretty and lacy, and once finished and blocked, the fact that one end is slightly wider than the other can be a design element, right?

November 10

So I tried the socks on husband's feet. One was too loose (we knew it was a bit loose since I finished it first and already tried it on him). The other one was just a bit too tight. Since I'm not leaving them mismatched like that he decided a bit tight is much better than a bit loose. Upon examining the two socks, I couldn't just fudge it. They were different sizes all the way back, only by a bit, but definitely different all the way back to the toe. Notice the past tense there? They were. The one that was a bit loose is now no more. I ripped it out this morning, and then while I was at a Church Christmas prep activity (making presents) I took a while and knit some on the lace scarf. I will restart the sock within the next day or two.


November has been interesting with my experiment of daily blogging. I purposefully did not sign up for anything official (NaBloPoMo) because the last thing I need is pressure, but it has been interesting, and I have been posting every day. We'll see how the rest of the month goes, but I'm proud of doing it for 1/3 of the time so far.

November 9

I finished the heel. Yay!




BUT... meanwhile, back at the ranch...




They don't quite match. The one I started second and finished the heel of first is a little bit bigger. As it was a bit loose on my husband (and I had fudged on the heel, since it was the first time I was following these directions) I thought I might end up having to take it out and redo it. That's the one I'll be fiddling with. I am hoping I can get away with just undoing the heel and not the gusset increases also, but I might have to rip the bigger one completely out and measure spi and rpi consistantly to make sure they match. I'll measure both and compare tonight. ...so at least a couple more days of work before I can work up the cuffs and be done.

November 8

Today I did finish all the gusset increases for my husband's sock, but did not start the heel. Between babysitting, getting kids off to joy school and homeschool group, ice skating (helping and watching, not doing), lunch, making sure piano practicing and workbooks got done, an ultrasound, dinner, a trip to the book store, and getting kids to bed, somehow I didn't really get much knitting done. Luckily, tomorrow is quieter (or at least, it should be).

I've been catching up on my pod casts - lots of knit picks and webs stuff, along with the knitting cook, sticks and string, and... umm, something else? It's been fun.

I've also been reading Next by Michael Crichton. Fairly interesting book, not the best, but not bad. I got a couple other books to read soon, and then I want to reread Smoke Screen by Kyle Mills - something reminded me of it the other day, but I need to reread it before I recommend it completely.

I really like the idea of having a Clean Slate for 2008, but I'm not sure I like it enough to do all the lace that I would need to do over the next month and a half.... I'll have to ponder that.

November 7

I gifted the cute stuff today, the hat didn't happen and wasn't happening. It might sometime in the near future, as it is cute in those colors, and I might as well use them.


So today I finally started working on the socks for my husband again. Remember them? (You have to go down a bit... his are the just started brown ones there). When I entered it into Ravelry originally I called them Dessert, as they are just the perfect colors for a chocolate layer something covered in fudge. ...maybe a bit of caramel mixed in too? :)

One of the socks has a heel done, the other one I am working on the gusset. I have to go from 60 stitches to 90 stitches before I start the heel. I have about 20 rows left, of course they get progressively larger. I'm hoping to get through the rest of the increases tonight, which would mean I'd need access to the book tomorrow... unless I do fold laundry instead of knitting during tomorrow's 'quiet time'. Either way, I'm hoping to be working on the cuff of both socks soon enough!

November 6

Yay! I finished... well, kindof.


I crocheted little buttons and loops and sewed them on. I then got to photograph all the stuff I've been making for this neighbor's baby.




Like this big bear wearing the now finished sweater.




...and the matching blanket. (Simple pattern, Cast On a multiple of 3, rib for two rows and then move it a stitch, rib for two more rows, etc)





...and of course, the bigger little baby sweater. I left this one without closures. I think I will gift it that way. The mother can either add on a zipper (she sews) or choose buttons.


Everything is bagged up and ready to gift. I might just add a little hat, as I have tons of yarn left. ...we'll see how well a hat knits up tonight during our current netflix, either way I'm gifting within the next day or two! :)

November 5

Progress was made today on the little sweaters. All the loose ends are now woven in (what a pain). I couldn't find any zippers or buttons that would work and so I am improvising... if it works then I will have at least one finished sweater to show you tomorrow. (if it doesn't work then they will have to wait for a trip to the store before being finished). I am looking forward to life after baby knitting... of course, both girls have insisted that I start something soon for *our* baby.


First, however, will be some more socks and lace. ...and sewing ...and spinning and knitting and felting perhaps. Tonight, however, I will be working on my improvisations during Heroes and Journeyman. ..and maybe some more charity learning. One of the blogs I read sent me over there today and it is a lot of fun!

November 4

That was the second (smaller) sweater as of this evening. When I took this picture I was working on both of the sleeves. Obviously I am not a simple person and doing one sleeve at a time and being done was not my goal tonight. No. Instead I picked up both sleeves, worked from both ends of the ball of yarn and finished both sleeves at the same time. It worked well except for the last 20 minutes or so when my fingers just itched. I knew I was almost done, and yet I knew it was going to take time to do the last 3 rows of stockinette, a decrease row, 7 rows of garter, and then bind off. So close to taste it, not close enough to cut yarn... so painful.


It is now sitting on my lap, done, except for the fact that I'm weaving in ends, and neither sweater has anything for closing. I've got to look at my buttons and zippers tomorrow, and hopefully have finished pictures to show you within the next day or two of all of these items.


I have now done 4 days of daily posts. I'm trying to sleep off the beginnings of another cold (so far I've managed to skirt around all colds in this house - a day or two of tissues and ickyness and then fine... I'm trying to figure out exactly what in my line of defense is making that possible so I can continue this trend). Look back over the past year at all yet? Contest to be seen within the week....

November 3

Today I managed to finish the body of the second (smaller) baby sweater. Hopefully I'll get to the sleeves tomorrow and can then show off another finished project - either way I'll try to remember to snap a pictures tomorrow afternoon.

Although I didn't realize it until this morning, yesterday was my one year blog anniversary. Looking back, it's been quite a year. So come on, take a look back - you know you want to! You can just scroll down and look at the archives on the side bar and click around. I'll wait right here for you. Come on, go! Back? Good. Have fun? Great. Now excuse me while I go blow my nose again and then go back to bed. Perhaps a contest later based on the past year of blogs. Probably. After I wake up and don't need my tissue box. Ummm.. sometime later this week - look for details then.

November 2

If I'm going to keep this post-a-day thing up through at least some of November, then I am going to cut myself some slack on the alphabet and creative title thing. I'll save those for when I'm feeling... ummm... creative?

Today was not one of those days.

This morning I took the girls (well, we had a ride) to the symphony. It was a lunch time performance, so it was selections rather than full pieces. The full performance will be tomorrow night - of this. I enjoyed it. The girls seemed to enjoy it, but have differing opinions when asked tonight. The selections were of three pieces (Smetana, The Moldau; Bernstein, Serenade (After Plato’s Symposium) and Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, Op. 68, in F Major, (Pastoral)). I really enjoyed all of them, and especially liked the way the conductor spoke of each and the way he walked us through each selection so we understood it.

My hand is feeling better, and is healing fine. I even knit a bit today. I have a large bear (made of lion brand homespun) and blanket for my neighbor who had a little girl. I was planning to do a small sweater that would fit on the baby now and the bear later, but the sweater I finished was a bit bigger than I thought it would be.



Since it didn't take too long and I have plenty of yarn left I decided to try again. The first one was done on US6, the second attempt is being done with US3. I am almost done with the body of the second sweater (about 9 rows left). If all goes well this one will be the size I wanted, and fit the baby now. Later it can go on the bear and when she's a bit older she can fit into the bigger sweater and have a matching bear.

I couldn't work on that much during the day today, but I was able to get a lot done during Spiderman 3 tonight. Wow. Not a great movie. Not as bad as I thought it would be from all I heard, just a lot of surface rather than depth (but hey, it's spiderman!)

N is for...

November!

I realized that if I wanted to challenge myself to write *more* during the month of November, I should kind of start on the first day. I'm not committed to any specific amount, I am going to aim for daily this month - we'll see. I would just like to break the almost week between posts habit again.



N is also for... Neosporine!

Lily has been going ice skating every Thursday for the last month. (today was actually her third time going). Today, however, was my first time having to go help supervise (one of the moms always goes and is on the ice, and the rest of us rotate helping and watching). I of course, 5 minutes after getting there, gouge myself with a pocket knife (cutting one of the plastic tags off of my daughter's new skates). Bleeding stopped relatively soon and bandaids are on. I am fine, but my hand is a bit sore. I tried knitting tonight, and I could knit without pain, but purling is out for another day or two. (I won't be attempting to do the wire knitting until next week, which is sad, as I was looking forward to playing with my new pretty wires).



N is also for... Newborn (sometime in March/April).

The pregnancy hasn't been awful (just don't ask the rest of the family), I'm just tired a lot.
We are happy and excited though. Thank you for all the good wishes.

M is for...

Mail!

My second package from my SP11 pal came in the mail today. There were things for the girls

The girls have already poured over the royalty pictures, and we played the game tonight (Curly came in first, then Lily, then husband, then me)


somethings for me...

The wire knitting book looks pretty cool, and the bright wire is awesome! She also included a package of cool sheepy tissues which I don't see in the picture.

somethings for hubby

He was so excited to have a little yarny goody. Amusingly enough, he is allergic to mint, so although he appreciates the thought, he handed them over to me (the yarn he kept though... hmmm...).


and some things for all of us:


The book contains both recipes and knitting patterns, and some pictures of the knitted gingerbread house made in England, on display summer of 2007. It was knitted by over 00 knitters across the world to raise funds for a couple of charities in England.


Very cool looking pictures in the book.
Thank you to my SP11 Pal - The package was great - it really brightened up the day (and the gingerbread men are for tomorrow's snack)!


M is also for Memories.

My report on Rhinebeck is old news now. If you want to know what we did, go here for my husband's take on the day. I really had a great day and weekend (I had a 5 hour nap on that Sunday). The trees were gorgeous on the drive to and from the fair grounds (2.5 hour drive each way). The girls had a blast doing the fun kid things, and there were tons of things for all of us to look at.

One of our favorites of the day was the act put on by Matt Jergens. During one of his shows he juggled a chain saw. He also juggled fire torches while on a 6 ft tall unicycle.


During a different show he balanced a basket of eggs on a long pole, balancing the end of the pole on his chin. I managed to catch this photo right before he umm... dropped the eggs.


We went through each of the vender areas (well, most of them) and then I went back for two things. One of the things I went back for was this gray superwash.

I bought them from Abi's Web and they are SOOO soft. I'm not quite sure what they will turn in to, but I got a couple so I would have options.


I also went back to Stony Mountain Fibers to pick up these.



I thought I had picked random colors that struck me that would maybe look well together (if I wanted to do some colorwork) I noticed while photographing them, that I picked up a rainbow.


(Red, Merino70/Tencel30; Hollyberry, Merino; Daffodil, Merino; Sage, Merino; Blue, Colonial Wool; Northern Lights, Colonial Wool; Dk Green, Colonial Wool)

My husband also picked up a set of stitch markers from them, and a Nostepinne.

My girls each chose something - Lily chose a little doll that looks like she's knitting and has a baby wrapped up on her back, and Curly chose three little finger puppets - a camel, a zebra, and a monkey.


M is also for Maternity, which is the type of clothes I am wearing now. Our third child, gender unknown, will be here sometime at the end of March. This is probably one of the reasons I knit less during the late summer/early fall this year. I've been too busy sleeping and eating and feeling awful.


...now back to knitting, hopefully something finished to show soon!

L is for...

a LONG TIME!

oh my goodness, so much time has gone by since I last blogged. I started a pair of socks for my husband out of yarn I spun. I have one heel done, and the second sock is starting the gusset increases. I'm working toe-up following one of cat bordhi's master patterns in her book.

I also completed a baby blanket and bear (sweater in planning) for my neighbor, who's little girl is now a week old.

...and since I won the contest, my husband drove the family to Rhinebeck! We spent at least 6 hours there on saturday, and while everyone was worn out and ready to go, no one was running for the car. Full report (along with pictures of purchases) soon. Lily has been sniffly for a couple days and I think it's hitting me now.

Oh, and I also got samples spun of wool, alpaca, and wool/alpaca. I knit up three small squares and now just need to felt them to see if it's the right guage, and if my sweet husband likes them for his slippers - and then i'm adding that project into my wips pile.

Yeah, pictures of all of this soon... I just didn't want to delay this post any more in case the sniffles hit me. I promise - not another week break between posts!

K is for...

Kompleted! :)




Yeah, I know it's a stretch, but I finished the yarn pirate socks! I've loved the yarn, loved it so much I cast on the day it arrived from my SP10, Chelle. It made an early appearance when the Yarn Harlot was in Northampton. It then got set aside through the summer - I wasn't knitting much, and when I was, it wasn't on these! I finished them Wednesday night and look forward to wearing them! ...plus, I believe I am winning the second part of the contest with my husband.


Of course, to win the contest I also had to plan our quilt. (the contest was clarified in the comments to the above entry).



There's the sketch of the quilt - and I measured our old one. It was 105 by 92.5 inches (the back of it is a king size flat sheet). Since we purchased 7 different materials (one middle square, three lights, three darks). The finished width for the strips should be just under 1.5" - so now we just need to figure out seam allowance and wash the fabrics before we can cut and start to sew.


K is also for Keen. As in, I'm keen to find out what I win. (when we were discussing what the winner would get, I said if I win I'd get some great yarn and fiber, he said I'd get those either way - I suggested socks, but he said I also get that either way...) So, what happens? I win the contest and start a pair of socks for him.




This is yarn that I finished back in June. I originally purchased the fiber from Leah at Yarn or a Tale. I did a pretty standard toe, but for the rest of the sock I am looking through Cat Bordhi's new book (New Pathways for Sock Knitters), which my husband finally let me touch last night.

...and finally, K is for Kids:



A couple weeks ago, my daughter Lily made a knotted necklace as part of her homeschool enrichment group. They were taught (by me) some simple knots and then they each made their own unique necklaces. She finished it very quickly and was quite impressed with herself. She told me I could put the picture on my blog, or on Ravelry (sheesh, she refered it by name, talk about crafts much?). She also wants to make more soon.


On another note, I am still looking for one specific spinning tool. It's a card that has different thicknesses of black lines, each of them labeled with the correct wpi number, so you could hold up a strand of yarn and get an idea by comparing the yarn with the lines... I know that probably doesn't make much sense, but I think it'd be useful and I have seen them, somewhere. Anyone know where (online) I can get one?

J is for...

Joy!


I actually turned the heel today (I keep typing hell and then having to fix it). I just have about 30-40 more rows and I'll be done with the second short sock and win the second part of the competition with my husband.


J is also for random Junk!

I talked to Hannah (who won the contest back when I was at the letter C), and started up a couple washclothes. I pulled out some random cotton and made up a pattern. I really like how it worked out.



The diagonal rib mixing with the way the colors moved - very cool.




I also grabbed a skein of Blue Sky Cotton and made a couple of others...





These will be mailed off... soon?

Hopefully it won't be another week before I post again!

I is for...

I won!



That's a finished project from knitting lingerie style. It's made with Valley Yarns Pelham, very pink, which is a soft bumpy cotton. It's a very comfy outfit and I'm so glad it's done.

I finished that Thursday. Unfortunately my husband spent the weekend recovering from a cold, so I felt a little bad winning the first part of the competition. ...but not bad enough to stop trying to win the second part.

Saturday we both bound off a short sock, his (almost done) can be found here, here's mine.



I knew I would have a couple hours of sitting Saturday night, so I cast on the second sock right away and got through the increases in the toes as quickly as I could, so Saturday night, while I was listening, I got to knit.




I is also for I-cord!

Today I'm trying to finish up the last I-cord rug for JoySchool. Last week I taught one day and used the rugs (borrowing a couple from my girls) and it helped me. I'm not sure how well they will work at the other house it is held at, but I enjoyed using them, and I think the kids did too.

H is for...

Hope!

Knitting Content: Yes, the contest could be considered unfair - except for the fact that my husband does have larger than normal feet, and not as much knitting time as I do. He just finished the first heel (toe-up) and I'm almost done with the pattern from knitting in lingerie style. That would also count as a win (The yarn pirate socks are still moving along, just trying to finish one of them before he finishes, although depending on tall or short he makes the socks we might have to consider it a tie instead of a win). I'll have to do current pictures on all projects within the next post or two.


H is also for Homeschool.

Lily is loving school most days. Mondays we spend catching up on reading and math and have piano lessons. Tuesdays she does history while Curly has joyschool. Wednesdays we have book club (which rotates between a kid picked book with fun activity and a Beatrix Potter story with grammar and writing). Thursday she has an enrichment group (same kids as the history group) where she does science, art, music, math games, crafts, etc on a rotating basis. Friday we do some more math and writing and clean up from the week. So far this schedule has been working.


H is also for Holidays.

A couple weeks away (the first weekend in October) is the beginning of my holidays. That's the weekend that I send out the Christmas assignments in my family (we each send gifts to one family rather than to everyone). I also start the girls Halloween costumes, which bleeds right into Thansgiving, Christmas, New Years.... So I'm going to try to enjoy the next couple of weeks before that cycle starts.

Package arrived!

So yesterday, as I was trying to recover from a massive headache I saw that there was a package in my door...



A package from SP11!

I opened it right away and got these for me:


...and these for the girls:


I love my swap pal! I delayed eating the chocolate until I thanked her (I figured that was only fair), but it is going to be eaten as soon as this gets posted. I'm already trying to figure out what I want to do with the wool (what weight to spin it... what project to knit it into...) that yarn there is her handspun - which is awesome, and definitely enough to do something with. The girls broke right into the cookies and are trying to talk me into a stamping afternoon (they have some other stamps and are very excited about adding the new ones and making some 'projects'). Thank you so much!


...and just as a side note, I was looking at my stats the other day, and if the person from Tennessee who clicked over here from a google search of 'super pig cape picture' - I would love to know what it was you were looking for, and if you enjoyed the adventures of our super pig.

G is for...

Gifts!

Hannah of Arkansas (Missouri?) won the contest for my first finished object. I will be emailing her and mailing something off soon. In the meantime I am working to try to finish some of my other projects, because...



G is also for Goals:
I'm working on the yarn pirate sock again. I still love this yarn and this colorway. Now that I'm working on it consistently it is moving along a bit. I like a fair amount of ribbing, so I will be starting that soon, and then it will move quickly and I'll be done with the first sock!



Spinning was accomplished last week. I have yet to measure it, but it is now dry and looks very nice.



I realized I never photographed my bracelet. If you remember, my first attempt was huge and silly, so it turned into a small bowl. This second attempt, done earlier this summer, is almost perfect. Another attempt once I finish some more things.



I also thought I should show the socks my husband made for Lily. She danced around in this and kept telling people that the top has a ruffle. This weekend we left the house and everyone was wearing tofutsies. (My husband's socks made by me, everyone else's made by him). We all had happy feet.



So, as I said, goals. My husband offered me a challenge. He is currently working on a sock (one from Cat's new book, out of Valley Yarns, Franklin) for him. He has challenged me to finish both of my yarn pirate socks before he finishes one of his socks. ...and to finish all *current* projects before he finishes his pair. I think it'll be a stretch, but it is possible for either of us to win. (The lace scarf is not considered current, and MS3 - while it's considered current in general, I don't know if it is part of this challenge).

My current projects are:

the yarn pirate sock
the project from knitting lingerie style
some more I cord rugs
MS3
my lace scarf

I think that's it. If I forgot something, let me know!