YIKES!

Okay, today marks the first day of a whole new set of worries. My beautiful daughter Lauren turns 16 today. Happy Birthday Lauren! I am going with her this afternoon to get her drivers license. Now I will worry about her being out on the road driving (without me to give her any directions). She passed her driving test Sat - boy was I nervous. The parent is required to ride along without giving the kid any advice. That is so hard when you know she is doing something wrong and you can't tell her. Thankfully I could take my knitting along to relieve the stress.



This is a picture of her. Isn't she cute? Sorry, proud mommy moment.

I made a little progress on my 2nd Whitby. I am now on the heel flap. Not sure if I'll have time to finish it today or not.

The Six Sox KAL, and the KOTR KAL are both posting a new pattern tomorrow. Then there's the knitting olympics that I should join. Wow, I will never have enough time to do all of these projects, much less finish up the ones I already have started.

One Down

Last night I finished by first Whitby. Oh, it fits beautifully! I love this sock. I don't really want to take it off. I think people would laugh at me if I just wore one though, don't ya think? Here it is:






Didn't it turn out cute?

Now for the bad news. I started a sock in some Trekking yarn, and I think this yarn is defective. There are blotches of dye where there shouldn't be any. I am emailing the shop I bought it from to see if there is anything I can do about it.



See those yucky splotches in the wider light stripes. Trust me, it looks really nasty in person. I do not think it should look like that. Well, I'll wait and see what happens. I really hate paying for sock yarn that knits up ugly!

I really need to knit on my cardi today. I've been neglecting it. I want to make a shawl/stole, I will probably end up knitting some socks for the Knitting Olympics, and I will need to make that baby gift if the baby ever shows up. I guess I better get busy!

All Pink and Twisty

Okay, I told you last week that I was probably forgetting some unfinished objects. I was right! Found this pair of socks in the knitting bag yesterday. All they needed was toe grafting and weaving in the ends. So I decided to quick finish them up. They are the Best Foot Forward socks from the Knit Socks book. I did them in Wildfoote sock yarn in a light pink color. They're definitely pink and twisty. They're just a twisted rib pattern that's easy to memorize.



Here's a little closeup of the pattern.



I need to wash them yet to soften them up. Thanks to a tip from Trek, I made some sock blockers out of wire hangers. My first ones didn't turn out exactly the shape I want, so I'll probably make another pair later. If you want to make some, you can find the tutorial here. Thanks for the tip Trek.

I'm about halfway down the foot of my first Whitby. I really want to get these done this weekend, but my hands are hurting a little bit. I noticed this pattern, with all the switching from knit to purl stitches and the cables, are a little hard on my hands. Maybe I'll have to take a break from them for a while.

Obviously NOT a Knitter

A friend and I were comparing our handknitted socks this morning at church. Another girl chimes in "Why would you ever want to knit socks when you can buy them so cheap?". Um...she is obviously not a knitter! I was patient and didn't say much....no really, I didn't. (even though I really wanted to roll my eyes and say "DUH!").

I got a few more rows done on my Cavern Cardi - only a couple of inches. I about halfway on the heel flap of my Whitbys. They are a really fun knit! I want to get them done so I can knit the Feb sock in the Knitting on the Road KAL.

Hopefully I will be meeting my friend for knitting later this afternoon. Maybe I'll have some good progress pictures tomorrow.

I'll give you a picture of my little dog Brodie just for fun. (ShihTzu/Maltese mix)



Awww......isn't he cute?

Progress

Well, I have a little progress to show ya. First, slippers for Lauren, just need to weave in those ends and felt them. By the way, she picked the colors. Not too girly are they.....



Second, my mom's scarf is finished except for the ends and blocking. I can't find my pins for blocking this thing - I really need to get a set of blocking wires. Any great sources out there that you could point me to?





Last, I made a little more progress on the Whitbys. They are so cute! They better fit this time or I give up on that pattern. (Did I mention that I frogged them before in a different yarn too?) This is the third time, and the last.



Hopefull I can turn the heel and start the foot tonight. I need to get some things finished so I can start some new projects. So many patterns....so much yarn........so little time.....

A little list

I thought I would make a little list of things that might suffer because you're obsessed with knitting and/or blogging. Here's mine:

• Housework - ah, what's a little dust
• Cooking - we don't have to have something special every night
• Reading - I don't have any good books right now anyway (except those knitting books - do they count?)
• Shopping - I don't even care if I go to the mall anymore - unless they have yarn there now
• Phone calls - I hated making those before blogging, but now I'd rather surf other blogs and update my own
• Errands - Is there a time limit on returns? I hope not at every store. Thankfully I have no returns to do at Target.
• Getting groceries - I'm not cooking fancy anymore, so who cares.....no one is starving here

I hate to say it, (head hanging in shame) but I could probably come up with a couple more if I really thought about it. I think I will stop here so I can get some work done (no really, I will).

Feel free to make your own list or steal mine and put it on your own blog.

Can't figure it out

I cannot figure out how to add stuff to my sidebar. It is so frustrating to be blog challenged. I want to add works in progress there (hopefully with those little icons that show the percentage of how far you are). Help.....anyone.........have mercy.....please.

Not much knitting progress today. Family members have some sort of disgusting stomach ailment. Not pretty......no, 4 extra loads of laundry from sick people is not funny.

Stash Enabler for a husband

Oh yeah! I have the best hubby. He likes it when I buy yarn. He even took me on a yarn crawl a while back. We wanted to go away for a couple of days and didn't know where to go. I jokingly mentioned yarn shopping and he went for it. So, we drove to Ohio and went to a yarn shop there that was having a big sale. I got a ton of yarn for 1/2 off. Mostly LL Sport, including the cream for my Whitbys. Here's just a little of what I got.



He is such a great guy! Not that I should be encouraged to buy more yarn. However, my stash has definitely not exceeded life expectancy yet, so I could add a little more, right? Right! One of my local yarn stores is having a 25% off sale tomorrow. I think I have to go. (Don't worry though, this one doesn't have the greatest selection. I won't go out of control or anything.)

On the needles

I am keeping a running list of my projects. I'm trying not to start any more until I finish up some of these.

Whitby socks
Cavern Cardi
Fishtail Lace Scarf (for my mom)
Trekking socks (not happy with this yarn)
Branching Out scarf
Cascading Leaves socks (just started)

I'm almost done with the scarves and socks usually go fast, so I think I have a handle on things. I'm probably forgetting some projects though.

I Wish

I were an Oscar Meyer weiner....no just kidding. I wish it could be summer. I LOVE summer. I live in Michigan and it is cold here in the winter. Actually, this winter isn't as cold as usual, but I still don't like it very well. I love the beach and camping and sunshine and warm breezes....so why do I live in Michigan? I don't know. I like it here most of the time, just not Jan, Feb, and March. Too bad I'm not a winter sports kind of person. So now I can just look back with longing at the pics of my yard from last summer. I love our yard. My wonderful hubby is a flower nut and our yard is usually really pretty in the
summer.

This is the deck.

Summer can't get back here soon enough..................sigh.

Rotten Socks

Yeah, you probably guessed it. I ripped out the Whitbys. I had the leg done and there was no way they were going over my heel. The good news is, I modified the pattern by adding an extra 8 stitches and I think they will be fine now. I only have a couple of inches done so far, but they look much better.




I'll probably never get these done in time for the new Feb sock in the Knitting on the Road KAL, but I love them anyway.

Sorry for the rant yesterday. I really am a nice person....really.

My Other Self

Warning...rant ahead.

So.....I have been accused of having a little Jekyll/Hyde thing going on when it comes to driving. I am usually an easy-going person, but when I get behind the wheel apparently my personality tends to change. I do not have road rage, hurt people, or drive badly.....I just get really annoyed with other drivers. For example....brought Lauren to work today....5 miles from home. During that measly 5 miles I encountered 3 stupid drivers. One lady was continually speeding up and then putting on her brakes for like a mile. Another elderly gentleman in a truck was going at least 10 under the speed limit and weaving while digging for something on the seat next to him. Yet another male driver had his brake lights on (I had no idea why because he didn't use his turn signal) and proceeded to come to almost a complete stop before turning in front of me. These are just a few examples of the kind of drivers that make me want to pull my hair out. I have also been accused of being overly critical of the driving habits of other people. I just think that if you don't know how to drive properly - STAY OFF THE ROAD!!! I'm just sayin'.

Ok.....now that I have that off my chest, isn't knitting great? It is so relaxing after a bad day on the road. Especially socks. I have cast on for the Whitby socks from Knitting on the Road. They look really cute so far. I started them in LL Sport in cream. That yarn is really soft - I hope it wears okay. I'm a little nervous though, they look kinda small. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Pretty Purse

I LOVE FELTING!

I made this cute little purse for Lauren (almost 16yr old daughter). I made it out of Fisherman's Wool and some brown scraps of Cascade 220. I think it turned out pretty cute.




I LOOSELY based it on another purse pattern and just added the little flower.

Well I'm off to read all my email. I belong to way too many groups!

Woo Hoo!

My daughter is mocking the crap out of me because I am so excited about this blogging thing. There is just something so exciting about seeing stuff about yourself right on your very own blog. I know, where have I been? I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, but this is still fun and new to me. I have been a blog reader for quite a while, but was intimidated by figuring out all the technical stuff. Therefore, my blog probably looks a little lame to all you pros out there.

Anyhoo, here's some slippers I made for Parker (my almost 7 yr old son). He just loves them. He wears them all the time when he is home. This is prefelted:



He's actually been wearing them for a while. I'll try to get a pic of him with them on.

Work in progress

Here's the sweater I'm making.



It's the Cavern Cardi from Cosmicpluto knits. I'm making it in Sirdar Country Style DK in a dark red color. It's turning out pretty good. I hope it grows with blocking, but I did try it on and it seems fine.

SUCCESS

Oh yeah, it looks much better. All organized and labeled and not driving me crazy anymore. I was hoping to find a couple of missing items (like my shortest cable to my Denise set), but no such luck there. I will have to settle for having a super-organized stash closet and dresser.

I also finished a pair of socks - wanna see?
Here ya go!




Oooh they are my favorite pair yet. STR in the Jasper colorway. Got it from Toni at The Fold. This is simply the best sock yarn I've ever used. Yes, even better than Koigu, LL and CTH. The colors, twist and feel are absolutely amazing. (and yupp, they're super comfy too!) I just did a K3P1 rib all the way to the toe. I love em!

A New Year - A New Blog

Hi everyone. Another new blog. I'll do the best I can. I will warn you, however, that I have been called technically challenged. I would much rather knit, read about knitting, shop for yarn, or look at other knitting blogs, than learn the techie stuff. Hopefully I'll find some online friends that will help me with the details.

I will start by showing you some pics of my out of control mess of a stash.




Yeah, what a mess. ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! I will, I promise.
Next time I'll show you some works in progress.