Ups and Downs

Just when you think things are looking up, a big wrench gets thrown at you and hits you square in the side of the head. Like WHACK!

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I was all excited. I finally finished those doggone Regia socks. You know the ones....those evil grey ones that have been haunting me for a while. Well finally they are finished! Yay!

Thankfully they fit me better than the crappy sock blockers that I have. If nothing else, these will be worn a lot. I am just so happy that they are done.

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Now for the crash and burn part. This morning I woke up to a message telling me that there were errors in the written part of my Sweet Alyssum pattern. What a downer. I thought we caught them in the test knitting stage. Well.......um, WOW, we definitely didn't! So, if you have copied the pattern, you may want to go back to Crystal Palace as soon as the corrections are posted and copy the modified version. Both sections 1 and 2 have errors, but the charts are fine. Talk about embarassing! I feel so bad. A nice gal named Amy brought them to my attention and I spent most of the morning going through the pattern with a fine-toothed comb. My sincerest apologies to anyone that struggled with it.

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I am working on another design too. It is looking beautiful so far. Wanna sneak peek?

This is being triple checked right now lol!

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We had ANOTHER snow day today. The kids were home again and we stayed put as much as possible. There were tons of accidents and the visibility was horrible. The kids were thrilled and so was Brodie.

He loves having everyone home. Here he is giving The Sporty One a big kiss. Awww. Look at that little tongue.

Stay safe everyone!

Old and New

Well the weather is getting old. We had no church Sunday evening and another snow day yesterday. This is one nasty winter. So instead of school, we baked cookies.

Valentine cookies. They were fun and they are almost gone. We like us some cookies!

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On to the new. New FO's!

I managed to finish up a couple of projects.

The Thumbelina socks for Cath are finished and my girls do NOT want me to mail them. They were both hoping these were here to stay. I think eventually I will have to make myself a pair with this pattern. I have already knit 3 pairs and I am still not sick of the pattern. If anyone is interested, I may write it up for free on the blog.

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I also embellished the Felted Clogs for my friend. I am giving them to her tomorrow. Yay!

These were my first try at needlefelting onto a felted item. Not too bad eh? I think they turned out pretty well and I am happy with them.

I used my handy dandy new Clover needle felting tool. Very easy to use. I think I will get a lot of use out of this one.

TGIF

Don't you just love Fridays? I do. I get excited for the weekend, even if we don't have any big plans. The girls won't be home for dinner tonight (they both have to work, bummer), but we get to sleep in tomorrow, and usually I get lots of knitting time on the weekend.

I am winding down on a few projects here that I really want to work on. I want some FO's!!!

The blue sweater has one sleeve in, so now I just need to put in the other one, do the collar, and the buttonbands. I know this will take me a bit yet, just because this is my least favorite part of knitting a sweater. I am anxious to wear it though, so I will try to stick with it.

I did make these clogs for my friend who I clean with. I might try to embellish these a little with some needle felting. I will try to get a pic when I'm done.

The Thumbelina socks for Cath are zipping right along too. I am to the heel flap on the 2nd sock, so I know I will finish these this weekend. I still love this pattern and this yarn. These are a joy to work on.

We are supposed to get more yucky weather this weekend and early next week. Enough already!

This is what it looked like out my kitchen window before our snowday yesterday. Makes you just wish you lived in Michigan right? Hee.

Wonderful Wacky Wednesday

Despite the fact that it's been over a week since I posted again (whoops), today is a good day. My girls are home, which makes them very happy. Their school was closed due to illness. I guess yesterday, there were 12 teachers sick and over 100 students. Wow. Everyone stay home and get better, (and quit breathing your icky germs on each other) k?
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We are in another nasty weather pattern. Warm yesterday with rain, which transformed during the night to FREEZING temps, nasty winds, and blowing and drifting snow. The roads are a mess and there are tons of schools closed for weather too. NOT my favorite kind of weather, but I didn't have to go to work right? Bonus! (I would show you a picture, but it looks mostly the same as last time, but with blowing snow.)
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On to the goodies! Handspun! The real thing. Woot!

My own yarn. I did all the spinning myself. Can ya tell I am a little proud? This is before washing.

And here, on my spiffy new niddy noddy. (My kids think that word is so funny.)

Do these look okay? (Be kind.) If you think they're really horrible, don't tell me.

The first skein is 156 grams/about 410 yds. The smaller one is 74 grams/220 yds. I have no clue what I will make with them, but I am just geeked that I can make something with actual YARN that I made myself.

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I have been working on another pair of Thumbelina socks. These are for Cath, in her Monterey yarn. This stuff knits up beautifully. Fast too! Sometimes it's so fun to knit a fast pair. This sock only took two days, and a lot of that time I had major distractions. Parker was home sick, doing some spinning, charting a new pattern.....yeah, I've been a little busy.

Forgive me for trying them on Cath. They look so much better on a foot. I really didn't want to take it off. They're so soft! (How fast can you dye me some Vino in this yarn hehe?)

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I think these will be very comfortable. I hope she enjoys wearing them as much as I am enjoying knitting them for her. I am almost finished writing the pattern for these. It seems like I have been working on it forever. Oh well, that's how some of them go.

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Brodie has been enjoying having us home so much. With the kids sick and the weather forcing us to stay home more, he loves all the attention.....and nap time.

Yesterday he chose the vacuum hose. Dork.

Winter Wonderland?

I'm not sure how wonderful THIS is. Wow, are we getting dumped on! Since the beginning of the weekend, I think we have had about 16 inches of snow here.

The kids were thrilled. School was cancelled. Bonus! I decided to use the day to catch up on some laundry, email and work on a sock. (Not the grey ones, ugh, I am still not done with those.)

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I also finished another little project today. A neckwarmer to match my fingerless mitts.

I took my What-knot scarf pattern and made a shorter version, crocheted on an edging and used a one-of-a-kind handmade button to finish it off. I think it will be perfect!

I will not ever confess how much I spent on the button, but it was so perfect with the yarn that I couldn't pass it up. Plus I am supporting an artisan who works hard to make something very special, which is good for both of us, right?

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Brodie says "take it easy everyone".

Who needs Martha?

Not me. I have my very own "good things".

First up the Regia socks. I am really not enjoying knitting these at all, but the good thing is that I am to the heel flap on the second sock. At least I can see the end in sight right?

The dark yarn is NOT FUN people, but I really want a pair of dark socks to wear with black, so I will press on. Even if it kills me. Ugh.

Good thing #2:

I have been playing with lace again. Ahhh...I could knit lace forever.

It's a scarf pattern I have been working on, and this is my swatch. More info later on this. It's being test knitted now. Yay!

My next good thing is more designing. I have been playing with some sock ideas and finally I think I might have one that could work. I did some swatching and ripping yesterday, but I hope the ripping part is over (at least for this design).

As you can see, I'm not very far yet though. Keep your fingers crossed for me, k?

And finally........I saved the best for last. I have been spinning again! I missed it a lot. I finally hauled out the wheel and got a little bit done. I even attended a new spinning meeting this week and it was exactly what I needed to get inspired to spin again.

I have another bobbin started too, but I think I may have been overspinning a little on the second one. I think I like to treadle fast, so I will have to make some adjustments to prevent it. I am still learning all this stuff about tension, ratios etc. I truly am clueless. I hope the ladies at the spinning group can help me learn, and I think I might call Beth and schedule a lesson or two when I can work out a time to get to her shop.

So there Martha! Ha!

Sneak over

The contest is over. The winners have been chosen. The secrets of the sneak can now be revealed.

I love contests and I love comments. I especially like regular comments. Hence the sneak factor. I chose the first winner from PREVIOUS commenters. I snuck back to the post BEFORE the contest post, went to the random number generator, and chose a winner from there. It picked #1 for me.

The first winner is KNITERELLA! Congrats! Thanks for commenting and I will try to get a prize out to you soon. Please email me (link in the sidebar), or contact me on ravelry with your mailing information.

Now for the rest of you.......I didn't want to be completely evil and leave you out. I can be a lurker (I hate that word lol - sounds so creepy) on some blogs too. I comment very regularly on quite a few, but some I am guilty of lurking on. I really enjoyed seeing who is out there reading, even if you don't comment every time. So....even though I did not get to my hope of 40 commenters, I am going to give a 2nd prize anyway. Without telling her why, I asked my friend Cath to pick a number from 1-33. She chose 23. Well, CHRIS was commenter #23. So she is the 2nd winner. Same for you Chris, send me your info and I will get something to you soon.

Thanks for playing along everyone! I hope to see more of you regularly! (bwahahahaha!)

Sneaky contest

Did that get your attention? Did your ears perk up? Are you ready for free fibery stuff?

Ok, earlier I mentioned a contest. I have finally decided on how I want to do it. I will warn you....it is sneaky. It won't be run in a traditional way, but in a sneaky way. I am also keeping the prize a secret. I love surprises so that's why I am doing it this way. All will be revealed when the contest closes on Sunday night. I will announce the winner then, or on Monday morning. (I'm covering myself here, in case my brain refuses to remember this on Sunday.)

I am hoping this brings some of you lurkers out of the closet. I know a lot more people read this blog than I hear from in the comments. I am hoping that I get to hear from a few more of them! As part of the sneakiness (is that a word?), I have a number in my head. If I reach this number of comments, I will increase the prizes. So leave a comment and good luck!

First FO of 2008

Well, it's only the first week in January and I have already finished something! YAY!

Yesterday I quickly whipped out a pair of fingerless mitts for myself. I have had this yarn in the stash for a while (leftovers from my What-knot scarf), and it was much too pretty to waste. Alex claimed my Fetchings for herself, leaving me without. Plus I used stash yarn. 2 goals met!

Speaking of goals, I have been making lists for myself again this year. This is my way of staying on track. I do so much better with a list to work from. I tell ya, my memory sucks! I mean REALLY sucks. If I don't write it down, I WILL forget. Just ask my kids.

The weather is crazy here. Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees! 60!!! It's January. In MICHIGAN! Weird.

This is the view out my window this morning. Just makes ya want to knit all day on that sock doesn't it?

Brodie thinks it's a good day for napping.

What a life. If dogs could knit, I think I might like to be a dog for a day.

Guilt vs Happiness

This week I have been thinking a lot about guilt. Guilt can hold us back, or it can really challenge us to move forward. Some guilt is trivial, some runs deep.

I experienced a little humorous trivial guilt this Christmas. I made socks for my mom, sis and niece and they were very well received. But.....my dad made it very clear that it wasn't fair that he hadn't been given any wool socks or slippers. I had no idea he even wanted a pair and I felt a little guilty. This was cause for action.

I immediately cast on for some felted slippers for him. Guilt no more!

Amy and I were discussing the guilt of stash. We are both feeling guilty over the size of our stashes. Mine is truly bad. I know there are many others out there who have tons more yarn than I do, but I know this is too much for ME to have. I am going to try very hard in the new year to buy very little yarn and work from the stash whenever possible. Dad's slippers were from stash yarn and I will be using more stashed wool very soon.

I will be making slippers for myself. I received these for Christmas last year and I have literally loved them to death. The holes are getting so big that I really have no choice but to make myself new slippers quickly. Michigan winters do not go well with holey slippers.

There are other things that make me feel guilty too, but I have been told by a very good friend that I shouldn't be so hard on myself. In 2008 I am going to stop putting so much pressure on myself, comparing myself to others and just be me. I am going to concentrate on the things and people that make me happy. I am not superwoman, nor do I want to be. I will never be the best designer, blogger (I'm not even going to apologize for not posting in 2 weeks), friend etc. in the world. I am just going to be myself.

I will leave you with a silly picture of Brodie. (I know he's not a cat, but some bloggers actually have cute dogs lol.) It looks like he is just staring aimlessly at the cupboard....

but actually, he is sitting directly in front of the heat vent and letting the hot air blow on him. What a silly dog.

Next time I will have to tell you about our crazy trip.

A little bit of everything

First.........remember this?

Well, now you can make one too! The pattern is available now and it's FREE!
You can get it here. I hope you enjoy it.

Second.........my Christmas knitting will be done in time. I only have a week, but I will make it. I will have lost of knitting time this week. Why you say?

Three........I am going on a cruise! I'm leaving in the morning for a week. The hubby and I are taking a little "us time". I just pray the plane can get out. We are supposed to get dumped on with a ton of snow tonight. Well, I had hoped for a bigger update, but I just plain ran out of time. I will definitely have things to show off when I get back though.

I hope you all have a great week!

A Christmas Meme (apologies to those that hate them)

• 1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate!
• 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I wrap all the gifts and put them under the tree as I am done with them.
• 3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Always all white.
• 4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope never have. I don't want people randomly kissing me, thanks.
• 5. When do you put up your decorations? As soon as possible after Thanksgiving. This year it's mostly just the tree. I am not going all out.
• 6. What is your favorite holiday dish? There is no way I can pick just one. My favorite things are the appetizers and sweets that nobody bothers with during the year.
• 7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Probably when I got my Ballerina Barbie. (dorky, I know)
• 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? It was so long ago, I can't remember.
• 9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, we usually have a party that night.
• 10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? With tons of ornaments, mostly white, gold, red, and rust.
• 11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love it at Christmas time and for a couple weeks after that.Then it can leave!
• 12. Can you ice skate? Yes, and I can even go backwards, really!
• 13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Not really, I don't actually get many.
• 14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering the birth of Jesus and spending time with my family.
• 15. What's is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Again, I'm not sure I can choose just 1.
• 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking tons of goodies and bringing them to all th parties I attend. Sadly, I won't get to do much of it this year.
• 17. What tops your tree? A gold star this year.
• 18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Definitely giving. I could really care less if I get anything. I like watching everyone else open their gifts.
• 19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night
• 20. Candy Canes?No, but I like the white chocolate bark with peppermint.
• 21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? Definitely.
• 22. Real tree or artificial?I like both. We have a fake tree for ease and for allergies.
• 23. Do you put lights up on the outside of your house? My wonderful hubby does, and he does a great job. No sloppy cheesey lights here.
• 24. Do you do a Christmas Dinner or Supper and who cooks? Not really. Many years we are somewhere else on Christmas, but if we do, I cook.
• 25. Is your family the everyone unwraps gifts at once sort or do you do it one gift at a time as the others watch? One at a time. I hate it when I miss something.
• 26. Do your pets share in the festivities? Not really, we have never really given Brodie many gifts. He is in the room with us though.

I shamelessly took this idea from another blog. I love reading about Christmas traditions, so if you feel like it, fill out your own.

Weekender Wrap

I am excited. My Weekender Wrap pattern is up at Crystal Palace. There are lots of other great patterns there too.

It is a free pattern! Yay!

I used the Panda Wool yarn (color hydrangea), which knits and blocks beautifully. This was the stole that I knit twice and I still love it. I can't say that about many patterns. I hope you enjoy it!

Pattern is here and you can link to it here on Ravelry.

I finished a pair of slippers for my daughter's boyfriend.

Obviously they have not been felted yet. They are HUGE!

Well I am off to do some Christmas shopping today. Wish me luck.

A great weekend

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. I know I did. I will admit to going out with the crazies early Friday morning trying to get the bargains. I didn't get everything I wanted, but I still did ok. I managed to pick up a few Christmas presents, had a great time with my sister and snagged myself a new toy.

Finally, I am the proud owner of a new laptop. I can now take my computer to my favorite knitting spot and multi-task more comfortably than ever. I am still getting used to it, but so far I just love it. Mom's sock has been keeping me company, and as you can see, I am almost done. I just need to kitchener the toe, and woo hoo, a gift is finished.

I have already started another gift too. Another pair of socks, and these will be for my sis.

I'm using a new yarn for me, Araucania Ranco. I picked a semi-solid in shades of gray for her (she usually doesn't like loud socks). I hope I like working with it. It has split a few times already, which really tends to bug me, but the color might win me over.

I almost used this.....

Almost.....you see, I won this skein from Sharon's blog. I love the colors (Sharon dyed it), so I wasn't sure I could give it up. She sent it all the way from South Africa. My kids were so impressed. They think it is so cool that I know people all over the world. I am always talking about Arkansas, Texas or Hawaii because I have knitting friends in all those places. I've said it before, but I just love how knitting brings people together.

Since I've been gone....

Wow it's been two weeks since I posted! Yikes, sorry! In case you're interested (you 3 people who still read this), here's a little update since I posted last.

• I attended at least 4 looooong musical practices and tweaked costumes.
• I attended dress rehearsal and 3 performances, all of which were at least 3 hours.
• I knitted half of mom's second sock.
• I knitted a few rows on the prayer shawl.
• I charted a new lace pattern for a stole for a friend.
• I worked on the triangle shawl pattern a bit.
• I bought a little bit of yarn and resisted some more.
• I got sicker than a dog and looked horrible enough for people to comment on it.
• I layed on the couch for two days doing nothing because I felt as rotten as I apparently looked. (I HATE being sick!)
• I made my bed for the first time in about 4 days. (If you knew me well, you would know that I RARELY-as in almost NEVER- leave my bed unmade. That is how crazy busy and sick I was.)
• I bought my first and only Christmas present this weekend. (Could I have an extension please?)
• I now have to wash and sort some musical costume stuff so I still don't have time to take pics and write a better post.

I am so thankful I don't have to cook the turkey this week! I don't have the energy. I will try very hard to take some pics in the next couple of days so my blog doesn't look so boring. Sigh.

Oh, just to add a little excitement.......there might be a contest coming up..........stay tuned.

It's all about the progress

I have a confession to make. Last week I was feeling very overwhelmed. I wasn't getting as much done as I wanted, I had a rotten cold and I was struggling a bit with feeling depressed. Not really depressed, just blah. (It didn't help that none of you have been commenting lately either...sniff. Haha, just kidding. I know how busy ya all get!)

I knew that the next two weeks would be crazy with the musical and costumes, Christmas was less than 2 months away, and things were not going as well as I expected. So I didn't knit on much of anything. A few rows here and there, and that was it.

Then I managed to work a BUNCH on my shawl pattern. I am finally close to finishing it. YAY! That helped me to feel better. That pattern was hanging over my head and I had no desire to work on it. I'm so glad I finally buckled down and did it. I feel so much better now that I have made a lot of progress.

I also got a fair amount done on the prayer shawl for my friend. My hands paid for it, ouch, but I have over a foot of knitting done.

Remember these socks?

Well, I hate them. Plain and simple. My girls think they are really cute, but I don't like them at all. I was going to knit my niece socks for Christmas, and she would really love these. They are totally her colors. However, she is only 8. These would be way too long. So, I made an executive decision to rip the toe off and shorten the foot to her size. That way I am 1/2 done with a gift, I won't have to feel bad that these just aren't me and everyone is happy! :)

Sock #1 is finished for mom too. I was beginning to think I might have to give her the Sedona Socks after all. (Many thanks by the way to those of you who have purchased the pattern already! I really appreciate it!)

I really like these! I will definitely make this pattern again. Maybe even for my sister for Christmas. I am pretty sure I have yarn in the stash for them and still plenty of time to make them.

So.....I am just excited that I have made some progress, and I don't even care that nothing is finished. I'm getting there, and that's what counts.

Feeling thankful

Today I am feeling very thankful for my knitting. My friend Sal and I were having lunch today and I was showing her my new sock.
This one!
A total stranger (not a scary one at all children) walks up and starts asking questions about the Magic Loop method. She had been using 2 circulars and was really curious about using just one. I showed her how it was done and she is going to try it. She probably would never have said a word to me if I hadn't had that sock going.

Well, this lady kept talking to us off and on and asked if we knew each other before knitting. Well actually Sal and I met because our daughters sang in the same choir. However, KNITTING was what got us together. One night at a concert I was knitting a sock before the singing actually started. Well Sal walked right up to me and started talking socks and yarn and needles. We have been great friends ever since. I don't know what I would do without her.

Knitting equals friends to me. There are many great people in my life that I never would have met if it wasn't for KNITTING! Some of my best friends I have never actually met. It doesn't matter.....we love each other.....we love knitting.....we click. Non knitters do not understand this pneomenon. Belive me, I know. I told someone this a week or two ago and she looked at me like I had a knitting needle sticking right out of my head. Oh well, I don't care if they get it or not. I know they are true friends and they know how much they mean to me.

Sedona Socks

The pattern is ready! Yay!

3 page pattern including chart. Available for download now.

$5.50

I am not dead

Sorry if it seemed that I would never post again. I was determined not to post until I had finished the second Sedona sock, well, little did I know it would take me this long to finish the doggone thing.

Finally!

I love them and I am not sure I can give them away! I may have to make another pair for my mom for Christmas because these really need to stay with me I think.

One more?

I have already cast on for another pair that I charted out earlier this week. Hopefully they will look good too. I get knitting and then an idea pops in my head, so I quickly try to get it on paper, but then I get distracted by 5 other ideas.....you can see why these took so long. I'm still putting the finishing touches on the pattern (another thing that takes forever!), but hopefully it will be available here at the blog soon.

In family news........

The Musical One had her senior pictures taken last week. We think they turned out really well. This green shirt really made her blue eyes pop (no colored contacts involved). Now we just have to decide which ones to choose (there are over 20 that we love), what prints to have made and where to get them done. Gah! Senior year is busy!