Plain Jane Knits Up A Storm

A few musings about my needlecraft hobbies - knitting, crocheting, quilting, & cross-stitch along with my other love, genealogy. While growing up, I used to HATE the term "Plain Jane", but when it comes to knitting & crocheting, I've realized that I really *am* a Plain Jane in that I don't use fancy yarns.

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Location: Northern Detroit Metro area, Michigan, United States

Friday, December 29, 2006

Third Time Is The Charm

Sallee wondered what I'd think of this quiz - after 45 questions, I came up with the same movie as she did:

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

MeMe Redeux

I was just tagged for a MeMe by Shelob at Caution - Blind Driver. It's the same one that our resident felines were tagged for back in August but this time, I'm the one on the hot seat. So, with no further adieu, Six Weird Things About Me

  1. I can knit and/or crochet while I'm reading. I don't think it's particularly weird, but other people seem to. It lets me finish lots of simple projects like the hat & scarf sets and still read several books a week.

  2. I hate wearing shoes! Ok, unlike Shelob, I wear them outside because I don't like bee stings or frostbite, but once I'm in the house they get kicked aside.

  3. When I'm on the computer, I sit sort of side-saddle in my chair with my feet on the desk to the left of the keyboard. This is a hold over from when I had to keep a broken ankle elevated and I discovered that this is an easier way to type.

  4. I love perfume, but rarely wear it out of consideration for those who are bothered by it. I have nine bottles of Masquerade that my sweet husband bought me when it was about to be discontinued. I'm going through it at the rate of about one bottle every four years. At this rate, my daughters may inherit a bottle or two.

  5. I hate, loath & despise spiders!! Yes, I know that they're suppose to be our "friends", but as far as I'm concerned they're for practicing my Mexican Hat Dance on top of.. OLE! My sweetie, on the other hand, will pick them up in a kleenex and take them outside.

  6. Snakes, on the other hand, don't bother me (provided they aren't poisonous). I was the bane of the little boys in my elementary classes because when they tried to scare the girls with garter snakes, I always asked it I could hold them (the snakes, not the yucky boys!). One year at the local fair, I got to hold an albino python. I was much more excited about the opportunity than was my Mom.


Hmmm... That was easier than I expected as I could probably think of a couple other weird things without too much trouble. I'm supposed to tag more victims, but I think I'll leave it up to the reader whether or not they'd like to participate.

On the knitting front, I actually pulled out the sock that I started way last spring and put a few rows in. When I tried it on to see how much further I needed to go before starting the heel, I realized that while the adjustments I made to the toe increases provided a good fit, once the sock is beyond the ball of my foot there's about an extra inch of circumference through the instep. Back to the drawing board and surfing more sock sites to see if I can figure out what to do about it. If I frog & restart, this is will be the third visit to the Lily Pad.. {grumble}

UPDATE: I measured the width of the sock toe and found that it was 5" across or 10" around.

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When I measured my foot, it's 8" around the ball and between 8.5 & 8.25 around the instep. No wonder it's coming out too big. To get a 4" width, I have to go clear back to here:

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So that's what I did - back to 50 stitches rather than 72. I'm looking at all those lost stitches and feeling my fingers ache.

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Sunday, December 17, 2006

And Still More




Ok, I'm in a rut, but I keep thinking about all the people who will need warm winter ware as our Michigan weather turns colder. Still hats & scarves aren't a horrible rut to be in. They work up quickly, they're fun to do and I get to play with different color combinations. Here are the 9 hats & 4 scarves that I turned in on Thursday. Five of the scarves were made by others and I simply made hats to coordinate. I have a couple sets done for this coming week, but over Xmas I may take some time and (if my hands will cooperate - they don't like small needles) try to finish that pair of socks I started so long ago. I think I may have come up with a method of short-rowing the heel that I can live with - the sample in worsted on size 10 needles came out ok, now to see if I can make it work with sock yarn on size 3's.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Still More Hats

Here, finally is a photo of the hats I turned in last Thursday.



They're sort of squashed together because I was in a hurry to get the picture taken before I left for the Senior Center. The scarf in the upper left corner was made by Helen, one of my knit/crochet class students. I made a plain hat with ecru stripes to match her crocheted scarf. The one next to it is a set I made (my only scarf that week) using turquoise yarn and Maritime Rainbow Dreams. The fuschia scarf on the right was difficult to match as none of the yarn in the group's stash came anywhere close, but I did find a variegated with the same shade of fuschia and matched it with a lavender. In the second row left is another of Helen's crocheted scarves in a variegated blues & cranberry. I had part of a left over skein that let me match the hat to it. The other hats are made to match various scarves that others made and had dropped off. I apologize for not being able to match the scarves with the makers, but they've been in the bins for a while.

This week's projects have been similar, making hats to coordinate with scarves and plus a few sets of my own. We've been packing up sets to be picked up by volunteers from FISH which will distribute the hats locally. All these various colored projects have left me with a LOT of small balls of yarn that after the holidays will start to become more rag-tag afghans as soon as I have them sorted into color families.

One of these days, I need to work on a few of my own projects but knowing that the need for warm charity items is more than ever in this area that's been so hard hit by layoffs makes me feel that it's selfish to take time away from the projects that will, hopefully, make a difference for others..

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Another Quiz

I spotted this one on the blog of my friend Sallee's blog. Not so amazingly, we come up with the same card - maybe because we're sisters despite different DNA??


You are The Empress


Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.


The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.


The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.


What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.



Ok, I'm not so sure about that "dissipation" label as I really don't think it fits and the "luxury" is a little off too in that our house is anything but luxurious - can you say "Early Salvation Army"? "Happiness" is something that I aspire to after "Health" & before "Enough money to keep the wolf from the door." IMHO, those three things are all I need as long as I have needles & yarn (or fabric & thread)..

On the knitting front, I've been working on hats to match the 6 or 7 scarves I brought home Monday after the knitting class. I have most of them done and will have a number of sets to turn in tomorrow - the hats go very quickly when someone else has already made the scarf. The only problem is trying to match the scarf yarns with ones that will at least coordinate. Fortunately, using the Rainbow Dreams for the "windows" in the stained glass design, I can usually manage to find something that will match and not be glaringly off-key. I'll try to get photos before I turn them in tomorrow.

Acrylics Anon/a