Plain Jane Knits Up A Storm

Has It Really Been Four Months?

2011-10-09T13:53:00.009-04:00

Unfortunately, it has been almost four months since I updated this blog. I've been listing the books I've read over there in the left sidebar & taking pictures, but it's been far too long since I've set fingers to keys (remember when the phrase was "pen to paper"?) to mention what's been happening here in Plain Janeland. So, I'll start where I should have after the last post with the antique cabbage roses blooming in the back yard.

These roses are descendants of the ones that were on the farm when my grandparents, Dad & Mom purchased it back in 1940 which is why I call them antique. They're super hardy & spread like crazy given the chance. Unfortunately, given a record amount of mosquitoes this year, I didn't get out of the house to take photos of the Seven Sisters roses when they bloomed.

As we had a bumper crop of catnip this year, I brought out the pattern I designed for the knitted catnip mouse & made about a dozen of them to sell at the Sr. Center. Instead of the felted wool & silk yarns of the original, I combined acrylic & fun fur in various color combinations & stuffed them with catnip wrapped in sections of nylon stockings. As you can see below, Max seemed to approve of the new version and I had to package them in plastic ziplock snack bags in a hurry before the mice disappeared.

DH was once again on the prowl at garage sales to find yarn for our K4 group at the Senior Center and he came up with some great stashes. A good portion of this yarn has already been turned into lap-robes for the Ann Arbor Veterans' Hospital, toddler sweaters destined for the Redbird Mission in Kentucky and other charity projects.

These next four photos are of the nine toddler sweaters I turned in this last Thursday. As you can see, Boomer & Max thought that they were Snuggles made just for them. My favorite is the one Boomer is determined to hide - the body is white while the yoke & sleeves are worked in a baby pastel variegated.

These are three of the lap-robes that I worked on this summer. With the excessive heat we had in July, it was too warm even with AC to sit under a half-finished lap-robe so I didn't get as many done as I would have liked.

And saving the best for last, meet our new family member, Quinn. We adopted him last Thursday from the Michigan Animal Rescue League just down the road in Pontiac. I'd had a PetFinder search up since the start of the year for another male front-declawed orange tiger, but most of the cats that came up were too far away to drive to meet, make an application & then drive back again to pick up after we'd been approved. Since we had adopted Callie from MARL back in 1998, they just had to call our vet to determine if we'd taken good care of her and we were able to bring Quinn home the same day. Tuesday afternoon & evening were a little wrought with tension but by Wednesday evening Quinn & Max were playing tag and there was very little hissing. We're very happy with our new family member who is just shy of three years old & still more kitten than cat. Quinn is the smallest cat we've had since Callie & the youngest since first Moki & then Tiger who were kittens.

Two Months & One Day Later - Hey, I'm Getting Better!

2011-06-11T20:01:00.008-04:00

It's been a while - looking back to when I first started blogging, it's hard for me to believe that I was writing something almost every other day. But I haven't been sitting on my hands. First up, 30 cotton knit dishcloths. I mentioned in my last post that I'd taken advantage of the $1 sale on Sugar & Cream at Michael's so here are the latest results. They're in our display case and will be sold to raise money for yarn for our other projects.

The first of a long line of lap robes for the Veterans' Hospital in Ann Arbor - I turned nine of them in this last Monday. These are all approximately 30x36" and sized for wheelchairs as that hospital gets many of the amputees from the wars. These first four are all crocheted in plain double crochet which lets me change colors more easily as I can work over the ends as I go.

Up to this point, the photo shoot was moving along - and then .....

Boomer decided to get into the act. This one is knit and I tried something new, blending the colors by knitting two rows on one blue & then two rows of a second blue. When blue #1 ran out, I added a lighter shade (#3) & continued alternating with #2 and so on until I reached the correct length.

Another knit one, this one out of the bin of greens.

Boomer says "you're not going to get away with just moving the next lap robe away from the one I'm occupying - at 3' from ears to tail I can easily span both!!"

Three more simple double crochet ones.

This one is in brick stitch and was finished except for running in the yarn ends with a needle. I love this pattern but it doesn't allow for crocheting over the yarn ends so I tend to use it when I have almost full skeins to use so there aren't as many color changes. Boomer was fascinated with the loose ends.

Another one that needed another row or two to be complete. I finished these last two off during Monday's knit/crochet class so they're ready to be delivered. Notice that tuft of white fur just to the left of Boomer?

Just in case you ever wondered why it's difficult to get the vacuum run at the same time as the camera batteries are charged, this last photo may explain it. I think I had less than five minutes before "the boys" were mixing it up again and there was fur flying.

In other news, the garage sale season so far has been very good. I took two large bags of yarn in on Monday & more on Thursday. DH had even better luck Thursday afternoon while I was at K4 and I came home to my chair entirely filled with bags of yarn. Today we went to a community garage sale up in Oxford and I was able to buy 35 skeins of yarn for $4.00 - 18 skeins of beige, 6 of turquoise, 6 of medium blue & 5 of dark blue. I think I'm going to need DH's help to get this all from the car to the craft room come Monday!

Two Months Later Give Or Take A Week Or Two

2011-04-10T17:13:00.007-04:00

It's been more than a little while, partly because the drive that reads the camera card failed, first on my computer and then on DH's. We finally found a reasonably priced reader that plugs into a USB port, so now I'm playing catch up.

From February, we have first a pair of hat & scarf sets that sold almost as soon as I took them into the Senior Center.

Also From February, two more lap robes for the Veteran's Hospital in Ann Arbor. Unfortunately the chaplin from the American Legion passed away in January and we're in the midst of finding other means of getting these to the hospital.

Moving on into March, three more lap robes. I'm working my way through totes of left over K4 yarn that have been sorted by color & getting as many coordinated lap robes as I can. You'll notice as usual, I have a couple models who love to get in on the action.

Fast forwarding into the current month, two more lap robes using up close to the end of the blues/greens tote. I do have one more green version finished, but I still need to run the ends in before taking a photograph. The current lap robe is coming out of the brown/beige/rust tote and is ranging from a dark brown on one end to cream on the other. You'll notice that once again, Boomer is doing his best to get in on the photo shoot. About 30 seconds after the shot where he's appearing from the left, he was right in the middle and loath to give up his soft spot. After being dispossessed, you can see his paws trying to inch his way onto the green one. {LOL}

And if you're wondering, as I was, where Max was during the photo taking you can see that he'd found his own warm spot.

In other news, we've been selling quite a few dishcloths down at the Sr. Center, so on Tuesday I took advantage of Michael's $1 a skein sale on cotton yarn & I've busily been knitting dishcloths. Pictures to come. Yesterday, we wandered into GoodWill and I hit the jackpot.

Three large hanks of hand-spun hand-dyed wool - they stuffed a gallon size zip-lock bag to overflowing all for $3.99.

Six skeins of South West Trading Company Bamboo yarn - marked $13.49 each, all for $6.99. Now don't ask me what these finds are going to turn into as I don't have the slightest idea, but there was no way I was leaving the store without them (especially when DH insisted that they were too good a bargain to turn down!)

Two Weeks Later

2011-01-29T16:36:00.012-05:00

My latest projects:

I only knit the hats for this set & the one below. Dee, a member of our K4 group, knit the scarves. Both are double yarn on big needles so I made the hats with the same doubled yarn on a size 15 circular. I used Quaker Stitch (knit 3 rows, purl 3 rows when worked in the round) to give them some texture & an every round decrease to make a flat top.

This set started with a beautiful ball of yarn that shaded from greens to golds & back again. The hat is the same style as the ones above but it left only about 1/3rd to 1/4th of ball when I finished. I made a narrow scarf with double yarn overs every six rows both to make the scarf as long as I could & to allow one end to be slipped between the elongated stitches to fasten it around the neck. Necessity is the mother of invention.. {g}

Above & below are the two latest of the knit lap robes for the Veteran's Hospital. I'm working on another one now with five strands of thin coned yarn in black (2), navy, purple & royal blue. Held together, the yarns approximately equal an aran weight & the resulting knit is pretty. Only problem is that with five cones of yarn being attached the project doesn't transport very easily so it has to stay by the chair in the front bedroom where I watch TV so it's going slowly.

In other adventures, DH's sweater is coming along nicely now that I'm reworking it on size 13 needles. The body is complete & after using a 3-needle bind-off on the shoulders & working the neck ribbing, I've picked up stitches around the armhole for the first sleeve & am about half way down to the cuff. It has gone faster this time because I'm working it in plain old stockinette instead of the aran patterns that I had to frog.

What I've Been Up To This Week

2011-01-15T14:46:00.004-05:00

First of all, another lap robe for the Veterans' Hospital. This one has shades of rust & orange at one end & the rest in various creams. We have a lot of creams & whites that have been donated, so I'm trying to use some of them up while keeping the color scheme interesting. You'll notice that one of my favorite models, Max, is almost coordinated with this one.

I had a request from someone at the Senior Center for a baby hat in yellow for a new grand-daughter. So I went back to the hat pattern I used a couple years ago that looks darling on babies.

Sorry about the lousy photo, (I snapped it at the last minute before heading to the center on Thursday) but the point of the hat continues up and looks like this one from a couple years ago:

I think I should probably knit a few more of them as there have been a number of new grandparents & great-grandparents at the center recently.

And finally, a decent shot of the sweater for Tom that I'm going to be frogging. The re-do is going to be straight stockinette.

I also have another lap-robe on the needles, probably a little over half done.

I Thought I Was Short A Couple Projects

2011-01-06T22:57:00.002-05:00

When I was rearranging my knitting bags (yes, plural) this morning in preparation of this afternoon's K4 group, I found a few items that I knit during December.

This hat combines a medium grey worsted with a long color change fun fur in black & grey. Only problem was that I ran out of the fun fur just before the last couple rows so I used some red so it looks like Rudolph's nose on top.

This hat combines a dark blue worsted with a ribbon yarn in blue, green & gold. I used biroche stitch as it's bold enough to show up with the combination of colors.

And this sadly is what took up a good bit of my time - a sweater for DH that unfortunately is headed for the "frog pond". I had him try it on at this point before I started the sleeves & it's way too small. I could have sworn that the last time I knit this pattern that I'd used size 11 needles with a double strand of worsted, but it will be reknit on size 13s and I'm probably going to leave out all the aran patterns & make it straight stockinette. Once again, I'm not sure why the photo is so dark - it shows up a lot lighter in IrfanView - but the patterns are horizontal areas of a 4x4 basketweave, a 2x4 shifting rib, trinity stitch, a woven K2, P2 travelling trellis and double moss, all divided by 6 rows of garter stitch. (sob)

Happy New Year (A Day Late)

2011-01-02T19:46:00.005-05:00

Here we are at the start of a new year & a new decade. I haven't kept track of what I've been knitting & crocheting, but for the most part there are photos of my projects in previous blog entries. What I did keep track of - over there in the left sidebar - were the books I've read this year. I missed hitting #150 by 95 pages on New Year's Eve, so that book became the first book of the new year.

Most of my projects last year were lap robes that went to the Ann Arbor Veteran's Hospital and I started out this year by finishing one that I cast on last week. I'm not sure why the picture is so dark - maybe the camera picked up Boomer's white fur & thought it didn't need the auto-flash? - but the lap robe is a lot like the other ones I've made. Size 13 needles & various amounts of worsted weight acrylic yarn. I tried a different color arrangement starting with the darkest green followed by the lightest green and then made the darks progressively lighter & the lights progressively darker until the last two stripes are almost identical. Not sure how well I like the finished look so probably will fall back on going from dark to light or from dark to light to dark again.

The other two end of the year projects were hat & scarf sets made with Bernat Boucle yarn. Because the yarn is so textured, I used a Quaker Stitch pattern for the hats & a simple garter stitch for the scarves. The hats have a strand of worsted worked in with the boucle to make them warmer - that accounts for the grey hat being slightly darker than the matching scarf.

It seems like I should have more to show for the past month, but unless I find other projects while packing my knitting bag to go to the Sr. Center tomorrow that's going to be it. I did spend a fair amount of time transcribing cemetery inscriptions from Sullivan Co., NY, for my genealogy site. I think there are 45 cemeteries from the county on line now. If you have ancestors in that area or really anywhere in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York or Michigan, check out the site. There are over 5000 files on line from those states and a few others.

Hats & Lap Robes Yet Again - AKA Same Old, Same Old

2010-12-03T15:00:00.004-05:00

More hat/scarf sets & a couple more lap robes.

The pattern for this hat came from the Lion Brand site a couple weeks ago. The Plum Perfect Hat. This is the second set I've made. The first one was in grey marl yarn & I forgot to take a photo before I donated it. I also missed a photo of a super bulky turquoise hat in biroche stitch, an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern, that worked out quite well. The yarn was really thick and I think it would take at least four strands of worsted weight to duplicate it.

I've gone back to my design from a year or two back that combines knitting & crocheting to get the effect of Entrelac knitting without all the fuss. I love this aran yarn with the little flecks of brown & black.

Hat only so far as the solid black scarf is still on the needles. This is the same pattern as the hat above but I used rainbow colors for the rows of brick stitches. The side photo also shows how the ribbing is knit, then a switch to crochet & back to knit for the crown.

I had to depose Boomer from the rocking chair to get the lap-robes out so I could take pictures. As you can see, he followed his warm spot {lol}. This and the following one will be going to the Veterans' Hospital, but I think I'll run them through the washer & dryer first.

When I tried to take a photo of the second lap-robe, Boomer decided that it needed a little "artistic arrangement". It's enough like previous ones that I decided not to take another photo.

In other news, our Monday knitting class at the Sr. Center is going to attempt to tackle mobius scarves in January. I tried a mobius cast on that's a bit different from Cat Bordhi's that I found in an English knitting magazine. I may have twisted the joining as at this point it appears that I have stockinette on one side of the cast on & reverse on the other, therefore, I'm purling a few rows here & there so it may or may not look like I planned it that way. I'm working with a 36" needle and while the first couple rows were a little tense, the knitting is getting easier with each row. 40" circulars don't seem to be available locally unless I want to get Addi's and they're a bit pricy for my taste. I think I picked up this 36" circular at a garage sale a few years back for about $1.

Seven More Lap-robes For The Vets + An Afghan For The Hospital

2010-11-11T15:31:00.007-05:00

I finally took photos of the lap robes I've been knitting for the Veterans' Hospital. These are all made of leftover yarn from other K4 projects. I was initally working a bag of multi-colored balls & then from the tote of blues & purples.

I cast on too many stitches for this first one so I wound up turning it into vertical stripes.

I had reds & rusts left over from the multi-colored bag. This one reminds me of a sunset.

At this point, I was putting the lap-robes one on top of another and as every cat owner (ok, I really mean "staff" as no one "owns" a cat), knows - a soft spot plus a sunbeam is irresistable to felines. At this point, I started getting "help" from Max.

And even more help!!

Here's that last one without Max.

But the cat came back.. {lol} I turned these seven in today and the Chaplin from the American Legion came by to pick up the dozen our group had ready to send. That makes 135 lap robes we've sent to the Vets so far this year.

This last one is for Beaumont Hospital - they provide the yarn & we make afghans for them. There's a whole tote full of them now so I asked the coordinator at the Senior Center to let the gentleman who brought the yarn know that they're ready for pick-up. This is the last one that I crocheted. It's faster, but it's been making the arthritis in my left thumb hurt after a few rows. By switching to knitting, I've been able to keep working - garter stitch on size 13 needles goes fairly quickly when I can work on it for a couple hours at a stretch.

Another Farewell

2010-10-03T17:26:00.003-04:00

We lost Sadie last Thursday morning. She was diagnosed earlier this year with pancreatitis and put on a special diet. She seemed to be doing quite well until the last couple weeks when her weight loss became noticeable and she was eating less & less. We inherited Sadie when Mom passed away three years ago. Before that she stayed with us during the winter from 1999 through 2002 while Mom & Dad were in Florida.

It was 1998 when some [expletive deleted] dumped an adult cat that had been altered & front declawed out at my parent's farm. Dad was trying to live trap a raccoon that had been bothering the garden but what he found in the trap the next morning was Sadie - painfully thin and loudly yowling. She was a strange cat - there was a kink at the end of her tail as though whoever dumped her had slammed the car door on it and she wouldn't let you pet her past her shoulder blades without cussing you out. She had fangs and knew how to use them - I still have a scar from where she bit me in a display of displaced aggression when there was another cat in the back yard. Still, Mom loved her and she was good for Mom, keeping her company 24/7 after Dad passed away in 2003. She wasn't my favorite feline but I'm sorry she's gone & will miss her.

Photos, Photos, Photos!!

2010-09-28T14:48:00.005-04:00

I finally got around to taking a few photos of recent projects - these are all for my K4 group.

The first is a hat & scarf set knit from WoolEase knit together with a Lion Brand fancy yarn with little pompoms. The photo of the hat is from the top. The WoolEase has flecks of the same colors which made for a neat pairing. This set & the following scarf will go into the case at the Sr. Center in hopes of raising $$ for more yarn.

The second scarf is knit in Simply Soft on the diagonal with garter & elongated stitches for interest. I haven't measured it from end to end, but it's long enough that I had to fold it to get it all in the picture. Max, as usual, is interested in anything I put on the floor.

These two sweaters will probably be the last of the Knit4Kids Toddler sweaters I'll make this year. I'll turn them in on Thursday, then in a week or so, they'll be travelling to the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky when a group from the local Methodist Church travels there for a week of volunteer work.

I'm also working on a sweater for my DH - adjusting the pattern because I think I'm a skein shy of having enough to make it as long as the last one that had pockets & a wide collar. This one will be a bit shorter, no pockets & simple ribbing around the neck. Also on the needles, a knit lap robe (my hands have been hurting a bit when I crochet lately), dishcloths & a pair of socks. I'll try to get some more photos before the camera batteries discharge and/or the cats shed so much fur that I have to run the sweeper again.

"Grandma Who Dances With Crochet Hooks"

2010-08-17T22:53:00.002-04:00

That was the title of an email from DD#1 last week. It seems that with grand-daughter going into 5th grade & Middle School there's a dress code that says that tank tops and/or spaghetti scraps have to be covered. So I got busy with my knitting needles rather than a crochet hook and came up with these.

A very simple drop stitch shrug in white baby yarn.

A top-down raglan sleeve shrug in white worsted weight - Bella Sera on Ravelry.

And finally, my version of the Bella Sera shrug in cream sport weight adding YO increases for the raglan shaping & a 12 stitch Feather & Fan lace pattern to the sleeves & hem.

More Photos!

2010-08-09T17:24:00.003-04:00

Here's a few things that weren't quite finished for the last "photo shoot".. The first two sweaters are a slightly smaller version of the earlier Knit For Kids sweaters - probably about right size for a 1 year - 18 months old. I decreased the number of stitches for the size 2 by about 10%. These two are going into the case at the Sr. Center to sell - postage for the tote full of full sized sweaters is going to be UP there.

A couple more items for the case - the first is a 55" scarf in a super soft yarn - turquoise with little flecks of color. I also knit one from a skein of the same yarn in dark magenta.

And finally, a cabled hat in a bulky grey heather yarn - it looks better on than it does laying on the floor. I started with 48 stitches on a size 13 circular & a 2x2 rib that morphed into 6 stitch cables with p2 between them. After three cable twists, I decreased to a 4 stitch cable, 1 twist, decreased to a 2 stitch cable with 1 purl stitch between before finishing off. No pattern, just winging it as I went but I like the way that a k2tog on the right side of the cable & slip 1 to knit, 1 to purl, k together blended neatly into the cable. I had enough in the skein to make a second hat in quaker stitch but forgot to photograph it this morning.

Lots Of Photos

2010-08-07T13:11:00.004-04:00

More toddler sized sweaters & a couple afghans..

Yet Another Month Gone By..

2010-07-06T14:03:00.002-04:00

These are the latest of the toddler sweaters:

They're nice projects for warm weather as they're small. I have two more on the needles - one ready for the shoulder/neck bind-off & one where I ran out of yarn about 6 rows short. I'm pretty sure that there's another skein of the turquoise I'm using in the yarn cupboard at the Sr. Center so I'll set that one aside until Thursday & get a start on a couple more bodies up to the armholes. I also have another lap-robe that I'm crocheting that's over half done, but I've only been working on it during the meager summer offerings on TV as it's too difficult to keep switching it around when I have a book in my lap. We're in the middle of a heatwave though it's not as bad as the east coast is getting. Still, I'm going to stay hunkered down inside with a fan & lots of ice water..

Absent, But Busy..

2010-06-03T19:42:00.006-04:00

Yes, I know that it's been over a month since I posted, but I haven't been wasting my time. Lots of projects started & completed, plus the camera batteries & the vacuum cleaner coincided once again today (sort of like waiting for a full moon + a clear night..) {lol}

First up, a toddler sweater destined for Knits For Kids. I finished this one shortly after my last post. They're a fairly quick knit and right size to work on when the weather is hot. I reworked the pattern to knit in the round up to the sleeves where I cast on for them & work across making the crossbar on the "T". I keep the shoulder/sleeve stitches on holders & bind off the the neck, then pick up from the cast on edges & half of the body to make the other side. The shoulder seams are finished with a 3-needle bind-off during which I cast off the back neckline. There are only a few yarn ends to run in when I'm finished!

Three more of them. The one on the right is, like the one above, all one type of yarn because I had large or multiple skeins. The other two are combinations of variegateds for the bodies (which doesn't take all that much yarn) & solids for the sleeves & yokes (because they take over half of an 8 ounce skein). It's fun to play with the colors. The one I cast on over the weekend will have a solid colored body & variegated for the sleeves & yoke - in fact, the same yarn as the sweater on the right. I told you I had multiple skeins..

Our K4 group was asked to make lap robes for Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak like we did last year for the hospital in Troy. This is the first of that series using yarn that the hospital provided.

This lap robe and the following two are made from leftover yarn and will be headed for the Ann Arbor Veterans' Hospital. Again, it's fun to play with the colors & make something useful from scraps. I have enough leftovers that I should be able to make both another green & another blue version - then, maybe I'll mix green & blue to see what I can come up with.

This 3/4ths finished lap robe is another one for Beaumont. I have a feeling that it will be on its way there before camera & vacuum coincide again.

And, last but not least, you can see how well Max is making himself at home. If he's not on "Daddy lap", then he's in "Daddy chair".

Meet Max

2010-04-28T12:25:00.005-04:00

Back in January, after we lost Callie, we knew that we wanted to share our home with another rescue cat. Last week, on PetFinder, I spotted just the cat we were looking for and he was being fostered with a local rescue group. On Saturday, we drove over to PetCo on Baldwin to meet "Morris" & decided then and there that he would join our family. So here, I present Max (we decided that neither "Morris", the name he'd been given at the shelter, nor "Goober", the name given him by the original owner really fit).

Max is approximately 6 years old, about 12#s & front declawed. He was surrendered to an animal control organization in mid-state because his owner's granddaughter developed allergies. Best Buddy Pet Rescue in Oxford, MI, found him there last week when they went to pick up a dog. We seem to have a talent for finding cats to adopt not long after they arrive at a shelter. Callie had been at PetSmart for 20 minutes & Boomer at Oakland Animal Control for just a couple days.

Given some of our past experiences - especially with introducing Sadie to our other cats the first winter we kept her while my parents were in Florida - Max's introduction was low drama. Boomer hissed a few times, Sadie did her usual howl, and Max ignored them both. As you can see above, he soon discovered the water-bed & relaxed. He's a very mellow cat who has adopted both Tom's lap & chair as his preferred spots when he's not basking in the sun at the sliding doors or investigating the birds & squirrels out in the back yard through the glass.

Here's a close up - that little black spot on his nose is a marking, not a scab or a bit of dirt. Other than that, he is completely orange.

More Lap Robes

2010-04-04T16:17:00.003-04:00

It's been a couple weeks since I posted, but I've been busy working on more lap robes for the Veterans' Hospital in Ann Arbor.

This one is, again, worked in the box (brick or brain-dead) stitch which creates such a pretty texture, but as the larger balls of leftover yarn get worked up, I'm left more & more with shorter lengths. The brick stitch, unlike regular double crochet, doesn't work far enough over the yarn ends to hold them in place so for every yarn change there are two ends that need to be run into the crocheting with a yarn needle.

Hence my switch to plain double crochet to use up the smaller amounts. This rather "wild" one was made with balls of yarn that were sitting around in various bags.

This one is slightly more planned using all greens. I brought the tote of green & blue yarns up from the basement & for the next while I'm going to be working in one color in various shades for each project. There's enough of the greens left over for a second lap robe which is already started, then I'll tackle the blues & hopefully by the end of the year empty the various totes.

As you can see in the last photo, I had a helper for my photo shoot. Between the camera batteries threatening to go dead & Sadie, I'm afraid that I didn't arrange the lap robes to their best advantage. This was a toss it down, point & shoot session.

Heading For Malta

2010-03-17T17:03:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by an elderly lady who wanted to order a two shawls to take with her when she moved back to Malta this spring so she could give them to friends who remained there when she moved to the States. She came into the Senior Center a few days later & I helped her pick out yarn from our K4 stash (a shawl needs at least 8 ounces). She chose a taupe & a navy & I started knitting. I used worsted weight yarn & size 15 needles starting with a simple cast-on of 5 stitches for the back of the neck. The first row was K2, YO, K1, YO, K2 with the K1 forming the center of the back & continuing to increase four stitches on every other row. I added some simple lace to the outer sections with garter stitch rows to form a non-roll border at the outside edge.

The lace on the taupe shawl is a 12 stitch repeat of Feather & Fan that I first adapted for socks. The original F&F is an 18 stitch repeat.

The navy shawl's lace is a very simple eyelet that slants into the center stitch by using slip 1 to knit, slip 1 to purl, k2tog on the right side for a left leaning decrease & k2tog on the other side of the center stitch for a right leaning decrease.

Emma picked the shawls up this last Monday and told me that she loved them. Her friend who drove her to the Senior Center was threatening to make off with the taupe shawl so I may get another order in the future. I hope her friends back in Malta like them too.

Lap Robes For The Veterans' Hospital

2010-02-27T19:23:00.002-05:00

Since the start of the year, I've been working on lap robes that will go to the Veterans' Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This hospital receives between 30 & 35 military personel a month who have been maimed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The chaplin from the American Legion who picks up the lap robes at the Senior Center where our K4group meets and delivers them to the hospital tells us that many of these men & women arrive with absolutely nothing and the robes help them to cover the wounds thus preserving their dignity. Anyway, here are the latest ones that I've turned in. All are crocheted in the brick (box, brain-dead) stitch using leftovers from last year's hats & scarves along with the creams, whites & beiges that our group has in abundance.

The day I took the photos of the finished robes was brighter than I thought & the flash on my camera didn't go off. The photos above show the center sections quite well but the darker colored ends sort of blur together. The following swatches match the order of the above photos and, with the flash, give a better idea of the colors I used although they're actually darker than shown - somewhere between the two sets of photos.

I'm already working on the next lap robe but I need to take some time to knit another pair of Fuzzy Feet as DH has already worn holes in the pair I made him in January.

For Love Of Reading

2010-02-21T16:48:00.002-05:00

I found this meme via a Plurk post by BubbleBoo.

What have you just read?

Spare Change, by Robert B. Parker, the last of the Sunny Randall mysteries that the library has on the shelves.

What are you reading now?

Killer View, by Ridley Pearson, a new to me mystery writer, that was on the New Books shelves when we went to the library on Friday.

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

I have three more mysteries by Robert B. Parker (two Jesse Stone & a Spencer) waiting on the pile along with an Arthur C. Clark & a Dale Brown.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

That's easy! Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann in college.

What’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?

I'm more apt to recommend authors depending on what sort of book the person enjoys.

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

Of course, & not sadly but proudly! When Mom & Dad moved here from the farm, Dad wanted to get a library card but didn't have the address change yet on anything. I went to the library with him not remembering that I had had to show my address on my driver's license some 21 years earlier. The librarian at the desk went ahead and issued him a card because, as she said, "Jane practically lives here." {g}

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein, I've read it five or six times but some people don't seem to enjoy science fiction.

Do you read books while you eat?

Yes, but more likely a magazine.

While you bathe?

Taking a book into the shower doesn't seem like a good idea..

While you watch movies or tv?

Yes, I usually read during commercials.

While you listen to music?

Yes.

While you’re on the computer?

Not much now that we have DSL, but back in the dial-up days I'd read while the page was loading s-l-o-w-l-y..

When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

Only when I missed a word on purpose in the spelling bee so I could sit down & continue reading whatever book I was on at the moment.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

Seeing that I regularly fall asleep in the recliner while reading - usually sometime after 1 a.m. - probably quite a few. But I still remember staying awake all night to finish Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil back when it was published in 1970.

Have any books made you cry?

Black Beauty, the first library book that my Grandfather borrowed for me when I had the mumps at age 8. Most horse stories seemed to be so sad until I discovered The Black Stallion series a few years later.

One of the great things about being retired is that I have lots of time to read. I find that I'll discover an author & then go through just about everything that the library has by him or her. There's a list of all the books I've read since I started this blog over in the left side bar that goes back to when I started the blog in 2005.

There's A Hole In Our Home & Our Hearts

2010-01-25T19:54:00.006-05:00

We lost our little Callie a week ago Thursday & there's a sense of emptiness in our home. She was around 15 or so - it's difficult to know when you adopt adult cats from a rescue group - but we'd hoped to have her for a few more years. She came to us from the Michigan Animal Rescue League through their adoption center at PetSmart in Rochester Hills. We wandered in one day to pick up cat food & as usual went past the room with the cats & kittens looking for a home. Callie had a lot of charm - she managed to ensnare DH through two panes of glass and the cage door. Next thing I knew I was filling out adoption papers and we brought her home a couple days later. The staff told us that she'd arrived about 20 minutes before we saw her & that it was very unusual for a cat to be placed there before the stitches from her neutering operation had been removed, so I guess it was meant to be.

Her name at the shelter was "Tigger" - not really apt for a Calico, plus she spent the first couple days hiding in my quilting cupboards, so she became "Callie". I don't really think she cared what she was called as long as it involved food. She was tiny compared to our other cats - maybe 13# at her plumpest - but she ruled the roost. If Moki & Tiger started to mix it up, Callie would be there almost immediately to whop them on the nose & send them to their respective corners. She continued her role as Queen of the House after we lost Moki & Tiger, adopted Boomer & inherited Sadie. It was funny to watch Boomer thinking that he was sneaking up on Sadie only to see that it was Callie at the food bowl & quickly turning tail to slink away.

At first, she wasn't very cuddly as though her previous owners hadn't allowed her on their laps, but she soon discovered that one of us was always available for an ear scratch. It wasn't long before she adopted the waterbed as a preferred sleeping spot - that is if there wasn't a sunbeam coming in the windows in the living room. It seems strange to see that sunbeam & for it to be empty.. Rest in peace, little one - you're missed so much..

Xmas Sale, A Missing Kitty & Charity Giving

2009-12-24T13:00:00.008-05:00

I made the mistake of not remembering to take the camera along to the Senior Center while I babysat our K4 Xmas Sale at the beginning of the month so no pictures. We sold enough to keep us in yarn for the next year and had a huge (lawn-size) bag of extras to send off for charity. This is on top of the bags of hat & scarf sets that went to the veterans, the 15 sweaters we sent to Knit For Kids & the earlier afghans & lap robes that went to Beaumont Hospital. All in all, it was a good year, plus the Oxford American Legion Post honored our group with a certificate of thanks for the work we did for the veterans!

The same week of the Xmas Sale, Sadie went missing. All we can surmise is that she slipped out when some missionaries came to the door after 8 p.m. (!!) We searched without any luck the following day and worried because she's an indoor cat & front declawed. The Michigan Humane Society offers a "Lost Pet" template on its website that I downloaded & filled in as well as posting the information on their Lost Cats page. We took the print-out of the poster to the Oakland Animal Shelter & checked through their new intakes just in case she'd been picked up & turned in. (This also gave me a chance to drop off 20 Snuggles for the cat cages.)

Coming home, we pinned the posters to file folders & enclosed them in plastic food storage bags so we could staple them to light posts & mail box stands in our neighborhood. Six days later, we became part of the fortunate 20% that finds a lost pet. A neighbor two streets away called to say that she thought Sadie was under her deck. We grabbed a can of cat food & were there within minutes. Big gold eyes showed up in the far corner of the under-deck space & we recognized the yowl, but Sadie was too scared to come out. I crawled about halfway under the deck with the open food can and, once she got her nose into it, backed out slowly until I could pick her up and get her in the carrier. WHEW!! We're extremely happy & grateful to have her back.

I felt so sorry for all the cats at the shelter. There are so many that Animal Control is offering two for one adoption fee and that fee has been drastically lowered for cats 6 months & older. We have a house full with Sadie, Boomer & Callie, but I'll be taking another bag of Snuggles to the shelter in the near future so the cages will be a little more comfortable while the cats wait for their forever homes.

Back to K4, our project for the start of the year is fulfilling a request for wheelchair sized lap robes for several veterans' hospitals and group members are hard at work. I'm using leftovers from earlier projects and making a version of rag-tag afghans in the Brick (Box, Brain-dead - it has several names) stitch. It only involves a little more work than my earlier straight double crochet versions & I like the texture that the stitch adds.

I got a little carried away on the blue one and after a few rows realized that it was 36" wide instead of 30". Rather than frog it, I decided to do lengthwise stripes.

I'm working on a third lap robe that will have dark ends and a mix of whites & creams in the center.

A Short Pre-Sale Post

2009-12-06T12:54:00.003-05:00

A few more items made for our knitting group's Xmas sale which starts tomorrow.

Two knit hats with rolled brims.

Same design as the two above, but the yarn with slubs makes them look a lot different

I'm hoping that this scarf catches the eye of a Red Hatter.

Another hat & scarf set.

This cowl combines mohair with a strand of sport weight with sparkles. The lace at the bottom is crocheted shells.

I made these two cowls longer because the suede like yarn is so soft & squishy - they scrunch down for a different look than the shorter cowls.

I put my knitting bag in my chair while I ran the vacuum & took these photos. Guess who was making himself right at home... {g}

Energizer Bunny Phase

2009-11-22T10:54:00.004-05:00

Only two weeks left until our K4 Xmas sale, so I've been knitting as fast as I can.

So far, I've finished five more sets of the combination knit/crochet hats & scarves. The dark blue, red & rust color sets use the box stitch, the lighter blue set uses a 5 dc shell stitch & the green set on the lower left is done in a basket-weave stitch using front & back post double crochet stitches.

These two sets use the slip stitch "window pane" design (you'll find directions under "Free Patterns" on the sidebar) with plain double crochet scarves. There wasn't a lot of yarn left of the autumn variegated for the scarf on the right so I tried to add some interest by making pointy ends on it.

These cowls have been fun to design. They're basically a ribbed tube with lace on the bottom edge. The two on the left & one on the bottom right have lace edging that's knit on sideways. The cream one on the right has a crocheted shell edging & the grey tweed at the very top has crocheted box stitch edging.

These seven cowls are made of different yarns & different patterns. For the two longer ones, the hot pink is knit from one strand of mohair & one strand of ribbon yarn in garter stitch while the turquoise one is one strand of mohair worked in a feather & fan pattern. The others are combinations of yarn in linen stitch, feather & fan, yo cables & slanted stitches.

And finally, this is what happens when I attempt to take photos - Boomer is quite the camera hog plus if there's anything soft on the floor, he's going to try to make it into a cat bed. {g}

Two weeks to go and lots more knitting to do!

The Stars Finally Aligned...

2009-11-06T15:02:00.004-05:00

...and the camera batteries were charged at the same time that the vacuum was run. With three cats in the house, if the camera batteries were discharged, by the time the little red light on the charger went out & the batteries cooled, the carpet would need sweeping again. At least that's my story & I'm sticking to it! {g}

Besides, until late last month I was knitting the same old things - hat & scarf sets for the homeless veterans' shelter in Detroit. Below is the last batch & I think the total since January is 70 or 71 sets.

Someone from the Oxford American Legion Post will be picking these up soon and delivering them to the shelter. Unfortunately, that someone will not be our K4 member Gloria who originally delivered the first hats two years ago. Gloria passed away this summer. We miss her.

Once I finished with the hat & scarf sets, I joined others in our group knitting sweaters for Knits For Kids. All together, we finished 15 sweaters that will be shipped soon. I reworked the pattern last year to knit the sweater in the round up to the armholes, cast on for the sleeves working one yoke & then the other with a 3-needles bind-off at the shoulders. Both of these sweaters are made that way so there are only a few yarn ends that need to be run in when finished.

And after that, the FUN began! For the past two years, our group has held a Xmas sale in early December to raise money for our charity projects. There are often "fancy" yarns (the hand wash, dry flat types) that are donated along with the acrylics that we use for charity and this time of year is when I can go a little bit wild making items for the sale.

These two are in WoolEase worsted weight. The hat starts off with knit ribbing and then switches to crochet & then back to knitting for the top. The scarves are crocheted in the same box stitch as used on the hat.

In September, we received a large box of fancy yarn from a wonderful person in Indianapolis, IN. {thank you!!} Included were two skeins of this wild yarn made up of lengths tied together in overhand knots intended to dangle from the finished item along with the pattern to make a shawl. You can see the results of one skein above & the other below. I think they'd make wonderful Xmas gifts & hope those coming to our sale agree.

And now to the projects I have the most fun designing & making: cowls:

For some yarns the yarn itself "makes" the pattern. This orange eyelash combined with a variegated bulky makes me think about a caterpillar. It's knit in the round on size 13 needles in garter stitch (knit 1 row, purl 1 row in the round).

These three are also knit from two strands but because the yarn is at least a little quieter, I used moss, double moss & a basket weave variation to add texture.

The feather & fan is my favorite pattern for yarn that will display it well. This is a 12 stitch pattern repeat I normally use for socks instead of the usual 18 stitch repeat.

These last three are variations on the linen stitch. The center one is a wrap-around that still needs it's button - it's a free pattern from Ravelry (I think) "Cashmere Neckwarmer" by Kim. Suffice it to say that I fell in love with the linen stitch & used it on the other two cowls that were knit in the round.

That's it for a while - I have a few more projects either finished or on the needles and I'm really hoping that the stars will once again align between cat fur, vacuum & camera batteries sometime very soon.

A Meme From Knitnana

2009-07-24T00:06:00.004-04:00

I just swiped this meme from Knitnana's site:

Instructions: Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ()
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X) [all 3 books]
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ()
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)- [all 7 books]
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible - ()
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte()
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (X)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott ()
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ()
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ()
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ()
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (X)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ()
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (X)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ()
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ()
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ()
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (X)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ()
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ()
34 Emma - Jane Austen ()
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ()
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - ()
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ()
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (X)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (X)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (X)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery ()
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (X)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding ()
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ()
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ()
52 Dune - Frank Herbert ()
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ()
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ()
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ()
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ()
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (X)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ()
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ()
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ()
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (X)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ()
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie()
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ()
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ()
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ()
76 The Inferno - Dante ()
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ()
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ()
80 Possession - AS Byatt ()
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (X)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ()
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery ()
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (X)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ()
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl ()
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()

In total, I've read 22 of the 100, far fewer than Knitnana, but then I've had a tendency to avoid classics. I do notice that, with the exception of Dune, I've read all the ones that are science fiction/fantasy like The Lord Of The Rings series, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy & all the Harry Potter books. 1984 & Brave New World were tackled my freshman year in college, Gone With The Wind during high school. Memoirs Of A Geisha was recommended by DD#2, Watership Down by a friend.

I think what surprises me most is that a number of books that I consider classics aren't included. I've read all these, many of them more than once:

101 Hawaii, James Michener
102 Exodus, Leon Uris
103 Stranger In A Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
104 Foundation, Isaac Asimov
105 The Good Earth, Pearl Buck
106 2001, A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clark
107 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
108 The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
109 All Creatures Great & Small, James Herriot
110 Walden, Henry David Thoreau
111 Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson

There are probably more - I know that I've read classics that were assigned for various classes such as Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, but that's not one I'd recommend. If you have time, post your own version of the list and, more importantly, add in the books you think were missed.

Playing Catch-Up...

2009-07-18T15:58:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's been a LONG time since I sat down here to post.. Let's see, what's happened in those weeks:

1) I planted my garden. Started out with around 24 tomato plants, 4 zucchini & 8 basil.

2) I flew from Flint to Atlanta to Baltimore to visit DD#1 & her family in Pennsylvania. AirTran had good ticket prices, but flying way south to come back north seems a little strange. Had a very good time including helping pick out garden plants & getting them into the ground.

3) Flew home and planted more tomatoes - heirloom ones this time. Eight Mr. Stripy, four Yellow Pear & four Black Krim. We put them in various places around the yard to see where they'll do best. Besides, with the regular garden spot full, we had to sort of fit them in where we could. {g}

4) Went to garage sales, but at one I tripped on the curb, took a tumble & broke a little chunk off the second bone in my big toe. I've been wearing a boot that would look right at home on a StarWars Storm Trooper ever since. X-rays this last Monday show that it isn't starting to heal yet so I'm on mega-doses of calcium & a regular dose of vitamin D.

5) Watched the garden progress very slowly because except for a few days our temperatures have been below normal. Only 64° here at 4 p.m. today. For me, the lower temperatures are wonderful, but I think the tomatoes would appreciate a bit warmer. I have blossoms and a few *small* green tomatoes, but nowhere near what the tomatoes were doing last summer.

6) I've been knitting & reading since moving around in this boot isn't the most fun. FWIW, if you're ever wondering if I'm still alive, check the "Recently Read" list over in the left sidebar - I've been updating that regularly as I use it to check when a book seems overly familiar (I might have read it a year or two earlier). I've just finished the 85th book so far this year.

In knitting, I'm still working on hat/scarf sets for the shelter for homeless vets. I just finished the hat for set #53 and am working on the scarf. Here's the latest batch since the last photo:

I guess that's about all the news. I'm going to recharge the camera batteries and hope to be a better blogger in the future..

WOOT..!!!!!

2009-05-31T11:06:00.003-04:00

Guess what happened? I entered Wendy's most recent contest via a comment on Plurk and I WON!!!

That's two skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in "WendyKnits Sunrise"! Thank you, Wendy (& Wendy's random number generator)!!

I have to admit that discovering that I was one of the winners and then a few days later getting the package of yarn provided some welcome excitement in an otherwise fairly dull knitting life. I'm now on hat & scarf set #40 for the Veterans. I'd take a photo, but it would look pretty much like the previous photos with some small exceptions of yarn colors.

I did, however, take Wednesday evening and finish off the lace repeats on the second Feather & Fan sock in Bernat SOX Wooded Denim. Now I just need to do the ribbing & bind-off and that pair will be done. Summer of Socks 09 starts tomorrow on the first, but I'll be a bit behind as I'm leaving Tuesday morning for a week in Pennsylvania visiting DD#1's family. I'm still trying to decide whether to get along with a carry-on or pay the $15 each way to check a larger bag. Decisions, decisions..

More Of The Same..

2009-05-12T14:51:00.003-04:00

More hat & scarf sets that will go to the shelter for homeless Veterans in Detroit this fall. At this point I've completed 32 sets and have two hats that need scarves to match.

When I'm not working on hats & scarves, I've been crocheting up more Snuggles with the bulky weight yarns that we can't use for charity because of the way they wash. That includes Homespun, Baby Clouds and other fluffy ones. They're fun to work with, but after a trip through the washer & dryer, they don't look very nice. Fortunately, the cats at the shelters won't mind as long as they have something soft to lay on instead of the metal floor of the cage. As you can see below, the Snuggles have received the "Boomer Seal of Approval" {g}

I also had enough ambition last night to cast on the second sock of the Feather & Fan pair in Wooded Denim. Working on toe increases at the moment. I still have a single sock from Wendy's lace design & I need to get at least one pair finished before Summer of Socks 09 starts on June 1st.

Yup, I'm Still Alive..

2009-04-22T14:53:00.003-04:00

...though I can understand a couple emails I received asking if I had departed this veil of tears. I've just been a lazy blogger with not much to say and with rather boring projects. The one time that I arranged a number of hat & scarf sets on the living room floor, the camera batteries were stone dead which I took as a sign to just keep knitting. Anyway, here's what I've been working on..

First up is a toe up sock for the Knitting Purls KAL - you'll notice that there is only ONE sock and the KAL ends this Friday. This is what happens when weather, a touch of arthritis, & size 2 needles limit me to a couple rows at a time. The second sock will be completed, but not in the next 60 or so hours. I also have that other single posted back in February that still needs it's buddy knit, but I promise no more casting on until these pairs are complete. This one is in Bernat Sox Wooded Denim with a Feather & Fan cuff. It appears to have a purple cast against the blue of the rug, but it really is a faded denim shade.

The hat & scarf sets below will go to the Detroit shelter for Homeless Vets next fall. These have been my main projects since last we met. As mentioned, they're fairly boring, but will hopefully keep people warm next winter. This will be the third year of this project as we sent sets in 2006 & 2007. (This last year we concentrated on child size sets, but will be unable to do that again until the Consumer Safety Protection Commission & Congress come to their senses and recognize that yarn does not contain lead or phthalates.) I have another hat on the needles that should be finished tonight & will cast on the matching scarf.

I didn't take photos of them, but I'm also working on more Snuggles for a local animal shelter. I've finished eleven so far, all of them in Homespun or Baby Clouds - wonderful soft yarns that do not go through the laundry that well, but the cats aren't going to care what they look like as long as they stay soft and they do.

I'll leave you with what I often find when I try to use the computer. The chair is an oak antique that's a bit hard to sit on so I pad it with a couple extra bed pillows. As you can see, Boomer thinks that this makes a great soft spot for a nap. {g} The affinity of all three of our cats for padded surfaces is one reason that I feel good about working on the Snuggles as I hate to think of shelter cats having to sleep on a cold metal floor of a cage.

Double Duty

2009-02-15T13:08:00.003-05:00

I finished my vest for the Vest-uary KAL last night, just in time for it to also count for the KnittingPurls Winter Warmies KAL which concludes today.

These hats are also for the Winter Warmies and, like the others before them, are destined for the Detroit shelter for homeless veterans. The one on the left is worked in Red Heart Amazon with a little dark brown added in as stripes to get the scarf to an acceptable length. The variegateds & flecks are such pretty yarns, but the skeins are always smaller than the solid colors. The set on the right is worked with three strands of the coned yarn that was donated to our K4 group about a year & a half ago. It's all machine knitting type yarn and quite thin, but used in multiple strands it's the equivalent of worsted weight plus it gives me the fun of combining colors.

Other than knitting, not much has been going on. Both DH & I were under the weather for a couple days but are feeling better now. We had a record breaking warm spell this last week but now we're back in the deep freeze with snow once again on the ground. At least the warm spell and the rain helped melt away some of the piled up snow and it was warm enough one evening that we celebrated by firing up the grill out in the back yard.

Vest-uary Update

2009-02-11T13:27:00.003-05:00

I probably should have chosen a better background as the front of the vest sort of blends into the fabric of the chair, but I wanted to show you how the vest was coming along. The markers indicate where I started or stopped shaping so I can duplicate it on the other front. I've finished the underarm area since this photo and am ready to cast on for the back of the armhole. The crocheted cast-on I discovered a year or so ago when I was making felted bags is working great for adding on without leaving the sloppy edge of some other "middle of the project" cast-ons.

Last night while I was watching TV, my lap was too full of knitting & the book I was reading during commercials in Boomer's opinion, so he made himself at home in the antique doll cradle. He looks pretty comfortable despite a bit of an overflow. {g}

Catching Up A Bit

2009-02-10T14:28:00.002-05:00

I didn't get photos of the two latest hat & scarf sets yet, but here is the start of my Vest-uary project - yarn, needles & a sketch with blanks to be filled in.

That's Caron's Rainbow Dreams in the Tradewind colorway and size 10½ needles. I took a measuring tape and filled in or corrected some of the numbers last night before I cast on. I'm getting a gauge of 7 stitches & 14 rows (7 ridges) equaling 2". I love knitting on size 10½ needles - something about them fits my hands perfectly.

Just before casting on for the vest, I cast off the sock that I abandoned last September. This one is destined to be an only until after the KnittingPurls toe-up KAL on Ravelry that starts in a few days. I used #551 Vinca yarn on size 2 Harmony DPs - you can see where it was when I stuck it in the PIP pile back on the September 1, 2008 post, so I really didn't have a long way to go.

I used the lace pattern from the largest size of Wendy's free seaweed sock pattern and added an extra purl so it was a 10 stitch repeat that would fit neatly into my usual 60 stitch sock pattern. I worked two repeats up the instep and then six repeats around the leg once the heel was complete. For the second sock, I'm going to try to reverse the swirl of the lace - wish me luck even though it will be after the KAL socks are completed as I only have that one set of Harmony size 2 DPs!

I mentioned a post or so ago that we'd purchased some wheat grass for the cats - specifically for Sadie. As you can see from this photo, she is really enjoying her treat. {g}

Better Late Than Never

2009-02-09T23:49:00.003-05:00

The evolution of the CPSIA law was still up in the air earlier today when I removed all the child & baby sized items from the case at the Senior Center. However, late today, the commission finally issued guidelines that appear to exempt yarn!!

More Than I Can Chew???

2009-02-07T15:27:00.008-05:00

I'm still a sucker for KALs, so I signed up for two of them this month.

The Vest-uary KAL on Ravelry & the Toe Up Sock KAL in the KnittingPurls group. The Vest-uary one started on the first, so I'm already behind as all I've done is begin to design the vest I want to make. The Toe-Up one begins on the 17th so I have a little time for that.

For the Toe-Up, we're supposed to work from stash and fortunately, I added these two balls of Bernat Sox yarn to my stash at the end of last month.

The first is Faded Denim and the second is Wooded Denim (can you sense a theme here?) I'm planning on using the Wooded one for the KAL. In preparation, I'm almost finished with the first sock of the pair I was working on when Summer of Socks 08 ended several weeks earlier than I thought it would. I think that sock is destined for a period of "Second Sock Syndrome" until I finish the KAL. Besides, I used a variation of Wendy Knits Seaweed lace and I want to experiment with recharting it so the lace moves in the opposite direction on the second sock. I think it can be done, but I'll have to swatch!

In the meantime, I've been working on hat & scarf sets that will go to the shelter for homeless veterans in Detroit. Here are the first 7 sets that I made in the last few weeks.

That last poor set was hiding when I took the shot of the first six. I have another set that just needs the last decrease row of the hat completed and then yarn ends run in. I'll post a photo of it when it's finished. There's another hat just started on the arm of the chair below. Boomer loves to visit my knitting when I'm not actually clicking needles, but right now, he's curled up on my lap, pinning my left arm down and making it a bit difficult to type this.. {g}

I think he's relaxing after nibbling on the wheat grass we picked up yesterday to treat our furry kids. Sadie loves nibbling on grass - or at least she did when Mom was letting her out in the back yard for supervised nibbling - but she's now a full fledged indoor cat so she was face down in this pot as soon as it was placed on the floor.

I'm still keeping an eye on the continuing saga of the CPSIA law which grows more confusing with each passing day. Check in at CPSIA Central for the latest news and links.

A Slight Reprieve - CPSIA

2009-02-04T16:58:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, the CPSC placed a one year stay on the enforcement of testing & certification outlined in the CPSIA law. This doesn't relieve craftspeople from the responsibility of making sure that their materials do not contain lead or phthalates, but it does provide time to hopefully get politicians to amend the law to require component testing rather than testing of the finished item. At the meeting of manufacturers with the CPSC staff back on January 22nd, Coats & Clark representatives presented the test results on their yarns showing that there's little or no lead involved in the fiber or dye. If component testing is allowed, this type of results should eliminate many of the problems for crafters whether we sell or donate finished items.

CPSIA - A Rant About A Good Idea Gone Wrong

2009-01-27T23:23:00.003-05:00

I don't rant very often, but the new CPSIA law which takes affect on February 10th is enough for me to make an exception. The official name is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, but I remember the acronym by (pardon my French): Cr*p, Politicians Scr*wed It Again.

The law was a response to the recall of toys imported from China because of lead contamination about a year ago, but it has been carried to extremes that threaten not only charity knitting for children like our K4 group does, but the livelihood of crafters across the country. The law requires testing of any item intended for children 12 & under to ascertain that it is lead free. But, instead of requiring the raw materials - yarn, fabrics, & buttons - to be tested and certified as safe before being offered for sale here in the United States, the law demands component testing of the completed item. This means that two different sized sweaters, even made from the same brand & dye lot of yarn, would have to be tested separately. For now, XLP (X-ray testing) is adequate to meet the requirements, but starting in August a third party test that consists of destroying the item will be necessary.

Testing isn't cheap. A number of Etsy sellers have repriced children's items to reflect the cost of the testing. How many people will buy a child's patchwork skirt or toy when the price is over $1000 because of the cost of testing that skirt or toy to comply with this law? There is no possible way that those of us who knit for charity can continue to make items for children as the penalty for distributing any item meant for children without a testing certificate can reach as high as $100,000 & jail time.

I've called my Senators and asked for help - the CPSIA needs to be amended to allow for component testing by manufacturers rather than requiring each craftsperson or charity to test the completed item. Also, the implementation needs to be delayed until the CPSC has time to finish regulations - as of now, those decisions on how the law will be applied won't be available until after February 10th when the law goes into effect.

Please join in and let the politicians know that this law was passed without any thought of the devastation it will visit on those who make their living or augment their income by crafting safe products for kids. The following links will provide more information.

CPSIA-Central

Forbes "Scrap the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, Part 1; Part 2; & Part 3

National Bankruptcy Day - February 10, 2009

Fashion Incubator

Discussion of the CPSIA on President Obama's Change.org site Save small business from the CPSIA made it into the top ten action items.

Many more links at Overlawyered

Good Golly, Miss Molly...

2009-01-18T14:24:00.010-05:00

Once again, it's been a while & I seem to have missed my own Blogversary on the 6th. But I haven't been idle..

These are about half of the Snuggles (see The Snuggles Project home page) that I crocheted out of Homespun and took to the Michigan Animal Rescue League for the cat cages. These were in way of a thank-you to a kind lady who donated five large boxes of acrylic coned yarn to our group in 2007 that we used to make hats & scarves for the shelter for homeless veterans in Detroit. I took 21 Snuggles to the shelter in December and these 19 a little over a week ago. Homespun is a nice yarn to work with, but after it's washed, it looks a little ratty - enough so that we don't use it for hats, scarves or afghans - but it stays soft and the cats shouldn't mind how it looks. Here's the entire pile including a trial granny square Snuggle on top.

I've been knitting slippers for sale at the Senior Center. Marina, one of our K4 members, knit about 11 pair for the craft sale and we sold out. I'm hoping that these sell well too.

These two baby afghans were crocheted over the Xmas holidays - before I learned that thanks to the new CPSIA law that will render them as "hazardous waste" on February 10th because no charity group and very few crafts people who make items for children 12 & under will be able to afford the testing for lead that will be required at that time. I'm probably going to rant more about this well meaning but stupidly written law at a later date but for now, there's good information at CPSIA Central as well as forums on Twitter, Ebay, Etsy, and other places where we knitters & crocheters gather.

Our group donated at least one 18 gallon tote of baby & children's hats & scarves just before Christmas. It's heart-breaking that unless the CPSIA law is amended that we will be unable to do that this coming year. Right now, I'm starting in on *adult* hats & scarves that are not included in the law.

In other news, Michigan - like much of the country - has been in a deep freeze (-21° windchills at one point) and then when it warmed up a few degrees we got about 6" of snow. Here are the views out the sliding door into the back yard.

There really are four more steps there after the first one - it just *looks* like a ski run.. {g}

Xmas Eve

2008-12-24T14:40:00.002-05:00

It's here again - the season that I prefer to ignore. What I really wish I could ignore is the more than a foot of snow that we've been hit with over the past couple weeks. This shot is one of the early storms - later we got more, much more. It's raining today and the temperature is up to 40° so a lot of it is melting - thank goodness!!

I didn't do much knitting for Xmas, but I did make these slippers on the request of my eldest daughter and finally got them in the mail yesterday. They probably won't get there until Friday or Saturday, but I had problems finding a shipping box. Everything was too small or way too big. Also shipped out yesterday by Media Mail, a 40# box of books for the Munchkins.

Anyway, despite my definite lack of personal holiday spirit, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday filled with family, friends & good food.

It's Been A Busy Week

2008-12-07T15:05:00.000-05:00

We wrapped up the first week of the craft show at the Senior Center on Friday - here's the table as it looked early Monday morning.

That empty end of the table was fill when Pat brought in all her lovely baby outfits & afghans.

About a third of the K4 gang is shown here on Monday afternoon during what would normally be our knitting & crocheting class.

Marian & Marina hid out in the corner of the craft room used by the members of the short wave radio club who aren't there on Mondays.

Here's another look at the goodies. The sale continues through this next week though I'll only be there on Monday & Thursday for sure.

I spent most of the week working on small Snuggles for The Snuggles Project. We had a lot of odds & ends of donated yarn as well as a tote full of Homespun which machine washes but doesn't come out looking very good. But it's soft and the kitties won't care how it looks as long as it's a warm spot in the cage to curl up. I'm up to 15 Snuggles so far and have yarn for more.

More Knitting, Even Less Blogging..

2008-11-22T15:14:00.000-05:00

Let's start out with DH's new pair of Fuzzy Feet. If you've been reading this blog for long you may recognize the yarn from the August 2nd post - it was a 100% wool sweater in chunky yarn that I found for 50¢. It took me a while to get around to frogging it, but it eventually turned into these. I turned the Fuzzy Feet pattern from Knitty around and knit these toe up using a version of the heel bed, turn & gusset that I use on my regular socks. These went a lot quicker seeing that I was using size 10½ needles instead of 2s. While I was felting these, I also felted the two sleeves that I hadn't frogged. When these wear through, as they always do, I have the sleeves to use as new soles & toes. In the meantime, I ran into a 50% off sale of Cascade 220 at the LYS yesterday and bought two skeins in denim blue for the next pair.

This cowl turned out a bit too short as I ran out of the fancier yarn. I'd originally planned for a hat with a rolled brim, but wound up with this. The roll will go under the chin & the garter stitch rows at the old top, now bottom, will sit on the collarbone. A case of making lemonade out of lemons, I think. Again, these cowls are for our Xmas Craft Show starting a week from Monday and will be sold so we can buy more appropriate yarns for charity knitting.

What can I say, I had a stray skein of pink fun fur and matching worsted weight sayelle. It looks like a big pink caterpillar, doesn't it? But it's soft and warm.

This cowl is a combination of a strand of variegated mohair & one of beige worsted. I used a "wandering" rib where the K2, P2 pattern moved one stitch to the left on every second row. I think it makes for an interesting texture along with the wide color changes.

And lastly, a box stitch scarf and a matching hat that's a combination of knit (the roll brim & the crown) & crocheted box stitch for the body. I made a set like this earlier that was purchased at the Sr. Center almost as soon as I finished running in the yarn ends. Hope this one goes as quickly.

I have another cowl on the needles and need to sew buttons on a cowl collar. Along with the Cascade yarn yesterday, I also scored a set of size 11 DPs & a 16" size 17 circular that I still need to try out. Design ideas are perking.. {g}

Lots of Knitting, Very Little Blogging

2008-11-11T15:09:00.003-05:00

Yup, I did it again - over three weeks since the last post - but I'll try to make it up with lots of photos. I mentioned last time that I'd been concentrating on making fancier than usual items for our Xmas Craft Show at the Sr. Center (proceeds will go to buying machine washable yarns for our K4 group's charity knitting). These also qualify for the Winter Warmies KAL over on the Knitting Purls group on Ravelry.

First of all, three hats all basically the same design with rolled brims & a purl row before flat decreasing the crown by working the decreases every row. The red & green ones are adult size while the purple one is for a child as there wasn't enough of the ribbon yarn.

Knit with a strand of bright red sayelle and one of ribbon yarn to add some sparkle.

Again a strand of mossy green sayelle combined with a double strand of variegated green mohair.

A ball of striped blue & purple ribbon yarn combined with the purple sayelle.

I'm awfully glad that Zarzuela started the cowl craze over on Plurk - I've been making them for our Xmas Craft Show at the Sr. Center and have already sold a couple to staff members who saw them (no photos of those, sorry). Here are the latest ones - and the biggest reason why I haven't been blogging:

Two of them are the Birthday Cowl from Nova Made, one is a 12 stitch Feather & Fan repeat, two are plain because the yarn is so pretty in person and the last, the rust ribbed one, doesn't look like much laying on the floor, but it's cute under a denim jacket.

Yes, more cowls - this one of light blue mohair with a simple YO, SSK pattern every other row and garter stitch top & bottom to keep it from rolling.

These last four cowls are worked in simple stockinette with garter borders as the yarns carry the design without adding lace or cables (which would probably have been lost anyway). This one is solid black with red threads.

A pink mohair yarn carried with a variegated slubbed in pink, grey & purple created this look.

A grey feathered yarn carried with a strand of black sayelle makes for a chenille look.

My personal favorite - the fancy yarn was sport weight with large unspun slubs of color that I worked with a black sayelle to add warmth.

These have been so much fun to make and there will be more coming as the craft show doesn't start until the first week in December. Back to my needles!

I Guess It's Been A While

2008-10-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

I hadn't realized that it's been so long since I last posted - days are sort of slipping by faster & faster. I've been knitting though.

One of the garage sale bags of yarn had these crocheted scarves or maybe the beginnings of afghans. Not wanting them to go to waste, I knit hats to go with them.

From the bottom, a knit hat & garter stitch scarf to match; a "fashion" scarf with one strand of purple worsted and various "fancy" yarns in shades of purple & blue; and one of my first cowls in a variegated washable wool in a simple K1,P1 rib.

Cowls are addictive, fun to knit & I'm hoping that they will be good sellers at our Sr. Center craft show in December. The top one is a teal, blue, green mohair in a mistake stitch rib; the middle one is a multicolored pastel boucle in garter stitch; and the bottom one is the Birthday Cowl pattern in brown White Buffalo Elanna Plus - a discontinued yarn. There are two more that I forgot to take photos of before putting them in the case at the Sr. Center - a grey & white marl in a Feather & Fan pattern & a light blue mohair with a little K2tog, YO lace around the bottom.

In other news, we've had frost so the garden is gone and only the peace rose in a protected corner by the front porch is still blooming. The trees are changing into their fall wardrobe of golds, reds & oranges and a few are already bare heralding the start of the grey season of winter. Time for homemade soup, afghans & more needlework.

A Few More Photos

2008-10-01T19:37:00.000-04:00

One of the things I accomplished yesterday was gathering up the hat & scarf sets that I've made this year and packing them for the fall/winter donations and/or our December craft sale at the Senior Center. Here are 42 sets. For about 6 or 7 up in the upper left corner, I only made the hats as the scarves were made by other K4 members. There are also probably a dozen hats that I made that were matched with other scarves and are being stored at home by the members.

These two sets didn't make it into group photo as they were still in my bag. You'll recognize the enterlac hat on the left along with the box stitch scarf to go with it. The other set is a plain knit hat along with a box stitch scarf that has solid color on each end and variegated in the middle.

This is my latest project. After doing the enterlac hat and realizing how closely it resembled a huge crocheted box stitch, I decided to try to combine knitting with crocheting. The rolled brim is knit, then I crocheted the rainbow stripes in box stitch, filled in the upper triangles and picked up from there back to the circular & double points to create the crown.

Here's a so-so shot of the back showing the red, orange & yellow stripes along with the black crown.

I was ready to erase this photo until I realized that it did provide some detail on the crocheted part of the hat. I have a feeling that I'll be playing around more with this pattern in the future.

Playing Catch-up

2008-09-29T23:45:00.001-04:00

I'm playing catch-up because I had a batch of photos in the camera but kept forgetting that I needed to download them and post.. I know, bad blogger {g}

First up are three of my knitting students:

Rada is on the left & Frances on the right, both busy with their crocheting. Rada doesn't need much in the way of help and Frances is working her way through a 60 block afghan book turning the patterns into lap robes and scarves.

This is Jean who is working on a sock. She's learned to both knit and crochet over the past year. I should have taken the camera along to get a few more photos today as there are several other ladies in the class.

Marina, another of my students, made this lap robe as her first crochet project. The center flowers came in a bag of garage sale yarn and she added the green "leaves" and the white edging and put the whole thing together!!

Rada made two lap robes out of yarn provided by Beaumont Hospital - this first one is double crochet in three colors.

The second uses the left over yarn for a large granny square.

This was my project for the day. Several of my students want to make this hat pattern and I'd never tried working enterlac, so - with the motto of "fools rush in where angels fear to tread", I cast on today in class and finished it tonight during Boston Legal.

This photo gives a better idea of the texture of the hat. The pattern started at the top of the hat and worked down. Now that I know what I'm doing (sort of), I think I'd start at the bottom and work up. I'm pairing this with a scarf crocheted in the box stitch which looks very similar with a diagonal texture.

This is a rather plain hat & scarf set worked in WoolEase Bulky that I finished last week. Not real fancy, but it's going to be warm and should go with anything.

Another lap robe for Beaumont that I worked in box stitch. I like the way that variegated yarn works up using this stitch.

The garter stitch center knit section of this lap-robe was found in a bag of garage sale yarn. I think it may have been meant for a sweater back as a section about half as wide was in the same bag. I unraveled the smaller section and used the yarn to add a granny stitch border.

I've often mentioned how we've been finding yarn at garage sales - here is the bounty from a couple weeks ago. This entire pile was around $6 total.

When There's Nothing To Say, Take A Quiz

2008-09-20T16:28:00.000-04:00

- at least it lets people know that you're still alive {g}.. I found this one on Caution Blind Driver

You Are Olive Green

You are the most real of all the green shades. You're always true to yourself.

For you, authenticity and honesty are very important... both in others and yourself.

You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you.

People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

What Color Green Are You?

A New MeMe

2008-09-15T16:54:00.001-04:00

Sallee tagged me for a meme late last week and I'm just getting around to it.

What are the last 3 things you purchased?
Groceries
Groceries
Groceries
(I don't do a lot of non-grocery shopping)

What are the last three songs you downloaded?
I don't download, but on You-Tube I've been listening to:
Heavy Horses (Jethro Tull)
Tangled Up In Blue (Jerry Garcia Band)
Ripple (Grateful Dead)

What are the three best places you visited?
The farm where I grew up
Crestline, CA, where my daughter lived until recently
The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

What are your three favorite movies?
The Lion In Winter
The Wind & The Lion
Rocky Horror Picture Show

What three things can you not live without?
My sweet husband
My cats
Knitting, crocheting & quilting

What would be your three wishes?
An honest government in Washington that is not purchased by the corporations
Reasonably priced health care & universal coverage without big insurance companies
Honest elections with verifiable paper trails & auditing when exit polls & results don't match.

What are three things you haven't done yet?
Hang-glided
Bungee jumped
Rock climbed
(now ask me if I want to do any of those. NOT!!)

What three Celebrities do you want to hang out with the most?
I'm not really into celebrities but if possible:
Katherine Hepburn
James Michener
Jerry Garcia
(all of whom you will note have passed away - they aren't making celebrities the way that they used to..)

Name three things that freak you out
*SPIDERS*
Heavy traffic if I'm driving
Icy roads

What are your three favorite dishes?
Chicken with homemade noodles
Fish chowder
King crab & steak (surf & turf)

Name Three Things you are good at.
Knitting
Crocheting
Quilting

What are three things you are currently coveting?
Another, larger, Nana Sadie Rose bag (I have the largest of the current models)
A complete set of KnitPicks Harmony needles
A large encyclopedia of crochet stitches

Now, I'm supposed to tag people but I'd rather let anyone reading this who feels in the mood to do so do the meme. Have fun!!

A Rough Day

2008-09-05T23:10:00.000-04:00

One year ago today, I lost Mom to leukemia. This whole week has been rough as I remembered what she was going thorough 12 months earlier, but on Wednesday I was given a reason to smile. My dear friend Kim sent me roses in remembrance.

I put the vase on top of the entertainment center next to a photo of Mom & Dad. They're both gone now and I can't express how much I miss them.

This photo captures the full beauty of the roses.. Thank you, Kim - for the roses and for being such a good friend! It really means a lot to know that you have my back..

On more cheerful issues, I took four big bags of yarn from garage sales into the Sr. Center yesterday for our K4 group. I took a photo of them before leaving but - memo to self: make sure that the flash card is in the camera, not the computer, when you take pictures. They're still on the camera, but I have to find the instruction manual to see if there's a way of transferring them to the card and then to the computer as this new computer doesn't have a port that allows directly hooking into the camera. I had a cute one of Boomer taken earlier today, all curled up on the pillows I use to cushion the antique mission oak desk chair that I'm using. He looked so comfy.. Of course, that meant that I couldn't sit down for a while - our cats have very accommodating "staff"..

I finished a hat to go with a scarf that was originally the start of a crocheted afghan that was in one garage sale bags. Fortunately, there was a partial skein of the same aqua color in the bag and I had white & royal blue in the stash that were close enough to make the hat match. The hospital that we've been making lap robes for sent more yarn and it was grabbed up by the K4 members that were there yesterday. I think I'll do another afghan in the "brain-dead", "box" or "crazy" stitch like the recent ones as they're almost as easy as straight double crochet and have a lot more texture.

More Charity Knitting And A Slow Moving Sock

2008-09-01T17:42:00.000-04:00

Most of my knitting this last week or so has been hats.

The one on the right will go with a crocheted scarf that was made by Frances from my knitting & crochet class. Frances tries a new stitch pattern with every scarf she makes and is working her way through a book with 30 different patterns. The hat on the left will, hopefully, be sold to increase our kitty for yarn purchases. It combines a strand of apricot worsted weight with a multi-colored fun fur.

These two were knit to go with crocheted scarves someone crocheted and dropped off at the Sr. Center without leaving their name. The scarves are double crochet with fringe so I added some simple patterning to the hats.

This set is all mine - the scarf is garter stitch on size 15 needles, the hat is the standard pattern with a bit of patterning to again add some interest to the set.

Here is my slow moving sock - I don't think I'll get this pair done in time for SOS08, but they will get finished. I'm using my customized toe-up sock pattern and adding in the lace design from Wendy's Seaweed sock pattern. The original design for the large size sock was a 9 stitch repeat, so I added an extra purl stitch between the lace cables so I had 6 repeats of a 10 stitch pattern for 60 stitches that I'll have around the leg.

I really like the way that the lace also forms cables. Thanks, Wendy!

And finally, this is what passes for a diner salad these days - lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, green pepper, & onion topped with lots of home grown tomatoes!! MMMMMMMMMM...

Too Sleepy To Think Up A Good Title

2008-08-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

I'm really dragging this morning for some reason but wanted to share a couple photos.

First up is the latest finished lap-robe. I used the same "brain-dead" stitch as the last one, but in this case I worked four rows of each color following the rainbow progressing and using a dark & light of each color. As you can see, my favorite model decided that if there was an afghan on the floor, it must have been put there for him..

DH says this photo should be titled "Pastures of Plenty". The tomatoes are ripening. Even though I only have 20 plants compared to 36 last year in the larger garden, the deer haven't discovered them yet and we're getting lots. The varieties are grape (I think Juliet from the size), Early Girl, Big Boy & Beefsteak. I'm making dinner salads with lots of tomatoes & eating the grape ones out of hand like candy.

Nothing Special Going On

2008-08-14T17:58:00.000-04:00

... but I've been getting quite a bit of knitting & crocheting done while watching the Olympics in the evening..

I think this is a scarf that a Red-Hatter would love. It's worked on size 17 needles with one strand of a dark purple worsted throughout combined with different "fancy" yarns that all contain red or purple. It's draped over my antique swift because the scarf is about 7' long and I couldn't get it all into a photo if I laid it out on the carpet.

The afghan done in "brain-dead", "crazy" or "box" stitch (I've found it listed under all those names)is complete. I started another one while at K4 today but this one will be striped vertically instead of horizontally for the simple fact that it turned out wider than I thought it would - or I may decide to frog and restart as it wouldn't be that much of a problem to get to where I am now. This new one is going to have wider stripes of color as I found that I spent almost as much time deciding what the next color would be on the one above as I did crocheting the row.. {g}

Two more "Dopey" baby caps with fun fur trim at the front. These went into the case at the Sr. Center today in hopes of selling them to earn money for more yarn.

And this is where my third pair of Summer of Socks 08 are at the moment. I turned the heel last night, finished the gussets and am starting the leg. The shades in this #551 Vinca colorway are so soothing.

In other activities, I've been hanging around on Plurk quite a bit which is fun. I'm still teaching knitting & crocheting on Mondays at the Sr. Center and joining in for the fun on Thursday afternoons & our K4 group. As I mentioned earlier, I've been watching the Olympics in the evening, knitting away and reading during the commercials and transition times between events. It's been a quiet week. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen. We had BLTs over the weekend thanks to the Early Girls, but now the Beefsteak & Better Boys are ripening and we have lots of grape tomatoes for munching - so much better than last year when the deer ate the plants down to nubs..

Lazy Sunday

2008-08-10T14:24:00.000-04:00

It's been a fairly lazy day here, but I did get the sweeper run so I could take a couple new photos. Given the amount of cat hair on the carpets, all three of our feline masters should be downright BALD!!

This is the current progress on the multi-colored lap robe in the "brain dead" (aka "crazy" & "box") stitch. I have more rows to work to get it up to the 36" length for the hospital.

I worked a bit on the sock last night while watching a bit of the Olympics. Once the toe increases were done, I started working two repeats of Wendy's Seaweed lace pattern. I added an extra purl stitch between repeats so at 10 stitches it would work evenly into my 60 stitch sock. I love the way this #551 Vinca colorway is working up - it reminds me of tidal pools, beach sand & is just morphing into a touch of green like the grass above the beach. Once I'm past the heel shaping I'll work the lace pattern all the way around the leg. This pair will be #3 for the Summer of Socks 08.

08-08-08 - A FO & A New Start

2008-08-08T19:19:00.000-04:00

I finished the second pair of socks for SOS08 a few minutes ago. These are made from Vinca color #8. I started them back on July 18th, but let them languish for over a week when I discovered a mistake a few rows back in the blueberry waffle stitch. Yesterday, I sat down, tinked back & got going again. I was disappointed that once again the two skeins of yarn didn't come close to matching - the solid grey around the heel of the left sock was nowhere to be found in the first skein and I was unable to find a spot in the second skein that would let me start with a solid blue that would then meld into a blue grey mix. Still, I like the yarn and love the way that it demands just a few more rows to see what the next color change will be.

A photo of the heel. The gusset isn't very big, but the heel fits nicely.

And here is the next pair - again Vinca yarn in color #551, size 2 Harmony double points and my usual toe up pattern. I haven't even started to think about what design I'll add either to the instep or the leg, but I love the shades in these skeins.

A Week's Worth of Photos

2008-08-02T17:07:00.001-04:00

The week started out with a semi-disaster. The foot on our antique Mission Oak table split leaving us with just three feet and a decided tilt.

After gluing and using screws to fasten a few of the pieces of wood together, the foot rested overnight in clamps and a vice.

Meanwhile without a base to hold it, the table top had to rest on the floor and the inevitable happened.

Mom, if you didn't want me using it for a bed, why did you put it down here?

In other news, I started another lap robe using the "brain dead" stitch pattern:

This one will use a different color for each row - a good way of using up scraps. I need enough of each color to make it all the way across the row so, unlike the rag-tag afghans that uses every bit of one color before starting the next, there will be scraps left over. I like the way that the angled shells make an interesting pattern without a lot of work.

Here's another of the Dopey hats that I finished on Tuesday.

We had some good luck at garage sales this week. Boomer likes the kitty tower we picked up for 50¢.

With the table put back together, it's a good thing you found me another place to lounge!

And another 50¢ purchase - a 100% wool sweater in bulky yarn that I plan on frogging.

Out in the back yard, the tomatoes are trying to take over their corner. I picked about a dozen grape tomatoes this afternoon and there are bigger BLT sized ones hiding under the foliage, but they're still green.

Over by the gate, the acorn squash (I thought I had zucchini) planted by the compost pile is heading for the fence and about four times the size of the other three plants put together.

The pink flocks that friends of Mom's gave her a few years back are flourishing. Thanks, Joanne & Harvey!!

And the trumpet vine is starting to take off. It flowered for the first time this year. It's a little past it's peak here, but it's starting to cling to the wire mesh we fastened to the fence to help support it. I'm looking forward to this end of the fence being covered in flowers in the future.

An FO Weekend

2008-07-28T22:24:00.000-04:00

Actually, I finished the Queen Anne's Lace lap-robe on Friday, but didn't get a photo taken until last night. As you can see, my usual helper was on duty.

I knit these two "Dopey" hats on Saturday (and another one tonight that I haven't photographed yet). These are the same pattern I used a year or so back with the addition of a bit of fun fur to liven them up.

I also finished a "Charlie Brown" hat in blue with the famous black zig-zag just above the ribbing and got a good start on a scarf to go with it. The first Blueberry Waffle sock is bound off and I need to start sock #2. I should have taken the camera with me to knitting class today because the afghans & lap-robes for the hospital were picked up and I would have liked to get a photo of them. We filled one very large tote and another medium size tote, plus we had four on the table that were just brought in today that wouldn't fit.

Friday Wrap-up

2008-07-25T19:48:00.002-04:00

I've been working on a number of different projects this last week.

A hat & scarf set made from one strand of white Jiffy & one strand of blue Coordinates.

A hat made from one strand of a bulky yarn & one strand of fun fur. Both of these will go on sale at our Christmas Craft Show in December.

This was where I was yesterday at the beginning of the K4 group on the Queen Anne's Lace lap robe. Between several hours there and watching the House Judiciary Committee on CSPAN today, the project is now finished with all six panels of lace completed.

The blueberry waffle patterned sock is coming along. I'll probably work on it more this evening. I'm not sure why the heel looks so funky in the photo - it doesn't in real life.

This is our new toy! It's a self-propelled sprinkler that follows the hose so we don't have to run out and move the oscillating one several times to get the lawn watered. I love the way it looks like the John Deere tractor we had on the farm right after tractors again became available post WWII. Of course, at the time, I was very upset that our work horses, Floss & Bess were sold. I took this photo from inside through the window screen so it's a bit blurry.

Also through the window screen, the view straight down from the computer room window. Yellow day-lilies, that came from the farm when Mom & Dad moved here, are in full bloom.

Presenting ..... Boomer Belly!!

2008-07-20T12:25:00.001-04:00

I just couldn't pass up a photo of Boomer, completely blissed out, showing his belly last night. {g}

Here's the well loved reason for the bliss - his catnip mouse which I knit from one strand of wool & one of recycled sari silk from The Wool Peddler almost two years ago when I was designing patterns for Stephanie. Boomer latched onto it about 10 minutes out of the carrier when we brought him home. Take a look at the post from April 17th last year and you'll see that at that time the mouse wasn't this tattered.

I've been busy with needles & hooks since my last post. I started SOS08 sock #3 Friday night. I'm using the Blueberry Waffle stitch pattern by Sandy Turner, but incorporating it into my standard toe-up design. This was taken last night - I'm a little further now, heading for the heel-bed.

The "Brain Dead" lap-robe is finished. The stitch pattern pulled in more than was apparent the first couple rows, so I added two rows on either side to make the finished afghan a little wider.

This is a close up of the stitch pattern. It's really easy to do and makes a nicer texture than plain old double crochet. I know that I'll be using the stitch again in the future, but will take gauge off this one so I know how wide to make subsequent ones.

For my next lap-robe, I'm using a pattern that I haven't revisited in over 30 years - Queen Anne's Lace. At least that's what it was called in the original pattern book. I found it again this last week on Annie's Attic free patterns and started it last night in worsted weight yarn and a size K hook. The first strip is about 5" wide and 36" long. I've just started the second strip after a bit of internal debate on which side of the first strip the second one was supposed to go. I think I finally got it figured out. One of the things I used to like best about this pattern is that you join the strips as you crochet them.

And Then There Were Two..

2008-07-18T12:44:00.001-04:00

I finished the second pair of Vinca socks for the Summer of Socks 08. You saw the first one earlier but now there are two. This is color 548. I couldn't get the colors to match up because there wasn't as much as the darkest purple/red tones in the second skein as the first. Looking at what is left of the second skein, I don't think it would have helped if I had tried to start further into the skein - those dark tones just don't exist except in the smallest amounts. Anyway, the details are size 2 Harmony DPs, worked from the toe up starting with a figure 8 cast-on of 16 stitches (8 on each of two circulars), a 4-row rectangle that melds into the toe increases up to 60 stitches around. The leg pattern is a 12 stitch Feather & Fan lace with twelve repeats before 8 rows of K2, P2 ribbing. I purled the 3rd row of every lace repeat and this seems to have pulled the lace in lengthwise more than I expected. The leg above the ankle is about 4" unstretched. I'll be posting these to Ravelry's SOS08 group tonight, just in time to qualify for the July 7-18 contest.

These two skeins of Vinca color #8 will turn into the next pair of SOS08 socks. I'm thinking of using the BlueBerry Waffle stitch pattern, but continuing with my standard design of toe up.

This is the reason that pair #3 hasn't been cast on yet. Another K4 lap-robe that will be going to Beaumont Hospital in Troy. It's a version of Stashaholic's Brain Dead afghan which I found on Ravelry. It's a fun pattern to crochet - almost as easy as straight double crochet, but with a lot more interesting texture. I think I'll be using this pattern again & again. For now, I have about 10 more rows to complete and then a border.

Catching Up

2008-07-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

I haven't been blogging much this week, but I have been working on projects and hanging around over on Plurk..

First up, a rather boring yellow lap robe (wheelchair size) for the hospital. Worked in worsted weight yarn, double crochet with a size K hook.

This lap robe is a "rescue". DH came home from garage sales Thursday morning with several bags of yarn including five 12" granny squares and the start of four more that measured about 6". There wasn't any matching yarn, so I crocheted the four small ones together and then assembled them with the full squares. I added onto the sides with a yarn that came close to the outside rows of the big squares and then worked one row of navy blue shells & a row of single crochet around to finish it off at about 30x38".

These next two are hats I knit to go with crocheted scarves that another member of our K4 group made.

Last weekend, I took a photo of the two skeins of Vinca color 548 yarn that I planned on using for the next pair for Summer of Socks 08. Looking at it in the skein, I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised once the first sock was complete.

The pattern is my standard toe-up with a feather & fan lace design in the leg. Unlike the last pair of F&F socks, I purled the 3rd row of the four row pattern and didn't start the lace until the heel was turned and the gussets shaped. I added a few rows of K2, P2 ribbing at the top before binding off. Now to cast on the second one.

What Is The Difference???

2008-07-06T20:25:00.000-04:00

... between a sock cuff that took me over a week to complete and an almost identical cuff that I finished this afternoon? Answer: 1 Formula One British Grand race & 1 Indy Car Watkins Glen race plus a half hour or so of news. Presenting Summer of Socks 08 pair #1:

What you can't really tell from either of these photos is that the leg ribbing is a K3, P2 pattern that shifts one stitch every fourth row. Sounds simple - at least it did when I dreamed it up - but I found when trying to do it while reading, which is my usual knitting style, I was making too many mistakes and it was difficult to keep track while working within the black stripes of the yarn. Therefore, the first sock which was cast on at 12:01 on June 21st seemed to take forever once I got past the heel turn & the gussets. Today with two races to watch, I decided to hide the latest book and concentrate on the sock first & the races second. Next thing I knew, I was heading toward the finish line - ah, I mean bind-off. {g}

The ribbing on the right & left socks spiral in different directions so that they're mirror images. The yarn is On-Line & the sock pattern a version of the toe-up design I came up with earlier this year with the only difference being the ribbing on the leg. I used size 2 Harmony double points after starting the toe with two circulars to obtain a provisional cast-on. This is the same yarn that I attempted to knit on size 1 needles only to find that with that size I get a gauge of 11 stitches to the inch instead of the 8 stitches with size 2 needles. I'll try to get a better photo of the ribbing soon. Right now, I'm going to pick out the skeins of Vinca I want to use for SOS pair #2.

FOs!!!

2008-07-03T19:42:00.002-04:00

A few photos of some finished projects instead of the garden.

I spread the green afghan out for the photo shoot and Boomer thought it was worth investigating. Looks innocent, doesn't he?

"Hmmm.. Maybe there's a mouse under here somewhere?"

"If I tie this chunk of green whatsit in knots, I'll have any resident mice trapped!!"

After *suggesting* that Boomer might like to visit the basement, I tried again. I finished this hat a few weeks ago and then got busy on the afghans. Finished the scarf yesterday so now it's a complete set.

This hat was knit to go with a scarf a new member of our K4 group knit. She wasn't at the meeting today but we'll get them united sooner or later.

No photos yet, but I finished up the first sock this afternoon and cast on for the second. The toe is complete and I'm working toward the heel.

In a comment a couple days ago, Angie asked about the leaf pattern I used on a vest that I made for Mom back in the April 10, 2005 post. The leaf pattern is the exact same one as is shown in the Leisure Arts booklet. I've used different lace patterns, but the lime green version was straight from the pattern, except that I knit the vest in the round up to the armholes instead of knitting a front & a back. Hope that helps.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2008-07-01T15:45:00.001-04:00

Quite well at the moment, thank you..

Remember how small the tomato plants looked when I put them in? They're getting bigger every day.

Just about every one of the plants have blossoms and small tomatoes.

These are the ones I can't wait for - grape tomatoes, my version of summer candy.

The zucchini is blooming, but so far none of the blossoms have baby zukes behind them. I may have to pull out the catnip as it appears to be crowding the zucchini out - something I never thought would happen given the size of the plants I used to get at the other house.

And, finishing up the edible part of the garden, here are the potato plants which are doing nicely despite being up against the south foundation which usually produces too much bounce back heat for anything to grow well.

On to the pretty parts of the garden. Mom's Peace Rose came on strong again this year. This rose is almost as old as I am and has been moved successfully several times.

These lilies were already in the front flower bed when Mom & Dad moved here in 2002. There are a few more of them every year.

Along the side of the garage, the larkspur self-seeded and makes a nice contrast to the Marguerite daisies behind.

The 7-Sisters rose is blooming along the east fence in the back yard.

I don't know what this is - probably a weed - but it's pretty.

Not much knitting in this post, but I finished the second 50x65" afghan about an hour ago. Will try to get a photo before I turn it in. I'm still working on the first SOS08 sock. Whatever possessed me to try a spiral ribbing pattern when I have a new computer & a stack of good books? The sock went quickly until I got to the leg, now it's creeping. I joined Plurk in order to get Wendy's SOS08 sock pattern for members. There's a link to my page up there in the sidebar. I'm enjoying the new computer - especially the sound card that lets me listen to streaming audio of Grateful Dead concerts. You knew I was going to do that, didn't you?? {g}

Summer Of Socks 08 - Started

2008-06-24T16:51:00.001-04:00

It's a little belated because I'm in the process of setting up the NEW COMPUTER, but this photo was taken at 12:34 a.m., Saturday, June 21st.

That's the very start of the toe at which point I gave up and went to bed. The sock is coming along - the toe & foot are done and I started the heel bed. I'm trying a variation of using slip 1, k1 on the right side rows of the heel bed and slip 1, purl across on the wrong side along with offsetting the slip stitches every 4th row. I'll try to get a photo when I get past the heel turn.

Busy Week

2008-06-20T23:39:00.001-04:00

I've been trying to clear the decks for the beginning of the Summer of Socks 08 which starts in about 20 minutes.

First project - which is coming up short by about 12 rows - is an afghan for Beaumont Hospital which asked our K4 group to knit or crochet two full sized afghans and a number of smaller lap robes for which they've provided the yarn. This is the first of the full sized ones (50"x65") which I started on Monday during knitting class.

Second project, which did get finished, is the first pair of socks out of my Vinca sock yarn stash. I love them, but the yarn doesn't run quite true in color sequence even though I pulled out some of the second skein until I was where I thought the colors on the toe of the first sock started.

Details: Vinca super-wash sock yarn, size 2 Harmony DPs, and my toe-up sock pattern. They didn't get finished as fast as the pair I made before them but that was in part because I wanted to work slow so they'd last until SOS08 starts tonight at midnight. I used two circulars and a figure 8 cast on for the toe, worked a small rectangle and then picked up stitches and switched to DPs.

Here are my materials that I'll pick up about 11 minutes from now. Sadie decided that she wanted to help while I was arranging needles & yarn, so she got into the photo.

What's that I see in the front hallway??? A NEW COMPUTER!!! Actually, we got two of them and DH is in the process of getting his set up before he tackles mine. This one has a sound card so I'll be able to listen to knitting pod-casts (and the Grateful Dead) on line.. More later, it's time to cast on..

Back Home Again

2008-06-14T13:12:00.002-04:00

Caution - lots of photos in this post!

I flew back to Michigan from California on Wednesday, starting at about 7:30 California time at LAX as my son-in-law dropped me off on the way to work, and finally getting into Flint about 10:30 Michigan time. I think I'm still recovering from jet lag plus a low grade cold that I might have picked up on the plane.

Anyway, here's where I was - in the San Bernardino Mountains on Highway 18. The scenery was beautiful.

At this spot, they cut through a ridge, but as you can see below there are plenty of places where the roadway hangs on the side of the mountain and from below you're looking up at the underside of the section above you.

The shot below is from a turn-out and is looking down the mountain toward San Bernardino which on a clear day (this one wasn't) is laid out like a toy town below.

And this one is looking back the way we came. The first time I went out after my daughter's family moved "up the hill", she offered to bring a blindfold to the airport in case the drive was scary. I've never found it so but love the changing scenery and the rock formations.

Here, from another day, the fog at lower elevations only lets one see the mountain tops sticking through.

This is my favorite sign - the curve isn't quite that sharp but it does turn 180 degrees in the length of a van while climbing the side of the mountain in Crestline.

Because I didn't finish the red sweater for my grandson until after the weather had started to warm up, I waited and took it along. He was kind enough to model it and, as I planned, there's some room for growth - especially in the sleeves.

Granddaughter's sweater was also modeled. She tells me that she wore it a lot this last winter.

I didn't take any knitting along but Daughter had several skeins of yarn that she was planning on taking to Goodwill - I claimed them for our K4 group instead and used one to crochet a granny square vest for Grand-daughter.. I was her "show & tell" topic at school on Friday and she wanted me to bring along the partly finished vest. I started on the back just before class and continued working on it while fielding questions - most of them about knitting & crocheting {g}..

On Saturday we attended the Munchkins' track meet where Grand-daughter showed her heels to the competition in the relay & hurtles races and tied the 100 meter dash.

Grandson received the Student of the Month award for his classroom. His teacher was kind enough to slip his 3rd grade class into the K-1 assembly so I could be there for the presentation.

When I returned, I found that in my absence, my DH had continued to check garage sales for yarn for our K4 group and had scored a couple more large bags. Here's the back of the car on Thursday when we loaded it up to go to the Sr. Center. I counted while sorting the worsted weight yarn into the cupboards and there were over 100 skeins plus an extra large bag of baby & sport yarn that went to Pat that I didn't count. I think it worked out to about 10¢ a skein!

California Dreaming

2008-06-09T20:42:00.000-04:00

No photos this time because I didn't bring along the cables to hook the camera to my daughter's computer, but I'm in California - safe & sound - since last Tuesday. I helped Becky get the place "sale ready" and we've had three potential buyers come through already since the "For Sale" sign went up last Thursday. Please keep fingers crossed that a buyer will show up soon so Becky & the munchkins can head for Pennsylvania in three weeks with Bill as he goes there for his new job.

The weather is beautiful and I'll miss seeing the mountains when I visit them in PA. Their current home is in the San Bernardino mountains and the trip "up the hill" is spectatular. I took a lot of photos along the road & will post them when I get home. Back home in Michigan, the weather has been hot, humid & rather wild. Storms came through last night and knocked out power for thousands of people. It was worse on the west side of the state where five people were killed. Thankfully, our area was ok. I'm flying back on Wednesday so after I shake off the jet lag and get photos downloaded from the camera I'll try to post by the weekend.

The Garden Is In!!

2008-06-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

Hopefully, we've seen the last of the frosty nights until late fall because I put the garden in on Saturday.

First in were scarlet verbena in the front bed backed by six of eight basil plants. The hostas behind the basil have reached their full size so shouldn't interfere.

Here is the entire bed that's located below the kitchen window (unfortunately, all I can see from the window are the branches of the forsythia blowing back and forth). There's a pink clementis in the corner, a number of orange lilies, some beautiful dark red & bright yellow lilies, the hostas, a peace rose that Mom bought when I was still in elementary school, myrtle & violets besides the annuals that I put right in front. The myrtle & violets are invasive so more of them will be pulled as the summer progresses and the other plants need room.

This bed is in the back yard along the east side of the house and next to the compost pile. I put four grape tomato plants in on the left and there are two cells of zucchini toward the right (only one showing). The other plants are walking or Egyptian onions, a couple violets & lots of catnip for our feline babies.

This isn't a great picture, but it's the area we dug up this spring for garden space. I sort of stuffed the tomato plants in as there are 4 Better Boy, 4 Beefmasters, 4 more Grape, & 4 Early Girl in this space plus the two extra basil plants that didn't fit into the front bed.

Remember the perennial geranium that I posted a couple times earlier this spring when it was first coming up? It's now in bloom and will continue to blossom for most of the summer.

These iris which Mom brought from out on the farm are close by along the east side of the garage. They aren't anything special other than they bloomed out at the farm for as long as I can remember along the south & west foundations. Like the cabbage & 7 Sisters roses, they invoke lots of memories.

I turned the heel on the second Vinca #10 sock last night and started the K2, P2 ribbing for the leg. No knitting photos this time. Tomorrow morning at O'dark thirty, I get on a plane at the Flint airport heading for California and a visit with my daughters, son-in-law & grandchildren. Lots of stuff left to pack!!

See Why I Love This Guy??

2008-05-30T17:39:00.000-04:00

We went to a lot of garage sales yesterday and had planned on doing it again this morning, but I had trouble sleeping last night and wasn't ready to greet the rosy fingers of dawn until almost noon. DH left a note and went without me which was fine, but just look at what he brought back!! Four large bags of yarn all for $4 for our K4 group!!

This pile is baby & sport weight yarn that will be given to Pat. Pat crochets the most exquisite baby sets & blankets so this will give her a lot to work with over the summer.

This pile is worsted weight so it's destined for hats, scarves, shawls & afghans. Our usual yarn supply store, Meijer's, seems to be going out of the yarn business and only carries about 1/10th of what they used to, so lucking into all of this for less than what it would cost for two skeins regularly is great. And I wasn't even along {bg}..

At K4 yesterday, we found that someone had dropped off a couple bags of yarn including one of fancy stuff. I combined a navy with slubs of rainbow colors with a ball of purple Fun Fur and came up with this hat.

The bag also included a number of unusual yarns in shades of green so I'm making this fashion scarf for our craft sale later this year. I think the flash missed going off so I apologize for the dark picture. Once it's completed I'll try to get a better shot. This is being knit with one strand of a bluish green worsted worked together with the fancy stuff on size 19 needles. Next to it you can see the smaller selection of reds that I hope to use for another scarf.

Here's my latest sock! Knit with Vinca Colorway #10 on size 2 Harmony double points. My usual pattern with a simple K2, P2 ribbing for the leg.

It turned out way neater than I'd hoped seeing the yarn in the skein. Instead of "garish" as I described it in an earlier post, it's "vibrant" and I love it.

A MeMe Redux

2008-05-27T20:00:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I left out 3/5ths of the MeMe from Sallee's blog. That's what happens when I blog late at night {g}...

3. Snacks I enjoy: I haven't been indulging much recently, but I love Wheat Thins with the yummy salmon dip that my DH makes, tabouli, salsa with white corn chips, guacamole & (strange as it may sound) elbow macaroni with butter, salt & pepper.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Set up college funds for my grandchildren that would see them through doctorates if they wanted, have our private road paved so none of us (10 houses) have to put up with potholes anymore, add a sunroom on the back and plant some tall evergreens along the fence so we wouldn't feel like we were looking into the neighbor's yard behind us, order lots of yarn for our K4 group, donate a wide variety of knitting books to the local library. We aren't really into accumulating a lot of "things", so there isn't a whole lot that I want or need.

5. Places I have lived: All in Michigan: a farm a mile north of Berville; the dorms at Oakland University, Rochester; Centerline; Clawson; Pontiac; Walled Lake; Waterford & here in Lake Orion.

6. Jobs I have had: Research assistant for several profs; babysitter; file clerk; waitress; teacher; mother; electronic assembly; machine tool detailing; computer programmer; office manager for a software company; printed circuit designer.

Now for that To-Do list for today - not everything was accomplished. We put off the cemetery trip because there's a frost warning out for tonight and I didn't want to plant flowers just to have them killed by frost.

The garden did get finished, but it still needs to be raked even. It's not very big, however I'll probably expand it next year. There's an area on the east side of the house that will hold at least four tomato plants and I'm hoping to get a dozen in this spot along with basil & a couple hills of zucchini.

Here are the seed potatoes cut into chunks with an eye in each and allowed to dry overnight to form a callus so they won't rot when planted.

About half of them in a trench along the south foundation of the house. I back filled lightly so I have soil left to mound them when they start coming up.

The corner flower bed. The forget-me-nots are still blooming, the hosta is up and the poppies have large buds. This poppy was a volunteer that started showing a few leaves a couple years ago. It had one flower last year and is going to have at least three this year. It's one of the red orange ones. I wish that poppies transplanted well as I have a pale pink one with burgundy centers at the other house that I wouldn't mind having here.

This is how most of my blogging is done recently - with cat in lap.

Monday MeMe

2008-05-26T23:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, it's going to be Monday if I can finish in 13 minutes, otherwise it's going to be a Tuesday MeMe.. I found this on Sallee's Knitnana Blog

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was working in the CAD department of a local company that assembled surface mount electronic assemblies for various companies. It was a good job that I enjoyed and still miss. Unfortunately, the next company I worked for - a telecommuting position doing the same type of work - saw fit to outsource the work in 2002 to someone in China for 1/12th of what I'd been paid.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

In that it's almost midnight, I'll write the list for tomorrow:

1. Water the lawn so that the grass seed that was scattered on Thursday has a chance of survival (the rain that was supposed to show up today and tonight whimped out.

2. Finish digging up the garden area so that I can plant before I head for California on the 3rd to see my daughters & grandchildren.

3. Make a belated trip to Richards Cemetery to decorate the graves of my Grandparents, Greats & Great-greats.

4. Fix a decent dinner for one of my "eat days" - 25#s down since late January!! I've been dieting by eating one day and fasting the second.

5. Small tasks: plant the seed potatoes I bought a couple weeks ago and that are now cut into sections and drying on the kitchen counter; continue knitting on the sock from the "Loud" skeins of Vinca yarn that I started this evening; update my reading list on the blog template (probably do that before I shut down for the evening).

That should keep me busy enough. {g}

Socks, Socks, Socks

2008-05-24T21:33:00.002-04:00

I just finished the second sock of my latest pair.

A toe-up using a variation of the Feather & Fan or Old Shale lace pattern. The standard pattern has an 18 stitch repeat, but my sock was 60 stitches around and I didn't want to either increase or decrease to obtain a multiple of 18 stitches. So, I did a K2TOG twice, (YO, K1) 4 times, SSK twice for a 12 stitch repeat.

The yarn is a "feather-weight" from Columbia Minerva that I picked up at a garage sale, 100% moth-proofed wool in a rust, gold & green heather. I used size 2 needles for everything but the garter stitch at the top of the cuff where I used size 3 needles and then bound off with size 4. On the first sock, I bound off at the end of the fourteenth repeat of the lace on the leg but it rolled out and doesn't look very good. Hence the garter stitch band at the top of this one. Now I need to go back, tink back the bind-off and finish that sock to match this one.

This is my latest stash enhancement destined for use in the Summer of Socks 08 KAL. I ordered it from Julia's Craft on Etsy - 20 skeins of Vinca superwash sock yarn in 10 colorways. The KAL doesn't start until June 21st (the first day of summer as my friend Sallee pointed out when I wondered why it wasn't starting right after the sign-up period {g}), but I'm not sure that I'll be able to hold out that long before seeing how the yarn works up. I'll probably play around with those two rather garish skeins that are the fourth down in the left hand package.

Nothing Exciting

2008-05-21T23:46:00.001-04:00

I've been working away on hats to match scarves that Frances of our K4 group has been crocheting.

These three will go with a solid red scarf, a solid peach scarf and a tan & brown striped scarf. The skein of red yarn was 8 oz, so I knit a second red hat with black fair isle as there's still enough of the skein left for another scarf.

This set is knit in a mohair like yarn that Pat gave me years ago. When I first received the yarn I knit a hip length vest with a deep "V" neck that I've worn a lot from it but that left four skeins. This set took two of them so there's enough left for another set.

Our furry kids appear to be taking turns in the doll cradle. Boomer is the most likely occupant and while Sadie has tried it out a couple times, she still prefers her rocker.

When Callie can't grab the cradle, she makes do with the back of my recliner.

Rockabye Baby

2008-05-16T20:02:00.000-04:00

At yesterday's garage sales I found something I've been hoping to find for years.

A wooden doll cradle where I can display the doll quilts I've made over the years. This one is a duplicate of an antique doll quilt that I saw at the Historical Museum up the road in Oxford.

A side view of the cradle. I think it's fairly old but it has been put back together with phillips head screws holding the side panels onto the frame.

Whether it's new or old, it has been awarded the Seal of Feline Approval. {g}

Out in the back yard, the forget-me-nots are blooming while the purple tulips are hanging tough. The orange ones have all lost their petals and are hopefully storing up energy for next year.

And in a corner of one of the vegetable beds, the violets add a bit of color.

Just in case you think that I'm ignoring my knitting, I finished a hat & scarf set for K4 this afternoon and cast on for another set with some Wool-Ease that I found at a garage sale this afternoon. I'm almost done with the latest pair of socks and this afternoon splurged and ordered twenty skeins of Vinca superwash wool & nylon sock yarn in ten different colorways. Once it arrives, I'll be set for the Summer of Socks 08 KAL.

Who Would Have Thunk?????

2008-05-14T18:16:00.001-04:00

If someone told me a year or so ago when I was struggling with the short row heels on the Sassy Stripes socks that I would someday join this KAL, I'd have told them that they were crazy..

But I did it and I'm almost through knitting another pair of socks. Only problem is that I don't have much in the way of sock yarn and the KAL doesn't start until June, so the socks I'm working on won't count. Guess I'd better slow down and save my very small stash, huh?

Speedy Gonzales

2008-05-08T18:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know that I'm not all that speedy, but it feels like it now that I've finished a pair of socks in less than a week.

Presenting the socks I cast on last Thursday night and that I finished last night (Wednesday).

Yarn: On-line superwash sock yarn. Needles: Harmony DPs size 2 Gauge: 8 stitches to the inch. Pattern: My own toe-up sock with a variation of the heel pattern that Sallee told me about.

What A Difference A Needle Makes

2008-05-02T14:56:00.001-04:00

I mentioned in my last post the difference the Brittany DP needles made in finishing the sleeves of Grandson's sweater, well, I just found the difference between size 1 & size 2 sock needles.

My friend Sallee (Knitnana) uses size 1 needles for her socks so I thought I'd take my pair of Harmony needles for a spin. You can see the result on the right below.

I started out the toe with 12 stitches on each of two circular needles, knit my usual 5 row rectangle, then picked up two stitches at each end, and the stitches off the second circular for a total of 28 before I started my increases. I was working along when I realized that this toe was not going to fit my foot. I was getting 11 stitches to the inch instead of the 8 stitches Sallee gets on #1s. Now, I usually knit to gauge with the needles recommended for a pattern and I'm not a tight or a loose knitter. Just to see what would happen, I took the other skein of OnLine sock yarn and started working it on size 2 needles only using 10 stitches on each circular to start and working up to 60 stitches for the foot. What a difference as you can see on the left! I'm getting 8 stitches to the inch and the sock toe is the same size as the Marine Blue Heather pair that I just finished which means it will fit. I'll continue with this pair, frog the toe worked on 1s and maybe, just maybe, calculate out how many stitches and rows I'd need to make a sock that would fit on the #1s.

Out in the front flower bed, the forsythia is blooming along with the tulips & violets. The hostas have just broken through and look as though they doubled in size since I planted them two years ago for Mom.

Remember the little pink nubs that were just showing a couple weeks ago? They were the first sign of the perennial geranium which has now leafed out. Sometime soon, I have to get part of the back yard dug up for a vegetable garden as I want a few more tomato plants than Mom usually put in along with basil and maybe zucchini. It's still too early to plant - we had a heavy frost the other night but thankfully the perennials & the roses are tough and came through without any loses.

Finish-itis

2008-04-30T16:17:00.002-04:00

I had a serious case of Finish-itis on Monday!

First up - Grandson's sweater. What a difference needles can make. I mentioned last Saturday that I'd purchased a set of Brittany Birch size 10.5 DPs. With those in hand, I whipped through knitting the sleeves and finished running in the yarn ends shortly after I returned home from teaching knitting.

Fair Isle yoked seamless sweater worked in Bernat worsted weight acrylic on size 9 & 10.5 needles. Knit in the round up to the armholes and then split for back & front yokes. Three needle bind-off for the shoulders, then the sleeve stitches were picked up around the armhole & knit down to the cuff. The snowflake pattern is from Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting and is worked over 25 stitches for 25 rows. Lessons learned: A boat neck needs to be larger than I made this one, even though I decreased the percentage of stitches for the shoulders from what Elizabeth Zimmerman's ESP calculations suggested. I wound up having to pick out the neck bind-off and removed the 3 needle shoulder bind-off for about 3 stitches on each side. I then worked a K1 red, P1 white ribbing for six rows and, switching to plain red worked six more rows of ribbing that was folded to the inside and tacked. I'm just hoping that this doesn't make the front neck too high for comfort.

Secondly, the Marine Blue Heather Palette socks with the lace up the instep and then all around the cuff.

See, there really are two of them!

And a close up of the heel & the cuff lace. Worked in Palette fingering weight yarn from KnitPicks on size 2 Harmony DPs. Started in March, finished originally on Monday, but then I frogged the bind-off of the second sock and reworked it with a size 4 needle to get the needed amount of stretch.

Also on Monday, I brought home two crocheted scarves, a light blue and a speckled navy that Frances had crocheted and made hats to go with them. It helped that I had a full night of TV with Bones, House and then PBS's Carrier. The teal hat with the variegated slip stitch pattern was completed last night and goes with a plain teal garter stitch scarf that I knit last week.

We went to an ALYS (Almost Local Yarn Store) over in Rochester today while we were there on other business this afternoon and I found these needles on the $3 table. A 35" size 1 circular and a 16" size 15, both Crystal Palace bamboo. My Boye NeedleMaster set doesn't go down to size 1 so this circular is long enough to let me cast on over the two points and make the little rectangle I use for the toe when I'm making socks.

And here, hiding behind the fan we needed last week when we broke a record high with 80° and don't need this week when we're challenging record lows set back in the 1870s, is Callie who is probably wondering why Mommy is spreading knitting out of the floor and hoping that it gets left there for a kitty bed.

Yesterday was a great day. My friend Coralynn is in town from AZ to visit her daughter and we got together to talk, laugh & have lunch. We've been emailing and working on genealogy together since 1999 and this is the first we've met in person. She's just as neat a lady face to face as she is via the web and I had a wonderful time.

Insert Snazzy Title Here....

2008-04-26T13:14:00.000-04:00

Because I can't think of a good title this afternoon. This post is sort of a hodge-podge.

First of all, Grandson's sweater is coming along. I had the first sleeve almost finished when I realized that I had been working to the wrong measurement and had to rip back. I'm decreasing at a slower rate now which let me leave the sleeve on the 16" Inox circular longer which helped as I'm faster on a circular than I am on DPs. The shoulder seams have been finished off with a 3-needle bind-off, but I think I'm going to have to do something more with the boat neckline as I don't like the way it currently rolls outward. I'm thinking of a short stand-up neck-band in the red & white alternating stitches, perhaps in seed stitch.

I'm continuing to work on hat & scarf sets for our K4 group. Here are two that I finished this week and another set is on the needles.

Garage sales have started and I was able to pick up these three skeins of yarn for $1 total. One is Bernat black worsted and the other two are Baby Soft in a pale blue. I'll take the latter to K4 next Thursday for my friend Pat who is always looking for baby yarn and then probably make a hat & scarf set out of the black. Our local Meijer's store where our group usually stocks up on yarn appears to be discontinuing the department, so this summer I'll be searching garage sales to stock the cupboard at the Sr. Center with worsted weight sayelle.

On the way home from shopping this morning, we stopped by the LYS Heritage Spinning & Weaving and I brought home a sack of goodies. In the center, a second 16" size 10.5 Inox circular so I can work on a hat at the same time as I'm using that size to work on a sweater *and* a set of Brittany 10.5 DPs. I love my Harmony DPs in the small sizes, but find that working with the 10.5s make my fingers hurt because the points are sharp. The store had Bryspun DPs in that size for the first time since I've been trying to find a set that's shorter than the 10" ones you can see on the sweater sleeve, but after pressing my finger against the points of those, they were as sharp as the Harmony ones. I'm hoping that I won't have that problem with the birch needles - I have a set of them in size 13 that I like.

Then on either side of the needles, a couple real finds. 100 gram skeins of On-Line super-wash sock yarn at 75% off. Instead of the usual $16 a skein, I got these for $4 each (plus tax). I'm almost finished with the second Marine Blue Heather sock and had planned to work up the KnitPicks natural flecked superwash next, but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't satisfy my curiosity on how these On-Line yarns in the Nepal colorways will knit up. That's color #785 on the left & #781 on the right.

Spring Has Sprung

2008-04-19T18:57:00.001-04:00

Here's how I've been spending at least some of my time recently:

The flower bed by the front steps, just under the kitchen window, was over-run by myrtle. I've been slowly ripping it out along with some of the wayward violets that were also trying to take it over. I'm not done yet, but I've uncovered tulips, lilies, and some other plants that weren't doing too well before I started.

This is along the side of the garage. Several years back, my friend Kim came up from Kentucky for a visit and brought along some plants for Mom's garden. This is a perennial geranium that started out as a very small plant. Over the past couple years, it has spread to the point that a bushel basket would no longer cover it even at this early stage of growth. I'm not removing all the leaves from last fall just yet as, while our recent temperatures have been in the 70s during the day, the forecast for a week from now includes some pretty chilly nights. At least they've changed the forecast for the better as SNOW isn't included anymore.

The first daffodil bloom - there were originally four bulbs planted here but only two have come up this spring.

Remember the last early photos of the Seven Sisters rose? Those little leaf buds are developing into actual leaves.

And in the bed in the south-east corner of the backyard, a couple more daffodils are making an appearance. This is another bed where the myrtle is trying to take over and will need to be ripped back so I don't lose the other plants.

The tulips are showing the first signs of producing buds. I have no idea what color these are going to be.

Against the south wall of the house, violets are already blooming. The day-lilies get an early start in this area, but later in the summer the bounce back from the foundation makes it difficult to keep things alive.

And the rhubarb!! The stems aren't long enough to pick yet, but you're looking at cobbler on the hoof {bg}

I have been knitting and will try to get photos of some of the latest projects but it has been so nice out and without mosquitoes so far, I've been trying to get as much done as I can.

MIA

2008-04-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

I've certainly been Missing In Action this last month. Lots of stuff going on with the move to the new house which is progressing slowly but surely. The computer is working (sort of) and the camera cable finally reinstalled so I can post some photos.

It's been a long hard winter here in southeast Michigan and I'm not assuming that it's over yet, but this weekend & today were glorious! Spring is starting to play peekaboo..

The rhubarb along the south side of the house is starting to show the little red bumps of growing leaves that presage rhubarb cobbler in about six more weeks.

The tulips I planted last fall are starting to sprout. I didn't plant the entire bag that our neighbor across the road gave me and some of them were sprouting, so when I was cleaning out the flower beds yesterday, I stuck the ones with shoots into the ground - probably planted them too shallowly, but I'll replant them deeper next fall.

It doesn't take much to make me happy - here you can see the first faint evidence that the Seven Sisters rose made it though another winter in the small leaf buds along the runner.

And here is why our three cats have been blissful recently: the first catnip leaves of spring which were sprouting under a covering blanket of leaves.

On the moving front, since it's been dry & sunny so we weren't in danger of tracking snow and/or mud into the house for the first time in months, we moved the antique oak cupboard that used to sit in the entry way at the old house and found that it fit almost perfectly into this corner between the fireplace and the hall. The lamp is an antique that belonged to my Grand-aunt Ruth. We also moved the oak table and two chairs over so the kitchen is almost complete except for needing to clean off the peninsula counter top which has attracted all the tools DH needs for what he calls his "Honey, do" projects. These include new towel racks in the master bathroom, fluorescent lights in the basement and the old shelves from the pantry installed in one corner of the garage.

And just to assure you that I haven't been totally asleep knit-wise, there are fourteen hat & scarf sets in this tote along with the toddler sweater & a shawl - all for our 4K group. I forgot to get a photo of grandson's sweater. The body is complete and I'm working on the first sleeve.

A Contest At Knitnana

2008-03-18T05:22:00.002-04:00

My very good friend, Sallee, has a new contest over on her blog Knitnana. This last weekend, she added a new goodie to her line of Nana Sadie Rose bags & needle holders. Gladys is designed to hold interchangeable needle sets like KnitPicks Options or the Boye NeedleMaster sets. What's the contest, you ask? It's voting on which type of closing you think the needle case should have - a ribbon tie, a button tab, or an elastic loop and button. A little over a month ago (see the Feb 7th post) I received my Grand Mera & Posy bags, and an Oressa double pointed needle holder. I love them!! And I can testify to the meticulous workmanship of Sallee's masterpieces. So click on the link up there and voice your opinion. The contest's prize is a Gladys all your own. Be sure to look at all the other bags she sells while you're there.

In other news, we are in the middle of the move to the new house. It's going slowly as there's no rush, but cats, computers, cookware, yarn, needles & books are over here now and as we discover that we're missing something, we drive the two blocks to the old house and grab it. I'm in the middle of deciding how to use all my new cupboard & pantry space. The spices were moved yesterday - yes, I have lots of spices as we like Thai, Indian, Mexican, & Lebanese dishes - and are now "filed" in the bottom pull out shelves next to the stove. They're even in vaguely alphabetical order with labels on the top so I can see what I have at a glance. This is going to be so much nicer than having to rummage through a cabinet shelf in search of the Five Spice powder for stir-fry. {g}..

As you might imagine, with all this going on, I haven't had much time for knitting. Sock #2 is about where I left it a couple weeks ago. I did whip up four plain hats last week between Monday & Thursday to go with scarves one of our K4 members, Frances, had crocheted and knit a black garter stitch scarf over the weekend. My biggest project at the moment is the sweater that I'm designing for my grandson. These photos are from a week ago, but I now have the fair isle pattern on the yoke complete and am just about ready to start the back yoke.

The yarn is Bernat's Super Saver worsted weight on 10½ needles. The body is knit in the round up to the armholes and then back & forth for the yokes. The Norwegian Star pattern is from Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting Book. It's another "design as I go" original so things may change as I go along, but right now I'm planning on a boat neck with 3-needle bind-offs for the shoulders, then picking up the sleeves on 16" circulars and using a small fair isle pattern at the top while I work down to the cuffs in the round. Grand-daughter's sweater arrived in California last week and she tells me that she's already worn it to school, kung-fu class & Girl Scouts. I think it made a hit!

A Rose By Any Other...

2008-03-09T14:20:00.001-04:00

Found this one on Shelob's site who originally borrowed it from Sallee's:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
14
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

There seem to be some 379,493 Janes out there and some of are gathering in the Not A Plain Jane group on Ravelry. I think I'm the only one in the group with the "Plain Jane" handle which sort of negates the title of the group. Ah well, after so many years as a Jane and only meeting five or six in my lifetime, it's nice to see a whole lot of others who grew up with "Me Tarzan", "Jane Doe", and, yes, "Plain Jane" comments. {g} There are only 14 with both my first & last name in the whole country - one of them races huskies, but that's not me.

On the knitting front, the sweater has been shipped to my Grand-daughter and Grand-son's is on the needles though no photos yet. The rest of my knitting this week has been pretty bland - a "fashion" hat & scarf in a pale mauve chenille yarn, two hats in aran fleck to go with scarves I'd made earlier plus a couple washcloths knit while I was web surfing, not the stuff of exciting photo sessions.

Sock Hop

2008-02-27T22:48:00.000-05:00

The first sock is finished - KnitPicks' Palette in Marine Blue Heather on size 2 dps with a lace pattern borrowed from Knitty's Falling Leaves

A better view of the lace on the cuff and the heel shaping. No "second sock syndrome" as I cast on for #2 this evening while watching the Pete Seeger episode of American Masters on PBS and finished the toe shaping. I'm hoping that I'm familiar enough with the lace pattern now that I can work on it during tomorrow night's LOST where I try to keep my eyes on the screen as much as possible because one never knows what's going to happen next.

Sadie likes to perch on the computer tower and keep an eye on me while I'm up here.

One Finished & One Pair Almost Half Done

2008-02-25T18:07:00.001-05:00

I finished DGD's sweater.

No seams except for the sleeves which were 3-needle bind-offs. I hope she likes it.

The sock is coming along. I'm working the lace from the instep all around the leg. I'll probably do another lace repeat and then some ribbing to help it stay in place.

I like the way that the heel turned out. I used my friend Sallee's toe-up heel flap but moved the decreases from the back of the heel to one stitch either side of the instep.

Keep On Trucking..

2008-02-16T18:22:00.000-05:00

Grand-daughter's sweater is continuing apace. The sleeves are finished except for the cuffs and in this photo you can see the neck shaping. I was planning on a Henley style neck, but neglected to leave some space for the plackets so I'll probably just crochet around the opening, first in the light blue and then in the darker blue of the fair isle. I'm debating whether to do the neck, cuffs & bottom ribbing in the dark blue.

The pink & red cotton yarn chains are holding the provisional stitches for the front of the neck. Because this yarn is heavier than the Knit-Cro-Sheen I used on the toddler sweater last month, it didn't pull through the stitches and make them hard to pick up.

The entire three-needle bind-off for the underarm seams of the sleeves worked beautifully. I'd never been able to get them looking this nice if I'd tried to sew them or - even worse - use kitchner stitch.

The sock has been progressing. It went a lot better after I discovered that I was skipping the "rest rows" of the lace. I had to frog back to the toe shaping and start over but now it's going smoothly. It looks a little funny on my foot as I've started the heel shaping with gussets and it's a little too long to fit on my foot without putting the instep on two needles.

Here it is flat which shows off the lace better. Once I finish the heel, I plan on using the lace pattern all the way around the leg. I'm getting to the point where I only have to refer to the chart now & then which is a huge improvement over most of my attempts at lace.

An Almost Finished Kitchen!

2008-02-12T23:49:00.000-05:00

Finally, as promised, photos of the new kitchen..

Looking toward the wall with the stove, microwave, refrigerator (on the left) and the dishwasher. Haven't taken the labels off the dishwasher yet - probably should have before taking the photos.

Look at all the counter space on the peninsula!!

Another shot of the peninsula - can you tell that I'm in love with all the counter space? {g}

A close up of the counter laminate - Coral Roca by Wilsonart. It has a nice textured look without having a texture.

All of the base cupboards except the blind corner between the stove & dishwasher and the sink one have two pull out shelves that are adjustable in height.

Another close up, this time of the wrought iron finger pulls on the drawers & doors. I love the little engraved leaves. I didn't get a good photo of it, but I found a wrought iron style floor grate for the heating duct that moved out to the end of the peninsula. It looks right in period with the pulls and the Mission style quarter sawn oak. Now I need to figure out the most efficient use of all this space which is probably between two & three times as much as I have in this house.

On the knitting front, I've finished the right side of the sweater yoke and need to put those stitches on a holder so I can work on the left front yoke. The lace pattern on the Marine Blue Heather sock is going better now that I finally realized that the chart only showed the pattern rows & I need to work a plain "rest row" in between.

A'designing We Do Go...

2008-02-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

Doesn't everyone sketch their sweater designs on USNews subscription pull-out cards?? It was the only thing handy when I started thinking what I wanted DGD's sweater to look like. The notebook page is the rough draft of what I'm doing to turn the sketch into a pattern. You'll notice many scratched out numbers.

I'm starting this sweater out in a different way than I've ever tried before. First I crocheted a long chain in dishcloth cotton having learned from the toddler sweater last month that Knit-Cro-Sheen wasn't heavy enough to control the picked up provisional stitches. From there I picked up enough stitches to form both sleeves & the back yoke which will be knitted up & over the shoulders. The pink is the cotton that will go away once I pick up the stitches; the sweater will be light blue as the main color & colonial blue for the small fair isle design that will run across the shoulder & down the sleeve.

Here's a closer look at the very simple 6 row fair isle. I'll reverse it on the other side of the neck so that all the "leaves" will point toward the wrist. I'm just starting to shape the neck. After a few more increases, I'll use another provisional for the front of the neck and then work the front yoke to an equal depth with the back. It's going to have a Henley style neckline. Once the yokes are completed, I'll use a 3 needle bind-off for the sleeve seam and then knit the rest in the round from the yoke down. I'm hoping that it all turns out the first try, but if not, I've had a lot of practice visiting the Frog Pond. {g}

Happy Dance!!!!

2008-02-07T12:16:00.000-05:00

The mail person brought me a box today!

Presenting my Nana Sadie Rose Grand Mera bag. Don't those leaping kitties bring a grin to your face? I know that they do to mine!

Here's the inside. Six - count em', SIX - pockets to put knitting accessories, patterns, and what have you instead of having them scattered in the bag and snagging on the knitting. And plenty of room in the center section for several projects and extra yarn. I *love* it.

I ordered a matching Oressa double point needle holder and promptly stuffed it with all the DPs I could find. My size 1 & 3 Harmony needles are in the lower pockets with the longer size 4s in the upper pocket. I love the Harmony needles, but the cellophane packets they come in are annoying and difficult to get the needles in and out. Now my needles have a far nicer home. My size 2 Harmony needles aren't in the Oressa because they're busy with the sock I posted yesterday. But look at that clump of metal needles in the upper size 2 slot. I had no idea that I had somehow accumulated fourteen size 2 metal DPs. I have a feeling that a lot of these were garage sale finds as I don't have the will power to turn down a bargain. However, those metal needles may be moved into storage as they're hard on my hands. I stuck a couple small crochet hooks in for those inevitable times when a stitch slips off a needle and has to be recovered.

Here's the outside that matches the Grand Mera.

And all rolled up. Note the button - a gold star to match both the little stars in the leaping kitties print and the gold stars on red that Sallee used to line the Grand Mera.

And last, but not least, a Posy in a print that is Grateful Dead friendly. Ok, it's not officially the Skull & Roses (note the t-shirt I'm wearing in the photo of Boomer back on November 15th), but it's close enough. This is going to be the new home for my sock projects. The long strap lets me put it over my shoulder and have both hands free for knitting on the go. No more having the needles catch on the small felted bag I'm using now - with up to 5 needles and 10 points used working on a sock, you'd be surprised at how many ways they can catch!

And here's the inside - more pockets!! Can you tell that I'm super happy?? Thanks, Sallee!!!

Bad, Bad Blogger

2008-02-06T23:38:00.000-05:00

It sure seems like I've posted here at least once since January 14th, but I haven't - at least not a regular post though I have updated the book list a couple times. I have been busy.

I've been working on this shawl off and on for a couple weeks. It's similar to the ones I made for K4, but this one is all mine thanks to Sallee sending me the Rainbow Dreams yarn when she decided that she didn't like it.

A slightly wider shot, but at the moment there's no room to spread it out here. Too much junk pulled out in the process of packing. It's a large triangular shawl started at the neck and worked out in triangular sides on size 15 needles, 4 increases every other row. The feather & fan lace gets a little lost in the color variegation's of the yarn, but it will be warm to snuggle with these cold winter nights.

Here are the blue socks I started back in November finished last week. I wasn't quite sure that I had enough yarn to make lengthy cuffs on both so I shorted the first sock only to find as I was completing the second one that there was lots of yarn left. I made that cuff longer and then went back and picked up the stitches of the first one off the cast-off row (tinking back four rows before I was sure that I had all the stitches) and lengthened the cuff to match.

Here's a close up of the lacy ribbing for the cuff. It's a K2tog, YO, K1, YO, SSK repeat on every other row.

And because I can't seem to stay away from the size 2 Harmony double points and soft yarn, here is the next experiment. I'm working this one in KnitPicks Marine Heather Palette. I love the color though I am having a bit of difficulty seeing it when I'm working in the evening. The lace pattern is one repeat of the lace used on the Falling Leaves socks on Knitty, but the sock pattern itself is my own and another experiment. I used a figure 8 cast-on over two circulars, but then worked a 5 row rectangle on the stitches on one side before picking up 2 stitches at each end and the loops on the other circular needle. After that, I increased as usual and started the lace pattern as soon as the toe increases were completed. I'm still no whiz at knitting lace, but I am getting a little better at following charts.

Fuzzy Thinking

2008-01-14T19:21:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to come down with a cold the last few days - at least that's the excuse I'm giving for my fuzzy thinking patterns recently. I finished the toddler sweater this evening despite the fact that I made a major goof when I divided the body for the front & back. I didn't stop to count the stitches that I was leaving for the other side and had about 20 stitches more on the first yoke & sleeves than I did on the second set. I punted by increasing along the next to the last row of the 2nd yoke. If you look, you can see the extra stitches on this side sort of tucked under. I think it will be ok when it's worn and in that it was only an experiment in provisional casting on, I wasn't going to take it all out back to the body in the round. If I make this pattern again, I'm going to 1) be more careful about marking the half way point around the body & 2) recalculate the stitches using 10½ needles. Working this long on size 8's was hard on my hands.

Here's a look at the shoulders with the 3-needle bind-off eliminating the need to sew the shoulders.

And the underarm where the provisional cast-on was picked up to work the opposite side of the yoke & sleeves. Because picking up from a provisional cast-on leaves you with one less stitch than you had on the first side, I picked up stitches from the gaps between the sleeves & the body, two on each underarm and then knit them together in the next row to close the gap and make up the extra stitches.

Another almost finished project is the first blue sock. Last seen, I had just turned the heel. After a couple rows of plain knit, I started the cuff in an easy lace pattern. I had thought to top it with ribbing, but when I worked a few rows, I decided that I didn't like it and the lace was fairly stretchy on it's own, so I frogged back and continued to work in the lace pattern.

Here's the heel - a toe up flap version that was fairly easy - Thanks, Sallee!

I'm almost to the halfway point of the skein, so I'm going to have to bind-off fairly soon and start the second sock.

A New Translation

2008-01-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

A member of our K4 knitting group (Hi, Marian!!) asked me earlier this fall if I could figure out a way of making this sweater without having to seam the front & back halves together. I've been working on it for a week or so and this is how far I've progressed.

I knit the front & back of the body in the round and when I reached the underarm I used a provisional cast-on from a crocheted chain (that's Knit-Cro-Sheen which has the advantage of not splitting when picking up stitches). When I reach the front shoulder in a few more rows, I'll bind off for the neck and then leave the shoulder stitches on holders while I go back and release the sleeve stitches from the chain. At that point, I can knit up the back yoke & sleeves and when I reach the shoulders do a 3-needle bind-off. If everything works the way I'm hoping, it will be finished except for running in yarn ends.

I did have one small problem that I didn't go back to fix. I'm working the sweater on size 6 & 8 needles rather than the 5 & 7s that the pattern calls for because that's what I had handy. However, I'm so used to working on size 10½s that when it came time to switch to straight needles and pick up the sleeve stitches from the crocheted chains, I grabbed a 10½. If you look closely at the circled area of the following photo you can see a row of larger stitches.

In other news, DH's new pair of Fuzzy Feet are finished and felted. The addition of the strand of sport-weight orlon didn't affect the felting process at all. On the blue sock, I had started working a lace cuff and then after about 4" had switched to a rib. After looking at it for a while, I decided that I didn't like the rib with the lace so last night I frogged back to the lace section and will continue with that without ribbing. I'll post photos soon.