Saturday, December 30, 2006

My turn

Getting to the computer is getting hard with everybody being off for the holiday break and having one computer to share. But it’s my turn and here I am.

I always have to rethink what I’m going to post about because one of the first things I want to say is, there isn’t much going on. There is always something going on it’s just that I’m not sure how bored you want to be with oh what we are doing right now, which is cleaning up. We must have made 8 or more trips to the dump in the last two weeks. Maybe I should take pictures of us cleaning out the shed, us tearing down the shed, us filling up trash bags, uh no I don’t think so. However, I am determined to take the camera to the trash place. It is actually a really neat place to visit. They are very organized with recycling wood, metals etc.

Well let’s move on it’s getting close to the New Year and that time to get that feeling of a new beginning. I figure the two top resolutions on most peoples list are to get organized and to get healthier. If you noticed on the right I have a list of blogs I like to visit. There are actually a lot more that I like to visit then what’s here. I started to use a blog reader to keep up with them. I use google reader. I know there are others out there, like bloglines but I chose to use google. You basically put in the webpage/blog you like to visit and then when you come back to the google reader it will tell you which web pages have been updated. This way it allows me to see who has updated their blogs without having to visit each blog to see if they have updated, saves time. I figure most of you who read several blogs already use something like this but for those who don’t I recommend it.

Speaking of blogs have you seen this one? Lets Knit2gether it’s a video podcast about knitting. I get tickled every time I go to it. It’s just seems like the media/information world has came along way from oh say the first broadcast on the radio.

Another blog that might interest people that are trying to meet that second resolution of a healthier lifestyle is CalorieLab Calorie Counter News. It has a lot of information on health news and highlights blogs of people who are trying to lose weight.

Hmm, something is missing here, oh yeah the pictures. I really like pictures on blogs. What do they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here’s a picture taken later on Christmas day.


Here’s one I just took. My knitting gifts from family.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Hurry hurry hurry

Well I haven’t written in awhile so thought I should give a quick update. It seems like it has been hurry hurry hurry lately and I'm really looking forward to slowing down. Let’s see Dax had another performance at school (good), Rudy dropped a refrigerator on my tomato plant killing it (bad), I smashed my right index finger in the truck (bad), and Dax celebrated her 12th birthday (good). Hmm, two bads two goods, let’s say Dax’s birthday counts as a double good that way the goods out way the bads :).

We’ve decided to start on the landscaping on the yard. The first part of this is to clean everything out of the yard. Rudy wanted to clean out the barn to use as storage area. So we took the old refrigerator and freezer to the dump along with a good bit of other stuff. We had to throw out more than I would have liked because we found out we have a rat issue in the barn. It’s amazing the things they can chew through and the smell they leave behind is wonderful, not. Now that we disturbed their nest, I am wondering where they are moving to. Rohan did manage to catch one, which was amazing because well he is slow and not really a hunter. I kept taking the rat away from him and Rudy kept giving it back to him. Rudy thought the dog earned his catch and to let him have it. I kept thinking it might have some kind of disease that will infect the dog. I won out in the end and the rat was disposed of.
This is what's left of the tomato plant. It was looking like it was going to have a nice batch of tomatos. Maybe Santa will bring me a new one ;).

Yep, my finger got caught in the door of the bat (big ass truck). I don’t know what I was thinking and I noticed Rudy had to bite his tongue when he found out who shut the door on my finger. It was me. When I told him what had happened he had to ask twice “who shut the door on your finger.” It swelled up and turned black and blue (expected) but the weirdest part is that it got a nasty cut on it. I looked at the door, there really isn’t anything in there to slice, oh well. It makes for awkward typing and knitting but on the up side I can type and I can still knit.

I was still rushing to get prepared for Christmas festivities on Dax’s birthday. She kept looking at me as I was packing boxes that needed to be shipped out. I finally said enough, we put Christmas stuff aside and started baking her cake. She wanted to decorate it herself using a cool whip icing. The whipped icing doesn’t hold it’s shape very well but she insisted that she liked the taste of the cool whip icing better and she would rather have it taste good then look good. So I stood back and prepared the icing and let her do the decorating. Here are the results.

Basically the icing is cool whip with powder sugar added. Afterwards we went to see the movie Eragon and went out to the restaurant of her choice, which was Outback. The next day I took her to the water park Typhon lagoon. It was a great day, cloudy and slightly breezy but warm enough to not feel chilled while sitting in a wet bathing suit and best of all, no crowds. The Christmas packages are still in the truck. We are just going to start calling them New Year packages. I’ll get them out as soon as the post office opens back up.


I put a few of these in one of the Christmas, I mean New Year packages.



They are wash cloths from this flower power pattern done in cotton. The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern is that it had a lot of ends to tuck in. Each petal has two ends to tuck. I also used cotton which I found was not as easy to tuck in as wool or animal fiber. I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas or at least a nice sloooow holiday break.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

It's late

It's late but I wanted to do a quick update. I finally finished something. The peace fleece sweater is done. I do need to block it.


We walked to the beach to watch the shuttle take off. I didn't get a good picture of it. There wasn't much light at the beach and I couldn't see the settings on the camera but this is what I got. The building was blocking the view but it was obviously behind it. Once it got past the building we could see it just fine. Dax kept saying it looked like a shooting star, a very bright shooting star.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

It’s not cold anymore.

The last week has been in the 80’s. Rudy and I finished putting the pavers down. We still have to do the borders and fill in the gaps with sand. This is what it looks like so far. We put sand in half so that’s why it looks different.


When we had the cooler weather I was thinking about how nice it would have been to wear that sweater I didn’t get to finish because I ran out of yarn, so I went ahead and made an order. Since I was paying the shipping anyway I ordered a pattern to. I made the order from kpixie.com. They did a good job and I would use them again. I was a little worried the yarn I ordered might be a little off of the original yarn because of a different dye lot but it looks fine. Maybe when we get 40 degree weather again I’ll have the sweater done. The pattern I got is called simple knitted bodice by stitch diva. I saw on the internet that there is a blog called the sexyknitters club that used this pattern in a KAL. It looks interesting. Maybe one day I'll actually knit it.


The leaf sock is moving along.



We also got our Christmas tree this week. Tyde, Dax and I are making some ornaments to help decorate it. I’ll post more about that later.

Dax had a violin recital at the place she takes lessons from. They did a good job and she sounded wonderful. She played Little April Showers from Disney’s Bambi movie, now everybody in the house hmmms the tune, even Tyde.



On a humorous side Dax and I saw something kind of funny yesterday. We went to Publix and you know how at this time of year they have somebody from the Salvation Army outside ringing a bell for donations. They are usually sitting in a chair or just standing there. Well we saw the dancing bell ringer. She was bouncing around kicking up her heels dancing crazy with that bell. I thought wow, she’s got a lot of energy. When I mentioned it to Rudy he said yeah, she was there when he went to the store and she was dancing around. You just can’t resist donating money to somebody that is working so hard. Dax decided the dancing bell ringer would give that energizer bunny some heavy competition.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Pavers are here

I thought it was cold the other day but it got a little colder so I started the day with some hot chocolate.

Both the kids had school off today. Tyde spent it surfing in his new wet suit. Dax spent it sleeping in and going to the library.

As for me and Rudy we started the pavers. All the blocks arrived yesterday. It took two truck loads to deliver it.


Now we just have to lay them out. I can honestly say I will have no problem getting to sleep tonight. The combination of colder weather and physical activity should prevent any problems in that area, not that I ever really have any problems getting to sleep. This is how far we got yesterday.


I decided to start the sock from the yarn I spun. Here it is. It is a little more bulky than what I prefer but I will finish it anyway. It seems like I haven’t finished a project in a while so maybe the socks will make me feel like I’m making some progress.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Burr, it’s cold outside today.

Well it’s nothing like what DancesWithWool is going through but it’s cold to me. I think the high is suppose to be around 70 today, which is nice but the low last night was in the 50s, brrr.

Dax’s soccer team is doing the end of the season tournament this weekend. So the weather should be perfect for them. I’m getting kind of antsy for the season to end.

Speaking of Dax she got the blue ribbon for her science project (1st place) at school. I was impressed and it probably helped that one of her judges was a knitter. She was originally going to see if vinegar works as a mordant. She used some natural dyes to dye wool yarn. Oh she also did a batch using wilton icing food coloring stuff. One batch she just dyed, the second batch she soaked in vinegar before dyeing and the third batch she soaked in alum before dying. After they dyed she divided each group and washed the heck out of one group. Surprise none of them faded except the wilton dye. It faded a lot. She didn’t like her question because of her results so she changed her question to does adding alum or vinegar affect wool yarn when dying. She did this because it did affect the color she got. To me it seemed a little to much going on in her project. I kept having to bight my tongue and not tell her what I think she should do. I guess it turned out fine because the judges seemed to like it and better yet her teacher liked it because she got an “A”.


Moving on to the house project, Dad came down a couple of weeks ago and helped things move along. They managed to move a huge pile of dirt into the back yard. The kids think it is great. We do live in Florida and there really isn’t much as far as hills go here so with the pile of dirt in the back the kids like to play on it. They take the skim board and stand or sit on it and slide down. Who needs snow when you got dirt. Although I have to admit snow would be a lot cleaner. The dirt pile was created to make room for the pavers. They are supposed to be here on Tuesday.

While Dad was here Rudy also spent some time and finished the bathroom. It’s all done. He even put the towel rack up.


Friday, November 10, 2006

It seems like I will never get to the end of my green roving pile. Maybe I got to much of it, nah. I took the second bobbin of the green singles and tried Navajo plying it. I read about it when I was on the Yarn Harlot's web page. She linked to a web page called The Joy of Handspinning that gives a good demo of how to do it.


On the left is the green stuff in two ply on the right is the green stuff plied using the Navajo plying technique

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Halloween

I managed to finish Dax’s costume. The costume was one of the easier ones that she has asked me to make, but there is just so much going on that I waited till the last minute to get it done. Anyway here it is. She called herself lavender lady.


I’m very pleased that she was happy with the results. I wouldn’t work with her original choice because it would be to expensive. So I made her come up with something out of my fabric stash. All in all, it worked out.

And here they are Lavendar Lady and Wild Thing.


We also managed to get the pumpkins carved.


I did make some progress on Dax’s sweater. She tried it on and said the section that is fair isle with the diamond pattern near the top is to tight. So, I ripped it back to try and give it more give. Here’s a picture before I ripped it back.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Some pictures

Rudy has started tiling the bathroom. The red stuff on the wall is some kind of waterproofing stuff he painted on.



Here is what Dax came up for her costume. She originally picked something that took around 12 yards of fabric. I told her I wasn't going to spend that much money on a costume and to look in the fabric stash. She found something shiny and decided to ditch the original idea. She changed patterns and came up with this. Not sure what she is suppose to be. Her first idea was a vampire lady. She keeps changing her mind.



Dax’s science experiment.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Not a lot to say

I seem to be very busy lately but I don’t have a lot to post about.

Dax’s team took their first loss last week. It was a good game. The final score was 6-7, very exciting. They came back this week and won yesterday’s game. They have another game today.

I got me a tomato plant. We’ll see how long it takes me to kill it. I usually do fine with tomato plants when I can plant them in the ground but I still don't have much of a yard so I will be putting this one in a big container. Hopefully it will do better then the last one I did this to.



Here’s a progress picture for the sweater. The row I'm currently working on has 4 color changes in it. It's such a joy (not) to try and keep them untangled. I can manage two color changes fine but this is trying my patience.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Miwi

Meet Miwi, this is my spinning wheel. It is an Ashford Kiwi. I got it while at the Maryland sheep and wool festival. I learned to spin on a drop spindle and decided I wanted a spinning wheel. I read about the Ashford kiwi online and it sounded like a good wheel for a beginner and it also was not very expensive. I haven’t ever used any other spinning wheel so I can’t compare it to other wheels. So far I have been very pleased with it. I have not been able to master spinning a thicker yarn, yet. Everything I spin seems to be on the thin side. I think this is the lack of knowledge on the spinners part.



Dax’s soccer team is still on a roll. Florida today was at the field for their last game and took some pictures. If interested, you can see them in the soccer gallery here. Click thru the "next" button to see all the pictures.



I finished Dax’s skorts. She wore them to school today. We will be starting on Halloween costumes soon.















This is how far I got on her sweater.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Going backwards

Yep, we are heading into that time of year where I can never seem to get ahead. Actually I start feeling like I’m a couple of steps behind. My goal is to not let all that busy stuff get in the way of doing what I love to do, my crafts. Hmm, lately even that seems to be going backwards.

Dax asked me to make her some skorts like the one she already has. I couldn’t find a pattern that was similar so I used her current skirt and came up with this.
The top one is the original and the bottom is the one I’m working on.
I had put the lower part of the skirt on and had her try it on. It was not bad but a bit short. I kept my mouth shut and waited, and waited, and waited as she looked at herself in the mirror and then she said, it needs to be a little longer, whew. No argument there. I could either take the bottom off or add another tier. We decided, she decided she didn’t want another tier. So, I’m in the process of taking the bottom part off and re-cutting a longer one to put on (one step back).

I did frog the sweater (a big step back). I re-casted on and knitted in k3, p1. It lays much flatter now and I’m happier with it. Jennifer, thank you for your comments your right about the difference in knitting in the round and knitting flat. The pattern does call for you to knit flat, not in the round. The exact wording says rows 1-3 work in stockinette stitch, row 4 knit. Since I put it in the round I knitted the first 3 rows and purled row 4. Does that sound confusing? I really appreciated your comments, very helpful.


Speaking of comments, I was so surprised to see I have comments. I didn’t think anybody ever read this blog but my family-sister, parents etc. I was very excited to see that somebody else actually looks at the blog, a big thank you for leaving comments.

I have two more pictures to show. Here is a progress on the socks from the pattern in the Vogue knitting magazine. I lost that magazine somewhere and had to buy another one, (another step back).


Crocks are good for more then just walking. Dax and I went for a walk on the beach and noticed a lot of shells have been pushed ashore. We started collecting more then what we had hands for so I put them in my shoes. These are the shoes my sister’s family gave me for my birthday. As you can see they have gotten a lot of use.


Last but not least, Rudy got tickets for the Alabama vs. Florida game. Unfortunately he only was able to get two. I told him to take Tyde. It seemed like the logical solution. Dax has a soccer game on Saturday. Of course if he could have gotten four we would skip the soccer but it didn’t happen.

Monday, September 25, 2006

The Pond

I will be visiting the frogging pond. I started the sweater for Dax and have run into a lot of discrepancies in the pattern. I’ve decided that the beginning is also incorrect. The pattern says to knit the first 3 rows and then purl the next. Because of the permanent roll of the fabric at the bottom, I think it meant to k3 p1. I looked very close at the picture that is with the pattern and I’m sure it has ribbing at the bottom. So, I will be ripping this out and starting over.

Here are some pictures of the sweater before frogging.




This is what Rudy has been working on. It’s the floor in the front hall way.


Dax’s team did win their game on Sunday. I once again lost count of the score, something like 8-0.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Win some lose some

Well you win some and you lose some. Dax’s team, the lightning won another one and once again I lost count of the score. My guess is 7-0. Dax usually plays defense and to see no goals made on them looks pretty good. They do play a very tough team today so we will see how that goes. She is also dragging. Tyde told me that he has a sore throat so I think we are about to get hit by a bug.



Unfortunately Bama had a different fate. Another exciting game that kept me watching till the end. I felt this loss was very disappointing because it was theirs to lose. Hopefully they will learn from the game and play better in the future.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Fall

I couldn’t let the first day of Autumn go by with out saying something so Happy Autumn!

Fall is in the air and it isn’t just the season. Look at what the squirrels are doing to my avocados. They have found the tree. I would like to leave the avocadoes on the tree and pick them as we need them. They do not ripen on the tree but once you pick them they will ripen in about a week. The little stinkers are stealing all my avocados. Well, we will just see about that. I’m going to sic Rudy on them if they don’t cut it out.



Check this out. This is my very first plied yarn to be knitted. I’m hoping to make some socks out of this.



Want to see more, here is another picture of it. Isn’t it pretty? At first I thought it had to much of a candy cane look when I plied it but once it is knitted up, it doesn’t look to bad.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Catch up

Here’s how last weekend turned out. Dax’s team is still undefeated but not because they won their game. The game was canceled. They will be playing the game this Sunday. So she will have a game on Saturday and Sunday.

As for the sweater, I ran out of yarn with about two inches left for the arm and didn’t touch the neck band yet. I’m putting this project to the side until I have the time and money to get more yarn.

Bama did win there game but it wasn’t as exciting as the first two games. I went to bed before the end.

As for the cabinets look….


We got one large one and Rudy has already put it in its place. I think we are supposed to put the top ones in first but I guess we will take them as we get them.

Rudy also put the flooring down in the living room. It’s this stuff we picked up from Home Depot called African chestnut.


Since I had to put the sweater to one side for now I decided to work on a sweater for Dax. Yep I got the sweater from Knit Picks. Here is a direct link to the sweater. It is found under the projects page for the yarn called wool of the andes.



I’m having a little problem with the pattern. I haven’t done cables very much but this didn’t look right. Isn’t the pattern on the inside suppose to be the reverse of the outside. In other words if the pattern calls for me to k2, p2, k2 etc then on the next row isn’t it suppose to be opposite, p2, k2, p2 etc, not purl across?

This thing is driving me crazy. I played around with some swatces and I think I got it now but it did take me a couple of days of swatching to feel this way. I’m hoping to cast on today but I don’t trust this pattern at all.