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.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Anticipation

Well it’s Friday and the anticipation of the weekend is building.
How will the kids do on their interim reports?
Will Dax’s soccer team be able to go undefeated?
Will I have enough yarn to finish the sweater?
Will Bama be able to pull out another win?
Will we really be able to start putting in the kitchen cabinets?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

The sweater with what’s left of the yarn.



I finally finished a bobbin of singles. It’s really pretty as singles because the color of green goes from a dark to a light. This picture does not really capture the colors well.



Here’s the same singles plyed. I’m not sure if I like it as much plied. I’m really new to this spinning and I often wonder if I’m over-under plying it.

Is this what it's suppose to look like?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Surf's up

I took a few pictures of the boys surfing on Sunday. They have had some waves come in since. I think today is suppose to be the big day for the surf.
Tyde









Rudy









Brandon




Sunday, September 10, 2006

Nice weekend so far

The weather was beautiful but Dax’s game was hot. I was sitting on the side line just dripping in sweat. I can just imagine how the girls felt trying to run around chasing a ball. They did good though, another win. I can’t say what the score was. I start to lose count after a while.

After the game we turned around and I got one picture of the shuttle going up.


Later we watched Bama get a win over Vanderbilt, once again a close game worth watching till the end.

I just love football season look how much I’ve got done on the sweater. I’m convinced that I don’t have enough yarn to finish it. What you see is what I have left of the yarn. I have to finish the sleeve and the collar.


Rudy put the dinning room light up. He’s also finish tiling the closet upstairs.

Tyde is waiting on waves to come in from Florence. There not here yet.

Somebody posted this link on one of my mailing lists. It has A LOT of knitting patterns on it and I thought worth book marking. I think it's called Garnstudio and Drops designs.

I did six miles today and I am painfully slow. It took me 1hour 34minutes. At this rate it will take me 3 hours and around 15 minutes to do the half marathon. I really need to pick up my pace to do this. There is just over 3 months before the half so there is still hope for me.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

The good the bad

The bad, the guy doing our cabinets said it will probably take him another month. The good, he is finished with some of the pieces and wants us to pick them up this weekend.

The good, Tyde had his open house yesterday. I got to meet his teachers. The bad, I got a call today he has detention tomorrow for tardiness.

The bad, Tyde’s schedule is going to change. One of his teachers told me he has over 40 students in his class. The good, I went by to talk to them today about the changes. I didn’t know how much his schedule was going to change. I was told that they are just switching two of his classes. He will have the same teachers and the same subjects. I also was able to contact their librarian and will be coming in to do some volunteer work in the library.

Well I don’t feel right ending a post without at least one picture so here it is. Rudy was cooking out on the grill and had a bug zapper light on. He saw this little guy sitting on the light eating the bugs.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

What a week

The kids had Monday off; I took them to blizzard beach, Tuesday back at school, Wednesday off because of Ernesto then back to school on Thursday and Friday. They have tomorrow off to because of Labor Day. I told one of the teacher’s at school that maybe they should reconsider the start date of the school year. Maybe they should start school, oh after Labor Day. Actually I don’t mind them starting school earlier because they get out earlier.

Tyde had his bike stolen from school so now he is with out transportation. My idea was to fix up the other bike we have to let him use. Rudy told me it needs a new derailleur along with some other stuff. Trying to get to the store that sells that kind of stuff hasn’t really worked out yet, they seem to be closed when I have time to go. It might be awhile before he gets his transportation going again.

I stayed up yesterday to watch the Alabama vs Hawaii game. It was an exciting game that kept me up till the end. I hope they are able to improve as the year goes on though. While watching the game I worked on the sleeves for my peace fleece sweater. Here is a progress picture. I'm not sure if I'm going to have enough yarn to finish.


I’ve also started on a pair of socks. I can’t remember what the yarn is called I’ll look that up. It seems like it was peacock or something like that. I got it from a knitting store in Huntsville called Yarn Expressions. She has beautiful stuff but it is kind of pricey.

I'm using one of the patterns from Vogue Knitting Magazine. I'm not sure if this yarn will work well with this pattern. I might should have tried to use a yarn that is a solid color so the pattern will show up better. Right now I'll just keep working at it to see how it looks and then decide from there.
This is a picture of the socks from the magazine.

Dax has no game this weekend because of the holiday. We haven't heard from the kitchen cabinet guy yet (sigh). In the meantime Rudy has been finishing up on the painting, trim and caulking. We also picked up a light for the dinning room so that will probably be up soon.