Friday, January 26, 2007

Swatch

Let's just call this a swatch for my pirate socks. I did get started on the socks but as you can notice I made a mistake.


Have you noticed it yet. Maybe you are quicker then I was. Yep, it’s upside down. I noticed this when I got around the mouth but decided to do more rows so I could see how the skeleton would come out. The white yarn I’m using is slightly smaller then the black. I also switch to one size up needles for the main sock. I was worried about it being to small with the fair isle pattern.

I put it on to ck the stretch and it fit fine but the skeletons got a little distorted to me. I think I will add more stitches and not go up a size on the needles. Maybe this will give me a sock that fits without to much distortion?


Thank you for all the nice comments :). So far, I have no projects in mind for the green yarn. I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Stuff

I finally finished spinning the green stuff. I think this has been sitting beside the wheel since, gasp June. Ok, so I’m not a fast spinner. There is 568 yards of Navajo plied that is around 13 wpi. It’s wool but I don’t have any other specifics on it. The tag that came with it said spectrum. Now I’m putting it in the stash pile. Just wanted to make note here what it is so I don’t forget.


My next spinning project is the blue stuff. I got this from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I don’t have much of a local source for this kind of habit so I get almost everything at the MSWF. I’m going to double check my receipts to see who I got this from because if you look real close you will notice there is little pieces of grass all through this roving. I’ve been spending a lot of time picking it out. I do love the color though.


I’m currently waiting on the yarn to do the pirate socks. I have to admit it feels really weird to not have some kind of sock project going on.

On the family front we made some Wookie Cookies. Dax was the helper on this adventure. I’m not really sure if we are suppose to post the recipe from the book because of copyright stuff but I did see that on this web page the recipe is published. I don’t think we got the exact same cookies as the recipe calls for. Dax mixes all the stuff up in bowl and asks me if I will stir it up because she is tired of stirring. So I start stirring and stirring and stirring. There is constantly a bit of flour in the bowl I can’t seem to get to mix in. I ask her if she is sure she put the right amount of flour in and she says yes, 2 ½ cups. I’m looking at the recipe and I let her know it says 2 1/4. Her comment to this is what’s a ¼ of a cup. I also noticed she had cinnamon all over the counter. I think it got a larger dose of cinnamon to but that’s fine because the cookies turned out pretty good.


Last but not least here is a snap shot of the shower Rudy was working on. He is done with this one. I noticed it is kind of hard to take a picture of a shower. There is not a lot of room in it.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Leaf Socks

Finished the leaf lace socks.



Pattern: Leaf Lace socks from Fiber Trends
Needles: US 1 or 2.25 mm
Yarn: Spun from roving I got at the sheep and wool festival.

Other projects: Dax wants some new pajamas and picked this fabric out for it.


I also went ahead and joined the We call them Pirates Knitalong. I want to make socks using the chart they have but I looked in my stash and didn’t have the color I wanted, black. I have some un-dyed sock yarn in the stash but didn’t want to use it to dye it just black. Money is tight right now so I ordered some black Essential yarn from Knit picks. I have no complaints with the other yarn I’ve gotten from them so I will give their sock yarn a try. Now I’m just waiting for the mail to come.

We seem to be getting back into a schedule, finally. I would really like to finish spinning the green stuff. There is some blue stuff in my closet that I would like to spin next. I’ve also been trying to de-lurk myself by leaving comments on the blogs I like to read.

On the house building project, Rudy has been working on the master bathroom’s shower. Being back on schedule does not leave much time at the end of the day to work on the landscaping.

Friday, January 12, 2007

constant vigilance

Trying to get back on schedule but it just isn’t working out, yet. One child came down with the flu this week. This makes me cringe. Almost everything that the kids come home with, I catch. But just maybe I can side step this one. I’ve been running around with a can of Lysol in one hand and spraying everything.

That’s not all that has come home. The other child brought some little unwanted guests with her, head lice. I think we have the little buggers under control but I have to go through this child’s hair every night to make sure. This has drastically dipped into my crafting time. This child’s hair is long, I actually measured it and it is 27” long. My motto right now is constant vigilance. If it’s not spraying Lysol on everything then its laundering bed sheets, pillow cases and boiling combs and brushes to kill the lice.

This is our second battle with head lice; we had a battle with them a couple of years ago. I wonder, is this a warmer climate issue? I don’t ever recall having to deal with this when I was younger and I don’t recall knowing anybody else having to these unwanted guests. Oh well, constant vigilance!

Do you know what this is?

It’s a knot and one of the smaller ones I had to deal with today. I did get some time to myself and decided to try and ply more of the green stuff. I’m almost done with the lace leaf socks but ran out of yarn and had to spin some more. As I was trying to ply it I kept knotting the stuff up. Arrrrr! I did get it done but what a pain. It was boggling my mind as to what I was doing to get it in knots. Maybe I was just to much in a hurry because I didn’t have much time to get it done.

Hey Marcy, you asked for more details on the vest. The pattern is from Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle. The pattern is called Clock Vest. The yarn used is galway yarn, which is worsted weight, 100% wool.

And now I leave you with a picture that you may or may not have seen. I thought it was rather cute and seems to fit my day today. I have to be like Leonard and show some optimism ;).

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Lucky

I’m back, well I’ve been back but had to catch up on a lot of stuff before I could sit down and play with the computer. The Disney trip was great and we will refer to it as our lucky trip. I picked Cyndi up from the airport and look what she had on.

Front


Back


It’s a vest that she knitted. I believe she said she got the pattern from Folk Vests. When we got in our room I insisted on her showing me the Aran sweater she has been working on. The camera does not really catch the color very well but you can still see the details.


Very nice Cyndi, did I mention she taught me how to knit.

We did a lot of relaxing. Later we went to the expo and I got new shoes. I really needed a new pair. Not getting a new pair sooner may be one of the reasons why I hurt my foot (plantar fasciitis). Sometimes when you don’t get to the expo early enough they run out of stuff but it was my lucky weekend.

There were several vendors at the expo. One had t-shirts with really cute sayings on them. Things like “run like a girl.” Another one said, “running is my therapy,” or was it “running is cheaper then therapy.” Maybe somebody needs to come up with a shirt that says “knitting is my therapy.” I bet it would sale pretty good.

Since we had to get up early on Saturday, 3am, I placed everything out that I needed for the next day. Got up Saturday, got dressed dragged myself down the stairs and into the lobby to catch the bus going to Epcot. There was a line and as I was standing there Cyndi notices my new shoes and says, “where is your chip?” Uhhh, in the hotel room, duh. Got out of line went back and got the chip, then back in line which was now double the length. But it was my lucky day because Cyndi did notice I didn’t put my chip on. Anybody wondering the chip is what shows that you exist in a big organized run. If I hadn’t put it on then it would have been as if I wasn’t there, mise well stayed at home. That didn’t happen though because it was my lucky day.

It was hot, saw some people get sick because of the heat but not bad. Loved the t-shirt that the lady had on that said, dead last finish is better then did not finish, which trumps did not start, wish gave me the courage to start, been there done every one of these. Got my picture made with Peter Pan, Donald Duck, Woody and Jessie, and the seven dwarfs, and didn’t have to wait in a line. Saw a rainbow as we approached the Magic Kingdom, now if that’s not a lucky sign, I don’t know what is. At the end we had a bus waiting on us when we finished with no line to get on.



At the end of the day we sat on the balcony and watched the fireworks from both Epcot and Magic Kingdom. I didn’t bring a tripod so the picture is blurry but you get the idea. The next day we packed our bags and started to head out after vowing that next year we would be back to do the full marathon.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Off to Disney World

First here’s something I kind of finished awhile back. I have to go back and redo the zipper. The zipper was to long so I stretched it to put it on, resulting in a pucker look down the front. I need to shorten the zipper to get it to lay better. This is a pattern from Knit Picks called snowflakes and arrows. I looked on knit picks for the pattern but could not find it. Maybe they no longer offer the pattern. It did have mistakes in the pattern and I saw some people who did a KAL on it complain. Anyway it was my first project using steeks. I also used knit picks yarn called palette. I had heard all the good reviews of knit picks yarn, inexpensive, nice quality. The yarn was nice to work with and I would use it again.


Dax got a Klutz book on crochet for Christmas and has already made a bath bag from it. I thought it came out really nice.


Got my Minnie skirt out and ready to go. Tomorrow I leave to pick up my sister from the airport to stay at one of the budget Disney resorts. The main reason for the trip is to torture ourselves by doing the Disney half marathon. I’ve done marathons before but feel nervous about this half marathon. I’m going into it with a foot problem and I’m also the heaviest I’ve ever been. If nothing else we should get in a lot of knitting time. It will be the first trip we’ve been on with out the kids in about two years.