Gifts

Here are some gifts I wanted to share with you. One is beautiful and the other just surprised the heck out of me. I love them both.

This one is from my mother-in-law. It’s a sheep quilt that she made. It is so soft.


Some close ups of the sheep.

Aren't they cute? The flowers are little buttons.




Here is the gift that surprised me.


It is from Rudy. One of the reasons this surprised me is because Rudy has shown no interest at all in my spinning or knitting. I didn’t even think he knew what a drum carder was. I quickly thought my sister must have helped him out on this gift but when I asked her she said no. He must be paying more attention than I thought :).

One of Tyde’s friends was over and saw the drum carder sitting on the table. He ran up to it and said, “Oh, cool, this looks dangerous.” I think I better put it away some where when he is over.

Stockings

I figured I better post about Christmas before the year is over. We had a great Christmas and your not going to believe what I got as a gift but I’ll save that for another post.

This one is about the stockings. I will remember this Christmas as the Christmas of the stockings. It started when I wanted to give a little something to all my co-workers at school. I wasn’t sure exactly how many there are but I thought 40 was a good number. I was thinking of making some kind of felted ornament, maybe a sheep but then I saw these while looking for ideas. It came complete with a (PDF) pattern. I thought great, I don’t have to think about it that much, all I have to do is follow the pattern.

It took longer than I expected. I ended up making mine a little bigger so I could stuff candy in them. This took a little time to tweak. I also started off hand sewing them but quickly realized that I wanted to be done before the New Year so started machine sewing them. The hand sewn ones did look better but I was beginning to get in a time crunch. I finished them the morning before the last day of school, whew.


After getting those done I was about to go into relax mode, but then noticed the kids stockings got ruined from being neglected in storage over the years. So on Christmas Eve I got it into my head that we all needed new stockings. Into the fabric stash I went and managed to come up with these.


I had used a pattern that my sister in law’s mother gave me several years ago. I couldn’t find the pattern but kind of remembered how it went.
After making Rudy’s I started running out of fabric remnants that had a Christmas theme so Dax’s has more of a fairy theme. The sayings on it says things like dance like no one is watching, sing like no one is listening, never stop dreaming and love like you have never been hurt. I’m not sure where the quotes originated; one source I’ve heard is Mark Twain.


Tyde’s was the last one I made. I was really getting burned out by the time I got to his. I didn’t think I would have enough green fabric so started cutting the red fabric in much bigger strips. This was also less time consuming because I didn’t have to sew as much. He likes surfing so the fabric I used with his has sayings on it like, checking out the waves, shoot the curl etc.


When it came time to making myself one I decided it could wait till next year.
I hope everybody had or is still having a wonderful holiday break.

Random catch up

It’s getting a little busy right now so I’m just going to do a random catch up on what’s been going on around here.

We have received the box from the Hawaiian side of the family. Thank you very much! Amazingly the first three boxes of candy are already gone. Well maybe not so amazing when you think about there is a 12 yo, a 14 yo, their friends, Rudy and ah, me all feeding off it. I hid what was left so we could have some for another day.


My sister’s family came into town last weekend and what did we do. We went to Ikea. Boy was it crowded. I can honestly say I do not like Orlando traffic.
We did get some much needed shelves for Dax and a much needed loft bed for Tyde. Rudy had to cut the bed posts down a little bit because it was to high for our ceilings.



I currently have a major sore throat. I’m hoping it’s from the red tide and will disappear when the red tide leaves (whenever that will be). But I have a feeling I’m coming down with something. I shouldn’t complain, I work around 400 children and have not caught anything, until now.

I’m working on a project (gift) that I’m not loving. I love the yarn and I love the pattern but I don’t think they go well together. Regardless I’ve decided to finish it.

I’m so terribly behind on reading blogs, what’s new.

I have to work over the holiday break. It’s bittersweet. On the one side I’d rather be home with everybody else but on the other side I will be able to get so much done. The school is starting a new system using lexile numbers and reading counts tests. All 10,000 plus books have to be re-labeled. It is so hard for me to re-label the books and try to keep up with the kids so this will be my chance to get it done while school is out.

On a bad note, somebody stole Dax’s bike over Thanksgiving break. I was hoping to use Christmas to replace it but I couldn’t stand the drive to school to pick them up. Sitting in traffic is not where I want to spend my time, not to mention how much gas my truck sucks up. So we have already got her another one. I guess that would be a good note for Dax. She got a new bike. Although she says she doesn’t like it as much as the other one.

Dax and I participated in the 5k reindeer run. She finished about 3 minutes ahead of me. We also went to see the movie Enchanted, it was cute.

I just read about Terry Pratchett the author having Alzheimer’s. I haven’t read many of his books but the ones I’ve read I’ve really loved.

Dax’s class at school is doing a knitting project. I think it’s the coolest thing. Every 7th grader is supposed to knit a 7”x9” square and then they are piecing it together to make blankets for the homeless.

We went to the winter concert to listen to Dax play in the school orchestra.
This is probably the best picture I got of her. I had to play with it a good bit so she didn't look like just a shadow.

I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Go Rudy Go

Rudy participated in the space coast marathon today and managed to bring home a plaque.


He finished second in his age group.

Our long weekend is coming to a close and boy did I enjoy it. We all had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. I can tell you I really needed that break.

Ruffle jacket

The ruffled jacket is finished, yeah. I did frog it and redo the cables. I can honestly say that next time I will just leave it. It didn’t make that big of a difference.


So here are the specs.
Pattern: Ruffled Jacket from Vogue Knitting magazine Fall 2007
Needle size: US size 10 (6mm) 24” Addi turbo cables


Yarn: Elsebeth lavold chunky AL 50% Alpaca, 50% wool


Modifications: Other then fixing the correction on the pattern not much. I did have to do another section for the ruffled bell pattern that borders the sweater. I had to cast on another 231 stitches to have enough to go around. Here's a picture showing how short I was of the border reaching all the way around.


I also knitted the front and back in the round. There was a lot of seaming in this sweater. In addition to the usual seaming at the sleeves and shoulder, you have to also seam the cable border on and then the ruffled bell border. A button on the front might be nice to have to. All in all I am very pleased with the sweater and I think I will get a lot of use out of it.

I hope everybody has a great weekend.

costume

Dax wanted to be Elizabeth Swan as a pirate this year for Halloween. Here is a picture of the costume used for the movie.


This is what we ended up with.


We used a combination of simplicity pattern 0527 and Simplicity pattern 0627. There were a lot of modifications done. The 0527 pattern was a children’s pattern and it was a little too small. The 0627 was an adult pattern and it was too big.

For the shirt I used the adult pattern. Since the arm length was already long I did not add the cuff per the pattern directions and just gathered up what was already there. The v in the neck was also to low so I cut it a considerable amount less.

The adult pattern was also used for the pants, but I did not use the elastic waist band. I had to cut the size down a good bit because they were to baggy then I used darts to pull in the waist and used a button down fly. I should have taken the leg part of the pants in more because they are still a good bit baggy in that area.


The vest was from the children’s pattern. The length was fine but I had to add a little bit to the width. I also changed the tab on the back to lace up instead of button. I used buttons that you cover with fabric. I have never used these kinds of buttons and was very impressed with them. I got mine at Hancock fabrics but saw that wal-mart sells them to. Here is a picture of the buttons I’m talking about. Dax also wore the vest to school for homecoming week. They are the Minutemen and it tied into the theme very well.



The adult pattern was used for the coat. I had to take in the sleeves a good bit and did not add the cuff part of the sleeves. I also did not add any buttons to the coat. I didn’t have buttons in the stash for this project and it wasn’t in the budget to buy more buttons. I thought the braiding did a good job at hiding the fact that there are no buttons.

The boots are from the children’s pattern. The boots was one of the few things that we didn’t alter very much. The only change we did was that we tacked the boots down to some old flip flops so they wouldn’t shift around on the feet. We used the directions from here to make the hat. We took a buckle off an old belt for the belt that holds the sword and just cut some scrap upholstery fabric to fit the buckle. The sword is a rubber sword we picked up from wal-mart.

Most of the fabric came from my stash. We had to buy the braid for the coat, the sword, the fabric for the boots and buttons for the vest.

Tyde was a dementor and did not want to pose for me. His costume was pretty easy. It was basically a black hooded sheet that was ripped up.

Rohan didn't want to be left out of the picture taken so here he is showing he can be a pirate to.



Take what you can give nothing back.


Arrrrrrrr
I'm going to try and catch up on reading blogs now. I hope everybody has a great week.

Well Duh.

Why, why, why didn’t I stop when I knew that it wasn’t right? I guess it was just too much of a thrill to put my stick in the loop, add a loop, pull it through and just watch it grow. If you haven’t guessed yet I found a correction to the cable pattern that runs up the middle of the ruffled jacket on ravelry. This correction comes from Veronique on Ravelry or in the blog world Tres Chic Veronique .

Look at how far I have gotten with the funky cables.


I should have listened to myself when I thought it looked “not right”. Sophia left a comment on what might fix it. But, I thought I’ve gone this far I’ll just keep going. I don’t know why I didn’t sit it aside and just wait for somebody with more knowledge on cables to “correct” the pattern. I’m going to take the corrections that Veronique has given for the pattern and make a swatch. If it looks right, which I know it will, I’m going to rip back what I have and start over again. I’m just a little miffed at my own stubbornness, stupidity or maybe I should call it state of denial.

Hopefully I’ll get that same thrilling feeling the second time around. I probably will not but my state of denial might get me through it.

On the upside, which is also a duh moment because I should have figured this out a long time ago, I managed to set the halo scan to send comments directly to my e-mail, no more cutting and pasting for me.

New Look 6705

It’s time to start Halloween costumes. So I decided to finish the sewing project I had sitting on the machine. It’s a shirt from New Look pattern 6705. This is what the pattern cover looks like.


This is what I got.


I had a hard time with front yoke. I cut it to my size but the top part at the neck would buckle out. I assumed it was because I had made it too big. So, I took it apart and cut it down a size and it still buckled out. Finally I just folded the part that buckled and pinned it down. I took it apart again to re-cut a new yoke using the pinned down top yoke as a pattern and walla no buckle. For those who are making this shirt it was pattern piece #1 the yoke front that gave me such a hard time. I also did not put the tie straps on it. Actually I did but ended up taking them out to because they didn’t seem to pull the shirt in around the waist. This shirt would be nice for someone who does not want a shirt to cling to the waist area. It’s not one of my favorite shirts but I’ll wear it here and there.

Now I can move on to Halloween costumes. I hope everybody has a good weekend.

Dish Rag Tag

The running ragged team should get an award for perseverance. Even though we may have came in last place we at least finished. Well as long as the package doesn't get lost again. The box got lost one person before my tag. I was beginning to think it would never make it to me. But then, on Saturday I found this in my mailbox.



Thank you Jannett for all the goodies! The rag is beautiful, the caramel bites were delicious and I'll get good use out of the note cards and pocket pics book.

I immediately started working on my rag to send to the finish line. Jannett had sent some pretty pink yarn and some variegated yarn. I really liked the rich colors in the variegated yarn and decided to use it.



I wanted to keep it simple and stick to just making a square rag. Then I saw a cool looking stitch pattern at Yarn over Manhattan's blog. I just love how you can find great inspiration from other people's knitting on the internet. She called it the 2-Colour Star Stitch Pattern from a book I didn't have so I looked in some books that I did have and found a stitch pattern that looked similar. It's the daisy stitch from Vogue Knitting Stichionary book.

A big thank you to Emily for hosting the Dish Rag Tag. It was exciting waiting for the box and trying to decide what to knit for the rag. The box alone was really cute. Everybody that got the box left little messages and stickers on it.

Plant

Oh I wish I had some nice progress pictures of knitting, but I don’t.
Instead I have some plant pictures for you. Can you guess what kind of plant this is?


When I saw it at this stage I started thinking it might be one of those bug eating plants.

Ok Here it is in full fruit so to say.


It’s a cotton plant that Dax brought home from school at the end of May. I thought I had killed it. It came home in this little container in about ½ inch of dirt, all nice and green and perky. I transplanted it into a bigger pot and it’s leaves started turning red and falling off. As a last ditch effort I gave it some miracle grow and wow it miraculously grew. (I guess that stuff really does work). It currently has about 10 more blooms on it. I’m also beginning to refer to it as the cotton tree. It looks like it is developing bark at the base of it and stands about 3 1/2 feet tall.

For a recap of last weekend, I did make it to the fiber in. Unfortunately I didn’t get to stay long, but I did get a chance to see one of the demos that was presented. It was hairpin lace. Both the carnival cardi wrap and the seafoam wrap skirt from interweave crochet magazine uses this technique. I really enjoyed the demo and maybe one day I’ll actually use it. I wanted to see the kumihimo (Japanese) braiding demonstration but didn’t have time.

Dax’s soccer game was a hot one. The team this season has yet to win a game. Somebody decided that the team needed to be moved up to a more competitive league. It was actually a good move for them. If they had stayed in the league they were in they would be still winning all their games but not having to really work for it. They are learning so much by playing these tougher teams and I think in time they will be able to start winning some games. Probably not this season but maybe next. Today is my day to bring half time snacks. I want to bring them some of those gu packages that Rudy uses when he does marathons but I don’t think they will like them. I probably should stick with fruit.

I hope everybody has a great week.

First I want to thank everybody for their nice comments. I really do appreciate it. I have to admit I haven’t been keeping up with e-mails and blogs like I have in the past but I’m hoping to catch back up soon.

I’ve casted on a new knitting project. It’s from the Fall 2007 Vogue Knitting magazine. The pattern is called Ruffled Jacket. The yarn I’m using for it is called elisebeth lavold chunky AL, and I love it. It is oh so soft, 50% alpaca, 50 % wool. I used some birthday money to get it at Webs. It was on closeout and I hope I have enough of it to finish this project.


I'm not so sure about the cable pattern that runs up the middle. Something about it looks funky. The magazine does not have a good close up picture of it. I looked on line to see if there was a correction to the pattern but couldn't find one so decided to just stay with it. The yarn is more brown then what the picture is showing it to be.

I still have the shrug on the needles to but decided it would be better for Dax. It looks much more appropriate on a teenager then ah a mature person of my age.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Dax has her soccer game Saturday. There is a local fiber festival going on, and I told Dax and a friend of hers that I would take them to a theme park on Sunday since they have no school on Monday. Hopefully Tyde will come for the theme park but I’m not sure if spending the day with his younger sister and her friend is high on his agenda list. I'm also hoping to catch up on some internet stuff. I have been a member of Ravelry for awhile now and have yet to post a project. It would be nice to get at least one project posted.

Rudy has been working on this.


I know it doesn’t look like much now but in the near future (hopefully) it will become shelves to put in my craft/bamboo room.

I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Finished Socks

A finished object.


Pattern: Latvian socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Tofutsies 50% Superwash Wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% Cotton, 2.5% Chitin
Needles: US 1 or 2.25mm

I finally finished these socks. I enjoyed knitting them. The pattern was easy enough but not one to do when trying to carry on a conversation. I also really enjoyed using the tofutsies yarn. I’m eager to see how it stands up over time.

August

August started off with good plans. My sister and her family along with my mom were going to come up to watch the space shuttle launch. Mom was going to stay another week after they left with us and then fly back home. But, we got a call from Dad who said Grandma was not doing good. My sister canceled her plans and I drove up to see Grandma. Dax came with me. We got there about three days before she died. All I can say about it now was that it was really hard.

Since Mom had already bought a plane ticket for a trip from Florida to Alabama we decided to try and stick to the plan so she came back with me. The day after I got back, my job started and then a week later school started for both Tyde and Dax. It’s just been a crazy busy and emotional month for me. Oh almost forgot, my 42 birthday hit me while at my Grandma’s funeral. I don’t want to spend another birthday at a funeral, ever.

Here’s a picture from my Dad’s garden.


I think the hands belong to my nephew Solomon. My Dad calls his garden a “little garden”. I wish I had enough room for a little garden like his. The watermelons were not ready to be picked while I was there. After the funeral my Dad decided to do some traveling. I think he is in Maine right now. So, if you are up that way and see a 60 something man that might look a little sad say”Hi” to him :). My sister asked him what he was going to do with the watermelons and he said he would plow them over when he got back. So she took them. She picked 15 watermelons from the garden and said they were the sweetest melons she has had in a long time. Of course she couldn’t eat all 15 watermelons so she gave some to neighbors.

Not much

Not much knitting going on. I picked up these again. The Latvian Socks from Nancy Bush’s Folk sock book.


It is taking me forever to finish these socks. The pattern and everything is easy enough to follow but I keep getting distracted and forget to k2tog or yo when I’m suppose to so I have to back track to fix my error.

To have something to knit that does not need me to pay attention to the pattern I started this shrug. The pattern is called evening shrug from fiber trends.


I’m kind of at a stand still on this one because I didn’t have size 8 circular needles. I had size 8 straight and casted on using them but now I need the circular needles. I have so many stitches on those needles that they are about to burst off of the needle and I have more increasing to do. I’ll have to wait till I get out to the store for more needles before going any further on this one so back to the socks.

I’m hoping to get the shrug done soon because I will need it at my now permanent job. The elementary school that I got a temporary job at as a media/library assistant offered it to me as a permanent job. Yeah! I noticed that whoever has control of the thermostat in the library keeps it freezing in there. The shrug will help take the chill out of my bones.

I almost forgot to mention that I got my invitation for Ravelry. I’ve been on it for a couple of weeks now. I haven’t been able to spend as much time on it as I’d like. Mostly I’ve been looking at everybody else’s projects but I haven’t been much of a contributor, yet. I go by kriskrafts.

For the relatives that like visiting the blog I leave you with a couple of pictures of the toads.

Here is Tyde at the pottery place painting his candle holder sorting hat. The lady in the picture with the big smile was a wealth of knowledge on painting pottery.


Here’s Dax with Sierra and Solly at the bookstore.


They have been staying in Orlando for the past month because Sierra was accepted at the Orlando ballet summer school, otherwise known as ballet bootcamp. It's been great to have them staying so close.

We're ready!

We’re finally ready for tonight’s activities. I finished the crochet wizard/witch hat. I tried to keep to the pattern but went astray near the end and did not increase as many times as it said to. Here is the final product.


Dax insisted that Rohan would make a good model so here he is showing what the inside looked like.

I wasn't sure how to do more then one color in crochet so I just carried it on the back like doing stranded knitting. I kind of like the inside better then the outside.

Dax was persistent; this is probably the best picture she got from Rohan.


He let us know that hats are not really him when he finally got the hat and ran off with it, LOL.

I also finished the Hogwarts cape. I used simplicity pattern 5840. I added the red color liner to it, which was not in the pattern.

As you can see it is a bit oversized. This one should fit her for a long time, unless she decides to sprout into something like the Jolly Green Giant.

I hope everybody has a great weekend. We will probably spend a good bit of it arguing over whose turn it is to read the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I guess I should have got more then one book but some things a family just has to learn to share :).

All about the house

Here it is the CO (certificate of occupancy).


I’ve learned a lot while building the house.
Here’s just a few.

1. I learned I don’t like heights. When we got to working on the second floor and there where no walls up yet. It made me queasy. When it came to working on the roof, Rudy was on his own. I can stand on ladders fine but the roof was a different story.

2. Rudy is a perfectionist. I never realized the extent of this till building the house. I could care less if it’s a 16 of and inch off. It looks fine, go with it.

3. I love tools. I now know why a lot of men admire a nail gun, a miter saw, a table saw, a palm nailer. I’ll never forget the Valentine’s Day when my friend was telling me about the jewelry she got from her husband. I told her I got a palm nailer. She gave me a funny look. Little did she know I love that thing. At the time we were still in the framing stage. I was putting the hurricane straps on, trying to hammer them in and then Rudy gave me the palm nailer. It’s an air tool that is able to get into tight places and does the hammering for you. You just line the nozzle up push on it and it bangs the nail right in. Then there is this screw driver gun. It is worth its weight in gold. Ok, the list could go on and on but you get the idea. The right tool makes things so much easier.

4. My Dad is a wealth of knowledge. I already knew this but it was obvious when we were building the house. He’s also a lot of fun to be around. When we were putting up the floor trusses, we finally got to the last one. He looked at us and said, “there it is!” We looked at him like what, there’s what. We are always misplacing things, the tape measure, the nails, the screwdriver etc. There was always a hunt for something. He then said, “There’s that piece we have been looking for all day, the last floor truss.” LOL. When we got to the drywall stage I was so excited. This was the stuff that made the rooms look like rooms. After about a month it was no longer exciting. It was like the project that would never end. Think of when you are making a sweater and you get the body done and you feel so glad to have that done but then you realize you still have the sleeves to do. The drywall gave me the same feeling. I put up the last sheet when Rudy was at work. I had to tell somebody that I was done so I called my dad who was in a different state and told him, I finally found that piece I was looking for the past few months. He didn’t quite understand me and then I told him, I found the last piece of drywall. He got a chuckle out of it, and knew exactly how happy I was to have found that piece.

5. I learned it hurts a lot to have a hammer fall on your head. Always look on top of ladder for objects before moving it.

6. Tyde and Dax can only handle 30 minutes, 40 max of painting at a time.

7. Tyde likes power tools as much as I do, he also likes banging things and construction machines.


8.Rudy should get a trophy for jerry rigging things. If there was a problem he could make or find some way to fix it. One problem that I remember is that during the framing, we could not pick up a wall with just the two of us. He made some kind of concoction to do it for us. I just had to turn the handle and it went up. Only one of the many things he came up with.


9. Make sure the power is off before trying to wire a socket. Nothing like being bit by electricity.

10. Gloves are a girls best friend. Used them to avoid splinters when picking up wood, helped when hauling drywall upstairs, and saved my skin from being ripped off when doing the pavers.

11. The last thing I can think of for now is that through out all this I truly believe knitting saved my sanity.


I hope everybody has a great week and if you get a chance pop open a bottle of champagne to help us celebrate.