KnitKnotes

Hats for HAIN

2011-10-31T16:35:00.000-04:00

these are the hats that I made for HAIN for the fall Children's Drive. I mailed them today. Those bright pink hats were so much fun to make. I will be making more of those styles. Most of the hats were rather plain, but they will warm. There are also some purchased hats in the box that went in the mail today....no pics of them, tho. I tried to make a variety of sizes, since kids come in all sizes, too.

Now I have started knitting and crocheting hats for dd Kimmie's collection at her workplace. Also, will start looking for the yarn to complete the round robin#3 blanket that has been patiently waiting for an edging.

Susie gets a new hat.

2011-10-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

Jimmy is taking a break from hat modeling. So, being the sweet little girl that she is Susie came to the rescue. She is modeling my latest creation for Heavenly Angels in Need(HAIN).
I used I Love This Yarn(which I don't) for this and the hats I posted yesterday. Embellished with purple Simply Soft and some black faux fur yarn. I hope some 8 or 10 yr. old will love it.
I have a never ending supply of yarn, so while I was searching for the faux fur yarn I found a lot more yarn to try using up. My dh says it multiplies in the boxes, LOL.
Gotta go choose the next yarn for the next hat for HAIN. I saw some blue denim colored yarn in the stuff I found today, I'm thinking I'll knit a boys beanie with it. Crocheting is so much faster, but I really prefer knitted hats for boys and to be fair I really need to do a few for boys, too. Now, to find some knitting needles the right size. TTYL

Nearly a year?! Oh My!

2011-10-14T14:38:00.005-04:00

I would be embarrassed if it weren't for the kind of year that we have had. We moved 400 miles after months of searching and delay after delay when we finally did find a house.

Anyhoo, here are pics of 2 hats that I crocheted in the last 2 days for Heavenly Angels in Need.

No pattern, just a basic crocheted hat and when it was 'long' enough I did a row of single crochet from the wrong side to form the turn for making the band. Poor Jimmy he always gets stuck wearing the girls hats for pics. He's such a good boy. The second pic is of a teen/adult size hat made the same way as the one with the purple band. I just improvised to create the flower. These hats and a dozen others that were knitted will be going to Diana with the HAIN group to distribute to needy children in Nov.

I also need to whip some hats out for a collection done at my dd's place of employment. Better get going, eh?

More hats, gowns, wraps for HAIN

2010-10-25T19:05:00.006-04:00

These precious little things went to Heritage Hospital in NC on October 14. A gagle of little hats went with them, but I forgot to get pictures before the package was sent. 8-) I received a very nice thank you note from Mark H in IN for the little hats that I sent his way on the 14th. Now I have 3 little gown/ hat and blanket sets going on the hooks. Good thing I pick up crochet hooks and needles at yard sales...sure helps when I have several projects going at once.

Here are my 'girls' waiting patiently for us to get done with chores outdoors. Aren't those some cute little smiles? LOL

This is the latest batch of little goodies that I crocheted for Heavenly Angels In Need.
Some of these will go in the mail this week.

Hats off to Sundays

2010-10-10T16:39:00.004-04:00

What is more fun on a lazy -warm Sunday in southwest Michigan than crocheting a couple of

childrens hats for

Heavenly Angels in Need? I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

The first little hat is called Jayde and and was made with 1 strand of white fingering and 1 strand of green fingering...both unknowns from the stash that I acquired some time ago from a huge yard sale.

The second little number is called Butterfly and made from 2 strands of the green mystery yarn that I used in the first hat. Both hat patterns are from Vallieskids blog. She has a lot of really cute kids hat patterns on her blog and I appreciate all her effort to design and share the patterns.

Off, to bake some whole wheat buns for grilled burgers later. Yummm!

Crocheted Baby hats

2010-10-09T17:55:00.007-04:00

I made these for Heavenly Angels in Need a couple weeks ago, but haven't sent them out yet.

I made the ones in the second picture over the last couple of days. They go so fast. I used the 'Roundy' pattern from Bev's Country Cottage website. I have emailed a photographer who requested hats on the Heavenly Angels In Need group to offer them to him for taking pictures of preemies.

Have made 3 more today, no pics yet.

Crochet Baby Booties

2010-06-11T19:33:00.008-04:00

Here are the Booties that Chrissie sent me to use as a pattern. I think the Granny Loves Booties are close enough that I can make them work, gonna go try. I don't know what the deal was with not being able to attach these to an email....but here they are.

I'm Back

2008-07-03T15:32:00.000-04:00

No piccies today, but I am shocked at how long it has been since I last posted here. I have spent the last several months with one illness or another. Won't bore anyone with details. I have done hardly any knitting and a little soapmaking at intervals. I will come back soon and post pics. I recently joined Colins Sock KAL and I'm hoping to get my swatches knit soon and try to keep up with the group. DJ

Snow, snow, and more snow!

2008-03-23T11:20:00.001-04:00

We had ourselves a really good snowstorm Friday. these pics were taken yesterday.

My poor little Bitsie girl was past her little tummy in snow even in the areas that had been blown fairly clear of the snow.

Pudgie forges the trail and Bitsie follows. They both think their parents were snowplows. Aren't they cute in the nice warm sweaters that their 'momma' knitted for them? It sure keeps the snow and ice balls from forming on their chest and upper legs.

These brave daffodils are freezing their little petals off! They thought spring was here, silly things.

Today was cold but sunny and made for a nice ride to DD#1s for a big family dinner. I started a pair of socks for the kids in the orphanage at Akkol on the ride there and back. This is what I got done on them. I'm using some donated wool that is about sport or dk weight and size 3 circ. needles. Cast on 56 st. 1x1 ribbing followed by k3, p1, for the remainder of the cuff. these will be 11.25 inch in the foot length, another pair of bigguns.

And I have been making soap again. these are sunflower soaps that I colored with red palm oil at 20% of the total oil. They are actually a nice pumpkin color. Not what I was after, but a very nice color. I've made 2 batches since then with less red palm oil and the 3rd batch was perfect. When it comes out of the mold there will be pics. This soap is for DD#1, for her b/day gift basket of bath and body goodies. Now to see what else I can get done before her b/day on april 9.

Ta, DJ

Another big sock finished

2008-03-12T01:38:00.001-04:00

I finally finished the big socks that I was knitting for Mittens for Akkol.
44 sts on size 8 needles, using 2 strands of Patons Classic Merino held together.
2 inches of 1x1 ribbing and the rest of the cuff was K2,P2,K4,P1,K4,P1,K4,P2, K2 on the first half of the sts and then repeat on the second half of the sts. until cuff is 8-9 inches total length. Foot is 11.5 inches from back of heel to tip of toe. yes, they are bigguns! Now to cast on another pair with just one strand of the same yarn. And still working on DGS J's b/day socks. Gotta get a move on with those. Ta, D

More Soapies

2008-03-07T23:25:00.000-05:00

I made this batch tonight, after watching the last 3 videos of 'Pride and Prejudice.' Love those videos. I've seen them so many times, but will watch them again before I return them to the library.

Mmmmmmm, Bamboo & Teak fragrance oil in a 5 lb batch. And yes I used the right sized mold tonight. It soaped like a dream. I had plenty of time to play with the swirling. Maybe too much time, really. It is hard to stop. I was in danger of creating mud by the time I stopped. It is just so much fun.

DH is giving the fur babies a bath right now with the Lavender/Oatmeal/Flaxseed soap that I made a couple weeks ago and says it really lathers up well. And makes them smell good, to boot. The old man is getting to be a soap-sissy, lol.
I have to admit that it tickles me that he enjoys my soaps, tho.
Gotta get some knitting done now. Ta, D

Soaping adventures

2008-03-06T15:49:00.001-05:00

I couldn't wait any longer to soap with the new fragrance oil that I got from Lezlee. It is called Inis and puts me in mind of Irish hills. So, I decided to make a green swirled soap with it. I didn't want to use my green oxide, so I was trying to figure out what to use that was natural and with help from some online soaping friends, I decided on ground parsley. A quick grind in the coffee grinder pulverized it very well.
Here's a pic of the slab after I took it out of the mold earlier this after noon.
It was really an adventure for sure. Pulverized kelp was the other choice for coloring it. Decided not to risk having 'fishy' smelling soap!
Parsley looked the most promising for this batch. So, that is what I did. But, I felt like Lucy! (Where is that Ethel, when you need her?!) I like to use oat water in my soaps and I usually use it half & half with plain distilled water. This time I forgot and just measured out straight oat water. Ugh, when I added the lye, it clumped up and scorched in the bottom of the bowl. Oh, man! I had to dispose of that batch of lye and start over. Fortunately, I had more oats soaking. This time I did that right. I'm so glad that I took the advice that I have often seen and put my FO in the base oils. About 10 seconds or so of stick blending and I was at light trace. Blast! I hurried and threw in some ground oats and blended a few seconds. Yow, I'm afraid I'll get soap on a stick blender if I don't get a move on! (That's no small feat for this fluffy person.) O.K., grab the ground parsley and throw it in and hand stir. Ick! Doesn't look great. Ummmm, grab the ladle and a little container and slop some soap in it, quick toss in some gr. parsley and mix, mix, mix. Yah, that's good. Sling it into the pot and do a fast "in the pot" swirl. Oh boy, not really great. Well, no time to cry now. Get it over to the table and start dumping this 3 lb batch into the.....uh.. .er...Oh no, its the 5 lb mold. Can't do anything about it now, just keep pouring, girl. Hey, where did the swirl go? Man, oh man the swirl is gone. Smooth it down and check the depth. Not quite enough, but it will have to do. Throw it in the oven and try to stop shaking. And DON'T cry over it.
I've talked myself out of being upset, now I just think it was funny.
My men don't care if it has nice swirls or if it is the usual nice thick bars. They will love the scent and I ain't tellin' them what it shoulda-coulda been. Bwa-ha-ha-ha- ha! BTW, it's a pretty light not-quite-granny smith apple color. I likes it, I has to, I can't change it now.

I'm happy to report that by the light of the next day, it is a subtle swirl, more like 'veining' and is perfect for this scent. This pic of the cut bars is a little darker than the actual soap. It is closer to the color of the pic of the slab, above. It smells wonderful, looks so kewl, and I'm a happy soaper today. Whew!

Ta, DJ

More socks.........

2008-03-03T20:38:00.001-05:00

DGS N. loved his new socks, shown here. they were knit on size 4circs, 6 sts to the inch using WoolEase. Cast on 52 sts, 1x1 ribbing for 8 inches. I used a regular heel flap and turn and gussett. Knit the foot to 8 inches from the back of the heel and then did the regular toe decrease. He wears a size 9.5 mens shoe.

And here is the handsome young man who received those socks. He just got his first National Guard uniform. Didn't get a chance to take the tag off the hat before I took the picture. Isn't he a cutie. I hate that he has joined the military, because I know where his going to end up after basic training. I hate that he will be in harms way. First he has to graduate. He goes right to 'basic' after graduation in May. His Grandpa and Grandma are going to miss him terribly and worry like crazy.

This is the next pair of socks for the kids at the orphanage in Akkol. size 8 needles, 2 strands of Patons Classic Merino and 44 sts. I inch leg and 11.5 inch foot(I hope). I consider this the home stretch, now that the gussett decreases are done.

And here we are looking at the beginning of the b/day socks for DGS J. that are due on march 8. Fortunately, the party will be a week or so later. Ahhh, a repreive!

I am switching from WoolEase to Encore for the family's boot/slipper socks. this will be the first pair in Encore. I love Encore and really like the way it feels as I knit it. It has the wool content that WoolEase has, but is a better quality yarn in my opinion. It seems to wear a lot better and that is what I want.

We had a very nice time at DD #1s yesterday for N's b/day. And later I will post pics that I took of her newly remodeled hair/nail/tanning/waxing salon.

Big Socks, Pair # 1

2008-02-28T21:20:00.001-05:00

I finally finished the first pair of socks for Mittens for Akkol for this years challenge. These are 11.5 inch. I am working on the largest size needed. I did that for last years challenge and it worked out really well. I can knit a pair of small socks in about 1.5 days but these bigguns' take forever. So, it seems to work best to get the big sized socks done first. I used Patons Classic Wool Merino for these in dk. brown with an unknown blue for the stripe. Size 4 circs. and 6 st. to the inch. Cast on 56 sts.
I have another pair ready to start the heel. This next pair is done with 2 strands of Patons Classic on Size 8 circs. I hope to finish the heel flap tonight. Gotta get DGS J.s b/day socks cast on too. He will be 13 on march 8. Gonna have to really push to get them done. If you'd like to support Mittens for Akkol and help orphans in Kazakhstan just check out the website below:
http://www.mittensforakkol.com
The need is great and you can make a real difference with even the smallest amount of help. And there are several ways to help, even if you are not a knitter.
I hope you will give it some thought.
Gotta go. Ta, D

Baby oh Baby!

2008-02-25T11:18:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited! I won a pair of BabyLegs. What you ask, are BabyLegs? Why they are just the cutest little baby leg warmers that you've ever seen. They actually cover the baby's whole leg, and they are available in such up-to-date colors and designs, they can't miss. And they can even be worn by growing children. They even make great arm warmers for grown up kids. I had never heard of them until last week when I was browsing the Brambleberry.com website and found a link to:
http://www.babylegs.net/
I was in for a surprise! I just think these little cuties are so practical at the same time. While I was reading the BabyLegs website I found an invitation to email an entry for their free pair offer. I never win anything, but I thought why not? Imagine my surprise when I got an email from Ben at BabyLegs telling me that I won! I was thrilled.
One of my DGS's classmates recently had a precious little baby girl under some not so nice circumstances and our family has been trying to help her and her family to cope with the situation. I mentioned this to Ben in my email and he is not only sending them directly to baby E., with a gift card from me. What a nice corporate attitude. I have emailed with Ben a couple times and I am so impressed with the way that he and BabyLegs relate to others. I can hardly wait for someone else around me to have a baby so I can give BabyLegs as baby shower gifts. I don't know if I have been living under a rock, or if BabyLegs are a really new and clever thing, but I sure wish they had been around when my kiddos and grand-kiddos were babies. Thanks BabyLegs, for bringing such a great product to market.
Dear reader, if you haven't seen or heard of these cute little things, you gotta go take a look. Ta, D

Momma makes lotion

2008-02-16T19:52:00.001-05:00

No pictures, but I am so excited. I made lotion last night. Just a small batch 16 ounces. It is really nice lotion, feels great on the skin and smells pretty good considering that I used a fragrance that I don't really care for. I got it to make a gift basket of bath and body products for a dear friend. She adores that fragrance, and I got about 7 ounces of it so there is sure plenty. It is such a miracle the way you can take water and oil and turn them into lotion. This bath and body stuff is turning out to be so much fun.
Knitting you ask? Well, I have dgs N.'s b/day socks done, just have to stitch up the toes and work in the yarn ends. Yippee! Was hoping to get some 'manly' fragrance oil in time to make him some soap, but looks like that isn't going to happen. I may try blending some essential oils and doing a little batch just to see if I can come up with a manly scent on my own. Hmmmm, how did this 'knitting' paragragh turn back to soap? I'm obsessed with soap! Scary!!!
We are staying close to home this weekend, more bad weather headed our way and we aren't as brave as we used to be. I would like to go out and get some sunflower oil or safflower oil for making some more lotion, but will probably wait until I get groceries next weekend. I meant to get it today and forgot. Duh!
Ta, D

Sweets from my Sweetie

2008-02-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

My sweetie brought me sweets and flowers today. Lots of flowers. I love carnations and the red ones smell so spicy, mmmmmm. and those little sweets are little brownie bites with cream cheese icing, yummmm. He hasn't done that since 1970, so it was a surprise. He has brought me flowers and goodies, but not for V. day. Very nice surprise.

I'm still knitting on the sox for dgs N. and the pair for M4A is till in progress. Gonna get off here and see if I can finish N.'s to the point of the toe decrease. Ta, D

More of the same.

2008-02-10T17:36:00.000-05:00

Snow and more snow around here. No piccies. But, I do have pics of my latest batch of soap. This is flaxseed/oatmeal/lavender soap that I made especially for rosaecea. DD K. and I both have it and it's really hard to find a soap that we can use without having it eat our face off. My handmade soaps have really been kind to it. I decided to try adding the flaxseed oil and ground flaxseed to see if it would be even better for our skin. I washed my hands with a piece earlier today and it was like washing with silk. I sure hope it keeps that quality after it is fully cured. The lather is very nice, too. The pics are of the soap in the mold and after cutting. It is a pretty earthy looking soap, the pics make it look much nicer than it looks in person. I am still learning how much colorant to put in various amounts of soap and I really wish that I had used just a touch more violet.

The color is much more muted than it appears here. and the uncolored part of the soap is very tan and speckled with the ground flaxseed and the ground oats that I used.

I used about 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats in about 2 cups of distilled water, soaked overnight and then the oat'milk' drained off. To that I added about 1 oz of finely ground flaxseed and soaked that overnight. It needed to be mixed with the stick blender before using in my soap recipe.

I also used 10% flaxseed oil in this recipe, so I'm expecting a really nice healing bar. I can hardly wait to try it out on my face. I will probably try it in the shower tomorrow, first. If it does well as a body soap then we will try some as facial soap. This was scented with lavender essential oil, too.
which I hope will contribute to the skin calming effect that I am hoping for in this soap. Smells great, altho I did go a little light on the lavender to be sure that I didn't use too much of a good thing.

This picture of four of the bars is a more accurate representation of the color, at least on my monitor.

In knitting action: Here is the pair of socks that I am working on for Mittens for Akkol. They will be for a large teen. The kids at the orphanage in Kazakhstan are in need of warm footwear and there is a challenge going on to provide a new pair for each of the 265 children in the home. You can read more about that at:

http://www.mittensforakkol.com/

If you are a knitter and have a little spare wool yarn and the time to put together a pair of socks of any size, please consider this very worth cause. I truly believe the world is changed forever with every kind act that is performed. Won't you consider being a force for good in the world? If you are not a knitter there are other ways to help that are listed on the website above. Thanks for giving it some thought.

these are the b/day socs that I am knitting for DGS N. they are woolease on size 4 needles and in a sort of camo color called 'wood'. Kinda plain vanilla socks on 52 st for a size 9.5 men's shoe size. Hopefully, he won't outgrow them before he gets some good wear out of them. Teen boys feet can grow so fast. As soon as they are finished, I need to cast on for DGS Js b/day socks. that big day of the thirteenth b/day is coming up in March. Gotta go click my needles. Ta, D

Brrrrrrrrrr!!! Snow abounds

2008-02-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

here in southwest Michigan. Being near the shore of Lake Michigan insures that we get our share of snow. These pics were taken this afternoon in our backyard.

The fur-babies love to play in the snow. They should have chapped noses. They constantly have them down in the snow, silly pups.

I was hoping that the sun would shine long enough for me to get some really nice pics of the snow glistening in the sun, but the sun chose not to co-operate today.

Great day to stay inside and make soap! And that is exactly what I did.

Piccies in the next post. I gotta get some knitting done and clean up the kitchen from my soap mess, now.

Ta, DJ

Q and A time

2008-01-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

Mamere Knits Too Much asked , in regard to soapmaking, where'd you start?
Good question. I originally started making soap about a hundred years ago with the recipe on the back of the Red Devil Lye can, using lard or tallow. Well, actually it was the 1970's, but it feels like a hundred years ago. LOL After a few years, I found a book and used a more 'modern' recipe that included coconut oil and olive oil. Ooooh, that was a big improvement. Those 2 oils make a wonderfully conditioning soap.
After I don't know how many years, life changed and work and teenagers took up more of my time and I quit making soap. Until Dec. 18, 2007, that is when I began making soap again. Soapmaking has certainly changed in the intervening years. Now there is soap cooked on top of the stove, soap cooked in the oven, soap whipped in the kitchenaid, soap, soap, and more soap. I still prefer the old way called cold process. But, now I have learned that by putting the cold processed soap, in its mold, in a warm oven for a couple hours and then leaving it in there overnight I can have usable soap much sooner. I love that, I'm really a patient person. But, I want my soap NOW! This process is called CP/OP or cold process /oven process.
Now, we aren't limited to just lard, tallow, coconut oil and olive oil either. Now we can use cocoa butter, shea butter, castor oil, babbasu oil, mango butter, aloe butter.....and on and on. The soaps we make now are so much nicer than soap has ever been before. And there is so much more scientific info around. There are several internet lye calculators that tell us how much lye and water we need to use for the specific types and amounts of oils that we are using. And now there are colorants, and we aren't limited in the number of scents that we can use, well only by our imagination and a little common sense. And living in a rural area no longer limits what we put in our soap. With the internet there is no end to the number of things we can have with just the click of a mouse. The only thing that limits us now is our.....budget. Hmmm, budget I think that should be a 4-letter word.
Now after all that, the way I got started this time around was that I joined several yahoo groups that are soapmaking related. I read all the posts and followed links to info and suppliers and just generally lurked for a couple months before I got all my supplies gathered and also gathered up the nerve to start again. This ain't your great grannies soapmaking anymore. Now, it's way kewl!
Ta, DJ

Fisherman/Hunter Soap Experiment

2008-01-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I played with the colorants that I got from Sally. I used some star anise oil, made a big(for me) batch of soap to give the grands with their b/day socks. They are all hunters and fisherman, so I will label half the bars Fishermans soap and the other half will be labeled Hunters Soap.

I like the way the colors came out using them 'as is'. Now that I know what they look like in the soap, I will be playing with them next time to dull them down a tiny bit. Of course, they are not nearly as bright as they appear in my pictures. I don't have a clue as to why my camera picks up some colors the way it does. What appears to be red in this pic is actually a brown with a little bit of a reddish cast to it. In another batch, I will put just the tiniest bit of black in the brown and in the green. And the base has a little reddish cast to it. I put just the tiniest bit of the brown in it. Next time I will use more brown and a tiny bit of black in the base to darken it just a titch and dull it down a tiny bit.

Did I mention that I like the soap the way it is, too. LOL It isn't what I envisioned when I planned this soap. However, I had no experience with the colorants, so I wasn't really sure what I would end up with. This is not only acceptable, it's very nice. The grands and dh will be very pleased with their 'camoflauge' soapies. And they smell good enough to eat. I love black licorice and that is what they smell like.
I love it when a 'learning' batch turns out to be such nice soap.

I am already planning the next batch of soap. I have some grapefruit, orange, lemon, clove, and jasmine that I am going to play around with. Tropical Breeze anyone?

Probably before I do that, I will make an oatmeal/lavender batch to have curing for our own shower and to try out on the fur babies. I have goatsmilk and coconut milk in the freezer for a future play session, too.

Fun, fun, fun, daddy please don't take my soap pot away.

Ta, D

Chocolate Swirl Heart Soapies!

2008-01-26T23:50:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I made this chocolate soap. It looked great in the pot. I took out some plain soap before I added the melted bakers choc. and Dark Rich Choc. fragrance oil. Yummy smelling in the pot.
At very thin trace I poured it into my mold. It thickened fairly quickly so I had to hustle to get the plain soap poured in and swirled. I wasn't real pleased with the swirl job. But, hey I haven't had much practice, either. When this came out of the oven, It was bubbly on top and I thought I might have another failed batch on my hands. I don't really know why the choc. soaps are bubbling on me. But, I have to think it has something to do with the choc. itself. Because none of my other soaps have done it. I was really disappointed, these were planned as part of gift baskets for my girls next month. And I don't have any more Choc. FO. So, I waited and when I took the soap out of the mold, it was really nice soap, just had that bubbly top. I had gotten some heart cookie cutters, so I figured why not play with them, anyway. I got the double heart cutter at JoAnns and the single heart cutters are silicone that I got from Target. I really like them. I got the soap a little on the thick side for the depth of the cutters. But with the help of a tiny little paring knife, I was able to get them cut.
Today, I went to the mart of wally and found a silicone mandolin slicer with stainless steel blade. I wish it didn't have little ridges on its bed, but I am so glad that I got it. It was under $5. and did a really nice job of taking the bubbly tops off my hearts. I will continue to look for one with a smooth surface and a little wider blade. But, I am having fun with this

one. In some ways the soaps look a little 'hand-crafted', but that is really more pleasing to me than if they were perfect and 'commercial' looking. Oh, and I'm really liking this soap, now.
Sunday may bring another batch of soap. Possibly the hunter/fisherman soap that I have been planning and that I need to get done very soon if I am going to give them as gifts on Feb. 23. for DGS N. I'm to the point of the heel turn on his b/day socks, too.
The youngest DGS J. asked for 'manly scented' soaps for his b/day along with his b/day socks. His 13th b/day is Mar. 8. I have ordered 2 manly scent FOs and they should be here mid-Feb.
Today, I used the lavender/rosemary soap in the shower. I love it, it sudsed very well. In fact, I used it to wash my hair. I had volumes of suds. More than I usually get with my regular shampoo. It rinsed well and my hair feels great. My scalp usually itches even before my hair is completely dry. Today, I have gone all day without my scalp itching. Yippee! I'll continue using that soap for a week or so to see if that continues. What a cool hobby! Ta, D

Sunday Soapin'!

2008-01-21T14:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. I planned to make a 1 lb batch of rosemary soap with some green 'in the pot' swirls and a 1 lb. batch of lavender soap with purple'in the pot' swirls. Then I was planning to swirl the 2 soaps together in the mold. Ambitious, I know. Well, just after I started, we got company. As things progressed, we got more company. I get nervous when I make soap in the company of anyone but my dh. The more company we got the more nervous I got. I finally just colored each batch and did a funny splotch/swirl combo in the mold. I forgot to take pics before I put the saran on and I forgot to bang it on the counter to get the air bubbles out before I put the saran on! So I have pock-marked soap tops. And the swirl isn't that great either. But it is interesting. And it smells divine. Since, it is for our own use I'm not really very disappointed. It will be wonderful for a morning wake up shower. Here it is all cut and ready to cure. Great fun! It's showing up blue on my monitor, its purple in real life. D

Soapin' Saturday!

2008-01-19T20:17:00.000-05:00

Up early today and busy with the soap pot. This is a 2 lb. batch of soap made with the 4-oil formula that Zo posted on the Magic Apple last week. I was down with a terrible cold all week and this is the first chance that I've had to try it out. It traced fairly quickly and I probably should have added the ultramarine oxide pink a little sooner. It really did do a fairly nice 'in the pot' swirl. I was a little afraid to take time to take pics after I did the actual swirl. Didn't want to risk it seizing. I just drug my spatula from center to the outside once in each direction and then ladled it into the molds. I have never used colorants in soap, so I wasn't quite sure how much to use. I would make it a little more intense next time. But, it was just for practice and I am pleased with the subtle swirls. I also added .5 oz of Brambleberry 'champagne' fragrance oil. My oven was otherwise occupied this morning, so I put it in a cooler and heated some towels to insulate it. It didn't gel, but there really isn't a hurry so it has time to cure. I opened the cooler to peek and it smells really nice. 2 lb. was enough to fill the six heart molds and enough left over to fill the bottom of a check box. I had lined it, just in case there was a small amount left, glad I thought to do that! Can hardly wait to see what I have tomorrow.
Sunday's soap pot will have a practice batch to get the hang of mixing my colors for and swirling a batch of hunters/fishermans anise soap that I want to make. But, I don't want to waste my essential oil on a bad swirl, so this batch will just be a 1 lb. batch of Zo's 3 oil soap, like I made previously. I really enjoyed playing with the color today and I'm looking forward to it tomorrow.
I also have some old fashioned oats soaking. I will strain it off and use the water for a batch of oatmeal/lavender Winter Skin Soap. I have some oats that I ground very fine to add to that, too. I make play with color and swirling, too.
Knitting is going on in between other projects. Nothing completed since DGD L.s boot/slipper socks. She came over today and I gave her the socks and the batch of fudge that I made for her yesterday. She was a happy camper.
Michigans winter is pretty mean today and will be tomorrow,too. Great times to stay in and make soap and knit. Ta, D

Socks again!

2008-01-17T23:03:00.000-05:00

I thought I should post a pic of the socks that I knitted for dgd L. She was 22 yo yesterday. Yes, I am that old. Errrr, NO, I'm not that old. LOL I had her mother when I was very young and her mother wasn't much older when she had L. thank goodness that trend has changed. At 22 she isn't even interested in having a family yet. Smart girl. Plenty of time for that. Anyways, these are my standard woolease boot/slipper socks for a size 6.5 womens shoe. they are a heathery pink/rose color and I hope she will like them. I'm going to make a nice batch of homemade million dollar choc. fudge tomorrow to go along with the socks.

These brown socks with the blue 2-row stripe are being made with Patons Classic and will be 11.5 inch foot length. these are my first pair of the year for Mittens for Akkol. I hope to make 50 pair this year for M4A. I'm already behind on that goal. but when we get into the smaller sizes, I will be able to make 3 or 4 pair a week to catch up. These are 56 st on size 5 circs. 1x1 ribbing for 2 inches then switching to K5, P2 for the remainder of the cuff, which will be at least a total of 8 inches long. I think that our goal is 600 pair, so I need to get busy with the sock knitting. Care to join us?! To find out how just go to:
http://www.mittensforakkol.com/
Don't knit socks? That's O.K! The kids at the orphanage need mittens, hats, scarves, sweaters and vests, too. Mostly animal fiber is the key, it's just plain warmer in their frigid climate. Come join the fun.
And I'm happy to report that FedEx finally turned loose of my fragrance order from Bramblberry in WA. Ummmm, wonderful scents. Can hardly wait to begin using them. I'm also happy to report that my last 2 batches of soap are curing very nicely and appear to be very nice soaps.
I've also received my colorants from Sally in TX and will be ready to make camo hunters/fishermans soap as soon as I get some time to play.
Brambleberry sent me a sample of 'champagne' fragrance oil with that order and I am die-ing to make some pink champagne heart shaped soaps with that. I ran to JoAnns last night and got the mold, now to the fun!

Tomato Soap and more

2008-01-08T19:38:00.000-05:00

Here is my lovely tomato soap just after being poured into the mold and covered with Saran. Gorgeous color. Then we have the resulting soap logs. The soap looks a little vein-y. I don't know what is causing that, but it lathers well and feels nice. It is for the teen grandkids. I am told that it is good for acne. I added lemongrass and tea tree essential oils, too. I would have used a bit of lavender EO, too, if FedEx wasn't holding it hostage somewhere between CO and MI. I added a Tablespoon each of ground sundried tomatoes and oatmeal at trace. It smells good and I hope that vein-y look is just something peculiar to the curing process of this particular soap. I did just make it last night. It isn't separated or greasy, that's a plus. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Patience, dear heart.

Then we have a little one pound batch of what I am calling Zo's 60/20/20 Soap. Nice creamy soap, beautiful rich lather and such a pretty pale cream color. Love it.

I fear that my knitting blog is being taken over by soapmaking. Oh, my!

I'll have to lay off the soap before long and then I will be back at knitting more. I am spending moments here and there working on DGS N's birthday boot/slipper socks.

Gotta go put a big pot of cheesy potato soup in freezer containers and get that out of the way and cleaned up because I have the urge to make of couple more little batches of Zo's soap tonight, yet. I feel like a mad scientist, what will she put in this batch? LOL Ta, DJ

Soaping Saga...continues......

2008-01-02T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I held my breath and dove right into the re-batching! Here is what those 2 bars looked like before I started. They look like nice soap, but they felt so greasy and still had some little pockets of oil.

So-o-o-o, I chopped them all up and put them in a bowl over some nice hot water, added some very strong coffee and started in.

Here is what it looked like after I took the cleaver to it.

Hmmmmm, after heating for hours, yes hours, it looked like this. That is just glare on top, it wasn't white. Sort of like really, really thick mashed potatoes, but way brown. The only time that it wasn't like a thick gloppy mess of mashed potatoes was whenever I added some more strong coffee to the mess. And that evaporated off pretty fast, in my opinion. It never did really melt.
I got tired of waiting, took a little glop of it over to the sink and washed my hands with it, it lathered up a nice creamy lather. So, I added enough coffee to loosen it up a little and gradually sprinkled and stirred in 4 tablespoons of fresh coffee(really fresh, I had to open the can) one tablespoon at a time. When that was done, I bit the bullet and slopped/glopped it into my pre-lined mold and smushed it into the corners the best that I could. Slammed it down on the counter several times and hoped for the best.

Here is what it looks like now. Sort of looks like deep dark chocolate brownies, doesn't it! I'm happy enough with the way it worked out, so far. I would prefer not to re-batch, tho.

Ugh! What a boo-boo!

2007-12-29T09:54:00.000-05:00

Oh phooey! I guess this is what happens if your oven doesn't maintain an even temperature when your are oven processing your beautiful soap. that milky looking stuff is oil and that fuzz/bubbly looking stuff, well I'm not sure what that is. But, I think it is the white soap from underneath that 'boiled' up thru the chocolate layer. Hmmm, note to self: Just turn the oven off and let whatever heat is in there do the work. I am so bummed. It was so beautiful last night. Now it looks like poo-poo. Hrrrrmpphh! Well, this may be my golden opportunity to learn about re-batching. I'm going to try to ignore it for a day or 2 and see what happens. Meanwhile, I am planning the next batch......lemongrass scented soap with ground lemongrass in it. Mmmmmm, i love the smell of lemongrass.

Edit: I cut this and just made 2 bars and trimmed off the ugly top. It has been just sitting on the counter waiting for me to decide what and when to do something. It actually looks pretty good now. but I think I will just re-batch it and use coffee for the liquid and put coffee grounds in it to make a nice kitchen soap. the little blob that I scraped out of the pot and that I am using at the sink is really nice soap. The saga of the poo-poo soap will continue........

Chocolate Swirl Soap Anyone!?

2007-12-28T20:05:00.000-05:00

I am so excited. I made my first 'swirled' soap! I can hardly wait to see what it looks like after I cut it. I have to perfect the pouring and swirling a little bit. But I think it looks pretty cool for my first try. I mixed a little cocoa powder in with a little of the oils that I was using in the batch and then when I got to light 'trace', I took out a couple of cups or so of the soap and mixed in the cocoa/oil mixture. Poured the un-flavored soap into the mold and then drizzled the choc. soap back and forth top to bottom and left to right. then I took a spoon and went from upper left corner to lower right corner, swirling back and forth. Then did the opposite. Cool bean! Ay?

AHA!!! I can upload piccies, again.!

2007-12-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

I have piccies of my handmade soaps, today. I'm so excited that I was able figure out how to upload from the new printer to my blog.
The first batch was just a very moisturising soap that I mentioned in my last post, here.
Yesterday, I made this lovely soap. I added castor oil, ground oatmeal, lavender essential oil, and tea tree essential oil to the same recipe. For anyone who isn't a soap maker: castor oil helps make bubbles. I only had about a 1/2 teaspoon of the lavender EO and I didn't want it overpowered by the tea tree oil, so I only put 20 drops of the tea tree in it. It look so nice. I took a little sliver off a corner and tried it in the kitchen sink. Very nice. I'm sure that we are going to love it. Now, I'm planning the next soaps. I hope to make some hunter's soap soon. Will be casting on some hunting/boot socks for DGD Nick very soon and hope to make some hunter's soap to go along with them for his BD coming up the end of Feb. I think I will include a nice bar of the oatmeal/lavender/teatree soap with DGD Laura's strawberry milkshake colored boot/slipper socks for her BD in 3 weeks. I have to get busy and find the recipe for the hunters soap again.
I'm kicking myself because I have lots of lavender blossoms that I dried from my plants and I could have crushed some up and put them in the soap that I made yesterday. Oh, well. another batch. Now that I have started making soap, I don't want to quit. I have all kinds of ideas for more 'flavors'.
Knitting? you ask:
I worked on the heel flap of my opal socks tonight. and I am almost ready to do the toes on Laura's socks. Should have Laura's done by the weekend and then I can cast on for Nick's BD socks.
Gotta scoot.

I'm back online

2007-12-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

At last I have another computer and I'm starting to get caught up. The old cantankerous puter finally did one last crash. DD#3 gave me her old puter, but it didn't come with a printer, I finally got one. But, I haven't figured out how to use the picture card slots to take my pics from it to the pc and upload to my blog. That is something for 'later'. LOL Have been busy knitting but not accomplishing much.
Right now, I'm working on a pair of Wool-Ease Blush Heather slipper/boot socks for DGD Laura. they look like a strawberry milkshake. I also have a couple of pair of socks for me going in Opal self patterning. I keep doing other things and they aren't going very fast. I really need new socks, too. I am trying to wear slipper socks over my socks in the house to keep the ones that I have from wearing out. Silly! I have a basket full of sock yarn. LOL I just keep knitting for everybody except me.
Oh my goodness! I have finally started making handmade soaps again. I can't believe that I ever quit. I used a bar from my first batch in the shower yesterday and it is divine! I used olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil and lanolin and crisco in it. Oooooh, it's so creamy and my skin just loves it. I plan to make a batch of basically the same soap this week. But I will be subbing some shea butter and jojoba oil for some of the coconut oil and either some of the crisco or olive oil. Gotta check it out on the soap calculator to make sure it will have the same and better qualities. I will be using either some cocoa powder or melted bakers dk choc. to color and flavor some of it to be swirled in with the plain soap for my first attempt at creating a marbled effect. Mmmmm, I can hardly wait for it to be done and take that first shower with it.
gotta run, DJ

Fall mushrooms/toadstools

2007-11-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

We have had quite a warm and moist fall here in beautiful Southwest Michigan, this year. These 2 popped up under one of our Lilac bushes just the other day. I find the 'markings' on them so interesting, almost a feather look.

DH gets out and about a lot more than I do and he says that there have been a lot of really pretty ones this year.

I'm working on improving my health and hope that by spring, I will be well enough to join him again on all his walks in the woods and on the beach. I really have missed it.
On the knitting front:

I have cast on DD K #1's BD socks, and have about an inch of the ribbing done. Still need to cast on for DD K#2's BD socks. I hope to do that over the weekend.

I am nearly to the toes decreases on the boring gray SIL socks.

I was able to get about 6 little holiday color baby hats done for Parkland, yesterday. That was a nice little break from my regular knitting projects.

My own Opal socks are coming along. I only knit on them while I read my email. I have the ribbing done and about an inch of the cuff.
This is a picture of all the yarnie goodness that I got a few weeks ago from knitting friend Kathleen in Maine. In the back is some aran wt. Fleece Artist in a rich luscious brown. I just can't stop myself, I have to pet this yarn! In front of the is some absolutely gorgeous Kona Bay in 2 different shades of blue. The yellow/blue handpaint socks yarn is Fleece Artist, too. And there are various 'fun' type yarns, too. I'll be using them for hat and sock cuffs, to jazz things up for the teen and pre-teens at the orphanage in Akkol, Kazakhstan. This was such a wind-fall! Big <<>>>> for Kathleen. I have already combined the darker blue with the yellow/blue handpaint to make a pair of socks that will be on there way to Kaz in just a little over a week. Some teen is really going to have warm feet this winter, and New Years is going to be more special, because along with their usual little bag of candy, each child will be getting a nice warm pair of lovingly handknit wool socks. I wish I could be there to see them all receiving their socks and putting them on their feet. What joy there will be there that day!
I'll try to post a pic of them in a day or so. Gotta go knit, now. DJ

Bracelets and more bracelets

2007-10-27T03:13:00.000-04:00

It's too bad that my camera doesn't take better pictures because DD K. has been busy digging thru our beads and making some pretty bracelets to donate to the etsy site for Mittens For Akkol.

http://www.mittensforakkol.etsy.com/

These should be on the site in about 7 days. We will be sending them in soon and Nanci will get them on the site asap, I'm sure.

All the money raised on this site is used to ship warm socks, mittens, hats, sweaters, vests over to the children in the orphanage in Akkol, Kazakhstan. A shipment is going soon and there will be more shipments to follow. The need is so great, please consider helping by purchasing some of your holiday gifts from this site.
Please check the site frequently, things are being added often.
Knitting you ask?: I am busy trying to finish up the last 2 pair of socks that I will be able to get done for this shipment. This will bring my total to 24 pair for this shipment, to be added to the donations of many other knitters, our goal is to have a new pair of handknit warm wool socks for every child in the orphanage(265 pair). We are almost there, in fact we may already be there, but we are still knitting because we can't exceed the need.
On personal knitting: I have been putting in a little time on SILs BD socks and
I finally made it to row 60 on my Secret of the Stole KAL shawl. I was having trouble keeping track of what row I'm on. Tonight, I finally found some re-positionable hiliter tape at JoAnns of all places. It was in the quilting dept. I highly reccommend it for working with a wide chart.
Oh boy, tomorrow I will be teaching DD K. how to put a zipper in some fleece PJs that she is making for a gift for her sister, the other DD K. Maybe, I should start refering to them as K1. and K2. LOL, yah like I'm going to make that call. Hmmmm, maybe I'll use their birth order, about 2 minutes difference. So, DD K2. is making pjs for DD K1. Ah yes, that will work.
Gotta run, DJ

More goodies for Akkol

2007-10-18T01:10:00.000-04:00

This is the other 2 AG doll sweater sets that I am mailing out tomorrow to Nanci for theM4A etsy site to help raise money to pay the shipping costs of getting warm socks and other clothing to the orphanage in Akkol, Kazakhstan.

After Nanci receives them she will be putting them on the etsy site at:

http://www.mittensforakkol.etsy.com/

there are other things on there that you may want to consider as gifts for your friends and family. This a way of giving 2 gifts for the cost of one. The kids in the orphanage will get the warm clothing and you get a nice item to use or give as a gift. Win-Win.

This is the last 3 pair of socks that I knit for the Mittens For Akkol challenge. they are in the box and ready for the UPS store. Watch out Nanci, here comes a very heavy box.

TA, DJ

Learn something new every day!

2007-10-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

For instance, I just learned (after ump-teen tries) that all the pictures that I have been trying to upload and couldn't find, were actually placed in a second folder by my very smart camera. Ugh! If only it had a smart operator! LOL

So, I can post pics from my own camera again. Yippee!

Here is one of the little sweater sets for the American Girl Doll that will be on the etsy site for Mittens for Akkol. http://www.mittensforakkol.etsy.com/

It will be on there next week some time. If I ever finish taking the pics of the other things that I'm sending and get the box in the mail. Ta for now, DJ

Santa Hats for AG dolls and KAL

2007-10-06T19:22:00.000-04:00

Aren't they cute!? You may purchase them very soon (about 7 to 10 days) from the etsy site of the Mittens For Akkol yahoo group. Your purchase will help us warm the orphans in the home in Akkol, Kazakhstan. Check out the other things available(new things being added all the time):

http://www.mittensforakkol.etsy.com/

Edit by DJ, Oct. 7, 2007: I thought I should note here that my little model for the 18 inch AG Doll Santa hat is just a little baby that I picked up somewhere and she is not an AG doll. I don't own an AG doll and the one I usually borrow wasn't available at the time that I took the pic.

For those who are interested, I am taking part in the Secrets of the Stole KAL and here is a pic of my swatch, finally. It was taken with Dh's camera and it has no flash, but I am stuck with it until I can figure out why my card reader doesn't like the pics that I take on my flash camera. I have started the KAL and I'm on row 31. Pics to follow in a day or two. I have Santa hats to make and some other things to get ready for sale on the M4A etsy site. So the Kal will be slow going for me. Priorities! DJ

2007-10-06T03:35:00.000-04:00

these little sockies went to Children in Common. Nice thick socks for small kiddos. I used left-overs from some of the socks that I knit for MittensForAkkol. I love making these little guys. They work up so quickly and I can just see the cute little toes that they will be warming.

I tried again to up load a pic of my Secret of the Stole KAL swatch. No can do. I just can't figure out why I can upload older pics like this one and not the newer ones. Of course, the instruction book to my camera may just as well have been written in Greek. I don't read symbols well. I like plain old written english. Ah, well. I'll keep trying until I figure it out.

In the meantime, we have received the first clue to the Secret of the Stole and I have knitted 18 rows. I hope that I will be able to finish it before the next clue comes on the 12th of Oct. At the same time I have some knitting to get done for the etsy site of the MittensForAkkol group. 100% of the profits from this site goes to support the ophans in Akkol, Kazakhstan. We need all the help we can get to make sure that these precious children are warm even tho it is -40 degrees outside in winter and the buildings are not kept as warm as American homes, so the children need warm socks, sweaters, vests, hats and mittens. http://www.mittensforakkol.etsy.com/

If you can't help us with this effort, please consider doing even just one thing this winter to help warm someone in need. The world will be a better place if you do.

Secret of the Stole KAL

2007-10-04T22:37:00.000-04:00

starts tomorrow, Oct. 5th. I have my swatch done and am fairly pleased with it. I had hoped to get some Alpaca Cloud from KnitPicks for this shawl, but the budget is just too tight right now. If I didn't need more wool for socks for Akkol and CIC, I would probably splurge. But, I can get Patons Classic on sale right now and that is what I prefer to use for the kiddies socks. Anyway, the swatch turned out better than I thought it would. Since I am pretty sure that the stash yarn that I found is just plain old WoolEAse, I wasn't really expecting to like it, but if I'm honest with myself I will admit that it feels pretty nice and looks fine.

The designer, DK, is gearing it toward new years eve wear and reccomending fancy yarn, but I really intend to just wear it for less formal occassions, so WE will be fine. Sorry to say that there is some mis-communcation between my card reader and my computer and I can't up load a pic of my swatch. I hope that I can figure out the problem soon. I need to upload piccies for the KAL.

So, here are a couple piccies of my beautiful lake Michigan that DH took last weekend. Those will upload and the reader recognizes them . Weird!

2007-09-28T14:47:00.000-04:00

I just sent a pkg. off to Cheyenne River Rez, today. This little hat was in my stash of stuff waiting for a destination.

I also made another hat from Bernat DenimStyle and sport WoolEase, 2 stranded. I think I used a size 10US circ. and I cast on 56 st. It went in the mail without me making any notes in my knitting journal, but I'm guessing that it was aoabut 3 sts to the inch on st.st. Nothing fancy, just 1 x 1 ribbing around face and then st. st. and evenly spaced decreases for the crown.

These are the socks that I made for DGS A. They are WoolEase in the color called Wood.

Needles: size 5 US circs. 2s on2c

Gauge: 6 st.= 1 inch

Cast on: 52 sts.

1 x 1 ribbing for about 2 inches

Remaining cuff: 2 x 2 ribbing

Reg. heel flap, turn and gussett.

Reg. toe decrease.

Foot length from back of heel to tip of toe is 10.5 inches for a kid with size 8.5 mens shoes.

These are a woodsy camo color that he will love.

Ah, yesterday

2007-09-25T22:25:00.000-04:00

I had a really long word-y post all ready and tried ump-teen times to post it to my blog. but Blogger wouldn't respond!
So, I'll try again, but today I'm not feeling so word-y.
Here is a pic of the socks that went to DGD H. As mentioned before, she loved them and they were adorable on her feet.
Yarn: LB WoolEase, single strand
and 1 strand LB FunFur
Needles: size 5 US circs (2s on 2c)
Guage: 6 st = 1 inch in st. st. with 1 strand WE
Cast on 48 st. with 1 strand each of We and FF.
2 inches of K1, P1 ribbing.
Break of FF and continue in K2,P2 ribbing using WE single strand for 6 more inches, or till entire cuff is length desired.
I did standard heel flap, turn and gusset.
St. ST until foot is 7.5 iches from back of heel.
Standard toe decrease.
I have signed up for the Secrets of the Stole KAL, but I may have to drop out. I also signed up for the Anne of Green Gables KAL, but I'm not real up on how that one is being run and need to study up on it to see how it is being done. It's not a regular yahoo groups KAL, from what I can see.
thurs. DD K. will come help me go thru the yarn that is out in the shed and see if we can find something that I can use for theSotS KAL. If not, then I will have to drop out, turns out the current budget doesn't allow for buying lace weight yarn. Bummer! Ah, well. Can't have everything.
DJ

Boot Tops

2007-09-11T14:29:00.000-04:00

Bootie tops(girlie look) have been a topic of discussion on the Knitting for Children yahoo group recently and I thought I would discuss my favorite girlie addition to my favorite bootie pattern by Michelle Howard. It can be found on

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/

head for the baby patterns and look for bootie pattern, then Michelle's. This pic shows the booties before sewing and from the top and from the side. I hope that inspite of the dark pic that it shows the results well enough to encourage others to try a little fancy-ness on a pair or two.

Anyway, when I have done all the ribbing, usually 14 rows, I do the last 2 rows in a ruffle. I produce the ruffle by doing an increase in every stitch. I use the knit in the front and back of the stitch type increase. then I just bind off very loosely and I'm done. Nice little ruffle. I'm still doing the ribbing which makes the bootie stay on, but gussies it up a bit.

Today, I am just about done with the heel flap on a pair of bulky little sockies that I am making for the Sept. challenge over on the Children in Common yahoo group. These are left over yarn from the Mittens for Akkol challenge that is just about to wind down. Pics to follow when I get them

done.

2007-09-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

Here is a pick of the 7 pair of mittnz for the rez. I have another pair hibernating around here somewhere. LOL I looked in all my little stash places and couldn't find it. Oh well, that's seed for the next batch, right? I wish I could take better pics, but our lighting is terrible.
I had a great weekend. Lots of pasta and fun at DGDs party. She loved her socks. I'll post a pic of the socks later. I forgot to take a pic of them on her feet.
I still feel like a slug from all the carbs that I inhaled. DD#1 made her famous lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and broccoli fettacini(sp?) and wonderful home made dinner rolls. I needed to be rolled out to the car when it came time to leave. LOL
I spent last night sewing up the ends on the last 3 pr. of M4A socks and the above mittnz and a gaiter for the Knitting for Children group. I still have about 6 or seven items on the 'finishing' table that need the ends sewn in. Not tonight.
DJ

2007-09-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

Here are the last of the bigguns for Mittens for Akkol. That makes a dozen, and I have to stop here and move on to some other obligations.

there was a question on the group about how to measure the foot length. This is how I did it.

Scared little pups

2007-09-03T13:42:00.000-04:00

We was scared! Oh, we was so very, very scared! Daddy said he was mowing, what ever that means, it sure was noisy and he has been doing it way to often lately. We can't understand, he has been doing it for the whole 8 years that we have lived with him, doesn't he ever get done? He knows that we shiver and shake and even try to jump on Mommie's bed( and yes we do know that she has allergies). This just wears us out, can't he see that?! Yah, now he's trying to make it up to us. Well, maybe we will forgive him. Just let us lie here and think about it for a while, O.K?

Knitting content:

This is the batch of crocheted baby hats that I sent to Parkland Hospital in June, while I couldn't upload pics to my blog.

I sent 120 little hats in that box, and yes those are flourescent green hats down front on the right! They really were cute. And no I don't favor girly colours, I just grabbed what was on top of the big plastic tote of garbage sale yarn that I was trying to empty, whew! that ones empty!

To further catch up on piccie posting here is a pic of the little preemie hats that I sent to the Univ. Med. Ctr. at Lubbock for the July challenge on Knitting for Children yahoo group. 76 little cuties went out to them.

I also sent along these 6 little fleece and flannel preemies and 2 knit/crochet preemies. I just love the little fleece/flannel ones. They are so light and yet so warm. The white/blue blankie was knit on the sweater machine and then edged with crochet shells. the pink one was a dishcloth pattern one.

Sockies for Baby Penny's friends and many more

2007-08-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

These little guys are for April to take to China when she goes over to get little Penny. I met little Penny's grandma Penny on one of the Yahoo groups and knit some booties for April to take over. then I lost track of Penny(the grandma) for quite a while. A couple weeks ago I ran across her blog while surfing around some other blogs. Discovered that little Penny was still waiting for April to come get her and bring her home(adoptions take time). So, I contacted grandma Penny and offered her 3 pair of little sockies that I had sitting here waiting to go to Children in Common(can knit more for them later). She was pleased to get them, so I said I would send them along to April. Well, never being one to leave well enough alone, I whipped out 3 more pair and now I will be mailing them later this week. The pair at 12 oclock is made with Paton Classic Merino in a dark teal.

At 2 oclock is a pair made with some blue/teal/pink handspun by my dear friend Mary A. in MO.(toes are Patons Cl. Mer.). At 4 oclock is another pair made from some med. cocoa brown handspun that came from Mary A, too.

At 6 and 8 oclock are 2 pair made from a nice soft medium denim blue ragg-look Patons cl. mer. At 10 oclock is another pair made with yarn from Mary A, this is a soft light plum/pink combo(toes dk. plum Cascade 220). There are going to be some warm toes in that orphanage when April delivers these.

They were all knit on anywhere from 24 to 32 sts, depending on the yarn.

These are the slipper socks that I am working on for DGD H. and they need to be done by Sat. evening. I'm so happy to have the heel completed. I always feel like I'm in the home stretch when I get the heel gusset decreases finished. These ae on size 6US needles and I'm using LB Woolease(color, Blue Heather) andFun Fur. Like so many knitters, I'm not crazy about Fun Fur. But, H. is turning 14 yo and she will love them. I cast on 44 sts and worked K1,P1 for about 2 inches, then I dropped the FF and continued in K2,P2 for the rest of the cuff (5 more inches). Usual heel flap and turn and stockinette for the rest. Cooler evenings are on there way and H. will enjoy parading around with these on her feet.
I started this pair in the wee hours this morning. They are for Mittens for Akkol.

When I couldn't decide whether I had enough of some cream Galway, I pulled and unknown bright kelly green out of the wool stash. I wound it first with some LB Magic Stripes leftovers in faded denim/tan/white/grey self patterning. When I got to the end of the Magic Str. and still had lots of the green, I whipped out some left over charcoal Cervenia, joined it in and kept on winding. Durned if I didn't run out of that, too. Joined in some Black Cervenia and wounds some more, and yes ran out. Finished off with some Dk. Navy. Whew! That green was wound so tight there must have been a hundred miles of yarn in that ball(donated yarn, already wound when I got it). Anyway, I got out some size 5 US and cast on 48 sts and did a wide K1p1 ribbing and then swithced to K3P1 and now I'm headed down the cuff, in my spare time. LOL

These are awfully dark on my monitor. They are actually a nice sandy color of Pomfret(I don't think its made anymore). Its sport weight and help 3 strands tog. on size 10 US needles, very firm but cushy. Cast on 40 sts, k1p1 ribbed the whole cuff, about 8 or so inches, I just eyeballed it. In this pic the heel flap is about 1 inch. While I was waiting for all these piccies to upload I finished the flap and turned the heel. Yeah!

I'm not hazarding a guess what length these socks will end up. I knit socks by a formula or by trying them on the person who is to receive them. Since I can't try them on anyone, I am using my formula and will know what length they are when they are done. I do know they are going to be bigguns. LOL

Michigan Fiber Festival Pics

2007-08-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

DH, DD#3 and I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival on Sat. Aug. 18. Here are pics of some of the wonderful animals that were there. I have know idea what variety the sheep are, I just know that I like them. The little alpaca are so darn cute. We didn't get to see the goat barn. But we were able to see all the angora rabbits, with and without their fur coats. There was a clipping demo going on and a girl who looked to be about 11 yo was using the clippers on a rabbit while the demonstrator was talking. That just goes to show me how smart I am, since I when I had angora I never did get the clipping right. I always had to use the scissors, which is not anywhere near as neat. At least it was all choppy looking when I did it.

This years festival was the 10th Anniv. It was the biggest festival so far. I have been going for 7 or 8 years and this was by far the best yet and they have all been very good. It's my one big fiber outing every year. I do admit to fiber overload at the end of the day, tho. There is so much to see and touch.

I will take pictures of my acquisitions later and post them another day.

Pictures!!!!!!!

2007-08-28T01:01:00.000-04:00

I can hardly contain myself! I was actually able to upload piccies. What joy. These are the socks that I have been knitting for the Mittens for Akkol group. I think that we need something like 45 more pair to meet our goal. and we even have some extras in some of the size catagories. I'm posting this real quick, because the 'puter just did something weird and I'm scared I'll loose everything that I just uploaded. Will try to edit in more info later.

Update: The big grey socks are some old Patons that came from the thrift store about a year ago. I knew that I would find a use for it. They are biggies and very thick.
The cream pair on the left are Paton Classic Wool Merino, the bright pair in the middle are made with some LB Fishermans that I Kool-Aid dyed a couple years ago and had just enough left over for this pair. I combined some mohair that was donated by one of the ladies at the LYS about 3 yr. ago. They are a nice bright pinky coral color that some little girl is sure to just love having on her little feet. the cream pair on the right is made with 2 or 3 strand of some wool fingering that I got at the thrift store.

This big red pair are actually Paton classic and a stand of dark deep red knit together, again very thick and very warm.

The colors don't really show up very well on the 3 pair in this pic. The pair on the left is Patons Classic in a medium denim blue ragg look. The pair in the middle is a deep rich brown Lopi, soft, thick and woolie. The pair on the right is a nice med. cocoa brown handspun from my dear friend Mary A in MO.

This last pair is knit with 3 strand of Pomfret sport held together. It's hard to see on my monitor, but I did the cast-on in navy and the rest in is a nice sandy color. This is the pair that DGS didn't want to give back when I let him try them on. They are several sizes too big for him, but that didn't seem to matter. LOL I have another pair in the same yarn OTN right now, minus the navy cast-on row. These will be a little bigger than the ones pictured here.

We had an update and we are getting toward meeting our goal of 256 pair by the middle of Sept. I am sure that I will be able to finish the current pair, but may not get to do an 11th pair. I had set a goal of 12 pair, even tho I knew that I had 6 family knitting projects to get done by the 3rd week of Oct. I'm disappointed that I won't get 12 pair, but I'm thrilled to get 10 or 11 done, too.

Gotta post this before the 'puter does something crazy. DJ

Catchin up

2007-08-28T00:35:00.000-04:00

I have been busy with the needles even tho I haven't been blogging, lately. I am really having trouble getting motivated to blog without piccies. Gotta find a way around that problem.
I finished the big wooly boot socks for my SIL and gave them to him with out taking a pic, just forgot. I am working on a pair of boot/slipper socks for DGD right now. I am making them with a fun fur cuff and Wool-ease. I don't really care for fun fur, but she is going to be 14 next week and will enjoy them. when I finish hers, I need to hurry up and cast on for the other SIL a pair of boot/slipper socks, hmmmm ya think I should use fun fur!??? LOL I have 3 pair of slipper socks that are due in October for 2 DD's and a DGS.
I'm still knitting big wooly socks for the Mittens 4 Akkol group. We are getting closer to our goal and it looks like we will even exceed it by quite a bit. We already have exceeded the goal for several of the sizes. Yeah, us!
Have been helping DD#3 to make preemie blankies. She sewed 14 last week and we cut out 8 more tonight for her to sew and/or embroider. I'm so glad to have her helping to support my charity work. More hands make lighter............
DD#1 was out of electricity from Thurs. til last night. Sunday DH and I put on
a breakfast buffet for the whole clan and then we did a taco bar for dinner for everybody, about 12 of us for each meal. We used fresh MI blueberries to make pancakes. We did scrambled eggs, home-made biscuits and gravy, ham slices, local watermelon, yummo! Can you say 5 pounds on the hips!?
We made a huge batch of home-made salsa with MI tomatoes and other ingredients, there is nothing quite like locally grown, fresh vine ripened produce. And yummy home-made quacamole, not home grown, but so good.
DH gets right in and helps me get everything ready or I just wouldn't be able to do all. Gotta love the guy.
Now that I have written a novel, I gotta go. Hugs.

Big red socks

2007-07-15T23:16:00.000-04:00

I finished the big red socks that I was working on for M4A, tonight. They are big and red and fuzzy, sure to warm the feet of some teenager in the orphanage at Akkol. Now, I need to find the brown mohair that was donated for charity knitting and get some even bigger ones made. I doubt that a teenage boy would want these big red ones, but brown ones would surely be welcomed by a guy. And there is a ton of the brown mohair somewhere in this house. My LYS owner gave it to me when she found out that I knit with all wools for my orphanage knitting. It was some kind of cape or something that a former customer had knit and when the customer passed away, a relative brought it into the lys hoping that someone could use it. I am going to get a lot of fuzzy socks out of it, I'm sure.
Well, thanks to my stinking fibromyalgia, I didn't make it to the baseball game this afternoon. I'm so bummed. I missed a winning game and a chicago dog! Rats! And DD Karin caught the only fly ball that came anywhere near the family. She is such a sweety, she got it autographed by the SilverHawks mascot and gave it to the Spanish exchange student who is staying with DD Annie and her family. So, he not only got his wish of seeing an American baseball game, he got an american baseball to take back to Spain. I stayed home and moaned and groaned and said blue words because I wasn't there with the rest of the family.
Crocheted 2 little preemie hats, today. I am slowing down on hats, I have a lot of other things to get done. I did start a bubbles blankie and got about 6 inches done on it. That will be a slow one now too. Tons of family gifts to knit between now and the end of October. About 7 pair of socks, that will be some kinda record, along with all the charity knitting that I want to get done, too.

Posting without pictures

2007-07-13T20:34:00.000-04:00

is like knitting with my hands behind my back. I don't like it. I enjoy sharing pictures and I'm not clever enough to come up with interesting banter without piccies. Well, actually I'm not clever enough to come up with interesting banter with piccies, either. LOL
There is talk on one of the groups about how many needles a person has. Hmmm, now I know for sure that I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the circs that I own. And I'm not sure that even if all my kids and grands contributed their fingers and toes that there would be enough to count them all. I gots a lotsa needles. LOL
On the Stitches of Violet blog, Marguerite mentioned having stress when she has more than 3 projects going. Ha-ha, I don't even know how many UFOs I have going, but I do know that every once in a while when I sit down and think about it I do feel a little stressed. So, I choose not to sit down and think about it very often. There's enough guilt in the world, I'm not adding to it by counting projects and needles. <>
My little preemie hat count is somewhere over 50 now for the month of July. Yeah, me! It's hard to believe, but I don't have one of those addictive little buggers we call the bubbles blankie going right now. But, I will probably have one on the hook before the weekend is out.
We are going to a minor league ball game in South Bend, IN on Sunday. Good family fun. DD#1 has an summer school exchange student and we are all gathering together to show him the great American pastime. I just hope that they have Chicago dogs at that park. I only get about 2 a year and I'm overdue! I love them, but I'm quite fluffy and don't need the calories and fat(not to mention all the chemicals and preservatives) so I limit myself to just a couple a year.
On the needles, I have just about got the gussett decreases done on my big red fuzzy socks for M4A. Now, these are going to be some very warm socks. Which reminds me to talk about Mittens for Akkol yahoo group. We are trying to get at least 256 pair of socks knit for mailing the first part of September to go over to Kaz. The children only receive a small bag of candy at their holiday time and our group leader wants to take a pair of socks for each child to receive with their little bag of candy on their holiday. Our group leader, Nanci has adopted 3 teenagers from Kaz and is going over the end of Sept. to pick up her fourth teenage child. Bless her heart, I can't imagine having so much love to give. But the world is certainly a better place with people like Nanci and Dave and others like them who are willing and able to do this wonderful thing. If you are reading this and are not already involved with knitting for charity, please consider doing just a little something. There is so much need in this world and it only takes one person doing one little thing for the whole world to be better. and if you are reading this and you are already knitting or crocheting or sewing for charity, thank you! You are very important!
Gotta scoot.......til later.

Knittin' away the summer

2007-07-12T19:33:00.000-04:00

I've been Mrs. busy-needles again. I have 49 little preemie hats done for Lubbock. And so far there are 6 little preemie blankies for them. I have passed the turn of the heel on my big fuzzy red socks for M4A. Grubbed thru the Wool-Ease basket and found the camo color for SILs gift boot socks that are due by Aug. 25. Spent a little time winding that into two balls and finding the pattern notes from DGSs similar socks. While I was in that basket I got out the rose colored WE that will be DGDs boot socks, too. but hers will be knit with just one strand, not 2 like her Dads. Much easier on my hands. I have decided that I will make one more pair after these for my DH and then there will be no more 2 stranded boot socks, They will have to wear 2 pair at a time if they need that much thickness and warmth. Personally, a single strand of WE is too warm for my feet most of the time. but when the wind is blowing and the floors are real drafty, I love them.
DH has been off work all week, vacation at home. I must be getting really mellow in my near old age, because I really enjoy having him around. LOL Of course, he has spent some time power washing the house and painting the trim. and several evenings he was away fishing with the youngest DGS. Next week I willl be back to being alone most of the time and I guess that is OK, too. I do need some alone time, especially for the more complicated patterns that I like to try from time to time.
I know it's crazy, but I am going to try again to upload a pic. Even tho I am quite certain that it is a corruption somewhere in my IE program that is the problem. I have windows 98 on a very old computer, so there is no support available and right now I can't afford to pay the computer guy to come work on it. I just hope that I can get down to DD#1s this weekend to try uploading from there. With gas prices being what they are, we don't go very often, but that may be my only way of uploading from here on out. There is no new computer in my future. Unless, someone wins the big one and gives me a computer! LOL Oh, wait. You have to buy tickets to win the lottery, don't you?! Well , then that's not happening. LOL

2007-07-05T02:32:00.000-04:00

I still can't seem to upload any pictures. I keep getting a message that the page cannot be displayed. and it happens when I try to upload to other websites, so I guess I have to take back all the 'blue' words that I said about blogger. LOL
Well, my knitting needles and crochet hooks are still working, thank goodness for that! I have been able to get a dozen and a half preemie hats crocheted since July 1st and I have another preemie Bubbles Blanket almost done. Finished a little blankie last night, too. that stack of blankies is growing, I'm going to have to get a big box to put them in soon. They are out-growing the basket that I usually use.
I have another pair of socks started for Mittens for Akkol. I wound some Patons Classic Wool Merino and some old BonBon Mohair together and cast on 36 sts with size 8 US needles. they are really nice thick and fuzzy socks that will fit one of the bigger kids at the orphanage. I have a boat-load of med. brown mohair and some off white mohair that I salvaged from a bit knitted thingy that the LYS owner gave me. Somebody had brought it in to her after a loved on passed away because they didn't want it or know what to do with it. So, of course, being the yarn scrounger that I am, I gladly brought it home to age at my house until I could figure out what it wants to be. I know for sure that some of it wants to be wound with other wool and used for socks for the kids at Akkol. Really, it does. (VBG)
Won't be going to DDs house this coming weekend after-all. That means I will have to wait until the 15 th to upload piccies at her house. We are going down to go to a minor league baseball game. DD and family have an exchange student visiting for 4 weeks from Spain and one of his wishes for his visit is to attend an American baseball game. So, pretty much our family is going. We prefer minor league ball to major league. More family oriented and we like that.
Gotta go warm up my crochet hook and see if I can get another hat done before I call it a night.

2007-07-01T19:46:00.000-04:00

Well, so much for another try at uploading my pics. If I don't get it done from home, it will have to wait until the next time I go to DD Annie's house and I will do it there. May be a couple weeks though. Drat!
I was able to get 3 preemie hats crocheted last night while I was watching Tom Selleck in "Jesse Stone'. I made another one today and started another little preemie blankie for Lubbock. I am still working on the next blankie for Parkland, too. that just needs about 10 or 15 more rows, depends on when my yarn runs out. I'm alternating a space dyed Jiffy with a cream colored Jiffy so that I can use them up. I don't really care for Jiffy, but it was part of one of my garbage sale finds. (no I didn't spell that wrong) LOL
Mmmmm! We made homemade pizza again tonight. We put fresh basil and some parm cheese in the crust. Yummmo! DH loves to bake, so he makes the crust and I doctor the sauce and put on the topping. Then we both sit and drool while we wait for it to bake. (VBG) Now he is baking pineapple coconut cookies, he didn't want to waste the heat of the oven on just one thing. Suits me!
It was such a beautiful day here in SW MI. We spent about an hour and a half out back just watching the little wild bunnies romp around. Of course that is when I started the new blankie for Lubbock. There was a wonderful breeze blowing and the sun was just dappling thru the leaves of the trees. A few birds and butterflies completed the scene. We love it back there. We have a complete wall of green that separates us from the 'civilization' that is down the ravine from us. We really need to spend more time back there.
Well, I will try to upload piccies again tomorrow. till then..........

Hats, hats, and oh yeah, more hats!

2007-06-30T17:47:00.000-04:00

This is the last batch of hats for Parkland Mem. Hosp. in Dallas, TX. 24 little hats in this batch. Well, blogger failed me again. Pics to follow whenever. LOL And here is a pic of all 120, yes 120! This represents a couple months work and burning up the crochet hook on Bev Q's pattern:
http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hats-hats-hats.html
this is by far the best crocheted baby hat pattern ever! I just love it, as I have said many times, I know. But, at least I'm repeating the truth! LOL
I just hope that blogger co-operates and let's me post this. So far, I have tried 4 times to upload my pics and failed. Grrrrr.
I had hoped to upload my Mittnz for NAS piccies today, too. We'll see. If these hat pics ever upload, I am going to try to publish right away and then take my chances with another post for the mittnz piccies.

Sock Picture, at last!

2007-06-27T02:16:00.000-04:00

Well, looky here! Finally, blogger has allowed me to post the pic of my socks for the M4A sock challenge. Yippee!

2007-06-26T13:13:00.000-04:00

I'm going to try this again. This time I will 'save' first then publish, as was kindly suggested by Diane. Thanks Diane, I used to do that , but now Blogger says it automatically does that. Silly me, for believing them! (VBG)
Anyway, here is the pic of my 1st pair of socks for the
Mittens for Akkol (M4A) challenge. Well, not really. Blogger doesn't like my pic.
Cast on 40 sts with Patons Classic Wool Merino. Did 1x1 ribbing for 15 rounds, then switched to knit 3, purl 1 for the next 35 rounds. Did traditional heel flap type heel. 40 rounds of st. st. for the foot and then traditional toe decrease. This gave me a 7.5 inch foot length, heel to toe.
I am test knitting a pair of side-ways mittens for Mariella on the Native American Support group(NAS). Got the pattern somewhere around midnight and I would say that I'm about 3/4 done with the first mitten. Great pattern. Pics when I'm done.
Pair # 5 is done and pair #4 still needs the thumbs for the NAS mittnz challenge. The test mittnz will be pair # 6. I had hoped to get 7 pair done by the end of June, but I'll be surprised if that happens.
Today is our 42nd wedding annniverary, we usually go out to dinner to celebrate. But it is so hot and humid that we aren't sure that we want to leave the house. May wait and see what the weekend brings. Hmmm, 42 years, how has he survived it?! LOL

2007-06-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

I'm so frustrated with Blogger. It just ate a huge post with a sock picture. Just as I was trying to publish it. Grrrrrr!
Well, maybe tomorrow.
DJ

More hats!

2007-06-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

Here is the pic of the hats that I knit yesterday and today. I found a couple more 'models' to wear some of them. Love that freecycle! I made 8 hats yesterday and 7 today. Last night I cast on pair #3 of mittnz for the NAS group(lower left corner) and got a nice little start on the ribbing. I spent to much time behind the wheel in the car today. Drat! I hate it when that happens. LOL

I did get the chip dip made before the teen-age DGSs got here to pick it up for there weekend trip. And managed to have a nice green salad ready when DD2 got here to pick up the 12 yo DGS after work. He and I will be spending quite a bit of time together this summer after he gets back from his 4 weeks with his dad. He leaves monday, so he gets to go on the big canoe trip with the rest of the family this year.

Here are pics of the booties that I knit for the April shower for U of Kentucky Med Ctr. Finally, got the pic from the other camera. 24 pair of preemie booties and since it is so easy to get people to knit precious little pink things, I chose to make most of them in blue. I have heard that some of the hospitals have a shortage of blue things for the babies sometimes and thought that I would try to help with that.

What I've been doing

2007-06-06T17:24:00.000-04:00

On monday June 4, I crocheted 20 hats for Parkland Mem. Hosp. in Dallas, TX.

Yesterday, June 5, I made 11 more little hats. I hope this piccie is only so dark on my monitor and not others. today is starting off a little slow in the hat making department. I only have 3 done. But I am busy knitting a new out fit for DGD's AG doll. What a cutie that is going to be.

Well, the fibromyalgia is pretty calm now and I am sure glad of that. I can tolerate a lot of pain, but it was almost unbearable there for a few days. Sure don't miss that!

Hope to take a few minutes sometimes yet today and cast on that third pair of mittens for NAS. May not get much done on them, but I sure would like to have them on the needles.

The whole fan-damily is going on a canoe trip beginning at noon on Fri., just us old folks staying home. And we don't have much in the way of plans, so I'm hoping that will translate to lots of hats for Parkland this weekend, too.

Another pair of mittens

2007-06-03T21:15:00.000-04:00

I couldn't let the whole weekend go by without getting something done. I knit another pair of purple-durple mittens for NAS. Fibromyalgia has been kicking my hiney all weekend and seriously hampering the knitting. It seems to be subsiding now, so maybe I can make up for some lost time next weekend. I want to get another 30 or 40 hats done in June for Parkland Mem. Hosp. So, I think I will try to get one done tonight even though it is a little late.

I learn something with these mittens: Never post to your blog after being up all night with severe pain! On my last post, I mentioned that I had used the 24 st cast on for the first pair and 28 st cast on for the second pair. Then I posted an "oops" that said they were both 28 st. Well, in the light of day after a nights rest, I realized today that I was right the first time. Duh! So now I have 2 pair that are different sized and hope to start the 3rd pair by Tuesday eve. in the next size up. Whew! I think that's right! LOL

Mittens for NAS

2007-06-02T07:07:00.000-04:00

I made these cute little mittens called Basic Cuff-Up Mittens from the quick and easy pattern on Patti Pierce Stone's website:

http://www.p2designs.com/images/patterns/MittCuff.html

I enjoyed this pattern and have about half of the ribbing done on the next size. These were made with WoolEase using the 24 st. cast on. The current pair are using the same yarn, but the 28 st. cast on for the next size up. Oops, this pair and the current pair are 28 st. cast on. Didn't have the pattern open when I wrote that, nor when I started the second pair. Oh well, lots of little hands.

I plan, at some point, to try this idea with 2 strands of WoolEase

to get not only thicker but bigger mittens. Some experimentation is in order to get well proportioned mittens, of course. If anyone is aware of a double stranded WoolEase mitten pattern, please feel free to let me know. Then I can spend my time knitting instead of experimenting.

Hats-hats-hats for Parkland

2007-06-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

I got 31 hats knitted over the last weekend and finally got piccies tonight. I think that makes a total of 49 hats for Parkland Mem. Hosp. in Dallas, TX for the month of May. I used Bev Q's pattern at:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hats-hats-hats.html

If this link doesn't work, just shorten it to the main addy and then search her site for the pattern

I rather doubt that I will be able to beat that for June. I have started a 'dishcloth" preemie blanket for UMC in Lubbock, as seed for the July baby shower that we are doing for them on the Knitting for Children yahoo group.

In general knitting news, I have been trying to a short row heel called the sherman heel. Not successfully, I must admit. I know that I did this heel on a little pair of socks for CIC about 4 years ago, but I'll be doggone if I can seem to do it now. Just can't concentrate enought, I guess. So, I frogged back and have just completed the heel flap on a pair of Socka yarn socks for me-mee-me. I am disappointed in this, but I know that eventually I will get back to it and it will probably go just fine. In the meantime, I will be looking thru my patterns and reading up on the short row heel to see if I can make it 'click'.

Weekend Baby Hat Blitzing

2007-05-20T22:05:00.000-04:00

I spent the weekend crocheting baby hats for the Knitting for Children yahoo group. I got 18 hats done! Yeah, me! these will go to Parkland Hosp. in Dallas, TX. There need is so great that if I did that every day of the week, I still wouldn't be able to fill the need there.

My little friends are modeling 2 of the hats(please overlook the lovely stack of laundry in the background) for me. I need to get a baby doll that is closer to a real newborn size. this little gal came from a freecycle bag and isn't really big enough for the hats that I make for Parkland, but when I do hats for Lubbock and U of K, she will be perfect, I'm sure.

I will be working in some hats for the Cheyenne River Rez over the next week. I have some projects for me to finish(read: putz at) before I can do another real blitz. Hopefully, I will be able to blitz on 2 weekends in June for Parkland, again.

the link to the pattern that I used is:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/hats-hats-hats.html

I think that is the right link. If it doesn't work you can scroll down a few posts to my April 6th post (I think)and Bev has placed a link in her comment.

Goodies in the mail!

2007-05-17T18:49:00.000-04:00

I just got a goodie bag from Little Knits in Seattle. They had a marvelous sale and I was able to get a few things. I needed some sock yarn with some cotton in it for summer socks for myself. The front 3 skeins are the cotton/wool blend. The colors or softer in real life than in my pic on my monitor. Just nice summer colors. And they had some bright colored wool/nylonblend sock yarn for only $2/skein! I got 4 skeins of that. It seems to be a little heavier than regular sock weight, but lighter than sport or dk. No matter, it is Regia and very nice yarn. If I don't use it for me or the family, I can always use it for my charity knitting for CIC or NAS.

I just joined the NAS group and am trying to figure out what to start for them. I confess that I don't really like mitten knitten. I have some fleece scraps that would make nice kids mittens, so I may try to find a pattern that I like. I have a pattern or 2, but I don't like them. I used to have the neatest pattern for slippers, they were so easy. I got it in the late 60's and we all made tons of them in our family. but those kids are all grown and some of them have grown kids of their own now. So, the pattern has gotten lost in the 40 some odd years since. LOL I keep hoping that it will turn up in one of my internet searches one day. Those could be turned out assembly line fashion, by the dozen. There wasn't a kid within the family and extended family who didn't wear those cute little slippers from birth on up to about 8/9 yrs. old. And, no one seems to have saved the pattern. My aunt that I often sewed with, passed away in '73 and her things got done away with in one way or another. If I was really talented, I could re-invent the pattern, but I can only follow a pattern, not invent one!

2007-05-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

I got a new knitting tote bag and a knitting themed coaster for my coffee cup from DD Annie on Saturday and a very nice gift certificate to the LYS from DD Karin. I'm a happy camper!

Here is a pic. The lamb was given to me by DGS Jared, he got it in a kids meal of some kind and thought I would like it better than he did. He was right! I also included a pair of socks in progress in the same pic and a camera case that I crocheted on Sat. It looks a little funny because I put DH's camera in it, not mine.

the socks are using Socka in a wild color combo that reminds me of '70s colors. I am using size 1US needles and cast on 72 sts. Ribbed for about 1 and half inches in 1 x 1 ribbing and then switched to knit 3 sts, purl 1 st for the remaining cuff length. I am thinking about doing a Sherman heel on these. I have done it once before(a lon-n-n-g time ago) and I'm not sure that I remember how. but it was discussed on the Townsend sock list recently and I can go to the group site and search for the Colin's suggestions.

I hate to admit it, but I found some baby hats that I knit over 2 years ago, just before we moved, and now I need to sew them up to get them in the mail for Parkland Hosp. in Dallas for the Knitting with Children yahoo group. there was yarn in that box, too. I have enough Ack to last me until the year 3000!

DD Karin is here and she has my dinner ready, so I gotta go. I don't waste time when somebody else is doing the cooking!

New socks

2007-05-08T17:34:00.000-04:00

I finished a pair of new socks for little(not) ole' me. I used Opal and I love it. This was my first experience with Opal and it was a very good one.

and yes, those are my lovely flannel pj's.

I used 75 grams of Opal Partie that I got from Little Knits in Seattle(very nice people and great price)

Needles: size 1 US

Gauge: 8 1/2 sts: 1 inch

Cast on 76 sts for my quite thick ankles and did 1 x 1 rib for about an inch and a half.

then I switched to Knit 3, Purl 1 for the remainder of the cuff. I use a regular old heel flap on half the sts. type heel. I just worked the 'foot' in plain ole' st. st.

and I always just do a decrease 1 st each side of the top and sole on every other round until I have about a dozen or so sts. left and then graft the toes. Even to it is really spring here in SW MI and it has been in the 70s, I am wearing them right now. I love how these socks feel.

I was able to get 57 preemie hats and 24 pair of preemie booties done for the April Shower that the Knitting for Children yahoo group had. We are showing the NICU at the University of Kentucky in memory of our long-time member Nancy Scott, who passed away in 2005. We met all out goals and then some. Yeah! us. Now , I will start making hats for Parkland hospital in Dallas and some booties for Warm Hearts Warm Babies in Colorado. Till july, that is and then we will be doing another shower. This time it will be for the Univ. Med.Ctr. in Lubbock, TX. I'm betting that we pretty well wipe out our annual goal for them, too. What a great group of knitters! I am so happy to have been a member for several years, now.

Well, gotta go get those groceries that I meant to get on Saturday......never do grocery shopping to day if you can put it off till tomorrow/or the next day or......

TTYL,DJ

Snow on April 11th???

2007-04-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

Blogger has been mean to me, so I am just now getting this up on my blog. hmmm.

We woke up to plenty of wet heavy snow that day and it felt like January instead of April. DH still took the pups down to the Lake for their walk. Heh, heh I stayed inside and knitted where it was warm.

I got 53 little preemie hats crocheted up between Fri. April 6th and this past Sunday, April 15th. Now I am on to booties. LOL the little buggers don't go so fast as the hats! I did finish the knitting on the 3 rd pair since Sunday, just have to bind them off now. and I am busily knitting on the boot socks for DGS that are due to be done by Sat. the 21st. Yikes, I gotta get those needles humming!

This pic was taken during a really windy day earlier this week. Fortunately, the snow didn't last too long. but the wind is really raw down by the water's edge. This is the light house on Lake Michigan at St. Joseph, MI, from about a quarter mile up the shore.

Well, I'm having some problems getting pic in this post so I will quit while I am ahead. DJ

April Showers of the knitting kind!

2007-04-06T20:37:00.000-04:00

Knitting for Children yahoo group is having an April Shower for the University of Kentucky Medical Center NICU, in memory of our dear Nancy Scott, who passed away about a year and a half ago. Some members are blitzing hats, booties, blankets for the NICU to give to their preemies. Here is a picture(looks bad on my monitor) of the 12 hats that I have blitzed so far this week. I am using Bernat Softee and a G crochet hook with Bev Qualheim's pattern from Bev's Country Cottage. The pattern is called Hats, Hats, Hats! I will be blitzing all weekend, too. I hope to knit booties next weekend. I think from what I am seeing on the list, that we are going to come close to our goal for the whole year in the month of April. That would be wonderful!

I have a pair of boot socks to finish this weekend for DD # 1, but that shouldn't take long. I have a couple rounds to knit on the toe decreases and then just graft them and work in the ends. I don't think I will be seeing her until later in the week, next week, anyway.

I haven't mailed any charity knitting in so very long, I'm ashamed to say. I will be so happy to put some things in the mail for this month. I have some socks to get in the mail for Children in Common, too, for Aprils challenge.

The wind has been fierce here this week and we got some nice wave pictures of Lake Michigan again, yesterday. Love that lake!

I rode with DD#3 to take DGS to his Dad's tonight. We had a nice visit and stopped at nice locally owned pancake house and had a great breakfast for dinner. LOL We get to spend almost no time together now that she is working again, so this was very nice.

Gotta go get the crochet hook smokin'. DJ

2007-03-04T21:01:00.000-05:00

Winter is very much still with us here in good ole Michigan. This past week we have had several blizzard-y days and even a night of thunder, lightening, and downpours. Michigan weather is variable, if not predictable. The Lake has been beautiful inspite of the weather, as usual and we love taking pics of it.

Today it was DH and DGS who took the walk with the fur-babies along the lake and snapped the piccies. I stayed in where it was warm and did laundry and knitted on Boot socks for DGS.

My needles have been hopping. I finished 3 pair of socks last week and a chemo hat and scarf set for dear friend Vicki. Sent them off with DD Karin this a.m to be delivered to Vicki, so she can wear them tomorrow when she goes for her treatment. Forgot to get piccies, phooey! She called later and said she loves them and will defininetly wear them in the morning.

I also finished a new felted bucket bag for my next sock knitting project. Which will be the Tropical Dream Socks by Judy Sumner, using the LisaSouza Sock Merino yarn that Angela sent me in the Sock Bag Swap. (the bag that she sent is busy holding the boot socks that are WIP for DGS) This bag was made with Paton's Classic Wool Merino. 2 strands on size 13 US needles. It is so easy and quick, I designed it for my partner in the Townie Sock Bag Swap and now I want a dozen for me!

I even did some sewing, besides lining the felted bag. I sewed the strips together for the 9-patch pink and white baby quilt that I am making for DD Kimmi to give to a friend at work. That one kinda got away from me and she is going to get it when she comes back from baby leave. Ooops!

Ahhh, and I won this book by Barbara Delinsky from the Berrocco yarn site. It's even autographed. UPS brought it at about 5 p.m on Wed. and I was finishing up the read just after daylight on Thurs. a.m.! Now, where did the night go? Good read if you like the genre. Not my usual genre, but I have to say that I did enjoy it and I may even read some of her other books, now. Light reading, with yarn, knitting and a yarn shop woven into the story. I printed off the order form from Berrocco to order the pattern booklet that accompanies the story.

I think I had better 'publish' this before Blogger does something mean and the whole post disappears, like the last time that I tried to post.

Yippee! Skippee! I'm in fiber heaven.

2007-02-10T16:23:00.000-05:00

My wonderful box from Angela(aumurphy) came today. It was stuffed full of fiber goodness. I am snuggling my beautious LisaSouza Superfine Merino Sock yarn in the gorgeous colorway of Peacock as we speak. Oooh, is it ever soft. And there is a really cute LS sock pattern called Tropical Dream that is perfect for this yarn. Angela also sent some raw alpaca for my spinning pleasure, from a fiber farm in her state. And a cute little sock knitting bag(current sock project already resides there) that she made from pin roving and felted with matching fur yarn trim at the top. So cute! And yes I have already sampled the truffles, yummmmm. And when I get back from buying groceries all cold and tired, I will be perking up with a cup of the China Pearl White Tea that she sent. And I'm so silly that I am even thrilled with the postcard that she sent with a nice little note. It has a spinning wheel in kind of a sepia color. Angela you made my day/week/month! You done good, girl! Thank you so very much!
DH is waiting for me to get off the puter and go grocery shopping, so I just pasted my note to the Townie list in here for now.

Breaking the silence

2007-01-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

I know it has been almost a month since I posted here. I have had some 'puter troubles again and just been taking a break from a lot of things, too.
Just to break the silence, I am posting a pic of a little outfit that is for the AG dolls. I got the sweater at a yard sale along with 2 pick-up trucks full of yarn this past summer. I found just enough of that yarn in there to finish the sweater and crochet a cute little hat to match. Isn't she a cutie. I have about 32 more sweaters in various stages of completion from same yard sale find. I will be gradually completing them and giving them to DGDs and friends.
Right now I have 2 baby sets to concentrate on. I made a set for a boy baby last week and forgot to take pics. It was a quilt, sweater, 2 hats and 2 pair of booties. I am working on a pink set for a little girls that is expected soon by one of DD Kimi's workmates. When that is done, I have to complete a set that I have going for the friend of DD Annie to give as a shower gift for an expected new grandson. Busy, busy, busy.
I am working on a pair of socks for Kimi, but she tried them on today and they are bunchy in the heel. I hate them, she says they are fine. I can't decide whether to just drop some stitches to continue the ribbing on the instep by latching them back up....or just frog them back to the turn of the heel and start over with a shorter heel flap and instep ribbing. Decisions, decisions.
Well, best get busy on something.
DJ

More than one of 'me'?!!

2006-12-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

Oh, my! Can it really be so? LOL I saw this on somebody's blog and just for laughs, I went and looked to see if there were any others with my name. My first name is rather unusual nowadays and the last name isn't really one that I see very often, either. You'd think that someone who just got a new camera could find something else to post about, besides their own name. (vbg) I really have taken a few pics with the new camera but not good ones, just trying to figure out the bells and whistles right now. Gotta finish a pair of socks for DD Kimmi and then I'll post a pic. DJ

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
24
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

2006-12-09T00:58:00.000-05:00

I've been having fun this week. I acquired some American Girl Doll sweater/coats in a stash that I got at a garage sale last summer. This week has been spent making little hats to go with those coats and sewing buttons on the coats. Like a big goof, I forgot to take pics before I took them to DD's salon to sell them. I will be going down there on Sun. and hope to take my camera along and get some pics, then. I used to have so much fun making dolls and doll clothes when my girls were growing up and when the DGD's were young they had AG dolls and I had a ball sewing clothes for them. I have a total of 33 of these little coats to finish and make matching hats. Fortunately, that stash was so big that I am finding the matching yarn. But, since it is all out in the shed and it is the kind of cold here that freezes your hmm-hmm off, It will be next week before I get out there and find some more yarn to work with.
I got a new crochet pattern today at the LYS. Fibertrends Felted Crochet Childrens Slippers. I want to start on those soon, too for the CIC kids and for the kiddos in Akkol, Kaz. It gets down to minus 40 degrees outdoors there and only up to about plus 40 degrees F. indoors. the orphanage in Kaz has about 250 kiddos and a budget of about $18,000.00US per year to support them. So there are many things that the children do without. Warmth should Not be one of the things they get along without! the orphanages in Russia are a little better off in some ways, but they don't heat them any better. For one thing the orphanages in Russia have been receiving help from US knitters longer and there is a larger group of knitters helping them. Even so, the need is very great in both places and we knitters cannot completely fill the need. But, we try our best and take comfort in knowing that every pair of socks, each sweater or vest, will help to warm one more child.
When it is very cold(like it has been this week) here in Michigan and I feel a little draft or get a little chilled, I have to remind myself just how well-off we are here, with our central heating and carpeted floors.
It's so hard to take time away from knitting for the orphans sometimes. Doll clothes and pretty things for our family that all have so much, just seem silly sometimes when I think of the little ones who are shivering in those big drafty buildings. It's enough to spur all the CIC knitters on to make 'just one more' pair of socks, sweater or vest. I hope that anyone who reads this will consider joining the Children in Common yahoo group or the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group, or both.
On the lighter side, I spent this afternoon helping DD Annie sew on her wedding dress. It is just gorgeous. This is her second wedding, it is pale champagne pink crepe backed satin and a very sleek design. She'll be a knock-out in it. I'm going back on Sunday afternoon to help and hope to get it nearly done.
Well, morning will be here before long and I have a busy day tomorrow. The whole family, kids and grands, are coming for turkey dinner. I baked a pie tonight and DD Kimmi is bringing one and another dessert, so the important stuff is taken care of. LOL Annie is bring the stuffing and Karin came and cleaned the house for me today while I was at Annie's sewing. So, I'll be busy, but I won't be crazy-busy.
DJ

Whoo-hoo! fun stuff

2006-11-21T17:04:00.000-05:00

just arrived from the Fedex Man! Ooooh, I could get to like him, as long as he continues to bring me boxes of yummy softness like this. LOL I ordered some of the superfine blue-faced leicester(sp?) lambswool from matahari spinnery.com.
they are having a special this month on this roving. $14.00US for 1 pound of roving! They shipped from Houston, TX on Fri. and I have it already, here in Michigan. It is so soft and lovely. And even smells yummy, I ordered a bar of Wild Indigo oatmeal-lavender goats milk soap, too. Ha, in my excitement I took the picture with the back of the label showing. This fiber is only on sale for a few more days, and part of the profits go to charity. Doubly good, because I am going to be using the resulting yarn for charity knitting for the CIC kids!. Couldn't get better than that!
Now to finish the fiber that I am spinning and get this fluff on the wheel.
Gotta go spin!
DJ

Another Hat!

2006-11-04T17:34:00.000-05:00

I finished another hat for 'Stand Up For Kids'.
Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun
Needle: size 11 circular
Gauge: 8 sts = 4 inches(approx)
Using 2 strands held together, cast on 42 st. Join and place marker for beginning of round. Knit 1 round, purl 1 round(garter) for approx. 3 inches. This forms the 'cuff'. Next round: knit 19 st, knit 2 together, knit 19 sts, knit 2 together(40st remain) Knit every round(stockinette) for 6 to 6 1/2 inches.
Next round is the beginning of the decrease for the crown. Knit 8, knit 2 together all around. Continue to decrease in this manner, having 1 less stitch before the knit 2 together on each round, until there are 8 sts remaining. Break yarn and fasten off, weave in ends and enjoy the warmth! This is a very thick, warm and cozy hat, great for the homeless and anyone who needs a really warm hat.
Please consider knitting one of these hats for charity. Help warm the world!
The copyright on this pattern belongs to DJ Langer-Street, I freely give it to anyone who will use it for their own personal use or for charity giving. It may not be used in any way to gain profit. Please be kind.
while the picture is lacking in clarity, I think you can see that it is a very nice hat. someday I will get a new camera, until then we are stuck with just so-so piccies.
DJ

Hats off to kids

2006-10-29T14:07:00.000-05:00

I knit this hat to go with the scarf that DD Kimmi knit. It is for Stand Up For Kids, which helps homeless teens living on the streets.

I saw a hat similar to this somewhere, but don't remember where. I liked it, so I just came up with my own pattern.

Since the yarn was from a huge stash that I acquired at a garage sale, I don't know what yarn it is. But it is worsted weight.

I cast on(provisional cast-on) enough stitches to make the 'cuff' four inches wide, using single strand of yarn. I guess that you could say that this cuff is knit sideways. Slipping the first st on each row, knit it in garter st until it was long enough to go around my head(about 20 to 21 inches). I grafted the ends together, then joined the scarf yarn(held 2 strands together) and picked up 80 sts all around on circular needle. Place marker at beginning of round and slip it to right needle as you go around. I knit every round until the stockinette part was about 4 and a half to 5 inches from the 'pick-up' round. I just used my own head to test how much stockinette to do, your mileage may vary.

To decrease, knit 8 sts, knit 2 sts. together all the way around. On subsequent rounds knit 1 less st before the knit 2 tog. Contiue in this manner until there are just 8 sts left on needle. You may switch to dpns if that is easier for the decreasing. Cut yarn and run thru last 8 sts, fasten off. Work in the other yarn ends and fold up the 'cuff'. You now have one warm hat for you, or someone you care about. Please consider donating a hat to charity. There are many worthy causes out there, if you need help finding one or would like to send one or more to Stand Up For Kids, please just ask and I will help you out, if I can.

You can adjust this hat simply by knitting a shorter or longer cuff and then adjust the number of 'picked up' stitches to suit the size of y our cuff. I have not given needle size or gauge because I just used my own head and unknown yarn for mine. The reason that I double stranded the crown was because that yarn was not as heavy as the cuff yarn. Using the same size yarn would be easier, but I was trying to match and co-ordinate with a scarf that Kimmi had alaready made. In future, I will be likely to use the same yarn on both sections. Although, it really wasn't a problem to do it this way and I would feel comfortable about doing it again if need-be.

If you try this and have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to try to help and would welcome the chance to fix any mistakes that I might have made in typing the pattern up.

Please do not sell this hat or this pattern, the copyright belongs to me and I freely allow you to use it and the resulting hats for your own personal use, for gifts and for charity purposes. Please be kind. DJ

Surf's Up

2006-10-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

These sunset pictures were taken about four hours after the following pictures of the waves. That white speck just to the right of center is actually a lighthouse. The lighthouse pic is facing more northwest than the other, thus the darker looking sky. I wish I could do better piccies, but my camera is a very inexpensive one that I am very please to have at this point.

The wind was blowing off Lake Michgan in full force, yesterday. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the 10 to 15 foot waves. I was pretty high above the water and it's still possible to see how big the waves were. I love to see them and hear them crashing on the shore. The wind was so strong that if you stayed long down near the water you would have your glasses and camera lens sand-blasted. I always wear wrap-around sunglasses when I go down to the water on really windy days, the last thing I need is sand-blasted eyeballs. LOL

I have more piccies and some knitting pics, but blogger is being a poop and I'll be happy if this even uploads, as it is.
More later. DJ

And......We have yarn!

2006-10-23T17:02:00.000-04:00

Oh, it's overspun, thick and thin, lumpy and bumpy, but durned if it isn't yarn! LOL The picture turned out awful, and I only took one pic this time, so that will have to do for documentation of my very first spinning effort on my new wheel, who still remains nameless, poor little thing. This is yarn that only a mother could love. And by golly, I do love it. I found a pattern on the Yarn Harlot that I liked for a scarf, but it just didn't seem to work, .....well actually I loved the way it looked, but I just don't have enought yarn. So I have cast on 12 sts with my size 15 straights and I'm just doing it in garter stitch. Sometimes the simplest thing is the best, and I think that is giong to be true with this yarn and this scarf. I just want something that I can use a few times and then keep for posterity. I have found myself wanting to get a brush and see what it looks like with a little halo brushed out of it. I have no idea what the fiber is. Got it last year at MI Fiber Festival and the vendor didn't mark it as to content. I wish that I had kept a record of who I purchased it from. The outside of the ball of roving was clean and nice, Ha! it was full of VM after the first few layers. That wasn't nice! Oh, well. I'm still in love with the yarn. Aren't we always in love with our firstborn anything!
I am now spinning some fiber that my friend JT gave me. It is a little coarse(which she told me when she donated it) and I plan to use it for my orphan knitting. I think that after it is spun and plied and washed several times and has plenty of hair conditioner used on it, that it will be just fine and will make a nice warm little vest for a toddler over in Russia or Kazahkstan who is living in an orphanage that is only heated to about 45 deg. F in the winter. Thank you JT, one more little one warmed!
Gotta go knit on DH's hunting socks. Apologies to the vegetarian reader and animal lover. But, we do live in the midwest and farm country and we were both raised on this way of life. DH never kills anything that we aren't willing to eat. And truth be told, I think he spends more time 'watching' the wildlife than anything. At least, there is never much meat in the freezer that he harvested. Last year was 'venison free'. LOL Anyway, I am knitting him some socks. I started them for the dgs, but they were too wide in the ankle and I wasn't willing to frog them, and they are perfect for DH. DGS will get the next pair. I am just using some Wool-Ease that I got in that big yarn haul that I found this past summer. I actually have some Encore set aside for DH some hunting socks, but that will have to wait.
I knit a Mason Dixon Baby Kimono sweater of the weekend. What an easy knit, and very fast, I really didn't have a lot of time to devote to it this weekend. But it went to fast that it got finished in 2 days, anyway. I will post a pic after I get it sewn up. That, by the way, is my only complaint about this pattern, I hate sewing up knits. But his one is worth it. I was feeling sort of crumby about spending the money on that book, but now that I've knit something from it, I'm glad that I have it and I'm sure that I will enjoy using some of the other patterns in it.
Going to click my neeedles now,
DJ

Fun with my new wheel

2006-10-01T20:44:00.000-04:00

I spent the day at the Weekend Weavers shop taking an all day class with Peggy Coffey,yesterday. She writes a column for the Interweave mag Spin-Off. Oh, Wow!! I had such a great time and Peg is a wonderful teacher and very kind and generous. Some of the wheels in the class were not working right and she just took it in her stride and basically gave them all a tune-up right there during the class, without neglecting any of the students. It was a small class of 5, so there was a lot of one on one time. And the fiber that she gave us was so nice. We spun something called "Cloud" from Quail Hill. It is wool, mohair, alpaca and silk noil. It was soft as a cloud and didn't require any real drafting at all. Wonderful stuff. I will be getting some of that. She gave us 'spin-able' samples of merino, leichester, shetland, and several others that I have forgotten. I know so much more about fiber, the wheel and spinning now than I would have thought possible in just one day. I definitely recommend Peg's classes. And she is just such a down to earth person, a pleasure to deal with. I hope to take another class from her sometime.
I wish I had taken my camera. I met such nice people there and I think all of them will be buying wheels and be real spinners. 3 of them already have sheep and the other one wants them. Me, at this point, I have no hope of having any fiber animals. I do so miss the ones that I used to have, but preparing for retirement meant selling our little mini-farm and moving to a retirement mobile home community. It will be better in many ways, but I don't think I'll ever stop missing my little angora rabbits. I have given thought to getting just one and having it as a house pet, but I know from experience that would mean fur everywhere! And I don't think DH would approve. LOL At least I get to see them at the Michigan Fiber Festival and at the county fairs. That will have to do for now and at least the near future.
I'm at the grand-teens house for the next few days, so I won't be doing any spinning till I get home. I could have brought the drop spindle, but I have several knitting projects that I really need to devote some time to and this gives me time to really concentrate on them.
Gotta run,
DJ

The Pitter Patter of Little Booties

2006-09-27T03:03:00.000-04:00

These cuties are going to California for a short visit. Then, it's on to China to warm the little toesies of some babies at the orphanage where a group of Mommies and Daddies are going to get their new family member. April,whose Mom Penny is on one of the yahoo lists that I frequent, will be bringing home a sweet little girl and leaving these little toe-warmers for the kiddos that don't get Mommies and Daddies. Grandma Penny put out a plea for booties and I decided that would be a good use for some of the handspun yarn that my dear friend Mary from Missouri sent me a while back to be used for my charity knitting. Hope April and the little kiddles like these.
This picture doesn't do them justice, nor the yarn. I think that Mary may have hand-painted the blue. I is really a beautiful shade. I had some brown left over from some socks that I made for CIC from her yarn, so I knit one pair and the foot of another pair with that and did the ankle and cuff with the left overs from the 3 pair of blue booties. Good to the last snithch!
DJ

Wheeeee-l Day

2006-09-27T02:45:00.000-04:00

Hey, hey, hey!!!! I picked up my new spinning wheel today. I love it. Now I just have to practice, practice, practice!
It is a Ashford, Traveller. It is so light and so easy to just put in the back seat of the car and strap in with the seatbelt. could it get any better? I have a few yards of yarn made on it and hope to do a lot more in the very near future. I have an all day class on Saturday to learn everything you every wanted to know about being a new spinner. lol
I can hardly wait.
Here's my new little baby. Hmmmm, what shall I name her? Spinderella? Rove-ina? Ply-ianna? LOL Gotta think about that.

Whoa, long time no post!

2006-05-18T13:42:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that I have been away from my blog for so long. Good grief!
I have a lot of knitting pictures to share, but right now I want to post the pictures of Lake Michigan that I took about half an hour ago, 1 p.m EST. It is very windy down at the beach and I got some nice wave pics. As anyone can tell, I am obsessed with the Lake.
If I get time later today I will post some knitting pics. I have lots. Socks, vest and lots of little hats and booties.
I finished up a hat last night and another this a.m. and started another for Lubbock Med Ctr. NICU.
I am taking part in a KAL for the Baby Bear Rib Warmer on the KnitBabySurprise yahoo group. I tried to work ahead but realized that I didn't know what the heck I was doing and had to quit last night, until I can go to the website and look at the pics and figure out where I am and where I should be. LOL
Also, working on another pair of Sixth Sense Socks for CIC and had to frog about half of the toes (2s2c). I don't have any idea what I did wrong, its the toe that I always use and should be able to do in my sleep. At least it is finally frogged and now I can re-knit it later.
Gotta go. Have an appt. to get a haircut. I'm starting to look like my shaggy dogs. LOL
DJ

Beautiful Lake Michigan

2006-04-04T16:31:00.000-04:00

has again given me some nice pics. That lake is like a magnet to me. If I get the slightest chance to get down to the beach, I'm there! Here is a pic of the lake just north of St. Joseph, MI on Sunday April 2, 2006. Calm and even tho it was a fairly cloudy day, there is a glimmer on the water from the slightest bit of sun peaking thru.

I was down by the lake again today and took these pics. Very different than Sundays pic! I love to watch the waves roll and crash. So much power!

These pics were taken from the bluff and don't really do justice to the size of the waves. I just wasn't up to walking down closer to the water. Well....truth is, I wasn't up for walking back up the hill after being down close to the water, today. I'm still treating my back with care. I over-did again and I'm trying to work thru it, but I don't want to aggravate it.

Knitting content?.... Oh, yeah. Well, I finished the variation on the 5 hour baby sweater. I just need to weave in the 2 yarn ends and get some ribbon for ties. the pattern is designed for running ribbon around the neck, but the neck seems a little on the small side to me. So I am thinking of adding some ribbon ties down further on the fronts. I should cast on some booties and a hat too match. This set will go to Warm Hearts/Warm Babies in Colorado. I still have a small stack of PL1 sweaters to do the same with. Finishing is not my favorite thing to%

CIC package and sweater blitzing

2006-04-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the wool handwarmers this week and got the package off the CIC. I really liked making the handwarmers(fingerless mittens). They were quick and easy. I can hardly believe how many our little group made in just 2 months.....227 was the last total that I saw and there were some mailed after that , I'm sure. CIC-Knit is a great group of knitters that is dedicated to helping to cloth the orphans of Russia. The need is just so great that we will never fill it, but it feels like such a triumph at the end of every challenge to see what one little group of knitters can do when they put their hearts into it. I am really proud to be a part of the effort. These wristwarmers were a special effort to reward the caregivers at the orphanages. They have so very little themselves and work very hard at caring for the children with so little in the way of resources. They deserve a little something that says they are valued and that what they do is important. Of course, many pairs of hand knit socks and many little vest were also knit for the children, too. Our next challenge for the months of Apr. and May involves making as many vests and sweaters as possible for the children. I have a bulky sweater started. I am using Lopi and I have scads of grey that were donated by nice LYS employee. I also have a few skeins of Lopi in colors that are left over from a project of my own that I use for yokes, stripes, cuffs and such to brighten up the grey.
This isn't a very good pic, but it shows the vest, handwarmers and socks that I sent. I wish the light had been better, but one has to go with a dreary day when one is faced with a dreary week. lol the top handwarmer is a lovely deep purple with flecks of red, yello and blue. It is a discontinued Cascade 220 that I picked up in the clearance bin. The 2 deep red ones on either side of the vest were made with another Cascade 220 from the c-bin. The other pair is a putty/khaki colored Paton Classic Merino that looks a lot nicer than it sounds. The socks are some socks that I actually made for Moi. I don't like to handwash my socks, so I should have left that beautiful Monet colored Skacel Trampoline in the store. I love the socks and I actually did wear them twice. But, I can see that I am not going to want any hand washed socks, at all. Give me the 'throw them in the washer/toss them in the dryer' type socks. I'm just not a handwashing type of gal. LOL So, some sweet teenage orphan in Russia is going to have happy feet!And my conscience is clear as regards those socks. They will no longer hang around in the bathroom glaring at me, either.
I am currently working on a blitz with Linda over on the Knititng for Children yahoo group. I started a variation on the 5 hour baby sweater last night. I have the yoke and sleeves done and have picked up the body and knit one row so far on that. I hope to finish the sweater tomorrow while I do laundry. I love these little top down sweaters they are so fast and look great when they are done. Great for charity knitting.

2006-03-20T19:29:00.000-05:00

I am so tired. I am an insomniac of the highest order and I have probably had 4 hours of sleep since Friday. When I see the dr. on Thurs. about my back, I am going to see what he can do about it.
Anyway, I was able to get 4 pair of booties done for the Bootie Blitz with the Knitting for Children yahoo group. Now I just have to make myself sew them up. I am working on a way to do the same booties in the round - 2 on 2 circs from the top down with a 3 needle bind-off. Dare I say it: I HATE to sew things up, big time.
I have 2 wrist warmers done for CIC and have 2 more on the needles for this months challenge. Our totals seem a little skimpy this month, but I have faith that all the last minute mailers (me included) will bring our total up to our goal and even surpass it, as usual. I even adapted a straight needle pattern from the first two wristwarmers(pictured here) to be able to knit them 2 on 2 circs. I LOVE the 2 on 2 circs concept and do it wherever I can make it work.
I want to give credit to Elizabeth who is 14 year old and designed the wristwarmers that I am adapting. Her Mom is a member of the CIC list.
Well, I think I better get this posted before
poop-y old Blogger refuses to take the post. What a bummer, I hope they get themselves straightened out soon. I am really getting fed up with the uploading problems.
Back to the needles,
DJ

Lake Michigan pictures, at last.

2006-03-19T16:51:00.000-05:00

I finally got Blogger to upload my pics. Somehow, I ended up with duplicates of one of them. And Blogger wouldn't let me delete the extra ones. So here they are. I have a couple more, but they wouldn't upload for some reason. I guess that Blogger is picking and choosing what it wants to upload, now.

Bootie Blitz and Lake MI

2006-03-19T03:16:00.000-05:00

I'm taking part in a week-end blitz over on the Knitting for Children yahoo group. I have been kind of slacking off on knitting for them lately, so I welcome the chance to get some things made for our charities. So that is my main focus this week-end.

We spent the day on the road Saturday. Drove about a hundred miles round trip to go to Mom's and take her to do some shopping. So I was able to get two sets of booties knitted. They still need to be sewn together. It was worth the long drive. Besides, being the least we could do for Mom. She took us to a great place for lunch. I love olive burgers. I seldom eat beef, actually I seldom eat meat. But, I have been craving an olive burger for several weeks. Not just any burger will do, if I am going to eat it. It has to be great. Well, I got my olive burger fix! So, I was a happy camper.

On the way home we went by the lake again. hee-hee, surprise, surprise!! Took a couple pics, of course.

And we stopped at my favorite thrift shop on the way home, too. All white tagged clothes $.79 each. I go there looking for 100% wool sweaters to send to Kazaakstan(sp?) with the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group and also to send to Russian orphanages with the CIC yahoo group. I found four very nice sweaters that are going to go to Akkol in May. And I found out that if I take the DH with me on Tues. - Thurs. I can get 20% off of that seventy-nine cents!!!(senior discount)
I really did have a great day.
DJ
P.S. Well, blogger is being a poop, so I will have to upload my pics tomorrow, or later. Is it just me or is Blogger being poop-y a lot lately??

Winter Wonderland

2006-03-17T21:48:00.000-05:00

Just had to post some winter pics. These were taken at about 8:30 this a.m. The snow was pretty well gone by 2:00p.m. It looked so clean and crisp that I am sorry to see it go---well, almost. lol
Daddy let the fur-babies loose and they are terrorizing the local squirrel population. I'm not sure who enjoys that more.....Daddy or the fur-babies!

Winter Kayaking in Lake Michigan

2006-03-17T01:53:00.000-05:00

We took this picture the last sunday in February. We were making one of our customary stops at the beach in St. Joseph,MI. I couldn't believe my eyes when this guy pulled up and took out his kayak and headed for the water. Now that's dedication, well thats what some might call it.

Here is the results of some of my knitting time lately. My DGS just had his first sibling at age 14(almost 15, Grandma!). I made these for him to give to his new half-sister who was just born 2 days ago. He is already a doting big brother. lol He was pretty please about having these to give to his new Sissy. I spent this afternoon and evening making the little quilt that is peeking out from under the sweater set. It's just sort of a rail fence pattern in pink print flannel and plain white flannel with a bright pink fleece backing. Quick, easy, warm and cuddly! This isn't a very good pic, but I decided to add it anyway. The quilt is actually 35 inches square. Just a quickie, but this baby probably isn't going to have a very nice life. Her Momma has aready given away one child and will probably give this poor little thing to my ex-SIL to raise. That's what she did with the other child. Oh, don't even get me started on women who have babies in this day and age that they don't want. stepping down from soap-box
DJ going back to my needles.

Water, water, ice??

2006-02-22T16:38:00.000-05:00

I got out of the house yesterday and of course I had to go down to the water! I should have been a sea-gull. I love being near the water, just hate being "in" the water. lol (do seagulls hat to get in the water?....oh well, you get the idea, right?) This is the first time that there has been ice on the shore all winter, here. I love watching the waves crash over the shore ice. The spray is so pretty to watch. One thing about the beach in winter here in Michigan, the sand is frozen solid and is much easier for my large self to walk on.
I love to sit by the water and knit, yes even in the winter. In my car, anyway. We live just a little way from the beach and can hear the waves crashing on the beach when it is really windy. In better weather, I sit on my sun-porch and can listen to the waves as I knit. What better therapy can there be? Waves and knitting: great combination any time of year.

I took a jillion pics, trying to get one of the crashing waves. But with the digital camera, it is hard to catch that. The delay after pushing the button is just long enough for the spray to have returned to its source! Phooey! Well, I haven't veiwed them all yet, maybe I will find one yet.

Gotta go click some needles and sew some buttons on pretty pink PL1 for the dgs's expected new baby sister. He is almost 15 yo and getting his first sibling! Too bad it's not a boy. I do have a blue outfit in reserve just in case the ultra sound was wrong. hee-hee

2006-02-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

My little fur baby, Bitsey is having a hard afternoon. Not! She rules the house and Daddy can't sit down without her. He is trying to make up to her for being busy in the kitchen making homemade bread and molasses cookies all afternoon. She sits and glares at him until he sits down and holds her. Spoiled? Oh, yeah.
I got 3 more repeats done on my FLAK saddles, that was all the concentration that I could muster today. I also got the ribbing and about an inch done on the cuff of a pair of socks for moi. I feel so selfish, knitting all these socks for myself lately. But, I do need them. These are socka in an ugly 70's color combo. I don't care. I kinda like the ugly socks. Pity, I guess.
Gotta go read my e-mail and knit on those socks.
DJ

2006-02-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

I was able to get
these socks
for 'moi' done last night.
I like the way Marguerite lists her info for her projects, so I am going to be a copy-cat, sort of.
Yarn: Regia4 self striping
Color: # 5380 steel blue/
green/black/pastels
Needles: size 3 silver Susan Bates
Guage: 7 sts/in. on st. st
1 x 1 ribbing and st. st. body.
These were quick and easy, just the way I like it.
On the FLAK front:
I have re-cast on and have 3 repeats done. I am definitely checking and re-checking as I go. I love this pattern.
Gotta go click my needles again,
DJ

Saddling up for a Pity Party

2006-02-17T15:06:00.000-05:00

I'm having a little pity party this afternoon. I thought for several weeks now that I only had one little mistake in my 'saddles'. Well, silly me! This afternoon I finally got them out and was ready to take out about 2 inches of knitting on just one saddle. Hrmpppphh! I found about 3 mistakes on the other saddle. I could have cried. All this time I was so please to have only one mistake to fix and now I am so disgusted that I just frogged the whole mess and I am going to read a little e-mail and then I will cast on again. Grumble, groan, sniffle! Back to the drawing board, as they say. Here is a picture of the "saddles that were".
And a pic of what will be the next and final pair of saddles! I mark every repeat, so you'd think that I would be aware enough to find my mistakes "before" I finish the whole saddle. This time around I will be double and triple checking every row, that's for sure!
Off to click my needles!!
DJ

Busy needles

2006-02-16T22:20:00.000-05:00

These are some of the socks that have had my needles humming lately. I finished them last week. They are just basic socks. Knit with Lopi bulky yarn on size 8 needles. the pair on the left is just grey. The p air on the right have teal cuffs and grey foot.
The pair on the left in the second pic is kelly green Manos. The middle pair is Lopi in a deep bronzy gold and the pair on the right is Lion Brand Fishermans that I Kool-Aid dyed, green foot, peachy cuff. All done on size 8 needles.
These were for the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group.
I need to get busy on my goal for the CIC group now. I'd like to make 3 pair of wrist warmers by the end of our challenge, the deadline is March 31. So, I should be able to do that. I have one pair cast on and about 3 inches of ribbing done.
I just about have a pair of socks for me done, too. Will finish those tonight. Busy, busy needles.
Gotta go click some needles.
DJ

Beautiful Lake Michigan

2006-02-08T18:15:00.000-05:00

I just love Lake Michigan. I don't care if it's winter or summer, I just love it. I haven't been able to get down to my favorite spot on the lake, so I am opting for this spot, for now. It's just north of St Joseph, MI and we can see their lighthouse(just barely) from this beach. The waves were running about 10 to 15 feet over the weekend when I took these pics. It was so bluster-y down there that we were getting sand-blasted by the winds. I have to wear wrap-around sun goggles when we go down there in this kind of weather to protect my eyes. But, I wouldn't miss it for anything. Hubby and the fur babies are always ready to leave before I am. Even with their little sweaters, the fur babies can only take so much of the wind and sand and cold.

I have been busy knitting wool socks from Lopi for the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group. There is a family going over soon and the need is so great that I have put everything else aside until Friday. I can get one more pair of socks knit by then and then they need to get in the mail so I can be sure that they get to their destination here in the States in time to go to Kaz.

After Friday, I need to get busy on my FLAK. I still have to re-knit a couple inches on my saddles and get busy and catch up with the rest of the group. I want to take enough time to do a good job on this sweater. After all, I plan to wear it the rest of my life. lol

Well gotta go cast on that last pair of wool socks. Pics to come when they are all done.
DJ

Socks, we have socks

2006-01-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

Yippee, yahooey. I finally got my socks done for the CIC challenge. Finished last night and shipped today. I was working with Cascade220 and Patons Classic Wool on these. They are both really nice to work with. I almost cast on another pair last night, but I need to start on my FLAK back(after I frog and re-knit one of my saddles).

I wish the little design showed up better on the fawn colored pair of socks. I designed it as I knit and I am quite please with it. But, did I write it down as I went? NO. It was such an exercise in focus that I didn't dare take time to write it down and I sure can't remember exactly what I did, now. lol

I am so pleased, I got 62 full term baby hats serged, and now I just need to hem them. They need to get done tonight. O-o-ow! I have a few preemie size serged and a few more that need serging. Uh, I think I can sew in my sleep if I need to. hee-hee-hee.

I did get out some yarn for another pair of socks for me, Regia sock yarn. But, the repeats are kind of out of whack. The blue/white repeats on one skein are shorter than on the other skein. Pooh. I wasn't in the mood for that, so I just put it down for later. But I love the colorway, so I am going to have to get up some patience and get them started.

I am so happy to finally get the FLAK ring button up on my blog. It is so easy when it is done thru ring surf. Dear Marguerite was so kind and send me a brush up on how to add links. I'm ashamed to say that I still haven't tried to do it. I know it is basically the same as when you do it with ring surf, I just have a little mental block about it. I'm sure I can do it, I just have to make myself get at it.

Gotta get off here and install a couple programs. DD Kimie is coming over to use them later and they are still sitting here beside me waiting to be installed. Well, what can I say? I'd rather be knitting/sewing, well actually just about anything but installing programs in this cantankerous computer.

A froggin' I will go

2006-01-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

I have been conspicuously absent from my blog lately and from the discussion on the FLAK group. The reason is that I am a horrible procrastinator. I have known for over a week that I made a mistake a couple inches back in my “saddles”. I have been trying to talk myself into just ignoring it. It is, after all, just one stitch! I have had so much other knitting and sewing to get done for my charities that I have had (sort of) an excuse for not just jumping in the frog pond and getting it over and done. Well, I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I will never be happy until I rip-it! And re-knit it. So, come Tuesday or Wednesday, I will be spending some time “in the pond”.(insert tears and sobbing here)lol.
I finished this pair of sock since I last posted. I call them my “monet” socks. I used some stretch yarn on size 2us needles. Cast on 64 sts. For my wide ankles. Just a simple sock. Nothing special, but I love wearing them. I call them “monet” because the colors reminded me of a Monet painting of a field of flowers. I'm not really impressed with the way the colors pooled, but I like wearing “fraternal” socks. lol Even taking the picture outside on the snow on a sunny day didn't improve the photo quality much. But, there they are.

I finally got my serger set up again. And I am busily making little hats for Parkland Memorial Hosp. in Dallas, TX. I am sewing standing up. Partly because I don't have a place right now to put my serger that is sit-able. lol And I really like sewing this way, anyway. I have fibromyalgia and my body tends to 'draw down' in the middle when I sit very long, and especially when I am sewing. So, standing up for short periods of time to sew works better for me. My computer is so slow that I can actually get quite a few hats done while I am reading my email. I don't think that I have ever mentioned the fibromyalgia here before. I guess that is because I really don't want it to become the focus of my life. I do what I can to accommodate and adapt and then just try to ignore it as much as possible. It's not like I'm the only person in the world who lives with terrible pain. And after the emotional pain that I went thru with my son's accident in 1995 and the ensuing 7 years of him being completely incapacitated in a nursing home, the physical pain is easier to take. Ummmm......enough of that. On to happier things.
DH did the laundry and the grocery shopping this week! Yippee...... he is such a nice guy!!!! That left me lots more time to knit and sew. Lol Gotta love it.
And we have decided that I will 'not' be seeking employment. It has been too frustrating to find something that I am both qualified for and capable of doing. It isn't like we are destitute, although we certainly aren't that comfortable, either. But to remove the frustration, we talked it over and decided that I will start doing a few alterations here at home again. I made my living that way for more years than I think I want to admit right now, so that shouldn't be a problem. It will give me a little yarn money and hopefully a little vacation cash, too. In fact, I should be designing new business cards right now instead of sitting here running on and on.>g<
Gotta go click my needles and think about business cards.
DJ

FLAK-ing Away

2006-01-15T01:10:00.000-05:00

I finally finished my 1oo stitch swatch last night. Washed it and did my measuring this afternoon, just before getting online and finding that Step 3 was available. I am using Cascade 220 and for a while I was worried that I wouldn't like it. But, now that I have the swatch done I can see that I will like it very much. I have done the math and cast on for the shoulder saddles.
Too much company today to get a good start.

I did some mindless knitting on my Monet socks. I just finished the gusset decreases. I should get them done by weeks end.

I have about 3 inches of my current pair of CIC socks knitted. I just work on them while I read my e-mail, so they go slower. But with all the activity on some of the yahoo lists, there is a lot of e-mail to read lately.

I hope to get the sewing machine out sometime this next week. If I can keep myself from straining my back again, that is. I have scads of baby hats to finish cutting out for Parkland Mem. Hosp. in Dallas, TX. I would like to send them 50 or so this month yet.

They are talking about a knitalong on the Knitting for Children yahoo group. Phooey! They are going to make a cute sweater that I have really been wanting to make, but I don't think that I could pull that off and keep up with the FLAK and still get my charity knitting done. Why am I only one person?

Gotta go do at least a few rows on my shoulder saddles before I call it a night....errr make that morning. hee-hee-hee
Clicking away,
DJ

Knitathon and Rant

2006-01-08T17:35:00.000-05:00

I finished a pair of CIC socks and am going to do the toe decreases on another pair of CIC socks when I get off the puter. When those are done I will go back to booties for the Knitting for Children yahoo groups Knitathon. I started a pair early this a.m and just have about 8 rows of ribbing to do on that pair and then I will start another pair and see how many I can get done before the knitathon is over at midnight EST.
Time to vent. I took a tax preparation class the third week of December. It was a farce right from the first day. I saw the handwriting on the wall, but decided to stick it out anyway. Which I shouldn't have done anyway because my back and hip were flaring up so bad that I really couldn't concentrate. We were told on the last day of class (testing day)Fri. the 22nd that we would be notified on the following monday if we passed the class and there would be a staff meeting on that thursday. We were told that if we didn't hear anything that meant that we didn't pass the test.
Here we are Sunday January 8 and at 2 oclock this afternoon I was called and told that I am scheduled to work tomorrow from 9 a.m. Til 2 p.m. Whaaaaaaaa!???? When I didn't receive a call I thought that I had failed the test. DUH!!!! I am just so irritated that they would assume that they could just call me and tell me that I was to come in tomorrow morning and expect that I would just run right in there. Not!!!!!
To back it up a little here: the first day of class there were about 18 students and only 3 and sometimes 4 computers working. That was my first clue. Everyday we were told that we would be getting computers “tomorrow”. Well, you guessed it, tomorrow never came. On the last day of class there were about 12 of us left in the class and only 5 or 6 computers. We had to take turns taking our test. What a rinkey-dinkey outfit!!!! I won't name them, but I will say that it wasn't H&R Block.
I am still fuming and it is almost 4 hours since they called. I am not going to work for them. And I am not going to call them to tell them, either. I can play their game just as well as they can. So, There!!!
Gotta go click my needles,
DJ

Finished my 'ugly socks'

2006-01-07T21:39:00.000-05:00

I finished my 'ugly socks'. they are made with Phildar Prognostic. I would never use this yarn again. Or at least that is how I feel today. I wish that the lace design on the cuffs would show up better. Oh, the trials of not having flash on the camera.lol They haven't been worn or washed yet. So I should probably reserve judgment. As mentioned in a previous post, I just had to have this color(a nice med. loden) and the LYS didn't have real sock yarn in this color. So it's my own fault that I don't like them. I was experienceing a lot of swelling in my feet at the time that these socks were started and I made the cuff way too big for the way my feet and ankles are right now. I'm hoping that some very warm water will help that a little. By the time I got the socks out of the 'put aside' basket to finish them, my feet were not bothering me so much, so I switched to a smaller needle for the 'foot' part of the socks. The foot actually fits like a glove and if my swelling ever comes back I'm ready with one pair of wide ankle socks. LOL
This is the yarn for the next pair. I am going to call them my Monet Socks. I love these colors, they remind me of a Monet painting(wish I could get them to show up true to color). I have them cast-on and will probably knit a couple of rows of the ribbing tonight. but, I have 2 pair of CIC socks that are at the point of the toe decreases and I would like to finish them by Monday night. I still only have 18 rows of my FLAK cable swatch done. But unless things have changed since yesterday, I can do that on Tues and still have time to re-knit if it doesn't work out. I was over at Stitches of Violet Blog and looked at Marguerite's swatch, yesterday. It is gorgeous. I got mine out show DH today and it is beginning to grow on me.
I am taking part in the Knitting for Children yahoo group's Knitathon tomorrow. I think that I will work on booties for Warm Hearts/Warm Babies. I have about 2 dozen hats cut out for Parkland and dozens more that I need to cut out. But that will have to wait til next weekend at the earliest. I feel so selfish that I am taking such big chunks of my knitting time for things for myself. Last year about 99 percent of my knitting was for chairity. This year I am going to be doing somethings for me, myself and I. lol
Gotta go click my needles,
DJ