Knit picnic items

Hello all!! Long time, no update as usual. Sorry! Life just gets in the way. My mom had a kidney transplant last week, she is doing GREAT. She may come home this weekend after less than a week in the hospital! Me and the baby are doing well too, I'm to the point where I can't see my toes anymore LOL. I'm 15 weeks along and we have a sonogram in a couple days, I'm crossing my fingers that the baby will cooperate so that we can maybe find out if it is a boy or girl. It is a bit early but they may still be able to tell. :-)

I had wanted to get a pair or two of socks done for mom before her surgery but I can't focus on anything lately. I have been able to make these baskets up for the bazaar, they are all really quick easy projects. I found some patterns online but modified them so that I wasn't violating anyone's copyrights or anything. Not that I'm gonna become rich selling these or anything, I only made up 4 baskets, but I don't want the knitting police to get me :-D Do you think these baskets have enough in them? I'm thinking of selling them for $10 each.

Turkey and cheese sandwiches with tomatoes, chocolate chip cookies and strawberries

Peanut butter and jelly

Basket with stuff in it

I'm also trying to make up a basket with lots of cookies and some holiday fabric lining it, like a basket of cookies for Santa. These are a couple I've come up with. The frosted one has sequins on it so they look like sprinkles. I think I have red and green too, so I'll make up some with different frosting. These are crocheted, using the basic circle pattern I always use and then decorating differently. The frosting is one round smaller than the cookie, the chocolate chip cookie is 2 circles sewn (chips put on before sewing, just french knots ) together, and the fudge striped one is one cookie colored circle and one fudge colored circle. Easy peasy.

I think I'm just about ready for the bazaar. Have some stuff left from last year that I need to fix up (replace the chocolates etc.) and make a few more cookies, but for the most part I think I'm good to go. Yay! Dawn has a ton of stuff too. It should be a lot of fun this year!

Hugs to all!

I'm still here!

I promise! Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I hit the 12 week mark yesterday, had my 5th sonogram and my appointment with my perinatologist, who I LOVE. He is great. I had tried seeing another one because my old one was further away, but we really weren't happy with the new one so we went back to Dr. B. He's fabulous, very confident, very competent, and if it werent' for him our beautiful 2 year old wouldn't be here so we trust him a lot. I'm having a procedure done on Friday to [hopefully] keep baby "Grimlock" (named by my 5 year old who loves Transformers) safe and happy until he/she is fully cooked. After my procedure I have to be on "reduced activity" for a couple of weeks (he said act like you have the flu) so hopefully I will have some time to knit! I have seriously barely knit ANYTHING the last few weeks. I'm just too tired and too braindead most of the time to do anything. I started a really simple pair of socks about 3+ weeks ago and am 3 inches or so into them. YIKES! I'm also working on stuff for the bazaar that Dawn and I are doing, I'm making mini picnic baskets and fruit baskets that will be really cute, with knit sandwiches, crochet cookies and various fruits etc. Very cute. I even found some gingham fabric that looks like a picnic blanket that I'm going to use to line the baskets. I will make sure to take photos when I'm done. I found a lot of different patterns online but I'm changing a lot of them to make sure I don't violate any copyright laws etc. Although I really don't understand why designers care if you make up a few items and sell them at a craft show. I can understand I guess why they wouldn't want you selling a ton on like etsy or something, or certainly why they wouldn't want you selling the pattern, but if you're just selling a few things that you made, and you give them credit, why would it be a problem? Any patterns I create, if you make them you're welcome to sell the finished product. Just not the pattern :-) But anyway, it should be a lot of fun. A new Hobby Lobby opened by me, plus there's another one not to far away. I used to be a Michaels person because it was closer, but now that there's 2 hobby lobbys nearby I may switch alliances LOL. Hobby Lobby has a lot more yarn plus they have stuff like fabric and things. They usually have really good prices too. Dawn and I met there one day last week and had a ton of fun browsing. They have nice home decor stuff too, and holiday decorations. Ohhhhh I can't wait to start decorating for Christmas!! I did find when I unpacked the halloween stuff my 2 knit pumpkins. I made them on the loom thing, I think it is called the knifty knitter or something? its been a while since I used it. The kids like to throw them around LOL.

Well, kiddos need me and I have some knit sandwhiches I hope to finish today, so I'm signing off. Pictures to come soon, I promise! Hugs!

why I haven't been knitting much lately

I haven't done much knitting recently. I've been exausted every evening. Why, you ask? Well, we are expecting a new little one! I told my knitting friends and a few others but didn't want to spread the word until my 1st doc appt, which was today (well, yesterday, more on that in a moment). After I saw the tiny heartbeat flickering on the sonogram screen, I felt so relieved. We are still considered high risk though because we had a lot of complications with my daughter who ended up being born 11 weeks early. Hopefully that won't happen again, and I have several doctors that I have to see, but I'll do whatever it takes :-)

Although thankfully my morning sickness has been very minor compared to my other pregnancies, this time around I'm totally wiped out. I take a nap during the day whenever I can, and usually end up falling asleep on the couch around 10. Not much knitting time! My MS4 has sat untouched for a couple weeks, I'm not even done with the first clue yet and clue 3 came out last Friday. I have a pair of socks started, a pair of footies I just started tonight, and I just finished a production knitting piece for an upcoming book ( I didn't write the pattern, just knitting the sample for the photo) but I'm not tellin' what it is yet, so don't ask! :-D So, if I'm so tired, why am I up at 4 am you ask? Well, I took a 2 hour nap late this afternoon, and fell asleep on the couch just after 10. Woke up at 1:30, woke up hubby who had also fallen asleep on the couch, and then I couldn't get back to sleep. Hubby started watching TV so I got sucked into the show, then once he started falling asleep he started snorting and snoring, (it is allergy season) and it was driving me crazy! LOL. So, now I'm on the PC. I might knit, I might go lay on the couch, not sure. But I thought it was a good time to catch up on my blog! :-)

I really should try to get some sleep though, so good night!

to block or not to block, that is the question.

I was beginning to think I lost my knitting mojo. Last week everything I was knitting just wasn't turning out how I wanted. Gauge, size, overall pattern, just not going well. For example:




Some socks I was working on. My own pattern, I was hoping to enter them in the LSSK design contest. Yeah, not going to happen. I'm not much of a designer, can you tell? First of all, they were going a lot slower than I had hoped. Plus the foot was smaller than I wanted, which of course I didn't realize until halfway thru, and since I had already frogged them once for being too big I decided to just deal with it and add a few stitiches near the ankle. Well, then I did one heel, thinking I had enough length but apparently not.

They were supposed to have a chevron type pattern, but even that wasn't coming out well. I'm just gonna frog them. Forget it.

So I put down all the projects that were troubling me, put them in time out to give myself a break, and worked on my husband's grandma's shawl




Tonight I was planning on doing one more pattern repeat, which meant 30 more rows (SIGH), but decided it was big enough, so I only did the last 10 rows and bound off.

Luckily it is a mohair blend, and blocks much bigger.

Nana is considerably smaller than me too, she's a very tiny person.

Before blocking. Note the yard stick to compare.

After blocking. MUCH better. I even got to FINALLY use my blocking wires, that I got a year ago and haven't completed a project to use them on since then. I think it will fit her fine. It is the luna moth shawl from elann.com. Done in patons brilliant something from michaels. Very shiny sparkly stuff. A little hard to work with b/c it is so fuzzy, a little hard to see the stitches but I took my time and it came out fine. I'm glad I didn't do one more repeat, nana is only here for a month after all. :-)

My son starts soccer tomorrow, I need to find an easy take along project that doesn't require a lot of thought. I have my special olympics scarf, I'll probably bring that. Have to bring the big balls of yarn for it, but I guess I can take a big beach bag instead of my purse. :-)

a day in the life of a mom with a 2 year old.

Thank GOD my son was at his grandma's today. I could not have handled both of them! Here's how my day was:

ALL DAY LONG it was one mess after another with my 2 year old daughter. I'm cleaning up the milk and wet cereal she spilled at breakfast, she's in the bathroom sticking her head under the faucet. I'm wiping up the water that is now all over the bathroom, she's in the kitchen filling a toy purse with dry rice, which she then carries into the living room and spills ALL over the carpet. I'm sweeping up that mess and she's taking all the clothes out of her drawers. I'm putting the clothes back in the drawers and she's into the cereal, because apparently she didn't eat enough before she spilled. I'm sweeping the floor yet again, and she gets her second shirt all wet because she's trying to have a tea party with real water (from the faucet, she can reach now, at least it wasn't the toilet water again.) so there goes another shirt (second one already). Finding her another shirt and my son Brendan yells "um, mom, meghan's in the sink!" At least she was naked this time, so no clothes got wet. She was trying to give herself a bath in the bathroom sink. Get them out the door to drop off the boy, go out to lunch, put her down for nap as soon as we get home. Of course, she wakes up from nap, poops in her pullup then reaches in to check. Somehow smears it all over her teapot and her bed before deciding to let me know she's awake. Bath, 3rd shirt, throw sheets in washer, call for reinforcements (I have no idea what I would ever do if hubby didn't work from home!!) to help with the mess. Snack time, sippy cup this time so she doesn't spill. I'm putting her dishes away and she takes out a bunch of DVD's. I'm putting those away and she runs into my bathroom where she tries to drink toothpaste. Lock her out of my room, go to get myself a drink and she pulls my socks that I was knitting off the needles. After dinner (where she spilled a half a bowl of egg drop soup all over her placemat. Which is why I put the placemat down in the first place, easier to hose off than the table, but it still got all over her shirt and pants. I've lost track at this point of how many outfits she's gone thru.) I decided I was going to go outside and shovel some dirt into my garden. Had the big box to fill, and lets face it, I'd rather get muddy and sweaty and do massive amounts of manual labor than deal with another Meghan mess. I got out just in time too, a few minutes later she managed to spill an entire gallon pitcher full of orange crystal light on the floor. It was about 2/3-3/4 full. hubby said it took 4 towels. It was one of those days where I was VERY VERY HAPPY when I got to say "time for Meghan to go Nigh-night!!"

So yeah, I'm tired. Couldn't focus on ANYTHING. Tried to knit a bit tonight, managed to get the socks back on the needles but somehow added about 6 stitches in one row, so it is a short row bump but it is on the sole of the sock so I don't care. I'm just mentally exausted. Hopefully I'll be able to knit more tomorrow. then again, both kids are home tomorrow. I hope I get enough sleep tonight to recover enough for it.

it is done!!

Mom's wrap is done!! Yayyyy!! I'm debating blocking it but I don't think it needs it. 4 skeins knit pics alpaca dream (bulky weight suri alpaca) in the tiramisu colorway. Love it. SOOOOO soft and warm!!! I hope she likes it. Every tuesday night she has a meeting at church and a friend of her's has a wrap they all take turns with. Now mom will be able to bring her own. :-) And, it is one for my Llympics contest!! Yippie! I have no hope of finishing Meg's blanket by Sunday, so I'll have to dig out something else to work on. Maybe my son's socks that I started a long time ago. I also joined the mystery stole 4 KAL, and got my beads today. Still need a tiny crochet hook for it, but I think it will be beautiful when done with the beads. One of my weekly knitting group friends brought in a GEORGEOUS shawl she had done that was all beaded and lacy last night. OMG we all just fell in love with it. It was huge and looked very complicated but oh so beautiful. She said by the end she had around 1000 sts on the needle and each row was taking her about half an hour. I don't think I have that kind of patience! So, what next for me? Well, I have tons of sock yarn calling my name, but I think I might do a shawl for myself. I have some georgeous heavy worsted weight yarn I got on sale one time, and I have a pattern for a diamond lace one I've been wanting to try. I had tried it in the yarn reccomended, lion brand homespun, but it was too hard to see the stitches below to figure out where I was in the pattern. I think I'm going to try it again in this yarn. Hmmmm. So many things to knit, too little time during the day!

Hand dyed hurdles

One of the events I joined in the Llympics is the Hand Dyed Hurdles. I had 3 skeins left from my dyeing party, so here's what I did today:

2 packets Orange, 2 packets Lime, and for the blue it was 1 pack of blue rasberry lemonade and one of the hawaiian punch blue typhoon.

first I did the hawaiian punch blue typhoon and kool aid raspberry lemonade to dye the whole skein, then I made up another batch of the same color and added half a pack of tropical punch to make it a little purple and just used a turkey baster to put it in a few places. This is the knit picks donegal yarn so it also has little bits of red and orange in it, really pretty

This one has 2 packs of pink lemonade for the light pink and a pack of black cherry with a pack of strawberry for the red. This one is cute.

This is how the blue looked in the bowl

This is how I get stripes. I separate the hank into 2 (or 3) glasses in a microwave safe dish and mix each one individually. Microwave just like this.

All 3 skeins together. :-) It will take longer to dry this time since it is rainy and not hot outside. I decided to hang them in my laundry room with the heat lamp on. I think I might save these for the craft bazaar rather than make socks with them, since I have yarn for at least 4 or 5 pairs waiting for me now! :-)