photos of my current projects

OK, here's some photos of what I've been working on.

Mom's wrap. It is much longer now, it is about 2/3 done. It will look better when it is blocked too. It is just a simple feather and fan lace with knit picks suri dream in the tiramisu colorway. VERY soft and should be nice and warm even though it is light weight. Mom likes it. :-) I do have a pattern for a cabled wrap I may try to do for Christmas, we'll see.

A friend's friend has a preemie so my friend asked if I could make her some hats to give to her friend. One I did the same as my pattern, same colors even, one was my favorite pattern (I saw it on knitty gritty) and then the flower one was my design and I loved it. Kinda patterned it after a daisy hat I did last year, but made it much smaller and did the brim differently and did different colored flowers. I love how it turned out!

my daughter's bedspread in progress. Now that it is mostly done, I wish I had made the panels longer but there's no going back now. Oh well. It can be like a duvet cover :-) I can't really add fringe or anything b/c it will hide the scalloped edge. Other than that, I like how it turned out. Very girly and cute. Still need 2 or 3 panels yet, but I'm working on mom's wrap--I want to finish at least ONE project during the LSSK Olympics!

My friend Dawn also talked me into joining the mystery stole 4 KAL. I have the laceweight yarn from last year that I had planned to use for the SOTS 2 and after 3 clues I realized I wasn't thrilled with the pattern and if I was going to make something for myself with that georgeous yarn (knit picks alpaca cloud in the mist heather colorway, a georgeous light colored lavender) I wanted it to be a pattern I loved. This one is beaded which is what Iwanted. If I end up not liking this one I have a back-up pattern that also involves beads. But since Dawn and Wiebke and Therese and probably a lot of other people I know are doing the KAL, I might as well join too so if I run into problems someone will maybe know how to help! :-)

I also ordered the booklets "pocket pals" and OMG they are the cutest things in the world. I've made a few, one I did on size 2s instead of 1s and didn't like it, so I will stick with the 1s. But wow they are cute. I'm going to make some for the bazaar, and I have all that knit picks pallette sampler yarn plus tons of leftover sock yarn so I should be good to go! :-)

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave comments, I notice a lot of people are reading but I have no idea (other than a few people) who! So say hi! :-) Hugs

Dumb dog!

We have a golden retriever named Rosie (she is in a photo on one of my sock tutorials, I think the last one). Last night my hubby went to let her out at about midnight just before we went to bed. Well, he comes back in a minute later cussing and swearing. Dumb dog had found herself a skunk. Yep, she got sprayed. He tried to tell her "leave it!" but of course she didn't listen. So we're out there after midnight, all the lights on in the back of the house and blinds open so we have a little light out back 'cause it is pitch black out in our neighborhood. DH has his pellet gun loaded to put the thing out of its misery if needed but of course it is too dark to find the thing. We bathed the dog down with some diluted tomato soup (the only tomato thing we had!) and some dish soap. Bathed her three times, then brought her in and stuck her in the laundry room because she still smelled. By the time we took showers and cleaned up some of the mess from bathing her it was 1 am. Not that big of a deal, we stay up late, but I would have rather spent the time doing something else! (get your mind out of the gutter, I meant knitting!!! LOL) She still stunk this morning so we were going to go to petsmart and get some de-skunking stuff but a friend reccomended the mythbusters method of peroxide baking soda and soap. We just finished that whole process, took over an hour to bathe her twice with that and twice with dh's shampoo/conditioner. Then had to walk her so she'd dry, then brush her 'cause she was shedding all over the place. YUCK. She does smell better now though. A little skunky around the face still but overall MUCH better. Oh, we did find the skunk. It didn't suffer, lets just put it that way. Dh removed the thing and threw it into the empty field beside us.

I hope to knit at some point today! The Llympics on my online knitting group started on Friday and I'm making some progress. I finished the 7th panel on my dd's blanket and got the 3 finished panels I had (including that one) crocheted on. I'm goign to do 2 more and see how that looks, that will give me 3 panels of each. I may have to do one more but we'll see. Then I started a wrap for mom that is looking really good, chunky weight suri alpaca from knitpicks, size 13 needles and a simple but elegant feather and fan lace. I have about 10" done. I also have a bunch of kool-aid and 3 skeins of yarn, so I hope to get those dyed and dried soon, if I can distract hubby for a few. He really doesn't like the idea of more koolaid dyeing in the kitchen @@. Maybe I'll just do the koolaid outside and nuke it in the fridge in here, or I can just do it when he has that business dinner tomorrow night :-) hee hee hee. He seems to think I'm gonna paint the kitchen with the stuff! Pthttthhhh he's no fun.

I'll post pics of my projects soon!

Monkey socks done!

It really is a shame that it is 104 degrees here, because I LOVE these socks. They're alpaca though, so they are really really warm, too warm to even wear in the house right now. Oh well. I will probably wear them on Wednesday night though, I want to show them off to my pals at Bluebonnet.

I did the k2tog bind off, where you k2 tog, put the stitch back on the left needle, k2 tog, and keep doing that. I used a size 4 needle for bind off (socks were knit on a 2) and it is nice and stretchy. Looks pretty too, and it was an easy bind off to do. Very quick. Much faster than the sewn bind off. prettier too I think. The yarn is knitpicks imagination in the wicked witch colorway, but I think it should have been called enchanted forrest. either way though, it is beautiful.

Next up, well, I don't really know. I'm going to start a different wrap for my mom on Friday, but I can't start until then because it is a project for my Lonestar State knitters olympics. Can't cast on until after the olympics begin :-) But that's OK, for now I pulled out my dd's afghan and did a few rows on that (it is the envelope afghan) and I think I'm going to start a shawl for my hubby's grandma who is coming to visit soon. She's a knitter too, so I know she appreciates knitted stuff. I made her a shawl when I first started knitting but I think I can do a much better one now. My wrist is feeling better, I've been taking it easy, wearing my brace and stopping when it hurts. I've been able to knit more each day without it hurting so that is good.

Here's some pics from the last few days of the kids being cute. Hubby is really into guitar and sat morning he was playing and the kids decided to join him. Too cute!

My son drives his sister all over the yard most evenings, for at least 20-30 min. She tries to drive too but she can barely reach the petal which means a lot of stopping and starting plus she can't steer very well.

This will be my garden. We're going to add 2 long boxes (these are 4'x4', we're adding two 4'x8' boxes) off the boxes at the top of the photo. They're going to be for the vine plants like pumpkin and zucchini etc.

these are the seeds. Some are doing pretty well but I've had a few die in the last week because of the heat. I'm going to wait until it cools off a bit before replanting. I have squash, rutabega, broccoli, several herbs, tomatoes, green beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, raddishes, all kinds of stuff. I've always wanted a garden, and I finally have room for one which thrills me. :-)

This is our buddy Snape the Snake. He visited the other day and I let my dd look at him (we didn't get close, don't worry) and she was amazed. She thought he was really neat. He came back yesterday so we went out to show him to our son, but the snake was a bit grumpy (tried to snap at hubby, who was too far away) so we went back in and left him alone. He's a yellow bellied tree snake (I think that's what we found online) and isn't poisionous but I'm sure his bite would still hurt so we aren't going to take chances. He's cute though, I don't mind him visiting occassionally as long as the kids don't get too close. I think he was just looking for some shade.

Daughter is waking up, gotta go. Happy knitting!

knit picks

I just placed an order with knitpicks (www.knitpicks.com) I LOVE THEM! Their yarns are all very good quality, beautiful colors, and best of all they are CHEAP! I ordered some more sock yarn, of course, allthough they were out of all the ones I REALLY wanted and won't have any more until September, ugh. But I found some good ones I think. One was a verigated essential yarn in pinks and purples (of course) and one was their kettle dyed yarns, that I have seen in person when my friend Dawn bought them and they're georgeous, slightly verigated even though it is a solid color which really adds to it. (BTW I'd like to say Hi to Dawn's mom, Judy! Thanks for reading! And please don't call Dawn at midnight to make sure I'm OK! Hee hee hee.) Anyway, I ordered a really pretty, are you ready, are you sitting, no it isn't purple, GREEN. Kinda had to, it was one of the only colors they had left LOL. But it is really pretty, and I think it will match my purse. No, I don't go for subtle. My purse is a lime green faux crocodile skin ha ha ha. (Target, on clearance! Woohoo!!!) Anywhoo, I also ordered some suri dream alpaca for moms stole in the tiramisu color. Hopefully it will be super warm but much lighter than the chenille, and since it is super bulky weight it should knit up quickly. I hope. I wanted to get the needle binder but they were out until the end of the month (Why does everyone else buy what I want to buy?!?!) so I ordered the blank pages and since Target has all the school supplies out I will hopefully be able to find one that fits the pages there. Maybe I can find a purple one ;-)

I've been resting my wrist a lot and wearing my brace and it seems to be helping. I knit a few rounds on my socks on Wednesday night but as soon as it started to hurt I stopped. I hadn't knit in 2 whole days before that! Or a day and a half. Something like that. Felt like forever! Anyway, I got a couple rounds done yesterday morning but got sidetracked by the AC repair guy, (had to balance the AC so the kids rooms weren't freezers and our room wasn't an oven!) Then I worked on them last night and got like 5 rounds done without hurting, which was much better than it had been. I did stop there though, I was at the end of the repeat and didn't want to tempt fate. I'm hoping to get one repeat (11 rounds) done each day so I can get them finished before the LSSK olympics. I'm on the leg now so it shouldn't need more than 7 more repeats, less if I get impatient and decide to make them shorter ha ha ha.

Well, gotta go, monkeys are trying to escape. Daddy is going out to mow the lawn and they're trying to follow, even though they are still in jammies. Guess I should get them dressed and take them outside.

Knitting injury!

ARRRGGGGG I can't knit!! The last couple weeks I've been getting pains in my wrist and arm when I knit and it has been getting steadily worse. The last few days I would get them after only knitting for 10 minutes. I consulted the ladies on my knitting board and the general concensus was that I'm experiencing carpel-tunnel-like symptoms and need to rest my wrist, ice it, and wear a brace. I got a brace today and that helped, the ice did a bit too. I did 2.5 rounds on my socks this morning and my wrist was screaming so I'm going to try to not knit at all for a couple days. I have my knitting night on Wednesday so hopefully I'll be able to knit then. My socks are screaming for me though! See how pretty. . .



Toe up monkey socks in knitpicks imagination, colorway "wicked witch" OMG I love this yarn. It's my new favorite sock yarn. Of course I say that about every new sock yarn LOL. But this is so soft and yummy and georgeous colors. my only complaint is the yarn is a bit hairy, as it is alpaca, but I can live with that for the softness. I also have the "looking glass" colorway, and I want to get pixie dust and damsel, but they're out of stock until September. They're on my wish list though, as soon as they have them back in stock I'm ordering, along with some of their kettle dyed yarn that is be-e-a-utiful. They have a purple that is SO me!! :-)

I'm going to try to rest my wrist as much as I can for next week--we're doing a knitting olympics on my knitting board. I've signed up for the sock put, the hand dyed hurdles, and the work in progress wrestling. I hope to get one or two pairs of socks done plus finish at least my pinwheel sweater (just need to rip out the sleeve I don't like and do both sleeves the way I want) then maybe a few other WIP's like Brendan's socks, Meg's afghan (no chance of finishing that in the alloted time though unless I ONLY did that) and these toe up socks if they aren't done by then, which at this rate they won't be. ::::::sigh::::::: I was making good progress on them too, and they are sooooooo pretty!! Since typing and painting also hurt (I've been painting identification signs for my veggie garden, stenciled lettering, cute and whimsical) I've been catching up on my reading. I have several Nora Roberts books I got for super cheap ($1 for 3 books!) at the library and haven't read them yet. At least it will give me something to do when I'm not chasing the kids or taking someone (dog or human!) potty or fixing one of a billion snacks or cleaning one of 3 billion messes each day :-) I do love my kids though. Really.

I'm also going to do some stamping, gotta get something crafty done! Mom and I are having an open house for our Stampin' Up! stuff in a couple weeks. Gotta get ready for that.

Well, starting to hurt, going to sign off this 'puter and put the brace on and go to bed. Good night!

Sock tutorial, bind off and finishing.

Sorry this took so long to post! Life has been busy. So has my knitting, I've been working on WAY too many projects! Anyway, here is the final part of the sock tutorial, the bind off and finishing. Sorry about the picture quality, we need to buy a new camera battery charger so these were taken with my cell phone. Gotta love technology!

Here they are, finished and ready to bind off. I got lazy and decided to make them short.

First, knit/rib across the first sock, this leaves it in better position to bind off without having to stop the bind off mid-sock to move to the other one. One sock will have 1/2 row more stitches than the other, but I promise it won't be noticeable.

Here I am introducing a 3rd needle. I'm using a size bigger to do the bind off because I tend to bind off tightly. There are also a few other types of bind offs that are stretchier, I recently tried the sewn bind off from Knitty.com and I like that one too. For these socks I used a regular bind off though.

I bound off in pattern, my socks were a k3p3 rib so I knit 2, pass first stitch over second, k1, pass, p1, pass, etc. If the stitch below is a purl stitch, I purled. Same for knit stitches. That makes the bind off look more even.

half of one sock is bound off. See that needle 1 only has one sock on it? When you get to the end of the needle, just turn the work and continue working on the other side of the sock. This is why you start the bind off on the second sock. see photo below:

Continue the bind off all the way around. When finished, cut the yarn with a 8" tail and pull the last loop straight through. Do not pull the yarn thru the last stitch, just pull the last stitch all the way out. Then thread it on a needle, pass it under the loops of the first bound off stitch and then back through where it came from, making it look like another stitch. This makes the bind off even all the way around. Weave in ends, I even tie a tiny knot just to be safe but you don't have to if you have sensitive feet because you might feel it.

Now you will have one sock left on the needles. Repeat the bind off and finishing the same way.

Tada!! They're done, they're comfy and they were EASY!!

Don't mind my dog in the photo--that's pretty much her normal position 20 hours a day :-)

If you have any questions, please let me know. Again, please send me photos of your finished socks and I'll post them here for everyone to see how wonderful they are. I hope this tutorial was helpful to you! Happy knitting!

tutorial socks finished! with a catch. . .

and the catch is, they aren't MY tutorial socks! My pair still aren't done, but Brenda finished hers! I think she deserves a prize for finishing before the teacher! And they look GREAT!

According to her blog, http://addictedtodigital.com/knitting/, she used some stash yarn from an etsy seller, the plucky knitter. She added ribbing too. Great job Brenda!

In other knitting news. . . not much happening LOL. I have too many projects going at once (who, me?? GASP! No way! Not ME!) and can't seem to make much headway on any of them. I have about 1/8 of mom's stole done, hoping to have it finished before her surgery sometime next month (Kidney transplant for those of you who don't know). My friend Suna helped me rip back my MILs socks b/c I didn't make the foot long enough and didn't know it until after I had done the heels and started the cuffs. Suna's a champ though, she managed to rip them all back and put them back on the tiny ass size 0 needles without dropping a single stitch or anything! THANK YOU AGAIN!!! :-) Just a few more rows on the foot for those then to re-start the heel. She wants short socks so they should be a quick finish. Then I started socks for my son because I'm not happy unless I'm making 800 things at once. I'm also working on some baby blankets and hats for a lady online who is buying them from me. I finished both blankets, 4 hats to go. Plus my tutorial socks. So, yeah, just a few projects. Oh yeah, also my daughter's envelope afghan, which used to be my car knitting but has been pushed aside for mom's stole. However, I'll need mom's stole before Meg's blanket (we're getting her a big girl bed in September and the blanket is for that) so it's OK.

I just now re-read the paragraph I just wrote. What the hell am I doing on the computer when I have all that knitting to work on?!?! Hubby has the kids outside, it is the perfect opportunity to get some stuff knit but here I sit. Well, not for long my friends. I'm off to try to finish,. . . something! :-)