Last post of 2008

This is going to be a quick post with no exciting links or pics. Yesterday we returned from our trip to visit family for Christmas. I got to see my beautiful niece, I ran into a cousin I hadn't seen fro 5 years, and my kids got to play in the snow. It was magical experience for them. Actually the 18yo was plenty tired of the white stuff after he spent the good part of the day shoveling driveways abd walks for my parents and then some neighbors.

As the year winds up and I look at what things we have done as a family and me personally.

I hope that friends (cyber and IRL) and family have a happy healthy new year.

Final Knit Christmas Presents

Being the lazy sort. I copied my post from the Holiday KAL/CAL and posted it here too. Okay maybe i'm not lazy, maybe I am using my time wisely....


My latest gifts.....

The Caroline Bag a Christmas present for my mother. She likes pockets so I lined the bag and added a bunch of pockets to the inside.

The Felted Clogs Are for my mother-in-law. I took this picture before I sewed the suede bottoms on. After I sewed them on I wrapped them up and forgot to take a picture of the finished project.

Having "sew" much fun

Sunday evening I pulled out the sewing machine to work on a a project for the swim team. The team captains wanted the coaches names embroidered on some deck chairs, for a coaches gift. I do my machine embroidery free hand and the results are not always polished perfect,, but after taking off the cover and practicing a bit I think the chairs turned out well. They are now with the team captains ready for their presentation tonight at the awards banquet. I will try and take a picture tonight.

Between loads of laundry yesterday I was able to fit in a baby quilt. It is actually more crib size. I fell in love with the fabric when I saw it put together at my local quilt shop. After the top was put together a couple of months ago I wasn't as in love with it as I wanted to be.
My dh informed me last week that his office was going to have a baby shower for one of his co-workers. I pulled out the top dug through the stash for batting and a back. " ta-daa" a very cheery, sunny, bright baby quilt.


I most excited because I didn't have to make any trips to the store to finish it. thank heavens for the fabric stash.

Is selfless knitting selfish?

Yeah its December....am I ready for the Holidays? Not quite. NEver have been cokpletely ready. As Chirstmas draws closer, iusually throw my hands up in the air and say to everyone around me, "What doesn't get done, doesn't get done and its okay."
It didn't make it to the Charity Knit Night at TempeYarn and Fiber like I wanted to. I did take in a bunch of hats for the donation box.

My contributions:


And,


My new favorite hat pattern is the Boy Hat. I'm not the fastest knitter so this is good for me.
Not pictured were two crocheted preemie hats. This charity knitting is in part due to the Year-Long Gift-A-long group on Ravelry. The Quarterly Challenge was to pick a Charity and knit for it. I chose a local chapter of Project Linus, and wanted to focus on items for preemies. There was a need for bigger items as well. I find the charity knitting to lift my spirits when I am down, and resolve to always have something on the needles for a charity.

Ravelry Purse Swap

It has been a busy month and the blog is overdue for an update. 

I participated in the "Holiday Purse Swap" over on Ravelry . I had sent the package I had put together to my swap partner, in Texas, and she sent me one in return

Here is what arrived at my house on Monday afternoon.

Everything unwrapped, I will admit something just seemed wrong about opening "presents" before Christmas

Thank you swap partner, I seem to get the best swap partners . 

My dd had fun with the package too. "We Heart bubble wrap."

life unraveling around me...

......or how Meghan from the Stitchit podcast started me down the path of reclaiming/recycling/repurposing yarn from thrift store sweaters.

It isn't very easy to find 100% wool sweaters in the thrift stores of Arizona. I imagine most people who live here are like me, they found a sweater the liked years ago and because it only gets cold enough here one or two months a year to actually wear a sweater...the sweaters hardly get used and last forever.

I did find a little gem of a sweater. A jCrew brand Cotton/ Cashmere/nylon blend. All the seams were sewn not serged, and picking the seams apart was a real dream have all but the back frogged washed and skeined up. I have an urge to knit a hat and scarf combo out of this soft stuff. Now I just need some time

Latest KAl/Cal Entry

Here are some finished gifts and my latest entries into Yarn Thing and Knaked knits podcasts Holiday KAl/Cal

Top L: Frosty Morning Fingerless Gloves for my niece; R- Magical Fingerless Mitts from Sheknits.com. for #2 son
Bottom L: Cabled Footies from the book One Skein ;R- Men's Toe-up Work Sock with a Twist for my dad.

Creepy Cute

I love the book Creepy Cute Crochet by Christen Haden.  All the patterns are basically the same boddy , head and arms.  How you detail them is what gives each creature its unique personality.  I am "hooked" on amigarumi any way.  Above is picture the Ninja and Cthulhu.  Time permitting I am wanting to make the bride and groom.  

Sign me up

I'm such a joiner, now I have to wait and see if they will let me in the 2008 Holiday KAL/CAL

Off my needles #1 sock from the Ram club kit August order.  The men's toe-up work sock with a twist.  I am really enjoying the pattern and knitting with the yarn.  YOu knit the pattern with two different yarn held together and worked as one.  For a ginormous foot...it is going pretty quickly.  I learned the Sewn bind off the other night as I bound off the sock...pretty cool!  I'm one sock closer to completing Socktoberfest

Fetchin' some yarn

On Ravelry I posted a picture of the Fetching I made.  I didn't care for the thumb in the pattern so I "riffed " put in a gusset.  Here are the changes I made:

After the third cable twist on the cuff,  ( K 4 p1) four times, K2,pm, m1, pm k2, p1, (k4,p1)four times

( K 4 p1) four times, k5, p1, (k4,p1)four times

( K 4 p1) four times, K2, sl marker, m1, k1,m1, slip marker k2, p1, (k4,p1)four times

( K 4 p1) four times, k7, p1, (k4,p1)four times

then continued in that manner increasing between the stitch markers every other row until I had 15 stitches between the markers. On the row after finishing the increses I put the stitches between the markers on waste yarn,, finished the rest of the hand as written in the pattern. Picked up the thumb stitches knit four rounds before binding off  I’m going to try incresing eveythird row on the next pair. With the Malabrigo 15 stitches makes for a big thumb

A Knitting Blog?

Im not sure if this is a knitting blog or a place for me to babble-write. So for some knitting content today.

On the Needles

Toe-up Work Sock With a Twist from the Unique Sheep Ram Sock Club. A lot of firsts for me.

• first sock club
  
• first toe-up sock
  
• first short row toe
• loving the yarn and pattern its what is distracting my from....

Hemlock Ring #2 pattern by Jared Flood aka Brooklyn Tweed.
It is the second time I have knit this blanket.  

 yarn: is Cascade 220

Color: Lake Chatelaine

Needle: #8US

I am using the Jared's chart that has symbols and stitch counts added which is available along with the errata for row 35 on the Rainey Sisters Weblog.  Its golden

I started this as an informal KAL with Coggietm and Sydney .

I hope to get better at inserting links and adding buttons as I learn more about the blog.

Happy Yarn Thing Swap!!!!!!!

My package from my swap partner came today. She read my questionaire, looked at my ravelry profile ( I didn't have a blog when this swap started)

Coggietm totally rocks as a swap partner. My goodies include: Lovely Hand dyed Alpaca with a Twist Fino Lace yarn (dyed in my favorite colors by Coggie herself) with beads and a pattern for the snowdrop shawl. An “I knit” mirrored compact, coffee, a yummy desert mix, a sock blocker key chain and some hilarious postcards. She wisely chose to not send chocolates, being that it is still almost 100 degrees outside they would have melted all over the place.

this was a wonderful surprise to come home to . Thank you Coggietm

Almost forgot. She also sent me a Ravelry button personalized with my favorite ravatar

Saturday Swim

I spent a good part of Friday and Saturday selling Gatorade, Sodas, snacks healthy and not so healthy, to Coaches, swimmers, divers and spectators. Our HS hosted the mother of all swim meets this weekend. It was fun. I didn't get to see much swimming, but I enjoyed with the other parents from the "swim and dive boosters", and meet some of the other coaches from around AZ and the country.

There were over 800 swimmers and 97 divers from 30 schools. One school came from Mercer Island, Washington.

I did get to see my son swim in his one event the 100m breast stoke. Here is is taking off in his heat. He is the one in the middle with the longer jammers, the suit that looks like bicycling pants. He did pretty well knocked a second off his best time.

No knitting was done of course. I had a hat on needles waiting in my backpack for a quiet moment. But quiet moment never lasted long enough to take it out.

Tomorrow Peach jam.

Carry on.....

Today is the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 plane hijackings, which ended by jets crashing into the World trade Center , Pentagon building and a field in Pennsylvania and the deaths of many people. I play over in my head the happenings of that morning, what I was doing where we were going, and feeling like I just wanted to gather my kids around me and hold them tight.

What learned from this event and has been reaffirmed to me on various occasions is that life does go on, and it is up to me to carry on.

Other things I learned:
*Hug my family members everyday, tell them I love them. Following those words up with actions that also show that I care about them
*Honor those I have known and loved, who have passed away, through my actions in how I treat others, volunteer for activities I know that they would have supported
*Have fun! Find joy and beauty in every day and little things.
*Sometimes it is better to play with your kids than it is to have a perfectly clean house.
*Turn the television off.

Today while I go about my activities I will think about those events that happened seven years ago. I will pray for the families of those who lost loved ones that day, and I will carry on.

Monday thoughts

On Ravelry one of my most favorite forums is the She-Knits Podcast Group. For each day there generally is a thread titled "Small Talk". On this thread people post about what they are doing that day, knitting, jobs. We share good news and bad, We offer support and cheer each other on. Its my virtual knitting circle. I have even met other knitters from this group in real life. It's a pretty neat group of knitters/crocheters/ tatters

Most days Sharon (aka She-Knits) starts the thread with a thought, quote or question. For Monday Sept 8th these are the questions she posted

Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you
done it?
Or you can take the lightweight question,
If you could keep your
own brain but experience what it is like to be someone else for a day who would
it be?

It was easy to answer the first question. The second on was a little more difficult. I tend to empathize with other, my friends and family , a little to easily. When they are having problems and trials , my heart aches for them. I know I don't have the strength to be any of them for a day. The quick answer to this question is my 4yo dd. She is full of joy, wonderment and unconditional love. She is a fun kid, and makes me laugh all day. I would like to be her and see how she does it. I need a little more joy , wonderment and ability to love uncondtionally. This question is one I need to think about a little more today

I had hopes of posting projects today but got a little behind in my schedule. Maybe later.

Gellin' Monday Blues

Today is Labor Day. Devoted to honoring the working people who fought for fair labor practices in this country. My 17 yo son an I have spent the monring assembling the "thing" he is going to use to ask a young lady to homecoming.



The idea is to put everything in a fishbowl and pour in blue colored gelatin. There is a note in the silver tin with a poem in it asking her to the dance. He wrote another poem that tells her to dig to the bottom of the deep blue see to find the treasure, I think we are going to wrap that poem around the large red gem looking peice of glass seen in the picture.

This is the third time I have tried to get this set up to work. So far everything is staying on the bottom...now I am just waiting to see if the gelatin will set up. If it doesn't work this time......He's gotta do something else.

What I love about the blog...

1. I can share my thoughts with the blog. It will not look at me with a glazed-over look in its eyes, tell me I'm wrong, or eat all the food in the refrigerator

2. I can show pictures to the blog. It does not ask me for 10 replicas of the project for all of its little friends.

3. I am learning new things about the blog. Ways to make it pretty. How to organize it and how to share.

4. I feel accountable for what I say or type on the blog. Prjects started and shared on the blog must be finished eventually.

I really like the blog. I have kind of learned to post links correctly, add buttons, and gadgets. For now though I will keep the blog simple.

On the needles today: I am obsessing about making a throw for my brother's mother-in-law. The obsession comes from buying the yarn several months ago.....and now not being able to find it. I hate it whan that happens. I was going to make her a Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood, from some lovely alpaca blend yarn. I really want to find that yarn..arrrgh!

I am going to look a little more and if I can't find it I will settle down with my Monkey socks

WIPs for Wednesday

On the needles is my first try at Cooky A's Monkey sock pattern





The yarn is Knitivity Down Home Art Yarns sock yarn

Also onthe needle is the beggining of a blanket for the Stitch it Podcast Listeners' Charity Blanket Group-West Coast. The theme for this blanket is Falling Leaves/ Autumn. I am using Vanna's Choice in Dusty Green the stitch pattern is a cable called leaves and vines and is addapted from a wash cloth pattern.

Socks

Okay back from picking up the kids from school.

Turquoise Sugar Socks

Pattern: Sugar Maple by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Size: woman's Med for Janett
Needle: US 1 / 2.25 mm
Yarn: Fibranatura Yummy
Purchased at The Fiber Factory in Mesa, AZ

20th anniversary = cast aluminum?

Twenty years ago today I became Mrs. dnaprice. To this day my DH is one of my best friends and still pakes my heart skip a beat when he smiles at me. Because money is tight and needed for neccessitites we decided not to sspend alot of oney on a big celebration. I looked on the internet and the 20th wedding anniversary is the platinum or emerald. platinum is definitely not in the budget. My husband loves his cast iron cookware, he has several Dutch ovens and skillets. I also know he likes scones. My anniversary present to him was a cast aluminum scone pan and some yummy scones.

Here are some pictures of FO's and entered into the Yarn Thing and SheKnits Summer KAL/CAL.

Here is my first Dumpling bag, a kit purchased from Sharon, and socks.

Socks to be posted later

Starting as I mean to go on.

Yes.... its another hobby blog by a mom/knitter/quilter

I have been wanting to start a blog. Shirrell, from Belle of the Ball podcast fame, started something that has encouraged me to do so. A contest. I can't resist a contest, especially fun ones.

On a recent podcast Shirrell had mentioned the New Year podcast by Brenda Dayne for which the theme was "Start as you mean to go on." I think of this saying on those days when things don't start out right. You know what I mean. Those days when everyone gets up late, they're crabby,and moving s-o-o-o s-l-o-o-w , I usually end up these mornings in psycho-mom mode. After I get the kids off to school and have a few moments to breathe, I know that I should have approached this day better. "starting as I mean to go" is becoming my daily mantra

I may not post frequently and participles might possibly be dangling all over the place. Knitters are forgiving people.

next post: If I can figure my way around the program pictures will be posted and more info on life in the Valley of the Sun