Friday, January 30, 2009

Monkey Socks and Muffins

I finished my dd's pair of "Micro Monkey Socks" . It is a downsized version of Cookie A's Monkey Socks. She loves them and in fact wore them for two days in a row (ew!). These are made out of the left over yarn from the Be Mine Socks. After a couple days of wear these litle nubs appeared on one of the socks. I was happy that they weren't ruined. A little disappointed in the yarn, but also I realize that this is what wool yarn does, and it is fix-able.



I freaked a little . As I am a novice sock knitter, little things like this do that to me. When I got brave i clipped the pills off. The fabric underneath was still intact, Phew!



I needed 2 dozen muffins for a children's activity tomorrow at the church building. Being the addicts we are in this family, blueberry or bannana-nut was going to do. I knew that I needed to make Chocolate-chocolate chip muffins. I found this recipe on the food network web-site. I think they turned out rather well, better than I evermade with a mix. i doubled the recipe and ended up with 2 dozen regular sized muffins, and 2 dozen mini-muffins.




Yum!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Kind of Whine

I don't know what is is about "Winter" here in the southwest.  The weather has been beautiful, with clear blue skies for most of the week.  Still I feel "antsy".

This morning I baby sat and looked at afghan square patterns. While I did this I downloaded new episodes of my favorite podcasts (see side bar for some of them). After 'synching" my i-pod,  I started to listen toe Doubleknit,  it stop just a few seconds in to the episode.  SO I started listening to Knaked Knits, same thing.  Trashed and then downloaded the episodes again., re-synched my ipod.  I check my i-pod.....no podcasts on there at all.  I'm an addict, I need my podcasts, I have to have them.

Cut to the end. I had to reset my ipod and then go through the long process of reloading my stuff.  

I should quit whining.  At least I have an ipod that works, the sun is out and its a beautiful day today.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

"I'll wear it my way".....

I had started this sweater last August. Plenty of time, I thought , to finish it for A's birthday. Life and knitters add got in the way of finishing. Then the holidays. This weekend I finished it.
During the course of knitting it. I would have A try it on. At one point on the first sleeve I wanted to make sure I was knitting it long enough. A was so worried because she had one long sleeve and the other one was still short. I tried to reassure her that eventually both sleeves would be long. To model the finished item she insisted that one sleeve be rolled up. The other one was fine. I swear that these are both the same length, Silly child.
A's Bolero
Pattern: Children's Neckdown Bolero #275
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-ease in the Azaela colorway.
Needle US # 7 and 6

anna_bolero



I liked the yarn my only problem with it was there were a couple of very small spots where the dye didn't take and the yarn was a little splitty. But all in all it was nice to work with , has a nice drape to it, and is perfect for the climate here in AZ .

This completes 1 of the three goals for the 2009 Year Long Gift Along group Quarterly Challenge.
The quarterly Challenge is to: The projects I have chosen for this challenge are in parentheses next to the requirements.
  1. Finish an UFO that has been lingering (A's sweater)
  2. Start and complete a new project (baby blanket)
  3. Make something for myself (Mr. GreenJeans)

I love the motivation I get from the YGAL Ravelry group. I usually over commit myself, but I have been getting more items and gifts made than I have before.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

First FO's of 2009



Yeah! I finished a pair of socks in two weeks or less. I'm not talking about worsted weight anklet socks . No these are fingering weight, heel flap, gusseted, cabled socks. Unfortunatly I can't get them over my man sized feet...but thay are done. As part of the 2009 Sock Knit Along Group on Ravlery. The first socks of the year had to be pink or red. The specs are

Pattern: Be Mine by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Yarn: Crash into Ewe Jewel Collection with Silver
Colorway: Pink Tourmaline
Size needles us 1.5
They are drying right now and I will take better picture later.

My 5yo dd stsrts up pre-school again today. Though not until this afternoon. I've tried explaining that it doesn't matter how early we eat luch. School still won't start until 12pm. She is dressed and is wearing her backpack already to go, with 3 more hours until it starts. sigh

Sunday, January 4, 2009

A father's love...



My husband is a pretty tolerant, accepting, loving man. Especially when it comes to our daughters. Let me tell you why.....

We went back home to Utah for Christmas, I call this home because it is where both my husband and I were raised and we have lots of family there. A much loved teacher overheard that we were going to visit the SLC area and she told my daughters..."Make sure you go see the school where High School Musical was filmed". The day before we left UT for AZ my dear patient husband took the younger kids to East High and took their pictures. Then he and Grandpa took them to the planetarium in SLC.

While they did this, Mom and I visted 4 of the LYSs in the SLC area. It was a lot of fun. We shopped at:
The Wool Cabin
Kamilles
Three Wishes
Unraveled Sheep
All wonderful very nice shops. They had at least some things that I can't get at my LYSs here in AZ. When I get around to taking pictures of my purchases I will share them

My mom also gave me some fiber. a few ounces of Targhee roving and a handpainted silk cap. Its lovely but I don't know how to spin silk. Time to learn something new.