Mittens accomplished

Need I explain the pun? Mission/mittens accomplished... I know it loses something when you explain it.

Yarn: Lamb's Pride charcoal heather
Needle Size: 4's on ribbing, 6's on body - bamboo dpns
Pattern: The Mitten Wardrobe by Kate Atherley

The only things I changed about the pattern was:

• I did NOT use contrasting colored yarn for the convertible part
  
• I elongated the mitt part as well as the thumb because of the size of the hands that will be using them
  

Other than that, I did everything according to specs, my gauge was right on and I love the pattern. I finished the left one last night but took it to work to weave in the ends during my door duty and lunch. I love how they turned out and hope that DB will love them as much. I think they will be very useful for the boyscout!

I got my Plymouth Fantasy Naturale packages this week. 18 skeins of this yummo pastel colored cotton yarn that drapes so well. It's worsted weightI'm not quite sure what I want to do with it. I was thinking of making DD a blanket for her room, but I'm not sure that 18 skeins would do it. I have some other solids Fantasy Naturale in yellow, salmon, black, purple, light blue and tan... .maybe I could combine them into a log cabin somehow.

On my porch today waiting for me when I got home was an ebay package containing a set of wool carders. I have to say they are like new! And work great (Of course I had to try them out... and DD helped!) And a surprise from my friend P. A drop spindle to borrow... So maybe I'll try spinning one of the many rolags before the week is out!

Oh and I got a bag of wool sweaters yesterday from freecycle. Some of them have a couple of moth holes and some others are felted (one pretty heavily) The ones with the few (and I mean few) moth holes I'll try to frog and salvage the wool. The felted ones, I'm going to try to make longies from the sleeves and mittens from the bodies.... we'll see how that goes. Thanks K. again for the sweaters!

OK... off to knit before I turn in for the night. (just waiting for the diapers to dry!)

happy crafting

Where did the vacation time go???

It went so fast. I was barely ready to return to work today and actually the kids at school took a bit to wake up as well. It wasn't until the afternoon that I felt like I was running on all cylinders and my classes seemed to be the same way.

So where did the time go? Well of course we had Thanksgiving Dinner. We hosted the family. There were only 11 of us. The menu was:

• Picado - cheese, hummus, crackers, olives, mozzerella balls, all the pickin's you could want
  
• Turkey (for those that eat meat... all the le=ftovers were sent home with those folks as well!)
  
• Stuffing (Ditto)
  
• Hash Brown potato casserole - a family favorite
  
• Aunt Roberta's Sweet Potato Casserole - so rich and tasty
  
• Corn casserole - similar to a South American dish I remember from my first trip there
  
• Chinese noodle salad - my sister in-laws specialty
  
• Rolls (which of course I forgot because they were in the side table on the warmer...)
  
• Long necked squash
  
• Steamed broccoli - these last 2 were particularly for the baby
  
• Pumpkin mousse pie
  
• Apple crisp - DH's best!
  
• Apple cranberry pie
  
• Chocolate pecan pie
  

I was truly stuffed and barely ate on Friday as well.

Friday was a blur... I knit the snowmen cloths. We worked a bit outside on some decorations and DH and the older two went downtown to see the lights turn on. We were going to make it a family affair, but the baby decided to take a late nap and sleep through the whole thing, so I stayed home to watch him.

Saturday we picked out a tree at Unangst tree farm. All of the concolors were too tall for our house so we had to settle on a Douglas. It has a nice shape and I think we'll be pleased. It's still in the bucket on the front porch much to DD's chagrin. The day was beautiful. Warm, sunny and clear. Perfect for tree hunting! Of course we had to go on the obligatory hayride to suit the older two. We usually cut down our tree but since we found one already cut we decided to take that without the extra work.
DH also made reservations for us to ride the horse drawn sleigh downtown. DD had gotten the idea into her head earlier on Friday, but the tickets were all sold out. So he promised we'd go on Saturday. It's a beautiful ride through town and particularly nice when the sun is going down and the lights are on. This is probably the only picture of my family you'll see on the blog. I just couldn't resist because it's such a good one of all of the ones I hold dear to my heart. Just a shame I'm not in the picture or we'd use it for our Christmas card. I also love the colors of the sun going down in the background. Such a gorgeous evening.

And here's a shot of the tree by the City Library. It's always a huge one. Downtown is so pretty with all the candles in the windows and the old fashioned street lamps and little trees on every post with little lights... I love this town at Christmas. We started 1 batch of cookies tonight with a small disaster, but everyone is OK.

Sunday we went to visit a dear friend who moved to Moosic. It was an intimate gathering with lots of good food and conversation. Such fun!

And Monday, we shopped for more cookie supplies. Poor DH had to work so it was just the kids and myself. He got home feeling rather punk so took a nap. After dinner I went to my friend's to spin. I haven't spun in ages (since the first time Oct 20, 2006)... and I have a picture of the result of that first ever try at the wheel.

It's from the Peace Fleece roving I bought a while back on ebay. The color is Chickie Masla. Really thick and thin. But it's a start. Last night I spun some Cotswold. The staple was about 6 inches and incredible... I didn't even card it. WHen I picked it I was sure to lay the staple with all the fibers facing the same direction and I spun directly from that. FINALLY, I think I'm getting the hang of it. I was spinning for over 2 hours and did 1 bobbin. But wow it was so cool. The yarn is still at my friend's house but I'll post a picture so you can compare and see if I've improved.

DH is considering purchasing a spinning wheel for me for Christmas... I'm trying to not get too excited about it... But it would be so very cool

OK.. off to hopefully finish the mate to the convertible mitten so I can cast on the Panta and do some more cloths. I've acquired quite the collection of dishcloth patterns... and I'm loving the thought of making each one!

happy crafting

4 down, 6 to go

Well today I did 2 snowman cloths for DDs teachers. When DH asked how many I was making. I told him 10... he asked about the gymnastic teachers for the boys.... So I guess I'll have to add to my list.... it never ends!

Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
color: White
Needle size: 7
Pattern: Snowman by Carol Callaway knitted kitty dishcloth group

I finished a second snow crystal on the day before Thanksgiving. Kind of miraculous, considering we hosted 11 for dinner, AND I had to do the shopping on Wednesday evening as well.

I'll cast on another tonight before I shut my eyes, but I think this time I'll do the illusion snowflake from last January's Monthly Dishcloth KAL... and if I like it enough, I'll do three of them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I finished 2 of the November KALs of cloths that I started. Both with a Christmasy feel :-) I love that I did them in red and green too!It's been very hectic at my house and at work, so I've not been holding needles as much as I'd like!

The first one finshed:

Yarn: Lily Sugar and Cream
Color: green
Needle Size: 7
Pattern: Melissa Burnham

And the second:

Yarn: LIly Sugar and Cream
Color: red
Needle Size: 7
Pattern: Susan Mrenna

Hopefully I'll have more pictures to post tomorrow.. I'll sit and knit while my company visits as much as possible
Have a great holiday.

One down, one to go

The mitten has been reknitted and I'm now happy with the size.

Here it is modeled by my DH in the closed position.

This is the backside with the top down! For when the fingers need a bit of air, or need to be used.

Now to do the other one.

My bobbles on the Monthly Dishcloth KAL are coming out great. I think I know what it is. Seasonal to say the least. Glad I chose red... although I think a certain shade of pink or pink varigated could also have looked as nice as red or maroon.

I've finished felting the initials into the MacBook cozy and sewed the button on. It's ready to give now... just have to wait for Christmas. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Yarn: Recycled wool from a sweater I bought at the Boutique at the Rink Sale Heavy worsted weight, double stranded

Pattern: My own. I'll post it if I have requests, but really you still have to do the math after you felt your swatch to see what your shrinkage is. Especially since the size of the finished object is so crucial.

Needle size: 10.5 Circular. I started at the bottom with dpns, then magic looped it as soon as I could.
Roving for felting: Peace Fleece Firebird Orange

My nephew, the recipient of this bag, is one of the geek squad but his first initial is also G. So it works both ways. He loves the flyers so the orange and black work too... for both the Flyers and the Geek Squad. DH thinks he's gonna love it. I hope so!

Speaking of Peace Fleece. I sold the 2 skeins of Buffalo Brownski to WAHmama who makes wool diaper covers. She had a custom slot to fill and needed that color and didn't have it. Since I did, I offered it up. It would have been a bit before I got around to using it, so why not? DH was happy to see some skeins leave since they are usually coming in the door instead!

OK... have lots of work to do so this post is a short one.
Happy crafting everyone!

Falling Off the Wagon

I've done it... bought more yarn. I couldn't resist the price from an ebay auction. I bought 8 skeins of WW and 4 skeins of sport weight Peace Fleece for $45 including shipping. Of course, I shouldn't be celebrating yet, the seller forgot to include one of the skeins of the WW
Colors Left to Right are: WW - Glastnost Gold, Zarya Fog, Buffalo Brownski, Grassroots and on the bottom the SW- Sakhalin Salmon. MIssing is 1 skein of Moldova Burgundy. I'm still waiting to hear back from the seller.


I've been busy working on dish-face cloths for gifts et al. While waiting for DD at her dance class yesterday, I finished another snowflake cloth for one of the many of DDs teachers (I need to make 10 total) I started a couple of KAL cloths, but find myself falling behind. After dance (and the obligatory lunch with one of her friends), we walked around downtown because many of the stores were participating in the 12 Days of Christmas. There were 12 drummers drumming outside the Hotel Bethlehem, 11 pipers piping in front of Donegal Square, 3 hens outside Tortilla Flat, 9 ladies dancing in front of the Ballet Guild - where dd studies, 8 (well really only 1) maids a milking a real cow at the Heavenly Hedgehog Ice Cream store. They were giving out got mild stickers, tablets and bracelets and little cow erasers. DD LOVED that. Thank you Barbara! Other stores had the decorations in their window fronts, but no live fowl or persons. It was bustling and lots of fun. The weather was cooperating in the Christmasy feeling as well. No snow, but cold and damp. Then we were treated to a ride on a bicycle carraige back to our car. We have a fun time out!

While we were out, I stopped at my LYS to ask a question about the mittens. The answer didn't really help, but I figured it out myself last night. It wound up looking like this, which looks OK, but will never fit! The mitten part is even too short on me, so even though I'm very happy with my kitchener closing (not called for in the pattern, but I thought would look nicer than just cinching the 10 stitches together) I decided to rip the whole thing back and redo the mitten part. I'm going to have to trust my instincts since I have no numbers as to the length that I need.

I made the thumb larger than the pattern as well... Made it a bit too long for my own thumb. I think it should be the perfect length for DB

As you can see here, the mitt part long enough for the length of the thumb. Hopefully I'll finish it tonight.. then of course I have the other one to do. I think mittens should have their own syndrome like 2nd sock syndrome LOL

I also purchased something else, but I'll wait until the whole load comes in.... you know me the bargain shipper that can't resist a bargain.

I bought 10 inch bamboo dpns from ebay as well. 12 sets in sizes from 2.25mm to 10 mm. I'm thrilled cuz I can put a bead on the ends if I want to use them as straights and the longer size is better for the cloths. :-)

I'm a happy yarnaholic at least

Slacking off

I haven't been up to much knitting. The kids have been sick. But I have worked on the convertible mitten (only 1 so far) an the necktie that wants to be a sock! (lol) I finished one of the cloths for DD to give as a gift (though not perfect)

Sugar n Cream White
needle size: 5 mm
Pattern: Knitwits Heaven Snow Crystal 1
I would change a few things about the pattern. This time when I'm making it, I'm reducing the number of rows between the border and the start of the pattern and I'm also reducing the needles size. The pattern calls for Bernat Handicrafter yarn so I don't know if perhaps it's a heavier weight yarn or not. But at any rate, I like a tighter cloth, so it's an easy fix.

And the Dishcloth fun KAL aka Gary the Gobbler

Sugar n Cream Jute
needle size: 7
Pattern: Rhonda White

Here's a picture of the progress of the convertible mitten. I've decided that I'll never make gloves... unless I really love that person. (That would be for you honey!)
The tricky part for me right now is knitting the mitten part. I picked up the stitches and cast on the rest, but noticed when I started the ribbing that the pattern calls for that I was knitting it inside out, but unintentionally. So I ripped everything out and tomorrow while DD is at dance, I'll start again!






The MacBook Cozy has finished felting and is awaiting the needle felting of my nephews initials in BRIGHT orange roving from Peace Fleece I really love that stuff... the yarn, the roving, the idea behind it all. Gives me warm fuzzy feelings to use it too!. I'll post another picture when it's complete with all the details.

OK... off to knit. I'm way behind on my dishcloth KALs (like 3 behind already ...ooops) hopefully I'll do some catching up this weekend.

Happy Crafting!

More projects OTN

Well I swatched for my oldest brother's gift after FINALLY deciding what to make him. My gauge is right on :-) It's Lamb's Pride in heather gray. I'm planning on making him convertible mittens which hopefully will be perfect when he's out camping with his boy scouts. The swatch was so tiny. I only cast on 21 stitches and did it in the round as was called for in the pattern. It would make a good start for a top down turtleneck for a beanie bay or something...



DH's tie is finally making some progress. The picture I have of it is still small. The poor thing has been frogged at least 10 times.. I was beginning to think that my name was Penelope. I decided to put some horizontal stripes in in a reverse linen stitch. And do the stockinette in a Fibonacci sequence. Hope it turns out looking OK and not too geeky.

Thought I'd post some other FOs so mom can see them. This is one hat that I've made for a crazy friend. I hand painted the wool for the dredlocks from the wool that I made the hat with.

Dredlock hat
yarn: Kraemer's Mauch Chunky
color: butternut
pattern: Hip to Knit


and this is part of my niece's gifts. Her dishes are purple, white and black. (I didn't know about the black when I made them though)

Yarn: Plymouth Fantasy Naturale
Needle size: 8
Pattern: Free from Lion Brand yarn co

I have to say I really like this cotton yarn. It's 100% mercerized cotton. Has a nice sheen and drape. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the Plymouth Yarn Co is nearby my hometown. So one day when I'm visiting you mom, I'll have to make a factory stop and see what I can pick up... hehehehe

Still waiting to hear on my friend Anne. She was supposed to give birth last Tuesday. If you're reading this Anne, give me a holler and let me know how you are!

The MacBook cozy for my dear nephew has now finished felting.. so it's drying and then the needle felting will begin. Hopefully there'll be a picture of it to post this week.

I've joined yet another dishcloth KAL group, as if 4 isn't enough.

And I've started the never ending gift making for DD's teachers. I have soaps all in Christmas themes (mostly snow) so I'll make cloths to coordinate with them and wrap the soap in for her to give.

Oh and my mom's gift has finally be decided on... what and with what yarn.. but I can't post that til after Christmast cuz I know she reads the blog!

happy crafting this week!

More completed cloths

Last night I was up in the wee hours of the morning finishing 2 of the 4 KAL cloths I had on the needles.
The first finished:

Yahoo KAL Group: Mary Knitting and Crochet Corner

Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream

Color: Potpourri Ombre

Needle Size: 7

I think the pattern fro this cloth came off the Rainy Kimbrough's Dishcloth site. If not, it's very similar to her teddy bear pattern!

And the second cloth finished last night:

Yahoo KAL Group: Knitting_and_Crochet_Fun

Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream

Color: Red

This was Tina's own pattern. I think it's cute.

Both these groups run KAL and CAL. They have lots of other stuff going on as well like some kind of Bingo, a mystery box and exchanges. Right now I'm too swamped with work, home and gifts to knit to participate in the extra stuff as well. Maybe after the holidays when things calm down a bit!

Still waiting on the last rows of the Dishcloth Fun KAL... I have my suspicions what it is, but I won't give it away!

I have to take a picture of the shirt DD painted two weekends ago. It's still sitting on the back porch table waiting for me! Poor kid isn't feeling well today. She's napping on the couch right now which is highly unusual for her to do any day. I think I may have passed my bug on to her.

Last night DH and I went to the Wired Cafe for coffee and dessert. We each had a 20 oz coffee... HUGE cups! More like a soup bowl than a cup of coffee. Mine was a latte and his a mocha. Coffee was great, desert not. Maybe I just had a bad piece but it definitely wasn't worth the calories. Of course, it was dinner, but still.....

Yesterday I also stopped at Michael's with my 50% off coupon and got the Stitch 'N Bitch Nation. Hope between the two books I haven't depleted all the patterns in their daily calendar (which I bought a while back... can't wait to start using it!) Hopefully it will hip up my knitting.

I have some more surprises coming in the mail, but I'll wait til they come to tell you about them.

Happy Crafting

YEA!

I'm back with my own little silver computer... the adapter arrived in today's mail. That was enough to make a really crummy day turn around.

We had a fire alarm go off today at school while the kids were coming in. My 2 sons were still with me and it was raining to boot. We had to get the kdis that had already arrived at school out and direct the ones coming to the safe area. What a mess! Fortunately nothing was on fire. It was a false alarm set off by steam from the gym shower. Wierd thing is the same thing happened about 15 years ago. You would think they would have fixed it then, but no not my school!

Anyway, I have pictures to post of the Monthly Discloth KAL Surprise, surprise. It's a turkey. I really love doing these. So much in fact that on the needles are 3 others from other KALs that I joined. One will be a ladybug, the other I think is another turkey and the last I have no clue, but can't wait to finish it! I finally used one that I made tonight when I did the dishes... I'll never go back!

Yarn used: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream - Brown
Needle size: 7
Link to pattern


I also have some pics of some WIPs

The Never Ending Poncho
My own conglomerate aran pattern
Needle: 10.5 Addl Turbo
Yarn: Crudo wool from Argentina

My wonderful MIL brought me a kilo last Christmas. I'm loving it. It's really squishy.. Heavy worsted weight. Whenever it gets finished it will be such a great poncho!




My nephews MacBook cozy... I haven't worked on it much since the adapter problem since my figures were on the laptop. I'll have to get cracking again. Once again this is my own pattern.



So many gifts left to make and the time is ticking away. Hope I'm not burning to much midnight oil as the big day approaches.


Happy Crafting

On and Off the Needles

I finished the Monthly Dishcloth KAL and would post a picture, but I'm still not on my own computer.
4 cloths was the most i ever had going at the same time... not to mention my 3 other UFOs that are on the needles.
I really need my 'puter back so I can finish that computer cozy. As each day passes I become more and more frustrated.

I have to take a picture of DD's shirt that she made too.

well it's late and I'm snoozing at the keyboard. Guess I should hit the proverbial hay.

happy crafting!

Showing off previous FOs

I decided that since I don't want to upload pictures to DHs computer I'd transfer a few photos of some FOs that I have finished already for Christmas here. I won't post who they are for, just in case, but I'll give you the details of how they were made.


This is the Wavy scarf from Knitty.com I changed the color to a more gender neutral one. And I shortened the length up a bit to make it less bulky under a coat.
Lamb's Pride by Brown Sheep Co
Sandy Heather
just shy of 2 skeins
size 7 needles









This wine cozy is also from knitty.com.
I used an unknown branded wool bought from eBay. It was light worsted weight so I double stranded
The woman selling the wool had a lot of green colors and I thought hmmm felting. From which I also made 2 purses, the
Sophie Bag, which can be seen here and this is my own version of Suki for my SIL. It's shorter than the original pattern, uses no novelty yarn and has only one handle so it can be worn across the chest or over the shoulder. SIL had very specific desires and I wanted it to be exactly the way she wanted it. Fortunately, she loves it. :-)
And the last one (until my charger comes)

Little Turtle Knits felted slippers.
Peace Fleece Georgian Rose and Mir-Atlantis Periwinkle
My gauge was dead on, but the slippers run small in length and wide. I'll need to gift them to someone other than for whom they were intended.

FRUSTRATIONS or one BAD apple!

A vent


I may not be posting pictures for a week or so. The AC adapter to my PowerBook caught on fire on Monday. Nothing serious, but I can't recharge the battery ... which is a problem as you can imagine. When I talked to Apple on Monday they assured me that they would send out a new one overnight. Well here it is Wednesday and still no adapter. So when I called them again today to find out where it was, I was told that it could be 7 to 10 days until I receive it. Aparently, they are 'backordered' on the AC adapters for the 12 inch PowerBook. My question is of course, do they have that many problems with the AC adapter to that computer???

Of course this has only added to the frustration I feel with this company. First, late in the summer the original battery for the laptop was out of power while it was still showing 78% power. Of course, no one at the service department could help me and they as much as blamed me for poor battery usage. I wound up purchasing a new battery for the laptop only to find out about a month later that the particular battery in question was being recalled. So great, I get a new battery, after just purchasing a brand new battery... will they just refund my purchase price? Of course not!

Then just this week while waiting for a refund check for an iPod we purchased with the back to school program (free nano with the purchase of a qualifying Apple computer....DH got a MacBook) mail comes from ACI. YEA! I'm thinking. Wait, oh no. You don't qualify... you've surpassed the 30 days since purchase... HUH? Nothing was said about filing before 30 days of purchase date. Only file before Sept 30... SO I mail it from the postoffice Sept 29... When I called Apple today about this, they claim that it was postmarked Oct 2.... Yea Right! To put the thoughts in this blog that are currently running through my mind would make it a non-family friendly blog. Suffice it to say that Apple Computer Inc. is now at the top of my fecal roster and it will be a cold day in h**l before I purchase another of their products. Angry just doesn't begin to describe how I feel.