OTN 11-11-14

Still on the needles....

Eclipse, the never ending knitting project.  Those short rows are so deceiving.  You're knitting along, making decent headway, short row after short row,  when suddenly the short rows are almost the entire width of the wrap and they seem to take an eternity to knit across.  But I am making progress.  Technically, I only have six more rows before knitting the final red stripe & binding off.  Except remember how I goofed on that first green stripe & it's only half the height it's supposed to be?  And remember how I'd planned to repeat that mistake on the opposite side so that I could call it a pattern rather than a mistake?  Yeah, well, I'd sort of forgotten about that.  I do have enough of both yarns left to knit another half repeat.  And that, folks, means I'm no where near as close to finishing it as I thought I was.  It's decision time.  Do I or don't I?  It would look much more symmetrical if I do it.  I like symmetry.  I have enough yarn.  But on the flip side, the Christmas panic is starting to set in.

Good grief!  If I spent as much time knitting as I do whining about how long the knitting process is taking, I'd be almost done by now.

That is a lesson I will probably never learn.

Meanwhile, happy Veteran's Day!  A huge, big, giant THANK YOU! goes out to all the men & women who have served in our military.  While I'll never fully know or understand all the sacrifices they & their families make, I have seen the physical & mental effects of war on men, I have watched military wives function on their own for months & months at a time and I have watched friends grieve for fallen sons & brothers.  You are all in my thoughts & I pray that those on far away soil will return home safely.

63,297

As you might guess from the title, I finished binding off the Wendy Knits Pi shawl.  And yes, my version has 63,297 stitches in it.  I'm a little surprised by that number.  It felt like more.

The pattern was a breeze to knit but it did start to drag on about half way through.  Probably because of all that white.  It wasn't the most stimulating of yarn choices.  I got a little lazy/impatient there at the end & stopped knitting 4 rows short of finishing the pattern's instructions.  But, I do like it.  It was the perfect pattern for that yarn and I can't wait to see it blocked.

The blocking process could get interesting.  I'm not sure I have enough blocking mats.  As is, the shawl measures 44 inches across.  I expect it will grow another 15 - 20 inches in width during the blocking process.  I may have to wait for my husband to go out of town so I can use our bed.  I wouldn't mind spending a night on the couch in the name of pretty lace, but I don't think  the spouse would feel the same.

Here's a close up of a few of the unblocked lace panels.

Okay, so unblocked it looks horrible but I'm still having fun playing with the new camera.

Here's a photo of the yarn when I started.

And here's what's left over.

And because I'm still playing with the camera, here's a photo of my lone daffodil.

What the heck is wrong with me?  I'm southern.  I live in the south.  Why can't I grow a yard full of daffodils?  The neighbors all have them.  The interstate's median looks like a scene from Holland.  My yard?  One daffodil.  One!  Or maybe it's not even a daffodil.  Maybe it's a jonquil.  I'm really not even sure.

Pie

There's been lots of pie in my life lately.  I made a chocolate pie last week that I'd planned to share with you on Friday, but some how, it got eaten before it was photographed.  Darn!  Guess I'll have to make it again.

And then there's been pi.

I have finally started binding off the pi shawl.  It may take me a week to finish.  Good grief, it's got a lot of stitches!  It also doesn't look like much there.  Lace never does look like much until it's been blocked, plus it's sort of in a heap because most of the shawl is still on the needles.

I can't wait to block it.  Actually, I can.  I'm not a big fan of blocking huge, giant lace circles.  But I am super excited to see it after the blocking process when the lace looks like lace instead of a bunch of non-uniform stitches.  I also can't wait to see how big it actually is.

I also wish I knew what I was going to do with it.  As much as I love to knit circular shawls, I'm not a fan of wearing them.  Normally, I'd list it in my Etsy shop but since the pattern isn't mine, that won't be happening.

Meanwhile, in non knitting news...  My daughter got invited to go to Florida for six weeks.  There was a lot of last minute shopping for shorts & sunscreen.  There was a lot of "I'm going to miss you" hugs to share and even more laundry to do.  They pulled out early Monday morning, in the pouring down rain.  A few hours later, we got a call that their transmission had "fallen out" & the car was being towed to a nearby repair shop.  Luckily it turned out to be only a loose hose & nothing too serious.  They were back on the road within a few hours.  I hope the rest of their trip is a little less dramatic.

And even more concerning than my daughter taking off for six weeks....  The bear is awake.  He/she/it came strolling by this morning.  I happened to be out sweeping the porch off when the dogs suddenly came rushing out & began barking.  That's when I looked up & saw it.  Naturally, it was gone before I could get the camera.  So, instead of taking bear photos, I took pictures of Minnie.

She needs to wash her face.

Squirrel!

Nap time.

Knitters Drink

Have you ever noticed how much knitter’s tend to like wine?  I’m no exception.  But I’m not exactly adventurous or knowledgeable when it comes to wine.  I decided to change that.  At least the adventurous part.  Hopefully, the increase in knowledge part will tag along for the ride.   How will I become more adventurous you ask?  One of this year's goals is to try a new wine each month.  

January’s wine was Bully Hill Vineyards Barnyard Red.  And it was good!  Normally I’m not a big fan of reds (something I’d very much like to change) nor am I a big fan of overly dry wine.  Yes, I'm embarrassed to admit that I prefer sweet, Kool Aid type wines.  But although the label said this wine was on the dry side of the spectrum, I thought it was delicious.  It wasn’t Kool Aid, but it was good.  I hope I can get my hands on more.  This particular bottle has been sitting on the rack for over a year, maybe even two.  It was originally purchased from Grapes of Taste, a tiny little local wine store, tucked behind our local post office.  Which may explain why our mail service is so screwy.

If you have any suggestions for which wine I should try next, please share in the comments.

As for the knitting, there’s been basically no progress on the rainbow scarf originally shown in this blog post.   The yarn I needed for a custom order arrived & I traded knitting rainbows for maroon & gold stripes.  Now that the custom order is finished & shipped off, I've moved on to another cowl.  

It's knit in a staggered rib pattern that isn't showing up in the photo.  When finished, the cowl will be reversible & the other side will have a much more textured appearance.  I'm using Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the Winery colorway.  (I really am into wine these days!)  Normally, when I think of Red Heart, I think of that horrible, scratchy, stiff as cardboard, worsted weight acrylic that probably 90% of us learned to knit on.  Nasty stuff!  And it amazes me that those of us who did learn to knit with it, ever continued knitting after the first project.  But, Red Heart has made a few changes over the last several years.  They have a sock yarn that's fairly decent & I really do like this Boutique yarn.  It's soft & one skien has 280 yards.  There's enough yardage to do a cowl & a hat or a cowl & fingerless gloves.  And it comes in some very pretty colors.

Do you have a Red Heart story?  Please share in the comments & don't forget, I'd also love to hear your wine recommendations.

Christmas Smut

Well, I'm not in jail.  Yet.  A week of no knitting and I haven't killed anyone!  Instead, I have read two self help books & several trashy romance novels.  For some reason, I always get the urge to read Christmas smut this time of year.  Coming Home for Christmas, by Jenny Hale doesn't qualify as smut but it was a great read.  I worked for the author's father for years & years & am quite proud of Jenny for writing such a wonderful, clean romance novel.  Since I knew her before she was even old enough for braces or boys, it would have been just plain weird to read a bunch of 50 Shades of Grey smut coming out of her mouth.  Or maybe I should say coming out of her pen.  Whatever.  It was a nice, well written and well edited story.  In fact, it was the first book I've read in quite a while where I didn't find a single typo!  Go Jenny!  Another book I really enjoyed was Rebel by Elle Casey.  It also doesn't qualify as 50 Shades of smut but it did have a bit of an edge to it.  What I enjoyed most about it was the silly situations the main character kept finding herself in.  She made me laugh out loud many times, once while sitting alone in an Arby's restaurant.  Quite embarrassing!

So, reading is what I've been doing instead of knitting for the past week.  I'm afraid I may be reading for another week too.  My hand has been healing much faster than expected and I even began to knit a little last night without pain.  Yay!  I didn't get much done yesterday though, only one mitten cuff.  I didn't want to push it & reinjure myself so I only allowed myself one TV show's worth of knitting time.  First thing this morning, I cut off the tips of two fingers, one on each hand, with the new packing tape dispenser.  Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one.   The cut on the finger on my left hand is only a little worse than a bad paper cut.  But you know how paper cuts can hurt! The cut on my right hand is ....  well, I might have needed stitches.  Or at least some of that emergency room glue they have.  This cut is much deeper and much wider and hours later, it continues to bleed if I look at it funny.  But you know me.  I don't do doctors.  As long as the old ticker continues to beat, I'll treat myself thank you very much.  I learned long ago that enough antibiotic ointment and a tight enough Bandaid will seal just about any wound.  But, with two hands with cuts, one of which is sporting a bandage oozing ointment & possibly bodily fluids, I'm back to not knitting.  For today at least.

And just so that there's some kind of photo in this post, I'll leave you with a picture of my deal of the season mini Christmas tree.  It's only about three feet tall, but it was a steal for $4 at GoodWill & came with working lights & decorations.  Can't beat that with a stick!

Hitching a ride

I finished my Hitchhiker scarf and love the way it turned out.

That's it spread across my desk.  I love the way with the self striping yarn worked with the points.  I also like that while the pattern is written so that there are four garter ridges in each point, it’s not all that noticeable if you knit five.  I’m calling it a design element.

Wow.  These blog photos are showing you fine people way too many of my dirty little secrets.  Yes, that is a sheet being used for a window curtain and yes, it is not only thumb tacked over the window, it also has a thumbtack holding it open.  But you see, I could never decide on what type of curtains to buy.  I could never decide if I wanted curtains, blinds or shutters.  We’ve also never been able to decide on a color scheme so we continue with our very blah apartment house white walls & beige carpet.  And a sheet over the window to block the blinding sun. 

But back to knitting....

I loved the Hitchhiker scarf so much I decided to knit another in a Christmassy multi-hued red.

I didn’t get very far when I decided to put that project on hold while I knit a red ribbed scarf that will either be a Christmas gift or end up for sale at Jeannie Gray Knits.  Basically, I decided to work on the ribbed scarf because it takes less attention.  I was watching the season finale of Sons of Anarchy & needed mindless knitting while I fretted over Jax.

The picture is horrible and the lighting is even worse.  It’s really a nice typical, deep Christmas red, not that blinding pink shade that’s showing up on my monitor.  In a moment of creative weakness, I named it Random Ribbed scarf because the ribbed pattern is placed randomly across the scarf.  I rather like the way it’s turning out.  The front looks like flat knitting, but the reverse side shows the vertical stripes caused by the ribs.  

I was also feeling a bit guilty about all the projects I’ve committed to knitting but haven’t yet started on.  I decided to start the donation shawl/scarf for TRO because it’s not actually due until after January 1st.  Seemed like a good idea at the time to start the project with the farthest due date rather than working on the one that’s due next week.  After all, I do tend to work better when under some pressure.

This shawl/scarf will be donated to TRO to auction off to raise money for lung cancer.  TRO stands for Teens Reaching Out which is a group of homeschooled teens who gather to perform local service projects.  One of their on-going projects is raising money for cancer research.  Since my dad and father-in-law both died from lung cancer (the same form, ironically) and I like to knit, I thought it would be a good match.  Luckily, the shawl is not due to them until “well after Christmas” because, although easy, the pattern does not seem to be memorable.  Granted, I’ve only knit one pattern repeat, but no matter.  I have serious doubts that I’ll ever be able to memorize more than that the first & last two stitches are always knit.  I love the pattern though and think it will make a great prom shawl which could also be worn as a bulky scarf in colder weather.  I also love the color.  It’s an odd, non-describable color.  It’s not gray, silver, white, or beige, but sort of a combination of all those colors.  The yarn company calls it Misty Taupe.  I thought it was the perfect color to represent lung cancer since it’s assigned color is pearl or white.  White would have been a good yarn choice, except then you have the issue of white white vs. creamy white...   My thoughts are that this non-silvery/gray/white/beige Misty Taupe would go with both white white and creamy white.  Hopefully.  Not to mention I’d go berserk from boredom of knitting 70 inches of white.  

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately.  How about you?

As I typed this, I received word that there’s been another shooting at Virginia Tech & that the gunman is still at large.  My thoughts & prayers go out to the Hokies, their families & the police involved.

On Being Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US of A and I'm counting my blessings.

First, there's my husband.  I know, I give him an awful lot of grief most of the time.  Today however, he's winning the Best Husband Ever! award.  He's doing the Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  Of course, I will have to do some serious sucking up when he gets home but serious sucking up is still way better than standing in a mile long grocery line.  And we may end up having steak, beer and ice cream for our Thanksgiving meal, but again, that's still better than me having to stand in a mile long grocery store line.

Believe it or not, I'm thankful for Walmart gym socks.  They always come with a very sticky label/band thing around them.  I always complain about the band because when you rip it off, half the sock fiber sticks to it and after I've thrown it away, the dogs always get the label thingy back out of the trash.  They leave it on the floor and I step on it, normally in the middle of the night, and then I'm left with a sticky foot.  But it gave me an idea of how to label the socks & gloves in my Etsy shop.  I created my own label bands.  Mine are not sticky however.

I'm thankful that I found four hats that I'd knit, stuffed in a drawer and promptly forgot about.

I'm thankful that my husband and I both realized that we seem to be outgrowing our clothes at the same time.  It makes it so much easier to try to eat properly when he's trying to eat properly.  And, he's buying us an early Christmas gift - a treadmill.  Running on a treadmill is unbelievably boring, but considering how out of shape I've become, it will be nice to use.  It's so much easier to get back into the habit of running when a treadmill is available.  I won't have to worry about the weather or the darkness.  I can run for 5 minutes 3 or 4 times a day if that's what it takes to build my stamina back up.  And I have to admit, I do enjoy watching the numbers click by.  And best of all, Mike will use it for walking.  We tend to get a bit competitive with our weight loss  So, if he walks, I'll make sure to run.

I think I'm thankful for this thread meant for cross stitching.

My plan is to knit with it.  Exactly how thankful I am remains to be seen.  But the colors sure are pretty.

And of course I'm thankful for all the normal stuff.  My family, our health, my friends, their health, a roof over my head...  I tend to take those things for granted and I know I shouldn't.  I have a friend who's spending Thanksgiving in the hospital with her child.  I have another friend, actually several, who have either recently lost their home or are fighting hard to keep their home.  I may bitch and moan, but I'm actually very thankful for the life I have.

I'm also pretty thankful for my four-legged children and the unconditional love they provide.  Not to mention their entertainment factor.  Today, I've been enjoying watching Minnie guard a paper bag full of empty notebooks that I keep forgetting to take to Good Will.

She's been sitting by that bag for over 5 hours now.  When Max comes to close, she barks her, "Get away from me!" bark.   I'd like to say that she won't let me come close enough to the bag to shut the file cabinet drawer or to put the vacuum away, but....

I'd also like to say that I'm thankful for the photos on this blog.  They show me over and over again what areas of my house need to be cleaned.

But mostly, I'm thankful for my husband for doing the holiday grocery shopping.

What are you thankful for?

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Birthdays & Fat Lips

We had a pretty busy weekend.  Saturday was Sarah's birthday.  I'm still struggling to believe that my little, bitty baby girl is 15.  Struggling even more with the fact that she can apply for her learner's permit this year.  Yikes!

As is tradition, to celebrate Sarah's birthday, we went out to eat.  The Chop House if anyone cares where.  While we waited for Sarah's aunt & uncle to join us, we played with the camera.  Here's Sarah, NOT happy to be photographed.  Or is that just her typical 15 year old face?

Here's the son we are so proud of.  He's wearing his serial killer face.

I'm very glad that glare wasn't directed at me!

I'm wearing my typical, "Hey - want to look up my nose?" picture taking face:

Somehow, Mike managed to avoid being photographed and Sarah provided one last pose before we settled down to the business of ordering our food.  She's doing her Twilight impression.

Sunday, Zack had another bowling tournament and I somehow managed to sweet talk Mike into taking him.  Zack's scores weren't so good, but on a positive note, I got about 4,593 loads of laundry done and quite a bit of knitting accomplished.

I finished a hat, treasure bag, wine bottle/gift bag, a pair of fingerless mitts and started another pair of mitts which didn't make it into the photo.  I love those mitts by the way.  It's going to be very hard to list them for sale.  I bought the yarn with a shawl in mind, but the yarn is way too stretchy.  Except stretchy is the wrong word.  More like, it's too scrunchy.  The yarn contains a lot more polyester than most sock yarns and I guess that's what gives it the scrunchy quality.  Whatever, it's like a rubber band.  Which means the ribbed tube looks like it would be tight on a toothpick and yet, it easily fits over my man-sized hand and returns to it's normal shape when I take the mitt back off.

As for the hat & treasure bag, I've been getting a lot of requests for Harry Potter color themed items.  Thus, a maroon & gold hat and a green & silver treasure bag.

The photoless mitts I'm currently working on are being knit with On-line Supersocke in the Winter colorway.  I LOVE On-line yarn and this is the last skein in my stash.  The knitting store where I used to buy it closed last year and the only other local shop doesn't carry it.  I hope I can still find it on line.  I love knitting with it.  It's self striping and rather thick as sock yarns go, which means, you can knit a pair of socks in a weekend.  Well, you can if you don't pause to do laundry or fix dinner.  But even better, the yarn wears well.  I've got a zillion pair of socks made from On-line and I wear them constantly.  Not a bare spot or hole in a single pair of them.

And just when I thought I was safe....

Every year, something goes wrong with my face at Thanksgiving.  I bump my head on an open kitchen cabinet and have a huge bruise, or the rosacea goes crazy and my face glows red.  One year it was so bad my eye swelled shut.  But this year, I've been really careful about closing the cabinet doors.  I've taken my medication and my face is actually doing fairly well.  I don't have pink eye.  Things were looking up.  I might actually be able to take a decent photo at Thanksgiving.

Nope!  Last night, I dished myself a bowl of ice cream and licked the ice cream scoop.  I could feel the scoop reach out & grab my lip and my unconscious response was to yank the scoop away from my mouth.  Now,  half my lip is laying in the kitchen sink stuck to the scoop.  The remainder of my lip looks like I've stuck a water mellon under it.  Sheesh.

Decisions, decisions

I call myself a runner, except I haven't run a single mile this month.  I didn't run a single mile last month.  In September, my mileage was in the single digits.  I'm not a runner.  I'm a poser!  Aack.

Yesterday, I went for a walk with my daughter.  It about killed me!  I could barely haul my butt up hills I used to run with no trouble.  Good grief.  I need to get back to exercising.  Regularly.  Regularly meaning at least every other day, not every other month.

And my diet.  Good grief.  My diet lately has consisted mostly of coffee and candy corn.  It's no wonder my jeans hurt.

I have to get back to leading a healthier lifestyle.  So, today I decided to go for another walk.  I think it was snowing.  Ok, I know it wasn't - it's in the low 50's.  Too warm for snow.  But it sure felt like snow.  And tonight, after dinner, I'll finish the candy corn and be done with it.  I know, I know.  If I was a better person, I'd throw it away.  But I'm not.  Besides, I can't waste it - all those starving children in Africa and what have you....

Ok, on to knitting.  That is, if you can get past this horrible photo.

What an awesome example of bad lighting.   The red is actually a much deeper red.  Sort of holly berry red.  Actually, I think it is named Hollyberry.  And the purple, well, in real life, the purple is actually a pretty purple, not that glaring, Walmart purple.  The problem I'm having is that I can't decide which to use next.  I plan to knit a small scarf/shawl type of thing and I just can't decide.  I want to use the red because Christmas is coming.  I want to use the purple because it's pretty and because it's sock weight instead of lace weight.  The purple will knit up faster.  But the red is pretty too.  Decisions, decisions.  I hate decisions.  Which would you pick?

Laughing With, not At

I’ve talked before about how much I’ve enjoyed my Etsy  experience.  Today, I’m going to tell a funny Etsy story.  I really hope I don’t offend anyone, but the fact that I’m worrying about it probably means that I will.  I’m sorry.  I remember back when I was 11 or 12, I went to Ithaca, New York to visit a friend who lived there.  I remember how embarrassed I was when all her friends would say, “say something” to me then crack up laughing when I did.  Remember, I’m from Virginia.  My southern accent was hilarious to them.  Luckily, I couldn’t understand 90% of what they said so I have no idea how badly they were poking fun of me and my accent.  That story reminds me a little bit of the story I’m about to tell.  Except, I’m not telling it in meanness.  I promise I’m not.  As my father used to say, I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you.

I highly admire the folks on Etsy that are from foreign, non-English speaking countries and yet are communicating in English.  I took two years of French in school and the only two words I learned were one I can't use in front of my children and bonjour.   Thus, I think anyone trying to run a business in a foreign language deserves high, high praise.  But having said that, I love to read the descriptions of items that foreigners have written.  Sometimes the spellings are wrong, because after all, the American way is the right way.  Right?  (Said with sarcasm.)  Sometimes the adjectives come after the nouns.  Sometimes even the English speaking British word things in a manner that sounds odd to my American ears.  And then sometimes, you just gotta stop and wonder what the heck the people are talking about.  Take, for example, these washing instructions:  “You can wash dry.”  What?  I can wash dry?  I read it and reread it and reread it once again.  And suddenly it dawned on me.  You could dry clean the item.  I giggled for hours.

And that dear friends, just goes to show you how desperate I’ve become for daily blog fodder.  Exactly how many days are left in this month?

As penance for poking fun of those struggling with American grammar, I decided to offer a discount to anyone that can find an error in any of my own descriptions.  Unfortunately, I'm sure there are a few.  Click  here  to find out what I'm offering.  The details are at the bottom of my profile.

On the knitting front, I finished the cabled hat that I'd started yesterday.  Photos will follow soon, but first, I have to find my camera charger.    In the mean time, I'll leave you with this, just because I think it's pretty.

Vote!

Did you?

It was a pretty exciting time at the polls today.  There were three local people running for office that I simply refused to vote for.  For the first time in 32 years of voting, I wrote someone in.  Three someone's actually.  I didn't care if I was technically wasting my vote, I was not voting for the incumbents.

As for knitting news, I'd planned to finish the purple yoga socks today, but you know how my plans usually go.  I had an idea for a hat design this morning and worked on that instead.  I'm sure there'll be photos in the next couple of days.

Aack!  My son just announced he'll be voting in 1.5 years.  Boy, I feel old!

Daylight Savings Woes

Wow.  The end of Daylight Savings is seriously messing with me.  Yesterday, because it was Sunday and I could sleep in, I woke up at 6:00 a.m.  Except it was now 5:00 a.m.  Well, that wasn't too bad.  I was able to drink the entire pot of coffee without having to share a single drop, (yes, I'm stingy when it comes to coffee) and I listened to my Kindle while I knit on the purple yoga sock.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

The Daylight Savings problems started around 10:00 a.m.  I was ready for lunch.  By noon, I was ready for supper.  Around 4:30 p.m., I started thinking about how, since I had an extra hour, I still had plenty of time to go for a walk.  Except by 4:35, it was starting to get dark.  Drat!  I had that extra hour thing wrong, didn't I?  By 6:00 p.m., I was eating my second supper of the day and by 7:15, I was asleep on the couch.  Between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., I woke up, as in Woke Up!  Like, as in, being ready for a new day.  I got a few loads of laundry done, washed the dinner dishes that were still sitting on the counter because apparently, I'm the only one in the house who knows how to open the dishwasher, then I plopped myself back in front of the TV & played Solitaire on the Kindle until the battery gave out.

This morning, I was wide awake at 5:30 once again.  It's now 8:39 a.m. and I've finished my morning routine.  The routine that I don't normally finish until 11:00 or 12:00.  So now what do I do with myself?  I'm certainly not going to spend this found free time doing the backlog of housework that's been on my to-do list for longer than I care to admit to.  Guess all I can do is knit.  Poor me!

Yoga Socks

Finally!  I finally finished the Lorna's Lace yoga socks in the Icehouse colorway.  They were started, well, I don't know how long ago.  Before I started this blog.  They've been on the UFO list since day one.  Why, I have no idea.  They were originally going to be regular socks but I got lazy & didn't feel like looking up the number of stitches needed to turn the heel.  I can never remember how many stitches I'm supposed to purl back after doing the first knitted decrease.  Anyway....  I got lazy and decided to avoid the heel altogether, thus, yoga socks.

Wow.  I can not believe how much trouble I'm having typing "yoga."  It keeps showing up on the screen as "youga."  Definitely says something about muscle memory.

So...  I finished the Icehouse yoga socks and started another pair using Paton's Kroy Socks FX in the Camelot colorway.  Camelot apparently means purple.

Both of pair are knit with a simple ribbed pattern.  Can't wait to knit a few more with cables &/or a bit of lace.  And since today is Daylight Savings day here in the USA, or more appropriately, the end of Daylight Savings, I was given an extra hour in my day.  Perhaps I'll get these finished tonight & start another pair tomorrow.  What are you doing with your extra hour?

Yum! Butter

I should probably apologize in advance for this post.  I can think of nothing, absolutely nothing, worth rambling on about, but, it's Day 5 of this 30 day adventure and I'm not quitting.  Yet.

There isn't a whole lot going on in my knitting life at the moment.  I spent yesterday frantically knitting mini Christmas stockings, then last night, I decided that my time would be better spent knitting more time consuming items.  I decided I'd be better off knowing that I had plenty of larger items ready for the holiday bazar.  I can always spend the last few days leading up to the bazar frantically knitting mini stockings.  But it would be silly to wait until the last minute to try to create the big stuff.

So, I pulled out about 40 different balls of yarn & almost as many needles.  I cast on about 38 different projects, then promptly frogged them all.  Apparently I wasn't feeling inspired & the yarn wasn't cooperating.  I finally gave in, ate a giant bowl of ice cream & went to bed.  This morning, I decided to make the second the yoga sock to match the one that's been hanging out in the UFO pile.   Huge progress was made while I chatted with the other moms at the bowling alley.

Speaking of bowling, it was a pretty good day for the youth league.  Zack's scores weren't anything to write home about, but they weren't shamefully bad either.  But his team mates....  One scored his first 700 series and another bowled his highest score to date.  Looks like those long, painful (for me) Friday night practices are working well.

Okay, lucky for you, I'm cutting this short.  The Darling Daughter is in the room watching Paula Deen cook something on TV.  I have no idea what she's cooking, but Paula's voice is making me hungry.

Mini Advent Stockings

Aack!  50 days to Christmas!  I could have done without seeing that tidbit of information this morning.

This needs to be rather short because today is Homeschool Creative Writing Group day with the kiddos, which means I should be getting in the shower instead of typing this while drinking one more cup of coffee.  But hey - I need the coffee.  I need to be highly caffeinated before I go into that room with a group of very creative teens.  They weren't always so creative, at least a few of them weren't.  A few of them used to sit slumped in their chairs, arms crossed, and glare at me when I'd give them the topic of the day.  Today, a few of them still roll their eyes at the topics, which is okay.  They aren't always cool topics.  But the fun, exciting thing is, even those kids who used to hate being there, now write some seriously cool & creative stories based on the not so cool topics.  I love my writing group kids and frankly, I'm slightly jealous of their abilities.

But this is supposed to be about knitting.

I sort of took a break from knitting for a while yesterday.  The UFO guilt was getting to me so instead of knitting, I decided to try my hand at beaded stitch marker making.

I am LOVING making the stitch markers.  I just hope I can sell a few of them at the up coming holiday bazar because even I don't need 100 beaded stitch markers.  And judging from how many beads I have left, 100 is a low estimate.  And I won't even mention how I'm planning to sneak to the craft store to buy more beads.  Apparently, I've discovered a new obsession.

After dinner, I went back to knitting miniature Christmas stockings.

I love knitting these little guys.  They are relatively quick and a great way to use up those tiny bits of left over sock yarn.  Granted, they don't look much like Christmas stockings.  They look more like mini socks, but since they make fantastic Advent calendar stockings, who cares if they look like socks instead of stockings.  Besides, 24 red stockings lined up would be boring.  Not to mention how mind numbing it would be to knit 24 red mini stockings.   Anyway, I like to make them in groups of 24 and hang them from garland or on the Christmas tree.  I tuck candy, coins, or little love notes into them.

Ok, I don't really tuck love notes into the Advent socks.  I'm just not that gushy.  But it's a good idea for someone who is.  I also rarely tuck coins inside.  I'm more of a candy girl.  But coins are nice, they just aren't chocolate.  Well, I guess some coins are.  Hmmm......

The Chocolate Hangover

It seems that I have found my chocolate threshold.  Hubby took Number One Son to bowling last night, The Daughter was busy munching on what ever she'd scrounged up in the pantry and in a not so brilliant move, I decided to have Hershey Kisses and Marzipan flavored coffee for dinner.  I don't, as a rule, drink flavored coffee but occasionally I indulge and a non-coffee-drinking friend had been given the bag of coffee and she'd passed it on to me the day before.

I know!  I have a non-coffee drinking friend!  Can you believe it?

Anyway....  I drank flavored coffee, which turned out to be excellent even though its Use By date was May of 2010.  I also ate almost an entire bag of Hershey Kisses.  To my credit, it was a normal size bag, not the giant, economy, Halloween size bag, but still. It was a lot of Hershey Kisses.  I got down to where there were only five or six let and felt like I might die.  I tried to finish them off.  I knew if I didn't, I'd start eating them again the next day or the day after that and end up wanting more.  But I couldn't do it.  I literally couldn't eat another Kiss.

Meanwhile, while Zack bowled, Mike did the BJ's shopping.  My Lord!  He must have bought one of everything in the store.  He brought it all home & stacked it on the dining room table, which apparently has stronger legs than I'd ever have believed possible.  This morning, I put it all away.  And when I was pouring the chocolate chips out of their giant floppy bag & into my Tupperware Chocolate Chip Keeper, I spilled a few.  And rather than eating them, I picked them up and through them away.  And that's how I know I've reached my chocolate threshold.

As for the knitting, I haven't been working on anything exciting lately.  I have several projects that only have a little bit of knitting left, or they need to be sewed up & of course there are a few second sock issues lurking in the basket.  My Good Girl self wants to finish those items before I start something else.  Unfortunately, I'm rarely my Good Girl self and those items continue to sit.  But the guilt prevents me from starting something new.  It's a horrible knitting Catch 22.  So, I knit a few Treasure Bags yesterday.

Ok, not a great photo, but cut me some slack.  I'm still suffering the chocolate hangover and I haven't had a full cup of coffee yet.

I really enjoy making those bags though.  They are quick and simple and "needing" beads gives me an excellent excuse to go craft shopping.  I've never done any beading before so the bags have opened up a whole new area of the craft store to me.  There are some seriously cool beads out there!  And that's at the local big name craft stores.  I can only imagine what I'd find at a store that specializes in beads.  I'm purposely avoiding Google.

And chocolate.

Mannequin Models

Mannequin, who still needs a name, had her first modeling session yesterday.

Mannequin would like you all to know that she's normally a bit thinner.  She was dressed in layers.  Her "skin" had a few smudges on it and I need to buy a Tide pen to take care of them.  To cover up the smudges, I'd put a white shirt on her.  Except the shirt wasn't long enough.  And being lazy, rather than taking that shirt off before I put on a longer one, I simply added the second shirt on top of the first.  On top of those two layers, I added a black dress because the colors in this shawl showed up better over black than white.  But never the less, we had a successful modeling experience.  With the exception of the fact that I now have an entire load of laundry to wash.

The rest of yesterday was spent finishing up several knitted projects.  Nothing overly special, just a hat, a few Treasure Bags and a couple of felted boxes.  I still have the felting to do, but otherwise, they are done. I also taught myself to knit with beads.  Quite a simple thing, actually, and I'm kicking myself for not learning earlier.   The rest of the day was spent doing laundry.  A much needed task, I might add.

Today, I get to wash out my refrigerator.  Woop-de-do!  Pretty exciting day, huh!  And of course I'll knit some more.  Probably mittens.  Or maybe yoga socks.  Something I can sell at the upcoming holiday bazar.  I'm a little freaked over this bazar.  I'm really worried that I won't have enough items to sell.  So, on that note, I'm going to sign off and go get busy knitting.

Icy Lace

The Sunset Mittens are finished and are awaiting a photography session so that they can go into my Etsy shop.  They'll be waiting a while.  I found my camera, along with my phone, both with dead batteries, at the bottom of my purse.  The photos need to be taken outdoors to avoid indoor shadows and since we are supposed to get a couple of inches of rain today....   Hopefully I'll be able to sneak in a quick photo session between cloud bursts.  In the mean time, I should put building a light box onto my to-do list.

Wow, that's a very small picture.

In an effort to ignore the fact that I still need to frog & reknit Kate's shawl, I started a new shawl using Patons Lace in the Porcelain colorway.  I started it a few days ago and have been knitting obsessively on it.  I'm not sure why I bought the yarn in the first place.  Balled, it's not all that impressive, just as it's not in that teeny-tiny photo.  The colorway is blues and white and frankly, balled, it looks a bit dingy.  In the store, it sort of reminded me of faded blue jeans if I squinted my eyes just right.  But once I started knitting a lacy pattern with it, it turned into icy crystals.  It's beautiful and I think I'm going to be very pleased with the finished project.  The problem is going to be wanting to keep it for myself.  It was supposed to go into my Etsy shop.  I'm having that problem a lot lately.

Think Pink

Because my On the Needles list wasn't long enough, I started a pair of mittens today.

The color is not showing up well at all.  Could be because it's dark outside and a few of the bulbs in our chandelier are burned out & since no one has bothered to replace them, it's almost as dark inside.  The yarn is Cascade 220 Paints and is a dark shell pink and purple.  I'm extremely happy with the striping, or lack of striping, I should say.  The mitten is not turning out stripey at all, neither are the colors pooling.  I sure hope the second mitten has the same luck.

The mitten is knit in plain stockinette.  I expected it to have lots of stripes so I didn't think a pattern of any sort would work well.  Even without a pattern, I think the mix of colors works on it's own.  I hope others think so too because these will most likely end up in the Etsy shop.

Here's a very bad photo of half a mitten on my hand:

And yes, our couch is a hideous olive green.  It's old and faded.  It used to be a pretty hunter green.  But still, a green couch?  What were we thinking?

Christmas Countdown

Woo-hoo!!  It's that time of year.  It's Christmas Countdown time!

Well, ok, it is a little early.  Even for me.  After all, I do seriously enjoy pumpkins & turkey.  Fall is my favorite season.  Wouldn't want to skip over it or anything, but my daughter happened to mention that it was 101 days to Christmas and well... After a bit of gasping & gagging and wondering how it could possibly be 101 days to Christmas, I found myself saying, "Really?  I thought it was sooner."

Sooner???  Please, no!  I'm barely ready to gobble my weight in candy corn.  I am NOT ready for Christmas.  It can not be Christmas time.  It just can't.

So I decided to go ahead & add the Christmas Countdown button.  Now I'll be sure to know how far behind schedule and desperate I am.