Yes, I am definitely dialing it in but...
Happy First day of Winter!
Simple knits for complicated lives
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Monday, January 8, 2018
Makers' Monday
So, how's the weather?
The last time I posted, I mentioned it was snowing. We only got about three inches here. We were lucky. South of us got more than twice that and north of us got, well, let's just say WAY more. We also got enough wind to blow all the snow off the trees and the deck and fence rails. Enough wind to encourage the dog to 'do her business' in about an eighth of the time it normally takes her. But again, our wind was nothing compared to the wind north of here.
What we did get was cold. Now granted, that -19 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in the shade on a thermometer on the northern side of our house. But still - that's minus 19 degrees. That's cold! Too damned cold!
Cold enough to inspire me to start one of those temperature scarves.
As usual, I didn't give the project a whole lot of thought. I just grabbed some yarn from the stash pile and started knitting. I'm using Palette from Knit Picks and a US 2 needle. I cast on 190 stitches, am knitting in the round, and am doing a purl stitch for the first & center stitches of each round. The purls will help it lay flat instead of keeping it's tubular shape and they will do a decent job of hiding the color changes. Since we don't get much snow around here, I decided to record snow days with an extra row of white. I thought about beading the day's color, and maybe even beading rainy days but.... Life can get complicated and I didn't want to be tied to the beads. So, I'm just going with white for snow.
As for whether it will really be a scarf... who knows. It may end up being a cowl. It's way too early to tell what my row gauge is. At the end of the year, if I need to make it longer, I'll add a solid colored section with the year knit in. Or if I need to make it a Lot longer, I'll add a section to each end and date one January and the other December. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
Well, no matter how cold it is, it's Makers' Monday and you know what to do....
 |
| A snowy day. |
The last time I posted, I mentioned it was snowing. We only got about three inches here. We were lucky. South of us got more than twice that and north of us got, well, let's just say WAY more. We also got enough wind to blow all the snow off the trees and the deck and fence rails. Enough wind to encourage the dog to 'do her business' in about an eighth of the time it normally takes her. But again, our wind was nothing compared to the wind north of here.
 |
| Too damned cold! |
What we did get was cold. Now granted, that -19 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in the shade on a thermometer on the northern side of our house. But still - that's minus 19 degrees. That's cold! Too damned cold!
 |
| Palette yarns from Knit Picks |
Cold enough to inspire me to start one of those temperature scarves.
 |
| Temperature chart |
As usual, I didn't give the project a whole lot of thought. I just grabbed some yarn from the stash pile and started knitting. I'm using Palette from Knit Picks and a US 2 needle. I cast on 190 stitches, am knitting in the round, and am doing a purl stitch for the first & center stitches of each round. The purls will help it lay flat instead of keeping it's tubular shape and they will do a decent job of hiding the color changes. Since we don't get much snow around here, I decided to record snow days with an extra row of white. I thought about beading the day's color, and maybe even beading rainy days but.... Life can get complicated and I didn't want to be tied to the beads. So, I'm just going with white for snow.
As for whether it will really be a scarf... who knows. It may end up being a cowl. It's way too early to tell what my row gauge is. At the end of the year, if I need to make it longer, I'll add a solid colored section with the year knit in. Or if I need to make it a Lot longer, I'll add a section to each end and date one January and the other December. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
Well, no matter how cold it is, it's Makers' Monday and you know what to do....
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Bliss
Is there anything more blissful than spending a cold wintery day wrapped up in a toasty warm blanket with hot coffee, a vanilla scented candle, a good book and a couple of knitting projects by your side?
While everyone else I know is hanging out on Facebook complaining about the bitter cold weather, I'm over hear like, "Yeah, baby! Bring it on!"
I'll admit that my No Spending challenge is helping me appreciate staying home, tucked safely under a blanket and away from shopping carts of the real and online variety.
I will also admit that if I don't crawl out from under my toasty warm blanket soon, the dust bunnies are going to become so big, they may fight me for the blanket. And win. But that's a worry for another day.
Monday, November 21, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
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?
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?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
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?
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?
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