Knitting, knitting...

I'm clearly in knitting mode right now. I think it's the invitation from Ravelry that did it. I can spend hours finding inspiration over there.

This scarf is called Palindrome. It's reversible. Very cool.

(I will do the drawing for the giveaway tomorrow morning at 7am PST so if you haven't commented and you like my little pincushions, hop to it!)

Socksgiving - step 1

If you haven't heard about my birthday present from Jennifer, click here. I think she got tired of my woefulness (is that a word?) every time she posts about knitting socks...

Over the weekend I received my "sock kit", with the first 5 rounds already knit. Lovely Manos del Uruguay yarn. And it's pink! I love pink! Thanks again Jennifer. What a wonderful friend you are!

Step 1 - finish the rib

(I just noticed that in my sock excitement I forgot that this is my 200th post. Do come back tomorrow for a little giveaway.)

Apron, anyone?

I'm sorting through all the old magazines that are taking over the house. This was in the May 2005 issue of Country Living.

Pattern here.

Schizophrenic reading and other things

If anybody should ever ask me what I like to read, the answer will clearly be hard to come by. Looking at my list of recent reads this morning (you can see them on the left here), I had a true sense that I really don't know what I like. Or maybe I just appreciate a varied range of books. I just finished reading Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" - rather deep reading. When I got to the library yesterday, I discovered that I had put Debbie Macomber's "Dakota Born" on hold - the complete opposite - sugary romance. I don't have any memory of putting this on hold and can, for the life of me, not figure out why I did. The truth is that I'm enjoying this little light hearted break from deep thought.

The granny race is neck and neck...


Junie Moon gave me a "You make me Smile" award. It's my first blog award. And this right after the pincushion "publication". Wow, I'm flattered!


Happy weekend everyone!

More Grannies

These are my mom's granny squares. She's has a Christmas theme going. We're in a race to see who can crochet the most granny squares in the shortest time. She has more free time...

Granny Goodness

Starting another WIP. One can never have too many, can one?

Here it is...

I wasn't going to show this to anyone, but it seems like everyone wants to see it. I promised a teenie photo and here it is.

It's scruffy looking and way too small. Actually, truth be told, when I looked at it this morning it didn't look quite as scruffy as it did yesterday, but it's still too small.
OK, here's a bigger photo so you can see all the flaws. Please send any advice you have because I'm gearing up to knit another sweater (not this one though).

Stalling...

My little cardigan is done, but I'm not sure I even want to show it to anyone...

So...
I found this book at Half Price Books a couple of weeks ago and could not resist. I don't have small children but I think I may just have to knit a couple of these little outfits.




There are also patterns for more hats, toys and even blankets in this cute book.
When browsing Amazon for the link I noticed that she has a few other books too. I'm hopping over to the library's web site next to put them on hold.

Blocked

A short post today. Pizza lunch at the school. 13 cases of water in the back of my car. 55 pizzas. 400 napkins. Priceless.

The little cardigan is almost done. I had BIG problems setting in the sleeves. Any advice out there?

(Thanks for all the wristlet and emergency bag love!)

Correction: it was 90 pizzas!

Knitting for Lefties

I'm left-handed. When I was little, scissors were made exclusively for right-handed people. I vividly remember how much it hurt to use scissors for more than a short period of time. My mom used to get old pattern books from the fabric store for my brother and I to play with. We would cut out the figures and switch out their heads, bodies and legs. It was great fun, but I remember the pain caused by the scissors.

Anyway, I'm way off topic now.

In the recent past I have tried to take up "real" knitting again after many years of knitting washcloths. I made two attempts at knitting socks, both of which failed miserably. Jennifer offered to teach me. All I need is a plane ticket...

But I digress again (I must be starved for conversation after all those letters). For some or other reason unbeknownst to me, I thought that I might be able to knit a sweater. "Why?" you ask. "You can't even knit a darn sock!" (Pun intended)

Of course, the pattern I chose isn't a plain stockinette stitch pattern either. It involves charts. I've never knitted using charts before.

I followed the chart block by block and ended up with this (which is not what the picture looks like, trust me):

Much Googling and five hours of knitting, chart-amending and frogging later, SUCCESS!

One of the sites commiserating with left-handed knitters claim that, because of the intense studying involved in successfully knitting anything that uses charts, we will have a greater understanding of how it works. I don't want a greater understanding! I just want to knit a sweater!

That all being said, I don't mind being left-handed. We're smart and creative, I hear.

My favorite lefty quote:
"All people are born right-handed. Only the great overcome it."

WIP Tuesday

Remember what the mailman brought way back in March? I've been so sidetracked by all the other fun stuff to do that the poor Spice Market Quilt has been languishing all alone. This morning I dusted it off. I was inspired by Amanda's industriousness (is that a word?) to try and finish the quilt top (just the top!) by Sunday.

I also have a few other little things in the works:

Sock attempt no. 2,

strawberries galore,

and a frenzy of french knots.

Creamy beige with a touch of pink

The weekend was quite productive.

Inspired by Katie's "Use what you have" challenge, and a longtime need for a "WIP bag", I rummaged around in my stash and made MY FIRST TOTE! Not having a pattern and having to figure everything out by trial and error, it was quite an undertaking, but I'm rather pleased.

I finally finished the ten pound ripple! Woohoo! I weighed it - it actually weighs "only" 7lbs, but, considering the fact that it's a lap sized afghan, that is a LOT! It is very warm and cuddly, but will now have to go spend the summer in the linen closet with the other winter warmies.

Fatcat was very confused by this thing that had suddenly appeared on her patio...

And that brings me to another one of my weekend activities...
I cleaned out the linen closet. I feel like leaving the door permanently open for everyone to behold this achievement.

What a great start to the week!

What I made this weekend

Am I the only one who creates rather funny flops around here or just the only one brave enough to post them? Remember this?

Well, yesterday I thought I'd found a great way to get rid of some fabric scraps. I should have known when the pattern called for 3 yards of strips (which makes about one round) that this didn't bode well, but I forged ahead anyway...

Trust me, the photo does not do it justice. Turned upside down and put on your head, it does make a rather nice pillbox hat though.

To console myself, I started a new little project, about which I'm rather excited. Stay tuned...

Fruit Salad

That's what my mom calls anything that's just thrown together willy nilly. It started with going to the garden center and buying everything I like, then trying to find spots for it in the garden. "Fruit salad - that's what the garden will look like..." Hopefully it's not all bad or some of my scrap quilts would really have to go to the big salad bowl in the sky.

Anyway, yesterday was a complete washout.

I crawled around on the floor for an hour with my fabrics spread out everywhere trying to put together something for the mini quilt challenge - no success.

I kept knitting the darn sock for hours (even after knowing yesterday already that something was not right) and then frogged it - there's either something wrong with the pattern or I'm an idiot.

Therefore, my post today - fruit salad...

The UPS guy brought the yarn for my ripple. Yay!


The Circuit City guys brought the new TV. It's a monster. The photo does not do it justice. Martha is the size of a house!


Oh, and here's another snippet of amateur art:

Uh Oh!

Oh, dear! I'm becoming one of "those" people - the ones with stacks of WIP's and UFO's. At one point I was concerned about not being like that because it seemed like everyone was, but then I accepted it and kind of started feeling proud of my ability to complete one project at a time. But now - I'm really confused, but oh so happy with all the things I have to look forward to.

Look what hopped into my shopping basket yesterday...

I have a very special project planned for this. Stay tuned.

My latest ripple has been progressing in stops and starts. I won't go into details. If you're interested go here.


While waiting I decided to hop on the sock knitting bandwagon. I'm a little worried about these, but forging ahead anyway.

Come on in...

I invite you to visit my home on this beautiful, sunny spring morning in the Pacific Northwest...


...where you would have found me working on this...

..if I wasn't such an indecisive b...(eing). (read the details here)

Instead I am still following my strawberry obsession and trying to come up with 7 interesting things about myself after being tagged by Kirsten and Syko.

So, let's see...

1. I'm very indecisive. I always have to "think" about anything before making a decision, which has caused quite a few good things to slip away from me...

2. I LOVE pink. Pink is my favorite color. Pink used to be Josh's favorite color too. We had to buy pink soft toys and the pink Tellytubby. Now he's too cool for all that (although he does have a pink shirt or two).

3. I'm not at all ticklish under my feet. This seems to be a rare (and very frustrating for Josh) occurrence.

4. I want to retire in Hawaii next to the ocean. (Don't we all?)

5. I feel like I never have an original thought, but I'm REALLY good at copying other people's ideas.

6. I'm Martha's biggest fan and always have been. I've stood by her through thick and thin and am really glad that she's making such a successful "comeback".

7. The minute Josh leaves the house to go off to college, I'm getting a convertible (maybe even a pink one). Call it a midlife crisis, call it fulfilling a fantasy, but I want something I can take the top off of and have the wind blow through my hair. I'll take this one.

Wow, that was hard! I don't think I'll tag anyone at this point. I'll have to give that a little more thought. (See, indecisive!)

To Babette or not to Babette

The mailman brought this...


It's the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine with the pattern for the Babette blanket in it. There are many completed versions of this on Flickr.
The dilemma: if I buy the Koigu yarn specified in the pattern, which I love, the total cost will be about $250! Now that's a lot of money, especially considering the fact that Gavin is not at all enamoured with this blanket. But if I buy cheaper yarn, however, I might not like the end product. I'll have to ponder this some more. I seem to have been doing a lot of that lately. Any advice out there?

While pondering, I quickly whipped up this little bitty for my mom's birthday. Now I just have to find some fun goodies to fill it with. I'm sure an etsy trip is in my future...


I was planning some gardening for today, but it's pouring outside. What a wonderful excuse for staying indoors and playing in my craft room!

Crochet and a PB&J

I'm a poet and I don't know it...

I put the ripple aside a little bit yesterday to try my hand at something else...

The photo belies the size of this - it's only about 1.5" in diameter. The instructions (from Interweave Knits magazine) were really horrible, especially for the leaves, so I'm not happy with this at all. I found instructions for leaves online and will try them tonight. Crocheting with 6-strand DMC embroidery thread and a tiny hook is not child's play either...

I'm making slow and steady progress on the Spice Market quilt,


and my inner child took over and forced me to have a PB&J for lunch. I can't remember the last time I had one of those. It was g-r-r-r-e-a-t!

Friday Fun

First, a ripple update. Thank you so much for all your advice. Katie recommended using a stripe generator. It is amazing! I could play with it all day. It makes me want to make another ripple blanket with PLANNED colors, just so I can use the generator.
Anyway, for my "ugly" ripple, I eliminated the most offensive yarn while, I hope, still keeping enough to complete the blanket.
I think it looks OK...


One rainy day in February I strolled into Borders for coffee and browsing, when what to my wandering eyes should appear..."all calenders $1"!!! I picked up a couple of treasures, unsure of what I'd ever use them for. Then I saw this. And I needed a bigger pencil holder. So today, I'm doing decoupage.


After bringing in all my props from outside and putting them on the kitchen table, this little vignette kind of appealed to me as the story of what my day will probably be like...

...and it looks like fun!

P.S. Our quilt group's pink quilt sold for $685 on eBay!!!!

A little extra info: The pink quilt was for a charity auction on eBay benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. It was a crazy quilt with a block done by each member of our group.

Ripple dilemma and other stuff

Ripple fever has finally caught up with me. I figured that, since I have all this "old", not very good yarn in my yarn box, rather than donate it or throw it away, I might as well make something useful out of it. I don't think the powers that be actually wanted me to take up rippling though. After trying 3 different free patterns and unpicking all of them, I finally found this one. It's easy and simple and quick and many ripplers seem to be using it.

Pretty, right?
Now for the big dilemma...
The idea was to use up the leftover yarn in the box - NOT buy new yarn. Of course, I instictively chose to start with colors that go together. And it looks rather nice. So how can I now bring myself to add this to my beautiful afghan?

Ponder, ponder, ponder...

On a less confused note...
I finished the Tiramisu blanket.


And at a friend's house yesterday I was blown away by all the loveliness.


(The garden photos were taken using "Little Bit" and she's clearly not as talented as "Big Black", but she fits in my purse.)