Knitting Weather

Well, it is COLD here, over the weekend the highs were in the teens. I made a lot of progress on my felted tote and it was nice to have it resting in my lap warming me up a bit while I knit. Oh and my i-cord bind-off looks GREAT thanks to help from Kathy's sister at our knitting get-together a few weeks ago!

I had to put the monkey bag on hold, first try on the intarsia was a mini disaster! I had holes (must twist!), the yarns all got tangled and it puckered because I carried the yarn too tightly. So I had to take a break. I'm debating doing the monkey with double stitch instead and saving the intarsia for after.

Recently I went to an Oprah taping! It was such a great experience, she is well-spoken and intelligent. The topic was health and Dr. Oz was the guest. I already have his book so I was really excited to see him in person!

Speaking of books I have now read TWO books in 2006! I picked up The 5th Horseman by James Patterson last week and finished it in a couple of days. It was a good quick read!

Sooooo tiiiiiiiiired...................

Well, tonight I am going to meet some fellow knitters at my friend Kathy's house. Apparently she has a knitting group. I'm looking forward to it since I really don't know anybody who knits except for my sister. Kathy's sister is an excellent knitter and she's going to help me with the I-cord bind-off for my felted bag. I still can't figure it out despite posting for help on KR. I think I need to see it for myself.

I started on Bronty last night while I finished up LOTR: The Return of the King. He is so cute and Zach is going to love him! I'm glad I finally finished the LOTR trilogy. I wasn't too thrilled with the first two but RotK made it all worthwhile, it was incredible!

I am REALLY exhausted today. Kyra was up in the night with tooth pain and finally I took her into the guest bedroom and laid down with her. She is a crazy sleeper, moving all over the place. And a few times she woke up ready to play - at one point I awoke to her blowing on my face! So after Zach goes to school it will be naptime for K and me. I better set an alarm so I don't miss picking Zach up.

Just 9 days left til my moms' group has their big fundraiser of the year. The group raises money for our community - schools, the library and families in need. We have an auction every year to raise money and I'm on the committee that organizes it. I'm still trying to get donations from a few businesses but it's frustrating. I wish some people would just call back and decline instead of not returning my calls.

Christmas in January

Yes, we celebrated Christmas last night, kind of. My friend Rachel hosted an ornament exchange/cocktail evening/dinner at her house last night. We really had such a good time! I finished my ornament yesterday and here it is...



It was so funny, someone opened it and everyone was like "umm" and then when they found out I knit it they were like "Oh so cute!" Ha! I got a really cute snowman ornament from my friend Jill to add to my tree.

So I'm realizing how bad I've been about reading since I began knitting. I haven't read nearly as much lately - as of right now I have finished ONE book in 2006. Ugh! And the book I read was "A Million Little Pieces" so I feel like I have to read something non-controversial now. My book group picked "The Kite Runner" so I started on that one. I noticed that it does say fiction on it so there's no question! Honestly I wasn't surprised by the fact that AMLP wasn't all true. I mean between the root canal and the fact that he was recollecting events in such detail as he was detoxing I was skeptical. I did watch when he was on Oprah last week and although I don't feel like I was "duped" I was really annoyed by James Frey. He just sat there and barely said a word. He really should have had more to say. At this point he should have just come clean and said why he "altered details".

Done and done!

My daughter's sweater is finally done! I have been wrestling with it for 4 months and finally have it completed with a few minor changes. First, I could not for the LIFE of me figured out the buttonhole row and after frogging that row 10 times I decided the sweater would be button-free. Funny thing about that is that when I tried the sweater on Kyra the other night the first thing she did was pull it together and try to button it! I was in tears laughing so hard at her attempts! The other thing that changed was the collar. It should have folded over but I got so sick of the ribbed trim that it is now a short collar. Sooooo, without further ado here is the sweater...



So now that I'm free of that sweater (at least until I attempt another one) I'm off to new things. I had a trip to the LYS yesterday (Wool and Company in Geneva) and picked up a skein of Cascade 220 in charcoal. I already have two skeins of Cascade 220 in Garnet and I'm going to make the Two Old Bags kitchen sink bag with them. It'll be my foray into the felting world.

I also picked up a skein of green Cotton Fleece to make my son these adorable little dinosaurs. Aren't they cute? He loves dinosaurs and since I made Kyra the sweater he's been asking what I'm going to knit for him. I just bought the one skein and I'm going to give the brontosaurus a try first.

Since the whole DPN thing clicked for me I've been fascinated with making socks. On whim I picked up a ball of Lion Brand Magic Stripe sock yarn and now I'm making the first sock with them. I'll post a picture another time, I just realized the ones I put on the computer are fuzzy but I think I have a better picture on the camera downstairs.

Last note: my sister learned to knit! She recently took a class with her friend and she's making a scarf! It's looking really good and I'm so excited that we have yet another thing in common. We're very close anyhow and now we can knit while we hang out!

Okay, gotta go get ready for the day. We have a playdate this morning with my good friend Mollie and her little girl!

Lesley

Irish Hiking Scarf

I just realized I haven't posted in a while, probably because I've been wrestling with DD's sweater. I think I chose a pattern with too many new things to learn and right now I'm pulling my hair out over a ribbed border with buttonholes. I've decided to just make both sides ribbed and buy snaps to sew on. I'll leave the buttonhole lesson for another project!

Here is the Irish Hiking Scarf I made my mom for Christmas.



I'm really happy with how it turned out and my mom seemed to like it too!

DH has requested that I knit him an afghan. I have the Ombre Alpaca Blanket in mind but the yarn cost would be $200+. Being a newbie knitter I have not spent anywhere NEAR that amount for yarn for a single project. I keep trying to tell myself that we'd have the afghan for decades to come and that it's probably not worth the headache to seek out substitute yarn. I think this whole DD sweater fiasco has me spooked or something.

Well, the holidays have passed once again and a new year has started. I'm trying to be better about using our treadmill (v. cliche, isn't it?) but the kids keep getting up at 4:30-5 a.m. so it's been hard to get the fitness program started! I'm ready to be a healthier person and that means some habit-changing. No more eating the kids' snacks and no more laying in bed til they wake up! I need fruits and veggies and exercise :D

Okay, that's all for now, hopefully I'll have DD's sweater done soon!

Happy holidays!

Wow, I can't believe another holiday season is upon us! I'm wondering how Christmas day will go since it's the first since my dad passed away.

I'm STILL working on the Irish Hiking Scarf! I'm into the 2nd skein of yarn so I'm more than halfway done. Still, I'll have to work hard to get it done in time for Sunday.

Here's a picture of the sweater I'm working on for my daughter. I started it in September but I keep getting sidetracked with other stuff. It's a Sirdar pattern and Sirdar yarn. I really like the yarn, it knits up very nicely. I just hope I finish before she outgrows it! I just have one sleeve left and some border stuff to do.















Well, I better get going, still some gifts to wrap and of course there's the ever-present laundry/dirty dishes/toys all over the place.

Home sick :(

Well, I am home with a cold today. The upside is that this is my day to work from home so the kids are at the sitter's house. So at least I've been able to rest (and knit!)

And here's a picture of the scarf I'm knitting for my mom. How many days til Christmas?!? This is the Irish Hiking Scarf I mentioned before and I'm using Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Silver Sliver. Cool name for a color, don'tcha think?


Okay one more picture to finish up this post. We have gotten to be good friends with our neighbors and when we were there this weekend the wife gave us this lovely gift for Christmas. It's paperwhite bulbs so we'll have lovely scented white flowers by Christmas!



Well, time for me to get going. I want to do another set of rows on the scarf and then I'm off to Hallmark to pick up birthday cards for my husband, today is his birthday!

Another FO from a few months back

I dug up a picture of a FO that I made a few months ago for my good friend, Mollie. It's the Yo, Drop It! scarf from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation. I loved the pattern - it was so much fun to drop stitches off the needle on purpose. I loved this ribbon yarn too, the colors were gorgeous.

Well, I'm off to work on the Irish Hiking Scarf. I'm making it for my mom for Christmas and have only about 8 inches done. It's going much more quickly though now that I finally have the pattern in my head and don't have to look at my cheat sheet! I'll post a picture when it's completed.

Multi-directional Scarf

Here is one of my WIPs. It's this pattern

I really like how it's turning out. The yarn is Crystal Palace Iceland.

My 1st entry!

Well, here it is, my knitting blog! I started knitting last summer, I had wanted to learn for several years and I thought it good therapy for dealing with the death of my dad.

Since then I've made a baby blanket, a purse and a scarf. The purse is to the left, I used Lion Brand Homespun and knit it in the round. I'm working on a sweater for my daughter and two other scarves.