Inspired 2…Sailboats and Sunsets

Instead of boring us all with the details of when and where, I think I will just share some of the photos from our trip.

I tried.

I was working right up to the wire hoping that I would get something finished and posted tonight. But I didn’t like the way some of the finishing looks, so maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, I will leave you with one of the pictures of Dexter from this summer on the boat. He is the kitten that we decided to keep (and I don’t think I have posted about it on here).

Newest member of the family

Meet my in-laws’ newest baby…uh, I mean, boat. I am definitely feeling like we need to upsize soon. We look way too small next to them now. We had fun, however, visiting them on their way to Maine. We hope to visit them while they are up there, too!!

I really do intend to continue the “Sweden Experience” and am only waiting to use my husband’s computer to do a few tricks with the pictures. In the meantime….

Its been hot! This is how the day begins…

and a little later…

always one step ahead of the sun…

That’s LK (black and grey–mom to the kittens) and Curly (short for Curlique).

Gosh, I just realized that our back deck looks terrible! That’s not completely true…I’ve realized.  ANYWAY!

Let’s see…what else?

Oh, there has been knitting. Just finished a b-day present for my soon-to-be 4 yo niece.

Monica
Cascade Sierra #3 and #16
4mm and 3.75mm needles.
mods:I did knit it in pieces, which wasn’t terrible but wasn’t necessary. Next time…in the round. I switched to 3.75mm needles for the ruffle and the rest of the top. I made tieable icord instead of the fixed garter stitch straps.
Hope she likes it.

I also lost my mind and started this yesterday…

Sea Urchin by Ilga Leja
Tahki Daphne (FROM STASH!!!)  The color is actually more champagne than the picture shows.
4.5mm needles (did a swatch on 4mm and it was slightly off in gauge so I’m going up to 4.5 without swatching again. Hope that doesn’t bite me in the rear! RIGHT!).

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll get to use J’s computer software soon!

Herding cats

The pictures say it all! 

They are still available and getting more adorable everyday!!

Quattro and Sophie

Socks and Sassy

And on the calmer side of things…

finally got my cats a tree and they LOVE it so much more than I thought they would.

Rainy, Lazy Day

Its sort of yucky outside but the perfect day to catch up on some things I need to blog about.

First, remember this?  The gorgeous yarn I won for simply leaving a comment on Tiennie’s blog?  Look at what I did with it!!!

Cider Moon Sidewinders
Sidewinders: A PerpenSOCKular Pattern by Nona
9-10M
US 1½ / 2.5 mm
Cider Moon Blizzard
No mods.
LOVE THEM!!!

Non-knitting:

 

Its a Puzzle Gourd…cool, huh?

Oh, gosh, I have other things to show you, too, but I’m just too lazy.  WordPress changed how you can put photos on here and its really just not user friendly anymore.  I hope they find an easier way soon.  Anyway, I will leave you with some more kitty photos.

Bonita being her normal, cheerful self.

Marmalade LOVES his alpaca mouse.

And everything is good in the world….

How to (maybe not) decorate with yarn

I spent the day cleaning today.  For you to truly get the significance of this I would first have to tell you just how bad my house was.  Yeah, no.  It is really embarrassing.  Needless to say…I spent most of the day just on my living room.  And I have to admit that it isn’t completely put back together.  I have company coming in a week and I had to do something.  So in my effort to clean/organize I thought I would share some of the ways I use yarn to decorate or “how I try to disguise stash.”

The obvious way is to use it as a center piece, like fruit, in a bowl or basket on a table.  Simple yet somewhat effective (if a little messy…I’ll straighten that up).  At least it looks like I meant to do it!

Another version of this is to do a “holiday-themed” centerpiece.  Here I attempt to use spring, pastel, Easter egg colored yarn to make a Easter bowl, of sorts:

This is how all this works together in my knitting/living room space:

You can see that I use baskets to disguise all kinds of yarn!!

I use this same technique in my guest room on top of the wardrobe closet.  I think it works especially well here:

Now for somewhere that you would never suspect yarn to be stashed:

Did you spot it?

Yep, in the false fronts of my “pasta” drawers.  Hopefully it will work a lot better than the pasta I used that attracted bugs!  Yuck!

Oh, and back in my living room, my friend, Bethany, allowed me to babysit her warping board while she was overseas and I use it to decoratively hold a lot of my stash.

Hopefully she won’t be needing it back right away.

Now I need to go stuff some stash down the arms of my winter coats (per Yarn Harlot) since it is getting warmer and warmer everyday!!  Yay

What I lack in quantity…

I hope to make up in quality.  This will be a picture heavy post.

OY!  Where did December go?!?  Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Went home for Thanksgiving/Christmas.  The knitted hats went over even better than I thought! 

My nephew liked both his and his sister’s.

T’s hat didn’t work so well for her pigtails…the holes were too low…but she didn’t want me to sew them up, so there you go.
Great visit with family and lots of Mexican Train was played.

I know you have all seen these photos from fellow East Coasters, but I have to share mine (from a little over a week ago), too:

view from my front porch

view from my backyard

4″ is a pretty big deal around here!

OK, knitting content:

Another finished gift.

The Girlfriend Shrug by Wendy Bernard
Sockotta by Plymouth #6063 (just over 1 skein, unfortunately, so socks or a hat will follow)
mods: none ON PURPOSE but when you misread the recipe at the very beginning…well. It wasn’t anything, I hope, that will effect the fit. I will know in the next couple of days when my nearly 3 yo model gets to the US. Pictures, I hope, will follow.

Nearly there:

L2’s sweater. All the bits are done and I just have to seam it up and put the collar on. Whew! I LOVE this sweater.

My goal is to have all the Christmas knitting for this side of the family done by tomorrow. I only have this sweater and 1/2 of a pedicure sock to go. I think I can, I think I can!

Things other than knitting:

Took at needle felting class and made these:

It was really fun.

There is a basket class tomorrow at the shop but I will have to see how the knitting and housecleaning go today/tonight. I don’t have high hopes.

Speaking of the shop…our little town has a candlelight house tour every year and there are horse drawn carriages and people in Victorian era clothing. The carolers stopped by:

And, should I get totally over whelmed and not make it back to the computer to post again before the BIG day…

Two Cat Night

That’s how cold it must have been last night. See who was in my lap?

Must have been cold for Bonita to allow Marmalade anywhere near her.

Marmalade getting a little brave and actually touching her. She must have thought it was me.

Cat happiness=my happiness

Incommunicado

Sorry about the brief silence.  I know, not like me at all!!  I think sometimes when you take a break and get out of the habit of reporting in you just find it hard to get it all going again.  Well, I’m back now.

What was I doing while away?  I picked up HP7 on Saturday morning with every intention to begin reading it right away at my hair appointment. 

I have issues with reading when there is a lot of noise around me, though, so I could forget about being able to concentrate there!  I gave it up for a bad job (cute little British saying I picked up from the books) and continued listening to the end of Book 6.  We went out on the boat Saturday night and then I hung out at the LYS Sunday before a round of golf (got my first bogie!!!  NOT the British term you think and, yes, I am proud of making a bogie!).  Sooooooo, I spent ALL day reading Monday.  I wouldn’t let myself on the computer for fear of spoilers and we all know I am addicted to my PC.  I finished around 4pm and was so emotionally drained that I just vegged the rest of the night.

Knitting resumed on Tuesday and I have been working on my Pomatomus Socks which I finished Tuesday night!  Woohoo!

LOVE EM!  Definitely one of my favs that I have knitted!

Pomatomus by Cookie A

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Spirit #3008

mods:  I think the only thing I did differently than the pattern was to cast on using the method from Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt (Favorite Socks).

I am also happy to announce that I have finished, washed and blocked my Sockapalooza 4 Pal’s socks!! 

***Which also qualify for Summer of Socks 07***

Yes, that’s right, they are Monkeys!

J-Knits yarn in Louisiana (1 skein…I know they look sort of different but it is just one skein!  Weird, huh?)

mods:  I think the only thing was the heel…I did partridge eye.  I love it cause it looks like fairisle.

Finally, I have been working away on my Embossed Leaves and should have them done before the end of the month.  That will be 3 pairs of socks for the month of July for SAM3.  Amd I’ve signed up for SAM4, too!  (surprise!)

Don’t worry, I’ve not forgotten about my niece’s dress.  I plan to work on the neckband tonight and get it washed and dried so that I can get it off in the mail no later than Wednesday.

I apologize if you are sick of seeing this:

but I live with him and I’m not.  I looked up from my afternoon of knitting and thought this looked like the definition of happiness.

How long is too long?

OK, I might need some help here.  When I was trying to figure out which size pattern to knit for my niece, I asked my mother-in-law.  She does a lot of sewing for the kids and keeps up with that sort of thing.  The size 2 had a chest measurement of 21.5″ and a length of 19.5″.  The size 4 was 24″ in the chest and 22″ long.  My MIL said that the 21.5″ was better but the length should be closer to 23/24″ to fall just below the knee from the natural neckline.  OH!  Now that I read that email again I think I’m ok.  The finished dress (well, nearly finished) is 24″ around (which I think is better for longer wear, I think) and 27.5″ long from the shoulder.  It seemed so long.  What do you think?  I just don’t even want to think about having to take length out of this dress!!

Well, here’s a picture:

I was thinking that instead of a single button under the right (or left) arm, I might do 2 to help it stay closed better…about 2 inches apart.  Still thinking about that one.  All I have left is to pick up and knit 4 rows around the neck.  And her birthday is still 3 weeks away!! 

I was thinking I might do a hat like the one I did for Vi.

After all this I feel I might have to do more for the twins.  Maybe I will do those bloomer things for K and then I need to come up with something else for L2…pants?  I don’t know.

In other news, check out the Wild Kingdom in my front yard:

There were 4 of them.  The other 3 were younger (I assume, since their antlers weren’t as big).

OK, maybe I can get some work done on my Sockapalooza’s socks, since I don’t think Marmalade is going to let me get back to L1’s dress right away.

What is it with them and knitted items?