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….

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…

The other passion….

Seems that basketweaving has made its way into my life BIG TIME!  Now, I should qualify by saying that this is not a hobby that I do on my own in my own home; however, I seem to be doing it more and more.  Could be because my LYS is having more and more classes these days.

Anywho…these are my latest…

Undulating Twill Basket
I’m using it as a wastepaper basket next to my knitting chair.

Egg Basket
Currently holding roving that I hope to get back to spinning soon.

In knitting news…
I am really coming along on K’s Christmas sweater. I have finished the back and the 2 front panels and am probably half way up both sleeves. I might have it done by the end of the weekend (heard that before).

I am coming along on this for L2 for Christmas:

which you can find here. I’m using Sockotta in color 6063 on US2.

I have not picked L1′s Shawl Collar Jacket back up yet.

Working on a few other projects that I hope to have pictures of soon, as well as pictures of FOs!! 

Darn that Yarn Harlot!

I am SO behind on my Bloglines list and, wouldn’t you know, this is the month of NaNoBlaBlaBlogMo.  From what I can gather, this is a movement to get all bloggers to post everyday in the month of November.  Gee, thanks!  Now I’ll never catch up!!!

In my effort to be a good blog reader and clean out my Bloglines I sat down to catch up on the Yarn Harlot.  Hey, I was only 30 entries behind!  She had a guest blogger for awhile that posted this: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2007/09/27/the_yokes_on_me.html 
(scroll down to the second sweater (third and fourth picture)).  I WANT ONE!!!  I need another sweater project like I need a hole in my head.  Its been queued.

In Christmas knitting news, I have completed pedicure sock #3 (1st one in pair #2).  I also have the back panal and left front panel of K’s sweater finished.  And that is pathtically it.  Oh, dear. 

Just so it isn’t a completely pictureless post, I took a class on slotted gourds and made this:

I used yarn, seagrass, palm thingies (I call it Florida yard trash), and something else that I can’t think of right now. I was very happy with the way it turned out but it doesn’t really go with any of my decor so I gave it to a friend who I think will really like it.

But I have been creating…honest!

Even when my knitting seems to be on the wane, I still find that I create in other ways.

Consider the following:

This is a Cut Leaf Gourd. Isn’t it fantastic?!? This class was so amazing. I would have never thought I had it in me. AND I got to use POWER-TOOLS!

Then:

A little gourd fun!! I was going for the sassy look.

Listing these in the order of completion, I did get a little knitting done:

Jennifer’s Socks
pattern: Roza’s Socks from Interweave Spring 2007
yarn: Tofutsies #733
needles: 40″ Inox Express 2.5mm
mods: none!

I rushed to finished these so they could be my September socks for Sock A Month 4.

And then this little ditty:

I don’t think I have posted about this since here. Quick knit, although a little tedious with the stst.

And its twin:

Both are from “Knits, Knots, Buttons, and Bows” by Lynda Schar using Cascade Sierra or Sierra Quatro.

Last but not least:

This is called a Cabin Boy basket and I made it as a gift for my mother-in-law.

So, never fear, I am staying busy in the creative world, even if it isn’t always knitting!

?Como estan ustedes?

I want to thank everyone who has asked about my absence.  I wish I could say that it was for some fantastic reason.  Nope.  I just had blogger’s block.  I went away to visit family for that one week and got out of the groove of posting and just couldn’t get back into it. 

Of course, I returned to the most unbelieveably long list on Bloglines.  Yikes.  It just makes you want to accidentally hit the delete button and start over.  But I really wanted to read what everyone had been up to and I was hoping it would inspire me.  I did comment on some blogs using them, like I told Kristy, like swatching for a project.  It might have worked…thanks.

First, knitting has not been a high priority for me…unfortunately.  I have been doing a little.  Unlike before, though, I have been able to ride in a car, watch tv, and do many other activities without needles in my hands.  I’m shocked, too!  Don’t know why. 

Maybe its procrastination because I know I have deadlines coming up.  I need to finish the twins’ birthday presents and the Hogwarts Sock Swap socks….eek!  I can report that I am all but finished with L2′s vest (just the ribbing around one armhole) and I am on the front of K’s top that is, thank goodness, sleeveless.  I just need to go shopping for accessories.  I have finished sock #1 for the sock swap and am FINALLY happy with both my yarn and pattern selection.  ‘Bout time! I hope to have pictures of finished items to show soon. I’ve got to finish some socks for SAM4! Yikes!

In other crafts…

Its a double handled picnic basket.  My sister-in-law joined me for this class, which was fun!  I love my basket!!!  I hope to make a liner for it soon.  Its really big and will hold lots of yarn!!

!Hola!  I am also taking la clase de espanol at the local college with mi amiga Nicky.  Es diversion. (Babel Fish translated that for me so I have no idea if that is correct.  Not gotten that far).

And, finally, we have started the remodel of our mudroom/laundry room to soon be a mudroom/laundry room/utility room/half bath. Believe me, its a big room. I will show pictures when we have progress. Right now it is just an empty room with a few tiles pulled from the floor.

Look what followed me home!

I have an extremely slow connection today so it will be interesting to see if any of this loads and works.  Before the weather even hit us last night the power went out in our area for about 5 hours.  It came back on right before we got a little thunderstorm. 

 ANYWAY…

WHAT THA? 

Where did that come from?

I innocently went into my LYS to help with a demonstration day and this followed me home with some gorgeous roving (which I didn’t take a picture of pre-spun). But here is a picture of what I had spun as of 6pm.

I’ve more than doubled that now. I think I’m a little taken with this.  While I have played at this a couple of times, this is my first real attempt at spinning.

Ultimately, I want to knit my own sock yarn, but I don’t think this first ”yarn” will be used for anything like that. Maybe a hat or mittens.

In other new…

I promised Sockergirl that I would take a picture of the socks she knitted me with my red clogs…

I wore them during the very brief period of time last week that we had sensible weather.  Gorgeous and very comfortable!

I did get my August Socks That Rock kit last week. I love it. Quite possibly my fav colorway/pattern combo yet. Even though most have gotten their kits, I am going to refrain from showing any pictures a little longer.

Finally, another brush with nature. I was innocently knitting in my fav chair which sits with its back to my backyard. I noticed Marmalade staring intently but figured it was a bunny or bird. I turned around to see this standing only 5-ish feet from the house (originally.  It moved by the time I found the camera)…

Actually, there where 2 of them…both young bucks. Very startling.

Oh, the games we play…

I hate housework! 

Plain and simple.  Don’t get me wrong…I love a clean house.  Not too clean but clean.  But I hate actually doing it.  No, that isn’t completely true.  Sometimes I really get into the actual act of cleaning.  What I hate, I think, is when it takes me away from what I really want to be doing instead.  Well, duh!  For instance, I could really clean a house when I was in college because I would rather be doing that instead of writing a paper due the next day… get it?  And if the house needs to be cleaned on a deadline, well that makes it all the harder to get me up to do it.

 Anyway, I’ve struck a deal with myself.  A little game, if you will.  I am going to set the timer for 45 minutes and in that time I HAVE to be constantly cleaning.  When the timer goes off I am allowed (but not required to) stop and do something I want to do (knit, watch TV, surf the net) for 15 minutes.  Then I have to go back to housework for 45 minutes.  Now, if I choose to keep at what I’m cleaning I can and then take a 15 minute break when I choose to.  Hey, at least its more than I’m doing right now.

Another strategy is that I am going to start listening to the Harry Potter series again from the beginning.  So I will have that on my MP3 while I am cleaning.  Honestly, I get so lost in that story that it nearly makes housecleaning palatable.

I’ll let you know how this goes…and I plan on taking pictures of WIPs today if the sun cooperates.

Hello, again, Dirk!

The Postmaster has seen me more in the last few days than in the last few months! 

On Wednesday I sent off my niece’s birthday dress.

Again, maybe a little longer than I wanted but I’ll let her mother decide if it needs to be shortened.  In general, I am very pleased at how it came out.

This is an upclose of the button I crochet using the tutorial on Crochet Me.

Then this morning I dropped this in the mail:

My Sockapalooza 4 Pal’s socks with a few goodies: Knitpick’s Memories in Cape Cod, a sock blocker keychain with tiny sock made with same yarn as her socks, SOAK minis, and notebook.  I hope she enjoys and, most importantly, the socks fit!  (These also qualified for Summer of Socks 07)

Tuesday I took a class and made this:

Please pardon the area around the step. I would love to say that we are in the middle of a remodeling, but, in fact, we just pulled up the railing that seperated the den from the diningroom and are now just in a holding pattern. Who knows when we will get the time to continue.  Anyway, I just love my new stair step basket!!  Even though you are looking at the only 2 steps in my house I just had to have this basket!

This is what it looked like until about 10 seconds after I got home:
 
Now it is filled with my knitting magazines and some yarn. Surprise!!

I continue to work on my VLC and several pairs of socks.  I hope to have update pictures soon!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Harry Hangover

I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday.  Wow!  I still haven’t processed it all.

I’m ashamed to say that this is the first of the series I’ve seen on the big screen.  It is a very different experience.  Plus, this movie is just larger than life, anyway.  And, I think I mentioned, I saw it in IMAX 3D (the last 20 minutes were in 3D).  That movie in IMAX is crazy.  I’m going to have to see it again (and again) on a regular big screen.

My initial reaction was amazement at all that they fit into the movie.  Then, of course, a bit of disappointment at what was left out.  But I knew that there would be a lot.  That’s ok.  I thought they did a pretty good job at condensing important events to fit them in.   Like a lot of other people, I thought it was interesting to see what characters were highlighted and wonder if it foreshadows Book 7.  Course, we won’t have to wonder for long, will we? 

Yes, the knits are amazing.  I definitely think there will be a resurgence of “scrap yarn” knitting coming from this movie.  This is a good thing for stash busting.  I did love Hermionie’s sweaters.

All in all, a resounding 2 thumbs up and I can’t wait for the DVD!!!