The Days After Christmas

6 buckets of cookies the grand daughters had baked later... a sea of wrapping paper and a sea of toys and various other things. Every adult was tired out totally. Even me but kept knitting :)..
I did get the most beautiful pair of hand made moccasins from my daughter who made them with her own two hands. So soft and beautiful that I will wear them on special occasions only. because I am afraid with the two brat dogs I have here who only obey my hubby I will find I am stepping in something i don't want to with those beautiful moccasins. sooooooo I will keep them safe until I get these brat dogs to obey me too.
What little knitting I did hand out went over well of course... hats ,scarfs and the tiny baby sweater all went nicely.
Christmas day found me at my daughters in laws since my hubby wasn't here but out of town working and wont be home until Jan 9th. sooooooo off to see new people and enjoy the holiday among friends and family. And of course I took along my knitting never leave home with out it. At present I am working on poncho's to give out through out the year to anyone with a birthday coming up. Have one about finished and one on the needles and am totally enjoying my time with the grands as I knit.
The most wonderful thing for me is after all the tired goes away with some well needed sleep ......... to sit and enjoy each toy'sthe grand's got & learn how to play each one . x box games here we come...... last night I got the chance to watch as my grand daughter played her games on the tv set some sort of barbie hand held girl games . interesting . not tough at all. And maybe later on I can see how the new Tony Hawks game is going.
Today I will begin to decrease on the poncho I have on the needles and maybe even finish the one I had almost done. Tuck it into a big zip lock and into the gift trunk it will go , while it awaits its new home. and then work on the next one.
I got to wonder what is is about shopping for knitters at Christmas time.LOL So I shopped for myself got three new pairs of bamboo needles and a yarn winder that don't attach to a table at all and is well the best traveling one I can ever hope for .....and some yarn of course :) all that and the books snuck into my knitting area before Christmas because I just wanted to spoil me in ways I knew no one would. I so want the third book on edging but I will have to go hunt that down and pick it up for me.

Here is a picture of what is called a Nostepinnes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/emeraldroses/bubinga.jpg

and can be found at this link
http://www.spinnerschoice.com/winding%20tools.htm

running out of time yarn and other things LOL :)

oh dont remind me of the date. cause once i get off this pc today things are going to fly around here and remain that way until december 26th.
yikes !!!!!!!!!!
flour will fly today cause the cookie baker is behind on all her cookies
and i got alot of knitting to get done. was working on a poncho for my daughter ran out of yarn checked joanns for more they ran out of it too. so had to buy all new and am knitting like crazy here trying to get this thing done.
still more shopping to be done. but that will have to wait until friday sat . maybe. if i am lucky . tomorrow is another rush around day. fuel to be bought, a couple of bills, buy hubbys supplies and ship those off to him, the big drawing at the local grocery store my name made it to the final stage so i have to be there before 6:30. and its my brithday tomorrow ........... sat i have to buy for my daughter two grands and one son and family and then done done done until after christmas when i shop for my son in washington state we both agreeded that is ok this year to be late with each other. so i will be able to fill his goodie box full of alaskan foods then and ship it off in peace i hope LOL plus get him a few other things.
sooooooooooo back to knit knit knit every row. thank god its not a pattern stitch i am working with :)
sooooo merry christmas to all of you and a happy new year too. where ever you are at . see you again maybe after the holdidays.
till then have a good one :)

Christmas knitting

This is a hat i knit for my grand daughter for Christmas this year from the free wool yarn i got . she loves fairys too so i found this pin to put on the hat.

ok stop all the knitting i got to fix the pc ughhhhhhhhhhhh

yep that is how it went. right after we all got them cookies baked and the knitting done. my old pc just passed on into pc heaven where ever that is.
and nothing i did would make that thing turn back on.
by the week end's end i had two pcs torn apart trying depsperatly to peice even something togeather that would get me back on line.
so let me just say addicted as i am to my knitting well hey second best is the internet . with out that this knitting adict wouldnt stand a chance. nor would anyone around me LOL
so the kitchen table found me and the two grand daughters ages 9 and 13 taking two pcs totally apart and taking out memory and hard drives and video boards plus modems so we could figure out what was wrong and what would work and what we thought we needed to replace. unfortunitly in the bitter end it was the mother boards that blew out on both. sooooooooo a nice pc funeral and i was left sitting there wondering if i could make it a few days until the state office surplus here opened up on weds to the public.
it did and i made it through ok. i was there asap in the morning thinking i would be the frist one at the door. when i got there. i think there were at least 25 people already looking at everything available to buy. pc wise that is. so i went right in asked the guy that ran it for some help told him what i needed and asked him to help me pick out a pc. so he did .
i was ready to pay about $100. for a used pc that was the price on them last time i checked which was about a month ago.
but the sign said today only all pentum 3's are $50. i thought sweet i can do that one. so we got the brain box over to the table and he began write out a sales slip so i asked how much and he leaned over and said today $25.00 i said thank you so much and wrote out that check and left brain box in tow........
i got it home began to put the operating system into it they are so good at removing those at the surplus . and then i got to looking at it all and thought you know i think its time for a flat screen so i went to costco and bought one with the money i saved. boy am i a happy camper again LOL
butttttttttttt i used to have dial up and i couldnt get this pc to detect the modem no matter what i did. about left huge holes in the walls here where i banged my head from thinking so hard LOL went to my daughters downloaded the drivers so i thought off line and a few other things this pc needed to i thought and on my way home stopped at the local cale company and internet serrvice provider all rolled into one and said ok sign me up for a cable modem. and they did and i came home and my grandson and i had that in in about 30 mins and then he heard his grandma yelling eureka we have cable modem and it works. :)))))
here i was thinking i was going to have to take this thing apart and put one of those cards in well i didnt have to someone on the state level had one in here before me so hey i am lke so so god to go now.
got a good pc. hey not bad my daughter bought one like this about two years back pentium 4 with one extra hard drive and 40 more gigs then i got here but what the hey she paid abought 2 gand for her's and i got one just a little below hers in wips and jingles but paid only $25.00 for mine hey and what can i say god looks out after people like me for sure.
ok i am like so so out of here its late and i got to get up tomorrow and go pay bills ughhhhhhhhhh . all i want to do is lay around for a few days but that isnt going to happen the grands arrive again tomorrow night and stay until christmas eve. and we got lots to do between now and then baking and knitting and building and doing macrame bracelets. this santas works shope is going to be humming if we get tired and decide to sleep its not going to be under the christmas tree but rather under grandfather new years old hat LOL

ok knitting scarves and more :)

you know there is no better way to spend a week end i can think of then to spend it knitting scarves with the grand daughters for christmas on a knitting machine :)that is how i spent last week end.
the oldest grand daughter couldnt help us she was to busy baking christmas cookies this is the thrid year that she has done this and given them out to all her family and friends.
so the youngest who is only 9 sat on the kitchen table making sure all the yarn went into the right place while i did the knitting but only after we figured out she couldnt move the knitting machine at all with out help.
she designed the strips 30 of the same color and then switch grandma ok. and she counted the rows ever so carefully as we went even though there is a row counter attached to the machine :) we got done with her dads scraf and then she hung in there and we cut the yarn we needed for the tassles on each end and she counted them up 6 of each color layed those out and i attached each one. her older sis came in and very carefully ironed it all for me blocking as she went and then i finished off all the loose ends and my youngest grand daughter made a special card for her dads scarf and wrapped it up.
yep nothing like knitting with them or tasting the good home made cookies as they came out hey someone has to be a taster right? and i got to say my laura has come a long ways since she began her cookie making hobby each christmas because everyone in the family now cant wait to get a sample of what she bakes :) just like the ones who love getting those many pie designed knits that mandy pie loves to dream up and have grandma help her make.
i cant wait to see her knit something on her own LOL so far she loves to crochet but loves to have grandma knit instead . oh well in time all good things come right?

It's just a hat butttttttttttt LOL Grrrrrrrrrr

even i can be fooled. i know better then to spend a few days on a hat with a pattern on the side my grandson the artist dreamed up tinking back and knitting forward repeatedly. sighhhhhhhhh
butttttttttt i got the whole thing done. and washed it because its a felted pattern.
boo hoo............ the basic grey of the hat didnt shrink. it looked like wool felt like wool i thought it was wool. sooooooooooo i grabbed up the ball of what i thought was wool took a two inch clipping of it.... took out my trusty cig. lighter that i keep in my project area and set one end of it a blaze. and sure enough there was the proof. acrylic yarn made it past me nose. the burned part formed a ball of black hard stuff on the tip when i blew it out. grrrrrrrr
tested the known wool in the same way and while there was a small tiny black end that smoothed out in a second once i touched it to nothing there. like dust in the wind. i know the rest of what i used was 100 percent wool soooooooooo back to making another hat for him in his design. of a ugly skull across one side LOL kids what an i say. anyway this time the grey in hand is 100 percent wool for sure marked that and tested that .
i know before i cast on anymore from the box of goodies i found i will be testing each one for sure . just to make douuble sure.
anyone know of another way to test for is it real of memorex ? if so let me know thanks
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Thank You God For All The Yarn

about a week ago God answered one of my prayers in an unusual way. Since its getting close to Christmas and all I was not only busy knitting up a storm but putting in my order for lots and lots of wool yarn for Christmas so I could knit more items like hats and mittens scarfs and things.
Of course with alot of past experience behind me in asking family members for things like that at Christmas time I knew in my heart it was all going to fall on deaf ears.
But the usual hey honey I want didn't stop at all. Nor the Gram's please or the mom I wants.
For some reason all the things asked of me were possibly being stored in the attic. ughhhhhhhhhh the cold huge attic. Our weather here has not been very warm for awhile and going up in that attic was like walking outdoors onto the sidewalk full so snow and ice. So for a few days the list of items asked for just kept being added too.
I finally figured I better go up there. My grandson asked me for macrame instructions so he could make some braclets for christmas to give out to family members. and my hubby wanted the flat tackle box that was up there so he could use it to store his cooking gadets in along with his knives. and someone had asked me for a pattern I had looked everywhere down here on the main floor and figured it was still up there. of all things.
gesh about 8 years back my grandson had come to live with me and my project room had to be given up to make room for him so alot of my things got stuffed into the attic with out much thought.
I got bundled up and began my slow climb up the attic ladder and into the cold cold area. found the instuctions my grandson wanted. the tackle box and the other knit pattern not many of those left up there thank god. I have long since worked on making sure the attic is empty and have not much left to go.
on my way down I noticed two large trash bags sitting near the opening full of what looked to be yarn.
I was totally courious because I just don't leave yarn up there at all nore any fabrics. I keep all of mine down here in cupboard all nice and tucked away. so this was totally unusual to me.
I grabbed both bags on my way down and threw them to the floor where the ice that formed on the outside broke up and scattered everywhere .
later on when I got the chance to drag both bags into the frontroom to examine them I found 99% of it all was wool yarn. and then I remembered during the time my son was in the Navy and serving overseas in Iraq for 6 months someone had gone to a yard sale where some lady had given them both bags for free.
how they both got taken to the attic I well never know . But that day and even now I am like a kid in a candy store. cause I got my yarn from God this year via the attic and somone in the family who went yard saling and thought about me at a time when I was totally nuts and an emotional basket case.
needless to say I spent the better part of the afternoon rewinding alot of yarn checking labels and placing each color into zip lock bags.
there isnt enough to make one hat outright but you know what everyone I know wants one of those ear flap hats done in felted yarn this year. soooo hey I am having a blast knitting those up
here is one I did for my grand daughter
all out of the yarn I found in the attic. thank you God for all this yarn I am having a blast putting it all to good use :)

Being A Creative Knitter

ok ...you have gone out and bought all the knitting magazines you can think of and now own stacks of those. Even have on hand tons of knitting patterns that have caught your eye over the years. Tried out all the latest in knitting needles and even invested in a good knitting machine.
Now what?
Are you still knitting the same things over and over with somone elses twist to it all?
By that I mean sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, mittens and the like?

I actually got to the point of saturation when it came to patterns, I think.I began to notice that most socks were going to ask you to cast on so many for any given size and then working the sock was basicly the same except for of course... the... stitch pattern .... that made that particular sock unique.......

Noticed the same thing for sweaters and scarfs and mittens and gloves .......

Espeically when I bought my frist sweater wheel a device that allowed you to calulate any sweater pattern for any size in raglan or set in sleeve minus of course the stitch pattern

I think that is when I began to journey into designing my own items doing it my way is what I called it
and it began simply enough .
with sweaters it became one of

Ok here is the pattern. what can i change on this to make it totally mine.
the first thing most people do is change the color of what is being knit instead of green they move over to purple and venture into blues or two colors or boldy go running for there own charts

But to begin with here are a few things to ask yourself when looking at the next sweater pattern you have in hand

1. Can I change the collar?
Maybe go for a three inch instead of the normal two inch one?
Or maybe go for a rouned edge one instead of the ususual square pointed one?
Use a pattern on it instead of ribbing
Use a different rib pattern on it instead of knit one purl one?
Use a cable stictch instead of the usual ribbing?


2. Maybe lets get bolder and change the sleeves ?
Instead of the full length the pattern at hand calls for do a three quarter one ?
Or maybe use a pattern stitch on it instead of what is called for.
Be bold and do each sleeve in a different color
Make a bell bottom sleeve instead
Use the same ideas as you would for a collar on the ribbing area then normally
would
Set a pocket in the sleeve someplace
Or leave the sleeve out totally and dont knit it at all instead do a fancy edging where the sleeve would have been


3. And then ask your self is this going to be a cardigan or a pull over?
either way ask youself also
1. A hood ?
2. Pockets
3. Pouch
4.Length of sweater? Mid length? Regular hitting hips? Or should I go totally
long down to the knees ? Or beyoud to the ankles ?

You may even come up with a bunch of other questions to ask yourself before you cast on one stitch of any given item your going to knit but those are a few good ones to get you going.
Jot down your answers anywhere note book or paper where ever but not on your pattern nothing like notes on a pattern and then years later someone picks it up and the notes you made mean nothing to them. So keep a note book handy scan your pattern print it off and keep it with your notes. Add in the yarn with a two inch clipping and even a yarn label if handy. you never know when that information will come in handy later on.
Do all your calculations including your knit gauge include all that into your notes.
and then have fun

what to do with an old measuring tape ?

long long time ago sounds like the beginning of a faily tale huh? :) when the grand kids were small........... they are now fast approching their teens.
one of them pulled out my measuring tape and tugged on it enough the spring broke and it would not retract again like it should. but then one more good tug and the tape came off the reel inside. it kicked around with out its turtle shell for ever and day.
but then i got tired of always trying to find the tape i do have when i am knitting.
and for sweaters of course i need a good long one . but for hats and socks and mittens i dont need one so long.
i got to thinking about it all and decided hey i can devise my own stich marker mesuring tape after all i have recently been into making my own stitch markers using the smallest key chain rings and alot of really nice stones from the bead stores here.
why not do the same thing using that old measuring tape. so i cut the thing at the 13 mark and carefully folded it over the key chain ring at the 12 inch mark and then tried to glue it on but found the glue wouldnt hold so i used a stapler to hold it in place plus the glue. and walla i know have a stich marker mesuring tape i can just slip on the needles and use or use one of those stitch markers looks like a plastic safety pin and move it anywhere i want on the project i am knitting.
works for me :)

Years ago when my son was about 6 he was running through socks and shoes like there was no tomorrow seemed like we were always running out to pick up socks or shoes because they had huge holes in them.
someone back then handed me two of those large black yard bags full of yarn. so i went out and bought some needles and a pattern for making socks.
i had no clue what i was doing . i just began to teach myself how to knit socks. i already knew how to knit and purl but that was about it. the frist pair took me well over a month just doing my best to figure out that pattern and how it all knit up.
once i got the hang of it there was no end to knitting socks at all and i found my son had a tough time wearing out hand knti socks vs store bought so for the longest time i knit socks one pair after another. after all i had a huge ammount of yarn to play with.
it wasnt long before i thought about knitting other items though like sweaters and the like.
buttttttttttt i thought those items are so large i am not sure i want to spend that kind of time knitting things that big so i began to check into knitting machines. and it wasnt long before i had one . and not long before i was busy knitting sweaters on that.
and then i cant remember when i just stoped knitting. all togeather. and didnt pick it up for along long time in fact it was years before i touched a needle again
my son went into the navy and eventually to Iraq and i was running around on line and looking at things thought about making a sweater for the kids for christmas and was looking for patterns when i ran into a seamles one. downloaded the pattern and thought ok i will try this out. so i did and i liked it totally. and found i was back loving knitting again. i wanted to make that sweater in other sizes but couldnt locate the right one. sooooooo while looking around at all the patterns i did have on hand i found i had one called the seamless raglan sweater book and it has sizes from 9 months to size 40 and up if i wanted to . while my son was serving in iraq i worked on that sweater book like my life depended on it and in the end i had knit up about ten baby sweaters and one for each of the grandkids and my daughter as well.
i havent stoped knitting yet now i am back doing hats plus neck scarfs and sweaters and fingerless gloves and loving every min of it.