KnitMeWarm

Awe your missing me wondering where i am at right ?

2007-05-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Summer mode began and now i am taking care of the grands going on big adventures with them one of them taking up all my time latey has been this new adiction when i am not in there running a muck timmy is and when he is on line playing i am off knitting a cotton sweater. summer mode lasts until the end of augs when they go back to school . during this time i am being dragged around everywhich direction out fishing camping hiking you name it rainy days usuually are spent right now playing the on line game .

well be back in touch alot more often come school time until then well post when i can but fair warning not very often so to those of you that i know and care about i wish you all the best summer ever this alaskan gal is going to hit the road and go enjoy as much good weather as she can while we have it cause this coming winter is going to be no diffrent then them all long dark and cold LOL

hugs and love and tons of prayers from me crissy in alaska

knitting at False Outer Point

2007-05-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Its the beginning of summer mode around here now. which means there are going to be serious stretches between postings. or postings on rainy days,

early in the am before the sun comes up or before the tides are right.

yesterday, i went to pay bills with my hubby who was suffering desperately to get out and fish. when done we didn't stop for a thing we just grabbed his fishing gear my knitting and drove out the road to False Outer Point. Getting in a rush means forgetting to take a few things like the camera or the cam corder ugh the cell phone took nothing but blue photos but i am posting the best of those anyway.

Even the dogs were taken with awe but i swear everyone could walk that beach with no problems but me. i lagged seriously behind even the old dog. dragging the drinks and the knitting bag and my cushion with me i walked slower then mud. carefully picking my way through sand and boulders.

as you go the rocks seem to just get bigger and tougher to walk over and around and through. once there hubby went out near the ocean and i found a large rock to sit on thank god for cushions

The men directly in front of me caught 4 large king salmon right off the bat. as i sat and knit a dish cloth. and looked up at the most breath taking view i swear i never grow tired of. massive expanses of water, mountains and the glacier off in the distance. Forrest's as far as the eye can see. the only tell tail sign your anywhere near civilazation is the road to town and the parking lot way off in the distance . Seagulls occasionally swooping down to grab at what the fisherman had cleaned out of the fish they caught. along with ravens crows and the small rock varmint i saw scamper happily off with his piece of the action.

time passed way to fast sitting there on the rock watching the action in front of me. i had 1/2 a dish cloth done by the time hubby gave up and decided to leave. i guess he bought the wrong bait couldn't find the smaller Herring anywhere and thought maybe cutting it up would help . didn't work. so he said today he is searching for the right one and then were back at it again. right after work. maybe we will come home with a fish today. one never knows. either way. i will be remembering the camera today so i can get better shots of the scenery in front of me as i sit and knit.

on our hike back to the truck we saw an eagle swoop down on the water and gently take a salmon out with his talons and fly off with it. later on as we drove home we saw the same eagle sitting along side the road in a rock encloser eating his catch . slowed down to take a picture and away he went. so we left figured if we did he would come back and finish his meal.

My wild week end

2007-04-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

my other stitch marker buddy Marga sent me all of the above and all i could do was just marvel at it all. she seriously spoiled me the kids loved it as each one of them found something in my box of goodies to pack off with :)
mike took the tooth brush cover( i accidentally threw out his tooth brush last week when cleaning the bathroom ) this cover will help me identify the new one i have to buy him this week LOL
Laura grabbed the green frog right away loaded it up and began to squirt her brother who in defence grabbed the bubble gun and went after her. he is 12 she is 14 years old what can i say. Mandy arrived much later and took off with the lamb eraser and the little brown dog. oh yea mike got the Vermont candy and left the kids the m&ms to share.
i got alot of awesome things well needed i might add.
the stitch markers of course very beautiful and the wonderful accessory bag that i can sure use for the dp's i pack along was just thinking of that too... looking at bags to move into so i can carry them in something other then a zippie which i do swear by.
and of course the lamb pattern holder i was just thinking what in the world could i do about making my patterns stand up when knitting and watching tv. this fit the bill totally :)
and then the ball of yarn by Paton's wow i showed mike right away. said look i got some yarn i can make your clogs now . he likes the colors and was very happy that i can do that now. i had some black left over for the bottoms but ran out of the yarn for the uppers . i would have to ordered more yarn on line for his clogs but there it was . right colors and all.
and she sent me this tin with a see through lid. i had just been thinking you know if i could find a tin with a see through lid i could put my stitch markers in that and see them right off. and there it was.
i even managed to take off with the tiny note book before all the kids did LOL tucked it into my knitting bag always looking for tiny note books . thanks Marga for all the goodies it was a most wonderful treat :)

clogs clogs and more clogs this pair is for me. yep hubby got tired of me taking off with his didn't take long for that to happen so i dragged out my stash and had just enough green to do one pair decided to use black for the bottoms of any i make this is a before felting picture .
Mandy pie and i decided to go for a very long walk. and it was too. this is i swear the only mail box in town that is so colorful so Mandy stepped in front of it for a photo. anyone that knows her knows from this picture she has grown alot this year .

we took our time not to many sunny days in this neck of the woods so not only is this the 3rd walk i took yesterday but we went from store to store and just looked and looked and looked . took us well over an hour to finally say ok head home. one stop at Mc Donald's for a drink and fries and we were off up the hill to home when we ran into ..........

the guard dog!

yep the shoe store is closed and here is there guard dog we had to stop and get a shot of this one. see Mandy has a dog just like this one but with all white with black spots name of Haley and when she comes to spend the week end so does Haley my dogs think she is there puppy LOL
and lastly here is an areal shot of my neck of the woods all the white you see surrounding my town is glaciers nothing but fields and fields of ice. global warming ? not here not hardly LOL i am located just about smack dab in the middle of this on the coast line where the yellow line is this is a picture of the proposed road into Juneau connecting us with the rest of the world by road. so far since we began we have been land locked. no way in or out except by boat or plane.

meanwhile i am struggling with casting on the second sock yep i cant begin to tell you how many times i have cast it on knit a row and then figured out i did the pattern wrong LOL i wont give up but i may put it off until tomorrow when no one is here i keep getting distracted . today Mandy wants to make stitch markers so we will spend some time doing that. while Timmy plays x box and Laura chats on line with all her friends. and mike runs out with his buddies to work on his suntan LOL

here is a link to a really good news letter i got today in email well worth a look see i think http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976965244

all about festivals happening all over the place down south from here knitting and fiber fests . look so wonderful wish i could go. sighssssss oh well you know every time i see something like this i think yea maybe i should try to begin something like this here ya never know . would have to convince some of the higher ups that it would be a good thing LOL now there is a wall for you. a mile thick. shhhh ok am out of here need more coffee

Dish Cloth Pattern Hand Written By Heather

2007-04-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

given to me in a hurry on a piece of paper many years ago. By a young lady i met. Many times back then this is how knitting patterns made it around. since for years we didn't have the net or even a local yarn store. and mailing out for yarn or patterns or books or supplies was near impossible as i mentioned before Alaska for years was off and on the list for over seas foreign mail making getting much up here near impossible due to cost for the common person that is . Heather signed the note and left me her phone number which i cut off of this copy. I lovingly carried this note around for years in all my knitting books of special patterns :) I would estimate this note at being close to 20 years old.

stich markers G-Girl sent me and the sock i finished

2007-04-17T00:34:00.000-07:00

these are so pretty G-Girl sent me these along with the beautiful green stitch markers she made me and the pretty 4 leaf clover beads i turned into stitch markers of course. Thanks G- Girl so much.

OK i said tomorrow but i couldn't wait on the side is a slide show of my yarn stash in there you can find the yellow yarn i talked about earlier.

and with that i am going to bed . have to take hubby to the air port in a few hours :)

zip lock bags aka zippies & me Percy pack rats sister LOL

2007-04-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

I am not to sure how many middle names i do have but one of them is pack rat. sister to Percy pack rat i guess.
i have yarn here that out dates my first wedding anniversary just two skein's mind you but hey still pre- dates my wedding anniversary LOL lovingly kept in old sandwich bags and then eventually transferred to zippies. good heavy duty zippies i swear there a knitters best friend. everything goes into those at the beginning of a project. oh yea getting ahead of myself there before i tell you how i pack my knitting bag let me tell you more about the two skein's of yarn.

my first grandchild was on his way. back before we knew he was a baby boy now a 23 year old brat. anyway i bought this lovely cotton yarn in yellow...a fingerling yarn. and sat and crocheted him a beautiful dress. and then here comes mike my grandson and last child still at home . lucky for me i had this friend here who had just had this baby girl so i gave her the dress and kept the left over two skiens of yarn. which surfaces once in awhile for me to lovingly remember that baby dress i made oh so long ago. well it surfaced about a week ago for some reason these two skeins of yarn have just not stayed with the rest of the yarn in my yarn stash. and mike was home so i said hey look at this mike ! and i told him the story about the dress. he looked at me like i lost it totally and then i lost the yarn again LOL it surfed off again and resurfaced tonight in the quilting material cupboard. all i can do is smile.
and now its going to be used in some nice projects and of course i will knit up a swatch of it to go in mikes baby book of photos of him and his son:)

ok how i pack my knitting bag & and why would you really want to know ? LOL
for some reason i felt i had to tell you so here goes. and since i typed it all up no reason to hit delete LOL so...... sufferrrrrrrrr ..................

A 1 or 2 gallon zippie for the whole project of the day.
several smaller freezer Zippies cause there the good heavy duty ones
carry the supplies i know i will need. such as measuring tape. row counter. yarn cutter, pencil paper, stitch markers and of course any possible needles i may need.
another one holds the yarn i will use easy enough to pull that end out of the zippie
and all of it goes into either the one gallon zippie or if i need a larger one i have two gallon zippies. along with the pattern of course

and yes i do have knitting bags. but living in Alaska has taught me one thing always make sure everything that goes in that bag is water proof. no matter what it is cause you just never know. i have actually taken projects out on skiffs for the day while hubby fished i knit. or very rarely crocheted.
watched whales out there or seals and the fish swim by while the sun pounded down on us and i knit through the whole thing. i remember one time when we were out on the skiff sitting there watching in totally panic as this killer whale swam right straight for the skiff i thought he was going to ram us he stared right at me and all i could do was hug my knitting project close and try not to catch fish with my open mouth. LOL last min he dove under the skiff . i have dragged my knitting everywhere here. camping hiking fishing and just off to the beach. i swear when little people pack off with there woobies this grandma packs off with her knitting . same things i think. yep mine is definitely a security blanket kind of thing at times LOL

once a skein of yarn gets to a certain stage of being used up. and is sitting rather flat and can be squeezed to flatness with out effort i rewind it using what i call my magic wand stick and then put into zippies for further use.

if it was small enough like sock yarn to begin with it goes into either a zippie to begin with or into a plastic see through box i get from Costco baking department with cookies in them save the box eat the cookies LOL
my stash of yarn is growing . its in a cupboard now taking up the whole thing plus and box i got my heater in from Costco and a knitting bag sitting at the end of my bed and in see through cookie boxes stacked up on the stair way to the attic. and i am getting ready one more time to think seriously of moving things around maybe setting up the knitting differently.
until then here is my stash.
notes : the box of yarn is mostly wool some nice lady gave my hubby for free in a yard sale. lots and lots of it in there. she took good care of it too. and it made it through allot of smoke from the church fire here all in a huge garbage bag .
and now its making its way into project after project.
and then i got this huge huge box of yarn given to me by a wonderful and dear friend i have known on line for years who lives in Hawaii she was getting rid of all her yarn sent me a box full of yarn beautiful stuff. i shall find good uses for :)

oh yea and the magic sock box. i was telling G- Girl about that box in email tonight. thought i would tell you about it too.
i found this really large recipe box in a yard sale many years ago its wooden and had files in it for those large cards and tons of room for all my sock knitting supplies which i kept in there for years. when i moved everything out of it and into a binder sort of keeper bag for all my supplies. i went through the card files and found allot of things like cards with sizes on them for my now 28 year old son when he was 9 and of course mike when he was 5 and 6 years old. and i found a hand written pattern for a hat i love to make all the time don't for the life of me know where i got the pattern originally but i wrote it all out by hand . and tucked in there also was this one pattern that has along with the hat pattern made it to all the major knitting books i have dragged around as this is my staple book sort of thing. this tiny piece of paper with a dish cloth pattern on it. that was had written down for me by this lady who said this is easy try it out. i never did and i intend to now. for the April shower along . yep going to get that out and knit one up see what that is about .
one never knows.
ok this is to long photos tomorrow . i got a few i have to take then too . so well add those then.
time for me to go to bed . hug a pillow and a skien of yarn :)

Bomb socks ? ugh not another manic week end

2007-04-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

all i can do is laugh if i don't i will soon find myself totally insanely crying my eyes out.
what will happen around here next.
lets see before i relate this one to you.
so far this winter we have had
1. the dive bombing eagle carrying a deer head that took out an electric pole and took out our elec for a while.
2. the 200 inches of snow or more that did in my patio in places as well as a ton of fences and other things in town
3. the moose that took down a helicopter in a city not to far from ours like 50 miles
4 the fire up the road that took out and apartment building
5. oh yea and the cops and beaters chase through the neighbor hood when two i cant call them ladies tried to beat another lady who ran into a bank for shelter but they just kept grabbing her trying to beat and rob her so she ran up the street cops got one guy on the ground right outside my house with rifles pointed at him. wrong person wrong person wasn't a guy that was the perp was two idiot women on some thing i bet but not men or boys

awe and now the latest one
a bomb scare
some idiot left a back pack under a 6,000 gallon drum of oil (heating fuel tank ) right outside and behind the court house here. just two blocks from me they shut the whole neighborhood down for 7 hours .
we were taking Timmy's found birthday gift to him when we went past all the cops and barricades thinking oh there getting ready for a rally outside the court house and the state legs building. no way . and then when we got to the govs mansion and more road blocks the radio was screaming the news to us and we were amazed found ourselves on a one way trip for along while because we could get out but getting home was a whole different story. our grandson mike tried desperately to get home he was pretty worried about us and was refused entry to the area. even when he said i live there. it was sorry no go they told him he could walk the long long way around and he thought no way so he stayed where he was.
what really got me was we left the dogs and one cat at home. and were not in the least prepared to evacuate for nothing. i had one sock project in my knitting bag and that was it the new 160 gig external hard disk drive i had was hooked up the PC downloading all the information i wanted off the pc to it. and wouldn't be done for a few hours. ughhhhhhhhh.
if anything had blown up for real our kids would have told us we couldn't continue to live in the down town area we would more then likely be told to move to the valley LOL
you know its times like this my knitting comes in handy keeps me sane totally. as it is i finished one sock and am working now on the very first row of its match.
i did spend the better part of today working on locating all redundant pics and taking them off the storage unit i have. so i will have more room for more pictures .
i am thinking i should come up with two sock patterns one should be called fire socks and the other one bomb socks LOL maybe wild animals of alaska dedicated to the moose and eagle LOL oh yea and i hear tell there is a wolf out the road taking small dogs like i said what next ...........
yea i am like so cross eyed from looking at pictures for days now and so being driven slowly mad from the insane life around me LOL
i will take a photo of the one lone sock later and post it tomorrow . going to my daughters here again soon for a couple of hours all this insanity may as well leave the neighborhood for a bit gesh some people sure do get bad cases of cabin fever LOL

mandy pie & sweater , plus easter ,& winters end

2007-04-12T03:13:00.000-07:00

i think i walked into a house where everyone there was very tired out. something to do with a birthday party sleep over and staying up until 5 am. that was enough to put Timmy on the couch in sleep mode until dinner and mike on the carpet in front of the TV sleeping away too for his own excuses not to far off from the others. those of us with any energy. put eggs together for the big Easter egg hunt . but peaches had a tough one going there with all the snow still outside there was no place safe to hide anything. so the egg hunt happened in doors. Mandy pie found all the peeps LOL i had no clue what a peep was just never paid attention to them until this year when they came up on get stitchy in the form of u tube shows. so when i saw Mandy pies peeps i had fun grabbing one up and running to the kitchen and stuffing it onto a plate and into the microwave for one min which was the smallest amount of time i could get on peaches microwave. know i too know what peeps do in microwaves. LOL my son in law was standing behind me and he couldn't believe what he saw either. so i grabbed another because the kids hadn't seen yet and they squealed and laughed and couldn't believe what they saw too. and then peaches said if that blows up your going to clean it . hummmmmmm.........not a problem........... don't worry.......... it didn't ........... and that was it ... Laura got on line with her buddies and they were all over the Internet looking at the peep shows on u tube. having a blast . so the peep shows came to our town LOL maybe a few years late. but even we got in on the fun this year.

i got my stitch markers from G-Girl in the mail there just lovely totally and she sent me some other beads to use for anything i wanted along with . i still have to take pictures of it all so i can share those.

i sent out my stitch markers ( surprise not telling what else ) to her today she should get that in a week.

and i sent out my stitch markers to the other gal today too.

hubby had fun at the yarn store shopping and fun at the grocery store too, shopping we talked about this stitch marker thing he really got into it so said ok hon you can do this one once a year only because he doesnt want to be left out. he had way way to much fun LOL and i am leaving it at that i am also limited from here on out to one stitch marker exchange buddy at a time. so my next stitch marker exchange that i can get invloved in may be this coming christmas or could be next easter. we will see. and it will depend on who is throwing one around that time .

meanwhile i am still knitting on this sock here got it to the toe and realized i had gone to far so its alittle to long so frogged back a few inches to make it right. once done with this i have the other one to do.

its been a real struggle with this knitting socks with real sock yarn and someone else's pattern other then plain but hey well worth it. and of course i changed it to suit me i don't like socks that come above my ankle because they tend to fall down and bunch up so i always knit ankle length to begin with . so these while same in the exact pattern are ankle length of course.

reminds me of the time i first learned how to knit socks took me a month to figure out the pattern. that is just about how long its taken me to figure out this one LOL so it feels but its worth it. allot of it is the constant frogging. one of those ugh another mistake oh goodie rip rip rip. nothing like do overs. LOL

but i am so so close to the end of this first one. so so close.

oh yea and DA Egg didn't make it . the gal who brought in the lovely pillow at the end and was asked to put a bird in the middle won. sigh oh well. easy come easy go. i had fun that is what counts. i haven't gotten the egg back yet still have to ask when that is happening. not worried about it i will stop in and ask soon again. just not today.

this past week found us with tons of rain and warmer weather. so once we step outside the whole world seems so ugly right now. at least out neck of the woods is . i cant begin to tell you about the amount of serious clean up that i have to do out there this year. its simply awful. allot of trash blew into our yard this winter i know people don't walk around here dumping stuff i know it blows in. and the amount of dog pooh. well i know it wasn't all my dogs it sure is a ton. and i know that fence we talked about is seriously going in this coming summer to end that right now. LOL

so hubby has today off and i hope he isn't thinking of running a muck cause i want to clean that front yard up best i can. rake all that trash and ugh yuk away. so it isn't depressing to walk past the front door.

and that way i can enjoy looking at the pretty rhubarb peeking through the ground.

oh yea and we have some repair work to do on our patio some of the beams hold it up didn't make it through the heavy amount of snow fall so the patio is off limits until that is repaired.

oh well there is always the beach.

to run or not to run

2007-04-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

omg i get up this am and am working on Mandy pies sweater got the heart done in the back the one hangs off the hood. was busy beading it and the dog next door begins to bark and bark and bark and bark and bark. and driving me nuts i was thinking of going next door and telling them to please do something but left it alone figured something isn't right. well know soon enough. sure was right. next thing i know knitting is thrown down and i am heading for my cloths grabbing as fast as i can getting dressed shoes and all as i run for the front door. not one fire truck but three go Zooming by screeching all the way. and around the corner and down the street up the hill they go. by this time i have my coat on my hat my cell phone in hand my dogs are going nuts my cat is sitting in the recliner taking note of everything looking at me with this mom what is going on look. and i step out and look up the hill and see this wall of black smoke billowing up into the sky. and think omg am i going to have to grab and run again. or what. they reported they sent some 15 units up there before they were done. i lost count was to nervious.

see just about a year back the Church across the street from me went up in flames and they had to come in and grab everyone from this area including me hubby and the dogs and get us all out.

the year before that i ran again from another fire that was down the street took out a mini mall

so i was thinking what do i grab and where the heck do i go since i was doing the alone at home thing today. and wouldn't you know i couldn't get anyone in the family on any phone they had to pick up so i could let them all know what was going on.

figured even if i had they wouldn't be able to reach me for about 30 Min's so the dogs and i would have to stuff the cat in the knitting bag and run. keep calling until we got someone to pick us up.

well we didn't have to run. thank god but i sure feel for the people that got burned out. it was an apartment building .

"Remodeling crews who happened to be working in a nearby building took their ladders to the burning apartment and helped people escape from the third floor, witnesses said"

i heard people were jumping out of windows 20 to 30 feet up so i think these remodeling crews are hero's if you ask me. my daughter sent me the photo later after she heard about the fire and called me frantically trying to see if i needed rescuing again last time she couldn't even get near the house to grab me up it was horrible.

my grandsons buddy had an apartment up there said he is ok called mike to let him know said he lost everything in that fire.

as you can see took me all of today to calm down and now that i am if i do knit its going to be very little
i can still smell the smoke in the air.
ok think knit purl knit purl hey this is better then counting sheep. knit purl knit purl :)

cracking the code and my ship came in :)

2007-04-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

ok ok first i show off my shopping on line items and then i talk about socks and patterns
oh i tell you i was so so happy to see all this over this week end and today.

knitting on the road
a simply Divine sock book

sock it to me guide
something to stuff in my sock bag for when i am trying to make socks someone Else's size

two skeins of sock yarn # must buy two more of same though

and of course two each of size 1,2&3's circular needles in size 24 inch i think so i can knit two socks at one time of course :) i am like so so tickled pink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
first thing i did of course when knitting on the road came in was pick out a pattern and cast on. got the cuff done and then one round and poof totally lost. until last night i couldn't crack that pattern code to save my life. finally gave up went on line to i don't remember where and one of the sites said vogue knitting book explained the tbl my mind said oh goodie i have that book. dug through my book shelf of all my knitting books and found it and hunted it down. i was getting the original tbl for the first round but the second round was just going over my head. and i was so so tired of tearing everything apart to the cuff and beginning again and again and again. but i am and always have been determined. so when i saw the explanation complete with pictures i was in heaven. just totally glad i got that code cracked. and now have about two inches of that sock knit up .
~~~~~~~~~~~~
meanwhile G-Girl my stitch swapping buddy on line and i have struck up an email conversation about socks LOL
she is testing the waters same as me but doing i think she said toe up sounds like and exercise huh well its actually a style of knitting socks if you don't know .
i had been thinking of how many ways one can actually knit socks
1. socks knit on dp's
2. knit on one circular
3. knit on two circulars
4. knit on a magic loop
5. knit on a loom
6. knit on a sock knitting machine
7. knit on a knitting machine flat
8. knit flat by hand

and then there are styles
socks knit regular style
socks knit ankle length
socks knit low low ankle length or bootie socks
socks knit for sandals
socks knit knee high
socks knit thigh high
socks knit with toes
socks knit with a re knit able bottom

and the other styles
socks knit toe up
socks knit from cuff down the traditional socks
socks knit from side to side
socks knit in awesomely wonderful patterns

awe the wonderful secret life of socks . and i bet there are more ways too just
haven't discovered them all
only ones i have done so far is ankle traditional, dp's one circular and two circular socks

ok hubby is off today so we have run around had breakfast out of course and bought this dresser with a mirror for the frontroom at a motel hotel here that is putting in all new furniture. price was right $20.00 was hoping for a little bit bigger one to go behind the small couch so my grandson could get out of my baking drawers i think laura would like that but we didnt get to the sale in time kept going past it everyday. oh well she has 36 more rooms to go through.
one can never have to many dressers LOL

Mandy Pies Sweater almost almost done and the new socks

2007-03-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

here she is trying on the sweater to see how it fits. her mom came to borrow a movie and brought the kids plus the tiny tiny doggie so i had Mandy try the sweater on for us really fast.
the hood worked out just as we planned. and i had Mandy pie show her mom her mom said the hood looked like a grim reaper hood. and laughed. i said this is how come i don't knit for you anymore that plus she wont wear anything i do knit. says its to small or she doesn't like it or a dozen other reasons. what ever this addicted knitter isn't knitting anything for her again she laughed at me and said she didn't care. and that is another good reason she isn't getting anything out of me LOL on her :)
here is the next pair of socks yea i am bad couldn't wait for the 2 circ's to come in and i did go out to the lys and buy a pattern for socks called Classic Beginnings Socks for the Family which gave me not only a pattern in basic socks for myself but anyone else in the family if i choose to knit for them again LOL well you know what i mean.
so today i will finish Mandy's sweater tie off all loose ends so to speak, sew on the buttons and knit up the blue heart pocket and fake pockets she wants and then be done with that and move on to more socks and her hat :) oh yea her hat :) cant forget that now can I ? :)

sock bag and the new hat stand :)

2007-03-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

OK here is my thrift store bag find cost me a whole $1.00 like i said who ever had it never used it but tell you what sure am going to use it totally :)
and i fount this thing it originally had this very tiny baseball size Styrofoam ball on top of it got it for 10 cents. brought home went to Joann's paid 2.50 for a larger good foam pressed ball and walla i know have one good hat stand :) its a dowel with glued to a small base with a large wood bead and a now it has a good sized pressed foam ball on top hats fit fine on it too.
in fact i think i will buy three more pressed foam balls here soon and make more stands for them to be able to display my hats on. :) between that and coat hanger sock forms i should be styling :)
OK got to run need to finish Mandy's sweater sometime today. and wash the wings i found angel and fairy ones there huge thought the girls could hang them on their walls as decoration since Laura loves fairies :) and Mandy loves angels :)

our family cat ( sigh what can i tell you)

2007-03-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

Fuzzy has been with us since our daughter brought her home years back and then moved out again with out the cat. by that time it was to late. Fuzzy had a new owner . i remember my daughter asking for her cat. and me saying not happening. she said did dad claim her i said no she asked did my brother claim her i said no. with frustration she asked did you mom? i said no. she said then how come i cant have my cat back? i said you have to ask dusty for her. she is his cat now . Dusty is our family dog. and Fuzzy was way to young by a few weeks when our daughter brought her home. so Fuzzy lived under our bed wouldn't come out. and our dog took care of her. as a result of that bond our dog ended up later on helping her raise all her kittens they came in batches of course and in the end she had 18 kittens . he was fond of them all and it wasn't unusual to see him lovingly walking around with a kitten hanging out of his mouth on his way to tuck them back into their bed. or grabbing one and keeping it out of harms way. it was a hoot to watch him as he gathered them all up at night and took them away to snuggle with them while there mom was out and about doing cat things.
anyway when we had her fixed she missed her kittens. and i would catch her once in awhile stealing someones moccasins and crying as she took it away. like a kitten. and i would have to retrieve it and make sure it got back to its owner.
well hellooooooo mommy fuzzy. i was on my way to get am coffee hubby had put his clogs on the kitchen table to dry he put some sort of tool dip on the bottoms for traction. seems to be working. BUT ONE WAS MISSING!!!!!!!! ugh fuzzy hasn't been a mom now in years. but these clogs are good and soft. i had to look all over in the dark before i found it laying at the foot of the recliner she uses to sleep in LOL
she is a hoot don't like humans loves dogs and my hubby. and is a demanding little thing. if i don't get her a treat every other day she just stands there and tells me off in cat language until i do. if i don't let her baby out of the room she gets mad. her baby by the way is a 3 year old cocker spaniel go figure. LOL who she bats around like a kitten when she gets out of hand. oh yea and she potty trained the dog too after the kids house broke her i know that for a fact cause my dog not only goes out side she gets done and had to do the cat thing dig backwards at it like her mom and bury it all LOL
i am just glad i found the other clog i could see it being dragged off to the basement and then if that happened it would have been all over for that clog i would be knitting a new one fast to save fuzzy's hind end LOL
other wise i got the socks done done done i was working on and am one inch away now from finishing Mandy pies sweater sleeves. should be done with that today and then i can embellish and wait for her to show up so i can take pictures. :) and hand it over.
cant wait to do the socks out of my expensive sock yarn. and i went on line and shopped like a crazy fool for a few days. got more sock yarn coming more needles and a book . and i think i should go back and order more sock yarn . yep i think i should.
other wise i am just knitting like mad her and enjoying every min of it . oh yea i found this rope bag at the thrift store. Tuesday. we were driving around and i saw this lady with this rope bag the kind that had pinks and yellow bands on them with leather handles. i used to have one and fondly thought i wish i had one again it would make such a wonderful sock knitting bag. and so we went to the thrift store and i dug through the bin with all the old purses in it and walla i found one just what i was looking for too a rope bag no color other then natural. with leather handles and a zipper closer. it had been stored in someones closet forever because it had serious fold lines. so i took out the old iron and steam ironed it and stuffed it right away with all my stuff that put the shape right back into it. hubby likes it too said it don't take up all the floor room in the truck LOL
i put everything in zippies before i head out anyway no matter what bag i use so hey works for me.
also found drinking glasses to cool was about out of them forgot to buy them at the store. but this worked for me a whole set for $2.00 yep works nicely for me.
when the boys were in high school the spoons would disappear. i finally broke down and bought thrift store silver ware instead of buying whole sets and being upset all the time because the sets were disappearing one spoon at a time. no one noticed or cared that nothing matched had i not found the set of drinking glasses i was ready to grab what was on the Mason jar shelf. yep had been eyeing those before i spied the glasses. i don't think the grands would have noticed LOL
ok coffee is on time to go get me a cup of.
ps the stuff hubby bought to dab on the bottom of his slippers is some sort of dip for replacing the grip on tools . seems to work smells bad when its first put on but seems to work.
i cant see the cat stealing a pair of what then were stinky clogs LOL must work for her though. funny cat :)

One down Two to go

2007-03-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

knitting for big foot is what mike called it when i showed him the frist clog before i finished and felted both of them both hubby and mike know the magic of felting:)
this is my size 8 &1/2 foot between the clogs before i washed them down :)
and there i am again after the felting with them i had hubby try them on they fit him perfectly he cant wait to wear them . was busy trying to figure out how long it took something this thick made of all wool to dry. LOL
i had to lighten this picture up so you wouldn't have to see a big black blob but hey this is after i cut all the fuzzys off. and i tell you what they had fuzzys don't plan on using a shaver to shave anything off plan on sitting at the kitchen table a pair of scissors in hand and cutting them all off .
hubby is thinking hard now what could he find that he can coat the bottoms with to be able to wear them anywhere anytime ? i said ok i can see i will have to knit you a swatch so you can experiment on that . LOL hey today is pay day( wink) have to keep him happy so i can get more yarn LOL ok off to see the world and enjoy today hugs and love and when i can get him to pose in his clogs after there dry i will ok :)

ps nothing in a hurry about my man he wants to buy a boot dryer so they well dry faster LOl oops got to go

the rambling mind of an additced knitter LOL

2007-03-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

well i know i have hung out with my knitting pals on line for awhile now there rubbing off on me LOL
i used to go into the local yarn store and just look check out prices color and labels and not touch much. now i am like a kid when i go in i am mushing squeezing handling you name it going from one bin to the other just to see what is what . yarn stores are no longer a place with a huge price tag as before when i would go in and if i bought i bought enough at one time to make a sweater. and that was rarer. nope now i love going in and buying one skein if not two at a time.
where before if i couldn't afford more then two i would walk out. not anymore i skein or two goes along way.
another old myth mom passed on that you all broke was don't buy more then you can use. because it could go bad. meaning as in moths. and stuff like that.
enter the zippie and my stash is growing in leaps and bounds. i am learning yarn kept well is like a good bottle of wine. if well kept its awesome. i do have a few skeins left over from the years i made some good hats. that i kept in and old zipper bag that a bed sheet came in. in fact i used some of it on hubby's hat this winter.
anyway all that aside.
i went shopping on line omg was it ever awesome no one looking over my shoulder saying hummm or look at that price or do you need that really. or can we go now among alot of other things i hear when i go out shopping sometimes though not from my hubby who i think is as addicted to my knitting as i am. i have yet to see him walk in the door holding abag of yarn instead of flowers though but i bet that will happen sometime you never know.
i took the plunge and bought two skeins of SOCKOTTA YARN in some really lovely colors and two circs size #1's as recommended by a fellow sock knitter at http://socknitters.com which i joined about a week or so back. also have a copy of knitting on the road coming from amazon love shopping there. if i had gotten it here the price would have been outrageous. give you an example i have this audio book i just got for around $20. i went to the book store here to price it about fainted they wanted $50. for the same thing. books go for a bit more then the cover price here not by much but shopping at amazon even with the shipping i saved $6.00 on the book. and maybe more had i bought it here.
anyway, hubby bought some patons black yarn at Joann's awhile back and i bought the book on knitting felted clogs a couple of days ago here kept forgetting to every time i would go to the local yarn store. finally did she is so good at knowing her customers. all i did was hold up the huge unfelted version of the clog she had on display and she knew and got me the pattern right off.
about Da Egg. for days and weeks because of the snow i didn't get out to the lys. but when i walked in to find out what sock yarn was like and i bought the clog pattern. i was greeted by Da Egg well if i took a step into the store i would have passed it . there it sat on a shelf eye level as you walked in. seems its the only official entry to date at all. there is one more but its not official yet. its this very beautiful tiny tiny pillow in yellow and reds this one lady made. she was told to go home and knit a birdy to put in the middle and then it will be officially entered. the cut off date is April 1st. somehow i think her and i will be the only ones .
ok i got both hubby's clogs about done. haven't touched the socks yet and knit a few rows on Mandy's sleeves. just a few more inches to go on her sweater. and then bind off. she comes to visit this coming week end and i want to make sure i have this done so i can take pictures.
once i finish the sleeves it shouldn't take long to do the rest. i cant wait .
oh yea hanging out with all you fellow knitters has broke another habit in me too. sticking to one thing at a time. LOL now i find i have more then one thing going at one time. one to keep at home and knit most of the time that is a sweater. there ok to take when they are a certain size but then they get to the stage of being alittle much and i leave them home now. and grab a pair of socks instead. or a hat or clogs now LOL always helps to have options huh.
but the way things are going now by weeks end i should have all three done.
i love the magic of felting cant wait to see the after of hubby's clogs LOL

Mandy Pies sweater sleeves

2007-03-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

ya i like this knitting both sleeves at the same time on two circulars really works nicely for me. i am 1/2 way to the bottom then knit the cuffs and on to embellishments. nothing going on here. did alittle on line shopping since getting out isnt going to happen none to soon. sure enjoyed shopping i got a copy of knitting on the road from amazon tell you what learning how to shop for books through them is awesome saved about 6 bucks doing it that way instead of trying to find one through our local book store heck being alaska it would have been well over the book price. i went to the local book store here and checked out prices for audio books ouch. one book i had been looking at was going there for 50 bucks on line gosh under 30 at least. may find it cheeper never know :)

ok time to have breakfast and running really late on that and then back to the sleeves :)

Snow Snow and more Snow and Mandy Pie's Sweater

2007-03-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hubby in front of our daughters house as we drop off our grandsons pants he left at our house. he is trying to show you how high the snow is. that is her front yard buried in snow .
this is our truck parked in her drive way next to the mountain of snow in her front yard
this is her neighbors mail box . there was a whole street of them like this and worse . we also went out to shop for dinner one more time and my brother in law informed me last time he was over that my key board was just not working anymore time for a new one. hey any excuse to get out of the house and go anywhere these days. so we bought a new key board and installed that.
Mandy Pies sweater with the hood finished. now its onto the sleeves . and then embellishing :) more pockets and a some knit hearts. hummmmm i got to learn how to knit those seems simple enough but i still have to figure it out. so far all attempts on my part have gone bust . another brick wall for me soooo more sock knitting LOL
The blue buttons i found for Mandy Pies sweater .

Mandy Pies Sweater and the Socks

2007-03-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

awe its a good feeling to finally get past the brick wall and head to the top just about there. a few inches more and i can bind it off and head for the sleeves
and the socks just keep going.
my brother in law showed up yesterday too and installed my old hard drive to the pc as a slave drive which is now 120 gigs strong . oh goodie more room for allot of pictures :)
and then nothing went right. must be cabin fever. took hubby out to dinner . got frozen veggies and half cooked meat. plus when we sat down. there were no kids anywhere in site. by the time we got started i swear every parent with kids under two showed up and all the kids decided to cry and carry on at the same time. hummmmmmm thought i had just left my great grandson kai man at home doing the same thing. for some reason my broken brain thought going out for dinner would get me a break from it all. scratch that bubble . its just a different location and more kids . sighhhhhhhhhhh.
hubby was not a happy camper he was a grump. so i said ok lets leave. take doggie bags. go walk the mall. he looked at me with one of those oh my god she is going to ask for the moon. we went looking for buttons at Joann's found these beautiful blue heart buttons for the sweater. oh yea and another crying child . turned out to be my great niece with her grandma looking for patterns. LOL by now i am thinking the wee people are protesting the tons of snow and no trips to the parks . ok ok i understand now being cooped up with a bunch of nutty grown ups has its draw backs.
Snow has major draw backs if what i am hearing in the grape vine is true.
seems last week when we were being told snow removal money was gone spent done with and snow removal was going to be scarce. our local fire department responding to an accident along with an ambulance. ran into something like 6 or 7 parked cars and caused quite the accident on its own. as a result all our roads here streets you name it are all bare of snow now . not one ounce is to be had. but the sides of the streets and roads look like something out of the exodus. as if moses himself came here and parted the snow for all to drive through. yea forget the pedestrian. they don't need anywhere to walk at all. LOL so in allot of places the pedestrian is walking down the middle of the road.
only in Alaska huh?
meanwhile i continue to knit .

leap frog ? Naw just frogging is all LOL

2007-03-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

i was so tired yesterday. i should have known better but i am an addicted knitter what can i say.
Right now no pictures but i am working on the hood of the sweater.several ways to do that the one i am doing requires increases. my broken brain decided to try something new that didn't work. of course before i caught it i had just about hit the top. just a few more rows and i would have been there. ughhhhhhh i stop sit back take a look pleased with myself and then i see it. a mistake right where i decided to switch and try something different. FROG FROG FROG. back i go. and instead of tinking i frog knit back up to where i was happy now step back take a look .......... naw off one stitch all the way up ..... sigh and FROG. what can i say...... knit back up and take a peek now you would think i got it by that time no wayyyyyyyyy Frog again. tuck into bag which is a 2 gallon zippie and grab sock needles and cast on socks figure if i change horses in the middle of this stream maybe i will stop running into the same brick wall LOL .
oh yea , i was supposed to get out of the house today. yea go someplace any place with yarn for a bit. guess what not happening hubby got a call to go to some classes so he will not be available at all for the next three days. oh well such is life hummmm maybe a shopping trip on line would do the trick yea that might work it never hurts to look. right?
meanwhile the snow in our front yard is past the 5 to 6 ft window sill. and growing. no end in sight for this record snow fall. no word yet on if the cook with the missing car actually found it or not.
hey i am doing fine got the socks all the way past the cuffs on the way to the ankles and ready to drag around in yet another 2 gallon zippie . works for me. maybe tonight i will return to the sweater. maybe wait until tomorrow. we will see. neither of us is going anywhere sweater or me so heck it can rest for a bit while i knit up some socks :)

Mandy's sweater and where did grandpa pat go?

2007-03-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

here i am finally ready to bind off the sweater. of course because its knit from the neck down that includes both front and back at the same time for anyone that doesn't know what that means.
Awe :) and now the fun begins. because here i use my creative imagination. here i add on a very large pocket in the front that looks just like a sweat shirt pocket. Pattern for the pocket? I don't have one. never have. and i didn't have a pattern told me how to get from the neck down and connect both parts at the under arm either with a button flap on both upper parts. just drew out the idea on a piece of paper and figured it out from there. of course i looked at other pictures of sweaters to get the idea and of course the family requested sweaters done like sweat shirts you know grams the kind with the hood and the pocket in front? nothing like a challenge to get your knitting juices going :) i hunted through all the books and pattens i have here and came up with nothing went on line and came away with a few children's patterns but nothing for any adults or teens nothing i could use for anyone that came along. zip zero. i for sure wasn't going to knit a pocket and sew it on at all. none of the ideas or patterns i found gave me what i was actually looking for . this idea i have works on any size. so in the end of it all i had no choice but to work it all out on paper again and figure out how it was done.
soooo bottom photo i am now knitting back up to the top :) yep knit down and then knit up. working on the huge pocket its all knit into the sweater nothing sew on yet. i so don't like seams if i can avoid them at all costs.

my digital camera is deciding to work ok again. and with a good photo shop program i can come pretty close to the true colors

where did grandpa pat go? he is on the Navy Mom pages. Love him dearly but i need my room to be able to throw my knitting hands around and get down to the purls of things :)
ps.. hubby just got a call from work one of the cooks isnt going to be on time. he had to hire a metal detector to be able to locate his car. seems its in his drive way some place. but there not sure exactly where. he went on a month long vacation and came back to this LOL oh oh nothing like burried in snow :)

Mandy Pies Sweater progress

2007-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

believe me this is a purple sweater...... i just keep wishing for a good digital is about it . but anyway to get where she wants me to go i have to begin with a plain knit sweater and of course i like the knit from the neck down so the first photo is of the first few days.
the one below is just as i was taking it from being a cardigan to a pull over with a button down the front top area.

once i get to the bottom and do the ribbing then its time to go back and put in the first huge pocket . and move on to other items such as sleeves and more knit in pockets. and of course i had to go get more yarn to make sure i didn't run out.

i am thinking though today i do need to dig out another knitting needle to help me do the sleeves when i get to that point or go buy one .

other wise as you can see by the amount of snow we have here there is just no way i am going anywhere even out for a walk. no place to walk anyway unless i want to walk down the middle of the street !!!!!!!!! not even going to try that one . sooooooooo knit knit knit hey better this allot of other things right. well house work too. you all have a good day catch you again soon .

Buried in snow

2007-03-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

taken of my tiny yard in front of my house. the window is some 5 to 6 ft off the ground
this is my patio my window is about 4 ft off the patio which is 4 ft at one end and 3 closest to you. the huge pile of snow on the right hand side is all snow on the sidewalk that now can not be used due to the amount of snow so one has to walk in the street. ughhhhhh
this a shot taken between our house and the neighbors house and that is our grandson mikes truck buried in the snow its not a tiny truck either its one of those gas hogs took this yesterday before we went to eat and shop at the lys
this is the parking lot at the restaurant where hubby works that pile of snow is some three cars stacked on top of each other high. and usually when there is no snow what is actually there is a guard rail only 2 feet high. and you can see the traffic on the road coming and going and the stop lights
someone said were just a few inches from breaking our snow fall record. of 190 some inches per year. ughhhhhhhhhhhh Melt already and turn to spring.
oh well when all else fails knit :)

Both Tiny shops are open now

2007-03-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

long time ago sounds like a story huh? :) anyway yep long time ago i began a site on line called Stitches And Stuff where my family and i could sell anything we make . After alot of work its finally open and ready to go. anything i am still working on can be set back so no one has to wonder through that area. which i think is cool. meanwhile i began and Etsy shop. where i could test drive my items i make, create, knit or sew on my own. when i did sign up i couldnt get something on the sign up sheet right. oh yea i was missing a letter in my email LOL when i caught the mistake the site was already made but i couldnt get my activation going because the email wasnt getting to me. nothing i could do about it so i had to begin again thus the KnitMeWarmAK
boy do i have a ton of earrings the grands made i have to go back through because they sold alot last summer so there are peices missing. and i found somemore baskets my daughter made. i just wish i had a really good digital camera hummmm my daughter has one maybe i will be able to get her to take pictures. we shall see. meanwhile i have to make due with the cell phone photos and alot of time that dont even come close to what i have done. ugh i hate bad pictures. oh well patients and time and maybe soon i can buy a new one. that works right ! :)

Mandy Pies Sweater idea and the socks

2007-03-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

after alot of questions about style ,color, type of sleeve and what to put where ,the rough draft came out as above. before knitting this i may very well work on it alot more . but the basics are down on paper .
Mandy Pie and Grandmas yarn stash
here she is picking out her yarn or something close so i get a good idea of what to buy tomorrow :)

Laura promised she would let me take a picture for all to see of the first pair of socks i did on two circular needles . so here she is . and there they are :)
and here they go

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ok other then that i did the best i could to work on a button you all can grab if you like its on the side says knitmewarm with my egg as the background. about all i could do was copy the picture i liked to adobe and put words on it where i wanted . heck if i know how to make a link out of it. but its there for anyone to grab if they want and if you know how to make a real button out of those good luck i am totally stumped haven't a clue. now take me to any place else on line and put me in front of a screen and i can link up about anything to any picture or graph but in blog spot grrrrrrrrrr ughhhhhhhhhh i haven't a clue. boo hoo

ok time for coffee been up all night haven't a clue how come just couldn't sleep but its time to get up now so its major coffee time

socks frogs and mandy pie of course :)

2007-03-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

first pair of socks done ... Laura promised if she could have them she would let me take a picture of them on her feet....
second try on needles frogged..... all due to trying a different look with stitches . I should know better always work on plain at first when learning anew thing.

ugh try again.. this time pick different color yarn. figured out that if i put the work down i have no choice when i pick it up but to begin with the yarn end that will let me knit. so no longer worried about setting the work down. still poke it into the yarn ball anyway good habit . i am listening to the Alexander link doing fine knitting along on this pair when i discover i turned one heel and didn't turn the other . frog back both so there the same. and keep on knitting.
i think a person learns a ton when having to frog allot. or tear it back. in doing so i learned i can put everything back on the two needles using my dp's and with effort have it on the way it should go and then continue knitting and come out ok.
so the fear of knitting on two needles is fading fast . and the total fascination of it all is strong and just taking hold fast. maybe soon i can do this and be confident enough to take on a totally different stitch when knitting socks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mandy pie sweater. today she promised we will work on that. so far i know its going to have a heart some where but that is about it that and color.i told her fine but today when you wake up we work . design talk about your sweater until were done so i can begin knitting it ok . she smiled her sweet ok grams what ever smile and said yes of course and went back to her toons.
i did get the chance to fix her ivory necklace she got for Christmas. its a very tiny ivory flower with a gold nugget in the center. the chain broke. talk about a major pain trying to find a tiny enough o ring to replace the one that was missing. i finally found an earring find that i could shape into an o and cut that would actually fit . no guarantees it will hold for ever but its a working piece again . Mandy of course was tickled pink . I fell asleep last night to a sci fi movie and as she tucked into bed she said " grams if you fall asleep can i change the channel ?" i said "sure jut put the sleep timmer on ok. " woke up to total darkness and now i wait. still with a ton of questions. and alot of blank paper and colored pencils if needed .

??? and answers

2007-03-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

my mind is just going wild with ideas on Mandy Pies sweater for the get stitchy chick knit along.
questions
1. color? purple
2. kind of yarn ? yet unknown
3. style of sweater? cardigan, pull over, yet unknown
4. long ?short ?
5.sleeves , long short or none? yet unknown
6. collar ? to be or not to be v neck turtle neck cowl neck sailor what????
still unknown or should i knit a cap onto that collor LOL who knows i dont :)
7. pockets ? how many and where ? knit in sew on? shape size ?
still unknown ??? what you going to put in those there things anyway so i know how sturdy to make them
8. hood or no hood? still unknown
9. buttons or zipper ? frankly i don't like zippers so we will go with buttons if she wants a cardigan type
10. stitch patterns what type how many and where?
12. cables inertia? lace what what what? edging or not ??? please tell me tell me tell me !!!!

oh yea and then there is shape of sleeves and shape of front and back and sides of sweater. as in bottom area points or is round or bell sleeves
the list can go on and on.
frankly i cant wait to get my hands on Mandy and just ask her. as we draw and plot and plan.
how in the world did i ever get into this area of knitting?
well being in Alaska has its draw backs. in the time i have lived here i have seen two other yarn stores come and go . wool was for years a majorly tough item to come by unless you were able to travel out of state and pick up some or have a person you knew out of state that could or would send you some . patterns were even tougher to come by. last time i bought a pattern before i began knitting again some 2 years back. again. was hummmmmm my now 28 year old son was 12 maybe if that. herrschners was just to tough to send away for anything for me too back then. Why? because there were times when this great United states postal service couldn't make up its mind if we were over seas foreign mail or not !!! which pushed the price of sending away for anything out of my price range as well as allot of others !!
knitters magazines to me after awhile if you have bought enough you have about seen it all. and allot of the styles were just way over the edge or to out of my beginners area for me anyway . still are. so i buy magazines maybe when i begin again after a long time of not knitting just to get a feel for what is new out there in knitting land such as needles or bags or tools of other kinds. hey this time i discovered bamboo:) now that was a well worth waiting to see item. i love bamboo.
not so sure about bags though i have several still waiting for someone to come out with the ultimate bag for knitters. have to close like crazy and not open at a blink of an eye. have no dividers but tons of pockets both inside and out. and be big with a large shoulder strap that wont dig into ones neck. yet have handles that would double for a shoulder strap. have a designated book or pattern area . and a private my area for wallet cell phone and the works. personal stuff.
and have a large area for the knitting items i use and the project itself which could for all anyone knows be a large sweater.
still haven't run into my dream bag. LOL
so you learned fast back then to make do. grab plain patterns up and then in between yarn stores opening and closing learn to do your own thing. using the basic pattern as the stage or foundation of your work.
i didn't knit as much for along time on a regular basis but i did knit. off and on . a sweater when it was needed a hat here and there. socks like crazy. even a dress or two for the girls. i even knit the boys black snow pants once when they were small .
the last known yarn store before this one opened was yikes in the same spot just about and about geshhhhh 8 years ago? i could be wrong i have see some embroidery stores come in and close about as fast as they got here though LOL
i remember getting into socks and thinking oh cool i should do these in wool now that i know how . and going to the yarn store and buying some fisherman's wool back then came in hanks, who had a yarn swift i had to depend on a kid to hold still or the back of a chair LOL anyway i got enough of the stuff and next thing i knew the store went out of business. for ever there was no more wool yarn to be had. had no choice but to use acrylic red heart yarn for everrrrrr.
i am so so glad the internet came along . boy it makes getting those items i can't buy here alot easier. i love intenet shopping.
even at that with the ease of internet shopping and going on lne and finding patterns gallor for free . i still love to be creative and do my own thing.
oh yea and while i am blogging today i found out it is Friday so my wait to question Many Pie is just hours away. hot seat time for Mandy !!!

Two Socks on Two circular needles and me :)

2007-03-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.socknitters.com/2circs/index.htm

http://www.az.com/~andrade/knit/twocirculars.html

both of the links above are wonderful sites to help learn how to knit two socks on two circular needles at the same time

which is what i set out to do over the past few days.

i spent the first evening casting on and taking off over and over and over because i couldn't figure out what needles to knit with and if i had the yarn cast on in the right direction. after allot of frustration i finally got it though so i was very happy about that . knitting from the cuff to the heel was no problem gave me time to get used to what needles to grab next and use . doing the heel flap was another easy one as well as turning each heel.

Kapowwwwwwwww slammmmmmmmmm bangggggggg boommmmmmm i then ran into a wall. couldn't get my mind to wrap around how to pick up the stitches along each heel flap and keep going. it just wasn't happening . ( been doing this for years knitting socks just couldn't get past this spot for a bit) so i gave up walked away for a bit went to get stitchy and sat and read and read and then said OK call it a night. there is always tomorrow miss scarlet LOL

walked back into the bedroom said OK one more try before i turn in . and walla it is as though a light went on in a dark room and i got it. eureka and all that. i got it. so i think i stayed up a bit longer and kept going then put it all down happy again as a clam and went to sleep .

and now today i can head for the toes. have no clue who these socks well end up with . there acrylic of course a good learning thread.

the other hurdle for me is to wrap my mind around other patterns of socks now other then the ones i am used to doing .

of course that is always how it is with a new technique.

i remember well the lady that owns the local yarn store saying she was not giving up her dp's with socks couldn't see past those. heck i remember when i couldn't either. but i got tired of dps and knew there was a way i could loose those at least until the end. so i taught myself how to do all on one tiny circular needle.

and i remember running into the two socks on two needles awhile back because the first site is the one i downloaded and printed out thinking ok maybe one day i will take a peek.

but i wouldn't have gone that far if it weren't for Get Stitchy and the gals i hang out with in here or for my friend Ronda who kept asking me if i had ever even tried the two circular needles thing. nopeeeeeeee nooo and nawwwww wayyy sorry . and then that print out kept falling out of the book shelf every time i would look for patterns. LOL so i figured ok Ronda i hear you all the way up here in Alaska . so that was it you know what after getting this far i think i really do like this. not sure i will go back to one needle certainly wont go back to 4 dps unless i am at the toes. LOL sooooooooo THANKS RONDA for the challenge.

and you know what it didn't take that long to get it either. just a couple of days . minus of course a few more gray hairs i can well do with out LOL

ok time for coffee . i think its done :)

All in a day All in a Day

2007-03-07T06:04:00.000-08:00

on one side of the road you can see mountain's and snow and ice and water from the ocean coming into the duck flat area.and on the other side more of the same
but the drive to the local yarn store is breath taking
when we did get there it wasn't open just yet hours are from 11 am on to i think 6 or 5 never have tried that late.
there was a sign on the door from the day before . it has snowed so bad here over the week end and our city workers all go home for the week end and don't work. except for the buses and a few other agencies like fire department and such. no one works meaning the snow plows don't move one inch all week end. and the buses don't run on Sunday's.
which means come Monday if there has been major snow fall its tough going for everyone. soooooo this past Friday everything got closed down because of the huge snow storm and for Alaska that meant a bad one. which for this sourdough who has seen more then 20 years of winters here meant this was nothing i have seen far worse. far far worse. but they closed everything down anyway which was good for all . Come Monday they closed it all again. just way to much snow coming down for them to catch up or keep up with by then.
so when we got to the local yarn store the sign on the door saying the sit and stitch group wasn't meeting due to snow meant the store had not been open at all since last week.
i waited across the street at the other stores ... the pawn shop that carries alot of camping supplies and found time to wonder through the tool store nothing interesting just passing time. finally i saw the owner unlocking and saw the yarn dog wondering around outside. She is some sort of mix looks like a blond German Shep. she is so sweet loves to wonder around after you in or out of the store as you shop or as you come and go. sometimes i am tempted to ask her opinion of the yarn i am looking at ... one can never have to many opinions right?

hubby found when we stopped at joanns earlier they were having a sale on patons wool so he grabbed the black out of the bin seems they are not going to carry anymore of it. grrrrrrrrr. his comment was the label says this is good for felting .

and i found a magazine at the grocier store where i stopped to get a soda in fact it is the only store in town carries the best selection of knitting and scrapbooking magazines . so in order to get a good one you have no choise but to take that long drive which i dont mind much in the summer or spring or fall . but in the winter man its not an easy one to make . slow slow slow.

before days end someone hit one of the re taining walls along the road out of town and flipped their car. i am sure they we not driving at excessive speeds just not slow enough though.

and i bought to size 4 , 26 inch long which was the only short length she had at the lys in this size oops time to order more needles :) joanns had none at all smallest size circulars were 9 and up.

went home and spent the rest of the night casting on and ripping off over and over until i think i got it. trying hard to learn how to knit on two circulars two pairs of socks. doing one on two was easy . I got that in not time flat. but trying to figure out what needle to grab next for two was like a puzzle but i think i figured it out. took me until 10:30 last night to get this far ... and i got home about 4 dove right in would get frustrated and walk away for a breather and then right back at it. determined .

we will see where this goes. and lastly .........

here is my traiter sled dog . meantion anything and she is ready to run away in fact this is what she was trying hard to do in this picture. when my one grandson came for a visit Evie jumped into his suit case when he was trying to pack for his return trip home and wouldnt budge. he even grabbed her and dragged her out of it a few times before he gave up. she really took a liking to him. I am sure if i said dog sled to her she would pack up and hit the nearest airplane out of here and go live with pat. LOL

temperature today is 36 degrees as i sit her at 5:36 am. hubby has gone to work and mike will go to work here soon yep he finally got a job yesterday. walked in to put in an application and got hired on the spot and put to work right there never made it home from his doctors appointment he orginally set out to go too. yahooo i should get the house to myself me and the traitor dog LOL

Knitting for Mandy pie

2007-03-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

First thing i did was measure her again every which way i could. then tucked that into my bag. hummmmmmm probably not a good place . easy to locate though. But the numbers were all on this bright pick sticky note. which i promptly miss placed when i was looking at possible patterns for her sweater.

i have taken great pains to notice if your looking for sweaters for kids your going to find tons of items for children birth to about 5. most of them are very cute and very nursery school like. nothing actually girl items orrrrrrrrr the modern girly girl stuff. oh sure if you want something hum ordinary heck i can knit that . i want a wow pattern. so after looking on line for one whole day at all the free patterns and at the for sale patterns and through countless magazines i have here all i can do is hit the old drawing board and come up with my own.
tougher to do then say though. but that is ok its all another adventure.

lucky for me Mandy Pie and her brother mom and dad had to come shovel out my drive way yesterday so i was able to grab her up and measure her all over again. this time i tucked all into my Stitch n Bitch handy dandy note book for knitters. which is becoming very stuffed. yarn labels and yarn stapled inside . notes everywhere, my favorite old stand by hand written patterns copied from the original hand written ones and stapled inside. so i don't have to hunt those down. swatches and photos of things i have knit for anyone. almost wish this was a three ring binder note book with tons of room but the same size ( the thought is tempting )

so far we have the color of what Mandy Pie is wanting and the size and were busy shopping have the hat pattern for her already of course.
but due to the weather we have had here lately and the whole town shutting down which is highly unusual for us even. Getting to the local yarn store has been out of the question. so while i wait for that to be possible again. since a 12 mile drive in one direction is not happening yet. then i am regulated to knitting socks . and playing around with designs.
write up some questions about it what it must be and go from there. see what i come up with.
meanwhile temps have risen back to bearable again were sitting at 25 degrees at 6:02 am.
oh yea, and i worked like crazy putting my audio books onto my sonic stage so i could load those into my usb port sony walkman. awesome Christmas gift i got one for myself and my two older grands. of course they run music on theirs i run audio books so i can knit and listen as i do.
latest book listening to is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
allot better then turning on the tv and running it for background noise. LOL
even have found a place on line where i can pick up some more audio books when i want too . right now i have three full books and two of the old testment on my sony walkman makes for lots of good knitting hours.

Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix
The Da Vinci Code
Lords of the North

yep i am set up and turning heels like mad. may make it to the local yarn store today may not i can only hope.

keeping me warm :)

2007-03-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

this picture isnt out of focus or anything like that what your seeing is alot of snow being blow all over rendering it really hard to see anything out there. as we sit here at 12 degrees this am. i hear the roads are horrible one gust of wind and you cant see anything in front of you.

here are the hand warmers i knit for me over the past two days just to use at the pc to keep me warm. hubby asked for a pair for himself so hey i am busy making him a pair now in black and brown.

yahoooooooooo Joe the fuel man came a calling brought me some fuel. thank god but 90 gallons cost us $405.95 ouch and don't last but a month if lucky. so i sure do hope this weather stops and it warms up. cause this is costing us out the behind . heat the house gas up the car. pay bills and wham your broker then broke. summer i cant wait to see you cause i know i can live at the beach and save some well needed change LOL

brrrrrrrrrr

2007-03-01T05:51:00.000-08:00

Somehow i think for today and maybe the next week staying in my room and staying warm is about all i am going to venture to do. right now its a whole 4 degrees at 4:52 am. brrrrrrr one site msn says were supposed to dip to -6 degrees with in days. and the weather bug said were coming out of it all as of today. have no clue who is close all i know is it is cold cold cold . i run around in thremals with a wool hat on and wool socks and a poncho i wish i had made out of wool but still it works . made some hand warmers yesterday for mandy pie going to make me a pair today out of wool. THERE IS JUST NOTHING LIKE WOOL told hubby when i get my next native check i am going to buy wooll yarn like crazy and maybe even give the acrylic i do have to my daughter and grands they like working with that stuff. i need the space in my stash cupboard for the wool i do have .
lots of hot coco and tea soups beans anything stew these days. i would bake but its about all i can do to sit at the pc sometimes because the pc room has no actual heat . what heat comes in here comes in from the other rooms. its just cold no matter what way you cut it and we have winds oh lovely that brings the temps down . busy knitting what i can just to keep my sanity. good thing knitting in my passion :)
ok i think my coffee is done time to go drink a cup. ugh i love coffee but this weather ........... you pour the coffee and before i get to my room its just about cold as cold can be ughhhhhhhhhhh. SUMMER WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!

Happy Feet Warm Toes

2007-02-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

aweeeeeeeeee said one piggie to the other late last night as i slept in my brand new hand knit socks .

woke up this am to -2 degrees so the weather bug says. this kid is going tback to her nice warm bed with the blanket on and my nice warm socks on my feet. not moving for nothing today just going to stay warm. this horribly cold weather is going to break by the end of this coming week end. so they say. and i sure hope so. cause i dont like this one bit.

going to spend the day reading Stitch and Bitch Nations today skimmed through it earlier and last night today i will take my time and think as i go about what to knit next .

Da Egg has been entered offically today

2007-02-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

awe, i was so so ready for an outing today its nice and sunny out there but colder then cold still only 16 degrees. brrrrrr. so glad i am not walking in all this.
Hubby told me this am when i met him at the kitchen table for coffee to get Da Egg ready because it was time to take it out to the LYS and enter it in.
so i did shy sort of would rather hide behind him then hand over an egg in person LOL
we had to go to Joann's though i promised a lady that works there that knows me that i would show Da Egg to her before i entered it she works checking everyone out. she got on the store intercom and told one of the gals she works with to come to the front right now you have to see this. both ladies and several customers just went ga ga ga over Da Egg made me feel really good. of course i had everyone of my buddies on line that check the blog all the time right behind me made me feel even better. kinda like that phone commercial of having all those people behind you. hum cant think of the name of it off hand.
anyway, off to the book store to buy a knitting book of course hubby spoils me so badly . pay day and i get yarn and books and breakfast out. lucky me. so i bought Stitch n Bitch Nations. going to knit that other sock and read that book and check it out from cover to cover. and of course had to shwo the guy that works at the book store Da Egg he knits sweaters once in awhile so him and i are always talking knitting and he is always keeping me up on the new books that come in before i knew it all the people that worked there gathered around him and Da Egg and they just loved it looked at each item in it and oohed and awed at it all.
off to the Yarn Store. In we went. the lady owns it was busy helping out a customer so i went to look for yarn hubby busied himself looking at yarn too picking up several skeins checking out labels and feeling the yarn squeezing it all like he was a pro knitter. LOL pretty soon the lady that owns the store walks over and says is there something i can help you with today. i stretched out my arm with the bag that had Da Egg in it and said yea here you go. she took the bag fast and squealed with delight like a kind in a candy store. ran away from me to open it up on a table where she could get a better look and said i cant believe it omg you did this !!!!! This is your entry!!!!??? yes it is :) she couldn't say enough about it . said it was the first entry and said now you know i want you do to more . can you do more knitting ? enter as many times as you want ok. i said ok not a problem i can do that for sure just like i did the green hat along not a problem at all. thinking all the while what else am i going to do after all i am not working right now . so i have tons of time but then its to cold out there to do much else and knitting keeps me sane LOL
so since i am doing socks now i will think up some Easter theme in those . maybe throw in a hat . who knows its all in the adventure shyness be gone i have no time for you .
my daughter just loved her poncho i was so so happy that she did it is her brithday today and her dad and i stood in her office full of people everywhere and sang happy brithday to her loud as we could hum ok so i may not be as shy as i think i am LOL
awe but if i was at marti gra it would have to be "THROW ME SOME YARN MISTER !!! dont ask where that one came from it just did .
my foot is screaming for the other sock. so i better get with it and go knit that one up. i have the cuff of it done just have to take my time and knit the rest. i should have it done before dinner though i hope i would like to have happy feet tonight not cold ones LOL

Inspiration sock ( post one of three )

2007-02-27T06:20:00.000-08:00

most of the socks i have are all store bought the ones i knit for myself have about worn out so time for some more. since even the storeboughts seem to be running off to sock land someplace unknown to me :)i was running around the net yesterday and i went tohttp://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory.phplocated a ton of socks i liked in there ran into this onehttp://www.soxie.com/sandalsox.htmland a few others that i liked took the patterns printed them out.and then challenged myself not to read the pattern. i think this is a game i sometimes play when i am bored. mostly happens in the winter.anyway i cut the picture out and then cast on only the 40 stitches it said to and then threw the pattern onto the table and went to town below is what i came up with :)

Sock in the works

2007-02-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

Finished sock

2007-02-27T06:16:00.000-08:00

wow years ago ( and i cant get away from that praise when i talk about my knitting ) gesh make me laugh one day i was young next thing i know i am spending alot of time with some elderly lady i see every day in my own mirror LOL anyway they sold this tiny circular knitting needle back when i learned how to make socks. and always looking for short cuts to do things i bought me a few of those and taught myself how to make socks using what was then called cuffing needles. tell you what using those making socks is the best . very few dropped stitches if any because i work the whole sock heel and all on that one needle right up to the toe then put the works onto dps. and finish off.

Ta Da Da Egg is finished

2007-02-24T05:15:00.000-08:00

yes that is the tiniest sock i ever knitted 15 stitches on dp needles
my frist ever needle felting attempt
i had alot of fun doing this one . and have had alot of people here really like this one. my daughters frist words out of her mouth where" where did you get that?" i made it :) those to me are wonderful words when a project for any reason turns out as you thought it would... or close :)
i have the kids for the week end my not get to the pc as often or on line its a teen thing ya know. but i am sure i will squeese in some knitting weather its another idea or locating a patter for that. you all have a wonderful week end

BE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE FISHING TRIP SLIDE SHOW AT COMEDY ALASKA THERE ARE 4 OF THEM:)

the last of the pictures for the day on Da Egg and I almost done

2007-02-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

see what came in the mail while i was gone :)

Da Egg and I day 3 more work

2007-02-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

on our way home in the snow ... we have to drive 12 miles to get to the mall and then 12 miles back so its a long long haul same distance to the LYS
i need green yarn on top of the white filling so here i am working on an idea

and there you have it green yarn doubling as grass. hubby picked out the easter bucket as a stand for the egg. and i am working on items for the egg stitch counters and such.

"Da egg and I" adventures continue day 3

2007-02-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Da Egg ready to stuff full of goodies
using a pencil shapener i honed down the chop stick and used a wallnut ink pad from my scrapbooking supplies to stain it. and clear nail polish to cover it after i sanded it down good you can also see1/2 of the egg peice i used as a mold for this project.
couple more chop sticks ready to use for tiny knitting needles i took some paper clay out and rolled that to make the nobs for the tops of these when dry i will glue those on good and then paint the tiny knitting needles
Da Egg so far for today

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
earlier this am when it was not even close to light out i wrote this ....

oh oh no no your not doing this no way egg!!! yep i woke up this am to the egg dried so good. it was wonderful cut the yarn away and then found it had stiffened so well it took alot of tough tugging and a stick i broke to get it off the mold LOL but i got that done was afraid it would loose its shape. so took the mold apart it is in two sections and layed the whole thing side by side put Da Egg on top of both sprayed it again for gps and now i wait one more time for it all to dry. then i have to work on regaining its fluff. not a problem at all just a tooth brush and and fluf that puppy up. my other probelm is to make something to keep it open so you can see inside . hummmmm oh yea a chop stick which means once i cut that to size i have to also make some loops to put on the egg to hold the stick. hummmmm arent i lucky its dark as dark can be at 6:33 am and i cant see nothing. Mike is still fast asleep , I cant find my tiny flash light so i can check out where he put the pencil sharpener LOL to i can sharpen the points on both ends of the chop stick to make it look like a tiny dp needle. maybe i will even paint it yellow or some such thing we will see.
once i am done locating and making the chop stick look like a dp needle its then time to move onto the what to stuff inside Da Egg so i can put in the chicks.
and i think those are going to be stitch markers laying around and maybe even a circluar row counter stitch marker. use knitting items for the little things inside. hum i am getting even more ideas as i blog. LOL i sure do love mornings a good time to be creative. for sure. oh yea i cant even locate my cell phone this am so i can take pictures LOL

ok cell phone located pictures taken pencil shapener not found but found another one that worked

Da Adventures of the Egg & I

2007-02-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

After allot of note taking drawing math and figuring where i am heading with this egg. i sat this am while watching the court proceedings on where the heck to bury Anna Niclole and knit me an egg. yep felted it up and then sewed it to a the form egg i was using as a base for my design.

so now that i got this far and its sitting there in my window drying up. I can now get to the part of designing an outside picture or landscape so when i do get the felting needles in the mail which by the way were sent yesterday all weather baring i should see those next week sometime then i can proceed from there to finishing this one.

i bathed it in fabric stiffener to further help it to keep its shape. tomorrow or the next day i can take its stitches out and see what i got so i can come up with a foam form to felt the design with .

and ya know i have allot more wool yarn left over too so i can make maybe several more of these before i am done . we will see.

meanwhile the next step is to begin to think of tiny chicks and how the heck i come up with those. LOL i got an idea yep but i have to try it all out . so back to the drawing board. and yes i am keeping allot of notes on just how i arrived at this egg and how i will get to the finish line with it all. hum sounds like my first pattern in the works huh ? :)

Da Egg and I

2007-02-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

ok call me obsessive .... what ever. i know i am and that is ok
the spring challenge is going to save my sanity for sure . ( that is just life with mikey talking there ) so lately i work on it off and on off and on.
ideas swimming around in my head . i have the basics down on what i want it to look like as far as shaping it goes. wrote all that down drew that all out.
measurements and all.
it should be this high ....this wide......... this shape....... have this ......to do this with and that .
all questions asked i brought out the yarns and picked out the frist contender.
a very old ball of fishermans yarn so it used to be called. good thing i stored it in a old sandwich bag over the years LOL i have learned yarns are like a good wine if kept in good condition they just are so much better over the years.

time to do a swatch. knit 10 stitches and 10 rows and then wash it to see how it felted up. and of course knit one more that i wouldnt do the felting with . so i would be able to see them side by side and know if this contender is even worthy of knitting up as an easter egg.
that poor swatch was treated like a drowning person. glub glub into the wash tub. ( stuck it in a nylon sock and tied the end closed ) check you out see if you shrunk nope down again glub glub glub . two times down and that should have told me no go. it did felt but not totally. i can still see stitches. but i am thinking that may work to my advantage.
heck i even tried dropping the little thing into my small coffee maker to see if it would felt up more LOL just a tade was all.
sooooo now that its drying its time to do one thing i am not good on at all. and that is the math. ugh your talking to a knitter who cant balance her check book on a good day with a pocket callculator LOL oh well that is what i got hubby for he said he would do all the figuring for me later on.
meanwhile i will begin to work on dreaming up a drawing for the outside . though we did discuss what to do with the inside of the egg. seems he wants me to knit a tiny chick to put in a nest in there LOL and he is serious.
and that leaves me standing by the coffee pot with the wool swatch cooking away thinking yep this is what you call a real challenge . one i know is going to be alot of sanity saving fun for me over the next few weeks :)

The disaster of the Purple hat and how it turned out ok

2007-02-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

after doing all that knitting and after running out of yarn and waiting for the store to open up patiently i was finally done knitting the purple hat and ready to felt it in the washing machine. totally happy i was so close to done
awe but then after taking this picture of how huge it is before felting it and throwing it in the wash. and going back to check on it. i pulled out what could have been a disaster . the purple felted up nicely but the 100 %wool yarn from Joann's hubby bought wouldn't even budge not one inch wouldn't felt at all and nothing on the label indicated it wouldn't . hubby was totally disgusted said throw it all out. to which i said no if it wont felt up not a problem i will just use it to make hats for those family members don't know what cold was is for . with that i pulled out a pair of scissors and trimmed off the lavender yarn that was hanging off the purple hat looking really ugly. took the purple and shaped it on the candle holder that doubles as my hat mold placed paper towel in the brim i turned up and now it is sitting in the bedroom drying slowly in the cold Alaskan air for what its worth LOL waiting to see what i will decide to do with it next.

paper towels rolled up and stuffed in the brim to keep the brims shape as it dries

stitch markers, row counters and measuring tapes

2007-02-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

measuring tape cut at the 13 mark and bent over a tiny key chain ring to use as a stitch marker
this stitch marker row counter was done using nylon cording with beads strung on to add that awesome look of wow . i used small beads of green at the top and bottom of the row counter as stoppers to keep the beads from running into the center. and used a darning needle to insert the cord into the row counter. stung it all onto a the tiniest key chain ring i could find. when doing this you may want to wax the end of the nylon cord using candle wax so you can string those beads alot easier. and when done burn the ends using a cigaret ligher to seal them so they dont come undone.
more row counters hung on key chain rings the blue one is the first one i ever did the other one was hung using black leather knotted and tied to the ring simply done easy to use .
love making earrings too with the grands so setting out to make stitch markers that would make any knitting project wow was and adventure for sure with the kids here are three Mandy and i made together
and lastly nothing like making something that says Alaska so here are two stitch markers i made using beads i found at our local bead store that once done say yep she is an Alaskan knitter :)

the spring challenge here at our local yarn store wow

2007-02-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Ronda http://mitstitchingnut.blogspot.com/
omg you will never in a million years dream of what happened to me today LOL
hubby took me to the local yarn store so i could buy the purple yarn i was out of. all went well the owner is back from her long trip south and so she was glad to help me out . and glad to see me again. i showed her the purple yarn i wanted and she said " What no more green yarn?" i said nope done with the green hat along and i smiled . she found the right dye lot easy enough because i use my stitch and bitch book and clip a piece of yarn off each skein i buy and tuck it all in there along with the label so if i run out i know what i am looking for. she said i was really well organized. i said for this moment in time its working but i know there may come a point when it all goes up in the air and i end up becoming unorganized. LOL
then as were heading to the check out area she grabs me by the shoulder and says oh oh yea i have something i want you to make sure you see.
she is running a spring challenge and wants me to enter tells me its a spring theme due April fools day and make sure it has an Easter theme to it or design. then said its ok i know you can do this because i apparently had this really pained look on my face. LOL i didn't tell her my thoughts were " omg you want me to knit an egg !!! " instead i kept my mouth shut and both her and hubby told me flat out they knew i could meet this challenge. i silently gathered up the yarn and left for the door to take a look see what it was about this challenge that is going on. which she had posted there for all to see , took down the information and we went home.
on our way home i was thinking about you and all your beautiful felting designs the beautiful heart you did and all that and thinking of my first thought of knitting and Easter egg. and my head was reeling in designs and how toos and the lot. sooooooooo i shopped on line bought some felting needles and i am going to do just that plan out and Easter egg with some nice Easter spring designs on it i certainly have enough time on hand to figure this out and give it a good try right?
yea i think i even figured out the pattern for the egg in my head on my way home the 12 mile drive will sure give you time to think especially if your the passenger :)

ran out of yarn and my week end so far :)

2007-02-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

what can i say i ran out of purple yarrn for the felted hat i was working on same pattern as the green birthday hat. sigh. waited patiently yesterday for hubby to get up but when we went out shopping for yarrn and food and lunch and other items we found the yarn store was closed and probably wont be open until tuesday. found the other items we were shopping for werent there. but we did locate a new light bulb for the freezer wowwwwwwwww now there is a treat i can see what is in there for the frist time in forever. yep having my man home is a wonderful thing.

took lauras hat to her this week end too and the first thing she did was take off everything but one white flower. she loves it though its all super wash wool and should keep her head nice and warm while she is out styling around.

everyone loved it and now i have an requests for the same hat in diffrent colors of course from the grands . hey what is a grams for right if not to knit you wonderful things that you will wear or things others wont and you scarf up like mandy does LOL she has this nack for following the things i knit for others around and if they even say oh lovely and then decide no way she is there soon after to grab that item up and say mine mine mine dont ask for it back. your loss my gain. so i would say having one grand fan of my knitting makes it all worth while. :)

no word on the reception of the green birthday hat at all. but that is ok mandy pie liked that one too so thinking of how she is with all my knitting i know one way or the other its going to find a good home.

i spent most of last night playing a two player game with mike on the x box. called Hallo or some such spelling. i had a ton of fun got killed a few times but we made it through something like 5 levels before we called it a day and he went to the movies.

no knitting last night i was busy trying to figure out size in the pattern for lauras hat so i could make it a few different sizes if need be. that way i can begin on timmys today while i am waiting patiently for the yarn store to open tomorrow so i can get the purple yarn and finish the decrease area on the crown of this hat. and move onto the flowers for it.

meanwhile i made one more quick circular row counter thing so if i have to count rows in timmys hat i can though i think i dont have to but i have another one on hand just in case since the one i made is being used for the purple hat. matter of fact i think i may pick up a few more row counters while i am out and about tomorrow joanns is right around the corner from the local yarn store. so picking up one is not a problem since i would be in the same area. its cheeper there anyway. but the yarn is so so totally awesome and so so much better from the local yarn store. i could buy one or more each friday which was pay day. but that has seriously changed now havent a clue what will come next sigh. but hey life goes on and i knit anyway. LOL

count my circular knitting?

2007-02-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

you know i just thought of something this am will make all our knitting alot easier especial those of us that love to knit on cicular knitting needles :)

I am always having to count rows or decreases or some such thing when knitting and have had to carry around one of those clicker type counters that is almost about the size of a credit card . yet if i am doing my knitting on the go beware and good luck if you put that thing down you may not find it for a bit or you may miss place it or you could just end up loosing it all togeather. and then its shades of where was I???????!!!!

fear no more at least for me :)

like alot of us i have gotten into making my own stitch markers. hum there is a thought. love to make my own and have turned an old measureing tape into one so i would have a 12 inch tape on hand for those hats and gloves and mittens and things.

aweeeeee and now a stich marker row counter ta daaaaaa roll the drums please and take a good peek when i get to the bead store some time soon i may just remake this but for now it does the trick :)

oops forgot to say one thing.. its best to use either a cord that will feed through the middle of the row counter or a peice of leather cording which is what i did. knot the end string on what ever you want to . and then either knot the top to the key chain ring or use a necklace closer that bites into the leather to close it all off and then put it onto the key chain ring which by the way is the smallest one they have out there.

oh cool one of the ladies who replied to the post on get stitchy found a link to one you can order so if you dont want to make one use this link to get one that is already made by clover of course :) http://yarn.com/webs/0/0/0/0-1064-1088-1446/0/0/2340/

The Birthday Hat

2007-02-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

well i got it done even though right now for this moment in time my daughter isnt talking to me i am sure before her birthday she will get over it LOL

hats and hair cuts

2007-02-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

i have had nothing but fun knitting hats lately and of course found one more pattern yesterday that i just had to try out. so hubby bought me the book and i went home and worked on another green hat all night and just finished it up a few ago.
but while we were out i got a hair cut finally. havent seen a hair solon in ages . my hair was all one length and all the way down to the top of my but. and i was so so tired of washing it . would take me forever and lots of soap and three towels. so while we were out and about i told hubby i want a hair cut and i want one badly. he stopped by the solon on our way through the mall and they had an opening at 12 noon. when i got in the lady said ok what do you want . i said a hair cut sholder length and i want it layered and i want bangs. she asked me first before we got started if it was ok if she cut my hair before we washed it or began i can i donate it to locks of love? i asked her want locks of love was and she said its a charity foundation that takes hair like i am asking you for and makes wigs for cancer patients for free . would you like to dontate your hair. i said sure thing. and it made me feel so wonderful that all that hair i had jsut ignored for the past 5 years was going to go serve a good deed for someone who needed it .
sooooooooo the hat the hat hum sounds like da plane da plane LOL
like i said i have this hat pattern i found in a new book called Felt It! by Maggie Pace. on page 79 . that hat is a total wowww.
well i knit it up and when i was done i took it out to show mike . i smiled and said mike what you think? he said what is it grams ? its a hat for your auntie polly for her birthday next week. he smiled laughed and said yea for auntie pollies big big head LOL i said be nice now mikey and watch the magic. and i took the hat and threw it into the washing machine.
before i tell you about how wow it is let me tell you i did put it on my head first and it went right over my head and came down to my solders LOL i couldtn even see out it was like this huge green bag that was knit up and there i was calling it a hat LOL
i made sure i tucked the flowers into a nylon sock when i washed those so i wouldnt loose them. and i let the washing machine rip. kept checking to see if the magic had happened every 2 mins or so. and for the longest time nothing and i was beginning to wonder if i was totally wrong would this happen or not. and then walla it did and i pulled out this awesome hat . put it on my head and showed it to mike said see what ya think now he said is that the same hat you were showing me oh oh i know you felted it wowwwwwwww that is so cool he said he loved how it did that felting thing and how thick this one turned out . show stiff it was and thought once it dries its going to turn into one heck of a hat. i sewed on the flowers and the sunflower button hubby picked out for it shaped it one more time on my head and then put it on the candle holder i have that is nice and head shaped round to air dry over night. once done then its time to wrap it up .
oh yea take pictures of it frist yep yep
awe but hubby likes to take me shopping and this time he got me a bag full of yarn he took great pride in picking out all the colors this one that one maybe this one yep yep that one and NO GREEN !!! told me i have to begin making my hats in other colors LOL
yep the next one in this pattern is going to be in purple and lavender :)

mikes green hat :)

2007-02-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

not to sure how many more i am going to knit at all. maybe one and that may be it.we will see.

but i have had tons of fun looking and drueling over wool yarn learning how to stand in the local yarn store and squish yarn get a good feel for it and all that. and have had alot of fun looking at patterns for hats and buying more books on nothing but hats. let me tell you i know have a ton of hat patterns. and havent even scrapped the top of the pile of hat patterns i do have. even though the green hat along is coming to an end soon i will continue to knit hats but use alot of different colors when i do besides green :) and i can tuck all i do into zippies and use as gifts through the year.

sooooooo here is mikes green hat . yes i fell madly in love with the slip stitch pattern.

my next one is going to be a lovely felted hat for my daughter. in green of course for her birthday and then lastly will be hubbies.

i think by then i will be ready to buy another color LOL of course when i bought my latest book at the yarn store the lady laughed and said still knitting green hats. i smiled and said yep of course i am :)

hey i have had alot of fun with this green hat along and all the gals that have dove into it and shared their talents and posted all of their thoughts to get stitchy which has become my favorite hang out on line these days . :)

finished green hat for laura

2007-02-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

and here is the finished peice . make sure you read the long list of posts below so you know how i got to this point :)

begin with hats hats and more hats (Laura's green hat ) and then work your way up to here through all the pictures and posts that have (Laura's green hat ) attached to the post .

remember this hat was majorly influenced by one done on get stitchy posted by Lúthien Elendil

sorry no pictures of laura in her new hat until this coming week end i wont see her until then that is when she comes with her bro and sis for their week end visit :) cant wait to see her in it though :)

ok back to bed one of the grands gave me an early valentines day gift i must go enjoy i think..... yep its called a slight head cold another good excuse for renting movies and knitting up a storm LOL

remember those tiny buttons ? (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

remember those tiny buttons its time to button on the flowers to each of them

button down the leafs (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T10:05:00.000-08:00

to do this you have to take the band off the hat and wrap the long cord with the leaves around it and then button down each end of it like in the bottom picture using the last leaf on each end to do so.

Button me up please :) (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

time to use all those buttons i sewed on the hat . frist i button the band on that i knit and placed those three small buttons on.

time to be creative (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

the middle one is the knit band out of two colors of fun fur type acrylic yarns knit togeather as one. one is green yarn the other is one of those varagated yarns .

top picture is the long knit cord with all those knit leaves right out of " Knitting on the edge " by nicky epstein. page 118.

and then of course the flowers crocheted just done no pattern

brim of the green hat and the buttom placement (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

here you can see the brim i made for the tam hat. and the button placement for the band of goodies to come. brim cut out of a plastic ice cream tub . the one gallon kind .

basic tam hat in green (Laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

here is the back of the green hat discribed below so you can get a feel for where were heading. the pattern came out of the hat book pictured below which i used to make the green tweed tam. " knit hats" by Gwen Steege
page 40 i modified it for my own use .

hats hats and more hats ( laura's green hat )

2007-02-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

awe heck the lady at the local yarn store is getting used to seeing me every friday like clock work LOL and its always green wool yarn . one skien here one there. maybe two but its always more green. my little stach of green wool hasnt grown any though it seems to remain the same.
so now i am fighting a slight sinus infection. ugh i hate this sort of thing but that is ok. mike and i went to block busters and rented a stack of movies which we are slowly making our way through. as i do i knit more green hats .
the one i came up with this week end was a major figure out how to recreate a new look from and existing pattern.
no pictures just yet . but i got to tell you i did complete the hat .
mandy pie ordered a hat for her sis . had to be a fishermans type of hat. the kind looks like a baseball cap but with a tam sort of hat to it .
had to be green of course this is for her sister. and her sis talked to me about it all and it had to be just about plain. if you put flowers on it not to many. ( i was thinking ya sure what ever gf but i got to create something more ya know )
keeping all this in mind i not only looked at all the patterns for hats like this but tried a few . most of them are crocheted. and i remembered the one i did years ago using a bed spread pattern for the actual hat part. and an old baseball cap to take the plastic bill out of and the brim area so i could build off that.
the challenge would be i have no old baseball caps laying around. so had to come up with something else.
i used an old ice cream bucket for that bill and figured out fast that was all i needed. kids wear the hats back and down anyway. the bill dont have to stick straight out and they like to curve them in the ice cream bucket side gave me all i needed for that part.
so the other callenge was to come up with a hat pattern i would like.
after alot of stummbling around i was back at the tam hat the one i did in green tweed. and alot of thinking .
instead of increasing 50 stitches i increased maybe 25 if that. and made the hat as it said to from there on only less stitches to go around.
of course i dont sew the pea coated edge down i wait until i have enough of the upper edge done and put the lower edge onto the same size needles and knit that thing closed and then knit up from there.
anyway when i was done with the hat it was time to do the bill.
so i picked up two stitches on every pea coated edge half way around the hat. and then as i knit on the right side i decreased on each side and on the purl side i did the same thing. i left off when i had about 25 to maybe less or more stitches. it was more or less a feel for how many. not a count.
once i did that then it was time to increase back to the same as the area i had picked up the orginal stitches. sorry i didnt count those either.
this way i could sew up the sides and tuck in the plastic bill i cut out of the ice cream bucket and then both side of that would be covered.
once done the next challenge was to decorate it. i put a button at the top in the middle one of those silver irish knot ones.
and then i had this one inch brim area above the bill i could use to decorate . and of course i had only 1/2 of that i could actually decorate that being the front half. and keeping in mind laura said it had to be as plain as could be i devised a system on there that would keep it that way if she wanted it to be plain. i sewed two buttons on one on each side of the bill of the hat. right in the middle of the band on each side.
took out some fun fur yarn one in green and one in some other colors and knit a 6 stitch band complete with button holes on each end so the band could be buttoned onto the brim of the hat. did this in a stockenet stitch.
and now it was time to have even more fun.
i took out one of the knitting over the edge books because i was having difficulty as a knitter remembering how to corchet leaves just leaves. and found an edge with a knit leaf. on it attached to a cord . so i knit a long cord one of those on the two needles with three stitches dont turn the knitting things.
at each end i knit a leaf. at the base of each one are eye lets so it was easy to use that to button the long leaf chain onto the hat band . ok keeping in mind this is all made out of super wash wool. so no worries on it shrinking anytime soon. so the opening of the eye let should work for along time to come for a button hole i think . could be wrong have been known to be .
but then it was time to add more leafs so every three inches i picked up three stitches and did a leaf and then at the base of that leaf i knit one more leaf so i had one going one direction and another going the other. when i was done. i had this long knit cord with leafs coming out everywhere. i wrapped that around the band i knit and buttoned it all onto the hat band. added three buttons and then crochet some small well rather some to me large flowers and buttoned those onto the hat band where i had placed the tree buttons earlier and walla i was done. if she dont like the fancy she can remove it all. if she wants her hat to have a diffrent look she can by just replacing the band with another one knit crocheted sewn it wouldnt matter and buttoning on more or less of what she wants.
like i said photos later not enough light here just yet. i also have to say this hat was majorly influenced by a hat that one of the gals did on the green hat along with all the fancy flowers and cords hanging off it. i loved the idea and went for it.

My Green hat

2007-02-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

knitting is my best friend these days. and any day to be frank. i can take it along anywhere i go and knit up a storm knit when i am bored, happy, sad, frustrated, any eemotion will do. stuck waiting for hubby in the ttruck while he goes into like a plumbing store and i knit. yesterday was no exception my grandson 23 years old and i had a spat not because i wanted to mind you but because he is still not mature enough to handle any news in his life that effects just himself in a mature manor. so he took it out on me. carried on like a two year old child.

so since i really liked the hat that mandy pie grabbed up i knitted one for me went to my room turned on the tv and went to town. using the same yarn color and all just a bit bigger is all same buttons and that is where the simularities stopped. i put a silver button on the very top nd this am i went over board crocheted up some 4 leaf clovers as button covers and now i can take the button covers off if i want a downsized look or just wear as is

here is my take on the same hat mandy loves

Third hat waiting for a home :)

2007-02-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

this one is all wool done in a knitted tam pattern with a nice celtic button sewn to the top.

and i am at present working on another wool hat for my oldest grandson.

hats that found good homes :)

2007-02-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

top is mandy pie middle is timmy and the bottom is mandy sporting not just hers but the very tiny one i made for her little doggie halley who is a rat terrier :)

green tee shirt cover

2007-01-31T07:51:00.000-08:00

i did everything i could to locate a tee shirt sort of tank top thing. found some patterns on line but wasnt to happy with them so did my own version . used my stitch pattern book to locate just the right pattern to go up the middle . and then just took it from there. did a crochet shell edging on the bottom.

i was going for the layered look wanted something to throw over any tee shirt but to use when i dont actually have to have a full sweater. this is all wool made with the super wash wool

do i like green or what this is a very very dark green i used.

3rd green hat in progress and my stach of green yarns

2007-01-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

at the top is the third green hat yep i am really getting into this but then in alaska when there is no place really to go because your socked in by snow and cold temps and alot of ice on the roads what do you do. you knit scrapbook take pictures read watch tv and blog but mainly i have been knitting alot:)

ok the red basket contains all the green acrylic yarn i do have

and the stack of yarn above that is all wool which i cant wait to go see if i can find more of on friday :) got to love those fridays:)

oh yea this hat number 3 is all wool

second green hat

2007-01-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

i think this one is going to go to my grandson timmy or kai man i added as many of those 3 leaf clover buttons to the top as i could and rolled the bottom edge back it turned out fine but i think more for one of the guys maybe :)

this one is made using red heart acrylic yarn both boys dads dont know what cold water wash is for :)

this one is knit from the top down .

The book i am using right now

2007-01-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

At present i am working my way through this book one hat at a time

1. frist hat was on page 32 called slip a color

2.nd hat is on page 18 called carrot top

3rd hat which i am knitting now is on page 40 its called the three gauge beret

First Green Hat

2007-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

this one is all wool. and just my size fits fine. now I am wondering how long before I hear MOM I LOVE IT CAN I HAVE THIS ONE???
sooooooooo we will see. this last picture did some photo adjusting too so the colors are allot deeper then that hat really is its more the second pictures colors.
Thought the clover leaves buttons would be a good touch. I sewed those around the hat at about a fingers length up and then down all the way around.

I ordered books on line

2007-01-30T14:24:00.000-08:00

wow I guess you could say I am flat enjoying myself with this green hat along thing.
so far i have tried knitting three diffrent patterns. like them all one is just the right size and two are alittle to big for me but what the hey. i am having fun.
I finally went on line looking at amazon and bought the 100 hats book they just emailed me and said both of the books i sent for are on there way. should have them both in a week maybe less.
Lion Brand Yarn: Just Hats...
100 Hats to Knit & Crochet
sounds good to me i sure didnt see either of these at our local stores.
right now i am thinking on the last hat of making some small 4 leaf clover things to hang off the end. hummmm its an idea have to get out the old crochet hook and give it a good try.
oh yea and I thought about my moms old sequin hat pattern too i think i foudn that one. so friday i must go to joanns and locate some good size sequins .

2007-01-27T08:15:00.000-08:00

I used to go to the yarn stores and look and then tell myself you know you cant buy just one skien of yarn you have to buy enough to complete a project.
so i always bought enough to do one sweater my size and let me tell you as the years go buy that size is getting larger LOL
anyway at some point i stopped doing that and just didnt buy much yarn at one time at all. if any. but since i began to hang out on line with all the gals that knit and blog well i found a new freedome and i am just flat enjoying picking up one or two of any color i want right now. and of course now its green. told my grand daughter this am ya know when i am dont gathering green i should have enough here to make green hats for the family for st pats day. she was tickled pink at the idea . and i said i can just use this knit along as a study in hat pattens lord knows i have enough hat patterns here already. :)
i have my first one picked out i need 4 diffrent colors of green for this one so must count see if i have enough of the wool if not i can sure use acrylic yarn too since some of the family are kids . even if wool is the better pick i do have family members dont know what cold water wash is for and family to small to care. and parents who would rather it be acrylic instead of wool.
so for those it shall be acrylic and for others maybe felted. and others still i can use good wools.
yep its all coming togeather in my mind for sure.
time for more coffee and a take look see. count yarn instead of sheep :)

mandy and i are hunting down green yarn and hat patterns

2007-01-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

yesterday we went to the yarn store and picked out some more green. and went to the local book stores and looked for knitting books with hat patterns in them too. so far were just having fun running around looking.
she brought her braclet threads with her for the week end and set those up beside the bed so when she wakes up she can begin to macrome a braclet for i think her cusin annie whose birthday party is today.
i took mandy back to Claires yesterday so she could buy a few more things because when we went yesterday am i had a bad headache and instead of taking a good look around i said buy a gift certificate and lets get going. so mandy didnt have much of a chance to look around. same thing at the yarn store. so i think today we will head back there too.
maybe this time take out time and really look around not just see green and grab and run LOL but she still had fun anyway.

ok grams what pattern show me your green :)

2007-01-26T09:03:00.001-08:00

mandy is my 9 year old grand daugther and my best bud when it comes to planning things like scrapbooks baking, cooking , and knitting . i told her about the green hat knit along and she had to see what shades of green i have here and what kind wool or acrylic and what patterns have you looked at so far grams. so we sat and i showed her what i have here. she took her time tumbing through all of them... she crochets and would love to learn to knit we have tried a few rows now and then ( she has a birth defect with her hands )she hasnt given up on it neither have i. meanwhile she keeps up trying with her crocheting i know she will win eventually just like she did with the sissors so long ago when i kept her in computer paper and lived with a sea of paper cut up all over the house. took her a year to learn how to do what other kids learn in a few weeks maybe. anyway. mandy took a look at the patterns i have and then said you know grams i dont like any of them totally i like bits of this one and that one. maybe you could put some of them togeather? if not we can come up with something new . nowwwww that is my gal. never say never and if you cant move it recreate it. got to love her outlook in life. and things she runs into. soooooooo today we head out and go squeeze yarn and take a peek see. she is saying what ever i do i need more then one color of green... i seem to agree. always love wide choices at hand
_________________hugs and love and tons of prayers from me crissy in alaska

I escaped for a bit yesterday

2007-01-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

Yep been in this house way to long because of the weather. One min. it was nothing but rain so bad i couldn't see the road to drive. Then it sun shined and I could see the snow coming. the worst of it for me is the walk way from my front door to the drive way and to the truck door is nothing but sheer ice. To get to the truck door i had to lay down salt as i went or i would have been grabbing at anything to stay on my feet.

Walking the dogs is a chore for me right now. We don't go far at all if we do. I would rather clean up after them then break a leg or something and end up in a cast for weeks on end.

But like I said I needed to get out. So I timed it right the local yarn store doesn't open here until 11: am and I so wanted to get there and just take my time and go through looking for green yarn for the get stitchy hat knit along. And I did just that I was lucky it was just me and the young gal that was working there in the store so we had a blast looking for the perfect green yarn. We found several that may have worked one was a very nice bright emerald green but I opted for one that had alittle more to it and bought two of those .

I also talked about how alot of the knitters I have come to know like to go to yarn stores and squish yarn and feel what they see. So we had a blast trying that out too. I never did that before always looked but only touched what I was going to buy. Boy what I been missing out on huh LOL

I also spotted a book on the counter a knitting novel mentioned on Home of the StitchingNut . And I thought about her as I picked it up and took a look see. heck I thought about alot of you when I was at the store taking a long look at yarn. :)

asked about the yarn hubby ordered for his sweaters he has me knitting. But no word on those yet.

I did take note that all the yarn in the store is really more winter tones dark tones nothing really bright. hummmmm

and I noticed the knitting bags were on sale asked how much they came too because there light weight compared to the one I bought before the store brought these in. she said 25 % off so I picked one out and got it for 56.00 works for me totally.

mine is in raspberry red and I moved into it last night wow do I love this bag.
I also have the art ben purple round one looks like a bucket to me . It is good but what I don't like about it is it rolls around when your carrying it . So I was looking for something with room and i mean lots of room that would stay by my side when I was out there . when hubby comes home ( he works out of town at a mine 5 weeks out and 2 weeks in now) when were out and about I love taking my knitting with because he can stop along the way and talk to a buddy for along time while I wait in the truck or am sitting at a restaurant or standing in a store i can take out my knitting and get in a few rounds or rows.
oh my it was a whole 40 degrees while I was out there yesterday too rain and wind and puddles in parking lots big enough to make swimming pools out of driving through some of the ones on the road sure blinds one to even with the windshield wipers going full bore.
well today I have just the two guys but tonight I get the other three grands for the rest of the week . No school Friday. Parents have to work so its time for a visit to grandmas. My great grandson is here now for his 2 days so his ma can attend her two days at the university.
Anyway I want to spend some time today looking for the hat pattern. Already tested one out and not to trilled with it. So am still hunting for the right one if not when I am done looking I will just make one up the way I want. I got something in mind just haven't found it yet and may not so may have to sit and draw it out. We will see.

Green Hat knit along

2007-01-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

my mom was Irish. her dad came over during the potatoe famine. in fact i hear tell my son stood by and listened as an officer told my grandfathers story. but couldnt reply at all because of some rank thing. had no choice but to listen about how grandpa loftus came over during that time and headed to alaska neverr to be heard or seen from again. i sure wish he could have talked to them and said that is me that is me i am his great grandson from alaska but it never happened. so close but so so far.............
anyway. guess this 1/2 irish gal , (yep even my dad was irish )is in need of a green hat to go with the green tee shirts and the green sweater and the green knit tank top thing i just finished.
oh yea and i got green socks to boot LOL
i guess i need to go find some green jeans huh LOL
ya think they will get the hint about my irish side or take one good long look at me in all my green and think yukkkkkkkk throw that moldy thing out LOL expiration date come and gone on her gffffffffff LOL

what can i buy for a buck?

2007-01-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

not much these days but a smile goes along way. today it was time to run around just a few more days of that left and hubby flies out of here and back to the mining camp for another month. he took me out and bought me clam chowder for lunch. and then when i went back to the yarn store and grabbed two skiens of green yarn which is my all time favorite color he quickly stepped up to the counter and paid for them. when we went to the grocery store and i picked out two new knitting magizines he paid for those too. said i earned it since i take care of everything while he is gone. hummm if you say so dear. and all i had to do was smile and say thanks . i havent quite firgured out what i will knit with the green wool yarn yet but ihave it. on hand when i do figure it out.
and today the motrola phone tools arrived in the mail and i installed those and they work really well with the razor v3 hubby bought me i can now access all pictures on the cell phone and transfer to and from the pc or phone any photos i want. i just love it makes taking pictures while i am out a real snap and the cell phone takes really good pictures too. sooooooooo this gal is a happy happy camper today for sure.

the big yarn buy :)

2007-01-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

ok call me spoiled . i dont have near enough yarn to finish hubbys sweater. and when he found out today what i was up too. he took me to my dental appointment where i got my uppers fitted again. i tell you what its weird i felt like i had huge ammounts of stuff in my mouth the dental assistant said frist time you were your dentures your going to feel like you have a bathtub in there until you get used to them LOL that is about how it felt too.
anyway shortly after that appointment hubby took me straight to the local yarn store where he ordered 10 skiens of super wash wool in black. i said but i dotnt need that much he said but you always need yarn so may as well be that much ok. i didnt argue i am sure i can knit our son a sweater too with what is left over either that or a bunch more hats. LOL yep i am spoiled and i admit it . either that or he knows a good deal when he hears about it LOL

da Black sweater

2007-01-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

what do you do when the weather is so cold out there were sitting at 18 degrees this am. You either sit and watch tv or you knit.

top photo is of the collar. I began by knitting three inches of ribbing. For some reason hubby likes those three inch collars. maybe to help keep his neck warm.

I also set the stitch markers to divide up the collar for front right ,right sleeve, back, left sleeve, left front.

second photo is a picture of where I am changing needles and beginning to do the body work

Third photo is taken of where I left off last night

time to knit a nice wool sweater for hubby

2007-01-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

Yeterday I began to knit a sweater for hubby. Its a raglan sleeve seamless sweater knit from the neck down.

here is a picture of the booklet i am using for this sweater. its by far one of my all time favs. i located mine after years of not using it and storing it away. and then was lucky enough to locate the one my mom owned also.

I am using black cascade super wash wool. hubby has been known in the past to shrink his wools .

here is a set of the cutiest needle covers i ever saw

2007-01-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

you know i remember these being sold when i was a kid. anyway these were among my moms knitting items. and i really charish them alot. have alot of fond memories of mom knitting sweaters even in her 90's every christmas for as long as i can remember mom knit sweaters or hats for all the children.

she was 93 when she passed on some 11 years back. and i am so glad she shared her knitting with me .

second oldest item in my knitting stach

2007-01-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

second one is a two inch measuing hair pin sort of item

I use this alot when I am making cuffs

all you have to do is just slip it on and clip the one end shut anywhere you want it to be

Some of the oldest items I own in my knitting supply statch

2007-01-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

the frist one is a red sock mender

how it is used is you stuff the ball end into the sock and that keeps you from sewing the other side while your mending the holes. of course this came out of my moms knitting items.

Knitting bags and me

2007-01-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

I cant even tell you when needing anything to keep my knitting needles and other goodies became an all out obsession to either locate one or figure out what to do sort of thing.

Like allot of knitters I tried everything you could think of. From traveling tooth brush holders for the double pointed needles.... to altoid tins for the stitch markers. And old cd cases for the circular needles.

But.... it always came down to nothing was in the same location ......all were in different areas.

Leaving me to hunt down what I was looking for anyway through either a larger knitting bag or my own room full of craft items.

I did hunt not only in every store I could walk into but on line. Most of the knitting cases were either to small or didn't offer enough storage for all the items I have .

Finally I had enough and decided to come up with my own thing.

Which had to fit certain ideas though.

Large enough to hold everything and yet be able to grow with my ever growing supply of items I have and still seem to obtain from time to time.

And when opened I must be able to view everything in side at a glance or find my way around.

I went to the office supply store here and got ring binders 3 inches in diameter.

A box of zip lock freezer bags because there thick and because they come with a label that you can write on this way I can enter what size the needle is and how long it is .

one paper punch fabric and fabric stabilizer and a zipper to fit around.

i began by measuring the zip lock bags that was going to determine the size front and back of the bag. then added in the tree inch binder rings all the way around cut that in 1/2 to be able to put in the zipper later on and sewed up a bag to fit didn't matter to me what the material was i picked out one that had enough to fit the project. that was left laying around here .

once i got the bag made i made sure i put in a strip along the spin where I could insert the rings sewed that in and left openings for the rings.

got the rings in and then it was time to sit and use a paper punch and small scissors to make holes in one end of each of the freezer bags. i found the paper punch didn't always cut through the plastic so i had to cut out the hole impressions at times. but it was worth it all in the end.

I spread out all my supplies and took the rest of the day to measure each circular needle both length of and size with a needle gauge and then write on the label of each zippy what it was and then organize them out according to size and length. so i began with the cuffing needles those are only 9 inches long and then went to the 16 inch needles and so on and so on until i was done.

after that i put in items like measuring tapes. stitch markers, cable needles and pom pom makers all in there own bags and placed where i want them. later on i went back and after locating all the double pointed needles i put each set in with the same size circulars.

at Christmas when i went out and bought more needles all i had to do was come home and take out a few more zippies and punch holes in those and add in what it is and length and place in where they should go.

i like it cause everything is in one place .

do i take the whole bag with when i leave home. nope only the small bag i keep what i am using in at the moment . or the basics is about it . that bag i can pack with all i need for each project and when done return all i don't need to the larger keep all bag.

The late Christmas hat and digital cameras

2007-01-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Two photos of the BLACK yep you got it black late christmas hat in progress .
Hubby asked me to make just a couple of days before Christmas of course.
I am using super wash cascade yarn. Got to love that yarn its wonderful for men and kids and gals that dont know what cold water wash is :)

Please parden the photos on here my digital camera is a peice of junk. someone stole the good one i had and in a rush to replace it i bought the lower end cyber shot. never again. it has never taken good photos at all. and seems to just be getting worse.
The has is actually BLACK but the photos turned out so light and pale it wasnt funny i tried to darken them in mgi photo before i put them here but clearly that didnt work either.
the patten is a ear flap hat pattern. i cant even tell you where it came from the one i have had for some 18 years is hand written by me on two sheets of recipie cards and i remember it was only done after i did some adjustments to the pattern. i have absoulutly no idea where i got it or who from or what mag if any. But it is the one hat flap pattern that i have used for years now faithfully for everyone .

Things that go bump in the night ughhhhhhhhhh

2007-01-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

There i was laying there just about alseep when i hear this aweful crash something falling down good and hard in my bedroom. Lights on and i am looking around only to find one of the shelves on my book case holding all my scrapbooking supplies had fallen apart and dumpt on the floor tons of albums and items. what a mess. I have to stop this week and figure out what to do to get shelf back up so i can still use it again. I am thinking of some 1x1 strips of wood tacked in where the pins used to be maybe pre drill the holes so must remember to stop at the lumber yard sometime soon so i can pick that up and get this fixed meanwhile i have albums and items all over the place. its not a big book shelf buttttttttt in a small room it looks like alot of stuff.
hubby is home for two weeks so doing alot of blogging is going to be tough. i want to take some pictures and work more on here but time is so limited.
yesterday as tired out as he was he took me to breakfast the dentist shopping dinner he just cant seem to stop yet and just rest.
he goes back to work here friday and sat for a friend of his in town so maybe then i can sneek in photo time.
awe but i am still knitting :)
oh yea and he bought me a brand new cell phone so cool its one of those razors.
Have had one for 2 years contract was up and time for a new phone . now i am trying to get my blue tooth to shake hands with it . and figure out what eles this new cell phone will do.
added in some old pictures of items i have done in the past . and that is about it for today. need more coffee :)

Jan 2007 To Do List

2007-01-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

1. Finish both ponchos i began
2.Finish the sweater i put down before chirstmas that wasnt a gift for anyone
3.make the hat hubby asked for before christmas for one of his buddies
4. work on making a few more baby sweaters for the gift trunk
5. take photos of all items and post them here.

The Days After Christmas

2006-12-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

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 :)

2006-12-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

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 :)

2006-12-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

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
_________________

Thank You God For All The Yarn

2006-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

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 ?

2006-12-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

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 :)

2006-12-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

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.