Birthday gift this last year

I am telling you , this is one of the best gifts yet, its an eye glass holder my hubby had my grandson Levi a silversmith here in Alaska design and make for me. They put their heads together knew what i was looking for and came up with this its awesome use it all the time , never miss place my glasses anymore.

Two sweaters going

One unfortunately won't get done right away. Sadly i was working on one for my grand daughter Mandy, ran out of yarn went back to get what I needed to finish it by Christmas and the yarn shop went out of business . The other one goes into hibernation in the winter for lack of customers. Go figure. You would think in a cold climate more people would knit. But once the store re opens here soon i am sure i can get her to order me more. Yep could get it off line. I do slot of shopping on line. But this one yarn shop is like awesome so anything i can do to keep her going is fine with me, she's located in an old airline building. Up on stilts right next to the water on the wharf here step out side sit on a bench in the summer and soak in the sunshine. Watch the people walk by. And knit your heart out.
The other sweater is for me. And while knitting it i thought. You know, i always buy the best yarn for the gift socks or sweaters but when it comes time for mine i buy the make do this is ok yarn. I am thinking this summer when the yarn store opens up its time i treated myself to a yummy sweater.
Hubby bought me the addi click knitting needles a couple Christmases ago. I love those things. And during the same time i was busy making hats for My son iras first baby, none of us knew what it would be but i was hoping for a girl. Sure enough miss Zia was born the most watched baby in our family on face book .
I bought a book on just baby hats , its the last book hard cover that i did buy over 2 yrs. ago while step was still pregnant. It's called "itty- bitty hats" by Susan b Anderson i got the basic hat down then went off on my own , and knit up a bunch of baby hats in anything but baby blue or pink.
Turned out miss Zia is a bit of a fashion queen a real frilly girl. Lol
She likes her hats and i even did a few scrap book pages with her as the hat lady showing off hats the family wore
All in all my grand daughters Zia , Mandy, may and Delilah, are the ones i knit for the most .

There ya go a far better picture

Cozy , warm, a good spot for blogging

Boy it's been along time

Ran off to play wow 7 years ago. But that certainly isn't all i did. By the way i play on exodar server , now since mop a lvl 90 dwarf priest.
Oh let's see i haven't stopped knitting or playing wow. 3 yrs ago hubby got me a kindle for valentines day. Which came in the nick of time . Because the winter i dropped off the face of blogger found me fighting a huge field mice invasion . Took me 3 months to get rid of them. Never would have happened had our mice killing kitty been alive. I lost alot of fabric, yarn and a ton of books in that one. The whole thing began a 4 year long clean house deal on my part
Which began with the attic. Handed my grandson and hubby trash bags and said if its pictures or valuable and can be saved hand it down . If not toss it because no one has seen it in years.
Months went buy. And finally hubby got the clear it out bug. I tossed books out during that time. Because you couldn't be sure . Tossed out all the old kids games and a ton more. So yea getting the kindle fire was a blessing because now if its not on kindle its not coming into my home. Be it book or magazine.
I bought a lot of snap tubs to ,determined i would never go through this again. So now all my fabric and knitting supplies are stored in see through snap tubs.
Last year hubby went for surgery in jan , it was minor, but once he got on his feet. He retired both of us officially. We both have our social security coming in now.
Then once on his feet he went out to the yard. And began to redo the whole thing. All that do to the city coming through and redoing the side walks. They used our yard for everything. Didn't actually harm it as the old patio in the 7 yrs. i been gone from blogger got done in by heavy snow and the old fence went with it that year. Well the city was nice for use of the yard they built us a good fence that went around most of the yard. And left us several loads of top soil. Hubby built the rest of the fence, painted it, put in roses, strawberries, tore down the old ugly barn. Put in a new one and built us a smaller patio.
We then went to the basement were we hadn't actually begun the clean up yet and tore into that two weeks later with the help of his brother hauling it all away we took out 10 truck loads of garbage. After 4 years of going through and going through we are as close to done as you can be with the getting rid of everything that was trash or ya just didn't need.
We redid the craft corner , spent that winter redoing the front-room to what hubby likes . It now looks like a hunting lodge. Moose horns on shelves, deer horns up fishing items carefully places and our recent installment is a pellet stove.
I have actually found time now to knit again. Since during this major home cleaning and clearing of 30 some yrs of stuff . Doing much was next to impossible. I did manage to knit a few sweaters. And one yr for Christmas i got the full snap knitting needle set . Was able to clear out at that time a ton of knitting needles i didn't use or want with that addition.
And this last winter i got out a tiny quilt i had begun the yr before when i had bought some or most of the fabric for it and tried . But put it down. The house was still way to cluttered for me to do much in that line yet. But this last winter i was able to bring it out work on it feeling relaxed and in an area that was clean and organized. And finish it . Last christmas i finally got it in the mail for my youngest grand daughter. It's pictured here
The design is all in native design and all fabrics are flannel with a wool batting.
So here i sit in the frontroom on this yrs christmas gift my ipad mini .i found this app for it and thought that looks like the blogger i used to use. Omg it is. And I love it. Now i can get back i to blogging which i love too . But life got in the way lol. Ok have a good day

Awe your missing me wondering where i am at right ?

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

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

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

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

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

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 :)