Knitting Geek

Moonshadow Stole

2012-02-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Here's my stole so far. I'm happy with how it's coming out. My KAL socks are coming along nicely too. It would be nice if I get the stole finished before Stitches West, but we'll see.

It might be difficult to see but there a lot of beads on the border of the stole.

I got home from Oklahoma City on Thursday. I'm very happy to be home. I've been wearing a few family members for the last couple of days. Also our dog Daisy. Spike our cat seems pissed at me, he won't let me pet him. He's always been a cranky kind of cat anyway, so I'm not too concerned with his attitude.

Tomorrow we're having a Superbowl party. I hope that it's lot of fun and that everyone has fun. I hope that everyone is more interested in the commercials than in the game. That's how our group usually rolls. They're not much into sports.

Weekly Update

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is the Moonshadow Stole. I started it last weekend. So far it's going well. I like the beads that I bought for it. I'm looking forward to see how the finished product will look.

I don't always do this but, since I'm away from home for a month, in a much colder climate than home, I brought a piece of home with me. I brought the above quilt. I've used it almost every night while I watch TV and knit.

Not much is going on here in Oklahoma City. I watch the news every morning for the weather report. There's a house fire almost every morning, I have no idea what that's about. I've seen quite a few movies while I've been here. I saw 4 last weekend and I think three the weekend before. I plan on seeing two more this weekend. That's my plan to stay out of the mall. I seem to find shopping very easy here, must be because I get bored on the weekend and I have to get out of my apartment.

I also printed up the next clue to my KAL socks, which I'm planning on starting tonight.

Finished!

2012-01-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

I finished my On the Border Socks. Here are a few photos. I'm very happy with how they came out. I like the toes. I even like how they don't exactly match.

Here's the cuff and the leg of the socks. I'm in Oklahoma City and we had an arctic cold front come through. Not a term that I've heard before. We even received a little bit of snow that didn't last the day. Today is very sunny but quite cold outside. When the arctic cold front came through we had high winds and I lost my power for about half an hour. Strange to be in an unfamiliar place in the dark. I'm so glad that I leave my mini mag lite in my back pack.

Here's the full sock. I've started a KAL sock. For those non knitters, a KAL is a knit a long. You print up the first clue, knit. A week or two later the second clue comes out and you knit. You have no idea what the pattern is going to look like. I've finished the first clue on the right sock and I'm hoping to finish the first clue on the second sock this evening. I have a three day weekend. I'm planning on getting a pedicure and see a movie or two. Not sure what else I'm going to do.

On The Border Socks

2012-01-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

I started these socks about a week ago. I just finished the first one last night. I hope to start the second one this evening. I apologize for the blurry photos. I took these with my phone. I did not bring my camera with me to Oklahoma City. I just didn't want to pack it. I always carry it on (the airplane) and I didn't want to carry on that much stuff.

I'm very happy with how these socks came out. I really like the cream color which surprised me . The cream and blue are left over from the On the Border Socks that I made for Will. I figured I had enough to make myself a pair too. The gray blended with the blue too much so I used the left over yarn from another pair of socks because I like how it contrasted with the blue.

I also brought the shawl kit that I received for Christmas from Kelly. I ordered the beads for it when I got here. I received an email that my package is here, but they couldn't find it when I went to the office to pick it up. I'm going to try again tomorrow morning.

That's about it. Not much else is going on. Some cold weather is expected this weekend, so maybe I'll get to test out my mittens.

Mittens and Christmas

2011-12-30T18:48:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone had a nice Christmas. Mine was very nice. I made myself a pair of mittens. I'm going back to Oklahoma in January and I realized that all I have are fingerless gloves. I looked for free pattern mittens on ravelry. There are a lot. I found this one and gave it a try.

I rotated this photo before uploading it to my blog, but it's keeps loading it sideways. I'm pretty happy with how my mittens came out. The second one came out better than the first. The thumb is too small on the right mitten so I'm going to rip it back tonight and fix it. The yarn is Plymouth sock yarn so my gloves are also washable!

This is a DROPS pattern. I always like their patterns, but the wording is a bit strange in their patterns. I get the feeling that English is not the native language of the pattern writers. Because of this, I have never knitted one of the DROPS patterns before. Okay, I'm off to rip out my thumb and re knit it larger.

Joy

2011-12-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

These are my joy socks. I'm very happy with how they came out. I haven't worn them yet. I've been waiting for Christmas Eve. Today is the first time that I've even tried them on. They're very comfortable.

Here's another view. The color pooled more than I expected. Usually Blue Moon Yarns kind stripe a bit on me. I've started some mittens for myself. I've never knitted mittens before, but I figure they can't be much different from finger less gloves. We'll see how they go.

I'm supposed to be going back to Oklahoma City in January and I don't own any gloves or mittens, so I figured I would make myself a pair.

New Socks

2011-12-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

Blogger has a new layout and I'm getting used to it. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to create a new post. I'm just not used to this layout. The above photo is the last kit for this year for Socks That Rock. I've finished the first sock. I've started the icord for the second sock, but so far that's it.,

Last night was my work Christmas party. We don't usually have one, but this year we all went out to dinner and it was more fun than I expected. Maybe that was due to my alcohol consumption. I had three very large shots after dinner plus my glass of wine with dinner.

Here are my KAL socks. I really like how they came out. I'm very happy with them. I wore them yesterday. They were quite warm and comfortable. I'm kind of hoping to finish my socks that rock before Christmas just because it's a very Christmasy color way.

This evening I have another party to go to. It's the annual Christmas Tea Party, no alcohol at this party, but it's just as fun. We have to wear skirts or dresses, and something on your head. I have a head band with a flower made out of feathers. I'm looking forward to finger sandwiches and other goodies and of course tea.

Titleless

2011-12-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is where our arbor used to be. It was destroyed and we threw it away. We've been talking about building a more permanent one for several years. Looks like we'll be doing that sooner than we thought. The old one was just a funky metal arch that we found in a box in the garage when we moved in.
These are small little tins that I use to store stitch markers in. I bought the blue and pink one at Stitches West last year. When I received my last Socks That Rock for the year, the Christmas tin was included. I don't know why, I really like these small tins.
Here's one finished sock. I'm really happy with how it came out. If I had an assistant, I would have been able to get some better photos. It's hard to get the photos you want, while wearing the sock. Morgan is reading over my shoulder and he said he would have helped. I told him he wasn't home at the time, but I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Wind, Socks & Sickness

2011-12-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

It's been quite windy around here the last couple of days. So windy that one of our doors rattles with the wind. Also when the wind would die down at night, I'd wake up because there was no sound. We had a small arch over the stairs in our back yard. This is what the wind did to it. I'm hoping to start cleaning up the mess tomorrow. Considering how windy it was, this is all that happened in our yard and I'm very happy with that. Other people have lost power and had trees and branches falling down.
Here are the socks I've been working on. I really like this yarn. I would like to buy some more of this yarn. I think it's just beautiful.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy for me. I've been doing Christmas shopping, wrapping and picking up kids from school.

Here's a close up of the pattern. Yes, of course it's cables. I just seem to be a sucker for them.

Yesterday right after I picked up Morgan from school. As a side note, it's been so windy that I was concerned about Morgan walking to and from school so I dropped him off and picked him up. As I was saying, I received a call from Will. He wasn't feeling well and he was on the peninsula. He said he thought he could drive home. Next I get a call from Will and he's in Oakland and he can't drive. I drop everything, and drive out to Oakland. By the time I got there, Will was feeling well enough to drive home.

Today he went to the doctor and the doctor thinks he passed a kidney stone. We're waiting for the results of a couple of tests to find out for sure.

Christmas Projects

2011-11-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my last pillow cover. Morgan cut out the stencils for me. I used freezer paper. You can iron the freezer paper right onto the fabric and then paint the fabric.
Here are my fingerless gloves. I finished them last week. I just kept forgetting to take a photo of them. I've started a new project, which I really like so far. I making another pair of socks with an old mystery sock pattern. I really love the yarn that I'm knitting out of. The color changes are really subtle and I love that!
We have two fake Christmas trees. One is white and this is our normal one. We usually put one downstairs and one upstairs. This year we've put both of them upstairs. We bought the white tree because the Hallmark Ornaments that we collect are not reflective like normal ornaments are. The Hallmark Ornaments show up really well against the white tree. This year we put the reflective ornaments on the white tree and it's very pretty. I don't have a good photo yet. I'm waiting until tonight when the lights are on.

A Few Photos

2011-11-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

Will and I made these paper Christmas Trees last weekend. They were pretty quick, easy and inexpensive to make. I think we made 13 of them. This is just a sample of all the ones we made.
I attempted to take some family photos. If my family would cooperate, they would come out great. I like this photo because everyone is laughing and the smiles aren't fake. Morgan likes to take photos with small smile with no teeth and it makes him look the Grinch. It's kind of creepy.
I have some Noro sock yarn and I was checking out the label to see how much yarn there is. 300m which turns out to be about 338 yards. I noticed it's not superwash and I don't want to wash socks by hand. I decided to make a scarf out of it. This is how it looks so far. The colors are a little washed out in this photo. I'll get a better photo when the scarf is done.
Here's Daisy. I've been playing with the settings on my camera. I'm really happy with how this came out.
Last weekend I made some Christmas pillow covers. I have a lot of pendleton wool that my Mom gave me. I would like to make myself a nice pair of pants and a skirt or two out of the wool I have. There wasn't a lot of the red plaid. Plus I discovered it had a lot of holes in it. I had just enough to make this pillow cover. I'm really happy with the results.
Here's another one. I have one more planned, but I don't have all the supplies yet. I'm waiting for someone to cut out a stencil for me and I also need some fabric paint. I've discovered I don't have much patience for cutting out stencils. I just figured out that using my fabric matt that I use to cut out fabric on, works just as well for cutting out stencils and doesn't dull the exacto knife.

Transition Point Socks

2011-11-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a view of the leg of my sock. These socks were a very quick knit. I knitted both socks in a little over a week. These are from my sock club. It seems like a lot of the socks from my sock club this year have been quick knits. Most of the socks have been knit on larger needles than I'm used to using.
This is the side of my socks. I really liked the colorway too. They're maroon and gray. They way they knitted up in small stripes and I liked that.

One more quick view. I'm wearing them for the first time, today. They're quite comfortable.

Winter's Eve

2011-11-04T16:21:00.001-07:00

I finished my socks last night and I wore them to school today. They're a bit big so they keep falling down. This is the second Sivia Harding sock pattern that I've knitted. The first one was also a sock pattern with cables and beads. I'm a sucker for cables. I think her patterns run big.
I apologize for the blurry photos, I took them with my phone. If I don't hold my phone perfectly still, the photos come out blurry.
This is what the side of the sock looks like. Well, both sides look the same.
Down the front of the sock and the back of the sock is a fake seam with beads in it. I really love how these socks came out, just disappointed that they're just a tad too big. I started another pair of socks last night. They're from my sock club and guess what? They're another Sivia Harding pattern. In the pattern she says the socks run big so a medium will fit a woman's large and the women's large will fit a man. What about those of us that wear the medium size? I took a guess and I'm knitting the small size. We'll see how it goes.

Catkin

2011-10-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

I finished Catkin last night. I've been working on it off and on for a couple of months. Nice to block it in a place where I don't have to worry about animals laying on it. I could have done a better job of blocking it at home with my blocking wires. It's made with sock yarn, which is nice because I can wash this in the washer on cold if I want to.
The pattern calls for contrasting colorways. I was worried that these two color ways didn't contrast enough. I really like how they complement each other. I need to buy some buttons for it. If it dries by Sunday, I'll take it to the fabric store to see if I can find any buttons I like.
Tonight I'm hoping to finish a sock. Tomorrow a movie and maybe dinner with one of my class mates. I owe Todd for picking me up at the hospital and for checking up on me all weekend. Todd kept telling me that I really wanted to go to the gun show tomorrow with him. I found that funny because he knows I'm not interested in guns.

Not a Dull Day

2011-10-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

What are those square odd looking things? They're what they tape all over your body when you're in an ambulance or emergency room. That's my bracelet from my very short hospital stay. I thought I had gotten them all off at the hospital but I found these when I took a shower.

I wasn't feeling that great this morning. I ate breakfast and I felt better. I went to school and by lunch time, I wasn't feeling that great again. I thought I might need to eat so I went out and had some soup and half a sandwich. I didn't even finish it.

Class starts back up and I'm thinking, I hope I can make it through the next three hours, I'm really starting to feel bad. The last thing I remember was looking at my right hand and wondering why it looked orange all of a sudden. Next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor covered in my own vomit. I passed out and threw up all over while I was passed out.

These are my lovely giant paper clothes the hospital gave me to wear home, since my clothes were covered in puke. I was shakey, but I was feeling all right. The paramedics convinced me passing out is not normal, so an ambulance ride I received. I got sick again in the ambulance. The EMT's gave me some anti nausea medication. I have to say, that worked great.

The EMT's took my blood sugar, it was good. Blood pressure was good and my heart was good. They couldn't find anything wrong with me. The EMT's and hospital staff all seemed so surprised that I'm from California. They kept asking me which hospital I wanted to go to. I told them, "I don't even know where the nearest hospital is."

I think I was in the hospital at the most, 2 hours. I was given an anti nausea prescription, which I'm not sure if I'm going to fill. One of my class mates picked me up from the hospital and gave me a ride back to school so I could pick up my car. He's even called me once this evening to make sure that I'm all right and will periodically check on me through out the weekend. I told him I owe him dinner.

I showered and napped and had some toast and am feeling less queasy. I was told to take it easy and that's my plan. I learned that there's a nerve at the back of your throat called the Vegas nerve that runs all the way down your back. This nerve when triggered can cause a person to pass out. That's what the hospital staff seems to think what happened. I did have some Taco Bell for lunch yesterday that tasted funny, but I was so hungry I ate it anyway. You can be sure I won't be doing that again.

Traveling Socks

2011-10-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

These photos might be blurry. I took them with my phone. I'm in Oklahoma City and I didn't bring my camera. I just didn't want to deal with carrying it onto the plane and all that. It does get a bit heavy after a while. It would be nice to have a small camera for trips like this. The colors aren't quite right either. I started these socks before I left for Oklahoma.

I wanted to stretch out the ribbing with my left hand while I took the photo with my right. All those photos came out blurry. The reason I wanted to do this, is that there are beads in the ribbing. Maybe once I finish the sock and I can put it on my foot, I can get a few more and hopefully better photos.

I've had this sock yarn for over a year. As you can see, I still have about three inches to go on my sock and not enough yarn. The pattern calls for 180 yards, which this yarn says it is. As luck would have it, I bought this yarn here in Oklahoma City, so I believe I might be able to buy one more ball of it. I'll find out on Sunday. I don't care that I probably won't be able to purchase the same dye lot. It has been a year. I figure it's for the end of the sock that no one but me will see.
I think it was last night when I was looking at how much sock I had left to knit and how much yarn I had left, when I realized, "Oh! I bought this yarn here!" I thought it was funny that I bought yarn in Oklahoma City over a year ago, and it just happens to be the yarn I chose for these socks to knit on this trip.

Wine and Capes

2011-10-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a cool photo. No matter how many I took, they were all crooked. Maybe I shouldn't have drank half the glass before taking this photo.
Here's Taylor's Batgirl cape. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I did feel a little project runway while making the pattern piece and cutting out the fabric. Maybe because I got frustrated when the first pattern piece didn't come out correctly and I cried. While sewing the black shiny fabric I felt a bit Michelle Pfieffer Catwomanish.
I think Taylor likes it too.

Finished, Maybe For Good

2011-10-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here's photos of my finished shawl. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I received some alpaca yarn from one of my face book friends and some beautiful knitting needles. I've already started a cowl for her and I'm also going to make her a small shawl since some of the yarn she sent me is lace weight.
I'm a good blogger. I post on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately no one seems to be reading my blog. The only way I can judge this, is by how many comments I receive. This will be my last post if I do not receive any comments. I received one comment for my last posting and that was from my spouse and he only posted a comment because I was complaining that no one reads my blog anymore. Not only will this be my last post, I will just delete this blog altogether, since I just seem to be wasting my time. Thank you to those of you who have been reading my blog.

Finished Trousseau

2011-09-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my shawl before blocking. Lace never looks like much before blocking. I have to admit, this knitted up much faster than I thought it would.
Here it is being blocked. It's downstairs blocking as I type this.
Here's a close up of the pattern. I'm really pleased with how it came out.
Here's the edging. I was hoping to finish it today, but I actually finished it last night, much to my surprise.

Trousseau

2011-09-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've had this pattern for a while. I printed it up and put in a basket in my living room with some yarn. Once in a while I'd pick the pattern up and check it out. I'd wonder if the yarn I want to use is enough and the right weight. I've had this lace weight alpaca yarn for a couple of years. Every time I try to knit something out of it, it looks horrible.

I kept thinking I just wasn't finding the right project for this yarn. This pattern calls for fingering weight, which I believe is a heavier weight than lace weight yarn. I've also had some light blue lace weight yarn for a few years too. I combined the two and they look beautiful together and makes for the correct weight yarn. The alpaca is variegated and the merino wool is a very light ice blue.
The first photo does the color more justice than this one does. In this photo, the colors are washed out a little bit. I just wanted a close up of the pattern. I think it's coming along quite nicely. I was surprised at how sucked into this particular project I am. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Fair Enough

2011-09-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

I finished my cardigan. Okay, it's 98% finished. I had problems finding buttons. I bought 6 and I need 4 more. I even went to another fabric store and they didn't have them either. I'm going to check again this weekend. Wish me luck!
Here's a close up of the pattern. This sweater was a quick and easy knit. I was surprised at the lack of shaping in the yoke. It's a very basic pattern. The only problem I had was running out of yarn twice during this project and of course buttons. I sort of blocked it. I layed it out in the sun but not to the measurements in the pattern.

I found that I once I soaked the sweater, it seemed to expand quite a lot. Which made it difficult to block. I'm hoping once I get the rest of the buttons and sew them on the sweater to block it again and I hope it turns out better.

I'm hoping to finish Will's socks this weekend. I've already gone through my stash for yarn for my next project. I just need to knit up a swatch and make sure the yarn will work.

It's All About Quilting

2011-09-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

I was taking a break from quilting, when I happened to walk past my sewing space and thought, "that would make a cool photo." Here's my cool photo. I was working on a quilt of left over jelly rolls. The quilt isn't as big as the pattern called for because I didn't have a full jelly roll. I had used part of it to make another quilt. A jelly roll is 40 strips of fabric, I think they're 42 inches long and I forget how wide they are. You can buy them in a particular pattern or set of fabrics designed to go with each other. The jelly roll I had is called Butter cup.
I just finished sewing the binding on tonight. The binding is yellow, up close the binding makes the quilt pop a little. I don't like my bindings to be to matchy to the rest of the quilt. I want it to frame the quilt and go with the quilt, but not to blend into the quilt.
These aren't colors that I would normally pick. I choose them for a baby quilt the I made for a friend of mine. The light blue goes with our chair and couch. I thought it would look nice in our living room.

On the knitting side of things, I finished one sock for Will and started the second. I had to order yet, more yarn for my cardigan. It's the second time I had order more yarn. I ran out while knitting the button band! So frustrating to be so close to finishing the sweater and run out of yarn. So far I've used 3 more balls of yarn than the pattern called for. I've tried the sweater on and it fits just fine. With today's yarn arrival the final count will be 4 balls of yarn more than the pattern called for. Hopefully, I'll be finishing this sweater this weekend.

Tomorrow will be Ladies Day. Morgan will be out with his friends and Will is working at the Scottish games. We might do some quick shopping in the morning (for popcorn) and then come home and watch a movie. I'm hoping that it will be fun.

Insert Clever Title Here

2011-08-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm making Will another pair of socks. I saw this pattern and I just couldn't wait to start them. I'm very happy how with how the fair isle part of the pattern came out. I think it's beautiful! I just got to the heel flap. These socks will take a while to knit because the yarn is so tiny. I'm using Cascade Superwash. I've never used it before. So far I really like it.

I'll probably have a lot of the blue and white yarn left. Maybe I can make myself a pair of socks with a similar fair isle pattern on them. I've also been knitting on a cardigan. I ran out of yarn and I'm waiting for more to arrive. The pattern called for 8 balls and I ordered 8 and used up 8. I ordered three more balls and I'm hoping that will be enough to finish the sweater. We'll see.

Blunnie Socks

2011-08-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

I finished Will's socks. I like how they came out. I was a little concerned about running out of yarn, but I still have a little bit of yarn left.
I like the details on these socks.
Here's the back. Now I can start working on my fair isle cardigan. I bought some yarn today for another pair of socks for Will. I'm not going to start them quite yet.

Socks and Tea Cups

2011-08-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the socks that I'm making for Will. I like this pattern, it's fun and fast. I like the colorway too. It reminds of the forest.
These socks are designed after a brand of shoes. Will used to actually have a pair of these shoes. They're supposed to be quite comfortable and durable. I think they're called Blundstones and they're from Australia.
I realized lately that we have a lot of tea cups. Taylor has been using one or two every day. We seem to go through phases where we use the china ones a lot or hardly at all. We have some stoneware tea cups that we use quite regularly. I like the stone ware ones because I can put them in the dishwasher. The ones pictured above, have to be washed by hand.
Took this one with a flash. Wasn't sure which photo I liked better. Two of these tea cups were gifts from Will. The rest were from my Mother in Law. When she was going through some of her stuff, she found them and gave them to us.
This one is my favorite because I like the shape. China tea cups are quite small. I guess I'm used to drinking tea out of a larger cup. I use a coffee cup at work for my tea. I looked around at Target for a tea cup, but couldn't find one.

A Few Crazy Busy Days

2011-07-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like I've gotten much done this week. It seems like that something has come up every evening. I hemmed three pairs of pants for one of my friends. I don't mind doing that for people and I like being able to help out my friends. Plus they bought me a beer at Will's last show, so I felt like I owed them. I'm also going to replace a zipper in my friend's bee suit. It doesn't look difficult.

Today I was driving Morgan and his friend to the BART Station and Morgan says, "I got pulled over by a cop, when I was running down the street."

Me, "How do you get pulled over on a sidewalk?"

Morgan, "I guess running down the sidewalk looked suspicious."

Me, "Especially when you're not wearing work out clothes."

Turns out the cops questioned Morgan about where he was going. He told them and the police wanted more information. Morgan told the police the whole long story about how his lap top died and now he has a friend coming over to help him fix it. Morgan's friend has never been to our house, so the friend had been wandering around town for an hour, unable to locate our house. Morgan went to meet his friend.

Me, "Why did you tell the police so much?"

Morgan, "They were wasting my time, so I figured I would waste as much of their time as I could."

Me, somewhat impressed with Morgan's logic, "Okay."

Morgan, "I could see the cop's eyes glaze over as my story went on and on. They finally asked for my address and phone number. They said they might stop by the house."

Me, "Okay."

Morgan, " I don't think they'll come by."

Turns out, he was right. The police never came by or called. The police men must have had nothing to do, which is what I told Morgan.

That has been the most exciting thing that has happened all week. I did receive my socks that rock kit and I finally started the first sock for Will. I'm only about 6 rows in. I just haven't had time to knit on it.

The yarn that I ordered almost a month ago, finally arrived today. I haven't even had a chance to check it out. I've also been looking at lace patterns. I have several balls of lace weight yarn that I would like to knit up.

We also had an interesting evening with my mother in law, Marianne. Turns out her cell phone wouldn't make out going calls. I checked our account and Marianne's phone is still active. Marianne came by with her phone and sure enough it wouldn't make any out going calls. First Marianne told me it had been 6 weeks since her cell phone worked and then she told me it was 6 months. Then she tried to tell me her cell phone was 10 years old. Will spent about an hour on the phone with the cell phone company and they had no idea how come Marianne's phone was working correctly. The phone company had Will do all kinds of things with Marianne's phone. Then the phone company said they would call back the following day, which the company never did. Looks like one of us will be taking Marianne cell phone shopping. We'll help Marianne find a phone that has buttons that she can see easily and finds easy to use.

As you can see, it's been an interesting week.

Saroyan Wrap and More . . .

2011-07-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of my Saroyan Wrap. While I was knitting it, I didn't step back and take a look at the details of the leaves. It wasn't until I was blocking it, that I saw how the stems of leaves are started. I really like the leaves. The colorway is perfect for leaves too. The colorway has, light green, dark green, copper, a bit of brown. It's just beautiful.
I did add one repeat during the long straight part. The pattern called for a even number of repeats and I added one more. That way there will be definite center of the wrap. I was once told a long time ago, in art and design that an odd number is more interesting to look at than an even number of whatever the design looks like.
This is a quilt top, but I can't say yet what it's for. I have one more border to sew on. First I have to find some fabric for that border. Than I have to find some backing and I can start quilting it.
This is another quilt top that's finished being pieced. I can't say what this is for yet either. I'm planning on having it machine quilted. I have a friend from high school that does machine quilting and I've contacted her about doing it. She's agreed, I can't wait because I've never had anything machine quilted by a professional.

That's about it. I have some yarn left over from the Saroyan Wrap so I'm making a scarf out it. My new socks that rock yarn and patterns came yesterday. One of the choices in patterns was created by a male designer which I thought is pretty cool. The sizes include men's sizes, so I'm planning on making these socks for Will.

Damn Shawlette!!!

2011-07-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is Saroyan wrap. I'm about halfway through the pattern. It's a pretty easy pattern. I've been looking for a while, for a pattern for this yarn. This is Kelly's hand spun that she gave me for my birthday last year.
The edging is leaves. I think the colorway looks beautiful. So far, I really like how it's coming along. I have given up on the Summer Shawlette. After ripping it out and re knitting it a few times. I'm done. It's not worth my time fighting a pattern that doesn't come out like the instructions say. I figured that yarn is meant for someone else to knit up. I kept having too many stitches in the pattern in the middle of the back of the shawl. It's not worth the tears, drinking and swearing. I can hear the other knitters out there laughing.
This is another table topper that I finished earlier this week. I also started another small quilt today. So far it's going good. Just the other day Taylor informed me that she wants a new quilt for her bed. She was going through some of my fabric today to see what I had. She did pick some out. We have to finish picking out the fabric before I can start it for her.

Finished!!

2011-07-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

I finally finished this tank top. I started it last summer and finished it this summer. I had the largest armholes ever. You could totally see my bra no matter what I did. I tried to do a quick fix, which didn't work. Out of frustration I shoved it in my cedar chest.

Early this week I was trying to decide should I rip it out and make something else or just rip back enough to make the armholes smaller. I wound up ripping back enough to make the arm holes smaller. I'm really happy with how it came out.I finished these yesterday. They're the latest from the Socks That Rock sock club. I really liked this pattern a lot. Every side is different. Not a boring knit and a pretty quick one too.

This photo doesn't do the front of the socks justice. You can't see the pattern too clearly in this photo. What surprised me was that the other pattern was designed by the Yarn Harlot and I wasn't a big fan of it. I found this one way more interesting. I thought the Yarn Harlot's pattern to be a bit boring.

Here's another photo of the back of the socks. I've started a small shawlette, but I 'm having problems with the pattern. My consultant (Mom) is going to look over the pattern and see if she can help me out.

Weekly Update

2011-06-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pretty flowers I planted about a month or so ago. Some are doing very well, others that I planted are now dead. I'm not sure why, but sometimes that's just how things go.

I finally finished my skirt. This is a close up of the pattern on the bottom. I was concerned that I was going to run out of yarn. Turns out I had the correct length way before the pattern said I would. I had another 30 rows to go before it was supposed to be finished.

I wound up having enough yarn because I didn't knit the last 30 rows. You can see the darker stripe which is totally unintentional. I bought this yarn on sale and they were all out of the same dye lot. Maybe that's why it was on sale. I put it out in the sun to dry because I would like to wear it tomorrow.

Here's some yarn that I spun up earlier in the week. I really like to colorway and it's not colors I would ever wear. I have no idea what I'm going to make out of it. I was thinking a small shawl for Taylor. The yarn really bloomed when I set the twist. Which really took me by surprise.

This is where I dry my yarn on warm days. It dries much faster outside than it does in the house. Plus I don't care if it drips water when it's outside. That concludes my weekly update.

Language

2011-06-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is a table topper that I finished on Tuesday night. I like how it came out, but it's not my favorite. My favorite one would probably surprise any one who knows me at all. I have two more table toppers pieced together, but not quilted yet.

I've decided that I speak several different languages, but not another language like Spanish or French. I speak knitting, sewing, crocheting, quilting, government (lots of acronyms) and of course a bit of tech talk which is job related.

Here's a sort of close up of my sock. I like how it's coming along. I just finished the gusset and now I'm onto the foot.

Here's an example of knitting language: K2, SSK, YO, K1, YO, K2 tog, K2. Any knitter can understand this. Then there's sewing: Sew RST, that's the only one I can think of at the moment.

Then there's government talk: I tell my sup(supervisor) that I'm going to the LOC (Localizer) to do my Q PM's (Quarterly Periodic Maintenance).

Tech talk is basically doing your PM's and deciphering what the TI (Technical Instruction Book) or Order is telling you to do. Some instructions don't tell you much and others are quite detailed and pretty good.

Last of all my skirt. I feel like it's slow going but I think it's all the stockinette. It can get a bit boring. I'm steadily making progress so that makes me happy.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some yarn to knit a cardigan. I ordered 10 balls of yarn. 8 of teal, 1 of black and 1 gray. They're all back ordered but the gray. So I have on ball of gray that I can't use until the teal and the black arrive. I think the universe is telling me I need to finish my skirt first.

Knitting Update

2011-06-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

I finally received my socks that rock kit. As you can see I've started my socks already. I really like this pattern and I can't wait to see what the finished product will be like.

I was going pretty quickly on my skirt until I got to the stockinette part. I've slowed down a bit since I've gotten to this part of the skirt. I find just knitting a bit a boring and difficult to knit in the hemp yarn. It's not very stretchy and it's a bit hard on my hands and my shoulders.

For once, not a lot is going on this weekend. I'm hoping to get some sewing and knitting done. It's Friday night and I've already exercised, showered, vacuumed and changed the sheets on our bed. I figure the more I get done tonight, the less I have to do later this weekend. I'll just have a bathroom to clean and laundry to do. Look out sewing machine . . . . here I come!

Pergola Socks

2011-05-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know why blogger posted my photo sideways, but it did. Anyway, this is my first pair of socks that rock. As you can see I have hole in the toe. Blue Moon Fiber Arts sends a small thing of yarn for repairs. I was surprised at how much these socks have faded. They're 4 years old and still one of the warmest pair of socks I own.

I finally finished these socks. I really like the color way. I think it's because it reminds me of baby blankets.

I'm hoping that this weekend will be a bit more relaxing than the last few we've had. Yard work and maybe a trip to the store tomorrow. A barbeque on Sunday and movie on Sunday. Maybe a trip to the fabric store on Monday.

Here's a close up of the pattern. You can see the pattern better than I thought. I'm happy with how they came out.

Morgan, Kane (pictured above) and Will, just left to go see The Hangover 2. In honor of seeing the movie, Kane asked his Dad to draw on a temporary tattoo. Just like the tattoo seen the the previews for The Hangover 2.

I finally restarted my skirt, we'll see how it goes.

Just a Quick Note

2011-05-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy weekend so I didn't have a lot of time to post. I finally started the second Pergola sock. I have no idea if I spelled that correctly. I want to start my skirt and I found a nice basic caridgan sweater pattern I would like to knit, but I can't seem to decide on a color. I would like to knit a teal sweater. I'll probably consult with Will on the colors. He's pretty good with helping me out with that. I'm also waiting for my socks that rock kit to show up. I thought it would have shown up by now, but I'm guessing that Blue Moon doesn't ship them until the end of the month.

I've also gone through my yarn and gotten rid of yarn, that's leftover from projects and yarn I know that I'm just not going to use. I have some yarn that I want to knit, but I'm not sure what to knit with them. I might have an idea for some of it.

Today, Will finished making a cake. Morgan and Will helped me replace two ceiling fans. One scared the living daylights out of me because there was a live wire that shouldn't be there. There were sparks and I screamed. After that I was real jumpy while replacing that ceiling fan and Morgan and Will didn't laugh at me. We now know why we can turn on the ceiling fan without the light switch turned on.

We also took the dishwasher out of our car and brought it into the house and have it mostly hooked up. Will needs a longer hose for it, so he's going to finish that up tomorrow. I was supposed to cut back the wisteria because it has to be cut back every week or it will take over the whole yard. I'm hoping to get to it tomorrow after work.

The cake that Will was finishing was for a party that we went to this afternoon. One of our friends has finally graduated and she now has a degree in Library Sciences. Sounds like an interesting job. But first Melanie is going to finish being pregnant before she gets a job. You can see how busy we've been and this was just today.

Busy As A Bee

2011-05-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

I finished these last week. I really like how these socks came out. I even love the color combination. They're very warm and comfortable. One sock is slightly larger than the other.

Here's a close up of one sock.

Here's the close up of the other. The pattern is written so that each sock is the opposite of the other. This one is my favorite. Maybe because I knit this one first. They'll be perfect for winter. They're too thick and warm to wear in the summer time.

I took a few photos of my flowers in the front yard last week. I really like how they came out. I have UV filter that I never use and I used it. The photos came out great! Not washed out. Sometimes photos taken in sunlight look washed out.

This is the inside of the heel of my sock. For some reason it caught my eye and I thought it would make a cool photo. I like how it came out.

I'm posting late because it's been a busy weekend. I helped someone move yesterday and we had Girl Scouts over today. I did get to sleep in this morning. We all did. I think we were all just physically tired from yesterday.

Sock Update

2011-05-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a little bit of knitting. I'm working on a pair of socks. I'm really happy with how the first sock came out. Each sock is a little bit different even though they'll be a pair of socks. So I decided to post a little teaser. This is the pattern on the leg and the foot. I really like it and it was easier than I thought it would be. The light colored part looks like window panes to me. It was also my first time color stranding on a sock, which I've been wanting to try.This is the cuff of the sock, which was also fun to knit. I really like the way the colors contrast with each other. I've haven't been up to much else. Just the usual with work and trying to keep the house clean. I've been reminding Taylor all day to clean her room. She's slowly getting it done.

I'm looking forward to receiving my next socks that rock kit. I'm not sure how soon they mail them out, but I hope it's soon. The only frustrating thing has been that these patterns have called for larger needles, so I haven't gotten to test out my signature DPN's with the Blue Moon Yarn.

I hope that everyone has a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow!

2011-04-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't been up to much. Just hanging out at home and doing stuff around the house and of course knitting. I have some spinning I want to do too, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I knitted these socks up in a week! They were so fast! Part of it was the yarn and needle size.

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. It was easy to remember. I did run out of yarn and I had to use another color way to finish up the end of the toe on the second sock. I was disappointed that I ran out of yarn. The yarn and pattern was from my sock club, so I expected there to be enough yarn. I was surprised at how much I really liked this colorway. It's so fun and cheerful.

I'm not sure why this photo came out sideways because I didn't save it that way. This is a close up of the pattern. In the meantime, I've finished washing my hemp yarn, but I haven't started the skirt yet. I did start another pair of socks. The Social Network Socks are made out of two different colorways. It's kind of strange stranding yarn with 4 DPN's, but so far it seems to be going well. I haven't gotten to the main part of the pattern yet. I'm looking forward to that part of the pattern.

In a few weeks I'll be teaching Taylor's Girl Scout Troop how to knit. I've never taught anyone how else to knit, although I've offered many times. It will be interesting to see how it goes. I have asked my Mom to help, because I know she's taught people to knit. Wish me luck!

Socks That Rock

2011-04-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

I washed the rest of my hemp yarn today. It's not quite dry yet. I wanted to wash it earlier in the week but the weather has been a bit cloudy and rainy.

The other day I put on a pair of my favorite socks and I hear a ripping sound. So I look down and this is what I see. I didn't even try to repair them, I just threw them away.
I joined the Socks that Rock sock club and I started a pair of socks. I'm a little over halfway done with my first sock. I really like the pattern because, it's fast and it's easy to remember. I'm hoping to finish them soon, because they're for someone else. I did knit one sock for myself and I would like to get started on the second sock.

I haven't been doing much else on the knitting front. I would like to do a bit of sewing and of course some spinning too. I recently acquired some fiber and I would like to get started spinning that up. I also have a couple of quilt patterns out that I want to take a look at. I think I need more hours in my day.

Yesterday the family and I went to the Disney Family Museum in the Presido. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. I think and Disney fan would enjoy a visit to this museum.

Insert Clever Title Here

2011-04-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Not much has been going on. Yesterday I put on some socks. They're the first socks I ever knitted from the first time I did the Rockin Sock Club. I looked down and I saw some red. I thought I had some fuzz on my sock and didn't think anything more about it. Then early this morning when I got home from work. I took off my shoes and was surprised to still see the red fuzz. I bent down to pull the fuzz off and much to my dismay and surprise, the red was my toenail. It's the first sock that I've worn a hole in. I've had these socks for several years. I used up the cotton yarn that I bought last week. I made Will 5 wash clothes. I realize there are only 4 in the photo. Will is already using one in the kitchen. I made the stripped one to use up the last of both colors. I haven't started my skirt yet. I still need to wash 2 more skeins of yarn. I'm planning on doing that next week. I have finished my little Catherine purse, but I haven't taken photos of it yet. I'm hoping to get to that next week too. I've been working on my socks again. I was hot to work on them when I first started them, once I got the toe finished, for some reason I lost interest in them. I knitted up the wash clothes and my Catherine purse during that week. I'm back to knitting on my Pergoloa socks. I had finished the foot a couple of days ago and then I was reading the instructions to see what was next. That's when I realized I was supposed to be increasing every third row during the whole foot for the gusset. I had to rip back most of my work. I was a bit frustrated with myself. I went back and did the increases while I re knitted the foot of my sock. Next will be the heel. At least it didn't take me long to get back where I was, which was nice.

Yarn, Skirts & Hats

2011-04-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

I have three friends that are pregnant for the first time. I've never made baby hats before, but I thought I would give it a go. I found out there's a yarn shop in Alameda. While Kelly was here we went out to Alameda and checked it out. It was a very nice shop and the owner was very nice and helpful. I bought some Crystal Palace yarn. I've never bought Crystal Palace yarn before, this is mochi and I really enjoyed knitting with it. It's so soft too.

Our wisteria is blooming like crazy. It looks funny because normally is has leaves on it before it starts blooming. This year it's starting blooming first.

I had started a skirt out of hemp, but I found that knitting with the hemp was not fun in any way. It just makes me tired to knit with it. Kelly suggested that I wash it first. I've washed and rewound two balls of hemp. It's so much softer. When I finish my current project, I'm looking forward to starting my skirt again.

Buried Treasure Socks

2011-04-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

I finished my socks today. I really like how they came out. As usual, with a complicated pattern, the second sock came out better. I know these photos aren't the best, but I was home alone with no one to assist me. These socks also have beads on them. They're hard to see in these photos. It's the first time I've knitted socks with beads in them.

This is the back of my first sock. I followed the pattern incorrectly so it's not quite right. You can tell by how the pattern goes from the ribbing to the pattern. Also down at the bottom where the pattern goes into the heel flap. None of the transitions are smooth.

This is my second sock. Starting from the top of the sock, you can see the ribbing transitions nicely into the pattern. Again at the bottom of the leg of the sock, the pattern transitions nicely into the heel flap

I received these signature DPN's from my Mom and Step Dad for my birthday. I've been wanting some for quite a while now, but they're expensive. Since I just finished a pair of socks today. I'm already looking through my sock yarn and looking at patterns. The new twistcollective came out today and they have sock patterns this time.

Quickie

2011-03-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Get your mind out of the gutter. This is just a quick post. It's been a crazy day today and the weather has been the same all week. I haven't been working on my skirt, but I did finish one sock in the buried treasure pattern.

Turns out I did the pattern on the back of sock incorrectly. I followed the chart. Turns out you only follow the grayed out part of the chart. I don't understand why you would publish a chart that you're not supposed to follow. I'm going to just do the repeat of the gray part of the pattern for the back of the sock on my next sock and see what happens.

I don't want to bring anyone down, but my Grandmother passed away last night. Then I got up early to go to work. Work was a bit busy during the morning. At least the weather wasn't as crazy today at work as it was yesterday. It was so windy that I thought I was parked too close to the runway and my vehicle was being shaken by jet blast. Nope, it was the wind.

We're getting another storm tonight and we're supposed to get some nice weather starting on Sunday. I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of the rain. Especially after having to be out in it during the day at work.

About a month ago we bought an electric tea kettle. I love it! It's so fast. So much faster than our tea pot. The only problem I have with it is, it doesn't whistle. I put water in it, turn it on, put a tea bag in my tea cup and wander away. Sometime later, I wander back into the kitchen and see the tea stuff and say, "Oh yeah!" to myself. At least I'm not the only one in our household that has done this.

Flowers and Gardens

2011-03-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

We had some friends over for dinner last Saturday night. One of them brought us some beautiful daffodils. They're so bright and cheery, especially with all this rain we've been having.

Here's a close up of one of the daffodils. I've been knitting away on my socks. It's slow going. I just finished the leg and I'm hoping to start the heel flap tonight. I don't have any photos of my sock because I didn't take any. Maybe next week.

I did some yard work last weekend and the colors on our walkway caught my eye. I thought it was just pretty. It would make a great colorway for some sock yarn.

I've always like pink and brown together. I also like pink and gray. I started another skirt, but I haven't gotten very far because I've been concentrating on my socks. I apologize if my posting sounds a bit blah, but I'm pretty tired today.

Tsunamis, Knitting & Stuff

2011-03-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

We've been having quite a bit of rain lately. We'll get a few days of rain and a day or two of sunny days. Yesterday it rained, today it was sunny and beautiful, but very cold. Okay the wind was cold. It would have been warm if it wasn't for the cold wind. Anyway, last week the sky looked so pretty. The clouds looked like they were glowing with the sun behind them. These photos don't do the view justice.

Here's another view of the glowing clouds.

Here's the entrelac scarf. I like how it came out. It's also knitted out my hand spun yarn. I think it's a bit short, but I used up most of the yarn in this colorway knitting up the scarf.

Here's a close up of the entrelac. It's kind of cool looking, but it just isn't my thing. I gave it a try to see how it was knit and learn something new. I heard on a podcast that there's a book out, where everything is knitted in entrelac, even garments.

Here's what the Buried Treasure sock looks like so far. It's my first time knitting with two circular needles. The first few rows were difficult. I had quite a gap between one needle and the next. I talked to the expert (Darryl, he prefers knitting socks on two circular needles) and Darryl said that he usually starts on DPN's for the first few rows and then switches to the circular needles. Wish I had known that before I started and I almost did that.

These socks have a lot of cables, so they're slow going. At first I was worried that the cables weren't going to show up because the yarn is so dark. I kept going so I could see more of the pattern and it looks okay to me. What do you guys think?

As for the tsunami, there was a large earthquake in Japan and a tsumani. The tsumani could affect the whole west coast. SFO Airport is right on the Bay. Just as I was leaving the office this morning, I received a phone call telling me (and my coworkers) that I had to stay away from some of the perimeter roads on the airport because the Bay is right next to the perimeter road. This was only for a few hours this morning. We didn't see any effects of the tsunami at the airport. I did see on the news that Santa Cruz and a lot of other areas were affected. We're lucky that the shape of the Bay and the small opening to the Bay seems to protect us. At least it did today.

Entrelac & Skirts

2011-03-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

I started this scarf about a week ago. I'm not a fan of how entrelac looks, but it seems to the hot new thing in knitting right now. I wanted to try it out just to see how it's done. I'm making this out of some hand spun I have. It won't be as long as the pattern says it should be. So far I'm liking how it's coming along and it's much easier than I thought it would be.

Here's my finished Claudia skirt. I really like how it came out. I ripped out the original because I was afraid it would be too small. I rearranged the colors and started again. About half way through the skirt, I realized I was knitting horizontal stripes and I started to worry again. I did start with the dark colors at the top and went to lighter colors at the bottom.

Here's a close up of the lace pattern. The reason my skirt is striped, is because this is yarn I had from a kit. I started the kit and I didn't like it. The kit had about 15 balls of yarn in it, each ball a different color. I did have to double the yarn to get gauge. I was worried that doubling the yarn would make the fabric of my skirt too heavy. It didn't. It's nice and warm and none itchy. It's quite comfortable. I would like to test it out in warmer weather just to see if it would be too warm.

Beautiful Scarf & Needle Case

2011-02-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

A while back Darryl was knitting up the scarf that you see Will modeling for me. Darryl showed me the pattern and the yarn and I told him how much I liked it. Last week Mom & Darryl picked me up for Stitches West. The scarf was laying on the back seat and Darryl said, "I finished the scarf." I said, "It's beautiful, it came out great!" Darryl said, "It's yours." I was shocked and very pleased. This is the first knitted item that I've received from Darryl I've worn it every day since he gave it to me.

I might have to share it with Will and Taylor. They've both been eyeballing it. I'm willing to share, if I have too.

This is an interchangeable needle case. I love the compact size. I looked at DellQ's needle cases and they're very nice, but on the large size. This is the front of it.

This is the back. Which has a nice zipper pocket on it. I like the compact size because it will fit in my knitting bag and it will be great for traveling.

This is the inside of the flap, which also has a nice zipper pocket.

Here's the whole inside of the case. I can buy some labels from DellaQ so I know which size needles are where.

Here's a close up. I love my Harmony needles. I also have the Addi Interchangeable needles and so far, I like the Harmony needles better. They're beautiful and very pointy, which I prefer. The join is nicer. My yarn gets caught on the join on the Addi interchangeable needles.

That's about it. I've been knitting along on my skirt. In the mean time I have about three other projects that I want to start, but I'm trying to behave myself and just keep going on the skirt.

Stitches West

2011-02-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

These are socks that I made for Morgan. I used left over sock yarn for both socks. I'm glad that Morgan likes short socks or I wouldn't have enough yarn for his giant feet.

Yesterday I went to Stitches West with Mom & Darryl. Darryl had a particular booth he wanted to go to first and so did I. I went to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth. I was disappointed in their selection of sock yarn. They had a lot less than they normally do. But I did find this color way that I liked.

This sock yarn caught my eye because of the color way. I thought it's just beautiful and I haven't seen a colorway that's even similar to it. I bought this from Wool Candy. I like the name.

I'm not usually into stitch markers but I just couldn't stop looking in this booth. It was full of stitch markers and these cool tins. I bought an extra tin just because I really liked it. I'm looking forward to testing out these stitch markers.

I couldn't pass up this colorway either. Plus it's wool and bamboo. I've never knitted with bamboo yarn before.

This yarn I bought for a specific project. It's hemp yarn and I have a skirt pattern that calls for hemp yarn I would really like to knit.

This beauty is a notion holder. I put my tin of stitch markers in it and also some other stitch markers that I have. I also bought some fiber, but I forgot to take photos of it. I'll have to remember to do that for my next posting.

We found one booth that had the high lighter tape. They had it in every color. I haven't tried it yet. I'm hoping to later today. I also bought this beautiful wooden crochet hook. They had them in several different kinds of woods. I went for the medium color. They had ebony ones that were gorgeous, but I wanted one that would show up against most colors.

Helicopters

2011-02-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not complaining here, I'm just stating a fact. I don't have a lot of friends. I have even fewer female friends. So I don't have anyone to talk to when things are driving me crazy. I was having one of those days where I felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall because communications with my spouse weren't going well at all. I posted on facebook that it was frustrating not having anyone to talk to. Several other women said they felt the same way.

We made plans to go out. The day before our event, I received a message from one of the ladies about a helicopter ride. She flies helicopters as her hobby and she doesn't like to fly alone and she asked me if I would like to go. I jumped at the chance.

That's our ride. It looks kind of small and scary. Like driving an old school Volkswagen bug in our crazy traffic around here. Once we got into the air, it wasn't scary at all.
We left from the Hayward Airport. You sit in the helicopter a few minutes for everything to warm up before you can take off. I thought it would be scary, but it was a lot of fun and I wasn't scared at all.

The above photo is the old Bay Bridge on the left and parallel to it is the new one, still under construction. It seems like it will never be finished. They've been working on since Morgan was in elementary school and now he's a junior in high school.
This is Lake Merrit in Oakland.

After the helicopter ride was when we met for food and drinks. I have to say I had a great time and I would really like to do it again. Turns out I have a normal husband. Since I have no comparison, I didn't know.

Palace of Fine Arts. I just love this photo. I took 152 photos before my battery died. I do have another battery but it was stored underneath my seat. I was unable to get to it, because you can't reach under your seat to get your items. You would have to get up and lift the seat cushion up to get your items.

We flew over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so much fun! We live in such a beautiful part of the country!

Coit Tower. I've only been to Coit Tower once and I remember the inside being covered in beautiful paintings. I would like to go there again and see if it's what I remember.

Downtown San Francisco and of course the TransAmerica Building.

This is a view of San Francisco Airport. The runway on the left is 01L and the one on the right 01R. Planes very rarely land in this direction. I heard they did on Wednesday morning. We were having some crazy winds all over the Bay Area that day.

If Terri ever asks me to go with her again, I would definitely do it again!

Gloves, skirts, and a Table Topper

2011-02-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

I finished the fingerless gloves that Taylor requested. This is her third pair. The first pair she out grew, because I adjusted to pattern to fit her. The second pair, she lost one. On this pair, I didn't adjust the pattern. I just made her the adult size.

Here's my Claudia skirt. It's in the sun on the couch, so it's hard to see some of the color changes. Just wanted to give everyone an idea of what it looks like so far.

Here's my table topper. I really like how it came out. Will picked out the fabric for the larger border. I have to admit it does pull it all together.

Another photo. Will can be a big help when picking out coordinating fabrics at the fabric store. Sometimes he sees things I don't, or has a different idea or opinion about colors and fabric ideas.

I did make a St. Patrick's Day table topper a few months back. I did post photos on facebook. I didn't do a Valentine's Day one because Will didn't want one. I think he's changed his mind, that will have to wait until next year.

I think my favorite fabric on this table topper is the backing, which is sad because no one ever looks at the backing. I realize this is kind of a blah post, but I'm in a blah mood. I'm tired of people using me for my skills and not actually getting to know me. I'm tired of having my ideas agreed with and then ignored.

As my Dad would say, I'm having a pity party. I'm attempting to move on from my pity party and failing. The chocolate chips and crunchy peanut butter I had for lunch did help out a little bit. Now I just need some chai tea.

Knitting & Quilting

2011-01-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

I finished these socks on Sunday and wore them to work on Monday. They're very comfortable. I made one adjustment to the pattern. I love the pattern down the leg and it was supposed to continue down the top of the foot. But the pattern rotates around the sock, so the beginning of the round is not always in the same place. There were no instructions on how to do that on the front of the sock and the bottom of the sock is knitted in stockingette. There weren't enough stitches for two complete pattern repeats. I just didn't feel like messing with it. I did the ribbing that's on the cuff of the sock on the top of the foot. It's part of the spiral pattern anyway.

I finished this table topper last night. I pieced it together last week. I quilted it, made the binding and sewed the binding on yesterday. I have another table topper that I'm in the process of making. I've got the main body made, I need to wash, iron, cut and sew the borders. Today I bought the rest of the fabric for borders, backing and binding, so that I can finish it.

Does everyone read the Yarn Harlot's blog? I bought the pattern for the skirt she made. It's called Claudia by Ruth Sorensen. I've finally figured out the yarn part of the pattern. The pattern just give two kinds of yarn, but not the weight of the yarn. The pattern only tells me how many grams I need. I finally figured out the yarn part, but I also had to figure out the needle size too because this woman is from Denmark and I don't know what needle sizes they go by in Denmark.

Ravelry was a big help in figuring this out. I looked at the skirts that other knitters had made and some of them had the kind of yarn, the weight, the yardage and needle size they used. It was frustrating, but I've got it figured out now. I did google the yarn, but it comes in different weights and the pattern doesn't specifiy which weight was used.

Yarn and Spinning

2011-01-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

I made this yarn last week and I took photos of it last week, but the photos didn't show the true colors of the yarn. The photos came out much better this week. I gave this yarn to Taylor because I thought she would really like it and she did.

This is the yarn I made this week. See the color changes from purple to blue? That's one of the reasons to Navajo ply. To see the color changes like that. I find them just beautiful.

I haven't been up to much this week. Just been working. I'm refusing to do anything around the house today. Yesterday I cleaned a bathroom, cleaned out a car, vacuumed downstairs and spun up the yarn in the above photo and gave my family haircuts. Today I gave blood which sometimes takes a bit out of me. Also I'm not supposed to exert myself too much so that's my plan. I've read, taken some photos, ate lunch, had a nap. I did exercise before I went and gave blood. I also stopped at the fabric store. I'm still looking for buttons for my red jacket I made. I found some I like, but they only had three and I need eight. I googled them and can't find them anywhere. Not even on the Joann's website, which is the store I bought them from. I guess I'll just wait and see if I can find more buttons later in the week or find better buttons later.

Gardening, Spinning and Other Things

2011-01-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

We were doing some yard work last Saturday. I was cutting back my roses while Will and Morgan were sweeping and raking. Taylor was picking up dog poops. It always surprises me how tall the clover gets in our garden. I asked Will to take a photo so I can show everyone. The clover is so tall on my right side that it's almost up to my knees.

While I was cutting back the ivy I found this large mushroom. I had Will put his hand next to it for a size reference.

While I was cutting back the roses in the front yard, I found this nice lady bug. I cut the last rose to put in a vase. Later while we were eating dinner I see this funny looking spot on the dining room table. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like a crumb or a small piece of meat." Then I realized it was another lady bug! It must have been on the rose that I had cut earlier. Morgan took the lady bug back outside after we finished eating dinner.

This is my Navajo plyed yarn from my last posting. I just finished spinning some more of this fiber today. Each piece has been dyed differently, so I'm spinning each piece of roving as separate small pieces of yarn. This ball wound up being 60 yards. The piece I spun today has a lot of pink and magenta in it. It's also a longer piece of roving so I think I'll get more yardage out of it.

This is the first time that I've Navajo plyed without my single breaking. A Navajo ply is when you use one single and ply it on itself, it's like making a chain. It's nice for colorways that you want to keep continuous.

This arrived in the mail earlier this week. It's shrug that my Mom made for me. I'm wearing it right now as a matter of fact. It's quite warm and comfortable. Thank you Mom!

Spinning

2011-01-07T15:12:00.001-08:00

It has been months since I've done any spinning. That basket full of fiber that you see? I won that at a spinning event. I don't win things very often and I haven't touched this fiber since I brought it home in June.

I decided to dust off my spinning wheel and give this fiber a chance. I didn't like the feel of the fiber, I think that's why I haven't done any spinning. There were some samples spun up of each colorway. Once the fiber is spun, it feels much softer.

Here's an idea of how pretty this color way is. I've been trying to do a consistent single so that I can Navajo ply this. I have no idea what I'll make out of it once it's yarn. I'm just hoping my Navajo plying comes out better than the last time I tried it.

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have no photos to post today. I was sick for a week and I'm still not fully recovered. At least the coughing has slowed down a lot.

We had a very nice Christmas and a fun New Year. Last year was a bit rough for us, so we're hoping this new year will be better. I went to my Monday night quilt night last night and we all sat around the table drinking tea and chatting. I brought my knitting like I usually do, but I didn't do a darn thing. Most of the ladies weren't doing anything either. This is my first week back to working 4, 10 hour shifts and this shift kicks my butt. Tomorrow is my Friday and I usually come home so tired, that I go straight to bed for a nap.

The reason this shift kicks my butt is that I get up at 3:40 a.m. to be at work by 5 a.m. I get off work at 3 p.m. which means I don't actually get home until 4 which leaves me less time to do the same amount of things that I normally do before bedtime. I'm usually in bed by 9 but the last couple of nights, I didn't get to bed until 10. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in on Thursday morning.

Today I've had a headache all day. I've taken two different things to get rid of it, but I still have it. I'm sitting on my couch right now with a heating pad on my neck. I hope that it works. Hopefully I'll have some photos for my next post. Happy New Year!!!

Quilted Wall Hanging

2010-12-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

I finished this a couple of weeks ago. I'm really happy with how it came out. I don't know where I'm going to put it, right now, it's hanging over a chair.

We had a good Christmas. I hope that everyone else did too. We received some wonderful gifts. I got some nice boots and jeans and a small Couch purse.

Here's a close up of my quilt. I've been sick for the last few days. First Morgan was sick, then Taylor and now me. I went to work to today. What a fool, I wound up going home early. I don't think that I'll be going in tomorrow either. I slept for four hours off and on when I got home. I'm now on the couch and out of bed. We'll see how long that lasts. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas!

Light House

2010-12-18T10:47:00.001-08:00

I saw this online yesterday and found it amazing. It's a light house on Lake Erie that's frozen. I was going to copy and paste a link but blogger doesn't seem to like that.

Will has been very busy baking cakes and getting ready for his Christmas baking. I haven't been doing much but working. For some reason I'm really tired. I did go to a Christmas Tea Party last night. I had a great time and I have another Christmas party tonight. I'm hoping for a nap later today.

I haven't been knitting much. I did finish quilting a quilted wall hanging. I need to wash it to get my sewing stencils marks off of it. I'll post a photo of it when it's clean. I think it's some of the best machine quilting that I've done. I'm really happy with how it came out. I haven't been doing a lot of knitting lately. I did start a pair of socks, but I'm not even past the cuff yet. My hands ache a little bit, so I've been laying off the knitting.

Morgan was sick yesterday and he missed the last day of school before winter break. He's still sick. So far he's just sleeping a lot which is good. No throwing up is a good thing in my book.

Felt Flowers

2010-12-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

All of a sudden I seem to be receiving Better Homes and Gardens. I think my Mother in Law bought a subscription for me. Anyway, I was looking through the magazine and I saw lots of do it yourself projects, but this one caught my eye.

I already had some felt squares, but I drove myself down to Michael's and bought some more. By the way, felt squares aren't made out of felt anymore. They're made out recycled plastic bottles. I made a template with one 1 inch circle, and one 2 inch circle. Cut six of each size to make one flower.

Sew the circles together and you have a pretty flower. Now make a lot of felt flowers and sew the flowers together and you have yourself a very nice garland. I was surprised at how much every member of my family liked these. Taylor asked me if I could make her a couple of flowers. I told her I could make her some and we could sew them onto baretts and she can wear them in her hair. Taylor seemed to like that idea so I did that today.

Art Show

2010-12-04T16:29:00.001-08:00

The family and I went to our friend, Phil's art show. This photo should give you and idea of how large some of these pieces are. All of the pieces are made out of leather. They're mosiacs that Phil sews together.

These are called Line Pieces. They were originally written on napkins with pen. The one on the far left is blue, the next one of the woman is red and the last two are in black.

This one is a tribute to Phil's father. It's hard to imagine the size of these art pieces in a photo. The one above is 6 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

This is a leather mosaic. Phil made it as a tribute to the four Oakland police officers that were
killed in the line of duty.

I love the texture of the leather in this one. It's just so beautiful!

This is one also beautiful. There was also one with a green eye and one with a gray eye.

Blogging

2010-11-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't updated my blog in quite while. What I've found interesting about this, is only one person has complained that I haven't blogged. This person also has a blog and hasn't updated their blog in over four months. I just that was funny.

Here's the thing about what makes blogging fun. The comments that people make. I was receiving fewer and fewer comments so I figured no one was interested anymore. I'm willing to keep blogging only if people respond.

Flowers, Knitting & Quilting

2010-08-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

We have some Morning Glories growing in our back yard. They've taken over this one area of the yard. I don't mind because I like how they look and we had nothing going on in that area of the yard.

I started another knitting project for myself a few weeks ago. I'm making myself a tank top out of some very soft yarn. I can't wait to finish it and try it on. Today I'm wearing the blue sweater I made because it was soo cool this morning. I even took off my capri's and put jeans on.

Here's where the Morning Glories have taken over our yard. They're starting to come up in our neighbors yard and even our neighbor likes them. I love the rusted old wagon in the middle of all that greenery.

I'm hoping to finish up my tank top within the next couple of weeks. I bought a pattern for a jacket I really like. I'm starting to look for some yarn for it. I noticed that all of a sudden, I seem to be into knitting garments for myself. So far, it seems to be going well.

This summer has been pretty cool temperature wise so far. This is our first ripe tomato. It's a Hillbilly tomato. I'm sure Will bought this variety just because he liked the name. I told Will, that we might be eating a lot of fried green tomatoes this year.

Today I finally made the binding for Will's quilt and machine sewed one side of the binding onto the quilt. Now I have to hand sew the finishing side on and I'll be all done. I think, I'm saving it for quilt night on Monday night.

Quick Update

2010-08-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was a bit under the weather last week, so I didn't post anything. I bought some yarn to knit myself a tank top and I've already started it.

Will and the kids made jam on Sunday with a couple of our friends. I didn't make it because I thought I had the flu, but it turned out to be a migraine. I would eat and then a wait a bit and then take some Tylenol. About 20 minutes after I took the Tylenol, up would come whatever I ate. I tried that twice. I finally realized it was a migraine and Will bought me some migraine stuff and a heating pad. I took the migraine stuff, put the heating pad on the back of my neck and a cool cloth on my forehead while laying in bed. When I woke up, I felt 100% better. The whole back of my neck and up into my head was extremely painful. Bright light didn't bother me, but sounds did. The wonders of ear plugs.

Anyway, the tank top doesn't look like much yet. I started cleaning out Taylor's room because, she wasn't going to do it. I just couldn't handle the mess anymore. Taylor has been great about it and has been getting rid of a lot of old toys that she doesn't play with anymore. Our dining room is full of paper bags full of toys, stuffed animals, barbies, etc. I'm not sure what we're going to do with them yet. I'm sure at some point all the bags will get to me and I'll just want to throw it all away.

That's been about it. Not much else is going on around here.

Finally Finished

2010-08-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Ripping out the top half of my sweater and reknitting it was, totally worth it. Now it fits correctly! I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can wear it!

I've started a lace stole and ordered some yarn to knit myself a tank top. I think I've also figured out what I'm going to knit out of the beautiful yarn that Kelly gave me for my birthday.

Tote Bag

2010-07-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

I made this tote bag a while ago. I haven't used it because I didn't like the one knitted strap. It stretched and it went diagonally from one side of the bag to the other. It was an odd set up. As you can see, Morgan is still my model. He did volunteer.

Morgan was very cooperative. This pose was his idea, and it worked out great. I replaced the original knitted strap with two nylon straps. I like it much better and the bag will have a better chance of being used.

I just love this photo and that's why I posted it.

Sciliy

2010-07-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this sweater for 3 or 4 weeks. It's been a much faster knit than I expected. But the top doesn't fit right. The bottom half fits great! The top half, not so much. After pulling some out and knitting it again, it still doesn't fit correctly. I just finished ungrafting the sleeves and pulling out all the knitting on the top half of the sweater.

I've measured myself and made some adjustments to the pattern. Now I'm ready to pick up stitches and start the top half one more time. I debated about this for a while. I didn't really want to reknit the top half, but I want a sweater that I will love to wear because of how it fits. I think the sweater was designed for a petite person, because the top half was so short.

Here's a close up of the band. I think this sweater is beautiful and reknitting it, was not in my plans, but I think the results will be worth it. I also changed the sleeves, they were supposed to bell out beneath the cables, but that's not really my style so I went for straight sleeves instead. I think this sweater will be great for changing seasons. You know, those cool sunny, windy days.

Pocket Replacement

2010-07-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

This is the pocket that I made to replace the one that has a hole in it. This yarn is cascade tweed. It was the closest that I could find. The sweater is made out of Irish wool yarn, which I couldn't find.

Here's the original pocket.

Here's the original with the replacement pocket next to it. As you can see I did okay matching the yarn and the pattern. It was my first time charting a pattern. When I started knitting it, the right side of the pattern wasn't working out correctly. I had to look at the sweater that I'm making now, to figure out how to angle the stitches for the right side of the diamond.

Here's the pocket all sewn on and finished. I found two holes in the sweater and I fixed those. I returned the sweater to one of ladies in my quilting group, so that she in turn, could return it to her pastor. Carol was impressed with my work. I'm very happy with how it came out.

This and That

2010-07-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the wisteria growing in our backyard. It's so pretty when it blooms. But it grows like crazy. I go out every week to cut it back, or it will take over our back yard.

That white and orange animal is Spike. He found himself a nice cool spot to hang out on a hot day.

Here's a close up.

I've been working on my sweater. I've finished the bottom half and done the increases for the bust. Today I finished one sleeve and started the second. I also bought some yarn to fix the pocket on that sweater I posted about a couple of weeks ago. I've even done a small swatch and I'm ready to start knitting up the pocket.

I'm also going to buy some more batting tomorrow so I can get started on finally quilting Will's quilt.

One Last Time

2010-07-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

I finished my 4th of July quilt. It's a bit large for the space I use for hanging my quilts. I even cut down the size of the pieces I cut because it would have been much larger. I'm really happy with how it came out.

I'm not sure if you can see some of the quilting in this photo, but I did stars all over the quilt. I was hoping to talk my Aunt Patricia into quilting this quilt for me. Instead she let me borrow her quilting machine. I really like her machine and it was easy to use. I have one more quilt that needs to be quilted, but I need to buy some batting for it first. I did have batting for Will's quilt, but I used it on the 4th of July quilt instead.

I think you can see some of the stars in this photo. I cut a star out of the fabric and enlarged it on our printer. I made three different size stencils and used those all over the quilt.

I do have two knitting projects going. I started one and then the yarn I ordered for another project showed up. So I'm knitting a sweater right now. I think I'm about half way done. It's going much faster than I thought it would. So far I'm very happy with how it's coming out.

Yarn and Pockets

2010-07-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

I received this beautiful hand spun yarn in the mail last Friday. It's my birthday present from Kelly. It's beautiful and I have no idea what I'll make out of it.

This is a pocket on a sweater. This is doesn't belong to me or anyone I know. Most of the quilting ladies that I hang out with go to the same church. Apparently this is their pastor's favorite sweater. It has a few holes in it and the other pocket needs to be thrown away and a new one made.

I can use the yarn from the pocket to fix the hole in the arm. I have to find some similar yarn so I can knit a new pocket. I've already charted the pocket, which took less time than I thought. It's the first time I've ever made my own chart and it worked out okay. I also finished my 4th of July quilt. I just took photos of it and I'll post them later.

Also Happy Canada Day!

4th of July

2010-06-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Spike seems quite comfortable on my quilt in progress. I knew that I shouldn't have left it spread out on the table. Anytime I leave a quilt in progress out, or block my knitting, I know that's where I'll find Spike.

He looks so cute and comfortable doesn't he? I left him there until I was ready to continue working on my quilt. I did finish quilting it. Next I have to make the binding and sew it on. I'm hoping to get it done before the 4th of July. It's a wall hanging and I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's finished.

Another Scarf

2010-06-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I finished another scarf. My friend Melanie was over to pick up another scarf that I had made. I was almost done with the green one and I noticed Melanie was wearing green. I asked her if she wanted another scarf and she said yes.

I like the girly looking ends on the green scarf. Very feminine.

Conversations With a 10 Year Old

2010-06-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Taylor comes into the bathroom, "I just had a funeral in the other bathroom."
Shannon, pauses and then says, "Did your fish die?"
Taylor, "Yes."
Shannon, "Did you feed it?"
Taylor, "Well, . . . Morgan said that fish can go for a week without food."
Shannon, "So, you forgot to feed your fish and it died?"
Taylor shrugs, "It was almost dead, so I flushed it."
Shannon, smiling but not laughing at her daughter, "You seem to go through a lot of gold fish. Maybe you should wait a while before getting another one. Next time, you need to feed your fish. It's okay if you miss one day, but a not a whole week."

Who Would Have Guessed?

2010-06-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

Who would have guessed that Will picked out this yarn? He bought it for me, when he was in Southern California for training. Turned out there was a yarn store around the corner from where he was staying. It was very nice of him to buy me some yarn. This pattern is called Genome and I think it was a staff pattern out of Interweave Knits.

Here's a close up of the pattern and the yarn. It was a quick knit. I really like this yarn. I wouldn't mind getting some more and trying a different pattern out of this yarn. I think it's called Jitterbug.

The pattern had a short row heel, which isn't that big of a deal, but I didn't like how the pattern worked the heel. Instead of wrap and turn, they had me doing yarn overs, which left these holes. The holes are more noticeable on one side of the heel than the other, on both socks.

This is the yarn that I was spinning at the winery. It's 50% merino wool and 50% silk. It was easy to spin. The photo doesn't do the color way justice. The blue is way more varied than what the photo is showing. I finally ordered a plying head for my wheel, so I was able to ply all 318 yards on one bobbin!

I think I've finally found a project for my 1000 yards of lace weight. I print up patterns that I like off of the web and put them in a binder. I looked through the binder and I found a stole that's a little over a 1000 yards and I think my alpaca lace weight will be perfect for it.

Rugs

2010-06-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

At Stitches West, I kept seeing these pom pom scarves. They were interesting, but they didn't do anything for me. We happened to stop at a booth that was selling the pom pom yarn and the sales person pointed out that you could make a bathroom rug out of this yarn. That did get my attention, but I didn't buy any yarn.

I was at Michael's the other day and I noticed they had the pom pom yarn so I bought 4 balls. At $6.00 a ball, that was a bit pricey. Anyway I made this rug for the bathroom upstairs. Taylor loves it. Will likes it too, he says it's soft, but it's not a cushy as a regular bathroom rug. It was just an experiment so if it's used once in a while, I'll be happy.

Spinning at Retzlaff Winery

2010-06-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a spinning event at Retzlaff Winery in Livermore. They have it every year. This is only the second time we've been. I couldn't go last year because I was working that day. It was a hot day in Livermore, but there was a nice breeze. Lots of spinners and knitters and vendors were there.

Here's me spinning. Around noon we didn't have a lot of shade. Later in the day one of the vendors left and it was a great spot in the shade right next to a large table. We moved our stuff pretty quickly.

Here's Will going to town on his loom. This is his second project. He's not a speedy weaver, but he's steady.

Here are Mom & Darryl spinning away.

Carolina Homespun had this beautiful hand painted Ashford spinning chair. I've seen this chair in catalogs and I've always thought it looks like a torture device. Morgaine let me try it out and it was very comfortable. But at $260.00, a bit out of my price range. Mom tested it out too. She was as surprised as I was at how comfortable it was to sit in and spin.

Morgan complained a bit here and there and kept wondering when we were leaving to go home. Taylor found a couple around her age that were needle felting. Taylor learned to needle felt and loves it. I won a basket of fiber and I negotiated with her about which fiber she wanted and which fiber I wanted. We were both happy with our deal.

Insert Clever Title Here

2010-05-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I'm all out of clever short titles for my blog posts. I've been running out of them for a while. Anyway, these are small hanks of yarn from socks that rock. When you're in the socks that rock, sock club, you receive a pattern, yarn and mini hank of yarn. I'm guessing it's for repairing any holes in your socks. I save them and I've never had to use them until today. I made Will a pair of socks, it wasn't socks that rock yarn. He's only had these socks a few months and he has a hole in them. I do remember the yarn not being consistent in diameter. It would be thick in spots and thin in spots and I suspect, that's how Will wound up with a hole in his sock so quickly. So far, I haven't put any holes in my socks and I wear them everyday. I find sometimes they shrink after being washed so much and I pass them on to Taylor.

I repaired the sock for him and off he went on his merry way. This is how I normally store these mini hanks of yarn. I just put them in my socks that rock binder. This morning I also fixed a pair of socks for a lady in my quilting group. She found some hand knit socks that her grandmother knitted. They were knitted toe up and the bind off was a little tight. I took out the binding and found a similar color yarn and did the ez sewn bind off. I tried the socks on with no problem.

This is Gina, she was kind enough to model this scarf for me. Morgan wouldn't do it because other people were around and he'd just gotten up and wasn't quite awake yet. I made this scarf out of left over yarn, just to use it up.

Right now I have nothing, absolutely nothing on the needles. I'm not sure what I'm going to knit. I wanted to knit a lace shawl, but I'm having problems finding a lace pattern that actually uses lace weight yarn. I have 1000 yards of lace weight alpaca screaming at me to knit it up. I just can't find a pattern to go with the yarn. I also have the sock yarn that Will bought for me. I suspect I'll start something with the sock yarn before I find something for the lace yarn.

I did look on ravelry for shawl patterns. A lot of the patterns do not list a gauge or yardage, which I find very frustrating. The patterns seem to list one or the other, but not both. I did start a shawl pattern that I really liked, but the needle size was way to large for my yarn and it was difficult to tell the difference between garter stitch and stockingette stitch.

Vegas Socks

2010-05-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

I finally finished these socks last night. It wasn't a time consuming pattern. It was that damn blending filament that I kept running out of. Now, of course, I have two spools of the blending filament left over. I really like the design on the heels.

I'm sorry this photo came out dark. You get the idea. The squares are actually different sides of the dice. Starting with the one side at the top and progressing all the way to the six side of the dice. Pretty cool!

Here's a little bit better photo. Now, I don't know if I should start another pair of socks or start using some of my lace weight yarn. I'm hoping if I start a lace project, my addi clicks with the lace points on them will come in. For my birthday Will bought a set of the new lace tip addi clicks and they haven't come in yet. I've been waiting for them to arrive before I start a lace project. Since they haven't arrived yet. I figured if I started a lace project, they would show up.

I finished the top of my quilted wall hanging, but I want to send it out to be quilted and I have no idea where to send it. Any ideas?

Weekly Update

2010-05-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't finished my socks yet. Haven't knitted much on the scarf. I have finished the quilt top of a quilted wall hanging. I showed it to my Monday night quilting group and they asked me why it wasn't in the quilt show. I told them I finished it Sunday and it still needs to be quilted. The quilting ladies are already telling me that I have to put it in next years quilt show.

We had a busy weekend. Did lots of shopping for the kids on Saturday. We bought Morgan shoes about 3 months ago and we had to buy new shoes for him again last week. He went from a 10 1/2 to an 11 1/2. I'm hoping that some day, he'll grow into his feet. Taylor is so skinny that we can't find jeans that fit her correctly. I heard through the grape vine that Nordstrom's is the place to go. Yes, we found her jeans that fit great, but they were quite expensive. We only bought her one pair. We might have to start making weekly trips to the rack to see if we can get them cheaper. On the plus side, Taylor loves them, she's wearing them for the second time this week.

This weekend I only have one day off. I'm hoping to do a little bit of yard work, house work and a little bit of relaxing. We'll see how it goes. I'm also hoping to finish these socks soon. Will found a yarn store around the corner from where he was staying in Southern California and he told me about it. I told him he should go in and see if they have any sock yarn. He kindly brought me back a beautiful hank of sock yarn. I've already wound it into a ball. Now, I just have to decide what pattern to use for this yarn.

Quilt Show

2010-05-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

The ladies in my Monday night quilting group all go to the same church. They put on a quilt show today and we went to check it out. This quilt was made by Karen and it looks like you're looking through a window. It's very cool!

This quilt involves some one's family genealogy. It shows when people came to the United States and where they ended up and the dates. It's a very interesting quilt. On the bottom, it had photos of the family members that migrated to America in a genealogy chart.

Here's Will and Taylor enjoying tea. Will made over a hundred scones for the tea. I wasn't expecting all the other food that came with the tea. It was very good and tasty.

Donna made this quilt. I love the colors and the scalloped edge. I love the scalloped edge, but sewing the binding on all those curves must have been difficult.

I love this one for the color combinations, the blocks and the border fabric, which is tea cups. We had a lot more fun than I expected at the quilt show. There was also a small area where quilts, table runners and etc, were being sold.

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T17:59:00.000-07:00

A late Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there. I had an interesting Mother's Day. Now, I'm not complaining about how my day turned out. Looking back on it, actually makes me laugh.

Will made me breakfast. We had waffles from scratch with fresh strawberries with powdered sugar on top. Then I did the dishes, cleaned the bathroom downstairs and I vacuumed. Will and I spent some time together before I took him to the airport.

On the way back from the airport, I stopped for gas and taught Morgan how to put gas in the car. When we got home, I made lunch and than did dishes again. Morgan decided to make himself a BLT sandwich. During this time, he smoked up the whole house which made the fire alarm go off.

Then Taylor was upset because part of her bed was falling apart. She broke her bed and won't admit it. I'm taking the piece of metal to work to see if I can straighten it out. Then I ironed and cut out some fabric that I'm going to make a quilted wall hanging out of. While doing this, I was catching up on some TV shows on the DVR. Once I was done cutting out fabric, I went downstairs and started sewing.

While I was sewing the cat came into my sewing room making throw up noises. Before I could grab Spike and throw him outside, he threw up cat food all over the floor. I left it there until I was done sewing. I had a limited amount of time for sewing, so I just kept walking around the cat throw up. Morgan was very helpful and helped me clean it up. Now we have a clean spot on the tile floor downstairs.

I warmed up the leftovers and we had dinner. The dishwasher was full so Morgan ran it. I went downstairs to get the towels out of the dryer and there was water all over the floor. Sometimes, we have a drainage problem and the water overflows out of the stand pipe and all over the floor. Usually it's not a lot of water, so it's not a big deal. I clean up the water with the clean towels and think nothing of it.

Later when I was getting ready for bed, I was checking on some things downstairs and there was more water on the floor. The most that I've ever seen. The water was going into the drum room and got some of Will's drums wet. I moved Will's drums and dried them off. I also cleaned up the floor with more towels and threw the towels into the washer.

When I got home from work today, I was afraid to run the washer.Wet towels sitting in a washer overnight smell very bad. I washed the towels anyway and there was no water overflow! Basically I had to rewash almost all of the towels that I washed yesterday. I also had to move a very soaking wet rug outside. Will always puts a rug underneath his drums, so the drums don't move when he plays them. I also finished one sock this weekend and I finished the scarf last week. I'm hoping the rest of the week is a little more relaxed than yesterday was.

OKC Zoo

2010-05-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

I've never been to the Oklahoma City Zoo before. They have a great zoo! It's large (lots of walking), the animals have large habitats that are a lot like their natural homes are. Here's a gorilla checking out the kids that were watching him.

This is an anteater. It was cool to see him or her, get up and walk around. I had no idea they have such long and large claws.

Baby giraffe.

Here's the white peacock that was showing off for everyone as they came into the zoo.

Oklahoma Update

2010-04-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Not much is going on with me. Yes, I've been knitting. I started a small scarf to use up some yarn. I also started another sock KAL, but I didn't read the directions all the way through. This pattern has blending filament in it. I've used blending filament before in cross stitch, just not in knitting. I figured the blending filament was supposed to go through out the whole sock. I mean the pattern is called What Happens in Vega$. Vegas is a lot of bling, not a little.

Nope, turns out just one part of the sock is supposed to have the blending filament and I'm almost out of blending filament. I'm halfway through the leg of my first sock. I went to Michael's looking for more blending filament and they don't carry it. I looked online and it turns a local store AT HOME carries it. Which really doesn't do me any good here in Oklahoma. Will did offer to buy it for me and mail it to me. I thought that was really nice of him. I hope he made it the store today.

Anyway as you can see on the photos above, it looks like there are dice on my socks. So far I have the one side and the two side of the dice. I started the three side when I realized I was running low on blending filament.

So, I've been working on my scarf the last couple of evenings. No big plans this weekend, maybe a pedicure, movie, yarn store and book store. I figure that should fill up some time. Oh, yeah and laundry. Also avoid the creepy the guy that was pretending to work out in the gym here, but as soon as I finished my work out, I saw him a few minutes later going back to his room. Why do men have to be so creepy?

Okay, so this guy chats me up a little bit this morning at breakfast. I don't think anything of it and it turns out he works for the same agency that I do. But to come into the gym and pretend to work out and than leave right after I did? Creepy. I though he was waiting for the treadmill. I happened to see him a few minutes later when I went to fill my ice bucket, he was unlocking the door to his room. Turns out he wasn't interested in working out.

Traveling Woman Shawl

2010-04-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

I finished my shawl. I only had one skein of yarn and this is what I was able to do with it. I'm very happy with how it came out.

When I asked if someone would model the shawl for me, Morgan was quite offended. Apparently he thought that he was my official model. I said, "Okay, I didn't realize you were my official model." I think Morgan did a great job.

Today is my only day off this week. I'm not complaining because I just had six days off in a row due to shift change. It was quite awesome. When I got home from work, we went straight to a birthday party. We got to bed around 10 last night and I slept 10 hours. It was great, because I only 5 hours of sleep the night before.

Today we went to OSH and bought some plants and seeds. When we got home we planted them. We also wound up back the birthday girl's house because they had lots of left over food and they still had margaritas in the margarita machine. It was nice to hang out with our friends twice in 24 hours.

Here's Morgan modeling my shawl again. I think this shawl will be great for cool summer evenings. I'm leaving for Oklahoma on Tuesday and I'm taking the shawl with me. I can probably give it a test run in Oklahoma because the weather has warmed up there.

CNCH

2010-04-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here's my traveling woman shawl being blocked. I hope it dries soon. It was very easy to block. Sometimes lace can be time consuming to get it all blocked. That's Taylor doing her homework.

Here's a bit of a close up of the pattern. I've also started another sock knit a long. But this time the woman released the full pattern all at once. I think she received too many complaints about releasing the next step early.

Last Saturday we went to CNCH, which is Conference of Northern California Handweavers. Lots of spinning and weaving items. I've tried (okay, it was only once) to spin using a drop spindle without much success. When we were at Stitches West, one gentlemen gave us a demonstration. I bought myself a basic drop spindle. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping to give a go today.

This is the only fiber that I bought. It was just screaming my name. There was a lot of fiber at CNCH, but not much of it was calling to me like this one did. It's has several different shades of blue that don't show up very well in this photo. There was also another colorway that was very similar, but more on the gray side. Everyone picked this one, when I asked them which one they liked better.

At one of the first booths we went to, I found these earrings. I had some amber earrings that I bought in Oklahoma that I really liked and now I can't find them. These make a nice replacement and were less than $8.00 and they're sterling silver.

Traveling Woman Shawl

2010-04-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

I finished this shawl last night. I haven't blocked it yet. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow. I've had six days off, but they've been busy. Saturday we went to CNCH in Santa Clara. It's a fiber, spinning and weaving event. It was half the size of stitches, but it was still fun. I bought some fiber, a drop spindle, earrings and some lotion, that's not quite lotion.

I had one ball of yarn to make this shawl. I was getting a bit concerned that I might not have enough yarn, but as you can see in the photo, I did have some yarn left.

Sunday we had a birthday party and a chili tasting to go to. Today I met some of my coworkers for lunch. Three of us have birthdays within a week of each other, so we like to celebrate together. Tomorrow I'm hoping to relax a little bit.

Pillars of Atlantis

2010-04-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

I finished these socks last night. I started them when I was in Oklahoma City. I got the pattern off of ravelry. The pattern is called Pillars of Atlantis and it's an easy and free pattern.

The yarn is from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I love their sock yarn. I bought this yarn at Stitches West. I'm happy that I've already used it. I just started a small shawl with the yarn that Corinne gave me. We'll see how that goes.

I went to Wondercon with Will and the kids today. It's a comic book geek thing. Like Stitches West for comic book fans. Lots of comic books and toys. Lots of people dressed up as comic book heroes, lots of storm troopers and people dressed up as I don't know what. It was just fun seeing the people dressed up in costume.

Spring and Ray

2010-04-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of things are blooming in our yard and neighborhood. My nasturtiums are going crazy. Here they're growing out from underneath the planter box and in the planter box. These planter boxes were my Grandmother's and they're old and falling apart. I think we're going to replace them this year.

Here are my nasturtiums again. See how crazy they are? Growing up the banister. I don't want to cut them back because I enjoy how crazy they look.

Here's Ray. He's been sitting on our mantle since Saturday. Saturday was his Memorial. It went well. It's kind of cool having Ray here. Today after I picked up Taylor from school, she said hi to Ray and gave him a hug.

We had this large flower arrangement from the Memorial. Some of the flowers were starting to die, so I took it apart and now I have four vases full of beautiful flowers. That's one of my Belleek vases. I really like them. I wish I had a larger one.

Here are some more flowers and my other Belleek vase. Things have settled down around here now that the Memorial is finally over. Not much else has been going on.

Socks and Stuff

2010-03-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

I made these socks for Will. I started them before I left for Oklahoma City and I finished them while I was there. I mailed them home as a surprise for Will. Will was pleasantly surprised.

Here's another photo of Will's socks. It's been a busy week, so I haven't had much time for posting. I flew home on Wednesday and worked on Thursday and Friday. Saturday was Ray's Memorial and then I went to work today.

Science & Tech Museum

2010-03-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Today my coworker and I braved the snow storm and went to the Science and Tech Museum. I've discovered that my coworker never goes anywhere. So I've been dragging him around town to see things. This is a triplane. Pretty cool!

Here's a very early Harley Davidson. Apparently they were known for their speed and won lots of races.

This is a rocket engine. That's just one engine. Imagine three or four of those behind you as you're taking off. There were a lot of inter active exhibits at the museum. It reminded me a lot of the Exploratorium. It's a great place to take kids.

Here's a polygraph. I just loved how it looks. It's in a suitcase and then you open it up and wham! your heart starts racing.

This was really cool. This exhibit showed sound waves. There was a control on the side where you could change the frequency. With the lower frequencies, not much happened. But when we got to the higher frequencies, this is what we saw.

Yesterday it was 70 degrees. Last night we had thunderstorms and over night it snow. It was snowing a lot this morning. A lot of schools and churches are closed today. It was snowing quite a bit this morning and since it's Oklahoma, it was windy too.

This was taken in front of the museum. It stopped snowing mid morning, but it started up again this afternoon. They're predicting more snow for tomorrow. Just think, this weekend is the first day of spring.

Once Again For Your Viewing Pleasure, OKC

2010-03-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

This may sound silly, but I felt like a did a lot of things over the weekend and a lot of nothing. One of my coworkers is here too, so Saturday he picked me up and we did a little bit of shopping. First we went to Kohl's, I needed something appropriate for Ray's Memorial when I get home. Then we went to the mall and Target.

On Sunday I looked around for the fabric store and I didn't find it. That's probably a good thing. The last thing I need is to buy fabric here, that I can buy at home and then cram it into my suitcase. Sunday afternoon, I was picked up once again, by my coworker and we saw a movie. Then we went to Lake Hefner because my coworker had never been there. That's the first picture that you see.

Then we went down town just to walk around and take a few photos. This one and the one above it, I took at the Botanical Gardens. The koi weren't moving around much, but they were still fun to see.

Downtown Oklahoma City on a Sunday afternoon. Not much going on as you can see. My coworker seemed to like the Botanical Gardens and was quite surprised they're right next to down town. I found that funny, because you drive right past the Botanical Gardens to get to Brick Town and I know he's been to Brick Town lots of times.

One more photo of a building down town. I've taken photos of this building before, but it's an interesting building. I like the shape, how it looks like stairs. I think that's cool. I also liked how everything is reflected off of the building because it's just a giant mirror. I'm a bit glad it wasn't sunny when I took this photo.

This is the sky line of down town from the Botanical Gardens. I just thought it was a fun photo. The crane is cool too. No, I didn't bring my spinning wheel. The wheel takes up one suit case on it's own, and I'm only here for two weeks. I did bring some socks to knit.

For Mom

2010-03-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

These photos are for Mom since she requested them. I'm in Oklahoma City for two weeks. Normally, when I stay here, I stay at an apartment building that rents out mostly to government employees attending training. When I mean apartment, I have a living room, bedroom, bathroom, small dining room kitchen, bathroom and a washer and dryer.

I have found that it's difficult to shop for food for one person to cook for just two weeks. This time I thought I would try out a hotel. I like the hotel, but I'm not impressed with the customer service.

My room is clean and tidy. It doesn't smell like stale cigarette smoke. They have a small (but pricey) laundry room. I have a microwave and a small refrigerator for snacks and drinks. There is also a small gym, which I have been using. When I arrived my rental car was supposed to be waiting for me at my hotel. I waited three hours and finally the man at the desk drove me and another person over the rental car place to pick up our cars.

My refrigerator wasn't working and I called the front desk about it. They said someone would come up and look at it. No one ever did. After I received my rental car and ran a couple of errands, I stopped at the desk and again requested someone take a look at my refrigerator. They were shocked that no one had come up to check it out. Within ten minutes someone came up fixed it. My room is upstairs overlooking the pool area which is inside the hotel. It's a bit strange not being able to open the windows. I prefer fresh air over the fan or whatever it is I'm getting in my room. I keep waking up very thirsty all night long.

One of my coworkers is also here in Oklahoma City and we went out to dinner last night. Today we went to Kohl's, Penn Square Mall and Target. I needed to find something to wear to Ray's Memorial when I get back home and my coworker needed to go to Target. We also went to the mall because I was running low on some BE stuff and they now have a BE store here. That's it for now. So far, nothing real exciting has been going on.

Yarn and Stuff

2010-03-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Remember the photos I posted last time of my spinning? Well, here it is all plyed together. I did regular plying. I wound up with two bobbins of singles and I just plyed those two together. I'm very happy with how they came out. I did have a little bit of one single left and I Navajo plyed that.

These photos don't do the yarn justice. For some reason the colors are washed out. The darker color is several shades of maroon and the lighter color is several shades of tan and beige. It's quite beautiful. I wound up with over 200 yards of yarn. I don't know what I'm going to make with it yet.

Here's a close up of the second ball. Today we saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was pretty good. The 3D wasn't over done. During parts of the movie I didn't even notice it much. But other parts of the movie it was more obvious.

This is the yarn that I bought at Stitches. It's Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which is one of my favorite yarns to use for knitting up socks. They try different color ways and sometimes they don't work out too well. They sell them as rare gems because they're one of a kind and are only available at shows like Stitches West. One brown color way I bought was beautiful, but it faded a lot after I washed the socks.

I'm hoping this one doesn't fade. They used to sell these as mill ends and they were cheaper than the regular sock yarn. Now they call them rare gems and raised the price a few dollars.

Normalcy

2010-02-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

I finally felted the nesting bowls. You can see them pictured above. I'm not really into these bowls. They were a quick and easy knit. One of the ladies in my quilting group seemed to think they were really cute, so I thought I'd just give them to her.

Here they are all nested together. I think things are getting back to something close to normal around here. The big test will be tomorrow when we all go back to work and school.

Last Friday I went to Stitches West with My Mom and Darryl. I didn't buy a whole lot of stuff. I bought one hank of Blue Moon yarn. I bought this roving that's pictured above and three patterns.

The photos don't do the colors in the roving justice. I tried using my flash, but that washed the colors out even more.

Here's a close up of what I've spun so far. It goes from dark to light and back again. This is when the spool has more light colors on it. I can't decide how to ply it. I don't know if I want to Navajo ply it, or ply two singles together. Any suggestions?

Finished Projects

2010-02-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here are my KAL socks. I finished them last week. I just haven't had time to post the photos. I've already worn them twice.

Here's a hat that I made for Taylor. She tells me it's too small and she wants a different style hat.

I apologize for the blah post. Things are just starting to get back to normal around here.

Passing

2010-02-20T15:39:00.001-08:00

Ray passed away this morning at 6:45. He was diagnosed with cancer on January 20th. He was a wonderful man and he will be missed by everyone who knew him.

Ray Update

2010-02-17T16:17:00.001-08:00

Ray is not doing well. He's in a hospital bed in his living room. The hospice nurse says the less he moves, the better. A nice woman came today and gave Ray a bath. Will and I have been taking turns staying the night to take care of Ray. We're both tired and emotionaly worn out. We're trying to hire someone to stay the night with Ray so that Will and I can get some rest. Katie comes over during the day and reads Ray some of the letters he receives and takes care of him.

Last night one of our friends made dinner for us and brought it over to our house. We also share this with Marianne to make sure she's eating.

I finished my KAL socks. I did take a picture of them, but I haven't had time to download the photo.

Ray

2010-02-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

We had a meeting with the hospice people yesterday. So far I like the hospice people from Kaiser because they seem to be the only ones getting anything done. The nurse was shocked at the low dosages of pain medication the doctors had given Ray. The nurse said, "He's been taking vicadon for his back for years, these low dosages of feyntenol (don't know if I spelled that correctly) aren't even touching his pain." The nurse got on the phone with a doctor and got all of his dosages increased. Right now everything is about managing Ray's pain. It seems to be a long shot, but they're hoping if they can get Ray's pain managed, he might be strong enough for some kind of kemo.

The doctor's also seem to think that Ray has cancer in his bones. They're talking about doing a bone scan. A nurse will be coming 2 or 3 times a week to see how Ray is doing. Meanwhile because he's under hospice care, he can get a hospital bed, wheel chair even a toilet and whatever else he needs to be comfortable at home. The hospital bed will go in the living room so that Ray can get a change of scenery from the bedroom.

We're all frustrated with lack of care that Ray has been receiving. The only way anything is getting done is because we have a friend who is a surgical technician at Kaiser and is a close family friend. Thank you so much Steve for all of your help. I don't know how anyone gets anything done at Kaiser, they have been so slow to respond to anything Ray has going on. Katie, my sister in law, is the calmest person I know. In the eleven years that I've known her, I've never seen her yell or even raise her voice at anyone. She's raised her voice at the doctor's twice.

Last time the emergency room doctor said, "He's to weak to continue treatment." Katie said, "Treatment! What treatment? Every time we bring him in, it's get a biopsy wait 2 weeks for the results, get a cat scan, wait a week for the results, get another biopsy wait for the results. This was the time we were supposed to discuss treatment!"

I haven't had a chance to get much knitting done. I have been slowly working on my KAL socks. I finished knitting my nested bowls, but I still have to felt them and I haven't even started Taylor's hat.

Ray Update

2010-02-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Ray had an appointment today with an oncologist. They admitted Ray to the ER because his blood pressure is so low. Ray is too weak for any kind of treatments. They're talking about hospice care. Will and Katie pulled the doctor aside and asked the doctor how long he thinks Ray has. The doctor said weeks to months.

Naps

2010-02-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

I was laying on the couch trying to take a nap the other day, and I was tired but I couldn't sleep. It was too sunny. Who would have thought? It's been nice to have some breaks between the storms and get some sunshine. The above photo I took out of our kitchen window.

This one I took while laying on the couch. I can't do anything about the power lines.

I also took this one from the couch. I've started my second KAL sock. I've gotten to the heel flap. It seems to be going pretty fast. I finished the nesting bowls, but I still have to felt them. I'm hoping to do that in the next day or two. I need to start making a hat for Taylor. I had made hats for Morgan and Will, and at the time I asked Taylor if she wanted one and she said no. I guess she's changed her mind. I have a bit of left over cascade and she picked one of those to use for her hat.

Here's the Ray update. Ray had a biopsy on his liver and he has cancer in his liver too. He has an appointment with a oncologist today. Originally Kaiser told him they couldn't get him in until the 23rd. Ray told Kaiser, "I don't know if I'll be alive by then." I don't know if Ray was serious or not, but there it is.

KAL

2010-02-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

For those non knitters out there, a KAL is a knit a long. My Mom sent me a link to a knit a long and I decided to do it. Every week or so a clue is made available on line. You print up the clue and knit it up. First was the cuff of the socks. The second is the ladies on the leg of sock which is pictured above and so on.

This is the heel of my sock. I've only finished the one sock, now I need to make the other sock. I really like the blue, purple and green sparkly yarn. The red is left over from another pair of socks that I made. I wasn't sure if the sparkly yarn would be too much and you wouldn't be able to see the patterns in the socks.

Some of the pattern shows up great and some of it, not so great. I'm happy with how my sock came out.

Ray update. The results of Ray's second cat scan shows that he has some sort of growth on his liver. When the doctor went back and looked at his first cat scan, which was done in November, there is a small shadow in his liver. In the second cat scan, it's much more than a spot. I don't know how much more, because I wasn't there. But apparently, it's noticeably larger. Last Tuesday they did a biopsy on his liver. They seem to think it's cancer, but they won't know until they get the results of the biopsy. The doctor did finally increase Ray's pain medication dosage. Since that's happened, Ray has been doing much better. He sounds more like his normal self. (Okay, I was going to type old and I thought that might sound bad or offensive). If it is cancer in his liver, that has to be dealt with before the doctor's can deal with the cancer in his stomach and esophagus.

Will is doing great! He's no longer on pain medication and he's walking around and almost back to normal.

Completed Hat

2010-01-31T12:33:00.000-08:00

Here's my finished hat. I finished it earlier this week. I really like how it came out.

I think it looks okay on me too. I've started the KAL socks. I'm about a quarter of the way through the third clue.

Will is up and moving around now. I think he's starting to do a little too much. He still needs to take it easy. Taking care of Will was more work than I expected. I've been so tired. Will was a good patient, it was a lot more laundry and fetching than I thought it would be. I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought I would.

No update on Ray. He had a cat scan over a week ago and we haven't heard the results. Ray has an appointment on Tuesday with a surgeon. We've been told that basically the doctor's won't know how far spread the cancer is until they open Ray up. So we can't do anything but wait.