Good grief, talk about neglect! Today I am back, tomorrow? Who knows.

I made this sock for a test on Ravelry and I love it. My first toe up sock. Now getting the mate made is another story.

Jan 11

Still cold and I'm still working on my test sweater. When I get finished with this project I am going to concentrate on making this blog better!

Jan 9, 2011

It is cold in my house today! We are still slowly working at getting our furnace installed. Today the woodstove in the garage just isn't keeping it warm enough, so I am tucked under a blanket and don't see much chance of moving out from under it.
I'm working on a test knit sweater and that's as good of an excuse as any to stay put.

A New Year!

Here we are already a week into the new year. I am sooo far behind in everything. I will update this blog this coming week....stay tuned!

Still hazy, hot and humid!

I cannot figure out where this summer is going. Oh wait! Maybe it is flying by as I sit in my recliner reading book after book because it is too hot to do anything else. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, as the saying goes!
I have really been on a reading jag. Mostly Debbie Macomber books. Reading the "Heart of Texas" series now, have one more to read.
I also have been reading "The Cat Who" series. It is really light, fun reading.

The craft projects haven't been totally neglected either, although I'm not working on them with much fervor. What I need to do is get more organized.

Next weekend my Mom and sister are supposed to go camping with me for 2 nights. That should be interesting. We have never done anything like that before. So as always, have book and yarn - will travel :)

Another hot day

Well today was hot and humid again. We've been having a spell of hot weather already this summer. Got my hair cut this morning and pulled weeds in the garden this evening. That is the highlight of my day so far. Since it is 8:30 PM, I doubt I will do much of anything else, except crochet on the swap project for Ravelry.
Our poor garden took a hit. Even though we had fenced it in, a groundhog burrowed under the fence and ate my lima beans, green bean and yellow bean plants. It looks like most of them may regrow but now it will take longer. Mr. Groundhog made the mistake of showing himself and now he is no longer. Anybody with a garden knows how discouraging it is to plant seeds, watch them grow and then wake up to find them munched to practically nothing!

Another camping trip

This is the year for camping! The fishing has been good, so it doesn't take any arm twisting to get my hubby to go. We ended up staying an extra night because we had rain on Tuesday. I do not care to break camp under soaking wet conditions.





We usually take peanuts with us and feed the chipmunks. This time we had five of them eating out of our hands! We gave three of them names; Gentle, Roughneck and Twice.

Gentle would take a peanut very gently from our fingers. We would be reading a book and hold a peanut by our side and if we weren't paying attention when they came for it, they would react differently. Gentle would touch our fingers and let us know he was there, let go of the peanut now. Roughneck would give the peanut a hard tug and if we didn't let go right away, he would just nip our finger. Not hard, but enough to let us know he wanted that peanut. And Twice was really cute. He lives across the campground road (which is just wide enough for campers to travel), so he needed to make his trips worthwhile. It took me a few times to realize what was going on. If I offered him a small peanut he would stuff it inside his cheek and wait for another one. The second one he just carried in his mouth. After I wised up and realized what he was doing I tried to pick out a small peanut to give him first. We had a blast with them. We'd feed for about an hour and then quit so they could go about their little chipmunk lives. Later in the day we would feed them again for a little bit. Most of the time they stored the peanuts in their holes. We are pretty sure some of them had to do some housecleaning to be able to move around down there.


We camped from Sunday to Wednesday. I read two books and worked on my test project and a swap project. Also did a little fishing. I caught a few trout and a catfish. I'm not the most patient trout fisherwoman, so I usually only fish when they start biting. I wait for hubby to alert me and then go to the lake, which is within walking distance of the campground. We really only learned to lake fish this year. It is a little different than fishing in a stream or river.


Now that we are home reality must raise its ugly head and I have to do some serious housecleaning. I don't know why this year is so difficult for me to get in the mood to spring clean. Maybe I can convince myself to wait until later and make it fall cleaning?

I also have to get to working on the Vancouver Shawl that I am testing. It's a slow go for me because my gauge is smaller than Samantha's suggested gauge. I am using what I had in my yarn stash, and being a shawl I'm not really worried about the gauge. Sam will be able to use it as a reference for her pattern. For some strange reason lately, I haven't been able to just sit and knit or crochet for hours on end like I used to do. I think I need to find a different chair!

Test knit

This is a test knit project called Vancouver Shawl. I'm loving the pattern, but it is a slow go!

Well here it is June already. May was a busy month. We took mini camping trips the last three weekends. Secretly I think it was a means of escaping the inevitable work!
Finally got the garden planted. Now hubby and son are building onto my herb bed so we can have tomatoes right outside the kitchen window, yummy!

I also finished my first Elizabeth Zimmerman project, the rib-warmer. It was the greatest thing to make! I'll add a picture when I get my camera card hooked to this laptop...stay tuned.
Now I want to make the Butterfly Jacket for myself, but that will be down the road a piece.

I made this shawl for a gal in Ravelry and realized that I absolutely love doing lace knitting!

Now I want to make more shawls and hope to in the near future. I work for yarn and/or cash, if anyone is interested!

This particular shawl was made with "Happy Feet" from Plymouth Yarn Co. It is a merino wool/nylon blend and is a dream to work with. The pattern is Ash Leaf http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ash-leaf-shawl and once you get the pattern in your head, it isn't difficult to do.

I hope the owner is pleased with it. She wanted to do the blocking herself (yeah!), so the photo here is about three-fourths finished. I didn't take a picture of the finished shawl as I was too anxious to mail it to her. (Ok, I admit it, I was also too lazy to lay it out again) :)

Um, I wonder if I will ever be able to keep up?

Right now I am trying to line up some knitting work. I want to do sample knitting mostly, but will also do test knitting.

My goal this year is to get some extra $$$ so I can buy some different yarns to use in my own designs. I have so many sketches and ideas....

Folded log cabin quilt

 

This is one that my quilting group did about 5 years ago

New Year's resolutions

I think I am going to try a few resolutions for 2010. It's a nice number. I don't usually make NY's resolutions, because I don't keep them and don't need more stress LOL But, I need some kind of motivation and maybe this will help. So, here goes...

I resolve:
to organize my computer - emails, files, etc.
to work on my WIP's and UFO's
to make at least one teddy bear per month
to follow my housecleaning schedule
to exercise and work on a healthier diet

I'm sure there will be more!

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Since this is so close to being finished, I am going to give you the rest of the rows!

Day 11 (would be Sunday for those following by days):

Row 51: Knit across

Row 52: Knit across

Row 53: Knit across

Row 54: K4, p 38, k4

Row 55: Knit across

Row 56: K4, p 38, k4

Rows 57 - 60: knit every row.

Bind off in knit stitches.

I hope you enjoyed this mystery KAL. This was the first time I ever wrote down a design. The bow needs some tweaking, but all in all I think it is ok.

I will be doing another mystery design in about 2 weeks for those who want to join in!

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Ok, you asked for it...

Day 10 (a day early!):

Row 47: K5, p1, k 34, p1, k5

Row 48: K4, p1, k 36, p1, k4

Row 49: Knit across

Row 50: K4, p 38, k4

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Day 9:

Row 42: K4, p1, k1, p 17, k1, p3, k2, p 11, k1, p1, k4

Row 43: K5, p1, k 12, p2, k2, p2, k 16, p1, k5

Row 44: K4, p1, k1, p 16, k4, p 14, k1, p1, k4

Row 45: K5, p1, k 14, p4, k 16, p1, k5

Row 46: K4, p1, k1, p 34, k1, p1, k4

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Day 8:

Row 37: K5, p1, k4, p3, k2, p8, k4, p3, k 10, p1, k5

Row 38: K4, p1, k1, p8, k2, p2, k6, p3, k8, p5, k1, p1, k4

Row 39: K5, p1, k6, p9, k1, p4, k5, p2, k7, p1, k5

Row 40: K4, p1, k1, p7, k1, p 10, k2, p2, k2, p 10, k1, p1, k4

Row 41: K5, p1, k 10, p2, k3, p2, k 17, p1, k5

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Sorry I missed yesterday, wasn't feeling well.
I'm posting yesterday's rows now and today's rows later this evening.

Day 7:

Row 33: K5, p1, k5, p2, k3, p2, k2, p2, k 11, p4, k3, p1, k5

Row 34: K4, p1, k1, p6, k3, p9, k1, p2, k2, p3, k4, p4, k1, p1, k4

Row 35: K5, p1, k4, p1, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p1, k7, p3, k8, p1, k5

Row 36: K4, p1, k1, p 10, k2, p6, k2, p1, k2, p1, k2, p2, k2, p4, k1, p1, k4

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Day 6:

Row 28: K4, p1, k1, p5, k2, p8, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p1, k2, p4, k1, p1, k4

Row 29: K5, p1, k5, p4, k4, p2, k1, p2, k10, p2, k4, p1, k5

Row 30: K4, p1, k1, p4, k2, p 11, k4, p4, k3, p6, k1, p1, k4

Row 31: K5, p1, k8, p1, k4, p4, k12, p2, k3, p1, k5

Row 32: K4, p1, k1, p3, k2, p 13, k8, p8, k1, p1, k4

Mystery dishcloth KAL

Day 5:

Row 23: k5, p1, k5, p2, k8, p2, k2, p5, k 10, p1, k5

Row 24: k4, p1, k1, p6, k6, p2, k1, p3, k2, p6, k2, p6, k1, p1, k4

Row 25: k5, p1, k6, p2, k6, p2, k2, p2, k4, p4, k6, p1, k5

Row 26: k4, p1, k1, p6, k2, p6, k2, p2, k2, p6, k2, p6, k1, p1, k4

Row 27: k5, p1, k4, p1, k1, p2, k6, p2, k1, p2, k8, p2, k5, p1, k5