A Christmas countdown

Christmas Day More Snow

Over night we received 6" more of this white stuff. My poor car is not going anywhere for a while.

We now have over 24" of this stuff. It may go away.

I was NOT dreaming of a White Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. To friends and loved ones Thanks for all you have done.

I understand Santa's rosey cheeks now. Santa is at the door. Also Santa and Mrs. Claus peeking out the window above the door. To the very bottom left Ken shoveling to find the walkway. We got over 6" more of snow last night and it is still coming down. If you can make it soon the way is cleared.

The view out my window to the back yard. Sorry no squirrels right now. But, lots of birds and snow. Solar Snowflakes probably will not come on tonite as the panel is covered.

I guess Batman was trying to come dig us out last night. But he got stuck, this was all that was there this morning.

A picture of my Grand scarf. My very own pattern made by someone else. SHHHHH this is a gift. Not bad for Sandi's first lace project( Sandi said it was much much better than "Not Bad").

Kid Merino

Susan at Crystal Palace Yarns sent me some yarn to play with. I received some Kid Merino in rose musk colorway. I decided to knit this from their web site. The scarf took one skein to complete. It was fun. I wish I took better pictures but hey guess I should be lucky I got a picture. (my photo)

Then I have this (not my photos)

Ahhh socks I knitted. But, these are photographed by a more skilled person. I need one of these photo foot models and lighting and....... Like that would help. Dang, I want it all.Kinda fun to see what my work looks like when a pro takes its picture. Maybe I should send the scarf off for it pictures. I never thought my socks could look so good. I promise they do not look this good on my feet. The first and last one are in the new Panda Superwash yarn. Yeah no more shrinking socks.

The Carefree or not KAL is wrapping up. Congrats to all the winners. We used over 50,000 yards of yarn in a variety of projects. I think a good time was had by all.

I have been working on Christmas gifts. I have 1/2 of one left to make then comes the bonus gifts. The gifts that go to loved ones that love receiving "hand made items".

Slippers or Ski Boots?

I got a chance to try a pattern from Fiber Trends. Natural Comfort Felt Slippers. The pattern is close to all the other fiber trends slippers. Doubled soled, felted, cuff. But this one is knitted flat for a while then joined into the round. I knitted the size 8. I used some Lion Brand wool I had had in my stash for a while.

Here they are pre-felted. I wish I had something to see just how large they were. But, when we measured the soles they measured out to 22". Yep almost 2 feet long.

Below is the slippers after felting. Together they weigh about a pound. The height in the back is 6 1/2". It is too high for my liking. Ken calls them snow boots. They will be very warm. They do no have the ease of putting on and off as the clogs.

Over all I am happy to have used up more stash yarn. I think they will be very warm, very cushy sole. If I were to make them again I would not make them so high.

Christmas Cactus

I have not posted anything for a while so thought I would at least post of picture of my plant. I think it is pretty.

Hey Adrienne your Frogs are calling.

Hey Adrienne your Frogs are calling.

Finally got some items finished to post. And yes I am not sure the names but I did finish Adrienne's friends. But, in keeping with how Adrienne puts thing off a few other things first.

This is the second Calorimetry I have done. The yarn from this came from a raffle. Took just under 100 yards. I only casted on 80 stitches and knitted until I was half way through the skein then started the decreases. It fits much better than the first on I made.
The second cowl I have test knitted. Same Manos Silk Blend yarn. Forest Canopy Cowl. I went with smaller needles to see if I could cut down on yardage. Used about 150 yards. Love this pattern.

This is my first try at a hat/scarf/mitt combo. I found the idea then went off on my own pattern. Knitted from Malabrigo worsted. So soft I am so in love with this yarn. Below are the mitts. Notice the pearl buttons at the ends. The button will attach the mitts almost anywhere on the hat/scarf so that when not in use like inside they will not get lost. Bottom picture is the mitts attached at the bottom of the scarf. These took 660 yards. But oh the fun of doing this.


And now I am not sure what names Adrienne has been giving the frogs at the pond. I am thinking I will find out soon. But here is my creation of "Adrienne's best friends" I am going with 240 yards. Oh and the tongues are Panda Soy loved how that worked up.

A Play with Patterns

I was playing with different 4 stitch patterns and when I liked what I had I repeated it for a sock. Was a fun knit. I love how they turned out. Notice how well they match.
I have started a new family member to my critter slippers. Adrienne needed something to taunt her when at the frog pond.

Socks

Here is Sweetie Pie Socks. I test knitted these for Kala Hotakainen for the Sockathon Yahoo group.

I did make a few changes to the pattern. I knitted the heel to fit the person I was knitting these for. I made the heel flap longer so I had to pick up more stitches on the gusset. I also instead of just knitting the 5 stitches on each side of the foot I keep the pattern going down the foot.

If I was to knit these again I would make a few more changes. I would either knit on the cuff as I went or leave a longer cast on thread to sew up the picot cuff.

I would change the pattern so the heel was half of the total stitches. I would also Divide the P2 into a P1 pattern P1. This way when one got to the foot the pattern would flow down to the toe.

I did these 2 at once on the Magic Loop.

I sent them off as a surprise before getting really good pictures of my changes.

Puppies ready for adoption and other fo's.

Every once in a while one needs to post what has been going on. I have been trying for the month of Oct only knitting from my stash of yarn. Trust me I could probably try this for a year and still have some. But in truth I have been using my stash mainly since Aug. I did purchase the yarn for the puppies but did so in Sept. I think that was my last purchase other than the sock of the month club. One would think a dent would occur but not.

Calorimetry Never had made one but going through my stash found the yarn and thought why not. When I make it again I will cast on 8 fewer stitches as it is a bit big. Took another 100 yards of yarn out of my stash. One would think after all this there would be a dent. But, no not yet.

Husband's socks. Every once in a while if I make my husband a pair of socks, my stash does not get questioned. House socks or boot socks. These took 200 yards. Briggs and Little Tuffy yarn. I have heard this yarn wears like steel. Yarn is kinda hard on the hands. But, a quick knit after frogging them twice to get a gauge then size I wanted.
Big Sister to the puppies below. I was asked to make these for a young gal. Her feet grew really fast at a very young age and she missed the cute slippers. These are a size 13 womens. Dang big. I so hope she likes them.
More Puppies ready for adoption. I had a lot of fun making these. Faces are needle felted. One pair is going to the same family as the big sister above. The other pair to a good friend. I took about 4 patterns and blended them into one. The Big sister took a lot of math. All together this puppy family took 850 yards. Being that I did not know how they would turn out I am happy with them. I hope their new adopted family love them. They are all planned on being gifts. Hope they are box trained and stay quiet until ready. Tried to teach them manners.

Then I happen to create: A "Booby Pillow"

This will be a gag gift later on. I am waiting for Ken to take better pictures of it and then I will write up the pattern to be posted.

Oh darn now I need to start a new project. Going stash diving.

Contest

Adrienne over at the bellybutton of cali is having a contest.

Go sign up and tell her I sent you.

Don't forget about the Carefree Kal. Still time to play.

Come on over and play

Join me over at carefree holiday (or not) kal. we are holiday knitting or not, depending on your mood. Regardless, there will be fun and there will be prizes (yarn and some other goodies). KAL runs from Oct 1 to Nov 30.

Kal is limited to 100 people, so if you want to play, you had better head on over soon!

Everyone who joins is eligible for the "welcome prize" drawing. Mention that I sent you over. Yes, it's the brownie point game.

Wrong I did the Fifth.

I had started these before the end of the olympics so found out that they will count. Just not for gold. This is the Aug sock of the month from theknitter. The pattern is Stained Glass by Laura Andersson.

4th and final

Here is the last of the 4 pair of socks I made for The Olympic Sox 2008. I casted on the first pair on Saturday Aug 9, took 2 days totally off to turn 50, finished this pair Friday Aug 22. Wow 4 pair of socks in 12 days. I broke my own record by a lot.

This last pair is "Crazy Over You" by Adrienne Fong better give her credit so she does not make interesting comments.

All 4 pair were from yarn in stash. Nope, still no dent in the stash but oh well.

Was a fun adventure.

Another Olympic Sox 2008

Yea it is letting me post.

My third pair of socks for the Olympics. These colors are out of my normal hues. I purchased this yarn while on the Yarn Crawl at Village Yarn and Tea. I knitted the pattern Twinkleberry. I was advised to frog them and knit a different pattern. As you can see I did not listen. I love the yarn and I love the pattern. I very much enjoyed making these. They are bright, loud, and happy socks.

Here are my Maizy (knotty) yarn socks. This was the second pair for the Olympics. I made this pattern up and have yet to name it. Yes, I will take suggestions. No, Adrienne not the one you already submitted.














Well for some reason I can not post pictures to the blog. But, I have finished 2 more pair and will post pictures when I am allowed by the blog powers to be.

OlympicSox2008

Here is the first Pair of socks for the OlympicSox2008. I named these Dara Sock in honor of Dara Torres. She entered the swimming events in the Olympics at 41. I went into my stash and found one of my oldest skeins of yarn. I like how they turned out.

8 out of 9 Not bad NW WA Fair

My pride and joy baby set. My Mother made this set for my daughter when she was born. When I was almost finished with the set it dawned on me we were the same age when making it. I designed the hat as the pattern did not have one.

I am sadden about the layout of the fair items. Note the corners of the blanket folded over. So much time and effort goes into them, then to be placed in the display cases like one is folding and putting away towels. That seemed to be the way with a lot of the knitted and crocheted items.
My blue ribbon baby booties. I love this pattern. I needle felted the faces. Sorry about the glare.
Here are the Blue and Red Ribbon shawls. Mine is the red ribbon. I will say I am sad that they are folded so that the designs can not been seen. Ok, Laura yes your is lovely also.

I also don't know how to get rid of the line under the post. Sorry about that as I don't even know where it came from.

This was all new for me. I had not even been to the fair in over 15 years. I will do it again. I entered 9 classes and received ribbons in 8. I received 4 Blue ribbons and 4 Red Ribbons.

3 of the items I entered were my original designs. I received ribbons for all of them. For that alone I am proud.

A childhood wish

I did something today that I have dreamed about doing for over 35 years probably closer to 40 years. Wow that is a long time. I entered the local county fair. I remember going to the fair many years ago looking at the hand crafted goods and being impressed. Yeah, sometimes looking at a "Blue Ribbon winner" thinking I could do better. But, today I was not sure if what I brought was better.

I did the whole on-line stuff. I signed up weeks ago. I put in my work last week. I got a print out of what I had done on-line. I carefully guarded that sheet of paper. It was my entry. I got there today and there had been a computer glitch....I had done nothing as far as there computer knew. Oh I feel for those people that do all the entering. There was a LYS that you could drop off your work and they would bring it to the fair. I am so happy I brought it myself due to the glitch.

I have a number......That is what I am until judging.

I found out that I am a professional. By the standard of this fair I have been a pro.. oh probably since I was 8. I sold simple things I made to neighbors. That kinda took me by surprise but also I have taught knitting classes this year. I am ok with it.

Judging is Wed. I do not know other than going to the fair how results are released.

A contest give away

Ok go here to win some addi lace needles. Be sure and tell them I sent you.
http://domestic-miss.blogspot.com/2008/07/knitting-give-away.html

Look soon for more critters and The Knitter's sotm offering.

Where did the time go?

Sure wish I knew how to post better. But here are a few of the items I have made lately. Love these critters. Jess took the mice home to be adopted by a friend of hers.
My first bag that I designed. I love it. I will make a few changes but with felting one can not just if you don't like something frog it.

Wanted to make another popular pattern for the heck of it. Here is Argosy. Fun, quick, enough of a pattern to keep from being boring.

Found the broomstick lace needle after about 30 years of not using it. Decided to try it out. Wow I did remember how to use it. Another very quick project.

Finished Items

Knitted this on my 25th Wedding Anniversary. We did have a wonderful evening. Where the years went is still a mystery to us.

Sometime you spend a day doing only what you want to do. I spent the better part of the day knitting this bag. It is a new Fiber Trends Pattern with their new handpainted yarn. Took only one skein but one huge skein it was.
First finished item from the Yarn Crawl. First time playing with Malabrigo Yarn. Received the pattern from Hilltop Yarns in Seattle. If I was better at blogging I would link it. Was a quick knit. I am in love with Malabrigo yarn. I have 3 more projects that I got along the Yarn Crawl that uses this yarn. I am looking forward to them.

Yarn Crawl

My new yarns. I went to 15 out of 24 stores on the Yarn Crawl.www.lystour.com Oh how much fun. I went by bus on Thurs to 6 of the stores. Then went with Debbie and we hit 9 of them. All but 2 stores were perfectly wonderful. Was after I got home I looked and decided I was in a teal/blue mood.

Too bad this is not a picture of all the finished items.

The little blue ball was a prize I won for guessing how many "one skein" projects the store had on display. That was fun to just see how many things could be made from one little ball of yarn.

Bay Scarf

I kinda designed this little shawl after one of my favorite sock patterns http://bellybuttonknits.blogspot.com/

Look there for Hanauma Bay socks.

It took less than a skein of Noro sock yarn. I wanted to see how the yarn would look and feel in a shawl. I like it.








Paddy Cakes

Socks that I whipped up while teaching a 2 on one sock class. The pink Yarn is "Sprinkles" I enjoyed playing with this.

Blocking Swallowtail

Just a quick picture of the Swallowtail done. Took this picture to show the bead placement. I finished this in 8 days. Loved it. Added extra repeats to add some length to shawl.

I was waiting for a nice day to take pictures. We had rain for a bunch of days There is a teal color in the yarn and beads are different colors also that I hope sunshine will bring out.

We finally got some nice days but, a little thing called a Yarn Crawl took over. Wow what fun. I will post pictures of the Swallowtail and the Yarn crawl later.

A quick note to those doing the BAD gal KAL...now show yours!!!!! Ms. A I mean your shawl.....

Swallowtail Shawl

Here it is the new project. Just a few rows into it. The swallowtail shawl. I am knitting this as a KAL with friends. That is if one of them gets going. She is playing with a scarf. I am hoping it is a full size shawl length. I am using 2 strands of lace weight on size 6 needles. It is fun and seems to be going quickly.

Mystic Light

Wow it has been a while since I posted.

I have been getting things done. Just have not put anything on blog.

I just finished knitting the Mystic Light Shawl. Hoping to get better pictures later today.

Also a baby blanket I crocheted. I found this pattern in my Mom's stuff. My mom passed away 15 years ago. The pattern was a photocopy. Mom did not write in books. On the copy were the changes she made to the blanket and notes about the blanket.

Disappointments

Have you ever had those times in your life when people just disappoint you?

I made socks for a family and never once heard if they even liked anything about them. One of the family members spent time at my house and never said a word. Is that normal? What ever happen to manners? Did some people get raised without them or did they just forget them when they should have been put to use? Or did they just plain not like them and I should never kit for them again. Are some people just so stuck on themselves that they can not see the time and effort put into home/hand made goods?

So many times in life you go out of your way for someone and they don't seem to know how to say Thank-You. Why is it people can be so rude?

I just want to scream today as someone dear to me put the final straw in the camels back. I just don't know what to think. Guess it is time for me to put this behind me and pick up the pieces of straw and knit a backbone for the camel.

If others can be so rude and unthoughtful I need to remember it is their problem and not mine. I will just have to made sure that they can not hurt me any more. Doing whatever it is I need to do to make that happen.

So "Today is the first day of the rest of my life". So be it.

Sunny Days

First off I need to Thank Adrienne Fong http://bellybuttonknits.blogspot.com/for giving me hints on taking photos of my socks. Your tips work wonderfully.

Jeanne Townsend has used the picture of my Roses, Roses on her Yahoo group page. If I knew how to link I would do that here. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TownsendSocksKnitALong/
Might work.

Think I got linking almost down. Need to learn how to just put a word and have that link. Any ideas out there???

Still teaching sock knitting classes. Waiting for ideas on next class some want to learn. Will be running more sock knitting classes also.

Another thing to learn here is how to post my patterns. But that is another day.

We have been enjoying a wonderful streak of sunny days. It is so nice to see my solar lights still on for more than 30 minutes. They have been on past midnight. I know snowflakes are not nice this time of year so we are going to call the lights flowers.

If anyone out there tests my links please leave me a message on how they work. Any ideas on how to link by a word, and or post patterns also leave me a message.

If you read this you can just post a "Hello" message also.

Roses, Roses Sock

I so love how this sock turned out. It is Roses, Roses Sock pattern by Jeanne Townsend.

The pattern was a combo of crochet and knitting.