Wordless Wednesday

Knitting Update

I do have to mention my blog-iversary during this Winter Olympic season. I joined the first Knitting Olympics, the brain-child of Stephanie McPhee Pearl, the Yarn Harlot. She will be knitting a gorgeous Dale of Norway fair isle sweater. Yes, from cast on to finished sweater in 17 days. She is a knitting legend. I will be plodding along on my socks:I finished the front of a sweater vest. The yellow marks show where I have to cut the steeks to make the V-neck. I'm a little nervous at the prospect of attacking my knitting with scissors, but my mom says it helps to think of it as fabric :-)
Here is a tempting little quilt project that I may use as a reward for passing the halfway mark on my paper-piecing stars. A Valentine Sudoku!

May Update

Finished half of a pair of Shur'tugal socks in STR Alley Oop (details on Ravelry).

Almost to the end of the mystery quilt!

Baby K continues to brighten every day with her smiles.

Daddy brought home a huge flower arrangement from his school's graduation, and K "planted" on in the yard.

And then she got in touch with her inner farmer...

Hodge Podge

Life has a way of rolling along, up to happy moments and down to some days of despair. Baby K is the bright star in my life and she brings joy to every day.
This weekend, we gathered in Dothan Alabama to say goodbye to my Aunt Gretchen (pictured on the right). She died last week after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November. I am glad that she didn't linger with us in pain, but her time on earth was too short. She will be dearly missed.
I've been knitting some socks. This yarn has some crazy color combinations, but it's from Kaffe Fasset, so you have to embrace the wildness. I really like the sections where the colors blend rather than take a stark jump from stripe to stripe.

I'm going to spend the afternoon quilting, yay! I sumbitted entry forms for three quilts for the March AQG Show, only one of which is done. I have six weeks to finish the other two, so I'd better get at it.

Can you believe the Arizona Cardinals?!? This city is the happiest place on earth right now! Well, except for the historic crowds in that small town on the Potomac River, LOL.

Holidaze

Christmas Knitting - DONE. I made our little family some matching socks. Baby K has a meltdown about wearing socks, so I'm hoping she'll tolerate them for 5 minutes of picture-taking!

I've been working on a pattern from Patchwork Times - it's called Shine On Bayou Cane. I have 5 rows of stars and there are some interesting pieced borders coming next. Do you think these colors are manly enough to give to a 23 year old?

My school had a holiday party for staff children and Baby K had a great time! We decorated cookies...
made a snowman with cotton balls...

and made a popsicle ornament. She's quite adept with the glitter!

Toddlers are exhausting

But awfully cute :-) Baby K got a sit-n-spin for her birthday. I was amazed at how quickly she caught on to how it works, although she doesn't always sit straight on it and slips off as soon as it starts to turn.

She likes to wear "pretties" in her hair (aka pig tails) but Mommy has to work on getting them even. Here she is modelling a new dress that Grandma Mary made her:
In honor of t he Olympics, she made a torch at daycare. The "out-take" photos from this were hilarious. She would not stand back and smile for the camera...I'd say gt set, and she'd run at me, so I have a bunch of blurry shots of half her face.
I have been coming home from school to enjoy a few minutes of quiet before picking her up in the afternoon. I've been reading...the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer caught my attention. Occasionally I pick up some knitting. The purple socks are done and I just turned the heel on the second of the blue ones.
I have a bunch of quilting to do also, but I never have a block of time to get in the groove...maybe over this holiday weekend. It's tough because Baby K is in a severe cling-to-Mommy phase. She even screams bloody murder if Daddy takes her to bed! The good news is that she is almost to the age where she can play by herself in the bedroom while I sew.

All of this to say that I really don't have much to blog about! I spend most of my online time on Ravelry, and a friend introduced me to Facebook, which is almost as addictive. I have touched base with high school and college friends that I haven't seen in 15 - 20 years, pretty cool.

Another week, another sock

Baby K is rockin the diva vibe in her new sunglasses:
We checked in on Grandpa as he recovered from surgery (went home last night - all is well):
And four days of hospital knitting got me past the heel on Froot Loops (pattern available at Knitty.com)

Spring has Sprung

I'm one of those "Women Who Do Much." I've gotten better since Baby K was born and quit a bunch of committees, but Ravlery is a dangerous place...I am hosting several Mini Sock Swaps. This month the theme is Spring Flowers. I used some self-striping yarn with pink, green and blue sections. I was hoping that the amounts of pink and blue would be reversed, but I didn't want to destroy a brand new ball of yarn trying to start at just the right place in the colors. Last weekend I had some quilting time and quilted a pantograph on this shop sample that my mom pieced:
Here's the back where you can see the panto, called "Java." Sorry, don't have the designer's name handy!
Baby K used her potty not once but TWICE tonight! Can I get a cheer for early potty training?!?
Here she is playing with some blocks. It is so adorable when she concentrates on her play so intently. This was a 20 minute project of trying to get the blocks to snap together (some were Legos, some weren't).
Play time continued...

Growth

Baby K was sitting so nicely on the couch this afternoon while I was taking pictures of socks...I thought, I haven't done a bunny picture in a while! So here she is at 20 months:

(the mark on her cheek is a daycare mishap) And just for fun, I went back to the bunny picture from this time last year...

It's such a cliche, but she is growing up SO FAST!

I finished a Jaywalker out of STR January One...the grey background is covering up the couch and Baby K's arm, but I suppose I should have centered the sock. Oh well, my photoshop skills definitely leave room for improvement! I thought it was so interesting how the 2-stitch difference between the leg and the foot of the sock really changed how the colors lined up.

Now I have to get busy because I have 2 socks without mates! This Jaywalker and the Winterberry Tofutsies...and one of these days I'll quilt again too!

Just one little thing

Ravelry is a dangerous place.
I looked at the requirements for the swap - one mini sock that can be knit in about 2 hours. Hey, I can do that! And I have an empty keychain sock blocker, and leftover bits of sock yarn! This is perfect! Baby K wanted to get in on the action. She loves to carry little things around or drag stuff, so she grabbed the little sock and one end of the ball and off she went...

Progress

I'm a few hours early for WIP Wednesday. This is the status of my knitting projects:

I'm past the fiddly cuff and into the groove of the baubles on the second Winterberry sock from the Limited Edition TOFUtsies club. It's hard to rationalize personal knitting time when I have monster deadlines looming, but I manage to overcome those obstacles ;-)

And the ordination stole is now Longer Than Baby K's favorite push toy...maybe 20 inches done or so? I'm probably overestimating, but I will be sitting down to work on it in a minute, so it's a moot point.

Baby K has some cute games that she plays with the rocks in the backyard...I'll get some pictures of that tomorrow. Happy Stitching!

Feeling Better

Looks like it was croup...or a bad chest cold. Daddy is still in bed this morning since Baby K was so nice to share all her germs. She is up and around, almost back to her normal self.I was able to do some knitting and finish a sock! It's a local yarn called TOFUsties from Southwest Trading Company. It's the first time I've used their yarn. I had fun making the bobbles, but I find I get impatient for the next step, so these are kind of short in the leg! And the foot could have used a few more rows, but socks stretch, right?!? Last fall, I had a nice routine worked out with the television, but since the writer's strike, it's out the window. I may have to resort to regular stops at Blockbuster to get me through the spring while hubby works the evening shift. I have to say that the latest Grey's Anatomy episode was NOT fun to watch after a recent visit to the ER with Baby K! I know I could turn off the TV, but it's nice to have something on in the background while K. plays. I can knit in front of the TV...quilting is not an option while she's awake unless someone else is around to keep an eye on her!

Christmas Recap

Baby K had a wonderful time. She got to cook with Grandma:

Grandma and a friend made this beautiful quilt:

Some of her new toys - the stroller was better than the baby doll! She loves to talk on the telephone. But, she spent ALL DAY walking around with Mommy's new spatulas!

I am using some of my free time to work on a quilt for a friend's graduation in May. He is a soccer player and the school colors are green and yellow. There will be another round of yellow and green on each square, then black sashing.

I put the miters away for a bit and cast on for a pair of Tofutsies-brand socks. I am about halfway down the fold-over cuff. I have heard this yarn is wonderful. It's very thin, but friends say it "blooms" after washing.

With all these projects, I think I need a schedule: Monday = socks, Tuesday = quilt...

B. wants to use our vacation time to get rid of some of the clutter around the house. I have "issues" with this. I appreciate the end result, but the process is rough. I have actually had meltdowns when B. empties the closets for re-organization. My limited self-analysis links this back to all the moving I did as a child and young adult. Now that we have been settled in this house for five years my reaction tends to be "Don't touch my stuff!" But I am going to soldier through and try to simplify in 2008. Wish me luck!

Almost to the end...

This is the progress on my Socktoberfest sock. I'll consider it successful if I finish one of the pair by Wednesday! I'm thinking it needs about two more inches of color, and then half an inch or so of black ribbing to match the heel and toe.

Unfortunately, I am not completely happy with the way the yarn is knitting up. It's 100% superwash merino, very lightweight. I made a feeble attempt at swatching and got 8stitches to the inch on US 2 dpns. As I started knitting the toe, it seemed large, so I switched to US 1s for most of the foot. It fits, but I think I am stretching the yarn too much, which of course distorts the fabric. So, for the leg, I went back to US 2s. I have some modifications in mind for the second sock...perhaps re-reading the Yarn Harlot's generic recipe would help! I'd rather not frog this one, but we'll see when I get done with sock #2. I should have plenty of yarn, which is a small blessing :-)

Another contributing factor is the length of each color. You can see how the black kind of lines up in sections, but the orange and purple are always single rows, which lets the other stitches show up too much, if that makes sense to anyone!

Oh, and to make matters worse, I have huge holes where the short row heels join back to the main sock! grrrr. I know there are suggestions online for preventing that...more research before sock #2!

Edit: Ravelry is wonderful! I did a quick search for the yarn, and someone else was making socks with it. I much preferred hers, of course! So, it looks like my Halloween socks will wait ANOTHER year. I need to rip these out, find a matching weight solid yarn for the heels and toes, and start again on size 1 needles. Oh joy. I think I will dig into a Rockin Sock Club kit instead ;-) Obviously, I am not ready to venture out on my own into the wild world of sock design!

Primary SOCKtoberfest Project

I bought this SOCKtoberfest yarn from Scout last year, and I finally cast on with it! I am using plain black for the heels and toes. I decided on plain stockinette stitches because A) it's faster, so they might be done in time for Halloween, and 2) I want to enjoy the colors in the yarn! So far, it's knitting up with small varigation, not really even enough to call stripes.

And, it started as a true MONSTER project, perfect for Halloween! Totally my fault, because I was rushing to get the skein wound into balls before we left for church yesterday morning. B was busy with Baby K, and it turned into a nasty tangle. I fought with it for a bit, then decided to do the dasterdly deed and cut off the first cake. Then I realized a stray loop got caught around the base of my yarn winder. *&%#$!!!! I had to cut that too. Then I started over. hahahaha. It was even MORE of a tangled mess! It took me 3 HOURS yesterday afternoon to hand-wind and untangle the yarn. But, now I'm on my way with simple knitting.

Here's the little angel, fresh from her first solid night's sleep. Yes, we were over-indulgent parents and got up at 2am every night to feed her - until 3 days ago, when I finally put my foot down. I told B. he was NOT ALLOWED to get out of bed no matter what. The first two nights I had to sit with her for a while when she woke up and cried, but last night she slept for 8 hours uninterrupted. YAY!

AAACK! Summer's halfway gone!

As one of my teacher-friends commented today...we have to go back to school in one month! This is causing some minor panic and mental distress, since I have not accomplished much of what was on my summer to-do list. Oh, forget it...when do I *ever* do anything that I plan to do on school vacations?!? I just wish there was a way to profit from procrastination ;-)

Sock update... TA-DA:
B's first pair of handknit socks. Pattern: Basic socks from Cat Bhordi's "Socks Soar on Circular Needles." Yarn: Socks that Rock (lightweight) in Obsidian. Do not adjust your monitor...the left toe is squared off due to knitter error. B said he could live with it!

No photo of the Wild Tide April Rockin Sock Club progress...I am working on the gusset of the second sock and the foot will be all stockinette, so they should be done soon.

Baby K has been fussy all day. We're attributing it to teething...but any time she's cried over the last two months that's been our excuse, and there are no new teeth yet! Since school starts next month, I have to get serious about lining up daycare. Send your best thoughts for that search and for B as his job interviews start! He's looking for a position teaching high school history.

Baby K's new toy is a string of Hawaiian beads that I made on a cruise years ago. She can take them on and off herself and they make great noises on the tile floor.