LovelyKnits

Finally moved in!

2012-01-14T15:02:00.000-06:00

We spent our first night in the new house! This is the sight that greeted us this morning...

Today we're packing and cleaning and doing laundry and packing and cleaning at Hubby's dad's place. We have a lot of stuff here. I had forgotten how much... Hubby left a little while ago with a full pickup load to drop at the house, and then he's coming back to help some more. It's been a long day, and it's not over yet.

Back to work!

Finished baby blanket!

2012-01-11T14:09:00.001-06:00

Here's my second completed project for 2012!

I apologize for the bad photo; I'll take some pics outside later if the sun ever decides to come out.

I had to use a contrast color for the edging, because I ran out of the purple. Fortunately, I had one skein of the same yarn in a lovely cream color, and it turned out to be just enough. So I used four skeins of Paton's Classic Wool (3 in "That's Purple" and 1 in "Winter White"). The needles were size US8. And I think I've decided on the name for this design: Sisterhood Baby Blanket. This one is for my dear friend and Bunker sister Monica. We're sisters despite the fact that we haven't met...yet! Now that we're only about eight hours apart, we're going to have to meet soon. ☻

Editing the post to add this better picture. You can see the cables much more clearly here.

Baby blanket in progress

2012-01-04T10:01:00.000-06:00

As promised, here's a pic of my newest design!

It's about halfway done. It's going to be about 40 inches wide at the points, since it's a hexagon. It's close to 30 now, which is about the width of the other baby blankets I've designed, but they were squares. This one looks like it's for a doll at 30 inches, so I must keep knitting. I really like how it's turning out. It's a pretty simple design, at least in my head... I started with the braided cable in the center of each panel. As it grew, I added the rope cable that twists toward the braid, then another rope that twists away from the other one...then another braid, and more ropes....etc. I think writing this one up is going to be trickier than knitting it. It doesn't have a name yet. I thought of naming it after the baby it's going to be for, but the baby isn't born yet, and doesn't have a name. Unless this blanket takes another five months to make, I'm going to have to come up with another idea.

In other knitting news, I've been dealing with my UFOs. I frogged the original swatch for the above blanket; it was a square, in a yarn that I didn't have enough of to make a blanket anyway. I was just swatching, about a year ago, and hadn't ever done anything with the swatch. So now I have a reclaimed ball of green wool, and an empty needle. ☻

And I dug out an eyelash yarn monstrosity that I'd started three years ago. Angel wanted a fun fur blanket in pink and purple stripes. I had gotten three stripes done, and my hands said "NO MORE!" so I put it away for three years. Finally, I told Angel the other day that I wasn't going to finish it, and it wouldn't coordinate with her new turquoise and brown bedroom anyway. Fun fur does not like to be frogged, so I just bound it off. I suggested it could be a doll blanket, but she decided to add a button or pin and make it a capelet. Silly girl looks like a Yeti that someone threw koolaid on. But it's out of my UFO bin! And I gave her the leftover yarn.

And sadly, I discovered that my white lace stole-in-progress was full of holes. Apparently some evil insect found it very yummy. I frogged most of it, but only recovered a small ball of yarn, as most of it came off in short, unusable pieces. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten very far on it, and the balls of yarn in the ziploc didn't look like they'd been touched, so I should still have enough of that lovely laceweight to make a small shawl. And I've started charting for that design...

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T09:19:00.000-06:00

To welcome the new year, I present my first project, knitted entirely this year. ☺

The pattern is Twisted Tambini by my dear friend Andrea. I used Paton's Decor wool blend in "chocolate", and US8 needles. I'm considering making another one with smaller needles, because this is kinda enormous on my head. But it'll keep me warm, and that's what matters! I love this design. The reversible cables on the brim were a bit tricky, since I'd never used that technique before. The result is terrific, and I love how the brim cables transition seamlessly to the main body cables. You can't see the crown of the hat in this pic, but that's okay, because I messed up somewhere in there, and couldn't figure out where, so I just faked it. I don't think anyone will know unless I tell them. Keep my secret, okay?

In other news, we have our stuff, and it's in our house! There's still some organizing to be done, and lots of painting. I started the painting yesterday, with Princess and Kitty's room; pink, of course. Angel and I will do her room this morning; turquoise. I'll do the bathroom and laundry room in the same turquoise, and then I'll have to calculate how much beige to buy for the rest of the rooms. I'm thinking a five-gallon bucket of satin finish, and two gallons of semi-gloss...but I'm not going to just go with my guess. Made that mistake before...

Anyway, we're still staying at my father-in-law's house, since we won't have tv service until the 12th, or internet until heaven-knows-when, and Hubby has forgotten how to live without those things. But FIL has gone to his winter home in Arizona, so we have the house to ourselves, and we can take our time moving all of our stuff to our new place.

Hmmm...what else did I forget to post about while I was busy in December? I turned 31, and Princess turned 7...Merry Christmas...we celebrated Christmas with Hubby's family, but at least I got to call my family. The girls and I are planning on driving down to Kansas at the end of January to visit them. ☺

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: I started working on a new baby blanket design; it's about halfway done. I'll post a pic in my next post. I've got to run now; time for paint!

Frost Cowl and Kindle Cover

2011-12-02T10:27:00.000-06:00

Here are pictures of my Frost Cowl!

And here's a pic of a new project. I whipped up this Kindle cover yesterday. We're giving Angel a Kindle for Christmas, and I felt it needed a cover to protect it.

Woohooo!

2011-11-29T11:05:00.001-06:00

I finally have something to post that isn't about the house! I finished my Frost Cowl. It took forever, because my knitting mojo decided to take a vacation. But I think it's back now. I'm thinking of starting another baby blanket pattern; I have an idea already, and I'd started a swatch ages ago, but I think it's in storage with the rest of my life. So I need to start over. Or maybe a good sketch will work for submitting the design to Knit Picks, so that I don't have to make it twice...

And I'm also going to teach Angel to knit socks. She picked out some sock yarn, and I got her her own set of DPNs. She was a little disappointed when I told her she needed to learn with DPNs first. She thought she'd be able to use a circular, not understanding that they don't make circulars short enough for child-size socks. I told her that once she has a good grasp of knitting with DPNs, I'll teach her to do Magic Loop. First I need to teach her to do ribbing. She still doesn't understand purling, but that's because she gets tired of it too quickly. Maybe she'll be able to tolerate it as ribbing. We're going to use Silver's Sock Class, but adjust the numbers to fit a child-size foot.

A little update on the house: we're getting very close to being able to move in. We have electricity, and water, and heat. So now we need to get the finish work done, and the kitchen floor in, and the carpet in. And the appliances in. And...I think that'll be it. Then we can finally get all our stuff out of storage and into our new place. It's been a long four months. I am so ready to be in our own place.

Still here

2011-11-14T09:20:00.000-06:00

I realized that I haven't blogged in quite a while. Which is probably due to the fact that I've discovered Netflix streaming. I've been rewatching some of my old favorites, including the entire series of "24", and really enjoying it. Just last night I watched Die Hard With A Vengeance. Gotta love a good shoot-em-up movie.

Anyway, we're still here. In my father-in-law's house. I'd hoped to be moved into our own place by now, but no such luck. We've been waiting on the electrician. The builders can't finish the inside work until there's heat, and the heating guy can't get the heat going until there's electricity. Oh, the plumber is also waiting on electricity. And the electrician has been out of town for two weeks. He's back now, and the plan is to meet out at the house this afternoon. I'll call him in a little while just to be sure that that plan is still good.

I had been looking forward to possibly spending Thanksgiving in our new house, but even if we're moved in by then(which I doubt) we won't be there for the holiday. Hubby's dad has a vacation house in Spearfish, SD, and it's been decided(not by me or the kids, but oh well) that the whole family will spend Thanksgiving there. It's a great house, and there's plenty of room...but when you get our family (5 people) together with Hubby's dad, his sister, his brother, his aunt(and maybe uncle)...it's going to be crowded. Yippee. So I'll have to spend my favorite holiday in a crowded house, with people who love to gossip(always makes me wonder what they're saying about me when I'm not there), and no chance of escape. Oh, and all the adults will probably get wasted too; this family consumes copious amounts of alcohol anytime they're all together. Hooray and happy Thanksgiving.

Sorry, I'm being all sarcastic and complain-y. Better go find another good shoot-em-up to cheer me up.

We have a house!

2011-10-21T20:03:00.000-05:00

The house is here! It's finally here!

It arrived on Tuesday, but they didn't get it set on the basement until today. Looks pretty good so far, doesn't it? There's still a bunch of work to be done. The builders need to finish the roof and siding, and build temporary steps to the front door. It seems there was a misunderstanding about the master bathroom; there's no shower, and there was supposed to be one. So they'll take care of that too. I have a bunch of light fixtures to wire up; pendants for the kitchen island, chandelier for the dining room, bathroom lights, and ceiling fans for the living room, library and all the bedrooms. I'm going to do that myself, no matter what anyone else says. We need to put in the kitchen and dining room flooring; I might not do that all by myself, though. Hubby is being a butt. He thinks we need everything done "professionally". And of course, there's a lot of painting to do, which I can definitely do on my own. Anyway, we also have to have a plumber hook up the plumbing, and an electrician to get electricity into the house. And then there's the septic system and the geothermal heating/cooling system. And after all that, we need a garage. I'm hoping the carpenter will let me help with that.

So...it might be a couple more weeks before we are able to move in. But it's getting so close! I'm so ready to be in our own place and using our own stuff. Being a guest in someone else's house for this long is exhausting. Even if it's family. Or maybe because it is family...

State of the House

2011-10-11T15:42:00.001-05:00

Our house was supposed to be on its way here by now. But it's not. The builder called today while I was out and told my father-in-law that the house isn't done yet, and that it will be at least next Monday before it arrives. Oh, well. I'm disappointed and annoyed that we didn't know this sooner, but whatever. It's really a good thing I'm such a patient person.

Anyway, the site is basically ready. The basement walls have been poured, and the basement plumbing has been roughed-in. The basement floor is still not poured. Because of the oil boom happening in this area, concrete is a hot commodity, and is a little hard to come by. But now that we have this delay, I'm going to call the basement guy and see if he might be able to do it this week or weekend, before the house comes. I'd much rather have the basement completed than have to get the floor poured through a window. Anyway... the dirt has been backfilled around the basement, except the areas right around the windows; we're waiting on the windows and window-wells. There's still a huge pile of dirt in front of the house(or rather, where the house will be when it arrives). I'm going to talk to the basement guy about getting that moved also, since we have the delay.

The local building center tells me our kitchen flooring is in, so I'll pick that up once the house is here. We picked DuraCeramic, but the builders wouldn't put it in; they don't do tilework. The reason for that is simple; bringing a house cross-country on trucks. You don't want to have to worry about whether the tiles, grout, or thinset under it all might crack on the journey. So even though DuraCeramic is not a traditional kind of tile, it was not on their list of options. The nice lady at the building center said that it's so much simpler to put in than ceramic or porcelain tiles, so it shouldn't be a problem for me, since I helped with the ceramic tile at our old house earlier this year.

The light fixtures arrived last week, and they all look terrific. I had ordered ceiling fans for all the bedrooms, the living room, and the library; a chandelier for the dining room, and pendants for the kitchen. Fortunately, I've had some experience changing light fixtures, so wiring them up will be a cinch for me.

We're going to have to find someone to build the floor-to-ceiling shelves for our library. I had thought of doing that myself, but I know enough to admit I'd be a bit out of my depth in that project. I'll settle for helping with it, if they'll let me.

I've got a recommendation for a carpenter to build the garage, so hopefully he'll be able to do that quickly once the house is in place. And hopefully he'll let me help.

So anyway, there's the State of the House report, such as it is. I can hardly wait for the house to be in place so I can get all these big projects done, so I can do the little projects like painting walls and making curtains. I think it'll keep me busy most of the winter.

My Angel is ten!

2011-09-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

Today is Angel's birthday! Of course, we've already celebrated, but still, it's good to mark the day. She's going to make muffins for lunch. Would have made them for breakfast, but someone forgot to tell anyone that she'd used up the eggs the other day. So we need to run to the store this morning and get some eggs. She's already opened all her presents, which included an angel figurine from Kitty, a porcelain doll from Princess, two books from Mommy(Indiana Jones trilogy and Star Wars trilogy, two of her favorites), a printer from Daddy, and a computer from Grandpa. She's already more than 2/3 done with the Indiana Jones book.

So happy birthday to my Angel!

Good things.

2011-09-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

The leaves are beginning to turn! I love fall. It's the prettiest season, along with being the beginning of cooler weather.

And look! We have power lines on our land!

And here's the cement truck on its way to pour the basement walls!

Angel's tenth birthday is tomorrow. We spent the weekend celebrating it, as Hubby would be out of town for the actual birthday. Tomorrow, she gets to make muffins for breakfast, and take the day off of school. Because birthdays are holidays in our school. ☻

Hey, check this out!

2011-09-24T09:28:00.000-05:00

My patterns and I were featured on the Knit Picks blog yesterday! They've introduced Freebie Fridays, in which they will release a new free pattern each Friday, with a blog post about the designer. ☻And they started with mine!

Freebie Friday

Wooooohooooooooooooo!

And another pattern!

2011-09-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

I have another pattern up today! It's a freebie, on Knit Picks, called Lacy KiP Bag. It's perfect size to hold your 100g ball of yarn when you Knit in Public, and way cuter than a ziploc bag!

The pattern can be found for FREE here.

Little Sweetheart Knee Socks!

2011-09-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

My latest pattern is up!

The pattern can be found here. These socks are knit toe-up, and are sized for little girls. The hearts are on both the front and back of the socks.

Time for truth

2011-09-17T09:06:00.001-05:00

Okay, I know I've been posting all excited about the progress on our house, but the truth is: I wish I were still in Texas. I didn't want to move here. Ever. And Hubby knew that. But he wanted to, so that's all that mattered to him. So here we are in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota, and I am depressed. I'm having a really hard time adjusting. The problem isn't the weather; I'm loving the cooler temps(for now). The problem is the isolation. But even more than that, the problem is that Hubby chucked "our plan" out the window in favor of "his plan".

Even before we got married, we talked about retiring in Colorado. We discussed other spots, but kept coming back to the idea of Colorado, because it would be somewhat close to both of our families(closer to mine, I'll admit), and they still have the cold winter weather that he loves. He would always make jokes about living in Alaska, or North Dakota, and I would always reply that I don't want to. So he knew how I felt about it. And yet...when he got the opportunity to move us here, just a few minutes' drive from his family, and 19 hours drive from mine, he jumped at it. And since we're building on family land here, he intends for us to stay here forever. So I have to just forget about Colorado. I have to forget about ever living close to my family again.

Instead, I get to live super-close to his family. His dad is a barking moonbat. His brother almost never smiles. His sister doesn't seem to like me very well. I get along best with his aunt, but she's a barking moonbat as well. Yay for me. I need some friends.

I hate it here.

Progress...

2011-09-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

The footings for the basement have been poured. They'll pour the walls next, then the plumber can come in and get everything roughed in. The floor will be poured after that.

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to South Dakota for some family time. Which meant lots of driving time...also known as knitting time! I made a lot of progress on my BBSweKniMo project(no picture, sorry); the raglan increases are done, and I've separated for the sleeves, and done several inches on the body. When my hands were tired of working with bulky yarn, I switched to sock yarn. I finished this sock:

I haven't cast on the second yet. I need to do that today. These will be some of my favorite socks this winter! I'm using Malabrigo, which is going to make my feet very happy.

Oh, and by the way....Knit Picks likes both my "Little Sweetheart Socks" and my "Frost Cowl"! Still need to make adjustments to the cowl pattern; the yarn support should be arriving any day now. And I need to hunt up my notes from the socks! I think they're in my old computer, which is in the process of dying.

Pics of my newest FO.

2011-08-30T16:30:00.000-05:00

I finished my Frost Cowl last week, and finally got a chance to have a little photoshoot. Angel took the pics for me. I think she's really improving! It was tricky; we couldn't find a good spot for a background, so we decided it didn't matter that much, just for the proposal. If they accept the proposal, we'll do a better job with the pattern photos. Anyway, here it is!

Up around the face...

...and down around the neck.

On an only-slightly related note, I discovered that I could get rid of my scar with my photo editing software; it's a new feature. Or at least, new to me. Normally, I don't care that much about the scar on my forehead, but since I didn't put on foundation makeup, it was very visible. It was distracting. So goodbye scar. It's actually a little strange to see my face without it; I've had it a long time. I think I'm going to post the pics on Facebook and see if anyone in my family notices it's not there. ☻

We have a basement!

2011-08-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

Well, almost.

The basement for our new house was dug yesterday. Here's a picture of the girls checking out the huge hole in the ground. ☺ When it's all said and done, the spot where they're standing in the pic will be part of the garage.

The girls are very excited about this basement, because I've told them they'll be allowed to ride scooters and skates down there, until we get around to building rooms in it. I think they'll spend a lot of time doing that this winter, whenever it's too cold to play outside.

Speaking of cold weather, the girls and I drove up to the "Bigger Town" about 40 miles away yesterday(while the above digging was taking place) and hit Walmart, McDonalds and two thrift shops. It was nice to feel like we were part of civilization again, if only for a few hours. What was I saying....oh, yes. At the thrift shops, we found snowpants for each of them, and ice skates for Angel, Kitty and me. We'll have to look again for some skates for Princess; they didn't have any that would fit her wide feet. All of the ice skates will, of course, need to be sharpened; I've had butter knives that were sharper. It's going to be fun to get back out on the ice this winter. I used to skate a lot when I was a teenager, and I did it a few times last winter, but now we'll have more opportunities for it. I'm thinking I maybe should have bought some snowpants for myself as well; maybe I'll even get out and play in the snow with them. Oh, well. I'm sure we'll visit more thrift shops between now and winter. Anyway, I still need to find snow boots for Angel and Princess, and for me just in case. They each have several coats, but I'm not sure which ones will work for the extreme cold here. I haven't sorted through them since we got here. The girls wanted to look for cold weather gear for Daddy too, but I pointed out that he'd have to be with us to try the stuff on. I didn't mention that he probably won't have any time to play in the snow.

We picked apples!

2011-08-24T18:46:00.000-05:00

We picked a gazillion apples on Sunday! In fact, I've been so busy since then cooking and baking things with apples that I haven't had time to blog. Fortunately I did take a couple pictures...

Apple bread...

and apple dumplings...

We also made some cider and some applesauce, but they didn't turn out well. I've made hardly a dent in the apples; I still have two large laundry baskets full. I want to make some pies, and can some pie filling, so I have a lot of work to do. And I need to do it soon, before the apples go bad. Planning on a huge cookfest tomorrow.

And I've also finished another knitting project! Here's my Frost Cowl.

I need to make some adjustments to the design; it turned out bigger than I'd planned. But this will be my next next design proposal for Knit Picks, after the Little Sweetheart Socks. I'm still waiting on Hubby to get me MSOffice for my new computer, so I can write up those proposals; he said he could get it cheaper from his work.

And I did another little project...

It turned out a little snug for the keychain, so I think it will become a Christmas ornament, and I'll make another for the keychain, with a larger needle.

And...here's my next project, all ready to start! Plaited Points with Malabrigo Sock in the colorway "Impressionist Sky". I'm excited about starting!

Hello from North Dakota!

2011-08-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

We have arrived! Actually, we got here on Wednesday, but I didn't have the wireless router set up until today. Anyway, we are pretty well settled at my father-in-law's house in what will be hereafter known as "Small Town, ND". I don't like to put my precise location online, just for safety's sake. We drove out to our house site today, just to take a look around. The girls picked some wheat, and we were able to see our road and the well up close. The next step should be getting the basement dug and poured. And that means I need to get on the ball and figure out how I want the basement set up, as far as plumbing. I have a drawing I'm working on, so hopefully I'll get that done soon.

I got a little knitting done while we were in Kansas last week. I finally finished the socks I was making for Princess.

These will be the next design I submit to Knit Picks. The name is "Little Sweetheart Socks". As soon as I have MS Office loaded on my computer, I'll get the design proposal written up and sent off.

But for now, I think I better go check on my kids; they went to the park a while ago, and I haven't heard anything from them since.

Hello from Kansas!

2011-08-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

Our house in Texas is empty and clean. I cleaned like a crazy person yesterday, so that we could leave today. Which we did. We started driving at 5am. 12 1/2 hours later, we arrived in my hometown in Kansas. We'll be visiting family here for almost a week before heading north.

I'm glad the packing is done, but I'm sad that we no longer live in Texas. It's a great place to live (as long as you don't mind the heat and humidity). I've decided to continue thinking of myself as a Texan, even though we won't likely ever live there again. I don't have any pictures to post today, but I might later in the week, depending on what we end up doing while we're here. ☺

I finished a project.

2011-08-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've had a rough day. I want to whine, but I've already done that elsewhere. I just can't wait for today to end, so I can sleep, and hope for a better day tomorrow. Anyway, on to happier topics.

I finished the Laura shawl I was knitting for my friend Leann! She dyes and sells gorgeous, soft, squishy, lovely yarns, and she asked for volunteers to knit some samples with her yarn to help customers to get a better sense of how the yarns look knitted up. I volunteered, and chose a large project. I feel like I took so much longer than I had planned. But it's done now, and just in time, since the movers will be here in three days.

The yarn I used was from Forbidden Woolery; Sparkle, in the colorway "Dumbledore" It's a lovely mix of blues and grays.

I used a US7 circular needle.

The pattern is Laura.

The shawl ended up roughly 24 inches wide, and five feet long. I forgot to measure it. Oops.

We said goodbye to our cat today.

2011-08-02T17:23:00.000-05:00

I have been trying for weeks to find a home for our cat, Cashmere. Unfortunately, nobody claimed him. I had intended to take him to the ASPCA facility in our city, but they weren't accepting cats at the time, so I had to have Animal Control take him. They do have an "animal adoption" program, just like the ASPCA, so there is a chance that he'll get a new home. The girls and I are all sad that he's gone, though. The girls are talking about what kinds of kittens they want once we're settled in our new house...

We have a road!

2011-07-31T18:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my brother-in-law made us a road. ☺ Hubby posted pictures on Facebook, so I was able to grab a few. Here's one of the road itself. We'll be about half a mile back from the existing road that runs along the east side of the property. This road heads west from there to the house location. It still needs scoria (and I'm not sure I'm spelling that right), which is a red gravel they use in this part of the country for the roads.

And here's a shot from the house location, looking east down the road.

I know it isn't a big thing, but it's a first tangible step towards our new house.

And Hubby gave the builder (hereafter known as Royd) the down payment, so they can get started on the building...once the blueprints are complete.

I have a new computer!

2011-07-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting a new computer for a while, but hadn't planned on buying one anytime soon. My old computer changed my mind about that yesterday. Actually it started Wednesday afternoon. The girls and I were listening to music on it, and it kept overheating and shutting itself down after about ten minutes of use. Thursday morning when I got online, the exhaust fan didn't start up, which it had been doing right away every time I opened the computer. And there was something wrong with the screen. Anywhere it should have been white, it was fuschia. And anywhere it should have been black, it was bright green.

So the girls and I took it to Best Buy. As soon as we walked in the door, Kitty said, "Mommy needs a geek!" which made the guys standing around the door laugh. One of them directed me to the Geek Squad desk, and the very helpful geek took a look at my machine and told me it would cost over $800 to fix it. So I called up Hubby and let him know that it would be cheaper to buy a new one, and he gave me the go-ahead.

I picked out a Toshiba Satellite laptop. It has Windows 7, which I'm liking much better than Vista. It has more memory and processing power than my old one, and it has a built-in webcam, which I like because Hubby took my webcam with him to North Dakota. We're planning on Skype-ing with him tonight when he goes to visit his dad.

So now I'm working on transferring all my files and photos and stuff from the old computer to the new one. It's a long, arduous process, since the old computer keeps shutting down while I'm moving files to the flash drive. And I only have small flash drives; the "bigger" one holds only 125mb. And I have three years of photos and files to transfer.

Anyway, I like my new computer. It's very nice. And I got a "Lap-Chill" thing that goes under the laptop and has fans in it to keep the computer cool. I wish I'd gotten one of them a couple years ago; it might have extended the life of my old machine.

Oh, hello there...

2011-07-25T08:11:00.001-05:00

It's been a week. Oops. But in fairness to me, it's been a crazy busy week. I've been organizing(a lot) and packing(a little) and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. Hubby left on Thursday. He should be at his new office at this very moment, starting his new job.

And I'm stuck with all the real work. Oh, and my air conditioner died. In Texas. In July. With three kids. And a buttload of work to do. At this moment, I am sitting in front of a giant fan that I bought yesterday on the way to church, and trying not to sweat too much. My neighbor's air conditioner guy is on his way, and I don't want to greet him at the door drenched in sweat...even though it might make him sympathetic so that he'll charge me less...

Anyway, back to the update on what I've been doing(besides sweating). On Saturday, some guys from the local thrift shop(love that thrift shop, and really really going to miss it) came by to pick up some large furniture that I couldn't bring to them. They left with a large dresser with a mirror, a chest of drawers, three bedside tables, a queen-size mattress set, an entertainment center, a glider-rocker and a wingback chair. Whew.

After that, I was able to get one room upstairs completely emptied, vacuumed, shampooed, and the walls touched up. And now I'm organizing stuff in that nice clean room. Anything that we're going to need right away when we move(and that isn't enormous furniture) is going in there. Most of our stuff is going to be stored in South Dakota until the house is finished. We're not going to need much while we stay with Hubby's dad. Or at least that's what I thought...that room is getting filled up quickly. Anyway, I'm putting that stuff in there so it won't get packed in with the to-be-stored stuff. In theory, it sounds like it'll work. We'll see how well it works in reality.

Counting today, there are 12 days before the movers arrive. Damn. I better get back to work.

Editing to add: The AC guy came, saw and conquered. $165 later, I have a working air conditioner! It's cooled down to 80 in my house, and it feels much better!

We've got the floorplan!

2011-07-18T17:17:00.000-05:00

I got the floorplan today! There might be a few small adjustments, but since I drew the original myself and they just interpreted it, it's pretty much how I want it! ☺

BB Meetup!

2011-07-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

I had an awesome day today! I got to meetup with some BunkerBabes! We went to a LYS and bought lots and lots of yarn. Hey, it was on sale!

Left to right: Whimzee, Fiberotter, me and Skully

We had so much fun together! After yarn shopping, we had a delicious lunch. Then Whimzee had to go, but the rest of us wandered around the little shops nearby. I didn't buy much, but it was lots of fun.

Thanks, ladies! Y'all rock! I'll miss you, but fortunately we'll still get to chat online all the time!

I got the samples for the house!

2011-07-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

The samples arrived yesterday! So many choices.....

Fortunately, we already had a good idea of what we wanted. First, here are the siding, shingles and trim...

And the front door...

And the carpet, linoleum for the bathrooms and inside trim...

Here's the style of kitchen cabinets...

...which will be this color...

We haven't picked the kitchen floor yet; we want to use Dura-Ceramic, which looks like ceramic tile, and is installed in a similar manner. Since it's installed that way, it won't be in place when the house arrives. We'll have to either do it ourselves or hire someone to do it. I'm leaning toward doing it ourselves...which means myself. ☺ I helped the contractor with installing the ceramic tile at our house here, so I have a little experience, and the Dura-Ceramic seems like it'll be simpler because it doesn't have to be cut with a wet saw.

More updates to come! We're still waiting on the blueprints...

Am I a horrible, unreasonable person?

2011-07-12T13:44:00.000-05:00

WARNING: Rant ahead.

Hubby wants to get a dog when we move. I don't. And neither do the kids.

I have to admit to being a dog-hater. Sorry, but it's the truth. I just don't get the appeal; never have. The drool (ick)...the sniffing people's arses (double ick)...the licking (eww)...the barking (gah, the barking!)...the poop (nasty)...the play-biting(so annoying)... yeah, I could live a perfectly happy life without ever owning a dog.

Then there are the kids. They are afraid of dogs. And not just a little afraid. I'm talking running-screaming-climbing-up-mommy-in-fear-for-their-lives afraid of dogs. None of them want to have a dog. Ever. I used to be similarly afraid of dogs, so I sympathize with them and recognize that "forcing them to face their fear" is stupid and not helpful. They may outgrow it someday, but not as long as people push them to.

Keeping this in mind, I am thoroughly convinced that if he gets a dog I will go completely insane. Yeah, I know I'm already halfway there, but this would send me over the top. One of the main selling points for moving as far as the kids are concerned is that we will have acres and acres in which to run and play. But since they are afraid of dogs, they won't be able to use any of it. They will refuse to go outside, and will drive me crazy with cabin fever in our little house in the middle of nowhere. Which would mean I would have to chain the dog up to maintain my sanity. Even though I hate dogs, I am fully aware that that is no life for a dog. I would not want to have to do that.

And then there is the matter of who would end up taking care of the animal. Because it sure as hell wouldn't be me or the kids. Hubby will have a one-hour commute. Which means he will have to leave very early in the morning, and arrive home late for dinner. And if the past eleven years are any indication, when he finally gets home, he will plop down in front of the tv, remote in hand, and ask "someone" to get him a beer. He won't have the time, energy or inclination to train a dog. He won't want to spend that time cleaning up after it, or teaching it to carry a bird in its mouth without crushing it, or getting it to understand "sit", "stay" and "shut up". And the dog would be terribly neglected. The kids and I will not train it, love it, or clean up after it.

Now, I do understand that a family is not a republic, and we're not voting on it, but if we were it would be four to one against. And the way I see it, the kids and I are sacrificing enough just by agreeing to move from the home we love to a house half the size, in the freezing cold middle of nowhere in North Dakota. We should not be forced to live with a dog.

So...if you've made it through this entire rant, give me a little feedback. Am I unreasonable? Am I a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad person because I hate dogs? (I hesitated to even post this, because I know many people will think that of me) Or is Hubby the one being unreasonable?

I'm back from vacation!

2011-07-08T12:41:00.000-05:00

Hello, dear readers! I've missed you while I was on vacation.☺ But I'm back now, and I have an update! This is the land where our new house will be built:

It's a "quarter-section", which is farm-speak for roughly 160 acres. It has tree-rows; you can see one of the rows there to the left. I took the picture while standing precisely where the house will be. So this will be the view out the back windows. I designed the house myself. I drew a rectangle, representing 28 feet by 60 feet, and filled it in with rooms. When I showed it to the builder and asked if they might have any plans similar to what I'd drawn, he pointed to the drawing and said, "We can do that." ☺

♥

I intend to update with pictures as the project progresses, although since it will be a modular home, built in two pieces and trucked to the location, there won't be a lot of in-progress pictures. And yes, I'm aware the the picture shows a planted wheat field. Some of that wheat will be sacrificed, but there will still be plenty throughout the rest of the field. There are seven or eight tree-rows, and we're building between the second and third to the south.

♥

This next picture shows the "treehouse tree", which is part of the row on the other side of the house site.

It's a big, old cottonwood with several trunks. It has a few dead branches, and will need to be trimmed up, but the girls are very excited about the prospect of a treehouse, and swings.

♥

Last week, I had two more patterns published on Knit Picks. Visit http://knitpicks.com/ to see them. ☺

I'm in Kansas!

2011-06-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't been online much in the past few days, because we're visiting my family in Kansas. It's been a pretty quiet visit. The only one of my siblings that I've spent much time with is my sister Sara. She has three daughters also, and our girls love to play together. So we all went to the pool yesterday, and had a lot of fun. Then I took Sara out for dinner, and on the way home we realized the sky was swirling ominously, so we grabbed her kiddos and headed back to our parents' house. Turns out her oldest girl(same age as Princess) had "prayed to Jesus that there would be a tornado so we could have a sleepover at Grandma's house." Haha. Little stinker. There wasn't actually a tornado, but it definitely looked possible! Since Sara and her family live in a trailer, they always go to Mom and Dad's when the weather is bad. So now we're just keeping the kids busy until Sara comes back to get them. I think we might be going to the zoo later.

And tomorrow we're getting back in the van and heading north...to North Dakota. We'll be up there almost two weeks, and hopefully we'll be able to get the process of building our house started while we're there. We have to go look at the land and decide where on it we want the house, and which way we want it to face, and what shape we want it to be. There are a lot of options as far as the shape. I've been looking online at one specific builder that is based in Minnesota, but has an office a few miles from where we'll be. I'm hoping we can get a design we like, in a price range that we like. Originally, Hubby had said to me "plan your dream home"...but when I showed him what I liked(which wasn't outrageous) he was aghast. I'm thinking, either tell me to plan our dream home, or tell me to keep it economical. They are pretty much mutually exclusive. Oh well. A smaller house should be easier to keep clean...in theory.

Picked a realtor.

2011-06-16T10:29:00.000-05:00

We had some realtors come through our house yesterday to give us comparative market analyses. First was a husband/wife team from Re/Max. They were very polite and helpful. They took detailed notes and listened to what I told them about the updates and improvements we've made. I explained to them that we were in the middle of cleaning and organizing, and they were very understanding about the state of general disarray. They were not impatient when my children interrupted repeatedly(though I was). They told me about their company, and what we could expect if we hire them. They showed me statistics that backed up what they were saying about the company and the process. They named a very fair price for the listing; it was a bit less than what we paid for it, which I expected with the economy in the tank how it is(thanks a lot, uncle sam). All in all, I really liked them, and thought they would do a great job getting our house sold.

Then another agent from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate came through. She had a loud, slightly-annoying voice, and one of the first things she said was that the carpet really needs to be cleaned. (which was already on my list) She told me several times that I have my work cut out for me. (duh! that's why I've been literally working my butt off for the past weekandahalf.) She didn't listen to what I said about the house, and hardly took any notes at all. She gave my kids dirty looks when they interrupted. She pointed out the same things that the other agents did, but the way she did it was just rude and unkind. I think she was expecting to walk into an unoccupied, perfectly-staged house that would fit right in to...Better Homes and Gardens. It seemed she was unaware that actual people live in houses, and actual children live in large houses. She pointed out how long other houses in the neighborhood have been on the market, and the fact that several of them were in foreclosure...and then she named the listing price: the same price we had paid four years ago, before the economy crashed. She just didn't seem to have a solid grasp on reality.

We decided to go with the team of agents, even though they suggested listing lower than the other. Moving is stressful enough; I don't think I could deal with her condescension along with that. So now I just need to finish organizing and getting ready!

TA-DA!

2011-06-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

I have a clean kitchen!

I decided to work together with the girls instead of having them do it themselves. It took us about 2 1/2 hours, but it's done! It's so nice and clean. And now I have a picture for the realtor, in case it's not still spic&span when they come tomorrow.

I need to go find some more energy somewhere so I can tackle the family room and dining room and entry next...

Busy busy busy

2011-06-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. I'm still really busy. The realtors are coming tomorrow, and I still have a lot of work to do before then. So...since my previous post, I painted Angel's room, and she helped! And I touched up the paint in Princess and Kitty's room, and in the library; I decided not to repaint those rooms. I organized my yarn stash and did a little destashing. I've almost finished organizing the big studio upstairs; still some school stuff and computer stuff and coloring stuff.... I tidied up the living room, and still need to do the attached dining room. The kitchen is still a disaster, but I'm going to have the girls work on it while I work on the family room. I haven't finished organizing all the junk I took out of the bedroom last week. But I am determined that it will be ready for the realtors when they come tomorrow, and ready for house hunters before we leave for our vacation on Saturday. So now I need to get off the computer and get back to work.

I'm planning on doing a state-of-the-schooling post later this week if I get time. Otherwise, it'll have to wait until next week.

Exhausted...

2011-06-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

I am worn out. Beyond exhausted. Seriously.

♥

I stayed up late, getting all kinds of stuff out of our bedroom; it's all in boxes, bins and baskets in the family room. As soon as I find a little energy, I have to sort through all that. Blah. Anyway, I got it all out last night, so I could start painting early this morning. The bedroom was the same dark green as the bathroom, and now it's the same light neutral beige as the bathroom. ☺ I'm glad these projects are done. And that I got the pics while they look great. Haha. I'm not very good at keeping ahead of the messes; I need to work on that.

And now I need to go find some Advil, and soak in a hot salt bath for an hour or two...

Painting...

2011-06-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm organizing and painting and cleaning...all in preparation to move. Hubby got a new job, near his family. So we will be moving to North Dakota in a few months. I'm not thrilled about it, to be honest. But I will probably be more excited as it gets closer.

We are going on vacation in a week and a half, and Hubby wants to try to get the house on the market by then. So I've got my work cut out for me. He'll help with what he can, when he can...which means not much, and after work. Oh, well. I'm used to doing everything around the house. So anyway, I started with the master bathroom, since it's a small room. Got it organized and cleaned up, and painted. It was a dark green before. Now it's a light, almost flesh-toned beige. It really brightened up the room a lot. I took these pictures this morning, right after I finished painting. Now that there's not as much light coming in the window, the color looks a little pinkish, but I don't really care. We won't be here much longer anyway. I just wanted it to be a better color for selling.

Now I'm sorting and organizing books. We have a lot of books, some that we haven't read in years. I'm planning on donating a bunch to the thrift shop.

Back to work!

Angel's at camp!

2011-06-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

I dropped Angel off at church this morning, so she could go to camp.

She's been very excited about it for months, but she looked a little apprehensive when it was actually time to go get in the bus. Her counselor posted on Facebook a little while ago, saying they made it to the camp, so now I can relax. I hope she has a wonderful time, and doesn't miss us too much. She's never been away from family for this much time before. She and Princess spent a week with friends back when Kitty was born, but the two of them were together. This time, she's alone. She's a little shy, but at least she kind of knows some of the other kids from Sunday School. ☺

♥

I've finished the "A Girl's Best Friend" Scarf, and made a pair of mitts to match, since I had plenty of yarn leftover. I'll post pics of that tomorrow; the mitts are still blocking right now.

More socks!

2011-06-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

They're done! ☺ The "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" Socks are done! Took me less than a week, too!

I had hoped to get a good pic of Kitty...you know, her whole self...but she decided to be difficult this morning. She smiled menacingly, like she wanted to eat the camera. She smiled a tiny bit, like she was bored and thought taking pictures was stupid. She giggled, but not real giggles, so the smile just looked weird. The only time she gave me a real smile, she covered it with her hands. Finally, when she had a meltdown and threw a tantrum, I gave up. The above will be the photo for the pattern.

I am glad, at least, that I didn't have to buy new shoes. I knew I wanted her to wear black "Mary Janes", and her old "church shoes" from last winter were too small. But I remembered that there are still a few decent shoes in the shoe box; a big plastic container into which we toss shoes that don't fit anyone and wait until they fit someone. Angel checked for me and found these shoes. They were scuffed; obviously they've been worn by two girls before, but fortunately Hubby had black shoe polish. I got them all polished up, and they look almost good as new!

Anyway, they're done, and so is the pattern. I love this colorway; it's so pretty. I hope they're sending the same colorway in Swish for the scarf sample. ☺

Look at us!

2011-05-31T08:24:00.000-05:00

I hope y'all had a good Memorial Day weekend. Mine was very quiet. Hubby went to visit his dad in North Dakota, so the girls and I were able to get his gift for our eleventh anniversary figured out. He's difficult to buy gifts for, because anytime I ask him what he wants, he says "You know what I want." Typical man. Haha. So I came up with the idea of giving him some updated pics of his girls(including me) to have at his office. I got some white curtains, and hung them in the family room(best lighting in that room, due to the huge windows) to use as a backdrop. Angel took pics of me, and I took pics of the girls. Here are a couple...

I also got a bunch of knitting done. I started the sample "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" Socks on Thursday night, and I've got just a few more inches to go on the second one. I'm hoping to get it done before the yarns come for the other samples I need to make.

Suddenly Busy!

2011-05-27T07:57:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be very busy knitting samples all of a sudden! Last night, I got an email from Knit Picks; they like my "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" Socks...

And my "A Girl's Best Friend" Scarf!

I have some Stroll Tonal to make the sock sample, and they're going to send some Swish Tonal to make the scarf sample!

♥

And earlier this week, I volunteered to make a sample of my "Laura" Shawl for my friend Leann.

I'll be using some of her Forbidden Woolery "Sparkle" yarn!

Back to knitting!

♥

Ideas

2011-05-26T08:39:00.000-05:00

I came up with an idea for Angel's socks! Here's the "rough draft" swatch. I've edited the design a bit since making it...

In case you can't tell, it's a hibiscus. The yarn I bought for her socks is a green and brown colorway called "Aloha Multi", so that was the inspiration. I just might call them "Aloha Socks". The editing involved shortening the top and bottom petals, and widening the other three, and shortening the...stamen(?)...and once I had it how I liked it, making a mirror-image to go with it. It's a very long chart; 84 rows. But Angel loves it, so it's a winner! In fact, I like it pretty well myself, so I'm considering making an adult size in the pattern as well. All I would have to do is add stitches on the sides.

♥

I sent off the design proposal for Kitty's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" Socks yesterday, so now I'm waiting to hear about two proposals. ☺

Another design...

2011-05-23T13:41:00.000-05:00

I've just sent off the design proposal for this scarf. It matches the "Girl's Best Friend" fingerless mitts pattern that is on Knit Picks. I actually designed the scarf at the same time, but I had forgotten about it.

I hope they like it!

♥

For this one, I used some lovely, soft Reflections yarn. It turned out a little short, since I had only one skein, but it will be a nice Christmas gift for someone. In the design proposal, I suggested KP Swish Tonal, which is a new yarn line they've just introduced. There are some terrific colors in their new tonals. Thunderhead and Pearlescent are my favorites; if I were any good at colorwork, I would design something that uses both of those colors. ☺

♥

I'm still waiting for my little sister to send me photos of her modeling the bag I made for her, so I can send off that design proposal. I'm going to hang on to my Frost Cowl design until fall; I haven't finished it yet anyway. I'm ready to send in the proposal for Kitty's socks, which have earned the moniker "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". I'm still working on Princess's "Sweetheart Socks", and I haven't started yet on Angel's socks; I still need to decide on a lace pattern for them.

♥

Back to knitting!

Herman Cain

2011-05-21T18:31:00.000-05:00

For the first time in my adult life, I've found a political candidate that I would consider donating money to. His name is Herman Cain, and he announced this morning that he is running for President in 2012.

To find out about him, start here: Herman Cain

To read one of his books, click here: Common Sense Solutions

Go check him out!

Crown Jewels is up!

2011-05-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

My latest pattern is up on Knit Picks! Here's a pic to remind you what it looks like...

Crown Jewels Shawl can be found here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Crown_Jewels_Shawl__D11059220.html

♥

And today I got tired of the "Mommy Gives Up" look, so I went and got a haircut.

I finally have a style again! ☺ The girls all got their hair trimmed too. We went to the salon at Walmart, because the guy we "usually" (once or twice a year) go to is out of the country. I think I'll stick with the Walmart salon. It was quick, and relatively painless when it came time to pay. The stylist gave me exactly what I asked for; long layers, without taking too much length off. And all the damaged hair from when I used to dye it is gone! Finally. It took about two years to grow it all out.

Knittin' from someone else's pattern...

2011-05-18T14:51:00.000-05:00

I'm participating in a KAL with some of my friends. We're doing the Ginkgo Shawl by Maggie Zimmerman. I found some lovely yarn on sale last Friday, and I couldn't wait to get started. It's Patons Silk Bamboo, and I love it. It's so soft and silky, and not too warm for a summer shawl. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. I finished it yesterday. Most of the others haven't started. I'm planning on getting some laceweight and making another one, so I can still KAL. Anyway, here's my Ginkgo Shawlette.

I followed the pattern exactly, which I almost never do. It turned out about 48 inches wide, so it just covers my shoulders. I think I'll make the next one bigger.

I also made the shawl pin. I needle tatted it, using silver rayon embroidery thread. I discovered that rayon thread is very slippery, and not very well-suited to needle tatting. It turned out lovely, but it was a pain to work with that thread. The stick is just a piece of dowel(the thickness of a US5 needle), sharpened and sanded. I used a silver paint pen to make the stick match.

It's raining!

2011-05-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

It's been months and months. Much of the state has been burned by wildfires(which have finally been contained, no thanks to the federal government). The news has been describing the situation as "severe drought" across most of Texas. So I'm sure you'll understand the joy displayed in the following picture, as we have rain!

And it's not just sprinkles, either!

Socks, socks, socks.

2011-05-12T08:31:00.000-05:00

Here's a better pic of Kitty's socks!

And just because I think it's a good pic, here's a closeup of Kitty. She didn't want to look at the camera, or smile. She still looks pretty though.

And I've started on Princess's socks! She's going to have hearts in the front and back of hers.

The colors aren't quite right; I had to take the picture without the flash so that the lace pattern would show up.

Kitty's socks are done!

2011-05-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

We haven't had time yet today for a photo shoot, so this will have to do for now.

As you could probably tell from the previous post, I did these two-at-a-time, from the toes up. I started with Judy's Magic Cast-on. I did short-row heels, because they are the easiest heels I know for toe-up socks. To make the top half of the legs wider without messing up the stitch pattern, I switched to a larger needle, which totally changed the way the colors pooled. I really like how that part looks more evenly striped, unlike the strange pooling that happened in the feet and bottom half of the legs. I finished off with Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off, and it lived up to its name!

Angel helped me out by stretching the top of the sock so I could get a picture. ☺ I'm certain Kitty will have no problems getting these socks on! Now if I could just find a caston that's this stretchy, for when I do top-down socks....

Workin' on Kitty's socks.

2011-05-08T21:35:00.000-05:00

I decided to start with Kitty's socks, since her feet are the smallest. I'm doing a simple all-over lace pattern.

I took this pic yesterday. They're actually quite a bit bigger now. I've turned the heels and started on the legs. I'm planning on making them knee-length, or as long as the skein will allow. Considering her legs are still pretty short, I'll probably be able to make them knee-length and have yarn left over.

Back to knitting!

Another finished project!

2011-05-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

The "Popped" socks are done!

The pattern is here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10178220

Yarn: Fortissima Socka

Needle: US2

I'm glad these are done. They were my first two-at-a-time pair, but the stitch pattern is more subtle than what I like. I need a pattern that holds my interest. I had started these ages ago; last summer or fall sometime. But I got distracted and put them aside for a long time. I picked them up yesterday with the plan of just getting them done so I could start something new. I think that's the only reason I finished them so quickly; I wanted to use the needle that was tied up in this project.

So now I can start socks for one of the girls. I just have to decide whose socks I'll do first.

Another finished project

2011-05-05T08:20:00.000-05:00

Yay, I finished the Winding Road Socks!

They turned out great, if I do say so. Okay, vital stats:

Pattern: "Winding Road" by Mara Jessup (available on Knit Picks)

Yarn: Reflections Indulgence Sock (Merino/Cashmere/Nylon)

I don't know that she has any more of this same blend and colorway, but you can find Mara's yarn on Etsy; her store name is Reflections Yarn.

Needle: US2

♥

Next I'll finish the "Popped" socks, which is also a Knit Picks pattern, but not one designed by a Bunker Babe. I had already turned the heels when I set them aside (magic looping, two-at-a-time), so I should - in theory - be able to finish them this weekend or next week. I'm waiting on my sister to send me pics of her modeling the bag I made, so I can send off that design proposal. USPS tracking tells me that Knit Picks has received my samples for Crown Jewels and the Lacy KIP Bag. But it usually takes a few weeks before the patterns get put up. And until they accept Katiee's Bag (I hope) I don't have any more samples to make. So I get to work on whatever I want to! That's a kinda nice feeling!

♥

Oh, I almost forgot: I got an email yesterday telling me that one of my patterns would be in the May catalog! Finally! I've got six up on the website, but so far none have been in the catalog. They didn't say which one, so I'll just have to wait and see.

♥

No news yet about Hubby's truck. Considering it was stolen on Monday and it's now Thursday, the likelihood of it being recovered is pretty slim. It's probably across the border by now.

Soft, beautiful yarns...

2011-05-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

I got yarns in the mail!! Woot!

Knit Picks announced last week that they were having a sale on selected sock yarns. I had been waiting for this! I wanted to get some yarns to make socks for me and the girls, and I really like Stroll. So I went and looked...and found that all the colors I really wanted were in the sale list! The red (Gypsy Tonal) is for me, the green and brown (Aloha Multi, which actually looked turquoise and brown on the website) is for Angel, the darker purple (Berry Patch Hand Painted) is for Princess, and the lighter purple (Dolly Hand Painted) is for Kitty. I did a little swatching(with scrap yarn) last night, and came up with a plan for Princess's socks. Now I just need to swatch with sock yarn to figure out the needle size I need to use. But first I need to finish the second Winding Road Sock. I'm just a few repeats from being done. ☺

♥

I've started doing yoga, in the hopes that it will make my back better. Yesterday Princess was doing it with me. I thought the video was over and put away all my equipment, and she said, "Oh, look, mommy, there's more!" so I left it on for her to do. And she looked so cute, I just had to take a picture.

Please excuse the mess in the background. We were doing laundry two days ago, and some of the stuff didn't get put away. And now it's time to do laundry again, so why bother? Haha. Ow. I shouldn't laugh. Or try to move. My back went out again while I was sleeping. It hurts.

Craptastic day.

2011-05-02T20:12:00.000-05:00

Hubby's truck was stolen today. He went to the gym at lunch time, and left his keys, wallet, wedding ring, West Point class ring, and watch in his truck. When he came out, it was gone. And so began my craptastic day.

While Hubby dealt with the police and went back to work...
I called the bank and canceled the credit card and debit card he carried in his wallet.
I called the insurance company to get a claim started and find out about getting a rental car.
I went to Home Depot...twice, because I got the wrong thing the first time...to get a new deadbolt for the front door, since the dirtbag got Hubby's driver's license and thereby our address, and the house key was in the truck.
I reprogrammed the garage door opener, since the remote was in the truck.
I got the deadbolt installed, which was very easy to do, thankfully.

Keeping my pistol with me the whole time.

And I made lasagne, to make the day end on a good note. I hope it works.

Congratulations to the US Military!

2011-05-02T08:43:00.000-05:00

According to the news, the US Military(which branch is still unclear) has succeeded in finally killing Osama Bin Laden. HOOAH!

To anyone and everyone serving in our military, THANK YOU for your service, from the bottom of my heart! You have the hardest job in the world; keeping us civilians safe from monsters like Bin Laden, usually without any thanks or even acknowledgement. You are paid hardly anything, definitely nothing near what the job is worth. You have to spend months and years apart from your loved ones. You carry the weight of the world on your shoulders with your "full battle rattle". You are in harm's way every day, so that we can be secure here at home. Know this: you are appreciated. There are still patriotic civilians who honor you for the job you do. God bless you.

To the ones who are actually responsible for killing Bin Laden: you are true super-heroes. We may not know your names, but we honor you.

Lacy KIP Bag

2011-04-29T17:58:00.000-05:00

Since I got Princess's shawl done, I decided to hurry up and do the KIP Bag sample and send both together, even though Stacey over at Knit Picks told me that it would probably be a while before she could get it posted. She only puts up a couple of free patterns per month. So anyway, here it is!

I'll probably go ahead and post the pattern on my other blog in the meantime. Since the IDP program lets the designer retain full ownership and control over their patterns, there's no reason not to. ☺

♥

And you might notice from the above picture: I've finally lost a little weight! Five pounds this week, thanks to the green tea. I'm going to make some iced green tea also; with the weather warming up, I'm not always in the mood for a hot drink. And I've been taking Zumba classes, which are a lot of fun. I'm planning on trying out yoga tomorrow. We'll see how that goes; I'm not very flexible, and I've never taken a yoga class in my life.

Crown Jewels is done!

2011-04-27T18:12:00.000-05:00

I finished Princess's shawl yesterday and got it blocked. So today we did a photo shoot. She did really well, so we didn't have to take very many shots. This one is my favorite, but it doesn't show the lace pattern as well as the others, so it's not going to be in the actual pattern. I'll send it along for the website, though. She was pointing at a lizard, in case you're wondering. ☺

Here, she's showing off the whole shawl...

And this one will be the main pattern pic.

That flower shawl pin is something I tatted yesterday. I came up with the idea myself. ☺

Tatting and Knitting

2011-04-23T20:02:00.000-05:00

One of my friends showed me a link for learning needle tatting. Using that tutorial, I made this pendant. ☺

I used a size 3 tatting needle, and sockweight alpaca yarn. I love how it turned out. In fact, I love it so much, I decided to try tatting with a finer needle and thread. Using sewing thread and a size 8 needle, I made this one:

As you can see, it's smaller than the dime next to it. I'm thinking I might attach it to a hairpin, so I can wear it in my hair. But then, I'll have to make more...

And I've finally found some time to work on Crown Jewels!

Princess is 48 inches tall, so it should be that wide and half as long when it's done. I hope I have enough yarn. I've completed six repeats of the lace, and it's about 16 inches long down the center, unstretched. Here's a closeup of the lace pattern:

Katiee's Bag is done!

2011-04-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Finally, I've finished this bag that my sister demanded over two years ago.

I love my sister dearly, but stripes still make me twitch. I-cords do too, now. I'm glad I'm done. Okay, the vital stats on this bag...

I used 5 skeins plus a tiny bit, of Knit Picks Shine Worsted yarn, and size 7 needles. The body of the bag is 27 inches long, and 7 inches wide at the widest point. The drawstring is a crochet chain with beads on the ends, and the strap was made by braiding together four 25-inch I-cords. The strap is several inches shorter than the bag is, but I figure it'll probably stretch some, so it should work just fine. I hope Katiee likes it! I hope Knit Picks does too, though I'm going to request Chroma self-striping yarn, instead of the yarn I used for this one.

Whatd'ya say we get that garden in the ground?

2011-04-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

I started some seeds in February, intending to build garden boxes, and have an awesome garden. Then life got in the way, and the plants stayed in my kitchen for about a month longer than they needed to.

In fact, they were in the kitchen for so long that I actually had beans growing, in my kitchen window.

So this morning I took them outside and got them planted. It doesn't look like much, but at least it's out of the kitchen!

I've got three kinds of tomatoes, some corn, beans, cantaloupes, pumpkins and cucumbers. I hope some of these plants actually survive long enough to produce food. I'm not a very good gardener.

The bluebonnets are still in the starter tray, and I'm debating where to plant them. It's too late in the season for them to bloom, but they are perennials and tend to spread out and go wild. I'll probably plant them out in the front yard if I can find a spot that gets enough sunshine. The lavender plants all died, so I've started some more, even though I don't know where I'll plant them. I have two raspberry bushes, which should also have been planted last month. I know where I want to put them, but I have to get rid of the useless, ugly bushes that are there first. And it's hard to get motivated to work outside when it's 95 degrees. Maybe I'll work on that this evening when it starts to cool off...

Drive-by blogging

2011-04-19T18:48:00.000-05:00

Katiee's Bag is growing...it was about 20 inches long in this photo; it's about 2 inches longer now.

Evellyn Anne is done, and it turned out great!

I don't have an in-progress pic of Crown Jewels, so y'all will just have to wait for that one.

Warning: Political content ahead

2011-04-19T08:50:00.000-05:00

I was watching the news this morning as I drank my green tea, and the talking heads said that Obama won't be using his old buzzwords "hope" and "change" for his re-election campaign. My first thought was that that could be because the conservatives are the ones using those words now, and he sure as hell doesn't want to be considered one of them! I posted that on Facebook, giggling as I did so, because it reminded me of something Fred might say. I wonder if he laughs to himself when he posts his zingers on Facebook...

But then the newspeople said that he's picked a new buzzword(Obama, not Fred): "compassion". Wow. It's like he's trying to make it easy for conservatives to defeat him. Conservatives (especially Christian ones) are among the most compassionate, generous, charitable people in the world. That is probably because we believe it's the responsibility of the individual to help others, rather than depending on the government to handle it. My husband and I donate between 12 and 15% of our income to our church, which then sends that money out to help people around the world, and locally. We also donate outgrown clothes and unused household items to a local non-profit thrift shop, which uses the money from sales to support a food bank. I'm not saying that to brag; most of the conservative Christians I know do the same.

I'd like to know what percentage of his $1million+ income Mr Obama donated to charity last year. And I don't mean political campaigns, or fronts. I mean real charities. Since he doesn't go to church, I assume he doesn't tithe to a church. But he could still donate other places: Wounded Warriors, Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. I won't assume he doesn't make charitable contributions, but I would like to know where and what percentage.

And one of my friends pointed out that what he considers "compassionate" might not be the same things that we consider "compassionate". He has said before that if one of his daughters "made a mistake", he wouldn't want them "punished with a baby", so he would probably consider it compassionate to abort his own grandchildren if they were conceived at an inconvenient time. Is this the kind of "compassion" Americans want?

An easy way for conservative candidates to counter this new buzzword/strategy would be to disclose the percent that they donate to charity(along with all the other documents they're required to disclose), and ask Mr Obama to do the same. And they should also ask the question: what is his definition of compassion? Lets not fall for this trick again. He was elected on his platform of "hope and change", but he never really explained what those words meant to him. Make him explain himself this time, candidates! Don't just sit down and say "Darn, he picked a good word, and we can't do anything about it." Don't let him get away with being vague. Call him out on his record, on his words, and on his actions.

New patterns are up on the pattern blog!

2011-04-18T12:47:00.000-05:00

I had fallen pretty far behind on updating my pattern blog. I finally got Evellyn Anne and Julia Lynne posted today. I also put up a free dishcloth pattern.

I designed this Buttonheart Dishcloth for a dishcloth swap; I got to spoil "buttonheart", so I decided to make it personalized. It's knit in the round, from the center out. The buttons could be left off, but they're great for scrubbing, so why would you want to? ☺ I used half a skein of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton" to make it. For the pattern, click on the link over there → that says My Pattern Blog.

♥

And I finished the blue Evellyn Anne blanket! It's soaking right now, so you'll have to wait for a picture. Now I need to focus on the Crown Jewels shawl; I had said I could get it done in a month, and the month is half-over. And of course, Katiee is bugging me for her bag....

Haven't really felt like blogging...

2011-04-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

I just remembered that I was going to try to blog more often....and I haven't since last Thursday. So...what shall I blog about? Since this is my mostly-knitting blog, how 'bout I start with that?

I'm nearing the end of the blue Evellyn Anne blanket; almost ready for the ruffle. Katiee's Bag is over halfway done, and stripes still make me twitch. I haven't made much progress on Crown Jewels, because I've been so busy with those two projects. I did a couple inches on the second Winding Road sock at Knit Night yesterday. I have too many projects going on, and not enough time to get them all done. As soon as I get the blanket done, the shawl will be top priority, since it's a sample for Knit Picks. After that's done I need to start and finish on the Lacy KIP Bag sample. And once I get Katiee's Bag done I need to finish writing the proposal for it and get that sent off.....and time is flying!

I've also been trying desperately to get organized. It's not going well. Every time I think I'm nearing the end of a project, I see that the kids have undone half of it, or totally un-organized some other room. Someday I'll be organized.... like Kitty tells me, "Mommy, when I'm grown up, you won't have any more kids." Yes, darlin', that's true. Hopefully I survive to experience that.

Speaking of Kitty, she turned four last weekend. She had a fun birthday, with lots of cake, and a bunch of great presents. Fortunately, she's easy to please when it comes to gifts. I can hardly believe she's really four years old already.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I'm gonna go knit on that blanket.

Julia Lynne is up!

2011-04-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

My latest pattern is up on Knit Picks!

This cardigan is sized for girls: 2 to 10. The one Kitty is wearing in the above picture is size 4. The pattern can be found here: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Julia_Lynne_Girls_Cardigan___D10967220.html The price is $1.99, and I highly recommend the Comfy cotton blend yarn; it's perfect for this project!

Still tryin' to get skinny.

2011-04-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

I realize I haven't blogged in a while about my weight-loss journey...but that's just because there hasn't been much to say. I am still going to the gym almost every day. I quit drinking. I've started drinking green tea to unwind in the evenings instead of wine. I haven't lost any weight. I don't have more energy; as a matter of fact I have less. But I am getting stronger; I was able to carry a non-working 32-inch tv out to the curb last week, by myself. And my jeans fit a little looser, but not loose enough to switch to a smaller size. My face is a little thinner, and my chin is a little less...double. So, although I am starting to look a little better, I'm frustrated that it's taking so long for so little results.

I started working out in December. It's been over four months, and I still weigh 170 pounds. I want to weigh 110. I was 110 when I got married. I was young and thin, but not strong. So it might be a bit unrealistic for me to expect I could get back to that. I would settle for 120 if I have to. For right now, I'd be thrilled with just seeing any number lower than 170 on the scale.

State of the Knitting...

2011-04-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

I'm still here; haven't fallen off the face of the earth just yet. Hubby is recovering from his surgery, and I've been busy taking care of him.

I have gotten some knitting done in the meantime. I've been working on the Evellyn Anne blanket in my friend's yarn, and I'm about halfway done with it. I love how it's turning out. I need to find out just what this blend of yarn is, because I want to order some for other projects.

The yarn came for my sister's bag, but I decided two of the colors just weren't right. Knit Picks released new colors the day after I ordered, and two of the new ones look perfect. So I just had to make another order. I'll use the blue and cream yarn for something else. So I'm waiting for the new colors to arrive before I can start working on that.

I'm also waiting on the yarn support for my Crown Jewels shawl; I expected it to be here by now. Guess the mail is slow this week, or my mailman is incompetent, which is entirely possible.

So I'll just keep on working on Evellyn Anne, and try to get her done quickly.

Hubby

2011-03-29T13:26:00.000-05:00

Hubby is home from the hospital and doing well.☺ To anyone who prayed for him, thank you. He's recovering nicely, though he is still pretty tired and weak. The surgery went well, and appears to have been effective; we won't really know until the post-operative pain is gone. So for the next few weeks, the girls and I will play nurse and take good care of him so his body can heal itself.

Hubby's having surgery.

2011-03-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

My Hubby is in surgery at this very moment. He's having some of the vertebrae in his neck fused, in an attempt to make them quit compressing his disks and pinching his nerves. He's had a lot of pain lately, so I really hope this works. Please be praying for him, if you're so inclined.

The girls and I will go visit him when I get the phone call from the doctor in a few hours. In the meantime, I wish I could go back to bed, but the girls are especially loud this morning, so I guess I'll just have to go to bed early tonight. So sleepy...

Knittin'

2011-03-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

I didn't get very far on the second sock yesterday....

because some more lovely blue yarn showed up in my mailbox!

I'm making another Evellyn Anne blanket with some yarn from Mara. I am in love with her yarn. I started this last night while we watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and I've just switched from the dpns to the circular, which makes me very happy. Dpns are a pain in the tush, so I rarely use them, but I had to, to get this project started. I'm zooming right along now! And it's a good thing I am; I should be getting the yarn support for Crown Jewels next week sometime. I'm going to keep the focus on this project, though, since I committed to it first. ☺ My goal is to get it about 1/4 done today, which would be 91 diamonds...somewhere between 6 and 7 repeats...I'll shoot for seven. Three down, four to go! I better get to it!

Another completed sock!

2011-03-25T16:14:00.000-05:00

I finished the first of the Winding Road Socks!

It's very soft and comfy. I can't wait to get the second one done so I can wear them.

♥

Happy Thursday!

2011-03-24T16:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday, everyone! I am feeling better; still have a little bit of a cold, but not feeling like a slug anymore. I got an email from Knit Picks today, and they're interested in my Crown Jewels shawl pattern, and will be publishing Julia Lynne sometime in the next two weeks! Woohoo!

I got Angel to take some pictures of me with my KIP Bag today, so that design proposal is ready to go now.

She needs to work on not cutting people's heads off with the camera. But she's getting pretty good at directing her subject..."Suck your tummy in, Mommy!"

♥

And just for a smile, here's Princess, crocheting a chain.

Time to get ready for Knit Night!

When yarn speaks...

2011-03-22T17:21:00.001-05:00

The other day, I decided I wanted to make something round and lacy. I was thinking maybe a baby blanket, or a project bag. I had a basic lace idea in mind, but when I got started I didn't like how it was turning out. So I frogged it and started over with a simpler stitch pattern. And then the yarn spoke to me. It said, "Haha, I'm a snood."

I said, "No, you're not. Nobody would knit a snood. Or at least I wouldn't knit a snood."

It said, "I'm still a snood."

I threatened to frog it. So it changed its mind. "Okay, then, I'm a bag for holding a ball of yarn."

And I said, "A KIP Bag! Now there's something I would knit!"

So here's the swirly lacy circle, waiting for the drawstrings...

And here it is, with a ball of yarn in it! I threaded the drawstrings through the outermost row of eyelets and cinched it up.

I used less than 50 grams for this, and it holds a 100-gram ball of yarn. I was going to have one of the girls take a picture of me KIPing and using the bag; but I'm sick today, and the only place I went was the gym, and I don't take my knitting to the gym. So that will have to wait for another day.

EDITED TO ADD: All three of my daughters have told me they want their own KIP Bags. And only one of them knows how to knit. ☺

I'm wondering whether Knit Picks might be interested in a pattern like this. It would only use one ball of yarn. They don't have a lot of projects that use this little amount of yarn. But they also don't have any lacy little KIP bags either. I think I'll send a proposal, and suggest it as a free pattern, since it's so small and simple.

♥

And then I need to make a "banana bag" for my sister. She asked for one ages ago, and I haven't gotten it made. And she hasn't forgotten that I promised to make one either. I haven't been able to find a pattern for one; the closest pattern I've found is a bag for a yoga mat. So you know what that means....another design is in the works! ☺

Moving right along...

2011-03-21T10:54:00.000-05:00

I've made quite a bit of progress on the Winding Road sock!

Yes, I modeled this right sock on my left foot, but that's only because it's easier to take a picture of the "inside" side of your foot than the "outside" side. Anyway, I've finished the gusset decreases, and I'm continuing on the foot. I'm really enjoying this pattern. Once I had done two repeats of the cable, I didn't have to look at the pattern again until it was time for the heel flap. It's an instinctive design, and very easy to follow. And this yarn is so yummy! Very soft, and such a pretty colorway, and I haven't had any strange pooling, just a nice all-over variegation which is what I was hoping for. Mara did a great job with both the pattern and the yarn. ☺

♥

I've also started swatching a new idea. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, but I know that it will be circular, and have a swirly lace pattern. I'm thinking it might be another baby blanket. Or maybe a knitting bag. Decisions, decisions.... I guess the swatch'll tell me what it wants to be when it's a little bigger.

Socks

2011-03-18T23:02:00.000-05:00

I finished the second sock! I love how these turned out.

Pattern: Centennial Socks by Sieglinde McGinnis, soon to be published

Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca

Needle: US2

This is the second pair I finished this month. ☺

♥

And, since I've finished those, I decided to go ahead and start some more!

These were designed by my friend Mara Jessup, and she also dyed the yarn.

Pattern: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Winding_Road_Socks__D10898220.html

The yarn is from her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ReflectionsYarn?ref=pr_shop_more

I didn't see any more of this particular blend in her shop, but she has lots of lovely yarns. Go check it out!

How about a little rant to start your day?

2011-03-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

We have a dishwasher. We use it quite frequently. As a matter of fact, we run it practically every day; sometimes twice a day. My children seem to be unaware of this fact until I point it out to them. Every day. If I don't specifically say "Put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher" they will put them on the counter above the dishwasher. Six inches away from where they should put them. And when there isn't room on that little sliver of counter(that area is also occupied by the dish drying rack, for when dishes get washed by hand), they'll make little piles all around the kitchen on the other counters. It doesn't help that Hubby does the same thing. It's apparently too much to ask for anyone but me to actually look in the dishwasher to see if it holds clean or dirty dishes and whether there is room for more.

As a result of their lack of using-their-fricken-eyes, dishes inevitably fall off the stacks, or get dropped(sometimes even on purpose) and broken. It happened yesterday. The dishwasher had room. The piles were everywhere. Angel and Princess know that it is their job to "take care of the dishes", so it wasn't that I was being lazy; they were. So I told them to get to work and fill the dishwasher and start it. Of course, they are unable to work together without fighting. Combine that inability with wet, slippery dishes; and it's inevitable. A tempered-glass pan lid was "dropped". Yes, we do have tile floor in the kitchen, so things that are dropped can get broken. But these pan lids have been dropped umpteen times and have never broken before. Which makes me a little skeptical of the accidental-dropping story. But I digress. Tempered glass, when it breaks, shatters into tiny, sharp pieces and flies everywhere. My lovely children were condemned to spend the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen until it was "clean". Of course, their standard of "clean" isn't exactly the same as mine, but that's a rant for another day.

I came to the conclusion that my incredibly privileged children are unaware of what a great blessing a dishwasher is. I grew up without one; I was the dish washer. My sister Rebekah still doesn't have one; a fact I was reminded of when she called me while the kids were cleaning up. So I decided that my children need to be deprived of the dishwasher for a while so that they'll appreciate it. For the next month, our dishwasher will stay empty and locked, and the girls will wash every dish by hand. Yes, I mean it. I got a little notepaper and wrote on it "April 17" and hung it on the front of the fridge. Until that day, they are not allowed to use the dishwasher. If they haven't learned the lesson by then, I'll add another month.

Yes, I am a mean mommy.

Evellyn Anne is up!

2011-03-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

My Evellyn Anne baby blanket pattern is finally up on Knit Picks!

And here's the link to the pattern: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Evellyn_Anne_Baby_Blanket___D10911220.html

Julia Lynne is on her way!

2011-03-15T12:10:00.000-05:00

I sent the sample and pattern off yesterday. Hooray! So now it's time to turn my attention to the next design proposal....and future designs!

Having celebrated yesterday the second anniversary of being banned from a knitting site, I find myself wanting to design something with a Bunker theme. I want to celebrate the wonderful family of crafters that I'm fortunate to be part of. We're a tightly-knit group(pun intended)...with different personalities...some are skilled at being vague...some are crazy and tons of fun...some are quiet...some are full of advice...all are creative...so I'm thinking whatever it is should have lots of different stitch patterns. Some cables, some lace, some texture...maybe some colorwork? It should definitely be Bunker Blue. Sorry, just thinking out loud...or thinking with my fingers...or something like that. ☺

Here's a question for my readers...What inspires you? What does your design process look like? Do you start with a theme and then come up with a project that describes it? Do you begin with a stitch pattern and then decide what sort of project would showcase it? Or do you start with a garment idea, then flesh out the idea with stitch patterns? To answer my own question, I do all of the above. For Julia Lynne, I started with "I want to make a little girls' cardigan with lace and ruffles". For Laura, I started with "I want to encourage Laura". For Frost, I started with "I love this stitch pattern". So tell me, how do you design? Really, I'm curious!

Julia Lynne is done!

2011-03-11T15:50:00.000-06:00

I finished my Julia Lynne cardigan last night! I blocked it overnight. And this morning, we had a very successful photo shoot. I took the girls to the park, and told Angel and Princess to go play while I took pics of Kitty. Poor Kitty, she just wanted to play too, but she had to wait until I had enough pictures. Here are a few of them...

It's a gorgeous day, so it was perfect for photos and playing at the park. Some of the pictures came out a little shady, so I brightened them up, except for the one on the monkey bars. That one was bright enough, and it would have been my favorite if not for the shadow across the sweater. I like the bike one also, but the grass in the background turned out so bright it almost hurts my eyes!

After polling my friends, I decided to use the one on the swing as the main pattern pic, and include the one in the tree as well. I'll send all of the pictures along with the pattern to Knit Picks, and they can use all of them on the website. I really hope they like my photos, because I'm partial to having my own girls model for my patterns.

And now I'm back to planning for my next pattern! I'm trying to decide between my Frost Cowl and my Crown Jewels Shawl. I'm leaning toward the shawl, since winter is practically over. I'll probably hold onto Frost until fall.

Speaking of socks...

2011-03-09T12:37:00.000-06:00

I finished the test-knit sock!

Isn't this a great design? Sieglinde did a great job. I can't wait to see her pattern up on a prominent knitting site! I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a light heathered bluish-green. I've already done the cuff ribbing for the second sock, but I'm not going to knit it in two days like I did the first. I need to work on my other projects.

So right now I'm working on Julia Lynne. She needs sleeves. I was going to Magic Loop them, but instead I'm using a very short circular. It's working, but not well. I wish it were about two inches shorter; the stitches are a bit stretched out on this needle. I'm thinking of switching back to the longer one, or dpns. My longer needle doesn't have a nice flexible cable, which is why I switched to the short one in the first place. But it might still be quicker than dpns. Aw, heck, I'm wasting time thinking about it; I'm going to just go back to my original plan and get this done.

I'm still here!

2011-03-08T09:18:00.000-06:00

Hi there! I realize I haven't blogged in almost a week. I've been busy, and haven't had time. First, since all I talked about last week was the kitchen, yes, Hubby liked it. We didn't get a chance to talk about the cabinets, though, since he was only home for two days, and then off to London.

♥

While he was here, on Saturday we went to a ball. It was a West Point Founders Day ball, which I always enjoy. The first one I went to was eleven years ago, when we were engaged. Now, here we are, old married couple...

I wore the Waltz shawl that Sandra made for me, and it came in very handy, as it was a chilly evening. I got a lot of compliments on it.

♥

Okay, on to what else has kept me busy! I finished this pair of socks yesterday morning. I had started them a while back, and last week I got the first one out and realized I was ready for the toe decreases, so I might as well finish it...and when I finished it, I thought I had better go ahead and start the second one, even though I've never caught Second Sock Syndrome. And then, after I'd finished the ribbing and started on the heart lace pattern, I volunteered to test-knit a sock pattern for my friend Sieglinde....and then realized that the needle I wanted to use was in my second heart sock. So I zoomed through the second sock, getting it done in one week! And here they are!

I think, since I finished the second sock in a week, this counts for my Socks In A Month KAL. But just in case anyone disagrees, I'm still knitting socks. I started on Sieglinde's sock immediately after finishing the second heart sock, and just over twelve hours later, I had turned the heel. I would have gotten farther on it, but I kept getting distracted, by lunch, by dinner, and by this:

That's right, it's a crochet project! And I'm not a crocheter. Not that it would be a bad thing if I were; I just prefer to knit. But I couldn't resist this pattern! It was designed by my friend Michelle, and is available on Knit Picks: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Diamond_Exchange_Crochet_Scarf___D10886220.html Isn't it a gorgeous design? And it's simple enough for a beginner like me to do! I'm using some lovely sock yarn that was dyed by my friend Mara(the blue/green tonal) and a Paton's yarn to go with it. All three of my girls were begging me yesterday to make it for them. I think I will, but I won't tell them. I'll make three, in different color schemes and set them aside for Christmas presents, because by the time Christmas gets here, they'll have forgotten about them.

♥

And just for fun, here's something I made a while back, and forgot to post a picture.

I made this sock for a swap spoilee who likes to knit socks. I think every sock knitter should have a sock blocker keychain. ☺ I still need to make a sock for mine...

Another curtain

2011-03-02T18:27:00.000-06:00

I found magnetic curtain rods today! Which means I was able to carry out my plan for the door to the back yard. I got the rods before my workout, and the fabric after. They only had two sheer fabrics in the right color; a stiff shiny one and a sparkly one. The girls preferred the sparkles, but in the end I went with the shiny one, even though I would have liked a softer fabric. Anyhow, the back door now has a nice sheer blue curtain over the full-length window, and it really helps cut down the glare on the television. So it was worth the extra expense. Two more days until Hubby gets to see the new kitchen. I really hope he likes it!

Worked my back and arms today, and did 20 minutes on the elliptical. It was a good workout.

My kitchen!

2011-03-01T15:28:00.000-06:00

I've got the kitchen just about done, for now. Here's the window over the sink...

Here's the table area, with the new curtains on the windows. And you can see one of the framed doilies there to the right of the window...

Here's a closeup of a doily; there are two of these, on opposite walls. I used some leftover curtain fabric for the background.

And here's the coordinating doily that is next to the window in the picture above...

These doilies are over a hundred years old, and were made either by Hubby's grandmother, great-grandmother or great-aunt. They've started to come apart in places, so I've been afraid to use them, or even handle them too much. Now they'll be protected and displayed at the same time.

I still want to darken the cabinets and maybe even the table and chairs, but I'll wait. So now I just need to clean it up, and get all my project stuff put away....and hope it stays clean until Friday...

On with the kitchen project!

2011-02-28T11:59:00.000-06:00

I haven't make a whole lot of progress on my cardi in the past couple days. Hubby left for a business trip to New York yesterday, so I was doing a lot of laundry, making sure he had everything he needed. And as soon as he left I began my kitchen project. As a matter of fact, I started painting before his plane left our airport. So the kitchen walls are now a lovely deep brown. It reminds me of hot chocolate. Goodbye, wine-themed kitchen! Hello, beautiful brown and blue kitchen! I just spray painted the picture frames for the doilies; the frame sizes I needed were hard to find, and I only found black. I didn't want black frames against the brown walls, so I got some hammered bronze color spray paint and changed them. I think they look much better. I'm going to make the new curtains this afternoon, and hope that I have enough leftover fabric for the doily-framing project. I think I might also make a sheer curtain for the door to the back yard, if I can find magnetic curtain rods. I'll take a picture later, after I make the main curtains...if the kids remember to do the dishes...

I went to the gym today. Worked my arms and did 20 minutes on the elliptical. It was a good workout; I bet my arms will be hurting tomorrow...

Goal accomplished!

2011-02-25T11:53:00.000-06:00

I've finished the body of my cardi! I got the crochet edging done last night at Knit Night, and this morning I bought buttons.

I got all the ends woven in(there were a lot of them) and the buttons sewn on.

Now it's time to start the sleeves! I think I'm going to Magic Loop them, so they go more quickly. I was going to do them both at the same time, but I don't have a long enough needle for that.

I went to the gym this morning and worked my back and legs, and did 20 minutes on the elliptical. That 20 minutes burned 180 calories! So I probably burned about 200 with my whole workout. Not bad!

Back to knitting!

Another step closer!

2011-02-24T16:50:00.000-06:00

Today I rented a tiller from Home Depot, and tilled up the ground where I'm going to build my garden. Wow, that was a lot of work. My back and arms are really sore. But the ground is broken up and ready for the garden boxes and good soil. ☺ I'm exhausted, but hopefully I'll be able to find the energy for knit night.☺

I've almost finished the body of my cardi! I still need to finish up the garter stitch border and bind off, then do the crochet edging. I think I'll bring along another project to knit night, so I can work on something else after I finish that.

I lost a friend yesterday. Her name was Amy. She had been in the hospital for the past week and a half, due to complications from influenza A and B. Her heart, lungs and kidneys stopped functioning. She was hooked up to several machines that were doing the work for those organs, so her body could fight off the infection. And she was improving. But yesterday she had a massive stroke, and died. She left behind a loving husband and four young children. Please be praying for her family as they deal with this great loss.

Knitting and exercise and gardening, oh my!

2011-02-23T11:39:00.000-06:00

I finished the waist cables on my BBSweKniMo project! Hooray! I decided to only do 7 repeats, instead of 8, because I have a short waist(along with the rest of me). So now I'm doing stockinette, except for the rope cables at the front edges. ☺ I've come to the conclusion that I won't get this project done by the end of the month, so my goal is to get the body done. I have to do a few inches in stockinette, and an inch or so of garter stitch, and then add a crochet border and buttons and buttonholes. I'll do the sleeves next month, I guess. I'll be glad to get this sweater done, even though I won't be able to wear it until fall. I started designing it so long ago that I'm just ready to have it done.

I've been thinking about socks. Socks are nice, quick projects. And I have a gazillion sock patterns printed, and lots of sock yarn to go with them. So I think I'm going to set another goal, of knitting one pair of socks per month. That way, I'll have plenty of them when cold weather comes back. I loved wearing my handknit socks this past winter, but I only have three pairs, and none of them are superwash wool, so I have to wash them by hand. I think I'll start a KAL with my friends in the Bunker, if any of them are interested. I love our KALs! I'll bring up the idea tonight, when we meet in the chat room for our virtual Knit Night. ☺

Oh, my goodness, I totally forgot to post this yesterday! I got an email from Stacey at Knit Picks: they like my Julia Lynne cardigan! So I'll be knitting another one of those as soon as the yarn support arrives. I can't wait! I'm still waiting to see the pics from their photo shoot of my Evellyn Anne blanket; I'm not sure whether they'll want me to replace my pics in the pattern with theirs, or just use them for the "additional pictures" on the site. If it's the latter, that pattern might be up on the site tomorrow; if it's the former, it'll probably be another week.

I went to the gym this morning. I didn't want to. When I got there, I didn't want to exercise. While I was exercising I wanted to stop and go home...until I reached the 15-minute mark on the bike. When I was done, I was glad I was done. I have yardwork and knitting and laundry and cleaning to do. Haha.

Speaking of gardening...we were speaking of gardening, weren't we? I peeked at my sprouts again, and saw that I have cantaloupe and pumpkins and cucumbers sprouting too! Nothing yet with the lavender, but that usually takes longer. I started my tomatoes yesterday: Big Boy and Red Cherry and some seeds I saved from really yummy yellow tomatoes. And I started my Texas Bluebonnets too. I love Bluebonnets, but since it's the State Flower, it's illegal to pick them where they grow wild. This way, I'll be able to pick them and bring them inside. I haven't started digging yet; I'm waiting on the utility people to come mark the underground cables and such, to make sure that I don't cut anything.

Gardening!

2011-02-22T14:08:00.000-06:00

I'm working on creating a garden. On Sunday I boarded up the holes at the bottom of the fence, so the garden soil doesn't fall out into the pasture. Yesterday I dug up the irises that were in the way and transplanted them to the front yard.

Would you believe all those plants were squished into about 4 square feet? Now they've got plenty of room to grow. I also planted some other bulbs (daffodil and gladiolus) in around the irises, so we should have lots of pretty flowers in that area. I just hope I didn't plant the bulbs too late; Spring has already arrived.

I started some seeds on Saturday, for planting in my garden once it's ready. Left to right, I have lavender, cucumbers, pumpkins, cantaloupe, corn and beans. I love these little Jiffy "greenhouses"; things sprout so quickly in them!

Look! I have corn and beans sprouting already, three days after planting!

I went and bought another "greenhouse" to start my tomato seeds, and some Texas Bluebonnets.

Busy busy busy

2011-02-19T18:46:00.000-06:00

I skipped my workout today, but made up for it by doing yardwork. I'm working on cleaning up the backyard and getting the space ready for my garden. I've decided to plant an actual garden this year. Last year I planted a container garden, and it didn't do very well. I might still plant a few things in pots, but the majority of it will be in the ground. I started some seeds inside today: corn, green beans, pumpkins, cantaloupe, cucumbers and lavender. I have seeds somewhere for tomatoes, and some herbs. I'll start those tomorrow, maybe.

I haven't knit a stitch today. Yesterday either. I need to do that this evening, but I'll have to wait until the kids are in bed. They're driving me crazy. But now I have to go; it's bathtime. Which will be followed closely by bedtime, thank God.

Cleaning, organizing and planning, oh my!

2011-02-17T11:39:00.000-06:00

I was all ready to go to the gym...I was about to tell the girls to get their shoes on so we could go...and I twisted my ankle. Heard it go "crunch" and everything. Ouch. So I'm not going to the gym today after all. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be healed enough. I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed myself this morning, though. I'd lost two pounds since the beginning of the week!

Instead I'm cleaning, and doing laundry. We're washing sheets and blankets today. And cleaning the ~~trash heaps~~ ... ~~pig styes~~ ...um.... oh, yeah, they're called bedrooms. Or at least they will be when we get them done... I am so sick and tired of the constant mess. I guess we (all of us, but especially the kids) still have too much stuff. Time to purge again! We'll call it spring cleaning, since spring weather has arrived.

And I'm getting ready for my next project. Hubby is going to be traveling next month, one week in New York and one week in London. A long time ago, I used to take advantage of his travels to do a home decorating project, and surprise him when he got home. I haven't done that in a long time, partly because he doesn't travel much these days. So I've decided that this time, I will. It's "sooper-seekrit" so I won't be posting on Facebook about it until he sees it, but I'll post here since he doesn't read my blog. I'm going to paint the kitchen and make new curtains. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm totally changing the color scheme in there. We recently got a new loveseat and chairs for the family room, which is open to the kitchen. So I want to coordinate the two rooms. I want to have the family room painted blue(I'd do it myself, but it's a really tall room) to set off the chocolate brown in the furniture. The kitchen is going to be opposite: chocolate brown on the walls, and blue for the curtains. I'm doing the kitchen first, so Hubby will see what a nice color combination it is, and be convinced that we should use it in the family room too. I'm considering glazing the kitchen cabinets to make them darker, but not as dark as the walls; right now they're oak-color, builders'-grade cabinets with no hardware. I'd love for them to be darker and have some nice handles and pulls, but new cabinets aren't in the budget this year, so I have to work with what we have.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what I'm going to do for "art"... I have a bunch of antique crocheted doilies made by Hubby's great-grandma, grandma, and great aunts(most are over a hundred years old!) and I'm going to frame them, with some of the curtain fabric as a background, and hang them on the walls. Since they are so old and delicate, I've been afraid to use them, lest they get stained or torn. This way, they'll be seen, but not destroyed. I'll put some in the kitchen and some in the family room, to tie the two rooms together. The tricky part will be finding frames large enough without breaking the bank...

Movin' right along...

2011-02-16T14:32:00.000-06:00

I've finally gotten a new pic of my cardi!

This is the first half of the waist section. I'm going to do four more repeats of the cables, then switch back to stockinette for the hip section. After that....a border of garter stitch, and a crochet edging...and the sleeves! I'm planning on magic-looping the sleeves, maybe doing both at the same time, in order to get this done by the end of February. I love how this sweater is looking so far! It has a little more negative ease than I had planned on, but it should be perfect when I lose a few more pounds.

Speaking of losing pounds...I haven't lost any more yet, but I'm workin' on it. I went to the gym, worked my legs and did 20 minutes on the stair-stepper.

And now, back to knitting!

Ugh.

2011-02-15T11:12:00.000-06:00

I need to quit drinking alcohol. At least while I'm trying to lose weight. It cancels out my workout for that day, and makes it difficult to work out the next day. I went to the gym, but I was yawning the whole time. I worked my arms, but only did ten minutes of cardio. I made up for it, though, by taking the girls to the park to practice riding bikes again. And now I'm tired. I need a bath. And a nap. Sorry, no sweater pic right now. Maybe later.

Knit, exercise, knit, exercise...

2011-02-14T22:16:00.000-06:00

I'm chugging along on the sweater waist cables...I've finished three repeats, and I think I'll do another four or five. I'll try it on tomorrow and get another in-progress picture. After my workout, I think...

Speaking of workouts, I had two today. Went to the gym and worked my back, and did 15 minutes on the bike. My legs are still sore from yesterday. Then this afternoon, I took the girls to the park to learn to ride their bikes. Angel had never ridden without training wheels, and neither had Princess. So I figured it was about time for both of them. And time for Kitty to learn to ride with training wheels. Angel and Princess both did great; kept trying and trying, and didn't give up. Kitty tried for a little while, but got frustrated because she couldn't figure out how to pedal. Oh, and the reason I counted it as a workout was because I had to help all three of them, in separate areas of the park. I did a lot of running. It was exhausting, but in a good way. I'm sure I've totally undone it now, by drinking wine. Oh well...it's a holiday!

Happy Valentine's Day to my readers(if there are any...)!

Home from the gym..

2011-02-13T12:22:00.000-06:00

and my legs are on fire. I intended to focus on my arms, and I did work them, but I changed my mind, and spent most of the time working my legs instead. And then, when my legs were exhausted, I got on the bike. Crazy, I know. I only did 15 minutes on the bike, because I felt like I was going to collapse. I think I'll go sit in a tub of hot water now. Ow....

Knittin' knittin' knittin'

2011-02-12T17:54:00.000-06:00

I've finished the stockinette portion of my sweater! After trying it on yesterday, I discovered that the three sets of short-rows I had done were enough, and all I needed was a few more rows of stockinette. So on I go! I've started the cable section, which will probably take a while.

I've just sent off another design proposal. This one is for my Julia Lynne cardigan that I designed in '09. (Can you believe this pic was taken just a year and a half ago? Kitty looks so much older now!)

After it was rejected by Knitty, I didn't have the courage to submit it anywhere else until now. So I spent this afternoon reworking it and writing up a design proposal for it. I've had pretty good luck with Knit Picks so far, so I'm optimistic.

I went to the gym today, and worked my chest, shoulders and back. Then I did 25 minutes at level 4 on the bike. I'm really feelin' it now... Hopefully I won't hurt too much tomorrow.

Makin' progress

2011-02-11T12:11:00.000-06:00

I made a few inches of progress on my sweater last night at knit night. I need to try it on again, and decide whether it needs more short-rows in the bust area. I've already done 3 sets of short-rows, but I don't think it's enough. We'll see...

I went to the gym this morning, and worked my back and legs and did 25 minutes on the bike. My back is still hurting too much to do Zumba. After the gym, we went to the thrift shop, and I found a really nice gray dress, which is a little bit snug around the middle. So I'm going to hang it up, and use it as my motivation to keep working on this weight-loss thing. It should fit when I lose another 5-10 pounds, so hopefully in a few weeks.

Feelin better

2011-02-10T12:42:00.000-06:00

I woke up in a little less pain than what I had when I went to sleep, so after waiting for the outside temperature to reach 33 and melt the ice, I went to the gym. Worked my back and arms, and did 20 minutes on the bike. Still not up to the level I was at when I went on my hiatus from the gym. But at least I didn't gain back any weight during that three weeks.☺

Last night I finished the yoke of my cardi, and set aside the sleeve stitches. So for the next couple inches, it'll be mostly stockinette, with just basic rope cables at the front opening edges.

Once I get below the bustline, I'll start the cables around the waist. I'm not going to do any actual decreasing; the cables will create shaping by virtue of their natural "pulling in". Those cables will be the same as the ones on the sleeves, but with a little bit of ribbing between each column. It'll be easier to understand what I mean when there's something to see...

And now, back to knitting!

Pain. And Knitting.

2011-02-09T12:44:00.000-06:00

I went to the gym yesterday, and had a much better workout than the day before. I worked my legs again, and worked my abs a little harder than usual. Today my abs hurt, so I know that worked! ☺ But my back hurts so bad I can hardly move, so I'm not working out today. I'm using a heating pad, and taking Advil every four hours, and doing a little stretching every once in a while. I'm staying in my nice warm comfy jammies and staying out of the cccccold rainy weather.

I took a little break from my sweater project(which, I'll admit is going slowly) to make something "little" in a Bunker Blue yarn. I used KP Palette in "Pool", and a size 0 needle. And it turned out really well! Beyond that, you'll just have to wait to find out what it is, until it is received by my spoilee in the Bunker Blue swap.

And now, back to NCIS and sweater-knitting...

Check the box.

2011-02-07T15:39:00.000-06:00

Well, I checked the box for exercise today, but I didn't do much. I got there just a little while before the kids' club was closing for lunchtime. So I just did a short workout. I wasn't feelin' it anyway...too much alcohol, not enough sleep, too much pain.

Surprisingly, I have stayed at the same weight over the past three weeks, despite eating lots of fast food, drinking wine and not working out. I am glad to get back to exercising again, though. Hoping I can get my weight-loss jump-started.

Yay!

2011-02-07T08:38:00.000-06:00

Yay, me! I was finally able to get back to the gym yesterday! I've really missed it. And of course, my back felt great while I was working it...but hurts like the dickens this morning. I worked my back and legs, because those are what's been hurting. I only did 15 minutes on the bike, because my hubby was ready to head home at that point. We sometimes go together on Sundays. ☺I felt good, and was glad I went. Now if I can just get my back to hurt a little less...to the point where I can move a little...I'll go this morning too.

Yay, Green Bay Packers! Normally, I don't give two figs about football, even when it comes to the SuperBowl. But one of my friends posted something before the game, in our conservative knitting site, that made me want to cheer for a team. Copying and pasting here; I'm not sure if my friend came up with this on her own, or found it somewhere, so I'll give her credit and she can correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks, Michelle!

Every Red Blooded American should jump in line to support the Green Bay Packers! The Packers defeated the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon thus earning them the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl . By doing so, they saved the Hard-Working, Red Blooded, Taxpaying Americans literally several million dollars of tax money. How you say? Simple... we were told that if the Chicago Bears had won that President Obama (and probably his family) would be attending the Super Bowl to cheer on his hometown team. Since the Bears lost...the President won't be attending. The money saved from not using Air Force 1, the limosines, all the additional security, and let's not forget Michelle Obama's entourage, is literally several million dollars! Therefore every American should cheer on the Green Bay Packers at the Super Bowl to show them our gratitude. Oh...and let's not forget to thank Chicago Bear's Quarterback Jay Cutler for his role in the Packer's success! With that said...let's circulate this email to everyone we know so they can understand why they should cheer for America's team ....the Green Bay Packers!

And the Packers won! Yay!