Another pair of February socks!

I made a pair of socks for Hubby! He shrunk the last pair I made him, so I made these extra long.

 

I used two skeins of I Love This Wool Naturals, US5 needles, and my favorite pattern: Hunter Socks. The yarn is not superwash, and I wouldn't normally use it for socks, but I'm trying to destash by using up yarn. I doubt I'll buy this yarn again; it's not very soft, and there were lots of little bits of grass in it, that I had to pick out as I went along.

I knit these socks in just six days. I had planned for them to be my March socks, but I just couldn't put them down once I started. So now I need to pick another project for March. 

Oh, hi there... again!

So... I'm still here. I didn't realize it had been this long since I'd done any blogging. Looks like I need to update a bunch of things around here...

First of all, my girls are now 13, 10 and almost 8. We're still homeschooling, and loving it. We still live in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota, but we're trying to have a good attitude about it.

I still knit, though I didn't knit as much last year as I had in previous years. I'm back at it, and I've decided to knit at least 12 pairs of socks this year. So far, I'm off to a great start...

January Socks for my sister

Slippers for Princess - February Socks

Slippers for Kitty - February Socks

Slippers for Angel - February Socks

I've also finished two baby blankets of my own design: 

For my sister's baby (no name yet)

William Alexander

I'm no longer focusing on weight loss. I started lifting weights at the gym in August, and now I'm more focused on what my body can do than on how it looks. As a result of bulking, I put on fifteen pounds. Most of it was muscle, but some wasn't. Even so, I'm pretty happy with my new muscles, and not so concerned about the added fat.

Oh, hi there!

It's been a while! I didn't mean to, but I ended up taking the summer off from blogging. I also took the summer off from knitting, and schooling my kids. I helped our contractor in the basement, and schlepped the kids to summer sports, and not much else got done. It was a busy summer.

Today is our first day of school. So here's our "back to school" picture...

Yep, we were just getting ready to read our Bibles together. Angel is now in seventh grade, Princess is in fourth, and Kitty is in first. Today was a pretty light day as far as schoolwork was concerned; we had some errands to run in town.

But anyway, about summer... we got the bedrooms and bathroom done, and the man-cave is nearing completion.

Kitty's room

Princess's room

The girls' bathroom

Sorry, I don't have a good photo yet of Angel's room. I was all set to take one, and then we had a natural disaster. The basement flooded. Most of the water came in through Angel's window, and we had to empty her room and pull up her carpet. We got the carpet cleaned and put back down, but then it was time to head out of town for two weeks to visit my family in Kansas. Which was awesome. So anyway, don't let me forget to post a photo of her room soon.

I've continued (very slowly) to lose weight. Here I am wearing a knitted pencil skirt that I finished while in Kansas. It took me about two weeks to knit. I've already started another one...

I still have about 25 pounds to go to reach my goal weight. I'm planning on doing that before the end of the year. I want to start 2014 NOT thinking about my weight. 

So yeah... I'm hoping to find more time to blog now that summer is officially over. And more time to knit...

Blankets for Baby

I've been working on a little project recently. If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I have quite a few patterns published on Knit Picks. I decided to combine all five of my baby blanket patterns into an e-book. And then I designed another baby blanket, which I self-published on Nimblestix. And I decided to include it in the book as well.

Harmony is not pictured on the cover, but is inside.

Blankets for Baby is available for purchase on Nimblestix, for $12. If you were to purchase each pattern separately, you'd pay just under $14, so it's a savings of about $2. The e-book is 22 pages long, and includes: 

Posy Patch 

Sydney Claire

Evellyn Anne

Willow Carroldine

Sisterhood 

and 

Harmony.

I believe you don't have to be a member of Nimblestix to download the e-book, but I'm not certain. And anyway, you should become a member if you're not. Nimblestix is a great site! It's like Facebook for fiber artists, but better. :)

Knitting in a certain yarn...

I got an email from Knit Picks recently, asking if I'd be interested in coming up with a design for a new yarn colorway. Free yarn is free yarn, so naturally, I said yes. The yarn arrived, and it was beautiful. I've converted all my photos to black and white, since the colorway has to stay secret until it's released. I immediately dived in; I had already come up with a design that I thought would work... but it didn't.

The tiny-cables stitch pattern I wanted to use was completely obscured by the color variations. So I frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. Finally, I came up with a design I liked; the cables and lace showed up well enough. But when it was about halfway done, it was clear that it was going to be enormous and not fit anyone with a normal-sized head (did I mention it was a hat?)... so I frogged it and started over. Again. I made some more adjustments to the cable pattern, to make it fit into a smaller stitch count, but I forgot to take into consideration that eight-stitch cables pull in much more than four-stitch cables do. Long story short, the hat I was designing to fit me ended up fitting my six-month-old niece almost perfectly.

 She's adorable, and she knows it.

 I like how it turned out, and may make another one, with the intention of having her model for me. But for now, I've abandoned that hat design. A friend of mine suggested that the stitch pattern would look nice in a cowl, which I thought was a great idea. Since a cowl wouldn't have any decreases or increases to worry about, I wouldn't have to figure out how to fit them into the design, as I had with the hat.

Three days later, I had a finished cowl, and almost no leftovers. My friends suggested 10 inches for the width. I was running out of yarn, so I only did 8 inches, which is fine for me, because I have a really short neck.

So I went through all that stress and ripping, to come up with a super-simple cable-and-lace cowl(and a hat idea for another day). And next time I'm asked to "come up with something" for a new yarn, I'll only agree if it's a solid color.

Harmony Preemie Blanket

My Harmony Preemie Blanket pattern is available for purchase! This little blanket is great for using up washable sock yarn leftovers. It's knit in the round, from the center out. It could easily be customized; you could use any weight of yarn, and you could add more repeats of the lace pattern to make it bigger.

The pattern is available on Nimblestix, for $2.00. Feel free to make as many as you like, for gifts or donations, but please do not sell the pattern, or the finished product of it.

Malabrigo Sock Yarn "Velvet Grapes"

Knit Picks Stroll Tonal "Pearlescent"

Miss Babs Yummy Sock Yarn "Chocolate Roses"

Exercise and knitting

Just for fun, I did this yesterday:

I put on the shirt I'd worn in my January 1 "before" photo, and took a new picture and put them side by side. Nice change for only three months of work!

And my friends and I started a new exercise challenge. We're doing the Hundred Pushups Challenge. The goal is to be able to do one hundred consecutive pushups six weeks from now. When I did the initial test, I was able to do 12, so I have a long way to go. Yesterday was day 1...and my chest and ab muscles are incredibly sore today. Today is a rest day, and I'm hoping the soreness wears off by tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to the benefits of this program; it should make a big difference in my arm strength, and I'm hoping it'll firm up the saggy "girls" as I continue losing weight.

In other news...

I've finally settled on a design for the hat I'm making for Knit Picks. The colorway is still a secret, so I've converted the photo to black-and-white. But you can get an idea of how the hat will look. I'm knitting it top-down, and instead of columns of purls between the cables, I'm using columns of lace. The way it kind of swirls out from the center reminds me of a spiral galaxy. So I'm thinking of giving it a name that has something to do with the stars...

Bayerische Progress and a FO

I've gotten the first repeat done on my Bayerische sock! The trickiest part so far was the increase round after the ribbing. The cables aren't any harder than ones I've done before. ☻

And I finished my Unconventional Hood samples! Here's the cabled version:

 And the simple version:

And the pattern has been sent in to Knit Picks. Hopefully it'll be up on the site soon, before knitters turn to summer projects...

Bayerische KAL

I'm participating in a Bayerische KAL over on Nimblestix.com. I've wanted to make these socks for a long time, and I think I'm finally ready, so I'm very excited about this.

Photo from eunnyjang.com

I'm using Knit Picks Gloss in Burgundy, and size US1 needles.

Come join us! 

Too busy to blog...until now...

Well, hi there! I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. I've been so focused on losing weight...or trying to...that I haven't thought of blogging at all. Well, now I have time. Every once in a while, my joints get inflamed, and I'm in so much pain I can hardly move. It's happened again, and I haven't been able to work out for several days. I've done a little yoga, and some crunches and such, but other than that, I've spent much of this week in bed. While I've been laid up, I was able to finish a pair of socks...

 I used some lovely Malabrigo Sock yarn in "Velvet Grapes", and my own pattern, Hunter Socks. I made these ones a little longer in the leg than the original green ones. They're very soft and comfy, and are making my aching feet and ankles feel a little better.

This time around, the pain has struck only my lower half, probably because of the dance fitness I've been doing twice a day for most of this month. Anyway, my arms are fine so far, so I gave myself a haircut last night. It's always tricky to cut my own hair, but I decided it was getting a little too long and shaggy, and once I got started, I couldn't stop. I cut off about six inches in length; it's pretty short now. But I like how it turned out.

You can also see that my face is looking a little thinner... I haven't lost much weight, but I've lost inches all over. I'm starting to separate out some clothes that are too big now, and that's a wonderful feeling.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to when the pain stops, so I can get back to exercising. I'm desperate to lose weight, and I have a long way to go.

Lace and Weight Loss

I'm designing a scarf. I came up with the fish lace motif a few years ago, when I made my Ichthus Shawl. I never did publish the pattern, so I decided to take the motif and put it into a scarf instead.

I'm using KP Alpaca Cloud laceweight yarn, which is incredibly soft. I really like how it's turning out. It's a pretty simple design, which is a nice diversion after the hood and glittens I designed recently. I'm already planning the photo shoot for this one....I'm going to need a white sundress...and a warm day.

I'm so ready for winter to be over. This past week, there were several days when the temperature didn't reach zero. And it snows every day. And it's cold. And windy.

♥

In other news, I've been working out since the beginning of January. It's a secret, though. Well, not a total secret. But the fact that I've lost 13 pounds since New Years is. It would have been more if I hadn't taken a week and a half off from my intensive workouts because of injury(did yoga instead). I'm keeping my progress a secret from my family until I go visit them. I'm hoping to get time in March to do that. By that time, I should have lost enough for them to see the difference and be shocked. Hubby hasn't noticed yet...and I'm not pointing it out to him either. I'm waiting for him to notice. He's going to be traveling this next week, so I'm hoping that I can reach my first goal of 20 pounds while he's gone. 

It's not easy; I'm working out every day(using the PACE system), and eating less than I used to. And I'm drinking water almost exclusively. I allow myself one soda on Friday nights, and alcohol is only for very special occasions. I discovered a day-spa water recipe...I know, that sounds goofy, but it's good! I slice an apple and put it and a cinnamon stick in a pitcher, fill the pitcher halfway with ice, and fill the rest of the way with water. I put it in the fridge for an hour before drinking it. I'm up to almost a gallon a day, which is huge, because I never used to drink water! I'm adding in green tea now; I've heard that it's great for weight loss. My problem with tea is that I hate unsweetened tea, and I detest fake sugar. I usually use two teaspoons of sugar to a cup of tea; I'm cutting it down to one. 

I'm not using any faddish gluten-free/carb-free/all-liquid/protein-shake diets, and no diet pills of any kind. Just the good old-fashioned exercise-more-eat-less diet. No alcohol, no caffeine(well, almost), and I'm allowed to eat what I want as long as it's only a little bit. If I want chocolate, I have one. If I want chips and queso for lunch, I get a very small dish of queso, and only as many chips as it takes to eat up the queso. We had spaghetti tonight, and I really wanted seconds, but I let Hubby have it instead. If I want a cookie, I have one. I've learned that when I refuse to allow myself a little splurge now and then, the craving gets so bad that I end up having a big splurge, and then feel so guilty I give up. Not letting that happen this time.

13 pounds down, 47 to go...

And once I've lost this weight, I'm going to look terrific in my as-of-now non-existent white sundress and Ichthus Scarf...

New Patterns

Hello readers! I had three new patterns published yesterday!

 R&R Shawl is available on Knit Picks for $2.99.

Hunter Socks is available on Knit Picks for $2.99. The pattern contains both sizes.

Bottoms Up Dishcloth Set is available on Knit Picks for $1.99.

Hunter Socks!

I finished Hubby's Hunter Socks! And we had a little photo shoot today. ☻

Hubby's socks...

Me on Hubby's lap...

Us...

With Sarah, my shotgun (which was unloaded and pointed in a safe direction, with the safety on)...

Totally off-topic: OMG, I need to go on a diet after Christmas! Yikes!

Knittin'

Check out my new socks! These are the sockweight version of my Hunter Socks. I'm working on another pair of worsted weight ones for my Hubby. And I'm writing the pattern as I go. 

 And I took a three-day break from the Hunter Socks, to make this!

It's not my own design, though I did alter the pattern considerably. My mother-in-law made beautiful Christmas stockings for everyone in the family; Hubby and me, our kids, Hubby's sister and brother. But she passed away five years ago. Well, Hubby's sis just had her first baby in September. Since Grandma isn't around to make it, and every baby needs her own special handmade stocking, I made this one for her. 

R and R Shawl

I finished my R&R Shawl sample!

 It took one intensive week of knitting, and seven skeins of KP Galileo, which I raved about in the previous post. I am in love with this yarn; it is so silky and soft and warm.

And the color is true in these photos; this is what "Luminous" really looks like. On KP's website, it looks much lighter. Not that I'm complaining; it's a gorgeous color. It just wasn't what I expected. I can't wait to see some of the other colors in person.

Oh, and again, these photos were taken by Angel. Her photography skills are really coming along. She managed to not cut my head off, and to get a few good shots as well. ☻

The election is only a week away! Get out there and vote for R&R!

Cathie is done!

I finally finished my Cathie scarf! 

 I decided to make it a bit shorter than I usually do for scarves. It was supposed to be done three months ago. Now the pattern is finished, and in the hands of Knit Picks.

Here's a closeup:

And now I'm on to other designs. I'm almost halfway done with my R&R Shawl sample; and should have yarn waiting for me when I get home, to make Hunter Socks. I've got a friend proofreading my Willow Carroldine pattern before I send it in. 

If I knit fast enough, can I count it as exercise?

Hunter Socks

Hubby was a little jealous that I'm always making stuff for other people. He wanted me to knit him something. Specifically, socks. For hunting. Now, Hubby has enormous feet, which is why I hadn't made him any socks previously. But since they're for hunting, he wanted them thick. I decided I could use worsted-weight yarn and knit them at a very tight gauge. I asked Hubby what color he wanted. Orange, of course! As if you would use any other color for hunting socks! And he wanted them to be long enough to reach to the top of his boots. He didn't want them to be too fancy. He would probably have been satisfied with plain stockinette socks. But I wouldn't.

I have made one pair of "boring"(aka stockinette) socks. They took for.e.ver. I didn't enjoy working on them. I set them aside several times, in favor of more interesting projects. But patterns for worsted-weight men's-size socks are hard to find. I found one, on Knit Picks. It was a free pattern, and I discovered why after downloading it. It was a basic sock recipe, more of a tutorial than a pattern. It left all the math up to the knitter. I get that some people like patterns like that, but I don't. If I'm going to have to do all the math myself, I might as well design my own pattern. So I did.

I came up with a single-color argyle design, and designed Hubby's socks. Each sock took two skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted yarn. They turned out a little goofy-looking, as I adjusted the argyle design halfway through, but they'll do for the design proposal.

Now I'm working on tweaking the design and writing up the proposal. I'm going to write it for both worsted-weight in men's size, and sock-weight in women's size. I think I'll request green yarns, since they don't have anything that looks like camouflage...

R and R

I've recently found my knitting mojo, which had been on a little hiatus. I'm hanging on tight to it, so it doesn't go walkabout again. I had a design idea that had been bouncing around in my brain for a while, and I finally decided to put it into yarn. I used Caron Spa, which is a bamboo/acrylic blend. I love Spa; it's so silky and comfy. I had five skeins of the colorway "Ocean Spray", which is a gorgeous light turquoise. Now I have one and a half...and a big, silky, warm shawl.

It's perfect for those chilly autumn days when you want to just curl up with a shawl and a book.

  I used similar construction to a triangular shawl, but made it with three sections instead of two. It stays on my shoulders much better, and has a lot more fabric to wrap around myself.

I designed this with Knit Picks' new bamboo blend in mind. I think it will look amazing in Galileo Yarn. The name of the pattern is R&R Shawl, and I sent in a design proposal to Knit Picks yesterday.

Now I'm back to working on my Cathie scarf, and my unnamed baby blanket. I need to get those two projects done before I start any more. I have chronic start-itis.

Photo Shoot

We finally got a warm enough day for a photo shoot. After an early false spring, we got a couple weeks of cold, windy weather.  Anyway, here's a few of the pics we took today...

Princess, wearing "Grace Irene". I am aware that her tank is a bit low in front. I think I'm going to shorten the straps, then take some more pics.

 Here are Princess and Kitty, each wearing "Grace Irene". I wanted a shot that showed both the front and the back at once, so I made tanks for both of them.

 And last but not least, here's Angel, wearing "Theresa Nichole". This tank looks so great on her. 

I still need to decide what other sizes to include in the pattern. I don't want to go much smaller, since the hibiscus motif is so large. If I wrote the pattern for a size 2 or even a 4, the flower would be too big to be clearly seen.  So I'm considering going larger with the pattern, maybe including a 12 and 14.