"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

11/30/09

Just Peachy

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I did. Lots of good food and family was the main content. I got quite a bit of knitting done on a new pair of socks I'm making for a Christmas gift. I knitted at the family Thanksgiving gatherings as well as at home. I'm 3/4ths of the way done with the first sock.

I had the hardest time photographing this ornament cover. My camera just didn't want to give me a clear focus of it. I think it was refusing to believe the colors I'd used or something. I suspect if I'd had a decent light tent and my tripod it probably would have turned out much better. But I wanted to take the photo while it hung on a tree, and my only decent option was outside.



This is a netted bead ornament cover in peach and white. I am going to teach a class on this little project this month at Bead It. Check out the bead class page for more info.

The weather has been Grey and cold. That kind of Grey and cold that soaks right down into the bones. We did get a bit of rain over the weekend, but no snow.

Have a great day.

11/26/09

Happy Thanksgiving


Wishing all my American friends and family a very

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/19/09

Citrus Yellow Bayerische Socks

These would have been done yesterday if I hadn't messed up the toe decreases 3 times and had to start it over-3 times. I finally shoved it out of site and went to bed. This morning I gave it a fresh start and it went just fine so I just must have been over tired.

Citrus Yellow Bayerische Socks



Pattern: Bayerische by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino Wool Sock Yarn
Color: Citrus
Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 1.
Size: Ladies Medium (9 to 10 inch foot)
Cast on: July 23, 2009
Bound off: November 19, 2009

Comments: As one of my friends said to me, finishing these socks gives me braggin' rights. This was a very challenging pattern. Not for working on when you want to just knit and chat. (In other words, don't take it with you to knit club) I would not recommend it for beginners. I love it though. It's very well written and even though I found myself making stupid mistakes and frogging way too often, I enjoyed knitting it. I definitely have a passion for twisted cabled traveling stitch knitting.

Someone asked me "Why yellow?" I don't really know. I don't wear yellow as a rule. I love the bright color of this one, though it is very hard to photograph.

Changes I made in this pattern. I knit the toe the way I like. The pattern has a shorter toe. I wanted it a little longer. That's about it.

Close up of center front/back stitch pattern


Close up of the side pattern.


I'm looking forward to wearing these. Especially now that we have snow on the ground.

Have a great day.

11/17/09

Today is the Day! WOOT!

It's Star Trek day! Hurray!!!!!!


Well, now you know what I'll be doin' this afternoon. Visiting my favorite DVD attainment center. Yes!

Yesterday I worked on the Bayerische sock. Well, you know that cos I posted about it. Spent about 4 hours on it before my blog post, only to discover I'd seriously screwed up the stitch pattern and had to frog the whole 4 hours worth. I had put chart 2 where chart 1 was supposed to be, and chart 1 where chart 2 should be. Talk about frustrating! I took a Rum break after that. Then I cooked dinner, ate dinner, and felt a little better about things. I reknit that 4 hours worth after dinner, this time in 3 hours and I'm now back to 1.5 repeats before the toe. With any luck, I'll get that 1.5 repeats done today.

I have Rathdrum Knitalong group today. I'll take Bayerische with me. Don't know how much I'll be able to knit on it, but at least I'll have it with me.

Have a good day.

11/16/09

One More Day

Just one day left until I can get my Star Trek Movie dvd. Yes!

On Friday we got just over 2 inches of fresh new snow. It was very pretty watching it come down. But then it stayed for awhile. It's melting away today.

Had a nice weekend. On Saturday I taught my netted ornament beading class. I spent the morning trying to get the hand out I made to print. Took some help from Sweet Hubby to get it working. Turns out, the wire cube shelving set I installed in the sun room next to the printer was blocking the signal to the wireless network. He moved the equipment to the other side of the cubes and everything started working again. I had three students who were so easy to teach I felt guilty taking their money. I've never had a whole class be that smart. There's usually always at least one person who has a hard time getting it. All I had to do was hand them their hand outs. It was a rare treat.

I did get a new ornament cover finished during the class. However, I decided to leave it at the shop for a few days. I'll get it back later this week and take pics then.

On Sunday I relaxed. I was home alone because Doug was gone all day. He and Sarah went skiing up at Lookout Pass Ski Resort. (Yes. There's enough snow up there.) I mostly knitted on the Bayerische sock. It took me way longer to knit the gusset than I expected. I'm making progress though. I'm only 1.5 pattern repeats away from starting the toe.

While I knitted I had a Star Trek TOS marathon. I really enjoyed it too. I'm doing another today.



In fact, Khan is at this moment giving Captain Kirk a difficult time (Episode: Space Seed). He's taken over the Enterprise and shut down life support. Kirk is gasping his last breaths into the captains log. God, I love this show.

Have a great day.

11/13/09

A Well Turned Heel

The title says it all.


It is snowing out. Lookout Pass Ski Resort opened today.

Four days left.

That is all.

Have a nice evening.

11/12/09

WIP Wednesday 11/12/2009

I haven't blogged much because I haven't had much to say. Not that life isn't busy, but most of it hasn't been blog worthy stuff. I've not been knitting and beading as much as I'd like since the wedding. However, that is going to change. I'm rearranging my life a bit to make more time for the crafty stuff.

So, here's something I haven't done in awhile. WIP Wednesday.


I'm actually making progress on the second Bayerische sock. I'm 6 rows away from the heel flap. I've been buckling down and really putting work into it because if I want to get any of my planned Christmas knitting done, I need the needles this sock is on. Gotta get it done before Thanksgiving.

Last weekend my Sweet Hubby got me new computer toys. First, a new mouse. It's wireless, and best of all, it's purple!


I really like having a wireless mouse. I don't get my legs tangled up in a cord anymore.

I also got a black Passport drive for backing up my laptop hard drive.

I can't believe something so small holds 500 gigabytes. It fits in the palm of my hand! I can't believe it was only $129 at Best Buy either. I remember the time I upgraded my desk top 386 to a 128 megabyte hard drive and it cost me $600! Those were the days, huh?

I've got a lot of pdf knitting and beading patterns on my drive (literally hundreds), plus all my photographs. Recently a friend of mine lost her hard drive, and all her photos going back several years. This scared the beejeebers out of me. I need to keep my hard drive backed up. It's 7 years old. It's days are probably numbered. I backed up my drive and I'm feeling much better about it now. I will back up every week, like I used to do.

If you look up at the top at my little ticker, you'll see there's only 5 days left until the new Star Trek movie is out on DVD. I am SO excited, I can hardly wait. In the meantime, I'm listening to the sound track.

Have a great day.

11/3/09

The Theme Today is Blue

I must be in a blue mood. Not blue as in sad, but blue as in color. I find myself leaning toward it when choosing colors to make things of late.

I finished a new beaded ornament cover in pastel blue, silver, and white.


The pattern is by Deb Moffett Hall and it's called Deco Dangle Ornament. I had to make a bit of an adjustment. The pattern calls for 5-hole spacer beads that are quite a bit narrower than the ones I could find around here. I had to remove 1 pattern repeat so I have 7 instead of 8. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm planning on giving this to my son-in-laws mother for Christmas. She is always seeking to increase the size of her Christmas ornament collection. I aim to help her.

I have finished another pair of bootees using the Seamless Circular Bootees pattern, making the change of 2x2 rib for the cuff instead of stockinette stitch.


The yarn is a vintage fingering weight white acrylic Pompadour with a blue thread in it. I used a plain blue acrylic for the i-cord ties.


The next Knitwits meeting is tomorrow. Here are all five pairs I have for turning in.


Call my biased, but I think they are so darn cute!

I am going to stop the bootee making now and go on to something new. I've cast on for a lace shrug.


Knitwits has orders for dozens and dozens of them. The assisted living centers around the area like them for their residents. I've had this cotton blend boucle'/slub yarn in my stash for about 25 years. Someone gave it to me. At that time, it was an old yarn. It's in great shape though. (I take good care of my yarns.) It's knitting up very pretty. There's actually a pale blue thread mixed in with the white and grey. It doesn't show in the picture though.

This week we are having nice weather. The sun is shining and the temps are in the 50's. Much better than snow, that's for sure.

We had a really nice little vacation on Halloween. We took off with brother-in-law Dan, his wife Sue, and son Nate and visited our favorite hot springs resort. We even took costumes with us and went to the Halloween party held by the resort in their bar. I had a lot of fun. There were some really clever costumes for the contest. I didn't enter the contest cos my costume was, I thought, really lame. Originally I wasn't going to bother with a costume. But sweet hubby and Ruth talked me into it.

As we were leaving town we stopped at a store that had Halloween costume supplies. I bought a purple wig. That was it. I wore that and my purple suede coat with the Mongolian lambs wool trim on the cuffs, collar, and hem, and a pair of blue jeans. If anyone asked what I was I said "Purple People Eater", or "Purple Whore" depending on how much I'd had to drink when I got asked the question. I guess it must have been a hit cos I got lots of compliments. Ha ha! Anyway, we had a good time and that's what's important.

Have a great day.