Slip Stitch Slippers

 Well, I decided to retake the pictures. I have a 16 gig micro card and a Sony Duo Pro adapter so I used the 'new' camera. I'm lovin' it.

I started this pair of slippers some time ago. Finished them last week, mostly because I was not enjoying working on them.

Pattern: Slip-Stitch Slippers by Nailya Plaskey

Size: Adult Large

Yarn: Missing Label
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Light Blue

Yarn: Missing Label

Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: White

Needles: Circular size 5

Started: November 4, 2022
Finished: February 13, 2023

Comments: I did not enjoy knitting this pattern. I would not recommend it for newish knitters.  It's not quite written correctly, making the instructions hard to understand. For instance, it says "Slip knitwise (yarn behind work)". Slipping a stitch knitwise means to put the needle into the stitch on the left needle as if to knit (pointing from front to back) and slip it to the right needle. This action will twist the stitch. That isn't what she wanted though. She wanted the stitch just slipped straight over, which is technically called slip stitch purlwise (putting the needle in from back to front). It confused me a bit. 

This is what the side looks like. You start these at the cuff and work toward the sole.

The language for doing the sole is confusing. When I got to the sole instructions, I was wishing for a picture of what the bottom of the slippers was supposed to look like. It would have cleared up a lot of confusion. So here's one for anyone else who finds themselves in the same situation. It's actually a clever way to create a sole so there are no seams to sew. (All these photos will be in my Ravelry Notebook.)

I should mention, there is a mistake. Where it says "Repeat Rows 40-41 until there are no stitches left besides 11stitches of sole"  It should be 13, not 11, because you need two edge stitches for making the border up the sides of the sole/heel. It should say "Repeat Rows 40-41 until there are 13 sts left. It's easier to understand, and more accurate.

One more thing. I got gauge with the suggested needle size, and these slippers turned out too small for a size "Large". Knitting with the 5's was hard on the hands. Mine hurt because it was just too dense/tight. It would be better with size 6 or 7 needles. The pattern says "Final dimensions: size S (US6-8) and L (US 9-11)." It doesn't give measurements, or whether it's for Ladies, or Men. There is no way this is gonna fit a size 9 woman's foot, which is what I wear, let along a man's size 9. They are pretty stretchy, but not that stretchy. 

Fix all those issues, and it would be much more enjoyable to knit. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

We got whomped with snow last night. A good 6 inches fell. Not what I wanted to see. We've come to that time of year when everyone, including the snow lovers, are tired of it. Tired of the cold and the shoveling and the plowing and the snow blowing. We want spring!

One more thing. Zoey says "Hello". She's keeping warm in her sweater.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Snowy Sunrise

On Friday morning I got up just as the sun was rising. The view out my living room window was stunningly beautiful. The sky had cleared some and the sun was shining on the top of the mountain. I got the camera.

View down the driveway

We got about 8 inches of snow from the storm. The trees looked so pretty.

Something happened on Friday that is indeed rare. A temporary peace truce was formed in the interest of being warm on the fuzzy blanky.

Couch Detente

They were almost touching each other. It's amazing what can happen around here when it's cold and snowy.

I've decided to do the Ravelry Ravellenic Games during the winter Olympics this year. I'd been kicking the idea around in my head. First I was, then I wasn't, then I was, then I wasn't. Yesterday I looked into what the events, and rules, are and decided I will. That's my final decision. I joined Team Yarn Hoars. I'm entering the following events:

WIPs Dancing - finishing the Gansey. (Doesn't matter when I started it or if I'm working on it now. As long as I finish during the Olympics, it qualifies for a medal. Woot!)

Sock Hockey - Don't know if I'll actually get this done in time or not, but I'm gonna try and make those Mukluks for Susie.

Mittens Moguls - Since I'm making fingerless mitts anyway, this gives me an actual goal as to when to finish them.

Nordic Color Work Combined - the Mukluks are fairisle.

Single Skein Speed Skate - the mitts don't use more than a single skein.

Yesterday I prepared. I wound all the necessary skeins of yarn into nice yarn cakes. I wish I would have taken a pic of my set up (why didn't I think of that?). My dining room table edge is most unsuitable for clamping a yarn ball winder and a swift to it. It's curved. So I clamped them to the back of the dining chairs. I had the swift on the top of the back of one chair, set to lean a bit to the right. And the ball winder was on a second chair, clamped upside down to the top. I stood between the two, cranking with one hand, and adjusting the yarn tension with the other. Somehow it worked, wonderfully. I shall do it that way from now on instead of involving the extremely wobbly piano bench in a weird way like I have done in the past. Anyway, needles are gathered and sorted, patterns are printed out, yarn wound and ready. Let the games begin! Cast on is at 8 a.m. February 7th.

After all that ball winding, I sat down and did a bit of bead knitting. I'm teaching another beaded amulet bag class. It started last Monday. It was actually scheduled to start while I was in Michigan, so I had it postponed. I have one student. A very sweet young lady of 14 years. She is catching on very very quickly and was a joy to work with. I'm looking forward to our next session. I needed to knit my little bag up to the point where she is supposed to be at the next class so I can show her the short rowing steps. I like to knit along with the students, if possible.

I am starting to get back into this teaching thing. I've come up with more classes I want to do. The next one I'm planning will be for the Entrelac fingerless mitts pattern, A Rainbow For My Hands. I need to remember to take the model and class info handouts to the shop when I go in Monday.

Today is Superbowl Sunday! We have friends coming over to watch the game with us. It's the only football game we watch. We don't actually like football, hubby and I. But we do like to know who wins at the end of it all. Plus, it's an American tradition. So we patriotically watch the game just like the rest of the country does. I'm serving Nachos and Fahitas for game food. Yum! Besides, it's an excuse for a party. Being a Seattle born native, I will be cheering for the Seahawks, of course.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Sprockets Shawl

As regular readers know, my daughter, Ruth, is an accomplished knitter. I taught her how to knit a few years ago and she took to it like crazy. She clearly has a natural ability for it. Her knitting usually involves thin yarns and small needles. Her most favorite type of knitting is lace, specifically lace shawls. Recently she started creating her own designs. Which brings me to the subject of todays post.

My Ruth wants to be a knitting designer in the worst way. Me being her mother, I want to encourage and help her achieve her goals. So I am devoting this blog post to her newest accomplishment.

My daughter as designed, written, and published one of the most awesome circular lace shawl patterns I've ever seen. She calls it Sprockets.

It features a Steampunk inspired design of gears within gears. You can see it better in this picture she took just after she'd finished blocking it.

She has spent months working on this design. Then she waited weeks while it was being test knit. The pattern is now available for purchase on Ravelry.

It's knit in lace weight yarn, with suggested size 3US needles, from the center out. The finished diameter is 54 inches. The pattern is in PDF format, has 9 pages of charts and written instructions, and comes at a reasonable price of only $6.00.

If you are interested in this pattern, I'd really appreciate it if you'd go take a look in her brand new Ravelry store, and perhaps purchase it.

Link to pattern ---> Sprockets Shawl

If you're not on Ravelry, and want to purchase it, you can email her at:

Please help me help my daughter get her dream going.

One proud mother, that's me.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Pair of Green Mitts

My goodness but it's been a busy week for me. Must be summer. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed about this blog post because it's been so long since I posted and there's so much I wanted to say. Warning, it's gonna be a long one.

The first thing I want to write about is my finished mitts. It's been awhile since I've finished something. It feels good.

Green Fingerless Mitts for Knit Wits

Pattern: Jeffs Mitts by Lorraine Ehrlinger
Size: Mens large

Yarn: Pacific by Cascade Yarns in Dark Army Green
Content: 60% Acrylic, 40% Superwash Merino, Worsted weight

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Cast on: June 1, 2012
Completed: June 22, 2012

Comments: I've done this pattern a couple times before. It's become my go to pattern for plain mens mitts. Admittedly, I did some pattern adjustments on the thumb gusset, but I'm not going to go into them because I just did personal little anal things. The pattern is fine the way it is.

I used the leftover yarn from daughter's February Lady Sweater. I still have enough yarn left to make another pair of mitts. So I will do that.

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Fathers Day was a good day. We took the new car and drove the Selkirk Loop which goes over into Washington, up into Canada, east, then back down into Idaho. It was a beautiful drive! I enjoyed it very much. I took a few pics.

This is along the Kootenay Lake facing north. It's a very beautiful lake surrounded by tall mountains.

Kootenay Lake again, facing southwest. There was something about that tree. I needed a pic of it.

Here's one of a green valley on the south end of the lake, near Creston, BC, Canada. This valley was so unbelievably green. Very soothing to the eyes.

On our way home we stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Ponderay, ID called Sweet Lou's. Never been there before. We were hungry as we were passing through town. We chose it because they were advertising a Fathers Day dinner special. I am so glad we did. I had one of the best meals ever. It was SO good. There were two specials. I had the first one which was a tri-tip steak smothered in bourbon barbecue sauce. It was so tender it melted in my mouth and the flavor was heavenly. The steak was accompanied by some fabulous horseradish mashed potatoes and steamed zucchini. My mouth was so happy while eating that meal.

Ruth and Sweet Hubby had the other special, Salmon. They were raving about how good it was too. Sweet Hubby ordered dessert afterward, Huckleberry Cobbler-with 3 spoons. I could only squeeze in 2 bites, but they were wonderful. The service was very good too. I can't wait for an opportunity to go there again.

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If you are involved with Ravelry, you may have heard the big news about what happened this past week. The United States Olympic Committee sent Casey, the owner, a cease and desist letter over the Ravelympics.

The Ravelympics started in 2008. Participants pick projects to knit/crochet during the Olympic games. Usually something challenging is picked. Then participants work on the project while watching the Olympics on tv. If they accomplish their challenge, Casey gives them a 'medal' which is just an avatar. No one makes any money at this. It's organized by volunteer Ravelry members and it's just a good time and an opportunity to honor our athletes during the games. Kind of like the biggest knitalong in the world (or crochetalong if you will). This year there will be over 7500 participants.

The C&D wouldn't have been that big of a deal except the USOC chose to insult Ravelry's members in the letter.

"We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."

Denigrate?? Disrespectful to our athletes? Uhh..wut???? Ravelry has over 2 million members. We did not take this lying down. It wasn't very long and the subject was all over Facebook, trending on Twitter, and news agencies were picking up the story. In the end, the USOC issued an apology for the insult. However, the C&D still stands. What they really want is for the name to be changed. They claim 'Ravelympics violates their trademark. Casey's lawyer is working on it.

If you want to learn more about this, there's a good article about it here: Ravelympics

I'd been thinking about joining this year but hadn't made up my mind quite yet. The actions of the USOC gave me just the push I needed. I'm ornery that way. So I joined a team and I will be participating in this years Ravelympics, or whatever it will be named. I've joined Team Good Without God. I've chosen a project that will be challenging to me and I think represents the spirit of the games.

Remember when I was making Anne Hanson's Honeybee Stole and the tragic ending to it? Well, I have yarn and I am ready to take this project on again. It will be my Ravelympics challenge. This is the yarn I've chosen for it.

It's a big cone of Jaggerspun Superlamb laceweight. It's way prettier in real life than in that pic. It's a light brown heather with gold in it. Very honeyish, in my opinion.

I've been working every day on the Butterfly shawl. I need to get it done before the Olympics start. That gives me until July 26. I hope to have it done long before then! I've also started another Muppet Skin Shawl in greens for kip knitting.

I did a bit of beading last week too. I worked on the bead embroidery picture that I'm making for sis-in-law Elizabeth. Progress is slow. I will get it done eventually.

Last night we found out how Cable would fare with a coyote. She whupped it's arse and there's not a scratch on her. The coyote realized pretty quickly it was in over it's head and took off. Cable chased it a little bit, then came running back, very proud of herself. I would prefer she not get into these kinds of scuffles, but it's nice to know she can hold her own when there is one. Hopefully all the coyotes know to stay away from this house now.

Well, that's it for now. I hope to post more often this week. We'll see what happens.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Very Sweet Gesture

Last month, when Tommy died, I posted the news in the Sighthound Splendor group on Ravelry. One of the Ravelry members, kerrylinnet, saw my post and asked if she could knit a pair of mittens for charity in Tommy's name. I think that is one of the sweetest things anyone has every asked me. Of course, I said yes. Recently she let me know that she finished them and posted them in her Ravelry notebook. I have her permission to share the picture with y'all here on my blog. Here is the pair of mens sized mittens knit in Tommy's honor and donated to the Global Knit organization.

Thank you so much for this kerrylinnet. You have touched my heart and honored my precious little boy in a beautiful way.

Ravelers are such wonderful people.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Reason Number 5432034847.8 ....

why I love Ravelry:




Someone has already figured out a pattern for Scotty's hat, and it's free! How sweet is that?

Ravelers. I love them.

Have a great day.

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Why I Love Ravelry

Stumbled across this Youtube video this morning. It says it all for me.




Almost done with the fair entries. I'll finish them up today and enter them tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Virus Nasties and Ravelry Swag

Yesterday, after posting on here, I went in search of a clover lace stitch pattern, just to see what might be out there. I clicked on a link that was supposed to be an enlarged photo of just such a pattern. Instead of getting a picture, a virus/spyware/spam program downloaded and installed on my poor little laptop. It happened so fast it took a bit for me to realize just exactly what had taken place.

My first clue was a warning from Google telling me some program was trying to change my default search tool (which is supposed to be Google) to some place called Virus Heat. Not good!

Wow! Did it make a mess of my laptop! It was a program that claimed to protect my computer from viruses/spamware/spyware/worms. It kept popping up windows telling me it had detected something and that I needed to download a host of different programs to get rid of the detected nasties (some of these programs required a purchase-what a scam!).

I'm not that stupid. I knew exactly what nasty it detected. Itself!

My laptop did not have any actual security protection software on it. I have asked Sweet Hubby many times what I should have for just that purpose, but he always says "Oh, you don't need anything. The firewall I set up will protect you."

HA!!!

I shouldn't have believed him.

So, now my laptop was bogged down, and fast heading for a running to a halt situation. I can't get the fake virus warning pop ups to stop (I'm clicking x's right and left!), I can't get the fake security software to uninstall, and I'm starting to panic. So I did what I had to.

I Googled for a free security program to download and install asap! Microsoft has one called Windows Defender. I downloaded it right away, installed it, and started a scan. It found 4 programs that were bad. Hmmm...they all had names with Virusheat in them. Isn't that interesting? Defender was able to completely remove it all, and now my computer is running really fast again.

Don't have any security program running on your computer? GET ONE! I highly recommend Windows Defender.

After I spent 2 hours fixing my computer, my daughter went to the mailbox and found a package for me. YES! It was my Ravelry Swag!

Me in my Swag

Last week the Ravelry store officially opened so I ordered a shirt. It's a deep grey. The words say "A daily dose of fiber" with pics of a sheep (wool), bunny (angora), goat (cashmere), and alpaca. I love my shirt.

Have a great day.

Ravelry and Some Cool Pics

Yesterday I got nothing done during the day-well, that's not completely true. I did take an hour break to get the boys nails trimmed at the groomers. Other than that, I was on the computer for the whole day. No knitting, no beading, I didn't even get out of my jammies until after 2pm-when daughter Ruth pointed out I was still in my jammies. Sweet Hubby was an hour late getting home from work and I hadn't even started dinner yet. Why you may ask?

I GOT MY RAVELRY INVITE!!!!!!!! Hurray!!!!!!!

What an absolutely cool place for knitters! I found out 132 other members are working on the Monkey sock. How cool is that? Suddenly, we who live in rural areas are no longer isolated and alone. There's tons of yarn info, pattern info, book info, tool info, gadget info. There are forum groups for like minded knitters to join (I joined two. Idaho Knitters and the SAM4KAL group). You can link your blog, and your flickr album. There's email too. You can make a journal of all your projects, finished or not. Make a catalogue of your books, patterns, and yarn stash. All in all, a wonderful wonderful place on the web. I am SO glad to be a member, and I hope the creators get filthy rich from it.

I spent quite a bit of time filling out my own profile and notebook info. I've still got a long ways to go to getting it done, but I wanted to look around and find out just what Ravelry is all about. That's when I got excited about it. I think this will change the knitting industry-the way patterns and yarns are marketed and sold. And I think it will benefit knitters more than anyone else. I also see it being a great tool for the local yarn shop. I would have loved having this kind of resource for my shop.

They're still in beta, so you have to ask for an invite. They should be going public soon though. If you haven't asked for your invite, I recommend you do. It took 2 months for mine to come through, but it was worth the wait. Go to Ravelry.

After hubby got home, and I was 'forced' to turn off my laptop and join the world of the living, I made dinner. After dinner I got going on my Monkey sock. Finding out 132 other people are knitting it at the same time as me was very inspiring. I worked until I finished the leg. This morning I started the heel flap. I'm on fire now!

And now, for the pictures. Let me preface this by saying that two nights earlier this week something ate the lower branches of our trees, and upper branches of a couple of our bushes during the night. Something that can reach up 8 feet. I know what that is, but on to the story.

Last night, around 9:00pm, Tommy started acting agitated. He kept looking out the living room window and running around in circles. He didn't bark, but clearly, he was upset about something. The lights were on outside, but we couldn't see anything out there.

A little later the boys wanted outside, I thought to pee. I opened the door and all the motion sensor lights were on. Tommy shot past me. He ran all the way down the hill, past the satellite dish, then circled back up the hill barking his little head off all the way. I grabbed a big flashlight, but there was nothing there. So, after barking a bit more and hopping up and down, he ran into the house. Morgan peed, then strolled back into the house. It was then that I saw it. A moose, standing just off the lawn by the garden-opposite direction of Tommy's little bark fest. I quickly got in the house and shut the door. Best if the boys don't see that.

Who was it that called Italian Greyhounds SIGHT hounds??? Neither of them saw a thing. Obviously, they'd heard and smelled something though.

About 15 minutes later they wanted out again. Well, I'm not taking chances. Moose can make an Iggy into a flat pancake with one stomp. So I grabbed the flashlight and squeezed out the door, leaving the dogs inside for a bit to check things out. No motion lights were on. I waved my arm to turn the one on nearest me, then clicked on the flashlight just as a small female moose came charging up the hill straight for the Yellow Twig Dogwood bush. Whoa! I ain't letting my dogs out!

I squeezed back into the house and told Sweet Hubby and Ruth about it. Then I grabbed my camera. We all squeezed back out the door to watch the mayhem. This is the pic I got. I am surprised I was able to get anything at all, cos I could not see the moose in the little video screen used to set up the pic. But the flash went off, and I had guessed pretty good.

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Then hubby told me to point my camera toward the satellite dish and take a pic. I did-with flash of course. There was a pair of eyes down there. A second moose!



Seconds later a young male came charging up the hill to join the first in the destruction of the Yellow Twig Dogwood. We think they are siblings. Small for moose, but big as animals go. Definitely larger than a horse. I stepped down onto the lawn to take this pic. They didn't like it at all and started moving toward me, which scared me so I hightailed it back up the steps. You don't mess with Moose! They took off down the hill after that.



You'll notice the top of that Dogwood has been stripped bare of leaves. That was a much bigger moose that had visited during the night over the weekend. It's what ate everything 8 feet high. I noticed my baby apple has been nibbled on a bit. Yikes! It must be August. This is the month of the moose and deer invasions. The woods are dry and crackly. Our green yard suddenly looks like a smörgåsbord of delightful juicy tasty tidbits. The battle begins.

I have bead group today.

Have a great day.