Just Rambling

Kevin's mittens are done. He seems to like them. Now he wants me to knit him a cowl. The weather has been so cold here, especially the wind. He said that a scarf is too long but something to pull up around his neck would be perfect. I'll get it started as soon as I get some Christmas cookies and gifts made.

I think it is kind of funny that now he wants me to knit him things. He used to make fun of it, but he now is reaping the benefits of my needles.

Kolby is staying with us and is wearing his sub socks every night. He says they are the warmest socks to lounge around in. The other day I purposely dug my own knitted socks from the laundry to make my toes warm up.

I'm subbing tomorrow so hopefully I can get a start on Kevin's cowl. But with the weather, we may not have school. Hmmm, to make money or cookies. I'm not quite sure what I which I want to do.

A Month Gone And No Blogging

Shame, shame on me. The whole month of November came and went with not a single blog update from me. But a very productive knitting month for me. I finished Kolby's monster green sub socks! He really liked them.

I made Calorimetry for Malorie and myself. It's a great head band that really does keep your ears warm and your hair up! This only took about 2 days to do. Super easy, with old stash to be used.

I took Kevin to the yarn store on Saturday and have started making him some convertible mittens. I'm just taking a plain old mitten pattern and rearranging it to a convertible mitten pattern. I made Kevin pick the yarn. He was really surprised at all he had to choose from. (Again another male who has no idea how much yarn there is out there!) The really good thing was it was a sale day at the store and I got 10% off. WooHoo!!!

I finished baby booties and a pair of mittens for the Bazaar at church. No one purchased them, so I'm going to donate them to a local charity who needs mittens for kids this winter.

Also on the yarn front, Malorie used yarn to make the solar system. She did so well with her work she got an A+ on it. It was very cute and portrayed the planets fairly accurately. (We went through a lot of my left overs.)

Hopefully I'll get more blogging done for this month. We are going to Colorado after Christmas so maybe I'll get some massive knitting done then.

Progress on the Socks and Malorie to the LYS

I'm taking Malorie to a beginning knitting class today. She has expressed an interest in learning to knit, but I have a hard time teaching it. So when I got the LYS flier for classes last week and the class was being offered, I jumped on it. I'm going to go with her. I'm trying to spend time with just her. It gets hard to do, but I'm working on it.

I have one of Kolby's "submarine" socks done. I use the submarine term because these are the absolutely longest socks I've knitted and it looks like a green sub. I'm doing a little bit of other knitting right now. I need to take a break from the socks and church is getting ready for its Fall Bazaar that raises money for mission groups. I figured I could knit up some booties, a scarf and maybe a few dishcloths. This knitting will get rid of the Red Heart yarn my neighbor's mother gave me. Plus I'll get away from the socks long enough to appreciate them again when I knit on them again.

I've been knitting when I'm subbing or watching Miller's soccer games, but I've been up to a little sewing too. Miller wanted to be Yoda for Halloween and Jodi's nephew need a donut costume so the machine has been out and roaring to life again.

Well it's off to the LYS with Malorie. I'll take pix to show you how she does.

Why are people amazed by knitting?

I've started Kolby's sock request. I went to the LYS to get some sock yarn that was blue and yellow and couldn't find any. So.., I called Kolby. They're going to be his socks, so he should choose the yarn. Well, he drove up to the store came inside and was a little astounded by how much yarn there was to choose from. He decided on an electric green. It's not neon, but it's very vibrant.

I've been taking these socks everywhere. I want to get them done, but I'm still working on the toe of the first sock. This is not good since I doing toe-up socks! His size 12 feet are a little bigger than my kids, so I wasn't quite prepared to do so many wrap and turns.

Sorry for that detour into my wrap and turn obsession, anyway people seem amazed that I knit. On Sunday I took my knitting to the girl's volleyball games to do between long waits for each game. I had three people amazed that I knit and that they remembered their grandma doing it. (WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK ONLY OLD LADIES KNIT?) Then on Monday I was at my women's league volleyball game and took out my knitting to work for the hour long wait for our next games. Again more people were amazed that I knit. I think so were surprised that I did any craft work at all. Then when I told the recreation tech who was in charge of the volleyball games that night that I blog about my knitting I thought he was going to laugh himself into a heart attack. He couldn't believe that I knitted, but also that I blogged about it. Oh, if he even Googled knitting blogs he would be severely in shock on the amount of them! I mean look at the link about 790,000 hits from Google!!! That's not even taking into effect the people who blog about their knitting but it's not their primary subject!

Well I'm off to sub this afternoon and I'll take my socks with me. The kids think it's a hoot to see me work with all those needles and it gives me something to do while they are in music class!

Baby Sweater Down, Socks To Go

I finished baby Jentri's sweater and booties. The pattern is Helena from Knitty. I did change it a bit. The pattern called for 6 repeats of the arrow pattern, but after about 3 repeats are started thinking (which is a scary thing for me to do) the sweater would be way too long for Jentri. Her momma isn't the tallest person in the world. If she gets any height, it's gonna have to come from daddy!

The booties pattern is from Saartje's knits. I had to knit 4 of these little guys. Each time my sizing was off. Finally I knitted two that actually were close in size. It drives me crazy how my gauge can switch from one size to another depending on the day that I'm knitting.

I used plain ol' Peaches and Cream yarn for both. I love this colorway and it seems so perfect for a baby. The best part about the yarn is that it is cotton which is a great fiber to have with little ones. It's soft, durable and is easy to wash.

Now I've got to get started on my Christmas knitting. Socks, hats and hairbands. These things should go pretty easy. I've got to do stripes on the socks, so I'll be adding something new to my abilities. Last night I was looking for the booties pattern and found a headband pattern that I think the girls will like. We are going skiing at Christmas time, so I figured this would be a great stocking stuffer for the girls. I may even make one for me.

I'm seeing red, I'm seeing red!! Help!

I need to stay knitting on my baby items, but the tomatoes keep coming. Kevin's grandparents have been sending us tomatoes. I not complaining too much, but 3 Wal-Mart size bags every 4 days is a little overboard. I've made salsa, Italian seasoned tomatoes and even just canned tomatoes. I'm kinda getting sick of the color of red. I know that it will be great in February when I want to make some spaghetti sauce and I can go to the pantry and pull out a can of tomatoes. I'm just over tomatoed! (I wonder if the New England Journal of Medicine has ever done a case study? If not, do you think they would pay me to show the side effects of tomato processing at home?)

See all the RED. Wouldn't you be a little sick of the color after 4 hours of canning?

School starts a week from yesterday and I can honestly say I think I'm ready for it. Granted Miller will be in Kindergarten all day and this will be the first time in 9 years that I haven't had a kid home during the school year. I plan on substitute teaching some more this year, which benefits my knitting. I can always knit when the kids are at recess, lunch, PE or Music. When I went to enroll Audrey and Miller, the principal of the 2nd-3rd grade school asked me if I had all my sub paperwork in. When I said yes he snatched me to sub on the 1st Friday of the school year. I think I 'll start on my nephew's socks for my subbing project. Socks are so easy to take places to knit and it amazes people that you use 4 needles. It kind of looks like a torture device. (Sometimes I think it is!)

Shawl, socks, baby stuff and kids

Shawn's prayer shawl is done. It didn't take too long, but I just had a hard time getting into the groove about doing it. I used a pattern from Jennifer Worick's book Getting Started Knitting. I had done it earlier when I was working on prayer shawls for church. This one turned out much better than the first. I was more confident when I clipped the stitches and adding fringe helped give it a more complete look. I packed it up and will send it first thing in the morning.

I'm going to continue on Jentri's stuff now. Hopefully, I'll get it done before she turns 15! Then I'm going to get started on my nephew's Christmas stuff. My oldest nephew saw a pair of Miller's socks and now he wants some. Who would think that a 17-year-old would want something like that. He even put in a color request.

I thought I'd add a pix of the kids. I took this a couple days after Malorie got back from camp. She had a great time and I think her siblings were definitely ready to see her again. Malorie brought back the stuffed animals Audrey and Miller are holding.

Messenger Bag

I've finished Audrey's messenger bag. I was a little worried that it would be too small, but I was able to fit Kevin's old lap top in it and close it with buttons. So that means it will work for school. Kevin even liked it, which surprised me since he could usually care less about what I knit. It took about 15 T-shirts, 2 buttons and almost 3 weeks to do, but here it is.....

Notice Audrey's sophisticated model stance. She's so into fashion and art that it scares me sometimes. The bag is a little long on the strap, but in her optimism Audrey said it was perfect. And of course little brother has to get into the picture too. Audrey was a little irritated that Miller was in the shot, so I had to upload it. (Being the one who controls the blog is soooo powerful.)

I'm still working on baby items and will try to find another prayer shawl pattern to make for Shawn's rabbi. Tomorrow I go to pick up Malorie from summer camp, so I won't get much knitting done. It's a 4 hour drive there and back.

The Start of July and I'm Off to the Knitting Races

We survived the 4th of July. I ate too much, drank too much, and we did too many fireworks! It was a fun time.

I even finished knitting Audrey's school bag. It's made out of T-Shirts cut into 1 inch strips and knotted together to make one continuous fiber. (Many thanks to my husband, father and nephews in their donations of T-shirts.) I made a pattern and every thing for this bag. I kept track of how many rows I had and what size needles I used (US 15) and how many Bind offs and Cast ons I needed during the making. I am still working on the strap, but that will only take me an hour to finish. (I think I'll do it while I wait for the kids at Junior Golf.)

Here's the preblocking pictures.

I'm not sure on how the bag will block since it's 100% cotton I will really need to stretch it out. And the weight is incredible. I thought using 10 T-shirts wouldn't make it that heavy, but boy is it sturdy fabric. If you can't tell by the shape of the bag it's going to be a messenger bag. I'm not sure if it will be large enough for her school work, but she can use it for other things. I am going to block it tomorrow and then sew it up next week.

I've also worked on some adorable stuff for my friend Kristy's baby girl Jentri Jane Phipps. I've finished one piece but I'm still working on another. By the way Kristy, the items are for Jentri as she gets older about 6+ months. Knitted stuff in the summer is a bummer for babies.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy's 71st birthday
Originally uploaded by heatherunruh

Here's Mom and Dad celebrating Dad's 71st birthday. We had Dad's favorites of chicken fried steak, fried potatoes with gravy, wilted spinach salad, and angel food cake with chocolate whip cream frosting. Everything was delicious and we had a good time.

Rambling About Lots of Nothing

Last week was kind of a difficult week. Our computer went down on Sunday and didn't get back up until yesterday. So it's been tough to check out the blog. I was afraid that Kevin was going to pitch fits because of the computer, but he was very calm about the whole thing. It seems as though he has to check the train boards every hour to make sure he isn't going to be called to work any time soon. Fortunately the Geek Squad was able to save all our pix that were on the hard drive before the Dell Tech Guys had me wipe out the hard drive. I definitely plan on buying a memory stick to back up the computer now!

Meriam ended up having a little boy, Tiger Zevyn Wallace Thompson was born on Tuesday, June 10. He is so cute and has so much black hair. (Meriam says it was the same with Hogan and Jadyn. Now neither of them have black hair.)

I still haven't started working on Audrey's bag yet. I need to get T-shirts and start cutting them into 1 inch strips. Once that is done I'll start knotting the strips together and then I can knit them.

Kevin and I leave for Colorado on Thursday. I am sure I'll figure out something to knit while we are in the car. I actually like to knit in the car. It gives me something to do while I'm singing to the radio and Kevin' driving. Kevin always complains that I never pay attention to him while I read in the car, so knitting at least gives me something while I listen to him and his wonderful sports talk radio.

Baby Kimono Done

My sister is going to have a baby in 3 days. I have really felt the rush on this piece. Everyday the kids have been asking, "How many more days until Aunt Meriam has her baby?" This question kept me on the knitting push. So much that on Thursday I had to take an Aleve, to keep my neck from cramping up. Well, if Meriam is looking she now needs to leave the page. NO PEAKING MERIAM! You'll get to see it in 3 days.

Here's the pictures . . .

The pattern is from Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. I had been looking all over the Internet for something to knit and I came across a knit-a-long with this pattern. So I went to my local library and checked to see if they had the book. Unfortunately they didn't, but the wonderful Inter-library Loan system my library belongs to did. Within a day of asking for it I was called letting me know it was in. This is such a great book. I think I'm going to have to purchase it. I love almost everything they have done in it.

The only change I made in it was buttons instead of ties. I know that you should not do buttons, because of the choking risk, but I am very secure that my buttons will not come off. My 8th grade home-ec teacher made sure in class that our buttons could stay on no matter the amount of tugging on them. The seams required mattress stitching. Usually I just whip stitch the seams, but this time I did the right thing and seamed them according to the pattern. I think if I practiced some more I would be pleased with it, but it'll do.

The yarn was Peaches and Cream 100 % cotton. I've knitted the kids some socks with this type of yarn. I like working with it. When I bought the yarn for the baby's kimono, Wal-Mart had a huge cone of Peaces and Cream that I had to buy. I don't know what I'll do with it, maybe a new bathmat for the downstairs bathroom, or maybe a bunch of washcloths. The yarn will let me know what to do with it when I'm ready.

My next project is inspired by the Mason-Dixon ladies. Audrey wants a messenger bag for school, so I'm going to take old T-shirts and make them into yarn that I can knit up. The book talks about using T-shirts to make a rag rug. (I plan on doing one of these also.) I figured it would make a durable bag that is easily washable and soft. My nephews have tons of shirts they never wear so I'm going to raid them to make my yarn.

1 Pair Down, Baby Items To Go

A pair of socks are done. Miller's socks came out super easy and cute. Fortunately the kids prefer ankle socks so I don't have to knit much leg up. I did the patented toe-up sock with the magic cast-on method. These are the best ways to do socks! Now Miller wants another pair of slippers. This kid loves wearing my knitting creations. Too bad his dad won't pick out something for me to knit him.

I went to the prayer shawl meeting last week and I just can't believe how beautiful the work was. I'm going to add pictures to the blog so the beauty can be admired. I thinking I'm needing to get to work on something for my sister's baby which is due next month. The only thing is they don't find out what the baby is until it's out. (Here's an idea Meriam, find out so I can make something color specific!) So I guess I'll have to go with a green or yellow item. I'm going to check out some sites to figure out what to make. After I do the baby thing, I'll get started on the girls' socks. Audrey had said something about making her a school bag like Malorie's, but I'm not sure if that's really what she wants.

I'm Starting Sock Knitting Up Again

I've started knitting socks again. I don't know if it is because the weather is getting warmer or if I have done such big projects that a little one is kind of nice to do. The other day at Malorie's DARE graduation I found myself pulling my knitting out of my new bag and knitting while listening to the DARE officer and essay winners speak.

On Tuesday the church is having a blessing over all the prayer shawls we made. I'm going to go and check out all the great work everyone in the group did. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to praying for the people who receive my shawls. I'll take pictures and post them to show all the different shawls made.

I've added a link for my family so they can check out the kids' videos I've done of their recent choir performances. I figured it would be a whole lot easier to put them on this page than to make another blog just for them. The video is a little blurry, but you can really hear Malorie belt out her song.

Hallelujah I Finished The Prayer Shawl

I finished it!

Praise the Lord!!!

I've been working on it for about a month, trying to find the right pattern to do. Once I did, I finished it in 2 weeks. Tonight I worked in bated breath. Would dropping stitches do what I wanted it to do? I had heard from the pattern designer, "No pressure on the shawl! It's a fun technique to try. It's so counter-intuitive: Knitting something up only to drop stitches at the end. Are you kidding me? But it's so fun to see things unravel but not come undone. Have fun with it." - Jennifer Worick. That was some what reassuring, but I still was a little worried, but when it came out I was so happy with my results.

Here is the before and after shots. The shawl measured out to 9 inches before dropping the stitches. I had a fairly even gauge for my garter stitch. (This is not always the case.)

And now the full length after shot. It increased between 4 to 5 inches. I really loved the way it came out. I used my iron to give it a quick steam blocking. The unraveled stitches were a little wavy and the steam took care of that. (Pardon my messy work table. I really need to recover it!)

Malorie, who has been sick today, watched me as I finished up the unraveling part. "That looks pretty cool," said the stuffed up, feverish 11-year-old. I consider this a really impressive comment, since she is turning preteen on me and I am getting kind of dorky to her. Tomorrow, I'm going to start work on my new bag. I can already feel the excitement of cutting through fabric and fusing!! I'll post another shot of the shawl once it has blocked and is ready to be modeled.

Only 14 More Inches To Go!!!

That's right, only 14 more inches! Now if I would just pull out my shawl and just finish it. I mean really all it would take is 7 inches in 2 days.

This weekend I knitted on our way to Emporia to check out golf clubs for Malorie. I mean really, a 2 hour drive there and a 2 hour drive back to buy golf clubs for an 11 year-old? Well, my DH wanted to go to this golf shop, he works with the owner, so off we went. I know the trip was to get Malorie clubs, but why did Kevin have to get a new wood? I'm beginning to wonder if the trip wasn't more for him than her. Yet, Malorie has gone out with Kevin the last 2 out of 3 days to the driving range to hit balls.

I couldn't believe it when the author of the pattern, Jennifer Worick, posted a comment on my blog. Wow, I was so surprised. Now I feel pressure to make sure it looks really good. At least my gauge is staying the same throughout the project. I went to her blog and what a fun blog. You can check it out here. I wish I could be as devoted as that to blogging.

Well, I'd best get back to the needles, this project isn't going to get done on its own and I really want my new bag!!!

That's My Plan And I'm Sticking To It!!

Where did the month of March go? I feel horrible for not blogging. I had a lot go on last month, so I guess blogging took a back seat. My knitting didn't fall too far behind. I finished my first prayer shawl and a pair of cargo pants for my friend Jodi's brand new nephew. His Aunt Jodi thought they were super cute, but he had a growth spurt and didn't fit them. I plan on making a pair for my sister's new baby when the baby comes in June. The first prayer shawl that I made was from the pattern Wisp. I did this same pattern for my sister, but this time I kept out the button holes and buttons.

I have started my next prayer shawl, but it is really slow going. It's all garter stitch, so I'm really getting tired of it. I checked out a Knitting book at the Library and found a pattern called Fast Favorite Wrap. It's from the book Getting Started Knitting by Jennifer Worick. The pattern has you work garter stitch for 52 inches then when it's time to bind off you drop so many stitches to create open ladder work. I did a test gauge and it turned out fairly nice, now I just need to finish it by the end of the month.

My incentive for finishing the prayer shawl is making this bag. I figured once I finished the bag, it would be big enough for me to take my knitting with me. (See it all comes back around to knitting!) I bought the material and pattern with an April Fool's Day sale at Hancocks of Paducah. It was 20% off all items. I love this fabric store and get stuff from them often.

I've got my plan and now I just need to stick to it. Fortunately I've been booked to substitute teach during this month, so I'll have some extra time to work on the shawl.

Scarf, Shawl and Mittens oh my!

Finally I have finished Nancy's birthday scarf. It was just 29 days past her birthday, but it is finished. I didn't take a pix of it. I plan on trying to catch Nancy with it on and then post it.

I am working on a prayer shawl for church. Our church is planning on making 20 prayer shawls to take to our district conference. I tried the knit 3, purl 3 pattern for the shawl. It didn't hold my attention for too long. So I decided to knit the Wisp pattern again. I have made a few modifications to the pattern. I'm not adding buttons to it, therefore the need to make a button hole every 5 rows is not necessary. This pattern goes so quickly and I am truly enjoying just thinking and praying for the person who will use it.

I also whipped up some mittens for Miller. He had lost one of his waterproof mittens and his gloves weren't cutting it. The total time for the mittens was about 3 days. It was so easy to do while I was substitute teaching. During recess, I'd whip them out and start knitting on them. They were a great small project to take. I may have to do some socks for my subbing days so I have something small to take instead of my huge prayer shawl.

Audrey's fixation with purple continues

For about the last year and a half I have promised Audrey that I would paint her room. Well, we finally got the paint on the day after Christmas. (DH had a Lowes gift card to spend.) We take her to the paint section, and she tells us she wants a purple room with red polka dots. Just so you know she has green carpet that is really ugly, so I wasn't so sure about purple with red dots on the wall. She was adamant that she have purple walls. She chose a color called Grapalicious. At least we talked her out of the red polka dots.

As you know from my blog I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I just started painting today. My kid has color sense. I was still a little worried about the purple with the green carpet, but I painted the accent wall in the dressing room of her room. I was amazed how well it warmed up the room. It looks great. DH came in and was amazed on how just painting that one wall made such a difference to the room. I should have taken pictures of before and after, but hindsight is always 20/20. Her bedroom has two walls that are mostly windows, so I have decided to do her entire room in the purple. It's a bright room and can handle a strong color. When she gets home from school today she will be so psyched!

Now I just have to paint the bedroom, find fabric for curtains and duvet covers and sew those right up. What have I gotten myself into.

The first blog of the New Year

Okay I am trying to keep my resolution for the New Year. It maybe 6 days into the New Year, but at least I'm blogging! I finally got the kids to pose for their socks picture. It was an adventure trying to find all the socks. Miller and Malorie's were easy to find. I had washed them earlier so I knew where they were. Audrey's not so much. I had to search under her bed and did find it, but was so grossed out that I'm going to have to wash in Clorox tonight with all the germs under that bed. Plus I could only find one, that's why I just had the kids show a single sock.

This sock adventure started out as Audrey wanting a pair of socks. So I decided to make a pair for her. Well my math isn't the greatest and I messed up on the math formula for the Universal Toe-Up pattern. So that pair became Miller's, then I did another pair in a really cute pink and purple, but again I was off on my math. That became Audrey's friend Maceyn's pair. Then I did Malorie's and finally I did Audrey's. I can definitely tell how much more comfortable I became with the pattern by the time I got to my last pair.

I'm still working on my sister's scarf. Slowly but surely I'll get it done!