Can't I get anything done?

Oh my, 6 months and no blogging. Horrible just, horrible. We did have a busy end of the school year and a summer that just flew by, but 6 months. OUCH! I've been working on very few projects. Nothing seems to hold my interest in knitting. I think I may start on some slippers for the kids at Christmas, but won't completely guarantee it will happen.

This is the yarn I can 't seem to figure out a pattern for. It's sock yarn, but I just don't want to knit socks out of it. I like the colorway and the self striping of the yarn. No single pattern is calling to me. I did the above with at cast-on of 38 on my favorite size 6 needles. Super easy pattern of k1, *yo, k2tog* 8 times, k4, *ssk, yo*, 8 times, k1. But I didn't like the lie of the end, so I ripped it out. I may start this over again, but stockinette the first 2 rows and then start with the pattern again.

I am working on a sweater for myself, but it is taking me a while to work on it. I am modifying it somewhat. This is the pattern, http://mamallamaknits.com/cardi4.pdf. It is a cropped cardigan, but I want to make it full length. This is the short version. Now imagine mine with a long torso and sleeves. Plus it will be blue.

Now I need to get working on something and actually finish it. I'm so tired of starting things, ripping them out and starting again. I need some closure.

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!)

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.

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!

How many "Our Fathers" and "Hail Marys" do I owe for not blogging?

Oooooooooooooooooohhhhh, I've been so bad about not blogging. Nothing like going 3 months without putting some info on what I've been knitting.

Well, I've given up on the Skinny Scarf. It was just too much for me to comprehend doing. So now my sister is getting a skinny garter stitched scarf. I love the look of the Skinny Scarf, but I'm just not into 400 stitches per row.

But I've done some projects on the side. I knitted the kids some great lounge around socks out of Sugar and Spice yarn. All cotton, super comfy and very bright, lime green. I used a great toe-up pattern by Amy Swenson. The directions were fairly easy and now I can make toe up socks without looking at a pattern, unless I want a fancy stitch. I also had to get a quick scarf out to my friend Jodi's little girl and some mittens for her son. I had never made mittens before, but they were so easy with the pattern I found. I think that I may make some for myself. Jodi's daughter got a pair of the toe-up socks too, I had made them for Audrey, but they were too small for her and pink so Miller couldn't wear them.

In January I will start on my first prayer shawl. My church is doing them for the Annual conference of our denomination. I have to knit 2, but the pattern is super easy and quite relaxing, that I don't think it will take me much time to do it.

I'll post a picture of the kids in their lime green socks. My New Year's resolution is to be better about my blogging. Maybe I'll add more than just knitting to my blog.