Monday, July 31, 2006

One Hundred

This is my one hundredth post!

Woo-hoo! When I started this last year, I wasn't sure I would have the discipline to make it to ten posts...cool.

Speaking of cool...my amazing sister-in-law Amy brought me a gift yesterday afternoon when she came over to show me a few beading techniques. It is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. It is the best color ever, Cherry Moon. I love pink, which she, of course, knows. I have big plans to make this into the cutest tank top E.V.E.R.

I'm thinking about Calla from Magknits. It would be a challenge for me, as I don't do well with charted cables. But, I think it would look great, don't you?

Rachel is starting a dishcloth swap...check out the details here.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Gratuitous photos of my boys

Blogger is being a bi-yatch at the moment and won't let me upload anymore of the pictures from the visit up to my mothers. This one, solitary photo of my boys will have to suffice for now. Edited to add: apparently an attitude adjustment has taken place, and it now feels like cooperating with me! I swear, Blogger is a woman, and she gets crazy PMS.

I am seriously considering a different blogging medium and am open to financially responsible suggestions. After all, I cannot sell one of the children on the black market to raise the money for a super-kick ass blog, can I? Although the little one might be worth something due to his cuteness factor and also, the (cute and itty bitty) smallness...the middle one can knit...the biggest one has learned to mow the lawn...hmmm...
Here they are in my mother's pool, just like ours, but a little bit bigger... The Campbelly smallness, with a cat...that cat (Peaches) was craaazzzy and actually sat there purring, while in reach of those two year-old hands!These are, like, the softest feet ever...hardly been walked on. This must increase his black market value, dontcha think? I love these feet. An insane amount. Ask him, I kiss them daily. Hourly, at each and every diaper change and other opportunity. I did the same on the two bigger pair in my house, too, until they get big and stinky (around age 5).
The Campbell Bug, kissing his cousin Ryleigh Roo. They had just completed the Smack. She was done. Apparently (how man-like!) he still wants more.

There is one more that I wanted to post...but Blogger is back to its usual crap. Maybe later...

Every sheepy blankie has a gingham lining


Well, I finally lined the thing. I have had the stuff to do it for weeks now, but just couldn't seem to find the want-to factor to get it done. Today, I decided I had better do it or else I risked having to do it last minute when I hear that Colleen has gone into labor! Procrastination is my middle name, you know.

I decided not to line the entire blanket, leaving instead a border on the backside, which I have to say, looks very pretty. Tied off with pretty grass green satin ribbon. Good choice by me.

Now, I am contemplating making a quick little baby sweater to match. Maybe cream colored, with green sleeves and a sheepy on the front? We'll see.

I have also started over on Connor's socks. They are coming out much more better on smaller needles. (US #2s, instead of #3s). I am just working on the first heel flap using the instructions in Stephanie's book this time. Fun stuff indeed!

PS: KnitPicks now has a superwash worsted weight wool! Ch-ch-check it out!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

365

Today is my first blogiversary!

I should have lovely pictures of my latest project to show for it, but I don't. In fact, the socks that I had started for my middle son, have since been frogged and re-cast on because they were way too big and needed to be made smaller. I should have done a gauge swatch...but I detest gauge swatching.

We had a very nice four days up at my mother's house with family. I will post pictures of that sometime soon. But for now...I had better go get knitting on the socks so I can take a picture of the progress on those.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Etc...

Here is the lining that I have purchased for the back of the Sheep Dreams blanket:

It is a pretty green gingham. Perfect.

The new project: Socks for Connor (he picked out the yarn, he is 9 and comfortable enough with this masculinity to wear a bright pink stripe). These had been started once before but were frogged due to some issue that I cannot even remember now. He wants them ankle length, so I am making them to his specifications.

Yarn: Cheap Lion Brand Magic Stripe Sock Yarn in Spring Brights.

Needles: US #3s bamboo dpns

Pattern: from the ball band, basic top down sock with heel flap/grafted toe.

Connor is learning to knit! (I suspect mostly out of wanting time to have me all to himself!). He is making a stripey scarf out of a hodge podge of yarn, some my cast-offs, some he has bought with his own allowance. He says its for me...


I will wear it proudly when he finishes.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Sheepy Photo Session

The blocked Sheep Dreams baby blanket outgrew my end table that I had been using to photograph it on!


Here is the backside. Sandra asked if I was planning on lining it. As you can see, I will have to as it is quite UGLY on the backside. I am planning a trip to the fabric store tomorrow to choose a fabric to line it with.
The blanket draped over a chair with a ray of morning sun in the camera lens... Folded on the end table where its photo sessions always begin:
And, finally, a close up of some of the cute little sheep.

Project Specifications:

Pattern: Sheep Dreams baby blanket from Knit Baby Blankets! edited by Gwen Steege.

Needles: Addi Turbo US 7, 40"

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the Grass colorway, 8 skeins. The sheep are duplicate stitched on in Berroco Plush in the Crema and Black Out colorways (I used about half a ball of the Crema and about an eighth of a ball of the Black Out).

Finished dimensions: 32" x 34" . The pattern calls for it to end up 26" x 32", which is quite smallish, so I blocked it ruthlessly and it looks great, and is a much better size!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Good God, I'm Done!!

10:12 pm


Blocking on the boys bedroom floor as they are still with their dad until tomorrow evening. I misted it with a nice cold water, soaking it and then pinned it out in the proper dimensions (34" x 32"). It ended up a little larger than the pattern said it would be, but, that makes me happier anyways.

More pictures tomorrow when the lighting is better!

PS: The second time around was the charm for the brownies, they turned out delicious when I broke down and used the timer!

The Sheep's Next Victim



The sheep are advancing along, at the expense of my mental health and getting any sleep.
Have I said that they take f-o-r-e-v-e-r???

It doesn't help that they are also boring. I am trying to make them all a little bit different than each other, smaller, larger, fluffier, skinnier, so that they look like a real flock of sheep, not cookie-cutter perfect. I figure I will finish them today. One and a half more white ones and then my little black sheep,
I'm saving him for last.

Today while I was feverishly stitching sheep, I decided to bake some brownies. I got them all mixed up, poured in the little muffin tins, and in the oven...and then, the freakin' sheep made me forget all about them. Two batches worth!! You would have thought I would have learned from the first set.

You would have thought.



Don't let their pretty chocolateyness fool you...they are as hard as a rock, and quickly going in el garbagio. I will make up another batch as soon as I am done with this entry, because girls, it is That.Time.Of.The.Month. and chocolate is a necessity. Why don't men understand that?? Luckily, I don't have mine around to question the chocolatey logic, or share in the brownies either!


More chocolate... Cooper, totally unimpressed by the Sheep Dreams blanket, and completely unmoved by the brownie carnage in the kitchen.

Monday, July 10, 2006

The Tyranny of Sheep

The sheep are killing me.

They are so b-o-r-i-n-g. I can barely bring myself to keep on with the keeping on. But, as always, I refuse to cast on a new project until this one if finished. Damn knitting monogamy!

I will try to finish these in the next day or so...but I can't guarantee it. Not even the thought of knitting something new will entice me to sprint to the finish line.

Instead, I went to the craft store today and bought supplies to learn how to bead.

Procrastination is my middle name.

My husband left on Thursday for Virginia Beach. He has to go to a special school for his job there for the next 22 weeks. He will be home at the beginning of December. Needless to say, I spent a vast majority of my weekend on the phone with my husband because he was lonely and missing us all. He will drive home next weekend for the weekend to visit us which is a lot of driving--but he is willing to do it so we don't have to be apart for so long at a time.

We have been apart before. When we were first dating, he lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while I was here in Albany for about 14 months. We saw each other about once every six weeks or so, and it was very difficult, but it will be harder now especially with a little one who doesn't understand where he is.

On the upside, there will be lots of time for knitting!

Just no more sheep. At least not for a while...I am sure, like childbirth, there will come a time that I don't remember how horrible this is and I will knit another...it is so freakin' cute after all!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Enter the Sheep


Almost three down...eleven to go, and yes, there will need to be a lining to hide the ugliness on the backside from the duplicate stitches. I'm thinking a plaid flannel or fleece of some kind. I"ll post a picture of the ugly tomorrow if I remember!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy Independence Day!

It's sheepy time!

The actual knitting is done, with yarn to spare...a whole 110 yard skein and about 1/3 of another. This blanket is not very big, but the newborn I am knitting it for is not going to be big either, so I guess it is okay. It needs to be blocked out in the worst way possible, but I want to get the little sheep in their little pastures first, and then block it. I still haven't decided whether or not to sew a lining on the back side, it depends on how neatly I can get the duplicate stitch sheep on it. I'll decide when I am done.