Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Lion Brand Eyelet Yoke Cardigan

This is the sweater that I am making at my sister's request for two little girls as Christmas presents. They are both in Cotton Ease Charcoal and will be embroidered with the a skull with a bow. She wants hip sweaters instead of cutesy.

Here's the sweater. If you click on the picture it will take you to the pattern. It is listed as easy and so far it has been. My only downer is the seed stitch which makes me nuts (K,P,K,P,K,P) but it is a pretty stitch. Fortunately it's not the entire sweater, just the bands:


So far I've done the first 5 rows of seed stitch and 5 rows of stockinette. I've got to do stockinette for quite a while so I'm going to get to work. This is the first sweater I've every done, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Currently on the needles

Today I started knitting House Mittens by Ruth Bendig. I'm only on the fifth row of the cuff but so far so good. These are for me, I need mittens pronto. We've got snow on the ground! Nothing like cold to spur you on with your knitting.

I've also started a bookmark using size 10 crochet thread. Such teeny tiny stitches, I love it.

My next project(s) will be two sweaters to get done in time for Christmas. I will be using the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan from Lion Brand and I'll be duplicate stitching a skull and cross bones motif on the front panel of each as requested by my sister who is giving them as gifts. She wants cool sweaters for the girls. I've found a skull motif with a bow that I think I'll use. I'll run it by the giver of the gifts first.

I picked up 5 books from the library yesterday. Four of them are Debbie Bliss baby and child books. That woman knows how to make some beautiful patterns. One of the books has patterns for adults as well and there's more than one sweater I've fallen in love with in that book. I've got a LOT of baby knitting to do. Just to do it. They are too beautiful to pass on. I just have to decide on which one to do first...and that's the hard part. Maybe I'll put them all in a hat and pull one out. Decisions, decisions.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope it is a joyful one.

We've gotten through another year of turkey deliveries. This one was a bit more stressful than others due to a theft of some of our turkeys and getting rear ended while out delivering others.

We still can't figure out why someone stole 6 turkeys from us, but I hope they bring a lot of joy to the people who ended up with them because they ruined Thanksgiving for 6 other families. As for the girl who rear ended us, I hope your cat is okay and that you have enough sense not to drive with it in your lap in the future. One thing we have learned is that we will not be delivering turkeys next year. Pick-ups only.

I haven't done much crafting. I did cast on and finish about 9 rows of a bookmark yesterday while we were out delivering. I had to do something to relax my mind. The yarn for a sweater I'm making as a Christmas gift is on the way. I know I'm cutting it close, but it is a child's sweater so it shouldn't be too hard to get done.

We are going out to eat, no cooking for me today. I'll probably throw a turkey in the oven tomorrow so we have some around, but I just couldn't do it today. I'm beat, it's been a long 6 days since we started getting turkeys ready for Thanksgiving.

I'm off to get ready for the day.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Knitting in LA

I did some knitting while I was on the plane and in LA. I did Saartje's Bootees, 2 dish cloths and started the Baby Bib from One Skein while on the plan back.

I need to put buttons on the booties and the I-Cord on the bib, but they are very cute in their interim stage.

Here are the baby bootees, I still need to add the buttons and block them:




I used the lime green self-striping Sugar and Cream yarn for the dish cloth which is very cool yarn:


Here is the baby bib sans I-Cord:


I'm missing a picture of the dish cloth I did in the self-striping red, white and blue cotton. My sister can't find it and thinks her cats have made off with it. But then again I may have given it to Shon when she took me to the airport. I can't remember, my mind is a like a sieve some days...just too much going through it.

I picked up a book today at the library on dying your own self-patterned yarns. They even have a watermelon self-striping pattern. I'm definitely going to work towards doing my own. It looks like a lot of fun. Well I've got to get some work done before I can have some fun knitting. So more later.

Monday, November 5, 2007

In LA

Got here around 11pm on Saturday night. I brought 7 dozen eggs with me and chicken. The chicken was frozen and got checked through with the baggage. No problem there. The eggs were in my carry on. No problem last year, but then it turns out that my first flight had a small plane that the larger carry-on's wouldn't fit into so they had to be "valet" checked. I explained that there were eggs in it and to be careful, but that didn't happen. Until I got onto the second flight and attempted to put the carry-on into the overhead did I realize there was a problem.
How did I find out you ask? Because it started leaking egg. I ran back up to the front, got some bags from the crew and cleaned them out. Salvaged about 3 dozen all together. Pissed me off to no end.

The weather here has been a bit overcast. Actually sprinkled a bit today. But I'll take that over the snow that's supposed to come this week in Michigan. Snow...already.

I started Saartje's Booties at the airport during the layover and finished them today. Well I still need to put the buttons on, but all of the ends have been weaved in and are done. I did them in black and white. The bottoms are black and the uppers are white. Now I'm doing the baby bolero from One Skein to match in black. This is at the request of my sister who is going to give them both as baby gifts.

The best part of the trip has been seeing my sister. The second best thing has been going to Joann's and finding the Sugar n Cream Super Size Cotton on sale for $1.99 each and the Sugar n Cream Stripes on sale for $1.99 each. I got five of the self-striping and seven solids in the super size. I a SO happy!!!! I also got a Lion Brand cotton in black. It wasn't on sale, but the difference was more than made up for with the Sugar n Cream sale.

And I picked up some notions that were 30% off. I'll try to get a picture of the booties and bolero. I forgot to bring my digital camera (and a couple of other things).

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Heading out

Taking knitting with me to do on the plane and a couple of books to read. My Sissy is looking forward to buying some yarn and knitting when I get there. I've got to take chicken and eggs with me and other goodies for everyone.

I'll be back on Friday. I'm hoping the weather is fair there. It's been getting cold here. I don't know if I'm looking for a cold, cold winter. Well gotta go finish packing. Maybe I'll get to post some things while I'm there.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Going to see my Sissy tomorrow

Doing a million-kazillion things today in preparation for my trip to Los Angeles to see my little Sissy. She was recently in the hospital and is back home recovering. I was originally going out to help her recover from a hysterectomy because of fibroids, but she had an episode with her MS that preceded that so I'm still heading out.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her and a couple of friends. My main focus will be on getting her back on her feet and working out some other things. I'll be taking knitting with me as I have lay-overs (can't get the cheap tickets without lay-overs, but that's cool) Just have to figure out what knitting. As it is I'm taking about a dozen eggs, heritage garlic, homemade pickles, some locally made mustard and hot dogs for my God-sister Shon and if I get them made today, raspberry jam. I'd better get it made today or it's not happening. I'm hoping the raspberries are still okay. If not, then that's one less thing to do.

Did I mention laundry and packing? Nothing like leaving everything to the last minute...lol Gotta move, lots of things to do.