Sorry....

....I've been busy! Not doing anything of note, just busy! My parents went to Mexico this past week and we've been watching their two dogs. Add in our rather rambuncious dog and you've got a full house. They come home today, so my house will return to some sort of normalcy soon.

And my parents little dog (a lhasa apso) has been on a rather distructive bent - and apparently he has it in for all of my crafts. If we leave him (and the other dogs) alone for more than an hour - he needs to destroy something.

First it was a sippy cup - he completely shredded the lid and upper half. No big deal - the kids are mostly done with sippy cups. Then he went after some of my rubber stamps - specifically a large Stampin Up wheel. The wheel was called "Rough Texture" so a few extra bite marks hasn't really impaired it's ability to be used. Then yesterday he chewed up one of my size 4 DPN's. I have two sets - but now each set is down to 4 needles (usually you have 5). That was the last straw. I have two projects on the needles using size 4 DPN's. Grump! And last time he was staying with us, he destroyed a size 7 DPN!

So what have I been working on you ask? Let me give you the run down:

• A pair of gloves for DH. I found a fabulous cashmere sweater at the thrift store a few weeks ago. It's light fingering weight. I got about 2300 yards out of the sweater, but to make anything, I'm holding the yarn double. These gloves are a pattern of my own making - not complicated if you've ever knit gloves before. (And yes - I made him a pair of flip top mittens for Christmas - but this cashmere is fabulous!!)
• A quickie scarf for DD's pre-school teacher. She made a comment about wanting a purple scarf the other day - so I made a quick one using stash yarn. Here is the pattern I used.
• More mittens for my friend Amy (that is until the dog ate one of the needles....grrr.)
• A Honeycomb vest for myself. I'm also using the recycled cashmere for this one. It's a lovely grayish camel color and so soft. I actually completed a test swatch last night. I *know* - I knit a swatch - I never do that!!
• A pair of Charade socks in a yarn that Kate gave me. This pattern is really getting me down - it's taking FOREVER!! Usually I can knit up socks fairly quickly, but this pattern is just taking forever. The yarn is from Treehouse - Melody. I like it OK, but it's a touch rough on the hands. Add to that the size 1 needles and you have a frustrated sock knitter. But I promised myself that I can only have one pair of scoks on the needles at a time. So I either have to frog what I have knit so far, or just forge ahead and keep going. I'm not committed either way yet.
• I finished my Clapotis. It's OK - but I really need to block it. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it seemed like the "in" thing to knit. (Apparently I'm a lemming.)

And tonight I'm going to Archivers for Scrapmania. I'm hoping to work on a few layouts and alter some mini mail boxes from Target (ala these). I want to give the mailboxes to DD's and DS's teachers for Valentines day.

Monday we leave for a quick 2-night mini-vacation at Wisconsin Dells. The kids are so excited they can hardly stand it. We opted for a room with a full kitchen so I can bring all of our meals. I figure the extra $50 we spent for the room will be easily saved by cooking our own meals. Not to mention MUCH healthier. But it does make the planning much more difficult.

That's all for now......hopefully I will have a computer that talks to my camera next week. Then I'll start haring more pictures. And I apologize in advance for all my spelling errors. Spell check doesn't want to work on Blogger this morning!

Knit on!

Update on 2009 Goals

I've decided that I needed to post a quick update on my 2009 goals. I may just add something to my sidebar to keep track of things.

First - I gave blood on Dec 31. While doing so, I asked if they kept a "list" of donors for specific blood types if they were in need of a specific one. I was told that they need EVERYTHING right now. But, since I'm a more rare blood type, there are different ways that I can donate so they can make better use of my blood. I've decided to do a "Double Red" donation next time (Feb 25th for those keeping track!) A Double Red donation is similar to a regular whole blood donation, but they only take the red blood cells. They return the plasma and saline to you so you leave with the same blood volume that you came in with. However, with this method, they take out double the amount of red blood cells. Thus the name Double Red!! This will affect my future donations, because you can only do a double red donation every 16 weeks. But it's similar to making a double donation - so I should still be able to donate 6 times in the year - thus meeting my goal!


Second - I knit up my first hat/mitten set for Amy. She was thrilled with them. The hat was a basic hat pattern that I just kind of made up, but here is the mitten pattern I used. After discussing it with Amy, I decided to concentrate on mittens - she has a greater need for those. And since this pattern does not have a left/right mitten, I can just knit a bunch of them in the same yarn. That way, if one gets lost, there is another to take it's place!

And for a quick picture! These are the crochet trimmed bobby socks I made for the little girls for Christmas (aged 2-4). They were a hit!!



Knit on!

Cute, Cute, Cute

Starving Artistamps are releasing some fun new stamps for Valentines Day. How cute are these? Make sure you head over to their blog to enter for a chance to win!!



And in other news.......a new pair of socks are on the needles! I got a set of the KnitPicks sock DPN's from my mom for Christmas. Since they are $35 and you get free shipping if you spend $50, I gave her a few ideas of "other" things to get me. She got me ALL of my suggestions!! Included in the list is the wonderful Imagination sock yarn. These socks are using the "Looking Glass" colorway. They are so pretty I can hardly knit - I just keep staring at them in amazement!

I'm using the Spring Forward pattern from Knitty. And I'm actually using size 1 needles. Blech. I probably should have used a size 1 1/2, but since the lace pattern has quite a bit of stretch, they will fit fine.

I have another set of Imagination yarn in Frog Prince, and 2 kinds of Essential yarn, Meadow Multi and Lily Pad multi. I'll have warm feet all winter!

Knit on!