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!

Ask and You Shall Receive

Pictures of the Dragon Scarf. It was a complete pain to knit, but my son loves it.....so it was worth it!!

And I'll have more pictures to share soon!

Resolutions

I try not to make New Years resolutions. I never seem to stick to them and therefore they seem a bit pointless to me. But I decided I would try again this year. I'm trying NOT to make the standard "Lose weight" or "Exercise more" type resolution - I *know* I won't do it, so I'm not going to pretend.

I decided that this was the year I would try and make a difference in the world. Very lofty goal. Now, I know that I can't do much about all the troubles in the world, but I could do my best to try and help where I can. Having said that......here I go:

1. Volunteer more. I used to be a back-up Meals-on-Wheels driver, but once the kids came, it got hard to coordinate a schedule. I'm going to call and get back on the substitute driver list.

2. Knit for charity. I already participate in a "Odd-Ball" charity blanket drive. We knit baby blankets for an area hospital. This year, I plan on knitting hats and mittens: One of the Ravelry gals I knit with teaches 1st grade at a local school. It's a relatively low-income area and she said that many of her students come to school without hats or mittens. In Minnesota, it's just too cold on most winter days not to have a pair of mittens and a hat. My resolution is to knit 2 hat/mitten sets per month. I hope to keep a few area children a little warmer this winter.

3. Donate Blood. It's fast, easy, and almost anyone can do it. I actually just scheduled my first appointment to give blood. I'll be heading to a local blood bank this Wednesday at 9:40 to donate my first pint. (I have a moderately rare blood type so I feel like this is a small way I can give back to my community.) The max I can donate is once every 8 weeks, so this first visit counts for my resolution! My goal is to donate 6 times this year.

That's it. Nothing earth shattering, but these are all easy things I can do to try and make the world a better place. What about you, any New Years resolutions?

Stick a fork in me.....

....I'm done!

Barring any unforeseen knitting emergencies, I'm done with my Christmas knitting. I finished hubby's convertible gloves/mittens this morning. They had a lovely soak and are now drying. (And just an FYI - Reynolds Lopi is *nasty* to knit with. It's a nice bulky weight, but scratchy as can be. It did soften up with a soak, but it's still scratchy.)

And now that I'm done - I don't really even have the desire to knit. I plan on finishing my Jaywalker socks. They are a super bright yellow and orange stripe - super cute. But for the next day or two, I don't think I'll be knitting.

Now on to the wrapping!

Note to self.....

....NEVER piss off the knitting gods!

I got so bold as to think that my Christmas knitting was done (or nearly anyway.) In the last 3 days - 5 more items have been added to the list. Has anyone noticed that it's the 19th of December? Does anyone care that my wrists are starting to hurt? Apparently not.

So we got invited to my hubby's cousins house for Christmas Eve. Now - I'm not planning on knitting for the adults, but the kids *need* something. So I'm cranking out some hats for the boys and little bobby socks for the girls. The socks aren't knit - I just picked up a pack of 10 socks at Target and crochet a cute little trim with Fun Fur. They really are adorable - and the Fun Fur disguises all of my cruddy crochet work!

All is not lost - I've finished one hat already. And the socks only take about 30 minutes for a pair (and each girl will get 2 or 3 pairs - I haven't decided yet.) Then I need to make one adult sized hat, and I'm done.

And hopefully I haven't pissed off any more of the knitting gods.

Knit on!