My Yarny Goodness

I know, I know, it's been a while since I blogged. seriously, who blogs anymore? It's almost a dead medium in our 140 words or less Twitter universe. At any rate, I have been knitting. Up first is Seth posing in my first ever hand made shawl. it is knitted in Cascade 220 and the pattern is Garter Leaves. In my knitting group at Christmas we did a Dirty Santa exchange of shawl patterns and yarns. This is what I won. I absolutely love it. I wear it with a feminine white blouse, but with Seth, I couldn't be so picky.

I have lots of random yarn pictures on the blog today. Why, you wonder? Because I want to trade away some of my yarn on the world's best ever knitting web site, Ravelry. In order to post pictures of the yarn there, it has to link somewhere though, and I have nowhere to put my pics but right here.

I am hoping to attract people who like sock yarn and sparkles. The yarns need to have a trade value of about 20 bucks per batch, so I am putting my yarns together in lots that match.

I am hoping to trade out a few skeins that are currently just taking up space in my stash and make money at the same time. Genius, eh?

There is not much news to report. For fun we finally subscribed to netflix and are watching back to back episodes of Prison Break. Thankfully the children find this a miserable;e way to be entertained and generally leave us alone to watch TV in peace. It's a win/win situation for us boring old people!

Winter has been here in full force for many months now. It seems like we got snow before Thanksgiving and we still have it. The cold hasn't really broken and everyday is a grey day. My spirits are good despite the depressing weather, maybe because my husband is vacuuming the house as I write this and there is nothing I like more than a man who cleans.

Tis The Season

As Christmas is coming, my knitting needs have heated up. I have been working on hats quite a bit. The hat Noah is modeling is called Turn a Square and is quite a great idea. It starts with stripes that are round, but it turns into a square shape at the top of the hat as you make decrease stitches. I have made a couple of these and really like them. You don't get the effect very well in this picture, but when you work with models who aren't paid a living wage, you take what you can get. Scott is not on the list to recieve any home made gifts this year as we all know he doesn't understand why people would wear yarn. It hasn't stopped me from threatening to make him some wool underwear though.

My neighbor Pete works for a wine distributor and every year for his birthday I make him something out of his discards. Last year it was the wine cork wreath with grapes and this year it was a Christmas ornament with a cork body. It is called a Korknisse, should you want to look the pattern up on Ravelry. He swore he loved it. He also got the hat that Noah was modeling, and I know that was a well loved gift as everyone in his house tried it on and his daughter asked for one in purple. I don't care much for the Korknisse myself, but Seth wants one in blue.

Seth made us dinner last night. He has been asking if he can make French Toast but we are always out of some ingredient for him. Last night he couldn't wait to get cooking. He started asking what time he could start as soon as he got home from school. He said he wants to make us eggs and bacon next time, but that most of the bacon will be for him. I gotta get the kid into the spirit of giving that goes with this season. I can't wait till he wants to cook dinner every night. cooking is definitely one skill I want to pass on so I don't have to be the only cook in the family.

I have been volunteering once a week at the school library. I am glad to have a mini job as it gives me something to do every week. I put on a blouse and jewelry and everything, just a like a professional person would. Then I sort magazines, catalog books, whatever needs to be done. Plus, I get to be out of the house and amongst people who read. I haven't gotten any good book recommendations yet, but I am hopeful. I am always looking for my next good book.

Seth put up the Christmas tree this weekend. We used my friend Maria's tree that she left us last year. It is so lovely! I have never had a tree before that had only white lights on it. I thought Seth might fuss about it, as he is definitely a guy who likes colored lights. He likes this tree because it is so tall and it is prettier than our old tree. I tried to take a picture of it, but I couldn't get far enough across the room to get a good shot.

Noah has taken up fencing and goes to Fencing Club once a week. It meets at the high school and he has tried to get me to pick him up at the middle school and drive him to the high school. (Ha!) I tried to tell him he is old enough to cross the street, but he is always a kid looking for the easy way to do something. I wish fencing was everyday, he is a much happier child when he gets some exercise.

We are well and happy, and I hope it won't be so long between posts again.

It's A Miracle

My friend Maria called last week and told me that she lives vicariously through my blog and that when i don't update, she is very sad. well, what is a friend to do? I get off my lazy behind and post some of the pictures I have taken. I am a good friend! The picture above is of the Christmas presents I have wrapped already. I know, it's barely October. But Christmas comes at the same time each year and is year I am determined to be ready to meet it head on.

I give little homemade gifts to the children's Sunday school teachers at church. This year I didn't make the gifts, but, still, they are homemade. Everyone is getting a duet of two crocheted wash/dish cloths. I found a lady who sells them for a dollar each and I have been buying all I can for presents. I hope everybody wants to be eco friendly this year!

Seth's teacher had a birthday in September and I made her a little person. I had not gotten out my wooden pieces in a while, so this was fun to do again.

I found a link to marthastewart.com and her High Hat Cupcakes. I just had to try them. I made the cupcakes from a box mix and then you make the marshmallow topping and pipe it on as high as you can. After you have the topping, you turn it over and dip it into melted chocolate. Oh. My. Word. These were so good! I cannot even tell you how enjoyable I found these. My tops got a little flat, but the taste was divine.

I took Seth to the state fair and we spent some time at the Agricultural displays. This year they had a jar set up and were taking pictures of people who had been canned. Seth thought he would be funny and pretend to be trapped in the jar. He and his brother are always the comedians.

School is fine, the laundry piles up and I wish dinner would make itself. Pretty much nothing changes around her. It is life as usual. And a good life it is!

Busy, Busy

What can really be said? Anyone who is home with kids in the summer knows that they will be kept hopping. We dog sat for a friend. And I made some bookmarks with a new stamping set I got from Papertrey Ink.

I made a bunch of cookies for the Indiana State Fair. I haven't entered in years, and now I can remember why. I was on my feet all day long trying to get things made, iced, packed, stored, tagged, entered, labeled, recipes added, etc...

I also knit a few things. Seth will agree to model for me , for a small fee. You'd think room and board would be enough, but no such luck. I made a cowl with yarn from Mountain Colors, the colorway is appropriately named "Crazy Woman". I am going to make matching fingerless mitts and a hat from this yarn, too. I don't want to be sportin' mismatched knits this winter

And I made a hat from Plymouth Mushishi. The best thing about the Mushishi is that it is sold in a huge skein, almost 500 yards. So, you can get plenty of knitting done from just one skein and don't have to worry about dye lots.

School starts in a few days and as happy as I am for some alone time, I am not happy that the boys will need to be at school at 7:15 in the morning. It is way, way too early for anyone to be awake and ready to go.

How did It get to be July?

I tell you, I don't know where the summer went. I also don't know where my photos went. I have crafted much more this summer than I am able to show you. I also scored some yarn at a yarn sale that I was going to post, but some of my photos are unfindable right now. SIGH.I made the card with a brayered background. I took a class about making these backgrounds last year and promptly forgot everything I learned. This card did turn out well, though.

I have been on a bit of a kick this summer where I am making fingerless mitts. It's one of those things I can do without the written instructions, so if I need to pick up yarn and knit I could pull the pattern out of my head. Noah obviously thinks these make great fighting gloves. My pattern is pretty basic and is called "Easy Fingerless Mitts" on Ravelry. As soon as school starts and I have access to knitting help, I plan to use a different pattern and step it up a bit. I have a slightly fancier idea in mind. The self striping yarn helps the simple pattern out tremendously.

We did take vacation this year in between the kids' summer camps and went to Atlantic City. We stopped in Gettysburg on the way and came home through Philadelphia. Noah did not want to go to the beach in Atlantic City, saying the sand bothered him, and that there were not any shark teeth to hunt for. He is spoiled by the teeth we have found on our trips to Myrtle Beach. In my opinion, the treasure of finding shark teeth is the only thing Myrtle Beach has going for it.

I loved Philadelphia and seeing the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's printing shop and printing press...we all enjoyed it and we saw only a bit of it. It is definitely worth a return trip. Plus, it was all free except the parking. For those who feel like I do about how you bleed money on vacation, it was great to find a free day long activity.

This time with Pictures

Now you can see that I really do knit things. Above is the Three Way Shawl, knit with Lion Brand Amazing yarn in Aurora. I love it. Amazing really is Amazing to work with. Below is another Three Way Shawl, knit with Geologee yarn that I found on the clearance rack at my local store. It can be worn three ways, hence the name. It can be a scarf, a shawl, or wound around the neck like a cowl. I'd show you, but my model is still on strike.

Below is another use for the geologee yarn. It is called Lacy Baktus. You can knit a Baktus without the holes, if you prefer a less lacey look.

I prefer the holes, the yarn goes further this way. I can't wait to wrap it around my neck this winter and hope that it will add some style to my usual windblown and frozen appearance.

Even Mumbles the penguin approves. Just wait till I show Seth that I don't need him anymore anyway!

Quickie

A quick link of a stash bit that I have for trade on ravelry. It's Soy Wool from Paton's.