Master Knitter's Course Level 1!!!

I got alot done this weekend, including completing my level 1, I am mailing that out this morning! And I also knit a hat,

This is for a 3 year old who is going through chemo. I mailed it out with lots of prayers attached.

I also got my shipment of wool from http://www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com/. And I sorted the first couple of pounds and washed it. It's drying now..

I have to be patient and let it dry before I tuck it away to be carded. I'm not sure if I am going to dye it or not...have to wait and see.

Fingers crossed that my level 1 goes smoothly and I pass. Then it's on to level 2!

My neighbor, the master knitter!

So today I was sitting out front across the street with my friend and neighbor Kathy. We were chatting while I sorted through 2 pounds of raw wool. Betty came over, she lives up the street and while we were talking she said I had to come over and see her knitting. So we went to her house and OMG!!!! She does beautiful work. See for yourself!

She has baby sweaters ready to go for when someone needs a baby sweater!

The kittens in the above sweater are knit with angora so they are fuzzy. Gorgeous work...all of it!

Prayer Shawl

I was knitting on a prayer shawl last night and had some assistance:

Gorby is so helpful at times. She loves to help do the laundry too (meaning she tries to trip me while I am carrying the basket because I can't see her). She likes to try and help me cook (which means she circles my feet yelling when I am cutting up meat). Yes, she's a helper. :-)

A couple weeks ago at the Quilted Moose

I keep forgetting to post these pictures! We had Diva at the Quilted Moose a couple Saturdays ago, and I took a few pics to share with you.

First, Nora was working on a really neat quilt with animal prints:

This is one of the blocks. The prints were really nice.

And then Chris finished a quilt:

The back is made up of batik squares, and is very neat, as is the front. I love brights!
I spent the weekend working on level 1 of the master knitter's course. I am on the home stretch, I just have to write a paper that is at least 2 pages. I haven't had to write a paper in years! I will have that finished this week and mailed out by Saturday, that is my goal.

New puppy!

My co-worker Gary got a new puppy. She's a Yorkie-Poo, and she's so tiny! Her name is Nettie, and here she is, making her internet debut:

Another weekend is over

I cannot believe how quickly the weekends fly by. Yesterday I had diva at the Quilted Moose, and I used the time to finish handsewing the binding on a quilt for my neighbor and friend, Kathy. It's her retirement quilt, the pattern is the double Irish chain.

I learned a few new things while working on this quilt. And Chris at the Quilted Moose did a beautiful job quilting it. I am very fortunate to have Kathy as a neighbor and now as a friend. I told Jim when we moved here that we would find the right house, and I do believe I was right. I love living here.

I also finished the Christmas socks for my mom. She picked the yarn the last time we were in Ludington to visit.

They are really pretty. And Kathy bought me a new skein of sock yarn, beautiful blues.

It will go in my stash to be admired before I knit it up. So yet another weekend has drawn to a close. The week will fly by again and soon it will be time to have dinner at the pub on Friday after work.

Are you kidding me????

So this morning when I woke up, this is what I saw:Yes, our grill that we have been using already this year, covered in snow. They said it was coming but I didn't believe it. Unreal. We got maybe 5 inches total today, it's melting but what a mess.

My co-worker's sweater

I work with some very talented people. Some bake, some arrange flowers beautifully. Some crochet, some quilt, and some knit. Joann knits. She had her sweater with her the other day, and it is gorgeous! See for yourself:

I love it when you work with someone and find out their "hidden" talents. Everyone has something they are good at, whether it be needlework or baking, or any number of other things.

My new toy...

I love gadgets. I am definately a gadget girl. :-) Yesterday Jim and I finally got our new blackberries. We have both been wanting them, and so with our contract being up we got them. Between the rebates and buy one get one free we didn't really have to spend that much and we're both happy. And now I can snap pics with it and send them right to my email, and then put them in my blog!

This is my current SIP for my mom for Christmas. This is the second sock, so soon these will be done and tucked away. I am happy that I will be able to blog more easily. I try and blog on a regular basis, but usually I only blog once a week. Hopefully that will be changing!

At last

At last my sock yarn is all tucked in together in my pie safe. It is now a yarn safe. And I open the doors and I smile, it's my peace.

And then Jim came home and surprised me with 2 new balls of sock yarn!

He knows the way to my heart. And to celebrate cleaning out the pie safe and putting the sock yarn away all tidy, I finished a pair of socks.

My MIL bought me this sock yarn, it's an Opal and I love these. I worked the ribbing all the way down the leg and continued it down the top of the foot. Very comfy. And my MIL has great taste!

What to do?

Our next home improvement project is my studio. And I'm not quite sure what to do. I know we are gutting the room, and putting in new drywall, new lighting. But that's where I get stuck. I know that I want storage, lots of storage. We have talked about putting in a wall of kitchen cabinets, but I'm not sure if I want that or not because that will be fixed and I won't be able to move the room around. And I would love a pub style table with comfy chairs, but if I want to sew at the table I would need a small stool to put my pedal on for my machine. I need storage for yarn, papercrafts, fabric, books, magazines, I have alot of stuff. And there are so many options! I want this room to really work for me, time is limited and I don't like spending my creative time searching for what I need.
And color! What color should I paint the room? Blue is my favorite color, but I want the room to feel warm, and light, especially with the winters we have up here. They are certainly long. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

It's been awhile!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted. I've been trying to get all these things done...I love to start a bunch of projects and then finish them all up. Then I start a new batch. This last weekend I did finish up the living room wall that has driven me crazy since we moved in.

It looked like this:

There were 2 strips on the seams to hide them. The sconces were plastic. The wall had a texture on it that I scraped off and then I primed, and then I painted. Jim put up new sconces and changed the switch and outlet. And now it looks so much better, like this:

It's soooo much better. The painting is one that Jim did when we still lived in Ohio. It's gorgeous, and it used to hang on that floral wall and it didn't look right at all. Now it has a proper place. We're getting there, slow but sure. Jim is almost done with his library in the basement. I do believe then we will be gutting my craft room and re-doing that. Yeah!

The new quilt

I finished a quilt the other day. I took the class at the Quilted Moose and then Chris quilted it for me. (She does wonderful work!). So I finished the binding and right after I took this picture,

Justice claimed it.

Then Gorby.

And even Shadow.

I am not sure when it will be my turn to use it, but it has been cat approved. :-)

Some new bags...and other tidbits

I did finish some bags last weekend, and I am finally getting around to posting a picture.

They will make nice gifts, they are tucked away for now.

I thought you all might like to see pictures of how Gorby helps me with my household tasks. First, I fold all the towels.

And Gorby tries out that stack to see that they are indeed folded correctly. And if they are not, she then

divides the stack in half. This requires alot of effort and so she must then take a brief nap before moving on to help me with something else.

Knitting Olympics

Well, I started the knitting olympics last night, and I cast on the Snowdrop Shawl. Well, after working at it today I have realized that the equipment (ie the yarn) I had for my event was not compatible with my event (the Snowdrop Shawl). I have therefore switched events, and I am knitting the North Sea Shawl from the Folk Shawls book. I hope that the equipment and the event will be a bit more compatible!

On another note I have lost my voice, to the delight of my husband. :-)

I have a cold...

but the weekend is only 2 days away and I can get plenty of rest. We had a busy week last week, this week we are laying low and not doing much after work. Jim is working on his basement, trying to get his library done. He's very excited to finally have the space to have all of his books out so he can see them and just pull them off the shelves when he needs to. And he'll be able to sit down there and have a cigar if he chooses.
I have an extended weekend, so I plan on working on Kathy's quilt, and also finishing the socks for my mom's birthday. Those are the 2 main projects. Other than that I have some bags to sew up and Chris from the Quilted Moose finished quilting my trip around the world quilt, so I have to bind that. Chris does an excellent job with her long arm quilting machine, I'm lucky to have her only a couple blocks away. :-)

Trip Around the World

This past weekend I took a quilt class at the Quilted Moose. This was the first class Paige and I took together, and now whenever they have it we take it again because now it's tradition. And we love to do it. We had a good time and I managed to make my quilt top and left it there for Chris to quilt.

I believe this one is all mine, a great quilt for cuddling up on the deck this summer in the evenings. I need to make the binding and then when I get it back from Chris I can get it finished up.

We have Diva this weekend at the shop and we're sewing cute little totes. I need to pick my fat quarters, it takes 2.

American Girl Doll Laker Style

I don't have a pic of the doll wearing her new outfit, but here is the Lake Superior State University cheerleader:

I got a bit of knitting done on some socks this weekend also. Jim and I went to a concert last night and ended up leaving during the third song, the music was too loud and the sound quality was horrible. We ended up at hockey and had a much better time.

Quilting this weekend!

Only 1 more day to get up early for work, and then it's Saturday and time to go to quilting! I am very excited about that. We're doing the Trip Around the World quilt, again. Everytime the class is offered Paige & I take it now. It's tradition, it's the first class we took together. Her sister Judy is going to be taking it this time too, and I'm very happy that the three of us will be sewing away on Saturday. By the end of the day we'll have a quilt top done or just about done.

Sweater KAL

I've decided to do this: http://blog.lionbrand.com/2010/01/14/announcing-our-winter-2010-knit-along/#comments, and when it is done I am going to give it away. Not sure what size I am knitting yet. I need to do my gauge swatch, since the KAL starts today. I have time to do this before hitting the shower to head to work, or at least get it started anyway.
Jim and I are in for a busy weekend. http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=1915. I'm very proud of him, he's doing wonderful things. And he loves his job...sometimes too much! :-)

Master Knitter Level 1

So far so good. I am working on my level 1 of the master knitter course from www.tkga.com. There are 16 swatches and I am on #15, hopefully will finish 15 and 16 tonight so I can get them blocked and in my binder tomorrow. I have learned from this, and it hasn't been easy. I have never had my knitting judged so I am interested to hear what they have to say when they get my binder. I still have the questions left to answer though, so it will be a couple weeks yet I should think. Then it's level 2!

Diva club Saturday!

Ok, Diva club at the Quilted Moose means sitting and quilting for the day. But today I'm not taking my machine. I am taking my well packed knitting bag. I want to finish up the swatches for my level 1 master knitting course, so that is the plan today. I also threw in some sock yarn to start my mom's birthday socks, and I have a scarf in there I have been working on. So lots to knit. The company shall be good also. But first I need to stop at the grocery and pick up something to munch on, so I better get moving!
And it's very cold up here. I am very thankful that I have a warm place to rest, and I pray for those who are struggling with this weather.

The New Year and finished projects

So I finished out 2009 and started 2010 by finishing up projects. Second sock syndrome no more! 2 pair hot off the needles just for me:

And potholders for the Lady's night at work, we are trying to get more women screened for breast & cervical cancer. I am putting together goodie bags, so far I have made the potholders and started knitting the dishclothes.

And I finished a quilt for ??? It's technically a comforter because I tied it, but it's so cozy!

Not a Christmas quilt, but a winter quilt with snowmen and trees.

So that is the start of the new year, and I hope that it continues to be as good as it started.

Lots of UFO's

I have alot of projects I have started that I haven't finished, and I would like to start the new year fresh. I have several pair of socks started, a shawl, a tank top, quilts, so I have set a goal to finish 3 projects before I start anything new. I am on the gusset of a second sock, so that will be one!
Paige is coming over to sew on Thursday, and I plan on working on a quilt top or two that I need to finish up also!

We're back in the Soo!

We're back in the Soo after a visit down to see my mom and my brother. While we were there I learned that my great-grandmother was a knitter! She was born in 1892 and when she passed away she was survived by 11 children (3 had already passed). The obituary also states she is survived by 45 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren! I was not born when she passed away. Here is a picture of Nellie, my great grandmother,
who knit mittens for children and then tucked a dollar inside. :-) I like her style.

While looking through old pics there was also this shot of me with my brother, when we lived here in the Soo. I was probably 2 or so in this photo.

The weather cooperated for our trip downstate, we passed by ice fisherman.

On the way home the highway was kind of bad,

So I did what every knitter should do, I knit. And knit. By the time we got to the Mackinac Bridge, my sock was almost complete, just a few rounds to do on the toe.

Unfortunately I was so nervous that I knit it way too long for my foot!

Christmas this week!

Hard to believe Christmas is this week. 3 days of work and then I am off for 5. Everything is ready for the holiday so now it's just time to relax and enjoy. We have snow, more is on the way.
I am grateful for what I have, I am thankful for my family, friends and my job. I have a great job that keeps me very busy and it's a job where I get to help people. I couldn't ask for more.

Our winter quilt

Our winter quilt is on the bed, and I love it.

The polar bear fabric is so pretty, and Jim helped pick the coordinating fabrics. I made the pillowcases to match, and I also put the flannel sheets on the bed!

Today we are putting up the tree, Jim just ran to fetch it out of the basement. We had to move the tv and when we did something happened to the cable box, we have cable but no On Demand or cable guide. So I called and ended up ordering new services, as of Tuesday I will have BBC America and 47 other channels in addition to what we have now, and dvr. I think we'll like it.

We have had some snow but not alot, but it's certainly cold and icy in spots in the parking lots.