Cabled Baby Sweater

I finished a cabled baby sweater the other day. It came out very cute. http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/baby_poonan/baby_poonan.html was the patter I used, and here are the pics:


I actually had to break out my peg counter, I got it years ago. It's a Susan Bates product and it helped me successfully keep track of the cable pattern on the front of the sweater. There are three different stitch patterns, one is a 4 row repeat, one an 8 row and one a 16 row. The board was wonderful!

I don't know if this product is still available, but it would certainly be worth picking up if you saw one, just to have it on hand just in case...

My weekend, from back to front

I am starting with today, and showing you the wonderful yarn I got. Much of it will be knitting into warm baby things for charity. The yarn shop in Mackinac City has closed it's doors, the owner has opened a new shop in Petoskey which is further away. She had a huge sale today, and I stocked up.





And all of it together.

Clue #2 finished

I finished clue #2. I really am enjoying knitting this shawl. The pattern is being posted clue by clue here:
http://wendyknits.net/

Not my weekend

I was all set to knit my sweater this weekend. Housework was caught up, I did my gauge swatch, this morning I got up and made a pot of coffee and cast on. Berroco Weekend yarn, the color was gorgeous. I found the first knot. I cut the yarn and kept going. I found the second knot. I cut the yarn and kept going. I found the third knot and emailed Berroco. I am waiting to hear back on Monday about what to do, I have 6 skeins and I have no idea if the other skeins have knots, and I am not even halfway into the first skein.
Then I thought the day was saved. I ordered a knitting book from amazon.co.uk, because the book isn't going to be available in the states till August and I wanted it Now with a capital "N". "The Gentle Art of Knitting". I follow Jane Brocket's blog and this is her latest book. It wasn't supposed to be here till after Memorial Day, but YEAH! It showed up today. I waited till after we went out for dinner to open it, and it's damaged. The dust jacket is tore a bit and so now I have to pay to send it back and then wait for reimbursement. And then I will wait until August when it comes out in the States.

Clue 1 finished

I have finished the first clue in the mystery shawlette. I like this. It's not too terribly difficult which is great because I am very tired from work. And it looks really cool so far. :-)

Mystery Shawlette

I just heard about this mystery shawlette KAL yesterday. So today I decided to go for it. The pattern is here on this blog: http://wendyknits.net/. So far it's knitting up nice, I am halfway through the first clue. You start off with tons of stitches and decrease, so the rows will get shorter and shorter. That appeals to me. The first step was to cast on and knit 2 rows, and that didn't look like much when I was done.

I will take a picture when I am done with the first clue. The next clue will be posted on Sunday. I will tell you that I am calling mine Watermelon Lace, because the colors of the yarn I am using look like watermelon.

Knitting

I went to quilting on Saturday and took my knitting. A co-worker has a new grandson and he is also a Detroit Tiger's fan, so here is what I came up with:


The buttons are little baseballs, hard to see in the picture.
Paige finished knitting a cute little skirt, and a sweater set!


I had a good time at the shop, it's always a nice break after working all week.

Once again....

Once again I have neglected my blog. And I was off all last week, and you would have thought I could squeeze out one post. But I didn't. I lay on my couch and felt horrid, I had a horrible virus and didn't even care anything about anything till about Wednesday night. I discovered a few things last week, and one of which is I love purple gatorade, low cal. It's yummy. And I still love popsicles, but not the cherry ones, grape first and then orange and the red ones last. I discovered again how wonderful my husband is when I tried to bribe him to go get me gatorade and he went anyway and didn't take the bribe. (I said he could order $100 in books if he went out in the storm to get me gatorade and he didn't even do it. Shocking) I discovered that my cats seem to be concerned when I am not acting normally. And my Shadow loves to cuddle more than anything. (Well, not more than her food, but that's still pretty good).

How?

How did we turn into "those" people? Those people who need a daily planner to keep up with life and all that is going on. Those people who have a marker board to keep track of lists of everything that needs to be done and is needed to be purchased and and and!!!
But then again, how did I spend all those years as a stay at home wife? :-)

The evolution of the bunny hat

The first one was too big and the ribbing was only K1P1 and that didn't work.

The next one was ok, but still a little bit big and I didn't like the shaping of the ears on the top and I didn't like the solid color.

The third one is just right. :-)

So this weekend I tweeked the design for the baby hats with bunny ears. I think it came out very cute and I will now go into "production" knitting mode to make enough for the breastfeeding peer counselor who requested them. And I want to finish another chemo hat. And I have my swatches to do for the master knitter level 2. I always have something to keep me busy!

Fun Furlough Friday and ghosts?

Tomorrow I have my furlough day and it's the first one that I don't have to go anywhere or have an appointment. My big plan is to sleep, and tuck up on the couch with my knitting. And my Nook, I have some library books on there that I want to read before they are due. No hockey, which is the first in a long time. I started cleaning my studio last night, trying to get ready for the cabinet that will be here in a couple months. I cannot believe how much fabric there is in there, knowing that when we left Ohio I didn't have any!
Has anyone ever thought they saw something out of the corner of their eye but there wasn't anyone or anything there? Very odd feeling, turning and expecting to see someone but no one is there.

Cysts

I had two cysts removed from my eye today, both inside the lower lid. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, only took 30 minutes of sick time and was back at work! A bit sore and itchy, but not bad at all. I was able to knit tonight on fingerless mitts for a co-worker, the pattern is from this book:

I love this book! I want to knit the Hooded House Coat too. And the presentation in this book is wonderful, I love to just look through it. Matter of fact I have been carrying it back and forth to work just to page through at lunch! I haven't used the Ella Rae yarns, but I have been looking at it online. I would have to order it and I hate to do that because it's hard to tell colors. I know I could order a sample card from somewhere, but for now I will just enjoy the book. (I would definitely buy this as a special treat!)

Zebra

I am knitting a zebra. That's all I am going to say. Except it's not black & white. Pictures to follow....

Debbie Bliss Spring/Summer Issue!!!

So what do you do when your favorite magazine only comes out two times a year? You bake scones, brew tea and light candles to enjoy your first browse thru, savoring every page.

The healing power of handmade items

I think that sometimes people underestimate the power of their creations. We all have some artistic bone in our bodies. My friend is a wonderful baker. My other friend is a very skilled knitter. My co-worker is a photographer, my other co-worker quilts, the list goes on. When we create something a bit of ourself is in the finished piece, and is given to the recipient of the item, be it a hat or mittens or a quilt. And that is a good thing. And wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone spent a little time creating something and then passed that item on? Think of the smiles we would create, the feeling of well being. So give it some thought, and see if you have time to create something to pass on. We all have talent, in all different areas. Make a card and send it to a friend who needs a lift. Write a poem and post it online for all to enjoy. Share a little piece of yourself and enjoy the reward of knowing that you might have just given someone a little sense of peace.

Finished!

COLD!

I knew it was cold this weekend, but I didn't realize how cold! The paper yesterday said the temp at the airport was -22. Which is only a few blocks from my house. I was out shopping, I guess I have acclimated and didn't realize how cold it actually was.
Tonight I am going to attempt snowshoeing, which is something I have wanted to try. so we will see how that goes. It has warmed up considerably, yesterday it was 1 degree when I was on my way to work.

CCHA Championship Cup!!!!

We went to the hockey game tonight, which was an awesome game, we won in a shootout.

But here is the best part:

That is the CCHA Championship cup, adorned with my knitting. It's a sock yarn scarf that I started at last night's game. And don't forget the celebration after the final goal:

Off Today!

That means a three day weekend and a whole list of things I would like to get done:
1. Fix Michelle's Sweater
2. Fix Jim's wood fire truck and clean it!!
3. Work on Harry Potter scarf
4. Make table runner for dining room table (I am getting a tealight holder that is on order and I want to clean up the dining room and actually start using the table, we never eat at the table because it's my "work" area!)
5. ???? I am sure I will come up with something here!

A few more finished projects

I have finished a few more projects and have more on the needles. It is hard to believe that time is flying by so quickly. It seems like it's just Friday and then it's Monday again, the weekend gone. Last weekend we had 2 hockey games for the college and went to Mike's game on Sunday for the city championship. They lost, but Mike did very well. He's a goalie and I remember watching him play when he wasn't even as tall as the cross bar and now he's past it.
Here is a finished pic:

A nice warm baby sweater and hat, very much needed this time of year. And Jim and I finally got a snowblower,

Also much needed this time of year. And as I write this the snow is falling. And falling.