I’ve moved the blog again.

I know, I know, I just moved here and here I go moving agian.  I forked out some $$ and moved the blog to my own domain and it is being hosted over at www.knitblog.com. (missa is amazing, if you are looking for somewhere to host you fiber blog, run, don’t walk, over there and give her your money.)

I moved all my posts and comments from my old Blogger blog to the new one and I was able to move the posts from this blog, but I haven’t figured out how to move the comments yet.  There will be construction going on a while.

www.sewcrafty.org

Did I mention I’m a joiner?  I think I did, well, if not, here is more proof.  I am joining a sew along for knitters.  I’m not sure if I’m a sewist (looks better than sewer) who knits or a knitter who sews.  I started sewing first, so, I guess, that would make me the former.  Oh, well, I hope they will let me in anyway.

The first project for the sew along is a skirt.  I think I’ll pull out KwikSew 3276, an A-line skirt pattern I bought last summer(?) and give it a try. 

Now, to sort thru the fabric stash . . . .

It has been raining forever and our back yard is flooding.  The sump pump has been cycling on and off all day but it still looks like this in the back yard. 

I’m afraid to look in the crawl space under the house.  The 10 day forcast has it raining until next Monday. bleck!  I usually don’t mind the rain but this isn’t the usual Seattle drizzle, this is real, blattering, down pour, get drenched walking to the mailbox, rain. 

Joey is enjoying it tho!

While I was at Border’s I picked up a couple of cute things, a gift bag that I think will be perfect for carrying small projects, and a birthday/anniversary reminder book. 

I felt the need to do a little shopping so I headed to the mall and finally found some new drinking glasses.  I was really craving some grown-up drinking glasses instead of the clear plastic(acrylic?) ones we have had for a while so the kids couldn’t destroy them.

After getting home from the mall Hubby showered then we all headed out to the discount movie theatre to see Chicken Little.  On the way to the car I picked up the mail and the new Ottobre was there, woohoo! Kids loved the movie, I think it could have been better. 

On the way home Hubby stopped so I could run into Village Yarn & Tea to pick up a pattern booklet.  I ended up comming home with the pattern booklet, Dalegarn 142, and, from the tea side of the store, a small tea pot. I think I need to make a tea cozy for it.

pattern: Cables dishcloth for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL
yarn:  Fantasy Naturale (from stash)
needles:  US7 Clover Bamboo
started/finished:  Jan 27
notes:  This was a quick knit and the cable twist was something I had never done before, I think I would like to make a sweater for my daughter in the future with this stitch pattern.  I did make a few modifications to the pattern.  I made the cloth smaller, just a personal preference, and I added a garter stitch border to the sides instead of just on the top and bottom. 

Mission Falls

It started with the what not to wear post, after that I decided I really needed to get some clothes made for my daughter.  The dresses I made for her almost 2 years ago are just not cutting it anymore, even for play dresses. 

I pulled out the Ottobre magazines and traced off a pattern and did a sketch.

I started cutting, I was not paying as close attention as I should have been and mis-cut one of the side panels and didn’t have enough fabric left to re-cut, sigh. So now I have this beautiful pink velour that cannot be made into what I intended it to be made into, sigh.  I did cut out 2 other dress, rethread the serger, and start on the sewing up.  The bulb on my serger blew out so I went to the store to pick up another one. I asked Hubby to watch the kids while I was gone.  When I got home I was putting in the new bulb when I noticed a small pair of scissors sitting in front of the serger and all of the threads had been cut. Honey, thanks for watching the kids, sigh.

I am getting closer to finishing Daughter’s sweater, only one sleeve left to go, and weaving in all those ends.

The bottom rolls a bit too much so I am thinking of ripping back and putting in some wide ribbing before the rolled edge, but not till I get the other sleeve done and the ends woven in.

I needed a break from all those bright stripes, so I started some socks.  I finished the first one last night.

 

The foot with the sock is Daughter, the foot without a sock is Son, who wanted his picture taken too.  I have to make him some socks too, he kept saying “my sock, my sock!”  I’ve been a bad mommy, need to make socks for him too.

Oh, and I joined another KAL, two actually: Project Spectrum (not just knitting, tho), and the Aran Weight Victorian Lace Shawl KAL.  I was also going thru the Yahoo!Groups I a lurker member of, I totally forgot to list the Monthly Dishcloth KAL and the Kiri Shawl KAL.  Then there are the Blog based ones I forgot:  Branching Out and Sock it to Me.  Ok, most of these I don’t really consider KALs as they are perpetual and people come and go, more of a knitting support group for the pattern in question.

I love to join KALs, although I do not join all of them I do join my share. I have many that have carried over from last year and this year I have joined the Stashalong, Sock a Month and I am iching to join the Harlot’s Knitting Olympics and the Tote-along and the Aran Weight Victorian Lace Shawl KAL and the Faroese Shawl Knit Along and the Jaywalker KAL (I know this one is almost over) and the Mrs Beeton KAL and Panta and I am sure there are more.

Basically, if I think I want to knit the pattern and there is a KAL associated with it, I want to join.  Maybe I think this will increase my odds of actually finishing something. 

I really want to make Grumperina’s new Sarit Hat, for my friend J, for her b’day in Feb.  Grumperina is using Rowan Cashsoft DK for the pattern, I have no Rowan Cashsoft DK in my stash and I am participating in the Stashalong.  I could use another yarn, I guess, I have some pretty light pink Cascade 220 in my stash and since it is a light worsted I bet I could get gauge with it, but it isn’t as nice and soft as the Cashsoft. This is for a gift folks.

and here is the REAL dilemma:

I think there is a loophole in the rules of the Stashalong!

(2) You have 3 months and during that time you cannot add to your stash in any way(things ordered before January 1 but not yet delivered do not count–hence the early warning–get it out of your systems, ladies). Of course realistically there is no way to police this, so the honor system is in place.

Do you see it?  If you buy something and knit it up immediately is it ever added to your stash?  Could I buy the yarn, knit up the hat and gift it and still be following the rules of the Stashalong?  Or, would this be one of those ‘letter of the law’ vs. ‘spirit of the law’ things?

You can see the ‘all deisgns’ pdf, here. I am loving this issue, so many cute things.  I think I have to make: cute coat #22 for Daughter, shirts #25 and #33 for Son; skirt #12, leggings/bloomers #13, and shirt #21 also for Daughter.

Maybe I’ll actually use up some of my fabric stash . . . who’d a thunk?

This morning my daughter put on a pale-ish green cotton velour dress, that’s fine, with plaid bloomers in primary colors on a white background, “hmmm . . . you sure you want to wear that today, honey?” “yes, mama” . . . bright green socks with equally bright flowers, her purple and white coat and a bright pink knitted hat, with fun fur.

Holey moley, they’re gonna send CPS after me for letting her out of the house like this.

We have been having trouble with our family computer so I went out and bought an external DVD/CD recorder to back up our family photos and such.  I installed it, but not without some problems.  

I went to burn some knitting pod casts so I could listen to them other than while sitting at the computer, they were gone. I re-downloaded them last night.  This morning I went to backup some things and discovered large portions of ”My Documents” were gone, all the knitting patterns I had downloaded weren’t there, but I can get them online again.  The patterns I had bought and downloaded, gone too, can’t get them again. Worst of all, all my photos are gone . . . nothing . . . no photos . . . no pics of our trip to the beach last summer, but mom has pics she took; no birthday pics; no pics of pets we lost this last year; no pics of the kids just being kids; all gone. 

The only photos I have left are on my blogs, thank G-d for those.

While the chicken was poaching I decided to make soup for lunch . . . yummy I love homemade soup.  So the kids and I had home made soup and homemade bread for lunch.

Oh, yeah, I made Swope Bread Wednesday night, from a recipe on the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat flour bag, not to bad for a quick bread, not as light as a yeasted bread, but so much easier.

As I was getting ready to make dinner I was looking in the ‘frig and saw a tube of Grands-style biscuits that needed to be used so I made turnovers with the chopped chicken I had cooked up earlier, frozen veggies and some leftover cheese sauce from the night before.

Now, don’t go thinking this happens every day at my house . . . ha, not even close, but I have been on a bit of a domestic run lately.

pattern: Hermione Mittens
yarn: Cascade 220
needles: Clover Bamboo
started: Jan 6
finished: Jan 10 
notes:  I made no modifications to this pair of mittens.  I really like this pattern over all.  Since the pattern is for such a long and slim mitten I wear them with the cuffs turned up, I think they fit me better since I have thicker wrists and forearms.  On the next pair I knit, and there will be another, if they are for me I will use a bit heavier yarn.  A true worsted or aran instead of the Cascade 220, which is a lt. worsted, will give the mitts a bit more room and I will start the pattern further up, like row 8 or so, to cut out a bit of length.  If I knit them for someone else I’ll prolly just knit them as written.

edited to add:  These mittens qualify for three KALs; Warm Hands, Another Weasley, and Stashalong. and  I resorted to having my just turned 6yo take the picture of the mittens . . . yeah, that was fun.

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This is what I have been working on since Tuesday, a Knitting Pure & Simple top down sweater for Daughter.  Sorry the colors look so bad in this picture, I promise they aren’t that bad in real life.

Who knew? Love the idea as I can be a bit of a lurker. 
So, people, leave a comment.

This is what I worked on this weekend, my purple Hermione Mittens.  These mittens are for the Another Weasley KAL and since I am making them from stash yarn they qualify for the Stashalong,too.  I was able to finsh the left mitten and about 2/3 of the right mitten.  I really like this pattern and will make it again.  The patterns is quite long and slim, next time I will most likely use a true worsted instead of a light worsted (Cascade 220) as called for in the pattern, just to make it a bit more roomey.  I will also make the cuff a bit shorter, for this one I just fold the ribbed cuff to shorten it. 

Speaking of the Stashalong, why do I keep torturing myself by checking elann.com when I know I’m not buying anything. WHY? 

About a year ago our DVD player gave out (ok, the kid killed it) and Hubby bought a new (cheap) DVD player.  One really cool thing about this inexpensive DVD player is that it could play zone 2 (european) DVDs.  This meant I could order trinny & susannah: the rules from Amazon UK . . . woohoo.  I bought it, I watched it, the DVD player died and we had to return it, they were sold out so we couldn’t just exchange it.  waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, no more Trinny & Susannah.

Today I was cleaning off the computer desk and found the DVD, and it dawned on me as I looked at my computer screen, ‘hey, maybe I can play this on my computer’s DVD player.”

IT WORKS, I CAN PLAY THIS DVD ON THE COMPUTER . . . YAHOOOOOOOOO! I AM BRILLIANT! Ok, I loose points for not figuring it out last year.

pattern: Esther Williams
yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino
needles: Clover Bamboo & size 3.75 crochet hook
started: Dec 12
finished: Jan 5
modifications: Instead of starting the edge as written I shifted the start point over 1/2 repeat and I think this continues the rhythm of the hat pattern into the edging.

  

We didn’t take all the gifts to the restaurant so she opened the rest when we got home.  I think the biggest hit was a table top soccer game from Grandma. We also got her a bunch of dress-up things, mostly wigs and animal noses, in the soccer pic she is wearing the cat ears and tail.

You can see a list of my perpetual project list here. I need to note the projects that already have yarn purchased for them, ie: potential Stashalong projects.

You all suck!!

A pox on you and your family!

May your privates rot and fall off!

The kits are pretty cute, they include a cookie mix and a cookie cutter, and they don’t taste half bad either. The only thing I would do differently is to refrigerate the dough for a little while before rolling and cutting.

“SHATTERED!? What do you mean shattered?”

“Well, it’s all jagged and missing pieces. But, it doesn’t hurt yet, and the bleeding stopped.”

Very large sigh, “I’ll call the dentist.”

Needless to say (but I will anyway), he is at the dentist. He swung by the house to pick up a check and show me the tooth . . . it doesn’t look good . . . I’m guessing he’ll need a crown and hopefully not much more than that. We have dental insurance, but I don’t know where we are going to come up with our 20% (at the min).

In the morning Daughter had her last soccer game of the season. I was quasi in charge of the end-of-season party so I had to leave early to pick up the cake and Hubby had to get the kids to the soccer field, on time. He did, without too much to-do and the kids played three quarters before the game was called on account of rain. I know, usually soccer is played rain or shine but for 5 year olds there is a point where they are just too wet and too cold to play happily. Daughter’s team did win, 3-0, the first win of the season. So, the season ended with 1 win, 3 ties and 2 loses; though I don’t think the kids even realized it. After the game we all headed over to a local pizza joint for lunch and awards and cake . . . gotta have the cake. ;)

When we got home I told Daughter that if she would clean her room we would all go to a movie that night, not sure what came over me but I was just in a go-to-the-movies mood. She did, so after dinner we went to the discount theatre ($4.50 all day) and watched Madagascar. Cute movie, kids were thrilled. We hardly ever go out like this and since the discount theatre has moved in we will definitely be doing it more often.

www.postcrossing.com

Ok, I may have gone a little purple crazy, but I’m fine with that . . . LOL

I am so glad I re-read the first five books before starting six, especially Order of the Phoenix.