Noolie Knits

It's Almost Summer...

It's almost Summer (really it is; never mind the weather) and with Summer comes Ali's Summer Knitting Goals Contest.  She's got some really great prizes to give away and all you have to do for a chance to win is list your goals and let her know that you did.  You don't even have to achieve your goals; just list them.  What could be easier?

 I joined Summer of Socks  for the first time this year and as I told you last month, I also joined the Sock a Month KAL.   I guess it will come as no big surprise then, that I'll be focusing on socks this Summer.  That doesn't mean I won't be doing anything else; there are a few non-sock things I'd like want to accomplish.

So, here's my list of Summer Goals:

    ~Knit a pair of socks with my handspun (I have some ready for that)
    ~Knit toe-up and feel comfotable doing it.
    ~Try new heel construction (I guess that’s a given with toe-up)
    ~Use up some stash yarn
    ~Finish the sweater I'm currently working on (only 1 1/2 sleeves left to knit)
    ~Start theHighlander sweater by Anne Hanson
    ~Find a pattern and yarn for a Christmas dress for Clover 
      (suggestions welcome - Samm wants a wide striped red & green dress for her)
    ~Practice my Fair Isle knitting

I know that this looks like a big list of goals for such a short period of time, but if you look closely you'll see that the first four goals are all sock related and can be accomplished with just a couple pairs of socks.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone who's read my blog for any length of time (actually, even if you've only read this week) knows that I love Summer.  There is one thing that Summer brings that I don't love - bees.  I freak anytime a bee flies around me.   I know you're supposed to just be still and they'll go away, but I just can't help but scream and flap my arms around and run in circles trying to get away from them.  It is not a pretty sight.

Samm and her friend had a baby shower for a friend of theirs the other day.  Samm's gift to the Mom-to-be was a basket of Burt's Bees products and she asked if I could make a Bumble Bee to add to the basket.  Of course I said yes, and of course I decided Clover needed one as well.  Then I decided that Clover's boyfriend, Bronson, (the to-be-born baby's big brother) also needed one.

That's how I happened to make this swarm of four bees:

Pattern: Bumble the Bee
Modifications: I wanted a little bit bigger bee so I used a bigger hook, doubled the yarn, and did an additional increase round.

Clover absolutely LOVES her “bumbees" and Bronson apparently liked his enough to give it a kiss before running off to play with something else :-)

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a great night!

Friday with Clover the Doll (and a contest winner)

 It would appear that Clover takes it literally when told she's a doll.
 

 

 

Nighty-night, little doll.   ******************************************************
 

Thanks to everyone who entered the caption contest; I had fun reading all the great entries.  I'm glad that I decided to use the random number generator to choose the winner;  I would have had a hard time choosing a favorite!  

I guess you want to know who that winner is, don't you?

Drum roll please.....

.....

the winner is....

....

Cheryl.   

Her winning entry was:

Who says it won't count for "You must be this tall to ride the roller coaster"?

Congratulations, Cheryl!

WNBP

It's been awhile, so how about some Wednesday Night Bullet Points tonight? 

~~First things first - you still have time to enter my contest; I'm taking entries until I wake up on Friday morning (6am).

~~Check out this link and be sure to roll over the image :-)  

~~This past weekend was very busy, but very fun.

~~Patti, Sharon, Carol, and I left Friday afternoon and headed to Patti's timeshare condo at Loon Mountain.  The plan - a weekend of spinning and knitting together and attending the Granite State Knit-In on Saturday.

View from the condo

~~A couple of our other friends, Eileen and Eileen (no, that's not a typo), were supposed to come with us but couldn't make it.   That was the only downside to the whole weekend. 

~~We missed you 1.0 and 2.0!

~~I was only able to attend one of the classes at the Knit-In, but it was an awesome class.   Suzanne Federer, who used to teach at The Yarn Sellar and whose classes I've taken in the past, taught Intro. to Fair Isle knitting.  

~~She only had 2 hours to teach us, but she did a great job and I do believe I got the hang of it! 

~~I'm now contemplating what my first Fair Isle project will be.

Suzanne and Sharon

~~The weekend also included me taking a side trip on Saturday to Acton, Maine to attend my niece's graduation party.  (This would be the reason I was only able to attend one class.)

~~Said side trip involved an hour and forty minute drive each way - much of which was driving the Kancamagus Highway.  

~~I would have loved the scenic drive through the mountains had I been the passenger - as the driver, not so much.  

~~I'm a wimpy driver.

~~My niece is worth the white knuckle drive though.

Jena, the RISD grad, and her boyfriend, Andrew

~~The time spent at the condo with the girls was awesome.  The condo was spacious and comfy with enough room for us to leave our spinning wheels set up and not have to move them around if we wanted to take a break and sit on the couches.

Patti, Carol, Sharon                              Sharon, Patti, Me

~~I started my May Spunky Club fiber last Thursday night at Chicks with Wheels and finished spinning it on Friday at the condo. 

~~No picture yet because it's still sitting on the bobbin.

~~My Rainbow Tofutsie socks have gone from this:   

~~to this:   .

~~Some day I'll learn to listen to that little voice in my head when it says "It's not working; it's too small". 

~~After that failure, I decided to make plain stockinette stitch socks with the TOFUtsies.

~~My Cabled Yoke Sweater is moving along quite nicely.

~~All that remains to bed done is to knit are the sleeves, which are straight stockinette - YEEHAW!

~~That's it for now.

~~Have a great night!

Friday with Clover - The Contest Edition

~~~This week's picture is screaming for a caption, but I can't think of one.

   

~~~This yarn wants to be owned by someone who will actually use it and I've come to the realization that that person is not me.

Rowan 4ply cotton, 5 50g balls (186yds ea.)

 

~~~I think this situation calls for a contest, don't you?

    ~Leave a comment on this post with a caption for the picture.
    ~Contest will be open through Thursday, June 11th.
    ~The winner will be selected randomly on Friday the 12th and announced on the blog.

Good Luck and have a great weekend!

 

p.s.  I won't be around to respond to comments this weekend, but I will respond when I get home.

 

This and That on Thursday

How's that for a clever title?   Lame, I know.   I meant to post a WNBP last night but never managed so I have a bit of the random for you today.

~~NANTUCKET BAGG CONTEST

Lisa is having a contest and giving away two Nantucket Baggs.  All you have to do is leave her a comment on the contest post (by April 3rd) with your guess of when the pile of snow near her office will melt.  Have you seen these bags?  They are awesome.  They are so awesome that I can't believe I'm telling you about the contest.  Perhaps it's because by mentioning the contest, I get an extra chance to win.  You too can have an extra chance if you post about it.  Go read her post for all the details and to see pictures of the snow pile in question; it's really more of a snow mountain!

~~Wii
I bought a Wii system this past Saturday. The plan was to get a Wii Fit with it, but the store was all out. I went ahead and bought the system and went home and ordered the Wii Fit, which arrived yesterday.

I have a few thoughts to share about the Wii games.

  1) Wii is addictive!  I am not usually a person who gets into the video games, but this is so different.  I LOVE it!
  2) Samm may be stronger than me in real life, but I kicked her butt in boxing the first night. (We won't talk about the next time we boxed.)
  3) I hate baseball in real life, and I suck at it in Wii life.  I won't give up though; I will hit that ball if it kills me.
  4) The sports games are really good exercise; I have the sore muscles to prove it.
  5) My Mii is kind of freaky - it really looks just like me.

I also have a few thoughts to share about Wii Fit.

  1) Wii Fit and Mii are not off to a good start.
  2) Wii Fit is mean and called me fat (okay, so it called me "overweight" but we all know that means "fat").
  3) Wii Fit told me my Wii age is 54!
  4) 54 is not old.
  5) Unless you're 48!
  6) At least Wii Fit didn't make my Mii look too round, just a bit rounder than I'd like..
  7) I think I'll like Wii Fit better in a couple of months.

Which brings us to my next topic.

~~SPRING INTO SUMMER

After coming home from buying the Wii and ordering the Wii Fit, I started trying to catch up on some blog reading and read Kathy's "Spring into Summer" post.

This is a seasonal challenge to get into shape (or at least better shape) during the 12 weeks between Spring and Summer.

I think her post was written just for me.  I have been working hard trying to lose weight since mid-February.  As I said, I had just ordered Wii Fit, and it just so happens that I was measured that morning, so I just HAD to join.

I'm hoping the added motivation of working with others towards the same goal (bettering our health and fitness) will be just what I need to continue going in the right direction.

~~FIBERY PURSUITS

The spun yarn you saw on the new toy.
8 ounces 2 ply 2 skeins - ~140 yards and ~125 yards
Romney/Border Leicester "Shannon & Annie" from Brimstone Hollow Farm   ^


The beginnings of a new sweater (I plan to shorten it quite a bit).
I'm using Lamb's Pride worsted in "Blue Magic" colorway
I've just begun the patterned section.  

Crocus Bud Shawl progress using my handspun.
Notice that crochet lace looks as much like ass preblocking as knit lace does.

There's been progress on the sock I picked back up the other day; I have just a few rows to do before beginning the toe.  I won't bore you with that photo until the sock is finished. (Then I'll bore you with a single sock.)

Well, I think that's enough this and that for this Thursday (say that 3 times fast!).

Have a great day!

WNBP

It's time for another Wednesday Night Bullet Post.

Knitting:

~ The majority of my knitting time has been spent on the Metro Pullover I'm knitting for myself.  The weather has turned a bit chilly here and I find that I am sorely lacking in sweaters that fit me comfortably.  Progress so far:

~The left front neck shaping and a couple of sleeves are all that's between me and a new sweater.

~Well, that and a "bit" of blocking to change this from a close fitting sweater to a comfy sweater.

~It reallly is a good idea to check gauge before beginning a knitting project.  Just saying.

~The Fogbuster hat is about half done and it's looking good.

~You'll have to take my word for it as I have no photographic evidence.

Spinning:

~I finished spinning Brian's singles last Thursday night at spinning group.  As a matter of fact, I finished it much quicker than I thought I would and had nothing left to do but gab for the last half of the time there.

~As planned, I used Alice with the jumbo flyer & bobbin to ply the singles together.

260 yards - heavy worsted to bulky weight (forgot to do wpi)

~It's much darker than the pictures indicate; it's really almost black like this photo.

 

~I lost several yards of Brian.  There was quite a bit left on one of the bobbins and I tried to Andean Ply it.  I've never used that method before and apparently I did not wrap it correctly because it knotted all up!

 

~Brian isn't going to stay with me long; I'm sending him to a friend.

 

Contest:

 

~Thanks to those of you who jumped through all the hoops to vote for Clover in the Great American Photo Contest. 

 

~Anyone who hasn't yet voted but would like to (and can handle the stress of clicking through MULTIPLE screens), you have until the end of the month. 

 

~There will be a prize drawing on November 1st and I promise it will be a very good prize.

 

Flickr/Clover:

 

~Samm and Jay have asked that I make Clover's flickr sets private (friends and family only).  I will still be posting her pictures here; we just think it's better not to have the Flickr photos public.

 

~I've sent e-mails to many of you, but I'm sure I've missed some of you.  If you'd like to be able to see Clover's sets and haven't received an e-mail, please let me know.

 

~If you notice pictures missing on old posts, it's because the links will be broken when I change the sets to private.  I plan to fix the links, but it'll take some time.

 

 

Politics:

Clover likes to stay informed.

Vote for Clover!

Go here and vote for Clover.

You'll have to subscribe to something in order to vote, but you can then go back and unsubscribe.

Because the process of voting is a bit tideous, if you go through it and vote, your name will be entered to win a prize.  Just make sure to come back to this post and leave a comment letting me know that you did vote.

Prize to be determined later, but I promise it'll be good.

Show and Tell

As I told you yesterday, I received a couple of packages in the mail this past weekend and they're just so good that I have to share them with you.

I won one of the daily prizes from Barbara Bretton over at Romancing the Yarn.  Check out how generous she was:

Included in the package were her book, Just Desserts, (which will be my next pool read), a skein of Noro Silver Thaw. and 2 magnets of her bookcover for Casting Spells.  Thank You, Barbara!

April's kitty, Andy, needed some vet care and to help cover the costs of that care, April is selling some of her wonderful stash.  It looks like she still has more, so go check it out here (Ravelry link).  I purchased a skein of Lorna's Lace's Shephard Worsted (It's much more red than this picture shows). 

 When I opened the pacakage, there was a little surprise in there; a pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca called One Fish, Two Fish.  I can't imagine why she'd think I'd like that ;-)

Thanks April, you're the best!  I hope Andy is back to his old self now :-)

I also promised to show you what else followed me home from Amy's yesterday.  It really wasn't all that much.  I couldn't leave without a little bit of fiber, now could I?      This is 4 ounces of Merino/silk in the Neapolitan colorway.

And since Alice is going to be spending some time with Patti, I really had to get her some fiber too.

This is 4 ounces of BFL in the Castaway colorway.

One last thing followed me home; a beautiful new spindle.  Just look at this:

Tell the truth; could you have left it behind?

Friday with Clover and Contest Winners

 Let me tell you, I was glad I wasn't the one choosing the winners for last Friday's caption contest.  There were some really good captions.  I decided to add a third prize so that Samm and Jay could each choose a favorite and then I had Chris choose a random number for the third winner.

I know you don't care about all of that; you want to know who won and what they won (since I was lame and didn't get pictures up). 

Samm's favorite was `Kristie'scaption: 

"Although she tried to cover her face before our cameras snapped the photo, we've discovered that the one and only Clover is responsible for all the disappearing Diet Coke's."

Jay's favorite was Tanya'scaption:

"What? No, I don't have an ID , it was just diet coke, i swear. No it's not a problem, ok maybe this is my 5th one today. But i can quit any time i want!"

Chris' random number pick was #9,Diane.  Her caption:

"5 million toys at Toys R Us and all they give me to play with is a stinking empty diet coke bottle. Hope they have great health insurance because it's going to take years of therapy to get over this."

Congratualtions to the winners; you should have an email from me looking for your snail mail addresses.  Like I said, I'm really glad I didn't have to pick the winners; if you have a minute and would like a good laugh, go read all the entries. 

What's that; you want to see the prizes? 

 Country Classic's Yarn for Sox, worsted weight, 80%wool, 20%nylon, color-Cocoa, 215 yds ea.  Vogue knitting's Stitchionary 2, Cables Sereknity'sSock Options yarn, fingering weight, color - "Can-Do", 400 yds 

And now for today's edition of Friday with Clover: 

http://flickr.com/photos/noolieknits/2677283891/in/set-72157604183780280/

Sorry, I had to do the link; I fought and fought, but couldn't get the video on the blog.  It's really worth the click though.  Make sure to turn your volume up.

Have a great day!

A Rant, a Thank You, and a Reminder

<begin rant> After six long and very stressful months, hubby's time of unemployment is over.  He started his new job today - exactly 6 months to the day from when he got laid off from the hell hole known as the Kittery Trading Post. 

Yep, I'm naming names now.  I've wanted to let everyone know which company laid him off and how they treated their employees since the beginning, but was afraid it'd come back to bite us.  I know there are a lot of people out there who care about how the companies they support  treat their employees; if you're one of them, this is definitely not a company you want to support.  Try Cabela'sor LL Bean instead.  It's my hope that the combination of these two businesses being in Southern Maine will put the KTP out of business. 

It's not just that they laid him off that pisses me off; it's the way they did it and the lack of appreciation for the 25 years of loyal service he gave to them.  It wasn't just him either; there were several long-time employees laid off with NO severance package at all.  I guess hubby should feel grateful for the three weeks severance he got.  There's a lot more too; stuff that has just happened in the last week or so, but I won't get into that.  Suffice it to say that if they're run out of business, that won't be enough justice in my book. 

Can you tell that I'm still angry after all this time?  If you knew the amount of stress we've endured over the last six months, you'd understand.  The financial aspect was the least of it; the emotional roller coaster ride has been very hard for all of us. 

The recent lack of support from certain family members has only added to the stress.  </end rant>

The support of other family members (especially Dad & CJ), along with that of my very good friends (both in real life and here in Blogland) has helped tremendously, and for that I am very grateful.  Thank you all so much.

I owe an extra special thank you to Patti and Roger, who listened to me and gave me support whenever I needed it.  Without their friendship, I think I'd have gone stark raving mad (although at times, I think Patti thought I already had).  Thanks guys, I love ya!

Now on a completely different note; a reminder:

    You still have time to enter my contest; just leave your entry on the contest post before midnight on Thursday, the 24th and you could win a prize.  I will reveal what the prizes will be tomorrow or Wednesday and choose and reveal the winners on Friday.

Friday with Clover - Contest edition

   
   

This picture is just screaming for a caption so I've decided to have a contest.  Leave your suggestion for a caption in the comments on this post and you could win a prize. 

 

I'll award a prize to the person whose caption  Samm and Jay like the best and another will go to a random winner.  Not sure what the prizes will be yet, but you can be sure they'll be something good :-)

 

ETA:  Contest will run until Thursday, July 24th, at midnight.

Summer Goals

I first read about Ali's Summer Knitting Goals contest over at Cookie's blog and have since been reading others' goals for the summer and decided to jump right in with my own Summer Knitting Goals.  Hopefully, I won't live to regret that decision.  It's not that I don't think I can accomplish my goals, it's just that I don't want the journey to that accomplishment to be accompanied by stress.  As I mentioned a while ago (scroll way down),  I have decided, along with Dana, to stop the madness and enjoy my knitting without stress.  I've been doing pretty well with that and intend to continue.  But, what's the worst that will happen if don't accomplish my summer goals?  Are the summer knitting goals police going to come and arrest me?  I don't think so.  So, I'm going to give it a shot; goals can be a good thing.

My Summer Knitting Goals (there aren't many):

• Finish Twinings
• Knit (or crochet) at least 8 more hats
• Make a sweater for Clover
• Continue with the 10 Minutes a day of spinning (not knitting, but still a goal).

How about you - what are your summer goals?

The Winners Are.....

WOW, there were 65 individual commenters on the contest post.  While I absolutely did read every single comment, unfortunately, I had to admit defeat and was not able to get back to everyone.  I really do appreciate all the congrats for me and I'm sending them right back at all of you.  You are an amazing group of people!  There were so many stories of triumph; a lot of former smokers (which really reinforces my knowledge that it is possible to stay smoke free forever); people who finished Masters' Degrees and PHD's.  Some of you have overcome illnesses and some have had children they were told they wouldn't be able to and others have adopted. 

What an incredible community we have here in blogland!  Thank you all for sharing your stories with me!

As I mentioned the other day, I decided to go for another stash dive and find a couple more prizes to give.  I then went to random.org to choose 4 winners.  I decided to shake things up a bit and count the commenters from the bottom to the top, with the last commenter being number 1 and the first commenter being number 65.  On to the winners:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

65	25	62	2

Timestamp: 2008-06-03 10:46:30 UTC

65 = Brenda wins:

 

25 = Dianne wins:

62 = Marianne wins:

 

#2 = Lisa wins

 

Congratulations to all the winners; I'll be e-mailing you today for your snail mail addresses.

Again, thank you to EVERYONE who participated; I enjoyed reading every one of your stories and meeting some new people.  I hope some of you newbies, will stick around :-)

Have a great day!

 

WNBP

It’s Wednesday, and even though I don’t always take advantage of the WNBP format (like when I’m too lazy to post anything at all), it’s nice to have it to fall back on.   Here goes:

• I'm glowing.  No, I'm not pregnant; bite your tongue!  I had to take a radioactive iodine pill today for another thyroid test.
• It was a little bit disconcerting when the technician administering the pill got a bit jumpy when it looked like her hand might actually touch the pill (which was encased in a thick plastic tube and dumped out into the palm of my hand).
• She tells me that I don't have to keep my distance from anyone, but that if I hold a baby on my lap, make sure my bladder is empty.
• Hmmm, I don't think I'll be holding Clover tonight.
• That’s not going to be easy; she is, after all, such a huggable baby!

 

• I'm amazed at the response to my contest!  Lots of people accomplishing lots of good things.
• If you have a few spare minutes, read the stories.  Very inspiring.
• Lots of people I haven’t heard from before; welcome! 
  
• I love "meeting" new people and reading new blogs.
  
• If I haven't yet responded to you, don't worry; I plan to respond to everyone and you'll all be entered into the contest.
• I'm thinking I may go for another stash dive and add another prize or two.
  
• If you haven't commented yet, what are you waiting for? (Although, you do have until Monday to comment.)

•   Last night at Chicks with Sticks I nearly completed my first hat for the 300 Hat Project.  I kept stopping to measure it so I could begin the decreases.  

• You know how that goes, especially when you're knitting stockinette in the round; you just want something different to break up the monotony.
• Well, I don’t know how I did it, but I ended up knitting an inch too much.  
• I could decrease every round now, but wouldn’t that make the hat pointy?  I don't think the orphans have pointy heads, so I'll rip back.
• Or maybe I'll just fold the ribbing up.  Hmmm, decisions, decisions.
• I'm hoping to knit a hat a week for the project, but I think I'll mix it up a bit and do some different patterns.  Something to keep it a little more interesting.

• Something interesting came in the mail today.
• Interesting and purty. 
• It was my Harmony interchangeable needle set!  Yippee!
• I’m really excited to try these out.
• As a matter of fact, I think I’ll close here so I can try them out on my Twinings stole.

 

Have a great night, everyone!

One Year Ago, Today....

I quit smoking.  I had tried to quit SEVERAL times before, with little success.  I tried everything available to me. 

• I tried to quit cold turkey (not advisable)
• I tried hypnosis - twice.  The first time I quit for 8 weeks, the second time only about 2 weeks.
• I tried the patch, gum, and lozenges.
• I tried Wellbutrin.
• I tried accupuncture, even.

Then last May, my sister told me about a coworker who had quit for 20 weeks (at that point) by using a new drug which was specifically designed to help you quit smoking.  Up until this drug, any other drug that was used was originally designed for something else (depression/anxiety).  Given the fact that I was going to become a Grandmother, I decided this was the time to give it a shot.  The miracle drug is Chantix, and I had absolutely no trouble quitting with it.  I didn't feel anxious, or crabby at all (not sure if I acted it, but who cares; I didn't feel it). 

I knew for sure that I had quit for good when Chris got laid off in January and I never even gave cigarettes a thought until Samm happened to ask if that was why Chris had stepped out onto the back porch late in the day.  No, that was not why; Chris is still a non-smoker as well.

To celebrate this very important anniversary, I'm going to give stuff away.  All you have to do is comment on this post by Monday, June 2nd,  and tell me about something that you have accomplished that perhaps you never thought you would, and how you did it.  Who knows, you may help someone else to succeed in something they're trying to do.

You can still win even if you don't want to leave a story.  Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered.

I'll choose a winner by using a random number generator on Tuesday, June 3rd.

So, what will you win, you ask? 


How about some Socks That Rock
in the Flower Power Colorway?  
This is 100% Superwash Merino,
Lightweight
360 yards
(This was a 2007 Sock Club yarn and you'll receive the mini-skein on a key ring along with it.)











Or perhaps you'd like some Spunky Eclectic Beefy Sock in the Navajo Gems colorway.
This is Superwash Sport weight wool,
180 yards each









What are you waiting for?  Start commenting. 

Prizes

I'm having fun reading all your guesses as to when Clover will arrive.  Samm's hoping that most of you are wrong - hardly anyone has guessed that she'll go early.  As you can imagine, she'd like Clover to come early rather than late :-)

Okay, on with the prizes.  As I said yesterday, there will be three prizes.  I'll let the person who wins the "guess the date" portion of the contest pick which prize he/she would like; the person who comes closest on the weight will get second choice, and the person picked at random will get the final prize.   

The Prizes (click pics for bigger):

Koigu



Cherry Tree Hill cotton



Canvas "Good to Go" Knitting Bag

Wouldn't you like to win one of these prizes?  Get your chance by entering the contest!

Have a great day!

Let's Have a Contest!

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my granddaughter, Clover.  Samm's due date is December 8th, just ten days away!  What better way to pass the time while waiting than to have a contest?  This is going to be a very easy contest; all you have to do is leave a comment on this post guessing when Clover will arrive and how much she will weigh.  I will give three prizes - one each for the closest guesses on date and weight, and one will be chosen at random.  If more than one person choses the correct date or weight, a winner will be drawn from the correct answers.

Everyone can play; you do NOT have to have a blog to play.  So come on out of Lurkdom and play with me!


You'll have to come back tomorrow to see what the prizes will be (I have to go stash diving tonight).

The deadline for guesses will be whenever Clover decides to arrive, so hurry up and get your guesses in :-)

On the Mend

Boy, this cold has kicked my butt!  I'm not usually such a wimp about a cold.  Yeah, I'll whine all day long about it, but usually I'm still able to function.  Not with this one.  I went to bed on Wednesday night and proceeded to shiver and shake all night long, even with a down comforter, two afghans, wool socks, and flannel jammies on!  This is where I spent all day Thursday and most of Friday:

  I spent the days blog reading and sleeping (and using up that entire box of tissues in one day).  Never did touch the stocking until Friday evening when I was able to sit up in my knitting chair in the living room for a few hours.  You know I'm really sick when I can't even manage to knit!

Things started looking up a little bit on Friday night and I was able to finish the knitting portion of the stocking.  I then found a site to create some knitting graph paper according to the gauge being worked and planned how I'd put "CLOVER" in duplicate stitch on the front, which I did on Saturday morning.  I'm so pleased with how this stocking came out. Samm really loves it, too. 

Check out the pocket; isn't it cute?  I wasn't sure how that would come out, but I'm pretty pleased with it.  I used an i-cord bind off across the top the of pocket; I think it put a nice finishing touch to it.

Some close ups:

 
I'm not crazy about how the "V" came out, but I don't see any other way I could have done it.  I used the Eye of Partridge heel and did a stitch combination on the top to resemble it (I used purls instead of slips on the top).

After finishing the stocking, I decided I HAD to get out of the house; I was going nuts (plus we had no food in the house).  So, I went grocery shopping - not a good move.  I really wasn't quite up to being on my feet for two hours yet.  I was totally wiped out!  I spent the rest of Saturday quietly - taking an afternoon nap and knitting.  I needed to be able to get up on Sunday morning and make it to work at the gym.  It was not easy getting up, but I did it.  Thankfully, it was an extremely slow day at the gym so I didn't have to get up to clean as much as usual and I managed to finish the first "Bob Sock" and start the second.  After work, I took a nice afternoon nap and vegged on the couch.  I spent the evening quietly knitting on the second Bob sock and catching up on some blog reading (you guys doing the NaBloPoMo are killing me!) 

So, want to see the Bob Socks?  I rather like the colors I'm using; I think they look kind of sock monkeyish (new word) :-)

Pattern:  Garter Rib
Yarn:  Paton's Classic Merino
Needles:  Size 5 dpn's

Plans for today?  Well, since it's a holiday, I get another day to relax.  I plan to take it easy and do some spinning until I have to meet Patti at the gym.  Luckily, I'm feeling a bit better today but I think I'll take it a little bit easy at the gym.  Then back to work tomorrow.

Ooops, I almost forgot; Chappy's mom is having another calendar contest.  Post a picture of your November calendar and you could win one of her beautiful calendars.  So, here's my entry:

Each year, my Dad makes a Family Calendar.  It's so much fun to see which photos he'll choose (as long as you're not the one whose embarrassing photo is chosen!)  You have until the 15th to get your entry in; what are you waiting for?

WNBP - Modified Version

I'm going to steal the Sheep's WNBP (Wednesday Night Bullet Post) format  today (again), but I guess mine should be called WMBP, since it's morning right now.

Here goes:

• There has been progress on the Ice Cream Sweater (more since taking  these pictures).  I can't tell you how much I am loving this sweater!  What could be a very tedious knit (fingering weight yarn on size 2 needles) is actually very fun; I'm loving watching it take shape.  I love watching the color changes.  I know, simple things, simple minds; yada yada yada

• There has been considerable progress on the secret crochet project.  For obvious reasons, I can't post a picture here, but if you are on Ravelry, you can see a picture that was taken 2 days ago.  There has been a bit more progress since taking that picture.  (Can you tell that I had planned to post these pictures earlier?)

• Saturdays have been spinning days lately.  I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday afternoon covering myself in silk fuzz spinning this silk.  It's a bit challenging, but I think it's coming out okay.

• Speaking of spinning, Alice is no longer a visitor at my house. Nope, she's not.  She is now a permanent resident of the Noolie household. Yipee!  Carole offered to sell her to me and after the time we've spent together, I knew she just had to be my first wheel.  She has been residing in the guest room (translation: my junk spare room) because I was afraid of what the kitties might do to her.  After a full day in the living room on Saturday, I decided to leave her there overnight and see how things went (I didn't dare attempt that until I had made the decision to keep her).  I worried for nothing; the kitties didn't bother her at all.  The closest any of them got was Cindy sleeping up against her leg.  She now resides in the living room all the time.

• Have you heard about this contest?  You have until midnight (Pacific Daylight Time) tonight to enter.  To sum it up, all you have to do is send pictures of hands knitting.  I heard about the contest yesterday afternoon, and since last night was Chicks with Sticks night, there was no question about entering.  Here's a collage of the photos I'm sending:

Mel, Laura, Amanda, Patti
Kit, Ellen, Me, Roger

Can you guess which one of these pics is not like the others? (Does anyone else have the Sesame Street song stuck in their head now?)  One of them is a fake.  Don't worry though; I promise not to cheat with it.

I guess that's enough for today.  Have a great one!

Shamelessly Stealing Ideas

It's Wednesday (for about another hour) and I've decided to steal the idea follow the lead of the Sheep and do a WNBP (Wednesday Night Bullet Post).  Here goes:

• Today was a holiday here in the U.S. - Independence Day, better known as "the Fourth of July".  Most people celebrate with BBQ's and fireworks; not me.  What'd I do today?  I went to the gym with Patti first thing this morning, came home and floated in the pool for a couple hours, took a nap on the couch for a couple hours, had takeout from "York's Best Roast Beef & Seafood Rest." (that's really the name) for dinner - YUMMY, knit for a while, and now posting on the blog.



• I know you are all wondering how I can stand all the excitement, but to me, this was a perfect day.



• I finally posted the Haymarket Bag pattern.  There's a link in the sidebar. (If you make it and find a mistake, please let me know)

• I started my Sockapalooza pal's socks on Sunday and finished the first one tonight. 

Yarn:  Socks that Rock, medium weight, Monsoon colorway (Feb 07 club yarn)

Pattern:  Waffle Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch

• We had a great "Chicks with Sticks" night last night at the Yarn Sellar. Mel and Annie were there, as well as Doug (whose in town for a few weeks). It was really a good time. Annie, Patti, and I ended up staying for quite a while afterward just chatting.  It was a really good night and I only had to rip out a few rows of the sock.  I guess I can't do anything more complicated than straight stockinette when I'm gabbing.



• I reserved my room for SPA 6 today.  It's going to be in Freeport in February.  Hurry and make your reservations if you're going (and you definitely should be going if at all possible)!



• Amanda is having a contest; all you have to do is answer some questions (all the answers are in her previous posts). 



• My first spindle spun yarn:

(sorry the pic is so blurry)

I finished this on Saturday and soaked it and hung it to dry overnight.  I'm not sure how much there is, certainly enough for a baby hat or something small.  I still have more of the same fiber to spin.  I love the colors and I'm pretty happy with the yarn (although you can definitely tell which part is the beginning!).

• Bloglines tells me I have 147 posts to read.  I had planned on catching up today, but was busy floating and sleeping and eating.  Guess I'll have to catch up tomorrow.



• I am taking vacation time tomorrow and Friday; my plan was to float in the pool, but given the forecast, I don't think there'll be much of that.  Oh well at least I won't be working :-)



• It is now almost Thursday so I guess I'll stop here and go to bed.

Goodnight.

We Have a Winner

Actually, we have two winners. 

1)It was really hard to pick a winner; so many really good suggestions!  In the end, I decided to go with the name that immediately brought my Nana to mind - Haymarket Bag, suggested by Sarah.  I think it's really appropriate because my Nana taught me to crochet and she used to bring me to Haymarket Square in Boston. 

2)I then used this random number generator, which gave me this:

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2007-07-02 11:06:58 IST

Ann was the second person to comment, so she wins the second prize.

Thanks to everyone for playing!

I will be posting the pattern later today (or tomorrow; I still have to proof read it) in case anyone else wants to make a Haymarket Bag.

Actual knitting content tomorrow. 

Have a great day!

A Blogiversary Contest

I can't believe it's been a year already!  To celebrate, I've decided to have a contest. 

As you may remember, I designed and crocheted a summer bag a few weeks ago.  I'm in the process of typing up the pattern but I'm at a loss for a name.  Here's the bag:

All you have to do to be eligible to win a prize, is leave a comment with a suggestion for a name on this post by this Saturday (6-30) at midnight.  I will award two prizes; one to the person whose suggestion I choose and one to a random winner.

What?  You want to see the prizes?  Okay, okay, here they are:

  OnLine Supersocke 100, Color 770

Vogue Knitting On the Go, Socks Two

Now get thinking and give me some suggestions.

(edited to add: want to enter another contest?  Go to Ali's blog and tell her how old you were when you started knitting and you could win some of Blue Sky Alpaca's new Suri Merino yarn.  Make sure you tell her I sent you.)

Put on your sunglasses; it's time to do the dishes.

This is the dishcloth I knit for Carrie's Springy Contest. The idea was to get in the spirit of Spring by casting on a new dishcloth in a wild color and a new pattern. I think this fits the bill; it certainly is wild and I've never done the Garterlac pattern. I did enjoy this (even though it killed my hands).  It was fun to see it take shape.  It's not perfect, but I like it.

And now, since I don't have anything else for you, I'll share a little test I got in an e-mail this morning. I don't know why, but this really, really amuses me. Try it.

How Smart Is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.

1. While sitting, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

Isn't that crazy?!  Are you as amused as I am?

Sweaters

This weekend was spent working on a few sweaters.  Little people sweaters. 

I finished the buttons for the pink/purple sweater.  Can I just say, I don't think I'll be crocheting little buttons with dark purple yarn again anytime soon.  My old eyes just can't take it!  The stitches were nearly impossible to see, but I managed and now I'm done.  I think they are perfect for this sweater. 

Minnowknits Gardi Cardi in Lamb's Pride pink and purple.

This is my April project for Holiday Headstart and will be for one of my great-neices.  I'm so glad I joined this KAL; I'm really getting a good headstart on my Christmas knitting. 

(Is it weird that I felt a little bit bad hanging Ted from the wall to take this picture?)

Next up, I finished the back of the Mock Cable sweater I started last week.

This is another Christmas present for my other great-neice.

I've put that aside while I knit this:

Yankee Knitter's Child's Fisherlad Guernsey in Plymouth Encore. The color is really a darker, deeper, beautiful green. This will be for my great-nephew for, you guessed it, Christmas.  See that little section of sleeve?  It was an almost finished sleeve around dinnertime last night.  As I was measuring it (10 of 10 1/2 inches done, by the way) I thought something didn't look quite right.  I looked closer and realized that I had knit the stupid sleeve inside out!  It's picked up from the sides of the sweater, which I did correctly, and then there are several patterned rows before starting the stockinette section that look the same on the right and wrong side.  I didn't even notice that I started the stockinette with the knits on the wrong side until I was almost done.  I was not a happy camper!  I ripped out the offending sleeve and put the sweater in timeout for the night.

While the sweater was thinking about what it had done, I started a dishcloth for Carrie's contest.  I'm making the Garterlac dishcloth found here, in some very bright Sugar'n Cream yarn.  I completed all but the last layer of top triangles; picture next time.  I really love the way this looks, but I'm not sure how soon I'll be doing it again - my hands are killing me!

I know I promised pictures  of the squares for Betty's blanket, but I'm lame and didn't get them taken yet.  All the squares I've received  so far are blocked and ready for the hard part of deciding how to arrange and join them.  There are still a few squares in the mail, but I think I can start to get an idea of how to arrange them.  I plan to start the process of joining them Wednesday or Thursday and hope to finish it by the end of the weekend.

That's it for today.  Have a good one :)

Ups and Downs

Today was a day of ups and downs.   First, I got to work this morning and was told that Betty is back in the hospital.  Her pain has been very bad and they admitted her to try and get it under control and do some more tests.  I didn't go see her today; she had a few visitors from work and I figured I'll wait until tomorrow and see her at lunch. It's so very hard to know that someone as special as Betty is suffering so much.  That definitely started my day on the down side.

My day was brightened, however, when Lisa arrived to have lunch with me.  She was heading to MA to her Dad's and knew she'd be traveling through my neck of the woods around lunchtime so we made plans to meet.  She came into my office bearing something very special.  Just what I needed; a square she knit for Betty.

Not only is it beautiful, it's incredibly soft as well! Thank you so much, Lisa, it's perfect.
We headed to Greenleaves for lunch because what's better than having lunch next door to the LYS. Of course, dessert was a visit to The Yarn Sellar.
We had a very nice lunch and a very nice visit; Lisa is every bit as nice in person as she is on her blog. I'm really glad she suggested the get together. Don't you just love meeting blog friends in person?

After work, I went to the gym (I really needed to after eating Chinese food for lunch) and when I got home, I found two packages waiting for me. I love it when the mailman brings me packages :-) There was another sqaure for Betty's blanket:
This one came from Nishanna. It is so soft and pretty. Thank you, Nishanna. The arrival of the squares today really helped my mood. Just what I needed.

The other package was a prize package. I didn't do much to win this prize, just run around my house getting pictures of all the creatures' feet for La's DeFeet of Cuteness contest. For some reason, she liked my pictures; I don't think it was so much that all my babies have the cutest feet (of course I think they do, but I'm their Mommy) as it was the sheer number of feet - 9 cats, 2 turtles, 2 geckos. Why yes, some people refer to my home as a zoo; why do you ask? Look what she sent me:
A great set of stitch markers. I love them! Thank you, La.

No knitting yet today; that'll happen after I post this and read some blogs.  I did, however, finish something.  Actually, all I did was sew on three buttons, but that was what I needed to do in order to officially call the Avalance Vest an FO.  Here it is with buttons:

The buttons aren't anything special; just some plain ole yellow buttons to match the vest. I looked high and low for some better buttons, but in the end, this is what I ended up with. Oh well, they do the job.

Now, I've got some blogs to read and some knitting to do. Have a good night, everyone!

You want DeFeet; I'll give you DeFeet!

This is for La because she has a foot fetish or something.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Yoshi-Samm's albino gecko, Ralph, Toadstool-Jay's leopard gecko

Rico, Phoebe, Peaches

Moogie, Marsha, Jan

Cindy, Ruby, Steven-Samm's water turtle

Lewis-Samm's box turtle

Those are DeFeet of Cuteness in my family; show yours and you could win some stitch markers from La.  Read about it here.

Moogie Weighs....

17.3 pounds; that's 17 pounds, 4.8 ounces!  It's less than I thought.  There were a few people who were really close, but Thursday wins the Socks that Rock yarn, with a guess of 17 pounds 7 ounces.  Guesses ranged from 13 pounds to 45 pounds (Moogie wasn't too happy about that one). 

I used this Random Number Generator to choose the winner of the caption contest.  Bea wins the book.

Congratulations winners; e-mail me your snail mail addresses so I can send out your prizes.  Thanks to everyone who played.  I enjoyed doing this; I may have to have another contest soon.

I'm finally going back to work today.  I'm still not feeling 100%, but I've been going stir crazy being stuck in the house sick for the last three days. 

Hopefully, I'll have some knitting content for you tomorrow.  Have a great day!

Teal + Black + Green = Crap

Holy Cow - look at the number of comments on the contest post! I know this doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but for me it's huge! You people are really quite amusing. I was showing the captions to Samm today and we were both laughing our asses off (oh,if only that were possible). One more day to enter your caption and Moogie weight guess. I'll be announcing the winner at my new home on Friday. I'll post the link here Friday morning.

I've had some nasty stomach bug for the last couple days and have been home from work. Two days in the house - you'd think there'd be lots of knitting to show for that, wouldn't you? Nope! Hardly any. This is proof positive that I've not been feeling well.

I did do some knitting on my sweater, then I did some frogging and some more knitting. I knit about 1 1/2 inches with the green and it looked like crapola. So I ripped out all the green and then continued ripping all the black. I decided to do the entire bottom of the sweater in black ribbing (the first black was stockinette). I'm hoping that I have enough black to also do the bottom half of the sleeves in black. If not, I'll just do them in teal. Here's the sweater now:

I'm liking it so far. This black yarn is weird though; it's turning my hands black. I hope it doesn't bleed onto the teal when I soak it! You wouldn't think it would since it was sold together as a kit. Speaking of the kit, I keep wondering why the colors looked good in the picture of the sweater in the kit, but didn't look good here. Strange, very strange.

I also managed to turn the heel and complete the gusset decreases on the sock. I'm not going to bore you with a picture; I'll wait until I have the sock completed.

The mailman was good to me this week. I received my order from Chappywoman; I ordered the pattern for the Faina Scarf Knitalong and also these:

Kitty purse handles! I'm going to make a knitting bag using them. Aren't they just too cute?! There was a little surprise in the package too. An adorable kitty stitch marker.

Farm-Witch sent me this yarn just because I Knit for the Kidlets. She sent everyone a prize; wasn't that nice? I think I'll make something for Colin with it.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm gonna go rest some more; I'm hoping to be able to go to work tomorrow. No, I don't miss work but I have some stuff I really need to get done this week. Besides, I'm going a little stir crazy.

Have a great night!