A Tale of Two Projects

    Do you remember that Hubs took me to the LYS the other day, and I bought some Malabrigo sock yarn? Maybe I forgot to tell you about it, but he did. I know! It surprised me too! Well, it's been sitting there, calling to me. Last night I broke out my swift and wound it up. Then I went through my pattern book shelf, and picked out this book: Nature's Wrapture, Contemporary Knitted Shawls, by Sheryl Thies.


    There is a pattern in there that I really loved. I even started to make it once upon a time. I recently found it, partly finished. I had needed the needle for something else, and put it on a large stitch holder. Nice, except I don't remember exactly WHICH size needle I was using.....

    This is the pattern called Sandy Beach. I really enjoyed working on it, it was fun. It seems a shame to just leave it there on the stitch holder. Then I had a thought! Since it's plenty long enough, I think I'll cast it off as it is, sew the ends together, and make it into what some people call a cowl. To me it isn't a cowl unless you can pull it up over your head and still have some around your neck. Either way, it'll be pretty.


    This morning, I cast on the same project again, in the new sock yarn. I've only been working on it a few hours, here at home and at Bonny's while I was visiting.

    It's so pretty! I love watching the colors change! The colorway is 870 Candombe, in Malabrigo sock yarn. If I want to make this longer, I may have to go back and see if there is any more of this colorway!
   

Something I forgot yesterday

    I totally forgot to mention something else yesterday. I got new glasses. To most people it's like "So what?" and I know that, but I thought they were the coolest things since sliced bread. See, they have no hinges at the temples! I've shown them to everyone I know and not one person was impressed. I was disappointed, to say the least...

    And as for knitting news, Spectra is off the needles! Yup, she's all done. I ended up not doing as many wedges as the pattern called for, I think I was one shy. I just wasn't convinced that I had enough of the black for one more wedge. At some point I will block her and take photos.

Catching up.... Again.....

   I just looked at the date of my last post, and I can't believe it's been two whole weeks since then. I've tried. Every few days I will log in and just sit here, and nothing comes out. So I log out.


    That's what happens when there's lots going on and I can't say anything about any of it. There are however, a few things going on that I *can* talk about. For instance, we are getting the pool redone. It happened suddenly, after Hubs told me that it's too much work getting it ready to swim in, this year being the most work ever. Things were leaking in the pump house that had never leaked before.


    Then we happened to run into his childhood best friend, they were raised together and are like brothers. He is a contractor, and he's doing pools now as well. He has agreed to do ours for us. Trust has a lot to do with it, and he trusts Gary. The best news for me, is I am finally getting steps in my pool!


   So far we have drained out as much water as we can, and picked out and ordered the bullnose blocks for the edge. Gary will come and measure for the new liner.


    On the knitting front, I am currently in the last few wedges of Spectra by Stephen West. I'm trying to gauge if I have enough black left to do another wedge as well as the end bit. It's going to be close.


    I love this pattern so much that I already have the yarn for two more all set up. Well, either that, or a sock yarn shawl. I can't decide which. One of them I was planning on using the solid color for the wedges and the variegated for the border. Just to switch things up a little. The photo below is actually from when I got to the 70th wedge.

    Hubs is back on his Harley riding. He had some issues with an exhaust system. He ordered a new one, and ended up cancelling that order, then ordering another one somewhere else. It finally came and one of the pipes didn't have a baffle in it. So he had to call, and they had to send him a baffle. Believe me, there was much more drama than I have implied here. Hubs was really upset because he missed the whole week of perfect riding weather. But here she is with her new pipes.

    Like I said there have been lots of things going on. I hope to keep you updated on the pool, with progress photos, as well as whatever knitting o crocheting I decide to do.

Promised Photo

    Here it is, the photo of my Spectra progress. I did another couple repeats last night!

    I can now easier see the color changes. I hope you can too!

Owen and knitting progress

    This morning, Owen was in his jumpy thing when I got there. About 20 minutes after Daddy left for work, I noticed that he was getting tired and not jumping as much. He would stop, and his head would start to fall forward, then he would open his eyes and start jumping again. He wouldn't give in. Eventually, though, he did give in. My question is this: Am I evil for taking photos *before* I took him out of it?

    The good news is that I was able to get him out of it, still asleep. He did start to jump again when I touched him to pick him up, but I shushed him and cuddled him, and he didn't wake up.


    As for kitting progress, there is some! I am currently finishing the 25th wedge (pattern repeat) . The color has changed again too. It turns out that the first color was a purplish pink, then came orange, now it's a bright pink.


    I don't have a new photo of my progress. I will take one tomorrow and post it. Promise.

A Color Change..... I think....

    I have knitted now, 12 or 13 of these pattern repeats. I do believe that today at Bonny's I noticed the color was finally changing. When I compare the current wedge to the first one, the newer one is definitely orange, while the original one is pink.

    I will have you know that I went outside to take this photo. I stood on my burning hot, rock slab stoop, burning the heck outta my poor feets. And the stupid thing keeps curling up. But I do believe you can see the color changing.


    If I make another one of these, I will definitely use a yarn that has shorter color sequences. This yarn is not very satisfying in that department. YET.


    I decided that in every tenth wedge I was going to place a marker, to aid in the counting. After all, I'm supposed to make 85 of these fracking wedges, and it's much easier to count by 10's. So that's the white thing you see in that one wedge. It's like a little plastic safety pin. I have white ones and black ones.

I'm Knitting!!

   That's right, I am temporarily out of my funk. When I was picking up the living room last week, I found a pattern that I had bought a couple of years ago, the last time we went to Rhinebeck. It has been calling to me to make it. I gave in today.


    It's Spectra by Stephen West. I am using black Malabrigo sock yarn and Painted Desert yarn, color way Eruption. I have 5 sections done so far, only 80 more to go!!

 
    The Painted Desert color way changes are really long, so I have to promise you another photo when you can actually see more than one color, although if you really look, you can see at the bottom of the photo it's a little more purple and at the top it's a little more pink. Either way, I will take more photos as the colors change.


    I would like to mention that the needle shown in the photo is one of the vintage nylon ones I got at the flea market slash craft fair. It really looks like it should glow in the dark, doesn't it? It doesn't. I tried it today while I was at Bonny's house. I was a bit disappointed.


    Those of you with keen eyes may have noticed that the wedge yarn is the same one as the Pi Shawl I've been working on for - like - ever. I bought an extra ball last time I was at Out of the Loop yarn shop, in case I needed more. I think all crocheters think that way, since crochet uses so much more yarn and we have learned to buy way more than we really need. Especially for knitting!

Napping Baby Photos and Interferring Cat

   Yesterday, I was taking the photos of the circular needles while Owen napped. Friendly cat Nermal was trying to help me. I couldn't get her to stop playing with the needles! I finally got the shots I wanted, although some of them did turn out a bit blurry.


    Anyway, here is what Owen looked like when he was napping!

   I also took a photo of his little hand, as it amused me that he fell asleep with his finger through the ring on his toy.

    And lastly, here is a shot of beloved Nermal, getting in my way while trying to play with the circular needles that I was attempting to photograph!

    She really is the sweetest cat, she's the one who licks my nose and accepted me into their clowder. She is also a magnificent purrer.

My Awesome Flea Market Find

   When I was at the flea market/craft fair last weekend, I didn't have to look far to find something really cool. My booth partner's daughter had some circular needles she wanted to sell. After looking at them, I instantly asked her how much she wanted for them. I got them for $5!


    I am pretty sure that some of them are vintage, I'm just not sure *how* vintage they are. We'll start with these little beauties. Little plastic circulars that are just the right size to make one sock:

    Then there is this one, complete with 50' style packaging:

    It's a one piece plastic (nylon) circular! There are about 4 more of these, but without any packaging:

   The coolest ones though, are these:

    I didn't realize this photo was so blurry. Anyway, these are circular needles with a METAL BRAIDED CORD. I have never seen anything like this. I have 6 of them, 3 little tiny ones like for a single sock, and 3 bigger ones. Maybe 24 inches long.


    There are also quite a few needles that don't seem to be too vintage, but some that are obviously older than what I'm used to. They have a more pronounced angle on them. Here's a photo of what I mean:

   I would be very interested to know if anyone has any idea how old these needles are, and if they are worth anything to collectors. Please feel free to leave a comment, send me an email, or contact me via facebook or twitter.


   Even if they are not worth anything, I am thrilled to have found them! Happy knitting, everyone!

The Craft Fair/Flea Market

   It took place yesterday. We had a ball. Even though we got there a bit late and were still setting up when people started coming through. Here is what we ended up looking like!

    That's my good friend Bonny crocheting away behind the table there. She had baby sweaters that she had made.

    And she had really cute dolls too!

   I had my cat toys.

   She sold quite a bit and was very happy! I didn't sell a single cat toy. I wasn't unhappy, though. It was lots of fun and I got to talk to lots of people.

   
    You may have noticed in the first photo that we were under a Snap On tool thing. We got lots of men coming over looking excited, because of that! Bonny had suggested that we should have signs made to hang up that say NO TOOLS on them.


    I actually spent $5 and bought a bag of circular knitting needles. Some of them look old. In fact, some of them have metal cables, and two of those are teenie sizes! There's one, in it's package, with an illustration that looks straight out of the 1950's. I can't wait to show them to my knitting expert and see what she has to say. Heck, the bag alone was worth $5 to me, as a place to round up all my current circulars that have no packages!

Randomness on Mother's Day

    Today is Mother's Day, and yesterday was my beloved Hubs' 50th birthday. Some years they both fall on the same day. And yes, I caught myself a younger man. After nearly 26 years, it makes no difference anyway.


   Our son, and my youngest child, Jesse, is away in the U.K. for a karate tournament. He should be back tomorrow evening, according to his fiancé. I know it's silly, but I was worried. This was a huge tournament, and even though he is an experienced martial artist, and holder of a 4th degree black belt, I still worry about him.


    Even though he was busy with his tournament, he managed to send his dad birthday wishes, and Mother's Day wishes to me. I can't wait to see the videos that were taken of his fights. He won 1st place in his division in sparring, but didn't win Grand Champion. I hear he lost the last fight for that honor. So he came close.


   I was looking through my photos today, and found a couple of funny ones. Sara had tried on a couple of my wigs and took photos of herself.

    I should get her to try all the others on too. There is also a very funny one of Jesse in one of my wigs, dressed in his paintball gear. Well I can't find that one. I thought it was in my files on my laptop.


    I had a ball babysitting for Owen this week. He's getting so big. He likes to stand up on your legs and all you have to do is hang on to him for balance. He's not good at balance yet. He can't even sit up by himself, but he loves to sit, and stand too.


    But you really have to be careful. The other day, after his daddy left for work, I Owen was sitting on my leg, and I looked away for a second. The little turd spit up all over his bib, and it puddled on my pants leg. Nice. No sound at all, just a wet feeling on my leg. I looked back and there it was!

    I seem to have lost any interest in crafting right now. I have made more than a few cat toys for the craft fair/flea market. I just realized that's next Saturday! AARRGGHH. Oh wait, I'm ready! No need to worry. Anyway, the cat toys are fun, and I hope I sell bunches of them. All other crafting is in a time out. That happens sometimes, you just don't feel like doing it for a while. Sort of like blogging.........


   

What I've been up to lately...

    It's been a while since I last posted, and for that I apologize. Sometimes I have things to say that just can't be said. Or I just don't feel like posting that particular day. So I guess I've been really lazy.


    And lately I've been keeping secrets too. My mom was feeling left out of the information age, and especially missed seeing all the photos of the great-grandchildren that get posted on facebook. So.... she asked me about getting her a computer. Hubs and I looked at many different ones, then Hubs had the great idea of a tablet for her. No buttons! Touch screen! Easy peasy.


    So we researched and decided on the large size kindle fire HD. She already has a regular kindle, and is familiar with the concept. She herself called and got her own wifi hotspot. I was there today when it got turned on. The man who came was very helpful and understanding.


   She now has an email account of her own, and is signed up on facebook. We thought we'd start with just a couple of things to get her going. She is an intelligent woman, and can figure things out. Even if she went to a one room schoolhouse.... And she is 81 years old, and in nearly perfect health.


    If she decides she can't handle it, she can sell her kindle fire, and get rid of her hotspot. I thought she deserved to have a chance at catching up with the 21st century.

Shameless baby photo sharing

   Here it is, the long awaited photo of grandpa and Owen on the Fat Bob. Owen doesn't look too excited but he will!

   My Hubs is so cute! I swear, he's getting better looking as he gets older. By the way, one of the rare times I get to take his photo is when he's holding Owen.....


    Now for other news. The cover for my new nook came today, and I'm very excited about it. All that's left is for the screen protectors to show up. I don't get it, the screen protectors shipped days before the cover, yet the cover is here and they aren't. Hmmph. That's the postal system for ya.


    Spent time with good friend Bonny today, helping her put some finishing touches on a few of her projects to sell at the flea market/craft fair. That's May 17th, at FDR High School in Hyde Park. It's the same day as the town wide yard sale. If you're going to be participating in that and driving all around town anyway, stop by the High School. It'll be worth it, I swear.

Catching up again

    It seems we have found the problem with my laptop. The power/charging cord was bad. Hubs and I went to Best Buy and got a new one, and so far it seems all better! There is only one little problem left. This blog site isn't recognizing the browser I'm using. That makes no sense to me, as I use Google as my browser, and Google owns the blogsite. As long as I can continue to post, it matters not to me.


   I did get to go visit with mom yesterday, at least for a while. Hubs had to go to the house in Fishkill to look at, and hopefully fix, a couple of problems they've been having. He dropped me off at mom's so we could visit. We had a nice time. Unfortunately, it wasn't as long of a visit as I thought it would be. It turns out that everything was OK at the house, at least for now.


    I recently purchased a new nook HD+. It's the big one. I love it so far. I love the touch screen, and I made it so that when I'm reading and turn the page, when I swipe the screen it looks like an actual page is turning. It really is the little things that make me happy.


    Since my laptop is back up, I've been busy transferring photos from there to my nook. I can use them for wallpaper! I need to get some photos of Chloe, Mason and Owen from far away, because of the scale thing. I put a close up of Owen as a wallpaper, and all I got was an eye, a nose, and part of his smile. It was scary looking.


   My days last week babysitting for Owen were lots of fun. He is such a joyful little boy. And at 5 months old, he loves it when you hold him up and he stands on our legs. He can actually support his weight, we just hold him for balance. He might be an early walker. I'm not sure if I should be happy for Sara and Mike, or sorry for them!


    Here is the latest photo of Owen, having tummy time.

    I am shamelessly adding the photo of Owen because it seems when I post photos of the grandkids, I get many more views!


    I was knitting on the legwarmers, but the new nook took my attention away from them. I do take them with me when I go to watch Owen. I hope to get some work done while he naps. Keep your fingers crossed, I might take a photo of them if there's any visible progress...

One from the new nook

    This one I'm writing on the new nook, my laptop is still messed up. I've been busy getting ready for the craft fair/flea market on May 17th. This will be a short one also, as I'm currently babysitting Owen. Right now he's happy but that could change in an instant.


    This weekend I plan on visiting my mom. It's been too long. I am still working on the leg warmers, but not a lot. One if these days I will figure out how to get photos from facebook to my nook. In the meantime, stay happy!


    It seems that from my nook, I can't put in any labels...

It's been a while....

    I know, and I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I had my laptop crash. Then after we sort of got it back, it wouldn't connect to anything. I think I finally got most things working again, except for some reason I couldn't log into my blog.


    Today I finally got through, but I'm still not sure if what I write will actually post. How can a blog site, owned by google, not recognize google as the search engine I'm using? It confounds me. But I shall keep writing and hope it posts.


    I've been working like a mad woman these past few days, getting more rings and yarn for my cat toys, as well as gathering more supplies of other kinds. For instance Hubs gave me some small S hooks he found in the garage, new in the package. I can use them to hang my cat toys in the wire cubes we are using. I also purchased some paper lunch bags for those toys that are purchased.


    I have also been busy making more cat toys, as well as re-tagging the ones that I had previously tagged. So now, all the toys are tagged with the new business cards, and the measurement on the back. This evening I made four more toys. As you may be able to tell, I bought more yarn today, and my good friend Bonny gave me some of hers too.


    Now my hands are tired, and so am I. Hubs has gone to bed already, as he has to work tomorrow. Before I sign off, I wanted to tell you that I've taken the legwarmers out of their time out. It felt good to work on them today while I was at Bonny's.

News, news and more news!

    See what happens when I take a couple of days off? There are developments in nearly every aspect of my life! First, I'm excited about the craft fair next month. Even more so since I was browsing business cards and found one that was perfect for my cat toys! So I ordered some!

    And they will arrive before the craft fair, so I can put one on each cat toy! As if that wasn't enough, I got word from Hubs that our friends female cat is having kittens. They have a young Munchkin male cat, and he bred with their regular female cat. I get to have a kitten if any of the babies turn out to be Munchkins! I am so excited! Here is a photo of a Munchkin cat, just so you know what they look like.

    And here is what a kitten looks like!

    I have no idea what Sam and Jade's kittens will look like, it could go either way. Jade is a beautiful short hair, mostly white, and Sam is a long hair Munchkin. I'm really looking forward to meeting their offspring.


    As you remember, I watched Owen Monday and Tuesday this week, as well as my regular gig on coming up on Thursday and Friday. Well, this week, he rolled over for the first time! I was so excited! He did it four times in all, the first two times to the left and the second ones were to the right. He was so calm about it, he didn't startle himself at all. I tried to get it on video but he wasn't co-operating. I did get a photo of his smile, though.

    He's been drooling up a storm lately! I've been calling him Drooly Smurf. So far, no teeth have poked through, though. His mommy can't feel any yet.


    And lastly!! I have made a decision. After the craft fair, if I haven't sold all my cat toys, I am going to post them for sale in my etsy store. I've had one for ages, but never posted anything for sale yet. It should be fun! And I have the benefit of a good friend who has had experience with an etsy store so if I have any questions, she will help me out.

It's all in the preparation

    Five weeks from yesterday, on May 17th, there will be a craft fair at FDR High School, here in Hyde Park. Once again, with my friends Mckenzie and Bonny, I will be there selling my handcrafted things. This time, I am featuring my very own, self-designed cat toy. I call it Lazy Kim's Cat Toy.

     I originally made one for my kitteh Ozzy, and he loved it. Over the years, I think he's had three of them. I have made them for all my family members that have cats. I even made a special double one for Jesse and Julie's cats, at their request. I recently had to make them a new one, since the Lady and Gizmo destroyed it. Every toy is Ozzy tested and Ozzy approved.


    I will also have my crocheted blankets, as well as a few knitted shawls. Bonny is cranking out some crocheted dolls! They are really cool, and with each doll you purchase, you get a crocheted outfit of your choice! Mckenzie will have more of her goodies that she makes herself, including her superior lip balm. I'm sure she will also have some new items that I haven't even seen yet!


    If you are in the area on that day, please feel free to stop by and see us!

Two days with Owen

    This week was special, for a number of reasons. In case you don't remember, I babysit for my youngest grandchild every Thursday and Friday. He is the cutest patootie I have seen since his mom was a baby!


   We were having a great time together on Thursday, hanging out and talking to each other. Then he went and partially filled his diaper THREE TIMES! At least they were small ones, and easily cleaned up.


    He loves it when you talk to him, and sing to him. So yesterday, I made my own station on their Pandora, a 70's Rock station. Now I can really sing to him! He is so cute, and he really does sing back at you! I need to find a microphone shaped soft or chewy baby toy. This child is going to be a vocalist, as well as a drummer like daddy and grandpa.


    Next week I will be caring for Owen four days out of the five, so I will probably not be in touch. I'm sure I'll be a total basket case by the end of the week. Who knew that caring for a baby could wear you out so much? It's not like he's a toddler and running around and getting into everything! He pretty much stays where you put him.


    And now for a few photos. These are not new, just my favorites!

    I have been informed that this last one was not posed. He actually fell asleep like that!

Back to real business

    Since the felting fiasco, I've gone back to working on my previous projects, specifically the Pi Shawl and the double knit pad thing for Owen. It was hard going back to the shawl, with its sock weight yarn. I'd been using two strands of worsted weight for so long, my hands hurt from the much smaller knitting movements required for the Pi Shawl.


    I've only done a couple of rows on the double knit pad for Owen, but I did find the two color sample I had made of regular double knitting. One side is one color, and the other side is a different, contrasting color. You can make a design on both sides simply by using the second color to knit the first color's stitch, and vice versa. Here are photos of my sample:

    And there you have it. It is harder to do, because you are holding both colors at the same time. But once you get the hang of it, it's not really that bad.


   Lastly, I have a new photo of the Pi Shawl progress. Again, it doesn't look like much, and you'll see it better when it's all done and stretched out.

    As it gets bigger, the stripes of color get thinner. And that's all I have for today.