Stuff and Things

Still working on Gary's socks. I have finished the gusset and working towards the toe on the first sock. Made mocha ice cream with my new electric ice cream maker on Sunday! It was good. I used half & half instead of heavy cream and it wasn't as creamy as I would like, so now I am making coffee ice cream with heavy cream. So much to do before Dad arrives on Tuesday. Trying to get the spring house cleaning done (I know it's summer!), and finish up summer school (2 more days), and work in the gardens, and knit, and sew, and shop and paint at church. Getting lots of vegetables from the garden now; cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, onions, and broccoli. We have tons of tomatoes (not ripe yet), blossoms on the eggplant and the pickling cucumbers. I have jalapeno peppers, green peppers, dill and basil. Now I just have to find time to freeze or can. I want to make pesto soon. Must get Kaylee's birthday presents wrapped and sent out today. Hopefully when Kari comes the end of August, Sarah and Michael will come down with the kids for a day. Haven't seen Kaylee in a year and I haven't seen Alex since he was born in the spring (just pictures). Can't wait to see Dad and Arden. We will try to get out to see Kelli and Rachel when they are here. They will be here 2 weeks and then Kari will be here a week after that for a few days! I do miss having her close by. Can't wait to have family around!

Socks

I got a couple inches done on Gary's socks last night. I think changing needles will work. I can't believe I agreed to teach summer school, even if it is only 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. Week 3 and 1 more to go and I am wishing I didn't do this. The kids are great and we are having fun, but it does mess up the day. By the time I come home, I feel like I don't have enough time to do anything. I want to knit, sew and work in my garden in the morning. Remind me next year to say no.

Started Gary's socks but had to frogged them and start again with smaller needles. That's what I get for tweaking patterns. This is a self striping yarn too. Hope I can do as well on this pair matching the stripes as I did on my blue ones. I do love the center pull skein of yarn that I wound on Kelli's ball winder. I can't wait to get mine! The yarn comes out of the bag I made easily. I still think I will put interfacing on the next bag though.

Socks Finished

I finished the socks! Took me almost a month. I even got them to match almost perfectly!
Now on to Gary's socks. I am trying to figure out whether to use Ann Budd's seeded rib sock pattern or tweak a pattern I know fits and just use the ribbing.

Yars Sale and Thoughts

The yard sale went okay yesterday. The weather was good. Got rid of a lot of stuff. Didn't make a lot of money. Decided to put some furniture items and tires on Craig's List. I'd never done that before. I have people wanting what I posted. I am kind of excited about this. Need to get in touch with people later today. Hopefully they will follow through. If this works I may do more Craig's List. An added plus for yesterday's yard sale was I could knit in between customers. I am almost finished with the second blue striped sock! Then I can start Gary's. I think I figured out why I am not happy with the knitting bag I made. I think I should have put some interfacing in it to make it stiffer so it will stand up better. It may be because I am not using a center pull ball of yarn. I wound the yarn for Gary's sock on Kelli's ball winder so I will know if it is the bag or the yarn soon. I have a ball winder coming!

New Book

I got my new Ann Budd book yesterday. My oldest daughter, Kari sent it to me for my birthday, even though my birthday isn't until August. I love early presents! It's Getting Started Knitting Socks. While Kelli has taught me so much about socks and I know some of what is in the book, I am learning new information too, like splicing yarn! There are some beautiful cable and lace patterns in the book that I can't wait to try. I have already picked out a pattern for socks for Gary and a pattern for me when Kelli finishes my spinning my new yarn. Still working on my blue striped socks. Garage sale is tomorrow, so hopefully I can get the last sock finished quickly after tomorrow. Then I can start on Gary's socks with a new pattern!

Yard Sale

Still working on my blue striped socks. Have been waylaid by our pending yard sale this Saturday... and teaching summer school...and the garden...and meetings. This has become a lot of work, but there is so much stuff in this house that we never use. I'm beginning to wonder why I put myself into this endeavor. Finally finding closets though and I will be able to walk in the girls' rooms!! Found things I didn't remember I had. Hope the weather will be nice but the forecast calls for rain.

My Roving

Kelli sent me these pictures of the roving she hand dyed for me. I'm so excited! It's 4 oz. of Superwash Merino-Bamboo-Nylon. She will spin it for me into yarn, since I don't spin. Then I can make more socks!

If you want quality hand dyed roving you should see her Etsy Shop.

Llady Llama Fiber Co.

Here is the link.

http://lladyllamafiberco.etsy.com/

New Yarn Coming

Kelli sent me a picture yesterday of the roving she dyed for me, but at this time I am unable to post it here. She's going to spin it up for me. I have no idea what to make yet, but I'm so excited and can't wait to see it in yarn! I have ideas for Christmas presents, but so many that I know I will never get them all done in time. So for now I will just go finish my blue striped sock.

My Striped Socks

I found a little shop in Watkins Glen, NY where I got Kaylee's yarn for her sweater. At the same time I found self striping sock yarn. So, I got yarn for new socks for me and my husband picked out a skein too for a new pair of socks. Can't have too many socks. I followed my Vanilla Sock pattern, but used a basket weave stitch. It made the socks a little looser going toward the ankle, but not so loose that I felt the need to take them out and start again. This was my first attempt at a stitch pattern on a sock. I thought the stripes and how they changed when I changed my knitting pattern were extraordinary. It doesn't seem to take much to make me happy these days when I have yarn and needles. I'm still working on the second sock, because I had to take time out to fight the bunnies that were invading my vegetable gardens. But.. that's another story!

Kaylee's Sweater

Here is Kaylee's Sweater. It was taken from Ann Budd's book of sweater patterns. I like the book layout now that I am used to it. This book gives basic sweater patterns in multiple sizes(Child to Adult and Pullover to Cardigan). I wanted a raglan sleeve pattern like Alex's baby sweater. I'm not as happy with this as I had hoped I would be. I didn't like the way I had to add the border after the sweater was finished and I didn't like the way the neck was finished off. I will tweak this before I use it again.

Alex's Baby Sweater

Now to something harder. I decided to make a baby sweater for Kari's best friend's baby boy, Alex, since baby sweaters are little and wouldn't take up too much time. Thank goodness for free patterns. I searched and searched because I wanted to find something I could do easily using needles I had. I really thought this came out well in my first attempt at a sweater. Sarah loved it and Alex got a chance to wear it before he grew too much. Thank goodness the spring and early summer here in upstate New York was cool and rainy.

After I finished the sweater I decided to make matching booties. I had one made from earlier in the winter, but got sidetracked making socks. So I quickly made the second bootie, added ties, and sent the package off.

Black socks for Gary

Everyone needs more socks in the winter. So I started another pair for my husband and finished them the first part of March. I'm getting the hang of this sock thing now.

Socks for Husband

I then went on to make socks for my husband, Gary. He had loved the pair Kelli had made and needed more for those cold winter nights. Once again I needed Kelli to send me a basic pattern. This was a basic sock pattern. Nothing too difficult yet.

Mauve Socks

Here's my second attempt at socks for me! Yeah warm, happy feet!

My First Socks

My first socks. Kelli gave me the pattern, which was the Vanilla Sock Pattern. Easier than I thought. I love my socks!

How it all started again.

I must give a little background to the whole knitting thing. My grandmother (Nana) was always knitting or sewing. One of the things she made was baby booties. She knew that pattern by heart. These booties had a tie on them and she always said it was to make sure they stayed on little feet. Everyone she knew who had a new baby received several pairs of these booties. My mom, my brother, my cousins, my children and I all had pairs of these when we were babies. My grandmother taught me to knit and I spent many glorious hours with her making slipper socks and ponchos. I never learned to use dpns and make those baby booties. She died when my children were still little. I wished I had asked her to write that pattern down. I searched every Workbasket Magazine she had saved, which numbered in the 100's, but never found that pattern. When my daughter, Kelli started knitting socks, I asked her to help me with a pattern for baby booties. I showed her the booties I had saved throughout the years. She of course went online and searched patterns. We found a pattern close to what my grandmother had made and tweaked it to match as close as we could. Then I needed to learn to knit booties, which was no easy endeavor! But first I had to get needles. I had just given my daughter all of my grandmother's, my mother's and my mother-in-laws knitting needles and accessories. She gave me back some dpns and I was on my way. Lucky for me she was there in the beginnning to help. Five needles, a new way to cast on stitches, stitches slipping off, losing stitches, counting rows in a circle, stitch markers, figuring out heel flaps, gussests and the kitchener stitch. Oh my, it wasn't pretty! Thank goodness for videos online and unlimited long distance calling to my daughter! I made several pair before I decided I was ready to attempt something bigger. By now I had the knitting fever. In the last few months it has just blossomed. I took pictures of my socks. I learned to use flickr and download pictures. I became a member on Ravelry. I've browsed patterns and knitting stores. Iwent to adult socks after Kelli, my daughter, made me a pair for Christmas and my feet were finally warm! I wanted warm feet all the time and I knew one pair of socks would never be enough. Then I made socks for my husband and he loved them! Kelli had made him one pair for Christmas too and he was wearing them constantly! I moved to baby sweaters when my oldest daughter's best friend, Sarah had a baby boy(Alex) this spring. Then I went on to make his sister(Kaylee) a sweater for her 2nd birthday in August. Sweaters and socks are important to me since I live in Upstate New York and the winters are long, snowy, and cold. I've learned so much about knitting and yarn and fiber that I never knew, thanks to Kelli. I guess it's never to late to teach an old mom new things. And I'm still learning!

My first baby booties

My second attempt.

This is my first entry.

Wow, I can't believe I am finally doing this! My need to share my crafty ideas and accomplishments finally pushed me to it.I currently have projects on Ravelry.I have so many ideas that I think I need to write them down so I can accomplish a few of them. I have taken up knitting again thanks to my youngest daughter, Kelli, who has opened her own fiber business on etsy called Llady Llama Fiber Co. http://lladyllamafiberco.etsy.com/
She has taught me so many things in the last few months and not just about knitting. I knew how to knit, but never attempted anything complicated, or what I thougth was complicated. She taught me to knit with dpns and made me my first pair of socks. Now I am hooked or needled, since I don't crochet. We just visted her last week, and I can't wait to try knitting something with cables, with lace, or with both. But.. I have to finish a pair of socks I started first. I try not to have more than one project going at a time, but I did take time out to make a knitting bag when I got home from her house last weekend. She showed me a picture of a bag and I set to designing one. I have one, but will probably tweak it a few more times before I make them as gifts.