Rats, foiled again

This post was supposed to be titled "I TOLD YOU SO!". I've been waiting til DD#1 got home from camp to tell her that. Picking up from my last post, who uses a heavy winter quilt in the middle of the summer, anyway?

So, I picked her up last night, heard about the 7 hours practice every day, the amount of running, sweating, playing, sweating, eating and sweating that they did.

Waited for the perfect moment, then innocently asked, "So....did you use the quilt at all?"

"Oh, yes, I'm so GLAD I brought it. Everyone loved it, and at night it was so COLD!"

Rats, foiled again.


My "other-than-knitting" project for the week is to put together these blocks of a granny square afghan. I've found some cool HTML code from nonaknits. Hold your cursor over the picture, and the afghan blocks will be revealed.

How cool is that?

I do have all the squares, but in my haste to remove the blanket without moving my feet, I swept one or two away. These blocks have been accumulating over the years and it's now time to put them together and donate it to a needy organization.

In knitting news, here's a picture of my Saxon Braid Scarf. I keep reporting that I've done "another inch", so I thought I'd show how all those inches add up.


Here's what I'm doing with the baby alpaca. It's the beginning of a Clapotis, although I'm skeptical that it will cooperate on the dropped stitches. I know it should be done with different yarn and brighter colors, but somehow this appealed to me.

Camp and stuff

Here's my LYS sale purchases. I spent about an hour in the store going back and forth, what to buy....what to buy....


The sock yarn was an easy decision. So was the red fluff. That wasn't even my decision--that's DD#2's yarn--a reward for going with me. As you can see, she's started on a scarf already.


The baby alpaca was my splurge. It's gorgeous yarn, so soft and warm. It's not at all feminine, but I'm still hoping it will make a nice shawl for the winter (or the summer air conditioning!)






We worked madly on the quilts for the past week, and here they are in their completed state.

I've decided that I can never be a quilter--it takes way too much patience. Even this simple pattern: 4" blocks, sewn in strips, and the strips offset so points didn't need to match was too much for me. Both DD's worked on theirs a lot, and DD#1 did almost all of the work herself. Up to the tieing it together that was done late last night, when she pleaded with me to do it until I gave in. She had to have it today to go to a sports camp.

I tried "It's summer! It's HOT! Why do you need a heavy quilt?" But it didn't work. She seems to think that the air conditioning will be enough to need this quilt. Who am I to argue, though, when my thoughts are all about shawls, and scarves, and sweaters, and wool socks?




Off she went this morning armed with her quilt and this pile of flip flops and yarn (yes, we have a red fluff theme going on here.)

This is another project that was supposed to get done, but didn't. (No matter how much pleading was done, I wasn't about to start making fuzzy flip flops at 11:30 at night!)

She plans on doing these in her spare moments.

HA!





Besides quilting, if you can call it that, I've also done a bit of knitting: two soakers and a pair of CIC socks, and dyed some yarn.





Now if only someone would clean my house!

Sale distractions

This arrived at my house late last week.

A sale. A BIG sale. At my LYS.

I had big plans, but they got slightly hampered by this.


This is the beginnings of flannel quilt that will be DD#2's, although DD#1's is coming next. We're doing the simplest of patterns: 4" blocks, sewn in a row, then offset with the next row to hid any uneven-ness.

This quilt, while fun, has been taking up time and money that was to be spent at the sale. (especially money :) I'm hoping to get there soon, with some $$, and in the meantime have been researching my "want-to-make" list for yarn requirements. Never hurts to be prepared.

I've done barely any knitting lately--just a couple of inches on my Saxon braid scarf, which looks just like the last couple of inches, so I'll skip the picture.

While the sewing machine was out, I also fixed the zipper of a pair of shorts of DS#1.

Please mom? They're my favorites!

But honey, you understand that I can never make it look as good. Getting it closed will be the best that you can hope for.

Please, mom?

How can one say no? So I did it. Broke my last good needle, and ended up sewing with a needle used for silk or something fine like that. The eye of the needle was so fine I had to take the needle out of the sewing machine to thread it, then replace it without twisting the thread. All of this was under a time constrant. (Self-imposed. If I put it off, maybe he will forget. Nope.)

Turned out ok....better than expected, actually.

Back to planning for new yarn!

Monster feet!

It's monster feet!


Oh, wait, it's felted clogs, my mistake. The variegated yarn (knit 2 strands together), turned out a nice speckled effect, didn't it?


Can you guess what this is?




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(how annoying is this?)










That's right, it's a short toed socklet, knit from this pattern, the English version.

I've knit the 2nd one also, but now my feet are dirty, so a pic of one will have to do.

DD#1 said, "You're....not...going....to actually...wear that....in PUBLIC......are you?"
DD#2 said, "I can't believe you're actually going to wear that!" (meaning I'm way too old and un-hip.)

Ah....I've found another way to embarass my children!

Didn't get much knitting done over the weekend, but I did go to 2 reunions and do some hiking. I say "hiking" because....I'm a wimp. It was only 2 miles long, but for over half the time it was rocky like this. Can't enjoy the view when you're looking down at every step.

However, I did finish 2 pairs of CIC socks using the 6 Sox KAL pattern: Chutes and Ladders. The teal pair was the white pair from before that I finally dyed. The marroon pair is from gifted yarn. The marroon pair is what I worked on over the weekend. I didn't knit at either reunion, although taking it to my High School Reunion might have calmed me down.


This is my thrift store find for today. A bunch of knitting needles, some plastic that I don't care for, but some metal circulars that I'm really excited about, plus a set of 5 metal sock needles. Not too bad for $1.58!