1st day

1st day of substitute teaching for the year. 4th grade. Kinda crazy, bored them to tears in the am with the reading lesson....guess there was supposed to be fun stuff too, but I didn't understand it in the plans...oh well...

Finally got the right front of my sweater re-knit (record number of rip backs for me!) and am working on the decreases and the lapel increases and it should just be "rollin" now.

Got a pork roast in the oven this evening for tomorrows dinner as I'll get home late and at least that will be ready. My crazy schedule begins again in earnest. Job 1 Studio, Job 2 Subsitute teacher, Job 3 - Family. good thing Job 4 - Nutcracker isn't happening this year!

Fair Results

Fair results: All color work marked down because judge said I carried yarn floats more than 3 stitches. I was taught 5 to 7 as the catch down shows a little.
Halloween vest - blue (floats!) “Good job, cute, don’t carry floats more than 3 stitchs)
Sideways cuff socks - blue - “good job!”
Striped child socks - blue (fraternal - judge wondered if miss matched pair!)
Faroese doll shawl - blue
Variaged baby sweater - blue - judge says “nice work, good job knitting”
Variegated baby booties - blue
Open finger hot pink mitts - blue
Brown and pink Felted purse - blue - judge notes no money in purse (ha! She does have a sense of humor!)
Mary Had A Little Lamb Set - red “Don’t Carry floats more than 3 stitches”
Beret - red “Don’t carry floats more than 3 stitches”
Lace dishcloth - red -“edge a little tight” (I agree with this comment)
Lime green hat with flower - red
Felted clutch purse - red “Cute“ (I actually thought this was a better piece than the brown and pink purse)
Firetruck sweater - white “Don’t carry floats more than 3 stitches”
Handspun scarf - no ribbon - “lots of competition”
Sewn tribal hip scarf - red - forgot to take out basting stitches on trim - I felt dumb when I read that! I
Total 8blues, 6 reds, 1 white,

This is the Bastille Day Beret I made for mom. The band features the French Flag, while the top of the hat contains the colors of the flag and small fleur de lis symbols.

The Vive La France beret is finished and will be sent to mom, she can either give it to Berthe or the alliance to raffle off for scholarship $. It did not turn out quite as I had planned as I wanted to put Eiffel towers on the top but I grew frustrated with bad graphs and abandoned the idea. Graph patterns adapted from 45 Fine and Fancy Hats to Knit by Anna Jillborg. (think I spelled that right).

Working on a neutral colored cropped cardigan for myself. Reminding myself once again that I am not fond of cotton yarn.

The menus from www.e-mealz.com are working out pretty well. I've actually been cooking about 4 days a week, but school will start soon and we'll see if I can keep it up. My plan is to spend part of Sundays cooking several meals at once, which will be fun to do and nutricious. The e-mealz tend to be high on sodium, but I'm learning to do some adapting.

Wed June 2

I had a great time visiting Mom this past weekend, even with the incredible windstorm! I gave her the beret and she loved it! Promises to wear it to the Bastille day party. We'll see if that happens...

Working on blue contest socks, part way through 2nd diamond of 2nd sock.
Working on Berry cherry sock 1
Contemplating a number of other projects.

Got sub info in mail today...pay went up $10.00 a day...yay! That much more to slam on a credit card and inch my wayout of debt. Think of how much yarn I can buy when I'm debt free.... or at least cc free, 'cause that studio buildings gonna take a loooong time.!

Me day

Yesterday, I took a "me" day. I concentrated on doing what I wanted to do. I did listen to a little music for a student, but mostly did not work. (You know how hard that is for me!)

I dyed my Knitpicks Bare fingering yarn with Berry Blue and Black Cherry Kool-aid. This was the 1st time I have dyed yarn and it was really fun. I enjoyed the process and anxiously awaited the drying process (sped it up by hanging outside on our 89 degree day!). In the evening I got out my swift and ball winder and wound it up and cast on (60 stitches, size 2 needles) I did the ribbin 1.5 inchs 2x2 and started the stockinette. This will be a plain sock, just for the knitting enjoyment of it and to see how the yarn colors play out. What fun that was! When I finish these, I may let myself order another skein as I have lots of Kool-aid left (green, berry blue, black cherry and raspberry.)

In the afternoon, I cut out and sewed a hipscarf from parrot fabric for a friend, learning better how to use my two-year old "new" machine (bought it 2 years ago, haven't been able to or had time to use it since). I can now strait stitch with the best of them. Pulled yarn out of stash to make yarn fringe for it. Been thinking this am that it might need a few tassels...lots of those colors left in the stash.

Read a little in my book "2nd Chance' by James Patterson.
Made grilled chicken, fresh greenbeans, wheat roll and strawberries for dinner (yes, it's true, I cooked 2 days in a row...tonight will make 3...heartstopping, isn't it?)

Today, I must do a little more work but not much...
Finished contest sock this morning, ready to cast on the left foot. Must work on Vive La France if I'm to get it finished in time. Berry Cherry sock will have to wait, actually it will be a great Omaha sock, as there will be nothing to concentrate on and can just talk to mom.

dyeing to knit

As usual, I'm wayyyy behind on trendiness! I've just made my 1st attempt at dyeing yarn with kool-aid and it was fun! I'm waiting for it to cool down (or is that kool down?) so I can hang it outside to drip dry. I used berry blue and black cherry kool aide and knitpicks "bare" fingering yarn. I can see how addictive it could be to dye your own yarn....knitpicks sock blanks might be fun too, and maybe easier to get an even color satuation, as I think the back side of my skein will be a little lighter than front, but should work out when it knits up (I think!) but this was fun.

I'll resist the urge to log on and buy more skeins of yarn until I've knit this up! Must have a little control of the stash. Just found a new baby sweater pattern on knitty that might help me use up some of the red heart that just doesn't go away. ...and I'm going to say right here and now that I'm really tired of the festival yarn, I just want to knit with yarn that's not in pieces!

Festival!

Mmmm, I had a good time at Salina's River Festival. I ate (not all at once) an apple dumpling, chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, an Indian Taco, Bratwurst with sauerkraut, Island Noodles with vegetables, Gelato, Kettle Corn, Chicken strips, Grilled chicken sandwich, a few bites of a blooming onion and drank more water than I would have thought possible for myself!

Bought a new art piece for the studio, a glass paperweight for my mom, and a Randall Spangler print for my hubby. Listened to good music and saw fire dancers. How cool was that?

I finished knitting the body of the firetruck sweater, and did a hat with festival yarn and a scarf with festival yarn. (the firetruck sweater slowed me down). I decided to make the truck sweater a pullover instead of my usual cardi and that may have been a mistake, it's not stretchy! But, I think I'm going to leave it as is, and put a zipper in the side seam (two new things in one project!) and go ahead and finish it. Experimental knitting at it's finest!

Jan 12 post that went astray

Today was my husbands 60th birthday party. We celebrated it today as I will be out of town on his real birthday the 19th. We had a nice time, he certainly enjoyed seeing everyone who came. I bought much too big a cake, but he's taking it to work and I doubt it will last long there!I finished the socks I had been working on, just in time as another pair has bit the dust. I will reknit the toes once, but when the sole blows out, it's time to say good by to that pair and knit another. I also started a pair in Trekking that I bought just before Christmas. The colorway is surprising me, I thought it would be short bursts of color but these are rather long and blend very subtly into one another.I also finished hat #25 and started #26. This time I'm using larger needles and double yarn just for the heck of it. No photo's today, don't want to take the time to upload them and move them around.

Jan 17th post that went astray

I knit a little on my 2nd sock at coffee this morning with friends R and P, that was pleasant! Need to finish white bobble/red Festival scarf and start a hat for the newspaper interview on Sunday. Cake in the oven, guess I'll go knit a little.

Berets

The beret on the left is the 2nd one I knit. I made it with yarn left from the 1st beret. The 3rd photo shows the detail from Beret # 1. I changed the charts up a little to use the different colors of yarn. So far, everyone likes the colors of #1 better. The hats are from Anna Zillborgs "45 Fine and Fanciful hats to knit". I didn't have much problem with these, but the 3rd beret from a different chart has given me nightmares! The chart is not written out correctly and I've had to go back to the chart for #1 and #2 to try to figure out how it should have been written. I knit and ripped out the same 6 rows twice yesterday (no small thing at 144 stitches per round!). Googled eratta and found many complaints and a link for the publisher for eratta, (and some complaints about the eratta paper some have recieved!) but think I've got it licked now. I just was too tired and frustrated last night to continue on. This beret is a Bastille day gift for my mom and I want to get it done! grrrr

A few more charity hats

I had a big ball of off white that I started using for the cuff, then used all the small ball of whatever, then finished with the off white. I really have lost track of how manyhats I've done now!

Drury Place

What a delightful performance we had at Drury Place on Sat. Jan 12th. The Starfeet dancers premiered their new dances for this season and the youngest dancers did their holiday songs to everyones great delight. The only mar was when the Live and Let Die cd Ian had burned for us proved to be not playable. I don't understand why but it simply will not play on any player I've put it on. The girls looked so nice in their new costumes too. Oh well, I'll just edit the music myself this time and burn a cd in my computer. Photo's soon as I can! Check back.

Branching out Scarf

Here is a photo's of the Branching Out Scarf from http://www.knitty.com/ that I am making for my mom in Bare from http://www.knitpicks.com/

Also hats 22,23 and 24 from the Festival yarn project.