Might as well warn everyone now, this is a long post filled with pictures.
I've accomplished a bit of knitting since my last post...the post before the contest post, that is.
Lets show a little leg here.
I finished one of the knee socks I'm making and I love it. Very comfy and very soft. How could you go wrong with a yarn like Lorna's Lace worsted...Yum! 215 yards was more then enough to get a knee high sock out of. I'll probably be able to squeeze a pair of shorter socks out of one skein without a problem. I love knee socks but there is no way I'd make these for myself in fingering weight yarn. Watch, now that I've said that I'll end up starting a pair.
I finished my moms socks.
I'm going to wash them today and send them off to my mom here in the next few days. Thank goodness for USPS online shipping labels and carrier pickups. Printing shipping labels online + carrier pick up = happy Trish not waiting in crazy lines at the post office. This time of year is always crazy at the post office.
Now that my moms socks are finished I need to start a pair for Kaity. She's home from school today. She has sore stomach muscles and is extremely tired from coughing all night long. The cough meds only helped a little bit.
I received a pile of yarn in the mail the other day.
My mom used yarn as packing material to keep the Christmas ornaments, that she had bought the girls, from breaking. Don't you wish everyone used yarn for packing material? I'd much rather have a few skeins of yarn over a whole lot of bubble wrap. Although I still like the starch packing peanuts that some companies use. I love watching them melt away in hot water. Yes, I'm easily amused!
I also finished a dishcloth and started a tribble. I haven't made tribbles before but they look like fun. I'll post pics of those in another post.
I also placed an order from WEBS to use up the last of a gift card. There was a problem with the order but I called them up this morning and they fixed it right away. The lady I talked to was super friendly! WEBS scored high points on my Customer Service list.
JoAnn's on the other hand is at the bottom of the list and I will probably never order from them again. I placed an order 10 days ago for a few skeins of yarn, a kids craft kit and 1 yard of fabric. It still hasn't shipped. I called on Monday and was told by the lady I talked to that my box was going to ship on Monday. She was friendly but she lied....probably to get me off the phone. Guess what? The box didn't ship out on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. I called Wednesday afternoon and managed to get the rudest person on the face of the planet. She made snarky comments with each question she answered. I started to ask her one last question and the *fill in the blank with your favorite word* hung up on me. *sigh*, at least I'm not alone. There are a lot of people who have had problems with JoAnn's customer service....if you can call it that.
The tree is up, lit, and decorated.
Admittedly it's been up for several weeks now and the lights have been on it but we couldn't seem to find a good time to decorate it. We finally made time the other night. We went with simple this year and put up the ornaments but left off all the glass balls....simple, but nice.
I'll leave you with a pic of Bree.
She was trying to scare her Daddy. She would peek around me and say Boo. Shawn snapped a pic of her in mid-Boo.
***Contest Has Ended! Winner to be announced soon!***
This is a sticky post! You'll have to scroll down past this post to get to the newer posts.
I'm having my one year Blogiversary contest. It's super simple to enter: leave me a comment in this post about anything, holiday memories, just to say hi, doesn't matter just leave a comment.
Details:
I hate doing this but you can only enter if you have a US or Canadian address. Military addresses are also acceptable.
I can't ship to countries other the the US/Canada, its too expensive.
Make sure that your email address is correct in the comment form. I will contact the winner via email.
Contest ends: 16 Dec at 11:59pm MST.
What you could win, it's a surprise but you'll get enough sock yarn to make a pair of socks and some other goodies. I promise it will be nice.
Sorry, only one winner for this contest. Winner will be selected using a non computer, random number generator....Kaity will pick a name out of a hat!
This isn't much going on knit wise for me. I knit the shoulders of Kaity's sweater, did something really stupid and ended up having to rip it out. I restarted it, but I was so mad at myself that I set it aside for a timeout.
I decided to make myself knee highs and since I'm not a masochistic I'm using worsted weight yarn.
I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, color Lakeview. I had wound this yarn up months ago with the intentions of started a new skirt for Kaity but the skirt never happened and I've claimed the yarn as my own.
Here's a shot of the decreases.
The decreases are simple, just k2tog on one side of the marker and ssk on the other side of the marker. I generated the pattern using Sock Wizard for Mac. The pattern fits great. The only thing I'd do different is knit the ribbing on smaller needles to make it a little more snug at the top. The sock's fit is still more then snug enough that it won't be falling down when it's on my leg.
Incidentally Knitting Software also has Mitten wizard and Hat wizard that look pretty cool. Not to bad a deal at $7.75 each. I may get one to try out.
It has occurred to me that I've past my Blog's one year anniversary, which was the 7th of Dec. I'll post more tomorrow about my Blogiversary Contest. I'm to tired to think about it right now.
It's snowing here today....oh joy!
Sheldon is finished. I didn't attach his shell using icord because it was causing me to think longly for a big glass of Capt and Coke. Since it's not socially acceptable or responsible to be drinking booze at 9 in the morning, I opted to save my sanity for sewing his shell together.
Now I'm going to tuck him away because he's a gift for Bree for Christmas.
Stats:
Pattern: Sheldon the Turtle from the Winter 2006 Knitty issue.
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in colors River and Sky. Used less then one of each 50g skein.
Needles: 3mm for the body and legs and 3.5mm for his shell.
Mods: Sheldon's shell has been sewn together.
I found someone on Ravelry who was destashing some books and nabbed Miss Bea's Rainy Day which I've been searching for weeks for. Seems the book is out of print, go figure and the only copies I could find were people selling their copies for $32-50. I don't think so. Sheesh! So I got my for $13 which included shipping. I love Ravelry!
Is it just me, or my titles lacking in creativity. Oh well, better luck next time. I have a lot of things to put in this post so it's a little picture heavy.....sorry, dial-up user! Don't mean to slow you down.
A few questions before I continue on with my post. Does anyone who reads this blog use dial-up internet service? Am I a horrible person because I decided not to send out Christmas Cards this year? Anyone else out there not sending Christmas Cards. Just curious!
Were to start, oh yeah, FOs.
I finished up Kaity's Forest Canopy Shawl.
I'm going to try very hard to get it blocked either today or tomorrow. This is my special gift for her for Christmas. Believe it or not I'll probably be making one more of these shawls as a gift. This time in a yummy Malabrigo worsted. I'm going to be my moms knitting hands, she's going to be the yarn purchaser. Sounds like a great deal to me.
I also started and finished a crocheted cloth yesterday. It's folded in half for the photo.
I was in the mood for a little crochet and found the link to this cloth out at Lion Brands website. It's called the Almond Back Loop Stitch Washcloth. I kept crocheting until I ran out of yarn so mine is a lot bigger then a washcloth. It's almost the perfect size for a hand towel. I think I'm going to use up some of the cotton I have on cones to make a few more of these. Super easy and super fast.
Sheldon is moving right along.
He now has all 4 legs and I started his shell last night. I have the tails of yarn tucked into each foot so they won't tangle into a hopeless mess. I'll probably try to finish him up before the end of the weekend.
My mom's sock is coming along nicely.
I'm over halfway through the heel flap. It won't be too much longer before these are in the mail on their way to my moms feet.
Finally, an addition to my stash.
I picked this yarn up for Kaity. The Opal 6 ply was bought on sale from Little Knits. The one on the left is #1712, Lollipop and the one on the right is #1715, Tutti Fruitti. The Regia is from another Ravelry destash. I have a small amount of this yarn left in my stash from the very first fingering weight socks I made Kaity. I want to make her some more since she loves the socks so much.
I'm suppose to be eliminating my stash and so far I've
made one pair of socks and bought enough yarn to make somewhere around 4-5 pair of socks. I'm
losing my campaign which is not bothering me one bit. How in the world
can you pass up on sales for stuff you've been wanting?
Wow, I think I'm finally to the end. Time to go put a few more rows on Sheldon's shell before Bree wakes up.
Lets see if I can make this quick. Shawn and Kaity should be back from the Commissary here soon and I need to help them put away the groceries.
I started Sheldon the Turtle again.
This time I'm using Knit Picks Shine Sport which is working up a lot better. I even managed to find the safety eyes because I stink at embroidering eyes. I'm hoping to have this done to use as a stocking stuff for Bree for Christmas.
Next up, the reason Ravelry can be bad for managing your stash.
Knit Picks Dancing sock yarn for Kaity.
This is a Kaity color hands down. This will be used to make the girls summer socks.
Next is 3 hanks of Koigu KPPPM and 1 hank of Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool in the color Wild Raspberry.
I don't have plans for the Koigu yet but the Mtn Colors will probably be made into fingerless mitts.
I also have some Regia coming in from another Ravelry user and some Opal 6 ply from Little Knits. The Opal is for boot socks for Kaity. Little Knits has it on sale so I picked up a ball of Tutti Fruit and Lollipop.
Kaity wanted to model her hat.
The hat ended up being too big so I got it wet an threw it in the drier with some towels. It worked out perfectly so now the hat fits snuggly on her head. The rest of her hats will be simple ribbed hats.
Kaity's Forest Canopy Shawl is 2 pattern rows and the 2 bind off rows away from completion. I should have that finished tonight after she's in bed.
Time to go put groceries away....fun, fun, fun!
