Its A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It's a bright and beautiful day after almost 2 weeks of bad weather. I was so glad to be able to get out and walk for over an hour. My lungs were just so ready to drink in that fresh air albeit cold as it was. Last night I was able to finish up sock #1 of my Happy Socks knit with the Luna yarn. I wished I would have made the ribbing with a few more stitches around (80 instead of 72) and made the ribbing 1 1/2" instead of 1" but they do still fit and will loosen up as I wear them. I love the fact that they are plain sockinette stitch the whole way. The only thing I have yet to find out is if they bag when they are just SS. Even so I will love them very much. I must get the 2nd one knit this next week so I can start the new sock on the Six Socks KAL that I joined on Yahoo Groups. I am starting a month late so I will need to catch up with the rest of them. I also want to start the hoodie for DGD#1. The other hoodie also got finished last night but is in the drying process on the blocking board and not in the bet light for picture taking.

The "Big" Snow Storm of 2007

The weather men had been predicting a major snow event for this weekend for days. They kept saying it could easily be a once in a century event with up to 12" of snow for our area. Well for the want of 2 degrees all we got was rain. Albeit the 3/4" of rain we got would have been up to 10" if it had just gotten a little colder. Finally this evening we got just a sprinkling of snow as the temperature finally fell below the 32 degree mark. It was not much of a photo op but I did the best I could!

This week at work was not all that busy due to all the ice on the roads. They were also in the process of moving the patients from the old Children's Hospital building to the new one so I got plenty of knitting time at work. I made 2 washcloths for the marines in my SIL's unit in Iraq. I wrap one around a bottle of shower gel and send them off to his unit. Hopefully they like them as well as I do mine. Someone the other day mentioned that elite Spa's give handmade washcloths out to their clients so I feel like they are a real luxury item and a bit of love I can send their way.

This pattern was given to me by Mona thru JanetF from my NFWW thread. It is knit on the diagonal starting with 4 stitches, working up to 60 and back down to 4. It has an eyelet edge and is knit from ordinary Peaches & Cream yarn. I love to see how each colorway knits up.

My other project I started this week was a new pair of socks. They are very plain stockinette stitch with a gorgeous bright sock yarn called Luna. It is a yarn from Italy, 100% wool and still washable. It is knit on size "0" needles from a generic sock pattern out of the Ann Budd book. I did not want the sock pattern to take away from the cool yarn color pattern.

I am at the point of doing the heel-my favorite part. I love the method for slip stitching every other stitch on the knit row can create a dense heel fabric. And how just knitting back and forth can turn a heel.

I bought another colorway for my friend for Christmas and if I don't hurry up and give it to her I may have to confiscate it for myself!!!

It's Melting!! It's Melting!!

It's the day after the great ice storm of 2007. The sun is out, the birds are active again and best of all the ice is melting! I actually went outside today and took a few pics but they never seem to turn out as pretty as to the naked eye. It is still quite cold but the warm of the sun makes it seem so much warmer and all the hard surfaces will soon be melted clear and ready for the workweek driving

I won't have any new pics of my current projects today so I thought I would revisit some recent work, especially since it involves my beautiful granddaughters. For Christmas 2006 we drove clear to Jacksonville NC to be with them over the Holidays. I knitted them both hoodies from the free Lion Brand Yarn web site with Encore wool/acrylic blend worsted weight yarn. I gave them to them as soon as we got there because I knew they would get lost in the shuffle Christmas morning. DGD#1 loved hers but DGD#2 kind of tossed hers aside as if "I will never wear that" She is the picky one and I knew that but I keep trying!! The next day we went to the beach and I convinced them both to wear their sweaters at least for a few pictures. Their mommy did get some nice ones of the beach, the girls and of course their sweaters. And best of all I seemed to have converted DGD#2 into a handknit sweater wearer as she gave me orders to knit her up another one while we were there. I guess she still doesn't fathom the work that goes into them!!

Snowy Snowy Day

Today is the day after one of our famous Oklahoma Ice storms. It did not get as bad as it was supposed to be but still bad enough to be stuck inside for the better part of 4 days. I have been working on several projects and staying warm. The sweater is a hoodie from the Wonderful Wallaby pattern for my youngest greanddaughter Katie. She is so not "girly" and would not wear anything in public that smacks of girl (now pj's-that's another story!!) This is yarn I bought in Chattanooga at "Genuine Purl". It is by YarnArt out of Italy and it is 30% wool and 70% acrylic. I love the way it feels and knits. The cammo colors are right up Katies alley. I am almost done-just the hood and weaving in ends to go. I may finish up tomorrow and then let it block all week. I started it about Jan 2 and will be finished by the 16th at the latest so 2 weeks from start to finish-pretty good for me!! I still have to order the yarn for sister Maddy's sweater, which will be pink!!

The other project I have been working on are the blocks from the NiftyFifties Weight Watchers Frindship Star Block exchange. I have 2 blocks done out of the 18 or so I need to send off. Then I have many of my own to make before it is a decent project size. I am not sure how big I will make the quilt, probably when I get tired of making the blocks!! These are only 6" finished size so it will take quite a few to make anything of decent size.

Well-pretty good for the 1st day of blogging!! I have much to learn and much more to do. So it is off to the kitchen to I go!

This is the beginning!!

Well it is about time. I have been procrastinating for so long over starting a blog. I do so much crafting and have always said I needed to keep track of what I have done, when I did it, whom I gave it to and pictures of the projects along the way. I was never good at keeping a paper journal but maybe the computer is a better way to go. It was my New Year's resolution to get this started and as this is the 14th of January I guess that tells you how resolute I was!!