Enough for the Army,Navy & Marines!!!

After a week of clouds and several days of rain, the sky has cleared to a beautiful blue. I went and bought myself a new camera for my birthday and was dying to try it out but this pic was taken on a very grey day so it is not the best. I bought a Nikon D40 SLR and am loving it!! It is actually easier to use in Auto mode than my point and shoot digital and takes way better pics. I promise to get out the manual and keep learning what I can do with it. Heck I may even go buy a digital photography book at B&N.

My knitting week was fairly productive. First of all-I got the chain link socks done. I have even worn them already. They are a little loose but no one but me will ever know. I will only be wearing them with long pants in the winter. I got about 1/2 the way up the body of my alpaca sweater. I am so afraid I will have to go buy another $20 skein of the yarn in order to finish. I should know for sure by next weekend. God I pray she has just one more skein or this sweater could be very very odd.

This picture explains my title for today. When I was a kid whenever my mom cooked a lot of something, she would always say "I made enough for the Army, Navy and Marines". Well my washclothes are so far only for the Marines but I figure I have made at least 30 of them since Christmas! Right now I am not sending them off to anyone so they are stacking up. I figure at about 2 a week this stack is going to get huge fast!! I wish they would come out with new colors to keep things interesting. After I do the one on my needles now I may try the entralac dish cloth I found online. It looks confusing to me now but maybe with some quiet and patience I can figure it out.

I finished "Dragonfly in Amber" this week and am starting on "Voyager" I have really gotten addicted to reading again and need to balance that expense with my crafting expenses!! I also bought beads this week to make a braclet I saw in "Bead and Button". I still need 2 colors of seed beads before I can whip that out.

Well that is all for the week. By this time next week I hope to have the sleeves attached to the body of my alpaca sweater, the new KAL socks started, 2 more washclothes done and many more chapters read. Everybody have a great week.

Greensleeves

I have sleeves!! It only took 3 tries but finally I have 2 sleeves that fit nicely and are ready to attach to the body that is yet unknit. I plan on doing a plain raglan body but when I do the decreases I may try to work in a cable. The neck will still be ballet style but that depends alot on how far my yarn goes. I should be able to cast on for the body this week. I also made another washcloth this week. I have started making girly colors although what is on the needles now is about as masculine as any I have made. I have not sent any off lately as DSIL is close to coming home. I will either pick someone to send them to off of anysoldier.com or wait until he is redeployed which will be very very soon-less than a month. I also worked a little on the chain link socks but did not get as far as I would have liked. I bet I can get them done this week which is good since the new KAL is just around the corner. They are calling for any sock yarn, even variegated and I am itching to try my Bamboo yarn. I only made 2 freindship star blocks as my sewing machine is acting up and is going to go back to the dealer again to be worked on.

The weather has been good but my walking has had to be curtailed a little. My sciatica is really acting up. About as bad as it has ever been. Thank goodness I am not trying to walk the OKC marathon this year as I would be wanting to be pushing it about this time to be ready. Everything is in bloom and I even cut flowers to bring in the house today. I have daffodils, snowdrops, asparagus, redbud and Bradford pear trees in full force and most of my perrenials showing lots of green. The birds are really active building nests and mating like crazy. Jack the cat is wanting to be outside alot more and we have to call him in at night or he would stay out a lot longer.

I am in the middle of the 2nd book to the Outlander series. The peices of the story are coming togeather and I eagerly await my reading time after work each evening. I even got the 3rd book bought since I had an additional 25% off coupon that was about to expire. So until next week folks!!

I must be "Drain Bamaged"

It seems that I can not make anything only once. I can not start something and knit it thru to the end without ripping it out and re-doing. This is the 3rd time for the Alpaca sweater. First I knit the body with the Chickknits lacy cardigan and didn't like it for reasons explained in prior blogs. Then I knit one sleeve with the lacy design and really really didn't like it. I then knit a plain sleeve using the Knitter's Handy book of patterns, thought I had it the way I wanted until I got to 17" and decided it was a tad bit to fitted. So I ripped again and now I finally have a sleeve about 1/3 of the way up that I am sure will work. Then I can do another without to much headache. Of course I still have to do a body and that could be frogged another time or 2 I expect!!! Part of my problem was that my gauge was not 5 stitches per inch like I thought but maybe more like 5 1/3 stitches per inch. It would have been alright if I was not aiming for a fairly fitted design but I did not have a lot of room to play with the size I was making. Luckily the Alpaca is holding up well to lots of frogging and knitting!!! If I get this done I will at least have a master sweater design for any Misty Alpaca, worsted weight!! I did actually get some productive knitting time in this week. I progressed on the 2nd chain link socks to the mid foot area. All the gussett decreases are done and I only need about 2" of plain knitting before the solo chain on the foot which is right before the toe decreases. I should hopefully get this sock done this week. They ought to be giving hints about the next KAL sock soon. I hope it is something I would like to use my Regia Bamboo color yarn on. Also I got 2 washcloths done while at work this week. I am starting to use more girly colors as DSIL is almost ready to come back from Iraq and I will probably not send him anymore bath supplies. The last thing they need to do is drag extra stuff home on the plane!!

The weather has been up and down all week. Saturday was to die for with clear skies, 70+ degrees and almost no wind. The Bradford pears are blooming and the early daffodils are in full glory. My redbud tree is just minutes away from being awash in purple glory. This redbud grew from a tiny seedling in my garden and I transplanted it to my front yard about 8 years ago. Then the neighbor kids accidently backed over it playing football and broke it off near the ground. When it grew back it became multi-trunked which I actually like. This will be the first year it should bloom very well and I am anxious to see it in full regalia. Sunday was very rainy all day with about 1.5 inches of rain falling on much needed dry ground. It was a real worm strangling rain. I should know since I had to walk around all the dead worms on my walk thru the neighborhood this morning!! Many of my perennials are starting to green up and I have some of my other bulbs wanting to bloom so many pictures over the next few weeks will be uploaded here for all to enjoy.

My news on the home front this week is very good. Brooke has been trying to get into nursing school for sometime and was on the waiting list for the next class starting in the fall. She got notified early Tuesday that she has made it in and she was beside herself with joy. She deserves this as she has worked hard since she made the decision to go back to school. Of course I have never seen her fail once she sets her mind to something. She is a force to be rekoned with once she has her mind made up!! So in 2 years I should finally have someone else in the family who understands all my medical talk and hopefully won't be to bored by it all.

Do Overs!!

As per usual, I am going to start my Alpaca sweater over. The reason? Well the lace design got a little lost in the softer yarn. Also the way the pattern is written there is a large wedged shape area under the arms where there is no lacy design. I want to go back and use different yarn and work the lace pattern into this blank section. So now the Alpaca will become a nice plain raglan sweater with 3/4 length sleeves and a ballet style neck. Then I will use the pattern from Chickknits to make a sweater out of something like KnitPics " Shine" or another smoother yarn like possibly Classic Elite's "WoolBamboo" Also my other knitting project-the Chain Link Socks are a little further along. I have the leg done and I am ready to turn the heel. I am hoping to have them done in the next 2 weeks then I can knit a little more on the sweater before starting another pair of socks.

I did get a pic of Maddie wearing her Wonderful Wallaby sweater although the pic is from a distance. I chastized my daughter to get better pictures so I can post them here.I thought the sweaters would have been quite a bit too big but it does not seem to be the case. Lucky Grandma!! Katie did tell me that she loves when I knit for her and that sure warmed my heart!!

Speaking of the Granddaughters, both had an eventful week. Katie scored the winning goal in her soccer game. She said the goalie was not looking and she just snuck in!!! Way to go girl!! Maddie aged up in Girl Scouts to full Brownie. She seemed pretty proud of her sash and badges. Maddie told me she wished that we would come visit for another holiday and I sure wish we could but probably not soon with the move in our future. Once we move we will be so much closer which will make it easier to get to them.

Spring is still springing forth!! Today was awesome and I got out in the yarn to get some clean up done. In fact I was able to walk 2 hours everyday this weekend. I even had to strip down half way thru the walk to stay cool enough. I am not sure how I feel about Daylight savings time starting so early this year but I guess I will find out next week!!

Last week I finished reading "Outlander" which I did enjoy despite it being quite the romance novel!! I had to run out and buy the next book in the series but found that it was not all the easy!! It took me some figuring to decide that "Dragonfly in Amber" would be next to read. I am not sure how I was supposed to know since they are listed in all different orders in the fronts of the books. Also the story must have some huge time gaps in it!! At the end of "Outlander" Jamie and Claire are in France and she hints that she may be pregnant. According to the Synopsis on the book cover of "Dragonfly in Amber" she already has a grown daughter so I am anxious to see how it transitions back to Claire being back in the modern times. I will have a struggle balancing reading and knitting after work this week!!