Fibres For Ewe

A New Blog

2009-05-24T08:59:00.002-05:00

I have enjoyed posting to my blog here at Fibres For Ewe. However, I have decided to leave it and start a new one at TerrificFibers.blogspot.com. I hope you will come on over and chat with me there. This name is better suited for me, it matches my Ravelry name and business.

Portuguese Knitting at the Whiners Retreat

2009-05-06T17:46:00.003-05:00

"Whiner's Retreat?," you ask, "What is that?" Well, in March, yes almost two months ago, my favorite spinning retreat took place in Tyler, TX. Several of us in the Texas Twisters spinning group didn't get to attend this year. We weren't very happy about it either, we kept whining at spinning about not getting to go. Liz decided to host us at her home for the day on the Saturday of the weekend, so we could continue to whine. Instead we had a great time. We had lemon bars, cinnamon crumb cake, and coffee! Oh, yeah, we did eat some nutritious food too.

One of the things that we did, was to watch a DVD on Portuguese Knitting. It is an intriguing way to knit. Click on the link and you can see how it is done. The movements of your hands and wrists are different than in continental or American/English style of knitting. You use your left thumb to pass the yarn around the right hand needle. Once you get the process down and practiced it is a very quick way to knit. You don't have to tension the yarn through your fingers, the pin does that.

One option is to have a pin to put your yarn through, and that pin is what tensions your yarn. Notice in picture at top and in the second picture. You are seeing my hands in the top and Laurie is knitting in the second. If you don't have a pin that is OK, we didn't either. We used safety pins. But, you can also put the yarn around the back of your neck for tensioning.

Laurie caught on quickly to this, but I was a little slower. Actually, I felt like a knittingly challenged person that day! AND I have been knitting for about 48 years. I would think I had it down, but infact, I was purling and not knitting! I would try again and end up purling. I think if I had a real teacher there, I would've flunked the class or at least been given a dunce cap. :) Or maybe received an A for effort. It was a lot of fun, trying something new, and I will succeed in Portuguese Knitting, one day.

Out of our group of 6, only Laurie and I ventured into the world of Portuguese knitting that day. The others watched, laughed with us(about my confusion), and spun yarn.

Liz has Whippets. They are great dogs and they were at our retreat. If you notice, the minute we got up they took back their territory! :)

We decided, after all, that we had a great time and want to have another Saturday spin day. However, we all hope to be able to return to our favorite retreat next March. Yes, we still whine about missing Wildflower Retreat.

DFW Fiberfest

2009-05-05T17:20:00.002-05:00

On April 26, I went to the DFW Fiberfest. It has been held for several years now. They offer classes and they also have vendors there to sell their wares. I attended for the vendor end of the show. The fiberfest started mainly as a knitter's event, but has also grown to encompass spinners.

I went and had a great time roaming around seeing folks I knew and chatting. I met up with some old friends that I haven't seen in years and it was great fun. I saw all kinds of tempting yarns and spinning fibers.

I did spend some money there, although, I was REALLY good. You see, I had just arranged my spinning and yarn stash, uh oh, so I knew how much I had. I am trying to use up some of what I have before I buy more.

So, even though I have about 10 sheep mugs, I found another one that I couldn't resist. Isn't it adorable? I met the potter who made the mug and she lives in the Houston area of TX. It is a wonderful mug and I just think the sheep is adorable. The potter has named her copyrighted sheep, Knitting Lagniappe. Lagniappe is a cajun(Louisiana) term and pronounced "lon yop' ". It means 'a small gift.'

We are drying out from 5 1/4 inches of rain that we received on Saturday night. Our ground is saturated. I am hoping my little seedlings in the garden will make it. They are a little scraggly looking, poor things. I keep telling them to be greatful for rain, we don't get that much and it is better for them than our water from the hose. They look at me and say, we may not get much, but why do we have to get it all in one night???? I told them that I didn't know. I haven't told them that we are to get more rain tonight. Shhhhhh. I don't want them to know. We'll just let them be surprised.

Swine Flu and Sock Machines

2009-04-29T19:01:00.010-05:00

Wow! Who would've thought that we would be having to educate ourselves about the Swine flu?? Today life in the state of Texas has been interesting, to say the least.

Several schools are closed in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. Some of them have children who definitely have Swine Flu and some have children who have been tested. The schools are not just closed for one day, but are closed from today, April 29, until May 11. School activities are being cancelled too.

One small town, south of Fort Worth, is actually shutting down its schools and daycare facilities. They have also cancelled many city activities and sports games. They have 3 cases.

Many of you, who venture to my blog, know that we have two FABULOUS daughters. :) One of them works in the health industry and sent out some links for us. Here is one that has some good common sense info, should you be interested. The link.

Have you ever seen a sock machine? Here are two antique sock machines! They are not mine. But, they belong to friends of mine. These machines are becoming more and more popular and more and more valuable. This is the way that socks used to be mass produced AND now some people are mass producing socks for themselves and for sale using these machines. I find the sock machines truly intriguing. They do take some practice in getting used to them, but once you get it down, the socks take a fraction of the time compared to handknitting a pair. The red one, doesn't have a sock on it, but you can see the hooks that go around the outer circumference. Notice the crank to the right? As you turn the crank, the needles will go up and down and the yarn will go around and be knit by the needles.

Do I want one? No, not really. I just like to watch them and find them fascinating. I still prefer to knit my socks, the really old fashioned way. By hand. :)

Look What I Found in the Pool! and some knitting, too

2009-04-26T11:37:00.006-05:00

This morning, The UPS man and I were out looking at the pool. I had just checked the water temperature and he was working on the equipment and mechanical aspects. I was thinking of swimming and he was thinking gears, motors, blah, blah, blah. All that man stuff. Anyway, after I went back to work last fall, he was gracious and decided to help me with some of the chores and took over the pool. That has been a blessing. Since I was out there, with him, this morning I thought, I'll help him and empty the skimmer. If you don't know what a skimmer is, it is a basket, set into the return for the water, before it goes back to the pumps and big filter in the back. Leaves, branches, dirt, and critters will get caught there. They tell you to be prepared for anything, when you open the lid. Well, I wasn't thinking about the warnings today when I opened the lid. I should have been. After all, I am the one who has found frogs, frogs and more frogs in that thing. I have found the copperhead snake in there last summer. Talk about freaking out, but that is another story. Well, today, I opened the lid and jumped back as a TURTLE popped his little head up at me. Geesh! You know, we have a lake, not more than 30 feet from the pool and they come up the hill and go for the CHLORINE!! Crazy if you ask me. All I ask of them, is that they stay at their water and I will stay at my water. LOL! No, they think my water is just as good, but soon they find out, that I don't have a beach front like they do and by then it is too late. Well, this little turtle, was still alive. Thankfully, the UPS man was right there and rescued me from having to rescue the turtle. Oh, yes, that is a kitchen strainer that the turtle is in. You see, you also learn to turn ordinary household and kitchen tools into pool tools. This one has its personal hanger on the fence behind the pool skimmer, ready for such emergencies. After the rescue the poor turtle was placed in the leaves to rest for a few minutes, I imagine if turtles get dizzy, he was quite dizzy after spinning around in the skimmer, for who knows how long. He also had been fighting quite an under tow, since he was fighting the suction of the pump to pull him in. The UPS man then went down and placed him on the net and carried him back to the lake. He is back on his side of the water now, and we are on ours.

Knitting!!! Yes, I have been knitting. Yesterday, I started a new project. I had a new idea for a hat pattern, it sort of worked, but when it was finished, it would've fit a giant black bear. So, it was ripped out and started again. I am working on a pattern for a felted bag. I actually made the bag years ago and never wrote the pattern, so it is now being written. Also, I am working on a couple of other patterns too. Stay tuned, they will emerge eventually. It just takes a while, to get it all done correctly. You know, I knit a hat yesterday and today the hat is gone. That is how it goes. Today, I will knit it again.

I do follow other peoples patterns too. It is fun to just sit down and knit, without figuring out all the steps and knowing that someone else has done the prototypes and ripping. When we were in Austin TX, last summer, I went yarn shopping. Both of our hosts down there know that I love to knit. So, off I went, with Judy when we were at their home and then with Clyda when were at their home. With Clyda, I found some Noro yarn and a cute pattern for a mitered bag. The finished size of the bag is about 6 inches square. It was fun to make. I found the pattern at the Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe . The pattern is written by, Jennie Might.

before felting

and

after felting

Earth Day Moon

2009-04-24T14:42:00.003-05:00

Jeff leaves pretty early in the morning for work. As he left, my cell phone started ringing and it was him. He wanted to tell me how pretty the sunrise was. You see, the sun was just rising and starting to light up the sky.

Outside I went, with camera in hand, and this is what I saw. I am thinking, with the little research that I did, that this is the moon(a given) and Venus. Because of the trees, I didn't see any other planet or star. Apparently, Mars and Jupiter could be seen at certain times, too .
What I really like about this, is that you can see the rest of the moon, if you look closely.
The sky was this gorgeous blue color too. Which just made my day! I love blue!

Pictures

2009-04-19T16:47:00.003-05:00

I have been slowly taking pictures of spinning rovings, as well as knitting and spinning tools, to put in my etsy shop. I don't want to list things too quickly in there, but I need to keep going and steadily list my new items. I have a lot of rovings here, that I need to put in there and quite a few tools for knitting and spinning.

Yesterday, I was trying to get some good pictures of a Raspberry colored roving. It is a gorgeous deep, dark rich pink. But, in trying to capture it, the camera always lightened it. Even without the flash, which I wasn't using. One of the best things for true color is the natural sunlight. So, I had put the basket of fiber in a south window, then a west window, then under the skylight, then in the shadow under the skylight. Finally, I took it upstairs, and put it in the window next to my computer. This is an east window. I had to take down the curtain for this too, it was a major production. However, I FINALLY met with success and was able to list the roving with some great pictures. The first picture that I took in my office window, is this one, it too, is too light. But, to me it is such a gorgeous picture. You almost have the illusion that the roving and basket are flying.

All my efforts were worth it, the fiber has sold already. :)

Wildfires

2009-04-11T14:07:00.006-05:00

Wow! The state of Texas is dry. We haven't had very much rain this winter and our lakes are very low. Then if that hasn't been enough we have had some really WINDY days. This past Thursday the wind was unbelievable with gusts about 40mph+. We were under a red flag warning, which means, fire danger.

In the middle of the afternoon, it started smelling like someone was burning a wood stove.

Remembering the weather report, from that morning, I turned on the TV to see if there was a fire and where. It smelled so strong in my house, that I thought it probably was not that far away. Turns out the fire was far away and there were actually 3 or 4 of them. They were all about 100 miles west of our home. The winds were fueling the fires. Several small towns were being evacuated and one town was burning. I watched the TV in horror as people's homes were burning to the ground. The towns fire departments were working very hard. Citizens were determined and were helping. They had garden hoses hooked up and were spraying water on the flames and houses.

Many towns around sent engines, as well as, Dallas and Fort Worth.

I looked outside and was surprised still, to see the smoke and ashes in the yard. It was so windy. I decided to take a few pictures and see if the camera would catch it.

As you look at the top two pictures, the trees in the background look fuzzy. That isn't fuzz. It is smoke.

In the second picture, near the bottom is a pond, my house is on a hill that leads down there, but looking across to the other side is where you can notice the smoke.

The bottom picture is the sunset and what the firey sun was doing to the smoke etc in the sky.

Today the fires are under control, if not out. The wind has settled down to a breeze. We are expecting rain and thunderstorms tonight.

Knitting during rough times

2009-04-09T19:10:00.001-05:00

Many of you know that I have a shop on etsy, called Terrific Creations. Well, I am on a team there, called the etsy knitters team. One of our wonderful leaders is a Dane, living in Italy. Her daughter was close enough to feel some tremors of that awful earthquake earlier this week and apparently now, my knitter friend has felt some tremors herself. She sent this link for an article. I clipped out a portion of the article that interested me the most, and it is below. Of course, it is about knitting AND an 98 year old lady.

Another of those rescued today was Maria D’Antuono, 98, who said that she had spent 30 hours knitting as she waited to be freed from her ruined home. "I worked, I knitted," said Mrs D'Antuono, from the village of Tempera, close to L'Aquila. The redoubtable nonagenarian told rescuers that she was in good health when she was found this morning, according to Sky TG24.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people over there and they have lost so much.

Fire Ants

2009-04-06T14:44:00.003-05:00

Well, with that title, my family will cringe. No, I didn't get any fire ant bites, just so you know. (They are a real difficulty with my system). Anyway, on Saturday, 4/4, I went to Home Depot to get some plants and good stuff for the dirt. We have a clay soil here, actually we have a copper brown, rocky clay, soil here. It is a REAL treat to work with, I am being very sarcastic. Back to the Home Depot. When I drove up to the store, I sat there wishing I had a camera phone so that I could take a picture. In front of the store was a giant blow up fire ant! No kidding. When I say giant, I mean taller than the store giant. It was put there by Ortho Max, fire ant killer. Well, I purchased my items and left, still kicking myself that I don't take my camera with me to get pics like that. I miss so many opportunities. So, I thought, you know, I can come by here on Sunday and get a picture then. So, early on Sunday morning, we drove by with my camera, and no fire ant. I am not sure if the high winds that we were having, kept the store from blowing up the unsightly creature, or maybe it scared some children away on Saturday, so they took it down. OR maybe it moved to another unsuspecting community. Be on the watch, the giant fire ant blow up balloon may be coming to a Home Depot near you. Oh, I passed a second Home Depot on the way to work today, and they don't have it either......... and I had my camera.......

Now onto a cuter topic. I have been knitting some bunnies. Aren't they cute? I purchased the pattern from a gal on etsy. They are called Patchwork Bunnies. Each one has 5 different colors and they have unique personalities. My granddaughters will get the pleasure of naming them, since they will be caring for them now.

Soccer

2009-03-31T17:05:00.005-05:00

The weather was cloudy, windy( 30 mph+ winds), and cold, for north Texas in March. Why did I venture outside? Well, to see a fabulous soccer game. Our granddaughter, was playing soccer that day and Gramma wanted to go see her play. She is a good soccer player and I had fun watching her game and rooting for her team, The Cowgirls. Her coach pictured in the top picture, has what seems to be, undying patience to be coaching 9 year old girls, but he is doing a great job. Enjoy the pictures.

Once Upon a Time...There Was A Vest?

2009-03-30T17:16:00.004-05:00

Once upon a time, there was a magazine that had a wonderful vest pattern in it. So, I thought, I might make that vest someday and ripped the pattern out.

Once upon a time there was a pretty cone of cotton yarn, that said, BUY ME. So, I bought it and thought, I will make a vest out of it, one day.

Two weeks ago I put the two together and started my vest. I did a large gauge swatch and I even met gauge! So, I cast on and started knitting. The yarn was working up so pretty and nice, and looking good in the vest pattern. Then I double checked my gauge, Oh, no!!!!! The gauge was now too big and the yarn although pretty, was making too heavy/thick a vest to be worn in TX in the summer!

So, once upon a time there was a vest, that became a cone of yarn, again. It is lonely as can be, but maybe one day, it may become another vest.

The pattern?? Well, it is filed away, until another yarn comes along..............

Sonnet and Weather

2009-03-29T17:23:00.004-05:00

If I was a poet I would write a sonnet about our weather. Of course, there are others in our country who could write a horror story about their weather, so I guess a sonnet is pretty good.

However, the Sonnet that I mean, in my title, is a sweater pattern. It is from Knitty.com and found here. It is a pattern written by Kristi Porter and is a free pattern from Knitty. Kristi actually wrote the original pattern, Haiku, for a baby. It is a really cute pattern and people asked her for an adult version.

I made my Sonnet out of a purple colored, handspun Merino from Ashland Bay Trading Co, Inc. It is spun to a bulky weight and I used my Ashford Joy to spin the yarn. The original sweater had a very wide neckline, and since I am not into sweaters falling off my shoulders, I added a crocheted neckline. I decreased stitches while crocheting several rows around the neck, so it would lay flat. It still has a bit of scoop to the neck, but is more comfortable this way. I use it as a cardigan and wear it over a blouse/shirt. Which brings us back to the weather. :)

I had thought I wouldn't get to wear this until next winter, since it is March and I am in Texas. However, we have had some pretty cold weather and very high winds down here. So, much so that outside garden plants have had to be covered. So, out I went with sheets to cover my garden plants. Needless to say, I have worn my Sonnet several times and absolutely love it.

Anna's Shawl Pattern is ready!

2009-03-20T19:00:00.004-05:00

When I write a pattern, it can sometimes be what seems like a slow process, especially if you are waiting for me to finish it, so you can make it. However, that is because I try very hard, to get it right for those who wish to purchase it and knit it. First, I sketch it out and write down the ideas and goals for the design. Then, I write it as I knit a proto-type. After that, I type it up. Next I will knit it again, a few weeks later. That way I sort of forget what I did, so I have to read the pattern. :) Then there are corrections that need to be made. After that, I find some test knitters to help me out. They knit the item and let me know where I should fix certain wordings or math issues. I think I have some of the BEST test knitters out there. Kate and Liz test knitted Anna's Shawl. Their shawls are absolutely fabulous! Pictured here is Kate's blue shawl and Liz's green shawl. Mine is the black one.

You can find this pattern for sale at www.TerrificCreations.etsy.com or on Ravelry, listed as Anna's Shawl.

Dyed Roving Etc.

2009-03-07T14:39:00.006-06:00

When we last met, I was telling you about the roving I dyed

at the Fancy Fibers Retreat. Since I love blue, I wanted to use mostly blue. The picture in my last entry had it hanging still chained and wet.

Here it is pulled out of the chain and laying on a blanket on my floor. I cannot wait to spin this into yarn and see what I will have with the next step. I have one pound dyed, so I have enough for a great project.

The red and orange roving was done by Liz, our fearless leader and teacher! She stepped in to teach at the last minute, when the gal who had hoped to teach became ill.

Liz was a great teacher and I think everyone loved the class.

Colors to Dye For

2009-02-22T11:41:00.005-06:00

Last Saturday, Feb 14, I was at a retreat. The retreat wasn't far from my home, which was really nice. We were at a great campgrounds with wonderful accomodations. The workshop that I took, was dying rovings. I thought I would let you see our pictures here. First, we chained the rovings and soaked them. Later we squeezed out the extra water and laid them on a covered table. Notice, we are wearing stylish plastic aprons and plastic gloves.

After painting the roving we rolled it up to look like a cinnamon roll and put plastic wrap around it. We used a great plastic tape and wrote our name on that and tied it tothe fiber.

Next we stuffed the fiber rolls, like a turkey, onto a rack suspended
over water by bricks, into a turkey roaster. We covered the roaster and let them cook.

The next photo shows them from the top of the roaster. All this color!!!! Isn't it gorgeous?
Warning: Once you use your kitchen tools for dying you cannot use them in the kitchen again. Be safe.

After cooking we layed them out to cool a bit.

Then each person could unroll them and rinse them. Mine are on the right hanging on the rack, still braided.

Anther warning:

color is contagious. :)

Scarves

2009-02-19T18:15:00.004-06:00

When I found out one of my mom's good friends was going to have surgery for cancer, I decided to make her a pink scarf. It was almost Valentine's Day, so I had to hurry to get it done.

I also thought it would be fun to send my mom a red scarf for Valentine's Day. She tries not to eat a lot of chocolate, so I sent a scarf instead.

Well, I went to work. Found the yarn in my stash and found the needles and cast on.

They were fun to make, I used 2 strands of yarn and some fairly large needles.

Doll Clothes

2009-02-18T18:39:00.002-06:00

I remember when I was very young and playing with dolls that my great aunt sent me some doll clothes for Barbie. She lived in Maine, an absolutely gorgeous state. So, when the manilla envelope addressed to me, arrived at our home in New York, I was so excited. This aunt, Aunt Elizabeth, was one of the people who influenced and encouraged me to knit. She would knit and sew such absolutely gorgeous items. I don't know if I will ever knit as good as she did, but I sure try. Others who have influenced me in my knitting are my Mom and my Aunt Florence. My mom is the person who put the knitting needles into my hands and taught me how to knit. Isn't that wonderful? She would knit sweaters, mittens, hats and scarves for me while I was growing up, I loved them all. She has made some things for me, as adult too, which are really appreciated. I used to sit amazed watching Aunt Florence knitting up gorgeous aran sweaters. But, Aunt Elizabeth was a very fast knitter, I remember seeing her knit a sweater vest in one day on size US8 needles. She would tell me that her job in the family, as a child in Canada, was to knit for their needs and to card the wool to prepare it for spinning. Her sister was the one who spun the yarn.

Anyway, back to the doll clothes. When the granddaughters' birthdays were upon us, I wanted to make something for their American Girls dolls. I searched around the internet for patterns, but finally decided that I could just make the sweaters without a pattern. I do have Felicity here at our house, she is our model today. The green sweater is made in all garter stitch and the purple sweater does have a cable down each front. They were lots of fun to make.

Birthday Fun

2009-02-08T14:46:00.006-06:00

Even though we had breakfast together for the birthday celebration, it was a late breakfast. So, we had a birthday cake and what a birthday cake it was too. Auntie(Anna) made the cake and decorated it. She is soooooo talented! One granddaughter likes blue and the other, pink. It was difficult to cut into such a gorgeous cake, but we all knew what it would taste like, so the knife did its job.

We have a new member to our extended family. We have a new "grand-doggie." Skye is very cute and cuddly. She made herself at home, when they arrived for the birthday celebration. She is 4 years old and is loved very much by her new adopted family. Skye is a miniature white schnauzer.

Birthdays are upon us!

2009-02-07T12:41:00.004-06:00

In our family we start in November with Jeff's birthday, then we have Thanksgiving, then Christmas and 2 days later, we have Anna's birthday. Then the New Year arrives and in January we have mine and Rebekah's birthday and about a week later in February we have Nicole's and Claire's birthday. We get a little break and Chad's birthday is in June.

We have fun at birthdays and try to get together. So, tomorrow we will be having breakfast together and Gramma has made cinnamon rolls for such an occasion! Years ago, Jeff would travel to Cedar Rapids IA and stay there for a couple of weeks, teaching a seminar for his work. He used to go and eat at the Amana's and brought home this cookbook. It has some really great recipes in it. One recipe is for the cinnamon rolls that I have made. Yummmmm........

Sonnet

2009-02-01T14:11:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted much of my knitting lately. I am busily working on designing and writing two patterns right now. They are both written and they are in the final stages of editing/test knitting. While that is going on, I am taking a bit of a break and knitting for myself and my family.

For myself, I am knitting a Sonnet. Sonnet is a great design found on Knitty.com and written by Kristi Porter. She also has a baby pattern called Haiku which is the child size of the Sonnet. You can use any yarn for any size. Kristi gives you the directions to figure out the number of stitches you need to cast on and how far to knit. The sweater is knit sideways, starting at the left front and knitting around to the right front.

I am using my handspun. The yarn was spun from Ashland Bay Merino and it is a bulky weight 2 ply. It is are very soft yarn and the color is a purple. The sleeves are started and will be done soon, hopefully before it gets to warm to wear it down here in TX.

Ahhh, weather. When I last posted we had ice. We are having an absolutely gorgeous day today. No need for a jacket even. Amazing! We do get these days during our winter and really do enjoy them. By the end of this coming week, I think winter will return.

Winter Storm Warning

2009-01-29T18:35:00.004-06:00

In north Texas we do occasionally get winter storms. They aren't what our northern friends and family are used to, but they are winter storms, non the less. Ice is never fun, to walk on or drive on. But, that is what we get a lot of. This is what we had on January 28, 2009.
After much work, by the two of us, Jeff was able to drive his car out of the driveway and make the slow trek to the store, to get it opened. See the blank spot? All the white around it was about 1/2 inch of ice. Thankfully, we have a gravel driveway, to add traction.
After he left, I thought, oh what is my car like?? So, I very carefully walked over to the Chevy Blazer. Here it is. The front grill had icicles!
Then the rest of the car was a thick sheet of ice. So, I decided to let the sun do its thing and walked back in the house. Yesterday's high, was to get above freezing and I wasn't going anywhere on icy roads anyway. We had called off our spinning group gathering, a very hard thing to do. :)

Here is the view of some of the woods from my front porch.

This picture of icicles is on the back deck.

Then the grass! Let's not forget every piece of grass, had its own individual coating too.

As the sun came up, came the promise of a good day and a beautiful blue sky with the sparkles of ice.

We did stay safe, which is a major concern. We found out that a customer of ours fell and was in ICU over night. The doctors were hoping to move her to a regular room today though. Thank you, Father God for Your care.

Nature

2009-01-09T13:26:00.007-06:00

About a week or two ago we had some really horrendous winds here. The mph was enough to blow over the table on the deck and the umbrella and stand with it. I went into the kitchen and was fixing dinner and looked out the back window and saw this. This little nest was hanging on by a thread! I hadn't seen it there before and with the tree being right outside my window, I don't think it had been. It was truly amazing to me to see hit hanging there as the tree was swaying back and forth.

Then a couple of days later, I started hearing some banging on the bathroom window. Now it is

20 feet in the air, so I was really curious about what was making this racket. I went and looked and there was a tiny bird there, knocking on the window. When I moved closer to look at him, he turned his head to see me and didn't fly away. When I talked to him he listened and then left. He did come back many times over the next hour and I saw him stretching his neck to see me when I walked into the room. Note to self: This is why you don't get a lot done, you are distracted by cute little animals.

Well, I told the man about it and he was like, ho-hum. So, I went on. I got out my camera and had it ready to take a picture the next time he came by. My visitor kept coming each morning. Then he came on Sunday. He had changed his routine a bit. Figured out he could see into the house at the front door. Well, Jeff FINALLY saw him. He was perched on the "spider stick" in front of the window by the door. These photos were taken by me, through the window next to the front door. He sure is a tiny little guy.Haven't figured out what he is yet, but that is one reason to take the picture and post it here. Maybe someone else will know. :)

The spider stick is a long stick that we use to knock down spider webs around the front door. Spiders are good to have, but we are trying to train them not to build their webs, in front of our front or back doors. There is the whole of the woods to do that, even the side of the house or to the side of the front door, not in front of it. So, that is how the spider stick came into being. We scoop up the web and spider and move it or else we will have to walk through it and that is not a wonderful concept.

Anna's Shawl

2009-01-02T10:00:00.006-06:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone and so has New Years, for that matter. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

In our home we go straight from Christmas to a string of birthdays, with the first being Anna's on Dec 27. I try to make items for people's birthdays, so I am not so crunched at Christmas, but of course, with so many birthdays being between Dec and February, I am kind of crunched anyway. But, it is OK and I love to knit, so we muddle through somehow. LOL!

Sometimes my knitting comes from a pattern already written and then sometimes the pattern I use is my newest design. Which is Anna's Shawl? A new design. She asked for a black shawl and I must say, she put it in a way, that didn't put any pressure on me. She just asked that if I wanted to make her something sometime, she would like a black shawl. Yipppeeeee! I had a shawl idea in my head, but hadn't taken the time to start making it. Most of the time when I am designing something new, I make it at least twice, sometimes, 3 or 4 times. So far this shawl has been 2 times. I used the Ashford Tekapo yarn. It is such a great yarn to use.

The Last Projects

2008-12-23T19:05:00.003-06:00

Well, here is a snow tree. I know that is pretty silly, but living in TX, and having grown up and then lived alot of my adult life in frigid and snowfilled climates, I do miss snow. Of course, this year many folks, all over the USA, are saying, "You can have it! It is only December and we have had more than our share." Well, we probably won't get any snow that sticks around for more than a day, and the most we have had, since living in TX is 5 inches at a time. But, since we don't have snow plows and most don't own a snow shovel or even know what one is, 5 inches can pretty well stop the community from functioning. So..., I decided to turn a small 3 foot Christmas tree into a snow tree. The snowflakes are hand crocheted by my daughter Rebekah and me. Then, of course, there is a snowman on the top. As for lights, there is a strand of lighthouse lights. You see, I have a fetish for lighthouses too. :)

In front of the tree stands a grand ginger bread boy, that is hand knitted and he has peppermint buttons and a great scarf. He is one of my last Christmas projects. Also, there is a red mitten, size 2-4 on the tree, and the beginnings of the second. The mittens will be done by Christmas day.

The stocking is hand knit and felted, by my mom's work. Isn't it beautiful??

More Snowmen

2008-12-17T14:24:00.005-06:00

Sometimes, do you wonder if cell phones are a plus or a distraction? I do. However, today they were a plus for me. It was the Christmas party for my spinning group. I didn't get to go, because I needed to stay home and nurse a sore leg. :( However, Laurie called me from the party and I was able to take part in the gift exchange! It was so much fun, to almost be there. Laurie and I both have the same service provider for our phones, ATT and so, we can talk without using any minutes. It was such fun to be there over the phone and get to participate in the Chinese Auction. Thanks Laurie and everyone of the Texas Twisters for making me laugh today!!

Here are some more of my snowmen. The one above with the red hat and scarf was made by my friend Deborah. Then I made the one behind it with the blue hat. If you look closely you will see a snowman in a blue canning jar. There is also fake snow in there, with the snowman. That one was done by Cathy.

The bottom picture includes a moose. I know, I know, it is not a snowman, but it came all the way from Alaska to live at my house, so he likes being with the snowmen. Reminds him of home. Then there is a snowman with a star. My mom thought, since I live in the Lone Star State, I needed to have a snowman holding a star, so she gave him to me. Good idea, Mom!

Weather and Slippers

2008-12-15T17:58:00.007-06:00

Here are some slippers that I finished making last week. They are done in the freeform crochet technique. You use different yarns and start by crocheting a small piece. Then you crochet other small pieces onto the original piece with different yarns. You crochet in a way that you are able to cover the space you wish to cover. When finished I sewed these to the mesh top of the slippers.

Today we are under a winter weather watch. Yep, that's what we are doing. Watching the weather. Yesterday, was 79F for the high, which is totally unusual for us. Then today, the high was about 31. It was 30 when I arrived home. Needless to say, we had a cold front blow in over the night. I thought in honor of our weather I would show you a portion of my snowman collection. These are on my mantel. Two of them are handmade. The one all the way to the left, I had knitted and then felted. The third from the left I had received in a Christmas gift exchange. Also, like my Shepherd Sheep?? I like sheep too and collect them. These are great ones.

Santa Comes To The UPS Store

2008-12-13T16:32:00.008-06:00

In my other life, I work at a The UPS Store. My boss is my husband, which is really nice. He is a good boss. Since it is getting really busy for us now, Santa came to help us out today. This is such a fun time of year, that we called the North Pole and asked Santa to come and help us. He said, "Ho, ho, ho, sure. I can be there on Dec 13. Ho, ho, ho!" He really came and he helped us too.

He directed traffic.

Helped the UPS driver to get boxes out of the store.

Santa even took the time to pose with the staff for a photo!

Thanks to Santa for making our day more fun and putting smiles on our customers faces! (Well, the cookies and pizza helped too)

Don't Faint

2008-12-11T17:56:00.004-06:00

After not writing too much in the last couple of months, I am writing 2x in one day! I have been tagged for meme by my daughter Rebekah.

Here are the directions: Just go to your 6th photo folder on your computer (or external hard drive, or memory card - pick one!), post the 6th photo, and hope you can remember the details to share them. Then tag 5 others.

Well, when you do this, you don't know what you will get. I did go to my 6th folder and opened it, and found many folders in there. So, I opened the first folder and took the 6th picture. Years and years ago, when I was starting my spinning wheel supply business, my younger daughter, Anna, drew my logo. Here it is. But, you know, I have never named these two. They are the nameless duo. Any suggestions out there???? They are girls. I still use this logo and it is copyrighted.

I am supposed to nominate some blogs. Hmmm. How about my mom's work , fibergeekery, serenity-farms , born2bcrafty.

Blue Gloves

2008-12-11T17:32:00.005-06:00

These fingerless gloves are one of my most recent projects. They were lot of fun to make. Well, they would've been alot more fun, had I followed the directions. I decided to make two at a time on one circular needle. It started out just fine and then I got to the blue part. I know, I know, I was only 1/2" into the project and having issues. Well, the issues started, when I put them onto the long needle to work them in the magic loop fashion and the directions read, "you will be working these gloves inside out, so you can knit them instead of purl them." If you can see the the detail, the purl side is the public side. If I didn't knit them inside out, every round would've been purled. Now, because there is the button closure, there is a definite left glove and right glove. AND because I am doing two at a time in the magic loop, I wasn't working one glove and following directions for that glove, but trying to interpret different directions for 2 at a time. Then to make matters worse, the directions were written as such: on needle one do this, on needle two do this and on needle three do this. Well, after a while of sitting and staring at these gloves and the directions you would've thought I would pull them off the needle and put them on the three needles and knit with the 4th. Any sane and smart person would've done that. But, no, I was determined, at this point I was going to conquer. When I finally figured out which was the right glove and which was the left glove, I labeled them, literally, using paper and safety pins and went to work. They were quick to make and came out lovely. They are a gift for my SIL's niece.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2008-11-30T12:35:00.007-06:00

I hope that all of you have had a great holiday weekend. Sorry I missed wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving on here. I have had a whirlwind of the last 2 weeks. My Mom has come to visit from NY. We have had a very nice visit, with shopping etc as part of the visit.

Last Saturday, the 22, we met up with my daughters for breakfast at a local Cracker Barrel Restaurant and then went to an antique mall. We had a great time there and I found a great basket, to use for another knitting project, and a bunny door stop. You can see them in the picture.

If you are interested in yarn, that is Berroco Linen Jeans hanging there. I received 7 skeins as a barter for knitting some shop samples for Delightful Hands yarn shop in Celina, TX.

Now, my big news, I have been awarded the Marie Antoinette award from my mom's work .

Listed below are the rules for the award.

1. Please put the logo on your blog.

2. Place a link to the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs.

4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog.

5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

So, now I need to nominate some of my crafty friends, who have blogs.

Fiber Geekry, Stitches of Grace, Serenity Farms that's it for now.

New Knitting Projects

2008-11-08T14:29:00.005-06:00

I have been busy creating again. This is one of my two patterns for a neck warmer. I wanted to have a fairly easy pattern, but one that is timeless. The stitch pattern will actually help to give an effect of elongating my, or anyone elses neck. The first time I knit it up, I used knitting needles that were too big and the thing just flopped all over the place. So, the second time I knit it, I used a smaller size needle and I really like how it drapes now! I also thought it would be a nice feature to be able to wear it upside down if someone had a v-neck coat, so I turned it upside down and I really like it that way too!

If you like this pattern, it is listed on my etsy site at www.terrificcreations.etsy.com . If you go out there and you cannot find it, that is because it was purchased. Watch my site and you will see it listed again.

Voting in Texas

2008-10-23T17:46:00.004-05:00

We have a great college student working for us. He started working for us when he was a senior in high school. He is really a responsible person and very trustable employee. We are blessed.

Well, today he went to vote. You see we have what is called "early voting" in Texas. I'll explain it below. Back to the story. He was so excited to do his part, as a 19 year old. :) It was his first time to vote for president. He was so excited about voting, that the workers gave him 2 "I voted stickers" that he peeled off and put on his shirt. Someone at the store mentioned about the fact that he had voted. He proudly stood there and said, "Yep, I voted twice and they gave me a sticker for each time." The customer actually believed him and said, How did you do that? He came clean and said he was teasing, they had just given him two stickers. :)

When I left there this afternoon, he was still pulling that joke on others, but none were as gullible as the first one.

OK, so all of you non-Texans are wondering, "What is Early voting????" It started years ago and personally, I think it is a great idea. Starting 3 weeks before election day, our polls open. They open for limited hours during the next 2 weeks. Then they close for a week, while everything is re-done for election day. Then the polls open for election day on election day.

Having early voting gives those who work long hours, or travel for work, or travel for enjoyment, etc, to vote during those times. Also, it gives everyone else the chance to vote early. Therefore, we can go at our convenience, we don't wait in long lines on election day and you don't have to miss a class or work etc.

Oh, and absolutely no results are given on the voting calculations, until after the polls close on election night. So, no races are hampered in that respect.

It's Felted

2008-10-21T16:57:00.004-05:00

My Terrific Tote is finished. This makes such a great project bag, with a circle bottom that is flat.

I know that there is a controversy about knitting projects that are washed being called felted or fulled. A long time ago, I read in Interweave Knits magazine, that if you still see the stitch definition it should be called fulled and if you don't see the stitches it can be called felted. That author made a lot of sense to me. So, I am saying that the tote is felted. If you want it called fulled, that is OK with me, just know that the stitches don't show.

The Malabrigo yarn in this tote, felted up wonderfully and quickly! It was a joy to work with, like the Ashford Tekapo in the original ones that I did, when I was writing the pattern. The pattern for this tote can be found here. This is the link to where it is listed on my etsy site. If you happen to click on the link and the pattern is sold, email me and let me know. I can and will relist it for you.

We are still having gorgeous weather. We don't have a lot of gorgeous weather in TX, so when we do, I keep talking about it. :) Windows are open, it is fairly dry humidity wise, and a breeze is blowing in through the windows. Now tomorrow, is a different story. We are expecting a cold front, and so, the windows will probably close for a few days. The leaves may even start falling from the trees. Maybe I will see some fall colors, who knows.

I am in shock! I went to purchase gas today. I usually get it at Sam's Club. The price was $2.39. Wow! Who would've ever thought that the price would fall that much. I sure am glad it did. But, I do wonder how long it will last.

A Knitting Project at Last!

2008-10-18T16:41:00.003-05:00

I have been knitting lots, but haven't been very good about updating my blog. One project that I have been working on is my Terrific Tote pattern.
Sherry at Delightful Hands in Celina TX, has asked me to do this for a shop sample, so I said OK. She sent me some wonderful Malabrigo yarn and I went to work. After a couple of weeks, of knitting at night, while working during the day, here is the bag. I have it hanging on the dining room chair so that you can see the size of the thing. It really is an easy knit, and felts into a great size tote for your knitting.

Here we are with the felted and still wet, but drying look. Mind you this is a gorgeous purple color and the Malabrigo yarn felted up like a gem! My pattern was originally done with the Ashford Tekapo yarn, which felts up great too. But, I try to write versatile patterns, so you can use the yarn you can afford or find.

Life had changed for me a little bit. I am working outside the home about 25 hours a week. I am blessed to be able to do this and to still be able to go to my spinning group on Wednesdays. You know, when you have met with these gals for years and years, you become a support group for one another. I love meeting with them and sharing ideas and solving all of the world's problems. (or so we think we do anyway) :)

My garden is growing, even though we haven't had much rain. I did finally wise up and get a soaker hose for it. You know, it looks like a looooonnnnngggg black snake. ug. I have had some episodes this summer with a water moccasin, a copperhead and a rat snake. Nothing like living near a pond, in the woods in northern TX. It is a recipe for snakes. The great thing is that I didn't get bit, AND, I now know that I have what it takes to take charge and dispose of snakes. OH, the rat snake was allowed to live, once I was sure it wasn't a rattler. Heehee! It did try to tell me, by not rattling its tail, but I was stubborn and spent hours doing an internet search. Needless to say, I was relieved to find out he just want rodents, and he can have all he wants as long as he leaves me alone!

Oh yea, back to the garden. The zucchini plants have flowers and the beets are growing quickly. The chives, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin are all still growing. I am hoping they can produce their vegetables before our first freeze. I have never had a fall garden before. Actually, I have really never had a successful garden in TX before. Just getting the plants to stay alive is a great success for me.

Shawl Patterns

2008-10-04T18:10:00.009-05:00

Every once in a while, I have an idea for a pattern and the idea is an absolute challenge to complete. One of these ideas, is the Take 2 Shawl pattern. I started out making it a challenge to myself to see what I could do with about 128 yards of handspun bamboo yarn. I didn't take very good notes during this process, because, well I don't know why, I just didn't. But, when my spinning friends saw the shawl in person, they were sooooo excited with the design. So, I said, "Oh, sure, no problem. I will type it up." Hahaha. :)

When I started typing, I realized that I had taken horrible notes and basically started over again. The group was patient and waited nicely, as I struggled through the mess of notes. Finally, I had the pattern ready to go and off it went to my test knitters, while I made a third one. The test knitters had great suggestions for me, which I really do appreciate. However, one of the suggestions that kept coming up was, we need a longer one. So, finally, I listened to that suggestion(after I had heard it about 100 times) and Take 2 now has a longer version added to the pattern.

Two of my spinner friends, Kate and Cindy, offered to test knit this pattern. One of the test knits, done by Kate, is pictured here. Her shawl is the one with the pink shirt. The other shawl, Cindy's, isn't on here. I hope to get a picture of Cindy's and put it up. I have done the others that you see.

This bottom picture is the longer version of the Take 2.

The shorter version of the Take 2 uses 160 yards of worsted weight yarn and the longer version uses 436 yards. Just so you know.

This pattern can be found at

my etsy site.

By the way, thanks

Rebekah, for helping me with the directions for placing a link on here.

Where Oh, Where has Joanne been???

2008-09-15T13:56:00.005-05:00

I have been absent from my blog for a month. Wow! It seems like yesterday that the Ravelympics were in full swing and I was posting finished projects. My second project, a felted purse, was done on time, but not listed in time. So, I didn't get to the podium with that project. That is OK. The project is done.

Here we are in north Texas 2 days after Ike hit the Galveston, Houston area. What a mess they have down there, our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with those folks. We do have friends down there and we actually heard from one today. Willy's neighbor let him use his generator to charge his cell phone a little bit. Then Willy had to drive to the top of a tall bridge, near his home, to be able to get reception on the cell phone. Then he was able to use it, seems the cell phone towers have been affected too. They are OK, none of their windows broke, they have no electricity and won't for about 2 or 3 weeks. They live on the southwest side of Houston in a suburb there.

We had 3/4 of an inch of rain in our rain gauge, which isn't very much. We had strong winds. But, we are OK. We are very grateful to God, that He spared us, because we were in line to get that storm too. We were all ready to be hit by this monstrous storm. I had food, that didn't need refrigeration or cooking etc, in the house. Candles, batteries, etc are in supply too.

Soooo, you ask, where have I been? Well, one of the projects that has kept me away from here is a garden. I finally decided to start a garden. It actually has three sections. I put it in a small fenced in area on the south side of the house. The picture below shows the seedlings that are in the first section. Do you like the bricks? Nice touch? Well, in digging, I found them under about 2 inches of dirt. Apparently, the previous owner didn't like them and covered them with dirt. So, I pulled them up and out and used them. On the left side of the garden, next to the fence are saultillo tile pieces. They used to be the flooring for the main floor of the house. You guessed it, the previous owner ripped them all up and threw them into the yard. I found them while digging too. We have piles around the yarn, where we put these broken tiles, when we find them. Some day we may be able to do some artsy type walkway or patio with them. Or, we will just throw them away. I did make a step near the gate of the garden with some of the pieces and it looks cute. Well, here's the garden photo. Oh, yeah, we can have a fall harvest down here, if you time it right and we don't get an early freeze.

I have been knitting, and creating things too. Watch my etsy panel on the side bar and you will see these items coming up there.

Mish-Mash Shawl

2008-08-16T18:44:00.007-05:00

Remember my stash??? Well, I have 2 very small holes on the floor and 3 shawls are done. Here are pictures of 2 of them. These shawls were a lot of fun to make. I will be making more.

However, these two shawls have enabled me to be awarded my medal for the Ravelympics and my time on the Podium. Here is my award from Ravelry. The dog in the award is a picture of the owners' dog on Ravelry. He is the mascot, so to speak.

Now to finish the Bag and Stroke Backstroke.

Ravelympics

2008-08-11T11:23:00.007-05:00

What you ask is the Ravelympics?? Well, Ravelry hosts thousands of knitters and crocheters and give us all a place to post our finished items and works in progress, amongst other things. There are groups to sign up in and you can post to others around the world about your hobbies and interests.

Soooooo... with the Olympics at hand they have an Olympic Competition of sorts. It is called Ravelympics. I joined the group. What your goal is, is to cast on during the opening ceremonies and be done before or during the closing ceremonies. I joined team Texas, can you tell??

Then like an Olympic athlete, you take part in events.

For my events, I am in the Bag and Tote Backstroke and the Shawl Relay.(Cute, huh?)

I have started the Vintage Bubble Bag and here is the photo for it. The Shawl is started, but I don't have a picture of it yet. I will get it up in a day or two.

Stash Busted!

2008-08-10T10:06:00.004-05:00

One of the topics that is discussed amongst knitters(and spinners) is your stash. Most of us keep it hidden in a closet or room, at least behind closed doors. That way your family cannot see that you have an addiction. :) You can get away with purchasing more and more and stuffing your boxes with more and more. You may even have to start jumping on top of your boxes to keep fitting it all in, but you will succeed. Of course, there are yarns that are too delicate to jump on, so those get displayed in a basket and you dream of using those, some day...........

When I moved, over a year ago, I had taken yarns to different places to give away. That way, I wouldn't have to admit to some of my stash. I still had several plastic boxes to move, though. It was amazing. I kept telling myself, "Oh, you don't have that much. You have to save it for making shawls." Some of it is fuzzy, some silky, some bumpy and lots of colors. The other day, I saw my friend Laurie's shawl and she shared with me how she did it. So, I decided it was a great idea. Home I went and dug out my boxes and then the sorting started. It is safe to say, that I have to walk over the yarn to move around the den. Heehee!

Luckily, I am blessed with a great husband, who came downstairs and laughed at all this. What he doesn't know, is that this is just some of the stash. Or maybe he does, he helped move it and come to think of it, he was the one who suggested I come clean and take pictures of this work of art on the floor. But, you know, he did call it a work of art. Hmmmmm. Maybe I should go and get some more work of arts?????

Well, not today.

The pictures are of the same stash, just from different angles. The top one, I am on the floor and the bottom one, I am on the step stool. I thought they looked like they were worshipping Crayon, the Kiwi Spinning wheel, that made me laugh.

The Brown Paint is GONE!

2008-08-03T18:32:00.015-05:00

I am pleased to introduce to you, the newly painted hallway. Many folks know that we moved into a fixer upper. It is a great house, with LOTS of potential, as my friend Liz pointed out. She was right too. It is with great excitement that I can say the brown paint is gone. Yippee!

Yes, in the top picture you are seeing in the background a 5 gallon bucket of paint. I know, it is just a hallway, but this color takes at least 3 coats
of paint to cover it up. So, we wanted to have enough. Below there are two

pictures of the after, one with the hall light on and one without it.

This is the entry, what you see when you open the front door. Over to the left is the railing in the picture above. Jeff, my fantastic remodeling husband, pulled out that panelling you are looking at

and put up wall board in its place. Then he textured the wall and painted it, using a great ragging technique. (I get to paint the fun parts, the plain walls and trim, heehee!)
He also, put in moulding on the ceiling and floor.
I am excited to see how wonderful it looks now.

Hope you like it too. When putting everything back decided to move the mirror.

New Yarn

2008-08-02T11:41:00.004-05:00

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I was able to go yarn shopping while in Austin. Here are some of my yarns. Five of the skeins are Noro Kureyon and the other skein is from Lorna's Laces. Not until I arrived home and arranged them for the picture did I crack up laughing, all are basically the same colorways. I purchased the Lorna's laces on a different day and at a different store than the Noro. The Lorna's laces skein is slated for a shoulder shawl and the balls of Noro are slated for felted purses.

Yesterday, I went out to Ravelry. For those that don't know, Ravelry is an internet place set up for knitters and crocheters. You have to join, which is super easy, and then they give you a place to post pictures of finished projects. Also, there are different groups set up, so you can click on your favorite group and see what folks are posting. Well, in reading around yesterday, I discovered that they are having a Ravelympics during the Beijing Olympics. So, I signed up. The idea is to start and finish a project(or more) during the Olympics time. One of the events that I decided to participate in is the Bag-n-Tote Backstroke. I will be knitting a felted bag using the Noro and some Ashford Tekapo. The other event that I am planning to participate in is The Shawl Relay. I will be knitting a shawl, for that one.

My Diamond shawl pattern is just about ready to be put up for sale. I am working on the final details now. I also have another shawl ready to go. When listed they will be on my etsy site.
www.TerrificCreations.etsy.com

Lake Travis

2008-08-01T16:50:00.006-05:00

We had the honor to visit with family and friends this last weekend. Jeff's aunt and uncle live on Lake Travis near Austin TX. Judy is in the picture to the left. We drove down and visited them, and as always we had a wonderful time. The temps were making their highs at about 107F, but it didn't daunt us. We had fun. We went swimming in the lake, and the fish thought Jeff was bait and kept trying to eat him. Then we went for a boat ride on their SeaDoo, which we took to 32mph, so that I could ride faster on water than our daughter, Anna, has done. Heehee! I would've liked to go faster, but we decided to keep it at that speed. Here are some views from their deck on the back of their home. I was able to sit out there and KNIT! What a glorious view. When we arrived on Friday night, we went to the movies and saw The Dark Knight. It was good, although long, and a bit gruesome at times. (I closed my eyes at those parts) On Saturday, we went to a great kitchen store and then a yarn shop. I found some great yarn in there, but narrowed my purchases to a couple of skeins, for a shawl.

The picture that has the island and the brown thing in the front, is a picture of a brown dock/boat ramp. It is for sale! If anyone is curious, the folks selling it are asking $150,000. Yep, you are reading correctly. Anyone interested?

Grasshoppers!

2008-07-21T17:26:00.003-05:00

Well, here we go again. Bugs! Texas should be the Bug state, not the Lone Star State. Just kidding, but I think some folks might agree with me. Anyway, did you know, there are all kinds of grasshoppers? I remember as a child being so excited to see a grasshopper! They were so cool and they were green and looked great. Well, we have a grasshopper kingdom visiting our woods this year. It is the Post Oak Grasshopper Family. They like Post Oak Trees. The grasshoppers nest in the ground and climb the trees to eat the leaves. Apparently, they will move to another neighborhood next year. So, Texas A&M University said not to worry too much about the infestation. Guess what trees make up the woods around our home?? You guessed it!

Notice this guy is really colorful, so if you like bugs or have kids that like bugs, they will enjoy this picture. Me, I am not crazy about bugs anymore.

My daughter is doing a thankful list on her blog. I think that is a great idea, especially since I am inundated with bugs! I am going to start that too. I am thankful for duct tape. We have it wrapped around the trunks of 2 of our trees that hang over the pool and it is catching these grasshoppers and they have stopped falling into the pool. Making my pool cleaning job much easier. One day I watched as one of them thought they could jump 4 feet from one branch to another. Nope, he actually did a dive straight into the pool! Well, maybe he was trying out for the Olympics.

Oh, yes, I am still knitting. Some will put their knitting away in the summer. But, not me. I am working on a shawl pattern and doing another test knit for it. Two of my wonderful spinning friends, Kate and Cindy, are testing it too. Hopefully, I will be able to work out the rough patches of that pattern. For those waiting for the Diamond Pattern, it is still coming. I will post when I get it out on etsy.

Baby Shower

2008-07-11T13:23:00.004-05:00

Well, my needles have been at work again this week. I am going to the Denton Spinners meeting this Sunday afternoon and we will be having a baby shower. Two of our members have brand new baby boys. In thinking about what to make for them, I thought about a teddy bear. I used to have a cute pattern, but couldn't find it. Who knows where I put the thing. I only have 1 filing cabinet with patterns in it. They are arranged in file folders, so I can find my patterns easily. ha.

Not this time. Couldn't find it anywhere. It'll turn up now, that I came up with my own pattern and made these adorable(I think) cute little bears. I used cotton yarn for them. To give you a size perspective, I have them next to a blue quart size canning jar.

On the weather side, it is hot. Today we have a breeze, at least.

I have planted a bunch of plants in pots this year. One of my plants is/was oregano. I don't know what I did to it, but one day it was fine and the next it was dead. : I know it isn't the heat, cause I had it in the ground at our other home and it grew and grew. It was in this pot last year, and made it through the summer. Oh, well. I will have to get some more. My spinach is doing wonderfully and it tastes good on sandwiches and in salads.

Crocheting Again

2008-07-06T16:58:00.004-05:00

Well, after going blackberry picking, I decided a hat would be a good thing. I had worn a baseball type cap, a white one, as a matter of fact, with a smiley face on the front. Well, my thought pattern was, white=cool. First, that thought in Texas in June is just plain silly! Ha! Cool..... Well, so let's word it like this, white doesn't absorb the heat as black does, so when in the sun, white is cooler. So, I wore the white cap. It did help my face, but the problem I encountered was the white on the underside of the bill of the cap. It functioned as a REFLECTIVE shield! Reflecting all the sunlight into my face. I had sunglasses on, but still couldn't see very well. Since berries are small, I would remove the hat, look for ripe berries and then replace it, because I was staying cooler, even if I wasn't seeing very well.

Actually this project started before the berry picking, but I had put it away in a drawer, to work on some new designs. :) A UFO, UnFinished Object. The project started when one of my handspinning friends brought a pile of old magazines to spinning. I took one, it was probably printed in the late 1970's or early 80's. I found what I liked and cut the patterns out. Unfortunately, back then they didn't print the magazine name on the page with the picture and pattern, like they do now. I thought is was a cute hat. So, here it is.

In the magazine it was all one color, so I added the purple trim, hoping that I wouldn't have the reflective shield problem again. I also added the flower to it. I wear this hat when I am working on the pool, it really does help keep me cooler and I like that it goes down my neck, to protect back there as well.

I don't know if I will ever wear it out in public, since I really am not much of a hat person. But it is doing a great job in my yard. :)

Black Raspberries

2008-06-26T14:31:00.005-05:00

Today I had a fun day. It is one of those days, that you may think to yourself, "Joanne you are nuts! Fun? It is 97F outside and you are wearing jeans, knee high PVC boots and a long sleeve shirt. Why on earth would you do that to yourself?" Well, cause the wild black berries are in season. So are the thorns, chiggers, snakes etc.........

Near the end of my morning walk, Athena came by driving by in her John Deere Gater and asked if I wanted to go check the berries and see if they were ripe enough to pick. We found a bunch that were ripe, so decided it would be worth it to start our picking. Besides, it was a little cloudy and as you know, clouds will hide the TX sun.

So we drove home and changed into the outfit I described and off we went to the fields on the edge of our neighborhood. We were manned with bug spray, buckets, water, clippers and gloves. We fought the stickers and thorns to harvest the wonderful berries. Since we had both taken clippers, we clipped back any branches that got in the way of our harvest. It did get pretty hot, and quickly too, once the sun came up over the trees and the clouds blew off somewhere, so we called it a day and came home.

I had enough berries to make this wonderful pie. :)

I used a new(to me) pie crust recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It actually uses part butter in the crust. Then I used the berry pie recipe that I found in there.

For those that love knitting and felting. The pie is sitting on a knitted and felted potholder, that was an experiment years ago, that I thought flopped. It was too long, but actually has been the best hot pad ever!

I am just waiting for the vanilla ice cream to make it home and we will slice into that pie.

Acton is Finished!

2008-06-23T19:15:00.009-05:00

This past Saturday, we had a SHOW-N-TELL day at the UPS Store. It was a lot of fun. I set up a table of my for-sale items so that people could see what I do. Other mailbox customers in the store were able to come by and see what I had. It was our first one and we will try it again, to see if we can get more traffic. Several of my spinning friends attended, and set up tables with their for-sale items and then some other friends came and spun with me. We had a great time and as the sun came over the building and it became hot out, we packed up and left.

You can see my table in the top picture and my Ashford Traveller. I was spinning bamboo on Saturday, that I sell. It is a wonderful blue color. Hanging on the front of my table are some finished objects that I have listed on etsy. Then on the back of the table are kits for handknitting my patterns. The kits include a pattern that I wrote and the yarn to make it. Some of the yarn is handspun and some of it is Ashford Tekapo yarn.

The second picture is Acton. It is a Berroco pattern. I did find a couple of

errors in the pattern, but all in all I think the cardigan came out cute!

It is an adult size 34, cropped cardigan. Just right for summer to cover a tank top or spaghetti strap top, if you need a cover up for air conditioning.

You can see this top at Delightful Hands in Celina, TX, after Tuesday this week. Sherry carries the pattern and the yarn for the project too.

Delightful Hands

2008-06-15T14:52:00.006-05:00

There is a great yarn shop in Celina TX. The name is Delightful Hands and the owner is Sherry. Besides having yarn Delightful Hands has a great selection of scrapbooking supplies, with lot of tables to work on your scrapbooks. They also carry several of my patterns for sale.

Last week, when I was at the shop knitting, I agreed to knit some samples for the shop. The first project that I have knitted is the Topsy Turvey Shawl. I used a Berroco yarn for it. AND, yes, that is me modeling the finished shawl.

The wall behind me used to be BROWN. It is absolutely gorgeous now, thanks to Jeff my hubby. He is still working on the toe moulding and don't even look at the carpet. That is another story. :)

Here is the back of the shawl.

This is Acton. Acton is a Berroco pattern using their Love It yarn. You are seeing the finished back and the fronts which are partly done. The fronts are now done and I am working on the sleeves. I will post a finished picture when it is done.

You will be able to see these items in person if you visit Delightful Hands in Celina TX, in a week or so.

Diamond Shawl

2008-06-13T18:58:00.003-05:00

Here is my latest knitting pattern!

This shawl was so much fun to design and make. It actually isn't living with me anymore, I did make it as a gift for Cathy, my SIL. Yes, she is the wonderfully talented person who painted my spinning wheel. She had a special # birthday a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to do something special for her.

The pattern is about 75% done. I am still in the final editing stage of it.
I used Garnstudio's Silke-Tweed yarn for this shawl. It is a sport weight yarn and is 52% silk and 48% lambswool. The yarn is wonderful and oh, so soft.

The Girls' Recital

2008-06-04T18:55:00.008-05:00

I really enjoy being a Gramma! When our girls were younger and in dance, I was the backstage Mom almost every year, if not every year. I watched them dance from the side. I was able to see them, but I didn't realize what I missed, by not getting to watch from the audience. Five years ago, I watched my first recital from the front. It was Nicole's first recital and Gramma's aren't usually asked to be stage Mom's. :) Then a couple of years ago, Rebekah started dancing again and now I get to see her from the audience too. OH, NO, what if they find out, my daughter is dancing. Will I have to pull backstage Mom duty again. Aaack! Heehee.

Nicole in white in one of her dances.

Claire on the left in her pink and green tutu.
Young dancers are usually looking off to the side to see their teacher's directions.

Nicole holding her 5 year trophy! Congratulations Nicole!

Claire after the recital, with her yellow rose and new pink purse.

As always, we enjoyed the recital and watching them perform after a long year of practice.

A job well done girls!

Painting, again.

2008-06-03T12:09:00.004-05:00

One thing about purchasing a fixer-upper home, is you are always busy fixing and upping it. This is the before picture of our hallway, upstairs. If you look closely, you will see in the background a giant gray pail, yep it is paint. We new we would need a lot. You see, the previous owners painted the front hallway BROWN. I am sorry, but for me, milk chocolate brown is not my idea for a hall. It is the same color as the outside of the house. I figure they had some paint left over from painting the outside, meters, windows, bug nests and all, and said, "Oh, let's paint the hallway with it!" So, they did. It takes a good three coats to cover this brown. We have progressed and have the three coats on and we are now ready to start the trim. When it is all done, I will post a finished picture.

On the knitting front. Some of my patterns come out of frustrations that I am having. This one, that is newly finished, is one of those. It is probably the craziest one, I have ever done, but I really like it. It is a duster! The idea came to me while I was dusting at our UPS Store. It is really a great duster, too. I had to show it. The pattern will be for sale in the next couple of weeks, in my etsy shop.

Time Flies!

2008-05-18T17:10:00.005-05:00

I hope all of you mom's out there had a good and peaceful Mother's Day! We had a nice one, which started with breakfast at the Corner Bakery restaurant. We beat the lunch and dinner crowd that way. It was great!

It is hard to believe it is May 18 already. I have been busy making items for my etsy site and writing a couple of patterns. If you have noticed, I have added a little area to my blog with my sale items on it. It is actually a link that you can click on to go to see more about the item pictured. I have more coffee sleeves to list this week. They have been a lot of fun to make.

I have enjoyed making the cupcakes too. That pattern is done and listed on etsy now. My friend, Liz, helped me with that one by test knitting it for me. Thanks, Liz!

I have just finished spinning up some wonderful wool that I purchased last September when I was at the spinning retreat in Louisiana. It is a deep rich purple with some green in it. I don't think the colors came out really well on the screen, but it sure is pretty in real life. I have 477 yds of it. Now to figure out what to do with it.

Bicycling and Cupcakes

2008-05-06T17:59:00.003-05:00

On Sunday we went bike riding, I think we road for about 4 miles. My thighs hurt on Monday. LOL! The good news is I didn't fall, well and neither did Jeff. :) We had a great ride and made it home safely. The great thing about Texas in the spring is the wildflowers, which some will call weeds. But, thanks to Ladybird Johnson, Texans have learned to let the weeds grow and bloom. The wildflowers are gorgeous and the colors are wonderful. No, I didn't get pictures of them, because I didn't want to take my camera on the bike. But there were oranges, yellows, fuschias, purples and whites. Just think, we don't really get fantastic fall colors, but our spring wildflowers sure are pretty.

I have been working on several new patterns to sell. They are coming along, but the one that is almost ready is my new cupcake. This cupcake is calorie free! I will be selling the cupcakes on etsy, as pin cushions, and they will be filled with sheeps wool. I am really happy with how they turned out. I hope you like them too.

We Saw a Great Play!

2008-05-04T15:13:00.004-05:00

Wow! Two weeks have gone by since I last posted. Where does the time go? This past Friday night, we went to our oldest granddaughter's play. It was a lot of fun and she did a good job. The library in their town, likes to put on plays. The children who come to the library are the actors, if they want to participate. The play was about how one boy thinks the library is a boring place to be and wants the other kids to hurry and get their books, so they can go play. Through a series of events, like losing electricity and searching for what is making the strange noises and leaving strange things around the library, the boy and all the other children learn that the library is fun.

It was a cute play and Nicole did a fantastic job!

Along the project line, I have made a woven scarf! A couple of years ago, I received an Ashford Knitters' Loom, which I sell on http://www.terrificfibers.com/ for a present from my hubby. I was so excited, as it was new on the market and I hadn't purchased it yet for my shop. So, I warped it up very quickly and the job WAS really easy to do. The pictures and directions were great! Well, then we decided to buy our store, and then we went away to train to run the store, then we came home and have been busy working in the store and OH Yeah, we moved....... Well, I finally decided that I should finish this scarf and I did. I used commercially made yarn, Ashford Tekapo, for the warp and my handspun, dyed with koolaid, for the weft. The handspun fiber came from a Jacob Sheep. They are so named, as they are spotted sheep and legend has it that they decended from Jacob's flock, in the Old Testament. My friend, Cindy, owns some Jacob sheep and this fiber came from her.

Finished Projects!

2008-04-20T13:03:00.005-05:00

This week I decided to actually crochet something! It has been a while since I crocheted a project. And actually, about a year or so ago, I crocheted something and both of my daughters were in shock about it! LOL! They had seen me knitting and crocheting when they were younger, but when I learned how to spin, I decided to mainly knit items. Why? you ask. Welllll......., mainly because I am lazy or I guess we could say smart. Heehee. I had read that it takes more yarn to crochet an item, than to knit it. Since I was planning to use primarily my handspun yarns to make items, I didn't want to have to spin more yarn. The girls apparently took this as a sign, that Mom doesn't crochet anymore. Here you go, a crocheted shawl. I just love it. The pattern came off the Knitting Daily website, as a free pattern from Interweave Press. I had seen some finished pictures of it when I was visiting Ravelry last Sunday. (Ravelry is a large website, of sorts, that knitters and crocheters belong to and can list projects etc, and leave tips.) Ok, back to my story. The gal that had listed the finished shawl picture did leave a hint, "Go and get the corrections, from them when you download the pattern from them." So, I did. It is a good thing I did too, because when I hit print an ENTIRE page of corrections came out for this one shawl. I am serious. I sure am glad that I wasn't the first one making this shawl, I would've probably been in tears and really frustrated. I am glad, though, that the corrections page was there and available. Thank you, Interweave! This pattern was first published by Interweave in their Wrap Style book. If you have that book, there are other corrections listed for it. I know first hand that it is hard to get patterns worded just right and sometimes the directions get messed up. So, it is nice when mistakes happen, that the publishers offer the corrections on their websites. In a perfect world we would never need those pages, but we are not perfect.

My next picture is the great felted mobius basket. I have pictured it before, when showing you the knitting in the magic loop process. It truly was knitted in one piece and notice the twist in the handle. A single twist. When I first saw this basket, at Kate's home, I was truly intrigued. I thought and thought, how could Cat Bordhi have accomplished this? Liking math and being pretty good at it, that is why I like tech editing patterns, I finally bought her book and made one. It was fun to do and now I know. Normally, this basket sits by my computer with my glasses in it. I have a small assignment pad and an old mechanical pencil in the basket, so you can see the size of it. Oh, and so you know, there weren't any corrections needed for this pattern. :)

Knitting in a Magic Loop

2008-04-13T11:44:00.010-05:00

I am working on a mobius basket from Cat Bordhi's book, A
Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. For the basket, as opposed to the handle, I decided to use the magic loop knitting process. When I talk about this process, some folks look at me like I am speaking Greek, and I guess to them I am. :) So, I thought I would take some photo's to show you how it is done. First, you will need a long circular needle. The one I am using comes from my Denise Needle set, which I happen to sell on the website. The cord is 52 inches long, it needs to be long enough to leave the loops at each end.

If you look at the top picture you will see, stitches on the left hand needle tip and part of the cord. If you look REAL close you will notice that there are stitches on the cord that lays behind the needles. Those are the second half of the stitches. Using the needle on the right, knit the stitches off the left hand needle and cord.

Picture 2 is the process of that.

Picture 3 shows all of the stitches are knitted onto the right needle.

Notice the left one is free.

The first time I tried this magic loop knitting, I was very skeptical, didn't think I would like it. But, I am sold on it now!

In picture 4, I have pulled the back needle so that the stitches are close to the point. The back needle was the left needle. I have also pulled the front needle, which was the right needle, all the way through, giving me enough room on it to be able to have a loop at that end of the knitting. Notice, I have also kept a loop at the right side end of the knitting.

In the last picture, we have turned the knitting and we are ready to knit the stitches, which were on the back in the previous pictures. Just keep repeating this process. You will need to mark the beginning of the round, so that you can count your rounds and keep the knitting even all the way around. One round is equal to: knitting the stitches on the front, then turning and knitting the stitches that were laying on the back.

This process saves you from having to use double pointed needles, which tend to fall out all over the place. Try it sometime, you may like it.

Weather!

2008-04-11T18:56:00.008-05:00

Well, we are never quite sure what our weather, in north Texas will be doing from one moment to another. Wednesday, April 9, we were put under tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings, with high wind advisories. Then they added the tornado warnings. It is safe to say that the majority of us were walking around very tired on Thursday morning! The storms went on most of the night and in our neck of the woods, it went on in the early morning, with the worst part about 3 am, Thursday. It was over, though, when it became time to walk, so the gals and I went for our walk. When we turned the corner we saw that there was a problem at the horse barns.

(At 7am, the men were not there, as in the picture. I took the picture later, on the way to the knitting group at Delightful Hands in Celina.) As we walked closer we realized that the roof was blown off of one of the barns. The roof that you see in the tree, was off the barn nearer the truck.

At the time we walked by, we counted 5 horses. They all looked OK, we went up and checked to make sure there weren't any more horses in the barns. Another neighbor came up, they were thinking that there should be 6 horses. Don't know. So, a call was made to the horse owner to check. The good news is, that today there were the 6 horses in the pasture and all looked in good shape. :)

So, I went to Celina, to Delightful Hands and had a great time at the knitting group. We are doing a block of the month afghan. So far, I have January and February done. I have started March and purchased the yarn for April and May. I will catch up, I promise. Oh, and I will get some pics of the squares up here too. If you live around here, north Texas, you would enjoy the knitting group! It meets at 10am on Thursday mornings.

Upon arriving home, as I was going up the front steps, I noticed a green circle in the middle of the step. It was a turtle! A tiny turtle, looking like the kind we would get as kids. If you grew up in the 60's you will remember having turtles as pets. This little guy let me walk past and didn't move. So, I got out the camera and took his picture. Here he is.

I haven't seen him since, I hope he is OK.

Finished Hand Knit Socks

2008-03-30T00:28:00.005-05:00

These are my latest finished project. I made these socks at the same time. You no longer have to knit socks on 4 or 5 double pointed needles, like our Moms and Grandmothers did, or actually like I used to do. Knitting needle manufacturers now make pretty long circular needles, so that you can use one of those, in a magic loop technique, to knit socks. That is what I did with these socks. To confuse the issue more, I started at the toe and worked up to the ankle and worked on both socks at the same time on the same needle. When you work on them at the same time, like that, you also get them both done.

Last fall I had attended a spinning retreat in Louisiana. I dyed the yarn in one of the workshops that I took. The workshop was great and I learned a lot about dying spaced dyed yarns.

Knitting Tools?

2008-03-27T15:31:00.008-05:00

OK, now some of you are probably wondering if I have lost it. Maybe. (LOL!) I went to the local hardware store and purchased my own caulking gun, caulk and grouting tool.

Yes, this does mean that I now have caulk, a caulking gun and a grouting tool as tools amongst my knitting tools. Turns out they are very handy tools for us knitters and crocheters to have around. When you make slippers or slippers socks, you can use the silicone caulking to make the bottoms non-slip and more durable. Not only that, but the cost isn't sky high either. You can buy caulking in colors, but I have used clear here.

These are my Mom's socks. I had hand spun the yarn and hand knit the socks years ago. They are bulky socks, good for snow boots. Well, Mom was thinking that it would be nice to be able to use them in the house without her shoes. So, I volunteered to put the coating on the bottom so she won't slip on her wonderful wood floors.

If you are interested in doing this to your socks or
slippers, here is a link for you. http://allbuttonedup.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/making-slippers-non-slip/

Look What I Have!

2008-03-26T17:09:00.002-05:00

Isn't this a great scarf?! It was handknit by my friend Deb. She used to live near me in TX. But, she left a few years ago, for points north. Really far north, Minnesota, to be exact. She made this great scarf for me at Christmas and I am really late in getting it on the blog. She also gave me the Disney book. What fun to look in there and see lots of great project ideas. Then my birthday came in January. It is a special friend that remembers a January birthday, several weeks after Christmas. But, she did and the Knitted Babes Book arrived at my house. I am so excited to make some of these. I need to start collecting the supplies for them.

On the family front, our trees are blooming and it was to be around 80 today. Yup! Twenty days ago I posted about snow. (see below). And we are hot today. Weather in north TX doesn't have a usual, except hot in the summer. If you don't like it, wait a day. As a matter of fact, the weather will be cooling off this weekend. (Good, it is only March.)

I will be gardening in pots again this year. I still have not worked up the courage to have a garden spot, where the copperhead snakes may be lurking. So, I have planted some tomatoes and a bunch of herbs in pots on the deck. I also found some blueberry plants that are supposed to grow well in TX, so I have them in pots too. The directions said they would be OK, in container gardening.

If you are curious, the pool temperature is 56F. So, we won't be swimming for a while yet.

I built a SNOWMAN!

2008-03-06T18:47:00.008-06:00

I have just built the first snowman that I have had a chance to build in years! The snow is absolutely perfect for snowman building. The snowman, is wearing a handknit scarf, by the way. Jeff, the husband, is wearing a handwoven scarf and his favorite M & M coat! Yes, I made the scarf and I will put a good picture of it on here, one day soon, when the weather stops surprising me with snow. Oh, you want to know about that coat? Well, we found it in a NASCAR shop a couple of years ago. It was when the M & M car was being driven by Elliot Sadler and another sponser on the car was (drum roll please)UPS.

Jeff wears it everywhere and I mean everywhere. AND everywhere we go, people are offering him money for it! IF anyone ever offered $100,000.00 cash maybe I would make him sell it, but until then, he wears it everywhere. LOL!

Oh, yeah, back to the snow. Here are two more pictures. The top one shows the hill from the back of our house, down to the lake/pond behind our house.

The other one shows the front driveway and the birdbath. I wanted the birdbath, to give you a perspective. Hope you enjoy the pics, as tomorrow afternoon, the snow will probably be all gone.

More SNOW!

2008-03-06T14:22:00.005-06:00

Well, it is March 6. Yes, the same day as the post below, with Jeff in shorts! That picture was taken yesterday, but I blogged it earlier today. Just a little time lag here. So, as I am writing about a warm day outside and the snow being gone, we are actually in a REAL snowstorm! We are under a winter storm warning, as snow is coming down fast and furious. Major schools are closing early, colleges are closing night classes. This is the view outside the windows downstairs, where the den and my project rooms are.
Needless to say, I am enjoying the snow. However, the roads and traffic are a mess out there. The pictures are not fuzzy, that is snow falling in front of the camera.

The D.J on the radio just played "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow." I know that you folks up north must think we are crazy. But, for folks who don't usually see more than one inch of snow in a winter, and we saw 3 inches earlier this week, that was really exciting, BUT now, we have about 2 inches on the ground and sticking on the driveway. The forecast is for 5 inches. Believe me, this is headline news.

The Day After

2008-03-06T13:54:00.007-06:00

Here we are in north central Texas, the day after the snow and the primaries, March 5, 2008. We have survived both. But, take a close look at this picture. Notice the snow is gone! AND notice Jeff sitting on the step in his shorts and tank top. Heehee! When I said I was going to take a "day after picture, he said, "Oh, wait, let me get into the picture." He ran upstairs and donned his SUMMER clothes. Mind you, at 70F a guy doesn't mind shorts, but I want you to know that I was wearing jeans, wool socks, a long sleeve T-shirt and my Crocs(shoes). I had although, taken off my handspun wool sweater.

I want you to know, that this pine tree, which is in an island in the street across from my house, tried to eat a kittie cat this morning. LOL! The girls and I were walking past it, for the second time, and two of us kept hearing a meowing sound. Stopping and turning, we all heard it. By the time we found her, she was up on the bottom limb, looking down at us so pitifully. We had almost passed her by, but her crying turned to screaming, which made me turn. Kittie, was up in that tree about 12 feet from the ground. She didn't want to jump, truthfully, I don't blame her. She was facing the side of the tree where there were no more branches, so we were able to get her turned around and there was one lower branch on that side, she is a smart Kittie. Two of us went off to get Jeff's ladder, knowing by the time we did that she would jump. And of course, her mommy, being one of us walkers, did get her down, before we even found the ladder. She was able to coax her to walk to the end of the branch, where she could reach her. Note to self: must find out where the ladder is being stored. It moved, sinced I last used it. :) Well, anyway, Kittie had followed her mommy about that far on the walk, and mommy didn't realize it, and apparently had gotten scared up into the tree. She is not usually a wandering kittie, so she had a nice cuddly ride home in mommy's arms. A happy end, and the tree is in time out, for treating the kittie like that.

It Snowed

2008-03-04T15:51:00.007-06:00

It is so unusual for us to have snow here, especially in March, that I had to take pictures of it. As you can see the snow didn't stick to the driveway. On the streets there were patches of black ice, which made for some horrendous commuting. But, here in the woods, it has been peaceful. However, even as I write this at 4pm central time, the snow is almost all melted. It doesn't usually stick around a long time.

The first picture is the front of the house, and the other picture is the view we have through the trees at the small lake behind our houses, taken from our deck.

The Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-24T11:37:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week, we had a lunar eclipse. Usually, we don't get to see them, as it gets cloudy and then you are out of luck. Well, this week, it was cloudy, but we kept watching to see IF we would get to see it. Well, the clouds did part for just the time of the eclipse AND I was able to get a picture of it. If you look close you can see the outline of the moon, amongst our tree branches. I tried moving out from under the trees and I couldn't get the camera to focus on anything. I am guessing that it happened, cause the moon was so far away. In this photo, it focused, on the tree branches and hence I have the moon in the background.

It was really fascinating to see. To think that the earth was in the middle with the sun on one side and the moon on the other. And the earth(or us) was blocking the sun from shining on the moon. So, in effect what we are seeing is the outline of the earth on the moon. God is great! He knew what He was doing. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T15:13:00.003-06:00

This morning when I went downstairs to the kitchen, I found a sweet from my husband! I also found some worship music DVD's that look like they will be great. But, I wanted to share the picture of my giant cookie with you, because it is so pretty. (I also wanted to get the picture taken, so I can eat it.) LOL! The center decoration isn't frosting, but it is very pretty with sparkles and bright red and pink colors on it.

Today I went to the knitting club at Delightful Hands yarn shop. It meets on Thursday mornings. Turns out the group is working on a square a month afghan. The owner is putting together the patterns for it. So, I decided to join in. I am already behind a month, so I need to get busy working on it.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I Love To Felt

2008-02-13T18:02:00.006-06:00

I really enjoy knitting something with wool yarn and then putting it into the washing machine on a long wash cycle. The item will felt or full. It is a lot of fun to see the transformation take place. I am not quite sure, what it is about felting, but it is addicting! You can't just do it once. These are slippers that I made for Nicole. Notice how big they are, by realizing that is a regular pen between them. This is their before washing machine look.

Below, is how they look when done and on her feet. The pink ones are Claire's. She is modeling hers.

The pattern I used is by Fiber Trends and is called Felted Ballerina slippers. The blue slippers are in Ashford Tekapo yarn and the pink ones are in Plymouth Galway yarn. I did put a no-skid bottom on them, by using silicone caulking sealant. I even purchased my own caulking gun, so I didn't lose someone elses. :) I think he is glad I did that, cause he is always looking for his framing square. LOL!

Koolhaas Hat

2008-02-03T11:50:00.000-06:00

One thing that is great about being a knitter, is having friends who knit. :) One such friend, Kate, had a ball of Noro yarn just sitting around, calling out to be a hat. So, Kate knitted a hat and surprised me with it on my birthday! It was truly a wonderful surprise and I absolutely love it. It is soft and warm and the colors are fabulous. I love the way Noro yarn stripes as you use it. I actually don't have anything else made from Noro yarn. If you look closely at the hat, you will see that it has a small texture design around it, all the way through the hat. The pattern for the hat is named Koolhaas Hat and it is from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts Issue. Below you can see how the yarn works through the top of the hat. Gorgeous! Thanks Kate!

Also in the picture, to the left of the hat, is another snowman decoration. Can you see him in the canning jar?? He is standing in snow, with a tree next to him, holding onto a shovel. Embroidered on his front is "Let it snow." This was made by Cathy, yep, the same talented person who painted my Kiwi.

It is warm out today, we didn't need to wear coats this morning. I did wear my wool sweater though.

Beka's Sweater

2008-02-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

More knitting to show you! I have finished Beka's sweater, in her favorite color, green. I was trying to make a sweater for her to be able to wear to her dance class and stay warm. Hope I succeeded. I used the Ashford Tekapo yarn for it, so it is warm. The pattern was out of

Vogue Knitting, the spring/summer 2006 issue. The edging is actually crocheted on there. I dug out my crochet hooks, but had to use a hook 2 sizes smaller. I love crocheting, but hadn't done it in a while, so it was fun to make a bit of lace on the sweater using the crochet stitches.

I have worked a couple of days this week at the store and then had to be here at the house for a furnace repair man. He thought it was fixed on Monday and then he thought it was fixed on Wednesday, but on Thursday he was absolutely sure it was fixed. Since the weather has turned REALLY cold(for TX), I hope it is. Seems to be. No more banging and we do have some heat coming out of it. In the morning, I check the temperature, so I can hopefully dress right for the 2.5 mile walk my neighbors and I do. It was 17 F outside this morning! Thankfully, there wasn't alot of wind.

While waiting around for the repair man, I did get more knitting done. Surprised? I also, worked on dehairing a small bag of llama hair that I had received a while back. I am not even half way done with that. A little at a time. I think I was nuts, I knew better than to take the bag, sure am glad it is only a grocery size sack. Thanks though, to Jessica, for showing us how to dehair fiber! Oh, if you are not a fiber person, the hair needs to be pulled out, or the yarn I make will feel like jute rope.

Look Who's Spinning!

2008-01-23T19:08:00.000-06:00

Last week I had a wonderful time with our two granddaughters. They came to visit with me one day, while their Dad and Mom,

were able to actually go on a date. :)

N, who is 7 and loves to make things, has been wondering when she could learn to spin. So, I took the opportunity to teach her. We had a great time. Little sister, C, wanted to help, so she helped me ply what N had spun.

All in all, N went home with a ball of yarn that she had spun. It was a great day.

Is It Winter, somewhere??

2008-01-15T11:37:00.000-06:00

When we moved from Baltimore to Houston, it was exciting to see that we were in an area where the Robins would migrate to, for the winter. Then when we moved north to the Dallas area, we discovered, we would see them as they were migrating. Not even robins want to stay and summer here. Heehee! Too hot. Well, for the last week, I have been seeing a large flock of birds in my neighborhood while walking in the early morning with my neighbors. Finally, today we were able to catch a good look at them and they are robins! Seems they think it is nice enough to winter here, for a while. They are in for a shock though, when at the end of the week, we are to get colder weather. But, it has been fun for us to have them visit our neck of the woods. :) We are having gorgeous weather. It has been below freezing in the morning, when we walk, but the temperatures have been rising to the 60's during the day. It hasn't been windy for several days either. This isn't our normal winter, but I'll take it. :)

Being a transplanted New Yorker, I miss parts of a real winter. I miss the snow and making snowmen. So, in the winter I decorate with snowmen. If you come to my home, you will see them out all through January. Some were made by friends and family and some were purchased. I am not picky. Well, the one on the right, in the picture above, is one that I knitted and then threw it in the washer to felt it. The hat, scarf and carrot were knitted too and felted. His arms are made from a stiff wire, with beads on them. It took me 2 years to make this guy, only because I was bogged down with the wire and beads(they weren't knitting). OH, yeah, and I moved(that didn't help). But, he is done and we are enjoying him in our front hallway.

Anna's Sweater

2007-12-28T12:12:00.000-06:00

Well, now that Anna's birthday is over and we have given her her gift, I can post this picture. I used the Ashford Tekapo yarn for the sweater and knitted it from the top down. The basic directions came from a book by Cathy Carron, on knitting sweaters from the top down. The best part is she likes the sweater and it fit!!

The family met at the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday meal. We had a great time. I had their chicken soup, it was delicious and then I had the Godiva Chocolate cheesecake. Oh, it was good.

A New Ashford Kiwi!

2007-12-26T18:44:00.000-06:00

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, the sounds that were heard, above the Christmas music playing, were some hammers tapping, some drills lightly drilling and some sandpaper sanding. Not having a basement, cause we live in Texas, home of tornadoes and no basements, I came home from walking and what did I see? I saw an old purple quilt hanging on chairs as Jeff was behind there making these noises. LOL!

Eventually, the blanket came down and a large box stood in its place and hubby decided to take a break. Hmm, said I, "I could go there and peek." But, no, I didn't 'cause I like the surprise. On Christmas morn I rushed down the stairs and we opened the gifts, saving the largest for last. There before me, was a new Ashford wheel. Jeff had conspired with my SIL, Cathy, and they had come up with a new design for another Ashford Kiwi! Look at this wheel, it is absolutely gorgeous. Cathy, who is in New York, by the way, did the painting and Jeff did the building.

For those who know wheels, that is the jumbo bobbin set up on it. So, I can spin fat yarns, to knit with. I had that kit here, to put on another Kiwi, but hadn't finished it. So, on Christmas morning, Jeff finished it(ain't he great?!) and now it is on the new Kiwi. OH, and this Kiwi is christened Cathy. :) In honor of my SIL who put in countless hours doing this for me. The backside of the wheel is painted too. So, if you are ever around the Texas Twisters and we are spinning, you will see gorgeous scenery facing you.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T17:48:00.000-06:00

Well, I spent the better part of the last few weeks, working at the store. It was fun and I enjoyed it. I loved being able to wish our customers a Merry Christmas and feeding them cookies! When I wasn't there working, I was either baking or knitting gifts. I actually tried my hand at making Baklava this year. I learned a lot and it turned out pretty good for my first try. Well, we think so anyway. The jury is still out on it, as several neighbors received some. I also made the butterscotch cookies that Martha Stewart has on her website. They were wonderful. I will be making them again. Then there are the ginger snaps, that were my Mom's recipe. Yummmmm! Thanks Mom! There were sugar cookies and brownies too. Why did I bake so much? OH, well it has been my thing to make up plates of cookies for neighbors and then Jeff takes them to the neighbors. It is a great way to meet neighbors and get to talk to them. Also, in our new neighborhood, we have been truly blessed with some of the BEST neighbors ever. They are great and they also bring us treats! Last Christmas when we were still in the throws of moving in, several of them helped unload the truck and then brought us treats too!

Well, the knitting is done, the wrapping is done, the baking is done, the laundry is done(well almost done) and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. What to do now. Hmmm. I have several projects to work on now. I need to start weaving on a scarf, that I promised Jeff, years ago. The loom was warped, way back then. Of course, we bought a store and then moved, so it went to the back shelf. I am knitting a sheep, yep, a sheep. The pattern is from Knit.1 magazine. I have a shawl to get started, a pi shawl to finish, AND I have 5 skeins of NORO that I am still trying to figure out what to do with. Hmm. Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas to all! I thank God for the greatest gift of all, His Son.

More Christmas Knitting

2007-12-16T11:45:00.001-06:00

Wow! Time is flying by. It has been a while since my last post. But, I have been knitting daily. :) Never fear. I have finished the mittens to go with the hats and have even embellished the hats! I tried to do fairisle knitting for the mittens, so they would be warmer, have two layers of yarn, but it didn't really work. So, I frogged the sample and went down several needle sizes and just knit them tighter. Not too tight, though, cause I wanted them to be able to bend their hands.

A couple of weeks ago, I drove over to Bek's home, to have a hair cut. At lunch, C prayed for Gramma and her Dad to have safe trips home. Wow! When I left their home, I stopped at the store and coming out from the store discovered a nail in my tire. So, I looked at it and thought, well, the tire isn't flat and I don't hear air escaping. I figured I had a good chance of making it to my favorite Discount Tire store. I did! They are so nice in there, let me tell you. They fixed my tire and did it for free. Oh, you are probably thinking, "Sure they did, you bought your tires there." Nope, I didn't. This is the second time, in the last 2 months, they have fixed my tires for free. When I asked, why, they said, please come back and see us, when you need tires for your car. You bet I will. They have a really nice and CLEAN waiting room, where I felt comfortable knitting on my project each time I was there.

So, if you have a Discount Tire shop near you, try it. You might like it. :)

Christmas Knitting

2007-12-02T13:32:00.000-06:00

Wow! December is here! It has blown into north Texas with a lot of wind and warm temperatures. While some of you reading this may be under severe winter storms, we have sun and a balmy 70+ degrees outside. Not that I am bragging, because I do like snow and miss it. It is hard to believe that it is December and that we need to be thinking Christmas. LOL! Well, some folks on my list will be getting these great hats. I decided I could put the Christmas knitting on here and just not say who it is for. HO! HO! :) It will keep people in suspense, of course, there will be some folks who will know who loves these colors and make a good guess. I made these hats from my handspun and they are really soft and warm. The other little picture is a gift frogged. So, it is in the corner, since it didn't behave. OK, if you are not a knitter and are reading this you are thinking that I have gone mad. Frogged??? Yep, you know, rip-it, rip-it, rip-it. It was knitted and then ripped out, cause the idea didn't work. So, stay tuned to see if the ball of cotton will be able to be tamed or not.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-29T17:02:00.000-06:00

Well, here it is, exactly a week after Thanksgiving. I am just downloading my pictures from the camera and wanted to share 2 of them with you. We had some great centerpieces for our table this year. C and N worked really hard with their Mom to make them for us. We were delighted to have them on our table!

Here are the girls holding their paper mache turkeys.

However, Lil' D and JoJo didn't want to miss out on anything, and they were able to take a ride on the turkeys. Lil' D had eaten a little too much turkey and wouldn't sit up on hers, so C had to hold her in place.

I am busy doing Christmas knitting right now. I hope to be able to post some of it up here, but it may have to wait until after Christmas. :) AND you know why. LOL!

A Wonderful Gift

2007-11-16T11:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, Lil' D and JoJo have made their first appearance on the blog. They actually demanded that they should have their time on this blog. Who are Lil' D and JoJo? OH, they are my knitted(of course) dolls. My friend, Deb, who now lives in the cold and snowy state of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota, first made Lil' D. She made her for me after she moved from Texas to Minnesota. So, I would have company when I missed her. So, I then made JoJo, to be a little like me, notice she has gray hair. Heehee! Well, everyonce in a while they get to take field trips with me, but lately they have been sitting on the kitchen counter holding on dearly to the Hershey Chocolate can. They like chocolate. So, when they demanded their photo be on the blog, I thought OK, let's get you with the Hershey can. You can see them over in the margin.

In May Deb came to visit me for a couple of days. We had a great time yarn shopping, is there anything else, and driving all over north Texas to do it. When she arrived she gave me a fabulous handknitted, felted purse, that is fully lined. What a wonderful gift! Well, the girls have been telling me to get it onto the blog, so I said OK, and with your picture. They were so excited, they ran over to my restored antique spinning wheel, which hubby Jeff did for me, and they jumped on. They fell off several times too. Then they forgot to look at the camera and JoJo lost her clothes, she is so thin they don't stay up. Imagine that! So, here they are showing you my great purse, that I absolutely love. THANKS DEB!

Wow!

2007-11-07T20:06:00.000-06:00

It is hard to believe that a whole week has gone by, since I last posted. We went to a friends wedding reception on Saturday night. We had a fabulous time.

I have had an strange scenario with my bank of late, that is finally solved. I want to share it here, because it might help you, someday. I am going to bullet point the description, because it is actually a VERY long story. It starts in June, 2007.

June, 2007: There is a strange deposit of $300 on my statement and then it is withdrawn. After calling, I discover that a person, who has an account at the same bank, thought she had her account number memorized. Nope, she didn't. When they figured that out, is when the money was withdrawn. The money was deposited, originally, by one of those paycheck advance companies. I was told it was OK. No problem.
July: Statement arrived, I put it on my desk. (Wrong move, open all your statements and look at them.)
Aug: Same as July.
Sept: I finally open the statement, angry at myself for letting several months go by. To my surprise, said statement had a $90 withdrawal, from the paycheck advance comp. Arg. I open July and August's statements. Same withdrawal. I was paying back someone elses loan!
Called my bank, talked to a supervisor, for a while, until she was convinced I didn't need to be paying someone elses loan. Then I had to sign affidavits etc. All monies have been returned. :)She advises I close current checking account, as quick as possible, and open new account. So, we opened a new account that day.
October: I am checking my balance in the old account every day, to make sure the company isn't getting anymore of my money. The withdrawals were on the 6th of each month. On the 10th I thought I was safe. So, I stopped my daily ritual. A mistake. On the 16th, said company withdrew $570 from old checking. Why??? I have no idea. I discovered it when I opened my October statement, the day it arrived. :) I called my bank and talked to the wonderful employee and she did what needed to be done and the $570 is back in my account. Old checking is now closed.

This was a nightmare for me and a hassle, as you can imagine. Please keep an eye on your bank accounts and if you get any weird deposits, keep even a closer eye on it or close it and open a new account. These paycheck advance companies seem to be ruthless and greedy.

Well, to keep busy and my sanity I did finish two pair of socks. They were a lot of fun to make and I really love how they turned out. I knitted 2 socks at the same time on 2 circular needles. If you knit socks and haven't tried this you should. When you are done you are done! No second sock to knit. :) My next pair of socks will be with the yarn I dyed in Louisiana.

Front Hallway

2007-10-31T14:39:00.000-05:00

When we moved into the House in the Woods last year, we knew we would have to do a lot of painting and remodeling. We do these projects ourselves, well mainly hubby does them and I help, so it takes a while. But, when we are done we have a quality job.

Yes, what you are seeing is brown paint on the walls AND yes, the paneling does clash with it. This is or was the view you see when you enter the house.

We have been working on the entryway. Part of it, behind the mirror is painted off white and we left the

paneling. While I was away in Louisiana, hubby removed the paneling that was on the wall you are facing and put up wallboard. The next picture is the middle picture. So, I have the before picture and the not quite done picture. He has put a great texture on the wall and it is being painted and then will be rag painted. I will take a picture of it when done and the pictures etc are back in place. Actually, this is a close up, so you can see the texture.

Do you like my yarn? It is my handspun and I thought it would look great in front of the new wall. I don't know what I will knit with it yet, but someday the finished project will be on here. Keep watching. :)

A New Felted Project

2007-10-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love knitting with the Ashford Tekapo yarn. It felts greats everytime I use it and want it to felt. Well, I guess it would felt great, if I didn't want it to felt and threw it into the washer with hot water. LOL! But, as of yet, I have not done that. Anyway, it does felt wonderfully. It is a soft yarn, made from the Corriedale sheep, so I can knit sweaters etc with it too. Down here in TX we get into carrying our water everywhere we go. Sometimes, I wonder why as a Mom I took the time to train my children to get off the bottle, when now we carry them around 24/7. Haha! A friend of mine, asked me to make a felted bottle cover for her son's lunch box, for work. You see, if you don't have an insulated bottle for your water here, you can make a "cup o' tea" with your bottled water during the summer. Well, of course, the pattern I had wouldn't fit his bottle, so I created a pattern and made the cover and it worked pretty well. I liked it. Because he loves the Dallas Cowboys, I made it blue.

I had to take a picture of my sheep, Summer, too. Hubby knows that I love sheep and, one time when he was in Family Christian Stores, he found a display of sheep. He bought me Summer and Sandy. Sandy is a little camera shy, so I did't force her to take her picture.

We are having wonderful weather now. Fall temps have arrived! Actually one morning last week, our low was 35F. But, it warmed up to the mid-70's. We usually do have a big fluctuation of temperatures here.

Waiting For Fall!

2007-10-21T19:00:00.001-05:00

Well, you all are probably getting tired of hearing this, but I am still waiting for fall. The weather men are trying to tell us, that it will be here tonight. But, I am waiting for the proof. Well, I know, actually fall is here, it is the cooler weather that I am waiting for. :) We have had a very windy day today and those winds are supposed to shift tonight and come from the north. Ok, I know I am grumbling. Sorry.

Having moved into the house in the woods last year, I am working ever so slowly on window treatments. I am on a war against mini blinds or any kind of blinds. So, I am making curtains. They are coming along nicely, though. I got an idea working on the last set, that I could knit tie backs. Yep, you heard me right. I decided to knit tie backs. They came out nice and really look nice on the curtains, adding a touch of lace. Here is the picture of them.

Yet more hats!

2007-10-17T19:07:00.001-05:00

Well, I know it is fall, I even put a fall picture on my blog to remind us. But, we have had such a warm fall, that it still feels like summer! Of course, I live in north Texas and anything is possible here, on the weather front anyway. For several days now, I have been pulling acorns and oak leaves out of the pool. If I don't get the acorns out fast enough they leave black circle stains on the bottom of the pool, so then I have a pool that looks like a dalmation! The only way to get the stains out is to shock the pool. I did that today.
I keep trying to tell myself that I need to concentrate on Christmas and get started on my knitting. But, I keep finding other projects to work on. Do you realize that Christmas is only about 9 weeks away?? Geesh! I did, however, get two more hats made and here they are. My try at remembering that Christmas is just around the corner. :)

Pumpkins and Pilgrims

2007-10-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

I love fall colors and fall weather. I don't get to see many fall colors here in Texas, so one year I decided to design and knit some colorful pumpkins to decorate my home. I had so much fun making these little pumpkins that I kept going until I had enough to fill a basket. That is the picture that you see to the right, decorating my blog for fall.

Hats are popping up all over

2007-10-11T18:55:00.001-05:00

Last week, when I drove to my daughter's home, I went to take pictures of the new hats that I have designed and knitted and to visit with her. This hat is a vintage lace style and has a carnation style flower on it. I loved making it. I knitted it in the round on one circular needle. Then I created the flower. C looks absolutely lovely in it, but I am a predjudiced Gramma. :)

The other hats that I made were of a pie theme.

Here N, is wearing my Blueberry Pie with whipped cream. Doesn't she look great too, sporting her favorite color, blue? The flower is the same as the Vintage Hat, but double the size, giving it the look of a pile of whipped cream. I also did a Cherry Pie and Pumpkin pie.

I think the girls did a great job modeling for me. As you can tell by N's shirt, it was hot outside and they humored Gramma by modeling WINTER hats in 90+ degree weather.

At the moment the hats are listed for sale on ebay.

Texas Motor Speedway

2007-10-06T15:58:00.001-05:00

One of the great things about living in the Dallas, Texas. area is being able to either attend races at the Texas Motor Speedway or take the class and actually race a NASCAR. Many years ago, I was able to do that and it was a very exciting experience. I have an internet friend, who has a son and he absolutely loves NASCAR and racing.

When I go to my daughter's home, I get to pass this wonderful racetrack. So, I took these pictures for him and for anyone else that might like to see the Texas Motor Speedway empty and getting ready for the Dickies NASCAR race that will be here in November. This is the sign at the main entrance, out by I-35.

This is what you see as you come into the racetrack under the sign, that is above. It is the small track.

This is the condo area. People can own them and rent them. You can actually watch a race from them.

Next you see the race track. I had to back up a bit to try to get the whole thing in the photo. And I didn't get the far end on the right into the photo.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the Texas Motor Speedway, below is what you see when you leave.

The Finished Entrelac Bag

2007-09-20T17:39:00.001-05:00

Well, here it is! The finished bag. I am so happy with how it turned out. The handles are great, they are gray and I sewed them into the inside of the bag and lined the bag with a light blue fabric. As any gal will tell you, light colors lining a bag are a BIG plus! Maybe I will be able to find an item, like my keys, if they fall to the bottom. The black worked out great, because where I ran out of the colored yarn, was very close to where the bag started decreasing for the bottom. After I fulled it, you can still sort of see the stitches, I blocked it out over a plastic bucket. The bucket is about the size of one of those metal popcorn tins, you see for sale, with popcorn of course, at Christmas time.

Anyway, my plastic bucket came from a Shipley donut shop. It is what their flour would come in and they sold me the bucket. I have had if for years in the pantry storing bags of sugar, flour, noodles etc. You know, in Texas we have to be careful about those pesky bugs liking to invade everywhere.

Well, now onto other projects!

On September 7th, at the Cajun Lagniappe, in Louisiana, I took a yarn dying workshop. Here are the two skeins that I dyed. The ball of yarn is space dyed and the loose skein was dunked into a canning jar full of blue dye and then the other end was space dyed/painted. I am disappointed in the skein, because I had interspersed the orange color with the brown color, by handpainting the yarn. The brown ran and you can hardly tell that there is any orange at all. But, that is what happens when dying, so I am told, and the skein is very pretty anyway. These two skeins will one day be 2 pair of socks. Watch for them to start appearing here in a few weeks, I have other items on the needles right now. Some of the items I am knitting, I cannot talk about, because they are Christmas presents and my family reads, well at least I think they do, :) my blog.

New Bag is finished

2007-09-17T16:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I decided to do 2 bags of the New Bag. I really like this pattern and it knitted up quickly, considering how much time the entrelac bag is taking. (See below) I didn't get a photo of the finished one, that I did for my wonderful friend, but I took a picture of the finished one that I knitted for me. I was able to take it to the Cajun Lagniappe fiber retreat, in Louisiana, on Sept 6. It was a great little purse to have. With the long strap, I could put it across from my shoulder to my hip, so it wouldn't fall off. I put a flower on both purses and a little charm on each too. My friend's had her initial and mine has a coffee pot. Now, if you see me with it sometime, you will notice that the rose and charm are not on it anymore. :( On my way home from Louisiana, it was pulled off, somehow. Both the red rose and charm are on the road at one of our stops. SO, if you happen to live along the road between Louisiana and Texas and see a felted red rose with a coffee pot charm attached, it is mine. You can post me here and let me know. OK?

The Saga of the Entrelac Bag

2007-09-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

I have run out of yarn again! I do have the bag finished now, except the handles. I have only 1.5 yards of the yarn left to do the handles. They are going to be pretty small handles. Ha! Ha! :) The question is, what do I do now? Hmm. I have no more black roving to spin. I have no more of the colored roving to spin or knit. I could order more, but that would take time and I want to finish this bag and use it.

So, I did what any handspinner or knitter would do at this point. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought handles that are pre-made. :)

This picture is the finished bag before felting. You will have to come back to see the finished product. Any bets on when I will finally finish this?

My bag took over 200 yds more than the one in the Knitter's magazine. I don't know if anyone else experienced this or not. I have talked to other knitters about entrelac. So far, we have a love-hate relationship with this stitch. If non-knitters are reading this, entrelac is the stitch that makes this bag look kind of like it is woven. It is a great stitch, but it is a lot of knitting. Not usually a problem, since I like to knit. However, I also like to get projects done and get new ones started. It does take time to do this stitch. But, I can tell you the time is well worth it, because I am liking how the bag looks. Now to get it all finished.

New Bag

2007-09-11T12:39:00.000-05:00

I have a great friend here, in Texas, who does LOTS of charity knitting. She has been knitting for our troops since the war began. She knits hats for them and before that she crocheted slippers for the navy soldiers. She wanted to knit more hats and faster, so she bought a knitting machine. Several years ago, when I asked her how many she had made, the total was about 475! She has continued to make these hats, at about 30 a month since. The yarn is supplied by her, on her fixed income. Not only that, but she knits for CIC and for an indian reservation in Montana, I believe. My friend just had a birthday and I wanted to do something for her, since she does for others all the time. Here is the beginning of a bag for her, that will be felted.
I am using my handspun yarns and it is my take of a pattern that was in Knitter's magazine. Stay tuned for the finish project!

The Entrelac Bag

2007-09-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I am still knitting on the entrelac bag, that I
wrote about nearly a month ago. I have hit a snag though. What snag?? OH, well I have run out of yarn! I wasn't sure in the beginning if I had enough, but thought I would try and see. I was only about 5o yards short according to the directions. The pattern used many different colored skeins and I was using single skeins with many colors in them, so I guess I was hoping there was yarn left over from the original pattern. Guess not. Thankfully, the bag was started at the top, which I had taken into consideration when I started it. I figured that I could add another yarn to it, if needed. I also waited to make the handles. So, the question is, what handspun did I have that would work and would it felt pretty much the same as the colored yarn. None. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. Hahaha! So, I dug through my fiber stash. Oh, by the way, my family would agree that I DUG through my fiber stash. There is a lot of it, and the only way to get through it is to dig. :) Well, I came up with 4 oz of black wool. Don't you just love black? It can come to the rescue so easily.
Hmm. I liked that idea, so I went for it. Here it is. I actually love vivid colors with black. It reminds me of the church I grew up in. It has absolutely gorgeous stained glass windows.

The next time you see this bag, it should have black on it. The question is: Will I have enough yarn now?? We shall see.

Sunrise

2007-08-28T09:51:00.001-05:00

Have you ever seen a sunrise, or sunset, that you think is so absolutely gorgeous you want to either knit it, paint it on a canvas, quilt it, or somehow make it a permanent impression somewhere? Last week a terrible hurricane, named Dean, crossed over the Gulf Of Mexico, leaving much destruction in its wake. However, in Texas it caused some absolutely spectacular sunrises. Here are two of the pictures I took through our trees in the front yard. The colors were spectacular, the blues, purples, yellows, and pinks, and then to have them against the black of the shaded trees. The second picture is a little blurry, but the colors are better. I was, unfortunately, in a hurry when taking the pictures, because sunrises don't last
forever.

Prayer Shawl

2007-08-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is. My most recent design and pattern. I wanted to send a prayer shawl to a friend and needed it to be extra cuddly, which this one is. I just love the feel of it draping around my shoulders. Hopefully, she will feel the love and prayers that went into making it for her.

Here is the back of the shawl. There are a total of 5 crocheted flowers appliqued onto the shawl.

Magic Loop Knitting

2007-08-19T15:39:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to test knit a sock pattern for her. She had written her pattern for knitting with a magic loop. So, I searched the internet and found several great explanations on how to do this technique. I knitted her sock pattern using the magic loop and I am now "in love" with the process! So, I dug out my Denise needles, which I sell on my website, and found the 40 inch long cord and went to work. First I made a cap out of my bulky handspun, while I test knitted the pattern I wrote. Then, I decided to start my Christmas projects. This pattern is from an old Family Circle Knits magazine and it was written to knit it flat. Not wanting to sew a seam and wanting to try my new technique again, I cast on and went to work. It is working up very nicely too.

In north central Texas, we didn't get much rain from Erin. Some folks not too far away did, though. But, I had to run the hose to the pool this morning, which means no rain here. We had about a week of 100+F temperatures, but we now have a cloud cover keeping the temps in the 90's. Still hot, yes, but cooler than 104!

The Finished Shawl

2007-08-13T17:37:00.000-05:00

Well, here are the pictures of the finished Rainbow Shawl! I am really happy with how it turned out. It is so light and airy, perfect for air conditioning in cold places. I took it to the Denton, TX spinners meeting yesterday and several ladies there really liked it too.

I am now moving onto other knitting projects and have cast on for another shawl. I am making a prayer shawl for some friends in NY. They are having a really tough time right now, so I want to send them a hug and some prayers.

Our weather is the typical TX August. HOT, no wind. But, the good news is, I can go swimming in the pool. The water is 88 F and that is still cooler than body temp, so it still cools you off.

Handspun, Hand knit shawl

2007-08-10T12:34:00.000-05:00

The knitting is done on my Rainbow shawl! I am so excited, because I even have yarn left over. I only had 495 yards to work with. When I started knitting this shawl, I had wondered if it would even get to be big enough to wear. I figured, it might have to decorate the back of a chair and hear me sigh('cause I couldn't wear it), when I looked at it. But, no, it is large enough to wear!

I had spun this yarn into a fine single ply and then plied it with sewing thread, so I could keep the colors separate. Because I was so limited on yardage, I decided to keep my design fairly simple. That is why there isn't a fancy edging on it. The final size is 56 inches x 36 inches and weighs 2.4 oz. I chose a simple lace pattern out of one of Barbara Walker's Treasury books and used size 7 knitting needles.

Our high temperature today is supposed to be at least 100F. I cannot complain, after all. After all the rain, we had earlier in our summer, our weather has been cooler than normal. Of course, even our cooler is still hot! We have had 90's. I am ready for the air conditioning in public places now, with my new shawl.

Dragon Fly and knitting progress report

2007-08-09T15:57:00.001-05:00

One of the things that Texas is know for is bugs. I don't particularly care for most bugs, no matter where I live. However, in Texas we have lots of unwanted bugs and I really don't like those. Sometimes I wonder why God created some of these bugs. Maybe I will get to ask Him someday. This story is about a bug I saw the other day, it is a peaceful bug.

I was outside cleaning the pool and looked and there was a BLUE dragon fly. There was a yellow one just like him, only when the camera came out, he disappeared. Guess he wasn't as vain as the blue one. :) We actually have all kinds of dragon flies around and if I studied bugs, I could tell you all about this one. But, I don't. However, I was enamored because this is a blue one!

When I first started taking its picture, it kept flying away. Eventually, though, it let me get its picture. Then the little guy, decided it liked its picture being taken and kept following me around the pool! I would move about 3 feet, look down and there it was. I would move another 3 feet and there is was. I ended up taking many pictures, but saved only this one. You can even see the eyes on this one.

I have been knitting on the Rainbow shawl that I posted about and it is finished. I am blocking it right now and will post the picture of it, tomorrow. I am excited to get it done and get back to knitting the entrelac bag. I want to knit a summer top, I know, I better get going on it. However, summer doesn't really end in August, in Texas. We keep having hot weather until the end of September or October or even November.

I also have plans for a vest and ...... my mind thinks of more projects than my hands can keep up with. :)

Knitting an Entrelac Bag

2007-08-02T18:33:00.001-05:00

I have always been intrigued by the entrelac stitch. When you are done with it, it will give the illusion that you have woven your knitting. So, when in 2001, I saw a pattern for a felted Entrelac Bag, in KNITTER'S magazine, I decided that one day I would make that bag. I have saved that magazine, with a marker on that page. At one point, I had purchased some yarn to make that bag, then decided not to use what I had purchased. Mainly, because I didn't get enough.
Well, this summer I found the yarn I wanted to use. I had purchased some roving from a local dyer and decided to use that roving.

Here you can see my bag with some of my yarn. I spun this yarn as singles, so I could keep the colors separate. I am really enjoying seeing how the colors are working up and am anxious to finish it so I can felt/full it.

I have learned to knit backwards. When working this pattern, if you knit one row and then purl the next, you are turning your work so much that you either make you dizzy, or give yourself whiplash.

The alternative is to knit backwards.

Driveway repairs

2007-07-30T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, that is a picture of some of the new gravel being put down in our driveway. Actually, I didn't dare get much closer to take a picture of the rest of the gravel, because there are big trucks out there and the men are not wanting a woman out there taking pictures. LOL! AND I certainly didn't want to end up under one of those piles! So, I stood on the front porch to take the picture.

We had sustained some damage to our driveway during the flooding rains that we had in north Texas.

The rain waters decided to cut an 18 inch deep by about 8 inches wide and about 20 feet long, little river bed for themselves to flow in. This, now dry little river bed, however, is not appreciated by our cars and their tires, so we are having it repaired.

It is funny to watch these grown up boys playing with their life size TONKA trucks and having fun. I for one am glad they enjoy it. I wasn't enjoying the idea of getting out there with a shovel to fix it, that is for sure.