A year of projects

Looking back I have been very busy this year.

Between two surgeries and recoup time, I guess I had lots of time to knit, crochet and spin. I have completed 44 project to date (might squeeze another in before Wednesday).

Here is the list:

6 - Scarves:

Beige Muppet pelt
Orange Muppet pelt
Blue Muppet pelt
One row scarf
Cherry Mustard
Hoot scarf


6 - Sweaters

Ms. Purple Pants (started in 2008)
I love this FLS
Little Black Jacket
Shalom Fall
Forrest Sweater
Christmas Cardi

3 - bags

Grocery Sack
Pinkie bag
She-knits Mystery Bag KAL

5 - shawls

I do not have the Clap
Maybe this time
Myra
Colonnade
One-Button Wrap

4- Baby blankets

Operation Kid Cuddles
Military comfort
Pink and lacy
Lilac Lace

3 - mitts/mittens

Computer Mitts
Fingerless mitts
Secret Santa Hoots

5 - Pairs of socks/slippers

Socks
Pocket slippers
Socks
Inspired Socks
Take a long Socks
Another pair of socks



Misc knitting:

1 - Muff
6- Dryer Balls
1- Garterlac washcloth
1- Bag Organizer
1- Christmas Owls Cup Cozy
1- Go-veralls Baby outfit




This is on top of many blankets put together for charity and spinning I have done this year.


Now what to finish next?

I still have going:

7 - afghans in the closet
3 - pairs of socks
2 - sweaters for the Sarge
1 - sweater for Boo
1- Sweater for me
1 - tablecloth
1 - scarf for the Sarge

Plus about 13 projects I want to rip out.

That is 29 items on needles right now.

UGH!

All I want to do is swatch for a new sweater for the KAL on The High Fiber Diet.

Knitter remorse... maybe.
Knitting ADD... Yep, I'll go with that.

Oh, another wrap up is my 52 in 52. I blew it away. I am on my 54th book this year. I doubt I will finish this one by Thursday, so I will say I have read 53.

Next years challenge: Not sure. Watch for another blog post.

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween.

When I was little it was always a day we looked forward to. One filled with fun, a bit of fright and tons of imagination.

This year we will hand out candy to all the good and bad goblins that come to our house. We are lucky enough to live in an area that gets lots of trick-or-treaters. The candy stash is at the ready, just waiting for tonight's hordes to come.

This last month I have been busy trying to catch up on my reading for 52 in 52. I have read the new Dan Brown book Lost Symbol, The new Diana Gabaldon book An echo in the Bone, Sherrilyn Kenyon's books Acheron, Bad Moon Rising and have started Born of the Night.

I love the Dark Hunter, Dream Hunter and Were-Hunter series. Yes, I am a sap for a good romance filled with gods, myth and powerful beings. Unlike Twilight (sorry I couldn't get into that series) this is for grown ups. If you care to read them, the chronological order for reading is a bit different than how the books were published and really they should be read in order. You can find the list here

Oh, After all the candy is done for the night, remember to set your clock back. It is the end of Daylight Saving Time.

52 in 52

I have been working on 52 book in 52 week this year. I am going good on it, I think I am still behind by one week , but that is OK. I love to read and making this goal I was fairly sure I could complete it. Only 12 weeks to go :) I have the new Outlander book, An Echo in the Bone going now and I am really enjoying it.

I am searching for my next goal of 52 in 52.
I have been looking at projects on Ravelry and I think next year I am going to tackle the United States. Yes I know there are only 50 states. What I am thinking about is not a lot of travel, but a lot of knitting.

The United States of America Afghan

How I would do this afghan, is to use up scrap yarn I have left over to knit up each square. That way not only am I getting a new afghan for the couch (yes, we use them in the winter) but I am also including this in my High Fiber Diet as a stash down. The way I have it planned out, it will take 56 squares, so I will make 6 star squares to be distributed through out the afghan.

So I would actually be making 56 in 52. I may start early so that I can get a jump on the first 6 before the new year. It depends on Christmas knitting for this plan.

If anyone would like to join me, I am going to be knitting the states in alphabetical order in what ever color I have in the bag next.

Been Busy

These last few weeks have been very busy around here.

Last week was Coast Guard Fest. here in Grand Haven and I had my daughter and my niece to take downtown each night.

They had a blast riding rides, going to the beach and walking the carnival area.

I on the other hand, drove up about 4 hours to spend 2 days with my husband. I had not seen him in a couple of weeks and the get-a-way was perfect. We reconnected and were able to make plans for a but of our future. Hopefully they will all play out.

I left the hubs there and drove back Friday morning. On Saturday, Deborah and I attended the craft fair and had a wonderful dinner downtown then came back to my house for knitting before I had to head back down to pick up the girls after the fireworks. It was a full week/weekend and I am ready to get back to reality.

I was able to finish up reading To kill a mockingbird for class. I can see where it is a good book but not one that I will read over and over. Just not the style I am in love with. We are now watching the movie in class and as always, I do not like the movie as much as I liked the book. I know it is a classic on all sides, so sue me, I have a different opinion than others do *shrug*.

Next book is The Grapes of Wrath. I have enjoyed a few books by Steinbeck, so I hope to enjoy this one. In the meantime, I have finished reading Summer on Blossom street and enjoyed it as a quick read. Yes a summer fluff book that I loved, surprise! This keeps me on track for my book list and that is what I was looking for. I am also reading up on Good Queen Bess, as I have a paper to write on her for my history class.

On the knitting front, I have finished knitting Myra (Mara pattern PDF) and need to weave in the ends and block her today.

Insert Foot

Have you ever had one of those days where every time you open your mouth you feel like your licking your toes? This have been one of those months for me.
So, I decided to step away from the blog for a week or two and let my life get back to normal.
In the mean time, I have read two books for college, three for pleasure and have now caught up on my 52 in 52. I have so far read 29 books this year.
I also finished the Little Black Cardigan I was working on. It did not come out like the pattern and with a bit of creative flair, I now have a cardigan that I can wear two ways.

I picked up big buttons for the top part and little black buttons for the bottom, I will get better photos tomorrow ( and yes I need to polish my bathroom mirror)

I have also done a bit of spinning, I finished up my BLF that I have named Cherry Chip.

I started on Vee's room, some beginner wool I was given in a swap. I still have oodles left to spin up.


I have Myra almost completed. I think another 3 or 4 inches of the rib pattern and I can cast off.
This weekend I have midterm assignments and more reading.
Back to normal- well as normal as I can allow.

Reading and a bit of knitting

I am still trying to do the 52 books in 52 weeks; here is an update on my reading. Book (16) was On what Grounds followed by (17) Through the Grinder both were by Cleo Coyle and were good reads. I then went on to read (18) Tuesdays with Morrie and last night I finished (19) A Good Year. The books were so much better than the movies that were done about them. To me this is always the case, my kids debate me on it, but they really do not like to read. My knitting friend Margo donated some books to my reading cause a couple weeks ago. I am going to start Water for elephants, which is one of many she gave me, next. I did end up going to our local bookstore yesterday and I picked up a few books from the used part. I had earned a $10 coupon from them, thought I better use it. I normally cannot find Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series books there, but I found a couple as well as Diana Palmer's Long Tall Texan Weddings, which has three of her books in one big one. I did perorder the new Dan Brown book while I was at the book store, but forget to preorder the new Debbie Macomber Summer on Blossom Street book.
On my knitting, I finished my Noro shawl; I actually love it, which surprises me because I am not a huge Noro fan, too much VM and too many knots. I struggled through and have a lovely shawl now that I have worn a couple of times and received many compliments on..
Yesterday morning while at my pre-op appointment at the doctors, I finished my pocketbook slippers. I made them in Caron One pound in the Sage Green colorway. (Pictures to come soon)

After recording the new podcast yesterday, I ran down to Lizzie Ann’s Wool Co. on 8th Street in Holland. While looking around, I saw that they had put on clearance all of their Cashcotton yarn. I had picked up a few skeins a while ago but knew I needed more if I was going to do a project with them. So, I grabbed up 4 more skeins in the raspberry color I already had. Love that I spent less than $20. I started the Self-fringing bias scarf with it last night at Knit Night.

I'm on track

It is week 15 of the year and I have just finished book 15 and started book 16 of the 52 in 52 challenge to myself.
I read Married in Seattle, which I will count as two books because it has two different stories by Debbie Macomber, First comes Marriage (13) and Wanted: Perfect Partner(14).
I have also read Knit fast, Die Young(15) by Mary Kruger and have started On what grounds by Cleo Coyle. I am learning a lot about coffee lingo from this book. I like a good cup of coffee, but never know what to say when I walk into a coffee house, so maybe now I will sound intelligent when I order. The last two books along with my next in line to read, Through the grinder, were given to me by AnitaT when we met up. Thank you, I am enjoying them.
I have had a few books come across my path since cleaning up my son's closet this weekend. Ones I had been meaning to read and have just not gotten around to it. Tuesdays with Morrie and The Secret have both been added to the reading list.
I have also learned that I love the written books. I think I have given audio books enough of a try that I can say I like reading for myself. I know blasphemy in today's age, but I do like podcasts, so I can listen to those while I knit or spin and read when I want to read. I do want to try a kindle though. Not sure if it will appeal to me as I love books, but being able to carry it around without fear of dog earring the pages would be a happy thought for me. Not that I can afford a kindle anytime soon, but I am sure the price will come down a bit soon.
On knitting, I finished my computer mitts and love them. I frogged a few projects, cleaned up my yarn stash and put it away in its own closet and started a triangular shawl out of the Noro. The cheese scarf I was planning on was just to fiddely for me at this time. Maybe later.

Fiber Saturday

Today I again watched Little Z. She is such a good baby for me. She sleeps all the time...maybe I am just boring. While I was watching her, my daughter ran to the American Legion and was interviewed for Girls State. This is something put on at Michigan State University each year and Boo is a candidate for it. Please keep your fingers crossed; this would be a great week away for her, in the summer. It will not hurt her college entry papers either. *grin*

While this all was going on, I finished up my I love this February Lady Sweater out of I love this Cotton. The yarn is yummy and soft, I hope it wears well. I picked up the buttons for the sweater during the last LNYP at City Knitting. I love the way they look on it. I want to get a picture of me wearing it but it was raining and overall yucky all day, maybe later this week.


On top of that, I decided to dye up the wool I bought last week at the farm.
The Natural color of the wool
after the first dip in the dye
Second dip in the dye
Boiled wool, mmmmm yeah not a smell I care for. Oh and I need to pick up some rubber gloves. My hands are just a shade lighter than that now.

I also need to purchase a salad spinner. Good thing I have my Walking sticks strung between the cabinets in my kitchen, the yarn can drip into the sink.

Finished the dyeing up the 1300 or so yards of DK weight.
Love the way the blues and pinks come together in the yarn. One skein did not get much pink though, I still like it all. I was thinking of making a sweater out of it, but I think it is now screaming shawl, so I will have to look up patterns and see what talks to me.
Raspberry wine is from a Michigan vineyard. I like their winter wines, this one is new to me and pretty good.

52 books in 52 weeks news:
Book 10-11 and 12 are finished.
10- This must be love-- a fun romance/mystery
11- 1776 -- The Sgt and I enjoyed this audio book together
12- The Tales of Beedle the Bard -- Good wrap up of the stories in book 7.
I need to get crackin' on reading.

Podcast news:
If you are a listener to the podcast that Bams and I do - The High Fiber Diet, you might have had difficulties downloading the latest episode. We are not sure if it is MyPodcast or iTunes having problems, but they do not seem to like each other, so Bams is currently trying to relocate all of our casts onto another site. Check out the show notes or see the Ravelry group for my information. Sorry about the problems and thank you for listening.

Winter Break

This week has been wonderful here in West Michigan. I am loving the sunshine! It perks up my attitude and makes me happy. I have a tendency to get depressed in the winters here and I think it also makes me a bit crabby...what can I say I'm a cancer by birth, give me the sun! The temps have been warm enough that some of the snow has melted and I have been able to open up the house and air it out some. Lots of airing has been needed, as both my daughter and my husband have come down with the sickies. I don't want to jinx myself, but I am lucky not to have caught it yet. Other than house airing, I have made lots of chicken soup, changed bed linens each day and used my wool balls a bunch in drying stuff quickly.
Wool dryer balls : I have found that for every 10 or so runs in the dryer, they need to get wet again to aid in removal of static cling, kind of like a recharge

On Knitting:
I am still working on the NYCO, well, truthfully, it just sits. I got bored, I need to find the love again.

I cast on for my FLS on Thursday and I really want to wear it in a month, so I want to knit on it.
Oh, and the socks sit too, I don't think I like the pattern that I was doing on the foot. I do like the material, so I may just rip back and do my plain vanilla socks again. I have to keep telling myself that there is nothing wrong with loving Vanilla!

I have listened to a few books:
A Cedar Cove Christmas and Blood brothers. Currently I am listening to The Da Vinci Code.
I am still reading Drunk, divorced and covered in cat hair. so as soon as I finish the two I am working on I will have 9 of 52 done. Not bad for the middle of February.

6 of 52

That is the book I am now on.
#4 was Operation: Midnight Guardian by Linda Castillo
#5 was Dead Men Don't Crochet by Betty Hechtman
#6 I am reading now, Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry. This is one I have wanted to read for a while but never got around to it.
I have 5 audio books uploaded to my iPod and 3 more books in my queue to read. I am plugging away as I can.

What a week

Wow, I didn't mean to not blog for a week. It has been a busy one though and getting a chance to sit at the computer has been hard.

College started last week for the Sgt and my son, my classes don't start until the middle of February. Thank goodness I was able to put mine off that long, it just fell into place.

On Sunday we held a party for my daughters birthday. She turned 17 on the 5th, but we find that is too close to Christmas to hold a party so we always wait a bit longer. It give us time for the invites and time for another paycheck to be able to pay for it. This year she wanted simple, so we rented out the rec-room of the community we live in and just picked up pizzas, sodas, chips and a cake, yay no cooking for me.

See food is all they wanted. Well, games and dancing happened too.

This makes for happy easy going parents.

My son stopped by with his Girlfriend and her kids. This is the pseudo-grand-babies, ages 5, 3 and 1 month

After we cleaned up and got the deposit back for the room, easy peasy, will do it this way again!

On Monday I went in for outpatient surgery. I was at the hospital from 11 am until 7 pm. I am glad all went well so I could go home the same day. I have a problem coming out of general anesthesia, so yay I am home. Well I am home and sore, and not allowed to drive or lift anything over 10 pounds, or bend much, or be on my feet much, so really, I can sit and lift light knitting. OH DARN!

I did finish book 3 yesterday, A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton. These are good quick reads though the plots are really running into each other, There are other ways to find someone other than on the floor dead...I want to read the rest of the series, but I hope the pick it up a little. I do not have the rest of the books in the series though, so I picked up a romance for book 4. Something I can read and fall asleep during and not worry about ruining the plot. I like romances, but to me they are very light reading.

I am thinking of getting a book from iTunes or maybe on CD from the library so I can listen to one. I tried this once and was not that impressed, so I want to try again before I give up on audio books.

2 down, 50 to go

Book two is finished. Love quick reads, but wish I had time to read them quickly.
This book was Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton. A good quickie mystery with a bit of knitting, fiber talk and a recipe at the end.
My next book will be in the same series A Deadly Yarn. I think I need to get the other 2 books before I finish this one.


The reason the "quick" read was not quick, I finished Ms. PurplePants.

Here she is preblocking


And here she is blocking on the coffee table


I will pose for a photo when she is dry.

Book 1 Finished

1 out of 52 CHECK

Knit one, kill two was a quick read. I nice story to relax to but not heavy enough to not be able to set it down and get things done around the house. I started Needled to death today. I like how the books flow with a mystery, a couple patterns and a recipe at the end.

I am about 6 inches in on the NYCO Sweater for the Sgt. and got a bit bored while knitting it, so I cast on a pair of Knotty gloves (Ravelry link. I am using sock yarn that I bought at Threadbear about two years ago. I lost the ball band so I have no idea what yarn it is, but I am pretty sure it is super-wash wool.

I need to say happy birthday to my daughter. She turned 17 on the 5th, her party is on the 18th so more to come on that, but I know she reads this so *sticks out tongue* see I post about you Boo.

New Year Cast On

Happy 2009, whereever you are. May this year be everything we hope it to be and more.

On New Years Eve, I cast on for the sweater I am making for the Sgt. It is the Seamless Hybrid Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I have made a few of EZ's patterns up and know that you are supposed to follow diligently and not question the pattern and from that, you will end up with a beautiful finished project. There fore when I pulled out the Henley sweater shirt that the Sgt loves and measured it, I did not blink at the 25 inches across the front that I got. I looked at my swatch and read that I have five stitches to the inch and I cast on 250 stitches. I started knitting, went, checked the Ravelry boards about EZ patterns, and was assured that it looks big, but the man will love it. I had a few twinges of wonder if I should cast on 4 stitches per inch instead or if I should ask the Sgt about how he feels, but no, I told the gut feeling to go away and continued to knit 250 stitches round and round. I joined for the hem and continued for a bit, then headed over to friends for a New Years gathering with lots of games and a bit of alcohol.

I am not sure if it was too much Baileys or not paying attention to the yarn, but I twisted my knitting about 2 inches in. I think some knitting God was watching over me at the point, because when I took it off the cable needle and held it up to hubby before frogging it, it was huge. I mean huge in the way that this sweater would have fit me, not him. Anyone who has seen us together knows there is a reason I say we are a perfect 10 together...need I say more?
Anyway, I had learned a lesson. I had had worries about the size, but went along with EZ on measuring the favorite sweater and then casting on per your gauge. Yeah, making a 50-inch sweater for a man with a less than 30-inch waist is just wrong.
I recast on for a 40-inch sweater, I will increase a bit before the chest area as the Sgt's Chest is 40 inches and I do not want the sweater form fitting, so increases at the side will be worked in. Then make the sleeves figured out on how big his arms are plus a bit of ease, (I will see how it compares to the EPS when I do it). I want this to fit him and somehow, someone up there, knew this.

I hope, if you are knitting or crocheting your own NYCO, that you have a wonderful time with it.


Book 1: Knit one, Kill two: in progress