Sunday, December 30, 2012

Cotton Dishrag!

This is unblocked obviously, but look how yummy!

I got white cotton thread...I mean yarn...at Hancock and knitted this dishcloth using this pattern linked by Pammie. It's easy when you get the hang of it; the only hard part is remembering what you were doing if you're talking to someone (yes, I had to rip out row after row over the holidays).
Dean said it was too pretty to use at the sink, but I got it wet and WRUNG it out and it wiped the counter just fine.

I washed it in warm and remeasured it to check for shrinkage, and it only shrunk a smidge in one direction, but it stretched back out fine.

I really want to do something more with this....like a tankini...obviously with a lining underneath. No, maybe a sweater, or a short sleeveless dress....it's just so pretty knitted up!

Oh, and The Yarn Cottage in Fairhope is having a semi-annual sale on all yarn tomorrow, so I may drive over and check that out...since I got 2 new knitting magazines from Lucas for Christmas, plus a new book from my mom that has several sweaters I'm going to try (yeah, like I have time to knit several sweaters before the heat returns). This is the book - I snagged a pic from Amazon. Anybody knit anything from this yet?

Okay, back to work on the current sweater - I'm halfway through the front of the beige sweater I started before Christmas. OH, but I had a Lucas-ism from last night to share - WARNING: Graphic Language.

We were driving home and he said, "Dad, if you pass a kidney stone, does it come out your butt or your penis?" I laughed out loud, but I was proud of his proper terminology...sort of.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Straight to all my craft projects I've been working on for the past 3 weeks! This is my first felting attempt. They're coffee cup cozies (to spare the cardboard ones at Starbucks, so they're "green," see?), but they work on regular glasses too. Here's a felted one and an unfelted one so you can see the shrinkage. This yarn was only 50% wool, so it took about 3 washes in hot water to achieve that.

And this is a variegated yarn - made 4 of these with one skein. I like the different colors...except for the one that looks like vomit.

And I finished my niece's Auburn jacket - hooray!

Here's my sister's family in hats. I feel responsible for their warmth...though I hate that the Auburn one is too big...can't win 'em all (like Auburn - ha - didn't even see that one coming).

And my stepdad in plain black. I like this pattern the best - I think it fit the best. It's the same pattern as my nephew's Gamecocks hat above.

My SIL Elizabeth demonstrating how she feels one day after Pure Barre (wait, no, I think she's shaking her fists at me)...and how the cup cozies would be good sweat soaker-uppers...

And my attempt at a camouflage hat for my brother...yeah, I'm the only one that thinks that yarn looks like camouflage.

And this was just a neat picture I threw in. My sister hid candy canes all over the house for the kids to find, and she just gave them the green light to search. Funny how fast teenagers can move when candy is involved.

So this is just the lull between breakfast casserole and Christmas dinner in an hour, so I may try to fit in some knitting now. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas too!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve Pure Barre!

Can't show all the knitting yet, but I've got a white cotton washcloth about halfway done in the meantime. And today my 2 SIL's and my sister graciously agreed to join me at Pure Barre to see what it's all about.

I hope to have a plethora of knitted gifts to show you in the next couple of days. Now to go eat some buckeye balls and thumbprint cookies - have a Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Colonial Christmas

While we wait for the holidays to unfold so I can finally show you all my homemade gifts, here's what Lucas wore to Colonial Christmas at school. The jacket is actually a Simplicity creation I started in 1995 for myself. I think that's when the oversize men's jacket with blue jeans (and Keds, ha!) was really in. I even had lined pockets, but I just never got past the interfacing of the collar. At least I saved it so my kids could wear it a la George Washington's waistcoat, which I made by cutting away the front sides. (These kids don't need no finished edges!) To complete the look, I was brilliant enough to pink some T-shirt strips and sew them to the front of the cut-up T-shirt for that frilly ascot look.

I asked Lucas to give me a colonial pose. Drew pointed out to him that he curtsied.


He immediately attempted a more masculine bow....I guess.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Intermission

Since I can't show you my knitting projects, these are some pics from the weekend. Jake's eyes just kill me - I don't know how Drew didn't cave to the pressure to give him the doughnut. Note the imploring paw - I almost missed that when I took the picture.

And this is from the Webelos campout. That would be Lucas wearing the first pink hat I attempted that ended up too big. He wore it the entire weekend, despite his friends making fun of him. That boy's not right...but he stands up for his convictions! (And apparently has a touch of OCD, since he sleeps with the hat and carries it around the house...)

One question for you knitters - has anyone ever done a felting project? I washed it once in hot water with clothes and dried it, but it didn't shrink or felt. I guess I'll do it a bunch of times since it's only 50% wool and see what happens. I may have to abandon that and start something else - time's running out!!!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Doctor Will Sew You Now....

What a delightful time we had in Dr. Fun's Sewing Sweatshop today! (Jake is less than enthused.)

My mom and I both wanted to make another bunting for my stepbrother's niece, so we combined forces and knocked them out in no time (think Dueling Banjos, but we both still have all our teeth).
And speaking of banjos, today was made possible by Dean and Lucas camping with the Webelos, and my stepdad, Jim, taking Drew to shoot the .22 rifle. (This sounds like an episode of Duck Dynasty...)

(She's going to break a needle if she keeps sewing over pins like that, then we'll have to call Mountain Man to fix it.)

And here's my mom's version being modeled by my Cabbage Patch doll, called into service from the attic. We were going to put her beside the knock-off Cabbage Patch doll my mom made in the 80's, but that one's pigtails were too darn big to fit in the hoodie...

And here's my version made of chenille, which is so soft I should make underwear for everyone, but it sheds like crazy when you cut it - don't forget to serge all those raw edges! (Thanks to Jim for vacuuming while we packed our machines away.)

Maybe at Christmas we can get a picture of an actual baby modeling these...

Now off to finish my niece's Auburn fleece jacket and start a felting project...can't show a bunch of these knitted things because they're for family members who read the blog. There will definitely be a lot of photos of people modeling things when the holidays are over!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

ADHD Knitting

So I can't show you my sister's gift, but it's still at that previous link. I re-seamed it and it's all done. Then I started on my nephew's Gamecocks hat, but I haven't taken any pictures of that yet. And I also finished the back of my alpaca sweater! (Hope these unexpected stripes don't make my hips look big!)

So I cast on the front, then I took a break to work on the hat, then I took a break to do more Rosetta Stone. For future Rosetta Stone users, it's fantastic, but you kinda have to Google some stuff. Like the picture of a nice family has the word ryoushin, and another similar picture has the word kazoku, so I'm thinking there are 2 words for family. Well kazoku means family, but ryoushin means parents. Kinda hard to figure that out from one picture. Still fabulous, though. Back to knitting...