Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! The boys and ES drew faces on my orange nails. It was fun to see the reaction of some of my customers today, when they realized there were faces gazing back at them. I even had a couple of people notice as we were just talking and they asked to see them. I didn't dress up for work, because of other commitments today, so this was the best I could think of for some Halloween fun. I think the thumb face is actually my favorite. It's a little hard to see in the picture.

I have been busy working on some knit hats for my Nursery kids for Christmas. I am 1/4 of the way done with the hats. There are 12 kids in the class and each hat will be the same pattern but
different colors. I have a couple of girls that are P-I-N-K girls, so will have fun doing some pink stuff. My boys don't care for pink too much except for C. He will wear pink occasionally.

Well, off to answer the door.

Happy knitting & spinning!

Railroad Ribs completed

This isn't the best picture, but at least you can see I completed the Railroad Rib socks. I think they will fit E very well. I haven't let him try them on, because I will probably give them to him for Christmas. The pattern was really easy once I got into it and it went fairly fast. I was surprised at how quickly an inch or two seemed to go during tv watching.
I have another pair started, but I am doing them from the toe up and they are not going as quickly.

I have started working on Mr. Greenjeans again. I moved all the stitches to waste yarn last night and tried the sweater on. It seemed to fit well, from my point of view. Although ES wasn't quite so sure about it. I am ready to switch to smaller needles and start the cabling at the bottom of the sweater. We'll see how fast it goes when I have to start reading a chart.

Happy knitting & spinning!

Turned the heel, halfway down the foot

I keep wondering if I will have enough of this yarn to finish both socks. E has size 11 or 12 feet and this yarn is discontinued. Tish looked for me, just in case. I was able to knit for about 30 minutes last night and it was so r e l a x i n g. I know I have to have these done by November 3rd, as that is when the next class is, and I need the needles for the next sock. I still haven't turned the second heel yet, but hope to do so when the fiber guild meets on Saturday.

ES brought me a present from DC. He brought a new camera! He said he would take the one I've been using because he smashed the side a few months ago when he had it on a different trip. I couldn't figure out the camera yet, because the instruction book was in ES's luggage which didn't make it home until last night. And when learning about a new toy I like to look at the book and the item at the same time. I will learn though and still take lots of pictures.

Happy knitting & spinning!

Just to show, I am still knitting! I have turned one heel and working the gussets before I turn the second heel. I also started the Railroad Rib in a toe up form. I think I like how it is turning out, but I really should finish the "Sunflower" color-way socks first.

It has been quiet around here the past couple of days. The boys and I played card games last night for about an hour and they didn't even get loud like they usually do. There was no hassling of each other or telling each other to wait. It was really quite strange!

ES has been in Washington DC since Saturday. Consequently, I have gotten quite a bit of knitting done. Mainly because I sit in bed and watch tv and knit.
ES will be home tonight. Wahoo! Then maybe things can get back to "normal" around here. As normal as can be I guess.

Happy knitting & spinning!

Baby gifts

Yesterday, I had the funnest time turning these three items on the left into this below:











My friend Stacy will be a new grandma in about two weeks. They had a baby shower for the new mom, Kim, and the little one, Bryson. The receiving blanket is just a square of flannel with a decorative stitch around the edge. The bib is from the Mason-Dixon book that I had borrowed from the library. And the sweater is the "Buttons Cardigan #606" from friends of Cabin Fever. I bought the pattern from here when I was making the baby sweater for Anita and Aaron's little one in May. I did modify the pattern by not putting the collar on and I think I like it better.

The sweater and the bib were the only hand knit items that Kim received at the shower. None of the women there knit, so my friends in the group there were all impressed that I had gone to the trouble of knitting items for the baby.

It was impossible to find diaper pins locally though. I think I could have found some on-line, if I had thought of it in enough time to order them. I ended up using the brass pins for basting a quilt.

Meanwhile, on the Greenjeans front: I am back to where I was before the rip-fest two weeks ago. I am just starting the second skein and am almost to the point where I need to put all the
stitches on waste yarn to try the sweater on. I am working on this while watching the races, because right now all I am doing is knitting and purling, and I can do that almost without looking. When I get to the patterning it will not be race knitting then!

I am still working on my Railroad Rib socks also. I have about an inch to go on one sock for the cuff to be done and then its heel time.

Happy knitting & spinning!

Drive by Pictures

Because yesterday was an "I want to quit work" kind of day, I didn't get much knitting done, so no progress pictures. I only knit about an inch on one cuff. The other cuff is at 8 inches!! Wahoo!

Let me show you pictures of the clouds Saturday afternoon on the drive down to Tremonton. C went with me, but he slept most of the way down. To keep myself entertained while driving, I took lots of pictures of the clouds and snow. Some of the pictures turned out ok, like this one. I didn't get any good pictures of the colors though. The colors of the leaves and the contrast of the snow were all so pretty. I kept thinking I should be able to use these colors in some type of a dye project.

C couldn't resist taking this picture. It was only our second time coming back to Idaho in two days. And besides, he now had control of the camera for pictures of snow and clouds and signs!

Hopefully, today won't be as bad as yesterday and knitting will get accomplished.

Happy knitting & spinning.

Welcome to the "Nut House" TG

This has been the highlight of this past week. The wedding of A-g and TG. The wedding took place on Friday evening in American Fork. The drive down wasn't too bad until we hit stop and go traffic in Ogden and then the HOV lane was stop and go in Salt Lake. We ended up being a half an hour late. Thankfully, the bride and groom waited until we got there to start the wedding.

E's girlfriend told him she knew where he got his aggressive driving from now. I didn't think I was that bad!! I was just in a hurry, because we left about 15 minutes later than I wanted to.

I welcomed TG into the "nut house". We are a crazy, weird bunch of family. But we all get along for the most part. Boys will be boys occasionally which makes it rowdy sometimes with knock-out, drag-out fights.

The other fun part about this past weekend was the "Sock of the Month" class which started on Saturday. We are working on a Fiber Trend pattern, the Railroad Rib sock. I thought I was doing fairly well and getting gauge, but decided after a few inches that it just wouldn't work!
I frogged the socks and started again. They are much better now and will fit one of the older, bigger boys quite well.

The socks are working up fairly quickly, I think because of the two row repeat for the ribbing. I ripped them out about 3 pm yesterday afternoon and haven't worked on them yet today. I'm about half way done with the cuff on the left sock, so I'm hoping to get to eight inches tonight before finally falling into bed.

My Greenjeans sweater was also frogged and restarted. I didn't mark the numbers for the size I was doing, so got my count off! Now the numbers are all mark throughout the whole pattern and the sweater is working up fairly quickly, again.

Happy knitting and spinning.

Proof

Here's proof that I actually am getting some knitting done. Granted, I haven't done any spinning since Sunday night, but the knitting is coming along nicely. I only get about an hour nightly, or so. The blue yarn is the waste yarn for the sleeves. And this is only my first skien of yarn! I have about three more inches until the pattern says to put all the stitches on waste yarn and see how it fits. Maybe I can get that done before this weekend when I start my sock of the month class.

Well, off to my knitting. Happy knitting & spinning.

First snow, New project

This is the snow, although it looks like rain, which came down on Saturday. It was very wet and didn't stay for very long. We did end up with a white yard for a few hours though.

Much spinning was accomplished this weekend. I got just about two bobbins spun from the kool-aid dyed fiber. C has already claimed something from this! I asked him if he would get teased about it, because it was pink. And he said he didn't care, he liked the color!


I also started a new project, again! It is Mr. Greenjean.
I even had yarn in the stash which I am using! I thought the gauge would be off, because it always is, but I am right on according to last nights count. That doesn't happen very often!

This week will be really busy with work and A-g's wedding on Friday. I probably won't get much spinning done.

Happy knitting & spinning.