Tangled Threads and Seaweed

New Socks!

Woohoo! Got some finished socks!

I finished these last night, and then grafted the toes this evening. I used the tutorial on www.knittinghelp.com to do the Kitchener stitch. I think I've finally got it!

There are several mistakes in these socks, but I like them and I'm so proud that I knitted them myself. I only mention it because they were an educational experience, and I know several things I want to do differently on my next pair of socks.

For instance, I'd like them to be a little larger, as in more stretchy. You can see that they're a bit snug. They fit fine, but I would prefer they not look so stretched out. I think using a size larger needles would have done the trick. I would also have continued the stitch pattern down the top of the foot if I had thought of it. These are knit exactly following the pattern. I'm also going to work the toe decreases differently next time - these socks are more tapered than my foot's true anatomical shape, so they are kind-of pointy. But, they are great socks and I think I did a pretty nice job with them!   

Cascading Leaves Socks

Here's my latest sock project:

The pattern is called "Cascading Leaves" and is by Jeannie Townsend. (link is to her Yahoo Group, which you must belong to if you want her patterns)

I love this pattern! It is SO easy to knit. I wish I'd carried the leaf pattern down the top of the foot though - it would not have been such a tight fit. I'm getting an incredible 9-10 stitches per inch for gauge - I could have used size 2 needles instead of size 1.5 needles. I'm loosening up my tension a bit for the rest of the sock foot, and will relax a little on the 2nd sock! I will definitely knit this pattern again - its a fun one to knit!

Here's a glimpse of what's going on in my garden this spring -

Isn't the clematis beautiful? It was just planted last year and I'm glad to see it bursting forth!

Not a great shot of this - one of my favorite tangerine orange irises. These iris are huge - almost as big as a grapefruit. And they are really an electric orange color.

This is Arizona - the open blooms are huge and bright orangy-pink. All of my roses are going crazy with blooms this year.

I don't have to see my oncologist until the end of September, which will be the 1 year checkup. At that time, I'll go off the thyroid medicine and have a body scan in November. YAY!

Socko Finito!

Yo, peeps! Lookie here!

They are done! Look how much yarn was left - seriously, I can still knit some socks for me with the leftovers if I use another yarn for heels, toes, and a stripe on the top of the cuff.

Yes, the keen observer will see that the sock on the left is oh-so-slightly larger... maybe it will block out. Surely one of Joe's feet is bigger than the other. And I don't care.

Recap: cast on 64 stitches, size 3 needles, K2P2 ribbing; started 3/31/08, finished 4/28/08.

I can't wait to begin my next sock project!

All Wet

As much as I love scuba diving, I don't always like being wet.

We sprung a little pinhole leak in our waterbed last weekend.

(oooh, groovy, a 70s bag of water to sleep on!)

Who knows how it happened.... two dogs and a cat in the bed.... with toys and bones.... yeah, who knows?  *grin*

After draining the bed (because the first patch didn't stick!) Joe repaired it properly and we waited a couple hours before filling the bed again. The bed was still too cold to sleep on, so we spent the night on the sofa (him) and the recliner (me). The irony wasn't lost on us - we slept 12 hours on the living room furniture! We never sleep that long in our bed. Of course, the herd of animals was relegated to the floor for the night, which didn't please any of them.

So far, the bed has stayed dry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my wetsuit handy!    

Starting the Second Sock!

There aren't words to describe how I feel about this! I am so excited!

And it fits Joe pretty good! He didn't have it pulled up on his heel all the way in this picture. But he does love it!

This yarn just knits up so pretty. The kitchener - not so pretty, but it will do.

Here's the sole - 7 stitches per inch on size 3 needles. I've noticed my gauge is relaxing just a bit as I continue to knit - kind of like getting warmed up and flexible - at least I'm not having to pry the stitches off the needles now!  *grin*

Non-knitting related news: I had a sonogram of my neck last Wednesday, and then had an appointment with the surgeon later that afternoon. He said there was no sign of thyroid tissue on the sonogram, and I don't have to see him until April of next year! This means its likely that the residual tissue was killed by the radioactive iodine treatment last fall.  I'll see the oncologist on the 29th and will have bloodwork done to check my medication level. But I'm feeling pretty encouraged by the latest test.

Between the hospital and the doctor's office, I did a little yarn stash enhancing. I was able to find some more of the multi-colored yarn I'm using in my crocheted baby afghan. I also picked up another sock-knitting book - More Sensational Socks by Charlene Schurch. I used her first book to learn to knit socks. The patterns in the new book are a bit more detailed, and I'm looking forward to trying some of them....not that I'm quite ready for that yet!   

Another Quick Sock Update

I spent the whole day knitting my socks. Joe's out of town so I've been on my own this weekend. I went out for a fast-food breakfast and after some biscuits with butter and jelly, I settled into the brightly lit booth and started working on the heel flap. (this is the 3rd time I've knit it....) I completed the heel flap in about 1 hour (I was knitting slowly so I wouldn't screw it up again) and since I was at a good stopping point, I packed up my things and went home. The dogs and I went out to the sewing barn and I continued working on the sock while they played in the yard.

  After working off and on over the next five or six hours, I've gotten past the heel flap, knit the gusset and decreases, and am on the foot, heading for the homestretch at the toe. I'm getting 7 stitches per inch on size 3 needles. They're kinda big, but this sock looks like its going to fit Joe just fine. I'm getting excited about finishing this one and getting the 2nd sock started!

Hooks 'n Needles

I'm still working on the Autumn Sock. It was flying along, then I messed up when I turned the heel. It fell in the frog pond and is being re-knit. No problems really, I like to consider it good practice! There will be a photo update soon.

I've been wanting to learn to crochet for the longest time, because I want to make this cat pattern.  I think its adorable! I was telling my friend/co-worker about it, and she offered to teach me to crochet. Cool huh - she didn't even care that I'm left-handed. And she was right - its not hard at all! My beginner project is a baby afghan. (this is what my friend likes to make)
This will be worked in alternating stripes of the variegated yarn and some soft white baby yarn. I think it will be really pretty, and it is soooo easy. I'm already understanding the stitches and shouldn't have any trouble when I decide to start crocheting my Amineko cat.

I recently saw some sock yarn I ABSOLUTELY HAD to have. See:

Its Great Adirondack "Soxie" in the "Tropicana" colorway. When I saw it on Crafty Pancakes' blog (that girl has some faboo sock yarn!) I began searching high and low for a skein of it. I finally found one skein at Flying Fingers Yarn Shop, which happened to be hosting a Great Adirondack yarn trunk show. Was that good karma or what? I bet I sent out 30 e-mails searching for this yarn. I adore this color and will be knitting some Monkeys with it - its one of the most popular sock patterns available.  I have seen a zillion great pairs of Monkey socks on Ravelry. (oh, how I love me some Ravelry)

We had some great rain yesterday - nearly a half-inch. We need the moisture so desperately, and we were extra fortunate to not have stormy weather with it. Now, if my allergies would calm down, life would be perfect!

Sock Progress

Another blogger, Judy, left a great comment about the Autumn Sock. I re-counted my stitches and (duh!) I didn't cast-on 72 stitches. I cast-on 64 stitches (16 per needle). Yeah, the socks will probably still be big, but not so big as I first thought. Hopefully.

This photo was taken in the shade, and the colors are washed out. I've got 4" of leg knitted, and will start the heel turn at about 7" (tomorrow!?!) This knit is so squishy and soft. Sock knitting is addictive!

More Sock Love

Yeah...... I'm digging the socky love.

 

Its a big experiment. Fingering weight knit on size 3 dpns - maybe too big - cast on 72 stitches. I'm knitting a 2x2 rib because it is very forgiving of size. Hoping they will fit Joe, who has flintstone feet. Heck, if they're too big, I'll frog them and try again!

I bought this yarn on ebay a couple of years ago, back when I first learned to knit and was wanting to learn to knit socks but was too scared to try. I'm so glad I stashed this yarn. Its delicious - brown, forest green, orange, and gold. I am loving knitting these - the 2x2 rib is so easy - and I'm getting more comfortable holding these sticks by the day!

Sock!

Yesterday, I conquered evil! I climbed a mountain! I reached a goal!

I KNIT A SOCK!

I finally get it! I used Charlene Schurch's book "Sensational Knitted Socks" and bit off a small piece - the classroom sample sock. I used some ack-rylic red heart super saver to assuage my heart from "wasting" good sock yarn (of which I have an ample supply). 

Here we are, turning the heel:

Those are size 6 Lion-brand plastic DPNS. Scary huh. Only one was injured in the process of knitting this sock. Maybe my tension was a bit tight? I broke the tip off on a ssk decrease. The only problem I encountered was what to do with the needle-1 picked-up stitches on the gusset. A quick check on the internets revealed that Grumperina had wondered the same thing, and she provided the answer on how to handle this dilemma.  **note to Charlene Schurch - you need to tell us to KNIT those stitches! We are not psychic.**

Here we are, ready to kitchener the toe:

 

Check out the toe:

Another shot of the finished sock:

 

Sometimes, I amaze even myself.

Missing Her Already

This is probably one of the most ridiculous posts I've ever done.

Yesterday this little gal followed Joe and the dogs home from a walk:

  she was so friendly and sweet. She kept laying on her back, begging for belly rubs, when she and Gracie weren't chasing each other and playing. Our dogs got along great with her. Her brindled coloring is gorgeous. She seemed to be well socialized to people and other dogs. She hasn't had her tail docked or her ears cut.

  This little gal is probably around a year old, and no one in the neighborhood claimed her. Our nosy neighbor (you know, the little old lady who sees everything that happens) thought she had been dumped. She'd probably been wandering for a few days, as she was skinny (except for that bloated wormy belly) and I picked about 3 dozen ticks off her. She acted like she had been in the house in a past life, but I wouldn't let her in since she wasn't clean. She didn't understand the doggy door at all, but she loved laying on the deck and roaming in the back yard. Joe walked her all over the neighborhood yesterday, trying to find her a home.  She slept in the front flowerbed last night and when I turned on the lights this morning, she was standing on her back legs, looking in the living room window and whining. (Joe's first words this morning were to ask if the dog was still here) 

So I let her come through the house to the backyard with our dogs, and fed her. Joe and I couldn't decide what to do with her, because she's a pit bull mix. She has such a sweet nature that we hated to think of her being put down automatically (which we don't know if our local pound does) but we so do NOT need another dog. We ended up leaving her in the front yard, since we didn't know if she would try to dig out of the backyard, and if she did that our dogs would get out too...

Joe was in Amarillo today for a doctor's appointment and another meeting, so he wasn't around today. When I got home from work, the little tiger was gone. Part of me was sad, because I was looking forward to playing with all 3 dogs. But part of me was relieved because we DON'T need another dog. So I spent some time working in my front flowerbeds, watering and pruning and pulling weeds. Pretty soon my nosy neighbor came wandering down to visit. I mentioned that our little tiger must have traveled on, and she told me that "no, I called the pound to come get her because she kept following everyone that walked down the street, because you know she just wants to be with people" .... so that little tiger is gone. I hope she finds a good home...

Bonus Quilt

Remember the overflowing box of leftover strips from the spiderweb quilt? Like a kid with a quarter, those red ones were burning a hole in my proverbial pocket. I sure do like red. When I was a little girl (first grade) red was my very favorite color. Anyway, I pulled out some of my "oldie but goodie" quilt books - from the heyday of Martingale books, when they were "That Patchwork Place" and Nancy Martin, Judy Hopkins, and Marsha McCloskey were writing the patterns.

    I found one that was easy (the initial construction was almost mindless - constructing strip sets)

    designed by Judy Hopkins!

    Of course, the layout became somewhat tricky. Thank goodness for my design wall!

  Since my quilt isn't the size of the one in the book, and I'm not a math genius, I had to figure out how many blocks got 4 corners, how many got 2, and how many got 1 corner, and what color.  I laid it out on the wall and added the black and white corners starting with the outer blocks - its kind of a "floating" set.

The original instructions called for trimming the corners of the blocks and sewing half-square triangles onto the corners. Um, I'm all for "easy" so the flip-n-sew corner was my friend today.

  Here's my other friend, Goofy, doing what he does best on good-weather sewing days. I like to leave the studio door open so the dogs can run in and out, but Goofy likes to guard the threshold.  This is one of his favorite places.

  Here are the finished blocks - I'll sew them together tomorrow. It came together pretty easily, and I'm quite pleased with the results. The finished specs - 48 7.5" blocks (7 inches finished), with 2.5" connector corners.

And here's the strip box -

  Next, a wonky log cabin???

Addicted to the Ipod

I admit it - I'm addicted to this little toy:

Kevin gave this to me at Christmas. I surely didn't need a BIG one like Joe's.

Guess what! This little thing doesn't hold all my favorite tunes. Who'd have thought? So I'm lusting for a bigger Ipod. I love this thing.

What's on your playlist? My current faves are Collective Soul, Boys Like Girls, Lifehouse, Liz Phair, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucinda Williams, Melissa Etheridge, Colbie Caillat, Suzy Boggess, Eva Cassidy, and Indigo Girls.

What's not on my Ipod, but in my car? Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Mellencamp, James Taylor, Kenny Chesney, Bon Jovi, Allison Krauss, and Sheryl Crow.

I've Been Quilting

It seems like the only time I talk about quilting is after a sewing day with my girlfriends. Saturday was National Quilting Day, and we worked on a great group project. Several months ago we decided to make a Valentine's Day quilt, using red and pink fabrics. We picked the Spiderweb pattern from Eleanor Burns' series of books from the 1990's.

We love to do group projects where we either sew blocks for each other or swap fabrics - on this quilt we did both! We all cut tons of red and pink strips, and then one girl wanted some lavender in hers, then another wanted some lime green, so we cut those colors too. Then one girl wanted just pink and lime green... I chose pink and red but asked one girl to throw in a few green strips for a zinger. Before we met, we cut our background/foundations and sewed the first strip on each side. On our sewing day, we passed ours around and sewed our strips on each others' foundations.

   Isn't it fun to see how the foundations go together? You have to be careful of the long bias edge, but its a cool pattern. Here's my finished top, waiting for a border (which I've ordered from equilter.com)

Doesn't this make you smile? Everyone's turned out really cute. This will be a nice lap-sized throw. We didn't get these done for Valentine's day, but they will be ready for next year. One of the girls in our group works at the LQS, so we might let her hang these in the shop if she decides to offer this quilt as a class.    

Um, I have some leftover strips...!! Maybe a log cabin? Or two?

I've been quilting a long time, you know, more than 25 years. Here's one of the first bed sized quilts I ever made - a 9-Patch Snowball. Does anyone remember the Trudie Hughes quilt pattern books? This quilt is from one of her books.   

     Actually I think this one is from around 1989-1990. I made my 2 baby quilts in 1980 and took a break for a few years, until the kids were older. This one's pretty tattered - its on our bed a lot of the time - and I don't mind the dogs being on it. Obviously some fabrics were better than others, as the worn pieces are a couple particular fabrics that didn't wear so well. This quilt was machine-quilted in a leaf design pantograph.

How many of y'all were quilting when this fabric from VIP/Cranston was a quilting staple? I saw many quilts with this brown floral in them; it was also available in a blue/pink colorway. This fabric was so popular in the 80's and 90's - back when fabric companies printed their popular designs for several years' run.

This was a really popular pattern in the 90's too - it was easy to make using rotary cutting and strip sewing techniques, which were fairly new back in those days. I haven't seen many of these being made lately, except for baby quilts. The snowball blocks are a perfect place to use those cute kid print fabrics. Perhaps I'll give it another try sometime soon - I found a couple of really darling kid fabrics in my mom's stash the other day - when I was looking for pink and red fabrics for the Spiderweb quilt. Don't we all need to keep some baby quilts on hand for gifting?

What Happened to February?

Oh my gosh! What happened to February? I can't believe its already the 2nd week of March. Good grief.

I worked a lot of overtime in February, for one thing.  And we had some crappy winter  weather. I had a checkup with my surgeon on the 20th. And we went on vacation from the 22nd thru March 2nd.

We went to Belize for 9 days... it was awesome. (this was our 4th trip to Belize)  We stayed at a resort on Ambergris Caye called Exotic Caye Beach Resort. We had a blast! Besides several days of scuba diving, we also participated in Camp Belize, which is a concert event with Jerry Jeff Walker.  He played two concerts at Wet Willy's Bar, and then he showed up on Saturday night at Crazy Canuck's (the bar at our resort) to sit in and jam with Dennis Wolfe, a local musician on Ambergris Caye. The weather was fine, except the last two days which were cool and rainy. But it was still in the 70s and we were in Belize, so "bad weather" is a relative term!

We missed our connection from Houston to Belize due to weather in Amarillo that delayed our departure; this is us enjoying our upgrade to 1st Class on a flight later that day! I didn't wear makeup the whole week - gahhh. And look how thin my hair is! (a side effect from the thyroid stuff) But my scar is looking good.

     We spent a day at Caye Caulker, which is another little island off the coast of Belize. Its so laid back and casual, and so much fun to stroll along the beach, stopping for a cold Belikin beer every so often.

Native to Belize - Marie Sharp's habanero sauce and Belikin Beer.

Jerry Jeff Walker in concert.

At Exotic Caye resort - our condo unit is the bottom left. It was really nice - bedroom, bath, kitchen, living and dining area - and the porch had a table and chairs on it. The porch caught a great cooling breeze, and you can see we had lush tropical landscaping in front of our building. I had groceries, beer, and sodas delivered to the condo before we arrived, which was wonderful! Cold beer awaited us.

This is the beach in front of our condo, and the dive shop out on the dock. There were plenty of loungers and several hammocks - ultimate relaxation! We made 11 dives while we were on the island. The dive shop, Ocean Adventure Tours, was excellent. Most of the time Joe and I were the only divers on the boat, so we basically had a private guide.

Bondy, our divemaster, was a sweetie! He had a great sense of humor and was very friendly. He was also excellent to dive with, and I would go with him again in a heartbeat!

Here's Jerry Jeff Walker playing with Dennis Wolfe on Saturday night at Crazy Canuck's, the bar at our resort. He's a great performer, and so down-to-earth and likeable. He's been in the business for over 40 years - some of his famous songs are "Mr. Bojangles",  "LA Freeway", and "Sangria Wine". He's classified as "country" but his songs are ballads and story-telling. (like our other favorite performer - Jimmy Buffett, who we'll see in concert in Dallas next month)

So, I guess that's what happened to February!