Friday 9/29/06

The weekend is here again, Yippee! I have been busy this week. I have finished the baby sweater except for the finishing of the sleeves. I always hate finishing, but this one is so easy, just two seams at the top and then sew the buttons on. Will have to get that done this weekend.

I also finished a felted handbag (will post pics later) and started a new one. It is made out of the Noro wool yarn, which is to dye for! The second one will be offered in a raffle ticket sale at work at the end of October for our annual fundraiser for charity. I am donating the yarn and my time and have high hopes that we will make a good amount of money on it.

I have also volunteered to knit some scarves for the event as well, the only thing we are stuck on is how much to sell them for. So far we have not come to a agreement on what is a good price that we think folks will pay. We want them to sell, but we do not want to sell them too cheaply.

Well, off to more knitting, I will be busy busy for the next month it appears, but that is okay, this is such a enjoyable hobby for me.

For now keep on knitting :-)

Saturday 9-23-06

It is Saturday, the freaking weekend! I would love to say that I can use most of the day to sit and knit, but that is not going to happen today. We are going to my sister-in-law's for a end of the summer barbeque. Should be fun, her boyfriend, who is our bestest man friend ever (mostly because he is car mechanic and keeps hubby's work truck running, saving us lots and lots of moolah), has a huge gigantic smoker!!! I hear there is going to be smoked turkey, brisket and ribs. Should be yummy!

I am still going to take my current WIP, the baby surpise sweater, and might be able to get a few more rows in. Almost done with it, I think I have less than 10 rows to go. I did not get to knit last night, we had my daughter Sirena and her hubby Aaron over and my son Jeffrey and his girlfriend Shyla for dinner. We all made homemade calzones, and they came out delicous! Oh, I did do something knit related last night. My wonderful son-in-law, Aaron, fixed my button link on here for the Knitting Path, so a big shout out to Aaron! THANK YOU! As you know this HTML stuff, if that is even the right computer language, just absoulutely freaks the crap out of me. Before this blog, I would of thought of myself as fairly computer literate, but not anymore. I have a renewed respect those people that can do all that behind the scenes computer mumbo jumbo. So check out the pictures above from our calzone making from last nite. Top pic is Sirena and my hubby, Keith. Second picture shows Shyla and Jeff. Third one shows our own family computer geek AARON!!

For now, keep on knitting!

It is Tuesday!!!

Tuesday is probably my best day that I want to actually come to work. Why you ask? Because it is the day that I have our yarnholic meeting. Some of us gals at work get together on our lunch hour and meet in my office to knit and crochet. Currently there are three active members, Monica, Deana and myself. I am the only knitter.
I started this group in the office a couple of years ago. I offered to teach anyone that wanted to join how to knit. The first meeting was pure chaos! We had 11 or 12 individuals and only two that knew how to knit. Everyone had ordered the lion brand learn to knit kit with the hat and scarf.
Needless to say we did not get a lot accomplished that first day. A few dropped out immediately, I think because of my lack of skills in trying to teach everyone at once how to cast on from the get go. I think now it would be easier to cast on for them myself and then teach them the knit stitch. That way at least gets everyone started on a project alot sooner that fussing over the cast on for the whole hour of the meeting.
Anywho, there are still other knitters in our office, and they show up occasionally to join us. Just talked to one in the elevator this morning and she said she would be joining us again soon. She only likes to knit when it is cold outside. So I hope to see her in the next few weeks in our meeting.
I also brought my camera in today and hope to take some pics of us working our projects to post on here.
Oh yeah, another thing, I am currently trying to figure out how to make changes to my template on this blog. I was accepted into the knitting path blog ring and had to add their button my web page, but it is at the bottom of this page. I am trying to figure out how to get it in the sidebar and add some other links to this page. Guess I will have to sit down one night this week and read thru all the "how to's" on this blogger.com site to figure out. Not as easy as I thought, all that computer language scares me!

For now, keep on knitting!!

P.S. I started on another baby surpise jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman this weekend, more than half way finished now!!

Hey Hey Hey! Made it thru the first day of my blog. Had my daughter Valerie help me upload a image of those wonderful nesting felted boxes I told you about yesterday. Photo is not has good as I would like, but we were in a hurry since I was working on her laptop and she wanted to be blogging on her on her own site with her friends. So here is a shout out to Valerie, THANK YOU VALERIE, you are the best!
Above is a sweater that I made and gave to my best yarnoholic buddy at work for her son. Hope he enjoys it!

I have tried several times to get my two daughters to knit with me. I actually taught the youngest, Valerie, but she is a leftie and has not taken it to like I was hoping. THe other daughter, Sirena, tried once, but has been so busy with her full time job and going to college in the evening, and being married that I have not pestered her as much to try it again. She did however express a desire to try again as soon as her schedule will allow here. So I will take that as a postive step in the right direction.

I myself had to teach myself how to knit. I already knew how to crochet but had not done it in years. I always had trouble with counting the stitches in crochet and never really got into it that much. About 5 or 6 years ago I was at the craft store and picked up a learn to knit kit. Went home and sat on the couch all weekend trying to get the knit stitch, and was so proud of myself for accomplishing that. The rest is history now. I have knitted several items from whatever pattern catches my fancy. I am no expert by any means, but am usually willing to try anything once.

I am currently thinking about trying to design my own pattern. Our family are boaters in the summer, and I have been wanting to make a swimsuit cover up. So I think that if I actually put this in writing it might help me buckle down and actually start working on a pattern of my own. Wish me luck!

For now, keep on knitting!

Okay, I have finally done it. After reading a lot of other knitter's blog's I just had to take the plunge. So here I am on my own blog. Not sure what I am doing yet, but determined to figure it out. I am anxious to post some of my recent finished knitting items as well.
Last weekend I worked on my first felted project, some felted boxes from the new Mason Dixon book. They turned out fabulous I must say! Although every member of my family, immediate and extended, had to ask the same question when I showed them my work, "What are you going to do with them?" What!? What do you mean, what am I going to do with them?
Well, for one, they are a set of three nesting boxes. They can be used in my home to catch whatever small or a little bigger items I can think of. They can be used as a home decoration in the scheme of my mismatched home decor in whatever room I choose. They can be given away as birthday gifts, holiday gifts, or to whomever I feel is worthy enough of my hard work of knitting these lovely boxes.
The first small box of the set of three, is now sitting on the nightstand of my lovely hubby. He comes home with lots of little do dads from his work (i.e. nuts, bolts, screws, scraps of paper) where they usually get put on his nightstand and can roll off, lay there for eternity, or drive me crazy because it looks messy and dirty when I occasionally clean up on his side of the bed. So there, lots of little uses for these wonderful nesting boxes :-) !

For now, keep on knitting!