Cooper and Orange Thing

Lori teasing Cooper and Hannah knitting prone.

When I took Cooper out this morning, I saw this interesting orange thing in the front yard.


Is it some kind of mushroom, fungus, weed?

It sort of looks like a couple of carrots, with some ugly green dip on the end.

It's difficult to tell from the photo, but they are kind of porous.

It almost looks evil.

I've never seen anything like this before. If anyone has a clue what this is, please let me know.

Phone Cover

I made this felted phone carrier recently; a spur-of-the-moment project after seeing the pattern at Meetup. It's cute but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. I was hoping for something that would allow me to carry the phone safely with easy access. This strap is too long to loop around my purse strap and too short for me to sling it across my shoulder. So, I knitted a different one yesterday while I was riding in the car to KC for a work training. I just need to get a button and then I will post a pic.

Baby Things

This is the third knitting project of Hannah, whom I taught to knit recently. These booties are for a neighbor who just had her third daughter.

The booties in this picture are Hannah's second knitting project. She then made a bonnet to go with them. It seems that the bonnet was too small, so she made a bigger one. It doesn't have its ribbon yet.

A closeup of the green booties.

Both be-ribboned bonnets.

Cooper and Cindy

Here's the fist Cindy sleeve and the second start of the second sleeve. The instructions are a little confusing. I finally had to type up the sleeve instructions, including all of the parts that they just referred to. I'm having a very lazy three-day weekend, so I've got a lot of time to work on it.

Sitting on the couch, wondering why she gets in trouble when she tries to help me knit.

Impatiently posing.







She likes to sleep with her snout pointing up.

With toys; some old, some new.

Cooper

Here is Cooper at 8 weeks old. She seems bigger every day. We haven't had any inside accidents in several days. She's doing very well. She seems to have gotten used to her new home and the routine.

Square One

Here is my first block for the Greensburg afghan. It's kind of boring-looking, but the size is right. I'd like for my next one to have a stitch pattern in it.

Meme ?

I was tagged for a meme several days ago. http://naplover.blogspot.com/index.html I am just now getting the time to make my list.

7 Random Facts About Myself.

1. In September 2002, I and 7 family members spent two weeks visiting 5 countries in Europe. For some time after this experience, I felt like I could do anything.

2. The winter after I graduated from high school, a friend and I ran away and joined the Army. It changed my life.

3. I have a wonky toenail on my left foot. It's my only birth defect.

4. I am a licensed Tarot reader.

5. I believe there is only one sin: self-hatred.

6. I've read Atlas Shrugged three times. I will probably never read it again.

7. I believe in having a box of Puffs and a pair of scissors in every room.

Valpuri

I LOVE Berroco patterns. I want to make this one next. Well, not really next. I need to finish my Greensburg square - and Cindy - and Halloween - and maybe the white tank. Who knows? http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/valpuri/valpuri.html Valpuri is made with Bling Bling yarn from Berroco. I won't use it because it has some kind of metal flecks in it, which my hands don't do well with. I might try Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. A knitter in my group highly recommends it.

Cindy Sleeve

I just can't seem to work on any one thing for very long. Here is the first sleeve for Cindy. I haven't worked on it for awhile. It's almost 3" long here. Maybe I'll finish Cindy and then work on Halloween! It could happen . . .

Silly Me

I had begun to knit a square for Rebuilding Greensburg http://specialstuff.typepad.com/sugar_bunny_boulevard/2007/05/rebuilding_gree.html . I must have been in such a hurry to get started that I didn't read the pattern closely enough. (Embarrassing because it's a very short pattern) You're supposed to start out with 4 stitches and increase at the beginning of each row until you reach 8". For some reason, I was increasing at the beginning AND the end of EACH row. It was Friday evening, with the group, at Panera, that I realized, with the help of another knitter of course, that it was not looking right.

The next morning at Panera (yes, I do like to knit at Panera), it was decided that I should take a picture of the frogged square and post to my blog. I took a picture with my phone and emailed it to myself. Well, when I tried to retrieve it for my blog, I was unsuccessful. :( By that time, I had already re-started. Well, you can see a little bit of the frogging in this picture.

Puppy

This is Cooper. She's six weeks old, part Chocolate Lab, part Border Collie, part etc. She relocated from her original home in El Dorado to my home this past Thursday night. She's smart and already knows she's supposed to potty outside. We've had very few accidents. She's a sweetheart!

Beading Etc

Here are two pairs of beaded earrings that I finished a couple of weeks ago. The upper pair is coffee beans to go with the coffee bracelet. The lower pair is basketballs for my supervisor in the colors of her daughter's soon-to-be college basketball team.

I have another picture of each pair of earrings closer up, but when I tried to upload the next picture, it went to the top of the page and I can't figure out how to make it appear here instead.

The Never-Ending Bag

I'm wondering if I will ever get this bag done. It is to be felted and, according to the pattern, will need 224 rows in order for it to end up being about 12" tall. I'm only on row 72 and in about 20 rows, I will begin increases every 12 rows. Will it ever end? Here is the pattern: http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/bags/s-on-t-tote.html

For awhile, I've been thinking that I would try really hard to finish this before I start (or continue) another knitting project. Well, there is an all-day, outdoor knitting event being planned for June 9 and I'm thinking I need to go ahead and get started on the sleeveless sweater that I bought yarn for on my vacation. I'm trying to hold off knitting that swatch, but I don't know how long I can control myself.

Strawberry Hat

Well, I did it. I finished the strawberry hat - late last night. I shouldn't have stayed up, but I was driven! :) It's not the best picture; maybe I'll have someone snap me in it one of these days.

Guess I'll work on the bag to be felted for awhile. I really need to start the pair of beaded earrings that I was asked to make awhile back. I need to have those done by the end of May.

I finished my pair of black socks a few days ago. Alas, one of them had a couple of mistakes that needed fixing. I'm grateful to the ladies at Saturday morning knitting at Panera for their assistance and encouragement. I made the repairs yesterday afternoon and am wearing them today. I was worried that I wouldn't like the fit: the leg part didn't turn out as tall as I thought it would and the foot part is looser than I expected. It turns out that they are comfortable and feel very good to wear. I'm relieved!

Part of the conversation at Panera was about how to avoid jogs when knitting stripes in the round. I'm working on a bag to be felted, so I thought I would look through some books to see if I could find the technique. I found it in the Knit Socks! book. I also found some other things I was tickled about.

On page 9 is a technique for doing a swatch for knitting in the round. I had heard of a couple of other ways of doing that, but this is the first one that appealed to me. I'm already trying it for my next pair of socks.

On page 13 is a fairly easy way to determine how long of a tail to have for long tail cast on.

The jogless striping is on page 127 and on page 133 is how to wrap and turn to avoid small holes when turning in the middle of a round. This was on of the problems on my black sock.

On page 96 is my next sock pattern: Checkered Textures.

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I enjoy Saturday morning knitting at Panera so much that sometimes I go back on Sunday morning, but usually by myself. So, that's what I did today. I was knitting along on my bag to be felted when suddenly the needle broke. Oh my goodness I couldn't believe it. This was a Denise needle, too! Apparently, I was using too short of a cord which meant I had too many stitches bunched up, so when I pulled them to slide them around, the pressure was just too much. I'm hoping that I'll be able to order a replacement cord, but I haven't checked into that yet.

I've decided that I have too many projects going again and I need to finish something. I choose the strawberry hat to finish next. We'll see if I can remember that long enough to make it happen.

Finished Socks

I finished my first pair of socks last night. I used Patons Kroy Socks yarn, size 2 dpn, and the Garter Rib pattern from the Sensational Knitted Socks book. They felt good when I put them on for the picture, although they might be a little loose in a few places.

There are a couple of problematic spots that I'm going to have to get some help with from a more experienced knitter. Then I can wash them and wear them!

A heads up: I pulled out the Halloween cardigan from the pile in the corner, and dug around for the pattern, so will be working on that soon. I'm still on the first sleeve, but I don't think I've posted a picture of it yet. Maybe I'll do that today or tomorrow.

Cindy Sleeves

Here is my pitiful little start for the sleeves for Cindy. I'll be taking Cindy, the tote, strawberry hat, and black socks projects on my trip. I'll have hours and hours to work on whichever project I feel like at the time.

Felted Tote

I guess I thought I didn't have enough projects going, so I started a tote that will be felted. http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/bags/s-on-t-tote.html I will be using the teal Cascade yarn I bought in KC and some pink for the stripes.

Strawberry Hat

Next month at work, we're going to have Spirit Week leading up to our annual awards dinner. Thursday will be Crazy Hat Day. I selected the Strawberry Hat from http://thegoldenfleece.com/free_patterns/strawberry_hat.htm to knit for my hat for that day. The pattern says to use green for the seeds. I just can't do that. When I made a pair of beaded strawberry earrings a couple of years ago, I did some research and discovered that strawberry seeds are neither black nor green, but various shades of light brown. Silly people.

First Pair of Real Socks

Here is my first pair of real socks, in progress. I'm using the Garter Rib pattern from SKS.

The process is going well. Some people have said a beginner should not use black yarn. I can understand they they say that, but it hasn't been too bad for me. I'm just excited about the prospect of wearing a pair of socks I knit myself.