On The Needles January 31st

Oh my… the end of the month… I’ll need to pull out “Knit the Sky” and get the month stitched up… I knitted thru the 11th thus far.

Today I finished up the Triplicity Shawl and it and the Morning Bells Shawl have been washed and are blocked and drying.

Above shows the three pattern sections prior to washing/blocking and below is the picot bind off.  I just gently smoothed everything out and choose to not try and pin all those picot ends out.

I finished the modified Susie Rogers Reading Mitts for my granddaughter.  They are some kinda sweet!  They will go in the mail tomorrow or Monday.

I decided to try and clean up some of this knitting mess around my chair this week.  Leftover yarns that I’ve finished with went upstairs and I purchased a package of sheet protectors to put all those silly patterns I’ve printed out from Ravelry.  I had planned to put them all in a binder… but I’ll need to either buy a bigger binder or a second binder because they are not all going to fit into the one I have out.

I am trying to decide what to work on next… I do have yarn already to make another Turbulence Cowl or I am interested in using some leftover yarn from the Morning Bells project to make this Elis Cowl which has an Indian-Cross-Stitch pattern in it.  Or I could pick up those socks sitting over there waiting for me. 

Decisions… Decisions… Decisions…

Check out what others are knitting this week!

Cob Farming…

I got in to Cob Farming about 3 years ago… quite by accident really.

You see I broke my knee… and thereby ‘fell’ into Cob Farming as a result of my rehab.

Not an occupation I had intended… it just sort of happened.

It does in some respect go hand in hand with Dust Cropping… not to be confused with Crop Dusting.

I have always sorta dabbled in Dust Cropping… I’ve actually admitted out loud that had my children been allergic to dust I would have indeed missed them.  I know… I’m a terrible mother!

Anyway a little Dust Cropping is easy to manage (i.e. teach your kids not to write in said Dust Crop) but once you cross over and become a Cob Farmer too… well things can get out of hand quite easily.

What are Cobs?  Well a friend many, many years ago introduced me to them whilst explaining that her husband had convinced her of their existence...  you know - the little invisible creatures called Cobs that are responsible for creating Cob Webs.  So there you have it… Cobs make Cob Webs and a lot of Cob Webs is considered Cob Farming…

Anyway – in depth vacuuming and dusting is considered the best method for keeping Cobs in check… but when vacuuming is not a big part of your rehab and then you get lazy just fall into a “quick lick and a promise style”… those little Cobs can take advantage.

So… with Vacuum and Duster in hand I spent my morning destroying Cob Farms all over my kitchen.  Why today you wonder?

The SUN was shining thru the kitchen window and as I stood there and admired the wonderful sight of sunshine… well you know the rest. 

Sunshine can lead to the complete (hopefully) destruction of Cobs.

And no there are no pictures to go along with this story… I might be dumb but I’m not stupid… you’ll never know if this is true or not… unless you visit… and then… well – don’t tell - OK?

PS:  I don’t want you to think that these Cobs have run amuck at my house for 3 years… that - is not the case.  I have whacked at them from time to time and my daughter completely painted my kitchen last year so all evidence of prior farms had been removed at that time… but they can be persistent critters.

Here’s My Knitting–January 24

January 24th… really already?  Goodness…

Anyhoo… I’m trying to finish up the Triplicity Shawl that I took a class for way back early fall-ish I believe.  I don’t have a fresh picture of the shawl but I do have a picture of this Yarn Bowl (holding the last ball of yarn).  I received this as a gift from a very sweet friend (Thank You Again!!)… and it makes me smile when I pull my yarn and I don’t have to chase it around the floor when it falls off my chair… which it always does… well - not anymore! 

I had to clean off the corner of the table so I could take a picture… how sad is that… I need to clean up my knitting mess before my husband makes a comment.  Too many leftover yarn tags, little bits of yarn, little balls of yarn, patterns to look at, books & magazines to plan over… it’s a mess!

The bowl is from Red Hot Pottery out of Sedona, AZ which has an Etsy Shop.

Lovely, Lovely Bowl…

Last night I started a new pair of the Susie Rogers Reading Mitts – I’m making them in the small size again but will be shortening them at both ends so that they will fit my granddaughter in SC.  She wants so bad to wear the ones I sent her mother… I think these will be fun for her.  There was only one skein of the multi yarn so I picked up the purple to use for the patterned rows at the top and bottom.

Go the Judy L’s blog Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting on this week!

The Sky is On The Needles 1-17

Yep I am Knitting The Sky!

I decided to use the Favorite Scarf Ever pattern rather than the plain garter stitch and so far I am happy with how it is going.  The pattern is easy to remember and you just need to be careful with the doubled lace weight yarn. Aren’t these colors lovely!

I finished but have yet to block the Morning Bells Shawl – blocking will happen this weekend.

 

You can see both sides of the shawl above – the left side with the ribs is the right side of the shawl.  Can’t wait to get it blocked and sent out to my daughter as I think she’ll love it.

I did pull out the Felted Clogs and hope to get the last one finished up this weekend and get them felted… you know before spring.  My notes from when I last worked on them was dated April 1st… so it’s time to get them done.  Here is a picture of the first one I finished in Mid-March.  I sure am hoping they felt up good because right now they look a lot like clown shoes… the sole measures 16 inches! 

Check out what others are knitting this week over at Judy L’s Patchwork Times blog.

My Sky Has Arrived

Last year whilst poking around out in the Internet I found a site – Leafcutter Designs - that offered a free pattern to “Knit The Sky”.

It sounded intriguing so I read thru the pattern, looked at the kit they offered and saved the link for future reference… one of those ‘one day’ kinda projects.  But as time passed it kept coming up in my brain… I went back and looked at everything a couple times.  I thought about buying my own yarn – but decided to not waste my time – the kit was a reasonable price so I made an executive decision and ordered it.

Since I didn’t really plan to sit and knit one single row each day – I’ve just been making a notation each day (since the first of January) of the colors I would use for that day.  I’ve programed my phone to remind me each day and I have modified an online calendar so that I can add a color code to each day.

And then my sky arrived…

OOOOoooooo… ain’t it pretty!

Tomorrow I’ll wind them into balls and then hopefully by Friday I’ll have a week or two knitted… unfortunately mostly greys and light blues… but tis the season!

Bye Bye Ghost Poo!

Got your attention didn’t I?  Let me ‘splain…

I received my Organic EVOO order from Jovial Foods on Friday.  When I opened the boxes this is what I found.

I’m sorry but I am just lame enough to be excited by a new product… a new packing material… I was intrigued…

I was fascinated… little folded and locked triangles!!  Please tell me they have a machine that folds and locks those ends together!

But then I realized that this new product might mean an end to Ghost Poo as a packing material.  I have called these ‘packing peanuts’ Ghost Poo for probably decades now… can’t remember where I first heard it – but it was dead on.  You might ask about the color variety pictured above… some white, some blue, some light green.  I assume it’s from ethnic diversity in the ghost population… don’t ya think?  LOL

Anyway here is my new oil from Jovial.  The bottle was still cold from shipping so the oil had solidified in the bottle.  I had pre-ordered my bottles last fall while they were in the process of harvesting and pressing.  I don’t know if you’ve seen the olive oil controversy in the press over the past year or so.  The Engineer and I decided to look for a source we felt we could trust was providing a good quality organic oil.

And that new packing material… did it’s job quite well.

Still On The Needles–Jan 10

I am almost finished with the Morning Bells Shawl for my daughter.  I am on the last row - of 1,100 something stitches… and then the bind off of those 1,100 something stitches.  I have to chuckle because when I mentioned this shawl in the beginning several folks commented that the rows took forever – they were right.  At the end of the shawl section I think you have nearly 400 stitches on the needles – with the increases every other row in the bell section you end up with the 1,100 something stitches.

I had picked up an extra ball of the yarn so maybe I’ll have enough to make some simple fingerless gloves to go with the shawl… we shall see.

When I’m done with this I think I will go back to some unfinished projects like the felted clogs – I’ve been thinking more and more about these now that it’s so chilly – time to finish them and put them to use.

To see what others are knitting… hop over to Judy L’s Patchwork Times.