A Knitting Oooops! 2/28/14

I’ll be linking up with July L’s Patchwork Times blog again this week.  I had had high hope to show you what progress I made on my socks that were started at least a year ago… maybe more?  Actually I looked and it’s just a year.  Anyway for inspiration please go look at what other are successfully knitting this week.

As I said me… not so much inspiration… more like “don’t try this at home”.

Lesson:  If something doesn’t feel right – STOP right there and figure out why.

So these socks have been sitting patiently waiting.  I had gotten the foot part done and set it aside until I could concentrate on doing the gussett… Yes Please Laugh Right Out Loud Here!

I was working them 2 at a time on circular needles and had apparently started the increases for the gussets as there were more stitches on one side than the other. OK so I continued increasing… but after a while it was getting kinda snug so I split the increase side onto 2 double pointed needles on each sock.  Kept working but decided I really didn’t like the way the increase edges were looking… and then as I neared the last row I took a good look at the directions to make sure I understood what was going to happen next… moving stitches and placing markers and the such.  And then I saw it… What I had been working on – the increases – were suppose to alternate with a knit row… A ROW OF PLAIN KNITTING!  I hadn’t been doing that row of plain knitting – I had been (and I won’t yell this time but I want to) increasing every row… which is why it was so snug and icky looking.  So I had to unknit all those rows.  I thought about just pulling the stitches out and trying to pick them up… “trying” being the key word in that phrase.  I separated the socks, removed the wrong stitches and have one back to the beginning of the gusset and have started correctly from there.  I’ll unknit or “TINK” the other one later.  TINK is knit backwards… makes sense huh?! LOL  I’ll work on each sock individually until I get the heel done and start the leg then I’ll put them back together on the 2 double pointed needles.

I don’t so much mind being lazy and sitting around knitting… but I sure hate it when I realize I’ve even wasted my lazy time!

Enough knitting mistakes…

My approach to listening to the weather over the past week goes something like this… I stick my fingers in my ears and go “la,la,la,la,la!”. 

On Thursday when I looked out and saw BIG fluffy flakes from the passing snow shower… I thought to myself “If I have to get the shovel out I am just going to cry!”  Fortunately it was indeed a passing snow shower and I didn’t have to get the shovel out or cry.  I even went out later to run some errands in the sunshine!  Goodness it’s cold again – but it’s cold everywhere these days!  Anyway someone the other day said something in passing about the “storm on Monday”.  Since I’ve been sticking my fingers in my ears I did not know about the possibility of snow on Monday, hummm??  Then yesterday as I drove through town I went past an intersection where a front end loader was scooping up the snow on the corner and moving it back… way back off the corner.  Now we’ve had a few 40 & 50 degree days (just enough to tease us before dropping back to freezing hiney cold again) and there’s been a good amount of melting and compacting of the snow during that time - but it is far from gone.  That front end loader moving snow was a bad sign… I sat at that intersection and wanted to cry knew I needed to take my fingers outta my ears.  Sure enough another storm is on its way… with any kind of luck it will be a couple inches (insert laugh here) or based on the national news report this morning anywhere from 12 to 24 inches.

This would have been a really good year to have taken up hibernation as a hobby…

Bluebird of Happiness…

Yes and a Cardinal too…

If you need a little bit of bright cute color in your life right now you should try knitting up one or a half dozen of these cute little birds.

Bluebird of Happiness is a free Ravelry pattern that knits up so very quickly – you will certainly want to make more than one.

Here is a picture of one stuffed, a flat finished and a new one in the works.

It’s knit in 2 sections… you start at the neck and stitch towards the tail and then you pick up stitches at the neck and stitch to the beak.  The method of M1 the pattern uses (which is the easiest M1 I’ve used to date) makes the wing line **I miss stated that – the wraps and short rows in the body section make the wing lines** and the wraps in shaping the head makes the eyes… they are just too cute!

I will make a canary next and will get a good measure on the amount of yarn needed.  It’s somewhere between 12 and 15 yards of yarn total.

I didn’t post last week because The Engineer was off work and at 8:30 in the morning we were back outside to YET AGAIN clear off the driveway.  OK – we aren’t talking snow anymore… well except this… the snow came off the porch roof yesterday while I was out picking up groceries.  So I had to climb over the 2 foot snow bank to get to the shovel so that I could clear the walk and bring groceries in. 

The pond is half full of snow… I’ve only seen one of the fish so I’m hoping the others are OK… I didn’t see anybody laying out in the driveway so they weren’t washed out when the avalanche happened.

Back to knitting… My girl sent me this pic yesterday. Styling the Leftie Shawl which is available thru Ravely but is not free… well worth the money though!

Please go over to Judy L’s Patchwork Times and check out what others are knitting on today.  Always good ideas there!

Under the Food Category… Something new arrived yesterday… my package from Cinnamon Hill that contained 2 types of stick cinnamon and a nifty cinnamon grater and cup.  I’ve always loved cinnamon and we have been using more of it because of it’s health benefits.  I’ll have to let you know another time what we think of it as all I did last night was open the box and take some pictures!

 

Under the “I’ve been a SLUG” category… I am trying to not be a slug – really!  Remember my word for the New Year… Move.  So far the Fit Bit Force has been tracking my activities so that I can get a gauge of just when I am active and in-active.  I seem to have no problems hitting the 10,000 steps mark… on those days where we have to go out and clear snow from the long driveway and many sidewalks.  LOL  so I have had a few of those 10,000 step days.  I’ll admit to running in place on a few occasions to tip the count over a certain mark… but otherwise I haven’t yet set any goals for myself.  I did set the alarm to go off at 9:00 am… a little reminder to myself to get off my hiney if I’m still sitting in the kitchen poking around the internet – which I have been known to do on occasion.  I think my plan is to look at the inactive days to see just what the pattern is and then see what I can do to modify those days to pick it up.  Of course going to the gym would make a big difference… as I have determined that paying for the gym has absolutely no positive effect on my health. 

On that note… I need to get my hiney in gear before the 9 am alarm goes off… LOL

I Completely Missed My Anniversary…

No not that one…

It’s been 3 years since I broke my knee… and I didn’t even think about it this year!

Not on the 7th (date of fall) or the 15th (surgery date)… not until today did it occur to me that it’s been 3 years.

I will say that all in all my knee is great… no limp, able to walk right up and down the stairs.  It still gets cranky when I’m on it a lot and has been a bit swollen the past couple weeks because of all the shoveling snow.  Seems that being right handed and throwing snow to the left… I put weight on that leg with each throw.  The Engineer uses the tractor with a snow thrower attachment and I have 2 walk behind snow throwers that I can use for the sidewalks or on the driveway if I’m doing that also.

Here is a panoramic picture I took last Friday after we had finished clearing the driveway and sidewalks for the 2nd time in 2 days – oh and I cleared another 3 inches yesterday too!  I’m standing in the middle of my driveway (which is straight by the way). 

Have I said recently that I’m sick of the snow?  I am… how about you?  Yeah that’s what I thought…

Late Night Knitting Finish…

Don’t you hate it when you lay down at night and your brain just won’t shut up so you can go to sleep?

Since that happened to me again last night I went ahead and got up because I knew I only had about a half dozen rows to finish on this cowl.

This is (again) a free pattern available thru Ravelry… it’s called Elis.  I was intrigued by it because of the Indian Cross Stitch.  It’s very easy and gives an interesting pattern.  I still need to block this – but the yarn is a Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca DK weight.

Here are the Morning Bells Shawl…

and Triplicity Shawl – all nice and blocked and ready to be mailed!

You know what time it is?  Time to make Felted Knit Eggs if you want to include them in baskets for loved ones this year!  I made some last year.

Before and after felting.

You knit them and stuff them and felt them in the washing machine and then you can dye the plain ones with Kool-aide!!

In the end I liked the Kool-aide knitted ones the best because the colors were just so brilliant! 

My local yarn shop is going to order some colored yarns and put together some kits for those that want to make colored eggs but don’t want to dye them.  I think they will be sweet and was glad that she liked the idea enough to order some yarn.

I’ll be linking up to Judy’s Patchwork Times for her weekly On The Needles post… go see what others are knitting this week!

And just a glimps at what my week has been like… Monday brought about 8 inches of HEAVY WET snow…

Not good for bushes…

But pretty good for kids… each age group comes out and climbs up this mountain of snow.  This is the view from my flat roof that needed to be shoveled off in anticipation of freezing rain coming the next day.

And speaking of freezing rain… here is Wednesday!

We did not loose power here but it’s been rough going for many many people here in PA.

I’ve got to ask y’all… do you see the face image in the ice in this picture?  I see a girl in the little icicle… do you?