Monday, December 25

Merry Christmas!


I decided to make the little girl I babysit for some felted slipper socks for Christmas. I just used what I had and I think they turned out really cute! They kint up in just a few hours. I think the weaving in of ends took almost as long as they did to knit.

Last sunday morning the kids were dressed up all
nice and I tried to take some cute pictures of them. These were some of the ones I liked. I might use the one on the left to send out some late Christmas cards... but probably not. I figure I'll just send out announcements when baby #3 is born. Which is getting pretty close. Only a little ove a month to go. I can't believe its crept up on me that fast.

For the past month I've known that my sister Allena and her family were comming to visit for Christmas. Yet I had to keep it a secret from my parents... On the 23rd they showed up around dinner time at my parents house. My mom and dad were so surprised. Allena posted about it on her blog. You can go check it out there for more info. She also made the kids some really cute toys... I feel like a naughty aunt, no hand made crafts for her kids, sorry :) Here is Leah and Bella playing with Leah's new princess tea party set.

My little brother had a drum set and Gabe always loves to go down to the basement to play with him. So guess what he got Gabe... yes his very own durm set! He loves it and I love the fact that it is staying at grandma and grandpa's house. Down in the basement with uncle Trevors. Here is a pic of him in action, and the little girls watching and groving to the beat!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And if I don't post before... Have a Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 14

Flash your tree!


I'm going to copy my sister and flash my tree. I love having out tree all lit up! It just brings a nice warm cozy feeling to the house. It kids are constantly taking ornaments off and I'm always the one to put them back on. Well actually Gabe does too, but then they all end up in a foot diameter all crammed together. Then I have to do it anyways:) Most of the ornaments are mine from my childhood and then there are ones that we have received as gifts. Gabe has his first 3 years of ornaments and shamefully I have to say that we forgot to get Leah one last year... I'll just have to get her two this year. Sorry baby! She'll forgive me, right?! She has really been diggin on my first ornament, Its a little baby in a bassinet. "bebe bebe bebe" that's what I've been hearing for the past few days.

We received a package from my sister Dawn, and clearly on the front Do not open until Christmas! is stated in red print. My initial reaction was a scream and then dang, that sucks! Its so much fun to get packages but to not be able to open them is really hard. Gabe keeps asking if its Christmas time yet, its kinda cute. I keep telling him, no but it's getting closer. He is at a really fun age this time of year! I love it!

A few days ago I was checking all the blogs I read (when I get the chance) and my sister had made some ginger snap cookies. Yummy yummy! I just had to make them, they turned out really well. I have to say I've never made those before.

Today is Thursday, and that means knitting at the yarn shop! But tonight is our Christmas potluck knitting party! So I decided to make some chocolate chip tea cakes. First of all the usually are just rolled into balls and baked like that. Well I had to roll out the dough and use a tiny star cookie cutter(which really hurt my fingers). Then I wanted to drizzle red and green dyed white chocolate over them but they didn't turn out quite like I had planned. They are pink and green, and the chocolate wasn't draping the cookies the way I would have liked. Some even broke right off the cookies when I moved them. Next time I'll just use a powder sugar frosting. Oh yeah, if you'd please draw you attention to the big blob of green chocolate... I going for cheap and was using little plastic baggies to pipe the chocolate onto the cookies and mid-drizzle the seam ripped open making a huge blob on a few cookies. Next time I'm positive they will look a lot better, and not so home made.

None of that matters because I'm excited to get out tonight! It should be fun, lots of food and maybe some knitting thrown in for fun! Hope your all having a good week! Take care:)

Friday, December 8

Overdue update

Its been forever since I posted. Oops! My family is pretty much all better, there's a few runny noses, but its winter, what can you expect?!

Oooh, One really exciting thing did happen, I went out on black Friday! Hubby and I decided that we would buy our Christmas present early, because of the sales. I braved the crowded stores to buy a new camera! I was so happy to finally have a camera again! Its loads cooler than our old one. Its an Olympus SP-320, if that means anything to you. 7.1 megapixel 3x optical zoom, and to top it off it has lots of different settings including image stabilization. I love it!

On the spinning front:
The first Tuesday of the month is always spinning night out at the yarn shop. I really enjoy going out and talking with other spinners. I have made some progress. I've plyed 3 hanks and I'm almost ready to ply 3 more. I just love spinning! It really is relaxing. My prego belly is starting to get in the way a bit, it just makes it a little awkward. I sort of feel like a penguin swaying back and forth.

On the knitting front:
I finished a pair of socks for a Christmas present. They are going to be received early, and soon. So I'll post a picture, hoping that I don't spoil the surprise. I just won't reveal who they are for. The yarn stripes very oddly and I didn't know if I'd be able to make them match, so I did a mis match pair. I really like them, they knit up really fast on us #1's. The best thing about these socks?! The yarn has been in my stash for over a year or two, and It was on sale when I bought it(I think %50). It feels good to use up yarn you've been holding on to for a while. I said to myself "see I told you so, I'd use it someday".

This is a picture of Gabe modeling a hat for my oldest sisters boyfriend. Just a little big on him:) Its just a black and blue 3x1 ribbed hat.

I've also been knitting on some socks for myself, but they often get thrown to the back burner. The yarn I bought on our anniversary. Its really pretty yarn and I can't wait to see them finished!

Last Sunday we went and cut our own Christmas tree down. It was so cold, but the kids had a blast! Its a cute modestly sized tree (the one on the left, behind hubby and the kids), We don't have that much room in our living room, it was hard enough making room for this one.


I made cut-out Christmas cookies on Wednesday. The kids helped me make the dough and Gabe helped with the cookie cutter part of it. They had fun and made a mess, I was just excited to be able to eat them. I've had such a sweet tooth lately... Then I started to frost them, it got really old really fast. But I stuck it out and did them all, eating plenty in the process.

On Thursday night I had the girls over to knit. It was so much fun. It was just the four of us (the ones who sucked me into this world of all things knit). We hadn't all gotten together for a long time, it was overdue, and a blast! It was like old times, staying at each others houses until midnight or 1am. Eating, laughing, talking and knitting. I can't wait until we can do it again!

All in all its been a pretty good week. I love the Christmas season, and all the music and lights outside. I hope you all are having a good week, cramming in all the last minute knitting gifts, don't get too stressed!

I realize there are lots of pictures in this post, bear with me and my new camera syndrome.

Thursday, November 23

Happy Thanksgiving!

The past week has been a rough one on our little family. It all started on saturday night around 3am. I woke up to my poor little baby Leah crying becouse she threw up. So we got her out of bed and cleaned her up and changed her sheets and got her back down. After putting the dirty sheets in the washer I sleepily climed into bed. About 30 minutes later we had to do it all over again.

The next day she was quiet and cuddly. (very unlike her normal loud crazy into everything self) She didn't eat much, and was content to snuggle all day long. That night we did the whole sheet changing thing again, but in the morning she seemed much better. Then it was Gabe's turn. He had it much worse. The poor little gut couldn't keep anything down that first 24 hours. Today, thank goodness, he finally had some color in his face. He ate part of an egg and some toast for breakfast. Oh yeah Hubby got it tuesday night and had to call in to work on wednesday(wicth he never does). He's feeling better today too. Luckily I havent gotten hit yet and I'm hoping I don't. I thought for sure I'd have it today of all days.

Ok so I'll get to the fiber content of the post. The llama roving that I'm going to get paid to spin, came in to the shop last week. I took it home on saturday after I worked out at the shop. I must say I'm torn between spinning and knitting on my socks. Spinning won the last couple of days. Arn't you proud, I finally took pictures! This is some yarn that I plyed together. The brown is llama and the red is a merino wool. Actually the red is the very first fiber I spun with my wheel. I think I'm going to make a scarf or a hat for my self out of it.

I had Hubby take a some pictures of me spinning. This is a pretty good one. I had to eliminate some of them for the backrounds. If the kitchen was in the shot, it was a no go. Its a bit dirty, because of tending to the kids and hubby all week. Also some of them had my knitting clutter in the backround. I have just a few projects going on and they are all stacked around my spot on the sofa, up against the wall. Hubby keeps saying that he needs to put up shelfs, but I think I'd just clutter that up too. In our next house I want a whole room devoted to my crafts*grin*

Oh I almost forgot, hubby wants me to mention that he got a deer on sunday( a bigger doe). Sorry to those of you who don't like the whole hunting thing. He was really happy about it, and he was wearing the llama socks I made him!

I finished the hat I was making for a certian someone for christmas. Then I emediatly cast on of a pair of socks for me. I have one of them almost finished.

I hope you all are able to enjoy this holiday with family and friends, eat lots of food and relax, oh and don't forget to do a little knitting too! Happy Thanksgiving!




Tuesday, November 14

High gear:)

Here I am again, with one more FO. I'm not sure how it's happening. This past week or so I've been spitting out FO like there's no tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I'm deffenitly not complaining. I guess my knitting is just in high gear right now. The fact that they are super simple projects, no brainer knitting, adds to it I'm sure. Either way its a good feeling.

This is a hat and mitt set for Leah. Its a superwash wool that I held double on US #6. All I have left to do is kitchener stitch one mitt and make a crochet chain to connect them, I'm not going to let her loose them. My favorite part is the tear drop thing at the top (and two smaller ones on the end of the ties)... I didn't want the traditional pom pom and thats what I came up with. Leah calls them "baaall". Here she is holding one up and saying that.

I really think the fact that I want to start some socks for myself is really motivating me to get everyone elses things done first. Its just not right to knit for yourself when others are in need;)

Sunday, November 12

Cold days... Toasty Toes

Hubby's toasty toes slipper socks (designed by Allena) were finished last night! He was happy to be able to wear them this morning! I now realize that I should have made his first, seeing that his are the largest... I'm just glad that the whole fam is done!

After finishing his slippers early last night I decided to get started on a felted bag. My last beginnig knitting class saw my old felted bag and wanted to sign up for a class on making it. Since i didn't write the pattern I had to alter it and write down the new pattern. This way I can teach the class a simmilar felted bag, and they wont have to buy the whole book. I am in the process of weaving in the ends, maybe I'll even felt it and post a picture a bit later, if I'm still here. This is it about fifteen minutes ago, pre-felted.

*Here it is! Felting is awesome! I just love it... I am going to line the bag this time... and put some pockets in it, so its easier to find my keys and cell phone.*

Next I think I'll start a hat for someone, its for Christmas so thats all the info I can give out;) I'm really itching to get my needles going on some socks... Socktober is hitting me a bit late this year. How about this month being cover up your Toevember?! Ok I'll stop trying, I know i can knit socks whenever i want, even if i did miss out on all the fun.

Hope you all had great weeks! Keep those needles clicking!

Friday, November 10

FO

I finished my little brothers hat. I would have had it finished a while ago but I ran out of yarn and had to drive an hour away to see if they had the same dye lot I had bought from them months ago. Origanally I had planned on making a striped hat using two colors. Upon his request I made it with only one stripe... so i didn't have enough of the main color. Anyways... The yarn shop had 3 dark blye skeins left, all with different dye lots. Luckily one of them was the one I needed!

I'm almost finished with hubby's second slipper sock... soon! I'm starting to get sick of them, this is my fourth pair. I was planning on making some for the in-laws... maybe next year.

The 8th was our 4th anniversary. We had the kids stay over at my parents and rented a hotel room with a whirlpool. It was a lot of fun to get away, relax and have some qualitity time together. That was actually when we went to the yarn shop and He let me get some sock yarn, and a few other goodies! I'm really missing my camera... I'd show you my loot but I didn't bring it over to my parents house.

I'm getting excited to start some new projects, my fingers are itching!
Happy Knitting!

Friday, November 3

Fall

I love fall! It is so pretty outside, even though the leaves are dead and all over the ground... It is so much fun! I like all of the seasons especially when they change. Today we came over and my dad was raking leaves and the kids wanted to help. They had fun until i said we needed to go in because they had no mittens. I know what kind of mother... I mean knitter am I?! I haven't gotten that far. I did however make them felted slippers. They both love them. My sister wrote the pattern, Its super easy and they knit up fast! Hubby's are the only pair that arn't finished. I'll show a group picture when his are done.

I wasn't planning on taking the kids out trick-or-treating but they did dress up. Gabe was spiderman and Leah was a little princess. Both had a blast. My brother took them to two houses and they came back with half a brown lunch bag full of candy! needless to say they were on a sugar rush for the night. Every time the doorbell rang Gabe ran to the door yelling "trickers are here!" or "treaters are here!" He loved that so many people were visiting! Leah was just running aroung all crazy like.

Last weekend I had a blast at the crafting retreat! It was so nice to just sit around and work on things uninterupted. That is when i knit Gabe and Leah's slippers, I also had the ones I knit for myself along and they were felted. I got such nice comments about them. I did get to bring my wheel, and Brigitte shared some roving just so i could spin up there, what a sweetie! We also ate way too much and had too many sweets around tempting me. Ever since then sweets have been in my system more than the usual amount, and the baby has been doing arobic workouts or something. I think the baby is trying to work off the sugar for me:)

I started a hat for my brother, he has been bugging me for one. So I guess I better spit one out quick... Got to please the fans. My next project is a hat an mittens for Leah, the ones from last year are a bit too small and it sure is getting cold out. Gabe's still fit him, that's always a good thing!

My friend just had a baby last week so I knit her up a hat, and while doing so I wrote it down and I think I'm going to send in the pattern to the patern a day knitting calander...We'll see what happens. So I think that is it... I'll be sure to have knitting pictures for you next time! Hope your all having a good weekend!

Sunday, October 22

hunting socks

Wensday was the momentus day that I cast on for hubby's hunting socks. Lets mark this one down in the books. Its the first time I knit with my own hand spun yarn. It was very exciting! As of three minutes ago I am on the second sock and done with both the toe and heel, I'm in the home strech. Just a 2 by 2 rib on the leg to go! Ah yes, I'm going with the toe up variety, it seems to go quicker, and you get the hard part over with in the begining. The added bonus... no kitchener stitch:) Hubby is out hunting tonight so I had my little bro model the finished sock. He is just a 1/2 a shoe size smaller. A nother fun note is that I don't have to use much of the second ball of yarn, which means that I can knit a smaller pair for myself! The pictures look kinda fuzzy but I think it is just the yarn, being part mohair, they have a glow around them. I'm not sure whats up with my parents camera either, the coloring is different and the pictures were taken two seconds apart. I can't wait to buy a new camera! When is tax season?!

On the spinning front, my friend and owner of the yarn shop I frequent and work at , called me with some good news the other day! There is a lady who sends her roving to her to be spun. Brigitte asked if I wanted to spin the roving. Last year this lady sent her about 13 lbs. I can make a good amount of money and get a spinning fix that I can't really afford right now. Also she isn't in a rush to get it, 3 to 4 months is fine with her! How cool is that?! I love how things work out like that! I think God has played a big part in my fiber luck lately. He is the ultimate provider!

Next weekend I am going to a crafters retreat. I'm so excited I get to sit and knit all weekend long! I'm debating if i should bring my wheel or not. Its not too compact, but I'd have a lot of uninterupted time to spin. No kids saying thier thirsty or hungry or things of that nature:) I'll see if there is room in the vehicle first and make my decison from there.

Hope you all are having a fantastic week! I appericiate all of the warm comments, you bloggers rock!

Tuesday, October 17

A picture update


Here are some pictures of the kiddos... they kept closing thier eyes... sorry:) Its not the best picture, but it was on short notice. They really are getting big. Leah is such a ham and has quite the little growing attitude. Gabe is very laid back and is becoming quite the artist. He loves to paint.

This is the llama mohair blend I spun myself. I was super excited while plying it. I can't wait to knit with it!

I Just fiinihed this sock today, and now on to the second. I started it forever ago, it was knit picks dye it yourself yarn that I dyed with kool aid. Next time I'll use less colors. Its kinda ugly and there is too much going on. Oh well live and learn.

Sunday, October 15

missing you!

Is any one out there?
I'm back!

Yes i know it has been 7 months since my last post. Things have been crazy around here. We cut back on a bunch of things, one of them being the internet. I've been missing my blog and all my bolggin pals. So I'm going to try to post at least once a week. I'll be posting from my parents computer, so we'll see how it works out.

Another bummer is that just recently my digital camera broke so now I have to borrow my parents camera to take pictures to post. Because posts just arnt fun without pictures.

Oh yeah, I'm pregnant again. About 6 months along. I'm due on the 13th of Febuary, but will be delivering by C-section on the 5th because of hospitial policy.

On the knitting front I can barely even remember what I've all knit since I've been a non-blogger. Yes i do take pictures but they are mostly all on my computer, which isn't on line:( I don't rember telling you all of a woman who wanted me to knit her a sewater. Well i did and it turned out quite nice. She like it and asked if I'd knit her a lacey stole. I of course said yes. That was a few months ago, and I just started the stole last week...oops. Last month I was busy making a good friend of mine a bunch of knitted goodies for her soon to be baby girl. She is due on the 29 of October. I put it all in a cute basket and wraped it it tooling! Cute hey?! Inside the basket is 3 burp cloths, 3 bibs, a little kimino sweater (all are from mason-dixion knitting, I love that book!), and 2 bunnys. She loved the gift and said she slept with the bunnys that night;) I love making others happy with the things I've made with my own hands. Knitting Rocks!

My birthday was in June and my Hubby was so kind to organize a donation pool for a big gift for me. I was delighted to recieve my very own spinning wheel! It is a double treadle schacht. I LOVE it and have taken to spinning quite well! Last week I spun and plyed my first yarn (llama mohair blend) and will begin to knit my oh so sweet hubby some socks to keep is feet warm while hunting. I'll be sure to take pictures of it with my parnets camera so I can show it to you all!

I know there is a ton more things that i feel you need to be caught up on, but my time is running out. I will try to visit all of my old blogin frineds in the next few weeks to stop in and say hi. Miss you all and hope you didn't forget about me!

ps
this computer is being slow and won't let me spell check. I'm a horrible speller, don't think any less of me for any errors. Thanks!

Monday, March 13

New do

I've been saying for months now that I needed a hair cut. The last time I had one I was still pregnant with Leah. Her birthday is next Sunday. So if you do the math its has been at least a year. I know that's horrible, I don't do much for myself. So here it is. She took off more than 10 inches. The hair stylist tried to get enough off the initial pony tail to send it to Locks of Love but it was only about 9 in. I think they need 11in. She said she was going to try anyways.

I really like it so far, but I need to get some hair products. I didn't use much before, so its all kinda new to me. In this picture I straitened my hair, not always will I have time for that in the morning. I'd love to find something to put in it and have the messy but still stylish look to it. So I could throw it on after my shower and be good to go. Some sort of pomade cream or a moose of some sort?! When hubby gets home I think I'll run to the store to take a look and see what I can find.

I kinda feel like I'm cheating you all. This is supposed to be a knitting blog. Lately I haven't had much knitting content, I feel bad about it. But I really appreciate all of your sweet comments about me and my family, even when there isn't any knitting to speak of. I guess I'm just trying to say thanks, to all my blogging pals!

slowly but surely I'm re-knitting the back of my sweater, now it looks like an armhole should. Thank goodness;o) I'm NOT ripping it out anymore.

I have a class with 4 people in it starting tomorrow. Again just a learn to knit class, very basic. I think we'll just be knitting a scarf, one must start at the beginning, to achieve knitting greatness.

Ok blah blah blah, I should really end this... Knit happy!

Friday, March 10

This is it

I found the bag I really want. Too bad its almost $100. Ouch, that's a lot of mullah. (Note to hubby: my birthday is in June) Anyways, Here is the link. Go check it out. I found it by looking at Starsky, from knitty. I think I'd like to knit that too, if I ever had the time. It just looks like I'd have fun it I wore it. Is that silly of me?!

I forgot to mention that last night my friends introduced me to Grey's Anatomy. I think I'm hooked. We watched the first two episodes.... I think this might turn into an obsession. Only time will tell.


Oh yeah, and while I was on the computer this morning the kids got into the banana bread:o)

Knit on!

I was visited by a frog.


I noticed after completing one of the front panels of my hoody that I did the armhole shaping incorrectly. I added about 10 rows to the sweater... argh. As you can see on the picture on the left I had about 9 inches to rip out. I picked up the row I needed to rip down to and was ready to go.

Last night I went out frogging... er.. ah.. Knitting. I only got to go out for a couple of hours, so I could be back for my bed time. All in
all I purled one row. The rest of the night consisted of ripping and winding little bits of yarn into tiny balls. Bummer, I know, but it had to be done. I really want this sweater to be as close to perfect as I can make it.

Look, the frog himself made an appearance. He sure is making me work hard for this thing. Look at all those tiny balls of yarn... That is just more knitting for me, right?! I just wish I could sit and knit for a week and finish it. I have so many other things I'd love to get started, I just need the time. So is life.

So I think I'm going to start a count down for my new and upcoming job. Or rather when I get to quit the crazy job I have now. Thanks for the idea Michelle! Now I just have to find a counter!

Happy knitting to all!