The New Work Year

It's Monday, the 5th of January.  It's back to work.  Now, don't fall off your chairs, but I'm ready!  As much as I love being home, if I had to spend one more day with the Tall Guy, I would go stark raving mad.  Oy, I love him so, but by the end of yesterday, we have had a bit too much of each other.  It's time to go back to work and let those people drive me crazy for awhile.  It's evident that it is not time for both of us to retire (not that either of is yet, but one can dream, mine would be that he work and I retire)!

I have been writing a goal and resolution post for several days now.bookmarks folder “[;]”  It's quite long and there a bunch of pictures that I want to post with it, if nothing else for my own record in a year, so it is taking a bit longer than expected.  The problem is when I think about something, it takes me off onto another direction and I start saying, hey what about that… you see the problem.

What I can say is:

I would like to be fairly monogamous.  The last few days I have been knitting on hats for Chris at BriarRose Fibers to take to Mexico next month to hand out.  Whilst, knitting on them, I realized again, just how much you can accomplish when knitting on just one thing or two.  Once I get this last one done, I have told myself that I will move on.

Sox.  I want to wear and knit more of them.  They fit so well in my Danskos. Over on the Ravelry Group, My Sister's Knitter KAL-CAL, I am participating in the Personal Mystery Sock KAL.  What I did is set out on New Year's Eve, 12 of my sock yarns and labeled them 1-12 (three of them were WIPS).

 Then, I took 12 pieces of paper with numbers 1-12 on them and put them in a baggy.

 New Years Day, right after midnight, I pulled a number out of the bag and that is the yarn I wound and cast on right after that for my sock for January.

I LOVE my first selection!  The premise is that at the end of 2015, I should have 12 new pairs of socks to wear. One of the things that I told myself multiple times last year was that I was going to start taking my lunch hour at work instead of working through part of it and eating at my desk.  Socks will be my lunchtime project and should help me work my way to new sockies in the new year.  I was going to say that I was going to introduce Sox Sunday again, but lets face it, that just really limits me on my knitting on Sundays.

Shawls.  I've got a lot of them on my mind for the new year.  I figure if I have one fairly complicated on the needles at all times, then when it is quiet and there are no distractions, I will work on it.  My current … is on the needles and was a KAL with the Knit Wits.  Since my yarn was so much thinner than called for, I had to re-cast on it again.  I had given thought to making it larger and adding more stitches, but as much as I love it, I'm really ready to be done with it, so once finished it will be a nice little shoulder shawl.

My easy shawls are going to be for a Hospice Home in Peoria.  There is a group starting there on Thursday, that I am going to go to when I can arrange the time off from work.  I am excited about this knitting, not only is it a good way of using up some of my washable yarns, but what better way to use my craft.

Knit Camp Show and Tell.  I am bound and determined to have my show and tell ready way in advance, so as not to have to be working on it right up to the last minute.  And of course, it will contain my fave color.

Oh, there is so much more to my 2015 goals, Stash and WIPS and Knit and Fit 2015!  For now, I gotta go to work (sigh)!

It's A Start

Finished and Blocked for the new year.  It's a good start.

I'm knitting some quick hats for Chris over at Briar Rose Fibers to take to Mexico with her next Month.  This is St. Mungo's Simple Hat, a free pattern and I knit it out of leftovers from my Cusco Jacket out of Wistful.

I still had some of the same color way left so I knit Barley from Tin Can Knits.  Another free pattern.  I like Tin Can Knits free patterns for my beginning knitters, one they are free and the other is they give newbies a little bit of everything to choose from and learn.  I still have some Wistful left, but not enough for another hat, I'll save it for some simple fingerless mitts down the road.

The afghan for my great great nephew is washed and blocked.  I'll package it up and drop over at the sisinlaws this week, so it can be ready for wrapping.

It feels pretty good to have these off my mind for now, even if the two hats were a quick knit.  I've got a pretty good skein left of another color way of Wistful, that I am going to knit another hat up.  Once it is done, I'll get them out in the mail to Chris and move onto goals of my knitting for 2015.

The Problem With The New Year

is those pesky goals and/or resolutions.  I say I don't make them, but lets face it I do.  You can call them whatever you want, but it still comes down to expectations that I have for myself.

I have those typical ones…lose weight, be more active, get to work on time, take lunch everyday, be more optimistic/less negative at work, spend less time on the computer and more time knitting which will result in a weight loss because I'll be knitting and who wants to eat and knit at the same time, you get the jist of it.

I have a couple of odd ones too, I'd like to brush up on my French and learn to play euchre again.  I've loved french for most of my teen and adult life and would love to go back to France one day.  I would also like to be able to play euchre with Baby Boy A's inlaws (they love to play games when we are there and I'd like to at least appear like I know what I am doing and think it is a good thing if they have me for a partner).

Then there is the knitting goals.

 Simply put use yarn that is in the Yarn Room, I have some great yarns = STASH
 Finish what is on needles = WIPS

Ah ha, STASH and WIPS, that sounds like a really good blog post for tomorrow the beginning of the new week!  Wonder what google will say about that?

Shortcuts That Fail

So, why did I think I could get away with it?

The more I played with it the worse it looked and then I knew they only thing I could do was rip it back.  I should have never joined it there to start with, kind of wonder what I was thinking.

Then, when I started to rip it back, I figured I might just as well rip back this little blip on the edge that was bothering me.

And before I knew it, I was back with this little triangle.

The upside?  I'll have plenty of knitting where I won't have to pay attention to it for awhile!

Happy New Year For Real

Ahhh, it is almost the end of the first day of the year, which brings me to this question, why do we start goals and resolutions on the first of January?  Sure, it is the first day of the year, but alot of times, there are New Years Day parties and get togethers happening on  the 1st which already makes the whole resolution thingy fail.  At least for me.

So, I've decided to wait until tomorrow the 2nd of January, to really embrace the whole thing.  I am sending the leftover candy to work with the Tall Guy tomorrow.  That is the last of the Christmas goodies that are left in the house which is a very good thing.

Tomorrow is a me day.  I'm going to hop on the treadmill and start my quest for logging at least 8000 steps a day on my fit bit.  I'm starting the 21 day challenge on the 2nd, since I knew I would fail because of the Knit Wits getting together for New Years Day.  With the candy gone, at least I have a fighting chance!  And since I went almost all gluten free over a year ago, it is pretty much a given that I won't be eating white bread for 21 days.

I'm going to use my time wisely tomorrow (it is the only day in almost two weeks that I will be completely alone in the house for a whole freakin day), getting up as if it is a real work day and by compiling a grocery list/recipe list of things that I can buy/make to help me on my quest for shedding these pounds I have put on since Thanksgiving and get me to moving towards my goal weight.  I think I have pretty much decided to use My Fitness Pal (a free app) in my quest.  I've been a long supporter of Weight Watchers, but I'm getting cheap and could totally use the money that I used to shell out to them for yarn and books!

And for knitting - I have many many goals on that front, I'll blog about them tomorrow when the new year really begins for me!

Knitting Wrap Up - 2014

What I knitted (completed) in 2014.  I knitted a lot in 2014, but this is what I actually can call done!

2 Baby Afghans
2 Hats
1 Pair of Socks for Me
2 Shoulder Shawls
4 Scarves
1 Pair of Mittens
1 Pullover Sweater
5 Shawls
1 Cowl
1 Adult Cardigan
2 Toddler Cardigans

Day 364

Only one more day left in the year.  Over on Facebook, I have been posting a daily pic since the first day of 2014.  Always the pic must have something positive going on.  And I think I have accomplished that.  I am not sure what tomorrow's will be, maybe as the year started, in my jammies, sitting in my favorite chair and knitting.

Today, I was invited to a new knitter friend's house for brunch and a morning of knitting.  What fun!  And it came with surprises.

She gifted me a set of mittens that were made from wool sweaters and felted.  This is the top side.

This is the bottom side.  And they are lined with fleece.  How cool is that?!

Afterwards, I ran out to Knit 4 Together and was able to get one more skein of the blue yarn to finish the baby afghan.  With a bit of luck, I'll have it done tonight and can block it tomorrow and let it dry for a couple of days and then get it over to sisinlaw so she can wrap.

I have to say I am going to be relieved to not have to post a pic after tomorrow.  It can be a bit of a pressure finding just the right spot to take the pic and not duplicate any other pictures.  But, it also has been quite a bit of fun, seeing others remark on the pic and like it.  Just call me Sally Field!

The Second Week of Holiday Vacation

 Today, the sun is actually shining in Central IL, the birds and squirrels are allover the place today.

They seem to love the full sun today as much as I do.  We seemed to have an abundance of animals around us at the new house or as my sisinlaw said yesterday, we have a backyard full of nature, as it was quite evident to have this Christmas visitor on our garage roof.  They just love the big water bath that nature provides for them.

This morning, the Tall Guy helped me get all of the Christmas trees and decor put away in their various new spaces.  I did a once more cleaning and vacuuming of the house.  I pulled out my Snowman Decor  and found a box that I did not know I had, and am still missing a box that I know I should have.

 I love the holidays, but I really love when they are all over (Christmas Celebrations that is), and I can do a final cleaning of the house and then sit back and enjoy the rest of my time off from work.  I am not going to kid you, most of it will be spent knitting, I've all of a sudden after Christmas have a couple of time sensitive knitting projects that I need to complete.

The first is a baby blanket for my new soon to be born great great nephew Remington.  I just learned this last week that the shower is on the 11th of January so it is going to be my first priority.  I am knitting another of the Heavenly Heathers Afghans out of this book.

This afghan is my go to afghan for little boys, it would seem, since this is my third one.  Not only is it pretty quick, but it is a good fail safe one, when I am not sure of what the decor for the baby boy will be.

This one is a bit different then the others as I am using cream Cascade Pacific as the base.  Of course, I already love the start of it because it has my fave color in it!

I am using leftovers from the other afghans and with cream this one is giving a totally different look to it.

My second is the Dinner in the Eiffel Tower Shawl.  The bind off party is January 3rd, and I need to increase a bit more stitches on mine ( I think) since I am using a much lighter weight yarn than the pattern calls for.  I am so happy that I recast on with a larger needle for this, I wish you could feel the lightness of the fabric that it is giving.

My brain is already in knitting mode for the new year after I get these two under my belt.  I can hardly wait to finish them and start a new round of Knit and Fit 2015!

It's A Wrap!

 We had our final celebration all day long.  It was our first big celebration, not just in the new house, but really forever.  Because our old house just was not conducive to all day celebrating, we have had quick meals and gift swaps, but nothing where family could come and stay all day and enjoy each other's company.  It was just a really nice day with no major meltdowns.

I've sent all the homemade stuff home with everyone who came, so all I have left is some store bought candies and they are going to get bagged up and sent with the Tall Guy to work when he goes back at the end of the week.  In the meantime, I've had a last bit of cheesy potatoes and yummy corn casserole and it is official, of waking up tomorrow, that it is back to a healthier eating style.  I've been messing around for more than a month now, and it is best to get into the swing of things, now rather than later.

2015 truly is going to be the year of getting back to a reasonable weight for my age, knitting some spectacular sweaters and enjoying all of the things that life has to bring!  I am looking forward to it.

Celebrating All Week Long……...

We've been celebrating Christmas since last Monday when we were with Mona Lisa and her parents.  Yesterday, we spent Christmas with the Tall Guy's Mom, Sister and her family that are here in town, and Baby Boy B.

 Tomorrow, we are officially getting together with them again to include the other nieces that are not here in town.  We'll be celebrating for the first time at the new house (around 20 of us)  and the Tall Guy and I have been working like dogs all day to get ready, between shopping and putting a new rug down, setting up tables, making cookies and the last batch of peanut butter fudge for the year.

As much as I love celebrating, I'll be glad when tomorrow is over and I can start taking down the Christmas decorations and getting back to some sort of normal or also known as, I have another week off before I have to go back to work and I don't have to go anywhere or get out of my jammies until I absolutely have to.

In the meantime, I am going to post some pics of our time with Mona Lisa.  We just cannot get over how much she is talking now and how smart she seems to be for her age.  I am sure that the boys were not like that at her age.  The girl knows what a clementine is for crying out loud!  I have to give kudos to her parents as they are very much all about her and spending time with her.  We had a great time, even if she is very partial to Uncle Baby Boy B!

Merry Christmas Eve!

3 Day Tour

Going to take a quick trip to see Mona Lisa and her parents.  Sadly, there is absolutely no knitting for her this year.  Maybe in the new year.  This year I decided to partake of the Knitmore Girls Grinch Along and not knit for gifts.  I've been knitting for the Hospice Home in Peoria and for a couple of requests for people at work.  It has actually felt quite good, even though it has been a bit of cold turkey around here with no last minute knitting going on.

Since I've sadly been ignoring sox on Sunday for a couple of weeks, I only thought it was fair that they make the trip to Iowa.

Socks are always a good travel project and should I finish them by chance, sock yarn can always be found somewhere to start a new pair.

A couple of skeins of Liberty Wool are coming along for a cowl for me.  It would seem my scarf/cowl collection is in need of a bit of updating to go with both my black and red coats.

And that is all that is making the trip….most unusual for me.  Blog at you when we get back.

Dinner in the Eiffel Tower - Part 2

The second try is so much better.  I am using my same Mad Tosh Merino Light in the Fragrant colorway on Size 8 needles.  I was really close to using something else, but after a bit of time out, I decided to give it a whirl, and I am so glad I did.

Almost immediately, the holes opened up  and I am just loving this pattern.

Even the pesky lattice piece has become so much easier to execute (as it should after doing it three times) on my second attempt.   I will still add some length to it and when we get back from Iowa in a couple of days, I'll probably add some stitches to it and will need to figure out how/when to do that.

I am just so please with the outcome on my second attempt, sometimes you just have to try it again!

The Problem

with buying a yarn purely on impulse is then you get home and cannot figure out what it really wants to be so you stay up really late trying to  figure it all out as to what you want to do with it.

You know you want to do something and you want to cast on immediately so you think it wants to be a little hat, so you cast on.

The problem is when you see how soft it feels, you think it must be a baby afghan, even though the next baby that you would knit for is going to be a boy (my great great nephew).  Then right before you go to bed, you realize that you don't have enough yardage and you wonder why your lys only gets four of a color way in from Madelinetosh?

So, you go to bed in the wee hours of the morning thinking while you sleep you may come with an alternative plan for four skeins of this unusual color way of yarn.  When you wake up, you still have afghan on your mind (Mona Lisa could use one for when she comes to Grandma's house and wouldn't that be cute), but you still don't have enough after sleeping on it.  You say to yourself, hey go to Jimmy Beans Wool online and see if they have some ( I love that shop because they generally have what I am looking for) and sure enough they do.

But, before ordering, I head over to Ravelry and advance search to projects for everyone, even those I don't know, I put into the search Holi Festival and come up with even more ideas. 4 pages and several that I like that I create a little tag for them all.

 Lots of hats which makes me start to think…I have time, I could make a hat for Mona Lisa, for Bella, for me, a scarf (do I have any hot pink that I could do the chevron one for a scarf for me?) STOP!!!  I am not making a hat for anyone, and I have two or three scarves already noodlin around.

I take a break and make a second batch of peanut butter fudge.  It is my Mom's recipe and one that no amount of asking will get me to reveal to friends, family or acquaintances.  It is the one thing I do well (aside from knitting) and I am keeping this recipe close.  Every body who tastes it, loves it and it makes me feel good.  I once asked my Mom for the recipe and she refused to give it to me, merely, telling me that it was very unlikely that I would ever make it, so she wouldn't give the recipe to me.  Several years after she passed, I stumbled up on it by accident and made it last year for the first time.  I don't mean to brag, but it is the one thing that I make that people ask me to make again and they rave about it.  So, don't ask for the recipe, I am ignoring you when you ask.

And now, I have taken my shower, finally got dressed and came to a really big decision, put it away for now, think on it, Jimmy Bean has 17 skeins that will still be there next week.

I pull out one of the multiple projects that I have to knit on already and I'm good, time to knit!

Dinner in the Eiffel Tower

A couple of weeks ago, a small group of us Knit Wits got together and started the Dinner in the Eiffel Tower Shawl.  It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to knit mine out of.  I made trips to two different local yarn shops and could not come up with a DK that I wanted for it.  And believe it or now, there really wasn't anything in the Yarn Room that I felt was right for it.  So I cast on with my Mad Tosh Light in the Fragrant color way. 

 The color grew on me.  Others liked it so I continued on.  But,  it just did not appear on my scrunched up needles like it was very big.  I knew that I would need to knit more repeats to mine, because I was using a much lighter weight than the recommended dk yarn it was knit with.  

On Thursday night at Knit Night, I made a mistake and just could not fix it without ripping back, so I popped it off the needles.  To say it was small is a bit of an understatement!  It was doll size.  I NEVER knit tight, but this was evident that maybe sometimes I do.

For perspective, I put the coasters next to it.  I was pretty bummed.  This was Friday.    I ripped it out and started looking for something else to knit my shawl out of.   I came home with nothing.  I was at the shop today and still no luck.

Never to give up, I cast on tonight with a size 8 needle.  I love it already.  The hand of the shawl is so soft now and I am excited to  continue on with it.

The most odd thing is that I am a loose knitter, not just loose but a really loose knitter.  Generally, I have to go down a couple of needle sizes from the git go.

This one is most baffling!

It's Friday the 19th!

And I have 15 wonderful days before I have to go back to work.  I know it is just going to fly by and I'll be whining that I gotta go back to work, but it feels so good to know that there is no work for 15 days.

I am making myself a couple of vows on the start of the Christmas vacation.

1.  If it is at least not raining or snowing, I am going to throw my tennies on every day and take a quick walk around the block every morning.

2.  I am getting on the scale tomorrow and from there on out, I am going to cut down on the sugar and start eating a bit better.  We've been celebrating at work all month long, and there is no time like the present to start toning it back a bit.  Plus, we will be heading to the see Baby Boy A and Mona Lisa in a few days and they really are quite healthy in their eating habits, so it won't be difficult to start watching what goes into this old body.

3.  While off, I am going to do a lot of knitting.  I just have to decide what knitting it will be.  Shall I knit from those multiple projects on the needles or start something new?  There are so many options that I feel another  list coming on, you know the kind of list that has my favorite all time knits that I want to knit for me.

4.  While knitting, I am going to catch up on my podcast/videocasts/Neflix/Audible books that I have waiting.

And thats it!  It's going to be a great two weeks, I am so looking forward to the restful time off.

Wednesday Websites

As next Wednesday is Christmas Eve, I am giving you the rest of the months/years Wednesday Websites all in one post!

I just love finding new websites that have really cool knitting related holiday stuff you can knit.or somewhat reflects knitting.  Unfortunately, I generally find them too late or just a couple of weeks before Christmas.  So, maybe if you really like some of these ideas, you can bookmark them and look at them again say July and get a head start.  I am thinkin that is what I'll do.

Enjoy!

Tiny Tree Garland - Knitionary

Yarn Harlot's Advent Calendar and Gifts for Knitters Posts

Crocheted Ornaments

25 Days of Enabling - The Knitmore Girls

Smitten - Knit Picks Website

Cute Party Food - The Rainey Sisters

Silverware Stockings

Stockings for Gals at Work

The Problem With Being a Knitter

is when someone wants you to knit something for them out of the blue. Someone that normally wouldn't really give a wit about your knitting.

But, because I cannot say no, when it comes to my craft (well, I did say no to the guy at work who wanted me to knit his first grandson a Nemo blanket), I took on a couple of projects for co-workers in the spirit of the season.  They were not,  I repeat not, time and materials knitting but strictly materials knitting, but rather in promotion of my craft.

The first is a Jayne Hat from Firefly.  I have absolutely no idea who Jayne is and I have heard about Firefly, but that is all I can tell you about it.  I searched the internet for possibilities and came back with a couple of options and then headed down to one of my local yarn shops, Fiber Universe on my lunch hour and picked up the yarn.  Funny, as soon as I started picking up the colors, Erin, one of the owners knew exactly what I was knitting.  It would seem someone else had been in the day before getting yarn for one.  I sure hope it wash''t for the same person!

I found a decent pattern on Ravelry that lead me to Jayne's Hat.  I'm pretty pleased with the turnout, but I sure do dislike pompons!  Always have.

The second project was hat for this bare headed snowman.  Another sentimental piece, one of my co-workers has a set of these that someone knit for her and this one was missing a hat (we suspect the dog took off with it).

I had yarn on hand for it and it was a quick knit up, but then again, there was one of those dang pompons, even smaller than the one for the hat.

The Snowman was delivered today and the reaction was well worth the knitting of the little hat.  She was so proud of it, makes it all worthwhile.

The Jayne Hat goes tomorrow, and now,  both are done and  and I can return to my regularly scheduled knitting!  Yea.