Mitten liners, Kroy socks, Acer and babysitting

I finished the 1st mitten liner. It made the mitten much thicker and I'm sure it'll be amazingly warm. Haven't tested it outside yet although today would have been perfect......it's at least -25 wind chill.

I didn't start the 2nd liner. I gave in to my yearning and started the Kroy sock. It is actually making a cool design and I think it'll be interesting all the way along even though I'm doing just a plain vanilla sock. It is green, orange and pink with black and white. I'll take pictures of both the mitten liner and the sock as soon as I get enough ambition!

Also nagging at the back of my mind is the Acer sweater. I need to pick out a color of Peace Fleece yarn and get it ordered so I can start knitting! I'm thinking a teal maybe but then the pink colors call to me and the purplish ones and I'm in a dilemma on which one to pick....I'm in the knit 3 wear 3 group in Ravelry and I'm considering my Everyday Sweater the 1st of the 3 I'm going to knit but it would be nice to knit the Acer and actually get to wear it some THIS winter instead of next. :) Of course in ND we have winter until the end of March for sure and usually well into April and the way this winter has been going it'll be a late spring. Mother Nature is making sure we know who is boss this year.

We are keeping the grandkids for a few days while 1st DS and DDIL are going on a vacation. I'm thinking I might be tired at the end of it but it will be fun. Plus I don't have to go to work during that time unless I'm desperately needed for something. I don't think I'll get much knitting done during this time though because DGS is just as curious about knitting as the cats are. And he tends to pull needles out of the knitting. Yikes!

I might not be posting anything here while I'm babysitting so we'll see you later!

Home again

DH and I got back from WI last night. Wonderful trip. But....I was too pooped to pop by the time we got home. We stayed up until midnight or 1am visiting with 2nd DS and DDIL and even at that we could have talked around the clock. Just a bunch of motormouths!

Neither of us had ever been to northern WI before and were surprised by the trees. I thought only northern MN was so populated by trees! Anyway, where DS & DDIL live, we threaded our way around so many corners we didn't have a clue which direction we were headed. They seem to be accustomed to it though and zipped around showing us the area. This is a picture of the driveway leading to their home. One lane, lined by trees and more curves than a circle. It's pretty though, isn't it?

I did just a touch of knitting on my mitten liner. I have to do the kitchener stitch and knit the thumb on the 1st one and then start the other. What I really want to do is start a pair of socks with Kroy yarn. It is supposed to make itself into a jacquard pattern and I'm anxious to see if it will. I bought 2 skeins of it on sale for under $5 total. That is if my memory isn't failing me! I bought it awhile ago when Michael's Crafts was selling out of it.

And that reminds me. While in Michael's recently I overheard someone asking about a certain brand of yarn and the saleslady said that they have been have yarn sales lately to reduce their inventory since they are getting new brands in and that they wouldn't be getting more of the type the customer was asking for. I wish I was brave enough to ask what the new brands were going to be....Time will tell. Just another reason to stop in occasionally to look over what they have. :)

Prayer shawl finished, mitten liners started, travel

I finished the prayer shawl a couple nights ago. I got it delivered today after gathering up enough nerve. I always second guess myself when it comes to something like this. I decide to make it, am excited, finish and then when it's time to deliver it I wonder if it really is the right thing to do or if I'm out of bounds. But I prayed specifically for this person and her family and it just wouldn't do to keep the shawl or give it to someone else so I finally convince myself to deliver it. And it was fine.



I started on mitten liners for my mittens I did this winter. They aren't warm enough when it's windy and below zero temperatures so I'm making these liners to go inside the mittens. I'm doing them a size smaller and without the ribbed cuff. If they don't stay in place or if it's hard to get my hand inside, I'll tack them to the mittens along the bottom edge. They might "knit" themselves together if I put the liners inside the mittens and then wash them. They seem like they will be a fast knit without the ribbing to mess around with.

We are traveling to visit 2nd DS and DDIL. It'll be so fun to see them. The least fun will be the 10 hour drive there and another 10 on the way back. A couple people have asked if we weren't flying....now that is an option we hadn't considered....

Better pictures

These are better pictures of the Everyday Sweater. Taken in daylight. The color is actually a little light...there's a bit more depth in person.

Everyday Sweater finished!

From this:













To this:












And FINALLY this:






(Sorry about the crummy picture.)




It's really done and I wore it to work yesterday. It is nice and warm. The color isn't exactly what I was expecting....I still say it looks like homemade tomato soup rather than coral. But that's okay, homemade tomato soup is warm and cozy. :)

Okay, the scoop on this sweater is this: 6 skeins of Peace Fleece Lauren's Coral. Knit on size 8 needles that I bought from Peace Fleece that actually measure out at 9 on my handy dandy needle gauge. I did so love knitting with those needles though... The sweater was knit in size medium. Whenever I buy a top it is always an XL. Or bigger. So the fit is a bit snug and if I use this pattern again I probably make it a size bigger. I love the fuzziness of the yarn after a nice soak. The mohair hides the cat hairs that got knitted in! An added benefit.

I bought the pattern & yarn as a kit. It came with 9 skeins of yarn so I have 3 full skeins and 4 little bitty balls leftover. What to make with it??

A jigsaw puzzle for you!

Weather and so so button bands.

Ok, so the weather stinks. It rained yesterday. Yes. Rain. Like a summer rain. My youngest DS said it would be a nice rain if it was July. Very true. This time of year rain makes very slippery ice. Like glass with olive oil on top. Cars travel wherever they darn well please. Feet do the same. It was supposed to snow overnight and I personally was hoping it would and possibly provide slightly better traction. No such luck. It didn't snow but it DID get extremely foggy. Now we can't SEE where we aren't intending to go!

TaDa! I have the button bands done on the Everyday Sweater! They match up pretty well. I am NOT frogging to improve things. The buttonholes are a little messy. And a little tight. Maybe in the long run that is a good thing. The tightness. Not the messiness. Messy is usually not ever good. I'm accepting the messiness and the slight wonkiness of it all though because 1) I've never made buttonholes before (except on baby sweaters...yo k2tog)and 2) never cast on during a row before. Let's call it a learning experience. And it doesn't look bad unless you do a really closeup look and if anyone does that they need to get a life!

I did try the sweater on and it's looking a little snug but I think with a few well placed tugs, um, yanks, maybe puuullls while blocking will help fit it around these H-I-P S of mine. Well, and S-T-O-M-A-C-H too. Uff.

Apparently I have something going on with capital letters today.....

Pictures

Everyday Sweater - partially seamed and no button band yet.







A nap would be nice...








Prayer Shawl

Prayer Shawl update

I started the prayer shawl in the feather and fan pattern and got WAY lost with at least 12 extra stitches. I found out I can't count and pray for someone at the same time. With all the YOs I just couldn't see me frogging back and picking up stitches so I just frogged it out and started over. The yarn and the pattern weren't exactly a good match anyway. So I switched to Prayer Ministries K3P3 and knit in the purls and purl in the knits on the next row. This was going to take forever. I liked the rhythm of it but I was getting nowhere fast. Frogged again. Now I'm doing a crochet pattern from Bev's Country Cottage,the name is Blanket for Baby or Laprobe. Actually it's one that I and my MIL have used for afghans and I'm just going to do it shawl size and hope I have enough yarn....crocheting eats yarn like nothing else. It is flying along though. That is what I like about crocheting. Once you get the pattern in your head it goes so fast. I'm hoping 3rd time is the charm. Wish me luck.

Glasses lenses & knitting

The new lenses are in for my glasses. I hope they work better now than last time so I can ditch my reading glasses. They are just a pain.

DH & I were in Fargo yesterday and I got size 9 & 10 36" circular needles, a Cabin Fever sweater book and some sample sizes of Soak. I need the needles for Acer...depending on how the swatch turns out. I also need to order the yarn but should really examine what else I might want from Peace Fleece so I get more for my shipping buck.

I've done most of the seaming up on the Everyday Sweater but one front side seam is about 1/2" shorter than what it will be sewed to so am going to do some additional blocking to make them match. I'm nervous about the button bands and getting them the same length and the buttonholes in the right places. Of course there is always frogging so I should just jump in!

Today is a wonderful day, weatherwise. Temps in the 30s with water dripping off the roofs. Sunday night through Tuesday is a chance for heavy snow...again!

Forms are done

So I'm going to double check against last year's forms to make sure I have all the Federal & State forms filled out but I think I'm truly done with them. Yahoo! There should be one other thing coming that has to be done sometime this month.

I finished my mittens and gave them and the hat a good soak. The water turned an interesting shade of gold. DH thought it was probably the lanolin. And he's probably right. They floofed up really nicely. The mittens are a bit drafty though. I'm planning on knitting a liner for the inside so they are thicker and warmer.

I'm nearing the end of the Everyday Sweater. All the pieces are knit and they need blocking....something I've never done before. So it'll be a learning experience. Then it'll be to do the button bands and the button holes. I've done button holes on baby sweaters but never the real thing on a big person sweater. Another learning experience. Finally I'll get to see if it will really fit. Excited! There'll be pictures if everything goes as planned.