Category: Blog

I posted a new photo to FinishedprojectsPhotos.

Whilst knitting on a gift this morning & had one of my denise knitting cords break right at the junction of the blue cord & the black connector! What?? I said rather shocked & a bit disturbed. I do not think I am a violent knitter at all & so I am hoping that I will be able to get them to replace it for cost of shipping only. Or better yet, free altogether! They do have a lifetime policy. And I have adhered to all their “rules” in the pamphlet that came with my set.

So I switched the sweater to my bamboo needles & will resume knitting once I am done on this here contraption.

Voila!!

 

get off my back! I finally sewed up the two tank tops that have been completed, blocked & ready to be seamed for over a month and a half! The chevron rib tank is fun, really long. Longer than I expected it to be. Helps when you actually take in what you read on the pattern, duh!

The other tank is what was supposed to be the diagonal t-shirt from Adrienne Vittadini. It is a tank top now. Hated the sleeves! I am just trying to figure out how to wear it, I guess the strapless bra is called for! I have to experiment & cross my fingers I don’t have to sew in a liner of some sort. It is defenitely a nipple show-er! And we all know how much attention those get, huh girls??

Alright, I am off to bed now! Hope your weekend was productive!

Today was a nice day in Santa Barbara. Fiesta underway, nice sunny day after the marine layer blew out. Great day to go to East Beach for a little sun, swimming & beach volleyball of course! Oh yeah, and some knitting  

Last night on the XGames one of the hosts had on a cabled beanie, very cool. So my man asked me to make him one like it. So far we have ribbing and a lot of swearing at the cable patterns I decided to use. Damn math! Right now it’s at a point that I can’t even add or subtract without a calculator. I guess being tired does really retard brain cells.

There are a few good beach stories but the best one follows:

There once was a boy named Trevor. He is 4 years old. This boy has a tendency to drop “trou” wherever & whenever he feels the need to take a pee. This same boy has a habit out of running way far away down the beach chasing seagulls (refer to the scariest moment of my life). So Tracy, George & I are sitting in our beach chairs this afternoon just chillin’ when we notice Trevor running far down the beach & looking over his shoulders at us to see if we are watching him. About 50 yards away he stops, looks at us, hurries & drops his pants, pees (for about 15 seconds), pulls his pants up & runs as fast as he can back towards us & past us. He then stops & looks at us. George & I had the lucky task of parenting. Teaching the beach etiquette of peeing in the ocean is rather important to a beach loving town & family! Luckily even though there were  a dozen or so people immediately around where he peed, noone seemed to notice a kid whizzin’ in the sand!! Amazing what kids do! Even though he was 6 feet away from people it was okay to whip it out & piss as long as he wasn’t in arms length of mom & dad!

On another note, the other 2 kids had a great time finding crabs in the seaweed they pulled in from the ocean

Oh yeah & another thing about that Trevor, he loves to eat seaweed, or as we have come to call them “sea carrots” while he says over & over “what’s up doc? what’s up doc?”

Oh and before I forget, he is addicted to coffe (thankfully we drink decaf now). Here he is after stealing my coffee cup yesterday morning & hiding out in my bedroom.

Notice the coffee stains on the front of the shirt & how gigantic my mug is!

Happy, oh so happy!

Tyler & Sadie always have a great time at the beach. It’s a damn good thing too because we go weekly in the summer time. Who wouldn’t living a mile from the ocean??

 

It’s not very often that I torture you with pictures of my kids so just suck it up & enjoy!

That is Tyler, he is almost 7. He is my autistic child.

Trevor, he is 4 & the entertainer in the family!

That is Sadie, almost 8 and the radist daughter I could have hoped for!

Just for the hell of it here is a picture of the man playing beach ball. He’s in white, brown & blue shorts. Sorry it’s a far off picture!

Oh & that hill behind the volleyball courts is the Santa Barbara Zoo, more precisely it’s the lion & giraffe habitats. Some days you can see the giraffe’s from the beach. Too awesome!

And finally I decided to make a hat based kind of on the japanese hat that thuy likes, out of some of my very own handspun yarns.

I made it fitted so it’s not quite so floppy but it’s defenitely an interesting shape! I just worked straight up in the round until it was the length I wanted. Bound off 3 of the 4 sides. Continued the 4th side until it was long enough to fold over & sew and VOILA! There you have it! Done on size 11 & 13 needles made it go really fast! Not too keen on the colors of the yarn but they were the yarns I had enough of in the same gauge to work with.

SO happy weekend everyone & I will see ya’ ’round!

 

I am so tired of working on the bedspread. It’s striped stockinette stitch, 180 sts across. I will have to power through because I am only about 10 inches away from being done with the body of the bedspread, then I just have to decide which edging I am going to use on it. Knit or crochet? Dangly or picot? Loose and open or solid with a stitch pattern? So many to choose from too! There are probably a dozen ideas that I need to choose from. It will come down to just doing it! I get the feeling it has the potential to be one of those projects that I am going to start, rip it out, start again, rip it out again, start a third time, rip it out a third time. Then just put it on her damn bed, she doesn’t get any edging! But I am determined to pick an edging & go!

Tracy and I went out to coffee & some knitting, not much knitting we were talking too damn much! Then of course we had to head over to Ross. Lots of laughing, giggling & silliness.

After getting home I decided that Tracy needed a surprise gift. So I started & finished it before bed last night, that is a hint. Obviously it’s not gigantic! Once I give it to her tonight I will post a picture of it. Nothing fantastic, just fun!

I am excited for knitting tonight, I hope we have a good turnout. Resurrecting the Java Station group has been fun! I would love for it to stay strong & gain a few more regulars. Hope to see you there!!

I have completed one of the gifts, just a couple of tunisian crocheted hot pad holders, one 6.5″ square & one 8.5″ square with little loops out of regular old cotton kitchen twine. I like to use my linen’s-n-things 20% off coupons to purchase it. That makes it only $8 instead of $10. Good deal for the amount of sturdy string you get! And did you know that you can use the l-n-t coupon at competing bed bath & beyond stores? I am such the penny pincher!

I am working away on Sadie’s bedspread, it is now 4ft 10 inches long. Goal of 7ft 6inches long. Not too shabby. Knit blankets are big & a pain in my butt but it’s worth it to make m’ girl feel special.

I got the vogue knitting yesterday & all I can say is like wow! It totally rocks & I think it’s like totally awesome! I totally hit my rockin’ stash to see what I could like use to like make some stuff, you know?!?

Sorry, that was embarrasing,  the socal-betty came out there for a minute. Now the normal 30yr old me is back. Whew! Little bit scary there!

Back to the real world, (which I need to watch tonight on the magnificent mtv but I am pretty sure the man won’t let me watch cuz there will be some modern marvels or other fantabulous history/science show on) I am only working on the bedspread for now. It’s something that makes me feel accomplished & I will be very happy to see it on her bed. Hopefully a newly painted bed since it’s been taken over by ball point pen & dry erase markers. Her bday is later this month so I am wishing for a bad-ass girlie room for her with freshly painted furniture. Armoire is already done just need to do the bed & bookshelf to match. Should be cake to do! Plus new drawer pulls & knobs on her armoire. By the way, did I mention my Man built it all for her when she was a toddler? hmm, nice isn’t he? Much better & cheaper than the pottery barn furniture I was begging for!

Okay now I am rambling & I feel the need for some fresh coffee due to the insistent marine layer that likes to hover over my neighborhood all damn day! Have a nice night!!

for bringing me the loop-d-loop book to peruse last night. And she is letting me keep it for a bit while she works on her other projects. I love going through these knitting phases where I can’t knit enough items, I can’t covet enough patterns & books! Vogue mag comes soon & I found the first project I want to make  Oh so pretty! And I think that knitpicks wool of the andes will be the perfect yarn to match colors. It’s easy to make it fit a wide variety of gauge’s also.

Anyone notice a trend happening here with my knitting wants? Fair isle, good job kids! Unfortunately my stash isn’t enriched in all colors of one yarn to just start one of these projects. So I will work on my debbie bliss fair isle out of the carrot, etc.  to appease my need for a fair isle sweater right now. Of course after I finish the leafy pullover from loop-d-loop and at least the 2 big gifts I am working on. Oh & I probably should get my butt moving on the camping sweater, I think my man is feeling left out.

Again, thank you to Tracy! She surprised me & bought the coolest  duvet covers for the boys bunk beds! That means that Sadie is going to feel left out next week when they get here. So for the next week I am going to have a goal of finishing the camping sweater & Sadie’s bedspread. Let’s hope that I can work on some other fun things too. I am pretty sure I can. 

Off to make some family members jump with delight at my knitting!

I posted a new photo to Photosnotknitting.

I posted a new photo to Photosnotknitting.

Tonight was a great night at the Java Station. Nice mix of people, there were 6 of us; Jayme, Tracy, Marin, Suzanne, Melissa & I. Great conversation topics; childbirth, nipple shot pictures in pattern books, tattoos (favorite of Tracy & I), fixing a sweater that is too big by taking in the side & raglan seams (Suzanne finished the most beautiful aran sweater and it was, let’s say roomy) and other such topics.

One great thing about knitting nights is that there are a million different topics that can be breached. With a group of knitters it’s rare to get any 2 people that have everything in common, that is what makes a group of knitters so great! All ages, backgrounds, religions, cultures (lots within our own country just different states) who knew that a knitting group could bring so many different people together with one commonality, yarn & sticks! It just makes me happy, that’s all!

What I am actually working on is a different story, I have finished the body of one gift sweater & it’s ready to have the sleeves joined on (it’s a raglan in the round sweater, bottom up) and now I am working on the sleeves, magic loop of course!

At knitting tonight I cast on for the leaf pullover out of Interweave & Loopdloop using Ecological wool color # 7009

I love this yarn & the pattern is really unique in its design and style of knitting. I am excited to really get into this pattern. The book itself is unbelievably awesome, kick-ass! That is a book that is well worth the money! Of course I didn’t buy it, Tracy did & I will have to just covet for a bit! Along with the katia book that Melissa bought I am in pattern envy right now.  <sigh> I think I can make it without breaking down & buying something…I think I can….maybe I will give myself some lofty goal & then I can get a treat, yeah that’s the ticket! Let’s say that when I am finished with all of my gifts, the camping sweater for George, the hot lava (with improved neckline) and the leafy pullover I can have something new & fun (if I have the $$ that is)! I should do a new list of shit in progress, so here goes!

*ab fab throw~yes it has been pulled out & dusted off, it’s going as a gift to someone really soon

*camping sweater for George~ sleeves & hood left to do

*raglan sweater~ gift & about half complete

*hot lava out of superbulky merino from hpy~ about 25% done

*debbie bliss fair isle yoked sweater~ just cast on rib

*leafy pullover loop d loop~ ribbing complete on lower body

*dads aran sweater for christmas~ swatch done and back cast on

*moms aran sweater for christmas~ 3″ of body started

*dusty merino hooded sweater (I don’t even remember the name of it it has been so long since I have worked on it or thought about finishing it) ~ 85% done all that is left is the hood & sewing it up!

*woolease childrens sweater, zimmerman style raglan with some striping in all pinks~ 75% done

*Sadie’s bedspread~ 40% complete

Of course if I had no self-control, which I am bordering on, I would cast on a new project daily. I can talk myself into anything, hence all the gift projects. And I tell myself that they must be done right now! They are gifts, don’t put it off….like the recipient has any clue that they are going to receive a gift this week or in a month. DUH! Oh well whatever I have to tell myself to justify it is what I tell myself!

Melissa, the vw pics will be scanned & posted tomorrow! I know you are waiting with baited breath! Typed out that saying looks really odd. Huh, odd!