Knitting and Spinning, Spinning and Knitting

The fingerless gloves before I threaded the hangy down ends to the inside. I know one pair arrived but have not heard whether the other two have made it to their destinations yet. I am working on a pattern for you.



David bought me a spinning wheel for Christmas. It is fun! I have already spun two tops (looks like unspun but clean and dyed wool). I then knitted the home-made yarn into a large chunky cowl.

Art Makes Things Better

After my series of meetings yesterday my lovely oldest daughter took Grace and my grandson Grant to the zoo. That means for the second time this week I have a glorious few hours of alone time. During that time I did a bit of knitting (finishing up a baby sweater for a friend) and later (much later) in the evening after some chocolate therapy involving cookie baking. I free-handed a map of the world on my ginormous canvas. The really amazing bit (because I always start these things dubious as to whether I can pull it off) is that the map I sketched looks awesome! Sure the Saudi Arabian peninsula is a tad smoother than real life but hey...I'm all about impressionism. I just pulled a world map up on my computer pulled out a mechanical pencil and went to town.

This painting cannot sit around for more thinking as we are having another open house tomorrow and It is really too big to hang around tucked in behind the TV-I need to get it up on the wall :). When I get home from work today I am going to mix up a greeny-blue ocean and then paint the land masses a plain beige-y brown. The real goal is digging out money, tickets and stuff from our trips. David already has his tube ticket from London. I have 20 pesos from Mexico and I am sure there is some Germany stuff hanging about. Now the question is...do I wire? glue? pin? or use some-other way to fix the stuff on my art.

Now..time to stop thinking about art and start thinking about Pre Calculus...Or..is that art too? :)

xxxooo

Ages Without A Post

I have spent the last more than a month writing on my other blog but neglecting this one.

THE OFFICIAL EXCUSES:

My work ramped up I am now working more than full time at two different colleges teaching and writing grants (Three days a week). Two other days I babysit my 2 year old grandson who is a bundle of funny bones and mr. talky talk (all in a good and love him dearly kind of way). Starting last week i was added a worked task and now am up to 4 days a week. I used to have Friday's to myself for crafting but that is the new one claimed for work.

On top of all of the work I volunteered myself onto a neighborhood newspaper in and around July. That continues to take a bit of my time (but a fun bit).

Now we are looking at new places to live (with acreage) and will need to be packing up all of the extra clutter (I have a lot of crafty clutter) in preparation to put our house on the market.

THE STUFF I HAVE DONE

I have been working on a black sweater for most of August and September and it is finally coming to a finish. I have just the collar left to make and am thinking about swapping out the recommended rolled and knitted one for some crochet lace perhaps?

I washed and blocked two sweaters one worked really well the second..still sitting on the towel on the guest bedroom stretched and pulled. I am afraid to go look because I think I overly felted it. I threw it into the washer with just a hint of warmth in the water. You see I have lost quite a bit of weight since I made my pretty green wrap sweater and I was hoping that I could get it to tighten up just a tad. Well it did tighten but really the sleeves tightened and it got shorter. When I finally get up enough nerve to go in and look at it again I will snap a picture and let you know the state of things.

In August and September I did quite a bit of shopping. I have been slowly collected antique linens, patterns and knitting books in garage sales or antique malls. I even found a really nifty woven basket to carry small knitting projects around in. I will snap some pics soon and put them in.

The garden is finally bursting forth with vegetables. I have tomatoes on the vine (yellow, maroon, green and red). I have a small watermelon ready to pick. I have sad little corn stalks trying to produce cobs. There are potatoes, parsnips, beets, yams, green beans, squash and finally bushels of lemon cucumbers.

My Name is Tina and I Have a Project Problem

I had an excuse (David's work) to go down to a knitting shop that I rarely visit. David had an hour before a meeting that he had to attend and I acted as chauffeur as he was feeling a tad under the weather (you know..he 'had' to go but I thought he should have been tucked in bed). While we waited for the meeting to start I dragged the poor guy into the knitting store so I could have a little look around.

Ok...before you get all worried about David..they had a couch he sat on and wifi so he spent some web time in a comfortable place.

Grace and I had a little look around. I said I would not buy anything. Um..well...Grace saw this really cute sleeve thing with beads and ruffles that looks really easy to knit and then of course we needed to pick out just the right shade of yarn (red sock yarn)..then we found a button for her already completed sweater. and then I needed a bit of red yarn for a friends baby due at Christmas time (a boy and I am planning on a pair of socks and hat in red and a green cardigan). Then I found just the right shade of beige to start over on the lace skirt that I quit and frogged in frustration during the lace class (I vowed that I would make the thing and I am holding to that vow even if it takes years).

I will not name the sum of money spent but needless to say it was uncalled for as these projects fall in line at the end of many yet to be finished projects that wait for me to start and/or finish them. I need to put in some serious knitting time during our vacation next week to redeem my self.

Busy Busy

Things have been all action around here for the past couple of weeks. I will try and upload a few pictures tomorrow. The bottom line is we have been spending more time doing stuff than we have been documenting the doing. Here is a run down:

1. David mastered his quest for wonderful sour dough bread. It was very mellow and delicious but in order to keep it going I have to live with a living thing in my refrigerator that must be fed and watered every few days (sounds like a small pet minus the poo).



2. We have gone on several mid-distance bike rides. one 10 mile, one 8 mile and one 6 mile. We are planning on another this weekend.




3. The lace failure has paralyzed my knitting bug. I have only knitted 4 rows since mylast post and those were 'normal' knitting.

4. My job has been picking up. Three of my tutoring students came back from their summer holidays, It is midterm time and tests must be written and finally my third job has had some paperwork to edit. I also have random papers to write for upcoming presentations and such.

5. The garden is perking up. The peas finished and Grace and I replanted with beets, carrots and parsnips. The green beans are now on full (have to pick daily) and I am getting a bit of broccoli every couple of days. I am just a couple of days away from harvesting some brussel sprouts as well.

6. My house is breaking out in mess!! :)

argh.....Lace

I took a class on Sunday in order to learn how to knit lace. I can crochet lace I even learned once how to tat it....knitting it is soooooooooo frustrating right now. I started a skirt out of linen yarn (OK...maybe too big of a leap for a beginner)...It didn't work and has been frogged. I got out an some old leftover green wool and tried the same patterns as the skirt but for a much smaller scarf...I hate scarves....i just ripped it out because although I had something that resembled lace it was not done well...or even close to what the pattern showed. I started a tank top with the linen yarn but the ribbing stitch will take too long to get through before I hit any lace. This is counter-productive.


It feels like this (borrowed picture from knitnfrog.livejournal.com/)


So I don't know what to do now. I have a second follow-up class on Thursday. I need an easy fun lace pattern to make...I guess I need to trawl revelry. Do any of you have any ideas?

Knitters Abbreviations

From the Knitbot.com webpage

I bought a new pattern to make myself a thin black sweatet. The pattern: featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. The yarn is a fine black sock weight nylon yarn.

I didn't even get past the first row and had difficulty reading the pattern. Until now I have only made patterns from Knitting Pure and Simple. One thing I love about the Knitting Pure and Simple Patterns is that all of the abbreviations are explained on the pattern itself.

On the new Knitbot pattern I had to stop after the first row and come home to look up what m meant---mark...sheesh how is a poor new knitter to know that? and M1 means make one. Here is the glossary of terms. The cool part is on some of them there is even a linked video. After looking up those two simple code words I am off again and can knit during the weekly horseback riding lessons this afternoon.