Rainy Saturday

A great day to be doing housework - NOT! I had to go into town to go to the bank and food shopping - and had to drive right by my LYS. I picked up some yarn for my Mystery Ball SP. Now I have to gather up all of the things to go in it and start winding!

While I was there I found some yarn for my Time Traveler's Wife project. I'm almost finished reading it. I love this book. It so intriguing - I know I will be reading it again. I thought of several projects - like socks for Henry because when he time travels he has to leave all his possessions behind including his clothes and his feet are always cold. But when I found this passage I knew I had found my project. Henry is talking about a poem, "Bamboo without mind, yet sends thoughts soaring among clouds. Standing on the lone mountain, quiet, dignified, it typifies the will of a gentleman." I remembered that early on in the book Henry compares time travel to a mobius - So my project will be a mobius scarf knit with this beautiful bamboo yarn. It is so soft it could very well be soaring among clouds and would blend with the color of the sky. Now all I have to do is find the right pattern.

I finished the bag for my daughter's sister-in-law. This is a smaller version of the It felt it Random Bag using the random stripe generator. I used Paton's Classic Wool. I have orders for two more of these bags for Christmas presents.

Whoduknit? I Did!

We had some really exciting news on Whoduknit this week. The author of this month's book, "Knit One Kill Two" has joined our group! If you like to read mysteries and like to knit and have not joined us yet come on over and check it out.
We also have a Whoduknit Blog.
I have my SP for the Whoduknit Mystery Ball Swap and I'm trying to decide on the yarn to use for the ball. I have a lot of ideas about what to put inside it, but still undecided on the yarn.
Speaking of yarn. I found this Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Walmart at under $6.00 for a 12 oz. skein. It looks and feels just like Sugar and Cream so I can't wait to try it.

I received the new Lion Brand Catalog in the mail today. I know a lot of knitters turn their noses up at LB yarn, but they are certainly giving knitpicks some competition with their new yarns, patterns, and catalog.


I finished my first ballband 'warshcloth' from Mason-Dixon with S&C yarn, and I'm hooked! I will probably have one of these on my needles at all times. And some of them will turn into bibs, which I think would be adorable.

You Are A Fig Tree

You are very independent and strong minded. A hard worker when you want to be, you play hard too. You are honest and loyal. You hate contradiction or arguments. You love life, and you live for your friends, children, and animals. A great sense of humor, artistic talent, and intelligence are all gifts you possess.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

And the Winner is........

I am so excited! My granddaughter, Jordyn, won her first ever x-country race yesterday - #1 in a field of 40 girls! Now her twin brother, Jacob, has been running for 3 years, and is a good runner, usually up in the top 5 and has had one win. Yesterday he came in 8th - good - but a little competition from his sister won't hurt!

Scrapbooking

I have been neglecting my other obsession - scrapbooking - lately. I've got as much scrapbooking stash as I have yarn stash, but like yarn, I keep buying more for 'someday'. Saturday I went to the grand opening of a new scrapbooking store. I didn't need anything, but the new owner is the daughter of our cook at school - so I really had to make an appearance- right? There were 'mystery' prizes, and I actually won one - All these scrapbooking supplies!
I also bought a kit for making a tag album - too cute to resist - and I actually went home and made it. There are pictures on both sides of the tags so there is room for 16 pictures, but I had to print them out small to fit. They are pictures from our trip to NJ this summer.

You Know Summer is Over When......

The JCPenney Wish Book arrives! All the telltale signs of fall are here - the days are cooler, it's getting darker earlier, the leaves are changing, and....the Christmas catalogs are arriving! Christmas!!! The JCPenney Wish book is here, along with this stack of catalogs received just this past week. Toy catalogs, Lillian Vernon, Personal Creations, etc. etc. but the one that popped right out at me was the Patternworks Catalog - oh the yarns, the patterns, the tools,And... the reminder that I have not started knitting any Christmas presents yet. Last year I gave felted bags, felted hats, and Eros scarves. This year I was thinking about socks and felted slippers, but I keep getting distracted by other things I want to make. Maybe gift cards would be a good choice this year:)

First Week of School

We made it through the first week of school - but next week has FIVE days! Having my granddaughter in my class seems fine for her, but challenging for me, as I try to keep a balance between giving her too much attention and ignoring her completely. So far she has not tried to take advantage of having her 'grammie' as her teacher.
Fortunately I team teach with another teacher, so that she can do all the evaluating, and disciplining (if it becomes necessary, which of course it won't LOL), and I won't have to worry about either being too lenient or too critical of her. She says 2nd grade is awesome! So that's a good thing.

I am not getting in too much knitting, but did make my first Baby Bib O' Love from the Mason-Dixon book, and have started on a pink one - nice mindless knitting! My nephew and his wife, and two teachers from school are expecting babies in February and I think these bibs are great. I would also love to make the Moderne Baby Blankets, and the Heartbreakingly Cute Kimonos, - all out of Peaches and Creme Cotton, inexpensive and very washable, although I'd like to try the Rowan Handknit Cotton too. I love that book and would like to make everything in it!

Another It Felt Bag

This is a smaller version of Turtlegirls It Felt Random Bag I CO 38 sts, knit 38 rows (19 ridges) in garter st. then PU 18 sts. along the side, 38 sts on the CO row and 18 sts on the other side. Then knit in the round. I used the random stripe generator and chose olive green, pink, and aqua, (Paton's Classic Wool) with 2,4,& 8" stripes and 64 rows. It's 15"x15"x6" before felting. I Haven't made the i-cord handle yet. I think I'm going to invest in one of those handy little thingys that make i-cords. Anyone know of a good one?

My Amazon Order Arrived Today!

Which to read first! I think The Time Traveler's Wife, since that is this month's KTC book, and I have heard such raves about it. The Serpents Trail is the book that came before The Tooth of Time and I've been wanting to read that, and of course the next two in the Maggie Sefton series.

One Skein Angel Assignment Completed!

I put together the final package for my one skein orphan, and will be mailing it out tomorrow. The felted purse is 'Sophie' from MagKnits made with one skein of Cascade 220, and needle-felted flowers. Inside I put a copy of this month's Whoduknit - Knit One Kill Two by Maggie Sefton with an invitation to join our group and three other items with connections to the book - Earl Gray tea, a Cinnamon bun candle, and a washcloth. I hope she likes it!

Whoduknit Mystery Ball Swap

We're having a lot of fun over at Whoduknit. If you are not a member yet and you love to read mysteries and knit - come on over and join us, and sign up for the Mystery Ball Swap.

Whoduknit Mystery Ball Swap

This is a quick, easy, inexpensive swap that I think will be a lot of fun.
It is not a mutual swap - you will have an upstream (someone who sends to you) and a downstream (someone you send to). It's a "Mystery" swap - so you will keep your identity a secret. You will need to do some detective work to find out what kinds of things your victim likes to knit, colors she likes, hobbies, interests, etc. You can stalk her blog, or you can send anonymous e-mails to interrogate her.
Here's how it will work:
You will purchase or rescue from your stash, enough yarn to make a small, easy, project. (Probably one skein, or two if it is a small skein). You will need to make sure your victim is not allergic to the yarn (we really don't want to kill anyone).
Then you will make a 'mystery ball' with the yarn by starting at one end and winding it around small objects. The first object you should wind into the ball should be something that reveals your identity so that will be the last item she finds. Then the fun begins - finding all the mystery items to wind your ball of yarn around. Get creative - examples would be stitch markers, row counters, candy, charms, stickers, beads, ribbon, buttons, jokes, clues to your identity, fun websites, etc.
There is no minimum amount to spend. The only rule is that everything you send to your SP has to fit into the mystery ball, with one exception - a pattern that can be made with the yarn you send. And wouldn't it be fun if it was a mystery pattern! Once again, you will have to do some sleuthing to find out what your victim likes to knit. You probably wouldn't want to send a sock pattern to someone who hates knitting socks (or would you?) When you receive your mystery ball you will need to knit the pattern in order to find the mystery items hidden inside. (No fair unwinding it!). When you have knit your project and found all of your mystery items and the identity of your SP, post a picture in the Mystery Ball Photo Album.

Guidelines:

Sign-ups begin now. E-mail me (grammieknits@yahoo.com) with your name, e-mail, mailing address, and blog (if you have one) by September 16.

You will receive your victim's name by September 23. Please contact her and let her know she is being stalked! Since this is a "Mystery" Swap, you should try to remain anonymous. Use an anonymous e-mail or you can use me as a go-between to ask questions and get answers.

Deadline for mailing your mystery ball to your victim is October 31 (Happy Halloween!)

Summer Vacation is Over!

It's 'back to school' for me tomorrow. The kids don't start until September 5, but we have teacher workshops tomorrow and Thursday. The first day of school is always exciting, and this year is even more exciting since I will have my granddaughter, Tori, in my class! In the meantime I have been busy helping to plan the twins 13th birthday party (could I possibly have grandchildren 13 years old! They are each having three friends overnight at their camp tomorrow night for a Survivor party. We have lots of challenges planned, but no one will get voted off the island until Thursday - when they all go home! It should be lots of fun. I'll stop by after my workshop tomorrow to try to catch some of it.
This going back to work business is going to seriously cut into my knitting time! Maybe I can come up with a math curriculum based around knitting - that's really not such a bad idea - can't you just see 23 2nd graders knitting away in the classroom. I finished my first It Felt Random Bag, and it is ready to be felted. Can't wait to see how it turns out. It's 23"x23"x6" deep before felting and the i-cord is 68" long.

Whoduknit Mystery Contest Winners

A big thanks to all of you who came to the rescue of our poor little orphan skein of yarn. Your assignment, was to find out the identity, colorway, number and manufacturer. You were all such good sleuths and some of you came so close that I wish you all could be winners! I used this really neat random number generator to determine the forst and second place winners out of all the correct answers, and then did another random drawing with all of the entries to determine the 3rd and 4th place winners. And here they are.......

First Place prize: Verde Adriana, tote and The Little Box of Scarves - Anastasia
Second Place prize: Adriana's cousin, Melilla - Deb
Third Place: Two skeins Knit Picks Parade - Vicki
Fourth Place: Knit One Kill Two (The September Whoduknit Mystery) - Fiadhnat

Congratulations Anastasia, Deb, Vicki and Fiadhnat!

And thanks again to everyone who entered the contest!

I was so into this contest that when I was in Bar Harbor last week and a woman stopped me and asked if I had made my purse and she named the yarn and pattern (Noro Booga Bag)I said "guess the colorway and you win it!" Fortunately she didn't and I got to keep my purse!

If you haven't joined the fun on Whoduknit yet - come on over and join us.

Sloooow Dial-up

Am I the last person on earth to still have a slow dial-up connection? We cannot get cable, and DSL keeps promising it will be here soon, but so far we can't get that either. I found some beautiful Entrelac felted bag patterns available for purchase by download. I ordered the pattern, and it took....3 1/2 hours to download!
It is 18 pages - but 3 1/2 hours! There is also a beautiful Trellis Tote pattern that isn't available for download yet, but that I just have to have, so I guess I'll be another 3 1/2 hours downloading it when it becomes available.
I've been playing with the random stripe generator that I found while I was "ring surfing" today. Cristi's pattern for theIt Felt Random Bag is really fun. And...it didn't take 3 1/2 hours to download! I chose Peacock, Old Gold, Burgundy, and Pink Patons wool, and a 2,4,6,8,10, 100 row pattern for my bag, and finally decided on a sequence that I liked. I cast on for it tonight - can't wait to see how it comes out.

Felted teapot

This is my first try at a felted teapot. It's cute, but it needs some work. It's 4" tall, and the teacup was 3" tall, so I think for the set I either have to make a bigger teapot or smaller teacup. I should have made the pink stripe wider, and I think I would have liked the lid pink instead of blue. Here is a picture of it drying. I have it stuffed with plastic bags. A balloon would have been the perfect form (put the balloon in and then blow it up), but there were none left from the birthday party. Here is the basic pattern I came up with - it involves a little crocheting too.

Felted Teapot

CO 70 sts using worsted weight yearn and 16" size 10 circular needles. Knit in the round for 5" (more if you want a bigger teapot).
Decrease 7 sts. evenly spaced every other row until your are down to 35 sts, then every row until you are down to 21 sts, then K 2tog around until you are down to 5 stitches. (change to dpns when necessary) Pull yarn through and finish off. With a contrasting color and size G or H hook, Join yarn and SC around the top of the teapot. Next round: SC in first SC, skip next SC, repeat around. Next round: slip stitch in first two sc, skip next sc, repeat around. Finish off. Make a 4 or 5 st. I-cord 8" long for the handle and sew on one side of the teapot. Make a 10 st. 3" long I-cord for the spout and sew onto the other side of the teapot.
Lid (I crocheted this because I don't know how to knit a circle, but it is just a circle about 5" in diameter.
Ch 5 and sl st to join into a ring.
Next round: Ch 1 work 2 sc in each sc - 20 sc
Next round: Work 1 sc in each sc
Repeat these two rounds 5 times, work 5 rounds even sc. Fasten off
For top of lid, in contrasting yarn, Ch5 and sl st to join into ring. Work same as lid for two rounds. End off and pull yarn tight to make a 'bobble'and sew to top of lid.
Felt as usual.

Swaps and KALs

I'm becoming addicted to knitting swaps and KALs. I've joined The International Tote Exchange II and The Knitted Purse Exchange. I received the name of my swap partner for the purse exchange already (it's not a secret swap), she lives in Norway and you should see her yarn stash! We've already exchanged e-mails and this should be a lot of fun. I love making totes and purses, especially felted ones, and this will give me an excuse to make more and maybe use up some stash. I also joined the Mason-Dixon KAL, after receiving a copy of the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I love this book! I read it from cover to cover and can't wait to start on some of the projects. I also treated myself to "Scarf Style" and "Handknit Holidays" (I've been very good to myself!)

Amazing Lace Challenge #6 "Unlikely Model"

This wasn't quite what I had in mind for this challenge. My plan was to drape my Airy Scarf around a live lobster. But things didn't quite work out. I couldn't get him to stay still long enough to put the scarf on him, he was not very cooperative at all. So here is my pathetic entry. But at least I will qualify for the drawings!
P.S. The lobster was delicious!

Birthday Fun

This weekend was Tori's 7th birthday. The party was at my house on Friday - 15 little girls decorated treasure boxes and then went on a treasure hunt to fill them up. It was a fun time for everyone!

Felted Pottery

This felted bowl was made with one skein (doubled) of knitpicks Memories yarn in Geranium. The colors didn't pool as much as I thought they would. I was hoping it would look more like Mexican pottery, but I like it anyway. With another skein of the same yarn I made the tea cup and saucer. I think they are adorable, and would love to make a whole set, including the teapot for my granddaughter.
For the bowl:
CO 80 sts on size 8 16" circular needles. Join and knit in the round for about 5".
Start decreasing 6 sts evenly space every other row until you are down to about 40 sts. and then every row until you are down to 4 sts. (switching to dps when necessary) Draw yarn through the remaining sts and fasten off. Felt as usual and block over a bowl.
For the saucer:
Make as for the bowl, except knit around for only 1" before starting the decreases. Felt and block over a bowl.
For the teacup:
CO 35 sts. on size 8 needles, work around for about 5" and then start decreasing 4 sts. every row until there are 4 sts. left. Pull through and fasten off.
Handle: Make a 4 sts I cord about 6" long and sew in place on cup.
Felt as usual and block over a glass.