22 posts tagged “knitting”

Ahhh fall. OK not technically but it is a crappy rainy day so why not send the young un's back to school where they belong. Since it is cold it is perfect knitting weather.

J began her senior year. Thing 2 entered seventh grade but is taking high school French and who knows what level math and language arts. We'll call him 7+. How about a picture? Yes I still take pictures.

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Then I had some "me" time. This is the first time in 5 years that I have not had some kind of first day of school along with the kids. Today "me time" meant knitting. It was good to see Marty, Alice, Miss Em, Carina and Holly. And as a bonus the other Marty, also known as Mel, was hanging with us. For the occasion we brought some stash to share with Iraqi Bundles of Love.Here is a little bit of what we packed:

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After having a nice dinner with my in-laws who were visiting, J and I hit the LYS to return some needles (only the new ones were not in yet) and make a donation to the roof sit fund raiser that was going on. Knitters were gathering in their jammies. Spinners were spinning and oh how I wanted to join them, but I needed to get home to finish some last minute things before J and I leave on our big adventure. I did manage to spend a little bit o cash though. Really I did not mean to, but my friend found out she is having a baby girl and her shower is in July. So currently I am working on three projects.

• Lily of the Valley Shawl that was supposed to accompany me on the trip. Oh well. It is just beautiful, but not finished. And I have a little mistake that needs to be fixed.
• A pair of socks that will be part of my photos along the trip. You'll see.
• It's a Girl so that mean Helena! Right Holly Bee? Yes, I love this sweet sweater that much and yes, I am that lazy that I don't want to learn a new pattern.
  

Both of my children have had experience knitting. J has said she has no desire to make anything. She tried once, but did not enjoy it. She picked out a hat pattern for me to make. J looked at the yarn and then I had her feel it. She met alpaca. Mmmm. Love. I could hear her talk about knitting. Then she asked me if I was showing her all of this to get her interested in knitting. No that was not my plan, but if she is so inclined to do so, so be it. We will see.

The big adventure starts tomorrow. My next post will be in July with many, many pictures.

This will not be done in time for me to take on my trip but that is ok. I was jamming along even to the point where I took it along in the car. Then something happened and now it is tink time (knit backwards.)

Since I had this gift certificate to use at the yarn store, I decided to knit myself a shawl. I bought myself some beautiful yarn. Well they call it yarn but it may be left over fiber optic material or angel hair. The netting is holding the yarn together otherwise it will just slip into a clump.

Oooooo. Fun. This is the pattern I chose:

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When I picked my name here at Vox, I was already keeping a blog on another site. Vox was new and somehow I got in at Beta and thought it might be a place where I could keep track of my knitting. My knitting is just ok, so sometimes I felt like people might expect more of my knitting that what it really is. My knitting is simple stuff. Then I left my other blog site and it now is my life blog. The thought has occured to change the blog's name, but it is what it is. Today I had a fun thing happen because of my knitting.

I have been lucky enough to find a couple of groups of knitters to hang out with during the week. When I am not subbing, which is often these days, I like to meet up and knit. On Thursday's a group of knitters meets at our local knitting store. To me honest, I have been feeling bummed out about my work situation. Thing 2's school has pink slipped at least 5 teachers. There are some openings in other districts but there are so many of us out there in that pool. I am nervous about my upcoming sub job. Blah, blah, blah. So, today I was content to sit around the house being blue. A friend called me to see if I was going to the yarn store and she ended up talking me into joining her. Getting out was really what I needed. Plus I had some stuff for her and I wanted to show her my vest that I finished that was too big for me. My plan was to rip it out. Now before you freak, this yarn was expensive, for me. What is expensive? $13.50 a skein. I had bought 7 or 8. This vest took 5. It is an Alpaca yarn and just wonderful to work with. Plus I wanted to make something for myself. I could have given it away, Mary's birthday is coming up but she is tiny. No, ripping it out was my best option.

At the yarn shop Julie had me show it to the store owner, Kelly. Kelly slipped it on. It looked good on her. Really good. Somehow we struck up a deal. She ended up giving me yarn to replace the yarn I used in the vest and she said she would give me a gift certificate for my time. She gave me $100! I am floored.

Isn't she cute. It still needs to be blocked and the ends cleaned up, but you get the idea. The new yarn I picked out is not the same color, but I will use the same pattern with a few modifications to that it is not so big on me.  Boy am I happy that Julie called me!

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Yes, knitting keeps me sane. Well, I like to think it does. Being at the hospital with Mom gave me some knitting time. First I finished Ang's Smashing Scarf.

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I like this picture, but you can see how uneven my stitches are.(Yes you can.)

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Another perk to knitting socks on circs is that you can try them on a lot easier than with double points.

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Oh look there is my tat. Speaking of which. I kept her hidden during my interview today. What is nice is that by hiding her, it keeps me from fidgeting. I just sneak her gracefully behind my right foot. Only today as I was leaving, wearing an eye-catching shoe, she may have been spied by the principal. Oh well. I had all ready rocked the interview.

I should know by the end of this week if I got this long term subbing gig. The socks could be done by then.

School was canceled due to a power outage. J however still had to go to her math/science school. She decided to take Thing 2 with her. He should have fun. I planned on being productive and failed.

Originally I my plan was to hit the yarn store. Yesterday I finished a pair of socks from 2-at-a-Time Socks. The yarn I used was a bit pricey, but it was wonderful to work with. The pattern was just challenging enough that I had to think a bit as I knit.

J was entertained by my taking this picture by myself. My flexibility pays off.

Before T2's teacher left on maternity leave I gave her the finished Helena sweater. My favorite part of the sweater is the are the buttons.

That's it for knitting news. Maybe I will get to the store tomorrow. I hear socks calling my name.

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I could not resist taking this picture:

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We really don't think she is OCD, but stuff like this makes her feel good. Of course T2 saw this and took care of it. This would be the same boy who stacked a bunch of pennies in to a pyramid on my desk at school.

Every year fall gives me something to bitch about. Snow fell for the first time yesterday. The ground is too warm to let it stay for any length of time, but it fell none the less. It is 33 degrees right now. Last week we had 4 glorious days of 70 degrees. And that is not adding the temperatures together to get to 70! Even cynical old me cannot deny that there are a couple of great things about fall.

Bean Soup! I love Mom's Favorite Soup. The beans come all packaged together so I only have to follow the directions on the back of the bag.  My house smells delicious.

Knitting! I have been knitting like a fool. My original plan was to knit a jumper for Thing 2's math teacher's baby. The baby is due in December and they already know it's a girl. I looked all over for the pattern and it is no where to be found. Plan B is for me to knit Helena. This is the same pattern I made for my niece, Chicken. Some adjusting is in order as this is the wrong weight yarn.

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Then yesterday I was reading Holly Bee's blog and saw this project by Coat's and Clark to knit scarves for Special Olympians.  So I got started on one of those:

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