Goodbye Leg warmers- Hello Socks!

The anticipated day has finally arrived! I have finished the leg warmers! Actually, I finished them yesterday morning, but have been so busy starting my new project that I couldn't blog. Doesn't Mallory look adorable in these? They fit her great and I can't wait to give them to her...of course, she still doesn't realize she's modeling her own gift. They should fit her for a while, hopefully I added enough extra length. After restarting them several times, I was very ready to have them finished!

Details:

Yarn: Patons Decor #1620
Needle size: Sz. 7 circulars
Pattern: My own design
Started: Sept. 13, Finished: Sept. 30

I wasn't very pleased with this yarn. It's 25% wool and 75% acrylic which makes for a lot of pilling...the knitter's nightmare! It wasn't too bad to work with though and it's great for the purpose.



On to my newest project- my first toe-up socks! I love the yarn, it's so fun to work with. You never get bored of the color and variations. It's ONline Supersocke and I talk more about it here. These are for my sister, Aubrey (who has a womens size 9 1/2 foot) and I wanted to make sure I utilized every bit of yarn that I could. Hence, the decision to go toe-up! so far, so good, I am past the toe increase shaping now and onto the foot pattern. She only wants a simple rib pattern (thank goodness!) so I think that I can handle that along with going at these backwards. Oh, and of course, I am doing them two at a time on two circulars...I am spoiled to it! What can I say? I got the stitch pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. It's the Yarrow Ribbed Sock. The toe up pattern is the Fingering weight, toe up, slip-stitch heel sock from Wendy Knits. It's a free pattern, so it's legal for me to include the above link :) I am really enjoying these socks, and have been anticipating starting them for several days now. Yay!

This weekend was the President's Cup...more time for knitting while watching golf! The perfect combination. It's enjoyable to watch because the field is limited and all my favorites are playing. Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Steve Stricker. Of course, most of my favorite players are on the International team, but it's great to see the U.S. team win! It's the first time that we have won on foreign soil since 1993, so- go team U.S.!

New yarn, again!

I wasn't necessarily planning on this, but I bought more sock yarn yesterday! I guess June and Cat (Girls from my knitting group) are starting to rub off on me :) Anyway, we headed off to our LYS (Local Yarn Store for those of you non-knitters out there) last night and I ended up with the most beautiful sock yarn. It's ONline Supersocke #830 and if you look at this picture, you can see the awesome pattern it makes (it's the top one on the left). I can't find a picture of the other one so I will just have to post pics as I progress. I was intending to buy some yarn for the socks that I am making for my sister Aubrey (she's 21), but they had an actual sock knitted up with a different colorway of this same brand, and I fell in love! Darn that effective marketing strategy stuff! So, now I have a pair of socks in the knitting queue for Aubrey and myself...what am I to do?! Aubrey is anxious for her socks and I am anxious to work with some new yarn so I will be doing hers next!

Now, onto the legwarmers! I am almost done and so happy about it! I tried them on Mallory last night while she was asleep because she is a very sound sleeper. It worked like a charm! Why haven't I done this with every "secret" project before this?! I think I have about 2 more inches to go, then on to the ribbing, then I am done! I know she will love these and wear them out so I want to make them long enough to last for awhile. I am going to make the ribbing long enough to fold down as well. I will be finishing these today *fingers crossed*, so you should be seeing them completed and modeled by some child very soon!

Last night, my mom bought a quilt pattern to make me as a Christmas gift and I am so excited about it! It's so cute, and I love it. You have to go see it here. I love the little turtles and it will look so perfect on my bed. Isn't my mom the greatest?!

Poor Bailey, all this blogging
really wears a girl out! ;)

Knitting class!

Well, thank goodness for Marm remembering the camera this morning! I was able to get pictures of our knitting class this morning to share with you! Don't they all look happy?! So far we are working on a basic garter stitch swatch that is turning into a scarf for some of the faster knitters in the group. Pictured here are the girls of the class. Left to right: Mackenzie, Kelsey, Morgan and Mallory. Mallory is my youngest sister, the one I am making the legwarmers for. I can also not deny Mackenzie (12) and Kelsey (9)...We have been working on the knit stitch for 3 weeks now and will be progressing (Hopefully!) to purling next week. Everyone is doing so well and we are so proud of them!




Here are a couple of the guys in our group, Zach and Hunter. Zach is my brother, he's 10 and getting pretty good with his knitting technique! The thing we have noticed with the boys is their tendency to knit so tightly that you can't slide the
stitches along the needles! This may be common with other new knitters, but so far we have really only dealt with the boys on this. As you can tell, they're having a really good time here, lol.








This is Joseph, with his mom and my other brother Levi (9). Well, that's the whole gang! We knit for an hour at our home-school coop and it's been a great success so far. I will keep updating as our projects progress- Keep your fingers crossed! And as Hunter says, "Knitting Rocks!" ;)

A side note- I am so incredibly excited that Josh Groban (one of my all time faves) is releasing a Christmas album! I have said it for years now that he should- his voice is perfect for Christmas songs- but he finally decided to listen to me and do it this year. YAY! I can't wait!

What Female Literary Character Are You?

Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?

You're Beth March of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott!
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

New yarn and unschooling/child-directed learning

First things first...new yarn!! Isn't it all gorgeous?! As some of you may have read, I mentioned in my last post that I was struggling with trying to find sock yarn for the many sock recipients at my house. A wonderful, gracious friend from our knitting group supplied me with this wonderful bounty of sock yarn! My mom and I went to visit June yesterday and had a wonderful time. We knitted and talked spinning and yarn for a couple of hours. Is there anything better?! It almost made up for us missing knitting group at B&N this week. Ladies, we missed you all so much!The only problem I am facing now is, I want all this great yarn for myself! LOL You will be seeing projects from this yarn very soon I am sure.

Speaking of which, I am motoring along with my legwarmers, trying to be able to use some pretty yarn for another project. I know it's not very appreciative of me, but I am tired of this
plain blue yarn...Anyway, I worked on these all last night during a movie (Errol Flynn's Robin Hood) and I think I have made some headway.
It feels like I am getting nowhere on this project after doing a couple of pairs of socks! After discovering that the ribbing at the top of these was too big, I was despairing of ever getting them to fit right...Lo and behold, my mom came to my rescue in suggesting that I just make the existing ribbing be at the bottom instead. What a great idea! I don't know why, but it had never even entered my mind...As you cans see, I am still working on my thinking-out-of-the-box skills :)

So, onto the non-knitting part of my life (is there such a thing? LOL), we have been busy with our homeschooling activities this week. We went with our history club to Greenville, KY on a field trip to learn about coal mining. We had a good time, and I think the littles all learned a lot.
As you may already know, our homeschooling style runs toward unschooling. If you don't know what unschooling is, here's a brief description- Unschooling is really child-directed learning in which the child follows their own interests, learning what they are interested in! We direct the interests of our littles, but we don't put age limits or grade limits on them...basically allowing them to focus on anything they want. It's so amazing how this works, because you would assume that children would naturally shy away from educational activities but the opposite is actually true! We have them picking up their math workbooks all by themselves, they play with the
globe, they quiz each other on math facts or music notes all on their own. In short, they learn what they need to, but on their own timetable, when they have a desire to learn it- therefore, they remember what they learn. It's not traditional, but it works for us and I love it. I wanted to share this great example of a project that Kelsey (9 yrs.) did while "playing" :) We try to make all the resources available for them to use, then let them use them at will. It's amazing how much a child learns while they are having fun! I have another blog that has resources for unschooling that we have found including websites, books, movies, etc. I am slowly adding to it as I come across things that we use and enjoy. Anyway, that's a part of our lives that you are now a part of! :)


I have to share this adorable picture of my mom's chihuahua, Bisou...he happens to be in Bailey's bed and it's way too big for him! LOL Isn't he the cutest?!

Rainforest Cafe

I took this picture when we went to the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville last week. I loved how it turned out, the colors are so vibrant. Had to share it!

Tiger, Cables and Laundry

I am so jazzed tonight...Tiger won the FedEx Cup! My mom and I watched the tournament this weekend, and it was beautiful up there on our new Tv :) We always root for Tiger and this weekend he was on fire. He beat the runner up by 8 points, it was a blast to watch, and there was much cheering here at our house.

Watching golf is a great time for knitting, and I have run into my fair share of woes with these blasted legwarmers. I mentioned in my last post that I was practicing cables on them and I did get to do that. I was really displeased with the texture of the cables however, and have now decided to just do stockinette stitch the whole way. I feel pretty good about my first cables, though and am encouraged to try them again someday. So, I have begun the legwarmers once again and am doing them two at a time...like I love to do :)

It's hard to believe that the weekend is almost over. The weather has been so wonderful and fall-like that I am totally getting into the fall mood of things. I know this week is supposed to get warmer -in the 80's all week - and I will miss these cool temperatures. This Tuesday is homeschool coop once again and knitting class! We will see how much our students have done over the week. This ought to be interesting! :) I am hoping to remember to take the camera and get pictures for all of you out there in blogland, we'll see!

I got my Knit Picks order yesterday and that was exciting! My yarn ended up being significantly darker than the website portrayed, but I still like it and will be using it for my Tomten. I also ordered the beautiful colored wooden needles and I love those! I am starting a pair of socks for Aubrey, as soon as I finish the legwarmers, of course :)

I finally cancelled my Ram Wools order after 2 months of waiting for my self striping sock yarn to finish up a pair for Mackenzie and Zach. I ended up going to Knitting Warehouse and getting almost the same yarn. Hopefully their supply is more ample than at Ram Wools, lol. Wish me luck!

I have gotten stuck in a book series and I am so involved...it's been hard to put it down. It's the Alosha Trilogy by Christopher Pike. I only started last night and finished one of the two books written so far in the series, but now I am in the middle of the second and can't wait to read the rest! It's so hard to read and knit at the same time. It's pretty tricky to find books big enough to lay open in your lap - on their own, lol.


Oh, and Bailey loves laundry time. She is such a big help...what would we do without her?! :)

Catch up

This post is dedicated to June who gave me a very pointed look at B&N Tuesday night when speaking of "those people" who only post to their blogs once a week...June, this one's for you, girl-

So, life has been hopping this week and we have been running around more in this one week than we have in forever! Our homeschool coop started this week and my mom and I are teaching a knitting class for 5th and 6th graders. That was pretty interesting, lol but they all did very well and I can see that they will be ready to move on to purling pretty quick. The coop meets every Tuesday morning from 8:45 until about 1:00 so thats a pretty full day. Then, of course, Tuesday night is our B&N knitting group. My mom and I have been so blessed to get to know the wonderful women involved with this group and they have made us feel very at home here in Kentucky. We have more fun every week, with every opportunity to get to know them all better- Thanks KY Knitting ladies! :)

Yesterday we got our TV replaced, and my mom and I hooked it all up. It looks great! My dad also got a new HD DVD player and it is the ultimate in coolness! Of course, right now we only have one HD DVD (Superman) so we're all Superman-ed out by this point, LOL.
We have been without our beautiful TV for about 6 weeks now and it's so wonderful to have it back with us once more. Conveniently, I have just bought the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08 XBOX 360 game, just in time to play it in HD...there's nothing better! It has this new feature that enables you to take a photo of yourself, upload it to the EA Game's website, and then the game creates a player based on your photo. It's so realistic, it's kind of scary! I am having a blast doing all that and trying to get away with playing XBOX as often as I can. Just FYI, it's not very productive to knit and play XBOX at the same time-for your knitting OR your game ;)

Today, we went down to Nashville to exchange some shoes. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe with all the littles and it was a lot of fun. Of course, we were seated in the corner of the restaurant that houses all the monkeys and apes...who happen to all start screaming and howling about every 15 minutes, LOL. We did have a great time though and I did have the opportunity to work on my newest project during the drive there and back.

Speaking of projects, before going into my new one...I finished Kelsey's Christmas socks a couple of weeks ago but just haven't put any pics online yet-so here they are!






They fit her very well and I am pleased with the finished product. You can't really see very well from the photo, but I used the Diagonal Cross Rib pattern from Interweave's Favorite Sock's book.

Now, on to the newest addition to my OTN (On the needle) universe - legwarmers. Mallory specifically asked for a pair of thigh-high legwarmers to wear when she does ballet in the winter time. I casted on for them yesterday and am doing my first cables!! I feel like a real knitter now!! As Karen from knitting group would say, I am finally freeing my "inner knitter" :)

I got a Ram Wools order the other day- that's always so fun! I ordered some alpaca yarn for a scarf for myself (who knows when I will start that?) and the blue yarn for these legwarmers. The alpaca is so beautiful...I got the color called "Camel". The only drawback is that I either didn't look very thoroughly at the description, or they did a very poor job at describing it- at any rate, it's a lot lighter weight than I anticipated and I will probably have to buy a bit more. Ah well, I can use that as an excuse for another order later. A "while I'm here..." sort of thing :)

I am slowly whittling down my Christmas Knitting Queue...let's see, I still have these legwarmers, 2 more pairs of socks for the littles (I am still waiting on that yarn from Ram Wools! Argh!), and a pair of socks for Aubrey...so far! I've never started on Christmas gifts this early in the year before, so we'll see how successful I am at getting it all done! I can't start Aubrey's socks without a pair of #1 circular needles so I had to order some of those beautiful wooden ones from Knit Picks. Who can resist that advertising?! Oh and "while I was there" I got my Tomten yarn for the knit along our knitting group is going to be doing later this year. I chose Marine Heather, isn't the color wonderful?!

The weather is perfect now that we have our air conditioning fixed..of course :) This weekend is the FedEx Cup finale tournament (which I am following very closely...GO Tiger!), we have our TV back (the better to watch golf with) and I am working on a new knitting project...ahhh, life is good after all.

How The Lord Of The Rings should have ended

I laughed so hard when I watched this video...it's so true! As much as I love Lord of the Rings, this was such fun to watch. There are a lot of other videos like this at www.howitshouldhaveended.com. Check it out!

No A/C, no TV, but I got those fingerless gloves finished!

Well, that post heading pretty much says it all. We still have no air conditioning, our big screen TV has been broken for about 5 weeks now (still waiting on the one the warranty people have sent to replace it), but, yes...here are the fingerless gloves!


If you were at B&N on Tuesday night, you probably heard me refer to the gloves that my youngest sister, Mallory was going to get for Christmas. Well, I bought the yarn and the are finished. I can also proudly say that they are my very own design...my very first original design. OK, so they're not all that complex-but I love the way the look and they fit her like, well, a glove! ;) I decided on a knit 1 purl 1 rib at the top, then knit 3, purl 2 rib for the remaining length of the gloves and it worked out perfectly. I didn't have to decrease at all even though above her elbow measures 6 3/4" and her wrist is 5". That's my kind of project! :) I think my mom is going to crochet a small lace edging on them to add the finishing touches. Isn't she the best?! More pictures will follow as soon as that is completed.

Mallory loves these gloves and has somehow still not realized that they are really for her...so far, so good! By the way, how can a slim little girl like her have such chubby fingers? LOL

So, I have some money and I just have to get new yarn for the Tomten KAL that our knitting group is starting soon. What a shame! :) I have been dying to make one since I saw the one Jared made over at his blog. He makes me so jealous with his insane knitting ability! Well, I must have just the right yarn...Knit Picks here I come!!