It's Been Awhile

Well it's been awhile since I've last posted. I am back home again and trying to resume a regular schedule.
It's hard. I miss my Colorado family.

Lots of chores around here too. My backyard is a jungle of weeds, my wips are lying around, abandoned, my desktop power supply died, now the cpu fan is making strange noises and that is not good. Oh and I need to look for a car.

Good thing I have my summer shows Tivo'd. I have been knitting a car seat blanket, using Mason Dixon's Moderne Baby Blanket pattern. Lots of garter stitch to watch the shows.

Here's a cute crocheted hat I made for little Lissie. Added the flower for even more cuteness!

More News From Colorado

I've decided to stay awhile longer here - just having too much fun with my grandchildren. I hope hubby is still alive in So Cal... (just kidding - he's fine)


A girl can never have too many outfits, right?
Here's the little one's wardrobe.
And I just had to knit up a matching hat.




Thought I'd knit up a few sweaters for future use before I head back home.
This will be little granddaughter's Halloween sweater.


Yarn: Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn
Pattern: Garter Stitch Baby Cardigan

In big brother's loving arms

Still crocheting 9" squares for the Blanket Blitz!

And Now We Present

My granddaughter!

My daughter is holding the wee princess.

Pretty darn cute!

And no, I did not crochet the sweater.......
But I will be making lots and lots of cute little outfits soon!

Knitting In Colorado

Heading back home to Morrison, Co, after a day of shopping
I could not resist taking this picture.



Here's the cute yarn shop I visit that is really close to DD's home. I bought some Brown Sheep bulky yarn and a Fibertrend's Clog pattern to make grandson some slippers.

The Cottage Yarn

Another hat from thrift shop yarn. They like it - they're keeping it!


And I am still busy making squares and hexagons. The pink flowers will be the centers of a large square.

Fun In Colorado

I'll be posting in bits and pieces - too many pictures!

The scenery here is simply beautiful and we are on the west side of Denver.
Here's a picture of Denver from where we were shopping.

Birthday Boy's Party

I'll post later on with some knitting pics!

Colorado Tales

My one little hat I made while I've been here in Colorado.
It's from Woolwinder's pattern - Made In America



A very easy pattern and she has more that I plan to make. I have a 2nd one on the needles right now. I've made a few more crochet hexagons and squares with little scraps of yarn I packed. So for now I'm ok but I do really want to go for a little visit to Hobby Lobby! Love their yarn selections.


Colorado Adventures

The sky here is so beautiful and I could not resist taking this picture of sunset.



What a treat - we saw mama deer and her bambi right outside grandson's summer camp!




We went to Macaroni Grill last Friday for a family birthday dinner. Birthday boy says that they have the best macaroni & cheese! Also the best chocolate cake :)

Birthday Boy with Nonni

The birthday parents!

The actual kids birthday party is today and I'll have pictures to post soon!

Will I Have Enough Yarn?

So I'm off to Colorado tomorrow. I'm still packing right now and wondering just how much yarn to take.... I remember last time I ran out of yarn!
If I could handle 2 suitcases by myself, I would pack another one with yarn.
But carrying my purse, and my carry-on with laptop AND one big suitcase will be all I can handle.
I've packed plenty of patterns and I've got more on my Ravelry Queue. Now that's one good thing about Ravlery - you can access your patterns anywhere as long as you have a printer!
But I have a plan -I'll try to hit Hobby Lobby in my first week there and stock up on yarn!



Going Square Crazy!
I very excited about our latest Blanket Blitz and have been knitting and crocheting squares with lots of colors! I already had some 6" squares, but added on a few more rows to get the 9" required.

The little hexagons are my contribution towards a blanket that I will be sending to the Main.






Telemark Pullover

I'm almost done with the Telemark Pullover( a free Ravelry download).
When I took this picture I was going to work both sleeves at the same time on circs. That idea did not work out too well as I would have been juggling 4 strands of yarn. I'm alternating a varigated with a solid to make sure I have enough yarn.




Mittens

Finished my blue pair of mitts for the NAS Mitten KAL! I love this Lion Brand pattern and I have more chunky yarn so I'll probably make more pairs. Next time I plan to convert this flat needle pattern to the round - no seaming !



Remember these I started on 2 circs? Guess I was not in the mood for 2 circs because I could not go on with them. I ripped them out and made another pair.

This is what I made - a simple 2 needle mitten, knit both at the same time on 2 pairs of straights. They're a k2,p2 rib which makes seaming nearly invisible and the mitten a snug fit.

Don't they look like little saguaro cacti?

Knitting Cold Weather Items

It might be hot weather in Southern Calif right now, but our group is busy knitting up cold weather items for the Cheyenne River Reservation.

There's a Mitten KAL going on and I've been working on these little blue mittens.
I'm knitting them slowly because I've been told I am supposed to "Knit-Along" and not knit them up beforehand :)

We've got 2 easy patterns - one flat like the blue ones below and one in-the-round.
Come and join the fun and knit up some mittens for the Rez!




Pattern: Lion Brand 2-Needle Mittens
Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky - discontinued
Needles to get gauge of 4sts/1" - for me those would be size 6

As you can see I love to use those little plastic markers. They're the best to keep track of row counts.

Knitting on Hatz has slowed down for me right now but I'm going to Colorado for awhile and I will probably take yarn for hatz. They're great for trips.

And stay tuned for news on our Blanket Blitz. We will be making squares and blankets.
I've volunteered to seam up the squares and that should prove to be lots of fun.

How About More Mittenz?

Another set of Mittenz for the Rez

And here is another pair being knit 2 at a time on 2 circs.
They are really easy, just k3, p3 rib.

Remember the Babette Blanket? I put that away when I had company and now it is too hot to think about joining those panels. So it's taking a summer break.

But I've got a new crochet blanket I really want to try. It's called the Hexagon Blanket and I read about it on Ravelry. Ravelry can get one into trouble and they've got me "hooked" (bad pun intended).

The pattern is only available in a Japanese craft book and it's hard to obtain, but I think I have figured out the motif pattern pretty close to the original.
It's really just a round granny type motif with the last round making it a hexagon shape.
There's more to it's assembly and such but I'm just playing and having fun making little motifs right now.

Knitting Has Resumed

The Surfer Boy has gone back to Colorado and now it is boring around here....
So much fun to be with the young ones and going, going, going everywhere!
We went to all the old places I used to take my kids years ago.
This picture from my cell phone at Huntington City Beach, Calif.

Now for what is on my needles and hooks to keep me from being so bored :)

Neopolitan Baby Blanket
From Knit One, Stripe Too by Candace Eisner Strick
This one is for my soon to be granddaughter!

Still making mittens! Here is July's crop.

A little baby sweater on the needles - the Telemark Pullover
It's a free Ravelry download.

This is my July stack of reading material

I Love To Read!

I love to read and I just found out about Goodreads.com
over at Lizzie's Blog.

It's free, it's fun!

Here is a sample widgit

Then there is the one that shows all the books you have read.
I've been adding this years reads. Last year I read 83 books and I'm trying for 100 this year!

There is some knitting is going on - finished another pair of mittens and working on a baby blanket for my "almost here" granddaughter! More about that later.

Mittin' Knittin' On Hold

Stop The Knitting!

That's my grandson above - he and mom came from Colorado to visit the family here in Southern Calif. Knitting and crocheting will be on hold for now as we plan to have lots of fun!

Here is my 7th set of 8!

There's been some sewing of mittens too!

I made the above from different patterns and some scrap fleece material.

Did You Say Hatz?

Today I'll be working on Hatz for 2008. This challenge is not official yet, but I have to get a jump on Lizzie - she already has 5 Hatz!

Here is her cute button I'm stealing for my sidebar. Go check out her blog and you'll see the lovely hatz she has already made.




2 hats were sitting in the NAS bin. I made them in April and had not gotten around to mailing them so I'm counting them!

Hat #1 is the Butterfly Hat - my hat here.

And here is Hat #2





Hat #3 is really bright pink! More thrift store yarn and no particular pattern.
I just cast on for a 20" head and did some ribbing and added some purl bumps along the way.


Here is #4 almost done - just needs the ends woven in.
It's the Checkerboard Mesa Hat by Nanette Blanchard and available for purchase on Ravelry and here.





What I found while digging thru the Wips - I forgot I had started these before my April Colorado trip .


And that's not all I found.....
I had to re-organize all my forlorn and forgotten Wips that were shoved to the side during Mad Mitten Making.
Here is what I found - about 10 little baskets all lined up and waiting for me to "get with it".



I'm still working on the other mitten mate for pair #49 and I have a few more mitten patterns I want to try - so there will still be mitten knitting - just not so much.

Have to finish those blankets and I found another cute little sweater pattern on Ravelry.
Yes, I cast on for it already....

Hello - I Am An Over Achiever

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The Battle of the Mittenz Knitting is still going on. There is about 7 of us "Over Achieverz" that are in the double digits. Here is my 6th set of 8 pair and when I get to the 50th pair, I will take a little break.




I will not stopping making mittens but I think I'll switch to making a few hats and slippers.

Hatz Blitz, Heet the Feet Blitz and Babiez Blitz were being discussed in our Yahoo Group.
There will be more about this when the actual challenges start.
The Hatz Blitz will most likely start after the Mittenz Blitz ends - Sept 30th.

Some of the my fellow OA's (Over Achieverz) have already started making hats so ya know I have to "get with it" and knit me some Hatz!

Oh and I almost forgot about the "Underwear Blitz"!
Between now and August 1 (the mailing date) we are challenged to pick up a pack of NEW (only)
underwear for school aged children. It's our June/July Blitz.

Now to go check out my Ravelry Queue and see what hat patterns I have marked.

Explanations & Mittenz

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Always check the address bar to see if you are on the correct site.
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Explanations

Did I confuse anyone with posting my dad's WWI picture?

Most of you probably have grandfather's that were in "The Great War" and you are probably thinking that I must really be old...

Well I AM old, just not that old LOL! I was born way after my brother and sisters were born.
Dad was a very proud father at 53 years old and mom was not too bad herself at 42 years of age.

I wish I knew more about his WWI service, but the records from that time were destroyed in a fire. So I do not know what battles he might have been in or if he ever was in combat.
I did find several medals of his and passed them on to my nephew who is in the military service.



So now on to my Felting Experiments.

For my 49th pair of Mittenz I used this pattern and here is a picture
pre-washing machine.




Here they are afterwards


They seem to have felted down to a nice size and the only thing I would change for next time is the thumb width and length. Those thumbs do look a wee bit skinny...



Now for the following big blue mittens! I made these on my Innovations Knitting Machine.
I started them way back in March but never got around to felting them.
Here they are before their trip thru the washer.


And here they are after.


They are about 10.5" long from end of cuff to tip and about 4.5" wide at the palm.

There are just two things I might change if I decide to make more.
I'd shorten the cuff length as I think it is too long and I'd make a less pointy mitten tip.

Hopefully they will fit a large sized hand.