It's finished!!!!!!!

My sweater is finally finished!!! It came out just right. I was thinking of possibly giving it to a friend for Christmas, but, found out she hates sweaters! Oh well, I guess it's gonna become mine after all. lol

I have another knitting project in my head for my dear friend anyway. She loved the scarfs I made her last year as part of her gift pack.

The socks are unfortunately another story. I have no one who can help me in person with the 2 circ method since no one I know has made socks before. I bought some larger circs today and cheap acrylic yarn to practice with tonight. I am determined to get past the cast on if it kills me. I really want to master this item since I don't think it should be this difficult to do. I think the brain cells may have gone on vacation for this one for some unknown reason. I hope it's short term.

The gift exchange on Knitter's Review is a cool idea and I am very glad to have signed up to be part of it. I already bought a couple of items for my "elf partner" and plan to pick up some more items this week. I am also tossing around the idea to include something that is a bit different, but still knitting related.

I am having a problem with my eyes and can't knit or do any craft for a long time. My right eye is getting blurry for some reason. It feels like a film is over my eye, distorting the edges of everything slightly. Long distance and close up are both effected. I noticed the difference in my vision on Monday and thought my eyes were just tired, but it has gotten worse as the week goes by. My opthomologist fit me in for an emergency visit tomorrow. I hope it is just my eyes getting older and not my diabetes acting up. The numbers have been good lately. I told my husband and now he is worried. Maybe I should have waited until seeing the doctor tomorrow before saying anything to him. The thing is, I may need a ride home if my eyes are dilated. I hope the doc uses the fast acting drops if he does dilate them. That way, I can work on something tomorrow night for a little while. I also think the pressure in the head and vertigo I have been experiencing recently may be related to the vision problem.

If Laurie has a class tomorrow night and I can see to drive, I plan to stop by and make up my Monday class which was cancelled due to a power outage. I need advice on the patina of the seascape since I forgot to put it on before glueing some piece at the end of the project. In the immortal words of Fred Sanford -- "Dummy!!"
I also have a new project in mind that I really want to start. Plus I really need to finish my window!!

Happy Labor Day!!

The weather here on the east coast has been fantastic this weekend! Not too hot, no rain so far, nice breeze every now and then. My husband and I went to a flea market in New Hampshire yesterday, Sunday, and it was perfect to be out walking around. It feels good to open windows and let the fresh air inside for a change instead of air conditioning.

My second sleeve had moved from snail pace to turtle pace during the week. It suddenly took off at rabbit pace yesterday and all I need to do is finish the ribbing. Hope to get it done tonight. All I have left is the neck ribbing. I love knitting from the top down and plan to make more sweaters this way. It is intimidating when you first read the pattern, but as you work it out, it is easy to understand.

I have a friend at work who is attempting this sweater in the same size I did. I had her put it on when it had one sleeve to measure her. Since her arms are the same length as mine, I wrote all the decreases out for her to follow. She is still having a small problem getting used to the circulars. I hope she won't give up on it.

My four-legged kids are good. My cat Katy tried to smack Rosebud but, she felt the wrath of the squirt bottle. Now my poor Rosebud, is left to herself to relax. She is such a good and loving kitty.

All the kids are back to school and it is so quiet around here now. I have not seen much of them outside all weekend.

I am sending my prayers for everyone suffering from Katrina and hope they are safe.

Sleeve number two is moving along like a snail!

Sleeve number two is progressing slowly due to distractions in other areas. It is now about a quarter done. I have been helping another person work this pattern and she is having problems. I hope she doesn't quit because it is nice when worked up.

It's Saturday before school starts up around here again. The stores are jammed full of people trying to get things together, excited kids, frustrated drivers looking for parking spaces, plus all the usual weekend rushing is happening. I ran some errands and could not wait to get home.

I picked up some new glass for a project not even selected or thought out in my head. All I know was it looked too pretty to pass up. Not a problem -- just tuck it into the stash for now.

I also went to the new LYS in my area. I managed to restrain myself from buying anything, but that was not easy to do. I saw a really nice mohair yarn by Artful Yarns that has what appears to be seed beading or ribbon woven through it. There was a sample worked up and I fell in love with it. It's on my list for future purchase once my yarn stash goes down. I even have a pattern in mind for it.

Now, it's time to kick back and relax a bit before making supper.

My sweater has a sleeve!!

I now own a one sleeved sweater. I hope to get the other one in this week. I learned a lot from this process. Learning Double Points Needles was not as bad as I thought it would be. I need more practice with them though. I tried the sweater on and it fits nice. The sleeve is the perfect length.

Unfortunately, it took longer to do the sleeve than I planned. I got involved with some other projects and unscheduled activities during vacation week. Oh well, that's what vacations are for - no time table to follow.

Thursday, I signed up for the October 1st Knitter's Breakfast at Fabric Place. It costs $5 a person and is not open to the public. This is a very cool event. I can't wait to go to this one. I went to the last one in the spring and had a wonderful time.

There is, of course, a breakfast served buffet style. After you fill your tummy, you head back downstairs to the fiber department and the fun really begins. They have people demonstrating spinning, knitting, crochet and other things. Also, there are some hands on spots where you can try something new. A drawing is also going on for door prizes. Included are books and yarns. The $5 you prepaid with registration is actually given back to you in merchandise. The entire store is on sale for 20 or 25 percent off.

Vacation week!!

Oh how sweet it is to have a whole week off to knit!! I do have other things to do but, this is my uppermost thought regarding the next week. I plan to get at least one of the sleeves done on my sweater.

I also plan to do a summer cleaning of the house and basement. I follow the Flylady method sometimes, but at times I fall off track. So, I plan to get back on track and do each room this week. This will make it easier to stay ahead of the work again.

I am going to a glass supply shop in Massachusetts one day with a friend. Hopefully they will have some different glass for me to try. Of course the knitting will travel in the car with me if I don't have to drive. This will be prime knitting time, since it is at least an hour riding time each way.

The weather yesterday was the worst so far this summer with a temperature of 99 and a heat index of about 105. If Mother Nature cooperates and keeps the heat and humidity away, it will be a fantastic week to accomplish all this and maybe more.

Stay out of the heat, drink lots of water, and enjoy the week.

Knit, knit, knit.....

That is what I have been doing lately. Why is it the last portion of something always takes so long to get done? The last inch needed before I make the side splits near the bottom of my sweater just seems to not end. Once that part is done, I can knit the side split portion and start on the sleeves.

I am knitting so furiously, one side of my circulars is now flat instead of round. It still slides the yarn o.k. so I will keep using them anyway.

For some unknown reason, the body appeared to be using more yarn than the pattern called for. To play it safe, I picked up two extra skeins at my local LYS. They were having a buy one-get one half off sale. I exercised my self-control and only bought the two skeins I needed and got out of the store really fast before temptation called me back. If I don't need them, they can go back to the store later.

The seascape is progressing as well and hopefully will be completed soon. I need to finish my hummingbird and blossom window soon too. I hit the stained glass store sale yesterday and stocked up on red glass -- needed that for future projects. Now I need to plan something with it.

I found a nice fireplace screen today at a flea market and snatched it up cheap,cheap. It called to me and I had to buy it. I am one of those people who can go to the flea markets and not buy anything usually. I think I will pick something with flowers for the theme of that. My husband thought I planned to use it as is with the screen in place. When I told him my plans for it, he thought it was a good idea. I hope he likes the finished product.

The crochet is on hold with me trying to finish the knitting right now. Plan to get back to that soon.

All 4-legged children are behaving and not fighting. I am so thankful for that. Maybe it's too hot for them to be bothered to move much.


Well, back to work tomorrow ---- yuck. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and I will ramble some more soon.

Hello.


What a crazy week this has been!

First, I still have pain and bruising from the klutz monster incident last week. Second, I got a nasty cold and had to stay out of work for three days. (That part was not too bad--got a lot of knitting done).

The good part of the week is that the seascape is redone and about half way together. It is looking gorgeous and I can't wait to display it in my livingroom window. It is a one of a kind piece. I plan to take pics when it is finished and post them here.

My sweater from the neck down is moving along fast now, thanks to being home this week sick. I just sat on the sofa and knit, knit, knit all day--especially yesterday. My hubby kept getting me cold drinks and I just rested, took my medicine, coughed alot and blew my nose. I think the knitting is a form of medicine because if I had not been working on something, I would have been doing more around the house and not resting. I still made supper and did laundry in between when I took a knitting break.
Like I said, the sweater is working up fast. I am past the armholes and working on a simple stockinette stitch for the body. I am using a size 6 circular needle which is kind of small. Hopefully I can finish the body by next weekend. The reason I give myself another whole week is that I am a plus size princess and it takes a bit longer to get around one row than it would with a small size. I will post pics of this as soon as I take some.

The animals even know I don't feel up to par. They are behaving and just hanging around my feet or near me on the sofa. It is funny how they can sense things and offer their own form of comfort and sympathy when you need it. At least no one has climbed up on my lap and added any personal fiber to the sweater yet.

Have a great weekend and try to stay out of the heat as much as possible. :)

The klutz monster strikes

Tragedy struck my house last night. When I came home from stained glass class, I went to put my seascape, extra glass sheets, and tools away in my craft room. The klutz monster came out and I tripped over the gate. I should have opened the gate instead of climbing over the dumb thing. One of my cats live in this room because one of the others beats up on her. The big bully. The water bowl splashed all over me and the dry food flew in every direction. There I was belly-down covered in kitty kibble and soaking wet with glass fragments all around and under me. The seascape was totally destroyed along with the three full sheets of glass I had just bought before class. Luckily, I was not impaled by any of the pieces. I just hurt my knee, leg, have a couple of small cuts on one hand, and wounded my pride for being so stupid to do this in the first place.
Thanks to my dear, sweet husband, the mess got cleaned up fast. Now I need to start over with the seascape this weekend. Maybe it will be even better.

After all this commotion, I had to knit a while to calm me down. Whoever said knitting is relaxing knows what they are talking about. I just sat with the ice pack on my leg and knit away.

Since the weekend is suppose to be lousy weather-wise, I am setting my goal at 20 rows on the sweater and ribbing on the socks. I intend to make it no matter what.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Update

Hello everyone. Just a quick update on the knitting. I managed to put the three rows back in plus another five. I stuck a movie in and just kept knitting away. It was a good movie too.

I am heading out to stained glass class to see if I can work on the seascape a bit tonight. I hope to get all the pieces cut and ready for the soldering. Have to wait and see how far I get.

I hope everyone had a good day and did not have to work too hard in the heat. It was really muggy here in New England and tempers were very short. Several people were cranky from the weather.

Well, I gotta get moving or I will be late. See ya later. :))

Hello and welcome to my blog.

This site is dedicated to my foolish ramblings and notations. I have a great love for cats as you can tell from my name. I am owned by four such creatures at the present time.

I also enjoy knitting, crochet, painting ceramics, and working with stained glass. I also love to read romance books. Especially the historical ones lately.

At the present time I have several projects going on at the same time. I am in the middle of a stained glass window which I need to re-do partly. I made some pieces too short and can't frame it properly. This means taking about a third of the window apart and starting over. Oh well, dumb mistake on my part. I thought it would still work -- wrong. Also started a seascape of a whale with her baby. It's developing a bit differently than I had pictured it in my mind, but it will be beautiful when finished thanks to much help from my instructor, Laurie. Awesome teacher and lady.

As for the crochet, I am working on a lacy smock. It is coming along nicely. The back is finished and the front is about a quarter of the way done.

Ahhh, now the knitting. I am trying to make a sweater in the round from the neck down. It is not as difficult as it sounds. Instead of a lot of decreasing, you have a lot of increasing. I am just at the chest area and found a mistake so had to rip out three rounds. I could have left the mistake, since it was so small. But, I would have known it was there and it would have drove me batty. I plan to put the three rounds back tonight and hopefully a few more as well. I am also attempting to make socks. This is not going very well. So far I have the yarn, needles, and pattern in a bag together. That's it. I think they will stay there until this weekend.

I have not been working on any ceramic painting at the present time. I have a beautiful angel to do up before Christmas, but have plenty of time to get to that. I also have a few gifts to finish before the holidays.

I have been trying to go to water aerobics twice a week, but usually make it only once. Need to improve on that. Also need to start walking again now the weather is nice. After working all day --sometimes late, I come home and take care of housework and spend some time with my dear husband, 4 cats and 2 dogs. I need more hours in the day to get to everything!!

Well thanks for visiting my blog. As I said at the beginning, this is just my spot to ramble a bit. Please come back again soon!!