I Hate When That Happens

The red hat for my Little Peanut was going great.  The required 6 inches was complete and the final shaping was begun.

And then......it wasn't coming out right.  I unknit the shaping row and could find no mistakes.  

Then I recounted the stitches.  Oh oh.  Only 64 instead of 72.  That will make a difference.

 

So, here I am back at the beginning again.  Luckily, it is going to be a bit warmer these next few days.  I can get it to her by this weekend, I'm sure.

In the meantime, I better get those needles flying.

What's a Grammy to Do?

So, when Grammy discovered on Christmas that her Little Peanut needs to find a hat that fits her, what else can Grammy do but go diving in the stash?

 

And today I started a hat with some superwash wool yarn left from the crocheted scarf and mitts.

 

We are guessing on the size, after looking at several patterns.  So far, I have this much.

 

Since the patterns are estimating 13 inches for a newborn head, and 15 1/4 for a year olds head circumference, I hope this will work.  All in ribbing, it stretches from 6 1/2 to 14 1/4 inches.  

Measurement of actual baby head to follow.  Unless Grammy finishes this and takes it for a try on first.

Birds of a Feather

While it is disgustingly warm around here the last few days, we do have some residents of the farm that seem to be enjoying the broken winter.

Although I have left the door open to the coop several times, Montgomery and the girls have been staying in the run area of the coop and barely poking their heads outside.

 

Just enough bare grass to hold their interest.  They have been enjoying these last couple days out in the open again.

Almost Ready

The finishing touches are done and both Red Teddy, for my Little Peanut, and Little Farmer's Wallaby hoodie sweater are ready for wrapping.  

 

Yes, I know the eyes aren't even,  and the mouth is lopsided, but that proves it's handmade, right?

After finishing the bulk of the wrapping today, I finished Teddy's face and grafted the underarms on the sweater.  I hope it fits ok.

So all that is left to wrap is the knitting and "to be knitted" items.  Now I need to figure out how to wrap and gift the two knit gifts that are barely started. 

Making Progress

Last week, along with my granddaughter, I purchased yarn for her Christmas presents.  The sweater has not been started yet, but I have been making progress on the Turquoise Sockhead Hat.

 

It has been an adventure.  I usually can come up with just about any size needle I want, since I have a couple sets of interchangeable needles.  But these are knit on needles smaller than the interchangeable tips in the sets: 2.5 and while I had double points that size, I did not have any circular needles long enough for Magic Loop, or short enough to knit in the round.  

This hat started on a circular 32 inch needle.  That was too short to work comfortably so I switched to the double pointed needles.  Those were shorter than I liked with this many stitches so I decided to invest in a fixed needle with a longer cable.  Now I can maneuver the stitches around and it is going much more smoothly.

The hat is made with sock yarn.  That the reason for the name: Sockhead Hat.  There is a ton of ribbing, followed by a mile of plain stockinette so it is fairly brainless knitting.  

I may need to start the sweater once all my other Christmas knitting has all the finishing up done.  And all the presents wrapped.

Obviously these presents will be gifted in the pre-finished state.  I told her next year to give me her knitting requests earlier I. The year.

Nesting

The girls and Montgomery haven't been venturing very far from the coop the past week.  Actually they haven't even left the run.  

 

Maisie was most put out that I would even think of disturbing her warm nest to check for eggs.  But as it turned out, she was hiding one.

Instead of venturing out tonight, I will stay home and knit tonight.  The wind is whipping the snow over the flat roads we have around here.  Many areas of slick, or drifts roads, intersperses with dry roads.  I think I will stay home.

 

The Sockhead Hat has been cast on.  I am attempting to do it Magic Loop method rather than with double points, but my needle is only 32 inches instead of 40, like I would prefer but progress is being made.  Many inches remain to knit.  On tiny size 2.5 needles.  

Many inches of ribbing.  Many inches if stockinette.  Many, many inches.  Plain, brainless, boring knitting.  

I may start my granddaughter's sweater soon, just for the variety.

Resolution Review

Way back on my January 8th post  I listed some resolutions here on the blog.  They were primarily knitting goals and resolutions, although I l did add some non-knitting resolutions at another time. 

 How did I actually do with them?  Only so-so.

Number 1was to finish my most active WIPs (Works In Progress).  I then listed the ones I hoped to finish:  

 

• Navy Tweed Vest, is for me, and still languishing in a project basket beneath another project.  Not accomplished.
• Stonehenge Hickhiker, was also for me.  That was finished back on January 18, plus another later in the year.  Accomplished .
• Sandy's Traveling Woman Shawl was finished in May, in plenty of time for her cruise.  Accomplished.
• Rustic Blue Silk Triangle.  This was from stash yarn purchased for my birthday a couple years ago and shown above.  Accomplished.
• Lilac Cardigan, for the Purple Princess.  I almos frogged it but I was successfully completed January 30.  Accomplished.
• Baby Hap Shawl, also for the Purple Princess.  This is hiding the tweed vest.  It just needs the last bit of lace edging to be completed.  It would have been done but this fall was too hot to have a pile of fluffy wool on my lap.  Not accomplished.

 

So, I did complete four out of six that I listed then.  And, added several more, including some for my own Little Peanut.

Number 2 resolution was to knit one or two cardigans for me.  I even listed the yarn from my stash that was to be used.  And while I did cast one a new cardigan, using new, not stash, yarn, my Freyja is still sitting, although close to the arm divide.  This resolution is a total failure.

Resolution 3--more socks.  Hmmm. I started one with a Craftsy Class, that's past the heel on sock one.  I took a class at the local yarn shop, learning the Fleegle Heel and have 1 1/3 sock done.  And a started a plain vanilla sock, using the Fleegle Heel.  It is half done.  And the previously started Broken Seed Sock still sits as well.  No usable pairs of socks...not accomplished.

Number 4 was to finish more of my Craftsy classes.  I did finish a couple.  But bought a few more.  Oops.  Not accomplished.

 

Not very good returns, but at least I had goals.  I may rethink the WIP resolution again.  It kept me motivated.

I mentioned additional goals as well.  I had hoped to blog more often.  Since this post has me tied with the second most posts per year, I think I did all right.  Even if I didn't come close to posting daily.

One goal for the year was to explore my options in changing my church home.  I took the plunge the end of January and am very pleased with my new situation.   My soul is being fed again.

On the goal of handing out random compliments, I could have done better, but did do some.  I may need to resolve to review my goals monthly, to help on that one.

Lastly, I added the goal of crocheting a sampler scarf and mitts, after taking a crochet class.  My heart still belongs to knitting, but this goal was also accomplished.

 

Since Advent is the start of the church year, I have started thinking of ideas for resolutions, or at least goals, for 2017.  Maybe I can do better next time.

Cruising in on Christmas

As Christmas looms ever closer, my knitting is nearing completion.

 

This was the status as of yesterday of Little Farmer's hoodie sweater.  I am starting the hood now and anticipate binding off very soon.

The gray or turquoise yarn shown previously will soon be warming my fingers and filling my needles. But, it will not be finished in time for Christmas.  The yarn and pending labor will be the present for now.  I wonder how I can wrap labor?

Yikes. Just a week away!  I better designate Wednesday my dedicated wrapping day.  Not that there is much, but what there is will need wrapped.

More Knitting

Yesterday, I picked up my older granddaughter from school and we went Christmas present shopping.  Teens are hard to shop for and since I had given her a gift card for her birthday, I wanted an actual present for Christmas.

She had mentioned, when I asked a few weeks ago, that she would like a white cardigan, plain, long with no buttons.  

I can do that I said, so yesterday, off we went to the LYS.  For non-knitters, that stands for Local Yarn Store. 

And she is a quick shopper.  I showed her a possible pattern (Harvest, by Tin Can Knits) and she liked it.  Before I knew it we had decided on yarn, a charcoal color, with a near black for patch pockets.  Then we talked hats.  She found that she liked slouchy hats, and the Sockhead hat also a free pattern on Ravelry.  After a quick trip to the sock yarn section, we had added an extra skein for a hat.

 

Turquoise for hat, and the grays for her sweater.

After the shopping portion of the evening was done, we visited my Aunt Glenna at the assisted living center where (of course) we found her going for a walk.  Then we completed our "girl's night out" with an early supper.

 

Now if you excuse me, I have some knitting to get busy with.

Brrrrrrr!

Country winters, gotta love them.

This morning, I knew something was up when I only had cold water to wash my face.  I woke Hubby as I got ready to pick up Younger Son at work to check it out.  Apparently he had bumped a line on the hot water heater, and it just needed tightening.  

But that wasn't the least of our troubles.  

The inside temps started dropping, down to 63 by the end of the day.  It seems the damper on our outdoor boiler has a broken sensor.  (We discovered this at 9pm and the afore mentioned interior 63 degrees.) Why do these things always happen when it is blowy and like 9 degrees outside?

Of course, after Hubby bumped up the thermostat on Monday, and I was in a 76 degree house in shorts and tee shirt, with the fan blowing, I wasn't as put out as he was today.

Until he can get in touch with the local Amish dealer for our furnace Hubby stuck a big bolt in the damper, to hold it open.  I think my big wool Leftover Pi Shawl/Blanket will be on the bed tonight.  

 

I know the pets will appreciate it too.

Test Number 2

I might as well warn you that I am going to be practicing with this for a while with random pictures.  I haven't figured out how to save the font and size print I want, so that may be different from post to post.  And probably lots of nonsense will be posted along the way.  I guess that is one way to get my number of posts up for the year.

Also a few pictures from years gone by.  

Oops, notice the font changed" I guess that is the default.  I may as well post it as is and see how it turns out. 

Also, did you notice the full moon out there tonight?  Super!  And as Hubby always says, it's always coldest at the change of the moon.  We have 10.4 out here.  

Test post

Oh look, snow.

 

Ok, I think I have figured out a work around for pictures.  I will need to post to see if I need to edit size I guess.

Let's see if I can figure out adding a link.

Here is a scarf I have in my Ravelry projects.  The link will take you to my Ravelry page for the scarf, I hope.  I think I may either frog and reknit it as a circular Cowl, or just seam the ends together when the yarn is gone. 

That's it for this try.

Blog Interrupted

It has come to my attention that my blogging app is no longer supported or working very well. I am investigating my options and will try again soon.

In the mean time, here is my most recent Christmas present, in progress.

Almost two sleeves done. Then a few more rows before joining together. I think I will make it.

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On Again, Maybe

I am waiting to hear about working the recount. I was asked if would help and was told not worry until I was called with the details. Well, supposedly the ballot recount is on, but I still haven't been called with the information on time or place for my county. Maybe they got enough and don't need me. Maybe they are still looking for a room big enough.

And so I knit and wait.

While the Red Teddy still is lacking a face, I have gotten a bunch done on Little Farmer's Hoodie. I'm using the Wonderful Wallaby pattern. Here is the front with the pouch pocket finished.

This picture shows the back with the pocket underneath.

I have knit quite a bit more than shows here. I probably only need to knit another inch or so before fusing the sweater and pocket together. It may be finished by early next week. Sleeves will take the longest. But after that, it is clear sailing.

Depending how much time out of my life, if any, is taken by the recount that is.

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A "Grand" Week

Any time spent with the grand kids is time well spent.

As you can see, for the time being, Little Peanut has my chipmunk cheeks. We saw them this past weekend while celebrating Little Farmer turning 2, and his big sister turning 14. As you can see, Baby Sister was not impressed.

This has been a knit filled week as well, as I decided a couple knitted presents were in order. First up was Red Teddy, who was a fun if fiddly knit.

He does need the face stitched on, but you get the idea. Even the vest is done. So there is one present down.

Then in the midst of Christmas knitting came a quick birthday gift, a card holder.

As a bonus, it even holds a teen's phone.

As if that weren't enough gifting, I tossed the stash and found some well marinated and aged yarn. Clearly I intended it for a little boy hoodie. Just as clearly, although it may have been intended for grandnephews, I think it is going to end up on a grandson instead.

And since it sounds like I will be hand counting ballots all next week, I better get knitting.

Sorry Pink Princess. But the Baby Hap will will get finished.

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What Black Friday?

No Black Friday shopping for me this year. Partly due to finances, and partly to avoid the mobs. Much of my shopping has been done from my favorite online tractor toy store. That package is due for delivery tomorrow. I do have a bit more to get, but not right now.

I had to make a few unexpected purchases on Monday though. While getting a specific hoodie for Younger Son, I accidently picked up a new pair of barn boots for me, mid-length Bogs. I have a pair of tall ones, but the are tight on my calf, although very useful following blizzards. Now I have a shorter pair for normal snow and rainy farm work.

I also needed to replace the lamp by my knitting chair. I had noticed lately even on the highest of the three-way settings it wasn't as bright as it had been. I was thinking of replacing it someday with a floor lamp, with a reading lamp. Then Monday morning, it wouldn't even turn on. When disposing it, I saw the connection where the bulb screwed in was a bit scorched. Yikes!

I found a floor lamp, less expensive than the one I had spotted the week before while grocery shopping. And it still had the reading lamp. The price was so good, I also picked up a desk lamp as well. Between the reading lamp and the desk lamp, my knitting as well as my reading (especially charts and patterns) will be much easier to see on cloudy days and after dark. Leo thought it worked quite nicely,

And the Red Teddy has grown a leg.

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It Couldn't Last

You probably knew I would need to cast on something again soon.

But after all...Christmas! Grandchildren! Knitting Grammy! Put it all together and, well, I have a new project on the needles. Which leads us to "Red Teddy."

I know it looks kind of funny there. But it is the head of a Magic Loop Teddy. I just started this afternoon, after finding a "new to me" cast on of a type used for casting on for toe up socks. It is built off of a long tail cast on and very easy.

I like easy.

I even resigned myself to using Red Heart. But at least this is soft and sturdy. The last I time I used Red Heart, I felt like I was knitting with plastic. This is nice though, since being a toy, I decided against wool for washability. It is knit in the round, all in one piece, except for the ears which are sewn on after finishing. The pattern includes a little vest. I will probably knit that in the remains of silver gray I used for the Scoreboard Cowl.

The head is done and I am ready to start the body.

It is more of a deeper wine color than it looks here. And the pattern is a free one through Ravelry if anyone wants to see it.

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Yum

Mmmm. Bread pudding. I love bread pudding.

And hey: bread, milk, eggs, raisins...sounds like a balanced meal to me.

Baking and racing, knitting and a little reading. It's a good day, even if the NASCAR season ends in a couple hours.

 

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Plugging Along, Plus Moon

Now that I have picked up the Baby Hap Shawl again, I am finally back in the groove of knowing the pattern and following the chart.

That little green stitch marker means I have reach the corner and have one side finished. Fourteen points of lace. Three more sides and then blocking, and then I can give this puppy away! I will try to at least finish a point or two every day.

It definitely is not brainless knitting. I will need to return to the Simple Brainless Sock or the Close To You Blues shawl (that is using my blue handspun) or the Ten Stitch Blankie when I need something easy for traveling or for Knit Nite. And there are still a couple socks that need concentration so I have not gotten to the place where I can cast on anything new.

Um, that is unless I decide to do some gift knitting. There is always that.

Oh, did you see the super duper moon?

We had a lot of wispy clouds here. They gave the moon an eerie looke, like something out of The Wolfman movie. (The one with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Junior.)

 

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The Little Things

It doesn't take a lot to make my day.

A month or two ago, our back room light quit working. Hubby and I changed the bulb. Still no light. Younger Son has a friend who was going to change the switch but he has been busy working on his truck, so we were still in the dark, literally.

Then a couple weeks ago, my friend reminded me that her hubby was an electrician for Ford Motot and could probably handle it for us.

And after a quick visit this afternoon, we have light in the back room.

It was the switch. And not only was that replaced, but he installed a light I had purchased for over the back steps.

We once had a light there, but when the house was re-sided, the installers capped off the wires and left them under the eaves. When the offer was made for a real electrician, I quickly purchased a fixture for over the porch.

I have light! I can see to walk in and out of house with out a flashlight after dark! What a concept.

Like I said, it is the simple things.

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The Crazy is Over.

What a relief to be done with that. No more ads. No "chummy" phone calls.

Time to relax, breath and carry on.

Four years ago, I was the one saddened and flummoxed. I honestly couldn't believe it had happened again and I was hurt by those who were so happy and gloating.

Because this was a case, for me, of the lesser of two flawed people, I again chose the one who made me feel the most hopeful. I did not now or then choose due to sex or age, but looked at actions and character and positions. I know many disagreed with me. The closeness of the vote make that obvious.

I sincerely apologize if anything I posted on my blog or on Facebook offended anyone. With 2008 in mind, I tried not to share anything, but I did "like" other posts. If the ideas I liked offended you, again I am sorry for that, although I cannot apologize for liking certain things.

I have admit I am moderately happy with the results. A few months ago, I never thought I would be. But life goes on. I can't always have what I want. No one can. My hope now is that we can learn to live with our differences.

--------------------------------

As a side note, working the polls yesterday was exciting even if it was a LONG day. People coming in were smiling. There were many new voters. The only issues were technical and eventually resolved. I look forward to the next time working the polls.

Now, back to knitting.

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