Knitting is like that

Part of my 2012 challenge for The Fiber Universe is to knit gloves...

Done and done.   I decided to make child size for D. 

The yarn is Jojoland Baritone (loved this wool! first time using it.) and the pattern is Gloves for Kids.

Only there is one problem...

They are not the same size.  I seem to have forgotten some important step in the palm area on the second one making it smaller.  Knitting is like that, very unforgiving if you, you know, forget to do something.

I have enough yarn to make a thrid.  Maybe then I will get a matching pair.  Or maybe I will just throw these in the pile of knitted objects never to be used.

Still on a teal kick....

Next project might still be teal.  But after that no teal..........

 

FOOTBALL!!!

It is not secret, we are a football family.  My husband has turned my daughter into a Packer fan which is just horrible for his Vikings fan.  

Anyway, when I saw this pattern from Knit Picks on Pinterest. I had to buy it and make it.

The pattern is Faster Football Hat.

The yarn is ???

Again, my model either does this or won't let me take her picture at all.

What is your football team?  Or do you not care?

New Trick

This is my newest trick:

This warn was white when I started.  There are three shades of green/ teal in the skein now.  I am on a teal kick.

I took a class at The Fiber Universe and learned to dye yarn with things around the house like food coloring or Kool-Aid and a Crock-Pot.

I am so excited to try it at home soon.

What colors do you think I should try?  I need something not teal.

Another KAL

I may or may not subscribe to a variety of knitting and crochet magazines.  One of my favorites is Knit Simple. 

 

The new holiday issue just came out.  One of the regular columns is Vickie Howell's knit-a-long (KAL).  

I don't know waht it is about a quick and simple KAL, but I can't resist.

The pattern is Happy Cowliday.

The yarn is Teal Heather- Cascade Pacific. I am on a huge teal kick.

I even got D to model for me.  She is such a ham.

She is trouble.

Purple Yarn or Number 5

Spinning yarn is a crazy thing.  I start out with a ball of fluff and end up with this.

This is 100% Superwash Merino Wool about 8 oz.  I love this purple; there are beautiful shades of red and blue throughout.

It took a long time for me to make this. It is my fifth yarn ever.  Not sure on the yardage.  I forgot to get an accurate count on my niddy-noddy.  I tried to spin a thinly as I could.  I am starting to get the hang of spinning, but I think I need a few lessons to get better.

I am now working on spinning a much chunkier brown yarn.

Candy Corn

A few months ago, a friend from my book club asked me to make her this

I had no pattern.  Just his picture.

I had a tough time finding the fun fur/eyelash yarn/fuzzy yarn.  I ended  up getting that yarn from two different stores plus eBay. 

I just cast on and made a bit of a sack with arm holes. I was doing great, then I somehow lost one of the orange eyelash yarns and had to order another on eBay, adding a 5 day wait to finish the project.

But here it is. 

I am sending it out today.

What do you think?

Catching up

I have been home for the past three weekends.  Three whole weekends in a row.  Now this may not sound like a long time, but for me it is.  I don't know that last time we have been home three weekends in a row.

Since we moved to central Illinois (nearly 3 years ago) we are only about 100 miles away from both my parents and my husband's.  This was a huge change from a 9-10 hour drive when we lived in Nashville, to now under 2 hours.  This has been great because D has spend a lot of time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  But it has also meant that we are gone a lot of weekends.

It is hard to build a life in a new town when we are gone a lot of weekends.  It is hard to get things done around the house when you are away from the house.  It is very stressful for me to be gone so much and fall so far behind with housework and relaxation.

After these past few weekends home, I feel energized and I am starting to get caught up with my long to-do list.

I finally got to play with my Cricut.  My parents gave it to me for my birthday, in May.   The box has been sitting out on a chair in the dinning room for a long time.

I packed up all the too small clothes for D.  She grew 1.5 inches in the past 6 weeks so it was a perfect time to get fall/winter clothes out.  I switched out my closet for fall while at it.  It is like shopping with things I already own. 

I did some mending, knit a lot and did some yard work, despite the rain.  I picked up, cleaned, organized and took care of the things I just leave for another day.  I cooked meals. I played with D.  We had a nice evening going out to dinner at Chili's.

For church today, I dryed my hair and straightened it.  I even put make up on.  I haven't even felt like doing that in weeks.

I have tons to do at work tomorrow and papers to grade for my class, but that is tomorrow.  Right now, I feel caught up.

Judging a Book By Its Cover

So, which one did you think I would like?

or

both images via Goodreads

 

Here is the deal... 

 

Something Like Normal is an amazing book but a horrible, HORRIBLE cover.   I can totally see why a boy wouldn't want to read this, but it is a boy book.  Or at least it has a male protagonist and it is all about his experiences as a Marine being deployed to Afghanistan at 18 years old and his first time on leave.  I have no idea what the publisher was thinking on this one.  YA books are known for really embarrassing covers and this one might be the king of all embarrassing covers.  But the story, is so amazing.  Travis is suffering from undiagnosed PTSD and on his first leave at home is having trouble coping with home life.  He has nightmares and visions of his dead best friend. Travis story is one of figuring out how to cope (and a few make-out sessions, but not enough to warrant the cover of the book.) It is the story of hundreds of men and women returning from war at the age of 19.  It is manly and touching at the same time.

4/5 Stars on Goodreads

A Discovery of Witches, on the other hand, is an adult book with whiny teenage overtones.  The protagonist, Diana, started out pretty cool.  Independent woman, scholar, tenured at Yale, runner, rower, witch, all-around pretty awesome woman from my academic librarian standpoint.  But then she falls in love with a vampire and becomes a total crazy person.  When teens fall in love with vampires and become crazy, that makes sense because teens are a bit crazy.  They are new at the whole love and hormone thing.  But Dianna is late-30-something, super-educated and independent woman who, as a witch herself, falls in love with a vampire.  This is Edward and Bella on adult steroids and I really don't like to compare every vampire story to Twilight. Diana knows very little about this Matthew and is head over heels nearly immediately.  Anyway, the book was way too long and drawn out.  I see why some people really liked it and why it was a best-seller but, I won't be reading more of this series.  I have no desire to see what happens next.  But great cover!

2/5 Stars on Goodreads

So which one would you have liked?

2 Books

I finished reading two books over the weekend.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Image from Goodreads

and

Something like Normal by Trish Doller

Image from Goodreads.

One I loved, the other I did not.  Any guesses?  No peaking at my Goodreads reviews.

Blogging

Blogging was so much easier in the summer.  Since school began, I have barely any time to reflect or compose my thoughts.  I hope to do better in the coming weeks, so bare with me, my 5 loyal readers.  October looks to be a bit less hectic that September (hope, hope, hope).  I have books to review and fabulous items to show off.  I will find more time to do this, right? After I finish grading essays, right?

Twin Stockings

Over the weekend, I did nothing I didn't want to do.  My schedule has been pretty crazy lately so I really needed a relaxing weekend.

On Saturday I read a lot (A Discovery of Witches) and watched a disc of Grimm's first season.  I am so happy we have Netflix.  Life is so much better with it.    I finished one stocking and started another. On Sunday, I watched the movie Serenity and, beside crying when Wash died, I finished the other stocking.

They are for my cousin's twins.  I just have to stitch the names in.

The pattern was cut from a magazine by my aunt so I decided to go with that pattern for her grandbabies.  The pattern is "Christmas Stocking with Swirls" (sans swirls) by Galina Carroll and I used Deborah Norville's Serenity Chunky Weight yarn.

So now, in the past few weeks, I have made four stockings and D still has a store bought one.  I guess that is life.