To Knit? To Ravelry? Which?

I feel as though I do nothing but knit, but after lots of thought on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that I do a lot of surfing on Ravelry, perusing knitting magazines and thinking about all the things I wish I could knit but just never get around to actually knitting because I spend so much time doing all of the above.  Vicious cycle.

Saroyan for the Baby Girl to take with her on her trip to Africa this year.

This is me! I had a lesson in shooting a 22 semi-automatic handgun. Fun, I enjoyed it but I can't see me doing that for anything but target practice.  By the time I remembered where to put my left hand, where to put my right hand, where to put my feet, how to lean, the bad guy would have been there and gone.  Not so sure I could shoot a person anyway, no matter how bad they were.  I had NO trouble shooting my "paper man target" though.  I was given 50 bullets and that bugger had 49 bullet holes in him, most through the heart and the head. YAY ME!

I think this cute little guy is some type of Warbler. It's so tiny! It comes to the feeder twice a day but we only see one at a time. My Grandmother and my Mom have always loved birdwatching. I thought it was for "old people." Well, I've been enjoying watching birds for about 25+ years now so I guess I was wrong, or I'm old. NOT!!!

This was a very fun, enjoyable, fast knit. After reading the Rainey Sisters blog on the Herbert Niebling Doily I thought I should try a simpler one and loved it. I've said before that my Great Grandmother crocheted with very thin crochet cotton, things like bedspreads, wedding bells on all our pillowcases she gave to her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and I think I have her love for thread. I loved this project.The Queen's Lace, Piecework Magazine, Lace Special

The middle, or beginning, is the hardest part of the whole thing.

Bath Time

Uh, dropped a stitch, which turned into 5 stitches. Well, guess I'll fix it later.

Put a knitting needle into the 5 stitches to deal with later.

Love the middle but don't look too close. This was a fun knit but boring at times and there's a few mistakes.

This is the Insignia scarf by Cecily Glowick MacDonald. I'm doing it in Banana Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  Kind of a relaxing knit since it's all garter stitch.  I love garter stitch and will save this for the "Wedding Parties" camping trip next weekend.  I'm looking forward to that, and as of right now all 3 of my kids and 2 of the grandkids will be there, along with lots of young, energetic friends of my daughters and her future husbands. I'll need knitting for 4 glorious days in the sun!  Yeah!!!!

                                                                                                          

Carolina Wrens  Not too old as they thought this was the nest and just laid there and rested.  I took 10 pictures of these 2 cute little things. 

This is a Beach bag from Lion Brand Yarn on Ravelry I started last night. I had the urge to crochet and had some crochet cotton (and might have bought a few colors to add to it.)

My new sock Jeck, free from Ravelry. My Sunshine holds my stitch markers. Isn't he cute?

And, the Nantucket basket my father made for me is just the right size to hold a skein of sock yarn so it doesn't roll on the floor and get covered in bright white pug hair!

Back to knitting/Ravelry/NCIS - oh, that's my Knitting Show.  I bought every season from the beginning and Gibbs and the gang keep me company while I knit, check out Ravelry or read a knitting magazine.  Being a retired SAHM is kind of boring so I have to have company.............

Happy Knitting!

A Mother's Day!

My day has been amazing.  My youngest came home with her finance' for the weekend, my oldest were here with the grandkids, my Mom sent me a beautiful card and my son also sent me a great card.  My son's card said I could sit in bubbles and drink bubbles all day.  That would have been great but instead I was treated to hamburgers on the grill, a chocolate cake with white frosting, a small heart shaped cake for my breakfast tomorrow (I love chocolate cake in the morning), and a little pink bag filled with goodies to keep in Ruby.  I had a pedicure, I gave a pedicure, I talked to my oldest granddaughter on the phone, had a great conversation with my Mom and I'm sure will have a conversation with my son before the day is over.  It was a great Mother's Day weekend for this Mom.  I hope all of my Blogger and Ravelry friends also had a great Mother's Day!

Happy Knitting!

Spring + Flowering Shrubs + Trees = Pollen! aaaacchhhhuuuuu

I've been knitting - but not much.  I'm trying to finish up the back on the sweater I started for the wedding.  I have so many projects started I wonder which one will be done first. I'm a great starter and terrible at finishing.
I don't really have anything new to show so I'm going to hunt through my pictures and stick one a few in here so you'll have something to look at.  Until next time, enjoy the sunshine, I hope the pollen isn't getting to you! I'll be sneezing and blowing my nose and hoping it ends soon so I can look down to knit without....................well, you know.
Happy Knitting!

Japanese Magnolia

Camellia Tree

Tybee last year. Can't wait to go back!

Spring Has Sprung!

This is The Briar Rose Wrap by Melanie Gibbons, aka Pink Lemon. I've done several of her patterns and love them. This is Louisa Harding Cashmere DK in the prettiest lavender. Soft and squishy!







Spring Fling, free at Knitty. This has been in my favorites for awhile and I thought it was a good choice for the festivities at the wedding but even in 100% cotton I don't think it'll work. It is VERY hot in Alabama in August! I might just buy one of the little lacy sweater thingy's (I wouldn't call them sweaters, but not a bolero either, so whatever it is). I've been told I have to wear a sundress, so MUST have something to cover..................... 

First sleeve is all done.  I did a sleeve first so I could get the pattern in my head so I wouldn't have to dig out the pattern when I have 10 minutes to work on it. It's very easy once you get the pattern figured out.


 My grandson spent the day with his Grandfather last fall and he planted 150 daffodil bulbs.  They are coming up now and are so beautiful! I love daffodils and can remember going to my Grandmother's each spring and cleaning the branches and such that had fallen into her garden of daffodils. So many memories. Now I have daffodils. Thanks Jay!

Happy Knitting!

Happy 6th Blogaversary to ScrappyKnitter!

Terrible picture but I wanted to put a cake on here. Hubby made this for me on my last birthday and gave it to me for breakfast. :o) He also used a votive candle. Gotta love him.

I can't believe it's been 6 years! I've learned a lot in those 6 years of blogging. I've learned a lot about knitting in those 6 years too.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be able to figure out how to read a lace chart. I took a class and figured it out.  Never thought I'd figure out how to knit a sock, but I did, following all those links that bloggers put in their blog pages. I've been knitting since I was 6 and never knew there was so much to learn and love about my favorite hobby.  My "therapy."  My Mom used to ride horses. She always told me it was her therapy but I never knew what she meant. I do now.

Thanks for reading my blog, thanks for keeping me company all these years, and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Knitting!

Wedding Bells will be Ringing!

February 22, 2011
Our youngest, the Baby Girl, got engaged last night to her Prince Charming, Knight in Shining Armor, Lucas. Wedding bells will be ringing in Alabama in a few months. That is her engagement ring. Thank goodness for text messaging, Facebooking and e-mail or I'd feel totally disconnected from this whole thing. She keeps me updated minute by minute! Thanks Alex. I love you!

I had to share this little guys picture again. This morning he came to the feeder right outside my sunroom/knitting room window. I must have taken 25 pictures before he sat still to get this one. Isn't he beautiful? You can see his backside colors over in my side bar.  He's taking off from the feeder below, perfect timing.  These birds have gone through 40 pounds of sunflower seed in less than 2 weeks.  Time for them to clean up the ground for a day or so, then we'll refill all 20 feeders again.  They empty them in less than 24 hours! P....I....G....S!

This is my Martha Cowl that I made awhile ago but never posted.  For some reason the girl who wrote the pattern took it off of Ravelry.  It was very easy and fast and crocheted but I used 1824 Cotton and it is not at all stretchy so it's not as big as I'd like it to be.  I do love that flower though. I'll just add it to the basket with all the others. ;o)

Adding the ribbing to the Elbow Room Sweater  last night at 11:30 when I was too excited over the engagement to sleep. This is 1 inch of ribbing.

It was supposed to have 5 inches of ribbing but with the one skein of yarn I had left I was only able to get 2 3/4 inches. I need to wash it, block it and then sew the side seams and it'll be done.  This came out beautiful but when I make it again (and I hope I do) I will have enough yarn for the 5" ribbing and I won't use this yarn. I have the sorest armpits in the world from working on it! Don't ask me why armpits, but that's where it gets me.

Saroyan and my cute sunflower man. I only work on Saroyan when I don't feel like thinking or reading instructions, charts or directions so it's slow going. I'm on the 3rd straight piece.
I got this cute sunflower man while at a festival in Gainesville (Mule Camp Market Festival) with my son, Nick. I love it and it reminds me of an old man. It's great to keep all my cute little stitch markers in.

The beginning of Mom's Nantucket Jacket!  Finally.  Going to work on this today and then some socks.  I'm enjoying having my 3 projects going at a time. My hands seem to be getting stiff when working with small sock needles (age? Lord!) so when I start making mistakes I know it's time to switch to something else.  Fun, get to blog a lot so that it seems like I'm a Bionic Knitter! NOT.






Happy Knitting!

Cabled Socks for my Baby Girl Complete!

Thanks for the comments on my new RED blog. I really think red is so pretty and it does POP! It's fun to make time to play with this once in awhile.

I had to change my RSS feed subscriber (or whatever it's called)because the one I was using went out of business so if I don't have your blog listed in my sidebar could you send it to me? I tried replying to Beth but your blog isn't listed on your page. :o( I've lost so many of my favorite blogs, makes me sad.

 Okay, happy news! Alex's socks...................DONE!

These seem like they took forever (don't all socks?) but after posting the finished pair on Ravelry I realized it's only been a month. That's not bad. The worst part about knitting socks (besides the knitting of the socks) is the cost. When I think of the sock yarn I have stashed in the closet, and the amount that each skein/hank costs, well, I could buy enough socks at the store for every person who reads my blog plus my whole family. BUT, have you ever seen socks like this in your store? Me either! So, would these be Maternal or Paternal since they don't match exactly? That would have just been crazy to match stripes! Nope, not for me cause, well, you know, I hate knitting socks!

Next is a pair of the Firestarter Socks for me! Have to go look through all that sock yarn and see if I have red, cause why would you make those out of any other color?

Finishing up my Elbow Room sweater. Keeping my fingers crossed I have enough  yarn left. I have the ribbing to do around both fronts and the neck and only 1 skein of yarn left. I'm sure my ribbing wont be 5 inches like the picture, but I'm hoping to atleast get 3 or 4 inches. If I don't even get 2 inches I'll be a very upset knitter!

Our Painted Bunting came back for the 3rd year in a row, sitting w a male Cardinal and a purple finch

We're enjoying 70+ degree days with lots of sunshine, but I'm still not ready for winter to be over. I enjoy the cold and the slight, slight possibility of snow but I guess it's pretty much over this year. Our feeders are full of birds, our trees are starting to show signs of buds and there are spots of grass turning green in the lawn. I just really am not looking forward to the hot, humid, and more humid weather we have here in the Southern Summers!

Happy Knitting!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Valentine's Day 2011

I think I am loved! I got a dozen CHOCOLATE cupcakes with PINK frosting!

Flowers!

                                                                           Love!

What more could a girl ask for?

I have gotten more done on my Elbow Room Sweater but that yarn really hurts my hands (am I getting old?) and I can still only do about 4 rows at a time.  I'm not too sure about this sweater but I love knitting it sideways, just because it's different.

The baby girls socks are coming along. One down, half of the other to go. And I STILL haven't finished her Bouldering Chalk Bag but I will, eventually. She hasn't been bouldering in awhile, so I haven't gotten in too much trouble yet.

The sun is shining today for the first time in what seems forever! I'm hoping everything dries out today so tomorrow I can take pictures of my knitting, but who doesn't enjoy looking at chocolate cupcakes and beautiful flowers?

Let me know what you think of the new blog style. I went with simple and my favorite color.  Is it easy to read? Hard? Too bright? I'm open to any and all suggestions. And thanks to Beth and Alex for helping. I decided to ditch the picture. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you all and Happy Knitting!

Picture in Header

Scrappy Knitter is trying to get a new look, but like the human Scrappy Knitter I'm having trouble fitting into things. If you know how to make my pictures the size of the space in the header for a picture, please let me know. I'll be back after playing with this.
Happy Knitting!

Even in the very south of GA we get icicles!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm late. Nothing new.

February 4th is Go Red for Women So be sure and wear RED for YOUR heart.

I have gotten a ton of knitting done but instead of spending 2 hours putting them on here (slow broadband at my house) I will direct you to my Ravelry Page.  There you will find all the knitting I've done lately.

Now, for the new knitting. I'm working on the Elbow Room Sweater vest  and not having much luck with the first row of the cable pattern. I tore it all out again (3rd time's a charm) and figured out what I was doing wrong. I just haven't been in the mood to pick it up again. Later, maybe.

I'm working on socks for the Baby Girl. I hate knitting socks, did I ever say that? But, they will be done before winter, next year.

We think this is an Orchard Oriel

I've been giving some thought to making THIS sweater. I have 2200 yards of Ecru Casacade 220 Superwash that I bought to make a sweater years ago and think it's time to use it up. I need to do cables. There are some on Alex's socks but I need lots of cables. I think I'm going to start either the end of February or the beginning of March.  I know it won't be done till next year, but I really doubt I'll need it around here anyway, so no hurry, I just like the sweater. It's been in my queue forever so time to start.

I'm not going to promise I'll do better at blogging in 2011. I've said that a bazzilion times and haven't been very good at it. I just don't have the "gift for gab" like I did when I started it. I'll just post when I feel like it but I do try to update my Ravelry page regularly - whatever that is.

Alex, aka The Baby Girl, her boyfriend Lucas and friend India with their gingerbread house.

So, happy New Year and hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Happy Knitting!