Sandy Beaches, Sunshine and Fun (oh, and knitting, of course)

What do I do when it's 96 and 110 heat index? I go to the beach!

Got my chair, my umbrella, lots of water, towel and ......................
My knitting. This is the Bride's Sachet bag from Knitting Daily.
And to have lots of fun in that water I take my 13 year old granddaughter.
It also helps that BTB is remodeling a house on this beach. We get up at 7 and ride 1 1/2 hours to get here, but it was well worth it! I was born and raised on a beach and I really miss it so this was like a mini vacation for me.

And next week? Next week I head to the mountains. The Baby Girl is flying off to Africa to do mission work with her school and I'm going to my parents, she's going to my parents and I'm going to drive her to the airport. Can't have her going that far away, for a month! without a big hug from her Mommy! More gray hair for me. So, I won't be around for awhile blogging but I will have my Cute Little Pink Thing and my Pinkberry, so I can keep up with what everyone's working on.

Have a safe, happy, carefree summer.

Happy Knitting!

eta: Gregory House's birthday was June 11th. He was 50 years old! Happy Birthday Dr. House.
(Thanks to Stringplay for that little piece of information!)

Sunshine, Socks and House

Just a quick post today because there's a House Marathon on and I'm going to watch it. I love House and I knit really fast if I'm watching him.

This is a pair of socks that my oldest granddaughter asked me to make. They are not going to be hers however, they are too small. So, I have a new pair of socks and I'm in the process (very slow process) of making her another pair. I'm not a sock knitter, but I'm trying, just for her.



Still working on all the other things from the last post. They're all a little longer but not really much to show.

Have a great weekend and if you live in Georgia, enjoy the abundance of sunshine that is finally upon us!

Happy Knitting!

Scrappy Knitter Knits, Just Not Fast Enough!

We'll call this blog post Catch Up! I've had startitis so bad lately but then I got to thinking. What difference does it make? I have a lot of yarn that I love, lots of time now that we're "empty nesters" and I have no trips planned for atleast 3 more weeks and thanks to Ravelry and all you other bloggers, there's a ton of patterns out there that I want to knit, so, I have bunches started. Every day I feel like doing something different. Today it might be lace, tomorrow something a little thicker, so, I get out whatever calls to me and work on it. Sooner or later I get them done. I've got all the time in the world. So, here's my May Show and Tell!

This is Truly Tasha's Shawl, a free download from Ravelry by Nancy Bush. This is the perfect traveling knit because you don't have to think too hard, just have to remember that first yo. I'm doing it in my pink Knit Picks Shine Sport because eventually something made out of that yarn is going to work.

I just wanted to show you all this. If you ordered a yarn, sight unseen, called Snow Bird, would you automatically assume it was white? I did, and much to my surprise I got this. I think it'll be very pretty knitted up into some type of lace, but I sure was surprised it wasn't white!
A bit of Baltimore came to visit a few weeks ago. There were 2 or 3 pair of them that we got to enjoy on our feeder. This feeder used to hang outside my sunroom window but it broke from the hook and crashed to the ground so we had to replace it. Oh, the bird is a Baltimore Oriole if you don't have them in your area. And next to him is a little gold finch. Lots of those this year.
StringPlay mentioned she hadn't seen this shawl so I thought I'd put up a picture. I think I must have posted a picture while I was working on it but never one when it was finished. I call this my Emerald Bay Shell Diving Shawl. I have little pink beads in it that represent the shells that BTB and I found while on the Gulf Coast this past January. We had so much fun diving for shells and this color is almost exactly what the Gulf waters look like. This was a LYS pattern.
This is the beginning of the first shawl in the book Best of Knitters Shawls and Scarves. It's just called Lace Shawl. I only have 12 skeins of that beautiful teal colored yarn but I'm hoping I can get it done with that. Might have to order some more and interchange the old with the new but I love that shawl. It's the first one I picked out as soon as I got the book.
Triangle, also on Ravelry and also another small shawl/scarf. I love doing these and I have some squishy, gooshy, soft yarn that is so pretty I couldn't wait to start something wtih it. This is Dream in Color Smooshy that I got on the way home from my Boston trip at the not so local yarn shop. When you have a 5 hour ride from your friends house to get home, there's nothing better than finding that LYS to break up the trip.
And this is what I'm trying to keep up with but so far I'm not doing very well. It's the Goddess Knits Anniversary Shawl KAL 2009. It's a Faroese shawl done in cashmere. The color is called Watermellon and it's so pretty! I'm supposed to have the first 95 or so rows done by Saturday but dang, life just keeps throwing wrenches in it. I did a knit along last year with the Goddess Knits group and still haven't finished it, but this one was a style I've never done so couldn't pass it up. I'll work really hard tonight and tomorrow and I might make it to the last row of clue 1 before the new clue comes out on Saturday.
First time ever knitting from a spool. This yarn is from ColourMart.
So, yes, I knit, I just knit lots of stuff so it takes lots of time to get something finished. That would drive my Grandma crazy. She always said finish one project and go on to the next. Somewhere in life my brain could never wrap itself around that idea. :o)

Happy Knitting!

The Traveling Scrappy Knitter?

How's that title? My one (and probably only) reader said I should change my name to the TavelingKnitter, so I compromised for this post. I'm embarking on another venture so thought I'd update the blog before I go.

Alot of knitting has been taking place here and I even have an FO! Maybe I'll have a few more next time.

This is the beginning of a pair of simple 3/2 rib socks I'm [trying] to make for my oldest granddaughter. She has really big feet and I hate knitting socks, so the two are not going together nicely. It seems to take forever. She's worth it and I shall prevail! Just for her.

This is the yoke of the February Lady Sweater, a free pattern on Ravelry. I'm just using some Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Candy Blue (Candy Blue is discontinued). I'm determined to use up the yarns that I've had the longest. So far it's been an easy knit, just sometimes it's so easy that I forget what I'm doing and just knit away on it then realize I'm way ahead of myself. Had to rip out about 5 rows after going past my total number of stitches. No hurry for this one, I live in the South. No need for much of anything this time of year.

This is the bottom 4" or so of the Decimal Sweater, free on Knitty. I'm all about those wonderful free patterns. I'm doing this one in Knit Picks Shine Sport in Cherry. Love the pattern, love the yarn and my favorite color is, of course, RED! No hurry for this one either.

Cables. I needed to practice cables for my Mom's sweater, so I made Mr. Greenjeans (from Knitty but that's the Ravelry link). I love this sweater. It took awhile, but it always takes me a long time to make sweaters cause I get bored with them and put them aside. But, it's now done and ready to wear this weekend on my trip. Soon I need to start the Nantucket Jacket (Interweave, Winter 06) for my Mom. She picked the yarn out a long time ago but there's a lot of cables in that sweater and even though I can do cables, it's really hard right now to concentrate on bunches of cables. Hopefully I can start it in July (my goal) so to have it done for Christmas. Hope being the key word there.

And I call it Mr. Maroonjeans, cause, well, it's kind of maroon. Big wooden button was in my button box and was perfect, even fit the buttonhole.

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans aka Maroonjeans-Ravelry

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece

Color: Candy Apple

Size: M-one thing I love about knitting. It's the ONLY think I wear that is a Medium. :o)

Needle Size: I'm guessing about an 8 but don't remember

There have been a few other projects, mostly just little things, but I don't have time to get them in here. If I don't go pack up that camper we'll have to run around the tournament hungry and.....well, you know, I've got things to do.

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~Ambrose Bierce

I hope all you Mom's out there have a wonderful weekend, a Happy Mother's Day and be sure and make time to knit!

Happy Knitting!

Easter, Dents and Growing up

Let me first wish whoever stops by the Scrappy Knitter blog a very Happy, Blessed Easter.

We had another minor mishap with a car. Nope, not Ruby this time, she's had enough bangs lately. And no, it wasn't the oldest daughter, whose car we just paid to have fixed after her little mishap at a red light (yeah, sometimes the guy in front of you stops, then goes but you must pay attention to that second stop - gets you every time when you're not looking.) It was the Baby Girl and Silva! Remember Silva, my Honda CRV? It's hers now. We went shopping yesterday for a dress for her upcoming Formal (that I can't even be there to see) and when she was leaving a really nice guy in a red pickup backed out almost at the same time as she did and he clipped her right on the back corner of the car. So, another dent to fix, another insurance paper to file, another gray hair for me. That means that the 3 women (are they really women already?) in this family have either hit (2 of us did the hitting) or been hit and damaged our cars in the last 4 weeks! That's scary. No picture of Silva's dent cause they aren't home today, but it's there, plain as day.

Okay, this part might sound winy, but I'm really not wining. But, if any of you are empty nesters (I know one of you is), what in the world do you do when there's no kids around? When my kids are here I'm so busy, running around waiting on everyone, keeping the little one's entertained, keeping the Father/Grandfather out of everyone's hair (he's not as kid 'friendly' as I am), but then they all leave and what do you do? Even the oldest granddaughter comes over and is perfectly happy sitting on the couch playing with my computer or texting her friends, but I'm there to laugh with them, polish fingernails, laugh at whatever silly thing she did in school. Then she's gone. The Baby Girl comes home from Alabama and we go shopping, eat lunch out, talk, stay up late and watch every episode of House (my "other man"), talk, then she goes back to Alabama. The oldest doesn't come over much anymore cause she's in school, works part time, and then has kids to deal with when she's not at school or working. The Baby Boy lives so far away I don't see him much unless I go to Atlanta to visit him. We have so much fun in the big city. We eat out just about every night, we shop, we stay up all night being goofy (we both love to sing), we share the same best friend. Then I have to leave and go back home. It's really weird to me to not have any kids around. I always wanted to have lots of kids, till I found out how expensive they were, then I settled for 2, but then we were surprised with #3, the Baby Girl. Now we're empty nesters, he's out of work and home almost every day and I'm going to go nuts not having anyone around to wait on (he waits on me), talk to ( he's not much of a talker), sing with (I DO NOT want the man to sing), laugh with (that we do), so, there's only one thing left to do.

TRAVEL....................
Heading out next week for a long weekend, going to the mountains for a week to visit my parents in June (more on that next time), Florida to stay with my friend down there, Atlanta to see the Baby Boy sometime over the summer, Americus for a week for a Clay shoot with BTB (that means a week of knitting for me), St. Simon's Island for a long weekend with the Oldest Daughter and grandkids (she's going to a wedding and they asked her to stay at their house while they're away, she didn't want to stay along. Heck, it's a beach, I'll go and protect her so she can protect her friends house, yuppers), and then maybe, just maybe I can get to Alabama to visit with the Baby Girl. So, those tail lights are about all you'll see of Ruby and I this summer, but, remember, I have my Pink Mini so I'll be reading blogs, drooling over Ravelry and maybe blogging once or twice.Happy Easter! Happy Knitting!

Where's Center?

My list is getting smaller. The little sweater that I made for my friends baby just fit him so we decided it should be a little bigger. Tore it out during Wed night church service and will make another, bigger.

Something really strange happened to the Ene Scarf. Never happened before, hope it never happens again but I really don't know what happened! I was knitting away but kept thinking "there seems to be more stitches on the left than there are on the right of the center marker." Well, instead of stopping and just looking I just kept right on knitting. Who has time to count when you only have so much time to knit in the first place. Well, yesterday I counted.

See how many stitches/markers are on the right side (backwards from what I said above)? See how many on the left?

Here's center. It was way over on the side, not in the middle. Now what do you suppose I did? I can't figure it out. No clue. Just kept happily knitting along! I had 18 pattern repeats on one side and 27 on the other. Did I turn too soon? Fall asleep at the circulars? What?
Then I got mad. Know what happens when I get mad at my knitting? It goes back to the cake state and gets put away. This is the 3rd thing I've tried to make with this yarn and I think it's jinxed. It's staying in the yarn closet for a long, long time now!
Remember poor Ruby? Her tail light? BTB fixed her all up and she's now happy as can be. She'd love a bath to get rid of the pollen that's all over her, but she's really happy with her new "lens." Bath this week now that we don't have to worry about any shorts. Poor Ruby!
Another new lamb for the collection. This is actually bigger than the one I posted about in my last post. I really didn't want to get it cause, well, you can only have so many lambs, but I just couldn't pass her up. She was just sitting there waiting to go home with me and meet the rest of the Scrappy Knitter Lambies. She's very happy here.
The Baby Girl is back in school, happily eating everything in sight, singing and enjoying life. She has had to give up so much with this thing. Her clarinet, singing, things you just don't think about being connected to your jaw. Now we just need to wait for her body to heal from it all and then maybe everything will be back to normal. She sure was a happy kid when she could belt out those church songs! I hope she sings forever, she has a voice like no other.

Happy Knitting!

UFO's

Isn't this little guy adorable? He's the newest member of my Lamb Collection. He's from the people who make Soy Silk and he's made out of Soy Silk and he is SO SOFT! Lovehim, lovehim, lovehim! I got him at a wonderful LYS.

I made a list. I never make lists. If I make a grocery list, I forget it when I go to the grocery. If I make a "To Do" list, I don't do a thing on it, I do something totally different. So, this new list is just a list, but I'm really hoping to work it just right. I'm going to post it here so that maybe, every now and again, one of you Scrappy Knitter readers can pop into this blog and ask about one of the things on my list. Got that? Okay, here's the list:

1. Harry Potter Scarf
2. Kauni Sweater
3. Norwegian Sweater
4. Aiden Jackson's Sweater
5. Rib Warmer
6. Red Vest
7. Striped Vest
8. Goddess Knits KAL Shawl
9. Mr. Greenjeans Sweater
10. Hemlock Ring Blanket (brooklyntweed)
11. Log Cabin Afghan
    
12. Swallowtail Scarf
13. Ene's Shawl
14. Recipe Shawl

Isn't that scary? For some reason (attention deficit?)I get very bored very fast with my knitting choices. Why? What is so hard about finishing one project before going on to another? Beats me, but if you know, share, please!

The oldest UFO on the list is the Harry Potter Scarf. The Baby Girl asked for that way back, like in high school and she is now a junior in college! I HATE working on that scarf. Its a circular needle that's too short, doesn't bend and you just go round and round for 16 rows, then change the color and go round and round for another 16 rows. But, that's got to be finished! The last 3 items on the list are things I've just started in the past few weeks and am working on a little every day. I have to set up some type of schedule to add in my UFO's. Most just need to be put together, buttons put on or a small amount of knitting to be done. A few, like the Norwegian Sweater, made me mad so got put away. It's all done by chart, black and white, and one of the stitches was off and I couldn't figure it out. So, some need lots of work, some need very little.

I've been knitting since I was 6 and I don't remember having more than one project going at a time until I found all the wonderful knitting sites on the computer. Now, I'm not blaming anyone here, I'm just saying, if I didn't see all the gorgeous yarn, beautiful patterns, amazing knitting projects that all the folks are doing on Ravelry, Blogs, Knitty, I would be very happy working along on my child's boring Harry Potter Scarf until it was done, then go out and buy some more boring yarn at Walmart (who'd have thunk that all that gorgeous yarn you see in the magazines can actually be bought in a LYS or online, right at your fingertips?) and knit something else till it's finished....... That's how I used to knit. My Grandmother always told me I couldn't start something new until the something old was finished. I never did, till about 4 years ago. Sorry Grandma, I'll try to remember that but so far it's just not working!

So, my goal (never had goals in my life, and if I did they didn't work)is to TRY and finish one UFO a month. Maybe that'll motivate me to finish them all fast enough so that it doesn't take me 14 months to finish.....that's over a year! Wow!! Let's also hope that I don't add anything to this list before atleast a few things are finished! There are so many beautiful patterns popping up that I want to do. I've already got yarn and pattern for this beauty, and this one. I think I need AA for Knitters. Is there one of those somewhere?

This is my newest toy. I bought it to take with me to Boston but of course, it didn't come in time. I, for some reason, can't get Ravelry on my Blackberry (don't laugh) so thought I'd get this. It's 9"! And pink! And I just love it! The Baby Girl has had it on the couch and in her bed while she's recouping, but once in awhile I get to play with it again. Does everything the big laptops do but mostly geered for surfing the internet and e-mailing. Awesome little gadget. It's a Dell Inspiron Mini 9" and because I ordered it in pink (lots of colors to choose from), $5.00 went to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

This silly little pug was chewing on this bowl that I had on the floor to hold my yarn while I wound it. When I was done she decided to start playing with it and with her head in it, she fell asleep! The reason I looked down at all was because she was snoring but it sounded funny. Yup, sounded like she was down in a well. Nope, she was down in a cool whip container. Love that pug!

Thank you for the well wishes for the Baby Girl. She's doing very well, eats EVERYTHING, and goes in Thursday to have her stitches out and for a checkup. She is soooo enjoying being able to eat real food again. She was getting quite tired of Slim Fast, mashed everything and soup. I've loved having her home and babying her (as much as she'll let me).

Happy Knitting!

Surgery, Medical and otherwise

Yup, left here at 5:15 a.m. to get the Baby Girl to the hospital for her 8 o'clock surgery and I backed right into her friends truck. NOT happy! 'nough said.
Pretty sad, but I love what they did to her hair. She has really curly hair, like banana curls, and I'd say someone liked playing with it cause usually after this it's tucked up in the bandages to stay out of the way. She had 5 stitches on each side and the incisions are where they'd cut if you had a face lift. So, if she ever does, she won't have to worry about new scars, they'll already be there.

We were home again by noon! She got up this morning and took her meds and ate pancakes! HALLELUJAH!!!!! Lets hope this is the final TMJ surgery for this child.

I'm battling the extremely thick pollen and have a wonderfully painful sinus infection, so, I'm finishing my tea (an actual tea bag cup of tea, imagine that? first time ever!!!) and going back to my chair. The pain has got to go away sooner or later.

Happy Knitting!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggitey Jig

Now, if this post was written by my friend Stringplay, she'd look up that poem and have it all written out here for you, but, since it would take time from my knitting I'll let you look it up. LOL Google is my best friend.

I'm home. Boston was AWESOME! Spending 4 days in very close proximity to your hometown in the dead of winter is more fun than I could tell you. AND, we had a mini blizzard the day we left and I had to sit on a plane and watch it be deiced! 15" of that beautiful white stuff I got to walk through, kick, shiver in and fly back to Atlanta in. I wasn't "scared to death" but I was thinking "how weird is this. I hate to fly (used to), always said if I had to sit on a plane while they deiced it I'd just have to get off." Well, I didn't, sat right there in my seat and never once thought - what if. I even knitted while on the plane. I NEVER have been able to do anything while on a plane except pray, A LOT! Great time, great time. I'd love to show pictures but I have a slight problem with that too. My adorable son took some great one's too, but I got home, took the smart card out of my camera to have the pictures printed at the store, decided to wait till I went to my oldest daughters store (less crouded) and now I don't know what I did with the smart card. I know it's around here somewhere. So, when I find it I'll be sure and plaster my snow pictures all over this blog.

Okay, yes, I do knit. So, here's the knitting of late:This is Ene's Shawl by Nancy Bush

from Scarf Style
I'm doing it in Knit Picks Shine Sport. I want a big, big shawl to wrap around myself when I'm cold, reading, sick, and it has to be big enough to wrap a pug and hotdog in cause if I have a blanket they have to be under it too. And this Shine Sport is cotton and modal so it won't make me itch and it's super soft.

This one I call "Waiting." But it's actually a recipe on Ravelry by Orlane and it's a really fun, easy pattern and I'm doing it in some DK weight cotton that I have, again cause I can't stand itchy yarn. Why "Waiting?" Well, the Baby Girl is home for Spring Break and she goes in Thursday to have her jaw operated on again. This is the biggy; incisions on both sides, just in front of her ears, they're taking out the cartilage and sanding down the bone/hinge of her jaw because she has bone spurs! It's still outpatient surgery but they said it would take longer and there's a longer healing time, so, while I wait, pace, worry, and pray, I'll knit "Waiting." Send good thoughts our way for her, she's really suffered with this thing long enough.

So, aside from all the things I don't have pictures of (like the beautiful Boston snow storm), that's about it. I'm staying home for awhile, need to do some spring cleaning, give the honey and the pug and the dachshund some attention, then I'll be going again, I'm sure. But, for the next several weeks I'm staying put.

From a Scottish Yankee, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. Are you making corned beef and cabbage? Got mine all ready to go in the pot! YUM, I can smell it already.

Happy Knitting!
PS Here's a special hello to an "old" online friend who also has heart problems. Here's to you kid! And here's hoping your heart is fine!

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

These are some of things I worked on while on my 2 week vacation in the freezing cold state of Florida. Broke the all time record for the coldest night 3 nights in a row! Good thing we have Northern blood in us.

I'm calling this Emerald Beach Shell Diving Shawl. It's almost the same color as the Gulf of Mexico water and the place we stayed was Emerald Beach. Not sure if you can see in this picture, but there's pink size 6 seed beads in it to represent the shells we found.

Pattern: From LYS but named Emerald Beach Shell Diving Shawl by me
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy (my new FAVORITE yarn) from same LYS
Needles: Denise Circular size 10 1/2
Beads: pink seed beads size 6 from the Beadwrangler

I'll post another picture of it when it's done. This one's not quite finished yet.
Need another vacation to gether done.

This is a free Ravelry pattern and I love it! Loved making it and love the yarn.
Pattern: Thermis
Yarn: Mongolian Cashmere
Needles: size 7 KP circulars
Soft and cozy

I sure do get alot of knitting done when I'm in the sunny state of Florida. I could sit on a beach and knit for ever and ever. Not on the first week of the trip, that was so cold we walked to stay warm (and I lost 5 pounds!). The second part of our trip was in the Panhandle, on the Gulf side, that was nice for about 2 days.

Here's a pair of quick Mary Jane Slippers. This too is a Ravelry pattern. I'm really enjoying all these quick knits. It's nice to actually finish things.


I also made the oldest a Ponytail hat like the one I made the Baby Girl {here}. She's supposed to be sending me a picture of it on but I think she's a little busy with 3 kids, college and a new job.

I've started a couple of cowls, another scarf and hope to finish the shawl from above. Leaving tomorrow for another mini vacation so maybe when I get back I'll have time to post pictures and tell you why on earth someone that lives in the warm (75 today) sunny southeast could possibly need cowls and scarves. Stay tuned.

And Happy Valentine's Day! And Happy President's Birthday Day! And a VERY Happy Birthday to my favorite man in the whole world. Happy Knitting!