Autumn Woo hoo!

I like fall. It's very pretty here in Western Michigan and although it sometimes feels like we are living in the center of a crumbling piece of our country, we keep on truckin'. There are houses for sale on every corner and people without work everywhere you go. I'm not talking about people who are trying to stay out of work. I honestly mean people who have never been without a job before in their adult lives. Even though we are nowhere near the Detroit automotive part of Michigan, it's been a sad thing to watch and be part of.

But!

There's been knitting.

Last year I knitted up a hat for the boy (you know, when he lost one AGAIN), but I still had a pretty big chunk of the handspun camo from it. I pulled it out of my stash to find a use for it and ended up making some gauntlets for him! Perfect.


Just look at those meathooks! I'm tall, therefore long fingers, reasonably big hands for a woman (don't conjure up pictures of Jerry Seinfeld's manhands episode. They are still distinctly female) and his hands are only a tiny bit smaller than mine. He's only 11!

Also, I've been asked for modeled pics of Vivian. I can't take photos of myself and actually it's only basted shut for the zipper. When I showed him, he put it on immediately. I didn't ask!

Oh man it was very funny. Although it did make me think he needs a cardigan. It looked pretty good actually

Sooooooo since Viv is almost a wrap, i started a new sweater with my Tour De Fleece Handspun (knit from tomato red Shetland blended with Jacob lamb to get it all lovely and tweedy). I'm working on the incredible custom-fit raglan. It's one of those formula type patterns instead of straight instructions. I seem to like those an awful lot. I am modifying the pattern to be a nice turtleneck with a 3x2 rib. I will definitely be doing waist shaping and hopefully the ribbing will help with shaping. The yarn and pattern should be kind of a snuggly, rustickish look and I hope will be nice with jeans . .


Which brings me to my last point of the day. I was noticing yesterday that my shoulders are less flabby than they were. I know that's weird, but I was feeling the bones and muscles as i reached to scratch it. I decided to try on some jeans I haven't been able to wear since I was dating my husband about five years ago and THEY FIT. I wore them comfortably the rest of the afternoon and evening! I really still have a very long way to go and the weight loss has not been fast, but it felt like a victory. Wish me luck on the last 74 days of the program I'm working!

Fabulousness . .

Thy name is, Teh Cookie! She sent me a box of sock yarn blanket (in kit form of course) that she pulled out of her stash. Thanks again! I really appreciate you offering to contribute your leftovers.

Oh and my mom thanks you for the leftovers that needed winding. It's awfully good for her OCD.



The blanket is growing slowly and is getting pretty. I am being pretty random about color choices. Basically I am trying to keep the colors broken up a bit, but that's it.

Also, it turns out I can still knit stuff that's not socks. I found out because Vivian and I made up. The construction of this sweater is not like any I have knit before. I love it, but I don't know if it's new or just unknown to me. The pattern is good, but I have messed up twice. Both messups were big enough to make me frog. Basically 75% of this sweater has been knitted twice. You have to really like it for that.

The best part is this: I have lost some weight (not loads or anything) and I was wondering if it was going to fit me once I finished. So I realize I've made the second big mistake and will have to frog back to the arm joins. Well CAHRAP!!! Anyway, I bit the bullet, frogged, reknit and then was like - WTF! I don't have enough stitches here to do all the decreases! This is terrible! Am I going to have to frog again?

Turns out I decided to make a smaller size after I frogged the body (you know, after the first major screw up) and forgot. I knitted nearly the whole sweater, and forgot what size I was making all the time worrying that I had chosen a size that would end up too big. Yay me.

I'm on the hood now. I will knit this again someday which is a real statement about how much i like it. I don't knit many things twice.



It will benefit from a good blocking, but seems to fit fairly well at this point. The sleeves are long, and since I'm 5'10'', that doesn't happen to me very often, but I will block them a tiny bit wider, and lose some length I suppose.



Finished football socks too! Pictures when I remember where I put them after I finished them.

Still Hate People, but I Made Socks

People are still annoying the crap out of me. I'd elaborate, but there are just so many reasons and my blog is only so big.

BUT (and that's a big but)

I finished the Oak Leaf Socks! The first picture is a better representation of the color. They are knit from a blank I dyed made from Ashland Bay Panda (a favorite sock yarn of mine).


The stitch pattern gets lost in the yarn, but I don't mind. I was dying to knit a NONvanilla pair of socks, so I did it, and I'm NOT SORRY!



Oh yeah, and I've started the hood on Vivian. Pictures soon? Your guess is as good as mine!

You Have Now Entered Panther Country

Hey! Guess who won his very first ever football game?

Oh yeah, it was this guy! He was even on the line when they scored, and then when they stopped the point after for the other team to win. It was quite the nail biter!



We were pretty happy, he's making a face, but I always look like that.


Honestly, I do not care if they win or not. When I say that I will be proud of him if he has a good time and works hard, I really mean it. But it sure was fun to win the season opener!

Back soon - with knitting even!

Phone Photos aka Last Weekend

I hate people. I know I've said it before, but sometimes people just burn me up. Stop blaming the economy for the fact that you can't afford to do normal things if you're blowing money on things offered for free. That is making me SO MAD. I know a lot of people have been hit hard, so stop using this as an excuse to take from local agencies when you are just wasting your money! Leave that stuff for the people who really need it!

Assholes!

Anywho, lat weekend my mom and sister went camping at that fair campground which is just 2.3 miles from my house. Natch, I came out to visit and knit on Friday and I have BIG NEWS . . .

My sister finished her very first sock. (Not without much wailing and gnashing of teeth, mind you)


It's a little bigger than she wanted it, but she's going to go down a needle size on her next pair. I taught her to do them Toe-Up starting with a Turkish Caston. Not bad for a beginning sock knitter eh?

Also, our mom has this love of untangling things. If you're cleaning out your jewelry, or you've seriously screwed up some laceweight, you can just drop it with her and it will be returned to you, in one piece and untangled. She would up all the tiny skeins sent to me by Javanut.


Then Saturday, Number Five had his very first scrimmage. He's in there somewhere.

Which was lots of fun. I have met a couple of cool moms, even though a lot of them in this town are just a certain way. Like if your child isn't up to their ass in activities and stressed out to the max, then you are a bad parent. I don't agree with our tendency in this country to schedule our kids right out of fun time. Isn't school, three nights of football and a Saturday game enough?

And after the scrimmage, we headed home on the country roads and ran into this:

Hellooooooooooooooooo, Beautiful! We got vine ripened Big Boy tomatoes, Paula Red apples and some Peaches that smelled so fragrantly that they seemed like she sprayed peach scent on them. It was all fabulous! Also, the farmer lady was really nice and let me wash a peach so I could eat it in the car, and she had platinum and pink pigtails. Of course I think that's a nice touch because really only in Michington do we have those types of peoples.

I'm going back to her house ;)

Oh yeah, and I'm thinking of doing a little audioblogging. Like you would just press play, and listen to the post and look at pictures once in awhile. Any opinions? It's not because I think you all are too lazy to read, it's more for me than anything. Bad idea?

Ok So Yesterday Didn't Really Work Out

But today is going to be better. It's 7:32, I've already gotten number five stuffed with breakfast and off to school, loaded and started the dishwasher, and swept and mopped the hideously disgusting kitchen floor. Woo hoo!

I've been sort of re-ordering my life as I feel maybe my priorities have been mixed up for awhile. It's been a pretty busy process really. This morning, my husband estimated that I must have lost 20 pounds and yesterday my sister said she could tell I had lost some in the last three weeks (since she was last here) so at least that gave me a wee bit of motivation. After all, I am on day 88 now. I also have the next 90 days lined up after for workouts. It should be quite interesting.

Anyway, I didn't post the pictures I promised yesterday because I couldn't find the camera until later in the day. I mean honestly, who does that? Anyway so the pictures aren't great, but that's my M.O. so it won't surprise anybody.

First, I have a new project. I've been saving sock yarn remnants (like most knitters) for quite awhile. I had also been eyeing this beautiful sock yarn blankie being knit by JavaNut

I finally Cast on for it



The wonderful JavaNut sent me a whole bag of tiny sock yarn remnant skeins. It was awesome of her. I hadn't realized I was going to need so many. Oh well. I keep knitting socks right? And hey if you want to send me your bag of sock yarn remnants ;).

I'm done with the second heel flap for the Oak Leaf Socks too. I think the pattern would have shown up better with plain yarn, but I couldn't stand the thought of another plain sock at the time - bleh!



I also am close to the increases on the toe-up football sock.



I haven't been spinning much, but trying to get some projects wrapped up. I'm currently working on the fleece of sweet Clarissa, A Jacob lamb I processed awhile ago. It's boring to look at anyway!

Goodbye Summer

I bet you're wondering what the heck I've been up to. Well, lots of stuff. I've been spending so much time getting number five ready for his first year at middle school (and ignoring the know-it-alls who keep giving us wrong information about how it's going to be) going to football practices and camping, I haven't accomplished that much. It's hard to take a chart to football ya know. Of course that means I had to start some more or less plain socks.

I hate stockinette socks. I feel like they don't fit right unless they are ribbed at least. Maybe I have weird feet :|.

Knitting Progress:

Queen Silvia - The last picture you saw, well that's where she sits. Poor thing.
Oak Leaf Socks - Yay I finally finished one and started the second. I am through the second repeat of the pattern on the cuff, so finally progressing! Picture soon of the finished one
Vivian - Yay here too! I finally got to the point where I could join the sleeves to the body of the sweater and started knitting up the yoke. I'm even decreasing, but it's big and heavy and taking me awhile. What a beautiful sweater though!
Football socks - They're getting the most attention since we haven't been home much. They're Opal, but I don't know where the label went. One is finished that the second is OTN now. Probably with three practices and a scrimmage this week, I'll be on to a new pair of plain ribbed socks soon!

One thing I've been up to is this.



(sorry the color is jacked up. I took it with my phone)

I live less than 4 miles from this. Can you believe I only went once this year. Inconceivable! It was a fabulous day at the beach.

A weekend or two before, My mom and sister were camping at the state park near here and I ran down ery early in the morning to see if we could get a spot to pitch our tents (they were full), but snapped this on the way back home. This is just over two miles from home.



Doesn't seem fair does it?

On that same weekend we did go out visiting. When we were growing up camping here, we used to make trips down to this old, beachy, no shirts and shoes, kinda general store and load up on candy. My sister brought us some of the old standbys; those big ringpops, and these guys.



I'm sorry but soooooooooooooooooooooo funny. AND, my mom received the hideous Opal Rainbow socks WITH the stripes matched as she requested. Which daughter rocks?



Oh yeah and I got Ice Cream on my splurge day. Who invented this Chocolate Monster flavor and where can I send him/her a thank you note?



Srsly, I'm 11, I promise!