A Great Weekend

I had a great weekend. I was able to go on a small trip to Des Moines to go to a concert with my nieces and my sister. We had a great time eating lunch and staying up way too late Saturday night. Yes this is a picture of me. I hate to have my picture taken but it was worth it to have one with my nieces.




These are my two nieces. It is hard for me to believe that I have nieces and nephews that are old enough to be in college. Jordan here on the left is a sophomore and Rebekah on the right is a freshman. Jordan says she looks fat in this picture. I think I need to slap her.



What concert did I go to??? I went to see Brad Paisley. I am a huge Brad Paisley fan. I have his albums and I know the words by heart. It is always the music I listen to when I am not sure what I want to listen to. It was a great concert. If you ever get a chance to go see him go. It was the last night of the tour and all sorts of practical jokes were going on and the crew must have went through a case of Silly String that comes out of the can. Jordan and Rebekah thought that the guy who opened for him was HOT.




This picture was taken Sunday morning. The girls were showing their Jayhawk pride.




This last picture might get me hurt but this is my sister. She was the wonderful person who called and let me know that Brad Paisley was coming and asked if I wanted to go. She let us stay with her and drove us around Des Moines. Thanks sis.

Want to know the best part??? Coming home. I realized that I don't like to be away from my family overnight much. I do go on an occasional trip but I would prefer any day to sleep in my own bed and snuggle with my husband. I also came home to a clean house and a brand new microwave. Wonder what I would get if I left for a longer period of time??? A dishwasher maybe????

The Knitter Needs to be Smarter than the Sock

I think I have finally gone off the deep end. I have just spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out why the turning of the heel flap of my Monkey sock wasn't working out. I started over the turn twice I still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally figured it out. I DIDN'T READ THE PATTERN RIGHT. Do you want to know the sad part??? I have made this pattern before. I knew it was the operator and not the pattern, almost anyone who knits socks has made this pattern. I just felt really dumb. I kept slipping the first stitch when I was just supposed to knit the 17 stitches. Oh Well, you live and you learn I suppose. It might be that I stayed up way too late Saturday night but that is an entirely different post.




I thought I would show off my first handspun yarn. It has issues. It has spots where there is no spin and spots where there is too much spin but I am really proud of it. I have thought of using it to make a little scarf that would just fit in the top of my coat but I think I might just save it as a momento. I still have to get better at plying too.





I also have been bitten by the dyeing bug. I am really enjoying dyeing some of the roving and top I have purchased. I dyed the pink that is in the first handspun and I dyed this Friday morning. This is some Corridale, I am practicing on some more of this top and then hope to spin the top that I dyed into something I can use to make something for me.

Clue 4 and Getting Better

I have completed Clue 4 of the Secret of the Stole ii. I have also discovered that I enjoy knitting lace. It had always intimidated me in the past but now I am looking for new lace projects to knit. I am not sure what I will do with the stole when I am done with it. I am not really a stole kind of girl but I might just wear it to the grocery store or something like that. I think it would look nice with a turtleneck and some khakis. I might give it away too. I just don't know yet. I have started Clue 5 so I am not too far behind.




I really haven't spun much at all. I had spun twice (one of those two times was for maybe, maybe ten minutes) before I got my wheel. I really like my wheel and I really enjoy spinning. I have spun a little everyday since I got it on Monday. I could really tell a difference between Monday night spinning and what I spun up yesterday and this evening. I think this bobbin might even be worth trying to ply. The first bobbin I think I am just going to put it in a hank and keep as a memento from my first spinning on my wheel. I noticed a few pieces of grass and stuff that I missed when I was spinning it but oh well.

Robin's Got a New Toy!!!!!

I got a new toy and I think it has been stolen, by the Punkinbug. She had asked to treadle last night so I let her and all morning all I heard was "I want to pin on your pinning wheel".




I have went to the spin side. I have been thinking about it for a long time and did a ton of research on different wheels. I was not able to try very many out, I did try a Ashford Traditional single treadle and a Kromski Mazurka. I like the looks of the Kromski's and I wanted something that I could put away from little fingers. I got a Kromski Sonata.




The roving on the floor next to the Punkinbug is some Border Leicester that I got at my LYS. We dyed it with some Kool Aid in Black Cherry and Berry Blue.




This is how it spun up. I have some natural left and I am debating between spinning in natural or dyeing it with more Kool Aid just to have something fun to spin up. I am still waiting for the roving that I ordered when I got my wheel. I hope it gets here soon.

Meme

Linda tagged me and I have never done this one before so here goes.

Take the nearest book and turn to page 123. Skip the first five sentences and then put in the next three. I am reading Love Her to Death by Linda Palmer. It is one of the Daytime Mystery series books.

I had to use page 121 because 123 was a really short page.

"Some singers, and Al Pacino." Giving me Al Pacino's Michael Corleone stare, she lowered her voice again and whispered, "Freddo, you broke my heart".

I clapped my hands.

I think I will tag Guinifer, Janice, Hakucho and Tonni.


I have been making progress on the Monkey socks but not enough to post a picture. I am on the fourth repeat. I am still working on clue 4. I think I am officially behind but I might still catch up.

C.....

is for CHILDREN. I am very blessed to have three of them that are wonderful. Although this week the have been driving me CRAZY. It seems all I have heard is whining, CRYING, and fighting. I really love them alot and I am thankful that I have them even though sometimes they try my patience.




My two daughters are in school. Punkin is a first grader and Punkinbug is in preschool. I had a great Valentine's Day. I got some great handmade things from my girls and I really love them. I ask them on occasion if they will miss me when they are at school and they say "No, Mom, I will remember you." They are always so excited to share what they make and they are so proud that they made something for us.




Just in CASE you thought I forgot this was a knitting blog. I seem to have gotten a little of the sock mojo back. This is the first sock in a pair of Monkeys that I am making for myself. The yarn is the Posh yarn that has been seen in several attempts in the last month.

C is also for COCKY. I got a little too COCKY in my lace knitting and didn't take the time to move my lifeline and I had to frog about fifteen rows. At least it was only fifteen rows and not the whole project. I am plugging away at CLUE 4 and I hope to get CLUE 5 done this weekend since I think I will have other things to mess with next week.

Just the Stole Again

I still haven't been doing much sock knitting. I worked a little on the January pattern from Sockamania but just haven't been motivated to get very far on it. I keep telling myself that I will really like these socks if I finish them but I just can't seem to get into them. I am also trying to knit myself a pair of Monkeys but no progress there yet either. I am hoping the sock mojo will come back.


Or maybe it has been bought out by the lace knitting mojo. I am really enjoying this stole. This picture is from last week when I finished Clue 3. I am working on Clue 4 now and it seems to be going rather well. I am even learning to "read" my knitting which has helped a tremendous amount.





I am getting to the end of the first hank of the yarn I am using so I am hoping to be able to post a new technique that I have learned.

NO Socks, Just the Stole

No socks. I think I have lost some of my sock knitting Mojo. I seem to have to keep ripping them out for various reasons. Even so it isn't so much a big deal to me since I am enjoying knitting this stole from the Secret of the Stole ii. This is just a quick shot of the second clue completed. The lifeline on the bottom is where I took a picture the last time. I am working on Clue 3 and hope to have it done in time for the drawing.

I just realized this is my 100th post and I didn't even have a contest. I hope all my readers don't mind. I think I need to post more often if it has taken be 18 months to get to the 100th post huh???