
A collection of random thoughts



(Be sure to use as many colors as possible so that it looks ridiculous!)
This is soooooooooooo not like me to try something out to see if it works. I'm a "give me a pattern and I'll follow it really well" kind of person. But...I did it and it seems to work even though I didn't actually finish the sleeve in question.
Since I'm sick to death of Winter (even though we've only had about 2 weeks of real winter weather) I thought this awesome bright pink felted purse kit would give me a nice pick up!
To be honest, I bought the whole darn kit because I loved these...
Can't wait to sew them on the finished product.
This very pretty picture is a quick look at the before-mentioned ucky Winter.




I'm really happy with the color combination and the yarn is very soft, though it splits easily.
One of the things I liked about the pattern, and had seen before, was this hem facing that will be turned under to make, well, a hem.


Even though I also like the ribbed hem of the previous sweaters, this is a nice alternative.
So, today I finished the body of the sweater. It turned out pretty well.
It's difficult to minimize the ladders (loose stitches) between needles because you have to leave enough ease as you change colors so the sweater will stretch as it should. Perhaps some blocking or a fluff in the dryer will even out some of the rough patches.
There is no neck band as in the other sweater pattern. Rather, the shoulders are sewn and the remaining opening is the neck. Apparantly I'll be using these purl stitches (one round of purling before casting off) to magically sew the shoulder seams together.
It looked like a breeze on the show...we'll see!
What I'm trying to determine is if it is worthwhile to make the sweaters this way even though I am so much more familiar with the other pattern. A deciding factor may be the steeks. I have never (intentionally) cut something I've knit and I'm not really looking forward to it! I'm hoping that it is a technique that gets easier (and less daunting) every time you do it. Seems like you can get such wonderful results!! I'd also like to be able to make textured sweaters with cables and all-over stitch patterns, but I've never done this in the round either. Do I just adapt the pattern as I go since there is no "wrong side"? So much to figure out! I'm going to need to make a nice simple pair of socks after this. And that will definitely require a trip to the yarn store!!!!



We were a bit unnerved by how close this party occurred to our house!
But nothing could have prepared us for what we saw next. Brace yourself...

According to the Discovery Channel, there are only four of these creatures currently being raised in captivity! Amazing.



It was a bit tedious at times...my first project with Intarsia...I'm not a big fan! It's not too bad if you have a large area of color, but small spots like the beak and the eyes are a bit of a pain. I'm sure there's a much more clever way to do it than the way I did it!


I've decided to use my Barnes & Noble gift certificate from Keith's mom to buy this...

I've wanted it for some time and saw a great sweater in the Knit Picks catalog that was from the book. Love doing cables. So how long before I actually make myself that sweater? Quite a while I bet, but I'll still enjoy having the book.












Merry Christmas and God Bless us Every One!!




In other news...
Halloween was a real success here. Elliot has been so terribly frightened by all things Halloween for over a year. He's been so truly afraid of skeletons and scary masks that he nearly broke my glasses trying to get out of the cart at Walmart when we went by the spooky section. I've been trying to reassure him while at the same time giving him the space to be scared. This is a real balancing act! Anyhow, we weren't sure how he'd handle the party and parade at school or if he'd even go Trick-or-Treating. I did talk to his Kindergarten teacher and she was fantastic about the whole thing. I'm sure she's seen everything...she's been a Kindergarten teacher for over 30 years! He had a wonderful time at school and even though he told me he cried on the bus because someone got out his ugly mask and was teasing him with it, he felt really good about the day. I think it helped for him to see the kids getting dressed, maybe. He did a great job going from house to house and only really hesitated once when he saw a skeleton head on someone's front porch. He went right up to it and stuck out his tongue! I was so proud! It was really hard to see him so very fearful for most of October!
Here are Claire and Elliot on Halloween. Kate and Christian were off with their friends by this point so it was really just the four of us. (Funny, sometimes it seems like we "lose" kids the older they get! We go from a family of 6 to a family of 4 quite often anymore. Don't know how I feel about that.)
I love this picture of Elliot. He looks like such a "guy".
Claire was so sparkly in her genie costume (Thank you, Mom, from the bottom of my heart for buying this as a birthday present so I didn't have to make it!) she was her own reflector!
In 1991, Christian was only 11 months old and we took him to get his first pumpkin at a stand in East McKeesport. This picture was taken of me then...



