Serious stuff

Serious Stuff

One of my brother in laws went into the hospital this week, he was having breathing difficulties, he found out he has a slight case of pneumonia and emphysema, not good. There are more test results to come, still waiting to hear if it is cancer. I always get a sick feeling in my stomach when I hear that someone is ill, it is no fun to be in the hospital or sick, least of all have something bad that will not go away.

To top that off, his job moved out of state and there is very little in the way of health insurance. I am praying for them, praying that there is no cancer and sending what I can spare for money, which is not much.

Smoking is so bad for you, and I am fortunate that I am not addicted to them. I have known people with addictive personalities and it is so hard for them to change things and give them up. I have a friend who is easily addicted to things and on top of that she was on Maripex for a few years for her Parkinson's; that was a recipe for disaster. she used to sneak out to the casino at midnight and would blow whole paychecks, thankfully her Dr. changed her meds, but that was not the only thing she was up to.

I have blessings to count!

What I finished during the Olympics and more

The Olympics ended on Sunday, I completed the pink ribbon socks for the Ravelympics and a pair of footie's because I could but, did not go put my name in a second time for the drawing at Linden Hills Yarn. If the weight of the left over yarn and finished socks and footie's is accurate, I will be able to make a second pair of footie's with the Hundertwasser yarn and a smaller pair of pink ribbon socks with the left over Katherine yarn, how fabulous is that?

My poor secret socks did not get finished by Sunday, I found them whimpering for attention. I am giving them some knit time now and they are coming along well, the heel is finished as well as the decreasing for the gusset, I am now working down the foot and hope to be finished this week. The secret socks are happy and giggling with delight at getting some one on one time. I am calling them Azti for short.

Saturday I went on a little excursion with one of my knit night friends. Lisa picked me up and we went to an estate sale, I found a few little knitting goodies, they had two spinning wheels which were sold. Lisa picked up a drop spindle and some fiber, she will be trying to do a bit of hand spinning with it.

Instructions for hand spinning can be found on the Interweave press website here.

http://www.interweave.com/spin/Getting_Started.asp

We followed the Estate sale up with a visit to The Knitters' Palette in Lakeville, and then The JoAnn's in Lakeville, where I picked up a skein of their Sensations Bellezza Collection Dolcetto Pink. I wanted to play with it to see what I thought of it, it is very soft and works up nice. The yarn is a wool, nylon, and cotton blend, I have yet to wash it, but will do that as soon as I finish the booties I am making with it; the label says to hand wash with similar colors. I am making a pair of cuff down booties and finishing the cuff on the second one. I think they will be nice and warm on little feet and the pair of feet I have in mind will be born in January I believe, to another knitting friend.
If the booties turn out nice (which I think they will) I may make a pair of hand mitts as well. It would make a lovely sweater. I have so many projects I want to do for Christmas.

First things first, secret socks and booties, then slippers, hats and WIPs (works in progress).

A couple of our knit night crew went to Stitches and recently returned, I look forward to seeing what they brought back. Should be interesting.

Back to my needles for now.

Happy Stitches

Patterns for sale and other quick updates

I have three patterns for sale on Ravelry now, I am very happy about this and hope to get a few more patterns on line soon.

The Olympics are going along swimmingly, new records and 16 gold medals for the US mens' swim team, which is more than I can say for my socks. I think the whole pressure of; I have to get this done, even though it is fun and the pattern moves along fast, could have been a factor in my set backs. I had some frogging to do on the second sock. I think I have my stride and focus line now.

I should finish today, still before the end of the Olympics, and could get my secret sock done, but I may try to get a pair of footsies made out of the Hundertwasser colorway for the Linden Hills knit along and get my name in for the drawing a second time, I shall see and time will tell. I need to stop reading, perusing Ravelry and getting distracted by outside forces.

The bunnies in the yard are getting too used to Sadie. This morning Sadie stuck her nose into our overgrown flower bed and a bunny slowly moved away from her, across the bed and meandered out the other side.

I can't tell my neighbor, who is hoping Sadie's scent will scare the bunnies away, this particular neighbor has had over a thousand dollars of damage to her beautiful garden this year, all done by the bunnies.

I think it makes Sadie sad that the wild bunnies won't play with her, like an other neighbors bunny, so she has stopped trying to chase them. Maybe Sadie needs her own Bunny friend? No, I know the cats, Monika and Sasha ignore her, but adding a bunny to the mix could be crazy and too many animals. I wonder what the cats would think of the bunny litter box? Hmmmm... No, I could end up homeless for that one.

Back to the socks,

happy stitches

Updates

I am on the second pink ribbon sock, working down the leg, I had to frog back to the cuff last night, made too many mistakes while talking at knit night. But I am on my way now.

This is my first pink ribbon sock, it went so quick and looks so lovely.



I had a crisis of faith before the Olympics started and pulled out of Teammn and the wipswrestling, I did finish one of those projects anyway.

My new goal with knitting is to finish my pink ribbon socks by Saturday and then finish my last secret sock by the end of the Olympics, hopefully even cast on a slipper.

Last night we had quite a showing at knit night, I was so happy to see someone I had become worried about, had not seen or heard from her in a while. She made the cutest little hat for our expectant mommy, in Italian flag colors which is where our EM is from.

My sock will not finish it's self (it would if I were Mrs. Weasley), I am not magical. They are swimming at the Olympics and I am knitting my little heart out.

I will write more later, perhaps when my second sock is complete.

Happy stitches.

Ravelympics, sock club and more

I joined the Ravelympics, I know, it sounds funny. I am on two teams, sugarbunnyblvd, sock put and teammn, wipswrestling. So now I need to complete my secret socks (not in the ravelympics), my campanula socks and Bri's slippers for wipswrestling and my SBB pink ribbon socks for the sugarbunnyblvd sock put. I think I can get them all done by the deadline, which is the end of the oplympics, but I cannot start working on them until the start of the Olympics.


I changed my ravatar to the SBB logo, that was before I joined the Minnesota team for wich I do not have a ravatar. Isn't it cute.

Wish me luck, I will need it.


Saturday was sock club, we have a dragonfly sock to make for this month, I will leave this for after ravelympics.

After sock club a few of us went to Knitter's Palette, it is so nice there, open, Zen. anyway I of course purchased the new Vogue knitting magazine with the article on Ravelry. Good article, it amazes me how short a time span, just one year or so that Ravelry has been around and how much it has grown. There are 160,899 registered Ravelry users as of todays check. That is a lot of people in several countries around the world and the numbers grow daily.

Tazsmonn, my happy house mate is always promoting Ravelry at work, whenever he sees anyone knittingor crocheting. Ravelers promote Ravelry daily to anyone in the knit and crochet community.

Well that was digression for you.

After the Knitter's Palette, We went to lunch at Red Robin, lunch was very good we like the strawberry lemonade) the it was on to Three Kittens to check out thier moving sale, lovely people there as well.

I am continuing to go through things around the house, purging the excess and making life more simple. Today's project is one of the dressers in the bedroom, I have stuff on top and thngs other than clothes in the drawers, like cd's, a cd player and junk like that. It's a bit slow because I have a bad allergy headache again today, this on too of slight athsma issues, oh well keep pluggging along I say, and pray for medications to take better hold.

I have become a laundry fanatic lately, I do wash everyday. No more end of the week laundry back up.


Happy stitches

Road trip and needle progress

My needles have been clicking away and have managed to.......... complete a washcloth, begin the second half of the Lisa Lloyd sister scarf I am making, start a second slipper for my Niece Bri, make progress on my secret sock (I know Jen, it's a secret).

This past Wednesday, I spent a few hours at The Linden Hills Yarn shop in Linden Hills. I had a lovely time visiting with a few of the regulars, some of whom are on Ravelry, and Jan the owner. I picked up a lovely skein of Malabrigo lace yarn in a yellow called Cadmium, Love it! I could not stop touching it for a while, it had called my name for a few hours before I gave in and bought it. I Believe it wants to become a Swallow tail shawl, the project is in my cue and the pattern is ready.

I think I would like to pick up a self patterning yarn that looked as though it was a worsted weight, for a hat or two for Christmas presents. It looked pretty good, oh, and I could find some yarn to make the sock monkey hat.

I had a very nice time at Linden Hills yarn and plan on going a bit more frequently, everyone was friendly and engaging. The Malabrigo lace yarn is dangerous for me though, eeeee, all teh yarn is dangerous. Oh the things we must suffer and the dangers at hand!

Perhaps another road trip like the one I took yesterday would help me complete some of the above projects and more. A group of friends and I decided to take a road trip to Rochester yesterday. to visit a couple of shops there.

If you have spent any time at the Mayo clinic or St. Marys hospital (where I practically grew up), you will find a couple of nice places to divert your attention and uplift your spirits. I am grateful I do not have a reason to hang out around there now, but a visit now and then is a happy way to spend a day.

Both shops are within walking distance of St. Mary's Hospital, Kristen Knits is on Second Street which runs in front of St. Mary's, perhaps two blocks to past going East on Second st, on the North side of the road.

Kristen's is having a sale, 25% off, because they no longer have a lease. Rochester is planning a new project in the area and displacing a few shops temporarily or permanently. Kristen needs to be out by September 1st, I hope she relocates and remains available to the knitting public, and those who only have a few minutes to run over from the hospital.

Just A little Something is on 6th Street about four blocks behind St Mary's, where they offer choices in quilting on the first floor and yarn on the second floor.

This is the historic house and shop, where you will find "Just A Little Something."


In the past I was always in more of a daze, taking a break from surgery waiting, post op, or intensive care when my Dad was in the hospital. I have to say that I enjoyed yesterdays visit much more, no stress or worry.

I did manage to add to my stash, of course. I picked up three skeins of ella rae for making winter bed socks aka. slippers at Kristens, and at JALS, I picked up three skeins of Cascade "The Heathers", in Periwinkle. I was seeing scarf and hat for a Christmas present with this.

Happy stitches everyone, hope your stitches are all going well.

Secret

I have a stitching secret (insert musical notes here). I am making a pair of secret socks, these socks are coming along well, I am making them to enter in the "think outside the sox" sock contest. No pictures, because it is secret for now.

The socks are a cuff down fair isle and, I am working down the foot of the first sock, after which I will of course make the second sock. I had not knitted a lot of fair isle in the past, however I was very inspired to do this sock. This is my first sock design and I am so excited about it.

I am now thinking of a pair for breast cancer or donation. I have been inspired for this one by another blogger and fellow Raveler M. M is dedicated to the cause and helping out, which I like.

Completed:

Diamond lace set, head band, hand warmers and scarf (to be available on Ravelry soon.)

Hundertwasser knit-a-long hand warmers, I like these a lot and have decided they are for me.









Bottoms up tea pot cozy, I will add a picture later.(don't have one yet)


This lovely purple piece is the back of my baby doll top. I am making slow progress, I add a few rows a day on this but focus more on other items, like my secret sock, yeah.









Have fabulous fiber fun.