If you haven’t done this already,please do. It’s a lot of fun!!! Just go to
http://www.myheritage.com

Then click “face recognition” and follow the instructions to find your own celeb look-a-likes! Here’s who I got…

Apparently I just wanna hollaback girl!!

It is now three hours exactly since my last post,and I’ve gotten one sleeve completed. It was a total bitch to do as I’ve never done fair isle on dpn’s before. 22 years of knitting,and this was a first for me! I was worrying about puckering,but I only have one place where the pucker is noticeable,and that ‘s barely,so I’m content with. I feel it will more than likely work out in the blocking,so…

Since I’m not one to wait for the second sleeve before jumping in,I decided to go ahead and sew this sleeve in. First I had to sew and cut the steek.

This was a bit nerve-wracking as even though I’ve done steeking before,it’s always been where I had a steek placket of 4-5 sts. This piece only as 1 stitch for the steek,so it’s more important that the sewing up bit is done properly. Once the steek was cut,and I was sure that there was no raveling,I did a three needle bind off on the shoulder. I decided to do this on the outside of the sweater to create a decorative ridge on the shoulder. This is traditional in Norwegian and Faeroese sweaters and very prevelent in Salish Indian sweaters.

After the bind off was completed,I sewed in the sleeve,and am very happy with the way it looks!

One more sleeve to go,then the hem. I’m contemplating working a small hem on the neckline as well. The pattern calls for it to be only set up as bound off sts,but that causes it to roll out a little bit,showing the floats on the inside of the sweater. I could rib it,but I like the boat neck appearance of this piece. Well,that’s not going to needed for little while anyway. I have decided to put the sweater down for the rest of the day,and work on something mindless for the rest of today…either a coupla dishcloths or my Pi blanket.

So I’ll call it a day for blogging and say until tomorrow!

One of the things I love about Ravelry is the amount of patterns one can find. Late Thursday night,I couldn’t sleep,so I was looking at some free baby patterns on Ravelry. I like to work baby patterns because they’re quick to make,it’s a perfect way to learn or practice new techniques,and they can go to charity if you don’t know a baby. The one that really struck me on that search was a sweater done in classic Norwegian knitting!

For those of you that aren’t familiar…Norwegians classicly knit completely in the round,from the bottom all the way to the shoulders. The sleeves are knit in the round separately. The sleeve holes are cut open in the body,and the sleeves are sewn in. This is called steeking. This is one technique that is not for nervous. Every time I’ve done steeks,I’ve had to hold my breath while cutting them open. If they aren’t sewn properly,they will ravel like mad!

Anyway,I printed up the pattern and put it on hold until Friday afternoon. After finishing Matthew’s b-day hat Friday morning,I went into my stash and pulled out some lovely forest green wool and a gorgeous oatmeal wool,both of which were very close to the pattern. I know that wool is considered by many to be too good to go to charity,but I wanted to work the pattern in wool to keep with the tradition…plus acrylic really sucks when it comes to steeking.

I cast on about 1 pm on Friday,and finished the body of the sweater just a while ago. It’s now 8:20 Sunday morning. Like I said,baby stuff is quick! Here’s the body as it sits…

The tan yarn that you see is holding the shoulder seams in place. The shoulders are not seamed until after the steeks are cut. The steeks can’t be cut until after the sleeves are done,so that you can be sure where they fit. Speaking of steeks,in this pic you’ll see a solid line of green going down the pattern…

This is the steek that will be cut open for the sleeve hole. All that’s left of this sweater is the sleeves,the steeking,seaming and sewing of the parts,and then I pick up all the way around the bottom and knit 10 rounds that will be turned up and sewn in place for a hem.

I’m really enjoying this pattern,but there is one thing that’s driving me crazy. I’m following the pattern as written,but one shoulder has 27 sts where as the other has only 24 sts. I’ve reworked 3 times,and it keeps coming up like that. I know I should frog it out to the shoulders and  just fix the stitch count,but I look at it like this. The piece is not going on a baby at all. The charity bit that I’m making this piece for is for it to go on a teddy bear to be given to a needy or distressed child. Since Teddy will be wearing it,it doesn’t need to be perfect. And I have waaaaaaay too much to do in my queue of “real” pieces to worry if Teddy likes his sweater or not.

Shoot me in the foot if you like,but That’s just the way it has to be for now. If this sweater were going on a child,then yes,I’d fix it,but….

Anyway,that’s been my day so far. Later!!

Just a quick post to let you all know that Matthew loves the hat that I knit for his b-day gift! I took my camera with me tonight to get a shot of him wearing it,but my batteries were dead when we got to the resturant. I guess I didn’t think about charging them today. Fortunately I was able to get a shot this morning after I finished it! Hope you like it!!

As I said before,I combined the Skull Fair Isle from “Son of a Stitch and Bitch” with the Swell from Knitty.com. I had to adapt the Swell to 80 sts,but really didn’t have to adapt the Skull chart that much as the repeats are 10 sts each,sp it fit pretty well. The only other adaptartion that I made to the Swell was adding 3 rows even after the chart rows before decreasing down to 78 sts so as to follow the original pattern decreases.

So that’s been my day. Actually,there was a good bit more…like the fact that I got a job finally!!!! YAY!!!!!! I start in the morning! Also some extremely negative crap happened with my brother’s family,but I really do not want to go into all that. Suffice it to say that my brother and his oldest son are two of a kind,and they act like rams butting heads all day long.

So that’s been my day. Have a great night!

Well,where to begin. As amny of you know,my nephew Justin has been livig here with me and Mom for close to 2 years. Mom and Justin have had extreme arguements for close to 2 years now. Justin does not believe that any rules should apply to him…and apparently that’s a trend with teenagers nowadays. Anyhow,Monday they had a big stupid arguement because Justin decided that he didn’t want to be in the room he’s always lived in since moving in,but that he should have the upstairs room. Here’s the flaw in that.

The bathroom upstairs does not work. He would have to constantly be going up and down the stairs to use the bathroom,shower,etc.
The upstairs room is directly above my mother’s bedroom. Show me one 69 year old woman that wants a teenager and all his friends stomping around over her head.
Justin has an annoying habit of not coming home at night until 1 or 2 in the morning. Again,who wants someone coming in at that time of night banging upstairs and stomping around?

There’s more to add to that,but you get my drift. So,like I said,there was a big stupid fight and Justin announced that he was moving out. He left with a bag of clothes. Okay,big deal. He’s pulled this crap before. Yesterday he came back and got all his clothes,his guitar,and a few things. Still,no biggie. He’s might stay away for a week. Like I said,he’s pilled this crap before. He doesn’t get his way,he leaves for a week or two,Mom begs him to come home. This has happened 4 times since moving in.

Today,he shows up with my Dad’s trailer and takes all his furniture! Bed,dresser,tables,chair,giant screen TV,the works! The kid really has moved out!!! Well,he turns 18 tomorrow,so it’s completely legal in this state,so there’s nothing anyone can say to him. Apparently his best friend’s mother is letting Justin rent one of their outbuildings to live in. So he’s officialy gone. Mom’s been either crying,moping,or cleaning all day long. Me? I keep telling her to let it go cause he has to learn. The world ain’t as easy as he tries to believe it is. He’s always had things handed to him,and this will be a test to see if he can truly depend on himself.

BTW,he doesn’t have a job any longer,as his boss let him go…again,so he has no money for rent,food,or gas. Or insurance on his car. I give him maybe a month,possibly 2 before he’s living back here and screaming at Mom about how nobody cares about him because he’s not getting his way again. Oh! Here’s a picture that I took today of Justin and his best friend,who he’s staying with. His name is also Justin,so my Justin is on the left…

So that’s been my day. have a great night!

Well, I got this to thinking yesterdat and decided to try on my vest that I’ve been working on since last Thursday,and guess what? It don’t fit!!! It actually looks like I’ve been swimming in fabric. So off I went to the frog pond. The yarn is too great not to use as a vest,so I went out and found a great pattern! Still, I didn’t want to start it immediately,so…

I decided to do a small project and since I have this incredible thick wool in my stash,I decided to knit up Knitting Daily’s “Comfy Socks”. I finished up one last night…

I really love the way they work up! You use a thick yarn and size 11 needles,so they’re like really fast and that’s a bonus! Still,I have a habit of falling into second sock syndrome.so I’m letting it sit until I finish off a coupla things. Another reason for this is the fact that Southern winters are still quite warm,so thick socks aren’t really necessary.

So this morning I worked up a cute little scrubbie that I found on Ravelry. Super quick and super cute!!

It takes like alittle less than an hour total to make. If you’d like to give it a go,please find the pattern at

http://crochetpatternsonly.blogspot.com/2005_o5_16_crochetpatternsonly_archive.html

Also,my nephew Matthew’s birthday is this coming Monday,but we’re doing the party Friday night. Do I hear b-day knitting? Matthew loves anime and is getting huge into skulls right now,so I combined the skull fair isle pattern from “Son of a Stitch and Bitch” and the”Swell” pattern from Knitty.com and so far have this…

The genderal consensus is he will love this hat! I’m definitely going to get a shot Friday night of him wearing it to post.

So that’s that! Have a great night!!!

Lately I’ve been doing some heavy reading over at my online friend David’s blog. He has a lot of great info on crochet…some of the stuff I’ve either not heard of or haven’t seen so well done. One of the things david is a genius with is slip stitch crochet. That’s where the Bosnian crochet comes in.

Bosnian crochet is really great because it’s all completely done in slip stitch. That’s it…just slip stitch. Inspired by David, I decided to make a little Bosnian crochet pouch.

The picture is really fuzzy, but you can get a basic idea. The bottom, center, and top bands are done while slip stitching only in the back loop while the other two bands are worked in the front loops only…again only in slip stitch. I really can’t go into much more detail than that. It’s just slip stitch in the round. If you want to get some really wonderful tutorials on slip stitch crochet, please check David at  http://ayarnifiedlife.blogspot.com

On a different note, I’m up to the 50th row of my “Petrol” vest…

Again…the picture is crap, but it’s not really easy to take a great shot of a piece that’s work on circular needles. Once I get to the point where the pieces become separated into back and front I’ll be able to get some better shots. However, that won’t be until I hit the 100th round or so. 46 rounds equals 6.25 inches and the dividing point isn’t until 14 inches, so…

So that’s about it. Oh! I had a pretty good job interview and I’m hoping to get called back for a second interview, as that’s usually a good sign that the job’s in the bag. I’ve been doing positive affirmations on this and they’ve worked for me before, so I’m in a pretty positive place. So that’s that. Have a great night!

Apparently it was a dog’s day at the ole homestead today! This was the picture taken while I was away…

From left to right is-Baby (my Italian Greyhound),Belle (Mom’s Cocker Spaniel), and Peepers (Mom’s Golden Lab/Chow Mix). We obviously need a bigger sunbeam!

While this was going on, I spent the day visiting with my friends at the stitch and bitch! I took 2 projects with me. One was a set of mitts. Yes, another set. This set is the “Dashing” pattern from Knitty.com. The yarn is this gorgeous wool blend in deep green…

It looks lighter than it is because of the flash. Anyway, I worked on the first of the pair up to the 38th round. Once I got home and sat down to finish of the mitt, I saw that I didn’t pay careful enough attention to the pattern and had made a boo-boo. Usually I would have let it go, but this pair is meant for my Pop, so I went to the frog pond. There’s no rush on them as they are actually intended as his Christmas gift…so that gives me several months, but I want to knit this pattern so they’ll get started on real soon.

Luckily for mw I have another project that I started last night after binding off my Irish mitts. A dear friend who is moving away gifted me with a HUGE stash of cotton blend yarn that she had. The minute I saw it, I knew it was destined to be a vest for me. I’m now on the 25th round and even though the picture is horrible, you can see the yarn pretty well…

It’s Bernat Denim in a beep burgundy and ecru mix. I love the ragg look of it and I can’t wait to finish the piece. I’ve never worked a cotton blend hyarn like this before, and it’s a little rough on my fingers as I tend to knit fast, but I’m really liking this! The pattern for this piece is also from Knitty. It’s the “Petrol” pattern. The pattern actually calls for a contrasting stripe to be knit into it, but I think the ragg yarn is enough of a texture and apperance, so that’s all I’m going to use.

I also have the 2 blankets languishing away. It’s just been too warm to worry about those right now. So that’s been my day.

Have a great night!!

Sorry i haven’t posted in a few days, but things have been going too blah to blog about.

I have been doing some knitting though. I love working cables, but I don’t have the attention span to knit a cabled sweater…or even a scarf. I found a pattern for fingerless mitts, which I love to wear, that have three cables per mitt. They took me the past two days, and I really love the way they came out!

The cables are really simple to work out. The only thing I really don’t care for in the pattern is the fact that they’re worked flat and then seamed up. When I make the next pair…and I will…I’ll be doing them in the round. I don’t mind seaming if it’s necessary, but that’s not something I look forward to doing.

So that’s basically what I’ve been doing…that and trying to pass that bastard kidney stone! Have a great night!!

Despite the agony that I’ve been in the past coupla days,I have gotten to the halfway point on my Crazy Cloth afghan.

It’s turning out pretty funky looking and I hope the kids at SisterCare like it. Unforunately I have to change the print yarn to a solid yarn on the last part of it cuz they don’t put out this particular print except in summer. Oh well,that’s fine…it’ll work. You’ll just have to wait and see.

Because I spent most of the day in the bathroom trying to pass this kidney stone…not gone yet…I didn’t work on the blanket. I had to have something that I could carry into the bathroom with me,so I decided to make a Crazy Cloth dishcloth. I really like this pattern and I’m happy with all the cloths I’ve made so far. This is the one that got done today…

I’ll more than likely be making more of these until I pass this stone,or until it stops bothering me again. Whichever. I’ll work on the blanket when I’m not in too much pain,but dishcloths are simple work as I don’t have to really worry about stitch count so much.

So that’s that. Have a great night!