Knitting

August 29, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

LATE FOR WIPW BUT STILL ON THE NEEDLES

This is the front for the ruffled tank that’s still a WIP. I knitted the back and while congratulating myself, noticed that it looked a little “wonky”. It was then that I noticed the huge mistake I made. When a pattern states “work as for front” it means just what it says, start at the top of the pattern, not in the middle. So, I frogged the entire back and started it again, this time paying more attention. Sigh. That’s why it’s recommended that you read a pattern through multiple times BEFORE you start knitting. Another sigh.

Tank sweater back #2

Change in all things is sweet. Aristotle

Knitting

Spin Cycle and Begonias

August 27, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ADVENTURES IN WOOL

With the acquisition of my spinning wheel (I’ve named her Violet) last week, I inherited a bag – make that a sealed bag – of wool, unwashed, unpicked and really, really greasy with what must be lanolin. First time experience with raw wool. It smelled very sheepy – not a bad smell, just……sheepy. So, I did what anyone would do. I went on YouTube to see what you do with raw wool to make it spinnable and eventually, knittable. I washed it good with the recommended Dawn dish detergent; remember: Dawn takes grease out of your way, which it does and then rinsed it and ran it through the spin cycle a couple of times. Lucky for you, I documented its transformation.

Just out of the sealed bag, unwashed

After first wash, rinse and spin

After another rinse and spin, then out into the sun to dry

I’ll start carding it tonight, to hopefully begin its change from a fleece into sock yarn. I’m completely convinced that you can learn anything by checking out YouTube. Amazing.

Mr. Iknead is still firm on his NO SHEEP policy. Won’t even talk about it.

GREEN GROWING THINGS

A couple of my begonias are blooming and a couple more that I’d pretty much given up on have decided to perk up and promise more blooms. My mom loved begonias and I suppose that’s rubbed off a little. I love these colors –

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it. Horace Mann

Knitting

Vacay and Kindersongs

August 26, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

A LITTLE BUMMED

Today is our last pottery class for this semester, ;(, but I’ve already signed up for the next one. I’m going to learn the wheel next and am excited to learn something new. I think we raku again today. The firebug in me is always excited to raku!

KINDERSONG

The Kindersong concert was totally AWESOME! Silly songs, silly hats, silly dancing – I loved it! Oh yeah, the grands loved it too. The papoose danced the whole time. I’ve already decided to keep an eye out so we can go again. Mr. Iknead took lots of pictures, but since the papoose and babydiva were in constant motion, most of them are just blurs. Oh, well, better pics next time.

LONG AWAITED, MUCH ANTICIPATED

Are you ready?? Cause here are a few of our vacay pics:

The Sprout and the Papoose

Babydiva

All of us!

Sprout

Mr. Iknead, the grands and me, in our dreams.

Mr. Iknead, the grands and me – real life

Corny? Absolutely! Probably my favorite of all!

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. Lao Tzu

Knitting

Try To Relax, Willya?

August 23, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

SPIN

A couple of things: spinning is work, especially if you’re a newbie. My treadle leg is tired today. It also seems to have a steep learning curve. I’ve been practicing and just this morning felt like I might be getting a handle on it, at least the treadling part. If my hands are going correctly, I forget to treadle. If my treadling is working, I forget about my hands. But I think I’m improving….maybe…..just a little. I’d taken a pic of my first (presentable) yarn – all one yard of it, but Flickr apparently is having a snit and won’t let me upload. I’ll try again later. What a brat.

OK, Flickr is back in my good graces.

THE GRANDS

We have tickets for tomorrow morning for a Kindersong performance and I personally am pretty jacked up about it. I think it will be right up Babydiva and the Papoose’s alley, with lots of audience participation and familiar songs. One of the coolest things is that Kindersongs is a husband and wife team, they’re local and before they launched Kindersongs, Mr. Kinder was a teacher and taught music to both Bigmommy and Babydaddy. I think it’s really neat that my kids have a link to them and now, their kids will have one too. Of course, any time we spend with the grands is precious and they’re just now getting to the age where they like to actually do things, and love to take part in anything musical and/or silly. I hope we can get some pics.

PHOTOSHOOT

Our shoot at the beach turned out to be fabulous. As soon as I can get a DVD burned, I’ll be posting some vacay pics. What a difference a pro photog makes! The weather cooperated (yay) and in a couple, everyone is actually looking in the same direction. Do you know how hard it is to get three babies to look at the same thing? One was always throwing sand, one was always eating sand and one simply got sick and tired of having her picture taken. Kudos to the photographer! Oh, I almost forgot, all our clothing matched, thanks to Bigmommy and Babymama. I was a little skeptical about that, but it really turned out well. I’ll start listening to their suggestions more, maybe.

SUMPIN’S GOTTA GIVE

I decided today to put a lot of my projects on the backburner and concentrate on just one or two things. Today, especially, I’ve felt a little overwhelmed; I want to work on everything but end up frustrated because I can’t seem to concentrate long enough to anything but screw up, much less finish something. Knitting and reading – still in the game. Everything else – in time out for at least a few days, until I can get my feet back under me. Pinterest will be the death of me, I swear.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other as if everything is. Albert Einstein

Knitting

Look What I Got, WIPW 08/21/13 and Snakewoman

August 21, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

I’M SO EXCITED AND I JUST CAN’T HIDE IT

OK, so I’ve been lusting after a spinning wheel, putting a little money back every now and then and doing a lot of window shopping online. Then, yesterday, I found out that a lady who worked where I used to work had a spinning wheel and was wanting to sell it. She and I e-mailed back and forth, she sent me some pics and now, as of 5:00 p.m., I have a wheel and not just any wheel, an Ashford Traveller! Here in the south, it’s considered bad manners to talk about money, much less bragging (that’s what I was taught, anyway), but without stating the amount, it was less than half of what I thought I’d have to pay for one. Isn’t she beautiful???

Pay no attention to the fact that I’ve never used a wheel before, hopefully, I’ll catch on pretty quick. Isn’t that what YouTube is for?

ON THE NEEDLES

I’ve been so excited about the new wheel, I almost let this WIP Wednesday get away from me, but here’s my WIPW offering this week –

Ruffle Tank, using the Knit One Crochet Too Kettle Tweed I named My Destin-E.

and last, but not least

BY THE BOOK

My current book in progress is Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga and I’m loving it! Very quirky, just like I like it.

Snakewoman of Little Egypt

Here’s to learning new skills!

I almost forgot – I’m linking with Tami’s and Frontier Dreams today.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

Knitting

Souveniers

August 17, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

WHAT I BROUGHT BACK

Here are my official souveniers of my beach vacation. I’m a knitter, so can I help it if my idea a perfect souvenier is yarn, searching high and low for a LYS to visit, with extra points if it’s located on or near the beach?

First up is Knit One Crochet Too Kettle Tweed, 60% merino, 20% baby llama, 10% bamboo and 10% Donegal. There’s no color named, just a number, 4523, but since I think everything should have a name, I’m calling the colorway My Destin-Y. Very clever, especially since it came from a shop in Destin, Florida, named (surprise!) The Destin Yarn Shop. My project for this is c2knits Jackie, a topdown tank. Nice and summery, don’t you think?

Next is this lovely Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, which also has just a number, no real name. I’m calling this one Sea Glass because it makes me think of the small bits of glass sometimes found on the beach, beautifully frosted by waves and sand. No official project yet, but I’m leaning toward a cowl, specifically, Botanical.

Still happy to be home.

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John Gardner

Knitting

Home with Hermione, FO Friday

August 16, 2013August 16, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

OFF THE NEEDLES

Here’s Hermione’s Everyday Socks:

This pattern is a Rav freebie and I totally loved knitting these up; a four row repeat that was easy to memorize and was really awesome with the yarn, which was from Premier Yarns and was wool-free. The color is Vegas Lights and lent itself well to this pattern. Being on vacation for the past week, these socks had quite a bit of beach time. Got a few odd looks, you’d think people had never seen knitting on the beach! 🙂

SCENES FROM VACATION

BABYDIVA AND BABYDADDY ON THE BEACH.

THE SPROUT LOVES THE BEACH!

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which one to keep, Scott Adams

Knitting

Beach 2013

August 13, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

I NEEDED AN OUTLET

Mr. Iknead and I took advantage of the cool, rainy morning to check out a yarn store in Destin. Actually, it was me that wanted to check out the yarn store, Mr. Iknead was kind enough to drive – the traffic around Destin is hideous at any time and the yarn store didn’t pan out, so we went to the outlets instead. I bought a nice pair of thong sandals at the Columbia outlet (shoe whore that I am) and a great new purse at Fossil.

LIFE’S A BEACH

What We See

THE LITTLEST GRAND

Sweet Sprout

No man is a failure who is enjoying life. William Feather

Knitting

Sun and Sand

August 11, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ARE WE THERE YET?

Yes Yes Yes. We’re here, near and dear. Molly, Julia and Jason, we miss you. We’ll soak up a little extra sun on your behalf.

ON THE NEEDLES

Almost finished with the last Hermione sock and am ready to start another project. Babymama and I are going to make a yarn run before we head home to Arkansas. According to Google – we’re smack in the middle of two yarn shops, one in Destin and one in DeFuniak Springs. Like I said, a yarn run is required. Don’t wait up!!

JOY!!!!

This says it all!

This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before, Maya Angelou

Knitting

What I Do Have

August 9, 2013August 9, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

DON’T HAVE

A FO for today. DO HAVE Beach toes! That’s right friends – Mr. Iknead and I are on vacation and are kicking back in a hotel (a Holiday Inn if you’re interested) in Hattiesburg M-eye-ess-ess-eye-ess-ess-eye-pee-pee-eye on our way to Grayton Beach, FL. Beach toes that I can’t show you because Flickr isn’t co-operating.

Maybe later.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Ralph Emerson

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 8/7/13

August 7, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

The first Hermione’s Everyday Sock is finished and the second has been cast on and a few rounds worked. I’m still really liking this wool-free sock yarn.

MATERIAL GIRL??

Browsing Hobby Lobby a few days ago, I ran across this pack of fat eighths and fell in love with its pinky brown colors. I really haven’t made up my mind what to do with it but I’m leaning toward a quilted wall hanging for the dining room. But, me being the slightly ADD person I am, this could change at any moment. Right now, though, it’s spread on the dining table and I’m pretty content to visit it, swap things around and generally admire it. Any suggestions for a really easy quilt pattern for a novice sewer and quilter?