Knitting

FO=Frustration Overload

April 18, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

TODAY’S FO

Here’s something I bet you don’t know about me: I want to be a seamstress – badly. The only hitch in my get along is that I don’t really know how to sew. I get these delusions of grandeur periodically, the most recent came upon me a few weeks ago. So far, I’ve produced a skirt and a pair of pants and to my shock, they both are wearable. So, with my confidence at an all time high, I started another skirt, navy blue with a pattern of white leaves, with a sort of flouncy bottom. The skirt bottom, not my bottom. Cutting and sewing went well, boosting my confidence a little more, BUT, on trying it on, it’s too small. Way too small. Dang. The pattern was the size I wear, seam allowances jibed. Does my backside have delusions of grandeur all its own? Do patterns run smaller than ready made? Any answers from seamstresses?

RANDOM SNAPS

Happy Easter!

Where there is great love, there are always miracles. Willa Cather

Knitting

Word Doc

April 17, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

DOCUMENT ME, PLEASE

After reading Pixelknit’s Ponderings and admiring her pages, I’ve decided to join in The Documented Life, a yearlong journal/art project from Art to the Fifth. OK, my confession is: I’m not artistic. I can’t draw or paint and have always colored outside the lines, but I love creating things and if I can do something in an unexpected way, all the better. Also, journaling is not my strong suit, but ask me one question a day or give me an idea and I’m off and running. Also, I love buying journals, all that blank space makes me feel like anything is possible, brand new and open to anything. Listen to me, waxing positively dreamy.

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly. Lauren Bacall

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 4/16/14 and Booklove

April 16, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Since the first version of Socks on a Plane was way too small, I frogged and started over, this time with a total of 64 stitches instead of 56 (as best I can remember, I seem to have blocked it from my memory) and this time around the fit is much better. I’m glad because it just about kills me to frog something that is so close to being finished. Close as in one inch of cuff and I’m finished and moving on. I did it and I’m glad I did, but still…

Second Go Round

BOOKLOVE

I’m still reading God’s Hotel, which is taking longer than usual to finish since I seem to only read it when I’m on the treadmill. This is a good thing most of the time because if I have a “special treadmill book”, climbing on and walking for 45 minutes or an hour doesn’t seem to be as much of a chore. I downloaded a new book, Frog Music, that I’m looking forward to reading; I suppose you could call it my carrot and stick, since I’ve resolved to finish Hotel before I start anything new.

I’m linking up today, as usual with Ginny, Tami and Frontier Dreams KCCO. Inspiration Central, like always.

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Joseph Clinton Pearce

Knitting

Out with the Old

April 15, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

I don’t know about anyone else but this whole security breach thing with tumblr is about to drive me nuts. Actually, what’s driving me there is having to change passwords. You practically have to include every letter, upper and lower case, pick a number between 1 and a billion, throw a couple of odd symbols in and just in case, include your firstborn child. Really, I understand the importance of a secure internet; I just have trouble coming up with a reasonably memorable password that fits the above criteria. I consider myself somewhat creative, but new passwords stump me. Every. Time.

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS PART TWO

Dinner the last night at J. Greene’s Pub

Dessert at Ted Drewe’s, it’s never too cold for frozen custard!

Grammy with Carter

The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.

Knitting

Spinning Sunday

April 13, 2014April 12, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

YUCK

I decided to try space dyeing on the new roving I got from UpTownDesign and since I didn’t really know how to go about it, I hopped over to YouTube and check out a couple of how tos by ChemKnits. Here’s an in progress look at my first try at it.

It turned out to be the ugliest yarn ever so I overdyed it with some sky blue Jacquard acid fast dye I had on hand. Much, much better.

Rinsed, dry and ready to spin:

Still has some ugly spots, but socks can be mostly hidden 🙂

Live out of your imagination, not your history. Stephen Covey

Knitting

A Little Alpaca Humor

April 11, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

I saw this a few days ago and knew I had to blog it. I’m still giggling! Anyone else have fiber funnies?

Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself. Alfred Sheinwold

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 4/9/14, Booklove

April 9, 2014April 8, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Pleiades Shawlette

Stash Yarn – Cascade 220, Savona Rose

Socks on a Plane are sort of hibernating at the moment as the first one is way too small. I’ve been trying to delude myself that they’re just “snug”. They’re past snug, they’re too small, even too small for Bigmommy, who has teeny feet. Dang.

BOOKLOVE 4/9/14

I’m still reading Victoria Sweet’s God’s Hotel. Very interesting, premodern medicine, I’d never thought too much about it. Learning something new every time I pick it up.

Linking with Tami and KCCO Frontier Dreams, along with Ginny’s Yarn along.

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis. Margaret Bonnano

Knitting

Reduce Reuse Recycle Confession

April 8, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE

I ordered some lovely superwash merino and was pretty much bowled over when I saw it had been mailed in a cereal box. I’ve never thought about doing that but it makes perfect sense. So I’m a little slow getting into the reduce, reuse, recycle mindset. I have great intentions, I just forget sometimes. Remember, I’m a baby boomer, we were proud to be able to throw things away and never considered what it might cost us in the long run. But, then, we never thought gasoline would top a dollar a gallon either. Those were the days, my friend.

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. David Russell

Knitting

Meet Me In St. Louis

April 4, 2014April 8, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

This is the post that apparently was published in an alternate universe yesterday. Don’t know what happened to the original.

ROADTRIP CONTINUED

Everyone made it safely to St. Louis – just in time for some bad weather – hail, torrential rain and high winds/tornados. We spent a little time down in the basement when the tornado got a little too close for comfort. Mr. Iknead’s new car fared pretty well during the hail, a couple of minor dings, one on the hood and one on the top. I think we got off easy – it could have been much worse.

It was so good to be with everyone, watching all the little girls giggle and play. We marveled at how much everyone’s grown and were been introduced to Baby Carter, the newest leaf on our family tree.

Babymama spends some QT with Carter

We went to The Magic House and the Zoo. Little niece Marin had a mishap at The Magic House with this resulting pretty blue cast on her leg. Her doc couldn’t pinpoint a fracture on x-ray since two year olds still have so much cartilage, but just to be on the safe side, he recommended the cast. Poor baby!

For the record, I didn’t hear this kid complain once – at all, about anything, before or after her adventures in casting. We should all be so cool, calm and collected. Marin, you’re awesome!

Lunch at the Zoo with Sprout

Art with Cousins

The young lovelies in this photo are, left to right,

Babydiva aka Harper

Papoose aka Susannah

and

Mollie

Another Cousin, Lila, at the Zoo

Mr. Iknead: Truly a Wild and Crazy Guy

Dad Jason, Mom Julia and daughter, Mollie at the Zoo

Raja

Sprout and Me at the Zoo

More pics to come. Stay tuned!

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it. Leonardo da Vinci

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 4/2/14, Booklove, Leak Be Gone

April 2, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

PLUMBING UPDATE

Our plumber rocks! The leak I mentioned in my last post is history! As it turned out, he found the leak, fixed it and only charged us $145.50. If you’ve had to call a plumber in the last ten years, you’ll know we got off easy, fix-wise and money-wise, with no fuss and very little muss. What a relief!

BOOKLOVE

I’ve finished one book, Benediction, by Kent Haruf and started two others, an ebook, God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet and an audiobook, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. I wasn’t too sure about Benediction, it took me a bit to see where the author was going with the story, but I got involved before too long and ended up enjoying it very much. I like it when at the end of the book, there are still some loose ends, not everything is tied up nice, tight and neat. Real life seems to always have loose ends!

ON THE NEEDLES

Woodlands Scarf in the found merino, Papercut, both of which I’m liking a lot. I tentatively started a new pair of socks using my first Yarnbox yarn, in a new pattern, Leaf on the Wind, but ended up frogging after deciding that my choice of both pattern did not do the yarn justice and vice versa.

Yes, the photo is upside down but it just took me an hour to figure out how to insert a picture in a post on the iPad. I’m not up for another hour of frustration today.

I’m linking with Tami and Frontier Dreams KCCO, please pay them a visit. Oops, I almost forgot Ginny’s Yarn Along!

Skill to do comes of doing. Ralph Emerson

Knitting

Under Construction, Fam Fun, Plumber Pain

April 1, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

CONSTRUCTION

In the past year or so, Mr. Iknead and I have been finally able to have some much needed work and/or sprucing up around our house, starting last spring with having the front yard landscaped and a sprinkler system installed. Now, it’s spring again and it looks as if most, if not all of the plants wintered just fine and are greening up nicely. We’re newbies to the gardening stuff and have been amazed to see plants that looked like a bunch of sticks sticking up are putting out new leaves and buds. I find gardening very …… hopeful, as in, things encased in ice a month ago are again fresh green and getting fresher and greener every day.

We had new siding put up last fall, which we love; it’s made a huge difference. Now, we’re having a new, nicer patio put in, with tile replacing the old, ugly concrete pad. This means that today, a concrete guy is coming to break up the old concrete to ready it for the tile. Sledgehammer or jackhammer? No clue but it’s sure to be loud and dirty and Josie Pug will bark herself into exhaustion.

UPDATE

1:38 p.m. Still waiting on concrete guy. Beginning to get irritated.

ROADTRIP

We still have our trip to see the St. Louis branch of the Coleman clan the end of this week. The weather is possibly going to be a little dicey, starting tomorrow. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can get out ahead of it or better yet, they miss the forecast. This year, we have a new baby in the mix, Carter, bringing the current total of assorted grandkids to seven little ones under four years old. Wow! When you put that in writing, it’s sort of mind boggling.

NOOOOOOOO

Bad news. We have a leak. The plumber is here and he’s trying to figure out where it’s coming from. He tells me that fixing it is going to involve digging. At least it’s outside, but still not good. They’ve been here a while and I think they’re still trying to pinpoint exactly where it is. See ya later fun money. It was nice knowing ya. Sob.

Money grows on the tree of persistence. Japanese Proverb

Knitting

All Feely and Stuff

March 31, 2014 mud&stringLeave a comment

FEELINGS WHOA WHOA WHOA FEELINGS

I feel like such a green living, socially conscious yuppie, what with Mr. Iknead’s new, greener vehicle and our trip to the Good Earth Garden Center today, which seems to have gotten its hooks in us, making us want to visit and then buy all the things, from birdbaths to exotic (to us) plants we can’t even name to huge statues of Bigfoot, which I wish I’d snapped a picture of on this particular visit. Good Earth has become our destination of choice lately, even on the coldest winter days, just so we could stroll through the hothouses and daydream about spring. Who would have thunk it, us, people who a year or so ago ran the other way when yardwork was even mentioned? Who knew we were closet green thumbs? Not me, for sure.

I bought some succulents to go in the terrarium I plan to do today, a forsythia and something called a Lenten Rose, with lovely pinkish blooms. I think the honeybee that was visiting its flowers put me up to buying it. I tried to get a picture of the bee in the blooms, but no go. I got a picture anyway.

Here’s a look at my newest terrarium:

By the way, I’ve become a fan of Snapguide for how-tos. I really like its pared down and to the point instructions, and the way it tells me only what I need to know, without a lot of what I call “instruction clutter” – confusingly wordy or hard to understand directions. Can you gather that patience is not something I have in abundance?

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. James Oppenheim