Knitting

The one where the Bunny Booties

February 5, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

are finally completed and turned out to be the sweetest things ever, a huge hit at Katie’s baby shower. Lots of squees and oohs, Katie made sure that everyone knew that I had knitted them. Believe it or not, I was able to keep them a secret, so they were a complete surprise. See?

More exciting news – The Papoose is going to be a big sister! Yep, that’s right, next Christmas, there will be THREE, count ’em, THREE babies to spoil! Susannah, not yet born, Harper and just got started Baby Vaughan. My needles will be smoking, I see a lot of baby knits in my future.

I finished my current book this afternoon, The Long Journey Home, by Margaret Robison. I thought a lot of the content was familiar, characters and such; come to find out, one of her sons is Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors, which I read a couple of years ago and enjoyed. I thought they had similar styles, which would make sense, being mother and son.

Work tomorrow, I think I’m coming down with a cold, have a scratchy throat, stuffy nose and just generally feeling washed out, I hope I feel better tomorrow.

One’s own thought is one’s world. What a person things is what he becomes. Maitri Upanishhads

Knitting

The one where I’m becoming infatuated

February 1, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

with Pinterest. I finally got my invite last Friday, so I spent time over the weekend just getting familiar with the site, learning how to navigate around and looking at different projects and ideas. I see a lot of Pinterest in my future.

Here’s one of my WIPs for today – the Debbie Bliss Bunny Booties. This time around it’s been a lot easier, there’s something to be said for practice. All told, I’ve probably knitted six booties all together, two practice, two finished but permanently maimed in a nasty scissor encounter and finally, the new, nearly completed pair. Hopefully by tomorrow evening they’ll have their ears, faces and pompom tails. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Here’s a peek –

Cutest things I’ve seen in a while, without a doubt. I’m sure they’ll be a hit at the baby shower Saturday. Can’t wait to see them on baby Harper’s feet!

The Papoose and family will be here tomorrow evening. One more thing to look forward to. It seems like a long time between visits, about a month, I need some Susannah love.

Life is good.

There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look. Henry Matisse

Knitting

The one where I baked

January 29, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

and baked and baked this weekend, a total of two pies (one raisin and one pecan) and something new, Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread, which is to die for. I found the Pull-Apart Bread on the blog iheartfoodandsocanyou.blogspot.com via Pinterest. This is going to be a repeater, I can tell.

I’ve just been able to get started with Pinterest the past couple of days. I like the idea of having a virtual bulletin board for things that resonate with me and I really enjoy seeing what others have going on. I hope to be able to get more into it as time goes by.

I want to become more savvy with my blog so I bought a couple of books today Teach Yourself WordPress 3 in 10 minutes and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress. I can only get better, I think.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. John R. Wooden

Knitting

The one where I want to throw

January 25, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

up. The Bunny booties? Yeah, well, last night I was tweaking the ears a little, I just wasn’t satisfied with the way I had sewn one on and in the process of trying to fix it, I cut a hole in the bootie. A hole as in big enough to stick a finger through. WTF?! Now what?, start from scratch again with the same pattern or give up and pick a different one? Really, at the moment my attitude is so bad that I don’t care if I never knit another bootie in this life. Gah!!

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. Henry J. Kaiser

Knitting

The one where I have a 100% authentic

January 22, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

omgdidisaythatoutloud moment and for the record, yes, I did say it out loud. Here’s a little backstory: There’s this guy who works out in the same gym as I do and usually about the same time. In the past few weeks, he’s started making this really odd noise, sort of a moan/singing/grunting sound and loud. Loud as in I can hear him from across the room, over the other conversations and the TV and over my ipod blasting. I’ve tried polite looks, more pointed looks and outright irritated stares, he’s oblivious. So, he climbed on the treadmill next to me yesterday and out of my mouth popped “If you’re going to use that treadmill next to me, you’re going to have to keep your voice a little quieter.” I can’t believe I really said that; I’d been thinking it, but crap, it just came out. That was my OMG moment. I immediately started apologizing profusely and did my best to laugh it off, saying I had no idea he was a singer, hahaha. Open mouth, insert foot. Off the chart embarrassment. Please let him not be there today, pleasepleaseplease.

I’m nearly finished with the first of Mr. Iknead’s new pair of socks. He’s anxiously awaiting but as mild a winter as Arkansas has had this year, he’s not going to need them. It’s 8:49 pm and the temp is 66 degrees F. and stormy.

I’ve been working on Debbie Bliss’ Bunny Booties for the new baby due to arrive in March. All that’s left to do is sew the ears on and embroider their faces. Entirely too, too sweet. I’ll get a picture up in the next week or so.

Here’s a new installation of Miss Susannah. Pretty cute herself I think.

One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it. French proverb

Knitting

The one where she’s gotten

January 17, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

tickets to the March 1 Little Rock Jimmy Buffett concert!!! This is a dream come true for me – I love Jimmy Buffett and have always promised myself that if he came anywhere close to LR, I’d treat myself to tickets and it’s finally happened; they went on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. and I AM SO EXCITED! My kids wanted to go too, so I ended getting eight tickets all together. You’re never too old to rock and roll! Now if I could only get a pic of him holding my newest sock in progress, it could happen, you never know.

I had a request for the scone recipe from last week, so here it is:

CINNAMON RAISIN SCONES

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup milk

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Using pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine milk, egg and vanilla. Add to flour mixture; stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in raisins.

With floured hands, shape dough into an 8 inch round on an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with additional sugar if desired. Cut dough into 8 wedges, slightly separate wedges. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

OK, something’s wonky with WordPress tonight so I’m stopping while I’m ahead.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank

Knitting

The one about my FO

January 13, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

Friday project. Yes, I’m back and here it is:

These are the HelloYarns Cable Twist Socks, done up in Shibui Sock, colorway Finch. Thanks to Mr. Iknead for nice pictures with his fancy new camera. I’ve never had yellow socks before. Turned out nicely, I think.

Just cast on a pair for Mr. Iknead today, Nicole Okun’s Farrow Rib Socks, in Patons Kroy Sock FX, in Cadet colors. I’ll try to prevail upon Mr. Iknead again to get pictures, shouldn’t been difficult, he loves his new camera.

Good, productive day today. Cast on new sock project, made a meeting, visited my mom and tried my hand at making scones – cinnamon raisin to be exact. I’ve wanted to try my hand at scones for a while and today, I found a recipe, printed it and made them. They smell heavenly. I really want to sample, but I’m trying to wait until I get a picture first. I love it when a plan comes together!

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that the others are behind the time. Martha Graham

Knitting

The one where it’s Sunday

January 8, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

evening and I’m trying to get into the work week groove, getting my clothes for tomorrow ready along with my lunch, getting as much taken care of tonight as I can so that I have the minimum amount of stress and disorganization in the morning. This plan works for me more times than not, but it does require some preplanning and sometimes, I just don’t want to acknowledge that tomorrow and work are going to happen, I don’t know, something about wanting the weekend to last forever. Tonight, though, I’ve gotten my T’s crossed and my I’s dotted and there’ll be smooth sailing tomorrow morning.

I finished the socks in progress this afternoon. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned them or not and am too lazy to go back and check, but the pattern is Cable Twist, a Ravelry freebie and I love them. They worked up really quickly and easily, which in my case means little or no math involved and straightforward instructions. Here’s a pic, oops, not so fast. Mr Iknead informs me that yes indeed, he did take a photo but hasn’t downloaded it as of yet. Next time. To tide you over, here’s a current pic of the Papoose, modeling the latest in hair fashions.

I’m apparently a tad rusty on the inserting pictures routine. I’ll get better, I promise and as quick as I can, get the Cable Twist socks on board.

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts. Charles Dickens

Knitting

The one where another blogging New Year’s resolution

January 2, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

is made. I’m not setting the bar quite so high this time, instead of blogging every day, I’m going to shoot for twice a week and really learn about how blogging works and why, instead of getting by with minimum knowledge like I have for the past year. I’ve not made an entry since the middle of October (I had to go back and look), but things are more manageable now, with my mom settled in here in Little Rock and a new routine established. So, I’m ready for a new start.

Pictures tomorrow, I hope.

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said onhis deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Knitting

The one where I break

October 12, 2011 mud&stringLeave a comment

down and pony up $64.00 for an extended support package for my iPod. This is after I totally spent nearly the whole weekend trying to reinstall my music and audiobook libraries to my iTunes. Long story short, we had computer issues several weeks ago which necessitated backing everything up onto an external drive and then wiping the hard drive clean and reinstalling. My problem is that I can sync either my books or my music, but not both. This has nearly driven me stark. raving.mad. Someone from Apple is to call me tonight and hopefully, I’ll get it all resolved. Crossing my fingers.

24 hours later…..

The back up files are on the external drive but I can’t find them, that is, I can’t find the folder that contains them. So, I’ll keep looking and in the meantime download my music from my CDs. Luckily, all my audiobooks are in my Audible library and I can redownload them without too much fuss. Aggravating, yes, but totally survivable.

Saturday, I made a pilgrimage to my LYS here in Little Rock, Yarn Mart, and splurged on a beautiful skein of Madelinetosh Pashmina, in Cove. This is definitely a luxury yarn and feels like I’m knitting a cloud. As usual, I’ve become nervous about having enough yarn to finish my project (Candle Flame Shawl from Ravelry) and so will call today and secure another skein. I was in such a rush to start this newest project that I didn’t think to take a pic until I’d already wound it so the colors aren’t showing as well, but am posting one

anyway. I’ll try to remember to photograph the new skein before winding.

Here’s some stitch detail. I love the robin egg blue with the mossy green.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Susan Ertz

Knitting

The one where the Drop Stitch Shawl

September 23, 2011 mud&stringLeave a comment

finally is completely finished, fringed, washed, blocked, photographed, it’s done. Here’s how it turned out. The light aqua didn’t photo well, but you get the idea.

A person is only as good as what they love. Saul Bellow

Knitting

The one where she shows

September 22, 2011 mud&stringLeave a comment

off her newest obsession, a teapot. Not to put too fine a point on it, a PURPLE and white polkadot teapot. I love teapots and have several, but I’ve never set out to actually collect them, until now. I’m crazy for purple and when I ran across this sweet little pot, I had to have it. Could this be any cuter??

It came in this great matching box and if it gets any better I won’t be able to stand it, matches my reading glasses perfectly. Perfectly purple.

My next project is burning a hole in my knitting bag, but I’m trying to hold off starting it until I have the Diamond Leaf Cowl finished. It’s from Knitty Deep Fall 2011, Alda by Harpa Jonsdottir. I think I’m in love (again).

A man of good will with a little effort and belief in his own powers can enjoy a deep, tranquil, rich life — provided he go his own way….To live one’s own life is still the best way of life, always was, and always will be. Henry Miller