Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Will It Fit?, He Has a Sensitive Side

December 4, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

OFF THE NEEDLES

Nuthin’. Zero, zilch, negative. Projects? Yeah, I got ’em, just none finished. The weather forecast is for a big ice storm starting tonight or tomorrow, if it happens, projects will FLY off the needles. Just you watch.

GOT A SHOEHORN??

We have an ginormous igloo style dog house that I’m donating to one of the rescue organizations here in Little Rock. Cool, right? So, next on my to do list today is try to fit this ginormous igloo into my Nissan Versa. I think it will fit if I put down the back seats. Maybe.

FLASH:

The rescue lady just called and she will pick it up in her truck tomorrow afternoon. All around good!

FIBER FLASH

This lovely stuff is from Greenwood Fiberworks, hand painted Polwarth, in Rosewood and the best part? I have four of these beauties and whatever they decide to be, it will be mine, mine, mine! I’m thinking socks, but Rosie Rosewood may have other ideas. Don’t laugh – my wool talks to me all the time.

REAL MEN WEAR PINK

Babydaddy got cold over Thanksgiving and donned the pink Snuggie for a while. I think it goes really well with the rainbow sock toe this particular pair of Jaywalker socks ended up with when I ran out of yarn and had to wing it.

The Ladies Love It!

BY THE BOOK

Here’s my current read:

So far – Awesome!

Linking today with Ginny’s Knit A Long.

You have to take it as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it. Old German proverb

Knitting

Guess What Day It Is!, No Excuse and Read This Book

November 19, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

“GUESS

What day it is!” says the hysterically funny camel on the commercial. Never get tired of that one, makes me giggle every time. No camels here, promise. Today is the scheduled delivery day for this – my newest knitting acquisition:

A Baby Brother drum carder. So, once again, I’m running a marathon between my front door and my knitting chair, jumping up and checking every time I hear or even think I hear a big truck in my neighborhood. Can you tell I’m excited?

Much as I love spinning, I hate hand carding, prompting this newest purchase. I still have a TON of alpaca from the Diamond State Fiber Fest that’s clean and ready to card and eventually, to spin. Come on, mailman/Fedex man/UPS man! Stop at my house!!!!

TIME FLIES

I knew it had been a while since my last post, six days, in fact and besides just laziness when I’m not caught up in regular daily stuff, I have no excuse. For some reason, blogging just hasn’t been on my radar lately. I think about doing it all the time, even jot down blog ideas, but for the past week or so, that’s as far as it’s gone. (Gives herself a good talking to about idle hands being the devil’s workshop and all that).

BY THE BOOK

Best book I’ve read since I don’t know when: The World’s Strongest Librarian. Seriously. Awesome. Book. Run, don’t walk to wherever you get books and give it a preview. I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me. (No joke).

TODAYS FEATURED GRAND

Babydiva letting Babydaddy share the stage –

A rare moment of stillness. Is she beautiful or what?

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. Napoleon Hill

Knitting

September 29, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

THE GRANDS

Mr. Iknead and I had the pleasure of some two on one time yesterday with Babydiva while Babymama and Babydaddy caught a matinee (did I spell that right?) of Wicked and it’s hard to tell who had the better time. We went on a field trip to Good Earth Garden Center and we had a blast. I took lots of pictures of the back of Babydiva’s head, since she never quits moving and her philosophy is “why sit when you can walk and why walk when you can run?” Note to self – wear running shoes next time. See what I mean?

Look at that sweet hand!

I got it, Pawpaw.

Then, there’s the Papoose and Sprout.

Precious Sprout

The Papoose and cookie dough love.

What did we do before we had grands?

Patience and perseverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. John Adams

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

Socks, Suits and Swimming

May 27, 2013May 27, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

OFF THE NEEDLES

The first Crocus Vernus sock is (finally) off the needles and I’m pretty happy about the way it turned out. If you remember, this was the project that inadvertantly was left behind after the Papoose’s birthday party and had one of the needles pulled out before I could reclaim it. I gave putting it back on the needle a quick try but then decided to suck it up and frog. I made a change or two, mainly deciding to just do three pattern repeats for the leg instead of eight, making it shorter and hopefully not quite so hot on the feet this summer.

I started the second sock yesterday and am on the second of the three pattern repeats on the leg. A FO Friday post seems possible.

JUST ADD WATER AND PLEASE PASS THE SUNSCREEN

Mr. Iknead and I are joining kids and the grands today for a swim and then a cookout. Babydaddy is smoking some ribs and my contribution will probably be something sweet and maybe some deviled eggs.

Saturday afternoon, I began the much dreaded, once every two or three years, search for the perfect swimsuit. You know the one – it gives me the same body that I had 30 years ago, when I could laugh in the face of gravity, and shows off the perfect tan that I slaved over, beginning in March, shivering in a bathing suit but sure it would all be worth it when I heard the gasps, ooohs and ahhhs of envy around the pool. Never happened, never will but I did get two new bathing suits without too much damage to my self esteem. Still, could someone just tell me why the lighting in dressing rooms invariably makes my skin look like cottage cheese?

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison

Knitting

It’s so quiet!

October 29, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

THE GRANDS

We had the Papoose from Friday morning until Sunday evening this past weekend and now that it’s just us again, it’s so quiet, it’s “I can hear Josie snoring two rooms away” quiet. As always, Susannah was a joy, happy, a great napper/sleeper, a good eater and ready for anything. She kept us on our toes sure enough and I laughed myself into a set of sore ribs. What’s better than that? She got a mani-pedi –

and Papa brushed up on his coloring skills –

What’s not to like? Right? Papa does have an odd fixation about staying inside the lines, but Susie and I are working on that and he’s coming along nicely.

IN THE OVEN

Cooler temps over the weekend meant doing some real cooking – I made a beef stew on Friday and Crockpot Burritos on Saturday. The burritos especially were a winner. Babydiva, Babydaddy and Babymama came over Sunday after church and helped us eat the leftovers. Even better then second day! I’d hoped to bake bread over the weekend but that clearly was a little overly optimistic timewise. Maybe next weekend. It’s on the list.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. Helen Keller

Knitting

The one where we step

April 30, 2012 mud&stringLeave a comment

outside the box a little today. We went to Mass with Babydaddy and Babymama and Harper this morning. Been a long time since I sat through a service and I got a little squirmy, but my heart felt nourished, it was good. We had lunch with Babymama and Babydaddy, not so relaxing, Harper wasn’t a happy camper for most of the time, but it didn’t help that the service was soooooooooo slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Two hours from the time we sat down to the time we settled up our check. Usually, Mr. Iknead and I would have been history had we been by ourselves, but when you’re with a group, it’s more difficult. At least I was on my best behavior and didn’t get too bent out of shape. Maybe the Mass was working or something.

Here’s the official first half of the Leaf Lace Socks and the beginning of the second:ial