Knitting

FO Friday 07/19/13

July 19, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

OFF THE NEEDLES

I FINALLY finished the Papoose’s Olivia Petit sweater this week. If you will recall, I had intended to knit three (what was I thinking??) of these sweet sweaters, one for each grand, for Easter. Clearly, I must have been intoxicated from the heady fumes of possibility that this pattern was emitting at that particular point in time. Be that as it may, here’s the finished product, blocked, with buttons and ends woven in.

Front

Back

Remember this? My very first handspun and dyed yarn?

It went from this –

To a Cowl

OFF THE MACHINE

Here’s what I made yesterday – I’m getting more confident all the time on the sewing machine. I think I might make a trip to Jo-Ann today and brainstorm.

Lining

I have to admit I’m more than a little proud of myself. On Monday, I couldn’t even thread the machine! Still on a learning curve, but I can see the possibilities that knowing how to sew will open.

OK, enough already.

I’m linking up again with Tami and Frontier Dreams KCCO. Pay a visit, willya?

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

Knitting

One for the History Books, An Honor, An Award

April 23, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS

The 2013 Coleman family reunion bash has come and gone and I think it’s safe to say it was a unqualified success. Everyone played nice (but we always do) with lots of baby admiring, kid chasing, laughter, way too much food and just all around catching up. I’ll be posting pics for a while, there are at least a couple hundred, but don’t worry, I’ve no intention of subjecting you to photo after photo of people, places or things that are only interesting to the people actually in the picture. First, though, I finally got a pic of the Sprout in the Olivia Petit sweater. Oh.My.Gosh.

Lindsey and Annie – The first twigs on the Coleman Family tree

I can’t believe they have babies of their own now!

SUCH AN HONOR

I was so surprised and honored to learn that nothingbutknit2 nominated me for a Leibster award. Keep reading to get the skinny on this very cool award.

The Leibster Award is given by bloggers, to bloggers, and its purpose is to highlight blogs with under 200 followers that deserve a look. Encouraging people to visit blogs that others enjoy seems like a great initiative. The rules for the award are pretty straightforward:

1. Post 11 facts about myself.

2. Answer the questions given to me by the person who nominated me.

3. Invent 11 questions to ask people whom I wish to nominate for the award.

4. Choose 11 people (with fewer than 200 followers) to give this award to and link to them in my post.

5. Go to their blog and tell them.

My 11 Facts:

1. I’m an only child.

2. I have three grandchildren, all girls.

3. I’ve been married to Mr. Iknead for 33 years.

4. I am recently retired.

5. Before I was old and creaky-boned, I was an aerobics teacher.

6. I’ll try anything once.

7. I learned to drive on a stick shift.

8. I’m an unrepentent homebody.

9. I love to fish – but strictly catch and release.

10. I played bassoon in high school.

11. I love a challenge.

My 11 Nominee Answers

1. Favorite color? Any shade of purple.

2. Childhood punishment? Spanking.

3. Favorite book? A tie – Stephen King’s The Stand and Betty Smith‘s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

4. Dog or cat? Both.

5. Party theme? Come as your favorite book character.

6. My favorite actor/actress? Diane Keaton.

7. What have I learned recently that surprised me? People describe me as “artsy”.

8. Have I ever done anything illegal? Yep.

9. Hardest thing ever done? Ran the eight mile leg of a relay marathon.

10. Title of my autobiography? Still Crazy After All These Years.

11. Easier to give up chocolate or TV for a week? Chocolate.

My 11 Nominee Questions:

1. Fiction or nonfiction?

2. Favorite dessert?

3. What was the last book you read?

4. What’s your favorite music genre?

5. Do you know how to swim?

6. What do you have a burning desire to learn?

7. Birth order?

8. What’s your guilty pleasure?

9. What’s your favorite thing to knit?

10. What would be your dream job?

11. What would be your dream vacation?

My Nominees:

The Mommy Life 101

My Knitting Circle’s Blog

wife*mother*disciple

Your Mess, His Message

Take a few minutes to check out these blogs, I hope you like them as much as I do!

There is no such thing as a “self-made” person….Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. George Matthew Adams

Knitting

FO Friday, Blogs and Monkey Pool

April 5, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

OFF THE NEEDLES OR TGIFOF

The Monkey Pool socks are finished as of yesterday. The Parakeet yarn was amazing to work with, unfortunately, the pattern I started out with, Spring Pools, not so much. This was totally my fault. The pretty pattern was lost in the busy colors on the yarn. Of course, I decided this AFTER the first sock was finished. So, I changed canoes so to speak in the middle of the stream and the second sock is a Crazy Monkey, making these a pair of Monkey Pool socks.

FYI – I tried to post a link for the Parakeet yarn but can’t read the name of the web address on the label. Sorry about that. It’s from The Great Adirondack Yarn Company.

L – Spring Pools R- Crazy Monkey

I’m still on the lookout for the perfect buttons for Olivia. I’m going to Goodwill today to search for some I can repurpose and if not, then I’ll continue my stalking. This search has motivated me to start stockpiling buttons that catch my interest and since I’m a diehard collector, the house will be awash in buttons in no time. Besides, I think buttons are cool. Speaking of Olivia, she’s blocked and ready to receive the final touches, an applied I-cord (which I’m going to need help with) and, of course, the buttons. I’ll show her off as soon as she’s officially totally completed, FO Friday or not!

SHAMELESS PLUG

While you’re blog surfing, please check out these two, which are near and dear to my heart, wife.mother.disciple at susiemom.wordpress.com and The Mommy Life 101 at kcoleman1009.wordpress.com. As mentioned in another post, these blogs are Bigmommy and Babymama’s first blogs ever and we all know, especially with blogging, a little encouragement goes a long way! Thanks in advance!

Another blog you don’t want to miss is Tamis Ami’s and since it’s FO Friday, it’s full of FO goodness. You’ll be blown away by the creativity of us fiber freaks, I always am!

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm

Knitting

Goal Met, Sweet Sprout, On to the Next

April 3, 2013April 3, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Yesterday’s goal met, with pictures to prove it! You can see that Olivia lacks a sleeve and some I-cord to be finished. Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this sweet sweater has been totally worth the hair tearing and project slinging but I’m ready to move on. It sort of seems like a waste to not go ahead and knit another since I seem to have gotten it down but honestly, I need a break. I’m thinking a simple pair of summer socks for Mr. Iknead. He suffered through my Olivia learning curve too!

Front, without buttons. Anyone have button suggestions?

Back

Love that the color photographed pretty much true on this gray, rainy day!

THE GRANDS

Today, I’m putting the Sprout in the limelight, I think she may have been given short shrift with the recent birthday and Easter. Her onesie says it all!

Don’t forget to check out Tami’s Amis WIPW blog for more WIP love!

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Knitting

Just Call Me Tinkerbell

March 23, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

BY THE BOOK

Not reading/listening much at the moment. There are a couple of books that have piqued my interest, Mary Coin by Marisa Silver and Fever by Mary Beth Keane. As far as I can tell, neither one is in my local library’s collection yet, frustrating for me due to our (Mr. Iknead’s) austerity plan. I’ve requested them, but this takes time, which I have a lot of, but unfortunately I’m continually short on patience. Could this be a sign that I need to finish the books I’ve started to make room for those I want to start? Possibly.

JUST WHEN

I think winter is really over and begin to anticipate spring with warmer temps and greener everything, Mother Nature brings another surprise. After a couple of days of short sleeves and sunshine, the weather turned cold again with snow in the northern part of the state and rain and sleet for the rest. I’m tired of sweaters and long sleeves and am finding myself thinking more and more about swimsuits, sandals and the beach. Our August vacation seems soooo far away!

ON/OFF THE NEEDLES

I cast off Lolita last night, all she lacks is a light blocking and then sewing the shoulder seams. I’ll get a picture when she’s officially finished. Still working on the first Olivia Petit sweater. I ended up tinking back even more when I noticed a dropped stitch about ten or 12 rows back. I tried to convince myself that I could totally live with it, that with a little blocking it would be next to unnoticeable. You know how far that got me. Bit the bullet, tinked back and redid and am much happier. Two more buttonholes, then separating for the sleeves and I’ll be ready to start knitting the peplum. Suddenly, knitting two more of these doesn’t seem like such a great idea. Hmmm, wonder why? Here it is so far:

Sorry the pic sucks.

Off to start blocking Lolita!

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein

Knitting

How Cool Is That?, Free at Last and Olivia Petit

March 15, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

HOW COOL IS THAT?

A couple of years ago, 3/23/11 to be exact ’cause I went back and checked, I decided that I wanted – no, make that needed, to learn how to make pottery. Like a lot of things I get obsessed with, this idea eventually seemed to fade and then take its place in what I call the idea cabinet part of my head. It never fully got relegated to the back side of the cabinet. It just hung around, surfacing every now and then in the foreground of whatever I was mentally working on. Long story short I signed up for a basic handbuilding pottery class at the art center here in Little Rock yesterday after seeing a random class schedule online. The first class is April 1 and to say I’m excited is like saying Albert Einstein is a math whiz. Personally, I think looking at the collection of pottery at the library Monday shook something loose.

IN THE OVEN

It’s been a while since I’ve done any what I call real baking, meaning from scratch, not a box. Not knocking the box thing, Lord knows it’s saved my fanny more times than I like to count, it’s just not as satisfying to me as measuring out ingredients and watching my big Kitchenaid do its thing. So, this afternoon, I pulled out the fresh blueberries I found Tuesday, the pecans I got cheap at Christmas and froze and the little bit of sour cream I had left over from some other cooking project and made a (surprise) blueberry-pecan-sour cream coffee cake that smells heavenly. I’m having cake for supper. Oh, you haven’t heard?? They’ve made coffee cake a food group!

SEE YA NEXT YEAR, BUH-BYE

I had my last visit (hurray hurray) with my hematologist today and he released me, to come back in a year. His release was the final step in getting back to normal after my surgery. For the first time in a long, long time, my blood counts are normal and I don’t have to be followed every week or so with blood draws and lab tests. To give you an idea, about a week before my surgery, my hematocrit was 9.5-ish and today, it was 12; translated into realspeak, my doctor said it pretty much means that I have 2 1/2 more pints of blood today than I had a month ago. No wonder I feel more energized. Please excuse me, I’m going now to leap a tall building in a single bound. While I’m leaping, you can admire the flowers I saw outside the clinic this morning ; )

Little Rock Hematology Oncology Clinic

REDEMPTION

The Olivia Petit sweater and I have come to an agreement. I’ll do a better job of reading the pattern and making sure I understand directions and she’ll be a good sport and knit up all pretty and sweet like she promised. Really, it was operator error with the difficulties earlier this week. After I put her aside, slept and reread her pattern more slowly and closely, my mistake was obvious and best of all, fixable. It did entail several, like ten, rows of tinking, but I’m finally back on track with most of my sanity intact. This is what she looks like so far –