Knitting

Coffee Cup, Big Six and Book Love

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES/IN THE KILN

My WIPs have been reduced the past couple of days, I wish I could say that they’ve entered FOville but, no, they’ve been frogged or otherwise put on hold, mostly because I just wasn’t satisfied with them. Life’s too short, right? I’m still working on an Olivia Petit sweater in a larger size, much larger and now I remember why I prefer to knit baby stuff. I have to admit though, that it’s knitting up much, much, much faster than the original Olivia, due to, I’m sure, my finally figuring out the pattern and not having to knit and then tink or frog.

I decided to include a pottery WIP today, my first (sort of) recognizable object, a really, really big coffee cup.

Glazed and ready for the second firing

GIRLS RULE!

I call this photo “The Big Six”. Grown-ups are, left to right, our niece Julia, her mom and our sister in law, Patty, Mr. Iknead’s mom, Mema and my baby boy, Jordan. Aren’t the matching dresses the cutest things??

(L to R) Lila, Mollie, Marin, Harper, Susannah and Annabelle

Right after this picture, Harper put a cigarette butt in her mouth. Yuck x1000000000

BY THE BOOK

I’m currently deeply engrossed in Gwen W. Steege’s The Knitter’s Life List. This particular book is from my local library, but I’m seriously inclined to buy myself a copy, just because I love its lists, pictures and fiber people profiles. Off to stalk this book online….

Don’t forget to check out the Small Things Yarn Along.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. Albert Schweitzer

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

WIPW 04/17/12

April 17, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

I’ve been able to rein in my knitting ADD, at least for the moment, trying really hard not to veer off into the ozone with knitting projects. I’m working on Knitty‘s Interlocking Leaves socks in the oh so pretty Shibui Poodleskirt color and I also started another Olivia Petit sweater, this one in a larger size. Oh yeah, I’ve been knitting up dishcloths at Bigmama’s request and they’re a nice break from those long rows of Olivia.

Interlocking Leaves

Olivia Petit 2.0

In case you’re wondering, that’s a set of frosted glass windchimes that I was too lazy to put away this morning, thus their debut on WIPW 04/17/13

FIELD TRIP

Babymama and I, along with Babydiva, Bela the standard poodle and Josie Pug have plans to visit the dog park this afternoon. I’m expecting it to be loads of fun, and am right now charging Mr. Canon’s battery (sounds kind of nasty, doesn’t it?) to document all the fun. Look for pictures to be posted later this week.

Don’t forget to visit Tami Ami’s WIPW blog and check out all the neat WIPs!

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. Anthony J. D’Angelo

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

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 –

If you look closely, you can see the first two buttonholes; we won’t

discuss last night’s buttonhole frustration.

Don’t forget to check Tami Ami’s FO Friday blog – it’s always a treat!

What’s your latest dream come true?

Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building. Stephen Covey

Knitting

WIPW 3/13/13, A Bump in the Olivia Petit Road and Library Whimsies

March 13, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

I have a couple of things, as usual, in the process of knitting up, frogging or time out. The first one up today went through all three stages yesterday, the Lolita vest. Here’s what went down – Rewind to Monday evening. Happily knitting, patting myself on the back for doing such a good job of staying on Task Lolita, even when the new yarn on the block, Knitpicks Comfy Sport in Honeydew, was calling me out to get acquainted and get started on the sweater(s) I had planned for it. Final pat on the back and then to bed. On inspection of my progress yesterday morning, I noticed that somehow I’d gotten a few, surely not more than three or so, stitches off in the pattern and now part of the openwork was wonky and didn’t match up with the previous openwork. Tinked back to correct, fixed – still not right, tinked back and tried again – still didn’t suit me, tinked back one more time, reknit and finally produced something I can live with. Since it’s knitted side to side, at the moment it’s just a wad of knitted fabric, but the spring sunshine was too great to pass up this morning and I took a pic anyway.

I’ve hit a pothole in the road on the sweet Olivia Petit sweater and haven’t been able to figure out what’s going on. I cast on, did the set up row for the neck and raglan increase, so far so good, worked the next increase row and that’s where the wheels came off. Too many stitches when I went to count. OK, operator error, frogged and started again. Same thing, too many stitches. Must have misread pattern. Frogged and started again after going over the pattern with a fine toothed comb, counting and recounting, reading and rereading. Still screwed, went to bed. I’m knitting the smallest size, so I’m thinking maybe going up one pattern size will work. Please. Will frog one last time and start again. If no go this time, I’m swallowing my pride, taking it to Yarn Mart and letting them figure it out. Frustration overload.

BY THE BOOK

I finished an absolutely, positively wonderful book yesterday, I started it Monday and couldn’t stop listening until it was finished, An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11 Year Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny, by Laura Schroff. Goosebumps though the whole thing! Incredible heartache, incredible joy, incredible book!

AT THE LIBRARY

I’m a huge library fan and not just for the books; it’s a favorite place for me to sit, knit and people watch for an hour or so whenever I can and I’m always excited to check out the collections on display. This week was a particular treat, with a collection of pottery. Surprisingly, my iPhone pictures through the glass turned out really well. I’m disappointed that there was no artist or artists mentioned but that didn’t cut the cool.

Love the paper pumps but Birthday Cake Grandma is my all time favorite. I’m crazy for her skull purse!

Don’t forget to head to Tami Amis for more WIPW stuff!

To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous. Confucius

Knitting

Tiny Dancer, Pacy Covet and New Project Excitement

March 5, 2013 mud&stringLeave a comment

IF YOU’VE MISSED OUT

on seeing a naked two and a half year old ballerina stopping mid pirouette to potty, you’ve truly missed out on the highest form of funny cuteness. That’s right friends, the Papoose is in the midst of potty training and I think it might have clicked yesterday. Then, just when our giggles were starting to slow, she ran into the bathroom to flush – her potty chair is in the den, getting us going all over again. Thanks to the wonders of the digital age, it’s all on video. If you’re wondering why her potty’s in the den, you need to know that potty training at this stage is more about timing and convenience and less about location. What’s true in real estate, location, location, location ain’t necessarily so in potty training.

BY THE BOOK

Way way invested in Robert Massie‘s biography, Catherine the Great. I’m just right at her arranged marriage to 17 year old Peter of Holstein. I’ve mentioned my fascination with the Russian imperial family before and finished Nicholas and Alexandra a little bit ago. Loved it and am loving CTG just as much.

BUSTING TO BE

on the needles is Olivia Petit, a sweater I blogged about in How Come. I got the yarn ordered this morning (13 skeins) and am anxious to see it in person and start gauging. After a little more thought over the past few days, I think I’m going to scale back my grand plans just a little and just go for a Easter sweater for the Sprout, I’ve not knitted anything for this poor babe. I guess that comes from being #3 in the grandbaby line up, so I’m giving her first dibs. Check my blog post How Come? to see the project picture. It’s the cutest thing!

KEEP YOUR EYE ON

the much coveted monkey pacifier that the Sprout got as a baby gift. It is really, really cute, a pacifier with a soft, floppy monkey (think Beanie Baby) attached, making it easy for little hands to hang on to. Well, let me tell you, this monkey pacy is much admired and coveted within the Coleman/Vaughan circle of grands and is fair game if it gets dropped or somehow laid aside and forgotten. See what I mean?