Tag: wip

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 10/24/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

I’m on the downhill side of Pretty Maids, I think I have about ten rows left to complete, bearing in mind, though, that these are long, long rows, approximately 350 stitches and increasing by two stitches each row.  I’m enjoying this second go round so much more than the first, I’m sure it’s because I’m not having to constantly check the pattern and the symbol guide.  It’s not flying off the needles by any stretch of the imagination, but it is moving faster this time.

BY THE BOOK

I finished Opium Fiend yesterday during my daily treadmill and have moved on to The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth by Alison Weir.  Very interesting, up to Anne Boleyn at the moment.  I’m finishing my books much slower than I’m adding them and they’re beginning to pile up, but I can’t resist a new book.  I keep telling myself that I’ll get caught up in December and January, when I’ve retired and the weather is too cold and nasty to be anywhere but inside by the fire. 

VIOLET

Lately I’ve become obsessed with everything violet and I’m blaming it all on getting my tat, which is a violet ball of yarn and knitting needles.  So last weekend, when I was prowling Goodwill, looking for odd and ends to craft with, I saw these and pounced –

They don’t match anything in my house – yet.  Is it over the top to paint a room around the color of a couple of candlesticks from Goodwill instead of the other way around?  It could totally happen.  My research tells me that people who are drawn to the color violet are usually nuclear physicists or performance artists.  That’s me in a nutshell.  OK, maybe not the physicist part, but performance artist?  Absolutely and I have embarrassing pictures to prove it.

THE GRANDS

The Papoose wants Babysis to sleep in her bed with her.  Bigmommy sent me this yesterday.

Susannah and Annabelle

Is this not the sweetest thing?

 No man is rich enough to buy back his past.  Oscar Wilde (see above paragraph)

B

 

 

 

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 10/17/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Plugging along on the Pretty Maids shawl and am so happy I decided to frog the first attempt, the second try is 100% better.  I’m able to “read” my knitting better and as a result, if I make a mistake, I notice it quicker and can fix it more easily.  A much happier project!   Here’s a photo –

Stitch close up 

 

The Big Picture

 THE GRANDS

I have a new picture of Babysis Annabelle and can’t resist blogging it.  Talk about a lucky shot!

Isn’t she precious???

IN THE OVEN

I have big plans for baking this coming weekend.  I’m going to bake bread and attempt to get a sourdough starter going.  The weather should help out quite a bit, low humidity, warm but not hot temperatures.  I’ve missed baking these past few months, first it was way to hot to use the oven, then I was too busy, what with the grands, work, Mom and the zillion other tiny things that seem to be of no consequence, but turn into a mountain with attempts to accomplish them. 

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.  A.A. Milne

B 

Knitting

Crisis averted/WIP Wednesday 10/10/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Ouch!  When I went to take a photo of the ongoing Pretty Maids shawl project to post to WIP Wednesday, I ACCIDENTLY PULLED THE NEEDLES OUT OF THE KNITTING!  My heart just sank.  Seriously, I thought I would throw up when I saw it.  I was three rows from finishing it.   Jeez.  Luckily, I was able to put it back on the needles and am now in the process of tinking it back to a recognizable row to get moving forward on it again.  Even though I know “it’s just knitting”, it’s my knitting and my time invested in it and I love it.  Hopefully, this evening I’ll see forward progress again. 

It’s really hard to make out what it looks like when it’s unblocked lace. Patience, patience and hopefully, it will be finished, washed and blocked by this time next week. 

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.  Albert Pike

B

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 10/03/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Pretty Maids shawl, from Knitty Deep Fall 2010, done in Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paint, 85% Merino Superwash Wool/15% Mulberry Silk, color number 9801, which I call Bonfire because everything should have a name. 

Pretty Maids Shawl

A HAPPY

When I visited my mother this morning, she knew me and told me she loved me.  This can make the worst day one of the best.  I miss the mom I had before dementia, but am coming to love the person she is now.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after a committee of sleep has worked on it.  John Steinbeck 

B

Knitting

ACK!!!

mud&stringLeave a comment

NEED SPRAY AND WASH STAT!

Somehow this morning my skirt (which happens to be my current favorite) got hung up in one of the wheels on my chair.  I had to just yank it out, but fortunately, it didn’t rip.  What did happen is that it has grease or something on it.  Pray that it will come out with a little elbow grease and stain remover this evening as soon as I get home.  Arghhhhhhh!

 BY THE BOOK

I finally finished my treadmill book, The Last Romanov, yesterday.  Enjoyed it for what it was – fiction not even trying to pass for nonfiction.  Now I’m shopping for another treadmill book, maybe Nicholas and Alexandra, in keeping with my current Russia/Romanov obsession.  I read this a long, long time ago, when books were always made of paper and if not bought, were checked out of the library, with a signature and stamped date so you’d know when it return it.  The olden days I suppose.  Nicholas and Alexandra it is.

   ON THE NEEDLES (STILL)

The Dropsy scarf has undergone a few changes, I added a few more stitches to widen it and am much happier with the way it looks.  I took this pic this a.m. in natural light and the color is much truer than last weeks photo.

THE GRANDS

Still on babywatch at the Papoose’s house.  Unless Bigmama goes into labor before hand, this time next Wednesday, we should have a  brand new grand to show off.   Bigmama’s WIP will become a FO!  (sorry, a little knitting humor there).

Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom.  It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught.  Herman Hesse

B

 

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 09/12/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

A dropped stitch scarf that I’ve christened Dropsy.

Dropsy

Strangely, it’s not bluish, it’s pink.  Just use your imagination, please.

THE GRANDS

Bigmama still gestating, the Papoose is still two and the cutest thing on the planet and Babydiva is still growing like a weed.   Can’t wait to meet the newest grand!

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.  Love them anyway.  Mother Teresa

B

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 08/29/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

Nearly finished with heel turn.

yarma

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.  Sir Winston Churchill

Knitting

WIP Wednesday 07/25/12

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

The second 9 to 5 sock looks like this:

It could be finished by the end of this week.  Maybe. If I don’t get seduced by some new and therefore more exciting yarn or pattern.  Or both.

Measure twice, cut once.  Craftsman’s aphorism

B

Knitting

WIP Wednesday

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

So, I finally got the heel flap on the 9 to 5 socks under control yesterday and was merrily knitting along, patting myself on the back for finally getting it going, looked down to check my progress and saw that I’d dropped a stitch about two inches ago. 

 

Nine to Five Socks

My Sock of Shame

Then, I put it in time out for a few minutes, gathered my nerve and once again, frogged the heel flap.  Sigh.  Maybe the third time really is a charm.  Another sigh.

We don’t love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.  Jacques Maritain

B

 

Knitting

WIP Wednesday

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Wingspan, in Araucania Huasco, Code Color: 7.

Every time I knit with Araucania, I fall a little more in love.  It’s definitely a splurge yarn for me, but sometimes I just can’t resist its charms!

BY THE BOOK

I just finished I Am In Here by Elizabeth M. Bonker, about her autistic daughter and her struggle to communicate.  It’s a book of hope, courage and commitment; I enjoyed it very much.

I’m rereading (for the nth time) Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.  Just started Wolves of the Calla this morning, fourth in the series.  No matter how many times I read or listen to this story, I find something new; it never gets old.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.  Pittacus

B

Knitting

Back Home

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

The Maidenhair Fern socks have been reborn as Nicole Hindes’ Nine-To-Five Socks.  This picture is not the best, the stitch detail isn’t great, but tomorrow I’ll take the WIP sock outside, the lighting will be a million times better that it is at 8:35 p.m. in my bedroom.  I’m using size one circulars and am much happier with a tighter stitch and overall smaller size.

A better picture tomorrow, I promise.

A DUH MOMENT

I can’t believe that I spent an entire hour trying to figure out why pictures taken from my iPhone are on their sides when I e-mail them or try to post them.  Also, I can’t believe that the solution to that  problem is to turn the phone on its side horizontally first, then take the picture.  Duh.  Occam’s Razor once again proves correct: “when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better”, also known as Keep It Simple.

HOME SWEET HOME

As much fun as the Girl Power 2012 get-together was, I was so happy to get home to Mr. Iknead and JosiePug yesterday.  A great time was had by all but when the Papoose (usually so happy-go-lucky and go with the flow) had three meltdowns in ten minutes, I knew it was time to pack it up and take it back on the road to Little Rock.  We rolled back into LR about 5 p.m.; Babydiva needed a bottle STAT and thankfully, we had called ahead and Babydaddy had one waiting.  Babydiva was getting ready to more than live up to her name by the time we got home.  Hell hath no fury and all that.

It is necessary for us to learn from others’ mistakes.  You will not live long enough to make them all yourself.  Hyman George Rickover

B