moonfrog

I have been deep in the throes of major sock drama. Dad’s socks drama. I got one sock half done. Got the second sock all the way to picking up the gusset stitches. HOLES! Not just your generic socky holes. REALLY bad ladders! Well, after 4 times of knitting the heel, I finally got it to work out to satisfaction. So, I was knitting at high speed down the sock …. hope was mounting ….

I ran out of yarn! The ribbed sock pattern takes a HUGE amount of yarn. (I’ll give the pattern and yarn details later.) My hopes were dashed again. But wait! I have some brown that doesnt’ match, but it will blend in…and it is quite a bit thinner…but I have ONE DAY LEFT! So…

If I get a finished sock, I will give Dad one and a half socks for Christmas. And it will be fine.

While I was shopping, I made sure I picked up the yarn for Mrs. B’s wrist warmers. Can’t wait!

I found a wonderful fabric basket for my mom and filled it with enough goodies to make a Noro bag she likes, and then a sweater out of Manos del Uraguay and Paton’s Classic. She’ll have to exchange the blue for turquois after the holidays when a new shipment comes into the LYS. I am real happy with this gifty for Mom. She will appreciate the do-it-yourself kit more than my feeble attempts at knitting. Well, maybe not more, but just as much.

Well, tonight is my oldest son’s birthday — the big 3-0! Then the Christmas routine. I will probably finish my Angel Hair scarf then and give it away. Then I’m off to Kansas City on Monday the 26th to see my 3 year old grandson. Whew!
I look forward to seeing all the new knitting when I get back!

Have a wonderful holiday!

My big dog is visiting for the holidays. I sure have missed him. He has a great new home, but I really enjoy when he comes back to visit. Here he is modeling Dad’s Socks for me.

Both cuffs are done and I’m moving into the heel flap of the second sock. Will they or won’t they? I have back-up gifties for Pops if these don’t get finished. Then his birthday is in February. It’s good to have a Plan B. If these get done, I plan to make him some gloves for his birthday. ‘Cuz I like the pressure, ya know.

Hope everyone else has their gift knitting under control. Next… Cookies!

Today the mailman brought my prize for making buttons (in sidebar) for the Felted Bag KAL Secret Pal 2 (aka Felted SP2). It’s easy to win when you are the only one who entered! Lu (aka Maglia!) from the Felted SP2 sent me two hanks of some very cool Viking Gold wool yarn. My mom is going to use a skein of bright blue Cascade with it and make it a felted bag. I think it will work up great. Thanks so much Lu!
I believe you can still sign up for this second round of swapping, which will start in January. It looks like it will be a lot of fun.

And after much running around and some DH face-time…I finally had some quiet moments to sit down and open my swap package from the Knitting Chicks tote bag exchange. I have been anxiously awaiting the opening.
What a thoughtful package! My wonderful swap partner, Debra Ritter, sent me a lovely KoolAid-dyed tote and the ingredients to make one myself. I love the random variations in hand-painted yarns.

She filled it with everything I need to dye some wool, complete with illustrated directions. After taking a class in KoolAid dying, I have been wanting to do it at home. I just haven’t remembered to get KoolAid and haven’t worked up the nerve to do it alone. Now I am ready! I love the Paton yarn and it will match the little sample I did in my class. And the KoolAid colors are just right. Now I just need to carve out a hunk of time.

Debra also got me the size 7 wooden needles I’ve been wanting…now I don’t have to finish whatever I have on my needles in order to do the Monthly dishcloth KAL. Perfect! She also sent a tape measure, some sock shaped needle protectors (which I needed) and some beautiful beaded stitch markers. The markers have affirmations on them and are a perfect match for the bigger ones that Mandy sent me. Now I will always be able to fit the word on the marker to the mood, and the size of the marker to the task. It really adds to the therapeutic qualities of knitting.

Big hugs and a huge thank you to my swapper.

Before I get back to all the preparations for the holiday…which of course includes Dad’s Socks which are coming along slowly…
Here’s the scarf I have been knitting at work, while I teach my young students to knit.
I frogged it when the girls had to frog theirs and started over with a thinner version that I like much better. I believe this is my first scarf. (I have avoided making any since my step-daughter makes them and I don’t want to interfere with her specialty. She only makes scarves so far, and she makes very nice ones.) I love knitting this scarf with this yarn! It is JoAnn’s Angel Hair and is so, so soft that I will probably rub it down to nothing before it is done. I think I will have to keep this one…but I never do!

Now, really, it is back to work for me. My special gifts have energized me and it is time to get those socks a little closer to Christmas.

Uh, socks? What socks? I have been enjoying these last two gift dishcloths.

I really like the crocheted heart scrubby, but it is way too much work for a dish scrubber. The angel is for a friend who collects angels and is in particular need of one right now.

And now for your holiday pleasure (and mine) here are two of my seasonal frogs. The first one is a musical buddy who croaks out Jingle Bells in a lovely baritone. The second one…uh, Thanks, Mom! This little Santa Croaker hangs next to my knitting chair.
Okay, enough fooling around…it’s time for work — then socks, and maybe a little shopping. I’m finally getting in the mood.

Stitch-N-Bitch last Tuesday night at the LYS was very helpful. First, it was relaxing, as Jennifer, the owner’s daughter finished the knitting for a felted slipper from a Fiber Trends pattern. She tried it on and made us all laugh.

I also managed to discuss my sock problem with Mom. A major frogging left me not knowing where I was in the row count. So…I put the sock on stitch holders.

Now I will start the other sock and compare them when I get to the heel flap. Problem solved — or will be as soon as I start that second sock.

This weekend was full to the brim with celebrations, including a dinner party at our house.It was great incentive to get the decorations put up. I made another dishcloth and scrubby duo to send off and have a couple more scrubbies to go. When that’s done, I have a few packages to get in the mail…then the sock is ON!

Oh, and that little detail of finishing the shopping. Good thing the socks are my only challenging project that I’m trying to finish.

Have a stress-free and knitty day!

I struggle along with Christmas looming, frogging Dad’s Socks and losing track of the row count. I developed holes. This didn’t happen with my other pattern. I think it has something to do with wrapping during a short row. I am wondering if I will finish them on time.

So…for a nice distraction I have joined a new KAL, a secret pal exchange, and a contest!

Whitney, over at About Time is hosting the Mrs. B KAL. We are making the elegant Mrs. Beeton wrist warmers pattern in the new Knitty. They really are beautiful and should be fun to knit. With beads! I really hope to fit them in.

There’s a question contest at Katie’s Knit Knat. Every couple days she asks a question and the answers are great. I’m am enjoying all the input.

I also joined the Felted SP2 which is an offshoot of the Felted Bag KAL. That won’t start until January, but I made some buttons for it. Fiddling on my computer is a great distraction from all the things I should be doing.

Teaching my students at my job to knit is going well. They begged to take their knitting home to work on it, so I let them. They even made me a card with their picture and gave me a pencil to thank me for helping them learn to knit. Now how sweet is that?!

It’s time to go back and face Dad’s Socks. One way or another…I will finish those puppies!

There were only a few people at Stitch-n-Bitch last night. I managed to get the cuff done on Dad’s first sock. I am moving on to the heel flap. Mom approved of the color with the nice stripes. These will go with Dad’s pants very nicely. I’ll post a pic when I get a little more done.

Here’s a hat that attended last night’s SNB, too. I borrowed it to get another picture. It’s a very interesting pattern. It’s from the archives of Knitty and is called Blue Hills.

My little class started learning to knit yesterday. We managed to d a cast on and one row. It was fun and frustrating — just like my knitting! I hope we will get some scarves done by winter break.

Here’s my latest dishcloth from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL .

I learned how to cast on while knitting on this one. I am itching to try some other dishcloths, but I am determined to knit those socks until they are done before I start other things.

Yarn is calling out to me….I have so many projects I want to start. Hope you find time to knit some today, too.

I managed to get one hat done. Meanwhile Mom brought me two to felt.

Then the next day she brought me a third one! I got them felted today and sent the off with her, forgetting to take pictures. Oh, and what did she bring today? Two more hats! And during this same time Mandy has knit, what? nine hats? I am happy to finish my one, but I wonder … what takes me so long?

The weekend was crazy busy and I only got a couple more inches of ribbing done on Dad’s socks. I took them to the bar where DH was playing music. Do you know how hard it is to knit while a toothless old drunk guy begs to dance with you? Ah, well…he was a nice old drunk guy, so no harm done. Unfortunately, no knitting done, either.

I am going to incorporate knitting into my job, too. I teach English to children, one group is young girls, about ten years old. They want to learn to knit. So I bought some really cheap needles at JoAnn’s and some Angel Hair in a few colors. It was on sale, it is very soft, and the fuzz will disguise any newbie errors. First the girls and I will learn some new vocabulary … then we will knit a bit. It should be fun. I will post pics of their creations.

I’m off to work some ribbing. Happy knitting. Stay warm. Oh, and check out the great new Knitty!

Finally! I have a true start on the socks. After struggling with toe-up, two-socks-on-two-circs for what seemed like a dozen froggings, I gave up on that. I am doing one-by-one on two circs and will do my best to make them match. I’d love to get a second pair done for DH, but that’s a lot to ask of my new-knitter (with a job!) status.

I will also be doing (eventually) another hat for DH. He put on Felted Tychus, went out the door…promptly returned and said, “This is too itchy, but I’ll get used to it.” Then left poor Tychus at home. So…an excuse to make that pattern again. I bought some lovely alpaca in similar colors and will try that next. Then…if that is also “itchy” DH has chosen a variegated Lion’s Brand Homespun for a differnt style hat. Eventually, that man will have a hat he likes. I made one for him last year that is now in my collection. Felted Tychus is now mine, too.

In Blogville News — Whitney, over at About Time, has a button and it’s a lovely one. . As my dad would say, “She should go into business making those!”

Mandy is making hats like they are going out of style! No, wait, like they are the to-die-for style that everyone is wearing. They look great! For some of them she is using Noro Kureyon yarn. I just got 6 balls of the Noro on sale and can’t wait to try it. They had run out of one other colorway I ordered…hmmmm….do you think Mandy bought it all up?
Our little hat-maker is going in for surgery next week, so everyone leave her a nice note before Tuesday. Hope all goes well and the knitting commences again right away!

I am making the next dishcloth for my Monthly Dishcloth KAL. It’s a tree shape that is causing me to learn some new techniques. There’s also a “Fun with Knitting” game going on where we guess the stitch or name of some dishcloths made by Andi, the owner. It’s fun and I’m learning new stitches, too.

I’m also part of a Tote Bag Exchange at my Knitting Chicks yahoo group. It’s been fun getting everything together. My package went out in the mail yesterday and I received mine from another swapper today. We are waiting until Dec. 16th to open them. Anticipation!! Suspense!! I love that part of the holidays.

I have met such generous and lovely people since I’ve been doing the knit-blog thing. It has added another dimension to my world. Thanks to all who are part of that. Now! Back to Knitting! Becky