artsy-crafty babe

can I call myself a knitter now?

I'm interrupting this week of yellow to show off my first knitted sweater - the ChicKami.  YAY!  I can hardly believe that I actually made that, the girl who wondered what the big deal was about knitting, the girl who swore that she'd never learn to knit.  It was just about a year ago that I quickly learned how to cast on and do a knit stitch at my lys during my lunch break.  Hmph, imagine that!

This was a fairly easy sweater, much easier than I expected, though it took me much longer than I anticipated.  I made the wide strap, fitted version.  Suprisingly, it fit!  I did make some mistakes, all on the front side (of course), which I thought would be glaring, but I can hardly tell.  I will wear my chickami with pride.

I have to admit, I was kind of sad to finish this sweater, mostly because I don't have another project lined up yet.  I was ready to cast on a new project right then and there!  Don't worry, I'm sure I can come up with something real soon.

scenes from the weekend

It's been a lazy weekend.  We didn't have anything planned, which was nice for a change.  I picked some veggies from the garden and have my fingers crossed that we eat them before they go bad.  I know, shame on me!  With laziness comes lack of desire to cook...I'm still amazed that I actually grew those!

We're still living with a broken dryer.  I wish we had gotten that clothes line put up, but for now, the fence will do (along with clothes on hangers hung up throughout the house).  A broken dryer we can live with, a broken AC, not so much (that's a whole other story - I'm not going there right now - happy thoughts, happy thoughts).

I also did a whole lot of knitting.  I'm still working away.  I do enjoy the process, but I want to be finished so that I can move on to something else - I already have my second knitting project picked out.  Darn you knitters with your pretty knits!  I'm so easily tempted!!

knitting right along

While I was procrastinating building up the courage to work on the diaper bag, I started working hot and heavy on my knitting project.  I decided to go with the ChicKami.  Boy, knitting sure takes a long time, or perhaps I'm just incredibly slow.  (I'm willing to bet on my slowness)  Of course, ripping it out three times didn't help with my progress.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my 1x1 ribbing looks horrible.  That's okay, I've moved on.  I look at this as a learning experience.  Even if I never wear this thing, I'm happy to have finally discovered something to do in the same room as my husband while he watches sports.  Knitting makes ESPN so much more tolerable!!

suggestions?

I'm in the mood to knit.  It's been months since I've touched knitting needles, but I'm feeling the urge.  I'd like to knit something for myself, some type of tank top or cami, something suitable for warm HOT weather.  Any suggestions for a beginner who's never knit any type of clothing before?  At one point I was really ambitious and purchased this pattern.  I tried to decipher the pattern, but I don't have a clue.  Maybe I shouldn't attempt anything to put on my body!

ugh

There I was worried about the other children in the house getting sick...guess who's sick now?  Yeah.  Fever and achiness is no fun!  While I'm resting, the house is falling down around me.  Thank goodness Matt is off right now, though having the whole family away for a while sounds mighty nice.  Oh, and thanks to Tamiflu, Lily is doing great.  She's been fever free for a few days now.  I'm thinking she can return to school sooner than we thought (thank goodess!).

While I've been laying around trying to get better I've been working on a new scarf.  Eh, I'm not too crazy about it. After only  a few rows I knew it wouldn't work for me, but I kept at it, just to see (what else did I have to do?).  This scarf is too dense for my climate.  I think it'd be perfect in a really cold climate, but it's too much for down here.  I think the stitch is really pretty, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.  If I were to make this scarf, I do think that I'd make it a little wider.  So, I guess I'm off to rip this out and look a new scarf pattern to knit, something a little looser.  I do love this yarn!

***sorry I forgot to link - this scarf is "my so called scarf", pattern found here

little felted tote

Felting is cool!  I made this little felted tote over the holidays.  This little bag caught my eye the first time I ever posted about knitting.  Thimbelanna left the link to hers in the comments.  It took me a little while before I had the confidence to try it, but I'm glad I did.  This was my first project knitting in the round on circular needles.  There were a few things that threw me for a loop, like using stitch markers and binding off in the middle of a round to make the handles (I don't know why I couldn't wrap my head around that one), but I figured it out.  The only real snag I ran into was running out of yarn on my bind off.  Instead of ripping out a round to make my handle a little less wide, I decided to use another colored yarn, something I had on hand.  It worked okay, but next time I won't do that.  Lesson learned.

before felting

I like that it knitted up fairly quickly, and like I said, felting is cool!  If you want to give it a shot, the pattern is here.

Okay, looking back at Anna's totes, it looks like mine could use some work.  Good thing I had fun making it, I will be making more!

green

Today's post is sponsored by the color green.

On the cabinet front, we're moving right along.  Bye-bye green trim!  This past weekend we were able to prime all the cabinets and most of the doors, and get one coat on the upper cabinets on one side of the kitchen.  We're not moving at lightening speed, but we're making progress. 

I also decided on a color to paint my kitchen walls - green!  Yes, I know my walls are already green, but this is a different green.  Now that the cabinets are white, my curtains don't look so great, so we need a change (plus, my walls are looking pretty shabby).  Once we get the cabinets done, I'll move on to that.

I know I said in my last post that there would be some crafty stuff to discuss, but with all this painting going on, there's little time to craft.  Having said that, I did manage to finish up a knitting project.  My second scarf is complete.  This was supposed to be made by my grandma's birthday, which was back in October.  Better late than never, right?  For this scarf I knit an incorrect double seed stitch - I only knit one row of K2 P2, then P2 K2 in stead of two rows of each.  Oh well, I think it still looks pretty.  I didn't realize I was doing it wrong until I looked it up to tell someone what I was doing.  Because the scarf was pretty plain and I had left over yarn, I made fringe.  I hope my Maw-maw likes it!

a good life & my middle name

Ah, it's Friday * Life is good * Fall is finally here with cooler temps and lower humidity * I have nothing planned for the weekend other than Lily's soccer game on Sunday * I'm at my lowest weight in over two years * I have a bunch of unused Weight Watcher Weekly points (splurge!) * My second scarf is almost complete (thanks for the yarn, Elizabeth!) * There's a bunch of new fabrics and craft books on their way to my house * I'm wearing a new pair of jeans (in a smaller size) * Tonight is take out night * Tomorrow morning I get to sleep past 5:30 am * Yes, life is good.

A while back Gerry tagged me with the middle name meme.  I procrastinated because I have a long middle name, which required lots of thinking.  Here it goes, my middle name is Elizabeth:

E - Eat.  I like LOVE to eat.  I'm not picky either.

L - Lily, my first baby, the one who made me a Mom.  Lilies are also my favorite flower.

I - Indecisive.  I hate this about me.  I wish I could more easily decide on things.  I think I'm indecisive because I have such a broad range of things that I like.  Yeah, that's it!

Z - Zesty? I like foods that are zesty.

A - Alex and Ava, my two youngest [active] babies.  The two of them keep things interesting, for sure.

B - Brown. Boring, maybe, but it's my favorite color.

E - Easy going, that's me.  I'm very much a go with the flow kind of person.  It takes a lot to ruffle my feathers and I rarely hold a grudge.  None of that it worth it to me.

T - Taurus, my zodiac sign.  I'm a Taurus through and through.

H - Home, it truly is where my heart is.  I feel like my home is a reflection of me. I try to make it as comfortable and welcoming as I can for myself and others.  I think I'd rather be home than anywhere else.

Okay, that thoroughly sucked.  I'm not tagging anybody, but if you want to play along, feel free. 

Have a great weekend!!

grrrrr...

The yarn shop opened back up today.  Lucky for me, it is situated right next door to my bank, and I just so happened to need to make a bank run this afternoon.  After pouring over dozens of free on-line patterns, I had settled on a very simple hat pattern to get my feet wet on knitting in the round.  I popped in the shop prepared with my little list of supplies.  When I requested the yarn, the lady at the shop told me that the weight of yarn I chose is too heavy for the climate down here.  She scooted me off into the pattern room to pick out another pattern.  Okay.  After looking through everything, I settled on something that looked fairly easy and they happened to have the brand of yarn that the pattern called for.  Okay.  First warning sign - I hated the color.  I had no desire to make Ava a cotton candy pink hat, but I went along with it because this "new" pattern called for it.  Second warning sign - the pattern did not call for circular needles.  The lady assured me this was okay because I could knit it using two circular needles.  Hmm, I didn't quite understand this, but I was in a hurry, so I went along.  I made my purchase, spending way more than I intended, walking out of there with a pattern, yarn I didn't like, and 2 pairs of circular needles.

After inspecting the pattern, I realized that it called for another size needle other than the size I purchased.  Okay, so that's something else I'll need to get.  This is turning into a much more complicated project than I intended.

When I got home I googled using two circular needles because I couldn't wrap my brain around what the woman was talking about when she briefly explained it.  Okay, I think I got the gist of that, so then I decided to cast on.  Not only do I already hate the color or this yarn, but it feels horrible.  Does this not look like shredded up toilet paper on the needle?  How in the heck am I supposed to count stitches on this crap?  102 stitches at that!  This is not going well.  I need to go back to the beginning.  I should have held my ground on my original plan.  So what if the yarn is too heavy for this climate, I'm sure Ava won't keep it on her head anyway.  It looks like another trip to the yarn shop is in order.

first scarf - done!

My first knitting project is finished!  YAY!!  I started this at the end of July, right before my trip to California. The pattern I chose was from a teen "learn how to knit" book.  I figured that if it was written to teach a teenager how to knit, I could probably do it. 

It is amazing that it's finished, considering the state that I found it in yesterday.  My little inquisitive 3 year old son decided he wanted to try some knitting.  I found my almost completed scarf on the floor, partially unraveled, both needles OUT of my work, with my working ball of yarn along with another ball of yarn all twisted and tangled around the needles.  I was furious!  He knows better to mess with my knitting.  If I had left it out in his reach, shame on me, but he had to leap tall buildings with a single bound to get to my project.  I was too upset to take a photo of it, though I should have.  Once I got all the yarn untangled and the work back on my needles I was a happy camper.  Then Alex asked "Is you happy now, Mama?"  Yes dear, Mama is happy, don't you EVER mess with my knitting again!!  My boy is going to give me a run for my money, that's for sure.

The yarn I chose isn't ideal, it's the cheap wool from Hobby Lobby, but the knitting shop (the only in town) was closed the weekend before I left for the trip -I HAD to bring something with me.  Now that this scarf is finished, I give myself permission to move on to a new project.  What to tackle next?  Suggestions?  Being a newbie to the yarn/knitting world, I have no idea where to start, but I'm extremely excited at the possibilities!!