Finished.....

I just finished the Hip in Hemp Skirt that has been on the needles since 2011. I'm happy with the results; I won't hold a grudge---it's not the skirt's fault that it took me so long.

I did take Mere's advice (thank you!) and knit a few extra inches before I cast off, and thanks to Ravelry readers' notes, I realized I had not copied the cast off instructions, which required 10 rows of garter stitch. That added an inch to the length and thank goodness, I had enough yarn.

This skirt kept getting fuller as it got longer, and I was worried that I would need one of these to wear it properly.

If only I had read the other knitters' comments on this skirt BEFORE I started the skirt I would have known how to make it longer without making it wider, and at the same time, maintain the desired shape of the skirt. And I could have skipped all the math and logic and painful thinking that doing the calculations myself entailed:

If I were a more experienced knitter, I would have been able to figure out with my own little brain how to make the changes I needed to make with. It was embarrassingly easy! Just add one extra stockinette row between the increase rows---4 rows instead of 5. Duh.

This skirt took forever and a month to knit, has one bazillion stitches and I LOVE it!

The Never-Ending Linen Skirt

I started this skirt after Stitches South, 2011. Here we are, in June of 2012, and I'm still knitting it. Claudia of Claudia Hand Painted Yarn told me that I should make it long enough to cover the tops of my boots. "No leg showing," was how she put it. Well, I am tired of knitting this and it just now only covers my knees.I went online last night to determine what Fashion says about the proper length of skirts with cowboy boots (older daughter, who lives in Texas, says that there, they just call them "boots") and this is representative of what I found:
I didn't find any pictures of anyone wearing longer skirts. Unfortunately, I think that Fashion doesn't deal with um....elderly...no, that's not right.....Mature (that's it!) mature women wearing boots.

I have most of one skein of linen remaining, so I can knit on and on and on and........

...but I don't think I will. I'll try it on once more and then decide where to stop. I had thought of doing a picot bind off until I remembered that I have a million and ten stitches on the needle. No picot for me.

Publix Thanks Pioneer Woman

Or at least they should.

Yesterday, in a fit of rainy day boredom, I downloaded PW's list of things she keeps on hand in order to be able to make a meal without going to the grocery store. I hate going to the grocery store, and as a result, I go there more often than I'd like. I'm not organized, can't figure out in advance what to cook and go to the store almost daily when inspiration hits...if it hits. If it doesn't hit, I still end up at the store wandering the aisles, looking for inspiration. Or I go to Fresh Market and buy something that just needs the minimum of preparation.

Today I went through the list and bought the things that apply to my cooking. My pantry is nearly full. Maybe this system will work.

In preparation for this shopping extravaganza, I dug all my reusable grocery bags out of the trunk. I have lots of bags, not because I'm such a good environmentalist, but because I generally forget to take them into the store and then buy more. So I have a lot, and from a lot of different stores, including my local UPS store. And a couple from Mexico. I've decided that if I keep them on the passenger seat of my car I am less likely to forget them.

We'll see......

Rainy Day Ramblings

It's raining, thank goodness! We have had so many years of drought that it is nice to have rainy days...whole days of rain.

So I have nothing much to report. It's a day to stay in pajamas all day, although I did shower and get dressed, but I didn't make the bed---yet---so there's that bit of laziness.

I saw in yesterday's AJC a comment from someone: Crabby people should, instead of complaining about whatever, say nice things to three people each day. I don't write about philosophies, politics, religion or anything else deep; there are already people who do that better than I ever could, but I do think that if crabby people (and non-crabby people, as well) did what the writer advised, a whole lot of people would be happier.

I sometimes think that I should get my cat a cat, someone besides my husband and me that he could play with. He's three years old now and still VERY playful. He needs a new victim playmate. But a friend who is a real cat-lover and who has rescued and fostered many cats, says that Baxter is the king of the house, and that he wouldn't appreciate a new cat. Baxter is an indoor cat and I think that living indoors for a cat is like a reader being told that he could only read the first page of the same book, over and over and over. Nothing more than that one page. That has nothing to do with getting Baxter a friend; it's just that I think his life is already sort of limited and poor thing, he doesn't even have a friend to share his limited life with. Just us humans.

My husband redeemed his Groupon yesterday and took a flight over the city of Atlanta in this biplane:
I bought him the coupon for Christmas, he finally redeemed it and said it was fun. Maybe that's what I should get him for every gift-giving occasion. I've given him a few duds: the race car drive he didn't take and the remote-controlled helicopter that the clerk TOLD me not to give him. He has never successfully flown it. It is apparently very complicated, which I why the clerk advised me---repeatedly---to get him one that to me looked like a child's toy. But did I listen??? No. And every flight attempt has resulted in broken blades.

Yay for the interwebs! At Stitches South, Lucille and I bought mesh, zippered pouches which are great for various knitting supplies and you can see what is in them. Yesterday I thought that one would make a great holder for my cell phone for when (or if) I ride my bike. I have a basket, but I learned the first time I tried to ride to a destination (the library to return books) that when I fall off the bike, the stuff in the basket falls as well. Not so bad for the books, but bad for an iPhone. I looked for the label in the mesh pouch and then searched the internet. There they were! I ordered the correct size and it's already been shipped. Once I add a carabiner I'll be ready to go.

I wish I could see my grandchildren more often; they are just so much fun to spend time with. Even Elizabeth, who has in the past been referred to as the honey-badger (it's not a compliment; don't watch the video if you don't like gross, brutal nature), is no longer a honey badger; she's a DOLL. She talks all of the time and is really interesting and funny. It has been a treat to watch all four grow up and change. Soon they'll be teenagers, bored to tears when they have to spend time with their old grandparents. Do we h.a.a.a.a.v.e to???

As promised: ramblings.


The End.

Oh, I forgot to say: It is possible to spend WAY too much time on the interwebs, but in my defense, it is still raining.

The End.

Don't Try This At Home...or anyplace else

And Their Point Is?

And can I get one of these researchers to clean my house?

How Old Are You?

That's what my husband asked when he noticed my newly-polished nails yesterday.

I ignored his question.
They coordinate with my knitting!
And with one of my rugs!
And my purse!
And my walls!
And my lunch plate!
And my iPod!
I like turquoise.

A Sock!

I finished a sock!

Now I need another one!

Elizabeth's Ruffled Dress

Finally!

This dress has been a test of wills since before I started it, when the store that had the yarn I needed had just the amount the pattern called for. Not one extra skein.

And it turns out that whether you make a size four (like this dress) or a size ten (as Sallyknit did), there is barely enough yarn to make the dress. Actually there isn't enough yarn which is why Sallyknit and I both added stripes in the secondary color in order to make the main color go far enough. She had six inches of the main color left; I had a bit more remaining because I made the dress shorter in order to fit Elizabeth, who isn't quite into size four clothing yet.

Phew....

And Lucille, knitter and crocheter extraordinaire, made the beautiful flower and leaves for the dress and taught me how to do the crochet edging for it. Thank you Lucille!

So now off in the mail it goes, with a warning to my daughter. Be careful where Elizabeth wears it. It has to be washed by hand and laid flat to dry and it takes forever and a year to dry. Kind of a nuisance for a mom of four, I know, but I didn't know this before I made it. Sorry H!

The flower:

Gee. Baking is Fun.

Really?---no.

A couple of pounds of flour on the floor. Someone didn't put the top on the flour canister tightly.

So that was fun. I hope I enjoy the rhubarb pie when it's finished.

Until then, you'll find me vacuuming and washing the floor and tracking Baxter through the house...

Signpost

Get it?

Sign post?

A post about signs?

Never mind.

What can I say? I love weird, corny, odd, funny signs. I'm just back from Austin, TX where I saw these:

A little rude maybe---
Snicker....

Um... A hair studio? I get the Cut but the Shoot? My daughter suggested that they take pictures of the haircuts, but this IS Texas, so something else may be going on. Think .....shooting range out back???And what does a stag have to do with Catholic supplies? Or tile?
Chuckle....
I did NOT take a picture of the three vultures devouring a newly car-hit deer alongside the road.

You're welcome.

**********************************

Enough of that.

Lily's dance recital was on Saturday and I was there----it was a lovely event, Lily danced perfectly and then received these beautiful flowers from her many fans.

My last night in Austin I was accompanied by one of these creatures on my walk down the hall to the bedroom, only the one I met was much LARGER and much SCARIER than this one. Really!!!

I shouted for my sister (who wasn't even there---weird) and then when she didn't immediately show up, for my daughter. My son-in-law and oldest granddaughter showed up first. My granddaughter shouted: Don't kill it!!!

WHAT??? Kill it ten times over, I say. Then put it down the garbage disposal. Ten times.

But instead, my daughter trapped it under a glass, and my granddaughter and son-in-law slid a piece of paper under the glass and scorpion and took it outside to set it free, where it probably did a U-turn and headed back for the house where its thousands of babies still live.

I'm back in Atlanta, where there are no scorpions. I think.

Phew....

Finished. I had planned to use all of the yarn on the skeins, but got tired of the thing before that happened. So I have yarn left over and I will take it to Austin with me to see what I can get the older girls to weave on their loom.

I did a picot bind off to make the process more creative and less boring, but the less boring part didn't happen. And yes, I could have put pins in each of the little points of the picot, but I didn't want to love the frilly edges.

Now on to the rest of the Hip in Hemp skirt I started over a year ago. I put it on a 60" cord and put the elastic in the waist and discovered that it fits!!! I see a light at the end of the tunnel on this project and I don't think it's the train coming at me. I think it's a nearly finished skirt...and it's about time. And I think it's going to be beautiful. Fingers crossed.

A Bigger Project

I am actually knitting something that is NOT:

a scarf
a shawl
a shawlette
a hat
socks


It is this sweater, for me!!!


Scarf not included.  I have enough scarves...

My LYS didn't have the yarn for this, so they ordered it from Maggi Knits and lo and behold, MK had only nine turquoise skeins of it remaining, and I NEEDED nine turquoise skeins and they are now mine! It was meant to be.

Unfortunately, the book containing the pattern has a bunch of other patterns, none of which I like; they are weird. For example:

It's called the Lough Tay. I have no idea what that means, unless it means tacky, really, really tacky. And ugly. Really, really ugly.

It probably doesn't though.

If anyone would like to buy this book for half price or quarter price or a dollar after I have finished the sweater, I would be very happy to unload it on some sucker share it with someone.

Just e-mail me.

This book will want a new home. 

Please! Make it Stop!

I swear this will never end.  I've been knitting on it for so long that I can't remember when I started it.

It's a Kauni triangular scarf/shawl (because I need one more) and I think that the size of the balls of yarn has not decreased by even one gram.  It's all garter stitch, and as a bonus, the yarn is pretty scratchy.  

I have this idea that I should finish the projects I have started even as I start new projects.  This project is determined to never end.......

Mink Yarn, Nose Jobs and Bras

Knitting friends and I went to Stitches South yesterday and spent EIGHT hours wandering around, looking at yarn and knitting/crocheting-related, uh, stuff, accessories.

The find of the day was this yarn which is, be still my heart, 100% MINK!  Yes, mink!!!  It is s.o.f.t.  and then soft some more.  When I was paying for it, I asked the vendor if she was sure that this was the 100% mink, and not the mink/cashmere blend, because, well, THAT wouldn't be 100% MINK. Cashmere-pah.

I've done research this morning and found that the mink yarn is made from the fur that comprises the undercoat of the mink animal.  That's why it doesn't look like a mink coat.  And depending on whom you listen to, the mink like being combed/brushed occasionally to relieve them of the undercoat, or the mink are sedated in order to be brushed.  Also I have learned that mink yarn is fragile, and really should be knit up with a fine yarn---silk or ....cashmere.

I could have bought the mink/cashmere blend and saved myself a little work...

And lest you think that a yarn convention must be a snore, full of boring, little old ladies,we met these two interesting? women.

One (a vendor) asked YarnGurl if "that is your real nose."  Well, yes, she answered.  Then followed a ten-minute monolog about her life.  She is having a nose job.  She would have had one earlier in her life, but she just wasn't "superficial" then, but now she is.  There was a lot more, but we were rescued by Sallyknit who came looking for us.

While we were eating lunch, a woman in her 60s or 70s at the next table opened her shirt so that her friend could take a picture of her bra.  She explained that she never wears one, but had that day, and she wanted photographic proof that she does own one and does occasionally wear one, when she didn't want to look as if she "was swaddling a bunch of puppies in my shirt."

Alrighty then.

Ruffles

I have finished the first two of three ruffles for Elizabeth's dress---after a few problems, like making each of the ruffles an inch longer than the pattern calls for.  I don't know what I was thinking---or not thinking.

I spent Sunday un-knitting and then started over today.  I think the colors will work well together and now that I'm not making each ruffle one inch longer than called for, I won't run out of yarn, which was a definite possibility before I discovered my mistake.  Whew....

Who Knew?

I spent part of yesterday in Dahlonega, GA, which is a cute town at the southern end of the Appalachian trail and is the site the nation's first gold rush (in 1828).

Among the usual types of shops and cafes was this small store:

I had no idea that there were so many types of jerky...

Good News!

Baxter likes Wingspan.  All is not lost.

Wingspan

Finished....sort of. There are supposed to be eight wedges of color, but I ran out of yarn after seven.

I don't much like it AND it's too small........score.....

Stash

This is my stash. My entire stash. For those non-knitters out there, I am not even bragging. This is a SMALL stash, nothing compared to some knitters I could name (but I won't, because I'm nice--nice and jealous, that is).

Mine doesn't even take up the entire surface of this queen size bed, and some of the yarn doesn't count as stash because it's leftovers from projects or it's sock yarn, which never counts as stash. Who says? Me? I? Knittergran says.

I pulled all of this out because I've seen a couple of moths lately and I don't know where they came from. I read Yarn Harlot's blog post about "tossing" her stash, and decided I should do the same.I haven't come across any evidence of moth activity, so they must be coming from finished projects or store bought wool clothing.

Drat.

So I still have the problem of moths, just no solution.

Time for denial.

What moths?

Swatched!

I made a gauge swatch. I really did! Most of a swatch anyway. Well, half of a swatch?

Did I wash it and dry it?

Get serious.

I don't like swatching. I consider it pointless knitting. Not making gauge swatches has caused me the occasional problem, but my knitting has survived. Basically.

Everything about this project, the dress for Elizabeth, is sort of just off. I bought the Tahki yarn, but not in the original yarn colors. When I got home, I discovered that the blue yarn was the correct weight; the green was Tahki LITE, so it knits up at a different gauge on a different size needle. The pattern makes sizes 2/4/6/8. Three-year old Elizabeth measures a bit smaller than size two, but that just seems so wrong. My daughter says to make it in a size 4 and Elizabeth will grow into it if need be---but what if she grows into it during the Texas winter?

So, I am dealing with the whole thing by knitting the green ruffle for size 6 and then doing ten extra decreases (k 2 tog) so that I can join the green ruffle to the blue ruffle. This sounds like nonsense, I realize, but in my weird head, it does make sense. Also, I measured the gauge swatch and I am getting a slightly tighter gauge than the pattern calls for; I figure that that will make the dress a bit smaller. Right???

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it until proven wrong. And then I'll rely on denial.

Shopping When Old

I am referring to myself.

Last week a J. Jill catalog arrived in the mail and I went through it, bending page corners back for all of the gorgeous things I just knew I wanted. And that I knew I would look wonderful in. No shorts---two knee surgeries on one knee have rendered that knee, um....unattractive. So dresses! Perfect solution! (Sorry for all the exclamation points---I was really, really excited to find these clothes.)

Look at this dress. Isn't it Gaw-Jus?!
And with this cropped sweater? Even GAW-JUS-ER!
And this dress! I must have it!!!
And this dress!
Look at the colors! I love the colors!!!
They would all look great on me. I just knew it.

And then I went to the store. And then I tried them all on. And OMG....not what I expected. AT. ALL.

They looked great on the models. They even looked great on the hangers. On me, they didn't look great. They didn't even look good. They looked awful. Can you say frumpy? Can you say dowdy? Can you say Old Lady in MuuMuu?

Oh, dear.

But I did buy two tops. Tops that are tunic length. Tops with sleeves. Long sleeves.

How to recover from the realization that I am not twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter? How to stop the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the moaning, the whining?

Thank goodness for knitting friends. SallyKnit called while I was still at the store to see if I wanted to join her and Lucille to go to a knit shop, not our LYS but a different one.

Perfect. So off we went and I bought yarn to make this dress for Elizabeth, my three-year old granddaughter.

She is young. She is slim.

The dress will look GREAT on her. And this time I know I'm right.

Another Marley

I have made so many of these hats that I've lost track of how many. They are quick and fun to make and I like choosing the color combinations.

The Rainbow Marley Hat was designed by Susan B. Anderson---it's in her Itty Bitty Hats book, along with a lot of equally cuuuuute hats.

This hat goes to a bitty baby, born over a month early, who currently weighs less than five pounds. He is doing very well and because he is small, this hat will fit him for a long time.

Now back to all the unfinished knitting on my needles...

Another UFO?

Doesn't this look comfortable?

This is Baxter, perched on my knitting bag, which is full of unfinished objects. And I guess that because Baxter is still pretty poorly behaved at times, he is an unfinished object/project.

And as uncomfortable as this looks, Baxter spent most of today on my knitting bag, asleep.

Crazy Baxter. He has beds all over the house, but preferred this today. dH says it's because he thinks he is getting away with something. Maybe.

Or he's crazy.

Were you drunk

when you opened this? I asked younger daughter.

No, I wasn't drunk. I hadn't even had anything to drink.

The reason I asked was that I made this with my own two little hands----it's the first needlepoint I've done in decades----for her birthday, which is today.

It is a leather case with two mirrors inside. With S's initial on the front----the S????

She hadn't noticed that there was an S and she thought I had bought it already made. When I told her I had made it myself, with my own two little hands, she said It looks too professionally put together to have been made by you.

So is that a compliment or an insult???

I can't decide, but I'm going to think on it for awhile, before I decide what to get her for her next birthday......

A Genius

That's what I am. I wanted to give this hat to Lily, my second granddaughter. But it's more than a bit too large and tall. Really, really tall. I have already frogged the top once and re-knit it because it was even more pointy than it is now. I studied it a bit and realized that if I folded up the brim and put the button on the flap, it looks as if it will fit.

So that's what I've done, and I'll ship it off to her in hopes that it fits.....next winter. It's already too hot in Texas this year for a soft, yummy, Malibrigo merino wool hat.

YAY Post Office!!!

No, not because they explained to my satisfaction where my mail has been since October.

I didn't ask.

But I did go to the Post Office today to mail a package to younger daughter for her birthday---Happy Birthday S!

About 20 minutes after I left, I decided that I should charge my phone in the car. Uh....Where is the phone????

Back to the Post Office. I checked the counter where I would have left the phone/address book.

Nope.

So I jumped ahead of the line and asked the nice Postal Worker if anyone had turned in a cell phone. He said No and asked the other nice Postal Worker if he had seen it. He asked what color it was and I answered Pink.

He left and went into the back room, while the long line of customers waited. When he came back, he asked if the cover was only pink.

Nope, pink and white.

He handed me my phone and....I am not making this up....the people in line, who had been delayed because of my interruption---they CHEERED!!! And they APPLAUDED!!!

That, and getting my phone back, made my day. (But mostly getting my phone back.)

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

This arrived in my mailbox today:

It was postmarked, as you can see, on October 31, 2011.  Today is March 12, 2012.

Where has it been all of this time? Do the postal workers just leave these things sitting on shelves someplace?

I just called my friend, whose husband died in OCTOBER, to tell her what happened and to get the correct address for Hospice, a wonderful organization whose workers took such good care of Phil in his last month. She said that she had put the wrong address in the obituary but that everyone else had gotten their mail returned within days of sending it. Where this has been, I can't even guess.

And no, I haven't balanced the checkbook in a long time because everything is online, and I hadn't noticed that this check hadn't cleared, but still.....

Paradise Lost

at least to me, because I am back from Florida.

(More photos of paradise here.)