Finished!!!

I have finished all of the Christmas knitting that I planned on doing. On Friday I exchanged gifts with Eddie. I finished his beanie the night before while playing Scrabble with my sister. This is an excellent game to play while knitting because sometimes your opponent(s) take a LONG time to decide on what word to play! Here is the beanie:





I looked at a couple of patterns on Ravelry and then just combined parts of several different patterns together to make his hat. He picked out the yarn and told me what kind of beanie he wanted, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.

I gave him the socks that I showed in the "P.S." blog posting, but they were too small :( Maybe I will give them to my mom. She has tiny feet. I also gave Eddie the Planet Earth box set because he is fascinated by that kind of stuff.

I was very spoiled this Christmas! I received diamond earrings and new running shoes. The diamonds earrings that I got are the one in my ear lobe (not the cartilage):



(I know, I know...I have extremely thick earlobes. Ha! When I first got my ears pierced they told me to leave the earrings in for 8-10 weeks instead of the usual 6 weeks. Lol!)

This evening I finished the stocking for my mom. I really wanted to give it to her last night, but that's ok. I finished it in time for her to hang it tomorrow for Santa :) I blocked it this morning and put it in front of the heater to dry. It was still slightly damp when I seamed it together.



And the two stockings together:



SO CUTE!! Love it!!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!!

P.S.

I finished one pair of the socks for Christmas knitting!!! Just had to post it :) They are so plain and boring, just the way Eddie likes them.

I Love...

my new hat!!! It's An Unoriginal Hat and I got the pattern from the Yarn Harlot. When I first saw this pattern on her blog, I really liked it and wanted to make one. Since I'm supposed to be working on Christmas knitting I made myself put the pattern on the back burner. Then I went to the LYS this weekend (20% off of EVERYTHING!!) and bought some yarn that would be perfect for the project. I made it the next morning in about 3-4 hours.



I love everything about this hat! The color of the yarn, the softness of the yarn, the pattern, the cables, the way it fits, EVERYTHING!!! It's my new favorite hat. Now I just need to go where it's colder so I can wear it.

My friend mentioned that she would love a hat for Christmas. Although I wasn't planning on making her anything for Christmas, I love this hat so much that I decided she must have one too! I used some yarn that I hat at home (Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick). I had to not do as many rows in the pattern because the hat was too long. I'm not so great with taking the time to check for gauge :/ Anyway, it turned out pretty good:



The one thing that I decided that I don't love is the way my face looks from that angle! But that's what I get for trying to model a hat, taking my own picture and trying to keep my face out of it! It's challenging to get something decent, let alone good.

Another procrastination that I started to avoid Christmas knitting (a.k.a. the intarsia on my mom's stocking that is kicking my butt!) was a baby blanket. Eddie bought the yarn since it is his friends who are having the baby. He thought that I should knit a blanket and so he went to the LYS with me to pick out some yarn. He's actually been talking about this particular yarn and baby blanket for awhile. It is the SOFTEST YARN ever! The only bummer is that it is hand wash (probably not what a first time mother needs), but the softness factor won and he bought the yarn. Here is the beginning of the blanket:



The color is not so great in this picture, but the main part of the blanket is Lilac.

As far as the Christmas knitting goes I still have 2 hats, 2/3's of a stocking, a little bit more on a pair of socks and was thinking about a second pair of stocks (but time may not permit it). It's crunch time and I've really got to buckle down!

Need to Vent

So I am a little frustrated. As of this Monday I was supposed to start substitute teaching. I figured I could make a little extra money during my break from school and student teaching. All weekend (esp. Sunday) I was getting really anxious about the whole thing. I was thinking about all the things that could go wrong, that I wouldn't be familiar with the school, what if the kids were horrible, what if there weren't any lesson plans, etc. I like predictability for the most part and being flexible is one of those things that I'm working on. I worked myself up so much that I ended up denying the job that I got called for on Monday at 6:30am (it's automated) and went back to bed. I missed another call at 8:30am.

Then on Tuesday I couldn't sub because I had a final, so I wouldn't be free all day. I actually missed that call and wasn't able to deny it. Last night I mentally prepared myself for subbing today. I looked up a bunch of activities online for students to do in case there weren't any lesson plans. I was still nervous, but felt more prepared. As an added bonus, Wednesdays are a minimum day. I would still have to stay at the school until 3pm, but the kids leave at 12:40pm. I would just hide out in the classroom and read a book until 3pm.

I got up early this morning and awaited my call. I didn't get one by 6:30am so I figured I would get one around 8:30am (since that is the time they came the previous two days). I decided to read my book until then. 8:30 came and went,and by 9am I figured that I wouldn't be getting a call.

I'm not sure if there weren't any jobs for me today or that they didn't call me because I missed the last two calls that they gave me. I'm a little frustrated because I felt somewhat more ready today. The minimum day would have been a good starter day, but now if I sub tomorrow I have to survive a whole day, then go take another final, then a get together with all the students in my cohort and then meeting a friend for coffee. This will be a full day and I'm really not sure that I'm up for it. Argh!

On the bright side, I now have time today to read my book (P.S. I Love You) that I want to finish before the movie comes out and do some KNITTING!! I'm even going to go to a yarn shop today that I haven't been to in awhile. It will still be a good day. Just not the one I had planned on.

Busy, busy

I can't believe that it is already the 10th of the month and I haven't posted a blog yet. Shame on me. The thing is that I have been super busy (like everyone else) and blogging really hasn't been the first thing on my to do list. I decided I would post something before Samantha Who? comes on (which I can knit while I watch, so it's not wasting time!).

I finished the stocking for my dad, which turned out awesome, don't you think??



I was so proud of myself. This was my first project with intarsia. So here's the funny/ironic conversation I had with my boyfriend.

Me: Look at how great it is!!!

BF: It looks great babe.

Me: No seriously! Isn't it awesome!?!?! I mean it totally looks STORE BOUGHT!

Ok, so isn't the point of making a knitted gift the fact that it isn't store bought. And sometimes we buy things from the store and they are a piece of crap! I really don't know why I thought that this would make my stocking oh so much better. What I should have said was, "Doesn't it look like a PROFESSIONAL HAND KNITTER WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE made this?" I think that would better show the amount of pride that I found in this project, especially after all the frogging it went through.

I have started the matching one for my mom:



It will pretty much be the same except that it will have Mrs. Claus instead of Santa Claus on it. Matching! How cute is that? I'm still debating if I want (have time) to make stockings for my sister and me. If I do, then the whole family will have a set. We shall see how the rest of the Christmas shopping/knitting goes.

My boyfriend has asked me to knit him a pair of socks. So far I have made him two pairs and he's begging for more (so spoiled!). I started the socks (nothing fancy of course):



I was just going to finish them up and give them to him. Then I decided that he will have to wait until Christmas. There is no way that he gets "freebies" that will take up some of my Christmas knitting time. He will have to be patient. The socks are so "snuggly" (which is the name of the yarn) that I am tempted to keep them for myself :) But 'tis the season of giving...

'Tis the Season...

to be doing that last minute gift knitting!! I started working on my first Christmas project. Last Christmas my mom got engaged and then they were married on Cinco de Mayo (not that day for that reason) this last May. So this will be the first Christmas with the two being married. My biological parents got a divorce was I was six years old. My dad remarried right away, but my mom has been a single parent all these years. The man she married in May did not have any children of his own, but always wanted some. He was treated my sister and me and like his own children so I decided to knit him a stocking with "Dad" on it. I am also going to make my mom one with "Mom" on it. His will have Santa Claus and hers will have Mrs. Claus. How cute is that!?! Here is the start (almost done!!) to his stocking:



I am so proud of myself!! This project had a little fair aisle and intarsia! Besides a class I took where we did a little practice with intarsia, this is my first project where I had to use this technique. There was plenty of frogging along the way, but I did it! Eddie was watching me knit this stocking with about 6 bobbins of yarn hanging from it. He usually likes to poke me or tickle me. I told him that this needed my full concentration and he shouldn't even think about messing around with me. He looked over and said he could tell that I had plenty going on and he wasn't even gonna think about disrupting me at that point.

It was a struggle, but I'm looking forward to starting the stocking for my mom and finishing this one up (oh how I hate seaming!). I may do stockings for my sister and me so that we have a complete set for the family, but we'll see how I feel about it after I finish the other two.

I still want to knit something for my cousin's baby for Christmas. I have a lace scarf for my sister that needs blocking (although I'm not certain on how to do this for a lace scarf). I want to make an illusion scarf for my friend. I'm not sure I'll have time for any other Christmas knitting.

P.S. Another tiny thing... :)

Tiny Things

So I don't know if I am the only one, but I love tiny things. And when I say tiny things, I mean real life things that are made miniature. For example, sometimes at the craft store they have little dollhouse furniture and may also have things like little tiny fried eggs, little tiny dishes, little tiny tennis racket, you know, whatever. There is a point to this. Over the weekend I knit mini mittens! They are the cutest thing. I finished one and couldn't stop laughing. Something about that mini mitten that no one will ever wear brought so much joy to me. Eddie was like "what are you going to do with that???" Who cares! Look how cute they are:



I have patterns for mini sweaters and hats also. I was thinking that they could be Christmas ornaments or I could decorate a wreath with them. Or maybe I'll just keep them in my purse and pull them out every time I need some cheering up.

Also this weekend I finished a pair of socks, which is oh so gratifying! Especially when you have finished both socks :)

Fifth Times a Charm

That's right. You read correctly. FIFTH time! I wish I could say third times a charm, but that just wasn't so with this particular project. I am making the Diamond Knit Shawl by Lion Brand. I've been wanting to make a lace shawl, but wasn't sure that I wanted it to take a long time like it would on lace weight. I found a pattern that uses a bulky weight and I had plenty of yarn for it in my stash. Double bonus. I found the pattern on Ravelry. Once again, kudos for Ravelry!! Anyway, I have done lace before and wasn't having any problems with this pattern. Then two days ago I had a horrible thing happen. I got to the end of the row and I didn't have enough stitches left to finish the repeat. Never a good thing. So I frogged back and fixed the error. Then continued along with the pattern only to have the same thing happen again two or three rows later. Again, I frogged. This happened 4 times! I couldn't believe it. For me, it is difficult to frog when the pattern has yo's. So I would have to frog back to a row that didn't have any yo's.

Fortunately I can report that I stuck with it and finally got my grove back. I was so upset yesterday and was complaining about how many times I had to frog the dang thing that my boyfriend said, "Maybe you should try working on something else. This project doesn't seem to be making you very happy." He means well, but he's not a knitter so he just doesn't understand. I knew I just had to persevere to win the battle. :)

Here's the progress of the shawl after getting back on track:




And since I haven't been great about posting pictures, here's one of me teaching :)

The Birds and the Bees

Today was my second time substituting for my master teacher's class. The kids were pretty well behaved (none of them ran away this time). It seems like at least once a week we have a bee fly into our classroom. If we turn out the lights and shut the blinds, the bee will usually head straight for the sunlight coming through the open door and leave. Today we had a bee fly in, so I did the routine (calm kids down, turn out lights, leave door open). The bee flew out of the room shortly after.

Then today during math we had a bird fly into our classroom. That's right! A real live BIRD!!! What are the chances (pretty good if I'm the substitute I guess). Anyway, the kids went absolutely bonkers (which I can't really blame them because how often does that really happen??). We tried to use the same technique that we use to encourage the bees to leave, but it didn't work at all. I tried to settle the kids down by telling them to ignore the bird. No such luck. So I had all of the kids put their heads down on their desks. Then I told them that if they were SO interested in the bird that they couldn't stop talking about it or looking at it, then they would have to write a research report on birds. That pretty much got the kids back on task. The principal came into the room and called for someone to get the bird out. Before someone came to save the day, the bird flew out of the room on its own.

Never a dull moment when Ms. B. is the substitute :)

I can't even relate this to knitting, but it was too good of a story not to share.

S-T-R-E-S-S

Here's your warning...This is a long post, but probably worth the read.

I thought I knew the meaning of this word. This last week I discovered the true meaning of it. I have been student teaching for 6 weeks now. Last week, I was stressed about student teaching, being observed and getting work for school done. This week was a whole new thing. While student teaching, you are allowed to substitute for your master teacher. This is highly recommended if you know your master teacher will be gone because if you don't they have to hire a substitute. Since you know the students' schedule better than the sub, you will end up doing all of the work while the sub reads a book and gets paid. Needless to say, I went to the district office and paid for my emergency credential so that I can sub for my class. This last Tuesday was my first day as a sub. I was only to sub in the morning because I had classes in the afternoon. There is a particular child in this class who is TROUBLE. We'll call him "C." About a week earlier C was hiding out in his brother's Kindergarten class and we thought he was absent. When the school called his house his mother said that he did indeed go to school that day. There was a little freak out and then he was found. C was in major trouble and lost all the recesses until he made up the time that he missed by going to his brother's room.

The day that I was substituting, C had to stay in at recess. He asked me if he could take his little brother his lunch. Since I didn't want to have his brother go hungry, I let him go. I told him to come right back. The recess bell rang and C had not returned. After a lot of calling around the school and paging him to go to the office, the secretary called me and asked me to describe what he was wearing that day. WHAT!?! I have 33 students, and I'm supposed to remember what he was wearing down to the color of his shoes??? I did the best I could.

Later the police found him walking down this very steep hill WITH HIS BROTHER (kidnapping much??) walking back towards his house. I was pretty calm and collected throughout the whole ordeal and didn't lose it until I was driving to school. I drove down the same hill where they found C walking and I noticed that there are some places without a sidewalk. I was freaking out about how the two kids could have been hit by a car or kidnapped. After school, I talked with my master teacher and she said that I couldn't have handled the situation any better and the principal said that I did everything exactly right.

C came to school on Wednesday for Halloween. He was absent on Thursday with an excuse. On Friday he was absent again, but no excuse from the parents. C takes the bus to school with his brother. A parent saw two kids walking down the hill and immediately called the principal. Apparently the bus dropped the kids off at the school and C promptly took his brother and walked back towards home. The principal had to go and pick them up and bring them back to school. During some meetings C was asked why he ran away from school. First he said that another girl in class was mean to him (so not the case. The girl doesn't even sit near him in class). Then he said that his teacher has been mean to him since he got in trouble for going to his brother's class last week (such a lie). Then he said it's because I never call on him during class (lie again). This kid is a little B.S.er.

So yesterday the secretary called the classroom while I was alone teaching the kids. C was in the office. She let me know that a man would be coming in to observe the class. I had no idea who he was, but just went on my way teaching my lesson. It turns out that the observer was a retired parole officer that was observing me to see if I was only calling on the same students in class. It just so happened that when he came to observe me we were doing something that involved the students giving responses to my questions. The same students kept raising their hands so I said (as I always do) "I need to see new hands or I'll start calling on people." The report he gave back was that I couldn't be doing it any better. I even asked other kids to answer and called on the ones who raised their hands evenly. I wasn't aware of the fact that he was coming to observe that exact thing.

In the last week I had my first substituting job, had a student run away and was observed by a retired parole officer. Much too much excitement for one week! What does this possibly have to do with knitting?? (Since I always try to bring it back to that). Not even knitting is relieving the stress from all of this. I am definitely trying though. Been doing a lot of knitting instead of the things I "should" be doing. Hopefully that will relieve some of the tension. At least as much as possible when what I really need is to spend a week/month in Hawaii :)

HALLOWEEN!!!

I did another Halloween themed project this weekend. I love it because it is quick and easy, the illusion knitting is really cool and because it is quick and easy!! Since I was so stressed with school and student teaching, I decided to treat myself to getting a massage. If you are ever going to treat yourself to something, this is definitely the thing to do! On the way home I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics to get some Sugar 'n Creme yarn to make the dishcloth. They only had yellow, orange and white. No black. Luckily there was a Michaels craft store nearby, so that was my next stop. They had much more variety there, but still no black yarn. I thought about just using an acrylic yarn and hoping for the best. This was a crazy thought, but let me tell ya people, I get a little crazy when I want to make something. I'm not so good with the patience thing. It's a work in progress :) Anyway, Michaels had a different brand of cotton yarn. It was half cotton, half acrylic. Getting better. So I'm digging through the color choices. Still no black!! I settled for a characoal color. I was still pretty upset that it wasn't black, but definitely a better choice then the Red Heart acrylic yarn I was about to make do with. The dishcloth actually ended up turning out really well. It's kinda hard to notice that it's "charcoal." The main idea is to see the candy corn. I was rather pleased with my dishcloth and want to make more. I plan on doing more illusion knitting in the future too. So cool!

Trick or Treat!

Last weekend we took a very short family trip to Southern California and went to Knott's Scary Farm. It's a Halloween event at Knott's Berry Farm. They set up a lot of haunted houses and people were hired to wear scary costumes and jump out at you throughout the haunted house. There were also costumed people throughout the park that would jump out at you. As much as I hate to admit it, I was scared a couple of times. After going to the event, we decided that we will not be repeating it in the future. First of all, the amount of people that were there was RIDICULOUS and second of all they were mostly high school aged kids. Not that I have anything against them, but they tend to be rude and do things like cut in line, they don't pay attention and are just somewhat obnoxious. Ok, maybe I do have something against them, but still. It was madness. The good part about the trip is that we were in the car for at least 6 hours each way (probably more with all the traffic we hit both ways). So unless you're a knitter, long car rides aren't so great. Since I am a knitter it was fantastic!! I was able to knit a trick-or-treat basket that looks like a spider. I bought the pattern in September and have been thinking about it ever since. I am so glad that I finally did it and finished it. I was a little worried that Halloween would come and go and I would end up knitting a spider basket in April. Here it is:

Fight the Addiction?

I seem to knit in cycles. It's either all the time or not at all (although during the not at all time, I'm usually contemplating what to start next). Right now I'm in the "can't stop knitting" mode. I have tons of things to do (lesson plans, reading for school, assignments, laundry, etc.) and yet all I want to do is knit, knit, knit. I went on a road trip with the family to Southern California this last weekend and was able to knit up the cutest Trick-or-Treat basket. From there, the knitting has snowballed. I have socks that need to be finished and started a mesh bag. I also have to seam up my Baby Surprise Jacket. This may not seem to be a lot of projects on the needles, but I am the type of knitter that usually finishes one project before beginning another. As I continue to knit I just keep thinking about all of the things I need to get. I don't even want to take the time to load a picture to my blog right now. I just want to KNIT!! In reality, the knitting is an awesome de-stressor and I should just let all the other things go. Everything always get done somehow, right?

GRRR...

I started making the Baby Surprise Jacket a couple of weeks ago and then put it down with no desire to pick it up again. My first problem is that I used a worsted weight yarn which ended up making the sweater bigger than I had planned. I guess I was supposed to use a sock weight yarn to make a smaller sweater. I think that this is the appeal of this pattern. You can make different sizes just by changing the yarn the you use. So then I was thinking "whatever." It's always better too big than too small (within in reason of course). I got over the fact that this jacket won't fit a newborn and the wearer will just have to wait until she gets a little bit older.

So I'm going along with the pattern only to realize that each end of the sweater has a different amount of stitches after the stitch markers. They should be exactly the same. Since the pattern only tells you to make the increases or decreases before or after the stitch markers and doesn't give a certain number of stitches to count, I didn't realize my mistake until finishing all of the increases in that section. So...I don't know where I made the initial mistake and I really don't know if fixing it or leaving it will make a major difference. We're talking about two stitches worth of a mistake. Part of me just wants to keep going and see how it turns out and the perfectionist in me wants to frog the whole thing and start from scratch. What's a girl to do??

Second Post for the Day

I saw this quiz on another blog and had to post the results since it related to my post on October 6th.

What Should You Knit?

You should knit a plain sweater! You like to get lost in the process of making your project, and don't mind taking some time to do so. Often you let the beauty of the yarn speak, as opposed to using difficult techniques.
Take this quiz!








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I ROCK!

I am currently in a credential program to get my Teaching Credential. I started student teaching (working in the classroom with an experienced teacher) at the end of September. I was placed in a 5/6 combination class. This school is brand new and this is only their second year being open. Needless to say, it is beautiful and I totally lucked out. I do the Spelling pre-test and test every week, I did Language Arts lessons with a small group of ESL students last week and this week I started doing the Math lessons with the 5th graders.

As a student teacher, you are assigned a supervisor who observes you teaching a lesson in the classroom 4 times during each placement. Today was my first observation and I did an awesome job. I was very nervous (as I tend to do often is these kinds of situations) about my first observation (and probably will be about every one to follow). The kids were well behaved, engaged and totally understood the lesson. I couldn't have asked for a better first observation or a better group of kids. My supervisor said that I was very organized, well-prepared and spoke to the students with respect and in turn got respect back from them. She seemed to be very impressed with my lesson. Oh yeah, and I did I mention that on top of all of that I'm sick?? This is why I ROCK!!

So far, I am really enjoying student teaching and look forward to having my own class someday. Wish me luck on the rest of my observations! I've definitely set the bar high, so hopefully I can keep it!

To celebrate my success of the day, I am going to sit and knit after finish reading for at least one class for school tomorrow. Better yet, I will read and knit at the same time. It makes the reading slightly less dry and the boring stockinette part of the sock go by faster as well :)

What to Knit?

So I feel that I really don't have very much spare time between preparing lesson plans for next week, going to school, doing reading for school, getting ready for my first observation by my supervisor and everything else that happens in life, but of course I want to start another knitting project. I started knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket two weeks ago. First of all, it seems as though it will be much bigger than I expected. Also, I was following the pattern carefully, but somehow my stitch marker was two stitches off on one end. The only reason that I know this is because the two ends are different and yet you're supposed to do the same thing to each side. Needless to say I really didn't feel like undoing it and figuring it out so it's still sitting on the needles and I have no desire to work out the problem right now.

I have a pattern for a felted Halloween treat bag that looks like a spider. I got it in Oregon when I was visiting my cousin. Being that the first week of October is not over, I should really get cracking on this one. It's super cute and fits the holiday, but I just can't seem to get the ball rolling (or unwinding! lol...geez, i'm a dork).

The cousin from OR, Laurie, is pregnant. She has been having some troubles with her blood pressure and blood sugar levels. I just found out yesterday that she had to go to the hospital and the doctor put her on bed rest. The baby will probably be born early (I think they will be inducing labor) and very very tiny. When I was there, we went to the Yarn Garden (LYS) and they had all these tiny hats for premature babies hanging in the window. I believe it was for charity. My cousin was saying that her baby will probably need some of those tiny hats. So this would be another project (and a very small one too) that I could get going on.

Of course I have plenty of other patterns and stash yarn that the possibilities of what to start working on next are endless. Instead of being creative, I just decided to start some toe-up socks on two circulars. It's a variegated yarn and the colors are kinda boring, but the exciting part is that the yarn has little bits of sparkly silver in them. The sparkles may be hard to see, but here's the beginning of the sock:



When in doubt, knit socks!

Does anyone have any ideas or patterns on the internet that would give me something different to do with the leg as opposed to the basic k2, p2 rib? I would like to try something different :)

AHH!!!

I feel like I'm already going crazy. Last week I started my first placement as a student teacher. It went well, but all I really did was observe and give some spelling tests. Next week I have to plan reading lessons for a group of students who are struggling with reading. Each lesson is about one hour. So I'm freaking out a little, even though I know it will be a piece of cake. I started my classes for the credential program on Thursday. I have only been to two out of my five classes and am stressing about all the assignments I will have to do on top of student teaching. The good news is that most of the assignments have to do with things I will be doing in the classroom (as a student teacher). I think I really just need to be able to take it one day at a time, which is definitely not one of my strengths.

What does this have to do with knitting??? I really want to knit and have tons of projects that I want to start working on, but feel a little guilty if I'm knitting instead of reading or doing assignments for school. I totally understand why they recommend not working during this year. Which means I also stress about money! Ah, life! Hopefully I will be able to get some knitting in. In fact, I should require myself to get some knitting in because it is definitely a de-stressor!

Parents Hooked it Up!!

My parents hooked it up! Apparently there was a sale at Joann's Fabric on the Super Size Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. They know that I am crazy about knitting (which in turn means that I'm crazy about yarn too). This is what they got me:



Leave it to my mom to take the full advantage of a sale :) They got me 16 balls of this yarn (4 ea of 4 colors). I really don't know what I will do with it all. The only thing that I have ever used this yarn for is dishcloths. I also made one scarf when I first started knitting. I am using the varigated yarn to make the Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I'm hoping for the best. Fortunately I know plenty of people who are having babies. If the first jacket turns out ok, maybe I will use the rest of the yarn to make more Baby Surprise Jackets. If not, people are getting lots of dishcloths for Christmas! LOL!

Da Bears!

As promised, I have a picture of Eddie wearing the socks that I made for him.



I was able to give them to him last Sunday when the Bears played the Chiefs. We now know that the socks work because the Bears won 20-10!!! Hopefully the luck lasts throughout the season and the Bears can make it to the Super Bowl again. I'm not a Bears fan (nor a huge football fan in general), but I figure if he can support my obsessive knitting habit then I can support his team :)

P.S. I have only been on Ravelry for two days, but I absolutely love it!! If only I could organize my entire life this way :) I have also finally found something to make with my Amaizing yarn (SWTC). My name on Ravelry is "abarclay." Check it out!

Ravelry!!!

I cannot believe it! I am on Ravelry! To be honest, I really don't know all that much about it, but a couple of people have been saying how great it is. I also noticed that there was a LONG waiting list! I figured I better get on that waiting list and maybe I would be on by the end of the year. Much to my surprise, I had an invitation waiting for me in my email. Went on Ravelry, signed up and started checking it out. I can't wait to get home and start filling it out. I put in one pattern that I have finished (Trellis - see below) and then I was able to see all the variations of that pattern that other people had done! So cool. I definitely need to find more time so I can play around with it!

Packages

So I have been looking at other people's knitting blogs and many people have pictures of packages that they have received in the mail. These packages usually have candy, yarn, knitting needles and all other kinds of fun stuff. My question is, how do I get in on this??? I love getting mail that isn't a bill, especially when it's a package!! Does anyone know how I sign up for one of these exchanges?? If so, please let me know :)

Visiting Family

For the last week and a half I have been visiting family in Oregon and Arizona. First, I went to see my cousin, Laurie, who is having a baby (the one that I gave the baby sweater to). She loved the sweater!! She wanted to hang it on the wall in the nursery instead of putting it on her baby. The day after I gave it to her she was talking to her husband's grandma from Pennsylvania. Grandma Phoebe said that it must be "some sweater" because Timothy (Laurie's husband) even told her how awesome it is. That made me super excited. Laurie has done a little knitting on her own, but mostly purses, scarves and hats. She still feels that she is a novice knitter. It was great giving the sweater to someone who knits because then she really appreciated the gift. It was awesome! I got a better response than I thought I would. This is my cousin and me at a waterfall in OR:




Since I have a little more experience knitting (Laurie was calling me a "professional," which I am far from) Laurie wanted to get in as much knitting time as possible. While there I worked on this scarf:



Using this yarn:



We went to the LYS, The Naked Sheep (http://www.thenakedsheepknitshop.com/) and I loved this shop! They had a pattern for felted clogs that I had been thinking about getting for a long time. I was really debating on whether or not I should get yarn along with the pattern while I was there. I had plenty of yarn back at the house to do some projects, but I really really wanted these clogs! So, naturally, I bought some yarn so I could knit up the clogs right away. I am so glad that I did. I LOVE THESE CLOGS!!! Here is a pic pre-felting:



The pen is there so you can get an idea of a the ginormous size of these clogs before felting :) The finished product will be in a picture below.

Laurie had been working on a baby sweater and was feeling a little discouraged about it. So she added on some red to the bottom of it and it made a world of difference. Laurie decided to try different kinds of stitch patterns while making baby blocks. She wanted a project where the end results would come a lot quicker! I really liked the way the blocks turned out.

I had been looking at some stitch markers on ebay that were absolutely adorable. Since my cousin enjoys using Sculpey clay and had some on hand, we decided to make some of our own stitch markers. My first four were insects, which ended up being WAY to big, so they became magnets instead. My cousin made me a set of purple stitch markers and I love them. I was also able to get a good start on the Bears socks for Eddie. Here's a picture of us with all of our projects from the week:



Laurie decided to make her own pair of clogs. She started her clogs the night before I had to leave for AZ. Since she wasn't able to get to the last part of the clog before I left, we sat down before I went through security and I showed her how to do a three needle bind off so she would know how to do it when she got to that part. I think that we knit every minute we possibly could, literally right up until I went through security. It was great being able to knit with someone else. I usually knit alone, or while I'm with other people who don't knit. I don't know what it is, but there is definitely a difference when you're with fellow knitters.

Next, I went to AZ. While there, I finished Eddie's socks. I also watched the Bears game on Sunday (he wasn't able to watch it on TV in CA) and they ended up losing. I told him it's because he didn't have his lucky socks. Hopefully the Bears will win the next game when he can wear the socks :) I will have to post a picture of them later.

I taught my step mom how to knit while I was there. She started a garter stitch scarf. My dad has a dog (a boxer) who is almost two years old and definitely likes getting into mischief. I had some yarn in my suitcase. The suitcase was closed, but not zipped. The dog decided that my yarn should be in the living room and this is what she did to it:



The picture is a little difficult to see, but basically she took a new, NEAT ball of yarn and knotted it all up. I couldn't be too mad because she is adorable! While in AZ, I started a pair of ankle socks for myself. I can definitely say that the 115 degree weather did not encourage me to do too much knitting.

Wow this is a long blog! I should probably just keep it up to date more frequently :)

First Baby Sweater

I finished my first baby sweater! I'm especially excited because it had cables too! I made the sweater for my cousin's baby that is due in November. It's the first baby of our generation, so I'm very excited. I am actually leaving tomorrow to go visit her and will be able to give her this sweater:

The pattern is from knitty.com. It is called Trellis. I would put in the link here if I knew how, but I'm still new to the blogging and don't know how to do this. I love these buttons because they are the same and different at the same time. I chose purple yarn because it is my favorite color and I didn't want to do the typical pink for a girl. I can't wait to see the baby in this sweater. It is size "6 mos" so hopefully she'll be a big baby so I don't have to wait too long. Her parents are both very tall, so here's hoping :)

Instant Gratification

I love knitting socks. Most of the socks I have knit are for myself (besides the small pair that I had to give to my mom with size 6 feet) and are very simple. The fanciest it has gotten with socks is using variegated yarn. I would love to try some with lace or cables. Awhile ago, I bought a 2007 Knitting calendar. It has a pattern for almost each day of the year. I definitely bought this for the patterns and not the calendar. Anyway, I found a pattern in there for infant socks and decided that it would be a great way to use up some leftover sock yarn. I made these:

I'm not sure who I will give them to, but they were a lot of fun. I was able to finish them in a day. This is not the case with the adult size socks. So the gratification on these was great and almost instant! My one complaint is that they don't match perfectly. I did the one with the pink toe first and was so excited at how the colors worked out perfectly with the heal being all purple and the pink toe. I assumed that if I started in the same place on the yarn with the next sock that it would turn out the same. Of course the variegated yarn gods were against me and there is not a pink toe and there is a purple stripe that is not on the first sock, but I'm not anal enough to fix it, only enough for it to bother me for a couple hours and then say "screw it."

I plan on making more (who they are for, I don't know), but I really need to start Eddie's (BF) Bear's socks. Football season starts soon and I haven't even started. Never knit your BF a sweater, but I'm sure socks are fine :) He definitely deserves them!

Pismo Beach

Last weekend I went to Pismo Beach to celebrate my one year anniversary with my boyfriend. The weather was pretty good and we had a lot of fun. I know that I love this man because everytime we go on vacation, he knows that we will be going to the closest yarn shop and he doesn't complain. In fact, he brings his GPS navigator so we can find a yarn shop (I highly recommend getting one of these!). On this trip, he entered the address for me. When we got to our destination we found a fabric store. He had scrolled to the wrong address on the GPS. Then we corrected the mistake only to find that the yarn shop was another 2 mi away. We decided to walk up and down the street in this cute little town. We went to the ice creamery and window shopped at a couple of stores. Then we got back in the car and drove to the "correct" address for Yarnology (the LYS). We got to the address and could not find the place. So he called to shop only to discover that they had moved a month ago to (you guessed it) the street we were previously on. We didn't see it because it was above one of the other shops.

Anyway, we drove back to where we started and finally got to Yarnology. It was a small shop, but I was so happy to find it. I wanted to do something lace. The shopowner was very helpful.

This is what I bought:



and this is what I started making:



I also bought a kit to make a cabled scarf. I will post pictures if I ever start it :)

So we were actually only at the yarn shop for about 45 minutes. My bf was shocked. He thought it would take at least an hour and a half (like it usually does when I'm limited to one hour). I think I was just really excited to go back to the hotel and start my lace project :) I got to knit it from our balcony with a beautiful view of the ocean!

What kind of needles, knitter and yarn am I?

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!
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What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
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What kind of yarn are you?

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
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