No New Picture Friday, Part Trois

The truth of the matter is, I have nothing to show you! Why, you ask? Well, the heel flaps on the Tofutsies are now 2/3's of the way done. Time for gussets, hopefully today. We'll see. Nothing new there and I'm sure you're tired of looking at them. That seam in the baby blanket is still open and two cute guys from the Seam Police stopped by last night and served me with a violation. I have ten days to fix or...or else they carry me off somewhere.

I will show you the Tofutsies in some interesting shots to be. Stay tuned!!

It's now October 5. It's NY..The high today is supposed to be ..80. I think I'm going to have to start believing Al Gore and this global warming. If I didn't have that puppy who is now a dog, I could've grown one giant pumpkin in my backyard this year. So, instead of new pictures, here's DS, last year around this time.

So, let me tell you about my next project...it's call Iris Afghan and the pattern is here, free from the Daily Knitter. They used Lion Brand Thick and Quick which I would never use. It goes against my passion for itty-bitty sts and this should only be used to do macrame hanging baskets. Yuck. This is something I would never do. Back in the 70's, it was all the rage and I hated it. I couldn't get the sides even and the plant would lean. Then I noticed that the ones in the store are like that, too. So, needless to say, I am not doing macrame.

ANYWAY, I will make this pattern out of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Cottonball. Cottonball is white. I will cast on not 88 sts but 212, 6 sts on each side for a garter st border and 10 repeats of each pattern so I will have 10 boxes across. I will use a 6 or a 7 needle, have to see if I like the gauge. This should be piece of cake mindless knitting. That is, until I mess up a stitch and have to take out an entire row. This will be for the the baby this is currently in the works and is due Christmas Day. I saw the mommy the other day and she is well and the baby is truly growing. I hope he or she fits under my blanket of itty bitty tiny stitches.

The problem: The yarn isn't in yet. I ordered it and it's not here. I bet it's coming across the country in the back of a truck as we speak. But...it's not here.

So, that means I have to work on the Tofutsies and perhaps fix the toes of the Jaywalkers and add the fringe to the poncho which needs to be blocked.

I also have to get the kiddies up and off to school!


I promise to have beautiful surprise pictures for you next post.

Drawing a Blank

Today, I have writer's block. It's 6 AM and I have time to blog but it seems that I am at a loss for words.

The Tofutsies are entering the heel flap stage.

The puppy is going to school tonight to learn how to behave.

It's October. I'm in NY. Why am I running the AC?

I bought some sewing books on Amazon yesterday so I could attempt to make my own curtains, bedspreads, throw pillows for my bedroom. My bedroom needs extreme makeover. We've renovated every part of the house for the most part...except that room. All we did there was paint. It's a nice large room, approximately 12 x23 rectangular on one end of the rectangle and 10 on the other. Maybe a little less than 10. It has 4 large windows with blinds hanging in them. My winter project is to use my sewing machine and do a makeover. Remember: I cannot sew.

The little boy and the little girl are doing very well in school. He tends to get into trouble from time to time...yesterday he took a girl's shoe and didn't give it back! (Flirting??) She has totally come out of her shell and is maturing into what will be a Kindergartner next year. I'm also busy working on homework with my son. It's amazing the amount of work they do. He's 5 and has to do a 'Book Report' once a week. Lots of coloring going on. We have to read, do flash cards, learn sight words. Amazing how much they've done in one month. I didn't do this stuff in first grade. The little girl was playing on the Internet when I picked her up after school yesterday and she's FOUR!

Knitting along, doing the heel flaps on Tofutsies. I have 20 rows to go doing two at once and can squeeze that in this morning before work. Pix later!

Christmas is just around the corner, best to get any Christmas knitting well underway at this point!


For now, I leave you with the Christmas Stocking entries from the LI Fair....nice, hah?

The Border Patrol and the Seam Police

"oh" - say that in the soft astonishment voice you have. The one Dorothy uses when she lands in the house and murders the Wicked witch of the East.



It's done.


Well, I thought it was. When I went to photograph it this morning, I decided I didn't like that one seam so I opened it up and will fix it tonight when I don't have to get ready for work and I don't have a headache. The Border Patrol and the Seam Police should be happy with this one.

This is for my neighbor. Here's the stats: Yarn: Patons Astra Crochet Hook: Size D (remember: Passion for itty bitty sts...) Date Started: Labor Day Weekend or so... but I put it down to work on other things and did more than half of it the past two days. Pattern: Designed exclusively by me. Yes, if you want the pattern, leave a comment. I will write it out and e-mail it to you. Each ball of yarn made 6 squares and each square measured 5 1/2 inches so you can figure out how much you need if you used Astra. Astra is a sport weight yarn and I've had this in my stash for years. It was left over from a blankie I made for a little girl who is now in sixth grade. I love the border and I think it came out really nice. The recipient of this is due to arrive within two weeks or so.

Next project is a knitted one and I am deciding between three patterns...it'll be white, Cotton Fleece "Cottonball" that is on order and it'll be one piece, geometric. I'm between skinny ribbons, diamonds or squares. In order of current preference, it looks like the diamond pattern is winning. This baby is due Christmas Day.

The Tofutsie socks look the same, by the way.

I'm going to rip out a mistake in my little Wallaby and then restart, just above the ribbing, with the correct number of sts....... I am sorry, it just has to be perfect. This is why I don't sew. note to self: make curtains for sewing practice.

Well, time to get ready for work and rouse the younguns for school. Hope you enjoyed a little crochet in the knitting blog.

LI Fair and the Border Patrol

Well, first a quick update on the baby blanket. Sorry about the bad pictures, it's still dark out and I didn't tweak them because it's late and we have alot for show n tell today! It started out like the picture on the left and finished like the picture on the right. In fact, I was about 6" from the edge and I saw that I had put two dcs where one should have been. I knew that the Border Patrol wouldn't like that so I had to take out an entire round. I think I'm actually going to make the border bigger. Other than that and a few dangling strings, it's done. Yippee!! Onward...

Speaking of crochetting and crafts in general, I went to the LI Fair at Old Bethpage Village Restoration. I am going to try and enter something next year so that I can whine and moan when something less nice than mine wins the blue ribbon. First off, lemmie show you this:

Is that cute or what? It's a cake!!

Here are some lovely quilts. I thought alot of them were very nice but that may be because this is something that I can't do. Here's a first prize knitted thing. Not a good picture but it was fuzzy and they didn't have that kinda yarn at the turn of the century. It's kinda odd that it won. They changed the rules a bit but still....

This was also a blue ribbon winner. I loved the colors and the pattern! Nice job!

Here are some of the crochetted afghans. I wasn't overly impressed. I really thought that only a handful were truly exceptional, I didn't agree with the judges. Some were very nice but they weren't unique. The blue flowered thing is actually a flag but you can't see that from the way that it was hung. (Hard to display them all, of course.) There were alot just basic granny, no nicer than my baby blanket. I did enter this one year and lost to something truly mediocre. The colors were ok but the workmanship was shoddy, the edges were all uneven! Oh well...I'll try next year, perhaps.

They had old time furniture and even sewing machines! And Stoves!!

Too cute!

Punch and Judy were there, too. The puppeteer was excellent!! Punch's baby has the face of the person in the painting, "The Scream". Gotta love it. He put on a half hour show and the kids didn't budge! Neither did I. It was my favorite part of the entire fair.

Well, time for work!

Keep on Truckin'

Yesterday, I went to NYC to do some work. I took my camera with the intent of photographing my sock in Times Square. I didn't get to do it. I also didn't get to eat lunch or stop working from the time I arrived (9:45am) until about 6:50. I was famished! Good thing I can afford to miss a meal. I am telecommuting today so that I can actually do work as opposed to going to the office to do a bunch of meetings...or one big giant long one. Thank goodness for telecommuting.

I'm still not a seamstress. I hemmed my son's karate pants and they look awful. My DD gets her uniform on Thursday so at least I get another shot at it....got my white thread all ready! I did sew the patch on very nicely though. (flashback: having to do crewel embroidery of the Girl Scouts emblem circa 1973, damn satin stitch, endless. Buttonhole stitch: not too bad.)

Anyway, I have another problem. The pink wallaby is done and will be mailed to my niece in FL. who is about 2 1/2 now. The blue wallaby, for her brother, is well underway but I must've miscounted and I have one less stitch in the body. Yes, I'm a perfectionist and it's going to be frogged, four inches. C'est la vie! C'est la guerre! At least it wasn't hacked by DD, a/k/a "Texas Chain Saw Massacre Kid". I'll rip it out back to the ribbing to fix this.

So, being I rode the train yesterday, I got to work on the Tofutsies..They look soooo much bigger, hah? ... ahem......I've had it, time for the heel! I have to get these done. I am working with acrylic on the blanket, cotton / acrylic for the wallaby and the tofutsies. I am having wool withdrawal.

By Janome, I think I've Got it!

Back to the game show.....

Today, I bought something that I've been meaning to buy for a very, very long time. One of those things you think about and never get around to doing. Then, one day, you're old and you say, "Drat, never did do that".

Fortunately, I have lost the desire to skydive. No, I didn't buy four years worth of tuition at a college in a college town. I bought: A Sewing Machine.

I never really owned one before. Back in the day, my mom didn't sew. She really didn't know how and said that sewing on a machine was a difficult task for lefties. In fact, she complained about being a leftie in a right-handed world all the time. She would iron and bowl with her right hand. I grew up in a house with a backwards refrigerator. I always had to switch the loaf of italian bread around to cut it. Once, she bought meat scissors and took them back to the store and told the lady that they don't cut meat. They don't work. I loved them...! So, she never learned to sew. I believe that she knitted in the same direction that I did but she didn't knit continental, which is weird. She crochetted leftie and I taught her to do that by facing her. She claimed you couldn't sew leftie, all the controls were made for the right hand. Surely, there must've been left-handed seamstresses, no? My sister sewed a bit and we had a Kenmore in the house that I used often. She and the machine live in FL now.

Being a musician, albeit former musician, I know the importance of buying an instrument from a store that is an expert in the field. Off to find a machine, I went to an expert. I went to Mr. Vac and Mrs. Sew. A mom and pop shop, a blast from the past these days! Located in a double store front only a few miles from my house. A expert. Not to mention, Mr. Vac and Mrs. Sew are very, very nice people. Guess what? They're really married to each other (I guess she kept her maiden name.) and they have SEVEN children! Seven children in 19 years. Oh my! They're not two little old people, you know, they're hopping! They are busy! They run the lovely store and they have to run a house with SEVEN children.

Mr. Vac and I sat down and chatted over the Singers in the little room he has set up dedicated to Singers. I walked in pretty set on the Singer Touch N Sew. He recommended a computerized sewing machine. Hmmn..Let's see, the last one I had was a Kenmore and it was fancy because it did zigzag, had a free arm and had a four-step buttonholer. Before that, Home Ec, Mrs. Kelly. She was a meanie but she could really sew. That machine didn't do anything either. He did a nice demo. He then showed me the Janome DC2007LE. It was great and was even cheaper than the Singer. He also showed me two Brother machines that were very, very nice but were really for someone much more advanced than I. I need this to make curtains, do hems, sew patches on my kids karate uniforms, help DD when she becomes a Daisy / Girl Scout, etc. I would love for her to learn crafts and music, too. The Janome DC2007LE seemed to be a great buy, was on sale and was my favorite color: green. (and white!)

Not knowing a Janome from anything, I did a little research on the web and found out that this machine was actually given to Rosie O'Donnell and the studio audience on The View. You can see the clip here. Being it's the end of 2007, Mr. Vac had marked these machines down and I paid way less than the list of $650. It has a lot of nice features found in higher end machines.

Ok, now, I have to take it out of the box and use it! Today, I will. I guess those socks are going to sit some more.....

DD and DS have been enrolled in Karate. They have these uniforms that are huge and the pants have an inseam of like 50. I will need to hem and take them down as needed. DS got his yesterday and DD's should be in this week. She was a little too small for the size 0 and needs the 00. They've gone to two lessons so far and they love it. I want them exercising and this is so good. DD loves to do "FIGHTING STANCE" and "JAM JAM" instead of Jab Jab. They're too little and inexperienced to spar so this is fine. They'll have to do that to get belts later on.

Well, I have to go and play with my new toys. Pictures coming! I can't wait to take it out of the box. My new, Janome DC2007LE...ah....toys!

Knit Night!

Last night was knit night at The Village Knitter in Babylon Village. After a grueling day at the rockpit, I headed out and arrived a little late. The good thing about working late is that I can make it from my office to the Village Knitter in about 9 minutes. The bad thing is that I really don't like to work until nearly 7 o'clock.

Anyway, I made a few new friends. Sorry ladies, it's been 12 hours and I have forgotten your names!!! We have Erica with a pocketbook to be:

and a brand new knitter on her first project, a scarf out of beautiful yarn! I am so proud of her, her stitches are all nice and even and the choice of color is very lovely indeed!

and a nice pretty plushy baby hat, not a first, but an early project. It is very soft and pretty, too!

I didn't want to show you another still uncompleted picture of the Tofutsies so I'll so you a picture of my sock family. They're all saying good bye to the dark blue broad spiral ribbed socks which are currently in transit to my aunt in Florida. She should receive them today.

In other news, the puppy who is now a dog has been enrolled in Doggie School and starts Wednesday the 26th. Stay tuned to see if they have to send her to reform school. Remember the baby fish? They've all been incorporated into the general population. Some of them are soon to be parents! It seems that none of the babies were boys. This may very well be a bad thing. First off, there will inevitably be some incest. Secondly, I will need a bigger fishtank. Good thing I don't raise gerbils. We'll have to wait and see. Experts can tell which are the girls and which are the boys at about six or seven weeks. I know that the black tailed ones are certainly girl fish; however, the blonde ones are younger and haven't really developed yet.

My oldest dog, Bonnie, has developed a tumor and has bad arthritis. She is going to be checked out at the vet tomorrow to see how she's doing. She had her fourteenth birthday July 14th and is really starting to show her age. I am sad.

Speaking of pets, the kids are well. DD loves school and DS is settling in, finally. So far, it's been going very well. I hope he doesn't tell the teacher that he's a superhero and dives off the desk and uses his 'powers'. DH is working very hard at his job and hasn't smoked in over six weeks! I am very proud of him. He's even exercising a bit but has still gained a little weight. I don't care, he's relatively normal sized anyway, just large enough to need the undersized extra large Wallaby.

As for the crochet baby blanket, that may get done tomorrow! I have about 25 squares, I think I will make it 7x6 or 6x6. I need to edge in white and either crochet or sew together nice and neatly. Then, we can start a baby blanket that will be knitted for a baby that is due Christmas Day.

Well, time to rouse the children and get them off to school!

New Pix - Crochet Time!

Good Morning, another rainy weekend. We were supposed to cover our pool today but I don't think that that is going to happen. It's 64 and rainy and husband is off at work for about three hours. Perfect knitting weather!

The baby blanket is currently underway. I can make a square in only a few minutes and it's much faster for me to crochet a baby blanket than it is to knit one. I have one to finish by October and one for a December baby that is due on Christmas Day. I think these squares have just moved up to be my current portable project. The yarn is Paton's Astra that I had from a previous project. The pattern is nothing special, my own. This will be a boy blanket and I may do the edges in baby blue, haven't decided, that or white. I lean towards white on these things for some reason. I figure I have to make 36 squares, probably this will be 6x6, each square is about 6 inches across plus a small edging around the entire thing to even it up.

Meanwhile, in sock land.. do they look ANY bigger??? I guess they do. I am nearly ready to start the heel flaps. Being the baby blanket is mindless crochet, I can do that when I'm tired. As for the socks, my goal is to get to the heels today and then get up to the foot (two at once, feet?) no later than Monday. If I get up early enough every day next week, I can probably sail through the feet in two days. Then, I can screw up the toes and leave it to age properly for two or three months along with the Jaywalkers.

They are very pretty though. It's just the constant ribbing takes alot out of me...and I knit continental because I am really a crocheter at heart. Next pair of socks will be big man socks. I just haven't decided whether or not to make them out of wool. I am missing wool a bit. The baby blanket is acrylic, the socks are Tofutsies and the Wallaby is cotton/acrylic. I may need a Cherry Tree Hill or a STR (I have Mudslide on hand!!) for a wool fix.

Pictures of my sock family and staff are coming. Please stay tuned.

No New Picture Friday, Part Deux

Here it is, Friday. I am really slacking in posting. I've just been so swamped, kids are back at school, house is a mess, I'm enjoying my new washing machine. I don't even know if I told you about that or not, that's how much my head is spinning.

Well, cliff notes: Old 15 year old washing machine crapped out and we got a new one. It has all these nifty settings and I love it. Washing clothes has never been so much fun! So much fun that I have been neglecting the rest of the house.

There is junk everywhere. I have to call 1-800-GOT-JUNK and have them come in and throw everything out. But, there is just so much that I want and need. I just need a bigger place to keep my stuff.

I haven't been doing all that much knitting. I will show you some pictures tomorrow but don't get your hopes up. Things have been kinda the same. I am not knitting at lightening speed at all.

The Jaywalkers: Still on the back burner.
The Poncho: Still needs to be blocked and fringed.
The Tofutsies: Still knitting the legs, slow going, I tell you.
The Wallaby: Much progress but needs the pouch to be added.
The Baby Blanket: No where near done.
The Baby that will receive the Baby Blanket: 1 month till he comes! (It is a boy!)

AND, I have a nice new camera and no new pictures to show you.

Tomorrow, husband is working in the morning for awhile. I will probably let the kids sleep in until 8 or so and then have some alone time. Maybe even time for an illustrated post!

As for now, kids are jumping all over the place, have to go and watch them and knit some socks!

Some Things Never Change!

So, here it is September 10. My DD is four today. FOUR. That went so incredibly fast. Not only does she no longer need me but she's really not a baby any longer. We had a cake for her yesterday. She was so excited all day. I would think that she won't be able to contain herself today. She also promised to stop sucking her thumb when she turned four so let's see what happens.

She is really looking more and more like her mommy every day, I feel like I'm looking in the mirror alot of the time.

As for me, it's still going slowly. Saturday morning, I ripped out about six rows of sailor's ribbing. I put it back and then Saturday night ripped it out again. As you can see, the socks aren't really any bigger. I must have brain issues, this is not a hard pattern. It's that through the back loop thing that just blows my mind. That and it's so simple that I don't pay attention. I must be a lace girl. The Wallaby is in need of a pouch and I will try to get that going today. I have been doing some mindless knitting around and around on that one, maybe past the point of where I should've gone and now I have to count rows to make the pocket line up perfectly. That's ok. I've made this twice before now so this one should be cake. Just like the socks, cake.....ahem...

As you can plainly see, the socks aren't any bigger. Speaking of which, I have some time this morning so let me work on the socks a bit. I'm going to try to get through the heels today.

In other news, I thought I would update you on my fishtanks. I don't have any pictures of the baby fish but they've been mixed in with the general population now. I have a bunch of mid sized blonde guppies. My male black guppy has passed away but his lovely daughter, alas, is expecting. She's very young for this so we're keeping an eye on her. After all, in fish years, this would be a teen pregnancy. The pretty male guppy that was formerly attacked by the wicked skunk loach pictured below, finally has his tail growing back. I really do like the skunk loach but he just doesn't play nice. He has met his match in the gourami tank and things are much better. He doesn't mess with Brutus, my largest 'ready for the grill' blue opaline gourami. In fact, no one messes with Brutus, not even me.

I took this picture late at night, the only time the little feller comes out to terrorize the other fish. It's a bad picture but at least you get to see him. I think it's a him...hard to tell.

In any event, off to rib!