My Mom's New Blog

Come check her out at http://www.peaceharmonycleanhouse.blogspot.com/. She would LOVE it if you commented too!

Amy

PhotoBucket--SchmotoBucket

Since we returned from Ohio, I have been trying to post photos, as I had promised. Amylovie offered to let me use her computer while we were there for the 4th of July, but I didn't want to interrupt the party. WRONG! The next day I confidently sat down to prepare a terrific, photo-filled post with 6 pictures. WRONG! I assembled the photos in a file in my computer and set to work with PhotoBucket. I clicked submit and waited over an hour. I was so happy to when it finally started to show the photos loaded on P. B. First came one, then............. That was it!!!! It was late, so I thought, "I will try to get the rest tomorrow" WRONG! Tomorrow came. I sat, I loaded 5 photos, I waited another hour. Can you believe it, there were only 2 of the 5 loaded this time. So last night, before I went to bed, I gave P.B. another chance with the last 3. When I got up this morning at 5am, Hallelujah! All my photos were loaded in P. B. I went immediately to Blogger dashboard, started clicking on the "add another photo" boxes, until there were 5 boxes. Blogger would not let me add the last one. So this post has only 5 photos. If I don't have a breakdown, I might post the last on later. Since I am so frustrated about this whole photo posting thing, I am not going to try to rearrange the photos in any order. I'll just use the order Blogger gave me. It always seems random. Anyway, here we go at last:




This is a baby wash cloth that has the imprint of little new-born baby footprints on it. The toes are bobbles. It is made from Bernat's CottonTots. The footprints don't show up too well in the variegated. I did make one in solid yellow, but I already gave it away to my niece for her new baby. The pattern is at knittingknonsense.com. (Note the second K in the webname.) I shared this pattern with the ladies at Knitting Nurse's sit n knit group. They really liked it.






And speaking of Knitting Nurse, here she is with me and the Yarntopia sock yarn I took to her in Ohio. We had a great visit.






This is the shawl I knit from the yarn sent to me as a prize by Tabby Tuxedo. I wore it in Indianapolis for the TNNA market. It really came in handy. I made up the pattern.




This is the man's scarf knit from a Classic Elite worsted. This is for my church's Advent Fair. I made up the pattern for this one too. It is a basic basket weave with a seed stitch border.





And here are more socks. I finished the Yarntopia sock yarn socks using a basic 2x2 rib and short row heel and toe. The other sock is one of a pair (I'm still working on the second sock) made from FREE YARN we got at TNNA.

The last photo that I didn't get to post was of our front porch cat (we have a back porch cat, and never the twain shall meet) with a finished baby ball in pastels and an unfinished ball in Texas A&M colors. The balls are for the Advent Fair, also.

So that is it. I think I may have to take a vacation from blogging. I may even go on sabbatical until I can get DSL. Either that or go crazy or have to get another phone line. Please understand, gentle reader, if I don't post or comment or anything for a while. I may be just lurking for a while.

AWOL

I haven't posted for a long time. It's just that I dread the whole photobucket thing. I will try to update a little. I am using my brother-in-law's computer because I am in Hinckley, Ohio at the moment. He has DSL so, if I could post a photo here, it would be quicker, but I don't think his computer will jive with my camera.

Anyway, I did want to report having met Knitting Nurse and her Sit-n-Knit group last night. We had a wonderful time and I was able to deliver her Yarntopia sock yarn to her. What fun to get to meet and compare notes with someone I have only known "electonically", so to speak. She was really lovely. (Note to Amy: remember to ask me about beaded purses. These Ohio ladies are crazy over them and Texas ladies would be too, I'll bet. Doesn't matter what the temperature is, you know.)

I've been knitting a lot, but only little things. I did finish the brown man's scarf I had set as a K2 on Catherine's blog. I finished at noon on the second day. (Note to Catherine: I'll set a more significant goal soon. I have yarn for a cardigan for my husband.)

With all the waiting in the airport (our plane was over an hour late taking off)and the 3 hours on the plane, I finished one baby feet wash cloth and started another. I shared the pattern with the Ohio ladies and they were really excited about it. It is at the knittingknonsense website.

I have started a pair of socks with the free yarn we got when Amy and I went to TNNA in Indianapolis.

And speaking of TNNA, I also finished a shawl from the yarn that I won on Tabby Tuxedo's blog. It was basically half of a reeeeealy big wash cloth with stockinette for the center instead of garter stitch. I wore it everyday in Indianapolis. It was cold and rainy there. Too much for a Texas gal.

Oh! and I forgot to report that I finished my Yarntopia socks a LOOOOOONG time ago, just never reported that. I used a basic 2 on 2 ribbing pattern with short row shaping for the heel and toe. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

We will be doing a lot of riding around Ohio and visiting relatives, so I will probably make good progress on the small things I brought on the trip. I promise I will post some pictures when I get home.

A very unusual state of affairs

I am currently without anything on any needle at all. I finished my husband's vest, completed two eyelash scarves, and fixed the holes in my new pair of socks. Next I will start on my Yarntopia socks, but I thought I would post this while this unusual state of affairs existed.


Here is my husband in his completed vest. I haven't washed it or blocked it yet. I just couldn't wait to try it on him. He was so cute. He went and put on a dress shirt and a TIE (he doesn't even wear a tie to church). What you can't see is that he still has on shorts with this outfit. I promised him I wouldn't show his legs.



And next is an closeup picture of the cables. They were the the most fun of this vest. It is made from Rowan's Wool Cotton, and I really like the yarn. It is soft and knits up into fabric with a good texture and weight. The pattern is one I got off the internet. It was called Classic Cabled Men's Vest from knitting-crochet.com.



And last but not least (just for fun) here is a picture of my granddaughters in their costumes for the play they presented at their preschool graduation. They were white moths in the song "Froggy Went A-Courtin' ".

If you only knew

These socks are the hardest thing I have done. I signed up for the short row shaping sock class at Yarntopia. I think it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks. The class was good, the instructions were clear, but I had trouble following them. I think it has to do with decreased short term memory skills in the aging. I had to keep going back and reading over and over, then starting to do what I was told, then having to look back again. The first sock took two attempts at both the heel and the toe. There were still mistakes, but I just went on. The second sock was much better. We do learn from our mistakes. I am proud that my stripes match and the socks fit.
In the background is the vest I am knitting for my husband. He has been pouting about my spending so much time knitting, so I thought I would knit something for him. This is a challenge because he doesn't wear bright colors or anything the least bit interesting. He prefers boring. The vest is a pattern I got off the internet. The back, which is on the left, is stockinette (so that meets the boring requirement) and the front, which is on the right) is cables all the way across. It will have a V neck. The color is gray (also meets the boring requirement) but the cables make it more fun for me. I think he will wear it. I'll try to get him to model it when I post it here. The yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton. I really like the yarn. It is very soft.

#2 grandson & his sweater

Here is the completed sweater on my very cute grandson. It is really navy blue, not black as it appears in this photo. Of course, he cannot wear it until October or so. I hope I made it large enough. If not, he has a younger brother (#3 grandson). I already have an order from his older brother for a striped sweater. #1 grandson has just about outgrown the camo sweater I knit for him last year. An unending source of consumers!

I'm Having a Ball

Introducing Mr. Ballhead!

The ball is what I made from those pastel squares I was working on. (The face was added temporarily for effect.) The sweater is what I am now making for my middle grandson. I started a different one long ago and just couldn't make myself finish it. I really didn't like it. So I've started this one and am really having fun making it. It is a pattern I got off the internet, The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater. I'm using Encore from Plymouth Yarn. It is knit on circular needles, top down. I'm just throwing in stripes randomly. Since I am enjoying this one, it is just flying along. That band in the center front is to be steeked to turn this into a cardigan.

Kid stuff (and coral beans)

Since the last time I posted anything, I've been very busy. My husband and I went on a 6 day kayaking trip with an Elderhostel group, leaving each day from Galveston. Then right away I dove into helping Amy get ready to open Yarntopia. Their blog has lots of pictures, so I won't post any. If I knew how to put in a link, I would, but I think most of you who read this already know where to find it. This picture is of the 2 things I finished and one of the things I have started. Since I have noticed how really artistic some pictures on other blog are, I decided to upgrade my photo. Here is my best effort. The baby blanket is made of Carron Baby Soft that I have had in my stash for years. I'm trying to use up what I have since I now have an "in" with my LYS. The ball is made of the yarn leftover from the camo sweater I made for my grandson. I'm trying out projects to use up all the small bits I have. I plan to make things to donate to my church's Advent Fair. The pastel squares are the beginning of a ball or block. I'm not sure what it will turn out to be. I'm making it up as I go. This too will go to the Advent Fair. I posed all of this in front of the coral beans that are growing in our yard. They are native Texas plants. They just put themselves there and take care of themselves. That is my kind of gardening.

Bunches of flowers and knitters

Here are all the rest of the felted flowers and leaves. There are 3 gerbera daisies, one more tiger lily, and two leaves. I'm a little disappointed in the daisies. They seem kind of droopy. Some of you read my post about making the petals of the sunflower too short. I think the petals of the daisies are too long, although I correctly followed the pattern this time. Maybe I should have made these petals shorter as well. Anyway, I have delivered all the flowers to Yarntopia, and the last of saw of them, they were nestled into a crystal vase with their fellow poseys in the sit-and knit-area at the shop.


This next photo is of me, my niece Sarah, and Amy in absentia. (That is her bridal portrait.) Sarah is a knitter and a blogger. Since some of the readers of her blog didn't believe she was related to Amy, here is the proof. Sarah was visiting with her 3 children and her parents. Amy was way too swamped with shop preparation to take a day to come all the way out here in the country. She and Sheryl are really getting things into shape in Katy though.

Rub-a-dog dog, 3 things in a blog

First of all, you need to know that I connect to the internet through a dial up connection to a very small-time server. Everything takes a l-o-n-g time. So I put three things into one picture to save time with photobucket and blogger dashboard.

The picture shows the beautiful yarn I won in TabbyTuxedo's contest. It is Treasure Island Cotton Handpaint by White Lies Designs. Isn't it gorgeous!

Next to it is the ready-to-be-felted gerbera daisie that will go to join its kit mates in Amylovie's shop very soon. I am currently knitting around and around to make a bright pink one just like it. Soon to be followed by a blue and a pastel pink one. Things are moving very quickly since I have the pattern down pat now.

And resting underneath the two above items is the baby blanket I am knitting for my niece Devon who is expecting very soon. I'll give its vital statistics in another post. My husband is waiting for me to go for a walk, one of my other favorite things to do.

Oops! Oh well, too late now

I have started on the gerbera daisies, which are just like the sunflower, only smaller. So since it has been at least a week since I did the sunflower, I was working my way slowly through the instructions for the daisies when I discovered I made a mistake on the sunflower. Each petal was supposed to be twice as long and folded over to make two separate petals. I missed that part that said "repeat between *s." Oh well, I can't go back and redo them. I think they look cute anyway. My sunflower must be a different variety than the ones shown in the pattern.

The daisies are knit in the round on double pointed needles. I'm a little ashamed to admit that, although I have been knitting at least 45 years, I have never done that. So far, so good. Next post should include a photo of how this all turned out, with the petals done correctly this time.

Here Comes the Sun-flower

One more flower complete in my series for Amy's shop. Here is the unfelted flower, front and back. And the completed flower with leaves. This is one of my favorites so far.

Around and around and around she goes

This is the sunflower that I am working on. I've finished the calla lilies and the tiger lilies. I'm really glad I am doing this style flower last. (There are 4 gerbera daisies to do too. They are just the same, only smaller). If I had started with this one, I might have gotten discouraged. This one is a challenge. You can see from the picture that I've got the circular needle thing going as well as double pointed needles. There's increasing and decreasing and turning and folding and tacking for each petal. The petal in process has been formed, and now I will fold it back down to the circular part and knit/tack it into place, slightly staggered from its original base. Now that I am on the 6th petal, I've got the process down so that I don't have to keep going back to the instructions and saying, "What the heck do I do next?" Don't get me wrong. This is all kind of fun and definitely not boring, just a challenge. It is not for beginners.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

I got the tiger lily all wired up. It wasn't easy, and the instructions were not clear. After some experience, I figured out what I needed to do. The same problem with the brown yarn on the stamens. Trial and error solved the problem. But once done, the lily looks pretty darn good. I have another ready to be wired, but I wanted to post this one while I was in the mood. I still have two leaves to felt and wire up. I have started on the sunflower. Tune in next time for an update.

Valetine's Day Post

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

I think I figured out how to move the results of a quiz from the quiz site to my blog. The above list is what my candy heart would say.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

I'm working away on the felted flowers for Amy's shop. I just have to get the Tiger Lilies wired, and then I'll get them on here for all to see.

Finished!

Here are the completed calla lilies. To be honest, the finishing was not a lot of fun, maybe worse than weaving in ends. First of all, the threading of the florist wire through the stems was pretty hard. On the next set of flowers I will use a half inch ribbon instead of a quarter inch ribbon. Or maybe even some cording. That should improve that threading process a lot. (They should have given a specific recommendation about that). Then the sewing of the wire into the flowers and leaves was challenging too. But I really like the outcome. By the time I've done two more kits (6 or 7 more flowers and 4 or 5 more leaves) I'll be an expert and it will probably be a breeze.

Shoulda said so

For those of you who asked, the calla lilies are a kit by Pick Up Sticks! I do believe Amy will be carrying them in her shop. I have two more kits to do. I have started on the tiger lilies and next will be the sunflowers and gerbena daisies. They are a quick knit, but a little complicated. They are in the moderate skill level. It was really fun seeing the shaping and color-blending progress. A couple of places I had to change colors in the middle of an increase, which sounds harder than it is. The great thing is that, since these are felted, any little mistake is no big deal. No one will ever know.

Shrinking lilies not violets

This morning I felted the calla lilies that I knit for Amy's shop . It is so exciting and a little scary to throw your creations into the washing machine. I think they turned out well. Since I still haven't figured out how to post pictures in the order I want, these may be out of sequence, but you get the idea.

The ribbons that you see peeking out of the felted ones are there to keep an open tube up the stems so I can put a wire through them. Once they are dry and wired up, I will post a photo of the finished product. Then on to the other two sets of flowers.

Knit Together

With many thanks to Lynda who said we could use her blog name, here is Knit Together, the group that meets at my church. We have a good mixture of experienced knitters and beginners. One of these ladies was knitting for the first time today. We meet twice a month for two hours, and have been known to go out for lunch afterward. No matter the experience or skill level, we are all enthusiastic knitters and truly enjoy each other's company.

Semi-knitting related post

I haven't been able to knit a lick for a week. You see, I was keeping Amylovie's girls while she was at the knitting wing-ding in San Diego. What a joy! How time-consuming! How much did I need to rest whenever they were asleep! So anyway, I was not knitting, but one of the girls was. You can see her sitting in their "house" that they created in the tent cubicles I have at my house for the use of my grandchildren. They set up housekeeping. One of them can be seen in the dining room, serving up a meal. The other is knitting in front of the "TV". She created a dust cloth. They even had a bathroom, a garden, and a storage shed. They were great fun. They left yesterday, and now the house is quiet, but a little lonely.

Slipper pattern? And rug ideas?

I have started a knitting group at my church. One of the members has asked me if I know of a good pattern for house slippers. I searched everything I have with no luck. Does anyone out there have a pattern or know the link to such a pattern. Thanks in advance if you do.

Here's the other thing. I am seriously contemplating knitting a rug for the toilet in our half bath. The room is very small and the toilet faces the opposite wall with not much space. Standard shaped rugs are always about 1 inch too long. So I thought, "Why not make one!" Any ideas out there?

I'm up and blogging again

Now that we are past Christmas, the family wedding in St. Louis, and New Years celebrations, I can get back to blogging. Here are photos of my recent knitting activity. The poncho is one I made for my daughter-in-law at her request. It is made from Lion Brand Chenille and Fun Fur. I think it turned out OK and is really soft, but believe me, it was not fun to knit. I didn't like the yarn and it was BORING. The funny looking green and white things are soon-to-be felted calla lilies. These were made at the request of Amy to be used as decor in her new yarn shop. The work on the circular needles is my start at the picovoli being knitted by the Sexy Knitters Club KAL. It is Shine in apricot. I really like the Shine.

Slumber party (no knitting happened, but we talked about knitting)

Several weeks ago, Amy, her girls, and I had discussed the possibility of having a slumber party the next time Mr. Lovie was out of town for the night. Amy and I promptly forgot about the conversation, but not so her girls. It so happened that Mr. Lovie was out of town last night on business. Yesterday morning Amy called to say that the girls wanted me to come spend the night. Of course, I just had to. Amy and the girls went out an bought us all matching pajamas! So here we are in our PJs. Amy has hers on too. You just will have to imagine how she looked. We went out to eat Mexican food (not in the PJs) and then came home and watched Polar Express (in the PJs). A grand time was had by all.

Restoration of deleted photos

Having accidentally deleted these photos from an earlier post, I decided to get them back on here. I couldn't figure out how to put them where they were, so here they are in a brand new post. Just to review, the picture of the two precious girls shows the skirts and boa I knit for them. The orange tunic is a cotton with metallic ribbon and crystal embellishments. The baby is wearing a pixie cap (which has a cute point in the back which doesn't show in this picture. The camouflage sweater is being modeled by my oldest grandchild. Detail of the yarn , etc. are in the previous post about P.B. (preblog) projects. No comments required. I just wanted to get my complete blog on record for the future.

Jannette's Prayer Shawl

Here is the prayer shawl I knit with the help of some of my friends in our knitting group, Knit Together. It is made with Lion Brand Homespun on size 10 1/2 circular needles. It is for my friend Jannette, who has been diagnosed with a lymphoma in her brain near her cerebellum. She is facing chemotherapy beginning next week. If you are so inclined, I know she and I would appreciate your prayers on her behalf.

Buttoning 101

At the request of some fellow bloggers, I am going to attempt to describe how to get a button on one's blog. Since I am a non-techie, I had trouble following the normal tutorial instructions. So I will explain what I was finally able to do in non-techie terms. I plan to do this in two parts.

Part one: Creating the Button.

I was told simply to create a graphic that was about 105x39 pixels. I had no idea how to do this. I was quite familiar with creating a graphic using my Printmaster program, but that program didn't tell me the pixels. My wonderful son Allen showed me that if I use the Corel Photo Album program that was on my computer, I could see the sizes. I used a photo that I had saved in that album, cropped off a tiny slice of approximately the right proportions, superimposed the name of my blog (which by the way took some experimenting with font and color), then shrunk the whole thing down until the pixels were near the recommended size. The pixel numbers showed on the little bar on the very bottom of the screen. Once I had that done, I saved it to Photobucket.

Part Two: Inserting into your side bar. ( I have just copied the instructions Amy sent me)

I had to delete the whole code thing. See below


Except use the http:// location for your photobucket button.

And you need to use the dimensions for the button you created, not the above numbers.

Now, you can paste it before or after the previous posts. You can move it around to different spots. Remember to preview or look at the draft or whatever option it gives you. Once you save it, be sure to republish. That was my big mistake the first time I tried it.


Oops! when I checked the preview on this post, it seems that Blogger changes the computer code stuff that I inserted on my blog from computer-ese to regular words. If you need the code, I might have to email it to you, so I need to know your email address. You can email me at
mpeachATelcDOTnet.

Oops! Oops! Blogger wouldn't let me post with anything of the code on the blog. So let me know if you want the code. I'll do my best.

Patience is a virtue

It's a virtue because I finally got these pictures to post. It took photobucket 24 hours to cooperate with my plans for this post. Anyway, here are the 3 projects currently on needles. The beige is a prayer shawl I and the ladies in my knitting group, Knit Together, are making for my friend Jannette, who just had brain surgery for an unknown type of tumor. It is Lion Brand Homespun, which is soft and comforting to knit with. The blue is a cardigan I am making for my 2 year old grandson, Kyle. I made a camouflage sweater for his older brother, and he immediately placed an order for his own. I like this yarn much better than the camouflage sweater. This is Red Heart Plush and is super soft. It is also washable, important for a 2 year old. The black is a poncho I am making at the request of my DIL. She provided the yarn, Lion Brand Chenille. I hate knitting with this yarn. (Not because it is for my DIL. She is a terrific young woman.) It is stiff and doesn't slide on the needles or on itself. And the pattern is just 2 rectangles. BORING. But I will get it done. I promise.


And these lovely things are kits that Amy brought me over Thanksgiving. They are felted flowers which I am to create. Amy will then use them as decor in Yarntopia. I can hardly wait to get started on them, but I really must get the aforementioned 3 projects completed this fall. The flowers really can wait until spring. I will feel like I did when we lived in Ohio and Icouldn't wait for the crocuses to annouce the arrival of spring.

Yippee!!!!!!!!!

Did you notice the button? When trying to get it on here before, I neglected to click on Republish. We learn from our mistakes. The button is a little slice out of a picture of the skunk that kept visiting our back porch. I thought that went along with the "menagerie" name.

Next challenge to myself is to get the blogline thing going. I feel badly that I haven't been checking in with those of you who have been commenting on my blog. Now that I have the button thing behind me, I will move my attention to what the rest of you are doing.

Meme that Amylovie tagged me for

First of all, the reason all the pictures that were on my blog are now red Xs is that I deleted them from photobucket. I thought once they were on the blog, I could delete them. WRONG! We learn from our mistakes. I don't plan to replace them. It is too much work. You all saw them already anyway.

I am avoiding working on my button, so I'll respond to the meme that my DD sent to me. (By the way, why is it called a "meme"?)

What is your all-time favorite yarn to knit with?
Since most of my knitting life I had very little to choose from, I don't have a good answer for this.

Your favorite needles?
I inherited a whole needlecase full of needles from my mother, ranging from #2 Addi Turbos to a whole set of vinyl circular needles from Winns. There are double-pointed ones and aluminum ones. Anyone of these remind me of her, so I love them all.

The worst thing you ever knit?
When first married, I knit a sweater for my husband. It was a solid, dark-brown cardigan with no pattern at all. It was too big and I used the wrong weight yarn for the pattern. He never wore it that I can remember. But we were young and in love, so who cares.

Your most favorite knit pattern?
The blankets that I made for Amy's girls. (There is a picture in the archives on her blog, Aug. 2005.) I had that pattern for over 20 years before I got to knit it. It was a terrific challenge, but I am exceedingly proud of having done it.

Best knitting book or magazine?
No choice here. I care more about the pattern, not where it comes from.

Your favorite knit-along?
I've only done one, the hour glass sweater with my DD

Your favorite knitwear designer?
No choice here either. I have never really paid attention to who designed the pattern. I probably should.

The knitwear item you wear the most?(How about a picture of it)
It's probably a toss up between the beaded purse that Amylovie and I both made (she has a picture on her blog) and the orange tunic (there was a picture on my blog, now deleted, sorry)

Who to tag?
Since I'm guessing that there are not that many folks out there reading my blog, and probably all of them have already been tagged for this, I decline to put anyone on the spot.

Button disaster

I was SOOO proud. I created a button. I got into my template. I cut. I pasted. I checked the draft. RED Xs everywhere. I moved the button under the doll. I moved the button after the previous posts. I could move it everywhere, but it was still a red x. And what was worse, every other picture was a red x. If I were a woman given to coarse language I would be saying#########. I deleted the code for the button from the template. Still red Xs everywhere. **#*#*#*#*#*. I am going to have to give up for a while and settle down. Maybe when you all out there check this blog the blog fairy will have visited here and helped me out. But I doubt it.

Moderate progress so far

I am posting this from my new computer which my wonderful son, Allen, helped get up and running. I still haven't learned how to do a button, but Allen showed me about pixels. Maybe I can get it on my own. I also need to get my bloglines set up so I can be speedier about reading the blogs of all you bloggers who are checking my blog. I am on a dial-up connection and it takes FOREVER for some blogs to open. So checking everyone everyday is not working for me. Amylovie told me about bloglines, and I will do my best to get that going.

Excuses, Excuses

I know this is my 3rd post today. but I just learned my new computer is being delivered this afternoon. It is my birthday gift from my DH. I will be 60 on the 15th. Anyway, since I am getting this new computer and will have to get everything from my old computer loaded onto the new computer, my blogging will be interrupted for a while. My youngest son has agreed to help get things going, but I would really like to see how much I can do before he gets here this weekend. It will be a test of my techno-smarts. I'll get back to blogging as soon as I can. Maybe I'll be able to get the button thing going.

Projects completed P.B. (preblog)

Here are some items I finished before I got started with this blog. The camouflage sweater was a special order by my oldest grandchild. It is acrylic, so is not the softest yarn, but is definitely sturdy and washable. The cute baby is my youngest grandchild. The hat is cuter than it looks in the picture. It has a perky pixie point in the back. It too is from a washable acrylic. Both acrylics are from the extensive WalMart collection. The orange tunic is a Vogue knitting pattern and made from Rowan handknit cotton. The embellishments are embroidery with a flat metalic ribbon (never to be used by me again) and crystal rhinestones.
I still haven't figured out how to arrange text and pictures while creating a post, so I hope the arrangement of all of these is not too confusing.

Final update on girls' skirts

Well, here they are. Finished, long enough, and not falling off my hipless granddaughters. Thanks, Amy, for sending the photo.

Update on update and Boerne fiber festival

In the continuing saga of the skirts for my granddaughters, I think I am finally done, at least I can't think of anything else to try. The waistbands are folded-over 1x1 ribbing, which looks good but has no elasticity to keep the skirts holding on to tiny little girls with no hips. The yarn is Berroco Suede, by the way. After trying 2 different arrangements of drawstrings, I settled on 1/2 inch elastic inside the folded-over ribbing. I had to make a tunnel of big yarn loops to hold it in place, but I think it will work. Anyway, I sent the skirts home with the girls. I neglected to take a picture. Maybe Amylovie will post the final result for me. (Hint-hint)

Amylovie and her girls and I spent the day yesterday on an outing to Boerne for the fiber festival. It was really interesting to see the process of yarn production from beginning to end. There were alpacas to meet (the girls' favorite thing), spinning to observe, and yarn to buy. I wish there had been a demonstration of dyeing. There were also some looms, but no one was weaving while we were there. We had a great day. I know Amylovie took pictures there, so maybe those will get posted on her blog.

Skirt update

I have completed the reworking of the skirts I made for my granddaughters. (See photo in "What a pair" posting.) The skirts were too short, and I didn't like the way the hem tended to roll up since they were knit in stockinette. I ripped out the bind-off and added an inch in length. Amylovie suggested an "I" cord to finish the edge. I whipped out two "I" cords and whip stitched them onto the bottom edges. That worked great. Thanks for the idea, Amylovie. The girls should be here this weekend, so maybe I'll get a picture of the new and improved version.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

I have been trying to create a button for this blog. Amylovie sent me a tutorial on how to do that. So I dove right in. First step: create a graphic that is about 105x39 pixels. Okay. How does one know the size of a graphic? I have Printmaster and have several options for designs, but I have no idea about making it the above-mentioned size. Do any of you techni-knitters have help for a blog beginner?

Girls' Day Out

This past Friday, Amylovie, her girls, and I went on an expedition to see the International Quilt Festival at the convention center in Houston. It was quite an adventure. We tried out the park-n-ride. It worked great and was especially fun for the girls who had never ridden the bus. We avoided all the hassle of driving and parking in downtown Houston.

We were all impressed with the incredible craftsmanship of the prize-winning quilts. Amylovie said it almost brought her to tears because she understood the time and effort that went into these fabulous creations.

I decided to report all of this on my blog because all of you knitters will appreciate what one of my granddaughters said on the bus ride home. Amylovie asked her if she liked the quilt show. She said, "It was okay, but it isn't my craft." Her mom and grandmother felt the same way.

Things I need to do better

Looking at the last post, I can see I need to learn to arrange the pictures and text better. I also need to remember to edit the picture before I save it. I'm just writing this out to remind myself to do better next time.

What a pair!

These are the skirts and boas I made for my granddaughters. (What is the abbreviation for darling granddaughters? Maybe DGD. Hopefully my DD can tell me.) Anyway, the original plan was for DD to make one and for me to make the other. But DD has sooooooo many projects lined up, I volunteered to do both. I think they are cute, but I decided they are too short. In the picture the waist bands are riding too low. I have ripped the bind-off on both and am adding more length.

I am doing a little better with posting on the blog, but I did have to get out the tutorial DD sent me. I started without it, but got confused. Maybe next time I can do it on my own.

I finally did it! You won't believe how long it took. Here are the youngest members of my menagerie.

New Doll

Meet the new cartoon version of me. My DD helped create it. (She did almost all of it: I just said, "That looks good" from time to time.

We are working on getting photos of the youngest members of my menagerie posted on here. The photos have been taken, and are currently residing in my husband's computer. Somehow we will get them moved from his computer to my computer, and then I will do my best to follow my DD's instruction to get them posted. It is too long a story to explain why they are on his computer. It's complicated.

Most of the photos were taken today. We had an impromptu get-together to celebrate (a few days early) my DD's and her twin brother's birthdays. In general it was a great day. When you have 5 children, all 5 yrs. or younger, in the same place it can get a little chaotic. But it was fun chaos. The kids rode their bikes, caught bugs, played darts and basketball and catch, walked on stilts, built Lego space ships, watched movies.......... You get the idea.

I will do my best to get their pictures posted so my DD will be proud of me.

B-etter L-ook O-ut G-irls

Okay, so that title was probably a little over-clever. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

My DD has set me up with this new blog. She promises to help me get it to look like I know what I'm doing. She first had to teach me how to post words. Next I hope to learn how to post pictures. DD is going to help me create a doll and a button. They say learning new things keeps your brain young. Since I am turning 60 soon, keeping the old brain young sounds like a laudable goal. So here I go into the world of blogdom.

Hi Mom!

Testing...Testing!