It's a party

So, not much knitting got done over the weekend although I did finish my grandson's socks. (I'm going to re-do them. I don't like the way the short row heel fits [or doesn't] on him)

Instead of knitting we went to the Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula, LA. We had a family reunion of sorts and a lot of fun. There was a crawfish/shrimp boil, rides, a parade, laughter, dancing, strawberry daiquiris and much silliness. I think the count was 44 people at the boil. Some who had never had crawfish before and some who had never seen what a crawfish/shrimp boil in the deep south is. I couldn't help but laugh at the looks on faces when all this food (crawfish, shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, mushrooms, garlic, onions) got dumped out right onto the tablecloth on the picnic table in the back yard. Apparently, we only eat that way in the south.

I have since done a few more squares on my Everlasting Blanket and a few more rows on the alpaca scarf. Lauren's sweater is waiting for me to do the seaming and put on the bands. I haven't gotten to it yet, but it needs to be in my hands today so I can get it done.
I still need to make some more hats for Caps for Kids. Some of the ones I had were given away for our local homeless population. I don't think I'll meet my self-imposed quota this year. I try to make sure I have about 60, but with watching my grandson these days I don't get the time for knitting that I used to get. That's ok though. I'll just try to work a few more in and be happy that I'm finding time for it at all. It's been a long time since I had a three year old around and this one is full of energy and wants Nana to play ball with him. One of the upsides is that it's helping me with the weight I'm trying to drop. Slowly, but surely.

Well, off to either do some housework or seam a sweater.

And the dishwasher lives

It's been a busy time around here. I've been knitting. Yep, really. I'm up to square 133 on The Everlasting Blanket. I've bought yarn for it from Yarn Expressions and Robyn's Nest :: Kits :: Mini Skein Club and I'm happy with both purchases. The mill ends and the mini skeins are perfect for this project and I won't need any yarn for it for a while. I can get two squares out of each of the mini skeins and way more than that from the mill ends that I bought.

I've also completed five pair of Eleanor socks by Gigi Silva. One for me and four pink pair for the granddaughters. (6 skeins down)

I'm officially tired of the pattern now. Five pair of the same pattern is too much. I've started a pair of plain socks in a nice bright green for my grandson. On the upside, it's stash yarn so I'll be down another skein.

In the middle of all this knitting my dishwasher just stopped working in the middle of a cycle. I thought the Yarn Harlot might have jinxed me when she blogged about hers going down. I left it be that night, mostly because I was afraid that I'd start beating on it and I knew that wouldn't help at all. The next day I started it with a little prayer and it's been working ever since. I'm taking the view that it was a warning and it could go at any time. It is, after all, 15 years old. In that 15 years we raised kids (6 of them) and that means a lot of dishes. I don't know how many loads, but I do know we got our money's worth out of it and now we're getting bonus time.

The scarf I started is sitting beside my chair waiting for me to find time to play with it. The alpaca tickles my nose and that causes me to sneeze so it's just sitting there waiting it's turn to be the top project. Of course, it's in the seventies here so I don't really need an alpaca scarf at the moment. I plan to finish it before winter. Winter 09.

I need to finish my granddaughter's sweater. It needs sewing up and bands. That will be finished sometime in April. Or at least I hope so.

In the meantime, I'm playing in the garden. I have been picking lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. The onion sets are up and looking pretty as is the garlic. The tomatoes are in the garden bed, although not very big yet and the cucumbers are putting on blossoms. I haven't put the bell peppers into the garden yet because I need to pick some more cabbage before they have a spot to go in. It won't be long. We have four of those Topsy Turvy tomato growing bags and last year they worked well so I'm going to put some cherry and grape tomatoes in them again. (We eat a lot of tomatoes and fresh salsa around here during growing season.) I put in some green onions the other day and some squash and zucchini went in yesterday. I'm looking forward to a bountiful harvest this year.

Hopefully, things will slow down a bit so that I can post a little more frequently. It seems that my life is hectic even when I don't accomplish anything.

Has Spring Sprung?

I made a stop on the way home from church yesterday to get some plants for my pots. My porch now has some color. I bought a pot of daisies, some snapdragons, some pansies, petunias and some geraniums. It's nice to have a little color out there. The trees are starting to bud out here and leaves must surely be coming soon. I can sit on my back porch and watch the birds eating from the bird feeder in the back yard. It's a little like feeding teenagers. They can go through a lot of food.
On the knitting front I am on the third pair of the socks for my granddaughters. They are coming along slowly. I've worked some on my sock yarn blanket. It's a good thing I was planning on it being a long term project.
There isn't much else going on right now. I still need to do another sleeve for the pink sweater and do the collar and bands. Pictures as soon as I get it together.
I'm making good progress on my stashdown goal. Other than the yarn for the granddaughters socks I didn't buy anything in February and I'm working from skeins 3 and 4 of the five I bought so it won't be hanging around for long at this rate. So many projects, so little time.

And life gets in the way (again)

I didn't realize how loong it had been since I updated my blog. I have gotten the yarn for the granddaughters socks and completed two pair. The third pair is started. I finished my Eleanors and I've worn them already. The scarf is quietly sitting waiting it's turn for the spotlight which will surely come.
I have the back and both fronts done on the pink sweater for one of my granddaughters. Thank goodness for the LK or I wouldn't be anywhere near this point.
My youngest daughter and grandson have moved home for the forseeable future. I'm watching him while she's at work in the evening so that takes away from some knitting time. I miss the quiet, but love having him here so that I can watch him grow. 3.5 is a fun age. Wears me out, but he's fun none the less. The house is full and the knitting room is history at this point and the hall is being used for storage, but we'll survive. We have a roof over our heads and the power is on and there's food on the table. That's more than so many can say these days that I'm happy with that.
I will have pictures of the socks when I get them all finished so I can get a picture of them all together. Four pair of identical pink socks is not my idea of fun really so I don't know how fast these last two pair will go.
Off to do some knitting before the grandson wants to play ball.

Taste of Spring

I sit here looking out a window and listening to the birds sing. I'm sure that winter will have to make another appearance before spring is really here, but it's nice to feel, just for a while that it's over. The sun is shining after the rain of the morning and there's a really nice breeze blowing. I peaked at my garden this morning and the strawberries are starting to poke up as are the onions. I cut some broccoli for dinner and looked in on the tomato, cucumber,and bell pepper seeds that I started in the house last week. Looks like two of the four types of tomatoes are peeking up as are the cucumbers. The bell peppers are holding out for last, but I know they'll be up soon. I'm looking forward to fresh veggies from the garden. Lettuce and spinach should be starting to be picked in three or four weeks. Cabbage will be coming in around that time too.
Inside, the Eleanor socks are coming right along. I'm almost to the heel of the second one and would be further except that I had baby duty yesterday. My granddaughter (the youngest one) would steal the socks if she could. She had to try them on. When I pointed out that they didn't fit her she asked for pink socks. Of course, I don't have any pink sock yarn so I will be adding to my stash before I can make her some pink socks.
Later in the day I had my grandson. He didn't try on the socks because we were to busy playing tag, trains, baseball and football. He's three and sports are his thing. I didn't get any work done on my knitting yesterday because grandbabies trump knitting.
I started a scarf (pattern by the Yarn Harlot) this morning to use up some alpaca yarn that I got at Knitting Today at retreat last year. I dont' really need a scarf right now, but since winter is bound to make another appearance (probably before spring really is here) I thought that it would make nice almost mindless knitting for when Elmer and I are traveling. I can talk to him and knit and not do my usual freak out thing with the traffic. Knitting is calming for me.
I need to seam some hats that I've gotten made so that I can give them to the group from church that helps the homeless. Too many people on the verge of it these days and "but for the grace of God..." It's a little thing I can do to help. Doesn't take much time with the knitting machine and people need to be warm. I can help with that.
I need to start on Lauren's sweater and on my twinset. Her's is pink and mine is a really dark purple. I've swatched and used Knitware to make a pattern so it's ready to go when I finish the edging on the purple afghan. Next week for sure as Elmer will be in this weekend and we have a birthday party to attend.
Off to watch the birds at the feeder. I'd get a picture, but brown birds against brown grass don't show up so well.

When will Spring be here?

I have completed an afghan that I started sometime last year. I jsut called it the Purple Afghan. Creative, right? It was fun to try to remember what I'd done because I didn't make good notes. I suppose when I took it off the machine the first time I didn't expect to be away from it for so long. Where does that time go? All I had was a note pinned to it saying 400 rows. No tension settings, nothing; not even what I planned for the other panels to be. So I was flying by the seat of my pants this go round. I figured it out and now all I have to do is weave in some ends and decide whether I want to add a border to the ends. Leaning against that at this point. I think I'll wash it and see how it looks and make a final decision.

I also started a pair of socks for the February challenge of the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. They are (should say it is) coming right along. The pattern is quick to memorize and so it makes a good project for watching tv.

I'm also looking at that yarn and thinking about how it will look in the Everlasting Blanket. The blanket is coming along slowly. I'm waiting for some yarn to show up from a swap and getting a bit impatient. I don't really think the yarn is late, I'm just ready to see it and add it to the blanket.

What do I do while I'm waiting for it?I've put in lettuce and spinach in the garden this week. I've cut some broccoli which will be in a salad this evening. I bought another compost bin and have it partially full of leaves that I raked yesterday. I picked the pine trees out of the garden. It's amazing to me how many have seeded themselves into my garden. Why do they want to grow there? Of course, I know it's because the soil is really easy to plant in in my raised bed garden and apparently the pine trees like it too. I have onions and garlic planted too along with the broccoli, strawberries, cabbage, lettuce and spinach. I just started seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers inside in preparation for spring planting. Spring will show up, won't it?

Since I'm participating in a Stashalong this year, I'm trying not to buy more yarn and to use some (hopefully a bunch) of what I already have. I have one free day a month. I used January's , but I'm really going to try to skip February. June will be fun because of IWannaKnit. I'm making a list of things I want to get when I go. I really want another gauge ruler. I hear that there is a green one for Silver Reed/Studio standard machines and it would work with my Artisan. That would make life easier in a lot of ways. I'll have to check on that while I'm there. I don't have any yarn that I just have to have (yet) so that's not an issue. If I can save enough money, I want to buy the Fair Isle carriage for my Lk150.

Oh well, that's all for the future. Right now I need to go swatch for a twinset for myself and for a sweater for one of my granddaughters.

Let's try Something New

It’s been days since I posted. I finished the shrug except for blocking it and I think it will be perfect for on the boat this spring. I still need to get pictures of it.
I finished Megan’s socks, but she hasn’t seen them yet. She’s away at school and I didn’t think to send them up with my son when he went to visit.
I spent part of the day on Tuesday trying Entrelac on my machine. I’m doing it on the LK150 and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. It seems like it should be easier than it is. It’s the last triangle on the second row that’s giving me fits. I can’t seem to get my head around it. I’m going back this afternoon to work on it some more and see if it finally sets off the light bulb in my brain.
I’ve added squares to my Everlasting Blanket. Several were added during the time I spent while the folks at Symantec got my Norton squared away. I suppose that next year I will buy a new product instead of just renewing my subscription.
Still no DSL. It’s not in the budget this month. Maybe next month. Seems like I keep putting it off, but truthfully it’s not a necessity. I’d like to be able to do things more quickly, but I can remember when we got excited to connect at 9600 baud so I just keep reminding myself of those days.
Off to work on the Entrelac now. More later.