Baaaaad luck

Ever have one of those weeks straight from hell? Well, that's what I had last week. Everything that could screw up did, in a big way. Our little Nubian goat, Halley, passed away last Monday; she was very sweet and will be missed. Some paperwork relating to a business issue handled by someone else got botched. Confirmation for my entry into this past weekend's Rally trial didn't come in the mail, so I had to shuffle an endless number of emails back and forth to the find out what times my dog was to be shown. Sunday's judge thought it would be fun for her to NQ 7 of the 10 of us who showed in the 'A' classes, so needless to say, many of us will never show under her again. Our heater's motor went out so we got to dress like eskimos for three days while the part came in. Plus, to make things even more lovely, I had a 4-day migraine from Friday to Monday. Like I said, NOT a good week, which would kind of explain why I haven't posted in a few days. But enough of my sob story, my luck will get better, Damn it!!

I think I have decided to scrap the red shrug I've been working on. It is going soooooo slowly, it uses the exact same stitch over and over and over, and I am really just getting sick of looking at it. So, I think I'm gonna frog it and start on my short-sleeved Tubey! I think that will be a fun project.

My kids have made some cool stuff for Project Spectrum. Amanda made a red velvet cake with strawberry icing, Brittany stitched a red Barbie outfit by hand, and Tyler painted a wooden bubble gum machine he had put together himself!

More Socks!

This afternoon I finished this pair of red slipper socks. These babies are a triple qualifier: they should earn me a brownie point on the Sock-A-Month Knit-Along (yes, they have heel turns!), plus their red color qualifies them for Lolly's Project Spectrum AND the Red Hot Sizzlin Socks Knit-Along. You'd think with all that credit they would have taken more than three easy days of knitting, huh! The pattern is Cozy Slipper Socks on size 8 double pointed needles, and I substituted Red Heart Light and Lofty in Red Grape Multi because I liked the colors in it.

And thanks for the advise on not blocking the machine washable socks! I'll block the hand-wash ones, but it's straight from the dryer to the drawer for the ones made of superwash wool.

Gimme an 'M' pleeeeze!

I finished my March socks! They are made of Bright Spring Magic Stripes yarn with size 3 needles. I'm sort of tickled that they match up pretty well.

A question that has been on my mind: Should I block my socks if they are machine washable? I am thinking I do need to if they are made of anything that has to be hand washed and laid out to dry but that it would be a waste of time for the superwashed wool that gets tossed in the dryer. I would love some comments on this, so feel free to leave your knitty advise!

Today I bought some yarn to make some bed socks, 'cause my feet get cold at night and I found a cute pattern. I also just had to buy some yarn to make myself a Tubey; I think I'll do a short sleeved version since it'll probably be hot outside by the time I get the thing done! I'm currently working on an easy red shrug that I'm kinda making up as I go along, so I need to finish that next, but I really ought to cast on the new bed socks tonight because I have got into the habit of having two projects going at once. So, its off to bed to knit, as soon as I figure out which thing to work on first.

Not much has been going on this week, but I don't like to go for more than a few days without blogging so here I am!

Thanks for all the compliments on the Skully Pirate Illusion scarf! That type of knitting is really fun to do. I did some searches the other day for dog and cat illusion patterns but couldn't find any. I did find a few sites that gave good instructions on how to chart your own that I just might try sometime.

I also forgot to mention on my last post that the pink and purple illusion scarf counts for this month's Project Spectrum, since March is pink and red month. I am also hoping to get a red shrug done this month, right after I finish my March Magic Stripe socks this weekend. Oh, and you know I'll have to post a picture of those the second I get finished. I get such a kick out of getting that little letter by my name on the Sock-a-Month Knit-Along!

Pirate Skully Scarf

I finished Brittany's Skully Pirate Scarf ! I think it looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself! I used this great pattern from Ysolda's blog.

Guess what you can do with leftover fringe pieces....

just ask Punk Rockin' Maizy!

The bad news is that I had plenty of extra time to finish the scarf this morning because we had to miss today's Agility trial due to flash flood warnings for practically every city between here and there. So that sure sucked, but at least we didn't end up off in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it quit raining SOMETIME this year.

Now I'm gonna look at that funny picture of Maizy again to make myself laugh, then I'm gonna go work on knitting some socks.

Disappointing Saturday

Today is rainy, crappy, disappointing day. Maizy was entered in an agility trial (about an hour-and-a-half drive from here) but after waking up a little before 6 am, driving part of the way in a thunderstorm with real flood warnings for the area we were driving through, not to mention the Semi-driver who about ran over our van, being passed by ambulances going to help other people were also stupid enough to be out in this mess, hydroplaning, having to pull off the road because it was raining so dang hard we couldn't see - we had to turn around and come home. Maizy and Pixi ( two of my Boston Terriers, in case you didn't know) are entered for tomorrow also, so I'm hoping it's not storming them. The event is held indoors but with a dirt floor, so I'm kinda dreading seeing what condition everything is going to be in. So long as the roads are safe to get there, we are going! Anyway, enough of my 'woe is me' sob story; I am glad to be home in one piece but am really, really disappointed we had to miss it today.

Yesterday, on the other hand, was a great day for me....my birthday!! I had a lot of people call to wish me a happy day, my mom came to visit, I got some really nice presents, and my favorite part was getting to go out to lunch with my three kids and husband. It was a really nice day, and no rain! ha ha We rented a cool scary movie, too, which I liked, called Dark Water.

I am sooooo close to being done with Brittany's Skully Pirate scarf, I should be done with it this weekend. I love the pattern and it is a quicker knit than the Alien one, but then I really liked that one, too.

Oh, I still could use some suggestions for what to make out of my dissected sweater. So far I'm thinking doggie sweater, felted mittens, maybe a purse of some kind......please, please, ideas are more than welcome on this!

I hope everybody is having a great weekend!

What should I do with this Dissected Sweater?

This is a picture of the March Knit-Along dishcloth. If you look real close you can see a three-leaf clover in the middle, just waiting for St. Patty's day, Leprechauns, and buckets of green beer. (Well, this is Kentucky so I think when St. Patricks' day rolls around my beer will still be the normal color ... but maybe if I drink enough of it, I can turn green! LOL)

I've been reading so much about people recycling sweaters (I spend too much time reading thru Craftster.org!) that I thought I'd give it a shot so I went to the big Thrift Store and paid 50 cents for a sweater with a Gap label, made of wool and angora. I thought it had a nice feel to it, even though the color was a little drab, so I planned to frog it, then maybe kool-aid dye the yarn, and eventually reknit the thing into something wearable. I came home and broke out the scissors; I cut the seams apart easily enough, but I think I was a little too zealous to get started because when I tried to unravel the blessed thing, all I could get were short pieces. So now I need to figure out what to do with this dissected sweater! I am too stubborn to just pitch it so I need to come up with some ideas. If nothing else, I can felt it and make a dozen potholders, but I'd rather come up with something more fun that that. I'm thinking maybe I could stitch a couple doggie sweaters. The front piece has cables on it but the back and sleeves are in stockinette.

Any ideas or suggestions are really needed and will be greatly appreciated!

My New Knitting Bag!

Look at the cool new knitting bag my Dad gave me! Thanks Pops! I really love it! Not only is it snazzy, but very roomy, too. I actually have two of the projects I'm working on in the bag when the picture was taken, and there is still plenty of space left in it. Now I can be knittin' and stylin' at the same time!



Here is a picture of the Panta I posted about earlier. Like I said, I can NOT get a decent picture of this thing, and having to take a picture of it by myself while it is on my head only makes it worse. Anyway, here is the top part of it. I used a mini cable stitch instead of plain ridges. I would like to make a skinnier "bad-hair-day-even-in-warm-weather" version, maybe in something pretty and varigated. This thing is warm, too, let me tell ya, 'cause I wore it out on a nature walk with the dogs and kids the other day when it was freezing cold and windy, and it kept my little ears nice and toasty. If you want to see some much better pictures of Pantas, you should check out the 500 + posts on the thread over at Craftster.org. Hey, if nothing else, now you have learned that Panta is a Finnish word for Headband.