Stitch Markers

I've been busy with making some awesome stitch markers. Some of the beads I had gotten from Michael's the other day for my birthday. Some of the others I made myself. Here's some of the ones I made myself.

They include a sweater, skull, a conical shaped one with zig zag pink on it (which is hard to see), a cube with swirls on both sides, a bone, a long bead with turquoise swirl and something that my daughter calls a smashy ball. Why, I'm not sure.


Here's a fuzzy close up of the skull and the sweater. The sweater I think is really cute.

Here's some of the stitch markers I made from the beads I had on hand. Working counter clockwise there's fresh water pearl, a blue and grey glass bead, a turquoise bead with flower design, a china plate like bead (I know there's a specific name for the design but I can't seem to recall it from my memory at this moment. :)), and two larger markers made from plain wire.


The skull one was so cool I decided to make it into a key chain for my husband. (The mask is my key chain, he has a stick of ram for his key chain...what a geek. :D) What do you think?


These ones were really cool. I tried wire wrapping some of the bobbles instead of just piling beads onto the wire. I think it turned out really cool. My husband really liked the black wire wrapped bead. I'm partial to the red ones myself.

Quacktacular!

Well, yesterday was my 24th birthday. It was actually quite uneventful until my husband got home from work. He wanted to give me the greatest birthday present a man could give to his wife. A couple hours alone, with $100 in a Barnes & Nobles and Micheal's. This was great I thought. I would have a few hours to peruse the store without the whiny canter that my children have a tendency on bringing. A few hours without the insesant babbling of a 4 year old, a few hours without the need to clean up projectile vomit off the wall, a few hours without having to tend to someone else's needs. A few hours ALL to myself.

Then he dropped me off.

I had no idea what to do with myself.

I wandered around the book store for about an hour trying to figure out what to do. "Should I get a coffee?" "Should I sit and read?" I've never been alone before (post-children), what do I do?

Then something weird happened.

"Is that Olivia I hear?" I seriously thought I heard my daughter. Then I realized it was just my imagination. Now THAT is an indication to you need a break!

So I started to relax. I bought a book and read it in the Starbucks while slurping down a de-la-something-I can't pronounce Frapocino. Seriously, how do they expect me to order it. I was actually looking for the English translation beneath the giant (what I think were) French words. I just pointed and said, "I want that brown stuff in a medium cup."

This is the book I bought. It's really good. I WAS going to buy myself a copy of Victorian Lace Today, but wow, $30. I had seen it that morning for $18 on amazon. I'm frugal. I know.
Along with the book I got primo. I really want to start making stitch markers. I did a few last night for a friend who knits and I completely forgot to take pictures. Let's just say, they were really cute.


And beads. I definitely need to get a jewelers pliers with the rounded tips. The flat ones with the griped nose just doesn't give you a great finish to the stitch markers.

See all the pretty beads. Shiny.


Oh, and I got a little farther on my Mother's scarf. Still haven't a name. I was going to call it Bella Donna, which is Italian for beautiful lady...but my husband made a good point. Deadly nightshade (a poisonous plant) is also called belladonna and just isn't a great name for it. Shucks, and for a minute I thought I had it. I love it. When I'm done I'll post the pattern. I really really like this scarf. Kinda wish I was knitting it for myself, but alas, as is with most nice stuff I make, I usually end up giving it away. :)


Oh, and check it out. I saw this on the fence outside my window this morning. A Mallard. He just sat there for a while looking around and was seemingly unimpressed. I figure there's a pond near by and he was just checking out places to either get food or make a nest. Either way, this was kinda cool. I was going to name him Buckly Duckly, but...he flew away. Oh well.

Something to make you laugh

Well, in this post is something to make you laugh. It brought me to tears when I saw it. But for right now, I'm going to share with you some stuff I've been doing.

This is the lilac Merino from Blue Goose Glen. Wow, this stuff spins up really nicely. I've been trying to get rather thin with my spinning. I have 2 ounce of Merino silk that I want to be able to get to a lace weight in order to make a shawl. Not that I'm ever going to wear it, but, it's just an accomplishment as a knitter. Maybe it's the knitter's right of passage. :D


I also have some finished balls of yarn to show off. They're all Merino except the brown one which is Brown Welsh. It's course and quite unpleasant next to the skin, but it's REALLY durable. Rugs out of this would be great. You could make a hat out of it, but I'm not sure how comfy that would be. I'll give it a try and let you know.


English Garden and Brown Welsh knitted up into a swatch. I don't have much of the Merino to make much of anything accept a coaster (I'm not sure I want to use Merino as a coaster..isn't that sacrilege?) or a head band. And between you and me, I look like a complete doof with a head band. Some girls can pull it off and look just cute. Me? I look funny. So any suggestions?


I've also decided to make my husband a sweater. I saw this in Interweave knits, and I knew that this would look just handsome on him. (Course he doesn't need a sweater for that ;)) But the problem is, I started it before Christmas and here it sits. Sweaters and I have this love hate relationship. I love wearing them, but I hate knitting them. Don't get me wrong. I love knitting. It's just the thought of working something so large when I don't get that long to sit and work on it. I'm determined though. I'll work through it all and then sew it up and feel like an accomplished knitter. Believe me, I'll keep you updated on this.


Here's a scarf I'm designing also. Sweaters are a project that leaves me sighing heavily where scarves are just right. I think it's something I can do while multitasking. I've knit sweaters before, but I didn't have the distraction of a 4 year old and a baby. Oogie loves my knitting so much he'll pretty much dump over my bowl of yarn and lay in it.

The scarf is sitting unnamed right now. It's for my mother for Mother's day. You think she'll like it? It'll look much better after it's pinned and blocked. Actually the pattern is rather simple and easy to follow. I use a piece of paper to mark my position on the chart. (Believe me, if I don't it ends up looking quite funny.)


Oh...and I also realized that I don't show you many pictures of my Olive. The problem with that is, every time I flip out the camera she ends up running off so I end up with this multicolored streak in my picture. And every rest of the time she's not wearing clothes. Yeah, she's in that stage.




And now for something funny....




Heheh...I must have caught him off guard. I've been trying to come up with a great caption to this picture. A caption like.."Mommy..I just made an uh-oh in my diaper." or "I wasn't just in the cat food, I promise!" Either way...I laughed so hard I cried.



Have a great day!

Lion Snuggly Bottle Warmer

Needles: #7 dpn

Yarn: Peaches and Cream Cotton yarn (One skien White, One skien Yellow)

Gauge: 4 sts = 1"

C.O. 8 sts between 4 dpn needles evenly.

Round 1: (and all odd rows) Knit

Round 2: K in f&b of each st, (16 sts)

Round 4: *K 1, K in f&b of next st. Repeat from* to end. (24 sts)

Round 6: *K2, K in f&b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (32 sts)

Then K in the round until the piece measures 6" laid flat.

Work 3 rounds of K1, P1 ribbing.

Knit next row.

Round 7: *K3, K in f&b of next st . Repeat from * to end. (40 sts)

Round 8: Knit (and all even rows)

Round 9: * K4, K in f&b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (48 sts)

Round 11: *K5, K in f&b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (56 sts)

Round 12-16: Knit

Change to yellow.

Round 17: Knit

Round 18: Work Loop stitch .

(Work these two rounds (rounds 17 & 18) two more times for a total of three repeats.)

Round 19: Knit

Change to white and work in the round (plain knit) until the white measures 3.5".
Weave in all the loose ends and embroider the eyes and nose.

Round 20:*K5, K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 21: Knit

Round 22: *K4, K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 23: Knit

Turn the bottle insert outside in, so that it is inside the snuggly body.


Insert bottle into the snuggly and stuff around it slightly firmly. (Every time you stuff the snuggly, insert the bottle. This way you get a more uniform stuffing to the piece.)


Round 24: *K3, K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 25: Knit.

Round 26: *K2, K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 27: Knit

Round 28: *K1, K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 29: Knit

Round 30: *K2Tog. Repeat from * to end.

Round 31: Knit

Insert bottle and stuff the bottom of the piece.

Round 32: *K2tog. Repeat from * to end.

You have 4 sts remaining. Transfer all stitches to one needle and work I cord for 2".

Change to yellow & work 2 Rounds of the Loop stitch pattern.


Knit one round then B.O.

Weave in loose ends.

Legs and ears.

C.O. 6 sts (Leave a 10" tail)

Knit 5 rows in garter stitch (knit every row).

Next row: K2tog, K 2, K2tog
Next row: B.O.

The string that was the B.O. string, weave down the side of the piece and across the bottom so that it is right next to the C.O. string.

Make 6 pieces.

Attach them to the lion. 4 for the feet and two for the ears.

Hello and good morning

I tell you what. Whoever said raising children was easy was lying...and didn't have children. Of course, I don't think anyone said THAT! My son..my little Oogie..has started crawling. He started very early I must say. He JUST turned 6 months old and he's already crawling and getting into everything.

I remember my daughter being very early with everything. At first I was excited. I couldn't wait for her to crawl (6 months), then I couldn't wait for her to walk (10 months), then I couldn't wait for her to talk. Now...now I just wish she would sit still for a minute and be quiet!

Now, my son, who just turned 6 months, is crawling and even pulling himself up into a standing position and getting into everything. Tell you what, if your baby is 8 months and just crawling..I envy you. The moment his little chubby legs hit the floor he's off crawling at amazing speeds...and finding everything. I thought for sure my house was baby proofed! Nope, that doesn't actually happen until they start crawling and find all those little bits of junk that were under the heater! You know that place where you can't get to unless you have a vacuum cleaner with an extremely long and tiny attachment.

And apparently knitting is something of a baby magnet too. I've learned that when I sit to knit or spin my son becomes completely fascinated with what I'm doing and decides to take it upon himself to help. He's learned that crawling under the coffee table "unnoticed", he can easily grab the bowl I use to put my fibers in...and Mommy makes a funny noise that sounds like a cross between a moose and a dying cat. (This coffee table has become his favorite spot, it's his own little fort.)



So, needless to say, my knitting has been slow and not so steady. I have yet found anything that satiates him into sitting in one place for more than 5 minutes besides his stroller. I'm pretty sure I won't find anything until his curiosity has been appeased. By then, I'll be completely grey.

On a different note, my hubby turned 25 yesterday. He's a quarter of a century old!!! Of course I made him a nice home made devils chocolate cake..then guess what. That's right...I ran out of white icing. So this is what I ended up writing on his cake.


...Happy B-DAY! Can you believe it. Of course I don't think he cared. He still ate it. What chocolate nut wouldn't. I HATE cake and I even ate it. But Oogie liked it..




:D Oh! He also got himself a nice birthday present. Can you guess what it is?


Here's a clue. It's something most geeks own/want/covet and usually means mobility to their geekiness.

Did you guess it?

Here's the answer.


Oh and for my birthday...he said I could touch it. Until then he takes it everywhere.

Wrist yarn holder

When over my Mother's place this past weekend I realized that there wasn't a lot of places to set my knitting bag. No matter how small it was, the floor space just wasn't there with all the people visiting. I then thought of this neat idea for a way to hold small balls of yarn for that traveling project. This will work great when standing, in the car and on the go. This holds smaller balls of yarn and yarn cakes, and as you knit standing up, you can slouch the pouch down to your elbow to keep it out of the way.

Yarn: Sport weight

Needles: #3 set of 5 dpn

Gauge: 6 sts =1" in St st.

Materials: 2 D rings, tapestry needle


Bottom:

C.O. 8 sts evenly onto 4 dpn needles.

Round 1: Knit

Round 2: Knit in Front and Back of each stitch. (K in f & b) (8 st increase, 16 sts)

Round 3: Knit

Round 4: *K1, k in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end (24 sts)

Round 5: Knit

Round 6: *K2, K in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (32 sts)

Round 7: Knit

Round 8: *K3, k in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end (40 sts)

Round 9: Knit

Round 10: *K4, k in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (48 sts)

Round 11: Knit

Round12: *K5, K in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end (56 sts)

Round 13: Knit

Round 14: *K6, K in f & b of next st. Repeat from * to end. (64 sts)

Round 15: Knit



Body:

The body is worked in the "Pattern Body" of the graph below. This creates the swirl pattern. Work in the pattern body until piece measures 3'' (Not including bottom of bag).

#1) P2, K2 to end

#2) K1, *P2, K2 to last stitch, K1

#3) *K2, P2, to last stitch

#4) P1, *K2, P2 to last stitch, P1

Repeat these 4 rows for pattern.

Then work a P2, K2 ribbing for 3 rounds.

To do this. knit the knit sts and purl the purl sts of the last round,as in chart.



B.O. and weave in ends.


Strap:

C.O. 8 sts. Leave about a 10" string on the C.O. end.

Knit in garter st. until piece measures 8".

B.O. Leaving another 10" string at the B.O. end.

Using the strings at both ends, sew the strap to the curved edge of the D ring. Using another piece of string sew the flat edge of the D ring to the body of the yarn holder. To do this properly, lay the piece flat and use a stitch marker or safety pin to mark each side.




Viola! You are done!

Yarn and food

This last week has been unbearable. Why you ask. Well, here's why. About two weeks ago my husband, children and I went out for a day of window shopping. We also decided to grab a quick lunch at the local fast food joint. Normally I abhor fast food. It's greasy, unappealing outside the menu pictures and fattening. Not to mention I don't know who's making it and/or what they did before they fondled my food. Well, we figured, once in a blue moon won't hurt.

pfftt! Well, the next day my daughter had gotten extremely sick. Like, vomiting and running a 102.5 fever. I called my mother like any good natured and desperate daughter would do. Not only because she's my mom, but also because she's a nurse. :D Her diagnosis...food poisoning. (At this moment I had to hand it to my husband, he said it was food poisoning the moment she looked a little green.)

So, for a couple of days she was not her normal self. It concerned me a lot when my normal rowdy daughter actually went to her room and crawled in bed for a nap! A four year old instituting her own nap!? Then, her fever left and she stopped vomiting after a few days.

Great right? Nope, then my husband, my daughter and I all come down with a terrible cold. Not the runny nose sore throat kind. Oh no. The itchy eyes, runny nose, can't think clearly, head is going to explode from headache, body feels like a ton, exhausted kind. For a whole week. I'm just recovering now.

...But on a good note. I've been spinning.

This is the Forest Merino and White Merino from Blue Goose Glen.


The book behind it was an old Teachers ledger that I found in a box. Inside is records of children's grades for each month.




Yeah, I've been living here for 9 months and am just unpacking my books. All due to the lack of a good bookcase. But now, I've found some things that are just awesome! Like this book with recipes pasted inside it. I'm not sure how old it is. But I did find a pamphlet inside about Wisconsin milk fairies from 1926.


And some awesome recipes inside. Probably from around the same time.

Pumpkin Butter

2 cups pumpkin, mashed and strained
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 slice lemon
1 cup white sugar

Simmer gently until thick, fill glasses or small jars and seal
with paraffin. It will keep a long time if merely covered with a
piece of paper.

Wow, the F.D.A. might not approve of the piece of paper, but it sounds delicious!

Tomato Rarebit

1/2 pound of soft cheese
1 teaspoon mustard
pepper, paprika
(how much, it doesn't say, so I'm assuming to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 to 1 cup tomato soup

Cut the cheese (enter polite giggling) into small pieces, add mixed
seasonings, and cook over a low fire until melted. Add enough
tomato soup to thin the mixture so that it may be poured on slices of toast.

...And a newspaper clipping of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and recipes of wives of noted leaders of the country.

A Favorite Southern Chicken Pilau

Cut up and stew a fat hen in water enough to almost cover it.
When almost tender add from two to three cups of
uncooked rice, and let stew slowly until the chicken is thoroughly
done and the rice has absorbed all the liqour. The rice must
not be stirred but care must be taken that it does not stick.
All of the broth should be absorbed by the rice. Season well. Serve
on platter with the chicken surrounded by the rice. In the South
red pepper is used, but this is optional.

Mrs. Will Hayes,
Wife of the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Orange Marmalade

6 Oranges
1 Grapefruit
1 Large lemon
sugar
water

Squeeze the juice from the fruit. Put the skins
through the food-chopper and add to the juice.
To every cup of the mixture add three cups of water.
Soak twenty-four hours. Boil for one hour and let stand
for twenty-four hours. To every cup add three-fourths cup of
sugar; more if taste requires it. Boil about one hour or until
it gives a jelly test. This amont makes about fifteen glasses.

Miss Mary Garret Hay, New York.
Chairman of the league of Women Voters.

Now for some of my inspiration..

I thought that this picture was awesome! And I wanted to share it with you, but I realized that I don't really have any of my art up that can really show off my talent. So, I decided to go around taking pictures of some of my artwork and work in progress.

This one I love so much I hung it up in my living room. It's a portrait of my cat as Buddha. Thus called, Mikey Buddha. I think it's a great likeness.


A water Sylph . Sorry if the picture is a little dark.



A fairy. Yeah, I love fairies.


..And my favorite, the archangel Raphael.



Now for some knitting. I'm working on this cropped cardigan for Olivia. The design is my own so I'm working on the pattern as I'm knitting it. After it's done I'm going to work some embroidery on the left side. I'm hoping to have it done by this weekend, but I completely screwed up the left panel by misjudging the math. (Told you I wasn't that good at math...hence why I'm an artist.) So I had to rip it down to the armhole and try again. Oy!

Knitter's inspiration

While doing some spring cleaning today I found a box of photos I haven't opened in a while. At the bottom was this packet of photos in a neat little booklet of castles and country sides published by Valentine and Sons in London. I'm not sure what date. They were so cool I thought I'd share them with you here. At the bottom of this post is a wallpaper for your desktop I made from one of my more favorite photos of the bunch.

If you want a different photo made into a wallpaper, just let me know by commenting on here.








Here's the wallpapers I made. They're 1024 x 768. Just click to download. :D