C IS FOR...........

C is for...Cute! (bet you thought I was going to say chocolate!)

C is for...Crocheted Cap(grammiecrochets too!)

C is for...

Cheerleaders (my 14 year-old Freshman granddaughter (not the one on the right - that's Tori) made the varsity cheering squad - go Jordyn!!!)

C is for ....Christmas Parade (the cheerleaders are marching in a Christmas parade on December 1).

So where is this post heading? Well, when the Cheerleaders
saw Tori's cute hat, they loved it and thought it would be great if they all wore one in the Christmas parade next Saturday...so guess who is crocheting 16 hats this week? The pattern is from 24-hour Crochet Projects by Rita Weiss. I'm using Red Heart SuperSaver (this is worse than you thought, isn't it?) @ $2.29 a skein and I can get four hats out of one skein. It's taking me less than an hour to make one and I've finished four so far. Think I'll make it?

well, okay - C is for... Chocolate, which I will reward myself with each time I Crochet a Cap!

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I'm grateful for 43 years of marriage, three children, three grandchildren, my sisters, my friends, my co-workers, my students, yarn, books, the Internet, chocolate, red wine, the Red Sox, digital cameras , dishwashers, microwave ovens, and you my blogging friends who live in my computer. Though I've never met you in person, I'm grateful I've found this wonderful community of knitters who are so free to share their creative ideas, help solve my knitting problems, and are perfectly comfortable telling me weird things about themselves! I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and hope that you have a long list of things to be thankful for too.

Chocolate

So I'm at the check-out in the grocery store and the cashier comes to this box of chocolate (which I bought to put in a swap package) and the conversation between her and the bagger goes like this:

Cashier - ooohh look at this box of chocolate.

Bagger - grabs the box and says - wow! My girlfriend would love this. She says chocolate is good for you.

Me - Put the chocolate down!

Cashier - Every woman knows that chocolate is good for you. (the bagger is walking away with my chocolate)

Me - come back here with my chocolate!

Bagger (reading the label) - this is really good for you because it's dark

chocolate.

Cashier - Of course it is good for you - if we didn't have chocolate we would have to hurt people.

Me - Can I please have my chocolate!

Bagger finishes bagging my food and I have my eye on the chocolate.

Me - That chocolate better be in the bag when I get home or someone is going to get hurt!

Cashier rings up the total and I swipe my credit card and sign for it.

Me - Where is my chocolate? I check the bags and find it in there and get out of there fast!

Now - after all that - the box of chocolate will not fit in the flat rate box I am filling up for my swap pal! What am I going to do now - don't tell me I am going to have to eat it all myself! At least I know it's good for me - after all the cashier and the bagger both said so!

Merry Minis

Here are some of my finished "Merry Minis"

An Inside Look

Thank you for your kind words about my Christmas Rose Gift Bag. Some of you asked what the inside looked like (since I said it was a mess) so I took a photo - and much to my surprise, when I looked at the picture I could actually see a pattern in all of those strands - maybe I did it right after all????

I knit up a few of Carol Bristol's Merry Minis and felted them this morning. They still need some embellishing - buttons, miniature knitting needles, etc. but I think they are adorable. And..I'm using up all those little balls of leftover yarn that are taking up room in my stash, therefore making room for more stash!

Dandy's 500 post contest

Vicki at Purple is a Fruit is having a contest to celebrate her 500th post! Go on over and enter. And...this post gets me closer to 300 and my own contest!

Christmas Rose and Merry Minis

I finished my Christmas Rose Gift Bag from Handknit Holidays. Looks pretty good from the outside - but...the inside- well I just don't know about that. Maybe I should line it.

I'm also working on some Christmas ornaments - Merry Minis from Carol Bristol Designs.

The are so cute and a great way to use up all the leftover wool yarn I have from felting projects.

This is post #295 - be looking for a contest when I reach post #300!

Three Day Weekend

I'm really looking forward to this three day weekend (one day gone already!) Last weekend was busy and I see that I haven't posted since. My sister and her DH came up from NJ for the weekend. On Friday night we celebrated my DH's 65th birthday with a small dinner party at our favorite restaurant. Saturday, Hurricane Noel made a pass through Downeast Maine, leaving us without power for 15 hours. On Sunday, I went to see "Clue, the Musical" at our community theater. It was great! Each night that it played there was a different outcome, and the audience got to play along with clues given after each scene. The night I went it turned out to be Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with a wrench - and I did guess it!


And some knitting content - I finished two pairs of felted ballet slippers for my sister's granddaughters in time to send them back down to NJ with her, along with the other presents headed that way.

I also knit this "Knot a Scarf" from some beautiful ribbon yarn that my Irish friend Fiadhnat sent me from Ireland.

Treats

Some Halloween treats for me - the new Knit Simple Holiday 2007 magazine, with some really cute knit Christmas balls, and an adorable sheep afghan in it and a new One-Skein Wonder book - 101 Designer one-skein Wonders. As with the first one, I want to knit just about everything in it.

And DH's birthday present - what else!

Happy Halloween

From the Statue of Liberty

And Little Red Riding Hood, who did not go near the big bad wolf!

2007 World Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS BOSTON RED SOX

2007 WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Switch Knitter

In spite of all of the years that I have been knitting, I have never learned to knit Continental style - I'm a thrower and I like it that way - gets rid of a lot of aggression! Another thing I've never done is Fair Isle or stranded knitting, always preferring to cross-stitch the design on a plain stockinette background. But today......I have become a two handed knitter! I'm making the Christmas Rose Gift Bag from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and after reading up on some Fair Isle techniques decided to give it a go. One suggestion for two color Fair Isle was to knit one color with the right hand and one with the left hand - yeah right! But it didn't hurt to try, and it wasn't long before I was throwing one color with my right hand and knitting continental with the other. The two colors don't get all twisted up, the design repeats enough so I can carry the yarn across the back, and I'm reall enjoying this! I have no idea if I am doing this correctly - but here's what I have so far.

Knitting on to Victory!

While staying up way too late and watching the Sox win their way to the world series I've been getting some knitting done too. I finished this felted bag for my granddaughter's chiropractor. She has scoliosis and goes to Nichole three times a week, so they have become good friends! She admired a bag I had made for my DD, so I was commissioned to make her one for Christmas. I happened to have the colors she wanted in my stash, so I just knit the basic Booga Bag, added a pocket to the inside and braided the handles instead of i-cord.

Talk to the Sock

These "Cell Socks" are really cute and a great way to use up that leftover sock yarn. I think they would go over very well with the teen set! This one was knit with some leftover Knitpicks Parade.

Unraveling Ravelry

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about Ravelry. After all, there are so many knitting communities on the internet - how could this one be so different. And then, seeing there were thousands ahead of me on the list to get in - I just didn't get it. But now that I'm in - I'm starting to!

I have a lot more to learn about Ravelry - but here are some of the things I love about it. "Friends" - just click on this and there you all are! I can click on you and find your pages, see what you are knitting and what you are planning to knit. I can even send you a message. I can click on "Friends Blogs" and there you are again - with one glance I can tell if you have a new entry on your blog and head on over there to read it.

Another favorite is my 'queue'. This is how I justify all of the time I spend on Revelry. It's where I can enter all of those projects I want to make, and.. this is the best part...where I can find them when I'm ready.
I can't tell you how many hours I have spent searching for a pattern that I remember seeing someplace - looking through all of my knitting books, knitting magazines, notebooks, and internet sites. From now on, whenever I see something I want to make someday - I will enter it in my queue, and will forever more know where to find that pattern! There is still so much more to explore on Ravelry, but I know that I am hooked!
See you all on Ravelry!

Christmas Knitting

That ticker on the top of my page is beginning to scare me! I haven't made a lot of progress on my Christmas knitting so I decided to start knitting for the kids on my list this weekend.

I used the inspiration on the cover of this book to knit this toddler hat and mitten set. It's for the youngest member of our family - my sister's first grandchild, who will be 8 months old by Christmas. They knit up quickly with Bernat Softee Chunky. Gotta use a washable yarn when it's for a toddler, and it's really quite soft.

The Poet Goes to Fenway

The poet goes to Fenway
By Mary Oliver October 13, 2007

In the language of baseball
I am 3 and 2,
and not so nimble
as I was once
and the game,
at the moment,
is indecisive.
There are many poets
who love baseball
which is, after all,
a metaphor
for many things
that happen when there isn't a game.
The ball gleams forth,
and high,
and maybe it's a hit
or maybe the runner is out.
Nothing is certain
except the way
the old players hang onto their smarts,
their prowess, as long as they can
while the luminous young
keep showing up,
so swift, so quick,
with such light in their eyes
and such beautiful swings.

Knitting Needle Knitting Bag

Here is my first completed bag from the Bag Style KAL. Since I don't have my book yet (on it's way from Amazon) this is the sneak peek pattern from Knitting Daily for the Knitting Needle Knitting Bag. It was a quick, easy knit, and the knitting needle handles really make it unique (except that all of you will have one too of course!) I found the lining material in my stash left over from my sewing days - before I developed OCKS (obsessive compulsive knitting syndrome). I would make more of these -great gifts for knitters - in different patterns. Maybe a cable pattern, or even just plain garter in a multi-colored yarn.

Sweep

A Knitter is Born!

The knitting gene missed a generation in my family. I was never able to interest my daughter in knitting (although she is very happy to receive the results of my knitting!). I taught my oldest granddaughter to knit a couple of years ago. But the first couple of times I tried to teach my youngest to knit she really wasn't very interested. Today she said "I think I can knit now". So I handed her some size 10 needles and some bulky yarn, cast on for her and showed her what to do - then walked away......

After a short while I heard the words "I did it!"

Getting pretty comfortable here! I've never actually tried to knit in this position, but it seems to work for her!

A Knitter is Born!