Beautiful People and Beautiful Things

April ended in a stressful and sad time for me, as I had to say good-bye to my precious mom and friend. She was a confidant and advisor, a wonderful woman of God who's faith kept her strong all the way to the end, or should I say to the new beginning of the rest of her life. :) I will miss her, her words of wisdom and faith, her encouragement, and her friendship. I know though, that she is in a much better place, with our Lord and Savior.

I traveled to NY to help set up the plans for Mom, with my brothers.  One day, my oldest brother and I went to the First Presbyterian Church of Babylon, to speak with Mom's pastor.  On our way past the Education building we saw this beautiful tree in full bloom.  What a joyful sight.  Truthfully, I have no idea what type of tree this is, but it was so beautiful that I had to take a picture. If you know the name, please leave a comment, as I would love to know.

My brother was kind enough, he is used to humoring his sister in this way, to hold a bloom so I could get a close up picture.  It was just beautiful.

The church building, which I have pictured on here before, is always beautiful to see. History tells us that the tall steeple used to lead, and still leads, fishermen back to port. The clock in the steeple does have a bell to ring the hour.  This was the building I was married in, by the way, 42 years ago. :)

What was sooo pretty about this time, was the wreathes on the front door.  They were so pretty, full of spring flowers and colors.  Just loved the look against the white doors.

And here is my magic yarn ball shawl!!!!  (and me peeking out behind it, hahaha!) I love how this shawl turned out and cannot wait for it to turn chilly again, so I can wear it.  I suppose, I could turn the air conditioning down to 68 so I can try it out.  Hahaha!

Magic Yarn Ball Projects!

You aren't going to believe this, but the group that I attend on Wednesdays, is having so much fun making magic yarn balls that we have continued to make them for 3 weeks now!  AND we still have more yarn to use........ Don't know if that is a good thing, or an obsessive thing, that we STILL have more yarn waiting to go into our Magic Yarn Balls.  It does mean that we all have a lot of yarn, though.

 

Here is the show-n-tell from the last couple of weeks.

 

 

Edee has made a long asymmetrical scarf, she based her knitting on the Hitchhiker scarf on Ravelry.

 

Vickie whipped out her scarf right away and encouraged the rest of us to get going on our new balls of yarn! Isn't this scarf pretty??

 

This is my shawl, from that giant ball I posted about in the last post. I may actually have too much yarn.  I hope not, but I don't want a shawl to my ankles.  Why? Well, I would probably trip on it. :) It would be warm though.

Below is a shot taken from further away.

 

We are having so much fun with this project and we are glad we did it.  I have 2 more large balls wound and another one started.  Plus, yarn sitting around the house with the new idea of "OH, I can put that in a magic ball." 

Finished Lacy Vest, Finished Cameo and Magic Yarn Balls!!!

Here is my finished Lacy Vest.  I used handspun yarn for this vest, gifted to me by my great friend, Debbie!!!  I wrote about the yarn in this post, this is the link,.

 

I am actually getting my crochet skills back.  It has been so long since I have crocheted clothing.  Actually, before I started crocheting the potholders, I don't think that I had crocheted in about 15 years.  I really thought that I could pick up that hook and just fly along like I had before.  Nope....... 

 

 I had to call my daughter and ask her how I had taught her to hold her yarn.  Then on my last visit to  my mom, she was crocheting something and I was able to watch her!!! After all, she is the wonderful person who taught me in the first place.  So, gradually, I have been working on my crochet skills.  I did rip out a bit of mistakes in this vest, as I got used to reading patterns again.

 

One day, I was so confused, that I asked a couple of gals who I help with knitting.  They were so excited to be helping ME for a change!!! LOL!  I was glad they were helping me too!

 

 

Here is Cameo!  I finished it.  I guess I should actually say, that this is my version of Cameo. Here is the link to the Cameo. I changed the lace portion of the scarf, used the Little Leaf lace pattern(in garter stitch), and then did a version of the Feather and Fan lace pattern.

 

Last Wednesday, at our spinning group, we started a FUN project! We decided to go through our yarn stashes and bring in unwanted, or better yet, yarn we didn't know what to do with and couldn't get rid of.  You know, the yarn that sits in that bucket, drawer or closet, that you love seeing, but can't imagine why you bought it, or why you bought 17 skeins when you only needed 12???  We also brought in those little portions left over from completed projects.

 

While we were playing in the yarn, we decided to call this a Friendship Ball of yarn. We have used yarns from our friends and it is extra special for that reason.

 

Below is ONE table of the yarn brought in by 7, yes only 7, people!!  Actually, this is 2 tables, we pushed 2 tables together!  LOL!! But, wait......

 

 

Here is the second table, the run-over table.  It is a card table, but was chock full too.

 

 We wound and we wound.  We all had our own idea of how long we wanted a color to be.  If a yarn was thinner than we wanted, we found something to compliment it and wound two or more strands together as one.  We had so much fun.

 

 

Some of us, like Laurie in the center of the above picture, wound HUGE balls. Some of us, like me, wound separate little balls.  I did this so that I could remember what colors I had used.  :) I have a shawl project in mind for mine.

 

This is my collection of little yarns.  Because I had decided that I wanted to use as many jewel tone colors as possible, most of what I used was from my stash, and I supplemented with other yarns. I have a mixture of wool, acrylic and cotton yarns in here.  I didn't use the gray to the right though, I decided to put those to the side for the next project.

 

 

After laying my little yarns out to rest, I organized them into an order that I liked.  I tried to have 3 balls of each colorway, so I spread each colorway a bit apart.

 

I then started attaching the ends together, by using the Russian Join. I also added long sections of blank in between the rows of my colors.

 

When done, my Friendship Ball of yarn weighs about 1 lb.  :) Here it is placed next to a 3.5 oz ball of yarn, so you can see the size. 

 

The funny thing about our Friendship Yarn project, is that we were having so much fun, that no one wanted to stop. But, alas, our time was up and we had to clean up and head for home. We decided that we would pick up where we left off this week and maybe another week after that. 

 

If you haven't done this yet, you might want to give it a try.  :)

A Penguin, An Owl and a HUGE Ball of Yarn

February is another month of birthdays for our family! Our oldest granddaughter, Nicole, turned 16 this year.  Where has the time gone?   One day, when she was out on Pinterest, she saw a cute French penguin and she showed it to her mom. Her mom, showed it to me and the rest is history.  :)  I found a pattern for a similar penguin and then added the mustache, scarf and beret.   This little guy stands about 5 inches tall.

Then, on February 14, Claire turned 13!  She loves owls, and I wanted to make her a fun owl.  Lots of fun colors for her owl.

 

My birthday was in January and I have a very good friend, Debbie, who lives in Minnesota.  She sent me two gifts!!! One gift is this wonderful skein of her handspun yarn and I immediately wound it into a ball of yarn.  My swift doesn't hold the size skein that it was, so I put the yarn on two chairs and wound it by hand.  I love this yarn!!!! Thanks, Deb!!

 Here is the ball of yarn all ready to go.  This color below is closer to the real color than the one above.

 

The skein measured about 440 yards of yarn.  I have decided to make a crochet vest pattern that is from Lion Brand. Here's the link to the pattern.  The pattern was written by Doris Chan and she has some very beautiful designs.

 

These mittens are beautiful!! They are the other part of my birthday gift.  I absolutely love them! Debbie, you are an exquisite knitter and spinner.

 

Remodeling, Light Weight Gray Scarf, Every Last Yard

When we were remodeling the bathroom and laundry room downstairs, we put in pocket doors.  I LOVE my pocket doors.  But, to do that we had to rip out some of the old paneling on the walls, what a shame(not!). I don't miss that paneling one bit. :) But, in doing that, we ended up having to rip the carpet off of the stairs, darn(not!). I don't miss that either. Haha!

 

But, to my surprise, probably not my hubby's surprise though, cause he is very experienced in remodeling, having done it professionally, we didn't have a nice find under that carpet.......

 

First off, the crew that installed the carpet must have used about 2,000+ staples in the pad under the carpet and then about 2,000 nails in the carpet! At least it felt like that many, I don't' think we counted.  Of course, in ripping out the carpet those little buggers stayed in the wood.  Yep, for us to have to walk on.... Finally one night we spent a couple of hours and removed all of them. Yes, we. I helped. I do help with these projects, when I am allowed. LOL!! Sometimes my help isn't always help. LOL!

 

So here are the steps after the crazy staples and nails were removed. Hubby did have to sand the wood and make it pretty. Then we had to go to the big box hardware store for paint and sealer.

 

 

After painting every other step, so we could still travel down there, my studio is down there after all. He finished the painting. Aren't the stairs wonderful????  I am so happy with them.

 

I am having fun knitting, and crocheting, light weight scarves! Here is one of my newest triangle ones, listed on etsy.  It is made with cotton yarn and has glass beads along the bottom edge and 3 larger glass beads, one on each corner.

 

For me, I finished my Every Last Yard sweater.  It was designed so that you could use up all the yarn you purchased for it, by saving up enough yarn at the end to bind off and be done.  It is knit from the top down.  I love the lace pattern at the bottom of the sleeves and sweater body. Well, I did have an entire skein left over, but that is ok. I used Brown Sheep yarn.

 

Here it is! I love wearing it!

 

Knitting Hats, Fingerless Gloves and a Monkey!

To finish out the theme of the Christmas knitting, here are a few more projects that I made. This hat and fingerless gloves set were for Claire. She loves, no LOVES, astronomy and I have been on the look out for something to make, or even buy, for her having to do with astronomy.

 

When I decided to make the hat sets for Christmas, I went to JoAnn's to purchase the yarn. To my surprise I found this yarn! It is Woolease Thick and Quick and its color name is Constellation! Those little specks are a silver thread, making the hat look like a starry sky.  The pattern is named Avery and on Ravelry, here's the link.

 

Here are her handwarmers. I used my pattern Topless Mitts for these. I did use a size smaller needle for hers. I like them better on the smaller needle.

Here is the picture of Rebekah's hat. I did finish it, even though this picture doesn't show it finished. (I forgot to get a finished picture...) I loved making this hat, with the leaves on it. It is worked in the round, which yes, that means I purled the whole thing. I couldn't believe I did that, but I wanted so much to make this hat for her. She likes gardening and working in her yard. The pattern name is Seedling.

 

I wanted to make coordinating hand warmers.  So I used my Peek-A-Boo hand warmer pattern and left off the lace and then put the leaf pattern on it. To my surprise, it worked! The second hand warmer has only one leaf.

 

This is my newest project for me. I finally made myself a Jacobus Sock Monkey Doll.

 

I kept thinking about the movie character Gracie Lou Freebush, from Miss Congeniality, played by Sandra Bullock. How she was a rough and tumble gal, who dressed up and became a beauty queen. I knew my sock monkey was going to do the same thing. Sooooo,

 

Meet Miss Gracie!

 

I designed her clothing myself. There isn't a pattern for them. The designer of the doll, had patterns for clothing and the dress is similar, but hers was made from fingering/sock weight yarn and knit sideways. I wanted to use up stash yarn and what I had to use was a worsted weight yarn.

                        She has a pretty hat, with crocheted flowers and a ribbon down the back.

 

 

And she has bloomers with lace on them.

 

 

Now she has a knitting bag!! One of my friends, Sharon, said she needed a knitting bag and made one for her. Yes, it has yarn in it. :)

 

As part of my birthday, the UPS Store guy had bought tickets for us to go see Garrison Keillor! Such a treat!!!! We have been listening to his radio show, off and on, since we lived in Minnesota in the late 1970's! So, we drove over to Richardson, TX, (where we used to live) and went to the Eisemann Center to spend the evening with a great story teller.

The theatre was packed and he talked, and sang, for the better part of 2 hours. It was a wonderful time and I am so sorry that he is retiring.  I will miss hearing his stories.  I have enjoyed listening to him and am glad that I could go see him before he is retired!

Sunsets, a Poncho and Slippers With a No Stick Bottom

 

One of the things that I have learn to appreciate and enjoy living in Texas, is our sunsets. They have wonderful colors and are always different. The camera doesn't always do them justice, when I try to take pictures. Here is one that did come out looking great, imho.

 

It was taken after some storms had come through and I was standing on my back deck. At the bottom center, you can see a bit of the pond that is down the hill behind our home.

 

 

  

When I was visiting my mom, in September, she asked me to make a poncho wrap for her neighbor for Christmas.  They usually have tea and breakfast together on Christmas morning.  Mom wanted to give Doris something that would keep her warm when sitting and watching TV.  We talked about what she envisioned and then went to the yarn shop. I came home loaded with Ella Rae Chunky Superwash yarn, distributed by KFI. When touching the yarn, I thought it a bit rough, but I suspected it would soften when washed and I was right, it became a nice soft yarn. I actually purchased enough for two poncho's, without my mom knowing. One is this lavender color for Doris and the second was a deep red for mom. I am in the middle of writing the pattern.  I am happy to say that they both like their ponchos!

 

Another project for Christmas was a couple of pair for Salomas Slippers, here's the link to the free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn or 2 strands of sock weight yarn.  My opinion is of such that you need 3 strands of sock weight to equal worsted weight, so that is what I used.  I am trying to use stash yarn as much as possible and I have bunches of sock yarn. I made these slippers for my SIL.

 

Here I am modeling one of the slippers.  :)

 

I love these slippers.  The ribbing section is knit in the round and then the garter stitch section(the part over the top of the foot) is knit back and forth in rows.  They are fun to knit!

 

I had read on another blog a couple of years ago, about putting the caulking on the bottom of slippers for a no skid sole.  I had done that and it worked really well. I had covered the entire bottom of a pair of felted slippers and wore them outside. The felt has given out in a couple of places, but that caulking is hanging on for dear life!  I had even bought my own caulking gun for the project.

 

But, exciting news!!! We don't need to use that caulking gun any more. They now sell the caulking in toothpaste like tubes at Home Depot. Buy the cheap stuff, the stuff that is acrylic and latex based. The silicone stuff, rubs off the slipper after a bit. I did try it on another pair of slippers. But, the acrylic/latex doesn't wear off. In my Home Depot I can only find the color white. No clear, so you will see the little dots. :)

 

 

The tube is super easy to use. Pull off that little cap, then cut the tip of the point and squeeze the tube, simple. Have paper towels handy and a tool, like a nail or popsicle stick, in case you need to touch the caulk. The acrylic/latex, doesn't want to come off of your hands or any other items either. It isn't water soluble. I learned the hard way! Hahaha!

 

Here is the bottom of the first Salomas slipper.

 

Here are both pairs done.  I put one less row on the aqua pair.

 

 

I didn't want to leave the guys in the family out. So, several of them received man sized slipper socks! I used the New Cottage Socks pattern from Lion Brand, here's the link. Instead of using their stitch pattern, I used a k1 p1 ribbing for the sock.  The pattern uses 212 yards of  Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick for a pair.

 

I put the caulking on them too.