Finished Mittens

Here are my finished mittens! They are nice and toasty. I had just a little blue yarn left, so I am glad I finished the tops and thumbs with just the grey! This handspun yarn was from Holly, from the spin-to-knit that I signed up for last year. I am glad to have finally completed a project with it. The yarn was very lovely to work with.

I got replacement cables from KnitPicks today. I was glad to see them. I haven't had a chance to hook them up to the Harmony needles and try them out yet, but I am hoping that things go better than last time! They were very appologetic about the trouble that I had with the first set...

I have been working on mittens for Thing 3. The first one is finished, except for the thumb. It fits perfectly. Unfortunately, I was hoping to make it bigger, so that she could wear them next year also. Oh well! She was at school most of the time I was working on them so I missed my chance to change the sizing. At least they aren't too small.

Brenda

A quick post

I finished my mittens and didn't run out of yarn! Yeah! I will post a picture soon. I have started on mittens for Thing 3 as she has been begging for new ones!

We had a strange week for weather. The snow has all melted, it has been warm and rainy, we had a windstorm that knocked out our power for 26 hours, now it is getting cold again and to top it all off, I saw a dandilion flower in the grass today while we were out!!!

I also posted some fun new sock yarn on Etsy. It is a Merino/silk blend dyed in my Midnight Forest colorway. The thing that I have to say about dyeing yarn is "So many fabulous colors, so little time to actually knit them all!" I really like the silk blend yarns. They are so soft, with an amazing luster. www.dye4fun.etsy.com

I called KnitPicks earlier this week. The woman I spoke with said they are so sorry that my cables broke. She said they would some new ones out right away. I can't wait to get them!

Brenda

Been awhile

With the holidays I haven't had time to post for a couple of weeks! We've seen the kids in Christmas concerts and visited family. We've also made it through a bout of stomach flu...

I have been working on the knitted pillow some more. It is definitely ill-fated. The Harmony needle cables BROKE the first time I used them. They come in pairs. I knitted about 1 1/2 inches before the first cable broke, then about 1 1/2 rounds before the second one did. The metal connector pulled right off of the plastic cable. The join between the connector and the needle is threaded. I had no trouble with that. Now that Christmas is done for the year, I need to call KnitPicks and see what they will do for me. I am very disappointed, and quite surprized. I have always been happy with things I have purchased from them. Maybe they had a manufacturing problem. I'll post what I find out!

Brenda

The Shoes

A warning: this post has nothing to do with knitting.

It has to do with something that I never thought I could do to discipline a child.

I believe in finding consequences that are very undesirable for the child. With my son, he would rather misbehave and have all of his toys taken away than behave and get to have his stuff. So we actually bought him a Gameboy so that we would finally have some leverage. That worked for him because he really wanted it and didn't like having it taken away.

A few months ago, my 5 year old dd was kicking the back of my seat on the way to somewhere (church, probably) and was generally being a brat. So I threatened her "If you don't stop that right now I will take away your shoes!" Now these are no ordinary shoes. They are lipstick red sandals with a bit of a heel. These are the shoes that my 7 year old dd saw in the store and she just could not leave without them "But mom, they are lipstick red shoes! We have to buy them!" And so I caved and bought a pair for each girl, even though we had been shopping for a more practical cream colored dress shoe at the time. Anyway, the 5 year old (we like to call her Thing 4) kicked the seat again, this time slipping and actually kicking my elbow (ouch!). When we got home, I took away the shoes, and put them on the top shelf of my closet.

The shoes were mourned. When Thing 3 was putting her sandals on, she would wonder aloud if Thing 4 would ever get her's back. When Thing 4 was wearing something red, she would ask if she could have her lipstick red shoes back. I held out. Recently, I told her that if she apologized, she could have her shoes back. And she did. Now she wears those shoes anytime she can, whether they match or not! Yesterday, she dressed for church in a coral dress with a pink sweater (handknitted!) and the lipstick red shoes. What a (colorful) picture!

Which led me to ponder on how strange it is to be able to take away a pair of shoes as an effective punishment (I will point out that she did have several other pairs to choose from-I didn't leave her barefoot!). When I was a kid, I could have cared less, as long as I had something to wear. At least when I was 5. When you have kids, you go into it with some preconcieved notions, that are often quickly dispelled. Each kid is different from the other, and more importantly, often quite different from you! It's all a great adventure, anyway!

Brenda

Swatch mitten cuff (soon to be frogged...)

I wanted to post a quick picture of my poor mitten! You can see the beautiful yarn (Thanks Holly!), that I would most certainly run out of if I continued as originally planned. Once I have taken a quick count for gauge, I will frog the thing and start again.

Knitting time has been at a minimum. The kids have been keeping me quite busy. Yesterday there was no school, so I took the three girls shopping for new coats and jeans. Gives new meaning to the phrase "shop 'til you drop"!

I posted some hand dyed sock yarn at my etsy store today, along with some very soft bamboo fleece throws that I hand dyed. www.dye4fun.etsy.com I am absolutely in love with bamboo fleece! It is fabulous to touch, and dyes wonderfully. I have been keeping my eye open for some naturally colored bamboo yarn to try (since I'd rather dye it myself...). I've also read about cutting polar fleece into thin strips and knitting with that and I have been wondering how that would work with this bamboo fleece, since it really is quite a bit different than polar fleece. I really must try it one of these days...

Life in general...

Halloween was a great event at our house this year. The evening was not too cold- the girls didn't have to cover up their costumes with bulky coats, or put on multiple layers underneath! By the time we were done, the wind was picking up, so it did get chilly, but what a beautiful night. When we woke up Thursday morning, I was surprised at the puddles. It had rained hard sometime during the night. That made the beautiful evening the night before even more amazing!

I have spent much of this week dyeing various things. Today I wanted to just relax and do some sewing, but being a bit fuzzy headed messed up my sewing machine. So I spent much of the day driving to the sewing machine dealer and letting her figure out what I did, and then fixing it, and then coming back home. The dealer is 45 minutes away (yes, that is the closest one...).

So now I am going to go fold laundry, and then maybe I'll dust (it really has to be done when it reaches around 1/4" deep). I probably can't mess up those two things, at least not irreparably.

It is definitely not a good day to start a new knitting project!