Totaly heartbroken at the news...

I am completely heart broken to have read this article ! This country has lost so many jobs, and this is another 81 that will be gone. 81 families, 81 tax payers, 81 members of a working 'family'. How thrilled have I been over the years to knit with their yarns, knowing that they have a plethora of colors to have chosen when I order, and to know it has been a fabulous product still made here within our own country's boundaries! Not outsourced, not imported, but made here in this country.  When companies are sold to another company, changes are made, that's the nature of the beast. What's to come of being able to pick from their wonderful array of colors, and order them on the cones. Walmart doesn't sell the colors I love to knit. I don't know of any brick and mortar store that does. I love using their cones for my kitchen sets, for the placemats, the matching towels, dishcloths, and sack socks. It saddens me greatly to think I may never see these wonderful products available again.  For me, personally, I wonder how many more kitchen sets I'll be able to produce, if their products aren't available for other knitters to purchase to knit up my patterns. Heartbroken, just totally heartbroken.

Please, bring the jobs back home! Bring them home.

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year! I'm about to take in my computer to the Geek Squad, since I now have to hold the monitor to get it to show me what it is that I'm typing on the screen. ulg, Don't you just hate that? There's a lot I can do with my new cell phone, but I've tried posting from it, and I haven't quite figured that part out, yet. 

I've also been in Michigan for a week giving my daughter some time off for good behavior, but the day I flew in, I started with one of my famous once a year colds. To the point of needing to call my doc back in CA to order some some really good meds. Not the way I wanted to feel near my parents. In fact, to show you how sick I have been, I have 3 coupons for a yarn store here in town for free yarn, and haven't been able to go near the store!!!  AND my youngest daughter gave me a gift certificate to a shop back home, and I haven't been able to spend that, either! Can you imagine??????? It's like being a kid on Christmas morning where you opened all your really cool gifts, and then your parents yanked you straight out the door to go visit older relatives that don't have kids/toys and you weren't allowed to bring anything with you for the trip. Sucks rocks, I tell ya! 

Anyway, I leave you with a pair of mittens that I have a picture of that I made for my oldest daughter for Christmas. Hopefully, this computer thing won't be long lived and I can show off the rest of the Christmas knitting soon. Miss you all, and hearing from you. Hope your celebrations were great and I'll be back soon!

Weekend Knitting

These days, there has been a lot of knitting going on at my house. However, a lot of it I can't show you. Yet. But this weekend I knit up another scarf. I worked on it Friday evening, Saturday in a couple of segments, and then this morning. Why? I wanted to avoid shipping it for Christmas. Hand delivery is always best. Right? At least it saves you more money for yarn. ;-) I picked my A Little Bit of Cable Scarf and used two skeins of Hobby Lobby's I Love this Yarn! It weighed in at 400 grams. Which if you read the label makes it 2. 02 skeins of yarn. Go figure. And that's without the fringe. Good thing I opted out, since there wasn't much left in the end.

The finished size ended up at 8 1/2" x 70". This yarn is more like an aran weight rather than a light worsted yarn that I knit the first scarf with. I do like the way this knit up so quickly and how soft it is. I may have to rethink how long it should be to knit more of these? Darn the to-do list!

Guess what we got Mom for her 83rd Birthday!

We got her a lawyer in the family! He passed, and he's all sworn in! Congratulations my son! We couldn't be prouder of you! And Happy  Birthday Mom, Miss you, but enjoy your socks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's been a very long month and for tonight before I go have some pie, I'm going to concentrate on all that I have to be thankful for. My kids, my family, are right at the top. Here's hoping that you and yours are counting your blessings tonight as well. I'll catch up with y'all soon. In the mean time, if you're traveling, I wish you safe travels, and lots of hugs with your loved ones. If you're staying home, I wish you lots of help with the dishes. And when the last of the left overs are put away, put your feet up and knit something for you-be a project for yourself, or with a fiber that you really enjoy. After all, knitting is something else to be thankful for, too! 

 For now, I'll be thankful that I kept track of my projects the past few years, and that some stores make it possible for my daughter to go back and repurchase yarns that are identical and nearly identical of my socks so that I can reknit them. Yep...story later. *sigh*.

very proud Momma!

He Passed!

I wore the BD sweater on Saturday because...

 daughter's friends don't want her to leave...

 we got our hair done...

 drank some hot cider...

 picked some apples to buy..

 and some apple fritters!

 just look at the size!

 oh baby! they are good!

 went to dinner

 had some bar-b-que

 with a great group of 'kids'...

 and family...

 after a little bit of shopping...

and cake!

Why did I wear the BD Sweater? Because on top of everything else, it was my birthday!

The Mother/Daughter Adventure Continues...

Back in the summer of 2008, my oldest daughter and I started on our Mother/Daughter adventure as we drove across the country. She was about to start her Master's Degree at Syracuse University. Today is her last day of work at her 'part time' job here, and we are continuing the next chapter in the saga of Mother/Daughter adventures.

So, I donned my newest hand knit socks (LOVED the way they felt on my cold tootsies) and boarded a plane far too early for my general constitution and took off for the wet and rainy New York State.

Knit a fare amount while in mid air...

to find the last of the colors in the area before being dropped at the hotel while my daughter went to her last night of work. While she's partying it up with rumors of cake,

I'm finishing the 2nd of 3 Cables 'n Columns Placemats that I needed to have finished oh, like yesterday....

and am on the 2nd sock of a pair of boot socks from Knitting Pure & Simple out of Paton's Wool.

Tonight when she's finished, if she's not too tired, we're heading out for part one of a Reuben Sandwich taste off. After watching Man V. Food, from Ann Arbor, MI that was recently aired, we've decided to taste test both the sandwiches here in New York and Michigan as we travel to move her onto the next chapter of her life. We will have our  opinion and pictures posted all in due time. Stay tuned? With any luck, we'll make YOU all hungry!

Gotta go, she'll be home soon, and I have a whole placemat to get finished!

Oh, yea!

OH, yea, we're getting there...I'm down to 7.5 sts/inch at this point...And they're fitting a whole lot better...

 but still not as 'snug' as I would like them to be. So I'm on a hunt for some lantern moon size 1's. With all six needles in the package. That seems to be up for debate these days. According to the company the 5" needles of that size should have six in the package...but two stores in this area only had five. Makes you wonder-huh?

These, though have a gazillion mistakes in the lace ribbing. I know. and for the first time in a long time, I don't care.  This is proof that you shouldn't try to count when you're really tired. Eh? oh well...I'ma going to wear the tar out of them!

Since I still have my Mom's socks here, I couldn't resist the comparison shot. Or you could think of it as showing off two pairs knit in Wildfoote. Are you buying that one? hehe..

Here are the particulars of the socks that I used. From the Little Box of Socks, Wildfoote yarn, and Crystal Palace needles in size 1 1/2 (2.5mm), knitting them two at a time on double points. The yarn you see here, is what was left over from knitting my funky feet shaped socks. The sock it to me chart is very helpful, but I'm liking the way socks feet a little tighter and shorter than the charts and pattern say for my 'sized' feet.

This is what I had hoped to learn, how to knit socks to fit the way I want them to feel. I can do it with hats, but then again, I've knit up a good 500 or so of them over time. Can you imagine knitting up 500 pairs of socks?

I'm game. Bring it on!

Have you...

ordered your copy of the 2011 Dishcloth Calendar yet? I got mine (and my sample knits) back in the mail the other day. I ordered enough for my girls and my Mom besides one for me. Did you know that there are 88 pages here? And that you can now order the digital download rather than just the paper one. So, all of you that like to have yours in digital format, hop on over to www.dishclothcalendar.com and get it now! Just think, no shipping, no waiting for the mail to bring you one, and if you have a kindle type thingy...instant gratification. Me? I'm still debating on the digital deal thingy, but I am thinking about it. But I do so love to flip pages a lot!

ps. it's looking like there won't be a calendar next year. So hurry and get one this year!

It's mid PINK month!

It's Mid PINK month...how's your pink knitting coming along? Here's a little something I knit up the other day. Now...look closer...

 Check out the needles!

They're ChiaoGoo's in (US)7 (4.5mm) that I picked up from Yarns Unlimited on Pico Blvd in Santa Monica, CA the other day. I had gone on an 'Educational Field Trip for Moms' (aka teasing the duaghter's day) with

my friend Cyndi. Everyone, raise your knitting needles to her and wave hello! Not only is she a great friend, but are you ready for this? Mid July she was asking if I could help her learn to knit and she's (sit down for this) already knitting socks! And hats, and baby sweaters, and my favorite question from her went like this. 'Is it OK to buy yarn just because you like it?" followed up by "Can I just lay down in it" when viewing a picture of a stash of yarn. She is fearless! Every needs a friend who happens to knit who will jump in a car with you at a moment's notice to go check out new to her yarn stores, and then 'swing over' to Westwood where we proceeded to send pictures of Diddy Riese to our daughters who aren't able to get there at a moment's notice!

 Yes, we laughed and giggled our way into being bad Mothers for mercilessly tormenting our children over  

 white chocolate chip and Sugar and Cinnamon cookies after being at

 

 Jerry's Deli where I had...

 a reuben (mine was minus the sauerkraut!) and also sent cell phone pictures to my daughter. Yes, I am a bad Mommy. ;-)

While we were bouncing around the stores up here, I found these at Wildfiber. They're called DP Wip Tubes by Nancy's Knit Knacks. (click on knitting and needle tool links) Exactly what I needed in my knitting bag! They're cardboard tubes that will

fit around your double point needles.

And protect your knitting bag from being poked by the needles.

You just slip the blue side over your needles and the red section

over the top of the blue tube until they're a snuggle fit around your stitches! Easy as pie-right? The blue and yellow tube is for storing your double points that you're not using in your bag, too. Sadly they only had the one set on hand, but I'd love to get a couple of more. After all, how many projects do YOU have on your needles at once? Ya, that's what I thought. Me, too!

So, on that note, I'm off to figure out how to get the house cleaned, the kids hugged, and the socks finished while Cyndi and I decide where we're going to go today and tease our daughters via cell phone pictures. What ever did we do prior to having cell phones with picture capabilities? Oh ya, that's right, we drove in circles after school hours putting 300+ miles on our cars taking kids to soccer, baseball, softball, dance, church, band practices every week! Eish,...just thinking about it makes me tired all over again!