It's Still May!!

And the socks are done! Yay me!

But first, here is why the knitting/blogging is slow this month --

Two graduations. The first, my firstborn graduating from eighth grade--

Here she is with two classmates (one of whom is her BFF Karley) at the pre-graduation brunch. Each graduate was given a very nice silver cross and a cute cookie that looked just like themselves!

Cute!

After the ceremony we lunched and gifted the new highschool bound teenager-

That was Saturday. Today was Grace's turn. My kindergartener graduated. My little baby girl is almost 6 and in first grade. Yikes.

It is almost impossible not to tear up in the presence of all this cuteness--

Grace is the one in blue in the front row. When they sat down Grace flashed the entire congregation. I'm so proud.

Here she is with her teacher.

Grace and Brianna -- who happens to be Emily's BFF's sister.

In Knitting news, (you thought I forgot, didn't you?) the socks for May were finished after graduation today, but before dance class.

These were my Magic Loop socks. Love the loop. Used Tofutsies, the same kind of yarn tried once before, but abandoned after they pooled incredibly and horribly. I gave it another shot, and the first socks looks very nice, doesn't it?

The second sock started going all crazy like and looks more like tiger stripes or something. Not good. I have two more balls of this yarn and I'm not so excited about it. I would have to say they are the least exciting and satisfying socks I have knit. The yarn feels good, if that is any consolation.

This ball of yarn was originally meant for Project Spectrum several months ago. I get distracted easily.

Next month (three hours from now) the colors turn to black, red, and metallic. Not my colors, more Nolamom's cup o'tea. I will try to make a token project to show I can get with the program.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school. Hooray! Only "non-graduating" Alex has to go to school tomorrow. He's so excited.

Hooray for summer!

Chicken Alert!

Tillie the Hen is finished!

What a fun knit. I enjoyed creating her from start to finish. She turned out almost exactly like the pattern.

Specs: Simply Knitting Magazine, Spring issue, Sublime merino dk yarn, size 3 needles, babies made from fuzzy mohair blend yarn. I stuffed the base body with doll bead pellet things, and she has a good weight to her. She has bloomers on under sher skirt, as seen better in the previous post.

I could seriously become addicted to knitting "things" now. This was fun. I don't exactly know what to do with her now that she's done, but I had to knit her.




Does Carey need a bride and groom chicken?





Close up of Tillie the Hen.

Fun with Fowl and Fiber

Here she is--

Isn't she beautiful?

Okay, yes, she could use some clothes. And some eyes, wings, claws, and a beak. And eyes. But, hey, she's lookin' good so far! Sort of like a bowling pin with legs.

Poultry production continues....

On the sock front, I have now made a sock using the magic loop method. I like it. It opens up a lot of possibilities for other things too. I will take a picture when the second one is done. I haven't figured out how to do two at the same time, and I decided to do cuff down for the first shot at "looping." So I have a ways to go in the "learning new things" department, but so far so good.

Seven Random Facts About Cindy

I was tagged to do this meme and I've never done one before so here goes -

1. I'm left handed, my sister is left handed, but no one else, not my mom or dad or my kids is left-handed. I'm very proud of my left handedness, but am sort of sad I did not pass it on to my kids.
2. I hate apples. The entire universe loves apples, and I can't stand them. It's the texture. Ick.
3. I skipped first grade. Instead of branding me a genius for life, it has resulted in me not learning my left from my right very well. It took me learning to drive for that to click. (Watching Blue's Clues with Grace helped too)
4. I love the Brady Bunch. Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie aren't bad either. I can't stand Leave It to Beaver.
5. I could watch the movie Elf and the newer Parent Trap over and over again. I realize they are cheesy. When Lindsay Lohan realizes she's a twin I tear up every time.
6. I think dimples on guys are very cute. (Mario Lopez! Jeff Probst!) I didn't really notice them until Alex was born with the deepest dimples ever.
7. My favorite food in the world is Rocky Road ice cream from Rite Aid/Thrifty. If they discontinue it I will be very, very sad.

Knit in Public Day

Okay Knotty Knitters June 9 is national Knit in Public Day. We must organize and go somewhere like River Park or Fig Garden (Carey could put us in the Villager) and knit together, even if it is only for a little while. Who's game?

Chicken-in-Progress

I'm in chicken production. I placed the order for some hopefully appropriate chicken foot yarn. Paid extra for shipping, because I'm an impatient chicken-foot-yarn-waiter. I couldn't even wait for Tuesday to go to the LYS to look for chicken foot yarn there. My goal is to have all the other pieces knitted and sewn up when the foot yarn arrives. I don't know why I'm in such a hurry, the word obsession comes to mind. Hmmm....


Here are the exploded chicken parts in progress -

In other news, I swatched a little of the purple watercolory yarn. I know watercolory is not a word, but I don't know how else to describe it. I like the yarn, I like the color. I'm not too crazy about the yardage-99 yards a ball, and the price-around 8 dollars. To make a sweater it would take lots of balls, and therefore, lots of dollars. I've been known to spend money on yarn before (really?) but I have a lot in the stash that I could work on, and so I am therefore being "good" and passing up the purply watercolory yarn. Unless a Irish Hiking scarf or whatever it is called might be good. Hmmm..... don't know.

The mailman brought me a little tubular package. At first, I thought "What could it be?" then the lightbulb went on. My needle! My replacement Brittany Birch short size 1 dpn! Yay! I already finished up the sock I was knitting when it broke, but hey, I'm happy anyway. And I got to get a cute little package in the mail. I amuse easily.

Edited later: After I posted this post, I actually opened the little tubular package and it contained not one, but TWO replacement needles. How fabulous! Thank you Brittany Birch People!


I work tomorrow (second grade) so chicken production will have to wait until recess. I can already hear the kids asking me what I'm making and then looking at me like I'm a crazy lady when I answer them. Ha.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the best mom ever!

Love, Cindy and Carey

Craving for Chicken

Sometimes I see something and immediately want to make it, even if it is the silliest thing. If I don't give in to the urge it haunts me. I can hear it calling. Yes, patterns talk to me. Yarn talks to me too. Housework cries to me, but that I block better than patterns and yarn. Selective listening.


Anyway, I bought the over priced Simply Knitting British magazine because they included a free zipper bag with balls of yarn printed on it. Sucker. Being the "I'm not a beginner anymore" snob that I am I thought the magazine would be rather dull, sort of like Knit Simple and that type of magazine. This one actually had a lot of cute patterns, including many that American magazines would not consider simple. I liked the layout of the magazine too. The free gift lured me into finding a good magazine that I would buy again.


That leads me to the chicken. I couldn't resist it. I went to Janna's looking for the yarn and they had the exact yarn it calls for, Sublime, a DK weight merino by Sirdir. They had just gotten it in, and they had all the colors. The knitting cosmos almost NEVER works that well. They didn't have the different mustard color yarn that the feet are made from, but that is minor. After spending a bizallon dollars on six skeins of British extra fine merino to make this chicken I am dying to get started.

















While I was at the yarn store, I saw this:


The photo obviously does not do it justice. The colors are very watercolor, and it is just beautiful. It is expensive, and I don't know exactly what I would make with it, but it is beautiful! I bought a skein just to play with.

i8i8i8i8

Computer's back! Hooray! Much love to HP for fixing my keyboard so quickly. I finally parted with it last Thursday around lunch time (after taking it out of the box a few times for "one last email check") and Monday when we got home from school the tag was on the door that they tried to deliver it. One trip to the FedEx place, and it was mine. After opening the box, it really was mine! With an 8! and an i!

Can you tell I'm happy? As Lisa would agree, computers are addictive!

Cuppy in a Mirror

I have been sort of dancing around the "wanting to sew" feeling for awhile now. Hemming the flower girl dress didn't send that feeling away, nor did sewing the Ramses costume. I really didn't want to drag out a big production, and most of my fabric is packed away temporarily as a part of the Alex's room project, so I hadn't been acting on the urge except to let it brew in my head.

I still subscribe to Quiltmaker Magazine, a leftover from my quilt magazine-a-holic phase. You know how they send you the notice your subscription is almost over so you pay it, only to realize "almost" means 11 months from now? Well, that happened, and so I will be getting Quiltmaker for a few more months, even though the Interweave Knits is what sends my heart a flutter now.
Quiltmaker came in the mail around a week ago, and it happened. I saw a project that I wanted to make.

Can you tell what it is?

How about now?

Any better?

It is not finished, but will most likely be a little pillow. It is based on Emily's cat, Cuppy, and since I forgot that foundation pieced patterns turn out reversed from how the patterns appear, it is entitled "Cuppy in a Mirror." I had doubts while I was sewing it whether or not it would actually look like anything when it was done, but I think it looks okay now that it is together. It was rather complicated to do, it has very tiny pieces (181 of them!) and 12 sections. It went together without too much headache, now I just have to put the borders on.

On the knitting front, the cables are back to making me smile, and my plain sock for May is getting a gusset. My computer is away in Tennessee, and I'm here, so blogging is complicated.

Rock, paper, scissors

OK... First, the rock. I'm engaged! To a wonderful man. Hooray! (And you guys thought it would never happen...)

Second, do you realize what this means? This opens up a whole new world of scrapbooking possibilities! Party favors! Invitations! I don't yet know how I will use all the nifty wedding things that are out there, but heavens, I've got the ring. That's practically an invitation to go shopping, don't you think? Golly... there's so much to do.

My son the Egyptian

Fourth Grade was the prospector with the knitted fun fur beard. Fifth was Ben Franklin with the ruffled shirt made from paper doilies. And now, I present Ramses, made from the finest felt and gold rick rack--

Sometimes you are thankful you can sew.