MIA while knitting ;)

I‘ve been enjoying some quiet quality time with Reg and Kyle lately … with the snow that we got dumped on us and basketball season, I figured I would grab the time that I could with Reg. I’ve not done any quilting lately – but I’ve been knitting 😀 In the past few days since my last post, I’ve finished Reg’s Plowhat and a earwarmers for Kristin.

Kristin had asked if she could buy earwarmers from me and I’m like no, but I’ll make some for you – Back last spring, Kristin donated a chunk out of her stash to help me get ready for my first show – Like I would take her money .. oh Hell NO! So after some back and forth, We decided that these might be the best. And she wanted red and black .. ravelry members can see them before hand, but I won’t publish the images until she gets them – sorry about that .. oh my ravelry name?? gquilts Now isn’t that shocking 😉 These made up super quick and I’m pleased with how they turned out … tapered at the nape of the neck and with chunky weight yarn – nice and warm! Since I won’t share the pics of the finished earwarmers with you, I will share what yarn I used and the colours 😉 A nice compromise me thinks ..

I did get Reg’s plow hat done which I thought was way cool! I customized this for his larger bones and frame size .. As stated in a previous post, he would want his neck covered so I extended the the neck portion from 5″ to 8″. Also when I was doing this, I am thinking that a provisional cast on would have been a better choice instead of picking up the stitches around the face .. with working with black yarn, this was rather essential .. I didn’t do it with Reg’s hat, but am doing one for Kyle so I’ll try that there. I finally got him to model it for me so you get to see how it looks on him instead of me .. you can see how the extra 3″ was rather necessary for him .. There’s not much left over from around his neck .. Love the look in the first pic 😀 What a ham .. but at least he modeled it for me otherwise you would have been stuck with me modeling it or Kyle and it just wouldn’t look right as it wasn’t made for either of us .. He’s prolly not going to wear it all the time, but that’s okay .. it’ll be there when he needs it on the bitingly cold nites while plowing and well – that’s good enough for me.

Okay so to date – 2 earwarmers, and a plow hat .. also some progress on my plow wife socks. Altho I think I managed to confuse myself while doing doing a few rows .. I fixed any obvious mistakes and it rather matches it’s twin – but this is a pattern I’m not overly fond of this particular pattern at all. I do like the the yarn that I used, and the circumstances as to how these socks got their name are good memories for me, but I really don’t like this pattern – In some cases, I’m just being pissy, other’s I think that I’m spot on with my aggravation .. but these could also be **MY** personal quirks and I’ll leave that be .. But at this rate, I’ve maybe 15 rows left to do before the toe decreases and that will go very quickly. Might have these done tonite (will be watching some tv or a movie me thinks) or tomorrow.

Now I needed to grab another set of #8 circulars or a DPN of same size – I had planned to head to walmart for the needles, but as it ended up, we weren’t going to be at that end of town, SO – Michaels was just across the parking lot from the grocery store 😀 SWEET! I figured I would check out what yarn they had while I was in there and was tickled to find a decent selection of sock / fingering yarn (More than joann’s, walmart, etc) had – WOOO HOOO and it was even on SALE!!!!! Heh .. So I grabbed enough yarn for 2 more pairs of socks 😀 A ‘mulberry’ in the Kroy Strips and what Patons calls “Plum” (looks more peachy / pink-ish to me) in their stretch sock line .. how cool is THAT! Their needle selection really left a LOT to be desired, but the yarns made me happy 😉

Happy Bloggaversary to me

Amazingly enough, my one year bloggaversary rather came and went .. Oh I noticed it, but wasn’t exactly in a blog mood – I was busy spending time with my family and getting some knitting projects done .. I did get Reg’s Plow Hat done on this day so that was pretty cool .. but he wasn’t inclined for pics until today .. this of course will be a separate post 😀 I started out on Blogger, but ended up on their terrorlist as a spam blog (how bloody rude me thinks! But I’m almost over it .. if not to bad for me, eh??) and after several attempts to get unlisted as such .. I gave up and moved over here to WordPress ..

Hmm .. I wonder if I get TWO bloggaversaries – one for the day I started to blog and the day I moved to WordPress .. heh .. two bdays (blog bdays)

Well at any rate .. thank you everyone that has had the patience with me and my ramblings for the past year .. I’m sure it’s not been easy as I tend to go off on a tangent or two (or 50). I do appreciate all the comments and suggestions that everyone has posted thru the past year and I feel blessed to have met all the wonderful people out there in blogland that I wouldn’t have met otherwise ..

So while this is a Happy Bloggaversary post for me .. its also a thank you post to ya’ll that has read my posts and cheered or cried with me or wanted to strangle me or I’ve confustamacated with my ‘wonderful’ math ..

Thank you again and a Happy New Year everyone!!

Plow Hat Progress

With all the rushing around and Reg having to do some many long stupid shifts, we are just going to spend today doing nothing .. he just got home from practice as I typed this – not sure what we will do, but the general plan is movies movies movies .. Works for me! I’ll be able to do more knitting on Reg’s plow hat .. I got quite a bit done while watching Pirates at my aunts yesterday, and started the face shaping last nite – I have another 2″ (I think) and then I can start my decreasing for the top of the head, then the shaping around the face (ribbing)

I wish I had read ahead last nite on this BEFORE I casted on the 48 stitches .. the pattern reads ..

Using the LARGER circular needle, KNIT 40 (48) stitches. Leave remaining neck stitches on a holder or the needle they are already on (might be cumbersome). Cast on 48 stitches and continue in just KNIT for another 4 inches.

[further down it says]

Face opening: place live neck stitches back on smaller needle if you put them on a holder. Pick up stitches around top knit portion (48 sts) and work in K2P2 rib for 2 rounds.

After reading that, I thought of the provisional cast-on -that would have made a more seamless picking up of stitches around the face – of course by the time I thought of that, I was already 2″ into the straight knitting .. I didn’t (and still don’t) feel like frogging that to recast-on those stitches. I’ll try that for Kyle’s hat when i do it.

There is a good possibility that might be able to call this done after tonite – we’ll just have to see.

Quilt Therapy

Christmas Day was a wonderful day spent with family; enjoying good times and food with each other and celebrating the Birth of Christ.

Kyle loved all his gifts, he got mostly clothes from us and just LOVED the American Eagle stuff .. he’s wearing it today – LOL .. When Reg gets back from practice, we’ll be movie’ing ourselves to death which will be a nice change of pace from the past months where we’ve not spent a lot of time together at all .. This will be just a nice relaxing day for us .. I’ll hopefully finish his snowplow hat today and maybe start on Kyle’s or an earwarmer for another friend of mine. We’ll just have to see .. my right hand / wrist is still tender from my tumble down the stairs and I’ve a knot in my back – but I’m sure that a hot bath or 5 will do wonders for me 🙂

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner at my aunts and Erica said a beautiful Grace. Thank you for the grace Erica – it was long but beautiful and perfect for the season 😀 When we got there I was disappointed to not see Matthew’s car in the driveway and found out that they had been there the night before and were doing Christmas day with Meredith’s family .. ah well .. I made a joke that we could open Matthew’s present and rewrap it, my aunt said no .. **sniff ..heh .. but that didn’t last much longer than Erica opening her gift.

Erica opened hers and was rather stunned by it .. she just LOVED it! I told her that her mum had seen what it looked like earlier and the colours that I had picked and said that she would love them .. Erica said that she did and she just loved it .. I pointed out what fabrics were hand-dyed and explained a bit of it to her .. not much – just that that fabric used to be white – I told her about how I saw a meditative reflecting type pool whenever I looked at it on my wall, and thought maybe she could find comfort and peace with this quilt. As I noted before, she’s had a rough time this year and thinking back on it, I must have had that in the back of my mind while I was picking the colours and making it for her. This quilt turned out to be so peaceful in appearance and nature. She loved the water theme and fish that I quilted into it too .. Needless to say, she thanked me for such a personal gift to her and we were both moved to tears – we both got quilt therapy
.

As I stated Matthew and Meredith weren’t there, and Erica opted to open his present as she knew that it was a quilt too at that point and everyone wanted to see it 😀 .. She said she would rewrap it .. I wish Matthew had been there .. the looks on everyone’s faces, they were just stunned by it .. and said it would be PERFECT for them both .. Meredith likes bold bright colours! My uncle said that Matthew would just LOVE it – talk about a nice warm comfy feeling .. My Gramma D (96 years young) just loved it too .. she was / is (?) our master seamstress – altho she’s not doing any sewing anymore .. but hearing praises from her was such an awesome compliment. My aunt quilts and just loved it too … she was stunned that I did the quilting at home on my DSM and didn’t send it out to a long armer (which she does) heh .. later reg suggested that I offer to do my aunts quilts LOL .. that could work me thinks .. I’ll have to mention it to her.

We later sat down to watch Pirates – World’s End and it was a wee bit chilly in the house, so erica grabbed her quilt and curled up with it on the floor – I did tell her that in time I do hope to have to repair it for her as it would be loved so much .. heh . she said not to worry, it would be. I’ll have another quilt I gifted about 10 years ago to fix too from a friend of mine .. a well loved corner needs some patching 🙂 I really do love it when I have to fix quilts I give – that means they are used and loved!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas day with their family and friends.

Merry Christmas; update

It’s been a quiet day compared to what the past week has been like .. no sewing – just some last minute shopping and wrapping and wrapping and wrapping and wrapping ..

But before I get into that part .. just a little update on how I’m doing after last nite’s tumbled down my basement stairs . . I’ve bruises that are coming up …my right shoulder is tender as well as a few other places – I can feel where I hit the steps on my left foot as I walk .. But I’m battered and bruised – but nothing appears to be broken or sprained – so it’s all good .. God was watching over me on that slip – he had to have been

I was able to do some shopping tonite as I’ve mentioned – gift tags and the present that didn’t get here on time for Reg .. I’m not going to scream about it as it was a crap shoot anyways .. so not a big deal – we were out for a few hours and I did okay 🙂 .. I was walking gingerly by the time I got home, but I was still walking and all my moving parts appeared to be moving okay – so that’s good .. I’m just sore and using ibuprofen and tylenol

Wonked

Unwonked

I did unwonk Matthew’s quilt – this looks sooo much better .. but didn’t do Erica’s .. her’s wasn’t as near as bad as Matthew’s (and this was when I tumbed downthe stairs), so I opted to just let it go .. Matthew’s was the most important as his was going on a relatively ‘flat’ wall and there’s no way this was flat not even flat-ish .. but the difference between before unwonking and after is just HUGE ..You can really see the difference at the bottom, and the left and right sides near the bottom – It’s like a pancake at this point compared to where it started.  I just have to do labels for these and wrap them .. I’ve had enough and Reg is sleeping – oh yeah .. I’m designated wrapper in this house – but I put my foot down on wrapping my own gifts – LOL

We are going to do a Russian Christmas here this year. For several reasons .. Kyle ordered a gift for me and while it came in, due to a miscommunication between him and my dad (shock bloody surprise), he didn’t get out to the mall to get it. Reg’s gift didn’t arrive on time (still not here either – altho my book is :/). The spinner quilt isn’t done either – so on January 7^th, everyone will get the rest of their gifts …

Here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a fantastic holiday with family and friends. Blessings to you and your loved ones on this most precious of days – The celebration of the Birth of Christ!

Ouch and double ouch!!

I think I won’t be getting Kyle’s quilt done .. Not by choice either .. I was bringing laundry downstairs (basketball uniforms – tourney on Friday) when my heel slipped out from under me .. then proceeded to bounce down 6 steps on my back .. They are wooden steps .. No carpeting, cushioning nothing ..

I hit my back – the part right above your bra strap on the right side, my butt (same side) and ankle (same side) – ankle is swelling .. I can’t really see my back, but what I can see is red – not going to bother checking out my butt as it’s not hurting .. To much padding .. Both of my wrists hurt – and I can feel my back tightening up on the right side .. I’m bloody well hurting – I don’t think any ribs are broken (praise God!!)  but I can’t see myself man handling kyle’s quilt now .. I’m going to try – I had just finished basting it.

Plan was to grab matthew’s quilt to block it and put erica’s is in the dryer .. Then a quick mail check then quilt .. On my way downstairs I saw the uniforms and grabbed them .. No clue what I slipped on as the carpet didn’t follow me .. But it might have caught on the top ..

Amazing thing is .. I still had the basket when I stopped

My biggest worry – hoping and praying that I’ve not wrenched my back … That is the last thing I need to deal with.

I just did a test quilt and I might be okay for tonite .. but I’m sure once tomorrow hits, I’ll be to sore to quilt.  So I’ll push and do what I can .. I can feel things getting tight and sore as time passes and my right wrist is bothering me when I quilt.

Praying that I can get this done tonite as I might not be able to tomorrow ..

Reg just happened to call and he’s rather alarmed / concerned that I broke something .. I told him that it doesn’t hurt to breathe, I can turn and twist, walk, bend over-ish .. all these things I can do but not with my normal agility. So he’s not so alarmed now, but is worried.  He’s been out plowing since 11am and since we’ve had freezing rain and now it’s snowing again, he’s not likely to be home anytime in the next 12 hours.  So now he’s worried about me, but that’s not something that you can hide or not tell – he’d be furious if I didn’t tell when I’m hurting like this. Besides he heard it in my voice.

I’ll go as far as I can tonite and when I’m done, I’m done ..