Thursday, December 4, 2008

Finally, a chance to update my blog.

Yesterday I finished knitting up some garland for our Christmas tree and just in time, too - the kids put the tree up last night, lol.

This is the yarn that I used, I bought it last year at Wal-Mart and am I ever glad that I did because I can't find any of it this year.

It's a super easy pattern to make. I used a 40" long size 3.75 circular needle and cast on 1021 stitches (basically just cast on until you can't cast anymore stitches) then knit a row, purl a row, knit a row and then bind off. Weave in the ends and voila, you have garland. The garland that I just made for our tree ended up being approximately 21 feet long - not quite long enough to go around the whole tree so I'm making another one.

Last night I made a really easy supper that the kids absolutely loved - and it's Gluten Free. I fried up some hamburger and added some Taco seasoning and water to it - while it was thickening I did up some baked potatoes in the microwave (using the potato bag that my Mom made for me - these make the absolute best baked potatoes we have ever tasted). When the potatoes were done I sliced them up and added them to the taco meat mixture, stirred it up and served it. Like I said, both the kids loved this - however, I would like to add a bit more to it (not sure what, though) to make it stretch a bit further. Any suggestions?

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Been knitting again

Posted in knitting

On one of the knitting groups that I am part of, members have been discussing how to make toques (hats) on the Innovations knitting machine. For those of you that don't know, an Innovations knitting machine is a circular knitting machine where you can knit either tubes (great for toques) or flat panels (great for scarves). I had suggested on this group that instead of making a tube for a toque, why not make a flat panel (long enough to fold in half), rib the narrow ends, seam it and voila - you should have a toque that is bigger than what the tube knitting makes.

I was unable to try this out on my Innovations so I made one up on my flat bed knitting machine instead. Here is how it turned out (and yes, Charlotte has swiped this toque as well, lol):

I cast on 40 stitches using an e-wrap, set the stitch dial to 10 and knit for 100 rows. I then removed it from the machine without casting off the stitches. I used 3.25 mm knitting needles to knit the 5 rows of k2, p2 ribbing - next time I'll go up a few sizes.

I've seamed up one side and thought that I would have Charlotte model it - wouldn't this make a cute bonnet style hat?

I have seamed up both sides now, I wasn't quite finished with the needle and yarn that I was using to do the seaming - that's why you can still see it in the pictures. She wasn't to fond of the toque when I took this picture, lol.

The above two pictures show that I have taken the two corners, pulled them in and stitched them down. The first picture makes it look more like a regular tube style toque. The second picture shows what it looks like with the corners together.

And now, for the final touch:

I couldn't find the pom pom maker that Don made for me so I improvised with the paper towel holder, lol. It could have been a much fluffier pom pom but she is very happy with the final outcome of this toque. I think for the next one I make, I may try lining it with fleece - now that would make a toasty warm toque, eh?

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Got some new yarn

Posted in knitting

Today the kids and I went to the Crafty Lady store - I've never been there before, but I can definitely see it becoming my favorite yarn store. I've never seen so much sock yarn in one store before!!!!!!

The actual reason for going to that store today was because I had ordered in some yarn and it finally got here

We checked it out when we got home and it really does glow, it's soooooooo neat. I have one project planned out for this yarn and then with what is left over I'm thinking of knitting some stars for our Christmas tree, I think it will look really neat at night to see glowing stars on the tree.

I also picked up some more yarn to make those furry mittens - this will be the third pair that I will have made and I'm not sure how many more I'll be able to do. The very helpful lady at the Crafty Lady told me that they are no longer making the fun fur type yarn, she said that when they first came out with that yarn people went to town making scarves and never thought of making anything else with it (I'm sure that some creative people made other items with it but not many) so it is being discontinued. This happened with the Sean Sheep Armytage yarn that I was getting from Wal-Mart, it was a wonderful 100% wool that felted up just beautifully ... for the low, low price of $2.97 a ball - and now they don't carry it anymore (at least in the Wal-Marts that I have checked out). They had some fun fur yarn in their sale bin ($2/ball) so I stocked up on some of it - this will probably make it so that people stop ordering these mittens, lol, that's what happened with the little felted purses that I was making ... when I made an extra one to have on hand, people stopped ordering them, lol.

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Free Cowboy and Western Quotes

A Glimpse Into My Life ...

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV ~~

A Glimpse Into My Life ...

~~To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:~~ Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV ~~

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV ~~