Friday knitting

 It's a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive to our son's home and camper so lots of knitting in the car.  I started the top pair last Thursday in the car and knit one repeat of the color pattern, I knit a couple stripes while we were there and the rest on the way home.  And I'll not work on them again until the next time we go.  The socks from the previous trip are finished they are made with a heavier yarn, larger needles and fewer stitches in the circumference so they knit fast as hubby drove. --Ann--

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!! the trick or treaters are going to get chilly here tonight.
It was a busy week last week but not much that was blog worthy, I had son's dog for a few days we had lovely weather for long walks I got my 10,000 steps in those days.  She forgot that at my house she has to stay in the kitchen or dining room I ran downstairs for something when I came up she was sitting on the carpet waiting for me so I sat in my spot in the sun room and read and knit for the duration for her visit. My sweater is the same color as her fur. In natural light they match, the flash really washed out the sweater.  Then son came and took her home so I had to vacuum and scrub the drool spots from the floor.

Darling daughter came for a long weekend since the guys went hunting again.  We spent a day shopping we bought apples from the orchard, I bought yarn and we had a delicious lunch.  The rest of the weekend we watched movies and I knit some more and she went home.  Then I did necessary things like rearranging my closet so I could get at my cozy warm sweaters without using a stool and put the short pants out of reach until next spring.  The trees are almost bare,  the wind is cold and the sky is grey tomorrow must be November.  --Ann--

off the needles

Happy New Year!  My year went out with my computer crashing, I thought I was updating adobe reader and instead let an encryption virus in, it held my personal files ransom and when my tech guys tried to remove it everything was wiped out, my nieces husband who is our computer guru said the ransom guys were honorable in that if you pay the fee which he thought was $500 they would release the files but it had to be paid with some kind of bits from a vending machine which they have in big cities but not in small towns on the prairie. I didn't think my personal files were worth that much money and photos that are important had been uploaded to a site to be printed or made into a book so now I have a new computer and am learning everything all over again, I wish I could delete somethings from my brain so it wouldn't be so confusing to learn something new. These photos were posted to this entry before the crash and its a good thing because all these knits are in their new homes.  First up is a scarf I started for a girlfriend, the yarn looked like it had a lot more red in it in the store. It wasn't the elegant sophisticated look I thought she wanted with her black wool dress coat so I found this yarn with red and black. DD took the scarf above to go with her new light gray jacket with turquoise and purple trim.

Reading gloves to match the scarf.

I made hot chocolate mitts for my kids and hubby, I found the pattern on Ravelry I think they were called can mittens. They should be useful for ice fishing or tailgating.
These cold days have been great for knitting but new new pics on the needles I have to learn how to upload pics to the computer all over again maybe next week.........--Ann-- Linking to Judy's on the needles.

On and off the needles

I think this is the first Friday I have been home all summer......On the needles another pair of socks this yarn is from three Irish girls and I wish I had taken a picture of it before I wound it into 2 balls there was yellow at the top of the hank and brown at the bottom with gradations of white, pale pink, bright pink and red then the brown and the same colors on the other side. I'm doing a serpentine pattern from Wendy D. Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up.

I finished socks for son just a basketweave stitch. Knitting on solid color yarn is so boring I need to knit a pattern. Most of these socks were knit on weekend trips when hubby dear was driving.

I finished a cotton sweater for me the color is pansy.Tee for Two pattern it was an easy pattern to knit, the front and back panel were knit first then the sides and sleeves were knit by picking up stitches along the front and back panels. It is the color of pansies!

They are such cheerful flowers. Happy knitting and linking to Judy's On the Needles. --Ann--

On the Needles

 I've knit 2 balls of yarn into my Henley sweater and tried it on, it is still huge but my stitches are the right gauge so I started again in the smaller size which will have 9 fewer stitches in the body and will be 2 inches smaller I'll try it on and compare to the larger and decide to which I will knit sleeves. This is really turning out to be a lot of work fortunately I like the feel of the yarn and I still love the color. The tulips and the flowering almond will all be done long before I finish.  Then I got a box of fun...........

 I was just looking for some plain yarns to mix with leftovers for toes and heels of more footies and found my favorite words sale and free shipping so I met the quota. Happy knitting and have a great weekend and linking to Judy's On the Needles. --Ann--

On and off the needles

New yarn! and favorite colors! the pattern is Henley T Shirt from Knitting Pure and Simple I've been going great guns since I brought the yarn home and them compared it to another sweater. It is huge, my knitting got relaxed and my stitches got big so my guage is off darn! so I will rip and start again on smaller needles. The yarn is a silk and cotton blend with a little acrylic and viscose it feels wonderful.

Footies are complete and the variegated yarn is all used up there is still yarn for more toes and heels of the solid green.

These socks have been neglected since I started the sweater. The cable pattern is so easy and doesn't require a cable needle you p2, knit 2 together then knit one between the two you knit together, do that again then purl 2 the next row is p2 K4 p2 K4 etc row 3 is p2, k1, k2 tog then knit one between the k2tog, k1 and p2, I wish I could remember where I found that stitch pattern. check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles. I will while I rip and wind. --Ann-- stitch pattern is Nine to Five

On the needles

 I have been wearing my sweater since spring is being evasive. Here a day and gone a week. I'm back to knitting socks. The top is a trekking xxl yarn I thought I would try a different stitch pattern in each color so in the blue is a 3x3 basket weave with a knit row between then a purl row when the color changed to pink. I thought I could remember a stitch pattern I saw in a magazine but not quite....I put an extra knit stitch in so I am a designer now! The pattern was supposed to make an X of purl stitches but my extra knit stitch dominates. The pattern should be row 1: p1-k2-; row 2&3: k1-p2-. I did row 1: k1- p1-k2-p1-; row 2&3: k2-p2-k1; repeat row 1, I repeated those 3 rows so there are 2 rows of row 1 in a row. How many rows are in that sentence? Next color change to pale pale grey with pink and blue I did 3 rows of 2x2 basket weave without a knit row between. I forgot the purl row when the yarn changed to blue but I am repeating the same pattern in each color.

 I started these in early February and set them aside, the yarn is a Blossom Street yarn I think the color name is juniper. I enjoyed the cable so much in the sweater that I started a cable pattern when I started the heel gusset. The pattern is gentle waves from the Threads Hand-Knit Socks magazine. I was reading the credits in the magazine really a boring thing to do but I learned the patterns in the mag all came from The Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor so I looked up her book on the internet and low and behold she is a South Dakota writer who has written both fiction and knitting instruction. I read most of her mystery books 10 - 12 years ago, they are just delightful. Titles include: Foreign Body, Sex and Salmonella, Funeral Food, Hotel South Dakota, Mourning shift, The Missionary Position, The Cold Front and newest The Nut House which I have not read but will. Staying warm in hand knits and wool on the prairie. --Ann--  Whats on your needles? check out Judy's OTN

on the needles and the heartbreak of over felting

I got both these pairs of slippers finished and was so proud of myself and thought (since in the past not that much felting happened in the washer) that I could felt things a little faster in the washing machine with hotter water. Front load machines do not let you check the progress so when I took them out of the wash my mouth dropped...they were child size. Note to self DON'T Do that again. I guess I'll list them on etsy. The inside of the the red are 6 1/2 inches and the brown are 7 1/2 inches. On top is my size 8 store bought felted clog just for scale.......so what could I do????

 Something colorful, something fun, something easy.  Start a new pair of socks of course!
New yarn is on the way. --Ann--

On the needles

The slippers are felted and more stockings are started. Its always nice to have a couple little to go projects that get done row by row. --Ann-- Linking to Judy's On the Needles with hugs and prayers.

On the needles Finish it Friday

Over the weekend I knit a pair of felt clogs pattern from Fiber Trends. They were monsterous in size but once through the washer and extra cycles in the dryer with bath towels they are close to the right size. They might be just right, they might get soaked and go in the dryer after Christmas then they can be shaped to the owners feet. My name brand clogs are in the picture to provide scale. I will defiantly be knitting more clogs.

Mittens and reading mittens are also finished, the reading mitts look like teapots without a lid. And another pair of felted slippers. The front load washing machine don't agitate the  slipper enough to  felt the wool (faint red line in photo above shows how much the clogs felted in the wash) the most shrinkage happened in the dryer so I soaked the clogs again in the sink and squeezed out as much water as I could then back into the dryer for a couple more cycles, which is how I plan to felt everything in the future. Before I soaked the slippers and scoured with soap and agitated in the sink and rinsed and scoured some more until my hands were all pruney.

Check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles.  Happy knitting! --Ann--

On and off the needles

I finished the Paton sport weight yarn socks with the k2p2 2 row basket weave. I liked doing a pattern on the wide stripes. There was a knot in the yarn so the repeat is off. Oh well ......good thing I'm not OCD
The next pair of socks is an Opal yarn. I really like the self striping yarn the Opal is a busy stripe that just needs plain stockinette knitting. I set the goal of knitting to the next color change when I pick up the needles.

I'm being brave again and starting a top down summer sweater with 3/4 length sleeves. It is knitting fast on size 8 (5mm) needles with a cotlin (cotton linen) dk weight yarn. check out  On the needles at Judy's.  --Ann--

on and off the needles

I finished the top socks and sent them to daughter for her birthday on Tuesday.  The year she was born we had few hot days in April, in the 90's, schools let out early because it was so hot. This year we still have snow on the ground and keep getting more. She can still wear them this spring!  No flip flops in sight here.
The green and red are a hand dyed pooling yarn, sorry I don't have a pic of the yarn before I wound it into a ball in the store back in January. I'm knitting from both ends of  the ball and the color is surprisingly different. Knitting is such a wonderful way to unwind after the stressful and emotional days of the past weeks. ~~Ann~~ linking to Judy's  on the needles