Friday, November 14, 2008

I spent all afternoon finishing a sweater I've been working on on the LK 150 mid gauge. I wanted to make a size 3 sweater using Natalie's pattern but Natalie had written the pattern for her standard gauge machine. I don't want to dig out my standard machine because it's packed and ready to move so got some "Baby Bee" yarn from Hobby Lobby, its called Sweet Delight Prints, color is Kitty. I got 2 4-oz balls of it and hoped that would make the sweater. Well, as you can see, it not only made the sweater, it made a hat and I had enough left for a Pom Pom. This is for my great grandaughter, Jada. By the way, I suspect this yarn could be knitted on a standard gauge machine, my gauge was 6.33 sts, 10.7 rows per inch.
...Natalie's pattern is at http://www.nataliesknitting.com/, click on What's Natalie Doing Now and scroll down just a little...
Next on my list is a Baby Surprise in a size 12 mos for Jada's new brother. I bought the most wonderful yarn for it, its Bernat Baby Jacquard in blues and greens. I'm hoping to match the stripes on each side of the sweater so we'll see. First though I have to work on charting it for a 12 mo size.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Ruffles Scarf Started

KnittingYesterday I showed the picture of a Lion Brand scarf kit using their Ruffles Yarn. I thought I'd show an update today. I sat down and did my cast on, 1 row knit, 1 row purl with the Lion Cashmere yarn and then knitted 1 row with Ruffles. It went fast BUT second row stumped me and I'm going to have to sit and watch the video with needles in hand trying to figure out how to purl with this yarn. Honestly I'm not sure I'm supposed to purl or if there's 2 rows of knitted ruffles yarn because of the way its written. Oh, you know I just looked at the back of the label that has the same pattern (written differently and it says to do 5 knit rows with Ruffles. I'm positive the .pdf says to do 1 row knit and then repeat last row. Well---ok so I knit another row (or 5 rows). Hummm.

Anyway here's what got finished yesterday. First picture shows what happened when Biscuit got ahold of my yarn. I suppose he figures if I can knit, so can he. I THOUGHT he was being pretty quiet when I was getting ready for bed. Thankfully he didn't get to the actual knitting.




























Here's what the 2 rows of Cashmere and 1 row of Ruffles looks like. Tonight I'll try to knit another row of it and re-read the pattern to see if I do 1 more row or 5 more rows.

ONE OTHER THING: In case you didn't know this:

Cell PhoneJust leave it up to Google to come up with something like this Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone, or your home phone speed > dial: 1-800-goog411. This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free -- great when you are on the road. Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number.
I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course and I don't know the number. I hit the speed dial for "411Google" that I have programmed. The voice at the other end says, "City & State." I say, " Garland , Texas ."He says, "Business, Name or Type of Service." I say, "Firewheel Golf Course." He says, "Connecting" and Firewheel answers the phone.
How great is that? This is nationwide and it is absolutely free! Click on the link below and watch the short clip for a quick > demonstration.
http://www.google.com/goog411/







Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Lion Brand Ruffles "Yarn"


Honestly, after I received my kit for Lion Brand 's Knit Elegant Scarf, I realized, we could make this yarn on our machines. (trust me, I'm not making any at this late date, I'd rather just knit with it). Its interesting stuff. It looks like very thin yarn knitted on a small gauge knitting machine at the highest tension. Probably no more than 20 rows and it rolls (as knits do of course). The content is 50% Merino, 50% Acrylic. Its soft and great to knit with. What you do is thread your right hand knitting needle through the back side of the yarn, however many stitches you want to knit, that's casting on. To knit a row, you first put your RH needle through the stitch on the LH needle and then thread 1 stitch from Ruffles, then knit. I'm at row 3 which is a purl row with Ruffles so am going back to watch the video to make sure I know exactly how to do a purl stitch, I think I just thread the yarn as I did on the knit row but need to make sure. No matter--what you create, is "ruffles". I bought the kit which contains 2 balls of Ruffles and 1 ball of Lion Brand Cashmere (72% Merino, 14% Cashmere, 14% nylon). I'm going to make a scarf for myself and I've ordered 2 more kits, I'm going to make another one for my friend who lives in Spokane, and one for the girl who delivers my mail...guess I'll get 3, one for our postmistress as well. If there was time before Christmas I'd get 5 more but hey, lets be realistic, I really want to send out Christmas cards and do some other things as well, I can't sit around and watch TV while I knit when I don't have enough time to do everything. But first....my scarf Santa's Cookies





Monday, November 10, 2008

10 Months Old


Biscuit is now 10 mos old. He's twice the size of what the breeder says his mom weighed (4 lbs) In fact more than twice the size, he weighs 14 lbs. I can't imagine his mother carrying around this gigantic dog in her belly.
Puppy 1Well, honestly, I found the breeder on the internet and they sell several different small breeds. I wonder if a mistake was made and Biscuit isn't a Maltese. He's all white, he's black in the right places. so he could be a throwback to a larger Maltese but he could easily be a Bichon Frise, his hair is curly, his ears and tail resemble a Maltese but so do Bichon's. He seems to be a bit more independent than a Maltese is reported to be, he likes to be near me but he definitely isn't the couch potato they are reported to be. According to a Google search, " The normal Bichon weight is approximately 10 to 18 pounds". Again, according to a Google search, "Maltese es Average Weight: 6-8 lbs". I don't care but I did buy him to travel with and right now I don't know if I can stuff him under the seat of an airplane as planned. Phooey! I hate putting him in a crate and making him ride under the plane but that may be the way we have to go. If so, I'm going to be doing a lot more driving than flying. Too bad, I love to fly.

Veterans Day RibbonPlease don't forget Veterans Day tomorrow. Stop and at least think about our veterans and pray for those who are fighting. I'm going to the VA Cemetery tomorrow.