Knitting That Must Not Be Named

For a bit now I have been talking about the Knitting That Must Not Be Named. I know that it drove you crazy which is why I did it in the first place. What can I say, I digress.

The mystery project was one that was fun and exciting at every twist and turn. For starters I got to knit with a yarn that had yet to be released on a project from a popular knitting magazine. Of course there was a catch to this delightful little morsel. The project needed to be 100% complete with in 8 weeks time. No matter what. There was to be absolutely no excuses. NONE.

Me, being up to a challenge, received my yarn (which I’ll tell you about in a minute) and put together a plan of attack. I figured out how much time I had to knit up the back, both fronts, the sleeves and the collar. Then I added in a week leeway for “just in case”.


The yarn to be debuted was Elann.com Incense. A wool, bamboo, and silk combo that is to die for. A perfect blend of fibers, it has enough silk for a fantastic sheen, the right amount of wool to make spit splicing possible and the bamboo added to its softness. Incense drapes wonderfully and has excellent stitch definition. I love this yarn and can see it being a staple in my collection.

I knitted away every night after the kids were in bed and completed the bulk of the knitting when I found myself in the hospital. What was I going to do? I still had the collar to knit and the seaming. My “for just in case” week was already used up and the thing was due the following Friday. It was Sunday.

This is when the praying started:

Dear Elizabeth. Please tell the Good Lord Baby Jesus that I really really really need some help here. I know that I do the swears and I’m not so good at going to Church but I do light the candle by His statue. So if He could just tell the doctors that my gall bladder really doesn’t need to come out and that I’ll be more than happy to come in next week, I would appreciate it.

Dr: Not a chance. Lady that thing has got to go.

Me: Are you sure?

Dr: Completely.

Dear Elizabeth. Forget it, it didn’t work but thanks for trying.

I was hooked up to an IV and not allowed to eat anything for 2 days. Two very long excruciating days. My roommate, on the other hand, was fed cheesecake and I had to watch her eat every last little morsel while she apologized to me about my current situation. Torture, pure torture.

My husband took pity on me and brought me my project. I knitted away while Janice ate and managed to complete the project by Monday while being held hostage. Ray packaged it up and mailed it off for me. Despite all the twists and turns the project somehow managed to get done. Thanks Elizabeth, I owe ya one!

I'm Back!

Hi everyone! It sure is wonderful to be back. Sorry for the bit of a sabbatical but life at home and work with 2 little ones is taking its toll. This is not to say that there has not been any knitting going on, I do need to keep my sanity after all! More about that later.

A question has been bothering me for a bit now. One that could easily be answered but also one that I was afraid to answer. Kind of like stepping on the scale only to discover that you gained 4 pounds. I don’t need disappointment like that. Honestly. The burning question was: How much yarn did I knit up in 2007.

I don’t remember knitting all that much. I was working full time, had a two year old who was definitely being terrible, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, attended a wedding and a funeral and fixed the counter under the sink. To say the least, it was a very busy year. So I was ready to realize that if I didn’t achieve my goal it would be OK and that life would go on.

One dark night when no one was looking, I got out the bag that contains the ball bands and started to count. Goodness there sure was a lot of bands in there. Where did they all come from and what exactly did I knit? I have absolutely no idea. There was the baby blanket, and a hat, and I started a top for me and the sweater for my mom. And of course there is The Knitting That Must Not Be Named! I counted 65 ball bands! Can you even stand it? SIXTY-FIVE! Well curiosity got the best of me at that point and I started to add up the yardage. 8394 yds! That is 79% MORE than what I intended to knit! I was completely shocked! Kind of like standing on the scale and finding out that you actually managed to LOOSE those 4 pesky pounds despite the chocolate cake for breakfast AND dinner!


A Special "Thank You" to Jeanne for hooking me up again with my knitting buds!!!!!! I now can go to Knit Night now that I know where its at!

Continental Knitting

It was requested that I make a video of myself knitting. Not wanting to be one to dissapoint my audience, I got to thinking on how I can make this possible.

How, I asked myself, am I going to record myself knitting, get it into a digital format and then upload it to the internet?

I do have a camcorder. However the device is ancient and records on a VHS tape. And while this is fine and good for recording birthday parties, its not gonna cut it here. I have no way of getting the video in a digital format that the computer likes, so this is out of the question.

I also have a webcam that was a Christmas pressent last year. Do we use it? Not really, but it sure is fun when we do.

This got me to thinking. If its possible to share live video coverage of myself over the internet, then I should be able to record a video. So I reviewed the owners manual and sure enough it is possible.

I fed and bathed the kids, kissed them good night and sent them to bed. Then I got out the webcam, some knitting, and made a video. Afterwards, I had DH help me with the video editing.

So here you have it, a video on how to knit Continentally!

The Loot

Once a year the girls from the chat site exchange gifts. The only rule is that everything has to be hand made. This in and of itself brings on a whole new set of insecurities. Will mine be good enough to give as a gift? Will people like my creation? Did someone already make it? As you can see, one can get quite the complex before even signing up.

This year I made lavender and lilac scented soap and body scrub. Not the melt and pour kind. I consider that to be cheating and besides, I like putting my college education to good use. I paid a lot of money for that little piece of paper!


The excitement, the anticipation when I arrived at home to find a little white box on my doorstep. Knowing that I can't open it until after the chores are done. For if they are not, I will be bombarded with screaming kids hungry for their dinner. Following dinner is cleanup and then baths and then stories and then bed time. An entire 3 hours slide by and still an unopened white box beacons. It is usually a good thing that this is the natural progression of events because I know that I will want to play with my treasures once opened.

This year was fantastic. I got:

1. A great bath mitt and washcloth set
2. Another washcloth
3. A heart shaped shawl pin
4. A rose quartz bracelet
5. Sewing scissors with a beautiful beaded hand holder
6. A furry roving sheep that I'm gonna turn into a frig magnet
7. A set of beaded votive candles
8. Some stitch markers (not pictured because I have already started using them)
9. Orange scented fireplace sachets, and
10. A felted blue and yellow bag that had some body wash from the Body Shop inside.


Thanks everyone! Everything here is staying with me!

Dominic

I heard this song a last year and fell in love with it. I hope you like it too!

"The Spa"

A couple weeks ago I came home from work with excruciating pain. Pain so terrible that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was doubled over and DH bundled up the kids and took me to the ER. From there I was admitted to "The Spa".

The Spa was equipped with all sorts of lovely amenities like movable beds, and IV pumps that kept on beeping, and roommates that like their TV turned up full volume. It also had the usual amount of pampering you would find at the finnest of establishments. Pampering in the form of nurses who would draw your blood at 4 am, and doctors having their students draw the workings of your insides to you. Very encouraging. Also, there was no shortage of student nurses who were all too eager to poke you with very sharp objects. And last but not least is the food.

**Insert picture that is still stuck on the camera phone and I have no idea how to get it off.**

My diet consisted of very hearty portions of the 2L IV bag filled with 0.9% C6H12O6 and 0.5% NaCl and a splash of K. In a nutshell, they pumped me full of sugar water that was enriched with table salt and some potassium. My roommate got to eat cheesecake. Rich, creamy, cherry topped, graham cracker crusted, cheesecake. So not fair.


**Insert picture that is still stuck on the camera phone and I have no idea how to get it off.**


Turned out that I was having a pancreas attack caused by a gall stone. The gall! So I sat in the adjustable bed for 2 days waiting for my pancreas numbers to get back to normal. Then they carted me off to the operating room, removed the offending gall bladder, stitched me up and sent me home.

I did manage to get a crazy ton of knitting done. Each time the nurses would check in on me they commented on the project at hand. Then the next time, they would say "Wern't you working on something else the last time I was in here?"

"Yep"

"OH, What are you working on now?"

"a boob"

blank look ... "a what?"

"a breast"

again, blank look.... "um OK", "Thats nice dear"

For all of their medical training I would think that they would know what a breast was. So I explained about a friend with breast cancer that is loosing her breasts and I though that she needed something and decided to knit her a boob.

This was usually followed by "Those sure are nice colors", or "how creative".

All in all, as nice of an experience as I had, I sure would like to stay clear from there for awhile!

For the Love of Wool

It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. Just look at history. Mr. Whitney invented the cotton gin to make the production of cotton in the South more profitable. Mr. Franklin had poor vision and he got tired of constantly taking his glasses off and putting them back on again, so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we call them bifocals. And thank God for Alexandre Godefoy, the inventor of the electric hair dryer. Without which my current project would have been ruined.


My current project, which as been dubbed Knitting-that-shall-not-be-named by JuniorGoddess, has taken a turn for the worse this weekend. First off, let me explain a few things. I have been commissioned to knit a jacket out of some new yarn which has not yet been released by the manufacturer. Toni and Jeanie, you know that stuff I'm talking about, its the scrumptious yellow stuff I have been knitting with the last several weeks. Well the bulk of the knitting is done. The back, the left and right front as well as the sleeves. All Done. Now its time for the blocking. I gather all my pieces, take it to the bathroom for a nice good soak. You know the kind, where you rinse it real well with some water then fill up the sink again and let it marinate. Well a half hour later I go to retrieve my pieces, squeeze the water out and then roll it up in a towel so I don't allow my pieces to grow. I get out my foam blocks for the blocking process and start to pin.

I started with the back and pinned the one end of the bottom, measured the width its SUPPOSED to be and GOODLORDBABYJESUS the damn thing grew 5 inches....ohmygodohmygodohmygod.....ohmygodohmygodohmygod.....Did I mention that I'm getting PAID to knit this? It HAS to be perfect. NOT 5 inches bigger than its supposed to be. Calm down Libby Grant, calm down. I'm almost in tears at this point. I had just spent the last 6 weeks knitting all those pieces right smack dab in the middle of prime Christmas knitting season. I then had an epiphany and thanked the Good Lord Baby Jesus for giving us Mr. Godefoy.

I pinned the back to the dimensions it was supposed to be knowing that the scrumptious yarn mentioned above is half wool. Betting on the fact that wool is well known for its memory characteristics and hoping that the makers of THIS particular wool told the wool itself that it is SUPPOSED to have a memory. I got out the hair dryer, set it to the hottest setting possible and started to dry the pinned out back. Right before my very eyes the damn thing started to shrink!!! Exactly to where I needed it to be. ThankyouGodThankyouGodThankyouGod. My heart stopped racing and my pulse slowed down and I got back to blocking the rest of the pieces. Tomorrow I will sew it all together.

Snowflakes

I'm hoping that everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. My family and I went to visit my cousin and her family across town. Can you even believe that it was snowing over there? A good 1 inch was on the ground and it had not yet melted! WOW...... I'm so incredibly excited about this.

I have had snow and snowflakes on the brain for awhile now and came up with a new design.



The hat looks harder to make than it really is. The main color is a cream wool while the contrasting color is simply a variegated yarn of the same weight. I used Elann.com Highland Wool for the cream and some birthday yarn from Betsy for the snowflakes. What was my birthday yarn you ask? Cherry Tree Hill possum blend yarn. I felt pretty special when I opened that up! I still have some left overs and I want to make some matching mittens but have not gotten around to it yet. Can you hardly even stand it? A classic intricate look for no work? I'm loving it!

Ravelry

Ravelry ~ What is it? I have been asking myself that very same question for quite some time now. Then I received my invite a little bit ago and I'm still trying to figure it out. From what I gather, its a bunch of stuff all rolled into one.

Its a hang out place for knitters and crocheters. Groups galore. Friends of Delores group, Friends of SK group, Lace knitters group. There was even a Battlestar Galactica group! And if you can't find what you want? Well, just make up a your own group.

Its a place to catalogue your stash. Books AND yarn. You can even take a pic of your yarn and then put its picture next to how much of the stuff you have in your stash area. It would be easier if they had the yarns that the different yarn manufactures make and then have a drop down menu of pics and the like. Then you just have to click away. But for now you have to manually enter the data. Have I manually entered the data? Hell no.....I'm still in denial as to the amount of stash I have. Some of the books I have entered as it was just a click and save method.

Its a designers hang out. This is one of my favorite features because I'm a designer. You can see pictures of your design in different yarns AND as variations on a theme!!

Its a project provider. You can get inspired just by looking at all of the millions of pictures of everyone's knitwear. And its not just on skinny model types either. You can see the great design on a skinny body, fat body, long waisted or big boobed body. WONDERFUL!!! Now I can see what the great pattern in the magazine is gonna look like on ME before I cast it on and then am disappointed with the final result.

Again I'm still scratching the surface of the wonderment of Ravelry but so far so good. I'm LibbyKnitKins over there in case you want to know.

SCUBA Diving in Lake St. Clair

I know that I promised some wholesome knitting but there has been an interruption to the regularly scheduled program.

Ray went diving this weekend in Lake St. Clair on a shipwreck that has yet to be determined. This is his very first video production. Enjoy!

Monday's Funnies!

A friend of mine sent this and I though I would pass it along!

Two Eyes Really ARE Better Than One

Feedback is wonderful. I totally love it. Hearing from people that I may or may not have met and having them tell me what they do or don't like about my patterns/ blog.

Today I received a wonderful email from a lady asking about the Garmisch hat listed in the side bar. It seems that she was having some trouble understanding what it was that I was trying to relay via charts and patterns. First she tells me that there seems to be a problem with the ribbing chart and then asks if it is correct that in chart 2 rows 8 and 16 that both cables supposed to be crossing in the same direction.

Well the first thing I did was pull up the pattern as posted on the website, and wouldn't ya know it, she was completely correct. There sure does appear that I messed up the chart for the large sizing. Of course the first thing I did was email to let her know she was correct. The second thing I did you ask? Well I fixed it!

As far as her second question was concerned, the cables are indeed supposed to be crossing in the same direction.

She emailed me back again to ask about the hat shaping and how she is supposed to go about decreasing the stitches. Again I re-read the pattern. It turns out that I did mention on how to decrease the top portion in the beginning but fail to mention it in the part of the pattern that deals with that very thing. So naturally I had to add some clarification under the charts that deal with decreasing.

The revised pattern is now available on the side bar with the corrections.

Thanks Constance for the sharp eye and for letting me know about the issues I was having! I greatly appreciate all the feedback I get so if you see something that is just not quite right, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it.

Teenagers and Halloween

I have a question. It is about trick-or-treating etiquette if it can be called that.

Do you give the teenagers candy that show up at your door without a costume? And should you make them say "Trick-or-treat"?

The last several years we have had teenagers just show up, hold out their bag and walk away. This year I'm tempted to just say "Well it sure was nice to bring that candy by for me. How did you know?" as I'm reaching in their bag for the chocolate candy bar.

I'm also tempted to go the the religious supply store and get a pamphlet and some holy cards, stable them together and pass those out. Actually that is a really good idea! I might just do that!

What do you all do in this situation?

Hello???

HOLY GOD ITS STILL HERE!

And you want to know whats more amazing? I remember my password and how to get in! Amazing! And they say the sleep deprived can't remember shit. Well I'll show 'em!

I'm gonna tell you all right here and now that you can thank Toni and Jeannie for this post. Mostly because when Jeannie came to knit night tonight the first thing she said to me was "September 24th?"

Me: "What?"

Jeannie: "Libby, your last blog post was on September 24. I check your blog every day and you really need to update it."

Me: "I have a blog?"

Jeannie: "I want to see pics of your kids."

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been told. No, I don't think that "told" is the proper term for it. I've been done told. DONE TOLD... it doesn't get more serious than that!

So without further ado, here are pics of my kids at the Halloween Carnival at the park at the end of our street. It was put on by the city and they really outdid themselves this year. They had trick-or-treating and rides and cider and doughnuts and haunted houses and all sorts of fun stuff!

The worlds most scrumptious pea pod!


The worlds cutest Elmo!

Karolyn on her first ride by herself!

She LOVED the flying saucer!

Where is the knitting you ask? Well there has been knitting but to show you would require that I actually take a picture of it. I haven't been so good in the picture department so you will have to excuse me. Although I will take a pic of the yarn that I got in today and I'll show you soon!

Hugsssssss

Guess what got in the mail today? Its my HUGe Christmas Exchange!!!!!

The Richest Man in Town

Every Christmas Season one of the Networks plays the movie "Its a Wonderful Life". I love this movie. My brother Michael and I would recite the lines together while watching it every time it was on TV. My mom to this day can't watch this movie without hearing our voices in the background. So when a parcel (my friend Kate who is from England gets parcels from her Nana and I love the sound of getting a parcel. Its soooo much more fun sounding than getting a package) arrived on my doorstep with a wonderful blanket inside, I felt like the "richest man in town".

A bunch of great women and friends over at the chat site got together when they found out I was pregnant and knitted me this.


Each person knitted up a square in a cuddly soft, machine washable cotton. Then they all sent their squares to Betsy in Texas, who then sent them all to Bri in Florida. Bri sewed each and every one of those squares together. And if that wasn't enough of an undertaking in and of itself, the girl THEN knitted up a seed stitch border and sewed that in place. Did I mention that she is a full time student working on her PhD AND she teaches? AMAZING!


This blanket is truly an international project as some people are from Canada, USA, and I think one was in Germany at the time. She has since moved back to the United States and its great to have her home!

I have no idea who did what square but a huge THANK YOU goes out to:

Theresa: Who has 2 rambunctious boys, and teaches full time, found time to knit a square.

Benne: aka, the Duck Whisperer, who has had a trying year, found time to knit a square.


Grace: Who is dealing with and conquering major health issues found time to knit 2 squares.

Betsy: Who runs and operates a famous coffee shop located in East Cupcake Texas, found time to collect all the squares and knit one as well.

Bri: who is going to school full time as a PhD student AND teaches found time to knit a square, knit up the border, AND sew it all together.


Daryl: Who not only is a mom to 2 great ballerinas and accomplished knitters, she is also a baby doctor for the state of Pennsylvania, found time to knit a square.

Jean: Who was in Germany at the time, managed to find time to knit a square even though she has 2 rambunctious boys and was in the middle of moving back to the US.

Les (who also did 2 squares): Who is a travelling health professional and who's husband is a postmaster, found time to knit a square.


Jayne: Of the very famous "See Jayne Knit" hand dyed yarns found on her Etsy shop, found time to knit a square.

Trish: Who recently started working and is the mom of 2 great boys that are constantly keeping her busy, found time to knit a square.

Barbara: Who is knitting up all kinds of scarves, hats and sweaters AND doing an inventory of her stash for Ravelry (yep she got in) found time to knit a square.

Sandra: Who is busy with 2 teenage boys found time to knit a square.


Donna: Who manages her family's famous pizza place and has a ballerina of her own, found time to knit a square.

Shui Kuen: Yep the famous SK who is stirring the knitting community with her fabulous shawls found time to knit a square.

Thank you everyone for making me the Richest Man in Town!

Thanks

First off thanks for letting me bitch yesterday. I really needed it.

Item the first: ordered more needles. I got more US7s and the Harmony set. Of course I'll share pics so stop asking already!

Item the second: Still up a half a pound. So I'm committing to driking all my water today and then some... PLUS treadmilling.

Item the third: Contacted Ebay and Paypal. Tomorrow I'm gonna call the police where the scamer lives.

Sure does feel good to take action.

How good? Well I started another project.


Its a boob in case you are wondering. Yep you read that correctly, I'm knitting a boob. Friends don't let friends go boobless. Of course I'm not all that crazy about how this pattern is written so I made a few adjustments. I'll post the pattern in the side bar as soon as I'm done.

Gettin' Screwed

It all started yesterday afternoon when I couldn't find my knitting needle. You know, my #7 Options needle? The one that DH got me for my birthday last year? The one that I need to do the FI portion of my moms sweater (which is looking good btw). Yep that's the one..... gone. Poof.

Not in the 3 KIP bags or the knitting basket or the other knitting basket or the knitting bag. Believe me, I checked and re-checked while holding a screaming kid. I COULD break down and use my Addi #7 but that would be drastic. Lets not bring drama into this OK?

This morning I stepped on the scale. Up 1/2 a pound. Figures. I should mention that I'm doing WW again. I mean, really doing it, counting points and everything. Drinking water. Eating ALL my fruits and veggies. Even got on the treadmill yesterday.

So when I went to check my email, after I stepped on the scale, it should have come as no surprise that the laptop I thought was a legit auction turns out to be a scam. I contacted Ebay as well as Paypal. Tomorrow I'm contacting the police dept from where the scamers live.

Now I can usually handle things like this. I can handle a lost needle. It happens and they eventually turn up. And I can handle a half a pound. Obviously. And I can handle getting scammed out of $700. OK EVENTUALLY I can. But handle all 3 AT THE SAME TIME?!?!?!?!

Tomorrow had better be good that's all I gotta say and thanks for letting me vent.

Michigan Wine!

For the weekend, Ray and I decided that it was time we had ourselves a little outing. So off to the Michigan Wineries we went!

The first stop of the day was at Cherry Creek Winery. We had never heard of them before and decided to give them a try.


There was a bit of something for everyone.





We picked up a couple of bottles here and then headed off to the next place.



There was some great wines here! Free taste testing here as well! Can you even stand it? I had no idea that they gave out the wine here at these places. If I had known this sooner, we would have been here a long time ago! I did have to feel sorry for the people there because we were THOSE parents again. Sydney decided to cry the entire time while Karolyn wanted to run around the store. So the girls and I went outside, ran around, saw the grapes.



Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint. Christmas is just around the corner!

The Big Yellow Bus

Tuesday was the first day of pre-preschool.


We got all dressed, put on her backpack (please notice the home made Elmo sticker on the back). OK I'll tell you the story. Teacher said that we needed a backpack and being out of the loop on the back to school shopping, we didn't get one back in June like everyone else that is in the loop.


This being the case, we missed out on the Elmo backpacks. In fact, there really wasn't much of a selection by the time we went backpack shopping. Now would be a good time to mention the fact that I promised to produce an Elmo backpack. This is the last time that I promise something before I know if I can deliver.


All hell broke loose of course and I sent DH to the store to no avail. He had a great idea of making our own Elmo backpack. He looked up an Elmo picture, printed it out on sticker paper, cut it to size and stuck it on the backpack!



Teacher told me it took them 45 minutes to get the backpack off of her. She had a great day and loves going to school!