Jacqueline Rose

Awhile back I just HAD to make Jarod Flood's Hemlock Ring Blanket. Have you ever had that? Come across a pattern that was just itching to be knit? Well this was it for me. I had absolutely no idea what I was gonna do with it or what yarn I was gonna use. Not that I have a shortage of yarn. Trust me on this. Jarod's is knit in a wool but after stash diving, I was not willing to bust up some wool lots for this blanket that I had no idea what was to become of it. Eventually I decided upon some cotton. A chunky pink cotton that had been hibernating for some time and needed to see some action!



In no time at all 6 balls of yarn magically became a blanket. A rather small blanket at that. To say the least, I was feeling rather gyped. Definately not feeling the Jarod love at all. I mean, his pictures imply a blanket that one can snuggle under during a cold day. Yea, so maybe I didn't exactly use his yarn or make his gauge...(alright point taken) but still. Just sayin'. What in the hell am I gonna do with a rather large pink cotton doily?

Then my sister made the announcement that only a person with a rather large pink cotton doily wants to hear.

"I'm pregnant"

God almighty, let it be a girl, please let it be a girl....

"It's a girl"

One could have heard the sigh of relief from Tenbucktoo. At that moment, I knew exactly what was to become of my oversized baby pink cotton doily. It was destined to be Jacqueline Roses' blankie.

Betsy's Blanket

Back in October of 2010 I got a phone call that stopped me dead in my tracks. My good online friend Betsy had a massive stroke. How could this happen? She is in her 50's and much too young for this kind of trauma. I was stunned and wanted to help but I'm in Michigan and she is in Texas. There isn't much I'm gonna do up here but pray. And pray I did. Its embarrassing the amount of candles lit before the IOP (Infant of Prague) with novenas and litanies and short prayers for Betsy.

Then the knitter in me kicked into gear. I sent out feelers via Ravelry if anyone wanted to put together a blanket for our friend. The response was overwhelming and I found a way we could help from afar.



I chose a yarn I knew that Betsy would love in colors that were meaningful to her. Furthermore I instructed each knitter to knit a 12" x 12" square and get it to me by the specified date. This would give me time to sew it all together so Betsy would have it just in time for her rehabilitation and recovery time. Sounds easy enough in theory. But you know what they say about best laid plans!



When the squares started rolling in I was so incredibly excited. And then they kept coming and coming and coming. 25 in all plus the border edges. To put it mildly, I was getting overwhelmed. What did I sign up for? Sure, I've done blankets like this before but right before Christmas? OK, buck up Libby Grant, you can do this.



I decided to tackle this little by little and sew up the squares 30 minutes at a time. Picture this. I have all of the squares laid out on the basement floor. Me on my belly lying on top of the blanket sewing away with 2 kids thinking we are gonna play horsey. Yep the kids were climbing all over me while I was sewing away. So I was only able to get a couple of 5 foot lengths sewn together at any one given time. And there were 8 of them to do for the inside squares and another 4 to do for the borders.



Eventually they were all sewn together and then came the border strips. At this point I was getting excited and could actually visualize the finished project! Then came the final touches when I mitered the corners and wove in all the edges.



Then I just looked at it in amazement because 29 women got together to make a blanket for our friend. It truly is a work of art.

Petite Ballerina

I’m incredibly excited to share with you something I have been working on for a while now. I had the idea for this project back in May when my daughter told me that she was cold in her ballet class. Now I just couldn’t have my daughter freezing her bum off when she is supposed to be concentrating on her lesson and I had nothing better to do while waiting for class to be over with, so I designed a wrap for her.




It’s a very simple pattern. Just a cable that runs up on the front edges, puffed sleeves (I couldn’t refuse the puffed sleeves) and a ribbon for closure.





Head on over to Petite Purls for the pattern!

Enjoy!!

Elizabeth's Hat

Its December already! How did that happen? Well regardless, its getting cold out there and I have two little ones that need warm heads.

Each year I have made them a new hat and I have been dreading making this years. The question is what to make? It has to be functional as well as cute. It would be preferable if I could use up some stash yarn. And would it be too much to ask if the hat covered the ears?

I'm quite pleased with the resulting hat. I've received numerous compliments and Ms. Marie, my wonderful day care provider, told me that Abbie, her daughter, loves it! Hint taken Abbie will get one for Christmas. Furthermore, I found some extra balls in the stash AND it covers the little ears.



Remembering I thought the hearts in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop was just darling, I decided I could possibly do something with them. I made two in a much smaller gauge than called for and knitted a simple hat with alternating colors.



Elizabeth’s Hat
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Yarn: 2 balls (109 yds) alternating colors of Elann.com Highland Wool (100% highland wool)

Needles: 2 US6 circular needles
1 stitch marker

Hearts: “Heart Hat (or Elbow Patch)”, pg 155, Knitting Workshop by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Make 2 (I used US6 needles and color B of Elann.com Highland Wool yarn to make the hearts).

Gauge: 22 sts and 24 rows = 4 inches over st st

Size: 19”, will fit a child's head

Using color A cast on 105 stitches divided evenly between both needles and join in the round being careful not to twist the stitches.

*Knit 2, purl 2* repeat around. Continue in rib pattern for 1 inch.

Round 1: Knit around with color A.
Round 2: Knit around with color A.
Round 3: Knit around with color B.

Repeat rounds 1 – 3 until hat measures 5 inches from beginning.

Decrease Round 1: *Knit 19, k2tog*, repeat 4 more times.
Decrease Round 2: Knit.
Decrease Round 3: *Knit 18, k2tog*, repeat 4 more times.
Decrease Round 4: Knit.
Decrease Round 5: *Knit 17, k2tog*, repeat 4 more times.
Decrease Round 6: Knit.

Continue decreasing in established pattern until 10 stitches remain. Draw yarn through loops, pull tight and weave in the ends. Sew on the hearts.

Happy Thanksgiving

At this time of year I like to reflect on what I'm especially thankful for and this year its family. Both girls are healthy and full of spit and vinegar! Ray is driving me crazy which must mean he is in good health and in excellent spirits. As for me, I'm still sane. I'll leave it at that.


This year is different from years past because Grandma and Grandpa are here for the entire week and we could not be more pleased! Everyone enjoyed our thanksgiving feast followed by a movie. We went to see Disney's Tangled and we all loved every minute of it. Karolyn was laughing out loud in the theatre, granted so was every other 6 yr old but that is beside the point. The girls are having a great time having grandma read them their bedtime stories and I'm excited cuz I get a break.




I have found a minute to get some knitting done. Just my simple sock pattern. I cast on 68 stitches divided over 2 circular needles (I used US1). Knit a 2x2 rib for about 1.5 inches then switch to st st. Knit in st st for about 1 - 2 inches and then start the short rows for the heel. Once the heel is complete, I knit the length of my foot then short row the toes. I then turn the sock inside out, 3 needle BO, weave in the ends and call it good!

Gauge: good question. I didn't measure it, I just know this works for my foot.

Blocking: are you kidding me? its a sock for the love of God.

Yarn: Regia Stretch color. 7% polyester, 23% polyamid, 70% wool.

Snow!!

We're havin' a heat wave! A tropical heat wave!!

Seriously, it has been crazy cold here in Michigan this past week. Below freezing temps but it did manage to warm up just a bit in order to snow! The girls think this is the best thing since popcorn. Karolyn is going around picking up the snow off the ground and eating it. Of course, not to be outdone by her sister, Sydney is following suit!



So with all these cold temps I was in the mood for some homemade soup. My grandma made the best, bar none, homemade chicken noodle soup. She would slice up the carrots and celery and some onion. Get that all good and happy in the pot before she added the chicken stock and the left over chopped up chicken. Then for the piest de resistance, she would add her homemade egg noodles. Homemade egg noodles. YUMMMMMM. It didn't get any better than that I tell you what. I can still taste those noodles. Thick chewy noodles. Not like the mushy ones in the Campbell's cans but a noodle that you can really bite into. Was I spoiled or what?

Well I made the soup just like grandma but without the homemade noodles. Carrots, celery, a bit of onion, chunks of chicken, and I added some kidney beans and Barilla noodles. WOW... Amazing.

Jean's Project

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts when Karolyn was sick. I greatly appreciate it. She got better a couple of days later and has been back to her ol' self!!! I'm loving it!

Jean announced that she was having a blog contest and is giving away presents. The cause you ask? The homeless in NYC. Turns out there is this soup truck that drives around passing out a meal to the homeless. Well Jean figured if they passed out a meal they might be willing to pass out a bit more. So she contacted them and they said they would pass out some hats along with the meal! Of course they also thought it was a great idea and agreed to pass out the hats. How cool is that! A knitted hat to keep some person warm this winter.

Well I was knitting a hat anyway, "Thorpe" by Kristen Kapur, and I figured I wasn't really in need of it and besides I can knit another one if I wanted to so I decided to send this hat to Jean.



The pattern was very easy to follow and the finished hat is super cute! Because I didn't have any Malabrigio laying around, I substituted some Elann.com Highland Wool that I doubled. I ended up using just 2 balls which is a fantastic way to use up your extra balls left over from a previous project.

Thanks Jean for having the hat drive and I'll get that in the mail to you this week.

Helpless

There have been only a few times in my life when I have felt completely helpless and today was one of them. Usually there is an out, a life line if you will. Someone you can call for help. A friends shoulder to cry on. Retail therapy. Something. But not today. Today Karolyn was sick.

I knew she was coming down with something on Friday when she started coughing. Saturday she still wasn't her normal self and she was up all night coughing. Then this morning she had a full blown fever. Very warm to the touch, but I didn't measure it. Being in the scientific field you would think that this would be the first thing I do, but no, the mom in me said she had a slight fever and she would be OK. The Chiropractor says to let kids have their fevers because this is the body's natural defence against foreign invaders. And just several months ago when the girls were sick I let them have their fever and did not interfere even though it killed me. And sure enough they got better within the day. It was completely amazing. Usually it would be at least 3 days. But he also said that 102F is normal so again I'm not getting too alarmed.

When she had 2 bites of the mac and cheese she asked for and then went straight to bed without being told, I got concerned. Every 15 minutes I would check on her to make sure she was OK and every time I checked she was fine. A bit warm but fine. Then the last time I checked she was burning up. I checked her temp ... 102....103....103.5.... STOP GOD DAMMIT... 103.8 is where if finally stopped. I almost started to cry. Dear GOD please let her be OK. She has been sick before but not in a really really long time. 103.8 and she hadn't even broken a sweat. If she was sweating that would be a different story but there was not even a hint of sweat. Just a lethargic kid. My kid. And not a damn thing I could do about it. I know that the Chiropractor said to let her have her fever but this is ridiculous. I gave her some Motrin and I'm eternally grateful for whom ever it was that came up with this great medicine. I held her for a good half hour. Rocking her under back and forth on her bed under the blankets. Her limp little body whispering to me telling me not to go. It was only after she started to sweat that I thanked the baby Jesus.

She joined us for dinner, didn't eat a thing but drank 3 glasses of milk! My baby is on the mend and getting back to normal!

Fall?

Remember those leaves from a couple of days ago?

This is what I found on them this morning.



Snow. That's right Snow. Snow with a Capital S. It's not even December yet people. For the love of God and everything that is good and holy, I just got the memo that we are smack dab in the middle of Fall. And now you're trying to tell me we are pushing our way into winter? NO WAY. There is absolutely no way I'm gonna let winter get here this fast.

It sure is a good thing that that stuff with the Capital S had the good sense to remove itself from my Fall Leaves when the Sun came up! Besides, doesn't it know that I still have to make my wreath with the leaves the kids and I collected from our walks?

Fall Fun!

This last weekend we had a GREAT time picking up leaves. Now I realize that not everyone views cleaning up the leaves as fun but we are not everyone. We have two little girls that make a game out of everything.

I told them that we were going outside to pick up the leaves and I'm sure they hear we were going outside to play in the leaves. Cuz that is exactly what happened. And I don't think that I have had more fun picking up leaves than last weekend.

We are blessed with 2 silver maple trees in our back yard and the amount of leaves those two treas produce is outstanding. Crazy ton amount actually.



I go to the garage and find the rake, which was an undertaking in and of itself, then I found the package of yard waste bags DH bought. I figured I would start with the driveway and set to work raking up the leaves. Within a couple of strokes of the rake I had amassed quite the pile of leaves. I get the yard waste bag turning my back to the little rascals for a minuscule of a second. When I return my beautiful pile of leaves is re-scattered all over the place with Karolyn exclaiming we are having a party and throwing the leaves up in the air. Of course Sydney couldn't be out done by her sister so she joined in the fun!



The first thought that popped in my head was "I JUST raked that up" and then I thought "well fuck it, they aren't screaming or fighting or hurt, they are just having fun." That's when I joined in! Good God I forgot how much fun it was to just play in the leaves!



I did manage to get some of the leaves in the bags. Sydney figured she would help out a bit while Karolyn was off still having her party.



When it was all said and done I managed to clear off the driveway and some of the back yard (but not much). I also used all of the yard waste bags we had.



After it was all said and done we went inside and warmed up with tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Mom's Gloves

Holy God I finished something. Can you even believe it? I know, its hard for me to fathom as well considering I haven't finished something in quite some time now. I finished the Christmas present for my mom.

A couple of years ago, I made her a neck wrap/ head scarf. It was a moebius strip by Cat Bordhi from her "First Treasury of Magical Knitting" book. I made it out of Elann.com's Pure Alpaca in the natural colorway and my mom just LOVES alpaca. Notice the capitals, I'll say it again, she LOVES alpaca. Anyway, I always wondered if she ever wore it. All knitters do I imagine, wonder if the people they knit for actually make use of the item that was knitted. Turns out, she wears it all the time.

When I asked what she wanted for Christmas this year, she first said that she has everything. And its true, she does. Then in a quiet voice, almost shy like, she asks if I remember that scarf that I made for her a couple of Christmas's ago. Of course I do! I'm on edge here wondering where she is going with this. Then she says, "I really could use some mittens".

"Mittens or gloves?"

"Well gloves would be better if its not too much trouble"

"OK gloves it is"

Then the disbelief sets in, "You know how to do gloves?"

"Yep, I sure do"

"Well that is what I would like, gloves, and if you have that same stuff you made the my scarf from so they match, I would appreciate it."

Naturally I know exactly the "stuff" is she is referring to. In fact I know exactly where its located in the stash. The very instant I was off of the phone with her I dove into the stash and located the desired yarn.



These are finished gloves. I made the fingers a bit smaller than what was called for but she has small hands so I know they will fit her!

Happy Halloween

For awhile now I have been asking Karolyn what she wanted to be for Halloween. First it was Lightning McQueen then Cinderella then Lightning McQueen again. I was at a loss. So I decided to go with Lightning McQueen.

I started my quest for the Lightning McQueen costume on the internet. Surely someone must have made this before. And sure enough they did. And for $30 it too can be yours. WHAT!?!?!?! 30 bucks for a costume that the kid is gonna wear once for 3 hours? Are they crazy? Have they not heard of the economical situation this country is currently in?

So I dug deeper and found a blog about a guy that made the costume out of a card board box and some paint. I can do that. I'm crafty with an ever expanding imagination. I can do this.

I started saving the supplies. A cardboard box I acquired from work. Some paint that was on sale at Michaels. Pictures of the famous race car. Then I went to work.

I cut up the box and taped it to the shape I wanted. Refered to the pictures and started drawing. Then painted it. I did take pictures of the various steps of transforming an ordinary cardboard box into a racecar but the camera farted and I dont have the pics.

When it was all said and done, this is what I came up with.

I give you LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!



And a side shot.



She loved it. She was so excited when I first showed her the costume that she didn't want to take it off.

I asker her this morning before school if she knew what today was and sure enough she did! Then she told me that we get to go trick-or-treating tonight and get more candy!

Well Hello Hello!

Goodness gracious it sure has been awhile since I have been here. Time sure does fly when you are having fun!

So what has been going on with me.... Well, lets see here. The leaves are turning all sorts of gorgeous colors. Reds and purples and yellow and red/yellow, all around us. Our neighborhood is what one would call "established" and has maple trees lined up and down the streets. Every year I get a front seat showing to what us Michiganders refer to as "the greatest color show on Earth". I just love this time of year.


Karolyn has started the school year and is doing great. She is in a new school this year and I just love the teacher so much better than last year. The communication is GREAT not to mention that I think K likes it there more. We just got her school pictures back so I'll have to scan them in to show you!

Sydney is 15 months old now and is into everything. Just yesterday she decided it would be great fun to climb up the couch, lift her little chubby leg over the arm, then slide down the side while getting her foot caught in my knitting basket. Yes, the knitting basket lives just to the side of the couch exactly where my little acrobat decided to slide off. She stumbled a bit and then got up off the ground and giggled. All the while Karolyn is like "MOM, MOM, MOM, Sydney trouble, Sydney trouble, Mom" After I assessed the situation and realized that everything is fine as there was no blood, I shook my head and exclaimed "Every body needs a Sydney"! That seems to be the new saying at my house "Every body needs a Sydney"



Knitting. Yes there has been some knitting but not very much. I lost my mojo somewhere in the middle of summer and recently got it back. Good God it sure does feel good to have that yarn woven in and out of my fingers and then forming the familiar loops on the needles. Very relaxing after a long day of working and taking care of my family. The simple repetitiveness of it was such a familiar friend its hard to believe I almost lost her. Then I came to my senses!

I'm currently working on a pair of gloves for my mom's Christmas present. Its made out of the same yarn that I made her moebius scarf out of a couple of years back. And to be completely honest with you, she asked for it! So of course its a given that I'm gonna knit it for her. I'll post some pics when I'm done.

Goodness gracious its good to be back!!!

Lookit Lookit!!!

Remember when I was a brat and showed you some knitting pics and didn't really say what it was or where they came from? Well all can be revealed now!


I was knitting a wonderful summer top out of Elann.com Adara. A great cotton/ linen blend that was fun to knit with. And it also happens to be machine washable!



I enjoyed knitting this top as it went fast and was easy. However the pattern does not mention to sew together the shoulder seams. I took the liberty and sewed them together. I figured it would be a bit easier for Margaux to model it! LOL

In other news, my sister posted a comment on my blog! Can you even stand it? A flesh and blood family member left me a comment! And you know how I like my comments (ok lets face it we all like comments).

Libby, You look great!!! The girls look great! Now I know where to look for updated pictures!

o and your Garmisch hat...i actually wore in Garmisch. I need to find a pic and send it to you.
Love you!
Mary

AND she has a pic of the Garmisch when she was in Garmish!!!! OK Mary, I'm gonna need a picture of that as well as my neice and nephew.

Cute Pic Friday

Cute Pic Friday

Spinning!

I go to knit night at a local coffee shop on Thursdays. And every Thursday there is usually someone spinning. Naturally I've been eyeing everyone spin with that look in my eye. Toni knew that look and asked me if I wanted to borrow her wheel. HELL YEA I DO!!! She gave me a quick lesson and told me to take it home to practice.



She did say to keep the wheel in a place where the kids couldn't get to it. OK Toni, I'll try but please remember that these are the same kids that play with garbage and use the eyeliner to draw dragons.

Every night after the darlings went to bed, I took out the wheel. I would spin and spin and then spin some more. Ray even got into it and had to check it out to see if he could figure out how it worked. He told me about it but quite frankly I was to busy trying to not let too much roving be spun at once to listen to a word he said.




I succeeded in spinning that gorgeous yarn you see there. And quite frankly it wasn't as relaxing and peaceful as everyone makes spinning out to be. There were a lot of swears involved. My thumb and forefinger got the spinners ache (my own personal made up term). And I had to concentrate on this bit of spinning a lot. I had entire conversations in my head about how much roving I needed to pull out and how thin I needed to make it so the resulting yarn would not be too thick or too thin.

Eventually I did get the hang of it. The spinners ache went away and the conversations stopped. A pleasant surprise was how soft my hands were. Lanolin from the wool worked its way onto my hands and made them buttery soft.

I did return the wheel back to Toni and as much fun as I had with spinning I decided not to pursue it. I'm sure that I'll want pick it up when the kids are a bit older and not prone to get into my stuff.

Angels

I always know when the angels I live with are up to something when its a bit too quiet. If you know what I mean.

So I start calling names and asking whats going on. No answer. That's when I started looking. I started with their room first, found nothing and then moved onto my room. I happened upon this.



Yes, that is my angel playing with the garbage. We do have toys. Tons of toys. Fun toys that make all kinds of sounds when you touch them. No, we have to play in the garbage.

Then I look up and see big sister drawing dragons with my eyeliner. MY EYELINER!@!@##$



We do have crayons. ALL kinds of crayons in different shapes and sizes, a whole bucket of them. And if they made crayons that made noise and lit up when you used them, we would have them.



Now I realize why I work. So I can escape these crazy people that I gave birth to and have an adult conversation that doesn't involve dragons or garbage.

Thank you Dear God for letting it be Monday tomorrow!

Cute Pics Friday

Summer T-Shirt

I love my new t-shirt!



I ended up using all 10 balls of Schachenmayr Toy to make my brand spanking new summer t-shirt.

Someone commented on what a great top it was and I told them it was a Libby Grant!