The return of the daily photo

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Suzanne

I don’t know what happened, I just quit taking pictures every day. I don’t have really willing participants, except for maybe the dog(s), but I can only take so many pictures of the dogs. I’ve been missing this, though, and had decided to start it back up tomorrow, the 1st of June. But there I was, sitting out back, knitting in the wind, and the dogs were laying out in the grass and it was so pretty, I was compelled to take their picture.

Only, I had to go inside and get the camera first, and by the time I got back, Katie had moved on. But Cocoa was willing to lay back down, and the trees and grass and sky hadn’t changed, so I went with it.

I did end up getting a couple of shots of her before we went to play Frisbee and Chicken*.

She was the victim of a recent haircut. She hates haircuts. But after a haircut and a bath, she’s like velvet, which means she gets more cuddles, but I don’t think she has that much of a sense of the future.

I’m at a bit of a loss for a sewing project at the moment. Everything’s either waiting for binding, waiting for quilting, not a stage where I can easily sit down and just sew…sounds like time to start something new, right? Maybe I’ll just go knit. Or do one of the other many things I ought to do, like clean. I vacuumed for awhile, and wanted to mop the kitchen floor. OK, I didn’t WANT to mop, I just thought maybe it was probably time. Only, I can’t find the fancy-shmancy micro-fiber thingy I stick on the end of the mop to clean my wood floor. I can’t really fathom where it would have gone, so…the urge has now passed, and I probably won’t get back to wanting to mop again for ages…

TTFN-

Suzanne

*To Play Chicken, you must have a really obnoxious rubber-chicken toy that squeaks when you squeeze or shake it. You then throw the obnoxious rubber chicken as hard as you can, and Cocoa will chase after it. We are just thrilled that she actually wants to PLAY with something. Whilst she’s distracted, chasing the Chicken, Katie chases the Frisbee. If Cocoa notices, and can get to the Frisbee first, though, all bets are off. Poor Katie doesn’t stand a chance…

Story of my life plus socks

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Suzanne

My memory card is at the shop — AGAIN — so I had to resort to using Mark’s camera. I really dislike his camera, because I’ve never been able to take a decent picture with it, and these photos are no exception. This is what, the bazillionth time I’ve left the memory card in a different place than the camera? Sheesh.
(and on top of the crappy pictures problem, Firefox crashed on me every time I tried to insert pictures, so I’m using IE and I despise IE so it’s a wonder I’m even actually posting this…)

But! I wanted to show off: I redid the bind-off edge of my red sock:

I went poking around the site where I had gotten the initial instructions for starting a toe-up sock, and lo and behold, she had a FAQ page where she answers a question about binding off. Worked like a charm.

(Sock was knit toe-up following instructions at Wendyknits.net, the stitch pattern is a very simple garter rib, with a K2P2 ribbed cuff. Yarn is Heritage Handpaints by Cascade in a colorway called Cherry Berry. I’m currently out of it, but I have 2 other colors, plus the solids…

That handknit sock must be contrasted with:

This poor sock has some serious technical issues, not least of which is the dropped stitches in the mock rib cuff…but LOOK!!!!!!

I knit a sock on my CSM today!!!!

The heel is practically perfect. The toe itself, too, except for where I messed up the finishing of the toe. But LOOK!!!! It’s an actual SOCK!

I was pretty much faking it, as far as the size went, and it turns out that even though the toe is alittle misshapen, it fits Will’s foot pretty well.

I probably ought not to tempt fate by trying to work on any other knitting or sewing project, I’m probably safest curling up with a book and going to bed early…

A heel! sort of!

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Suzanne

I should have waited until today to try to finish my sock. I made the bound-off edge way too tight, I can’t even get it on! So, out that comes and I’ll reevaulate how to do the edge.

In the meantime, I can show off the sock heel I just made on my CSM. Ignore the dropped stitches. Concentrate on the fact that there is actually SHAPING in my tube, it’s not just a straight tube anymore! Inch by inch I’m getting closer to making an actual sock on this crazy machine!

Moving on

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Suzanne

As previously mentioned, today was the last day of school. As you might expect, the boys are thrilled to e out of school for the summer, and are already looking forward to next year:

Our school starts band instrument instruction in the 5th grade, guess what Will is playing next year? One of Mark’s coworkers had this (and a clarinet for Joe) hanging around that he was willing to part with for cheap. Both need a trip to the instrument-doctor, the sax needs more work (repadded, a dent, something else…), but their soon-to-be band teacher looked at the instruments and thought they looked like decent instruments that would work well for them to get started on. The best part is they won’t break the bank.

I’m moving along quite nicely on a sock:

What? You didn’t know I was making this sock? Yeah, well, I haven’t been posting much lately, have I? I actually started this way back before I went to New Hampshire, but then I got stuck on the heel. It’s a toe-up sock (which I love, I actually ripped out the blue socks I was making and will start over on those, toe-up….but after the red pair is done…maybe…I’m so fickle…). Turns out that I was making the heel much harder than it needed to be. The fact that I tried to do it late at night in a hotel room when I was overly tired might have something to do with the problems I was having…

Speaking of making sock heels, I finally put on my big girl panties and tried working on a heel on the circular sock machine. I ran out of time (I had to get home), but I’m part way through, and while I have a long way to go before I actually make a sock on that crazy machine, I’m “getting it” and I may even have something to show soon. Or not.

I’ve only got about an inch of the cuff left of that sock, I’m debating about staying up and finishing it…

TTFN-

Suzanne

Wednesday

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Suzanne

I meant to bring this quilt home so I could get a better picture of it, but I forgot. I’m just glad I remembered to get the memory card out of the printer so that I had the pictures I had already taken…

I started making these blocks some months ago, but they got set aside in the heat of…several other quilts. After getting Sweet to it’s current state, I looked around at the disaster that masquerades as my sewing room and decided that I ought to take the opportunity to clean up a bit.

Then, I came to my senses and pulled these blocks out in order to get this quilt finished. Only, this isn’t exactly the quilt I had in mind when I was making these blocks. I had originally intended a twin size quilt, with 16 blocks, but I had an epiphany over the weekend: I could use 9 of them to make this quilt, and turn it into a year-belated baby gift for Mark’s cousin’s baby…and then I could make a smaller block wallhanging as a sample for the shop.

It was while I was sewing on the borders to this one, that I realized that 16-9=7, not 5. I was thinking I would only end up with 1 orphan block, but this plan would result in 3 orphans. 7 is practically 9, so…I guess I’ll be making 2 more blocks, plus the required checkerboard sashing…and end up with a 2nd quilt this size.

I was so productive today: got the whole quilt quilted, plus a bunch of other stuff done. Of course, that’s only because I let IQ do the quilting…this is a panto from Keryn Emmerson called Bramble, it came on the IQ. I thought it was quite pretty. I used wool batting, and a lavender thread on the quilt top. Hopefully I’ll have it labeled and bound sooner than the kid’s 2nd birthday…

I’m not sure how it’s possible, but: tomorrow is the last day of school. I’m going to have FIFTH graders. I’m pretty sure I haven’t given them permission to grow up so quickly.

TTFN –

Suzanne