Keep going Girl!

First some whining,

back pain for over a week.  Have done too much lifting things, as in bags of yarn, boxes of yarn,
just yarn. Let me explain, I have a stash room (second bedroom) full of stuff, mostly yarn, in boxes, plastic tubs, and bags.  Decided to organize *organize*,  me?  Good grief!
Well, I did some, and now the back is screaming. Tylenol 3 snubbed, Arthritis Tylenol laughed, standing and leaning against the table helped after half an hour.  Sleep is great, no problem.

Should I just sleep?  NO, I must check the e-mail, check the Facebook, oh, and go to work.  Work
might have something to do with some pain to a degree.  Sitting all day, working on a keyboard, trying to get the correct information into the record archives, inside the data files.  That's hard work, and will cause discomfort sometimes.  However, I do love my work, and have always enjoyed going to the office.  Occasional getting up to go and fetch coffee or lunch, or water,
is a good thing.

Oh, I was not going to talk about work.  Back to whining.  No cork needed, since my whining has nothing to do with wine.

This is my solution for the problem, Aleve, which may cause tummy pains, but which is worse?

I realized something this morning, why is my back not in pain when I am in bed?  I have a padding with magnetic buttons inside.  Well, yeaah, sure.  This morning I took one Aleve, found another of those paddings in the linen closet.  Put it on my chair and what, I am practically pain free, unless I get up.  Is it Aleve or the padding with magnets?  Don't know, but I am going sit here all day, even
if I don't have the witch powers to move things around with the wiggle of my nose (I can't do it anyway, even if I was a witch, which I might have been in my previous life, which is another story).

On the reality side (whining isn't my daily topic):

What's up?  The Knitting goddess has been my friend for a good part of my weekly events.
There is a shawl, a scarf, a jacket, a freeform thing, another shawl, something that I don't even
know what, hats, and socks, but I am very organized (another "good grief).  Organizing is not a word I use lightly.

These are Hedwig socks (referring to Hedwig, Harry Potter's owl)  for my step-daughter-in-law.
I was going to add eyes and a nose but decided it was too much work.  :-)

Some baby stuff, little jackets and two blankets

Hat that will go to charity

This hat was meant for a friend, but it came out too small.  The brim is very loose, too. I have fix it, and then this one goes to charity, as well as

the baby hat here:

 I love this shawl, the yarn is size 10 crochet thread, Katie Jaipur, and the colors are amazing.

I have put this shawl aside for a few days, since I was busy with the hats and other things.

A scarf for my niece in Argentina:

The yarn, Patons Grace.

Forgot what this was going to be:

 

 And this is a Seraphina Shawl start, which might never see another stitch done:

 Crocheted this Edelweiss shawl in less than a week.  It will probably end up in charity section.

Guess who this is!  Merlin, of course, isn't he adorable?

Baby surprise Jacket.  Pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman, the knit master.

baby jacket in apple green cotton yarn, somewhere there is a pattern, but where?  Here!

Crochet bolero for my grandaughter in Argentina

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And finally, some of the plastic tubs that have swallowed some yarn.  These and some others are going in the stash room, if I can find a space for them.  (wiping tears here)

 

There has been some serious cabbage cooking too, in my kitchen.  Cabbage soup, Cabbage rolls, 

Cabbage casserole, and last night a soup with chicken broth, cabbage, ground chicken, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, red onion, and some celery, that was in the back of the fridge, still good, surprise.

I have lunches for two or three weeks now.  Of course it's possible I will have something else, too, since I am already getting somewhat tired with cabbage.   

I don't really have recipes for my cabbage dishes, I've used my imagination, and googled a few tricks and so on.  I am a freestyle cook.

I am also reading a lot these days, Currently P. J. Parrish's Louis Kincaid series.

Of course some others, but these books are my latest fancy.

The first book "Dark of the Moon" came from library as it's not available for Kindle.

Have started it but not even half way thru, yet.

Came across with this post in FaceBook, and thought it was good

http://sinivalakosinsilimin.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/kiiress-duunis-tois-busy-working-work.html

Decided that this was enough for one post.  Have to go and see if my mess will disappear at least a little bit.  

Free Baby hat pattern

Hi, all,

Here is a baby hat I made today.

You will need:

Straight needles, in size to match your yarn. I used worstedt weight yarn and size 4 mm needles.

Tapestry needle, scissors, crochet hook in size 4 mm.

Cast on 64 stitches and knit garter stitch for about 6 inches, then knit stockinette stitch for about another 6 inches.

Next row, slp 1, k2tg, to end

Next row, purl all stitches

Next row, slp 1, k2tog to end, if there is 1 left, knit it

Next row, Purl all stitches

Next row, slp 1, k2tog to end

Next row, purl all stitches

Cut the yarn, leave long enough tail to sew the seams (about 20 inches),but do not cast off,

Feed the tapestry needle with the yarn and pull the yarn thru the last stitches on your knitting needles, drop the needle and pull yarn tightly to close the hole.

Sew the sides together and hide yarn ends.

Tassel: Make a chain of 21, leaving a tail of 5-6 inches long, slp stitch to the first chain stitch, chain 20, slip thru the same first stitch as before, make another 20 chain, and repeat this until you have at least 10 chain stitch loops, or more, depending how big you want the tassel be.

Cut yarn and leave a tail about 5 inches long. With the tapestry needle pull the tail of thread thru the middle part of the hat to the wrong side of the hat, and the other tail end thru the same area, leaving a few stitches between the hanging yarns. Tie the yarns into a few knots and then weave in ends.

Turn the garter stitch part up half way and Voila! Your hat is done!

Baby Surprise Jacket

I cannot believe I did this jacket in such a short time. It would have been finished sooner if I didn't work on other projects, too.

The jacket does not have buttons, but I will go to Michaels tomorrow and get some.

The yarn is acrylic ww. The pattern is from "The Opinionated Knitter" by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I also have the DVD by her daughter Meg Swenson, and the DVD was a great help, because I got confused a few times. You see, I rarely follow a pattern completely, but this time I did.

My next BSJ will be with one color with some stripes in a darker or lighter shade of the main color. I like the one that is shown on the DVD: Light yellow and cream.

This jacket might be too big for our 2 month old grandson, but I am sure he will grow into it, around spring time.

Super thick socks

Can you believe this, I finished the thick socks for hubby.
I was going to make them for Christmas, but now is a good time too. He's wearing them already.

The jacket for DIL is in good shape. both fronts are done, then comes the back, and sleeves, and finally the front band with button holes.

I just can't understand why my fingers hurt.

Oh, and did I mention that I received Elizabeth Zimmermann's book "The Opinionated Knitter".





There is a pattern for a Baby Surprise Jacket. Ssshhh, don't tell anyone, but I went to Wallyville today during my lunch hour and bought some variegated yarn, and circular needles, and started knitting, um, casting on stitches (160), it took a while to do, because somehow playing cards (at lunch) and counting stitches don't go well together. I am not telling anyone that I had bought yarn today, because I am literally drowning in yarn here at home. BUT I don't have the right colors to make the surprise jacket. At least in my opinion.

I came home and started knitting and did the first part of the Surprise Jacket.
That means that I knitted the first 8 rows.

Now that I am in the mood to finish some projects, I think it's time for Campanula socks to be finished.

Kitchener stitch

I did it! I was finally able to make a joining with Kitchener stitch. I finished the booties and here is the picture. The doll is the size of a newborn. I am glad the sweater and booties are

big, because when the baby is born, it's still too hot to wear heavy sweaters, hats and booties.

Oh, I guess I didn't tell yet, there is another grandchild due in a few weeks.

Knitting lately

Hi, it's been a while. No excuses, I just didn't have anything to report.

It's been needles and purl and knit and slip and yarn over lately. At times I have felt totally uninterested in anything.

A while back I decided to make a sweater for me with mitered squares. Guess what, I got three squares done and started getting bored. I am just not equipped with long attention span, or following a pattern that repeats itself. Although with mitered squares one could change colors and shapes as in squares and triangles (reminds me too much of high school math). Oh, yes, after I started feeling bored, I began knitting my own squares, in other words, I forgot the pattern at home, and didn't remember what to do next (this happened at work, at lunch), so I started my own thing, but now the project is in the bag, waiting, because I decided to crochet another amulet bag from Melody's book of Overlay crochet jewelry. I got the center square done and some rows around it. It's now sitting in the bag, waiting for the next inspirational

moment.

I had been also working on a baby sweater, and started finishing it off, and did so today. Then was time for a little hat to go with the sweater. Since I am fickle with my projects, I started knitting little booties, yesterday, when the sweater was getting on my nerves. The little booties are truly cute, I got the pattern from somewhere in the web. I followed the pattern (I have to follow patterns sometimes, specially with baby stuff) religiously. I didn't like the way the toe part looked, but I kept going right to the end. The bootie just didn't look right, but I could not figure out what was wrong (I have crocheted booties, but never knitted them, and besides, I am not a fan of making any type of socks or booties). I finished the bootie to the last part and then, only then, read the last part of the pattern: Kitchener stitch!!!! arrrrrggghhhh.

I shed a few tears, took a needle, pulled yarn thru, my way. The bootie looked ridiculous.

Finally, I frogged the dang thing to the cuff part only, and started over. Well, my pattern reading had improved somewhat when I realized what I had done wrong. instead of a few stitches for the top part of the foot, I had taken twice as much. Dingading. The project is now sitting in the bag, waiting for some sort of miraculous system how I could finish the sole part without using Kitchener stitch. It looks really easy, when I follow the pictures or videos. For some reason my brain goes on strike, when I try to do this wonderful stitch.

On Saturday, last, my girlfriend Betty and I went "outing". First stop was for lunch, then Goodwill store, where I found two circular needles, which I didn't need, but bought anyway, and one single dbl pointed needle, which can be added to my set of four, if I have the same size set. I am sure I do. After that I got a bright idea to find a yarn store, and that's where we went. I bought two circular needles (oh, phhleeez, I know I have lots of them, but not the right size or the right feel). I started looking around the yarn bins and told myself several times that I do not need yarn, no sirree. I bought two skeins of sock yarn. Yes, you read it right, SOCK yarn. Oh, why, oh why do they make sock yarns so interesting these days?

BTW, I finished clue number 5, the wing, in the mysterystole3.

I had to fold the work because I only wanted to take a picture of the wing part.

Baby sweater

I managed to make a baby sweater while waiting for my flights when I was going to Manchester and coming back home. Here it is.

Oh, btw, the only way I am able to view my own blog is via layout and preview, but I can post, but not see my post the normal way.

Something gets done

I finished a baby blanket that I started last year. It only needed one end and one side to have the finishing row. I have a picture of it, not blocked, but it's ok. The size is 28 x 36 inches.
The yarn is some baby stuff.

Then...ahem, I started a batwing shawl on Monday, and I finished it tonight. Clap, Clap, Clap.

One thing is almost certain, the batwing shawl will not come back with me. I am sure my sister will hide it from me, when I am ready to leave for home.

I still need to make a few little gifts for my family members, but I still have time, like tomorrow night and Friday night. On Saturday I will be busy packing and on Sunday I will be leaving.
Hubby is going to be all alone...oops, with the cat, for two weeks.