My First Sock-a-versary!

This month is one year since I made my first sock! And it's also my Continentality-versary, too! I also taught myself the Continental method of knitting last February. I don't know how many pairs of socks I actually completed last year - must figure that out - but by July I had made 11 pairs. I really, really need to get busy on Ravelry and update my entries.

I am wearing the second pair of socks finished this year - Ivory Meilenweit Broad Spiral Ribs. Finished them last Friday the 15th. And here they are:

These are for warmer weather and they are shorter than my winter socks. Heehee! You can see where my slippers have been!

First Pair of the New Year

I just finished my first pair of socks for 2008!

Pattern: Broad Spiral Rib ala B. Walker

Yarn: Smooshy by Dream in Color, color Gothic Rose

Needles: Addi Turbo size 0 (2mm)

Used: PGR short row heel and worked toe-up.

I am working on the Ivory pair. Number one is going up the leg.

I got most of this sock done at the hospital this week. Mom had cataract surgery (yikes) left eye. The toe of number two is waiting for a needle. I got a bad case of start-itis before Thanksgiving and used all the needles. I do not like when I do that! Especially when so much time passes before I can get to them all. I seem to lose momentum with some of the designs I pick and then they just sit. Well, this time the culprit is TIME itself. Which has been short in the past few months. I do like the Broad Spiral Rib pattern - it's easy to memorize and I can even work it in public. Plain ribbing is so boring! I have a pair almost up to the heels in plain stockinette and I don't want to work on them they are so boring. Well, maybe I should just bite the bullet and get them past the heel and then work BSR up the legs!

Rainy Monday - Time to KNIT

It's rainy and very cold outside! Supposed to be like this all week.

We've had the cable guy out here 3, no 4 times recently. Then the internet went out (the other guy caused it) so we had another guy out for THAT. Well, he messed up the TV again! ARgh!\#! He wasn't even supposed to mess with the TV part at all, just the internet. Annoying! The ijits think they know *every*thing. Yikes. OK. Rant over. Now to more important things:

Between loads of laundry today, I made this:I used the pattern I made up for the mini stockings I put in some of our C-mas Cards. I was aiming for earring size but it came out too big. Sooooo I ordered Carol's Los Lobe Hose pattern! Why re-invent the wheel when her pattern is already done and so cute? I have plenty of Koigu and Lorna's Laces leftovers to play with when it gets here.
The above sock (and it's mate) is almost done (see last post) and I've started another pair of Broad Spiral Ribs in ivory Meilenweit. (see below - the darn pics got mixed up again).
This is a larger row counter I made for the Padova sweaters I have going. I really do like these nifty tools! Much better than moving a post-it-note up and down a chart!
Above is the started BSRib. Notice the row counter in use. Below is K.C. trying to entice me away from the computer.
"C'mon, Mom, let's play! Aren't I too cute to ignore?"

New Year, New Projects

Socks in progress: Broad Spiral Rib (ala B. Walker) - both socks turned heels and working up the legs. I enjoy working both socks at the same time, each on it's own needle (magic loop). The yarn is Dream in Color - Smooshy, "Gothic Rose" which is a dark red. It's yummy and Smooshy is sooooo soft! A real pleasure to knit.
I made some row counters last weekend while my DH was in Houston at a Marathon. These are 8-row counters. To use, you just put the needles into the appropriate ring at the start of each row. The jump rings are 2 different sizes (as are the beads - size 8 and 'E' beads). This way, if there is a plain row between pattern rows, you can use the 'empty' ring to mark this row.

I also re-organized my beads while hunting for some for the project and put away beads I was finished with. I also am in the process of cleaning out my studio closet - which was all messed up from the holidays. My studio is slowly returning to 'normal' as I clean it up and de-clutter at the same time. The Goodwill box is full and I have to start another one!

This is my very first, officially framed, watercolor painting! I gifted it for Christmas. My Uncle loves his little backyard workshop and I happened to get it in photos I was taking of my grand-girls in April 2006. I Photoshopped the girls out of 2 photos and combined them to get what I wanted. Also took a little imagination for some parts!

There are some license plates hanging on the porch and I think these are from his old vehicles. I used watercolor, color pencil and pen & ink techniques. I had so much fun and learned tons. It took about a month to do with all the holiday preparations. There were some parts I had to re-draw into a watercolor pad and experiment with techniques and colors. I was very worried about the "pink" pavers but I think I did ok. It took many, many layers of color to get them right! Oh, the size is about 8" x 10". I want to do some more paintings but am conflicted because I also want to knit!

I have 4 sweaters in progress: 2 are "Padova" from Louisa Harding in her book "Venizia II" 2007, one for me, one for Mom. Mine is made from LH LaSaluteQuatro shade 03 (red mix). Mom's is Alpaca from Blue Sky in a yummy dark amethyst. So soft and pretty! the La Salute Q is fuzzy - it's mohair and it doesn't shed much! I have 1 sleeve complete so far. Lots to do yet but Hey, I do have yarn for the winter! Let it ice up all it wants!

Bunny Rescue!

Well, this is the last thing I expected to do today - rescue a baby bunny! When my DH got back from the dentist, I heard him yell and went outside to see what the.....was going on. He called me over to see this poor baby bunny laying in the grass on the side of the driveway. A cat was under my truck. Needless to say I yelled at that cat!
I got my gardening gloves and a box. He was bleeding just a little bit on his neck. Apparently, the cat had carried him as they will and was just sitting there watching him as my DH came up the driveway.
Not knowing anything about rabbits other than they are very soft, angora bunny hair can be spun, and they are vegetarians - we took him to the Humane Society where they took him in to the vet there and said he'll be ok.
We know at least one neighbor has a large white rabbit, so when no one answered the door, I took the above pic and left them a note. I hope they go and get him!

Last Chance

I just HAD to get in one post for December - it's been NUTS around here! I'll have to post for real after the DH goes back to work on Jan 7th!

Crazy month and too much going on. - OK last chance - talk to ya'll later with pics!

Ooops! Forgot to say that my KC is in remission! No insulin shots! Lucky kitty!

Holy Cow! Where did October go??

Between doc and vet appointments and the regular business of my life - October is almost gone already! DH is on his last week of vacation and we've only been to 2 places - day trips because we have to be back home to give the cat his insulin shots at 8am and 8pm. The weather has been GLORIOUS for both those days! It's actually fall-like for most of the day! We hope to get in at least one more trip - to Bastrop State Park - to hike around in the weather and the trees. I love trees.

This is my Ice Cream Shrug in progress: I did complete it on October 21 and wore it on the Day Trip to the Natural Bridge Caverns and The NB Wildlife Ranch (San Antonio).

This is The Greens Shrug (working name) in progress as of last night:

These are Eyelet Rib socks (WendyKnits pattern) completed the pair Oct 17:

One Mod: I used 4 rows between instead of 3.
K.C. is doing ok for now. At first the Vet had him on 2 units of insulin, then on 3, now he's on 2.5! Which is NOT easy to do - there's no half-mark on the syringe! But for him, I'll do just about anything, as long as he thinks it's ok.

October at last!

I finished some socks while taking care of Mom. These are my Dragonscale socks. More details on my Ravelry page in my projects. (I am knittybabe).

The Dragons in my new MaryJane Birkis! I love these shoes. I got brown, too.
Ravelry is great! I am slowly getting things put in. Haven't been home much. K.C. is doing a little better. Learned how to give him insulin shots (twice a day) and he went in thursday for blood work. He was soooooo MAD when we picked him up. He had to stay all day for the glucose curve. He would not stop growling until my DH took him outside! Any time anyone or anything made noise he'd growl louder. Poor baby!

We had to up his dose to 3 (from 2) so hopefully that will be better. He is still very tired from being there and being tortured. ;-) I hate to leave him. Well, we have a 2-week interval this time. I had to hide the carrier as soon as he got out of it. No reminders!

Mom started physical therapy this week! She is doing better and better. Still hurts, of course, but more movement today than on monday. OK. must go to bed....

End of September Post - thank goodness!

I've been at Mom's for 3 weeks and came home this week. Whew! I still have to go over and help every day but her arm is healing. She can't wait to get rid of the sling and start physical therapy! Getting dressed one-armed is a pain - literally!

I took lots of yarn and started some socks and finished a pair. Pics later. My Ravelry invite came while I was there but I haven't had the time to explore or anything yet! I look forward to that - as soon as I get Mom and the cat situated better.

Thursday, my cat K.C. had to go to the vet. While I was gone things went wrong. He has been drinking a LOT of water and using the litter box often (and not covering his business-eewww). I noticed his back legs looked kind of unsteady, too.

They did bloodwork (poor kitty) and he has feline Diabetes! Yikes!

I was terrified we were going to lose him all day thursday and friday until the doc called with the final test results. She had said he had it from a pre-lim test in the office on thursday and it sounded really bad. I cried all day! I was a mess. Friday she explained in detail and we decided to try the treatments and see how the poor kitty takes it.

What this means is... he has to have special food and insulin shots twice a day. Talk about YIKES. Big committment on our part. He's on the new food and Oct 4th, hubby and I go in to see how to give him shots. Oh man, I hope I can do this! I know *I* hate getting poked when I have to have my cholesterol and stuff checked (aka "feeding the vampires) which is back to normal thanks to *2* meds - a statin and Tricor. I hate seeing a live critter in pain - I never could do the frog-thing in science class. I sure hope I can do this for K.C. and that he lets me!

My email held a nice surprise today - I signed up for the first ever Hill Country Weavers Yarn Crawl! It's next Sunday and boy do I need that! Puurrrfect timing! Thank you Suzanne!!! A whole day of riding and knitting on a bus with other knitters and touring 7 yarn shops in 5 cities. I can't wait! Getting away from the daily stuff will sure help my stress level go down.

I will be glad when October starts and hopefully everything will get better. I don't know what I would do without my knitting. I took a plain sock to the vet - otherwise I would have been crawling up the walls while waiting! I counted the stitches even though it was stockinette - just to have something to concentrate on - and still made a mistake! BUT - it was before I even got there. I had picked up the wrong size needle to continue from the toe and so had to visit the frog pond. Ah well, it's the doing not the finished product....

I have so much to do I don't know if I'll ever catch up! Well, I am never BORED!

Winding Yarn and reading actual books

Here's what I've been up to: winding yarn to take with me when I go stay with my Mom tuesday. She's having her surgery wednesday - we have to be at hospital at 6am! I'll have lots of time to knit so I'm starting some more socks. This "tub" is 3 deep with yarn balls! WhooHoo! I tried to put patterns and yarn together in a big bunch but couldn't do it. Too many yarn/patterns don't work for me. I tried that before, but ended up changing almost every one! Soooooo I'm just taking all I can. heehee. I'll choose as I go along.

This is my August journal calendar - just look at how full! No wonder I'm tired!
This is one of the few decorative pages for August: Mostly ideas for future projects I probably already have stuff for.
I have actually been reading hard-copy books (vs eBooks on PDA)! I still love the feel of a book in the hand even tho I do LOVE my pda for reading at night or in the dark while on my stationary bike. I have been so busy I am too tired to even knit most nights, so I sit and read! I just started "The Rift" by Walter J. Williams this weekend and finished a Nora Roberts trilogy about vampires and time travel - The Circle Trilogy. That was pretty good and entertaining. I didn't want it to end. I love when that happens!

I also made a birthday card for a friend today: photo mosaic technique. Take old photos that may not have come out like you wanted but you had them printed anyway - rubber stamp all over them. Cut them up, glue them to a piece of cardstock you have run through a Xyron machine (puts self-stick glue on the back of papers)- leaving spaces between. In the spaces (since it is sticky) brush embellishing powders (like the ones from Jacquard - pearl some-thing or other I forget at the moment) in the spaces. Cut to the shape and size you want and glue it to a blank card face. Tada!

I also did a watercolor mock-up for a larger painting (over 3 canvases) of a magnolia:

AND made a mousepad! Covered backing with cardstock, pretty paper and clear vinyl.