Knitting stuff and going on and on.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Snowflakes.

Hitchcock, eat your heart out. They are way scarier than the birds what with all the speeding drivers and dwindling hope of spring time.

They'll eat your dog,

bury your trees and

leave mysterious marks around your stuff.

Background music, Christmas carols.

Left the critics shivering.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Yesterday & today.

Sometimes yesterday just seems so far away. Like that idyllic part of childhood you always seem to drift back to when you speak of "Back in the Day".

Where things were slow and easy, times weren't so crazy and hard. Ducks swam in your front yard and you had just seen a deer down the road a bit ago.

Then you wake up to today.

Two feet. Overnight.

W. T. F?!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

It's here!

We are incredibly happy that we can wander about in just a sweater but for me, true spring isn't here until these little pretties start popping up. I bought these bulbs from Brecks three years ago. They spent two years in my fridge since I forgot to put them out the first year, then I forgot they were even there the second year. Last fall, I finally thought to give them a try. I didn't hold out much hope that they would even sprout, never mind flower.
They have proven to be even tougher then I dared hope and beautiful as well. The main reason I love the crocus so much. Of all the flowers available today, the crocus is my absolute favourite. Herald of warmth to come and first spots of colour in the brown of earliest spring.
The snow is mostly gone from our yard now and the lure of deep puddles has been heard by the pair of ducks that come every year. I heard them then saw them flying nearby yesterday. A most welcome sound as was the song of the waking frogs last night.
Of course the lure of a nice, big puddle has been heard by another little critter. She spent a good bit of the day and three pairs of pants in there. But, hey, why else did they invent rubber boots?

With the disappearance of the snow, come the rock collections which Jezzy is firmly guarding from that moving thing up there on that screen.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Surfacing from the Murk.

Did you know that if you make a baby sweater and seam up the sides first, chances are very good the child will not have a place to put his/her arms.

Specs:

2 balls Yarns Brunswick (discontinued) - Ecru
1 ball Lily Sugar n' Cream - Green
4mm (US6) needles

No real pattern. I just used a standard baby sweater pattern and shortened the length as well as making the fronts just a touch narrower than half of the back so that I could add the cabled sections. The bottom band is a 4 stitch cable worked over 6 8 stitches (still can't count past 2) with an extra two on each side for the garter stitch edging. Rather than just crossing the cables I moved them out by one stitch until they touched the sides (on the wrong side I purled the purls & knit the knits) then moved them back in by one stitch until it was time to cross them. Not a complicated or uncommon cable. I'll do the same for the fronts with buttonholes in the open part of the cables. That way the button flaps will overlap and give baby more coverage even if the cotton stretches out a little during wear.

The big ball of Fleece Artist Dreadlocks is becoming a nice looking scarf. It's going to be a long one too.

I'm doing a basic lace type thing with double yarn overs so people can actually see that I'm doing more than garter stitch. Because if you are going to make things more complicated than they need to be, people should at least notice a bit of it.

Specs.

Fleece Artist Dreadlocks
10mm (US15) needles

Abbreviations:

K2togtbl = Knit 2 together through the back loop.
K1tbl = Knit one through the back loop.
PSSO = Pass slipped stitch over stitch behind it on the needle.

Pattern:

Row 1 & 2: Garter Stitch.
Row 3: K1, K2tog, yo(x2) K2togtbl, K1, K2tog, yo(x2) K2togtbl, K1
Row 4: Knit all stitches except the yarn overs. Work the first double yo as P1, K1tbl & the second one as K1tbl, P1.
Row 5: K2, K2tog, yo(x2) S1, K2tog, PSSO, yo(x2), K2togtbl, K2.
Row 6: Same as Row 4
Row 7: Same as Row 5
Row 8: Same as Row 4

Repeat Rows 1-8 to desired length

Repeat Rows 1&2.

Bind off and weave in ends.

Someone had a Birthday yesterday. He says he can't believe he's 21 already. *Snort!* I caught me a man with a funny bone. Good thing for me!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

It's been one of those weeks.

In a good way that is. I got some yarn in the post. Fleece Artist Dreadlocks (discontinued) from Threads in Time. Beautiful stuff and I see a very skinny, exaggerated lace, warm scarf in my future. Although it may end up in a parcel off to somewhere sometime soon. Soonish. Before the end of this year. It makes for a very big ball of yarn! How big?

This big.
Then there is supersized snack. Someone wanted to have a few grapes. She gets her own snacks from the fridge now. I was in the potty when she asked. Funny kid.

The snow though. That is making me both happy and antsy. It's going away and fairly quickly. Relatively speaking for our area. It's that time of year though. The fruits and veggies aren't that great, the weather is warmish but the ground is soaked and what snow there is, is mostly slushy and wet crystals. This means even the outdoor enthusiasts can't do a whole heck of a lot outside. There's grass showing through though! Hope is still holding strong.
If you have a kid, entertainment can be found nearly anywhere. Even indoors at 7:00am in pyjamas and without coffee.

Girly [holding Barbie's top so she can see her chest]: "Momma! Eeeeuw! Barbie has poops on her!"

Momma [snickering like a ten year old boy]: "Those aren't poops. Those are her breasts. All women have them. You'll get some when you get older too."

Girly [patting Momma's upper chest]: "Where's yours Momma?"

Momma [near to tears laughing]: "Oh, they're hanging around here somewhere."