Clarisse's Stuff

Pizza Sauce

2011-07-21T17:13:00.002-07:00

I want Pizza!! But I don't want to pay a gazillion bucks for it, plus I want it now!! Not in 45 minutes or more. So? I dug out a can of tomato sauce, dumped some dried basil, oregano, a pinch of thyme and bunch of re-hydrated minced garlic and a packet of crushed red peppers from the last pizza delivery in a little saucepan, warmed it up so the flavors could blend and Viola! Yummy pizza sauce! I looked up recipes online, and there are a bunch of them but what I was hoping to find was a Copykat recipe for Pappa Murphy's Take N Bake red sauce. All I could find was the garlic ranch chicken sauce. I might try that the next time I have left over chicken meat, tonight all I had for my toppings was thin sliced sandwich ham, sliced black olives and medium cheddar cheese. Came out a bit greasy from the cheddar, but smacked those pizza craving buttons and I am extremely satisfied :) Oh! It's an old sour dough bread round I had in the freezer that I used for the crust. I guess that makes it Pizza Bread instead. Either way, I sure hope I can duplicate my sauce 'cause it was delicious!!

Left Over Pot Roast? Make Black Bean Chili!

2011-06-10T15:35:00.002-07:00

Yup, I'm not much of a pot roast fan, but my husband and his father like it and it's one of the less expensive cuts of meat that I just can't pass up when on sale. However, we always end up with a huge chunk of that grisselly fatty meat left over. Usually it gets put into a sandwich for lunch the next day, then sits in the fridge till it turns into a nice little dog snack for Nelly and Scooby.

This time, we had such a large roast, there was just too much to let go to waste. I got this idea that since the old fashioned ground up suet meat that we used to get to make chili con carne was mostly fat with a little beef in it, why couldn't I grind up the left over pot roast and use it the same way? Guess what? It turned out super delicious!! We trimmed off as much of the fat and grissle as we could, chopped it up in the food processor and then added it to a pot of black beans, seasoned it up for chili and it was fantastic!!

Getting creative with leftovers is soooo much fun, especially when it turns out well :)

Enchilada's!

2011-03-09T12:42:00.005-07:00

I love enchilada's, but rarely make them because I never really cared for the red sauce from the can. My mother used it, but she always added left over gravies from other meals, like chicken gravy or roast beef gravy or even both kinds of gravy added to the same red enchilada sauce, and they were always delicious. Actually, now that I think on it, I believe she used those powdered sauce spices you buy in the envelop and doctored those up instead of the cans, or maybe both from time to time. She was a Super Mom, career woman on her own with kids, before the term was even coined and back in the 60's there weren't many kitchen shortcuts like there are nowadays. (Isn't it amazing how delicious pre cooked food from the market deli's are now? We take it for granted but the meals you can make with a simple roasted chicken picked up on the way home are wonderful!)

Well, I had left over pork adobo taco meat, left over frijoles, onions and other taco fixings that I usually make into a taco salad, but it was a cold and gloomy, rainy day and I wasn't in the mood for a cold salad meal. Aha! Why not make Enchilada's! Meat, cheese, onions, corn tortillas, a little bit of this and that all rolled up together with enchilada sauce, huh-oh, I don't buy enchilada red sauce, not a can of it in the house and I was about to give up on the idea since I didn't have any left over gravies either. Dumb idea Clarisse, and it hit me. Doh! The internet silly woman! Recipes are all over it, I've been trying new stuff for years now, ever since I got "connected" and Viola, several home made enchilada sauce recipesright at my fingertips . They are really super simple too, and guess what? Delicious!! I should have taken a picture but my family devoured them before I could get the camera out.

What's my point? I'm an idiot sometimes. It's like when the power goes out and you think you can't use your gas stove because it has electric ignition switches and all you really need to do is hold a match up to the burner to get fire LOL!!!

Wow! Time Sure Flys!

2011-02-17T16:25:00.002-07:00

Well, it's certainly been ages and ages since I posted on my blog! Glad I'm not giving out life or death information here LOL!!

So far, 2011 is sure looking to be a much better year than 2010. Even with job losses and other family disasters, we are beginning to smile a bit again.

And better yet, I'm sewing, knitting, trying to paint and beading again! Yay!!! I got a new Brother electronic sewing machine for my birthday, a new camera at Christmas and have almost worked out my crafting spaces so that I can actually get some stuff done. It's about time, I've been missing my creative me. It's one of the things about myself that I treasure most and it feels good to have my emotions and my mind in a place that I can actually be productive again.

Sock Stealing Kitty

2009-10-23T13:18:00.002-07:00

Meet Luna. She is one of the 2 babies I just couldn't bare to part with so, yes, I have 4 cats now. Xena isn't happy about it, she still thinks she is the queen bee around here and makes sure that all the other "kids" know that she is the boss of them, but they all enrich my life so much and I love 'em. The topic of cats and knitting comes up frequently on the chat/email groups I participate in and today was no exception. I remembered I had managed to take these photo's of my little sock and yarn theives and wanted to share them while it was still on my mind.

This orange tabby is my male kitty, Sunshine. Luna is relaxing on the top of a bin stack. I had thought this shelf arrangement for my yarns that are in plastic cases would work, I was way wrong. The "kids" think it's great fun to knock them to the ground. It reminds me of the way my children used to love to spill stuff all over the floor, just so they could watch me clean it up LOL!! So now I have my heavier cones up on that shelf. So far so good, they are squatty and heavy and can't be pushed off the edge so easily.

The New House

2009-10-04T11:56:00.006-07:00

I hadn't realized that it's been so long since I posted! Between all the Facebook and other email updates, I've kind of been slacking on my blog. Yup, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :) So, we are moved in, well, as moved in as we will ever be I suppose. We could probably fill another moving van with all our junk that's been left behind. Here are some photo's of the new house. We're pretty settled in now and getting used to having Ed, my Father in Law, living with us has been easier to adjust too than I orginally had thought. That's really nice too :)

View from the front door into the living room. I've since moved the bigger table back into the kitchen and have the little table in the front corner of the living room. I'm still looking for a sofa and a couple of chairs.
The counter bar and dining are of the kitchen.

The living room from the dining area.

and the Man Room!

Moving... Still!!!

2009-07-16T04:02:00.006-07:00

Well, we have one more trip to the desert and that should complete our move. The "vacation house" will have the minimum necessitites in furnishings for when we go "visit", but I can't believe that we filled up a 24' moving van, a pickup truck and my car and still have another pickup load to go! What was that I was saying about being a pack rat? Yup, it's true, and we got rid of everything we could bare to part with too. E.J.'s just as bad as I am. He's been moving around bricks from the old Banana Ranch in Angels Camp since 1984 LOL!!! I don't know what's worse, that he has them, or that he knows what they went to after all these years. "E.J.! What are these rocks for? Why are we moving rocks?" "They're from Banana Ranch!" Oh Brother!!! His little bit of must keep Gold Rush memorabilia/history is from the infamous bordello building outside of town LOL!!!

When we got here, the girl dogs where in season so Augie was tied up out front, where he decided to vent his frustration by doing a little landscape demoliton.

This area was all planted and those now empty containers used to hold cuttings that E.J. had started. He also took out a 4 foot fence section. Lucky for him, E.J. was taking it out anyway, but still..... Bad Dog!!!

This was a beautiful long stem, nearly thornless, red rose bush. Augie decided it was time to prune it down to the base I guess. Bad Bad Dog! And we won't even go into the Geraniums, well, what used to be Geraniums. Good thing they will snap back.

Now that the girls are out of season they are all out back in a very large, fenced in yard, with lawn, dirt, trees and the service porch door is open so they can pretend they are in the house :) The only thing missing for Augie is his little kids wading pool, we'll have to see that he gets a new one on payday. He is a water dog after all, and even though the Delta is just a short walk from the back fence and across the road, he's not allowed to go by himself and Dad is too tired at the end of the day to make it an every day trek. We all know that I ain't gonna do it either, so it's back to a little wading pool to get him by between Delta swims :) After all, we don't need him ripping out lemon and peach trees. Hmmm.... maybe we should tether him to those plum trees we are going to take out LOL!!!

I couldn't give up my kittens, I found a good home for Sadie, the first born on Saturday, had a taker for Luna, the little girl born on Monday, but I wasn't convinced that it was a good match for her so I decided to keep her, and Sunshine, the little boy born on Sunday, was a keeper for me too. So I have 4 cats now, confined to living in 2 bedrooms (we cut a little cat hole inside the adjoining closets between our bedroom and my Knitting/Cat room so they can go back and forth between them in secret during the day) but I let them out to carouse around the house at night after Ed is in bed :) He doesn't like cats so I'm making sure he doesn't have to deal with them. See? I can make sacrifices and be a nice person too sometimes :)

'I could make that jump, there would only be a small avalanche of stuff, I could live with that!'

'Let mee oowt!'

'Those kids just need to get with the program and relax.'

Combining the 2 households is an ongoing challenge, but we are beginning to make some progress. It's so overwhelming to see all these boxes piled up in the rooms and trying to figure out where to start. It's been especially hard for Ed. He's used to having 2 bedrooms that he used as closets/garages so there is lots of stuff to be organized and gone through. I'm really proud of him though, today he actually threw out a whole large garbage bag full of receipts and mail and stuff that dated back to 1985! 3 packrats in one combined home, I'm going the rail and bracket shelving route for all the closets and half my knitting room walls, E.J.'s talking about a 12x12 new storage building built out back where we are taking out some prune trees. Good idea, turns out our first choice home is a money pit and requiring all kinds of expensive rebuilding, so we got lucky on that one, but we are still managing to find all kinds of ways to sink money into this place too. I think all homes are money pits! It's either fix and repair or change and add on :)

4th of July, 2009

2009-07-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

The real joy of moving back to California is that the bulk of my grandchildren live here too. They are only 2 hours away, up in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. My Mother and 2 sisters and their families are only an hour and a half away too. It would be nice if they were closer but I also have Aunts and Uncles right here in the East Bay too. My mother in-law and her husband are up in the Sierra's closer to my daughter too, so it all works out quite nicely :) Now, if I could get my son out of Florida..... and Alex out of Canada.... but this will have to do for now. We keep hoping to get Alex for the summer again, but there are complications with the new passport laws and his citizenship, maybe we can get it all ironed out for next summer.

What's even more perfect is that even though my daughter and I have a somewhat volatile relationship, it's really great right now and I'm going to enjoy every last single minute of it!! We were able to join them for the Fireworks show at Don Pedro Reservoir and it was a very lovely evening. Not too hot at all and the display was wonderful. They have some new to me fireworks that are the big chrysanthemums and then the tips of the chrysanthemum burst into to tiny chrysanthemums. Very very beautiful, I wish I'd have been able to get a shot, but I need to get a larger memory card. I ran out of space on the camera, but more importantly, I did get these shots :)

Grandpa and Selene (aka Squish becuase she's soft and squishy :)

Squish, Grandpa and Becca

My little angels with their glow in the dark "Halo's" Severen and Trinity.

Giddy Up, Dawg!

Becca and Justin getting ready for the fireworks display at Don Pedro Reservoir.

Let Freedom Ring!

As The Kittens Grow

2009-06-06T01:36:00.005-07:00

At 4 weeks old: I was so worried that Xena was going to harm the kittens and I couldn't have been more wrong. She practically adopted them as her own, or thought she was one of them, I'm not sure which but she was constantly with them along with their mommy. She's been a perfect Auntie Xena and Stimpy is the best momma kittie I've ever had.

At 5 weeks they've managed to climb out of the basket and have discovered the yarn, and wrestling. They were so clumsy and so cute and have so much fun together.

At 7 weeks: They have discovered climbing around the furniture. That's my doublebed knitting machine under the cover, my Knittin Kittens :)

All that rambunciousness takes a heavy toll, naps are taken often throughout the day.

Auntie Xena and Sunday, he's 9 weeks in this shot.

Taken tonight, my little cat family. The babies will be 10 weeks old this weekend and if I don't take them to find new homes now I'm going to miss my "ooohh aren't they soo cute and little!" window and my hubby will not be pleased if that happens. 5 cats is just too much for him to take, but me? I'd love to keep them all :)

Don't they look so content and happy? I need to get a better shot of Saturday's face, it's orange and white striped on one side and brown and white striped on the other other side. Two Face would be a good name for her :)

Kitty Grandma

2009-04-01T19:06:00.003-07:00

No lack of drama here! Stimpy snuck this one in, she never showed any signs of being in heat and there were none of the tell-tale male cat fights at night either. She just snuck out, went next door where there are a couple of boys one afternoon and here is the end result. Please, spare me the lectures, I've heard them all :)

Anyway, to continue the drama, she went into labor Saturday afternoon and #1 was born around 10:30 pm (the calico with the light grey body and black head). #2 was born about 6 or so hours later on Sunday (orange tabby, the only boy). I knew there was still at least one more baby in there, but all day Sunday went by, I looked it up online and was advised by several websites that it's known to take this long but I should take her to the Vet. I decided that since she didn't show any signs of being in any kind of distress or discomfort, if the baby didn't come before the end of business on Monday, I would take her. Thank goodness Stimpy decided to save me that bill and #3, a darker calico, arrived Monday afternoon. Whew! Talk about cutting it close :) All are doing great. She decided to deliver in my bed, I'm hoping to save my white comfortor and white and pink sheets, but I found some great stain removing formulas to try. Besides, the sheets are old and isn't that why the make Duvet's? I'm just happy to have babies in the house again.

Xena isn't being threatening but I still don't trust her so I'm keeping them in different rooms. It was rather noisey the first couple of nights, Xena is the queen bee and believes the whole world revolves around her so she's a bit confused at being locked into the back bedroom. Oh well, she'll get over it. I did introduce her this morning and she behaved, but I still just don't trust her. Stimpy thought it was great to be able show off her brood to her evil sister. But she's such a nice kitty and Xena is, well, Xena :)

Packrat Advantage!

2009-03-26T12:50:00.003-07:00

I've come to a kind of odd conclusion. It's better to be a packrat. I am going to stop agonizing over my obsessive compulsive inability to throw anything away and embrace it. I have started a list of some pretty good reasons too.

I almost always have what I need for a project, even if it takes a while to find it all.

I don't have to hurt anyones feelings by not keeping a gift that they gave me.

If it's something that I'm not going to use very often, I can put it in a storage space and then get it when I want it.

I get to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself (i.e. a kiln at a garage sale for under a $100!!!) When I want to learn to throw pots, I'll be all set but for the clay (yes, the wheel has been in the back of the garage for years now)

I can live totally by my whims.

I don't have to make agonizing "decisions" about what I want to keep and what I don't want to keep. I get to keep it all!!!

Shame On Me!

2009-03-20T15:46:00.003-07:00

I've had so much change the last few months, I just realized that I hadn't posted anything to my blog since January! Shame on me!

Most of you are aware that E.J. and I are in the middle of a lifestyle change. But, to sum it up, when construction came to an abrupt dead stop here in Kingman, AZ, so did his landscape job. His boss, bless her heart, really worked hard to expand the landscape business into more private homes as opposed to new construction, but with the recession starting into full swing, he was laid off last May (or was it early June?). He began the excruciatingly difficult job search process and drawing unemployment ( a real joke here in Arizona, I couldn't believe how little the employee earned insurance payments are here compared to California).

Anyway, his father suffered a complication from his cancer surgery and on a Thursday in August 2008, E.J. took an emergency flight to San Francisco (maybe it was the Oakland airport, can't remember now) and hopped on BART to Concord, expecting to stay about a week or so, but after he saw his dad in the hospital, he just knew what he had to do. He picked up a newspaper to see what kind of work was around, faxed his resume to a company on Friday, had an interview on Tuesday and he started work the following Monday. Wow!! Was that fast or what! Mr. "I Hate California!" Mr. "Curse The Day My Family Forced Me To Leave Michigan", calls me up and says to me "I hate to admit it, but I am home." Turns out that he really does love California after all, it's the mountains and the snow he hates, not the San Francisco East Bay Area. Concord/Pittsburg to be more precise which is actually more at the mouth of the delta into the San Francisco Bay, the Carquinez Strait etc. as it is on the east bay, but mappers consider Contra Costa County as East Bay Area, so who am I to argue LOL!!!

So the new "Do Over" began. We've been living apart since then for a few reasons.

I'm too fat to heave myself up and down the stairs of the 2 bedroom townhouse they are living in.
The only bathroom is up those stairs.
We have 4 dogs and 2 cats that are not allowed to be in the complex.

Number 3 is the biggie. We could turn the two bedrooms upstairs into a little dorm room type kitchen and I would only have to go up and down the stairs when I needed to go out someplace, so there is a work around for that one, but our "children" Augie, Scooby, Nellie, Ren, Stimpy and Xena need a place to live too. Rent is over 1500 dollars a month in that area and that's just not acceptable. The upside to this recession and property crisis is the number of foreclosed homes for sale on the market. We've looked at about 15 homes in our price range, have currently made 5 offers, 2 were outbid on, 3 are "waiting to see if they get something better" and we are still looking. We just need to be patient.

I was driving back and forth to visit my beloved hubby, but another little kink in the rope. My son and his lady friend had been living here with me which made it possible to take off for a few weeks at a time. They took care of the "kids" for me. Well, Stephanie's father is in his mid 70's too and he took a sudden turn for the worse and begged them to come back to Florida. They packed up the Jeep and off they went. I'm very proud of them for loving their families enough to take care of them when needed. Chris sure helped us out while he was here and Stephanie washed dishes! Anyone that knows me, knows how valuable that made her to me LOL!! She's a lovely woman too, I really enjoyed getting to know her and reuniting with my son. He had been in Florida for about 4 years. Now he's helping another family that needs him. I'm so happy he has those kind of values. Both my children grew up with some extreme emotional disadvantages but have overcome them (or are continuously working with them) to become wonderful people in their own rights. I'm very proud of both :)

So, just in case you were wondering. There it is LOL!! More information than you ever wanted to waste your time on. In the meantime, I have reclaimed my home, I have knitting machines in every room but the bathroom and kitchen. Hmmm.... I do have a mini Bond machine I could hang on the wall next to the toilet LOL!! Nah, I'll stick to the dpn's and sock knitting for that space. Hows that for an addict!!

Selene and Great Grandma

2009-01-01T02:38:00.003-07:00

And this is what it's all about! My mother and my granddaughter, this is love :) Yes I knit the blanket :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T02:28:00.002-07:00

Just when you think that the younger generation and their children don't understand how wonderful life can be and how sharing love with each other can be super terrific, little kids in the neighborhood go out into the street at midnight on New Years Eve and bang pots and pans screaming Happy New Year!!! Just the exact same way you did back in the 50's! Life is a truely wonderful thing, there is hope after all for our future and it lies in the hearts and souls of our children.

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

Top Loader vs Front Loader Felting

2008-12-29T08:30:00.003-07:00

On some of the list groups the subject of felting methods comes up from time to time and among these is the debate about front loading washing machines and top loading washing machines for the felting process. I have seen all over the internet that front loaders can't felt. I have seen some felting done in front loading machines and there was still stitch definition so I attributed that to the lack of agitation in the front loaders. I am saying all this because I now have proof that I was wrong when I believed that miss information. Here is a picture that shows it.

The red boots felted perfectly in a very nice, very fancy (yes, I want one now) front loader.

The pattern is the hand knit Fiber Trends Alpine Boot Slipper pattern and although the pink furry boots look red, they are actually hot pink with light pink fun fur. The furry ones are the high top version and were felted in my top loader, the red are the low top version, knit for my grandson who was with his mother this holiday so we won't know if they fit him or not yet. I hope he likes them because....

My Granddaughter LOVES them :)

2008-12-16T20:31:00.005-07:00

My Holiday Wish

With a deep respect for all faith's and cultures,
Out of love for all humanity, regardless of beliefs and practices,
May the traditions and celebrations that you hold dear,
Be filled with the gifts of peace and joy that sharing our lives with others brings us,
And that those around you are treated with respect and tolerance during this very magical time of year.

Seasons Greetings and Happy Happy Holidays!

Love,
E.J. & Clarisse

>^..^<

Fan and Feather Layette

2008-11-04T03:05:00.004-07:00

This layette is all hand knit. The Feather and Fan pattern stitch can be done on the machine, but it's kind of tedius and sometimes, just because you can, doesn't mean you should and I opted to hand knit the little baby afghan/nursing shawl.

This is Bernat Softee Baby sport weight in Bunny Print. First I attempted a Baby Surprise Jacket with it from a test pattern, but the numbers were off and it was lopsided so it got ripped out, then I did the All In One, too blah and I ripped it out again. I wanted something a little lacy so I decided to try the feather and fan for the bottom part with the intention of putting it on the LK140 to do the top and sleeves. Well, I decided I didn't like the plain stockinette with it, it needed to be a garter stitch since the rows between the lace are garter stitch so off it came again, ripped out the machine part and I ended up hand knitting the whole thing. I think that's got to be a first for me, I converted a machine knitting pattern to hand knit LOL!! Usually it's the other way around, going from a hand knit pattern to the machine. Just goes to show how versatile it all can be :)

The booties are a free pattern I found online and I must say, I think I really like it. It was fast and fun to knit up and when I find the url again, I'll be sure to post it and I think I want to do some kind of a little bonnet. If I hurry, my granddaughter will actually get to wear it before she grows out of it LOL!!

This is a little crochet dress from a free pattern online. It was supposed to fit a newborn to 3 month old. It fits my 15 inch Betsy Wetsy doll perfectly. Yes, I'm a little disappointed, especially since I got the correct gauge too. I guess we get what we pay for sometimes, but oh well, the basics for the pattern are good and I'll just change the numbers to get a dress that will fit a real baby. The little red Mary Jane sock is a victim of incorrect gauge, but a really neat learning experience, intarsia in the round, and it barely fit the teeny feet on this doll, so I'll go ahead and make another one to match it after I make the required adjustments for a pair for my little granddaughter. The doll isn't going to grow out of them so she will just have to wait LOL!!

And this is another baby afghan knit on my Toyota KS950 punchcard machine. I really am pleased with the way it turned out, but I do need to get a better photo. It's cream colored with a pale pink ribbon woven through the crochet edge.

First Birthday Gift?

2008-11-04T02:52:00.002-07:00

Well, I thought I'd convert the All In One Cardigan pattern that I am so fond of for use with the Bernat Softee Baby Jacquards yarn on my mid-gauge LK140. This doll wears about a size 3 months to 6 months size and as you can see, this sweater will fit a 12month old quite well. Major calculation failure, but at least it's proportionate and came out too big all over instead of just too wide or just too long!! I had a heck of a time deciding what kind of trim I wanted to put around it, nothing I did looked right until I tried these garter stitch bands. Perfect for the sweater and the sleeve cuffs are long enough to roll up too.

So, it won't be a new baby present, but I'll knit up a pair of matching lavender pants and a pair of socks out of the jacquard and maybe a little beanie hat with the jacquard and lavender together for a cute little suit for Selene's first birthday next October. Since I have a real reputation for giving gifts belatedly, at least I can honestly say I knit this one up with oodles of time to spare. Ok, 11 months in advance LOL!! Keep your fingers crossed that I don't forget I knit it and pack it away someplace never to be found again :)

Xena's New Bed?

2008-10-07T18:31:00.005-07:00

These were so funny I just had to put them up. When I left to my Doctor visit she had scrunched down the one mattress on the futon, I have 2 pads, a thick one and a thin one, and when Xena gets a little chilled, she likes to be under covers. Well, I guess she couldn't get herself buried under the blanket so, like a good crafter, she improvised :)

When I came home this evening, this is what I found. What a nut!! I guess she warmed up. You know what, she has her very own felted kitty bed that she usually sleeps in when she's not in her corner by my feet in my bed, but it's in the window of my little knitting room. Silly Kitty!

Maybe I need to felt a little foam mattress pad for the inside of her bed. Come to think of it, she's in the window when I'm at the computer or on my bulky machine. Guess I really need to make her another felted kitty pie bed since she really just wants to be where I am. Especially since her daddy is in California now, she really feels abandonded and has gotten a little bit clingy.

Experiments

2008-10-04T15:52:00.002-07:00

Knit weaving experiment. It looks better in the picture than it does in real life. I'm using a solid for the knit yarn and an icky scratchy ombre for the weave. It looks kind of messy and doesn't appeal to me though. More to come, I've got a dark brown that I'm playing with now.

What's up.

2008-08-17T15:24:00.005-07:00

When my son and his lady friend moved here from Florida, I gave up my knitting room for them. That meant packing away most all of my knitting machines and yarn stash. I decided I might as well take advantage of the circumstances to force myself to learn my White 1602 electronic doublebed machine, so I packed away all my standard gauge machines but that one. It's very nice and more fancy than what I'm used to. I guess the best way to describe it would be that it's a step up in technology than the punchcard machines since it uses an electric circuit and light scanning box to select the needles for pattern stitches instead of the older punchcard technology. The programing also allows for some fabrics that I wouldn't be able to easily create on my Japanese flat bed machines, like doublebed jacquard. My beloved Toyota machine has Simulknit which means floatless fair isle, but that's not quite the same as the doublebed jacquard. The other benefits to this machine are not having to punch out cards, it has 60 stitch reusable mylar cards for more intricate motifs and it also has the ability to knit a single gigantic motif, like a black and white picture of Elvis' face for example, across the whole 200 needlebed.

Anyway, I've been a little intimidated by this machine, I've had it for 8 years? Oh gosh, didn't realize it had been that long, I lucked into it on an eBay auction back before I knew what I was doing and had only been a Bond knitter!! Shame on me, the only things I've really knit on it have been socks and swatches. That's why I decided it was time to stop letting this beautiful piece of equipment get the better of me. I'm still fighting the urge to unpack my Toyota punchcard machine, it's so much easier to go back to what I know than it is to meet the challenge of learning something new, but I am determined and it's paying off.

I knit these socks with it (they don't really count though since I already knew how to do this, they were warm ups and confidence builders I suppose). The little doll dress I knit last spring was started from a swatch that was knit on this machine too.

Some Fingerless Mitts with it (this was an exercise in U knitting to create a thumb hole, highly successful)

This swatch I knit today to see the range of yarns that it would take. My Toyota knits this Lion Brand Soft Baby Sport yarn with no problem, it's what I used to knit up the Wedding afghan for Sarah and Tim's wedding gift, but I didn't know if the White 1602 would be able to handle it. It does! So then I had to try

Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted just to see, and much to my surprise, it knits too!!! It even was able to do a tuck rib stitch! It needs edge weights that I didn't bother with for the swatch and I think if I were to knit a garment with this yarn on this machine I would try every other needle. I like a little more drape to my knits. But ain't it cool? I just might be able to sell my mid gauge machines after all!

I also knit a face cloth with it, but it was way too large so I frogged it and will try again. I've been having a hard time getting it to knit cotton, with these successes to today, I think I'll get brave and try the cotton again. I think I might just have had it on the wrong tension settings.

So that's what's going on in my boring little life today :) What fun!

Latest Finished Projects

2008-07-07T14:03:00.004-07:00

My new to me Grandson, Severen, is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan. Raphael is his favorite so I made this up for him. It's hand knit with Red Heart Sport on size 5 needles. I didn't have a pattern so I just guessed using the Red Heart websites hat pattern chart as a guide, I sure hope it fits. It's too small for me but too big for the baby doll and it measures out for what patterns say should fit a 6 year old kid sooo....

This American Girl sized doll dress was finished up yesterday. It's machine and hand knit with a crochet edge.
I found the instructions to make these beaded earrings at some website online. My beads are a little too large so they are bigger earrings than I wanted, but I wore them anyway. I've ordered some size 11/0 beads to make a couple more pairs, just a more reasonable size. I really enjoyed making them. It's called a Basket Stitch, built from a ladder stitch base. Very fun to do.

Becca and Justin Anderson May 25, 2008

2008-05-30T17:14:00.002-07:00

The new family
The "Bashful Bride"
The Newlyweds

Circle/Pinwheel Doll Sweater

2008-05-17T15:57:00.003-07:00

The Circle/Pinwheel Sweater. This little experiment was taken from a free hand knit pattern at http://www.elann.com/ . I can't really say how I did it in details, I lost my notes so I don't know how many stitches I cast on, but I did it using the same short row wedge technique for the round/pinwheel baby blanket patterns that are available on the internet. For the sleeve openings I just dropped one ball and picked up another ball which left like a button hole in the wedge where I wanted the sleeves to go and I hand knit the sleeves with dpn's. It worked great, but I was shooting for an infant size and it ended up a perfect size for the 18" doll :) That's cool, I'll figure out how to make a matching one to fit my granddaughter and I think she will really like it :)
This is how it looks from the back. Oh, this is the long edge down with the shorter edge at the neckline for a small shawl type collar. Below is the sweater flipped over.
Same sweater, short edge down and the long edge used as a big shawl collar.
I think it turned out pretty cute if I may say so myself :)

Tofutsie Anklets and Latest OTN

2008-05-17T15:45:00.003-07:00

These anklets are knit with Tofutsie's Bamboo blend yarn. There is enough left in the ball to make another pair of these I think. There's lots of yarn and this stuff is really soft. It splits a bit so I don't think I would use it on my machines, but it's wonderful to hand knit with. I like it.

I finished the Tofutsie's anklets on the plane to Michigan and I started these. This yarn is a hank I got off of eBay from Karen's Kolorways, it's a wool/tencel blend and it's really great. I haven't washed it yet so I don't know how it washes out or if it blooms, but it's very soft and these colors are incredibly vibrant. I believe I'll be buying more of this stuff too :)

2008-04-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Sarah and Tim's Wedding Gift

This was knit on my Toyota KS950. I was inspired by Gladys Goodeys Aran Afghan punchcard and created the hearts in a tuck stitch. The trellis type tuck stitch panel pattern was punched from the Harmony Guide to Machine Knit Stitches. I used Lion Brand's Baby Soft Sport weight yarn, but it's really lighter than sport but a tiny bit heavier than fingering weight. It knit beautifully on my machine and I love the total weight and over all feel to the afghan. It's actually pictured on the top of a queen sized bed, so it's more a coverlet than an afghan :) I sure hope they enjoy it, I think it's really snuggly.

The Hand Knit Booties

2008-04-14T22:28:00.004-07:00

These are the hand knit booties, I just love those little mary janes :) I haven't seen them on the baby yet, but I'm told that they look adorable. That makes me very happy.

Baby Girl Knitting

2008-03-28T23:54:00.008-07:00

E.J.'s Boss gave birth to a baby girl a couple of weeks ago and slow procrastinator, never satisfied with what I'm knitting me, still is working on her gifts. I know, shame on me! Here is where I'm at. I also have a pair of little knit legging type pants on the machine too. I should get the crochet around the edge of the 3rd little sweater this weekend, get them laundered and delivered this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Oh! These were all knit on my Toyota KS950 standard gauge with crochet trims around the little Matinee Jackets. I really should knit a bonnet and some booties too. I just found my favorite baby book of patterns, go figure, I've been searching high and low for it for a couple of months now, turns out I had stashed it under my desk in a magazine holder. So now I have even more ideas to work out, I'm in knitting heaven :)

Success!!!

2008-02-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

I received my electronic scanner box for my White 1602 fixed doublebed machine last weekend and it works!! It's awesomely wonderful and I am so excited about all the wonderful stitch patterns I'll be able to knit on this machine :) This is a scan of my very first patterned stitch swatch. It's a slip stitch pattern and I just think it's beautiful! The differences in the diamond shapes near the bottom are from tension changes on the settings, the larger wavey pattern at the top was supposed to be a different pattern, but I didn't understand what I was doing and when I changed the carriage settings, this is what I got instead. I've lots to learn!

Alexander's Hoodie

2008-01-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I hadn't put any pictures up of Alexander's finished Hoodie. This was part of his Christmas present package. I also knit him a balaclava, like the one E.J. is wearing further down in this post. He is still waiting for a pair of socks in "all those colors, Grandma" and he's also requested another Hoodie, with red and blue in it :) He loves that I make him stuff.

I used the varigated yarn to knit the front and back and was going to use the solid navy for the accent, but it looked horrible! Not appropriate for an 8 year old boy anyway. Would have been cute for a baby I suppose, but this is done in Bernat Softee Chunky so it's got huge stitches.
I knit it up on my Toyota KS610 bulky machine.

Below is the balaclava I knit for E.J. It's out of the same yarn that Alex's was knit with. Now, this one I did by hand, I converted the hand knit pattern to the machine and knit Alex's on the LK140 so it had a seam up the back of it. I also ran out of yarn while knitting E.J.'s so I had to improvise and used a double strand of Lion Brand Wool-Ease sportweight. The color is different, but it almost looks like I planned it that way. Both hats were knit in Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight based on the Helmet Liner pattern at http://www.tropicalyarns.com

My only suggestion would be to make the ribbed neck part about 2 inches longer for better neck coverage. E.J. folds the ribbing up and it looks like a regular knit hat when he isn't keeping the cold wind off his face. I should have knit him some of these years ago because he says it really does keep him warm, along with his scarf that is :) Stick 'Em Up!

First Finished UFO for 2008

2008-01-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

These socks have been OTN's for over a year now. I think this Regia sock yarn was among the first skeins of sock yarn I ever bought! Anyway, the pattern was an experiment, E.J. commented that he can feel the bumps from the purl side of the fabric on the soles of his feet, I think he just has over sensitive feet. But anyway, I decided to try switching my stitches so the knit side was "under foot" and guess what? He's right, there really is a difference. My feet aren't so sensitive so the purl bumps are fine for me, but I guess this will be the new method to use for his socks. Too bad I really dislike purl knitting. Maybe I'll just make his socks inside out next time and see how that works :) Anyway, one UnFinished Object down, a gazillion more to go.

Oh, and aren't these clear clogs a kick? Just right for showing off crazy knit socks :)

Felted Boot Slippers

2007-12-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I knit these up on Christmas day for a true last minute gift for E.J. :) I really enjoyed knitting the pattern. The next pair will have double soles though. E.J. likes the cushiness better with a double thickness.
This is what they look like pre-felting. 15 inches long felted down to 11 inches for a perfect E.J. fit :)

Merry Christmas! Happy Yule!

2007-12-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

We decided to go small with our tree this year. It's just the 2 of us but we still wanted to deck the halls, so it's a living potted 2 and a half foot Stone Pine tree that will get planted out back if it survives being indoors this long :) It's actually a pretty little tree and I'm glad we did it. There's just something about colored lights on a fresh pine tree that soothes the soul.

And we got alot of our decorations out of storage in California last summer so we had to put out some of our Christmas Bear and Stocking collection. This isn't all of them, but it gives you an idea. E.J. put the shelf up with the lighted garland over the window and it's perfect to display them. Now he just needs to put up a few more shelves so we can do the same around the whole living room. It feels very festive and decked out now :)

Merry Christmas!

Back to Knitting

2007-11-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been neglecting my blog so I thought I had better post something, anything :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm still waiting for my brother to send me some pictures of the holiday my family shared at his house. I wasn't up to going anywhere, so I bought all the fixings that morning and cooked up a storm. It was wonderful. I discovered that if I add a little milk and honey cocktail to my pain medication, just a little, I can do anything LOL!!! Only a one day solution though, the hangover pretty much wiped out the urge to try that again :)

Let's see, I've disassembled (remember Short Circuit? No disassemble Johnny 5!) the hoodie I was knitting for Alex. It's just plain ugly, but I think if I make the base color the Navy and maybe add a couple of stripes of the ombre, it will be all right. I've decided that I just don't like the really thick super chunky yarns for garments. This yarn is the Bernat Softee Chunky and it's super soft and a lovely yarn, but the stitches are just too big. They aren't so pronounced in the dark color so I think I'll be able to live with it. These yarns would make good hats and scarves and afghans, but for my taste, that's about it.

We finally got our cold weather, had to start heating the house the weekend after Thanksgiving, and my hands freeze at the computer so I knit up a pair of fingerless mitts. I love this wool, it's something I picked up at a thrift store and it's very nice 100% wool. Too scratchy for a sweater though, so I'm going to see how it felts. I ended up with 10 balls of it and I think it might make a nice purse or felted clog slippers. Hmmm... my daughter's favorite color is purple :)

I'm working on my Christmas list. As usual, procrastinating till the last minute. I did get a few things done at the end of summer, but I still have a ways to go and I don't want to give anything away just in case someone in my family reads my blog. Fat Chance! I think I'm one of those out of site out of mind people. Oh well, I love me and I love what I do and so does my husband :)

I've also started a new Dred hat for E.J. He's misplaced the one I made last year, it's around this place somewhere, but I think I can knit one up easier than finding the old one.

Hooded Baby Bath Towel & Dish Cloths

2007-10-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

I still haven't fixed my poor old camera so I can't get a good picture with the towel opened up, but these should at least give you the idea, it measures out to about 32 inches long by 27 inches wide with a 10 inch hood. It's folded up from the bottom to the neck of the teddy bear and the sides wrapped around.

There was some discussion on one of the email groups about the colors and how they hold up with use for dish rags. Here's one I pulled out of the drawer that was hand knit about 5 years ago. It gets used all the time and it's really faded out, but still has color :) I imagine that the softer colored cottons, like light pink or pale pastel type colors would bleach out to beige, I haven't used those yet. As you can see, I don't like to waste yarn, when it's functional stuff for me to use, I use up my scraps. Saves money and works prefectly fine, like my scrap bed blankets too :) See what happens when you have a problem with throwing anything away? I'm sicker than I thought LOL!!!

These are a couple of shots of my Thanksgiving/Fall dish cloths. When I saw the yarn, I thought it was awful, but I actually like it all done up. Here's the link to the pattern

http://clarissepatterns.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-favorite-dish-cloth-pattern.html

and this is the more ribbed style tuck in the Christmas colors :)

More Felted Clogs

2007-09-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

This pair was made for E.J. He loves the wild colors, and as you can see, Stimpy really really loves all things felted :) We're going to do some re-shaping on the one, it didn't felt evenly and the 2 don't match very well. The bad thing is that I knew they were a little off and decided to see what would happen if I felted them anyway. Now I know :)

Our vacation for this summer

2007-08-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

http://clarissecamp2007.blogspot.com/ will take you to the summary and photo's of our vacation :) It was a perfect time, even if I got a little moody because of my inability to do the things that I love like hiking down to go swimming at the natural water slides at Candy Rock, or dancing at the outdoor music festival in downtown Arnold, or walk the arts and crafts booths at the festival. I suppose I didn't make the best first impression for the new additions to the family either, but oh well. It is what it is and as long as I had my knitting, I was a really "happy camper" :)

New Kitten and New Kitten Bed

2007-08-15T20:23:00.001-07:00

E.J. decided since we were adding to the family, he should get to pick one out too so he called me up from a clients home and asked me to come get Cocoa Bean. Yes, he's a male, born near the end of June, and we only wanted females this time around, but he's soo cute and his color is really unusual. It's a brownish smoke grey, but he's tuxedo marked. Stimpy loves him, she has someone a little smaller than her to play with, Xena has just about disowned us. She was willing to tolerate Stimpy, but now she has no patience for either of them. Xena chases the babies out of our bedroom and she rules the back half of the house, the kittens run the living room and kitchen area. I guess a second kitten was more than she could handle, but we're attached to the new kids already so she is going to have to learn how to deal with it. Silly girl, she really wants to play with them too. She'll start to, then remember that she is jealous and smak them upside the head and run down the hall. Oh well, I hope she gets over it soon.
The final pattern for the felted kitty bed. There are so many things I will be using this technique to make. I'll put up the pattern for it in a couple of weeks, I still want to refine a few things and it's kind of tricky to put what I did into words. But it's definitely easy to do and makes the bowl shape I was after. **UPDATE** I've posted the pattern. Here's the link http://clarissepatterns.blogspot.com/

The pink and red and blue was a short row experiment that looked like it would make the bowl shape, but when I washed it to felt the yarn, it laid flat and made a felted pad. It's actually kind of fun and can be used for several different things. A hot pad, a little throw rug, a chair pad, but Stimpy likes to sleep on it, so it's hers, but it's a good thing she likes to share cuz Cocoa Bean seems to have adopted it too :)

It's a Hit!

2007-07-30T17:20:00.001-07:00

Even 2 sizes too big, it's a hit! Stimpy, the new kitten, liked it first. Xena was interested but this yarn, even though it's been washed 5 times, still has a slight musky ram odor and she wasn't sure she liked it. But I got up from my nap, and there they were. I guess Xena booted Stimpy out, but she didn't go very far away. Xena just decided the other day that I could keep Stimpy, they started playing together and this is the first time they've slept this close together.) Nothing nicer than when the kids are getting along :)

Felted Kitty Bed

2007-07-29T17:52:00.001-07:00

I came across this website http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm a while back and last night decided to figure out how to make the kitty bed on my bulky machine. This is what my first attempt turned out like.It's too big and poofy, but my technique idea is sound and will work which makes me very happy. Xena is intersted already and it's still wet.

It's sitting on a small 1 bushel ($1 store) laundry basket. I'm going to wash it a couple of more times. I used some old spun in the grease homespun I bought years ago (really pretty icky) and it's taking a bit to felt it up. This is after 2 full wash cycles in the washing machine. The pink furry stuff is Boa eyelash yarn.

Now, what I did was, I cast on 40 stitches, the next attempt will be using 30 stitches and I used the round baby blanket technique. After grafting it together, I cast on 10 stitches and used the SAYG method to connect the round section as I knit the side band. I skipped every other bar to close it up, but it made it a tad too gathered and poofy so I think the next one will be done in a alternate method of like: pick up every bar but skip the third bar. I'm hoping that will make it more of a straight up side than a gathered kind of almost beret looking pouch. Say! That might not be a bad tote bag/purse! Hmmm.... the gears are smoking now LOL!!!

Spring Reggae Hat

2007-06-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

E.J. had asked me to make him a cotton dred hat for summer.
I'd been putting it off, but I finally designed a pattern and this is how it turned out.

The yarn had too much pink and purple in it for him though, so he wasn't gonna wear it. In the photo's, what looks orange is really hot pink LOL!! But the hat turned out like I wanted and it is now my prototype and I used one of my Christmas bears for my model :)
I guess he changed his mind though. He came walking through the door today and I was able to snap this shot of him wearing the hat.
He still thinks it has too much pink, but it does do what he wants, so I'll be making a new one, with more "macho" colors for him :) I'm also going to experiment with a lighter weight cotton. This one was done with Peaches and Cream and it's a tad heavier than what I want. I'll be looking for some sport weight cotton, maybe Aunt Lydia's Denim? in white and tie dyed? He'd be thrilled, as long as I don't use pink :)

Oh, it's hand knit, but I think I can adapt it for the machine and use one of the mesh type punch cards, then do the decreases and bill by hand and seam up the back. I'll be sure to post what I come up with. It's gonna be alot easier now that I have my basic design down.

One Panel Afghan from Super LK100

2007-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Lion Brand Suede One Panel Afghan/Bed Cover

This is the maiden project for my doubled up Super LK100 knitting machine. A bunch of us were able to snag the Lion Brand Suede yarn when it was .99 a skein at the .99 Stores around the states and I purposely bought another LK100 so I could put the 2 machines together (see how it was done here ) and knit up this luscious chenille yarn as a single panel afghan. In other words all in one piece instead of having to knit sections that need to be assembled because of machine length restrictions. It's laid out on a full size bed, and as you can see, it turned out to be almost a bed spread, if I'd have made it a little bit longer it would be the same size as a comforter. This was using all 160 needles on the combined machine , knit at tension 9.

A closeup of the crochet ends. I just did a single crochet around the whole blanket, this yarn doesn't curl much at all and the single crochet with a size K crochet hook did the job, but I wanted it a bit prettier so I did 3 rows of shell stitches on each end while leaving the sides plain. I like the look and feel of it. Oh, your eyes aren't buggy, there are stripes. Since this was an experiment I didn't want to use up all I had of one particular color so I alternated one skein Spice and one skein of Garnet. A weird color combination but it goes with brown leather, which is what my new sofa will be :)

This is the piece while it was still on the machine. This yarn is marvelous and super soft and cuddly. I will be making more of these. The texture of the yarn is sufficient for interest so no pattern is really necessary for a very nice item.

New Felting Projects

2007-06-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I just purchased this yarn from The Yarntreehouse on Ebay, these are their photos, it came in the mail yesterday and I didn't want to waste my batteries taking a new photo when these represent it perfectly. It's not as soft as merino wool, it's got about the same texture as Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes so I anticipate it felting up very nicely.

This is how the wool is supposed to knit up and I think it's soooo pretty. I can't wait to see how it's going to look as a felted bag! and a felted hat! Wouldn't those colors brighten up a dreary winter day! It's like rainbow sherbet :)

This is a picture of my first felted bag. I was warned that this felting thing could become addictive and it is :)

The Flower Beds

2007-06-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'll ever understand this, we moved to the desert and E.J. has decided he needs to turn our yard into Hawaii :) As you can see, Augie doesn't get it either and he thinks it's his personal little hole digging, green eating, shangrilah.
E.J. was told that bulbs wouldn't grow here, so of course, he planted all kinds of bulbs :) and of course, they were all wrong. The day lilies hadn't opened up yet for the picture but the glads are blooming all around the yard. I thought the wind would break the stalks, but so far they are going like gang busters.
and get aload of these! I just love the orange ones, they are perfect and just beautiful. The snapdragons behind them were throw aways from the nursery last year. Guess they decided to tough it out too. I'll get some more shots of the other areas of the yard later, it's really hard to get anything descent because I still haven't taken my camera to the shop to fix the focus on it. It's only been a year and a half since Alex and I dropped it..... Sheesh, shame on me. I just can't seem to let go of it long enough to send it off.

Lace Curtains

2007-04-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I got them knitted up, blocked and Viola! I'm still not done. This darned acrylic yarn just refuses to cooperate, my choices are either to kill it or add some kind of fancy edges to try and tame the curl. Other than that, I'm really rather pleased with them. I knit them on my Toyota KS858, I just love the way that machine handles the lace knitting and I'll be doing lots more of it.

The yarn is a 2/24 acrylic, low fuzzing which is ok for curtains. It would actually make a nice lacy baby afghan or a lacy shawl.

And here is the final product. I killed them a little bit with a steam iron and some light starch. I am happy with them now and will let them brighten up my little knitting room. Huh Oh! There's an uncovered window on the opposite wall.... here we go again :)

Didn't Shrink!

2007-04-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

While I was in California this past winter, I knitted up a pair of the Pocketbook Slippers with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. I figured I would just hand wash them since this was my felting yarn for clog slippers. The pattern http://www.knitwits-heaven.com/pocket_book_slippers.htm was a super quick knit and there is a machine version out there too, I just can't seem to find it at the moment.

Anyway, I accidently washed them today, warm water cold rinse and guess what? They didn't felt! They didn't shrink either, they came out just fine! Yeah! By the way, these little slippers fold up into each other and take up no space at all so I've been carrying them around in my purse (haha look like a pocketbook, fit in a pocketbook how very clever) because several of my friends and family don't allow shoes on their carpets. These are very cute and comfortable too and I just noticed that the pattern site has a toddler version. I'm thinking if I add a couple of stitches I could make a pair that will fit my granddaughter too, they look so much like little mary janes.

What I've been up to lately

2007-04-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I thought I'd let you know that I've been sewing for my granddaughter and my hubby, I put up a few pictures of some nightgowns and one of the dresses on my sewing page if you want to see.

So, the UFO's that I'm currently in the middle of are:

2 more dresses for Trinity,
1 more pair of flannel pj bottoms for E.J.,
developing a hand knit summer cotton hat for E.J.,
another pair of felted clog slippers,
the lace curtain panels,
a hand knit Barbie coat and a couple more little tops for Barbie,
a felted hat (just have the swatch knit, will felt it to see if this yarn will work),
I've also made a couple of passes at knitting socks on the flatbed with ribber, no luck yet but I won't give up,
and I now have some mylars to see if that part of my electronic scanner box works on my White 1602 so want to get to that today too.

So, all in all, I'm still a busy little girl and I think I have enough on the table to actually stop starting and start finishing :) The last lace panel just got cast off the machine so I'll be blocking them and sewing the rod pocket and hanging them up soon. I'll be sure to post pictures when they are hanging merrily in my knitting room window. I do love making the lace!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

The wearin' o' the green, only thing missing is the Guiness. I think instead of braids on this one, I might try the cut and sew (sew and cut) method we've been chatting about on our email group and make it a snug fitting cap instead. I machine sewed the back seam and it was really easy to do, but then, of all the holiday's, a leprechaun should have something a little silly like braids, well, easter bunnies too. Yup, another experiment coming up :)

On the KS858 today

2007-03-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is how far I got last night so these shots are from day one :) I'm using a very pale yellow 100% Acrylic 2/24 yarn. I thought I'd go through my learning phase with this then I'll try cotton for my kitchen curtains.
I received my new lace carriage so decided to make some lace panel curtains for my knitting room. The windows are small in there so I'm hoping I'll be able to finish them this week. Right! I also have to finish up E.J.'s St. Patty's Day hat so he can wear it for the holiday too. Plenty to get done for sure. On the lace, I thought I had made a mistake but what looks like a missed line is just a crease in the cardboard that I put behind it so you could see the pattern and if it is a mistake, too bad!!! I'm not ripping it out now LOL!!!

Simul-NOT!

2007-03-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is where I started. I was very optimistic since one big hole seamed like an easy adjustment to fix....

and this is where I've stopped...

Don't get me wrong, I still absolutely love my Toyota machines, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, I just had such high hopes for this particular function of it and it hasn't gone my way, yet. Yes, I will try again. Some other day when I'm in the mood for some more self loathing and torture. These were done on my KS950 with my KR505 ribber. The long strip with the varigated looking band of ribbing will be the hat. It's a little short so I may have to put it back on the machine, but it will be one solid color of plain dark green.

These are the pieces that I figured I could go ahead and share with the world. The wadded up mess of yarn is representative of about 4 other attempts. I finally quit trying to save the yarn and tossed the other disasters.

HOWEVER... See how the back turns out in comparison to fair isle with floats? This is why I will try this again and I am bound and determined to make it work right. Well, that is unless my White doublebed does doublejacquard or at least a version of floatless fair isle, which I'm pretty sure it does. In that case, I will let this be another lesson and excuse for owning and using so many different knitting machines :)

Rasta Hat from Knitty Gritty Show

2007-03-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is the pattern that was demonstrated on the HGTV/DIY knitting show, Knitty Gritty. It really turned out nice and it was fun to knit. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight and it turned out a little too big, so the next one will be done on smaller needles. Years ago, I had crocheted a snood to hold my hair back, well, E.J. confiscated it and wore it all the time, it was like this but in a mesh and no visor/brim. Now he wants me to make another snood, but with the visor like this one has. I actually think I can pull it off. He'll look silly as ever, but his hair will be out of the wind since he's decided to be a long hair again :)

More Felted Slippers

2007-02-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

For Mom....
My sister Joan asked for blue and this pair of red went home with my daughter, Becca :) I'm home now and while I was away I hand knit 3 pairs of felted clogs, 1 pair of pocket book slippers, 1 pair of Red Heart Strata Dorm Socks, 3 cotton dishcloths and machine knit 2 Barbie outfits along with a few lace punchcard swatches. I guess this is the kind of productivity you get when you don't have computer access 24 hours a day. No distractions, just lots of knitting :)

Tester Barbie Outfit

2007-01-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

I got the Brother HK840 up and running and here is her first completed project, a pullover sweater and the long pull on skirt. What a breeze to make, I just kind of eyeballed it all, the body of the sweater is one piece and the sleeves were knit from the shoulders down, the skirt was just a rectangle with a thin cord of elastic for the waist, seamed up the back and hemmed. Viola! You sock knitters out there might recognize the yarn as Knit Picks Simple Stripes sock yarn :) Now if I could just find my punch cards so I can test that out!!!

Christmas Pillowghan

2007-01-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

Well, finally! I finished the pillowghan for E.J.'s boss. It really shouldn't take this long, but I ran out of green yarn, and our Wal-Mart isn't the greatest for keeping a good stock of items on their shelves. Then there are all the other projects that I let side track me.... Anyway, I hope she likes it. I used the Toyota 610, the pillow pocket is a two color tuck pattern. That was really fun to do and I really like the way it turned out too. I'll be using that stitch pattern for more items.

Just for Grins :)

2006-12-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Before and after felting :) I couldn't get the slippers to dry after 3 days and I could tell that I hadn't rinsed all the soap out, so I went ahead and ran them through the washer one more time. This time I didn't stop the wash before it went through the whole cycle and now they are a perfect size 8 (down 2 more sizes) so I'll be making a different pair for the mother of my grandson. It's just as well, since blue is her favorite color. Hmmm... I may just have to keep these for myself? Nah, these will go to my mother in law. They're just a hair too small for me. I started another pair in the red and brown and couldn't resist putting up a picture of the difference. I sure hope they stop shrinking though. I think I can keep them out of the dryer but hand wash in cool water? The reality is that they won't and they'll end up going through the laundry. As long as they stay in proportion, that's ok, there's always someone with smaller feet somewhere LOL!!!

WOW!!! Felted Clogs

2006-12-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

I finished them, the felted clog slippers, and they are wonderful! These were hand knit from the Fiber Trends Clog Slippers pattern using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn. I knew it must work, but since this was my first felting experience, and the knitted project was sooo floppy and loose, I had my doubts and just look at them!!! I love this!!! I made the large women's size, just because I didn't know how it was going to work out, and they actually are a large women's size which means they are too big for me but they'll fit my daughter in law, she wears size 9 and 10's, so they should be perfect for her. It's a good thing they don't fit me, I think I would have had a hard time parting with them otherwise. :)

Santa Hat #2

2006-12-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got a natural smile.
Here's Santa Hat number 2. I will refine the punchcard a bit more but I like the all over Santa's better than the row of larger Santa's in the first hat. And I got in trouble for leaving off the braids! He prefers braids to tassles :)

December Hat

2006-12-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the first hat for December. Not as much fun as the pumpkins were, so I'm going to see if I can make a 12st Santa face for an all over pattern like the October hat was and maybe add a band of some sort of a green pattern to go between the ribbing and the hat. You can really see where the needles didn't select correctly in a couple of spots. I hope that practice and experience will make catching these little mistakes easier while there is still time to fix them. E.J. likes braids better than the tassles too. Ok, since he is the one wearing it, I suppose I can accommodate that :) This row of Santa's would make a cute sweater though, especially if it were bordered with a little green pattern on the top and bottom. Hmmmmm.......

Felted Clog Slippers

2006-11-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here is slipper number 1, pre-felting. I can't stop laughing at how huge it is! Fee-Fi-Fo Fum! Slippers for giants! My foot isn't even all the way back to the heel and it just dwarfs my 'not so small' size 8.5 feet. Too funny and I can't wait to see how this felting thing works, so it's off to knit up the second one and to the washer and we'll see how they turn out :)

Toyota KS610 Scarf

2006-11-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

I set up the Toyota KS610, a 9mm machine and knit this scarf. I had forgotten how much I love this yarn! It was from Caron, a thick and thin response to LB's Homespun, called Fascination. It's a shame they didn't keep it long. I still have several skeins in several colors. When I got it the only machine I was using was my Bond and I had to EON to use it. I have since used it on 2 different 9mm machines, the LK100 and the Toyota KS610, and it works beautifully on them using every needle and as loose a tension as possible on the carriage. This particular scarf was an experiment with a T9 setting, but I like the T10 much better. The higher setting on the LK100 had a more relaxed fabric and didn't curl near as bad as this one did. Even with 2 rows of crochet, it fights to curl. This yarn is soooo soft and lush! I think I need a new sweater LOL!!!

End of the Strata Saga

2006-11-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the tassle hat to go with the Red Heart Strata baby blanket I made last month. As I was whining about before, I washed, I fabric softened, I steamed and steamd and the yarn is just too scratchy for an adults skin, let alone a delicate little newborn baby so.....
Flip! Turned it over, crocheted a strap and Viola! A new purse/bag!!! It's nice and tightly knit too, I made it on the LK140 and the steam melted it just enough where it's made a nice sturdy feeling little purse. I think my granddaughter will love it :) Heck, if she doesn't like it, I do. I'll just make a longer strap and it will hold a wallet, checkbook, lipstick and cell phone, what more do ya need when going out? LOL!

Sock? Not!!!

2006-11-07T00:58:00.000-07:00

The Machine Sock Process....

Looks like a good start at a perfectly respectable sock right?

Nice ribbing. See? Nice little tube going, went to put more weight on it because it started to skip a couple of stitches and...

I guess I should have zagged when I zigged because when I transferred the ribbing and started the circular knitting, I ended up with, well I don't even know how to describe it, but you sure can't get your foot in it! I must have had some buttons set wrong (zagged) and instead of knitting one side at a time, it knit one row all together and then I must of changed something (zigged) when I finished the set up and just knit away thinking I had a perfect tube going on. LOL!! Oh well, here we go again, that darned learning curve!

Happy Halloween Hat

2006-10-26T04:44:00.000-07:00

and here is the punchcard pattern done correctly :) It's not blue! It's Purple!!! Oh well, you get the idea anyway. I knit a folded up 2x1 ribbed hem, then did the punchcard patterned rows, took it off on waste yarn, sewed up the back seam, then sewed the top straight across and braided the tassles. Pretty funny and my husband loves it! Happy Halloween!

First Homemade Punchcard!

2006-10-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

They aren't little bombs, they are little pumpkins. Well, they're supposed to be anyway, and they looked good on paper. Whew! What a learning day. First of all, the pumpkins are supposed to be orange and the background purple (couldn't get my camera to give up on making the purple blue) so I need to switch what is color one and color two, I didn't look at each row to make sure the needles were selected right, I wore long sleeves and noticed that I was bumping some of the needles so I have some odd stitches every so often, but other than that, I'm actually kind of tickled with it. I just love learning days!!!

Oh, I based the card on a smiling train face from Wendy Phillips Small World pattern book and I only ruined 1 card. I don't think that's too bad for a first go at it :)

Strata Blanket Completed

2006-10-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

I finished the blanket, spread it over the chair, stepped into the kitchen to get the camera, and this is what happened. My house dog loves it as much as my house cat I guess. If nothing else this scratchy type yarn would make great pet pads :) Actually I was able to soften it up a bit with fabric softener and steaming it. I do not recommend that garments that touch the skin be created from this yarn, but things like back packs, rugs, placemats, decorator pillows, and throws would be awesome. The patterning yarn in the bulkier weight is great.
I'm usually not a fan of the purl side of knitting, but I have to say that I like the purl side better on this blanket. It almost has a woven look to it.and this is to be a hat and shows the actual stripes as it was intended to be used. With a little more time, I think you could actually figure out the gauge/stitches to get the colors to change on the edges. And they say machine knitting is cheating, bwahahahaa!! but that's for another day, I've got socks to finish! :)

Red Heart Strata yarn

2006-10-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

The overalls and little socks from the Opal Brazil yarn were a huge hit, everyone wants a pair of socks now, even complete strangers :) Those colors are just so eye catching. Anyway, one of the gals from the Machine Knitting group mentioned that Red Heart had a new yarn out called Strata, she shared a scarf she had made from it and it turned out wonderful. I got curious about how the self stripes would work on a wider scale and I've been testing out my LK140 and hadn't tried the heavier yarn yet so I thought I'd try a baby blanket with it. This color way, Crayon, is similar to the socks I made, so I hoped it would go with the socks, sort of like a set. I think this yarn would make a great hat, especially one of those with the corners and tassles hanging from them like pony tails, but I'll use the HK100 or the LK100. I think the yarn is too bulky for the mid-gauge, at least for my taste in fabric anyway.

E.J. says it's got too much green and gold in it which makes it a Green Bay Packer blanket and that's not allowed in this Lions Den, sheesh, what a one track mind! My cat won't leave it alone, I went ahead and just took the pictures because she was going to snag it with her claws if I kept kicking her off, so that is Xena, my little warrior princess :) She really likes the blanket and thinks it's just for her, my vote is still out, I think I'd like it better with smaller panels so you get a real simulated fair isle stripe, maybe each panel edged with red and then assembled sort of like those mile a minute afghans, but I'm going to go ahead and finish it up as is and put a red pie crust edge around it.

2006-09-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

As of tonight, this is the gift. I'll go to Wal-Mart and get a onesey and unless there is some miracle, and I'm able to finish up the cardigan (hahaha) that will go with it. I was just a little tickled with the socks and I needed a break from the sweater, so here it is. :)

Clouds Baby Blanket

2006-09-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Another gift. This blanket was hand knit from the pattern on the yarn band. Red Heart Baby Clouds. I crocheted a semi picot edge which gives it a kind of worm trim edge. It needed something so it wasn't so plain, I did a 5 dc shell first time around and ran out of yarn with about 1 foot and a half to go, so switched to this one. It does the job ok, not as fancy but it works.

There is a baby sweater to match being put together. The parts are all crocheted and I think I'll finish it up today.

Baby Overalls

2006-09-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is part of a baby shower gift, knit on the Toyota from a hand knit pattern and lots of frogging and re-knitting :) They are size 3 months, but look gigantic because I didn't include anything in the picture that could be used as a point of reference, that's a baby hanger so it's little.

I'm wanting to make a little sweater to go with it too. The shower is a week from today so I'd better get cracking if I'm going to do it. It's my husband's boss who is having the baby, and I couldn't decide what to make so I ended up making several things. I'll post those pictures as I finish them up. What ever gets done before the shower is what she'll get :)

Alexander's Hoodie

2006-08-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Finished in the nik of time. Below are his "I'm a model, Grandma!" pictures :) Thank goodness for my machines, I broke my hand last week and would not have been able to create the promised sweater in time if it weren't for them. Proof, a casted hand can still push a carriage! This one was knit on the Singer HK100 an 8mm machine using dial setting 7.

Oh, this sweater is done in Red Heart Soft and the pattern I used was one I posted to the Bond List patterns page on Stephanie's site years ago. I made a few changes and found a few errors in the original post. I'll have to talk to Lea-Ann to see about how to get it fixed.

His new socks were also finished and are posted at http://clarissesocks.blogspot.com .

Toyota SK858

2006-08-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

My first punch card swatch! Wow, I have been really missing out. I thought hand manipulating stitches and patterns on my very basic manual machines was so cool, now I feel like a complete dope. I wonder how long I'll be satisfied with punch cards now that I understand how this all works. Electronics ... here we come!!! Nah, I'll be satisfied with the punch cards for awhile, I still like the rythem and the process, but you can bet that I won't be automatically skipping the more sofisticated machines on ebay anymore. This is just awesome!

Oh Brother! Profile 588 is out of the closet.

2006-08-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

I recently acquired a Profile 588 to go with all the books and manuals that my mother in law saved from going into a dumpster a few years ago. I gave like $10 for the machine, the carriage was broken but I was able to purchase one from the UK and it just arrived the other day. A fellow knitter from the Machine Knitters Yahoo group mentioned a stitch pattern book, a light bulb went off "I have that book!" I had glanced at it but didn't understand it at all. Now even though I've been studying my White 1602, I had to set up the 588 and try out this old machine and WOW!

This is the first lace, I did a couple of tuck patterns too, but frogged them before I realized I wanted to post pictures. You can see where I started to mess up. You have to really pay attention to what line of the instruction you are on. I'm thinking I might want to copy the chart to a bigger piece of paper and then use a ruler to help keep track of where I'm at.

As I was amazing myself with what can be done on these machines, I remembered the first time I saw a knitting machine. There was yarn shop in the little strip mall that we used to buy cards of angora yarn to wrap our boyfriends class rings with so they would fit our fingers. We would brush and brush that yarn until all you could see was a gem stone in a nest of fur, then we started using dental floss and embroidery thread coated with clear nail polish. We'd build the layers up and end with setting words like LOVE or PEACE or little peace signs using snips of colored embroidery thread and burying it under more coats of clear nail polish so we could flash our boyfriends ring around. Sorry, guess I'm having some sort of flash back LOL!!!

Anyway, this machine was plugged into the wall and the carriage just went back and forth all by itself. It was astonishing to see, the price was pretty astonishing too and I never gave it another thought. That was for rich people. Funny how things impress us when we are young and how those impressions stay with us. Little did I know!

Now my Grandson wants to know if I can knit anything else except swatches! "You sure have to practice alot Grandma, are you ever going to just make something?" Kids, gotta love 'em.

Even a Ripple!

2006-08-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is from the White 1602. I did it last night with the racking lever. What fun! The hardest part is remembering which way you just clicked the lever.

Fancy Stitches!

2006-08-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Woo-Hoo! It's not right but it's a start! The curvy lines are supposed to be on either side of the straight line, but the point is that I got curvy lines!!!! This racking thing is awesome!!!

Success!

2006-08-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

2 x 2 Rib and 2 x 2 Double Sided Fisherman Rib!!!

Thanks to the help of some very talented, generous, giving, wonderful and every other nice thing I could possibly think of to say about someone, I have 2x2 ribs and 2x2 double sided fisherman ribs from my White double bed knitting machine! Happy Happy Happy!!! I could kiss everyone of you! Remember that song from To Sir With Love? " How do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?" That is just a little of how I feel right now. This is wonderful and I would never have figured it out. So much for manuals! Alan, Alison, Patrick... you are the best! I hope you're ready because now I want to try the fancy stitches in the back of the book :) Thank you so very much.

Here's a picture of the 1st pass for the cast on. I sure hope it looks right because it worked :)

Here is after hanging the comb and the 2 circular passes and before re-racking to opposite normal knitting position. This is just sooo great. I can't wait to share pictures of the fancy stitches I'm about to embark on. Then after all this swatching and experimenting, maybe I'll actually make something :)

Trim the Fringe

2006-07-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

I have been going back and forth on trimming the loops and making regular fringe or leaving the loops on this afghan. This makes my decision for me.... Trim!

Dog Sweater

2006-07-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

This dog sweater is a pattern from the Lion Brand Yarn website. I acutally used a Caron soft pink with Bernat Boa instead the Lion Brand yarns, I feel kind of guilty for that, but this is what I had on hand to try the pattern with. I have a few more colors that I'm going to try and now that I've done one by hand, I think it will be very easy to convert to the bulky machine. My cousin, the pet groomer, is getting requests for the upcoming cold season. I think I need to either get a small dog, or find a stuffed poodle someplace to use as a maniquin. I'm sure E.J. will opt for the stuffed one :)

DPN Rolled Holder

2006-07-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

I finally had enough of having to size my dpn's and dig dig dig through my drawer to find a full set of the same size needles that I got busy the other night and made myself a roll up pocketed holder. I've numbered the slots by size, the front pockets hold the shorter (5"-6") sets and the back pockets hold up to 14" sets. As soon as I dig up some of my fabric paint, I'm going to permanently number them so I will always be organized. Well... as long as I put them away where they belong :) I used a safety pin to hold a few stitch holders and the last pocket holds a few crochet hooks.
Fold the top down, roll it up, wrap an elastic band around it ( I used a hair band) and Viola! Organized! No more digging through bags and drawers. I wish I would have made a pocket to hold my small sizer. Hmmm.... I saw a ring type needle sizer that I may have to buy and then I could just put it on the safety pin inside with the stitch holders. OH! I think I'll add another safety pin and use it to hold some stitch markers too! Perfect!

The USA Afghan is going to Canada!

2006-07-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is. All done. I ended up knotting the fringe after all. It kind of looked like it was just coming unravelled without the knots. Now it has a more finished look, like it's supposed to be that way. I think next time I will make the knitted on band wider with a doubled up stitch pattern so it will show off the edge more. I did a pie crust edge on the sides. Alex thinks I should make some stars and add them to the blue sections. A budding designer?
He loves the blanket so much that he has begged me to let him have it when he goes home at the end of summer. He sleeps with it every night, even before I had the fringe done and just goes on and on about how it's "so warm and snuggly Grandma". What a kid! Guess my air conditioning is a tad bit cold for him. It's only Red Heart Super Saver and we all know that even though it is a very durable yarn, snuggly isn't one of it's attributes :) Oh, I used Soft Navy, White and Cherry Red. Maybe I can get some Red Heart Soft in the same colors. Now that would be snuggly!

Due to popular demand, I've put the instructions for what I did to create this afghan on my free pattern page. The link is at the right :)

Patriotic Afghan

2006-07-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

It's almost done. Didn't quite make it for Independence Day, but there are several holidays that the red, white and blue are appropriate decor for so it will not go in the UFO closet. I hope to finish it this week and also finish up a couple of dog sweaters I've started. Having a 6 year old around makes knitting time a little difficult. Fortunately he has made friends with the neighbor boys so I'll get a little done while he is outside playing :)

The Grand Kits

2006-05-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

The babies are tearing the house apart! If they can knock it down, over, chew it, spill it or just plain shred it, they are on it! I love it, they are sooo cute. My shins are nothing but scabs from their sharp little claws. I think they will be ready to find new homes this weekend, they are almost 8 weeks old. I'll need to start a new pair of socks and sit in front of the grocery store, then Mommy is off to the vet for her little tummy surgery.

A Creative Productive Day

2006-05-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

I was really motivated today. I stitched up the fun fur dog sweater, ordered some 9 dpn's so I can do the legs and edges, made these 2 pairs of earrings (lousy picture but they shine and my camera still needs to see the doctor), I decided I wanted some really dangly long ones, put together my hubbies new barbeque and finished up the sock twins.

To Finish this Week!

2006-05-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I must be ADD? I admit it, I get bored too easily and I have absolutely no self disipline. My mood dictates what I do at any given moment and I have a gazillion UFO's around the house. These 3 I have picked to finish up this week.

The top 2 are dog sweaters, I'm excited about the furry one, I bought the pattern from the Lion Brand yarn website because I just had to make it. I've always felt sorry for those little dogs getting all shaved and I just think that having their own little fur coat will help them keep some of their dignity, while being all neatly groomed. My cousin Jan (it wasn't meningitis afterall, it was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever! She has a dog grooming business and like everything worth while, there are risks, but she is doing great now). Anyway, she mentioned that she gets requests for dog sweaters so I am working on some ideas for that and decided the faux fur was a must. I'll be trying out some of the other colored furry yarns too. What Fun!

The socks are almost done. I've had to put them down several times, because of being too nit picky about them matching up. I was on a mission and this may be the only time I bother, what a lot of tinking, but guess what? They are identical!!! I'm at the final toe decreases and it looks like I will have finally succeeded with my identical twins. Yippee!!! I'll post a better picture when they are done so I can brag about their perfection, right! ROFLMAO!!!

Continental Style

2006-05-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by another blogger who was determined to master the Continental technique so I thought this dishcloth would be an easy piece to try it with. It definitely changes the gauge of your stitches. I put the arrow in just in case you can't find where I changed styles. Too me it's quite obvious, especially in real life. Who would have thought that guage would matter on a dishcloth.

Yes it's faster once you get the hang of it, but I learned something I didn't expect. I had to stop crocheting because I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and my left thumb and forefinger would just cramp up in agony when I crocheted. That is when I started to knit, first with a machine because I thought my days of using my hands were numbered and the machine was an attempt to maintain my creative side, but when I tried by hand, I didn't know why, I didn't have pain like when I crocheted. Well, I now know it's because of how I hold the yarn. Continental style knitting holds the yarn the same way crochet does and it uses the same joints. So, although I have mastered the technique, I will not be using it. The trick was to use my right forfinger to hold the yarn around the needle to complete the stitch. I'm just happy that I mastered something that I thought I couldn't do :)

Baby Bonnet

2006-05-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is the bonnet from Gina Ahren's Layette Set. I had a bit of trouble with the lace part, it's been along time since I did any of that type of work on the machine, and the chart doesn't divide evenly into the stitches for the bonnet. I started the chart pattern from the middle and worked out towards the sides so it worked out fine. I think I will knit a band on it to cinch it in and gather a little at the bottom, but all in all, another Gina success :) Oh, I didn't have the yarn the pattern called for so I used some cotton Knit CroSheen I had laying around. I think something a bit more elastic would work better.

Baby Blanket USM'd

2006-05-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

And here is the baby blanket for E.J's co-worker. The top picture is a closeup of the double moss stitch edge. I sure like the look it gives to the edge but I think a fisherman rib might go faster. I'll try that for the next one. Below is a picture to show more of the blanket, because I haven't fixed my camera yet, I couldn't get a focused picture of the whole thing but you get the idea :)

After several requests for instructions on how to make this blanket, I've created a Free Patterns page. I'm not a pattern writer so I hope I was able to describe what I did in a way that makes it possible for someone else to successfully make the item too :)

OTM (on the machine:)

2006-05-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

E.J. decided to tell me that he'd like a gift for one of his co-workers that just had a baby, soooo I'm whipping out a baby blanket on the super Bond today. It's a girl and I just happen to have a pink varigated from Caron Dazzelaire that's been waiting in the stash pile for just such an occasion :) It's a very simple blanket done in stockinette with a double moss stitch border. I guess this is how he justifies my expensive collection of machines, "Can't you just make something really fast?" Oh how little they understand, LOL! Since I'm doing the edging as I go, it takes longer to knit it up, but I really like not having to do any finish work once it's off the machine. Talk about wash and go! I'll put up a picture of it when it's done.

OTN

2006-04-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm currently re-making a pair of socks that I've started about a zillion times now. I finally gave in and asked for some help from the knitters on the sock list and I have taken their advise and am making them with 64 sts. As soon as I get some batteries, I'll take a picture and post it. So much for making something I know will work out so I can get calm! I'm still looking for the website I stole the sock earring picture from. So far I haven't gotten into trouble for sharing it here :) Maybe this is my pennance for not starting the lacey socks for my mother yet.

Sock Earrings AAAHHHH!!!

2006-04-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

My camera needs batteries so I won't be posting my own pictures today, I just needed to vent about the tiny sock earrings I'm experimenting with. There are some beautiful pictures of sock earrings out there, Dawn's are my personal favorite. I saved the picture above so I could try to use it as a guide, they are perfect in size and proportion. Now I can't find the website so I can post the link. I hope she doesn't get upset with me for stealing her picture, I'll keep looking for the link and add it when I find it. I have found a few patterns online, I even experimented with making up my own and I just can't seem to get it to look as good as Dawn's do. Yes, I am jealous and I've put them down for a little while, I get too frustrated when I'm unsuccessful at something so I need to make something I know I can do to get my chi all calmed down :)

UFO Out of the Cupboard

2006-04-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is a blurry picture of the squares I received from the Millenium Afghan swap from 1999. Just in case someone was wondering what they were :) The yarn we all used was Red Heart Soft in Navy or White and/or Wool Ease Frosted White. I'll be getting more yarn to finish it.

1st Double Bed Machine Knit Sock!

2006-03-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hurray! I finally did it! I bought this wonderful double bed knitting machine by White a couple of years ago and I hate to admit it, but it intimidated me alot and I have only been able to bring myself to make swatches on it. That is until this afternoon. The manual had the pattern for this little sock so I bit the bullet and just did it and it worked! I am soooo happy!

The baby fingering yarn I used had a little trouble with the short rows and the toe decreases though. The yarn snapped in a couple of places and I didn't know it until after I was done. I'm not sure if I need to make my tension looser or just what the issue was for that, I'll have to jump on one of the machine knit groups and tap into some of the incredible experience out there and see if they can help. All in all, it's a very positive experience and I can see myself knitting the ribbing on the machine, switch to hand knit for the heel, put back on the machine for the foot and then finish the toe by hand. That would knock alot of the time out of it now wouldn't it? And talk about the best of both worlds! This is true luxury, crank out in a hurry when necessary and the zen feeling of hand knitting.

Slippers

2006-03-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

My cousin, Jan, is in the hospital with Meningitis. It's horrible, she's been there for 3 weeks now, and I've been promising her a pair of these bootie type slippers for awhile. I hope they cheer her up. They are incredibly warm and soft. The yarn I used was from the store I hate to love, it's a chenille feeling kind of eyelash kind of super soft yarn called No Boundaries, a 100% Polyamide. The pattern is one that I memorized from High School when I took home economics. Knitting was one of the courses, along with sewing and cooking. I guess they wanted us young ladies to grow up to be good housewives. ROFLMAO!!!!! I have made about a gazillion pairs of these over the years and they are still requested by all who have had them.

OTN

2006-03-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

I started these awhile back and decided it was time to finish up my UFOs. This is an adaptation of Lynn Hershberger's Mom's Fast Florida Footies. I used my standard cast on and anklet ribbed sock but took the no purl heel and the purled sole from her pattern. Since this is Regia and her pattern uses Cascade Fixation which has lycra and is more stretchy, my guage was way different. That's why I kind of made up a pattern with some "borrowed" ideas :) I'm going to try the pattern the way it is written too. I like the no cuff aspect of her pattern. OH, her pattern is at http://lynnh.com/patterns/florida.htm in case you don't already have it saved.

Ummm... wasn't my next pair of socks going to be a lace pattern for my mother? I must be procrastinating again :)

Fingerless Gloves From Sock Beginnings

2006-03-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

They're almost done, just finish up the tipless fingers. I'm alot disappointed though, I tried very hard to make these identical twins and failed anyway. I pulled out from 2 different skeins, they were matching dye lots, and as you can see, I pulled out enough yarn, side by side, matching color for color and after 8 color changes thought I had found my repeat. Wrong. They match up until the middle of the palm, then the repeat changes. It seems that somehow when I was pulling out yarn and finding where they picked up the same I reversed the direction of the yarn from the skein. I'm not sure I'm making sense but if you turn the gloves around side by side....
you can see that the colors are changing in reverse. Oh well, another learning experience :) The other thing I learned is that I don't knit a very even 1x1 rib. No wonder I always prefer a 2x2 or bigger rib pattern. The next set I make will have stockinette knit fingers with just a little bit of rib at the tip. Oh, and I think I will choose a yarn with less of a contrast in colors next time, I think it looks ugly they way the fingers go, but E.J. likes them, so I guess that's all that matters since he's the one wearing them. and he says you can hardly tell that they don't really match. Bless his heart :)

Oh Dear! A New Craft?

2006-03-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Even though I've been knitting for years, I just recently started getting involved in hand knitting e-groups and I've just had to click on every link in every post on the sock knitters list. Wow, there is no end to the extra special talent in cyber space and the generosity of people to share their ideas and insights is beyond amazing. After my DH made his glove request, I realized that I would have to dig out some stitch markers and having seen some of the beautiful "Knitting Jewelry" available on the net, my regular old plastic rings/garbage bag twist ties wraped around a pen to form cirlces/tiny rubber bands, just would not do! I am not a jewelry maker or a bead crafter, but thank you Carol Duvall and the endless episodes that have been stored in my brain because I just new I could make those too. I'm not a very patient person and I wanted them now, not weeks later after an internet order, so I decided to run over to the "store I hate to love", looked over the beading shelf and picked up some stuff that I thought might work and VIOLA! My very own stitch markers. The very odd looking charm is actually a side view of a dragonfly. This was soo much fun, I'm going to have to buy some fancy charms to make some more. Then I can express my every mood, how many stitch markers does a knitter really need? I'll never know because I want lots! :)

The funny thing was after I figured out how to make my own, I got curious about what was on the net for jewelry making and I stumbled on a web page that someone had put up that described the exact same method to make their stitch markers as I had used to make mine. I should have known that I didn't need to recreate the wheel and looked it up online before I started :)

OTN

2006-03-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I started the cuff on another pair of socks using Fortissima Mexiko last night, my darling husband (tongue in check) proclaims that this yarn "would make great fingerless gloves." I guess I should be grateful that he made his wishes known at this stage, I do believe I've got a wrist cuff instead of a leg cuff on the needles now :)

In the Beginning...

2006-02-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

These are some of the first socks I ever made. They were done on my Incredible Sweater Machine, so was the mitten. I have the mates around somewhere, honest, after all it's been almost 10 years ago :) There were many more and they made wonderful gifts for those that don't have really sensitive feet and could feel the seam. I made all my machine socks using Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight. It worked great on Keyplate 2.