CarmelKnits, etc.

it's christmas eve and i have a slew of stuff to do.........which explains why when i am even on vacation i set my alarm and get my butt out of bed at 5:30 in the morning...so here is what's left to do and only today to do it in.... 1. knit at least 2 more hats to give as gifts tomorrow morning 2. finish D's race car slippers which includes sewing, so that explains why they have been 75% done until today when the pressure is high and I have to knit 8 i-cord tires to sew on as well, if i don't get them done, his whole gift will flop in a bad way. 3. i still have to buy at least 2 gifts for people. 4. help mom cook dinner which thanks to Chef Michael in Scottsdale the main course just needs to be popped in the oven......Chef Michael is wonderful, i've taken a few cooking classes from him with mom......So, bless you Chef Michael for the air express Beef Wellington that arrived yesterday in the mail with the special sauce and a big thanks to Curtis for his homemade ...

I love my Tuesday night knitting group.......we're loud, we're funny, we're definitely all different.....there are a few of us who gravitate to the same patterns, yarns etc, but all in all we have a blast for the 2 hours we are together on Tuesday night. This past Tuesday Emily threw down a challenge to me and instead of keeping my mouth shut, I threw down a challenge for myself that's even worse.....and I'm pretty sure that I'm not even going to come close to meeting it....... Emily's Challenge: I should knit 1 pattern from every knitting book I own........Not entirely impossible since I did buy the books for at least one of the patterns but some of them I bought to drool over, and does the challenge include books that were given to me? Probably, knowing Emily that will be an ammendment attached to the challenge kind of like a pork barrel promise on Capitol Hill. My Challenge that I laughingly threw out and then thought about promptly stuffing a ball of ...

Yesterday while D and I were enjoying Hoppy Hour at our local watering hole he told me a story about the Cafeteria Lady where he works...........Every once in a while, he says, she'll chat him up as he pays, usually about something totally off the wall like she's continuing a conversation she started with herself some time ago but now has an audience who will give a new response than the voice in her nugget.....so the story goes... Cafeteria Lady: Do you ever feel like you're not as smart as you think you are? Dale: (probably avoiding eye contact) Ummmm sure........ Cafeteria Lady: There was this farmer and he had a huge mound in his field and all his farmer friends would tell him, 'hey farmer friend, you need to get that mound out of your field'. He would blow him off and continue farming the land and taking care of his cattle, then the big flood of 64' came and wiped out all the cows on all of the Farmers friends farms, but not his.......because his cows w...

It's not my first but it's my favorite......... Virginia Shawl designed by Kim Delacruz who I met when she originally emailed me to test the pattern for her. Not only did I develop a love for knitting shawls while testing I made a friend who I adore even though we are separated by 9 states....the more we talk the more we find we have in common which is fab. You can find the pattern for Virginia Shawl here . I'll give you the details of what I used because it's not what the pattern calls for.......I used Mushishi by Plymouth Yarn, and size 10.5 needles. I had to cut the last stockinette repeat and I only did 4 repeats of the lace border before I did the garter edge and bind off....trust me I was bringing it right down to the wire and had I done another repeat like I wanted a lot of bad bad words would have followed........Either way it's big, it's squishy, and it's all mine even though mom is talking about possibly releasing some of my shawls she's taken...

Since I didn't link to it before the pattern for the fingerless mitts in the previous post is called Susies Reading Mitts.....they are quite fun to make....I do however make a few adjustments. 1. Instead of knitting 5" from the turning round I knit 6 inches 2. Instead of 13 stitches increased for the thumb gusset I increased to 15......13 cuts off the circulation, 15 while still snug is perfect. 3. Use a heavy worsted like Mountain Colors, Dream in Color Classy and a size 4 needle makes for a beautiful and snug/firm mitt. You can get the pattern here Happy Friday!

If you are on the receiving end of a hand knit item and you are in the vicinity of the knitter/giver, the highest level of thanks you can give is to put it on immediately......unless indecent exposure laws state otherwise. on the left are the mitts I made for Shanna. They are perfect in every way and I love them probably as much as she does....Below are the mitts I made for my barista Liz who makes me delicious coffee every day and sends me off to work with a smile. Happy Hump Day (indecent exposure laws apply here too, hump safely but privately, unless your a dog then go nuts)

1. It appears that I have caught another cold....I know this because I sucking on a cough drop and it doesn't taste bad...sure sign that I am sick 2. Gabby killed my Happy Hippo which is actually a blessing in disguise because everytime she squeezed it you would either hear the roar of the hippo (which was weird) or "hi, i'm happy hippo" which made the rest of us not so happy. 3. I brought my fingerless mitts that I am working on to give to my morning barista but discovered that I didn't bring the extra needle to use to actually knit it with. 4. A sweater I bought last week is pilling like crazy and I have little grey fuzzballs blowing all around me leaving a trail. 5. christmas is 3 weeks away and I have yet to find one thing to give anyone except for Kim 6. It's monday and that kind of explains everything

5:00 a.m. is early for most people in the world. 4:00 a.m. is absurd but there I am up with the dogs and getting ready to start my day.......... Let them out, feed them, drink some coffe, let them out again, and then begin my routine. Into the bathroom warm up the shower take my hair down and brush it out strip naked turn to get into the shower The difference today was that as I turned to jump in the shower the bathroom door opened just a tiny bit and what should appear........Gabby's ball and her standing on the otherside looking expectantly at me and it urging me to roll it back...... see, that's the beauty of dogs they don't care if you're naked, or even how you look naked, as long as you roll that damn ball back. Don't worry.....I didn't take a photo