And Life gets in the way!!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Turkey day!!! Ours was great w e had 2 dinners, one with my parents and one with dear hubbies whole family and it was great. A day before the big day we got a mixed bag report on my mom's health. Crossing our fingers that it is nothing. I tell you , be thankful for your health and never take a second for granted. It is a hard lesson to learn, and I sometimes forget myself, BUT you never know what tomorrow will bring.Ok so on APPB's Stacy (Ha I spelled it right this time) sweater on the 22nd I had the back about half done and was still fretting about whether it would fit or not.

Today I have the back all done the front arm hole decreases done, the left shoulder and neck ALMOST all done, phew, and APPB stopped by last night and says she loves the color and it will fit. The stretch on this sweater is amazing. APPB has this teeny waist ( I am jealous, but then again I have 3 wee ones and have NEVER had a teeny waist) at times I was worried it would be to big, but then would look at it and think it was to small.......I work myself into a tizzy when knitting for someone else. I am always afraid they will be brutally honest and then again afraid they will lie and say they love it when in fact they will hate it!!!


Adventures in sock knitting!! Aggravating adventures at that....sooooo this is the sock that I was kitting for myself......ok so start from the beginning, remember a few posts back how I said I hate knitting swatches......ok so I typically knit tight on dbl pointed needles....the pattern called for 1's I normally go up a size...well I don't own size 2's and LYS is closed for the season sooooo I decided to use 3's first mistake! so as you can see she was coming along fairly well, I love, love, love the pattern which comes from an old Interweaves magazine. I did the cuff and thought "gee that looks large even fro my legs" but did not try them on, which was 2nd MISTAKE. so I continue to knit all the way down through 6, 12 row pattern repeats, still thinking it looks large I turn the heel and work about 2 inches of the foot before I say "I better try this puppy on to make sure it fits....." much to my dismay and my hubby's enjoyment it is huge, with the natural stretch in the pattern plus the excess due to the larger needles I could have fit both of my legs in there!!!!! So I frogged the whole thing and am working them up on size 1's. If they don't fit me do I have any takers?!?!?! :) Will post current pics when I am not so mad at the whole project!!!!!!

Here is little b ready for church on famliy Sunday last weekend. His big sis got to sing. he and Big B were relatively good. Grammie had to loan Big B her bracelet to keep his attention. Someone came up to us after and said they thought both little and big B would become preachers.......hmmmmm. I doubt it, but maybe. This is little man all dressed in his sunday best.
S. thought it would be funny to give little B mom's sock yarn to play with. I figured they gotta start somewhere. Maybe he will be a knitter...haha his father and grandfather would probably frown on this idea. Whatever makes em' happy I say!!!!

I am very excited. Inever get invited anywhere (this isn't a pity party type comment, it has to do with having a rather large family and not being into the whole partying thing as heavily as some others...etc) and I actually got invited to a Yankee Ornament Swap. So I got on Herschners.com and ordered up some ornament kits. 3 in all and then I spied a book called "knitting angels" and had to get it. I am hoping it is what it sounds like.........but anyway as soon as they get here I will be creating ornaments, and hoping it will fill me with holiday cheer. Bah Humbug....sorry for those of you Christmas Lovers, I am trying to like it but it is difficult. I do it for my kids and try to smile!

Stacey Pullover from Big Girl Knits

Well here she is......I like it but it looks sooo small, but then if you put your hands in it stretches sooooooooooo much........I don't really know!
It is an awful nasty rainy dreary day here in Maine, in fact it has been for days now. I was hoping to get all the kiddies down for naps and do some massive relaxing, knitting and soap opera watching. Well you know what they say about the best made plans!!! Dear Child #3 sang in his pack and play for 30 minutes before I just finally felt soooo guilty I came up and got him out. now he is happily watching me and the soaps, letting the other 2 sleep. I know what happens if I attempt to knit with him awake though.......he does not like it at all!!! he can sense that I am knitting I swear he can. So for now I have updated the blog and I think we will nestle into mommy's bed and cuddle!! It doesn't last long and they say you can't spoil a good baby, right?!?!?!?
Happy knitting to everyone!!!!!!!

Happy Feetses!!!

Ok so these are THE socks!!! I made Dear daughter a slipped honeycomb sock! She loves them so much! She went upstairs and then came down on the the fly....poor kid she is going to have a bruised belly and banged up elbow.....she popped right up and checked her socks though. Had to explain that brand new wool socks tend to be slippery on wood floors!






Here's the littlest foot eating monster, nekkid no less :) I love the toe sucking action but as soon as I dig out the camera he stops and looks as if to say "uh uh mom no black male pictures of me hahahaha"









And of course I had to take pics of Big B's feet after taking a pic of sissy's. No way could I not take a picture of his feet in his froggie boots.....gotta find a few more sizes of these, they were hand me downs and the kid wants to live in them....gotta love it!!:)







I have the Stacey sweater on the needles and am liking the way it is progressing, will post more on the another day, I am however worried that it will not fit APPB, and will not see her till around turkey day so will keep knitting and hope it doens't all end up in the frog pond!!

Thanks to all who have left comments!!!

Kool Aid and Swatches

Ok so very rarely do I actually do a full fledged swatch...I know I know I shoul,d BUT I have never had a bad sweater comeout of not swatching......anyhow this is the sweater for my cousin, so I figured I would be good and then I got into it, and before I knew it the swatch was full size and I had to stop!!! I love the pattern and have begun the sweater, in fact right now on my needles I have all 6 tedious inches of the 2x3 ribbed waist band.....argh 6 inches of knit knit purl purl purl...BORING!! but I also have about 4 whole honeycombs done. I am knitting the sweater on circs, doing both front and back at once, It is fun!






This is my soaking wet wool, in pink lemonade and fruit punch!!! I did not mush the koolaid in as much and the result was beautiful when balling the yarn it had a tie dye affect with some white remaining. I love it and can't wait to experiment with it. Smells delicous!!




Dear daughters socks fit (the ribbing and about 3 inches of the cuff of #1 done so far! Not sure how long she will want it but shouldn't take to long to get those done!!!!

Catch you all later,and may just give you a quick peek at the socks and what is doneof the sweater!!

Happy Belated Veterans Day!! Plus Knitterlly things!!

Having been a Navy Brat, with both of my parents serving, I know what it is to be pproud of those who serve in the armed forces. it doesn't matter what branch, they all live every day to give us our freedom! Thank you, all of you for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do, to ensure our children and their children live free!

Now I will step down off of the soap box and show you some pics!!!!
S and I dyed our knit picks bare 100% merino superwash yarn today. Never thought you could successfully dye it with Kool Aid but that we did. It was great....the smells were reminiscent of childhood for me.....the colors were very cool! She was extremely proud of her hard work!!!








It was a 3 person job but we balled her yarn and after she went to bed mom started her first sock. I gave her a choice between lacey or warm, and she picked warm, which shocked the poop out of me...... so I am giving her the best of both worlds, more on that later!!!!








Little B did it!! He got his foot to his mouth on his own!!! and promptly put himself to sleep sucking contentedly on his toes......I never said my family was "normal" :)
















More toe sucking fun!!!!

















Big B being a goofball!!!!

I finished the ARAN Sweater Vest.....AND more kidd pics

Ok did I say tht little B has discovered his feet and his next big feat was going to be getting them to his mouth single handedly?? Well Big B helped little B with this one!!! :) Oh what fun they are, laugh didn't I laugh! Oh yeah and this is "the" chair, see my legs are to either side of them, this is big B's favorite position!!!!







"Mom, can I put little B's foot in my mouth???" Little B obviously thinks this is a hilarious idea. Oh my goodness they are such a riot! Gotta more pics of Dear daughter, but she is in school all day so not so many opportunities!









OOK so here is the dreaded finished product. It will be a long time before I work on something like this again....YUCK, YUCK YUCK!!!

So tomorrow I will be swatching APPB's sweater, and might xast on some socks....I want to learn this mobeus knitting but am scared to start!!!! Anyone out there have any experiance with it?

3 posts in one day What's with that??

Click Click Beautiful.......Big B was trying to imitate mom who was snapping her fingers, trying to get both babes to look up instead of in three different directions!!!! What a little ham!










Little B is looking just oh so bored with the whole situation!!!! Although Big B is hamming it up!!!











Rasberries for you kiddo!!! Litle B has learned to stick his tongue out....just in time for the start of cereal...oh what fun!!!!!!!















I think this is quite possibly going to be my favorite toothless, gummy, picture of all times of little B. I took it this morning and was amazed how adorable it came out!!!!! Ain't he a doll?










Are these things mine??? Little B has discovered his toes. His next feat will be to single handedly get thenm into his mouth so he can suck his toes!!!!!!! Babies are such fun!!!!!

I DID IT !!!! LOOKIE LOOKIE!!!

I finally did it! I got it off the needles and these pics show it all blocked out!!WOOHOO Before the day is over I WILL have it done. Even if that means staying up untill the a$$ crack of dawn!!!






Look at it!!! Lookin' pretty good! It is a back breakin pain in the butt!! I actually think it is just the fact that I hate the color of the yarn!











Here is the back! Now for the facing, I currently have the shoulders attached and ends all sewn in......first up the neck facing, then sew up the sides and then the arm facings WOOHOO, wash it re black it then toss it in the corner to collect dust!!!!

My Cousin Knits too!!!!!

I had to share these photos, as my 19 year old cousin knit this. I am so proud of her, despite adversity she is in college and is doing well with her classes, she has been home every weekend so far, although she says this has come to an end. We will miss her giggley self but I will also say that it is important for her (you as I know you will look at this eventually) to become her/your own person. You are beautiful in more ways than just outward manifestations, you have a beautiful soul. APPB is one of the most giving, caring people around, and is one of the few her age that would prefer to be hanging out with kids then making the big bucks. Anyway, enough with the mush.
The first pic I had to include as you can see the fingers of someone hiding behind this "baby" blanket. And then look top center at the sparsley clad hunk hanging on the wall. Ooooh Lala!! Hey I am married not DEAD!!! This second one shows the details. To quote APPB "she sorta came up with it herself" I believe that she came up with the star herself and did a dang good job if I do say so myself. I have a similiar pattern I found in a very old (almost antique) book and it has lacey hearts in the squares. The star is a good idea as my daughter in her sleep has gotten hands, fingers and toes caugth in the lacey-ness and fought it in her sleep only to come to mommy with a mess in the morning!!!!

Anyway APPB, you rock. Keep knitting, I found in college it was the best therapy! I would study until my eyes teared and then go to my knitting and would find my thoughts wandering back to what I had studied and somehow through the clicks of the needles and twists of the yarn, the information firmed (or gelled) in my muddled head. I don't know how it works but still today, I find that knitting helps me work out things. The harder the pattern the better, the confusion is a welcomed distraction!

I love ya chickie!!!!!!
Yur Cuzin

Oh yeah.....woohoo side note for me, I finished that damn aran vest and blocked the pieces this AM, got pics will post later, but want APPB to get some glory first!!!!! Hope to have vest DONE DONE before days end, so that I can start APPB's Boobalicious sweater from BGK!!

Knit Picks Kicks A$$!!!!

So I got home and there sitting at my mailbox was this little box loaded with awesome projects just waiting to be started!!!!
A second Treasury of Magical Knitting...has anyone done these? they look impossibly hard.......are they?
I am gonna try knit picks options needles, I got a 60 inch circular (it is actually a 2 pack woohoo, and a 40 inch 2 pack and then I got 3 different size needles




Here is the total package! I tried to get this one to list first but have not gotten the finer points of picyture placement on this thing yet!!!











This is the bare yarn that daughter and I will be dying there is 880 yards of worsted weight for her socks, and then 880 yards of lace weight for something frilly, yet to be determined! The Blue is Colonial Blue For cousin APPB's BGK's sweater, I think it will be the cover sweater to accentuate her most bodacious of B's!! ( You lucky girl!!!)






Then there is 2 skeins (at the top) ofmerino silk mix.....hmmm think of the yummy cuddly things that can be made out of those!!!!!! 2 skeins of white and black for a skull and crossbones project for my boys and then 4 skeins of self striping yarn. Gonna make some cool socks for my happy toes!!!!!

It has been a happy knitting day....now I will not allow myself to start anything new until this DAMN aran vest is done YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off to bed with my sleepy head although my 4 month old is sitting beside me laughing as if to say yeah right mom, sleep....hahahaha, little does he know I was up at 3 am cleaning the community center this morning and will have a repeat tomorrow morning!!! YUCK!!

Local Yarn Shop 40% Off WOOHOO

OH MY god, every knitters dream!!!!! So I bought everything you seein this photo PLUS 3 pairs of sterling Silver Earrings, a stuffed cow and a stuffed sheep, a tonka bulldozer for less than $150.00!!! I think I got a steal!!!!









In this photo we have 3 skeins of Peace Fleece to finish my heinous Aran sweater vest project, in the green on the right top. Next is 2 skeins of Green Mountian Spinnery 100% New England Wool in Mulberry, 2 skeins of hand painted peace fleece in pretty green and 2 shades of purple, now to the bottom right side, 1 skein of cream bartlett yarn, 2 skeins of black peace fleece, 4 skeins of cotton fleece in Prairie Lupine got any ideas for this one?? I was thinking a sweater for my 6 year old daughter, but can't find a cute pattern for her size......she wears a 10-12 as she is so long!!!?!?!

From the left in this photo 2 skeins of lambs pride Deep Charcoal, 5 skeins of Flax and Wool Yarn in Thistle which I will use the Yankee KNitters pattern for the Childs Aran Sweater for my daughter, and then in front there is a set of 3 cable needles and a wooden cribbage board that is also a case that is magnetized with cards and pegs inside!!! It is really beautiful!!!






From the top Left 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Misty Blue which is actually quite GREY!!! Then my splurge buys were the 4 skeins of Mountain Colors Handpainted yarn 2 in thunderhead and 2 in lady slipper. This stuff is so soft it makes me gleefully happy to touch. Can't wait to figure out what to do with it all!!!!
Have to think of something special for the last yarns I have 460 yards of each of the 2 colors...hmmmmm this will be well pondered and studied!!!!!

Thank you to the 2 knitting rings that accepted us!!

Woo Hoo!!! I am so excited....I love browsing other peoples blogs and am so excited to be a part of the surfing. And to already have 2 comments Yeehaw!!! Ok so I have been painfully busy WORKING (not the fun knitting, crafty kind either unfortunately!! I am a fill in for the Maine State Ferry Service and have been filling in today and will be tomorrow too, which is cool as it is a desk job and this time of the year is fairly uneventful, keep things cleaned up and neat, answer the phone and keep people happy. I get quite a bit of knitting done actually, but then after 9 hours there I move on to a cleaning job at the community center. It is no big deal but a 10-11 hour day is he!! on a nursing mommy of a 4 month old and mother of 2 others......On the up side though as I said I have gotten more done on that torturous aran vest......I am soooo hoping to run out of yarn :) My local yarn shop is having a season end sale this weekend and I plan on diggin the ol credit card out and stocking up for the long torturous winter to come.....life in Maine.....life is OK in Maine but the winters tend to be a bit long and hard especially where I live!!! Well I do not have pictures today (actually I do but I am to dang lazy to go get the camera and cord....hey remember I have been WORKING today cut me some slack) I will hopefully get some new pics of the progress up on Friday. I am also hoping that my KP order will be in. How long does it usually take???

I DID IT!!! WOOHOO!!!

Yeehaw, I did my first multi color pattern. Although I did screw up the first skeleton, I was impressed with the results! It wasn't a huge screw up as you can see, just enough to tick you off!! I would like to give credit where credit is due though. The pattern I used for this swatch test came from helloyarn.com
It is in the free patterns section. I thought it was too cool!!!




BUT ........does the back REALLY have to be this messy??? Sorry I am a bit of a neat freak and this is kinda not neat......perhaps that is why I didn't do this sooner!!??



Another first, I placed my first Knit Picks order. Kinda funny story actually. I cam e across the site one day quite by accident and looked through a few yarns and quickly dismissed it as JUNK!! The next day I was at a knitting freind of mine's house and she asked me if I had heard of it....I of course said yes and I thought it must be crap yarn...........believe me she was quick to set me straight on that one!! She pulled out bag after bag of luxurious yarns and I was in heaven, smelling and touching......yummmmmm. I can't wait to get my order!!!! Woohoo I love yarn and it was so cheap!! Finally you can knit a sweater cheaprer then you can buy one!! I also bought some of thier naked yarn so my daughter and I can dye it with Kool aid and I will knit her some socks......she is excited by the prospect!!!

Storm season begins?!?!

Well I got some knitting done today............in the dang dark!!! It has been a blustery day. Snapped our clothes line off the house, took down the tree that our dog run was attached to AND took out the power for most of the island. Our outage lasted 6 and half hours!!! OH what fun 3 kids 2 of which are sick and then a very sick mommy in the dark with no CARTOONS!!! OH my goodness!!!! So anyway I attempted my FIRST color work. It is just a swatch but I am going to knit Hubby a sweater and the boys hats with it. I will post pics as soon as I cast it off!! Ok my night time cold meds are kicking in so I am off for now!!

Knitting?? What is that?

Ok so I did not get much knitting done today BUT (!!!!) I did bake a bit! I baked an apple coffee cake (which I was not impressed with) for the Community Center. Hopefully it will sell, it came out rather dry, and was not the recipe I was thinking it was. Needless to say it is no longer in my recipe box. I can not stand dry cakes of any kind. I will go back to my tried and true sour cream coffee cake recipe. That was this morning, then this evening I made a (pardon my horrible French, the magazine is downstairs and I am upstairs so I am going to take a stab at it!) Le Beta Noir which translated means The Black Beast. It is this flourless chocolate cake, with a chocolate Ganache on top....looks to die for but again am only mildly impressed with the results! Water got into the springform so I had to stick paper towels on to the top to suck it off of it, even though I followed the directions to a T. The Ganache covers the fugliness of the cake but nonetheless we will see what it tastes like tomorrow. Dear hubby thinks it looks delectable.......he asked what Ganache was!! I told him it was the choclate coating that was on the top of his favorite Dove ice ceam and his mouth immediately started watering!

This is my cousin L. who got married recently. Isn't she beautiful? Good grief it seems like yesterday I was babysitting her as a 3 year old, whoa did we ever butt heads back then......nonetheless we wish she and C. nothing but the very best! Many years of happiness!








Miss Thang in the red dress is my cousin also! L's littlest sister A. We like to call her APPB at my house. If you ever see her ask her what it stands for and you will be able to match her to a fire truck within seconds!!!! She is an absolute doll. Love her to death and in fact she is my next knitting victim!!! I want to knit her the cover sweater from BGK, to accomodate her beautiful B's!!! Hey A. If you read this I love you Hun!!!





This is baby B. This pic taken today. Good grief ain't he just cute! I want to knit him a little cabled skull sweater and knit Big B, and Hubby matching ones. Just founf the pattern on Helloyarn.com today and loved it, also like the mittens and hat but I have never done any color work. Quite frankly it scares the bejeezus out of me. You can give me the most intricate lace work or cables to beat the band and I love em', but toss me a multi colored pattern and I run the other way with my knitting needles flailing!!!!



Someday I will learn to turn the photos before I post them but for now you all will eaither have to turn your screens or tilt your heads!! This is big B taken today. Hubby asked him to smile and this is wht he got. I guess he had a big grin but by the time the pic snapped this is the goofy look we got!! He is such a ham!!!!

Pardon the initials I am a wee bit leary of having strangers know my childrens names as well as the names of my unsuspecting family!!!

I hope to get through my last skein of peace fleece so that I can guiltlessly start something else. I am one of those odd balls that like to finish one before I start another, BUT if I run out of yarn well that is a whole nother story!!!!!!

This is my current pain in the butt project!! It is coming out beautifully, but I hate the color, love the yarn though. It is for someone else and they picked the color. The Pattern is Reynolds #105 Paterna/ A rugged Aran Vest. The yarn is Peace Fleece not sure the color as I have never figured out where to look on PF. I see a dye lot but that is about it!!! So as you can see I have got the back done and am about 1/3 of the way through the front. Chasing my 2 year old and nursing my now 4 month old takes up a lot of time.....oh and sleep......hmmmm now can someone define that to me. With all the late night feedings sometimes I think I am dreaming that I am asleepwith my eyes open!
I started this sweater 2 weeks before my youngest son was born. I actually got alot of knitting done this summer. I was hugly pregnant and did a lot ositting so I would get in the recliner put the foot up and my 2 year old would curl up between my legs and watch me knit. This is now how I nurse my youngest son, we all 3 will be in the chair snuggling, it must be quite a sight to some. I truley believe though with 3 kids you have to do what works!!!!!! And this works, we read books we watch cartoons and have special mommy time all while I am nursing my youngest.......talk about multi-tasking I can even check my e-mail while
I am doing all of the above!!!!

This is number 2 and number 3. Ain't they cute?
Who can resist these cuties????

Don't you just love these jumpy things.......they think they are hot stuff while they are in it!










This is #1. Not the most flattering pic of her but what can I say she is 6 and sometimes she thinks she is to cool for picture posing!! This was one of those times!







Now mind you this child just had fuzz on her third birthday, this is her before picture, she donated 14 inches to the locks of love!!











This is her after picture!! She is gorgeous as always, but the cut definitely suits her well. This was something she did all on her own. She saw a special on TV and thought it was soemthing she wanted to do, to help other children her age feel more normal even though they are very sick. We are so proud of her!!!

Well I guess I will close the book for tonight but hopefully will update often. No promises......remember those 3 ankle biting, curtian climbing angels of mine!!!!