SotS Clue #3 Done and kinda bummed

So I completed SotS Clue #3 and I am still thinking the answers are 1) Royalty 2) Princess (but could be Queen) 3) England. This Friday will be the 4th clue and we will be half way through :(. This has been my first KAL of anykind, and it has been fun. I jumped in head first and have been writing the charts out to a written pattern with 3 other ladies and it has slowed me down, but I feel good about helping non-chart readers out, as that was me just a bit ago! I think it is beautiful. You can't see the twinkle of the beads in the full shot.

I actually finished it 2 days ago, but now it has become a bit monotonous pinning it out each time so I couldn't bring myself to do it to get a picture, and without pinning it just looks like a purple blob. This morning when I got up and rolled across my flannel sheets and ended up with my pj bottoms wrapped 3 times around myself, I thought hmmmm I bet I could lay it on them and it would stick! Sure enough!!!!! WOOHOO, the dang cable needles are a beeeeotch to fight with though, I am not a fan of CP needles anymore after using KnitPicks! LOVE LOVE LOVE EM!
If you click to enlarge this photo you can JUST make out the bead in the center of the design. I love it in person. They are subtle but just lend that little extra somthin somthin!

It is finally hitting home that the bills are a struggle to pay, and Christmas is right around the corner. The kids have so many I wants, and there just is no way. John went from a full time job, were on island we were JUST keping our heads above water, to a 12-16 hour a week job......it just isn't doing it. I don't know what is going to happen, but here I am again in the dumps. Spent most of yesterday crying, and wracking my brain. This is not the way it is supposed to be. We are good people, all we have ever done is help those around us when they need help, and now when we need help in return it is no where. And it isn't like we want something for nothing either. John just needs a regular job....even just 2 or 3 days a week. We have a gap to bridge. I just don't know. We have started talking about selling stuff that we scrimped to save up to buy, when he was working, things like my spinning wheel, our digital camera, an ipod. We got them all at huge discounts, or second hand....I don't know. Life right now stinks, but at the same time I am lucky enough to have 3 beautiful kids, a hubby who loves me and my parents still with me as well as my Mother in law. It ain't all bad, just feels like it right now.

Awards!!!!!

I got a blog review on my awesome knitting friend Mrs. H's brand spanking shiny new pod cast. You should check out her blog at I like Yarn
and then go take a listen to her podcast, I likeyarnpodcast
She rocks, as does her blog and her podcast. Thank you Cuz!

I am about done my 3rd clue on the SotS, and when I get it done I will block her up and post pics. I finished my second BSJ for a shower and it is blocking and I am knitting on the ARAN from he77, attempting some booties.....I shoulda taken pics of my failures, but then you'd a known I ain't perfect......I will tell you the story though!!! I knit up these booties with the thought I would felt them.....they would have been too big for my 3 year old, and I was hoping thhey would felt down to somewhere around the 6-12 month range.....ummmmmm it was not a felting pattern so needless to say it shrink width wize but not length wize!! Talk about Gun boats!!! Yikes.
What are you still doing here? Go check out the blog and podcast!!! Shooooo off with you go, go. NOW

Knitting and Dirt Cheap Kid Entertainment!

So yet another F.O. I finished my triple twist moeibeus knitters bowl.. I LOVE IT!!! It took 2 skeins of the main color, and one for the pockets and then a little bit of peace fleece for the applied i-cord trim. Unfelted this mammoth could swallow 3 adult heads whole! Felted it will comfortably hold 3 or 4 project skeins, and then all the extras you can imagine. This was a fun knit. I highly recommend The second treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi to one and all!



Look at this thing! WOWSERS it was humongous!











Welcome to the Zoo! The boys found the case lot diaper box and had a blast playing with it while sissy had a bath. Bud pushed Bret around,










Bud pushed Bret over, in this photo he seems to be saying "if we box him up can we send him back?" :)










WHO US, terrors? Mom you have to be joking right? We are too darn cute to be terrors!

















Miss Shy had to get in on the action......DADDDDDD, HEY DADDDDD COme HERE NOW!!!!! To which Dad turned deaf ears.....finally the scream became deafening, and I gave him the "GO SEE WHAT HER PROBLEM IS" elbow to the gut! And this is what she was up to!!





















Bret getting even by pushing BUd over! LMBO!

SotS clue #2 and FO"s

Ok so I am now addicted to Moebius Knitting. I have Cat Bordhi's Second Treasury of Magical knitting and I have had it for quite some time actually and could never figure out the set up! I had always assumed the twist in the knitting occured by twisting before starting in the round.....oh no.....so needless to say I needed some mindless kniting and had hauled all of my knitting books to my local SnB for everyone to peruse through and was reminded of how many cool projects there are in this book. So I set my mind to figure it out and I did. This was moebius #1, see the twist in the handle. I blocked this
over a downy dispensing ball to show you how small it is.

F.O. #2 my Emily hat. I love the way it came out. And here is one of my goals for Oct. Color work WOOHOO!!! Yeah! Now for mittens and the dreaded sweater!

I think Emily will really like it, and now Shyanne wants one too! If it means she will wear a winter hat I will knit her one without complaint!


This odd looking thing is Moebius project #2. It is a trifold, meaning there are 3 twists in the moebius. This thing is HUGE. It is a knitters basket. It will be felted, see the black lines? Not the trim around the top but there are 20 stitch dashes on scrap yarn that I have now ripped out and put pockets in. Once felted this is supposed to be just big enough for a cake or 2 of yarn in the middle held snug so it doesn't escape to roam around the floor of cat, dog, and human hair, along with kiddie crumbs. I am having a hard time imagining it felting that small. We shall see. I am currently knitting the flower-esque petals for the top enclosure. This thing reminds me of the gremlin baby pods from the movie Gremlins. You know how the babies hatched out of the pod like things that were all slimey. and when they popped out the top kind of opened............you will see better after it is felted.
This is clue #2 finished from SotS ! I love this pattern. It is beautiful. The beads don't really show up but they are there, they match but are lined with silver to lend a bit of glitter in person.

There was some discussion about speed of knitting in the forums. I am a fairly quick knitter, but the person implied that by knitting fast we are not enjoying. I enjoy the knitting very much! I am always looking at how it is unfolding. I can't wait for the next segment, meanwhile I will work on the godforesaken sweater, and the gremlin egg :)

Knit On!!!!!

Waiting, finishing, waiting, finishing and more waiting!

Ok so it is Pictureless Thursday! :) Currently I am waiting for the 2nd Secret of the Stole Clue!! I am in charge of writing the chart out, so those who can't read charts can still participate. I am so looking forward to knitting the clue is the only problem. If I am charting I can't be knitting it!

So I cast on for a hat for my special sitter.......and I finished it the next day. The problem is, I blocked it, and it WILL NOT dry! It has been damp and rainy for 4 days now! BAH, I blocked the hat and the BSJ and man oh man do they look good!

Did I mention I am loving the SOS KAL and I am looking forward to clue #2!

I cast on yesterday for a felted moebius bowl and finshed it and it is felting now. After I finsihed that, I cast on a Trifold Knitters Bowl. Which is also a moebius but it has 3 crossings. It is interesting looking in progress. I will post pics eventually.

Oh yeah Hurry up midnight so I can get a look at clue #2!! :)

Ok I will not bore you with my tales any longer-

Secret of the Stole and BSJ!

So I finished Clue #1 of the Secret of the Stole.......the 3rd to the last row darn near killed me and made me throw in the towel! I had to frog it back 4 times before I FINALLY got it right.......it is full of YO, K2tog, SSK, and K3tog as well as a few S1K2togpassSover.....BAH. Anyhow I got it and am glad I didn't fudge it liek I contemplated! It will be well worth it in the end!



The pattern is interesting and I have never done a beaded piece but it has given me ideas for future projects. These pics don't show the beads at all as they match but add a bit of sparkle. the centers of the beads are silver so there is a glint they add






Just a close up of the 2nd point. Hey question for you......does anyone else read patterns from the right to left? I don't know why but I always have. It seems I am of a minority, although there are a few others, it seems that they are left handed and do it out of necessity rather just habit>>>> Anyone else a little off like me out there?













Look at this odd looking blob. As you are knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket for the first time, you have NO idea what you are knitting.....could this be the sleeve? or is it the side edge? hmmmmm I wish I knew so that I knew where I was putting the stripes. I thought at the time it mattered. This thing came out soooo cute, and it doesn't matter one bit where you put the color changes.




Once you get it off the needles the ONLY seaming is from the cuff to the neck......everything else is done with increases and decreases. I have to say that this lady is GENIUS!!!! Oh my goodness she is a genious!








Add some buttons and VOILA! It is adorable! I have already planned to do a turqouise and brown one, and a pink and brown one! THey are awesomely easy and so interesting. A really quick knit too.








Here is a hot of the back. It is FINITO! And I am excited. Now I am working on a slouch hat for a babysitter. She bailed me out of a few binds and was happy with whatever she got paid. Which is abnormal here on the island. The going rate is $7.00 per child....which is $21.00 an hour for us, and I only make 10.55 an hour, hmmmmm math doesn't work right.....RIGHT. So she usually took $5.00 an hour for all 3 which usually was only 2 and was happy with it! She enjoys the kids and they enjoy her! It was beautiful, plus she is 20 and cleans up after the kids too! WOOHOOO! So I am creating a gothesque pink and black slouch hat with skulls on it! I thiink it will be cute if I can figure it out! :)

October Knit List

Hmmmm Ok I have seen this idea of keeping track of knitting goals on other blogs and I have attempted to do it before and I am going to attempt again!!

1. Finish Baby Surprise Jacket

2. Finish front of Aran.

3. Knit the first 3 clues of the Secret Stole (starts on the 5th woohoo)

4. Make a pair of mittens.....

5. Try Color work again (possible in the form of said #4's mittens??)

6. Finish the bobbin of lace weight and start on a second.

Let's se how that goes. I think it is accomplishable for sure. But the 3 kids and 50zillion jobs have a way of getting in the way.

Tuesday's Show Off day

I am doing the EZ knitter's almanac knit along, it was featured in the knit picks catalog, and the podcast as well as in several other places....only here's the thing I am sort of lurking as I don't really have the required yarn for the projects last month or this month but I am knitting EZ's Baby surprise jacket and I have to say this thing is REALLY wild.....I am still not sure how it will come together, but all the seaming you do is from the neck to the edge of the sleeve.......2 seams. I am amazed at how ODD it looks but am loving how quickly it is knitting up....it is teeny tiny.

The Aran I have been working on is coming along......I love it but needed a break so I started the EZ BSJ. But as you can see in comparison to the last pic of it, it has come along way. See the chair....we got it from the transfer station. I love it, it rocks, it swivels and it is sooooooo comfy for knitting in....I need to find a new cushion for it, as this one I belive is just an old lawn chair cushion someone improvised with.




Oh my goodness isn't this kid a goof!?! Bret is such an entertainer. He was showing his little friend his tool bench. SHowing her the ropes....he would jibber jabber and look at her and nod and then push a button and she would smile and then he would tell her a bit about the saw......I love the tool bench the boys have a blast at it.






An FO for me of the non knitting kind. The boys now have all 3 kids now have John Deere Fleece PJ's. They are alot of fun to make in reality. They make a royal mess of the sewing maching with all the fuzz!! But the kids love them. And I have to say they are so soft and squishy all I want to do when they are in them is cuddle them up!





Bret was soooo over tired, and Shy was not impressed with having her pictures taken PERIOD that it was a struggle to get these ones!!! And Bud, look at him, he looks like he is in pain.......but truley he is saying CHEEEEEEEEEEESE. The poor boy, whenever you break out a camera he gets all over dramatic. Honestly he is adorable, but EVERY picture I have of the little bugger his face is all squished and contorted!!! :) Gotta love him!



Figured I would preface my knitting bit with the source of all of our yarny goodness!

These were part of our apple picking, cider pressing field trip that I will talk more about in a future issue of this blog.







He looks like he is poseing! Just stood there begging for a single shot!











That is Bud with his girlfriends little sister in the back ground and in the foreground is his girlfriend and another little girl. He loved the sheep and the chickens and the apples and all the kids......it was fun to watch him interact!















This is what I have been spinning forever now! It is a silk and merino blend in a beautiful aqua color. I am spinning it thin and thinking about 2 plying it, but also the thought of a 3 ply is calling to me.......I really want it a lace weight though and I think a 3 ply will make it to thick!...