Three down - a hat to go.

Sweater #3 for grandson A is now done.  Finished last night and now I have a hat about half way done for the baby.  Dragons are not always easy to knit.  I've started the flames he's breathing and have about 2/3rds of the wings to do.

Fire Ruched Scarf is done - well the knitting is done.  The finishing will probably take as long as the knitting.  I LOVE the colors of this one.  Photos when it is completely done.

I went to the local spinning group last weekend and had a ball.  Watching what others are working with is always an inspiration to me.  One lady had brought a Shetland fleece she had cleaned and was spinning straight from the fleece.  The fleece was a rich chocolate brown with golden tips and the spinning was preserving this wonderful color mixture.  Two ladies were spinning for a class held Saturday.  Next month I'm looking forward to seeing what they created.

My next project will be another from Interweave Knits Winter issue.  It's Nora's Jacket - the cover one.  I have Ultra Alpaca in a heathery blue that I'll be using.  

I've also been spinning.  AllSpunUp's November/December Spin Along was Falkland dyed with beautiful blues, greens purples - I have one bobbin done and another started.  I think I'll do a simple 2-ply and see what happens from there.  Once I'm finished and know what my yardage is, I can see what I can knit.

The Jan/Feb SAL is Wensleydale colorway called Blaze.  It's awesome and when I can get some good daylight photos, will post here.  That one will probably be a single.

Posting a photo from a few months ago when DH was putting down the floor in our bedroom.  The flooring is stranded bamboo and it's really nice.  No carpet in this house!  The tape holds it in place until the glue dries.  Wall color is called Tigereye from Sherwin Williams.  I love the color!  We also used Lemongrass and Basket Beige.    

 

2010

Happy New Year to one and all. I think things have settle down a bit so maybe more can be written and I can accomplish a bit more than last year.

In 2009 I finished 2 pairs of socks and two sweaters. I think I would have finished at least one more sweater except for a family member's emergency surgery Thanksgiving weekend. What could have been tragic wasn't and he's home and recovering. Hopefully the surgeon will release him to light duty at work tomorrow.

This time of year is a time for remembering - remembering friends and family who have passed, remembering good times and thinking. Not so much regrets or what-if's but trying to make sense of events and determining what route I think I want to follow.

Right now we're having snow flurries - and it's cold enough that they will stick around for a while. It's just a dusting - like the sprinkle of powdered sugar on a chocolate cupcake - the cake still shows through. We're at 15°F right now with the wind-chill taking it down to 4. It would be a great day for a fire in the fireplace and a mug of tea or chocolate and a good book. I haven't found gas logs for the fireplace yet - so that takes care of that one. I also have to leave for work in about 30 min. so that takes care of the mug and book. It's the thought that counts so I can feel snuggly.

Knitting projects pending right now are the third sweater, a dragon hat for the youngest grandson, and the Fiery Ruched Scarf from the Winter Interweave Knits. I have about 5 rows for the scarf, the sleeves, yoke and hood for the sweater, and about half the hat. I hope to finish all three this month. Then I plan to start the Nana sweater from the cover of IK. I have some beautiful yarn from Haus of Yarn in Nashville and will post a photo as soon as I get a good one taken.

My orchids bloomed this year - in fact the 2 orchids, 3 Christmas Cacti, and 3 African Violets were all in bloom at the same time. That's a first for us. I thin the orchids had a total of 14 blooms and one is shown here. They are both dendrobiums - one standard and one miniature. Both are the same coloring and the blooms are actually the same size.

So until later, enjoy now!

Wow!

It is so amazing how much has happened since I last posted. I've moved from Chattanooga to a place in Murfreesboro, to another place in Murfreesboro, and finally to my new home in Nashville/Antioch.

Now the attack-shrubs are gone. They will be replaced and plans are in place for that.

Inside - well let's just say it needed a lot of TLC and some major work. The a/c in the attic overflowed - probably because the drain line got stopped up, flooded onto the ceiling, collapsed part of the ceiling and water spilled on the carpet to be soaked into the walls. Add warm weather and you get... MOLD. Icky stinky black stuff.

The mold is gone now, sheetrock has been replaced. Paint has been applied. DH may regret encouraging me to go for color - boy did I. I chose colors like Tigereye, Basket Beige, Lemongrass and a Lemon something. Flooring will be Carbonized, Stranded Bamboo or tile in the wetrooms. I already have an African Slate floor in the front bathroom and laundry area - both with basket beige walls. The Tigereye is in our bedroom, one wall in a bedroom with the lemongrass for the other 3, the architectural features in the living room/dining room and in the front hallway to the bathroom and 2 bedrooms. The kitchen and 3 walls in the north bedroom are in the light lemony yellow, the 4th wall is in lemongrass. Living room is lemongrass as well as the upper portion (above a chair rail) of the dining room. Lower part is the basket beige. Confusing as all getout but will make sense when I can get photos of the "after" posted. Oh and lemongrass is green, not yellow.

I have some other photos. Maybe you can see why I fell in love with this place.
The neighbor behind us gardens. On the right is her wisteria - redbuds, Bradford Pear, Crepe Myrtle (now blooming)- but our "patio" is great. We've put up a gazebo type structure with mosquito screening that about fills the patio and we love it.
The other photo is the breakfast area. This whole house is filled with lots of windows. The only room short on windows is one bedroom. The other bedroom is behind the shrubs in the photo up top. The master bedroom has 8 feet of windows!

On to spinning and knitting. I did join Tour de Fleece on Ravelry this year. Spun a bit but never posted any photos. That's for next year. I was really inspired by the people who turned out beautiful yarns and plan to do more with my spinning. I do have enough fiber to keep me busy for a while.

I've finished a pair of socks in a pattern from Wendy Knits website. I think it was the freebie from her latest book posted right before publication. Now I'm working on another pair of socks in some Opal yarn from my stash and have picked up Mystic Water Shawl again. I'm determined to finish this thing. I'm on the next to last chart so am making progress.

How time flies by

It's May, it's May, the lovely month of May...

New month, new location. I'm presently commuting about 38 miles each way to work in Nashville and waiting, waiting, waiting to close on my house.

Looks like I get to move next week to a new location and then move to the new house.

The house needs work which is why I got such a good price. It has mold. It's on a slab so only some of the wall studs are needing treatment and to replace some sheetrock. The company owning the house removed the damaged carpet - for which I thank them. Lots of big windows, a fireplace and vaulted ceilings. So our tasks will be to remove the moldy sheet rock, treat the studs, replace the sheet rock, paint and install flooring. Then replace windows and install vinyl siding on the back of the house and chimney.
Along the way we have to remove some badly overgrown shrubbery and trim some other plants. We'll sod the front yard and do some landscaping.

Further down the road is replacing kitchen cabinets with 48" upper cabinets instead of 36" and re-doing the master bathroom.

Knitting time is not abundant right now so nothing new to show there - and my camera is packed and in storage.

Hopefully I'll update a bit more often now. Will have some before and after shots coming too.

Crazy February coming up

Well, it ended up a crazy January and now, a crazy February. 61 days to Nashville so I'm starting to pack and discard stuff. Not much knitting, stitching or anything else. Hubby has painted 4 rooms so far so now I need to buy 3 gallons of paint for the upstairs bedrooms, 2-3 gallons if the living room and stairwell need to be re-done and then buy a new light/fan for the living room. Will probably get smaller light/fan units for the two smaller bedrooms upstairs.

Well, that's wrong. I have been able to meet with fellow knitters a few times in January and hope to do the same in Feb. I am still knitting away on the Murano scarf and now have slightly more or less of 3 feet done. I've only knit about 2 -4 rows of Magic Carpet Ride. I hope, as things get done, there will be more time to knit and stitch.

New entries here will be few for a while but I hope to post at least one time per month and have photos with the next post.

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year to one and all. Welcome to 2009. This year promises to be quite interesting with lots of changes acomin'. May the good changes outweigh the bad.

My goals are numerous - as always and more realistic for a change. I have come to discover that little changes are easier than the giant ones. Little ones are also easier to achieve.

I've made a list for myself of all my knitting works in progress (wips), my stitching wips and a partial list of fibers for spinning. I was surprised - kind of - at the length of the lists. Making my goals as little changes produces the following:

Knitting: Finish Modena scarf - this has been my knit-at-work project. Easily memorized and I've done about 1" a day.
Finish Magic Carpet Ride - this is an adjustment to the Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights kal on Ravelry. Since they mentioned MCR is included, I have decided to finish this as my part of the KAL which begins today.

Stitching:
Dragon Eye - I have to find the box of thread for this - it's in hiding but I only have about 2" x 6" left to finish. This has been going on a long time. Not as long as DH insists (he says it's more years than the child has been alive) but a while.
Blackstone Fantasy Garden - I love this - it's a Celtic Knot filled with blackwork patterns and does look like a garden.

Spinning:
Finish the Winter Jewel fiber. I have about two thirds of the first braid done going into singles and will then make a 3-ply of it. Then on to the second braid.
This is on the wheel right now.
I got two spindles this past year and some georgeous icy blue fiber. I need to finish spindling this and see what it turns into. Maybe some crocheted or knitted ornaments?

Other:
I'd like to make some Christmas ornaments to gift this year. So I want to try to do 2 or 3 per month. Techniques are open but I'd like to use stash to do this.

I'd like to take more pictures and better quality. I'm not really sure how this one will work out - but we'll see. I do want to show photos of the goal items as they are and when complete. As those are done, new wips will take their place.

2009 will see me moving to the Nashville, TN area as my job will be moved there. I'll be sad to leave the friends I've made here in Chattanooga but it's only about a 2 hour drive so maybe we can travel back and forth or meet in the middle somewhere.

Other upcoming events - a family member has surgery next week. Prayers for success and a quick recovery are headed his way - any from readers will be greatly appreciated. A grandchild is due in February. I don't know name plans but Snicklefritz always sounded good - that was my grandmother's name for grandkids who were being kids.

I hope to charge batteries on the camera and pull out these 6 items and take pictures to post with my next entry.

Holly-Daze 2008

All the insanity that is the holiday season - that I insist on calling Holly Daze (maybe I'll explain the story behind that one later) and the other insanity called family get in the way of regular blogging.

Oh, I forgot work too. I've had training, a week of shadowing and reverse shadowing, 2 weeks "pre-live" and another two weeks "live" with a total of 100 phone calls reviewed and graded. Final result: I've been accepted into the department! That's a good thing, a very good thing indeed.

Back and forth to the 'boro to visit hubby and family, phone calls with other family members gives good and bad news and, hopefully, things will settle themselves down with the bad stuff and all will turn out for the good in the long run. December brings Christmas and the new year. January is the time of some cancer surgery for a family member (prayers that this will be the last one and all the stuff will be gone this time would be appreciated by all) and the matriarch's 80th birthday.

February will bring a new family member into the world. Bubba has been voted down as a name for the baby. His next older brother wants him named Baby A with A being the same name as the namer. When told this wouldn't work, he wanted Baby R with R being the other brother's name.

March is a birthday and on goes the year...

What I have done is make a list of all my knitting in progress, stitching in progress, some spinning and my two quilting projects. The knitting and stitching are both in double digits - and if I listed all the spinning fibers I have, it would be too. So lots of things to work on in the time coming up - and I have a knit along starting Jan 1. Also two baby gifts to be made. One is started and I'll have to figure out what to do for the other baby.

I'll make the lists public on another post - or posts?

In the meantime, a wonderful holiday season to all of you, no matter your beliefs. Take time to enjoy each other and the world around you.