Finger Update

Well two weeks later and my finger doesn't look a whole lot different than it did the night I broke it. Because of this, I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow and have another x-ray done. Oh joy.

Finished up my Monthly KAL. I have a sister that is a new school teacher, so this cloth will go to her. Took a few pictures of it last night but none turned out particularly well so I will take some more in the morning. I always seem to have better luck with morning light. :)

Update - picture of my MKAL September cloth.

And stitchmarkers made from Tina's tutorial at Love2Knit Dishcloths. My camera was being somewhat of a booger and trying to focus on the background rather than the stitchmarkers. Might mess around with it a bit more tonight.

Elvis KAL

I am trying to catch up with the Mid-Month KAL for the Rachel's Knitting Room group. It was a cast-on of 66 stitches! For some reason I am having a terrible brain freeze on the seed stitch. I think I have it all worked out now though. I talked myself in and out of things last night and finally said to heck with it and went to bed! Funny how you can do something so many times without problems then all of a sudden hit a snag. Sad part is the snag is 95% mental! No more staying up late to watch Olympics while knitting. Overload!

Mailed 3 cloths and a tribble to my best friend today. She told me she loves the cotton dishcloths and I was more than happy to share! She called tonight though and wondered about the tribble. She said she told her husband "it's either a scrubber or a hot pad." :) Been experimenting with knitting tulle along with the yarn but I think my tulle is too fine. Doesn't seem super scratchy anyway.

In other news, the kids are back in school! I have an 8th grader and a 4th grader this year. Funny they are both at the top of their respective groups. The 8th graders (Emily's class) are the head of the Middle School and the 4th graders (Hunter's class) are the big dogs in the Elementary. Hunter had homework already tonight and seemed to think it was a bit unjust. I'm just glad they are back in school! Maybe my house will stay a bit cleaner now. :)

All Caught Up AND My Own Creation!

I finally finally finally got all caught up with my Monthly KAL's! Just in time too because the next one starts tomorrow. :) I thought this one was fun - it was neat how the design was built from the top down. Unfortunately, I saw the finished project before I started mine, so I knew what it was going to be (I HATE that!); otherwise, I'm sure I would have been guessing the entire time!

And here is my very first design! The drawback - this is a BIG cloth! I'm quite proud of it though. I'm working on getting the directions typed up and will post them as soon as I'm done. I can only type up so many lines at a time or I start making mistakes. My family and I love to camp and we have a pop-up. I looked around and couldn't find a cloth so I decided to make one. Aunt Kathy did a wonderful tutorial on designing cloths so a lot of the credit goes to her.

And finally - here's a couple of pictures of the new puppy. The first one is Hunter and Jake. The second one is Cooper and Jake. Cooper continues to adjust to the new puppy and is actually doing much better. He seems to enjoy having someone to play with. :)

Finally!

I FINALLY got around to taking pictures of my cloths. I have one more to go (July) and I'll be all caught up with my KAL's. Between vacation, work, swim meets, and ball games the summer has absolutely FLOWN by!

June

June Mid-Month

July Mid-Month

August

In other news, we have a new addition to our family...a 7 week old black lab we have named Jake. It's much like having a toddler in the house - potty accidents, getting into everything, waking us up at night and so on! We are slowly adjusting. Our 2 year old chocolate lab still doesn't quite know what to think. It's usually a mixture of indifference and disgust with a few affectionate moments thrown in.

Finally Done!

Another KAL done - finally! As I've said, this one was a doozy for me. Funny thing is, once I got the kinks worked out, it was actually a fun, easy cloth to make. It's one I tagged as "favorite" in my pattern book so I will definitely be making it again!



Here's the Ballband cloth I did during our trip to my cousin's graduation. 3.5 hours, one way. Plenty of knitting time! :)

The Truth Revealed

Well I finally saw a picture of what this month's KAL is supposed to look like. I have the basic concept down but apparently I got off a row somewhere at the beginning. My little inside out ridge at the very bottom would be incorrect. I started a new cloth last night and hope to have it completed tonight. This was a VERY interesting KAL! I learned a new technique - reverse yarn over - and I also learned how many different ways directions can be interpreted. :)

ARGH!

This month's Knit Along is absolutely kicking my rear! First time around, I was doing the yarn overs wrong so the pattern didn't look at ALL like it was supposed too. Now that I have THAT figured out, I seem to have a continuing problem with purling through the back loops. Seems like about every fourth row or so, I miss one and I wind up with one goofy stitch in the middle of the row. I think this is rapidly turning into my most frogged project ever!

Mistake in the top row.

Results from the wrong yarn over.

Correct way (I think!) front side.

Correct way (I think!) back side.

Completely Caught Up!

I FINALLY am completely caught up on the Monthly Knit Dishcloth knit alongs! With the time I had to knit over the weekend and a few nights this week with nothing going on, I finally got all of my back knitting done. What an awesome feeling! :)

I am going to try to take another picture tomorrow morning. Orange does NOT photograph well. Related to that - my light box bit the dust over the weekend. Full house, two kids, big dog, rammy husband and precious little storage space meant the light box went on top of the piano. Unfortunately, there were also some books on top of the piano that went through the side of the light box. I was a little bummed but not terribly so. I wasn't haven't great luck taking pictures with it, just good luck. Maybe I'll try again another day. :)

Here's a slightly less orange'y orange. I think it shows the detail MUCH better than the other picture. Plus you don't need sunglasses to look at it!

Playing Catch-Up

Had some lovely time to knit this weekend - finally! Emily helped pick up the house Saturday so I had most of the afternoon and evening free to just play around. I decided to try to catch up on the KAL's that started before I joined the Monthly Dishcloth Group. I am trying to complete the challenge (making all 24 cloths for the year) and had two to finish. I completed the Diamonds on Lace cloth this morning. It's a very pretty cloth with a cool pattern.






Funny thing is, I joined the group the first part of February and I remember looking back at that cloth and the directions and thinking "I'll NEVER be able to make that!!!" I'm thrilled with how many new things I have learned in the last few months. I'm forever grateful to the members and owners of the various groups I belong to. :)

Mother's Day 2008 - Hunter and I went yesterday and bought some flowers for the front porch. That was my present. The kids and I went to Sunday School and church this morning and Toby made us brunch (Belgian waffles - yum!) Played a round of Garbage with Hunter and have been reading and knitting. No complaints here!

Another KAL Done!

Just finished the May KAL for the Monthly KAL group. I thought this was a very pretty cloth! (And just a few days after my wedding anniversary).

Also did another slip stich cloth - this time in Hawkeye/Starmont colors. Was a fun cloth to do but I might try adding a border of some sort next time. Either that or it's finally time to learn to crochet borders. :)

April Mid-Month KAL

Finished my April Mid-Month KAL. I LOVE this pattern! I'm sure I will be making more of these in the future.

Also attempted a light box tonight. It turned out good but I made it a little on the small side. I think I will try another one tomorrow night. (I'm sure my husband will be thrilled to death).

Two Knit Alongs Done!

Two more for the books. First off is the "Meadow" cloth from the Monthly Knit Along group. I think this cloth is SUPER cute! It was also my first experience with bobbles (which weren't NEARLY as hard as I thought they would be!)

Second is another Knit Along - this one from Love 2 Knit Dishcloths. I'm not 100% sure I did this one right but it's a pretty neat design nonetheless.

In other news, we had another trip to the dentist and orthodontist yesterday. (And once again it was RAINING - everytime we go it seems to rain). Emily had two cavities filled and Hunter had one. Hunter also had 4 teeth pulled. He has a lot of crowding in his mouth and they are hoping this will eliminate some problems down the road. At the orthodontist Emily had her impressions done in preparation for braces on Friday. Hunter had another spacer put in between his molars. One is caught on the next and needs a little help. Another busy day!

Small Update...

I've been meaning to take pictures for over a week and finally got around to it tonight. First cloth is the Illusion Bunny I did with the Monthly KAL group. I'm still somewhat undecided on this cloth. I liked the blue and white together and I liked the lines, but I'm not sure I like the overall design. Something different anyway and I like working with two colors.



Second is my Tribble! This was REALLY fun to make and something I will DEFINITELY be doing again. I threw this in my purse and worked on it here and there. We have a lot of upcoming track meets, orthodontist appointments, dentist appointments and allergist visits, so I will again have some free knitting time! (Trying to look on the bright side here.) :)

Related to that, found out last week that both kids will need to have braces. Emily will get hers shortly and Hunter will have some work done first, then go into them. Emily also has to start having a weekly allergy shot. They retested her and she had a major reaction to dust mites and a more minor reaction to household dust and cats. Fortunately, we don't have a cat. Unfortunately, dust is everywhere. We have a few changes to make as far as bedding and such and of course the weekly shots. She was NOT impressed to say the least!

Other than that, things continue to be as crazy busy as always. Volleyball finished up two weeks ago and we are into track now. Went to the Middle School play Friday night and I told one of the other mothers "do you ever feel like you LIVE at the school??" Guess I'm glad she's involved but MAN it would be nice to have a calm, quiet, sports-free week. 5 more years and I'm all over that. :)

2 Done, 1 Going....

February Love2KnitDishcloths KAL - in progress...

Rachel's Dishcloth - used up a few scraps of yarn

Another of the Monthly Dishcloth KAL cloths. I wanted to try this pattern with a variegated yarn and a solid. I really like how it turned out! This is actually the second one I did - gave the first away before I took a picture of it. :)

February KAL 2

Finished this and finally got pictures taken this morning. The first one shows the "window" detail better but the second one shows the colors better. Not overly wild about the colors together. Funny how they looked so much better in my yarn basket than they do now. :)

This was a fun cloth to make though. In fact, I did another one today while I was at my daughter's volleyball game. Did variegated (shades of green and ivory) and green. It turned out really cool. No pictures though as I already gave it away.

February KAL Part 2

I think I'm doing something wrong...



Can't quite decide from looking at other people's pictures.

Arghhhh

Well I am quite frustrated at this point. I was working on the February KAL last night and somehow I wound up with an extra stitch. I haven't done that in quite a while! To make matters worse, while I was trying to fix that, I dropped the whole works and wound up with a mess. I worked on it for a little while but wound up setting it down because I was getting more and more irritated. Should mention that I have a HORRIBLE cold and quite possibly should have been in bed by that point!

Funny thing, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my poor abandoned knitting laying on the living room floor. Took every ounce of self-control I had to NOT get up and attempt fixing it.

Maybe today it will go better!

Kind of excited - OK VERY excited - I get to go yarn shopping today! YAY!