John's Birthday Socks

This year for John, my brother-in-law, I knit him, my sister, and my niece matching socks! I took about a million pictures as I was super proud of these, but I won't drowned you all in them and will just show a few.



Here is the picture my sister sent me after they received the socks!


I love to see the size difference between the pictures, from left to right, Kid's 11, Women's 6, and Men's 13.






I did all the math to make sure the socks matched exactly! I love how they turned out, but here is a good reason not to do this again:

This is just one pair of socks for ends to weave in, multiply this times three! It was craziness!



Eleanor would like me to do the same next year, but she'd like her doll to match them also.  Which I will do, but if they are stripey, it'll be self-striping!  :)

Rhoni-clause

My niece Eleanor loves dress-up, not just her dressing up, but anyone and everyone else dressing up also. She wanted me to dress up as Santa and play with her, but the suit wasn't big enough for me, so her mom did it instead.

At first Santa was like "no paparazzi!", but she eventually conceded.


Making sure all is right.


Love this one!



It takes deep concentration to figure out what one should ask for Christmas.



A video of Eleanor asking for Christmas gifts, not only for herself.



A video of Eleanor and Rhoni-clause signing Rudolph!

John's B-day Socks

You guys didn't get to see me start these, I started the late Spring this year, when I wasn't blogging. I just pulled these back out about a week ago to start working on them again. Each year I knit my brother-in-law, John, socks for his birthday. Last year I made matching socks for his daughter, Eleanor. This year, John, Eleanor, and my sister/his wife, Rhoni, will all get socks for John's birthday. All matching, Rhoni said Eleanor, she's 3, loves it when they wear their matching socks! So I thought this year it could be a family thing!

I think both of these first pictures are from May.






I'm just a couple stripes pass this now, since this photo was taken a few days ago.  Heels are done, forgot to take some pics of them, will make sure next post includes more detail pics.


Each stripe is a different color, so yes, I will have lots of ends to weave in, but there is a reason I did it this way. One, so I could have so many different colors. Two, because I want to try to scale each pair of socks so they are the same, so smaller stripes for each of the girls, so hopefully all 3 socks will match up with their stripes.

Unfortunately these colors have been discontinued, which is a huge shame! Love them and would definitely buy them again, if I could!

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Brights
Colors: Vibrant Violet, Snapdragon, Sour Apple, Razzleberry, Pucker, Hot Tamale, Electric Blue, Pickle Juice (from toe up)
Content: 75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
Care: Machine Wash and Dry
Needles: US 0 or 1
Pattern:my own

Canned treats

My sister, Rhoni, sent me some lovely canned goods as she ventures her way through canning. Poor me, right?


Ah, behold the goodies:

Pickles:  Loved the pickles, they taste different from grocery store pickles, in a good way.


Plum Jam : I liked this, a little sweet, but I love plums.


Blackberry Jam : This is/was delicious . . . I may have eaten most of it already.  Wow, these blackberries are delicious in this.


Plum Preserves : I liked this, also a little sweet, but as I said, love plums.


Sweet Relish : Also, different from grocery store kind, but in a good way.  I really liked that the flavor of these had more depth than just sweet.



I added some of the screw on lids so I could seal them up again.  I didn't have one the size of the pickle jar so they are in a tupperware container in the fridge.

I guess, if I am lucky, I will receive more canned yummies for Christmas! Check out a little more info on her canning adventures from my sister, Rhoni's blog.

Drying Mats PIF

For Pay It Forward, my sister, Rhoni, wanted something practical. . . drying mats for next to her sink, to set the things that couldn't go in the dishwasher, etc. Brown and yellow were her colors of choice. I know the terrycloth looks white in these photos, but really it is a pale yellow.

I wanted to make something that would be a good drying mat, so the bottom is the pretty brown cotton fabric, next layer is fleece, then a layer of cotton batting, and the top layer is terrycloth. My theory behind this was, the terrycloth and the cotton batting with be nice and absorbent, the fleece will stop the water from traveling down to the counter, and then the bottom is just pretty fabric. I used the bottom fabric pulled around the sides to add the edging.


I made two, because I figured if one was in the wash, she could use the other. For size, they are 16" x 16".




















I hope she likes them and they work for what she was hoping. I thought about making some matching things to go with them, but I'd like to find out if she likes these first.

I have to say, I think they turned out better than I thought they would and I'd like to take some time to make myself a few larger ones. I have a few terrycloth colors, just need to get more cotton batting and fleece.

Rhoni's Brattleboro Hat

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande
Color: 100 (Natural)
Content: 100% Alpaca
Care: Hand wash and lay flat to dry
Needles: US 6 / 4mm
Pattern: Brattleboro Hat
Modification: Knit the band and button area as one piece and did not make the buttons functional. They are nice black safety buttons, which I thought looked more classy.













I looked for some soft yarn that had a “classic” look and color for my sister. This is like the softest yarn I have ever worked with. I have to work with it again! The hat went much quicker than the baby version, since it’s bulky. Still a fan of this style of hat.

This definitely classifies as the pattern I have knit the most of, since I have now made 3. Granted this one and the baby were modified for my gauge and such. I do love this pattern.

Back . . .

Well, I am home. It was an absolutely lovely wedding. The rain tried to sneak in a couple of time, but it behaved.

My sister and brother-in-law. Don't they make a lovely couple?



My Dad actually wore a tux! I don't think I have ever seen him in a tux.



Echo's daughter, Justice, was Rhoni's flower girl. Doesn't she look lovely? She got her hair all curled for the day and everything.



Both Echo and Vera looked lovely. The thing to point out here though, is Vera is wearing the sweater I made for her for Christmas. She is so skinny, it'll probably fit her until she's 2 or 3.





I didn't really get a good picture of my mom, myself, or Echo all dressed up. Everyone looked very nice. It flew by like crazy!


Last to show is my bummer. I got my hair permed a few days before the wedding . . .





Yeah, super fail. I'll be going back to them to either get it fixed or to just get it cut. Blah. Otherwise it was a lovely weekend! I hope they have a great time on their honeymoon!

Rhoni & John's Gifts

The first gift is the Catherine Bear. My sister and brother-in-law are excited about starting a family and we all know how late I am with gifts, so I figured early was better. I gave her blue eyes, because they both have blue eyes, so their babies probably will.
















Pattern: Catherine Bear from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley.

Needles: US 2 / 2.75mm

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Dream Baby DK
Color: Natural/Tan
Content: 50% acrylic / 50% nylon

Her dress is cotton fabric with a dress pattern I made to fit her. The trim is hand-made bias tape. I forgot to take pictures of the back of the dress, but it has two snaps to close it. I hope to make some more clothing for the bear as they have kids. I will soon make her some bloomers.

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The other gift was a gift from me and my mother. I made hot pads to set pans on and my mother made the potholders. We used the same pattern, only changed each of ours slightly.

Here is my contribution, 2 matching hot pads. I'll admit they might be a little large, they are about 15.5 inches x 15.5 inches. But I wanted her to be able to fit larger pans on them too.

Pattern: Friendly Hand from the Quilter's Cache.
Fabric: Cotton green and black
Insides: Insul-Bright Thermal Batting (2 Layers, with metallic side up since pans will be sitting on the top).
Thread: Coats & Clark All Purpose 100% Cotton thread


The pattern top was sewn on a machine. The border is hand done with an blind hem stitch (I think that is what it is called) so you can't see it from the front or back.



I quilted around the green corner geometric swirls by stitching in the ditch, which is stitching into the space of the seam. This is so it isn't seen from the front. There is no border on the back because the border and back are all one piece. Here is what the back looks like from the quilting.





Honestly, I had a lot of fun making these and I prefer small quilting projects. Besides the potholder swap I am in, I definitely see me making more potholders in the future.

Rhoni's Christmas Socks

Rhoni's socks were not quite as annoying, just somewhat tedious. As I mentioned before, I did my decreases wrong, way back on the heel and had to re-knit the second sock after I had already made it to the toe. Similar issues with gauge, but not quite as bad as Echo's. Not sure if the dye differences made the yarn feel different, but Rhoni's yarn was not as slippery as Echo's

Yarn: Panda Silk
Content: 52% bamboo, 43% superwash wool, 5% combed silk
Care: Machine wash cold, lay flat to dry
Color: 3202 (black)
Needle: US 1 / 2.25mm metal dpns
Gauge: 9.5sts per inch
Size: 6.5


Here is one sock by itself. I like the way everything in the sock turned out. In the beginning the patterned part was interesting. Although, it was a fairly simple, it was just a tad too difficult for me to memorize, which was annoying. It gave me less time to work on it, since I'd have to pull out the pattern.


Both socks together. The heel is just a regular slip-stitch heel worked over a little more than half the stitches.


The stitch pattern was from one of the Barbara Walker books, I believe. I don't remember and I didn't write it down, which is annoying. It was a pattern worked back and forth and I altered it to be worked in the round.


I worked the same toe on Rhoni and Echo's socks. I like how it worked on Rhoni's first sock and chose to do it on Echo's also. The math is different, because the space, gauge and numbers were different.



Overall, black is no so interesting to knit with, but the sock wasn't too bad. All the different parts worked nicely together. I am quite happy with how these turned out.

I will admit that all this sock knitting really makes me want sock blockers! I think when break arrives I will get some good thick foam board and make my own.

Pieces fall. . . not always into place

I have finished the first one of Echo's Leyburn-ish socks. I say Leyburn-ish socks because it is based of the stitch pattern used in the pattern, but altered. My stitch repeat within the patterned area is different and the rest of the sock has nothing to do with the construction of the Leyburn pattern.


You can see here, a close-up of the patterning. Because there were so many light purples, no medium purples, and only one dark purple, the pattern does not show up as well as one would hope.



I have begun the cuff of the second sock. Now, even though it is the same skein(although further in), the same gauge, and the same pattern . . .it is pooling to say the least. But I have accepted this, although it is too bad.



Rhoni's second sock, being knit for the second time. I have done the gusset decreases and am now moving onto working the foot. It won't be long now.




And now some drawings from Drawing Class:


I really enjoyed drawing this pose. 1.5 day pose. I so very much wish I had had a little more time to make a larger contrast in the shades, but it is close enough.



Here is another pose, different man, where we had 2 days. It was too much time with this pose, I got bored and began outlining the figure in dark jagged marks. It kind of looks like he is in hay, oh well. My favorite part is his hair, it turned out wonderfully.

Socks and a Toy

I finished Rhoni's first sock and have started the second one.


An attempt to show the lace pattern on the top of the foot. (her foot is significantly smaller than my own)


Started another pair of socks for my mother.



A miniature frog from this pattern by Susan B. Anderson. Shown with a tube of chap-stick for size comparison. Still need to embroider his face though.

A little break . . .

Well,I have a little time off from work. This was intention and yet not. We were suppose to be heading back to Ohio, to visit the boy's family for a few days, this has been planned for quite some time. I requested the days off from work and all the jazz, at the last minute, the boy decides that he doesn't really want to go to Ohio due to cost. So, I have a few days off now. Yesterday, I took a lazy day, if you exclude doing laundry and grocery shopping. I sat outside and did some spinning and knitting. It's been overcast, rainy, and in general spring-like here.

Here is my spinning:



And here you can see how much I still have left to spin. I am thinking that at this rate, I should definitely have a pair of socks worth.



Here is some knitting:

My mom's socks are almost done, just a few more rows and then I begin the second toe.


This close up is more accurate to the color of the yarn.





I have started Rhoni's Christmas Socks. I was inspired by Bea of BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP post on a dishcloth she recently made. So the top of the foot will be this(ravelry link) lace pattern. I did some more knitting on them last night and the lace pattern is working very nicely.

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Lastly, my order from JoAnn Fabric got here. I needed more of the warp yarn for my Dad's blanket and couldn't find it in the store anymore. I also ordered a couple other things . . . let's face it, might as well get your money's worth for the shipping price, but that will be another topic.