Halloween Fun

Tonight we trick or treated in our wonderful neighborhood and in my sister's neighborhood. Rockin10 daughter, shown here, received lots of candy, but no yarn... I would like to invent a holiday where we go door to door and collect yarn from all the homes. Hmmm, what would we call that holiday? Let's start it in 2009!

Delivering Bazaar Hats ~

My 11 knitted hats were donated to our church bazaar today. I have high hopes that they will all find great homes, and that they will keep wonderful heads warm with all the love and care that I knit into each one. Here are some pictures of little ones, before they went to the church. If you see them out in the world, please give them my regards.

Bazaar Beads

Instead of knitting tonight (a bad tradition to begin the last two posts with "instead of knitting tonight" so I need to get back to knitting tomorrow night, OK?) I worked on finishing beading projects for our church bazaar this weekend. We did a lot of bazaar beading during our ocean weekend, but not all projects were complete. I assembled the clasps on 5 bracelets and wire wrapped one as well. P.S. We also started sewing a Halloween costume tonight!!!

An aside here: My sister-in-law, Suzie, is a Rock Star beading talent ~ her creations have done well in competitions in New York and she is very inspirational plus a patient teacher (bonus for the rest of us!). My sister is on her way to becoming a Rock Star ~ no gold ribbons in competitions yet ~but she has color sense and balance with her jewelry pieces already, and is learning as many techniques as she can find classes. I would bet she will be a Rock Star before the holidays are done, as she is getting a lot of practice for her talents. Both my daughters could be Rock Stars with some training as both have a sense of color and balance like my sister, and I think they will both continue to practice since they are so good at beading ~ plus the ladies at church ask for their creations at the bazaar!!! I am not a Rock Star, but love the sparkles and colors ~ plus I am getting pretty good at putting the clasps on!

Carving Great Pumpkins

Instead of knitting tonight, we hosted a neighborhood pumpkin event for the "bus stop" families. We had a blast with 8 kids, 5 parents, 8 pumpkins, 4 pizzas and a few power tools ~ and no injuries!


P.S. We did talk about knitting, as our newest neighborhood knitter is now on row 7 of the scarf started during Monday's Yak & Yarn. Great progress!!!

Beach Knitting

Here is the Central Park Hoodie at the beach ~ what a great weekend we had ("we" meaning our family...... well, and I am sure the Hoodie had fun too!)

Socks on the Beach

A great vacation is defined by relaxing with family and knitting ~ a bonus for all when the vacation includes The Ocean and a beach! Lots of walking along the beach and lots of knitting. Also some bead work as we created treasures to sell at our Church Bazaar next weekend. We beaded most of Saturday evening and part of Sunday in the hopes that these treasures will sell at the Bazaar and make lots of money for mission work. The view from the condo was beautiful at all times ~ high tide, low tide, crashing waves and calm water ~ always entertaining to watch, and relaxing as well. As for the socks, I have done one repeat of the 11 row lace pattern for the Monkey Socks, and they look great ~ however I'm not sure Alpaca Silk is the best for lace socks ~ but it feels so great while knitting, and rockin13 tried them on and still loves them, too! A great weekend was enjoyed by all of us!!!!!!

Great Pumpkin (hat) Found

Here is the real pumpkin hat, and the cutest model! It is a Fiber Trends pattern, I just can not find it!

Early Bird

Well, whoops anyway.... I thought our Yarn & Yak was today, as I was so excited to be knitting. It is really next Monday... so I was early ~ by just a week. So here is my Monday knitting gathering this week ~ not a lot of conversation with my halloween friends, so "we" listened to an audio book, Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich.

Yak & Yarn

One of our new "bus stop" neighbors wants to learn to knit a scarf, so my sweetie gave her my email so we could set a time for learning to knit. Another of our "bus stop" neighbors is calling this event "Yak & Yarn" and I could not be more thrilled at the title! There will be the three of us, each at different stages of our knitting and hoping that our newest convert becomes as enchanted with yarn as we are. I told her I would get some yarn together for her to play with, sort of like a library loan... so she can decide which fibers & needles she likes best before she spends any money.... Does three baskets of yarn look appealing for jumping in?
P.S. For our neighborhood, our elementary school & middle school bus stop is the same ~ just an hour apart. I am at the earlier bus stop with middle school daughter and my sweetie is at the later bus stop with elementary school daughter.

Pumpkin Hat

Our family went to the local pumpkin patch today as part of our autumn tradition. We found perfect pumpkins and had a delightful time! I spotted many knitted hats on kids and adults, however my family would not let me take any pictures, lest I be arrested as a stalker.... My sweetie wanted me to have a picture of a pumpkin hat, so here is "my pumpkin hat" for your viewing pleasure.

Marion, a great friend & awesome knitter, knit a perfect pumpkin hat for her grand baby from the Fiber Trends pattern that I cannot find on the web right now (perhaps it is not Fiber Trends, but just uses the blue paper?). Here is another lovely pumpkin hat for your knitting pleasure ~ very cute, indeed from Crazy Aunt Purl. Click the link for the pattern.

Victory of da feet (defeat)

Knitters are talking about Socktober this month ~ a designated month in the knitter's year dedicated to the knitting of socks. I was pleased to hear on Stash & Burn that even Nicole is knitting socks this month. If you have not listened to that podcast, please do, as Jenny & Nicole have lots of inspiration and motivation for all of us. So much that I need to show you the wee bit I have knit on my "socks in progress" in the past weeks. Although no "victory" yet, the blog title was the genius of my sweetie, so I am using it with his permission. The picture shows (right to left) my blue/green tofutsies, my jewel tone jitterbugs and my yellow alpaca bliss socks...... How are you doing on your sock knitting?

Hoodie Invention

Remember when I told you about my invention with the knitting bead counters that would cue me to which cable to do....well, I have created another invention that is more brilliant (is that possible, you ask?) than the beaded counters ~ although not as pretty to view. The invention uses the bigger plastic stitch markers and I've written the "next directions" on the marker with a sharpie pen. Can you see this in the picture "K14" and "A10" written on the markers? "K14" means knit 14 stitches and "A10" means knit the A cable for 10 stitches. Not so pretty, but now I do not need to refer to the paper pattern (until I have completed 13 inches of this cable pattern for the fronts & back). Pretty clever, eh? You will also notice that I keep the beautiful whimsy of the bead counters as they are really pretty to have dangling on my knitting!
(also, check out my great progress!!)

Home Again, Home Again (Jiggity Jig)

Coming home from a trip is always a great feeling ~ being reunited with our family and sharing what has happened while we were apart. Catching up on the "goings-on" and recounting stories and funny moments. A really Great Surprise occurred when I walked in the door and saw my birthday present from my sweetie ~ he had made a quilt rack for my batik quilt & he hung it up as well. What a beautiful welcome home surprise!
P.S. Quilt made in a class from Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon during the summer quilt show week. In addition to fabulous fabrics, they also have a great selection of yarn!

Altitude Knitting

Knitting on an airplane is almost as great as Road Trip knitting. I was able to knit quite a bit of my Central Park Hoodie while on route to vacation with my folks. I was also able to knit during bits & pieces of travel time while I was there, as I went to the airport a few times, plus we had a Road Trip to Toledo. We had a great vacation ~ no yarn purchases, but still found time for some knitting! This picture was taken at the beginning of our trip. I will soon post a picture of how far along the Hoodie is now!