Sweater Class

Click on title to see sweater from White Lies Designs

At the last sock class a couple of the ladies were talking about taking this class. Our teacher was going to teach the Friday night class. She said she was going to use a specific pattern that had 3 different sleeves, and 3 different necklines. She was also going to teach a technique called short row shaping for the armhole shaping. I had read about that technique but had not tried it yet. I actually wanted to take the class but I did not want to take another night class. But the teacher was only teaching the night class and a couple of the ladies encouraged me to sign up for it. So I did.

I was a little bit late on Friday and everyone was there when I got there. There was not one person there from the other class including the teacher. And this teacher was letting everyone pick out their own pattern to knit. I was a tiny bit miffed about it all. But oh well, go with the flow. "Be the water and fit into the cup."

The new teacher is Denise and I think she owns the shop. She is always at the shop so if I need any help I can drop in a bother her. She also gave us her email address to get help that way as well.

As I was late I hurried up and picked out a pattern. I ended up picking a pattern I had bought earlier. It is a "Knitting Pure and Simple" design. Those designs are usually knitted from the top down. I want to learn how to do that. This sweater is a short sleeved tunic with a v-neck. Because I am an Ample woman and I wanted to do the tunic it requires 1,855 yards. So of course there is not enough yarn in the same dye lot. Denise said she would called the sister store in Greensboro to see if they had that dye lot there.

I went in the next day to find out if they found any. I brought another pattern just in case we could not find enough for the tunic. They had some but not enough. So I am going to use a design by Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs called "The Shapely Tee". She did a tank for the book "Big Girl Knits". Here is the address for the design.

http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/patterns/lpullovers/fbd.html

It is a free pattern on her site under sweater designs. Another good thing is she uses short rows in the shaping as well. So I will still get to learn that.

Sock Knitting Class

My first sock. I am so proud. I tried it on my husband. It fit his big toe perfectly. I have to knit the other sock just so I remember what I have learned. I have some cool yarn that will form a design something like Fair Isle design.

Our Anniversary

Yesterday was our Fourth Wedding Anniversary.

It truly does feel as if I have known this man all my life instead of 5 years. This is my 3rd marriage. Guess what?....3rd time really is the charm.

Ok, to get back to the subject. Our Anniversary. This last Christmas Jim got a very, Very, VERY expensive Mac laptop. At the time it was agreed the Laptop was "Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Groundhog day and any other day that might require a gift or even a Happy anything. I got a nice diamond and sapphire neck less and so I really did not think we need to get each other personal gifts. We needed a bedspread so I thought it be a good idea to just get something for the house for our Anniversary. He thought it was a good idea and told me to get some towels and bath things to go with it.
Missy and I went shopping yesterday for it. Missy thought we should go to the "Big" mall as our mall while not tiny is not as big as Crabtree in Raleigh. We went to every store that had linen. I did not find anything I even remotely liked. We ended back at Cary Town Center Mall. At JCPenney where I wanted to go to in the first place. I found a really nice green...it is not a mint green and it is not an olive green. But somewhere in between those two colors. It is a whole cloth quilt with embroidery bed set. It includes the bedspread, pillow shams, a throw pillow, a sheet set and a bed skirt. All in a box for $299.99. It was on sale down from $550. Of course it does not match anything in the bedroom. Then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond. I go two sets of towels, a bath mat, a shower curtain and large rug for in front of the sink and a smaller rug for in front of the toilet. The towels and rugs cost $288.

We looked for curtains for the three windows. The curtains that are up there now belong to my husband and they are a nice manly blue and red plaid..Yuk. We found some O.K. lined green curtains for about $250 dollar. I just could not do it. I said I am going to make some. Missy thinks this is a mistake as I never really get around to making anything. But I am hoping the curtains are so glaringly wrong that I will be forced to make something else.

I bought the king size bed set but I have a queen size bed. I did that because I wanted the bedspread to be long enough to pull up over the pillows. I had pillow shams and they spend most of the time on the floor. I actually was hoping to just buy a bedspread and not a bed in the bag set. But I did not like any of them.

Our bed is massive and tall. I see needing some sort of stepping stool in my old lady future. The house is full of good quality massively male furniture. Dark wood and heavy. Nothing delicate or girly. Which is ok.

Anyway I have two pillow shams and at least a bed skirt to use for something else. I will have to figure out what to do with them. I could make some throw pillows or try to incorporate them somehow into the curtains. I am going to try and adjust the bottom sheet to fit but it doesn't work out there is another piece of cloth to throw into the mix. I am thinking about making roman shades lined with black out. Jim hates early morning sunlight. And then add some sort of window dressing on top of that.

We'll see.

New Year's Intentions

For me New Year's Resolutions never last. I think I will be better off with a list of New Year's Intentions.

Here is a list of things I intend to do this year. This list is not in any particular order.

PAINT
Kitchen
Front Door

Curtains
Kitchen
Back door
Breakfast room
Living room
Bedroom

Garden
Clean up flower beds
Make a vegetable garden
Haul away old lawn furniture/old furniture

Reorganize
Pantry
Kitchen cabinets
Sewing room
Linen closet
Book cases
Dressers

Learn New Crafts
Socks
Spinning
Jewelry
Learn to design my own knitting patterns
Cards

Writing
Finish my Nanowrimo novel
Write 500 words a day
Prepare for Nanowrimo 2007

Improve as a Person
Send out Birthday cards and gifts.
Act on the thoughtful things I think about doing.
Look for a Church....again.
Be a more consistent housekeeper.

Improve Physically
Get down to my ideal weight.
Learn to ride my bike.
Exercise
Walk everyday.
Get my blood sugar levels under control.

This is not an exhaustive list. But it is enough for now.

One last intention:

I will try to post the things I do complete.

Mrs. Beeton's

My daughter wanted a pair of wrist warmers. Brenda Dayne from the Cast-On Podcast has designed a very lovely pair. I have been wanting to try them.

My daughter picked out some truly awful acrylic yarn. So, of course, what came off my needles looked horrible and she does not like it.

Besides the yukkie acrylic it was also worsted weight which is way too heavy. The ruffle stood out like a clown's collar.

Some poor doll is destined to have a very funny skirt.

I am going to try it again. This time with yarn I pick out and who knows if I am feeling motherly at the time maybe in colors she would like.

Not Ready.

I am not ready for Christmas at all.

Well Christmas is like having a baby. It comes whether you are ready or not.

A Bird Fall Out

I was making breakfast this morning and I notice that all the usual birds were at the feeders.

Usually, I get a few here and a few there. It is not often that they all come to visit at once.

As Jim and I were sitting down to eat. I looked out of the window to see hundreds of black birds falling into our yard. All my birds had gone and the yard and feeders was literally covered with black birds. They were smaller than crows which we have a few living in the area. Jim said they were either Grackles or Starling. The flock was at least 500. They fell from the sky like leaves in a strong wind. Swirling and landing only to rise again by some unseen command.

On the ground by the feeders was a bird that looked like the rest except for yellow patches on the wings. It was similar to Red-winged Blackbird. But it was all yellow. No red or orange at all. I wondered if it was an immature Red-wing. Jim did not think it was. He was about to get his camera to take a picture when the birds as one flew off. They circled the neighboring trees landing and circling before they move on in a whirl of bedlam.

I thought not for the first time that we need a webcam on the feeders.