Keeping Cool in Summer Dishcloth Exchange

I joined a swap!  This questionnaire is a little late.  Sorry!

Please post to your blog no later than the end of registration June 6th!

1. Do you Knit or Crochet? For how long? I knit and try to crochet.  I have been knitting for about 2.5 years and trying to crochet for a couple months.

2. Do you enjoy using metal, wooden, or some other kind of needle\hook?  Doesn’t really matter.  I like pointy tips, and I don’t really care for plastic with the exception of the Boye interchangeable set I inherited from my grandma.

3. What are your favorite types of yarn? Any you just can’t stand?  I like all different kinds of yarn.  I don’t really care for bulky ribbon yarns.  I’m on a lace yarn kick right now.

4. When it comes to cotton, are there any brands you’d love to try and haven’t? I’ve always wanted to try Henry’s Attic Pigtail cotton.  It doesn’t look like it would be necessarily fun to work with, but it looks like it would create great end results.

5. When you make Dishcloths, do you use them yourself, or tend to give them as gifts? So far, all for me.  I’m going to knit a couple for my mother-in-law since she loves doing dishes and cleaning.

6. Do you have a favorite color? Any that you dislike? My favorite colors are greens, reds, and purples.  I don’t have any that I particularly dislike.  I guess I don’t really care for beige.

7. What color(s) (if any!) are your kitchen and bath decorated in?  They are both decorated in brights.  My kitchen is more primary colors with red and orange, and my bathroom has more magenta, teal and lime green.  Actually, that’s the theme for my living room too.

8. What are your favorite scents around the house?  I clean with grapefruit scented cleaner, and I always love the smell of coffee brewing.

9. What is your very favorite thing about summer? There’s more stuff to do: play outside with the kids, going out on the boat, baseball games, parks & zoos.

10. What is your least favorite thing about summer?  The humidity and the mosquitoes.

11. Do you use soap or body wash in the shower?  In summer, soap.

12. What scents do you enjoy in the bath?  Citrus, calendula–nothing too perfumy.

13. What is your favorite dishcloth pattern?  tribble or slip stitch patterns

14. What sort of treats do you enjoy? Sweet or Salty?  Both.  I’m addicted to coconut.

15. Imagine today is one of the hottest days of the year – what do you do to keep cool? Or are you one of those folks who loves the hot weather?  Drag the kids to a highly air conditioned place like the mall or the library.

16. What sorts of hobbies do you enjoy besides knitting or crocheting?  spinning, dabble in sewing, and I planted a garden this year

17. Do you collect anything (besides yarn!)  postcards and fabric

18. Are you on Ravelry? If so, share your ID!  myhobbyisyarn

19. Do you have any allergies? no

20. Do you have any pets? no

E is for Easter Dress

But first…look what I got from my hand-dyed yarn swap partner Mollie:

Pretty blue laceweight yarn inspired by the butterfly in the photo. It’s a little purplier than in the picture. She also made me some matching stitch markers. To go with the yarn, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, soak wash, and some cedar balls. Thanks Mollie!
On Saturday, I taught my first knitting class. Nobody signed up, but Cindi and Sonja decided to take it just for me. I think they kind of learned something. 🙂

I knit another pair of intarsia mittens:

Maybe next time more people will sign up.
Finally, on Sunday we went to N’s grandparents’ house for Easter. Girly wore her dress that V got for her a while ago. She knew she was pretty, so she thought she could do whatever she wanted. We nearly missed out on church, but right as we were about to leave, we found out the church we went to had a daycare! What a great idea. We had never been to a church with a daycare before.
The kids were very good, and they didn’t even get messy. Girly did not want to get her pretty dress dirty!

I’m Back!

Well, now that I’ve adjusted back to semi-normal, and I have a camera again, it’s back to blogging! To start off, some long-overdue thank yous:

Thanks Alyssa! Alyssa was my Secret Pal! I use the little scissors all the time, and the whole package smelled like the coconut candy she sent!

Thanks Cindy who was my Coffee Swap 3 partner. She brought back coffee from Hawaii!

And last, but not least, thanks Cathy! Cathy was my Hand-dyed yarn swap partner who is also from Wisconsin.

Isn’t that lovely yarn?  Of course there was a lot more stuff with all of those, but the treats are all eaten, the coffee’s been drunk, and some of the yarn has even been knitted!


These mittens were knit with the yarn I got from Cathy, and the accent stripe is the yarn I got from the first round of the Hand-dyed yarn swap. The pattern will be posted soon.
Until then, I’ve also made a similar mitten (just one so far) out of worsted weight Malabrigo. The pattern is under the Malabrigo Mittens tab! (check it out!)

That’s it for knitting, now for kids!

Girly turned 1 on Monday! She’s copped an attitude since then, too.

It must have been the delicious Burned Butter-Brown Sugar Cake with buttercream frosting!

And, I got new glasses! I can see!

What I learned about Frogs

I learn stuff at the weirdest places.  Today at work, I had to place a service call on a machine.  It’s pretty much a daily occurrence.   Anyway, after being on hold for nearly an eternity, I got to chatting with the woman who took my call.  As it turned out, she was French Canadian.  She told me that French Canadians are called Frogs.  It’s ok for French Canadians to call themselves Frogs or other French Canadians Frogs, but it is an insult if a non-French Canadian calls a French Canadian a Frog.  I had no idea.

On the knitting front:  N made a home for my yarn.  Then I picked on him for loving yarn.  I’ve started on sleeve #2 of Goozle’s sweater, and I’m bound and determined to finish my mittens by the deadline!  I knit a hat out of some of my hand-dyed yarn that is so cute, but my kids outgrew it!  It’s gender-neutral if anyone wants a baby hat.  And, I still don’t have a camera.  Well, I have a film camera, and first I have to finish the roll.  Then tons of pics.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

 

What?  You don’t celebrate St. Nicholas Day?  You leave your shoes out, and St. Nicholas will put gifts in them.  Kind of like stockings but more fun.  Unless you’re bad, then you get a stick.  We didn’t celebrate St. Nicholas Day when we were kids, but after we all took German in high school, my dad sometimes sends us little things.  Mostly candy.Anyway, I scrapped my last Debbie Downer post, since I’m in a much better mood today (or this week).  Mostly because it’s almost the weekend, it’s pay day, and the busy season of continuing education manuals is almost over.  Unfortunately, my cameras aren’t working, I flaked out on my downstream pals, and the ignition locked up on the car.  We looked it up on the internet; apparently, it’s a problem with Ford Focuses between 2000-2003.Meanwhile, I got 3 boxes from swap pals.  I will get a camera soon and thank them properly.  So, stay tuned for boxes of yarn, coffee, candy, and other goodies.

Me+Organization

I hope you’re all getting a good laugh at that. I decided the organization thing is all relative. Compared to my mother-in-law, no I’m not organized at all. Compared to some of my co-workers, I’m a hyper-organized clean freak! Yes, me. I want N to get me or make me some shelves like this. If I can’t see my yarn, I’ll have to keep pulling it out to put it in piles. That’s why it’s in piles all over the house. A pile for Goozle’s sweater, a pile for mittens, a pile for swatches (and I knit a lot of swatches).
When I was in school, I kept everything in a binder. If I tried using 2 binders, whatever I needed would inevitably be in the other binder. The problem is, if everything is in one binder, and I lose that binder, then basically I’m screwed! I had a similar incident with my knitting needles recently. They’re all in a little pouch that I got from my secret pal. I could not find the pouch anywhere. Therefore, projects got sidelined. And I got this in the mail from my secret pal:

Another needle case, yay! It has needle conversions on it, too. I think I’m going to take my dpn pouch and stick it right in the needle container. Organization on top of organization! She also got me some Caron Simply Soft Shadows. I immediately cast on and started knitting a project that I think will become a Christmas present! And the cutest sweater pattern! It says “Hug Me” on it. I’m going to make it for Girly! Cuteness overload! Thanks Secret Pal!

I also recently acquired some yarn from a nice guy on ravelry. It was a lovely and unexpected gift that was one of my bright spots of last week. It’s been hectic with my “new” job and long hours and sick kids who refuse to sleep. Anyway, I’m using some of the yarn to make a scarf for a cancer patient. Hopefully it can brighten someone else’s day.

It’s actually much longer than that. I have one more scarf to knit with the yarn they gave me to knit a scarf with. It think I might knit a clapotis. Or maybe my so-called scarf knit the long way. I’m not sure. I should knit something manly. Anyone know any good man scarf patterns that aren’t ridiculously boring?
I suppose I should go work on my Thanksgiving food.  I’m making 4-bean salad as requested and some roasted garlic flatbread (if I can find the recipe) and maybe the corn casserole recipe that Cindy gave me.  I’m going to try it at some point; I have all the ingredients.  I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!  Have a nice brunch, family.

Beauty knows no pain *sob*

Please learn from my mistakes.  I hate shaving.  I’m a sucker for anything that claims to eliminate the need for shaving as often.  I’ve tried waxes and sugaring.  For some reason, both tear off the top layer of my skin and leave the hair behind.  My sister even gave it a shot, and she’s a trained professional.  So, when one of those hair removal creams with the fake razor that’s basically a squeegie was on sale for something like $3, I thought I’d give it a try.  I followed the directions, but I missed one important warning.  Something about trying it on a small area first to see if it causes allergic reaction.  If I had seen it before hand, I probably would have ignored it anyway.  So my legs are now hair-free.  Unfortunately, they are also covered in a red, bumpy, blistery rash.  Oh so attractive.  I guess I’ll have to stick to shaving.

In yarn news, I bought the rest of the yarn to send to my secret pal, and it’s all I can do to not keep it for myself.  And I’m also on a llama for Malabrigo swapping spree on ravelry.  They’re getting more Malabrigo in at the yarn store, too!  I love Malabrigo.

N also told me I have to knit all the yarn I have before buying more, because it is taking over the house.  Takes a lot to make him mad, but he was kind of pissed about that.

tu-tu and Tut

Where I work, they have a Halloween party for the kids. People dress up and the kids can go trick or treating around the cubicles and offices. I think it’s nice, because it’s warm, I don’t have to worry about the candy, and I can show off my kids to my co-workers. This year Girly was a ballerina:

Goozle was a pharaoh:

Goozle hated his costume. He didn’t feel good, and he completely freaked out when he saw the first dressed-up person at work. I made both of their costumes. It was fun.

I also got another package from my secret pal! Thanks secret pal! I got the prettiest purple yarn, a knitting journal, and a little picnic basket filled with almond joys!

I was just talking to a friend the other day about how I love purple, and it seems to be a hot color this season, but I rarely wear it. So, this yarn is going to be made into something for me!
In other news, I started my “new” job. It’s kind of like the Twilight Zone. I know what I’m doing, I know some of the people there, yet, it’s so different! One of the guys in my department at the other plant installed IM. I think it’s going to come back to bite him in the butt! I told him I could send him a link to my blog, but he’s not interested in knitting. 🙂

Oh and I almost forgot!  Cass is having a contest for her 333rd post.  You can win a great prize.  Tell her you found her contest on my blog, and I could win a great prize too!  Plus, her blog is hilarious, so even if you don’t win, you could end up snorting coffee out your nose from laughing so hard.

Instant Gratification

I knit Girly this little pink bonnet using some Garnstudio Eskimo and the trim I can’t remember what it was. It fits her perfect! I just have to find a yarn needle to weave in the ends and make some ties, so she doesn’t pull it off.



It only took about 2 hours to knit on size 15 needles! I like finishing things.

More Swaps

All right, I’m getting as bad as Sharon :)! I’ve signed up for 2 more swaps. Round 2 of the Hand-dyed Yarn Swap is now open. We’re dyeing sock yarn again. Sign up–it’s lots of fun. I also signed up for Knitters Coffee Swap 3. The last round was so much fun, I had to sign up again! This swap is not anonymous, and my partner is Cindy. That’s it then for the rest of the year! But swaps are fun and addicting. Just look at the fun package I got in the mail today from my secret pal:

The little bag and takeout box were full of Almond Joys and Mounds and Hershey’s with almonds. The yarn is Sugar and Cream. I’m thinking jack o’ lantern washcloth. There’s a stuffed pumpkin, too, that Goozle took. Pumpkin is one of his newest words.  Thank you secret pal!
Here’s what I’ve been working on for the Strikke-Along:

It’s not coming along real fast because I’m not so sure about this:

I’m debating whether or not to rip it out or just keep going. I don’t want it to look crappy. I have to get going on it if I want it to be done on time to take the steek class at the yarn store.