More New Stuff

I got a new phone yesterday! This is the Razor. It's the first time I've every gotten a phone that someone may have ever heard about! It's nice, but different from my last few phones so I either have to have my son play with it and teach me, or I have to dig through the manual to figure it out. I'd love to play with it, but I want to knit..... Dilemma!
The local AARP has volunteers to help do taxes for free. I went over there yesterday and found that I don't make enough money to file (I can, bu don't have to) and that if I did, the amount I owe (due to self employment taxes) will be more than the tax rebate coming later this spring, so.... I guess I'll not bother. I wish I had a clue on where to find good information about the rebate, cuz I heard a rumor that veterans were eligible and then it might be worth me filing.

Anyway, while I was waiting my turn, I KIPed. The leg of the second sock (above on the left) got finished. Actually, over finished. When I measured I had to frog about an inch of knitting. That was okay. So, I spent my evening knitting time starting the heel flap. I'm going to shorten this one up a bit so they fit better.

As you can see, these are definitely fraternal socks. The one on the right has a black strand carried throughout, and the other a strand of white.

The Waterloose Mickey Mouse socks I'd made were too big...but after a couple of runs through the washer and dryer, they fulled down a tiny amount and fit much better now. Whew! And I love how drying in the dryer vs stretching them makes the Feather and Fan design become three dimensional. Aren't socks fun?

Anothe Pair of Mickey Mouse Socks

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I finished the Mickey Mouse Waterloose Socks made of the Rodentia color way from Down Home Sock Yarns. I adjusted the pattern to 72, six rounds of garter stitch, ten rounds of pattern before dividing for heel, seven rounds of pattern during heel decreases and top of instep. Then eighteen rounds of st st before starting toe decreases. I like 'em!

Darning went well, once I got the hang of it. I got three of the four holes finished up I'm not sure how long the darns will last as I didn't really make the weaving as tight as I think it should be. But we'll see. Heck, they can be darned again, can't they? Hmmm wonder how many times one can darn a sock before it's all darn and no sock? :) A darned sock is a well loved sock!


My MP3 player is still just giving me five hours of continuous playback. I've e-mailed the company again and we'll see if it's the kind of files I'm listening to (wmp) or they're just doubling the play time. Did a bit of research and my travel time, including the layover, I think is just 5 hours. So, if I just listen to the book on the plane I should be fine. I e-mailed the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to see if there was some place I can recharge my player during the layover. I'm sure when we went to TN for Christmas '06 we saw charging stations in one of the airports. Just don't remember if it was Tucson, TFW, or Nashville.

Talked to DIL yesterday with my sweet grandbaby raising hell in the background. She said she just can't wait for me to see him and discover what a rotten kid he is! :)))) Not in my eyes! She mailed my itinerary to me, so now all that's left is the waiting and the packing!

Well, now that I've finished the Waterloose socks, I shall have to search for a new project to finish! I have two more beginning of the year gifts that need to be finished by the beginning of April and one the end of May. Hmmm, perhaps I could go buy the yarn for the April one. It's for Youngest Son's birthday, so although I can work on it when he's around (he pays no attention to my knitting), I may be able to limit my knitting to when he's at his father's house on the weekends and still get it done. I did kind of want to take it with me to TN to work on to see 3rd Son's reaction to it...I think he'd like one, too, but I want to be sure!

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This is blatantly stolen from Ray of Knitivity.com. Please go visit him and maybe buy a couple of skeins of yarn so he doesn't sue me!

Shawls and Socks

I have been working on my Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl in the evenings. Thought I'd share a ketchup pic with you. Again, this is just half the shawl from center to end. Which creates the question: How big is a triangle shawl supposed to be? What's the average length from neck to point and from side to side. This one is now four feet from side to side (along the longest edge of the triangle) and 18 inches from back of the neck to tip (down the row of YO eyelets you can see on the right hand side of the pic). If I make it long enough to cover my ample bottom, I'm guessing the long side will be about 8 feet from to make the neck to tip measurement 3 feet. Does seem a bit much.... Yes it would be warm, but 8 feet... I'm just over 5 feet tall, so if the shawl is up to my neck in back, draping over my shoulders it'll be somewhere between my knees and ankles...

Can one add more to the point without adding width? If I make it shorter it'll be like this big arrow pointing down to my bottom which I'd really rather not draw attention to. The final answer of course might be that I just never wear it out of the house, but what fun is that?

Did some work on some socks yesterday, too. Remember my Mickey Mouse Socks I worked on while I was at Disneyland in Oct/Nov? Well I pulled it out of the mouse hole and started working on it. Got the heel decreases done and am working on the foot of the sock.

And I got the heel flap done on my DIL's 2nd Waterloose Socks. I'll turn the heel and begin the decreases today. The first sock is still attached to the ball of yarn I'm using on the second sock. I'll work until both socks are even, knitting off the first sock if I have to. Then I'll put them away until I go to Tennessee. At that point DIL can try them on so I'm sure they fit.

Need Thumbs

Have gotten both mittens done except the thumbs. With any luck at all, I can finish those up to day in the midst of washing clothes and packing and generally going into a panic about getting everything done before we leave TOMORROW morning!

I worked some on my newest Mickey Mouse socks...It's really fun to work this stitch pattern.

It's really easy....Round 1: K; Round 2: *YO K2, pass YO over two sts*; Rounds 3 & 4: K. The second round really leaves a neat pattern and breaks up the color repeats nicely.

Didn't do much else yesterday except ride herd on all the kids. The grands really did well over the weekend...I expected by Sunday afternoon they might have gotten tired of each other, but they hung out pretty well.

Mickey Mouse - The Sequal

I finally took time out to CO the Mickey Mouse socks I'll be working on while on vacation. I'm using the stitch pattern from Bamboo Walking Socks. I thought it looked like an easy pattern for the counting impaired (and it is). What I didn't realize it's very, very pretty! Neither the pattern picture or mine give it credit, but you'll see once I can get a few more rounds done.

I CO the second Peek-A-Boo mitten and find myself wishing I could work on my sock instead. I'll have to be very disciplined about it. Want to get these mittens done before we leave so there is one less Christmas project waiting for me when I get home.

I have been diligently moving posts from here to Blogger. I found that if I highlight the entire post, save, and paste in the Blogger window, it moves pictures, links and everything. Whoda thunk? Makes it very quick to move back and forth.

My Oldest, 2nd Oldest and Youngest Sons are coming over today for a small birthday party for Youngest Daughter. Here birthday is still a week away, but we wanted to have a family party today as we'll BE IN DISNEYLAND next week for her birthday.

Moving Right Along!

Moving Right Along!

Even with running around trying to get the car fixed, I managed to get quite a bit done on the 2nd Sock for 2nd Son! Just about eight more rounds before I start the heel. I'm excited! Felt like for so long I was knitting and not getting anywhere.

Found out that it's just not gonna happen getting a lock on my car doors. Can't find or order parts, and if the guy I talked to yesterday could manage to use a lock from a Honda (my Sterling is basically a Honda) it's gonna run close to $1000 for him to do it. Just a diagnostic was $250. And no guarantees. So....no locks on the car as it looks now. However, we did get to U-Haul and bought towing lights which F is going to wire up so I'll have rear lights!!!!!!! Disneyland here we come!

I found another house I want to live in: