Slow but sure....

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Seems like I just can't make any headway on these socks. I'm ready to turn the heel now. Life has been so hectic these last few weeks. It's starting to return to normal, sort of.... Youngest Daughter's finally gone back to work full time. Her client got home from vacation last Tuesday. Which means I'm up and running from 7:00 am to make sure granddaughters get up, dressed, fed and off to school. Youngest Granddaughter's bus service hasn't started yet, so it's the race across town from one school to the other in the morning. Eventually it will all settle down.

Remember those 60 pairs of Mittnz I knitted? Well all the totals are in and the 66 people participating in the blitz sent in 1003 pairs of mittens/gloves/wristers mailed in late September and early October to the Cheyenne River Reservation, Eagle Butte, SD.

This woman has some scary stuff....and I don't mean "BOO!" scary.

Looking for cat hats? Not hats for the cat, hats with cats on them! Cat Hat #1 and Cat Hat#2!

To my five friends....you know who you are!

Sweaters, Books, and Ghosts

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Another progress shot! Three and a half inches and the first sleeve is done. If things keep moving like this I should have the sweater done a couple of weeks before the birthday.

Remember all those mittnz I knitted? Well they got mailed off this week...60 pair of hand knits and 21 pair of purchased Magic Gloves. A good showing if I say so myself! It appears we are not doing an organized blitz for Hatz, but I have several of those already finished to be mailed out later this year. Blanketz and Squarz are being made my many members of Native American Support. I've got seven baby blankets ready for that mailing in February. So I feel guilt free in turning my knitting towards holiday gifts. Not making as much this year as I usually do. I'm stumped for projects for the Hawaii family members. Need to make some work socks for my son in Tennessee.... Just hard to get in the mood when the temps are still in the 90s every day here.

I found a new nearby LYS today. Grandma's Spinning Wheel. Although it is very limited in it's yarn choices, (Crystal Palace only) there are lots of fun things for spinners. Atmosphere is the friendliest in town, except for the one LYS waaaaaaaaaaay on the other side of town. Haven't been there as I haven't been able to justify the gas expense to go "just to snoop." Grandma's Spinning Wheel has an afternoon set aside each week for a free Stitch 'n' Bitch, and she offers free beginning knitting and crocheting classes! I've always thought that was a smart move to get fiber people into a store.

I'm reading the second Mary Kruger Knitting Mystery--Although it's following a bit closely on the same formula the first one established (unpopular fiber person gets murdered, heroine finds the body and teams up with the detective to solve the murder) it's still kinda fun to read. She depicts non-fiber people well.... Not understanding why one suspect would leave the fiber merchants area at the county fair to go into town to visit the LYS. "There is yarn here. Why would you need to go to a yarn store?" Silly Muggles.

In pagan lore, Halloween, All Hallow's Eve, or Samhain (pronounced SOW-en) is the time of the year when the curtain between the two worlds is the thinest. IOW, it's the time for ghost sightings, strange unexplainables. So far, two blogs have weird things, KnitWitch has photos of orbs and strange lights, Melody's son moved out of his room due to ghosts. Wonder if we'll here more stories as we get closer to the end of October.

Take a nice stroll through the monastary and the woods with Amber. Need a pattern for gloves using fingering weight yarn? Kathleen's got a nice one!

Acrylic, Plastics, Hatz and Mittnz

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This is the newest Hat. A newborn size, garter stitch cuff, several rows of Eye of Partridge (Sl 1, K1 across, purl back, repeat) and then some colorwork for fun!

These are Mittnz 55. Baby mitts knit out of an angora blend, Kool-Aide dyed.
Mittnz 56 made from one strand of a wool acrylic blend and one strand of sock yarn.

And this is a group photo of my seventh set of eight handwarmers! All of the muffatees do indeed have either gussets and separately knit thumbs or thumb holes. Cuz you know, someone's gonna ask!

We've been discussing acrylic yarn over at NAS and one of the members stated:

Having worked in the petroleum industry many years ago, I can tell you that the main products from petroleum are the greases that come from it. Truth of the matter is, the gasoline you use and the diesel that the big trucks use used to be dumped because there was no demand for it. It's just waste in the original processing procedure. Kerosene was in demand for a while, but even that's now considered a waste product because they can't make enough money from it to process it properly. Think about that when you purchase your next jug of lamp oil.

Acrylic yarn -- along with plastic bags and all the other plastic products that have become a part of our everyday life are also made from waste products of the refining process.

I take this to mean that we're putting another step between these waste products and the eventual landfills that they will go into. Did you know that plastic bags can be processed and made into acrylic yarn? So can a lot of the soft plastic baby toys that get tossed out all the time because they're worn or too nasty to clean up.

So the things we consume most, gas, and diesel, are waste products, as are plastics. The cost of gas and diesel keep climbing higher and higher. Acrylic yarn hasn't gone up appreciably in a couple years now, toys don't seem to be that much more expensive, and the plastic bags are still being extravagantly given away at stores everywhere.... So could it indeed just be greed that raises our fuel prices? It would be interesting to know if the price of the greases spoken of have escalated as well.

It's suppose to get hot today: Strong high pressure overhead will bring near record heat to southeast Arizona today. Temperatures Saturday afternoon are expected to range around 110 degrees across the Metro Area. It is now 8:30 am, 92 degrees outside and 73 degrees in the house.

Mittnz at the Movies

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Mittnz 54. These are made out of the new yarn I got. I forget sometimes how nice working with wool can be. Working with acrylic is not that bad, it's just that wool can be that good.

Took some personal time yesterday and went to see The Happening. Reviews haven't been good, but I'm a big M. Night Shyamalan fan. I thought it was a great story. For years we have let ourselves believe that destroying this species or that species of life on earth will not effect us. I think we are gravely mistaken. "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." - Albert Einstein

I did, however, take the opportunity to KIP and finished another single Mittnz. Second one has been CO and will be finished shortly. Youngest Daughter, and granddaughters went to a different movie showing at the same time: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. As I'd already seen that one, I was happy to go by myself to The Happening. I knit up till the movie started and then while waiting for their movie to finish. We spent some time at the bookstore where I picked up the next book in the new Nora Robert Sign of Seven Series - The Hollow. The first one, Blood Brothers, was very good.

I have two Hatz OTN at this time. The Noro Hat and just a plain hat. Pics of the Noro Hat just don't do it justice, so I'll wait till it's finished and on a head. Right now it just looks like garter stitch.

Speaking of Hatz....Ray has decided to knit 100 hats for Covenant House New Orleans. He'll do the knitting, all he asks is you sponsor him for a hat or two. Great if you don't care to, or don't have the time to knit for a good cause. He's also got two new hat patterns for sale and immediate download.

S.E.X.

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Stash Enhancement eXperience!


A few weeks ago my sister contacted me and said she'd like to build up my stash for my Love Knitting. I received a gift card to JoAnn's and finally got a chance to peruse the sale items yesterday. I got 830 yards of Moda Dea Superwash in these three colors for $20. They are probably discontinued colors as the other MDS was not on sale. The granddaughter's got a gift, too for helping me carry the yarn! Little wooden cut outs with a pack of markers. It's amazing that $2 can buy 42.5 minutes of quiet!

Mittnz, pair 53, finished yesterday morning! Look, Gladys, there are thumb holes! Two strands of sport weight yarn, wool on top, acrylic on the palms. Nice and warm!

We have an educational meeting for youngest granddaughter today to put her in a pre-school next school year. The one we want is quite a ways away in the opposite direction of her older sister's school. We'll see how that all works out. Anyway, one of the new balls of yarn will go with me to begin some more mittnz.

Noro Hat is moving right along, too.

We have our own Cupboard Under the Stairs and it serves as the play room for the granddaughters. As with most playrooms, unless one has a full time upstairs, or in this case, down under the stairs, maid, it becomes the catchall for toys . Last night was cleaning time for our cupboard!The light fixture is broken, so I couldn't get a good shot "under the stairs" but trust me, all the toys are sorted out in their own bins, nice and neat like! Youngest granddaughter was thrilled that she could get to all the different toys. Up until a few weeks ago, she really wasn't interested in toys. Now she's started taking care of babies, reading books, building with the Duplos and putting the puzzles together.

Disposable Income, Wet Wool, and What We Think of Ourselves

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Stacy posted this today and I like it! Some days, “doing the best we can” may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect—on any front—and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else. —Mr. Rogers

This is Hatz 17. It's a large baby size. I really had a ginormous amount of fun making this one and even used up some little balls of leftovers.
Then a pair of little tiny baby mitts.

Got several rounds done on the Noro Hat while watching the world's stupidest TV show: The Moment of Truth. Normally, as you can probably guess, I don't watch these kinds of shows. I don't get any enjoyment out of seeing people squirm and hurt the ones they love for money. Just doesn't do it for me. But there was nothing on, and we all were enjoying the fact the cooler finally got fixed....sort of.

I guess the real summer has finally arrived. Several days of 105+ temperatures and it only cooling down to the 70s at night keeps everything hot all the time. Three more months of this.... I'm ready to run away to the library just to sit 'n' knit in AC.

Lolly is sharing pictures of Nova Scotia from a recent holiday there. I would much rather be there than here!
Okay...I don't really understand this.... Let's pay $300 for a device to read-not listen to, but read-a book from, when I can get the same book at the bookstore for anywere between $8-25 OR...OR...OR... from the library for free. Yes, it can store up to 100 books or something like that, but seriously folks, how often do you need to carry 100 books with you? Now if you were a student and could get your textbooks that way, okay...maybe. But just for entertainment reading? This must be one of those places to dispose of disposable income. I don't know for sure cuz it's been a lifetime since I've had disposable income, but..... And we won't even discuss how wonderful it is to cuddle up with a book and disappear into another world with the slight fragrance of the paper and glue....:::sigh::: A close runner up to the perfume of wool socks that are soaking .... (Seriously, I like the smell of clean, wet wool.)

Franklin has some very inspiring words about what we let the world tell us about ourselves. Take the time to read it. You'll be glad you did!

Mittnz Mission Accomplished...again

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I finished up my 50th pair of Mittnz. Before you ask, "Why point out the thumb hole?" let me explain. The last pic of eight I published I was asked if I remembered to put thumb holes in them! It was a serious question asked by one of the coordinators. I mean really, that was my sixth set of eight Mittnz and she wanted to know if I was smart enough to put thumb holes in the muffatees?? So now I want to make sure she knows I am not suffering from that kind of dementia.

Both Amy and Joansie said I should feel free to CO whatever I wanted to. So what do I do? CO another Hatz and another pair of Mittnz. I'm making the Noro Hat. I've got the first ten rounds done. Instead of purling the four rounds, I just turned my knitting inside out and continued knitting. IOW, I turned and knitted back rather than purling. Just requires a few tight sts at the turning point.

The Mittnz are muffatees again. Using double strand of Cascade 220 SuperWash. Amazingly I remembered to put the thumb holes in this one, too. I think I'll dip dye these as the grey is pretty ho-hum.
Life is pretty much back to normal again. Youngest Daughter is only working one job as the other won't let her come back to work until she has a doctor's note with no restrictions. The job she's missing is only ten hours a week and is our fun money. Which means we're having less fun, but, hey....

The forecast is over 100 degrees for the entire week. Our evaporative cooler broke last Thursday night, and although it was fixed it on Friday, he either put in a smaller motor or turned it to low. It's not moving enough air at all. Will have to call and have it fixed again and the cooler pads changed to see if that helps cool things down. Evaporative cooling should work very well as long as the humidity stays down. Our humidity is 24% and I figure it should be around 75°F in the house at the hottest part of the day. It's that now and it's only 87°F outside...at 8:00 AM.

• At 90°F and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 60°F.
  
• At 90°F and 50% relative humidity, air may be cooled to about 75°F.
• At105°F and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 70°F.

Local Harvest, a compilation of farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, has locations for produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies, and has yarn. I found some farms and Farmer's Markets in my area that I was unaware of. May have to check them out early in the day.

SockPixie has such beautiful yarn colors! This is the Van Gogh collection.

WWKIP Day

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World Wide Knit In Public Day is tomorrow. Here's where you can find the group meeting closest to you. If you don't have an event near you, join the virtual group.

Mittnz update: As a group we've made or purchased almost 34% of our goal of 1000 mittenz in the mail by October 1. BTW, our definition of Mittnz is not just handmade ones. Purchased handwarmers of any size are welcome, too. So if you're out yardsaling, perusing second hand stores or dollar stores, keep the cold hands out on the South Dakota prairie in mind. I know you're hot and sticky now, but....
After looking at all the Garter Stitch Blanket pictures, and reading the pattern in Knitter's Almanac, I couldn't help but cast one on yesterday! This is not going to be a huge queen size one like Jared's, just a smaller baby size one. Like a lot of EZ's patterns, it's fun to watch it turn corners. Such a creative person, that Elizabeth Zimmermann! This is really a fun project and Jared's right. Knowing there are 24 sts or less in each row knitted makes it feel like it's a much smaller project than it is.

I did some work on the February Sweater, too. I also remembered why I don't knit lace very often. I loose my place in the pattern so easily. No the rows, but all the steps in the pattern. I can memorize it, but if I'm knitting with family, TV or book around, I can easily slip into either random variations of the sts in the pattern, or just st st. Creates frogging issues. And the yarn is brushed so it tends to stick to itself. But it's growing!

I wanna buy it!For any Diana Gabaldon fans, this property is about 60-70 miles as the crow flies from Ft. William which is where Jamie was imprisoned and abused by Jack Randall.

Houston....We Have A Camera!!!

Before throwing the camera away, I took it to the Camera Guy at Target. (Thanks, Larry!) He said my batteries were not good for my camera. So I bought the expensive ($2.50/battery) ones and lo and behold! it works. I wouldn't have a problem with this at all, except I've always bought "regular" batteries for the camera. They generally last several weeks as I only take a couple pics a day. Why "all the sudden" did the camera develop such expensive tastes? Not complainin' mind you, just wonderin'....

Here is Mittnz 48! That's four dozen mittens!

Here's the last set of eight!

And here is the most recent set of muffatees!
These were adapted from a mitten pattern knit in the round.

Second Son brought Third Grandson over for a visit yesterday. TG will rarely volunteer for cuddles but backed himself up to me for a short lap sit.
Youngest Daughter drove herself to work last night and home again this morning. She said it was okay and didn't hurt her back to do so. She's still leaning to the side, though, compensating, so I hope she wakes up early enough to get hold of her Primary Physician and get a referral to a chiropractor.

For those that like to experiment with dyeing yarn...check this out! I just happen to save pennies so I may have to try it out...

Hatz & Mittnz

This is pair 47 of the current Mittnz knitting spree. They are made from left over sport weight sock yarn, a wool/nylon blend. Thumbless, they are intended for little hands.

The Challengz for the members of Native American Support, those of us making warm things for the Native Americans on the Cheyenne River Reservation, are Mittnz, Hatz, Feetz, and Babez. Right now, as you well know, we're doing Mittnz. Next is Hatz. So, I started making Hatz. I crocheted two and am in the process of knitting one. But I must put it down and make more mittnz. Mariella has finished her 48th pair!

For those that would rather purchase and send, from now to August 1 is Buttz, better known as the Underwear Drive. So if you can find your wear clear to cover a Kidz Butt or a couple of Kidz Buttz, feel free to mail some underwear to: Julie Garreau-Project Director, Billy Mills Youth Center (The Main), 8200 East Lincoln Street, P O Box 410, Eagle Butte, SD 57625. She'll see it gets to the right Buttz.

Youngest Daughter survived her first day back at work. She was walking pretty slow this morning, tho, when I dropped her off.

Mittnz & Socks

Using Youngest Daughter's phone, I got these two pics. (My phone camera is d-e-a-d just like the camera is. :::sigh:::) Anyway, Mittnz pair 46 is finished. Pair 47 is half done.

Here are the Bones Socks. All finished, blocked and ready to send on to David Boreanaz. It will be so much fun if he wears them and shows them off during taping of an episode of Bones! Of course there will be several pair all made by different people heading to his agent, but we live in hope!
Youngest Daughter went back to work today. She did much better yesterday, even managing to sit through Indiana Jones. It, BTW, was fantastic! It was as much fun as watching the first one the first time! Don't wait till it comes out on DVD, go see it now!

Karen Allen returns in this episode. BTW, did you know she has her own fiber business?

I'm hoping the day will be nice and easy going. I really need a break from my "nursing" career!

"Love" Knitting

Here's the most recent completed pair of muffatees. This is really old, probably 70s, acrylic yarn I got on Freecycle a few years ago. Someone was going to make something big out of it because there were, like, eight skeins of it. I really like the tiger stripe effect it gives. These, by the way, are pair 45 which has me in the lead of the Mittnz Challenge. The runner up, at this point has 41 pair. We still have a long way to go, though because mailing isn't until late September. At the rate I'm going, I'll have to open up a savings account for all the money I find in the laundry to pay the UPS charges!


This is the newest addition to the Log Cabin Charity project. We have about seven or eight people working on these blankets. We do a section and send it on to someone else to add some. It keeps going round and round until it's at least 36 inches on the shortest side. Frogsalot sent me this one with the dark purplish section. I added the white and turquoise. This particular one is crocheted and we have others that are knitted.

Youngest Daughter went to see the acupuncturist again yesterday. Initially she was worse off, but by the end of the day seemed much better. We'll see how she does today. Tomorrow is her last day off work. It's a good thing she only has a two hour shift on Friday, but I'm not seeing her drive a standard transmission to work at this point in time.

Today is Youngest Granddaughter's first "work out" with the Speech Therapist. I really have mixed feelings about this. Although my autistic grandson has learned words and appropriate responses, I noticed the other day he doesn't smile like he used to. He was always smiling, laughing and constantly in motion. Now he's serious and moves appropriately. Yeah, it doesn't wear me out to watch him anymore, but at what cost? It looks like his happy demeanor is replaced with the Life is Hard Work demeanor, and to me, that's so sad in a five year old.

Tomorrow night is an end of year event at Eldest Granddaughter's school, Author's Night. EG is very excited about us going and has chattered about it constantly for the last week. Then there is a ceremony on Friday morning before early and final dismissal at noon.

EG is also working great guns on the Summer Reading Program sponsored by our local library. The kids receive a chart with sections to color in for each 15 minutes of reading. Prizes are awarded at 6 hour intervals. She's using the timer to counter her minutes and record accordingly. We had to make a special trip to the library yesterday for more books! She's reading small chapter books, The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope. She's finished Dinosaurs Before Dark and is currently reading The Knight At Dawn. There are over 30 books in the series, so they should keep her busy honing her reading skills for awhile!

The hot weather is returning with a forecast of over 100 by Saturday. Yeah summer...NOT!

Memories and Mittnz

I took on an adult sized mittnz yesterday. They do take quite a bit longer to make. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, it's an adaptation of the two needle mitten pattern I used for the turquoise baby mitts of an earlier post. One of the many good things that comes from using a two need pattern is I'm getting alot of practice with my seaming. If this wasn't a variegated yarn the seaming sts wouldn't show at all.


Youngest Daughter is strongly considering going to the hospital. She's missed three days of work so far and is no better than she was when she threw her back out on Friday morning. Application of heat did help some, so I'm thinking she needs a muscle relaxant. This is really scary for all of us. She's the primary wage earner and even if I could hold down a job it wouldn't pay enough to cover our bills....

Twenty eight years ago today, my Oldest Son was born. In 1997 he was in a car accident, survived against all odds, and is a victim of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The son I had for 17 years was replaced by someone else. Although there are parts of him there, much of who he was has changed. However, he's my son and always will be. Happy Birthday, baby!

Knittin' Mittz

I wanted to knit yesterday, rather than crochet, and to try out some two needle patterns. So these neat little mittz came about. The thumb in the turquoise pair are knit in center of the flat piece. If someone is in the mood to try a new pattern, try these and tell me if you think the thumb technique could somehow be used for mittens in the round.

The little purple ones were a pattern in the round I adapted by adding two sts to the CO. I followed the directions for the decreases, Kitchenered the top and then sewed the side seam. Worked like a charm.

Youngest Daughter's back was a bit better all day yesterday, but is worse this morning....

Karen Allen's character, Marion, in the Indiana Jones movies 1 and 4 is a favorite of mine. I also loved her as Jenny Hayden in Starman. Well, guess what? She's a fiber artist and has her own retail store! Another reason to travel east!