Making the Decision to Frog

The tee shirt I was making for my grandson has officially been frogged. It just wasn't going to work and didn't look nice. Wrong yarn for the project. So I decided to work on some toys instead. I'm crocheting a ball or more for him using, at this point in time, this pattern. It's a good basic pattern. I'm using the cotton I bought for the shirt, so my first ball is quite a bit bigger than those in the pattern pics. It's about half done in this pic. Crocheting is so fast!

The Heet the Feet slippers I made that fit my granddaughter stayed on her feet for less then five minutes. :::heavy sigh::: but I did get a pic!

And as I feared, I spent most of my day spinning! I finished up the Merino and started on some Corridale I'd received in a dyeing swap. There is only an ounce, so I'm spinning it up with some Top. I'm drafting the two of them together as I spin creating the twisted barber pole effect. There should be close to two ounces when I finish, which will work for part of a hat, or a design on a sweater....
Youngest Son and I cleaned up the back yarn. Now you must realize, my back yard is smaller than most living rooms.... But it does have two citrus trees. And we've had several frosts, so the lemons are falling like rain from the top branches. Along with leaves and other debris, we filled up 2.5 tall kitchen garbage bags with fruit and stuff. Youngest Son didn't complain about having to help, so it was a pleasant job that had a distinct Lemony Fresh Scent! And ended with a clean back yard.

I've built a little kitty bed under the patio table putting all the toys and chairs around to keep the dog from being able to dive in there when I first put her out in the morning. Some feral kitty(s) are using it as it's full of cat hair. Glad to keep them warm over the winter. I won't feed them as I don't want too many hanging around here. (there is someone in the complex that does feed them as well as catch, neuter and release.

Although lots of people thing feral cats are a problem, and I'm sure they are in some ways, I'm thankful they are around here and keep the mouse population under control. This is an old development and I'm sure lots of mousies have figured out how to get into the units. I've not found any evidence of mice in our house. I'm glad for that. We had mice in one house and never did manage to get rid of them all. What a disaster to my needlework supplies!

Youngest daughter has taken on two extra days work this week. Tuesday is normally her day off as is Friday after she works with my disabled son in the morning. None of us got any days off since last Friday. It's been a long week. However, the gal who she helped out is taking her weekend shifts, so Saturday and Sunday are free! F is going to work on his yard "job" tomorrow, so maybe he and I can have coffee and donuts on Sunday!

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You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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Another Slipper

I was wandering through the web looking for a slipper pattern (for Heet the Feet) and stumbled upon this one. Of course I changed it immediately upon knitting the first one.

To make a toddler size, using bulky yarn and size 8 needles, I CO 18 and knit for 8 ridges. Then picked up the sts all around and just knit for 8 rows. I used the suggested method for the top of the slipper but knit each row instead of purling back. Then I did several rounds of st st to make the cuff, adding the eyelets and a crochet chained drawstring. It didn't take very long to make them, and of course more time and more sts if using ww yarn. They look a little like moccasins.

I also got quite a bit done on the tee shirt for my grandson. The back is done up to the neck shaping. If I have some relative peace and quiet today, so I can follow the pattern line by line, I'll get the back done and start on the front.
And I did some spinning. This was about half full when I started and is getting close to being full. It's just plain what used to be Brown Sheep American Top and is now South American Top. :::sigh::: Ray at Knitivity has made me aware of "buying American" which sometimes I really can't afford, but, his yarn is from American spinners.... I wonder where the wool comes from? Anyway, I have some pretty dyed rovings to spin as well as all that alpaca and llama I got last year. So I'm going to try and spin for awhile every day. Yesterday I spun for 30 minutes, then knit for 30 minutes and accomplished alot on both projects.

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If you steal something from someone who stole it from someone else, is it still stealing?

Mittens and socks and procrastination

I finished up the mittens. They are intended for my Eldest Granddaughter. While working on them she kept saying,
"Who are these for?"
"I don't know yet."
"I think they should be for me."
"Oh?"
"Yes, see they fit."
"Hmmm, we'll see...."

So, once I finished those, I thought I'd go back to my regularly scheduled knitting. Wrong. Third Son called to say he has a job interview for becoming a truck driver. He has worked for a chicken processing place in TN for years now as a chicken catcher. First he caught chickens in big barns by hand...yeah, that's right, chasing them around and catching them. Then the bought this big machine that does it. (Trust me, you really don't want to know any of the details of this.) Let it suffice to say, the pay was good and he could support his little family.

Big processing company decided to contract out the chicken catching. Rather than give up his time at the company he took another job there. Again, trust me. This job required standing still on cold concrete floors with rubber boots on. I told you to trust me. And a significant cut in pay. He tried it out for a couple of months and decided he really needed less yuk and more money. Hence the job interview. However, he'd really like to keep the chicken job till after the first of the year when he can get a two week vacation check.

So, I grabbed 2nd Son's birthday present of wool socks and shipped them off to 3rd Son to help keep his feet warm. I'm now knitting 2nd son a birthday present.
These are made with Patons Shetland Chunky (a wool acrylic blend) in Charcoal. Which will probably be more acceptable to 2nd Son than the WoolEase oatmeal ones I gave to his brother. (Thank goodness none of my children read my blog!) However, I tell you this, I'm a convert from WoolEase (20% wool, 80% acrylic) to Patons Shetland (25% wool and 75% acrylic). It's soft, smooth, silky and what pleasure to knit with. The WoolEase is scratchy although it does soften a bit with washing, but nothing near the Shetland. It's a bit more expensive, but really makes a difference. It's better than Plymouth Encore, too, IMHO.

I decided on an afterthought heel as the two skeins I bought is not going to make two socks, and I'm not sure there is another skein of charcoal at JoAnn's.... Will check today. Anyway, that puts all my other Christmas knitting on hold till I get these socks done. Fortunately socks don't take long, especially with big yarn!

So, a few days ago, I found this somewhere in someone's blog or forum post.
I sent the link from Dragonfly Yarn Shop to F and asked, "How hard can it be?" His reply was for $20 and a some time, not hard at all. So, it'd cost about the same to make as to buy. But more fun to make it yourself!

Then today at PennyKnits I saw this:
Now this one is a whole lot cheaper and the only draw back I can see is that it does dictate the size of the ball of yarn you can put on there. Will discuss this with F today and see what he thinks.

Not that I really need either of them, but hey, neat knitting stuff is what it's all about, yes?

I hope all of you that celebrate had a good Thanksgiving. We had a good one, good food, good company and I even won the game of TV Scene It we played!