Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Monkey Update!

I spent the past week in Washington DC with my daughter's eigth grade class. I thought that I would have all this knitting time since we were travelling by bus. I didn't do any knitting on the bus but knitting daughter did a bit. I ended up talking with the kids and had a lot of fun. I did get some knitting done and that was one night between 3am and 5am when I had to watch the floor to make sure nothing happened to any of the girls. The knitting kept me awake. The Monkey is coming along quite nicely. I'm not quite sure of how it is going to fit my pal though but I am going to keep knitting. I have turned the heel and am working on the gusset for the first sock. Take a peek!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Monkey Frogged!

I was happily knitting away but what to my dismay? An extra stitch on one of the needles. How did that happen? I don't know, but I do know that I was unable to fix it. I had completed one complete pattern repeat plus a bit more at this point. I decided to frog the whole thing. Do I hear gasps out there? Don't worry, I honestly believe it was the yarn telling me that, the sock was going to be too small for my pal. I am going to go up a needle size and start all over. I am also going to rewind the skein so I don't have all the kinks in it. Sorry no pics to go along with the post. I should have taken a photo before frogging. I actually have my camera with me at work (long story). The frogging took place at my desk.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

I have a question??? Can anyone Help?

I have a question. I have the yarn, I have the pattern, now I have the needles that I am going to attempt to start with. Here is the question...when you first start knitting your socks, what do you do for your swatch? The pattern I am planning on doing is Knitty's Monkey Socks. 32 sts/48 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch and Lace Pattern = gauge instructions from the pattern. HELP! I want to start knitting but I want to make sure that I am doing this right.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Yarn Check! Pattern Check! Pal Check!

Well it looks like i'm ready to start knitting. I picked the Monkey pattern from Cookie A that appears in Knitty Winter 2006. The yarn in from Lorna's Laces in the River colorway. My pal likes blues so I thought this would be a gorgeous colorway all knitted up. I find my yarn first and then decide on the pattern. The pattern was actually chosen upon my pal's sock size. I have only knit one pair of socks so this will be an adventure in knitting. I am unsure how to change the pattern to make it fit. It wasn't too hard to find a pattern that would fit her. Her sock size is definitely bigger than mine. Take a look at these gorgeous pictures of the yarn that I got for the Monkey socks.

I can't wait to see how these will turn out. Stay tuned!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Recipe Friday - Chili

This is a very simple chili recipe 43 oz Campbell's Tomato soup 28 oz Contadina Crushed Tomatoes In Tomato Puree 6 1/2 oz canned mushrooms 16 oz Bush's Light Red Kidney Beans 1 pound 95% lean/5% fat raw ground beef Chili Powder Brown hamburger in a frying pan. Add cooked hamburger add all other ingredients to a crockpot. Cook for a couple of hours on low heat. I don't measure the chili powder, use as much as you like. Makes 12 1 cup servings. 2 points per serving. Without the meat it's one point per serving. Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

100th Post

Ok, couldn't resist just had to remark. IT'S MY 100TH POST.

To My Sockapalooza Pal!

I know your out there stalking my blog. So I thought that I might give you a clue or two. I'm not quite sure of your knitting abilities but heres some hints as to some of my likes for socks.. Jaywalkers, Monkey and a lot of the socks from the Favorite Socks book. Or you can be bold and design something from this or this. Need yarn help? Stay tuned that's coming next. Just thought I would be helpful. By the way it was too much fun putting this together for you.

Forgot To Mention

I forgot to mention when I ordered the yarn for my Sockapalooza pal, I ordered an extra skein for me. Do you think Darling Daughter may comment that I am adding to my yarn stash again? I also forgot to mention that I got another order in from the Loopy Ewe. I'll take pictures tonight and post them. I am absolutely in love with the colors that I received.

You're Not Going To Believe This

I was showing one of my co-workers my progress on my ISE4 scarf and commenting about how I am almost done. Guess what I saw? I had forgotten to cross a cable about 3 cables back. Guess what that means? I get to play frogger. I need to rip back to just past the cables and start all over. At least I was consist and forgot to cross two cables in the same row. So after spying that, I examined the rest of the scarf to make sure that there were no more uncrossed cables and there aren't. I breathed a sigh of relief on that one. I figure I have about 2 or 3 more hours of knitting time before the scarf if finished. I am starting to gather the goodies that I am including in my box to my pal. So now, when do I start playing frogger, during lunch or wait until I get home? I'll let you know what I did, hopefully at a later date. I got my pal's information yesterday for Sockapalooza 4. I promptly ordered the yarn and I can't decide between one of two patterns. I am just trying to figure which one would go best with the yarn that I ordered.