How to make an 8 year-old girl happy...

Simple! Knit her a pair of pink striped knee-socks!

Details (yarn, pattern, etc.) can be found here: Ravelry project page

Hooray! I won something!

Phat Fiber is often giving away lovelies from their sponsors. I am thrilled to say I just found out that I won the yarn you see above. It is hand-dyed superwash sock yarn made by My8KidsMom whose lovelies are sold at Counting Sheep Farm.

And again I say, "Squeeeee!"

More wheel love...

I gave my new baby a spa treatment last night with some Watco Danish Oil, and look at how she glows! I wish I was a better photographer so that I could adequately convey how lovely her wood is. I haven't come up with a good name yet, but she definitely needs a name. Any suggestions?

She is currently set up in double drive, which is new to me. I have only spun in single drive with Scotch tension (Schacht Ladybug, Ashford Traditional, a variety of Kromski wheels) and a little on a Hitchhiker which is direct drive.


And, she is just the right size to proudly sit on our small hearth, ready to spin at a moment's notice.

My hubby even likes her--bonus points!

SQUEEEEEEEEE!

Guess what I got today!

It's mine, mine, all mine! I have been trying for some time now to get my hands on a spinning wheel of my own, but forces have been conspiring against me. I never even dreamed I might have a Schacht Matchless. They are sooo far out of my ballpark. But a friend of a friend is no longer able to spin due to a knee injury. She had hardly used this wheel when the injury happened, so the wheel is practically new, but the price was WAY less than a new wheel. She also gave me a sweetheart of a deal making it within my grasp.

I am so thrilled and so thankful that I waited for the right wheel to come along.

Beginner's Luck???

In the last post I showed you my first singles spun on a wheel. Of course, the next logical step was plying. Since I only had one bobbin of yarn, I used my ball winder and wound it into a cake. I then plied by pulling a strand from the inside and a strand from the outside. That was a bit fussy, and may have not been the best way for me to ply for the first time!

After letting the plied yarn rest on the bobbin for a few days I wound it up on a niddy noddy, and LOOK!



Do you see what I see? The yarn is balanced! It is not twisting and curling all over itself as I expected. I confess to being a TOTAL novice and pretty ignorant about spinning, but I THINK that is a good thing! Experienced spinners, please let me know!

Here's a close up. You can see the inconsistencies. I am thinking that some of that would be due to the fact that my very first spinning (beginning of the spun singles) is plied with the my very last spinning (end of the strand). I'll just think of it as adding "character" and "charm" to the yarn. As a commenter said in the previous post: "...if you want smooth perfect yarn--buy commercial!"

Spin Pic

Here is a picture of my first spinning. My friend gave me some Corriedale to practice on with first. I like how it spins, but I think the fiber would benefit from a little carding or combing. The fibers are not all lined up well and sometimes that leads to small fluffy bits in my spinning...or maybe it is because I am a TOTAL novice and don't know what I am doing! But generally speaking, I am happy with my singles.

Next thing to try: plying!

Spinning!

Sorry. Can't talk now. I'm too busy playing with this:



I have a fiber friend who is getting married and spending her honeymoon cycling in Italy. Yes, you read that right -- a honeymoon in ITALY. Let's all breathe a collected sigh of pity for the poor gal. ;-P

So, she is letting me "babysit" her Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel while she is gone. Wheeeeeee!

I tried to make myself watch the whole how-to video first, but after about 15 minutes, I just dived right in. The fiber you see on the bobbin in the photo is what I have spun so far.

I'm hoping that after having a wheel for almost a month I will get thoroughly bored with it and kill the desire to have my own wheel...

Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA! Ha! hA!

Yeah, right.

A Letter

This morning I stumbled over my running shoes and workout clothes sitting in the middle of my floor. I don't remember putting them there. How did they get out of my closet?? Then I noticed a piece of paper sitting on top the exercise gear. Much to my dismay, the following words were scrawled across the page:


Dear Self,

You know, for a pretty smart cookie, you sure can act dumb sometimes! When are you going to learn that you just can't eat and act like "normal" people and feel "normal?" How many times do we have to go through this cycle of feeling totally crummy before you are going to get it? I know it doesn't seem fair, but face it, Honey, life isn't fair. So what if other folks seem to be able to eat junk and get along fine? I can't do it. I am special and you have to take better care of me! I'm the only body you've got.

Remember last year when you were eating clean and working out hard? Remember how great we felt? Ahhh, good times! Yeah, yeah. You hurt your back and that was a royal pain, but that's no excuse for totally throwing in the towel. Besides,that was months and months ago. What's your excuse now? Time to move on from that. I know I may sound mean, but I think it is time you had a little tough love and faced the facts:

--Notice how our clothes seem to be getting tight on me? Yeah, I put on weight when you don't make good food choices.

--And what's with the lack of exercise? Look kiddo' if you don't take me out and work me hard a bit, we are going to end up with a horrible middle-age spread.

--But let me be frank, gaining a little weight and our vanity is the least of our problems! Let's talk about allergy symptoms, muscle knots, sore joints, lethargy, muddled thinking, yadda, yadda, yadda...you know I am not functioning optimally. You know you can't get everything done when I feel like I have the flu. Don't make me use the "fibromyalgia" word!

Oh, please! Stop whining and feeling sorry for yourself! This is the way it has to be. You know the drill, but I'm gonna' tell you anyway:

--Get back on your mostly-vegan, mostly-raw eating regimen. It works for you. It isn't the easiest or most convenient, but put on your big girl panties and do what you know is right for you.

--Drink more water.

--Cut back on the coffee.

--Get plenty of sleep.

--Get up and get moving more. I don't care what you do, but since you haven't been behaving like the brightest bulb in the box, I will list here some ideas. These won't cost you a penny because you already have all that is necessary to do them:

Couch-to-5K
30 Day Shred
Tae Bo
Tabatas
The New Rules of Lifting for Women
Jumping rope
Walking
Biking

Or any combination of the above. As the famous ad campaign says, "Just do it!"

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm being hard on you, but these things needed to be said. We're a team and we've gotta' work together. With a little will-power and self-control on your part, and some hard work and sweat on my part, we could be so much better. Whaddaya' say?

Signed with much love and a swift kick in your ever expanding pants,

Your Body

Knitting Lace

(Just to clarify, above photo is not my work. More info below)

My blog has been quiet lately, but my life has NOT! In the last few weeks two college boys have come home and my oldest daughter has graduated from high school. That means I have successfully home schooled 4 of my kids from the very beginning all the way through. Only 3 more to go! My hubby says that if you added together the 12 grades I taught each of those 4 kids plus the 10, 8 and 3 grades of the three not yet graduated that would be a total of 69 years worth of school I have taught (and we won't even bother counting kindergarten)! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

I have had something new and a bit challenging on my needles lately: knitted lace! The photo above is from the Rose Leaf Trellis Shawl/Wrap pattern by Janet Barton. It is available for FREE on Ravelry.

I have knit lace stitch patterns before, for example, the simple feather and fan pattern that is on the border of the Multnomah shawl. (Pattern available for free at Hello Knitty.)



I recently knit this for my mum and sent it to her for Mother's Day.



However, I have never actually knit with lace weight yarn. The fiber I am using is called "Merino Lace" by Skacel. How strangely different it feels! The yarn is thin, like thread, but it does not have the body or weight or drape of thread. It is light and airy and it takes some getting used to.

Here is a picture of what it looks like on the needles:



Not too attractive, is it? But that is part of the magic of knitted lace. It looks very unimpressive on the needles, but when you block it, your hard work shows up and you have a thing of beauty.

Here is my work stretched and pinned out a bit to give an idea of what it will look like when it has been finished and blocked:



Sorry to say, finishing will probably be a while from now...I am pretty slow at knitting lace!

So, every now and then I whip up another dish cloth just so I can feel I've finished something. :-)



Oh, and by the way. Should you want to join me on my lace knitting adventure, there is a knit-along group on Ravelry working through the Rose Leaf Trellis Shawl/Wrap pattern together. Feel free to join us!

Just Call me the Dame of Dish Cloths!

I have a few other projects on my needles, but right now, my main obsession seems to be the lowly dish cloth. So quick and colorful. The crocheted cloth above reminds me of a bright beach ball. You can get all the details here.

All the following dish cloths will be linked as well. If I do this correctly, the links should take you directly to my project pages on Ravelry. Even if you do not have a Ravelry account, you should be able to follow the links and view all the gory details: pattern used, yarn, hook, needles, etc. If there are problems or questions, please leave me a comment.

The Mosaic Dish Cloth is knit, and it takes considerably more time than the crocheted cloths. Purple and gold are the colors of our local university.



The next one I made is a pattern called Fire Blossom. Sorry the photo is a little faded looking. The red is more saturated than what shows here.



The Quick Dry Dish Cloth crochets up soooo fast! I made one on a Friday afternoon and then promptly gave it away to a friend who had us over for dinner that night. Then I crocheted another late that evening before retiring.





And here is my latest. I used yellow and white and call it my Daisy Dish Cloth.



These make great gifts! However, I have had another thought rolling around in my mind: Do you think I could sell them? Bear in mind that all the above finished cloths are just prototypes and have not been washed or blocked. In other words, they were new patterns to me and not as "polished" looking as they might be. What I would like to do if I sold them is to give all the proceeds to various missions projects. I personally know several people who are long-term missionaries as well as several young folk who are doing short-term mission work this summer. In addition to that, our AWANA group supports some AWANA programs in Nepal.

Whaddaya' think? And what do you think would be a fair price for hand-made cloths?


And now, a special non-dish cloth bonus feature!

For Saint Patrick's Day, I used green thread and crocheted a shamrock and a 4-leaf clover to wear as pins. By the way, I really am of Irish descent!


And, a few days ago, my daughter asked me to make a flower to go on her hat...the hat that SHE crocheted herself! (((proud mommy))) So, I whipped up this flower.


I think the button she picked out of my button box was a nice added touch.

Cursed Kitchen???

Ya' know, if I didn't know better, I would begin to think some nefarious force has placed a curse on my kitchen!

Last week my microwave (my less-than-4-month-old microwave) died! I mean dead. No lights, no nothing.


This made heating Easter dinner leftovers a royal pain. I am actually a little wary of microwaves and would be happy to not have one. I have lived without a microwave and it can be done. However, I have found that my kids will eat more leftovers when they don’t have to put them in a pot and stir, or wait for something to heat up a half hour in the oven. I hate to throw away food even more than I dislike microwaves. So, now I have to buy a new microwave. The Oster company is honoring our warranty and refunding our money, but that will probably get here months from now…you know how that goes! Not only that, but we got a great deal on that microwave, and it looks like a new one will cost us a good $50 more than what I originally paid.

Then, the blender attachment to my Bosch kitchen machine stopped working (again).


There is a design flaw in the part of the blender that attaches to the drive shaft and it gets stripped, thus making the blender not blend. Well, I am rather partial to smoothies, so I actually use my blender. I have already replaced this part 2-3 times! And I refuse to pay another $15 or so to get another little bit that is just going to break in a few months. So, I will have to buy a new blender.

Are you keeping count?? That's two appliances that need replacing.

Then yesterday, I was being domestic diva (baking bread, making homemade Lara bars, etc.) and the glass bowl to my vintage KitchenAid mixer slipped out of my hands into the sink and broke! Waaaaaah!


This was my grandmother’s mixer and has great sentimental value to me. It is a model 4C which was produced from the early 1960's through the 1970's. The company doesn't even make a glass bowl that fits this mixer anymore. I have looked online and found a metal replacement at the tune of about $50 plus shipping! :-0 To replace it with a glass bowl like the one that comes with it is hard to find and costs even more dough (pun intended.) Although my Bosch kitchen machine is great for kneading bread and mixing really large batches of stuff, we regularly used the KitchenAid for cookie dough, cakes, icing, etc.

And then to top it all off, while I was still trying to hold back the tears over the broken mixer bowl, my kitchen sink suddenly and mysteriously decided to refuse to drain!


It was working fine, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. We have poured chemicals down it, boiling water, and tried a plunger. We even went to the hardware store and bought a plumber's snake. 15 feet of snake later, still no drainage. GAAAAAARRRRRGH!

Score:
Kitchen appliances to be replaced plus a plumber's bill -- 4
My bank account -- 0

Do you think the plumber could be bribed with homemade bread???

Not Trying to Tempt You But...

There is a big fabric sale going on over at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.



20% off EVERYTHING.



Can you resist such cuteness???



There is LOTS to choose from.

Oh, and Fresh Squeezed Fabric is owned and operated by Randi, the blog author of "i have to say..." as well as the brains (and much of the brawn) behind "Sewing Seeds" and the Quilt Along which are both linked in my right hand sidebar. She is a lovely, christian, mom...the kind of person whose business I can whole heartedly recommend.

Bummer!

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Wedding, Historical Ball, funeral...all in one weekend. Then Monday was equally busy. I was so looking forward to some down time today and life getting back to "normal." Well, it seems I have managed to catch an unpleasant stomach virus. Not exactly how I planned to spend my day "off." Bummer!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Lately, life feels as if I have lassoed a tornado and I am hanging on, riding it as best as I can! I hope the pace will soon slow down a bit, but for now it leaves me with precious little time to knit, crochet, sew, or blog.

Just wanted to announce that I am alive and well. I'm just busy, busy, busy!

Today's Lunch

Whole wheat sub bun stuffed with avocado, cucumber, tomato and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. Fresh pepper strips and hummus for dipping. YUM!

Wait! Are there a few bites missing from that sandwich??? Well, of course I had to test it before I shared it with y'all!

For Liliana

Liliana wrote: "Tell me, how do the washcloths wear? Could you post a photo of a used one? Is that too weird? But I would like to know how well it lasts with use."

You asked for it. You got it! :-)


This dishcloth has been in heavy rotation in our kitchen for the last year or two. Although it does not look like the cheerful, lime green, striped cloth that I started with...



...it has given us lots of faithful service. The faded colors are due to the fact that I am sometimes forced to clean my dishcloths with bleach. I just can not seem to get some members of my family to completely grasp the concept of rinsing and hanging a dishcloth after every use. The kids have gotten a lot better about it, but I still occasionally find a cloth that has sat wet for too long. Ick! No one likes a smelly dishcloth!

I will add that for the most part, I am a process knitter/crocheter. In other words, I knit and crochet because I enjoy the act of knitting and crocheting. I am also on a tight budget, making it cost prohibitive to knit many of the projects that I would love to tackle. However, consumable items like socks and dishcloths are great projects for me. Dishcloths are instant gratification. A little cotton, a hook or some needles, a new stitch pattern to try out, a few hours, and I have a finished project. I can work them in fun and funky colors that would be gaudy in a garment. Dishcloths have a very limited lifespan, so everyone can always use more, making them great little gifts too! And don't forget, they aren't just for the kitchen. They are excellent in the shower as well. For another nice gift idea, pair a pretty cloth (call it a "spa cloth") with a bar of fancy soap or some body wash.

As an added bonus, here are a few pics of another cloth, older and soon to be retired.

Busy Hands

Since my BIG project at the moment is the quilt I am working on, I seem to be on a kick of making quick-and-easy-to-finish projects in the knitting and crochet arena. Crocheted dishcloths certainly fit into that category!

This one looks a bit different on each side.





Free Pattern: Crochet Dish Cloth by Coats and Clark

The next two were made using Linda Bohrn's Woven Stitch Dishcloth pattern (also free.)




But wait! There's more!




Free Pattern: Easy Crocheted Dishcloth by Cheri Mancini

Tired of dishcloths??? Well, here's a hat I knit using some handspun that was gifted to me. Lots of lumpy, bumpy character.


And, flip it inside out for a whole different look!


Free Pattern: 2 Hour Hat (and yes, 2 hours is all it took!)

Next time around I will try to show some progress pics of my quilt which is coming along nicely!