Knitting – Page 5 – Thimbleanna

Five on Saturday

23 Comments / June 18, 2016 June 19, 2016 / Chat, Crocheting, Knitting

Because I can’t get my act together to post Five on Friday! Ooops! Anyway …

1. No baby news yet. There’s still a little making o’ baby stuff going on while we wait. A little princess has to have a little pink crown, right? (Pattern available here.)

2. Are you a multi-tasker? Of course you are. You can walk and text right? Or cook dinner and help with the homework? Or do a million different things at the same time? BUT. Are you a Super Tasker??? Take the quiz and find out Here. It takes about 40 minutes and fair warning … it’s not easy. At least it wasn’t for me. There are three parts — audio, visual and audo + visual. I did great on the visual (confirming what I already knew about being a visual person — I even scored 100% a few times) but not so hot on the audio (I can just hear TheManoftheHouse now — “You never listen to me” LOL), so my combined scores put me just below the line to be a Super Tasker. Darn It. You’d think I wouldn’t have time for these games. But No. We’re Waiting on a Baby! Anyway, Give It A Try!!!

3. If you’ve been around for awhile you know I’m not a big fan of facebook. It REALLY honks me off that every time I comment or like something or whatever, it feels the need to inform the planet. And don’t get me started on the Ads. So, a few weeks ago, I had a new interesting facebook experience. When TheManoftheHouse was in the rehab hospital, he had an elderly roommate. The roommate had a daughter and granddaughter who are just beginning to learn the ins and outs of taking care of a parent at home. Having recently been through that experience with BigDaddy, I told the daughter to call me if they needed any references. About a month later, the granddaughter called and we had a nice conversation and I gave her some information. Then, about a month after that, facebook suggested that I friend the granddaughter. Wow! Granddaughter lives 4 hours away from here and we don’t have one. single. friend in common on facebook. How on earth would facebook know to recommend that I friend her? I’ll tell you how. Facebook is snooping around in my phonebook. WTF???? They’re snooping around in your phonebook too. #ieffinghatefacebook (Facebook and effing both start with “F” — need I say more?) (Gratuitous cat picture — #scruffhatesfacebooktoo).

4. More trying to keep busy knitting. A few little pacifier holders for baby. The pattern is in the book Itty-Bitty Nursery by Susan B. Anderson. (That’s not an affiliate link — I don’t get squat.)

5. A few beautiful Tula Pink fabrics have arrived in my little etsy shop. I LOVE this beautiful Chipper line and this colorway is even prettier in real life. I’m hoping to sew a little with it tomorrow. But, maybe the baby will come! ;-D

Hope you’re having a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Lorna Strikes Again

23 Comments / March 8, 2016 March 8, 2016 / Knitting, Socks

Awww, thanks for all your sweet comments about BigDaddy. You are all so kind and it’s very much appreciated. We’re trying hard to find our new normal, although, we’ve been so busy, we’re not even close to being there yet. TheManoftheHouse had been scheduled for a knee replacement surgery right around the time that BigDaddy passed away, and it had to be postponed. He was put on a cancellation list, and they called him in two weeks ago. Everything has gone very well (but what an uhhhgly surgery that is — lots of pain and rehab!) and he came home from the rehab hospital a few days ago. I think it’s safe to say, I’ve had my fill of hospitals for this year!

As you might imagine, all that hospital time allowed for lots of time for handwork. I finished a pair of socks.

I’m officially naming these the Fugly Socks. Oh the FUGLY. I seem to have a penchant for picking yarns that have somewhat pretty colors, but then they knit up to become butt. ugly. (It’s happened before.) See? Look. These colors — blue, green, gold, pink, and purple. Is that sooo bad?

Apparently yes, because … Fugly. Experienced knitters can probably tell me right away who made this yarn. Here’s a hint: Notice the pooling. When the colors pool together, it’s just not pretty. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces and although I think they’ve solved the pooling problem (these were ok) in their more recent yarns, apparently I have some of their older yarns still in my stash .

Once again, I used my old favorite Mockery Socks pattern (free Ravelry download here) with an eye of the partridge heel. It’s so easy and I needed easy knitting this time around. I have quite a few pairs of Mockery Socks by now — I really need to be a little more adventurous with the pattern next time.

It’s nice to have a finish. I’m working on a few other projects, but I can’t really show them yet — they’re surprises!

XOXO,
Anna

Knitting Happened Here

21 Comments / November 10, 2015 November 23, 2015 / Chat, Knitting

Well, what the hay??? It’s been 10 days since Halloween already. How. Does. That. Happen? We’re in the middle of November already. And before we move on can we just discuss this Halloween thing? We only had one trick-or-treater. One. (At least he was adorable — a little 5 year old pirate!) What’s up with the kids these days? Granted, it was a little drizzly out there, but we had chocolate! Are the kids just lazy these days??? When we were kids, NOTHING got in the way of us and our trick-or-treating! We couldn’t wait to get out there with our pillowcases and get them filled up. The real fun happened when we got home and dumped that candy all over the floor — that’s when the bartering started. Is it because parents are doing a better job of raising healthy kids these days? And they’d rather eat broccoli than chocolate???

Ok, so in the middle of all my pondering, I actually finished a knit. A few weeks ago my buddy Brigette became a first time Grandma! It’s all very exciting and I’m so happy for her. Her daughter had a bouncing baby boy, so I had to make him a little sweater and beanie.

I made them to hopefully fit a 6-month size, although it’s probably more like a 3-month size. How would I know — I need a baby around here to try one on LOL. I’m a little worried that the neck will be too small when he gets big enough to fit into the body — you know how babies’ heads are bigger compared to their bodies. Anyway, for you knitters, the little sweater is from the Baby Pullover from Knitting Pure and Simple and the Beanie is the Rolled Brim Baby Hat with a Topknot by Laurie Longinotti. Congratulations Brigette!!!

In other news … ;-D … new fabric in my little etsy shop. The Bright Sun Pebbles in Bisque by Sheri and Chelsi have arrived. I love that they’re a low volume fabric and I think they’ll make a perfect background for applique quilts. Or anything that screams for a subtle polka dot.

And finally, if you’re not a rabid anglophile (like some of us LOL) you may have missed the 2015 John Lewis Christmas ad. Bring your kleenex.

XOXO,
Anna

Too Late Lopi

24 Comments / April 9, 2015 April 9, 2015 / Knitting

Hello Invisible People! How’s it going out there? Did you have a nice Easter? Ours was quiet and somewhat marred by the fact that I had to spend the weekend doing MeMum and BigDaddy’s taxes. Oh well, it’s done now — Yay! I did manage to make a cake for our Easter dinner. I love lemon cakes in the spring, so I made Miette’s Lemon Debutante cake (I’ve posted about it here before, when I made it for Easter a few years ago). I forgot one crucial step, but it still tasted just fine. It’s a labor intensive cake, but well worth all the work, imho. Then, the recipe makes sort of enough cake and frosting for another little cake. I popped the extra stuff in the fridge for a few days, and then chose to make a little vanilla cake — all the work except putting it together was all done — what a treat!

Otherwise, things have been pretty boring here. Like sitting around watching paint dry, we’re just sitting around waiting for spring to pop up. It’s been raining the last few days and things are just barely starting to green up, so it won’t be long. In the meantime, I finished my Lopi sweater.

This is my third Lopi sweater and I looove them so much. They’re big and bulky and oh-so-comfy. Berglind and I decided to knit this together — if you can call it together, Berglind finished her version for her daughter several months ago. This one is late for the season, but we’ll still have some cool, blustery days and this sweater will be perfect to wear without a coat. And, hopefully, I’ll adjust to that neon green yarn — it looks radioactive to me. (Berglind was much more sensible and chose gray and white – I know I saw a picture of it but I can’t find it on her blog. Help Berglind!)

I used my very favorite tubular cast-off method for the neck. It gives a nice rolled edge to the collar. I looked for on-line tutorials for you, in case you’re an interested knitter, but none of them are just like the method I used. This one is very close, except that I do the set-up rows twice and I do all the work on the circular needle.

I was happy to see that the sweater fits nicely in my new knitting bag. The goal was to make a knitting bag that would be big enough for bigger, bulky knits — success!

Here are my leftovers. I didn’t have much blue yarn left, but I have quite a bit of the neon yarn. What to do, what to do. Maybe neon mittens or something. We’ll see.

Oooh, hey — while we’re on the subject of knitting, you should check out these adorable American Girl Doll clothes that Marsha has made.

Ohmygosh — I need a little girl in the family!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Spotted Socks

27 Comments / March 22, 2015 March 8, 2016 / Knitting, Socks

Hi There! Did you have a good weekend? Mine went way too fast. It was a good one though. Lots of sewing time, although, I had to call a halt to my little project. I’ve been having fun with my maker fabric, but I decided I didn’t like the zippers I bought, so I’ll have to wait for some to arrive in the mail.

I did finish some socks this past week though. Spotty Socks. Or Dottie Socks.

I saw some socks similar to these in a Mollie Makes issue a few years ago. They were for slouchy socks though and I’m not really a slouchy sock wearer, so I just used my old tried and true sock knitting method. I did add the spots and the little band of colored trim at the top of the socks — just like the originals.

When I first saw the Mollie Makes socks, I thought the dots were knit into the actual sock, but I was surprised to find out that they are little knots. I debated using a french knot, but in the end, I opted for a colonial knot. My french knots often fall out.

These dots might not last long either. They certainly aren’t practical. Want to place bets on how long they’ll last? At least if they start to fall apart, they’re pretty easy to remove. I found that out the hard way — when I was half-way done with the second sock, I realized their spacing was too different from the first sock, so I took them out and tried again.

Anyway, hopefully they’ll be fun to wear — at least for a little while!

I hope you have a good week — March is whizzing by, isn’t it???
XOXO,
Anna