I've been knitting up a storm lately

Knitting has been an on again, off again thing with me since I was twelve or so.  Right now its on again and I've been trying to use up some of my stash of yarn.  It's not a big stash by any means, but substantial enough that I can't justify buying too much more.  I do buy a little more, though, now and then--it's just too hard to resist.

Since about half of my stash one or two skeins and leftovers of this and that, I decided that the best way to use it up would be to do some charity knitting.  This little set is one that I donated to an auction to benefit a local high school scholarship fund.

Those of you who are knitters will recognize the little jacket as Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket.  For those of you who aren't familiar, Elizabeth published the pattern in her newsletter in the 1960's and it's been a classic ever since.  It's knit all in one piece and the surprise part is that it folds origami-style into this cute little jacket.  It was so fun and easy to knit that I'm thinking about casting on another one. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Today is Sunday

For those of you who are wondering, except for our power being out all afternoon, I enjoyed my Saturday on Friday.  My Saturday on Saturday was even better, though.  Lisa and Bill and the girls came over for corned beef and cabbage dinner, which to our collective surprise was delicious.  I usually only make corned beef once a year because throwing an entire meal in a pot of boiling water is not my favorite cooking method.  This time, though, I decided to try something a little different.  I cooked the meat in my slow cooker all by itself.  Instead of boiled cabbage and potatoes, I made Polish fried cabbage and noodles.  I steamed the carrots separately so that they would still taste like carrots, and since I was on a roll, I made some Irish soda bread, too.  What a fantastic meal!  I will never, ever make a boiled dinner ever again, and I just might make corned beef more than once a year now.

The dinner I made yesterday is pretty exciting stuff to be sure, but here's the real subject of today's post.  Are you ready for this?  That photo you're admiring is a picture of an actual pair of socks knitted by my own two hands to fit my own two big feet.  No kidding!  I finally overcame what I thought was an incurable case of Second Sock Syndrome!  This is truly cause for celebration.  Maybe I'll declare another Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by, and whatever day it is where you are, have a great one!

A Mixed Bag

Happy Friday, everyone!  It's weird, but even when you aren't working, Fridays still feel good.  The big difference is that Sunday evenings and Monday mornings also feel good.

As the title of this post says, I've got a mixed bag for you today.  First, I want to thank everyone for the lovely comments on my last post...they mean so much to me!

And while we're on the subject of comments on my blog, I realize that I forgot to choose a winner for the Technique Junkies CD #8 at the end of October.  Better late than never, I just shook my iPhone for a random number and the winner is #10, Donelda.

Yeah, and I missed my semi-regular Tuesday post again.  I did think of it, and even got as far as getting my camera out to take pics, but the battery was shot.  I put it on the charger and one thing led to another, and here it is Friday already.  Anyway, here's what I'm working on at the moment.  First up is my Bug Light picture.  I don't even know how many hours I've put into the sky so far.  It's not quite done yet, but I'm going to leave it for now and move on to a different area. This is a pretty lousy picture, but it is proof that I've gotten at least a little bit more done on this one.

The project I'm really excited about at the moment are these mittens I started knitting last night.  The cuffs are done with corrugated ribbing, which I had never tried before.  I haven't done stranded knitting of any kind in quite awhile so at first it felt like I was knitting with two left hands with all thumbs.  But, once I got the hang of it, I was zipping along pretty well.  I found the pattern on Ravelry.  If you knit or crochet and haven't discovered Ravelry yet, be sure to pay them a visit.  The site has tons of patterns, forums, blogs, groups, databases that let you catalog your yarn stash and supplies, and project albums.  It literally took me days to explore the whole site!

The final item in my bag today is a card that I made for the Design Junkies blog using the Designer Tiles technique from the August 2008 newsletter.  The stamps are from Inkadinkado, the papers are a mix of scraps and new Basic Grey Jovial, and the "grout" is Ranger old paper Distress embossing powder.

OK.  I think that's it for now.  I'll see ya when I see ya!

Something Different

I needed a quick gift for a baby shower, so I decided to make a baby afghan. I know, you're already thinking I'm crazy, but hear me out, it gets worse. It was only Tuesday (yup, Tuesday 4 days ago, LOL) and the pattern said it was an "8-hour project". "Hmmm", I deluded myself, "I have plenty of time for an 8-hour project." Well, apparently I knit at half speed because I spent more like 16 hours on this. I've been on a knitting marathon all week!

It's all good, though. The blankie is finished, and it's so warm and cozy. Speaking of warm and cozy, it's -2 here, which I know sounds like a heat wave to some of you. Try to stay warm, everyone!