Monday, March 31, 2008

Thrifting

Today I stopped at the thrift store with the kids after school. We found a few toys for KD.


A "Cow" for Noley. He thinks everything is a cow lately. He is sleeping next to it here.


Miss M found a doll and some other treasures. She said "I can't believe someone would get rid of this stuff!"


I found this wooden bowl.

This framed saying is now my new motto for life, I think.

My personal favorite find are these cute cups. I am in love with the cute birds on them!

Here's a shot of my sister with her new puppy, her last dog died recently she was very sad. He is a cutie and really good with the kids. The younger sister is in the background.

My youngest sisters kids are growing so fast and I thought they needed a picture on the blog. They are adorable aren't they?

KD got some great military stuff from his uncle (retired Marine). He wore it every chance he got all weekend.

I am distracting you from the knitting this week because I made some progress but nothing too exciting to show. There is a baby gift started for a friend who recently had a baby but I think she lurks around here so I won't post yet. I will post knitting again soon. Right now I have a upset tummy so I'm going to lay down. Happy knitting!







Friday, March 28, 2008

Excuses, Excuses

The reason these aren't done,
and this isn't farther along,Is that I can't take my eyes off of him.
I went and took a shower, now he needs a bath. We are off to the Cities for a family visit tomorrow. We'll stop at my sister's house and let the kids play. My nephews are 5 and 2 so there is lots of fun for the cousins. The guys will no doubt surf the net for deals as usual. Naomi and I are hoping to check out the shop in town that has yarn. Then we'll head to the in-laws for the night.

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'll leave you with some pictures of our recent visitors.






This is to show how close to the house they were.






There were 8 in all.






Knit On!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bloggy Friends Rule!

I just got back from a great visit with Wendy of One Knitter's Notebook. She bought some sock yarn and asked that we meet up to deliver it. I gladly, if not a little nervously, agreed. Not that I thought she would be weird, well not weirder than me, but I did not know her from Adam. She turned out to be a super nice gal with great kids. My kids thought they were great too and both set of kidlets were asking if we would meet with them again by the time we left. Aren't knitters great!?!



No where else could you meet someone online and get together in person with very little concern that one of the people is some kind of axe murderer. Of course I felt like I had gotten to know her a little from reading her blog and probably she felt that way a little too. Sadly I am a bad blogger and didn't remember to take pictures. :(



Go check out her stuff she makes great hats!



I am cruising along on the socks for March and I picked up the Asymmetrical Cardigan again too. I hope to actually finish my March socks in March. We'll see, it is the 26th already.

Tonight I have a Pampered Chef party to go to and tomorrow work but the weekend looks pretty free. As always Knit On!



I will leave you with pictures of my sister and her friends socks. They are both making the Embossed Leaves socks with my dyed yarns. It's fun to see the yarns knit up, if you have some you're knitting send me a picture!



Thursday, March 20, 2008

Getting a Little Stir Crazy

I have a tendency to overwhelm myself with projects. Nothing is truer than craft projects. I was cleaning out my closet yesterday and realized how many things I have been planning to do that just don't get done. There is a LARGE pile of material in my room just waiting for the right time for me to sew it into something wonderful. There is a lot of yarn in there. Plus patterns for things I have never made. Lots and lots of knitting and sewing patterns not enough time. It is time to try to prioritize my crafts. Plus I added yarn dyeing to the list recently and that is slowly taking over the breakfast nook. It is getting overwhelming again!

I think it may just be this time of year for me. Today is the first day of spring but apparently Northern Minnesota did not get the memo. This is the temp today. The middle temp is the one from outside.



I realize it's not as cold as you gals in Canada but today it is just too cold for me. I am grateful that there is not as much snow here as there is in Kristen's neck of the woods. Go visit her for an idea of their unreal snowfall.



So to make some kind of dent in the material taking over my room, I plan to use these soon.






I am going to make Noley a pillow with this. I made one for KD when he was younger and he still uses it on trips.




I bought these last night at the local Wal*** You know that one big store which isn't my favorite. They do occasionally have good deals on fabric. The lightening fabric I think will be some kind of sleepwear for the boys. The monkey fabric is for my friend who is having a baby tomorrow! And the stripey stuff is to line a bag I made a long time ago.


To help with the Minnesota blahs, We made these the other day.


Wax paper, crayon art.


Miss M made the one in the middle. It's Minnesota! She was all proud.

These are KD's. He made, "C's not moons Mom". I cut out the Dinosaur for him. It was a fun quick project for the kids and uses up the old broken crayons lying around.

Have I told you of Noley's love of all things Little Einstein? He had some birthday money lying around, so we went and got him this from Target.



He loves it, he slept with it the first night:)

What did I do to help with the cabin fever?

I got new shoes.

PS. There are new shop updates! Go check it out!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Spring is Coming (I Think)

We have finally gotten a few warm days here in Northern Minnesota, just in time for this sock I am working on.
My March sock for A Year in Socks. I dyed this skein specifically for the KAL, the assignment was to knit with some bright colors. This is called "Longing for Spring". The pattern is a simple stockinette stitch, I'm making it up a bit as I go.


Today is about 34 degrees F and the kids went out to enjoy the weather. KD thought sliding was really fun.
Noley wanted to slide all by himself.
They all worked on a fort.
KD got too warm in his jacket.


It was fun to watch them out there in the snow, Noley kept throwing snowballs and saying, "Oops! Sorry!"

My February sock reveal finally.

This is the Azure sock from Knitty Winter 2007. I liked this pattern alright but the heel was a bugger and I am still turning the heel on the second sock.



This is sock number 2 I hope to finish it this weekend.
On the Etsy shop news, I have put in an order with the manufacturer for the sock yarn base I have been using. More skeins are on their way and I hope to update the shop soon. I have been slowly getting sold out on sock yarn which is very nice for me. Thank you to all who have bought yarn or looked into the shop.



I have been tagged with a fun little task here from Rani.


Rules are:


1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.


2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.


3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.


4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


My weird facts:
1. My favorite color is eggplant purple, I like it so much that I have to tell myself to look at other color clothing or everything I wear would be that color.
2. I have never liked onions, I can eat something with a little onion in it but too much makes me feel sick.
3. I want to see the Eiffel Tower before I die.
4. The farthest I have traveled is to California, I have never been to the East coast.
5. I love to play Canasta and Blokus, you should try them!
6. I have a notoriously dirty mind, just ask my friends and family.
7. My ancestors are Finnish, all of them.
I tag
If you don't want to play I won't be offended if you want to play consider yourself tagged!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Second Sock Syndrome?

OK so I have been avoiding this post because it means I have to admit I am not done with my February socks for A Year In Socks KAL. I obviously over stepped my abilities when picking that pattern. Plus a fall on the ice has given me a sore wrist which makes knitting a sometime fun, sometimes not so fun thing. I don't think it is SSS yet but I can see when there is a syndrome out there named that. I have already decided March's sock is a simple plain sock, perhaps the Yarn Harlot's standard recipe. I did dye a skein for myself for March. I call it Longing For Spring. I will post pictures next time. Just dropping a note here to say I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I'm just ashamed to admit I haven't been knitting what I said I would:)

Knit On!