Monday Madly Knitting

It has gotten to be that time of year I dislike most.  When I have to add up how much to be finished against how much time is left.  On Saturday, I finally gave in and started the double knitting.  The only way to overcome the mental block that kept saying, Oh you're going to make a mess of that, was to dive right in. It took me three years of reading the directions over and over on heel turns, before I finally just did it with my brain shouting Danger, Danger, this will not work out.  (stop laughing)

From Knitting Kitties

I worked the ribbing 2 X 2 in a single thickness of 128 sts and twisted the knit stitches to tighten up the ribbing a bit.  That meant I had to knit with one strand and purl with a different strand into each stitch when I started the double knitting.  This will make the hat solid color knit on one side and the pattern on the other, so they can reverse it when the need arises. If you click on the Rav link, you'll see why this may be needed.  Hopefully, the spy doesn't create a Rav account just to peak.  *waves* Hi Avery.

From Knitting Kitties

As they say in the UK, I'm pretty well chuffed with myself on this first project.  It's quite fiddly going along.  I'm keeping the pattern side side strands on the top of my left index finger and the back side strand on the bottom. (Yes, I knit continental)  All the strands need to be flipped front and back of each stitch so the carrying yarns are hidden between the two layers. Because I'm using each strand at a different rate from the others, I have to stop every couple stitches to readjust for tensioning.

From Knitting Kitties

It's taking me about an hour for each row, though by this afternoon my speed did pick by a few minutes.  Slow while paying attention is the key, as I did have to carefully frog one row and it took longer than it did to knit it.  There are two more of these to make besides this one and my granddaughter's afghan to get finished by Dec. 20 at the latest.  Not to mention the four gifts to knit that won't be traveling, then the ornaments I want to make.

Nippit was upset with me yesterday, she really wanted to blog. The chart is on my laptop, with me giving it careful attention.  She kept asking if I was done yet, then thumping her delicate little foot when  I said no.  It was after the fifth time of her interrupting me that I noticed a mistake and I thumped my foot back at her.  She tried to get Dammit and Betty to dictate for her, but from what I hear, Dammit was too busy surfing Zeppelin. He still has hopes of a reunion tour.  You know like they will actually let a bunny into the arena.

Bunday will resume when I finish these hats, unless I go stark raving mad.  Then the bunnies will be most happy to report on that.

FO Friday and The Winner

First of all, the winner of my contest on Monday, was Cookie of Shut Up And Knit, with her guess of 1200 yards.  I got 452 wraps on my niddy noddy which measures 90 inches with a total 1130 yards.  So many lovely comments, I wish I had a skein for each of you.  Some of your guesses, I wished I had gotten that much yardage.  I will have another give away (more handspun. Yes, I have a ton of it.) after the New Year, an easier one with just a question and I'll use the random thingy to pick a number.

From Knitting Kitties

I already contacted her and will sending out this lovely in Monday's mail when I do the chore of sending out the first Christmas present.

From Knitting Kitties

I actually finished this tatted bookmark a few weeks ago.  It was for my swap partner in the UK and she received her package earlier this week.

From Knitting Kitties

I shuttle tatted this with size 30 crochet cotton, I had dyed for my Etsy store awhile back.  I have literally a ton of crochet cotton that I dyed, and I'm trying to get organized so I can list it on Artfire, as I think Etsy's fees are getting as ridiculous as ebay.  Just to get rid of it if nothing else.  Whether I will get back to dying for sale remains to be seen as I'm still toying with idea.

From Knitting Kitties

My granddaughter's hat is finally finished.  There is still a bunch of yarn leftover, so I'm considering some mittens to match.  I just hope her father's family doesn't lose it, like they did the hat I made her two years ago. Paws crossed.  The mittens never get lost as I crochet that long string to go through the coat sleeves.  When she gets 12, I'll still being making the long string so you don't lose your gloves, sweetie.


Remember back in October, I mentioned I had met a nice lady on Ravelry that just moved to Tucson.  She had picked me up and we went to a yarn store near her that I hadn't been to before.  Well, she went out of town for a bit and she called me on my cell phone when she got back.  Except, I don't really use my cell except to carry with me on my walks, in case of an emergency.  So I never noticed the call. D ran low on minutes, so I loaned him mine and he told me I had a voice message.  Which I listened to, then the battery ran out of charge before I could figure out how to get her number from it.

When he pulled my phone off the charger, he left the cord hanging down and bad Betty bunny had herself nice  little nibble.  So, I messaged her on Ravelry, apologizing for not returning her call. She offered to take me shopping, and we made arrangements for today.

We stopped by Grandma's Spinning Wheel this time.  Grandma has various times during the week when customers come in to hang out and stitch or spin together.  Friday afternoon's is anything goes day, and I took the bus there a few times over the summer.  D started having Fridays off for awhile and the ones he did work, I felt guilty about going and not having bought anything there.

From Knitting Kitties

I got a skein of black Dream In Color, it says laceweight, but it's as thick as the fingering weight superwash I'm going to use it with.  This for the guys presents that I can't show because my oldest son might be snooping.
*waves* Hi Avery.

From Knitting Kitties

I bought this for me.  The purple is some Starry they had in bits and bobs bin for 1.00.  The sky blue is Star Light that Grandpa said they got in yesterday and it's been flying out of the store.  I can certainly see why, it's so pettable soft, like a little bunny soft, with some sparkle.  I'm thinking about making Ice Queen with it.

Are you still there?  Thank you for stopping by and I do love to read your comments, so thank you for waving hi.  You can head over to Tami's Amis to see what others have finished this week.

A Sunny Walk

This post is for Lucy of Attic 24. A short while back she posted about her trip to Spain and was amazed by the cactus almost as big as the house.  She inspired to do this post, as I see cactus taller than houses all the time. So yesterday when I took my walk to the store, I brought my camera along.  I took the pictures in stealth mode as I'm still quite unfamiliar with the culture down here and didn't want anyone coming out hollering at me for taking a picture of their yard.

From Knitting Kitties

The houses and landscape are still very unfamiliar to what I'm used to back in Western New York. The total lack of green grass makes me think of new construction houses, or the very bad ghetto where they trample any grass before it has a chance to grow.

From Knitting Kitties

From Knitting Kitties

Being able to grow citrus and prickly pear cactus in your own yard has me intrigued.  D has promised me when we buy a house, I can have citrus trees and send the fruit up north to my family.  Just the thought sending a box of oranges up to my granddaughter with a note saying, Grandma grew these just for you, makes me happy.

I'm told the prickly pear fruits make good jelly, candy, syrup and margaritas. The few I found at a store didn't look so good for me buy.  The ones growing in people's yards and growing wild get picked the very second they become ripe. Not that I would steal someone's fruit out of their yard, but it does have me wondering if others do, for when I have my very own prickly pear.

From Knitting Kitties

This was very creative with rock formations.

From Knitting Kitties

This house creatively put a Santa hat on a Saguaro cactus. I took this picture just in time, as I was hiding my camera back in my purse the homeowner came out to check her mail.  Saguaro is native to the Sonoran Desert only, you won't find them growing wild in any other the desert.  I'm told Tucson has a law that you have to get permission to move a Saguaro even if it's growing on your very own property.

From Knitting Kitties

I took this picture using Google Earth and scribbled out their address to protect their privacy.  As you can see they are taller than the house.  Many of the Saguaro are pretty beat up and rough looking as the birds and other creatures make holes and homes in them.



This is the largest known Saguaro of 46 feet tall and is found in Maricopa County, Arizona.

From Knitting Kitties

The car dealership along my way always has lovely flower beds to look at.

From Knitting Kitties

I figured all of you covered with snow and barren trees might enjoy a bit of pretty flowers.

From Knitting Kitties

All your bees are having a fine time down here.

From Knitting Kitties

Back home again, I noticed the snow on the mountain tops has melted before I got a chance to get a picture.  That's ok, next month they will be wearing their white hats for a few months to come.

WIP Wednesday - The Heat Is On

The heat is on both literally and figuratively. It seems the snowbirds stormed city hall and demanded the heating bill be paid and the town heat be turned back on.  They didn't drive all the way down here to have a cold winter. Today it is supposed to be high in the low 70's and 80 by Friday and over the weekend.  This is what I love about the desert, might have a cold day or two, then it warms right back up.  D called me when he got to work and said it's gorgeous out there and I should enjoy my walk later.  I'm going to take my camera and get a few pictures of the glorious sunshine, even though my path isn't very scenic, to me anyway.

Meanwhile, I read on a cousin's FB status they are having thunder snow back home in Rochester, NY.  Darn, I do love a good snow storm. I'm wishing I could zap myself up there and watch the fun, drive up to Wegmans, because that's what we do up there during a good storm, whether we need anything or not. Then zap myself back for the nice warm 80's weekend.

From Knitting Kitties

The heat is on to get those Christmas presents finished up and out in the mail.  I had to set my spinning wheel aside and get down to business. Only a couple pictures today. First, all I have left is to do the decreases on my Granddaughter's hat.

From Knitting Kitties

I'm a bit tired of pink, so I started on some blue.  This is yarn I dyed on Sunday for a present headed up north.  I can't say too much about it, as my oldest son spilled the beans last week that he read my blog post.  Not knowing if he reads all of them, I can't risk the chance.  Here is a sneak peak.  I will say I'm going to try double knitting for the first time as I want one side plain blue and the other side with the pattern.  Let's hope I don't confuse myself too much. I have 3 of these to make by December 17 or the 20 to mail out.

Other things have been started but enough to show.  I still have to finish my granddaughter's blanket, then 4 more gifts that aren't flying out anywhere.  Meanwhile, I just want to pull out my seasonal cross stitch projects, crochet and tat some mini snowflakes for my tree.  Boo.  I also want to knit some mini stockings to go out with gifts.  So many want to's, so little time.

Another WIP, that is going on here, that I don't have too much to do with, is my birdies.  Do you remember last month when Ladybird was upset about the flooding mess and abandoned her nest, here?  Ladybird is trying it again, on November 21 she started laying eggs again.  I read I need to watch 30 days from that date for babies.  We may have baby birds for Christmas!!  I'm not going to get my hopes up too much as I haven't had much luck on the baby bird front. But we shall see.  I do need find some information on what do with parakeets trying to be parents.  If any of you have some tips or experience please send me a message.

Thank you for visiting us, and we hope you leave a comment. The furkids like me to read the comments to them with my morning coffee.  Then head over Tami's with the box below to see what everyone else is working on.