OH MY GOD! CAN THIS BE TRUE!

A HARRY POTTER THEME PARK!


HAVE I DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN?

ANOTHER SCARF!

You guessed it. I bought more Noro yarn from Coldwater Collaborative and I'm starting another scarf. . . this one as a gift. I cast on 30 stitches this time with US 9 needles. A little thinner and a bit longer is my goal.

(Knit one, purl one - two rows from one skein),
(k1, p1 from second skein for 2 rows)
If you want tassles, you really need to buy three skeins.

I have to stop blogging every day. I love it, but it is very time consuming. So I'm going to cut back to Monday, Wed. and Friday . . . starting tomorrow. Maybe I'll have more knitting to report.

I can't knit all the time, so here's a non-knitting confession:I used pesticides on my garden yesterday. It's been 10 years. 10 years ago, I sprayed something heinous on a plant and as I squeezed the trigger, mid spray - I noticed a green tree frog in the line-of-sight. Too late. It hit the little guy and he actually croaked - I mean, he ribbited-croaked. I didn't stay to see if he curled up and died because I dropped the bottle and ran screaming to my husband to try to save it. (that's embarassing to admit)

Anyway - organic for me all the way . . . until yesterday. I'd had it. I did research - found some crap that may not be harmful to frogs and doused my rosebush. I did it. I'm not going to apologize. It's done.PS. Went to buy and organic chicken yesterday from CUB - $15. The regular was $5. Guess what I bought.

Up North

Back from 'Up North'. A bit cold, wet and rainy at the cabin - which means:
die-hard fishing, plastic army men,Polly Pockets,board games, fairy houses, and of course . . . a lot of knitting. I finished my first Monkey sock (well, almost) and I absolutely LOVE IT!
Monkey Sock Pattern

Have a memorable memorial weekend!!!

Hogwart's sock swap update:

I finished my second Noro scarf and I LOVE IT! Two skeins of Noro silk garden - found the pattern through this site. Let me know if you can't find it.

There was one tiny glitch in the yarn. That hasn't happened to me with Noro and it made me mad. There is a little knot in the yarn - gack! - and since it's a scarf, it's difficult to hide.

Also, thanks for the help regarding sizing knit garments for my kids. I will take all your advice and try this out! Courage!

Just keep knitting. . .

Took a trip to the library: And picked up all my dyeing books. On a whim, I decided I would learn to dye my own yarn from the marigolds, bloodroot, etc. etc. found around my house. (Inspired by THIS) I checked out 6 books on the subject, promptly opened the first book, read such things as tin and lye and decided that I'm not really interested in dyeing.

Perhaps kool-aid dyeing. I was inspired by this nice lady who, I believe, used egg dyes. So I returned those books and checked out these instead, with the idea that I will teach myself fair isle.









I finally sat down and read through Saartje's whole blog and I am so inspired by all the mittens, gloves, wrist warmers etc. Although we head into summer, it's time to begin all those Christmas presents.

I bought this book with high hopes of knitting up cozy things for my kids. PROBLEM: The sizes go up to 4-5. My 4 yr. old wears an size 6 . I don't have enough experience to figure out the sizing. And when I mentioned this to the local yarn store ladies, I was met with blank stares. I don't think they want to help. I would experiment, but the cost of the yarn won't justify this. Just keep knitting. Just keep knitting. Just keep knitting, knitting, knitting. I'll get there!

Waiting for ewe . . .

I'm waiting. Waiting waiting for ewe . . . the first shipment of my Flavour-Of-The-Month club (from the Sweet Sheep shop) which should arrive any day now. Sigh.

The funny little grass guy from the last post was bought at the Minnetonka General Store. It's not a Veggietale's character, but it could be! The kids thought it was cool. They have different faces you can choose from. I think I found it in the toy section upstairs.

Seeing Green

Project Spectrum Color of the month: GREENThis is my favorite sweater. Cotton. Green. Hood. (I bought it at the Gap on clearance.) How is this related to knitting? I haven't worn it in a year because some of the stitches in the hood were coming undone. Now that I have some knitterly skill, I was able to grab my crochet hook and pick up all the dropped stitches! I wore it yesterday despite it being close to 80 degrees. Hooray! Someday, maybe I'll be able to actually knit something like this.

In the meantime, I am going to pull out this:

and start again.

Beloved Barometer

Well, chalk this up to experience. Remember my first Noro scarf?
Then I started the 2nd Noro scarf. The first time around, I knit it all wrong and I've just figured out why!!! The first time, I did a stockinette stitch and folded it lengthwise and sewed up the edge. DUH - So tedious! So I did what any decent knitter would do. I ripped this sucker out and started again . . . the right way.I did a bit of back-searching on Saartje's website - which is where I got the inspiration to make the first one. I found out I was doing this all wrong. She does a simple k1,p1. That's it! I feel such the fool!

So . . . without further ado - and some tedious ripping, I began again and I'm so happy I did.
I'm actually glad. The yarn is so expensive and I want it to be right. The new version is on two skeins (three was foolish . . . what was I thinking - oh, yeah - a longer scarf). Anyway, I love this scarf and I can't wait to make one for everyone I know. I'm going to keep this one for myself. Thank you Saartje. (Bye the way, she has a fabulous blog full of inspirations!)

Our beloved Barometer: This dog hates sleeping on our bed. We know a storm is coming when she collects the kids' stuffed toys and curls up with them on our bed. Fear factor for the poor old creature.

Here's one for ya.

I seemed to have reversed the direction I was knitting for my Hogwart's Sock Swap socks. I'm not sure how I did this. There is one row that seems to be pointing in a different direction and this sock is somehow not working in the same direction as the one I made while taking my "magic loop" class. It's working just find except for that one row. Also, you can see where I picked up the gusset with a different color . . . ach - so much to learn. I also realize why one needs to have some of those sock models around. I don't want to try on my secret pal's socks! She might totally gross out! So I might make a pair from cardboard or something. Maybe I could even get her exact measurements . . .(picture from this ebay store) The kids are playing in our swamp. It's a shady, small 'seasonal' wetland and their cups of goop are so full of mosquito larvae that I want to vomit. MOSQUITO CONTROL! WHERE ARE YOU!!! They're usually here by now. I'll have to call. The kids think it's cool. Tight budget means no major gardening this spring, but I just can't do without a tomato plant or 2 or 3 or more. So I found a local nursery that has Brandywine tomatoes on sale. I'm going to declare all out war on any mouse/deer/racoon/mole/varmit/bug/squirrel/bunny or human that tries to taste these before I pick em. Last year, I lost the war, but this year I'm going to throw my organic gardening to the wind. I can't take it anymore. I live in a frickin' jungle and I'm comin' out on top this time. I'M GOING TO EAT MY OWN VEGETABLES! DON'T TRY TO TALK ME OUT OF IT!(that's 4-year-old fairy helper who told some lady that she couldn't help me carry stuff "cuz I hurt my arm flying.")

Shock and Awe

I got my purse back from Ely. The nice people as Silver Rapids Lodge sent it via post. Everything safe and sound . . . especially my camera which I am addicted to, so I'm glad it's home.

Here is the yarn store in Ely - Sisu - where I bought the rusty yarn for my Monkey Socks. Also, I put new pictures on the Solvik sight.

This is not related to knitting, but it is so cool I have to share it! Has anyone seen these Driftwood Horses? Wow.

We humans can do some pretty amazing things, but also a lot of very stupid stupid things. Here is an example. It is a before and after shot of our lovely development going on next door.

It looks like a scene from World War II. I'll spare you the animal stories. It's just too much. We can thank Met Council for this. Oh, the good news is that the new home owners are apparently required to plant 3 trees per house - and there will be 64 houses. Really. That oughta fix it.

Monkey Socks

Remember this?







Well, I can tell you what was inside because I posted it to my secret pal and she received it. Frivilous and fun. And she loved them!!

And (drum roll please) - My Monkey Sock - the pictures are so small because I found my old camera and it takes very small pictures. But I love this pattern. Not so keen on the color yet, but it's very warm and toasty looking. I think they are just a tad big, but I can slip them over my heal, which I have not been able to easily do with my first few socks. I'm worried that my Hufflepuff socks are going to be too small.
I am using short needles for the first time and I like them much better than the longer ones. This was all they had in the Sisu shop. Makes sense now.

The Enabler Strikes Again!

Thanks to The Enabler, I found this and I'm chomping at the bit to get one . . . any one. They are all so so cute and SUCH an improvement over my ziplock baggies.

I'm back. No pics yet.

Just back from the cabin. Guess what. I FORGOT MY KNITTING! It's a 4 hour drive, people. Imagine the progress I would have gotten with my Hogwart Socks!

But the silver lining is that I was able to stop at Sisu - the yarn store in Ely. It's teeny-tiny and they had just what I needed. A ball of sock yarn and some double pointed needles.

I took my bloggy friends' advice and I started on the Monkey socks from Knitty. WOW! It's such a great pattern. This is the perfect pattern if you can only knit basic socks!! You'll need to know yo, k tbl, ssk, k2tg . . . that's about it . . . and it's fun.

On the way back down - I FORGOT MY PURSE which held ALL MY STUFF, including MY CAMERA - so I'll borrow my mom's and show you a picture as soon as I can.

Baggin' it.

Next door development update:
This guy has been very busy. See that round part? It spins like a buzz saw and makes a horrendous noise. My kids are calling it the tree-eater. Good name. Bad . . . BAD machine.
Before AfterOn a lighter note: there has been some discussion about bags of various types - knitting bags, needle holders.

I just wanted to share my own knitting bag with you. It is an expression of my efficient (lazy), creative (lazy), self-sufficient (lazy) nature. I present you with . . . the ULTIMATE bag . . .


TTFN. . . we're off to the cabin for fishing opener . . . I mean "Mother's Day".

Green Green Everywhere

Carnage from high winds.

Living here in Minnesota (especially this region), I can't stop seeing green. I live on the edge of what used to be called "the great woods", but now it's broken up and not so great anymore. We happen to live next to 44 acres of old growth sugar maples, oaks and some white pines. As we speak, the developers are tramping around this pristine 44 acres and taking huge oaks and maples through their chipper/shredder. I've been listening to this noise all day. A huge 'CRACK' as the tree falls, then the sound of the thing being fed into what must be a monstrous chipper. sigh. I really breaks my heart and hearing this all day is starting to wear me down. It's like something out of a cartoon. I can hear industrial cartoon music in my head as I listen to their machines. I need a beer.

Anyway, more knitting entries to come. Nothing new today but these green pictures in honor of Project Spectrum GREEN.