Knitting Along

 As of today I am almost done with the sleeves of the Milo sweater.  I will then be ready to block the pieces and put them together.  I think I will have it done in time to not need it until next Fall.  The good thing is that I always need something in the Summer due to the air conditioning in most restaurants. 

I have been working on these socks but only a couple of times a week.  I am really happy with the matching stripes, something I rarely can accomplish.  And since these are the second pair I have been able to get from this yarn they are really another pair of leftover socks.

 I was a little worried that they might be coming out too small but then I stuck my fingers in and they really expanded to just the right size.  Since taking this picture I have knit three stripes more so I am almost ready to start the heels.

 We did have a little excitement here last Monday.  A storm blew over and around 5:30 pm we lost electricity.  About an hour later our daughter and son-in-law arrived saying "your driveway is gone."  It seems that a couple of cedar trees had fallen.  Looks impressive, doesn't it.

 This is what the trees looked like the next morning.  Our neighbor things a small tornado took them out: one of the trees did look twisted off.

This one was pulled right out of the ground. 

We had to drive around the pile of trees on Tuesday but on Wednesday the "tree people" were here for 8 hours cutting and cleaning up the debris.  

I asked them to leave me the trunks as they are very straight.  I am hoping to get them cut into planks that we can do something with: the wood is beautiful.  I also had the men cut me two slabs from one of the stumps and hope to have small tables made from them. (pictures to follow).

Many Things

 I will start this blog post out with a picture of our really cute great granddaughter, Scarlett, who turned 1 year old today.  She is so much fun to show as she loves the camera as much as the camera loves her.

 I have been knitting.  Here you can see the two front pieces of the cardigan I am currently working on.  And I hope you can see where I have started the increases on both sides of the slip stitch.  These increases will be the beginning of the wide collar.  I have to say I am really impressed with my ability to knit both fronts with the opposing increases.  On the other hand it has been pretty easy and I again will credit having learned to knit two socks at the same time.
                                                                                                               

And speaking of socks, here are my leftover socks.  I have completed one heel and half of the other.  I hope to be done with these this week as I really want to wear these very colorful socks. 

I think I will be making more of these, they are really fun to do. 

I have done a little sewing.  

~

These are some simple blocks

I am making for some easy sewing, trying to get back to it.  I have several applique blocks I need to be working on but I need to get my cutting table cleared off before I can work on them.

The centers of these blocks are these

charm squares that I have had for

quite some time and didn't come up

with an idea for them.  They are being

sewn onto some 2 1/2" strips.  I am

trying to make them as different from

each other as possible.

This is my design wall.  The interesting thing about it is that it hasn't changed since Spring.  Well, that's not quite true.  Some of the blocks that were on it have fallen off and I haven't yet been able to pick them up off the floor and put them back.  However, I am feeling so much better that I am hoping that I will soon be more productive in my quilting again.  I did take the bobbin out of my Handi Quilter and start to  see if I could figure out why the thread is being cut while I was quilting.  And then I will begin to work on the quilts that became UFOs when I became sick.  And then I will have something new on my design wall, I hope.

But for now I will leave you with this terrific picture of Abby, the sweetheart who sleeps under the covers of my bed.  She has to have her nose outside the covers and I think she thinks she can't be seen.  But on this morning she could be seen twice, on the bed and in the mirror.  I had a pretty good laugh before I could get up and start my day.

Please forgive the mess this post appears to have.  Blogger is making it very difficult to write my post and I have been unable to upload a post from Live Writer.  But despite this: have a great week, I plan to.  Gari

                                                            

On My Needles 1/1/16

 I have started a new knitting project.  It is a cardigan sweater.  The pattern is called a Milo Cardigan and it can be found here.  And it is a free pattern which is even better.  This picture is of the back which I finished this week: it is not blocked yet.  I was a little concerned that it will roll at the bottom since there is no ribbing but that is a problem I will deal with later.

And here is the start of the front.  I am doing both fronts at the same time, just like I make socks.

The only problem is than this sweater has an unusual, for me, band, collar and facing, and each side is done in reverse of the other.  I did read the directions over and over several times before I decided I could figure out how to do them at the same time.  The are worked from the bottom up so for 14" all I have to do is repeat the same two rows over and over.  After that I will be working on that inverted cone shape and things may get a little tricky. We'll see how I do, won't we?

 I am still working on my "leftover" socks and I really like how they look.  I got stopped however when I got to the heel as I always have to watch the video to remember how to do the heel I currently like.  I think I will have to print out the pictures so I can keep going.  This is my studio knitting project and I haven't been out there (no central heat) for the last few days and probably won't much this week or until it warms up a little more.

But this is another reason I am working in the house.  I bought these acrylic needles just before Christmas and I really like them.  I got them because they looked pretty and now I find that they work very nicely.  They have a pretty sharp point and are slippery enough that the yarn moves but still have enough tooth to keep it from slipping off.  I see that they come in double points, too, but I don't really like much working with DPNs so probably won't get them.  Interestingly Staci of Very Pink just introduced this set and spoke very highly of them so I must know what I am talking about.  ;-)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve and are well on their way to a Happy New Year.  Our daughter and son-in-law will be coming over this evening and are bringing a traditional southern new years dinner: fried chicken, black eyed peas, and greens.  So we should be having good luck in 2016: not taking any chances.

Happy New Year,   Gari