Monday, January 30, 2012

Friday, January 27, 2012

Episode 5: Rather Random and Hard to Title

Show Notes: 

Shout Outs- To our recent group joiners, Knitsinpublic (she has her own podcast, knitsinpublic.blogspot) and Pepperboy, welcome, glad to have you with us.

I forgot to mention our newest two followers, Sarah and Arletha, so welcome to you guys too. Arletha is busyhappyknitter on ravelry and her site is bluejayknitter.blogspot. 

WIP's- A Very Plucky Cardigan by Kate Hiester, done in I Love This Yarn, soft grey, by Hobby Lobby Pavonis shawl, this month's knitalong, by Särmä, in Alpaca with a twist fino, from Mayaluna yarns, our lys.

No finished items guys sorry. 

Note to our loyal viewers- I know that this is a rather early time to post my podcast, and just know that this will most likely not be normal. When I have more things going on, posting might get pushed back a bit. So enjoy it while it lasts! 

Nothing more to report,so have a great weekend!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Episode 4-Back to the monotony-not!


Show notes: Hey everyone! I've finally settled into a routine, so this week was not crazy at all. Yeah right, only in a dream world! I haven't started any new projects so there aren't any links to provide. As always, you can find us on Ravelry where you can also find the link and helpful advice on the Pavonis, our knitalong shawl that I've finally got the hang of!!!!  Thank you to BusyHappyKnitter for hopping on board our Ravelry group and watching our podcast.
Works in Progress: Yellow crocheted shawl, Red/Maroon frilly scarf, Pavonis, Evelyn's sweater, Amanda's legwarmers, and my socks.
I also apologize for the late upload.  It would have been up sooner, but as I explain in the podcast, our internet has been soooooooooooooooooo slow.  So bear with me until I find a time to upload over the next couple of weeks when it will upload at a reasonable pace.
Happy knitting, thanks for watching!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Ever have one of those days.... yep I'm having one.  You should be seeing a pod cast.  Yes my smiling face but instead these word are filling up the screen.  Yes my camera came, and I raced to install everything.  It worked oh I was home free.   Famous last words.  Set everything up to pod cast and no sound.  So I'm going to be talking to tech support people for most of the day.  Why oh why oh why can I never have a device that I plug in and go, oh wait I did and still no pod cast.  Well I thought I would show you what I've been working on so you do know I'm knitting and finishing and casting on.  If I can get the sound problem solved and do a podcast tomorrow I'll be happy to do such a thing.  Knowing me and my dismal ability to work well with technology don't hold your breath.

 Okay I'm having to much fun knitting socks.  The blue pair are really nice and war.  A bit big really don't know what I did but next pair will be better.  Lindsay this is the new wool that I got in the mail.  Yours came two.... now do you want me to send it to you at school?
 Okay I got caught.  I knit up things I need and for the most part don't worry about writing down the pattern.  Well a young knitter fell in love with a purple bag much like this one and asked for the pattern.  Hummmm should have taken better notes.  I had to knit up this bag to write down the pattern.  What we don't do the help fellow knitters.
 Oh I like this shawl much better since I blocked it.  Liked it so much I cast on another just like it but in a sock weight yarn.  Hope it turns out as nice.
 This is the prayer shawl I gave to a friend with breast cancer.  I just wanted her to know we are all thinking about her and supporting her.  Sharon you can beat this thing.
Snuggles boy have I been knitting snuggles and plan on sewing and crocheting some up.  Good thing we have until the end of Feb.  Hey if you haven't knit up a snuggle why not.  They really help and once you start they are hard to stop.

Okay keep your fingers crossed that I can get the sound to work on my camera and I will post soon.  If I can't well Kathryn will be pod casting Wed. and Lindsay Fri.  Ta Ta for now.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Episode 3: Wild and Wacky Week.

Show Notes: My notes will be in a different order than the podcast. Since this format makes a whole lot more sense than when I was recording. Lesson- never record an hour before bed! Since it kinda turned out a bit scatterbrained. Shout outs: 1to1 on ravelry, Carla- Thanks for the mention on knittingpodcasts.blogspot.com! Welcome to the group, its nice to have you here. Kristin/craftyquilter- Thanks for the support, and the views. Great quilter, if you ever need anything done, Kristin's your quilter! Thanks! Works in progress- A very plucky cardigan by Kate Hiester Pavonis by Saermae on Rav. I didn't know if blip would like the Finnish spelling of her name, Sorry Saermae, but love love the design! Few bits of business: Join our Rav group! We have the thread for the knitalong up, and would love you to stop by and say hi and give us your opinions and feedback. See ya there! And that's it, thanks for watching!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Quick Photo Post

Hey guys, ahead of my podcasting tonight for upload for tomorrow, if you can follow that, I am posting some pictures. It is much easier to 'slurp' the photos from a blog url than to upload directly, if that makes sense. For some reason rav doesn't want to talk to my computer, its giving it the silent treatment.

Pavonis progress

Christmas Socks, finished

Alright, when roomie is in class this evening I will be taping, and then post on Friday.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Episode 2: Back to the grind!

Shownotes:
I rambled a bit during the first part of this, sorry about that, i'd like this mostly to be about knitting, so as I progress I am sure that it will be more and more about both knitting and crocheting.  I forgot to mention my crocheted shawl as a WIP, so I will be sure to mention it next week.  Look for Lindsay's update on Friday, and be sure to check out our Ravelry group.  Happy knitting and crocheting!
Oh, I forgot, Mum had trouble with her webcam so she couldn't podcast on Monday.  She has to get a new one before she can podcast again.....but good news, its on its way!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Podcast!!!!- Episode 1

So we have decided to amp up our blog by adding a podcast!!!!  We recorded this podcast, after several attempts, but realized that we didn't quite know how to upload the video.  Sort of jumped the gun there.  Therefore, this video is a little out of date, I flew back on Thursday (not tomorrow like I say) and Lindsay flew back yesterday at school.  We would have recorded a more up to date one, but we felt you guys should see us together as a group before we start doing our individual ones, but with both Lindsay and I at school already, that proves difficult.  So for the next four months you will have our individual podcasts to look forward to! (or not, we're not sure.) Also, sorry for the randomness of this episode-its our very first podcasting experience. It will get better as time goes on.  Oh......and we need to work on our volume, so either use headphones.....or hope that you have really good speakers! Sorry about that, we'll get better!

Show notes:

Ravelry Group is up, check it out!

Inroductions
Some random endorsements
Desert Rustic Kitchen for burritos and Papas locas.
Mayaluna yarns- Barbara is wonderful and has beautiful yarns!
Hanson- Shout it Out Album, and anything else done by them, great great band.

Projects on the needles:
Knitalittle-Pavonis  this will be our knitalong, Kathryn and I am also working on this
Sock, footies, you decide

Kathyrn- Pavonis
Crocheted shawl
Scarf
A sock

Lindy- Sock, first sock
Pavonis

Finished Objects-
Kathryn- Traveling woman's shawl

Knitalittle- Snuggles see yarnivore 
Pair of socks on sock blockers
Shawl- improvised pattern, fern lace derivative, un blocked

Lindy- 2 preemie hats, other past projects in past posts.

Future Projets-
Kathyrn- Scarves
Legwarmers
sweater

Knitalittle- none mentioned

Lindy- another sock, a shawl, check my queue for more info

Lots of random conversation and other stuff. Contact us, we like it.

Sorry the show notes appeared before the video. I/we will work on that. Thanks for watching!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Landing Like A Stone

It has been such an eventful day. From the airport to taxis to textbooks I am so glad this day only happens once a semester. The good news is I have had a lot of knitting time, from The Song Remains The Same last night to the airport I have managed to snag a good amount of stitches.

So, to the beginning of the day. The morning went well, not forgetting anything and getting to the gate with about an hour to spare. The TSA probably thought I wasn't a big threat and decided not to even bother actually looking at my id which made things go faster. Boarding went well even with a B boarding group ticket. Of which I was lucky to get after I totally forgot to check in, and only remembered after almost 12 hours had elapsed. The flight attendants were nice and LOVED Pavonis, so that made the beginning of the flight nice. Where it started to get hairy was when we got a bit of turbulence and then we landed. I think that a stone falling at terminal velocity would have had a softer landing. Then as we were taxing to the gate the landing gear screamed louder than a pep rally. And at select parts throughout the flight the plane would start to make sounds rather akin to the electric screwdriver, except louder and much more unnerving.

So after that harrowing experience, I thought that the taxi ride to the dorms would be a piece of cake, I mean how bad can one day of travel get? I was wrong. My driver was a real creeper. He smelled really funny, and had no clue where we were going. Thank goodness for GPS. I never thought I could be more grateful to see the image of the 40 year old Moody Towers rising up in front of me. It would have helped if Garmin would have taken a more well known route, that way I could help guide the driver in, but in all honesty I don't think it would have helped much. I really don't think the elevator went all the way to the top. But, again, glass half full being that he stopped in a parking lot to punch in the address into the GPS.

Now we get to the part of the post where my day once again brightens. So my second task for the day was to get the rest of my books. I needed three more, I knew what I needed, I just needed to find them. One of them I knew I needed new, but the other 2 I could, and should buy used. So I walked into the campus bookstore and totally struck out. I was expecting that so I wasn't too surprised. And one of the books was sold out, so no purchases there. So I walked down the street to Textbook Brokers. I knew that they got much more used books, since they buy back for more money. I get up to the desk and ask for a used research methods book and totally struck out, it was still cheaper new though. Geology, used book with my name on it. Family studies, have to buy new, no surprise there. So being ever concerned with the price and not just whipping out the charge card, I was able to get the clerk to knock ten bucks off the geol book and, get this, guarantee that if I sell the methods book back, they will give me half back. Without that guarantee I would have been lucky to get a $20 back on a $126 book. So I thought that was pretty sweet. But wait, it gets better. As I was deliberating, the guy behind me asks if I was taking geology, seeing the book in my stack, and I answered yes, 1333. So he offers me his. The clerk at this point was really nice and buts in asking what he was asking for it, and this is the best part, he says nothing, completely and absolutely free. I could have been knocked down by a feather. I met him in the lobby of his building, he gave me the book and a few pointers on the class, and I walked out with more than a hundred dollars in my pocket.

So, knitting wise, I have now finished a pair of socks. Which came with it's own panic. I was in the middle of the bind off when I had to board, so shoving it in my backpack, I board and pull it back out along with the shawl before shoving the backpack in the overhead bin. Well what I didn't realize was that when the sock came back out, I left one of the needles in my backpack. So I finish the bind off, figuring that the needle was in the backpack. So during takeoff I finish binding out and shove it into the seat pocket. Then once we landed, I grabbed my backpack and I drop one of the needles into the bottom of the pocket. Fishing in the seat back pocket with a backpack on your lap, computer bag at your feet and two people next to you getting rather anxious to go creates a bit of a problem. Naturally I can't find it, and give up, resigning myself to a set of 3 size 2 needles when I see one on the floor. And instead of being glad and racing off the plane a happy knitter, my mind jumps to the conclusion that due to the position on the floor it was the needle that was left in the backpack. So I resist the urge to tear my backpack apart searching to find out and wait till I get back to the dorm to frantically search. And guess what? Murphy showed up and the last needle was all the way in the bottom.

The shawl got a good amount of work done on it though. I good half a repeat was finished, and with lace in turbulence, I find that good progress. Pictures will be coming soon, I promise, I kinda want to go to bed now, so they will have to wait.

A lot of re-moving in got done today, which is a feat since this was the stuff that came off the plane, not including the stuff in bins and on shelves in the closet. So tomorrow will be filled with tinkering. Move this, rearrange that, reorganize, and such. So have a nice long weekend everyone, and I'll see ya on the flipside.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Blocking of Vlad

Last post at home,for tomorrow I will be boarding a plane and flying back to the grind. It has been a nice break, filled with sleep, knitting, fun and stress, although the last isn't exactly 'nice'. Quite a few projects have gotten finished, ripped out, rethought and planned. I have two projects on the needles right now that I will talk about in a little while.





So, about that title. Well, yesterday we blocked one of  mum's recently finished shawls, and we decided that Vlad really should be blocked. So what seemed like a nicely sized shawl is actually rather large. A table that accommodates 8 people was a tad small. Good thing the vinyl tablecloth lent itself well to blocking pins.  

So I have actually worked on some projects, some working out, some not. I started off the week knitting a chair pad for my dorm that got put back into balls after it was way way to big. So I scratched that idea and moved onto something I knew would turn out, a sock. So that was finished, and the other was cast on for. Those are working up nicely and the colors are really cool. When I finish the pair, I will post a pic of them.

So now onto my pride and joy at the moment. Wednesdays at home mean knitting at Mayaluna yarns with some friends, and this time, I got some goodies. For a knitalong I bought the most heavenly shawl yarn for about $23 bucks. It is by Alpaca with a Twist, and it is a blend of baby alpaca and silk in a wintergreen colorway. It is absolutly wonderful to work up and I look forward to working with all 800 and some odd yards of this spun cloud. With this yarn I have begun to work up the Pavonis shawl, a free pattern for Ravelry. It is a beautiful shawl and lots of fun.

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster both knitting wise and sibling relationship wise. The casting on and ripping of projects is always hard, but the siblings have started to make it clear that anytime I want to go back is fine with them. I have been doing a lot of cooking this week, either of my own volition, or because I am the only one home. The one meal I took out of a cookbook the kids made funny faces, and stated that if I made it again, they would eat. Never a good response. Mum licked her bowl clean and there were no leftovers, so I still considered it a success. Next night we made poor man's beef stroganoff,  and only one out of the three of them ate it, Ian had a huge conniption about the large bits of onion (which we made parge so he could pick them out) and the fact that we broke the beef up, making it harder to pick out. But we kinda knew he wasn't going to eat it so no big surprises. The straw that broke the camel's back was last night. I made dinner, so it was already predisposed to failure. I made scalloped potatoes, shake and bake country style ribs and broccoli. I knew Ian and Racheal would eat the broccoli and the ribs would disappear in a flash. But, I would have thought that that creamy baked potatoes would get rave reviews. That's where I was woefully too optimistic. Ian didn't even serve himself a serve, Racheal had to have a forkful shoved down her throat to meet the 'you must at least try it' requirement and thankfully Justin realized that they were good if he avoided the onions. The only highlight was that Justin who said he didn't like broccoli was guilted into eating it.Tonight is homemade spaghetti with sausage, so again it will be the adults reveling in tomato-ie goodness and the kids getting icicles on their upturned noses.

It is now time to pack. Usually I pack earlier than this but this time I have procrastinated to point where I can procrastinate no more. Have a nice weekend and I will see you in Houston!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

For Lack of A Creative Title

The kids are back to school, and life as yet to slow down. The weekend has flown by, and it seems like forever since my last post, and in a way, it has been. The break is slowly coming to an end, with less than a week to go, which will probably be filled with last minute purchases, packing, project planning, and such.




This week I think I broke a personal record. The shawl that I was having such a hard time picking is done. Yes, less than a week needle time, Sunday to Friday. It was nice to finish it, but I also wanted  a project that I could rely on for good steady knitting. But the good thing is that I have another project on the needles already. I need a cushion for my desk chair, so I have double stranded some Baby Bee yarn and stuck about 190 stitches on size 9's and am going round, and round, and round, and round. It is working up nice, and I hope to finish it by the time I have to leave, so I don't have to worry about bringing the batting I am going to stuff it with.

So tomorrow is the big before semester Hobby Lobby shop. That means today will be dedicated to finding projects, yardage, weight and all that kind of stuff to get ready for college knitting for the next 4 months. That also means that today is the time where I have to accurately estimate how much I will knit so that I can avoid calamity and never run out of projects. It sounds simple now, but when the end of the semester rolls around and I am faced with bare needles, it turns into a big problem.

Also comes the time when I get to spend big bucks on what will become the bane of my existence for the next 4 months, textbooks. Colleges never make it easy, I swear. Amazon will only ship some books on my prime account for the best price, so I have to order books in about 3 waves. First the books coming on pony express, second the books coming prime, in about 2 days, then I have to make my way to the three bookstores on campus to get the best used price. So needless to say it will be an ordeal getting books.

Now for more uplifing or less cynical news. After I posted on Monday, the end of the TicketCity bowl resulted in Penn State losing to my Coogs. Nice to see we could end our season on a high note, after our terrible showing in the Conference USA championship game a few weeks ago.

Before this week I thought my family was pretty green. I mean we recycle all that we can and reuse things more than once, but our dog Sedgewick has shown us that we can do more. It seems as though my allergies over that past week have gotten rather bad, meaning that I have been using a lot of tissues. So wiki has taken it upon himself to keep those used tissues from filling up the city landfill. It has gotten to the point where he will come running from any point in the house to whoever is blowing their nose and beg for the tissue. And we thought his chewing on crocs and the furniture was bad. It seems as though the spirit of Ivan Pavlov is alive in our dog.

Seems like that is all from me, I am going to insert some pics, then call it a day. There is some football on television, and my needles are calling. Have a great week all, if I don't post sooner.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Catch Up With A Camera

Alright, last night I was able to sort out all of my camera problems. So to pass my good fortune on to you guys, I shall bring everyone up to speed on my past projects, and current ones too.

To start, we have Vlad...

Kathryn showing off the size of Vlad
Now for Uncle Jim's sweater...

Excuse the mess, I almost forgot to take a pic before shipping it off.

Close up of the cables




How about some Christmas sweaters?

Left to right: Dad's Vest, Ian's Sweater, my sweater (top row) Justin in red, Butcho, Kathryn's sweater.  

Not the greatest pic I know, but its the first time the majority of us have gotten together for a family picture, so you will have to excuse the mess.

Blue shawl time, yes it is still unnamed...

 
Blue socks that were finished earlier this semester thanks to a Hanson concert...




Bag that I got for Christmas for my knitting, of ETSY that is really really cute...


Finished cross stitch, around September...


Still needs an iron, and the storage over the summer kinda yellowed it.

And here is the project I have found. It took a while, but football yesterday helped me get a good amount done. This is the cerises de juin, or June Cherries.





It took a while to put all these together, watching the gamecast of the TicketCity bowl, posting and eating lunch never makes for a speedy blog post. So I think you are just about caught up, Out of Cheese and another pair of socks will be shown when I get back to my dorm. Time to finish 'watching' the game, and knitting. Hopefully the coogs can keep their 20 point lead and beat Penn State.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Meet The New Year...

Welcome to the new year guys, last year was rather eventful, and hopefully this year will follow suit.

So after a night of board games, food and fun, the new year has been rung in, and things will soon return to normal. We played Rummykub, basically gin rummy with tiles and slight rule changes. Surprisingly I kicked butt, beating Ian in second place by over 40 points. We switched to Apples to Apples, and laughed our collective butts off.

I have had a knitting crisis. More of a pattern crisis, again. I can't seem to find a pattern that I want to do. I have the yarn, the needles, and the drive, but I can not find a pattern. It's terrible. And with the exception of a preemie hat, I have absolutely nothing on the needles.































For more uplifting news, I finished Uncle Jim's sweater with time to spare. The final cast off was on Wednesday, giving me the rest of the afternoon to finish up my Mardi Gras sock and start the other. The pair was finished on Thursday, and were saved multiple times from the mouth of the dog while getting photographed.



I have gotten into the habit of bringing a cross stitch project with me to school, so when we walked past the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby, I had to stop being a frugal individual. So when I saw this project sitting there, I thought, well, let's see how much it is. I had a heart attack when I saw the regular price sticker, but, when I saw the sale price, it kinda jumped in the cart. It went from 40, to 23, to a final price of 15 bucks. I now know where my favorite aisle in Hobby Lobby is.

It has been a busy week for a break. We have had gift card shopping, dog/house sitting, babysitting, cooking, frantic knitting, and child wrangling to over fill the days. It also hasn't helped that The Big Bang Theory is on every night at 10 after the news. And with Mum and Dad recently converted fans, we have had some late nights. But it makes for some good knitting time, and with the kids already in bed, it is quiet, er.

I am still working out the bugs on uploading pictures, so I promise things will get better. I am just happy I was able to upload them!

So with any luck, I will have another project to announce before the next post. If not, there won't be another post, I will be sectioned, and be sitting in my basket in a loony bin. Happy New Year everyone!