November 29, 2007

Birthday cards and sinus issues .......

One of my favorite things about having young children around is the handmade cards. I loved them when my children were small and I love them more coming from my grandchildren. This is W's card.
Notice the mixed media. Nice use of random letters. Bold color choices used to tell a story.

The brown square in the lower right corner is "my brother and me in a box. We're just playing." The triangle toward the left middle is their house with the circles representing some of the rooms. The lines next to it are the stairs going down to the basement and the black lines over that are "the clothes line in the basement". The blue circle in the lower left is "grandpa on his boat when the sun is shining".
N's was a little more abstract but very colorful. A man of few words but many markers.
Weather is changing so wicked sinus headache today. Hummm, think I'll pop a couple sinutabs. Gotta love the childproof packaging on these. I realize they need to do something but this isn't childproof it's human proof.

Unwilling to put up with the humiliation of not being able to open this packaging I decided to try a different tactic.

Stupid pills.....

November 28, 2007

The latest finish socks

Looking for a picture of them? Keep looking because there isn't one. The crew was over for a birthday party yesterday and W was quite excited because I was just finishing his socks. Nice sky blue with maroon toes. I had just finished weaving the ends on the last sock when suddenly there was a squealing child in front of me who exclaimed that "these socks will make me run very very fast" as he yanked them out of my hands, sat down on the floor, pulled off the store bought ones, put the handknit ones on his feet, and promptly ran off. It's nice to be so appreciated.

November 27, 2007

Happy Birthday to me .....

When I was younger I thought of 49 as old. Now that I'm 49 I think of 100 as old. I call these birthday the "countdown to senior discount birthdays" since I can already drive, drink, smoke, and rent a car. Today is my typical birthday where the kids all remembered but my hubby hasn't. He never remembers my birthday or our anniversary.
I finished the alpaca scarf over the weekend. Just needs to be blocked. This was the 3rd try because the pattern and yarn just didn't seem to like the first 2 attempts. I can finally say I just love it.

And we had a little sock situation with the grandsons. I used knitpick essentials and for some reason they shrunk. I did a few pair for N and now I'm working on socks for W.
4 yrs old with size 12 feet! I figured I'd do the same technique with W as I did with N so I'm knitting the toe in a different color and can pick it out and reknit when his foot grows. Blue because of course blue is his favorite color.
And you are never too old to try something new so I knit this pair on 2 circulars. I gotta say I love the idea of it and will probably use it for hats but not for socks. I love knitting my socks on double points. There's something so comforting about sitting and knitting socks using the same method that people have used for hundreds of years. I'm glad I tried it.

November 20, 2007

What's wrong with this picture?

Still have a ton of leaves on some of the trees but notice the snow on the deck. Yup gonna be one of those miserable leaf raking seasons where the leaves weigh a ton because they are wet. In addition it'll be cold once they all fall making it worse.
I'm about 16" along on my 3rd attempt on the scarf for you ISE partner. This one is a keeper for sure. It's being working in a lovely alpaca yarn. I've decided that I just love knitting with alpaca. It's so soft that you just can't put it down.

November 19, 2007

Greedy charity knitting

12 pair of baby socks all finished and ready to be sent off to Afghans for Afghans. These were such fun to make that I just couldn't seem to stop myself. After the 6th pair I kept saying, "Ok this is the last pair" but somehow I kept casting on "just one more pair."

So now I've finished all my greedy charity knitting for now and must get back to the other things. Yes that's my new term: Greedy Charity Knitting. But how could doing something for charity be thought of as greedy?

In the past I've always selected a charity and supported in thru the year. This year I decided to do something a little different. I decide what it is I want to obsessively knit and then I do a little investigation to find a group who will take my finished items.

I wanted to knit a few 5 hr baby sweaters so I did and then donated them to a local pregnancy center. I wanted to knit some kids socks in worsted weight yarn so I did a sent them off to cic. I was clicking around and saw A4A needed baby socks and decided that I wanted to knit baby socks. So all my donations this year are based on what I want to make.

So I've coined the term greedy charity knitting because the first thing it fills is my need to make a specific thing. I like greedy charity knitting and will probably do more of that in the coming years. It makes knitting fun.


November 17, 2007

The new job

I've mentioned before that I've worked for the same company for the last 17 yrs. It's not actually the same company. It's been sold several time but with each sale and merger I've kept my job.

When I first started I drove a half hour each way, sat in an office for 8 hrs and processed medical claims. Simple straight forward job. Easy to explain. Over the years I learn how to adjust claims if they were paid wrong, how to answer customer service phones, and how to train other people to do what I did.

Six years ago they closed my office and I started working at home. Full time telecommuter doing the same job as always. A lot of the people that started off working home ended up quiting because of the isolation. Me? I don't mind it a bit. Love being able to spend more time balancing family responsibilities.

However back to just processing medical claims all day every day was a little boring so I transferred to another department and learned a new job. I handled correspondence from our customers and different provider. It was challenging. Every piece of paper was a new thing. No two days were the same. Plus I was helping people in their time of need. Great job.

Then I ran into my old manager at Costco and he offered me a job in his department. Was I up to a new challenge? Sure was so I transferred to the accounting department. Fixing claims to make the payments correct is definitely challenging. And again it felt good to be part of the solution solving a problem.

I spent a few months helping out another department last year and that supervisor called me to offer me a position working for her. I started the new job last Monday. The most interesting part? It's a job that you just can't explain in words that normal people would understand. It's the strangest thing to be doing something so specialized that your average person wouldn't even think that it was an actual job.

Pretty exhausting week. It'll take 6 months of training until I can do this job on my own. There's been a little knitting since I'm still on my baby sock knitting obsession. I've also been working on version 3 of my ISE scarf. My pal figured out it was me so no pics of that until she get it.

How are things in your little corner of the world?

November 12, 2007

The new sock addiction .........

Baby socks! I was on ravelry AGAIN and noticed that someone in one of the groups was making cute little baby socks. Upon further investigation I found that Afghans for Afghans has a current challenge collection baby socks. And here I sit with a gazillion left over sock yarn skeins too little to use for much of anything. I love these!!!
Joey says, "Why no, Diane, I've never slept here before. Don't let all this cat fur fool you. Now be a good woman and go refill my cat dish."

November 10, 2007

More socks for N

Here are 2 of the 3 pr of socks I finished for N. The 3rd pair was on his feet. These two were grabbed right after this picture was taken and cuddled until he went home. Always nice to know that my socks are sooooo loved.

November 08, 2007

$76.90

Ok so I'll admit that this could be an issue. Opal Herbstmelodie, Rainforest Tiger, Opal neon colors 1935 and 1934, and Oneline Walking color 852. But Simply Socks was having a sale and since there's a new baby in their household I felt competed to make a purchase.
Normally I wouldn't feel bad but since I just joined the Sock Stash Elimination Campaign it seems like an odd purchase. Not that I ever feel bad about sock yarn ..... since there's a bunch in my stash that I'll be using to knit for charity so hopefully I'll ultimately end up with less sock yarn than I started with.

I'm having trouble with my beloved bamboo double points. Seems like the points aren't quite what they use to be so I decided to order a couple circulars from knitpicks and learn how to do 2 socks at a time on 2 circulars. Always up for a challenge so I can't wait for my order. I also got some other supplies which don't ever count toward my yarn spending. But I did pick up a few skeins of lace weight yarn .... only because it was on sale. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Don't these look nice? Maybe my youngest would like a pair of these? I'll have to ask.

Still knitting along on socks for N. I really love the blue foot with the olive toes. I sent one pair up to his house the other day and they fit great. Hope to have another 2 pair done if they happen to come down tomorrow. W is sick once again. This time he has croup. Poor kid gets one lung issue after another.

November 05, 2007

The weekend

Saturday sunset was just breathtaking. The entire house was filled with a pink glow. This was the view from my deck.
And this was the view in my great room on Sunday morning. I kept the grandsons from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. We had a good time although the weather wasn't great.
N is getting over a cold so he wasn't his usual happy self.
Of course the minute you pull out a camera W wants you to take a picture of his butt. I hope he outgrows this before his wedding. I always laugh because that's one thing you'll never hear from an adult's mouth, "Hey can you take a picture of my butt?"
So I'm a little bummed over the grandson's socks. I finished 6 pr each for them and the knitpicks yarn I used seems to have shrunk. I've never had a problem with essentials before but these are not good at all. N's foot grew a little but the socks are about 2" too short right now and his foot didn't grow 2" since September.

I being a sock making grandma I had N pick out some yarn and started a new type of sock just for his foot type. Lots of k1,p1 ribbing in the leg and while doing the gusset decreases. I also decided to use a contrasting yarn for the toe so I can pick the toe out and reknit when his foot grows.
First crazy ass sock is finished. The nice thing about this type of sock is that you don't even have to worry about the second sock matching.

November 02, 2007

Crazier socks

No these. These are not crazy socks. Opal yarn never makes crazy socks. I was finished with the leg on the second sock when I noticed I started the first 2 rows after the ribbing with k4 p4 when it should have been knit all. Oh well, wasn't gonna frog back for something like that.
Plain janes for some mindless knitting.
The Alpaca Yarn reborn. This is but in the bottom on my knitting bag and has escaped the wrath of Oscar up to now.
I was playing with left over sock yarn the other day and figured it was time for another experiment in sock knitting. Smaller balls of yarn arranged crazy, calm, bright, mute until I thought it was an interesting balance. Then put them in knit order on a little knitting needle and start knitting away.

Not pretty or ugly but quite interesting. But I will say my new pumpkin stitch markers make them adorable.