Overwhelmed by...

Great friends!

I have wonderful friends. Some of them here, some of them not here. I've got my GNO girls, my knitting girls, my sit in church girl. How did I get so lucky?

I have new friends, old friends, and friends that I've known since I was in preschool.

I have a friend who calls me for lunch every so often so we can keep each other sane - she soothes me about my non-work status and I about her work situation.

I have a friend who calls me every week or so - she doesn't live here, but she has half of my heart with her always. We try to stay connected, but it's been harder lately. I'll be better, promise.

I've got a friend who is in trouble - it's been a tough year for her, but she just soldiers right on through all of it, knowing that it will eventually be OK. What an inspirtation!

So my problem is - all of these friends I have - every last one of them - has been so supportive of me and loves me right through it all. That's not the problem part. The problem is that I want to do something for all of them, and there is no way I can. There are not enough hours in the day, and it overwhelms me that I can't do something for each of them...

So I sit and think of what I can do with what I have and how I can return their kindnesses...

I'm hoping that they don't notice that I'm sure I get more out of our relationships than they do...if I could just do more. In the meantime, I'm going to just pray to God each night, thanking him for blessing me as he has, and hope that it continues.

Failure

I feel like Julie in Julie and Julia - the best of intentioned experiements just don't work every time.

Take for instance my French Press Slippers. These were a test for Christmas presents and should look like this:

Instead, after felting, I got this:

These are so wrong on so many levels... they should have been knit in the smallest size.

The increases made this weird hunchback-of-notredame bulge, that quite honestly makes me think that it might take a plastic surgeon.

So bye-bye Christmas gift idea!


As knitting goes, I'm a pretty good knitter. I've knit some great stuff and have had a lot of fun doing it. This just wasn't one of those times.

I hate failures, but I'm off to the next great knitting experiement!

WIP kinda

So I'm embarrassed. I know I have a problem. I have startitis, and rarely finishitis. Well, I have finished a large number of things, but these are projects that are languishing in the knitting baskets. This post hopefullly will get me moving on all these WIP, and get some projects done!

Irish Hiking Scarf - exactly half done.

This would be the bottom of the Bravo Bag by Chris Blysma. Love the pattern, but didn't get very far before some other project caught my attention.

This is from the Brooklyn Tweed booklet, Made in Brooklyn. Lovely pattern, and I will return to it soon, hopefully.

Lychee Mittens, from Kellbourne Woolens, The Fibre Company, Terra is the yarn. Didn't like the thumb construction.

Chic Knits pattern large Cowl. Frogged this yarn from Noro, Blossom.

Love this one, and it will be completed at some time - hopefully, before it gets cold again. Chich Knits Mondo Cable Cardigan, Malabrigo Worsted, Paris Night colorway.

Conifer Shawl - started in a KAL, but life got in the way.

Hemlock Ring - a wedding gift for a girlfriend, who is getting married next weekend. I abandoned this one, and am knitting something else for her wedding. I'll still come back to this soon, love it, almost would love to have it for me!

Slinky Ribs Sweater - 1st time ever I've followed the yarn recommendations, even down to the color. Love this, and there was lots of giggling about the pool boy in the background!

FO Rundown for 2009

So with the holidays over, I can finally post about two things: My mom's shawl and J's afghan. Both were big hits with their intendeds, so I'm thrilled.

He was speechless when he figured out what he had, but as we all know, that didn't last for long. He slept in it Christmas night, like a toddler.

I don't have a photo of Mom in her Shawl, but here are the finished pics, me modeling.

I did manage to knit almost all of my Christmas gifts - the only ones that I bought were for my sister and for friends. Yay me!

Hope the new year brings lots of goodness and joy and happiness for you and yours!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

So two very important milestones happened this week. I bound off my mother's Christmas present(check my rav for more details, since mom does read this from time to time) and I, just tonight, knit the last of the squares for my son's afghan. There were times that I wasn't sure if I would hit Christmas for either of them, but I'm ahead of schedule.

Mom's monstrosity is blocking now - to 42" x 82". Humungo!

Jeremy's afghan still needs to be crocheted together, as well as an edging attached, but that's a pretty small amount of work, considering. I truly have loved knitting every square, and found it quick and easy, but satsifying as only a "small square" can be. This is the photo of it with all but one squre done. Obviously, there's some squares that still need to be blocked, but that's the general layout. The color blocks landed up being in the green, blue and neutral families, with one oddball block that is the University of South Carolina colors, just for kicks.


Not since Sliced Bread and the ATM has there been such a grand invention as I've discovered today. Can we say, BLOCKIKNG WIRES!??!

I leave you with some of the images from my Copenhagen trip...

Back to School and other tidbits

So finally, finally, the kids are back in school. My two freshmen seem to be doing just fine, loving school and life. And who wouldn't at their ages, oh, to be young again! We are so proud of both of them, and Jeremy is finding his way at USC, getting involved in different organizations and making a life for himself.

Something in the knitting karma department happened this summer, I'm not sure what, but between early May and now, I have really cranked out some knitting. And it's all nighttime knitting, I don't knit during the day at all. Amazing.

So I knit up an Ishbel in quick fashion - love the color combination, just wish it were a little bigger.
Yarn is Louet Gems, fingering weight.

It's an Ysolda Teague design - she turns out the best written patterns anywhere. They are simple, and when the pattern isn't, she explains it so it is.

This next shawl is the Textured Shawl "recipe" by Orlane. This was easy and fun, and truly was more of guidelines than a pattern. The yarn was perfect, and I expect I'll be wearing this soon! Football games seem a perfect place to sport this!
Especially with these cabled mitts - not finished yet, due to needing to knit the mitt part on a smaller needle, and not having those needles. I was able to get the needles this past week, so I will get working on these quickly!








Christmas Knitting..... is under way.

Dad's scarf set Kati's Hat, modeled by Annie

And then there is the Afghan for Jeremy. This was really meant to go with him to college, but I just didn't have a good rhythm going for getting it done. I am on the job now, and have 33 of the 96 squares done. I may shrink the size of it, as the 96 makes a very large blanket. We'll see. Under suggestion of a knitting buddy, I'm going to start blocking them so I don't have that to do all at the end, when of course, I'll be under deadline. I'm pleased with it so far, and think he will be too.

Yarn is all over the place - there is some Cascade Sierra(which is what it will be boardered with), K1C2 Ty-Dy Cotton, Noro, Cascade Pima Tencel, Mission Falls Cotton, Brooks Farm Solana, and others! This has been really fun to see where it is going. Thanks MasonDixonKnitting gals for the inspiration.

Looking forward to fall and the knitting that happens in this time of the year. I hope to have more pictures by end of October for some more finished items!

Be well, and enjoy your fall season!

Blog Neglect

OK, I'm getting bad at blogging. I am not in the minority though, as most of my friends at some point start their blogs "I can't believe hpow long it's been!".

This has been a really hard year for me. If you've been following this blog, you understand that. Regardless, it's been nice getting some things that I didn't get when I was working: time. I didn't have time to really slow down and really be intentional in my life. I have that now, although I'm not great at it on a daily basis - I really have to think about it before the week starts and remind myself through out.

One would think I would have all the time in the world for knitting. WRONG! Looking for a job is hard work and takes time.

But I have managed to click off a few things: A Journey Hat - really a great slouchy pattern, look for it on Ravelry; Ishbel - a wonderful shawl by Ysolda Teague (she writes the best patterns, check her out yslolda.com); and a Sugar Maple Shawl in Malabrigo Worsted - held double.

Currently, I'm working on, and those that know me know that I probably have more WIP's than this: Textured Shawl('recipe" by Orlane) - love this whole thing. I bought some Blue Moon Fiber ARts BLF Sport in a chocolate, know that was its project. LOVE IT! I'm also working on some Fingerless mits out of some Bijou Basin Yak(Maryland Sheep and Wool purchase).

Seeing how the girl doesn't have money for gifts, she's working off her yarn addiction 1 day a week... so I'm knitting frantically to get some Christmas presents done. So far, a hat for my neice, a scarf for my dad; in the queue still is a camisole for my neice, although I'm toying with the thought of scrapping that and just making her a lot of hats. I made her the Portia beret last year and she tells me how much she loves it and wears it. Still have to get mom's secret gift on the needles, but that one requires a little bit more doing - like yarn selection, gonna be a doozie. AND I have to have to have to finish Jeremy's afghan. I've 24 of the 96 squares, but have just not had the time to work on them with the boys at home this summer. He leaves for college August 14, so will commence once again once that dates comes and goes.

So that's all that's going on in my knitting life. I'll work on getting photos in this week, but in the meantime stop over at ravelry.com and check out my projects there: I'm brattyknitter.