Thrift Store Finds

     Today Henry and I took a trip to our local Goodwill  this morning. My initial reason for going was to find some framed artwork for our very bare walls and maybe some baskets for decluttering. Which I did find by the way but they are no where near as cool as the knitting related goodies. What I ended up finding was truly a knitter's bounty of stuff.

     First of all, let me just mention that I have been shopping at flea markets, thrift shops, antique malls and yard sales since I was a little girl. So I know how cutthroat the world of thrifting can be when more than one person eyes the same thing. I am not the type of person to maul someone over something or be rude. But if I had been thinking about buying something and someone rudely invaded my personal space to snatch it I would have to say something. Especially now with this whole "shabby chic" thing going on it is getting harder to find the good stuff at Goodwill and the Salvation Army. I really blame Pinterest and Etsy. Not that I begrudge anyone for upcycling or reusing vintage and antique items. I just want to see people be more polite when shopping at thrift shops. And maybe, I want first dibs on the pretty stuff. ;)

So getting back to my thrift store finds..

     I found two lovely store brand sweaters. The green fair isle is Liz Claiborne and the bright fair isle is Gap. The green sweater fits me well and even though it isn't quite the right color for my skintone I bought it so I could wear it around the house. The bright one is too small for me, though it is 100% lambswool so I am thinking of turning it into a pillow for my daughter's bedroom. I don't plan on felting it, but it is a possibility. And then my favorite finds are the two cable knit pieces of pottery. The plate is perfect for a sandwich or a tea cookie/sandwich platter. The creamer is so beautiful, it has to be part of a tea set. So I called the thrift shop and if they find anymore of it, they will hold it for me! How fantastic are they? My collection of knitwear/cabled pottery is growing at a much faster rate than I had ever thought possible.

     While we were in the housewares area Henry helped me find a toast rack that will be perfect for sorting mail in my office.( Okay, so he knocked over a few plastic tupperware things and voila! there was the toast rack! )  Etsy has tons of these toast racks for sale -- but I wasn't willing to pay upwards for $10 for one when I know I could eventually track one down for under $2. Luckily, Henry was with me or else I would have still been searching for one.

     Also, I have been gathering items out of our basement storage for my office ever since I decided that my office needed to be finished. Thankfully I still had my two antique lamps. ( The ones my husband thinks are a bit dated... lol ) The taller creme colored on belonged to my Nan-Nan ( Great Grandma ) and the short milk glass lamp belonged to my Grandma. Both lamps were eventually given to my Mom who gave them to me when Gwen and I moved into an apartment. The milk glass lamp is very special to me since it was my bedside lamp since I was four years old. I finally stripped off the glitter nail polish I had decorated it with back when I was a teenager. Yah know, when it was cool to be glitter-izing everything with nail polish.

     All of these off white/cream colored items will be in my office. Including the pom-poms. =D And yes, I made all of those. As some of you know I couldn't make a pom-pom if my life depended on it. Thank goodness for those awesome clover pom-pom makers.

Now, remember how I was thinking about painting my office walls? Guess what?! It is happening. 

     Even though my husband thinks that gray is not a color for an office -- I am moving forward with the middle gray. I sort of have his approval on the color. It is called Crucible from Valspar. The paint has been purchased at Lowe's, so there is no going back now! I am very excited to be painting and putting together a fun work space. The color scheme is going to be charcoal gray, black, white and pops of blue/teal/pink/chartreuse. Though again my husband keeps reminding me that with two desks in the office that my office will be more of a "shared" space. And within that gentle reminder he usually mentions that I need to reel in some of my color choices. He knows me well. I am not afraid of dark paint on walls or of bright colors in a home. I am happy to share the office with him like back in our townhouse. But, I will be treating the decorating as if the office is mine alone for the most part. And if anything, he should be happy I am sticking to a mostly neutral color palette! Hopefully he will be happy with what he sees at the end and will be pleased.

     Aside from the thrift store finds, pom-pom making and office decor... I've been spinning up some punis/rolags!

They spin so easily and the colors just make me incredibly happy. 

     Last night I finished plying the punis into this single ply yarn. Obviously I over filled my bobbin. But it was worth it because I spun up every last bit, skeined it, and soaked it. It is hanging over an air vent drying in my kitchen as we speak. Not sure what to do with it yet. Would be wrong it turn it into a pom-pom garland for my office? Not that I have given that idea a lot of thought or anything...

Happy Knitting, Thrifting and Spinning!

Kate

Good Day Sunshine!

We woke up this morning to a fine, powdery dusting of snow. It was expected, but lately whenever we have a chance of snow on the forecast it seems to just miss us. As a knitter I adore snow days because it gives me an excellent excuse to bring out some knitting or start a new project. 

As a Mom it brings me great joy to see my kids so excited for the snow! 

Henry was so enthralled that a big "Whoaaaaaaa!!!!" escaped from his lips. Gwen has a 2 hour delay this morning because of the condition of the roads. They are slick and unsalted. Which means a more leisurely morning for me, a yummy breakfast for them and a movie to keep them happy. 

My favorite thing about winter and snow is the different types of sunrises that come from those matte clouds. This morning it looked like a soft watercolor painting. As I watched the sun come up I instantly had The Beatles song "Good Day Sunshine" pop into my head.

I love it when the matte clouds dissipate and a bright clear blue sky appears after it snows. Looks like it may melt most of the snow and keep my husband and I from having to shovel today. 

That is the best kind of snow day. 

I'm off to get Gwen ready for the bus and then find some knitting before all of the snow is gone!

Happy Knitting!

Kate

Office Space and Punis

     Every few months I get sick of the setup in my office. For some (valid!) reason or another I get antsy and have to change something. In total since moving into our home in June 2011, we have altered the setup nine times..which ends up being something like once every two months we have changed some aspect of the layout. 

     I am sure that the majority of my constant need to change my office is because I had been waiting on a crucial piece of my desk set. My husband and I have been slowly buying items for my office to improve my need for the "chaos" factor over proper organization.

     We started with replacing my old desk to this desk...

     And then when I realized that I didn't have enough surface for clipping coupons/doing crafty things we bought a second desk exactly like the one above. 

     I have my doubts on how we will configure my office and make it look nice with two desks. 

I mean, there seems to be plenty of room...

     But the crucial piece for my office is the hutch that goes with my desk. I feel that my office needs furniture to bring height into the room. And to be completely honest, I need more storage to wrangle the chaos into something that doesn't drive my husband insane when he uses my office. Yes, I love my husband enough to let him use my office. He doesn't add to the mess so I permit it. ;) So basically, I just need to have him build the hutch so I can slowly take some of the clutter off of my desk. And then have him build the second desk. Perhaps I can try to talk him into letting me paint my office. Not sure of the color, but it should be something that pops but isn't screaming at you. I am not entirely sure if my husband will go for that considering he is sort of an anti-paint person after he tried his hand at helping to paint Gwen's bedroom purple. Needless to say I do a better job at painting and he does a better job at building things. When all of the (possible) painting and building of stuff is done...

     Then I can figure out a layout that allows me to have a full view of the living room so I can see what mischief my kiddos are up to...

 So that I can get back to making more of these beauties...

     These are punis ( or a sub-style of rolags if you will ) I made using my hand cards and a knitting needle. The fiber is from The Unique Sheep's Coffee Club ( from 2010 I think.. ). I chose fiber over yarn for the club, and this is their take on gradient roving ( Sushi Roving ) in the colorway Dali. 

     How I came across this technique was on Instagram (IG) through Holly (IG: theturquoiseowl) of Turquoise Owl Fibers on etsy and Debi (IG: michiganspinning) of Michigan Spinning on etsy. They both post some of the most gorgeous pictures on Instagram of their punis. I was slowly starting to stalk them and discovered that they both make their punis for their etsy shops and that they both have lovely blogs. Seriously, they are awesome ladies and are always doing interesting stuff on IG. Eventually I inquired about their rolags/punis and Holly jumped in and shared with me that Debi has a video tutorial on her blog demonstrating the technique. 

     So I tested it out using some of my freshly washed ( and dried ) cormo fleece from MDS&W 2010. It was a revelation! At this point I was so excited that I raced around my house tracking down a bunch of fiber and glitzy stuff ( angelina and firestar! ). I got right to work using my Unique Sheep fiber and some firestar. I spent the entire evening making over 20 of these gorgeous punis. I ran out of the deeper orange by the time I hit punis #19..but that is fine with me. I'll just play around with some Wedgwood blue angelina and see what happens!

     Hopefully those of you spinners reading my blog grab a pair of hand cards, a knitting needle and get to work on making these punis-style rolags. Again Debi has a wonderful demo on her blog that is a major help to getting started. I cannot stress how fun ( and fast! ) these are to make. Special thanks to Holly and Debi for being such wonderful companions on IG and sharing their talents with us through their etsy shop. I absolutely adore them and cannot wait to see their next set of punis on IG!

Happy Knitting and Spinning!

Kate

An interesting morning...

My morning started with this...

She did NOT want to get up and was practically begging for more sleep saying...

 "I just need more time for sleep Mommy...please?"

     We have officially hit the point in her life where she is not happy to get up early for school and actually wants to sleep in. After 5.5 years this is a mixed blessing. Great for weekends, terrible for school mornings. It took about 10 minutes to get her up and moving for school. 

And then the other thing happened. 

Gwen's shoe strap sadly broke...

We had already planned to go out and buy her a few pairs of new shoes this weekend...

Then it dawned on me...the "a few PAIRS" part... 

Gwen has outgrown or slowly destroyed through use 3 pairs of shoes in the past 6 months. So the sneakers.. that JUST broke were her last pair of well fitting seasonally appropriate shoes.

Mental cussing happened and that is when this Momma decided to get...creative. 

I immediately thought through my options...

Option #1 Bring out the sewing machine and try to machine stitch the velcro back onto the strap. 

Option #2 Track down my hand sewing needle variety pack and hand stitch the velcro back on.

Option #2 Find some type of fast drying glue that would work with the materials.

And then...I noticed the time. *sigh* I have less than 10 minutes to figure this out before the bus comes. Not 10 minutes before it is time to go to the bus stop...so that means we have about 7 minutes before she needs to get her coat and backpack on and head out the door.

Thinking quickly I realized that option 3 was the only viable choice in order to get her on the bus and to school on time. Realizing that this would be a great "quick fix" tutorial to post on the blog I decided to snap pictures of me fixing her shoes. You can bear witness through the magic of my camera phone the horrible-nasty-no-good-THING that happened...

Why yes. 

That would be me stupidly putting Crazy Glue on the strap to try and put the velcro back on.

What is that...that acrid smell?! Surely it is not her shoes... 

See that white wispy stuff there? That is chemical smoke that happens when you put SUPER GLUE on sneakers. The strap as you see is melting...

That's right. 

I melted my daughter's shoe strap. 

So I scoured our shoe shelves and found Gwen's sparkly and falling apart ballet flats. You see, she had worn them so much that the sole of the shoe was slowly seperating from the shoe itself. 

The "quick fix" tutorial pictures completely forgotten by this point...I tested the ballet flats to see if they'd melt when using super glue to attatch the sole back to the shoe body. It didn't melt! Hooray! Success! I almost did my personal happy dance a la 1998...yah know. When it was cool to do that. But, honestly, there wasn't time for celebration. Gwen quickly started putting her flats on....

But. 

She. couldn't. get. them. on. while. wearing. socks. 

GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The socks had to come off so she could barely squeeze her size 12 feet into size 11.5 shoes. But, she just had to deal with it for the day and then as soon as she gets off the bus we would be going out and buying her a new pair of sneakers..and maybe some new ballet flats as well. 

Side Note: Children. Why must they grow so fast!?? Seriously. Gwen, stop growing!!

She ( thankfully ) made it to the bus stop! However, when my husband returned from taking her to the bus stop he was absolutely freezing. It then hit me...if my husband's face was THAT cold...then poor Gwen. Poor Gwen and her exposed feet would be even colder. 

Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. What kind of Mother am I to send my child out into this cold weather with ill fitting shoes and no socks?! Looking at my phone I cringed when I read the weather report...29 degrees, feels like 19 degrees. That clinched it. I needed to go out right this moment and buy her new shoes so that she would be able to play during recess and PE without frozen toes. 

I looked up Target's hours and lucky me, they are open at 8 am! So Henry and I got ready and scooted out the door to buy my poor, freezing cold daughter a pair of sneakers. 

We found some inexpensive ( clearance!! ) sneakers and a really great pair of electric blue ballet flats also on clearance. All in all I spent 14.97 for two pairs of shoes. The sneakers are size 12 and the flats are size 13 (so she could wear socks with them of course!). That way if for some reason the sneakers didn't fit, she could still wear her socks with the flats. Did I mention that the flats were $5?! Yes. I am a deal seeking goddess. ;) 

We got into the school as quickly as we could...

Did I mention it was REALLLLLLLY cold and windy?! Yeah. It was walking in and out of Target that confirmed I was right to buy her some new shoes and bring them by the school. 

Gwen came to the front office and we started trying on the shoes. 

The sneakers were a bust. And that was also when we discovered that she was a 12.5 not a 12. Thankfully I had the size 13 ballet flats to fall back on. She slipped them on and they fit perfectly in the toe box and Gwen proclaimed them "The comfiest pair of shoes ever!" ;) I gave her big hugs, sent her back to class in her shiny new ballet flats with her bubble gum pink Minnie Mouse socks that clashed terribly with the flats. But hey, at least her feet will be a bit warmer. Not as warm as I would like. But it was a vast improvement from ill-fitting ballet flats and no socks. 

Henry and I braved the wind and cold to head home...I made myself some coffee to warm up with as soon as our coats and shoes were off. And Henry played happily with all of the shoes and house slippers strewn by the front door. Yes, I made a mess. But I was a Super Mom, as witnessed by our school's front office staff. I was so happy with my choice to make sure Gwen had what she needed and my advance thinking. Like bringing a pair of socks and buying two pairs of shoes incase on of them didn't fit. =D 

And then...I got a phone call from the school. In the hour Gwen had been wearing her new ballet flats her shoes were stretching and were slipping off. aka The shoes were a touch too big after wearing them and she couldn't keep them on. 

I decided to grab a second pair of socks ( thick ones! ) and go back to the school. Sorry, I wasn't going to go back to Target, exchange the sneakers that didn't fit, and then turn around and buy ANOTHER pair of shoes that may not fit. Gwen would just have to wear two pairs of socks with her flats and get through the day. We would go out and buy some new shoes tomorrow. Yes. That is how I spent my morning. Let us never speak of this again.

A New Record and a Glimpse into my Sketchbooks

     I am bubbling over with glee! Can you tell?! =D 

    Over the weekend I finished my first pair of socks in 2013! 

     My super stripey Zauberball Crazy socks kept me so happy and completely enraptured that I couldn't put them down. I finished a pair of socks in a week. Which is unheard of for me considering my track record with finishing socks. lol So we have a new personal knitting record and I am amazed at just how gratifying a finished pair of socks can be. =D

     Aside from the newly finished socks ( that I have been wearing around the house non-stop since I finished them on Saturday ) I got something extra fun in the mail last week! And no I am not talking a letter from my Nana...though I adore every single letter she sends me and rip it open with the excitedness of a school girl getting a love letter from a beau circa 1950s.

     No, I had an amazing mail day wherein I got my next skein of Zauberball Crazy among other yarns and a knitting journal! The yarn ( left to right ) Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Fingering in A Very Merry Unbirthday, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rocks Lightweight in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Crabby McHappypants and Zauberball Crazy in #1507 Pinstripes. The ladies at BMFA sent me the amazing sock bumper sticker and two handmade stitch markers in lieu of the awesome BMFA buttons. I cannot wait to slap it on my car. =D 

     While I am very happy with my new skeins of yarn and goodies..the yarn journal was what I was really excited about. 

     One of my other goals for 2013 is to find a better way of organizing my knitwear designs. I have a few notebooks I cart around with me that I doodle in and sketch out ideas. But when it comes time to actually sit down and knit the sketches I forget to write down important things, like my gauge ( because while I always knit a swatch-- which a little part of my rebellious side cringes at the thought of knitting a gauge swatch -- I don't usually keep the yarn in the swatch, I unravel it and use it for my knitting to use every bit of yardage just in case.. ) or my prototype wasn't quite what I wanted and I forget to write down my changes. So then I have to go back, reknit the pattern going row by row to make sure I have the correct notes. Very annoying and unproductive. Consistency is key when designing knitwear, and while I found ways over the past year to sketch that worked for me, my notes were a little um...haphazard. lol Chaos would be a good word. And to be honest my mind is very chaotic at times, it definitely translates into my notebooks. 

     The two notebooks at the top of the photo are filled with sketches set up like that...with small amounts of productive notes. (and yes, we had a terrible sippy cup accident with the one on the top right, my daughter put the cup in upside down in my purse. It took a week to dry out. Good thing I used waterproof pen ink for the most part! ) The bottom notebook is the knitting journal "Knit Notes: Explore*Create*Design" by Nadine Curtis. Which is what I was so excited to get in the mail via Amazon. Normally I don't go for the structured and preset layouts of most journals. But since it is a new year and I was looking for a new approach to design work I figured I'd give it a go. So far I'd have to say it is a major success. The hat design in progress is just waiting to be re-knit and figure out the style of decreases. I adore the graph paper, though I used it more for sketching the overall look of the hat and my initial thought for the decreases. In the back of the book is an excellent section of colorwork/cable graph paper for charting. But since this particular colorwork chart is so small I decided to just keep it all in the same spot. This journal has all of the standard measurements for hats, socks, sweaters located at the back along with spots for additional notes that you can use for elaboration from the original design pages. There is enough room for 30 design/project entries, which is excellent since I am hoping to self-publish about 10-15 new designs this year. So this journal should last me about 2 years or so. If you are also looking for a way to better organize your knitting mods or design work I would highly recommend this journal. It is reasonably priced and full of extremely helpful measurements. 

     A side note, the hat pattern you see will be available for free, so don't worry about me sharing the chart or other information. =D The socks are design ideas in progress. I haven't quite got it down. And those two will be released as free patterns as well. I fully believe in having a mixture of pay-for patterns and free ones for all around accessibility. As someone that appreciates a well written free pattern I am trying to "pay it forward" in my own design work. 

     Lastly, today I am taking a trip down to my local yarn store Woolwinders  in Rockville, MD. I won a gift card for submitting a name that they picked for their store sheep. "Hank" is the new name of their sheep that the store employees selected from all of the submissions. Which I chose to submit at the last second, because it is our nickname for our son Henry. Go figure that they'd pick it! I am not very lucky so I was very surprised that my name submission won. I didn't even think of the fact that the name is also a knitting term. ( A hank of yarn.. ) So basically the giftcard is burning a hole in my pocket and I wanna go touch all the pretties. Henry can flirt with the ladies and I can bring some new design yarns home. =D

Hope you are all doing well and keeping up with your New Year's Resolutions Goals!

Happy Knitting,

Kate

Bronchitis and Socks

     It has been an interesting week. Mostly due to the fact that I have been sick since Christmas. Actually our whole family got sick to varying degrees of severity with a nasty cold. Mine turned into a sinus infection two weeks ago and then turned into a bad case of bronchitis last week. So with two rounds of antibiotics and lots of cough syrup under my belt... I have been sleeping...and well sleeping. Oh and sleeping some more. If I am not feeling better by tomorrow I will be heading back to the doctors. All I seem to want to do is sleep and rest. Sadly, my life doesn't allow this thing called "sleeping-all-day-because-I-am-sick" to happen during the weekdays. So when Henry is napping I try and nap but otherwise I need to be awake and alert. Because as we know a toddler left to his own devices will make for lots of messes and trouble. lol
   
     When I have been awake I have been knitting. And not on the socks I had been working on last week. No...I started a new pair of socks because... well... I wanted something bright and cheerful to work on while I have been ill. And nothing says cheerful better than a ball of Zauberball Crazy in the rainbow colorway (1564)! See for yourself. Isn't it bright and happy?

     Every time I see the socks in progress it puts an instant smile on my face. Usually followed by bouts of coughing and hacking. But smiles are happening none-the-less. =D I split the yarn into two cakes so I could knit the Magic Zauberball Socks by Tofutrulla. Let me just say...wow. This pattern with this yarn is more addictive than anything I have ever knit in my entire life. More addictive than Veera Valimaki's garter stitch shawl patterns. And boy do I love me some garter stitch. I have almost finished my pair of socks. I am on the second wedge of my sweet tomato heel on the second sock. Again, I am knitting my socks with Cat Bordhi's genius STH..it fits so well and I love how smooth it is. Though, I should have gone down a needle size on these heels. It will be fine for now, and I will probably add some nylon reinforcement thread to the next pair I knit as well. Even though the yarn is 75% wool and 25% nylon. Doesn't hurt to have some extra oomph of nylon for the heels since that is what I wear out first with socks. Never the toes...odd.

     Anywho. As I previously mentioned my addiction to this pattern, it is more the stripes than anything that I am addicted to. So I ordered another skein of this yarn from The Loopy Ewe (colorway 1507, pinstripes ) so I can start another pair of socks. And probably halfway through THAT pair I will want to order another skein. As I said..addictive...dangerously so.

     While I am waiting for my 2nd skein of ZB Crazy to arrive I will be happily knitting along on my current pair of socks. Then contemplating how on earth I will be tackling my messy kitchen. Seriously. It is nearing critical mass. During my bout with bronchitis I have only managed to do enough dishes to keep us in spoons, bowls and glasses. Aside from that things are piling up in all areas. Not that I am boasting. (who would boast about dirty dishes and mail piling up?!) But, just pining away for the days when my children are old enough ( and responsible enough ) to be trusted to do the dishes and bring me hot tea. Yes. Some hot tea would be nice...and crackers.

   

     Since I am not knitting much else at the moment I figured I'd take this time to show you a last minute knit I made right before Christmas for our decorations. I made a super-sized Dansk Hjerte  by Ann McDonald Kelly from the recent issue of Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts. It was supposed to be knit to put on your tree as an ornament.

     Obviously I made mine larger. =D Big enough to put on our front door. And let me tell you, I love it. It makes me so happy to see it on our front door. My Great Grandmother would be so pleased. During Holidays at her house ( and my Nana's house ) she would help me to make these out of paper. So, naturally as soon as I saw the pattern in the IK HG issue I had to buy it so I could knit it up at some point. When I realized that we ( still!! ) hadn't bought a wreath for our front door I decided to remedy the problem. We have had this issue for over 4 years. We do have a scrawny, cheap looking wreath that lights up. But it would require running the plug around the door which doesn't look good in my opinion. So I knit this for the door, and voila! Problem solved, and my husband even remarked "Hey! We can even use it for Valentine's Day!". Not sure I agree with him on that. But it is a nice thought.

     As you can see we ended up with a bit of snow right before Christmas. It was exactly what I wanted, even though it wasn't enough for playing in...and not like I would have played in it with being sick and all anyways. 

     Back to my stripey socks and getting some of that hot tea I have been thinking about since I mentioned it in my post earlier. =D

Happy Knitting!

Kate

2013 is the Year of Sock Knitting!

     Well basically my blog went stagnant in 2012. Things got so busy for my family. Between my knee surgery in June, to my recovery and our general lifestyle things just got away from me. Something had to give, so I would be able to focus on other things. The blog was sacrificed for the time being. But now as part of my "Goals for 2013" ( we don't use the word..resolutions.. in our house, somehow they always get broken! ) I wanted to start blogging again. It truly coincides with my goals and honestly, I've missed it.

So an update is definitely needed here!

     First off, our son Henry became so active in his attempts to "escape" from his playpens that we were changing the "set-up" to try and keep him contained every month! He is a sneaky lil' guy and keeps us on our toes. We finally have a setup that keeps him happy, and allows me to clean/cook/do chores without worrying that he will hurt himself or get into trouble. At the end of September we had to move him to a toddler bed because he was climbing out of his crib. The transition has gone well and we have a very happy, cuddly little boy. =D
     Gwen started kindergarten this past Fall. She is doing well in school and seems to enjoy learning new things. Though, she has recently admitted to disliking her ballet classes. To the point that she argues for days when I mention she has ballet. So we are taking a break and seeing if she is a happier kid without dance classes. Currently, she seems to be a much happier child without dance classes. But now that means we need to find her something else to do.

     My knee surgery went well, though my recovery at first was slow going. I am now to the point were I need strength training. Overall, I am pleased but wish I could run or at least speed walk. The strength just isn't there for that yet. But, eventually I'll get there. For now I am just happy that I can do household chores and take the kids to the park without significant pain in my knee. =D It is an improvement to say the least.
     Lastly, as a family we have been trying to ( slowly ) become more organized. My husband and I have been picking one area at a time and working on finding better ways to arrange furniture and ways of dealing with clutter. One big change we made was our dinner table. We brought a smaller table down from my craft room so Gwen has a designated "arts & crafts" space that doesn't hog the dining room table. Now, she can have crafts-in progress going that I don't have to move around everyday. It has made a huge improvement. Also we re-did the family room. And I have to say it feels so much better to have a space that works for Henry and all of us. Though, I can't leave out any knitting, because Henry attacks it. lol


     Speaking of knitting... =D ( Finally getting to the good stuff! ) I have set one of my major Goals for 2013 to be the year of handknit socks! To help with my motivation we bought a pair of Peek-a-Boo Viewz boots. I have so much sock yarn that I had intended for socks last year...and the year before. But I've literally knit and finished 1 pair of socks in the last 2.5 years. How sad is that? So the last few days have been full of sock knitting and I am happy to say I am halfway done with a pair of socks!

     These are knit out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in Nodding Violet and Boobie 1. The Nodding Violet colorway has been in my stash for years...and while I used part of the skein to knit a baby hat last year I saved the rest of the skein for socks. The pattern is Longjohn Socks by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. And I cannot say enough about this pattern. Her patterns are always well written with a vast range of sizes but the stitch used creates a stretchy fabric that works well with high contrast variegated yarns. I plan to knit this pattern again since it is so enjoyable. I did change the heel to a Cat Bordhi Sweet Tomato Heel. The fit is amazing and looks very cool knit up. It is the first well fitting heel I've knit and I will be using it for all of my socks in the future.

     Another way I am going to jump start my motivation with sock knitting is to include it with my exercise schedule. So whenever I use my recumbent bike I'll be working on a pair of "workout" socks. I've seen a number of knitters doing this over the last 6 months and I've been inspired to do the same. The idea is that the "workout" socks will only be knit when working out. I chose a lovely skein of Trekking XXL in colorway 415 which is a bright and happy rainbow colorway. I cast on for it yesterday and put in a 40 minute session on my bike. Though, I only knit a few rows because I became engrossed in a video podcast. lol Either way it is potato chip knitting at it's finest. =D

     I am planning to write a new blog post every other week. Sometimes every week depending on what is going on in my life. It seems like it is a reasonable schedule considering other plans/goals I've got going on. I will share more details on the rest of my "Goals for 2013" to come.

Wishing you all the best in 2013!

Happy Knitting,
Kate