The Fabulous Five Meme

What were you doing five years ago?

1. Working here at my current job. (yuck it's really been 6 years)
2. Re-doing the kitchen in the house. (think take out for about 3 months)
3. Contemplating and making the decision that we will move to North Carolina, during a romantic vacation in Lido Key, Fl.
4. Attending my first Evangelical Christian Church. (this is where I became a born again Christian)
5. Getting the kids prepared to attend High School. (wow, now I really feel old)

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1. Get my work done, I missed work yesterday to take care of my grandma, who is unconscious and bedridden, so my mom could have her colon test. How my 65 yr old mom does this on a daily basis is mind boggling.
2. Warp my loom for some more color play I had a great time with the last warp and I want to keep my momentum going.
3. Show the house to the same folks that came yesterday, they were interested, which will include making my bed (see below).
4. Get some laundry started, the pile is knee deep.
5. Get a travel bag packed, we are taking a weekend trip and I really can't wait.

What five snacks do you enjoy? (Really only five??)

1. Three Musketeers my favorite candy bar
2. Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream I love ice cream
3. Cella's Chocolate Covered Cherries
4. Marble Pound Cake with vanilla ice cream
5. Onion Rings
This last one made me hungry, ice cream anyone?

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off the house and give away to a single mom with kids or a family that are struggling to make end meet.
2. I'd buy some land in the mountains, with a chalet style home and a studio.
3. I'd give money away to help missionaries around the world and help my church achieve it's outreach program.
4. I'd buy a deserted town, and try to convert it to an artist's haven with a schools for learning, shops, cafes, B&B's, antique shops, etc. Hold conferences, workshops , and make it a really great destination to visit.
5. I'd buy a closed up manufacturing plant and reopen it, to give a community new life and we can stamp on it Made in the USA. (you can tell I really dislike that everything in this country is outsourced and we are losing our small home town America, although helping out on a global platform is great, but I think we really need to start helping ourselves)

What are five of your bad habits?
1. I never make my bed
2. I tell the kid's they have to make their beds.
3. I can curse like a drunken sailor, and always have to ask the Lord to help me with this issue. I've gotten much better, now I get annoyed, irritated and catch myself before I start.
4. I drive really fast no matter what the speed limit, and sometimes I don't even notice it.
5. I spend a lot of time on line, although I love the online community, it really is a distraction and time hoarder.

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Placetas Las Villas, Cuba
2. Brooklyn, NYC
3. Union City, NJ
4. Hialeah, FL
5. Miami , FL

What are five jobs you’ve had?
1. Cashier at the family grocery store (started at 12yrs old)
2. Secretary for the OR scheduling.
3. Executive Secretary for Entenmann's Bakeries for the Director of the South East Market Area
(fancy title eh, but tons of traveling and with small kids this job only lasted 2 years)
4. Human Resources Director (another fancy title, tons of aggravation, this job caused an ulcer)
5. Service Manager for a Sign Co.,

Which five people do you want to tag?

I want to tag anyone who has the patience to read this post, ha, your it.

Really no obligation just some clean fun.

Have a great weekend!!

Long Weekends Rock!!

What do you get when you place a motivated weaver, a loom and uninterrupted weaving time? Well in my case I love, love, did I say love long weekends, because I get to start and finish a project. I warped my RH with a color exploration from Plain Weave is Anything But Plain, by Leslie Voiers, but I read the draft wrong and warp two end per instead of one and I added and extra color so I did mine with four instead of three. I really love the results and plan to recreate it with the right amount of warp for a scarf.

I hand hemmed instead of machine hemming, although the process is slower it was relaxing. I had extra warp and I wanted to experiment with the new Textures and Patterns book so I used the 5/1 pickup for window panes and used the remainder of my yarn that was on the shuttles, I made a mistake and missed one of the pick-up, leaving a extra long warp shot, so I need to practice, but I'm confident I'll turn it out and have some lovely towels to go with the mats.

I'm warping for a few more kitchen towel, but in a different sequence of solid color blocks to see if I get more definition on the patterns, as I think the pick-up's get lost in the variations. I'll also experiment with different pick up's and test how they look, that should be fun, I'll get towels, practice, and samples all in one shot.

I also got to snap a pic of the baby hat that I finished, here it is along with the cardi, which are now on their way to South Carolina. I decorated the hat with a pink bow and an ever so cute lady bug button, just perfect for a little girl.

ALL THINGS FIBERY

Sunday night I finished the last scarf for SSVE, I washed it and twist fringed (ugh), someone should come up with a gadget for twisting fringe it's annoying. I've commissioned the DD to take some pictures, hopefully all the photography classes she's taken will come in handy ;o).

Whenever I finish a project I get the blues, like oh it's done, now what? sort of a process of grief, I know it sounds silly but I always feel that way for a day, then I look at the finished piece and get total satisfaction in the completedness (new word?) of it.

So in my euphoria of completedness, I cast on a toddler hat to go with the flyaway cardi I knitted for Abby, it's on DPN's, to knit in the round, God help me. I cast on just fine not a problem understood how to separate the stitches amongst the needles, (always easy with a calculator, no I'm not a math wiz (hangs head in shame). I started the ever so simple pattern I found here on a great blog, thank God bloggers are so generous with time and advice. As I started the pattern I being the idiot novice knitter I got through the K2, P2 rib and joining the piece just fine, then came the stockinette stitch and I thought I had to purl once I passed the start point and knit on the RS, never mind that I've knitting on the knitting loom in the round, this tidbit of experience for some ungodly reason disappeared from the memory bank. Needless to say I had to frog and start over another one of my favorite things, ;o( this time I ribbed and kept knitting, not because I had an "AHA" moment but simply forgot about the start and finish. I just kept chugging along having issues with the needles in my way (how do you guys hold these things to knit so they don't protrude everywhere?) as I knitted each row I low and behold it worked, DUH!!

Yes, I should have known but I didn't realize the concept was the same as knitting with looms in the round, why I don't really know, sometime all the info in my head is just there, then something triggers and the whole right/left hemispheres seems to click and pass info to each other, amazing how that works LOL. So I guess I can maybe think about doing a pair of socks, which is the only thing hubby has asked for and I'm deathly afraid of doing. I would need the easiest sock pattern designed, non wool yarn in sock weight, I don't think I've ever seen any, and tiny dpn's, I don't really care for really small needles. Oh the challenges of loving the DH to death, only for this man would I ever attempt knitting socks.

New Toy and Some Weaving

I got an inkle loom that was a great deal on Ebay. Since I didn't know if I was going to really enjoy weaving on it I didn't want to spend a lot. Well, I love it! what an interesting gadget, warping had it's challenges, but once I got through it, I started weaving. So far I only started today at lunch, since I can take the loom home just yet, ( I have to figure out how to tell DH that I bought yet another weaving loom, hehe).

Warped and started.

Side view of the warped inkle.

Close up of the strip.

I have two 3oz skeins of this particular yarn and want to finish it on something so I'll be weaving strips until it's gone. But I have a plan for the strips - your gonna love this, I plan to then take the strips and weave them into fabric for a bag.

New Book and Some Knitting

Since I can't show you any of the current weaving, because it's for SSVE I'll show you the next best thing.

The new Textures and Patterns for the Rigid Heddle Loom, by Betty L. Davenport it's an update to her earlier textures RH weaving book!!!! I'm so excited!!! ( I literally did a happy dance at the mailbox yesterday, yes my neighbors think I'm nuts, but I don't care) I receive my book for review and from my brief look at the pages, I'm really impressed, there is a ton of information and some really impressive weave structures, I didn't know I could achieve with my RH, I've already started drooling over a Twill Band Runner at the end of the book that is calling (ah - screaming) my name.

I've been putting off sampling from the various books that I own, but I'm resolved that the project for the summer will be samples of the weave structures I find the most interesting . I have a feeling that this book will be invaluable to me. There's a lot of lace and hand mani's that I can't wait to try. I may even start a WAL (weave-a -long) on the RH loom group and get some members motivated to join me.

But before I start I need some help from my more experienced weaving buds; What should I use for sampling? (please remember that I'm allergic to animal fibres).

Should I have color or basic white/ecru?

Your answers will guide my next yarn purchase,(as if I need a push for towards buying yarn, LOL) thanks in advance!

On the knitting front I've been busy with the entrelac stash buster afghan, I've gone from warm to cool colors and intend to keep the sequence going. On my trip to Naples, Fl with hubby and mom, she express such interest in this afghan, little does she know it's hers. The project is starting to get weighty, I can work on three or four rows (which is about two hours) and then quit because my hands get sore, I've never had this happen and it's a surprise, I usually don't have any problems with my hands but then again, as my co workers tell me, the older you get the more stuff hurts, at 42 I'm the baby in the office so everyone, has little purls of wisdom in that department. Really I just think it weighs too much for me to carry it with my non-knitting fingers for a long period of time, but don't tell them that, they don't need to know hehehe..

And for my last shot of the day; this is the beginning of the sweater from the pattern in Knit Simple which was in this post I've been challenged by this one also, but the pattern is written for easy following by newbie knitters, which I appreciate. The only thing I'm confused about are the increases, they are in the front for the allowance of the sleeves, but not on the back?! Since it's my first top down and in the round knit I guess I have to just wait, knit and see.

Mother's Day

Mother's" Day Glitters





Have a wonderful day!!

I won a contest on Kimberly's blog, she's a military wife, mother of a few and a homeschooling mom. Check out her blog here. This cut key chain was my prize, I attached to my tiny weaving scissors that I love to use to cut between my warp when adding new weft.

This is the close up of the little letter beads, which are oh so cute. Thanks Kimberly I'm totally enjoying it.

I have become a little more proficient in warping my loom, I guess I felt that way since the warp I tied on last night was no more than 7 inches wide *grin* and got done in an hour and half which made me feel like a queen, hehe... I warped some sport weight creme and cable crochet yarn, the same combination I used for the shawl - ahem , turned window treatment; since I had enough left over I thought it would make a really pretty delicate scarf.

I started with my usual plain weave and decided it needed some pizazz, well at least some lacy treatment, so this is the results of my hand manipulated weaves. Don't tell Meg I showed you *wink, wink* its for the Small Scarf Virtual Exhibition so this is all I can show you :)

CARDI FOR BABY

Another FO, whew, I need to pace myself. I going to set a precedence for actually posting FO's LOL. This was the cardi that I was complaining about the pattern, still not happy with the pattern but I am with the finished results. Putting it together was a snap and I found these oh so cute button, that are see through pink you can't even tell they on. I think I might knit a hat to go along with this, which would accomplish another knitting goal, using dpns.

Knitting has it's challenges

I picked up this magazine, because I really liked the cover project, I'm planning to make that particular sweater for myself. I love the look and it's knitted in one piece top down, which I haven't done and would love to try.
As I was flipping through, I found this adorable baby cardi, and thought it would be a great gift for Baby Abby, so I started knitting and everything was going great, until the pattern omitted the joining of the pieces. The pattern reads " With RS and circular needle k25 sts from the right front holder, pm 38 sts from the sleeve holder etc... til you put all the pieces on the circs, the at the end it states "DO NOT JOIN". So I thought ok why put them all on here if I don't join them. Duh, well it meant don't join the opening, I thought, that's obvious, but maybe not so, I got past that hurdle and then I get to this the part where your joining and decreasing for the sleeves and back and the pattern cuts off after you knit the back portion, you still have the other sleeve and front to do, I know I have to do the same stitching in reverse, but why not write it out? So I got out my post-it notes, which I find are invaluable for knitting notes and wrote the same stitches in reverse, since I have to do it 5 more times, I figured I'll never remember it. Is that a normal process for designer's patterns?

This is what the cardi is looking like after all the duh moments I've had. I guess I need more step by step than what seems obvious to other "more experienced" knitters, is a question for me. I picked a pattern with the skill of level intermediate, because I thought it would be challenging (which it has been) and I don't want to stick to beginner and easy all the time, so I guess I was my own instigator. But I must admit, I have learned and I guess that what knitting, weaving and using my creative outlet is for.