Halloween

Crocheted Candy Cozy….yes, I do have a problem…

My Halloween Village…next year I will have tombstones, a pumkin patch and hopefully some fences…just didn’t have time to make that stuff this year.

Pumpkin having dinner with a CareBear.

Happy Halloween

This year I am costumeless. However, I am good at last minute things and suppose I could dress up as a hippy (that just takes a walk into my closet.) Sierra is going to be a purple care bear and Madeleine a pumpkin. My sister is a tree and her coworker is going to be a hippy tree hugger (not the chain around my sister’s waist? I guess her friend will be chained to her…ha ha!)

I am almost done with another hat and have casted on to knit Madeleine a pair of wool pants.

On Saturday, I crocheted the smallest/tiniest pumpkin. I chained 7 and then worked in the pattern for about 2 inches. It was a fast project. The stem was just a loop of yarn at the top. I was pretty impressed on how fast it went and now am contemplating if I have time to make 24 of them by 2pm for Sierra’s class party.

First Knitted Sweater – Nell

Debbie Bliss Nell
Yarn: 3 1/4 skeins Cotton-Ease Sugar Plum
Needle: US 5 and US 6

This is a size 6, my daughter wears a size 5. It is a little big and long in the arms, but I think she will grow into it. Purple is her favorite color. I am really impressed with how it turned out. I like how the sweater drapes and I like how soft the cotton-ease is. Why did they discontinue this? Ugh… I keep using up my stash of it too…I guess it is only inevitable that I run out. This sugar plum wasn’t even from my stash. This is from two very generous persons from yahoo groups. Thank you!

I did knit a sweater before this, but I had the increases/decreases wrong as this was before I realized that they slanted in different directions. So, it is in the frog pond. This sweater is my first completed knitted sweater.

Ball & Hank

Hank of Blue

Isn’t that just a Ball of Autumn?

Pictures Mixed Dyeing

WOOT!

Mixing up the dyeing

Uh oh…I have been mixing it up. You all will NOT believe the colors that I got from Kool-Aid and a little bit of mixing with food coloring (red and blue.) The first hank, which is a small, will be called Variation on blue (rasberry reaction Koolaid, Iced Raspberry Lemonade, and blue food coloring.) It is amazing!

Now, the second one is incredible. I have to admit, I was stunned. I cannot tell you the secret recipe as it was spur of the moment mixing. I will just say there is grape ka, cherry ka, black cherry ka, orange, rasberry reaction ka, and red & blue food coloring.

The first color I put on the yarn looked black, absolutely black. However, when I cooked it in the microwave it turned purple. When I put the orange on the yarn it looked like a rust brown and now it is an orangish version of that. This really is a gorgeous, large hank or yarn. I know I am tooting my own horn, but I never expected these colors and when I stuck it in the microwave you would have thought I was making mud. I should have taken before and after photos.

pictures coming soon…

A Sunny Soaker

So, while I was waiting for the yarn for Nell to arrive I started to knit this soaker. At first, this yarn was going to be a pair of socks. Then, I worried I wouldn’t have enough for a pair, get all the way to the toe of the last sock and realize I am out of yarn. Since I dyed this yarn myself, I would have been SOL.

It was an easy/quick project. Yes, I am procrastinating on Nell. It is just that mattress stitching isn’t all too exciting and since I am a newbie, it will take some concentration. Oh…and if you examine the soaker closely, I am not very good at the kitchener stitch. I had to go back with needle and yarn and try and “fool the eye” to make it look like a normal stitch.

Yosemite

Another pic: Me and the girls in front of the “rock.”

Yosemite and yarn

So, we took a mini trip to Yosemite today. It took us 2 hours and 15 mintues to get to the park entrance, not bad! Sierra was thrilled that we bought her a disposable camera and she shot up the whole thing. I can’t wait to see her pictures.

This was the first time Tony has been to Yosemite (he is a Washington native.) We did take a little hike (nothing major.) Only one water fall had water. Tony took several pictures of Yosemite Falls, then complained to me he never got to see it, only to find out that he did see it, there was just no water.

Madeleine threw herself down on the ground ever time we got out of the car. She wouldn’t walk, made Tony carry her. She is throwing a fit in the picture above because Tony sat next to her and she couldn’t see him. She threw a fit in the car. So, after seeing about 100 versions of Madeleine throwing a fit, I have decided Madeleine does not like Yosemite.

Tony and I (and Sierra) liked Yosemite so much we bought a year pass! So, we will be going ever few months. I knitted on the way there, took pictures the rest of the time. It was too dark to do anything on the way back. I did get some ideas from Yosemite.

Oh…and Tony and I decided that our shoes must ward off evil spirts. Or, maybe they are possessed with spirits?

We couldn’t have picked a better day to go, it was 74 degrees in the park and sunny and nice. I wish it wasn’t so smoggy.

The funniest moment was when we were eating lunch at a picnic table and ever once in a while I would hear something drop out of the tree above me onto the ground, thud! Finally, I realized we were sitting under Oak trees and those were acorns falling to the ground. I mentioned to Tony that I would hate to have an acorn fall on my head, then tried to recall the childhood story about chicken little and “the sky is falling.” So, I sit there and chuckle to myself when…

“THUMP” an acorn hits Tony in the back. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the picnic table. I told him it was Karma…

Oh, and am waiting to hear from Sierra’s preschool teacher when she tells her that mommy made her pee in the woods. (weren’t even close to a bathroom.) You know with kids, it all comes out, you can’t hide anything!

Nell is almost done, I am waiting on some yarn to finish it. I should have it done by Tuesday. Maybe I will have a productive knitting/crocheting day tomorrow and post something.

Crocheted Candy Corn

First I crocheted a pumpkin. Now I crocheted a candy corn.
It is 3 inches tall and the base is 3 inches wide. It is my own
pattern.

eta: Pattern is HERE…remember it is untested. Let me know how it goes.

It tookme about 25 minutes or so to crochet this…maybe a little longer as Iwas trying to write the pattern down. This is LB Microspun, I had it left over from some tank tops that I made this summer.

Did I mention I finished a sleeve from Nell? I am now working on the second sleeve and I have this sudden fear that I do not have enough yarn. If you have 1 skein of Cotton-ease Sugar plum and don’t have plans for it…please, please, please let me know. I am going to keep going as maybe…just maybe…I will make it. It will be close.

Oh, and one more thing. Midnight Watercolor Scarf was donated to an auction to raise money for Second Harvest to their Hurrican Relief Fund. The scarf brought in $30, but the auction raised $1550. I was very excited to be apart of it, even though I didn’t win anything.

Who knew that when I was making these scarves in the spring that I would be donating them to raise money for such worthy causes. I figured I could sell a few in a craft fair to feed my own worthy causes.
It is all good!