Friday, November 16, 2007

Hair cut!

I have an appointment today for a haircut. I'll be trying Linda's gal at Mane Attraction. I hope she works out. Location will be a bit closer than going down the coast to Del Mar and the price is right. I thought I wanted longer hair so I could pull it up and out of the way, but it never seems to look good and it's always in my face! I'm thinking I might take my "Betty Crocker" picture in to see if she could cut it similar to what I had in that picture - short but big.

Signed on this morning to download latest clues for Mystery KAL's. Signed up for still another one! This is why I don't read my emails everyday, I could spend all day on the computer and when I do, I either buy something or signup for something and then hafta buy! Now that I am recorded my yarn stash on ravelry, I am hoping I'll be better able to tell what yarns I actually have and start using some of them up. The only problem is I am signing up for lace KAL's and my stash tends to be thicker yarns...

I've been placing stitch markers like crazy when working on Icelandic. And I'm pleased to say it is paying off. I have made tremendous strides on the center white section and have not had to frog or tink back because of an error in the stitch count. I place a marker after every 5 [k1p1k1 in one stitch, k3tog]. I also place stitch markers around the center 3 stitches - making it easier to do the k3tog without removing a marker to do so. On the return row, I adjust the stitch markers to count every 10 stitches so I know I have finished with the correct number of stitches for the row.

SOTS is moving right along. I am about 1/2 a day behind schedule. I will finish up clue 6 today and clue 7 was available for download this morning. From the looks of clue 7, we are finally reaching the end. One more clue should do it - YEAH!!! My stole is LONG! I haven't measured it yet, but when I hold it up I have to raise my arm or it will puddle on the floor. I haven't made up my mind if I will overdye it when I'm all done. We'll see how it looks when it's off the needle but before I block it. If I overdye it, I'll do that then block.

SOC hasn't been knit on in weeks. What happened to my plan to knit 2 rows a day... I haven't been staying up as late at night since we started walking again. That's good for my health but bad for my knitting!

I've misplaced my little camera so I am not able to take pictures of the progress on any of my lacework. It is not in the camera bag, nor is it by the computer. So where would I have set it down... I hafta find it and post new pics of my progress with KAL's!

I got out the box of old photo albums that Janet found when we were moving the parents out of the big house. I have scanned almost all of the photos. What I have not scanned is the ones that are glued or really tacked down the the photo pages. I'll need to get the photo adhesive remover so I don't destroy the pictures removing them from the book. I am hoping to have all the photos scanned before the end of the month when Janet & Colby come down. I can then send the whole box home with Janet. This has been fun trying to decipher who is who in the phots. After I have given the box with the original photos to Janz, I'll try to sit with mom and have her tell me about the scanned pictures so I can better organize them and then get them put into some kind of album for me.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Wednesday Again!

Here it is Wednesday again. My how time is flying by.

We started walking again. Reset our pedometers and off we go! We'll try to walk on Mondays, Wednesdays, a light walk on Fridays and a long walk on Saturdays. Out goal is 10,000 steps a day and 20,000 on the days we walk! Is this an ambitious goal? Too ambitions...

Saturday we parked our car just past Palomar Airport Road where it hits the coast. We headed south, into the State Park. We walked til we reached the end of the park. We were amazed at how many vacant spots there were. Made us want to go home, pack up the trailer and head south! Called to see if M&M's wanted to camp for a weekend. They had called wanting us to go out to the desert but with Grandpa B we feel we need to stay closer to home. Not even sure there is phone coverage in the desert... M&M's didn't seem too crazy about our idea either, so I guess we'll all just do our own thing.

I've frogged the center section of the Icelandic shawl once again. I thought I had gotten a handle on the shawl by placing stitch markers every so often. It worked like a charm until I got to that darn center section with the k3tog, k1-p1-k1 into next stitch. My stitch count is off at the end of the row. I've tried to fudge the stitches but the patterning looks off to me as well. I'll set it aside again for a few days, let it rest and give me time to think about best way to stay on track. I've even contemplated changing the stitch pattern as long as I incorporate 8 decreases on the appropriate rows. It may be that I just have some kind of mental block when it comes to the called for pattern.

I am right on track with SOTS. I have divided the number of rows for the current clue by 7, marked the pattern and am knitting at least that many rows each day or two. If I miss one day, I make up the missed rows the next day. I will be ready for the next clue, #6 I believe, on Friday. I've decide I will overdye the shawl when it is all done, most likely with a black dye. If it just darkens the blue/purple yarn or completely changes the color to black I can live with either result.

I think the next new mystery shawl begins in December and SOTS should be done about that same time, so this will work out perfectly. The new mystery shawl will be a winter theme and fingering weight yarn. I'm thinking of a snow white yarn so I should get it order since there's none in my current yarn stash.

Secret of the Chrysopolis is sitting idle. The yarn is so fine that it requires more concentration than I am willing to give it now. If I knit 2 rows aday at least I would be making some progress on it. Will have to give that some more thought for now... 14 rows a week, at least 56 rows in a month. That should be doable...

Found some fireman fabric and bought it to make Carson and Zack pillow cases for Christmas. Also bought some train fabric too. The fireman pillow cases turned out wonderful! I'll use the pillowcases to wrap their gifts up. The train fabric is actually a panel with a matching print as the 2nd fabric. It is a very juvenile print, and a bit of a disappointed once it is sewn into pillowcases. I had fabric previously purchased for pillow cases for Gregg's kids. So while I have the sewing machine out, I'll get those sewn up and off to them for Christmas. Thinking I'll buy them games from Toys R Us again this year, hoping Toys R Us will have free shipping again this year.

I really need to give more thought to the sleeves for Miss Hannah's sweater. Just do it! Then I can mail the sweater off to her for Christmas as I had originally planned. At this point I don't think I could knit an Aran for Haleigh and get it done in time to mail for Christmas, so I'm thinking maybe a little shrug. I still need a chest measurement so I make certain I've made an appropriate size for her. It's so hard to guess their sizes since they live so far away. I should have paid more attention or even measured when I saw them in September! Also very glad I finished the Aran for Hadden already. I had hoped to make the kids mittens but I've not done a single stitch for any of them! Don't think mittens will be happening this year...

I'm spending the day with mom on Friday. We'll get our toes done and then do some shopping before mom's afternoon eye doctor's appointment. She's seeing double. Must be bad if she's readily talking about it. Is this a side effect from all the meds she is taking...

Thinking, thinking, what to get RIchard for his b-day...