Good Days and Rainy Days

Yesterday was a good day, it was sunny out, I studied all day and the only thing to mar my day was no knitting, not even a row. Be that as it may, it still could not ruin my day, I had felt so behind after chaperoning a trip my daughter 2 weeks ago that it just felt good to start feeling like I was catching up. After all, if I'm caught up I get to knit more! I also did it, yes I did, hopefully I will be excepted into the secret pal 10 . I can't wait to get my confirmation email saying I will be able to do it. I'm also very, very nervous. I personally think I'm the worst gift giver in the world, as in actually picking the presents. I LOVE to give though and have never had any complaints, so either people are being nice or I'm being a bit hard on myself, either way I can't even say how excited I am!!

Today its rainy and I may even have to cut this short as I thought I heard thunder in the distance. I couldn't sleep last night, I was still lying there awake when DH's alarm went off at 4am..sigh... I finally got to sleep right after that but had to get up at 6:30am. OMGosh, everything looked so gritty and blurry. At 32 I think my party days are long behind me because honestly I just can't do that anymore..lol.. So I didn't make it to my first 2 class's today, I hated missing them but I would have been at school, having to drive in the rain with only 2 1/2 hours of sleep in over 24 hours, so I went back to bed and made it to my English class, a bit later in the morning. That went well and now I'm home again and studying for tonight's lab and quiz in Anatomy and Physiology....after that its my FRIDAY (tonight after class)!!! Wooo hooo!! I can get caught up on email's like I promised, watch Greys Anatomy and just do some math online. And hopefully get a few rows done, I can't believe I'm not done with my sock yet for as excited as I am!! But I would rather be able to sit not stressed out and know in my heart that all my work and study is done...wouldn't want any mistakes ya know!! :c)

Well that thunder is to close now, so I will have to end this early. Hopefully it will pass by the time I get home tonight, but if not I apologize to anyone who doesn't get there email and I won't be able to do math online, so I guess I would just have to knit. ;c) What hardship life is!! lol

Take care everyone!

April in SC

Wheww What a day and it sure is late!!!

Boy was today a big day! Three tests and one quiz! And through all that I only got one single row done on my trekking sock, what a bummer! LOL

I wanted to let everyone know if you read this and emailed me privately that I'm just SO tired after today, and the fact that with studying last night I only got about 4 hours sleep that I thought I would have some time to get back to you when class was over, but by the time I got out of class, had to run to the store, came home, finally got dinner, fed the animals and gave scritches to my dog and parrots I'm just sitting down and its after midnight.....So I'm SO sorry but I'm headed to bed so I can get up and start studying again! LOL And of course answer my email. :c)

My Kodiak is still doing good so I'm really thinking he probably pulled a muscle and it was just very painful for him during those few days. I'm very thankful for all the thoughts and prayers, I'm totally convinced this has helped him and we are so happy he is feeling better.

Okay, I'm off to bed, just wanted to let anyone who is either up late or is getting up early that I was thinking of all of you knitters out there and hoping your knitting day was better than mine, and wish you a great knitty day tomorrow!!

April in SC

My dog and my studys

Well today didn't end up being a good day for studying, guess that means a semi late night, than tests in the morning, than a 3 1/2 hours race in the afternoon to finish up homework and studying before my class/tests tomorrow night...I sure can't wait until its over with!! LOL

As for my boy Kodiak, I ended up canceling his vet appointment this afternoon. I had noticed the problem Friday night, called the vet Sat morning and by that evening he has been fine and has appeared fine since. I think he maybe pulled a muscle playing or something. The hot spot that was healing doesn't appear to have any infection in it, no swelling, no heat, no abscess, it really appears to be healing fine, so I canceled and will continue to keep a close eye on him. I can totally palpitate his leg, underneath it and all around it without a single flinch or yelp, he's been walking fine and not lifting that leg or anything...so for now, I'll watch and give him my usually 1,000 loves a day.

I would like to thank everyone who kept him in their thoughts and prayers, I'm sure this helped and it was very much appreciated.. he is one special boy to us!

As for knitting....When I did my swatch on my first trekking sock I swore I was getting 9 sts per inch on my size O's, since I was considering CO with my Lornas Lace and was going to use my size 1's I was just pondering what my Spi would be and started to look for some patterns I might use with the yarn.. I really liked the Eagles Flight Pattern but wasn't sure the yarn would look good with it.. Anyway (I'm sorry, I'm tired tonight!)... I wasn't sure I could get that on my size 1's and for some insane reason I can't find one of my size 2's!! Uggghhh.. So I'm not really sure why but I decided to look at my finished trekking sock and I swear it shows 10 to 11 Spi!!! I checked the second one I'm still working on and it shows the same.. I checked last night and it was really late so honestly I'm not sure if it was 10 or 11 but I can say with assurance it was one or the other! lol Now that is when I got to thinking to myself how the heck I'm going to 8 Spi with my size 1's.. Probably not gonna happen. Still I'm hoping on Wed to be able to swatch with the 1's or just say to heck with it and wait until my 0's are free. :c)

Didn't get to really knit today, probably because I spent all my free time reading up on the socknitters group and asking questions...shame on me but I just can't help it!! They are so great over there that I can totally get lost just reading and asking questions.. Hopefully I will get at least a few rows in between class's.

For now though I still have math homework to do and Medical Terminology to study! I hope everyone had a good knitty weekend!

April in SC

Thank you and good morning!

Thank you so much Karen and Laurie for leaving such encouraging comments and helpful to!! Oh and a good morning to all! :c)

I woke up this morning to some nice hot coffee and my Fiance starting breakfast, I had him ditch on the breakfast though and we sat over coffee and talked. Boy that's nice, I swear with school, kids and animals we never seem to do that often.

Last night my youngest daughter (6) got off my bed and my beloved dog Kodiak (10 1/2) yelped out and I thought maybe she landed on his paw, but then my Fiance said he had done that the other night when she just got near him...that was odd and I figured I better check him out, although he seemed fine and he's one of those dogs that does nothing, literally, he just lays at me feet and you'd think he was stuffed. So about an hour later my oldest daughter's (16) friend comes over to stay the night and she was petting him and he yelped out again when she touched his shoulder.. Of course my daughter came to tell me right away and I knew something must be wrong. :c(

So I come out of the family room into the front living room and call him over.. Kodiak gets "hot spots"...he has flea dermatitis, skin allergies and can lick hot spots if he's stressed which not always that hard to do, he's always worrying and trying to herd the kids, he is part Aussie after all... Anyway, I knew he had a rather hot spot on on his upper front left leg but it had been healing nicely...At least I thought it was.. In 10 1/2 years they have ALL healed great, we make sure to clean them out and give him a bath with special soap to help... Well this one hasn't I guess but its not presenting like a regular infection. There is no real swelling, no extra heat coming from the area, it doesn't appear abscessed...so of course I'm panicking. He's my buddy, he came to me at a time when I didn't have any one else, he went through my divorce with me, we've had some hard times together and thank goodness some very good ones, so I'm totally upset all night and kept checking on him through the night. So I get up and call the vet this morning and they can't get him in until Monday, so me being all panicky I asked them if they thought he live until then! LOL Ummm yea, he probably will, but that sure won't keep me from worrying at least a year off my life.... SO as dumb as this sounds, IF anyone reads this, please keep my buddy in your thoughts, there would never be a way I could convey how important Kodiak is to me, how close we are, if I didn't have my Fiance I would say he was my best friend and soul mate!! It's just heart breaking to see the pain in his eyes and see him flinch if he even thinks you going to touch that shoulder.. :c(

As for knitting, I worked on my second trekking sock for a few rows last night. I'm past the gusset working on the foot part and so far the ladders look less than the first one which made me really happy. And this afternoon we are going to my aunts for dinner and visiting and I can take it with me to work on, knitting, coffee, visiting and dinner...what a perfect day!!! (except for my doggy of course)...

For now though I better do some studying before we leave. I hope everyone out there has a great Sat day!!!

April in SC

Lornas Laces..

Well, since I'm on a role today with actually getting a blog post up, I thought I would ask my LL Question....Should I or should I not use a pattern with this yarn?? It's Lornas Lace Bucks Bar #142. So should I do just a vanilla sock or a pattern and if a pattern what do all you experts think would be a good pattern??

I can't believe how excited and nervous I am to actually knit with this stuff, and honestly if I don't do something soon it will be worn out from just rubbing it!! LOL

In all my life I've only found knitting to be my bane on life..I love it so much, yet, its the only thing I've done that I can never make up my mind on and its one of the only things in my life I have such a fear of messing up..which is super dumb I know! I mean after all, its my knitting, its what I like to do and who cares what others think right?? (unless its for them anyway..lol) So why all this anxiety about making sure I pick the right pattern for the colors/yarn? I have no idea, but I've never seen myself as a very imaginative person, so mixing colors really isn't my thang. Maybe that will change as I do/learn more.. I guess on thinking about it, I do have a few reasons why I'm such a worry-wort over it:

1) I don't have much money to spend on yarn, so in buying I not only have to be very selective and know what my projects are going to be, but if I mess it up to badly that project may have to be put on the back burner until I can get more yarn if I've frogged it to death.

2) I've never been a color person, I have always stayed on the conservative side, most knitters aren't like that, and now that I am one I find that I'm blooming as much as the beautiful yarns I've knit with, but I'm still insecure about my choices and don't feel confidant at all about color-ways and such.

3) I'm not patient...there I said it! Now with that said I'll explain a little. I'm very patient when it comes to knitting, I'm perfectly content to do each row, take my time and enjoy all the process's that come with knitting, but I'm not very patient when it comes to having to pick the yarn and the pattern, I'm nervous, not confidant, and just want to actually get to the point of casting on and knitting and sure as heck on my budget don't want to make a mistake...

So with those three reasons stated, I will do my best to work on them.....after I get help with this pattern/yarn issue.. ;c)

Thanks everyone!!!

April in SC

What a busy month and half!!

Well her I thought I had another week before college started again to post here in my last post and boy was I wrong! This last two months sure have been eventful. So eventful that I didn't even get to knit almost the whole month of Jan! Finally I just told myself that I needed to take some time to relax even if it was only for 5 minutes at a time, which is about what I was getting there for awhile.

In the meantime, school has kept me busy, my family, knitting, reading email's when I get the chance, did I mention school? lol And of course that does not count the animals, our entire heating/air going out and having to be replaced for 3600, and a four day trip to nationals with my daughter and her team who are all on the ROTC Precision Team for her high school. Oh and of course school... :c) Ohh yea, and for some reason I had about 3 weeks where the "S" button on my keyboard was sticking and it was driving me nuts, don't know what fixed it but its fine now, thank goodness..

For some reason I feel like I'm studying my butt off and still not doing as well as I'd like to be, I still have all good grades, but I feel like I'm studying way more for how much I'm retaining, which doesn't seem to be enough. This weekend I will be evaluating how I'm studying and seeing if there is anything I can work on.

Okay, for knitting! I was inspired once again to try posting pictures to my blog by the wonderful people at the Yahoo! group Socknitters . These Ladies/Gents are FANTASTIC!! I can't even tell you how wonderful and patient they are, how they will go out of their way to help you in any possible way you can think of, even down to searching the Internet for just the right sock pattern for you and the yarn you have chosen..Awesome people who all deserve great big hugs.. :c) And here is the story of the pics...

So I got my first ME sock done (which is not a pattern name, really just my first sock I have made for me), I made a pair for my honey but not for myself, and of course since his were a "trial" I just used a Lions Brand which was fine with him, I don't think he really cared much as what he wants is a sweater, not a pair of socks..lol... However, for me I went and got some actual sock yarn..woohooo. I was SO nervous and excited I was almost shaking, and then I waited for 2 whole days before I started knitting with it...insane I know! LOL So I got some Trekking XXL Color #126 and some Lornas Laces Shepherd in color Bucks Bar #142. I decided to start with the trekking. I went to a LYS that didn't have a great selection but were awful nice I'm sure I will go back, anyway I wanted to buy online and will still be doing that, but I wanted a small project to take on the trip to nationals and didn't have time to get an online order in time for when we were leaving. Well when I went I brought my 16 yo with me and she said the trekking looked like it would be ugly, and I said, well we'll find out. I thought it would just stripe, but as I started to knit, oh boy, it didn't just stripe at all and the colors have come out beautifully!! I don't wear pink and it has just a bit in it but I'll tell you I can't wait to get these on my feet!!

As for the Lornas Laces, I'm not sure what pattern I will use, my trekking is just a basic ankle sock (I don't usually wear socks, just sandals or heels all year around, so I'm really not sure about high'ish socks at all! lol)...I will try and get pic's of my color way and any suggestions would be great...

So after completing the first sock, I started on the second and someone on the sock knitting group asked about trekking...FINALLY I might be able to contribute more than just sharing a pattern I pull out of my sock favorite folder (being the pattern junky I am)..how exciting...and that is where my pictures come in...I can actually share my trekking sock for someone else to see, I have something to share finally that is finished and might help someone!! Life is good today, especially right now...because after this I have to go study!! LOL

The sock wasn't perfect, hasn't been washed and I did have some ladders (I wonder if they will go away after being washed?)....ohhh and not to brag, but I felt SO lucky! When I finished the first sock, I was only 2 rows off on the color way when I started the second, no wasted yarn looking to match it up...how cool was that?? And I might even get two pairs of ankle socks out of this yarn, course I have small feet at only a small size 5. What a bonus! :c)

Anyway, I hop everyone has a great weekend and has the chance to feel the wonder of yarn flowing through their fingers as the colors spring to life on the needle!

April in SC

PS. Last night in class I was knitting before it started and someone asked what I was making, so I pulled out the finished sock (which I have been religiously carrying around with me like a geek) and she couldn't believe the sock yarn patterned itself like that, she thought I had done it myself....I'm not sure I will ever be good enough to do that!! LOL

Finally Back

Well, I'm finally back. I got so upset that I could never post pictures here that I just walked away for awhile. Of course my parents being here for a month, finals, knitting and the holidays didn't play a role in it at all. *g*

So I have one week today until the next semester at school starts. It was a great break and I'm looking forward to going back. I'll be taking English 101, Basic Anatomy and Phy, Medical Terminology, and a Math class.

As for medical, that has been interesting. I got my third and final shot in my spine, he did it higher up in my neck this time and I think it has helped a lot. Not perfect but a bit better. I'm still experiencing pain often but hey, I can at least fold 3 small loads of clothes without feeling like I'm going to die for the rest of the day. :c)

Knitting! I got my scarf done that I wrote the pattern for below. It turned out nice but I feel the outer edges curled a bit to much for my liking. I also did not slip the first stitch so was unhappy with my edges, that was fixed by adding a crochet border, in fact that turned out really nice. I forgot to get pictures since I was on a deadline and was right on time I should be able to get a picture from my cousin though. Here is the list of my very first gifts I knitted for family this holiday season:
Back Scrubber for my aunt
Cuff to Cuff easy child's sweater w/hat for my little cousin
Santa Hat I did this in red and purple for my aunt for Red Hat
Scarf pattern listed below for my other cousin, in red/white/black for the GA Bulldog colors.

Not much for the holidays but I'm still happy with it. Since I blogged last I have finished or started these:
Men's Fingerless Gloves I have a pair started for my uncle. Almost done with the first one.
Infant Socks I just finished these and they were my first socks!!
Baby Feet Cloth This will go with the socks to a friend of ours who just had a baby boy.
Dolphin Cloth This will also go to our friends who had the baby
Lorraine Major's version of the 5 hour baby sweater I'm almost done with this sweater now. Just a few rows left.
Sock Calculator I used one of the many calc's here to get a pattern for Jack and cast on for it last night. It's my first full size sock so I'm just using some Lionbrand wool-ease I had here.

Well I guess that is about it for tonight. If I don't stop then I won't get any knitting in before bed.

Happy New Year All!!!

Time...Time...Time...

Well time sure seems to be getting away from me and I'm not really sure where its gone yet. Halloween is over and the kids had fun. I'm still working on my finals, honestly this was probably not the best time to start a blog but I'm happy I did.

The Plan - Get my 3 finals done before my parents arrive on Nov 11, that leaves me the rest of this week, this weekend and next week. I already know my math homework will be hard inbetween with one more test and the final, and I know I will have at least 2 more tests in one class and have to finish up 5 more chapters in another and my class's end the week after Thanks Giving, and that weekend we are going to a reunion which I will probably have to take all my last minute work with me.

Recently finished:
fingerless gloves
cable hat for daughter
Child's sweater for cousin with matching hat

On The Needle:
my cable scarf pattern ~ for a Cousin
Cable scarf pattern ~ For Jack
Guantlet - 1 done ~ for Me
Round Placemat ~ For Aunt~ need 4 to 6 of them

Next projects:
Secret for Xmas ~ Aunt
Secret for month of Dec ~ Aunt
Scarf to match cable hat for daughter
Hat to match scarf pattern for cousin
reput son's hoodie back on needles (I stole needle set for something else)
....and a list of patterns to decide on...lol...

I really do hope I will have pictures soon. I've just been so busy it seems by the time I think of it I'm ready to go to bed. Right now its time to put the school work up, relax for a few minutes of knitting (first time today!) with some hot chacolate and then go to bed, I get the results from a math test tomorrow and I can't wait to see what I got!

I also can't wait to load up the pictures and let you all know about my twisted stitches, how I'm working on it and who the wonderful Lady was who has helped me! It was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot and can't wait to brag about how howderful this special someone is and to share her blog with all of you.

So for tonight, happy knitting and peace out (I always wanted to say that...LOL).

Work, Work, Work..and none knitting...

This has got to be the most horrible week of knitting I've had yet. My son was sick yesterday and by the time I got to knitting last night I wasn't feeling very well so didn't get but a few rows done on the fingerless gloves I've been working on and only those because I could do them lying down..lol... Today I had school all day and now have loads of homework and all I want to do is knit..sigh...

So here's my plan, as a treat to myself for getting a 100% on my math test last week I'm going to do some of my homework tonight and do my math tomorrow. I don't have much to do when I brake it up like that vs. trying to do it all tonight and I think that is exactly what I'm gonna do. Crawl into bed with some soothing tea for my tummy and some soup and finish up my homework and then just knit while I watch my shows and then when I get up in the morning all refreshed and not feeling worse (I hope) I can do my math in about an hour and then put about another hour into some of my finals and be done and knit a bit more...sounds great!! lol

Weekend Over

Well finally the weekend is over and boy was it a busy one! We left Friday at about 4pm, got caught in rush hour in Atlanta which put us in at about 11:30pm in Nashville, got up and went to breakfast, did a bit of shopping at a dollar general (a few of the team mebers forgot black socks), went to lunch at subway and then came back to the hotel for about an hour. We then leave for the match and that went really well, my Daguther shot awesome and her team mates all did well to, it was great! They didn't bring the scores out until really late so by the time we viewed them and went to dinner we didn't arrive at the hotel until about 9pm. Got up at 5am on Sunday because they had an international match at 8am, they shot that, we got scored and left for home. We got home about 7:30pm last night.

I'm so tired today and haven't gotten anything done. :c( My youngest daughter is feeling better but didn't sleep well all weekend so I kept her home and now my son has the flu so he is home. I have a bit of homework to do tonight but it shouldn't take long so tonight I am going to start on my swatches! Over the weekend I did get some worked on the scarf pattern I listed the other day and its not to bad, I've left it alone for a few days and will be coming back at it today with a fresh "look". If I make any changes to it I will post a picture of the current before I frog it down (if I do) so you can see what the original looked like. I have two more fingers left on the fingerless gloves I'm doing my for my partner Jack, I need to just finish those up tonight also. I'm also hoping tonight that while making my swatches I can have Jack take pictures of how I'm knitting. It will either be right or wrong and maybe it will help some leftie out there. :c)

I have tried to put a pic up in my profile several times now and keep getting that the blog has an internal error. This is getting annoying and hoepfully either they get it fixed or I figured out what I'm doing wrong so when i get the pictures up they will actually be loaded up!

Whelp, that's it for now, I'm off to see if my son needs anything and unpak and pull out my knitting.

Getting Ready

Well I was hoping to get some swatches done yesterday but I didn't. My youngest DD (almost 6) has gotten the flu. She is home today and really not feeling well and I'm getting ready to be gone for the weekend, so I sorted through all my yarn last night and picked my projects to take. I have a few to finish and a few to work on and few to start. :-) So today is packing, taking care of her and then finally going to pick up my son at school, drive to my aunts, drop the kids off an back to the school to leave for the trip. I might forget my hair brush but you can bet my knitting is ready!

I'm pretty excited as I wrote up a quick pattern for a scarf last night (which has probably been thought of before and I just don't know it..lol). I'm not sure how it will look since I've never written anything and have only done cables once. I wanted to add some small cables on the sides but leave the middle St st because at the ends I will be sewing patch logos on it for the Georgia Bulldogs. It won't be a two/way scarf maybe I can work up to that if its possible but I'm just excited I got it on paper!

The Pattern is basically:
Cast on 28 st
Row 1: k2,p2,k4,p2,k8,p2,k4,p2,k2
Row 2: p2,k2,p4,k2,p8,k2,p4,k2,p2
x4 rows
Cable Row: k2,p2,c2f,p2,k8,p2,c2b,p2,k2
repeat row 2: p2,k2,p4,k2,p8,k2,p4,k2,p2
repeat row 1: k2,p2,k4,p2,k8,p2,k4,p2,k2
repeat row 2:
Cable Row:
Just keep doing that until its the length you want. Mine will have 3 colors used and I wrote it out to switch colors on a cable row. I'm not sure if that is correct or if it will work, heck I'm not sure if this pattern will look like mush! I do have an alternative idea though:

1. only use the K8/P8 in the middle until its long enough for the patch and then switch to K2/P2 ribbing (you would have to add extra stitches to the pattern though, bringing it up to 30 sts), that would make a kind of small box for the patch.

I think I have a few other ideas written down but my paper is not in front of me, so we'll see. If anyone KNOWS this will look like crap, please tell me, it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all! LOL If you try it please let me know how you liked it and I will do the same.

Well I'm off to pack and get some things done, I have to get my school stuff around to bring also, the knitting is great but I got finals I need to work on to, I'm hoping to have them done before my family arrives from Alaska in the beginning of Nov. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

My First Entry

Wow, I never thought I would have a "blog", but like many since learning knitting I would like to share my projects and adventures in knitting. Today I have to gather all my knitting around for a weekend trip up to Tnn. My daughter has a rifle match up there for ROTC and I'm looking forward to the long car ride so I can just knit and knit and knit. :-) Also my plan for today is to knit a few swatches and find out if I'm twisting stitches or not. It isn't something I have ever thought about before, *I* think my knitting looks fine but after seeing a blog recently (which I'm going to re-find!) I realize that I could have those darn stitches twisted, and it really does make a difference in the way a final project looks. So I will be off soon to start those swatches and see what happens.

Right now on my needles I have just a few fingers left on some fingerless gloves for my partner Jack, a pair of gauntlets for me (my first ME project), a hoodie for my son and I need to get a scarf done hopefully over the weekend. I also bought some practice yarn for socks months ago on clearance that I might work on, I love clearance! lol

Well I'm off, I hope everyone has great knitty day!