Monthly Archives: September 2011

fiber friday- hats for charity

Posted on by

I wasn’t feeling well all week (still aren’t), so I never did a Tuesday Tallies post or a wip wednesday post. To sum up: I only did 2 squares on the sock yarn blanket all week, I just wasn’t feeling inspired. I did take photos of my sock wips, but never downloaded the camera. I finished the heel turns on both of Jon’s socks, haven’t touched dad’s socks, & haven’t touched my Catherine socks, so, the socks all look about the same. I’ve been mainly doing freeform & hats this week, as they are easy & don’t really involve much concentration for my sick brain.

 

Which brings me to…
A few
IMG_5898
IMG_5887
IMG_5889
IMG_5893
confetti hats, various scrap acrylics, finished sizes vary from 20-22″, all for charity

And a very happy 11th anniversary to my wonderful husband, Jon. As much as I tease him, I can’t imagine life without him.

Disrupted Lives blog tour

Posted on by

Disrupted Lives
I was asked recently (a couple of months ago) if I wanted to participate in a blog tour for the book, “Disrupted Lives”, by Brenda Youngerman. Unfortunately, the blog tour leader has not responded to my emails, but since I agreed to this post, here I am anyway.

So… about the book

A name does not make a person, a person makes a name.
Such is the theme of Disrupted Lives, the story of how one adopted child touches and intersects with many lives, but ends up destroying one family name, while building another family’s legacy.

Darren and Amelia Kane were high school sweethearts torn apart by war. They reunite and discover that they both must put their nightmares behind them to build a life together. Betrayed by her parents, Amelia was earlier forced to give up their child.

Fiona Porter and Sterling Lake are thrown together as part of a business proposition. They end up surprising both their families by enriching the Lake empire and family name. The Lakes become synonymous with society, power and money, and their children must carry that torch forward at all cost. When an adopted grandchild is brought into the family, he questions the definition of “family.”

From 1920 to present-day Georgia, this saga of family secrets and old Southern prejudices are explored in the explosive novel Disrupted Lives.

My review:
I was bored to pieces. I couldn’t get into it. I received an e-copy of the book, which was badly formatted, which did not help the book any.

Often times I get an e-copy that has formatting issues that are resolved in the final copy, and that’s totally fine, but I just couldn’t get into the book. It went back & forth from present to past with no warning, no notice, no explanation, & the shifts were so quick you had to re-read everything because you didn’t realize what had happened. (a personal note, to be honest & fair: I can’t stand books, tv shows, or movies, that jump back & forth from past, present, to future, so I’m sure that’s coloring my thoughts)

I could not even get into the book. I’m sure it’s a great book, but I just couldn’t get beyond the first few chapters.

fiber friday

Posted on by

shells & chains half circle shawl v. 1
Good afternoon!

I finally worked up a sample for a new design I’ve been working on for a while. My testers have been working on it before me! I don’t normally design that way, but I knew the design would work. This design matches my shells & chains slouchy beret & shells & chains scarf.

shells & chains half circle shawl v. 1

The yarn I used was a vintage yarn, labels long gone, about a baby or fingering weight, & I’d guess it’s straight nylon. I kept meaning to do the burn test, but just never did. It was sort of a pain to work with, but the yarn is shiny & is actually very pretty. The color is baby mint green, not my favorite, but it works. I’m still planning on making up a sample in a more commercial yarn, but I wanted to play with this yarn first.

 

eta: this pattern is now available for sale if you like it!

I also finished up a new sample of my Spring Stripes scarf pattern. To make a long story short, I never got nice photos taken of the original scarf, so I had to make up a new version of it for the sole purpose of taking photos.

IMG_5936

One of my comods who tested the pattern for me had some leftover yarn so I was able to use the same yarn as the original.
IMG_5932
I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again: taking photos of scarves is HARD!

one a day – week two tuesday tallies

Posted on by

One a Day Banner
I joined the One A Day group on Ravelry a couple of weeks ago. Last week’s post I went back & forth debating about what project to focus on. I still would like to start a Bullseye afghan using scrap acrylic yarn (made for charity), but in the meantime, I decided to focus on my sock yarn blanket. I cast on for this blanket Oct 8, 2008. My original plan was to finish the afghan in 3 years, and obviously my deadline is fast approaching. I spent some time figuring out how many squares I had left to knit, & if I knit my original planned size, I’d still have about 400 squares to knit. If I make an average of 7 squares a week (my original goal, one a day on average, though I planned on doing 7 in one day, not necessarily one a day) that is going to take me a lifetime.

My new goal is to even out the top edge (you can sort of see what I mean in the photo below)

049
(photographed on a full size bed, the afghan is roughly a queen size afghan width wise)
Anyways, if I even out the top edge, that’ll take about 200 squares. If I really push, I think I can actually finish up this afghan in a decent time. So, I’ve been pushing. Since last week’s post, I’ve knit about 35 or so squares, about 12 on Sunday (my last day off), I knit 8 this am, knit 4 last night, & the rest have been squeezed in whatever free moments I can find.

The afghan has grown nicely since the photo above, I’m hoping to get a decent updated WIP shot in the next couple of weeks.

If you want to see what everyone else has been up to… click here

fiber friday

Posted on by

windowpane shawl

A new sample I whipped up of my shawl design, the Windowbox Shawl

windowpane shawl

I used about 60 grams of knit picks bare in the silk/merino blend, & it’s definitely a shawlette size.

I also finished another lapghan for the nursing home
IMG_5878
IMG_5874
Using my free pattern, anastacia’s scrap afghan.

I also finished up a new design I’m currently testing over on my Rav group:

dk weight felici by knit picks
IMG_5942

and in a mystery fingering weight
IMG_5984

work in progress wednesday

Posted on by

Sunday I spent some time finding various wips, & found a few things I had forgotten about.

some of my forgetten wips

016

017
two kitty blankets using 2 strands of baby yarn

015
scrap afghan

010
scarf

002
another scarf (shells & chains pattern)

003
Catherine socks

that’s not counting the log cabin afghan, the 10 stitch crocheted afghan, several additional scarves/shawls in progress, a few designs in progress, a pair of socks for Jon, a pair of socks for my dad, & anything else I may have forgetten about !

What are you working on? What are you almost done with?

One A day

Posted on by

One a Day Banner
I joined the One A Day group on Ravelry a week or so ago, but have been really struggling to pick my focus since I have so many wips going on right now, I can’t count them all. Some people are working on sweaters or one piece blankets (working a stripe or a few rows a day) but most are working on a motif project of some sort. I seriously contemplated pulling out the sock yarn blanket since I am approaching year 3 with it, but it’s so big, it’s unweldy & heavy & a pain to drag out, to just work on one motif a day.

(eta: I forgot I actually have matching pillowcases, so I need to find them & work on them! Much easier to dig out daily!)

But then I remembered I had actually started a motif project recently called Floral Quilt, by Sharon Volkman (from House of White Birches #101131, Scrap Yarn Afghans), which is actually my favorite motif scrap afghan pattern of all time & I’ve made it several times. I started making a few motifs, but unfortunately I can’t find my pattern & I can’t quite remember how to make it, so that was out.

My second thought for a one a day project, if motivation strikes me, will be to work on my log cabin afghan that I also started recently. I definitely don’t pledge one a day, especially since I still haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do (motifs, one piece, wonky, patchwork style, random placement, etc) but I’ll try to work on it regularly.

 

Have you heard of the One a Day group on Ravelry or Gingerbread Girl’s blog? Are you a member? What’cha working on?

I’ve been eyeballing the motifs on this czech site & have been dying to play with them, I’ve also really been wanting to start a bullseye throw. Decisions, decisions.

What do you guys think? Want to stitch along with me?

mini book reviews

Posted on by

A couple of quick mentions for a few books I’ve started lately, but didn’t finish for whatever reasons… All of them I think would really appeal to some people, just not to me.

 
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Other Boleyn Girl When I first read this book, I absolutely loved/adored it, and this is the book that turned me from a casual Tudor history buff, to a crazed obsessed Tudor history buff. I read the book 3 times in a row, loved it so much I carried it around with me for a month & then read every other Gregory book I could find.

But, reading it now… bah. I can’t even finish it. It’s well written, but so historically inaccurate I just can’t stomach it anymore.

The Crisis Artifact (The Crisis Trilogy)

This is a young adult, Indiana Jones type of thriller. It’s good, it’s well written, but I just can’t get into it & can’t force myself to read it when there are other books out there to be read.

(received review copy for free)

Pursuit of Happiness
Pursuit of happiness by Sheldon Greene
Written fairly well, a few minor editing things that I caught.

I just can’t get into it. The characters don’t seem real to me, I can’t get interested in the storyline. I’ve had this book sitting for months now & I just haven’t been able to force myself to finish it. I think if you were a Revolutionary war buff, you’d greatly enjoy the story, but I’m just not into American history as much as I am European history.

I received this book for free to review.

yard sale treasure

Posted on by

004
I haven’t been sharing my yard sale finds much lately. This is one of my recent finds that I actually got for free, it’s a vintage triangular loom. I do have the packaging, as you can see, though it’s in bad shape.

005
I’d love to say that I’ll play with it, but I probably won’t.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...