Will I ever learn?

My mom used to say that, "WIll you ever learn?" My mom meant it in the sweetest way. It usually referred to my arguing with my father when I couldn't read his cues. Well, will I ever learn not to knit on cold medications?

If you could be with me now, you'd think I was coughing up a lung with this silly cold. We use that expression often do you?
Anyhow in my cold medication fog, I thought I would knit just a bit. I've been knitting a hat with the sock yarn my neighbor Mary brought me from Austraila. Cheerful and sweet Patons that is incredibly soft too.

At some point last night it became a Mobius. I may frog the entire thing. How did I do this? I swear it was not twisted at the cast on. Is it even possible that I twisted it by knitting backwards or something? Was it really twisted for the last week and I didnt notice? And what is with the stitchmarkers?

I knit them INTO the hat. Oh Brother.....

Will I ever learn? I hope so. Eternal optimist that I am. Aren't we all? Brave knitters with hope at the start of every project.

We share our wisdom on our little blogs don't we?

Leave me some wisdom, please. Mine is, as mentioned, do not knit while taking cold medication. What's yours?



I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

One thought leads to another

Katherine of blog.knittingonthego sent me a treat yesterday. What a pick me up. Guess what? I am going to knit Lace because of the Pacific pattern she hooked me with! (Grace and other lacers, have you knit this before?)

Such a contrast! This Pacific lace pattern from Katherine (Chicago Transplant to Texas!) and I have icicles on my hydrangea bush.

Can we talk about this peanut butter business? I'm absolutely craving it.....just because I can't have it. Are you? What are mothers feeding their picky eaters? Are you using a subsitute? In all seriousness, those who got sick and those who died have my most sincere sympathies. Which leads me to another thought: flip though it is: What is going to happen to the Girl Scout cookies with the peanut butter in them? Thank goodness there isn't a thin mint contamination......

Carol my wonderful OT took great care of my arm again today. We talked Pillows. We talked how to knit without stressing my tendon using pillows. It is all about the pillows. Just like when I teach mothers how to nurse their infants. It is all in the pillows.

What kind of pillow do you rest your head on? A feather pillow, a fiber pillow, a memory foam pillow? There is a pillow sale and I am shopping. I wont even tell you how old my current pillows are. Somehow this connects to knitting.

Because Carol my OT says "It is all connnected!" all the time.
I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Glorious Cables

Now those are cables eh? Al's scarf/hood is growing. She's had some issues with the pattern, that others shared in Ravelry . I know she isn't happy with the join, but she's patient. I love those chunky dramatic cables.

Someday I'l buy one of the gorgeous silver cable needles that Darcy Knotty Knitter sells. Have you seen them? I may hint for one for Valentines Day

I put the scarf on the piano so it would get some use. Piano lessons are a nasty memory in this house. I still insist it helped them do well in math. It must have done something for Zach when he began his love affair with the guitar. Now it is just an ornament in the living room. Occasionally one of the cats steps across the keys as someone tries to sleep of course...

The granola follow up : StitchingUnderOaks posted a nearly identical granola recipe on her blog. Thanks, now I dont have the tedium of writing mine out for anyone who wanted it. When you bake the granola, it makes your kitchen smell wonderful.

What are you knitting today?





I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Fingerless #1

Why do fingerless look better when someone is wearing them? I think the same of socks. So I'll be reposting these newbies in a better way later. I really just wanted to show the beautiful tones in this colorway. Major Jennifer of MajorKnitter brought this koigu when she visited me downtown last summer.

I made some granola this weekend. My sister's way. She adds little green pumpkin seeds and coconut to her mix. What do you add to your granola recipe?


I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Secret Service Escort.....

I knit a tiny bit, here and there, during the Inaugural coverage the other day. I am one for traditions and such. I love when the Pope smoke rises from the stack, I watched all of Ronald Reagan's SuperFuneral coverage, and I wouldn't miss a moment of Princess Diana's wedding.

So while I was watching this week, I thought I would tell you about the time I had a Secret Service escort.

I was "out to here" pregnant with Allison and my neighbor invited me to hear Ronald Reagan speak to employees at the nearby Sara Lee Factory. I've never seen a President up close, so I thought it would be historic in my small little life. Well, we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited some more, and he was late.

Now I had to get to work by 3 and I started to realize I was going to be late myself. I don't do late to work: ever. I started to get crabby because of the wait. Started thinking, you know we all have jobs Mr President and if I can be on time, you can too. I'm funny like that. I have this sense that no one is really more important than anyone else. Silly me. I was pregnant though, and tired of standing, and getting hungry and 20 years younger.

So they announce he's on the way FINALLY, and I decide I have to leave. Well, the Secret Servcie did not want any movement in the hallways/building/ etc during this time. I Blah blah blahed to one of them about how I had to get to work, and my job needed me there and I may not be the President but I was a nurse (are you laughing at my inflated sense of self importance?)

SO, this really big man escorted me out to my car. As we got outside, the motorcade was pulling up. I didnt see Reagan. Not so much as a finger from a wave or anything. The Secrete Service man told me to stay right next to him. No remember I was "out to here" pregnant so in one way I'm sure I looked harmless. It was kind of creepy in a way to know that all these people I saw outside were Secret Service and probably armed.

I got to work on time. I can say I had a Secret Service Escort in my lifetime. I;ve never seen or met a President, though... have you?
I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Kitty Knit Therapy

Without boring you all with the arm issues, I'll just say : Fiona, knows exactly where it hurts. She lays on this part of my arm while I am keyboarding. I do believe that animals know us well when they live with us.

Isn't the Patons gorgeously bright? My sweet nieghbor Mary spent the holidays in Austrailia and bought it for me there. I am able to knit for short periods on my size one needles, so this will be on the needles next. Al figured out why the log cabin is so difficult on my arm. You pick up stitches every 7th row and picking up is tough on hands/arms. No more log cabin knitting for a good long while. Oh dear, I just bored you with arm issue talk again. No more!

How many passwords do you have for things? I have so many that I cannot easily keep track of them. The most recently lost is my ETSY password. I'm tired of needing a password for every darn thing. It is too late to start being smart as the rest of you who use One password with a different number attatched or something simple that I needed to know a long time ago.
So As much as I love ETSY I am done with passwords. I'm only calling and ordering over the phone. Yes this limits my horizons, but Im trying to simplify with things that aggravate me.

I did love the game show Password, however. I was really good at playing it. Go ahead , whisper.....the passord is.....





I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Snowboard Hat by Al, finished for Zach

Let's just not even start about the adult man wearing a hoodie on a zero degree day in Chicago. At least he agreed to be on the post. I betcha I know a bunch of adult women who actually dressed that way last week and enjoyed not being hot for a while. Perspective, it is all in your prescpective. I firmly believe you don't catch a cold from the cold too. Far better to get a flu shot than wear a hat all winter as protection. oh let's not start on that either ;)

Now, if you wear the hat because it is handknit, one of a kind magnificent, work of art, well that 's okay no matter what the weather. Enough about weather. How's yours today? Huck and I took a woodswalk and it was mind clearing I tell you, mind clearing.

When the foggy mind cleared, and yes I wore a hat, this is what was clear:

Im approaching my thousandth post this spring. There will be a contest. There will be only one winner.

The arm Care Plan as we nurses say needs some new direction. This requires me to do some difficult but necessary phone calling to the hard to reach, but very nice, Doctor. Im a great patient advocate, now I need to be my own. (then I can buy myself , the nurse, a little thank you gift......)

and finally, the one last thing is abundantly clear: Im not ready to decide about committing to a knitting group. I have to be patient and get the arm plan in place first.

What became clear to you today?





I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

I will be buying more stitch markers........

(the picure is unrelated. Adrianne at 3 Bags Full's new permanent location is hiding from you all. She knew I'd post her on the blog. The new store is lovely and has all the charm and warmth of Lynnette's previous stores. Worth the wait, I'll say.)

I had another knitting mishap. I unknowingly dropped a few stitches in my purple raglan cardigan. Then I washed it on the very gentlest hand knit cycle in my washer. It now looks like it has been attacked by moths. It hasn't. The hard sad lesson for me here, is that I must use stitchmarkers even whenever there are more than two dozen stitches. It is my resolution. Buy real stitch markers and use them. It is now my knock around the cold house sweater, with a dark purple top underneath to hide the hideous holes. Karen of Musings sent me darling snowmen stitchmarkers.

Im going to get a tackle box and arrange all my soon to be new stitchmarkers in them. It is official, I now collect stitch markers. Where do you find nice big cute ones for your bigger size needle projects?

I think I'll go have some rum cake now, to help me get over this sweater lesson....and keep me warm in this old drafty house.

but first a poem

If you lose your stitches
they will drop like britches

and the sight you will behold
when you wash the knit in cold...

it will not be pretty
and you'll feel some real self pity
so the moral of this ditty

is not to drop those stitches
and to buy the stitch marker widgets!








I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Odds and Ends

HitherandYarn's one square bunny is adorable. She used a heavier weight yarn than in the original pattern. Now that bunny looks doable to me. Very doable.

I'm working on a compilation of advice, some tongue in cheek, (no!) about preventing hand/arm injuries. I promised Phoenix at Ravelry that I'd get her a rough draft very very soon.

I joined the Garter Group on Ravelry. Betcha you are really excited about all the garter goodies I'll be showing on the blog. That Kathy B, you'll say, she is so darn adventurous.

Oh, you all know it is very cold here in Chicago. In my new year's effort to bring it up a notch with my blog images, I took this picture of Lake Michigan yesterday. I was at the Glencoe Beach.

So here's a question for you: are you ready for spring yarn yet? Kristen my new Swap friend on Rav is. Are you?


I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Have you ever?

Left an FO on the needles for so long, that the ring you were using as a stitch marker tarnished? Inspired by Major Knitters Finish or Frog Friday group, I decided to finally frog this. Then I had to go out and buy polish cleaner for my sterling silver spoon ring. I actually fell in love with the boucle yarn again, and it frogged really easily. I think it will go well with the boucle linen that my sister brought me from her last trip to Ireland.

Have you ever discovered a treasure when you went back to something, for a long time?


I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Al's knitting a late birthday gift for her brother.

Yarn : Debbie Bliss Merino KD
Making up the pattern. If anyone likes it she'll write it down. Someday.

Al is re reading And the Band Played On, about the AIDS epidemic and how it was discovered. Simple reading you know, while she knits simultaneously. Kudos to all of you who read and knit at the same time. For me, this means one thing, dropped stitches.

We are having a blizzard tonight. NIghts like this I wish I had 3 dogs. DO you ever wish you had 3 dogs?

I hear my Favorite LYS is moving to its new location. I hope this means a sale. A big sale! I'll letcha know.
I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

My Blog Vows

I, Irisheyes kathy b,
take you.... commentors and lurkers alike
to be my
knit pals.
I promise to be whimsical
in good times and in bad
all the days of my blog.

I do!


\I'll talk to you in the comments. :

Are you a Fingerless Fan?

Al made these in the past two days, for a birthday gift. Cabled purple fingerless.

I love fingerless. I think it is because you can't run out and buy them very easily. They say, " I was handknitted baby, and I'm the real deal."
They show off a fine manicure. (Not that I've had one in a while. Too frugal to spend the money, but I am about to break down because of the old Chicago Cuticle Collapse that happens every winter)
You can fairisle them, cable them, or they can be plain and just as wonderful.
I know you have to make two, so there is some second fingerless syndrome,

But, in light of the current condition of my right arm, elbow, wrist, hand fingers, I just may make a splint cover. The cool purple straps I chose are nice, but imagine a fairisle fingerless splint cover. Or not. I'm suppose to rest this arm. So, as we used to say in college: let's not and say we did......

I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

And the Winners of the Charity Hat Contest Are in order

#1 Leslie from my town, Glenview. Wins Fleece Artist Basic Socks in Teal.

#2 Elaine. :) Fleece Artist Teal Lace yarn. No fighting over it girls.

#3 Tracy B. Wins STR Flower Power

#4 Kelly. Wins a non yarn prize because she sent me so much yarn. You are getting a great pattern. Thanks

#5 Theresa from VA wins Wooly Wonka Lace in Lovely Orange tones

#6 Kim from WovenNSpun. Wins Wooly Wonka remnants to die for.

#7 Grace. Dear Grace. You win the LACE the purple lace.

#8 Lisa Q . Wins Posh Yarn in Limelight. One of my favorites in the bunch.

#9 Timae from GA. Winds STR Lunasea. She also donated many many hats and were the first to arrive!

#10 Biance From the Netherlands. Wins STR Marbles!

#11 Nancy S. . WIns Gorgeous Wooly Grey Icelandic handspun. My other favorite.

#12 Pat K. Az. Wins: 2 skeins Pink Lace

#!3 Kim C. Wins 2 skeins peaches n cream for dishrags.

#14 Darcy. Wins Liptstick Lava. Just for asking

#15 Suzanne from Evanston, nearby. Wins Sunshine Yarns, Flamingo. That should help beat the winter blues in Chicago!

#16 Lisa G . Wins 2 Lornas Laces torquoise sock yarn.

#17 Ling. The Harry Potter is yours. Glad you asked for it!

#18 Joany B. my co worker co knitter! Wins: Gorgeous Labrador in the Snow.

#19. Nancy from Wyoming. Wins A lovely Opal yarn I donated in hues of green and burnt orange.

I think I was able to give a prize to every knitter or group who mailed theirs together.

Thanks to all for knitting the hats. I asked that they be beautiful and each one really was. I had so much fun seeing all the hats arrive. You brought me to tears more than once. The last two arrived today and are the not pink hats. The pink one I was saving for the last contest post.

Oh my gosh I hope I didnt forget anyone. I had to be reminded today was Jan 5th, you know . Packages will be mailed out tomorrow. Happy happy prizes. No notes inside as my broken wing isn't allowing for legible writing !


I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Help is here! Meet Carol my Ocuupational Therapist

Guess what? Carol is a knitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here she is making my splint. Things are wonky with the arm and we are in a rest mode, wear the splint almost constantly and heat and massage. Thank goodness.

Carol goes to my LYS 3 Bags Full. She has made 3 sweaters. Her next is going to be one from the Vogue Anniversary Issue last year. I knew she was smart. She wants a challenge. She wants a swing coat.

So that is my very good news for today. 2 more hats arrived today. I cannot wait to pick the prize winners. That is good news too.

DO you have good news? I love good news.

I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Warm Hat Wednesday on Sunday

I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Log Cabin success.

This is a log cabin for worsted weight yarn pattern from Theresa Gaffrey Designs #165. I am using Riverstone yarns. I can only knit a little bit at a time, but it is coming along. I wanted to use Northwoodsy colors. I think the colors work.

Here's a little something I learned recently. I have always thought my children were color blind. Their idea of blue is a green really. Browns are reddsish to them. Anyhow, I decided to have them take the on line colorblind test, because they should know they have this issue.

They both passed. I failed. HAHAHAHAHA. Jokes on me!
I'll talk to you in the comments. :)