knittinggenes.blogspot.com

  Thank you Ellen for the awesome Budgie colored yarn and the stitch markers.  GO HAWKS!  Ellen you kept my Birthday going.  What a fun surprise in the mail today.  I'm overwhelmed with my blog pals generosity.   I had a Budgie named for Ernie Banks.  Ellen didnt' know this.  Ernie was the first pet that was really mine.  He lived to be 14.....which is Ernie's number.   Some other week wrap ups: *As I potato chip knit more gansey hats, It has occurred to me I should finish the 3 that are ready.  I've been avoiding the seaming up the back..... *Finally: I bit the dentist's finger during my root canal...no worries Im up to date on my rabies..just very embarrassed!

First up: All of the swappers will get an email from me today with the details. :)  IF you are Leslie or Alyssa I need your addresses again pluh-ease. We've got a really nice group.  I've got the envelopes almost ready to go -  This is one of the monster moths that freaked me out 2 nights ago outside the porch screen. Oh Beatles so wanted to catch one. Tank prefers to eat them.  Pie prefers to eat this bow rather than wear it. I found it on a walk the other day and its just her size.   Yes I tried to make her wear it..again.  I'm starting another gansey hat today!  I found some great yarn at Mosaic on sale today.  What makes new yarn so enticing????????? I have to cast on this afternoon!!

Even if you think I may have your address, please send it to me again. (Grace, Katherine, Nancy are the only ones not necessary.  Some of you have sent me your addy's yesterday.  THANKS so much.  I'll be sending you all information about who you will send to shortly! LESLIE and ALYSSA I need your addresses please. kathy

Please email me your addresses asap.  (Grace, Katherine, Nancy I have found yours from previous swaps) Email me: Harpnut@gmail.com THANKS.  Lets have some fun.

Last chance to get in or out of the Fall Swap.  Details:  I will make 2 Take and Replace envelopes and send them on their way.   When it gets to you: Take what you wish and replace with a item(s) of similar value for your partner.   Send it on .  Limit 25.00  This is FIRM.  Not including postage Fall/Autumn is our theme  You must be able to fit the items in the padded manilla envelope they arrive in.   Each envelope will have one wrapped item inside.  You may open it but, if you do,  you have to keep it and  replace with another surprise wrapped item, if you play this card.  You can choose to leave it unopened and pass it on.  IT may be a dud or it may be a gem!  Are you in ?  Confirm with this post please.  Send me your address if I don't have it yet and you've never played the swap before. :) Have fun.   Swaps will be sent out this week. ...

I made up the gansey portion of this hat.  I copied parts of a sweater pattern and left out other parts of it.  I also went to my Lantern Moon needles... much better!  No wooden splinters yet. *************** Swap details tomorrow.  ************** The little shoe below is a Walgreen's find.  It is a back to school pencil sharpener.  Do I need this ? No!  My friend Rita has a sister who has Down's Syndrome.  Her sister likes to "take" things from Rita's daughter's bedroom.  She loves pens and note pads and chapstick~ I had to buy this for her.  Fireman almost got skunked last night in our yard.  Thank you skunk for showing some restraint.  Fireman would have had to call in sick today if things had gone another way.      ;) and Finally today: Let's talk about those dirty babies.  Apparently the vernix which begins to form months before a baby is born, helps coat the baby during the...

We wanted a fountain for the yard.  For 60 bucks we couldn't make one on our own for less.  The sound of the water as I sit by the porch is magical.  Now here are 10 things I want you to know today;  *Ellen at THELLENREPORT.blogspot com is having a stitch marker give away in honor of Labor Day weekend.  Go on, leave your ravelry address or email with her.   *Zucchini bread tastes even better with a dollop of whipped cream cheese *I changed up my wooden needles for my next gansey hat; so far so good.  Jury is still out however *I live in a town of more than 50,000 people but when the kids go back to school it is like a ghost town until 3 pm. *I'm learning that teachers are as tired as children after school :) . Como no *There is a new movement not to wash a newborn after it is born.  I'm old school. That's just gross *I know the Hawk in our area made a kill today because all the birds that hang out in the yard are hiding this mor...

  First another Gansey hat.  It is safe to say the Gansey bug has bitten!  There are so many motifs included in the book I'm using I could stay on Ganseys until Christmas..... Pretend friend Major Jennifer visited me last week!  Fireman met BF and Zach did too. Jennifer and I have now met twice; so I'm doubly blessed. We took them to the Memorial Park on THE GLEN.   This area used to be the Glenview Naval Air Station. The base was closed in 1995 and the area  was completely remade.  The Glen kept the flavor of the Base in many ways including this brick memorial. Finally today - I have two garden tomatoes sitting on my sill. At a family party yesterday, someone brought a bounty of tomatoes in a bag for all to partake in.  MMMMM, it is fresh tomato time in Chicago. what time is it by you?

  When you keep track of your knitting as I do (ahem) you need a little help.  I was studying the Theory of Neural Plasticity this week for work.   (dont' I sound smart?  It was a fascinating  lecture for NICU nurses actually)  and I came across a saying in the BRAIN world: What Fires Together Wires Together.  In other words what you do over and over or experience over and over builds strong pathways in the brain. Some other sayings I know:  Flip Float and Follow  (if you are swept up in a riptide) Stop Drop and Roll (the quintessential Fire lesson) Back to Sleep (prevents SIDS in babies)  and  When Thunder Roars, Stay Indoors.  (weather safety) care to add any so my brain can free up some new knitting space? Then There's our Pie.  Her brain must be wired so differently due to her blindness.  She jumped and missed a chair yesterday.......OUCH.  Sh...

  Happy Friday.    I've got questions for you: *What' the longest straight needle you can comfortably knit on?    *I found some sugar cane yarn in my stash yesterday.  What would you knit with such slippery yarn? It misbehaved so badly when I tried to wind it, I was quickly disenchanted with it.  I think it would make a soft cowl I could wear around my sensitive neck.... I could force some shape upon it if I ribbed with it... *Have you heard your favorite birds this summer? No loons in our summer this year but these lovelies from my sister make me want to play a silly loon cd I bought years ago.  *Have you watched a MOVIE being filmed? Which one?  It is awfully tedious and slow.... There's another movie being shot in Chicago this weekend.   *Do you have a favorite LIGHTly scented candle? Sometimes even CLEAN LINEN is too strong for me.  Seems there are a thousand Clean Linens out there now....

Outside my window: it is looking more like rain.   I am thinking: I better post fast because at the rate I'm eating the cookies Kim sent me, I have to walk many many steps today...   I am Happy: that I finished my first Gansey project.  I LOVE this knitting technique.  I am hoping: Karen will finish the back of the hat(s) for me.  The joy of this pattern is that it is worked flat.  This means my wrists and hands do not hurt at all.   I am contemplating: Having Karen show me how to seam the back of the hat.  Allison would NOT be my enabler... Karen ..please be my enabler.     I am Asking you dear reader: Do your wooden straights chip and peel?  I used lovely Brittany size 6 needles for the hat but the tip of one needle was splitting.  I had to use a nail file to stop it from snagging.   I am wondering: do you know a wooden needle that does not split or chip? I am grateful for:  each a...

First things first; first thanks first.  Kim from Handeye and Knitter's Hunk fame sent me a cookie collection for my birthday. Kim thank you so much.  I LOVE cookies.  I dipped into the almond tea cookies last night..... I intend to enjoy everyone of them and think of you; I did say I'd share with Zach.... I don't have new knitting to show so I'll show you our Chinese Grasses and Coleus.  I love the red tips to the grasses.   FYI : Tonight is 3 Bags Full Class Preview for anyone interested in seeing the knits and talking to the teachers.  I think this is a great idea... About the bear fight:  My sister who does not read the blog called me last night. Seems she and her hubby were on vacation hiking with the dogs.  Some hikers coming the OTHER way warned them that there was a bear ahead who wasn't moving off the trail.   My sister took the dogs and high tailed it outta there.  My brother in law wanted to see the bear and this l...

  I've Gone Guernsey.  Yup.  I can do this!  I'm knitting "That Easy Guernsey Hat" a free Ravelry pattern. Gosh Golly Gee I LOVE guernsey!  I have in my knit book collection: Knitting Ganseys' by Beth Brown -Reinsel. I believe Marguerite suggested it years ago.  Sometimes think have to simmer in my mind a bit before I can attempt them.... Stay tuned for more Gansey fun.  and now for furry ones' pictures   Pie baby likes to lounge on the sofa with us now.  I found her in Zach's closet the other day laying on a pile of clothes.  All cats know this place of joy...but how?? I met Moxi at our local ice cream venue yesterday.  She rides in a pack on her person while he rides a motorbike.... She wears her goggles well.  She's a lucky rescue from Arizona her person tells me.   Dear Diane has a grand dog who wears goggles too.  Eye protection....can't take it to lightly for the tr...

Sir Chico tried his sweater on this weekend.  This was the Linus Sweater( free  pattern on Ravelry.)   I knit it up in Virginia.  Perfect fit!!! I realized something this weekend:  I love breakfast. I love hot breakfast.  I just don't like having to cook breakfast.  So I made overnight french toast Saturday before I went to sleep. Mmmm, delish.   Wait was this clear? I made it but I didn't bake it until Sunday morning... I also have gone back to drinking some soda... yup. I knew having ONE on my birthday would sink the ship..... oh well I'll try to contain it.  I felt so TIRED without my coke...... So I lasted 10 weeks without a soda.  I think what killed it was meeting up with an old friend who was a soda addict too. She surprised me when she said she gave up all soda a year ago.  I don't think she lost any weight however.  That was the whole point of my quitting.   I can honestly say I was CRABB...

  When: Last night What: Plain vanilla socks Where: On the Porch Wear: I sure will (Knitpick's Coffee Shop Stroll handpaint  sock yarn)  Ah the joy of a finish. Ah the joy of casting on anew Happy Sunday!  

  AL Sends me this delicious yarn for my birthday. The girl who dyes the yarn has a hubby in the Navy.   I showed the yarn to Fireman this morning and I was nothing short of squealing... Fireman said "It's yarn honey"  "that's all I see" and to top off the Birthday week: MY friend Linda's dogs came to my birthday party and Lucy had a little accident.  Linda Sent me this the next day: 

  There have been some attempts with good intentions to expand my knitting skills this summer.  ahem.....I have not succeeded ...yet *I was going to knit a lace sock with Channon's yarn and I gave up after a few inches. * Karen gave me a vest pattern and Believed in me...and I didn't even cast on for it.  *I started a baby sweater I haven't even told you about and I'm giving up... *All's not lost however.  I learned a few things along the way. Somehow I am not discouraged in the least!  I can knit lace: I can't correct my mistakes however, and I do make mistakes.  This involves too much ripping for me.  I have more sock weight yarn than anything else in my stash.  If I knit in a simple rib pattern I can see immediately when I've made a mistake. Although I love miles and miles of boring garter I inevitably make a mistake in sock weight and find it late....very late... so late that to pick up the stitch is not an ...

 * You spend your birthday soaking up all the good wishes whether by email, text, facebook, or old fashioned cards and calls.   *You let them sing to you and you let them say things like, "No doing the dishes, it's YOUR birthday" *You give in and have that fountain coke. OH yes I did.. *You blow out THE candle because there is only one in order not to make a scene..Your Knit buddies make sure you know you are loved.    *You get adorable salt and pepper shakers in the forms of yarn and black kittens.  * Family members who make a habit of lurking, leave you comments! Fireman makes dinner for some friends and me. He makes amazing shrimp marinated in  STONEWALL KITCHEN's Garlic rosemary citrus sauce. *You love the whole darn day and you even get to knit a bit on your easy peasy shawl in Channon's gift yarn.  *Pretend friend Kim sends you a message that cookies are on the way...so you know you can extend the ce...

Well I see an Example of Pooling...and it's all good.    This would be the color combination purples and oranges.  So great in nature, I must find a hand dye in this mix. I'd call it Summer Annuals.   Well, this is the perfect hedge edge.  Sometimes the edge of a shawl simply MAKES it pop.    There are some days when you need some wine when you knit.... Knitting in the round of course, and finally A chart that doesn't make me shudder.. Nature is a wonder of an inspiration.  Don't you think so?

  *Pie didn't discover the Joy of Patches of Sunshine until recently.  (And quite by accident) *Her facial expression never changes. *She bumps into windows if you shut them and they were previously open. *She HEARS to try to catch a bug and to try to catch Da Bird.  and finally and most diagnostically:  *She didn't discover that I knit until a few nights ago.  I could knit peacefully with her right next to me for weeks.  No kitten of mine has ever let me knit peacefully.  The other night the plastic wire of the circulars touched her ears...that was it.  She now knows the sound of the needles.  *Oh and my sister the Vet confirmed she is blind. That should count!     She's fearless and she loves to chase the BIG cats.  Beatles finally gave way to the fun of it.   I have another WIP.  This is 4 for me.  Unheard of!!   I'll let you know more about it soon.  ...