Soul Droppings

Not much to report...

2006-07-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

I'm on my second sock and will do photos when they're finished. I also started a shawl on a whim with a pattern from Vogue Knitting by Iris Schreier...I had some Fiesta Heaven waiting for the right project and I think this was the right project. That should not take long to finish either and I'll post a photo.

That's about it for now....we're spending a week in the mountains of VA soon and I hope to get plenty of knitting done!

Slump...phase 2

2006-04-29T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not exactly on hiatus from knitting, but I haven't done much lately. Knitted a bucket hat using Little Turtle Knits' pattern for a friend's baby out of Sugar and Cream. I keep forgetting the hat each time I see the baby though! I also started my mom's double wide branching out. Besides that I've turned the heel and knitted the gusset of my sock. It fits so far.

For the lack of knitting, I've done too much yarn and book shopping. I got Big Girl Knits, which I love though I don't have any immediate plans to knit any of the patterns. And I just got a bunch of yarn from Mystical Creations on ebay....sort of went into a bidding frenzy. But its pretty. Who knows what it'll eventually be.

Unfortunately I can't post photos because my regular computer died. New one on the way....

That's all folks...

Yikes! Gotta update!

2006-03-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

Ah, not much new on the knitting front. I'm about to finish the Smock Jacket, have a pair of socks in progress, and I need to get knitting on my double-wide Branching Out. Yes, mom, I will get it done by the time you come to visit! LOL Branching Out is a really fun pattern to knit and I'm getting excited to get started.

The socks I'm doing are the result of one evenings sudden urge to dye some wool. I used the same Aldi Mixade as for the yarn in my previous post, but the colors came out completely different. The blue is brighter and has more green in it...the purple got darker. Very weird. It was different yarn, which is my only guess as to why its so different. I also realized that I really have very few socks (and a very odd assortment of items in my "sock" drawer) so that's why I chose to dye sock yarn and start a pair for myself. I'm using the pattern in "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" by Ann Budd. So far I have one never ending cuff....I swear its been 3 1/2 inches for about a week.

Ah, well, I have a new Frasier DVD coming from Netflix today...hopefully I can get in some knitting time!

More backlog...

2006-02-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

I wanted to quickly share this photo of a quick project I did at the beginning of January. This was a gift for my mom's group post-holiday party where we played that game where you pick numbers and steal, swap, trade gifts. I know there are several names for this but none of them ever seem to stick in my mind.

This is Paton's Classic Merino Wool dyed with unsweetened drink mix packets purchased at Aldi. One of the rules of our gift swap was that items needed to be either handmade, inexpensive (under $10) or second hand. This fit all three of the options, as I also gave the needles pictured. Those were mine, bought from the Target dollar spot when they were $.25. I found them too rough so I sanded them down, whitewashed the shafts and painted the ends. The yarn was bought on sale for about $4 and the Aldi drink mixes are 12 packets for $.69. I think I used 4 packets, 2 each of the berry and grape flavors.

I like how it turned out! Enjoy!

That's all for now. Coming soon, my re-evaluated knitting queue...

Slump (or what I did over my winter vacation)

2006-02-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

I'm in a bit of a knitting slump lately. I think its because of too much travel and getting used to a new schedule when I've been home. Not that I've done no knitting, but I've done no inspiring knitting.

Here is what I knit on my vacation last week.

In the hustle and bustle of getting packed and ready for our vacation I didn't plan any particular knitting project for the trip and just gathered the stuff to make a dishcloth as we were heading out the door at 4am. I finished this tonight as I hadn't completed the last 3 rows before it was my turn to drive on our way home.

The yarn is Sugar and Cream cotton that looked a lot nicer in the ball than it does knitted into a dishcloth. I love purple and green together but this just didn't knit up nicely. But its good enough to wash dishes and wipe counters.

I also have almost completed my ds's Gryffindor scarf. I didn't have it done in time for his birthday. Of course apparently I didn't do a good enough job of hiding this project because he asked me "What about the scarf you're knitting me? Is it done?" Ah yes, he just turned 11.

I have a very lengthy list of knitting projects, most of which I have the yarn for already, in a prioritized list. This will probably keep me busy for the entire year, if not longer. But now that I look at the list I know I have to change it. I need a project I can get excited about right now and there isn't much at the top of my list that I'm excited about knitting. At least my #1 item is now finished!

That's all for now.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

The holidays are, thankfully, behind us. Not that I had horribly bad holidays (if you don't count the 7 hours in the car on December 30th, all driven by me, accompanied by the sounds of intermittent vomiting from the passenger seat....or the couple of days prior to that when I regaled all the occupants of my mom's house with a similar soundtrack...or when the kids were doing it....oh, okay, the holidays weren't great...) but they had their challenges and normal life is looking pretty good. We will complete the undecorating tomorrow.

Did I manage to finish the holiday knitting you ask? (assuming there is a you once again...I suspect there may not be). Ummm....well....no. I knitted feverishly on the Irish Hiking Scarf over the two day drive to PA, as well as on Christmas Day itself but it just wasn't happening. So I went and bought some beads and my sweet sil had to settle for a bracelet instead. As far as I know she has no knowledge of the Irish Hiking Scarf that might have been....and Pam, if you ever come across my blog while surfing the net, sorry. I comfort myself by thinking that you might have possibly not liked it. On the other hand, I'm in love with it and its going to be my scarf for next season. Why next season you ask? I'll get to that, if not today, in a later post.

Now for the lovely knitterly pictures and the run down of my holiday haul (I did make out darned well, if I say so myself). First is the photo of my mom in her Clapotis, moments after opening it. Yes, mom, I dare! LOL I do truly regret not getting a better photo of the clapotis. I had planned on making mom allow me a photo session later in the week, but as it happened I just wasn't up to photography most of the week.

Now for my husband's best gift to me-

Yes! A swift, a swift, a swift! Works great and I'm thrilled. I've used it several times already. The yarn on the swift in the above photo is a skein I just bought on ebay from Mystical Creation Yarn. Its a sport weight cotton and I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe another WLD Shapely Tank or Tshirt.

Ah, well the little critter is up from her nap, so off I must go. Dinner to be made, etc, etc, etc.... More to come.......

To tired to attempt decent writing

2005-12-20T02:54:00.000-05:00

Ah, I've gotta get to bed. But first I must give myself a pat on the back for finishing the Fairway Fair Isle. This baby is washed, blocked and tasseled. And here it is-

Lovely, isn't it? Good thing I have absolutely no use for a golf club cover or I'd claim it for myself. I can't even thing of anything I could possibly use this for, besides maybe a really freaky long sleeved oven mitt. I just hope it fits the club. This is my first ever fair isle project and it was a little puckered before blocking, so I was astounded at how nice it came out after washing.

I gave my dh his partially completed mouse ears scarf on Sunday. The initial reaction was "What is it? Christmas Trees?" I'll forgive him...I think perhaps his colorblindness effects his illusion perception a little. He claims now that he can see the mouse ears perfectly well and that he loves it and wants to wear it with his Goofy sweatshirt, because it matches.

That's the sweatshirt right there in the middle of the second photo. Um, yeah. Poor guy. I wish the world had more colors and I marry a guy who can't even see all the ones we have. That's kinda sad. I'm also making a note to myself not to trust his opinion on any future dyeing projects...you see, even after 15 years together I tend to forget his disability and ask things like "how do these colors look together?"

Oh, I did get some Wool of the Andes that does coordinate with the Goofy sweatshirt. I'm debating whether to do another illusion scarf, attempt intarsia, or come up with something else in 2 colors with a Disney-esque motif. Gotta keep my color challenged sweetie in high theme park fashion for our trip next month. Just in case its cold, you know? Florida is unpredictable in January.

This will most likely be my last posting for the year... so if there really is anyone out there reading this Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Merry Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy last 11 days of the year. I wish you all the festivities, excitement and bounty of the season if you so choose to partake. I'm off to cross one more thing off my list of stuff to do....

I'm sure there will be plenty to post when I return from my holiday travels.

Two steps forward, one step back

2005-12-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

Why am I posting right now? I must be completely insane. Okay, those of you who know me in real life are probably shaking your heads going "yeah, what's new....we already KNOW that!"

I'm dead tired and there's a sleeping baby in my lap. I was planning to go to bed. Then I sat down at my computer and after vacating for a bit I had an inspiration as to how I could make the links in my works in progress column work correctly (in yet another showing of poor time management, I attempted to do this earlier in the week without success, but I did at least set up the works in progress section). Then I thought I might as well post about today's knitting successes and disasters and show off some of our recent visitors.

Success!
The baby napped for a while this afternoon. Since I was both dead tired and fighting off a cold (and babysitting my laundry because I needed clean clothes for dh's company event this evening...or I'd have napped too) I figured I'd work on the Goliath sized Fairway Fair Isle. I am more than half way finished the fair isle portion and there's only an inch of one color stockinette after that. Woohoo! Almost finished....here's a close up of the fair isle section as far as its done.

Disaster strikes!!!!! (aka....oh, I won't name names)
Take note of the one purple stitch sitting on the needle in the above photo. It does not belong there. As dh and I were getting ready for the aforementioned company event I made one disatrous mistake. I left my project within full view and reach of the kids. Why, you ask? Because the baby was clinging to me and I knew she wasn't going to be running off and pulling out my needles. I wanted to see what I had accomplished every time I walked through the living room.

Little did I suspect that a certain nameless 5yo would take interest in my project. As I went to stash it in a safe place before leaving (knowing that if I didn't it would get left there and the baby would eventually discover it) I noticed the needles sticking out at odder angles than usual. Then I saw loops. Loops that were not on needles. I think I screamed, but I can't recall exactly. I took a deep breath, handed the baby to my dh with a strict order to keep her from touching the mass of yarn dangling onto the sofa, then poked a needle through every one of those anchorless loops. I did some untwisting (I have no idea what this child did!) and discovered that luckily the damage is fairly minimal. A few dropped stitches. But I was getting so close to being done and now I have FIXING to do first.

Which leads me to a funny little story of providence....
Last night I went to dinner with some friends. When I do this I usually take some knitting as we do a lot more talking than eating most nights. Some of my friends knit or do other needle arts. So, I pulled out my gryffindor scarf and realized I was at a point where I had picked up a dropped stitch in the dark and got it twisted around another stitch. And I hadn't brought a crochet hook. I asked my only other knitting or crafting friend who was there if she had one along. Nope, forgot her knitting. Then, as I was contemplating using my fork (the food had not yet been served) my other friend says "oh, I have this thing here....I found it in my couch and thought you might know who it belongs to". It was a crochet hook, belonging to a different friend who was not present. What luck. Its the little things that make life great.

And on a completely different note, I thought I'd share a photo of our recent visitors. Any time I'm up late at the computer I seem to hear our cats' food dish being dumped out. Earlier this week I quietly turned on the porch light and peeked out to find....

Its not a great photo, but the best I could get through the window without the flash while trying to be still enough not to spook them. I think these little guys are pretty cool, so I don't mind them eating the cat food even though we already go through a 20lb bag a week! I just love seeing wildlife in my yard here on the edge of the city.

The sleeping baby is now turning to butter and melting off my lap so I'd better get to bed.

Goodnight!

I give up!

2005-12-14T13:34:00.000-05:00

Ah, well, not completely. I'm still knitting plenty of things for Christmas (for lack of a better word for that holiday, as we're not actually Christian and we celebrate more out of tradition than religion), but I'm not going to be using any of my own designs. Its quicker and less stressful to just use other people's designs. That' s probably because of my own insecurity issues to some degree, but its also because I don't have time to decide I'd like to change my design mid-knitting, rip out and start again. I spent part of August and September doing that with my Mom's holiday gift and ended up going with a tried and true (and very popular, possibly the most popular knitting pattern in recent history...for those of you trying to figure out what it is...pics will come after the holiday) pattern of another brilliant designer's creation.

So, for my step dad's goliath club cover I'm adapting the Fairway Fair Isles design from knitty to proper size and to work with the scrap yarn I have for the fair isle colors. And for my sil's scarf...still to be done in KnitPicks Andean Silk...I'm going to use the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern.

I'll probably write a brief essay about self esteem and my attempts at design sometime soon and post it here...seems like there may be some universal truths in that as far as what keeps many from expressing themselves through their own creative work, or what in my case keeps me from actually submitting a design for consideration.

No pics now....

Tiny needles of torture and despair

2005-12-12T18:18:00.000-05:00

All right, maybe I'm being a little overdramatic. But my panic over finishing all my holiday projects was becoming worse and worse because of one thing. All of a sudden my right wrist, hand, forearm, and even my shoulder had started aching every time I picked up my knitting during the day. After reading all about knitting injuries on the tips board at Knitty I decided I'd better limit myself to knitting 15 minutes at a time. It didn't really help. My arm would start hurting immediately. I tried supporting with pillows, sitting with better posture, a number of other things. I was still in pain. I began to despair that my so-far short life as a knitter would have to be over. I couldn't knit without pain even for a few minutes!

Then over the weekend I cast on a new project (golf club cover for my step dad). I knit for at least an hour without noticing it. No pain. No problem. I began to suspect the problem was all in my head, as I'm getting completely bored with the scarves I'm making.

So today, I picked up the dreaded scarf of pain. I began to knit. Ouch. All of a sudden I had an inspiration....What if I changed to different needles? Surely I have a different set of #5's sitting around, why not try it? Amazingly, upon switching needles the pain stopped. The problem? I was using a 16" circular, knitting flat. When I switched to a 24" circular, on which the needle portion is about an inch longer, all was better. Ahhhhhhhhh! Seems that I need to save those 16" needles for soakers and other times that they're really necessary. That golf club cover? Its on dpn's.

And here are two photos of the dreaded scarf of pain as knitted on tiny needles of torture and despair....

Hopefully you can tell its an illusion scarf, and the illusion is supposed to be mouse ears (ie. Mickey). This is a gift for my dh who is a certified Walt Disney World fanatic. He'd probably prefer some sort of Star Wars image, Star Wars being an even more all encompassing obsession than Disney, but I was having enough trouble with the Mickey. I tried charting a Darth Vader, but it wasn't working. Maybe someday. I just didn't have time this year.

Pictures of the golf club cover wip will follow soon!

Podcasts and patterns and blogs...oh,my!

2005-12-12T01:25:00.000-05:00

Ah, well I've decided that if I'm going to do this blog thing I'd better just do it. Up to now I've been inconsistent about posting and BORING. Not that I have anything particularly lively to say today.

I did want to give credit where credit is due. I've mentioned the Gryffindor Scarf that my young wizard will be finding in his stocking this year (or under the tree, or just suddenly around his neck, did I mention I'm bad at making decisions?). I found the pattern here and I want to thank Lauren at atypically.knit for her generosity in sharing it! This is a photo of the work in progress with a bit of our holiday tree, which was lovingly decorated by the kids the day after Thanksgiving.

I've found a great way to entertain myself when I get the rare moments of knitting in peace (ie. when everyone else is sleeping). I've discovered podcasts! Of course I am likely the last person on earth to have discovered these, but I've been enjoying both Marie Irshad's Knit Cast and Brenda Dayne's Cast On. For some reason I now have an overwhelming urge to travel to the UK, and particularly visit Wales.

Finally, I seem to have been kicked off the Knitty webring for being a bad, bad blogmamma. I suppose I need to keep updating if I have any hopes of being kept on a webring. So very sorry to those who have been annoyed by my dead blog. I suppose that includes myself.

ARGH! Baby's awake...gotta get her back to sleep!

Its 2:25am, December 7....can I possibly finish in time?

2005-12-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

Just a quick panic posting....

THE HOLIDAY is coming. I have several UFO's that are supposed to be gifts, plus a gift or two that isn't even on the needles yet. And I spent Thanksgiving weekend knitting longies!!!????!!!!! Nevermind the fact that I gave myself such neck, shoulder, arm and wrist aches that I had to back off on the knitting a lot last week. Posture is everything and I'm learning the hard way.

So, I'm about 3/4 of the way through the Gryffindor scarf, barely started scarf #1 for my dh (a mickey mouse illusion design), barely started the scarf for my sil (saxon braid cable in knitpicks andean silk), have yet to start the Goliath golf club cover (should be a quick knit)...and I haven't touched the Smock Jacket in weeks. And if I don't knit something for my 5yo she's probably going to begin feeling unloved. I do intend to make her a small poncho out of Target dollar spot yarn to match the one I made for her Groovy Girl. Oh, there's a pic I should post!

So how much time will I have to spend knitting to get this done? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

Good thing I like to knit...

Long time, no update....

2005-12-02T00:29:00.000-05:00

It has been quite a long time since I've updated this! I have been doing lots of knitting, and lots of frogging and reknitting, some designing, and lots of swatching.

Designing is certainly an interesting challenge. I've found I'll knit up an entire skein of yarn into a design, then decide its not working and frog the whole thing....only to repeat the same thing all over again, with a different design. Probably my perfectionist tendencies to some degree, but hey, if its just not working, its just not working.

I can share a couple of photos...
This first one is the White Lies Designs Shapely Tank Top I knit over the summer. I finished it the week after Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was released, which I mainly remember because I was listening to the final chapters with my dh while I seamed up the sides.

The yarn is Paton's Grace in tangelo. I am not willing to post a photo of myself in a tank top for all to see, so you get to see it as it was blocked on my sofa cushion. Oh, and you'll be seeing plenty of my sofa cushions as I find the denim slipcovers to be the most convenient solid backgrounds for taking photos.

I also finished Branching Out and have finally had the chance to wear it now that we've had some colder nights. I fell in love with the Silky Wool and ended up finding a great deal on ebay for what I hope is enough to make a sweater for myself.

No photos yet for the Smock Jacket in kfi cashmereno....I'm finished the back and half of the front, about to start the cables on the second side. I just hope I finish it before Alethia grows too big for it. Maybe I should have made the larger size! I have a feeling I'll be making a bigger one eventually.

And my most recent project....

This is a pair of soaker pants for Alethia. They'll be beautiful with the smock jacket if I manage to finish it before she grows out of both it and these pants. But I also found a cute sweater at Target that looks nice with them...black chenille with a pink snowflake stitched on the front. I knit these without a pattern, and considering I'm not incredibly experienced at this I'd say they turned out okay. As it happened my tape measure was misplaced while I was knitting these and I did a lot of "hold them up to the baby and check" which didn't work out nearly as well as I had hoped. They are a bit short in the rise and in the legs, but I think they'd fit a shorter baby just fine. Once I get her into the outfit I'll have to get a photo. I chose to do a hemmed elastic waist because I hate drawstrings and my ribbed waistbands always seem to stretch to the point that they fall off if I don't use a drawstring. I hope the elastic does okay in the wool. I figure at worst I'll have to wash them more often than I usually have to wash soakers.

I absolutely love the way this colorway knit up too. The yarn is from Little Turtle Knits and the colorway is called Punk Rock Girl. I was a bit disappointed when I originally received the yarn as it didn't look as great in the hank as it had online, but I love it now. It knit up perfectly. Beautiful!

There are a few more photos in my finished object gallery, though I'll probably be posting them here with their stories soon. I have a few good holiday projects going that I'll share as soon as there is anything to see and I'll get a pic of the Gryffindor scarf I'm making for Logan (my 10yo son).

I've gotta go as my 5yo just woke up again....

Finally, photos!

2005-08-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

Just to liven up the look of this page, I thought I'd better add some photos. Note also that I now have a link to my finished objects photo gallery on the left.

I finished this project a while ago and I'm very pleased at how it turned out.

Enjoy!

New Photos Coming Soon!

2005-08-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

I seem to have resolved my photo issue, but now I actually need to take some photos for posting!

I am also trying to figure out how to make a "works in progress" column for the sidebar. I'm not sure if I should try to edit the html of my template or just generate a new one.

Today I had to go to the bead store to get a bead for a friend (she's moving to Costa Rica, which is why I included it on my list of places to visit! We're making a bracelet for her tonight.) and I picked up a couple of beads to try to make stitch markers. I will post a photo of my finished product along with whatever other pics strike my fancy tomorrow.

And finally, a quick rant about the sweater I've started for my 17mo. daughter. The pattern I'm using is from Debbie Bliss' Celtic Knits, its the smock jacket. Initially I planned to make the size 2 or 3, as Alethia is beginning to outgrow her 18mo sized clothes. Then I measured to pick which one. That size 3 pattern is big enough to fit my 5yo! I quickly decided to use the smallest size, which is 1 year. I've cast on and knit the first 6cm of the back....and I can't believe how wide it is! So, is Debbie Bliss just completely out there as far as sizing? I mean, none of her women's patterns are bigger than a 36" chest....but the children of these tiny women are supposed to be giants! This is still the prettiest sweater I've ever seen, and in the kfi cashmereno its going to be amazingly soft and beautiful. Wish me luck!

I've been tagged!

2005-08-03T19:56:00.000-05:00

Corryn from kokoknit.com has tagged me! I think that brings my total number of people who have actually looked at my blog up to about 5. Watch out bloggers, here I come! LOL Really, I'm still finding this whole blog thing quite amusing, but I'm starting to feel as if it is my duty to keep those of you reading this amused as well. With this in mind.....I will answer the Questions posed by the tagging process. And then I'll have to find a couple of blogs to tag!

What was I doing 10 years ago?
We were living in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania and I was going through what may have been the most stressful summer of my life. My oldest son was a baby and having continual problems with asthma. At this point in that summer we had not yet figured out that there was a bad air situation in his daycare (where I also worked) so we were at a loss as to how to help him. Luckily at the very least, he never had to be hospitalized. It was also a hard time for me professionally (in my former career in early childhood education) as I was running the toddler program at the above mentioned daycare and the director did not appreciate my learning through play approach. She wanted me to sit all the toddlers down and talk at them all day. Yeah, right. On top of this we were supposed to be buying a townhouse and our deal fell through (thank goodness!). Happily, I am now a sahm and my son is a perfectly healthy 10yo. And we finally have our own house!

.... 5 years ago?
I was enjoying my first summer as a sahm of 2! My first daughter was just a few months old and I had begun attending La Leche League meetings and became the group librarian. I made some great friends that summer among the LLL of Boyertown moms and babies. It was a wonderfully relaxed summer!

.... 1 year ago?
Another summer with a new baby, and our first summer in our house here in SC.

.....yesterday?
Took the kids to playgroup. Got pizza for dinner. Knit.

.....today?
Wasn't feeling too well...knit, hung out with the kids, went to the library and the supermarket. Yep, an exciting day! No, really. I started the smock jacket from celtic knits for Alethia! And I did another repeat on Branching Out.

....tomorrow?
Oh, goodness. Well, tomorrow night I'll be going out for Mom's Night. During the day I hope to clean up today's mess, have some fun with the kids or get them together with some friends and knit some more. But my main goal tomorrow I think is laundry related...

5 snacks I enjoy...
geez, I have to pick just 5? okay, off the top of my head...
berries, freshly picked, all kinds
chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven (extra points for the chipless ones!)
goldfish snack mix (do they still make this?)
ice cream....the variety depends on the day
good coffee with a biscotti

5 bands that I know most of their stuff...
hmmm, this is going to date me badly...I haven't been up on music in a long time.
Metallica
Soundgarden
Iron Maiden
The Misfits
Green Day

What would I do with $100,000,000?
That's a hundred million, right? Wow. Pay off all our debts. Fix up our house (we like living where we are for the time being....but eventually we'd build something I guess). Travel. Live off the interest on our investments. I'd also do all those things we can't currently afford to live more sustainably.... go completely organic, hybrid vehicles, alternative energy, etc...

5 locations I'd run away to....
Japan
The UK
Costa Rica
Mainland Europe
Walt Disney World (sounds goofy, pardon the pun, but we have fun there)
those are probably just the first 5.....I love seeing new places and revisiting places I've been...

5 bad habits...
eating too much sugar in all forms, procrastinating, getting take out or going out for lunch/dinner, forgetting about clothes in the washer, not cleaning stuff up immediately

5 things I like doing...
yoga, knitting, doing fun things with my family and friends, reading, taking photos and scrapbooking them

5 things I would never wear...
I've learned to never say never.

5 tv shows I like...
Frasier, Desperate Housewives, Clean Sweep, Good Eats, can't really think of any others....I haven't really watched much tv in a while. Tv is sort of a pregnancy/new baby thing for me...most of the time I can take it or leave it.

5 movies I like...
oh I don't know....I'm not really a movie person....kind of like tv....I'm not really comitted to anything in particular.

5 famous people I'd like to meet...
hmmm....not really into famous people either...I don't really like the whole "oh, you're famous" thing. I'd rather leave them to live their lives. A couple of famous people that seem like they'd have been interesting people to know growing up or whatever?...... probably most writers, artists, musicians.... I guess I think most people are interesting though, and I don't think they become more interesting when they're famous.

5 biggest joys at the moment...
seeing my kids learning new things (writing, reading, talking, creating...), knitting and the creative high I get from coming up with something of my own, spending time with my friends, planning future travels...and last but not least....or, well, it happens the least... spending time with my husband.

5 favorite toys...
my camera, photo printer, computer, die cutting machines....and my yarn and knitting needles!

And now I guess I need to find 3 bloggers to tag...I'll start searching tomorrow. For now I'll shut down the computer before my sleepless one year old does it for me......

There ya go....more than you ever wanted to know about me!

Another boring post....

2005-07-30T23:41:00.000-05:00

We have been having a busy month, but I've been meaning to update for some time now. Unfortunately I've been having some computer difficulties and I can't currently post pics because of some issue with the computer I am using. I will either see if my techie dh can correct the problem or if I can manage to keep my computer running long enough to get some photos posted within the next week.

Currently I have a Branching Out in progress and I have finished my White Lies Designs Shapely Tank...pics to come, as well as a few gratuitous shots of my baby wearing her Beach Baby Onsie and Hat. In the works are a design for my 5yo and a shawl for myself...both of my own design. And I will post the pattern for the scarf as well!

Thanks for noticing me....

Checking in....

2005-06-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

Hello! Surprise, surprise there are actually real people reading this....I'm shocked and amazed.

Just a quick update...

My current wip is the shapely tank top from White Lies Designs in Paton's Grace, tangelo. Pictures will be coming soon. I am paranoid that it won't fit right even though I measured myself and one of my favorite tops and checked my gauge carefully. I supposed I need to just trust myself, trust my gauge, and trust my measurements!

As for the scarf pictured in my last post, its my own design. The stitch is Indian Cross Stitch from Barbara Walker's First Treasury of Knitting Patterns and you can probably figure it out from there.....but I will write out the pattern and post it when I can. It was a fun little scarf to make and I think my mom likes it.

No pictures today! Sorry!

The scarf is finished!

2005-06-04T20:46:00.000-05:00

I just finished the scarf I was making for my mom. I'm quite pleased with it, even though the stitch has a tendency to stretch more on one side than the other. I'm not sure how I would counteract that in the future, but at this point I've done Indian Cross Stitch about as much as I'm interested in doing it. This scarf started out with two repeats of the pattern, but was too short and I thought perhaps too heavy, so I re-did it.

The yarn is JoAnn's Sensations Catalina. I don't think I'll be knitting with it again in the future. In the small +/- 60 yard ball I found 2 knots and it seems to show wear very quickly. There are places where the silky parts of the yarn seem to be fuzzing after only knitting it up. And the price was only about $1 or so less per ball than similar Paton's or Lion Brand yarns. I don't think its a bargain in any case.

That's all for now. I don't think I'll be updating while I'm visiting family in PA, but I hope to have lots of knitting done when I get home and I'll try to get wip pics.

Just wanted to add some photos...

2005-05-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

These are photos of my beautiful baby wearing the first incarnation of my surf shorts soaker pattern. I will be making some changes to the waistband and the crotch. I did something funky in the crotch on these and will probably just do a standard knit-in-the-round crotch next time. I know gusseted crotches are all the rage right now, but I don't really understand why. Its a cool idea, but I don't really know what it does for the fit or functionality. I'd be happy to be filled in on this! The waistband is actually too stretchy, so I'm going to try something that will better fit the name "surf shorts".

The cat butt belongs to our cat, Hermione. The baby loves to go outside and chase the cats. They've sort of developed their own terms of engagement and as long as no one gets hurt (human or feline) I'm cool with it.

And soakers are not the only thing I knit! Soon I'll post a pic of my current WIP. Its a narrow ribbon yarn scarf I'm making for my mom. Its supposed to be a mother's day gift (hey, I started it on mother's day!) so I'm not sure if I should post the pic before I go to visit next week or not. Mom doesn't know I have a blog yet, but I do host my images on our shared site. So those may have to wait! This whole paragraph is mainly a teaser. I know you're thinking "I'm supposed to want to see a scarf? Its just a scarf." But so far I've been getting lots of positive feedback on this object and I will post a review of the yarn too.

That's all for now!

Welcome!

2005-05-27T22:50:00.000-05:00

Admittedly, I have no idea what I'm doing and I feel very much like I'm writing to no one! But here it is, my blog. I've jumped on this bandwagon and I'll do my best to keep things interesting and updated.

Why Soul Droppings, you ask? (if there is a "you" out there reading this). Its just how I feel about the creative stuff that just pops out of me from time to time. When I find something that sparks my creativity and carries me away with it, its as if my spirit is leaving behind little quirky bits of itself. Or maybe its arrogant to think its my own spirit. Maybe its just spirit itself and I'm a sort of medium. Lucky me.

Right now my complete obsession is knitting. I'd bore you (if there is indeed a "you" out there reading this) to tears with all the ideas that have popped into my head. Things I want to create, things I need to create. I also love scrapbooking, mainly because I love my photos and the people in them, and I love working with paper. But fibers....yarn....ooooohhhhhh....I think I need to go fondle something. (get your head out of the gutter. i mean yarn. that is, if there is a "you" reading this, with a head, in the gutter).

And now if I can figure out how to do it, I'll post a photo of today's fiber effort. Wool dyed with Kool-Aid. I intend to use it for a pair of soaker shorts in my "surf shorts" design, which I hope someone will like and want to buy! My husband says the colors remind him of the snow cones he'd get from the ice cream truck when he was a kid.

Enjoy!