the beads..the netbook..the thread

This is something new.I'm sitting at the coffee table working on my shawl and blogging at the same time. It's the first time I blog on my little netbook... Loaded my pictures onto a little thumb drive from the other computer and added them that way. . I decided to add beads to the tips of the last few rows of leaves. Nothing too drastic. I also want to work some beads into the edging. You don't know how happy I am to have made it to this point on this shawl... the last 2 rows before the lace edging. I'm on a different row repeat then the rewritten chart. So somehow I have to work it out.. the chart I'm following is one row ahead as far as where you would add a new leaf or start the edging. So I'm working the extra row and then starting the edging from the next chart and crossing my fingers that it will work.

Today was just a beautiful day in Florida.. a breezy 80 degress.. sunny. We went out to see Avatar in 3d only to find out they are no longer showing it in 3d in the theaters. So we decided to go to and eat sushi instead. Man was it good. I tried the sparkling sake which was really nice with the sushi.. it was light and lightly fruit flavored. After we stuffed ourselves we strolled around whole foods and Michael's Craft store. I bought some fashion crochet thread to crochet something light and airy for the summer to wear over tank tops. Hopefully the next time I blog I will have pictures of the shawl with the lace border at least started.

try it .. u might like it..

Friends at work have been talking about Guinness floats all week.. So we decided to try it. Maybe we should have added the whipped cream.. or maybe the ice cream was too hard. It was better when the ice cream melted and mixed with the Guinness. Someone mentioned that this is really good with cinnamon ice cream. We used french vanilla. It wasn't all that bad just weird...




The accordions are steadily multiplying daily in the house. There is now a little baby accordion. My son will be leaving next week to work up in New Jersey.. I will really miss the lovely sounds of his accordion when he is gone. His accordion music has become such a part of our daily life here. My grandson dances around the and the music just adds a wonderful atmosphere to the house. Good thing we have skype..




I had the day off yesterday... did the laundry.. paid some bills.. cleaned and mopped the kitchen and for the most part worked on my Frozen Leaves shawl until I couldn't see anymore. I'm up to 5 completed repeat which means I would have a total 6 leaf repeats. I'm not sure if I should try for one more 30 row leaf repeat. I'm not sure if that will give me enough yarn left over for the lace border and edging. As it is I will be using a different chart for the lace that is more complete than the one I'm using now and it starts on a different row then the chart I'm using does. I think I went cross eyed last night looking at all the charts and trying to figure out which repeat row to start the lace edging on. As least I got the leaf pattern down. I have to paint some shelves today, hem some pants ( because we short people always have to hem our pants) and help my daughter make some curtains.. then I can sit .. watch a movie and work on the shawl again. That gives me time to think about adding one more repeat of leaves or starting on the lace now..

mind boggling... 0.o'

Ok.. I have already ripped back this shawl so many times I lost count. There are 3 slightly different charts for the lace all seem to be missing one stitch or another. This shawl was written for a more instinctive lace knitter.. which I am not. I need it all spelled out stitch for stitch. But after all this ripping I'm getting a feel for how the leaves should develop. I have added my own little yarn over reminders of where I would like to start the new outside leaves and double yarn over in the center.. which I totally left out and had to rip back the first time.. or was that the second time. If I didn't think this shawl was so pretty I think I would have moved on by now.. but in my mind it seems to be do-able now.. Crossing my fingers and hoping I'll still say that when I start on the transition into chart 2 haha.





Yesterday my son bought this beautiful old accordion. It says it was made in Italy.. Cellini, Angela. It has a little wear and tear but still sounds wonderful. This is a 120 base button accordion. He was playing a yamaha with 18 base buttons so this is a step up. I get to listen to him play while I knit.. (^_^)

more like spring

Ok I decided on the Frozen Leaves shawl. Only my leaves aren't going to be frozen. More like spring leaves or summer. Thank you Bonnie and Yuliana for your suggestions. Before I knit any lace project I like to research other knitters experience with the pattern. There seems to be a little confusion as to what to do after Chart 1. It seems that there are quite a few re-writes of Chart 2 or what people did at that point. So for now I'm using a different chart than that from the original pattern. I just hope this works out... I'm not a very brave lace knitter and find it confusing some times. This is my progress as of last night. I got tired after only 24 rows hahah. Today I have off and just did the house cleaning thing and now I'm ready to sit and work on it for a bit again.. The color of the green is much more green than in the picture. I guess this is one of those colors that will never look right on the computer.

I just can't decide..!!

I just purchased this wonder cotton yarn from Wolle's yarn creations on Etsy.com. The color doesn't show up correct on the monitor.. the outside color is very green not teal. But... my dilemma is now to find a wonderful pattern to knit with this yarn. I wanted to knit something lacy and light for summer. Either a scarf or a small shawl to wear in the air conditioning. The problem is... there are just so many choices on ravelry that now I can't make up my mind.. Scarf.. shawl.. scarf.. shawl.. So here are some of the patterns I'm considering..
Three sisters scarf... Andrea's shawl... Frozen Leaves... there were a few more shawls and lots of scarves.. This yarn has 480 yards. How can this be so hard.. I've been going over and over all the patterns since the yarn arrived..hehe. Oh btw.. you should check out the other colors... !!!

perfect!!

The Waterlily top is finally finished ( 7th picture from the top). I will take some better pictures in the near future. The last few days have been very rainy and gray in Florida.. maybe there will be some sun tomorrow. Any way I'm very pleased with the fit and the outcome. I added my own little crochet bind off at the bottom edge. It's a little picot edging that I worked in as I cast off the stitches. The directions say to flatten the knit fabric with steam and an iron. I used different yarn than the pattern called for and my yarn said no iron on the label. So I made a little test swatch and used a piece of muslin in between the iron and fabric and it worked out fine. Right off the needles this was a bit snug and short . After the steaming and ironing the fit was perfect and drapey.. I can't wait to wear it.. now all we just need is some of that wonderful warmer weather we usually have in Florida. humf..

More of the same....

Today I said to myself .. just do it.. just cast this thing off and have done with it. I'm sure you have felt like that before. For some unknown reason yesterday I got myself to work an hour early and sat in the break room and knitted. I was able to finish the top strap portion of the waterlily top . All that was left was sewing the straps together and then picking up all the stitches from the cast on and binding off. I worked on it last night after work and I ended up grafting the straps together and tucking in all the ends. That left the cast off for today. I tried the top on and it looks good but it rides up a little in the back, so I felt a little crochet at the bottom might remedy that. So right now I'm casting off as I crochet a little picot edging at the same time...We are getting some well needed rain today and it's very over cast and gray outside.. too much grayness today..

knitting this week...

Lets just say my knitting progress this past week has been slow. This top is knit on size 10 1/2 needles at this point for goodness sake..!! Well I did manage to finish the front of the Waterlily top and will start on the upper part of the back today. I also squeezed in 2 more Little Tuffy dish cloths. It seems I've been doing a lot of stuff besides knitting. Speaking of little tuffys. I have already put mine to good use and washed them. I'm really pleased with them. I do not think I will make a single yarn dishcloth again after using dishcloths with double yarn. I don't even think that they shrunk in the wash and they still feel nice and soft. I already told you that they hold the suds better.. Well that's about it for my knitting report.
Part of my busy week has to do with opening and etsy shop. We have been working on all the details this week and should start selling in the next few days. I'll give you the heads up on our opening day. Spring is just around the corner and soon my son will be going to NJ to work. He has been a great help to me over this winter and now we are trying to finish up all the projects that we started. Including the etsy shop and selling all the stuff in the garage both on ebay and garage sales.. (^_^)

more than a week

I can't believe that over a week has gone by and I haven't posted anything. So unlike me. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful comments on my Little Tuffy pattern. I already put mine little tuffys to go use. My daughter really likes them and the smaller size is just right. I notice that using the yarn double makes them hold the suds better too. I like simple patterns especially for items that are used every day like dish cloths. I guess I'm a plain Jane kind of person.
As far as my knitting progress of the week.. there hasn't been much. Between work and cleaning the house and working out all the little kinks around here I have been kind of vegging out rather than knitting in my free time.. well there was also a shopping excursion to IKEA for some warmer bedding. My utility bill was enormous so we turned the temp down a little and the house got pretty chilly especially with this unusually cold weather we are experiencing in Florida. I can't count how many times it has gone below the 40 degree mark this winter. These Florida homes weren't designed for all this cold weather. So my daughter and I actually bought down comforters and duvet covers. No more waking up in the middle of the night cold for us. I got the lightest one and she got a little thicker one. Even the lightest down comforter is so warm and cozy. This is the Waterlily top from interweave knits. It looks super small but I tried it on and it actually fits well. I think its the ribbon yarn which has a little stretch once knit up. I am almost to the underarm. For some reason I have been having problems keeping track of this pattern. I think it is the way it's written. In one sentence they use "m" for marker six times and visually I loose which marker I have knit up to.. so I have to keep going over the same sentence again and again.. I think enlarging the pattern and using a magnetic chart keeper would probably help. o.0'