Felt Like Knitting

Alma Ella Shawl

Robin released her new shawl pattern the other day!  The Alma Ella Shawl pattern is very well written and fun to knit.  The body of the shawl is easily memorized and going from lots of stitches to very few was encouraging to me while knitting.  It just kept going faster and faster.  :)

The Dream in Color Smooshy was lovely to knit with and the color is fantastic!  I've been wearing the shawl around the house and it feels so nice.  Now that it's getting cooler I can wear it out, too!

Thanks to Mary for helping me with photos!  And thank you, Robin, for allowing me to test knit this for you and for giving me the yarn.  It was a pleasure to knit!

 

 

Fall decorating

Fall is my favorite season and I love decorating for it.  It's great - you can put up the decorations in September and they're good through the end of November!  Nester is having a Fall Mantel Party and I thought I'd share my mantel with you.  Check out her blog because there are so many creative ideas!

Now that I look at it, it seems a bit plain and I'm not sure about those three little pumpkins.  It seems to have more presence in real life.  Maybe I need some wheat behind the pumpkins?  The candles on the right are from Pier 1 and are called Spiced Cake - they smell so good!  (They're on sale right now if you have a need for orange candles.)  I have deeper orange candles that I wanted to use but I couldn't find the third one.

Do you like fall?  How do you decorate?

 
 

Annihilation

If you have gotten to know me through my blog or in person, you might say that I'm kind of a quiet or reserved person.  Not today.  Today I'm showing you my other side.  The side of me that likes the sound of this:

annihilate:  to destroy the substance or force of, to cause to cease to exist, to vanquish completely.

We have a fruit fly problem.  And I am on a mission to destroy conquer annihilate these little pests.  I Googled and found a list of ideas and have tried a few.  I really am a little shocked at myself at how satisfying it is to kill these flies.  I usually catch and release things I find in my house, but there is no mercy for these boogers.

*  Swatting:  Effective?  Fair.  Satisfying?  Yes!

There is something very satisfying about swatting one into oblivion.  But then there are the residual fly parts on the cupboard door.  Plus did you know that fruit flies carry yucky diseases?

*  Bowl trap:  Effective?  No.  Satisfying?  No.

This didn't work but I think it's because the hole size wasn't right.

*  Hair dryer:  Effective?  Okay.  Satisfying?  Yes, fun even.

The idea is to suck them up on the intake side of your hair dryer which pulls them into the heating element.  It's fun to see them get sucked in but often they fly away before the dryer gets close enough.

*  Oven trap:  Effective?  Very!  Satisfying?  Very!

I recommend this method.  I sliced some bananas onto a plate and let the flies wander in until there were about 25 of them on there.  "Slam!" went the door and "whoosh" went the gas.  Except that I forgot what temperature was suggested and I set it at 450.  When I told Steve about the technique, he said "Yeah, I think you got it hot enough."  Mwahaha!!!

*  Keep things clean:  Effective?  Yes.  Satisfying?  Ugh.

This is harder for me but more effective.

May your weekend be bug-free and full of knitting!  I'm off to wash some dishes...

WIP Wednesday - Test knitting Alma Ella shawl

I meant to blog on Monday...and on Tuesday...and now I am finally getting to it on Wednesday.  I have two test knitting projects to show you and something exciting to share.

Test Knit #1:  Zackenbarsch Prayer Shawl - This is the zigzag shawl I showed a while back that had the yarn bleeding problem.  

 

This is a great prayer shawl pattern because it's easy to memorize the pattern, leaving the knitter free to pray or meditate.  This also makes it a good TV watching project.  :)  And the color changes were fun.  It took me longer to knit this than it should have because I forgot it was a test knit.  I started thinking of it as a prayer shawl and not a test knitting prayer shawl.  Fortunately Chris wasn't in a hurry for it!

Following greetingart's advice, I used Oxi Clean to get the stains out.  I have to say it worked pretty well.  I bought an Oxi Clean gel stick and used the entire thing to pretreat the stains.  Then I dissolved powdered Oxi Clean (compliments of Mary - thanks!) in water in a five gallon bucket.  I put the pretreated shawl in the water and put a plate on top to keep the shawl immersed.  After several days I took it out and washed it with a Color Catcher sheet.  While the excess dye is definitely more faded, the whole shawl has a bit of a blue tinge to it now.  I think if I soaked it again it may come out even more but I've decided to keep it for myself and use it the way it is.  

Test Knit #2:  Alma Ella Shawl - This is a shawl designed by Robin at selects wool and flax.  Have you seen this shawl on Ravelry?  It's been favorited more than 650 times and is in a ton of queues already!  The pattern is set to be released in early October.

 

It's such a pretty shawl and I'm enjoying knitting it.  It's a shawl that you cast on all the stitches at once so it's getting smaller and smaller as I knit.  I love that!!!  And the lace border is so pretty.  I'm knitting this in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Shiny Moss colorway.  Robin graciously supplied this yarn to me for the project.  Wasn't that so nice of her?!  Thank you, Robin!  I'm alternating the skeins since the two skeins are dyed slightly differently.  The colors are beautiful (truer in the second photo) and this yarn is so nice to knit with.

Now for my exciting news...I've been asked to teach a beginner knitting class at my LYS!  I am really, really looking forward to this!  Everyone at Cast-on Cottage is very nice and helpful and it will be fun to teach there.  I'll start in October.  Thanks for this opportunity, Theresa! 

Time for some more shawl knitting!  Have a great night, everyone!

FO Friday - Manta Bandit

Okay, so it's really a Springtime Bandit with two extra repeats in the body but it sure reminds me of a manta ray when it's spread out!

Originally Emma asked me to knit Cascata in black laceweight yarn.  I'm glad she decided on this pattern with heavier yarn!

Next week I'm going to show you some test knitting projects - one that's completed and one that's just started. 

Have a great weekend!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Reasons to Watch Football

If you participate in Ten on Tuesday, you know that some topics are more challenging than others.  This week is more on the "help me!" side of things for me.   My dad and my brothers never watched football and my husband doesn't watch football.  So I only watch the halftime show and ads football once a year.

1.  Knitting time:  Starting with the most important item first! 

2.  Yummy snacks:  I think there has been food at every football game I've ever watched. 

3.  Friends:  Watching football can be a fun social event.

4.  Conversation:  I can tell you that it is hard to have a conversation with people here in the south if you don't watch football.  I may have to pick a team and make myself watch.

5.  Family:  Two of my nephews play football and it would be nice for me to be able to chat with them about the game.

6.  Weather:  When I used to go to Miami's games, the weather was beautiful.  If it is a crisp, sunny autumn day I am always transported back to the stadium (just in my mind of course but I have been tempted to go on a last minute road trip).

7.  Pick up games:  Football seems to be an easy sport to get people to play.  Friends of ours used to have a family football game every year after their Thanksgiving dinner.

8.  Support the band:  In high school I had lots of friends in the band and in the color guard so I went to the games to watch them.

9.  Social:  This is different than #3.  This is the high school "I'm going to the game because everyone else is going" kind of social.  Before I watched the band, I used to walk around the track with friends.  There was very little game watching but I did look over when there was cheering.  :)

One more thing.  Come on, you can do it!  You came up with ten things about bacon and you don't even eat much bacon.  Think.  Think.  Think...

10.  The players:  Okay, so this one is kind of lame.  But I do think it's fun to see the colors of the uniforms, the cool hair, how big or small a player is (How do the really big ones move that fast and how do the small players not get run over?), etc.

Do you watch football (American football)?  Why do you enjoy it?

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No FO Friday :)

There is nothing finished to show you today so just a quick post this morning before I head to school...

*  I'm teaching Beginning Praise Guitar as an enrichment class for homeschoolers.  I was a bit worried at first since I'm not an expert level guitarist.  But then I realized that I do have the ability to teach these children how to hold their guitars, how to strum chords, and ultimately how to play along on a praise song.  I felt much better after that.  We're going to have a great time!

*  Cast-on Cottage has Knit Night on Thursday evenings but I've never gone.  I remedied that last night.  I was surprised by how many people were there!  There were at least 25-30 fiber enthusiasts (the shop has needlepoint supplies along with yarn) in the shop.  The old location would never have held that many folks.

*  I bought yarn for a cowl for my mom for Christmas.  (Mom, if you happen to read my blog today, just be surprised when you open your present!)  This yarn is so soft!  I ran out of time so I still need to get buttons.

 Time to run!  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

FO Friday - Wednesday edition

                

I don't have WIP pictures to share right now so I'll share FO photos instead.  Above is the Shawl Collared Cowl pattern that I liked so well.  The buttons are on and I know I will use this a lot this winter.  I'd like to make one for my mom for Christmas, too.  It seems like a buttoned cowl would be easy to wear and less cumbersome than a scarf with long tails.

Are you a fan of cowls?
 
 

Ten on Tuesday - 10 Things to Do Before the End of Summer

I feel like summer is over already, but I guess we still have a few weeks left.  Fall is my favorite time of year so I'm looking at this as 10 Things to Do Before Fall Gets Here.  :) 

1.  Go through our clothes closets.  Give away clothes that don't fit or that we don't wear.

2.  Gather all the eBay items into only one or two areas.  (A bunch are in the garage and I don't feel like hauling them to the second floor where the rest of the stuff is.)

3.  Clean out the garden.  Everything is pretty dead by now and I'd like to get it pulled up.  I usually don't do that and it's no fun to have to do it in the spring.

4.  Gather seeds.  I should do this before I start pulling the plants up!

5.  Finish more socks before my toes get cold.  :)

6.  Finish putting the yarn stash back in my sewing room.  It's almost all out of the freezer now and ready to put back.

7.  Make some skirts.  I have some fabric for a skirt for Emma and I'd like to alter one of my old skirts to fit me better.

8.  Clean the garage.  This isn't going to happen but I would like it to.  Is there a garage-cleaning fairy I can call on?

9.  Plan out menus for autumn.  I spend so much less money if I plan out a menu ahead of time.  If I make a plan for one month, I can reuse it.

10.  Grill out and eat out on the deck.  It's now cool enough to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.

What do you want to do with the end of your summer?

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Long weekend with lots of knitting

This Labor Day weekend is turning out to be great!

Friday I had a teachers meeting (I'm teaching beginning praise guitar) and later in the afternoon I made it to Cast-on for the afternoon KAL (which this week was just like knit night).  I worked on my Seagrass Lace Socks for a few minutes before I went to pick up Emma where she was getting frozen yogurt with friends.  Yes, I did get some for myself because it was hot waiting in the car.  :)

On Saturday I met a fellow Raveler at Cast-on and we had a great time.  We have a lot in common!  We both bought yarn and buttons for Never Not Knitting's Shawl Collared Cowl.  I got Rowan Cocoon in the Clay colorway.  When I got home, I couldn't resist and I cast on right away.  The weather was beautiful and I was able to sit out on the deck.  Steve and Emma were at Dragon*con so I had the afternoon to myself and got a lot done.  Then we grilled out for dinner - such a nice day!

"Fargo" from Eureka and Emma (dressed as "Claudia" from Warehouse 13 )

After church yesterday, we constructed a geodesic dome in the school playground.  I think the kids will really have a great time with this and it was fun to put together.  In the afternoon/early evening there was... more knitting!  The cowl is done.  It's almost done drying and I'm hoping to sew the buttons on later this morning.  I love quick, fun projects!!!

Today promises to be fun, too.  Emma needs my help with an assignment for her creative writing class.  She's supposed to sit at Starbucks and "people watch" then write about three people she sees there.  Drive her to Starbucks and knit while she's working?  I'm all over that!  But if she doesn't get out of bed soon it's not going to happen.  Because this afternoon I'm going to make cards/knit with Mary, Lydia, and friends.  Guess I'd better get moving!

Have a great Monday!  Are you doing anything fun?