Dashing off…

I’m dashing out the door right now to begin decorating for daughter’s wedding.  Please pardon the brevity of this post but I am sure you all understand.  Next week, life will be somewhat normal (or as close to normal as it gets around here) and I promise to retrieve photos from the camera and give you a REAL update.

Kathy B. says just snippits are fine, so here you go…

I FINISHED the Farmer’s Wife quilt and it is absolutely stunning, if I do say so myself.  Pics later.

I am almost done with 2 pairs of socks… Pics later.

I have finished another Basket Whip Cowl… pics later.

This week will be swamped with the making of wedding cake and cupcakes… pics later.

You get the drift!  I’ll give a full report from the wedding and try to catch you up on things happening here… later.

Hugs to all!  I am hoping the tulle fairies really help us out with the decorating… I’ve never been really good with those kinds of things!

Kat

It’s Sort’a Like…

Getting back to posting on the blog is sort’a like…'

1.  Getting back to exercising after slacking for a while.

2.  Cleaning house after you have let it go to pot around you.

3.  Calling someone you have intended to talk to, but have put off so long you are embarrassed to call.

4.  Doing that little thing for yourself, that you enjoy, but you are so busy “fighting fires” in your world you just keep procrastinating.

5.  Feeling guilty every time you see others doing something (blogging) you know YOU should be doing.

 

For whatever reason(s), the blog has sat idle for months now.  It’s just hard to get back in the habit, so I will have to make a “routine” to cover this.  Yes, I have had lots of things I could have posted.  Yes, I have wonderful pictures of events over the last 5 months that could have been shown to you (most of them still captive in my camera).

I’m trying again… please be patient with me as I try to reestablish my blogging routine.

My latest feat… finishing my Farmer’s Wife quilt (all 111 – 6” blocks)!  I’m sewing the binding down now, and will hopefully be finished with it this weekend.  I absolutely LOVE it!  It is HUGE, so getting a good picture will be challenging but I will do the best I can.

Lots of knitting has been done in the last five months.  I will try and get those pictures loaded.

Kilt construction… yes, everyone needs a camo kilt to properly participate in the “Men In Kilts” golf scramble.  And DH makes such a striking figure in a kilt!

Stay tuned… in between wedding preps (for DD) and dealing with garden veggies, I promise to really give blogging a better effort in the future.

And love to all of you who have sent emails to check and be sure I am ok… I really appreciate it!

KAT

PS:  You KNOW it has been too long since your last post when you have to SEARCH for the “post” button to send the latest attempt to the blog…. so sad!

A Fickle Persuasion…

Knitting can be such a fickle thing… it goes from wonderful to hair-pulling on a whim.  I am always just 1 mis-stitch away from a disaster, it seems.  It is sort of like Mr. Boots, our beloved minx stray that adopted us.  He craves attention and loves to be scratched or rubbed, but he may very well nip the hand that is loving on him.  Knitting is that way… except it may bite on the nether parts.

I am working my very first lace pattern!  Yes!  I can do this!  I am at the half-way mark on my project.  I proudly pat myself on the back from time to time as I am working along, loving the way the pattern is developing, row by row. Pattern row, knit row, pattern row, knit row.  But wait… something is not working out here.

“Pride goeth before the fall.”  How true these words of wisdom are.  It only takes one time of forgetting to do the YO (yarn over) to totally throw the pattern off. (Actually, I MAY have forgotten to YO several times on the offending row, but it only takes ONE time to blow the pattern out of the water.)  And since there is a plain row between each pattern row, being the novice knitter that I am, I did not realize the incorrect stitch count until it was too late.

“Frogging”  (Rippit-rippit!) goes so easily in quilting, although it is a real time-killer when you are under a deadline.   When I mis-stitch in quilting I just grab the seam ripper and pick out the offending stitches, re-stitch, and we are good to go.  You would think knit “frogging” would also be a breeze but it just is not so.  And I submit the evidence below:

1.  Just a quick glance can usually tell me where the quilting went bad… I have worked on finding my knitting mistake for about 1 1/2 hours now.

2.  Taking the knitting OUT is easy, but making sure you have all the live stitches on the needles is a real pain, and very time consuming. This has taken about another 45 minutes to rip back one row of 120 stitches.

3.  Then there is the little problem of being sure the stitches on the needles are turned the correct way after frogging.  I am slowly figuring this out… experience is a hard but good teacher on things like this. 

Long story short, I THINK I have found the problem, I THINK I have ripped out all the mistake-ridden row, and I THINK I have all stitches turned the correct direction.  We will see… the next pattern row will be the “proof in the pudding”.

But it will be SOOO worth it when my Fresco Basket Whip Cowl (a free Ravelry pattern) is finished.   The soft, squishiness  of the KnitPicks Andean Treasure yarn (100% baby alpaca)  and the “Tidepool” color are wonderful things.  (It is a little brighter in color than the photo shows.)

I know you are thinking, “She lives in Louisiana.  When would she ever need a cowl?”  Sometimes it just is not about NEED, my friends, but rather a NEED to KNIT!  Colder weather is coming next week, and I will be so ready for it, in my Fresco Basket Whip Cowl, which I am hoping does NOT cause “hat-hair” when used as shown in the Ravelry picture.

For those visiting from Judy’s Patchwork Times “On the Needles Friday”, you may enjoy seeing the BOATLOAD of knitting I have done in the past month.  Check this post for an update, please.

Happy knitting, my friends.  May all your k2tog’s and yo’s be correctly placed!

KAT

Socks In A Week…

And Other Knitting Feats Beyond Belief!

Yes, really.  I did knit a pair of socks in one week!  I knit while watching TV, and football is a wonderful opportunity for knitting.  So what does this accomplishment tell you?  I have been watching WAY too much football, but it will soon be over.

The pattern is “Circle Socks”, a free pattern from Ravelry.  The yarn is Lion Brand Sock-Ease.

I have been knitting up a storm, and a lot of it was for gifting.

Pedi Socks for my Katie Bug from a yarn that pooled too much in my size.  She loves them!

Socks for my step-father… finished 5 minutes AFTER they said, “Let’s open presents now!”

The Reader’s Wrap, finished, blocked, and gifted to a friend.  (That is my sock blocker sticking into the pocket so you will notice how pretty they came out!)

Three crocheted shawls to leave at church so those of us that are cold-natured can be comfortable while the hot- natured ones have the air going.  I have yarn for another one but it will have to wait until I get over my knitting frenzy.

I played around with the Slipper Purse pattern (another free Ravelry pattern).  I am still working on getting it to come out the right size.  I have made one that was way too large and another that was way too small… hopefully the next attempt will get it right.

I am working on finishing up this pair of socks started in October.  I really did not like the yarn (It was sale yarn, so that excuses me for choosing this.) and it was so very boring knit in plain stockinet stitch.

I debated abandoning the project, but I just don’t do that.  So I ripped back to the gusset decreases and worked the “Simple Skyp” pattern, another free Ravelry pattern.  I LOVE doing this pattern, and it is keeping my interest enough to go ahead and finish the pair. 

One sock is complete and I am working on the foot for the next one.

And I have knit 1 fingerless mitt for myself.  I promise pictures when they are finished.  I am hoping to get the other one done soon… having only one is useless, so I will try to have the 2nd one done before really cold weather returns.

And there you have it… knitting up a storm.  I have to because… (SSHHHHHH!  Don’t tell, but my KnitPicks order of more yarn should be here soon… I am SOOO weak when they flash the S-A-L-E word around.)

Happy knitting, or sewing, or whatever you are finding to do on this wonderful, rainy day.

KAT

Fair Warning!

Quilting can be very HUMBLING!  Regardless of your “professional” quilter status, regardless of how many awards you have won at large quilt shows, regardless of having had one of your quilts printed in a nationally distributed calendar, this week I discovered you can STILL do something really STUPID when quilting!  And no, I was not drinking, so I have nothing to blame it on except plain old not thinking!

The pieces for hubby’s sofa quilt are all cut out from recycled shirts and a solid cheddar fabric.  I had created a quilt plan in EQ7.  I printed out the picture of the quilt.  I figured fabric amounts needed.  I made notes of piece sizes and borders to cut.  That is all great… until I realized that I , too, am human and made a rookie mistake. 

While sewing the pieces together for these 4.5” finished 9-patch blocks I stopped to measure and be sure everything was as it should be.  But wait… the strip sets are measuring 5”… well DUH!  With seam allowances it SHOULD measure 5”… but then it dawns on me that I have cut 70 squares (the 60 I needed plus 10 more so I could adjust if colors ended up together… wasn’t I smart in thinking ahead like that?) that only measure 4.5”, from my precious recycled shirts, and some of them I used the last little bits I had… you get the picture?  I went back to check my notes, and written plain as day beside the notes for the squares is “cut 4.5 inches”.  GRRRRRR!

I will now try to scrape together enough shirt fabrics of the appropriate colors to cut 60 squares in the CORRECT size of 5”.  And I was making such good progress on this until reality burst my bubble!

The good news is… I am off for SIL  New Year’s Quilt Retreat tomorrow.  Fun, food, and sewing from now through Jan. 1 sounds just wonderful to me.

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!  May all your cutting measurements be correct in the New Year.  (And I hope that blessing comes back to rest on me… it appears I NEED it.)

And thank you for hanging with me in my blogging absence.  Inspiration (and time to post) has returned and I promise to be a more frequent poster.

Love and blessings to you all in the New Year,

KAT

Checking In…

The festivities are about to begin.  There will be some SERIOUS food indulgences… Weight Watchers will take a back seat in my eating today, then back on the plan tomorrow.  There will also be lots of laughter, visiting, busy children and catching up with siblings.  Thanksgiving at my Mom’s & Dad’s house will be absolutely CRAZY!  That’s because by the time all 5 of us children plus spouses, plus our children, plus grandchildren (and often a few non-family members added into the mix) get there we will have close to 30 people crammed into her house trying to get a reasonable serving of her homemade dressing before it is gone.

There will be tons of other food, but I’ll probably skip dessert for the most part and get 2nds on dressing if there is any left.  All this is written to tell you, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And much in keeping with the traditions we were taught about the first Thanksgiving, DH killed a nice deer this morning. It won’t make it to the feast, but it will go into the freezer and I will be very thankful for it all year long!

I apologize for my great absence from the blog and also inform you that there won’t be much blogging between now and the new year.  Life is busy!  I am sure we can ALL use that excuse right now.  Yes, I have things to blog about but difficulty finding making time to do it.  Please bear with me!

The new laptop has a learning curve getting things set up where it is convenient to do the things I did so quickly on the old one… but I am slowly getting there.  There is an unbelievable difference in XP and Windows 7… I am SOOOO glad I opted NOT to get W8!!  That would be so beyond me at this point since the only thing I know about “smart” phone-type browsing is I don’t have a smart phone, and I don’t want one.  And then there is this thing where the cursor just jumps to places I don’t want it to go while I am in the midst of typing… anyone out there got a fix for THAT?  It is seriously causing me angst!  I guess you can’t (easily) teach an old(er) dog new (computer) tricks!

Enough dribble…. I’m off to eat, visit, and watch football.  I wish you and yours a wonderful day of counting blessings.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, Y’ALL!!

KAT

I’m Back!

Did you miss me?  I REALLY missed all of you!!  You might be wondering where I have been.  The following poem will explain…

ODE TO MY DEAD LAPTOP (By Kathy Ellzey)

My very useful friend for the last 5 years…

Your untimely demise brought me to tears.

File clean-up?  So sorry… that took too much time.

Organize all my files? It will all be just fine!

Regularly make back-ups? I’ll get to that some day.

I now apologize for all my negligent ways!

Printing business invoices?  I no longer can do them.

No more surfing; no more Face Book on a momentary whim.

Finding phone numbers, weekly blogging…  Oops! No more for me!

Solitaire? Mahjong?… just a sad, sad memory.

My loyalties are now split between you and another…

Because this week I purchased your bigger, faster brother.

So welcome home, new laptop.  I’m loving you already!

You rescued my rear end, and made my world so steady.

So now you know!  It will take a while to get things all organized and set up for uploading pictures and such, but at least I am now back on-line.  I have lots of posts planned and lots of photos to rescue from the camera.  Hopefully by the end of the week I will have this new OS figured out.  Stay tuned… good things are to come!

KAT

Lost…

I’ve lost it!  I can’t seem to find it anywhere.  Several times I thought I was getting close, but it was not so.  I’ve lost my blogging incentive.  Several things have happened and I would think, “I ought to do a blog post about this.”  But I never followed through.  I know you don’t want a list of excuses so I offer none.

Distractions… perhaps I am just distracted by other things going on right now.  Life things, fun things, sewing things, knitting things, other things… so many distractions!

As quickly as it left, it is likely to reappear, so I am not overly concerned about this happening.  Stuff HAS been happening around me, a few pictures have been taken, and so I’ll post  these meager offerings in hope of keeping you with me…

The Stack and Whack donation quilt.

 

The quilting design is “Honeysuckle”, one of my favorite leaf and vine designs.

 

I had another quilt also, but managed to “oops” the pictures while transferring from camera to computer.  I REALLY must go change my recycle bin settings where things are kept there for a while so I can retrieve my mistakes!

I have been getting lots of knitting done.  The Reader’s Wrap is so near completion.  Just a few more inches and I’ll be ready to work on the pockets.  It is at that gangly, difficult-to-photo stage, but I hope you get the idea.

 

I think you will get a better view of the color on this photo.

Almost done with sock pair #8  for the year.  I’m rushing to finish these because I want to cast on…

this wonderful hand painted yarn that was gifted to me.  I had really thought about taking a break from sock knitting but have been drawn back in by this lovely.  I think I will choose some sort of rather simple pattern for this, rather than knitting my usual fast and plain stockinet.  We shall see.

Now… off to do housework, sew a little, pack for quilt club tonight, and then start gathering things for a few days of quilt retreat with friends.  Distracted… that’s exactly what I am!

Have a wonderful week!

KAT