Holidaze

Well we survived all of the xmas traveling!
We had a lot of fun while we were gone. Babygurl got lots of toys and books. TH got a craftsman cart for his miniatures stuff, and some DVDs. I got lots of cool stuff including the new Cat Bordhi sock book, Knit picks Harmony dpns, and a new camera. My sister also gave us some great framed pictures of Babygurl.

Now that the madness is (somewhat) over, I'm trying to get the website updated. I also have to set up a shop page for TH on the nuclear ink website. Aaarghh! work stuff ! Before any work stuff gets done though, Babygurl and I have to go buy stuff for her new big gurl bed that we got yesterday.

I made pie!

and yes it was pretty easy. I made a pumpkin pie using condensed goat milk since TH has issues with cow's milk. I did have to condense the milk myself, cause the stuff from the can tasted horrible. I also used a graham cracker crust.



I cant believe it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, then Babygurl's B-day on the third! She's gonna be 2. I have so much stuff to do, cleaning Christmas shopping etc...

I did manage to finish another baby blankie amongst the chaos.



while i was taking pictures/doing laundry, Babygurl got a hold of the camera.



Yesterday TH and I finally had time so he could tattoo me, we're working on my left leg it's pretty much going to be a wildlife scene. He did the turtle before Babygurl was born, and now I have a couple of clown loach fish. I can't really take pic's of it by myself so I'll just have to post them later.

Here's a picture I made in Photoshop.



Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.
-- Bill Cosby

Visit this website

http://freerice.com/index.php

learn words, feed people!

Halloween adventures

For Halloween this year we bought Babygurl an Elizabeth Swan costume, It was very cute on her even though it was a little too big. we put it on when we got it home and she wanted it off after about 15 minutes, so we waited a couple of days and tried again she wouldn't even try it, she screamed and ran away! Soo...we took it back to the store and got an Alice costume instead, she loved it and wouldn't take it off. I had to scramble to make costumes for Tattoo Husband and me. He went as the Mad Hatter and I was the White Rabbit.










Babygurl even helped with the pumpkins she picked out. Sshe did the top one with a sharpie and I did the bottom one, they were both very small so I couldn't carve anything intricate.

green tomatoes

It's October and I still have green tomatoes. OCTOBER! and they're still flowering too! I can't believe it. Don't they know they were supposed to be ripe a moth ago so we could eat them all.
silly tomatoes. I guess I'll have to bring them inside to ripen before the frost kills them.

Babygurl decided she wanted to wear daddy's leather jacket while I was at a stitch & bitch on tuesday.







She also likes to ride on the Giant killer bunny with sharp nasty pointy teeth, that TH got me for X-mas last year.



Ok now the stuff I'm working on: the sun blankie, I'm crocheting the edge I did a blanket stitch around, now I'm in the process of doing a single crochet, then I will do a scallop.



The Drunken jaywalker, not much done but I'm into the patterning now. I've kinda put this on the back burner cause I have to get other stuff done for christmas/before babies are born.



The mini socks, 2 left to knit! then I will have all of them done for the christmas ornaments.

Web store update

I have been going insane trying to get my web store up and running. I finally ordered the zen cart book. I figured out most of the product listings and stuff i just have to get them put in, then it will at least be functional. Hopefully by the end of next week. I can make it prettier once I get the book.

Settling back in....ahhh!

Finally settling back into some sort of routine after all of the traveling. Babygurl is still staying up too late (but so am I). My studio is almost organized, I just have a few bins of misc. stuff to sort through, and two bins full of fabric scraps to sort and toss. I still have to clean up my dyeing room a bit though, I have two fleeces in bags in the middle of it. :) While I was at the SD state fair I got a 3rd place rambouillet fleece, and a babydoll fleece for $15 I'm so excited! now I just have to decide if I want to send them out for processing. I finally got the Stste Fair pics uploaded too.


Baaa!


Anybody wanna boogie?


Babygurl watchin a DVD and chillin with Grandpa

and here's some pictures after we got home



She wanted the whole loaf.


Helping daddy read his new book.


Say Cheese!

Home again!

Yay! I'm home again and not sick, just sick of house work and laundry:)
I finally figured out how to put my header on my website, so I spent all day working on that, check it out. hopefully I will get some shop stuff put up , but for now check out my stuff on etsy or the Lime&Violet shop.

And now here is a random picture! Oh and by the way, Embrace the fibery goodness or ye walk the plank!

Montana

O.K., so I haven't blogged in a while... I have a good excuse though. I went to Montana, then babygurl and I got sick the day before we came home. A fever and chills sure made the 16 hour car trip more fun.Ha Ha! Then she got an ear infection and I got a sinus infection. Yay more fun!
Any way here are some pics from the trip.


the Crazy mountain range. that's really it's name!


on the first day there we hiked up to a waterfall.


we went to yellowstone, and saw old faithful. It didn't go off til after dark so no eruption pics.


the lodge sign by our cabin.


the buffalo, (or buffafo as babygurl calls them) across the street from our cabin.




Montana on fire. this is not clouds, people it's smoke!

I did have some time to work on my projects, I finished a little over 1/4th of the edgeing on the lantern blankie, and two mini socks.
I told T.H. I wanted a picture of me knitting in yellowstone, but we didn't get one.

Wool soup for dinner again.

Tuesday July 24th was natural dye day, I was going for a nice gold color. The one on the left is marigold, on the right is Osage orange in both pictures. The marigold is going to be a little more work though, if you look closely in the picture below there is a lot of petals in the wool. I should have put them in a mesh bag. Oops!



Wed. the 25th Babygurl and I went to Grandma & Grandpa's, then Up to Great Grandma & Grandpa's on the 29th. Although Babygurl learned how to get out of the crib, and we were pretty busy, we still had fun. I learned a bit of history too. Did you know in 1949 one night in a hotel room was only $4.35?

Anyway, here is Babygurl eating some corn on the cob that we picked, she LOVES corn now.:)



Then we gave the corncobs to the cows. I tried to get a picture of Babygurl climbing the fence but she was just going up and down one bar of it.







This is a project I started on Sunday, I found the flannel at Jo-Ann fabrics in Sioux Falls, SD. Tattoo Husband's apprentice & his wife are expecting a baby girl in October. She will need a cool flannel blankie. It's going to be a welcome to the world present.

I decided to do the picot edging a little more curvey on this blankie. So far I've only got one corner picoted. I did that while I was trying to get babygurl down for a nap on Monday. Now I know it takes an hour and a half (with some put the kid back in the crib breaks.) to crochet one corner of edging.

Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.

Evan Davis

knitting & tattoos

On Tues. Babygurl decided she needed some tattoos to match mommy and daddy, so she drew some herself. When daddy got home from work she showed him, then gave him a marker and held out her arm for him to do some.


It was crayola washable markers so it came right off.

Do knitting and tattoos go together? The answer is yes.
We left on Wed. evening for Kansas City, MO, for the annual APT's Tattoo Rendezvous . We had fun, while Tattoo Husband was working, Babygurl and I wandered around, went swimming, and visited people. She made quite an impression.







She loved looking at all of the tattooed people, and got to play with some kids about her age, and daddy's cousins. She flirted with all the guys, and chatted with all the women.

I got to meet some pretty cool people, one woman made some cool jewelry. The photographer's wife watched me working on the baby jays and said " now I have to go home and learn to knit." By the end of the convention I had finished the jays, working off and on while Babygurl was napping, and even cast on for the drunken jaywalkers with some Tub o Gin self striping.

Good suprises today!!!

I got home from the Tattoo convention in Kansas City, MO at about 3:30pm today, turned the computer on, unloaded the van, got the regular mail. My book came while I was gone. I had ordered The Natural Knitter by Barbara Albright. I set the book aside so I could check my email, then I was going to tell you all about the trip and post pics...........

But I got my Ravelry invite today!!!!!!
I played all day!
So it is now midnight and I haven't even gotten my camera out of the knitting bag to charge, or looked at my new book. I'll have to post stuff tomorrow or wednesday.

Baby Jays

Baby Jaywalker Pattern

First of all, I cannot take credit for this pattern the original pattern is written by Grumperina, I only changed some numbers around. Also Thanks to Minnie for helping me with the math.

This pattern is about a size 6 or 7 toddler.

Materials
Cherry Tree Hill Yarn of unknown colorway (the ball band was missing)

US 1 / 2.25mm set of 5 double pointed needles

Darning needle

Size
6 inches around foot and 5.5 inches from top of leg to bottom of heel

Abbreviations
k-f/b: increase 1 stitch by knitting in the front and back loops of the same stitch
ssk: slip slip knit – slip 2 stitches individually as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop.
dd: double decrease – slip 2 stitches together as if to knit, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitches over the knitted stitch
sl1 – slip 1 stitch as if to purl

Leg
Cast on 52 sts. Divide sts. onto 4 needles, 13 sts on each. Join into a round, being careful not to twist sts.

Note: this join is the beginning of all future rounds; it is at the back of the leg. Needles are numbered relative to this join – the first one worked is #1, etc.

Begin ribbing: *k2, p2; repeat from * around. Work established ribbing pattern for 1 inch / 2.5 cm.

Begin zigzag pattern:
Round 1: k every stitch.
Round 2: *k-f/b, 4, dd, k4k-f/b; repeat from * a total of 4 times.
Work zigzag pattern until leg measures 6 3/4 inches / 17 cm (7 inches / 18 cm) or desired length to top of heel. End with round 1.

Heel
Heel flap: k13 sts on needle #1, turn. Sl1, P26, turn. These 27 sts form the heel flap. The remaining 27 sts form the instep and are unused for the moment. Work heel back and forth, turning after every row.
Row 1: *sl1, k1; repeat from *.
Row 2: sl1, p26.
Repeat the last 2 rows 8 more times.

Turn heel:
Row 1: sl1, k14, ssk, k1, turn.
Row 2: sl1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn.
Row 3: sl1, knit within 1 st of the gap, ssk, k1, turn.
Row 4: sl1, purl to within one st of the gap, p2tog, p1, turn.
Repeat rows 3 and 4 until all heel sts are worked. There are 16 heel sts.

Heel gussets: sl1, k15 heel sts, pick up and k11 sts along the side of the heel flap. Work 26 instep sts in established pattern (round 2 of zigzag pattern, but repeat from * a total of 2 times). With an empty needle, pick up and k11 sts along the other side of the heel flap, 8 sts from the heel needle. There are 13 sts on needles #2 and #3, 19 sts on needles #1 and #4.
Round 1: Work to 3 sts from end of needle #1, k2tog, k1. Work instep sts in established pattern (round 1 of zigzag pattern). K1, ssk at beginning of needle #4, work to end.
Round 2: Work to 1 st from end of needle #1, sl1. Work instep sts in established pattern (round 2 of zigzag pattern). Sl1 at beginning of needle #4, work to end.

Note: in the heel and foot portions, the instep stitches on needles #2 and #3 are demarcated by slipped stitches at each side to resemble the patterning of the leg portion. The slipped stitches are made every other round on those edges of needles #1 and #4 which border the instep.

Repeat the last 2 rounds until there are 11 sts on needles #1 and #4. There are 26 instep sts and 22 sole stitches, 48 sts total. The difference in the number of instep and sole stitches accounts for the varying tensions of zigzag and stockinette stitch patterns.

Foot
Continue even in established pattern (including the slipped stitches mentioned above) until foot measures 2 inches (5 cm) less than desired finished length. End with round 1 of zigzag pattern.

Toe
Round 1: Work needle #1 even. *K1, ssk at the beginning of needle #2, work to 3 sts from end of needle, k2tog, k1. Repeat from * for needle #3. Work needle #4 even. 44 sts remain.
Round 2: Work needle #1 even. K1, ssk at the beginning of needle #2. Work to 3 sts from end of needle #3, k2tog, k1. Work needle #4 even. 42 sts remain.
Round 3: Work even.
Round 4: Work to 3 sts from end of needle #1, k2tog, k1. K1, ssk at beginning of needle #2. Work to 3 sts from end of needle #3, k2tog, k1. K1, ssk at beginning of needle #4, work to end of needle.
Round 5: Work even.
Repeat the last 2 rounds until there are 4 sts on each needle, 16 stitches total. Work to the end of needle #1. Move the sts on needles #1 and #4 onto one needle, and the other stitches on another needle. Kitchener stitch these sts together.

Finishing
Weave in all ends.