My Favorite Things.....

I'm back..............

When last we spoke it was way back in November.  I have been doing a lot of blog reading but nothing in the way of blog writing. 

Back in November, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer.  This has been quite a jolt to everyone around me.  I have never been sick with anything significant until now.  It's been quite an adjustment to lay around and have people (John mostly----he has become quite domesticated) wait on me.  In December I underwent extensive surgery to remove all disease that could be safely removed.  This included a complete hysterectomy, apendectomy, and whatever else my wonderful surgeon could find.  Beginning in January I was released from the hospital and started my life with weekly chemo treatments---three weeks on and one week off.  Fortunately, I haven't been too sick with nausea-----they treat it before it starts.  I have my treatments on Monday and by Wednesday and Thursday I'm pretty much out of commission.  I have lost all my hair and beginning to lose my eye brows and eye lashes.  Now wear a wig which I'm very self-conscious about.  I have lost 40 lbs which I needed to lose but never wanted to in this way.  Nothing taste good to me and my appetite has dwindled.  I have good days and not so good days, but my lab work looks good and each day I feel a little stronger.

I want to send out a very special Thank You to Wendy.  She came all the way from Birmingham, AL to visit me the day I had surgery and came back the next day when I was awake and knew she was there.  She brought John a goody bag filled with things to snack on while he waited the 5-6 hours in the waiting room.  He really enjoyed that.  What a friend!!!!!!!  Thank you, Wendy for your thoughtfulness, kindness and prayers.  She even called me on my birthday to wish me a happy birthday and to find out how I was doing----you're the greatest, Wendy!!!!!!!!!

I also want to tell everyone how much you have helped me along the way with your prayers, gifts, and cards.  It has been such a blessing to receive the cards and to know that you are thinking about me and my recovery.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

What would we have done without Alicia!!!!!  She comes up from Charleston about once a month and does the shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, helping with getting the papers up for the taxes and many other things.  Thank you, Alicia, for all your help.  Angela comes when she can get time off.  Although she would love to come more often, she does have a job and can have just so many days off.  It's just not smart for her to come in on Saturday and turn around and go back the next day.  She has done what she can and I appreciate her thoughtfulness.  Thank you Alicia and Angela for being such wonderful daughters to help your father and me through all this.

You would think I would have knit every inch of stash that I own by now; but, I haven't really felt like knitting. As I mentioned before, I have lost my hair, so I needed some hats.  I made two.  Then, a cousin sent me a darling scarf kit.  It's a small scarf called Barb's Koigu Ruffle.  I started it a couple of weeks ago and am on the last half of the ruffle---won't be too long before I finish. 

I can't write any more right now, but I'll put up pictures of the hats and scarf when the scarf is complete.  Thanks for checking back with me even though I have been a very bad blogger.  I promise I'll try to be better.

Oh, he returned....

the bear, that is.  Only, this time he left his calling card with a little more  to it-------the remains of one of my fish (scales and fins) was awaiting Max and I as we returned from our little walk this morning.  Max is the one that found them---naturally----he keeps his nose on the ground when we walk ;)  No pictures as I didn't think you would be interested in seeing that.

Have a cute story for you.  Alicia went to pick up John at school yesterday.  As soon as he got in the car he told her that he and one of his friends were in compitition for who was going to marry one of the little girls in his class.  He said it was him and that was for real.  All this coming from a little five-year-old who just two weeks ago told me he didn't want to have anything to do with girls. ;)  He also told his mother on another occasion that his friend was going to marry one of the two girls in his class and that he wasn't going to get married.  Then he asked Alicia if someone would make him get married,  Jokingly, his father said----"Yes".

That's all.  Back to knitting.  Just wanted to keep you abreast of the lurching bear. ;)

Return of the..............................

BEAR!!!!  Yesterday morning just before the sun had completely come up, Max and I went for our daily morning walk.  I could barely see where I was going but just enough that I didn't trip up on anything.  We walked out to the end of the driveway, turned around and walked back on the upper part of the driveway and around by the garage.  I saw some wet spots in the middle of the drive that were coming from the fish pond and then there was a large wet spot between the front of the wall of the pond and John's car. (These pictures were taken later in the morning after I fixed John's breakfast so most of the prints were gone when I got back outside.  You can stil make them out though)

 

 

My conclusion:  the bear was fishing in my fish pond and when Max and I came out the back door to go for our walk, we scared him off.  Believe you me, I was very careful to check the pond area BEFORE we went for our walk this morning!!!!!!  Oh, and I did see one fish at lunch today when I walked Max again.  So the bear didn't get them all.  Actually, they like to hide under the rocks, so I think he may have found it difficult to fish for them.

On other news-----I had to restart John's vest :(  I got all the knitting done except the collar and had him try it on.  It was too small.  I could have blocked it larger and it would have fit except for the fact that the ultra suede on the pockets would not have stretched and would have distorted and thrown off the whole front of the vest.  Thank goodness I had not spent all the time necessary to put in the pockets.  I know, I'm sick because I thought I was well on my way to being finished.    So, because I couldn't think of a neat and un-noticeable way to increase the width, I decided to just start all over from the beginning with the measuring, adding plenty of "ease" into my final measurements, checking and double checking.  I also decided to change yarns.  I'm now using The Heathers by Cascade Yarns in a green heather colorway.  We thought about going with a brown like the original vest, but the ultra suede that I bought just didn't look good with it---so----back to the green.  Just cast on last night so I don't have anything to show you.  I saved the other vest so I can use it for reference when I'm ready to place the pockets (especially the upper one).  I'll reuse that yarn for something else later, I'm sure!

Weekend before last was SAFF.  Wendy and her friend Bibby came up for the show.  John and I took them out to eat on Friday night and then Saturday I met her for some shopping.  She is such a bad influence on me (in a good way).  I bought some yarn from Brooks Farm out of Lancaster, TX.  The first skein was "Acero" and they gave us a free scarf pattern to go with it.  I couldn't wait to cast on to see what it was going to look like.  I love knitting with the yarn, but I'm not at all happy with the way it is pooling and there is nothing I can do about it.  It's making "Z's all the way up the scarf and I don't like the effect.  I'll continue with the scarf until it is finished, but it's a little disheartning to say the least.  It's a pretty  scarf pattern.  I don't know if you can tell from this blurred photo, but it alternates garter stitch rows with rows of k1, yo, k2tog and that's it!  There isn't really a right or wrong side as they both look the same.

 

I also got two skeins of "Ellie"  from Brooks Farm to make their Belleza vest.  The pattern is very long and has long armholes which I will have to shorten.  We put it up to me and a size M had the bottom of the armholes below my waist.  I'm short waisted, but that was a little rediculous.  I'm just hoping that it doesn't do the same pooling.  Anyone familiar with this yarn?  I can't possibly cast on for that until I finish John's vest--that has to be done in four weeks.

Hope you had a fun filled Halloween yesterday.  I got tickled at Angela when she made a comment on her facebook that went something like this:  "Oh, come on, people!!!!  Who really hands out boxes of Wheaties for Halloween treats!!!!!"  Can't you just see the look on Nathan's face when he was given this.  I can just see him saying-----"Oh, uh, thank you!!!!"(he always says thank you, no matter what)  A friend of hers commented that she would rather her children get the Wheaties than a handful of Vanilla Wafers right out of the box (which her children got).  Such is Halloween and Trick-or-Treating.  Speaking of Trick or Treating---what is this new thing that I have seen all over town "Trunk" or Treating?  I've never seen that before and don't know what they mean by it. 

OK.  Back to John's vest after another walk with Max.

Welted, zippered pockets.........

I sat down with my swatch today and played around with the ultra suede welts and zipper.  Here is a step-by-step photo shoot of the progress:

Step One---  Here is the swatch with the provisional stitches for the placement of the pocket:

 

Step Two---Here I have put the live stitches on the top and bottom on Size US 1 double points.

 
Step Three--  The center of the provisional stitches are cut the entire length of the pocket.

 

Step Four--All of the provisional stitches are removed.

 

Step Five---I did four rows of garter stitch on the top and bottom of the pocket opening using the same yarn as the swatch.  This I will change.  It is too thick, so I need to use a thinner yarn here and change to stockinette to reduce the bulk.  You can see in the later photos how the bulk shows up around the edges of the pocket opening.

 

Step Six--I picked up four stitches on each side and k 2 rows of garter stitch, decreased two stitches on the next row, decreased one stitch on the last row and bound off.  This gives a nice triangle shape to turn to the inside and sew to the turned welts.  Here I will also change to stockinette to reduce the bulk.

 

Step Seven--I marked the placement of the welts.

Step Eight---Finished welt.  I did not get photos of this step as I was so busy trying to figure it all out that I didn't even think about it.  What I did was measure out a piece of my ultra suede the width and length of the desired welt.  I folded it and used Stitch Witchery to fuse the two folded sides together.  Then I stitched it right sides together.  I turned the swatch over to the wrong side and pulled out all my marking yarn.  I cut the ultra suede down the middle resulting in two separate welts, turned them to the inside and stitched down the little triangles on each side.

 

Step Nine--Here I just layed the finsihed welts on top of the zipper just to see what it would look like.  What I will do to install the zipper is to place it where I want it to be (I'll have to shorten all the zippers to fit the pockets), lay down two strips of a double sided tape to the right side of the zipper, lay this face down to the wrong side of the welts to hold it in place.  Then I will turn to the right side of the vest and "stitch in the ditch" which will attach the zipper to the vest.

 

Step Ten will be making the pocket linings.  Because of the bulk, I have to decide if I want to use a finer guage yarn or maybe even a fabric lining for the pockets.  I'm also debating about lining the entire vest (the one I'm using as a guide is lined).  It would make a neater finish on the inside and cover up all the mechanics of the pockets.  I'll have to think about this long and hard.

I worked on this all day, and I'm so glad that I made the swatch to practice on.  There are things I will change as I mentioned above.  Had I not made the swatch, I would have been ripping out until I got it right.  I think it's going to look pretty good when I finish it.  At least John likes it and that's what is important, isn't it.

 

 

 

Ghosts, Skeletons, and Jack-o-lanterns

Just returned from baby sitting John and Maggie in Charleston while Alicia went on a "girls only" retreat to Myrtle Beach for a few days.  Before I left, I had a few things that needed to be appliqued and sewn up.

Here is a pair of pants for John.  This material is corduroy with what looks like embroidered labs all over it.  I actually cut these out last year, had them partially made, and for whatever reason didn't get them finished.  Thank goodness John will be able to wear them a month or so before his long legs outgrow them.  We were a little worried that they wouldn't fit length-wise.

 
Maggie needed a long-sleeve knit shirt with her monogram on the front.  Alicia bought the little shirt and I just did the monogram on it.

 
Ghosts, skeletons, and jack-o-lanterns were a must before I headed out to Charleston so the little ones would have them for Halloween.

 
Again, Alicia bought the t-shirts.  John wanted a skeleton on his (which was very difficult cutting around those bones for the applique, by the way).  Angela wanted a pumpkin face on Nathan's orange t-shirt.  Now for Maggie's jumper----it's reversible (I'll show you the other side below).  there is a little story behind the jumper.  Maggie had one like this last year and it was too short.  I had a Children's Corner pattern exactly like it, so I made the new jumper a size larger and cut the original appliques from the old jumper and zigzaged them in place.  The ghost side is a back and white gingham with black buttons and the reverse side is for Thanksgiving (thus the turkey) and made with orange and white gingham with covered buttons.  Here's the reverse side:

 

I couldn't decide what knitting UFO I wanted to work on while in Charleston so I took four different project bags and made the decision once I got there.  The winner was the Bellevue cardigan by Laura Chau.  I am about to finish the neck decreases and then will have only a few more arm decreases.  I've never finished arms like this before; and, I must say, I like it.  Great technique:  start out with raglan decreases and changed to what ends up looking like a set-in sleeve.  I'll do another one like this with a longer sleeve and a longer bodice.  Here you can see how the sleeve is going:

 
I only have one more skein of yarn left, so I'm crossing my fingers that I will have enough.  I would certainly hate to rip this all out because I didn't have enough.

As for John's vest-----I'm almost finished with the decreases along the neck edge.  Not very much longer before I start with the zippers----------

  
 

 

Vest News, Blue Gingham Ruffle Pants and Applique for Maggie, and Fall Festival 2010

First things first:  I got the knitting done past the upper pocket on the vest.  I got to looking at the placement of the pocket and didn't like the looks of it.  To the frog pond I ran and fast as I could.  It was not a major problem, but took the afternoon working off and on to get it back the way I wanted it to be.  I have ordered my ultra suede and zippers.  It took me a while to find the right zippers and have all four of them match, but I did it.  I ordered the zippers from http://www.zipperstop.com and the ultra suede from http://www.maryjos.com     They should all be here one day this week.  Meanwhile, I'll keep knitting and be ready for them when they arrive.

I finished up Maggie's blue gingham ruffle pants and the lollipop applique shirt.  I purchased the shirt from Baby Gap, which  is one of my favorite places to get these little knit shirts.  Here is the finished outfit:

 

and a close-up of the lollipop:

 

Next sewing project is to finish up the reversible jumper and do some halloween appliques on shirts for Nathan and John.  This time, Alicia got the shirts from Old Navy.  I've got some cute little skeletons, pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns to put on them.

Alicia, John and Maggie came up for the weekend; and, conveniently our local elementary school sponsored a fall festival.  What fun they had.  There was the duck pond, tatoos, face painting (we didn't do this), jump castles (the kids loved these), the fishing pond, hay ride, all the food you could possible eat in an afternoon, and many other festival activities to enjoy.

Here's Maggie coming down the huge jump castle slide:

 
John and Maggie with the huge red cardinal:

 
Maggie in her witch's boots shirt and pants (we had to put a long-sleeve shirt under it because IT WAS COLD when we left the top of the mountain:

 
Going on the hay ride:

 
See the jump castle thing in the upper background of the hay ride picture?  Here is John jumping from the top down the back side----he was suppose to slide down it ;)

 

at the bottom:

 

Maggie at the fish pond:

 

Another wait in line:

 
They had a really good time.

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Max!!!!!, Update of Vest for John, and Appliques for Maggie!!!!

Today is Max's first birthday.  It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing him home:

 
 and now here he is one year old:

 
I decided that he needed a birthday cake, so while I was at the grocery store I found this cute little iced donut that I couldn't pass up.  Max loves it.  I tell him to go get his birthday cake and he finds it and brings it to me.  It's a rubber squeeky toy.  Just fit the bill for a birthday cake for Max ;)

 

As for the vest for John----well, it's coming along very nicely so far.  I'll show you a photo of how I knit in provisional pocket placements in the two front sides.  I have tentatively decided to take out those provisional stitches, use a smaller needle than I'm knitting the vest with and pick up those provisional stitches and knit two or three rows and sew my welts to those stitches, turn them to the inside, adhere a basting tape to the zipper to hold it in place on the inside (right side of zipper facing wrong side of vest), go to the right side and "stitch in the ditch" all the way around the pocket opening.  Hopefully I'll have a welted zipper pocket in John's vest when I get through.  Now to find some zippers.  John doesn't like the dual separating zippers and that's all I have been able to find locally.  I'm not using that on the pockets, only the center opening.  However, I do need for all of them to look alike.  Internet shopping is on the horizon.

I'm using Lynne's advice (thank you, Lynne) and have knit a swatch with the provisional pocket in place and will practice on that before I start working them on the vest.  Thank you all for your suggestions---they have all been very helpful.  I must say, the only way to do this is by trail and error.  There are no tutorials on zippered pockets in knitted fabric anywhere that I can find.  I even went down to my LYS and they acted like I was somewhere in left field.  They had no clue where to even begin.

There is one more idea of putting in the welted zippers that I'm going to try on my swatches.  This method is to sew the zipper directly to the welts before attaching it to the vest,  put that on the wrong side of the vest and hand stitch the whole thing to the vest.  I'm tending to like the first idea the best.  I'll just have to try them both to see which I like.

Here is a photo of how I did the provisional pocket placements.  I am much further along than this photo as I have just started the decreases for the arm holes and am about ready to place my provisional pocket on the upper left chest.

 

 

Meanwhile, I've also been sewing for Maggie.  Here is a pair of ruffled bottom pants with a short sleeve appliqued witch's boots and a long sleeve appliqued tea pot with Maggie's initial in the center (the plain white knit shirts were purchased ready-made and I added the appliques)

Close up of the teapot and witch's boots: 
 

 

Yesterday I made a reversible a-line jumper.  One side is black gingham with a "girly ghost" applique and the other side is orange gingham with a "turkey" applique (can be worn for both Halloween and Thanksgiving).  The appliques were actually on a jumper that Maggie had last year and we wanted to re-use them.  I carefully cut them out trying to not cut the satin stitches around them, used "wonder-under" to adhere them to the jumper and stitched them all the way around with another satin stitch.  I was lucky that I was able to match the thread exactly.  I still have to make the button holes and sew on the buttons.

Today, I made another pair of blue gingham ruffled bottom pants and have a long sleeve knit shirt that I'm going to applique a lollipop with a ribbon tied to the stick.  I added a piece of ric-rac on the ruffle seam which made the ruffle "pop".

I'll show you photos of these when they are finished.  Now it's time to go sit with Max for a little while and knit on John's vest.

Oh----it's getting chilly here and the leaves are beginning to turn and some are even falling off the trees.  Right now, it's raining---typical fall day.

 

Men's Sweater Vest With Zippered Pockets.......

John found this sweater vest that he wants me to make for him.  It was in the newest National Geographic catalog.

 

  It is a simple construction, but I'm a little concerned about putting in pocket zippers.  I have made welted pockets in jackets before, but I guess I'm just a little  apprehensive about knitted fabric and turning the welts.  The welts and the trim around the sleeves are feaux leather on the pictured vest.  I was thinking about using ultra-suede because the selvage doesn't have to be turned under and this will eliminate some thickness.  I've never put a zipper in knitted garments either, so this will be a learning experience for me.  I found a pattern on Ravelry that is similar to this vest so I'm going to use that as a guide for measurements.

 

This vest has a moss pattern, which is pretty, but I'm knitting mine in stockinette stitch with a 2"  1 x 1 ribbing with a 3 stitch garter stitch up the front, which I'll use to anchor the zipper.   I'm debating about how I will do the pockets.  I found an on-line tutorial that had you run a provisional stitch where you want the pockets to be.  After the knitting is done, you unzip the provisional stitches and pick up the loose stitches of the vest on two double point needles.   I was thinking outloud that I would do a garter stitch (or some such stitch) on the upper and lower stitches to have an anchor for the welt----but what do I do for the sides of the welt?  

 I'll use a vest of John's to get the measurements for the pocket placements.

ANY SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is my Mother's 89th birthday. 

(Pictured with my sister)

 

 Sadly, she is spending part of her day in the hospital.  Yesterday, while standing in the breakfast line at her assisted living home, she fell backwards and hit the floor---head first.  The nurses said it sounded like something hitting the side of the building when she fell.  She was holding on to her walker one minute and the next she was on the floor, passed out, unresponsive, and lips turning blue.  She was immediately taken to the emergency room.  Upon arrival, she was better than when she left the assisted living home.  Last night, she was much better-----wanting to go "home" because she had "too many things to do".  She was held over at the hospital over-night (against her will) for observation.  They ran all sorts of tests on her but haven't come to any conclusions---or at least they haven't told us.  We tend to think she may have had a mini-stroke.  We'll know for sure sometime today.

Happy Birthday, Mother.  You've come a long way.  Here are all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren from our last family reunion.  Last count there are 55 of us.  Since this picture, there have been marriages and new babies.

 

We're all going out to celebrate the "birthday girl" tomorrow.  Hope Mother will feel up to all the excitement and is able to go.

Twist and Shout!!!!

Have you seen the new Fall issue of Twist Collective?  WOW---is about the only word for it this issue.  I found so many things that I want to knit.  Wish I could snap my fingers and they would all be done, but that would take all the fun of knitting away from them, wouldn't it.

Here are the ones I'd like to make up:

"Acorns" by Carol Sunday

"Coventry" by Jan Henritz

"Hallett's Ledge"

"Lorelei" by Tonia Barry

"Olivette" by Sandi Rosner

and "Sandridge" by Elizabeth McCarten (This one would be for John)

Oh, and one more-----"Timpani" by Connie Chang Chinchia.  This one was not from this issue of Twist Collective but an earlier issue.

Also, Bonne Marie Burns (ChicKnits) has a new pattern out for Fall 2010 that I would love to do.  It's called "Keelin"

and there is a matching hat that goes with the cardigan:

So, as you can see, there is a lot of potential knitting projects that can keep my little fingers clicking away on those needles.  I'll just have to find the time to do it all and do the sewing I need to do for the grandchildren (guess that will come first as they grow so fast that if I don't get the projects done soon they will have outgrown them ;) )  Also I'm in the middle of making RED bedskirts for the boys room.  They have blue, red, and white patchwork quilts on their beds and you know how hard it is to match blues, so I opted out for red.  I think it will look cute.