Yeti Separation

My husband and older son both have Yetis. Actually, my husband has an Rtic but they look exactly the same. My brother has one too and he works in town 2 or 3 days a week so he stays with us and then we have 3 of them floating around looking like liquid filled triplets!! They obviously don't need any kind of insulation but they need distinction. So I decided to come up with a simple Yeti cozy pattern. You can make yours striped or solid color or mix it all up!! Just make it yours!!

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Yeti Cozy
Scrap yarn - Worsted Weight (4)
Needle Size - US 6 - 4.0 mm - 4 dpns
Gauge - 22 stitches to 4" in stockinette stitch

Using color A: Cast on 52 stitches using the long tail cast on, or cast on of your choice, and join in the round being careful not to twist your stitches.
Rounds 1-5 - K2, P2 around

Switch to color B:
Knit the first round
Round 2-5 - K2, P2 around

Switch to color A:
Rounds 1-5 Knit in stockinette (Knit every round)

Switch to color B: (decrease section)
Round 1 - Knit around
Round 2 - (K11, K2tog) around
Round 3 - (K10, K2tog) around
Round 4 - (K9, K2tog) around
Round 5 - (K8, K2tog) around

Switch to color A:
Rounds 1-5 - Knit around

Switch to color B:
Rounds 1-5 - Knit around

Switch to color A:
Rounds 1-5 - Knit around

Switch to color B: 
Round 1 - Knit
Rounds 2-5 - K2, P2 around

Bind off loosely or use Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. Weave in ends and enjoy your colorful and personalized Yeti!!

Yarn This! Episode 1 - Finally Getting Started

Well, I finally got the nerve to record the first episode of my podcast!! Here are my measly show notes!!

 A Passion for Knitting - My first knitting book

SnB - The book that got it through my thick skull

Puppy Love
Rescue Me Chin Boy and Show Me the Stars socks - These are the socks I'm currently working on!! This is an awesome pattern by JavaPurl - CC Almon

Stripey Sleeves of Warmth - Another pattern by JavaPurl - CC Almon. This is a free pattern from CC when you join her JavaPurl Designs

Gnome is Where the Heart Is - This is the pattern I was supposed to start but I didn't get it done yet!!

Another One Bites the Dust
Bonbon - This is the totally adorable little bunny I knit for myself.  Here's my project page - Bunny Rabknit

Knit On until next time!!

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Wow!!  I know you're all blown away by my profound title!  Ha!!  But I found a link to an article through Facebook yesterday that made me think.  The young daughter of the writer had told her Mom how beautiful she is.  And, like me, this woman has a not-so-positive image of herself!  However, it suddenly occurred to her that she should try to see herself through her daughter's eyes!! That led me to think a bit further.  Now that my boys are older (21 and 18) I wonder if I'd had a better self-image it would have helped them!!  I wonder if we project our self-image (positive or negative) on to our children!!  I wonder if I caused damage on my children by not seeing more worth in myself!!  I sincerely hope and pray not!!


I know that my self-deprecation extends to other parts of my life.  Outside of my knitting, I also enjoy sewing.  Anyway, I always feel like what I do in those areas is only following someone else's pattern.  That no matter how good it looks, it really doesn't have very much to do with me.  Or that it could always look so much better that what I've done!!  When I knit something for someone I feel compelled to point out all the flaws in it!!  I think that has to do with two things:  1.  I feel dishonest if I give them something less than perfect! (Even though I know that I'm not perfect - only God is!)  2.  I wouldn't ever want anyone to think I'm all that and a bag of chips just because I knit something for them!!  I know that's probably strange but that's me!!


All that being said, I know there are things I can do that will help my self-esteem.  I absolutely need to lose weight!!  And not just those last 5 pounds!!  I've let that hold me back.  But I'm the only one in control of that - no one can do it for me!!  I need to sit back and look at all the good in my life and thank God for my blessings!!  Instead of knit picking everything to death!!  I see every thing that's wrong with my house, my hair and makeup, the mistakes I made with my boys, etc, etc, etc!!  


So lets all go out and learn to love ourselves!!  God made us and He loves us and expects us to do the same!!  And lets also try to help others see the good things about themselves!!


On to my knitting.  Tomorrow night is the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  I plan to cast on during the opening ceremonies and try my best to finish my project before the end of the closing ceremony!!  Many, if not most knitters, crocheters, and spinners know about this.  I believe that same group also probably knows about the threats made by the USOC to change the name of our competition.  I really do not like the new name but I'm not going to be ugly about it.  So I will be competing in the "Ravellenics".  I am on Team Texas Yarnivore.  I'll be knitting the Bigger on the Inside Shawl by Kate Atherley in the Knitty Spring/Summer 2012 issue!!  I am a huge Doctor Who fan and I knew I wanted to knit this the second I saw it!!  After my yearly knitting weekend one of my precious friends sent me three skeins of the Lorna's Laces Bigger on the Inside sock yarn so that I could knit this!!!  Tomorrow I have to go out and purchase size 3 circs!!  I have all sizes of needles in circular, dpns, and some straights.  However, I've never needed a size 3 circular until now!!  No matter how it ends up I will have a beautiful new shawl in the end thanks to my sweet friend!!  


I hope you all accomplish whatever you want during the Olympics and enjoy watching all the super-talented athletes!!  Let's celebrate their victories and pray for them in defeat or if they're injured!!


I'll leave you with a picture of the Rose Tyler square of my Doctor Who blanket!!

Well, until next time!!
Knit On!

Just a quick update:  My computer crashed and I'm having to share which doesn't really allow me to post.  I'll be back as soon as I get my own laptop back!!

See ya later and knit on!!
Shama D

Where Do I Stand?

I'm probably one of the most opinionated people you will ever meet!!  There's almost nothing I don't have a very decided opinion on!!  My feelings run deep and are based in my spiritual beliefs!  But even things that don't have eternal consequence cause me to have very strong feelings!!  
Another thing about me, is how I like what I like - always!!  When I was 3 years old I fell in love with Donny Osmond!!  Now, 43 years later, I still love him - and did even when it wasn't popular!!  The same thing for Rick Springfield!!  I fell in love with him in 1973 when his cartoon, Mission Magic, was on TV!!  To this day when I get to see him in concert, I scream like a teenager!!!
 
Knitting is no different!!  I like what I like and I feel strongly about the things I like!!  It seems that I am particularly drawn to cables and amigurumi!!  I love the color blue but I can still be drawn to a pattern in even the ugliest colors!!  Yet, when I see something knitted in blue, I have to really look to see if it's the color or the pattern that I like!!  Sometimes it's both!! One of the things about my opinionated self is that I don't tend to follow who or what is most popular!!  A few years ago everyone was knitting the Clapotis.  And I knit one.  But I knit it because I liked it!!  I've heard lots of talk (on podcasts) about the Selbu Modern hat.  I can see why people like it, but it doesn't appeal to me at all!  I love shawls but I hate lace weight yarn and lace done in lace weight!!  I truly appreciate the work that goes into projects made with lace weight yarn but it doesn't do anything for me!!  Am I weird?  Actually, I know the answer to that - YES!!!   But I am who I am and I stand strongly by my beliefs and I like what I like!!
The thing about me is I've grown over the years, but I'm still me!  In the last few years I've reconnected with many of my closest school friends through Facebook and a couple of class reunions.  I'm still the same person I was then, just with a husband, kids, and 16 years of homeschooling under my belt!!  But underneath it all, I'm still just me!


Well, I've been contemplating starting on this blog again.  One thing that's held me back is lack of FO's!!  My younger son just graduated from our homeschool and I'm working on a blanket for him.  I started it a month later than I started Logan's.  I've run into quite a few issues with this blanket.  And a few weeks ago Kelby and I were discussing  his "secret" gift that I was knitting in front of him.  He told me that he likes Doctor Who, but doesn't love it!!  Blasphemy!!  LOL!!  So, we've picked out some patterns and some things I can design to make JUST the blanket for him.  I can put up pictures of  the finished squares.  (When I take some)  The way I knit my blankets is in strips from bottom to top and then I join the strips and do an edging.  


Well, I don't want to get too carried away on my first blogpost back!!  One question I have is this:  Since I'm finished homeschooling, should I change the name of my blog?  What do my faithful readers have to say about this? Oh, that's right, I have no faithful readers!!  ; )


Knit On and Talk to you Soon!!
Shama D

My Changing Life

It's been many months since I last posted on my blog. I plan to start back on a much more regular basis now. I spend all of my time with my family and a lot of time knitting. I've spent the last 20 and a half years being a full-time Mom and homeschooler. As you know, just over two years ago my older son graduated from our little homeschool. Since then he's continued to live at home and go to a local junior college!! However, last month he moved out and to a town about 70 miles from here to finish up college. It was one of the hardest things I've ever been through. I'm handling it a lot better than I ever thought I could. It helps that we have a really close relationship and talk and text daily!! I miss him but he's very happy and with a great group of Christians!! That's very important to me!! This is not the only huge thing in my life...In a few weeks my younger son will be starting his senior year at home. I intend to make the most of our last year together on a full-time basis. We'll do school but we'll also do some things we enjoy- like going to the zoo, going to visit Logan, getting coffee at Starbucks and spending lots of quality time together!!! It's going to be a year to remember.

As far as my knitting...There have been so many projects over the last several months. But the big project that's coming up is another senior blanket for my younger son. He loves video games of all kinds but he's partial to Mario. There are tons of cute Nintendo/Mario patterns on Ravelry and I will be going through them, picking out the ones I think he'll love the most, and laying out my design!! I'm in no hurry for the year to be up but I will knitting a memory for my son.

When Logan graduated I had knit him his Harry Potter blanket. It is currently on his bed in the other town. That means a lot to me.

Well, this is very short and there are no pictures to accompany it but I needed to get my blogging feet wet again!! I will be back on a regular basis - blogging does a lot of good for me!!

Knit On and more later!
Shama D

I'm Back

It's been months since I last blogged. I love blogging!! It does a lot for me to be able to write about my life and my knitting. These last few months have brought about a lot of changes in my life that I had to adjust to. After 13 years of homeschooling my older son started college in August. Not having him home with us everyday took quite an adjustment. He still lives at home and is going to the local community college so the adjustment wasn't SO big! It's a great little school. There are a reasonable number of students in each class (about 30) and the professors genuinely care!! He's had a great experience so far!! He'll be staying home until he's finished his sophomore year.

The other big thing has been the diet. So far I've lost 70 pounds but it's not been easy. I've been very tired and just did what I had to do. I did, however, continue knitting. I'm only about halfway through losing it all. But I think I'll be finished by November...

One of the biggest things that happened to me in the fall was my 25th high school reunion. I LOVED high school!! I was in band, choir and Madrigals (a swing choir). I had an awesome group of friends!! I had a very pleasant place in my world!! I was very happy!! However, the summer between my junior and senior year we had to move 12 hours away to West Texas. It was such a difficult transition for me. I'm still in contact with some of my friends from there but when I think of "my" school I always think of Vidor!! Going back to my class reunion became a much easier decision because I had gotten back in touch with a bunch of my friends on Facebook! I decided that I needed a new shawl for that night. AND I had to dye the yarn!! I had about 1000 yards of dye-it-yourself yarn from Knit Picks in my stash and I'd had it for several years. I broke it out and 3 jars of acid dye. I was going to knit this shawl Fibertrends Pattern #AC-27x Queen of Hearts by Bev Galsekas. It was great until I make some mistakes and I realized that I wouldn't be able to get it done in 2 or 3 weeks. So I did something I didn't think I would ever do - I decided to knit the Clapotis, like everyone else in the knitting world!! I really enjoyed it and I got it done very quickly!! I bound it off and wove in the ends about 3 am the day of the class reunion!!




It was an amazing night full of love and laughter and reuniting with some of my favorite people in the world!! The best part is that we're now determined to keep up with one another on an ongoing basis!!! I really love my friends!!

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you the story of one of those very precious friends!!

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D
It feels great to be blogging again!!!

Weight Loss and Knitting

I've been overweight far too long. If there are any excuses it's that I've had a thyroid problem. I know, that's what everyone says...But almost 5 years ago I had to have half my thyroid removed. Since then I've been on medication to regulate it. The dosage has changed several times since then. I had such hope of weight loss and more energy once I did get it worked out. However, that hasn't been the case. But the other reason is that I just plain like food!! This is not a weight loss blog, but it is about my life and my knitting so I will be talking some about my weight loss for the next several months. This time the talk of weight loss and knitting go together.
Since I started knitting almost 7 years ago, I've wanted to knit certain things for myself like cardigans and pullovers but I didn't want to waste the yarn on knitting for a fat body!! However, I've knit a cardigan for my Mom and a pullover for my niece and I'm about to start two Humpty Dumpty intarsia sweaters for my nephews. But now that I've started this weight loss I'm having thoughts of sweaters and other fitted items for myself!!! One of my favorites is http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTviveka.html . Another of my favorites is Provence Women's Floral Cardigan by Celeste Pinheiro from the Classic Elite #9071 book. It's got huge floral designs on it, but it's not overpowering or bulky. And my new favorite is the Classic Coat by Deborah Newton in IK Fall 2009. I don't usually go in for hand knit coats or bulky yarn but there's something about this coat that just grabs me! Now, I'd probably do a completely different colorway for all of these, but the patterns are lovely!! I'll let y'all know how the weight loss is going and also the knitting!!!! I'm very excited about this!!

Now on to things I've knitted but haven't blogged about. In the last post I mention two UFO's that are waiting for me to finish this baby blanket. One of the UFO's is a pair of socks from Opal Harry Potter yarn that my parents gave me for Christmas. I mentioned that back in my January 1st post. I also mentioned the pattern - the Horcrux sock pattern. I completely finished the first sock and am down to the heel on the second. It won't take me very long to finish it. But here's a picture of the completed one:

This sock and it's mate will look much better on me when my leggs are thinner!!


I named him Winston. He's a precious little duck that my friend Alice sent to LSSK. He was fast fun and easy.

Well, I guess that's about all I have to say this time!

Knit On and more later,
Shama D

The Blahs, Ravelry, Excitement, and Inspiration

I touched on this last time but I thought I'd talk a little more about it now.
Every once in a while I feel a little out of sorts with my knitting. I will finish a project and if I can't seem to get the next one going in a timely manner or feel frustrated with what I'm working on, I get blah about knitting. It never lasts for very long but I hate that feeling.
Another thing that sucks the life out of my knitting is having too many projects going at once. For example, I am working a baby blanket right now, but I also have about 2/3's of a sock and an unfinished market bag still hanging over my head!! It's dragging me down!! As soon as I finish this blanket I must finish those other two projects so I can start my Christmas knitting with a clear head!! I know most knitters have multiple UFO's, some even have many UFO's, but it just doesn't work for me.
But something has now happened to my knitting life that I think will keep me inspired for the rest of my life!! It's called Ravelry!! In October I will have been on Ravelry for two years. Everyone goes on and on about how much they love it. To be honest, I've enjoyed it and played around on it a little but I haven't understood all the obsession. Howeverrrrrr, I've suddenly jumped on the Ravelry bandwagon!! I have a feeling I've just touched the tip of the iceberg, but I'm having fun!! I'm looking at patterns- either specific ones or searching for a type of pattern (i.e. shawls) I've joined several new groups and dropped a few I was in. I've never really participated in any of these groups, but I think I will now!!
Anything knitty makes me tingly!! I love knitting patterns (like Dumbledore), yarn, and knitting magazines, not to mention all the gadgets that go along with it... Along with Ravelry, these things keep me endlessly inspired.
Another thing that not only inspires me, but teaches, me is blogs. I don't read a ton of them but I have a few I love. The first one I started reading was Wendy Knits!! I've learned so much from her. She's amazing!! Right now I'm trying to catch up with Faith of Flash Bang Fibers/The Needle and the Damage Done and Jasmin of Better that Yarn blog and the Knitmore Girls podcast! When I read a blog I must start from the beginning. It took me more than a year or two to get completely caught up to Wendy. That's probably why I don't read more blogs...Yet...
What inspires you/brings you down?

Now, a project I knit earlier this summer. My husband's boss and his wife had their first baby back in April. Chuck had asked me to knit something for them. At the time I was working on the Harry Potter blanket and I couldn't take on anything else. But I finally got around to knitting her a little dress. The pattern is... http://fortheloveofyarn.com/Issues/07Summer/patterns/jumper.shtml
I knit it out of I Love This Cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby. I can't remember the colorway. You know how you knit a gift for someone and the response makes it all worthwhile? This was one of those!! They told Chuck how much they loved it!! How it was something they'd keep forever!! Then I got the sweetest Thank You note!! WOW!! It makes me want to knit for them again!!
Here's the dress:


Last fall I got an equally satisfactory response from two little jumpers I knit for my friend Kim's little girls. Here's a picture of them wearing their jumpers...


More later and Knit On,
Shama D

In a Funk, On a diet, and My First Pattern

I haven't blogged in a few weeks!! I didn't realize how long it had been!! It's been kinda crazy around here.
At the end of July we had a weekend at my parents where we got together with my Sister-in-law's family!! We have a great relationship with them and we get together a couple of times a year!!
Last week Logan got his first car!! My parents got it for him for his graduation present! He's such a good boy and he really deserves it!!

So that took up a couple of days last week.
But more than that I've kinda been in a funk. Kelby wanted me to knit him Poppy Pig from Knitted and Felted Toys. I hate this more than anything I've EVER knit!! I can't even bring myself to take a picture of it!! Did I mention that I hate it?? But I did knit something that I LOVED!!! A friend of mine (Hi, Alice!!) sent me a really cute pattern from Ravelry called Hamsterbeans. I kinda went nuts with them! I made 13 of them in just a few days!! The first two I made were for my nephews. We were trying to get my older nephew (who's 2 1/2) to say hamster. He got it right the first time. After that he called them "spinsters" and "banksters". We decided that banksters were bank robber mobsters!!
Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the Hamsterbeans:


They were so much fun to knit!! And so fast!! I'm sure there will be more in my future!




The last thing I started and finished was my own design. I actually designed this dishcloth 2 years ago. I didn't take a picture of the FO because it was a surprise. Since I knit the original one I gave it away to my aunt (along with some other dishcloths both knit and store bought and a prayer shawl) after the death of my cousin! I had planned to enter it into the design contest that LSSK has every summer! But a dear friend of mine designed on just after I designed mine. She had no idea about mine due to the secret nature of the project!



One of the things I love is flamingoes. I don't care for the color pink unless it is on a flamingo!! But they are my favorite bird, so without further ado:



Felicity, the Flamingo dishcloth:


Sugar and Cream in a carnation pink color

Size 7 needles
*Mistakes on rows 20, 26, 27, 28 - now corrected! Sorry for the errors...
Cast on 40 stitches
Note: At the beginning and end of each row are 4 seed stich border stitches - 4B - you should used any border you prefer.

Rows 1 - 4 - Seed stitch*
Row 5 - 4B, K32, 4B
Row 6 - 4B, P32, 4B
Row 7 - 4B, K32, 4B
Row 8 - 4B, P17, K3, P12, 4B
Row 9 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 10 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 11 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 12 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 13 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 14 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 15 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 16 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 17 - 4B, K13, P2, K17, 4B
Row 18 - 4B, P16, K2, P14, 4B
Row 19 - 4B, K13, P1, K1, P1, K16, 4B
Row 20 - 4B, P16, K2, P14, 4B
Row 21 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 22 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 23 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 24 - 4B, P17, K1, P14, 4B
Row 25 - 4B, K14, P1, K17, 4B
Row 26 - 4B, P17, K2, P13, 4B
Row 27 - 4B, K13, P2, K17, 4B
Row 28 - 4B, P16, K4, P12, 4B
Row 29 - 4B, K11, P6, K15 4B
Row 30 - 4B, P12, K10, P10, 4B
Row 31 - 4B, K9, P16, K7, 4B
Row 32 - 4B, P4, K19, P9 4B
Row 33 - 4B, K8, P19, K5, 4B
Row 34 - 4B, P6, K19, P7, 4B
Row 35 - 4B, K6,P18, K8, 4B
Row 36 - 4B, P9, K17, P6, 4B
Row 37 - 4B, K6,P3, K1, P12, K10, 4B
Row 38 - 4B, P12, K10, P2, K2, P6, 4B
Row 39 - 4B, K6, P2, K3, P8, K13, 4B
Row 40 - 4B, P17, K2, P4, K2, P7, 4B
Row 41 - 4B, K7, P3, K22, 4B
Row 42 - 4B, P21, K3, P8, 4B
Row 43 - 4B, K9, P3, K20, 4B
Row 44 - 4B, P19, K3, P10, 4B
Row 45 - 4B, K8, P1, K1, P3, K19, 4B
Row 46 - 4B, P19, K2, P2, K1, P8, 4B
Row 47 - 4B, K7, P2, K3, P2, K18, 4B
Row 48 - 4B, P17, K2, P4, K2, P7, 4B
Row 49 - 4B, K8, P2, K3, P2, K17, 4B
Row 50 - 4B, P17, K2, P2, K4, P7, 4B
Row 51 - 4B, K9, P6, K17, 4B
Row 52 - 4B, P17, K6, P9, 4B
Row 53 - 4B, K9, P5, K18, 4B
Row 54 - 4B, P19, K3, P10, 4B
Row 55 - 4B, K across, 4B
Row 56 - 4B, P across, 4B
Row 57 - 4B, K across, 4B
Row 58 - 61 - Seed Stitch
BO in pattern
*Seed Stitch - (K1, P1) across the row. Turn work. On the way back you need to knit the purl stitches and purl the knit stitches. This is a very good way to learn to read your knitting!! (If you don't know how already)

I've knit this twice so I think I've got the kinks worked out. However, if you find a problem please let me know. I'm also thinking seriously about trying this in intarsia in the next few weeks.

OK...About the diet. I won't drone on and on about it. I'm on the HCG diet. It's only 40 days at a time, then 6 weeks off, 40 days on, 8 weeks off, etc. I'm only on day 9. I'll get pictures of my progress probably more for my encouragement, but in case anyone is interested you can track my progress!!
More later and knit on,
Shama D

Summer Knitting Had Me a Blast...Summer Knitting Happened So Fa-a-ast...

Every summer we all hear about knitters that put their needles aside as soon as the days begin to grow longer and the temperature starts to rise. These people rarely, if ever, pick up their knitting until we begin to see the days shortening and the temperatures decline. I, however, am not one of those. I can totally understand doing whatever it takes to stay as cool as possible!! (I live in Texas!) But I cannot stand to have nothing in my hands to work on. And the thing that makes my hands the happiest is knitting!

So...What kinds of things do people knit in this kind of weather? I really knit pretty much anything. For example, last summer I finally finished a blanket I'd been working on for my younger son. I started that blanket in either 2004 or 2005. I finished it after my Italy trip, assembled all the blocks, and took a picture of the final project on August 1. I don't something this big out of the house to work on. So I can control the temperature!!

Here's Kelby's blanket.

Here's Kelby enjoying his blanket and faking sleep:


I knit it out of Knit Picks Crayon. A really nice boucle' cotton. Kelby had picked out red, blue, and purple. I did it some different than the pattern. I doubled the yarn and increased my needle size to make the squares the size they needed to be. It's got a lot of imperfections because I was a fairly new knitter when I started. I got much improved as I went along. But Kelby loves it ans uses it all the time at home and takes it whenever he's away from home.



This summer it seems like I've been working on smaller projects. I didn't do this intentionally, it's just worked out this way. For this particular blog I'm going to focus on the one small project that took me the longest. It's the Skull Isle hat from Son of SnB. I actually said something about this nearly a year ago. I had bought the yarn to knit it but got frustrated and gave up. It's a fair isle hat knit in fingering weight yarn. I used Knit Picks Pallette in red and black. Those are colors used in the book but they're also Logan's favorite colors, so...


It took me nearly a month to knit it. The problems I had were
1. Teeny yarn and on size 2 needles and over 200 stitches per round.
2. Too many stitches for my 4 needles. I finally had to add in another set of size 2s. I had both sets of Knit Picks DPNs (wood and metal) and I ended up using ALL of those needles!! it really made it so difficult. It kept rolling back on itself. However, it was worth all the work and problems because Logan likes it!!!

This weekend I'll talk about some of my other summer knitting!
Let me know what you've been working on...(If I have any readers!! LOL!!)

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D
Jessiesgrl on Ravelry

What in the World Happened??

I just looked at my last post and realized that for some reason or another, not all of it posted!! I don't have a clue what happened! So let me see if I can remember what I said...
I love casting on for a new project (except for knitting the first row). I love the feel of the yarn gliding through my fingers. I love watching the fabric grow as I make loops with the yarn and pul another loop through with a stick!! It's magical! I love challenging myself with new stitches and projects! I even like finishing - weaving in ends and seaming up!! I find seaming a challenge, but once I work it out, I have a completed project that I made!!

Right now I'm working on a hermit crab from the Amigurumi Knits book by Hansi Singh.
I love this book!! I always see the cutest little amigurumi animals and I want to make them but I don't crochet. When I found this book full of the cutest little knitted amigurumis I had to get it!! It's divided up into 5 sections:
Before the first official section she tells what amigurumi is and then a top 10 list of reasons why you will love knitting it!
1) Techniques: I haven't read this through because I always get too anxious to knit. But she gives you lots of hints, tips, and techniques.
2) Five Servings a Da: the Vegetable Basket - Six cute vegetables. I'd like to knit them and put them in a bowl on my table!
3) Get Your Barnacle On: Underwater Creatures - Six underwater creatures. I'm working on the hermit crab right now. It's quite a challenge but I'm loving it!! Hopefully pictures will be up later this week.
4) Garden Variety: Backyard Critters - Just creatures you'd see in your yard! But much cuter knitted up than in real life!!
5) Revenge of the Cryptids: Strange, Mythical, Cryptozoological Specimens - Three real or imagained creatures. My favorite is Nessie! I definitely plan to knit him in the not too distant future!
Hansi Singh is brilliant in her constrution of these knits! I highly recommend this book!!

Let me finish up with a project that I recently finished:
I decided to knit a shawl for my Mom for Mother's Day. I had wanted to knit her one for Christmas but for some reason I didn't get any knitting done then. Mother's Day was the weekend after Logan's graduation, so I knew I couldn't finish it in time. I started it about 3 days before. The day before Mother's Day I looked down at it and noticed a big hole in the lace edging!! I had apparently dropped a stitch that stayed in place for a couple of days before it let go!! So I had to frog the whole thing in front of my Mom. I just told her "Happy Mother's Day!" She laughed and said she was so glad it was for her because she loved it!! That spurred me on to turn right around and cast back on. It went pretty quickly and I got it to her a couple of weeks later! Here it is:





Knit On and more later,
Shama D

I Need to Blog again!!

I haven't blogged at all since January. At that time I promised to blog at least twice a week. My excuse??? I think it's a valid one. This was the last year for me to homeschool my older son. It seemed like I worked my butt off from January 'til the day we had the graduation reception. I barely had time to sleep, muchless blog! I could write for 2 weeks about all that I did during that time but I'll give you the abbreviated version. I painted the trim in the game room, painted my bedroom, painted the stairwell (a much harder job than I'd thought), and finally I pulled down wallpaper in the kitchen, dining room, and entry, textured the walls, and painted! Thankfully, Logan was there to help me, especially with taking down the wallpaper!!
Also during that time I started a big special project for Logan's graduation project. He loves Harry Potter so I decided to use all the dishcloth, scarf, and other patterns online to make squares for a Harry Potter blanket. I knit it in strips, like scarves, and attached each strip together. The night before graduation I think I slept about 3 hours trying to put the strips together. I got up and worked on it for several more hours. I got it all put together, but it didn't have a border. I have since put on a border, but it's still curling really badly! I will probably cut it off and try something different - eventually.
Here are a couple of pictures:


Here's Logan relaxing on the couch with his blanket and a Route 44 Vanilla Dr Pepper.

Recently a girl on my online knitting group asked if we were process or project knitters. It got me thinking about a few things. I honestly can't decide which I am. I love everything about it!! I love casting on for a new project

My Friend, Kim

About 4 or so years ago my brother and sister-in-law moved to Tyler, TX. They met and became friends with a couple they worshiped with. This couple had a little boy and had another on the way. Then a little over 2 years ago this same couple moved to Lufkin where my parents live. They began to worship where my parents worship. My parents pretty much took them in and began to babysit their boys from time to time. At some point Kim and I met and became friends. For me, it was an instant thing. She's so easy to like! There have been lots of times that we've been at my parents and we'd get together with Kim and the boys or Kim, Jesse (her husband) and the boys. During one of our earliest visits I was knitting (because I knit all the time) and for some reason it attracted Kim and she decided she wanted to start knitting. (She already knew how to crochet) She taught herself and learned amazingly fast!! From there she went to the last two WHIBSIBs and the Knit Out in Austin in between. (I'll discuss WHIBSIB in another post) She is an unbelievable knitter!! She knit a sweater for her younger sister last Christmas that was difficult and it turned out beautifully!!!! During the whole time I've known her they've been in the process of adopting a little girl from Vietnam. It was a long drawn-out process. While they were dealing with all that Kim found out she was pregnant. So, in September she had a baby girl and a few weeks later her husband and mother-in-law went together to Vietnam and finally came home with Maya!! So now they have their complete family - 2 boys and 2 girls!! Kim handles it all beautifully!!!
The reason for this post is that I got to spend a couple of hours with her this afternoon before we came back home. While I was sitting there talking and listening I realized that just being around her makes me a better person. She makes me feel like the future is going to be wonderful. She takes the stress of having four wonderful children 5 and under in stride. She laughs at things that are irritating. I'm about 13 years older than she is, but I consider her to be one of my best friends and she is such a wonderful influence over me! I feel so fortunate to have her in my life and I'm thankful that God has allowed our paths to cross!!
Thank you, Kim, for being who and what you are and for being my friend!! I love you!!

On to knitting related things...I was looking back at my last blog post and realized I made a mistake. I was talking about my Horcrux socks and said something about the lightning bolt scarf pattern. What I meant to say was the lightning bolt lace pattern in the sock. I've turned the heel on my first sock, picked up the stitches on the heel flap and I'm working on decreasing back down to my original number of stitches. Next time I'll post a picture.

Last night my Mom and I drove from Lufkin to Houston for my once a month sewing group. I started this with a group of women from church. Last night my Mom and two of my cousins were there, plus a woman from LSSK that lives in Austin. We had a really enjoyable time and I'm beginning to get to know some of the women from church that I hadn't previously known very well. Mom and I had a great adventure going back to Lufkin. I took my Austin friend back to her son's house and we were going to take an alternate route back to Lufkin. Somehow we missed our exit and ended up in Huntsville where Sam Houston State University is. It was dark and drizzly and as we were coming into Huntsville on I-45 I saw this HUGE white creepy thing that looked like it was in the middle of the road. I asked Mom what she thought. She had several ideas including smoke from a factory. However, the closer we got to this scary thing it turned out to be a gigantic statue of Sam Houston himself. I found out today that it is one of the largest statues in our country!!! Giant Statue of Sam Houston, Huntsville, Texas It is an amazing sight!! That would only happen in Texas!!! I LOVE this state!!

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures. Next time I promise there will be pics and more fun stuff!!

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

Happy New Year and Some Resolutions

Happy New Year!!!!! Today is the start of 2009 - DUH!! It's official and I can't pretend anymore - Logan's going to graduate this year!! How did the last 17 years and 10 months go by so quickly?? I will say that I'm so thankful that I had the privelege of homeschooling both him and Kelby from beginning to end!! I taught them to read, write, and do math. We've all learned so much together and I'm thankful I didn't have to turn them over to someone else to get the joy of all those firsts!! Now comes the time to start getting ready for his graduation reception. We'll have a come and go reception from home. I need to scan ALL of our pictures and my brother and I are going to put together a slide show to music. Plus, Logan is going to play some guitar and maybe sing with a friend of his! It's going to be beautiful, but so sad!!

As far as school we're going to start back on January 19th. Kelby has 12 math lessons left in this book. Once we finish this book we're going to stop math for the year and concentrate on finishing up history. We had a mix-up in our histor curriculum order and are getting a late start. Math takes up a lot of our time every day.

As far as knitting goes my first big project for the year is a Harry Potter blanket for Logan's graduation!! I'm going to use the myriad dishcloth and other HP patterns on the internet. I've printed out many of them and I'm always getting new ones from my friend Always Alice!!! She is a master pattern finder. She's always sending them to our online knitting group Lone Star State Knitters. I save those emails and save them to the end of the day like a special chocolate treat.

This year I'd like to learn to spin. I'll start drop spindling, but I'm far more interested in a spinning wheel. And, as usual, my taste is far bigger than my budget. I found a beautiful handcarved oak wheel. I can't remember the website, but I saw it on the Let's Knit Together video podcast. I also plan to start dyeing yarn. I have the Knit Picks sock blank and several pots of their dye. I so love to knit socks now!!

Speaking of socks...My parents gave me a skein of Harry Potter sock yarn. It's the Harry and Ron colorway. They also gave me a set of Knit Picks Harmony dp sock needles. I love them!! I've started the socks using the Horcrux Sock pattern. I would link you to that pattern but the only way to get it is to join the Six Socks Knitalong yahoo group. I'm enjoying it so far. It's basically a knit 3 purl 2 rib. Then there's the lightning bolt scarf pattern. It's neat.

I got no knitting done for Christmas presents. I did, however, do some just for fun knitting. I knit two reindeer from Mochimochi Land. She has the cutest and strangest stuffed creatures!! I really want to knit nearly all of them!! Here are the 2 reindeer:


They were lots of fun to knit and I learned some new things!! I will probably make more of these!! I also knitted some turkey hats for my nephews for Thanksgiving. They were silly but really cute on them!!!

Then I knit a couple of things for me. A couple of years ago I knit Santa hats for my family of 4, my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law. Then they had their first one, Alton, and I knit his for Christmas 2007. Then this year I knit one for my other nephew, Kaden. However, my brother and sister-in-law forgot to bring their hats this year and we didn't get our usual family picture. I decided I wanted some matching arm warmers to go with mine because I wear my hat a lot between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I finished them on the 23rd but it warmed up and I only got to wear them for this picture:

The other thing thing I wanted to share today is this slouchy cabled hat I knit last week. It's from the cover of the new Knit.1 mag.

I knit this using Bernat Softee Chunky double stranded in the Blue Denim Heather (I think) colorway. The only change I made in the pattern was to do the ribbing on size 10's instead of 7's. You're supposed to cast on 50 stitches and do your ribbing. Then you change to size 11's and knit into the front and back of every stitch to get the slouch. Well, I must have a fat head because 50 stitches on size 7's squeezed the crap out of my head!! I'm very satisfied with this hat, but it hasn't been cold since I finished it, either!!

Well, I could go on and on. But one of my resolutions is to blog 2 or 3 times a week this year!! So I'll be back very soon to gab incessantly!! I need to scan in a pile of pictures and try to get some sleep!!

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

I'm Finally Back!!!!!

It's been FOREVER since I blogged and it's been driving me nuts!! The month of October was a very stressful month because I was worrying so much about the election!! (for good reason) I can't really pinpoint what happened after the election. The boys and I did school until the Thursday before Thanksgiving week. We always take off from the Thursday before until sometime in January. Unfortunately, this will be Logan's last year to do that with us!
The weekend before Thanksgiving I put up all my Christmas stuff!!! I love having the trees and lights up. I love looking at them and enjoying the sparkle and sentimental ornaments, etc. Every year since Logan was born my parents have bought them special ornaments. Their first 5 Christmases they got them Hallmark ornaments. They've gotten some from Branson or ornaments that represent something they love doing.
For example, Logan got a Thomas the Tank Engine ornament and Kelby got a Percy ornament. Logan took a paint pen and wrote "Buzz" on his ornment. He went by Buzz Lightyear during his Kindergarten year. I was so angry when he did that. Now every year I pull it out, apologize for fussing at him about it, and get a chuckle out of it!!

I'm not going to go on and on tonight. I just wanted to get my feet wet again!! I've missed blogging a lot and I promise not to let this happen again.

Next time there will be lots of Christmas and knitting content!! I'll also talk a bit about the "knitting" group I've started!!

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

Not Another Manic Monday

I don't hate Mondays...It's the day we start back to our school week. I know the boys would prefer to play XBox Live all day, but I love our school time together. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but every day with my boys is a good day!!!

Last Thursday was a particularly long school day for us. We all overslept and started school very late. I decided that we all need to get up a little earlier. So I got on up at 6:30 this morning, did my usual things and got on the bicycle. My plan is to be ready to start when Chuck leaves for work about 9.

On Friday, Chuck and the boys cleaned up all the fallen branches from Ike out of our back yard. Now the trash sitting on our curb waiting to be picked up, whenever that might be.



We just had a very relaxing weekend at home.

Mostly, I've just got knitting to talk about. I started a teddy bear for my youngest nephew. I knit one for his brother along with a box full of knitted things before he was born. But my brother and SIL got pregnant the second time when their older one was 7 months old. This poor baby has only gotten a blanket from me. I found a really cute bear in Son of SnB. The one in the book is called Deady Bear. It's really gross because it's a teddy being stung to death by a bee. But I'm going to knit eyes instead of x's and no bee or pool of blood!! I'm knitting him out of Bernat Camouflage in Baby Camo. I'm trying to find a good contrast yarn for the tummy and muzzle.

While I was at Hobby Lobby I found some red, white, and blue yarn in I Love This Yarn. We're all going to have hats for the election. (Even though we'll vote early)

The next thing I have OTN (on the needles) is the red and black fair isle skull cap from Sonf of SnB for Logan. I haven't gotten very far on it.

The last thing is the Invisibility Cloak from Charmed Knits in a chenille yarn I got at an alpaca farm. It's a lightweight yarn. I started it for a friend of mine that's getting married. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

The other thing I have going on is I've started a knitting group for ladies at church. I only have one confirmed for tonight. I only sent out the email after worship yesterday morning so hopefully we can get more people there next month.

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

I feel like such a slacker!!

I really plan to blog a few times a week, but a lot of times I don't. Getting back into the swing of school has taken a while. It seems like at the beginning we take a lot longer than I'd like, but we eventually get it better organized. Not to say that we don't have our long days, but...One of the great things about homeschooling is that we start when we start. I like to start by 9:30 or 10:00. This year all 3 of us are riding the bicycle and the boys are lifting weights before we start. I think that's necessary, but it can cause a bit of a later start. Today was the best we've done so far. The only thing is that I messed up and don't have all the parts of my history yet, so we still have to add that in. Have I mentioned how much I love homeschooling my boys??

Last weekend was very busy and lots of neat things happened. On Friday afternoon the boys and I went to Lufkin. Some people where my parents worship had rented a place and did a show they call Branson in Lufkin. Several people performed mostly country music. It was pretty enjoyable. One girl sang a song about her baby - I was crying my eyes out!! (thank goodness the lights were down) Then Logan leaned over and asked if it was because he's a senior and I lost it some more. Right at the halfway point they did a tribute to the military. They had called wives of men who'd been in the military and requested a picture of them during their active duty. Of course there was a picture of my Daddy. I cried all over again. Then a boy sang that song called "Where Were You When the World Stood Still?" I'm sure I was a mess. My brother, his wife and their boys came up as well. It was a nice night. However, last week my brother fell off a ladder at his work and really messed up his knee. He's on crutches and everything. He's been to a specialist twice, but they haven't found out anything definitive.
Here's my favorite picture from Friday night:

These two are always full of something!!!

Logan is so good with Kaden!! Actually, both my boys are really good with little kids and babies!! That makes me really proud!!
I also got a picture of my Daddy and brother. The shirt Daddy's wearing is one I did for him when I was going through my shirt painting phase in the 90's:


We went back to Mom and Daddy's and relaxed for a while. I got to bed very late, however.

The next morning at 5 Mom and I got up and got ready to go to Austin for the Knit Out. It's only one of the two times I can get together every year with a big bunch of my LSSK girls. This year was so awesome!!! It's always so much fun, but this year seemed extra special. I got to see several people that I've been with in person several times and that I love very much. I also got to meet in person a few people that I've grown to love online. I got some knitting done, a LOT of talking, a few pictures, and a good meal!! Not to mention a really good frap from Borders! It was an awesome day!!

It's taken me far too long to type this up, so I'm going to post and try to get better at posting more often and faster.

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

Now What??

Now that I'm finished chronicling my Italy trip, what can I possibly blog about that can even compare. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but it's not something anyone would tune in to read about daily.

Today was our first day back to school since Ike. Since we were at my parents last Monday and came back Tuesday we weren't settled enough to have a day of school. And since we only have school Monday through Thursday, I don't like to start on any day but Monday, if we can help it. So we had our first week of school then a week off. But like I said before, I'm in no hurry for this year to be over. Today we did our usual stuff but when we did Biology I pulled some of our human body books off the shelf and we looked at some of the body systems to supplement what's in our text book. I swear, we could probably spend a very long time on the human body. The circulatory system alone is amazing!! It all just continues to prove to me that God is and He is the creator of it all!!!!

It's kind of like when we started this history progam several years ago. I could have spent years on Egyptology alone. I didn't realize how quickly we would be in our last year and trying to finish it all up!!

There are still lots of people I know that don't have power. It's been tough for them all. Why were we so fortunate that ours came back on the 2nd day?? Tonight, Jasen, Chuck's assistant manager came over after they closed the store and ate dinner with us. He is one still without power. But he heard that they are trying to get everyone up and running by Thursday!! I hope so!! But, on the good side, I know people further south who came through with little or no damage or not as much as you would have thought. But I also know other's possessions were wiped out. I feel so sorry for them.

But to put it all into perspective, there's a couple I know who went to the hospital for the 2nd time last week to have their baby. For some reason her doctor let her go 2 weeks past. When her full-term baby was born she wasn't alive. Both of their families are devastated. Their having her funeral tomorrow!! It's such a horrible tragedy.

On a much lighter note:Knitting...
I don't really have much to report in the way of knitting progress. I'm still working on the 2nd jumper and I hope to have the main part done by tomorrow. I'd like to take them to the Knit Out with me this Saturday. I found a hat pattern and as soon as I saw it I knew that it needed to be worn by our preacher's 2 year old daughter. It will be fast and cute!! I can't wait to see it on her! If I can get the jumpers completed, I'll get that started and done quickly.
Here's the pattern:
Issue 57 – Daisy Chapeau
I'm not sure what color I should use. I usually don't use the color in the pattern, but this green is awfully cute!! But pink, purple, or blue would be awesome, too! I'll let you know my decision by the end of the week and hopefully some progress by the weekend.
Hopefully my next entry will be more interesting to read...

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

Ike and Knitting

As I said yesterday, my family made it through the hurricane pretty much unscathed. Here's the rest of the story...I was keeping an eye on the hurricane all last week. It started off with us on the extreme west side. Then we were smack dab in the middle. Last Wednesday morning I checked the Weather channel before we started school and we were on the extreme east side of the projected path. By the end of school that day I checked again and it had turned back and we were back in the middle of the projected path. My immediate thought was to get out. Wednesday night was the first Bible class of the new quarter and I'm teaching the 2 year olds this time so we went on to Bible class. We got to the church building early to make copies of a picture for the kids to color. Of course, people were discussing the hurricane, so I was listening to what they were saying. No one had any plans to leave. Of course, no one said I shouldn't leave. They were just giving their own reasons. Between that and what was being said on the news we decided to stay. The evacuations were being done by area, starting at Galveston and going north. They started talking about strength of hurricanes and how far north you should evacuate for each category of storm. Up to a category 5 we don't have to evacuate. That makes me feel better. And since the mayors of Galveston (Lyda Ann Thomas) and Houston (Bill White) did such a fantastic job evacuating and staying/and keeping everyone calm things were SO much better than when Rita hit. I'm so proud of our area because you never hear of looting, vandalism, blaming when things like that happen here!!!
Friday afternoon the wind began picking up like a thunderstorm was coming. I saw people out in our street. Kids were holding tarps or something and letting them fly out behind them like a cape. After dark our electricity started blinking off and on. Logan decided that the XBox needed to be turned off so that it wouldn't get the red ring of death. Also the satellite receiver would have to restart every time. I wasn't ready to turn the TV off for so many reasons. I wanted to watch the weather and I also wanted to keep some noise going. We'd kept our cell phones and Zunes charged. I fell asleep sometime after 1 on the couch, but I was up less than 2 hours later. The wind was whipping around outside. I don't know if it was real or my imagination, but it sounded like it was going in a circle. Everyone else in my house slept through most of it. I just sat here with a candle burning and knitting on an intarsia pocket for the little jumper I'm working on. I call it my hurricane pocket. The storm went on for several hours. I finally settled back down once the sun came up, but I never really went back to sleep. We finally took our frozen meat out of the deep freeze and put it in coolers. I had to work to get all the ice out of the deep freeze before it melted all over the laundry room. Once that was done I was finally able to sleep. I slept really hard for a couple of hours or so. All we had were some downed limbs and lots of pine cones and pine straw. Also the fence between our house and our neighbor's finally fell. That fence has been rotten and falling apart for years but they've refused to fix it. Now they'll have to if they want to sell it. By that evening we decided to pack up and go to my parents until we got power back. My parents had also lost power (2 hours northeast) but they got their's back the next afternoon. (Plus, they were connected to their neighbor's generator). Sunday night we called our house and our answering machine picked up.
Chuck came back home Monday morning. He was asked to check out several Mattress Firms on his was to see what/if any damage had been done. None of those stores had any damage. The biggest problem he had was getting gas. He stopped at a Walmart gas station and had to wait in line for 3 hours to get gas!!!!!!
My parents brought the boys and me back home on Tuesday. Costco and the Walmart nearest us were both shut down. I was able to get some milk. Yesterday we were able to get what we needed at Costco (milk and frozen food) and then we went to Walmart and got most of the rest. Walmart had almost no frozen or cold foods on the shelves. There was some milk.
We didn't have Bible class Wednesday night because there was no power at the church building. But it's back up now and we'll have Bible class and worship Sunday morning.
This whole thing has been so strange. But I'm thankful things are starting to get back to normal up here. Of course, my prayers are with all of those south of us who were hit so much harder!!

Knitting:
I've been working on Anouk ( knitty.com ) for my friend's newborn baby girl and the baby they're adopting that they'll have within the next month or two. This is a fun little knit. It's a little jumper that is not seamed up, but left open to wear a onesie or top and pants under. I'm about halfway through the second jumper. This time I'm knitting front and back at the same time.
Here's Rosemary's:


Here's the Hurricane pocket:


Here's what I've done so far on Maya's:


I also knit a miniature Christmas sweater ornament while I was at my parents. This is a super-quick knit. Probably just an hour or two.


Well, That's all for today. Tomorrow I plan to tell a bit about the people were with in Italy. What a great group of people!!!

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D