Knitty Websites

Today I was just looking around on the Internet and I found a couple of really neat sites.

White Lies Designs.... Vintage inspired designs. You can buy kits or just the pattern. I love Vintage stuff especially the 30's and 40's styles.

Marni MacLean .... This lady has some very pretty designs that are just up my alley.

Vintage Knitting Blog.... some cute pictures of vintage knitting.


There are so many things on the internet you could get lost for days. Ok back to knitting

Classic Dames Test

Your Score: Carole Lombard

You scored 23% grit, 4% wit, 42% flair, and 47% class!

You're a little bit of a fruitcake, but you always act out in style. You have a good sense of humor, are game for almost anything, but you like to have nice things about you and are attracted to the high life. You're stylish and modern, but you've got a few rough edges that keep you from attaining true sophistication. Your leading men include William Powell, Fredric March, and Clark Gable. Watch out for small planes.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the
Classic Leading Man Test.

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I've been tagged!

My new blogging friend at Knit a Life tagged me soooo here goes

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I am a shy person until I get to know you then I can talk your ear off... Literally.

2. When I was in 3rd grade I was too much of a lady to raise my hand in class to ask to go to the bathroom. My teacher was going around after our math lesson to everyone to see if we had questions and such so I thought I would just wait til she got to me then ask. Well she was one row over and I guess I needed to go more then I thought and I peed in my pants. I didn't just pee a little bit it was a river. I was soooooo embarrassed but no one ever made fun of me. I think everyone was just as embarrassed for me as I was.

3. I love to sing. I have sung ever since I can remember. I was in a play at church one time in which I was the lead and I think that was my most shining moment. I also sang on the youth worship team. That was tons of fun and I made some great friends. My favorite part of church is the worship time. I have always wanted to get to church early so we were sure not to miss it. I would stay in the big church for worship and then go to children's church afterwards because I loved the worship songs grown ups sang. I didn't like the kiddie songs they always sang in the back.

4. I have three year old twin nieces that are adorable. They will be visiting soon so I will post pictures when they do.

5. I love being a mom and a wife. That is what I always wanted to be growing up. I always dreamed about getting married and having my 3 children. 2 boys and 1 girl. I have the 2 boys so far but the girl is yet to come.

6. I always thought it would be neat to be an actress and act for a living. I love to pretend and that is basically what actress and actors do.

7. I love God with all my heart and soul. A lot of times when I sit and knit I will meditate on God and think about all the wonderful things he has given me.


I tag:

Embellish Knits --- neat and interesting lady
Robyn's Words ---- funny posts along with some yarn porn thrown in

The things I did this weekend.....

I know I promised pictures but I didn't take any. I am still feeling hectic from our busy weekend. I finished one of my monkey socks and now am working on the toe of the 2nd one. I washed my first pair of socks and they are so comfy, even with the odd toes. They feel kind of squishy when you walk and spongy. I have never had wool socks and I must say I like that walking on sponge feeling you get. Kind of like the are you gelling commercials. If everyone wore hand knitted wool socks we wouldn't need those jelly things in our shoes. I am here on out a firm believer in wool socks. I know what everyone has been raving about.

Well this Saturday we went to my all time favorite store in the whole world. IKEA. I loooove this store. They have the greatest deals on furniture I have ever seen. The whole concept is that it is modular. You put pretty much everything together except of course if you are getting a sofa. You then just put the cover on it and attache the hardware. I got the neatest desk. It has a glass top and etched into the underside of it is the word love in about 10 different languages. The go in all different directions. It is really very cute and screamed Melinda take me home when I saw it. Underneath it keeping it up are 2 pine unites that hold various things. It doesn't have a lot of storage but it will make due for now. We also got a rug in different shades of blue for the office. It practically covers the whole floor and it was only 50 dollars. I got 4 curtains for the front room. They aren't in the color I wanted but they cover the window and that's what I wanted for right now. I got tired of feeling so naked without anything across them. I also got 4 pillow covers 2 red linen ones and 2 orange and white canvas ones to go in my living room. I had the pillows from the other couches but they are ugly brown and needed to be covered. Oh and I got the cutest tote that holds a knitting project perfectly. It has a pocket in the front that will hold a magazine. I have been looking for a tote for my knitting for a few weeks now and I couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't too expensive. I didn't want a knitting bag that said hey I am a knitter. Not that there is anything wrong with that but I just don't like the look of knitting needles stuck into weird slots all around the outside of your purse. I like everything tucked neatly away from view and also harm or the elements. This bag is the perfect size and it was only 4 bucks! Have I said that I like IKEA? It is an awesome store.

Well that is all for today. I will post some pictures of everything when it is sunny outside. I have new yarn to post too.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I haven't forgotten about posting. I have just been super busy. Tuesday I will have pictures of yarn and my new snazzy desk that I love! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Why I like knitting and other things....

I was reading The Yarn Harlot's new book last night (i think it's her newest) Casts Off. One of the things I read was the question people ask who aren't knitters "Why do you like to knit?". I knit because of many reasons. I knit to make pretty things for my family and myself. I knit because it is very relaxing. I knit because I can take this craft, unlike other crafts like quilting or beading, with me where ever I go. I knit because it makes me feel connected with the many knitters that have come before me, the ones who will come after me and all the knitters in between. I love the challenge it gives me every step of the pattern. I knit because it makes me happy. Those are all of the good points of knitting. I even despise it sometimes. I think sometimes ok if I have to do one more row of stockinette stitch I will scream. Sometimes I get so frustrated after having to rip something out for the 80 millionth time I want to break something. There are even times when I put a project down and don't pick it back up for weeks. I don't really like sewing seams up. I have always hated hand sewing. I despise picking up stitches. After all the bad why do I still like knitting? One sentence Stephanie wrote summed it all up for me really.... "When I get over my initial shock at their statement, I realize the truth: I don't like knitting.... I love knitting and when you love something you don't just give up on it the minute it stops being fun."

Ok now onto the Lost episode. I was soooooo pumped up for it. I was sitting waiting in anticipation and excitement for the show to come on 15 minutes before it was scheduled to. It was very disappointing. No cliff hanger ending just more questions that I am not really sure I care if they are ever answer. Then I thought oh maybe the writers are trying to get you to think about the show instead of BOOM and then it ends til next fall. I have thought and I have thought. The only conclusion I could come up with is it was LAME! I think really the only good part of the show was when Hurly comes out of the jungle in that beat up old VW bus and runs over one of the bad guys. It was a very disappointing show not very Lost like at all. I am not sure what the writers were thinking but in my opinion this is the worst episode in the history of the show.

Hmmmm what should I blog about today....

I realized that I hadn't blogged yet today. I was so busy..... lets see I washed towels.... I knitted.... I folded said towels.... I knitted..... I washed the curtains in the kitchen.... I knitted.... I hung the curtains back up... I knitted.... I read a little of new book which was about knitting.... I cooked dinner.... I knitted whilst dinner cooked.... I ate dinner... and then I wanted to sit down and knit some more but realized I have to blog because that is one of the rules I set for myself.

The Monkey sock is coming along. I turned the heel and started on the leg. I really like the way it is turning out. I hate picking up stitches and this way I didn't have to. You kind of knit in the round and do the gusset by increasing a stitch on each side of the sole of the sock. Since I am using the magic loop method I just do the increases on either side of the 2nd needle. Then when you get to the right amount of increases. Which are about 15 for my foot you turn the heel by doing a short row. It magically turns into a heel and then you just knit in the round and thus the leg starts. Pretty simple. I like it so much better then the pick up stitches method.

On that note my hubby just reminded me the season premier of Lost comes on tonight in 1 hour! Whooo Hoooo. Ok now Lost is one show that I do not knit through because I can't knit and not look at my knitting all the time yet and I don't want to miss one minuted of Lost. I have to go get ready now to watch one of the best shows evah!

Monkey Sock Progress

I have my first monkey sock half finished now. I can probably start on the heel flap after one more round of lace. I am looooooving it. The yarn I am using is from the Brown Sheep Company Cotton Fine in the colorway Wisteria. It is 80% cotton and 20% merino wool. I know they aren't machine washable but I don't really have stinky feet and I can just wash them by hand. This yarn feels sooooo soft and it has a slight sheen to it. It kind of reminds me of the cotton skeins you use for cross stitching but it has a slightly rougher feel.

I also joined a Sock of the Month club. (click to see the page) I got my first sock goodie from them yesterday! It is the Tofutsies sock yarn in the colorway #733. Hmm guess they don't have names. It is 50% Superwash wool 25% soy silk 20% Cotton and 2.5% Chitin (which it says is from shrimp). So I will dub these the shrimp socks. I wonder if people who are allergic to shrimp could wear these? The pattern that came with the yarn is called Daylily. It is a very open lacy pattern. You will see what these look like after I have started knitting them but for now here is a picture of the yarn!

The Weekend

Well this weekend was kind of messed up. The whole family were suppose to go to VA Beach to visit my dad on Sat. We had very good intentions. We started out of the house at 5 to 8 am. We wanted a head start to beat the traffic. We are 5 minutes on the road and Lars says well I have to get gas and then we can stop at McDonalds. I am thinking ok there goes 30 minutes of our trip that's cutting it too close. We stop for gas and there is some problem with the bank and Lars has to spend 20 minutes on the phone to get it straight so we can get gas. Sooooo we ended up not really leaving til 9:15. I told Lars we are going to hit traffic. He said nah its too cold people wont want to go to the beach today. Everything was fine and dandy til we got to Williamsburg, BAM traffic. We road in that for an hour and 20 minutes. No end in site that I could see and we couldn't find a radio station that was talking about the traffic. We were still 11 miles from Hampton and at this rate we would have gotten to the beach by 3 or 4. We turned around and headed home. I wasn't about to sit in traffic all day. Sooooo bad news no beach pictures. Good news during this I finished my 2nd sock! I am fairly happy with the way they turned out. The secound sock is soooo much better then the first, but I am not about to rip it apart just for a few mistakes. I will just chalk it up to my first sock experience and enjoy wearing them. I put them on and they are very comfortable.

I have started on my Purple Monkey sock. I wanted to do a toe up sock this time and since I don't have a crochet hook and am too lazy to go get a crochet hook I had to start the toe a little different. I tried the make a rectangle and then pick up stitches. Yeah didn't work. I hate hate hate picking up stitches. Not sure why but I just do. It seems very tedious to me to do on such tiny little stitches. Next I tried the figure 8 CO method. LOL Ok that was a total flop. I just could not get it to work. I tried it about 80 million times before I went back to the net and searched for another method. Lastly I tried the Turkish CO method. I have to say this one is fairly simple and straight forward. I could keep the tension tight and it just seems the easiest. After I CO I had to start the toe increases. Let me tell you I am an absolute pro at this Turkish CO now since I had to rip out the toe and do it over about 6 times. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then silly me I got out my Knitters Companion and hey lookie here PICTURES! on how to do the increases.

Now I am going to talk about this little book Knitters Companion. I don't care if you are the most experienced knitter there ever was you need this book! It is awesome. It has anything you ever wanted to know on how to cast on to how to decrease and increase to what size head a child of 6 months has. I highly recommend this book. It is hard back and flips completely open so you can lean it on itself kind of like a flip book or lay it completely flat. It is also small enough to fit into a knitting bag. The only complaint I have is the index isn't big enough. I like indexes that index every word you possibly would need to look up something and this book only has a one page index. A little small. That is ok the rest of the goodie in the book out weight the small, teeny, tiny, microscopic (did I mention the index is small?) index.

My Summer Knitting Goals

I was reading another blog this morning and she is having a contest. I figured I would enter. You can find the contest at this lovely little blog here.

1. I want to knit at least 2 more pairs of socks. I am going to make this pattern and I haven't decided on the 2nd yet.
2. I want to start on Christmas presents. I am not going to post them as since I have just sent links to my family to read my blog and they are for them. LOL
3. To blog everyday barring illness or holidays.
4. I want to start and finish this cute little tank top that I found in Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas. I love the patterns in this book. Sarah took vintage patterns from the 30's and 40's and modernized them. Basically she changed up the colors. I love the outfits in the 30's and 40's they used to wear. They are still classics today. These are all sweaters or tank tops though no skirts. I know they wore knitted skirts too I have seen a few in movies I love to watch.

Well that's it for now on to knitting!

Mommy Survey

I saw this on Knit and Purl Momma Blog

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? No
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? No
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I was nervous but got used to the idea after I fell in love with the baby
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? NO WAY~
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 19
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? After puking my guts out for most of 3 months I took a pregnancy test
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? My mom
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No
9. DUE DATE? Oct 15, 1991
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? 4 months straight
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Chocolate
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Strong smells
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Male
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? At first yes, but then I fell for all things boys!
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 25
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No.
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Chesapeake General
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 5 hours
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My boyfriend at the time.
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? I think my whole family was in there but I am not sure lol I was so out of it and there were so many people in there.
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? No
25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 9 lbs 11 oz
26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? Aug 15, 1991
27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Jerath Ian
28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? He is 15 years old.

Now I tag anyone who reads my blog

What I am working on

Here is a picture of what I am currently working on. I have to tweak the sock pattern a little. I have a high arch and it doesn't really fit my arch. The sock kind of bags in that area. All in all it is a pretty comfortable sock and I am happy with the way they turned out. I will try a lace pattern with the second pair. Also I will try it toe up. I like the toes on those better. They look more like socks should instead of all pointy at the toe.