Holy Cow!

My last post was what? Valentine’s Day?!

Obviously, I dropped the ball with blogging. In fact, I forget how to make a list here. OK, I found it.

  • February – I was so enamored with the Mosaic socks that I couldn’t stop knitting but I did. I decided to have a party* in June and needed to deal with a lot of stuff.
  • March – I wanted new carpeting for the stairs and second floor but first wanted to stain the stairs a darker color.*
  • April – I was still working on the stairs and encountered a problem during the process*. To clear my head, I visited my BFF in Ohio. We had a wonderful time!
  • May – I finally finished the stairs and had new carpeting installed*. We went to our oldest grandson’s high school graduation in Michigan. Then a surprise retirement party for my sister-in-law.
  • June – Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. We had our family reunion and anniversary party.*
  • July – Hot, hot, and more hot! I went to my first Book Club meeting*.
  • August – My neighbor and I decided two months ago to have a combined yard sale so that occupied most of my time. It ended up that I didn’t have as much to sell but still made $101 plus I got rid of stuff. Most of what didn’t sell went straight to Goodwill and not back into the house. As you might know, having a yard sale is way too much work for very little return. After that adventure, I finally got back to my socks and discovered a BIG mistake.

Well, of course, I discovered a BIG mistake.

Here I am past the heel and gusset and two pattern repeats into the foot section.

The leg.
Something happened here.

You can see where the heel begins on the far right where the red arrow points.

The row right there is where the BIG mistake happened. The chart was wrong (or so I thought) so I redrew it and went right on knitting the gusset and foot.

When I looked at the sock, something wasn’t right. I know it’s there but you might not be able to see it. It finally dawned on me that I reversed the Main color and the Contrast color.

Could I live with the sock being wonky and wrong? With that busy pattern, who could tell it’s not correct?

Me. That’s who. I am my grandmother’s granddaughter. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

*More to come (at a later date) about those other projects and events mentioned above.

Have a great day!

Patti

Three things

#1

I recently read an article about a family who started eating dinner by candlelight. The kids were calmer, less distracted, and more open to talking and sharing thoughts and feelings. Being calm and less distracted sounds like a good idea for meals.

#2 

Thou art dust and to dust thou shall return

Today is also Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season.

#3 I couldn’t wait to begin something new as my knitting mojo went on vacation with Pepper’s sweater so I started a new sock! It’s the Easy Mosaic Sock by Winwick Mum. It looks complicated but only one color of yarn is used for each row except one. To get the two-color look, a stitch is slipped from the previous row onto the right needle without knitting it and continues with the row pattern. 

Easy Mosaic Socks, Regia Tweed, Knit Picks Chroma Twist

I’m using Regia 4-ply tweed yarn in charcoal and Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Surf’s Up (discontinued yarn). 

Easy Mosaic Socks, Regia Tweed, Knit Picks Chroma Twist
Easy Mosaic Socks

The pattern is free and Winwick Mum explains the process much better than me.

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?

How do you observe Lent or is it just another usual time?

Have you started any new projects this year?

Patti

Some days

I decided to knit another Botanical Yoke Dog sweater for Pepper. Instead of using dk weight yarn, I’m using worsted acrylic/wool yarn since I need to use that up. After knitting a gauge swatch, I decided to use the stitch count for the Extra Small sweater and size 7 (US) needles.

The Vivid Orange was in a grab bag from a friend and the Cranberry was from my stash. I wanted something bright/visible but not blinding so that’s where the cranberry came into play.

Everything was going great until it wasn’t. I had just vacuumed the carpet and Mr. Aitch and I were eating lunch. He asked if Pepper was curled up in my chair as he couldn’t see her. It was quiet. Too quiet.

I found her with these little bits of dark stuff. At first glance, I thought they were sunflower seeds from the bird feeder that came inside on her fur.

Then I saw this.

Knitter’s Pride Dreamz Circular needles that I was using on her sweater!

Fifteen minutes in the crate.

I ordered another needle that should arrive next week so I tried to salvage what I had using a pencil sharpener. 

It’s not the best solution but it will have to do.

Snow Day

Winter Storm Ember brought about 6-7 inches of snow to our area over the weekend.

Snow storm Ember 2024
About 4 inches at this time. Two more inches before it’s all done.

Pepper got to wear her new sweater outside to play in the snow.

She followed Mr. Aitch down the driveway behind the snowblower. But she ventured out into the snow soon after that.

Snow storm Ember 2024

It was snowing pretty heavily before he finished. This was the last part and it’s already starting to get covered again.

Snow storm Ember 2024
Not boots…
Snow storm Ember 2024
…snow caked legs!

Pepper does not have booties on. That is snow caked in her hair! It took 20 minutes with the hairdryer to get all those icy clumps out!