Snow Babies

We had quite the blizzard here this weekend! My kids could hardly wait to go outside and play. The older two didn't really want to look at the camera, but Baby J didn't mind!

Quick Basement Update

Things have been moving SLOOOOOOOW on our basement right now. It's just been too hard for me to get downstairs and work consistently, especially at night when I am totally exhausted. BUT, the good news is that we are finally moving forward again after about 2 months of extreme slowness. Here are the latest pics:

My awesome hubby spent Monday night working his you-know-what off to finish the final touches to pass our inspection on Tuesday, which I am very glad to say that we did pass! I placed the order for our drywall to come on Friday, so hubby spent last night cleaning up the living area (pictured) so we would have plenty of room for the 90 sheets of drywall that are coming. The insulation itself wasn't that much work and went pretty fast, we just needed some motivation to get it COMPLETELY done. I'm so excited for the next phase!

This Week....

has been a rough week. Part of me wants to complain about all the reasons why it has been tough so far, but that seems pointless and whiny. All I know is that it's okay to admit that sometimes life is frustrating.

On the other hand, I still am knitting quite a bit, which always makes crazy life seem a bit less crazy. Here are a few of the projects I am currently working on:

I started yet ANOTHER pair of socks. I love having socks in my purse to work on during the wait at school drop offs, while the kids play at Chic Fil A, or at Moms Group at my church. They are easy, I have the pattern memorized, and the self-striping yarn still makes my heart go pitter-patter. I tried to do a fair isle design with this yarn and some lime green I picked out, and it just wasn't working. I'm so happy at how pretty the stripes are in this yarn though, so I'm pretty content to just use it as is. Each skein makes a full pair of socks and I bought two skeins, so I am planning on making a pair for me and a pair for a friend. 

I'm also working on my second Pheobe Sweater. This one was intended for my niece, but it fits Baby J  much better, and she is 8 months younger. I bought much less expensive and less chunky yarn for this one and I'm using smaller needles, while still knitting it the same size as I knitted Little Miss C's sweater. It just has turned out to be that much smaller! I will definitely spring for the nicer yarn next time though, this stuff tends to stick to my needles quite a bit and it's not nearly as soft 

I loved doing Fair Isle so much on my last pair of socks that I decided to attempt a mitten. I was super excited about a pattern I found, only to discover I had bought too thick of yarn to make it work. Then I found this lovely pattern and have knit almost the entire thing, but it's too small for my hand because I was dumb and didn't make a gauge swatch. Plus I don't think the yarns are contrast-y enough to see the pattern well. I think I will go ahead and finish them up and see if a friend has a preteen daughter that would like them.

FO - Striped Toe Up Socks

This was the first pair of toe up socks I finished. I just needed to figure out a way to photograph them without making my calves look fat..... :-P    The first one was a bit big, both width wise and lenghwise. I adjusted both in the second sock (we are only talking about a few stitches either way) and while I notice it when I wear them, no one else notices the different sizes. I figure they were practice socks anyways, and they sure are comfortable! I also loved working in self-striping yarn, it made it go so much faster.  I think the only big thing I would change would be to have done a more stretchy bind off, the one I did is too tight and it makes them hard to stay up on my calves. Oh well, I love wearing them! I have plenty of yarn left to make Little Miss C a pair, so we'll see how that goes later :) Enjoy!

FO - Fair Isle Socks

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning, cleaning, cleaning for a jewelry party I am having tonight. Too bad that this pregnancy makes me get wiped out after working on something as simple as cleaning up the living room. So, I snuggled with my hubby and watched some more Grey's Anatomy and finished up my first pair of Fair Isle socks. I do love them oh so very much!

They turned out so neat! I used the Lifestyle Toe Up Sock pattern and noticed on Ravelry no one (that I know of) had tried using the actual Fair Isle pattern on their socks. It was a pretty easy pattern to figure out and it made knitting these a breeze! I love knitting this type of pattern because it is made to fit my long, skinny feet really well. I loved using different yarn for the toe, heel, and cuff too. It makes it all look so complete and finished. I noticed though, that because I did it in Fair Isle it doesn't quite have the stretch the other socks I have knitted have, so if I did this pattern again I would make it a bit wider on the foot to make it easier to get on and off. Here are the knitty-gritty details:

-CO 24 using provisional cast on (it's more durable that Judy's cast on, in case you are like me and the first place your socks wear out is in the toes)

-increase every other row to a total of 68 stitches

-change to Fair Isle pattern, knit square pattern 14 times

-use short row heel method to decrease to 12, then increase again

-continue in Fair Isle pattern 15 more times

-K1, P1 cuff for 12 rows

-stretchy bind off

I have one more pair of socks I finished awhile ago that I will be sharing later this week! Have a blessed day!

I Love, Love, LOVE These Socks....

I many have only just finished the heel to the first of these socks, but I have to say that I LOVE knitting them!! I hope I love wearing them just as much! Onward....

On The Needles

Geez, I am really bad at posting my finished projects. Oh well. Her is another set of socks I have started. I have actually finished the other socks I showed earlier, and I love them! I'm even wearing them right now. Too bad there isn't a way to photograph socks on yourself without making your calves look GINORMOUS. So until that picture gets taken, enjoy this pic of my first fair isle sock:

Sweet Nephew Photo Shoot

My sister was super nice and humored me while I did a little photo shoot of her new little guy. He's only 11 days old, and sure is a cutie patootie!