Knitting

Been some time since I have given an knitting update.  I have finished many hats and some bags on commission as well.  Got so busy I forgot to take pic's : )  Here is a look at some recent items and what I am working on now:

Sometimes I walk past my yarn stash and see two colors next to each other and . . . wham, an idea is born.  Here is a scarf created from just that sort of event.

I call this my green rag

Russian tea scarf.

This too was born from colors just lying around LOL.  Standard blue, red sparkle and white mohair.

When I finish this will be a bag, my Red, White and Blue bag : )

Last but not least, starting a new pair of socks.  Hand made knitted socks are like sleeping bags for my feet.  Great for winter.

I am still working on Bre's Hufflepuff scarf, been working on it for like 9 months now : (  I keep stopping to do paid work, and now I am out of yarn ~ double : (  I do vow to finish by the end of this year however!

Blessings, Beth Ann

Moving Forward

Happy July 1st!  Tonight we will celebrate Independence here in my little town, with food, music, friends and fireworks.  It should be wonderful, we really enjoyed ourselves last year.  I hope my oldest son, whom is also celebrating his Independence is able to attend.  Haven't seen much of him and I miss him much.  I am so upset about this 'empty' nest syndrome thing, that the other day I was actually bawling over my oldest and how much I still miss her, and she has been gone for 10 years!  Geesh, am I a sap or what?   However life does move forward and we have been shuffling around the bedrooms.  The big idea was to move the twins downstairs, pair up the girls and make the nursery my craft room, which will free up a ton of space in my pantry.  Trying to do this around others work schedules is slowing us down, but we are in the home stretch.  Twin son is liking it downstairs, but twin dd spent 2 nights with big sis and hated it.  She said she is not ready to be away from her twin and that if they sleep together it keeps the bad dreams away, he con cured.  I figure moving into a new room after 7 years together in the same room is a big step, so will give them some more time.  There is no rush.

Big sis took big son's bed, which is a full and not a twin, and is thrilled.

Here are the new sheets she got for her new bed.  Why is this popular again?

Here is a pic of the coffee-mallow creme pie I made earlier this week.  It was delish!

I finished my first hat with the Alpaca yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby.  It is sooooooooo soft!

This camo hat is for my son in-law for Christmas.  I will make two more matching hats for my grandsons.  I have a purple one on the stix's for my dd.  It is soooooooooo soft!

Have a happy and safe 4th ya'll, Blessings: Beth Ann

(Our court house during last years fireworks.  Beautiful huh?)

Crafts and Booty

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The rain has stopped here in middle TN. and it is another beautiful sunny day and around 90.  Today was our bi-monthly trip into the 'boro, to get what ever we can not find in our 'bury.  We took the whole family, always an exciting feat.  This trip was special as we included Hobby Lobby.  For those who aren't familiar, Hobby Lobby is a Christian based retail store that specializes in home decor and all manner of craft items.  And yes, they are closed Sunday : )  Daughter B needed some items for her home ec. class and since we were there I thought I would pick up some yarn.  Get started on some Christmas knitting.

Here is some of the booty.  The big solid colors will be used in conjunction with my novelty yarn for hats and bags.

Here is a close up of some Alpaca yarn I picked up in camo colors.  I will make my son in-law and 2 grandsons matching hats for Christmas in the traditional green camo.  My daughter will get the purple camo and her two step-daughters will receive natural color camo hats.  I wish you could feel how soft this is!  I don't think she typically reads my blog, and if she did I am sure she is so busy with the kids she will forget this before Dec.  I should be safe posting this : )

Here is yet another hat I have finished for my stock pile.  For every two I knit, I end up giving one away as a gift.  So no, I am not getting very far but would rather give them away to people I love anyway.

Here is the bag I knitted during VBS last week.  I took the time to line this one, and it turned out wonderful!  I don't think I can give it away!  Oh, and a big hand to my model and twin son E!

I even took the time and expense to add one of my fancy name labels to the bag, ooooohhhhh -aaaaaaaahhhhhh. LOL

Thanks for taking this time to share some of my blessings with me, Beth Ann

hattitude

Greetings all.  Time seems to be flying and summer is in full swing.  The kids all seem to be experiencing growing pains and I am having a hard time with change.  Z is now a high school graduate, has a car, job and is soon moving out on his own.  B is finishing up her freshman year of high school and just brought home some kid claiming he is her boyfriend!  Come fall we will be moving the twins out of the nursery and into SEPARATE rooms!  Yikes, what happened to my babies?  There is no going back and I am about tore up trying to move forward.  No one ever told me that loving my kids would hurt like this.  I sob inconsolably when I am forced to leave my oldest after a visit, but I guess that I thought it was some weird anomaly.  Guess not.  The only constant is my knitting.  I have been knitting hats like there is a demon after me (maybe my own personal one).  I love to give them away as gifts, as my friends can attest - LOL  Pretty soon all my friends will be sporting very dapper 'chapoues'.  LOL 

Blessings, Beth Ann

Back in the camping saddle again

Here we are in a new month, OK half way through, and I haven't blogged yet!  I swear I will do better!  LOL  We took off May 4th for our first, maybe only, camping trip of the year.  We love to go over Mothers day week-end, weather is always mild then.  Hubby took a weeks vacation and off we went!  We started the trip with our heater at night, and ended it running the air : )  Every night was better than the one before it, sigh, so hard to return home.  We staked out our usual spot up in Carthage, at Defeated Creek.

Here is a shot of our site, right on the lake.

Each day hubby would lay a blanket out on the grass and take an afternoon nap.

Here twin dd has nabbed the blanket for herself and is having a snack 'picnic'.

Everyone except oldest son came along, he had to work.  Actually we had to two other church families join us as well.  Many children, friends and good times.  Son was able to take care of his ever growing menagerie, but I had to bring Howard the handicapped doxin with me.   

Here is Howard in his play pen, enjoying the lake view and breeze, while I knitted : )  We also brought the twins old stroller, and pushed him around the camp site.  He can walk in very small amounts, and gets tired quickly when pulling his wheel chair. 

This is Howard after a hard day of doing nothing.   This pic kind of says's it all!

We had a safe trip and are glad to be back with our friends and family once again.
Blessings, Beth Ann

Back from Cincy

Actually I returned home late Sunday evening from Cincinnati, and the weather was wonderful!  We were running late because we stopped in Lexington, KY for lunch and some antiquing : )  Over all I would rate the trip a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to attend the Great Home School Conference of the Midwest, and with such an awesome group of ladies who share my faith and are filled with grace.  We had two suites in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Dukes Convention Center.    Many times it was faster to walk than to wait for the hotel shuttle, except when it was raining or the morning we had to be at a lecture at 8:30 a.m. : )  My poor legs and back were tired from wandering among the 300+ vendors in the exhibit hall.  Many ladies had those plastic egg crate thing's with wheels and a telescoping handle.  A couple of vendors sold them for around $25 - yikes!  I had all my worldly possessions in a back-pack/purse and then I carried a tote bag, and just sucked it up.  The only bad thing to mention were food prices  on the premises (of course).  Bottled water was going for $3!    I had my own bottle and just repeatedly filled it from one of the many water fountains, as they have filtered water.  Again, it was an amazing time, shared with amazing people.

Here is our group on the day we left.  We are standing in front of the fountain at the public library, which was across the street from our hotel, The Garfield Arms.

The grand finale for the conference was The Duggar family (they have 19 children and home school).  I don't want to talk about how long the line was or the wait to be seated, but it was a nice evening.  I had read their book, so not much new information.  However I did not know they had a show on TLC (we don't watch tv).  Since then I have rented one of their disc's from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  I mostly enjoyed it because my 14 year old dd did, and it had some great info on courtship vs. dating.  They make it look 'cool' and because of the size of their family, dd appreciates ours a bit more : )

Of course I brought my knitting!  I took it with me everywhere I went and was delighted to find one of the vendors was selling a fiber art curriculum.  It contained knitting, weaving, carding and dying your own wool.  So cool to see these things make a come back.  I managed to knit a hat on the way up there, and on the way home.  It is a 5 hour trip after all (gain an hour going east).

We also took a day to visit the Creation Museum and meet Ken Ham.  He is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, a christian home school curriculum (to put it mildly).  He is a celebrity in the world of home school and maybe even a modern hero.  I encourage you to check him out at http://www.answersingenesis.com/  These are the same folks you might of heard of, who are building a life size ARK.  I so can not wait for that!  This was my second time to the museum and my first with no kids.  There is also a planetarium, but I did that the first time, not the second.  I was able to really talk more of it in and it was so much more . . . vivid, 3D for me.  It made may faith stronger and affirmed that we were on the path that God had placed our family.  I would love to go aging with a group from our church or even take the hubby and twins.  Sigh, guess I just want to go again - LOL

Well, I enjoyed the weather, the fellowship, the faith and the affirmation on home schooling, right before graduating my first from home.  I can't believe the big day is only 4 weeks away!  There have been many ups and downs in the 6 years I have been home schooling, but it is so well worth it!  Not only is it biblical correct, but it turns out kids to be proud of.  We are living our life for God and we are not afraid to live it out loud.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Just checking in

Thought I would check in before I leave tomorrow for Cinncinatti  and the Great Home School Convention.  I will be gone 4 days, but K will be here with the kids and doing some much needed car/RV maintence.  I went to this same convention 3 years ago, but now it is twice the size as before with a grand finale of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar (TLC fame).  There has been some controversey over speakers as this perpertrated to be a christian event.  The convention un-invited Ken Ham, founder and CEO of Answers in Genisis).  You can find out more about this at http://www.answersingenisis.com/    AIG also runs the Creation Museum, right outside of Cincy, so he will be speaking there and offer addional items for all registered coventiont attendees, including a free day pass to the museum and if you never been, you should.  They are currently in the processes of building a replica of the ark!  Again, check these folks out : )

I am still knitting away.  I just finished a scarf for an April b-day and will make the hat when I return.

Here is the scarf and it matches the fingerless gloves I made her for last years b-day : )

I am still big into hats and am making this tourquoise, sequenced one for myself : )

This is the book I take many of my patterns from.  They are easy and basic.  If your not a Harry Potter fan just sub any color you wish, as I do with my beannie hats!  So far I only made one HP hat and the rest are just reg. w/specialty yarn for flair.  Same goes for scarves and socks. 

I had a friend ask me yesterday to share a craft booth with her at an upcoming event ~ EEK!  Do I have enough items?  Guess I need to get on a hat binge.  How many hats can I knit on the 5 hour trip to and from Cincy?  Can I knit during the covention workshops?  Should I knit into the night?  What else should I make besides hats?  B said she would make some rice bags to sell, those are always popular as gifts and for boo-boos : )  I think it will be fun.  I just feel so darned blessed to live here and have such an aray of friends to do things with and share my faith as well.  I thank God everyday for leading me and my family down here.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Knits and that's

It's been awhile since I blogged and thought I would pop in and update everyone.  Not much to tell.  Still raining here most the time, so our garden isn't ready to put in yet.  Our oldest son now has two jobs, which is a good thing since his car blew it's transmission only a week after he started driving it.  He spent over a week patching and replacing the lines himself (we are calling this auto shop in school), but no dice, need a new tranny.  He is soooooooooooo frustrated.  Hubby and him are going Sat. to a junk yard to see if they can find one to rebuild.  Poor kid. 

Let's see . . . Hubby still needs to replace my ball joints and put a new tire on the RV.  Oldest dd and twins are mostly into school right now and a home school group me and few other church friends are trying to get off the ground.  As for me?  Well . . . I guess I have just been knitting my butt off in my free time (snort).  I am head to Cincinnati at the end of the month for the largest home school conference in the mid-west, guess I will take my knitting along for the ride too!  LOL  I have been making hats of late, and it seems everyone wants one (they are cool, like a hug for your head).  Lucky for me they only take about 8 hours to make, not that I have 8 straight hours to knit.  So more like spread over 3 days, er nights I mean, since I do most my knitting after the twins are in bed and waiting for hubby to come home from work.   I made Z's double fast because I felt so bad for him and wanted to cheer him up.

Here is Z's Harry Potter hat to match his scarf I made last fall.  You can also see the new dinning room color on the wall behind him, "Carmel sauce".

See, matches and everything ~ LOL  I am always so thrilled when things turn out the way they look in the book!

Here is the one I made for Bre, wish the pic was better as the colors are so much more bright than this.  The yarn is a soft baby boucle'.  Oh, and check out her $5000 smile.  Thank goodness at least the ortho is paid off!  LOL

And here I am in the hat that started it all.  I made this crazy eyelash yarn hat over a period of 4 Wed. nights. during bible study (shhh, don't tell ). 

Right now I am trying to finish B's HP scarf and my knit cargo pants.  I am also making a hat/scarf for an April b-day and a hat for a May b-day for friends.  Also, have about 5 more people requesting hats, 2 more scarf orders and a sock order.  Free time, snort.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Look at that bootie!

Another busy week has come to an end, and even though I was under the weather for a great deal of it, it was fabulous.  We didn't wash away in the rain, son got a job, hubby did a couple of car jobs, had tea with a friend, and the sun came out as so did my magnolia blossoms.  See, always half full.  I also finished those booties for my friend who is a new grandma, take a gander;

I love baby booties, they are soooooo cute.  It makes me want to knit a ton of baby stuff (bet you thought I was going to say, want another baby, no way Jose' - LOL).

This year we are doing a full Home Ec. course for B.  It will count for a full credit in her 9th grade curriculum.  Think traditional Home Ec., but with my kitchen and my sewing machine.  There is also the added bonus of time spent with my daughter as taught in the book of Titus.  We are half way done, finishing the food/nutrition/cooking portion and are onto sewing.  We took her to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric for a quilt she is to make.  It is harder than she thought, but she is loving it.

Here is the crafty girl now.  I have no idea why fabric is so expensive and cost prohibitive, but this will help her learn how to re-purpose old cloths before donating them.  Tomorrow is fill a bag for $15 at the Bargain Center (resale shop) and I will take her and look for some cute fabric (I can get like 30 items in a bag), also son needs jeans for work.

Most likely it will just be me and the 3 youngest tomorrow as son is hoping to finish fixing his car tomorrow.  Poor kid had been driving it for only 3 days when it blew a transmission seal.  It has been a lesson in money, patience's and respect trying to get that thing fixed.  But now not only does he have a car, a reg. drivers license and a voters card, but he has a job and bills.  Good times, good times.  My little man grew up.  How did that happen?

Blessings, Beth Ann

Frugal and Fashion

Good Sat. morning all, hope your enjoying your week-end.  A beautiful day here.  I wanted to share a couple of things with you today.  First is a great buy I stumbled upon during my Friday shopping.  I had been making my own toothpaste, to avoid the fluoride (google fluoride health dangers), but the kids weren't that keen on it.  That's the background story.  Next, Rite-aide has a scan card now (all stores do) and I have received a couple good coupons, the last being a $5 off coupon.  I knew they carried the Tom brand of health care products (that is were we buy our aluminum free deodorant), so went in looking for fluoride free toothpaste.  Found it, at $5.47.  That's right, you know where this is going . . .

After the coupon in was .47 cents, plus tax.  So .97 cents total, the same amount I would pay at the dollar store for reg. fluoride toothpaste.  So that didn't hurt at all to compromise for the kids.  Hubby and I are still using the home made, so maybe it will string it out and make it last longer.

Sorry this is so grainy, but you can see were the total is and that I gave them $1 to pay.  So, if you have a Rite -aide near you it is worth it to sigh up for just one more card : )

Next on the agenda, I have finished two projects this week!   Man it feels sooooooooo good to finish stuff.  I usually have 4 or 5 things going, so it seems to take awhile for all of it.  Not to mention I also seem to always stop and make gifts for people.  But I love it : )  This week I finished my first pair of socks ever (excellent for sleeping in and keeping my toes super cozy) and last night I finished my knit funky hat.

It is simple but the eyelash yarn makes it look so . . .  ooh - la - la - LOL  I worked on this predominantly in Wed. night bible study (shh. don't tell anybody), so took me about 4 weeks of 45 minutes each.  I love it and will wear it everywhere!  I wore it to the library today and the librarian asked if he could touch it.  Of course he could!  : )

I still have a H. P. scarf for B and a pair of pants for me on the stix's, but first I have been asked by a friend to make some baby booties for her new grandson.  How can I say no to that?

Blessings, Beth Ann

Sock it up

I did it!  I finished my first sock ~ ever!  This was my third attempt at it too.  First attempt, dog at it and my needle too.  Second attempt, small child pulled out all the needles (used 4, knitting in the round).   Soooo, you can see why I am so excited.  It even looked better than the other attempts as well : )  Now I am just praying I have enough yarn left for second sock (wouldn't that be irony).  It has been so long since I started this and with losing some yard to . . . lets just say acts of nature, well I don't have the saved yarn wrapper to tell me how much was in my skein so that I can compare it to the pattern.  I am just moving forward with the assumption I do, and yes I know what they say about assuming.

This was a tub sock knitted in a spiral round, funky huh?

Oh ye of little faith, it does fit and doesn't look to bad either : )

Sigh, just waiting for a mate, but sooo comfy.  They say once you wear a hand knitted sock there is no going back.  You will never want to wear a store sock again.  Oh and as I was trying this on, Z walks over and wants to know when he can get a pair.  I swear he will not make it to his birthday in 11 days!  Just something for me . . . once . . .

Blessings, Beth Ann

Comish

I am proud to say that I finished my first commissioned knitting piece on time : )  Although it gave me kittens quite a few times, but I tend to be a perfectionist.  It was worth it by the look of the finished piece however.  I took the order right before Thanksgiving and started it a couple days after.  I finished it two days before Christmas and put the finishing touches and fringe on it Christmas eve, about one hour before delivering it!  I was very happy with this piece and myself for setting a goal and finishing it.  I might have been able to do it faster if I hadn't also been teaching school, cooking, decorating for the holidays, attending parties, gift shopping/wrapping and cleaning!  Whew!  Many people saw me working on this and now they want one too!  I said no more scarves until next year!  I would actually like to do something for myself for a change, but we will see.  I am still working on a pair of socks and I still have that specialty yarn for the knitted cargo pants I want to make.  Sigh.  While I was helping B with her knitting last night (see, nothing for me), Z walked up and asked if I could make him a matching beanie for his scarf.  Double sigh.  I still have B's scarf to finish and none of these people pay!  LOL

Here is the finished scarf, in Griffindor House colors.

The small narrow strips indicate a year 3/4 scarf

Here are the two Harry Potter scarves side by side.  Larger stripes are year 1/2  and this one is Z's in Raven claws house colors.  Other differences are that year 1/2 is knitted in long tube and tied off with tassels.  Scarf 3/4 is a single ribbed knit with fringe ends.  Both are pretty good looking and a nice pattern to knit.

Let me know if you want one and I can also make matching hats, mittens, socks, and bookmarks : )

Blessings, Beth Ann

Unload the camera

Today is the day before Thanksgiving, 30 days to Christmas (ssh, you didn't hear that from me) and I need to get all the pic's off my camera, to make room for the new holiday ones!  I picked some of my fave to share with you here and I will do a cooked pumpkin blog as well.  I know, I can't wait either !

This first pic is of the tree in Z's room.  He cleaned his room real good a week or so ago (after taking down all his guinea pig stuff) and had his girl friend and the twins help him put the tree up.

It's a white tree that he asked for and received as a gift.  I picked up some vintage blue and silver ornaments last year at the flea market and he put blue lights on it.  Even the silver snowflake on top was a flea market find.  For a guy, my son has always had style! 

This is the second Harry Potter scarf I am knitting.  This one is for B.  It is a Huffle Puff year 3/4 scarf and is going quit well.  I have four more that I would like to make as gifts and another that is an order from a church friend.  I fear I will never get my socks or camo cargo pants knitted for myself!

Here is twin son E with Santa last Saturday.  Twin dd was timid and then I just didn't get a good pic of her - poo : (  Notice the sunshine and the short sleeves on a mid November morning.  I love living in the south!

This is B's room.  Notice the paper chain on the ceiling, it goes all around her room, almost twice.  I have no idea why, but her and two friends spent most of the week-end working on this.  And yes, that is yet another Christmas tree in her room (bottom left hand corner)

Another look at the amazing paper chain : )

Blessings, Beth Ann

Still here and still knitting

It's been a while since I blogged last.  Not much happening here, yet I'm always busy!  LOL  I guess the usual day to day stuff for a family of six keeps me that way.  Between family, home school, church, camping and crafts, I don't idle much : )  We are going on our last camping trip of the year, next week, to celebrate middle dd b-day.  It was her idea and since we are putting off our annul trip to S.C. until March, why not!  The weather here has been in the mid to high 90's for the past week, so should still be great for camping.  I can't believe that my B will be 14 and is a high schooler.   Seems like yesterday . . .

Today though she is planning a b-day party for her cat Tina, who is two.  Actually it seems longer, living with that white she devil/Siamese!  Anyway, B sat up late last night making cat nip party favors to hand out to all the other kitties/guests and is making a cake out of Fancy Feast.  Can we say spoiled?  B even knitted her cat a new swanky collar!  I will post some pic's of this soon.  And speaking of knitting . . .

My new project comes from this book, Charmed Knits, it should read.  We found this book at the library and son Z picked out a scarf.  

It is a striped scarf, knit in the round.  Making it a very thick scarf indeed.  The scarf/tube will have 19 stripes and the ends will be closed with matching tassels. 

These are the colors Z picked, royal blue and bronze.  I am now on stripe 9, so half way there!

Upcoming projects are socks.  Yes, trying it again and hopefully the dogs will not eat this pair!  Also, I will finely cast on for that pair of knitted cargo pants I have been eyeballing for six months now.  Not mention seasonal projects such as baby booties and such.  Will keep you posted ~

Blessings, Beth Ann

Pretty in Pink

Well, I did it!  I finished my first sweater!  Such a feeling of accomplishment : )  It seemed to take forever, but I did finish like 12 other small projects while working on it.  Now I look back and go, OK, that was actually pretty easy ; )  I was so worried it wouldn't turn out and wouldn't fit anyone.  Well it didn't fit the person I intended, but I did find a happy recipient for it.  This is the second item I have knitted by the pattern and has turned out to small.  I am starting to see that most patterns run on the small side.  No problem, I will just make the proper adjustments.  Here is the finished item:

It is a bright pink sweater knitted with an acrylic silver thread running through the yarn.  I add purple mohair to the cuffs and collar.  The collar was crochet, single stitch.  Note the awesome designer label, I ordered these a while back and have some that say grandma too.

I turned my back for one second while taking photo's and our cat Joe thought he liked the sweater too!

And here is the happy new owner of the sweater, my friend's dd, H.    Alls' well that ends well.

Blessings, Beth Ann