Friday, September 19, 2008



haven't posted in a while so i think it's about time. a lot has happened, but one thing of note is that I was excited to learn that I won a couple ribbons at the Kansas state fair for my "Fiddlehead Mittens". blue ribbon for knitting under a year and a purple ribbon for best of show (for all hand knitted items). i'm excited, humbled and a little embarassed that I won the best of show as I know for a fact that there were lots of wonderful entries, one of which was rkyarns beautiful EZ sweater. along with the ribbons, i received 3 gift certificates. one from Yarn yard II which was for $5 and got a couple of cable needles and some of those needle stopper things. and 2 were from "Yarn"! i really cool yarn shop in Hutch. they were so nice and excited for me to spend my certificates. i even got 30% off cause it's their 3rd birthday. here is the mother load of loot i got today......


here is a pic Rkyarns awesome sweater

Monday, August 18, 2008

MY PUG CAN SWIM

my pug Otis went to the neighborhood dog swim. he has never been in deep water before, wasn't sure if that chubba would sink or not, but to my suprise, he is an excellent swimmer. A mother could not have been more proud!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

puppy mills suck





as you can tell, I love pugs....put I love all animals. my first pug I bought out of the paper, my second I found through a rescue out of Oklahoma called homewardboundpugrescue.com. my little mimi is a puppy mill survivor. when rescued, the rescue didn't know she was pregnant at 6 months old. (btw, that is way too young to breed a dog) When I took sweet little 9lb mimi home, she was emaciated, anemic, had a tick infestation and her body was mostly skin and bones with 10 tits of milk as most of her body weight. I raised all her babies and they were adopted out to good pug lovin' homes. Mimi now weighs 18lbs (oops that is almost too much) and is a happy healthy girl. This really opened my eyes to what a puppy mill is and how many dogs are cruelly treated in them. they are only out to make money and are treated like a crop (like ears of corn). most of them spend their whole lives in a small cage with a wire floor and are never let out. after about 6-8 years (after they can produce no more pups, they are most often killed via gunshot, poisoning, drowning, hanging...etc) this video shows the greed of this Amish man in Ohio. he is being secretly taped by an undercover investigator pretending to be interested in buying his operation. don't mean to be a downer in my blog (heck, I dont even know if anyone is reading it yet) but I wanted people to know what is going on out in our world. just cause it's hard to watch, doesn't mean we shouldn't watch it as it will help us make a difference.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Stitch N Bitch



had a great time at S n B last thursday. Shelly the owner of Twist Yarn Shop told me I win the prize for bringing the most people into the shop. yeah, i'm a winner! here is the gang i brought in last thursday. my sister is the one with the sticks up her nose. (i just taught her to knit that night....is she trying to saying something?) probably just cause she is a bad ass.

actually my sister is so innocent that after snb, we went for a pint at the "anchor" and she told me that was the first time she has been in a bar and the first time she has ever shown her ID. she was giving the guy at the door the biggest smile. (I was like..Sarah...if you smile at the doorman, he'll think you have a fake ID)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

bay harbor monkeys


Well I finished my very first "real" sock. I feel very accomplished and wore the "one" around the house a little bit today before i blocked it. i made a blocking tool out of a coathanger I found on someone else's blog. it's a bit loose so i'm thinking i should have used #1 us sz needles instead of the #2 the pattern calls for. i have a narrow foot, so i should have known better. anyway...here it is. i'm very proud of myself. the sock yarn used is handdyed from "cosmic yarns" and the colorway is "bayharbor butcher". if you watch the show dexter, it's named after a character in season 2.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

suzy Q's wrist warmers


my dearest friend of all time taught me how to knit and how to do these wristwarmers. i learned how to knit these before i knew how to read a pattern. here is the pattern...i hope it makes sense.


yarn: worsted weight for adult, baby (or sport) for a child.

you need 4.5mm (us size 7) double point needles, cable needle and tapestry needle

ok here goes….

cast on 32 (all onto one needle)

transfer 8 stiches on to your second needle, then from the first needle transfer another 8 stitches onto a 3rd needle. you should have 16 stiches left on your 1st needle. then connect the circle with the following knitting pattern. this will be the base ribbing pattern.

k3, p1 for six rows (or however long you want the base to be)

pearl 2, knit 6 for about 5-6 rows, then you will proceed to do the cable for one row.

CABLE ROUND: P2, slip 3 stS from left needle onto cable needle and hold behind work. knit next 3 sts on L needle. then place the 3 stiches from cable needle back on L needle. then K 3. repeat that for the entire round.

continue these 2 patterns until you feel it’s a good length for a thumb hole. take about a 6 inch piece of different colored yard and do your regular P2, K6 pattern with it but only for 6 stitches (which would be P2, K4) after you have knit the other color yarn in for 6 sts, transfer them back onto the original needle (left side needle). you will then proceed with regular yarn and pattern as if nothing is different.

keep repeating the pattern until it’s long enough, then bind off. (loosely, don’t want to cut off circulation) (try it on your hand to determine)

thumb:

with 1st DP needle slip 6 stitches on the bottom of thumb hole and with 2nds needle, slip 6 sts top of thumb hole. carefully slip out spare yarn.

so you should have 6 stitches on the bottom needle and 6 stitches on the top needle.

1) knit the bottom 6 stitches in ribbing pattern -k2 p1. now you should still have 2 needles occupied and 2 free.

2) with an unoccupied needle, create 3 stitches by picking up 3 loops between the 2 needles w/6. try to pick loops that are not as loose, this will help avoid big “holes” (3 occupied, 1 free)

3) with your free needle, k2 p1 on these 3 new stitches (3 occupied, 1 free)

4) with the occupied needle that just knit those 3 stitches, k2 p1 (3 stitches) on the top needle that has 6 stitches. this will leave 3 stitches on the top needle that have not yet been knit. the other two occupied needles should each have 6 stitches on them. (3 occupied, 1 free)

5) with your free needle, k2 p1 on the 3 stitches on the top needle. (3 occupied - 6 st, 6 st, 3 st, and 1 free)

6) with the free needle, create 3 stitches by picking up 3 loops on the last side of the “square.” (4 occupied)

7) with the top needle with 3 stitches that have already been knit in the ribbing pattern, k2 p1 on the final 3 picked-up stitches. at this point, you should have a total of 18 stitches on 3 needles - 6 st, 6 st, 6 st - with 1 free needle.

8) with the free needle, continue in your ribbing pattern around - k2, p1 - until the thumb is at desired length. then bind off in pattern.

9) repeat on other wristwarmer.

clear as mud?