My "Decode" Hat is Done!

Finished tonight, finally, and no where near what the hat that gave me this idea looks like.
As you remember my fiasco with beginning of the hat chronicled here NOT Haley's Decode Hat, I'm sure you're just as thrilled as I am with its completion.

What I am not happy with is that my camera will not pick up the incredible, too cool, diamond pattern in the knit pattern no matter how many pictures I take or how much I try to foctor them. Also there is the enigma of the fact that the hat is a different color every time I take a picture. This picture here on the left is the truest color I have, and it's pretty right on.

So what do you think? Even tho the original hat from the Decode video by Paramore had cables and bobbles, I am entirely happy with mine and I think I like it better because I went my own unique way. The diamond pattern that you can't see is beautiful and I love it and cannot wait to use it in the top of the foot of a pair of socks!

And, btw, yes...that is my real haircolor. LOL

Fall Means Flannels

Unless you're my Dad and then anytime means flannel. Seriously, he wears flannel shirts during the summer. Crazy huh? Alright...anyways!

I still have all these gorgeous, gorgeous flannels Jenn sent me. I put together a messenger bag with them before and it sold almost over night, so I thought hey--it's fall. Time for another. And as I cut squares I thought might as well make one with the button/tab thing like I normally do. I just love the wooden buttons on both of them, my brother Artemas made them and sells ones like them in his etsy shop: http://gotwood4you.etsy.com/ Both bags are available at my etsy shop: http://hamncheezr.etsy.com/

I should mention that Monday night I was climbing up our basement steps which happen to be directly under our inside-the-house steps because I'd been downstairs doing laundry. Hannah had followed me downstairs and as I climbed upward I stooped to pic her up and upon standing errect cracked the very top of my head on the underside of our inside-the-house stairs. The result was a slight concussion. So for 2 full days now I have been suffering from a splitting headache that people tell me nothing but major amounts of caffeine and Motrin will help. I am not sure they're really helping. I've thought tonight that my head wasn't hurting quite as badly, but I'm pretty nauseous and now that I've talked about it I realize my head hurts worse.

I've been making slow progress on my knitting too. Hannah thoroughly tangled my brown sock yarn and I can't knit any farther on my Dad's socks until I untangle it. I rationalize this lack of untanglage by telling myself that I already have Dad one pair of socks for Christmas, so if I don't get this one done it's okay and I have many other projects that need knitting before Christmas and I can come back to them.

I've gotten about half of my Finger Friendly hat knitted for Nancy. I had Mom close her eyes today and feel it all over to tell me if she thinks Nancy will like it, LoL!

I just got my first paycheck from working for our church tonight so tomorrow I'm going to get a tattoo! Actually, I'm going to stop in Alter Ego (in Knoxville) and show them my drawing and ask them how much it will cost me, and if they have time to do it tomorrow I will and if not I'll make an appointment to come back. As you may know my dear hubby Tony and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary and I'm going to get a tattoo for him, a cute little drawing I did of some heart shaped cherries and cherry blossoms. No, it wasn't his idea. I'm planning on getting a tat for my children in January (one of each of their birth-month flowers) and I thought I should have one for him first. I'm pretty excited about it. He knows I'm planning on getting one in the next week or so, but I am hoping they can squeeze me in tomorrow so it will kind of be a surprise for him.

Crown molding and knitting for the blind

Last night we officially finished the put-up-crown-molding adventure!! I am thrilled! We had to buy 6 more feet of it yesterday and while I worked at church last night Tony and Jeremiah did manly things like put it up and change out the downstairs toilet seat. When I got home I caulked around it, then painted the corner pieces and touched up the ceiling paint along that wall so now it's totally done!!! It looks awesome! This was the wall that didn't actually go all the way to the ceiling. Tony had to patch it, both sides around the corner, with a 1"x3" board. Luckily our molding is 3.25" so it covers completely. I love it.

Now Tony's talking about putting a texture on the ceiling to hide the spots that had to be patched. We'll see. If we do, we'll probably do it the weekend we resurface the floors--which will be soon!

We've also been making progress on the bedroom upstairs. We still have a wall/doorframe to build and one to tear out but we've gotten the far wall (the one that had the built-in) almost ready to paint with primer. I am going to try to tinker with it this afternoon if I can sneak away from the kids. : )

For Christmas last year I knit my friend Bethany a soft, brightly colored hat with a huge puffy ball on top. Her mother Nancy is blind and says she loves it and could I make one for her in gray and red. Her coat is gray and red is her favorite color. I got a lovely dark red/cranberry color yarn and some gray fun-fur. I am knitting the ribbing for the cuff of the hat with both yarns, then I will discontinue the fun-fur and just use the red for the body. I am planning cables and other patterns so it has a lot of texture and is "finger friendly." This way Nancy can "see" it easily by feeling it.

I am starting on the 2nd sock of the 2nd pair of socks for Dad for Christmas. I haven't finished the first yet, but have knit it from toe to heel. I am going to run out of the orange varigated yarn so I put it on different needles to hold and I'm beginning the second sock so that at least they will look the same, haha.

I have so many projects that need doing before Christmas, I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed! Need to knit:

Nancy's hat

Nancy a matching scarf

Summer a hat

Rush a hat

Lily a hat

Jeremiah a fish hat

Jeremiah slippers

Finish these socks for Dad

Need to make:

3 more large, pleated fabric purses

22 more flannel/batting "sandwich" squares to add to our queen sized flannel shaggy, making it king sized.

A couple more regular and funky purses like I put in my shop, by the 1st week of November, so I can take them to craft shows.

I think I need to make a pot of coffee.

A GREAT trade!

Somehow my Mom "met" this woman named Marion through the internet and I've started talking to her/getting to know her by osmosis I guess, LoL! Marion loves all things fibery and knits, spins, sews, and makes and sells spindles just to name a few things.

A while back she asked if I'd like to trade; if I would make her a knitting bag in exchange for a spindle. I was definitely up for it! The trade got put off a couple months while she worked at the pool during the summer and I moved (I wonder who had a better time??) but finally in the last couple weeks we've gotten our act together.

I wanted to make her a special bag that would be very easy for her to tote her knitting or crochetting in, or even a small spinning project. I chose an all-over print because she likes bright colors, with a blue lining because she said she liked any shade of blue. I chose to make it messenger style so the flat over the top would keep things from falling out, but I cut special notches on each side so that if she wanted to walk around and knit her yarn could thread up through and have a place to come out easily!!

She told me she mailed me a box and when it arrived, stamped Priority Mail 8 days later (thanks for reliability USPS) I was floored when I opened it!!

She MORE than held up her end of the bargain!!!

Oh my goodness, she sent me a couple ounces (I'm not good at measuring so I'm gonna guess 2-3 and she can correct me) of really fluffy some kind of naturally brown fiber. It is slightly....something, sticky is the wrong word. I think it may either be superwash or it may have some of the lanolin in it though it is not sticky like other wools with lanolin I have felt, so it remains a mystery. It is spinning wonderfully about sock weight, and I think I might ply it with some natural white merino I have and have a wonderful natural brown and white 2ply.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPINDLE EVER! OMG! She knows I like bottom whorl best and I love red so she painted the flower on this wooden spindle red before she clear coated it. It is wonderful. It spins like you wouldn't believe and has a great weight, it is heavy enough to keep spinning (longer than my arms are, LOL!) but isn't breaking the yarn! Like I said, I'm spinning sock weight and it's working beautifully!!! I love, love, love, love, love it! (Please ignore my nasty living room floor, we're refinishing it in about a month).

3 balls of almost white sock yarn, one of which is being dyed a lovely shade of pink while I type! A gorgeous pair of knitted socks for Hannah. Hannah was so thrilled with them she had m e put them on her immediately, wore them the rest of the night and fell asleep in them. She even took 2 pictures of her feet; sorry they aren't totally clear and I hope you can see the lace pattern.

Hannah even took a picture of Mama being very happy about the goodies in the box!

And last but certainly not least for Jeremiah she sent a fishy toy, which he LOVES. It has a little pull string and then the fins flap so it can swim in the bathtub? We haven't tried it out yet because after a stressful day I threw the kids in the shower instead of a bath but we will! He spent a lot of time today amusing himself and his baby sister with it, and making up a story about how the pull tab is acutally a baby fishy but it's so small because it was just born, LoL!

Thank you, thank you Marion!!! I love everything.

Did I mention I love the spindle??

NOT Haley's Decode Hat

The last time I rented Twilight (yes, I've rented it more than once. Heckle and mock me if you will but pay attention.) I watched the video "Decode" by Paramore that's in the bonus features. I had seen the video before but noticed for the first time Haley's awesome purple slouchy knit hat! I've been obsessed with it ever since.

Of course I wanted to do it out of a handspun and I proweld etsy to find just the right shade of purple batt, which I finally did from FiberOptic. I was SO thrilled, it was even superwash! I spun my yarn slightly thick and thin 'cause I wanted some character, all the while dreaming of this hat I was going to make myself. It was going to be awesome.

The picture I had in my head, that I'd gotten from watching the video in my living room in poor lighting looked like it had k2p2 rib for about 4.5" so it turned up quite a ways and then it looked to me like it was knit with a diamond/diagonal grid pattern of purl stitches through it.

Today I decided to Google image search "paramore decode video" and "paramore purple hat" and discovered that I had gotten it all wrong! Knitters feel free to pummle me with acrylic nastiness for missing something so obvious! The hat had CABLES and knittle (knitted and little, ha!) BOBBLES not diamonds! Curses!

So I was devestated all day. This wonderful beautiful hat I had planned was not as I planned. I love cables but I do them all the time. I don't like bobbles/knitted knots so I don't do them at all.

I decided since I wasn't as thrilled about the actual Decode video hat as I was about the one in my head that I was just going to make the one in my head instead. Do you own thing and all that. As I poked biscuits and gravy in Hannah for dinner I drew a little graph of X's and O's since I don't own any graph paper.
I worked out my repeating diamond pattern over 12 stitches. I didn't know what my guage was going to be so I did something I've only ever done once--knit a guage swatch. It was too loose so I cast on with smaller needles, LoL! I cast on 84 stitches on 4.5mm double-pointed needles and I've only gotten about 4 rows knit but it looks like that's going to be a good size. I'm pretty unhappy with that little guage swatch anyway, the pattern didn't show up well but I guess it's hard to see how a pattern will look on a 12 stich swatch! I am however lovin' this gorgeous, orgasmically wonderful purple yarn! Superwash merino too, can't beat it!!

A Spontanious Vacation

Last Monday my MIL called and said she was going to have a few days off work and did the kids and I want to go with her to Charleston SC to visit with her mother and sister (and family). Tony's Nana was recently discovered to have cancer and has been undergoing chemo treatments after having had tumours removed and is not in very good health. We had been wanting to take a trip over there (about a 7hr drive East of us) as a family but the opportunity to do that hadn't happened yet.

Tony and I have not ever been apart a single night, in a little over 5 1/2 years. The kids have never spent the night away from us except for Jeremiah who's stayed at my MIL's a couple of times. We knew it would be a little strange to be seperated but Tony and I decided that it was a good time for the kids to go see Nana and to visit with the Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

We left Wed morning and arrived Wed night. I took some knitting with me in the car, a little sweater I was working on to send to a friend for their new baby. All I had left to do when we left was add both sleeves and I managed to get one done on the ride over there. Thurs. morning we got up and Nana mentioned that she'd like to have a couple small caps or some slippers because her feet are so cold. The chemo has, of course, caused her hair to fall out and she still has several treatments to go. We went to Michael's craft store and I picked up some yarn (that morning and on the way there I feverishly finished the second sleeve on the baby sweater since I'd only brought one pair of DPNs with me!) Between Thurs afternoon and Monday morning before we left I'd knit her 2 beanie/skull caps and a pair of slipper/socks. I am almost tired of knitting! LoL!

Thurs we took Nana with us and went into North Charleston to the Michael's and then to Border's Bookstore where we hung out for about an hour. Book stores are very special to me. I get a feeling of peace and calm there that I get almost no where else. I can spend hours surrounded by books, the air conditioning and the quiet muzzak and feel well rested when I leave. This feeling of course is railroaded by the fact that I ALWAYS take my kids with me, even with help, you can't look at books sufficiantly while holding a squirming or chasing a running child through the bookstore. It totally kills the outting. I tell Tony that I always feel robbed. This time was no so bad, the Nana's watched over Jeremiah leaving me free to roam and look for books with Hannah for about a half hour before she bashed me in the face with her forehead and gave me a nose bleed. Peace and calm ruined.

Friday cousin Caitlin and I took the kids into Downtown Charleston to the local Market which was pretty neat. Like a flea market but in an old brick enclosure with open ends and sides. We did the touristy thing, buying the kids woven bracelets and Tony a shot glass from the Pirate's Cove memorobilia store. I took pictures of a couple old buildings I thought were particularly neat!

For lunch we went to Bubba Gump's, which is a slightly-overpriced (I thought) but fun seafood resteraunt based on the movie Forrest Gump. The kids' meals were served in cardboard boats with Jennie on the side. It was a neat experience and my fish sandwhich was pretty good, though I make better coleslaw LoL! One of the waitresses was creating a giant side-walk-chalk mural/advertisement which was very colorful! I bought myself a souvenier shooter-shot glass with a little shrimp on the side with the words Bubba Gump.

Saturday Tony's aunt Charlene was off and so was her son Andy so we (me, the kids, Cheryl, Charlene, Andy and Nana) loaded into her Tahoe and off we went to Charle's Town Landing historical site. It was a huge plantation like-deal where you walk for a million miles and see local folliage, wild life, hisorical plaques and facts. Kind of like a museum, gardens and zoo rolled int one. They didn't have any strollers available when we got there so the kids trekked along with us. Hannah picked up sticks everywhere we went which she used to swat at leaves and Jeremiah carried around a map, telling us which ways to go. We didn't get to walk the whole place because by the time we got back to the middle (after seeing the animals) and picked up a stroller for each kid, we were all tired and worn out and needing to get Nana home and it was dinner time. Still, I got some cute pictures and it was a nice outting. I like all that historical type stuff.

It ended up being just as lonely for me without Tony as I'd thought, and worse for him to come home to a big, empty house everynight. Tony is VERY MUCH a people person, he doesn't like to be alone period. He tried to get off Saturday with the intention of suprising Nana and driving over to visit but he had to work. So he put in a vacation day for Monday (which also gave him Sunday off) and drove over Saturday night when he got off work! He got there about 7am Sunday morning. Needless to say we (he, haha) spent most of Sunday sleeping.

Monday we got up, packed and cleaned up our messes, said our goodbyes and headed toward the beach. Folly Beach is only about 20 minutes from where we were but considering we didn't know how to get there, we had to strop and buy towels and a sippy for Hannah (because her bottle disappeared at Charlene's house) and that inolved going into 3 different plazas on the wrong side of the street, it took us about an hour and a half to get there. Sigh.

We finally there, found a place to park that was TADA right near the bathrooms! $1 an hour to park. Crap, we don't carry cash. Scrounge $1 in dimes and nickles off the car floor and head up 3 flights of stairs to the bathrooms to discover this lovely view and the bathroom doors locked--5 hours before the sign says they're to be locked. Crap. Okay, we changed in the car. We had a wonderful time playing in the surf (even though I hate the beach, cause I hate sand.) and the kids LOVED it. We got someone to take this picture of us. We're a chunky bunch, aren't we? We managed to escape unsunburned (yay me!) and with a little bucket of shells which included some impossibly small ones I found with a little hole in them already to make into stitch markers, and 2 beer bottle caps (what?). Jereiah said he had to use the bathroom when we got there (and they were locked), when we left (2 hours later) we asked him if he still had to go, he said no. We get in the car, drive 2 minutes when he starts crying he has to pee. Of course there's nothing but closing up surf-shops. 4 minutes later we're waiting at a traffic light to turn into a gas station to take him to the bathroom when he starts to cry and says he had an accident. Ooohkay. Take him in, clean him off, change his clothes, take the cover off his car seat. Then gas, the rest of us use the bathroom, get drinks and snacks and 40 minutes later we're stuck in rush hour.

It took us until 1:30am to get home (we left the beach at 4-ish pm). Still though, we had a good trip. We we thrilled to be back together again and loved being able to do something vacation-y with the kids at the beach. They'd never been to an ocean beach before (though we took Jeremiah to a Gulf beach in FL).

More fun for Today!

Today Tony decided to tackle that closet I wanted built upstairs as part of the whole expanding the master bedroom thing. As I type he is prepping the space to start framing in the new closet. Wonderful! But my whole house is covered in plaster dust. Everything, everything upstairs. Gonna have to wipe all my books down with a barely moist towel. Still though, it was my idea so I can't complain! He had Artemas spend the night last night and tonight to help him and upon the discovery of only one dust mask he tied a Tshirt around his head Bin Ladin style. And of course, considering it was game day, he went with a University of Tennessee Volunteers shirt LoL!

I started knitting a stocking cap (a really, really long boggin that comes to a point. Think Psycadelic Elf. I am using up any and all bits/leftover balls of fun and brightly colored redheart acrylic yarn I can find.

I got a new messenger style tote started yesterday and finished today. I call it "Pie Guard" and it's available in my etsy shop.

I usually have a black thumb when it comes to plants. Every plant, flower, rose bush I've bought has died. Quickly. Loudly. This time I got some pots and some seeds and I seem to be doing well with growing some herbs and flowers! Maybe that's the trick for me, start with seeds!

Hannah and now Jeremiah (and possibly me) have mysteriously come down with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. My children don't go to daycare, nursery, etc except for Jeremiah going to Sunday School so we usually avoid illnesses like flu and kiddie viruses. I got a one-day-a-week job at our church keeping the nursery and the first night was last Wednesday. Then Fri a friend (who's kids do go to daycare) and I took our collection of children to Dollywood where they played around barefoot in the kiddie water part. Then on Saturday we attended a family reunion where they played with their baby cousin. The only thing I can think of is somewhere along they way they picked it up. The good news is, since we're all showing signs of it already, we should be done in about a week. The other good news is that it's a fairly harmless virus that just has to run it's course. The bad news is baby Hannah has severe blisters ALL over her feet (maybe 40 of them) and she's been up at night crying a lot. : ( I feel so bad!

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

Finally I was able to put some pics in Mom's computer (hers has a nifty thing where you stick your smartcard right in the side, mine doesn't) and she e-mailed them to me. So here are all the pictures the previous couple posts have been missing.

First we have Diantha's hair with the pink streaks put in it. Very cool, but for some reason her hair hasn't taken the color well and it's already faded a little--even with us having bleached the streaks first. Oh well, ya live and learn.

Then check out the crown molding we've been putting up around the living room. I LOVE it. It makes the room look so much better, especially with the cool little corner pieces Tony got. We still have to caulk around the top of the molding with some white caulk because the ceiling in our 69 year old house isn't exactly straight. Go figure.

Jeremiah and Hannah had a LOT of fun the other day playing with sidewalk chalk. Jeremiah drew lots of racetracks and Hannah tried to eat a green one.

I spent the greater part of any kind of riding in the car over the last week knitting this adorable little almost-white baby sweater. I had intended to send it to an old friend and his wife for their new baby. I thought the baby was due in about a month so I've been working on a newborn sized sweater. Even still I ran out of yarn and needed to go pick up another skein to do the sleeves and the intended ruffle around the bottom. Then I talked to this friend's Mom and found out the baby was born last month. Oops. I got some new, differnt yarn this afternoon to make something else because the yarn shop didn't have any more of that color yarn. Of course.

I started knitting a hat for my Goddaughter Lily with a skein of bucle yarn I had laying around. I thought it would be SO cute with ear flaps. Got the hat knit, ran out of yarn (see a pattern). So I either have to find another skein of the horrid bucle yarn somewhere (think Big Lots actually has it) or give it to her without the earflaps? Le Sigh.

I won a nice, fluffy batt, ironically from my sister/Mom for coming up with a gruesome name for one of Mom's recycled Hall of Horrors yarns series she's doing in her shop.