Lookie What I Made

Good Gravy, I am exhausted. Craig is traveling- back Friday.  Angus' diabetes is acting a bit crazy these days.  He is fine and safe and hopefully this rough patch will be short- lived.  He numbers were high last night and even the fast acting insulin I gave him didn't seem to help. 

Been up since 4am, fretting, administering insulin, testing blood sugars, drinking coffee and well, fretting more.

Too tired to knit even though I could use a bit of a simple repetitive task.

Today would be a perfectly wonderful day for my May Day Swap Socks to show up.

Here's hoping!

Love you all to bits.

xoxoxo

Posted by K.T. at 06:44 AM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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Thanks so much for all the fun guesses about Mom's true age.  She is tickled beyond belief.  Her birthday isn't until May 18 but she is starting to celebrate tonight with a party thrown by some of her dear friends (whom I adore) in her honor.  Apparently they have been cooking for days and it should be quite the affair.  Wish I could be there, sadly I don't have the freedom to hop a flight to Los Angeles at a whim. Right- children, fever, husband out of town, diabetes.  Crap!

We have a Winner!  Actually, there were two correct guesses Jill & Frieda!  (Jill please email me with your 411 and preferences at kt at theeislers dot com- Frieda- I totally know how to find you). You will both receive a skein of BMFA Knitters Without Borders and an additional skein of BMFA in a weight  & color of your choosing from the stash.

And now- drumroll........................................................................

Hold onto your hand knit socks- my Mom is turning..........................

SEVENTY!

She is truly beautiful and amazing.  Her outsides are not nearly as wonderful as her insides. May we all look half as good at 70.  Mom, you are a wonder and we love you. 

Posted by K.T. at 12:36 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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My May Day Sock Swap package is off, winging its way to parts East. How's that if you are trying to figure out if I am your Sock Swap Pal? Especially since just about everything is East of here. I fought the urge to ship it next day air, which is a strong urge in me. (As Emily will attest to.)

Clicking through the finished socks on Swapper's blogs, there are sure some real beauties.  It is exciting to know that a pair are on their way to me.  Which ones will they be?

This wee strip of holes makes me happy beyond measure.  In my knitting skill set, there are many things I can do and yet lace has always seemed elusive and confounding. I managed to find a local class during school hours and today was day one.  A great thing about this class is three fold. First, we were not assigned a class project but rather were allowed to pick whatever lace project we wanted.  I picked The Flight of the Honey Bees Shawl by Sharon Winsauer for Alpaca with a Twist.  Second great thing about this class is the instructor, Becky (Ravelry Link).  And third, I am using some righteously beautiful yarn. Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in a mystery colorway that I purchased in Scappoose at Tina's stash sale in November.  Score!  The color is perfection for a honey bee pattern.

Don't forget, Mom's contest end tomorrow, Friday May 2 at Noon PST. 

Leave your guess!  Good luck to all!

Love you all to bits- KT

Posted by K.T. at 08:44 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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Don't forget about the FUN contest!  Here is a picture of my Mom who is having a Milestone Birthday this May.  Guess her age, on the nose, and win a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Knitters Without Borders" in Lightweight plus another skein of BMFA STR in a weight & color way that is the winner's preference (plus other fun goodies).

Just leave a comment by Friday May 2, Noon PST.

And thank you to all have left guesses- Mom aka Charlene is totally tickled by your interest!  And she was VERY bummed that she couldn't pose a  guess and win the yarn herself.  No cheating, Mom!  And we will have none of that having your friends comment to win the yarn for you! (Her LYS is Jennifer Knits in Brentwood- so I am on to all of you!)

And if you are not Mom or part of her posse posing for Mom, you could win something out of this beautiful cabinet (which might be significantly more full after camp):

So, come on- Step Right Up and give a guess.  If you know shhh and one guess per customer!

Step Right Up, leave a comment with your guess!

Love you all to bits- KT

And Mom- no faking!

Posted by K.T. at 10:20 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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My May Day Swap socks are done! Except the grafting.  The yarn is BMFA Sapphire in Heavyweight. Perfect Spring morning socks, when there is still a bit of a chill in the air.  or if you live here, great for when it is dumping snow in late April.  Here is hoping my pal will like these and that they fit! There was much gnashing of teeth and ripping back in terms of fit.

Each time I knit a pair of socks, I find that I internalize another piece of the sock puzzle which is completely invigorating. One of the actions which I find truly energizing(regardless of the item) is ripping out and reknitting it. Which not only did I have to do that several times on the above socks but on these too. Must finish giant socks!

Camp was wonderful.  It was much harder this year to be away from the boys, though we all have pulled through in fine form.  I find that I want to tell you more about camp and as it is incredibly experiential for me, this is proving difficult.  Great fun is apt but not terribly descriptive.  It was great fun all the same.

Duncan is home with a fever and whine today, so lots of knitting whilst wiping of a little nose (not with the knitting!) and giving comfort.

*********

In the hold on to your horses department:

My Mom was tickled that her photo popped up on the blog AND she gave me permission to tell her age.  It is going to be a contest!  Guess my mom's age, on the nose- it is a milestone birthday- and you will receive 1 skein of Blue Moon Knitters Without Borders in Lightweight (not yet available on their site), plus one more skein of Blue Moon Yarn (weight & color tbd by winner's preference) and other various goodies.  Leave a comment by Noon, PST Friday May 2.  And if you know shh.....Also, if there is more than one correct guess, we will do the name in the hat thing.

One guess per customer.Good luck!

Love y'all to bits!

Posted by K.T. at 12:04 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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  Tomorrow morning bright and early I am off to Sock Camp.  The car is packed, permission slips for field trips signed and children hugged and kissed.

We had Duncan's big 5 year old birthday party on Saturday and it was wonderful.

Here is a super cute if a little dark picture of my Mom & Duncan.

This year is really a year of milestones- Craig & I will be married 10 years, Duncan turns 5, I  turn 40 in August, my Mom turns "X".

We FINALLY sold our house in Virginia after almost 12 months on the  market!  Yea!! Angels singing!

Love to you and hopefully I will blog from Camp.

If you are reading- THANK YOU!!

Love -

KT

Posted by K.T. at 10:37 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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Today my baby turns 5.  What a cacophony of emotion.  It is thrilling that logic and reason are starting to creep in and heartbreaking that there are no babies in the house.

Every Friday Duncan gets out of school at noon, so we have some special time just the two of us.  Each and every Friday he says, as he gets in the car: "Mama, can we have a Gluten Fest and then go to the fabric store?"  So off we go for pizza (we are a gluten free house- big brother has Celiac) and about half way through lunch, Duncan says to me :"Mama, do you think the fabric store has anything new for my stash?"

And yes, he has a stash.  If you were wondering what the stash of a barely five year old little boy looks like, here you go:

(motorcycles, dolphins, firetrucks, police vehicles and crowns)

But he does have some mighty big shoes to fill (this isn't all of it- trust me)

Happy Birthday Duncan.  You have my heart- always.

Love to all of you- back with much to tell.

Posted by K.T. at 05:27 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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For quite awhile I have been stewing, coordinating and just generally dreaming about making a mitred blanket ala Mason Dixon. Yarn has been being stashed for about 7 months (BMFA, STR Heavyweight). This may very well be a year long project, which is fine by me. Or I may zip zip through it, which is also fine by me.

.

There are a few questions that I have been working on that I would love input on, if you have any. The MDK pattern says to cast on 72 stitches. I would like to make mine bigger. Is it just a multiple of 3 that I need? Others say just cast on any odd number of stitches. Which formula do you use? Have you altered the basic recipe? How?

Please, I need the scoop!

Second, I was thinking that it would be feasible to cast on 144 stitches, put a marker between stitch 72 & 73 and treat them as 2 separate miters though they would be joined. Instead of 2 squares I would get 1 rectangle, or half a square. This would literally cut my seaming in half. Clearly this needs to road tested to see if can go from concept to really cool technique. (Scurries off to knit furiously.)

Oh, I feel like such a clever little bunny! It worked- Look:

You just need to remember to twist the constrasting colors on the wrong (private) side so that there are no holes. This is great! Only one long seam per large square. These colors I used are for test drive purposes - I just grabbed what I had wound up.

This pleases me WAY more than it should, but we all geek out on something. Uh oh, I think I just rained on my own parade. Having just read the entire Madness category at the extraordinary January One, I realize that my method will not give me as much freedom to switch squares around. Not sure how much this matters to me, I'll have to ponder that.

Also, I am contemplating what kind of rules I want to follow- I can already see that without them I will go completely around the bend and then feel awful because I didn't do what I wanted to do- knit the blanket that is. So far each square will have a single main color and there will likely be main color repeat. It did cross my mind to have only one or two main colors throughout the entire blanket and 4 different contrast colors per square.

It is already apparent to me that this project will be eating me alive. No complaints, though.

Posted by K.T. at 12:09 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment | TrackBacks (0)

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First and foremost- Ravelry ate my brain. Holy crap. In a good way. Holy crap. Enough said. Well all most enough said, I am lookiewhatimade over there.

Lots of knitting going on here. I am determined to finish this sweater- scroll to the 19th- before I go to sock camp this year. Here are the colors I am going to use for the tartan:

The pattern is Tartan Jacket from Zoe Mellor's Colorful Knits for You and Your Child. This is the second time I have made this sweater, here is my first version of the tartan:

I wear this sweater constantly and it has stood up to wear so well for about 9 years. I blogged about it here. I should mention that the color chart is as knitted and it not the same as photographed in the book. In my current version I will knit it as photographed in the book in STR Heavyweight Bluemoonstone, Lemongrass & Sunstone- the main color is Lover's Leap.

The bottom sweater (the original) is in Magpie (moment of silence) for the body and Lambs Pride for the tartan.

Last but certainly not least, I was awarded by both Emily & KT the "You Make My Day Award". Thank you ladies I love you both muchly, you have both made me laugh so hard, and care so much. You two have made my life a much more beautiful and inspired place.

Instructions are "give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Okay so, without further ado and pithy commentary (and in no order, other than how they came into my brain):

January One Hola Chica! This one rocks it about as hard as one can. Heart as big as all outdoors. And a tot on the way. Some people were just meant to be parents. The knitting and level headed-ness are awesome,

Angry Chicken The one and only. 3 little ones and SO productive. Shame!

Posie Gets Cozy Clover Meadow and beautiful crafting? Get out!

Yarnstorm If you sleep with her book under your pillow you will have the sweetest dreams.

Six and a Half Stitches Sublime. Structured and dreamy simultaneously. Quite a feat.

Hop Skip Jump The animals? Divine! And awaiting a baby boy any moment.

Hello Yarn In my dreams, I aspire to be her.

Amuse Bouche Yummy food and lovely pictures.

Gerrie Congdon Such dedication and what an eye. Sigh.

Bemused Jan is such an inspiration.

Say la vee Too good.

Pea Soup Just perfect- and the view? Stunning!

Knitiot Savant My Secret Pal. Nough said!

Emma Very Happy Belated Birthday, you wonderful woman !!

Special Bunny Blvd Such a lovely gracious human. And the mothering? And the productivity? Oy. I am in awe.

There are so many more folks that I wanted to give this award- I was supposed to limit it to 10 but splurged on 15. Thank you, for the award and for making my day!

Love you all to bits and pieces!

KT

Posted by K.T. at 03:24 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment | TrackBacks (0)

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Here is what I decided to do...

Weigh knitted sock and leftover yarn from cake #1

Done! 196 grams

Weigh cake #2.

Done! 200 grams

Rip back sock to heel.

Done! Look!

Then I will add about 3 more inches to the leg of this and then switch to cake #2 for the foot. So the leg will differ from the foot yet both socks will be the same.

Scintillating, no?

Posted by K.T. at 01:40 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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When I went to Sock Camp last year, a very good family friend came out from the East Coast to help take care of the boys. Really an awesome, giving move that left me free to go to camp and not worry. As a thank you I said I would knit him socks- appropriate, in my eyes. And then I forgot.

Long story short, I remembered and then our friend said: "Why don't you just knit me a scarf?" To which I replied: "You may indeed get a scarf in the future, but I AM going to knit you socks!" See our friend has size 14 feet. This was a challenge I was not going to hide from. I was going to rise to the challenge and then gloat and brag and make everybody listen to me rattle on about how I knit size 14 socks.

It is still my intention to do that and in order to torture you all, I need your help first. Ha! It is a lot like Brutus asking Julius Caesar :"Hey, could you sharpen this for me?"

Here is the rub: In 2006, I bought 2 skeins of STR heavyweight in Henpecked (at the same time, thank you very much). Do you like how I made it sound as if that was all I bought ? (kt- be quiet!)*cough* I took one skein and made it into a cake, then made that cake into a very nice sock, with my very first short row heel, nonetheless. The heel was ripped 3 times but no holes! So last night I took the second skein, wound it into a cake and in the midst of winding started to feel a wee bit queasy.

Here is the yarn left over from the sock (wish I had made the leg longer), next to the second skein. See the problem? What do I do? Please weigh in.

As I see it here are my choices:

A) Frog the whole thing (which I am willing to do ) and then intersperse the two skeins in the new pair.

B) Frog to the ankle, knit foot in the new skein. Knit other leg from skein #1 & from ankle down from skein #2.

C) Just knit sock #2 from skein #2 and be done with it. (this option appeals to me the least)

It just makes me madder than a wet hen when you can't unsee things.

Love you all to bits.

ps: I only have myself to be upset with. If I had actually thought about it I could have known this was going to happen, as I can see clearly in this picture down) Smacks forehead.

ETA: Choice A should read- A) Frog the whole thing (which I am willing to do ) and then intersperse the two skeins in the new pair. I just can't get the formatting to behave- sorry!

Posted by K.T. at 01:17 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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Making sure our blogging software is still working.

Posted by K.T. at 07:47 AM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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Craig loves his new job, which is at a company that has been very good to us in the past.

It was my supreme pleasure to go to sock camp and make many new friends. April cannot come soon enough so that I can go again. SO EXCITED.

I have met many lovely bloggers in the flesh: Jessica, Ryan & TMK, Cousin Tom (eat your hearts out- he is one AWESOME monk!) The other KT (who is moving here!!!!), hung out with the gals from Blue Moon at the stash sale (serious crushes all around), and kept in touch with some of my fave bloggers .

Plus I have been teaching knitting to Duncan's class 4-6 year olds. We have been doing finger knitting so far and are soon to move onto needle knitting. The best ones at the finger knitting? The Kindergarten Boys. They are seriously fierce. Teaching finger knitting to four year olds? A special kind of Hell.

On the not so pleasant side, we have had 8 kabillion bouts of Pink Eye, a Thousand bouts of Strep, Angus vomited more times in that single day than he had in his entire lifetime (vomiting when you are diabetic is serious business.. insulin is administered to combat food- food comes out of the body but the insulin stays in and you get very low blood sugar which can result in seizure or coma), a surgery for Duncan, a endoscopic biopsy for Angus, one ER trip for me and one for Duncan, which involved 2 hospitals and a rush hour ambulance trip across a floating bridge. Who knew that strep could present with abdominal pain and that an appendix could be so hard to find via ultrasound? A diagnosis of Celiac Disease for Angus, which by the way is a COMPLETE ASS KICKER. There is gluten in EVERYTHING. I seriously wept when I found gluten free stuffing cubes at Whole Paycheck at Thanksgiving. I had no idea how much I was dreading Thanksgiving without stuffing. And it was great!! I thought there was going to be no gravy either and the potato flour saved the day.

There were many icky hairy things about 2007. We are holding many good thoughts for 2008, I have my creative goals roughed out, we seem to have somewhat of a handle on our medical issues (I still think that if the software business ever tanks we could get a gypsy caravan with a sign reading "The Eisler Family Traveling Side Show of Medical Oddities and Semi-Misfortune ").

There are two happenings in early 2008 that give me such joy and hope for the world. Both this gal and this gal are going to be welcoming children into the world. We may have a fighting chance yet.

If you have stuck it out this far, a special treat- Angus picked out this yarn for me to make him socks- it is BMFA Sherbert in Heavyweight with Ruby slippers heels and toes. Knit on size 3's. 6.5 sts to the inch. How can you not feel happy when your 7 year old boy wants pink socks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!! MUCH LOVE AND PEACE. NOW GO FORTH AND KICK ASS IN THE SPECIAL WAY THAT YOU KNOW HOW. SHOO! GO FORTH AND KICK ASS!!!

Love you all to bits and pieces-

KT

Posted by K.T. at 11:12 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment | TrackBacks (0)

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The car is packed and I am making some coffee to go. Someone is having a de-stashing sale. I think 3 hours is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to drive for yarn. Luckily you don't have to pay duty when bringing yarn across state lines. This could get serious.

Thanks for all your good Juju- Angus was so brave. The procedure was a breeze and the result stinks.

Love y'all to bits

Posted by K.T. at 08:34 AM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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blanket, knitting corner, wall color, swatch.

Well the recipient of this blanket is now about 6 months old. The good news is A) She is a six month old and therefore cannot tell time, B) It is finally getting chilly here, C) It is off the needles, washed, wrapped and ready to be given to her, D) It is a gift for Angus' teacher's daughter- and if Nicole (the teacher/mommy) were to bust my chops about something I highly suspect it would not be about the lateness of her daughter's gift.

As mentioned previously, this is STR Heavyweight in Jade, Bronze, Amethyst,Rose Quartz, Blue Moonstone and Boysenberry. It is about 3 foot square and knit on size six or seven needles. Fun to knit and very easy. Also I gave it a bath in Fibre Wash and the hand improved dramatically. I have no basis for comparison- just soaking it, it may have felt just as lovely- not sure. Laid it out flat over night and when it was still wet this morning I threw it in the dryer on low heat for about 20 minutes. The tumble dryer did not diminish it one little bit.

For the past few days I have been reconfiguring my sewing/knitting laboratory. This is my new knitting corner. We have had these chairs for nine years and I had never sat in one to knit. Divine! But you must use the foot stool. The color on the wall is being auditioned- it does get rather grey here and I find this color very energizing. All my life I thought that this acidy green was puce. Wrong. I am a bit disheartened as I thought color was my thing.

The needles on the arm of the chair are a holding a swatch (in the round, thankyouverymuch) of BMFA STR Lightweight in January One. It is pretty amazing to me that I find size 1 needles easier on my hands than say 11's. Speaking of January One, you must go see a most beautiful profile taken during her 20 week ultrasound.

Now the good JuJu part. Angus (who is doing remarkably well) has to go into the hospital tomorrow morning for a short testing procedure AND they have to give him light general anesthesia. We anticipate being home by lunchtime. We are not worried about the result (he is fine and more on this later) and yet I find my self a bit nervous about the whole deal tomorrow. So please, good thoughts- send your love our way. Dance naked in the woods, light a candle, say a prayer, chant (that would be you , you skirt wearing monk)- how ever you do it could you send us your good JuJu? Thanks.

Love to y'all

Posted by K.T. at 06:15 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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My boys took very good care of me this morning. A beautiful breakfast of a pepperjack omelette, bacon, toast, coffee and gifts. The smiles and love on their faces was the best gift. I am so blessed.

A wonderful way to begin my birthday. 39 is going to be a great year.

Love to all of you.

Posted by K.T. at 01:50 PM | Permalink | | Leave a comment

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