Beaded Curtains

I finished another design, motivated by the "Socks Revived Design Contest" on Ravelry. I'm calling it Beaded Curtains because it reminds me of the Beaded Curtains that were all the rage back in the 70's.

The yarn used is Wollmeise in colorways Sabrina and Wasabi. This was the first time I have knit with my Wollmeise and I love it! Great base!!

I'd love to receive some feedback.

Twinkle, Twinkle Socks

This pattern was a pain in the butt to knit and they sat unfinished for quite awhile. I love the finished product though.  The name of the color is "Elvis has left the building". LOL

Just finished another sock design

Here is a sneak peek of my new sock pattern. As soon as I can snap pictures for it, I'll be putting it up for sale. what do you think?

Amazing what you can do when you have a lot of time on your hands...

I cast on for this Cardigan on January 2nd and finished knitting it last night. I finished seaming it up this morning and now just have to block it. Now I plan to go and finish up some unfinished projects. My life right now; knitting, bad daytime television and facebook. Ugh! I can't wait to feel better and get back to my life.

Estuary Socks

Here is another design of mine. I've named them Estuary Socks because they have rocky cliffs on one side and wavy plains on the other with waves of water go through the middle out to the sea. (poetic right? LOL)

If you like the pattern, you can find a link to purchase it at the top right hand corner of the page.

Long time no post!

Wow! I just realized how long it has been since I have posted on my blog. I'll just blame it on Facebook. It is a huge time suck!!

I am off my feet again for a little while with a lot of spare time, so I thought I would take a few minutes to update anyone who might still be following me.

I've been sick off and on over the past year and had no idea why. I just seemed to feel bad after eating quite often and missed quite a few days from work over the year because of it. I always felt like my food was stuck and was not digesting and couldn't pin point it to any one type of food. I didn't feel nauseated or anything but would make myself sick to get the food out since it seemed like it wasn't go to go the other way any time fast. (blech - sorry!). Well, these episodes started too include pain that would last for hours. I had a bad one about 3 weeks ago but the pain went away and I was able to fall asleep finally, so I still didn't tell my Doctor about it. The "episodes" were always spread pretty far apart so when I got another one a week later compiled with the fact that the pain was more intense and had lasted for over 7 hours, I called my Doc at midnight to ask her advice. I got in touch with her associate who told me to get the ER because it sounded like my gall bladder and she was concerned that it might burst. WHO KNEW!!

So, Fred brought me to the ER and they ushered me right in. They did an EKG because I guess sometimes heart attacks mask themselves as abdominal pain in women (another who knew!), they drew blood for tests and they did an ultrasound on my gall bladder. In the ultrasound they found tons of gall stones which I guess most people have without being bothered and my blood work came back showing that my gall bladder was inflamed and infected, so they admitted me.

After about 36 hours of IV antibiotics they sent me home with prescriptions for 2 antibiotics and a low fat diet and told me that we would schedule surgery to take it out in about 4-6 weeks. When I got home we had a nice low fat dinner and I went to bed. The next morning, Christmas Eve, I felt nauseated and had the dry heaves all day. At 3pm we called the surgeon's office to ask them if it was a normal side effect of one of the meds they gave me since the pain had started again, they said to get back to the ER.

At the ER, they did the exact same things they did on Monday; the blood work, the EKG and the ultrasound and once again they admitted me. I was set up on a "nothing by mouth diet". Merry Christmas to me!

Fred was torn. It was Christmas Eve. Our plans for the evening were out of the question but the kids were still home alone. He didn't want to leave me alone on Christmas Eve but we also didn't want the kids to be alone. So, I sent him home with instructions to get the three presents in my bedroom for them marked Christmas Eve and have them open them before they go to bed like they do every year. Despite not having me there, I wanted things to be semi-normal for them and it's tradition that they get Christmas pajamas to wear to bed so that they will look cute in the Christmas morning pictures. I also asked him to bring them in to see me in the morning and to bring a couple presents for each of us and our Christmas stockings, which he had to stuff for me this year.

On Christmas morning they came into my hospital room still dressed in their Christmas pajamas. They told me that when they opened them the night before, they all cried because I still followed tradition even though i couldn't be there. They wanted to make sure I got to see them in their gift. Opening gifts there surely wasn't the same as it would have been at home in front of our Christmas tree with our traditional family Christmas music playing in the background, but we were together and that was what mattered most.

After they left the surgeon came in and said that he had a feeling one of the stones passed and got stuck so they had to do an endoscopy on me. My roommate assured me that she had quite a lot of those and that I would be heavily sedated and remember nothing of it. The rest of that day they continued me on the antibiotics and "nothing by mouth.

The next day they did the endoscopy. Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite the way my roommate described it. It's cruel and unusual punishment! LOL I was awake and remember every minute of it. But, on the bright side, they did find and remove a stone and a fragment of another, and also cut through the muscle at the end of the bile duct so that if any more stones passed they wouldn't get stuck.

The rest of Saturday and all day Sunday, I was allowed a clear liquid diet and continued to watch the Law & Order Special Victims marathon they had running on one of the 6 TV stations the hospital had. Then after midnight, I was back to the "nothing by mouth" diet in anticipation of my surgery. They had given me the choice to try to go home and schedule it for later to let the rest of the inflammation go down to make the risk lower for complications, but I didn't want to chance having another stone getting stuck or having any more episodes of intense pain. So, when asked, I opted to go ahead with the surgery on Monday.

I am not a needle person, and I am a hard stick with hard to find, tiny, veins. While I was in there during both admittances, I had my IV moved three times, and had blood work every single mother loving morning. My hands got beat up the most since it's easier for them to find veins. While in surgery, they attempted to move my IV a 4th time so that it was bigger for the anesthesia. When I woke up I saw three holes on my inner wrist! My IV was still in the same place it had been, so I don't know what they ended up doing.

I woke up thinking, "Yes, it's finally out and I can start to heal". Morphine wasn't helping the pain so they had me on something 100 times stronger than morphine. I was comfortable and able to rest, and more importantly, after one clear liquid meal, I got to eat solid food for the first time in nearly a week. It was a low fat diet, but at least it was solid and could be chewed!

I was still in a lot of pain on Tuesday, so I continued to rest on the higher dose of pain meds, and waited until Wednesday to go home. Ever since then, I have been here on the couch. I've started knitting a new Cardigan with a really awesome deep red chunky yarn. It has acrylic in it, but it's still soft and nice to knit with so, I don't care! I'm hoping it will be done before I have to go back to work. The pain is manageable as long as I stay on the couch and remember to take my pain meds every 4 hours. The kids and Fred have been awesome. They continue to check on me to see if I need anything, and they help me up to bed at night with all of my pillows.

They are all back to school tomorrow and I will be on my own. Hopefully I will feel OK getting up and down off of the couch more often. Cross your fingers!

So what is everyone else up to?

Retro Wallpaper Socks

 Here is another one of my designs. The inspiration was my retro 1070's kitchen wallpaper. It's hard to see in pictures, but the design is basically repeating hourglasses.  I knit these for hubby after being pestered about never knitting anything for him.  You can find a link to purchase the pattern in the upper right hand corner of the page.

New Jewelry

Here are my newest earrings

Sterling Silver Wire and glass teardrop.................. Gold filled wire, crystals annd beads wrapped

beads in two sizes/colors ...........................................with gold filled wire

gold filled wire, crystals ............................................silver shapes, dichroic glass beads

resin flowers........................................................... keishi and coin pearls

Simple shapes added onto ear wires

My newest bracelets

gold end caps, crystals and gold spacers .................olivine, aquamarine and clear crystals

my own design - glass crow beads .........................russian spiral with sterling silver end caps

silver leaves and Amazonite

Rilla Mittens

I made these mittens for a swap partner.  The design is pretty neat but I don't have much more than that to say.  I can't remember where i got the pattern so I can't put in a link.

Silver Beaded Earrings

Here are a pair of earrings I just finished making. They're a gift and the prompted hubby to ask if something like that could be sold online. LOL I can hear the wheels in his heads turning.....

I brought the kids to the airport this morning to leave for the summer with their dad. He used a different airline than he had been because the tickets were cheaper. But, when I got there they informed me that my two youngest were considered unaccompanied minors (which they weren't on the other airline) but the oldest couldn't be considered an accompanying adult so I had to pay a $100 fee for it. He'll pay me back, but it's a good thing I had money! To charge a fee like that on top of the ticket without stating so when the ticket is purchased is just bad business. His economy fares turned into not-so-economy.

So, in short, don't fly Delta/NWA. Southwest is MUCH better all around.

Jewelry and Lampwork Beads Part II

Here is another bracelet I made. It is another "Under the Sea" bracelet but this one is made with Purple and Turquoise beads for Em.

Here another pair of earrings I made. They're simple, but I like them.

These are the rest of the Lampwork beads I made last weekend. You can tell that I got better as the day progressed. My favorites are the upper left hand corner (purple and lime) and the bottom right hand corner (Turquoise, Ivory and Lime - the Ivory reminds me of Toasted Marshmallows).

Dawn (Bead Shop owner) made a bracelet out of her first beads. I liked the idea, so I made a bracelet just like hers. Now I will be able to remember back anytime I wear my bracelet. The class wasn't cheap, but the bracelet ended up costing less than a Pandora bracelet with a complete set of beads. Plus mine is better because I made all of it.

Back from a long hiatus.....

I lost track of blogging for awhile! I haven't been knitting much either. I think I needed a mental vacation from just about everything.

I started making jewelry again though. It's nice to have many hobbies so that you can switch back and forth between them so you won't grow tired of any of them!

I've made some jewelry with silver and gold wire and some with beads. I've been making mostly earrings and a couple of bracelets and a couple of necklaces. Today I took a class in Lampwork Bead making. So much fun and the creative possibilities are endless! Here are half of the beads I made today. These were made in the first half of the class so they are not that great. But, I still love them!

Top left - white with light blue and red dots

Top right - solid lavender encased in clear glass

Middle left - solid cobalt blue rolled in silver leaf and then encased in clear

Middle right - 2 lime green (my very first beads and not very round!) and orange, encased in transparent turquoise with white dots that were melted flatter than the ones on the top left

Bottom left - white round with orange and light blue dots

Bottom right - solid red with squiggle lines of light blue and white

It was such a great experience. The class was pricey but well worth the money. I will definitely go back for another one!

Here are the necklaces. The one on the left is browns and pinks and I kept it for myself. The one on the right was made as a Birthday gift for my friend Rox (Happy Birthday again Rox!)

I made these earrings for the same friend to go with the necklace. I LOVE them! They were an experiment and I can't wait to make a pair for myself.

These are the first earrings I made when I started taking classes. The beads were strung on wire, then that wire was coiled, then another thicker wire was put through the center and the whole thing was coiled again.

Next are all of the earrings I have made and kept for myself. The first pair below were made with gold accents and clear beads with flowers inside. I didn't realize it before, but I could make these beads now. It is just lamp work with flowers "drawn" with glass and then the whole bead was encased in clear. The second pair were made with jump rings and glass bead dangles. I have had these beads for years and love them. I am glad I finally found a good use for them.

This next pair is made with REALLY AWESOME beads. They seem like they are on fire and I had to have them when I saw them. I had no idea what i was going to make with them but bought a few of each side and came up with this design when playing around with them. The pair after those are made with one crystal, one square glass bead and a wooden bead. They are simple but I get a lot of compliments on them.

The next pair is also pretty simple. I think the focal bead is metal. The pair after those are made with another set of beads I fell in love with. I wound the wire at the base into a coil to make them more decorative.

These were pretty easy to make, but the wire bends easily so they become misshapen every time I wear them. If you hammer wire, it becomes less flexible but then it is easily snapped too, so I am afraid to try to use that as a solution.

This pair is easily my favorite pair. LOL They were stupid easy to make but I get a lot of comments on them. Most often, I hear, "Oh I get it! Chandelier Earrings", which is the direction i was going when I chose the materials.

Finally, here is the first bracelet I have made. It is called "Under the Sea" because some say it resembles a sea anemone. It was pretty time consuming, but well worth it. The beads are "sewn" onto the base and each stitch includes a 6.0mm bead an an 11.0mm bead.

So, there you have it. That's what I have been up to other than hanging out on Facebook taking stupid quizzes. LOL

Nutmeg Spinning Guild - April Meeting

Abby Franquemont was the guest speaker. I'm totally bummed that I had pre-decided to leave at lunch and made a commitment to go to the car dealer because she did ABSOLUTELY no spinning in the first half of the meeting. I'm not sure if she will spin after lunch but i will be evilly jealous of my friends if she does. But, alas, I need a new car......
I finally learned to spin with a spindle today. I have been spinning for just over a year on a wheel. I tend to jump into things with both feet and usually put the cart before the horse. So, this backwards learning is normal for me. HAH! I bought a "beginner" spindle at Rhinebeck last year and had yet to dig it out and try. So, I packed it up this morning with some Coopworth fiber that I have an ass load of and skipped off to guild. After about 20 VERY frustrating minutes of trying to spin and draft that fiber, I gave up (I know I'm impatient!) and went back to the vendors and bought a beautiful, but inexpensive smaller spindle that would spin faster so I could try lace weight and some BFL from "The Painted Sheep" that would be easier to draft. I tried spinning with that for about 20 more VERY frustrating minutes and found that it wobbled too much. So i went back to the vendor and asked if she would consider taking the spindle back for an upgrade to a more expensive spindle that would be easier for a beginner to use but still light enough to do lace weight. I settled on a beautiful all wood spindle that I would tell you the name of except my fiber is currently wound over the top of the name. ;0) I'll get back to you on it!

But here it is.....

Sundara Yarn Collection

I finally got into a Sundara Sock yarn Collection. I signed up for Summer. The description of the colors sound like they will lean toward what I like, so my fingers are crossed. These will be my first skeins of Sundara Yarn so I am excited. The sign ups are here, if you are interested. They just opened today.

New Fluevogs...

I got my new shoes today. Aren't they loverly????

My Whole House is Full of crazies....

...but these two are probably the craziest (and yes one of them is the dog!)

Even though she thought it was creepy, "E" couldn't get enough of my "disembodied" foot "mannequin". She thought it would be fun to model with my new Peeps Socks. Narrative by "E"

and then who can resist taking a picture of the most beautiful dog in the world???

"Wouldn't it be funny if I took a picture of myself smelling the foot???"

"Well, if it's good enough to model socks, it's good enough to rest my head on" (yes that is the foot)

This girl is seriously deranged....

"Hey! Why don't I take a picture of the dog looking at me upside down?" (isn't this the CUTEST picture ever??)

No photo shoot is complete without a wet kiss!

I love these two NUTS!