It Could Have Been Worse

Yesterday duderman didn't want to be put down hardly at all. So later in the afternoon, when I had finally given up on getting chores done, I sat down with my knitting and him in my lap.

I am working on a Christmas present - using DPNs - that had about 2 inches done. Duder is working on getting his arms where he wants and grabbing stuff. See where this is going?

While I was knitting away, listening to podcasts and watching the same Veggie Tales DVD for the 934857th time with the boys (we only have 3), my very smart son was working on controlling his little hand closer and closer to my needles. A moment later I felt resistance and looked down to watch him ever so quietly pull one needle right out of my knitting.

Now, this could have been worse. For one, the yarn I'm using is very nice grippy yarn and it stayed right where it was. Just one dropped stitch, and it only dropped a row and was savable. For two, I was planning on ripping it out and starting over anyways (the size was off). But no matter what your plans are, if you are a knitter and you lose a needle for whatever reason you would probably feel the same way I did...

For one tiny moment my heart stopped. I panicked. Sheer terror coursed through my veins.  That darling child almost wound up on the floor (I know this sounds horrible, but some of you will understand.) Then I realized the stitches weren't dropping and remembered I had thought about starting over, and that if I wanted to save it I could because the stitches were still in tact.

But holy crap that was scary.

Random Monday!

Good morning everyone! I don't have one solid thing, but lots of little things - so today we will be random.

-Today I have one happy baby, one grumpy baby, and one slightly in between. The twins are sick and grumpy so today will be spent babying them.

- I woke up to duderman chattering at me from his bed. It was really cute.

- Ben ripped out the stone on our fireplace last night to get it ready for the insert. It already looks so much better.

- I am still working on Christmas presents, this is why I am sadly lacking in pictures.

- October is in 3 days. This I am horribly excited about.

- It is supposed to be 70s by the end of the week. This I am also horribly excited about.

- I have decided I love twisted rib and might just use it for the rest of my life, instead of regular ribbing. It is done by working all the knit stitches through the back loop. Purl the purl stitches as usual.

- That's all! Happy Monday!

Dyeing And New Toys

Remember this? Well I finally got around to playing with colors and here's what I came up with:


I've named it Day Lily. It's a little less pink and lot more orange in person, so if you were to hold it in your hands it would look a lot closer. I will have to try to take a better picture later. I think it turned out great and I really love it. I did a whole skein of Knit Picks Bare laceweight (880 yards) so it should make a nice shawl or something.
And now, my new toy! Mom and I have been getting a lot of lace weight lately, which means they come in skeins. Which also means my brother usually got roped into holding his hands out while one of us balled it up. A chore he complained about frequently. But, we went halves on a yarn swift and now:

Woohoo! It makes balling up so much easier. And faster. And I love it. It also makes re-skeining a ton easier too - I used it for my Day Lily yarn.

In Knitting Knews (ha. I crack myself up.) - Not a whole ton going on. I'm working on a shawl during Stargate using the Blackberry Cream I dyed. I also started another Christmas present... That's about it I guess. I've been crazy busy this past week so haven't gotten much done. Maybe next time I post I'll have progress for you. ;)

Perfect Knitting Weather

I woke up this morning and saw this. It is a beautiful cool, cloudy, rainy day. It is the weather I love to knit in. I've opened up all the windows in the house just so the house smells like rain. I'm going to take advantage of it while I have it. I'm going to go start laundry and clean the dishes in the sink - Then I am going to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and knit for the rest of the day.

Blackberry Cream

Moose Man slept for quite awhile on Friday and I've been wanting to do some dyeing for the past few weeks, so while all the boys were napping I took the chance while I had it. This is what I came up with. I call it Blackberry Cream because it is a deep purple and white.
I used leftovers of my Springtime Swirl shawl (about 524 yards) in Knit Pick's Bare Merino laceweight. I used a mixture of two different Kool-Aid flavors to get the purple I wanted.
I turned out really great. I got the tie-dyed effect by plopping a whole wound up skein into the pot, rather than pulling it apart. So the dye didn't sink into the middle of the skein. I can't wait to knit it up and see how it turns out. I will have to find a smallish shawl/wrap pattern. Or maybe make my own.

I also got some spinning done on Friday. I've started the Black Diamond Bamboo. I only had a chance to get a tiny bit done, but so far is seems to be acting like the grey Merino I did awhile ago. The biggest difference I've seen though is it's a lot lighter. It will fly away really easily if any fibers get separated.

Labor Day Weekend, Indeed

There have been a ton of projects going on this weekend at Chateau Du Naked Sheep. Ben took the words "Labor Day weekend" literally and happily worked all three days. So now that it's all done and I have pictures I get to brag about my incredibly talented and amazing husband. This is going to be picture heavy.

One of the things he got done Sunday was a shelving unit in the boy's room. We've been talking about doing it for awhile. Both for storage and for keeping them from pulling the clothes out of their dresser, or banging on the wall at 6 in the morning and waking people up.

The shelving is on the right, then he placed a normal closet shelf at the top on the left and will put a hanging bar once he gets a support bracket that fits. Their dresser is under that. Then he put latches on the tops of the doors so the boys can't get in. Now the boys just have one box of toys to get into in the morning, so it has been a very clean room! It opened up a lot of space in the rest of the house's cabinets as well, which makes me happy.



The biggest project of the weekend, though, was a new gate for the side of the house. Ben is a great welder and he really has an eye for design. So where most women might say "Oh, my husband installed a gate" I can say "Dude. My husband MADE a gate." Here is a picture of the side railing that holds the hinges.

This is the gate being prepped for painting.


When it was all done, we went from this torn up, ill-fitting, crappy gate:


To this! A beautiful, perfect fitting, quietly closing, easily opening, crazy-sexy gate. I love being able to say "Yeah, he built it." Next he is planning a new fancy one for the front gate, and a matching solid piece of fence for the other side to replace the crap fence that is falling down. I can't wait!


In addition to all that he also built himself a cart for his welder which turned out awesomely. And, we now have a garage door opener! That he installed without instructions because there weren't any in the box. I'm so happy about the door opener. Now I don't have to play the "Open the garage. Pull out the car. Turn off the car. Close the garage. Go around and leave through front door." shuffle anytime I want to go anywhere.

I was slightly productive this weekend too. I worked on Rachel's sweater, started and finished another Christmas present, and just about finished a beanie for Ben but I ran out of yarn. I will have to go get more. Maybe tonight after Ben gets home.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

FO: Ty's Bag

Pattern: Stuff Bag by Meg, personalized for Ty

Yarn: Lion Brand Lion Cotton (100% Cotton) in "Natural" and "Evergreen" - About 1/3 ball of white, and a small bit of green.

Needles: US 7/4.5mm straight

I worked this bag flat, with one purl row separating the front and back. Then I folded it in half at said purl row. The "T" is created using duplicate stitch. I would have worked it as intarsia, but I didn't like how it was looking. So duplicate stitch it was!

I seamed the sides by picking up along the edge and then used a three needle bind off once I folded the halves together. I wanted to seam it using the i-cord I used for the handle, but I couldn't figure out how to incorporate it without just sewing it on.

All in all it turned out pretty good. I was going to make one for Jack, but I will need to revise the pattern a little bit before I do. Maybe practice multi-strand in order to get a J without duplicate stitch. However, I had a conversation with Ben that might prevent me making another one. It went something like this:

Me: See? *Shows bag* For Ty Ty to wear and put things in.
Ben: .... You made him a purse?
Me: No, it goes around his neck.
Ben: You made him a purse.
Me: It's a bag.
Ben: You made him a purse.
Me: No! It's a bag.
Ben: When people come over and see him wearing that they're going to wonder why my kid is wearing a purse.
Me:... Fine. *Chucks bag in a corner*

So, I might have to rethink this whole thing...

And now, a sneak peak at Christmas!

I'm obviously not going to give you any details. But I finished one present and had post at least something.