Emptyknitster

Recently, while watching a podcast the hosts began talking about "Frankensocks". These are socks made of leftover sock yarn with no regard for color! Sue, the podcaster, said she loved the socks BUT working in all the ends was for the birds. Silently, I agreed. Then, about a week ago, it came to me... Russian Joins!! I joined the bits and pieces of sock yarn - all 80% wool and 20% nylon - with a Russian join to form a ball. Making the ball before I started allowed me to knit without interruption. (As I knit the sock if I thought one yarn color section was to long, I ‘d cut part of the length of yarn and join it to the next color. But don’t throw it out! Start another ball with the short length!) What a fun knit, I am sending them to my sock loving brother to wear on April Fool’s Day and I know he’ll get a chuckle out of them.  Pattern: Vanilla Socks with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel Yarn: Oh My, Everything! Colorway: Just take a look Needle Size: US Size 1 I pref...

Twenty years ago when we built this house, it was filled with two of our three daughters and Hubby and I were working hard at our careers. I chose the house color and door color because I wanted the house to look established, as though it had been out here in the country for many years. With the big hailstorm two years ago it became necessary to replace many things on the outside, roof, screens, siding and gutters. Although I was open to changing the siding color the green just seemed to be the right color and so was replaced with a bit darker green. The door color was another story. It had been painted several times over the years but the color remained the original dark green. Now, I felt it was time for a new color, red. Hubby and I both like the new color and were happy we'd changed things up a bit. Then I read this article:  13 Things Your House Reveals About You by Michell Crouch Number 4 says: Whether You Are Outgoing It's written on your front door. According...

While we were all on vacation The Tiger confided that his “Lucky Socks” were to small and he couldn’t wear them anymore. I just HAD to get another pair on the needles and completed because these socks help him succeed each and every Spelling Test Day! The socks were completed on Saint Patrick's Day - they just have to be dusted with a bit of Irish Luck don't they? Just sayin’ a Gramma’s gotta do what a Gramma’s gotta do!  Pattern: Basic Ribbed Socks with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel Yarn: Patons North America Kroy Socks Stripes, Cascade Yarns Heritage Solid Colorway: Eclipse Stripes, and Turquoise toe, heel and cuff Needle Size: US Size 1 (I knit these, as always, toe up. Cast on 30 stitches total - 15 on each side and then increased every other row until there were 27 stitches on each needle for a total of 54.)

Guess who's having a birthday today...  Sadie Lou's of course!  Happy day dear granddaughter! And there is a little kitty in this house that's two today... Denali Jane

While we were in Hawaii I managed to knit five pairs of socks on the beach. - Ahhh, YES "Socks by the Ocean." Kate's birthday socks 2016 Pattern: Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Sox Therapist Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Stroll Fingering Sock, Schachenmayr Fluormania Color Colorway: Hand dyed by me - Apple Green, Neon Flower Needle Size: US Size 1 Sarah's birthday socks 2016 Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Stroll Fingering Sock, Schachenmayr Fluormania Color Colorway: Neon Beach Color Needle Size: US Size 1 not sure who will be gifted these Pattern: Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Sox Therapist Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Stroll Fingering Sock, Schachenmayr Fluormania Color Colorway: Hand dyed by me - Apple Green, Neon Rainbow Needle Size: US Size 1 Steve's birthday socks 2016 Pattern: Vanilla Latte with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock, and Paton's Kroy Socks Stripe Colorway: Burgandy and Eclipse stripes Needle Size: US Siz...

All the family was glad to have 2015 behind us and thrilled to say ALOHA to 2016! We'd been planning this trip for a year. The only thing missing was the California Dreamin' Family. The kiddos had been looking forward to coming back to Paradise since they left the island 6 years before!   Hawaii 2009 They arrived late in the evening and after a good night's sleep we were up and on the beach by 8:30 GT (that "Grandpa Time" he loves to make every minute count when we're in Paradise!) The kiddos didn't miss a beat and were quickly playing is the sand, hiking and in the water! We were at the state park one afternoon looking at pictographs when a park ranger told us about an activity planned at Turtle Bay - one of our favorite places to go when the sand is blowing in the kiddos faces! They had food native to the area, outrigger canoe rides, talks on turtles and demonstrations on tsunomi waves. It was a great family activity for a Saturday afte...

I've continued to work on the "Never-ending Blanket of Doom" meeting my New Year's Resolution for two months now! February was a busy month (more on that another post) but I was able to knit  51 squares for a total of 649 squares!! All ends are worked in and surprisingly there was no I-chord to be knit around edges. I had planned a total of ten black squares and so the square one the left row is the final one. There is just one square above it - THE TOP OF THE BLANKET IS NOW IN COMPLETION MODE!! My plan is to finish the estimated twenty squares on the left top edge during the month of May and then attack the last black square on the right side row. Since the beginning of this endeavor I've been able to take the square knitting time down from 45 minutes a square to 25 minutes a square, great news but it's made it difficult to estimate the total hours put into this project. If I average the time to say 35 minutes a square I've put in approximately 380...