In Which We Have Family & Pets

Earlier this month my brother, his spouse and their children came to visit from Vermont.  We took them to our favorite places, climbed rocks and visited for a long time.  The older cousins had a sleep over and what sleep over isn't complete with ice cream, mint oreos, and all kinds of potato chips?!

My daughter and my niece forged a wonderful new friendship.  What loveliness to behold!  The last time they saw one another, my niece held my daughter who was 5 weeks old!   They've changed just a little bit!

Snuggling with my 2 little nieces and Biscuit.  They absolutely loved him!

My brother and his spouse just trying to find someplace to sit after the cousins' sleep over.

While they were here, I finished the toe of my 2nd sock (just 20 stitches) while listening to the glorious hustle and bustle of little ones in my house again.

Finished in about 10 minutes!  I love the colors.  I have some from each of the 2 skeins leftover and I was thinking of making a small wrap, so we'll see.  If anyone has a suggestion for one, I'd love it! 

And, after the family left, our newest family member, Gus, needed a bath.  He was shivering after his bath, so my daughter wrapped him in a fleece blanket and took a couple pictures of his cute-ness.  :D

And another one...

And my youngest, who is over 6'2" tall, with our kitty whose name is Pickles.  :D

Playing around in the living room. 

Doggie nap time...life must be "ruff."  Whew!

As you can see, we've been busy with family, school (although I didn't mention school above), and pet training.  I love seeing the progress of my kids with their schooling, understanding achieved and them working diligently with the animals to get them trained.  Just today my youngest son make a "Kitty Hotel" underneath my buffet table.  He has put Biscuit and Pickles in there together to sit and "make friends" but I heard some funny kitty and doggie noises of protest in there earlier.  LOL

What a funny boy!

Fun & Busy Times

Recently, my husband discovered a hole in the gas tank of his truck, so his activities have been focused around finding parts that he needs, patches and refashioning pieces to make sure the tank fits back up in it's designated spot.  I don't have any pictures of him doing work on the truck, but all while this has occurred, he's had the fever-cold-cough-drippy nose-not sleeping well-flu.  He's on the upward swing from it all, but today he has awakened not very refreshed.  We're hoping he isn't having a relapse, but he spent most of yesterday resting with exception to about an hour worth of work on the gas tank with the young gentlemen of the family while I spent time knitting while HJ had her piano and flute lessons.  This morning he looks like he's been hit by a MAC truck--poor guy.  I'm hoping he feels better soon so we can enjoy some time together and he can go hunting with the children.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we brought out the tree and all of the decorations.  Within a couple of hours it was all cleaned up, the unwanted stuff decluttered and the wanted stuff gracing our home with it's presence.  We've realized that we have 4 nativities, lots of angels and snowmen.  What fun it is to decorate on the Friday after Thanksgiving, have everything (including the tree) up while listening to Christmas songs and/or watching Christmas shows on DVD and Netflix.  What a blessing it is to create these family memories!  The hard part is to let the kids do all of it, but they want to, so it's ok.  In years past we've decorated only partially until we were able to go get a live tree.  Last year the local tree farm didn't open--at all.  We were stuck and decided to go buy a pre-lit one.  It went up and was ready to decorate in less than 15 minutes from the time the box was brought downstairs.  It feels so good not having bins out ready with ornaments, lights and tinsel to go on the tree for 2 weeks.  Now we're ready for guests without the bin clutter laying out.   I'm finding that our decorations are very simplistic, nothing overly done, yet beautiful.  Everything has it's place and my daughter, HJ, even had some extras to decorate the basement tastefully as well.  I'm so very blessed!

While Mr. G went to work on Saturday, the rest of us were invited to our friends' house, the "C" family whose grandparents live about 35-45 minutes from us.  We're actually friends with the grandparents too, so does that mean we're friends with 3 generations of the "C" family?  LOL The kids really made good friends with the children over the summer at VBS and Sunday School, so whenever the children are able to come this way, we try to get together.

DJC and his dad with their boy scout troop had made a trebuchet and being the wonderful folks they are, they packed it up and brought it out to share the fun of punkin' chunkin' with us.  Words cannot describe how much fun we had.  The science behind it all and the fun of seeing the punkins fly was sheer delight.  Toward the end DJC's uncle thought it would be fun to throw a "flaming" punkin, but unfortunately the flame went out before the punkin reached throwing status.  Below are a couple pictures of our adventure.

DJC on the right and his uncle on the left.

The "C" and the "G" children.  The "C" children are from 2 different Daddies, so there are cousins here.  :) All the kids were standing back away from the trebuchet, so I snapped a picture.  What fun!

Testing everything out before they let the kids pull the chord.

DJC's Dad, AJC, giving DA (my oldest) quick directions on what to do.  JL (my youngest) is to the left.

Getting ready to pull the chord.

I have a video too!

http://youtu.be/OKgOJz6uAjM

After taking all the pictures and videos, I was cold and went in the house to warm up.  We were invited to stay for pizza and had a wonderful time of fellowship, laughter, prayer and encouragement.

Sunday seemed like a blur of activity, with the holiday season and 4 of our 5 in bell choir and singing choir it's a lot of practices, but so much fun nonetheless. 

I love serving the Lord together with my family!

After church we came home and ingested more turkey leftovers, snoozed for 15 minutes, then took the boys to their piano lessons.   We had fun surprising a friend who works there, but we're keeping it a secret. ;)

All through this weekend I couldn't get my feet warm complete with warm toes, so it has spurred me on to get my own socks done.  I'm making my own socks just a little different than everyone else's socks.  I like ankle socks, so I'm making mine shorter.  That's the beauty of making your own things, I'm finding.  You can adjust the pattern for your own preferences and needs.  

What will I do after my own socks are done?  Finish an afghan and start fingerless mitts (I think) for gifts for next Christmas for all the ladies of the family.  I think that would be a wonderfully practical gift for everyone.

I caught my beautiful HJ propping herself up on the half wall talking with her brothers and Daddy and decided to snap a picture.  

DA who was cold and decided he needed to keep his robe on.  LOL

JL who needs to show his teeth more when he smiles.  LOL

Well, that's about it for us.  Our mighty hunters will be off school during hunting season, unless they get bored and want to do some school work, which happens too.  I'm going to get eye-brow-deep in cleaning and clearing out my husband's closet, helping him to declutter and organize so I can redo the inside of his closet...but...

that's a story for another day.

©Disney Clipart

TTFN!

Finished Socks--Updated

JL's new socks are finished!

Now...to start my own socks.

Ten rows of ribbing done and I'm done for the night.  My wrist hurts, so that's the gauge I use to know whether to stop knitting or to continue.  

Finishings and Beginnings

Busy fingers as of late...

Finished on Saturday...

then...

Began on Saturday.

After I finish JL's socks, it will be my turn.  :0)

Busy Days

Much of my time as of late has been spent cleaning, organizing, doing bills, schooling my kids, knitting and crocheting.  Unfortunately, not a lot of sewing has happened on my part due to needing to finish the socks you see in the above picture.  Since taking the above picture, I've knitted the heel flap, turned the heel and continued on to make the instep.  As you can see in this morning's picture below,  I have about 2 more inches to knit on it before I can decrease for the toe.  I suspect I'll be finished by Friday at my current rate of knitting while listening to children read, wait for answers and so forth.

In our schooling, there is all kinds of learning going on.  We're learning about Moses in our Old Testament Bible study right now.  In Zoology we're learning about vibration sending sound through things like water and solid things like walls as well as the freezing point of salt water.  The older two children have been eyebrow deep in their Biology 1 & 2 studies.  The older son is learning that sometimes learning about the skeleton and muscles can be tedious, but needful nonetheless.  Our daughter is learning about mushrooms and other fungi.

Of course there are other things they are learning, like participial phrases and so forth, but the needful things remain a daily thing to conquer.

These are our days, nothing overly exciting, but blessed nonetheless.

Praise God!

James 4:10  

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Socks, Turning the Heel and Beyond

If you've already seen this post, please breeze past it.  If you would like to see the progress of these socks, then please page down to see the most recent pictures.  I do not claim to be an expert by far.  I just love sharing what I've learned with others.  I don't know everything there is to know about knitting, so please bear with me.  These socks turn out in a way that never ceases to amaze me!  =OD

For those of you who might be interested in making socks, I'm posting pictures for you to see the progress of turning the heel and what the needle placement looks like.  If you have any questions, please post a comment or if you have my phone number, please feel free to call and ask.  =O)

Starting the turn

A little more of the heel work done

Heel turn completed

From the side

Picking up the stitches along the sides.

These were the last pictures I took last night even though I worked on the sock more.  Right now, I have all 4 of my Double Point Needles (DPNs) evenly distributed on the sock.  I increase my stitches in the lower corners so there is no "hole" in the corner where the join would be for the heel stitches to the main sock.  I'm working those out right now.  I needed to stop knitting once I had my 4 needles distributed and one round knitted because my wrist was bothering me.  I'll pick it up later today when I go out to sit on the porch.  Since it is Memorial Day weekend, there are bunches more people here in our area, so I usually people watch.  It's a lovely area we live in and I'm so thankful for God's blessing upon our life.  Going out when it is busy helps me to appreciate when it is quiet too.  =O)

I don't know if you can see where the decreases are, but if you follow the needle directly under my thumb's shadow down to the end where the dark purple stitches are, then follow that point to the corner of the heel, you might be able to see the decreases.  It might be a little more clear in the picture below. :)  

Where you see the corner of the heel, that is where the decreasing began.  That is the corner I referred to in the paragraph above where I mentioned increasing in the corner one extra stitch so that there isn't a corner hole.  

A close up of where I'm talking about~

The corner is where the extra stitch needs to be placed--where the horizontal and vertical aqua blue colors meet.  Then you just work it out as you knit around. :) 

Almost done.

Decreasing for the toe.

Decreasing with about 12 more rows to knit at this point.

Side view.

The last picture will be coming soon!



And, the finished picture of this sock~

This is a size 11 foot!  :)



...now on to the next one...

Socks

Knitting socks use to be an intimidating thought to me, until I found a very easy sock pattern and tried it.

This was the first pair of socks I'd ever made.  I toiled over these socks!  But, I didn't quit.  

Originally those were supposed to be for my beloved husband.  However, they ended up too tight for him, so I gave them to my oldest son, DA.  

I knitted these socks for my husband and they turned out very well.  

I used the Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn from knitpicks.com for all of the socks you see here.

I am currently working on a pair of socks for my daughter for Christmas.  I'm finding that I cannot work on them at night though because of the lighting and the color contrast when I get to the variegated part of the yarn where it is dark on dark.

I've found the perfect time of day to work on them is in the morning with the bright light all around me. I can see in the front and the light streaming through the sock fibers between my stitches.  I've also taken this with me to work on at the Dr's office while getting physicals and well child exams for the children.  

And, just in case you're curious about how the other side looks--

When you work on the heel, there are 2 needles that go "unworked" and just sit there holding stitches like you see here. According to my directions, after I repeat the pattern of slip 1, knit 1, turn, slip 1 and purl across just 15 times, then I'll begin using the larger end stitches you see below my thumb to knit the rest of the heel. :) I'll post pictures so you can see how things progress. 

I have not tried the two at a time method of knitting socks, nor have I tried the toe up method of knitting....and I've contemplated making crocheted socks, but haven't tried them yet. I share with you what I've learned, what I'm doing and hope I've helped someone along the way, or someone at some time could help direct me on the way as well.

My plans for sock making, God willing, is to finish this pair and a pair for my youngest son by Christmas. I'll start on my own pair of socks after Christmas. Then I'll begin again with my husband. 

I gave the upper 2 pairs of socks to my husband and son in 2010. I had planned to work on other projects, then get back to the sock making, which I did. Upon beginning these socks for my daughter, I ripped out countless times (at least 5) restarting and restarting again because when I increased, then decreased and did the repeat all the way around for the Jaywalker pattern, it always kept decreasing consistently and wouldn't keep the count even. I tried it a couple of different ways to only find the same problem again and again. I snipped the last swatch I tried because the yarn was so worn. I began again on the 6th try and decided to continue like I had for the previous 2 socks instead, using a basic sock pattern. Now, here I am. I regret not being able to conquer the pattern, but I guess you'll have those things.

Proverbs 31:13

Pro 31:13 "She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands."



My sock wool arrived in the mail today. My HJ helped me by holding the hank while I rolled the ball. I was able to get the ribbing started this afternoon. I love the colors she chose. My only problem is with the glare from the bay window, I'll have to sit in another place while I work on her socks. That's alright. This is a new pattern I'm working with also. It is the Gumperina sock pattern that I found through Ravelry. If you have a Ravelry.com account, just log on and do a search.

I've been working like a mad woman on dishcloths-both knitted and crocheted, aprons and getting portfolios taken care of for the year. This year it doesn't seem too bad getting things together. I get the priviledge of going through pictures of my kids, putting them all in one place and burning everything on to a CD. It isn't too bad. I'll need to do a little bit of book documentation, but nothing too harrowing.

Today my beloved took me and the children to look for some of our flowers. We found some window boxes and some very beautiful flowers. Now I can enjoy my flowers from the inside of the house as well as the outside. :0)

What have your hands been busy with?