gaysknits

today i have lived...

 
fifty seven years. today i start my fifty eighth year of life. today i am one year older and maybe one year wiser. today i have the day off work because i don't like to work on my birthday. when i go back to work i will have a birthday cake from my favorite bakery. today i bought myself a new pair of boots...what a surprise eh? today the guy and i have an adventure and a day of celebrating planned. today is my birthday.  the moms birthday was a few days back and i made her  peanut brittle, four different kinds and i have eaten at least a third of pecan kind.  today i gained a pound or two! today i have no knitting projects on the needles all my knitting projects are finished and today i  may start something for myself.  i may even buy some yarn for a sweater coat today.  if not i will plan the sweater coat project and maybe pick out yarn...oh boy here we go again!  i have a pile of birthday cards here and some flowers and a new pandora charm and some candy and lotions and a few gift cards and i have a dinner out planned at my favorite restaurant and i plan to cook a thanksgiving turkey dinner in my new oven. today i am one year closer to retirement age and  i am so happy about that. today i celebrate my birthday. later...love   g

sometimes tiny is better...

fortunately this is one of those times.  i do not usually knit with fingering yarn.  i can honestly say i have never in my life even purchased fingering yarn before now.  usually i don't have contact with anything finer than worsted. unless you count the chevron scarf i knit in 2008 out of sock yarn and since then  i haven't wanted to recreate the hours and days and months it took me to finish the sucker.  hell i think i wear the thing just to punish myself for making such a loooooong  time consuming project  and because it is soft and comfy and colorful and it is about the only colorful thing i have ever had in my wardrobe!

me and the little guy had a picnic of sorts last weekend and wore our handknits to enjoy the sunny gorgeous fall afternoon  at the marina. this week i have dabbled in chunky yarn...the purple bliss scarf for bob's wife...she loved it...and i have dabbled in fingering yarn.

 

who knew it would be a new found love of mine that fingering yarn...and the multi who knew i would fall  in love again with the multi having previously turned against it because if it's habit of willfull misconduct and after having pooh poohed it's tendancy to do whatever the hell it wanted to do as far as color and pattern goes. multi fingering wool seems to work nicely...in this particular case anyway. did i say wool??? wool???  yes the wool has become another new found friend to me. i don't know if i am mellowing or losing my mind.  i rescued this yarn from the  clearance bin at the lys and my intention was to throw it in the bottom of the hat box until sometime shortly after hell froze over and then i saw this pattern.  multomah.   i had the perfect yarn for it.  one skein of fingering weight multi wool yarn.

 

this pattern has made me feel stupid and exercised my brain at the same time  and it really is simple but i have made mistakes and poor judgements ending in my having to spend some time tinking back.  i am happy with the results and would only be happier if i would put this sucker on a long piece of scrap yarn and see what it looks like all spred out. maybe  i'll do that but maybe i won't have the time.  i intend to finish this up and have it blocked and ready to be delivered to the mom on wednesday evening and presented to her as a birthday gift...along with the three different kinds of peanut brittle i am making her.  it's is a busy saturday for me so i am off to be busy and i will see you on the other side of the weekend maybe?   later...love   g

gee he looks...

swell in that hat!  the little guy wow...he's getting so big and growing so tall and becoming so grown up...just...wow when did that happen?  i didn't know that when you go to the first grade they give you a pill that turns you nto something that you weren't the summer before.  now i know.

this is the swell cap which is supposed to have earflaps but when it came right down to it the little guy who has a mind of his own and has a flair for fashion too i might add nixed the earflaps. he chose the yarn and i couldn't have done a better job.  i was having trouble making them look seamless so i had decided to add them later anyway so when he said camo hat...blue waves...no earflaps  it was simply finished before it's time.

it was done a bit sooner than i anticipated any way because it was a pretty quick knit and it looks adorable on him errrrr what i meant to say was he looks super cool and mighty hip in it! happy trick or treat and don't be like me and eat too much caaaandy.  later...love   g

today turned out to be...

a much more gratifying day than yesterday was. up early. had coffee. went to the store for a few things...my latest craving is for noodle bowls...go figure.  friend phil came over with his monster snake and he, the guy and i fed about 120 feet of the thing down the drain and voila....water is running freely again and no trenches were dug in my driveway, yard or basement...whew! any way the two of them are off delivering wine and me...well i'm strutting about on the deck in gaia.

on the deck in the summer like sunshine and warm as could be temperatures i might add.  there are lots more pics of this on ravelry too! 

it is hard to believe it was cold and frosty just a week ago.  the guy and nephew and riding pal  will probably get a motorcycle ride in this week while the weather is nice and the leaves are gorgeous but i'll be working the rest of the week. next weekend i hope to be doing a little work in my yard and since the youngladygrandaughter is now in possession of her driving permit maybe a drive or two around town will be in order.

mean while knitting  on the purple bliss scarf continues and i continue working on smalls in the hopes that i'll have lots of small xmas gifts this year and pass the time before the snow flies around here.  later...love   g 

it's the light...

shining through the fall leaves that makes everything seem bright and wonderful even when nothing is.

 

the guy and i have been unsucccesfully snaking the drain in the basement for two days and tomorrow a friend is coming to our rescue with his plumbers knowlege and his electric snake. thank god. i don't think this is the end of this saga either. i think the end of this saga will be when the driveway and the basement floor are dug up and my world is turned upside down. for now we hope to get the water moving again as a step towards solving the problem.   back to the light, how can one be unhappy when everything is glowing.

 

it doesn't hurt that the man at the tool rental place took pity on us and gave us four hours of free rental on  a power snake which we couldn't even get into the drain hole and it wasn't for lack of trying either.   hell i even stuck my rubber gloved arm down there to find the hole which impressed the tool rental guy so much he didn't charge me.  or maybe it was that he thought i was insane. or possibly that he figured he was going to get enough miles out of our story in the re telling  of it that it was worth it to let me have the damn snake for free.

 

ah well it didn't cost us anything but our day and it was extremely wonderful of the tool guy to do that for us and the guy got a free pair of work gloves out of the deal which he can wear to clean out the other side of the garage gutter and install the gutter guard.  i was hoping to paint the garage eave but...presto chango. after our plumbing adventure we raked and bagged the rest of the pods from the honey locust tree and walked the dogs for a little bit and called it a day but not before the reflection in my windshield of the branches of the very yellow maple tree in the front yard caught my eye.

i didn't notice all the wonderful reflections in the truck until later and ooh so nice...i'm glad i washed the truck today.  i took a few pics of  fall in my  yard.  i took a much deserved shower and am minutes away from a glass of wine and a movie on tv. i never took new pics of gaia but i will. she turned out really well i think. i'll post pics of her as soon as i come up out of the sewer but for now wine...easy chair...movie...maybe even a nap. later...love   g 

i'm gonna have to...

take better pictures of gaia but she is completed and i love her.  on to the next project...keep in mind i am putting off knitting a christmas stocking for one of the boy oh boys but i'll get to it before christmas don't you worry.  next up is some purple bliss.

 

i bought this debbie bliss cashmerino in lavendar to make a cowl for bob's wife but in the end he decided he'd rather have a scarf than a cowl...some people have no use for imagination  nor can they stray from their comfort zone and had i known that i would've ordered a chunky bulky yarn but i didn't know and i didn't order any so necessity being the mother of invention has caused me to knit this holding two strands of aran together.  i really have no use for purple yarn other than for this item so it would go to waste otherwise and that would be a sin because this yarn is sinfully soft to the touch and absolutely perfect for a scarf!  as an additional bonus this project is great television knitting to because it is a no brainer and as others have said you'd have to be really intoxicated to screw this up so drunk television knitting it is! the length of this is to be determined by how much yarn i have!  later...love   g

i am fast approaching...

an fo.  can you believe it? something other than gloves or hats to boot! not that this is  anything other than a glorified small. this is gaia.

it is one of the sexy knitter club selections for this kal and it is a glorfied small. it is constructed from one long rectangle of ribbing knit with less than a skein of malabrigo worsted and less than a ball of rowan kidsilk haze held together...on size 13's...can you say quick!  it has been steam blocked...a process that i am not crazy for but for a change i was following instructions who'd have guessed i was capable of that! anyway i knit the size small and almost wish i would have knitt it longer and wider so as to get a little more length down the back and  a little looser sleeve opening. it fits fine though because fortunatly i have skinny little arms to fit in the small little arm holes.

 

i knit this  in two days so it's not like i can't make another by the weekend!  i took the third day to crochet the edge and block it and today i was anxious to try her on so i basted it togther with scrap yarn so i could do that and it happened to be daylight out side so a photo was in order. in addition i think i may have pinned it together wrong so it may get some tweaking yet. thought you'd like to know! later...love   g

fall is here...

the leaves are turning gorgeous shades of fall and the air is crisp and when the sun shines well it's just really nice to live in western pennsylvania. as an added bonus i get to wear my fingerless gloves and my scarves!   i do wear my knitwear just not sweaters that much. i've been preoccupied with knitting smalls lately and that trend continues. i have a plan to knit a shrug but while  i wait somewhat impatiently for my yarn to get here in the mail i continue with the smalls. the little guy wanted fingerless gloves because he is not so much of a little guy any more and is getting himself a sense of style. he also didn't want ear flaps on his swell so the swell became a swell cap but i love how it turned out.

cascade superwash is my favorite yarn but i have a hard time deciding which i like best the heathers, the solids or the paints.  this hat was made from  paints with the waves made from  heathers.  it's a nice color combo...the little guy picked it out too.

i whipped him up a pair of olive green wool  mitts from the tail end of a skein of  patons merino and the youngladygrandaughter had the same idea and requested only that they be short so she could wear them with her jacket.  in the end she picked out the colors because the lime wool i had in my stash and the geranium colored pink wool were colors she couldn't pass up. both are brown sheep nature wool.  the steelers game is on the tv so i took the opportunity to go shopping but many others had the same idea so i didn't have the world to myself as i usually do on football sunday but i managed to get some shopping in and because today is the first day we have been without bitter cold drizzle i can't blame people for being out and about getting a bit of sun and enjoying the season. i am home from my outing and enjoying a crust of tuscan bread and a cup of hot chai tea while my chicken roasts in the oven. i'll be knitting soon.

i started and finished one of these gloves  last night and will probably finish the other today then weave in ends and block the mitts.  maybe i'll start that christmas stocking i've been putting off or maybe i'll wind some malabrigo lace into balls.  it doesn't matter it's a perfect day. perfect for knitting, perfect for hot chia tea, perfect for roast chicken filling the house up with the smell of dinner cooking and perfect for lounging around.  later...love   g

in the mood for black...

once again. i once was a black shirt, blue jeans, black boots gal but when i started knitting i was attracted to vibrant colors like reds, greens, pinks, teals, purples.  not so  much anymore. i went to the local discount clothing store to mill around while the guy was at sears looking at woodworking tools the other day and i walked out of the store with a black turtle neck, a navy smocked sweater and a grey hooded sweater in a lacy knit stitch to wear over tee shirts. dark dark and darker.  i haven't worn the bright colored sweaters that i knit and found that the one i knit in grey and the one i knit in gold are the ones i put on over and over when i'm not wearing one of my black turtle necks.  i bought some black malabrigo to make a chemo cap and since there were two skeins of the stuff on the clearance rack  i bought them both  because lets face it  it's hard to go wrong with black for a hat or gloves. the color is called cypress and in the one skein there was a slight amount of green. in the skien i have left i truly cannot see any green except what is so faded it looks to be a bit of gray.  it was destined to become a hat for the number one son or a pair of gloves for the youngladygrandaughter until i came upon one of the patterns that the sexy knitters are doing this kal and my one skein of black with a little gray will be knit into a gaia shrug, the pattern calls for a thread of kidsilk haze to be carreid along with the thicker yarn so off to ebay i went in search of a green kidsilk haze.  i would have gone off to the lys but it was closed for inventory and mondays are my lucky days on ebay because i am home from work and everybody else isn't.  i was torn between a teal green kidsilk haze and a blue kidsilk haze and the blue won out.  i don't know why. it just did. i guess i thought the black and slightly grayish coolors of the malabrigo combined with the dark blue halo of the kidsilk haze might make a nice combination.  eh maybe i am just crazy or colorblind but i figure the sweater will look dark and that's all i care about. i didn't want it to look gray and i didn't want to go with a solid black or i'd probably go blind so i chose blue over green because i don't wear a lot of green even though i like it. the blue color is discontinued so it is not too easy to find and that sealed the deal for me. it was then or never and i bid and won the skein of kidsilk haze in lord. if i really don't like the two yarns together i'll go off to the lys to seek a second choice and use the blue with my handdyed wool and silk and it will be perfect but i think i'm going to like it. the little guy requested fingerless gloves...he's getting so grown up and too cool for school.  how did he go from fishy hats to fingerless gloves in one summer?   so anyway i have to finish them up...the pattern easy fingerless mitts and so as not to be outdone the youngladygrandaughter has requested a pair for herself in a short length so she can wear them with her jacket and then i have a christmas stocking for the neice's boy oh boy and i'll be ready to knit myself a sweater!  i have some rust malabrigo lace and some black and blue for a shrug so i'll be as neutral as switzerland and as colorless as winter. off i go. later...love   g

oooh la laaaaa

how french n'est pas???

 

the youngladygrandaughter asked me to knit one of those slouchy berets...like the ones they have at the mall ya know??? this one is meret and was knit in like two days and oooh la laa i looooove it. the yarn is cascade 220 superwash. this stuff is soft as all get out and when you wash it it gets softer and even more drapey than you would imagine wool to be. it is machine washable too so that's a bonus for kids wear or for teen wear since as near as i can tell teen wear is stored on the floor or in the bottom of a purse or gym bag or locker. i made it extra slouchy adding the maximum recommended number of pattern repeats to  give it that extra coolness factor.

i also made the ribbing as recommened and decided it was too loose to support  the extra weight of the extra pattern repeats so  i...gasp...cut off the ribbing with scissors and much to my surprise knitting does not unravel backwards yay!  i picked up the same number of stitches and knit the ribbing on a smaller needle and that solved my problem without my having to frog the whole thing which would have pissed me off and sent me over the edge.

i am still carrying around a few extra pounds of ugly congestion in my lungs and in my head so i've not been too literate or too much in the mood for words or too long on extra patience but i have done a little knitting.  any way i'll get her to model it as soon as she comes down from her homecoming dance high. later...love   g