gaysknits

a favorite activity...

of the young lady is house painting.  more specifically splash painting or splatter painting a la jackson pollack who was much more intense and quite possibly more insane than we are but we work with what skills we have! i have a bathroom designed by her and so does my boy but he and i live on the edge of creativity and have much more tolerance of the arts than most people will have in their houses!  at any rate it's easy to run out of canvas when your canvas is a wall...in someones home.   since the young lady has a new bedroom in her new home she is chomping at the bit to paint it.  the daughter wants nothing splattered leaving a relief pattern for years to come and she wants no dark colors.  until they come to agreement on the color choice and they have the time to actually paint the bedroom which may be the real issue we have come up with this idea.  the guy and i took the grandkids to michaels over the weekend to buy some canvas and as a bonus it was 30% off so we indulged ourselves.   a little oops paint from the local home improvement store and a lot of paint stirring sticks made for an afternoon of  painting in the yard for one and all.  the little guy participated by first dripping/pouring on enough paint to his first canvas that it may never dry and then he took the minimalist approach to the second...mostly because he was bored of the whole thing.  the next time we do this the young lady and i will roll color on our canvas first but we each still have a work of art to call our own.  i plan to hang my two matched sizes one on top of the other in the entry way of my kitchen where i have a two story yellow wall just begging for some art.  the young lady did a large size and a much smaller one and plans to hang them horizontally over her antique bed.  the little guy has a perfect spot over his toy box in his room but he prefers to hang his in his mothers hallway...we shall see!   in knitting news...i have almost two skeins of garnet calmer left over from fifi and since red is the favorite color of the little guy i though it was time to make him a stripy sweater. when i ordered more calmer for another project i added a skein of black calmer and one of a deep blue to the order.  i'm big into bargains and if you order so much from webs you get 20% off the price of the yarn so adding a few more skeins of calmer gave me the discount and basically...free yarn for the boys project!  he would like it to be a hoody...i can do that. he would also like it to be only black and red...probably not gonna happen as we have added yardage with the hood hanging on the back and we're working with what we've got and the blue skein will add much needed yardage to the project.  the young lady fancies the new zephyr gals pattern juliet  and since she does and since i want to make it anyway and since it should be a quick knit we spent hours last night pouring over yarn choices.  the pattern calls for 600 yards of bulky yarn or 1200 of worsted.  we finally narrowed it down to lang yarns moon wool rayon and nylon total cost $27 or laine du nord wool and nylon total cost $24  both are bulky yarns.  later i read on the zephyr gals website that of the two samples one is knit from a brown sheep cotton fleece a light worsted or dk yarn doubled total cost $46 and the other gedifra living a heavy worsted or chunky yarn doubled total cost $63. so as near as i can tell you can use any darn thing you want!  we're going for the perfect color here so i may just switch up again and go with the gedifra living superwash wool which has awesome color choices all three of these yarns are available from elann at a discounted price...if you can call $63 discounted!  another choice for me was rowan holiday which is cotton rayon and a small bit of poly also a bulky at a total cost of $63.00...i' am really wanting to try this yarn for texture the fiber content the colors...we shall see if i end up wearing something made of this one day!  if nothing else the young lady learned a few valuable lessons. choosing the appropriate yarn for a project is no simple feat...gauge and yardage need to be taken into consideration. in calculating the final yarn cost a calculator is involved unless you are a math wiz like her dad. perhaps when it is all said and done she will have a greater concept of the time, energy and money that goes into a hand knitted item...and it won't end up of the floor...but she is a high school gal now and the need to have some thing new and something original that no one else has is great!  she'll get over that one day...but now that you  mention it...i never did get over it myself!  later...love   g

not much knitting...

going on here lately huh? everything else is going on but knitting!   well that's not entirely true...in between kayaking and motorcycling and beading and blogging i have been knitting and as a matter of fact have finished both sleeves of sahara except for the beaded lace trim but thats only a few repeats and i'm putting that off cause i'm sick of the beading...it's too tedious for me. i think i'd like to knit with some pre beaded yarn...and the silk that i dislike...my mom loves...so i may spring for some tillie thomas but not today!  today i made this necklace and plan for a few more like it or similar or not really similar at all but notknits none the less!  it is made from brown leather cord knotted with little gold leaves and other hanging dodads and connected with a toggle clasp which ou can't see so well in this photo but which i wrapped with my own little hands with gold wire.  it is one long necklance tripled around my neck in this view and can be worn doubled and so it would be longer like say over a nice winter sweater  which i will be knitting...tomorrow...maybe sahara will be done and i'll try her on, she fits real well and i'm just tweaking the sleeve width and length as i like my sleeves to be longer since i have these gorilla arms and long monkey hands and fingers!  i ordered fifi today and those french girls are swell!  so nice and responsive and appreciative and helpful...love those french girls! and love fifi too can't wait to get my garnet calmer to start her up...next will be the purple arucania...i'd say i've put that off long enough! and speaking of beads i have fallen head over heels for this zulugrass made by masai women and i have to have some.  i first read  about it on scouts blog then wendy shows up with one on her wrist in her latest post and she was nice enough to tell me...after i begged...that she bought it at jewels to go and they have millions of color combinations and lots of ways to wear it and even some with 14 k gold beads for your mom who loves all things trendy for a birthday present! check out the zulugrass link to see what it's all about!  you'd be supporting the masai women and getting a lovely gift for someone or yourself!  later...love   g

some beauty...

for your eyes!  sahara is coming along nicely.  i have almost finished one sleeve, made it a little longer by two inches but last night at 10:30 i was at the point where i was ready to add the beaded lace edge and didn't want to start beading at that hour...didn't want to stop knitting either so i picked up the stitches for the second sleeve and finished the short row cap shaping and the second sleeve is on it's way!  i used a whole skein of yarn for one sleeve. i not only wanted the sleeves a bit longer but i wanted them a bit wider so i added some increases...to total the number of stitches in the next size up and now the sleeve has a slight  bell shape to it and i like it better...for me.  tonite was a first for me i had an errand to run after work and the guy and i took the bike getting caught in a huge rainstorm complete with thunder and lightening and pelting blowing rain!  it was quite exhilarating and kind of fun!  not that i'd want to do that everyday but i didn't melt!   i was wearing my new necklace by michele.  i'e been wearing it every minute since she finished it!  i love this!  i had some little gold beads from a lapis bracelet i had and i had some coral beads and a gold clasp from a coral bracelet from japan my mom had and i combined these with the beads i bought at the flying bear...the carved antler and opal glass and the green flowers and striped clay beads.   i also bought some additional jade beads and some green pottery beads and i love love love the combination...michele added some coconut beads and i am crazy for this necklace.  she made me earrings and a memory wire bracelet which i also love but this necklace is fabulous huh?  when the sun shines i'll picture the whole ensemble until then...later...love   g

it's time for a...

notknit.  i make a notknit every once in a while.   in the past they've been everything from the mosiac table top to the windchimes made from old thriftstore sterling sliverflatware to cherry jam!  sometimes sewing is involved but not often because although i used to be quite the seamstress as a teen ager and designed and made most of the clothing i wore on my back including the bright orange and white horizontal stripe hotpants-jump suit worn with the white fishnets or the purple knit bell bottomed and cuffed pants with the multi colored sash belt or the velvet hobo bags embroidered with flowers and lined in satin or the long to the floor denim skirt made from and old pair of hip huggers and appliqued with multi hued denim in layers so that it weighed 2000 pounds...i don't sew much anymore.   because i hate it...that is the reason why, hate the sewing machine, i'd rather hand sew than sew with the machine but sometimes to get what you want you have to sew so sew i did and using an old crap machine that the daughter threw out thousands of years ago! my kenmore broke and i am waiting to inherit my mothers singer and refuse to pay cash money for a sewing machine that i will hate to sew on. and don't get me started on the jewelry i used to make from copper wire and beads...earrings of course and bangles even then i loved the bangles.  which reminds me i was shopping online the other day for a class in spinning...spinning yarn not exercise spinning...when i happened upon the center for the arts web site and found a jewelry making class i want to take this summer copper and or silver bracelets hammered and forged and how much fun would that be...and a pottery...on  the wheel pottery..class i want to take and a digital photography class which i need ut do not necessarily want to take. suddenly i became very  busy in my mind and decided to paint the house instead or rather to comission and supervise the boy to paint the house anyway but i'll choose the color of course and maybe then i'll make a move to order the new awning. since i have finally chosen a paint color and now can choose an awning color to replace the green one that never matched anything anyway but now that it is torn and threadbare it can be replaced by something with red stripes and pretty with matching shutters...and someday a red door...i've always wanted a red door!  so any way on sunday i made this and on monday i wore it to work!  two things made on the sewing machine in a matter of weeks!  later...love   g