Sunday, August 29, 2010

Very quick easy knit hanging hand cloth



This pattern is very easy, easier than the name lol

I needed a quick knit hand cloth I could hang off of the hook in our bathroom.
I don't like to reuse hand cloths after my guys dry their hands ( ugh ), nor do I like the paper towel option, too much waste.
Keeping in mind not wanting to be wasteful, I also wanted them to be on the small size. Enough to dry your hands, but not so big as to take a lot to wash. With needing another one each time someone used it, it needed to be easy.
With what they put towels through around here, it needed to be a little stronger than lace ones I've made in the past. I wanted it to come off the hook fairly easy as well, so I went with a larger loop to hang it from.
They are very close to my hot pads with a square bottom and not quite as tight of a guage.


Size 8 US needles
7 ½” by 7 ½”
Exact gauge is not essential to this project
42 yards 100 % cotton worsted yarn
k = knit
k2tog = knit 2 stitches together
k2tog tbl = knit 2 stitches together through the back loop
Cast on 30 stitches
Knit about 5 inches or as long as you like
Decrease as following
K1, k2tog, knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog tbl, k1
Next row knit
Stay in this manner until you reach 14 stitches next row
K2tog across
Knit one row, bind off leaving tail long enough to make crochet cord as long as you like, weave in end of cord at opposite end of bind off edge.
Weave in ends.

Very quick and very easy :D
 
 
 
 

Noises

I've been finding myself on Facebook more and more these days. Farmville is so much more fun when you add lots of family and friends.
Last night I decide to stay up late and play on my farm. I went to the fridge to get water.........it wasn't cold :(
that's when I heard the noise............the type of noise you hope to never hear coming from your refrigerator.......
We still don't know whats up with it ( Brent is at work ) it so far has worked out okay, not great but okay.

Mom sent over a bag of ice a while back. They needed to get some cold stuff home on a hot day. We don't use ice so I just stuck it in the freezer .........
The guys helped me move everything to the big freezer and coolers :)
We filled a few water bottles to freeze for more ice later, also something we don't normally have around here, water bottles.
I ended up buying a pack before our last Reiki share, I had forgotten to refill our regular "jugs" the night before.

The freezer wasn't even full, someone left a can of soda in it a little too long, so it had just been cleaned out pretty good lol
even the fridge part was easy, my car is laid up again, so I've just been having Brent pick up a few things here and there :D all in all it's not as bad as it could have been, we had just the right amount of cooler space and ice :D

This seems to be the feel of the whole week if not a bit longer.

After the last Reiki share, we met Brent at the used book store ( see last post lol )
He heard my car making a noise, we couldn't hear inside. Because of this I didn't go all the places I had been planning. We just made it home when the check engine light came on. Won't start now, but it's in my drive way :D Brent knows what's wrong, but has only had one day off this week.

A few nights ago, about 2:30 am, we hear Jorden yell...... " I hear something spraying loud ..........come quick........ I don't know if it's gas or water"........
He had just heard the noise start coming from the kitchen, called to us as he was going out there. Turns out it was a water leak, water was spraying every where. It wasn't a full minute before we were all out there with mop and towels.
They were out the door turning the water off less then two minutes into it, bare foot in the weeds. It must have been quite a sight, we were all running around in out night clothes with mops, buckets and towels, water flying every where lol
Had he not heard that as it was just starting, it would have been so much worse. Brent was able to fix the leak before going to work the next morning.
Took me most of the day to "fix" everything else. Things kind of got moved around a bit trying to dry up the water. I hadn't washed the last load of towels that day, so we had used those to dry the floor ;) even that worked out :D

All in all one of us has been in the right spot to hear these "noises" each time :D

Speaking of noises, the other night I was woke up by what sounded like some thing walking on our roof.
I've heard animals up there before. We have a good sized weeping willow along side our house that hangs over our roof ( great for shade ).
Before we fenced in the inner yard and put my sisters dog there, every once in a while we would get cats up there, going after birds I assume.

We even had a few large cats go up there, think it was a bob cat. Didn't want to go out and look lol we made some noise and heard it get off and leave. The next day we found prints that looked like a large cat.
I had come face to face with a mt. lion in the yard one time so it could have been one of those, but didn't sound as large.
Why it would want to go on top of someones trailer I have no clue.

This time the walking sounded different. Not like something walking with four feet first of all.
It had a click sound like long claws. Sounded to be pretty good sized as it was very easy to hear.
When something comes into the yard, the dogs act up. There was none of this.
No other noise.
I went to go see what the dogs were up to, they can be seen by the windows as they are tight up to our place ( I was not going out there, learned my lesson on that one lol ). Two on one side were sleeping, my sisters dog was just looking at the roof.
It stayed up there for some time just moving around slowly. Then nothing, no noise at all.

A few nights later Jorden heard it as well, clicking sound and all.

I'm thinking it's a large bird of some kind, but as Jorden pointed out it didn't walk like a bird.

It took fairly long steps, put it's foot down heal first, then the click sound like claws.
You could clearly hear each sound. Just slowly moving around the roof.

So what kind of large bird walks in slow long strides ( it didn't hop at all ) in the middle of the night.
We have seen large birds of pray around here during the day time..... Maybe a owl.......a large owl.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

used books

After our Reiki share yesterday we stopped at our favorite used book store.

My son is very into gardening and loves to collect plant books of all kinds ( almost as bad as I am with knitting books ;) )

He found this huge "encyclopedia" he just had to have. No issues there we had plenty of credit,

my knitting book

and one other book all came to the grand total of $1.08 Sweet





We get home, he grabs his book and goes to his room. A few minutes later he comes out with this sick look on his face.


I ask if he's okay.......
he just looked at me than said after a long pause.............
that book I just got had another book inside of it.

Okay cool at least I now know why he looked so sick, he would never take anything without paying. I had rushed him a bit at the store so he didn't go through the book there. We all had carried it at one point or other and never noticed it. It's such a thick book another half inch didn't matter.

So he says we need to take it back but there a problem...............What?.......I'm told to just look




the back cover of the book looks like this other book has been there for some time..........

then I get a look at the title of the book



I almost fell out of my chair

I can't believe anyone wrote such a book!!!!!!!!

After seeing the look on my sons face you can bet your bottom dollar he will be checking all books before leaving the store lol

Friday, August 13, 2010

cloth # 10


Cloth # 10
This is a very quick, loose knit. It's a variation of the tile stitch. No broader.
8 US
52 yards of worsted weight cotton
Gauge doesn't matter.
Cast on 34 stitches ( or any multiple of 6 + 4 )
1) k4, * p2, k4 * to end
2) p4, * k2, p4 * to end
repeat 1 and 2
5) p4, * k2, p4 * to end
6) k4, * p2, k4 * to end
repeat 1-6 five times
end with row 5, bind off.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

house socks, sunhats and roses


In the past Jorden has grown some rather large roses, one of his new bushes has some of the smallest flowers I've seen.
Very colorful, smell great just tiny :D

A few days back I had nothing on my needles *shock* wanting to use up some of my "left over" yarn I grabbed two small balls I had left from a pair of house socks.
A little less than 57 yards each. Worsted weight, I think it was 'I love this yarn" in jazz or something like that.
I wasn't real thrilled with the first pair as the yarn is very stretchy, way stretcher than the other color ways I've used.

I didn't really have anything in mind when I started knitting, thinking maybe a set of wrist warmers or mittens.
After I got a few inches of 2 by 2 done in the round on each, they were calling ( begging really.. quite sad ;) ) to be socks.
Having changed the needle size and the amount of cast on stitches, I wasn't sure if I'd have enough yarn to do the whole foot let alone the toes

it was cutting it close, this is all the yarn I had "left over" about a yard on each sock. Best part they fit great :D


My aunt's birthday is in a few days, she had asked me to make her a sunhat. Got it done yesterday. She also asked for some scrubbies and cloths. Got some scrubbies done, now on to the clothes.


Every year I go into how much the storms keep me off line :( this summer has been one lightening storm after another. Been getting some wind and rain to go with it, but all in all a pretty fair July.

Brent fixed the guys computer, and up graded it to boot :D so we're back up and running ( weather permitting )

Friday, July 16, 2010

Masters Prayer Shawl


I made this for our reiki master/teacher/instructor, a prayer shawl. Hence the name lol
The main body is made top down, in stocking stitch with the increases down the center and edges.
She likes horses so I used the horse shoe stitch for the trim, upside down to keep the luck in ;) plus a few rows of knit stitch.
I used Caron’s Simply Soft Shadows in Dark Moss, while I loved the colors and feel of it, I was not happy with all the knots and "off" spots of yarn.

When I got the yarn I fell for the colors, and they did look good on her, but had I known how many breaks there would be in just four balls I would have picked something else.
After deciding on a pattern and having little time to redo anything, I stuck with getting more of the same yarn even after both of the first two balls had a break. The third and forth had 4 breaks EACH.
So after a lot of wasted yarn and lots of weaving in ends, I can not say for sure how much yarn I used :( having also run out of time I forgot to take the last measurement, I believe the measurement below to be a close estimate.

All in all the look and feel of the yard did work. I don't think I'll run out to get more though.


Masters Prayer Shawl
Size 9 US needles
Gauge 11 rows by 8 stitches per 2 inches, however exact gauge is not essential to this project
600 yards of medium weight yarn. I used almost 4 ball of Caron’s Simply Soft Shadows in Dark Moss.
76” by 30” approximately
k = knit
k2tog = knit 2 stitches together
kf/b = knit into the front and back of the next stitch
p = purl
psso = pass slid stitch over
Sl 1 = slide one stitch purl wise
yf = yarn to the front ( to make new stitch )
* * = repeat instructions between as many times as indicated
( )x = repeat directions inside brackets as many times as indicated


 pdf can be purchased

on ravelry
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, July 12, 2010

Certification


What a wonderful day to get our Reiki Masters Certification.
It rained a soft rain all afternoon. Let up to a light rain long enough to cook out :D
It was a very good weekend.
It seemed like we were waiting so long to get this, but in reality it's only been a few months since our first attunement. Our lives have changed so much, all for the better.
I can not tell you the joy of watching someones face light up when they feel Reiki with for the first time.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Masters Class

The wait is almost over. Our first Reiki III class is tomorrow evening. WOOHOO :D


Jorden in one of his gardens.


Just need to put the finishing touches on a few patterns, and they are good to go. I however don't see getting the time this weekend with our classes. I will try my best to get at least one posted before next weekend :D