Socks done!

 Yesterday morning I headed to Main St. in Hutchinson to find a parking space to watch my 12 year old granddaughter march in the band towards the fairgrounds.  I never did find her, but I got some pictures of local bands - I saw the Haven band which is about 10 miles from us, I saw El Dorado, Eureka, Reno Valley Middle School (part of Nickerson), Anthony & another that I can't remember the name of & don't think I had ever seen before, as well at Hutchinson's HMS Middle Schools bands.  So I got some pictures of Haven, Reno Valley & Hutchinson.  I also started taking pictures of Anthony & it wasn't until their bus got close that I realized it wasn't a local band!  I never knew their colors were also blue & gold!  I never did see my granddaughter though!

While I was there, I pulled out my mp3 player & started listening to a book.  After I finally figured out how to find them on the memory card, etc.  Then I grabbed my grandson's socks that I was nearly done with & started knitting while waiting for the bands to start.  after several rounds I realized that I had evidently started a round - several rounds back & my needle had slipped out of the stitches, so I needed to tink back several rounds to have enough yarn for those stitches.  Then I decided to try them on to see how many more rounds I needed to do so that they would have a long enough leg - I decided to go for 60 rounds after starting the leg patterning.  So bound off on the 61st round.  Those are on the blockers still, but I did manage to get a picture this morning of the finished socks (except I still need to weave in 2 ends of yarn).

After the bands played, I went around the corner to the yarn store & instead of just getting 2 or 4 skeins of yarn - I picked up 8 - they had new colors in stock & it was double punches for my $15 off my next purchase card - so now I have $15 worth of yarn coming & I have a nearly full card too.

I really need to get started on another pair for the grandkids for Christmas, but all I want to do so far is to take a nap!

About 10 years ago I didn't have cable TV (still don't) so missed watching the reality TV series Amish in the City.  I would still love to watch that if I could find a place to either find the videos or to download them, but so far, I have not.  I did find that I could get the entire 1st season (or is it only season) of the National Geographic Hutterite show that recently aired.  So I watched several episodes of that last night.  I also found that I could get the new Breaking Amish show, so got the 1st 2 episodes of that downloaded.  I love learning about people & even though I grew up knowing several Amish families & worked with Amish people, there is still so much I don't know about them!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Forbidden crochet!

I did it again!  Started another craft item when I shouldn't have even been considering starting anything new right now.  I have several items that need to be done in time for Christmas - still need 4-5 pairs of socks, 2 shawls to finish, really would like to finish a sweater that has been on the needles for a while as well.  But last year I had misunderstood J. when she mentioned that she wanted something lacy.  So I made her a shawl since that was the types of things I had been working on lately for the most part.  What she meant was a tablecloth for her table.  So I got started looking for patterns.  I wanted to make sure it was something that didn't contain motifs since I absolutely hate to put together motifs.  It also needed to be a rectangle for her table.  So my first choice was this one, but the thread alone, at least according to the totals given, would be close to $200.  And that was not something I could even consider given that I am unemployed at the moment.  Now, to be accurate, since it is also a bedspread, it might not need quite that much thread for her table, but it also might take a lot of figuring to get it small enough for her table since it is on the smaller side.  And I don't think pineapples would be easy to refigure all of that, so I might spend nearly as much time doing that as I would just crocheting a different one.  So I looked some more.  I found a few more that I thought would look good - this one - and I did consider it for quite a while.  But then knowing that they are a Christian family, I liked this one when I saw it.

So about the time I saw the pattern, I had also seen that Hobby Lobby had the jumbo balls of Aunt Lydia's Classic 10 crochet thread for just $16.99 a ball & they have a whopping 2,730 yards per ball!  The last pattern uses just over 1,700 yards!  And I checked - Hobby Lobby had a 40% off coupon online, so I got the jumbo ball of thread for just $11.01!  A big difference from the nearly $200 for my first choice!  One of the differences is that my first choice uses #30 thread instead of #10.  And for anyone who doesn't know - #30 thread is smaller than #10, a finer thread.  And I don't believe they ever sell it in jumbo sized balls.  It pretty much comes in balls that are always the same size.  So if a pattern says you need 68 balls at $2.89 (current pricing) per ball, then most likely that is what you are going to need.  Now I love her enough to have paid that, but my budget doesn't love either of us enough for me to pay that!

So now, I am going to have to slap my hand if I even try to pick this up & work on it until my Christmas knitting is finished!  Especially since, if I do find a job, my time will get even smaller for being able to get my Christmas knitting done in time!

I also have promised another person I know, also named J. that after Christmas, I will make her some kitchen towels that she can hang on her stove, fridge or wherever she has something she can hang them.  Her kitchen is in a John Deere theme, so I told her to try to find some towels and have them sent to me by mail, then I will get the yarn to make the toppers on them and when they are finished, I will just give them to her mother to either add to a package if she is sending one already or she can pick them up from her when she is in the area.

This past Friday the Kansas State Fair started in Hutchinson.  Being on a tight budget, I am avoiding it with all I have in me, but tomorrow my 12 year old granddaughter A. will be marching in the HMS 7 band, which starts at 9:30.  So I need to be downtown about 8-8:30 am to be sure I can get a parking space.  I might also take advantage, while I am down there, of the double punches that will be happening this week at my LYS. Yarn - the parking lot that is near where my son used to have his gym is right behind the LYS!  So I could pick up some more sock yarn for the grandkids and get double punches towards getting some money off a future purchase!  And I believe they have an open knit session on Tuesday mornings, so maybe I will hang around for that for a bit.  I have never gone before.


Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!