I know, About Time!!!

Ok, so what happens is, I get online around 6:30, or 7:00 am. I check my email - I'm in somewhere near 60 yahoo groups, for the various crafts I do.... Ok, not all of them are highly active groups, there are some "notification" groups, but there are some VERY TALKATIVE groups, too.... I'm on a couple of the "biggies" - like Knitlist, and Sockknitters, that have several thousand people on them. I'm on some "along" groups - for example, the "6 socks knitalong" group (button on the side) or the Pi group, where we are working together on a pi shawl, or the mystery shawl group - which can be VERY talkative some days.

Anyway, I scan through the emails, to see what needs immediate attention, then I find myself checking a few links, then I need to make sure I have pictures downloaded from the camera and resized if necessary, and put into a file so that I can find them, and by this time, it's 8:00 am... Which is when my machine kicks in to do its daily virus scan. This slows down the procedures of what all I'm working on. You know, where you type like crazy, but the cursor don't move, then suddenly it scoots across the screen to catch up, and then you see the typos appear, then you gotta stop, lose your train of thought, and fix the mistakes......

Never mind the slowing down of the downloading of the pictures!!!!!

So. That's why I find it a "pain" to keep up with posting here everyday. Oh? What's that, you said? Something about waiting until the 'puter is done its thing? Well, by then, it's 9, and the stores are open, and the critters are napping, and there are other things I need to get done around the house - especially when the critters are napping!!!!

But, I'm here now, and I'm ready to wax poetic about what I've been up to. More or less.... I still also have that kind of block where I don't think that people are that terribly interested in boring old me and my life - the self-important thing.... Anyway.....

I finished a UFO!!!!! Here it is:













It's a latch hook. You can scroll down to see how it looked when I had picked it up again....When I took that picture, I'd done a couple rows after digging it out of the craft room, aka rescued it from the UFO pile....

Next, I want to show you more about the heart crocheted doily thing - called "hearts around doily", but I did it first in ww cotton, a variegated pink, and you really can't see the hearts. It was in my last post.... scroll down.... :) Ok, so I wondered if it was the pattern, the yarn size, or the variegation. So, I made another in solid colour. The hearts show better. Then, just "because", I made it in size three thread.

Here's the results:

Ok, I've tried three times.... It ain't downloading again!!!!! Don't know if it's a blogger thing, or a virus scanning thing, or what.... I really get frustrated..... I have an appointment at 10:30 this am, so if I don't do this now......

Just a minute, let me try something different..... OK. I just downloaded (or is it uploaded?) the pictures of the heart doily into my yahoo photo album site. They are the first three pictures in the crochet album. There is a link over there -----> on the right hand side to my photo album. It's right there, after the blog buttons, and before the blog pets :)

Anyway....

I wanted to share pictures of my pi progress, and of my yarn that I finally dyed for the mystery shawl 3.... I tried "dip dyeing" with food colour, instead of kool aid dyeing this time. And there is a cool story to go with it....

I couldn't settle on a colour. Or colour combination..... The first clue was posted Friday. I still had white yarn. I couldn't figure out what colour I wanted.... I had more or less decided that the range of Kool Aid colours available weren't going to be adequate. I had already bought the food colouring. But I still didn't know what to do. I really really really want to do some yellow, to tell the truth, but I can't wear yellow. Not one of my colours. And I like pinks, and can wear pinks, but would need to go to a professional dye (commercial dye) to get the pink I want.... I mean, look at how red (some have used the word "salmon") my pi shawl turned out... I wanted it a lighter tone of the background of my blog type pink!!!! Well, not that the colour is bad, but it really wasn't what I'd hoped for in the first place....

Anyway, I'd been shopping on Friday. I stretched out the budget because I saw a big ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in a colour that I thought was very pretty. I stashed it.... Y'know, the one where when you bring it out, and your DH wonders why you have more yarn, and you say it's been in the stash for a while.... ;)

I was also looking at variegated yarns to see what there was.... Getting ideas.... Didn't help.

So, on Saturday, I went googling. I hit up the net for ideas. I googled "colour combinations" and "colour wheel". Found a graphics website, that showed various colour combos and html coding for websites etc. Scrolled through the choices, saved the ones that appealed. Came up with a combo of lavendar, leaf green, deep leaf green. Sunday, I dip dyed. I dipped into a yellowish green, then I added more green and blue, turned the yarn, dipped into that, then I made a blue which I know wasn't in the combo I found online, but I thought it would fit, then a purple.... I also left a bit still white. Hm... wonder if I can try the photo load again.....

Ok.... Now it is letting me!!! Anyway, you can see the dip dye result here.... And some of the balls that I'd wound. Let's try some more.... close ups of the wound balls....

As I wound the balls.... They reminded me of something..... A few years ago, before the moebis wraps were all the rage, I knitted myself a thing. I never know what to call it anymore. Some 10 to 15 years ago, when I was substitute teaching at a particular school, some of the girls were wearing these things that were popular then - they were (at that time) called "snoods", and they were basically tubes of knitted fabric that you could wear scrunched down around your neck like a scarf, or you could pull up over your nose and mouth like a turtleneck type sweater collar, or you could pull it up further in the back over the top of your head like a parka hood. Some of the fancier ones even had a drawstring around one part, to tighten it snug around the face. Anyway, I always thought those were cool, and I don't care about what's in or out of fashion, if it keeps me warm...... So, anyway, I finally got around to knitting one for myself. Just a tube. No moebis thing... just a tube. I use it often in the winters here.... though I confess this has been a milder than usual winter, so I've only used it once this winter.... But, it was knit from Red Heart yarn, in their "Monet" colourway....


Notice how the balls of wound dip dye yarn, resemble the colours in the neck warmer???? I did....

So.... I think that seems to be a colourway that I really like. Monday, I had bought another ball of handicrafter yarn, because it was lowered in price by 50 cents, and it was the only ball of that colour at that store (one of our grocery stores sells big balls of Bernat Handicrafter and an acrylic yarn put out by the same mill at this time of year, not a regularly carried item), so I didn't want to miss it. While I was putting it in the stash, I saw the ball I bought Friday....

I guess I was right about adding the blue to the lavendar green green combo..... :)

Ok. So that's the yarn I'll be using for the Mystery Shawl 3. If you want more info about that group, use the mystery 2 button on the side, which takes you to the designer's website, where you can sign up for a nominal pattern fee.... three bucks US I believe.... Or, just watch this space, and I'll try to behave and post more often.....

Next pictures - Pi progress. I had to put it aside for a bit, while I dyed more yarn for it, too.... Store brand drink powder, strawberry - I took pictures at the end of section 2. I'm now about a quarter way into the directions for section three (two repeats of pattern for section one, I'm half way through the first repeat of pattern one...)

Of course, the advantage was that I had time to complete the Latch hook UFO :)

I've also done some other projects, I did a couple dishcloths for another group I'm in.... And I have some pics of Ashleigh, Mica, and Bear.... But I do need to get some laundry started, and go for that appointment. I started typing this at 8 am, it is now 9:20.... So, I'll try to behave, and maybe I'll even try to get back today to post those pics....

And I got some blocking of projects done... Ashleigh went to the vet last week for "that" operation, which she is healing quickly from.... I'll try to update more regular. I don't want to lose my blog ring status by not keeping up with posting, though two weeks isn't bad, I mean, some people go on holidays or vacations and might not post for that long.... 0:)

Ok..... Catch ya later :)