You Are 72% Brutally Honest

Most of the time, you tell it like it is. Even if it's hard for people to hear. Sometimes you hold back though, because you never want your honesty to be hurtful.

How Brutally Honest Are You?

Today

Last night I began to feel not so well. I had a pain in my jaw (had it damaged when I was a teen and it reacts to everything). That gave me a headache which always leads to my stomach hurting. Darn that head/stomach thing is a bother. Then my nose became stuffy. So I went to bed early. I told the hubby I though I was getting a touch of something. I was right.

This morning I feel terrible. Oh no not the flu, but I think that's what it is. A few times in the last week I have been around a few people who were experiencing the same types of things as I am now. I think they passed along the whatever they have. Wonderful.

I didn't finish this post but saved it as a draft this morning. I just got to feeling pretty rotten. So I went and laid down and got some much needed healing time. I still feel rotten but I have a couple of sets of mittens to finish off today. So time is passing and I must try to catch up with it.

My new long knifty knitter looms came today. Boy the pegs are much smaller, but the gap between pegs looks the same. I will get around to measuring them later.

Fingerless mittens slant stitches

I have been working on fingerless mittens. I just don't like how the stitches look when you stop working in the round and start working the thumb section in the flat. The stitches when working in the round with the e-wrap (and I know the knit stitch is not this way but I like that slight slant from the e-wrap) all slant in one direction, but the stitches when working back and forth in the flat method for the thumb slant in two directions. So it just looks funny at that point to have your stitches face in two different directions.

So I decided I just had to find a way to make the stitches look more uniform. I have tried several different things but nothing worked exactly. Then night before last I tried just doing the knit stitch at that point to see how it would look. Even my hubby can see instantly that there is a difference in the look of the mitten at that point, with everything I have tried.

So yesterday my son had a dentist appointment. He doesn't drive so I took him. I was sitting in the waiting room with my loom and started on a second fingerless mitten. As I was working I was trying to think of other ways to do the back and forth flat section to make it look better. I was even at the point of thinking about just doing cut and tie for each row. I don't like extra ends but I am so use to having them (I crochet and have had many ends to hide) that the idea of them doesn't bother me that much. Still I would rather not have to do it if I don't have to.

So here I am sitting with my headphones and little AM radio listening to Rush, and knitting. The ideas are bouncing around in my head then I see it. So I tried what I saw last night and it worked.

Ok here goes. What is an e-wrap? It is a twisted knit stitch. So what is a knit stitch? It is an un-twisted stitch. So what if I do a knit stitch (see bottom of page for how I do this stitch) using the method taught by someone on the groups. Then when I have that long loop in fingers, I twist it before I place it back on the peg. No matter what direction I am needing to do this I can twist this stitch to make it lay as I want.

Ok I knit around the loom going in a clockwise direction. So when I am knitting in the flat method the slants that bother me are the ones going in the counterclockwise direction. Thinking through the above I know that I only need to worry about that different direction in making the stitches slant the way I want.

So as long as I am wrapping in my normal direction going clockwise, I can just e-wrap, but when I start going in the counterclockwise direction I needed to do the knit stitch and twist it before putting it back on the pegs.

So how do you figure out what direction to twist that knit stitch. Well I did an experiment. I went and took one stitch from the section that I had e-wrapped in my direction of knitting, and un-twisted it watching the direction of the twist. Then I twisted it back and put it back on the peg. Then I started my rows of flat knit twisted stitch.

An addition:

In my telling of how I did this I did not say how I did the actual knit stitch. I do not do the one where you simply pull the bottom wrap over the top of the yarn laid across the peg. I do it like the purl stitch is done.

You place the yarn strand at the top of the peg above the wrap. Lift the wrap and pull the yarn strand "down towards the bottom of the peg" pulling up a long loop. Holding that loop pull the wrap it is going through off the peg.

Now to do the twisted knit with this you simply twist it in the
direction you need to make it lay as your other stitches.

Since I knit normally around the loom in a clockwise direction, my
opposite is the counterclockwise. So when I do this twisted knitted
flat stitch I have to twist my loop towards my right and place it
back on the peg. Then tighten it down and move to the next peg.

You are only doing this twisted flat knitted stitch on one row. The
other row that goes in my normal direction I simply e-wrap. So this
is not a big slow me down process.

Ages

Oh my gosh. I got an email from my cousin Darla today with a birthday wish. Birthday, it's not my birthday. Well, not today but tomorrow it is. Oh I almost missed my birthday again. I guess it is just not that important a day as it use to be. ROFLOL

Well, this one should be important. Well important enough that I really would want to miss it. I will be 55 tomorrow. In many areas, stores and such, around here, that makes me a senior. Oh no, I am getting old. Well duh, everyone is getting old, I am just getting there faster then some others now.

My grandson Payton asks do you know how to tell someone is a hundred years old? They have white hair. His dad says, like grandma, Payton says yes. ROFLOL I have a silver white hair. Have had it for years and years. So I guess that 55 is not bad because according to Payton I have been a hundred years old for years and years and years.

Humm, not doing to bad for being way over a hundred. I can still get around pretty good. ROFLMBO

3-D Bells-crocheted

Right now I am working on 3-D Bells. I cannot find my pattern anywhere, so I had to make up another.

My daughter, youngest, mentioned making bells. She and her honey are going to have a craft booth in just a few weeks. So here I am without a pattern. At first I went looking for patterns for bells, not even thinking about the copyright factor. That's ok, I didn't find a single one that I liked at all. Well, that's not exactly right, there are a couple of very pretty bells out in internet land, just not my bell. Nothing at all like my bell.

I use to make tons of bells every year. I would give them away, and put them on the tree. In the last few years I haven't make any Christmas decorations at all. Just too many other things I wanted to do.

So here I am needing to make bells, and no pattern. So sitting and playing time. I worked till I got the bell similar to what I use to make. Not exact mind you, but this is working. I have done some adjustments as I make the bells, but just little amounts here and there to make it a faster easier pattern to do.

Now I have eighteen of those little bells done and I am beginning to remember why I stopped making them. It is so tedious and the eyes are not what they use to be, the hands and wrists complain, but I will not give up. I am going to get as many made as I can. ROFLOL Stubborn that's my middle name as my parents use to tell me all the time.

You know they sure are pretty though. I am wondering if I should do some with glitter on them when I stiffen them. I have never done that before. I usually just use a ribbon for the hanger and bow on them. I shall have to see about doing at least one with glitter if I have the time.

Yesterday I was lazy, and didn't even do one bell. Well, lazy isn't exactly the word for it. I mopped, hall, dining room, kitchen, vacuumed bedroom, did six loads of clothes blankets, went through stuff needing to be thrown away, you know old receipts, papers, etc. and shifted some craft stuff from one room to another. A busy day so by the time evening came I was too "lazy" "tired" to pick up my hook. I did start to show my oldest daughter how to do Tunisian crochet. Just a little, oh I had one bell that was almost done and finished it off, but I don't consider that little bit as having worked on them. That was just a complete a couple of rows.

Built in fringe?

Gordon (one of my group members) followed some links I posted to the group we belong to and as a result he found some information on how to do fringe. Then I remembered a picture that showed how to fringe on a board as you go.

This can be used for a double or single rake. Remember this was not invented by me but came from that picture in a group I moderate. That file is not in English so I had to try to figure it out as best I could. It doesn't seem to be all that difficult though. So please, it is not mine, just something I would like to pass on to others. These are my words as there were none that I could read from the picture, besides it is not in English. I did the best I could with what I could see.

You cut your fringe pieces to have them first, before starting any wraps. Then fold those fringe pieces and put the fold around the peg. Then take the two ends and do the shoelace start, you know the first starting fold over. Bring this tie right up to the pegs, but don't go too tight.

Do this so the fringe is hanging outside of the loom. When all the pegs are done, then move the fringe to the inside of the loom.

Now wrap your board in what ever stitch you are going to use. Knit off the fringe piece over the first wrap. Your fringe is now sitting on that first wrap and is done. Continue to wrap for your pattern until you are at the finish.

Now if you want fringe at the other end that can be done also. Take your cut fringe and pick up a stitch off the board. Put the fringe piece through the stitch, do the tie and place it back on the peg. When you have done all the pegs you want fringe on, then knit off the stitches. Your other end fringe is built in.

If anyone tries this please let me know how it works. I have only seen it in pictures and haven't had time to give it a try myself. I don't have anything that needs fringe on it.