Hats and heat

You learned to use a knitting loom and decided that the ones that you started with, the large gauged knifty knitters, were just to large a gauge for the hats you want for your kids. Now you have a regular, small, fine, or extra fine and you made wonderful hats that have no gaps. Great the kids won't have holes in their hats.

Now your kid took that hat, put it on and went out to play. You are checking on the kids and there is yours head bare. Where did that hat go? There it is on the ground by the swings or the tree, or maybe half hanging out where it was stuffed in a pocket. So you have to say put your hat on, it's really cold out here. The hat goes back on and you are distracted by whatever you are doing.

Wow, the hat is off again, and back in that pocket or under the tree. This occurs over and over. The child goes to school and the teacher says I can not seem to get this child to keep a hat on. It is left in the classroom or somewhere on the playground and winds up in lost and found. You, the teacher or the child has to constantly go looking.

Well, my child just doesn't like hats. That is the most common thing to think and there will be some children who just don't like hats, but did you ever think that there might be another reason why that child does not keep that hat on. There could be you know.

Take a hat you made for yourself and go outside wearing it. Now just stand there, don't move around. Nice and snug you are in that nice warm hat, huh? Still the air is chilled and you would rather be back inside cozy in front of a warm heater or fireplace. Can't leave yet, we aren't done with you.

You are still outside and still wearing that nice warm hat made on the fine gauge loom so that there are no holes in it. It is nice and snug, just the way you like them, not at all like that nasty large gauged loom you once learned to knit on. You know the one, that one that left all those holes in the piece and made you figure it just couldn't be warm enough for your child.

Ok, now let's change things a bit. Keep that hat on but go to the children's play area, move a little bit. No more standing. Walk around the play ground. No hurry, just a simple little walk. Are you walking? Don't stop, keep walking. Nope not yet, keep going around and around and around. It's ten, fifteen, twenty minutes now. Do you feel it, the heat. The longer you walk the more energy your body has to produce the warmer you get. It's still nice to have that warm hat keeping your head from getting cold.

Ok we had our little walk. It was nice. Now we are going to change again. Instead of a nice little walk we are going to be kids. Run. Yes you heard me, run, run some more. No not just in a straight line, zig this way and that way, run up the slide steps and back down. Isn't this fun. Run circles around the tree, or pole, heck even the slide or swing set, anything that might be there. Now zig and zag like you are dodging someone trying to catch you. Keep it up, to the right, to the left, over there, over here, and back again. Stop take a breath, that's long enough, keep moving.

How do you feel? Stop breathe. Are you warm yet? Or are you hot? How about that hat, head still warm or is it a bit stuffy? Are you sweating from all that running and dodging? Is your head hot and you feel like ripping that warm hat off? If not then you are one of the odd ones. My hat would have come off about ten minutes into the walk. How do I know? At work I will sometimes take a walk break. I walk to the different second hand stores to look around then back to work. Those stores are not all located in the same place, so there is a bit of walking to do. Yep, the hat comes off. It was nice then too nice. I heat up and feel like I need air to my head or I will faint. I did that once in my life. An emergency had me moving fast, and I forgot the hat on my head. Soon I was feeling not so great, next I was waking up from having fainted. My circuits just shut me off.

When children go out to play some will never keep a hat on. We all have different over heat points. A nice warm hat with no holes to one child or adult might be the perfect thing, but to others it is a thing which can quickly becomes something that can harm you. the natural thing is to remove the problem. So off comes the hat.

I have four children, had many daycare children, and now have several grandchildren. I have watched for years and years the hats come off, but you know what, the hats with more holes tend to stay on longer with those children who have a heat up point that comes faster then the ones of other children. Why you might ask. Well, the holes leave a small area where some of the heat can dissipate and not build up to that point of "hats off".

So to those of you with small ones whom you cannot get to keep a hat on, try thinking on a large gauged hat not so tightly weaved. I could work for you as well as it has for me.

More Lizzie and her hat

I really tried to get a good picture Lizzie in her hat but this was the best I could do since she was moving around too fast. Doesn't she have such chubbie cheeks.

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Joy Hargrove "

Row of stitches converted

This is the third row of a ripple stitch pattern for a shawl from Lion Brand: Very Easy Ripple Shawl (I have discovered that if you are not already signed into the Lion Brand site under your registration you have to sign in before accessing the pattern or you can sign in and search for the knitted pattern by the name) In case you are interested in seeing the rest of the pattern. Sorry I converted this row but not the entire pattern, that is not my right. Just know that if you decide to convert the rest of the pattern, leave the odd rows as the are written and change the even rows to the opposite stitch. Yes you can do this for your own personal use, but not to claim as your own. Here is a simple conversion of a row of stitches.

This row: K3, *{k2tog)x3, (yo, k1)x6, (k2tog)x3; repeat from * to last 3 sts, k3

This is done in multiples of 18 plus 6 stitches.

You would do the following

Peg 1-3 Knit

Peg 4-5, lift the stitch on peg 4 hold it, lift the stitch from peg 5place it on peg four and place the stitch you are holding back on peg four, wrap and knit the two bottom stitches over the wrap.

Pegs 6-7: Lift stitch from peg 6 hold it, lift stitch from peg 7 and place it on peg 5, place stitch you are holding on peg 5, wrap and knit off

Pegs 8-9: Lift stitch from peg 8 hold it, lift stitch from peg 9 and put it on peg 6, put the stitch from peg 8 that you are holding on peg 6, wrap and knit off the two bottom stitches.You have now completed the three K2tog's.

You will have three empty pegs 7, 8, and 9.

Peg 7 leave it empty,

Peg 8 move stitch from peg 10 to peg 8

Peg 9 leave empty

Peg 10 move stitch from peg 11 to peg 10

Peg 11 leave empty

Peg 12 leave alone

Now wrap pegs pegs 7 to 12, leave the pegs with one wrap alone, knit off the bottom stitch on the pegs with two stitches.

Jump to the next set of K2tog

Pegs 20-21 Move stitch 20 to 21

Pegs 18-19 Move stitch 19 to peg 20, and then stitch 18 to peg 20

Pegs 16-17 Move stitch 17 to peg 19, and then stitch 16 to 19Now back to pegs 13-15

Move peg 15 to peg 18

Move peg 14 to peg 16

Move peg 13 to peg 14

Wrap pegs 13 to 24,

Leave the pegs with on stitch alone, Knit off both bottom stitches on pegs with more then one wrap, Knit off bottom stitch of pegs with only one wrap.

Repeat the process for the next repeat.Remember if it is an odd row leave it as it is. If it is an even row change it to the opposite stitch.

Now having gotten this far, I think it is all correct, but if anyone sees something I might have missed then let me know by posting a comment. It is not always easy converting a stitch row from needles to the loom, and this one was really hard because of having the decreases on either end of the pattern repeat and the increases, by yarn overs, in the middle of the pattern repeat. I had to do that second set of decreases before I could see a way to move the stitches properly for the yarn overs. If you see a better way to do it please do let me know. I can think of one other way but it too would be a hard process, maybe worse.

After having sit and worked on this (I almost gave up entirely), I can say that I would not want to do this one for myself anytime soon. So no I have not tested it beyond putting it to paper. So if you test it please let me know how it works or if it even will. I would be interested in knowing how difficult it is.

My Html Class

I was getting really excited about another class at the college due to start in just another week. I signed up for the html class and had been studying a small online class to start me on the road to learning this.

I am so disappointed. There was a call from the college on Friday afternoon while I was gone. The class had only two people sign up. I was one of those two, so they canceled the class. Bummer, can you say SAD, can you say BUMMER, I sure can.

So looks like I am going to be taking the time to do more of this learning all on my own. I have several html books and I have a basic start. So starting over the next few days I will sequester myself, in an area where no one can get to me, with my little laptop and start from the beginning of the book. I figure if I have questions about something the Internet is the best learning tool beyond having a teacher there to explain stuff. Besides, there isn't very often the teacher is around, the Internet is always there (well with the exception of power outages, downed ISP's, and those occasional DOS attacks {denial of services attacks}). So I can live with that. I just prefer to be in a classroom where you have the benefit of the learning of an instructor.

Oh well, I have to look on the bright side. This just saved me $362.

Elizabeth and her hat

This is a hat I made from one of the patterns I designed. I was showing it to family and Lizzie adopted it. So I gave it to her. I had to make another today to place in the file I am doing. This hat was done with lion brand boucle yarn.

It is much prettier then the limited pictures I could get with a two year old moving fast around the room. We tried to get her to hold still but there were toys to play with.

Update on CinDWood special

Cindy sent this to me:

I have 5- 48 inch 5/8 gauge panel loom
5- 48 inch 1/2 inch S loom single rake
5- 15 inch diameter round 1/2 inch gauge round loom for large bags and stuff.

CinDWood Crafts Special on Looms

The following is a message I received a while back from Cindy. In contact with her in the last couple of days, she tells me that she still has some of these looms available. So for those who still might be interested, please contact Cindy. You can reach her through her email at her website: http://www.cindwoodcrafts.com She will be able to tell you exactly which looms are still available. I know that there were a couple of people who were looking for this special from Cindy.

Cindy says these will be available only for the ones she has now. The two new looms, listed at the bottom, will be on her website starting in May. Oh and the 48" S loom is a single rake loom, not a board loom.


FROM CINDY:
I hope that you are all well. I wanted to tell you about a stack of looms that I have by accident that will be available for a great price since I didn't have to pay for the boards. For some reason the computer that my looms are designed on cut out 10 panel looms wrong. I ordered the 36 inch 1/2 inch gauge panel looms and the program cut me 10 48 inch 5/8 inch gauge looms. They will be available for $20 which is the cost of the pegs and pick. I know that the 48 inch is very long, but it works if you are sitting in a chair or at a table.

The next are 2 looms that I have just gotten done that I want to test out before I add them to the website.

One is a round loom that is 15 inches in diameter and has 90 pegs at 1/2 inch gauge. I had a request for it for a large bag that the client wanted to make. I have 10 made to start with and will sell them for $20 for the trial ones.
The other trial loom is a 48 inch S loom done as a 1/2 inch gauge rake. It may not work easily as a panel loom because the pegs aren't evenly across from each other, but you can use some of it I think if you watch the spacing. This trial loom will be $35 for these 10.

If any of you or your customers or chatroom clients are interested in this loom have them email me to order them.

Have a great day and weekend all of you.
Cindy Clyde

Knitting

One of my groups had someone who was confused over a pattern they were trying to do. I was following the discussion on this pattern and have been introduced to some interesting ideas. I want to talk about them a little and if any of you knitters out there know the correct answers to what I am talking about please do leave me a comment.

First the pattern being discussed is a needle knitted chevron. I was a little surprised that this knitted chevron is the exact same stitch pattern that I use for my chevron baby afghans. It is not difficult and since I use large knitting needles for it (13 to 17 usually), it works up quite fast. It is the same stitch pattern I have on needle right now, the red and yellow afghan for one of my grandsons.

So the person asking the question was having difficulties with ending a row having three extra stitches. The pattern involves a beginning of a knit increase in the front and back of a stitch, then in the center section you have a two stitch decrease, by doing a slip one knit one psso. The increase section is two stitches knitted in front and back of the stitch.

So here is where the discussion lead. Some one says that you always do a slip stitch purl wise unless the pattern says to slip it knit wise and that if a slip stitch is at the beginning of a row it is always done purl wise. Got all that, I hope so, this is where I am perplexed.

I have a few books that teach these kinds of things, and so far to date everything I have read says to always slip a stitch knit wise unless told to slip it purl wise. So here I am reading about this and wondering why I have never read anything that says you should slip purl wise instead of knit wise. What books have I missed (and remember I have a few but my knitting library is not as extensive as my crochet, tatting or macrame one is). I feel that now I need to research this. If the standard is to slip purl wise unless instructed to do it knit wise then I have been doing it wrong. Or maybe wrong, who knows if the person writing the pattens is slipping purl or knit wise unless they tell you.

I will have to take needles and work these stitches both ways to see how they might differ in the way the decrease will look. Is there a big difference? Well, that is too be seen when I have the time to experiment. That time is not yet, but I need to place this in memory and this blog is better then my own has been lately.

So the purl wise for the first stitch of a row is something I have never read anywhere at all. It is also something I would never have thought about if the question hadn't been asked about this other and someone said, slip knit wise, and someone else said no slip purl wise. Oh how confusing to us un-expert workers on needles.

March 18 update

Sorry that it has been several days since I updated. I have been so busy. No not knitting, though there has been a little of that.

The boss suddenly left for play time. One worker was taking days off, one worker was let go just before the boss left, can you say shorthanded, many times over. So what's left, one worker full time 9.5hrs per day shop, field and oncall; one worker 4.5 hours per day, shop and a little field; one worker 7.5 four days and one day 4hrs shop an occasional field and oncall; one worker 8 hours four days, field only. This in a shop that needs two full time 9.5 hour people and three full time field people. LOL, then me part time various hours, doing bookkeeping. So the phone rings and rings and rings. The two days that the other shop is closed (worker taking days off), that phone transferred to the main shop. Oh goodie, I get to answer phones and try to tell people things I don't have a clue about. ROFLOL At least I can field calls like when do you close or why isn't the little shop open. Guess that helps a bit.

Still I am so tired I don't even think about knitting, well I think about it but the brain isn't in a good shape for right thinking about it.

I finished up most of the paper work yesterday that I need to do a report to the state on my guardianship of my sister. This is a once a year thing to let them know she is still here, that I haven't robbed her blind (she doesn't even have that much, so most of her support comes from us, that's OK, she's my little sister) and tell them why the guardianship is still needed. I spent the day yesterday updating the database that I set up for her bank account and am so lax about doing on a regular basis. So now it is ready to print all the documentation on her account for the last year. I turn this in with the notarized paper to the court. They can then see exactly where her funds are being spent. If the truth be told most is on her house payment and most of the leftover on her babies (her cats). That's ok, those cats keep her healthy and happy and that's the good for her.

So today I plan to do the report printout, and then time for me and my knitting. I have a file almost done for the Lace spiral hat I designed. I am going to send it to a friend to look over. I am hoping it will be easy enough for anyone to understand. She is already a loom knitter and she can give me some idea of how bad this looks. This is a very simple pattern to do but very hard to write up. Right now I just need to add some pictures I took to the file.

Well, that is about it. Oh I am working on another piece that wasn't meant to be lace, but it might just turn out that way because of the large gauged loom and the one strand of worsted. It looks lacy right now but this thing is more complex in the rows, so I haven't gotten very far in the making of it. I have to utilize a lot of stitch markers to keep track of the twelve repeat rows, or wait, is it eleven. See got me lost already just thinking about it. Anyway, it means stopping and moving stitch markers every other row, the even rows are a simple knit every stitch.

Beaded Knitting

I don't have many of the beaded knit purses I have done on display, in this blog, but I did put up a couple. Most I gave away without remembering to take pictures first.

This is the kind of knitting I am talking about:




Today I want to talk a little about doing beaded knitting. The reason why today is because of a video I watched in the last hour. People say oh that is so beautiful, it must have been hard to do. I say thanks but no it wasn't hard at all. The hardest part is the stringing of all the beads. The rest is simple knitting and in some cases purling. What can be harder. You string the beads, you use the knit stitch (or purl) and you pull up beads as you knit. Those beads sit on the strand between stitches. Not hard at all if you know how to knit. Still even when I tell people it is not hard they don't believe me. They say something like, well maybe for you it isn't but for me I could never do it.

Now those little purses pictured here are needle knitted. To date I have not found a knitting loom with a small enough gauge between the pegs to do these same little purses with thread and seed beads, but you never know what the future can bring. I keep a watch for something to come along.

In the meantime, there are other larger beads that can be used to add a little something extra to your loom knitted projects. For instance beads in the brim of a hat, or all through the hat if that is your choice. Beads for the bottom of a sweater or tank top to add that additional flair that will set you out in a crowd.

If you should think that you would love to knit some of the tiny beaded bags, like you needed another stash of goods (well why not), then you should check out this video that I watched. Cat shows you just how easy it is to do beaded knitting. It is a wonderful addition to the world of learning and it is here:
Let's Knit 2gether

While you are visiting here check out some of her other videos. The one on spinning is really great.

The video shows stringing the beads one at a time for the little project that she is doing the demo on but with some of the beaded knitted bags you might consider a bead spinner. There are spinners for sale but if you have someone who can help or you can do it yourself, you can make a quite nice spinner with little expense. Check out my March 2006 archives to see the bead spinners my husband made for me. Oh can I get those beads on the thread fast now.

I wanted to add that my favorite beads are not all that expensive when purchased in bulk. I have bought a lot of them from here:
Mill Hill Beads

By going online you can find beads for much better prices then you get by going to most local stores.

Time Change

It's awful. I have a body schedule. It says sleep here, wake there. I have to retrain this body twice a year to sleep there and wake in this other place. As the years go by, this training takes longer and longer and gets harder and harder to make happen. Time change, yuck. It just isn't healthy to do this sort of thing over and over to your poor bodies and minds. At least not in the book being read by my body.

Little has gotten done since the "time change". I added a few links to one group. Knitted a couple of rows on that project, wrote a few lines in this file, and almost completed one hat pattern file. I have mostly been up moving around. If I sit too long this old body says hey, naptime. ROFLOL

K1,YOx3,K1,K1 pictures

K1,YOx3,K1,K1 a stitch conversion

Row 8:
knit 1, yarn over 3, knit 1, knit 1, yarn over 3, knit 1...and so on
until the end of your row.

Row 9:
knit 1, drop 3, knit 1, knit 1, drop 3, knit 1...and so on until the
end of your row

Cast on (do not count cast on as a row)
Row 1: Purl
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: Knit
Row 5: Purl
Row 6: Knit
Row 7: Purl

Row 8:
Knit the first peg,
Lift the stitch on the next peg off and hold it
Yarn over three on this times on that empty peg
Put the stitch you are holding back on the peg
Wrap the peg again and knit that stitch off (leaving the three
yarn overs alone)
Knit the next peg
Repeat the lift the stitch and yarn over for the next peg
Place stitch back on peg and knit it
Knit the next peg

Continue till you are at the last peg, lift the last peg and do your
yarn overs. Place stitch back on peg, and knit off

Next row, Row 9:
Purl the first peg, left this stitch and drop the yarn overs
Purl the next peg
Lift the stitch on the next peg and drop the yarn overs
Put the stitch back on the peg and purl it
Purl the next peg
Continue purling the single peg, lifting the stitch from the peg with the yarn overs and then purling that stitch as it is put back on the peg

Row 10: Knit
Row 11: Purl
Row 12: Knit
Row 13: Purl
Row 14: Knit
Row 15: Purl

Row 16: Repeat row 8
Row 17: Repeat row 9

Continue in pattern till as long as you want it.


I will try to get a picture of the piece I have on the loom later today. It's very pretty even in a plain worsted weight yarn. Lacy, very lacy.

Crane Birds

I don't know exactly why or where it came from but we have a Crane hanging around. It is so huge. I walked out front this morning and it was sitting on a floating object in the fish tank. How it was doing that I am not sure, but my eyes saw it and it saw me and took off.

I had to go check to make sure that it didn't manage to steal a fish or two. Nope so far it hasn't. Now we are going to have to find a way to prevent it from getting to the fish. So far the trees over the tank have stopped it, but now it is not working. It has found a way.

These fish are way too expensive and we have put far too much money into their care to allow some dumb bird that shouldn't even be here to eat them. Hey, the river is just a short hop by wing away from here. Why is it bothering our little tank.

Well, off to make sure it hasn't come back. Darn thing anyway, we have some newer tiny koi that haven't even had much of a chance at life yet. I picked them out special for the hubby last summer and don't want to see this overgrown bird get them.

Cranes are not normal around here. It needs to go home. ROFLOL

New looms

I have been looking over the new looms I purchased from CinDWood Crafts. Since I have the 36" large gauged one already, I do know that there is, or can be, a problem with the center area of the loom "flexing". My very first started project on the 36" loom had to be frogged because of this "flex" problem.

I had started a baby ghan and it was coming out really pretty, then I noticed that the sides seemed to be growing faster then the center. So I stopped to see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. It really didn't take me long to see that the gap between the two rows of pegs at either end of the board was much wider then the gap in the center of the board. The closer you got to the center the small that gap was.

I could have continued working on it but I knew that when the piece was done it was going to look like one of those huge bows that at one point in history decorated everything. It would be wide on the ends and collapsed in the center. Not good, not good at all. I frogged that piece. I then contacted Cindy to talk about this problem. She told me that others had experienced this same thing and that was why she provided the yarn guide. That guide helps you learn to wrap that center portion of the board much looser. I started to use the guide and that made all the difference in that section of the board.

You see it is the nature of the beast that we have to deal with. The longer a piece of wood the more it can flex in the center area. This is true of many things. If you take a very short piece of wood and try to bend it you would find it very difficult. Take a longer piece and bending it in the center becomes easier. The longer the piece the more that center area will "flex".

So you have a loom with two sections that can both flex and you are wrapping the pegs on it with yarn (most people use yarn but other stuff can be used). What is going to happen is the ends are not going to move, but that center section is. Wrapping loosely throughout that area is absolutely necessary, the longer the board the worse the problem.

So here I am thinking about a recent email I received from Cindy about how she is thinking on this problem a how to make a piece to prevent this. She is just starting the thoughts but she is a working woman with a family and the loom business, so it will take a while for her to figure out the cure.

In the meantime, I pulled out the new 48" long straight loom and flexed the center of the board. Oh boy, just a tiny squeeze and those two sides meet in the center. This one will need some extreme care in wrapping or blocks of some kind will be in order. I took the board to the hubby. He had not yet seen this board, no I never hide things from him, I had just received the loom and other things were on mind and happening. After all the loom just got here on Monday, so give me time to show him. He knew they were coming. I couldn't help the excitement over getting a couple larger looms (just like he knows I now have a 48" 1/2" gauged S loom arriving soon).

He looked over the board and I told him what the problem would be. I don't want to have to do extra special care in wrapping. I want to do some lace knitting on this one, and that will pull more then a simple regular wrap. I would also like to try cables, more then the little experiments I have tried and frogged.

He says that it would be a simple thing to make a couple of small blocks for me to fit between the two sides of the board to hold those sides in place. Yea right, he always says simple then it turns into something a bit more complex then he expected. He needs to see how the yarn and stitches fit the loom and what I have to do to work the board before he makes a final determination on how to fix that flex.

As for the other loom, the huge round one, well I do have plans for that one. I have this cone, not any old cone like you have seen, it is huge. It has on it a very thin yellow plastic cording. The spool stands about 14" high and there is a lot of this thin cord wrapping on the spool. I picked this up for a couple of bucks quite a while back. My plans had been to crochet some mesh bags for the beach. Then I got busy looming and the cord sort of got put to the side. This huge round loom would be perfect for making those “mesh bags” for the beach with little to no trouble (or so I think, I get into trouble with that thinking thing).

Gee, I keep going into the craft room just to look at these new looms. They are so huge that my mind keeps telling me that I saw wrong and I have to check to make it right.

The fix

Yes the sleep=solve problem has worked again. The hat is only into its third row after the cuffed brim but I can already see that it is going where I want it too. I am pleased.

I am less one group today. I have moved on. I cannot continue to be a member of a group where one member is allowed the freedom to insult so many, so often. It was hard leaving and I shall miss the people there, well most.

I am now thinking hard on what should be done on those new looms of mine. Actually nothing till I complete a couple of other things. Then watch out looms, here I come.

New looms

My looms arrived from Cindy today. Wow, are these big. I never thought I would want looms this large but there are a few things I am going to try on them. I think making up patterns on a straight board will be easier then on an S loom, so the 48" one will be great for that.

The other loom is a 1/2" gauge round loom with 90 pegs. I really was expecting something a bit smaller around so when opening the package and actually seeing the loom was shocking, but I am not one bit displeased.

These will be another challenge to learn to use, but that's OK. I have managed with others and I will with these. Having a loom that is only 14" shorter then yourself is a bit of a shock also, but hey this could be fun. I might have to find a special place to work that one, but I will do what I have to do.

Hats again

I dropped working on the afghans in favor of the hats again. I managed to finish one last night. It actually didn't take all that long about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish. Maybe I am just getting pretty good at this lace knitting or maybe it was just an easier pattern, or the tricks I have learned have me be faster in the process.

At this point I am not actually making up the pattern but instead testing the ones I have made up already. I need to know that I can read them as I wrote them.

I do have one that is really cute but I didn't write a portion of it right. So in trying to test it twice now, it just didn't work. I finished the one last night and started again the one and it still wasn't right. There is one line that I wrote, a key portion of the pattern, that my brain says it interprets it one way but that way is not working.

I am very thankful for the kind of brain I have. It works in a funny way. I very often, not always but often, solves the problems I have while I am asleep. Yes sound asleep. I wake up knowing the solution to the problem. I will jump up and write that solution down and then I am good to go. The most important time this happened to me was while I was in college. My computer accounting class had a major project. It was on a program made for the college by a student and given over to them free for their use. It was set up to automatically save the project to the hard drive. To save to another place you needed to change the save function to where you wanted it to go. I saved it where I needed it, or so I thought, but it went to the hard drive. Wow, on that server there was thousands of files. I couldn't remember what I had renamed it. It was due in one day. A whole terms worth of work lost in the thousands of files on the server.

So I slept and I found my self in that sleep renaming the file and saving it. Saved I was, I woke wrote the name down, and the lab tech the next morning was shocked when I explained that I now had the name and could he please pull my file off the server (students didn't have access to that area for good reason).

So last night I went to sleep running over and over in my mind as I fell asleep what I could be doing wrong. I woke a short time later and now I know. I shall start the hat over tonight but I know I now have the solution to getting this right again. It is such a cute hat I hate the thought of abandoning it. Aren't minds a wonderful thing to have.

Most of the day yesterday was spent in chipping up tree limbs. The hubby cuts the limbs and I have been helping to put them though the little chipper we have. This is lots of work with all the trees we have to cut. We use to just burn them but since we went city, we are no longer allowed to burn. Bummer, it is getting harder and harder to maintain these trees properly.

Well, it is off the web and into my work program. I have a stack of invoices to enter before heading to work this afternoon.

Lazy or somewhat

I didn't get much work done on projects yesterday. I managed to get maybe 10 rows of the baby ghan worked on. My daughters young man went north to his dads house where they are converting an old horse trailer to a working trailer for his farrier business. So my daughter came her with the baby for the day.

Oh man, is this boy testing his wings and is he learning to fly. Right now he doesn't really talk in sentences but he has the words to do so. He just prefers one word at a time to say what he wants or signs. He smacks his lips for food and points (does this a lot he is a big eater), and does sipping noises for wanting a drink. If you say a word he repeats, all of the words you do for him. He is learning fast and I expect soon he will show up one day and talk me to deafness.

Testing his wings comes into play with he wants to do all the big boy stuff. He is a daredevil and is into everything. Now you have to understand, I am not one to kid proof a house, instead I house proof the kid. Of course there are general things like keeping meds up high away from little hands, the knives put where hands cannot reach, and the cabinet with cleaning product locked up away from little hands, but other then the really dangerous I don't do different with the grands then I did with daycare or my own kids. They learn what they can touch and what is not for babies.

So he explores. He knows the "not for babies" line and obeys it. At least for a time. The testing of wings has him trying, then leaving after the "not for babies" then coming back again. You know we all have to explore, and we all have to learn what we can and cannot have. So it is with the little ones. Yes this takes up more of my time but in the long run I have less to deal with then I would otherwise, because they learn that if it is not for them they must leave it be. I have had little trouble with that over the long years of motherhood and my friends found they did not have to house proof for my children. Just tell them they cannot touch and they left it alone. Mom has a long memory of not listening and you are subject to being held accountable for your actions, even at 18 months old.

We had a beautiful day outside. The expected rain did not come and we had no clouds in the sky. It was warm and comfortable. So outside for the afternoon. Most of the yard back and front was still too wet for play but the driveway was find. We brought with us the two little lawnmower toys, a CAT (not the animal kind but the toy kind that copies a construction vehicle), and then we found the brush for the carport and the washing brush for cars. Oh and the ride on toy. Oh what fun that one is. It makes noise and if you bounce on it, it moves all by itself.

Papa was home and we were lucky he got to stick around and play. He was on call but all the calls he got came early in the morning so in the afternoon he had grandson time. There was checking out the fishes and helping papa clean the tree junk that falls in with the winds blowing out of the tank. He, the grandson, thought he was such a big boy helping papa do that.

Mom has taught him timeout. We are not big on spankings. If you hit me all I want to do is possibly hit you back, it will not make me agree with you, just angry. So a swat is saved for a very serious action. Time outs work great for some kids. My kids sure helped me learn some very creative things to do for punishments that didn't involve placing hands on them. They now all tell me the worst punishment was making them listen to me lecture them. How boring and time consuming that was. They could have been off doing something better. So the little one has learned about time out. When you are even talking about time out and his learning it his hands go to the front or back and he shows you he is doing nothing wrong. I had to laugh at that.

My children have passed on or adopted some of my creative techniques for punishments. If you cannot keep your hands to yourself, then you can sit and hold hands till you learn how. You can walk through the stores holding hands. Isn't that sweet people say. Well, not in the minds of the kids. It is a horrible punishment. Cannot stop making gestures at each other then you can sit on your hands to make them mind. He/she's looking at me. Then sit face to face, no closing eyes, and get a really good look.

Oh the school thing not doing homework and failing classes. The couch is a very nice place to sit till everything is caught up, no reading books, no video games, no TV, no phone calls, no nothing. The only thing important in your life is school work. Sure does bring on straight A's quickly.

So not much in crafting but a fun day watching what the littlest in the family is learning. Oh where does he put all that food. He munches constantly, a sandwich here, soup there, a cracker, another sandwich, a bowl of cereal, wow so much food for such a little guy.

Darn forgot my video camera again.

The lace hat pictures

I did these hats in a very plain yarn so that the stitch could be easily seen. I used one strand of worsted weight yarn, and they are very light in weight.

Anyways, just wanted to say a little about them.

Lion Bouclé

It is dangerous going to the Dollar Tree store these days. It can cost a yarn user big at times. I had to stop by that store to pick up something and ran across of all things, lion brand boucle. Lots of it.

I left the store with several colors and a total of 63 skeins of this yarn. Now I already have some that I purchased before. So with this added to the stash I will have to find something quick to use it up.

Oh bother, guess I need blinders when going to this store now.

Loomed baby ghan

I have several inches of the baby ghan with the ponto 4 stitch done now. This is a very interesting stitch. So far it is quite pretty, but it still isn't long enough to show the final look of the stitch.

One thing though is this is slow going. You e-wrap two pegs at a time but when knitting off you still have to knit each peg. The two stitches knitted before the multiple wrapped pegs are interconnected so they are tight to knit off. I have to keep it loose but those stitch still are tight. Once the first side is knitted off the second side is a little easier to do. This tightness is making each row take a little longer to complete. So it is slow going.

The homespun yarn is so pretty. This color is called Mardi Gras, I might have mentioned that before. The colors are darker then what I normally use for a baby ghan, but still quite lovely. I am only using one strand so the weave of the piece is not really tight and this is good as I was looking for a looser weave. On the 1/2" gauged loom this was a perfect choice of yarn for one strand.

Since I am using that yarn guide, I have not had that bunching trouble that this yarn brings to the work. With tight stitches I would be frogging if I had to also deal with that bunching of the fluff along the strand of thread that is the base of this yarn. The built in edging will save me from having to deal with this yarn to do an edging. I just don't want to work this yarn without a guide, and in crochet there are no guides for yarn like on a loom.

I am wondering how the holding power of this yarn will be. I am use to yarns for afghans that have bounce. This yarn has a little but not as much as the yarns I normally use. So this might or might not have that long term use as an afghan that my other works have had. Well, it is for a baby and many parents don't hang on to them long after baby out grows them. So it is doable and I will not expect it to be something that lasts for year after year. It will be what it will be.