X is for...

X is for ... Bridge supports
This is the Alsea Bay bridge, seen as we drove from San Francisco to Portland, OR a few years ago.

DH Loves trains. We have this sculpture in memory of his grandfather. Lots of X supports!

Birthday socks finished
These socks will be given to one of my grandsons. His favorite colors are green and orange. The pattern is Binsenkorbchen by Stephanie van den Linden. Yarn is Knit Picks Essentials.

Back to work tomorrow. I've enjoyed my 4 days off. I even did some of the things I've been putting off for lack of time.

W is for...

I got this from Claudia

Sandy issued a challenge:

* Go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture.

* Pray that you remember the details.

* Tag 5 others.

Not being a meme-er, I'll go so far as doing the first and the second.

The owls are part of an extensive collection belonging to my brother in law living in Vancouver, WA. I spent some time with them around teaching at TKGA Portland last September.

W is for...weather vanes.

This is on a local garden center. I don't know if it really works.

The steam engine weather vane is on our garage. DH loves steam engines.

Knitting gifted
All the gifts made in the last 2 months have been given. Two pairs of socks were birthday presents. One Christmas stocking was given on Thanksgiving. Youngest daughter and husband were in town from Florida. They gave out Christmas gifts early, so I decided to reciprocate. This morning we went out for breakfast and gave out Josh's grey socks, the book "It Itches" by Franklin Habit, and a bag of potato soup mix. I'm still working on Vitor's socks 1 1/4 sock done. I might finish by Sunday night, the goal of one KAL I'm participating in. They'll be given next Sunday morning at breakfast.

New toy pictures.
My new laptop. It does what computers are supposed to do. The top is connected tot he bottom. It runs on Windows XP, which means that my business software runs like it did before.

My new serger. This will not be my everyday machine, but an extra that does the fancy stuff. It does a beautiful rolled hem and cover stitch. It does a chain stitch and chain and serge at the same time. There are 20 stitch variations, using up to 5 threads. It has 5 needle positions and 3 loopers. A LED display helps with the settings etc. I will have either a repaired machine or some toher simpler machine for everyday use.

Cute grandkid!
They were given the piano. He's started lessons from someone at church. This is in addition to the tuba and trumpet he already owns. (Yes, they're real! Small size, but not toys).I don't think he 's had lessons on the other instruments except from his father.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at his house. There were about 25 people, 2 turkeys, and loads of food. All the women and some men in the family are good cooks. I got to bring Diet Coke, as usual.

Yes, I've been knitting

V is for....Veils
One of my sewing customers sells embroidered wedding veils. She gets the embroidery from India and needs the combs and labels attached. Folded veil fabric is on the left. I trim the top and use the extra tulle to wrap the comb. Finished veil is on the right.

I had a problem with Josh's Christmas sock. I used up all the yarn. I knew that my local store had more yarn. Monday lunch time was devoted to this errand. The socks are now finished.

Vitor has a birthday coming up and his socks are started. I'm not working this Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll have more knitting time. These are his favorite colors. I hear that his bedroom has been painted green and orange.

We've been doing our part to boost the economy. In the last 2 weeks, we've bought a new refrigerator, a new laptop for the shop, and a new fancy serger machine. All of the above were working, but had serious problems. The serger has a broken gear, hopefully repairable, but I can't work without one. I've wanted this type of fancy machine for a long time. The refrigerator had a broken door hinge and was 20+ years old. Possibly repairable, but don't tempt fate on life expectancy. The computer works fine, but the screen is attached to the keyboard only by a couple of wires. I'll try to get some pictures soon.

Knitting along, U is for...

Christmas stocking
The Christmas stocking is finished. Here's the progress picture. The stitch pattern is from one of my Japanese books. The basic stocking is a pattern I've been using for family stockings for 35-40 years. This stocking is #26 in the series. Within a family the stocking colors alternate red, green, red, green. Each stocking is unique. The guys get stripes of some sort. The gals get something more pictorial. Since no 2 are alike, the series can go on as long as I'm able to knit. Here's the finished stocking.

U is for... undressed trees
The trees have been partying in their prettiest clothes, but now it's time to go to bed for the winter. They drop their clothes at their feet, or sometimes they are scattered further about. Soon they'll all be naked and asleep.

Excitement at work
A couple of months ago, the truck that empties the dumpster had an accident. It seems that when they raise the dumpster, the truck is put into neutral and the motor gunned. When the truck is in reverse instead, this happens. The hole was covered with plywood for quite a while, while insurance was worked out, bids were gotten, etc. One day work started. When all the damaged wall was removed, it looked like this.

There are 4 roof supports in the picture. I watched the wall be put back together. The original hole took 15 sheets of plywood to cover for the night. The building houses a car repair garage, so had to be secure overnight. Finally, the work was finished. The whole top of the all was repaired and tuck pointing was done. There's a new glass block window to the left.

Sweater progress
My Noro sweater body is finished, and the sleeves are started. I worked really hard to finish the socks by the Sunday deadline for gifting, so it grows slowly. The band has been redone. I misread the pattern and picked up too few stitches.

October socks are finished

I must have been crazy to think that I could knit 3 pairs of socks and a sweater in one month. The sweater still grows, square by square. The orange socks were to be finished by midnight Oct. 31 for the challenge. I didn't make it. In reality, I had 3 more hours because the time deadline was Pacific time. I was too tired. I just needed the red rolled cuff at the top. I thought that the orange yarn had short yardage, only about 300 yds. so I worked on both socks in parallel. One from each end of the ball. The socks are toe up, and I just kept knitting. The pattern chart has a 1 1/2" repeat. The first stopping point was shorter than I like, so I kept on going. Legs are now 8" long!

The other socks were a birthday gift for daughter Jen. I used a pattern from my new Japanese books, but it really dosen't show up in pictures. Her birthday is 10/26, but I knew that I see her at the family Great Cookie Caper on November 2. Knit. knit. knit. The party is in Erie PA, 2 1/2 hours from our house. Knit, knit, knit. We got to the house, and she wasn't there Good! When she walked in, I had about 2 rows of toe to finish. Keep knitting. I showed my sister how I set toes up for Kitchener stitch, and worked that. I wanted to wrap the socks in fabric like Fleegle shows on her blog. Forgot the fabric, but the Caper is held at quilting daughter's house. Fabric was borrowed. Mission accomplished. Socks on the hoof!

Next project is a Christmas stocking.

Sewing project of the week was a tango dress for a customer involved in some sort of dance show. This is a one time thing for her which involved free dance lessons. The dress is black knit with purple sparkles. The skirt has 8 gores so it really flows and moves. I'll be cleaning glitter out of the shop for months, but the dress sure is pretty.