Third Time's the Charm

I have talked about this sweater before. It began life as a Sally Melville vest from her Purl book. I liked the vest, loved the yarn.

Last year, the vest became too large for my smaller body. I envisioned a cardigan about hip length, with 3/4 sleeves. One Sunday at church, I saw the perfect sweater. I complimented the lady on her sweater and asked if she had knit it. She had, but didn't remember the name of the pattern. It had something to do with a baby sweater. As I had guessed, it was an off take on an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern from her Knitter's Almanac, called the February Lady Sweater.

I downloaded the pattern from Ravelry and checked my yarn quantity. I could do this! Since the sleeves are knit after the body is finished, they could be a little shorter or a little longer, depending on how much yarn I had at that time. I measured the length of a jacket with a similar style, and started in. I knit the whole body and most of one sleeve before I tried it on. There were problems!

The sweater was a little small. I think my yarn is thinner than recommended. It also was quite a bit longer than I wanted. What to do? I slept on the problem and mulled it over in my mind. I also marked the desired length while I had it on. That took care of the distinct possibility that the sweater would stretch.

Final decision resulted in two large balls of yarn. I started over, using stitch counts two sizes larger. I also bought myself an iPad, which made it easy to take a clean pattern and highlight the numbers I wanted. I also transferred any relevant notes. Now I have the body of a sweater that fits! On to the sleeves! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

By the way, I made the buttons for the original vest. The pattern calls for only 3 buttons.

Sock Woes and other things

The Zinnias socks are finished, photographed, and have been mailed to Illinois. the pattern is written and up in my Ravelry store. Just need to do Pattrnfish.

The main color is Regia Jacquard and the flowers are Schaeffer Anne yarns. The iPad shown in the last blog post has been returned to my daughter. She loaned it to me, because she wanted to be sure that I would use it before I spent the money.

I got some money int he mail that paid for more than half the cost, so I went out and bought my own. I had heard about used iPads, but none were available. Mine is verison 2 with no phone card. It doesn't make sense to pay for another data plan that I wouldn't use much. The wifi connection is fine.

So far I have put knitting patterns, books and recipes on my Pad. I'm leaving for Florida in a week, so portable books will be handy.

Sock woes

Periodically, some socks that I have knit come home for repair. DSIL sent these with his wife on her last trip to Cleveland,

I had used a small patch on a previous pair and they then wore out at the edges of the patch. Size 14 socks which are otherwise in good shape get new toes, and the first pair did. I'm trying a big patch this time. I still can replace the toes.

Another sorry pair of socks has been in my house for a few years. I misplaced one sock, didn't find it until the house renovation last year. It's time to get these fixed.

When I made them, I ran out of yarn before the toes. I guess the stitch pattern was yarn hungry. The light colored spots are worn very thin. DD wore through the ball of the foot and the toe. I cut off the damage, picked up stitches and knit new toes. They look much the same as the old ones, but this time they are Patons Kroy, I think the rest of the sock is Regia Jacquard. They both wear forever.

I've been working on this sweater. I got the body finished and most of one sleeve before trying it on. I went back and forth,but finally decided that it really was too small. My yarn is a thinner version of worsted. It's Berroco Cotton Twist.

I now am nearing the end of the lace on the body. I'm also using all 5 buttons left from the original garment. I'm hoping to wear the sweater to Florida. It's going with me finished or not!

Socks and mitts

A new pair of socks is growing.The SKA group on Ravelry has a flora and fauna challenge this month. I designed these to fit the challenge. I'm calling them Zinnias. The self striping yarn does not appear to be in my yarn inventory. Either I missed entering it, or I'm blind. The red yarn is from a recent pair of socks

I put the pattern on the iPad I borrowed from my daughter. I'm thinking of getting one, especially if I can get a good used one. She loaned me this one to be sure I'll use it before I spend the money. I'm still on the uphill part of the learning curve, but I'm having fun.

I also expect to use it in cooking recipes from the internet. I put another recipe in Pepperplate today. It's the soup I had for dinner.Poblano Chicken Chowder. I've been tracking my food in MyFitnessPal and had to enter it there. I needed all the ingredients for the entry and took it out of my cooking notebook, When I saw the website at the top of the page, it went into the iPad. My oldest daughter trolls the internet for interesting recipes and shares them with me.

Today was fix the mitt day. Over last winter, a mouse or squirrel chewed the inside of my barbecue mitt. I used it over the summer, but was not happy with the damage. I bought fabric and insulation to make a replacement. When I turned it inside out to get a good pattern, I decided to sew in a new lining, enclosing the damage, and still make the new mitt as a gift.

Forget to take a photo of the damage, but here's the new lining.

I quilted it and then trimmed it. What a pain to turn right side out!!! The top edge has bias tape on it. Yes, I used a power machine and a heavy needle. Here's the finished mitt.The lining on both mittsis gingham. The gift mit is denim on the outside and red gingham inside. If I show it here, it won't be a surprise.

Seasonal thoughts

Is this an air guitar, or a ghost one? Seen in the window of a local guitar shop, while walking the dog.

Actually, it's plastic. I really like the photo.

It's winter here in NE Ohio. I had dinner with my son on Christmas Eve and the went to Midnight Mass. Cold, but no snow, except a little left over, mostly on the grass.

Christmas morning was quiet. The family planned to get together Wednesday evening. Santa snuck in while I was out and filled my stocking. It seems my daughters think I should have something to open Christmas morning. I got candy. cookie mix and other little things. My dog got a huge rawhide bone that she hasn't started chewing yet.

A blizzard was predicted, resulting in a parking ban where my son lives. He was the host for the family Christmas. WEe held it Friday night. I made quilts from fleece and flannel that were a big hit. The smaller boy has dinosaurs on his quilt (a big interest).
I got more food stuff, flavored coffee, box mixes for baking, more candy, and the loan of an iPad. I want to buy one, but DD wants to make sure I'll use it before spending the money. She has one that she's not using much at the moment, since her phone does a lot of what she wants. I was looking for a bigger screen that a phone has. I expect to download things for use, but not store them on the iPad

Knitting has happened. I tore out my sweater. It was too small. I've started again, but concentrated on finishing a pair of socks needed by year end for a Ravelry group. The pattern is written, but I need better light for a good photo. What I'm using is acceptable, but I want a better photo as part of the pattern.

I also can show the mystery sock now that all the clues are out. I called it Winter Berries. I was thinking of mistletoe, but there were too many projects with that name. Right now, it's a free pattern, but eventually I'll reformat it and sell it.

I'm enjoying my time off from work, catching up on household things and cooking a little. I have a tendency to cook instead of clean, but I'm fighting it. There's only one of me and I can fill the freezer faster than I can empty it. I have a rule that I can't cook  a main dish if I don't have enough plastic boxes to pack up the left overs. I could buy more boxes, but have decided not to. These work well for taking lunch to work. I often full them with salad. They hold about 3 cups.

Today I made Oxtail Stew in my Crock Pot. It cooked all day until the meat fell off the bones. I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking and it is supposed to be served over noodles. Tonight I microwaved a couple of small potatoes and put stew over them.The white in the photo is reflection from the overhead lights

Time to let the dog out one last time, pack up the stew, and head to bed.

My Dog is on Vacation

She doesn't know it, but she's avoiding the waterproofing men and the noise and disruption going on this week. Monday I went to work after dropping her at the kennel. I avoided a day of jack hammering to dig up the floor around the basement walls.Today there is piping in the trench. The white is a waterproof coating for the inside walls.

This is the new sump pump. The picture shows the original "flower pot" walls which are over 90 years old and the original water proofing has failed. The blocks are made of clay similar to a flower pot and were originally sealed on the outside. The copper pipe is the cold water return to the boiler.


On the outside wall, the sump pump looks like this, with the downspout from the roof on the left.

The outside walls now have piping like this. The walls were covered with tar and plastic, which forms a trough in which the pipe is laid. The pipe connects to the downspout drain. This is where work has stopped for now.

The back yard is a storage area. Buckets were used
as a bucket brigade for removing broken concrete from the floor. I hear it weighed about 2 tons. They
are also used to bring gravel into the house to fill part of the trenches. So far only the sump pump has gravel around it.


 Everything in the basement was disrupted. I can't wash or dry clothes until this is over. It even disrupted my kitchen, because they unscrewed a small breaker box from the wall and shut it off.to do that No light over the sink, no dishwasher, no disposal. I fixed that for now, by turning on the breaker.

Dear grandson Vitor is home from college. He's now 20 years old and we celebrated his birthday. Of course, I knit him more socks. My Mystery Sock patter is doing well on Ravelry, with over 500 people downloading it so far. The only problem was a bad symbol definition. I had found the error, but not put the corrected version into the pattern. All is fixed now. I had anticipated more problems, because of the unusual stitches I used. So far, so good. 

I ended the day by cooking some Poblano Chicken Chowder. I failed to correctly read the instructions and only added 3 cups of chicken broth instead of 3 quarts! A trip to the grocery store was made and it now looks like soup. I thought that chowder contained potatoes, but this one doesn't.

Flowers for My Birthday

The color of these roses struck me as particularly beautiful.

Sunday Fun in the Kitchen

 I've tried a couple of new recipes. First is Baked Persimmons. I found some today that I think are the last of the season, they were quite ripe, but I had wanted to try the recipe.

I also made Acorn Squash and Apples. The first is a dessert and the second a vegetable.