Fresh-Picked Knits

Time is flying by!

2009-11-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

I just cooked my favorite meal in the world, Thanksgiving feast! I very much love to cook this meal; I get up very early, slip on my walking shoes (for support) and begin the business of chopping and dicing. Making the stuffing, a favorite of mine. I use my mom’s recipe and dearly love not only the flavor, but the memories of Thanksgivings past, when my whole family was one and we would sit down to a fabulous meal prepared by my mom.

Remembering when my brother Ian ate a whole pumpkin pie, and the times we would drive my dad crazy with the fingers running around the rims of our wine glasses, making the (annoying) humming noise. The smells in the house with the turkey in the oven, I even miss the mad woman my mom would become when she got on her cleaning jag just before any major holiday. But alas, families do not always stay close and these are only memories.
For the past 12 years I have been making new memories with my husband, the turkey wrestler, he always helps me get the bird into the sink for his final bath, pats him down and helps me prepare him for stuffing and roasting. This year my turkey came out beautiful, the stuffing perfect, and dessert was delightful. I made the Pumpkin Pie Crunch, you can Google that if you like, I topped it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of homemade cranberry with orange sauce. I think this is my new holiday tradition! It was pretty, tasty and above all, stress free.

Recently my life has been a bit rough; my mom had another stroke and spent about 3 months in a rehab hospital. She is home now and doing really well, albeit, we have a new normal around Casa Clarkson, but taking care of her is not the hard or rough part. I realize I’m still not ready to talk about it, but it has made my life really difficult and made my heart very heavy. Family can be the best, bar none, and it can be the worst, bar none. What I am thankful for this thanksgiving is my loving and supportive husband, and that my mom is still with me and still has her mind and humor.

Go forth and be thankful!

Cha, cha, changes...

2009-11-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

So sorry that I have been MIA, but this past few months has been a trial for me. I'm back and plan on trying to write each week at the very least. I have had some life changing events in my life recently. I'm likely to discuss these things here and there, but for a bit I still need to keep them to myself.

I have been busy knitting socks, they are such a portable project... I don't know what I was so afraid of for so long, but now I love knitting them. I picked up some Patons Stretch Socks in color way, Kelp. I think this color should have been named Sand and Surf, or Sunny day at the Beach... Light blue, sea blue, sand color and pale green... really pretty color way.

I've also been cooking and planning my Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite meal to prepare, I think it's the tradition of it. Remembering my mom in the kitchen cooking and all the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen... She would make cornbread and cashew stuffing... I never liked stuffing until she started making it... now I love stuffing! I have changed tradition a bit, I don't make mashed potatoes anymore, I roast up a bunch of winter root veggies. So yummy and fantastic when you add the leftovers to the turkey soup... I'm just saying...

Well that's it for today...

Busy as a Bee!

2009-06-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

I have not written in my blog for some time, I have not been unfaithful, just really busy. Lots of stuff going on, lots of good stuff, and some stuff, not so good. We will gloss over the bad and just concentrate on the good stuff. I have embraced a new to me view of life, in my new view, I choose each day, to be happy, regardless of what outside forces try to make your day. Join me if you like, it feels pretty good.

Spring was fantastic and busy! Mom and I attended the Machine Knitting Guilds retreat at the Sonoma Orchid Inn. We relaxed, visited, knit, ate and generally had a great time. Mom had a lovely time visiting and getting to know some of our guild members. I actually began and finished a sweater over the weekend. I brought along some yarn that I found on Ebay a few years ago. It’s now a lovely sweater that mom and I both wear!

I finished a UFO! Woo hoo! The apricot cable sweater is finished! I had purchased the yarn from a yarn shop in San Carlos in the early 90’s. The yarn is/was Kitten by Reynolds. In 2001, I started the sweater from a Pingoin pattern magazine I had. I love those Pingoin patterns from France, they seem to be somewhat timeless in design. Anyway, I started it and stopped, the reason for the stop after finishing the back and nearly both of the fronts is that I was looking for the yarn needed to finish it, I was sure I had misplaced the remainder of the yarn, I just couldn’t think where. Skip ahead to 2008, I find the sweater and think, well, how many balls of yarn am I looking for? I count the balls used so far and realize that there are no more balls of yarn and after all that work, it looks like I’m stuck with part of a sweater.

I had just joined Ravelry and found a place you could put a call out for some yarn. I’m thinking what do I have to lose, so I put my call out and in comes several replies for the same yarn in the same color… enough to finish the sweater if I blend what I have left and what I found. That brings us to present day, the sweater is finished and I have actually worn it. It is warm and will not be wearing it again till next fall but at least it’s done.

More spring activity to tell you about. Mom and I were also lucky enough to attend a Wool dyeing workshop. We had three fabulous days with fun people, wool, knitting and lots of color. We couldn’t have had a better time, surrounded by all things we love. The wool I dyed turned out wonderful and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to set up my own dye space in the back yard where mom and I can hand paint yarn till our hearts content.

This is the swatch I knit for February Lady, from the yarn I hand painted at the wool dying work shop this spring. I'm actually done with the sweater, and will share it with you in a later post.

I'm telling you, we had a very busy spring, we also attended a bowling event in Reno Nevada, I will tell you that story another time, but to give you a hint, a good time was had by all, even Taggart. Mom had a wonderful visit with Glenn and Kate, giving Lee and I some time to get our DIY projects at least started around the house.

In closing, the bad stuff is still brewing, and I'm still choosing to be happy wish me luck.

Knit One Below and Random Thoughts

2009-03-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Random Thoughts;

A few items came to mind this morning that I wanted to take the time to share. I met a lady on Ravelry, we share some items in common and in our exchange of emails, she told me about her book club, and the books she was reading. I mentioned that I wish I had time to read, that is when she told me about her Ipod and audio books. What a concept, I went in search of my own MP3 player. I did some research and found that I liked the Creative Zen X-Fi 8GB. I have listened to several books already; Angels and Demons, Bone Garden, and now I'm listening to Choices. I now have time to read while doing things, I must admit I am really enjoying the abilty to read some of the many books that I have wanted to read.

Knit One Below samples;

I'm afraid that the photos don't really show the depth of color that the sample in person shows, but this is the best I can do at this point. I think I mentioned that I bought the book titled "Knit One Below". I did some samples, I showed one a few weeks ago with the blues and greens, knit in the two strand method. This sample is also knit with merino wool in varigated colors of rich autum colors, golds, and greens and some caramel colored mohiar from my extensive stash in the single strand method.

I'm so impressed with the feel of the knitted fabric and the colors are so amazing in this sample. The two yarns used beautiful all on their own, but together the colors are richer and the size of the stitch seems to show off the beauty of the yarns, each stitch almost looks like a different color of yarn was used.

It's Spring!

2009-03-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

I think spring has sprung, or at least on my front porch it has. I found daffiodil bulbs on sale at WalMart in January, like 2 bucks a bag of 12 bulbs so we planted them in to a couple of pots. Once they bloomed, we moved them to the porch. I call Daffiodils smiles on a stem, how can you look at one and not want to smile...

I have a very small collection of garden bunnies, I'm always on the lookout for more, I love to nestle them in around my potted plants. I used to have a real bunny named Harvey, a lovely little mini lop. I now have this thing for bunnies and since I have too many sheepies, bunnies are out. So I now look for little garden variety bunnies found at your local Ross or Marshalls.

Here is a little tease! A sample of some yarns I'm using for a baby sweater that I'm currently working on publishing for you to all enjoy. It's a quick little knit for the baby in your family or that will be arriving soon. Be patient it will be done soon.

It's spring and time for the kids to get clipped. Here is my lovely little boy, this morning he followed me out to the living room while I sipped my coffee he stared at me. I'm guessing he wanted me to fix his breakfast... so sorry Taggart, but this is my quite time, the only time that I get on the weekends to just sip my coffee and work on my patterns or knitting or like this morning, I was finishing up my audio book. I must admit, he looks so damn cute.

Who Knew?

2009-03-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

I was on line the other day, and looking thru online book stores... New World Books, and Alibris are two of my favorites, I love used books... but I digress. Anyway, I saw and bought a book, Knit One Below. The concept sounded interesting. It is, the book arrived a week ago and I have been playing with the concept, some with single yarns, and some with two yarns.... I was first using some inexpensive acrylic. While I was playing around, the idea struck me...

I have all this beautiful mohair, and it's like, what was I thinking? I can't wear fuzzy mohair sweaters for so many reasons, one is that I'm not a thin, tiny person, also, I hate to be over heated... but then there is the issue of my many, many mohair purchases over the years. I'm telling you, I have some mohair. You can probably imagine what it would be like for an adict when they see their drug of choice... then you can imagine what happens when I see mohair. As an artist, I think it is the color saturation that you get with mohair, even with light colors, the color is still saturated without being dark or muddy. So back to the concept with Knit One Below. I took the mohair in the photo above and then looked (yes at Stitches) for a complementary yarn to knit with it....

Is this merino just perfect or what? So I swatched to see if they would indeed come out and indeed they did or at least I think the combo is amazing. I'm not sure what I will do, a sweater or a what. Oh, look at the next photo and check out my swatch...

I think I'm in love... the swatch feels so good and I get to use my mohair and it's soft and has a minimal halo from the mohair, I think I can wear this.....

Crock full of love!

2009-02-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Crock Pot Love……mmmmmm

In my efforts to become more efficient and have more time to knit, I have enlisted the use of my crock pot. When I first hauled it out, I had no idea what to cook, how long to cook, how much liquid to add, what temperature to cook, essentially I had no idea of what to do with it, I only knew that I needed to use it to be more time efficient.

My first foray was pot roast, I had never much liked pot roast, but thought my husband and mom would enjoy it, so I tried it. With much success, even I liked the results. I made several of these and then I tried chicken stew, as I don’t much like beef stew but do like stewed poultry. Again, much success, so I tried my version of Mexican chicken. That one blew the socks off of everyone! So last night after several meals of poached salmon (it was on sale), I decided to make my Mexican Chicken except with beef…. So here goes.

1 2 to 3lb chuck roast
1 Jar Southwest Salsa (you pick the heat) I used mild
1 Lg. can diced tomatoes, all the liquid
1 can black beans, all the liquid
1 cup frozen corn
1 Pk. Burrito seasoning

Dump all the ingredients into the crock pot and put on high for 6 hours.

Serve with steamed flour tortillas, and taco fixings; shredded lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, onions, cilantro, diced avocado and tomatoes.

Came out really yummy and probably will make about 8 meals

The cost per meal came out to around $2.75 per.

Cute or what????

2009-01-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

Sleeping Beauty

I ask you, is she cute or what? I woke the other morning and this is what I find sound asleep on the loveseat. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. She didn't wake up and only moved a little. This is my mom's Daisy, she is beyond sweet and way too funny for words.

A close up of that sweet little face. When my mom wanted a sheepdog like mine I looked all over and finally found her in Southern California at an animal care center. When I brought her home to mom, it was love at first site. We now all live together and all three dogs get along fine. Daisy remains the funny girl she was when we got her and she is still mom's dog.

This is Daisy wide awake, her bangs were so long, I had to give her little pony tails so we could see her eyes and so she could see too.

UFO's and the finish line

2009-01-25T23:20:00.000-08:00

I have this goal, to finish a UFO! there I said it, I have a UFO, I actually have more than one, but this one I still really like and it has few or no mistakes.

The biggest mistake I made was not having enough yarn for the sweater. I started this sweater around 2001 and must have put it aside thinking I had misplaced the remainder of the yarn. When I pulled it out last year to finish it, I made the discovery that there was no more yarn, it had all been used in the progress.

Thankfully I had become a member of Ravelry, an online knitting community. I posted that I was looking for this really old yarn in apricot color. I didn't get just one, but two people who had the yarn and in the right color. I forgot to mention that I had purchased the yarn some 10 years earlier and bought it on sale, so it was probably no longer being made when I got it. Back to the story, I made a simple donation and the yarn was sent to me. While the yarn that was sent was a different dye lot it was pretty close and I had some of the original yarn to blend the knitting.

The button band with some buttons that I found at Britex in San Francisco, they are lucite from France... I thought it was perfect as the patten is one from the French yarn company (sadly no longer with us) Pinguoin. I have knit a couple of items that I found in their pattern books, I love the style and the patterns for the most part were well written and frankly if you knit classics, you can weare the garment for decades or until you wear them out...

Random Knitting

2009-01-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

Kristin Nicholas Rocks!

I started this sweater on December 10 2008, It is a Kristin Nicholas design. As you can see it is very textural. I love cable knitting, more cables the more I enjoy the process. I finished the back on December 27th, and now the fronts are cast off and the sleeves have been cast on and an inch or so is knit.

I had in my extensive stash, some beautiful merino wool. This is in wine color and is really beautiful. I cast on and knit the fronts on one circular needle. This sweater has a wonderful knotted rib knit

Here are the fronts on one needle just before I did the decreases for the neck edge and sleeve edge. This pattern went fast. I love all the cables and interest.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

Goodbye 2008! Anyone else happy to see 2008 behind them? I know I'm happy, it was a tough year.... I'm not one for new year resolutions, and this will not be a year for exceptions. However, I have decided to embrace this year differently, to start each day with expectations of a wonderful day, do what is needed to do in order to have a good day. I was reading the blog of Bonne Marie Burns, of ChicKnit fame, and she talks of looking up this year, I think I too will be looking up and in more ways than to just lift my chin...

I'm going to;

- take more random photos
- post once per week to my blog (at minimum)
- design more baby sweaters
- write the patterns for what I have designed
- look for the good in people
- be the person I would like to meet and know
- be nicer to my husband
- knit out of my stash
- continue my yarn diet
- look for something each morning to be grateful about to start my day with a smile
- bring my lunch to work more days than not
- take more classes, knitting, jewelry making, self improvement
- start my water aerobics class again
- be better to myself
- dress better regardless of my size... I'm not where I would like to be, but heck, I'm what I am and I should enjoy

I will continue to add to this as I see more that I want to do in 2009 or change for that matter...

I'm a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin... and you?

2008-12-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

You Are a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

You are smart, sophisticated, and savvy.
You love taking risks, and you are the first to know about new trends.

You are curious about the world and tend to have many interests.
You also are very talented. It sometimes seems like you are good at everything.

You are very social and inclusive. You'll be friends with anyone.
Even though you're very cultured, you're not a snob.

Go to the link below to find out what kind of muffin you are... Who knew?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofmuffinareyouquiz/

What are you?

2008-10-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I've been remiss in posting, but life has me on the run.... At last I can tell you that I'm in the final stages of a kitchen remodel and my hands feel like they have been in battle. I have so many nicks, cuts and scratches.... not to mention my sore muscles, neck and aching back... so have fun with the quiz and tell me what you came up with...

Thanks

more later

Long Time No See....

2008-06-06T18:55:00.001-07:00

I went to a 2nd annual event this year, SheepiePalooza in St Louis. This event is put on lovingly by the local OES club and they did a remarkable job. A woo hoo for the St Louis OES Club, they are a remarkable bunch!

Above is a bunch of running sheepdogs. I love this photos and so glad I was able to take it. I have it as my desk top at work and love looking at it every day.

Here is a sheepie looking for his mom or dad. They are such sweet dogs, even though I couldn't travel with my babies I was not lacking any sheepie love.... They are truly Velcro dogs and give lots of love.

I just loved this bright red door. The front door was off set from the center of the house. I also loved the distressed exposed brick.

I also got a little artsy. We were in the West End and had a rained out lunch. After it dried up a bit, I was able to take some great photos of some front doors on the stately homes we found. These homes were just beautiful, and the fact that the light was so soft, it helped make such nice photos.

The federal blue with the red brick here is what attracted me

Another bright red door, I loved the columns and the flower pots. Really a lovely home.

I'm partial to black doors and grey shutters.

On with the art!

this is one of our party walking down a little ally that was so perfect, as if it was posed, it was not!

We went to the Arch and this is the view as we were walking up from the parking structure, just so beautiful. I love St Louis!

Here is one of my online friends who I had just met for the first time the day before. She is in a paddle boat with her two babies, Beauregard and Genvieve

WHO is Daisy or is Daisy a WHO?

2008-03-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

This is my mom's dog Daisy. She is the funniest dog ever and the most patient too. I took a scruchi band and put her ears up. She looked just like a Who from Whoville. I wanted to share with all my knitting buddies the crazy things I manage to do when I'm not knitting.

In this one, she looks like she is smirking at me.

Today was the MKGSFBA meeting, it was fun and informative. We had a speaker who showed us lots of different skills on the knitting machine... Who knew that you could whip out Icord on a machine? It is so beyond simple. Also, did you know that you can needle felt your fairisle knitting and it will felt the floats on the back and not disturb the design on the front. Great idea for a fairisle scarf and needle felt it so the floats are stuck down.

Short but sweet!

Stitches West!

2008-02-22T10:12:00.000-08:00

I belong to the Machine Knitters Guild of San Francisco Bay Area, along with a bunch of really talented knitters. Above is our Booth (#946) at Stitches West. I was responsible for all things Stitches for our guild this year. While it was a lot of work, my best knitting buddy and I had a ball designing the booth and setting it up. The garments above were all knit on knitting machines and designed by the knitters from our guild.

This is a two piece garment made by one of our members, this outfit is well designed, knit and is just plain old stunning!

Really some beautiful garments and they really made the booth look good. This is a membership drive for our guild. You have no idea how many knitters have knitting machines under the bed at home and have no idea how to use them. I know this because I was one of those knitters. I bought knitting machines, I had 2 before I even knew how to use one. So this is a demo booth to let other knitters know that we have a local guild and it is for the express purpose of teaching machine knitting.

This is my best knitting buddy, she is demonstrating a knitting machine that is on loan to the guild from Newtons Yarn Country. We had so many garments volunteered for the booth, we tried to pick one from each of the knitters to highlight.

Above is a wedding dress that one of our newest members knit. The amazing thing is that she knit it on the Ultimate Knitting Machine and hand manipulated all the lace in the dress. Her knitting machine has no ablity to auto pattern and if you want a pattern in your knit, you have to hand manipulate every stitch. It was a daunting undertaking, she finished her dress and wore it when she got married, I will bet she was a beautiful bride.

Our knitting guild is an amazing cross section of knitters and designers. I feel blessed to have found this group of amazing people. The talent is one thing, but the sharing of knowledge and experience is priceless. The green sweater above was also knit by the same member who knit the wedding dress. This green sweater has leather details that she designed and incorporated into the sweater.

A Hat for Me!

2008-01-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

I got busy this holiday season and knit my self at hat. I used some yarn that I bought huge amounts of. I was invited to take a dyeing class with Nancy Roberts and so in my preparation for the class I wound off some hanks and used some yellows, greens and teals to over dye the bland original green. The very expensive model I used for this photo essay is none other than the top model, Taggart James!

Don’t you just love my hat model? This is my sweet Taggart. He always poses so I asked him to model my hat. I frankly think it looks better on him than on me, but I’m the dork who wears it to keep my head warm and dry and it works great!

Now here is a side view!

And now the other side!

Fear of Knitting

2007-11-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Here is my conundrum, I have some beautiful Scottish wool that I bought at Uncommon Threads in Los Altos, California http://www.uncommonthreadsyarn.com/ many years ago, on sale. Darkish heather green worsted and is screaming to be knit into a fantastic deeply cabled cardigan. I even know which sweater I want to knit, a pattern from a Kristin Nicholas book. Here is the pattern, it is from a choice of two sweaters named "Greener Pastures" and a close up of my Scottish Wool.

But here is the rub, and I wonder if anyone else has these issues. I will worry about what to knit with a certain yarn, not wanting to “waste” it on the wrong sweater. You know, will I later think that I should have saved it for something else. I must also confess to you that I have no shortage of yarn, I have a personal yarn stash that could keep a small country warm. I am also in the process of cleaning up my moms house and I have unearthed yarn, some of mine that I have long forgotten, and much of hers that I’m sure she has forgotten, and much we both remember. Needless to say, another small country could be kept toasty.

If I could only get over my fear of knitting the yarn I have into the wrong sweater. Does anyone have a cure for that feeling? Don’t get me wrong, I know the logic that if you use some of the stash, there is then this empty void so you must fill it with another yarn purchase. What better excuse to buy more, than I used up some? But somehow the logic escapes me and I sit frozen wondering if I’m choosing the right sweater for the yarn or the inverse, the right yarn for the sweater.

I thought some time ago that I had faced my addiction and finally put all my yarn into one place so I can see it all. Come clean about my stash and the fiber addiction that has taken over a small room in our house. When you have a small house, that’s about ¼ the house! Not to mention the snide comments from my husband and non knitting “friends”. The reality is that once I get the yarn from my mom’s house and really put it all in one place and really face the facts of my addiction and frankly my mom’s addiction to all things fiber, fabric, quilting and sewing machines (I think I counted 3 the other day, now all sitting in the back of my car and it was 4 not 3). I may have to move out of my very tiny house. You would think that I could get some perspective about the gravity of it all, all the hoarding, and collecting and stashing. I would bet we could probably fund a college education on the money we have wrapped up in yarn, fabric, tools and equipment. But the urge to buy more is never very far. I have managed these last several months to keep it at bay, but my resolve is thin, very thin.

Do you want to see my stash? here are a few examples of my collection: This first yarn is yarn that I dyed with Nancy Roberts in her class.

This is some Mohair that I purchased years ago. It is so beautiful, I just really have no idea what I want to knit with it....

Below,is some of a collection of Cotton yarn that I purchased early this year, one of my last yarn buys. Next, a couple of close up shots of this cotton.

Rose.

Teal

Spring Green

Lavendar

Auction and Rescue Parade a Success!

2007-10-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

The sweater and hat brought $35.00 for the auction to benefit the OES Rescue of Southern California! I was so happy to be able to bring some money and benefit to those sweet fur babies who find new homes through the rescue. If you are looking to find a companion to share your life, I can't recommend them highly enough. They are wonderful friends and never make a negative comment about your knitting, ever!

Here is the booth in action! People busy bidding on the different items that were up for silent auction. The Burbank Kennel Club is so kind to sponsor the event and invite Jane and the OES Rescue back each year. I already have the date for next years event, it will be held on Sunday, September 28, 2008. This event is so fun for the dogs as well as the owners who come and participate in the parade. Again the web address to the rescue is http://www.oesrescue.com/ Please come visit and think about rescue when you look to adding a four legged companion to your family.
Look at this lovely girl, she has just come from the "beauty parlor" with her ribbon in her hair, all ready to strut her stuff in the parade.
Here is another lovely participant in the parade. Let me just give you a little run down of a few of the lads and ladies who ran around the winners circle at the Burbank Kennel Club dog show.

Peggy Sue and Ellie Mae who live with a lovely couple, were rescued after being born in the Rancho Cucamonga Animal Shelter, they are sisters and are 4 years old and happy.

Skippy is 13 and was rescued from the San Bernardino Animal Shelter.

Retzel is now 14 years old, it was 12 years ago when Jane picked him up from the "backyard" breeder when he didn't sell fast enough. At the parade, Jane wept when she saw him run around the winners circle and it reconfirmed for her to know that what she does for each of these furry characters is important and needed, Thank you Jane.

Fraiser was 12 years old and was all set to participate in this years parade. He suddenly fell ill and went over the Rainbow Bridge. It is sad to say goodbye to our companions, but in the same breath we need to remember that years spent with us, their adoptive families, they lived a wonderful love filled life.

In all, 36 Dogs were signed up for the parade, and it was a site to see. I am so proud to participate and do what I can for the cause.

This is my own rescue, Taggart. He is waiting in what is called an Xpen for his turn in the ring. Actually, I was there not only for the parade, but my friend showed her Sheepdog, Channing. She won her first point towards her champion ship. So we were there for 2 and a half days and he had to cool his four feet waiting. In this photo, he is giving me a little sass.

Next post will be on knitting

Don't keep this under your hat!

2007-09-25T20:56:00.001-07:00

Hat candy! I finished these some time ago, but just took the time right before my water aerobics class to snap a few photos. Then off to exercise my butt off, I hope.

As you can see there are so many ways to finish off a sweet little baby hat, with no adornment like the purple one or as simple as a single outstanding button, or use old shirt buttons spaced evenly along the single ribs as in the blue one.

Next up is the little sweater and hat that is going up for auction at the Southern California OES Rescue Parade and fund raiser that will be this weekend at the Burbank Kennel Club Show. The URL for the OES Rescue that Taggart came from is: http://oesrescue.com/

As time was of the essence, I knit this on the Brother 260. This is a two button cut away baby cardigan of my own design. Yes I am working on writing up the pattern, but gosh that is slow going. The edging is done with a cotton yarn in a contrasting deep lavender crocheted in a simple picot stitch.

I just love this hat pattern, the way I designed it, the crown looks like a star when you look down on it. Is that not the sweetest top of a hat.

When I have nothing going, I will just cast on a baby hat and have it while I'm watching TV. They knit up so fast and take so little room. I have the beta of the baby hat ready for anyone who is interested in trying it for me. I would like to get at least a couple of different people work on the hat and tell me what I can do to improve the pattern.

Thanks for looking and the comments.

I have a couple of Finished Objects to share

2007-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Take a look. I have been working on the patterns most of the summer. I will post some photos here and if you are interested in doing a beta knit of my patterns, let me know via a comment and I will send you a copy to knit. You must let me know how the knitting went and any comments for the writing of the pattern.

Here is the baby hat with a mock baby cable.

This hat is hand knit in worsted weight acrylic yarn with a crochet flower as adornment. I taught myself how to crochet recently. The hat is hand knit on double points. Sweet right?

Below is the 3 button baby kimono I have designed. It has an asymetric opening and is knit using a Brother 260 knitting machine. In case you wonder, I knit using both machine and hand knitting.

My first love of knitting is hand knitting, but I wanted to get into knitting design and the knitting machine is the tool that will enable you to go a little faster with some basic designs. I choose to do what I refer to as "Fusion Knitting" where you use both machine and hand skills to complete your garment. In the above garment you will see that I did a little hand knitting for the bottom edge.

Above is a close up of both the flower and the increases at the under arm that make the short cap sleeve. I tested this pattern for hand knitting myself so the next views are what I knit from this pattern by hand.

Here is a funny fact about the differences between hand and machine knitting. When you hand knit you knit it on the "right" side and when you machine knit, you knit from the "wrong" side or the purl side. So you will see that the difference between the two sweaters are the opening are on different sides and on a asymetrical front you will notice this, where as on a normal front you would not notice it at all.

This is a close up of the neck detail with the decreases that make the neck. You can see that I used the green yarn as a contrast, I crochet the edge using a picot stitch. I loved how this came out. This is my beta of hand knitting it from the machine pattern. So this cream colored version was knit by hand. You will notice that I did a contrast picot edge to keep the look really simple. I love how they came out, what do you think?

Please leave comments and let me know what you think. I

Summer Color Spots

2007-07-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

I was so happy with the flower pots that we planted up for a pop of color. They are beautiful, better than I dreamed. I had an idea of what I wanted planted and what colors I wanted. Then I went looking for the flowers. Well that was a different story. I wanted white, blues and then the Marigolds for the pop of yellow, but the big thing I wanted was the Pansies and the nursery guy is telling us that it's too late for Pansies, the will get all leggy and it's too hot for them. Well I'm here to tell you, they have been so wonderful and in the full sun till noon each day, along with the sweet alyisum and the lobilia they just make my day each time I see them. Tell me what you think. Maybe I should used them to dream up a new sweater concept and color scheme. We are in the midst of major garden work. This weekend was all about getting the back yard rose bushes tamed and trimed. Next weekend we will be renting a chipper or mulcher to chop up the huge pile of what we trimmed out.

I received Spike for Christmas a few years ago from a buddy of mine. I fell in love with him at first sight, now I want to share him with the rest of the world. So here is introducing SPIKE

TA DA!

How do you like him. I think he is the perfect pet. My geraniums blooming in the background. I think my years at Kodak served my well, I guess that and being a bit artistic probably helped a bit.

Next up I will be sharing my stash with you. I recently aquired some beautiful cotton I'm dying to see knit up in fairisle of some sort. Well you will just have to wait to see them.

I will have lots to catch you up with. I have plenty of yarn to share. I'm looking for ideas. I will also discuss my new views on trying to not add any further to my stash.

Been Busy with my new camera

2007-07-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

I worked for Eastman Kodak years ago, and I really loved the company and my job. It might have been because it was somewhat creative. I was an inspector and retouch artist for some of the time I worked there. So when I decided I needed a digital camera, I checked out the Kodak website. I'm really glad I picked this camera. I have been busy taking photos of the dogs and my garden. I want to share with you a bit of what I have been up to

This is a photo of my sweet Keira Jean. She is an Old English Sheepdog that we adopted several years ago. We had another sheepdog, Tyler from an earlier adoption and he had been sick, I thought it was time to find another sheepie to help me over the loss of my darling boy. He lived another 4 years. Kiera was a life saver for me during the first months after he died. I will for ever be grateful for her. She has become such a wonderful companion and friend.

My husband and I adopted Taggart about 6 months after Tyler passed. Here is a photo of him. He has this wild blue eye as you can see in the photo.

He is huge, a whopping 116lbs and thinks he is a puppy. He will be turning 5 years old this August 5th. He made a very smooth transition to our home and he is loving to both of the girls and really quite sweet. His favorite pass time is to clean the girls ears. They allow it but don't clean his.

This is Daisy. My mom wanted a sheepdog of her very own after have experienced our Tyler and Kiera. So I looked high and low for this girl and found her in Southern California. She lived with my mom until my mom's stroke. So now both Daisy and Mom live with my husband and I and our two sheepies (photos above). It has been pretty exciting living with 3 sheepies and 3 adults in a very small 2 bedroom house. But you know, I wouldn't trade a moment of it for anything.

I love taking care of my mom and glad to come home and cook dinner for all of us and share what time she has on this earth, I hope it's many, many more years. To me it's a blessing that I am able to have this time with her. She is who taught me to knit. I love her for teaching me to knit and that we had the time to enjoy our habit all these years.

News and Views...

2007-04-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Back again. I was fortunate to go on a much needed knitting retreat in a wonderful Inn located in Sonoma, California. It was taken over by several members of our Machine Knitting Guild at the end of March! I think there were at least 15 machines set up, several people hand knitting and we even had a spinner on hand. Machines were set up on the patio, on the porch, in the great room, and some even in the dining room. It was an amazing weekend, such a great bunch of women. I wish I had my camera with me, but alas I did not.

My focus was to work on my pattern for the Baby 3 Button Kimono. I had made some changes to the design and wanted to knit it up and see how they looked. I knit them on the machine using Caron Simply Soft. I made four complete baby kimonos, using the time in the evenings to sew them together. So all I had to do was to crochet the trim. The point was I wanted to make sure that the pattern was good and I could duplicate it each time I knit it. All four came out really beautiful and I’m very pleased with the final prototype of the pattern.

The really good news is that I am knitting it by hand in order to write the pattern for hand knitting. I have had some things to work out, like what kind of increase would give the ease for the underarm curve and look good. I have both fronts completed and have begun writing the pattern. This is my first attempt at writing a pattern and it’s it not easy. I’m wondering if there is a software that will assist you in writing long hand patterns. I will have to do some research in that arena. If anyone knows of one, give us a shout out in the comments section.

Next installment I’m hoping to have my digital camera in hand and I will take some photos of the sweater to get you all excited about the upcoming pattern. I was also wondering if anyone would be interested in knitting it and be a tester of the pattern for me? Let me know in the comments section and I will contact you to find out what level knitter you are. I’m really more interested in the beginning knitters for this. I want to learn a couple of things. One: is how was the pattern to understand, and another is to see how long each piece took to knit. In the knitters’ opinion, did it take too long to finish or seem like you would never get done. Were any new skills learned?

Signing off

Leslie

A new begining!

2007-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Fresh-Picked Knits!

Here is where I will share what I'm working on and many of you who knit may want to assist me in testing my patterns. Let me know if there is a pattern you may like to test.

For the most part these patterns will be designed for babies and toddlers. To start off, I have designed a 3 Button Kimono, a baby hat, a baby cardigan. My goal is to do something a little different in the pattern designs, one of the things I would like to do is to let the intended knitter have an idea of how long it might take to knit the garment, besides a difficulty rating. Also I want to be clear on the skills that will be needed to make the garment to look like the photo, but also what the options would be if you wanted to finish your sweater a little differently. Also, many yarns used in patterns today are at times quite costly. I will give two options for the yarn; one will be an inexpensive option, and the other a moderately priced yarn.

Another goal I have is to ensure that many knitters who are just starting out will finish what they start, have a feeling of accomplishment and want to knit again. I want it to feel like, "Hey, look what I can do!" and want to do it again or try a more difficult challenge.

With all that being said, this is all about fun and sharing a past time that I dearly love on to someone new who may do the same some day.

In one of my posts to this blog, I will tell you about my journey into knitting.