Honey Cowl

While I was waiting for my yarn to arrive I started a new knitting project.  Amy was wearing a darling cowl while we were Skyping so I wanted to try and make one for my sister.  She sent me the pattern and it seemed simple enough and it was.  I was probably about half way done when I realized that I messed up and had to rip the whole thing out.  I was annoyed.  For this type of pattern you have to do something called knitting in the round and they always warn you about making sure you don't twist your yarn.  Well, I thought that I had been careful and didn't but it turns out I wasn't careful at all and there were many many twists in it!  Eek!  So, I ripped the whole thing out and started over.





I was about 1/3 of the way through when I realized that I had dropped a stitch a few rows back so I had to spend an entire evening going back and picking it back up.  Well, I am happy to report that there were no more snafu's and that the cowl is done and I think it looks great!  :)

JVG

New Phone!

My old phone was starting to show signs that it was a two year old phone... my letter E and my spacebar were among some of the things that weren't working on the screen.  Not to mention it wouldn't hold a charge to save itself, so we decided that I should use my upgrade and get a better phone.

My main objective with phones is I want a good camera.  I mean, I take quite a few pictures of my darling kiddos (and I know you can't blame me for that) so I just wanted to make sure that I was going up from the 8 megapixel camera that I had.  I totally trusted G to get me a camera because he was looking into one for himself (he ended up with the Galaxy S4) so he knew most of the specs of what was on the market.  My sister was looking to join our family plan so when they went to add her he got me a new phone... the new iPhone 5S!  Fancy!  I love the camera on it... it's so fast!  I'm still learning how to use it, because I've never had an iPhone before... but I'm loving it so far.

So all you iPhone users out there beware... I may be picking your brains on what this thing can do!  Also, my contacts didn't get transferred so if you don't hear from me in a little bit (because it's going to take some time to transfer them over) don't think I'm mad at you.  :)

JVG

Friends moving!

Oh man, it has almost been a month since we helped our friends Quebra and Dizzy move.  And, honestly, I don't feel quite right about saying that we helped them because I don't feel like we did hardly anything at all!  We were on our way there and there was a terrible accident that had us stopped on the highway, so when we arrived I felt like they had done everything already!  It was a quick job, but it was nice because then we got to hang out with them afterwards.  :)

I don't think that they realized what they had been missing without a dishwasher and in-unit washer/dryer!  Now that they've had it, they won't ever go back haha.  I'm glad that we could help them and look forward to our first dinner party over at their new place!

JVG

Hiking

A couple of Sundays ago (yes, that is how far behind I am on blogging...) Dad, G and the crazies went hiking on some different trails by my parents.  This was nice because they needed to get out and burn some energy and I needed desperately to take a nap with Norah.

Apparently the first trails smelled like smoke so they ended up going to a different one which was nice. They did a lot of leaf recognition and just enjoying the beautiful weather that we were lucky to have so late in October.  I was glad that the kids enjoyed going out and hanging with Grandpa Don :)

JVG

Sweater progress

I am a knitting fool!  So far I have the body finished and one of the sleeves.  I had to learn quite a lot to start the sleeves, but now that they are started I feel good about it.  First time using double pointed needles, joining and having to pick up stitches.  I think that they look good!

Working the body

Doing the bottom ribbing

Body done!

One sleeve

Finished product.  I modified mine to 3/4 sleeves because I prefer that and also because I was running out of yarn...

The back... looks nice!

I have now finished both sleeves but I ran out of yarn... so I was trying to get more yarn and realized that they stopped making the color that I needed.  We luckily found the same thing on eBay so we purchased it, only to find out that the dye lot was a little bit darker than what the rest of the sweater is.  Oh well.  I think that it will look just fine having the finishing touches be a tad bit darker.  I'm almost done!  Whoo!

I am finally done with my first big project!  I did find that I dropped a stitch here and one there, but overall it looks good.  I don't think I would've noticed it but I'm glad that mystery of where I lost two stitches was solved!  I Don't think that it looks funny with the darker borders and I just have to put buttons on it now.  It's really really warm, so that's a plus!  It does look like it was knitted, but I think all in all it turned out well.  :)  On to another project!

JVG

Playing catch up

It's been about a month, maybe month and a half since I have seriously blogged.  Yes, it was probably because I became obsessed with knitting my sweater (which I finished!) and then there were various other things that kept me from keeping up with it, but I am back to it!  In that time our internet was really shoddy and so I would try to blog but then the internet would go out and then I would get irritated and not finish... but... internet is back to working and I am ready to go!  So... let the blogging commence!

JVG

Art in the Garden

There was another Art in the Garden event that we went too!  :)  The weather was a big colder but it was still nice.  The kids got to paint and use different vessels of painting (plastic bag, sponges) and then they even got to do a leaf rubbing.  They of course had to climb some trees and there was even a live band that they did a lot of dancing too.  :)  We met my friend Beaker there and Marie was running the kids part again, so it was nice to see her.  I am so glad that we are able to expose the kids to arts, the importance of buying local, and being able enjoy fine arts.

















JVG