Never Celebrate too Soon


A client paid me some money he'd owed me for a couple of years. A nasty car accident & the subsequent closure of his business made my getting paid pretty iffy. But he showed up with money last week. I was smiling a whole bunch at my good fortune & planning to buy a couple of things I wanted. Then the computer died. And yesterday the brakes on my van failed. I'm in the middle of Friday lunch traffic when I'm getting a mushy pedal. In fact I'm double & triple pumping & ended up locking them up at one point when I decided I was not going to be able to limp home. I could've probably ridden the E brake if the cable was connected!!!! Found me a little repair shop in a hurry & found they couldn't even look at it till the next day. I'd have to leave it! But my car's full of boxes of documents! Good thing I know tow truck people & do their books!!! My poor mechanic, who's going back on chemo in December, gets to fix my baby again. Apparently, I blew a wheel cylinder & was pouring brake fluid on the wheel every time I pumped . . . . I got the pickup truck to get home. Now this truck is your typical mechanic's special. Although everything appears to work, you have to wiggle, thump or curse to make it happen - but it's insured, I can go out if I want to & I can almost see to back up!

So, since I'm now broke, I'll have to stay home & work, sigh. I was going to buy one of those hot steam mops to clean my floors & may yet - eventually. I have a Swiffer Wet Jet but I hate buying the throw-away pads & bottled cleaner for it! And while it cleans the middle of the floor just fine - it pushes all the dirt into the corners! I do love my regular Swiffer though. But again, I hate buying dust cloths for it. I found a pattern on Ravelry for Swiffer washable cloths. I intend to knit them in thick crafter cotton. The Ravelry pattern looks just like the cloth with a textured bottom & little knobs to press thru the Swiffer catch points!!!! For those who're interested, here's the link - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swiffer-re-usable-cloth

And, here's some pics of finished projects - finally.
My purple sweater is done & I've worn it out several times. It's Kyler's Kardigan in the largest adult size. I didn't include the triangular pockets because I didn't have enough yarn in the end. For the same reason, I didn't put on a collar or hood. I can't seem to get the whole sweater in the photo & still show the texture which is yummy!! Garter stitch really eats up the yarn but I wanted a snuggly sweater & this one is. I could've made it larger even though the gauge & my measurements said it should fit. It stretches a lot though, it's hip length & has sleeves to the wrist bone. The left pic actually shows the colors fairly well & I wear it mostly as a jacket to keep me warm in the evenings or to dash to & from the car. I'll make this pattern again but will probably make it larger if I want buttons or zip.

For those who haven't seen my Moss Stitch Blazer from Big Knits, here's the pic. I made the largest size since my yarn - Dalesman's wool from New Zealand - was about sport weight & I couldn't get the gauge right. I made this sweater eons ago in a raspberry acrylic which was a 'pouffier' yarn & I wore to shreds. I finally had to throw it out to stop wearing it!!! My Dalesman's yarn sweater is a little shorter than the photo in the Big Knits book - I knew it would stretch as I wore it so I made it a little shorter on purpose. The one Dawn French is wearing looks sloppy because it's too big on her - too bad they didn't make one in her size!! It easily fits a 66 to 70 inch bust & since the front is a roll front, you can make the roll bigger or smaller to accommodate a couple of inches either way. I also think it works better in a 'firmer' yarn to give it a little more stitch definition.
I tried taking a pic with it on but my mirror reflected the flash & made it useless! I know double moss seems like a pain in the butt - but - it works, it's lovely & the pattern is very nice on! This is the second time I've knit this one & I'll knit it again. I have some soft blue wool & acrylic yarn in the WishBin which would look lovely with navy edging . . . I might make only one change & knit it in one piece to the armhole next time around.

Socks - tis the season for cold, clammy feet! And that's the very reason I started to knit my own socks in the first place! Since I don't have anyone but myself to knit socks for this year, I've only knit a few pairs but they're ALL MINE. Well, to be honest, I have a couple pairs for my mother & my Ex wants a couple more pairs but really, I have hardly any that I HAVE to knit! Just finished this one in Regia. Isn't it great?? It's actually red & pink stripes . . . the second pair are also Regia but in a Kaffe Fassett colorway which I just love! I love it so much that I've had them on my feet twice & forgot to take a finished picture. They're now in the washer again! The yarn was a gift from a pal & she said the yarn screamed my name from the bin! She was right. They match half my current wardrobe.