Down in the meadow....

My Dad used to sing me this song when I was little:

           Down in the meadow in the iddy biddy pool
           Swam three liddle fiddies and a momma fiddie too.
           Fim, Fim, Fim if you can
           and they fam, and the fam... right over the dam!

That's what I am singing all the time now as I knit up the little Catnip Fishy toys.... They are so cute and each one is a little different due to the colors of variegated yarn I am using.

I have knit up 4 more and will be throwing them into the washer tomorrow to felt. I will post pictures after I get them felted. I will also be adding them to my Etsy store... so check it out.... A CatNip fish toy could be your Cat/Kitten's next BFF! Let me know if you are interested. They are $5 each.

Terry-Jo
~Keeping you in Stitches

Cat Nip Fishy

So I finished the mittens and decided to make a few more Felted Cat Nip Fishy's. My cat ZuZu just loves hers. This one I aded some novelty yarn to that a friend gifted me. Teal Fun Fur... It looks like a Mane. SO this little Fishy is called a Lion Fish.  LOL

The picture on the purple blanket is what it looks like BEFORE its felted. The picture on the Green is the AFTER.  Fun Fun Fun....

    Before                                                                                            After

Its kind of funny that before it was felted it looked like a Lion Fish with the Mane. But after it was felted it looks more like a Puffer Fish!!!  LOL

Terry-Jo

~Keeping you in Stitiches

The Mittens

Short Blog today -  I am sitting on the couch drinking tea and it is my goal to finish these mittens today!!!!  I can't wait to send them to my Mitten exchange partner Kathy of Moon Stone Farm.

I've changed the words a bit but as Dory from the movie "Finding Nemo" would say to Knitters: "Just keep Knitting, Just Keep Knitting..."

Terry-Jo
~Keeping you in Stitches

The Horror... The Horror...

So.... The first mistake was leaving my Yarn project bag on the floor next to the couch.  The second was leaving the dog slightly unattended.... I left with my friend Henry to go see a movie at the iPic Theater in Redmond. We left at 7:25pm and we walked back thru the door a little bit before 11pm... Walking thru the door and mind you I am so tired with a second late night that what I see on the floor is so colorful and I can't figure out what it is. My brain is not registering.... I keep looking and slowly my brain starts connecting the dots...  "Noooooooooooooooo"!!!!

The dog had sniffed out the mints that were in my bag and then drug out my yarn with the project still on the needles..... she chewed thru my baggie of highlighter pens, baggies of all sizes daisy buttons, baggie of black elastic. She even bit through a brand new rain poncho that I was bringing home to put in my Sounders FC game bag - In case it rains at a game....  LOL

The horror to look down and see your yarn all over the place and know Lucy (Dog) wasn't in it alone... her accomplice ZuZu (Cat) must have had fun playing with it all...

I am soooooooo Thankful that to that end not one stitch was dropped off my needles and the yarn was easily balled back up again.

So now I have Project back in hand to knit today during the Sounders Game.
Hooray - It could have been very very bad and it turned out ok... I will not be leaving my yarn project bag on the floor again.

Terry-Jo
~Keeping you in Stitches~

Tales of the Cables & Hat Vote

So... I have restarted the second mitten and I am making great progress and so far so good. no mistakes. *KNOCK ON WOOD*

I am having so much fun knitting these mittens despite having to rip it back twice to the cuff. But I have learned from those mistakes and need to pay attention when doing the cable pattern.

I am excited to finish these mittens because I have a cool HAT patterns waiting in the wings to start. I have a few patterns to choose from:

Indian Summer:       http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/indian-summer-4

or could it be this one:

The Shamrock Tam:    http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shamrock-tam-2

Or Perhaps this one:

The Shamrock Hat:      http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shamrock-hat-3

Its going to be VERY hard to choose. I'm going to want to do them all!!!!!!

Help me decide Please - I am taking votes for 1, 2 or 3...

~Keeping you in Stitches

Slippers!

At a very early age I watched my mom knit slippers as gifts. Pair, after pair, after pair. She found such absolute Joy in knitting and giving these slippers as gifts. Slippers in every color and variegated color you can think of. Slippers always found their way to us at Christmas and throughout the year as we wore holes in them. When I had my first baby (Meg - now 25) my mom knit her first pair of tiny baby slippers of the same pattern we had had as Kids and then as adults.

My mother was very creative... and she always told me on many occasions how she didn't think she was very talented. Oh Mom... how truly talented you were... you knit slippers, sweaters and socks - mind you argyle socks!! You created your own patterns that were knitted into the socks such as In mid swing golfers. I had no idea... until you were gone and found all your knitting patterns. Books and Books of them. 

My brother for gave me as a combined Christmas and Birthday present a shadow box that he had made of my mom's Slippers. In the heel of one slipper is a picture of my mom and in the other heel is a picture of my daughter Meg. In between the slippers is the slipper pattern. In the bottom of the shadow box is a knitting project that my mom was working on during her Alzheimer's. We would pull it out and work on it whenever I would visit.  I  had bought some needles and some pretty yarn and went about teaching my mom to knit. But soon the "teacher" was in awe of how those older hands remembered every knitting stitch and didn't even have to look at them as she knit. Amazing!

So now I have taken up the slipper making and gift giving. Below is the newest pair I have crafted. With some of the yarn from my mother's stash. 

Every time I take up my needles and knit, I think joyfully of my mom...

~keeping you in stitches~

Darn Cables... Back to the beginning - Again....

So... yesterday while at lunch in the break room... I was so excited to finish the first time thru the chart of my cabled mitten pattern when I notice, yet again, that I have made a mistake in the cables.

OY! I guess I shouldn't be knitting this while I am slightly distracted or watching TV...  :)

So I put it away and today during lunch, I ripped out 16 rows back down to the cuff and started all over again...

Third time's a charm that's what I am thinking...  I am keeping my fingers crossed...

~Keeping you in stitches~