November 30, 2008

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Kendall and I are HUGE Alabama fans.
I never really liked football until I started watching Alabama when I met Kendall. Over the years I have learned to LOVE Alabama football, and over the years, they have struggled with new coaches and bad football, but we hung in there and this year they have reminded everyone why we LOVE Alabama football.
Kendall and I got tickets to the Ms. State game in Tuscaloosa, and off we went.
We stayed at the hunting camp in Mississippi, and Saturday made the two hour drive to Bryant Denny Stadium.
But I had no hat, and the weather man was predicting 35 by the end of the game! Thank you to Kim on Shirley's Knitting Knook list who asked, "Leah, aren't you a knitter?" Well DUH!
So the three hour ride to the camp and two hours the morning of the game, I worked on this hat. I jut happened to find some crimson sock yarn I had made something out of years ago, in the bottom of that big ole foot locker. And this was the end result.

Here we are, almost ready for the game. I had my game face on....

And so did Kendalll ;0)........

The drive down was nice, we were all excited and as soon as we got to Tuscaloosa, look what we saw, a beautiful rainbow, which I took as a very good sign for this game.

Then, there it was, my first ever glimpse of Bryan-Denny Stadium!
We were finally there!

We had to walk a little ways from where we parked, and I was totally in hog heaven with all the Crimson Tide fans and stuff along the way.

Then, we made it, the front door to the University of Alabama, I took this picture for Cole who will be applying at the University next year.

We finally made it to our seats, and as you can see, they were pretty good seats, I like to sit where I can see everything, just like watching it on t.v. From here we didn't miss a thing!

The score board befor the game.

The team warming up, my first glimpse of the team!

Then there was that awesome Million Dollar Band...

..as you can see, they take up the WHOLE field....

The crowd was rocking the stadium by now

ROTC, this picture is for the boy too, he says he will be doing this by his second year there.. I hope so, a good reason to go to the game, to see my boy ;0)



The team is finally on the field!

We were snuggled up and ready to watch the game. It was a great game and even though I was freeeeezzzzing, it was great fun, I think we will be doing more games next year.

November 14, 2008

I am going to be on TV............

Most everyone knows I work at a TV station, well one of the ladies that tapes a show here saw the ribbons I had won at the fair and asked me to bring in some of the items I had knitted and talk about knitting on her show.
At first it was supposed to be just half the show, 13 minutes, but then her first interview got cancelled, so she asked me to do the whole 26 minutes.
At first I couldn't see how we could get that much time out of stuff I had knitted, but we did, and she wants me to bring some more for another show later on, after the first of the year.
The show is more about all the items I have knitted and about hobbies, not about the technical aspects of knitting.
You can see the show today November 14th at 4:30 central time at WKFK TV you must have IE to see the live stream. There is a link on the home page.
If you do go see it, remember, the camera adds 10 lbs.

November 1, 2008

Toddler Tube Socks

I found this pattern on the internet:
Tube Socks
And decided to tweak it a bit to fit the Grandbrat.
The design is almost the same
Here is what I did




Materials:
Sock Yarn, leftovers
Size 2 dpns
CO 48 sts and join to knit in the round
Do 15 rounds of K2P2 ribbing
Then K6 P6 around for 10"
K6, k2tog around
K one round
K5, k2tog around
K one round
K4, k2tog around
K3, k2tog around
K2, k2tog around
K1, k2tog around
K2tog around
cut yarn leaving an 18" tail, thread yarn through a darning needle and draw through remainign stitches. Weave in on the inside of the sock and there you have it.
This was not my idea, but the idea of the original pattern writer, I just downsized it.
Isaac's foot at 4 years old is 6.4", for Bella who is 2 and a half, but tiny, I would CO 42 and Trin who is a year old I would CO 36, and for newborns, 24.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. ;0)

October 31, 2008

My first illusion cloth

I have always thought about giving the illusion cloths a try, and I finally put down all the gift knitting and with green and white cotton and size 5 needles and about an hours time, this is what I made.
It took me about half the cloth before I figured out how it worked. I tell you, I am impressed, this is the neatest thing.

Naturally I had to take it to work and show it off.
It was just as much fun watching everyone walk around it as it was to knit it.
I think I am going to make a matching red one next.
The pattern is over at Ravelry
The Illusion Tree Christmas Cloth
As far as I know, that is the only way to get it.

October 30, 2008

Then we made it to the fair.......

We finally got passed all the rain and made it to the fair,
PawPaw got to come for a couple of rides with the babies before he had to leave on the boat.
Tristan LOVES the rides. You can't see her but Bella Boop is there too.

Tristan and Isaac are not very patient when they have to wait to get on a ride. It's a good thing I like to go when it's not too busy.

Looks like Trin wasn't too sure about this one.

Mimi and the girls waiting for the boys to get done with a ride.

Tristan loves the fair so much he started dancing!
He's so cute!

Off to the trucks

and the motorcycles

Then it's off to the horses


Isaac loves monkey's he had a fit over this little guy, but wouldn't get his picture taken with him.

Desire' and Tristan and Isaac take the big slide, poor Isaac got all twisted around.


Then Cole took Bella down, she laughed till they got to the end.

Then more rides



Now it's off to the races!


Sorry Isaac, no Jimmie Johnson car, Earnhart will have to do.

Then it's time for the big ''kids''
Desire' and Sam


Cole and Ryan


Brian and Jennifer


Besides PawPaw leaving, it's was a fun day.

October 29, 2008

The Fair or Lack there of

We were supposed to go to the fair. Then it started raining, and what was supposed to last only an hour lasted all day and all night. So, since we already had the gang all gathered, we decided to eat Mexican,
Trin loves to eat, and my little ham loves to have her picture taken

Bella Boop just wants to clean everything! If there is a napkin around, she needs it, has to have it. Just don't look under the high chair, where she sweeps it all!

Tristan was just waiting, he's not our biggest eater, he just wanted the bubble gum out of the machine.

I think the salsa was a little too spicy for my man Isaac,
What a face!

This was the whole gang, we do make a crowd!

We had a great time and it was fun to get out with everyone, especially my SIL who hates to go out in public almost as much as Kevin does.

October 14, 2008

Blue Ribbon Award

I know, you were thinking fair weren't you? Actually I have to haul the stuff to the fairgrounds on Saturday, I have never put anything in the fair before, so don't know what I am going to do.
One of the girls at work suggested the bibs, she loves them and thinks they would win. I will probably through in a pair of socks too, just because where I live, there are very few knitted entries, I have seen one sweater and one afghan, that is it. So it's time to liven the knitting world up around here.
Ok, on to this award.
This was given to me by Crafty Carole
She has a great blog, I went there and had a look around, and you know what? Next time she goes thrift storing, I WANNA GO! She has some great sweater finds for re-using the yarn. I never find anything like that!



The rules are:
1- Post the award on your blog.

2- Add a link to the person who gave you the award.

3- Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links:
I nominate:
Penny: PennyKnits
Elaine: Down Cloverlaine
SockPixie
And last, but far from least:
Smariek Knits


October 12, 2008

More Knitted Gifts!

This is the Tweety Pie Bib for Kendall's niece Tabitha.
This is her first baby and we were all excited when we found out it was a girl. She is due to make her appearance next month sometime. I never did get an exact date.
The pattern can be found here:
Down Cloverlaine
It's a pdf file so you must have adobe acrobat to get it. Look in the right hand side bar for the pattern. She has some great patterns on her website, when you get time you should check it out.




This bib is for my newest Grandson, due in December. His name is going to be Traedon. And yes, he is number five. This will be Tristan and Trin's little brother. I can't wait to see him!
He will get the matching cloth also, I just haven't done it up yet.
Pattern: Down Cloverlaine


This is the hat I made for my step father's father, Grandpa Al. He is the sweetest man.
I used the generic pattern from the knitting workshop and just improvised the design until it came out like I wanted. He lives in MO and stays in N.J. allot, so this is 100% wool.
A back scrubber and soap sweater set, this is for the Ole Man. He may have forced me to knit a damn scarf, but this year he is getting something extra, maybe he will decide next year, "Hey she can knit more than just scarves and I have sooooo many, maybe I will ask for something (anything) else this year!"
Think it will work?
Patterns: Soap Sweater
Back Scrubber:
This is by no means my idea, or a pattern I created. The basic idea came from
K1P1 Keeping You in Stitches
I cast on 3 sts and did a 9" icord, then I turned at the last row and CO 17 sts for a total of 20 sts.
I knit a seed st border for an inch then seed 4 sts, p3, k6,p3,seed4
On the next row, ws, seed 4 sts, k the knits and purl the purls.
I did the twist in the cable every eighth row.
I followed this for 16" then see for 1" then bo all but three sts, icord on those three sts for 9" and a three needle bind off to three BO sts from the other end. Sew on the first icord and wala!
I know this didn't make much sense, but it worked out for me.

I currently have OTN: a gown for Bella Marie, a pink blanket for Tab's baby girl and some coaster from Shirley's Knitting Knook yahoo group.
I will post pics of everything when I am finished with them all.


Getting back in the groove

It's been so long since I have wanted to knit anything.  I knit so many socks when I started knitting back in '99 that I was comp...