How cute is this sweater!

Someone posted this on FB today and I had to share it! This little sweater is adorable, and looks like it wouldn't be that hard to make.
Little Baby Sweater
Now my girls have finally stopped "blessing" me with Grandbrats so we don't have any new babies coming. But I am sure I can find someone who would need this little cutie.
I have always enjoyed this website. The pic tutorials are a huge help.

Here is a shot as we just keep repeating those last twelve rows until we get the blanket almost the size we want it.
When you are about sick of knitting this thing and you want to pull your hair out and swear you will never knit another blanket, repeat rows 1-6 and then bind off.
And no, if u just started this blanket,you aren't there yet. ;0)

We are moving right along now. Your first ten rows are finished and it is looking good!
Here is a picture of the next six rows added on. And the pattern:

R11: K6 *P7: K3 to last 6 sts, K6
R12: Knit across
Repeat these two rows 2 times more.

Now it's starting to take shape.

The first ten rows are on.
I always get antzy when I pit on the first row. Especially when I have this many sts. It's always great when you get there and realize you don't have to frog.
So,here we go off at a snails pace!

R1: K3, P3, K7, P3, to last 3 sts, K3
R2: And all even numbered rows,K
Repeat R's 1&2 4 times more.

Any easy way to keep up with your rows is when you have finished all ten rows you will have 5 ridges in your K7 sections,on your right side row.
If anyone is knitting along,post a pic of your progress.

The yarn is bought for Ma'Leah's blanket. I chose this yarn for a couple or reasons.
One, it is machine washable. Mothers nowadays don't have the time to have to hand wash anything. And as often as babies things need washing,well,this was the most sensible solution.
Second,this was the prettiest and softest yarn Wally World had that I liked.
Now it's time to CO.
With my size 8 needles,I will he casting on 179 sts.

More knitting on the list

If you have followed me at all, you know little Ma'Leah (from the post below↓) was named after me and her great Grandmother, Mama Grace. No her name is not Ma'Leah Mama Grace, but your close. Ma'Leah Grace was actually two weeks old yesterday!
Of course I HAVE  to knit her a blanket!
So here comes another knitting project, no, this is not helping me with the timing issue of the GBP2011, but it is only a minor side step.
I am headed to Wally World (Uggghhhh) after work to pick her up some yarn, which, BTW, when I brought this up to PB last night, won me the normal "yarnaholic" comments.
"There is no way you had time to look through all that stash to make sure you didn't have any to use"
"Did you check in the shed?"
"It doesn't matter, you're going to buy it anyway!"
God I love that man! He's nothing if not predictable!
Anyway, I digress.
I have a pattern that I use all of the time for wash cloths and dish towels, I think I may have even converted it into a rug pattern at one time. This, as far as I know, will be it's first official debut as a baby blanket.
It's a great pattern and super easy to up size and downsize to fit your needs.
It can be found here: Mock Woven Tea Towel This is the absolute best, easy, tv watching pattern out there IMHO besides the Grandmothers Dishcloth of which there are many, many links to patterns out there on the internet! Thank you Al Gore!
I will post pics of the yarn when I get home, and write out the pattern for you. It's going to be a long pattern as I will be posting it here row by row as I knit. If you want, grab some needles,some yarn and knit along with me. It's going to be super easy, and by the third or fourth post, you will have it down pat.

Great day with Rita! Lunch and some good chat time. And as I have been saying all along....Ma'Leah looks just like me.....see. she is such a sweet girl.

Is this not the firearm set of coffee mugs!,

From MiMi and pawpaw think she'll figure out what it is?

I am so rockin' this new necklace! Isn't it awesome!

Testing ping

Wow...kinda dusty in here....

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted, I can see all the dust laying around...I apologize, and because I know you have missed me soooo much, I also have a new pattern to share with you. I just have to finish the cloth and get a picture. Just a real simple, easy peasy, quick knit up to keep your hands busy while you are waiting at all those football and cheerleading practices. That's where I came up with the pattern, football practice.
You know sometimes you just get tired of knitting, even your tried and true patterns. You need something else but your brain doesn't want to come up with all that hard stuff you have crammed back there in file twelve, it's that kind of pattern, but it makes the most wicked cute cloth! I will finish it today and get it posted up by this weekend.

Support our Troops and never forget...

Mississippi Honor Flight

If you have been reading this blog very long you know that I work for a local television station here in Pascagoula Ms. WKFK TV7

Monday we are airing a show Honor Flight

We were given the privlege of going on the last Honor Flight to Washington DC, it was a great trip, and Memorial Day, Monday 5/30 we will air a show about the trip, at 12p and 7pm.

 There are interviews and commentary from some of our Veterans from the "Greatest Generation".

It's going to be an awesome and inspiring show!

I know alot of you don't live anywhere near here, but you can still watch on our website.

WKFK TV7 will be airing live on our website.

It is going to be great! And with all these fancy new cell phones, you don't even have to be home to watch it.

Don't miss it!! I think you will really enjoy it!

Testing

Blatant product promotions.....

For months, brat number one drove me crazy about buying this new sweeper.
She had bought one and absolutely loved it! But I am old fashioned, a broom and a dust pan (preferably a straw broom, if you could find them anymore) was the way to go. You could get up in those corners, swirl all that dust around! It's great!
After months, and months of nagging from my 26 year old daughter, (yeah, the same one who would sit in a room full of books and toys and clothes flung around everywhere, yeah, that one) I finally broke down and bought this
Swiffer Sweeper
Ok, don't ever, ever tell Brat #1 this, BUT, that is the best thing since inside plumbing! It gets up the dog hair, the cat hair, the cat food, cat litter, (yes the cat is way messier than the dog!) everything, with very little effort. I can't say enough about how good this little gadget is. I love the fact that it has a vacuum on it too. It gets in the corners like a pro, plus, it sucks all the dust off of the baseboards without all that scrubbing with a toothbrush that that crazy lady does.
You gotta get one!

Second item, it you have one of these ↑ little monsters, another great, awesome, why didn't they think about this sooner product...Indoor Cat Food! That may even be better than the sweeper, it's a debate I am having with myself!
We had our house built in 2005 the year of Katrina, we moved in in Feb.
I love cats, have had them all my life, but I just never wanted one in the new house, even now you can walk in my front door and still smell the new, (like a new car, the new house smell) We never smoked in our house and the thought of a little box made me cringe! About five months ago, I started thinking I would like to have a cat again. Don't know why, I guess it was just time.
BFF had two little kittens, brother and sister, that she couldn't keep anymore, and lord knows how over crowded the shelters already are, so when she talked to Brat #1 about taking them until she could find them a good home, I decided it was time.
Jule was a tiny little thing when I first got her, but even then, her evil smell was always circling! Her gaseous state had me just about in tears.
One day I was talking to a lady at wally world who told me to put her on the kitten formula for a few months and that should help straighten her little tummy out. So I did, and it worked to an extent. Now you could only "smell" her when she used the little box, just as horrible!
I scooped the little box out, sometimes, four times a day. It was driving me crazy.
Last week I decided to go ahead and try the indoor formula, even tho she was supposed to be on the kitten formula for a year. Piiishaaa!! It has made a HUGE difference! I can actually use my bathroom without scooping the litter box out first.
Who would have thought that a cat food could make such a difference! You gotta try it!!
Ok, blatant product promotions over.........resume your regular............

This weeks patterns

Well, one day we are wearing shorts and it's so hot I didn't even want to think about summer time. Then, there are days like today, three grandbrats, 45 degree weather and a Mardi Gras parade to go to! WTH!
But we are all troopers, we will pack 'em all up and go catch us some beads and bears and colds! LOL!
I have been knitting, just not on the GBP2011. I spent a whole day cleaning up tangled yarn, Jule's playground behind the couch, and one of those tangled up messed just happened to be the ball that was connected to my blanket.
No big deal, just broke it off and untangled it and re-attached it, just took me half a day!
Started another cool project to wear under an unbuttoned, button up, shirt.
It's a cute little spaghetti strap tank, that for the life of me, I can't figure out where the pattern came from.
Between that and the Twilight series books, I have been keeping pretty busy, that and the crazy woman who keeps showing up at my house to do all the spring cleaning, she wears me out, just gets in a mood and all the nooks and crannies have to be cleaned.Crazy woman!
This weeks patterns
Knitting: Pomatomus Fingerless Gloves
Socks:Magic Mirror
Crochet: Bookbag Backpack
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God bless

This weeks patterns

It's finally getting warmer, the green is coming back, and the pollen is filling the air again! Yeah spring is here!
This weeks patterns made me think of garden parties, cool evening picnics and clothes hanging on the line.
Knitting: Heart Party Shrug
Socks: Donyale
Crochet: Clothespin sack
Have a great week everyone!
God Bless

Wow....waaayyy to looonggg..

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted on the blog!
You can blame Facebook for that. Been chatting and posting away over at the Knittinfun facebook page.
The GBP2011 has finally gotten too big to be portable, 40 rows blue, 20 rows brown, now back on the next 40 blue, all this on 400 sts! You do the math, that's a lot of knitting! It is going to be an awesome blanket! I will get some progress pics posted later today.
PB and I went to the hunting camp this weekend and WOW! for me, it was a great weekend, no cooking, no cleaning, just knitting, and watching my first Knitting and Crochet show. My cable company doesn't carry it, so I have never seen it before. I really enjoyed it!
I made a hand towel, a house warming gift for a friend, and half a pair of ankle socks for myself, made from the Alabama Crimson Tide yarn BFF picked up for me on our first visit to our LYS.
I was so excited to finally have a yarn store so close by that I could afford, and guess what?!?! Yup! They are closing their storefront!!
BFF and I have seriously thought about getting a SBL and buying it ourselves. I just don't see how we could accomplish it with no back ground in running a business. But it would be sooo awesome.
It was a great little store, friendly people and great prices! It's a shame to see them close, I loved being able to actually see the yarn, touch it, rub it against my cheek, before I bought it. Something you can not do when you're ordering online.
I am going to try my best to get pics of all this for you today.
I also want to show you how I 'jazzed up' the new journals. Very crafty if I do say so myself!
It has been awesome  having my BFF finally get back into knitting. Until her, I think I was the only knitter in south Mobile County. Where I live, crochet is the thing to do. And I can do it, been doing it since I was like 10 years old, but I like knitting much, much better. Now I use my crochet talents for borders and embellishments only. And until BFF jumped on the band wagon, all my knitting coversations were online. It's so nice to have a face in front of me that doesn't think I am speaking a foreign language when I say LYS or p3, k4.
We've had a few knit days together and I have just really enjoying spending time with her and knitting.
Pics coming up.......

This weeks patterns

Ok, so it's COLD outside, everywhere, all the time, even down here where our winter lasts a total of three months, and even then we only drop below freezing about five times a year. Damn global warming!
This weeks patterns are all about keeping warm, from your neck to your knees.
Knit: Quick and Easy Caps and Herringbone Hat
Sockpattern: Abyss Leg-warmers
Crochet: Baby, it's Cowled Outside
Stay warm everybody!

GBP2011 More yarn and some knitting journals

Got more yarn in, I think this will be enough to keep me occupied for a little while, the sad thing is, this will only get me a little less than half way there. But it's going to be AWESOME when it's finished!

Picked up some more journals too, on Ebay. I love the Moleskine journals, picked up a few for me and the 'new' knitter, my BFF.
If you would like some of your own, the website is Moleskine once you get one and use it, you GET it!

The small blanket is finished!!

It didn't take near as long to finish this as I thought it would, I think it came out really cute.
160 sts on size 7 needles with KnitPicks Swish, WW yarn. I really like how it turned out. I was going to crochet a border around it, but then decided I like how it looks without it. I wove in the ends two nights ago, but haven't cut them off yet, it still needs to be washed. But otherwise, she is done!!

Knitting.... a Partiotic Duty!

Had to share this with you....
98 year old woman knits for the troops
Knitting, a Patriotic Duty

The Great Blanket Project of 2011: Yarn has finally arrived!

A couple of weeks ago I had written that the yarn I ordered came in and I was starting a blanket. That was this. I got the idea from this pattern: Easy Baby Blanket

It is an awesome easy pattern that makes a great blanket. I love garter stitch, on top of being the easiest thing in the world to knit while watching t.v., the color changes are smooth and neat, and easy peasy to do!

From all of this was born the idea for The Great Blanket Project of 2011.
I want a nice warm, comfy, nice looking, easy, wool blanket for my bed. This pattern fits the bill perfectly.
Then an idea gave way to a project, that blossomed into an order at KnitPicks and my BFF beating me to the cast on!
We are chatting away about it on facebook at: Knittinfun. Come check it out, let me know if you would like to join the Knittinfun group on facebook, since that is where all the chatting is going on and I will add you.
I think it's going to be loads of fun, especially since this is the Bff's first big project. We already have plans to get together for "knit" days.
I am hopefully going to get my 300 stitches cast on this evening or tomorrow after work.
We are not going to try and finish this project as soon as possible, therefore, the name, I am just hoping to have mine done before the last day of this year and I will be happy.
I am not going to lie and say this will be my only project until it is finished, OMG, that would drive me insane and I would throw it in a corner and never finish it. There will be many projects in and amongst this one.