Rolling my lives all into one

I've moved and put All my lives rolled in to one blog!


please follow all of my postings in one place at http://allofmylives.blogspot.com/


thank you for finding me there!

denise/deBRAT

weaving the next step (s)

no pics today i have some somewhere but where is the question. probably still in the camera. sigh... i'm such a horrible digital photographer. come to think of it i'd often times have a year or two of film rolls to be developed too. no hope for me i guess.

i finished the first scarf and fell in love!

i warped immediately for a second scarf with similar warp yarns (read as: all I had left of the original colors and made up for with some pink koolaid dyed sock yarn)

that scarf was finished on monday night and tuesday night, with the aid of my friend Liz I got the color gamp onto the loom. this weave will me more wide (all 31" of Mathilda's width)than both of the scarves added together! ambitious of me, eh?

anyway, it looks lovely on the loom and now i'm sad that i did not plan for a twill weave afterall. i have two heddles and i suppose i could have adjusted it in some form.

so now i need to do some research and probably post a question or two on ravely and see if i have any options with the 156 slots 156 holes single thread in a hole on only one heddle that does not require redoing the warp! that was not a fun project and it helps me to remember that a floor loom would have many more holes, slots and harnesses to deal with than Mathilda does.

so that's all for now. i guess if i had remembered to leave the sewing room door cracked open last night i could be in there sleying so more of the threads. it is a 3/2 pearle cotton and my first non-sock yarn warp. well that first one was Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton 10 but you aren't going to make me count THAT one are you?

wink

have a GRAND Good Friday
denise/deBRAT

what it REALLY looks like

here is what the weaving looks like now that i have put in the lighter petticoat Opal yarn to break it up. i htink it has much more interest and brightens it a lot. the other color is nice iwth the warp too but the opal makes it sparkle!

Let the REAL weaving begin!

and so i have finally begun to weave on the colorful warp I began putting on last weekend. and this is what i have after an hour and many many breaks for lexulous and email checking and picture taking... and now, without further ado I give you the weaving!


for those who do not weave the white is waste weaving to spread out the warp (lengthwise yarns) and keep it there as you begin weaving with your real weft (horizontal yarn)

and those are indeed toilet paper rolls cut and clasped around my front beam to cover the knots from tying on the warp. i'm not sure this is right but seems i read something this week about covering up the knots so you did not get wells/dents/misalignment of the yarns in the finished fabric as you roll it on the beam.

i'm not very happy with my edges. i wound up puttin to yarn bits in the last slot and hole on either side of my weaving to see if it would fill my edges better. i may just get up from posting this and then un-weave all of it and do it with my edges just a bit tighter. after this much weaving i have a better idea of where the yarn needs to be on the edge and how much angle i need before i use the heddle to beat it in place.

i also learned that i must use a sword to clear the shed after each shed change and before i put the stick shuttle through or the yarn (opal solids and one hand dyed knitpicks sock yarn) in the warp will stick as it is a bit fuzzy. God bless those that use real mohair! And I was thinking of using up the mohair from my sister-in-laws mitered or logcabin or something or other scarf/stole i made from that mags kandis pattern to weave with. not any time soon!

i also received my color gamp kit this week. alas, i am very confused as to the pattern instructions. there are NO PICTURES of the finished items you can make. In quilting this would be billed as a mystery quilt. In weaving I expected to see a blasted picture or two so i could make the changes i needed to make in order to fit it on my 32" harp when the baby blanket is like 45" and 4 harnesses.

so i will be doing LOTS and loads of research while i am working on this scarf before i can put the gamp rainbow kit on to the warping board and then loom. i had hoped to finish this scarf this weekend and be ready to direct warp the loom with the rainbow "lesson in color" project on tuesday and wednesday night next week when dh is traveling. Much easier to think that through without him here. too much smoke emits from my head when i'm thinking through stuff on weaving.

okay posting so i can get back to the loom!

hugs all

mathilda... here i come! get ready to cooperate :)

A Rainbow of colors!

so real quick with maybe more later.. the second ever warp and the soon to be first real project! very colorful. much more ME! See? the camera case is the same bright colors! and the pic to the right is for recalling how i warped it to get this length in the future.

Below is a picture of the large mouth bass i caught yesterday on my FIRST cast into the retention pond behing my inlaws. I can't recall the last time i caught one this large. over a year anyway. and he is all of 20" long and heavy enough to require me to hold him up by the brass swivel! so at least 5 pounds if not 6 or 7! :) my hand is held up next to him and spread out. that is 8". it starts at his tail bottom. hope you can see it in the pic!

and the weaving saga continues...

So i have pictures. i have tons of pictures to post but they aren't on this computer. THey are on a very heavy external harddrive that I did bring with me but i'm so annoyed i'm too lazy to reach over and set it up.

so the first warp has been woven as much as i intend to weave on it. i cut it off the loom on sunday night to take to work for crafting monday as a show and weep with me over this piece type thing. oh its not so bad truly. but it is NOT a rug and that was what i was making. it is way TOO thin to ever step on let alone wipe your wet shoes on. and the things other than that that are wrong with it i have figured out the error of my ways. so it was a good learning piece.

one of the things i really learned was that i wish i had warped for the scarf! so i plan to warp for the scarf this weekend and weave on it next week. which means of course, that the weather in florida should be extremely warmer by the end of next week when i suspect this scarf might be finished by. always the way, eh?

so i broke down and on sunday i ordered a kit for a colorwheel gamp. whatever a gamp is. i made the mistake of mentioning that if this will not be for a 10 dent heddle please adjust. well turns out i got told it was for a 12 dent heddle (the pattern that is).

so then i went through three emails of explaining that my question referred to the yarn and heddle's capability and not the pattern. then on tuesday when i had not heard back to my last email AND i did not know if it had shipped or was cancelled i called.

guessie what? the "new" girl answering the phones did not know and could not see my order in the system. she walked to the back to get the girl who does the internet "stuffs". well she does not weave and so and so will be in on wednesday to answer my question. well by then i was annoyed and cancelled the order.

spent two hours on line looking for small cones in a rainbow of colors with reasonable shipping etc and finally said to self " not may fault they choose to hire people who do not particiapte in the fiber workings at a fiber providing place. I'm confident enough that i did my research and i can do no less than divide my heddle count in the proper number of amounts and warp for "stripes" and even weave it for squares to see what happens. "

so i placed the internet order again, followed it up with an email telling them i had placed the order and yes it was a REorder. I placed that order at 12:05 pm my time, which is also their time.

I got a reply this morning at 8:51 AM telling me it is backordered and expected to be ready to go out tomorrow (thursday) and would be delivered on the 10th! Needless to say, i'll get this kit from them but then i'm going to save up my pennies and get full pound cones of colors i want in the future from someone else! there is no excuse in today's looking-for-work market to have noone around who knows a flip about weaving, or apparently fiber in general, so they can answer questions.

on an up note, one of the other fiasco's of this whole weaving experience is to arrive today. the second heddle and support blocks are to arrive today for the mistakenly ordered 32" size Kromski Harp. I'll believe it when i see it. After all, it can still arrive and be the orginally desired size of 24" instead of the size that would fit the loom I actually received.

I really don't think i'm suppose to weave! Just really bad karma all around about this thing.

i'm even considering selling this loom for what i paid for it to someone local and they'll get a great deal and i'll be out of the bad karma on this whole thing!

maybe i'll save for a Northwest Pioneer loom which i discovered online yesterday! it is the absolutely sweetest looking thing seen here http://northwestlooms.com/

so yea that is a lot of pennies to be a saving up for and the pioneer has a max of 15" while the other one the frieda i believe has a mx of 20" opps my bad. the pioneer can do up to 20" the frieda only up to 18" but a significant diff in price between the two when only comparing same width and 8 harnesses. guess that would be an after birthday/christmas of 2010 purchase at that price unless i take a second job!

oh well, off i go to work in ends on my Carole's Clever Little Shawl that i finally finished knitting over a week ago from hand spun by my sister. you ahve to dig for pics of this one because the pattern does not have any i'll try to find links which if you are on ravelry you can search patterns for it and then projects and look for a pic in someone's projects folder.

pattern here http://www.cheryloberle.com/ scroll down to the link for it
pictures here http://theyarnmarket.blogspot.com/ go to January 22, 2010 and if you want to read the woes of the poor gal there, read the january 30th post. never ever send money for mugged people or "in jail" people etc. recently my poor dear inlaws had someone call them telling them he was one of their grandsons and he was in jail in Canada and needed money to get out. Gratefully, whoever stole this information from them did not know that that grandson was far from getting any bailout money from them etc. So be SMART do not react via your emotions, be cautious! better to have your money then to get swindled because you just reacted and did not think it all through from all possibilities.

have a grand day. off to work in those pesty ends!

denise/deBRAT in tampa bay florida

Looking pretty official...

don't you think it is beginning to look pretty official now? this is after HOURS and HOURS of stuff to get this far which included hangers as weights and separating the tangled mess more than once!

gosh i'm pathetic at this weaving stuff.

What a tangled mess ....

And THIS is what you get when you don't know what you are doing and manage to combine two methods of dressing the loom at the same time.

What a tangled mess I received
when first I attempted to weave!

More later but for now I do believe this says it all, eh?

denise/deBRAT who swore at the paper as it let go of its tape to the next section and dh told me to 'be nice" LOL if he only knew!

or perhaps he does because he managed to stay away from me when he knew i was in the room trying to "do my weaving".

Mathilda Mathilda you grey my hair!

Poor Mathilda, it appears she is going to be the broad sett of shoulders i lay all my weaving blame on! Afterall, if she came to me by mistake surely she is the cause of all mistakes i make in weaving!

and to think i even thought i might get to a bonding point with her where i start to call her effectionately tilde. HAH!

so i started off warpin with my Aunt Lydia's crochet thread (size 10) with no idea of length as it does not state on the ball.

yea i know, not what i should have gotten but the loom already set me back and I have got to start saving for parking for work.

I only want ot weave rag rugs from my tons of cotton fabric stash that is taking up space and weighing down my creative spark from guilt and lack of quilting inspiration for two years now!

anyway, i have learned that-

~one should always measure how many wraps to the inch
=finding out that 40 wraps makes ONE inch is not what you want to find out after you warp the warping side of the Kromski Harp for the third time!

~one should ALWAYS know how many yards there are in a ball/skein of warping material
=finding out that there is only enough to make 80 ends after you have warped for the third time!

~one should always use the two aforementioned numbers to calculate how wide of an actual fabric you can make from what is available
=finding out that at 10 ends per inch you will have an 8" wide piece of fabric to work with is not good unless you are using something thin enough in the long run to make bookmarks with. rag rug bookmarks may be a wee too think to hold your place well.

conclusion?
A)i either have to run to wal-mart and buy 3 more balls of Aunt Lydia's (in green of course so not likely they'll have that many of an odd color just because I need them)
B)sett at 5 ends per inch and hope for 16" wide rugs?
C)get out some very old, Lord only knows what color crochet cotton i might have hiding in the garage, in whatever thickness that might be ... and make the bookmarks!

boy, I'm sure going to look weird when i weave 8" wide bookmarks on my 32" Harp... ah Mathilda, you grey my hair.

PS. I have been all over the wonderful "web" trying to find out how many epi to sett the cotton warp at to make rag rugs and I canNOT find a number anywhere! I have however, found many lovely rag rugs for sale. But buying them - would defeat the purpose of weaving my own, eh.

Heavens to Mergatroid Mathilda... will we ever get this warp on your weaving side?

She arrived!

Well the story is long and not an easy task but my Kromski Harp finally arrived. There was a wee bit change of plans. I planned for a 24" harp with extra 10 dent heddle and supports. What arrived was well, not that.

I am the proud owner of a 32" Kromski Harp with stand and the extra 10 dent heddle and block supports are on their way to me all for the same price!

This poor thing went to Shalimar Florida before she arrived to me as the zipcode was not quite right on her shipping info. So by the time she arrived to me and I opend her up to find a stand and 32" harp I did not know what to do. AFter much debating (due to size) I kept her. Of course, dh is not pleased that she is large but then if the 24" had come he'd not been pleased with that one either.

so her name is Mathilda Millicent Arachne Mergatroid and this morning it was Mathilda get OUT OF THE WAY! in the sewing room as I attempted to put up the bags of clothes I got from my mom on a recent closet emptying of her. So tonight i really need to try and get to the ironing board and move a few stacked up bins out to the garage and then iron some pants for tomorrow and then maybe i can warp MMAM up!

i had planned to warp her with sock yarn and enter a contest at hand woven but gee nothing else has gone as I planned why not warp her up for a rag rug using up some of my fabric cut in strips first of all? forget the contest it has to have the pics in by the 28th of this month anyway and who is to say i'll get all of something warped, woven and finished in that short amount of time for my very first project. not to mention actually manage to win any portion of the contest.

so tonight the bins and ironing board and tomorrow the WARP!

wish me well,

denise/deBRAT in cold again tampa bay Florida
sorry no pics maybe tomorrow i can edit the post

lookie who is back to blogging? and crafting soon!

I have done it! i have made a new purchase for a new crafting hobby. who knew there is even a new craft left out there besides woodworking, blacksmithing and stained glass stuffs. but i found one.

see 2 weeks ago a got an email from knitting daily put out by interweave press. and while it personally rankles me that they use it so blatantly for advertising to us, i still clicked on one of those advertising emails links to ....

http://www.interweavestore.com/Weaving.html

of course it went to the newer magazine not yet on the stands but their "plug" , which worked as you'll see, was to de stash your yarn stash. haveing just cleaned out the garage due to the woater heater breaking and needing to be replaced i certainly was well aware of the size of my yarn stash.

significantly smaller (by about 40 large large plastic sterlite tubs) but still all the same, larger than i ever intended it to get when i first started knitting again some 5 or 6 years ago.

well the plug was to weave up those odd ball yarns and leftover yarns into scarves and what better way to do that then to subscribe to the handwoven magazine they put out.

so yes, i subscribed to it for a year and got the two free things offered. if it's free its for me as my ex-husband used to say about me. but what to do with a handwoven magazine when i don't even own a loom?

why of course, start researching them! so i did! and i built a spreadsheet like i did for my spinning wheel choices back in 05 too.

and in the end i ordered from Bob at Winderwood Farms in Naples NY who is also who i ordered my gorgeous Kromski Sonata spinning wheel from too.

and now i sit and wait, albeit NOT so patiently for it to arrive. i ordered on friday with him monday was a holiday and the distributor was closed sat, sun and mon. on tuesday i begged him via email apologising for being such a pest "did it ship?"

it has not, but i'm hoping today he sends me the tracking number indicating it did ship :)

in the meantime, more research. i have read so many blogs and visited so many sites and searched for lessons etc that i am going to turn into a loom myself if i'm not careful.

oh and i ordered the Kromski 24" harp!
seen here
http://www.newvoyager.com/rigidheddlelooms.html

i got the 24" as a compromise between the 16' more to the budget constraints/thought process and the 32" wider is BETTER thougth process LOL

i did read in several places that people that got the 32" thought it too large to handle. even Bob said he'd heard it said. so, a 24" it is!

i ordered the extra 10 dent heddle and the extra set of heddle blocks so i can play with different types of weaving and a denser fabric than just 10 epi but can get 20 epi and i think i read somewhere that if i only thread one through ehre and two through there etc i can achieve 15 epi.

and i so sound like i know waht i'm talking about and yet, i surely don't.

so please, watch here for future postings of the actual loom when it arrives and the first weaving to come.

have a grand and glorious day
denise/deBRAT in tampa bay florida

More of Joanna's Reminders

A few days ago I gave you a couple of quotes from my dear friend, Joanna Fritz-Reed, who passed May 19, 2007 of breast cancer. Today I would like to share another one of the quotes on the bookmark handed out at her two memorial services.

"enjoy every second of the lifetime which you are being blessed with"

Now at first glance you don't think too much of that. But then remembering that it was a quote from a woman who was battling breast cancer you may grasp it with different significance.

Go forth today and every day, remembering the blessing that is YOUR life. :)

hugs
denise/deBRAT in too hot for December Florida

what color is your brain?

well while reading my Bag-A-Holic yahoo group posts today, I clicked on a link to something, which took me to somewhere else and you know how the rabbit trail happens. next thing I know I'm looking at a wonderful sunrise picture! I decided to leave a comment, because a picture that beautiful certainly deserves a comment and next thing I know I'm reading portions of her blog further down... and have to find out what color is my brain.

my brain is purple by the way, same as hers was.

Your Brain is Purple
Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense.Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries.You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

here is the attempt at putting the link to the quiz in here
http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorisyourbrainquiz/

and this is the blog I was at for the sunrise picture!
go down to wednesday, december 5th, 2007
http://craftycarole.blogspot.com/

so now i have posted again and wish i could post pics of the finished skulls cap for the exiting director at work, or the neon lime green face cloths i gave her to go with the joke skulls cap... or pics of the modular to-be-felted tote bag that is to match the Modern Quilt Wrap I made for my sister in law for Christmas this year... but alas, the laptop is at home and work does not provide me with any media slots for downloading pics. the nerve of them, not giving me a media slot!

have agrand and glorious day all,
denise/deBRAT in too dang hot for December (84 today!) Florida

Panera Bread and mountain sunrise in Florida

Heading to work today I stopped at the new Panera Bread that opened 1 mile from my house. I had clipped a buy 3 bagels get 3 free coupon and did not have time to pack a lunch today so I thought I'd fill my belly with bagels. Well as I drive into the parking lot what do I see during the very foggy sunrise but "mountains" in Florida. now the highest elevation anywhere near where I live in the Tampa Bay area is an On-Ramp to any highway. And as I just returned from Hawaii you can imagine my only 2 1/2 hours sleep surprised eyes! I had the camera with me and snapped a couple of pics. The first is just set at auto, the second taken on the sunset setting(no sunrise setting guess it is suppose to do double duty) and this is what I got.
On closer inspection (read as: blown up onto 19" monitor screen) i can clearly see that those are not mounds of dirt for the "developing" that is going on there, but actually the housing development behind this new Plaza. The mound in the foreground near the pitiful looking scrubby oak tree IS a mound of elevation raising/leveling dirt for the continued construction.

I almost wish I had not looked at the full sized photos so I could still think there were mountains of developing dirt piles in my site. If I had taken the pictures before I went into Panera they would have been less distinct and thus, no unveiling of the realistic truth that indeed, my quiet quiet neighborhood is becoming the new suburb to the suburb to the suburb of Tampa. sigh, in time, all things must change.

Have a blessing filled day and do a random acts of Kindness today in memory of my dear friend Joanna who passed of breast cancer in May '07. On the bookmark made for her memorial were several quotes. but two I will remind you of today:

Kindness Matters

monthly self-exams can save lives, but a cure would be nice too

teary eyed hugs,
denise/deBRAT

RAK contest at another blogger's site

Hi all

Ruth (on a laceknitters yahoo group) posted today that she is having a RAK contest. So hop on over to her blog and leave a post with your RAK today! She is giving away some nice prizes and two others jumped on in and offered up a couple of prizes too! People can be so nice :)

http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/another-rak-contest/

now if you came from my post on Ruth's blog you saw my discretionary income. the amount is correct. Yes, I went to hawaii this year. dh had a business trip there so no flight or hotel cost for him. He had enough free mileage to purchase me a ticket (read as free) I gave up my chiropractor appointments, my massage therapist appointments, worked through every stinking lunch for months at work so I could pay for the time off and have some money to spend while there. And my birthday was 5 days before that. more incoming money. And our 22nd wedding anniversary was the day we flew back from hawaii. So no, I did not do it on the $5.67 a week I can spend how I please, but I found a way to "do" this trip-of-a-lifetime as I doubt the chance will EVER occur again! Oh, and my dear quilting friend put me up at her condo in maui and drove me absolutely everywhere on Maui so I had some me-and-my quilting friend time too!

I did not want anyone to think I was talking out of the wrong side of my mouth when I posted on the RAK contest.

So the link again is

http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/

and after yo upost your RAK to Ruth's blog, be sure to go back to the link she gives to Sheri, at The Loopy Ewe's blog to enter "her" RAK contest that inspired Ruth's.

have a grand day everyone, mine is warmer and looking up!

denise/deBRAT-jane in cool today, bound to be warmer tomorrow Tampa Bay Florida

Florida-meets-Alaska-Norwegian-Thang

A quick pic of my most recent knitting project for my friend in Alaska who I will finally get to meet in Maui in just 31 days!

this was a week ago, now it is done down to the bottom and waiting on sleeves and my edging decision. i finally ordered two skeins of www.knitpicks.com donegal fingering weight superwash yarn. if it is white enough it will be a large portion of the sleeves. if not i will have to koolaid dye it and then it will be a large portion of the sleeves.

it is meant to be an oversized, very cuddly wrap. i hope it fits her as such. i just found out she is about a medium, as she says she has put on a lot of weight. and she stands only 5'2' !!! it will be down below her butt at the length I made it. and it will certainly go OVER other clothing as she is much smaller than me. it fits me perfectly as a cardigan in length and width and i'm a tight medium sweatshirt and 5'6" tall. oh well, she DOES live in Alaska, as my hubby says, it will be perfect!

Gauge, Gauge, GAUGE!

Yuck! I hate gauge.

First off I have to think every stinkin' time I type it so I get the u and the a in the proper order. Always wrong the first time too.

Second, I find that my gauge from a year ago is so much different than it is today. Why you might ask (and please do ask!) Well, because after pondering this for the past 39 rounds of this "second" sock, I realise why it is off. Let's start at the beginning... a very good place to start. (hear the do re mi?)

I am on a no spending diet. It sucks but it has to be done. So in an effort to have something to do "any" thing to do, I have pulled out my old knitting projects that are already started. You know, those otherwise known as UFO's UnFinished Objects! So in the past few weeks I have finished a very plain shrug in very bargain-in-my-stash-sale yarn. Jo Sharp DK Wool in seashell
pattern here
http://www.caron.com/projects/shadows/sss_shrug.html
yarn here
http://www.josharp.com.au/Yarn/Yarn.html

I have finished one pair of socks which needed only the decreasing for the toe on the second sock... shameful I know.

I have finished a shell top in tagliatelli merino tape raphael colorway
pattern booklet but not the pattern showing here, and yarn shown
http://www.threadbearfiberarts.com/yarn/colinette/tagliatelli.php

I have finished another pair of socks, well no I have finished ONE sock with size two dpns and cast on for the "mate" sock twice in two different sized needles until I realised that I must have used size ONE dpns to make the sock. The bottom part of the first sock (after all the decreasing was done) does not matter that much that it is in 2's vs 1's but I have a tiny ridge where I first tried the size 3's LOL

Well anyway, on to the "mate" sock. The size 2's were too large when I cast on so I had to wait until I went home (I knit at work remember?) and then I had to dig and dig and dig until I found the pair of socks that DID have the size 1's dpns IN them (the original one had stitch holders when I picked it back up) and so now

EEEK ! the rest of my clever post disappeared!

Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down

Some how I just can't get the picture of Sally and her brother sitting before the window staring at the rain out of my mind! It is gloomy here. It is rainy here. It is dismal here. It is cold looking here. It has looked this way since early December some time! What is WITH this weather? I swear most days it looks like it could snow!

I am not knitting today at work. Why not? because in my haste to get out the door and get to work while a parking slot near my building was still available, I forgot to grab the bag with the Tagliatelli project in it! So I do have the dayflower scarf project but no needle to thread the lace pattern place marker thread with through the row. As I ahve not yet switched over to Super dental floss, I need the needle to mark where I am. I do NOT relish the thought of starting all the way form the beginning if I mess it up without the lace pattern place marker in sight. I have three repeats done already! 16 rows to a repeat. whoooopeeeee

So to do something sort of knitty I am reading two blogs from gals in my knitting group. I even clicked on the link to one of their husband's blogs to read his even-shorter-than-her-blog blog. sigh.... here i sit... just staring out the window watching the grey grey grey grey go by.

Oh I did do something technical today. I set up my phone to be able to send and receive the occassional text message. now DON"T go sending my text messages as they cost me ten cents a piece! but today more tornados rippe through Florida and 14 people died and I was all concerned about my son away at college (Daytona Beach Embryy-Riddle Campus) as his campus was the one hit Christmas Day last year. So I called the cell phone company... 611... and then chose a million different numbers to finally get to a "live" person to see if I could indeed set up my phone to be able to send and receive txt msgs with a per msg charge. yupper roonies! so she set that up for me. Then embarrassingly enough, i had to ask her "HOW" do I do that? Send a text message that is. So she looked up my phone and gave me step-by-step instructions to send a message and Bless her heart, how to READ one too.

THEN I sent one to my son (thinking he was in class at that hour) explaining WHY I was txting him (tornados near him) after an agonising 5 minutes I have it ready to send and presto in less than 10 seconds I have a lengthy reply from him! geeesh I can type for this blog MUCH faster than I can txt msg. And I used abbreviations too. So, as you can tell from the fact that he replied, he is okay and was sleeping!

He has an interview tonight for Resident Advisor and I hope he does well at it. It would be a nice savings next year on the "room" part of college. And the privacy factor (he would not share the room, but would the bathroom) would be a nice plus for an only child. Don't you think?

well off to stare out the window some more
have a grand and glorious day
denise/deBRAT text messager novice!

Knitting Needle Sizes

Did you know that a US size 1 dpn needle is just the right size to roll under the desktop scanner completely?

Did you know that a sharpened regular ole number 2 lead pencil is just too wide to fit under the aforementioned flatbed scanner to retrieve the dpn needle?

Did you know that dust bunnies can compress themselves to a very teenie tiny size to fit under undisturbed places to hibernate and will immediately upon removal BREATHE into a very large sized bit of dust upon extraction?

Well now you know. smirk

moral of the story? Do all you can to prevent "rolling" not-in-use-at-this-moment-in-time dpns so you don't have to chase them down only to discover compressed dustbunnies, unless of course you *like* to dust.

Have a grand and glorious day all. Please keep those involved in the aftermath in Katrina all through our wonderful country in your prayers. Pictures on tv are nothing compared to seeing that devastation in person. Not my things but in the communities near to me last year.

Needles up! Pockets open for donating to aid in the efforts of recovery.
denise/deBrat aka Grandma Brattie to-be (Dec '05) aka Mom of last-to-graduate high school (May '06) aka Mother-in-law to be (august '06) What a year it will be!

Mystery Solved!

So much happening these past couple of weeks. I finished my knit exchange bag and mailed it off on Sunday/Monday August 14th/15th and so here are the pictures of the finished bag.

PATTERN: The Sheep Tote/Fiber Trends/Bev Galeskas
YARN: Inspired by Noro Kureyon 149/A (but too expensive to use)
Cascade 220 (9458, 8013, 8012, 4002, 8400)
Held with one strand of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes throughout
Hemp Cord and Wool of the Andes I-Cord for the strap NOT felted

I used nearly all of 4 skeins of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. A 5th skein was purchased and waiting in the wings and highly recommended you do the same.

NEEDLES: Size 13 29" circular

I would have much prefered to have used a belt around the bag for decoration and then attached straps for carrying but the belt I had was too small and I did not pre-plan the "holes" correctly for that and I prefer NOT to cut the felted bag to add the strap holes to it.

Anyway, it is large enough to carry a 17" needle rollup and the Denise's needles case and some yarn and pattern information. The swatch was used inside to provide a water bottle holder but I did not attach it high enough up to be functional in that manner. sigh

But it is done and I was an interesting knitting experience. The bag went to David Bates as part of the knitexchange bag exchange.

Now I am off for the next project(S).

~Test knitting a sock pattern for Bev Warner

~Designing a lacey beaded scarf for DJKnitters at yahoo groups as a part of a contest I started there

~Continuing on the poncho for Ashley From Viva Poncho at www.knitpicks.com the Greta Poncho in knitpicks yarn Summer Sky Andean Treasure

~So much more but these are at the top of the list right now and will have to do

Have a grand and glorious day of knitting and thanks for reading
Keep your needles sharpened and loaded with yarn!
denise/deBrat