Knit, Knit, Purl...

Yesterday I finished my second ever pair of knitted socks and I am so pleased! I used Hazel Knits Lively dk in Aquarius (100% wool, no it's not! I think it is 805 wool and 20% nylon, sorry about that!)) and I am loving the color. The pattern in the sock didn't quite come out as I had hoped, but oh well... I'm quite liking the knitting-socks-routine so I just might make some more...

Now that I have finished this project, I thought it would be a good time to learn a different method of knitting. When I started out knitting about a year ago, I remember being asked what kind of knitter I was? I never realized there were very different ways of knitting! Apparently I am an English knitter, or a 'thrower' as they say. I keep the yarn in my right hand and 'throw' it in a loop across the needles. This doesn't seem to be the fastest way of knitting so I have now purchased another class on Craftsy to learn the art of...

...also called 'picking'. With this method you hold the yarn wrapped around your left hand and you 'pick' at the stitches. I can only compare it to learning to write with your 'wrong' hand, so difficult! But, I will give it a serious try. It will be so much easier to knit with two hands (so in both styles) when you work with different colors, plus a little extra speed wouldn't be bad either...

In other news, I cut my hair again last weekend: it was time! Yes, I am still cutting (and coloring) my own hair. When the inspiration hits it just has to go you know! <wink>

Here you can see the back and sides...

PS We are having Spring-like temperatures over here! Check out my Instagram page...

Make Me Up Before You Go-Go...

It was in the Fall of 2013 and I had just purchased the sewing pattern for this toiletries bag. It is designed by Erin Erickson from Dog Under My Desk and as soon as it came out I knew I wanted to spend the money on it. 

Unfortunately the Fall of 2013 also marked the beginning of my sewing decline and as you might have noticed on my Made By Cowroad-page, there hasn't been a lot of sewing action in the past year or so. Or at least, not as much sewing as I used to do. What happened? 

Well, I learned how to knit of course and right now that is what is keeping me busy most of the time. Sometimes I do feel some sewing urges bubbling to the top and this week it became this toiletries/ knitting bag...

Click! to enlarge...

This little bag had me sweating bullets, especially those binding strips. Man, I don't think I want to do that again, at least not the ones on the sides where they have to go around those round edges. Ugly sewing! But, the rest turned out super nice and I like it a lot!  {smile}

The sides are made up of an outer fabric, a layer of fusible interfacing, a layer of batting, another layer of fusible interfacing and then the lining. This was then all quilted together. All these layers make it stand up by itself so it doesn't flop over. I did have to sew it all with my extra sturdy jeans needle, because of all these thick layers. This also made attaching the binding extra difficult.
The inside (which I made in a light color so that I can actually find stuff in there) sports an extra zippered pocket, plus two pockets on the other side for extra items. All in all tons of portable storage!

Foggy Morn'...

A foggy morning while driving through the valley on my way to the grocery store: beautiful!

Light After The Rain...

I'm a little drugged up, I must confess, drugged up on Sudafed that is. Yesterday I decided to join the rest of the family to go and watch the matinee show of our High School's musical. Everything went great, lots of laughs and fabulous singing. Until the second part that is when I was suddenly hit with a ginormous head cold! I had only brought one pack of tissues and had to use the whole lot. All that while trying not to distract the rest of the audience (or the cast) with my frequent sneezing and blowing of the nose. A full onslaught of unmentionables!

I'm hoping that since it hit me so fast and so hard, it will also go away equally fast... (one can always hope..) At least I have no fever or anything so no flu...

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We had a lot of blustery wind gusts and rain overnight and I think there were about 60.000 people without power in the Seattle area this morning. A very bad thing since the Seattle Seahawks (our American Football team) is playing an important game again the Green Bay Packers right as we speak. If they win this game then they will go to the Superbowl for a second year in a row. (and last year they won!) Mr. G's brother managed to score some tickets so that is where he is right now...

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I'm ensconced on the couch with the knitting of my socks. I've just reached the point where I have to decrease for the toe shaping so almost done with that first one. The dog wanted to go out in the back yard and when I looked up at the trees I saw all these little 'lights' (raindrops) sparkling in the light: beautiful!

Well, that was it for now. Tomorrow is a day off (Martin Luther King Day) so a nice long weekend over here...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It dawned on me this morning that I hadn't truly visited the garden for several months now. I've been suffering from a sore throat and very low energy levels this week, but today I felt a bit of life stirring again: time for a little stroll (in my Dutch 'klompen') in our yard...

(pictures are basically unedited for a change... <wink>)

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Sharing Some Finished Makes...

Good Morning from a somewhat chilly, but bright Carnation! 

I wanted to go out for a run today, but I'm struggling with an itchy throat which is never a good sign. I think I'll just go for a walk instead and I might even bring my big camera. Funny how the I-Phone has completely taken over my photography life... (gotta love those photo editing apps)

Anyway, the last couple of days I've actually finished both a knitting and a sewing project! First off my 'time filler' raglan sweater project:

After my fabulous steeked 'Maren" Icelandic color work cardigan, I fell into a knitters' blues gap so to speak, and just couldn't come up with an equally exciting project.

To fill the time with some knitting I made this sweater, no pattern no nothing. I started out with the darker color, only to realize that Bernat has discontinued this colorway and I had to find something else to go with it. I quite like the heathered tweedy look of the lighter color and so this how the color block sweater came to be. I've worn it several days already and it is super comfy: a win!

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I also finished a summer-like dress after a Lisette pattern. The flowery fabric is designed by Anna Maria Horner's oldest daughter and I've had it in my stash for quite a while, waiting for precisely such a pattern as this one. I love the modern retro vibe of it!

The dress fits great on top, but I do have to admit that I need to amp up my running a bit so that it will fit better over the hip area, hopefully by Spring time... <wink>

Lisette #1878

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Of course I've started a new knitting project already: Seaweed socks, pattern designed by Donna Druchunas via Craftsy. Here is a little swatch from yesterday...

and today we have this, the beginnings of a cuff...

They actually fit around my heel so yay!  <wink>

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And oh yes, we had to say goodbye to Master C. who has returned to Gonzaga University once again. I was a bit teary eyed, it never gets any easier, but I am so happy that he is so happy there!  {smile}

PS He is turning 20 tomorrow: what??!

What A Difference A Day Makes...

Click! to enlarge...

What a beautiful day today! 

This morning I decided I wanted to see the flooding on the North side of town for myself and ran all the way there. Unfortunately it was so foggy that I could barely see anything. 

But when the sun decided to come out this afternoon, I took to my trusty steed (= my bicycle) and went back to check out the roads and the fields. Behold what beauty there was all around me...

The roads were muddy where the river had run over it, but everything smelled so fresh and I even thought I heard a spring bird tjirping away overhead...

Mother Nature...

Sunset at Crystal Mountain, WA
(original picture, click to enlarge)

<new year, new header...>

Anyway, I still owe you a few pictures of our snowy trip to Crystal Mountain. We arrived in somewhat of a snowstorm, but thank goodness we didn't need to put the snow chains on the tires. (we did have to do that when we wanted to leave though, in order to get the car out of the parking lot: look at all of that snow below!)

Master C. getting ready to start digging, it took the two of them over an hour to get the car out.
Miss M. and myself were huddling in the cold a few parking lots over...

Our friends had their two dogs, Bo & Aero (Bo = 7 years, Aero = 6 months) with them and both Miss M. and myself took tons of pictures of them. Here is a particular fine one...

Made by Miss M.

And a nice panorama one of one of our walks...

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This all seems so long ago now though, since we're all of a sudden in the middle of a phase 4 (the highest!) flood alert for both rivers in our area! Lots of rain over the past 30 hours or so and rapidly rising temperatures do that...

Master C. is still home for another week so I dragged him along to have a look at the Tolt River, a 5 minute walk from our house. It was so loud! (check out my two video's on my Instagram feed)

As usual I took a few pictures:

Saturday view on the left, Monday's view on the right...

A log zipping by...

Glad we're not living this close to the river!

About the Dutch boy, a finger and a dike... <wink>

The river was lapping over its banks onto the path...

Our X-Mas tree came floating by! <wink>

A helicopter hovering and checking out the situation...

Don't worry, the roads are starting to close again due to flooding, but our house is safe! Staying inside the rest of the day though...

From Middle English ynough, from Old English ġenōg (“enough”), from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz (“enough”) (compare Scots eneuch, West Frisian genôch, Dutch genoeg, German genug, Low German noog, Danish nok, Swedish nog, Icelandic nógur) 
(via Wiktionary)

"adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose 

or to satisfy desire"

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I've never participated in choosing a word or a phrase for the new year, but somehow subconsciously I already came up with this one a couple of months ago. Just to remind myself that what is now is enough, it just is and that is ok...

Happy 2015 everyone, hope it will be enough for you!