Felted Slippers with Soles

So far my experiment seems to have worked out. I had to make another pair of felted slippers, my other ones had holes in them. I saw on Ravelry where some people glued old sandal soles and the like to the bottoms of their slippers. Then I remembered that I had several pairs of flip flops that I don't wear (can't stand the toe thong). So I cut the thong off of one of the pairs and got some shoe gloo at the shoe store.

I think if I did another pair I'd do the two-color bumper clogs, it would hide the sole better. But so far so good, they fit quite nicely and feel good on the feet. Hopefully this pair will last longer than two or three months, which is usually just how long they last me without getting full of holes. I used two skeins of Patons Classic Wool in salmon heather, the old faithful Fiber Trends Felted Clog pattern, Ravelry details here. The Oldest One's clogs have a hole starting in the bottom, and his slippers are the same size as mine, so I may glue one of the other pairs of flip flop bottoms to his.

My Ravelympics shawl is done except for blocking and the crochet edge that I will attempt. Pictures to follow soon since I only have til closing ceremonies to get a finished picture on the Team Canada thread!

Happy knitting!

Snow!

Yesterday the boys got their second snow day this school year. They got sent home early one day as well, but so far just two full days off for storms. That's highly unusual -- not that I'm complaining, I'm not a fan of a lot of snow. It just seems that this winter season we've gotten "real" snow three times, I think, and when it decides to snow it really SNOWS!

A lot of our snow from the last time had melted. I don't see this hanging around too long. The ground isn't frozen, Hubs threw almost as much rocks and dirt as he did snow yesterday, and the temperatures are supposed to be four and five degrees above freezing the rest of the week and through the weekend.



Last night's sunset.


So the Littlest One had a pair of felted mittens I made a couple of years ago. He went over to the neighbor's the other night and only came back with one. He went over the next day and said he brought the second one home. I can't find it. The wool mittens are the best for playing in the snow. They have acrylic and acrylic/wool blends that I've made, but that was the only pair of 100% wool. So yesterday I dug out the leftovers bag and whipped up this pair for him. It's a Bernat pattern they had out a few years back when they made Lana, and I used Patons Classic Wool leftovers in old gold and olive. The cuffs were done on 4mm, the rest on 5mm. Ravelry details here.

I've got some leftovers in navy and too teal that I will use to make the Oldest One a pair. I may see if I can whip them each up a pair of Newfoundland mitts as well. Got some leftover Briggs & Little that will be good for those.

I'll have to see how much I can knit today. My right wrist is bothering me. Must have been from shovelling yesterday and knitting, too. I'd like to get some more done on my shawl today and start the Oldest One's mittens. I'll have to see how it goes. The shawl is coming along okay. Once in awhile I am short a stitch. I've gone over it to check for dropped stitches and/or missed YOs, but I don't seem to see any. The yarn is really fine, so I'm thinking that somewhere along the way I K2tog by mistake. Sometimes the YOs and the stitch next to it kinda stick together, and if I'm watching the Olympics and not paying attention then I'd decrease one by mistake. Since I can't find it (and I've done it two or three times now) then I don't figure anyone else will find it. Stuff like that usually bothers the heck out of me, but I'm letting it go.

By the way -- did anyone notice the hat that the lady from the US who won gold on the giant slalom wears? I've seen her with it on several times. I wonder if it's hand-knit or mass-produced. It would be easy to duplicate. (I watched that racing yesterday -- holy cow! The spills a lot of them took! That has to hurt. And that poor lady from France, I think it was, only made it a few feet out of the gate and wiped out. Something must have happened to her equipment or something.) And this guy is amazing! I saw his first run last night but fell asleep before his second turn.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Flicking back and forth today between the Olympics and the Daytona 500. Someone sent us a bunch of pictures of our truck being removed from the ditch after the accident in December. Here's some shots of start to finish.

Happy knitting!

Tonight's the Night!

Well, tonight's finally the night to cast on for the Ravelympics! I have mine ready to go. Since we're four hours ahead of Vancouver I won't get much knitting done tonight, but I plan on casting on a doing a little bit at least. I have to have the boys curling for 8am tomorrow morning, so it won't be a late night tonight. But I'm off the weekend, so I should get a decent amount of knitting time in.


Hubs is on his way home, he'll be home late this evening. He'll leave again on Sunday so he can catch the last few days of the pay period. We got talking about Dixie Lee at work today, so I got a craving for the macaroni salad. (We had a Dixie Lee here in town many, many, many moons ago.) I called him to see if he was still in New Brunswick, I knew he was in Quebec the night before. Anyhoo, he was, so I put in my order. I was at work, so T decided he wanted a 20pc barrel and two large coleslaws. So Hubs decided, of course, that he'd get himself some chicken, too. Then he calls back and says he's half-an-hour from the one he was stopping to, could I call in the order so he didn't have to wait for an hour. If they have caller id the poor girl was probably afraid she was getting a crank call! Felt weird being on the South Shore of Nova Scotia and ordering a meal from a restaurant in Moncton, New Brunswick! (The truck has a built-in fridge, so nothing will go funky on the way home.) He'll be home close to Opening Ceremonies, most likely. Hope he gets here so I can have some salad before the knitting commences!

Happy knitting!

Idea

So I got an idea last night. I saw that one of my Ravelry friends faved this the other day. I am in desparate need of new felted clogs, the ones I have now have huge holes. So I remembered that at the camper I had an old pair of sandals, but I couldn't remember if I brought them home or threw them out. I went down to the rec room last night to see if they were amongst the camper things when I spied a pair of flip flops in a bag of camper stuff down there. I had bought a five pack or something like that of flip flops one time from a friend who sold Avon. I don't like the thing between my toes, so I don't wear them. (And I think the dogs chewed on one pair.) Anyhoo... thus the idea that I could use the flip flops for soles of the new clogs! Just cut of that irritating toe-thong thing. (And I still don't know about the sandals, I never made it that far.) So I think in the next few days I'll try to crank out a pair of slippers for myself and try my experiment. These slippers only last me 2-3 months before getting holes in the bottom, so I have to try something.

In the meantime I finished up another pair of socks for Hubs. I love the Thuja pattern, it is so fast to knit and easy to remember. This pair was started on February 5 and finished the 7th, I used Briggs & Little Tuffy in greystone and oatmeal for the heels, toes, and cuff, and 4.5mm bamboo needles. Ravelry details here.


This is what it's like around here when you're trying to eat. Two vultures pretty much try and stick their faces into whatever you have 95% of the time. This is Jewel trying to check out the Littlest One's Reese's Puffs.


And the girls aren't happy that Daddy went back to work. Maggie has to go in her kennel a lot more often, and poor Jewel just looks sad. He's been gone since Sunday, so they aren't as bad now. But I've worked the past two days, so when I come home they're all over me and won't leave me alone! Wait til he comes home -- they'll be so excited they won't know what to do!

Happy knitting!

She's Finally Here!

After nearly two months, we finally got the replacement truck yesterday. Here she is in the shop, waiting to be decaled.

Hubs putting the decals on her.

Pulling her out of the shop.

It was too cold, and Hubs parked in the wrong spot or the sun was in the wrong spot, however you wanna look at it, for me to get decent shots of her with her fresh paint job. We bought the last truck from this shop, same salesman, and all I got was the bill. Hubs got a hat, and the boys got t-shirts. This time I got a pink Peterbilt hat, Hubs got a new Peterbilt hat and a nice jacket, three keychains, and a big calender that the Oldest One claimed. They also have Peterbilt keychains on their bookbag zippers.

He should be on the road tomorrow. Fingers crossed! Watch him call dispath and them not have anything, perish the thought.

I finished the Oldest One's hat, cowl, and mitten set, Ravelry details here. Started this set on January 27, finished February . I used Kertzer Accent Worsted in evergreen. I so love knitting with this yarn, it is great to work with. This is the hat pattern, this is the cowl pattern, and this is the mitten pattern. I love this mitten pattern -- it's easy, and it has a rounded top. I don't like pointy mittens. I did the largest size for the mittens as directed, the cowl is done as written except I cast on 130sts and used a 3.5mm needle. The hat I also downsized to 124sts and 3.5mm needles for the rib, up to 4mm needles for the rest of the hat. The first decrease round I only decreased 4sts so my stitch count would be the same as the rest of the pattern so I didn't have to do any mods to the decreases.

Crazy kid. It just hit me -- looking at this picture he looks like Kramer, lol!

Trying to get the Littlest One's set like this done and socks for Hubs before next Friday night. I also have a baby sweater to knit for the Boss Lady, she has a shower to go to at the end of the month. Have to try and knock this stuff off before the Ravelympics!!

Happy knitting!

PS Our Santa Fe sock yarn arrived. I put it all out today. I love the pink even though I'm not really a pink person. We got pink mist, tango red, indigos, alaska blues, and earth seasons. It's funny, Nova Knitter came in, and three skeins of indigo jumped in her purse and went home with her! Funny how that happens...