1. Blackberry pie.
2. 2 wonderful helpers that also just happen to be my daughters
3. Date nights with hubby…a must have for small escapes from the house!
4. Chocolate.
5. Reading Facebook, believe it or not.  It’s like an intriguing, ever-changing novel of people’s lives, lol.
6. Soaks in a hot bath.  But of course, this is nothing new.
7. Did I say Chocolate?  This is nothing new either, lol!
8. Reading multiple books at once…depending on what room of the house I’m in… literally.
9. Paying someone else to cut my dd #2′s hair for school…which turned out quite super cute, by the way.
10. Not homeschooling this year…this should probably be at the top of the list, lol!  Nothing against homeschooling, for I think it is perfect in exactly the right circumstances, as we ourselves have proven.  This year my #2 dd is going to be heading back to the ranks of public school, as we found out last year that for her, she is better with more structure and social aspects in her life… she positively blooms.  With me at home… she stews, lol.  ;}  So, this is more to be desired  for all concerned. 
11. Online shopping!  *see below…

My online shopping excursions have been extremely fun.  I’ve ordered (and received) 2 new looms from Decor Accents:  this one, and that one.  Love.  Them. 

I also ordered some magnets and buttons from here with my own 2 Cool 4 Stix logo…of course for some prizes and giveaways to be talked about at a later date. 

BTW:  My Cafe Press shop is having a 20% off sale over the Labor Day Weekend!  Please pop on by to check it out!

The 3rd item I’m excitedly waiting on to arrive is my lusciously warm and carefully chosen new colors of chunky & wool from Knit Pics… 8 balls worth!    The order has been shipped and I’m expecting it to arrive any day now…can’t wait!  

I’m planning on later sharing what interesting reads I’m perusing currently… laid out for your convenience in room by room order, lol.

Has the mail come yet??

Bethany~

I picked these, by the way…loooooovin’ em to pieces! (after the necessary learning curve on how to use knives that are actually sharp without cutting myself, lol!) 

Well…guess what?!  She’s having another contest for the same company!  This time it’s for a $65 giveaway!!!  WooHoo…count me IN!

Just thought you’d like to know…

Bethany~

We traveled to our home town on 3 very important missions:

1. To pick as many blackberries as we could track down,
2. To pick up our order of farm fresh blueberries that my parents fetched for us,  and
3. To have some fun at the SW Washington Fair! 

For these missions we took my niece, Trinity, and armed with long sleeves, pants and gallon buckets we headed to the wilds for DIY berry picking.  Despite prickles and scratches, the hot beating sun, and some strategically placed dog dahoogies, we collected about 3 gallons in under 2 hours!  I thought that was quite the bounty… after sharing with Trinity, enough for a couple of pies right off the bat, and some freezer stock as well!  My parents brought home 15 lbs of blueberries for us too.  Lovely!  This definitely called for some blueberry pancakes the very next 2 mornings in a row, lol.

We took off to the fair, had fun looking around and the girls rode rides till they were exhausted.  They had one ride that was new this year…Water Balls.  This was the trippiest thing…literally, lol!  It was so funny to watch them roll and slide like little hamsters in their balls, all while floating on knee deep water…loved it!   See the video below to watch  Emily and Trinity have some rip-roaring water fun:

Pop on over because the highest discount is available right now!  The discount will be dropping as time passes, so make sure to get in on the best deal right away… I’m definitely planning my order!

Need some new styles that sport your Loomy Love??  There’s a sale going on right now at Cafe Press:

Take 30% off White & Light T-Shirts when you order 3 or more and use the coupon code: WHOT30.  But hurry!  This sale ends on Sunday, Aug 30th.

Have a fun time shopping!

Bethany~

1. My daughter has started looming with me and she’s almost done test knitting one very doozy of a project.  Along the way, we’re taking step-by-step pics where needed.
2. I’ve gotten 5 patterns typed into the computer…including 2 very involved ones!
3. We got to travel to my little great-niece’s house to have a photo session with her sporting 3 of the projects for the book.  This was a lot of fun, as it was the first time the girls and I had gotten to meet her…she was only 2 weeks old at the time.  Such a sweetie-pie, let me tell you!  I realized I’ve already mentioned this trip in passing, but not in book context, so I thought it would be good to record about an official photo shoot, lol. 

That’s pretty much it for the book for last week.  I did get another pattern all typed up and submitted to the Loom Knitter’s Circle for the Fall/Winter issue, so be looking for that to be happening soon. This project is one of my favorites that I have been saving for just the right time to share with you all…I hope you enjoy it!

Something that has been taking up a lot of time last week is taking my daughter back and forth to the DMV for her written exam to get her permit (an all day long process!) and then…teaching her to drive! Yes, this is my 18 year old, newly graduated girlie, but she has until just recently been dead set against learning to.  Which, really, I think is very responsible of her.  She was so busy getting both her high school and her AA completed at the same time that she  wanted to focus on those things and not push herself too far over the top.  She also worried about being behind the wheel of a “several ton killing machine” (in her own words, lol) and didn’t feel ready for that kind of responsibility…which in itself is very responsible indeed, don’t you think??  She’s doing quite well…on Saturday, she even drove us to Fred Meyer and back.  This is really saying something, because we’re talking about driving in the streets of TACOMA!  Quite an ordeal when you’ve had tons of driving experience, let alone a newbie behind the wheel.  All in all, she’s doing quite nicely.

I think with everything going on, and all the things I’m holding in my mind, I’m starting to be a bit scatter-brained.  I’m starting to not be able to get my words out correctly when I’m speaking…strange things come out of my mouth that are really supposed to be intelligible, but are hybrids of real words and things I just make up in my addled mind, lol.  I’ve also had 3 instances last week where I was picking up something at the store which I was sure was the right thing, only to get home and discover it was absolutely the wrong thing…something that’s been a long standing joke in my family about being my hubby’s trouble, only to now find myself being afflicted.   It didn’t make it any better that in every case it was something that he most often uses, and I got it wrong.  *sigh*

All this made going to my hubby’s annual family picnic for his work  yesterday very nice indeed.  I just played bingo for most of the time.  It was very soothing to only have to worry about the numbers in front of me and the only action required was placing a penny over the ones being called, lol.

…okay…enough whining.  Onto what’s up for the week ahead:

1. Type 5 more projects into the computer.
2. Complete test knitting for current item.
3. Proceed to 2nd test knitting item (with pics).
4. Bring to life 3 more projects from my notebooks.
5. Enroll Megan into her new school.
6. Survive more driver’s training.

If I make it through all that, it will be a small miracle indeed.  Well…considering the driver’s training, it might not be so small after all, lol! 

Hope you all have a super fantastic week!

Bethany~

Well…I’m actually only counting it as one of the seven that need to get done this month, but it really is three individual variations of a project that was on the list to be created, although it is under one main pattern title.  Got it?  Good!

The other interesting piece of news is that I now have an employee!  My daughter Emily is going to be helping me loom up some of these goodies so that we are actually going to have a chance at meeting these deadlines…yippee!   She’s a very talented yarn crafter and will be an excellent right arm…especially since I’m a leftie, lol.

I did get to travel to my old home town of Chehalis twice last week.  We went to see my new grand-niece, Presley Elizabeth, on Tuesday…what a precious thing she is!  So cuddly and sweet…I could just hover over her and take pictures of her every breath and twitch, lol.  It was hard to pull away!  I found myself with the same difficulty when I got to visit with her again at our Albright Family Reunion on Saturday, which was the other reason for us to travel south.  It was really a lot of fun seeing everyone again and we realized when taking group pictures that we had FIVE generations in attendance!  Wow!  That’s something, isn’t it?  We decided that we’re going to bring the family into the computer age by starting a FB page so we can stay in touch better…that’s another something when you consider all those early generations figuring out how to work it all, lol!

Well…I should be off.  Back to Loomy-ville I go, lol!   I’m thinking of making a collage of bits and pieces of projects finished thus far for the book…let you try and guess what they all are, lol!  Maybe I’ll have a little prize for the someone who guesses the most correct items.  hmmm…definitely something to think about!

Have a wonderful week…make it gReAt!!!

Bethany~

I’ve just today completed project number 13 for the BOOK!!!!  I’m really thrilled with how they’re all coming out…I hope that you will be too when I finally get to share them with you.   It’s been like expecting a baby and keeping all the milestones and progress a secret, lol. 

My goals for the end of the month of August: 

• Complete 7 more new projects for the book.
• Type all the patterns into the computer…I should be doing this as I go, I suppose, but I tend to take my knitting everywhere with me, and my little design notebooks go along for the ride, too.  Inside their pages are stashed all my notes for new projects as I knit, as well as  little drawings that will be included as pics/sketches to help with the understanding of the process of re-creating them.  I have been really hesitant about changing the way I record the patterns, because the notebooks have become like little creative diaries for me over the last almost 6 years.  I can look over past notes, doodles and designs and remember everything that was happening in my life at the time. They’ve in a way, become good friends…it’s never easy to turn your back on a friend, right?  :)  …so back to my goal: begin typing all the patterns into the computer, lol.

I think that’s quite enough for 30 days, don’t you?  September will have it’s own goals that will require re-knitting these projects into other sizes/colors, photography, step-outs, editing…etc. 

All in all, I think things are moving along quite nicely!

Bethany~

ps:  Just out of curiosity, I went back and counted all of my original patterns and projects that have been scribbled down into the pages of my little design diaries and counted a total of…72!!!  No kidding…I really had no idea there were so many, lol! 

Itty Bitty Bags... Featured in the LKC Spring '10 Issue

I just thought you might like to know that there’s a Loom Along going on in Ravelry for the Itty Bitty Bag project!

It’s in the newly formed group for the Loom Knitter’s Circle Magazine.  If you’re not a member yet, you should pop on over and join in on the fun!

I’ll see ya’ there!

Bethany~

As I was knitting this project for the 2nd (& 3rd!) time, I realized that there are some things that I wanted to actually do different to make things a bit smoother as I worked through the project.  I decided that it would probably be a good idea to share those tips with you, in case you had a canine buddy that you were planning on creating this really quite adorable little sweater for.  **Keep in mind that you’ll actually need to refer to the original pattern in the book to be able to follow along~

So here we go:

In creating my 2nd “Santa Parka”, I actually used only one strand throughout, which made the project a little less dense.  This is a good way to go if you don’t need such a thick parka. Also, the white furry trim was a tad bit thinner  (#5 bulky) than the original choice of yarn (#6 super bulky), so the number of rows differed just a bit for the body of the project.

The next thing I changed up was in the shaping of the front chest area, when the project begins to be knit in a flat panel.

Row 22:

• You’ll actually be going backward one peg (from 5 of the previous row to 4 of this row) when you “twist” yarns, which is fine, just keep it kind of loose so the project doesn’t pucker here.
• When you’re ready to move to the MC, you’ll actually need to CO a new strand, because your original strand is “stranded“, lol, at the other side of the loom.   (*note: you can actually cut the original MC strand, as you’ll now be using the newly CO strand throughout the project.)
• At peg #23, CO a new strand of CC yarn…Do Not Cut Original Strand! You will now have 2 strands of CC yarns for working the trim on each side of the panel.

Row 23: In order to make this work with the 2 strands of CC, after your decreases, you’ll need to go backwards with your first strand again, twisting loosely around MC so as to not pucker, from peg 8 of the previous row to peg 5 of this row.  You’ll need to do the same at the end of the row for the 2nd strand of CC, from peg 3 to 23 (crossing backwards over pegs 2,1 & 24).

After this maneuvering, you should be able to now use your -CC strand at each end and MC strand- interchangeably as you panel knit back and forth for each row of the pattern….whew!  It’s a mouth full, but as you are working the project, you’ll clearly understand what I mean (I hope, lol). 

With the change of yarn types, I actually only knit in the pattern until Row 50, then increased the # of  the thinner CC yarn to a total of 10 rows for the base.

Again, for the difference in yarns, I changed the strap rows to 48.

Row 54: Peg #3 will only have 2 loops (not 1) and will therefore not be KO.

Row 55: Peg #3 will be KO 2 loops over 1 (not 1 over 1).

Weave in all ends…with the extra yarn maneuvers listed here you’ll have a few more ends to weave in, but the results are definitely better when all is said and done.

Okay…that should do it!  I hope this helps you when creating this project, and gives you the freedom to create your Pooch Parka in other styles and colors of yarns for an unlimited variety of finished looks.    As always, I’d love to see your pictures, and would be honored to post them in the Clique Pics Page!  ***Also, please feel free to post any questions you might have about this pattern right here in the comments section of this post, and I’ll answer here as well, so that we can keep all the learning process in one place for everyone’s benefit.

Happy Looming!

Bethany~

I can say without any hesitation that everything was an absolute delight…a perfect trip from start to finish!  The weather was just right; warm and breezy, yet not overpoweringly so, with bright blue skies the entire time.  We drove first to the northern tip of the island on Friday afternoon and stayed in Oak Harbor.  We spent through Saturday exploring the general vicinity, including Deception Pass State Park, Deception Pass Bridge, and the local shops.  The Beach at the park was fabulous: calm and sheltered, no massive rush of wind that you normally get when you head to the coast…needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there!  We enjoyed the pool and jacuzzi at the hotel to it’s fullest as well.

On Sunday morning, we checked out out of our hotel and headed south down the length of the island, ready to stop at anything that looked interesting.  What a delight this trip was!  So full of wonderful views of foliage, farms, flower filled meadows, mountain vistas, all framed by the sparkling blue water of the Sound.   We soon saw signs about the Loganberry Festival at Greenbank Farm, and turned in to see what it was all about.  We had a great time exploring this festival that was filled with fun market booths, artist demonstrations, live music and great food!  There was even a building that housed homey type of crafts such as weaving, spinning, block printing, and silk painting…needless to say, I stayed here a while, ooohing and aaahing, lol!   The funny thing about this festival was that there was (that we could see) not an actual loganberry in sight, lol!  There were loganberry wines, jams, pies and syrups, though. 

After the day was spent at the festival, we continued along the island, traveling through quaint villages and more scenic views, and generally getting a feel for what we would love to make sure to spend more time doing when we make this trip again.  We ended the day by getting onto the ferry at the southern tip of the island and heading to the mainland.  This was fun, as it was our girlies’ first trip ever on a ferry, and many years since either one of my hubby  or I had gotten to ride one.  It was a lot of fun…and could have been much longer for us to truly enjoy it to the fullest!

I’ve put together a little slide show detailing our trip…I hope you enjoy the views as much as we did!