Mustard Seed Yarn Lab

And it was FREE! Yup. You see, every single thing we buy, we charge on one card. It is the only credit card we have. I pay it off once a month, sometimes twice if I have the money, so I never carry a balance. For every purchase, we get points. For every 5000 points we get a $50 gift card. So this time we got an Amazon.com gift card and I ordered this beauty. Much of the yarn I get is in hanks, and it takes me hours to wind them up with the hank around my knees, and it hurts my back and gets tangled up and there’s lots of anger involved. But this I did today for the first time, and it was like having someone hold the yarn for me, and it didn’t tangle. It only took me about 30 minutes to wind my first ball of yarn on it! I’m in love. (And the yarn was quite beautiful too….a Christmas gift from my sister.)

And now for something Un-knitting related:

My cutie had his very first dentist visit this week. He had a great time. The place was amazing, just for kids. It makes me jealous. When I was little I went to my parents dentist. This was way before the time of wearing sterile gloves or anything, and all I remember is hairy fingers in my mouth. And it was never fun.

Not like this.

Here it is. I managed to make a Nutkin Evil Twin. Yup, it’s twisting around just like the pattern had warned it would if I did not carefully follow the directions at the cuff. Oh well. I don’t mind too much.

This is the first time I’ve done a cuff like that. It was a bit tricky. You knit 5 rows, then purl a row, then knit 6 more rows and fold at the purled row. Then, and here’s the tricky part, you knit together the live stitches with the cast on stitches, BEING CAREFUL TO MATCH UP THE STITCHES……..this I apparently did not do.

See? It twists. And when you put it one, the pattern makes it twist around your leg. Sigh…I learn through my mistakes.

This is the first time I’ve ever tried a 3 needle bind off, too. It makes a very nice toe, but puts a ridge across the top, which I actually think looks really nice on this pattern. Some people don’t like the bind off for that reason. You don’t have to do the Kitchener stitch, though….which personally I don’t mind, as I consider it to be like magic, but I know many people hate doing it.  Why are there 2 ridges across the top of my toe? Why, how very observant you are! One is because of the bind off, and the other is where I think I must have accidentally purled a row and didn’t notice until I was binding off. (The dangers of watching a movie while knitting.) But thanks for noticing.

This is also the very first time I have tried a short row heel. It was fun and easy!! Why then, did it take me 3 days to finish the heel?  Ahhh….you ARE a perceptive one, aren’t you? Well, it took 2 days of procrastinating before I started, that’s why. When I am about to learn something new, I tend to think about it a lot before jumping in. I don’t know why. But I liked the process, even more than making the usual heel, because I didn’t have to deal with picking up stitches for a gusset. When you make a short row heel, there is NO GUSSET! WooHoo! And it looks nice, although I’m not sure I like the way it looks more than the other heel.

And have I mentioned I love making socks with Berroco Sox Metallic yarn? Did you see the sparkles? (Of course you did, you noticed everything else.) It’s a joy to knit with and I haven’t run into any pooling… and I’ve got a thing for sparkly yarn!

So I learned quite a bit with this sock, finished it in about a week…would’ve been sooner if not for the above mentioned procrastinating, and now it’s time to start the second. But first…..I will start painting the kitchen. Turning a yellow kitchen green. No worries, I’ll post on that too, so you can see.

Yesterday was May 1st. One year ago yesterday, I lost my dad. The earth lost a great man, and Heaven gained one. He is where he wanted to be, and we celebrate his one year anniversary of being with the Lord. I cannot imagine the glories and wonders he is experiencing, and look forward to the day I can share those wonders with him.

I had my dad for almost 37 years, and although I wish it were longer, I know that some people don’t even get that much. And I am lucky enough to say that we were very close, right from the beginning.

He was a joy to me. So easily made happy, so in love with his children and grandchildren. And how he loved my mom. Words cannot describe.

He was so excited to see me get married, to walk me down the aisle, and I’m so blessed that I had him for this day.

I thank God that my dad was able to love my son, if even for a short while.  And that is the part that is hardest for me to deal with. That he’s missing so much of Emmet growing up hurts worse than anything else. I used to send him pictures almost everyday of Emmet, and he would call me when he got the email and we’d look at the pictures together, and oh, how he’d laugh and gush about how beautiful he was.

Now I talk to Emmet about Papa all the time. I so want him to remember his Papa and know how much he loved him. In the end, when dad was in so much pain, he would say he was just living for Emmet, because he really didn’t want to be part of this world anymore, in constant pain and full of sickness. He wanted to be with the Lord, and have his glorified body. And now he is, and he does, and I can’t say how happy that makes me, even if I have to deal with the hole in my heart.

Happy Anniversary Dad. Thank you for being the best father any girl could wish for.

 

(I know I promised a post about a sock, and that sock is indeed finished, and I will post about it in a couple hours….I need to take some pictures of it first. And Dad deserved his own post.)