Time well spent

First of all I wanted to let everyone know that, yes, I'm still here! Life has really got in the way of my blogging and to some extent my knitting. Last week between school/family obligations and preparing for our church's harvest festival as well as selling pies all day Saturday at the fair, things were quite busy. I baked a chocolate cake for the cake walk and made a double batch of pizzelles for the bake sale. Then on Friday at church I helped make 50 apple pies to sell at the fair. Normally our local apple orchard donates 2 bushels of apples, all peeled and sliced for the pies, but not this year. They only donated one bushel and we had to purchase the other bushel. To top it off the apples were not peeled or sliced. Needless to say we had to recruit help fast and get those apples peeled and into pies. We manage to do it and the pies really came out beautiful (and delicious) this year. Sorry no photos :( We sold all 50 pies even before the fair ended. That's a record for us. Normally we have a few left over to be sold the following Sunday morning. The pizzelles sold fast, too. Now I know a good item to bake for future fairs. I don't mind the work if it makes money for the church :) No, I didn't knit anything for the fair. Last year I made up a basket of dishcloths for the bountiful basket's silent auction which only got the minimum bid and last springs silent auction's Sakura Cherry blossom shawl, also, only took in the minimum bid. I feel the hand knit items do not do very well considering the countless hours put into them not including the cost of the yarn. I would rather spend time baking the pies and on other baked goods. The 50 pies made $500. I definitely think that was time well spent!!

Yesterday, I came very close to buying myself a computer, a laptop that is. I have been saving money for a very long time in hopes that I would be able to get my very own computer. It seems like I am always competing for computer time and I thought it would be nice to have a laptop for the portability factor. Best Buy had a Compaq Presario laptop on sale that seemed like a really good buy (with great reviews) for the money. I even went to the store to buy one (they had 3 in stock), but was quickly talked out of it by the computer clerk. He told me all the things that could go wrong, from the liquid crystal screen getting hots spots (can't be replaced or fixed) to the keys getting stuck...to needing a new battery (new ones cost $200) and to top it off he didn't think I would like Vista..too many bugs still. He wanted to sell me all sorts of protection packages which would have made the computer totally not affordable. He suggested that I could get a laptop for the same amount that I wanted to spend, but with XP installed. After looking a bit laptops with XP, there are far and few to be found and not at the same price. I'm starting to think now that I don't even want a laptop now, but there is really no place in my house where I could put a desktop. Was I duped? They are now sold out! I'm sure many of you out there have laptops and with Vista home premium. Can I buy a lap top without all that extra protection? Any advice would be appreciated :)

Now, for some knitting content. I finally finished my husband slippers!
Remember the soles I sewed up:
This is how they felted:
and here are the soles sewed on:I used shelf liner for the non skid soles. Read about it here.


For my skeptics out there (edited 9/25/07) :

My brand new soles (finished 3/9/07)
and here they are today, after being worn:

I wear them as house slipper only. They are not worn outside. I think they have held up very well. I find them very safe...no slipping or sliding on hard wood or tile floors. Very easy to sew on. I use double regular sewing thread to attach the sole and have had no problem with them coming off. Even if the soles wore out it would be very easy to replace. For the money I think this is a great option to prevent falls and keeps the felt from wearing out.

My baby blanket:
- is almost finished. Not too much more to do. Should be finished soon.

I thought the following was interesting enough to pass on to those of you who like my ball band toilet paper cover. There is a brand new book coming out that has all sorts of cute patterns for more toilet paper covers. I got a kick out of it... a whole book dedicated to toilet paper covers...I thought I was the only weird one out there. I know I love mine and the ones in the book look like they would be fun for kids bathrooms. Some things never cease to amaze me :)

Now, I have to get going and catch up on everything including all my tagging assignments. I've been tagged by 4 of my knitting friends for various things or exercises...I will get to my assignments eventually...right now I'm still playing catch up. Hopefully everyone will understand. Happy knitting everyone:)

A beer cooler or in my case...

...a brand new knitting basket. Last week my husband's company had an outing for it's employees and they gave out these beer coolers as gifts:
My husband took one look at it and told everyone: "My wife will be using this for her knitting!" He was so intuitive...it's much more serviceable as a knitting basket than a cooler, don't you think? It would never work as a cooler...too open; your ice would melt in an instant :) I love my new knitting basket!

Look what's inside:
I'm knitting this ripple baby blanket for my friend's daughter's baby, a girl, who will be born in October. The pattern I am using comes from an old Leisure Arts leaflet #64, published in 1976. The pattern is super easy with only one pattern row to really worry about. The yarn, Bernat's Softee Baby, is so soft and cuddly.

Lastly, yesterday I felted my husband's slippers:
They are still wet and I have no idea how long it will be until they are completely dry. I am so glad I waited until he was home (and could try them on) to felt them, as they felted really quickly. If I had let them go any longer in the washing machine, I don't think they would have fit him. He is very please with them and they fit (with plastic bags) perfectly. They both are really the same size. They just appear to be two different size due to the angle, trust me :) Once they are dry, I'll be sewing on some non skid soles just like the soles I put on my clogs.

Guess that's it for now. Happy Knitting :)

A clodhopper and a half

Here are my husband's birthday slippers finished and ready to felt:
They sure are huge, measuring 16 inches from heel to toe! I'm behind with my schedule...I didn't get to felt them yesterday as I had planned. Now I need to wait until I have the time to fiddle with them during the felting process. My husband doesn't mind that they'll be late as he knows I'm making them for him and he probably won't start wearing them until it gets a little cooler. I'm just happy that they're finished and I can move on in my other knitting ... a baby blanket :)

The following pictures are for Deb (better known as knottykitty). She left a comment for me:
At 10:40 PM, September 06, 2007, knottykitty said...

"Your felted clogs look great! Would you believe that my pair are STILL sitting on the table waiting only for the bottom seams, because I kinda don't know how to seam them? All they need is those dumb seams to make them ready to felt--maybe you could post a picture on your blog of how you seam the bottom of yours! I'm sorta lost on that part.... :)"

Well, Deb, here are a couple of pictures to show you how I joined the two sides of the soles.
The pictures are really awful and it's rather hard to describe with words. First, I joined the inner sole from the bottom, then lastly the outer sole. The pattern says to use a back stitch. With my needle I picked up part of the stitch on one side starting at the heel and sewed it to the other side, then I move back to the right, insert my needle and sewed anther stitch. Essentially I am doing a backstitch with the edges butting, not with the right sides together as is traditionally done in the sewing of fabric. Instead of whip stitching it together - doing a back stitch prevents the yarn from getting pulled in the felting process. You want to keep it as flat as you can, but remember felting really hides any imperfections. I also didn't worry too much about the looks of the sole because I will be sewing the non-skid soles on the bottom. I am not at all claiming that this is the proper way to do the seaming...it's just the way I interpret the pattern. Here's the clogs with the soles sewn up.
Hope this helps, Deb. Good luck putting them together! Give it a try and let me know how you make out :)