Personal Security ~ Computer Virus

My PC has a virus. While hubby was on the computer, I thought my anti-virus program popped up showing tons of infected file. In a panic, I clicked on removes files...that was it. I download this terrible computer virus on my PC. For the past 24 hours, I have been frantic on removing this virus. While online, I saw some post on how to remove this program. I proceeded to download some of the programs, but I can't get any of them to run! My PC is now totally infected. I've admitted defeat and I will probably be taking my computer to an IT for repair. In the meantime, I'm glad I have my laptop! (I purchased it last year while my PC was under another VIRUS attack). I'm trying not to get too bummed out!

On the knitting front, I've starting another project. I'm currently knitting the knit cable hoodie from Lion Brand. I wanted an easy project to do. It's been a life saver really. While I've been waiting for some of the virus programs to load (from the previous 24 hours), I've been working on this hoodie. It's actually been relaxing in the mist of chaos! I've finished with the back and now I've started on the front. My goal is to finish this by my birthday but I think I'm being too unrealistic! Oh well, I'll just gradually work on this and see how far I get with this. Otherwise, this will be my New Year's Eve sweater.

On a positive note, I'm thrill to report that my daughter wore her Astronaut/Butterfly/Cowgirl vest today. She already had a different outfit on and I decided to put the sweater on her. She didn't seem to mind it too much so I thought I change her whole outfit and put on a green turtle neck underneath. To my surprise she didn't mind! I'm so thrilled, she's wearing the sweater I made her to school! I took some action shots but it may be a while before I can load any pictures.

Here's to wishing everyone Happy Holidays !!!!! :)

Felted Slippers

As usual, I'm pressed for time so I hope I can write this blog with minimum typos!


I wanted to make the French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernadi but I decided to try another slipper pattern. (Less sewing and on a large needle with only 1 strand of worsted yarn). The pattern I used is from Knit.1, winter 2007 Felted Slippers pattern. This was a very easy pattern which knitted up quickly on a size 10 needle. I used about 1 1/2 skein of Brown Sheep Wool Yarn. At first I was worried that the slippers would not felt to size, since the lactual length after knitting is 15 1/4" and the finished (felt) length, 8 1/2". After knitting up the first slipper, I decided to purchase the French Press Felted Slippers. I'm glad I did because in the pattern, there were good tips on how to felt since this was my first attemp ever! I checked every 5 minutes to make sure I didn't "over" felt. Around 45 minutes, it finally felt to the correct size! I was over joyed! Now that I know the first slipper felt to size, I was anxious to make the second slipper. I love how it made the slippers look! Next time though, I would put the slippers in a zipped pillow case so there wouldn't be so much lint/fuzz on them!


Here's a photo of how "big" the slippers are before felting:







Jasmine checking herself out in the mirror while modeling my slippers....




For the last few days, I've been trying to find my next knitting project. Quite honest, I've been feeling a bit discouraged about knitting. I thought about knitting the #99 Flutter-Sleeved Blousy Lace Cardigan by Sweaterbabe or the Vine Yoke Cardigan by Ysolda Teague but I wasn't sure. This morning, I got up at 5am. I decided to plug in the Christmas Tree and drink a cup of hot chocolate while looking through Ravelry. It was actually very relaxing and I finally found my next project! I decided to knit the Cable Luxe Tunic by Lion Brand Yarn. I always loved this sweater but I always thought it would be too hard to knit up...so 3? years later, I'm finally attempting to knit this! All the cables are very intimidating since I am so new at it! I know this will be somewhat of a long term project! Let's face it, with an active 4 yo, I'm not going to get much knitting done since I have to really concentrate on this pattern! Wish me luck!

On a final note, I was actually thinking of knitting/crocheting up little christmas ornaments for the children in my daughter's preschool class (16 in total). I thought maybe little candy canes, snow flakes or reindeer ornaments would be cute....I have a week to make these before her christmas party!

Happy Holidays ~

Busy Month of November

November just flew by! I was looking at the date of my last blog entry and it was back in October... I've been busy, or trying to stay busy. I decided that I needed more adult activity and I've attended a few MOPs meeting (Mothers of Preschoolers). I've also attended my very first Knitting Group. It was a long drive, 2 hours but I wanted to meet up with people who share my common interest in Knitting.



As far as my knitting projects, I've been steadily working on some new and not so new projects. I started on the February Lady Sweater. This sweater took me about the whole month of November to complete. I think it took so long because the lace is so boring and I decided to re-do the front band on my feather weight cardigan (more on that later). The yarn I used for my February Lady Sweater is Plymouth Encore. This was one of my very first purchase from the LYS. I think I always had this sweater in mind for this yarn. Unfortunately, I'm not too thrilled with the color and one of the skeins had so many knots, it was awful! I did manage to finish my sweater. The modifications I made are to the underarm area (to eliminate most of the puffiness) and adding length to the sleeves. It's a very easy pattern , just tedious!

I also managed to re-do the front band to my Feather Weight Cardigan. I had made this cardigan in the summer using a lace weight yarn. While pulling on the band one day, I manage to snap the yarn...so I decided that this was a good time to re-do the band. I needed a break from my February Lace Sweater. I didn't realize that when I had picked up the stitches before, I did not pick up every stitch around the neck area. This time I did. I also decided to go with stockinette stitch and just do some rows of seed stitch to finish off the band. I was hoping this would eliminate some of the "curling". I switched from a size 6 needle to a size 7 needle for the seed stitch and used a size 8 needle for the bind off. I'm happy with the front being longer but I HATE the neckline now! I've decided for now, I'm not going to frog it and keep it as it. I'll probably wash it later and just let the neckline roll! (Yes, it still rolls w/o blocking). Here's a photo with the cardigan blocked:








My final project for the month of November was the Cowgirl, Astronault, Cowgirl Vest for my daughter. I usually only make projects for myself but lately, I've actually been making projects for other people. (I forgot to mention that I also made a pair of leg warmers for hubby somewhere between the February Lace Sweater and the front band of the Feather Weight Cardigan). I was inspired to make a sweater for my daughter because of preschool. I was noticing the cute outfits the other littler girls were wearing and I thought to myself that I could make something cute, if not cuter for her! So with that in mind, I searched for patterns and found this vest. I wanted to make this vest in a variegated pink/red combo but I couldn't find any yarn in those colors I liked. Instead I decided to go with a green theme. I had trouble deciding on what color to make the band, but with help from fellow raveler's and hubby I decided upon beige. The bottom half of the vest went very quickly. I was excited and looking forward to getting this done way before my mother in law's visit.... I wish that the rest of the vest went as well, but I had to frog almost every step along the way...After the decreases for each front side and each back side, the stitch count would not match up! I had to modify the decreases to make the stitches come out to 12. It was very frustating and my poor husband had to hear me complain! I feel guilty because the person was nice enough to provide a free pattern and it it a very beautiful vest! After a lot of perseverance and frogging, I did complete this sweater in a week's time. I'm happy with my color combination and I hope someday I can get my daughter to wear i for longer than a few minutes! If not, I'll always have something to show her when she's older, that her mommy lovingly made this sweater just for her!





Me with Hubby's Leg Warmers (With "X" and "O" lace pattern):

And finally my daughter's vest: (I actually found some cute butterfly buttons)!!!