Three Makes a Pair?

Yes, in this case, three does make a pair.  I was trying to make the second pair of socks for Kim.  The first sock just was not meant to be from the very beginning.  I tried to start on a day when I had far too many interruptions and had way too many blood pressure raising issues.  It only took me seven hours to get the first three rounds done.  I had to keep putting it down and attending to something else, and when I came back to it, I inevitably would make some kind of mistake and have to take it out and start over.  I continued to work on the sock the next day, and I thought I was making great progress. NOT! My first mistake occurred when I was starting to do the foot.  I had the whole leg and heel sections completed and had reconnected the heel to the rest of the sock with the gusset.  I was supposed to decrease two stitches every other round for the instep, but I forgot what I was doing and started to decrease four stitches every other round like for the toe. I had gone from the heel to the toe, with no foot in between.  Talk about a short sock.  I realized what I was doing, but I had to take out everything back to where I tied in with the gusset.  I thought I could live with the look of the stitches where I had to pick up to restart.  It is so hard to pick up sock yarn without it showing at least a little bit.  I continued on and finished the rest of the sock.  When I got finished, it was too short. The reason being is because I was trying to decrease the width of the sock, but keep the length the same.  To do this, I decreased the number of stitches per round by four.  I thought that I could just continue to knit the same number of rounds as the last pair of socks and the length would be the same.  What I didn't take into consideration is the number of rounds it took to complete the decreases.  It took less rounds to complete the decreases; therefore, shorter sock.  Anyway, I had to take out the stitches back to where I started the toe and add a few more rounds.  I figured it should be four, but I did five to be sure it would be long enough. It was great, the sock now was long enough after I once again finished the sock.  However, I could not live with the look of the sock because of the places where I had to pick up stitches.  I decided to make the second sock of the pair and then make my decision about what to do with the first one.  After the second sock was finished, I decided that I could not give such poor quality work to anyone, especially to one who was paying me to do it for them.  That is when I chose to knit a third sock and make it a pair of three socks. Kim can decide what she wants to do with the third sock.

Three socks make a pair.

This shows how poorly it looks where I had to pick up my stitches in the middle of the gray.  I really don't like it at all. It really looks worse to me in real even than in the picture. Thus, it warranted making the third sock, which went well and looks good. I'm glad I took the extra time and effort to make a nice looking pair of socks.

Now that the socks are finished, I will get back to knitting the Noah's Ark play mat.  There is still plenty of work to do with that.

First Pair of Socks Complete

I finished the first pair of socks for Kim.  Everything moved along quickly, with no big mistakes to correct.  I'm glad, since I have not made socks in a while.  Now, I will get to her other pair so that I can get back to the Noah's Ark play mat that I want to finish for the twins.

Sock on Kim's foot. I had her try it on after I finished the first one.

Completed pair

PJs for Joey

Whenever I get a request for something, I take a break from my current project and get right to work on it.  Cheryl requested button up pajamas for Joey because he is practicing his buttoning and he wants to wear button up pajamas every night.  He only has two pairs...one that I made for him for Christmas over a year ago and this pair is getting rather small on him, and a pair of Santa pajamas.  I bought the material for three pairs on Thursday night.  We were anticipating a blizzard on Friday, so I wanted to be able to work on them during the storm.  My goal was to get them finished before we lost power, since it was predicted that we would definitely lose it.  I started to cut them out on Sat. morning, just as the snow was beginning to come down.  I worked on them all day, and when night came, I had finished the sewing without losing power for my machine.  I could not believe that we had not lost it yet, because the winds were really blowing hard and the snow had built up on the trees and power lines.  I finished putting on the last button and got up to get my camera to take pictures for my blog.  I never even got to the camera and the lights went out.  It was about 9:30.  I was so happy to have finished my project, but could not believe my luck.  We were without power all day on Sat., so Cheryl came to my house with the kids to stay warm.  I have a wood stove, and she had no heat at all.  Joey was excited to see his pajamas and chose to wear the dinosaur pair first. 

Picture of all three pairs.

Joey looking mean in his dinosaurs.

Now that I have finished the pajamas, I am starting a new project before I get back to the play mat.  Kim wants more socks and she has prepaid for them.  I need to keep my customers happy, so I will get the socks finished before I finish the mat.  I only have two animals and their mates left to knit for that, along with the ark, rainbow, and the rest of the mat itself. I am furious with myself, because I started the first sock and knitted about forty rounds before I realized I was making the wrong size.  I had to take it all out and start over.  Why do I make so much work for myself.  Oh, the silliness of it all.  Joey would say, "Silly Grandma," and  he would be right.

Quiet Activity Books

I just completed the two quiet activity books that I made for my friend's grandchildren.  One is for Maya, who will be the older sister to the twins that I am making play mats for.  The other one is for the cousin, Bennett.  Hopefully, they will get plenty of use out of these books during church to help keep them occupied and quiet.

Front cover of Maya's book.

Page 1 is the shoe for lacing and tying. Page 2 is a jacket for zipping an open zipper.

Page 3 is pants for zipping and snapping. Page 4 is a blouse for buttoning.

Page 5 & 6 are the upper case letters and pocket to hold the lower case letters.

This shows the pages with the matching lower case letters.

Page 7 is for building a house with shapes. Page 8 is for matching the colored balloons to the color words.

This shows how the pages look when completed.

Page 9 is for matching the number to pictures showing the amounts. Page 10 is a backpack for buckling and for holding small toys to play with.

This shows page 9 completed and Page 10 with the toys outside the unbuckled pack.

Bennett's front cover.

Shoe for lacing and tying and jacket for zipping an open zipper.

Pants for zipping and snapping and shirt for buttoning.

Bennett's alphabet pages.

Completed alphabet page.

Bennett's shape page is for building a boat. Colored balloon page is the same as Maya's. I have no idea what that white thing is up in the corner of the boat page.  It isn't supposed to be there and it isn't as you can see below.

Completed boat and balloon pages.

Bennett's backpack is a little crooked, but what can I say...I'm never perfect.

Bennett's completed numbers and his opened pack.

Originally, I had planned on not doing any stitching or sewing with these books, just hot gluing.  As it turned out, I did have to do some sewing for the pants, jacket, shirt, blouse, and backpacks.  I was really pleased that everything has turned out so well.  Most of my projects are from patterns other people have made, and I just follow their plans.  However, these books are totally my creations.  I came up with the ideas all by myself and created all the patterns.  I have created other play mats from my own ideas and patterns, so more and more, I am getting better with it.

Now that I have finished these books, I will get back to the other play mat set.  I have finished knitting the first animal (a giraffe) and its twin that will be sewn onto the mat when it is finished. One down, six more to go, along with the rest of the mat and the rainbow.  Need to get cracking and get this thing finished, too.

"Ahhhh! Sweet Success

The first Noah's Ark play mat is completed.  Last night, I showed the animals. Tonight, I am showing the complete set.  It is always nice to complete a project.

This is the "Noah Has Landed" mat by itself.

This shows all the toy animals next to their mates attached to the mat.

This shows all the toys stuffed inside the ark. It is a tight squeeze, but they all do fit.

This shows the mat tied up with all the animals safely tucked inside for safe storage.

I turned my attention to another project tonight.  I am making quiet activity books for the sibling and a cousin of the twins to be. I am making them out of felt and hot glue.  I will not be doing any type of sewing or stitching with these books.  I already have the pages of the books assembled and completed the front covers.  I have to do some more prep work before I can begin to create the activities.  I plan to have activities like: lacing and tying a shoe, buttoning a shirt or blouse, zipping and snapping a pair of pants, zipping and buckling a coat, building with shapes (a house for the girl sibling and a boat for the boy cousin), and matching colored balloons with the color words. I am still working on an idea for doing something with counting or numbers.  I think I will have pictures of different amounts of objects and have the numbers for the child to match to the correct picture. Yea, I think I will do that.  It sounds good to me.  Glad I thought of it.  My mind is always working.  I hope I can put things away in my head for the night so that I can sleep.  I have been having a problem sleeping lately, because I have been so wound up with these play mats.