Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Fry has favorites.

So, the child and I were sacking up some trash and talking about our days. I said, "I got to go to lunch with Janine today, even though I couldn't go yesterday with Mary." Fry blurted in a you doofus tone, "What?! You didn't go with Mary?" To which I replied, "No, couldn't because of the windows guy." "Ohhhh." Isn't that sweet? Fry really likes going to knit group. Not because of the knitting, but because of the ladies there. She likes the cooing they do when she's there. Fry is so sweet and polite as she filches money from my purse for various treats.

In other news, our house is fast becoming a beagle magnent. After lunch, I came home to see a beagle sniffing around the neighbor's fence. I leaped out of the pickup, opening the garage door in case I needed a doggie treat bribe, and headed out to get what I thought was our dog. Nope! I could tell right away, this wasn't Lucky, but another dog. She (a big clue right there) had a collar and tags. When I finally got a hold of her, there was no ID tag. Turns out, Her name is Cammie and she lives a few doors down. What's funny is, if you have a dog, people assume you like dogs. Ha ha ha! Usually, I don't care for dogs, but the beagles are starting to get to me. That, and if a dog is well behaved, I'll turn into a pushover for giving them treats.

Ice is good.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Verdict is in.

Fry loves Middle School. They keep her busy, but she loves it anyway. She has a different teacher for each subject and all her friends are in her group.

The windows guy was over today. Plus, Mary was in the Northland (near me) and I couldn't be corrupted into visiting Urban Arts. The guy didn't finish putting in the four windows until 2pm. It's just as well.

I spent the entire day doing yarn stash inventory. I'm about halfway done. My stash, I think, is way more than my life expectancy. Maybe, if I have the guts, I'll post a partial list or something. Right now, it's quite a bit, not including a lot of the acrylics.

Tomorrow? More of the same sort/inventory/store work. Especially since I got used to the living room and kitchen being clean. Right now, our landscape is very tribblesque.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Break time is over!

Did you miss me?

::cue the chirping crickets::

Riiight. Stitches Midwest was wonderful, had a great time, added to the stash. Riding the bus up and back was no big deal, considering the usual road trips to the 'rents houses. Secretly, I love those trips. Imagine, no less than nine hours of forced, guilt-free knitting time. You'd figure I'd have finished object after finished object after all that time. Ah well. Mistakes were made, a sock was ripped, do-overs were done over.

I'll probably have to do a recap of Stitches at some point. The main thing for me was the market. Imagine all your favorite yarn stores in one spot where you can play touchy-feely with the yarn. Throw in a few esoteric yarn venders, and there you go. Considering I look at everything twice in our local yarn stores, I had my work cut out for me. Was it the walking that exhausted me? Nope! It was the constant restraint. Ha ha! The Fold was there, which I tried not to be a loiterer at. Then, Yarniverse is my new best friend. All the ladies there are wonderful. If I lived anywhere near them, I'd hang out there all the time, as an employee or not. Then, there's a place an hour from my house that I didn't know existed until Stitches. They do wonderful dye work.

Enough of the blather, let's look at what I need to shoehorn into my stash:
This is from Just Our Yarn. Two thousand yards of laceweight. Now I need to think of what shawl I want to do with this much lovely tencel.


Nuts. I thought I'd put this right side up. Oh well. I bought the kit to make the roundish shrug featured in Vogue Knitting's 25th anniversary issue. Can I do it exactly like the pattern? Probably not, since I've already changed the color scheme. Can't wait to start it!



I so totally need a decent digital camera. The current one doesn't do these colors any justice. This is yarn from Hand Painted Yarns and is gorgeous stuff. Rather pricey, but about like Colinette's stuff and is just as if not more lovely.


I found Alice Starmore's The Celtic Collection on Saturday afternoon. Thus, it's no surprise I ran back to Market in the hour I had left on Sunday to try and clean out Yarninverse's collection of New England Shetland wool. I'm determined to make the Kells sweater. Isn't it gorgeous? A bit big, but then, The Celtic Collection was published a while back, before the extreme fitted look came in style. (I can't find the shetland on Yarniverse's website, even though I know I bought it there.)


Here is some lovely Tango and Cascade 220, bought to replace the lovely felting fiasco shown. Sigh.


I love The Fold. They carry mass quantities of Blue Moon Fiber Arts stuff. This isn't the cheapest sock yarn you're ever going to find, but those colors! So lovely!


Speaking of 'cheap' sock yarn... Each of these bags were 75% off, so I had to get enough to make a sweater of both colors, right? I can't wait to see how the self striping sock yarn does on a larger tableau.


Shown here is enough burgandy wool to make a cabled sweater for my guy. Yes, a bribe for the Husband. Not only that, but there's some lovely cotton yarn for a nice summer sweater, too. Both feel wonderful.


Last, but so not the least is a couple of cakes of Koigu for socks, color P812. I'd seen this color at the Winter retreat and managed to resist. I finally gave in and got it. The color is so pretty!

To the far right is the local find I had to visit Chicago to see. It's from Textiles A Mano and is pure silk. It's a little over a thousand yarns of silken loveliness. I can't wait to start up something with it. The remaining skein is a total impulse purchase. What am I going to do with 440 yards of a silk/wool mix. Sheesh! But I couldn't just leave it, it followed me home!


Tomorrow, the windows guys are coming over to install a few windows. One of these is going into the yarn room. It's such a disaster zone in there. Everything is boxed or sacked, but there's so much. I'll need to carve a path... Also tomorrow, the official report of Fry's first day in Middle School.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

I'll miss her

My mom just left, and witch( I can't tell wich from witch.) she also said there is a guest blogger, Meeeeee! Since I don't know how upload pics there won't be any. I think all I'm going to do is to play on the computer and tortrue the big huge stain on the carpet(Claude) And I think I'm also going to watch cartoons in high def:) I hope that everone who is going to have fun and the people that aren't have fun to!! Last night when my dad and I took Lucky for a walk, Lucky grabbed the leash and showed me where to go:) My kid. Well I better go and do stuff.

Vicky

Every day is Fry day!

My little child is home! I feel horrible for my parents, having to do without her, but love having her here. She and I went shopping for school clothes yesterday, had a blast. We're looking forward to when I get back from Stitches. Then, we'll go swimming, go to a baseball game, celebrate her birthday, all kinds of fun.

Since I last blogged, the living room has been painted. It's spotless and looks great. I'll have to re-read what I posted earlier, since my coffee cup is still half full.

I might have a guest blogger on here while I'm gone. If she wants to, that is. :)

Slow and Steady Wins the Race