I'm such the fool.

Norma of Norma Knits (link should be to the left), got me bad. I'm shamed, but at least am not the only one.

Then speaking of other bloggers, in the Flash Your Stash type of MEME, January One has a stash comparable to mine. After this, I'll list the projects languishing in the living room, but for now...

We're enjoying a Monty Pythonathon. Fry made marvvy whole wheat pancakes. Not too fattening. Alas, the Pythonathon is from 10:00am to 10:00pm and the weather outside is fantastic. Maybe during the not so favorite episodes, I can run around outside and catch up on some yard work. Or, just sit and knit. Ha! Commercial breaks are great, the dishes get done (no, I didn't get any housework done yesterday, totally goofed off.), the laundry washed, and the cat squished.

Did I swatch KP's Crayon? Nope. Will I today? Yep, and I'll blog about it between now and Monday. In the meantime, here's what's keeping my living room a wreck:

Do-overs and Fixes:

Grey Yoke sweater
Orange sweater for Fry (done a few years ago)
Irish Sweater (bought in Britain, washed in America, before I knew how well wool felts)
Fall Sweater (the striped thing needing a do over on the collar)
Snowflake sweater (originally for Fry, needs sleeves and a do over on the collar)
Edge baby blanket with simple lace
Fix felted Noro bag (so it won't do that bendy thing in the middle when held by the handle)
Lion Hat, tighten up to fits real person, not basketball.

Start from Scratch:

3 Quick knit sweaters (turtleneck, double stranded worsted weight, like Mom's)
1 Lion Brand Jiffy sweater
3 Peruvian Wool sweaters
1 Seafoam ballet sweater
1 sportweight dark red sweater
1 entrelac sweater
1 bright primary colors sweater
1 Paton's Grace cremecicle sweater
1 Lion Brand sweater kit
1 Prism's Wild Stuff sweater
2 Rowan Summer Tweed sweaters
2 cat afghans (but not for cats)
1 wave afghan (like the Moms' only browns and tans)
1 baby sweater
1 Noro cardigan/sweater (I've not decided)
1 blue/purple afghan
1 Bird's eye Shawl
1 bright green mittens pair
1 bright yellow mittens pair (thanks to Maenwyn for the yarn!!)
1 eyelash scarf in purple
1 grape leaf scarf
1 seafoam scarf
several soap sachets in Peaches and Cream cotton
3 scarves
2 Odessa hats, beads already strung
1 pair cheap mittens from a kit
1 woven shawl from the loom (which is down in the basement because it's somewhat large)
2 Cascade Fixation pairs of socks
4 pairs Moda Dea socks
1 pair Katia socks
3 Regia, 1 Fortissima, and 1 mixed pairs of socks
My father's birthday present, a pair of Spongebob Socks, complete with googly eyes.

Shamefully, there's more, much more, in the basement. Baby sister Goopa gets all the seafoam items, at least 4 of the sweaters are for Hubs, and three are for Fry. There are 3 for me, and the others are up for grabs.

I should spellcheck and link, but honestly, I'd rather finish up the white Odessa hat on my needles. There's a little basket next to the scanner with the hat and a few skeins of sock yarn allocated for kid's socks or waiting for their mates in the mail. Plus, is the Crayon waiting to be reviewed. The cat likes to try and dig out a skein to use as a pillow, when there's no paper or plastic to lay on. I've got a small stack of knitting bags, drug up from the basement and sorted, that Claude is laying on, asleep. I don't have the heart to rouse him to put the bags back. When his spot of sun is in the right place and he goes there to sleep, I'll put them up then. :)

A shout out to all my peeps!

Yo, Peeps! What be up with you bad self, uh?

There are some things a middle aged white woman should never say. The above is a good example.

So, do you think beloved Hubby will get odd looks if I march him into the Yarn Barn to ask for Berocco Plush in Banana? Especially if he's wearing his BDUs(aka, Army camouflage)? The women would be thrilled to see a guy buying yarn. Number one, he's really cute (yes, I'm biased) and he's butch. Yes, he has a great decorating sense, uses 'window treatments' correctly in sentences, and has a copy of the Sound of Music. If there are gay guys for whom the above does NOT apply, stands to reason there are straights for whom it does, right?

Husband will torture me if I don't caveat this with a disclaimer: He has never broken the cellophane on the Sound of Music VHS. The movie was bought not because of the Julie Andrews affection but because Hubs has skied in the mountains featured in the film.

Yesterday was exhausting. I delivered the papers due to Fry and Father having a dinner at the Knights of Columbus. All the people made over our beautiful daughter and she even wore a hint of eyeshadow. She wore her little black dress and insisted she wear my Seascapes shawl. Sigh. I don't like her doing so, not because she'll ruin it but because of the mistakes. She loves it, though.

I had to hurry on the papers because I got to teach an Intermediate class last night. The library was close to home, so that was nice. I don't mind the driving time, but with the tight deadline, I didn't have the hour to get there to spare. Carissa, a student that was at a couple of other classes I taught was there and brought things to show off. She's a sweetheart and I'm hoping she'll come to the Sip, Sit and Knit, because I think she'll fit in fine. Plus, she lives down in that area of town. There was also another repeat from the prior class I taught in the library and she's a sweetheart, too. She's good and asked a ton of questions. The final two students were extreme overachievers. They knew how to knit and purl, but just barely, so in this class they should have been over their heads and frustrated. Nope! The ladies did wonderfully. We did yo, m1, and kfb (knit in front and back) increases. Then did the ssk and k2tog just to see the slants of the decreases. THEN, we mixed it up doing yo's and ssk's together in the same row, so they'll see how easy lace can be. One of the girls asked about psso (pass slipped stitch over) and k,p,k in one stitch. They're all eager for the fall and the advanced class. It'll be fun.

Plans for today? Getting the house cleaned up for tomorrow. There's a Monty Pythonathon on BBC America and I'm using it as an excuse to be a knitting sofa spud. I know I'll regret giving the SS&K group a miss, but...that's two hours knitting time I'm losing out, plus the spike in gas money would buy me a cute skein. Like, the Plush for the Peeps, maybe? ;) In Banana because I'm classic Peep kind of girl.

WIP Note: The Odessa hat is a do-over due to gauge. I kept thinking "Surely it's not supposed to be this small," and no, it's not. Look at the last picture of it I scanned and imagine bigger. Size 5 needles instead of 3s. Duh.

Coming up: Knit Picks Crayon review and finally, my answering MEME for Camie. It's only been in my draft section for days now. :P

It's not me, it's you. All you and all your fault.

I've made several of my triangle shawls on size 15US needles. In several different type of yarns. But this, this is bad. I hate this shawl. It's stretchy to a point where the upper points stretch beyond all reason. It's pretty, though, and Hubby says I look cute when I wear it like a babushka. My cousin will love it, even though I don't.




Ever have project anxiety? It hit me this morning as I looked at all my fabric. I was searching for a dress pattern for Fry's Confirmation. Must be white, must not be too foo foo. She's already not happy at having to wear a tiara/veil thing. I have to be careful in my glee. There's nothing worse than a girl in a sweet fairy princess dress wearing a murderous scowl on her face. There may be some sewing going on around here, first the dress and then me quilting all the pieced tops I've got laying about.

Didn't know I quilted, huh? I quilt in the very loose sense of the word. My edges don't line up like I think they should, but I've got good eye for color going for me. The scraps of fabric inspire me, so once the sewing machine is oiled, the dress made, I'll finish some quilt UFOs.


Oh but the knitting projects. With the shawl done, I'm wanting to finish up the Odessa hat. Then, for April's Project Spectrum, some Spongebob Socks for my father and his birthday. In May, I have some various yarns in seafoam green already allocated to my baby sister. For my just younger than me sister, Toppa, I'm going to have to make something blue to show of her gorgeous blue eyes.

It is soooo nice outside, I can't sit and type any more!

Happy Monday! Shine Worsted Review

How's THAT for an oxymoron? Cool, huh!

I have pictures and that Friday yarn review that I was too lazy to post on the actual day.

Voila'.

This is Knitpick's Shine Worsted. It's prettier in person and like butter to knit. Smooth, shiny, but not slippery, even on the metal needles seen here. Ribbing goes easy, as does purling. I've been doing a lot of circular knitting, so the purl is out of practice. There's been no splitting during the knit, and at $2.50 a ball, it's affordable. This, while cotton, would be better worn than used as a dishcloth. There's no scrubbiness to it and it feels good against the skin.




The only pattern featured on the site for this yarn is a shrug in Terracotta on size 15s. My friend Maenwyn is interested in the pattern. The yarn is lovely and easy enough, plus soft and smooth, that I'd rather use a pattern with more solid fabric. The yarn is that sweet against the skin.

Next Friday, which is really this Friday, I'm reviewing KP's Crayon. This is a buttery little cotton featured in an email I'd received from Knitpicks. The skein already feels like a stuffed animal, and I'm eager to knit this one up.



I'm a pushover for a Grumperina pattern, yes. But this is so lovely! Small, though, and yup, I did check gauge. :DThis is a great yarn, soft and again, sweet. Don't get it wet. Seriously. The stuff smells awful, like the cat peed on it or something. Blame it on the sheep. I'm not fond of how wet sheep or dogs smell. Ick. Still, it dried to a non-smell.


In honor of Project Spectrum March's Pink/Red theme, behold, the bikini! Or not. Really, it's the beginning of a shawl for my cousin. She covets one I made for my mother, and the mix of colors will look beautiful on her. This cousin is so pretty, everything looks good on her, though. :)




We had fun this weekend. Did pretty much nothing. Hubs and I had a date night for a couple of hours. Ate at an Indian place, then hung out at Barnes and Noble. Saturday was the knitting group, great as always. Sunday, grocery shopping while hungry. Bad,yes, but the cubords were bare, sort of. That's code for "We only had real food, no quick dinners or snacks."

Cameras are good, m'kayyy.

I love South Park's Mr. Mackey. Too funny!

I also adore Chelle! See what she sent me? Mom's Jaywalkers in progress. Sometime, I'm going to HAVE to join the 21st century and get a working digital camera. Ah well.

Do Over!

Darn uht! I had this whole post done, complete with next project news, the unravelling of the grey sweater, and then MSN dumped me out. Below is what Blogger could recover. Ah well, I needed to get off the computer and get going anyway. Crumbs.

What a wonderful time! Fry and I went on an epic road trip where we were spoiled rotten before coming back home. Mom and Dad fixed us fantastic meals, we slept in, and were their little babies. Once home, Hubs had cleaned up the kitchen, which was very nice. He missed us but drowned himself in geneaology. He goes on these ancestor jags where everyone who ever fought in a war must be registered. He's already a Son of the American Revolution several times over, but has to have every single guy in the rolls. I told him that it was silly, how many guys does he have to be decended from, but then, my own yarn addiction sprung to mind. Case closed. :D

Speaking of which! Mom was very sweet and patient while looking at my Knit Picks stash, and then the Socks that Rock skeins. Dad loved the STRs, too. I had in mind the Red Rock Canyon colorway in mind for him, once I could bear to take off the cute little labels. I suppose I'm going to have to order a whole bunch more colors, just to knit the ones I do have. ::insert innocent look here:: In the meantime, I'm doing a swatch of the Knit Picks Shine worsted for Maenwyn in our knitting group. I'll probably do that as a review tomorrow for the blog, plus bring Ms. M a little ball of the stuff to play with. Like Elann.com sends out in their samples newsletter. I might need to sign up with that again. There's nothing better than getting surprise yarn in the mail, even if it's in bits.

Mom has the picture of a family of Jaywalkers! Hers are done. The knitting group saw them, but I didn't even scan them in. Der! She loves them, and they're sturdy so she can wear them all the time. Plus, I have an entire skein left over, so if one should get snagged on a heater vent, they're easily replaced or repaired. Here's where I found this particular yarn. It's very inexpensive, yet has wool in it. I want do make socks from this in every color, but since I'm doing that with Moda Dea already... I might wait on that. ;)

Chelle, you're so sweet to worry! We got to Oklahoma just fine, and in time for the next day's tornadoes. They were a county away at the closest. Then, we left early enough yesterday to avoid the snow.

Road Trip!!

Tomorrow, Fry and I will undergo an epic journey. A saga of grand proportions. Armed with only a new Nintendo DS and an MP3 player, we will drive across the frozen tundra to the ever popular Gran and Pop's.

Gran, unlike us over here in the 18th century, has a digital camera. Fry and I are packing our Jaywalkers so that we can have her take our group foot photo. Once back home, I'll post it here and send it for Grumperina's gallery. I can't wait!

The Sit Sip and Knit group are a bunch of sweethearts. We had a lot of fun and everyone is so talented. I always get yarn envy when I go, the projects in progress are so cool.

I need to post pictures of the stash enhancement from Friday's oil change (our mechanic is a block away from a yarn store and a wonderful bead store). But, Law & Order: SVU is on and Mom's birthday present is in my lap, distracting me. There's also a huge stack of paperwork on the kitchen island begging my attention, never mind the packing I need to do before 10:30am tomorrow. Wonder if I can swing by Knit Wit tomorrow on our way out of town without Fry getting grumpy at Mom hanging out at a yarn store? ;)

Bad Blog! No Soup For You!

Blogger's been down for a couple of days, it's not me being too lazy or wrapped up in Sims 2 to update. Paper route and teaching a class on Thursday, Fry out early for spring break today. With us going to Gran and Pop's on Sunday, there was an oil change, shopping, and then we're having dinner at Jose Pepper's tonight. Nothing says St. Pat's day like Mexican food. Ole'!

Note to Gran: Fry was NOT happy that most UK citizens call their grans "Gran". Her gran is THEEE Gran.

Irish Gaelic is the worst to spell. I can say a few phrases, but type or write them? Nooooo. In honor of Saint Patrick's day, I'll tell you how to say it. Phonetically, it's Lyle ah Porrick. "Lyle ah" sounds like one word on my Irish tape. What's really fun is to listen to Radio ah Gaelgah (again, how it sounds, not spells) and hear words that are familiar. I'm always surprised, because that means I'm actually learning. Who'da thought?

Tomorrow is a birthday party for Fry to attend while I'm off at the knitting group. I'm returning "A Good Yarn" and working on Mom's present. I'm dying to start something else, but must stay focused. By Monday I'll have started something red/pink for the new knitalong, Project Spectrum. That, and I'm pinning down the family this weekend for the great grey unravelling.

Off in the distance, I hear it. In the direction of Jose Pepper's... Guacamole calls my name...

From zero to postal in sixty seconds

I swear to God, if I get one more f*ing call from "Computer Literacy and Benefits Program", I will drive to Denver, if that's where they really are, and kick their Punjabi asses. They called TWICE today, waking me from a nap both times. Why napping? Because I'm beat! I've caught Hub's cold and don't know how he stayed awake through it. I'm a zombie woman.

The two times I was called today were number five and six. Six times I've told these bastards, all named "John", "David", "Sam" or some other piece of shit 'Americanized' name, that no, I don't want a 'free' computer (for $299), a 'free for life' internet connection (at $24 a month), and 'free' $1000 (for God knows how much). Do not want it, am on the state and federal do-not-call lists (which does NO good in this case), and have TOLD them clearly "Do NOT call this number again, I'm NOT interested".

Not only is the daily call for this scam pissing me off, the fact they can barely speak English enrages me. Most of our larger companies' call centers are already IN India. THOSE people can speak English well enough for me to understand them. If they're going to scam me, at LEAST be clear in the enunciation. Even better is that this internet company doesn't have a website or domain name, I couldn't speak to a manager, and they wouldn't give me a phone number to call until I had a confirmation code. That probably meant I needed to hand over a credit card number.

The upshot is, if some Bollywood reject calls and harasses you to take one of their free computers, tell them to fuck off. So far, nice, then firm, then angry language hasn't worked. Next time, it'll have to be foul.

Sorry Mom. I think I've been very nice until now by not telling them that if they continue to call, I'll shove that computer so far up their ass they'll be shitting floppies for a week. It's silly I know, but a girl can dream.

If I don't answer the phone, use my cell number. It's all right. I think the extra cell charges would be worth not having to listen to some foreign huckster.

I do have a few friends from India and can understand their accents. This particular brand of telemarketers piss me off because they insult me with their adopted names and laziness in learning the scammee's language.


Right. In other news, I'm still working on Mom's birthday present. Shhhhh, to those who got to see it on Saturday. Chelle took a wonderful picture of my ill gotten gains from Knit Picks. Thankfully, Jen put the skeins of sock yarn back. You can see her holding them in the left of the picture. Every Friday I'm planning on typing up a review of each yarn there. I tried to get as neutral colors as possible, just so there's no color bias. We compared Socks that Rock (STR)yarns, totally fun. I think Jen is excited to be in the official STR club. At any rate, I'm thrilled for her. It'll be great to see what she brings in every quarter.

Fry had a program today. She's so cute, singing in the school choir. We had to suffer through a PTA meeting to get to the good stuff, and Fry was worth it. On Saturday, she was thrilled when Chelle asked if she was 'Fry'. Chelle herself has a tall, lovely daughter. I'm always amazed when women my age have teenagers for children. We just CAN'T be old enough! I mean!

I'd better go wash my face before bedtime and apply the anti-aging goo with a putty knife. :D

Update before I go back to bed

I've got another cold. It won't kill me, but of course I think I'm gonna die anyway. :P My lower back is hurting, meaning it's workout time. It only hurts when I need to exercise. I'm going back to bed anyway, because of the cold.

We had some serious storms yesterday! Poor Fry had to do collections then, because she'd put it off until the last day. A tornadic thunderstorm would roll through, she and her dad would come back home. After it passed, off they'd go. I helped with one round, and she did pretty good, considering. I know people thought we were crazy. We were only two blocks from home at all times, plus, I know enough about the weather to be safe. There's also a tornado siren practically in our back yard, making it even easier. The fun thing is, we can hear the sirens in the next county over, so when they go off, we know to watch out. I've already emailed Chelle about the golf ball hailstones. There were a very few, we were lucky, and most of the bigger ones were dime to pea sized. Loud, but not bad. We parked the pickup as far is as possible, and it was cute, because one of our other neighbors did the same thing. We have a lot of stuff for bulky item pick up, which is why I can't fit the pickup in there.

Something to add to the "Things I don't want to do" list.

I did start on the project list, then was distracted. Friday really was Fryday, she woke up in the wee hours very ill. Which made all of us ill as a result. You won't want details. So she was home all day. Then Saturday I got to go to the knitting group, then to a dinner with the Knight of Columbus. It's a group of patriotic Catholic men, which is why Hubs is a member, since he's both. You know it's going to be boring when the main speaker thanks the waitstaff. Um, yeah. They're not volunteers, so they're being paid to be good. Sheesh. This is going to sound mean, but it bugs me when speakers tell an internet joke as if it really happened to one of the people there. Yet again, um, yeah.

Hobby Lobby has another half price knitting and crochet notions sale this week. Other than class supplies, I'd like to get quite a few size 8 double pointeds for the re-do on the grey sweater. I know, sad to unravel, but true. My unravel party didn't work out and won't work out for the next couple of days. Fry and Dad are busy, so I'll have to rope them in on Wednesday. Unless I get impatient and do it myself, tangled yarn and all.

Mom's present is progressing nicely. I'm hoping to have it ready when we go to visit, probably the week of March 20. Fingers crossed that Fry won't have PSR (Catholic class) or Karate due to spring break. She has a party to attend on the 18th, then newspapers the following Thursday, so I'm hoping Sunday-Wednesday for the Oklahoma visit.

Good thing: Meds are working. Bad thing: I'm getting verrrry sleepy. Nap time, then clean time, and by then, Fry time.

Torturous Thursday

Sounds like it should be Torturous Tuesday, doesn't it? Nope! When there's a newspaper delivery day AND company coming over to hog out computer all evening, it's torture no matter what the day. Back story: Hubby makes calls to other Knits, uh, Knights of Columbus potential members to see if they want to join up with K of C and K of C insurance. Then the insurance agent trots off to harrass chat with them for a few hours about insurance. Our computer and his need to connect via SQL and the boys are having problems making it work. Since I'm a stay at home mom (SAHM), I couldn't possibly know how to help them.


We will pause here to let family members scoff. Last time the guy was here, they had trouble pinging the server. Probably because the guy wasn't sure if it was connected or even turned on. Come on, I mean, I had to ask if there was anything for our computer to hit, since the connection couldn't be completed from our end. When all else fails, make sure the device is plugged in. So, hopefully, they'll get done whatever it is they need to do tonight. Fry and I will be wiped out from paper delivery. We will probably hide out in the master bedroom eating fast food and watching TV.

Mom's birthday present is progressing nicely. I will have to start another project, if only to post progress pictures. Chelle asked if I'll redo the grey sweater right away or wait. Yes to both is what I want to answer. I don't care for do-overs, but this one is really nagging me. Even in a tiny size, I love the sweater, so I'll probably re-start it tomorrow.

All right, I did promise a project list and will post it later today. I totally pooped off last night, goofing around, watching South Park, eating fat & sugarfree ice cream, and working on Mom's present.

Everyone in my family is scared I'll post their weight numbers. Buh wa ha ha ha haaaaa! No, I won't. 99% of the time I really do try to keep the dirty laundry out of here unless it's only my own. For myself, I don't mind telling the world that I weigh 160 this week (grams, ha ha!). Being open about this keeps me away from the Cheesecake Factory, as in, to self: "If you eat the Thai Lettuce Wraps, the Chicken Caesar salad, AND tiramisu cheesecake, the numbers will be baaaad." I would post the other measurements, but they're the same as last week. No loss, but no gain, either.

We're having a party!

There's three of us, there's three colors in the sad grey sweater. Perfect for an unraveling party, don't you think? I confessed to Snow, and now I'll confess to the world...

When in high school, I took Future Farmers of America, not Future Homemakers of America. Besides wanting to be a veternarian, I vowed never to be domesticated.

It's ok, I'll wait until you finish laughing at my cooking, vacuuming, knitting ass.

Right. Even now, I know the difference between a Tamshire and a Duroc. We had Berkshires, THE cutest pigs ever.

Why all this? Hopefully, it'll explain why I don't know the difference between chest and FINISHED chest measurements. Well, of course I want to look at FINISHED chest, right? I want to finish. Nope. Chest is your chest right now, finished is when it's done and fits loosely. I should have known when drew close to finishing the sweater and had yarn left over. 300 yards to be exact.

Thus, the unknitting party for tonight. I'll take the main grey and let the other two have the other two colors since there's less of that. No need in torturing the family. For the yoke this time, I'm going extremely old fashioned and using doublepointed instead of circulars.

What's on the needles now? My grey sweater was my last UFO. Of course I HAD to cast on something new yesterday evening. I'm not even going to hint at it, since my darling Mom's birthday is in a month or so. It's already rather pretty, even better than I'd hoped, thankfully.

For fun tomorrow, I'll post a list of projects in the living room, waiting for me to knit up.

Bad sweater! Bad!

Not until I bound off could I tell that there was a marked change between the circular and dpn use. Same size, different result. Grrr. Not only that, but I slavishly followed the pattern, did gauge, and the only person this will fit is the cat. Fry inherited my linebacker shoulders, so there's no way. I could undo the yoke part, then increase the pattern repeats. The hell of it is, this is supposed to be a ladies' medium with a 42" chest. If I'd not done a test swatch, I'd say, ok, I'm an eeeediot, but I did check. The collar rolls, due to the joy of stockinette stitch, but that would be a lot easier to extend than ripping down to the beginning of the yoke.

I am NOT a happy camper.

Thus, I must go love on my newest yarn...

What are these people thinking? Knit SOCKS with this? Put them on my FEET? Walk on the FLOOR? Puhleeeze! This is yarn worthy of placing on an altar with golden needles as adornment. I don't know if any picture can do justice to these colors, they're the prettiest I've seen in real life. :) What if I knit up something with these, like the grey sweater and totally 'f' it up? I can't even take off the cute little labels!






Grrr. Stupid pattern. I'm going to brood over the grey sweater for a while. Maybe my smallest cousin can wear it. She's a tiny little girl and this WOULD be cute on her. Next winter of course. :P

Water park, grey sweater blues, and Mercury retrograde.

In honor of Mercury going retrograde, let's start with the last thing first. For non-astrologer types, this is when Mercury appears to be backing up in the night sky, due to the movements of the planets. For a more detailed explanation, I'll need a basketball, tennis ball, and a marble.

Supposedly, when Mercury goes retrograde, communications foul up in the worst way. Checks in the mail get lost, emails get bounced, people think you said "Stay out of any whores," when you actually said, "Stay out of any wars." Things like that. I tend to get really quiet (for me) and not chat or email much. Nor blog. I tend to want to cocoon instead of run around. I'm betting it's more of a lazy phase than anything astrological, but then, stranger things have happened.

Now, on to the grey sweater. I was going like gangbusters, doing great, when I noticed I'd skipped a row in the pattern. So, I un-knit three rows, then did the row I'd missed. Oh joy. Then a row or two later, I'd discovered I was off a stitch. Un-knit and fixed. Next row after the newly fixed, off again. I was calm through all this, thinking this is what I deserve for paying more attention to Law & Order:SVU than to the color counts. After the second or third time of me saying, "I goofed again, dang it," my dear Hubby asked, "Does it really matter if you're off by one?" I loudly replied, "Yes. It DOES matter, it matters to me!" Then, I took a deep breath and said, "Thanks, I really needed to say that." I'm thinking he was just happy I'd not thrown heavy objects or cursed at the top of my lungs. I seriously was calm through all this, oddly enough. When I'd goofed up on nearly an entire row, by ONE stinking stitch of course, I changed the to-knit stitch to the correct color, put it back on the left hand needle, then knit it. The nice aspect was that being off just a bit meant only having to change 4 stitches out of a 10 stitch repeat. This is why the back of the work isn't nice and straight, and why some of the stitches in the front aren't perfect.

Grr. So anyway, the Water Park. Fry went to a birthday party where there's an indoor water park in the hotel. Very wilderness oriented and quiet lovely. The first thing she said to me on Saturday after getting there was, "This is awesome, Mom. It's totally worth the money! There's internet, Nintendo, HBO, way cool!" The rooms run about $270 a night, which includes access to the water park as well. Ok in the winter, but the outdoor water park is less expensive. Still, the cost would be worth it if there were more than three of us in our family and we didn't live 10 miles away. My sister's friend had a special deal where it cost $80 for the same room with admission for four to the park, perfect for a kid's birthday party.

With all the activity Fry had on Saturday and how late she'd got back, she had an hour that evening to play. I know, very sad. Still, the way she ran around reminded me of Eric Cartman of South Park when he went to Casa Bonita's. She hit the ground running. They woke up early the next morning and by 1 in the afternoon, she was ready to go. Mostly. Toppa and I were sitting, watching Fry run around that next afternoon. A guy, who was thin but looked like he was three to four months pregnant, walked slowly past us, checking us out. Once he finally passed, I said sotto voice to Top, "Keep moving, keeeeep moving." A lot of guys were checking us out, in fact. Really odd. I expect it in a singles club or bar, but in a family water park? Not gonna happen.

I've put off the Monday house swabbing long enough, I suppose. Bleh.

Oh yes, baby, yes! Send it to me!

Ahem, what? It's yarn porn, of course.

"Blue Moon Fiber Arts Inc. used PayPal Shipping with U.S. Postal Service to create a shipping label for your package. Once the package is given to the Post Office(tm), it will be on its way to you!"

I didn't even have to ask.

Checking in at long last

Have I been busy? Well, yes and no. The expansion pack for the Sims 2 came in, installed, had some problems, I fixed them and have been playing ever since. While screens load, I knit. In the meantime, I managed to leave Sleeve island and start the yoke! I'm four rows into it so far. It started as 232 stitches around, but has been decreased and will continue to be decreased until 80 stitches. The Mitts really helped prepare me for fair isle color changes.

I ordered sock yarn from both Joann's and Blue Mountain Fiber Arts on Wednesday of last week. Joann's is here, but the Blue Mountain's is not. I'm tempted to email or call and ask "Is it there, yet?" like a little kid with a full bladder, but won't.

On to answering the questions in comments: Thanks for the suggestions on classes, Chelle. The library has given me permission to do whatever I want, and lace would be fun. If I do teach anything more advanced, I put the requirements in the class description so that no one is unpleasantly surprised.

Camie, knitting in the round then cutting arm holes is called steeking and nooooooo. I've read the instructions, know the 'how to', but have been too chicken so far. Since I haven't steeked and since it scares me, I'm going to have to do a steek project. You enabler, you, I've perusing the Knit Picks website and love the Palette yarn. The Palette Sampler is on my wish list in a bad way! It's 100% alpaca wool like Elann's Peruvian Alpaca. I'm really liking the price of Knit Pick's though. The supply of their colors stay constant, too, which is another good thing. Knit Picks has a LOT of fans, so.... Yeah, I'm going to have to order some and see how it works up. Not because I'm a yarn junkie or anything...

The Sip Sit and Knit gathering is something I'm missing this week, sadly. If I pushed, I could go, but with Fry going to the Great Wolf Lodge for a party, she and Hubby meeting with the Bishop (a requirement for her Easter Catholic commitments), and the lure of having the house to myself... Yeah, Fry and Hubs are doing all the activity, but everyone who's a mom knows that I'm the behind the scenes gal. For every "Where's my..?", I have the answer. The weather is cool and rainy, perfect for knitting a grey sweater. I do miss the group, though. They're really an interesting group of women, and I need the socialization.

I didn't mention the two classes I taught last week. A "Wrap it Up" class for finishing the unfinishable, then a beginner's knit. One person came to the Wrap class, not the best, but fun anyway. With tiny classes, the pace is as fast or slow as the group allows.

More later. I have a round of dishes to do and people to help get ready.

Shoulda woulda, if it coulda.

Man! After seeing all the teams on this site, Snowball was right. I should have joined the knitting Olympics. I could have been Team Missouri. Maybe I could have talked the Sit and Knit club into being in the team with me. Actually, just finishing Seascapes was an Olympic feat in of itself. What a chore that bind off edge was! So close and yet, so far. Right now, the shawl is draped over a chair in the dining room. It's so pretty, the white lace on the cherrywood. I'll move it later. Right now I'm enjoying the casual elegance of the shawl's drape.

My boss* wants a list of potential classes for me to teach at the libraries in 2007. Any ideas from the locals? I'm thinking lace, color changes, mitered squares, entrelac would be fun. Socks, mits, hats, and scarves are already on the list for the libraries to pick from, so I'd like to add new classes to keep them interested.
*I use the word boss loosely. She's much too nice to be lumped in with the rest of those people I've had as bosses. With my bosses, they've either been super bad or super good, the good being few and far between.

Sigh. I need to scan in the current progress on my grey sweater. Right now, I'm still on Sleeve Island, but it's the island part TWO! Yay! I know. It don't take much, do it? It's killing me to not be on the yoke already. To go round and round, changing colors every so often... I blame Wendy's Bohus. The sad thing is, when I'd decided to remake a beloved Irish sweater, Wendy started on an Aran cardigan. You say "you're a following little sheep" like it's a baaad thing. At least I've resisted doing something outrageously Norwegian-styled like her Rose pullover. So far, anyway. I've got several patterns in the binder, ready to be worked up at any moment. It could happen...

More stuff on Wednesday like cute Fry stories and March 1st South Beach do-over for the whole family.

I like weekends better.

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

This does not surprise me. What does surprise me is this week's numbers, but considering the lucious pancakes Fry made on Sunday, maybe it shouldn't.

Weight: 162 (dammit! it WAS 159 earlier in the week.)
Bust: 40.5 (sure, by all means, let THIS shrink ::insert eye roll here::)
Waist: 34.25
Belly: 37.5 (lower than last week! Good!)
Hips: 40.25
Wrist: 7

I tend to be a bit hedonistic over the weekends. Still, I should have shown some loss.

Let's ignore that part and hope it goes away... In other news, the Sip, Sit, and Knit club met my sister Toppa over the weekend. Fry attended as well. They were swayed by the lure of coffee drinks and lunch. Toppa doesn't knit, but does appreciate it. She's one of those who won't wear the socks I've made her because they're too pretty. I'm making her and the half of my family that won't wear socks from me more socks so they have a backup pair. The thought did occur to me that maybe they really didn't like what I'd made them, but were too nice to say "Yech". If that were the case, though, the socks wouldn't be on a shelf, shrined. Toppa picked out new socks yarn and I'm starting hers as soon as Goopa's are done. Which, need to be started, too. I'm enjoying having only one project on the needles, if only to see how strong I am before I must start another.

If I weren't such a lazy poop, I'd post the pic of sleeve one, done. Yep. Sometime last night I finished it. The bad thing is, I need those size 8 needles for the next sleeve. I'm thinking I'll just go ahead and knit the body, then knit the part of the sleeve that attaches, knit the remaining body, and wait for the next sleeve.

Relpax made me sleep all day yesterday, so I stayed up all night last night. Yesterday's headache was bad, but not horrible. What's worse is now my sleep schedule is upside down. Think I'll nap until noon, then have a do-over on my day.

After having been hit by a tranquilizer gun...

I've caught up on all the other blogs for now and have to post this pic of sleeve in progress. Not to fear, the wonky stitch in the sleeve's rib has already been fixed. Odd little bugger, too. I scanned in the bag and sleeve to do a closeup on the bag. Our cat Claude will move around the bag to a comfy position, then use it as a pillow. There are holes in the bag from his claws. He also likes to use anything else handknitted as a pillow, if it's left laying on the floor.

At any rate, the sleeve will be tonight's project. I'm not sure if Fry will be spending the night at her friend's house, I may have to put down the needles to go get her! I know, the horror, the horror! ;)

Chelle, you picked gorgeous STR yarns too! Isn't it tough to pick the first one to make up???? I'll have to have Fry hum the Jeopardy theme while I decide.

Jay, you have my sympathies on the alpaca. I drink a lot more tea and soda while I knit this stuff, just to get rid of the tickly "there was a fiber in my drink" feeling when I swallow. The stuff isn't shedding so maybe I'm allergic? THAT would be fun, a lovely sweater I can't wear.

For Friday Fun:

Arena (known to self and others) energetic, friendly, independent	Blind Spot (known only to others) adaptable, brave, caring, clever, giving, idealistic, intelligent, knowledgeable, loving, organised, patient, trustworthy, warm, witty
Façade (known only to self) cheerful, logical, silly	Unknown (known to nobody) able, accepting, bold, calm, complex, confident, dependable, dignified, extroverted, happy, helpful, ingenious, introverted, kind, mature, modest, nervous, observant, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, sensible, sentimental, shy, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, wise

Dominant Traits

60% of people think that Laura KS is patient
80% of people think that Laura KS is witty

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (40%) bold (0%) brave (20%) calm (0%) caring (20%) cheerful (0%) clever (40%) complex (0%) confident (0%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (20%) extroverted (0%) friendly (40%) giving (40%) happy (0%) helpful (0%) idealistic (20%) independent (20%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (40%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (20%) logical (0%) loving (40%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (20%) patient (60%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (20%) warm (20%) wise (0%) witty (80%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 24.2.2006, using data from 5 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Laura KS's full data.

Am I the only one bothered by this?

This is a two Relpax migraine day, so forgive me if I'm not totally coherent.


But! Does the fact that South Dakota has passed a no abortion bill scare anyone else? A young girl who's carrying her brother, uncle, or father's child MUST have that child. A woman who's been raped MUST have that child and the rapist has all parental rights to that child, thus ensuring she has to endure her rapist for the rest of her natural life. Just think of how most people deal with ex-spouses they used to love. I don't want to make a woman deal with a man who's beat and held a knife to her throat while raping her, for the rest of her life. Or to make a woman play nice with a male relative who's abused and molested her for the rest of HER life, too. Isn't that cruel and inhumane? There might be a short time that the offender is incarcerated, but look at your own zip code (US only, sorry!) to see how long it lasts.

Personally, I think the younger generation can be a little too fast and loose with abortion, tending to use it as a form of birth control. I don't think they appreciate the fight our forebears had to keep contraception out of the back alleys and legal. I'm glad my birth control held out over the years and I've never had to face the choice. However, that's the nice thing, I do have a choice. Men have the choice to abandon their children. I've know of many single mothers who receive no child support. Everyone fights against abortion, but I don't see anyone fighting to support these children once they're born. Even though I am a "Just this once" baby, I've always been very wanted and adored by my parents. I can't imagine what it would be like; going through life knowing my parent(s) never wanted me and resent my birth. It'll be interesting to see the stats on newborn abuse in a year. My money is on the figures spiking.

Even worse than all this is the proposed ban on the day after pill here in Missouri. It's not an 'abortion pill' like our governor believes, but a pill that prevents Egg from meeting Sperm. If that method of birth control is made illegal, why should condoms, the Pill, male or female tube tying, and anything else be permitted? With a world population nearing if no over seven BILLION, is rampant reproduction a good idea? Besides that, I'm happily married. Our government is edging toward telling me the only form of birth control I can use is abstinence if I don't want more children than we can afford to have? What point is there to be married, then? (Other than that true love stuff, of course.)

I'm sorry, but if I were raped, I want the day after pill, an abortion, the anti-viral regimen, all the antibiotics available, and a Lysol scrubdown. That nuclear radiation leak shower they give as in Silkwood would be ok, too. A 100 proof alcoholic drink would be nice, just to make sure every tiny germ is gone, inside and out.

As a taxpayer, I don't want to pay more taxes because all these babies were born from other people's fun. I want to spend the money on my own child, not theirs because they couldn't keep their pants zipped or because our government makes us pay for their mistakes.

Bringing a baby into the world is serious business, something you're responsible for all your life. I think men have an easier time of it, not having that maternal instinct making a child the most important thing in a person's life. I feel like, as a woman, the legislative body of the United States is telling me that I must have every child I conceive, no matter what the circumstances and that I have no way to prevent such conception. There are no laws being written at the same time that any man who also conceives a child has a life-long financial, physical, and emotional responsibility to the child as well. If a woman MUST have a child, so should a man MUST care for that child.

Sorry for the rant, but this IS my blog and I'll get to more fun knitting news and cute Fry stories maybe later today. The second Relpax is working (Yay!), so I'm needing to catch up on all the stuff I've ignored so far today.

Degrees of Separation

First of all, I'm thrilled to say I'm actually on people's blogrolls. Amazing. I'm always stunned when not only people other than my Mom read my blog, but that others do AND seem to enjoy it. Wow. Too cool and kinda scary.

Kind of like at the Yarn Harlot's place. This entry, in particular. See all those people looking at her?! Yikes! Ok, now, to be honest, I regularly talk in front a lot of people while teaching. Not a problem and not as scary because they're there to learn, not to just see me, like Stephanie. Every once in a while, during class, I do get the thoughts, "All those EYES!" and "They're looking bored! Step it up!". Those are my only moments of panic.

Funny story time. One time, I'd learned that Stephen J. Cannell was coming to town for a book signing. He's one of those esoteric experts that I admire, so of course we, Hub and I, made plans to hear him speak and sign a book. He spoke and when we went to get the book signed, Stephen chitchatted with everyone. We drew nearer to the table and I noticed my brain started shutting down in fear, which also locked my knees and elbows. No, I don't know why. By the time HE signed our book, I was a wreck inside. Now, outwardly, I was calm, cool, and coherent, or so Hubby says. To me, instead of me saying, "I really enjoyed the dynamic and complex characters you created in 'Wiseguy', and then 'Baretta'? Wonderful," I'm sure I said something like, "Chimme, chimme chamma. Gunga oh wanna dinga do. Cheecheee. Gunga like! Gunga like!" Hubby thinks it's cool that after meeting the guy, he's only one degree away from James Garner. Fry thinks it's even cooler she's one degree from both Tommy Davidson and Rob Schneider, another story.

All of which has nothing to do with yarn. Neither does delivering the newspapers and that's what we should be doing. Fry is home, standing too close to the TV, drinking a Diet Pepsi and having just ate a very thin Hershey's bar. This obviously bumps me out of the running for Mother Of The Year.

What does have something to do with yarn? Sleeve island. NOW I get why people hate this so! Not that I've never knit a sleeve, but the last handknit sleeve I made was ages ago. The alpaca I'm using makes me feel like I've been drinking something with unspun yarn in it. Yack. The faster I knit, the faster it'll be done.

I've not said anything political for a while. With our beloved vice-president and his recent news... Well, let's just say that if you can shoot someone in Texas, then have them apologize to you for ruining your life, then I DO have an ex in the state to visit. Him getting away with shooting someone bothers me, but then, the whole bunch have done more illegal things than this and no one seems to mind. What does bother me is them selling some of our ports to an Arabic country. Not that it's Arabic, but that they've been known to fund terrorists. But then, they're oil friends of our current administration, so I guess it's all right. It's not like the people controlling the ports will be fanatical about their homeland, or will be able to be sweet talked into letting a fellow countryman in without a full security check. Nope, I'm sure they'll be loyal to America.

Sometimes, Blogger rules.

Oh man! MSN just kicked me offline while I was posting this! But then, with a lovely little link that says "Recover post" on the posting page in Blogger, everything I'd just lost came back. Yay! Now, on with the show.


One. One project on the needles. The wonderful yoked sweater that I can't knit fast enough. Why? Because I went on a sock spree this afternoon. I grew tired of resisting the Socks That Rock so voila'. I am a very weak woman. But come on. Look at these babies, aren't they gorgeous? Everytime the post man pulls up, I'll be hopping from foot to foot in impatience. Is that enough? Nope! Not when I have a gift card left over from Christmas and a free shipping coupon from Joann's. So all these are on their way to me as well. Yum.


I called and warned my beloved Husband about the charges on the card. He was fine with it all, but did mention in the very sweetest way, that there might be help for people who buy mass quantities of yarn. I didn't mention the Stash-a-long because he might expect something foolish, like me joining a Yarn Anonyonmous group. He IS glad I've not acted on my knitters' group knowledge of a local yarn store getting in a new shipment. The boy is going to have to get socks for his support of my addiction. I've never had to hide a single shopping bag of wool. :)

Thank you to everyone for the positive and sweet comments on my first lace shawl. I did a 'rough' block of it last night since I couldn't wait to get pins. Currently, it stretches from one end of our dining room table to the other. It'll be reblocked so the upper end won't seem as compressed. Mom is going to want it, Fry has already asked if it's for her, while Hubby is interested in what lace I'll do next, thinking he can give it to his mother. There's a tub of lace yarn in the living room, and I'm leaning toward the Rosy Fingers of Dawn. We'll have to see...

The Valentine's Day Massacre of My Diet

It's not good. In order, it's weight, bust, waist, tummy, hips, wrist.

Prior week:159, 41, 33.75, 38, 40.5, 7
Last week: 160, 41.5, 33.75, 38.5, 40, 6.75
This week: 162, 42.5, 34, 38, 40, 6.75

I blame chocolate and Russell Stover's Outlet stores. On his trip with his parents, Hubby brought back boxes on sale from V-day. I ate whatever I wanted within reason, knowing that today would be the end of sugar for a while. Happily, the diet is good so far. I had a huge fajita salad for lunch, no tortillas allowed. Yummmm.

Enough shame for now. Next week will be better. Besides, my beloved mentioned that I must be close to 'that time' already. I asked if my scrubbing the foyer with a toothbrush or my vacuuming the front lawn and fluffing the blades clued him in. It'll be fun next week to see the decrease in puff. ;)





Loooooook! It's lace! So almost done, it's not funny. The bottom edge is 485 stitches across and for the edging, I cast on two more, then bound off four, over and over until the end. Even all scrunched up, it's lovely! The top edge will need a solid edging, something I'll do as soon as cleaning the house is caught up. Fingers crossed that this evening, it'll be complete.

Another fun thing is that I'm ready to do the sleeves on the grey sweater. As soon as those are done, they're attached to the main body and the yoke is started. I blame it on my fowl upbringing that I want to type "yolk" instead of yoke every time. Ha ha!

Now that the Jaywalker KAL is done, does that mean the Little Goopa won't get her seafoam green socks? Nope! Um, I mean, yes? Ok, she will get her socks. Will I wait until after the grey sweater is done? Oh heck no! I can't stand it now! There's only two projects on the needles and it's killing me there's not more! Maybe I'll make the Little Goopa's socks lacy instead of Jaywalkers. She deserves socks as sweet and delicate as she is. (For those at home, the Little Goopa is my baby sister, who's 26, and a tall willowy blonde. Very unlike myself, ha ha!) She and her husband are the only ones in my family who don't have socks from me, so that need to be fixed. By the time I get those done, Fry and Hub need new ones, too, since their current pairs are showing signs of wear.

Ok, that's enough! I'm dying to finish this shawl and want to get dishes done before Spongebob Oprah is on. What? No, I don't watch kids' shows. I'm far too mature for such silly things. ::insert eyeroll here::

Blogger is a sad, strange little man...

I posted this originally on Saturday, so if it's a double entry, sorry about that. For some reason, Saturday's post will show up on my blog, but not in my management section. Chelle emailed me that she couldn't comment, so I'm thinking that's why. Blogger's servers aren't talking to each other. Whenever Bogger does their final system maintenance, Saturday's post will be either wiped or saved. After that, I'll either repost or delete the below drivel.

When did THAT happen? Mom and I were talking and Valentine's day snuck up on all of us. I'd bought cards for everyone in the family, and they're still here in the house. I did happen to get more 2 cent stamps yesterday, so the cards might make it out sometime today or Monday. Oh well. If I'd mailed them when I'd bought them, all my Valentines would have arrived on time. Isn't that crazy?

Tuesday was Karate, fun for Valentine's Day, right? Wednesday was a lovely 'bum' day, full of rest, laundry, and Dayquil. Thursday? Super busy for me. Get newspaper ready for delivery, lunch with the girls, beginner's class, deliver newspapers. Thursday was really cold, which was probably while Fry's stomach, head, eye, foot, and arm hurt. I am so easily conned, but it was in the teens (13F, wind chill 7F) that day.

Then Friday was Fryday! School was out, so Fry and I ran around town. Bank, Walmart, Toys R' Us, Red Lobster. Mom & Dad sent us girls money for V-day, so we took us to lunch on it. Monday's numbers are going to be bad, I'm posting them and the prior weeks' then. Get it all out and over with then. ;)

Between running around and thumbwresting Fry for the computer, I've read the wonderful comments about the Mitts, but not replied. A lot of really nice people read this, thankfully! If Blogger's picture uploading capability was working, there'd be pictures of the latest on the needles. There's nothing new, the lace, hat lining, and gray sweater. Those, everyone's seen before. The lace is sllllooowwwww. There's a wavy section at the very bottom of the shawl, which I thought was the end. Teaches me to skim the instructions. Sure, the wavy is the last section per se, but there's an edging, picot around the edge, then i-cord at the top. It takes me, because I've timed this, thirty minutes to plainly knit one row. Sounds horrendously slow, but it's 485 stitches in a yarn that's very close to being thread. I want to be careful to not drop or misknit a stitch, so my paying attention slows me down, I'm sure.

Plans for today? Cleaning house (we've been lazy, Fry and I), hopefully Sip and Knit (Fry was more enthusiastic after learning the place we go to serves frapuchinos), and 5 o'clock mass (where I've not mustered the nerve to knit in church). Church with Fry is sometimes tough. We try to be good, but sometimes, we'll get to quoting Monty Python's skit, The Bishop, to each other during the service. In a whisper, of course. The first time I hissed, "Don't say the kid's name, vic," Fry choked. She also giggles whenever "Jehovah" is said during service. I took her to see The Life of Brian on the big screen and it's a big help when you know every word to an R rated movie already. I had the ears or eye cover warnings timed to nearly the second. Thus, the conversation,

F: Mom, why can't I see all the movie?
M: Do you really want to see a naked guy?
F: Eww, no. But what about the girl, that doesn't matter, right?
M: Not really, but you want to see a naked girl, then?
F: No, maybe it's better I don't see either one.
M: Well that's good, because you're not seeing either one.

It's cute how she thinks she has a choice in this, isn't it?

Pfffft, pfffft. Is this thing on?

I was going to post yesterday, but Blogger had issues. It seems to have a lot of issues, lately, but it's free, so I suppose server problems are the price we pay.

Oh my gosh! I had such fun on Saturday. Ok, so, driving to Lee's Summit was a pill. It snowed just enough to make the roads wet, but not enough to justify all the accidents. Tailgating was a bad idea, the vehicles did need the time to stop. But, once there, I met up with a great group of knitters, some of whom have left comments already. Chelle is a sweetheart, as is Jen, Mary, and Maenwyn. They're all really good knitters, too, which is a blast. The only tough part is having to skip some Saturdays. By this Saturday, I'll have finished reading A Good Yarn and can pass it off to someone else, plus, I'm hoping to have my yarn inventory started. I'd like to bring some chenille, Lion Brand, to see if anyone would want to make a Berroco purse as Jen did. Quite lovely, and I'm thinking the yarn I have is tan, forest green, and jewel tone purple, some solids and some multis. It's too pretty to toss, too tough for my beginners, and I don't like knitting with it, so it's a good candidate for a give-away.I also finished SON OF MITT!! Yay! Here the Mitt Duo is made of a lovely mix of various acrylic yarns, Red heart, most likely. They were customized from Vogue's little book of Mittens and Gloves Peruvian pattern. This was the only Nordic style mitt pattern I had at the time. They fit Fry perfectly for now (she's a growing girl), and have been worn already, as seen my a bit of scuff on the fingertips. The only horrible thing about them is that they tend to roll up at the cuff, since the garter stitch didn't have enough rows. I'll need to block the beejeebees out of them. Fry didn't wear them to school, happily because it's too warm today.


Maybe, but not likely, I can get some bulbs planted. The nice thing is, the crocuses and I think daffodils are coming up, so I'll know where NOT to plant. Something else is that I'll need to go to the Dollar store for red pepper flakes. They really work to deter the squirrels. It's fun to see them scamper up to the fresh tilled earth, sniff, then run away in pain. Not that I'm bitter or anything.


Now that Mitts are off the needles, I want to make a liner, seen here, for Fry's matching hat. This way it'll be warmer and fit better. In the background is the gray sweater, which I can't knit fast enough. I can't wait to get to the yoke. "Why, what is that lovely stuff in the background of the Mitt Duo?" you ask. "You didn't mention anything about lace," you also state...










It's THIS! Up close and personal! Right. Maybe I'm the only one excited about only having one more 'concentrated' row to knit in this section of the shawl. I did all the blue rows on Sunday, which is speedy for me. The shawl was tough, really tough, because it was my first. I can already tell that the next will be a whole lot faster. Good huh? Especially considering the bin full of lace yarn I have waiting for me in the living room.

What with the in-laws coming over and wisking off my Husband to help them get my sister-in-law's house ready to sell, the house is company clean. Except for the kitchen, since I did the big breakfast thing for them. (This is where Mom goes "All you do is throw cereal, milk and instant coffee at US." To which I reply, "Yes, but you KNOW how I am already, they don't." Buh wa ha ha ha haaaa)

Um, so anyway, with the house clean, I have no excuse, other than my still ongoing cold, to not do a yarn inventory. Cute computer program to record inventory? Check. Clean living room floor to sprawl yarn out on? Check. Motivation to make yarn room look like a yarn store? Check.

Before then, there's dishes to do and a nap to take. I know I know, only babies take naps, but yesterday was super busy and only sleep with cure my cold. Nap, dishes, laundry, knit lace... Yep, sounds like a plan to me!

Dayquil is good, mmkay.

I love the comments from yesterday! Like Snow, I get sick so rarely, that when I do, it's horrible and I'm about to die. When Fry came home, I had her love on me before I took a nap. We'd talked about making spaghetti for supper just before I fell asleep. About an hour later, the smell of the stove's burners woke me up. Fry is pretty cautious by nature, but still, I had to check it out. Sure enough, she was fixing spaghetti! She'd put the pasta on to boil, the can of diced tomatoes were in a sauce pot with a half teaspoon of garlic, but she couldn't figure out which were the italian spices. She'd sniffed every spice in the drawer, not knowing that they were in my lazy susan spice rack instead.

With the nap and a shot of Dayquil, I felt much better. So much so that I finally felt good enough to knit! I know! My husband was worried when he got home and I'd told him I hadn't wanted to do anything.

Sadly, I was bad and only went to bed after finishing the top. Yeah, but the mitt was so close to being done, I just had to. I would have slept in this morning, except my cellphone woke me with my horoscope at 8:00am. When I'm out and about this morning, there are Valentine's things to get, plus I'd like to find Airborn for this cold.

Mommmmm!

I can NOT have a cold. Absolutely not! I've been invited and am thrilled to go to a knitting group tomorrow. There's no way I'm going as "Typhoid Mary". There's been chicken soup, orange juice, and a nap. Nyquil and Dayquil may have to get involved.

On son of Mitt, there's a total of two snowflakes on the back of the hand done, plus a row of the third. With the paper delivery, guest arriving last evening, and cleaning up the house, I didn't get a chance to knit until 9:30pm.

Bleh. I'm going to have to take another nap. Nothing sounds appealing, other than sleep. No knitting, reading, playing on the computer, none of it. The nice thing is that the house is still very clean. I'm hoping it'll stay that way through Monday, when my in-laws come over!

I'd told the Sit, Sip, & Knit group (SS&K) that I'd wear my Jaywalkers since they were clean and all. Just after I'd typed the statement, Fry came barrelling through here with my pair in hand. (She has her own pair!) I put a halt to that right quick. Obviously, handknitted socks are the socks of choice around here. ;) While I wouldn't mind washing ordinary socks tomorrow morning to wear in the afternoon, I'd like to not wear out these so soon.

Chelle, you are too kind. But then, judging by your own knitting skills and that of the SS&K group, you would know good knitting when you see it. ;)

Howdy!

Oh, this is such a busy day. Not that I've done anything so far. Since yesterday was Anti-Procrastination day, I attacked the mountain of washed but not folded clothes lurking in our bedroom. After an hour and excluding the socks, they're done! A lot more clothes remain to wash and fold, but for now, I'm caught up.

Newspaper deliveries have changed to Thursdays, so there's a huge stack of them, waiting for bagging. Should I say I'll be rolling papers all afternoon? Sure! Make them snicker.

The mitt so far! Tuesday was good, did a lot, but then Wednesday, I did almost all of a snowflake, but just couldn't get into it. Probably this evening, after a friend of my Hub's leaves, after the papers are delivered, and I've helped Fry with newspaper collections, I'll have a chance to sit and knit.

Two wonderful knitters are luring me into starting a new project before Mitt Jr. is off the needles. Tara has a lovely cardigan I'm wanting to copy using my stash of Noro's Kureyon. On the other hand, after seeing Sandy's , Carole's and all of Cara's Jaywalkers, I can't knit Mitt fast enough. Here is a page of all the Jaywalkers submitted to the pattern's creator, Grumperina. Mine aren't on there because I want better pictures of them before submitting.

Why resist? Well, the lace thing is sad over there, while the gray sweater could use a few rounds because I'm dying to get to that yoke. I blame Wendy and her Bohus for pushing me over the edge. This is my first fair isle sweater and I resisted as long as I could. Then, Mitt and Son of, of course. Her current work, Rose, is lovely, too, and tempting me to start something Norwegian.

Happily, since starting this post, I've cleaned up the kitchen, started the laundry, and ate lunch. Maybe as much as an hour more and the house is company clean. Whew!

I posted over at Dave's this morning about the knitters I frequent being so good there's no one to laugh at. Not that I want to unless PMS is involved, but after seeing site after site of gorgeous knits, then, commenting on said knits, I'm feeling a bit of a sycophant. I'm so not one, hence my dismal fate as an executive in a former life. People are doing really good work out there, it's amazing.

Pictures!

For right now, we're going to focus on fun. Yesterday was one of those days, beginning right after I posted. Let's just say, I don't know my own address, the cat is an amazing barfing machine, and I'm suffering from dinner making burnout. None of which is important after watching a show about a burned girl getting a new face. Yulce isn't the only girl they've helped. This father and son surgical team really do wonderful work for these children with no other options. These two girls' burns are horrific, it's amazing what these men and their teams have done.


Fun? Oh yeah! Here is my own Word Cloud.









Here is a photo, supposed to be posted yesterday. Didn't do anything on the gray yesterday, but did start...


the son of Mitt! Ok, now, in this photo, yes, Mitt has thumb problems. If color=black for all, no problems. Otherwise, yep. I slavishly followed the pattern, which is why it's goofed in the beginning. After that, I went with what looked good, not what the little grid said to do. I could have undone the stitches, then knit them back up like a stocking run. But, this is my first real fair isle garmet so I was scared. The snowflakes I'd done in the hat and cuff were more intarsia and had no increases to keep track of. What's bad is the next mitt is going to look fantastic in comparison. Ah well. Fry will outgrow it, and if there's mistakes, she won't be sad if the mitt gets dirty during use.

I started son of Mitt while watching the Yulca show on The Learning Channel, then went on to watch an episode or two of "Untold Stories of the ER". Ok, so I was watching more than knitting. Yes, in three hours, Wendy, Snow, Sandy, Norma, and a whole host of others (see left side, eventually to be updated) could SNEEZE an intricate, multicolored sweater. Never mind a mitt. I'm pretty productive when not in front of the TV while doing genetic experiments on the computer AND knitting something with color changes.

The nice thing is, by the time I get the second mitt done, the gray sweater will be ready for the fair isle yoke and so will I. The body and sleeves are Lion Brand Alpaca, discontinued. The yoke will be Peruvian Highlands Pure Alpaca. I'm not making it as much a turtleneck, more of a mock turtleneck. After an hour of fabric on my neck, I'm running in circles, pulling on the sweater while yelling, "Get it off! Get it off!" Well, maybe I exaggerate. A lot. ;)

I love Memes.

I always thought a Meme was a me me. Suppose it is, all right, but it's more than that. Over at Cara's, I read hers and thought, I'm a sheep, I'll do it, too. That, and the silent poetry reading, a day (or few) short.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to. Consider everyone who reads this as tagged. I'm hoping it's seven. :)

Be prepared to laugh, snicker, or just roll your eyes. So sorry in advance for any popups.

1. What Is Love by Haddaway. Fry and I can't help it, we do the head thing ala Butabi brothers every time.

2. Egoist by Falco. (lyrics, music) I know, I know. I embrace my inner weirdo. At least, while the weirdo is out on bail. Fry and I sing it in German and know what it means, which is pretty cool.

3. Word Up by Cameo. Fry and I change the words in honor of her guinea pig. "Hey little Squeakies around the world, got a weird thing to show you so tell all the boys and girls." The fun part is when we take Squeaky and "wave your Squeaks in the air like you just don't care." Hoo boy. Why can't we like normal bands like Hoobastank or Chumbawumba??

4. World Without Love by Peter & Gordon. This is one of those "Sail Away like Cartman" songs. If I hear the first few notes, never mind the words, the song runs through my mind beginning to end. Gah! Really good to wallow around in PMS depression to, though.

5. Green Grass by Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Happy feet song! A gal can't be sad when this is playing.

6. Can't Help Lovin' That Man by Trudy Richards. This is a fun one to belt out while cleaning the house. Fry and I will sing this one every so often.

7. Thousand Miles from Nowhere by Dwight Yoakum. Actually, just take this whole album, it really is the best. Picking my favorite song from here is like picking my favorite cheesecake.

Bonus: She Took It Like A Man by Confederate Railroad. It's a bit close to home, this one.

Silent Poetry part!

All right. To me, liking Robert Frost is a cliche'. Who doesn't like him? He's not esoteric or trendy, or even archaic and antiquely profound. But, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is such a good indicator of my life, that I feel like I've known this poem for forever.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Monday Monday, na na, na na na naaa...Something something good to me...

Forgive me the Mammas and Pappas' song. I spent my childhood in a Scooby Doo type van, travelling the country with my hippy parents.






In the far off distance, I can hear my Mom snort her Diet Coke. We had more of a "Green Acres" childhood, really. Only our pig Itchy wasn't as smart as Arnold. There is nothing more fun to a lightweight teen than trying to corral a 300lb boar who thinks he's a lappig. Ah, the good old days. (They were! No sarcasm, real or imagined!!) Mom is also far and away a much better cook than Zsa Zsa. I'd rather have leftovers there than anything 'fresh' here.

Fry's first mit is done! Plus, I knitted a few inches more on the gray sweater this weekend. Blogger won't let me post pictures just now, I'll wait until later.

We goofed around on Saturday, went to church on Sunday, then to Sonic for ice cream. I know. "Don't run crying to me when you are too heavy to run." Later on today, I'll grab my proverbial bootstraps and do the numbers thing for Monday. Yechh. Some bad numbers I've discovered over the weekend are my blood pressure ones. Usually, the pressure is so low, people hold the mirror over my mouth to make sure I'm alive. Yesterday, the machine read 147/95, then 137/87, then 134/85. Yikes! Of course, I'm such a wonderfully calm and rational person. Not one for melodrama, oh no! My thoughts go like this: High blood pressure, migraines, stroke and aneurism, heart attack at 41, gray hair, I'm doomed! Thus, when Fry comes home and I'm curled up in the fetal position, she's sure to ask, "Do you want me to get you a Diet Pepsi? How about a popsicle?" If I'm totally pathetic, I'll drink the soda out of a straw while still curled until and after Husband gets here. Then, during which time Fry has gleefully stepped over me, jumped on computer to play, and flipped the TV to Nickleodeon, Hubby's in the door and asking, "Zoloft? Food? Diet Pepsi?" My saying "Red Lobster," never works. The little bugger is on to my con.

Americans treat exercise as a verb, go exercise, to exercise, make myself exercise. Meanwhile, the British treat the activity as a noun as in, take exercise like take a pill, take a rest. My thinking is when one has been slapped upside the head with proof of how emulating Silly Putty can affect your health, yeah, 'taking' exercise is totally appropriate.

If I can just figure out how to make taking exercise as much fun as taking a nap, I'll be set!

Didn't I just buy yarn the other day?

Well, yeah, but this stuff was on sale. The top two with another hank of forest green will make a lovely purple grapevine scarf. Then the Noro Kruyeon is to be added to the cardigan that I need to start. The two sea green balls are for Goopa a pair of sock to match the ballet sweater I'll make her eventually. After that is Opal's color 19, which will be perfect for Interweave's Embossed leaves sock. The pattern has already been copied and put into my future projects notebook. This keeps the magazine from being beat all to heck.

Let's see, other news...

Yeah, your kid is smart, but mine is brilliant. How do I know this? She brought home a letter yesterday, inviting her to join in a Talent Identification Program from Duke University. This could all be a load of bunk, intended to get our money in exchange for a dubious award. To be considered, the student must have scored at the 90th percentile or higher on one of those achievement tests. Only four kids out of her class were invited to join the 'club'. I'll have to check it out before being too excited. I'm just thrilled that she's in the 90th percentile, since she really doesn't study and fret about schoolwork.

I'm very biased about my child, by the way. She's amazing and everyone in my very neutral family agrees. :D

Last night, I got home late enough to not knit on anything. In fact, I was so pooped, I went to bed at 11:00pm. Very early for me! See? I can't clean house today, I need to get caught up on my knitting goals.

Everyone, hum the Rocky theme!

Ok, the newspapers have left the building! They did last night, actually. I am so out of shape! I can tell it's been a long time since any workout at home or gym. That's going to be next week's goal, to resume working out, no matter how meager.

I have a class to teach tonight. It's knitting a scarf for teens, which is always funny. There's such a generational gap with them. There's no gap with the ladies 20+ my seniors, probably because my parents are 19 and 20 years older than me. We all grew up together. I expect a gap with Fry, and am surprised at the one with my baby sister, Goopa. Even though there's 15 years difference between us, we had the same parents, so I'm always surprized when she's more aligned with the younger group. My sisters are always so cool and trendy, while I have to fight to keep from looking like a 1980's refugee.

The kitchen is clean. If I can keep it like this, I'll be able to attack the living room, then steam clean the carpets. There's yarn in bags all over the living room. A knitter's paradise. This is my busy season, so I have class supplies blanketing the carpet. The yarn room is a wreck, since I've been pawing through there, too. With the wonderful business program my husband wrote me on the computer, I'll need to add the inventory to the database. There, on the screen, I'll see the extent of my addiction. Whoo boy!

Some sweet little commentor (Camie Vog) said I knit fast. Alas, I wish. Considering the time I spend knitting, it's sad how much I do get done. After everyone goes to bed at 9:00pm, I'll knit from then to midnight. Not constantly, since all my favorite shows are on around then, plus I have the computer all to myself.

I'd show some WIP updates, but there's nothing too exciting. I did put the thumb stitches on a spare needle for later knitting. Good, yes. The gray sweater grew, the lace was ignored. I'm hoping to have decent progress on Saturday morning. Once the laundry is done, the house spiffed, I can lay around and knit for the rest of the weekend. Yes, that IS my evil laugh. :) It'll be nice and cold out, a good reason to hibernate.

By the way, here is the yarn for my hubby's tan striped socks. I never did note it, so voila! I love the sock yarns on this site, must resist....

The Numbers of Shame

There may be more than one post with this title considering my sweet teeth.

Just a brief update. I did this on Monday morning, but had to run to a class before posting. Gah, at the publicity, but I need the accountability.

Weight-157 (down then, but already back at 159.5 yesterday)
Bust-42.5 (why up? but ok!)
Waist-34 (down! yay!)
Abdomen-37.5 (the ice on my six pack is melting!)
Hips-39.5 (I'm an apple, yes)
Wrist-7 (like the bust, why?)

I remember in high school thinking I'd never let myself get above 130lbs. Um, yeah.

Admin note: If you've commented and I, in my doofiness, never acknowledged you, please recheck the comments area where you posted. I never ignore friends, and that I might have done so really bothers me. Fingers crossed that I didn't miss any. :D

A Clean House Is Vastly Overrated.

Wonderfully funny bit related to Oprah's Million Little Pieces debacle. This guy is clever.

Knitting men. Finally, men are liberated. ;)

After several days of checking mousetraps, we admit victory! Which means my kitchen no longer looks as badly cluttered as it did before I put everything back in the cabinets. It's still a mess, of course, since people insist on living and eating here. I get to roll up newspapers for Fry and help her deliver them. Good exercise, judging by how hard it is to schlep the bags around the neighborhood.

Housecleaning avoidance projects. Can I resist casting on yet another sock? Probably not, since I have some new yarn earmarked for my Mom and Aunt a pair of matching socks. Sadly, the color is lovely so neither one will probably wear them. ::giggle:: I'll try to resist this I have a few UFOs to complete, first.

While watching TV and not on the computer, I'll work on this:
For this project, I have to actually wear reading glasses (the horror!!) and have good light. Yes, I can watch, or rather listen, to the television while knitting this, but only if it's a show I've seen many times before. Like, Spongebob, Star Trek, or Law & Order:SVU. I'm dying to block this bad boy and don't know how anyone can whip one of these out in less than a year! ;)




Then, this, which is turning out much prettier than the scanned image would show. I can't knit fast enough to get to the yoke. It's a good one for knitting while watching a new episode of any TV show. Not so much for waiting, since the repetitive motions put me to sleep. My next knitting skill to develop is being able to knit with my eyes closed. The only bad part will be rolling over onto the points while asleep. Ha ha! Talk about a rude awakening.







And finally, my fair isle practice, Fry's Nordic Mit. If I can do a snowflake a day, I'll be done by the end of the week! With this one, anyway. The red and white yarns are worsted, while the black is between worsted and sport, which I think is DK. I'm thinking that's why the stitches aren't nice and even. At least we can all see most of the pattern. I'm hoping a nice washing will relax the stitches a bit. This is the good waiting room project.