Knit and Scrap

Merry Christmas

2006-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur. I have absolutely no knitting news to show or report really. I finished my sweater but have not assembled it. I did make a scarf for a gift and I am still working on a pair of socks for a dear friend. She will get them after Christmas. I had a little relapse last week and had to be in bed for 2 days but with pain meds, advil, and the heating pad I was good to go by Friday. I didn't feel like knitting those days and just kind of slept. I have finished all my shopping, mailed the gifts that needed to be sent off, and I have wrapped almost everything. I have a few things left to do. The biggest thing is Christmas cards. I usually have those done early December but not this year. I did have a Christmas cookie exchange on Sunday that was a huge success. I have been to several in the past but never hosted my own and all my guest were first timers. It was so much fun and nobody brought the same cookie as anyone else. I had 14 guests and we all walked away with tons and tons of cookies! I was elected to host this event every year. I would love to and hope the participant list grows! I made lots of appetizers to snack on so that we wouldn't eat the cookies. My oldest son is taking finals this week. I've helped him go over some of the reviews. Let me just say this, I am so glad I am past all that! If I wasn't holding the review with the answers he'd have me figured out. My youngest son has a Christmas party on Thursday and then we officially start our Christmas holidays. My oldest son is going skiing with our church youth group the day after Christmas in Colorado. I'm sure it is more winter like weather there than we have been having here. We did have a week of cold weather and then it turned to summer again. Sorry for the no knitting news but I am slowly getting the socks done.

Socks, scooters and Melissa!

2006-11-30T16:36:00.000-08:00

Here are the 4 pairs of socks I completed during my 2 week recovery time. I am working on another pair of socks for a Christmas gift and the new skein is "Rosie" from Yarn Pirate.
This is my brother playing very hard with David on Thanksgiving Day. My brother was exhausted at the end of this day. David was too!
This is my sweet little Melissa. I think she is just precious and I couldn't love her more if she were my own child. She is adorable if I do say so myself in the sweater and booties I made her before I knew if she was a boy or a girl. I know she is sideways but I don't know how to rotate the picture. If you know how, let me know!

I think things might be settling down a wee bit here out our house. My inlaws are hanging in there. If you are inclined, they could use prayers still. Yesterday it was 81 degrees and today it is 27 degrees. I am freezing. And yes, I did turn on the heater. I am recovering nicely and am able to ease back into life. I feel very good and have started Christmas shopping. I hope to get my decorating done this weekend. I am hosting my first ever Christmas Cookie Exchange in a couple of weeks and I think I am going to have a good turn out! I haven't decided which cookies to make yet but I have a gazillion recipes to decide from.

Too Much Knitting?

2006-11-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

NOT! However, I am a little excited to go see the surgeon this morning and get an update on my condition and limitations. Hopefully, there won't be too many. I am having some intense pain behind my left knee. A pain that actually has made me scream 3 times. One time it woke me up, but not my husband. The scream must have been the same frequency as a baby crying at night. I'm wondering if I have some nerve damage. Enough about that. I am going to finish my 4th pair of socks in 2 weeks today. I have also been working on my sweater. I had to stop working on socks 2 days this week due to a blister from my sock needle. A knitting injury! I put a bandaid on the blister but thought I'd use a bigger needle and get some progress on the sweater so I can wear it soon! Two pairs of the socks are Christmas gifts for my Mother. She picked out the yarn at my LYS just before surgery. One pair was knit on size 3 dpns and the other pair was knit on size 1 dpns. My current pair are knit on size 2 and I'm using Hill Country Yarns Sweet Feet Sock Yarn in beautiful shades of purple, blue, green, browns, and gold. I really like these and I will be finished today! I think I'll finish my sweater after this pair of socks. Because I have made 8 pairs of socks in about 6 weeks. I should count how many pairs I have total. Thanks again for all the well wishes. My husband has been AMAZING during this time. He is taking care of me, getting the boys to and from school and working! We have had wonderful friends bringing in meals which has been a tremendous blessing. However, when it rains it pours. Both my husband's parents are in the hospital with unrelated illnesses and both are in serious condition. We are in Texas, they are in New York. I know he is stressed out worrying about them and taking care of us. He and my oldest son are going to NY next week Monday thru Friday so he can meet with his brothers and sister and make some plans. He was unsure about leaving me but my parents will help me out here. The upside to all of this is I get to see my sweet baby niece, Melissa. I will stay with my parents with our other 2 sons. I am so excited to see Melissa . . . oh, and my brother and sister-in-law. I am so happy to actually leave the house today! I'll post if I have any news.

Lots of Time to Knit

2006-11-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

I am now post surgery. Everything went fine. Now comes the tough part, recovery. The doctors and nurses said I was an excellent patient. My surgeon told me I was a lightweight as they had to pull back on anesthesia. It didn't take much to put me under. I feel pretty good. I have some numbness in my left foot. I'm having a difficult time figuring where it starts and ends. My back throbs every now and then but I am mainly taking pain meds at bedtime now. So, I knit while waiting to go into surgery and it did calm me quite a bit. In fact, those are the socks I started Wednesday and I finished them on Saturday. I started some foot warmers on Saturday afternoon from "One Skein" using Lorna's Laces and I'm almost finished with the first one. Here is a picture of the 4 pairs of socks I completed during socktoberfest. The sock on the needles is the pair I started Wednesday and finished Saturday. This is the sweater that I started right before Socktoberfest and have worked very little on, however, the back is complete. I have the yarn and pattern in the bin next to my bed to work on over the next few weeks while I am limited with what I can do. I have received flowers, meals and cards. I have never been on this side. By that I mean receiving. It feels weird. I am so thankful to everyone that has sent me well wishes. I am not a good person at asking for help so for all this stuff to just appear is quite amazing. I know I am blessed. My youngest son's class did get well cards for me. They are absolutely precious. The personal notes, scripture verses and art are awesome! I will definitely scrapbook these items. I sent the class mini-m&m's and cool pencils as a thank you for praying for me. My husband has been Mr. Mom this weekend and has done a very good job. The laundry is done (and so much more)! He might do a better job than me. But, I don't think he wants to do it on a continual basis. My youngest son turned 8 on Friday and I couldn't go to his party but again, my husband did a great job on handling the 20 kids that were there. My son had a blast and came home and showed me all the goodies he received. He sat on the bed with me and we went through the pictures on the camera so he could show and tell me what was what. Well, I'm off to complete my foot warmer. I'm trying to utilize this time to get lots of knitting done!

On the positive side . . .

2006-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

I will have back surgery on November 2. I can't do much of anything after that for 6 weeks. I can knit though. I've already gotten lots of knitting done for socktoberfest even though I don't have the pictures to prove it. I am on my 6th sock which actually has me on my 4th pair of socks. I might actually get these finished by next week! 4 pairs of socks - not bad! That is positive don't ya think? So for the first 2 weeks I'm completely homebound unless I have physical therapy then 4 weeks after that I can do light things but no major housework or laundry - DARN! I have to bring all my sock yarn stash downstairs from my craft room in case I want to knit knit knit. So, I need all my favorite bloggers to stay current better than I do (and y'all do) so y'all can entertain me! I'm counting on you.

Sock Progress and a Contest Winner

2006-10-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have made a lot of progress on my socks for this month but as usual I don't have any pictures. I finished the second sock of my Lola socks. I made a pair of basic socks with a six inch ribbing out of Claudia's Handpainted yarn. I am working on my second pair of socks (just finished the first one) out of another colorway of Claudia's. I am also working on a sweater which is going slowly. I should be farther along but life is getting in the way. I hurt my back (sitting on the floor believe it or not) mid-August. I have been going to doctors, physical therapy and taking it pretty easy since then. I had an xray early on which showed nothing but had an MRI on Wednesday after having what felt like an explosion in my back on Wednesday morning while brushing my teeth. I went down on the floor and it took an hour to get me up. Anyway, I have a 1cm bulging disc between my L5 and S1 disc. Apparently, that is significant. I have been in bed on heavy medication and see a surgeon on Monday. I don't know where this is going but my physical therapist and general practioner seem to be leaning towards surgery. I'm in denial. The medication makes me pretty groggy and I have my knitting next to me and look at it and pretend I'm knitting. I won a contest from Yarn Pirate and received my goody box today. She sent me a lovely pair of Trekking sock yarn and some chocolate (white - YUMMY!) and the cutest Pez dispenser - it's a sheep! I think it is a keychain. Again, no pictures but I'll have my husband take one for posting at a later time. I cannot wait for her personal yarn to be back in stock because I literally want about 5 colors that I'm sure I cannot live without! And on the scrapbooking front, I attended Celebrate Dallas last weekend and got 64 pages completed! So, I'm getting stuff done and maybe I'll get this third pair of socks finished before Socktoberfest is over. Take care!

Two Weeks Later

2006-10-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my neverending scarf - Interlocking Balloon Scarf. I haven't weaved in the ends or blocked it yet, but I will . . . someday. I have started a simple v-neck sweater out of Mountain Colors Twizzle - Mountain Tango - shades of green, yellow, blues, purples and yellow. I also casted on yesterday for my second "Lola" sock and that will be my first sock for Socktoberfest. I hope to get another pair done. My first "baby" was 14 yesterday. Where does the time go? He got to go on a fun trip with his Dad to St. Louis. They had attended a Mavericks' basketball game at the beginning of the year when Mark Cuban (owner of Mavs) gave everyone in the audience a free American Airline ticket to one of 4 destinations. So my husband and son went to St. Louis and saw a baseball game on Saturday and a football game yesterday. I'm telling you these guys are sports crazy - they can watch and cheer for anyone! As it turns out they stayed in the same hotel as the Detroit Lions and my son met many different players, got autographs and gave them his personal advice. He then was on a shuttle bus this morning with the NY Rangers announcer and got to talk to him about the Rangers! The Rangers are his favorite hockey team. He made it back to Fort Worth only missing one class this morning but he is on cloud 9. It was my first time away from him on his bday but we will celebrate as a family tonight. So, I'm off to New York this weekend to take my youngest son apple picking and visit my inlaws. Hopefully, I'll have some beautiful photographs. I'm wondering if the leaves are turning color at all. I'll post pictures soon.

A Tale of Two Baby Sweaters

2006-09-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

My Mother-in-Law knit newborn baby sweaters for all her grandchildren as well as her children and friends and children of friends, etc. It's a tradition that if you get married you get a cross-stitch sampler and if you have a baby you get a Joyce sweater. I have 3 baby blue sweaters with matching hats that she made for each of my boys. They all wore them home from the hospital. I lived in NY when all 3 boys were born. With the first son, the in-laws were at the hospital as soon as they could be after his birth which was probably within the hour. Since I didn't know if the baby would be a boy or girl before birth she made a pink sweater and hat and a blue sweater and hat. She brought the blue sweater. When I had my second son, again I didn't know if the baby would be a boy or girl. He was due early September and my in-laws always travel the last 2 weeks of August. Before they left for vacation, she left me with a blue sweater set and a pink sweater set just in case the baby came early as my first child was 3 weeks early. Well, Michael showed his little self on August 21st, while the inlaws were gone. When they returned from vacation, I tried to give the pink sweater set back to my MIL for a future girl child. She told me to keep it in case I eventually had a girl. With my third son, I knew early on he was going to be a boy. MIL still wanted me to keep the sweater because I could still have a girl someday. I always wanted a girl but it was not meant to be. So, MIL told me to keep the sweater and hat for my future granddaughter (I was 32 at the birth of my last child). Flash forward 12 years from the original date the pink sweater set was given to me. My brother and his wife that have been trying for 13 years to have a baby find out they are pregnant and the pregnancy goes full term. However, my sis in law and brother want to be surprised so my MIL pulls out her blue baby yarn and knits a blue sweater and hat because I am so darn excited about the baby that I want to give them the pink sweater set I've had for 12 years if the baby is a girl. So Melissa is born on 9/1/06. My in-laws are on their way home from the Carolina shore - the yearly trip - and I track her down by cell phone to tell her I am on my way to Houston with a pink sweater set in the back of my suburban. We both cried. She gets to at least see a picture of the baby girl to wear her creation. It is really awesome because my MIL is very ill, in fact, she has been in ICU for a week. She has been in the hospital so much this year. My husband is flying up to NY this weekend to visit her. I will see her in October. So guess what? I have another blue sweater set. She told me to save it for my future grandson. Sheesh! I told my brother and sis in law they need to have a baby boy now! So here is the 12 year old pink sweater set. The blue sweater set was made this summer. I have saved everything my MIL has knit, sewn, quilted or cross-stitched for us and I appreciate it so much. I took these photos because with the tons and tons of gifts she has made for so many people for so many years, she has never photographed any of it. She asked for these photos since I photograph everything I make and scrapbook it. I have a knitting scrapbook. Anyway, I can't wait to get a picture of Melissa in the pink sweater set. My sister in law absolutely loves the sweater and hat. Who wouldn't? It's hand knitted!

PICTURES!

2006-09-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

These are my current socks from Schaefer Yarn "Lola". I am now working on the foot. These are knitting up quickly (after I figured out how to read the pattern correctly).
I took a class to learn how to read a chart and this is the scarf we did in the class. I'm about 3/4 of the way through this.
Self-striping socks. These took me a long time. I'm not sure why it's not like I had to do any work to get the stripes to stripe.
Socks from Cherry Tree Hill Superwash sock yarn.
These socks are made from my friend off ebay that hand-dyes her yarn. I have purchased several skeins of yarn from her and I always love her creations. I might get brave and say who it is some day but that would add to the competition.
Finally, my 3 one-skein wonders. The skein of yarn on the mantle will be next one-skein wonder. With that said, it is yarn that doesn't have enough yardage on one skein so it is really a three skein wonder. I love it anyway!

Well, that gets me up to date on finished and current projects. I was at Border's this morning and I purchased "Knit Fix" and "Toys to Knit". Now that I'm an aunt (nothing to do with being a mother)I should probably knit some toys for my niece. This book has a super cute doll pattern and doll clothes patterns as well. I might even knit the monkey for youngest son, and snake for middle son. Oldest son might just be out of luck! However, he might like the bumble bee, fish, penguin, or the kangaroo. Ha!

Yesterday I went to my LYS to get help on reading a pattern (duh)and I just happened to bump into April from micaknits.blogspot.com. She was supermom shopping with her almost 3 year old son in her arms. He's a tall boy! It was interesting because when I walked into the store April was talking to the owner, Annameike (hoped I spelled that right)and she said something that just made me think I would know her. Sure enough when I asked her name I knew right away it was here. It was our first time to meet! Who would of thunk it! Meeting a fellow knitting blogger in my LYS!

I'm an Aunt

2006-09-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have a new neice. Her name is Melissa and she was born on 9/1/06. I got to see and hold her the next day and the next day and the next day but then I had to come home and its been a week since I've seen her but I love her immensely. She is my brother's (my only sibling) first child. We have been waiting for about 13 years for her so it's a blessing beyond words to this family. And, I get to buy and make girly stuff now! I have several pictures to show you but for the past hour I have been trying to upload these photos to my post here and nothing is coming up! This is why I get so frustrated with the photo aspect. I have a picture with 3 one-skein wonders. I have several pictures of finished socks and I have 2 current projects that I am working on. Maybe I can get them on later. My blog birthday was Aug. 25th I think, and the day came and went with no blog update here. But, I'm here now. The past several weeks have been a blur in a way. I have had some minor health issues that kind of kept me from doing stuff. Well, I did keep knitting so it couldn't be that bad! Anyway, I'm on the mend and hopefully all will be completely well soon. I find myself in a dazed state today knowing it has been 5 years since 9/11. My husband had just joined me full time here in Texas and he is from New York. He was taking the boys to school and I had the news on and called him on his cell to get home without turning on the radio (he was listening to a CD). Even tucked away in a small Texas town, we were devestated. I literally lay on the couch for a week watching the news just hoping a pocket of survivors would be found and I wanted to be awake and not miss that happy event - which never came. My husband had to drag me out of the house while he is the one that lost friends and former coworkers. That Thanksgiving we went to NY to be with his family. Kevin went to Ground Zero with our oldest son and took photos which I scrapbooked. I went there in April 2002 and took pictures - several being of memorials left around the cathedral. Interestingly enough as I scrapbooked the photos that I took in April I noticed some familiarity in some photographs. I looked back at the photos I scrapbooked from Kevin's trip and I had a photograph of a white sheet that anybody could sign (Kevin and Brian had done so). Next to the sheet was a large poster of red and blue hand prints from an elementary school (which is what I recognized). I had taken a picture of it in April as well and there was that white sheet and I could see Kevin and Brian's signature 5 months later. If anyone saw these memorials, there were thousands. How is it that I just happened to get the same photo that my husband had taken? I didn't notice it until I was back at home, probably 2 months later or so and actually getting them in a scrapbook. I think it's a cool coincidence. I have pictures of some beautiful drawings and lovely poems. I wonder where all that stuff has gone now. I'm glad I have them preserved in my albums.

2nd Day of School

2006-08-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

. . . happened without any problems on my part! Woo Hoo -- supermom is back! That's funny y'all and I'm laughing at myself. I went to the sit and knit at my LYS last night and apparently I got out of my chair at some point because I came home with some new purchases. I bought 3 different yarns. First of all I bought (drum roll please) sock yarn! It is from Schaefer Yarn and it is handpainted. It is called "Lola" and believe me it's bright! Hot pink, purple and orange. Then I bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (dark blue but it's really teal) for a scarf I will make in a class I am taking next week. Then I bought, in black, Debbie Bliss Pure Silk for a shrug I am going to make in one of the new books I recently purchased. So, I still have more knitting to do (the stash grows). I finished my latest one-skein wonder in a brown color out of Rowan's summer tweed. I now have 3 completed one-skein wonders and I love them! I am working on yet another pair of socks in some self striping yarn I purchased at a going out of business sale at my old LYS. I promise to not give y'all an accounting of every school day from here until May because trust me . . . you'd get really bored!

First Day of School

2006-08-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

So, I drop the boys off at all 3 separate campuses for their first day of school. We are on time. I'm showered and dressed. I see the breakfast for parents dropping off children for the first time that are emotional. I ask where is the breakfast for the parents that have been doing this for awhile and want to celebrate they got through the morning! Then "IT" happens. I have a call from the middle school son. He forgot his PE uniform and he needs it. I come home, get it and take it to him. I'm still looking for a little celebration even though I don't have it as together as I thought. Then "IT" happens again! Youngest son calls. I didn't pack his lunch. Okay, I didn't pack his lunch but he and oldest son go to the same school. Oldest son has a 1/2 day (first day) and I just thought it was the whole school. No, just high school. So, I came home, made his lunch, took it back to his school. I was finished with all that by 10:20 a.m. We left the house orginally at 7:35. Now, I'm not looking for the celebratory breakfast. I'm looking for the glass of wine or a margarita. Is 10:20 a.m. too early? This is what happens when you have children. I had my socks packed in my bag so that if I was sitting in carpool line I could knit. That didn't happen either. I am going to a "Sit and Knit" at my new LYS tonight so it's got to get better right? Tomorrow is Friday - thank goodness! I'm ready for the weekend. I'm scrapbooking on Saturday!

Organizing and such

2006-08-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

I am still here. I still have no photos to share but I've been knitting a lot! Since my last post I have completed one more pair of socks and one more one-skein wonder. I have started a third one-skein wonder. I can whip that up pretty quickly. I finished "Sense and Sensibility" and have started "Pride and Prejudice". I love Jane Austen! I have been organizing closets and cabinets here at home. You think that sounds good, but I wonder how they get unorganized. I understand the boys growing out of clothes and such and that stuff needing to be sent off to someone who can use it, but it's all the other stuff that gets messed up. I like things organized! School begins this week and I have come to terms with it. Now that all is organized I feel better prepared! Maybe I'll get some photos posted soon.

Time Flies

2006-07-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it is July 31. My boys start school in 2 1/2 weeks. We are buying all our school supplies today - yuck. The days of waking up without an alarm are almost over and I think I might be depressed. I really overdid it last year with volunteering. Don't get me wrong I love to help and be involved but I did too much last year. I declined 2 major PTO positions (at separate schools) and "they" are calling me now and sending me letters to see if maybe I changed my mind. NO! I have not changed my mind. I think we have had a pretty good summer and I'm just not ready to see it end. I just found out my middle son (the one with Asperger's) is getting 2 new teachers. 2 new teachers to the school. 2 new teachers that haven't seen him in action. Maybe that is a good thing, but I have been worried about him going into 7th grade. I hope he does well. I am praying. I have no pictures to post, but I have done some serious knitting since my last post. Well, serious in that I've completed several smaller projects. Of course, the socks continue to pile up and I have completed one pair, a single sock, and a cuff on a second sock. I've completed the one-skein wonder, and a baby blanket. I think that is it. I visited Yarntopia again in Houston and walked away with a medium bag (that was running over). If I lived closer I'd visit there more often. Which leads me to a story. I took my 3 boys to the dentist last week for their regular checkups. I sat in the waiting room knitting my socks for the hour or so they were gone. After their appointments were over an assistant called me back to visit with the dentist. I had another small wait so pulled out my socks. Well the dentist came in and immediately started talking about my knitting. He said he is a "knitting widow". I laughed and said well I thought my husband could probably qualify for that title as well. He had never seen sock knitting before and we talked about knitting a good 5 minutes. He then apologized for "wasting my time" talking about knitting. I laughed and said I would much rather talk about knitting than hearing what he might be getting ready to tell me about the boys (which was all good news actually)! He told me a friend of his just opened a new yarn store near there and had I been to it. Okay, the dentist is maybe 7 minutes from my house and HE knows about a new LYS????? What has happened to my LYS radar? In fact he told me that the store was being featured on "Good Morning Texas" that morning, but of course I had already missed it. So, I found their website and went there on Thursday and I'd like to just move in. They have a weekly "sit and knit" on Thursdays and I hope to become a regular and meet some other knitters. The name of the store is "Yarns Ewenique". I got to see so many yarns that I've read about on various blogs and now I see why people love what they love. I bought some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn and a skein of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn. I bought some more Mission Falls yarn for the one-skein wonder. I also bought the most amazing bag that looks like a purse. It is kind of on the big side but I can carry all my purse junk plus a sock project with all my gadgets. I love it! One can never have too many knitting bags. I even found a class that I'm going to sign up for in August that will take place while the boys are in school. The store is max 15 minutes from my house. It's awesome! I just can't believe my LYS radar wasn't working to know this mid-Spring. I finished "A Good Yarn" yesterday. I liked that book. I read another book last week. I think it was called "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". Another good read. I am now reading "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen. I have gotten so much summer reading done! Well, it's off to buy school supplies.

Baby Boutique and More

2006-07-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

I am finally posting pictures of my Yarntopia buddies, Sheryl and Amy. I have been very productive with the yarn purchased there. I love that!
The green/purple/pink socks that I keep mentioning are still in progress.
I have completed 3 of the 4 baby projects I have purchased thus far. The blanket is so soft! I purchased the yarn and the pattern at Yarntopia. The sweater is a pattern I found from a blog I visit with yarn purchased at Yarntopia. The booties are a free pattern from Berrocco. I whipped those cuties up yesterday while watching soccer with the family.
I also completed my SAL project! I am doing this SAL with knitters from Yarntopia. This is the yarn that my husband complimented the other day. I still wonder about that. I would like to say he has good taste in yarn but come on! My oldest son took this picture and I think he doesn't like my direction in photography but I think he did great. Oh, I took my boys to see Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought both movies were entertaining. I personally think the fight scenes in Pirates went a little long but it was still entertaining. We are going to the beach next week and you know what that means . . . reading time and knitting time!

Progress? Not much

2006-06-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

I am still knitting on my first sock. I'm going to start decreasing for my toe in about 1/2". Still no picture though. My husband looked over at me knitting 2 nights ago and said "hey nice yarn". That was weird. I hope he is feeling okay. I have been reading quite a bit. I finished "Daughter of Fortune" yesterday afternoon. I began "12 Sharp" by Janet Evanovich last night and finished it this morning. I love her Stephanie Plum books. They are laugh out loud funny. I was laughing on the first page. So now, what to read? I have several books on my nightstand and think I'll just grab whatever is on top. I went to Costco today. I love going in there. I don't know why. I took my boys and after we finished the shopping, we ate lunch for $13.07 that included 2 desserts. You just can't beat that price. Too bad it wasn't healthy stuff. Hopefully, I will finish my first sock in the next day or two! You will read about it here first.

A Crush

2006-06-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

As usual I had a great time at the scrapbook retreat I attended this weekend. And as is normal for me, sleep wasn't a requirement. I got about 3 hours of sleep Friday night and 4 1/2 hours on Saturday night. I cannot do this on a regular basis but I guess on these scrapbook retreats I get kind of wild and crazy. I got 68 pages completed - journaled and everything! Woo hoo! I am almost current . . . until I get more pictures developed. I did absolutely no knitting over the weekend but have done a bit over the past couple of days on the socks I am doing for my sock-a-long. No pictures but just imagine about 4 1/2 inches of ribbing completed. Pretty huh! I went to see "The Lakehouse" today and I thought it was a good chick flick. In fact, I have a crush on Keanu Reeves now. It evens out because my husband has had a crush on Sandra Bullock for several years. Anyway, I liked the movie and I would recommend it. I will get some knitting done on my socks tonight and hopefully, I will have something to show for it soon.

Update w/out Pictures

2006-06-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

I finished the baby blanket and I finished the green/purple/pink sock (1st one). But, I don't have pictures to share. I do not like 2 projects going at once. I just don't feel very productive. I am going to start on my SAL project today and get that out of the way since several people in the group have already finished. I'll get them done asap! Then I'll get back to the baby stuff. I am going to a scrapbook retreat this weekend and I know I will get a lot done, however, I took over 300 pictures in the month of May so I won't catch up. Well, if I completely take sleep out of the equation - maybe. When I last scrapbooked, I was working on my Spring Break pictures. With 3 boys there is lots of picture taking going on what with all the sports, field trips, end of year parties, field days, and general family life. I should have thought about that before I decided to have 3 kids! Lots of pictures and lots of laundry - sheesh! I won't get any knitting done this weekend, but I will scrapbook and that's still a good weekend for me!

Buy more Yarn!

2006-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

I had a fun time in Galveston with my youngest son. I took him to Schlitterbahn (a waterpark) and I spent 7 1/2 hours there with him. That is quite good for me. I am not a fan of waterparks. We survived even though we had a little scare when we got separated on the lazy river for about 7 minutes. A long 7 minutes, but I found him and he held onto me pretty tightly the rest of the day. The highlight of the trip was seeing my sister in law at 7 months pregnant. She looks great and is feeling well and still weighs less than me! Darn! She's got 8 more weeks so maybe there is still hope of her weighing more than me! It's all about me! So, onto my trip to Yarntopia - this was definitely a tie for the highlight of my trip. I took my sis in law with me to pick out some baby goodies and for a complete nonknitter, she sure was hooked! I bought stuff for 4 projects with patterns for 2 more projects after the baby is born. They are waiting until the birth to find out the sex of the baby. We found 2 baby blankets we liked but need to know if the baby is a boy or girl first. So, I'll be busy. Now that is not all I got. I bought 3 different sock yarns (2 Hill Country Yarn colors, and my sock for the SAL with Yarntopia), yarn for a shrug (one-skein wonder), and yarn for a top (Brigitte from French Girl). All I know is the shopping trip required the largest shopping bag at Yarntopia! I have lots of fun knitting to do. I have completed my socks in shades of pink. I have started another sock with yarn from my friend in Washington and it is gorgeous in shades of green and purple. I am almost finished with the first sock and will delay the second sock while I do my socks for the SAL. I am working on the baby blanket made from Plymouth's Heaven. Yes - 2 projects at once! I started it yesterday and should probably finish it tonight while watching my oldest son have mild to medium panic attacks watching the Mavericks/Heat game. My husband is at the game so he might be feeling worse at this point. I guess if I would have gone with him I couldn't have knitted! I think he should have sold the tickets and given me the money for more yarn . . . just sayin!

On the Other Side of 40

2006-06-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it! I am now 40 and nothing has changed. I still have to do laundry way too much. I had such a great time in Lake Tahoe.
My husband did a great job planning the trip and everything was wonderful. We flew first class, we stayed in a great hotel, we ate wonderful food, we rented my favorite car a convertible Mustang,
we enjoyed a couple's massage, we relaxed and read by the lake and the pool, we did the hot air balloon ride, we found a local yarn store (woo hoo), we visited Squaw Valley to see the Olympic village and it was basically a ghost town, I lost $30 on the slot machines (I'm not a gambler can you tell?), we drove around looking a real estate (I don't think we will be buying a vacation home there too expensive), and just all around had an awesome and relaxing time. The hot air ballooning was really beautiful.
We arrived at 6:45 a.m. and watched the men get the balloon all unwrapped and rolled out and blown up. It was so cool! We climbed in the basket and we were off. We just floated and floated. It was very smooth and not frightening at all. We went up to about 4000 feet but didn't drift far as it just wasn't too breezy - which is fine with me! My husband and I both took tons of pictures for our scrapbook! We were up in the air for an hour. I loved it. We then went to a little town, Truckee. I think that's the right spelling. And that is where I found Jimmy Beans Wool. The main store is in Reno.
My husband finds it odd that I have LYS radar. We got there about 9:30 and the store didn't open until 10:00. So Kevin took a picture of me looking in the window. He might think there is something seriously wrong with me . . . oh well! I bought two skeins of Lorna's Lace to make some thick wintery socks. I need those in Texas ya know! So, that was my yarn treat from my Lake Tahoe trip. I am leaving for a week of vacation tomorrow. I'm taking my oldest son to sea camp in Galveston, hanging out with my youngest son during the week until time to pick up oldest son. My husband is taking middle son to CA to Disneyland, Legoland and the San Diego Zoo. He does a father/son trip with each child and they get to pick a spot. Michael chose Legoland and Kevin (husband) said well while we are there . . . So, I went to my LYS Wednesday to spend my birthday money and I finally got a swift and ball winder. I wound 6 skeins of yarn and I thought it was so much fun. It is all sock yarn and I am very excited to keep on knitting. How much should I take on vacation. I am going to Yarntopia in Houston on Tuesday. I have seen the online pictures and can't wait to visit the store and add to the stash. My brother and sister in law are giving me some cash to spend there as well. I just see that as gravy cause I was already going shopping! I bet Amy and Sheryl don't mind one bit! Problem is they have posted so many cute samples they have been working on for the store, I can't even begin to imagine what I will end up with. But, you will find out here! So, I guess I won't post for awhile but in looking at my recent postings that won't seem odd at all.

I'm Still Here

2006-06-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I got kind of stuck doing school stuff during the end of May. I am taking a vacation from volunteering in a leadership position next year. I'll still volunteer, I just don't want to be in charge. These are the baby booties I made on Mother's Day.

This sock yarn in shades of pink is my current project and as you can see, I am on the second sock. I am almost finished with the ribbing. I know I should try a new sock pattern but I seem to be in a bit of a rut. I will try to do a new sock pattern after I complete this pair.

These are my blue/green socks that took me forever to finish. I think they took me over a month to complete which is just ridiculous!

Well, I am off to Lake Tahoe tonight. My husband is taking me there for a quick trip to celebrate my 40th bday. I'm not freaking out yet, but my actual day isn't until Saturday. My big adventure on Saturday is to go hot air ballooning and I am very excited about it. Hopefully we will go horseback riding and do some hiking as well! I'll post some pictures next week. Maybe I'll get those pink socks finished on my trip! So, I'm off to finish packing.

Wouldn't ya know?

2006-05-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

I had an opportunity (the first in a long time it seems) to work on and hopefully finish my socks, but wouldn't ya know that in the second round of knitting, one of my size 1 dpn's broke. What is a girl to do? Get the spare right? Wrong! It was the spare that broke. So I called my good friend Amy at Yarntopia and she has needles for me to buy and a pattern that I was looking for. I'd like to buy all her yarn but I'm saving that for when I visit her store in June. So, since I had this knitting time, I decided to knit the baby booties. I have never knit baby booties before and ya know what? They go fast! That was my knitting "duh" moment. I will post a picture as soon as I get the ribbon to run through the eyelets in the booties. They are called ballet slippers. So so cute! I have made these booties for my cousin that had a baby a week and a half ago. So, I'll post pictures of these soon! Now I'm off to assemble a shark costume of sorts that my youngest son needs for a project he is doing tomorrow. He was an Indian 2 weeks ago and now a shark. I need a break from school people! And here I thought with me graduating XXX years ago, I'd be done with homework . . . apparently NOT!

I'm Here

2006-05-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

I just have no knitting news. I am still on the same pair of socks, but I am doing the toe shaping now. I guess that is news, but not exciting news. In scrapbooking news I got 60 pages accomplished last weekend at my retreat. That is big news actually. By the time I scrapbook again, I will probably be way behind again - that's the way it goes since I keep taking pictures. My boys' school activites are keeping me swamped and getting in the way of knitting. Summer break will be here in 2 weeks and hopefully I will eventually finish these socks. And when I do, I'll have a party and everyone is invited! My cats are adjusting nicely and we are having fun with them, even when they attack our feet at night!

Finally

2006-05-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know the day after I did my ranting my books showed up. All it took was a little ranting. Who knew ranting could actually pay off? Must tell my husband this news. He'll be thrilled! My new books are (1) Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne, (2) Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearle-McPhee and (3) Wendy Knits by Wendy D. Johnson. I have looked at all 3 a little bit closer and I am happy to say I am very excited to read them all front to back! I have already started! I did 15 minutes of knitting yesterday. I think it is the first time in 4 days. My hands were so happy. If all goes well I may knit in carpool line today. We have an overnight guest coming today and I did a quick clean-up of the house this morning. Now I am off to my craft room to sort through my scrapbooking stuff for the weekend. Hopefully, I will get it all somewhat organized so that I can be super efficient this weekend. Oh, and in other news, I bought some jewelry from Heather over at achancetoknit.typepad.com. I love the pieces and encourage you to check out her jewelry site listed on her blog! Please keep my friend, Kathleen, in your prayers, she got some not so great news after all her chemo rounds ended. The doctors are weighing their options for the next step at this point so she is waiting patiently. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Where Are My Books?

2006-05-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

So here it is May 1 and my 3 books that I have ordered from Amazon are still not here. Computer invoice says they have been shipped. It has been at least 3 1/2 weeks. I have been to 2 local books stores and now ALL 3 BOOKS that I have ordered are at the bookstores. All 3!!! Where is my Amazon order? Sheesh! And you know what I did? I peeked at the bookstore copies and that's like ruining part of the joy and surprise of getting a new book (that you actually own) in your hands! So, again, where are my Amazon books? I'm just not impressed with them this order. I have barely been knitting the last few days. As a recap, I am still on my blue/green socks. I have completed one sock and am working on the foot of the second sock. So, there is progress. My oldest son went on a school trip to Disneyworld in February. Each student has to make a scrapbook of the trip and it is due next Monday (5/8). Guess who spent all of yesterday helping the son with his scrapbook? He is so excited about this album that he wanted to take it to school today but we still have to label each photos and put page protectors on. I never ever (NEVER EVER) let a scrapbook leave my house without page protectors. I'm telling you just to send this one to school will probably nearly send me over the edge. And it is a major grade! I cannot imagine how it will get treated with so many other scrapbooks in a pile. I will just send it off and not look back. I am going on a scrapbook retreat this weekend and I will be working on our family albums. I always love going on these retreats because I usually get so much accomplished. Now that I spent all of yesterday working on son's album I am ready! I cannot believe all the stuff that has popped up for the month of May in getting ready for the last day of school. I have school stuff going on almost everyday through the end of May. It is unbelievable what can be crammed into these last days. With any hope, I will get this last blue/green sock complete and then onto baby booties (which I've said before!). Oh, and where are my books?

New Hobby? Not!

2006-04-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

I did so much yard work this weekend. Well, for me it was a lot of yard work. I have just never had a green thumb and have been known to kill green plants of any kind. So, we will see if my work pays off or not! We hauled brush, we weeded gardens and we planted flowers. In fact, I planted more flowers today. Hopefully, I didn't just waste money buying this stuff because, well, that could have been yarn! Always can switch it to yarn and knitting! I did a teensy bit of knitting Saturday morning at my son's soccer game. Other than that not so much. We went to a dinner on Friday night and someone asked me about my hobby. I said I like to knit. She said she didn't really know people did that much anymore. HELLO! Where are these people that don't know about knitting. I told her about my latest sock craze and she simply didn't get it. Why knit socks when you can buy them (for cheap) at Target. Well, I simply said because I LOVE IT! She didn't get it. I couldn't explain it and frankly did not even try. So, I may finish my second sock this week. And after that I am going to try my hand at a pair of baby booties for my neice or nephew due in September. Then back onto socks . . . well because I have yarn to make lots more pairs! I ordered Mason Dixon Knitting and another knitting book about 3 weeks ago from Amazon. They are still not here. See, it's been so long I can't even remember the name of the second book. My husband checked on the status of me receiving these books (cause I don't have enough projects in line as it is) and they aren't even scheduled to be sent out until May 1st. I could have gone to Barnes and Noble or Borders. What is up with that shipping process? Just asking.

The Scrap of Knit and Scrap

2006-04-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

A shot of nature. I love taking pictures of things like this and I thought considering what I had to work with, it came out pretty good. I am making a nature scrapbook page in my 2006 album.

I thought this photo was just precious. The kids had so much fun hunting Easter eggs and this picture just captures their excitement and youth! There were more than enough eggs for everbody but at the beginning of the hunt they were all after the same egg. By the end of the hunt, none of the baskets could hold another egg, not even a piece of candy. Isn't that exciting for the kids? Now they are at school all day and I am left here with all that chocolate calling my name. I'm trying to be strong and ignore it! That's why knitting is so great, I can keep my hands busy! Now I have tons of pictures to scrapbook - eek! Oh, I have finished one of my blue/green socks and have started the second of the pair so I am making progress!

Looky Here

2006-04-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the clear clogs with my "happy socks". I am very excited about them. Maybe this is why I was having such trouble finding the perfect shoe for my socks. I was waiting for these. Could it be that I finally had patience? Maybe so. And with the nice cool temperature of 97 degrees outside as I type this, I am sure I'll have occasion to wear them soon . . . NOT! We had a nice Easter with a family reunion in East Texas. The children had so much fun hunting Easter eggs. We had yummy homemade food made by my aunt and cousin who are both excellent cooks! I got a good talking to from my cats upon our return. They noticed we were gone, even though it was only about 24 hours. I have a couple of more pictures to show, but I can't get them to load to my blog right now so that will give me another post for later! At least I got the picture of the clogs up! Let me know what you think!

Mail Call

2006-04-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

The mailman just delivered my new clear clogs. I tried them on with my "happy" socks and I think they are GREAT! We are heading out of town in about 30 minutes and I should be loading the car. I will post pictures of the clear clogs w/socks on Monday! They really are cool - in my opinion! Happy Easter!

New Socks and 2 New Cats

2006-04-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

I finished my "happy" socks. I just love them! I don't know when I'll get to wear them but whenever it is, I'm ready! I was visiting a favorite blog the other day danceswithyarn.com and discovered clear clogs. I think they will be the perfect shoes for the hand knitted socks I have spent lots of time on! I'll let you know!

Also, I have adopted 2 cats. First, we adopted Tye. He is about 4-5 years old. He has a sweet personality and he has been very busy finding his spot here in the house. He has tried out 2 chairs in the family room, all the chairs at the dining room table, several chairs at the kitchen table, several stairs on his way up and on his way down. He especially loves my bed at night and that is when I get the most cuddles from him.

Our second cat is Ashlee. She is about 1 year old. She is very shy but loving. She loves attention and loves to be petted, but she doesn't like to be held. She cuddles on her own terms for the most part but she does like to cuddle. She is a little nervous and I wonder if she had been abused. Now she is getting lots of love!

Now, I am working on yet another pair of socks. If I don't buy anymore sock yarn for awhile (yeah right), I have yarn for 5 more pair. Not including this current skein. So, I'm trying to practice self-control in 3 areas, get to the gym consistently, no sock yarn for a few weeks, and cut back on Mexican food. Thank goodness I can still knit! Oh, my shawls in the auction? Each shawl was auctioned for $35. I guess that's okay, but I would have liked to have seen around $50 at least. Right now, I don't think I'll donate any hand-knit items next year.

Mission Accomplished!

2006-03-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

See what happens when your child has the flu? You can get some knitting done because you are confined to the house. You can also get lots of laundry done, but who in their right mind would want to do that? So the first sock is finished and I have 4 inches on the cuff of the second sock. I am doing 6 inches of ribbing. I took these socks to my oldest sons dr. appt. this morning. Whenever I go into their office they all like to see my latest project. The last couple of months it has been socks. I do think they think it odd that someone would actually knit socks but they are always interested to see what I'm doing. These socks are loud and bright and I'm loving them alot!

This is the shawl I knitted for one of our school's auctions. We have one auction this week and another auction next week. I made an identical shawl for next week's auction (different school). So, I will be curious to see how they bid up. The auction that is this week is serious stuff. The class projects that are on display are already bidding in the $200-$500 range and the auction isn't until Friday night. I know it's a good cause, really I do, but sheesh people that could be lots of fun and beautiful yarn. Okay, I won't think like that . . . too much.

My son is feeling better and he will be back at school tomorrow. Yes, I am smiling! My husband is off to another hockey game tonight so no cooking and more knitting time and "Lost"! I will be very annoyed if they sneak in another rerun.

round and round and round i go

2006-03-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

I am still knitting on that same sock. I have about 2 inches left on the foot before I start decreasing for the toe. I haven't gotten in as much knitting time as I would like. My husband took the boys to a Dallas Stars game on Sunday and I literally sat down to work on the sock as they were pulling INTO the driveway. I was doing laundry and housework while they were gone. I actually let out an audible "no way" when they pulled in. Time flies . . . My youngest son is home with the flu. He started taking Tamaflu yesterday and he does feel better today, however, he is still not moving much. I did some knitting on my sock this morning and then I logged onto the computer and started searching knitting patterns - just random patterns - nothing particular in mind. Did I not realize I wasn't finished with even one sock from the current pair? I think I'm getting anxious to start something else wouldn't ya say? Well, we are in the process of looking for kittens. I found a litter of six that I wanted to check out but when I called yesterday, they had all been adopted. That is good though, they are in homes. My boys were a little disappointed. So, I have feelers out there and I'm checking the pet adoption websites daily. We'll see what happens! I'm going to keep going round and round on my sock and see if I can finish it up TODAY!

2 Posts in 1 Day

2006-03-23T14:09:00.000-08:00

So, see the scrap on my blog title? That is for scrapbooking. I am the photo fanatic on the plane taking pictures out the window. I took pictures from West Texas into Los Angeles. I love how the scene changes from up there! So this is a picture somewhere over California. I thought it was a cool looking shot and it came out pretty good.

And here is another pair of completed socks. I had quite a bit of down time while in California and got to do almost an entire sock! Is this what you pictured from my last description? No? Cause I think I described it pretty well. Blue, purple what else do you need? See that white skin on my legs? It looks like that even when I am tan. Go figure.

And this is what I am currently working on. You pictured this didn't you, since I said bright? I'm sure I nailed the description just so! I have gotten quite a bit done since I took this picture earlier. I have 6 inches of ribbing done and almost 1 inch of st. stitch and I'm getting ready to divide for the heel now.

So, 2 posts in one day. It's like Christmas wouldn't you say? I have it on good authority that blogger was a little weird today. So, I gave it another try and I guess it is feeling better now. I'm always glad for the reassurance that I am not as computer illiterate as I think I am!

Technical Difficulties

2006-03-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to post pictures for the last 30 minutes or so and I keep getting a technical difficulty pop up. So, no pictures right now. But imagine a really nice pair of socks in blues and purples with a little hidden dark green. Nice huh? Now, imagine a sock in progress with BRIGHT shades of oranges and purples. You just can't believe my skill can you? I know after the 3rd time of knitting up this pattern I can about do it with my eyes closed. And it moves a little quicker as well. Maybe (or not) I will learn the 2 socks at a time method. I have had a much better couple of days. All that sadness from a few days ago is just turning into life and I'm dealing with things. Thanks for the sweet thoughts. Some people can think being sad over a pet is silly, but it happens. I am going to be looking for 2 new kittens soon. I have actually already started. My next door neighbor is a vet and she told me that now that spring is coming (apparently it is here) kittens will be abundant soon. So, I'll keep you posted. Good news people the mailman has just dropped a box on my doorstep . . . hang on cause I know what's in it! A good day indeed not one but 2 packages! Now, imagine merino wool sock in shades of greens, pinks and purples - pretty right? Now there is another one in shades of pinks. Great imaginations out there - now I don't have to post pictures after all. I love packages like this. It just doesn't get any better. These yarns ALWAYS look better in person than they do on the ebay pictures. I think I should by a ball winder. I'll try the pictures later!

The Weekend

2006-03-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I got back from LA on Sunday night/Monday morning. The weather here in Dallas/Fort Worth area was very bad and our plane was held up for about 4 hours. I got home at 2 a.m. My trip to LA was good and it was wonderful to be able to help my friend in need. She is amazing and has the best attitude. I had never experienced a cancer center before and this particular center is at Cedars Sinai Hospital. The staff is amazing and it is just incredible what these patients endure. My friend is doing ok. She has a very long road ahead of her and I could not help but feel helpless. So, I just kept her company, fed her and even made her laugh a time or two. Unfortunately, while I was gone my sweetest cat, Millie, died. She was 15 1/2. I had known since August that she wasn't well and when I left home on Wednesday I knew I might not see her again. I asked her to please wait for my return but the poor kitty could not. She died in her sleep on Friday night. Yesterday was a very sad day for me being home and experiencing all the firsts without her. I know it will get better, but boy oh boy do I miss her. My veterinarian's office sent me flowers yesterday. I think that is so kind. I have to say that I was in the perfect place to not be with Millie. My friend has a 19 year old cat, Mel, and she immediately handed him to me to love on as soon as we received the news. She actually suggested I fly home but I knew I wanted to stay with my friend. I will post pictures of my newest completed socks and what I am currently working on tomorrow.

Millie 1990 - 2006

I'm here with my SOCKS!

2006-03-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

This is my first pair of socks that I have knitted in a couple of years! I absolutely love them. I haven't worn them because in Texas it is getting quite warm again. Well, I've worn them to try on and to take pictures, of course. This is a basic sock pattern with an 8 inch ribbing. The ribbing lasted forever. I have quite a bit of yarn left over and plan on making some baby booties for my neice/nephew I am expecting in September. Did ya hear that? I am expecting? I'm sure my sis-in-law will appreciate that since she is the one with the morning sickness!

These are the current pair of socks that I am working on. I am doing the same pattern but with a four inch ribbing instead. I will also have quite a bit of this yarn left over as well. Baby booties!

And, when I finish the current pair of socks, this is what is waiting for me. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have found a woman on ebay who spins and dyes her yarn. I have lost out on the last 2 auctions but that's okay (I keep telling myself). I am not ready to take up the dyeing process on my own yet. I have been reading my favorite blogs just about everyday. It is amazing how much time goes by and I notice I haven't kept my own blog updated. I am heading out to Los Angeles on Wednesday to help my friend through her 5th round of chemotherapy. I will be taking my knitting with me and I bought a couple of books to read as well. She told me she will be out of it most likely but I will knit and read (in that order) while I wait for her to need me. My boys left town on Friday with my parents. My husband and I have had all this time to hang out and do our own thing. We have been eating at our favorite restaurants, we have seen 4 movies, and we are going to a hockey game tonight. We have slept late, well except for the dog who wakes us up at night to go out (what is he a baby?) And, I've been knitting! No interruptions to make someone a snack or dinner! Woo hoo. But, I have talked to the boys every day twice a day and it makes me miss them a teensy tinsy little bit! Isn't that just crazy? Okay, back to knitting before the hockey game . . . maybe I'll take it with me!

Some Days Later . . .

2006-02-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

I spent all weekend and I mean ALL WEEKEND working on this sock. I did 8 inches of ribbing on the top and then stockinette stitch on the foot. Pretty simple pattern but 8 inches of ribbing on a size 1 needle for me goes v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w. I've got the sore hands to prove it. My oldest son was home all weekend with me watching movies and he would look over at my progress (or lack thereof) perodically and say "that's all you've gotten done?" He would tell me how long I had been sitting here and tell me it doesn't look like much. He's out of town on a class trip (Disney World) now. Won't he be disappointed he wasn't here for the finale of the sock? No? Oh but just in case he feels like he is missing something, I have started sock 2 and I have about 1 1/2 inches of ribbing completed. I know the striping isn't going to match up, but I think with the color variations being the same, I think it will be quite unique and well . . . me! It's going to be another slow process but since husband and oldest son are gone (Disney World) I'm sittin and knittin! They think I'm not having fun ha! I am! I'm knitting! Socks! Now my other 2 boys --- JEALOUS! I told them they could knit socks with me and for some reason that just didn't seem to make them feel better. Things make you go hmmm? I am still looking for the perfect pair of shoes to show all my socks off, but haven't found them yet. But, I'm on a mission!

Needles and More Needles

2006-02-16T17:05:00.000-08:00

I stopped in at my LYS AGAIN yesterday and hip hip hooray she had the dpn's that I wanted. And so I bought a size 0 and a size 1. And for good measure, I bought a circular bamboo size 15 in 16" length. I made a shawl last week on a size 15 in a 36" length and got really frustrated because it was WAY TOO LONG. So, I bought the new needles for the next shawl that there is no yarn for at this point. But ya know . . . just in case. So now I am swatching for my socks. I am swatching because of my failure in knitting a few weeks ago. I promise to swatch everything from now on forever and ever - maybe. I did swatch that shrug though. Oh no I'm pouting again. So, I made two shawls for auction and another shawl is in the works from my summer vacation souvenior yarn (for me). And the socks. By the way, I am so glad that I am not the only late fashion and "in" person. I am in good company! I hope to post pictures soon of all this stuff and then onto knitting another sweater of some kind.

Doing the "in" thing

2006-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

I always do the "in" thing like a year or 2 later. It goes without saying for fashion. I NEVER like the current fashion. It has to grow on me. I have to see it on other people for a long time before I even begin to like it. Then, when it is on the 75% off rack and in the wrong size, I like it! So, if I'm lucky (or not) I am in fashion a year late. Same seems to go with knitting. I may not be a year late, but after seeing "Sensational Knitted Socks" and "Knitting Vintage Socks" on EVERYBODY'S blogs for quite sometime, I finally bought them off Amazon. The mailman has just delivered them and now I must knit some socks. I actually have been to my LYS 2 times this week looking for the right needles but she is out . . . still. Hopefully, they will come in next week as she is having a store-wide sale. Also, I bought my 2nd skein of sock yarn off ebay (and I'm lurking in the shadows for a 3rd). I had them both wound up at my LYS store today. Everyone was oooing and ahhing. Then my mailman also delivered a 3rd skein of yarn I bought from ebay. It is a mohair/wool blend from Dancing Leaf Farm in the Salsa color - purples, golds, greens and blues - very pretty. I have a lacy shawl in mind from a pattern I bought long ago. It will be good for this weird Texas weather. If someone has a good idea for 490 yards of wool/mohair besides this shawl, let me know! I am currently working on a simple basic triangle shawl for a school auction project. It's pretty. I'll post pictures when it is completed. What a fun mail day.

I Have Accomplished . . .

2006-02-03T14:34:00.000-08:00

nothing. I've been working on a pair of socks that I found hanging out on my dpn's that I thought I had lost. I only had the ribbing done on the first sock so progress is very slow! I have been working at my boy's school doing a mass mailing a good part of the week and then filled in for a receptionist that became ill. So, I haven't had much knitting time. How do you working women do it? Okay, I am divulging some personal information here that I'd like prayers on. Well, it's not me but it involves me - emotionally. My brother and his wife are 8 weeks pregnant and everything looks good. This is their 4th pregnancy. They don't have any children yet. But as of today's doctor visit the baby has doubled in size from last week and the heart rate is good and all the other stuff that should be happening at this point is happening. So, pray for them that the baby stays healthy as does my SIL and that they can relax and enjoy this time. They are on pins and needles. They've never made it past 4 months. So, hopefully all will be well and I can knit some baby goodies! Woo hoo - I can get it back to knitting and getting something accomplished!

Project Failed

2006-01-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished my shrug today and . . . . . it is AWFUL! I totally messed it up. Oh, it's put together and all but it will NEVER fit me. I think my gauge was just way off. I checked my gauge but I kept knitting too tight. So, I need to rip it out completely or throw it in the garbage. I'm thinking garbage. I have yarn to make a blue shrug but I'm thinking not right now. I have to figure out where I went wrong. I was bummed when I tried it on and it didn't fit. But, I knew before I finished it that it wouldn't fit. I kept hoping between binding off and trying it on I'd shrink about 4 sizes. Didn't happen. Oh well . . . so I'm thinking socks are next. It has been a couple of years since I made socks but surely I won't mess those up. I'm going to use the yarn that I bought on ebay last week. I have to check through my needles. I'm not sure I have the right size so it might mean a trip to the LYS. If I don't buy yarn though it still won't count towards my yarn ban. I never said I couldn't go buy needles at the LYS. My friend in California received a good report from her oncologist today. The chemo appears to be working and she is so happy. She still has 4 rounds to go. She will have surgery after that. Well, that's all I've got for tonight. Happy knitting!

Part 2

2006-01-26T15:04:00.001-08:00

This is the cuff on the sleeve of the shrug. I did this in the carpool line today. It is working up very fast. I finished the back already!

This is the sock yarn I purchased from my new friend on ebay! I LOVE it!

Still Knitting!

2006-01-26T06:58:00.000-08:00

I finished my sweater and I like it. I finished it on Monday and I have let it sit in my knitting bag with the ends not sewn in. It's not like that is a complicated thing to do. It's just kind of boring. It's also not like we are having any kind of reliable winter down here in Texas that I know I could wear my new sweater. I need incentive. Hanging it in the closet is not incentive. So, I have decided that today is the day that I weave in the ends. About this yarn . . . I don't think I will ever use it again. As I mentioned in my last post, it was expensive. It took 6 balls of yarn to make the sweater (again very pretty yarn) H.O.W.E.V.E.R. there was a flaw in EVERY SINGLE ball. One ball even had a stain on it. Thankfully it was the very first ball I used and I went ahead and knitted it in. It's in the back of the collar and it won't be seen - my hair will hide it. But still! I just don't understand how EVERY SINGLE ball of yarn could have this problem. Next subject . . . I stepped out of my box this week and went on ebay and bought a skein of yarn. This does not go against my yarn buying ban either because it was ebay - not my LYS. I have been emailing with the lady that dyed the yarn and I received it yesterday - quick service! My stash grows. It was advertised as sock yarn and could be as such but it is so pretty I don't want it hiding on my feet. I have to get some good show off my sock shoes! Lolly found some a little while ago and I have been on the hunt but unsuccessfully so. I am in the process of making the shrug in the Ecru color from the cover of Knit It magazine. If I had checked my gauge (don't ask) I wouldn't have had to undo the almost finished back and start over. Seems I was knitting a little too tightly hence the sore hands! If you relax it won't hurt. Maybe I was stressed out or something. But, it knits up very quickly and I've almost gotten back to were I was before I undid it all. So I think I will have it completed by the end of the weekend. California Closets is installing my pantry today so I do have a lot of sit home time. Later in the day . . . the pantry looks great - now to put everything back in! But at least it will be organized. My blog isn't letting me do more than one photo for some reason so I'm going to do a part 2.

I'm Excited!

2006-01-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

I just got an email from my friend in California that I made the chemo caps for. She received them yesterday and they all fit! Woo Hoo! I was worried because she said her head was small and at that point I had made all but 2 of them! So now that I know that pattern works for her I told her to let me know if she wants anymore colors! I am so glad that the hats work for her and that she can take a little piece of my love with her whenever she wears them! On a not so exciting note - this sweater that I am working on I really like and you know it is coming BUT for an expensive yarn (even though I got it on sale) I keep coming across knots or unraveling in the yarn. I think I have been able to work with it to some degree by either cutting the yarn at the end of a round or if it is a large enough fuzzy spot I will just knit it and make sure that the fuzziness is on the inside. Hopefully, I won't keep cutting little pieces making me run out of yarn before I finish. I find this frustrating. Well, we will see how it goes. I've gotten a lot done so far. I will take a break this evening as I am meeting a friend for mexican food and margaritas! Husband still doesn't feel so hot and he's coming home from work and getting in bed and taking pain meds. Hot dog night for the kiddos! Oh and another thing. I bought the current issue of Knit It magazine. While buying books the other day I was browsing through magazines. I love the shrug on the cover of Knit It. It is done with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick so I went to Michael's and picked it up. If I like it, I'll probably knit up some for our school auction in different colors. I bought the ecru color and a very pretty blue. It looks like it will be a fast knit! Okay, so much for the yarn buying ban I put on myself but I figure since it wasn't in my LYS and just at a regular retail craft place then maybe it doesn't count. Yep that's what I think! And, I bought the book "Night" that Oprah talked about for her current book club reading among other things! Have a great weekend!

Home Alone!

2006-01-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Well my husband is off to work and the youngest son is off to school. I came home after dropping the boys off at school and curled up the couch and finished reading a book, "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" by Ann Packer. Apparently it is a Lifetime Movie. Good book. I've been reading quite a bit lately. The problem with that is, it takes away from knitting. I read 2 books by Anita Shreve last week - very good in my opinion - "The Last Time They Met" and "The Weight of Water." If you read them, read them in that order. "The Last Time They Met" read it to the very last sentence of the book! I like her. So, I think I am out of books again and must make a run to the book store. I usually go to Barnes and Noble. Oh, and I am always complaining about how books are predictable. I did not think these books were predictable. Okay maybe "The Weight of Water" was a teeny bit predictable. The other two really kept my attention. What to read next? So, I got absolutely no knitting done yesterday because I was caring for the family. I was going to knit at my oldest son's soccer game yesterday afternoon, but it was too windy and it was a very cold wind so that I was wrapped up in a blanket. Probably some fingerless gloves would be good to have for such an occasion. Yikes! Another project. And again, I cannot get my picture to post that shows the progress of my sweater. Maybe because I took the photo last Friday and I've worked on it since then so it's not an accurate picture of progress. But, the picture of the yarn I'm using is showing up. I'll take another photo later and try again. A flower delivery just arrived for my husband - hmm too bad he isn't here to enjoy them. I'll just toss the card and pretend they are for me! His coworkers are wishing him well from his ATV accident!

Still Knitting

2006-01-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't posted because I was being lazy and not taking pictures of my completed projects. First of all, I made 6 hats and 1 do-rag for my friend in California going through chemo. I mailed them at the end of last week so hopefully she will receive them today or tomorrow. The do-rag is made out of cotton. And I know after several washings it will really soften up. The black, brown, pink, and mint green hats are made out of Berroco's Chinchilla. The cream and lavender hats are made out of Berroco's Plush. I used the same pattern for all the hats and the hats done out of Plush are by far my favorite. They are also much easier to care for laundry wise. Apparently Chinchilla is supposed to be dry-cleaned. I'd go ahead and hand wash them. My friend has a small head and if they shrink a little it will be okay. The Plush is a more snug fit and I just liked them better - no shedding on those 2. The chinchilla sheds! I finally made the poncho for a friend that had purchased some yarn from a store in Dallas. She is not a knitter and had been looking for some yarn for me to knit up something. I was afraid, at first, that she didn't purchase enough (it was $16/ball and there were 4 balls) and she didn't want to buy anymore. But it did work out after all and hopefully she will like it. I don't know how big she wanted it. I just did a rectangle in garter stitch and sewed up one side. I am glad to have it completed, now I need to call her and let her know it is done. I've only had it completed for what a little over a week now! She probably thinks I disappeared or something. And lastly, I am make a sweater for myself using yarn from Southwest Trading Company. It is Optimum wool. It is very soft. The color is an almost hot pink. I had been looking at this yarn in my LYS for about a year. It is a pricey yarn - initially priced at $25/ball. I don't know what happened but it was marked down 50% and I jumped on it. They had just enough for the pattern I'm using. There was enough in torquoise, but I didn't want to overdo. Now, I wish that I overdid because I love the way it is knitting up. I am using a pattern from "Knitting Pure & Simple". It is the "Neckdown Pullover For Women". It is knitted in the round from the neck down and it is VERY EASY! So hopefully, I will whip it out pretty quickly so that I can work on projects waiting to be done! And for some reason I've uploaded my progress on the sweater twice and it isn't showing up. So we will have to wait until another time. My youngest son is home sick with a nasty stomach virus and my husband is home hurt from an ATV accident this weekend. He cracked his tailbone all the way across. He is on major drugs. California Closet Co. is on their way out to see what we can do about my pantry - yippee! I have GOT to get these sick and injured people well and out of the house so I can knit while the house is clean and not feel guilty!

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

I spent a few days in Houston with my brother and sister in law. I took my oldest son. We got to eat at my FAVORITE mexican food restaurant. We have been eating there about 30 years! It is against my law to go to Houston and not eat there! Anyway, while in Houston I contacted Amylovie and got to meet her over smoothies and latte. I think she had a latte - can't remember now - it was yesterday. Anyway, I had a great time meeting her and I was very excited to hear about the store she and Sheryl are opening! I am planning to go to their grand opening. I have gotten a little knitting done over the weekend and will tell more about it next post!

Just Relaxing

2005-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am sitting. Doing nothing. Which is not what I should be doing. I completed my Mother's shawl in time for Christmas and she was thrilled. It is similar to one I had made myself a year or so ago that she has wanted me to copy for her. I had purchased the ribbon yarn a few months ago and just purchased the black yarn - Berrocco's Quest - the week before Christmas. So I completed it in about 3 days. My Mother is planning on wearing the shawl for a New Year's Eve party. Now I am working on the chemo do-rag for my friend. I am almost finished with it. I have yarn on hold at the LYS for a chemo cap with one skein from Berrocco's Chinchilla. I think I have 4 or 5 skeins on hold. I should go get them today. I had a very nice day on Christmas. My husband and children gave me pearl earrings that I had been eyeing for about a year. They also gave me a handbag from a designer that I like - Kathy Van Zeeland. I was quite surprised that my husband and oldest son did that on their own! My parents gave me a lovely pair of earrings they purchased while on a cruise in the Fall. The earrings are called "Carribbean Topaz" and have blue, green, and pink going through them. Really lovely! My children were thrilled with their gifts. My middle son said it was the best Christmas ever! Mother and I cooked a dinner of prime rib, twice baked potatoes, green beans, sauteed mushrooms, rolls and a salad I copied from a favorite restaurant. We enjoyed our meal to say the least! My husband and Dad spent about 4 hours putting together a basketball hoop for the boys. Next year I'll think about stuff that doesn't have to be assembled. Next year????? Let's not go there . . . yet! We are taking the boys to a Dallas Stars game tonight and to dinner at Reunion Tower - one of those revolving restaurants that overlooks the city. It should be fun.

Pictures

2005-12-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

First here is a picture of me in my tunic. And secondly, here is a picture of my kitty, Millie. She was being feisty the other day while I was wrapping presents. The cat's in the bag! Notice the cross-stitch stocking in the background - I did that! I've done 4 and my MIL did 1. I am making good progress on my Mother's shawl and will post a picture as soon as it is complete! I bought more baby alpaca yesterday in a blue/purple color to make another tunic. I won't get it started for a little while as I have some other things to do. As I mentioned my last post, a dear friend started chemo today (not next week) and before her second round in 3 weeks will be losing her hair. I'm making hats. I hope she likes them. I will be going out to LA to visit her in March to help take care of her during her final rounds of chemo. Keep my friend in your prayers, please! Anyway, I will start her hats AFTER I finish Mother's shawl. I have been reading "The Quilter's Legacy". It is a series on people who quilt. I really enjoy this series and I began the book on Monday and I keep picking it up. I'm almost done! But I MUST knit Mother's shawl. Must stop blogging now! picking up needles!

It is Done!

2005-12-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

I finished the tunic - I have worn the tunic - I have bought more yarn to make another tunic! I will post pictures soon. I love it and I like the way it fits and I like the comfort of it as well. I bought the same kind of yarn in a deep purple/blue to make another one. There have to be at least 10 other yarns I'd like to do it in as well. All I need is TIME!!! I do have to say I got a little offended at my LYS today. I was waiting for the new yarn to be wound and I was looking around just wanting pretty much everything in sight when a lady (another customer) came up to me and asked if I had made the tunic (I took it in for show and tell) and the sweater that I am wearing today and I said yes. She asked me if I work. I said well, no, I'm a stay at home mom (I hate when I do that) but I did it. She said, oh that's why you have so much time. I then in turn said well, I find time to knit becaused I enjoy it. I also knit in carpool line, at doctor's offices, at boy's sporting events and when I watch TV at night with my husband. And IF IF IF I can get my husband to drive when we are running around, I knit in the car. So I FIND time lady! I don't just sit around eating bon bons all day watching Oprah - face it she is only on 1 hour! But if I'm watching, I'm knitting! Phew I feel better now. In any event the first tunic is done. I love it really love it and look forward to the next one. I am now working on a shawl for my mother for Christmas. It seems to be coming along quickly. Then I am going to knit up 2 hats and a scarf for a dear friend who begins chemo on Monday (12/26). Then I am going to knit up a hat for me for when it's cold out and I have to go to oldest son's soccer games. Then I'm going to knit 1 of 4 sweaters waiting in the wings . . . . thankfully I have so much time!!! I did tell my LYS owner she probably wouldn't see me for a while since I have so much in the wings, but she said come on in and show me stuff as you finish. Cause you know I won't look around once I'm there! I am feeling really festive now that all the busyness of school stuff is over! Merry Christmas everyone! Oh and did I mention that I finished tunic? I'll post a picture SOON!

Blogs . . .

2005-12-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

I was reading Stephanie's blog at Unwindknitting.net and she is having an optional tag so since I don't have much progress on my tunic to tell you about I thought I'd answer the questions as well. But before I do, I am in the process of finishing up the tunic. I have one sleeve left to set. It's been a little troublesome but I'm sure I'm gaining knowledge and experience - just positive about that! So hopefully, it will be done TONIGHT!

Why Do I Blog? Well, I admit to being completely computer dumb. I don't know how but several months ago I happened onto a knitting blog. I don't remember which one at this point. I would read the comments people posted and learn that they had blogs too and after commenting on the same blogs for awhile, the owner's asked me about mine. I didn't have one, didn't know how to have one, didn't know if anyone would be interested. So it began with fellow bloggers encouragement and now I really enjoy it. I like the friendships I have formed and I appreciate the common interests with fellow knit bloggers as I don't have any friends that I really knit with here at home. We know that knitting is FUN here in blogland!

Why Do I Read Blogs? Oh my goodness because it's addictive. I love to see other's progress. I love to hear the little goings on in people's lives and I love the inspiration and great ideas I get from the blogs. As soon as I sit down at my computer, I have to click on my favorite blogs and see what's going on, if a new post has been done yet and so on. Then I get to reading comments and their blogs and time has gone by that I should have been doing laundry. And blog reading is much better and enjoyable than laundry!

I hope to have my tunic completed tonight and pictures posted in the next few days. I might be away for a couple of days so bear with me!

Santa Claus Came To Town

2005-12-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well, Friday is over and Santa Claus was the best character in the play. There is absolutely no favoritism in that comment. At the very end of the play he had a singing solo and I almost cried. It was about believing in the Spirit of Christmas, that He will always be there, and being kind to everyone. The wig and beard that middle son had to wear was a little cumbersome and I had to run backstage once to rearrange it because he had come out with the wig almost backwards. It was funny, but I didn't want him to be so distracted that he forgot his lines. He didn't! These are kids with sensory issues as it is so you want things to be as comfortable as possible for them. I'm not going to bore anyone with the chaos of the day because there was but when you see children with special issues pull something off like this when their teacher was not good, they missed 2 days of school prior to the play and had not had a full dress rehearsal, well it was all about the children and they were AWESOME! It was worth everything I did and more! Okay, knitting news. I think I'm gonna do it. I think I'm gonna knit my mother shawl she has been begging me to do for about a year for a Christmas gift. It's just a big rectangle, garter stitch on big needles and I could probably do it in a few days - week at most. And if I didn't finish it by Christmas, her birthday is Jan. 15. My brother and his wife were supposed to come to us for Christmas but there has been an emergency in my SIL family and they are going to them instead. My Mom is bummed but understands so I wanted to be extra nice. Yep, I think I'm gonna do it. And I haven't even sewn my tunic together . . . but I will!

Woo Hoo

2005-12-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note - I finished my sleeve on the tunic. Now all I have to do is piece it together and knit up the mitered collar edge. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Where Have I Been

2005-12-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

It seems over a week has gone by since I posted. Where have I been? What have I been doing? Is there any knitting progress - NO! I check all my favorite blogs almost daily and it seems I've just fallen off the blog world. So, here I am to tell you basically nothing. My children are out of school today due to the weather and they are happy. I'm happy too because if it was a normal day I'd be at middle son's school decorating the set for the Christmas program tomorrow in which he plays SANTA!!!! So, they dismissed at 10 am yesterday and no school today - it should be an interesting program. I will be at the school most of tomorrow doing all the work around the kids as they practice all day hoping we pull it off, and we will! This is one of those weeks that I am ready for it to be over. We needed a poster size picture of "Santa" to hang over a mantle on the set and my co-coordinator had a great idea. I took a picture of middle son in his costume (okay 24 pictures) and found the best of the best and took it to a photo lab and they made it into a 20 x 30 poster. We are framing it and putting it over the mantle. I just think it' s a clever idea and I get to keep it after the program! Well, I paid for it but still. I'll hang it in middle son's room. It's the little things. I've done a teensy bit of Christmas shopping. I hope I'm not out Christmas Eve trying to finish - that would be bad. I've never done that in the past but who knows. I have about 30 rows left on my sleeve and I will be ready to sew my tunic together. I think I can do it today. Well, if I quit reading all my favorite blogs I can do it. Maybe I can wear it this weekend! That would be cool. That would be great. I'd get something accomplished! I'll post photos when done as well as a Santa pic!

Knit On

2005-11-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe how fast the Thanksgiving week went by. My children were out of school the entire week so things were kind of LOUD! On the other hand I enjoy not waking up to an alarm clock. Sometimes these things kind of work together, yet against each other. I did a teensy bit of knitting on Thursday but tons of knitting on Friday. I did so much knitting on Friday that when I went to bed Friday night my hands hurt. On my tunic (as of today) I have completed the back, the front, one sleeve. I started the second sleeve today but I don't know how much time I will get with it this week. Now I begin all the stuff for Christmas at school and I'm not sure how much time it will take, hopefully not too much. We have had some wind in our area the last 2 days. It starts whipping around the house and I am waiting for the scary music to begin. If scary music does begin, I won't be looking behind any closed doors or going into dark areas! Well, that means I can't go in my boy's rooms - things are looking up.

Tag I'm It

2005-11-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

Whatever I am currently working with or whatever I cannot buy at the LYS that I really want but know I shouldn't get because I have too many projects waiting in line. Currently I am working with Catalina's yarn it is 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% silk (4 ply) I really like it and have another project in line that is very similar.

Your favorite needles?

I like bamboo needles - I seem to use them on so many things but when I pick up my addi turbos I like those too. So tie there.

The worst thing you've ever knitted?

I knitted a shawl out of recycled silk this is pretty awful. I have never worn it and just won't. I need to frog it and make something else out of it. I already frogged it once anyway but I'll do it again some day.

Your most favorite knit pattern (maybe you don't like wearing it but it was the most fun to knit.)?

Boy oh boy oh boy. I made a jacket out of Circus (teal blue) and I wear it a lot in the cold weather. It is nice to snuggle into. It was knitted on larger needles and worked up really quick.
I don't have a picture online of it but will post one soon.

Most valuable knitting technique?

I learned a new way of casting on last week that I had never seen and I love it. Casting on with both ends of the yarn so you don't have yarn wasted in the tail. I hate wasting yarn in the tail. I always feel like I might need those extra few inches.

Best knit book or magazine?

Another boy oh boy oh boy . . . I like Knitter's magazine but I've never made anything from it although I have the yarn to make a vest. I also like Knitty.com and have flagged several patterns from there. Sometimes when I have to kill time before picking up the boys, I love sitting on the floor at the book store pouring over knitting books and magazines.

Favorite knit-a-long?

I've never done one and better not right now although I watch the progress of several.

Favorite knitwear designer?

No idea. I just find patterns I like and haven't paid too much attention who designed them. I'll start paying attention.

The knitwear item that you wear the most (how about a picture of it)?

Back to that sweater by Circus. Also several pairs of socks that I wear all winter long as well. I'll post pictures another time.

What lucky knitter gets this next?

Well, I will tag Stephanie at unwindknitting.net but I think she may have done one of these not so long ago.

On to knitting news: I have gotten back to the point in my sweater where I noticed I had the wrong size needles going and had to rip the front out. Which means - I haven't started the friends poncho. I'm not teaching her how to knit. She bought the yarn and asked me to do it after she purchased the yarn. She doesn't want to knit. I'm sure it will be fine. I just would have liked it better if it was at least a yarn I like. It might work up pretty - we'll see and I'll post a picture when I've completed it. Oh, I am reading the book "Yarn Harlot" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I am almost finished and usually read a chapter or 2 before bed time. She is funny!

Yesterday I did take my son for a desperately needed haircut because I was hoping to take pictures today of all 3 boys for our Christmas card. He has gone and gotten poison ivy and it is all over his face. He looks a little scary (I thought it was the hair). So, I will be using a picture from our summer vacation. I guess that decision is made! I'm sure in his own little way he was helping me by not having too many choices.

Progress? Me?

2005-11-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

I went on my scrapbooking retreat this weekend and I got 2 12x12 Christmas albums completed. I make one for each year with all the events leading up to Christmas as well as Christmas day and all the pictures, letters and cards we receive from friends and family. I love looking at them over the years and see how children that we don't see that often or only through cards grow! I have had all this stuff organized all year but just got to it and now that it is finished I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders. This particular retreat was even better because 2 of my dear friends went with me and we laughed until we cried. Since moving in the spring, I have not made many friends but stay very busy through my children and their activities. It was so good to be with my girlfriends and just laugh over the silliest of things. We were in a room with about 30 women and they were laughing with us. They all said they want to come on the next retreat when the 3 of us will be there just for the entertainment. So in that way - scrapbooking - there was a LOT of progress. Onto knitting . . . I think I have knitted about 10 rows since last Thursday. So just imagine 10 rows of stockinette stitch and you can see my progress mentally. I would like to accomplish a lot of knitting this week on this sweater, but a friend of mine purchased some yarn a while back and has asked me to knit her a poncho. I am not particularly fond of the yarn, there really isn't enough, and I just want to get it over with, so I am thinking about getting that accomplished this week. Well, I am off to get oldest son's hair cut - he is looking kind of scarey!

Oops!

2005-11-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

My friend happyspider prompted me to check my needle size and it is wrong! Yes, friends, wrong. I did it correctly on the back (completed side). On the front the pattern calls for 1 1/2 inches of garter stitch then you go from a size 5 needle to a size 7 needle and do your 13 1/2 inches in stockinette stitch. I never changed needles after the first 1 1/2 inches. So, I'm ripping it out! Better to find out now instead of when I'm trying to sew it together. So, another few more days added to this project. I was getting itchy to start my felted bag but I don't mind holding off because I'd rather everything be done right! So I'm going to go rip out now . . .

Stockinette Stitch

2005-11-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I am still working on my hippy chic tunic. I have completed the back and am about 11 inches into the front. I have to knit to 15 inches before any shaping begins. I have 106 stitches on the needle right now and doing that in st. stitch can be very slow. I see that I am working the front much slower than the back. So there is definitely progress, just no completion at this point. I am going on another scrapbooking retreat this weekend and hope to get 2 Christmas albums complete. 2 friends will be joining me which will be fun because the last two retreats I went on, I went alone not really knowing anybody. Maybe that is why I got so much completed. I have a crazy week at all 3 boys schools this week, so by Friday I'll be ready for a glass of wine and some girlfriend time! I'll take my knitting just in case I get finished scrapbooking but who knows if I will. My husband is taking me to see Paul McCartney on Sunday evening. We saw him a couple of years ago and well, I like him so I'm going. I'm stuck in the 70's and 80's music wise. I cannot believe the holidays are almost here. We moved into our home this spring and I never sent out change of address announcements to all our friends so I need to get the official letter and picture done by the beginning of next week so that I can beat everyone else mailing out so they will know where we are. My Christmas cards (that I receive) are so important to me. I cannot believe I'm thinking Christmas cards! And it's 83 degrees outside - not sweater weather!

Show Time

2005-11-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have gotten quite a bit of knitting done this weekend on my tunic. But, it is one of those stockinette stitch patterns for the most part and does seem to move a little slow at times. With that said, this is a simple enough pattern and a classic looking sweater that I'd like to have in several yarns and colors. So we'll see how it goes. Here is the progress so far.

Here is a backview of the shrug I made. It just covers my arms so there is nothing in the front except for the arm coverage.

Here is the "Famous Shawl" I finally finished and now need to buy an outfit to wear it with. Talk about an expensive project! The things you got to do.

And lastly, here is the sock yarn I bought for my MIL and the wool I bought for the felted bag.

I went to a small family function last night to celebrate my grandmother's 96th bday and my son's 7th bday. I was visiting with a cousin that I rarely see - maybe once a year. I always carry my knitting with me because if I'm sittin, I'm knittin! She knew I liked to knit but she had no idea that people would do things more than baby blankets or booties. She was wearing a cardigan and I told her I could probably knit it up in a month or so. She was amazed that we knitters actually do this. I didn't know people didn't know you could knit a sweater! She kept telling me how talented I was. I told her that if she thought I was talented she should visit blogland and see the real talent. I told her I'm still learning! But it was fun to teach someone about my hobby! Well, I should be caught up with my photos for a few days at least! I'm liking my new camera by the way! I like being able to delete the photos right away if I know I won't be using them in my scrapbooks! It's great to see if the color is right and make sure all eyes are open! I'm moving up in this technological world- s.l.o.w.l.y. Same cousin told me how she edits and colors photos and tints black and whites on the computer. Let's not even go there - yet!

Might I Be Sick?

2005-11-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not, but I was worried a little while this afternoon. I finally made it to my LYS and I just wasn't inspired. See how come I thought I might be sick? And it could be serious. I actually didn't leave empty handed just for medicinal purposes. I bought a gift for my MIL. I'm not going to knit it up. I'm just going to send her the stuff to do it herself. Hopefully that will be okay. Then, I did buy 2 big skeins of wool in torquoise for a felted handbag. I don't know if it will be a gift or not. So, all was not lost. But, if you would have seen me trying to decide on the color of the wool. It was painful. One second the colors look great and then the next second they look drab. The torquoise is pretty I checked it after I left the store. I took my last 4 projects in to show and tell, the famous shawl, the shrug, the short sleeve hoodie and that other sweater I made that I posted a little while ago - can't think what it's called right now. Anyway, except for the shrug, the LYS owner photographed the other 3 to put on their website of accomplishments by the customers. I don't think they are doing it until December but neat idea. So, I will continue to work on my hippy chic tunic over the weekend and hopefully I'll make some good progress. I will get pictures posted early next week with any luck. I kid you not, it's a miracle I can even type on here. I'm trying to learn friends, really! Oh, my baby turned 7 yesterday. Time flies! I think that's all I've got for now.

A New Project

2005-11-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I was going to begin my new sweater but I thought better of it. I finished two projects that had been waiting patiently for me, the famous shawl and a shrug that I had started awhile ago. The famous shawl is very pretty. It is in turqoise and shades of browns. I fringed it and it is very long and I like it that way. The shrug was originally going to be a poncho but after watching an episode of Knitty Gritty (showing things to do with rectangles) an idea was born. So, I kept on knitting, made a long rectangle, did the bind off, seamed up the sleeves to just below my underarms and voila a shrug. I actually wore it today and had many compliments on it and the "where did you get that" question. So, I will post pictures soon. Yesterday I began my new sweater. It's called the Hippy Chic Tunic and I'm doing it in baby alpaca a cranberry color. Thankfully, I had casted on the stitches in the early afternoon. While I tried to knit last night those candy monsters kept ringing my doorbell. We had so many kids and they all looked so cute! My middle son was Darth Vader and my youngest son was Darth Vader. Original huh? My oldest son was a 13 year old - scarey in and of itself! We have so much more candy in this house than I started out with and believe me, I started out with tons! As of this afternoon I still had not decided about the Christmas gifts and then I got an email from my LYS. Thurs-Sat there is a 20% off sale and with my loyal customer 10% off through the end of the year . . . well all I'm saying is I better try to get in there and rethink the Christmas gift thing. I better get busy knitting!

Let's See If I Can

2005-10-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

I'd like to say it's me, but it's not, my husband did it. He is the one that put the pictures on my computer so that I could post them here. Let's see if I can . . . Here is the sweater (a rear view with the hood and cabling showing) that I FINALLY finished yesterday after about 9 hours of assembly. I never got around to working on it Thursday or Friday due to children's school things. So, when I sat down to assemble the sweater yesterday (it was somewhat held together at the top by the hood) I still had to sew the side seams, sleeves, and line up the cables on the sleeves and the body. Keeping in mind this was my first cable project (and I thought they were easy), it took me f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to get it put together just right. My husband let me sit pretty much the entire day because I think he was getting scared of me. I was a little frustrated! He actually left around 4:30 to take my oldest son to the U2 concert (they had a blast). Me, I couldn't have left even if I wanted to. It was one of those things that could not have been interrupted. It just wouldn't have worked. I thought I might just throw it in the garbage. And, I have been so excited to finish it. Well, it is done. I might actually wear it! With that said, this is a cotton/angora blend and as I assembled and reassembled the sweater little bits of fuzzies kept flying in my eyes (and I wear contacts) and that just added to the frustration. I took the contacts out and that helped but ya know . . . I finished a little shrug that is basically a rectangle tonight, as well. I thought I would start another sweater but this just required seaming up the sides. I like it and will post photos at another time. I would have to wear it with the right thing to do it justice. I don't have the fashion sense (ever) but especially now to make it work. So, here is the cake that I made on Thursday. I know it sold right away at the bake sale, but I don't know for how much. Okay placing these pictures in the appropriate spot is NOT working out for me! So, now I get to begin another sweater. I have 2 pullovers I'm thinking of (both with baby alpaca - more fuzzies?). I'll see which looks easiest and start there. I am still debating on the felted bags for the mothers. I'm still waiting until Tuesday. It's been a busy weekend and I'm glad I'm done with it, but now the week and the real work begins! I think I need to wash school clothes - NOW! Better run . . .

Finishing Up!

2005-10-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

I got the camera. I've used the camera. I've deleted pictures I didn't like from the camera (including some very interesting shots of my husband eating buffalo wings - definitely deleted those!) I have NOT printed any pictures or put any pictures on the computer. I'm a slow mover or slow learner. I'm not sure which. I will be using the camera tomorrow for it's first official outing for my youngest son's Grandparents Day at school. Woo hoo! Love that stuff - okay not really but he is very excited about it and my parents are coming and he is in a play doing some kind of musical instrument so I have the camera ready! Another scrapbooking opportunity! Maybe just maybe I'll learn to post a picture on the blog. On to knitting news. I see the light at the end of the tunnel for my short sleeve hoodie. I have knitted all the parts - the front, back and each sleeve have been picked up and brought together by knitting the hood. I completed the hood last night. Now I have to seam it all and pick up stitches around the hood and v-neck to do the ribbing. With any free time today, I will hopefully accomplish all of that because I'd love to wear it tomorrow! Then I could get someone to take a picture of me and then I could learn to post pictures on the blog . . . you can see I am stuck on this. So I have been very productive with my knitting - y'all have to trust me on this! Last night I got the bright idea of knitting gifts for Christmas. I assure you yesterday afternoon this idea was 10000 miles from my mind because, well frankly, that takes away time from the 3 very important sweaters I want to knit for myself pronto. But I saw this picture of a felted bag (more like a tote) and I thought I could whip those up pretty quick and give one to my Mom and MIL. So, do I really want to knit them or am I just needing to go buy more yarn? Hmmmmm. It has been about two weeks since my last purchase. Said purchase is still in the bag. I'll wait until Tuesday and see if the feeling passes! That gets me through the busy weekend and back to when my LYS is open. I am excited to start one of my new sweaters. I have two that I'm trying to decide between at this point. Decisions decisions! Okay, I'm off to bake a chocolate/cherry cake, chess squares and finish my peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate for the bake sale at Grandparent's Day tomorrow. Hopefully, they will be yummy and go for lots of money!

Back to Normal

2005-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well, the inlaws have returned to their home and my home is back to "normal". Wow what a loaded statement. I can't even define normal for my home. But whatever it is, we are there. I went to visit a knitting group on Sunday afternoon that my LYS owner hosts every third Sunday. I took my MIL with me and we had a nice little visit with all the other ladies present. I love watching all the works in progress and getting even more inspired! One of the ladies was crocheting a beautiful baby afghan that was a pattern her grandmother had used. She actually gave me her copy of the pattern because she said she could get another one and she does it so much she has it memorized. Now I just need someone to have a baby so I can make it! I haven't crocheted in awhile but I can do it. Years ago I started this afghan that is 63 different squares. While looking through blogs the other day I say a crochet-along doing that afghan. And here I thought I had 63 really nice pot holders. I really should put them all together. Another unfinished project lurking in my house! I have been working on my short sleeve hoodie. I completed the back, and the front and just started on one of the sleeves last night. I am anxious to get this one finished now. I'm ready to start something new! Well, I went to get my camera fixed and was told basically that it isn't worth it. Everyone - well the people that I mainly listen to - are telling me it's time to go digital. My brother is like me and we both take lots of photos and he has researched the camera I was told to get at the camera store and he says go for it. I trust my brother so I think I will be getting it tomorrow. My youngest son has an event going on at school next Friday and I need a camera! I told my husband that gives me a week to figure out what buttons to push. So maybe I will be able to post photos more frequently. I have to tell you when the camera store guy started talking giga stuff I got scared. I'm trying to be brave and go with change. As my brother said "You wouldn't go buy an 8-track player now would you." He's older than me by 3 years that's why he is wise and can say things like that!

I Have ... Really

2005-10-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

I have been working on my short sleeve hoodie as much as possible this week (which isn't much) and I have completed the back and am currently about 1/4 of the way through the front. I had to run to my LYS yesterday for a question. I'm sure she thinks I'm truly dumb sometimes. But as soon as she said it (and just as the directions stated it) everything clicked, the lightbulb went on and I got it. She said nothing different than the directions. I have had an ultra crazy week and it won't be better for several days. I may not blog for a few days with out of town company, fall festival blah blah blah blah. Whenever will I get to knit again? Even my carpool shawl is moving s.l.o.w. because I tend to not even sit in carpool line lately. It's pull up at the very end let the sweeties jump in and take off to the next place. Now is that fair? I think not! Fall festival is tomorrow. I'm trying to be a good mom and be excited about it but alas, I'm not. But at least after tomorrow night it will be over. Oh and while I was at my LYS last night, I bought yarn to go with the tunic pattern I bought last week. And since my knitting accomplishments are moving s.l.o.w. who knows when it will get done. Oh well, at least I haven't reset the self imposed buying restriction on yet, but I might have to if I don't finish SOMETHING soon! Have a great weekend! No pictures to post - camera is broken for at last another month of so. Will try to come up with something else (disposables) to post pics.

Learning a New Trick

2005-10-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

First of all my weekend at the scrapbook retreat went very well. I completed everything that I took so that has me current through 10/1/2005 which was my oldest son's bday. I have never been this caught up before. I did 48 pages in my 2005 album (12x12) and I did 18 pages in my knitting album (7x7). My knitting album is just pictures of all the things I have knitted - a running scrapbook. I finished all this by 6 pm on Saturday evening so I had lots of time to just relax since check out time was Sunday afternoon. I finished my current book by Anita Shreve - "Light on Snow" and then I sat down, watched a movie "Big Fish" and did some knitting on my short sleeve hoodie. I got to what I thought might be a complicated part and put it back in my bag to work on at home where I could concentrate in the quiet (meaning when the kids are not at home). So yesterday I'm home (kids' are home too) and I do some organizing in the kitchen drawers and pantry. Clean out the refrigerator (seems like I do this often), run the vacuum, clean the toilets (my least favorite chore with laundry coming in second). Well, it was time to take a break even though the boys were home. I pulled out the short sleeve hoodie and sat down to do the new complicated thing . . . cables. Well hello, cables aren't hard. They look hard, but they aren't I whipped those babies out in no time. I called my husband at work and told him I had just done my first cable. I'm sure he was excited. He told me he was. He congratulated me. I told him it was as exciting as when I ran my first mile without stopping. Speaking of which . . . I have fallen off the wagon. I have not run in over a week and I am feeling pure guilt. And here I sit at the computer. I have got to get back out there! I know I do! When my husband got home he announced to the boys that I had made my first cable stitch except that he got the name wrong and I can't remember what he said now. In his own way he was bragging on me even though the boys ignored him. He looked at it and he did the proper oohs and aahs. So not only did I get to go scrapbook (and get caught up) he complimented my knitting. He can really be a good guy sometimes. Well off to continue the cleaning. My in-laws are coming this weekend and they have never seen our house before. It's been 3 years since they've been for a visit and we've moved since then! Deep cleaning - yuck!

Where Has The Time Gone?

2005-10-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it has been a week since I last posted. I have been visiting my favorite blogs, however. I will be going out of town in the morning for a scrapbook weekend. I hope to get lots of pages accomplished. I usually get minimal amounts of sleep on these weekends but I am going to try to be responsible and go to bed at reasonable times on both nights so that I will be better rested on my return home Sunday evening. I have been knitting on my new short sleeve hooded sweater. I love working with this yarn. It is so soft! It is working up nicely. I finally got my photos developed from some of my other projects. So here is the sweater I finished last week (variegated bright colors). I also am showing a sweater from Artyarns that I completed in the spring but never got to wear. And here is a photo of another sweater waiting in line patiently for me to begin on it. The pictures are okay. I dropped my camera on Saturday right before my son's 13th bday dinner. The camera won't work on auto focus and barely is workin on manual focus. So bear with me. It will be 6 weeks before my camera store can get in a new lens for me. I went to my LYS yesterday and found another pattern I want to knit. I did not buy the yarn to go with the pattern yet, but I did buy the pattern. It's by Reynold's and it's called Hippy Chic Tunic. I don't know what yarn I will use yet. The possibilities are endless! I went to my son's football game tonight. It was in the mid 60's with a very cold wind. Everyone was huddled in their fleece blankets and heavy jackets. I wore a heavey sweater jacket I made last year out of Circus buy Artyarns. So I guess sweater weather is close by. Close by because it's Texas and Mother Nature could be fooling us with today's weather! So, I will post on Monday with an update on my scrapbook weekend. I doubt I will get any knitting done but will probably take it with me in case I need a little break.

It's Finished

2005-09-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

I finished my sweater yesterday. I had to pull one of the sleeves out twice, but I finally got it done. Also, the bottom is supposed to roll up but I didn't like that in the tummy area so I single crocheted three rows so that it will lay flat. It is a fun sweater but it is bulky. Did I not notice that from the pattern and the yarn as it was working up? What is wrong with me? I tend to really like the look of bulky things. On the pattern picture! I don't think they flatter me much, but I seem to always go towards that type of pattern. I think I'm nervous about doing something too fitted. However, I think my confidence is getting stronger. I have 3 sweaters in line to do and I will try to find something a little more fitted after I finish these. I did finish this sweater in a little over a week so maybe the other 3 will knit up quickly as well. I will post a photo asap. The weather is still nice and cool. I ran my 2 miles this morning and guess what? I still got hot. But it was nicer than on Wednesday. Well, a crazy weekend is in front of me . . . homecoming, soccer game, 13th bday with sleepover, hosing down house afterwards - ick, etc. Everyone have a great weekend!

It Was Burning A Hole in My Purse

2005-09-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

So today I go to Granbury, the town I used to live in. I had to hand over the financials from our Sunday school class. Since we have moved, we finally said goodbye to our home church and I met with the new treasurer to hand over all the papers and checkbooks etc etc. But, while I was there I must go to my old LYS - right? And it would be rude to not buy anything - right? I just try to do my part. It's the nice way to be. And, Pauline has a punch card system. Once the card is full it is worth $25.00. This had been in my wallet for months - MONTHS! It seems I needed to redeem it (not a rule just a feeling I had in my gut) and that I did. I purchased a pattern by Cabin Fever - Top Down Swing Coat. I need yarn to go with the pattern - right? I got this lovely yarn that I'd love to tell you about but in looking at it, there is no label. There was a label but I guess in the ball winding process the labels got misplaced. Hmmm. But it's pretty and it's really nice! Really nice! Anyway if you are ever in Granbury, go to Dot's Yarn Shop. It's not far off the Granbury square and there are always women in there knitting and having fun! So, since it had been months since I had been in for a visit, there had to be lots and lots of new stuff. I should really go back when I have more than 30 minutes to kill. My current sweater is going well. I finished one sleeve last night and did the casting on for the second sleeve. I worked on it a little bit this evening watching TV. I also did some of my "famous shawl" knitting during carpool line AND while waiting to attend chapel with my youngest son this morning at his school. I got lots of comments doing it in there, nothing negative, but I had 20 minutes to wait for him. That's lots of knitting time in my book! Now I have people waiting to see the end results and wanting to know when I will wear it. I'm not sure volunteering at an elementary school is where I will wear it but you never know! I may have to sit my knitting down some this week and (I really hate to say this) do some house cleaning. How can a really clean house get so messy so quickly? Is it me? Is it the boys in my house? And oldest son will be 13 this weekend and he is having a sleepover here with 5 of his closest friends. Should I even waste my time cleaning ahead of time? I probably should just wait until Sunday, pull in the husbands pressure washer and hose the house down after the party. I guess I should just keep knitting, cleaning can wait until AFTER the sleepover. Yes, that's what I'll do.

What I Get For Helping

2005-09-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

It was about 5 in the evening tonight and my husband still had not gotten around to doing the yard. And it wasn't just mowing the grass, we needed to trim the hedges, edge and all that other stuff. He was planning on doing it all along, but well the near 100 degrees was kind of making him not want to. He's sure Fall is coming. I love that he is so optimistic. So, I put down my knitting (nice huh) and said let me help you. The reason this is a big deal - not putting my knitting down, but doing yard work - is because I don't do yard work. I grew up with an older brother and my Dad had him do yard work and I did house work. That's just the way it was. So I don't have a whole lot of experience. In fact, it has been said yards look nicer when I don't work in them. Some people are just mean you know! So I tell my husband I'll do the hedges. He is nice and he is concerned about me being in the heat. I said I don't mind sweating so let's go. I throw on my running clothes because I don't mind sweating in those. Well, an hour and half or two later and sore sore arms, I had to call it quits. I raked and swept up all my trash and put it in the appropriate bags and so forth. Then sweet husband and I get in a discussion about our son's earlier behavior. Father and son had been arguing about some dumb stuff. I had not been listening but my son was trying to blame my other 2 boys for why the world is in its current state of mess. Well, that's how it seems on a day to day basis here with 3 boys that always blame one another. So that gets my husband remembering a day a few year's ago - think it was Mother's Day - that we had front row tickets to see Bill Cosby. Note to anyone paying attention - don't sit front center at a Bill Cosby show. Bill Cosby has a little act where he tells why having more than one child is difficult because you never know who really did it - whatever it is - because they always blame the other one. Then husband starts to tell me how Bill Cosby is one of his top 5 favorite people, along with Bono, a minister friend of ours, and 2 others I can't remember right now. I thought that was a rather eclectic group of people. Then it hits me, back to the concert, Bill Cosby tore me up one side and down the other in front of a sold out show. He also was rough on my mother, as well. My husband still takes great pleasure in this. And I wanted to help him with the yard! That will teach me! He actually bowed his head and had a moment of silence. So, if you do see Bill Cosby in concert and you do sit front row center, if you agree with him or disagree it's all entertainment for everybody ELSE in the audience! Okay I'm fine now, really. So, I got the front of my sweater finished last night. I then attached the front and back and picked up the appropriate stitches and knitted the collar. Now, I am working on one of the sleeves. Had I just shrugged my shoulders at the yard work, I could probably be finished with at least one sleeve. Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

Stress Relief

2005-09-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time at home today. I was expecting my sister in law but she headed a little west of me to my parents house. Less traffic their way. It took her 12 hours to do a 5 hour trip. She was exhausted. My brother has stayed in Houston and is just waiting to see what happens. It took my sister in law over 3 hours to go 15 miles this morning. Oh the stories are endless. I've been in the comfort of my own home today knitting away on my new sweater. I was stressed for my brother not leaving and stressed for my sister in law to be on the freeway under the conditions that are out there . . . hot hot hot, not enough gasoline, and the traffic in general. But they are safe for now and I finished the back of my new sweater and started on the front. See, it always comes back to knitting. The bad news is . . . my hands are sore. I haven't done that in a very long time! But let's not tell anyone that my hands hurt because they might think I should slow down on the knitting and not buy more yarn. That would be BAD! Cause I'm thinking if I can turn out a few more projects in the next week or two then I should go back to my LYS and see what else I can't live without. I'm really liking the way this sweater is working up. It is super easy. My oldest son had a football game tonight that I did not attend. I stayed home with my other 2 boys. We had to complete some homework. My son's team lost. He had fun in any event and was excited to get in a tackle on the other team's quarterback. He walked in the door at 9 pm and went straight to bed. Wore his little self out! Did anyone watch ER tonight? I have watched that show from day 1. Less ER action and more character storyline tonight, but I was still entertained and I kept on knitting. That's my stress relief!

Knitting Lesson

2005-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, my friend came over this morning for her first knitting lesson. She is going to be making a rectangular shawl. As I watched her try to get the feel of the knitting needles and feel comfortable with the motion of the yarn and movement of the needles, it made me realize that I had come a long way in my knitting skills. I feel like I'm a beginner knitter, but I cannot imagine knitting needles NOT being in my hands! I saw her later this afternoon in carpool line and gave her a little wave. Apparently my mission has been accomplished because she didn't wave back, she was busy knitting! I could tell she was still holding the needles tight. I know she will relax. I started my new sweater this afternoon. I did a swatch and it came out just right. The sweater is going to be fun! I love the way the colors are turning out. It looks like a water color. I will finish one ball of yarn this evening. My sister in law is coming from the Houston area tomorrow. My brother is making her evacuate. He is on some hurricane relief team and cannot leave but is sending her up with their dog. I will enjoy her company but I know she is dreading leaving my brother behind. What should be about a 5 hour drive will probably take her twice that if not more with the traffic that has already begun. And it looks like we are going to get some rain as well. We could use it but I don't know if we need 12 inches at once! Anybody a fan of "Lost"? I watched it this evening and it didn't answer any of my questions. I guess I'll have to watch it again next week. Do you think "they" (the writers) even know where "they" are going with this? I'm curious about the outcome, what's the plan? I'm a fan, what can I say!

He said Mom Do You Need More?

2005-09-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

So this morning I'm running around trying to get the boys out the door on time since hubby is still out of town. I had a doctor's appointment right after dropping off last son so I had to get up extra early and really get dressed instead of just throwing on running clothes. So, if you are going to sit in a doctor's office chances are very good you better bring your knitting. I may have mentioned to my boys that I would be visiting my LYS today. My youngest son was with me in my craft room as I rummaged through the yarn (because I finished my other shawl last night- yippee) and he looks at my bins of yarn and said "Mom do you need more yarn? Shouldn't you use all this first?" The boy is 6, what does he know? I asked "Have you been talking to your Dad?" Note to self: keep that boy away from the husband - just in case! So I threw caution to the wind and got myself down to the LYS after the doctor's appointment. My LYS owner had gotten in new stuff! Now there is even more stuff I want. So what did I purchase? I bought a pattern and yarn by Reynolds and the yarn (acrylic/wool blend) is called Smile. I am doing an easy pullover and the colors are in blue, purple, pink, green and yellow. That will be my at-home project and then my carpool line, soccer, football project is ANOTHER shawl. The La Boheme "Taos" color. I'm knitting up the "Fabulous Shawl" on the size 17s. It will be pretty. I also purchased some more baby alpaca but in a cream color. The LYS owner made a pattern on sweater wizard that I will do with the red and cream baby alpaca. The 2/3 will be red and the bottom 1/3 will be cream. (I wonder if my sons would be amazed that I could do the fractions on that) Hopefully it will look good. And I still have to do my sweater from Artyarns in serenade. And then I found some more yarn that I want to purchase for another easy pullover from Knitting Pure & Simple. I've also seen and have some cute patterns for felted bags that I want to do. And then I would like to . . . "Do You Need More Yarn" . . . YES! It was good to lift the self imposed restriction!

Quiet Time

2005-09-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Well, my Granddaddy went home last night. I was supposed to teach a friend to knit this morning and her son is sick so that is postponed. I went for a LONG walk this morning instead of a run because my tummy isn't feeling good. And my house is clean and quiet this morning and I'm just enjoying it. I have been going through new blogs and seeing new completed projects and am so inspired! I want to knit all of these things now! I organized my yarns and patterns over the weekend. I had scraps thrown in with needing to knit yarn. What to do with scraps? I use some of the scraps for gift wrapping. Also, I have some skeins of yarn that are full that I didn't need for a project after all. What do you do with those? Some time ago I purchased 4 skeins of Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Grande in red. It is about 440 yards total. I have NO IDEA what to do with it! I think originally I was going to make a rectangle wrap with it but I think I've changed my mind and would like a sweater. However, I don't have a pattern and I don't have enough yarn. I know I could go back to the store and get more yarn but the dye lot will be different. I could do another color with it. Any ideas? Has anyone worked with this yarn before? I have made one hat and 2 scarves with it. My husband is off to San Francisco for 2 days on some personal business. I've never been to SF. He used to travel there on business all the time and I never had the opportunity to go with him. Someone always has to stay back and mind the boys! So this morning I got everyone off to school and we did good! I refrained from going to my LYS this weekend but I think I'll go tomorrow and see if that little incentive program really works. I hope I have something good to report! I think I will work on this shawl I'm trying to finish up so I can begin something new. Ahhhh, quiet time and the house to myself. This is a good thing today!

What to Do

2005-09-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, yesterday I might have been bragging about having it together in the morning. Yesterday I was June Cleaver - today I was Roseanne. Everything was going wrong but I did get the boys to school without being tardy - it was just rushed and hectic. I'm sure the boys were dressed and had their appropriate backpacks in tow. I will try to do tomorrow I promise! Secondly, today is my 15 year anniversary. How the time has flown! How the time has dragged! It depends on the day and the period of our lives! I wish I could have a clearer memory on that day 15 years ago. There are so many things I don't remember and I put so much effort into it as does every bride! But we are still here - so yea us! Okay, here's the serious dilemma part . . . my LYS started a customer loyalty program and guess what? I qualify! If you spend a certain amount of money there between January 1 and August 30 you qualify. Shock surprise I did it! The perk is now I get 10% off every purchase in my LYS through December 31. I am on a self imposed restriction on buying yarn right now. I think I should lift it. I just showed hubby the email and he said "do you need any yarn right now?" duh? Don't we always need more yarn? But I'm trying so hard to be practical but then there's the 10% discount. If I spend lots and lots of money well that would be a big savings! See my thinking here. I should get that yarn winder thingamajig that I really want so that I can wind up some of my stash. Maybe if it's in balls it will make the stash look smaller and then I can justify lifting the self imposed restriction. I am so mean to myself. I should just go in and shop. After all, it started today. Today is my anniversary. Maybe it's a sign that self imposed restrictions are very bad. Who has my back here?

Middle of the Week

2005-09-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning and did my mom stuff and just had it all together (very rare!). I got the boys up, clothes laid out, breakfast and lunch prepared and got myself ready 10 minutes before we needed to walk out the door. Dropped the kids off in time for them to socialize, came home and ran my 2 miles. I still don't think I'll make it every time I go out there but I do. I keep thinking "must run before knitting today". I only got carpool time in for knitting today. I was doing housework and some stuff for the 1st grade teacher. So what's the incentive for running if I can't knit? Maybe now I don't have to run Friday. right? maybe? should I? Okay the quilt that I posted tonight is the friendship quilt my friend from New York put together for me. She appliqued 6 squares as did I. My flowers are the poppy, bluebonnet, paintbrush, sunflower, daffodil and columbine. My Mother-in-law is going to help me quilt it in October when she visits from NY. The shawl is the thank you gift for my friend. I mailed it yesterday so she should receive it in a day or two. Then lastly, that little soccer player is my youngest son. That was his first game they played this past Saturday. Okay, true story. It has been said and proven that I am not good at math. Fortunately, my husband is a math genius. All 3 of my boys have received that gift from him as well. I lose the ability to help them with homework at about 5th grade. I do help with reading, history, projects, etc. Tonight as it was time for bed my 6th grader (Asperger's child) asked where Daddy was. Well, he had a late night working tonight. My son was visibly upset because he needed help with homework. I asked why he didn't tell me earlier. He said he knew I had trouble with things and he really needed "Daddy". I said let's just give it a look and let me try . . . what is it? His reply: a word find. My child has no faith in me! Boy did I show him. He knows who to come to now next time he has a word find! I am his new hero . . . until tomorrow! I have been getting such a kick out of all the blogs I've been reading. And then you go in comments and discover new people - it's just endless! Thanks Sarah for nudging me along!

What Does My Yarn Say About Me?

2005-09-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

I've been reading several blogs regarding being a yarn snob or not. It got me to thinking if I might be a yarn snob - not that there's anything wrong with that. I am currently working on a triangle shawl with yarn purchased in Victoria, B.C. I hiked it upstairs to my craft room to get the label and see what it actually is and here goes: pattern: Goldielocks Shawl, Design: Fleece Artist, Fibre: Goldielocks 56% kids, 24% silk, 20% nylon. The colors are berry tones. The other yarn I bought in Victoria is Ironstone Yarn's "Pizzazz". The content is three yarns: Felicia, Eyelash and Paris Nights. Another souvenior yarn from New York is Fiesta Yarns' La Boheme. Color is Taos. This is a 2-stranded yarn (a) 64% Brushed Kid Mohair, 28% Wool, 8% Nylon and (b) 100% Rayon Boucle. I bought 3 skeins of this beauty and screwed one of them up all by myself. I didn't read the directions before balling it up, therefore, the 2 strands are not even. Let's just not talk about it because it upsets me. The other 2 I took to my LYS and she put it on the winder thingamajig and they are perfect. I want one of those by the way. I have a few skeins I need to ball up. Regarding my knitting skills, I do okay but there is so much lingo going on here in knitting blogland that I do not understand. Y'all have shown me some fun sites I didn't know existed and when I get some of the projects started and finished I plan on buying some stuff! I'm sort of on self imposed "no yarn buying". I've only bought through yarn stores to date. And so many of y'all are designers! I'm not there at all! My last big project was a hooded sweater from Artful Yarns. I haven't been able to wear it yet but Fall is coming! My next project other than the above mentioned yarns are a vest I saw in Knitter's (not the current issue but the one before). I can't find the magazine at the moment but in the magazine it's worn with jeans, white shirt and black leather jacket. I am going to knit it up in Jaeger Trinity. It's a beige color with a hint of pink. My other project is by Artful Yarns in Serenade the short sleeve hoodie. I am doing it in a blue and green mix yarn. Oh it's so soft! I had forgotten! I'm anxious to start on that next! Well, that's my knitting in progress that I care to mention tonight. If I kept on with the other stuff . . . well, I'd sound like the rest of y'all! But what great company I'm in! I think I found some local friends to start a knitting group. I hope so, I'm rather new to my area and haven't made local friends. My knitting in various school places (mainly carpool line) started conversations and they are waiting for me to get a group going. I'm actually getting ready to teach someone to knit! Wish me luck!

Fun Size

2005-09-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

What is fun about a fun size Snickers? I bought some today for my Granddaddy - a special treat while he is visiting with us this week. I gave him one after dinner and helped myself to one as well. I thought while eating it that it wasn't fun it was just temptation to eat the entire bag. And I can hear them calling me from the kitchen right now. I think I will hide them somewhere I can't hear them. Maybe I'll give them to Granddaddy to keep in his room. That will keep me safe! While at the grocery store today, I had 4 compliments on my shawl. It is an easy triangle shawl that I made with black eyelash and silver/gold/black ladder yarn. I fringed it with the ladder yarn which I really think adds a little oomfh to it. I think they are both Berrocco brand. Two of the ladies were interested in me selling it to them right then and there and maybe I should have, but I didn't. I make these triangle shawls for gifts quite often and only have 3 for myself. ONLY 3! I must knit more! My husband tells me I should knit several up and take them to local botiques to see if they would sell them for me. How do you go about doing that? How do you measure for time making them as well as getting your cost back on the yarn? Will people pay for that? Why are fun size Snicker's supposed to be fun? They aren't! Can you hear them calling me?

Happy Weekend

2005-09-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

My youngest son just played his first soccer game. He had fun and their team won which was an added bonus to them having fun. The whole team worked so hard and 6 year old boys chasing a soccer ball are so cute! I took an entire roll of film (no suprise to those who know me). My parents are leaving for a cruise tomorrow and my Mother is only taking 6 rolls of film. That would get me through the first 2 days. I don't know if I've written it in here before but on vacation this summer I took 24 rolls of film. I have the most beautiful scrapbook of that trip. My husband took his laptop and every night I would journal in it the day's events. I printed that out and have it in the back of the scrapbook. It was a good idea if I do say so myself because (1) I type fast and can put down a lot of info quickly (2) I did it every night while everything was fresh on my mind and (3) there is so much information that I would have forgotten if I would have waited to journal while I scrapbooked! Anyway, my week ended nicely! I made a date with my husband. We went to a favorite restaurant and I had a margarita/sangria swirl - yummy! Dinner was good as well! My 96 year old grandfather is coming to night to stay with me this week while my parents are on their cruise. It should be an interesting week. He is picky on his eating just like my children! Oh, I took my knitting to the soccer field and got 2 rows done on the triangle shawl. That isn't much really - I was too busy watching the game. But I did knit last night while watching a movie on TV. That's always my best time to knit, after the kitchen is cleaned and the boy's homework is complete!

Are You Ready For Some Football?

2005-09-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind of a day! I am ready to crawl into bed and re-energize for tomorrow. I only got a couple of rows knitted on MY shawl today during carpool. I ran an errand between school pickups so lost time on knitting. I took my knitting to my son's football game this afternoon but with temperatures in the high 90's I just wasn't in the mood. As it cools down maybe I'll knit and watch football. I can't take pictures at every game - that's way too much to scrapbook! Speaking of which, I am going on a scrapbook retreat in October and in November and I am HAPPY! Those are little sleep weekends but tons of progress on my scrapbooks! I don't have pictures of son's football game of tonight but I do from last week. They won tonight. The score was 24-12. Some of those boys can really hit and take hits. I'm still a cringing type of person that sucks in my breath when I hear the crashing. My husband just shakes his head and pretends like he doesn't notice me being a mom. My son has begun strict instructions on what I am allowed to say and not say and if I can acknowledge that I know him in certain circumstances. I am not allowed to call him by his nickname and yell "I love you" or "Be careful" - as if . . . . so here's a picture from last week of my first son #2. He's the #2 in the black jersey. Maybe I'll get some knitting done tomorrow!

Another shawl

2005-09-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

I finished the shawl for my quilting friend yesterday and I want to keep it. Sometimes it's hard being nice. I took a picture of it just this morning so when I get it developed and put on a cd well maybe I'll figure out how to get it on this here blog. Right after I finished knitting the shawl, it was time to jump in the car and pick up 2 of the boys from school - the oldest had football practice - so, of course, I needed something to knit while waiting in the carpool line. I picked up one of my yarns that I bought this summer in Victoria, B.C. while on vacation. That is my souvenior when I travel - yarn from their lys! There is a story behind this lys. We drove past it several times before I saw it - weird huh? Thinking husband could have actually been snickering during my not noticing phase. Well, finally on the day I spotted it, I mentioned to my sweetie that I'd like to go in to that store. I ignored all the eyes rolling from the men of my family because well - Mama wants yarn! It's my vacation too right! I was allotted 15 minutes to go into this "never before seen by my eyes" yarn store. That in and of itself could be grounds for a serious argument. But fear not knitting friends I came out with 2 beautiful purchases. I can spend money FAST! I didn't even see half the store. I think the ladies in the store might have thought I had lost my mind as I was literally running from case to case trying to see it all. There was no time to explain I had no time - but MUST purchase something! Can you run into a store and just throw your credit card down and say "Throw as much in a bag in 15 minutes as you can yarn experts of this store because the men are waiting in the car!"? I should remember that for next time! If husband reads this he might take cards away! Anyway the current shawl I am working on - FOR ME - is in berry tones and gold. It is just another triangle shawl that will be easy knitting for carpool line. Hopefully, the baby blanket gift and the ribbon shawl for the 50 bday gift will show up on this post. When I get the other stuff developed I'll post it as well. My oldest son has a game tomorrow so I should get the film all used and developed shortly! Okay, I just uploaded the pictures (first time EVER) and I was humming the theme to "Rocky" because I am so technology challenged. I did the "Rocky" theme the first time I ran a mile without stopping about 3 months ago. Maybe that will be my theme song - NOT!

Laboring Day

2005-09-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

I spent the day cleaning and organizing my kitchen and various other areas of the house. We moved into this house in May and when I unpacked my pantry, I threw stuff in. For some reason today seemed like a good day to finally organize it. I have a confession to make . . . I think I have a cookbook buying problem. Or at least I did in the past. Now I try to save all my money for yarn and scrapbook supplies. I did spend a couple of hours working on my friend's shawl. The reason she is getting this shawl is as a thank you gift. She is a friend from New York and a couple of years ago we had this great idea to make a friendship quilt. The story goes like this - I make 6 different squares of flowers (Texas style flowers) and she makes 6 different square of flowers (New York style) we duplicate them so we are actually making 12 each but send the duplicates to each other so our quilts will match. Nice idea huh? In theory it is nice, in reality it is not because I am not a quilter. Oh I can applique squares until the cows come home - okay I don't have any cows - but putting the top together and then actually quilting it - well it just hasn't been done before. My sweet friend (amazing quilter - never uses patterns) put the top together for me and I am going to attempt to quilt it in this lifetime! I do love quilts and have several hanging on my walls and such. If I ever finish it, it will hang on a wall as well. So, she gets the shawl for putting the top together for me. I wonder what I could give her to put the whole thing together, hmmmm. My other plan is this: my mother in law will be visiting next month and she is a quilter . . . you can see where I am going with this! It's always good to have backup plans. Well the boys claim to be hungry and the crock pot has turned off meaning the pot roast is done so I should set the table and feed the animals - I mean sweet children!

She Liked It

2005-09-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Well my husband and I went to a really fun bday party last night. The food was delicious - bbq and all the fixins. The chocolate birthday cake with chocolate covered strawberries was some of the best stuff I've ever tasted. My friend received tons of great gifts. When she reached into the gift bag I had wrapped her shawl in, she felt it and knew. She was so excited that I had knitted something for her. She wore it to church this morning and said many people were coming up to her and touching the shawl and admiring it. She was very happy with it so I am very happy with it. Today was our last day at our church home of almost 6 years. We relocated to another area about 30 miles away and have decided to find a church closer to our home where we can get the boys involved in local youth activities with kids they go to school with. It was sad saying bye to people that I know I won't see again just because we are all so busy with out lives, but necessary to move on. Our wonderful friends took us to lunch afterwards and we enjoyed their company immensely. I have spent the afternoon grocery shopping for the week and stocking up on freezer items for several weeks. Now it's the evening and I'm going to knit on the current shawl I'm working on. Happy Labor Day weekend. I hope to sleep in tomorrow! No rushing off to school with the boys - yippee!

My other Job

2005-09-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

I spent the day doing volunteer stuff for 2 of my children's schools. First my youngest son - I helped his teacher administer one on one letter recognition and reading tests. I thought it would go quick. It didn't. I'll go back next week to finish up with the other mom that was there. It is so cool to watch these little children sound out words and actually see them learn! They are little sponges! And they try so hard. I had to make notes when they would get something wrong and they were so concerned with my marks. I let them know it wasn't a graded test and this would help the teacher know where best to help them in the classroom. They were all so cute and sweet. My second job was a lunch to help some new "room moms" get acclimated to the activities we will be doing to help our teachers. Some people are so giving and so talented with their ideas. I appreciate all the help they give me. I like being involved with my children's schools. I got a little knitting done in carpool line this afternoon. What a great way to get a little knit time in without interruption except, of course, when the powers that be call your child to the car and you have to drive them on home. I get more comments from people watching me knit in my car. The car is parked, I'm not driving! But once I figure that technique out - LOOK OUT! Surely it wouldn't be like talking on a cell phone while driving . . . hmmmm. People like how I utilize my time in the carpool line. The teachers often come to my car to see what I'm working on. I don't like idle hands - especially on me! I give away one of my gift shawls tomorrow. I hope she likes it!

Gifts Galore

2005-08-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I finished the baby blanket last week. I finished a triangle shawl with fringe today and have started another triangle shawl for another gift today as well. Don't get me wrong I like being generous with my knitting but I just cannot concentrate very well on my most current projects because I want to knit a short sleeve sweater waiting in the wings for myself if it ever gets cool again here in Texas. I should have this shawl completed by the beginning of next week depending on my kids demands for help with homework, carpool issues, needing meals, etc. so that I can begin MY sweater. As stated in my profile I am not digital but when I get these pics of the new items developed I have my smart computer savvy husband scan them so I can at least show that I can do some basic knitting to back up this blog I've started. My kitty is home and doing fine. We aren't doing anything different yet except a diet change and more litter boxes around the house. I think she is happy with the situation. I'm scooping more often but she's worth it! And boy did I get a talking to from her when I picked her up from the vet. I'm not exactly sure what she was saying since she was meowing so fast, but I'm sure it wasn't all nice. And she's a sweetie! She's been especially cuddly since coming home so I guess I'm forgiven. I've been watching the Hurricane devestation coverage on the news and it is so shocking, sad, and frustrating watching all that is going on. I know so many of those people have no idea what is going on and wonder if we are out here just ignoring them. I look forward to donating to the cause just so I will feel like I've done SOMETHING!

Allergies?

2005-08-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

I started getting allergies on Friday - what a pain! I finally took some medicine yesterday and am all medicine head feeling. I do not like the feeling at all but at least I'm not sneezing constantly. My teeth started hurting yesterday and I knew it was time for the meds. The bad part is I didn't feel like knitting much this weekend and I've got to finish my friend's bday gift for Saturday! I know I will get it completed in the next day or two - if I can stop looking at everybody's blogs! I am using Lion Brand Yarn "Incredible". It's a variegated ribbon in fall colors and it is really pretty. I find the ribbon a little annoying to work with because it sometimes gets twisted. I'm not sure the recipient of this gift is a shawl type person but I tend to do these triangle shawls for all my gifts for women. So far, they have always been a hit. Last year I made them for teacher gifts and the teachers that didn't have me as a parent were disappointed. I got a little business from it as well. But I much prefer knitting for fun and not as a job. I am off to the vet in a little while to confer with the dr. about my Millie. I get to bring her home today and I am so excited. We bought some extra litter boxes to put in strategic places around the house since she will be having bladder control issues. I hope this isn't painful for her. I'm watching coverage of Hurricane Katrina. I pray for everybody in the path of this storm to be safe.

2005-08-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in my family room with part of my family. I am having a quiet day which is a good thing. I have been busy this week with my boy's schedule - getting back in to the swing of things. I need to not volunteer for everything that comes my way but the past week has not shown that I can hold to that. My oldest son is playing football. Our school offers a "Football for Moms" class that I will be attending. My son was hoping they would make us pad up and play each other. How crazy is that! My sweet kitty is in the animal hospital. She is in the early stages of renal failure. The vet isn't quite sure what this could mean for her life expectancy but Millie isn't in pain or uncomfortable at this point so we will try to make her comfortable here at home. I have had her for 15 years. I am working on a shawl for a birthday gift that will be given next Saturday but am itching to work on something for me me me! I haven't been to "my" yarn store lately and really want to go. But I know that I will not be able to go in and not buy anything so what's the use of going?!!? I have too many projects stored up and realistically need to get some of them whipped up before I go buying more stuff. Some of my favorite blogs: nikki knits Wendy Knits! Claudia's Blog knit and tonic LollyKnitting Around Amylovie's Nuttin' but Knittin'

All these ladies make me want to knit all the time but then I have to check out their blogs and then I want to knit and then I want to see what they are doing and then I want to knit and then. . . it's endless!

My Favorite Blogs

2005-08-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Wendy Knits!

nikki knits

Claudia's Blog
knit and tonic

Knit and Scrap

2005-08-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

This is my first post so here goes . . . I love to knit and I love to scrapbook. There is not enough time in the day to do it all! With my current stash of supplies I need to live to be about 500 with good eyes and good hands and a memory as well. I have 3 sons and I love them dearly. They are the subjects of my scrapbooks but not so much my knitting. I have made each of them something but I believe their knits are buried in their closets somewhere! I also have a great husband who has benefitted from my knitting as well. His sweater is hanging in the closet! He's a big guy (6'6") so his sweater took me awhile. Most everything else is mine mine mine. All that stuff is in a cedar chest made by my grandfather. I have done lots of gifts too. I photograph everything I knit and guess what??? I have scrapbooked them! It's a cute little book that I like to look at from time to time. I am running out of pages! I have a 15 year old calico cat, Millie. We are the girls of the house! I also have a male 2 year old red miniature pinscher, Mac. He is Millie's constant source of aggravation. I am currently working on a shrug that I am sort of figuring out as I go. It is made with Isabella from Tahki Yarns. I am going to make a collar and edge it with an orange wool I got from my yarn store. Okay, it's not my yarn store but I can dream right?