moving out

Due to Blogger's association with Google, Stitch and Kvetch is moving and changing names. Find me at http://www.thepatternslave.typepad.com

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a lovely day. Ours was nice. We are at my sister's. Good (but long) drive - left late, arrived late. Kids have been well behaved, so far. We went to the zoo today. It was fun and the boys got to make build a bear animals that are supposed to be unique to the zoo as opposed to one that can be found in any build a bear store. Little Man picked the snow leopard (after much coaxing not to pick the same thing as his brother) and Stinkerton picked the polar bear. My sister got the whole thing on video. Very cute. If you get a chace to go to the St. Louis zoo, go. the penquin exhibit alone is worth the time. Someimes the penquins even jump out of the exhibit and waddle around in the aisle. Wish that had happened today. It would have been great. Besides, admission is free and how many zoos can say that? Tomorrow we're going to the Botanical Garden for the Chihully exhibit. We missed this (mostly) when it was in Atlanta. Progenitor had a major to-do blow up and has been working on that. He will have to get a suit tomorrow and fly to Miami or DC to file something and request a temporary restraining order against a government agency trying to change some rules that negatively affect an entire industry. (Can't say which one at this time and I'm not exaggerating about the impact.) As a result I'm not looking forward to the trip home. I'm really, really hoping he can delay leaving till Sunday. We're supposed to go see Spamalot that afternoon. I'd hate for him to miss it (and be out the ticket). I finished Little Man's wavy scarf last week. I also completed two hats. One to match Stinkerton's Wavy Scarf and the other to coordinate with Little Man's Wavy Scarf. LIttle Man's scarf was done in Nashua Wooly Stripes in the fiery color (progressive reds/oranges) and his hat is in CP Iceland in orange (as if there is any other color, right?) He's not happy that the hat does not match his scarf like Stinkerton's, but I've explained that hte yarn shop is out of that yarn. He'll wear it eventually. Stinkerton is thrilled with his hat. I supposed to be working on a Tilly Tomas evening bag for the shop, but forgot to pack the right needles. I need double points (the 2 circs aren't cutting it for this one). I'll find a knit shop tomorrow so I can get that done. It I get the bag started before we leave I should be able to finish on the way home (provided the Progenitor can travel with me). In the meantime I'm working on the lace scarf and my Nebraska Tee. One for when I can think and the other for when I don't have to. Later Gator!

Time in a Bottle

That's the name of the Unikat sweater from the Fall 2004 Knitters. It's finished. Actually, it's been finished for over a week now. I'll have MIL take some pics of me in it later tonight and try to get them uploaded. Sundays at the shop are going well. I got to play in the front of the store yesterday and I rearranged some things to hopefully move them along a little faster. It will all have to be moved again in a week or two when the new stuff arrives, but in the meantime those skeins should be more visible and hopefully sell a bit more - less to move! Messed up my wrist somehow. I'm hoping it's not carpal tunnel, but given the quality of the pain and the occasional numbness, I'm fearing the worst. It started off feeling like a sprain, but rather than getting less, the discomfort increased. I've been wearing the brace I was given last year for the tendonitis in my elbow (it was a wrist brace b/c all those knitting motions move the tendons in the elbow) and so far it's helping. It's off right now so I can type and I'm really feeling it. No, I'm not taking anything. At least, with the way I knit, I can knit with the brace on. Slowly, but at least I'm still knitting. Am heading to my sister's for Thanksgiving. Should be fun. Haven't seen her or her family in a little over a year. We're planning on seeing Chihuly in the garden and Spamalot. Yay! I've been wanting to see Spamalot and we missed the Chihuly exhibit when it was here in Atlanta. I'm looking forward to the drive to get some quality car knitting done. It will be either the Chevron Lace Scarf for the AL shop, the Nebraska tee, or a Last Minute Purled Beret for my sister. Have to get the kids to bed. Catch you later.

no title, again

Disappointed with the elections. Not so much b/c of the results, but more b/c of the turnout. There really no excuse for a turnout of only 50-60%. We really do take our freedom for granted in this country. If I recall correctly, Iraq's first election had something like a 93% turnout and they had to worry about bombings. Knitters Review has an awesome article this week. Be sure you check out the author's Red Tent Baby Blanket while you're at it. I have the collar finished on Unikat and one sleeve stitched on. I might actually be able to wear it this weekend - provided it fits; it's been a while since I started this. Read the cutest book at the boys' school the other day. It made me smile. What is it with me and titles, lately?

no title

I just about have my materials ready for my Chevron Lace Scarf class. The scarf is about 1/3 done and I went ahead and blocked it and put it on a holder to leave at the shop. I'll get a picture up soon. I've decided I really do want to finish the whole scarf so I'm going to start on the other end and I'll graft the stitches once it's done. I'm also working on swatches for this in a solid yarn and in some of the koigu from the FBS. I'm beading the Koigu and have worked out several charts for it. Once I knit some up, I'll know better what I like. No progress on the pink Cascade Sierra sweater for my friend's little girl and now the pattern is hiding from me. Unikat is still waiting to be finished; I would have finished her during my last trip to my parents' house if I'd had the right needle with me. FBS is ... well you know where she is. Gelato is in my knitting bag needing only handles and a flap. I'm into the ribbing on Something Red Chocolate and the first ribbing increase row just doesn't look good. I'm going to try the increase Jacqui at Woolwinders (MD) suggested. I've stalled about half way through my inventory. I think it's a case of severe denial. I'm working at The Purly Gates on Sundays. Last Sunday was my first and it was busier than I expected after the first hour or so and the last hour was very busy. I even sold a kit for my Serendipity Shawl. It was fun and couple of knit-buddies were kind enough to stop by and just sit and knit to keep me company. I especially liked that some of the customers had had no idea we would be open. Once January rolls around, the shop will only open one Sunday a month.

Wouldn't it be more like floating up?

I don't have much to say (for once), but I felt the need to post so that those few people who actually stop by to read know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. That really is an odd phrase, don't you think? One can't really fall off the earth, right? Even if one were to fall off a cliff, the ground would be right there waiting at the bottom. No knitting of any note is going on here. I am about to admit defeat on the FBS. My notes, the number of stitches I have, and according to my reading the chart for the previous knit row all indicate that I should be on row 5 of repeat 7. So how the heck to am I ending up with the wrong number of stitches? ugh. Back into time out she goes. Peri Klas once wrote an article about her "great unfinishable" - a Kaffe Fasset sweater. Maybe this is mine. Hope not, since I'm supposed to teach a simple lace scarf in a couple of weeks. aack!! I have to finish that project immediately, if not sooner. Super Secreat Snarky Pal questionaire: 1. What kinds of things do you like to knit? Most anything, scarves and baby things still seem to be what I'm able to finish at the moment. I've been having attention span issues lately. I'm starting to enjoy simple lace patterns despite my experience with the FBS. 2. Is there any one thing that you are just dying to have and haven't/won't purchase for yourself? I haven't tried dying any yarn, yet. I've been afraid to take the plunge. 3. What scents do you like? I usually just say none, but that sounds strange b/c I actually do like to smell things. Fragrance is such a subjective thing and then there's the whole allergy thing. Wool, lavender or citrus are usually fine, but with the boys, candles are not an option. 4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, but it's all confused with the Progenitor's list, so it's hard to tell what goes with whom on the list. 5. When is your birthday? June 7. 6. Do you celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwannza/Yule? Hanukkah 7. Do you have a favorite color? Food colors and pretty much any shade of green unless it has a lot of yellow-gold in it. Yellow and I are not good friends unless I keep up my highlights - and since George went on leave after he and his partner adopted their little girl, that's not happening for a while. 8. Any colors that you absolutely hate? Nope. The more colors the better in my book. 9. Any allergies to fiber? No, thank goodness! 10. Anything else your pal should know? My boys are constantly destroying my measuring tapes. I've learned the hard way not to get the cute ones. Fortunately, they've learned to leave the knitting needles alone.

Pardon me. Do you have any Grey Poupon?

For my 150th post, I thought I'd find out how much I'm worth.

My blog is worth $2,822.70. How much is your blog worth?

I could buy a lot of funny tasting mustard with that. In honor of my 150th post, I'm having two contests. The first person to post a knitting joke that makes me laugh out loud will get a prize from my stash. The second contest is a blatant effort to get a free button. I am utterly button challenged. As I'm considering a name change, I'm looking for a button for any of the three names. Stitch and Kvetch, Tink & Drink, or The Pattern Slave. The Winner will get some extra special yarn from The Stash. E-mail me at levis_mama at yahoo... you know the rest.

In other news:

• I finished the Flower Wreath hat from Itty Bitty Knits. I took a picture of it and will post as soon as I can figure out how the 'rents camera works. This is an incredibly cute pattern. I think the flowers are supposed to go all the way around the hat, but that doesn't seem very comfortable for the baby, so I just did the front.
• I also ripped FBS back to a row that was done correctly, only to get to row 5 and frak it all up again. I'm on the seventh repeat so I'm sure this isn't a pattern error. Well, it could be a pattern error and I've screwed up this row 6x already. This is driving me nuts, b/c the previous row has the correct number of stitches.
• I was all set to finish the Unikat sweater but I forgot to pack the bloody needles.
• I finished the back and about 1/2 of the front of the pink Sierra sweater. It's a trendsetter pattern that has 4 pink lacy sweaters done in ScoubiDu (what a name rip off). I forgot that pattern, too so I can only move a little forward on the front before having to stop for the armscye shaping.
• I'm halfway through Little Man's scarf in Nasua Wooly Stripes. Orange, of course.
• I'm into the first ribbing increase row on Something Chocolate, but don't like how the increases look. Jacqui at Wool Winders told me a different increase (purl f/b) in the purl part of the rib on the right side rather than M1 on the wrong side. I think it will look much better.
• The Gelato bag for the shop is completely frakked up. After I wove in all the ends I realized that the straps and flap are on the sides of the bag rather than on the front and back. I dread going back to it, but I have to get it done for the shop - and soon.

I went to Knit Happens today. It was rather disappointing. I'd heard so many nice things about this store on some D.C. area blogs and I drove 40 minutes to get to it. (I actually braved the Beltway for the 1st time in over 15 years!) I was not greeted after they were done with the customer at the register except for the clerk to say "excuse me" to reach past me while helping a different customer. I was mostly ignored left alone, which is usually fine. I just prefer to be greeted and asked if there is anything I'm looking for. The only reason I learned about the sale items in the back room is b/c I overheard the gentleman teaching a sock class pointing it out to his students. The most absolutely most annoying thing, however, was that the price labels were huge (approx. 1.5" x 2.5") and placed on the front of the label that you can't see the name of the yarn, and in some cases yardage or content. The name of the yarn was on the label, but not the other info.

Next time I'm not making the special trip. Ten years in retail providing, frankly, excellent service to my customers left me more than a little picky about service. I'll stick with Wool Winders in Rockville and Yarns International in Bethesda. Stitch DC was nice when I visited last year. The primary lines represented in the shop Westminter fibers (Rowan Nashua Jaeger) and KFI shop - heavy into Debbie Bliss, light on Noro; some Arucania, Magellanes and Patagonia, Laines du Nord, Louisa Harding. No Lavold. They also had some domestically produced yarn - Koigu, Fiesta, Cherry Tree Hill (very little) and another I can't recall. There was a little Millenweit sock yarn - also on sale - a little Mission Falls, Misti Alpaca and a nice feeling superwash wool I can't recall the name of. Almost no novelty yarns unless they were in the 60% off bin. GGH/Muench was being discontinued and on sale 35% off. I bought some brown cotton for a Picovoli Tee or maybe a Green Gable if I have enough. Jade Sapphire cashmere was 40% off and I picked up 2 hanks in turquoise 4 ply for a lacey-ish cravat to go with the new green coat. I didn't go through the individual patterns, but the selection of pattern books for the lines they carried was terrific. The book section was nice. The comfy chairs are much too close to the bookshelves, making it nearly impossible to get to the books if someone is in a chair. Other than that, the store is clean and well lit.

new form of prison torture developed in MD

I'm being tortured with network T.V. The 'rents don't have anything beyond the most basic cable and the only comfortable places to sit in the house are in the living room. I can feel my brain cells melting away with every passing minute. They made me watch Survivor. The worst thing about it is that it's like a car crash... you can't help but keep looking. And on top of that, they crank the volume to hear the show and when the commercials comes on, I'm just about blasted out of the room. Daddy won't give up the remote and let me handle the volume at all. (Which is really annoying b/c I'm not the one in the room with impaired reflexes. And no, they have an ancient T.V. that doesn't do the volume levelling thing that newer T.V.s can do.) I think I know what they're getting for Christmas in '07. My brain hurts. I should have bought some aspirin when I was hiding out running an errand at the drug store. On the upside... Went shopping with Mother today and found a really cool leather coat at Sym's (sort of like Burlington Coat Factory). It's lime!! I'm so thrilled with it. I will admit to being a coat hoarder (as well as yarn and bags; shoes...eh, not so much), but I do use most of my coats. I like to be all matchy-match. Sad, but it's a "Monk" thing. The other thing that happened was that I ran into an old housemate (from 15 years ago!!) this morning. It was so cool to see him and to see him looking great. I'm trying to find some time where we can meet for coffee or maybe lunch. I'll have to remember to snag a couple of pics of the boys from Mother. I never do have up to date pics on me. I made it to WoolWinders yesterday. This is where I took my first class with Annie last year. Jacqui, the owner, is such a nice lady. I'm planning on a trip to Knit Happens in Alexandria tomorrow - they have Sunday hours! Yay! Lastly, I finally found the mistake in the Flower Basket Shawl. I'm going to make a little progress on it this weekend. I'm on the seventh repeat (I think the pattern calls for ten), and just started the second ball of Koigu. I'll probably work till I'm 1/4 of the way through the third ball and then start the edging. I think someone told me hers took 2.5 balls with the edging, but it never hurts to play it safe. Have a lovely weekend.

busy busy

Not a lot getting done, but am knitting away. I found a cute hat in itty bitty knits to do for a friend who's due next week and am working on another kid sweater for a different friends little girl. I'll post pics eventually. Will be visiting the 'rents in MD and if they upgraded from dial up, I'll be able to post. I'm brining a couple of UFOs to work on. FBS will be one of them. I'll have plenty of quiet time to tink the couple of rows that I need to tink and then I'll be able to make a little progress. Only got one taker on the Organyzalong - Moze. So she and I will be working hard - after Sukkot is over. I've started entering the info, but can't get it to upload onto the PDA. I need to contact the handybase people and ask what's up. Sure is a pain going through everything, but it's reminding me of yarn that I loved once and don't anymore and yarn that I loved and have hopes for. I've got a lot of knitting to do. catch ya later.

OrganyzAlong

I stole this idea from WendyB (doesn't look like she keeps a blog) at KR. I'd join over there but I'm not on KR too often anymore. The general idea is to go through The Stash and sort and organize. This can include other knitterly items. It can even include non-yarn stash - fiber, fabric and the like. It's a great way to stir creativity, remind us of projects we've had in mind or intended, and to cull the stash. Not that The Stash necessarily needs culling, but the first blush of love for some yarns may have faded and another fanatic hoarder fiber artist may be able to create something out of said yarn. Maybe even different categories for prizes! Any takers? Anyone know how to make a button?

oddities to see

knitting club promo If only I had a prom date... Oh Luke! Are you blogging this? Been to the library lately? Take a look at what's inside your head. This is just SOAP! Steak - it's what's for dinner. I've gotta get some sleep. 'night all.

heartsore

"Where were you?" "What were you doing?" These used to be questions that were easily answered by my parents' generation, "What were you doing? Where were you [when you heard Kennedy had been shot]? Now these questions have a meaning for me and my generation. They no longer refer to a distant past, but a much more recent and painful event in our own lives. One that we would prefer not to believe happened. One that in some ways was more like a movie than real life. An event that did not just make history, but changed the course of history. "Where were you?" "What were you doing?" Eventually my children are going to ask me these questions. How will I ever be able to convey the magnitude of shock, horror and grief? How can I possibly express my fear that this will happen again in their lifetimes? How can I reassure them once they know this can happen? I guess the next question is "What will I do?" For now, I hope and I pray, and, most of all, I remember. Where was I? What was I doing? I was 7 months pregnant. My first child was due in exactly 2 months. I was sick for most of my pregnancy and mornings were the worst. I had arranged with my boss that I come in later in the day - a little extra sleep seemed to help. I got up around 8:30 a.m. or so, (threw up a time or three) and got ready for work. It was about 9:45 when I got in the car and turned on the radio. The first thing I heard was that a plane had crashed into the pentagon. I remember my first thought was "Oh my God. It's another McVeigh." I called my husband, horrified. He knew. I asked why he hadn't called and he said he'd assumed I was listening. He told me about the WTC. I was so wrong. It was much worse than I'd first imagined. When I arrived at work, I was able to check the internet some. Pictures were slow in coming, and the newsites were slammed. A couple of people were able to grab the photos and e-mailed them around the office along with status reports they were coming across. Some of my colleagues were worried and afraid it would happen here. They wanted to go home. I remember telling someone who asked why I wasn't going home - our building was too short for us to be in danger. I know it sounds like I was being a smart ass, but I wasn't. It was just logical to me. I decided to stay at the office for a little longer after we were told we could go home. As long as I was at the office, I didn't have to deal with it. I didn't have to decide when to turn off the television - knowing I wouldn't be able to; T.V. wasn't available at the office. I don't remember being afraid for the baby. I worry some now, though. Too many have forgotten the anger and outrage. Too many are more interested in playing the blame game than in rooting out a pernicious evil. Too many are more interested in blaming America than in understanding that this type of hate has nothing to do with us as a people, our government's policies or our culture. It is simply hate with no explanation. Too many would prefer to use the attacks of September 11, 2001 for their own purposes, be they political or personal. Too many would prefer this country divided and in danger than united against the threat these people pose. What happened to United We Stand?

Marco!

Polo! Jessalu sent me a wonderful box of fibery, and sugary goodness that arrived on Monday. It was such a nice surprise to find a box at my door. Let's just build the anticipation, shall we? careful... careful... Almost revealed!! I feel like I've discovered China!! It's The Man, himself!

Toys for the boys! And sugar, too! Gotta love the gummi bears!

mmmmm... fiber.

Spunky Eclectic, a little bag with some lovely carmine and chartreus roving (some of my favorite shades together). The white fiber you see is some of the softest merino I've touched and some Kool Aid!! Last but not least, The Twister Sisters Sock book. woo hoo! dye and how to do it! yay!

The boys say, "Thank you, Miss Jessalu!"

Little Man says "I'm going to keep this safe!"

Thank you very much, Jessica. I love it and can't wait to get started. Next stop... dunno? Well, neither did the real Marco Polo! You'll see when it gets there.

Finally, a picture...

Here are a couple of shots of Little Man in his New Tweed Top Down Cardigan. In the second shot, you can see why I need to reknit the button band/collar. It's just too low a v-neck for a zipper. This post brought to you by...

Cornholio Productions, Inc. More Tee Pee for your Bunghole.

Brrrr...

Why is it that two of the coldest days of my life that I can remember were both in California? The first was 4th of July, 1996 in San Francisco. Hats and gloves, man. Hats and Gloves! I may have even had on long johns... The second was this day. February 1st or 2nd, 2006 in L.A. It was misty, wet, damp, and cold. I mean, really, really cold. Probably not above 60F. Not that bad on the global scale, but I was so sick with the flu that I spent the entire day shiverring. What do you mean there's no friggin' yarn??? It says "Knitting Factory!" The Force is strong in this one... hurry up and give her yarn before she breaks out the pointy sticks. Sursa II is going to be ripped back a little and reknit. I'm just about out of yarn and have about 8 inches or so to go. oh well. Something to do at the movies.

home and back to school

O.K. Catch up time. The last few posts were short little cheaters. He's the scoop on the rest of the trip and some more recent occurrences... The rest of our vacation inSt. Simon's was wonderful. I'd been skulking around the Fuzzy Mabel website for a while and since I was finally in town, I made it a point to find the shop. The owner is a lovely lady. The shop is pretty, well organized and had a great sale room. Yup, you read correctly. Room. ohboy! ohboy! ohboy! She really is having a great sale right now, too. Regia, Fiesta, and many others... So check it out on-line. I made it home with just a few goodies, including a Philospher's Wool kit, some red Regia sock yarn, some Isledyllic Dreams sock yarn (locally handpainted) in lovely shades and a skein of Mountain Colors Mohair in Northern Lights. Of course, I have yet to upload any pictures. (Surprised?) I highly recommend shopping there. Fuzzy Mabel was a highlight of my trip to St. Simon's Island. The beach was really nice. SSI is not shell collecting territory, but we found a live sand dollar and lots of little crabs kept coming up to us in the water. What was really cool was seeing the porpoises both in the estuary near Ft. Frederica and just off the shore by the King and Prince. I'd never seen wild porpoise before. It was very cool. One even did a flip. The boys were very excited. The first day of school (TODAY!) went off with only one hitch. I slept through the alarm. Whoops! Woke up at 10 till and rushed out the door faster than I ever have in my life. I had the kids eat in the car. Thank goodness for granola bars, bananas and Ovaltine. We were late, but it could have been worse. I could have had to carpool w/someone. After days and days of telling me "I'm too little to go to school" Little Man woke up and said "Yay! I get to go to school with big kids!" Of course, afterschool was full of "I'm too little to do" whatever it was we were discussing. Can't win 'em all. The boys both enjoyed their days. Stinkerton even had homework. Little Man did make it through his first day of school nice and dry. We found Power Ranger light up shoes for about $11 last night when we picked out Stinkerton's new shoes. Little Man can wear his Power Ranger shoes if, and only if, he stays clean and dry the day before. Given his obsession with all things Power Rangers and his great enjoyment of shoes that light up, I think we have a winning strategy here. I will also use his fancy schmancy new shoes as an incentive to get him to do other things I want him to do. Like, pick up his toys, get ready to go, etc... Whatever works, man. Whatever works. All night Knit Knight at TPG last Friday. The shop is two years old and celebrating with games and prizes and sales galore. The all night knit in was great. I got there a little after 9 p.m. and things were in full swing. We played "Let's make a deal" with knitting gadgets. and Knitting Trivia. I won the trivia and won an Offhand Designs knitting bag. Not that I really need another knitting bag... I am such a bag ho. I also learned a bit about personal grooming about which I had no clue. Well, I had a clue, just not the the reasoning behind said grooming choices. K, you are quite eloquent. Things pretty much finished up around 2 a.m. A good time was had by all. I've started getting the inventory actually entered. It took a while to figure out the format and screens I want. The better it's organized now, the easier it will be to search and/or filter later. I'm having a problem getting the software to sync with the PDA, though. The old test databases are running and syncing, just not the newest one. Very annoying. I'll get it input and then see what can be done. It's more important to get it all entered at this point than to get it to sync. I made progress on Something Chocolate, as well as screwed it up. The armholes are way, way too big, but we came to the general consensus last Friday that seaming up the arms holes a little will be o.k. If I were to work back and close the armholes to where the armholes would be the right size, the width of the back would be affected. Since the back is just right, I'm going to give this a shot and see how it goes. If it's awful, then I'll either re-knit or performsome kind of surgery. We pinned it and so far and things seem to be hanging all right under the arms. I also started a cute little Fiber Trends bag for the shop. (AC76 Gelato Bag) It's orange and fuzzy. I'm just about done with the body and it's moving along quite smoothly. Since this is being felted, I probably should have been knitting continental.... whoopsie. next time. My efforts at spinning have been thwarted by the misbehaving DVD. Found this link via Peaches and Purls. It's Dew on the Kudzu. Check 'em both out, y'all.

been there did that... and might like to do

Stole this from AmyDe. Life's to do list - Completed items are bolded Items in Pink are things I think I'd want to do. 01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said 'I love you' and meant it 09. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby's diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 22. Watched a meteor shower 23. Gotten drunk on champagne 24. Given more than you can afford to charity 25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 27. Had a food fight 28. Bet on a winning horse 29. Asked out a stranger 30. Had a snowball fight 31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 32. Held a lamb 33. Seen an eclipse 34. Ridden a roller coaster 35. Hit a home run 36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking 37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment 39. Had two hard drives for your computer 40. Visited all 10 provinces or all 50 states 41. Taken care of someone who was drunk 42. Had amazing friends - and I thank God every day for them. 43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 44. Watched wild whales - got to watch porpoise last week. 45. Stolen a sign 46. Backpacked in Europe 47. Taken a road-trip 48. Gone rock climbing 49. Midnight walk on the beach 50. Gone sky diving 51. Visited Ireland 52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love 53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them 54. Visited Japan 55. Milked a cow 56. Alphabetized your cds 57. Pretended to be a superhero 58. Sung karaoke 59. Lounged around in bed all day 60. Posed nude in front of strangers - no photos, but art classes. 61. Gone scuba diving 62. Kissed in the rain 63. Played in the mud 64. Played in the rain 65. Gone to a drive-in theater 66. Visited the Great Wall of China 67. Started a business 68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken 69. Toured ancient sites 70. Taken a martial arts class 71. Played D&D for 6 hours straight 72. Gotten married 73. Been in a movie 74. Crashed a party 75. Gotten divorced 76. Gone without food for 5 days 77. Made cookies from scratch 78. Won first prize in a costume contest 79. Ridden a gondola in Venice --does Vegas count?? 80. Gotten a tattoo 81. Rafted the Snake Dead River 82. Been on television news programs as an "expert" 83. Got flowers for no reason 84. Performed on stage 85. Been to Las Vegas 86. Recorded music 87. Eaten shark 88. Had a one-night stand 89. Gone to Thailand 90. Bought a house 91. Been in a combat zone 92. Buried one of your parents 93. Been on a cruise ship 94. Spoken more than one language fluently 95. Performed in aisles at Rocky Horror 96. Raised children. 97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 98. Created and named your own constellation of stars 99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery 104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived 105. Wrote articles for a large publication 106. Lost over 100 pounds 107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 108. Piloted an airplane 109. Petted a stingray 110. Broken someone's heart 111. Helped an animal give birth 112. Won money on a T.V. game show -- I would so win on the Price is Right. 113. Broken a bone 114. Gone on an African photo safari 115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced 116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol -HooRah! 117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 118. Ridden a horse 119. Had major surgery 120. Had a snake as a pet 121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon - been to the edge and felt very small. 122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours 123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 124. Visited all 7 continents 125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days - with Daddy when I was 11 or so. hated it. 126. Eaten kangaroo meat - No, but I've had Dromedary. 127. Eaten sushi 128. Had your picture in the newspaper 129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about 130. Gone back to school 131. Parasailed 132. Petted a cockroach 133. Eaten fried green tomatoes 134. Read The Iliad 135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read 136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 137. Skipped all your school reunions - they've only had one so far, don't think I'll do the next one either. 138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 139. Been elected to public office 140. Written your own computer language 141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream 142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 143. Built your own PC from parts 144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you 145. Had a booth at a street fair 146: Dyed your hair 147: Been a DJ 148: Shaved your head 149: Caused a car accident 150: Saved someone's life Followed the calling of my heart and converted to Judaism. Prayed at the Western Wall. Had a massage on a Malaysian beach. Swam in the Indian Ocean. Walked past the open window. __________ I wonder what percentage of people actually admit to No. 88?

Flip Floppin' Part II

Look here to see the genius that is Drew.

vacation

Ahhhh. two days on the beach down and four to go. Actually just two more, most likely. St. Simon's is lovely. the condo we rented is just as nice as expected. We're planning on one day in Savannah to take a lookey-loo. So far, only one small sunburn on me in a spot I deliberately didn't put sunblock on. a small burn on a missed spot on the Progenitor's back and the beginnings on pinkness on Little Man's deltoids. So far, all is well. Progenitor has some work to do tomorrow morning, so I'll running off with the boys for a bit. Found a yarn shop via The Force. St. Simon's Stitchery. Nice lady, but I'd've liked it better had I been greeted when I came in and not ten minutes later. I bought a needle I need for the Nebraska Top Down Tee. I picked it up again since it's good car knitting, but the bamboo needle I put in it is a bit too pointy for the yarn. Nebraska is a little splitty and with that needle, I have to look at what I'm doing - not good for in the car. The new turbo will solve that. This project was one I frogged last February. I took it back to just before the wonky (oh!-aren't-I-so-smart) increases under the arms, so now it's just a matter of knitting in circles for hours on end. I started Something Chocolate, but goofed in the initial inreases so I'll rip it back and restart it. I'm only a couple of inches in so no biggy. Sure is nice to be out of the knitting rut and doing some meaningful stitching. stitch at you later.

Flip Floppin'

And no, I'm not talking about a certain senator from Massachusetts. I'm talking about these ever so casual shoes. Those wonderul minimalist sandals that are meant to protect the sole of the foot from hot sand or pavement. The String Bikini for the foot. When I was at the office a couple of weeks ago (and again this week), I noticed a lot of people wearing flip flop sandals or shoes (and I use that term loosely) that were pretty much only a sole and a couple of strings to keep it on the foot. Am I the only person who finds this to be totally inappropriate in a professional setting? If one wouldn't wear a dress that only covers 10% of the body to the office, why wear a shoe that only covers 10% of the foot? It's not like the people you work with want to see your funky, ugly toes. I mean really, if your foot isn't at least 45% covered (and slacks can play a part in the coverage), then the shoe should stay at home. It's one thing to wear a slingy-thongy shoe/sandal to a party, even a relatively formal one, if the shoe is dressy enough for the outfit, but flip flops? Oh, and speaking of toes, if the toes or heels are hanging off the shoe... the shoe doesn't freakin' fit! Just get over the fact that you have size 9 feet and quit buying size 7 shoes - I don't care how cute they are or what a good bargain they are. Trust me, stupid is always more noticeable than cute. Another thing, we humans no longer have to claw our way up trees to avoid predators. Clip your toe nails to a normal length - and by normal I don't mean match the excessively long, can't-dial-a-phone-without-using-a-pencil fingernails. If you can't wear your closed toe shoes because your toenails add two sizes, then cut your freakin' nails. That being said, I will freely admit to being pretty conservative when it comes to clothes - notwithstanding my orange argyle sneakers. The swatching for teh corset in the PLymouth Bamboo hasn't worked out. While lovely, the yarn has no memory - like silk. So once washed, the yarn is flat, but with a lovely drape. Back to the drawing board. I'm considering the purple Rowan Calmer I have - I really want to make this in purple Sebasiancat has had the run of the house while Troublecat has been locked up. one incident of spraying on the shelves. That's it. I am starting to think that they just can't live together.

Too tired to rant, today.

I finished the EZ BSJ. (Hey, D&G, if you could please send me a pic? I forgot to take one.) I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. The Plymouth Dreambaby DK knits up nicely. I'd use it again if I had a baby gift for which I didn't already have yarn and didn't want to spend much money on. It only took 1.5 balls. I needed to keep careful notes on where I was in the pattern. EZ was just brilliant and obvoiusly could do The Math in her head. Let's just say that I am not so gifted. Having a sheet with all the stitch counts really helped. I don't think I'd make another one of these for that reason. It's easy, but you really need to know where you are. Unless, you're AmyDe and can do The Math in your head. I picked up Daddy's Big Mexico socks again. I still need to go back to sock one and rework the toe to the appropriate length, but sock two is coming along just fine. Good carpool knitting. Sursa II is well on her way. I've started the second ball and the decreases. The decreases would probably not look quite so wonky if I actually followed the directions and did a decrease on every row rather than a double decrease on the knit rows. hmmm... I kind of like how it looks though and am considering trying to get the other side to look the same (on my next one - it is good movie knitting) even though it's the increase side. I started swatching for Annie Modessit's Ribbed Corset. I'm using (or planning to use, we'll see how the swatch turns out) Plymouth's Royal Bamboo in a lovely grape shade with a corresponding variegated yarn. I really wanted to do the whole think in either the leaf or the pumpking shade, but everyone - and I mean everyone in the shop that night- said not to. It's such a shame when your favorite colors are the ones that flatter the least. At the moment I'm looking forward to getting started on this, but I'm being a good girl and waiting for my swatch to dry. I'll unpin Unikat tomorrow and start seaming while I wait for said swatch to dry. I bought Big Girl Knits. I recommend this book to anyone of any size. The garment construction information alone is wonderful. And really, how many of us knitters has never needed to alter a pattern to accommodate one feature or another? Between this and What Not to Wear (the UK version) I'll finally start adding a little variety to the wardrobe. Three Dog Knit finally had its last howl. They are officially closed. I'm sorry to see them gone. The store was pretty, and the folks nice, but they only carried KFI yarns for the most part. I did very well at the 50% off sale. I really do need to take some pictures. I picked up some Noro Iro, a skein of Kochoran, a little Cash Iroha and a bunch of Debbie Bliss cashmerino in the aran and baby weights. I think I know what I want to do with the Iro and I need to start a couple of the baby projects soon. Little Man is starting the transformation from diaper wearer to Pantless Wonder. He's been going on and on about Power Rangers (ugh!) for a few months now, so we've been telling him how Power Rangers don't use diapers, they use the toilet. I broke down and bought Power Rangers underwear and he's doing pretty well with it. (And before you ask, yes they're still making the show and no, I have no idea how he even knows about Power Rangers. It must have been through a kid at the preschool.) M&Ms are helping too. He isists on watching Shrek while running around pantless. I'm fairly certain that when he's older he'll hear Smash Mouth and need to find the nearest bathroom. Stinkerton is already excited about school starting again. He's been talking about it for a week or so now. MIL's eye surgery went swimmingly! No more macular hole! Doctors still have no idea what's wrong with Daddy and are lightly considering the problem to be Metabolic Encephalopathy. Mother has made it clear that she will tolerate (not her words, but most certainly her attitude) a visit from me - she had sister there twice in a month. If I didn't want to lay eyes on Daddy myself, I wouldn't bother at all. I always feel like such an inconvenience when I go up there - even though she doesn't drive and I help her get her special trips and errands done. Part of the problem is that I recognize that I am My Mother's Daughter. I soooo want to slip the woman some Xanax. Grossly, unethical and dangerous and I'd never, ever do that to anyone... but oh! how tempting. To see my mother not anxious for once in my life... Sebastian cat has been locked up in the guest bath for a few weeks now. We let him out tonight and will see how things go. If this doesn't work, I really don't like the alternatives: 1. make him an outdoor cat (he's declawed and we have foxes & hawks in our neighborhood), or 2. euthanize. Not an easy decision and one we need to settle soon. I'll be working next week and the following week we will have our first real family vacation. Nothing work related. No side trips to visit relatives just b/c we happen to be in the same region of the country. Just us, the kids, and MIL at the beach. Buy stock in sunscreen!

Yarn Aboard!

This just looks like so much fun. I've been waiting and waiting for the sign ups to happen and now I'm all signed up! I've got to get a box together. I'm not sure where I am on the list, so I need to have it ready. Amanda, you are the best for setting this up. Next time in New Orleans, I've got to meet you. Not much else going on. I still haven't uploaded the pics, (bad me! bad me!) but I did get all the CD's from Walmart. It was only about $5 or so per roll of film to be put on CD. Much easier than scanning in the pictures. Progress has been made as far as pictures go - it usually takes me a year to get film developed. I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket for the shop in the Plymouth Dreambaby DK. I liked it, but I'm not sure I'm going to do this again. Too much counting. I was constantly referring to my cheat sheet to make sure I hadn't missed any of the increases and decreases. Man, EZ was a genius! How she ever worked this out, I'll never understand. I did start a chevron scarf in Kertzer's Ovation and Irise for the other shop - The Taming of the Ewe opening in Jacksonville Alabama in September. These two yarns are samples I picked up at TNNA last month. I like the Ovation very much. It's so close to crack (Kid Silk Haze) that it could be called methadone. Rowan's KSH retails $12-14/25g ball and the Ovation is around $9/20g ball. So it would defintely be a great substitution. I'm really enjoying working with it in all it's silky, mohairy goodness. I'm working 6 rows Ovation and then 4 rows Ovation/Irise together. I can't carry the Irise up the sides w/o ruining the look of the scarf, so there will be ends and ends and ends to weave in. I would have carried the two yarns together the whole time, but I have twice as much Ovation as Irise. This will be quite pretty, I think, once it's blocked. Kertzer makes a great bamboo needle, by the way. The nicest I've found, except for the cable. Addi will always be my favorite b/c of the cables. Three Dog Knits is still open for all you Noro Hos. I made out pretty well and need to go back for more. I did pick up some DB Cashmerino Aran in a perfect green for Stinkerton and the perfect blue for Little Man. I also picked up some DB Alpaca Silk dk in a rich (not quite navy, but not royal) blue to make the Somewhat Cowl - someday, eventually. My eyes are bigger than my needles. Oh, I started Sursa II in the Noro Transitions while we were at the movies Saturday. I'm not sure it's going to be quite enough yarn and I may have to pick up another skein at 3DK next Saturday. This project really is excellent movie knitting. I don't think I had to look at what I was doing more than a few times. We saw Pirates of the Carribbean. Apropos that I started Sursa II during this movie. I started Sursa I durring Kingdom of Heaven (the other Orlando Bloom movie). Pirates was formulaic, but exactly what I expected. Fun, fun and more fun. Johnny Depp (swoon) as a pirate running around all dainty-like is just hysterical, especially when compared to how all the other ManlyMen move. I heard that Johnny Depp (swoon) based his character's movements on Keith Richards (ick). All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Pirates and will be very happy when the third movie comes out. (Of course, all this talk of pirates has me thinking of Mickey Mantle - "she smelled just like an angel should smell"- still makes me chuckle. ) SebastianCat seems to be doing a little better. Progenitor caught him spraying the last time we let him out and immediately locked him the utility room. That was two weeks ago. We just let him out yesterday and so far so good. TorubleCat is most displeased. Little Man's latest thing (aside from refusing to use the toilet) is to tell me that he loves everyone but me. "I don't like you." When I ask why, he tells me "because I'm big now." (sigh) And he not even a teenager yet! He really hurt Stinkerton's feelings this evening when he said that he didn't like Stinkerton, either. Poor Stinkerton. He heard this and immediately started crying. I had to convince Stinkerton that Little Man didn't really mean it and then convince Little Man that he does love Stinkerton. And he still doesn't like me. He goes through the whole list of people he loves and I'm not even listed after the cats. I always knew he'd be a heartbreaker. The Unikat Sweater is still pinned to the blocking board. I really do need to seam that puppy and get the collar done. FBS is still untouched. Inventory is not even started b/c I haven't had time to learn the software and get it sync'd with the PDA. Time Time Time. Where did all the time go?

update

BSJ is not yet complete. I have just a few more rows and it will be done. oh yes... it will be done. Am still undecided as to what to start next. FBS still awaits... I"m starting to wonder if she's meant to be a "great unfinishable." So many projects are calling to me. I think I need idiot knitting, and soon. Either a blanket to work on durring movies or I'll start on Sursa II. The yarn is just sitting in the cabinet waiting to be knit up. And then there's the alpaca I got at market that should be enough for a sweater for Stinkerton - or a great shawl! I did get the yarn I want to make the corset top and I'm looking forward to starting that. It's a complicated knit though, so I'm going to wait to start after the kids are in camp for the mornings. Pictures pictures. who's (whose??) got the pictures? WalMart does! I had them just make CD's of all the film and disposable cameras and I'll get them today. Update on the cat: we are waiting to hear the test results from the vet. In the meantime, we've let him out of the utility room (TroubleCat is most displeased) and so far (keeping my fingers crossed) he hasn't peed on anything. I asked Katey and Laurie re: cat rescues in the area and got some good leads. We may end up listing him on a couple of sites depending on what the vet tells us later this week. AmyD, what game were you all playing? I found something with a Count of Monte Cristo lookin' dude (actually he looked more like the guy on the Sandeman port) and am now confused as to what would be the best game to start with.

happy day (for everyone but my cat)

Everyone go over to Charisse and see her wonderful news!! Hurray Hurray!! I got a little knitting done on the EZ jacket. I'm just about done with it. It's an interesting knit but I had trouble at first with the double decreases and the marked stitch. Once I made it to the increases I was in much better shape. I am at the final 12 ridges and then I just need to seam it up. Nothing else to report knit wise. Not sure what's next to deal with. I want to finish the FBS. I've been hoping for some quiet time to deal with it and haven't been able to make any. Once I get back on track with it, it should move quickly. It really was progressing nicely till I screwed it up. I still want to do Something Red in the brown cotton (Blue Sky Alpacas), but I also like the cotton sweater in Knitty - great lines, hideous colors. I'm thinking something tasteful (unlike the original) a solid pale yellow, with maybe a little contrasting trim. I'm not a fan of that designer's work (remember the one skein my ass wonder?) , but this one might be nice. About the cat... Sebastian is most likely going to be put down. For a long time TroubleCat was sick. She had nasty SPIKEY bladderstones and she was peeing all over the place. I blame how long it lasted on my previous vet who refused to sedate her (put her in the happy box) in order to do a proper ultrasound and kept insisting that it was a behavioral problem. New vet did the right thing and she is now my cats' vet. Once that was done, the stones were taken out last fall and she's been fine since. However, b/c it went on so long Sebastian decided to start spraying in response to TroubleCat. At first it was just where she was peeing, but since she recovered he's been at some particular spots. We've tried everything! Sticky tape, aluminum foil, medication, extra litter boxes, you name it. Lately, and this really is the last straw, he's been following the kids' activities and peeing on what they are playing with. Not their toys...yet. But he did get one of Little Man's special blankets and their Bear Rug. Yesterday, I found where he peed on all the board games (adult) which the kids like to pull out to play with the pieces. This was done in the last couple days and all the games were ruined, and there is now a spot on the hardwoods that I have to figure out how to get the stain out of. (I hear peroxide is best.) We knew he hated the kids, but this is going too far.** He's now locked up in the basement utility room. (Not unexpectedly, he started spraying in there now, too.) Progenitor had enough of all this last summer and wanted to put them both down, but I pleaded and he let me have the problem more thoroughly investigated. He forgave TroubleCat when it turned out to be stones and is willing to look into a medical reason for the problem before making the final decision. I called the vet today and will take him in one more time to see if it's treatable. If it is, he gets treated and hopefully the saga will end. Whether or not he gets treatment will depend on what the treatment is/costs. We spent over $700 on this cat two summers ago and Progenitor is hesitant to do so again; I can see his point. The vet did say that this sounds like a set in behavior and if there is no medical cause, then she can understand euthanizing - especially since we have kids. She was very understanding and said she would feel better checking him out first. We've investigated cat rescue, but really believe that burdening them with him isn't fair since the likelihood of him being placed is low - not disclosing what's going on with him would be grossly unethical. Cat rescue is burdened enough as it is. Given all his other problems he's miserable enough that killing him (let's just dispense with the euphemisms) is a mercy - at least that's what I tell myself. I feel bad about it, but not as bad as if (a) one of the boys got sick b/c of it or (b) he has to live locked up in the utility room for the rest of his life. **They boys are at least smart enough to get me when they notice it and not play with what they find. Oh well, that's the end for today. BTW: what the heck are meeples?

What happened...

to all this extra time I was going to have??? Oh yeah. Little Man has flat refused to toilet train and can't go to camp for 2 weeks. Therefore, I get no time off to work out or knit. Lots to report on TNNA and I have no idea where to begin. It was wonderful and overwhelming and I learned so much about the back end of the retail business. How things really work with reps, etc. Met a lot of owners of different yarn companies, both big and small and I didn't find a single one I didn't like. Lots of eye candy - and I'm not just referring to the yarn. The owners of one Turkish yarn company were particularly good to look at. Talk about Turkish Delight! I'll get around to putting up links of the places I liked best in the next week or so. I have to go through all my notes and such. I did get lots of yarn to test knit, so I'll be doing lots of swatching or one skein projects over the next few weeks. Good thing I got that book, huh? Made a little progress on the Baby Surprise Jacket for the shop. I like the yarn I'm using (not the sock yarn any longer) it's some dk weight yarn (plymouth dream baby?) Amazingly soft and easy to knit with. Made a mistake and had to rip a bit today, but I threaded a line first so the stitches will be easy to pick up. Not much to report on Daddy. Doctors still don't know what's going on. Each of the specialists keep coming back and saying, well it isn't (whatever falls under their specialty). The main doctor put him in the hospital to coordinate tests and such in hopes of speeding up the process of making a diagnosis. Otherwise, there would have been a month or so between all the different appointments with the specialists. Don't you just wish there really is a guy like House? Progenitor is very busy - lots of travel for speaking engagements lately, but that's done for a little while. The trips are bringing in business, so I can't complain too much. My MIL has officially moved up the street and Thank GOD she's here! Stinkerton scratched his eye with a straw yesterday morning and it was so helpful to just call her and have her look after Little Man while I took One Eye Stinkerton to the doctor. (It was a minor scratch and Stinkerton was really good about not scratching his eye b/c he didn't want to be a pirate - so no patch was required. Arrrrr.) Little Man is doing his best to make everything difficult lately and it was such a relief to be able to focus on Stinkerton. He'd just had his 5 year old shots last week and really didn't want to be at the doctor's office - even though I'd promised him there would be not shots. More later, and there just may be some knitting involved!

fo's that need pictures and other stuff

Little Man's New Tweed Cardigan (finished late last Fall, but never posted b/c Little Man refused to wear it). I need to remove the zipper and put in a regular button band. The V-neck is just too deep to really have this look the way I envisioned. I learned a lot about putting in a zipper, though, and would like to try that again. Sursa - finished mid-January. The Force is strong in her and I think I'd like to make another in the Noro Transitions I have with the Carmine Cash Iroha. Since there's no picture, I'll explain... Remember the ill fated trip to CA last February? When we were in L.A. I got to have my picture taken with Darth Vader and one of his Storm Troopers and I happened to be there on the rainiest coldest day EVER running a fever with chills and was wearing Sursa in a futile attempt to feel warm. Stinkerton's Wavy Scarf - finished in early January. Of course, Little Man wants one, too. It's a good thing I have half a hank of this yarn left. I was going to do the matching hat, but they like to match. Unikat Blocking and soon to be stitched up. In other news, I have started a baby surprise jacket for the shop. It's being done in pink fortissima colori sock yarn on size 4 needles at a gauge of 6 stitches to the inch. Not sure I like working on size 4's but will consider it practice for the fair isle I'd like to do someday - someday not soon. I'm using Addis and am hoping they don't make my hands hurt this time around. I received an e-mail from Mother today re: Daddy. "MRI results came back and no tumor and no recent stroke. Dr also rulled out Parkinson's. More tests are scheduled but they are for things we are pretty sure he does not have. Do the test anyway just in case." WHAT THE FUCK??!! Turns out that they are just running tests b/c he's feeling really bad lately. He has sarcodosis and he falls in the small percentage of people for whom it's a chronic condition. There is no excuse for Mother sending out an e-mail with no explanation. My first thought was "OMG what happended? Is he in the hospital? Do I need to go up there?" I'm really pissed at her for sending this out and scaring me and my sister like that. Of course, it also doesn't help that she doesn't ask the doctors any questions. My MIL has been here since the 17th. The Progenitor went to Korea to speak to their bar assocation regarding intellectual property law. He said it was the hardest speech he's ever done b/c of working with a translator. So, MIL has been here to help me. I took this week off and boy, I've worked hard. I went through 2 tanks of gas (it's usally only one every week/week and a half. $50 fill-ups suck. Also, while here she signed the lease on her new place. It's about 10 minutes up the road. And, we went to a retinal specialist to have the hole in her retina looked at. That surgery will be no fun, but as they found the very beginnings of a second one in her other eye, the surgery is pretty much mandatory if she wants to keep her sight. The holes were both caught early enough that the succes rate is excellent. Good news. I may have missed MDS&W, but I get to go to TNNA for the trade show. A friend, the one who gave me this last December, is opening a yarn shop and asked me to tag along. ohboyohboyohboyohboy!! I'm so looking forward to this. It will be fun to see some of the behind the scenes work of owning a yarn shop w/o out actually owning one. I'll get to take some classes, too. The drop spindle class is the one I'm most I'm most interested in. Not that I'm going to take up spinning, but I've been wanting to try it w/o a big investment in a spindle and roving. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and don't forget to keep our fallen heroes in mind. It is those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service for our country, and their brothers and sisters in arms, who keep us safe.

Adam Sandler he ain't

He's much cuter: Opera Boy I would have more pics of the actual opera with all the kids in their costumes, but I can't figure out how to blur out just their faces. (The children not being mine, I don't feel right putting their faces online.) My photo software, like my camera, is rather limited and I refuse to spend money upgrading until we invest in a new computer. (This one actually is just fine despite being four years old, but The Progenitor wants a faster one.) I'm also going to insist on a really, really big monitor. All the squinting is making the scowl line between my brows botox worthy.

Picture Fest II - The Acquisition

No one expects the Spanish Acquisition! The one closest to The Progenitor's elbow isn't quite what I was expecting, but it was on sale and I know I'll find a use for it -- and just so you know that I didn't take the pics outside in the dark... (My camera's so old that when you turn off the flash, you lose the stability control.) I happento have quite a bit of Handpaintedyarn.com yarn. Including what's here, I think it's about 20-22 skeins. 10 of which are in the treintaytres colorway. And oh, my inconstant heart... I also have some of this coming my way. This is some Jaeger Wool Stretch that Janette has in her e-bay store. The description is intriguing and I figured I'll give it a whirl for some fun. If I decide to make Hopeful, this might work. Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere $47 for 10 (incl. shipping!) This might do for Hhopeful as well, and I wouldn't have the shrinkage issue. Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton in Dark Brown $18.71 (inlc. shipping) for skeins. And then, I've heard that my All-Time Favorite Yarn Shop in All the World is going tohave a grand re-opening sale (well, it's a sale after the Flood of '06 and subsequent remodel). So it's especially good that I got all this yarn they don't carry at such a steal, hmmmm? I heard rumors that next week is the week, and well! what a coincidence? I'm out of the office next week! And then, my Second Favorite Yarn Shop in All Atlanta (First Favorite Yarn Shop in All the World also holding fast in as First Favorite Yarn Shop in All Atlanta) is moving and she's having a moving sale. Oh my poor husband. My poor poor husband. Oh My! I've got to get my inventory up and running. I've got to de-stash!

Picture Fest

I finished Daddy's Big Print socks with the brown short row heels and toes. I really like the short row heels. And started the second pair with the slip stitch heel in Big Mexico. These are still a little long. I need to rip back again. (Many thanks to Progenitor for modeling and for repeated fittings as things progressed.) In both cases, I feel I really need to work on the whole "hole" thing. There are small holes near the heel gussets. I think this is fairly common with beginning sockers but I'm not sure if anything other than practice will change it. I do pull the yarn pretty tightly and twist the stitch. Hints, anyone? Jo Ann Confetti scarf. Charisse gave me this yarn and I like it. It's fairly soft on the skein, but I can never tell if a boucle will still be soft once knitted up. This is soft knitted up - surprisingly so. I'm enjoying working this yarn and this will be a boa scarf for my neice. Other than that, I really haven't been knitting much. Time has been limited and I've been incredibly busy at home. Not so much at work though, but I really can't get away with knitting at my desk. I've been able to tink a few stitches at a time on the Flower Basket Shawl - literally, a few stitches. And of course, now that I'm looking for it, my photocopy of the pattern and my notes are missing. So I've had to go back and re-do all the math for my chart of how many stitches are on each row. Once I've tinked back a bit, I'll find my place, but oh! what a pain. I know that as soon as I've started up in earnest again, that piece of paper will turn up.

since it was found

I will have pics up tonight if I have time to take the pics and get online. Stinkerton's class performed a little opera this morning. It was so sweet it made my teeth hurt. There will be pics of that, too. I'm having trouble grafting the toe on the first of the Big Mexico socks for Daddy. I'll have to make some quiet time tomorrow. Later.

Little D (or, I finally found the camera)

Little D is this duck that Stinkerton's class takes care of. (No, not a real duck.) Anyway, when The Duck comes home with the kid, you're supposed to do stuff with The Duck, take picures of the family doing stuff with The Duck and write about it in this big notebook. Oh Joy of joys. I have to do stuff on the weekend that doesn't involve lazing around on the couch and knitting and then I have to document it all. (HOMEWORK!?!?) I feel like it's a scrapbook. I'm so not a scrapper, and I feel like we're gonna be graded on it. Or at least judged by all the other parents. You know, the overacheivers who actually read the thing with their kids. Stinkerton was given The Duck last Friday to take home. Stinkerton didn't bother to tell us and Little D ends up left in Progenitor's car. We don't drive that car on the weekends, so we didn't notice it til today when Progenitor picked up Stinkerton from the sitter. We had to have a little chat with Stinkerton about responsibility and taking care of what we are given. (Thank goodness it was a toy and not a hamster!) I made him cry when I pointed out that last weekend was his last weekend with The Duck and he wouldn't get another turn. I don't feel guilty in the least. Some lessons are hard learned. What kills me is that last weekend would have been great for Duck related activities. It was gorgeous out. We could have gone to the botanical gardens, or just played at the local park and gone to the bookstore. There was an airshow and the house kept getting buzzed (well, not quite, but they were flying pretty low.) We all got haircuts. Monday, the boys had their first dental appointments. That would have been great for the book! So I had to spend tonight doing this "homework" with Stinkerton. I did get some cute pictures, though and the kids had fun playing outside. Stinkerton's sock to be. It must be very difficult to knit with wings - especially on DPNs. Stinkerton with iris cut from the garden for Little D to take to the teachers. I started another sock and have begun tinking on FBS. I wasn't paying attention and now the foot of the sock is too long. I need to rip an inch or so back and then I get to start the toe. Recent purchases will be in my next post. Toodles!

For your knitting consideration...

http://www.strangebuttrewe.com/squidhat.htm I think it would be really cute felted... Squid-along anyone?

Flash your stash

Yup. I totally missed it. I didn't think much about it actually - except about the size of my stash. And then I saw this while reading Amanda's page last week.    Not that I feel particularly guilty about my stash, but I do need to knit some of it down before purchasing much more. (I'll admit to having a hoarder gene. On top of all the other trauma of my childhood... Thanks, Mother!) That being said. I've been having fun at handpaintedyarn.com. Man, I love their yarn. And I have sooooo been waiting for this colorway again.    I usually only see this color on e-bay and it typically goes for a fairly high price. I think this is enough to make the Yarn Girls sweatshirt I've been oggling. They use manos, and this is pretty close, but softer. I'm still setting up the database to inventory all the yarn so inventory is nowhere near complete. I'm liking HandyBase for this project. If I can just figure out how to make links to photos, I'll be a truly happy camper. I'm cheating on the pictures, I know. But, the freakin' camera is missing again! I really need to get a new one. Maybe for Mother's Day? I'll have to start hinting since the Progenitor doesn't read this.

indecision

As it turns out, I misread the yarn requirements and I do not have enough of the MF 1824 cotton in any color to make Something Red. grrr... Something Red will just have to wait till I set up my database for the yarn inventory and can tell what I have. I have tons and tons of worsted, so it's a matter of making up my mind on which one I want to use. My MIL is moving up here!!! Yay!!! I'm so excited. I had a very close relationship with my grandparents and I really want the boys to have the same. Her relationship with the boys is already close despite her living in Florida, and I love seeing how much they all enjoy eachother. And now she'll be just up the road. hurray! Now, having lived in Florida for nearly 40 years, she's going to need some warm woolies. Hey, whaddya know? Another reason to knit. Bonnie loves my DB Plum sweater (my green Cashermerino Superchunky disaster from last year) so I broke down and bought some in blue to make one for her. I don't like the yarn, but I'll make this in a slightly tighter gauge and see if it turns out better. That's a quick knit, so I can wait till August to get it started. Daddy's sock is almost done. I worked on it most of Saturday and Sunday and am at the toe. The short row toe on the first sock worked well. Since the toe is plain brown, I used a strand of the green portion of the yarn to graft the seam. I like the little stripe it made. I do still want to try 2 socks on 2 circs, but that project can wait a little bit. In the meantime, I'm going to continue the sock theme for my new knitting technique a month plan. But what to do? Toe up? Next on the WIP list: FBS. She's been in time out long enough. It's time to fix her and finish her up. It's really just a matter of tinking back a few rows to get past the mistake and move on. I just need time and quiet to do it. I also think I'm going to take out the zipper in Little Man's cardigan. I know I haven't posted a pic yet, but believe me, it's just not working. The V is too deep and upon further review the collar is just not to my taste. I have plenty of yarn left, so it won't be a problem going back and attaching a proper button band. It's just a matter of making the time.

It made me sick to do it...

But it's done. I gave my notice today. I meant to do it Monday, but had a massive sinus infection - put me to bed! Tuesday I was only in for two hours and had two big priority items to get ready for filing with the PTO and there was no time. Everyone was very understanding. Both of my bosses and the floor supervisor (we take up about 14 floors in our building so HR designates local supervisors to help keep an eye on things) said that I had my priorities in the right place. They're disappointed, of course, but supportive of the decision. I asked them not to say anything beyond HR till we settled on a departure date. I'm thinking mid-May, but would like to help them till they find a replacement. There are some quirky procedures (that I developed to make the job easier) specific to my bosses that need to be shown to someone by someone who has actually done the work. I'm both relieved and disappointed. I'll be free for the kids and to do more to household-y type stuff. Besides, it means a dent in the stash - and photos for you guys. I'm making progress on Daddy's sock. I have a little gap at the gusset on one side, but I know what my mistake was so I shouldn't repeat it on the second sock. I'll be able to close up the little gap easily enough once I've finished the toe. I like the short row heel so far. Let's see how the short row toe goes. Thanks for all the support.

the MF problem

We use a lot of abbreviations and acronyms at work. You wouldn't believe how many. It's almost like we speaking in code sometimes. I tend to use them all the time as a result. I mean, hey! I know what they are, right? So, of course, everyone else should know! (insert a big grin and a wink here) But it is an extremely unfortunate acronym for Mission Falls isn't it? Oh, and by the way, I don't have enough wintergreen so I'll be using lemongrass or maize instead if I use the MF Cotton at all. I think I have enough of that color. And then they're the rest of the stash to consider. I could make a long sleeve one out of all that dark green Cash Iroha I got so cheap a while back. But I want a spring/summer sweater. Speaking of sweaters, Unikat is still waiting for seaming and a neck line. But with an 80 degree day today, it's languishing for a bit. Daddy's sock is coming right along though. I didn't have time to work on them last night, but will tonight. There's no knit night b/c of Passover, but I'll be knitting anyway. Please check out Charisse's Tempting and let her know how lovely it is. Amy, get more pics of your WIPs up already! And the sewer adventure with Lisa is hysterical. The lack of pictures is brought to you ny the letters W, O, R and K.

heel

I’ve worked the heel in the brown yarn and am fairly well satisfied with the process if not the result. I have a few open spots that I don't like so I shall rip, rip, rip again. The heel cup is a little shallow, but I think it will do. I may need to either double the yarn I'm using or add reinforcing thread. Not sure which to do, but Daddy's rough on socks so I need to do something. My next pair of socks for Daddy will have the regular slip stitch heel flap and he can tell me which one he likes better. In other news, I have yet to announce my decision at work. Part of it is that I feel immensely guilty for leaving. They’ve gotten all used to me and I’m doing a pretty good job (no complaints on their end that I’m aware of) and here I am ready to go after only 7 months. I do feel bad about it, but the mother-guilt is certainly outweighing work-guilt. I’m dreading it, but it must be done. Maybe next week? Definitely before Secretaries’ Day. Waiting till after would be reprehensible. On a very happy note, Little Man was accepted to the same school as Stinkerton so I won't have to do the two school thing after this year ends!! woo hoo!!! I have decided I need to do Something Red, by Wendy of Knit and Tonic. I think I have enough MF Cotton to do this in a nice wintergreen. If not, I'm sure there's something else in one of those closets I can use. But... I can't start till I've completed my inventory. Of course, to do inventory properly, I need to get the software I want. So, off to buy some software!

sad note...

A friend of mine is going through a rough time with her mom (health) and while I don't fully understand where she is right now b/c I haven't been in her position, my heart hurts for her. She needs some comforting thoughts sent her way, so if you have a few minutes and remember, could you please send some? Her name's Laurie.

intarsia in the round

Nope, not a new skill, folks. That was my big knitting accident this week. I know it’s possible; I’ve seen an article on it. But that was a couple of years ago before I’d really had a grasp of intarsia and I couldn’t really get my head around the concept. Still can't get my head around it.

Nope no new skills here. I tried to work the slip stitch heels on Daddy's socks in brown rather than in the self striping Big Print. I thought I was being so clever but I only ended up with a huge mess. And I mean a mess. Holes where the gusset would be (I think those would have been there anyway, they were just made worse by the attempt at the brown heel). Yarn tails everywhere. I could have made a cat o' nine tails I had so many ends. And knots - OMG the knots. It was a singularly spectacular mess. I actually ended up cutting, (that's right cutting, can't you just taste the horror?) the heel flap off the sock. That metallic ring as the blades sliced through the fabric sent a collective gasp of horror around the table. No, my next new skill will not be steeking. I’m saving that for later. For when I'm better medicated. Short row heel… short row heel… This is a skill I need to know if I want to have fun

with my heels and my toes.

insane in the membrane

It's been crazy busy here. A great aunt died and I guilted my mom into coming to the funeral. It gave her an excuse to be out of the office and she could spend the weekend with the boys. Work is going nutso, we're light staffed b/c it's spring break and lots of parent's are off work. One of my bosses (the easy one) is out all week, but the other one has four foreign patent applications and several European Patent Office responses to get out this week - this is exceptionally busy. On top of that, my main sitter, the lovely Miss L., is on vacation while her school is closed for spring break. As you can see, this was not a good week to re-enter Childcare Hell. A couple of her staffers wanted to make extra money and watch kids for the parents who still needed sitting. This is separate from the monthly tuition and Miss L. lets the parents pay directly to the staffer and the staffer gets to keep all the money - not just her usual hourly wage. Pretty sweet deal. I can't think of any other child care center that would do that for their employees. I was going to use two of her sitters. One was going to watch Little Man in the mornings (his school is on break) and the other was going to pick him up and then Stinkerton and come watch the boys at the house. All that sitter had to do today was pick up Stinkerton at his school and take him to a friend's house. easy peasy. She hemmed and hawed about it, but agreed. Then, late last night, when it was too late for me to find someone else to drive, she calls and cries car trouble. BS. She has a history of pulling this stunt, but it's usually with the parent's night out program (similar payment deal for the person who works it only Miss L. gets a cut). I was afraid she might cancel on me and had already decided that I wouldn't use her for the rest of the week. I'm not rewarding her actions by still using her to watch the kids this week. Hell no. I've had it with her. I called her today and asked her to come by tonight to pick up her check from the two days she did watch the boys (out of five or six she was supposed to) and to get my house key back. She acted like it was nothing when I told her I'd made other arrangements for the rest of the week. (My sitter's other staffer will take them, provided I can get them to her. We'll work it out.) I just don't get this behavior. Am I just missing out on something? I know I'm not paying too little. She's been begging my main sitter for extra hours and here's a chance to make some easy tax-free money (just under $175) while the preschool is closed (during which she should would not otherwise be paid) and she backs out... Am I missing something here?? Why does it seem that it's always the people who are complaining the most about money that just don't want to work the extra hours or take advantage of situations where they could earn that money. Anyway, I won't have to deal with this much longer since I'm going to give notice. (Which will just about kill my sitter.) After next week I'll know if Little Man made it into Stinkerton's school and I'll give notice then. I need to do it before secretary's day. Getting the gift and then giving notice would be so far beyond tacky as to be unforgiveable. On the knitting front, I just couldn't get the hang on two socks at a time, so I'm back to one. I've done the heel flap and am getting ready to work the gusset. The second sock should go well. Mother told me how much Daddy paid for some wool socks recently and I just about plotzed. This is a case where it is cheaper to make them. Admittedly, these were the heavier weight hiking socks... the one's I'm making out of the Big Print and Big Mexico are worsted and plenty thick enough for that use. Now I just need to make sure they're going to be big enough. He has very wide (EEE) feet.

Ponderances

There are lots of decisions to be made. This whole garbage truck incident sure has made a freakin’ mess of things. We were trucking along just fine with only a glitch here or there with the whole return to work experiment. We've been considering an au pair to take the place of our current sitter, but something in my gut just isn’t agreeing with this. I don’t know if it’s the year-long commitment, having someone living in the house or just that she would be an unknown quantity in charge of my kids. If I’m going to continue to work, an au pair is the most economical and practical decision, but that little voice in my head just isn’t happy with it. At this point, it just might make sense to quit my job. The thought of quitting my job feels like such a relief. It’s not that I don’t like my job. It has the usual ups and downs of any job and the folks I work with are good people. I have good hours, good pay and good benefits. But... Little Man hasn’t been happy with me going back to work, Stinkerton would do well to have me a little more available and I would like to be more available to help out at the boys’ schools, take them to play dates and handle more of the household stuff that, as a secretary, I lack the flexibility to do. (Progenitor handles much of the come home and wait type stuff, since he's more able to work from home.) On the other hand, I will admit to some disappointment with the prospect of not working. I really liked the idea of contributing financially to the household. Before having the kids, I identified strongly with my job. I was good at it. I enjoyed it. It was my career. Now, I feel I’ve lost my edge a bit and on top of that I know my kids need me. The Progenitor needs me. He’s becoming so busy, that even while he’s able to maintain quite a lot of flexibility, it’s stressful for him knowing that I’m not able to handle all the little homey stuff like I did before. I know now, that what I was doing by just being home with the kids was just as important as bringing home a paycheck. One last decision… What project will I pick up first since I’ll have a hell of a lot more time to knit?

new book

I purchased this. I'm looking forward to using up some of my single skeins. After inventory. Ugh. Inventory. I really need to start on that so I can move some stash along. It would help if I had a closet all to myself. hmmmm.... maybe moving some thingsout of the basement closet into the attic would work. Sorry for making y'all work for pics lately. The dratted camera is hiding again.

Coming soon...

After a very productive Free Froggin' February, it's MoFo March. Here's what was recently frogged:

1. Clapotis is off the needles and wound; I need to put this into skeins and wash to get the kinks out.
2. The One Skein (my ass) Wonder is now waiting to be a hat.
3. The LB magic stripes socks I started for Stinkerton.
4. The Orange Beast is off the needles, but not frogged. I'm going to use it as an example of what not to do when teaching the shawl class.
5. A random Noro hat - only b/c I started it on DPNs (I didn't have the right circs with me).
6. An attempt at an enrelac shawl from Summer '04 using Gedrifa Distrato. Very pretty yarn and a good use for this smooth and fuzzy semi-striping type of yarn. I don't have enough yarn to finish the shawl and am not so in love with it, that I'll get more. I will probably do entrelac again. This yarn might make cute baby booties if you are careful where in the smooth/fuzzy repeat you start.
7. The Serpent Sweater. This really is a cute pattern; I just need to pick a much larger size when I do this again. The intarsia took me a while.

Here's what's being knit:

1. The Unikat Sweater. I have the sleeves blocking and need to block the body. I think they need a little steam and the sleeves may actually be too long. I'll see what it looks like when I have the shoulders seamed and get them pinned on. If I do have to frog the sleeves, I'm going to work them both at the same time.
2. The Fugly Garter Square baby blanket is almost done. I'm on the last ball of yarn. woo hoo! This really has been a great movie project - especially in a cold theater once the blanket had a little size to it. Also, being in the dark meant I didn't have to look at the yarn. Seriously, what was I thinking when I bought that crap?**
3. I started a skinny blue boucle scarf using the Confetti yarn from Charisse. It's a nice going to bedtime project b/c there's only about 7 stitches to work. I think my neice will like it.
4. I'm starting a duplicate mini-shawl to use in my class. I have just enough yarns leftover from the brown shawl to do this and it will save my MIL from sending me her shawl everytime I teach the class.
5. Poor Little Forgotten Flower Basket Shawl. Some day, my dear. Some day.

What I want to knit:

1. Swatching for the Cocoon shrug. I don't have enough of both of the colors I want to use and am debating swatching with a third color. I'll know better after inventory.
2. That oh so cool snake scarf. (Thanks Amy for sharing the link!!) I have some pretty Diakketto for this, but it can wait till lat summer.
3. SWTC ballerina top in (oh so sexy) red.
4. Just a simple sweater in cotton or Summer Tweed.

I took a class with the ever delightful Annie (I'm not worthy!! I'm not worthy!!) on how to make her Cocoon shrug from the Fall '05 VK. In taking the class, I've decided that I have not challenged myself knit-elluctually of late. What I think I'd like to do is to learn a new technique each month. So, for MoFo March, I'm going to learn 2 socks on 2 circs. I know, I know. Everyone seems to be doing this, but I think this will be the start of something wonderful. (Besides, I'm stuck on what to do for socks for Daddy and this might make the process more interesting.) I have some Big Print and some Brown Cleckheaton of about the same weight and I'm going to give it a try. My goal is to start and finish a pair of socks using this technique by mid-April. Thats gives me a month. **That color is called "taffy." I would have named it "snot vomit." I'm not sure I want to curse anyone with such amazing fug, but it is fairly soft and the color would hide spit up stains very well. So, despite the intrinsic fug, it's practical. --------- In other news, we've started the application process for an au pair. The child care situation is just going to pieces and an au pair looks to be just the kind of help we need. Someone with lots of energy whose primary focus will be on just our two boys. It's a hard decision, (we all really like the sitter and she's had a hell of a year) but it's what we need to do for the boys.

A picture says a thousand words...

Or... I type a thousand words before fulfilling my promise of pictures. Here she is, the Pink Serendipity Shawl. Ingredients: Berroco Softwist in rose w/trendsetter Flora; Berroco Softwist in sage with Tahki Flower(?); Cherry Tree Hill Fringe in English Garden (?); Fiesta Yarns La Luz Print in Madrid; love. I'm please with how she turned out. More importantly, the lovely people who commissioned her are happy with it. She looks a little dull in the picture, but she's actually quite glittery. The bling is a little more apparent in the zoom I did. I saturated the color slightly to get the flora and flower to show. This is just too funny.

Oh, and an update from yesterday. It wasn't Waste Managment, it was Georgia Waste Systems. I will say that I am impressed at how responsive they've been. The timeline and the tire tracks are still issues, though. We learned that the crash was at about 5:45 a.m. The neighbor guy went outside to see what was up at about 6:00 a.m. There were several more waste management people on site than would have been on the truck, so they were definitely called first. The police were not called until 6:31a.m. and we still do not know who called. The Fire Department was thoroughly pissed with the PD and they are going up the chain (bringing in the batallion cheif) to find out why there was no proper investigation and why weren't they called to the scene. I have a feeling there's an officer who's going to be in a bit of hot water pretty soon.

Something's rotten in Denmark

My sitter runs an awesome MMO program and Preschool. Or at least, she used to until a Waste Management garbage truck drove into her building. THANK GOD NO ONE WAS IN THE BUILDING AND SHE WAS CLOSED THAT DAY!! Get this, WMI arrives on the scene first. We know this because the owner of the day labor place across the street came out and saw just WMI people present - more than just the two guys that would have been on the truck. Then the police arrive. The police do not do a sobriety test and only list one occupant in the truck on the police report. (problem #1: WMI generally has TWO guys on these trucks. I know I've never seen one w/o two guys.) When the truck hit, it broke the sewer line to the building, and set off the sprinkers - ruining everything. If it didn't get covered in sewage, it got soaked. The building was basically demolished. The City has condemned it. This happened around 6:30 -7 a.m. and by 8:00 am the truck has been removed from the property(problem #2 - you know when Joe Driver can't find the brake and drives into a building that car stays there all day and the accident it thoroughly investigated). No one contacted my sitter or the owner of the building - that info is on file with the local fire department. (problem #7). The police officer who arrived on the scene looked inside the building (w/o entering it) claims to have seen sparks and water and does not go in (rightfully so). However, he does not call the Fire Department or an Ambulance (for the driver who supposedly had a seizure and supposedly went to the hospital). What if someone had been in there early and was unconscious, or God forbid, dead? (that's problem #3). Also, the officer, having seen the sparks, does not call the power company or the gas company (problem #5) My sitter was notified of this b/c one of her employees drove by to get something she left. This was about 8:00 a.m. and the truck was gone already. No one was there except for a couple of WMI personnel to watch the big gaping hole in the building. (problem #4) By the time my sitter arrives and is told what happened, she has to call the police to come back and tell her what's up. Next, she calls The Progenitor to come by and help deal with folks. He does what he can, including getting someone in his office to help my sitter since this is not his area of expertise. *In the meantime, she calls an electrician she knows to get the power turned off. She takes a zillion photos. The gas company came around 2:00p.m at her request. She had no idea that no one had been called to turn off the utilities (problem #5). Also, she had to call the police to come back and the officer didn't come until noon. Same officer that was at the scene in the morning. He was unhelpful and wouldn't tell her much about what happened. Just that the driver had apparently had a seizure, what he saw when he looked in, and that he didn't call the FD. He never mentioned that WMI staff was on the scene and when asked whether they had permission to remove the truck when they did, he faltered in his answer. WMI is taking responsibility, but she's looking at lost business, lost money b/c she paid for the build out (and that was NOT cheap), potential lost clients, lost income, etc. Her employees will have lost income and her clients have lost sitters and have to make other (last minute) arrangements. She also has to look for temporary digs as fast as possible in order to keep her clients, and employees - something very difficult to do on such short notice. The landlord had a fit and was screaming at her about this! Blaming her for not being notified, etc. Progenitor put a quick stop to that. This landlord is going to do whatever possible to recoup his losses, and I am sure he will try to deny my sitter anything for her buildout expenses (he's a jackass) by claiming the buildout himself. She has some receipts, but much of her documentation was destroyed in the crash. She'll have to get in touch with all the contractors for the invoices. WMI is accepting responsibility and they've sent recovery people out to clean up, but they are saying they won't pay for any of her monetary losses until she's back up and running (and they mean in the building). WTF! That could be months to a year from now. And I just know her landlord will try to make her pay rent in the meantime. I'm hoping there is a claus in the lease that protects her from that. Otherwise, she's really screwed b/c even though this it completely beyond anything that could be predicted, I can see the landlord making things even worse for her by trying to collect rent. (Not that he really could, but his attempts will make things even worse for her.) So, the police report says there was one occupant in the vehicle. And we don't know how "the driver" got to the hospital. My guess is that WMI people "took" him there, but there's no telling at this point. Also, the story being told about how it happened doesn't mesh with the tire marks and some other clues (problem #6). Also, there was no accident investigation whatsoever and it looks tome that WMI's driver was removed from the scene of the accident - even though the police report indicates a driver at the scene, I have a feeling the got the actual driver out of there before the police arrived. I just can't believe that an honest or competent officer would let this go like that. She needs to demand a full investigation including WMI's records about who was on the truck (timesheets anyone?), but if the PD won't do it, her lawyer will have to. My sitter was up all night from nightmares about this happening when the kids were there. It's completely nerve wracking for her. I just hope her clients are patient while she tries to find temporary digs. I know that one or two will immediately insist on their money back for the month - leaving her stuck with the loss until the insurance company bothers to pay up. This just sucks. I'm only inconveneinced and will have to claim for lost time for picking up the boys and finding temporary childcare, but she's looking at losing her business if the insurance company decides to really fight her on making interim payments. I feel so bad for her.

it would probably help...

if I didn't mess with the comment settings. I must have turned on the comment moderation w/o fully understanding what I was doing. Thank you Charisse for letting me know about the problem. And here I was thinking I was miss unpopular (especially considering some of the discussion about cliques in blogland). Many thanks to you all for your kinds comments about Aunt Georgie. She's missed but I'm o.k. with that. She had an amazingly full life and had a positive impact on so many people. She taught in NY public schools for, well, forever - pretty much up until this last year. Thanks for the hugs. As some of you know, Palm Springs was a complete bust. I didn't make it to La Knitterie Parisienne, but somehow I don't think my life is incomplete. I did have my picture taken with Darth Vader, though. He's much shorter in person. Pictures soon, I promise. (how many times have we heard that line!) The place I went to have the film developed doesn't do cd's... wtf? you mean there's really a place that doesn't do digital? I was stunned. I didn't want to wait three days for them to send 'em out to be done, so I left and it's been nearly a week with this film sitting in my car. Yes, I am brilliant. That's what I get for getting a PDA instead of a new digital camera. The dye lot on the unikat sweater seems to be working in just fine. I'm not going to re-do the sleeves to incorporate it; the color's close enough. I'm still thinking about re-working the back in a larger size. We'll see how it looks once I've got the sleeves attached. Speaking of which, when do the olympics end, anyway? Oh, and go visit Amy. She's nice, too.

The FOlympics

I've joined in with Amy (of Knitty fame) to finish something (maybe two somethings) for the knitting olympics. It won't be anything I've starting finishing (like Pink Serendipity), but something I haven't worked on in a while. I'm thinking FBS and Unikat. I'll work Unikat first since it's closest to being done and then get on with FBS. I need some quiet time to fix the mistake, though. I found my ticking off sheet so I should be able to figure out the mistake, even if it does involve a few rows of tinking. Of course, where there's tinking, there's drinking. Of course, I'll still be frogging. The orange beast is next b/c with one row stripes, it will be a bit difficult to frog. No winder on that puppy; gotta be done by hand. Oh, and I am incredibly jealous of those who got snow.

more like a tadpole than a frog

This was a the start of something good early last month. However, in attempting a short row heel, I completely botched it. It's since been frogged (in observance of Froggin' February) and is next to the bed waiting for a second chance at greatness. I finally finished the collar on Little Man's New Tweed sweater. I'm pleased with it even though the collar was not what I originally envisioned. Pictures tomorrow or Friday, I promise. The Spring Rowan magazine arrived while I was out of town. A huge improvement over the last two. I broke down and bought a membership b/c despite being told specifically that I would really, really enjoy it, Progenitor didn't get the hint. In the end, I'm glad he didn't, b/c I really disliked the last Rowan mag and that's what would have come. Of course, the free gift was KSH in a color I already have, but the scarf pattern is really cool and I'm looking forward making it next Fall to go with a ChicCami I'm planning in that color (Trance). Of course, by then the little top over a longer top will be out of fashion, but I can always wear it with a little (or not so little considering my ever increasing hips) skirt for the firm party or under a suit. OH, and my dark green Summer Tweed arrived. Twelve skeins of silky/cottony goodness. What to make? Chamomile, Basil, or Thyme? (Does anyone else expect Art Garfunnkel to jump out right now?) I already have summer berry and morning glory in the stash, so it's not like I have to only pick on thing. In the meantime, go visit Charisse and say hi. Just because she's a nice person.

Break out the frappaccino,

it's time for some February Froggin'. Here are our (not so) lovely prospects: 1. Most of The Orange Beast; one part will be kept for demonstration purposes 2. The Lots of Options Top - I ran out of a vintage yarn; I have given up all hope of ever finding a hank of it. 3. The Top down Tee in Nebraska - need to re-do for size. The re-do should be easy and good for movie nights. 4. Clapotis in CTH Silk and Merino Worsted in the Moody Blues colorway. This is just sooo freakin' boring. I'm considering a corset top. 5. One Skein Wonder (one skein my ass and who the hell uses the same abbreviation to mean two different things?) 6. Little Man's now waaaaay too small Serpent Sweater Items I want to cast on for March and April are: 1. Backyard leaves (the chart's a bitch, but the results I've seen so far will be worth it) 2. A little cami in Rowan Kid Silk Haze in Trance. 3. SWTC tank top in red Bamboo 4. Zib's Ella or Gioia. 5. Zib's Via Diagonale - this should be fun. Lord knows I have enough cotton classic to move along and I'd like a little fun bag for summer. 6. Pinwheel baby blanket in Marks & Kattens Dream in light blue, pale lime and dusty plum. (trust me, they work together) 7. Socks for Daddy. I have some Stahl Big Print I purchased from Elann recently for these. Well, the trip sucked. The kids both got sick right before we left and therefore, I got sick upon arrival. All four days I had a fever and was miserable. I did go ahead and have my spa treatments. Being wrapped in seaweed is overrated. It actually made me hungry b/c I smelled like sushi while it was being done. I should have done the whole body exfoliation. I did that once (a salt rub) and felt like a snake after it just shed its skin - very smooth! And that's absolutely the last time I ever have a male massage therapist. Every one has hurt me in the past and this one really did a number on me - despite the fact that I kept telling him he was using too much pressure. I should have done a facial, but I have a gift certificate for one here in town and I'll use that soon. L.A. was downright cold and cloudy the day we were there. I'd swear it was 50 degrees, but it was probably more like 60. The high points are that have lots of pictures of me wearing Sursa (they are on regular film and I'll have the pics on CD in a day or two) and I visited two (count 'em! two!)yarn shops in Palm Desert (just outside Palm Springs). The Ultimate Point and the Yarn Co. Both shops were very nice; Yarn Co is definitely the older, more established shop. Ultimate Point is nice, but smaller. They organized the yarn by color, making it really hard to tell what they really have on hand, so I ended up not purchasing any yarn there. I did buy two addi natura needles I needed. I bought some Marks & Kattens Dream for the pinwheel blanket at Yarn Co. I'm thinking that will be a fun knit and the yarn is soooo soft. I just couldn't resist.

Sursa is complete

wooo hooo! I'll have it on the plane with me. I'm really pleased with how this came out. I had doubts at first about double stranding the Silk Garden; I thought it might be muddy. And the orange ruffle just makes my day. I'm tempted to bring the Noro Transitions and make another one, but there are too many projects on the UFO list for that kind of fun. FBS will come with me so I can take advantage of the quiet time on the plane and by the pool. You never know, I just might find my mistake and be able to finish it! (yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt!) I'm promising myself that I won't overpack on the projects. I made that mistake on the Israel trip and ended up short on clothes due to the space the yarn took up. Am off to Palm Springs in the morning for a day of rejuvenation and possibly even some yarn shopping. I'll have Friday to drive around and play. There seem to be a few shops in Palm Desert which isn't too far away. And then on Saturday, we'll be in L.A. The Progenitor wants to do a tour. That's fine - as long as I get to experience the celebrity hype that is La Knitterie Parisienne.

My last post..

was my 100th post and I didn't even realize it!! And Saturday was the blog's one year birthday... I forgot all about it. Here are some more pictures of stuff I've got going on... Yarn from a knitting buddy who also spins. Very pretty energized singles. The green in this is a perfect match for the green cashmerino Charisse gave me. I'm thinking a hat with cashmerino as trim. With the singles being energized, the stocking stitch will bias and make the hat look like it's swirling. The cashmerino acting as trim should stabilize the hat a bit. Most recent kpixie order I'm looking forward to working with the SWTC Bamboo. I've been needing something red in the wardrobe and I think the tank top is perfect for under suits. The Claudia's Handpainted yarn is in the color Stormy Days. I'm thinking a little beaded scarf (haven't done beads yet). The SWTC Karaoke will be fun for fingerless mitts. I should probably bring those with me on the trip. Something easy for the plane ride. I took the Good Child, Stinkerton, to the aquarium a couple weeks ago and got this really good picture. (The Other Child has "been two" since he was 18 months, and we're getting REALLY tired of it. It doesn't help that he's incredibly stubborn. that's what I get for not nursing till he was two.) I have similar picture of The Other Child from the TN aquarium, but it's saved at home. Of, course, the otters were too cool. . 

Jumpin' Jehosphat it's January

and I only have one FO! I'm hoping to finish Sursa by Wednesday so I'll have it on the plane. Due to some issues I won't bore you with, Sursa is not going to The Progenitor's cousin. This is SP's scarf. It's the Wavy scarf from Scarves, a Knitter's Dozen. All garter. All the time... it was easy and good mindless knitting. It took me a while to get a hang of the short rows - mainly to make them look nicer where the slipped stitch is picked up. I used Schaefer Yarns' Miss Priss in Fragglestone (Stinkerton picked the color) and I think I have enough left over to make a hat to go with it. SP was thrilled with it. Here's a shot of when it was in progress: I want you to meet my little friend.   This was my Hannukah gift to myself. I am in the painstakingly slow process of entering all my knitting stuff into it. The biggest hindrance (aside from kids) is that I don't have Excel at home. I have to enter it at work, or I have to enter it directly into the pda. Can we say "s l o w...?" But, before I cast on for anything else, I have decided that I'm going to finish up some projects that have been haunting me. 1. Pink Serendipity - mostly done; I'm almost out of CTH Fringe and it's bothering me to the point of not picking up the shawl. I'm afraid it will be too small. 2. Unikat Sweater - finally have the last skein I needed and I'm probably going to have to frog the back in order to work in the odd skein. I'm not sure if I have to re-do the sleeves or not. I'm hoping that when I finish the back I will have enough of the original skein left to finish the second sleeve. This may come on the trip with me. 3. FBS 4. Fugly baby blanket - one more movie knight should do it. 5. Stinkerton's socks in Lion Brand Magic Stripes. There's no way I'm using the good sock yarn on him - should probably be doing this as 2sox/2 circs to learn the technique, but there's something oddly satisfying about DPN's. 6. Little Man's sweater. I just need to re-do the collar. The zipper isn't in quite as well as I'd like, but I'm going to leave it. It can tell me in the future, how far I've come on zippers. Next up, Froggin' February. Once the froggin' is done, I'll get back to the FO list so that March can be Mo' FO' March. Nana is coming for a visit. the boys are thrilled. The Progenitor and I are even more thrilled b/c we are going on a trip. He's attending a conference and I'm taking advantage of the amenities. Palm Springs here I come!

It's been sad here lately...

Aunt Georgie passed away last week after a year of failing health and finally being diagnosed with lung cancer. It was difficult, but short, and the hospice people were wonderful to her and the family. She was surrounded by people who loved her when she passed. I didn't get to go to the funeral and I really wish I could have. She was a very special lady. Family meant so much to her and she will be sorely missed by all. I feel guilty that I never finished Sursa for her. However, I did let her know on several occaisions that she was the person who inspired me to learn to knit (among other things). I am going to finish Sursa next week and send it up when my husband heads up north. (He's going on business, but is making time to hook up with some of the cousins.) I think her daughter will appreciate it. Not much else is going on. Despite everything, it's been very busy. I have a zillion pics up on the sister site, but nothing's been integrated into a post yet. Now that they are at least available on-line, I can do some posting at lunch from the office. Take care, and hug someone you love today.

You've shown me yours...

Now I've shown you mine. I've noticed a few places where people are trying to make their avatar as ugly as possible. I tried for the 80's thing (since the 80's were almost as traumatic as the 70's and there was a definite lack of bo-ho clothing to choose from) and since I chose Chinese New Year as the background, the panda seemed 'natch. I would have chosen a bunch of big items for the accessories, but then the background just didn't work. I'm working on a serendipity shawl for the shop. And of course, it goes perfectly with a jacket I just bought myself. No, D&G, I'm not going put up pics till it's done. HA! I'm hoping to have it done for Thursday's Knit Night, but I'm making no promises. I will say that it's not in the least bit brown. The first week of the month is always very busy for me and I have three, count 'em THREE, birthday parties for the boys this weekend. I just don't get this whole, have a party for the kids every year thing folks do. Every couple of years, I get. That way it's special when it happens and not just take for granted that a party will happen. ...That's what I tell myself anyway. Just goes to show how growing up without birthday parties will make one jaded. That's right, not a single one. Notice how I'm not going overboard by insisiting on huge parties for both the boys every year to compensate? Therapy, (well... laziness) can be a good thing. Off to actually do some knitting.

another day another...

YEAR?? How did that happen? Let's make this the year we have some meaningful tax reform. This year's tax freedom day is... still undetermined. But here's a little info on the subject... http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/52.html and this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Freedom_Day Yet another plug for The Fair Tax and the book (the paperback is expected in May). For you flat tax advocates, try this on for size. And I love this guy! http://hermancain.com/ It is wonderful to hear a smart, business-like approach to politics without all the nasty rhetoric and caller abuse. He ran for senate here in the last election. Sure hope he runs again! I'm looking forward to getting his book. In other news...We spent a lovely new year's eve with friends playing Mexican Train Dominoes. Fun game, and the company was even better. All the kids got to just play and stay up very late. It was great till they really started to show how tired they were. To our dismay, they were up at the usual 7:00 a.m. the next day. Looks like lots of folks are doing the resolution/list thing, so I think I'll jump on the wagon and see what I can come up with.

• Knit in a more organized fashion - which means paying attention to my current projects rather than dreaming of the next one, make up my mind on the next one and just start it, finishing a few of the 2004 (that's year, not quantity!) UFOs (or at least break down and frog 'em).
• Knit at least 45 minutes a day. I've really been slacking lately.
• Start the husband's sweater.
• Finish the kids' projects.
• Get Stinkerton Prime to school on time.
• Get home on time so I can spend more time with the kids and the husband in the evenings.
• Cut back on the sugar, drink more water and switch from whole to low fat milk.
• Hit the treadmill twice a week.
• Push my local and federal representatives to sponsor bills supporing private property rights. Remember the Kelo deicision?

There, that wasn't so bad. Funny how knitting dominates the list. I finished the collar on Stinkerton Adjuncts sweater. It looks like crap. I'm going to rip and re-work it. I've decided on a shawl collar rather than a hood. The scarf for SP is o.k. I'm still having trouble getting the short rows to look as nice as I'd like them. I came to the conclusion that it's just the nature of short rows to look like that. Nothing else is going on. Brought home work to do, so I'd better get started on it. A happy and healthy New Year to all.

it's up It's up!!!

The VK preview: http://www.vogueknitting.com/vkm/preview/preb.shtml Also, the husband's article is in the contents! But it's not readable yet. We did suggest that the article be made available on their website so that folks can always get to it.

Giant ass reporting for duty

I mean that both literally and figuratively. After all that bitching about Stinkerton Progenitor not mailing out Charisse's package, what do you think has been sitting in my desk drawer for the last week? I'll give you three guesses. Charisse, I'm so sorry. This will go out today. I'm hitting the USPS website for postage as soon as I'm done posting here. Work is abysmally busy of late. Not that I don't enjoy it, I'm just tired all the time. Probably from too much sugar in my diet - something I must address. I'm not diabetic or anything, but I do think I'm thoroughly hooked. I'm going to try and cut back a little on the refined sugars and see if that helps. Have found some knitters at the office and we get together roughly once a week to knit in the breakroom. Not much to report. Stinkerton Adjunct's sweater is almost done. The zipper is in and I'm quite proud of that. I think I left it a teensy bit too long, but I'm not adjusting it again. I'll know better for next time. All it needs now is a hood or collar. Stinkerton Prime has requested a scarf. At first it was socks, but he's changed his mind and he definitely does not want a sweater. I'm doing it in Schaefer Miss Priss (I had a store credit.) in Fragglestone. Very cool kid colors. The pattern is Wavy from the Scarves, a Knitter's dozen book. Sophisticated short row pattern for a very unsophisticated color. I have the skein of Unikat to finish my sweater, but it is a different dye lot (not surprised) so I'll have to re-do the sleeves to blend it in. Either that, or just not care and finish it anyway. I'll try a few inches on the existing sleeve to be sure. It's only about half a sleeve and the collar I need to do, anyway. After that comes the Flower Basket Shaw. I'm about ready to call it quits after one more repeat. I'll have to check my cheat sheet, but I think I'm on the seventh repeat. I hope you had a Merry Christmas or are enjoying a very Happy Hanukkah.

That HUSBAND...

this is from 12/23: There are times when I wonder how he gets around in the world. I gave him a package to mail and it stayed in his car. Yes, in his car. grrrr.... Fortunately, it was something that could survive the cold. Unfortunately, it won't be where it is supposed to be by Christmas. Sorry, Charisse. If it's any consolation, I am making him feel really, really guilty about it. So I have it back now and it will go out today. (it's actually a good thing, b/c I found something incredibly cute at The Purly Gates last night that just had to go in.) In the meantime, Charisse you are the best. I can't believe you sent Handknit Holidays; I was just about to order it. The chocolates didn't survive long. I was going to wait until Monday night to open the box, but that big "PERISHABLE" stamp got the better of me. The boys are loving the Chanukah book - the stickers especially were a big hit. and mmmmmm.... yummy burt's lip balm. I love good lip balm. I really am glad that we were assigned to eachother, and I'm hoping we can meet at MD Sheep and Wool. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU! Yet again the camera is missing. I swear the bloody thing hides from me. Sort of like scissors. Scissors always migrate at my house. They go missing one by one and somehow all end up the same place. Of course, no one remembers ever putting them where we find them. I finished "the commission" (pretentious, I know, but fun). Typically for me, I didn't take a picture (damned missing camera!!), but my friend promised me one. It turned out well, I think. My friend liked it and that's what matters.

• Pattern: I used (Yarn A) CP little flowers (on sale) in black and white with a teensy bit of sparkle, (Yarn B) Bee Yarns (hobby lobby's private label, I think) eyelash in black and run together with the little flowers and them used (Yarn C) Lion Brand's version of Eros Extreme (I forget what it's called; it was on sale).
• On size US15 or 17 needles (I used 15), cast on 16 or so stitches - no particular reason for that number, it's just where I stopped.
• Rows 1-8 with little flowers and eyelash, knit
• Row 9 with ribbon, knit
• Row 10 with ribbon, knit1, yo once to end
• Row 11 with ribbon, knit across dropping the extra loops.
• Row 12 with ribbon, knit
• Rows 13-18 Repeat rows 1-SIX
• Row 19with ribbon knit1, yo twice to end
• Rows 20 and 21 with ribbon Repeat Rows 11 and 12
• Repeat rows 1-SIX and then continue as established until the scarf is the length you want it. Ending with Rows 9-12 and 1-EIGHT.
• Attach ribbon fringe; this is wide (not very drapey) ribbon it will go a long way, I think I used five fringes on each end, about six inches long once attached.
• Carry the yarn up the side when not using it. It won't show as much as you thing it will.
• There is no need to block.
• Feel free to post the pattern, but please give me credit as I am retaining the copyright. Existing copyright law allows one to make these for sale. I promise (yet again) that I will post pictures soon.

unproductive

I have absolutely no attention span at work today. I think having to leave for two hours to p/u the boys has a lot to do with it. I didn't get squat done, unless you count printing labels for the Christmas cards... excuse me. Holiday cards. (sheesh.) I'm at work and for the most part I've only surfed today. I am ready to do the zipper in the top down cardigan. Now I just need good instructions and advice as to whether or not to knit a couple of rows to sew the zipper to. And I need a zipper, too. Off to Hancock I go. I am working on the scarf for my friend. I'll call her Surely. I'm not sure I'm liking it so far. I'm working lengthwise and working an elongated drop stitch with the ribbon. The ribbon was getting lost in all the black yarn and now I'm worried that once the scarf is worn, the ribbon won't sit as nicely as it does flat and will get lost in all the black yarn anyway. I'll use the ribbon to do fringe at the end. I want to have this done by the end of the week. Nothing else going on. Had a nice weekend. We went to a Christmas party with Stinkerton Prime's old La Leche League playgroup on Saturday (his birthday) and then on Sunday we did cake and presents for his birthday. SP was so cute "helping" me make the cake. On Sunday morning, I was able to wrap all the Hanukah presents for the kids. Now I just have to pull out all the Christmas presents for my extended family, wrap those and get them mailed. My neice and nephew are easy - gift cards (they're teenagers).

copyright and a special event

I was going to do a little thing on copyright, but Stinkerton Progenitor covered it all in his article. It will be in the winter VK, and if I do say so myself, it looks pretty good. We (He) received the galley (sp?) pages last week and the layout and illustrations are pretty nice. So keep an eye out for it in the next few weeks. I learned one new thing. Using (as in scanning or copying and pasting) pictures from a magazine or pattern booklet on one's blog is infringing copyright. (The owner of the copyright has the ultimate right to display. Pictures of one's own knitted item, even if the pattern is copyrighted, do not infringe.) That means I am violating copyright with every link I have to my sister site that consists of a picture lifted from the yarn company or designer's website. I'm torn about what to do. I feel that I'm promoting the knitted item/pattern, but on the other hand, I really should be following the law. If the pattern companies (magazines and other) were to keep their links up indefinitely, this would be an easy solution - just link to the picture, but it's not reasonable to expect every site to be able to support that much data. Until I decide what to do, I'm leaving my pics up, but will refrain from inserting copyrighted pics as much as possible. I'm almost finished with Stinkerton Adjunct's top down cardigan. I just need to figure out whether or not I really want to do a zipper (and how to do one) and whether or not I want to add a hood. I'm fairly sure about the zipper; not so sure about the hood. A hood would make blending the zipper and V-neckline easier. I've received a commission (that's just a pretentious way of saying a friend has asked me to knit a scarf for them). I've chosen a black eyelash yarn with a filler by moda dea (I don't have the label handy to tell you the name - will do later) and some Lion Brand ribbon yarn that is their version of Plymouth's Eros Extreme. The eyelash is black and the ribbon is black and white. I'm going to knit from side to side and leave ribbon fringe hanging off the ends and I may switch needle sizes for the different gauges. I finally replaced my missing needle tips from my Denise set and I have the correct length cables to comfortably work the ruffle. (Friggin' things better not pop this time.) One of the gals from Knit Night used seed stitch instead of the ruffle and it looked really good. She used more of a brown toned silk garden with an orange (not quite the same orange as I'm using). It was gorgeous. I think I like the ruffle, though. I have decided that Sursa will go to the Progenitor's Great Aunt Georgie. The first person on his paternal side of the family (other than the Grandprogenitor) who truly made me feel welcome and a lovely lady who inspired me to learn to knit. She's had a minor stroke, and for that and other reasons, may not be able to move back to her home and live independently. She lives too far away to visit easily and I want her to have something bright and cheerful. She's 85 and was still teaching school (in NYC, no less!) when all this happened to her. Not much else to report. I started a sock for Stinkton Prime, but I think it's going to be too big and I need to rip it. The other option is to leave them as is and make fingerless mitts out of it, but I think I'd rather do that with the Knit Picks sock yarn Miss C. sent me. (BTW, Miss C. I have your package just about ready and it should go out by the end of the week. I need to wrap it.) Oh, and it's Stinkerton Prime's birthday today. He's 4. It almost breaks my heart that my little baby is so grown up, but on the other hand he's becoming more and more independent and that's one of the rewarding things about parenting. Parenting is definitely the most frustrating job, but the rewards are all worth it. Take care everyone. I'm off to celebrate a birthday.

ooops.

Sorry to not post in so long. I know it's not like you're on the edge of your seats waiting for me to post, but I still feel guilty. I finally made it back to work and found that everything I asked the case assistant to do was completely and utter f&^%#$!! up. How stupid does one have to be to screw up making copies of letters and mailing them out with the enclosures? She mailed all the letters w/o making copies and included the original documents! Originals!!! She didn't retain any copies. All the instructions were spelled out in the e-mail. This is really the most basic secretarial concept: nothing gets mailed w/o making copies. It took me three days of research to figure out what she did and there's still a file missing. Thank goodness I had the foresight to scan almost everything into the system, so we didn't lose much. She was very apologetic and remorseful. She said it would never happen again. I bit my tounge and refrained from saying, "Damn right it won't, 'cause you're never touching another of my files again." Anyway, work has been very busy with all the catching up and stuff. End of year, billing, "holiday" cards. Speaking of work at home, I am FINALLY going to have remote access. I know this sounds awful, but it really will help me out - especially with docket management and billing stuff. Most of that can be done electronically; I don't have to be at my desk for it like I do the file management work. Besides, it makes for easy extra hours. I have actually gotten some knitting done. Littlest Man's sweater is mostly done. I need to bind off the bottom, add a couple of inches to the sleeves and do the button band. I'm very excited to have this almost done. So excited, in fact, that I just might start a new project! Like a little pair of socks for Littler Man. I have some short size 3 dpns so I figured I can give it a try. I'm just going to use some leftover magic stripes I have from a baby vest I made a couple years ago. We're out of batteries again (the rechargables are hiding) so I don't have photos. I'm hoping that Herschel the Hanukah Goblin will solve my camera issues. We'll see. If he doesn't remedy the camera issue, there had better be a PDA or a few karats involved. Speaking of Mr. Man, VK's winter edition went to press. The galley pages for his article looked great and I'm very proud of him - depsite my lack of a bi-line. I'm going to have the article framed, maybe even with a pair of needles and some yarn. I did tell him that if this article leads to serious business, then he can never ever say another word about my yarn purchases again. I think that's better than a bi-line, don't you? BTW: I have a new favorite bag. www.getcrabbie.com They are the cutest bags and the lady who runs the company is really nice and wants to learn to knit socks. I have a little red bag from her and I just love it. It's supposed to be a purse, but hey! why carry a purse when you can carry your knitting bag?

Thank You, God for a wonderful MIL!

I finally had sinus surgery to correct a badly deviated septum (thank you Brian Dahl, for the soccer ball to the face in 6th grade gym class) and some other problems. If I had known that it would suck even remotely this much, I wouldn' t have gone through with it. I will not disgust you will the gory details, except that being upright has been a particular challenge and I was therefore unable to get any knitting done. That should be a ghastly enough detail for most folks. Really, how much worse can it get than not being able to knit? Just one little hint, get the hypoallergenic tape if you ever need to put bandages on your face. OUCH! My MIL is wonderful. She came up for the week to help out and expected to leave yesterday. When she realized how rough things were going, she immediately rearranged her schedule to stay an extra few days. She's wonderful and I do not do enough to thank her. I did however, give her the brown Serendipity Shawl. I had originally started it for her. At one point after starting it, showed it to her and asked what she thought. She didn't like the easter grass-type yarn. Now, however, she's in love with it. I guess she's a finished product kind of person. Nose hurts. Need to go lie down. (No, I won't be posting an pics.)

Barbarians at the Gate

Very cool goodies from Charisse. I'm enjoying the Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting. British author with a quintessentially British writing style - just my thing! The Knitting Mags are great. It's nice to see designers and styles that might not ordinarily get published over here. I finally (just this past weekend) found these here. It took some serious digging through the magazine section; it was buried. (I wonder if someone was hiding it to purchase later?) I need to format a picture and bring the frame to work. It's perfect for my space. And the notecards are definitely going to to come in handy.

And, wait! there's more. Hand turned, hand made by Charisse, knitting needles - made special just for me. and look! a scarf sized pair, too!! The blue JoAnn yarn already as a project. I just need some navy blue yarn for it. I'm going to make a pair of mittens and trim the cuffs with it. I think my neice will like that. She's not a hat person, but I think she'll do mittens.

On the knitting front... Unikat is stalled due to a lack of yarn. I'm desperately hoping that I'll find a skein in the right dye-lot via yarnfinder. I see no point in continuing until I know if there is no hope; it will just end up in more hearbreak as I rip the sleeves to knit them again in two dyelots. My favorite LYS is ordering some of the yarn. With the dye lots being different I'm going to have to rip the sleeves and re-do them. I might just re-do the back in the bigger size while I'm at it.

I started a sweater for Littler Man. I'm using some Tahki New Tweed in a brick color. There wasn't enough in stock to do the sweater so I'm striping with some navy New Tweed I had on hand. I'm doing a top down v-neck cardigan. It's going fairly quickly and I'm really enjoying the feel of the yarn. It's a little splitty, though, but that could just be me.

I started swatching for Mr. Man's sweater. I need to do some serious cabling practice before starting in earnest. Fortunately, there's no time limit on this puppy.

Clapotis is still on hold - still not frogged, but the needles are off it. (Hey, I needed the needles for Littler Man's sweater!) I need to get back on track with the Flower Basket Shawl before Amanda kicks me out of the knit along.

A little on copyright and my two fashion rules when I get back!

on the lamb...

That's right. the digital camera has diappeared again. It might be in the car; I haven't looked that hard yet. I had it at Stinkerton Prime's school on Monday for the Halloween parade. It was very cute seeing al`l the kids in their costumes. some of which were fairly ela12borate. That being 4said, I found a couple of9 knitters at work. I migHT STart hooking up with them at lunch if I'm ahead on my hours 5/56for the week. This is a billing week, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'm bringing the yarn for DH's sweater to swatch today. It's small and will fit in the cool knitting bag with the straigt needles. Not that I'll be using the straights on the sweater, but I hate swatching onthe circulars. I've made some progress on the second Unikat sleeve. However, at this point it doesn't look much different than the last pics of the first sleeve so I won't be posting any till it's blocking. I'm starting to feel as though I might not have enough yarn and it's scary. I really hope I have enough to finish the sleeve, let alone the collar. and if the way I've done the front and back results in too small a sweater, I'm really screwed. * IT was hard enough getting the skeins I have in the same dyelot last year. Not muchy else 7going on. 1236789999999000000000000 Stinkerton Adjunct is helping me type. a=t the moment he's facsinated with the numbers and he's running his train across them. 1For2tuna3tel3y the wheels are too high to completely make a mess of things. I've found a really fascinating 3ethaa n (sasp just typed his name) show on the science channel. "How it's made" They show how things are made. usually 2-4 items per show. one or two weeks ago, they showed how panty hose. This week they showed apple juice and landing gear among other things. Very cool. Of course, being in the patent business, I look at all the machinery and marvel at the number of issued patents they must involve. The landing gear alone must have been over a hundred. Did you know it takes 6 months to make a new set of landing gear for a plane. The tolerances are sooo precise. It only takes 6 weeks to recondition existing landing gear. It was just amazing. How 'bout them Gators!! What's it now? 14 out of 16 games against the GA Dogs they've won? naaaa nana na nana! Gators! naaaa na nana nana! Gotta go. I'll be late dropping off SA at school if I linger any longer. mmmm mmm I wanna linger.... mmmm mmmm a little longer. A little longer here with you. (yep the ole' girl scout songs strike again!) --------------------- Apparently, I made a funny. It's near the bottom. I laughed when I read it, b/c when I saw that I couldn't for the life of me remember leaving the comment. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the name and found my own blog! I actually had to check the comments I was so sure it was a mistake.

She knows me... she knows me not...

She knows me! Someone let the cat out of the bag. Not Incontinent Cat, and certainly not OCD Cat. It was the Handsome Cat, otherwise known as Stan. Stan let out the big secret that Divine Miss C is my secret pal. By some quirk of fate, Miss C and I were assigned to eachother. It's not supposed to work like that, but it did and I'm really glad it did. I found this out by accident when Charisse sent me some stitchmarkers (she makes really nice stitchmarkers - and knitting needles, too. Really. Go look! I'll wait here.) to thank me for her first package. Charisse, you are the sweetest and I'm really pleased to be your SP. Which leads me to some serious showing off. I got yet another great package from Charisse. See. goodies! and then some! See more. And look, knitting needles. Hand turned, hand designed knitting needles - made special just for me. and look! scarf sized!! cool needles Oh, and here's a site to check out. www.johnathancoulton.com Very funny stuff. His version of "Baby Got Back" had me in stitches. Found him via Rachael at yarnagogo. And another one www.butchwalker.com found him via Charisse and he's really good. From his bio, it looks like he's a local boy, too. How did I ever miss this guy? It's not like I'm a music afficionado or anything, but he was getting airplay around the time I listed to the station that would have been playing him. Just shows how much attention I was paying. I'm hoping to finish the Unikat sleeve tonight or tomorrow and hopefully get her blocking. I must start my socks. I soooo want to do a pair of socks. toe up. on 2 circs. (the whole DPN thing is just a little too much for me right now. SASP has been into the knitting bag a lot lately and I just dread the thought of him pulling a DPN out of a sock. [shudder]

Spam! Terrible Spam!!

Sorry, folks. I've had to turn on the word verification. I'm getting too much comment spam and it's mucking up my e-mail. busy busy busy. I have my goodies together for my SP except for one more thing. I'll get this sent out in next week once the thing arrives. I was working on Clapotis last night and decided she's tedious. Boring. Non-exciting. Tiresome. Has the personality of a brick. Un-enamouring. She's pretty and all, but that's about all she has going for her. And as we all know, looks ain't everything. I'm considering frogging to see if the yarn can be used for another project. I certainly have a ton of it. Possibly the silk corset top or maybe or maybe something out of Lavish Lace. It is CTH yarn after all. While I'm deciding, Clapotis can sit in time out until she develops a personality. If not, she'll be banished to the pond. I can use the time I'm no longer spending on Clapotis to complete the Flower Basket Shawl and to put a ruffle on Sursa. Poor Sursa. I blame all her problems on those dratted Denise needles. I hate those things. I'm seriously considering ditching them, but the whole travel thing haunts me. I'd much rather lose those to confiscation than my bamboo sets. The other thing I'd like to do is cast on for the Mocha socks. I'm deciding on a pattern. I'm thinking toe up two circs with cables up the sides. Or maybe fingerless mitts with cables up the back. It does get cold in my office. Oh, BTW. Mr. Man's article will be in the Winter VK. I had the holiday and winter editions confused, so when I didn't see it, I figured they deleted it. Well DUH! Holiday comes out before Winter. So, he's supposed to be in that issue. I still won't have a by-line. GRRRRR... BTW, does anyone else find the cover sweater (cocoon?) on the current cover really, really ugly? I will say that a few of the Bride of Dracula items are quite pretty. I *love* the double breasted coat, but I know myself well enough to know that I'd never finish such a large project. I also like the lacy little black top. That might be really nice in dark brown. I already have a dark brown cami I could wear under it and the lacy sleeves would hide my wiggly triceps. hmmmm.... No. must. resist. siren. call. of. new. project. Must. finish. WIPS.

mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

"No more monkeys jumpin' on the bed!" There are the little men on the littlest man's new bed. When did they get so grown up? I have made significant progress on the first Unikat sleeve. I'm very pleased with how it's turning out. It fits my arm much more nicely. I am taking copius notes so I can duplicate my efforts for the second sleeve. Remember how HUGE it was before? I need to send out my SP's package. I'm a little stumped on this one. I think b/c I have been focused on the big reveal. Well, I have knit knight tomorrow to look for some ideas. Any suggestions? Incontinent cat is doing much better. She still despises OCD cat (he's the one that overgrooms) but all in all she seems to be feeling better. Here's a pic of her a day or so after the surgery. She got locked in my closet the other evening for a couple of hours. Before the surgery that would have meant a very stinky laundry basket for me. This time, she was just fine! She's also playing a lot more than she did before the surgery, so I know she's going to be just fine. Mr. Man, for now, has quit talking about getting rid of her.

What once was lost, but now is found.

I finally located the pics I took when my last Secret Pal package arrived! The photo software saved them in an odd spot. more goodies The only thing missing is the set of matching stitch markers she made me. They immediately went on the Clapotis! I've put the yarn cutter to good use. I had to leave mine at my 'rents house. How it ever got through Hartsfield security I'll never know... but I didn't want to risk losing at National. Now I have one for each knitting bag (provided Mother ever gives me mine back!)

Sursa and other tales of woe...

Anyone care to tell me why I'm blocked on Sursa? She's been sitting there without a ruffle for ages. She really needs a ruffle, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do look up one and put it on her. If the cables on my Denise needles hadn't kept popping, I'd have finished her months ago. Damn those popping Denise cables. Damn them to hell...

This moment was brought to you by Charleton Heston. It's a confident man that can wear a short skirt and gold heels. I got 12 out of 15.

Lets see... UFOs... the CP Trio bag, the serpent sweater (I think that one's going to the frog pond soon), the Nebraska Tee, the baby blanket, the two hats that need reworking, the orange monster, (I'm thinking about changing that into a Serendipity Shawl)... I'm sure there's a lot more. The Unikat sweater isn't a UFO. She's a WIP. Same goes for the FBS and Clapotis. Now that the FBS is fixed, I can work on her to my heart's content and possibly finish her by Christmas. Sursa is in limbo till she tells me what edging she wants. I really should talk to her tonight. Started swatching the Bluegoose yarn. Much to stiff for kids' sweaters, even when going up a needle size. It would felt into lovely fabric, though. This is really pretty if anyone is interested. I have a pic and will upload to the stash diving pages. (I'm at work.) So, now I'm stumped on what to do for the boys. I have a bunch of Wool-ease chunky I could use but I'm hesitant. It would be quick though. I didn't get around to swatch the Mocha SP socks or for DH's sweater. But I have successfully (I hope) reworked the sleeve for the Unikat sweater. It's a much more reasonable size at the wrist and the increases are a little nicer too. Thank you Ann Budd! the only thing I have to worry about is having the right number of stitches at the shoulder to sew it it nicely. I've considered knitting from the shoulder down, but I'm already 1/2way through the one sleeve. Work related rant: WTF is with people who walk up to you and either start chewing you out about some minor thing or ask for your help w/o introducing themselves? Hello! Manners 101. I'm tempted to put a sign on my desk that says "If we haven't already been introduced, please introduce yourself before asking for my help or bitching at me." I don't expect hugs and kisses, or even an offer of sweet tea, but I do appreciate the courtesy of being told your name! Two people have done that to me lately. The first was almost funny. The attorney next door to me came into my area and asked if I was an assistant. "Yes, I'm a secretary." "Good you're who I'm looking for." "And who is looking for me?" He answers, with is hand to his chest, "Me." I was about to say, Who the hell is "me?" when my boss stepped in and introduced the attorney to me. What a jackass (the other atty, not my boss. He knows what courtesy is.) The second was more than a little annoying. Where I work we have a secretary on each floor that has a little power over the rest of us commoners. Sort of like an overseer. This Overseer takes care of the little HR things and helps when coverage is short, etc. We have a new assistant who helps out the secretaries with overflow work and the like. We drop some things off with instructions and the assistant (clerk) will take care of them. In our case, we are sharing our assistant with the other floor in our section. So, I dropped off some files and b/c I'd been told the assistant done this task before and I provided the list of form letters to work from to prepare the letters I needed. I told her to contact me with questions. The clerk was working on another project when I dropped off the files. Somehow or another, the Overseer from the OTHER floor comes to my space and w/o any introduction starts telling me how I should have given complete instructions. The clerk is too new to know what do to yet. That just putting post-its was not sufficient. The words were polite, but that was about it. In essence she was chewing me out over something that could have been resolved by simply saying, "Could you please go give the clerk some more instruction on what you want done?" I interrupted her bitching and explained that I told the clerk to let me know when ready to do the letters and I would answer any questions. The Overseer repeated herself again, so I stated again what I had done and added that I thought the clerk was intelligent enough to call me with questions. Overseer repeats herself again and I interrupt and ask "Who are you, anyway?" Only then does she bother to tell me her name and her position - as if I should have known and cower before her obvious authority. She then repeats herself again and walks away. Bitch.

Damn those rude people... Damn then all to hell.

I'm just totally into the Heston thing right now... and I haven't even watched Planet of the Apes in a while (the original - not that abomininable remake).

what to say what to say

I bought some Feza yarn the other day at my fave shop. I forget the particular name, but it's like Prism in that it's a bunch of diferent yarns tied together end to end. (I've been waiting for this yarn to come in. I saw it once last year, but I won't go to that particular shop anymore.) It's much less expensive than Prism and has about the same, if not a little more, yardage. Laura Bryant has beautiful colorways no one can match, but for those who love her work, but just can't plunk down $50 a skein for her "stuff" yarns, this is a less expensive alternative. I haven't knit it up yet, so I don't know how it compares to the Prism once it's knit. I bought the black and brown colorway - really rich looking. Work is going well. I've settled in all right at this point. I just have so much to do and keep track of. I miss the boys a little, but not so much that I regret the decision to return. Stinkerton Prime is just killing me with some of the stuff he comes up with. At night, we sing a couple of songs before we sing the Shema. Lately, he's been into on Baa Baa Black Sheep - only with other colors. "Let's sing baa baa brown sheep - but it's very hard" and then he starts singing. It's fun to see who gets what color sheep. Lately I've been getting gray (sheep that is, not hair). Stinkerton Adjunct just has to be either very independent or he's velcro baby with Mr. Man. Everything is Daddy Daddy Daddy. until Daddy's around and then it's Mommy Mommy Mommy. Both the boys are really into counting. I love it when SP gets to 19 and then shouts "100!" SASP doesn't quite have the order down, but he loves counting things. He's also my singing child - as long as he doesn't think you're paying attention. What's surprising is that he gets the words right. The cat is still peeing everywhere despite getting over her surgery. Mr. Man has had just about enough of her and as much as it pains me to say it, I can't really blame him. Now that the stones are out, he's not going to give her much time to change the behavior. I'm stumped on what to do. Anyone want an incontinent cat? She's very sweet, but you can't leave baskets of laundry out. Here are Barnum and Bailey. Cute, huh? We got them after the second loss and they were very therapeutic for me. Still are, too. Barnum Bailey They are Border Collie, retriever, and Corgi mixes. We adopted them from Corgi Rescue. If I ever take up spinning I will have no shortage of fiber. Bailey sheds like a bear. On the knitting front: I think I'm going to cast on for the SP Mocha Knit Picks socks tonight, something with cables, I think - after I swatch for the boys' sweaters. I'm fairly certain I want to make top down raglans for the boys. Now it's just a matter of deciding on which yarn to use. I'm thinking the blue goose spiral worsted I bought from lotus blossom last year. My batch is much more blue that the batch she has in her store at the moment. I'll get a pic up when I get home. (I'm still at work taking advantage of the super fast connection. Not that mine's slow, but it ain't like this.) It's BSG night - even if it is re-runs. Who else thinks Gaius is a Cylon whose wiring got a little fried? How else would he have survived the nukes? Number 6's body would not have been enough protection from the blast. Trivia: Jamie Barber played Archie Kennedy in the Horatio Hornblower movies? He's much more buff now. whooo baby. Speaking of eye candy... Is Brad Pitt absolutely dishy in that little black mini skirt he wears as Achilles in Troy or what? If you fasted yesterday for Yom Kippur, I hope your fast was meaningful. This was only my second year where I had to fast. The last few years I was either pregnant or nursing (or both). Like last year, I didn't quite make it. I felt really sick midday and had to have some Coke and a little something to eat. Does it count that I tried not to enjoy it? I need to get my blood sugar checked out; I shouldn't have been sick, just uncomfortable.

Yesterday...

Friday I was going to post a whole "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya' tomorrow" thing, but I didn't get around to it. oh well. I did however, destroy two tires on my car. Thank you City of Atlanta for carving out 6 inch deep big squares on a narrow road and putting out some @!#$$%%^& cones. Lazy bastards. This is the second time this happened to me. The last time was four years ago. I'm calling tomorrow to get reimbursed for the damage this time. Knocked my car out of alignment, too. I also spent all Friday evening at the airport. I checked my flight and it was delayed so I went home. Nothing was posted about further delays so I went to the airport and my flight was delayed another hour. Oh well. I used the time to fix the Flower Basket Shawl. Putting her in time out really helped. I couldn't work on it the rest of the weekend b/c it might go to my mother; I haven't made up my mind, yet. I also made some progress on Clapotis. By the time I got to MD it was 12:45 and then I had a 1.5 hour trip on the Metro to get near the 'rents house. So, 2:30 a.m. I get to the house and pretty much collapse in the guest room. Side note: I found that Diana Gabaldon put out the next book in the Outlander series - A Breath of Snow and Ashes. It just about killed me to pay retail in the airport store, but I had to have it (and I hadn't brought anything to read). So far it's good, but if I didn't know the characters so well I might find it slow moving. If you haven't read the Outlander series, it's worth checking out. Get over the whole time travel thing and you'll be good to go. Friday's mishaps aside, I had a wonderful weekend! Annie has converted me. Not only will I start using Annie's combination method, I'm going to learn to carry yarn on my left. Heresy all the way!! Annie was wonderul! She's a funny, warm approachable woman and a great teacher, to boot. If you ever get a chance to take one of her classes DO! It's by far the best class I've taken. She taught us how to cable w/o a cable needle!! I'm soooo ready to start Mr. Man's sweater now. I also want to start the silk corset, but am not sure about which yarn (from the stash) to use. I have no pics, sorry. I forgot the camera. What I'm in love with is Woolwinders. The lady who runs the shop, Jaqui, is so nice. It's a lovely shop, new warm and inviting. I bought some Rowan all seasons cotton and some wool cotton. Some of which was actually on sale. The ASC is for Smooch in the All Seasons Cotton book (scroll down). Don't know yet about the wool cotton. I was thinking something along the lines of Hopeful (knitalong here) or maybe even use it for the Silk Corset. But first, Mr. Man and the boys need sweaters. It's just starting to get cold. Oh, I almost forgot. I bought some amazing silk/wool from great adirondak to make Mr. Man a cabled scarf - using my new found cabling skills. Jacqui insisted that just the one hank will be enough. The scarf will be his special gift for not complaining about making travel plans without consulting him first.

Pics Glorious Pics!

As promised. PICTURES! pretty bracelet from SP I'm not sure what happened to all the other pics I took of my secret pal's last package to me. I had a bunch. I'll gather the goodies up again to take more sometime next week. I really liked everything and I wanted to make sure everyone saw the pretty bracelet she made me. SP, you really are good at the whole jewelry and beading thing. I've worn it to work a few times and I get compliments on it. I'm really looking forward to finding out who you are. My brown Serendipity Shawl in the window of The Purly Gates. heavenly... The unikat sweater front and back. The camera adds 10 pounds my butt! That's atleast 15. (15 my backside in particular doesn't need!) The ginormous sleeves on the Unikat sweater: The sleeves are humongous. I need to redesign them. I was so hoping to have this sweater for this weekend, but alas and alack, it is not to be. Hopefully by the end of October. Given my woeful lack of finished objects this year, maybe I could go as a knitter for Halloween. I certainly haven't been much of one lately. Anyhoo.... MIL is here to play with the kids and Mr. Man while I go to MD. 2 days till Annie!!! 2 days!! And tomorrow is Friday. You know what that means.

still no pics

I just realized that I haven't finished squat this year. I guess that's what comes of not being able to decide on what to start on in the first place. On the Unikat sweater: I've made it to sleeve island. I've frogged this sleeve twice already and it looks like I'm going to again. I don't like how large it is at the wrist. 9 inches! I also don't like how the increases start right away. I'm going to rip this back again and cast on fewer stitches and work w/o increases for at least three inches. Then I'll work out how I need the increases to work in order to get a nice shape to the sleeve and enough stitches at the end to fit the armhole. I was really hoping to have this done to wear this weekend (it's chilly in DC), but it looks like I'll just have to bring it with me. I'd better go ahead and block the body pieces, just in case I complete the sleeves in time. I basted the shoulders together to see how the body fit and it seems to be o.k. with the back as a size small and the front as a medium. I'll baste the sides tonight and double check. I was originally going to make a small, but when I almost finished the back I decided I wanted a little more ease. Rather than ripping right away, I decided to make the front larger and see how things worked. I've made no progress on FBS. She's still in timeout for tricking me into working the wrong row. I'm hoping to have some quiet time on the plane this weekend to figure out the mistake and get moving again. I had a lovely time at knit knight last Thursday. Got to see AmyDe for the first time in ages. The shop has expanded and got LOADS of new yarn in. I didn't even make it to sit at the table to knit for the first 45 minutes. I just started digging through the boxes of yarn that were waiting to be put up on shelves. (I was a good girl, though. I didn't rummage w/o permission or through boxes that hadn't been checked in yet. Except for a few, but I still had permission!) Reynolds Smile is on my list of yarn I want. But I'm not buying right now, despite the fact that it would be a very quick knit. I must keep reminding myself that my to do list is long enough. Besides, I have to save some money for ANNIE! I love the shop where she's teaching this weekend and they'll have lots of new and interesting things I can't get at The Purly Gates (fka String of Purls). Troublecat goes in for bladder surgery tomorrow morning. I really hope this solves the problem of her peeing all over the house. Shana tova!

14, 13, 12...

11 days till ANNIE! Can you tell I'm just about bursting with anticipation? I can almost taste the stale pretzels and Coke I'll have on the plane trip North. mmmmm..... airplane snacks..... I'll be staying with the 'rents while I'm there. I'm hoping to make it to Knit Happens while I'm there, but I don't know what kind of time I'll have. Since I'm staying with the 'rents, I should probably spend some time with them. I've been wanting to start a knitting group at work or at temple but am not sure how to go about it. I'm thinking getting folks together to learn to knit and to make those projects small, simple items for Dulaan Project, or blocks for Warm Up America. Not sure yet. Small items for Dulaan would be good for learning pattern reading and shaping and would have close to instant gratification. (Me? talk to strangers? lead a group? The fact that I'm even considering it tells me loads about how well the meds are working. I'm only mildly anxious about it, where a year or so ago my answer would have been a swift "no way in hell." Though I probably would have said it a little more politely than that.) I'm making progress on the Unikat sweater. I'm loving this yarn. It is amazingly soft - just glides right across the needles. Addis would be the perfect needle for this yarn if they didn't make my hands hurt. I finished the back a few weeks ago, but suspected that I made it too small. So, when I cast on for the front, I made the next size up. If the two together don't give me the size I want, then I'll frog and reknit the back. I just hope I have enough yarn. This stuff was obscenely expensive so I didn't get the usual extra skein. (This project was a special treat to myself last year after surviving the week alone with the boys while Mr. Man was in Taiwan on business.) Work is going well. I'm finally feeling like I've settled in and I've been rather productive. Wish I was working fewer hours though. Troublecat will finally go in for bladder surgery. (there went that yarn money!). She's had stones for a while now, and the special diet is not dissolving them. I'm a little worried about her; she's 11, but in otherwise good health. Once the stones are out the special food should keep her from forming new stones for a while at least. But if they come back quickly, we'll have to re-evaluate what to do. Mr. Man is getting really sick of her peeing on everything and has actually said he wants her to go. He hasn't insisted b/c he knows that's pretty much a death sentence for her. It's really sad to me that he feels this way, b/c he is her human. I had her when we met, but when Mr. Man and I hooked up, she totally bonded with him. It's like he was chopped liver. Found the camera. Of course, I didn't remember to bring it downstairs with me and now I don't feel like running upstairs for it. I'll get pics up eventually. Nothing really looks any different than it did before though. Except, courtesy of my every crafty Secret Pal, the Divine Miss C, my Clapotis has a few more pretty stitch markers on it. (I've got to learn how she gets such neat twisty ends; mine come out all pointy and snaggy.)

pop quiz friday

You are Mohair. You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla Yeah, I know. I found this one via KR. so sue me. Be forewarned, though, I have a good lawyer. I finally have batteries! Of course, now I can't find the freakin' camera!! I can't remember if that's tragic or ironic? All I can remember about the difference between the two is that Alanis Morisette doesn't know the difference either. No knitting accomplishments worth mentioning. I really need to get started on socks in the yarn my pal sent me. Hi secret pal! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. If you're in TX, stay safe and dry, and get the heck away from the beach.

Warm Fuzzies!

I will admit that several times this week I have said "what was I thinking?" I am glad to be back at work. Lots of people are welcoming me back and it's really nice. It's surprising how many people that I'd only worked with for a few months remember me. I'm not sure yet if that's good or bad, or if it's just because it's hard to forget such a HUGELY pregnant woman. (we're talking almost 200 pounds). Despite all the warm fuzzies, it was a frustrating day. I'm wasting so much time trying to re-learn the system, I'm not getting to spend time doing what I'm good at (and what I like) - which is learning my attorneys' practices and minding the docket to make sure nothing gets missed. I need to make a couple of appointments with the people who will be the most helpful to me and pick their brains. Then I can get started on the fun stuff. I'm going to miss Knit Night tomorrow.

just when...

I finally settle on my Wannabee list, the Fall Knitty comes out. This time, Knitty is just fabulous. There are at least two items I'd like to make. and . Wendy says that she is working on charts for Ella and that they should be available in the near future. The Lady Godiva yarn by Handmaiden appears to be a worsted weight and I think I just might possibly, maybe, kindasorta have enough worsted of something around to do this. (remember the April 1st Stash Flash? Despite having moved some along and attempting the Different Kind of Yarn Diet, it's gotten worse.) Leaves would be gorgeous in brown. But, believe it or not, I don't have any brown worsted weight yarn. You'd think, that given my propensity for spontaneous yarn purchasing that I would immediately run out and purchase brown yarn. (Particularly, Mission Falls 1824 wool since MF is going to close up shop.) Alas, this is not the case. I'm going to show a little willpower. Also, I have some green Cash Iroha that would work, too. I was saving it for the hourglass sweater or for this. I guess it will depend on whether or not I need something mindless by the time I get started. Samus, however pretty and functional looks a lot like Theresa's Sigil. I'm not implying anything unpleasant by that in any way whatsoever. It's just was struck me when I saw it. Both are very nice and I'm torn between them. Sigil has more cabling and the mitered corners would be a challenge and it has the whole collar thing working for it, too - making it look a little dressier. Samus is that it comes in more than one size and has one piece body construction, too. I've made a little progress on the Unikat sweater. I haven't been knitting much lately. I've been too upset with all the hurricane news and my knitting is off as a result.

Countdown to Heathendom

Destination: Woolwinders ETA: October 8, 2005 Objective: Heretical Teaching from Annie YAY!!!

Pop Quiz Friday

I know. I know. The camera. Pictures. I get it already. In the meantime:

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

Good thing, too. I am Italian! (Well, I was, but then I got married and along with taking the name, I got the DNA, too. It was part of a package.)* *Extra points if you get the reference.

goody goody two socks!

My secret pal is just great. I can't post pictures right now, but I wanted to C. know that the package came yesterday and I am loving all the goodies. The knit picks sock yarn especially!! I've been wanting to try that for a while now and you picked colors I really like. Mocha, chocolate, latte, cream and blue. Food colors!! yay! Thanks, C!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho!

It's off to work I go! Got the call today. My old firm wants to re-hire me and they have made a generous offer (more than I was making when I left almost 4 years ago) based on my experience and my particular skill set. Though, how in the world they came up with 12 years of experience is beyond me. I'm not going to change their perception, however. If they can't count it's not my problem. I'm going to have to be much more organized from now on. Make lunches at night for both myself and the boys, make sure I've picked out the boys' clothes and my own the night before. All that organized mom stuff. Getting up at 6:30 is going to suck, but I get to wear my work clothes again. And I'm looking forward to making some fabulous sweaters and tops to wear at the office! I won't have as much time to knit, so I guess it's a good thing that I've re-priortized my Wannabee list. Speaking of knitting... I've made some progress on the Unikat sweater. The back is bound off and I've started the front. (I really have to get the camera out of hiding.) The other knitting I've done is the Fugly Baby Blanket. The husband and I saw The Brothers Grimm last weekend and I was able to get a few rows done. I'm on the decreasing half of the square. The Brothers Grimm was fun, but not a full priced movie. Cute comedy and I loved all the different fairy tale references. I loved Grimm's Fairy Tales when I was little - and I didn't have the kid friendly ones, either. (I guess that explains a lot.) It's perfect fodder for a cinema and drafthouse if you are fortunate enough to have one of those. Personally, I'm amazed there isn't one here in Atlanta. Anyway, it was a fun movie, good for a matinee or wait for cable.

Pop Quiz Friday!

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

I'd love to know which two I got wrong...

Me Me

I've bit tagged twice for this one, so I guess I'd better get started. 10 years ago, I was engaged to my husband. 5 years ago, We'd decided to start trying to have children so I quit getting the depo-provera shots. Things went downhill from there; stopping the depo made my mild depression worse. And the attempts to get and stay pregnant didn't help. I learned more about it and found a good doctor. I also learned the power of the web. I met a great group of women on-line that were wonderful support during that difficult time. We bought our first house. 1 year ago, we found the right medication! woo hoo! We celebrated SASP's first birthday. Yesterday, I took SP to the school we're planning on him graduating from 15 years from now. Then I interviewed to go back to work at my old firm. Today, took SASP in for surgery to get a really scary mole removed. Knitted. (With the exception of them screwing up my appt time, everything went swimmingly.) 5 snacks I enjoy: Turtles, chocolate chip cookies, chips and salsa w/sour cream, fig newtons, pears and havarti. 5 songs I know all the words to: Beloved Wife - Natalie Merchant; - Wherever I May Roam - Metallica; Dragula - Rob Zombie; Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails; Closer - Nine Inch Nails (I'd like to learn the words to O Fortuna from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" but my Latin's a little rusty.) 5 things I'd like to do with $100 million: set up a fund for victims of terrorism & their families; fund campaigns to get libertarians into elected offices in such a way that the mainstream media can't ignore it; set up an education fund so that kids in crappy school districts can go to private school; fund a music and arts program in a school district that would otherwise not have the money; set up a research and development/venture capital firm so small businesses and inventors can bring their ideas to fruition and create more jobs 5 places I would run away to: Scotland, Tuscany or Sicily, Sedona, AZ, Singapore, Toronto 5 things I would never wear: white shoes before memorial day, stilleto heels, a poncho or cape, neon colors, chocolate sauce 5 favorite shows: Battlestar Galactica (new); The Nanny (don't laugh; the characters had great chemistry!); Stargate SG1 (though this season stinks); Special Report with Brit Hume; BBC World News my 5 biggest joys: my husband, who listens to me enough to write an article on knitters and copyright despite the ribbing he took for it at work; Stinkerton Prime, my first baby; Stinkteron Adjunct to Stinkerton Prime, my little man who I have to keep reminding myself isn't a baby anymore; knitting, what brought me sanity; my dear friends, near and far. One more: shoes that fit! my 5 favorite toys: the PDA I have yet to receive from DH; the sat-nav in the car; My knitting needles, of course; the computer; my stand mixer 5 people I'm going to tag with this: My Secret Pal (I look forward to reading this when I know who you are!); Laurie, AmyDe, Michelle, and Jessica. I just have to know what makes you tick.

Update on the wannanbees

(somehow or another this didn't get posted on Monday, so it's alittle late getting to you) About a week or so ago I posted my Wannabee list. I'll spare you the complete re-hash and only show the revised versions. Current WIPS and projects that need decisions:

1. Sursa - just needs ruffle
2. Flower Basket Shawl in Koigu (most likely for my mother)
3. Clapotis in CTH silk and merino worsted
4. Crystal Palace Trio Bag - 75% done -- Thinking about ripping; in the meantime it's on indefinite hold.
5. Top Down Tee in Interlacements Nebraska - frogged, needs to be knit down from the underarms -- This is going to be frogged and put away. I haven't touched it since I ripped back and I'm thinking this yarn might be better for another project.
6. Lots of Options Top - needs shoulders re-worked to accomodate lack of yarn -- I'm so upset about the whole yarn running out thing I can't stand to look at this right now. It can sit till next Spring.
7. The Orange Beast - one row stripes with 12 different yarns... (what drugs was I on?) The Serpent Sweater - front done, started the back. There's no way on earth, that this will fit SASP at this point. -- This is going in the maybe someday I'll finish it and donate it pile.
8. Lion Brand Lion Boucle baby blanket - I needed something to keep the hands busy durring War of the Worlds. -- This will live in the car to work on at odd moments.

The one skein wonder is now the "no skein wonder." There just wasn't enough yarn in that one ball of Silver Thaw and I have a sneaking suspision that it wouldn't have been very flattering on me, anyway. Very pretty yarn, though and I'll use it for a hat. Can't have too many hats. So now I have a new Plan:

1. Unikat - 40%, back is done.
2. DH's cabled sweater - start swatching.
3. Sweaters for the boys - one in lotus blossom's spiral worsted in "blue goose," the other in well, something. Or, maybe I'll work them both in the blue goose and add navy to it. hmmmm... (my dye lot is much more subdued than the current ones she has)
4. Sursa - just needs ruffle - Need to check knitting on the edge for one that's tolerable to make; I'm considering doing a sawtooth edge, but am not sure if I really want to ditch the ruffle.
5. Flower Basket Shawl in Koigu (most likely for my mother) - Needs several quiet hours to fix.
6. Clapotis in CTH silk and merino worsted - 35%
7. Start the strips for the Des Colores Jacket.
8. The Orange Beast - one row stripes with 12 different yarns... -- to be worked on in my rare, spare evening moments. (I'm tempted to rip this and make a Serendipity Shawl out of it. Actually, given the quantity of yarn involved, I could make 2 shawls.)
9. Oh, and somehwere in there make some socks & hats and work on the Fugly Baby Blanket.

See, that's much more manageable now.

SP had a great first day at his new school. Didn't miss me at all and reassured me that he played "gently" with the other kids. Roughhousing has been an issue of late. SASP however, had his little heart broken when SP got out of the car and left him behind. It was just so sad to see him melt down wanting his big brother. Speaking of school, I need to make his lunch for tomorrow.

I'm off to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens tomorrow a.m. with a friend to visit a train exhibit they have in the gardens. woo hoo!

Pop Quiz Friday

You are

What Rejected Crayon Are You?

I can't believe it...

USA TODAY I'm just thoroughly disgusted. As a result of the idiots on the supreme court deciding that private property rights, one of the cornerstones of American life, are irrelevant when it comes to the desires of the state, the city of New London, CT is now retaliating against the homeowners for trying to defend their rights in the face of blatant eminent domain abuse. Actually, I'm not disgusted... I'm outraged. Anyway, I have been making progress on the Unikat sweater. The back is almost done. I promise that I will get pictures up as soon as I hit the store for batteries. FBS hasn't been touched in weeks. I misplaced my tally sheet and tried to figure out what row I was on and botched it good. I need a good hour or two completely without interruption to fix it and finding that at the present time is more of a challenge than the actual fix. Sursa still doesn't have a ruffle. I don't have a cable long enough and those crappy Denise needles keep popping on me. I'm thinking about knitting the ruffle separately from the edge inward and then stitching it on. I'm good enough at seaming that it shouldn't look any different than if I'd picked up the stitches. Taught my class the other night. It went well. Two people didn't show up, so I didn't get paid for them, but I offered to teach the class again if anyone was interested. Stinkerton Prime starts school Monday. I'm a little sad about it. It's not like he hasn't been in preschool for the past two years, but this is the school that we're planning on him staying in through High School and it feels like I'm sending him to kindergarden (which is 2 years away). I know he'll be fine and he'll love it. Stinkerton Adjunct to Stinkerton Prime doesn't start preschool till after Labor Day. They're in different schools this year. With luck, SASP will get accepted to the same school SP's now in and I won't have to do the two-carpool thing for long. Now that both of the boys are in school, I'm looking at going back to work. My old boss contacted me about coming back to be his secretary again. We spoke last June, but we've been waiting till the Fall re-assignments start happening. His current secretary is being re-assigned (finally. I'd made it very clear that I wouldn't come back if it meant someone was going to lose their job.) He's fine with me being part-time. I was so sick when I was pregnant with SP that I was part-time anyway, so we know that those hours will work for my old boss. As for the other attorney I might be assigned, well... that remains to be seen. I hope it's not who he is currenlty paired with; I'm familiar with his workload and personality and I don't think we'd work well together. He's a nice guy; I just don't think we'd be a good match. I did the math and as long as I earn (after taxes) the tuition and child care, it comes out even to work. Actually, we may come out ahead if I'm still eligible for benefits as a part-timer. I'm one of those people who tends to identify strongly with what I do. I liked my job; it was challenging but not so challenging that I felt overwhelmed. I'll also get to wear my nice clothes again. I am so sick of wearing a T-shirt and jeans every day.

rollin' rollin' rollin'

get those doggies rollin' We're taking advantage of the last week before school starts and finally taking a family vacation. Look for me on the beach, I'll be the nutcase knitting the world's ugliest baby blanket. What's sad is that we are leaving in the morning and I haven't given a thought as to what projects to bring for when I'm not in the sand.

new knitalong

Rose-kim is hosting a knitalong that is important. Check it out... I know I'm not supposed to be adding items to my list, but I think this is a worthy cause. I might even have yarn in the stash for this and if I do, I'm going to put Hopeful on the to do list. Not sure when I'll get it done, but hopefully in time for Spring 2006. I've added a couple of books to the stash reduction page and will list individual patterns shortly.

laughing so hard it scared the boys

http://www.subservientchicken.com/ O.K. for work. (tell it to do something slightly naughty i.e. "sexy dance.") --------------- I've moved a couple of destash items over to e-bay. The reserve prices on e-bay are the same as the listed prices here. I'm going through the books and patterns one last time and those should be listed by late Sunday. Went to Knit Night this evening. Had a great time. It was a fun group and in honor of Purly Gates' one year anniversary, all Knit Nights this month have wine tastings. I promise, I will have pictures for you soon. I just need to get batteries. ----------------- Could someone please tell me where to get the status bars for my projects? I've tried and tried annamotion.ca but the site is down and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. Stealing the code from another blog just doesn't seem right to me. Thanks.

Wannabees

As Her Royal Fugliness, Blech, lies blocking, I find myself wondering "what next?" Adults:

1. Unikat Sweater fromFall '04 Knitters- should be a quick knit if I can just get gauge!
2. Cabled sweater in Jaeger Shetland Aran in Sage from Men in Knits - scan through the pages till you get to the guy with the skates (for DH - need to swatch for this)
3. Des Colores Jacket in Noro Silk Garden col. 50 and CTH Furlana in Nero from Module Magic
4. A-line Cardigan in S. Charles New Tweed in yellow
5. Ribby Cardi in Noro Kureyon col. 116 with a coordinating solid for trim.
6. Sonnet - in Plymouth Stone Cotton (for MIL)
7. Audrey in Rowan Calmer in Zeal.
8. Striped v-neck (possibly a hoodie!) in Caron Jewel Box (this yarn was originally inteded for a poncho in Fall '04 FCEK, but the pattern is totally f-d up)
9. Hoodie from Yarn Girls in Manos and Handpainted Yarns - striped
10. Rogue in Jaeger Shetland Aran in Burgundy, but now that I've seen Eris, I may just re-think this one.)
11. Butterfly in Noro Silk Garden col. 72
12. Chamomile and Basil from the Rowan Summer Tweed Collection in Morning Glory and Berry, respectively
13. Tank in Berroco Denim Silk or in Tahki Cotton Classic.
14. Elizabeth Lavold Tank in purple Silky Wool - have extra hank to add sleeves
15. Green, beaded, racer-back tank top in Cotton Classic (need to work out the design)

Children:

1. Sweaters for the boys (I'm feeling really guilty about this one b/c I didn't make sweaters for them at all last winter.)
2. Wavy Baby Cardigan in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky
3. Haiku
4. Poncho for a friend's little girl

Accessories:

1. Sursa II - in Noro Transistions col. 5 and Cash Iroha in carmine or... Wendy's fabuous new scarf, Gioia.
2. Various and sundry socks and felted slippers
3. MD Scarf in Noro Silk Garden col 48
4. MD Scarf in Noro Silk Garden col 39 (for nephew)
5. MD Scarf in Noro Kig Kureyon (for BIL)
6. Another Serendipity Shawl - only this one comes exclusively from the stash. No Exceptions!
7. Hat for Daddy in Wool-Ease Chunky- not that he deserves it, but he sure the heck isn't getting an afghan.
8. Various and sundry hats for children and grown ups alike
9. Sueet in Berroco Suede in Calamity Jane (purple)
10. Via Diagonale in Cotton Classic for spring - consider making a coordinating tank.

Things I must finish knitting NOW:

1. Sursa - just needs ruffle
2. Flower Basket Shawl in Koigu (most likely for my mother)
3. Clapotis in CTH silk and merino worsted
4. Crystal Palace Trio Bag - 75% done
5. Top Down Tee in Interlacements Nebraska - frogged, needs to be knit down from the underarms
6. Lots of Options Top - needs shoulders re-worked to accomodate lack of yarn
7. The Orange Beast - one row stripes with 12 different yarns... (what drugs was I on?)
8. The Serpent Sweater - front done, started the back. There's no way on earth, that this will fit SASP at this point.
9. Lion Brand Lion Boucle baby blanket - I needed something to keep the hands busy durring War of the Worlds.

Well... it's a little overwhelming to see it all written down, but prioritizing helps. Rule #1: No more projects for the shop till after the holidays. Rule #2: Always have something to work on in the car. (Those McDonalds drive thru lanes are worth a couple of rows each time.) Rule #3: No more new yarn. Rule #4: No adding a new project w/o removing another project.

The Plan:

1. One Skein Wonder. It's a new yarn and I absolutely must try it out.
2. Finish the ruffle on Sursa
3. Unikat; this will be a quick knit, since it's on 7.5 mm needles and the yarn is a joy to work.
4. Finish FBS
5. Make sweaters for the boys and start swatching for DH's cabled sweater.
6. Make serious progress on DH's cabled sweater - it would be nice if he could wear it at least once before Spring arrives.
7. Start the strips for the Des Colores jacket.

Carpool lane projects will be socks and the Des Colores strips. Hats or scarves will be the in between projects, the first of which must be Wendy's Gioia. That should keep me busy through December or January. After Des Colores, finish the Lots of Options Top and start the Yellow A-line Tweed Cardigan for Spring 2006.

running around naked...

Now that everyone is gone I feel so much better. It was really nice having everyone here for the visit, but I was definitely ready to have them gone yesterday. My parents left today. It was a nice visit with my mother, now that she's knows the boundaries. (Funny how that didn't happen till I had kids.) My father is still in the doghouse as far as I'm concerned. He decided to spend almost 4 of the 7 days here with his cousins in Birmingham. I wouldn't have minded so much if he'd seen the boys in the last year and a half! Anyway, we did the whole family portrait thing and they turned out nice. As a surprise to my parents, my sister and I had our picture taken together to mimic one from our childhood. The old photo was in really bad shape and I had to have it restored. We had them both framed and gave the pics to my parents when all the extended family was here for the BBQ last weekend. My oldest woke up early one morning last week while everyone was here. My sister and brother in law were sleeping in SASP's room. SP started making fun noises after using the toilet. My sister gets up and opens the door to find SP playing naked in his room. "Oh! It's you!" and he proceeded to proceeds to play and run around in their room for a bit. When the suggestion was made that SP needed to go put on underpants, he said to them, very seriously, "No, I need to keep an eye on you." The kid had one-liners like that all week. He really knows when to turn on the charm. Didn't make much progress on Her Fugliness - just a few more rows - but I did complete another of the little fruit hats for my friend having a little girl soon. This one is green with a red top - like a poinsettia. The first was red with a green top - like a tomato. The red matches some yarn I picked up for her to do a sweater for the baby; she needs something do to while on bed rest. (Ssend some "stay put" vibes this way!) I must say, this little project has sold me on the Cotton Classic. I'd always stayed away from it due to the smaller needle size and the lack of elasticity of cotton. No more fear here! I am now an avowed fan. Am loving what Wendy did with the Kochoran I sent her. What little I can see in the photo looks gorgeous! I'm waiting impatiently for the pattern. I've added a few more things to the destash post. I'll be adding tools, books and patterns over the next few days.

I think I may actually have enough yarn

Maybe. That 50% off sure is wonderful. Better than e-bay even. Went back with my mom again today. I bought a lot more cotton classic yarn; two more skeins of the GGH soft kid and some GGH Davos. I'm very excited about the burgundy Davos. I have enough to make matching sweaters for the boys. I even bought a little sock yarn. The shop that's going out of business will still be around till Saturday. I feel it's my duty as a knitter to help relieve them of their leftover yarns so that they can take as small a loss on the shop as possible. That's my story and I'm sticking to it; DH isn't buying it though. Her Royal Fugliness is progressing along. I've just started balls 7 and 8. This project is taking way too long. I should have had it done 2 weeks ago. At least I'm making progress and I'm not working on anything else in the meantime. Tonight is the last night the parents are here, so I"m going to miss Knit Night at Purly Gates (formerly String of Purls). Very disappointing, but I think I'll live. I'm starting to put together my Secret Pal's next package. The last batch of goodies went over well, so I know I'm on the right track. A few pics will be up soon.

just a quickie... not much knitting

I've had tons of family in town so I haven't had much time to knit. I made a little progress on Her Fugliness, though. I hope to start balls 7 and 8 in a day or two. As far as family in town goes, it's my parents, my sister's family that are staying with me. 10 people in my house. Thank goodness for the finished basement. We put Stinkerton Adjunct in our room to free up a bedroom, as well. Man! He's one noisy sleeper. Yesterday, I had the local aunts and uncles come over for BBQ - ribs, chicken, baked beans and the like. mmmm mmmm good. A big surprise was my aunt and uncle flying in from Oklahoma just for the BBQ. Very cool. I don't think I'd seen this particular aunt in about 10 years and had never met her husband before. It was a great visit and I got to hear more stories about my grandparents and great-grandparents. I have got to get those stories recorded. Saw War of the Worlds today. Extremely well done, except for the hokey ending. It was a good movie given we all know how it ends. The graphics were terrific and Dakota Fanning is amazingly talented. It's the first movie I've seen her in and I'm really impressed. ----------------- Interesting articles I've come across recently: National Review Canadian Jewish News This link was too long to post as is. Go here. http://www.naomiragen.com/Columns/Et%20Tu%20Oprah.htm ---------------- I received a comment from Anonymous the other day in reference to my Non-Knitterly Angry Rant. If you re-read my post you will see that I do not state that Iraq was linked to the 9/11 attrocities, nor did I state that the 9/11 commission did so. There are a couple of chapters in the 9/11 commission report that discuss the issue of Iraq and its links with terrorism. Also, those chapters show the links between Iraq and various terrorist groups, including al qaeda. I believe the report is available on-line. (I lent out my copy, so I can't quote the pages for you.) As far as people having sympathy for terrorists and what causes them to turn to terrorism, they're out there. I happen to know of, and personally know a number of people who think that terrorism is the result of western, specifically American, foreign policies in the middle east. They believe that it is poverty and hopelessness, not hatred, that drives these people. They believe that if we try to understand the situation and open a dialogue with the perpetrators we can convince them to stop. Do some hunting on line; you'll come across people who believe this.

almost done...

I'm almost done with the brown novelty shawl. I think I'm going to name this shawl pattern my "Serendipity Shawl." The actual knitting is simple enough. two edge increases and two center increases on the right side rows. Nothing could be easier. The serendipitous part is finding the right mix of novelty yarns in the right quantities to make it all work. I will have plenty extra after this to make a self fringing scarf out of most of the same yarns. Finally cleaned up the fringe on the original version and it's now sitting at the yarn shop in an effort to lure students to the class on it. The shop is only about a year old, so there are tons of beginners that like to have a lot of hand holding. So, I'll show them the technique on plain yarn and then we'll go through the ins and outs of yarn selection for a project like this. I'll post pics in a day or two. I have four rows to complete, then blocking and fringe. Woo Hoo! Fringe party! -- Update: I have finished the fringe and the shawl is at The Purly Gates. Of course, I forgot to take a photo before I left it there... Here it is blocking. Brown Serendipity Shawl blocking Project notes are here. Blech is about 45% done and is on hold b/c the shop wanted these to lure students. I will get back to Her Fugliness once I start blocking.

Stash For Sale (and some for swap.)

I have fibery goodies to move along. The link is at the top of the sidebar on the right. On another note, I have made no progress on any knitting. It's sickening. Blech is at least at about 40% done. I'm going to have to put it down for abit though and redo the fringe on my first novelty shawl and finish the brown novelty shawl. The shop wants to put them on display so I can teach a class on them. The class will consist mostly of making a small sample in plain yarn and then some handholding for yarn selection. The little sample shawls will go to the Trauma Bear program that the local knitting guild sponsors. I've decided to start working again. Had a lunch with my last boss and he says he'd love to have me bark. He just has to get it cleared through HR - and that could be a snag. I've made it very clear that I will not come back if it's going to cost someone their position with the firm. But the man's gone through 6 or 7 secretaries since I left nearly 4 years ago - and not b/c he's difficult to work for - and none of them have worked out for him as well as I did. In addition to chatting with the old firm, I'm starting to send the resume around for some in-house positions. I think I'll have a better time finding part time work through a corporation than through another lawfirm- especially given the narrow field in which I will work and the conflicts created by the husband being an attorney in the same field.

Non-knitterly, angry rant.

So much has been said about the tragedy in London already, but I feel I must say something. Screaming at the top of my lungs and cursing these madmen to the lowest recesses of hell hasn't helped. I've been so enraged that I've had to wait all this time to post anything remotely coherent - and at that I'm not entirely sure how coherent my thoughts are. My heart goes out to Londoners and to the other victims of terrorism in other parts of the world - Israel, Iraq, and the recent bombing in Spain as well. I've decided that the husband and I will go to London as soon as we have the time. Terrorist bombings are not "just desserts" for governmental actions and policies. (We don't ask to be bombed into little pieces; just like women don't ask to be raped.) These madmen do not care who they kill or how many they kill. They use whatever excuses handy to rationalize the murder of innocents. Terrorists attack civillians indiscriminately. The attack the weak and unarmed. They cut off the heads of bound victims. These are not honorable people and I don't particularly care to understand a culture of terror, violence, murder, and the subjugation and mutilation of women. You can have all the sympathy in the world for the plight of terrorists and can want to understand the why of terrorists, but in the end, you are still their enemy. If you don't agree with their ideology in any way, they will kill you. Terrorists don't care who they kill. This is why we can never negotiate with terrorists. And let's just be honest here, the majority of instances of terrorism nowadays are committed by Islamic extremists. Anyone who believes there was no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or Iraq with other terrorist groups, needs to actually read the 9/11 commission report for themselves. It's a nonpartisan report and it spells it all out. See the movie "Dirty War." If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, nothing will. Oh, and while we're at it, let's quit calling the terrorists in Iraq "insurgents." Something like 9 out of 10 of terrorists in Iraq are foreign nationals. That's not an insurgency, that's an invasion. ***** Correction, I have not verified that figure; I'm still hunting the original info. In the meantime, click here for info on the demographics of Iraq's "insurgency." I say we let the Russian Mob take care of these monsters. You know what they do? They eliminate, one by one, each and every family member of the person they are after. If a suicide bomber is willing to give up his life not only for the glory, but for the money his family will receive upon his death, then maybe, just maybe, knowing his entire bloodline will be wiped off the face of the earth will act as a deterrent. It's barbaric, yes; it is also effective. And obviously barbarism is the only thing these terrorists understand. I told you I was angry.

Crispy

Not from partying, but from fiber overload... I've recently fallen off the wagon in a not so small way. It all started innocently enough. A couple of balls of this here, a couple of balls of that there. I was cheating, but hey, I had it all under control. It was just a little yarn. Next thing I know, I wake up on the office floor clutching the new IK and as I wipe the sleepdrool off my chin, there's a paypal receipt for a bag of KidClassic. I blame it all on IK. They shouldn't be allowed to put pictures that pretty out where those with fiber issues might be exposed to them and be tempted by them. Totally their fault. Oh! and those vendors on e-bay with their "free shipping" and "discontinued colors..." They should be stopped before someone really gets hurt. Yep. It's all their fault. It's not my fault I am totally lacking in self restraint. We need legislation! We need fiber-nannies! Someone take responsibility and protect me from myself!! Oh, and one of my LYS is going out of business... 50% off all yarn and books. Yeah baby! I'm tempted to go back tomorrow for some Tahki New Tweed. I'll post pictures of my descent into fiber-purgatory as soon as possible. I also bought copies of Knitting on the Edge and Weekend Knitting. WK is damaged, but for $7 I can live with it - especially give that I only want it for the washcloth pattern. KOTE doesn't have a dust jacket but the price was better than Amazon. One good thing about these purchases is that I'm feeling better about my UFOs. I'm going to finish Blech fairly soon. I'm about ready to start the third pair of skeins and that puts me at about 40% done. I am so glad that I had to the foresight to cast on for both sides at once. The purple Crystal Palace cotton chenille arrived today. I snagged that off of the Knitswap yahoo group. Love Knitswap. If anyone needs to find me, I'll be working out tomorrow in a lame attempt to resist elann's organic cotton. After that I'll be deciding what yarn needs new homes. I may start listing a few things here before I try Knitswap and e-bay.

Five things I miss about childhood

Thanks to Mare for my first MeMe. I'm glad this is a short one b/c it's actually really hard; I don't think too much about my childhood. Snow Days. In 1978 or '79 DC got hit by a huge blizzard. We're talking 3 feet of snow. Nearly 2 whole weeks out of school. Nothing can beat that. If we'd still been in Boston, there might have been a one hour delay. Nowadays a snowday means a day lost from work and stuck at home with 2 kids who don't much like being cooped up. Thank goodness for Noggin. Guilt Free Reading. Lately I've been obliged to read books like: George Shrinks, Bull in a China Shop and Kitten's First Full Moon. Reading is now a guilty pleasure that consists of news, blogs, knitting books, Harry Potter, and trashy novels. Visits with Grandmother and Granddaddy. Those visits were the few times in my childhood when I knew I was around people who loved me unconditionally. No strings attached. My grades or school behavior were just not part of the equation. They loved me and made sure I knew it - even if it made the other cousins a little jealous. Maybe I should call this "Being the Favorite Grandchild." Christmas. Well, it's not so much Christmas that I miss, but that sense of joyful anticipation. (ah, cynicism, the plague of gen x'ers.) We almost always went to Grandmother and Granddaddy's for Christmas. I've seen pictures but don't remeber the one or two where we stayed home. Just about all of Daddy's brothers and sisters would come with their families on Christmas Eve for dinner and we would open presents between the familes that night - AFTER everyone ate peanuts. (I have no idea where the peanut tradition came from, but to this day I don't like roasted peanuts.) Waiting through all that was torture, b/c you couldn't have just one or two peanuts. No, all the adults had to have a handful at least. And they had to be shelled. I remember being so excited on Chrismas Eve that I couldn't fall asleep - though now that I think about it, that could have been due to the large quantity of "co-cola" consumed. Then, on Christmas morning we weren't allowed in the living room until the grown ups had their breakfast. Believe me, they took their time about it! I haven't celebrated Christmas for many years, but those early mornings where I was the only one up and sneaking into the living room to see what Santa brought are some of my most treasured memories. Up until a few years ago, I would still lie awake at night on Christmas Eve - wide awake for no apparent reason. Saturday Morning Cartoons and only needing to read the funny pages. hmmmm.... who to tag. Laurie, Amanda, C (my secret pal - not that I'll see it till the swap is over. grrr) and Moze. It's up to you if you want to play.

Blech is just depressing

Haven't knit squat for the past couple weeks. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Blech is eating up most of my knitting time. I get about 4 rows done and then I'm finished with it and it's so demotivating a project that I don't want to knit anything else when I put it down. This mesh stitch is a pain and it's boring as well. I'm sooo glad I thought to work both pieces at a time, but it does make the project a bit less portable. Aside from Blech leaving me completely demoralized, I have done nothing, hear that NOTHING, on the knitting front. Theoretically, I should have more time since both the boys are in camp - one of them 5 days a week. But the 40 minute drive each way due to using temporary digs, eats so much of my day and positively wears me out. I think I need to find a bookstore nearby and hang out there on the mornings both of them are at camp. There's a yarn shop nearby, but the service there is lackluster at best, so I've gotten to where I just don't go there. You know how some people have bad hair days? Well, I have bad brain days. Lately, I've been having a lot of bad brain days. Have been doing the medication tinkering thing and I think that if the meds weren't wreaking havoc on my sleep pattern I might feel better. Atleast once camp is over the boys will be in schools closer to home and I may have time to work out more. Working out helps a good bit. My all time favorite yarn shop has changed their name. They are The Purly Gates - a Heavenly Knittery. They had a name change sale when they returned from TNNA. I got a hank of Rainbow Mills cotton for 25% off, plus my guild discount. woo hoo! I have a pttern in mind for it, but it's a little complicated to work and I think I really need idiot knitting for when I'm not working on Blech. New book to read: The Fair Tax by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. All I have to say about the Republican party right now is that they have completely abandoned their constituency. What happened to Social Security privatization? What happened to school vouchers? Let's hope that they at least make some progress on meaningful tax reform. On though whole I'm glad I'm a Libertarian. Politically, I don't feel abandoned just ignored. Where do you stand? Take this quiz.

I just have to say that these are really pretty

handmade beads! Go take a look. http://www.kimhartdesigns.com/ Absolutely nothing to report on the knitting front. Blech has been mocking me from her bag, though. I think I need to do a few rows to keep her in her place.

Just couldn't resist...

Blech

On the knitting front, I've started the Carnivala Poncho for the shop. Henceforth to be known as "BLECH." First of all, it's a ponco. Which automatically makes it horrid. Second, the yarn is terrible. It splits like crazy and has all these papery bits that make it look like I'm working through two stitches instead of just one. On the upside, though, I'm doing both rectangles at once in an effort to make this go a little easier. I need to get this done in two weeks, so my fun projects are on hold. The Mystery Stole Along is moving along without me. I didn't like the CTH Possum Lace I had on hand for it - too fine and the colors just weren't doing it for me. So, I bought some of this: mmmmmerino The package came yesterday. It's much less vibrant than the picture makes it, but oh! the softness. I'm in heaven! I can hardly wait to get started. I think I'll be able to work this on size 6US needles. Working on the MSA will be a reward for finishing a certain number of rows on BLECH. I shouldn't have bought anything, but it was my birthday and I really didn't like the CTH for the MSA. Besides, I found the pattern I bought specifically for the CTH and I will work on that after a couple of easy projects. (Can I rationalize just about anything, or what?) On the nonknitting, opinionated, & judgemental front: Found this article via Moze. Are we finally at the end of seeing 11 year old girls dress like prostitutes? I truly hope so. It's not that I have a problem with what adults wear. That's one of the privileges of being an adult in a free country. There are certain ages and venues where very tight or revealing clothing is inappropriate - school, religous events and the workplace, for example. Encouraging young girls, whose identities have not completely formed, that it's acceptable to dress like a prostitute is reprehensible. The whole image of a preadolescent or teenaged girl wearing a shirt that says "porn star" is revolting. It brings a whole new meaning to the term "kinderwhore." (Remember Courtney Love in the early 90's? At least she was an adult. Not my first choice for a role model, but an adult nonetheless.) There was an article last year in Oprah that said it best... When did a woman's right to flaunt her sexuality become an obligation? BTW: I love low waisted jeans. Low waisted jeans are great, they are much more flattering on most women than regular fit jeans. Regular fit jeans one's backside appear to extend up to the shoulders. But, please, if you're wearing hip huggers and your cesarean scar is visible at least wear a long shirt. (Am I the only person who noticed that? It's the last girl and it's hard to see, but it was clear on the TV.)

A little post party sharing

As promised, here are pictures of the goodies from my very cool and very thoughtful Secret Pal. My Pal's name begins with "C" so that's what she'll be called now. First, there's Knitting! I've only seen this magazine once, on line. Without being able to see some pics I have hesitated to place an order. It's hard to find any of the foreign knitting magazines here, so this is quite a treat. There are some great technical articles in it, a very sexy camisole and the cutest baby dress. Almost makes me want a girl... Almost. There's some super soft, orange and red fluffy yarn called "Art Yarn" that should go beautifully with the leftover Cash Iroha I'll have soon. A blue seashore scented candle that is just the perfect shade and theme for the guest bathroom. C, how could you possibly know that I've done a water & fish theme? (It's the bathroom the kids don't have access to and therefore the one I get to have fun decorating!) And....Tada! another batch of stitch markers. I wonder where my pal got the idea that I like stitch markers? Hey C, I would love to know how you make these w/o the little twisty end that catches on yarn. Maybe a lesson after the big reveal? The cutest little thing though, is a little sheep made of roving! It's hanging on the radio dial in the car to keep me company in the car pool lanes for preschool & camp. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow. It's really cute! C, you said in your note that it was really hard to shop for me. I'm actually pretty easy and you're doing great so far. I like and will use everything you've sent, so far. Thank you! Now I just need to finalize my outgoing package. I thought I had this all planned out but then I saw something that just said "HER!" and that changed the whole theme for the package.

Just like the restaurant!

Yesterday, my KRSP asked if I'd received her package yet. True to form the box arrived yesterday. I picked it up on the way out the door and it didn't make it to my destination before it was opened. Very nice package! She even included some fun orange and red yarn that should go nicely with any leftover Cash Iroha from Sursa. (Sursa is still in Time Out, btw.) I'll post pics and tell y'all about the rest, shortly. Thank you, Secret Pal!! I'm very excited about the goodies. I also need to get my package out to my SP. I've just been having trouble deciding what to send. Anyway, the box came just in time for the big day. Today. It's my birthday! DH gave me a card and a geranium last night -- sure beats cut flowers. So sometime this morning I'll be planting it along with a few other things. later gator.

School's Out!

Well, I taught my first class today. I actually wasn't expecting anyone as no one signed up. I settled in and starting working on a shop sample to pass the time. All of a sudden this very nice lady comes in and apologizes for being late. Oooooh! a student! So, I got to spend the next couple of hours teaching someone how to knit the MD Scarf. It was nice to be able to focus on one person. She's 75 and has been knitting for a while, but nothing really advanced, and thought thought this would be a good chance to expand her skills. I was really nervous earlier in the week. I had a dream in which I was completely unprepared for the class. I wasn't expecting anyone and a dozen people showed up for the class! Some where good knitters and others were pretty clueless so I was being pulled in all different directions and the LYSOs were very negative about the whole experience. At least I wasn't naked. As a result of this little nighttime warning, I had lots of copies of the pattern (in page protectors!) with me this morning and a partially worked up sample for demonstration purposes. I think it went well and I hope the student does, too. I gave her my contact information in case she gets stuck on the last triangle. I learned that I need to practice the trickier parts closer to the date of the class so I can look more polished. I didn't feel very professional having to puzzle out the final triangle in front of her. Now I know better. Very little to report on the knitting front. Sursa has really turned into a bitch of a project. I finished the last increase row and was all set to bind off when I dawned on me that at the end of the third ball of Cash Iroha, that there would not be enough to bind off. Almost all of that third ball was used in the last increase row! Even single stranded there was no way there would be enough to bind off. So I picked it back (again!), dealt with another freakin' denise cable connector popping loose, bought the 40" cable, dealt with another popped connector and finally got it all back on the needle to start binding off. It just burns knowing that I'm going to have about 2/3 skein of (very soft, but still very) ORANGE yarn leftover. I'm hoping it will work with some other Silk Garden leftover I have to make a hat. Come to think of it, the SG is a similar shade and might just go with Sursa. hmmmmm.... I'll need to play and see. Maybe the hat could have a matching ruffle? Then again, I think I've had it with ruffles for a while. The Mystery Stole Along started - finally! I was really looking forward to starting yesterday when the first clue turned up. I decided that I don't like how the CTH possum lace looked in the sample swatch, so I decided to order some of the merino lace from handpainted yarn. I am hoping that the new yarn will show off the lace better than the CTH. The CTH can either be sold off or used in a Flower Basket Shawl. It's what I had in mind for it before the Mystery Stole project called me. With the FBS, I am on the 7th repeat, but with MIL around I wasn't able to concentrate enough to do more than a line or two. In the meantime, DH has clearly told me he does not want me to make socks for him. He's such a Florida boy. I have some magic stripes leftover from a Devan I made last year, so I might make some socks for the boys for this Fall. (Yes, I have that severe mental illness that makes me dress the boys alike or at least coordinating as much as possible.) Just to really show DH how sick I am, I just might make him a matching pair. Since I made them, he'll have to wear them, right?

A litle fairness is in order...

Over the years I've heard stories of in-laws from hell from my friends. There's the one whose in-laws drive two hours and use her house like a hotel in order to use the airport - when they have a perfectly good airport in their own town. There's the one whose MIL is truly an unhappy woman who must take it out on her daughters-in-law. This is the one that actually asked her son to come for a visit with grandaughter only - in front of my friend, and while my friend was pregnant with their second grandchild. I could go on, but won't. I do, however, bow down in awe of the patience and restraint Wendy of Knit and Tonic demonstrates when her in-laws visit. Wendy, If you are not a candidate for sainthood, even Pope JP2 wouldn't make it. So far in my family, we've had good in-law karma -- grandparents and all, and I will assume from the stories I heard growing up that my grandparents had good in-law karma as well. So, my little margarita comment isn't exactly fair. See, my MIL did a good job training DH, and both of them put up with me quite well. So that's a major plus for which I am very, very thankful. My MIL is really sweet, too -- more than a bit like Betty White (and from Minnesota, no less!). The things that do bug me, her fear of change and fear of authority, are my problems not hers, and that's where the margaritas come in. She really is a wonderful woman who adores SP and SASP - and the boys adore her, too. It's wonderful to see them together. (And, hey, she lets me knit when she's here. ) I especially appreciate my MIL since my own parents have made little in the way of effort to see the kids. So, in my own passive-agressive way, I have chosen to either not send pictures or when I do, I only send the free 10x13 for which they don't have frames. Speaking of knitting all weekend, I should be way done with Sursa by now and starting the second one, but my lovely (read piece of crap) Denise needles popped apart in the middle of the row -- and in the middle of the freakin' cable! I would not have used them except that they are the only US15 circs I have. Now I have to try and pick up the stitches and get them back on a needle as soon as I can find a needle. What a pain in the butt. I already did that once already. I didn't like how the ruffle looked so I pulled the needle out to rip, but once Sursa was off the needles the ruffle looked so much better that I put her back on to finish off. BTW: this is taking me one more skein of Cash Iroha than the pattern states.

Some people say that there's a pattern to blame...

But I know... It's my own damned fault. I did manage to work a couple rows on the FBS. (Did you know that you can get margaritas in little beer bottles?) I'm ready to start the 7th repeat and I'm still on the first ball of Koigu. Thanks to Sharon for the clever phrase "Tink-N-Drink." I'm trying to talk my LYS into having wine tastings at Knit Knight, but they aren't going for it. BTW, you have to check out her most recent entry; very clever. MIL is coming for a visit this weekend. (Did you know that you can get margaritas in little beer bottles?) She'll get here Saturday and stay through Wednesday. We're looking forward to the free babysitting and will go see the Sith movie everyone's been babbling on about. Tonight is Knit Knight so I should make a little progress on the Lots of Options top. Running out of yarn demotivated me, so it's been sitting. Since it will go to MIL if it doesn't fit me, I'd like it done by the time she arrives. That way it will look like a gift - sneaky, sneaky. I'll get some opinions tonight as to whether I need to re-work all four of the shoulders or just the one side (front or back) will do. I have made good progress on Sursa. (Did you know that you can get margaritas in little beer bottles?) I had to rip a bit after starting the decreases. They looked a bit wonky given the nice smooth edge on the increase side. I tried doing them all slanting in the same direction, but that made for a heavy edge. Then I tried to stagger them a stitch or so apart, but it made the decreases more obvious. So, back to the wonky decreases. The decreases look a little better than the first time, but after all the attempts at non-wonkiness just about anything would looks good. slanted vs. wonky; decreases as called for are in the upper green portion; slanted are below. slanted only I am debating whether or not to use the orange or the cerise Cash Iroha for the ruffle. DH says orange. I'm not sure, but if I don't use the orange what the hell else am I going to do with it? It's orange! Very soft but still very ORANGE. I also have a couple of skeins of Transitions that might work with the cerise. Suggestions? (Yes, I am a comment slut.) Sursa - ruffle? Here's the Transitions yarn w/the cerise. There's more of the dark pink in the ball than is visible in the photo. I'm thinking that this might make a nice, slightly smaller, and more subdued, Sursa. I'm not sure yet. I've also got an idea bubbling in the back of my mind similar to this for which the Cash Iroha might be ideally suited.

knit one, tink one, drink one

Ugh. It's been two days and I'm still in the 5th repeat on that &%*^%* shawl. I'm going to finish tinking the row I'm on and then the thing is going in Time Out while I devote some attention to Sursa. (speaking of which, I'm really starting to like Sursa. I mean REALLY liking. If I keep it, does that make me a bad person?) Stinkerton Prime quoted me yesterday. We were in the car...(you can see where this is going, right?) when another car honked at a car in the lane next to us and SP promptly stated "Stop that you idiot." I told him that it wasn't nice to say and that I needed to stop saying things like that, too. It could have been worse... Like the time DH watched SP crash his Thomas trains together over and over again and each time SP would pick up one of the trains and say "you jerk" to it. I think this kid spends too much time in the car with me. Again, it could have been worse... Like the time we were in Ethan Allan and he proclaimed in a crystal clear voice "That's crap. That's a piece of crap." Fortunately we were alone in that part of the store. It was very hard not to laugh b/c I knew exactly where that came from. (We'd just been in another furniture store where I was checking to see if the backs of the dressers were wood or heavy cardboard and muttering "that's crap," every time I found that it wasn't wood. I really didn't think he'd heard me.) At least, I don't (as Urban Pagan so aptly put it) "release my inner sailor." I think I need to start reciting profound thoughts. Any suggestions?

O.K. I really need a margarita.

But it's Sunday and we have blue laws in this state. Grrrrr.... I am well into the FBS at this point. I just finished row two of the 5th repeat only to find that I have 69 stitches on one side of the center stitch and 71 on the other. On top of that, I apparently can't count, b/c every time I recount I get a different number. I think I have found where I missed a double decrease on row one and I'm going to try to fix it w/o tinking all the way back. We'll see if that creates a disater or not. I did some work on Sursa last night. We went to see Kingdom of Heaven (AMAZING!) and I wanted easy knitting. It all went well with the exception of the idiot who dropped her soda and it splashed on my yarn. ugh! Not much, but still a cold wet surprise when I found portions of the yarn that had been hit. The striping is turning out much better than it originally appeared, so I will continue as established. I made good progress (almost 1.5 balls of yarn) with only a couple of spots where the second strand of yarn was missed. I'll just drop down to those stitches and pick them up. I've been taking the boys to a Mothers' Morning Out program since Stinkerton Prime was about 1 year old. The woman who owns it is very nice and really loves the kids that are in her care and we're pretty friendly. Her father passed away this week from metastatic melanoma. I think Sursa will be for her. I've been thinking of her as I've knitted this, though I didn't really decide it would go to her until yesterday. I'm hoping it will be of some comfort to her. Also, as a public service announcement, if you have any moles, even congenital moles, and/or a history of sunburns, please see your dermatologist once a year and get those puppies mapped. Get the odd looking ones removed and if any come back atypical, keep going back. Use sunscreen - there is no excuse.

The FBS

Please pardon my appearance, I'm having a Bad Koigu Day Oh Eucalan. Oh Yes. Yes! YES! All Strung Out on the Afterglow  
All Wrapped Up and Noplace to Go  
... Just washed and I can't do a thing with it!  
There, there, dear. Just Relax and it will be allright. 
Have a margarita, you deserve it.

Casting About

I started the FBS in the Koigu I frogged. So far so good on the pattern. I'm into the second repeat. The charts are easy enough to follow even with the boys in the room. And, unlike the KSH, it's easy to tink back to correct a mistake - though I'm still not thrilled with using a variegated yarn for this. I'd much prefer something solid but I can't buy the yarn right now. I need to make a larger copy of the charts. When I originally made my copies, I forgot to do the last two charts. a tisket a tasket lots of little baskets {Update: After spending all evening repeatedly tinking & reknitting two rows, I just started the fourth repeat.} Clapotis is moving along nicely. I'm on the third repeat of Section Three. I'm not sure how many more I'll have to do b/c I've forgotten how many extra repeats I did in Section Two. I haven't picked up the Interlacements Tee since I frogged it. I'm debating whether or not I should skein and wash the yarn. The yarn is overdyed and I think if I wash the hanks I'll end up with an enevenly faded shirt. I forgot to mention that I started in Sursa about a week ago. I'm not too jazzed on the whole two strand thing b/c the colors don't match up. So far, you can see the striping. The colors are muted b/c the second strand is not at the same point as the first. I'll go a little longer on it and see if I like it better as I go along. It's good mindless late night knitting on large needles. BTW, Stinkerton Prime is finally potty trained! The turning point was getting him out of the pull ups and into underwear. Now if he would just remember to aim! Not dry overnight yet, but that will come in time. With any luck, Stinkerton Adjunct will train by the end of the year. Woo Hoo!! Interesting entry on Mozeman's site. Wendy is doing her best to bring another very important issue to light with her own unique sense of style. If you are at work, you may want to wait till you get home to read that one. Urban Pagan has posted about a recent roll in the "hay" - so to speak. And lastly, Bonne-Marie has done it again. Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm worthy of reading her blog! I'll post some progress pics soon. Have to run out to the DMV and pay the car registrations. Fortunately, my county runs the office pretty efficiently and it's near home. So I should be done before lunchtime. {Update, I was in and out in 20 minutes!} Oh, and DH's copyright article has been accepted on the first submission. He really should be giving me a by-line since it was my idea and I did some major editing to make it more knitter friendly. I'll post more when the details are finalized. Mostly Non-Knitting content: If you haven't tried it yet, take a look at Neal Boortz's site. Nealz Nuze is where you want to go. It's infotainment for certain, but if you ignore the rhetoric, he makes some valid points. He's also on of the authors of "The Fair Tax" which is due to be released on July 5th. I want to say that the co-author is Senator Isaakson, but I'm not sure. Saw Shrek 2 the other night. I laughed so hard I kept missing yarnovers on the FBS. It is soooo much funnier than the first one - and the first is one of my favorite movies. Why don't I have these on DVD, yet?

Be small, my head.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD! Congratulations! If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be. You can smell a grammtical inaccuracy from fifty yards. Your speech is revered by the underlings, though some may blaspheme and call you a snob. They're just jealous. Go out there and change the world. How grammatically correct are you? (Revised with answer key) brought to you by Quizilla

I freely admit to being a stickler when it comes to proper grammar and usage, but "grammar god?" Out of curiousity, I compared the key to my answers. I had 7 wrong out of 20. Talk about grade inflation! Where I attended school that was considered a failing grade.

All in the name of efficiency

I finally got the pics of the Lots of Options Top uploaded and placed in the appropriate post. There are several, more detailed pictures via link in "WIPs" sidebar. I'd love to have some input on it. I need to rip back one of the necks/shoulders and work in another stripe sequence because I don't have enough of the gold CCII. Should this be on the V-neck side or the round neck side? If it's the round neck side there is less work involved as I have not yet started knitting that portion of the top. The stripe sequence will be the same as the one on the botton only the largest portion of the teal will be at the top of the shoulder. There's a drawing in one of the shots. Suggestions? Worked a little on the Clapotis today. Nothing worth taking a picture of. Other than that, I played with my yarn winder last night. (The plastic one, DH was out of town.) I also had fun with this. Now I can always find out just how much of each leftover I have and keep track of it for oddball projects. Cool Beans! In the process, I frogged the Interlacements Top Down Tee to the armholes and have it back on the needles. I now have nice neat little cakes of yarn, just waiting to be knit up. And since I know exactly how much yarn is in each cake, I'll know just which ball to use when in order to have the fewest ends to weave in. Isn't that just efficient?

Holy Stitch, Batman!

Wendy was kind enough to post a cabling w/o a cable needle tutorial on her site. As she said, it really is a "duh" moment. Here's the link to the tutorial, but you really should read her blog. It's chock full o' useful information. And Lucy's very nice eye-candy, too. Now I need to go play with some swatches. Now that I know this, I just might make DH a cabled sweater. hmmmm.... I even have the perfect yarn.

I have been told by the Fates...

not to discuss DH's foibles when it comes to Mothers' Day. Both times I have tried to leave a fairly detailed post about them I've lost the posts. Suffice it to say, that after three years of hurt feelings (Pissed Off does not begin to describe last year) and subsequent retail therapy, he finally got it right. Flowers, brunch and cleaning out the garage. I'm not sure if this was out of guilt or if he was trying to protect the checking account. Either way, we had a very nice Mothers' Day. The garage looks great and SP has a new Big Boy bicycle as a reward for potty training. woo hoo! I even found the broken Lantern Moon needle. DH had glued it back together and did a pretty good job, too. Now I need to get some super fine sand paper and see if that will take care of the few rough edges. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes. I returned to the Flower Basket Shawl. What possessed me to do my first lace project in mohair? I need some smoother yarn for this. I've been considering some Alpaca Cloud in pink or tide pool from Knit Picks, but can't buy the yarn right now since I'm on the Different Kind of Yarn Diet. So, this will either go on hold or I'll trudge along with the KSH. If I stick with the KSH I'm only making this to size. I was thinking I'd like a bigger shawl, but with the mohair being such a pain in the butt... I have a little CTH possum lace, but I didn't really want to do this in a variegated yarn. I've been itching to cast on for something new. I wasn't going to until I finished something meaningful - and, no a scarf doesn't count. I was making good progress and am almost done with the Lots of Options top, but I just realized I don't have enough of the yarn to finish and I will now have to rip back one of the shoulders and add stripes. I am not pleased. At least I have enough of the contrast color to do that. The yarn I'm short is a long gone (early 90's) Cotton Classic II hand-dyed yarn. I really should rip back all four shoulders and have stripes on both the front and back, but I'm too lazy. It may be more interesting to have the front and back different anyway. Lots of Options Top - full view

It's somebody's birthday!

Go wish Julia a happy day!

Recent E-mail from Americans for Fair Taxation

If you're here just for knitting content, skip this post. This is one of those rare times where I get political. However, if you are interested in having more money for your yarn habit, feel free to read on... I am a huge supporter of tax reform. The current system is unfair, and is in fact a wealth redistribution program. How can a system in which 50% of the income earners pay 96% of the taxes be fair? Believe it or not, there is a good sized chunk of income earners that pay absoultely no federal income tax, and many of those people actually receive money in the form of tax credits - money collected from working taxpayers. (Income tax is not the same as Social Security and Medicare taxes.) The flat tax is not the answer. The flat tax would tax everyone at the same rate - including those who can least afford it. Versus the present system, the flat tax would increase the rate of taxation for those in the lowest income brackets. Those in the lowest income brackets would lose tax credits that under the present system give them money. Fair Tax is a consumption tax collected at the retail level on all NEW goods. I must emphasize "at the retail level." Wholesale purchases and used goods, including cars, are not taxed. Under this plan, every individual would receive a check from the government in the amount equal to the sales tax paid on necessities - food, clothing, and the like. (Though I think there is a better way to do that; just don't tax food and the first $50 of any clothing item purchased.) Under the Fair Tax plan, people would have more money to save and invest for their own retirement - saving and investing create jobs b/c it gives businesses more capital with which to expand. Social Security would be fully funded so that those who paid in will actually collect what they paid. Businesses would have more money available to expand and provide more jobs or pay their current employees higher salaries. Our economy would be able to function at its full potential. Prices of goods would drop dramatically b/c corporations would no longer be passing off tax related costs onto the consumer; we'd be keeping 100% of our pay, and we would receive a refund check each month equivalent to the taxes on basic necessities. And by simply purchasing used goods, anyone could legally avoid sales tax on many things altogether. Lastly, many countries have a national sales tax that hasn't lessened the tax burden. You know why? Because they didn't eliminate the income tax. Make your own judgment. Don't rely on my opinion; do your own homework and contact your representative to express your views. ___________________________ Below is the text of the email I received today: “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.” – Will Rogers Some Americans believe, like Will Rogers did, that Congress has made the current federal tax system as “inevitable” as dying, and just as bad. Through the successful efforts of FairTax.org, however, D.C. is starting to realize that it does not have to be this way – but our work is not done. With the President’s Tax Reform Panel’s recommendations scheduled for July, there has never been a more crucial time to build our supporter base and raise our voice for the only pro-worker, pro-business, pro-economic growth solution – the FairTax! At this defining moment in our nation’s history, please help us raise our voice TODAY. Forward this e-mail to your friends and business associates, encourage them to join FairTax.org and help spread the word that honest Americans can win the tax race. Just like women won the right to vote! Just like the people of Germany took down the Berlin Wall! Over the past month, some D.C. insiders have suggested that a hybrid system of income tax AND national sales tax may be the best way. By encouraging your associates to join FairTax.org, we can work to ensure that this French “solution” does not happen here! The FairTax strategy is the only tax proposal on record that makes federal taxation of income unconstitutional by including the repeal of the 16TH Amendment. Eight years of study by the country’s leading economists has shown that the FairTax: Raises the same amount of money for the federal government as the current system. Frees up $250 billion each year in compliance costs for individuals and business owners to invest, spend,and save. Reduces production costs of U.S. products by an estimated 22 percent. Makes U.S. goods more competitive at home and overseas. Brings jobs home. Our current income tax exports our jobs, rather than our products, but the FairTax allows U.S. exports to sell overseas for prices 22 percent lower, on average, than they do now with similar profit margins. Lower prices sharply increase demand for U.S. exports, thereby increasing job creation in our country’s manufacturing sectors. Allows you to keep 100 percent of your paycheck, pension, and Social Security check – allowing families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement. Benefits churches and schools by reducing payroll taxes and taking advantage of lower-cost goods and services. Collects taxes on the over $1 trillion dollars in illegal economic activities of non-filing criminals, drug dealers, and others. So, if you’re fed up with the Feds and their obsolete income tax mess, here’s how you can help us today to take back our tax system: · Forward this e-mail to your business associates, friends, and family. Urge them to join our campaign. A donation of only $10 can help us continue to get the job done. Donations can be made at: http://forum.fairtax.org/donate. · If you’ve received this e-mail from an associate, pass it along to five more friends who believe that American small business deserves a FairTax. · If your company has a website, spread the work by adding a link to: www.fairtax.org. We’ll be happy to supply artwork. As honest American taxpayers, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to make real, permanent tax replacement a reality. Help build the ranks of FairTax.org today and cast your vote for the fair, honest tax system our country deserves. Death may be inevitable, but income taxes aren’t! Thank you for your continued efforts and support. Very best regards, Tom Wright Executive Director FairTax.org What is Americans For Fair Taxation (FairTax.org)? FairTax.org is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to replacing the current tax system. The organization has hundreds of thousands of members and volunteers nationwide. Its plan supports sound economic research, education of citizens and community leaders, and grassroots mobilization efforts. For more information visit the web page: www.fairtax.org or call 1-800-FAIRTAX.

Finished!

It's small, I know, but I have a Finished Object! And it's on display at String of Purls - and yes, I forgot the camera. It gives me such a thrill that something I made is on display at a yarn shop! Somethin I made - with my own hands. What's more is that I'm going to teach this project in a month. I am wondering if I should include a tutorial on properly weaving in ends since this is a two sided item. Suggestions? Is that something you would have found helpful when you were a beginner? I think I have FO envy. I see blogs where folks have completed dozens of projects in a short time and I just wonder how in the world they do it. These are people with jobs, even! We're talking a sweater a week. I wonder if it's because I don't have places to wear and show off my projects that keeps stalling me. Am I just a process knitter and not a project knitter? Am I just undisciplined? Or is it just that I'm in the car for 4.5 hours a day 3 days a week? Yes, that's it! Blame it on the preschool's temporary home. Thank goodness the construction is almost done and they'll be back home this Fall. I'll have more knitting time - provided I don't return to work in the meantime. I'm considering casting on for Remembering Honey from IK Spring '03. I was reminded of this pattern while perusing the gallery A Mingled Yarn. She did such a lovely job with this sweater that I'm feeling motivated to start one. It really is a pretty sweater and the pattern seems simple enough. I need to swatch a few things to see if I have appropriate yarn on hand for it. I tried swatching with Rowan Calmer, but it's too fine a gauge. Otherwise, I do have a gazillion (that's the mathematical term) projects in the queue right now. Not the least of which is finishing the Lots of Options Top. I'm most of the way there, for crying out loud, you'd think I'd just finish it. I think what has slowed me down is the fact that I'm at the button hole side of the sweater; I have to keep checking where I have the buttons lined up for each side to make sure I'm getting the holes in the right places. That and I've frogged the thing 4 or 5 times already and I'm getting more than a little sick of it. I want to get started on the Yellow New Tweed A-line Cardigan. I also would like to do a sweater for DH before next Winter rolls around - I'm feeling a little guilty that I haven't made something for him yet. And, the boys need sweaters for next Fall. I didn't make them any at all last Winter - talk about guilt. On top of that, I really wanted to make the Time in a Bottle Sweater from the Fall '04 Knitters. I've had the yarn since October, but had trouble getting gauge and had to order wonky sized needles and then left for my trip and haven't picked it back up since. I really, really wanted this sweater done before Winter ended and here it is May and I never even started it. We'll see if I can get it done this Summer. Other than that, nothing to report.

I'll bring the knitting; you bring the popcorn.

"Talking bluntly about sex for five minutes will earn an NC-17. Showing it frankly for one minute will do the same. Maiming and slaying people in close-up for two hours -- and delighting in it -- will get you only an R." --Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer, in his review of Sin City.

Yes, tonight is date night and we are going to see Sin City. With a review like that how could we not see this flick? (And that guy didn't like it.) It was quite a toss up between Sin City, Kung Fu Hustle and The Interpreter. I prefer suspense movies I can pause when I have to get up, so we'll wait on The Interpreter. We usually reserve the "Fist Full of Rice" movies to watch with our buddy Dan; it's a thing we do. Not sure what project I'm bringing yet... Progess on the Peach Santana MD Scarf. Update: I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie. While this was a bit gory, at least it was mostly in black and white. There's some color for emphasis in places but the movie was true to dark comic/graphic novel form. On the whole I really enjoyed it but it's not for the squeamish. I'll never look at Elijah Wood the same way again.

Down by yonder pond...

I have several do-overs on my list. The Plum sweater for instance. Boy did that turn out fugly. I actually want to re-knit the sweater, just in the smaller size and w/much shorter sleeves. I've been putting off the frogging b/c finding where I wove in all the ends is going to be painful. Most of them I can't even see. There are a couple of hats where I cheated on the length just to get them done. (Hey! It was cold!) So they're too short for an adult and too wide for the kids. Easy enough fix; I just need to open them up from the top and frog to below the increases and knit up again w/the leftovers I so carefully saved. I've got till next Winter for those. Next is the Interlacements Nebraska V-neck Top Down Tee. The pattern is from Knitting Pure and Simple. I started this last Spring a few months before I weaned SASP. I chose the size for what I usually measure rather than what I was actually measuring at the time. That way the shirt wouldn't be too big all around. Then I added a few increases under the arms at the bust to accomodate my more voluptous nursing self, thinking that that would be o.k. after weaning. I thought the tee was coming along nicely but then I tried it on. It's just a little too big for my not so voluptuous non-nursing self. Gee. Who'd'a thunk? And, because of how I did the increases, there are these little odd shaped bulges under the arms. Not pretty. The neck and shoulders fit perfectly, so I'll frog back to just below the armholes. I'll add a little waist shaping this time around, too. When I started this, I was afraid I wouldn't have quite enough yarn and now I know that I'll have more than enough. I'll be able to do the much more flattering 3/4 sleeves as opposed to short sleeves. This will be good mindless knitting for sitting in the pick up/carpool lane at the boys' preschools this Summer.

Earth loses weight...

Does this mean I weigh less, too? Or is gravity so screwed up that I actually weigh more? Sharon has come up with a yarn diet of sorts that I think I can live with. We all know that diets and budgets don't work. There's all this deprivation and when the goal is achieved, wham! Binge City. So, Sharon's idea is that for every five pounds lost, there is a reward of a $50 yarn purchase. Sounds like a good motivator to me! Depending on how long it takes me to actually lose 5 pounds, I might get through some stash at the same time. (And while not as embarassing as a bathing suit right now, we all know about my stash.) I'm thinking of adding an additional motivator. I belong to Curves, but I have a hard time being motived enough to go - not b/c I don't like Curves (love it!), it's just a bad brain thing. So, for every workout I get YarnBucks -- Y$1 for showing up; Y$1 for staying in my target zone the entire workout and Y$2 for working out more than 3x in one week. So I have the potential of earning Y$6 just doing the minimum, or Y$8 w/one extra workout, per week. To keep from breaking the bank, I'll lower the pounds lost reward to $50 for 10 pounds lost and I can't use the Y$ till I reach that goal. I have decided to do the peach Santana MD Scarf on US10s. The drape on US8s was a little too stiff; the 10s soften things up w/o being open and loose. I was worried about going too big on the needles and the center decreases not looking pretty in comparison to the rest of the stitches. I need to get this done this week, so I can get it in the shop to display and generate interest in my class. I'm setting Friday as the deadline and I won't work on anything else the rest of the week.

Eureka!

Now that I have made the appropriate sacrifices to the bloggods, I finally understand what to do. (yeah, it takes me a while - even with the code spelled out for me...) So there you have it, a stitcymcyarnpants button in the sidebar that does not contain source snagged from another site. It's late here, so sometime tomorrow I will redo the other buttons. And if I'm lucky, I'll actually remember what I did. Again, thanks to all of you for your help. I really do appreciate it.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has sent me hints on how to get the buttons to work. The FBS redux button works now, but I can't tell if I'm stealing Wendy's bandwidth. I've posted to the blogger forums as well. We'll see what comes up. BTW: I do not recommened this book for help with other than the most rudimentary blogger help. And even then, that all of that info can be found and easily understood in the help section. I was really hoping it had some beginner/intermediate level help. Back it goes! I'm working on another MD scarf. This one's for my class though and is in a cabled cotton blend yarn by Reylonds called Santana. It self stripes like the Noro and is in pretty spring colors. I'm using the peach/green mix shown in the recommened pattern at the patternworks site.

little help?

Could someone please tell me how I can take these little buttons and put them into my links sidebar and actually have them work as links? I've got getting the button into my template down; it's just getting them to work as a link that has me stumped. I'm afraid that if I take the source code from the other person's blog, I'd be hotlinking. If I'm wrong on that, please educate me. Thanks. Thanks. I'm off to Knit Night at String of Purls.

No tortured plants here...

I have absolutely nothing to report on the knitting front. However, after two afternoons playing in the dirt, I do have a number of nice containers and a much prettier front entrance to the house. Lots and lots of wave petunias, a little ivy and some tallish purple plants and snapdragons to go in the middle. As soon as the sweet potato vines are in, I'll add a few of those. Mission Accomplished! We had to dig up a ton of lillies the previous owners had growing on the dark side of the house and we moved them to both sides of the steps - replacing the dead ornamental grass that was there. Hopefully, they will bloom this year. At some point in the future, I'd like to have azaleas surrounding the steps and walkways, but I have a mortal fear of bees keeping me from entering my home. hmmmm.... might just keep away the Jehova's Witnesses, though. The Situation is Contained I had about ten plants and three blooms last year. Now look! As last Friday was tax day, I feel the need to point out that Americans for Fair Taxation has released an Open Letter to the President. Please take the time to read it and consider contacting your representative. If your representative is a Democrat don't expect an intelligent repsonse.

not much going on

Not much to report on the knitting front. I finished the MD scarf. I'm not sure if it's going to be a gift for my Rabbi or for my o.b. The Rabbi led a congregational trip to Israel last December and the trip was a big success. He was also a wonderful guide over the couple of years I took to convert. Now, I know you are wondering "for her o.b.???" I know it seems a little personal to give a present one's o.b., however, everytime I'm in he sees me knitting and talks about how his mother used to knit. He seems genuinely interested in what I'm knitting. He's also my mohel of choice and he did a lovely job with SASP 's brit. I know it's been a couple of years, but he's a nice guy and puts up with me pretty well. Speaking of the MD scarf... My favorite LYS (String of Purls) hosts a knit night once a week. I got a few folks making MD scarves and now I have been asked to teach a class on it. Wow! me teaching a class. It'll be for beginners who can cast on and knit. I'm nervous about it, but it will be fun to teach. You are Buck Russell (from Uncle Buck)! Your relationships aren't the greatest (mostly by your own accord), but if anyone has a huge heart, it's you. Which John Hughes Character Are You? brought to you by

what will it take...

to teach me not to leave my needles on the freakin' couch ! #@$^*&% !!! You'd think that after I broke a bamboo needle by sitting on it, I would have learned. You'd think that after Stinkerton Prime took one of my metal needles out of my knitting (so tantalinzingly left on the couch, I might add) and bent it on the hearth, I would have learned. Did I learn after SP took a bamboo needle (again, left on the couch in an ever so tempting position) and broke it on said hearth? Noooo. So, after these three painful lessons, (and several others that involved chasing a needle weilding toddler around the couch and lots of dropped stitches) what do I do? I leave my knitting on the couch. In response to some rather meaningful screaming from the boys, I put put the knitting next to where I am sitting on the couch to go deal with them. Once the boys are tended to and I take care of some other kitchen/housewifey/motherly/while-I-am-up type duties, I return to said couch. I look down. I pick up my knitting, which has thankfully been left unmolested by SP and SASP - at least they learned something. Thinking myself safe, and feeling very clever for remembering to look first, I sit down and hear a rather unpleasant pop. My heart sinks as I look at my knitting and see that I only have one of the most beautiful knitting needles on the planet in my hand. One. My stomach lurches. I start to pray that it's not a broken Lantern Moon, but instead my hip popping out of my pelvis requiring months of painful rehabilitation and surgery. I shift my weight to stand up, hoping against all hope, that I did not break yet another needle - especially not this needle. Another pop, and it isn't heralding a hip replacement but the humiliation of yet another broken needle. I think I need to be alone for a little while. I need to drown my sorrow. In this.... new tweed solace Tahki Yarns Spring/Summer 2005 Collection "A-line Cardigan"

But will you respect me in the morning?

(Today is Flash Your Stash Day. Wendy came up with the idea and since she's showing hers...I'll show you mine.) It occurred to me while taking my photos, that what I am about to share is very personal. Intimate almost. Those of us participating are exposing the heart of our obsession. There is a good reason that much of our stash remains "hidden" from most of the world. Like our most private hopes we never share with anyone, stash is the stuff dreams are made of... or more acurately, the dreams are what stash is made of. Enjoy.

The little cabinet that could...

You know the old circus gag where zillions o fclowns just keep emerging out of the tiny car? That's sort of what this cabinet is like. It's the one I turn to first; so it's prime real estate. a little novelty: lots of scarf yarns here. CTH Sachet and Fringe take up most of the space in this box. The Fancy is a recent gift from my Secret Pal. Schaefer Elaine; Mission Falls Cotton, 20 sk chili and a Moo Kit; Lorna's Laces Wavy Baby kit; Skacel Unikat for the time in abottle sweater Knitters Fall 2004; Tahki handdyed Cotton Classic II; Rowan Summer Tweed in Summer Berry and Morning Glory Jaeger Shetland Aran in Celery and Burgundy and various felting yarns from Handpaintedyarns.com; a 1/2 skein of CTH potluck bulky in front and two skeins of Manos (the navy/brown/turquoise) a few odd balls; tahki new tweed in navy; Filatura Di Crosa Zara; 1 skeins LB Suede; 3 sk LB Moonlight; some LB Magic Stripes; Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool to make a tank from the Designers Choice book. I need to add sleeves though; no one will notice my knitting if all they see are my jiggling triceps. Yellow mission falls for a cuddle blanket; some cottontots for a baby gift; 4 skeins CTH Ballerina with coordinating yarns to make scarves; Furlana in black to go with the 5 skeins of silk garden for the des colores jacket in Module Magic; 2 skeins CTH possum lace; 1 sk rowan yorkshire tweed; 7 skeins peach mohair; CTH rayon boucle in fall foliage w/coordinating CP yarns; CP Musique; and the brown mass is K1C2 Soufle and doeceur swirls to make a lacey shell. odd balls of plymouth Encore and Sirdar Snuggly; the neutrals are Jo Sharp Silk Road and Tibet Yarns Jute And just when you thought there could be no more... CTH babyloop; berroco softee; Colinette Isis and Giotto in Rio; lotusblossum spiral wool in bluegoose; more MF cotton; The big taupe blob is Noro Transistions; in the midde there is Silk Garden and Cash Iroha for a shawl; some rowan kid silk haze; two skeins manos; two skeins burgundy mohair/ribbon from Great Adirondak; the lavender skeins are Valugurai yarn; and the dark blob in the center is Big Kureyon -- And that's the first cabinet

The little cabinet that didn't think as much...

This cabinet doesn't have as much in it, but what it has..... mostly noro an