steffaknits

Sewing

2007-03-25T08:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't been too productive on the knitting front. Since I last posted, I've finished one pair of socks for a dear friend's birthday- she turned 80!! She said she wasn't going to wear them and I said "But that's why I made them!" "No, now listen. I'm not gonna wear them until after the fair so that I can enter them." Ha, ha, she's so funny. That's one thing that surprised me about my job. It has given me the chance to make all kinds of friends that I probably would not have met otherwise. One of my best friends is a 60 year old lady that likes to tell me how to do everything- she tells everyone how to do things- but she also knows I probably won't listen to her. She has daughters the same age as I am, but she doesn't treat me like a kid. I am an equal to her. Incidentally, she has a great relationship with both of her daughters, too. She has learned to see them as people, not just as her kids. I hope I can have that with my kids someday.

Wow! That went in a different direction rather quickly. Okay, knitting, back to knitting.

I've also been working on the Dollar & a Half Cardi from the Spring Interweave Knits. I had a hard time with the lace pattern at first, but I also started with the sleeves for some reason. Uh, hello!, have I ever heard of sleeves having increases? Duh. So I ripped those suckers out and started on the back. Much better. Now I have the pattern down so I think the sleeves will make more sense. So far, the only thing I would change is to maintain at least two stitches in stockinette on each end instead of the one that the pattern suggests. My selvedge stitches are always a little ugly, so I think it would just be easier to seam with two. I'm using some yarn from elann.com. The pattern suggested a linen blend, but I am always cold, so I went with an Alpaca/Tencel blend. This may not have been the best choice, but it's too late now (it stretches quite a bit). The whole thing might just end up in my ever growing pile of non-worn handmade items.

Lately, though, I have mostly been sewing. I am having some trouble with my right arm- I think I have a pinched nerve in my upper back/shoulder. Whatever it is, it makes knitting more than a few rows at a time a real pain! So instead, I've been sewing. Plus, I don't get nearly the same scolding when I sew at work as when I knit at work. (Yes, I know we sell yarn, and needles, and patterns, but there is no knitting at work! Makes sense to me, not!) So, for some reason I got myself all jazzed up about making myself this skirt. Do I wear skirts? Not usually, but I really wanted to make it in a robin egg blue with little white dots and a cute little bow. I loved every step of the project. I put in an invisible zipper, I did every pleat perfectly, I hand-stitched the facing down, but did I try it on even once along the way? Nope. And now it's done, and it is so much too big that I can wear it over top of my clothes! No wonder I usually stick to kid stuff and quilts! But did I learn my lesson? No, next I'm planning on making this. It's got to be something about Spring that makes me want to make skirts and dresses, even if I won't ever wear them.

Well, that's a bit of a catch up, and next time, there might even be pictures.

Step 2

2007-02-24T08:23:00.000-05:00

So I'm on to the second step in my recovery, actually posting knitting content. I was so proud of myself at Christmas. I actually sewed or knit everyone's gift this year! Well, I got my dad a book, but that doesn't count 'cause he always says I'm not supposed to get him anything. I made fleece blankets for the men and my cousin Cassie, and then the rest goes like this:
Grandma- a shawl out of Cascade 220
Sister- a chenille blanket
Mom- homespun sock yarn! (yep, I spun sock yarn and it was perfect!)
Sis-in-law 1- cabled scarf
Sis-in-law 2- fetching mitts
Aunt- chenille backed quilt
The best part was that everyone was super happy with their gifts! Even my brother who never even says thank you! I mean, he still didn't say thank you, but I caught him showing off his blanket to his wife. Of course I'd had much bigger plans, but I ran out of time. That's where the fleece blankets came in. They are super fast and always useful and appreciated. I just finish off the edges on the serger, and voila!, they're ready. I've been hand embroidering lately, so I might try a real blanket stitch on the next one.
Okay, enough about 2 mos. ago, here's what I've been up to lately. That's Starsky, Jr. from the
winter Knitty. It was Abbey's birthday sweater.
And despite the look on her face in that picture, she really likes it. The night I brought it home after finishing it, she wanted to wear it to bed. In fact, I caught her with it on after The Man had gone to work and she was supposed to be sleeping. Crazy kid!

I feel like I have been super productive lately. I finished a fleece jacket that The Man wanted me to make for him. And when the guy at work saw it, he said I had some "mad sewing skills". Ha, ha! Me, the one that had never sewn until a few years ago. Well, he is a man, and he doesn't sew, but I'll take the compliment anyway. I'm also almost done with a pair of socks for The Man that I started right before Valentine's Day. I'm using KnitPicks Gloss. I kinda like it. I think I might order some more and make myself a pair of socks. The shine it has adds a little something to the plain color.

I also got a new toy. It's an Ashford drop spindle and that's my first spindled skein. It's different, but kinda fun. I've also tried my first boucle, no pictures of that, sorry. It looks okay, but I haven't quite figured out how to lock down the loops with my second sewing thread. My spinning lady said it looked good for having taught myself. Is that a compliment? I keep pestering her about classes. She's really into needle felting right now, but she said she does have a lot of new spinners out there. Hopefully she'll have one soon.

Well, I've gotta boogie. Work beckons.

New Beginnings

2007-02-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

I am officially declaring today my new blog-day! This is the re-birth of this poor little neglected blog. It's kinda like the start of the twelve step program for blog ignoring, procrastinating lazy bones. Hey, we've all got our personal demons to work out. I guess I better start by shaving my head.

Granny Squares

2006-09-19T08:40:00.000-04:00

Wanna do something good for someone? Go here. I think it would be great if we sent enough blocks for as many blankets as possible. It's not just babies that need blankies, Grannies and Grampies need them too.

Hate mail

2006-09-16T09:12:00.000-04:00

I tried to write a post a few days ago about how much I despise Wal-mart and that they are the Evil Empire, but Blogger, I hate you too. You would not let me link to the things I wanted, and you kept doing the BOLD type stuff when I didn't want it and you ate my pictures and , and, and... I really am not in love with you. The honeymoon is waaayyy over. I was willing to overlook certain things at first, you are free after all. But I've had it to my eyeballs with your difficult behavior. You are on notice! I am seeing other people, and we may not be together for much longer...

In other news, I am going to the The Wool Gathering today and I can hardly wait. The kids are also super excited. See how I've corrupted them.

Spin-Aholic

2006-09-03T09:37:00.000-04:00

I have to say I did not much knitting this summer. In fact, there were times when I went weeks without knitting a stitch. The reasonable explanation for this is that something else was fulfilling my fiber fetish. This is what I did on summer vacation.
My first dip into spinning oblivion came when I finally found my local spinning shop. I had been dying to spin some merino I had bought from e-bay (purple on left) last year, but my bobbins were occupied and I was too anxious to empty them. This is probably why I have so many sets of the same size needles but can never find a set when I want them. ADD. So originally I was in search of some more bobbins for my Louet. She had some bad news, though. The bobbins I have are the old 2-speed style, and the new bobbins are 3-speed. And you can't just buy the 3-speed bobbins because they have a different drive band. And the two shall not be mixed. Which means buying at least 3 new bobbins ($26.95 each!) and a new drive band ($9.95) and still only having three bobbins. That's a lot of ands. So, I decided to suck it up and finish what I had started. Of course I couldn't help but look at all the yummies while I was there and took home some 50/50 wool-mohair (the green on the right). I hurried home and got to work. The purple was my first yarn that when I showed it to people they said "yeah, it's yarn". Yay! They thought I bought it! Not that I want to completely lose the homey-ness of handspun, but I always find it a compliment to the consistency of my finished product. Anyways, I was hooked and had spun everything I had by the end of that week. Next I started hoarding fiber like I hoarde yarn! I got the blue-ish purple (same fiber as green) and some silk (notice it's not here? not so good at that yet). The green on the left came from Spunky Eclectic (Hosta Almost Solid wool blend). And I've got a whole pile of boxes and bags from various other places, including this. I found this on e-bay from Wooly Treasures.
I have really enjoyed spinning it, waiting to see what color comes next and how long it will last. Now I'm torn. I'm at the point where if I'm going to use it as a 2-ply, I need to start another bobbin. But I don't want to lose the blocking of the colors I've got right now. I know I could navajo ply it, but I not so great at that. I love how squishy and fuzzy it is right now and my navajo plies seem to come out kind of hard. Help? I've thought about leaving it as a single, but I'm not too confident in my singles- it's that whole even-ness thing. I'm probably too picky. But in the meantime, I've actually gone back to the needles. The purple swatch is some of my hand-spun knit up. It's so yummy, if I do say so myself. I have decided what to do with it yet, but it's begging to be knit. The oatmeal color swatch is from a baby gansey for the neighbors across the street. They are due in October. It's mostly done- in fact I'm seaming it up right now. Now I need to wash the swatch to see if it really is washable like the label says. There's also a sparkly sock in there for Abbey. The mate is having some issues right now but will hopefully feel better soon. There's some single of the Hosta wool and that fluffy purple is some locks I bought not too long ago. Yeah, I'm getting brave. I've never spun anything but rovings and slivers, but I couldn't help myself. It was just sitting there all sparkly and cotton candy-ish. It's an addiction, I know. Next, I'm going to the Wool Gathering in two weeks. I'm going to be in trouble, I know. Well, this post has taken forever (thanks crappy blogger picture loading) and I've got to get to work. I'll leave you with a summertime kidlet shot.
Indianapolis Children's Museum, July 2006.

It's... ALIVE!

2006-08-25T08:13:00.000-04:00

Hello! I'm alive and well. I was a little depressed and disspirited this summer so the blog went by the wayside. But I've been doing lots of knitting and spinning and all kinds of things. And I've been lurking around other blogs so I've tried to stay in the loop. Oh, and did you see that smartass comment about my boring blog? That was my sister. Whose blog- the one that's supposedly so much better ;)- I can't find right now. Besides, who wants to look at pictures of her dogs? Ha, just kidding, they are her children and everyone wants to show off their children. Anyway, that's all the time I have for now. Work beckons... I wish it wouldn't.

Babbling

2006-05-01T08:38:00.000-04:00

It's been ages since I posted anything, I don't have much time and I am probably going to ramble a little bit. Suck it up.

First, why is the internet so mean? I should say, why are people such assholes? A lot of the bloggers I check in with have lately been fighting negative commentors and spammers. Why? What ever happened to "if you can't say anything nice..."? I do accept the idea that if you put your "life" out there for other people to see, you have to expect some harshness. But a lot of this stuff is just mean. Personal attacks by people that don't even know them. I guess that's the advantage of nobody reading my blog- no comments, good or bad.

Second, gas is expensive, get over it. I am so tired of hearing about gas prices. Yes, I know that you have to have it to get to work, etc., but maybe with it being so expensive we will quit using so much of it, or being so dependent on it. I know that I drive less now. I don't think that is a bad thing, do you? And, yes, I know the oil companies have taken advantage of the situation and increased the price a bit more, but we also live in a capitalist society. Simple supply and demand. If the demand was less than the supply, the price would be lower. And the whole hybrid thing pisses me off too. I want to drive a cleaner car, I want to cut down my oil usage, but a hybrid is so expensive and there's no such thing as a used hybrid at this point (at least that I can afford), I feel trapped. We need alternatives that are available to everyone! Rant, rant, rant! Not doing much good, is it.

Okay, out of time. No more rambling for now. BTW, has anyone seen the new Sally Melville? The Knitting Experience: Color? Very cool.

Update

2006-03-30T08:07:00.000-05:00

This is just a quick post to say I'm still here. We got our money back within 8 days! Thank you Wesbanco. I thought you were the weird kid of the banking world, the one that sits in the corner and eats paste while all the cool kids are off playing. I had ended up with you because I have a thing about one of the cool kids and you were just there. I never expected much out of you, but you really outdid yourself! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I live in a sick house. The Man had bronchitis while we were penniless, Abbey had strep, and Aidan has a cold that just won't go away. Ugh. Now Abbey is coughing a terrible cough and she's starting with the fever again. I need to open the windows and let the air swirl all the germies out, but it's too freakin' cold. I hope it warms up soon!!

Well, that's it for now. Oh, I've been crocheting! Ah, blasphemy!!

F*&%#$@!

2006-03-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

I was going to actually post about knitting since I have a FO to show you, but I'm too angry. Yesterday when we tried to buy pizza with our debit card, it was declined. Declined? We have plenty of money, run it again, we said. Nope, declined. I rushed to the internet to look up our account and...yep, someone stole our card number and spent ALL OF OUR MONEY. No, that doesn't cut it. Spent more money than we have because our bank gives us an additional $500 credit buffer on our account. Oh the fuckers!!!! I can't believe it. First, we don't go anywhere but the same old places and we don't use our card online*(paypal, baby), so how they got it is beyond me. But I know that they are sneaky little bastards and probably scanned the magnetic strip when we walked past them at the grocery store or some other crazy unbelievable shit like that. They had quite a spree as they toured the gas stations and Walgreens of southern Florida. There is no way to express in words the anger that I feel. Everything falls short. The worst is not being able to do anything yet because it's the weekend. We called and cancelled our cards, not that it helped because they had already spent everything, and now we wait until Monday to see what the bank is going to do. And of course, it's a Mastercard not a Visa, so that groovy little superhero commercial they play about getting all your money back doesn't help me. And, I wrote checks on Friday using the money I thought I had. Ugh, I'm a wreck.

Bring on the rice crispies treats.

*I don't think the internet is really all that dangerous anyways. Everything is on secure servers and buried in layers of encryption and damn hard to get to. In the real world, all somebody has to do is get a hold of your card number using some low tech device or technique and you're screwed. Hell, I can get the credit card number for every person that shops at my store just by clicking the right buttons (altough they have made it harder for clerks to do that lately). The world is full of dishonest people that will do anything to get the easy way out. And even if it's not "full", it doesn't take but a few to fuck the rest of us.

Hip chicks

2006-03-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

It's Women's History Month! Did you know that? I did not know that until the people from Planned Parenthood sent me an e-mail (along with the 20 other e-mails they send me everyday!)! Last month I read this book (I think the HBO movie "Iron-Jawed Angels" was based on it) and was surprised by it's contents. At my school, the whole women win the right to vote was kind of glossed over. I didn't know how hard our fore-mothers had to fight! They were arrested. They were beaten! I didn't know!! I was ignorant, but not anymore! If you're ignorant, please read that book! Okay, I'm off my horse now.

Smother me with syrup, I'm done.

Clarity

2006-03-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

I just thought I should clarify, for the"record", why I call my husband The Man. He's a cop. He's also in the Air National Guard. (*Note: this is way more information than he would ever want me to share. He's very paranoid.) We both lean pretty far to the left on a lot of issues and that usually doesn't go well with his chosen profession. I think it's funny that he is so far away from what most people think of as "the man", yet he is "the man". He is also my personification (ooh, big words) of the archetypal man that society tells us we all need to find. (Look here, and here, and even here for examples.) So to me he is not only my man, but The Man. So, for future reference, if I am not calling him something derogatory, my husband is The Man.

Now, being a cop's wife you would think that I would have all kinds of crazy-ass stories to tell, right? Well, I do. But most of them involve drunk people in some sort of undress and they all tend to blend together after awhile. People are just generally stupid when they have had too much to drink. And they like to take off their clothes. And then get in the car and drive somewhere. And then hit 2-3 parked cars while they are out. And go to jail NAKED! You get the picture. They probably don't have this problem in New York or Chicago where most people walk instead of drive. Maybe there they run naked into the street to hail a taxi. But I bet they are better looking.

Poke me in the belly like the Pillsbury Doughboy, I'm done.

Random Bigfoot & Rice Krispies Treats Terrorism

2006-02-27T16:41:00.000-05:00

How long exactly does the self-cleaning feature on my oven take? There's something about letting your oven get to 8000 degrees and stay there for hours that's a little unnerving. So far it's been 2 1/2 hours and my head is about to explode from the worry.

This has led me to eat an entire box of Rice Krispies treats all by myself. Probably not the healthiest thing, but tasty nonetheless. How many glasses of green tea do you think I need to drink to counteract that?

And Aidan has decided to turn into Mr. Terror tonight. Why does he never want to go to the bathroom? He would probably be a lot less cranky if he'd just do it. He is being absolutely horrible to his sister. Every time I tell him "no", he grabs one of her toys and holds it hostage, threatening to throw it in the trashcan. This starts Abbey howling with fright over the fate of her My Little Pony or Furr Real Pet (which, incidently, cries and whines when mishandled). I don't know where he picked up this technique, but as far as Abbey's concerned, it's very effective. Maybe we've been watching the news too much.

In other Aidan news, he loves "unexplained" stuff. You know, Bigfoot, Loch Ness, extraterrestrials, crop circles and Ghosthunters. He eats it up. He also really likes dinos (of course!) and mummies. I have a budding archaeologist on my hands I think.

Abbey went to catholic church with her friend Mackenzie for the first time on Saturday. I asked her if she liked it, thinking that she was bored the entire time. She said it was fun cause she got to read books and sing. That's my little heathen child for ya. Wouldn't want any of that religion stuff to sink in ;).

I have knit! A whole 15 rows on the anniversary socks for The Man. And there's still a ton to go for it to be long enough. But I knit, dammit, and it felt goooooooooddd!! Maybe that's why I've been so befuddled lately. I've been witlessly knitless!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Waiting

2006-02-23T19:04:00.000-05:00

I was reading over my last few posts and realized that I am a terrible proof reader. Please don't judge.

The whole post about the blog and the life and the knitting was kinda self-serving. Like my blog wasn't already about my life before I superciliously declared it so! And like I should worry about what those that read my blog think. ("Hey, there's no kntting today! I thought this was a knitting blog. I want my money back!!") Isn't the idea behind the whole journal/weblog thing to do it for yourself? But then we had to go and publish the crap on the internet, and that makes us want people to read it, and like it, and then it just turns into stress. I guess I was trying to say "like me, please, even if I didn't feed the knitting monster today". But I've decided it doesn't matter. I'm doing this blog for me, and maybe for the munchkins. I don't care if anyone reads it. (Okay, so that was a lie, but I'm trying not to let it bother me.) Someday when I'm senile my children will be able to look back on this blog and say they could see it coming.

Abbey is loving food shows right now. Cartoons? We don't need no stinkin' cartoons! We've got the Food Network. Bring it on Rachel Ray and your 30 Minute Meals! Come on Alton Brown and give me some Good Eats! She will sit mesmerized through an entire evening if I let her.

(Can't you see the senility already? Skipping subjects all hodge-podge like that.)

And now for something else...
I've not said too much about this in the past because I don't want to sound whiney or anything, but I've decided I need to just get it in the open. I have some strange disease that the Dr.s can't quite pinpoint. Most agree that it is some kind of connective tissue disease with a lean towards systemic lupus erythematosus. Not a big deal, I don't want a pity party. I first got sick in high school with mostly joint problems and fatigue and have just learned to deal with it. Most of the time I feel pretty good, but it does cause me to go to about a million different doctors for a million different reasons. Again, not a big deal. You learn to cope. Lately I've had a bit of a flare and I went to the rheumatologist last week. He gave me some meds, ran some labs, the usual stuff. The reason I bring all this up is The Man. I was telling him about the new rheumatologist and how I thought the nurse that drew my blood did it in a spot that hurt more on purpose because I had pissed her off about a sewing machine one time when he said "We've got to get our shit together." Huh? What did that have to do with Nurse Revenge?
Me: Okay...
Him: One day you are going to get sick and we need to get everything under control before that happens.
Me: silence...
Him: It's going to happen.
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. Is this how he sees me? How he lives his life with me? Waiting. Waiting for the day that I get sick and go into kidney failure and can't do anything for myself anymore? I certainly don't live that way. I might never even get that sick. All the indicators now are that I have a relatively mild disease that can be controlled. Nothing as drastic as he makes it sound. And has he always felt this way, or just since I've been having a few problems? I've had this thing for 14 years and I'm doing pretty good. I've never had to have radiation or methotrexate or even high dose steroids for that matter. I'm fine. (Or I'm in denial.) The whole thing makes me wonder about everything else in our life. When he had the chance to leave me, did he stay out of love? Or pity? When he lets me sleep in, is it because he's pampering me? Or is it because he thinks I need it? Is he staring at me because he loves to look at me? Or he's worried about me? I understand that the whole thing is probably hard to handle from his side, but we've never really taken the whole thing that seriously. Or at least I hadn't. "It's just a little arthritis. Ha ha, I have to go to all the old people doctors. I'm the youngest patient they've seen in years." Maybe that's why I was always so flippant about it. If I lived my life waiting, or knew he was, it would stop me from living my life. What good does that do? But now I'm waiting. Waiting to find the words to talk to him and make him stop waiting. I might be waiting for a long time.

Things...

2006-02-22T08:30:00.000-05:00

Things I'm loving right now:

Jack Johnson's Curious George CD- I'm loving the cheesy-bop-your-head-sing-along-ness of it. It's like my kid's version of Mulligan Stew with songs like "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and "The Sharing Song". It makes me want to go rent "Free to Be...You and Me" and wear some polyester.
Tank tops from Old Navy- I am obsessed. I use them for undershirts, overshirts, nightshirts & dayshirts. I have a million colors and three different sizes depending on what layer they are gonna be. Don't ask me. I'm a freak for tank tops right now. Last year it was socks.
John Legend- His music is like dirty gospel. A choir sings about "making freaky sounds". How can I not love that? Oh, and he's from Springfield, so we're like practically related, right?
THIS book-it's like one big long laudanum trip.
My hair- at least this minute.

Things I'm NOT loving right now:

My hair- well that didn't last very long now did it?
My brain- for some reason my thoughts won't come out right lately. It's like my head is a big filing cabinet, you know like the huge-mongous ones they have at the library, and someone has gone in and scrambled the shit out of everything (Hence, the lack of posts. I dislike incoherent babbling as much as the next guy. Oh, this is incoherent babbling, I forgot.) I try to pull the drawer marked "memory" and half the stuff is missing. Ugh. I think a lot of has to do with the next thing.
My rut- yes, a literal rut. I swear I am doing the same things that I have done before with the same people, but no one notices but me. And we're not talking about a little bit of de ja vu, I mean, I am really quite sure we have done these exact same things, had these exact same conversations, felt these exact same feelings. My life has a bad groove that I can't jump out of. Oh, I know I'm not actually reliving these things, there are some differences, but everything is very familiar.
The Great Influenza- now, I loved the book, but I am now scared shitless of the subject matter. Not really shitless. I'm not one to run around shouting that the sky is falling, but it was very sobering to think of the incredible numbers of people that died and what that would amount to in today's poulation. And the scariest part is that we haven't learned our lesson. We don't spend nearly enough money on influenza related research and development- after all, it's only the flu. But the flu has a much higher mortality rate than, say, anthrax (which we can use antibiotics on- not that they are very effactive anymore) or west nile virus, and look how we reacted to those threats. It's yet another glimpse into how the bureaucracy that we live in rally works. Don't cough on me, thank you very much.
The base hospital- (Speaking of bureaucracies) I tried to get a copy of my medical records. Nope, not allowed to touch them. That's what they said to me- "You are not allowed to touch them. But you can pay us $8.30/hr. plus $.15/page for us to copy them for you." What?!?! They are my medical records, are they afraid I might tamper with them or steal them? They're mine, right?
Work- but I've got to go- I am seriously late.

Neighbors

2006-02-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

We have new neighbors. Well, they're not exactly new new, they moved in before Halloween. But the frigid cold of Ohio keeps everyone inside in the winter so we haven't had much contact. I met her on Halloween. They are music types- her classical, orchestra teacher, gives violin lessons; him orange spikey hair, guitar yielding, rock boy. They are both young. The funny story is that he saw The Man running the other morning and said "wake up earlier and we can run together." Yeah right. The man's current workout regimin consists of lugging his bag of junk back and forth to work and running once every 3 months. Yeah dude, he'll see you in May.

SIX

2006-02-09T21:34:00.000-05:00

Don't you people know it's hard to be six years old? Ghheeeessee!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDAN!

Well, I did name him something that means "fire". I guess it's my own fault.

Life

2006-02-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking lately that I've been neglecting the blog. Not on purpose so much as subconsciously. I think about the blog quite a bit and all the great things I can write about, but then I realize not too many of those things have to do with knitting. Well, you say, get a stuff that doesn't pertain to knitting blog. Yes, that would work for someone that wasn't lazy with a cap L like me. That would entail posting to two different blogs and I know that one would go down the drain. So, by executive decision (meaning I was wearing work clothes at the time), I deem this my everything blog. What does that mean to you? Probably nothing. Ideally it means I will post more often, though not always about knitting. This is good, because then I won't be one of those "sorry there's no knitting content" bloggers. The guilt will be gone. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of knitting. I tend to go in cycles, though, and this time of the year has more to do with reading ten million books than knitting. For some reason, summer is my choice season for knitting (I openly admit that I am a bit backwards).

So what will my first guilt free post about anything be? The Man. He's driving me boinkers. We have been married ten years and together on & off for 15 and I have honestly never nagged him. He nags me, but I don't. If I'm stressed he might get a snap or a sarcastic prodding, but no nagging. Well, he started online classes this quarter towards his bachelor's degree(he has an associates) in criminal justice. Yay for him! He is in the Air National Guard and gets 100% tuition assistance plus the money he earned for the GI Bill while he was in the Navy. More than enough to pay for me to actually go back to school and get out of the retail hell that I am living right now. But, me being thirty and sensible now, I want to pay off our debt with the extra money first. This means waiting til fall quarter- AS LONG AS HE DOESN'T DROP OUT LIKE HE DID TWO YEARS AGO!!!!! Yeah, this has been a plan for a bit. So, I have officially become a nag. I ask him every day, "did you do your homework?" "Did you get your school stuff done?" "Do you have any stuff to do for school today?" Yes, a nag I am. I don't care. My ability to overcome my crappy, albeit self-imposed, job is directly linked to his success. What does he expect? I've put my brain in the closet for ten years and it is screaming to GET OUT. Nag, nag, nag. NAG!!!

Whew, got that out of my system. Hey, believe me, I am happy with my family. I love them dearly and wouldn't change a thing. But pushing sewing machines to little old ladies is not what I expected at thirty. The creative outlet of fiber arts that my job affords has helped a bit, but I'm bored. I'm apathetic to my sales numbers, which in retail is not a good thing. Maybe I just need a vacation-- a nice loooong one.

So true, if cheesy...

2006-02-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Go here. You'll see what I mean.

What, I have a blog?

2006-01-30T18:56:00.000-05:00

Man, it was like I just remembered yesterday that I have a blog- well, not really, but you know how it goes. Take a case o' the blahs and stick it with my inherent laziness and you get no posts for two weeks. Aack! To be fair (and to let myself off the hook a bit), the universe has been doing its part to work against me. First, Aidan got suspended from school. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard right. My five year old kindergartener got suspended from school. I was, and still am, beside myself. So we had to do meetings with teachers and principals and counselors just so we could insist that he will not be taking any kind of medication unless his doctor says so. That is the school's answer to behavior issues. Medicate! Well, some kids do need it, but I will not have it forced upon my child just because the teacher is too inexperienced and stressed out to handle problems that arise in her classroom. Whew, that was a good vent.

We also had Abbey's birthday. Yay!!! She is now the big F-O-U-R, and she knows it too. If that girl gets any more sass, I don't know what we'll do. She was so happy because we actually got to buy her clothes in the "big girl" section at Old Navy. Of course, she swims in everything, but she was happy. (After we got home with her loot, she pronounced that "Old Navy is lame". Okay, but you're still wearing the stuff we bought kid.)

Then there was the whole Harry Potter engrossment. I got the paperback box set of HP1-5 for my b-day and started on HP1 around my last post (1/13). Well, by Wednesday 1/25 I had them all done. I tried really hard to resist buying #6 but broke down at the grocery on Friday 1/27 and finished it on Saturday. They were great. What imagination!!! It's the crack of teen fiction and I'm addicted. I can't wait until the last one comes out. I just hope I don't shake too much from the withdrawal.

You might say, with all that reading, there can't have been any knitting. Well, there hasn't been much, but there has been some. I'm venturing into fair isle/intarsia and it's kinda fun. I started a baby sweater on tiny little needles in Dale of Norway Baby Ull. Mine is red and white. If you read the Harlot, then it will look familiar. Hers was so cute I had to start my own. Mine is not nearly as pretty so I'll spare your eyeballs the pain. I also got a hold of Rowan #38 and started the vest on the front. Of course, no one around here carries Rowan yarns and I didn't have $80 to buy the kit for it so I'm using different yarns. We carry Tahki yarns at my work and I just happened to have a gift card for $100, so I opted for Donegal Tweed in black, silver, rose and denim. I've got the back done and I'm working on the front right now. Once I decided To teach myself how to read and knit at the same time, it went fast. I figured we readd patterns while we knit all the time, if I'm doing stockinette, it won't be much different. The problem is finding a book that change the page and stay open on its own- my hands are kinda busy! I think this might be something that I will actually wear. But, let's not jump to conclusions. That would mean that I actually have to finish it first.

The Blah-blah-blah-blah-blahs...

2006-01-13T21:02:00.000-05:00

Warning!!! Very rambling post about age, clothing that doesn't fit and not a lot of knitting.

I've got 'em. And a mighty bad case too. I'm not in the mood to knit, not in the mood to sew, not in the mood to read. I'm blaaaahhhhh. The only thing I want to do is go shopping and spend my mortgage money on clothes from Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch. I'm crazy. Maybe I'm trying to feel young??? I dunno. Cause I really didn't like anything they had, well, maybe a few things. But they are made for tiny little skeleton girls and cost $58 for a t-shirt!!! And have ya been in there lately? They pump this cologne through the air vents and blast this music on the stereo--- oh, my, I am getting old. Seriously, though, I think those kids will have a pretty good disability case when they can no longer hear what their teachers are saying. And the pain and suffering settlement they'll get because they can no longer smell when they need a bath so they will be ridiculed for the rest their lives! I can only imagine! Ha! And the jeans they wear today, oy! Talk about painted on. Did you know that there has been a rise in sciatic nerve problems in young adults because, I am NOT making this up!, they wear their jeans a size too small? Aaack. And I had to endure the "what's that old lady doing in here?" look. Three days after my birthday I got myself a pair of jeans from American Eagle. No time to try them on, so I grabbed my size and decided I'd try them once I got home. When did the proportion of the average woman change? The waist on these was HUGE while the thighs were itty-bitty.(FYI, I am built like a tree trunk. No small waists here.) So I went back to the store to exchange the jeans for a different cut. I wasn't sure how the cuts work, so I asked the salesfetus, I mean, salesgirl.
Me: "These jeans are big on my waist, but tight on my thighs. Do you have any with a wider cut leg?"
Fetus: "Maybe if you went up a size..."
Me "I can't. They are very big on my waist. What about the _____ cut jeans? Are they wider in the legs?"
Fetus: "Those are what we call 'mommy cut' jeans. They are higer on your waist. Maybe you would like them better."
Me: "Oh. Okay."
I didn't go any further with her because, 1) she didn't tell me anything about the cut of the leg and 2) she obviously thinks I need "mommy cut" jeans. Isn't that some sort of insult? Man, talk about mourning my youth...

So I did find a pair of jeans that fit and that I like. They are all beat up and stuff. We would have called them "ripped" but now they are called "destroyed". And, the legs are not tight. Yay!!! And I didn't have to go up a size, which I hate doing. I was trying to explain to The Man that I won't shop at certain places if I have to wear a size bigger that what I want to wear. Of course he didn't understand, he's a man. He says, "if store A sells you a pair of pants that fit in size 4, and store B sells you a pair in a size 6, but they both use the same amount of fabric, which ones will you buy?" The size 4, of course. I don't care if they theoretically have the same amount of fabric, one is smaller than the other! It says so on the label!!! Am I alone here, or do other people think the same way? They have to, otherwise companies wouldn't do that, would they? The little voice of reason says that he is right, but the little voice that was told to wear mommy jeans says "buy the 4!!!"

More signs that I am in a transition... I was at the neighbors' the other day when their 16 year old son and his friend were listening to music on the internet. I said "oh, you guys are in to The Cure?" Blank looks. "The Cure," I said expectantly. "Never heard of 'em" he replied. I said, "well that's them, right there." His reply, "well they must've cut it up and put it on a hip-hop album." No, no, no. They stole it. There was no cutting involved. It was like they were just playing the track right off the original CD without any changes at all!!! I was trying to be smooth though so I said, "I don't blame them, The Cure is pretty groovy." Ugghhh. Not the right words to say to a 16 year old boy. I got that same "what's that old lady doing in here" look I got at the mall. Man, I can't wait til my kids are teenagers-not. I'm sure I will be about 20 times dorkier by then.

Well, if anyone needs me, I'll be surfing the Abercrombie & Fitch website looking at the hot models, jamming out to my "Black-Eyed Peas" CD and wishing it was 1999.

It's over...

2006-01-06T10:50:00.000-05:00

...my twenties that is. I have officially witnessed the death of my youth.* And what did I give myself for my birthday(Jan.3)? Brain damage. Actually, the brain damage was form New Year's, but I didn't feel normal until yesterday. Don't ask me what I was thinking because apparently, I wasn't. I am not normally a drinker, but I was at the "drunken irishman's" house next door and, I swear, I only had one (neverending) glass the entire night. Let's just say that if there had been a lampshade, I woulda been wearing it.

Because of the brain damage, there has been very little knitting progress. I have this ugly hat knit with the beautiful yarn from Insubordiknit that just keeps screaming to be frogged. I might just crank out the old ball winder and have a croak later today. It was one of those things that just, somehow, went terribly wrong. (proof that maybe I had brain damage before, since this seems to happen a lot) I am also working on "anniversary" socks for The Man. I did start these before our anniversary, but do you know how much longer man socks take than woman socks? I've finished the heel gusset and am starting on the instep of sock #1. At this rate, they might be done for our eleventh.

I do have a few resolutions to share-
1. Clean my house.
2. Keep house clean enough that I'm not embarrassed to have company.
3. Finish the majority of things that I start. (hey, I'll be happy with 51%, right now my average is about 13.4%)
4. Be better at life.

Okay, done with that. I have some sock pictures of the socks I knit for my Holiday Sox pal, but I want to get some pictures of the great socks I got from pal. Right now, though I need to get my butt in gear and go see my new nephew! He was born yesterday (Jan.5) around 7:30 and weighs 7 lbs., 4 oz. His name is Griffin. I can't wait.

*As much as I moan and groan about being thirty, it's really not a big deal. It's just one of those things baby, time keeps marching on. But that is not very dramatic. Having a funeral for my youth is.

10 down...

2005-12-31T19:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my tenth (yes, I said tenth) wedding anniversary. Here I am with my beloved all those years ago. I'm sorry to be mushy, but I really do love that man. I can't help myself. To celebrate, we dumped the kids and went here for a night of grown up conversation and food. Then we went to casa de steffaknits for some more grown-up, er, conversation. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) I'm a happy girl. He also got me a big bunch of roses. Man, I'm a sucker for the flowers and the wine and the romantic setting. Hmmmmm... sorry off in my own little world.

Now, I also wanted to show you a little knitting swag. Here are my 18 roses, my Yarn Harlot book my secret sister at work gave me, and the Rowan 28 that I specifically asked for on my christmas list. I asked for that one because of a certain pattern that was pictured on the front that made me drool. Well, if ya clicked the link, you saw that it was on the cover of #38, not #28. Duh. And I can't blame anyone but myself. Hey, but I did get an early birthday present of some moolah, so maybe I'll have to correct that little boo-boo myself.

Speaking of birthdays, d-day is right around the corner. It's the third. The end of my twenties is coming. Hide me, please.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

To all of those inclined, I hope you had a very happy christmas, however you celebrate. I had a wonderful time with the family and even managed to get three knitted gifts done for today. Yay!! And now it's time to r-e-l-a-x.....

Time

2005-12-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!

It occurs to me that today is the "shortest" day of the year. Funny that this is the day I decided to actually start my christmas knitting, the day with the least amount of time. Must not blog, must knit, NOW!

Save Me

2005-12-18T20:43:00.000-05:00

Lately I feel I'm being assaulted. First of all, let me just get this out of the way, I am not christian or even remotely religious. I think god, in general, is an ego trip. We are all so important that we had to be especially made by some great being, and then, he, she, it (whatever) has nothing better to do but to tend to our everyday dramas(or undramas). Get over yourself. Now, you have every right to disagree with me. That is why we are individuals and have brains of our own, right? I don't go around trying to convince you that you are wrong and completely insane for your beliefs, do I? So why are you doing that to me? Why am I any crazier for not believing than you are for believing? If you believe in hell, and you believe you are not going to hell, why do you care if I am? And why do you think this makes me immoral? For the past few months someone at work has been searching for what her beliefs are, which is fine. I respect that. But she has decided 1) I am simply too young to actually know how I truly feel about the subject and 2) I need some savin'. The other day, she got one of her church groupies to ask me when I was going to church with them. When I replied "never" (which I agree may sound a bit abrasive and confrontational), my co-worker -- what the hell, she's my boss-- proceeded to make my feel demonized by telling this person(who is also a customer) that I don't believe. This was a hard position to put me in. I don't think it is an appropriate workplace discussion, especially not out in a store where many other customers can hear. I work commission sales and people always look at you different when they hear such things. (Which in itself is not right!) Then we get into this "happy holidays"vs"merry christmas" bullshit. As I said to her, christmas is not the only holiday this time of year. She says "As far as I'm concerned it is." Holy shit! Hasn't she ever heard of tolerance? So, of course I got my present wrapped in baby Jesus wrapping paper and I made sure to write "happy holidays" on her christmas card. Yes, we're petty.
Then I came home to check my messages and heard some automated crap about marriage being between one man and one woman. How did these idiots get my number? What ever happened to the melting pot (or stew, as I say) of the country? There was like 15 minutes in the 90's when we thought that everyone would be accepted for who they are and then everybody went back to being pea-brains. It makes me want to quit the country all together. But then "they" would win and the voice of rational thinking would slowly die out. I say fuck you! Marry who you want(or don't), think what you want, look how you want, that's what makes this place great! Be unique. Be you. And leave me the fuck alone.

*Sorry for the no knitting content, but I had to get that off my chest. Maybe I'll knit my fustration into a scarf to strangle the intolerant with.

Yadda, yadda

2005-12-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

Well now I'm officially a deviant. I am updating my blog while I'm at work. Oh the humanity!!!! I don't have any pictures because I'm at work. Plus, for some reason the cold weather has put a halt to my picture takin'. I don't know why. Just another lame excuse. Anyhoo, I'm 75% done with my Holiday Sox socks and, still, 99% done with the Shark Attack Hat. I also got the socks from my sock pal. They are very cute, but man they make me feel like a slacker. And then I realized it was the 9th and I REALLY feel like a slacker. But my goal is to have socks in the mail by Wednesday and pictures by Sunday. But don't cross your fingers.

Socks & hats, same old, same old

2005-12-02T14:27:00.000-05:00

I've mostly finished my first sock for my sox exchange pal. But I can't show you any pictures because the two things she suggested (color & pattern) I incorporated into the design. And reading the other sock sisters' blogs, no one else suggested these two. So if I showed you, theoretically I'd be showing her, and ruining the secret. All I can say is, they're not orange or yellow and the aren't plain.

The "Shark Attack" hat is 99% done. End weaving and embellishment are all it's wanting. I have enough yarn left to do a super skinny scarf, so the pictures for it will probably wait until that is done too. The Man was trying it on last night and making fun of me. Not unusual. Well, not really of me, but at me. He said it looks like an old-fashioned football helmet, which it kinda does, and then proceeded to ram his head into the wall. Maybe I should be the one making fun of him.

On the non-making fun of side of things, I was driving in the car with Abbey today and she was doing her usual gibbering (the girl remembers EVERYTHING and brings things up at the strangest times) when she suddenly declares she wishes she was cloud. Oh, that's nice. Why would you like to be a cloud? So I can float up high in the sky. How nice. This from the child that likes to spin around in circles until she's so dizzy all she can do is lay on the floor and watch the world spin. It feels like she's a pothead in training. Aaaack!

Oh, and I got to have a camera jammed up my hoo-haw today. Yeah, I usually don't like to read, or write, about "sickies", but this is amusing. I went to the urologist for the whole kidney thing and he said "Let's do a cystoscopy". Okay. That doesn't sound anything like putting a camera in your pee-hole to me! You? So I went for my pee-hole photo shoot and the nurse made me undress in front of her, no little curtain or anything! Then stuck me on a table with those oh so lovely stirrups that we all enjoy so much and left me there. No. She didn't just leave me there. She uncovered my parts and then left me there. What's a girl gotta do for some modesty? Then my doctor got called to emergency surgery, so a doctor I'd never met got to do the thing. "Hello, it's nice to meet you, now let me jam this up your cooch!" And by the way, ouch. Not the most comfortable thing in the world. Of course it was all normal. I think I have had every uncomfortable thing possible done to me so that the doctor can say, "everything looks normal" or "there is a problem, but it's not anything that we can treat without extreme measures" or, my personal favorite, "we think there's something wrong, but we'll have to do another incredibly uncomfortable test to see for sure." 'Tis my lot in life. Must have some bad karma from a past life to make up for. All right, that's all the whining for today. Pictures soon. (But not of my peehole.)

Holiday Gift Ideas

2005-11-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

I think everyone on your holiday gift list could use one of these. Don't you?

TGIO

2005-11-25T11:26:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is over and I'm, well, thankful. The first turkey dinner went okay & pretty easy. I stuck the turkey in the roaster oven and forgot about it. No basting, no tenting, no checking, nothing. It was great. I did fine with everything else, but almost forgot the potatoes and I used gravy out of a jar. Har, har, har. My sister says, "did you use rosemary in the gravy?" I say, "you'll have to ask Heinz." It always makes me laugh the way my family acts. My grandma, who is 71, says "I can never get those nice ridges on my pie crusts." I say, "The pilsbury doughboy did it, not me." Crazy people. I'm not Martha Stewart. Another bright spot from granny was when we were all sitting peacefully eating and she suddenly jumps up, knocks over her pop, and says "Where's my purse?" This is a commonly used phrase from grams. The funny part is that she's at my house, with her family, where no one would want to take her purse. What a nut.

Turkey dinner #2 was also nice. My mom was nice enough to cut up my stinky red onions before she left. Yay! No stinky onion hands for me. (At least not until I chopped up some shallots later on.) T2 got roasted in the oven over a layer of red onions while being basted with a mixture of white wine and butter. Then it got a coat of cranberry glaze. Yum, cranberries. It was also supposed to have juniper berries but they are impossible to find around here unless you want them in capsule form. Nope, don't think that would work. My husband says that's what I get for trying to be "upper class" in Springfield (aka, Springtucky). Oh well. I bet they had them in Yellow Springs. So everything went well, and The Man actually helped me in the kitchen with the second dinner. He was very helpful. And the house got mostly clean. And we had a really nice chardonnay with dinner too. Yum. I'm just starting to learn about wines and I was very pleased with myself. The Man even liked it. (He doesn't really like wine.)

And some knitting got done. I'm making a hat out of the Shark Attack I got from Insubordiknit.
I know, I know, it must seem like all I ever knit are hats and socks, but this one is different. It has earflaps. And, yes, that does make a big difference. I'm almost done so I'll have pics soon.

Now I need to go clean the turkey day mess up before I have to go to work. This is the first time in 10 years that I haven't had to be at work at 6:00am. The joys of retail.

The Trials of Turkey Day

2005-11-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

Before I say anything else, I have to get this out of the way... I LOVE Grey's Anatomy. I'm a full-fledged addict. Pathetic, I know. It's soap operas for people who work during the day. I don't care. I love it. But Dr. Sheperd is supposed to pick Meredith, isn't he? Can't help it. I'm a dork.

Now- listen carefully- I am cooking two Thanksgiving Dinners. On the same day. Yes, you read that right. There will be two turkeys (my family are all carnivores), two gravies, two green bean casseroles, two pecan pies, two sweet potatoes with sugar, etc. Am I crazy, you ask. Why yes, yes I am. I'm sitting here blubbing my lips with my fingers in that characteristic crazy lady way right now. And I am sure to get kookier with every passing hour. I need to clean the entire house, or at least the downstairs, too. I'm not known for my housekeeping, but it is Thanksgiving after all so I should really try a little harder. See, my family wants dinner early and I'm the only one who's volunteered. No problem. But I had already insisted in making dinner for my husband's family in the evening. I'm a fool. And how could I possibly ask one of them to come at a different time? I'm a people pleaser, I couldn't. I'm also a control freak and I usually don't want anyone to help at all. Not this time, no way. I'm putting turkey #1 in the roaster oven I got for Christmas last year. (no control over that, if you open the lid, you lose most of the heat. big step for me.) I'm asking my mom, my sister and sister-in-law to bring a side dish. Normally I wouldn't let them, cause of the control thing, but this year I will. I got myself into the same pickle last year so I had "Thanksgiving Breakfast" instead of dinner. I liked it but no one showed up at the same time and they all complained about the lack of turkey. Wah. Oh well, this too shall pass, right? I can't wait for Friday morning. (And mom, if you're reading this, don't feel bad. I did it all to myself. I think I must like the pressure.)

So, if you haven't guessed, there's been no knitting. I did get my sock exchange yarn though. It's Lorna's Laces in denim from Jimmy Beans Wool. Now I have to decide on a design. I better get crackin'. It's only 25 days till they need to be mailed. Good thing I knit fast. It's the over pleasing that takes so long.
Gratuitous Kid Picture

Smile dammit!
(and light a candle for me at the shrine of the Gobbler Gods)

Rambling On

2005-11-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

I've tried to post the picture for our wonderful sock exchange about a jillion times and it's NOT WORKING! Sorry gals, and guys?, no picture for you. I will try to explain the button so you can get a nice mental image. HA! Picture eight skeins of Koigu with the words "Holiday Knits Sox Exchange" running over them. And a fuzzy little head down on the bottom right side. I'm guessing that's one of Ariane's little munchikins. Can you see it?

Enough about that. I'm having a crazy whacked out day. Things don't make sense. Here, look at my list...
1. I can't post a frickin' picture to my frickin' blog.
2. We are working on tornadoes here. Tornadoes happen in the spring, not November!
3. These damn websites keep making the minimum number of characters for a password longer! Dammit, don't they know I use the same password for everything and it is only 6 characters long and I don't have time to try to remember anything else!
4. The Man said he cleaned the toilet. NOT! He wiped the seat off with a Clorox clean-up wipe. Meanwhile, I cleaned the nasty ring of crud from inside the toilet. We've been married 9 years and he's never cleaned the inside of the toilet.
5. My dog is totally freaking out over above mentioned toilet. She stood and growled and barked at the thing for a good 30 minutes and is now currently standing guard over it right now. Like, since it's finally clean, it's going to sprout legs and run away.
6. I made a list.

On the bright side, I ordered my sock yarn for my sock pal today. I'm so excited to get started! I told The Man about this little adventure and he laughed at me! He said, "You can't finish anything for your family, why do you think you can knit something fo a perfect stranger?" Duh! My family knows not to expect much from me, but with a stranger I have to keep up appearances! There's a lot more pressure when it's someone you don't know. It's like trying to impress a blind date. You try to be as courteous and prompt as possible, otherwise they'll find out what a loser you are. Your family has already found out, so you don't work as hard for them. (And by "hard", I mean fast.) Anyway, I'm excited, and that's half the battle.

I also ordered some yarn from Insubordiknit. It's called Shark Attack. It's greenish-blue with little gorey puffs of red fluff mixed in. I was thinking gauntlets, but now maybe I'm leaning towards a hat. I swatched it up and can't quite decide. I'll think a little bit and get back at ya.

It is now time for the kidlets to go to bed. I'm waiting for the usual protests, but at the last warning bell Aidan said "okay". Wow, talk about knock me over. He must be tired, as am I.

Mo' Socks

2005-11-11T16:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I have now been trying to download a picture for the new sock exchange that I joined for SIX days now! I'm giving up. The website for the Holiday Knit's Sox Exchange is here. You'll have to do without the picture for now. And here are my answers to the questionaire, dear secret sock sister. (Sorry I took so long, see above mentioned picture posting issue.)

1. My foot is 8 1/2 inches long and 8 inches at it's widest circumference.
2. I love all sock yarns! I'm not crazy about cotton, but everything else is fab. I guess I should say the one's I have enjoyed the most are Mountain Colors, Cherry Tree Hill, Opal, and some Regia fair isle stuff. But my experience is a bit limited.
3. I usually do rib patterns, but I'm not picky. I'm not so great at the lace, which could explain the lack thereof, but I think that lace socks are very pretty.
4. If you haven't figured it out, I'm pretty easy (ask my husband, ba-dum-dum). I love all colors. Serious. There's not one color I've met that I haven't liked in one way or another. And solids vs. stripes? Surprise me!
5. No allergies here, thank goodness. How can you knit without wool, alpaca, angora, etc? I suppose if I had to, I would, but it wouldn't be pretty.
6. We celebrate the family on Christmas.

I hope that clears things up. Now I'm gonna go kick Blogger.com's butt.

Three Hats & a Baby(doll)

2005-11-06T09:57:00.000-05:00

I'm done with the hats! But that's not the biggest news! Abbey has officially finished her first project! It only took 4 months and a lot of help from Mommy, but she now has a pink hat for her baby to wear. She was so proud of herself! (Can't ya tell?) And she is modeling the new hat I made for her. It's made out of Paintbox by Knit One, Crochet Too in a pink and blue colorway. (Those are her two favorite colors right now. Before it was pink, pink, pink, but then we got the Cinderella DVD and blue worked it's way in there.) The yarn reminds a lot of Noro Kureyon but with less vegetable matter, and it's much easier to find around here. For some reason it takes the local shops around here months to get Kureyon in and they sell out almost instantly. The price is the same and so's the yardage. The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't seem to change colors as frequently, but it could have just been that colorway. The third hat that's done is the Chemo cap for my friend. I don't have any pictures, so use your imagination. Ha ha! I'll try to get a pic later. Heck, I might even model it. That'd be amazing, huh?

I also have some other gratuitous kid pictures to share, so here it goes.
This is Abbey and her best friend Mackenzie. Abbey is a pretty pink princess and Kenzie is a Diva. Halloween, what fun. (And by the way, I made Abbey's dress. Pat, pat myself on the back.)
And this is Aidan and his buddy
Brendan. I've given up on trying to make Aidan's costumes because all he wants is SuperHero stuff. Two years ago it was Spiderman, last year it was Batman and this year the Red Power Ranger. (Another BTW, apparently every kid wants to be the red power ranger because that one costs more than any other color! I kept saying, "Are you sure you don't want to blue? Or white?". Nope, it was red all the way. And, of course, he HAD to have muscles.) I'm so glad the kids are still at the age where they get tired before I do. An hour and they're pooped. Yay for mom! But they still got so much candy that we still have a ton left. I tried letting them eat it all the first few days to get it over with, but it was too much. It will probably get thrown out because I think they've forgotten about it. They haven't asked for it in a few days so maybe we're in the clear.
Other fall adventures included the Yellow Springs street fair where we saw these guys...
And lots of other interesting things
including a vendor selling marionettes. Yeah, I'm a sucker. Aidan got a purple dinosaur and Abbey got a black pony. And yes they have been tangled up many times. But the kids love them and they come apart pretty easy so I can untangle them. And check out the pink sweater that Abbey is wearing. I made it! It's a pattern from Debbie Bliss and it's knitted from her Cashmerino Aran. It's super soft and yummy and makes me want one for myself. But it did take 8 balls to make this tiny one and, at $8 a ball, I don't see it in my future anytime soon. Oh, but one can dream.
Well, the evil side of Aidan has made an appearance this morning so I must go exorcise the demons.

It Lives

2005-10-31T18:58:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am here and I'm alive. Still doing battle with the evil little germies in my urinary tract- yech! At least I am feeling better enough that I have been, tada!, knitting. Oh that wonderful addiction that I had pushed to the side for too long. How long was I away from you, dear friend? A week, two? More?!? Well, it was far too long. I have been working on a chemo cap for my friend who started chemo at the beginning of October. I'm using Shine from KnitPicks, and the free pattern is from them too. I love the yarn and I'm glad I won't have to worry about any animal stuff buggin' my buddy. You never know if the chemo will turn them extra super sensitive or not. I am not so crazy about the pattern though. I love the shape and the fact that it is a little oversized, but I don't like the way they have you do the short rows. It could be me, but man, HUGE holes. I've done short rows before and had no holes, what's with the holes? I did the wrapping like the pattern said, what's up? Of course, it could have been the heavy medication I've been on. Nothing like a little to dope to screw up a pattern, HA! Oh well, I'll fix it later. I've also been working on a new hat for Abbey. The moths got to her old one. I have cedar in our closets, but since hers didn't have any clothes in it, her closet had no cedar. Ooops. It's okay, her old hat really didn't match her new coat anyway. I'm using Knit One, Crochet Too wool that stripes like Noro, but I can't remember the name. I'll blame the drugs. What a convenient excuse! Well TTFN- Ta-Ta For Now!!

Sickitty-sick-sick chick

2005-10-19T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well I obviously have not posted in a while. I have been sick. And not just a little sick, but BIG SICK. It started with a bladder infection. No big deal, give me some antibiotics and that stuff that makes you pee orange and I'll be okay, right? Not if the bug that's working it's way around my urinary tract is on steroids! In general, I don't fair well with these things cause I'm allergic to about every antibiotic they would normally give in this situation. They also tend to make my lupus crap flare up. Fever, joint pain, fatigue, etc. So when I didn't get better right away, I waited for the antibiotics to work their voodoo a little bit longer. Shouldn't have done that. I ran a fever for three days and still drug my stupid ass to work. When my back started to hurt so bad that I couldn't stand up straight, I thought I'd go to the doctor on my day off. Didn't make it that far. I finally admitted that I needed to go when I couldn't stand up. Whoa- massive kidney infection. Dumb, dumb, dumb. So I got a shot, some new antibiotics and vicodin for pain. Holy cow, he gave me vicodin for pain. Too bad it makes me so nauseous I can only take it at bedtime. Anyhoo, enough complaining. I have not knit a stitch since this started. (You know I'm sick when that happens.) But I have not dropped off the face of the blog-i-sphere. I'm trying to catch up and get some pics together of our adventures at the Yellow Springs Street Fair and other stuff that happened before the kidney attack. I'll post more soon.

Distraction

2005-10-05T09:04:00.000-04:00

We about to celebrate an anniversary at our house. Three years ago this month we bought this house and began renovating our kitchen. My goal when we started was to have it done before we moved in. I took a week of work with The Man and we went to work. We gutted the whole damn thing. It had this crazy stuff on the walls called Z-brick. Whoever invented that shit should be beaten about the head. It was this tar stuff that they slathered all over the walls and then stuck parts of bricks into. At first we thought it was just a panel thing that we could pry right off. Man, were we wrong. We scraped and heated and scraped and killed the plaster and scraped some more. We also tore out all the cabinets the flooring and the ceiling. The usual crap that you don't plan for happened, like having to re-wire the entire eletrical system in the kitchen- but we were still on track. Then my father-in-law got invovled and it came to a screaching halt. I'm not blaming it all on him, we were tired and any excuse to chill with the work was welcome, but he didn't help matters. (It has taken him 25 years to renovate the house they live in, and he's still not done!) Needless to say, we moved in without it being finished. I insisted that it be done before Thanksgiving. Then it was Christmas. Then by Easter. Well, ladies and gentlemen, three years later it is still at the same point that it was when we stopped. Uuuuggghhhhh! I have dreams (literally) about a wonderful finished kitchen. When I wake up, they turn into nightmares 'cuz they're so far from the truth!!! Well, I'm putting my foot down. This kitchen will be done before Thanksgiving. Or at least Christmas. Or maybe Easter? I can only hope(and nag).

See, you didn't even notice the lack of knitting, did you?

Bad Blogger

2005-09-30T08:33:00.000-04:00

I'm a baaad blogger! I sit here and grumble when the blogs I read are not updated on a daily basis, and then turn around and not post for a week. Shame, shame, shame. I'll try to be less judging of the time it takes for others to blog, especially when I'm the worst offender!

So, what have I been doing in place of blogging? Travelling? No. Working? A little. Housework? Definitely no. Knitting? Not as much as I'd like. Being lazy? BINGO!!! It's not like I haven't been on the computer. (Note the reference to others not blogging above.) I just haven't felt like thinking. I haven't even answered my e-mail in over a week. Sometimes it's nice to shut down for a little bit. Ya'know?

Well, to appease the blogging gods, here are some pictures. This is the yarn that I spun up about two weeks ago. It was my first attempt at navajo plying, and I think I knida like it. It's for sure not my most even yarn, but pretty all the same. It's also not the softest, but it was agood experiment. The navajo ply gives you alot more depth in texture and the color of this is very soothing. It's some border leceister(sp?) that I got off e-bay a while back. I saw they had some more lots of it listed. I might have to get a bit more. I haven't quite figure out the yarn ounce to roving ounce ratio yet. I know it depends on how you spin it, but there was 4 ounces of roving when I started, which, logically, would yield about 4 ounces of yarn. But I only got 78 yards of yarn. It doesn't make sense, since a 4 ounce ball of yarn would be quite a bit. Or maybe not. I've always had trouble converting weight measurements. Also, maybe you can't look at it that way until you're more consistent and all. I'm still pretty ignorant about the whole spinning thing.

I have also been knitting socks out of the million dollar sock yarn. It is yummy, yum, yum. Does every knitter have a sock going as a back up project? I have socks, socks , and more socks that need to have a mate or a kitchener to make them whole. The perfect project for my knitter's ADD. Plus it fits in my new GI-normous purse. I made sure before I bought it.

We had a great time in Georgia, although hardly enough. I think my kids are well on their way to accomplishing their goal of using every public restroom in America! I'm not kidding. They've never actually told me this is what they are doing, but it's obvious to me. Every store, restaraunt, etc. that we go to, they have to potty. Even if they just pottied at the last one ten minutes ago. We have seen many a bathroom. But the store that really gets 'em going is Lowe's. Don't ask me. All I know is that anytime we go to Lowe's, it's not 5 minutes before someboy's gotta potty.

Here they are at Smoky Mountain National Park, right after Aidan had to use the potty at the information office. This was probably one of the only eight times they got along on the whole trip, with 6 of the other times being when they were asleep. They have started the whole, "she's touching me", "he's copying me", "she's sticking her tongue out at me" routine. Aw, the joys of parenting.

Well, now I'm late for work. I'm a bad employee...but at least I'm no longer a bad blogger.

I've been a bad, bad girl

2005-09-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

Yarn diet, schmarn diet, who said anything about a yarn diet? I'm afraid I may have to quit with the yarn diet, because I honestly think it makes me want to binge!!! I went to my LYS and bought million dollar sock yarn! See...

But it is sooo worth it. It's Mountain Colors and it's yummy. (I think it's that darn mohair, it's my new craving.) And it's sock yarn, so it doesn't really count, right? Right? RIGHT?!?! This was after my dip in the evil well of e-bay, which came today. Here's a picture with the other yarn for scale.
I have to say, I was a little disappointed by the size of this yarn. Yes, I read the listing when it said that there were only fifty yards, but I didn't realize it would be a miniature fifty yards. Man. What a let down from the high of my dirty e-bay buying episode. It really is like crack. :o
I also bought a skein of Sokkata yarn at my LYS for some cottony good socks. Yeah, like I needed more sock yarn. I've also done some spinning but the stinkin' picture loady thingy on Blogger is not working out very well for me tonight. I swear, it's not the operator. It's not the operator! Well, maybe it's the operator... more pics tomorrow....

AAARGHHH!! A Pirate I be

2005-09-21T22:25:00.000-04:00

My pirate name is:

Mad Jenny Cash

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

E.A.A.

2005-09-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

...Hello, my name is Stefanie, and I'm an E-bay Addict. I never realized it was a problem until I hit bottom last week. Generally, I just browse the aisles, resisting the urge to click that buy-it-now button. And even when I do see an item, I play it cool. I'll bid a low amount as my maximum bid and if I lose, I lose. Not last week. The first step in my spiral downward was that I bid on something that ended while I was at work, where we just got high-speed internet access. I broke the cardinal sin- I played e-bay while I was at work. This is not the worst. I then proceeded to play bid and out-bid with some other E-bay addict up until the very last 2 minutes. I had the adrenaline pumping and my finger clicking that refresh button every 30 seconds! This turned my $.99 bargain into a $9.78 okay deal. But it wasn't like this was a one-of-a-kind item that I just had to have. It was the rush of the whole thing. The clicking to see if I was still on top. Man, I'm a fool. How could I have thought E-bay was harmless all this time? It's the crack of the internet. Yikes!
And what did I buy that was worth plunging into the perils of this realm? Yarn. Didn't you expect it to be feeding my other addiction? One skein of Lorna's Laces Angel Angora. I have no idea what I will do with only one skein, but it's mine. Dammit! Mine!

SUCCESS!!!!

2005-09-19T10:27:00.000-04:00

I am brilliant! I wish anyway. Well, just got back from Gee-orgia and will have stories to tell later. Right now, I must sleep. That adventure in blogging drained my brain. ;p

Too hard, brain mushy...

2005-09-19T10:22:00.000-04:00

So I'm trying to get the stinking picture to show up on the knitting blogs button on my sidebar. Here's the problem- I'm a computer idiot. And I've had no sleep. I now have the picture saved on my hard drive, but it is bmp, not jpeg, and my little hello thing is for jpeg. Aaargh! I'm gonna try this.
Yeah, now it's here, but how do I get it there? I think I need a knit break.

Too Busy to Sleep

2005-09-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

Man, the past few days have been killing me. We are going out of town tomorrow, so I tried to squeeze 40 hours of work into Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That on top of working my buns off to get a quilt done for my husband's friend before we leave and I'm frazzled! But it's done! And I managed to knit a little too. And spin. Although the pictures will have to wait for another day. Toodles!

YUCK! I just looked at my last blog post and the photos are horrendous! I apologize for any bleeding from the eyes that resulted from that post.

Spin, spin, spin

2005-09-12T21:47:00.000-04:00

Here's my latest product...

And another view here-->

I don't have a whole lot because my dog decided that sheep might be tasty,
and since this smells like sheep, she'd like to give it a chew. Man, I was steaming! She did this to the last batch too, but I take the blame because I left it within reach. This time I had it hanging way up high on a plant hook on the back porch and she still managed to get it. I hope to spin up some more pretty soon, but, in the meantime, I couldn't help knitting up a swatch. I like it. Because of the small amount, I just had to go to the LYS and find something to go with it. I found some really nice kettle-dyed wool in just the right green...

I'm thinking a vest. As long as I can keep it away from my dog...

The End

2005-09-10T23:43:00.000-04:00

The neverending baby blanket has ended! I'm speechless. It was like giving birth after a horrendously long and painful labor. It's finished, fine, finito, fin. Yippee!
Now who can I give it to?

Extra, Extra

2005-09-09T19:14:00.000-04:00

The new Knitty is here! Lots of cool stuff, like I need more ideas for projects. And Miss Insubordiknit got published! I'm so happy for her, especially since she's working on getting the yarn shop up and running. Hopefully it will bring in some business.

I have been happily knitting on the neverending baby blanket. I think the end is actually in sight. Ihave less than 100 stitches left on my needle. Yippeee! I also got a super cool book about spinning from my LYS. She is getting ready to move to different location at the end of the month and she will be carrying wheels and having classes. Yeah! I'm so excited to have a resource around here. I also fondled as much of the yarn as I could without looking like a total perve, overall much fun was had. Tonight, since The Man is at work, I'm going to cast on for a vest for Abbey out of my very own homespun. I hope it works out well, I can hardly stand the suspense. (Okay, a bit of an exageration since I've been thinking about it for maybe a month now.)

I tried spinning some more last night, but the darn roving didn't want to hang onto itself. I think I took too much of a break. I was cruising along really well but I got sidetracked with baby stuff, and now it's like I lost my rhythym. Well, hopefully it will all come back. I've got alittle bit of singles ready to ply so I'm gonna do that tonight. Maybe that will trigger the memory of what to do.

Or maybe I'll just sleep.

Am I crazy?

2005-09-08T09:18:00.000-04:00

So, now that I have purged the political demons for a week or so, I have turned much attention back to knittting pursuits. They say men think about sex every 3 minutes (or something like that), but I think about knitting! I dreamt of knitting last night. Charts and yarn and patterns danced through my head all night long. I need to buy a new purse, and I found myself judging them by how big of a project I can stuff inside. I feel like if I could only learn to type with my feet so my hands can be busy knitting, or learn to read a book while reading a pattern, I would be an abundantly happy person. This said, I don't need any help with excuses for stash building, but The Man decided to give me some. Admittedly, this was not on purpose. We (I) have a huge disorganized mess in our bedroom. Because it is a very large room (20x35 ft.), and our house has no real storage (it was built in 1900, before people needed closets), and it has a door that we can shut, it has become the dumping ground of all my future, current, past projects. Whenever we are having company, it all gets scurried away into our room and the door is shut on our horrid little secret. Now, I know this is a problem, and I have been working on it, but the solution is NOT to shove everything in a huge box and stick it in the attic. This is what I came home to one day. Hello!!!! I said, "You know, the best way to get me to buy more yarn is to hide the stuff I already have at the bottom of a box!" Well, he got the point and I've been working alone ever since. There are good moments and bad moments to that arrangement. I have made real progress, but I was also forced to mutter the words..."I promise, I won't start a new project until our room is clean". Oy! But, because of my knitting ADD, I have plenty of already started projects to keep me going. Like these...

This is cute bolero that I'm knitting in purple. I'm using Berroco Softwist and it's turning out well. The pieces need blocked before I can take a picture of them because the rrrrooooollllllll. A lot.

This is a baby blanket that is officially my longest running work in progress. I started it two years ago. Amazingly, my gauge is not terribly altered over the work period. Talk about endless knitting.

And this is baby Katie's cardi. Mostly done. Didn't like the garter stitch one, so I went back to a good old basic stockinette raglan. I was thinking of adding some duplicate stitch embellishments like flowers, but I'm kinda likin' the simplicity of it. But it definitely needs a hat.

And last, but not least, the Lacey Wave Shawl (is that the name?) from th Fall Vogue knitting. I am done with the body of it, partly because I only knit 58 inches instead of 64. Hey, that's taller than I am! Plus, I still need to add the borders, so that will add another 6-8 inches I think. Long enough anyways.

Well that all the adventures for now. Toodles.

WARNING...Not much knittin' round here

2005-09-04T20:25:00.000-04:00

Sooo... I can't help but comment on the status of certain issues today. First, I second Jacey with a big ol' FUCK about Rehnquist. I can't believe that everybody's favorite pinhead gets to fill TWO spots on the one branch of government that actually reads the constitution. I'm worried about women's rights, I'm worried about gay rights, I'm worried about minority right, I'm worried about the rights of everyone in America! AAARGH!

And number two, right on Kanye West! Did anyone else get to hear "George Bush doesn't care about black people"? And I just know Chris Tucker wanted sooo badly to add his two cents, you could see it on his face! I think it is appalling the amount of time it took to work through the bureaucracies in this country just to get people in need some help. There were national guard units ready to deploy on SUNDAY, but they couldn't go anywhere until someone asked for them! Hello, like we couldn't see that they were needed? Not only that, but in order for guard units to go out their home state, they have to get permission from Washington! They couldn't have expedited this formality???? What the fuck is the matter with this country? And how about this little tidbit? I'm at my wit's end.

And, one more thing, about the whole gas price. First, maybe all of these natural disasters are Mother Earth's way of spanking her naughty children. You can only run around making a mess of the place for so long before she gets fed up and lashes out. Maybe, we should heed the warnings and clean up our acts. Yeah, gas is expensive, but maybe it will encourage all of us to USE LESS! My generation has been very fortunate that we have all that we want, hell, more than we want. No rationing here, it's all about waste and overuse. Hey, I'm guilty too. But I think we all need to stop and get a reality check. So you can't fill up your Hummer for under $100, so what. Serves you right for getting a vehicle so monstrous anyways. Let's all be thankful for what we have and not play "what if". Let's all do what we can to help, even if it means walking to the grocery, video store, etc.

Okay, rant's over.

But, I just gotta say, "refugee" means one seeking refuge. That includes Americans.

Toady, oops, Today

2005-09-01T16:54:00.000-04:00

Today I officially became the mother of a kindergartener. WOW! I "celebrated" by seeing a city bus plow over a bus stop, buying donuts and eating too many, watching the horrible news on t.v., fighting in traffic for 25 minutes to pick up said kindergartener, who was actually on his way home via the bus, and buying knitting needles. Woohoo! I bought two size 2 24" circulars to try out with some socks. I'm working on the Friday Harbor pattern from "Knitting on the Road", and I'm not liking the results. But these look great, and they are being knitted on two circs. Well, the newly obnoxious kindergartener is yelling at his poor toothless kid sister (she had to have the front one pulled! Now she'll be my own "'lil Abner" for the next 3 years! AACK). More content after much drowning of age in pizza.

2005-09-01T13:15:00.000-04:00

Mmmm...yarn

A million inches

2005-08-28T18:51:00.000-04:00

That's what it feels like I've been knitting. A million inches of the same pattern, blah, blah, blah.
But the end is in sight!! I am done with the body of the wrap, and now I just need to pick up and knit the end pieces. Holy cow I can't wait. I'm also done knitting Katie's sweater. All I need to do know is sew up the two seams and add the buttons. Whew! That's for tomorrow, as well as her quilt. I haven't decided how I'm going quilt it, but I'm about to just tie it and let it be done with. Dunno. Not much to share, but I'll leave ya with some great pictures of my son's happy soccer dance.

Cute, ain't he?

May I introduce...

2005-08-25T19:46:00.000-04:00

... Katherine Grace, born Friday, August 19, 2005. Isn't she adorable? (no, I haven't got the sweater done) She's so tiny and irresistable. (no, the quilt's not done either) I just wanted to hold her and rock her (i'm working on them, i swear) and take her home. I really would have liked to have one more, but my husband, and my body, didn't agree to that. I guess we could always find one that's already cooked. Or just offer to babysit. Yeah, then she can go home at the end of the day.

Well, that's all. I promise, I'll finish the stuff s-o-o-n.

Just one more picture

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2005-08-24T09:52:00.000-04:00

Have you noticed the new look? I'm not so sure that I like this one all that much, but we'll try it out for awhile. It's kinda like trying on outfits, or yarn, sometimes you go through a few before you find the one you like.

Knitting news- I'm blocked on the baby cardi I'm making for Katie. I am not a fan of garter stitch, hours and hours of garter stitch. I need to get the lead out, or it will turn into the sweater that never was for her big brother, Nick. That was why I started to knit. Well, maybe I should say when, but not exactly why. I am a fiber freak. I love fabric, and I love yarn. I was to the point that I was buying yarn just so I could have it. It was outta control! I decided if I was going to have it, I needed to know how to do something with it. I tried to crochet. Blech!! I was terrible at it. My tension was horrid and I ended up with a big loose pile of yarn. The only stitch I was any good at was the afghan stitch- which, basically, is knitting- so I decided to take a stab at knitting. I bought a "Learn to Knit" kit with Cotton-Ease and a baby hat pattern and I was hooked. My first ambitious project, after the baby hat that never got finished, was a sweater for Nick. I got it all together, put the ribbing on, everything. But no one had told me to bind of in rib, so my edges were all nasty looking. I am too neurotic to give someone a gift that is not up to my par, so it sits in a bag with all my other crafty stuff, hoping to someday be frogged and re-worked . I did make him a really cute hat with some fun yarn poking out the top, but the sweater fell by the wayside. He's a baby, he'll never know. (I tell myself, as I my mother reminds me of "all those projects you never finish". Hey, I'm getting better.) So today I am going to march my little butt downstairs and finish Katie's sweater! I swear.

Later Tater!

Note to my husband- quit buying donuts!!!

We have no bananas...

2005-08-20T21:01:00.000-04:00

...because I used them to make banana bread. I got the recipe here, with a few modifications. It called for 2 1/4 cups bananas, but I only had 3 bananas, which equals 1 cup. I added unsweetened applesauce to make up for it. YUM! Hey, I never realized how fun it is to type bananas. Bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas- I'm going. Try it, you will too.

Also, I crashed my yarn diet. Yeah, that lasted all of 30 seconds.
Officially, I could make the Christmas excuse, since everything is for gifts, but I won't go there. I have no self-control. I admit it! The only reason I make it as a vegetarian is because cake counts as vegetarian! That, and the image of all those poor little chickens flopping over because their breasts have been engineered to be so big that they can't even hold themselves upright*! And the cows, all 'roided out and all. I bet the have acne like you can't believe, and tempers to boot.

* I have a theory that avian flu is really just the chickens and the turkeys getting back at us for making them that way. All I can picture is them flopping over on their tiny little heads and plotting their revenge on the humans. Attack of the large-breasted poultry!!!

Yes, I did buy a book about scarves. I never thought I would. I mean, who needs a book to show you how to knit 20 million inches of garter stitch, seed stitch, etc. Not me. Then I looked at this one. It has some really great scarves and wraps. I'm going to knit the cable scarf, and the backyard leaves scarf, and Ene's scarf, and a few others too. Plus I had a coupon for 40% off at JoAnn's. They certainly do come in handy.

I am still knitting on my wrap, but progress has slowed. I had to knit up a baby sweater, which I'm 80% done with. And I've been sewing, too. As I mentioned before, my sister-in-law went into labor on Friday morning, and by Friday evening, we had a niece. Her name is Katie, and I haven't gotten to see her yet. I hope to see her tomorrow or Monday, and I also hope to have my goodies for her done. We'll see.

I'm being paiged by Aidan to "cover me!" What is it with 5 1/2 year old boys and turning everything they can into poop? He won't sing the normal lyrics to songs, like "Twinkle, Twinkle", instead it's "Poopy-poopy little poop". Boys.

Steff

A Block for Charity

2005-08-19T20:09:00.000-04:00

So, I don't know this man, and I've only been reading "At MyKnits End" for a short time, but I think it's an important remembrance of a life's love. And I also don't think anyone reads my blog, but I'm putting this out there so that maybe someone else will stumble upon it and put it in their blog. Go to "The Knitty Gritty" and send in a square. Mine is in honor of my granfather, whom the loss of was quite crushing for me and is still tearing at my heart.

Thanks, Steff

Oh where oh where

2005-08-19T15:20:00.000-04:00

This is my adorable little puppy when we first got her in February. Wasn't she the cutest thing? She's still cute, but not quite so tiny. Her name is Jesse. Well, this morning when I went to put her in her bed, I couldn't find her. I called and called and called, but no Jesse. I then noticed the front door was ajar and my three year old was in the living room (Abbey). I was sure Abbey had let the dog outside. It would not be unusual. She's allowed to let the dog in and out, but always via the back door. I was upset. I hollered, although not too badly. My family came over and we searched. I had to go to work, so the search was called off. I was heart-broken. When my husband came home for lunch, he called to ask about the dog and I told the story of her disappearance. Okay, he said, we'll find her. About 20 minutes later, he called to say he had found the dog. Oh thank goodness!!!! Where was she? Stuck under our bed. Yep, stuck under our bed. Some kid had decided she needed a fort, so he (I'm relatively sure it was Aidan, since he is the resident fort builder) stacked pillows all around the bed and coaxed the dog under it. Now, I'm not saying my dog is dumb, but push on the stinking pillows and they will fall over! In all fairness though, she is getting a bit too big to go under the bed without getting stuck anyways. Well, at least she is okay. I'm sorry my family spent 2 hours calling and hunting her. Ugh. Maybe she learned to stay out of there. And the kids definitely learned not to put her out front because she might run away. Lessons learned.

And my sister-in-law went into labor this morning. Soon we will have a niece. Yay!

Later! Steff

Reading & Knitting

2005-08-14T10:32:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been ages since my last post. I feel like a disappointment. When I started this thing just a mere month ago, I promised myself I would write every day. A lofty goal, I guess. Time to get back on track.

I have been reading. I just finished a book by Piers Paul Read called "Alice in Exile". It was very good. It's all about a modern woman at the turn of the (20th) century. It was somewhat predictable in spots, but overall good. I enjoy historical fiction and this had a lot of references to WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, as well as the very birth of the women's movement. Plus, it was from the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. That is my favorite place to find books. Also, they have an awesome sale after Christmas on the website where everything is even cheaper and you get free shipping on anything over $25. I got 10 books this year for $34!!! All right, enough of a plug for B & N, like they need it.

On the knitting side, I have yet to frog my poor sock. It's waiting for me so patiently while I have moved on to other things. The lacy tank is on hold. The yarn just isn't right. It's thinner than what's called for and I am not liking the look of the lace pattern with it. Not filled in enough in the spots that are supposed to be filled in. Plus, I was reading the instructions, and noticed that the size I was making would for sure not cover my monster boobs. ( yes, I have monster boobs. It is nice sometimes, but mostly not. When I buy clothes, the size that fits the boobs usually engulfs the rest of me and I can't wear a button shirt without the buttons wanting to burst open, even when it fits the boobs. I can sew, but I haven't figured out how to alter things for them. I know I could use darts, but that doesn't always suit the item I'm altering. Anyway, I know some would like the boobs. It just fits my theory that we always want what we don't have. And if we did have what we wanted, we wouldn't want it anymore anyways.) So the lacy tank is waiting for some new yarn, which doesn't work since I am now officially on a yarn diet. I swear! I only bought some yarn to finish something I already started, which doesn't count, and some other yarn which doesn't count cause I wasn't officially on my diet yet. (See how easily I rationalized that? Scary, yo.) The extra yarn was Sirdar's UpCountry DK. Nothing fancy or expensive, but a good basic yarn. I like Sirdar. They're kinda like a much nicer version of Lion brand. They have better quality, yet still inexpensive yarns as well as higher end yarns. Lion brand I think is getting a little out of control. Has anyone seen the new fall catalogue? $6.99 for 55 yards of a wool/acrylic blend? Are you crazy? Yes it is bulky weight, and yes I do really like it, but it took two skeins to make a scarf for a little girl. Good thing I have Jo-ann's coupons.

I didn't have a plan for the UpCountry, but then I got the new issue of Vogue Knitting. First, did you see that jacket on the front? LOVE IT!! Even my husband, who won't even look happy while in the presence of my overflowing amounts of crafty gobbledegoop, said I should knit it!! That was a first! I don't know if I will, I'm still trying to track down the yarn, or an appropriate/less expensive substitute. Maybe... In the mean time I am working on this...

The Lace Wrap from the same issue. There are a ton of things in this issue that I would like to do. Lots of good traditional things, with some funk thrown in. Really, though I need to start looking towards Christmas knitting and sewing. So much to knit, so little time. And, as Felicia puts it, my eyes knit faster than my hands.

Well, I've got to get mt butt clean and ready for work. Hopefully it won't be busy and I can knit!! Man, i've got a hard job.

Later, yo! Steff

I have YARN!!

2005-08-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

Yeah!!! I'm so excited. I have yarn. Yarn, yarn, I made it. I made yarn that looks like yarn. Yarn that looks like yarn I would want to knit with! I can't believe I did it. The whole niddy noddy, wet, set, dry thing worked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
Here's another look, up close......

All right that was a lot of self-congratulatory hooting and hollering, but I couldn't help myself. So, in interest of keeping my knit karma in balance, I present you with these-

The Ugliest Socks Ever To Be Seen...

Yes, they are ugly, aren't they? Well, they are worsted weight, problem one. Not any socks that could be worn in any shoes, strictly around the house type of thing. I did like the way they were knit though. I got the pattern from about.com. They actually have quite a few free patterns for all different things. I'm thinking about trying to adjust the pattern for sock weight yarn. Also, they are little elfin sized socks, problem two. They look all deformed and stuff. But, and this is the important part, they fit the recipient. All but the cuff, which I mentioned prviously. Well, I have started my second pair of ugly socks, but I don't think they will ever match the ugliness of the first. We shall see.

I also started the Friday Harbour sock pattern from Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the Road" book. It was pretty enjoyable, until I read the directions. Remember, I have a problem with that. Damn! One of these days I will learn my lesson. Until then, it's of to tink-land. Actually, I think the frogs would be better for this one. I can never tink back in a sock for mor than a row or two. By the way, you should really check out Felicia's version. Not only is her knitting awesome, but her pictures are beautiful. I am definitely having blog envy.

Well, time to go stuff my pie hole with something yummy. NOT ginger sesame tofu2go snacks. Not good. Not good at all.

Steff

Knitting Forever, Housework Whenever

2005-07-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, I have no pictures. I have been knitting and spinning pretty steadily, but my husband(M) has commandeered the camera. The Senior PGA tour is here this week, and he and his stepdad have been snapping pictures relentlessly. M's not a big golf guy, but his stepdad is, and he didn't want to go by himself. M's idea of good golf is trying not to get too drunk to drive the golf cart and laughing at his buddies from the rough on the opposite side of the fairway. Not quite the hush-hush kind of golf you find at a Sr. PGA event.

My adult ADD is kicking in again. I have yet to finish my tank top, or my bunny, or crumpets, and yet I've started new objects. I've made a pair of UGLY socks out of clearance $1/ skein yarn. Evil Red Heart yarn. Something I would never normally use, but I've been trying to make socks for this person for ages, and I can't get the size right. And the ones I made are still too big in the ankles. Plus, (she says) she is allergic to wool. And she keeps picking out worsted weight yarn. And I just don't want to do it. Wah! Anyways, I think I've found the pattern, and I'll just knit the ankle on smaller needles, and change to bigger ones at the heel.

I've also started a new tank. I got some british knitting mags at Barnes and Noble and found a cute lace tank. I don't have the right yarn, so it's a bit more lacey than it should be, but pretty good so far.

The spinning front is so-so. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, since my yarns don't look like a big ball of twisted shit anymore. But I found out that I have been missing a huge step- the wetting and drying and setting the twist. I guess that's why it probably would have been helpful to get a book or something first. Although it probably wouldn't have helped because... I don't follow dirctions. I do, but I don't read through them completely before I follow them. Doesn't work so good that way. Well, life is all about learning from your mistakes, right?

Housework? Oh yeah. I have this thing with my back- don't worry, no complaining- and it has been driving me bonkers lately. It's a pinched nerve, or something. Well, I finally went to te doctor, and I finally have a dr. who listens, and he sent me to PT. The therapist was going over all the usual stuff when he asks if there's anything I like to do but can't anymore. I must have looked like WTF, cause he said, "like vaccuuming?". I'm sure he got a bigger WTF look. Who likes to vaccuum? I said, "well, I don't generally vaccuum very much". WTF? Anyways, I hope his ambition for me doesn't have anything to do with vaccuuming.

M swears he's going to divorce me over my housekeeping. I think it's fair to say he's bluffing.

Enough, Steff

Adventures in School Shopping

2005-07-26T23:55:00.000-04:00

So I'm about to be the mom of a kindergartener. Wow! It's hard to believe he's that old already. Makes me feel old. Well, I don't feel old, but I feel old. Time to get pierced or something. Or maybe just take my man out and liquor him up for a fun night to remind us of those days in the frontseat of his Datsun. Ah, the memories.

Anyways, school supplies... I went online to the school's website to get a copy of his supply list, like a good mommy. Man! He needed 4 packages of crayons, 3 sets of markers, 3 bottles of glue, 3 watercolor paint sets, 8 glue sticks, and multiples of much else. I've only got one kid in this class, why does he need so many of everything? It must be because we live in a broke-ass school district with people that just keep whining about how they can't afford any more taxes. "Oh, I don't have kids in school, what do I care?" Don't you care about property values? Don't you realize this is the "community" it takes to raise a child? Who paid, or will pay, for your kids? Don't get me wrong, I know it's not entirley your stingy ass that has caused this problem, and I really don't mind buying all those school supplies, I just can't stand to see the ignorance of people. My own grandma is one of those "my kids are all done with school" people and it drives me batty. Because our levy failed, our district is now in fiscal emergency and the state has sent an oversite committee. Yeah, that's gonna fix the problem. What, no levy? Let's cut busing. Let's tear down the building that housed all of the special needs kids in one place so the poor speech pathologist and physical therapist (there's only one of each for the entire district) have to run all over town and ultimately have less time with the kids. But don't cut sports! Keep those extra-curriculars! God knows we wouldn't want those kids at home any more than they have to be. Then they might be making sex tapes with 12, 15 & 17 year olds- a story for another time. Ugh, I'm just a fustrated parent that honestly doesn't know what to do. Sometimes it makes me actually consider private school, even though it almost makes my skin crawl at the thought of my poor innocent children being brainwashed by the religion-mongers that are our private schools around here. (Not that public schools here are much different. We "pledged allegience, under God", had prayers at graduation, Young Life [aka, Christians with an Attitude], and had to change "Damn Yankees" to "Darn Yankees") The joys of middle america.

Well, no knitting. Just spewing about local issues. I did get the pattern for crumpets and cast on for that. I'm down about two inches on the bodice and am pretty happy about it. I know, I think I have adult ADD. Or maybe that's just an excuse to try and score some ritalin (joke!). I promise more knitting and less ranting.

C-ya!

Add-on: I volunteered to help at the polling station during our next voting day, but I'm afraid I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. Not to mention all the old ladies thought I was CRAZY because I'm under 60 and volunteering for such a job. Hey, maybe they'll let me take my knitting. I would definitely need to take a sock- for my mouth, ha, ha!

Ears!

2005-07-24T15:14:00.000-04:00

I've got so many FOs, they're coming out of my ears! Not really. But isn't it funny how you'll feel like you're not getting anything d-o-n-e, done, and then suddenly, boom, boom boom. One after another, they start falling in to place and you're cooking with gas.* Anyway, I finished a baby sweater & hat that I had started, like, 6 months ago. I made it for my co-worker's first grandson. I know, all these people having 1st grands, I work with some old fogies. (Kidding, I kid!) Here it is. . . . . . .

Man, this whole picture thing is kinda aggravating. It never turns out the size or in the place that I think it will. Of course I am very un-computer literate (or is it computer il-literate) and am lucky I'm getting this good of a job done. Oh well....

The sweater was made with Bernat cotton-tots, 100% cotton baby yarn. Normally, I hate cotton yarn. And I hate cheap cotton yarn even more, but this wasn't so bad. Plus, she can throw it in the wash, although I cringe at the thought of putting anything I knit in the washing machine- felting was a traumatic experience for me. Anyhoo, I'm done and I found some yarn for my tank top so I'll be knitting on that for awhile. Oh, and I finally found a tape measure, even though I had to look for like an hour. And I own 40 jillion. I should own stock in Dritz with as many of those stupid things (and pins, and needles, and gadgets that I will never use, all because they are "notions", and everyone wants "notions", and they were half price! You gotta spend money to save money...) I have bought. I have this fear that all my lost tapes and onesie dpns are going to return to haunt my dying days. Curses!

C-ya!

*A torturous saying my grandmother would yell out at our high school softball games, and always at the wrong time. No, I can't possibly hit the ball, I'm too embarrassed by the woman jumping up and down talking about flatulence : !! Ah, those were the years...

Alas, he measured well.

2005-07-23T23:22:00.000-04:00

Oh dear tape measure, how I mourn the loss of thee. To the field of endless inches ye have gone, to be seen nevermore. Many of your brothers have gone before in vain. How many more? How many until the gods of length and width and heighth are appeased? We shall see...

I can't find my frickin' tape measue! Frickin' kids- oh, I mean, wonderful angels that never mess in mommy's stuff.

2005-07-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

My glamorous alter-ego, Queen Meniziba

On FOs and UFOs...

2005-07-22T19:51:00.000-04:00

So, I have a finished object! It's the blue sweater with the funky arms. I eased them in and they look decent. I need to do a little more blocking to get rid of any bunching from the easing and find the right buttons- toggle, I think- and finish the one arm seam, but I'd call it done! The original pattern actually had stripes, but who needs 'em when you have some great self-striping yarn. It feels really yummy- 50% merino/50% microfiber. I can't wait for cooler weather.

The tank top is coming right along too. I've got the front done and it actually looks right- the armhole shaping seems good and I think it might actually fit, although a little loose. I ran out of yarn and my LYS is closed for vacation until Monday, so I'm on hold involuntarily. My munchkins have decided they want to knit. Actually, the little one has been begging for a while, but she's only 3 1/2. I got one of those crazy knitting looms today, and she's doing pretty good. I wrap the yarn around the pegs and she pushes it off with this dental pick looking thing. It's a little scary looking, but I'm always right next to her. She gets bored though. About one row is all she can handle before she wants a break. I think that once she actually gets far enough that it's looking like something, she'll be more interested. But she is only 3 1/2.

Here's a nugget of wisdom that my hubby found on e-bay. It is full of useful info for the traveller, like "How to cross a piranah-infested river" and "How to control a runaway camel". Of course my favorite is "How to foil a UFO abduction". Note the illustration to the right.
Click on it to make it bigger and read the great caption. The worst thing is that I'm sure he bought the book for exactly this part. Yeah, my big, bad hubby's worried about aliens, although not so much as he used to be. I think now it's mostly a sub-conscious thing. If he just pretends it's funny, it won't be scary. Okay, I hope he doesn't read that.

Well time to go rescue the dog from my evil 5 year old. I've decided all the odd numbered years are bad. Terrible twos? Yeah right, think about 3, 5, 11, 13, 15, and, OH NO, 17!

C-ya!

Ugh....

2005-07-20T09:26:00.000-04:00

It's one thing to willingly go 15 mph under the speed limit. It's quite another to do it in the fast lane on the highway.

Get the fuck over.

C-ya!

Go Away

2005-07-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I can't complain too much about my job beacause it is not terribly bad. I get to do what I want most of the time in between customers and I make decent money. I sell sewing machines and summer is pretty darn slow. Usually I can get quite a bit knitting done this time of year, but apparently it bugs my boss. I would be okay with that, but she's allowed to do it!! So, in order to throw trouble into my pot o'plans, she makes up crazy things for me to do when she's not around. See, I work at a couple of different locations and when I'm at the one that is her home base, she always wants me to do the grunt work- paperwork, samples, etc. (Today she told machines needed lightbulbs when they were all glowing brightly!) Again, this would be fine if she was actually doing the true "manager" thing, but the only thing she does managerial is make the schedule. Sorry, had to let that out. At least she's not aware of the blog- yet. Oh well, maybe it would give me an excuse to quit being a slave to the retail :p crap that I hate.

That was an awfully vague and long rambling to explain why there's not a lot of new knitting. Of course, I shouldn't blame it only on that. I got stuck on the shaping for my too big tank top and had to frog it a little bit. Plus I haven't come to terms with the whole arm problem on my cardi. So what's a girl to do? Buy more yarn and start a new project naturally. Come on now, you know you've all done it before! I went to my local yarn shop (Yarnsmith's) and she had the cutest kits. It came with these patterns, all the yarn you need and stuffing. I'm getting a new niece in August and I just couldn't resist. The fluffy little ball is actually the belly of the bunny. I'm using Alpaca held together with a fluffy, furry yarn called Whisper. I think I will have enough left to make a bear, too. I've used one ball of the alpaca and I only have one arm left to do. The yarn for the sweaters is actually handpainted sock yarn. I love this sock yarn. It is superwash and beautiful. She gets her handpainted yarns from Danette Taylor and I love them. Okay, enough with the gushing.

I have also been spinning! This is a big deal for me because I got my wheel for Christmas and this is the first I've done! I couldn't get the idea from the tiny little picture they sent with my wheel, plus the roving they sent me was awful. It was all sticky and smelled a lot like lanolin. I ordered some roving off e-bay and my other yarn lady helped me get the motion down. This is my fourth try and it is actually pretty even. I was starting to get worried because I told my hubby I wanted this thing, and he, being good to me, bought it and I thought I was never going to get it. Plus I was getting fustrated and I thought I actually hated it. What a fool I was. It's great once you get the feel. I still keep wanting to make it too thick, but I'm getting better. I just keep telling myself, ply it baby. We'll see. I've ordered some more roving. Now I just need the nerve to knit it up!! Yep, I'm a wimp.

Well, kid number 1 is asleep, but that onery kid number 2 just won't stop sneaking in here to give me kisses. Guess it's time for lights out.

C-ya! ;)

Sleep

2005-07-15T08:58:00.000-04:00

So how do you get a three year old to stay in her own bed? I have no clue! At least 75% of the time she snuggles her squirmy little butt in my bed at around 5:00am and proceeds to crowd me until 7:30. I know the story about putting her back in her own bed right away, but she's been doing it for so long, and I'm so sleep deprived, that I don't wake up when she gets in bed anymore. (She could actually be getting in bed earlier and I'm sure I wouldn't know.) The fustrating thing is that I know she understands what she is doing, and that she shouldn't do it! A few weeks ago, I was s-i-c-k and my husband was out of town so I asked her to please not come to bed. She didn't. She knows. Oh well, what's a mom to do.

Anyhoo, on the knitty front, I have pictures of a Finished Object!!! It is a baby sweater that I made for one of the ladies at work. She is getting her first grand-daughter on Monday and she had asked me to make one for her. She asked that it be pink and soft. The yarn I used was a pima cotton/tencel blend. It was very soft and had a nice drape, but it was a pain to knit. It kept splitting and I was covered in fuzz when I was done. But she was thrilled with the results, and I have to say, 'Damn, did I make that?'. The pattern is from Sirdar and was not too hard to follow, although I like raglan sleeves better. One of these days I will figure out how to convert set in sleeves to raglan sleeves, maybe. Here's a close up of the openwork rib pattern.

Well, I must be off to the mines now.

C-ya!

Panic

2005-07-14T09:59:00.000-04:00

What have I done? I've made this blog thing and now I'm going to have to write on it- on a regular basis!!! NOOOOOOO- maybe I have a teeny fear of commitment.

Well, knitting news is that I have been working on a sweater for myself that is turning out way too big. It will probably end up for my sis. The kicker is that it is completely knitted and now I'm to the finishing, a normally fun part cause the end is in sight. But for some reason the arm holes are like 2 INCHES bigger than the sleeves. What!?!? How the hell did that happen? I think that I'll be able to salvage it by easing the sleeves in place, or maybe I'll let my scissors do the walking.

In light of this set back, I've decided to start a new project. (And by the way, my finished projects are F.O.s, but I don't call my unfinished projects U.F.O.s, they are S.O.s- started objects. It just sounds so much more finish-able than unfinished objects.) I'm using some
knit one, crochet too second time cotton to make a seed stitch border tank- of my own design. Scary! If I can't get a pattern to fit me (of course, I did do a larger size on purpose, silly me), why do I think I can make my own to fit me? Well, it doesn't. Surprise, NOT! Looks like this will go to mom.

Enough for today. I need to set up my picture thingy so I can actually post some photos, since we all know that's the fun part in blogs.

C-YA

omigosh!

2005-07-14T03:19:00.000-04:00

Omigosh, I have a blog!! I can't believe I'm baring my soul to total strangers- even if there are only two of you. Well, I'm new to this whole process, but there will be more info, ramblings, pictures, projects, etc. ad nauseum soon!!