TreasureGoddess

I always thought that red = power thing was full of crap. As a redhead, I've grown up being told to NEVER wear red. NEVER. Plus there's that whole bee/hornet phobia and bees are attracted to bright reds, which REALLY meant that in my whole life I've owned 2 red shirts...one chiefs tshirt, one chiefs sweatshirt, neither of which gets worn very often as I look like CRAP in them. My face gets all blotchy looking, ick ick ick. UNTIL NOW........The Express (which store I've hated ever since I got old & chubby as it reminds me how out of style I am and I snort with laughter at trying on a pair of pants there) had this amazing deep burgandy/reddish button down shirt in the window. Calling my name. I went in and tried it on. OH MY HOLY HELL It looked good, I bought it, even has a titch of spandex for that stretchy, curvy look. I've now worn the thing twice. The first time, some guy washed off my windshield for me while I was pumping gas. (A nice-looking guy, not some creepy homeless guy spitting on it, I used to get those in NM all the time, ick). Then I wore it with just jeans and ugly brown shoes. TODAY I'm wearing it again, but with black heels, dark jeans, lipstick and earrings (seriously dressed up for lazy-lady). I got doors opened for me, people got out of my way in line for the daily diet coke, and when I stopped by the diner for a good ol breakfast of protein protein protein (scrambled eggs & bacon to go) I had the most wonderful conversation with this guy next to me and he bought my little $5 breakfast. I told him, "no, I'm fine, really" but he insisted and asked if I had plans for lunch (I was good and told him I have a boyfriend). THE POWER......bwaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa! I'm telling you, this may be why athletes and business guru's wear red. Go get yourself one. Take over your little corner of the world.

Clappy the scarf is growing to be so big I'm afraid it will cover my entire body when done. I went and checked the specs, and it's supposed to be 21" wide by 55" long. It's already 24" wide and I've still got about 15 more 1" spaces to make by dropping stitches, I don't know how long the puppy is, but I'm guessing more than the pattern said. I'm going to finish it this weekend one way or another and then we'll all see how it turns out. I've got this hankering to make socks....I went through the stash last night and reorganized so my cedar dresser drawers are now crammed organizationally. I must have spent two hours laying all this yarn all over the craft room and circular needles and such. I put my wooden straight needles into a big crystal vase and it looks nice. I felt like a little girl playing with her barbies or something. (I only had one barbie as a child, and I broke off her leg and used her toes as a paintbrush, so I'm just guessing here. I wasn't a sociopath, just a tomboy that wanted a paintbrush.)

I've got the clappy on the needles, sockie (my first and only sock) needs a mate, I've started my first lace project, and I've got stacks of books and patterns calling my name. Why is it I'm feeling the urge to go shopping at the LYS? OH I can go shop for my secret pal. Yeah, that's a great excuse!

Weekend plans are kind of up in the air, my double cousin Kelly is here in town with her hubby and their 2 red-headed kids! woo hoo! They've been living up in Indiana for 4 years and her hubby just got a good job in Lenexa, KS, so they're coming HOME! YES! (ok, the whole double cousin thing sounds freaky, but it's fine. My mom's little brother married my dad's little sister and they had three kids that look almost identical to my brothers and me. same genes and all. NO marryin' cousins or anything icky, just big ol' catholic families in western kansas where you really don't meet all that many people you're not related to.) They're moving back in December, so they're trying to find a home this weekend. no stress there, woo boy. I offered to babysit their two munchkins Sat. night. Tonight the kids and I are heading over to Jeff's house to do a "project". He's slowly fixing up the house and told Joey he could help him out. I think Beth and I'll sit & knit and make cookies or something. She's almost done with her first purse made of cheapo yarn from Michael's and wants to do something felted now. Ah, that's my girl.

to "Faithful Reader"...
I think Clapotis is a pretty good pattern to move to once you're comfortable with the basic stitches. Though you do follow a pattern, it is basically the same thing over and over with slight differences at the beginning and end of each row. I've enjoyed it and it is still relaxing for me. Some patterns are such that you have to work hard to keep up and can't enjoy the process of knitting, but I have loved making this clappy. The stitches you need to do are knitting, purling, knitting through the back of stitches, purl two together and ssk (slip, slip, knit). You do need to be pretty accurate for the dropped stitches to work, but it's a good "first pattern" project to try. I used the expensive recommended yarn Lorna's Laces & Lamb and bought and extra ball (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED PRACTICE). It was about $30/skein, so it is more than I would normally spend on a project, but I wanted something special for myself. I would recommend either this yarn (which is yummy) or Malabrigo merino yarn which feels the same, if not even a titch more soft and only runs $10.50/skein at my LYS or is found even cheaper on eBay or online. Let me know if you decide to do it! If you want to try something different than scarves but not too challenging, have you tried felting purses? The Booga Bag is a good easy pattern to do and it makes up fast. Good luck!