Here's my newest project

OK, so I just bought the pattern, and am just starting to think about what yarn to use. OH OH OH I'm excited about this one! Calista's site has such lovely designs.

I'm also going to be working my way through my 4.3 MILES of sock yarn that I've accumulated. Lime N Violet's sock marathon is starting in January 07, and I figure what a perfect time I've picked to become totally addicted to socks, socks, SOCKS! Four point three miles is a LOT of freaking sock yarn. That doesn't count the ugly stuff I'm going to be getting rid of, either.

Pat from the Yarn Shop & More has a friend that works at one of the local women's safe houses. (the kind where abused women and children run away to) She said some of the women have shown interest in starting a small knitting group and she's taking donations of stash and needles (mostly worsted or heavier and probably mostly superwash or acrylic). I have a bunch of duplicates of wooden straight needles (I can't remember the last time I used straights, now that I'm circular & dpn-woman). I'm saving some for my daughter as she's still every so often picking up the needles and working on projects, but thought giving the extras would be a great way to give a little something to someone who could really use it. If you have stuff you'd like to donate, leave it at the Yarn Shop & More with Pat's name on it and she'll see it gets there.

HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!!! You've been such a great part of my 2006 that I want to thank you all! All you readers & commenters, you lurkers, you friends & family, you bloggers yourselves, have a safe and happy 2007.

sock yarn, sock yarn, everywhere!

First of all, I had so much fun meeting another blogger and sock knitting goddess at the big sale! Chery has promised she can get me not only comfortable with continental knitting, but also toe-up socks and 2 socks on circs at the same time. I'm not holding my breath, but do like the idea of learning continental knitting. I only went back into the store one time after Chery left, somehow a bundle of Schaefer Anne sock yarn had to come home with me too.

OH what a fun sale. I did well, ended up SAVING enough money on the 30% off part to more than pay for one of my skeins. I saved $31. I'm not focusing on what I spent, because SOCK YARN DOESN'T COUNT! Right? right.

Schaefer Anne Sock Superwash Sock Yarn, 1 skein, 560 yds. Dark purples to almost black.

Artyarns Ultramerino 6 yarn, 1 skein, 274 yds. Oranges and yellows.


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock superwash sock yarn, 2 skeins, total 430 yds, blues/teals/purples


Remember the beautiful brown socks I made of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn for Jeff? They were so beautiful, but they were not strong enough for regular wearing and he ended up partially felting them in his boots and I got them since they've gotten a tiny felting all over (on purpose) and now they're my house socks. ANYWAY the yarn colors are beyond luscious, the feel of this yarn is unbelievable. I thought I'd give the bearfoot superwash sockyarn a shot since it was highly recommended by Chery, who has the best husband EVER! He wears any and all colors of socks she makes for him, even pinks and oranges. He LOVES his socks and encourages her love of fibres. He was sweet and happy and I enjoyed meeting him as well! Here's the colorways I thought I'd try for Jeff and my son and myself (hopefully I can do short socks for me and still have enough left for Joey on one of the skeins). I've still got a skein and a half of the mountain goat left, I'm thinking they would make a very soft and pretty scarf.

Mountain Colors Barefoot Superwash Yarn, 1 skein, 350 yds, color Obsidian


Mountain Colors Barefoot Superwash Yarn, 1 skein, 350 yds, color Moose Creek


I'll post better pictures soon, I just wanted to get back to work! I swear, my work gets in the way of my KNITTING dammit!

Merry Merry Everyone

Guess what I'm wearing to the Christmas parties? Nope, not the pretty little black dress that I wore to Jeff's business party, nope, my MONKEY SOCKS!!!

Have I said how much I love these socks? They're my new absolute favorite! Now I need to figure out what pattern to use for my new socks that rock yarn. *sigh* life is so hard...

OH, did you see the Holiday Google picture? KNITTING Kangaroos? How cool is that?


Merry Knitmas everyone! I'm sure Santa will be very good to me this year as I'm doing my shopping on the 26th at KnitWit's big ass yarn sale. Get yourself there. If you can't, just come by the blog and drool over what I get. I'm so excited! Bigger than usual bonus from the bosses means YARN for momma. I'm going to try to be there at 11:00am 9:30am so if anyone wants to come say "HELLO CHRISTINE, My, what a lot of sock yarn you have..." and introduce yourself, come on by!

Hope you all have wonderful weekends spent with family and friends.

It's nice to see some things never change. (and BIG ASS YARN SALE)

Driving home from the grocery store this morning I passed some groups of high school students waiting for the bus. It's raining this morning, not a downpour, but a steady rain. One group of girls were waiting, chatting away, each with their colorful umbrella above their heads. The next group was a bunch of boys, who were too cool for weather. No umbrellas, no hoods up (theirs were apparently being used as rain barrels), and not one coat was zipped up. Idiots. It's so nice to see that high school boys are just as stupid today as they were in my day. It made me think that I still may have a clue as to what it means to be a teen when my daughter gets there. I'll still be totally screwed as all mothers of teenagers are, it just gave me a glimmer of hope and made me laugh.

At the Christmas exchange at the sunflower knitter's guild meeting on Monday night, I scored these beauties. I LOVE THEM! I may have to frame one set of 4 and use the other set. Knitter's Coasters. very cool. I took Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book Knitting Rules, which I just bought myself and LOVE. It's a good read and has some very good info to use as a reference to go back to. I'm even inspired to DESIGN my VERY OWN SOCK PATTERN sometime in the new year.

Still knitting away on monkey, my new socks. I am IN LOVE with this pattern. It's not too hard, it's fun and interesting, it's even empowering. Yes, socks that are empowering. Maybe it's secret monkey power or something, but the finished product is something that makes me feel like I can do anything. Anything. I'm ready to turn the heel on the 2nd sock, made myself put them away last night before I started. Once I start a heel, not a damn thing's getting done other than the heel. It's too magical.

SPECIAL NOTE!!!! BIG ASS KNITTING SALE!!! Tuesday, Dec. 26th at Knit-Wit, the shop at 1815 S. Ridgeview Road in Olathe, KS. ALL yarn and kits are at least 30% off, some 50%, and there's the famous $3 boxes. I'm not sure what the $3 boxes are, but you can bet your butt that I'll know come Dec. 26th! If Santa doesn't bring you what you want, go shopping! Jan really has an amazing amount of beautiful yarn inside that little shop of hers. Every time I go in, I find new things to pet and drool over.

I just found another free online magazine for knitters and crocheters! If you already knew about them, WHY didn't you TELL ME? I'm such the magazine addict, and FREE online magazines are my bestest favorite EVER! It's a fun read. If there are others out there that I don't know about (and have posted in the sidebar) PLEASE TELL ME!!!

Still knitting along

And because it's just so damn pretty


Thanks Darra, my satan sticks now have a home! I hope they bring you much joy and little hand poking.

You know, they're right...this stuff DOES rock

Holy crapamighty. I finally figured out what happened to my socks that rock yarn I ordered. My paypal account still has my old po box address on it, so the kids and I stopped by and GOT MY YARN!!!! Now it's pretty much just hung out with me day and night. I don't want to stuff it into one of the stash drawers or cedar chest. nope. I don't just want to start some boring regular sock pattern with it. nope. So I figure if I just keep looking at it and squooshing it (Oh LORDY this stuff squooshes good) something will occur to me. My loverly boyfriend Jeff keeps telling me I'm getting a bit "overly yarn obsessed" lately. I keep telling him "OH I'm nothing...you should see some of the others..." but that argument doesn't seem to work when I was seriously considering taking a picture of it riding shotgun in the truck with me on errands yesterday. It may have spent the night on the pillow of Jeff's side of the bed (he was traveling) last night, but that's only because I fell asleep with about 14 knitting books, patterns, magazines, and other yarn from the stash strewn across the bed.

I'm cranking along on my koigu blue monkey socks and think it's a very cool pattern. The repeat is easy to remember, it's so interesting. Every few rows you do SOMETHING ELSE rather than just the k2, p2 ribbing I've been cranking out lately. Oh, right, my last sock was a k3,p1 rib. woo hoo. I've been bit by the creative sock bug.

Order was restored to the world (or at least MY world) when I finally ceremoniously put the damn additurbo 4" long metal sz 1 dpns back into their little packet and put them AWAY in the drawer after only stomping on them twice. At first I thought, "oh these could work..."then I thought, "maybe they're right for someone else, but not quite right for me..."then I thought "Sticks of Satan, be GONE from me, you DAMN metal instruments of torture!" If they were wooden, I would have burned them. They really REALLY started pissing me off as I tried and tried to knit. I got a pair of 5" long (which is just the right length I've found for my sock knitting) rosewood needles and the knitting is just so much quicker and easier and my hands aren't sore any longer. much much better.

It seems so strange not to be freaking out about crafting all my Christmas gifts this year (I'm crafting NONE for the first time I can remember since I was about 10 years old. seriously.) But then it occurred to me that this means I have to actually SHOP and BUY THINGS. Ah well. We're having a much more scaled back holiday season this year, with only a few people (mostly children) getting actual gifts, but there's the teacher gifts, etc. that I need to sit down and figure out the list and hit the shops.

ANYONE WANTING MY SATAN STICKS email me with your snail mail address and they're YOURS (free)! I'll stick them in the mail and get their bad mojo out of my house. I'm an additurbo circ lover, but will stick to my rosewood and ebony dpns or nothing.
Note: The satan sticks now have a home! Thanks Darra!

Knitty's up!

MAN I love the day each Knitty episode comes out. Even if it's one like the sex in the knitty episode where I was tempted to knit, um, NOTHING, I still get all aflutter when I see my little image tag has changed to the new season's magazine! This one has many that are calling my name. I've even cast on for Monkey socks with two different balls of yarn. I love this girl's sock patterns! WOO HOO!

Magknits has its December issue out too and has some good stuff, I love the scarf pictured on the cover. Crochet Me has its winter 2006-2007 has been up for a little while. I just saw the Halloween/spooky issue of Anti-Craft. Go out there and browse and get all inspired.

Here's my monkey socks starts.

The one on the right was the first attempt, on some VERY vivid opal and size 2 dpns. Working up quickly and lovely, except I couldn't get over the fact that the way those colors combined in the pattern was starting to look exactly like the beginning of a migraine for me. The flashing of violently pink, yellow, green & whatever in an orb-like pulsing shape in my vision whether I open or shut my eyes forecasts a very very bad time a-comin'. I thought this would be just tempting the goddesses of fate, and put them away. Frogged and put them in the drawer. In the bottom of the drawer. In the dark. far, far away. No migraines, please.

The pretty thing on the left in blue is some koigu. I'm afraid it'll work up bigger and just have this thing about refusing to swatch for socks. Nope. Not gonna do it. I'll swatch my ass off for sweaters, tanks, what-ever else, but not socks. Though I have had to frog a few starts, I normally have enough completed socks in different yarns that I pretty much know what stitches per inch I get on the different yarns...Except I've never knit a koigu kpppm pair before. I've done Koigu Kersti (the dk weight) but not the little bitties. I thought and thought and figured I'd better start with 1's since I was just barely at gauge with the Opal 2's and the koigu seems to have more texture and heft to it. The yarn shop had NO lantern moon sz 1s and I've lost 2 of the set of my only pair. I was talked into trying out the new mini additurbo dpns. I do love the addi circs, but am not so much a fan of these little babies. They're 4 inches long. That part I thought would freak me out, but really, kind of cool. Stitches don't slide off (unless you put your big ol' FOOT through to try it on, um, lost a few stitches there this morning, but they picked right back up again), but they take some getting used to. I have to hold them differently because I kept getting a sore spot in my left hand where I was getting poked with the end. Though they were slick without being slippery, I'm still gonna stay with my lantern moon ebony's or dark wood. There's just a different feel to the wood. warmer? maybe? I don't know. It just feels better to me to knit my socks with the slicker wood than these metal toothpicks.

My sock experiment with the striping of the 2 koigu kersti balls left over to make a pair of socks is turning out much like the pile of dog barf I cleaned off the floor after Miles was trying to digest legos. It wasn't pretty. The picture (of the sock, not the barf) turned out too dark, so you won't have to look at it. It's funny how two balls of yarn can look so good sitting next to each other, but when knitted together the hand-painting can sometimes turn out so horrid.

OH, and I'm totally buying the Tilli Tomas yarn for the Sahara sweater. I'm gonna do it. It's gonna be my Christmas present to myself. Now I just have to decide what color combo to do and what sleeve length. It's going to have to be either sleeveless or the short cap sleeves cause that's just another chunk of change for the long sleeves, plus the combo of a clumsy woman with big ass bell sleeves is just asking for trouble.

Oh Tilli Thomas, Oh Oh Oh

WHY OH WHY are you so freaking beautiful? Nothing else compares. damn damn damn. First of all, you're unbelievably expensive. That I can deal with. Ms. Queen of Yarn Rationalization can handle that. I can't afford you, but dammit, I could have found a way. Now it's unethical to knit with you. cripes. I have found some other lovely yarns that could work....artyarns regal silk, Knitpicks Andean silk, there are a few others, but dammit, I want the Tilli Thomas stuff. I was going to be just fine, until I saw THIS...Tilli Tomas Exotica. For the love of all things yarny, I must have it. It's got CHUNKS of funky beads! CHUNKS people! I was fine ignoring the sequins. I'm not much of a sequin kind of girl. I was fine ignoring the seed beed looking yarn, if I really had the patience, I could slip a buttload of seed beads onto any yarn and knit away. no big deal. But chunks. Chunks of turquoise looking things. That's more than I can take. damn damn damn.

You know SOMEONE's still buying the damn stuff. Can I be a quiet little hypocrite in Kansas who knits with it and wears it to only non-knitterly events? Can I knit with the stuff and not blog about it? Create something so beautiful as the Sahara and NOT post pics?

I've been cranking out hats for Caps to the Capital SaveTheChildren.org and a warm hat and scarves for the Dulaan Project to work on my guilt at even THINKING of purchasing the sacred yet damned yarn. Maybe if I spend as much money at Sarah's Yarns as I would spend on the Tilli Tomas, that would help my guilt? Yeah, right. I can't afford that idea either. Can you tell I'm an old Catholic girl? Guilt knitting as substitute for spending time on my knees saying my hail mary's? Ah well. It'll help keep some kids warm, so that's what matters.

Good thing I'm poor right now or I'd be SO knitting and wearing that yarn....I'll try to hold out until after the holidays and then see how I feel.

I'd feel much better if I had received my socks that rock that I ordered a few weeks ago. I know they charged my paypal account some time back, but no squishy to-die-for yarn has appeared on my front step yet. Waiting for that skein is worse than a kid sitting by a "do not open until Xmas" present.

Aren't they beautiful?

No, not my kids, my SOCKS!!! (though the kids are cute too, no worries)

The color's actually more like the brown in the 2nd photo. Koigu Kersti 2 1/4 skeins, 2X2 rib on sz 5 dpns. EBONY double points. Life's too short to use crappy needles. I will eat macaroni from a box just so I can get away from those DAMN bamboo needles. I get more splinters and scuffy areas on them. These ebony babies just GLIDE the yarn along. They're like BUTTAH baby. More socks for Jeff (my bf). Like a good boy he also admitted they were quite pretty, but drew the line at actually petting them like I did. Socks for this man have to be very VERY muted and understated. aka brown. black. grey. That doesn't leave a whole lotta yarn falling into the shopping basket. This Koigu is gorgeous. It has just a few flecks of lighter colors, giving it a depth and oh, it's just stunning. Go ahead, pet them virtually. You know you wanna.

I have most of one ball of this left and one ball plus a few extra remnants of a green/brown medly of Koigu Kersti so I think I'll try to widen my horizons and make striped socks. Yes, I know. The excitement is just about too much to bear. I'm actually increasing the amount of yarn ends ON PURPOSE for a creative purpose.

TWO SNOW DAYS and then the weekend along with about 5 inches of snow on top of an inch or so of ice made for a few great afternoons of sledding!! I should've taken action shots from the bottom of the hill, but then I'd have had to walk back up to the top again. I took a few runs down the hill, our best was the last run, where we ALL THREE were on the sled and proceeded to FLY down down down and beyond the end of the hill and ended up dumped into the big slush pit next to the road. Kids were fine & dry in their snowsuits, but momma had a wet, cold ass, so it was TIME TO GO HOME! I do love the snow. It's absolutely beautiful around here!

I love Kansas!

Where else could you have your kids playing outdoors in SHORTS in 73 degree weather on Tuesday and the world covered in ice and sparkling white and in the 20's on Wednesday? I would absolutely go INSANE living in California or somewhere pretty where the air was always mild. Ok, so I'd enjoy the hell out of myself in the sunshine, but still, I'd eventually miss the changing of the seasons.

Kids are on a snow day today. It's supposed to snow a little bit this afternoon, we're supposed to miss the brunt of the storm, which is predicted to dump a foot of snow in the Ozarks. I'm working up in the office to the sounds of the kids playing go fish downstairs, the fire is burning in the woodstove, the house is toasty and I have wool socks on all three of us. It's loverly.

I did what any other good midwesterner did preparing for the storm...gassed up the truck, brought in extra wood into the garage, bought extra water, batteries, food and toilet paper at the store, (why do people always go running for the toilet paper at times of crisis?), charged up the cell phones, drove to the apple store at the Plaza (I killed my 2nd ipod shuffle), charged and loaded it full of music and my podcasts, on my way home from the plaza, my car somehow ended up driving right past the Studio (LYS). Normally the yarn store is ON my list of emergency preparedness sites, but I've got so STINKING much yarn now that I was actually thinking that I did NOT need to go there. It felt really strange to be driving PAST and AWAY FROM the yarn store when the sleet was raining down. I resisted all urges to go in JUST IN CASE, but even if the entire city was frozen in 14 feet of ice for 6 months, I'd still not run out of yarn or projects. I was strong and did NOT stop. Man, it was hard.

I got the green one of THESE along with a cool clear cover that will show off the stylish Martha Stewart/baby poop green that is my very favorite color in the world.

We ended up with just a light coating of ice outdoors and all is well. There's no reason for the poor little shuffles to have died, I loved them so, but it just wasn't meant to be. Apparently I'm the ONLY ONE in the greater kansas city area that's had ANY problems at all with them. They gave me credit towards the big green monster and I love it. It, too, is loverly.

Working on another pair of socks for Jeff, he wears the heck out of the two pair I've made him and I think it's sweet. It's such a nice feeling to knit something you know will be loved and WORN! He's traveling and due back tonight.

Sahara is out! I'm there, baby. I mistakely said it was by Glampyre as it resembled the Simple Knitted Bodice a bit, but it's by Wendy Barnhard, my other favorite designer, she of Knit and Tonic fame... Sizzle, Somewhat Cowl, and on and on and ON! I really REALLY won't use the damn Tilli Thomas yarn called for, but want something a bit slinkier and prettier than the Elsebeth Lavold silky tweed I used last time. Anyone got any good ideas of a yarn substitute? My knitting funk is officially over!

Big weekend, lots of pictures!

Wooo boy! First of all, a big THANK YOU THANK YOU to my cousin, who took my two children while her inlaws were coming over for their house ALL NIGHT! WOO HOO! I got to go out with grown ups! For Jeff's 40th birthday, he wanted to go to a club that had THREE grateful dead genre bands playing. For those of you non-dead-heads, those songs each last about 20 minutes and don't always have words, and you apparently can't dance WITH the music, you have to dance to the special music playing in your head. We went out with a bit of a biker-kinda crowd, so I was all decked out in my K-mart morning after Thanksgiving sale special black leather & sweater material shirt over a black tank and jeans and HIGH SPIKY black heels. I even broke out the $50 boob job since it was a special occasion. Picture below is my daughter Elizabeth's happy birthday Jeff card made of pipe cleaners. How creative is that kid? I'd never of thought of that.

Saturday we woke up and drove out to Jeff's friend's farm to meet Jeff's cows. We spent the entire day chasing chickens, finding eggs in the nests, climbing tree houses and petting horses and cows. I also learned that not all animals on the farm are cute, sweet and particularly enjoy human beings. One of the horses bit my damn antenna right off the truck (see the red arrow pointing to the stubby little nub that's left.) It was METAL and encased in PLASTIC! WTF?




OK, now the cows. See the pretty cows all eating in a row? Very nice cows. Picture #2 is big momma cow stopping eating to check me and my camera out. Not quite sure of me.... Picture #3 is as I sneak around the side to get a picture of her and her baby calf and the other little one. Notice momma cow's ears? They're pointing BACK. This is a good thing for a city girl to know. Ears going back, RUN LIKE HELL WOMAN! I ended up running for my damn life and having to jump onto the back of the pickup truck (about a 6 foot high leap) to save myself. I barely made it. DAMN! Don't mess with big momma! She even SNORTED at me when she turned and sauntered off.







ACTUAL KNITTING CONTENT:
I have always heard knitters talk about what their particular yarn wanted to be. I honestly thought you guys were all crazy. Until Friday. I have been in a knitting funk lately, went through all my stash and pulled out the lovely hand-dyed 100% silk yarn I'd picked up to make a shawl. It should have grown up to be the shoalwater shawl. I'd started that thing EIGHT times. yes, eight. I thought this was the moment. I'd learned, thanks to Teri, how to read lace charts and was actually DOING it, but it just wasn't clicking. The yarn was being quite obstinate, and NOT getting any bigger. I can't describe it any other way. It was getting pissy. I put it aside, and then went wandering around blogland. It struck me suddenly, my yarn wanted to be Orangina from Glampyre! Now it's behaving itself and growing quite quickly! I'm going to be pushing it on yardage, but you make the lace part of the back, put on waste yarn and then make the lace part of the front, join in a circle and knit the waist ribbing in the round. I'll just knit till I run out of yarn! TOO freaking excited and BACK in the knitting happy place again!


OH, and I ordered some of this. And I totally signed up for their 2007 Socks that Rock club, about 30 seconds after posting that I was interested in finding out more about it. I haven't even TOUCHED this yarn and I can't live without it. So much for the knitting funk.....I'M BACK, BABY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eat, drink, KNIT, and be merry! You know, like I do every day!

Three socks, an OH CRAP and the best damn lemon cake I've ever had

Well, it seems that I thought everyone was crazily bouncing around like a pinball during the holiday season, but most of you already had more sense! GOOD FOR YOU! I'm loving my stress-free start to the season. So much so, that I'm knitting even more socks. Just because I want to. I finished the first sock wars sock I'm making for me. I'm making them longer than the original pattern and used up all but about a foot of the first ball of koigu kersti. I'll cast on the 2nd one later this afternoon.

I completed my daughter's 2nd sock and sewed in the ends RIGHT AWAY! And even sewed in the ends on Joey's 2nd sock that had been dangling there waiting patiently for the last few weeks. As I admired the pretty colorful future feet warmers, I noticed something. Not a little error, no, those don't bother me too much anymore. I tell myself those add to the personality. Those things are like when I forget to do a decrease on one side of the toe, I no longer frog back and reknit the entire round (yes, sadly I used to do this). No, I just sanely decrease on that side twice in a row. No biggie. I almost don't even see the uneven decreases. really. No, this WAS a biggie. I took a picture, but it doesn't do justice. I'll take one with Beth trying them on tonight.

I knit one sock about a month ago. I pulled it out to compare the length as I went along, but really didn't pay all that much attention to it. I knit one heel flap with just plain ol slip 1, knit across and then slip 1, purl across and the other heel flap with slip 1, knit 1, slip 1, knit 1, repeat across. So she has this beautifully textured and THICKER heel and one smooth as silk THINNER heel. nice. The anal knitter in me seriously considered frogging down to the heel and REKNITTING it. I convinced myself that would be STUPID. Then I actually started casting on for ANOTHER SOCK to reknit the entire thing, that way I wasn't frogging it. Since I only have enough yarn for ONE more sock, MAYBE, that wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. I forced myself to put the damn sock in the drawer and give it to my daugher, who noticed the sock heel immediately. I told her I did it on purpose because that way her one heel that she's always getting sore will be more cushioned. She was so impressed with her made-to-order socks. :) (My daughter drives me insane and instead of using the BRAKES on her bike, slamms one foot down, often resulting in a sore heel).

Jeez, I seriously didn't think I was that freaking anal. so sad. I've come a long way, baby. I used to frog entire projects down to the first few rows to correct some tiny little thing. Now it's just a part of the creative process. You know, you'd think my house would be cleaner if I was such a perfectionist, wouldn't you? cripes.

Jeff, sweet boyfried of mine, is turning FORTY!!!! We had his birthday party last night with his family over at our house and had a blast. I made the WORLD'S BEST LEMON CAKE...and I don't normally care for lemon cake. Here's the secret family recipe, shhhhhhh don't tell or they won't let me into the family!

CAKE:
1 pkg lemon cake mix (pick out one that has less oil than is called for in this recipe, one with 1/3 cup would work best)
4 eggs
3/4 cup veggie oil
3/4 cup water
1 small box INSTANT lemon pudding

GLAZE:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons veggie oil

Put ingreedients for cake into bowl, mix on slow for 30 seconds, on med speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan (I use reynolds' wrap easy release foil and it's AWESOME), bake as directed on box and do the toothpick test to determine doneness.

Mix glaze a few minutes before pulling cake out of oven. WHILE THE CAKE IS STILL HOT just out of the oven, take a fork and poke holes all over the entire cake top. Pour glaze on and this way it will soak into the cake and be LUSCIOUS!!!

Unbelievably good. I just had some for breakfast. Hey, lemons are a fruit, right? Ok so lemon flavoring probably not so much.

NO SOCKS FOR YOU!!! I'm not gonna knit one damn thing for the holidays. Not. gonna. do. it.

I was sitting at my folk's week-early Thanksgiving dinner last night and my mother, bless her heart, love the woman, but she's making me grey early (payback for my teens and 20's I know), anyway, the woman was making fun of the socks I knit for Jeff. Here's the love of my life, WEARING the socks I knit for him with all the love in my heart. They were the very first pair of socks I ever made and it warms my heart to see him wear them. I love that about him. Mom was cracking up because they were so wild and colorful. They were in the plainest, most blandest colorway of artyarns I could find. I'd pointed them out to mom because she had mentioned she'd like to try a pair of my knitted socks with the thicker wool and I wanted her opinion on the style of the stitching. I had been shopping around to try to find just the right yarn for her, worsted but superwash and soft, and was getting ready to spend money and time on this gift of love for the woman.

THEN she told the funny story about the wrist warmers I made her last year. She wore them to school and one of her students asked her about them. She told the girl her daughter made them for her. The student asked "Was she too poor to make the rest of the gloves?" OH the whole table laughed. My mom had tears running out of her eyes. I chuckled, ha ha funny funny.

The old Christine would have been wounded. Upset. This new and improved Christine realized it just makes life easier for her. Hence the Seinfeld Soup Nazi theme....NO SOCKS FOR YOU!!! Then I came to a realization..... this could be scandalous in a knititng blog, but here it is...

I'm not knitting one damn thing for a Christmas present! Not gonna do it. Seriously.

I came to that realization last night. Every freaking holiday season I make my self crazy, shopping, running around, buying massive amounts of yarn, counting down the time not just to the day we're celebrating with each person, but the TIME of actual present opening, knitting, crocheting frantically until the last possible moment the finished beast gets stuffed unceremoniously into a bag with a piece of crumpled up tissue paper (recycled from holidays past) crammed on top of it. Normally I have about 4-6 separate holiday celebrations at different homes in different cities on different days. My sense of holiday spirit isn't one of "joy to all" but "GET OUT OF THE GAWDDAMN WAY I'VE GOT TO GET TO MY FRIKKING BAG DAMMIT!!!! I CAN'T GO TO SLEEP YET, THERE'S STILL 4 AND A HALF INCHES TO GO ON THIS DAMN THING!!!....." rinse and repeat. and repeat. and repeat. and repeat.

I'm not very pleasant when I get stressed. It's not pretty. I had an actual ephiphany on the drive home. What if I actually ENJOYED the holiday season this year? Simplified our lives down to what matters? Family. Friends. Food. The whole baby Jesus Christmas story? All that good stuff. What an amazing idea. Could I do that? Is it against some rule of knitting if I'm not bleary-eyed and raving like a lunatic by Dec. 21st? Isn't it?

For example, off the top of my head, last holiday season I made...6 pair of wrist warmers, 4 scarves, 2 felted bags, a dozen felted crocheted flower pins, 24 plastic canvas coasters (6 sets of 4) with plastic canvas holder box things, a crocheted capelet, a knitted toddler poncho, a crocheted and then woven afghan for Jeff, and a lacy baby blanket crocheted for my nephew's baptism in early January. I am not one of those craft the whole year in preparation for Christmas people. Nope, I had a NOVEMBER start for most of those babies, and actually started many in the middle of December. I didn't sleep, I hardly ate, I was a raving lunatic. No joy in the creation, almost no joy in the giving. I've been like this since I can remember way back in my childhood.

I will still be knitting and crocheting, don't get me wrong. I haven't lost my entire damn mind. The things I've knitted or crocheted or sewn for others give me as much joy to create as it does those who receive the gifts. All the rest of the year, I knit socks or scarves or gloves or whatever and can think about the person I'm creating the item for instead of how many minutes I've got left to cram this thing together. I do actually make things with love in every stitch, as corny as that may sound. I pulled out a few items I'd like to finish that I bought in one of my late December runs to the craft store, LYS, etc manic trips. I'm working on a crocheted blanket for my son (that I started LAST Dec. 15th) and would like to finish that matching doll & child quilt for my daughter. If I happen to finish them in time for Christmas, I'll give it to them then. If not, I'll give it to them on a Tuesday or a Thursday or whatever day it happens to be finished. For now, I'm going back to my socks. With no stress whatsoever.

this N that

Did you hear that Glampyre has another sweater out? I love the look of this one, Sahara and will probably have to make it also (but not with the Tilli Thomas $$$$$$$$expensive yarn! I'm going to have to make this the LAST belled sleeve sweater I make. I LOVE the look of them, but the combination of my clumsiness and those big ass sleeves on the Simple Knitted Bodice are not a good thing. Things I found I could not do in my SKB...ice a chocolate birthday cake, reach across the table without picking up many food items and a flaming candle from the centerpiece, KNIT with dpns (ends kept getting stuck in the sleeves), the list goes on. The look really is fabulous, so I just kept whipping the sweater on & off all day. I think this is more for the going out to dinner in not for the living my life in kind of sweater shape. Yup, gonna think about this one. If I do it in different yarn, I wonder if it'll look different enough from the skb? who knows.

Still in my "not sure what to knit" funk. I just really have this overwhelming need to knit, but can't get excited about anything. SO, I cast on another pair of socks. Now on the needles are Elizabeth's 2nd sock in 2X2 rib with lorna's laces sockyarn and a pair of those socks of doom in the same colorway of koigu kersti that I made for my target, this lovely greenish brownish yarn.

Good links:

From the Pointy Sticks podcast,
Heels by Number a chart for how many stitches to make your heel depending on how many you cast on. I love this one, that way I can kind of wing my own pattern without having to do the math!

an online knitting & crochet magazine, only has one free pattern per issue, but has some good reads in their features and such. The archives are fun to read through too. Here's a link to the knitted swiffer cover. How cool is that? Environmental AND functional!

My new podcast faves (there's many, many more goodies out there, that's just what I've got time to post today.):

Sticks & String



I'm a total idiot. No, really. I didn't realize I could listen to podcasts WITHOUT an ipod. Apparently you can just go to their sites and click the LISTEN button on their posts and listen on your computer! Duh. Well, if any of you didn't realize that, go do it. It's fun, wonderful to knit to and feels like you're sitting at your local stitch N bitch group!

Other tidbits:
Knitting Pattern Central Crochet Pattern Central>

Personal stuff, life is quite boring right now, thank you very much. I kind of like it that way. Kids are busy in school, boyfriend is loving his new job, but working very hard and my job's still cruising right along with the flexibility I need to keep sane. We've been burning a fire in our BIG old fireplace stove insert thing for the last week and it's so nice to have a warm and toasty house without hardly using the furnace at all! I also love the smell of wood fires in the cool autumn air. mmmmmmm. Makes me want to knit more socks. cripes. Got to get off the socks.

An apple a day keeps bitchy momma away

I love you i-pod,
Oh yes, I do...
I love you, i-pod,
And I'll be true...
When you're not with me,
I'm blue..
Oh, i-pod, I love you!

I'm all shiny happy people holding hands....b-52'n it! YES! I went to the KC apple store on the plaza and they were going to order me in a part and I could leave it to have it fixed, when the guy at the genius bar (tech help that does NOT talk down to the general public) said, wait a minute....and ended up REPLACING it with a very brand new little baby ipod just for me! WOO HOO! It was just past the 14 day exchange/replacement deadline, but he said it would only mean a little more paperwork, which would be worth it to see me really happy. OH MY GOD! I went home, plugged it in and I'm all happy and calm and NOT BITCHY! woo hoo! I'm sure my family will now breathe a collective sigh of relief also! How did we ever survive back before this technology?

I'm totally buying a Mac laptop for my next computer. They have CLASSES for free and they're FUN and I just LOVE that place! I've been happy dancing my little heart out here!

Still can't decide what to knit next for a project. I'm just in a holding pattern, nothing is capturing my excitement now. Just socks. More and more socks. I'm half-way done with Beth's 2nd sock in some mixed berries colorway of Lorna's Laces sockyarns on sz 2 dpns. Basic 2X2 rib pattern which does show off the colorway nicely.

I feel this need to make a sweater, but not sure which one. I think it's the fall weather that puts me in the mood. Jeff was traveling last night so his side of the bed ended up entirely covered with yarn and needles and books and magazines. I had a ball just sitting half-listening to the news and junk on tv while I just perused and browsed. I used to just knit anything and everything. Now I have to have that special feeling to find just the right project. I played and reorganized the stash, I've got about 10 balls of 100 yds each of bulky 4 stitches to the inch on 10 1/2 needles yarn in blues/greys colorway, I was trying to find just the right thing for it. I thought probably top down raglan something, but not sure what. Maybe I'll make something for Elizabeth for Christmas, a cardigan or something. I've been toying with the idea of the ribbi cardi for a while now, maybe that would be good. I've still got to make Jeff a sweater someday and I want to find some washable wool for a kangaroo pouch sweater for my son Joey.....just kind of in a what to knit funk. Ah well, at least I can listen to my podcasts!!!

Maybe I'll just go roaming around blogland and see what you guys are all making and get inspired.

freaking ipod

i-pods, i-pods, freakin frackin ipods
i-pods, i-pods, eat them up, yum.

So the damn thing quits working. Not entirely, just enough to PISS ME OFF BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION!!! I get myself nice and hooked on some knitting podcasts. SERIOUSLY enjoying myself. I'm even out in the yard raking leaves, exercising in the out of doors ON PURPOSE because I enjoy them so much. WALKING, heck, I even JOGGED for 4 minutes straight the other day. (my old record was 2 minutes straight) ALL BECAUSE OF THE DAMN PODCASTS.

You know, if it just totally quit, it would be one thing. No, this little bastard is just screwing with me. It'll work perfectly well for about 20 minutes sometimes. Then just shuts off. Nothing. I turn it off, wait 5 seconds like it says on the stinking website, turn it back on and, um, NOTHING. Oh, wait. sometimes I have this cute little red blinking light just blinking its ass off at me. nice. Other times it'll work until I hit the pause button once, then it won't come back on. Each time I plug the little booger back on its little pad thing and it will reset and work for anywhere from 8 to 45 minutes before finding a new and different reason to shut off and DO NOTHING.

I've gone through ALL the steps it gives on the website. I've got the most up to date version of the software. I've reset the damn ipod four times. Each time it works for a little bit. I click the little stop the thing for a safe unplugging each time. rrrrrrrgggghhhh Not fun.

I'd call for help, but you only get one phone call. Hmmmm like getting arrested, huh? The one phone call I actually already did, but the help desk guy was so frustrated and couldn't get it figured out and felt sorry for me and erased my call off my record so I get one more. woo hoo. He hadn't even seen one of the new mini shuffles yet. nice. I'm going to have to head down to the Apple store on the Plaza tomorrow and beg for help. I love this little thing, but it's really getting on my nerves. Can't tell, can you? It's almost enough to make me want to switch to the original shuffle instead of this teeny tiny new shuffle that I love. Maybe it's not so great to buy the newest little toy since apparently all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

ANYWAY, thanks for the bday wishes, we had a lovely weekend. Elizabeth did her jump around and go crazy party on Friday night with all the girls in her class and Joey and one of his friends. Thirteen 10 year old girls all giggling in the small party room after the crazy time was a thing to behold! Fun was had by all.

Sat. Jeff (my boyfriend) took Beth to the Oak Park mall to shop together for her present from him. They were gone for almost four hours. I love that man, hell, I couldn't of done the mall with my daughter for four hours and I gave birth to the kid. He came home looking like a war veteran, quite shell shocked but proud of completing his duties. He later said, "I didn't even know there were that many stores in the mall." Apparently he survived Libby Lu's, Limited Too, Children's Place, Gap for Kids, Dillards (both north and south), Claire's Boutique, the candy shop and more that he couldn't even remember. They came home with the cutest little denim jacket that's fitted and has dark blue eyelet lace around all the edges and a little silver necklace with a dolphin pendant and a handful of scrunchies. They also bought ME a beautiful very fluffy very warm and squishy and wonderful and GREEN robe that I loved!

Sat. night the boy took me out to dinner at the remodeled EBT restaurant where we got to eat in one of the elevator rooms, very cool. We listened to some jazz there while eating and then went over to BB's Blues & BBQ over on 83rd and Troost. I really did MUCH better on the whole not-drinking-like-a-stupid-20-yr-old thing. I only had 2 glasses of wine at dinner, quite respectable. And at the Blues room I was sticking to a couple of beers. Then, somehow, my brain shut off and the shot (that JEFF was trying to buy me and some friends at the table) suddenly I thought, you know, I think a shot called an oatmeal cookie WOULD taste good. Sure, why not? At least I kept it to the ONE shot, and then one hot damn later. OH and did I tell you I didn't have ANY of my fabulous chasers pills? It's been so long since we've gone out on the town, I totally forgot I needed them. Only a moderate hangover with light headache and a little shakiness on Sunday. Considering I thought I was going to DIE the day after the bday last year, this year wasn't too bad.

Beth had her first concert with this singing group she's in and it was FABULOUS! Then dropped Joey off at a birthday party, ran home and cleaned the bathrooms, Jeff had sweetly vacuumed the house and dusted and decluttered, and iced the bday cake for our joint bday party for Elizabeth and me with all our family at our house at 7pm. Let's just say it was a LONG weekend but a very sweet and fun one.

Finished one sock for Elizabeth and need to work on the other. I have all kinds of projects roaming around in my brain, but none of them seem ready to be worked on, so I'm just sticking with my socks for now.

NaKniSweMo & Happy Birthday to my favorite girl in the world!!!

OK, so I didn't do the nanowrimo this year, but thought this was the coolest thing ever! Ok, so it's half-way through November, but what a great idea. Go knit yourself a sweater!

I *heart*

Just leave me with some needles, some yarn and my ipod. I'll be happy. And some chocolate. And beer.

OH Big ass sale at the Studio here in KC! This weekend, Nov 11th and 12th is Cindy's Son Matthew's Sale where everything is 25% off if you bring a hand knitted hat or gloves for an infant, toddler or child to dontate. You could whip up a little hat in NO TIME! Go get you some stuff.

Anyone thinking of doing the January knitting weekend retreat at the Elms? There's info on their fall class schedule. I probably couldn't do both the getaway and the socks that rock club, I'm afraid the socks club may win this one.

Happy birthday to my daughter Elizabeth! She turns TEN years old today. Double digits, baby! I swear it wasn't so long ago she was this little tiny baby with bright red hair that stuck straight up and the biggest blue eyes you ever saw. She's turning into such an amazing young woman. I'm so proud to be your momma Elizabeth!

How to know when it's time to shave, 2 stories

Story #1...I get more compliments on my clapotis. I wear it all the damn time. Yes, it was 80 degrees in KC today, but this morning was a little bit chilly, so the clap came out with me. A woman stopped me to ask about the lovely scarf I had around my neck. She oooohed and aaaahed and then said, but how did you get all the little bumps in the design? Pill city. Yup, it's time. Disposable razors, here I come. I feel like such a real knitter. I knit, I frog, I block, I shave.

Story #2...I was kicking through the at least 12 inches of oak leaves on the street on my way up the hill to pick up the kids after school this afternoon. We live on one of those streets with GORGEOUS big old oak trees up and down both sides of the road. Every color of brown and gold, piles and piles and absolutely more than a foot deep everywhere you go. I kept feeling this tickling, itching on my shins. I thought some creepy bug was on me or something. I jumped, looked down and FOUR leaves had been speared by my leg stubble. Jeff's been traveling, so I've gotten a bit lazy lately on the whole leg shaving thing. If I can't see it, I don't worry about shaving it. My sight must be really going because in the sunlight of the afternoon, those leg hairs were SERIOUSLY long and spiky. Good lord. Good thing I didn't use up all those razors in the pack.

Ok sock fanatics. Have you seen this? Rockin Sock club for Socks that Rock? $210 for the year of 2007. That splits up to $34.33 per pair for socks that rock (supposed to be the most sought after addicted sock yarn in the world), patterns and shipping & handling. You can sign up now and not pay until January. HOW COOL IS THAT??? I keep thinking. How can I rationalize this to myself? hmmmmmm I do spend a buttload on sock yarn.... I do enjoy myself a good pair of socks....$34.33 really isn't all that much, considering how much I've spent already on sock yarn of all kinds....plus you get other cool stuff like an emergency sock yarn keychain (I don't know what that is, but I'm sure I need it desperately)....hmmmmmm what do you think?

Quick post

First of all, wasn't the sun shining brighter today? Wasn't the air fresher and children's voices floating on the breeze? Ahhhhhhh, the world just went a bit more in alignment. ROCK ON YOU PEOPLE FOR GETTING OUT THERE AND VOTING FOR A CHANGE!!! I was so stinking excited when I got the morning paper and saw all the voting results. Oh, Phill Phill Phill, so NOT sorry to see you go. Paul Morrison, a man who is known for PROSECUTING CRIMINALS and not using his office for his own personal agenda is now on the job. Ok, enough. Just know that I did a happy dance and you can rhyme a lot with "Phill with 2 L's", especially if you get creative.

OH MY GOD I laughed on this one, remember the tubey from Knitty? My first sweater that I LOVED? This chick made a matching DOG TUBEY SWEATER for her own. Man, if I didn't have kids, I'd totally make my dog a tubey sweater. My poor little dog is gonna be COLD outdoors again this winter, he's in line behind two children and a boyfriend awaiting sweaters.

The podcasts? OH MY GAWD how did I LIVE before this? I've just been knitting my ASS off and cracking up and loving the crap out of them!!!! Thanks for the suggestions ladies! I'm hooked. Teri, you should TOTALLY make your own podcasts! I sat there on the couch, feeling like I was sitting in a group of friends knitting away while I was listening to them. Made me miss my Thursday night group I'm on the fringe of. I'm gonna try to make it this week! Good thing I've not figured out how to go back and listen to back episodes yet, I might never have those earplugs out!

Holy crap, this is what happens when you don't clean since the mid eighties...

As I was cleaning out and trying to pare down and LABEL and ORGANIZE my unbelievable amount of craft CRAP I came across these...

I totally forgot these were even in there! Buried in the bottom of one of the big ass heavy tubs of stuff were these quilt tops!!! I'm so excited! The white and purple squares set were started when Elizabeth was a toddler, I thought I'd give them to her, one for her and one for her dolly. Well, um, she's turning TEN YEARS OLD this weekend. So now I think it'll be Xmas presents. The larger one is larger than a lap quilt, but not big enough for a twin sized bed. More of a nap-size snuggle quilt. The tiny one will be for her favorite stuffed animals or a pillow, depending on how motivated I get. I need to get some batting and I found the white muslin I had bought for the backing. I've never made a binding and don't really know how to finish the damn things. (I'm not only the Knitting Virgin, I'm a Quilting Virgin as well---no freaking idea of what I'm doing!) Maybe I'll hit the library for a book. The pattern was from a magazine and is long, long gone. The big green & cream log cabin mess is from one of those quilt-in-a-day classes I took also in the 80's (bet you couldn't tell with the big ass FLOWERS everywhere, huh?) I now hate the colors and the prints, but think I should finish it anyway since it was my first quilt attempt and we could always use it for extra warmth. Maybe some other day. For now it's going into the smaller tub marked "ugly quilt attempts" with a few strange hand-pieced things I'll photo another day.

Some actual knitting was done around here as well, here's a close-up of a headband done with some leftover lorna's laces sock yarn in ??? color, I find every skein tag but these. I swear they self destruct as soon as I start knitting. Link was in the earlier post about left-over sock yarn ideas. I actually blocked it! (my first piece that was blocked EVER!) Wet the thing, swooshed it around and then rolled it in a towel, stretched & pinned it out on the carpet and voila! a blocked piece of knitting! cool beans. excpet I knit it a bit too long, so I may give it to Beth for a belt instead.



I'm ipod-ing my little heart out. What knitting podcasts do you guys like? I'm just starting to roam around looking for them.

How about a case of the Clap to go with that hangover, honey?

Yes, that's the birthday shawl for my best friend Jildo, um, 8 months late and NOT moving very damn fast. Did my first clapotis take forever? I know it took me a long time to get the hang of the repeating stitch the first time around, but jeez this is thing is mind-numbing until the fun of getting to drop those stitches. Just keep knitting....must keep knitting.... Did everyone but me realize it's said "clap-o-TEE" and not "clap-O-tis"? I've apparently been pronouncing it like Jeff Foxworthy says "the WAL-MART" with twang and all. I've been watching too much of those re-runs of Sherrif Taylor and Aunt Bee in Mayberry.

Hangover, Lord yes. Did we take our chasers? nope. Totally forgot. Let's see, what did we learn last night? We learned that Christine should NOT drink more than 2 glasses of wine. ever. Especially not in the month of November. The last time I had more than 2 glasses of wine, ok a bottle and a half plus tequila shots and too much rich food was my birthday, um, LAST NOVEMBER. Lord, Lord, Lord. I hurt. I'm moving very s.l.o.w.l.y today. You know it's a good hangover when the love of your life says "I don't feel well either" and you say "good" and it really did make me feel better. Hey, the nice sweet girl goes away when the head and the belly and the body feel this bad.

The clap was modeled on our new table in the screened in porch that Jeff built this summer. Here's a couple of shots. It's kind of shaped like an L. Notice the poor shivering tropical plant that needs to come indoors since its not supposed to be in the cold. Maybe when I can bend over without barfing I'll help the thing out.







The last one is a birdhouse hanging just outside the porch that had an actual bird family living in it at the end of the summer. Picture may be blurry, it was taken through the screen. Honey, I'm not walking any farther than I have to today. Good 'nuff.

Guess what the Fed Ex man gave me this morning???

OH MY GOD I am so freaking excited, you can't even imagine!!! I'm FINALLY trying to get with it technologically now. Yes, well, um, the blog is still, um, cookie cutter and PINK (*urgh* I'm so NOT a pink girl) but I GOT ME AN IPOD!!! Have you ever seen anything cuter??? This thing is TEENY! I had to wait a MONTH but I GOT IT TODAY!!!! OK, I felt like my grandma trying to set the damn thing up and actually get music into it, but I'm getting there. (not the cool grandma that is hip to email, no, the forgetful but sweet but FORGETFUL and 97 years old grandma, that's who I'm acting like today.) I even had to call the 800 apple help desk and the poor guy felt so sorry for me he just told me to go visit the apple store and see if they could help me and he wouldn't penalize me for my ONE free help call. Turns out, um, I had already gotten my tunes onto the damn thing. AND I've just bought the first audio Harry Potter book and am going to download KNITTING PODCASTS TOO! Are you just smelling the technicaliciousness radiating from KS? It even smells musical around here.

Too much halloween candy last night, I'm still on the sugar crash slope to heck. fingers shaking, mind not working, one step away from full-idiot mode, but I've got TUNES baby! MAN, just think of the miles I'll jog, the knitting I'll knit, the stupid horror movies and/or sporting events I'm not so sweet on but want to sit by the honey on the couch and snuggle, I'll be IPODDING myself!

Must get back to work (with my headphones ON baby) and reflect on my amazingness some more. Back to almost normal tomorrow I promise.

Went searching for projects for left-over sock yarn and stumbled on these cool items...started the headband last night.
Pepperknits's hairband

KnitWhimsy's cozy

Gail's Good Yarn's cool striped bias square blanket

Wendy Knits is making a log cabin blanket!

Shelly Kang's Blankie my very VERY favorite!!! She's even got little tutorials and promises that there's a way to deal with all those yarn ends....I'm gonna start me a square and see what happens.

I always wanted a tattoo or two

Is that cool or what??? Tattoo shirt from Target. It looks so real even up close that I was getting weird looks from some of Jeff's family at their Halloween party until they realized it wasn't real! This is AFTER the night of trick-or-treating, so the heavy metal jewelry that covered up the seams on the shirt, big ass hoop earrings, big ass black leather & metal belt, heavy black boots and most of the makeup and some of the black spiked hair spray is gone, so the big effect is not there. We had a great time! All pictures are after we unloaded the hats & gloves & such, so again lots of details are missing. I'll try to be more organized next year and get the camera out EARLIER!!!

Here's my two:


Here's Jeff's two:



Anyone notice how, um, two of these children look like nice little trick-or-treaters and two, um, look like the creatures you see everyone running away from in the horror flicks? I'm just sayin..... I was seriously monitoring the sugar intake from this picture on. Holy crap-a-mighty!

I didn't catch a picture of Jeff's costume. After going to the hilt last year, he did the look-around-the-house-five-minutes-before-leaving costume creation. He was, and I quote, "a Viking Fisherman." He had two big monster silver swords stuck into beltloops on each side and a big ugly 3-foot long rainbow trout pillow (that Joey got at a garage sale for 25 cents because it was missing one of its eyeballs) pinned to the back of his shirt. He stomped and swung the swords around in a very viking-ish manner. It worked.

While that would be a bit much on the tattoos for me personally, I still always wanted one or two. My friends all got one on their ankles when we went to Mexico for spring break back in college, I was the only one that wimped out. (the needles looked sharp and the guy didn't look all that clean, what can I say? wimp!) Although, now, I'd totally have to get a cool knitty tattoo. Maybe for my 40th bday in 2 years....maybe.