Shopping

I decided this Spring weather has made me crazy. I've GOT to knit something springy. I've always done tank tops in the winter and scarves and hats in the summer, I'm just all out of whack. After scrolling through the sexy knitters group blog, I decided I need more yarn. I'm going to make the Picovoli now that everyone's already made theirs and the knit-a-long's over. Nothing like being one with the group, huh? Ah well, I'm still thinking about making the knitty honeymoon cami and how long's that been around??? Then I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and try the somewhat cowl. I bought some Andean Treasure baby alpaca from Knitpicks in the color lilac, or was it sunset (orangish)? Can't remember. I also got some shine dk in either purple or orange to make the picovoli. Just had a total brainfart. Either way, I'm making some colorful stuff.

How much longer must we wait for the new issue of Knitty? I'm such a knitty ho. I'm just going insane waiting to see. Hope they have good stuff this issue or I'll be all pissy.

Jeff's heading off to the lake of the ozarks with all his friends (bunch of shawnee friends from high school) for the weekend, leaving Thurs afternoon. Remember on the Bundy show where Al & his old high school football buddies would retell stories? SAME exact thing, although these boys' stories go back to JUNIOR HIGH school football. seriously. They are a good bunch of guys for the most part. He needs some time away from the stress of job-hunting, combining households and all the rest. He has such an old soul, I tease him about being a grumpy old man sometimes, I swear even getting a new cell phone the other day had him all frustrated.

Friday night Beth's got a lock-in with Girl Scouts (I did NOT volunteer for this one as I don't think I'd survive locked in with about 50 pre-teen girls, call me crazy) and Joey's doing a sleepover with my cousin and her kids. Jeff's at the lake. Hmmmmmm. what could I do? Russell just got offered his dream job for $20K more than he's making now and is having a party to celebrate. I may just wander out to the casinos for a little poker too....hmmmmm could be fun.

OK, I've just decided. I want to make Blaze. I'm going to make it in bright orange too. Just like the pattern. How cute would this be? Oh, crap. Need yarn. Anyone ever make this one? mebbe I could do a quick trip down to the Studio...

confessional

Bless me blogger, for I have sinned....(sorry, those old Catholic days of having to go into "the box" are with me still) or as Larry the Cable Guy would say, "I apologize Lord, that ain't right."

Confession #1...I have had a panta in my knitting bag for almost 2 weeks and it's only 3 inches long. This is a sit down and do in an evening kind of project, and it's just so sad. I've knit maybe 4 rows in the last 4 days. That ain't right.

Confession #2...Did not make it to Jazzercise. After making it through 2 and 1/2 days with no chocolate, gave in last night and ate FOUR cadbury eggs. Four. And I had to get out of bed for each one. For. Each. One. I'd thought to myself, "self, do you REALLY need to be walking your butt over to the closet and pulling out ANOTHER chocolate egg of gooey wonderfulness?" and apparently I decided yes, I did need each and every one. Dang server at work got fixed and I got loaded up with work, so couldn't leave the house yesterday. I'm REALLY going to try to get out there tomorrow morning as I need it. I was driving down the road and heard one of the songs, and started grooving in my seat doing old motions. so sad.

Confession #3...TOTALLY forgot about lent. Couldn't even remember what it was that I gave up (snacking between meals HAH). whoops. Mebbe I'll try again.

I'm off to work and say a few Hail Mary's (I know the lady was holy, but I bet she still got stressed out as a mom, so that's always my favorite prayer from the days of penance). Did you know now kids don't even have to kneel and pray after confession now? I used to get stuck on my knees for an HOUR afterwards cranking out the Our Father's and Hail Mary's and such. Now my kids have to help with a chore or think of something nice to do for someone, or some such stuff. It's very new-age and feel-good. I guess it is probably more effective, but there's something to that whole "fear of God" kind of thing. Or was it "fear of the one scary nun?" (the others were very sweet and fun, just one scared the living beejeesus out of me). Of course, I went to all that in the days of the doily on the head and where women couldn't go up onto the altar. It must have worked for me as I'm normally a pretty good person. normally. Unless you talk with my old friend Jildo and then the secrets come out. huh, funny thing, Jildo grew up in the days of the doily heads too. hmmmmmmm

The Ladybug Chronicles

Well, I'm being Ms. Supportive here, as honey boy is recently out of a job. I'm helping out where I can, standing by my man, and all of that. I offer to write down all the phone #'s and contact info from the boy's cell phone as it was a business cell and had to be returned. Going along, writing, not making comments about all the women in the phone, as most are friends, family, etc. I get to "Ladybug" and say, "what the heck is this?" Jeff blushes and says, oh, well, I don't really need that number any more, you don't have to keep it. I say, "ok, .......why? and what the heck is a Ladybug?" APPARENTLY it's the beautiful one. "It's just this little joke between us." and more blushing. Cripes. The ex-girlfriend that supposedly wasn't serious, but was described long ago as "a woman so beautiful that any man would leave his wife for her". She was the one who was the root of our first very big misunderstanding/almost-fight kind of heated discussion last fall. This was the one that when Jeff and I were just getting serious, he told me that I should be happy as she was moving to Chicago, so "that temptation is no longer here." This was just AFTER our big discussion of committment and faithfulness (I've had a few issues with the ex-hubby on that one I'd rather not repeat) and how I'd never have to worry about him, blah blah blah, but OH, since she's GONE, "NOW there's no reason to worry." The more he tried to explain, the madder I got and the deeper in shit he got. It was quite a doozy of a fight long ago, so I VERY NICELY didn't say anything other than "hm. good to know." and also VERY NICELY blacked out the phone number on the list.

This boy better get going and get a job so I can quit being so nice. My angry green jealous biotch doesn't come out often, but when she does, it's DAMN HARD being nice.

Got all the paperwork on Joey's wish foundation going out to the ex-hubby for signatures and then off in the mail. Thank goodness for our pediatrician's office, I found out my child was 20" long and 7 lbs 10 oz at birth, to complete the paperwork. Good lord, what kind of a mom doesn't remember her child's birth details? I remember Beth was 8 lbs 12 oz because when I called mom and expected pity over pushing something the size of a watermelon out of me, she told me all three of us kids were over 9 lbs and my brother Mike was 10 1/2 lbs. ouch.

I've done almost NO knitting for the last few days and I've been quite bitchy. Connection maybe? Last night even Jeff suggested I sit and knit for a while. Had to finish a big project for work, so was doing that until midnight. We're having connection/server problems, so *sigh* I'll just HAVE to find something else to do this morning. I'm off to Jazzy and then to KNIT my ass off. Panta, here I come!

OH, and I've been choosing paints to redo Jeff's house room by room. I looked closer at the names of the five colors I was choosing from and one was called Ladybug. Swear to God. The list of choices is now down to four.

go wichita state!

HEY how cool is it we Kansans still have a team to root for in the big tourney? WOO HOO! I love seeing teams get farther than anyone ever thought they could.

It's 3:40pm on Friday on a week from heck after a week from heck and I'm going to the liquor store. with a credit card. ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching. I've got to find Miss Amanda's present (I'm so good at hiding things but not so good at finding them, dammit) and then I.am.out.of.here!

Gonna start my panta this weekend, move my office furniture to the honey's house later too.

Wearing my tubey, which, by the way, makes me look great from the front and like I have this mutant back/fat/gigantoid shoulderblade/wing things sticking out of my back. It is also quite possibly the warmest sweater I've ever put on my body, even with the open chest sweetheart whatever you call it neckline. I don't think this will be a wear out in public sweater, but it should be perfect for drinking in a sportsbar kind of sweater. Ah well, it fits and that's enough for me now.

Joey got referred to a children's wish foundation and I'm filling out a bazillion forms and copying every document I can find and on and on. I am making it through the whole thing, when I see they also ask for age of diagnosis (Joey was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 3 1/2 months old) AND for length and weight at birth. Um, bad mom of the year award goes to....CHRISTINE! Can't remember. nope. not a bit. I know he was long, skinny, and had red hair but that's all I got. The hospital he was born at doesn't release that info without a buttload of forms and time, Children's Mercy doesn't have that either, so I left a message for the nurses at his pediatrician's office. I asked my folks and they looked at me like I was retarded (guess it's hereditary). ummmmmm baby book, not so completed, well, see, he was a sick little baby and I breastfed the child every hour. EVERY HOUR and he had horrible gas pains and then would shoot poop out of his butt and we'd repeat that around the clock. Plus bronchitis, pneumonia and the likes. SO, brain fart on the whole details of birth thing.

The wish foundation we're trying to work with does BIG wishes, but they're killers on the details. The wish has to be the child's desires, not the parents, every detail of every page has to be verified and signed and witnessed and I've got to get the ex to sign and date etc too, and he lives in NEW MEXICO and is not so good with getting paperwork back to me, ARRRRGHHHH PLUS they just got it to me 2 days ago and by the way, could we please do a "quick turnaround" and get it in the mail by MONDAY as their big approval meeting is in early April? crap almighty.

Joey put down that he wants to learn to surf or go to Disney World. We'll see what they say. They're supposed to include the immediate family so hopefully Beth and I can have our butt-white butts sitting on some warm sand somewhere too!

Gotta go, the liquor store's calling my name, listen, can you hear it? Gotta go!

Yes, yes I am a good girl

You know how you knit for-flippin-ever on a sock and swear there's no progress being made, the ball gets no smaller and the sock gets no longer but time drags by? Well, once I get to the start of the heel, I just can't stand it, I've GOT to keep going. It's so exciting to see the sock develop this whole SHAPE thing. It's fascinating and I watch with baited breath like I don't know what's going to happen and I'm all pleased as punch when the damn thing does just what it's supposed to do. Anyway...

I was doing the whole knitting as I waited at stoplights thing while running errands. Today I had to actually put the sock DOWN as I drove down the street as the current sock is with handpainted opal yarn and on size ONE dpns. (I may or may not have been sighted driving with my knee and knitting along on a pair of artyarns socks previously, but it was a straight road and it was big yarn and I was to the just knit forever part of the tube between heels and toes...) It was driving me batty as I HATE getting stuck in the middle of the pattered needle with the buttload of stitches on it. HATE THAT. So, I pulled into the Wal-Mart (said like Jeff Foxworthy as a two to four sylable word with big emphasis on both words) and immediately picked up the sock and finished the row before getting out of the truck, or putting it in park if you must know.

I get out of the car and hear this giggling in the backseat of the car next to me. Granny Rose is sitting there crocheting her heart out while her daughter got frustrated with her and went huffing into the store. She said to me, "she HATES it when I do this, but YOU understand. I want to finish my row." I said "Of course, what else would you do?" and she said "You are a good, good girl." I swear, I almost kissed the little old lady right on her cheek. GOD I love old people and especially those that KNIT and CROCHET. LOVE THEM. Except when they smell like pee. Then not so much. Or at least from a distance.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AMANDA!!!!! Happy Happy Happy Happy and all that!! I'm excited about our evening out! My daughter's doing a sleepover with a friend, Jeff's going to watch my boy with his boys (he doesn't actually know that yet) and I'm gonna have AT LEAST three margaritas. I think strawberry foo foo with salt instead of sugar. mmmmmmmmmm. Don't have too many before I get there, as I need to buy you a drink! OH and go buy some of those CHASERS pills (from Walgreens or Osco or somewhere) Take 2 with your first drink of the night. Just in case. Not that you'd over-imbibe or anything inappropriate like that. :)

You've probably already seen this, but my mom sent it to me (which being Madam Appropriate Behavior herself, made this doubly funny) so read it again and chuckle with me... from an email sent around and around and around...

I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week. But early on Monday morning, I received a call from his office to tell me that my appointment had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 A.M. I had just packed everyone off to work and school and it was already around 8:45 A.M. Since the trip to his office would take about 35 minutes, I didn't have any time to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in "that area" to make sure I was at least presentable. I then threw the washcloth in the hamper, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment. I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, "My, we've made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?" I didn't respond. He finished the exam, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal...some shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. After school when my six year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, "Mommy, where's my washcloth?" I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, "No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it."

Panta me please

Have you seen this? I must make one or four. HOW cute are these??? Here's Electica's panta. (it opens as a word document)

I got nothing

Jeff's doing good, either is VERY organized and practical or in total denial. He's already signed up for unemployment and is out there networking. wow. WITH his 2 boys on spring break "helping". Thanks for the positive thoughts, I always am good with that!

Boring, blah blah today, so I'm out reading about everyone ELSE's exciting lives...

SO here's the most recent favorite quizola I found on Beth's blog:

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it. You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less. You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way. Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

Anyone surprised I'd be Miss Piggy? cripes almighty.

It was a king-sized reese's and 5 hershey's mini dark chocolate kind of a day

Actually, it would've been more than 5 mini's, but that's all that was left in the back of my closet in the chocolate stash behind the shoes on the 3rd shelf. Yup, that was the hiding spot for the GOOD stuff, stuff I don't want any grubby kids in, and stuff that I can pretend it's not there and get along without chocolate in the house most of the time until either PMS or major stress strikes. wow.

Got a call from Jeff that he was taking his youngest son to get his foot x-rayed but he'd be thinking about me while getting my tests done. His son got his foot squished under two heavy boxes of unassembled computer desks (MY CRAP) that was leaning up against a wall the night before. Nice way to start a relationship, by damaging his child. (turns out foot is fine, just swollen on top and sore)

Went for the mamogram/sonogram yearly thing in the am. That's always a fun way to start out the day. Actually, it's not so bad, I just get cold sticking my ribs and little boobs up to be squished on a COLD METAL machine. brrrrr. Everything was good and copacetic (I've got some cystitis thing where I always have cysts full of liquid goo in my breasts, usually nothing to worry about). Sonogram showed a few clusters as bigger than normal, but again, they were all liquid and no biggie, until the BIG one was found. cripes. Here we go again....tech went to get dr, who went to get other dr, who I swear went out onto the streets of Olathe, KS to pull in a group of total strangers to see the amazing strange things in my poor little left boob. Gotta love modern medicine. I felt like I should at least get a couple of dollar bills for the big peep show entertainment or a warm blanket as it was FREAKING cold in there even without the cold goo slopping over my chest. After everyone was quite finished poking my sore boob, it was determined that OH, YEAH, it was a liquid cyst after all, no biggie. cripes. Let's make the poor woman a stress basket, shall we??? I go see the specialist that I love next month. He's NOT a freaking-out kind of person and I always leave feeling calm, no matter what's going on in my life. THAT'S what you're supposed to do, not make people feel like side-show bob.

THEN, I somehow lost my freaking mind later that afternoon and promised to take my children on their last big fling of the spring break in kc...chuck.e.cheese. (Their dad was supposed to come to town this last weekend but had to change weekends, so I was feeling bad for them) I call Jeff, he asks if I'd like to take his older boy, (younger one was stuck laying on the couch playing gamecube). I say sure, go drive over later and find out Jeff was just "reorganized" right out of his job. another cripes. He found out by the lackey sent out from the home office in Wichita driving to his house to tell him (while he has his boys in the home with him for their spring break). nice. He's got a great resume and good money in savings, so we don't have to freak out yet, but it's still quite a shock. It was a pretty small company (which can always be an adventure) and he hasn't been happy there for a while, but it still sucks. After a while, I loaded up 3 kids and headed off to chuck's. Ended up only spending $13 and sitting and knitting at a corner table where I could see the kids running around. We used a coupon from the paper, the kids got free tokens when they got there, and we left with a big ol' pile of plastic tacky crap they were very proud of.

Jeff's older boy's bday party is tonight, so I've got to go pick up some toy or other. I think I'd better re-fill the chocolate stash, as it's not good to be without in a time of need.

FO ALERT: pair of socks FOR ME!

Aren't we all impressed with Christine the wonder-knitter? Just wait until I show up wearing my tubey sweater AND socks...too cool, baby. Or should I say nice and toasty warm? Just in time for the big ol' snowstorm that's supposed to hit TODAY here in KC. Gotta love Kansas weater, one day you're wearing a tank top and complaining about the heat, next you're in your winter woolies and complaining about the cold. LOVE IT!

Back to the socks...notice the different color on the right toe? I ran out of yarn so had to use some artyarns left over from Jeff's socks & fingerless gloves. It actually blends pretty cool and I like the idea that a part of the yarn I used to knit something for the man I love is a part of the fabric I created as well...like knitting our souls together...or some such crap. Actually I came up with that as an excuse at about 2-Mike's-Hard-Limades-on-an-empty-stomach into the evening last night. Sounds better than "uh, ran out of yarn."

So, moving update... The official gradual move in and blending of 2 families began this last week of spring break...
Heart pounding, stomach raging, shaky hands panic attacks --> 2
Times spent screaming into the bathroom sink full of water (to relieve said stress--learned this one when I was a high strung high school student) --> 1
Fingernails broken --> 8
Bruised shins --> 2
Assembled "world's coolest beds EVER" quoted from my kids --> 2
Amount of children's furniture that I own that will FIT into the room they will share --> 15%
Sweet, quiet comfortable evenings after children are in bed and all is calm --> 4
Number of children's feet almost broken under a heavy box --> ZERO (almost 1 on Jeff's youngest boy last night, thank goodness the kid's just sore)


2 more months to go on this "gradual move". I think I'm gonna survive. I think we should've just MOVED all at once and got it over with, but Ah well, live and learn. For now it's weekends together and some evenings here & there. The kids are all no problemo about it so I think it's just stressful on us parents. Parents think too much.

In my day, we had a big ugly purple dinosaur with crappy music...

OK, I'm telling you young mothers of children today, you have it EASY! I know, I know, I was able to benefit from VCR's and carseats and other modern wonders, but I missed out on the good stuff. THANK GOD FOR THE WIGGLES!!!

Instead of having to hear "hyuh hyuh...I love you...you love me...." crap from Barnie or GOD FORBID the Teletubbies (although I always liked that controversial tinky winky and his purple purse), NOW when babysitting the young ones, you get to jam out on beatles-ish music and PLUS have you SEEN Anthony? (blue shirt). We were on our way home from my cousin's house and I made the kids listen to the Wiggles cd I found in our cd case. Joey said "Mom, I wish Anthony could come to our house for a playdate." I said, "Oh honey, mommy wishes that too!" yummmy! MAN I wish they would've been around when my kids were young.

So, we're on our way home, sun is shining, windows are down, I'm jamming out, singing and doing the motions to "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, cock-a-doodle doo" complete with hand waving on top of my head, look over at the car next to me and this nice looking businessman is cracking up. Nice. He COUGHS because he was laughing so hard, and said "don't worry, we sing to that one at my house too." You know, between the Wiggles and Radio Disney, I'm able to survive the kids' music, but I still make an ass of myself quite often. Has anyone else forgot to switch radio stations and got ALL the way home, realizing you're be-bopping to Radio Disney? cripes.

Here's a pic of the happy knitters:


And finally, YES I have done a bit of knitting. Look what I finished last night:

Yarn: Artyarns supermerino self stiping superwash wool
Needles: dpns size 5
Pattern: Ann Norling Adult Socks II play on ribs
3k 1p rib for only 6" at first instead of 10" as I don't think I'll have enough yarn. I may still not, in which case, I'll add in the blue & green funky artyarns I have left over from Jeff's socks, which will be quite strange looking, but I don't care. The color pooling made a swirly design amid the stripes, it looks better than in the pic, I sure hope I have enough yarn to do this set! It's being knit from stash yarn so I only had the one skein.

We've painted the future office (extra bedroom on it's own floor of Jeff's split level house) in "picket fence" aka VERY white even though it looked off white in the store, but I like it anyway. We also painted my kids' room in Myrtle Blossom blue, and I LOVE it! What kind of paint? Why, what else would I use but Martha Stewart stuff? I'm still such a fan of hers! Seriously, the paint is good quality and it only took ONE coat to do each room! (sherwin williams store) We're getting the beds delivered Saturday, and are moving some of my furniture over this afternoon. It's getting exciting! Official move-in is set for May, but we're going to start spending more time over there. So far stress levels haven't been too bad, although I DID get THREE FREAKING ZITS from some extra stress earlier this week. cripes almighty, how old am I??? The boy thought he was being funny and called me "hey zitty" earlier yesterday. yes, yes he did. No, I couldn't believe it either. He redeemed himself last night when he held me in his arms, kissed me deeply and told me how beautiful I was....of course he was about 6 beers happy, but HEY I'll take the damn compliment any way I get it!

Will spring break never end??????

wow, it's been a LONG week already and it's only Thursday. The kids have been out of school forever. They not only have the entire week, but had last Friday and next Monday to boot. cripes. It's been fun and my kids have been troopers, but LORDY I'm tired. I think of you mommas out there that homeschool your children and I think, nope, mine wouldn't survive it. Not even on a good day.

Let's see, yesterday....short version....got up, ran around like crazy, went to bed. Long version....got up, worked, did laundry, worked, drove to Nebraska Furniture mart out in Bumblefuxx, KS to show the kids the amazing super-beds I bought for them that will be delivered this weekend, drove to Raymore, MO to work at boss's house and official office, while there kids played with their grandkids and Beth got her hair cut by their daughter (CUTE DOO!), drove home, worked, laundry, sent kids outdoors to give me a rest from crazy crack-head-children (too hyped up to stand them), cleaned house, worked, drove to Jeff's house, sat kids in front of new x-box that was supposed to be their Christmas present (but they got too dang much crap anyway so I was saving it). They turned into zombies for the night and were giggling and having a blast, COOKED and put dinner in the oven, went upstairs and painted the trim and all the edging for the new office at Jeff's house, Jeff came up and did all the roller work and also almost got zapped while changing out the electrical sockets (at one point the lights went out and I heard this big ZZZZAPPPPP! and he yelled "Missed Me!" while my hair stood on its end), took dinner out of the oven and it was GOOD, chatted with Miss Amanda and admired her butt-load of scarves she's been designing and knitting!, ate dinner, put kids to bed, cleaned up kitchen and paint and snuggled on the couch with my honey, vented some SERIOUS pissy emotions bottling up inside me for the last day with the boy (thanks to Kelly for listening and yes, men ARE often stupid and it's SO hard for me NOT to tell them when they ARE), ended on a very nice note and went to sleep. whew. NO knitting what-so-ever. That's not right.

Today WILL be much more calm....sorta....maybe.

AND my dinner was freaking GOOD! Amanda got to be living proof! I used some of the terriyaki sauce from Tastefully Simple, my cousin is now a rep and I'm freaking LOVING that food & sauces & mixes! I had terriyaki chicken with veggies and brown rice (not even the 5 minute kind...I had to SIMMER and everything!) It was SO GOOD! Jeff ate three pieces of chicken so he was liking it too! I'm telling you, I am loving this happy homemaker kind of thing. I now own 5 cookbooks (one the new Joy of Cooking, thanks Susie for the recommendation!) That book is amazing! It's got hoity toity stuff as well as stuff for me like HOW TO BOIL AN EGG. Seriously, I did not know how. It even tells you how to make coffee (again, did not know how).

Gotta go, OH OH OH OH OH my ebay Malabrigo yarn stash came in the mail and it is LOVERLY! I've GOT to get some pics going and I can't decide what to make with it!!!! Maybe another clappy? A scarf and head-band ear warmer set? Mebbe I could just make a big ol' blankie out of it and snuggle up....nope, not enough yarn, I'd have to buy more....that would be just terrible, wouldn't it?

Girl's day out on the plaza!

OH wow! Jennie, you should have stopped by to say hello! We did day #2 of the knitting camp at the Studio yesterday morning. Then these girls came upstairs with STOCKINETTE stitching AND they could cast on AND cast off! Unbe-freaking-lievable! They were SO proud! We went to the cheesecake factory to celebrate. They asked if they could PLEASE bring their knitting, I swear I almost cried with pride! I'm really hoping this will be a bond my daughter and I can share as we enter those dreaded teenage years. I still remember my aunt Janis (who died of breast cancer years ago) teaching me to crochet when I was 8 and that was my start on this long love affair with all things fibre.

I'll post some pic's tomorrow, I promise. I'm sitting in my bedroom corner office, Beth is casting on stitches onto a circular needle BY HERSELF as she is now going to make a purse to match the small bag she made yesterday. OH MY GOD...I joined it for her and knit one round, set it down to go help Joey with his project, she picked it up and has been KNITTING right along! No biggie. I said, "OH, do you know how to tell which way to go? Let me get you started".....and she'd already said, "MOM, the smooth side goes out and the yarn from the ball is attached to the needle for your right hand." DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNN! The girl has GOT it! I totally recommend letting someone ELSE teach your child to knit. I had taught her a while back just the basic knit stitch, but somehow it was not as exciting or as much of a learning experience as dumping her and walking AWAY from the children. I asked if I could sit in on the class and Cindy said, "sure, as long as you stay out of the way and DON'T HELP" I thought I'd better just walk my butt upstairs. GOOD PLAN!

Know what else? My nine-year-old daughter just taught ME the long tail cast-on that I couldn't ever get figured out from other teachers. You know that weird bunny hole/tree/2 fingers up and loop around thing? I don't want to use it as I like my elastic thumb cast-on, but I need to learn it so I can teach and help others as that's what almost everyone else learns first.

More spring break stories soon...

TOO much fun!

OH OH OH my daughter and her friend (both in 3rd grade) signed up for the Studio's craft camp. They had their first class today, KNITTING! WOO HOO! They made cute little bookmarks with 3 different yarns and learned the knit stitch, to change yarns and to bind off. They had a few younger girls that were out of control, having sword fights with their needles and pouting and whining, so they didn't get to learn the cast on yet. Tomorrow is purling and hopefully learning casting on also. They get to start a purse, and OH those girls are excited. It was such fun seeing them after the class, coming up and wandering around petting yarns. They each went home with a bundle of lambs pride bulky and I'm going to get them working on making a couple of rectangles we'll felt down into coasters. One has pink and one has purple, so they're going to share to make stripes.

Now four girls in my daughter's grade all are beginning knitters. I think we're going to start a little knit club.

Good weekend, crazy busy today, more later.

School days, school days...

I totally forgot to write about the meeting with the school principal. It looks like we get to STAY at the same elementary school through 6th grade! woo hoo! As long as we live within district borders, and shawnee mission's a pretty big district, and Jeff's house is right smack in the middle of it, we get to stay with the same school! I'm all excited!

THEN I got talked into going along on Joey's kindergarten field trip yesterday am. We took a 45 6 year olds to SM East high school for a visit to their enviornmental science lab. It was a RIOT! OH the sights.... my boy is more brave than I thought he'd be. He normally shies away from critters a bit, but he was holding frogs, toads, salamanders, snakes, lizards (I mean those BIG ugly bearded dragon things), turtles, mice, chincillas, guini pigs, shark teeth, crocodile head, and other lovelies. I passed on most of the critter holding, but did do the let a BIG ASS BLACK HAIRY tarantula, yes, I said TARANTULA, crawl on my hand. Joey passed on that one, but I did it. It was quite creepy. I did fine until the thing started crawling up my arm...I was doing it to SHOW the kids how a tarantuala is just one of earth's creatures, just like us....so I was trying really hard not to scream GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET THE MOTHERFUXXER OFF. I just said "um, could you please take this NOW????"

I've got a whole 3 inches of the back done on that cotton yarn prarie tank thing. I realized "holy crap, I'm making lace". It's not actually lace, but it's got holes and stuff and it WOULD be lacey if it were with thinner yarn. No big deal. Of course the damn thing's on size THREE needles so may NEVER get completed, but it's something to pass the time. Gotta go work. Have a GREAT weekend people!!!

The first load

Well, it's official. My crap is moving its way over to Jeff's house. The boy is doing pretty well, but is having some ISSUES with sharing his space and his stuff. So far the comments have been "...but, well, you don't have to bring THAT over yet, right?....I mean, it can stay at your folks' house a little longer, right?" cripes. I think the boy means "move in together" being MY body and those of my childrens with maybe the clothes on our backs plus one knitting bag. cripes almighty. I am TRYING to be gentle. It's all just stuff. He's just worked so hard to make his house a home for him and his boys that it's a difficult step for him. I very sweetly kissed him on the cheek and said "I love you" and also very sweetly left off the "dumbass" that was on the tip of my tongue. See? I can be diplomatic sometimes.

I think the IDEA of the move-in is easier than the actual physical ACT of the move-in. He has really worked at condensing his stuff and making room for us, I've just got to not be my normal self who would kick the door open and make my noisy way. I've got to be "Considerate Christine". She doesn't come out very often.

Jeff has done a lot of nice things in preparation, he and the boys have already drawn up plans to get his boys moved into one bedroom and some ideas for getting my two kids into another room. He totally redid the pantry, putty-ed, painted, put up cool shelves, reorganized, etc. He is helping me move in my office furniture to the other bedroom to become our office, and is really being considerate, just still looks awfully damn nervous most of the time.

Ah well. I did leave my knitting bag at his place tonight and he called to make sure I could make it through the night without it. (I LOVE to sit in bed and knit to the news and seinfeld before bed). I thought it was sweet. I told him don't worry, I've got other projects I can work on. really. one or two....or 8. Eight's good, that way you don't get bored.

Spring Break has officially begun and we're not sure what the heck we're doing yet. I think I'll take Beth and one of her girlfriends to the Studio's knitting classes for tweens/teens on Monday and Tuesday morning. I've got to work too, so I'm going to try to find neat things here & there.

Dog Barf Scarf

I am SUCH a fan of malabrigo yarn, it's almost scary. I can't help but pet this yarn. I just couldn't stand the wait for the veritable plethora of malabrigo to come in from my ebay orders from the long night of too much spending. I broke out the funky colored malabrigo in my stash that I bought because it was the last 2 skeins of the stuff at the studio last fall. The colors are strange, but I love the look against denim, which is a great part of my wardrobe. SO, I finally decide on what textural pattern to use to showcase this beauty and am knitting right along.

I'm using an adaptation to the traveling rib. I'm listening to country music. Then, it HITS me... the name for this scarf. (I can't knit something without it having a name.) It's the ON THE ROAD AGAIN SCARF (get it? traveling rib? Willie Nelson songs? the PERFECT knit to take on a road trip?) LOVE it! I sat there all proud of myself knitting away.

THEN the kids told me Miles (our shitzu with ISSUES) barfed. on the wood floor. after eating crayons. The brownish pile of foamy icky stuff with chunks of color resembled the On The Road Again Scarf a bit too much. I couldn't get it out of my head. I'm now knitting the Dog Barf Scarf. If you listen very carefully, you can hear Willie singing "and I can't wait to knit the dog barf scarf again...." twang twang.

I've got to write up the details of the stitch as an actual pattern because this is my favorite textured scarf since the my so-called scarf came around. I need to make it and see if I can get it out of one skein or 2.

wish me luck

I'm off to talk with the kids' school principal this morning about letting us still go to this school after we move in with Jeff. It's a public school, but one of the nicest and I already KNOW which teachers I like and which to avoid (won't bring that point up with Madam Principal). The parents pay for the salary of a part-time school counselor and a spanish teacher and we've also got a full time nurse. The rest of the schools in the district have no counselors and almost no foreign languages and the full time nurse is BIG for us with Joey having CF. Plus I think it would just be less turmoil in our lives. Only problem is, EVERYONE wants in this freaking school, so it may be a tough sell. We're still going to be in the district, but in a different high school's territory, so am not sure how well this will go.

Good thing my kids are good in public and not trouble-makers. The last family to talk the principal into letting her boy stay has a TOTAL CHAOS child, so I'm hoping she doesn't think about that. The boy that if the boy's name comes up in any discussion, parents all groan and say "oh, XXXXXXX, bless his heart." Let me tell you, my goal in life is to not have my children's names connected with that little phrase. I am guilty of this myself. You SAY "bless his heart" but you MEAN "crazy little psychopath."

And, Gordon Parks died last night. The third famous person. creepy.

I've got a pic & pattern of a cool malabrigo scarf pattern but will have to post it tomorrow. Have a good one and enjoy those little signs of spring out there! I saw teeny tiny specks of yellow on the forsythia bushes down the street and little crocuses and green sprouts from bulbs are poking up everywhere! It even smelled like spring this morning! woo hoo!

Libraries, spring break stuff

WHY didn't I ever think of LIBRARIES before? I've had such fun taking the kids to the different area libraries each weekend. We start in the knitting section, I grab oh, about 15 books or so and then we head to the kids' section where I sit and flip through the pages and the kids roam around having a blast. Just like most of us, I'm first drawn to the new new NEW books and the flash of the new patterns and such, but started roaming through the old books and there's some seriously GOOD stuff in there. There's more to READ. I also found more pictures of my strange thumb cast-on. I learned a lot and had a blast. I came across 450 Knitting Stitches Vol. 2 and have had entirely too much fun. I must admit to a bad night of ebay shopping and a buttload of the world's most luscious merino, malabrigo, is on its way to me. I decided to swatch up some malabrigo I ALREADY HAD and have decided to knit scarves and matching ear warmer/head band things. Because what else would I be knitting on now that winter is OVER and spring is here? sure. makes sense.

We're sticking around kc for spring break. I've got to work and the kids have no where to go, should be interesting, no? At least my work is pretty flexible, so I can work half days and then at night after they're in bed. I may take a couple of days and do a little mini-trip, but don't have any ideas where to go. I'm in KC so anyone got ideas? I'll probably do the lake of the ozarks with mom & dad for a couple of days, but I'd rather go to a hotel somewhere and just have fun. I've heard good things about the Omaha zoo in Nebraska. maybe.

Sometimes it's good not to be famous. Kirby Puckett (baseball), Dana Reeve (Christopher's widow) both died so young and were such neat people. Famous people always die in 3's...who's going to be the third? Sorry to be morbid, but I wonder about these things.

Please adopt me! FREE SOCK YARN!

KV note: The lovely yarn has found a home! Thanks!

Hello, my name is Susie Sockotta. My twin sister is Sally Sockotta. We're color #19 and both from the same dye lot #909. I'm the one with the cuff and leg knitted and my sister's the one with the loosly wrapped remains of our owner's original sockie that never quite made it off the needles. We knit up with fun little swirly designs with red, purple, green and yellowish orange muted colors. We can be knit on 1's-3's, but our owner hit gauge of 7 stitches to the inch on size 2 needles. Click on the picture to see us in bigger detail. My twin sister (the one with the frogged yarn still attached) has only had less than a yard snipped from the end when our owner was learning and relearning the figure 8 cast-on. I've only had about 6 inches snipped from the end of me, so together we're about 417 yards of machine washable sock yarn. Specs: 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool and 15% nylon.

If anyone out there would like this yarn, please send an email to treasuregoddessATkcDOTrrDOTcom or leave a comment. I just don't like knitting with cotton yarn on little needles. My current tank top of 100% cotton may just kill me. I can only handle knitting a few rows before I run back to wool.

This is very nice sock yarn and I think I would love to WEAR sockotta socks, I just can't seem to KNIT them. If you don't like frogged and wavy yarn, feel free to snip off the used parts and knit away with what's left. I am soon moving to a new home (can I get a woo hoo?) and need to pare down the stashola. So, it's FREE, it's nice, barely used, and from a non-smoking home. Let me know.

On the home front, we got a call from the crazy people who were selling the house we looked at on Vday. The people called and said they had decided to sell their house and though they supposedly had higher offers, they wanted US to be the "good Christian family" to buy their house. This was on WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, after taking 14 days to decide whether or not they were going to sell their house. Jeff said, "let me talk with Christine and my banker and I'll get back to you in a couple of days." On FRIDAY afternoon I went by the house to get a feel of it and to see if I could go look inside again on the weekend to make sure, and the FSBO sign (for sale by owner) was gone and a realtor's sign was up. I called and said, "um, this is Christine and we wanted to let you know we would like the house..." and she said "Oh, well we hadn't heard from you guys....blah blah blah...and we're so sorry...blah blah blah" and they'd signed a month contract and are now asking 20 grand MORE than they agreed to sell it to us for, making it the most expensive house in the entire subdivision. nice. There's a much longer story of goofy stuff that makes us think the place probably has bad kharma anyway, so we're sticking with Jeff's house. I'll just say that the owners BOTH drove white vans with no windows on them. Yup, the white van thing.

sing a song....sing it loud....sing it strong...

Well, my daughter just made me proud as punch tonight! Elizabeth and one of her girlfriends, Konner, got to sing a duet for the third grade at the primary school concert. It was SO cute and of course wonderful! It was the first two paragraphs (or is it refrains? I was the tuba and flute player back in my youth, not the singer in the family) from the song "sunny side of the street". It was such fun! Freshly painted pink toenails, new sandals, fluffy flowing dress, ribbon in the hair, such fun!

BUT seriously, what kind of torture is it to sit through those grade 1-3 concerts? God bless the music teachers! Without them, our children and our world would not be the creative wonders that they are. I tell you, those teachers have it rough. There's no way I could do it. My favorite moment of the night behind the proud momma of the girl singing up at the microphone AND a lovely grandma behind me being asking lots of questions about the "boiling of the wool" on the felted bag I was knitting on before the concert began, was the moment I realized there were 40+ little butt-white johnson county first graders singing some Swahili (sp?) African song/chant thing with the drums going and they were all trying to move in time to the beat and it was the saddest thing I have seen. It's just wrong. wrong wrong wrong. very ambitious, I'll give them that, but still wrong.

Crazy people with the house we looked at on Valentine's Day called and left a message for Jeff yesterday that they "think" they've decided to sell their house. When he called them back, they still weren't sure what they wanted for it, so who the heck knows what's going on there. cripes almighty. We may or may not be checking into it. If not, we're going to move into Jeff's house, which is not a bad thing either as it's in a great neighborhood and is a good home.

We've had a few issues of the whole "stuff" stuff. You know, moving one family into another's territory is not the same as everyone moving somewhere new. It's "my stuff" and "your stuff" and so much STUFF! So far only a few tears have been shed (mine of frustration) and one piano is determined to go into said house. (The boy has it in for pianos I swear. He doesn't even have to move it up any stairs, it can roll right into the main floor. I may have to move this one in on my own with some help from my girls, we'll see.) All in all we decided it's all just stuff. Plus I have a lot more stuff than the boy realizes, hell, I have more stuff than even I realize sometimes. I'm trying to pare down to more simple living standards, but I've still got over 30 pair of shoes that I don't think I can part with. I have donated 12 pair of silly shoes with very high heels I no longer wear, but have those that you just never know, you MAY well NEED someday... Good thing yarn is able to be shoved into drawers, bags, tubs, etc. Silly boy thinks it will all fit into the cedar chest he made me. Silly boy.

startitis anyone? anyone? bueler?

SO, here's the newest sock on the needles. I finally realized I really NEED to just knit and figure out the damn thing the way everyone says to, so I measured and calculated and decided 56 stitches with sockotta yarn on sz 2 dpns. I did about an inch and a half of 2X2 rib and am now doing stockinette. I'm not sure if it'll fit, I'm using my least favorite of sock yarn in the stash to use as the base sock. From here I'll go get all creative and shit. We'll see.

I also cast on and knit the first 6 rows of the beautiful tank top I want to make, but realized I must be yarn-over-challenged as the yo's when I'm purling are different than the yo's when knitting, one is twice as long as the other, so my cute little holes are turning out all wonky. I'm going to go watch my favorite knitting help website's videos to find out what I'm doing wrong.

OH, I am SO phyched! I learned this strange thumb long-tail caston and have NEVER been able to find pictures or directions for it. When I teach someone my caston method, they have nothing to refer back to. NOW I found it! You have to scroll down to click the little camera button by the THUMB METHOD to see it. TOO COOL! I have to say I LOVE THIS AMY CHIC who does the KnittingHelp.com website. I go there for EVERYTHING. I just saw I was doing the purl yo's right and the knit yo's wrong.

I am just ITCHING to go get started on a new project or 4. Starting the sock appeased the monster inside a little, the cotton start & frogging helped a bit more, but I....MUST....START.....MORE MORE MORE MORE projects! Maybe it's the spring weather outside, I don't know, but it's getting hard to sit still. Speaking of which, have you SEEN this site? Drops Designs free patterns from the Garn studio? OOOOOOOOOhhhhhh they have some cool stuff!