Knitting in the Heartland

Well, I'm going to a bona fide WEEKEND of knitting! woo hoo! I'm so excited! Nicky Epstein (knitting on the edge, knitting over the edge and knitted flowers & embellishments or some such thing plus other amazing books) is going to be teaching and I'm taking her classes! How much fun is that? PLUS a little vendor's market. ca-ching, ca-ching, can anyone else hear my money being spent? OOOOOOOOh can't wait! I get to bring scrap yarn for the knitted flowers class to share. OH I have some good stuff to bring to share & play with! Yes, I am a dork. No, I don't much care. The weekend is put on by the Sunflower Knitters Guild. It's being held at the Radisson at I-35 and 95th in Overland Park, KS (suburb of KC). Vendor's market is from noon to five and they're going out to eat with Nicky Epstein on Sat. night. You can come out to eat even if you don't go to class, think about it! Email me or leave a comment if you want to come and we'll get your name added to the list. Know what's the BEST PART of the weekend???? My folks are taking the children to the lake! WOO BABY! No kids AND yarn in one weekend? I'm even thinking of getting a room at the hotel so I can sit around and knit all night long. Whataya think?

I have about 4 inches so far of my somewhat cowl. I'm using some knitpicks baby alpaca yarn in a heathery purple and OH LORDY LORDY it's heaven to knit with. HOW did I survive knitting with cotton so long? My fingers, they are singing with pleasure at the lovely soft strands being knit right along. I have now decided. I am not a cotton knitter. I keep trying as I love some of the patterns, and the IDEA of a knitted cotton tank top is delightful. In theory, it's a big gigantoid pain in the ass to knit. Sticking with the lovely animal fibers for a while now. Please ignore the large pile of orange cotton yarn in the cedar chest that thinks it's supposed to be knit up next. Maybe I can find some nice orange alpaca or merino. Orange merino. That says summer in kc doesn't it?

Jeff's got his 2nd interview scheduled (yeeeeeehaw!!) for Tuesday and went out to buy a new suit to get all dolled up. He's been really active and has about 3 other interviews scheduled, but all for less glamour and less moulah than the big one. I'm hoping he finds something he can really enjoy. He's also been on a home improvement kick, replacing the old kitchen sink faucet with this super cool thing, putting in closet organizers, painting, you name it, he's doing it. MAN there's nothing sexier than a man that can DO STUFF! LOVE that!

Story Time

First of all, I finished the soleil. I have it wet and sorta-blocking. I've basically got it all flapped out on a table, but don't have pins sticking in it yet. Actually, I have never blocked anything. *shhhhhhhh* guilty secret. My clapotis with its rolling points, all kinds of stuff. The sweater actually FITS and I like it! Who'd a thunk it? TWO sweaters that FIT? woooo baby!

And now for story time! Some of you that know me know that strange things happen around me. I've this weird mojo thing. It keeps life interesting. Jeff used to laugh at me, but beware to those who scoff the mojo! It rubs off on those around me also sometimes....

Jeff took his boys and a dog-crate full o' pullets (I think that's what you call chickens that are older than chicks but not yet chickens) as a birthday present for one of his best friends down to his farm in SE Kansas for the weekend. They lived in a tent, did 4-wheeling, built fires, lived on canned hash and beer and pepsi and basically were regular manly men doing manly things. At one point, they had to give a horse two big ol' horse-shots of tetanus and horse antibiotics and sedatives. The two men tied up the horse, Jeff held the hind quarters and his friend stuck it with the first needle. The horse bucked, and the needle ended up in Jeff's arm. He called me later that night and sounded pretty loopy. I was freaking out, he said he was ok, his arm muscles were just very sore. I asked which medicine did he get? He didn't really know and wasn't concerned. Freaking men. Once he returned home and doesn't seem to have any big side effects and was still alive, I laughed my ass off at him.

Started swatching some of the knitpicks yarn to make the somewhat cowl. I also ripped out a few starts on projects I was just knitting because. Just because. Probably because everyone else was making them. I sat down and thought, will I actually WEAR this? Do I actually LIKE this? If it was no, frog pile.

Jeff had a 2 hour phone interview on Friday, which sounds pretty promising, we're supposed to hear from the head hunter next week and the chic that would be his boss will come to town to meet him and have the 2nd interview.

Hula Hoop champion OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!

Guess who's the third grade hula-hoop champion of our school? My Elizabeth! She was so proud. How fun is that? They had a competition with each grade and cut to the final 5 for each class. Elizabeth ended up going for AN HOUR. My tummy hurts just thinking of it! Towards the end of the competition, they had to do a bunch of activities while still hooping. She had to jump up and down, stand on one foot, get down onto knees and up again, do the macarena, and a bunch of other fun stuff. Talk about a creative gym teacher getting kids excited about exercise, she's the best! Beth is all excited as her name gets announced "DURING THE ANNOUNCEMENTS, MOM!" and she gets a prize of some sort also.

Jeff (my man) has a phone interview today with a big chemical company to do sales. He'd have to travel 30-50% of the time, but it'd be good money, so I'm crossing my fingers and toes and even a few stitches just to make sure. Have good "HIRE JEFF" thoughts, everyone!

Haven't done much knitting on my purple sweater as too much WORK here. Bossman's on vacation, so I get to hold down the fort. HOLY CRAP I forgot people actually WORK around here sometimes.

Had fun paying almost 40 freaking dollars for the cheap gas last night. Nothing like a $.12 jump in gas in 3 days. nice.

FINALLY!!!! a picture!!!

Can you believe it? An actual photo of a knitted object? I got some SERIOUS knitting done last night and ended up putting it down after the first 2 rows of the v part of the neckline started! woo hoo!

I'm in a beter mood today.

OH guess who's freaking BACK? In his old spot of the ceiling and wall? Yesterday in the midst of a major freak-out-boy-irritating-me-moment, I look up and see a shadow. I say "are you FREAKING KIDDING ME????" The spider Gus is back. Jeff said, "hello Gus!" can you believe it? cripews almighty!

Grrrrrr

Any and all persons over 3 feet tall with a pen1s (spelled funky so the other damn pervs with theirs won't hit my blog and start leaving weird comments) are pissing me off royally today. I'm taking my kids out to dinner at Denny's tonight and God help me if I get a waiter with an attitude. I may just stuff some pancakes up his right nostril, no, I think I'll put waffles up there as they're square and harder than pancakes.

No real reason, just ALL of them are irritating the living hell out of me. I normally am not a man-hater, and I still love the men, just from a DAMN SURE DISTANCE for the rest of the day. I think Jeff got the idea as he offered to take the kids outdoors to play in the front yard. smart boy. He may live to see tomorrow. maybe.

Still knitting away on Soleil, have no pictures as I finally got ready and the damn battery needs charging. grrrrr. that's the way the day's gone. BUT I have suddenly made progress. I'm almost to the end of the 7 sets of 1 increase row followed by 6 knit rows. Should be able to see the underarm shaping soon. woo hoo! I may wear this thing yet! Only problem is I cast on too tightly and the edges are rolling majorly. I'm hoping and praying that I can block it good and stretch the FUXX out of the edges. If not, I'm sure I'll be calm and good natured about the whole thing and not take a power tool to it.

I did have good parts of the day, my cousin's little kids came to play with Joey and me at lunch-time and the little boy told me "I missed you so very much" when he came in with a hug! AWWWWWWW love that! My kids have been pretty good and (I probably shouldn't type this as I don't want to curse myself here) GETTING ALONG really well. scary, no?

happy bunny day!

OK, so the cute as heck picture of the world's cutest bunny bread can't be posted due to a "short maintenance" by Photobucket. Take my word for it, it's damn cute. The Great Harvest Bread Co. has this wheat bread masterpiece baked in the shape of a bunny complete with long ears and round tail and raisins for eyes & nose. SO freaking cute! I think they're around $10/piece. I'm bringing one to Jeff's family Easter celebration and one to my aunt and her older single lady friends who I'm meeting for breakfast at 8am (what was I thinking saying ok to that EIGHT o'CLOCK in the morning on the ONE day I'll not have children or a boyfriend to wake my ass up?--kids going with Dad this weekend for Easter and Jeff's due back in town Sat. afternoon). ANYWAY they're cute. I'm going to bring it on a platter on top of easter grass with jelly beans scattered throughout. It should be sweet until we decide to carve into the thing with a big ol' knife. Mebbe that wouldn't be best in front of the children....hmmmmmm

Here's a link to see a pic, but it's not as cute as mine! Honey Bunny Bread

ANYWAY, I'm off to work some more, plant some flowers I bought at the Home Depot, and do some SHOPPING with Russell & his beau at the Oak Park Mall! They now have SEPHORA! and I think Dillard's is having their monster 75% off sale. Maybe I can find something to WEAR for Easter. I've not dressed up for a LONG time as we Catholics take it pretty easy with jeans, slacks, etc. I'm heading out with the Methodists and Presbyterians, so must wear something Eastery. At some point in the night, I'm sitting my butt down in front of the tv and knitting without interruption too. I promise to take pics of the never-ending soleil in process!

Happy Easter!!!

mystery solved

No, not the spider thing, he's still MIA and I have 2 new bug bites that I'm not sure of the source. We'll see. I survived my first night at Jeff's house without Jeff since he was out of town. Just me & the kids. Have I ever told you guys I'm a total wimp? Jeez I get creeped out easily. Ah well, woke up this am and both kids were still breathing and no hatchet-bearing creatures had broken in, so we're all good. (always remember, to kill a zombie you have to kill its head and don't let them bite you. good to know.)

SO, Jeff and I redesigned and moved crap all over his poor house. We have each of our 2 kids sharing bedrooms and the office is in the top floor of the split level, in a lovely big 4th bedroom. As we were moving stuff up here, we wondered, why oh why don't the kids ever come up here to play? It was a big room, full of toys and just waiting to play until we came along bearing desks and computers and boxes and boxes and boxes of crap. We moved the playroom to the bottom level den/living room thing. Well, MYSTERY SOLVED! The children must have realized that when the temperature outdoors goes up to 78 degrees, the top bedroom retains a general temperature of 428 degrees. I am sitting here with the lights out, the window shades down with windows open and 2 fans blowing directly on me. I have just finished moving my 2 big-ass desks into position and think I'm going to melt. The room isn't even in direct sunlight, but is on the south side of the house. OH FREAKING HELL, I think this is a new level of Dante's Inferno. Going downstairs, it reads a pleasant 75 degrees and I am now living with "nature man" who doesn't "believe" in turning on the air conditioning until mid-July. We'll see. The boy wants some loving, his honey wants the cold air! Don't they make little personal air conditioners at the Sharper Image or something? I may have to go shopping...

Still doing the soleil, some darkish purple color of Classic Elite Yarns "Provence", 100% mercerized egyptian cotton. What does mercerized mean anyway? Anyone know? I only bought 3 skeins from the Yarn Shop & More and am half-way through the 2nd skein and have a LOT of knitting still to go, I may have to run by and grab another one just to make sure. I was thinking of wearing it to Easter (if it fits) but since I've only got enough to cover the belly done and have to get going on the ponchos, probably won't happen. I'm still making gauge, though, so that's something.

random things in my head today

I'm not feeling very writerly today, so here's what's been buzzing about in this head of mine:

**Went to the boob dr for my follow-up appt. I have a few new cysts, but they all seem to be liquid and not masses, so all is well. My dr is such a dry guy and 99% of all humor goes right on by him, but Lordy he is SWEET and GOOD. If, God forbid, something ever goes wrong with these little boobs of mine, he's the one I want in charge. ANYWAY. He was listing the different locations, 4 o'clock, 12 o'clock....on and on, and then he ended with saying "so it makes four on the left and three on the right." and I swear it sounded like he was chanting it. My mind instantly went to "four on the left...three on the right...stand up, sit down, fight fight fight!" and since I am physically unable to just THINK something without it instantly popping out of my mouth, I completed his little chant out loud. Yes, he already thinks I'm retarded as when he had to remove a lump two years ago, they put you on these drugs that make you feel like it's about 4 margaritas into a long night but you're still conscious and it has some kind of amnesia properties to boot. The assisting nurses said they were cracking up at my attempts to convince him to either pump up the existing cysts while he was in there or to go on and pop in a few silicone beauties with humor that went right on by the poor dr. He always just shakes his head and smiles in an odd way when I say something stupid. SO, yeah for me and my healthy yet full o'cyst boobs! woo hoo!

**that chant got me remembering high school football games of long ago. I was a band geek (flute and tuba baby) and we played for a yuppie school with no talent and would get CREAMED by all the tougher schools. Our big "oh yeah" cheer for each time they scored against us was..."that's all right...that's ok...you're gonna work for US someday."

**spider Gus is still MIA. still majorly creeped out and jumping every time something brushes up against me. damn, just got chills again just thinking of him.

**STILL knitting on soleil and I SWEAR it's not getting any longer. I know. I've measured. I got all crazy last night as I was organizing part of the stash for the big move. Each UFO I pulled out I felt I'd better work a few rows/rounds on. Said hello to the French Market bag, panta (yes I totally should have been done with that by now but it's sitting in a bag patiently), traveling ribs scarf, an off-white shrug and even did a few rounds on my daughter's purple purse (I know that's so wrong, but I just couldn't help myself so SHHHHHHHH!) and a few other odds and ends.

**Do they make a pill that makes you keep your big fat mouth shut for at least a 5 second buffer??? You know, like when you have the i-control thing with Time Warner cable. It plays everything a short delay after the normal tv's so you can record it, or freeze it, or even better, REWIND it. That's what I need. Let's just say my big ol' mouth was working overtime today. At least 5 times I did the Homer Simpson "DOH!" and seriously needed a magic remote. Ah well, I guess I do make life more interesting this way.

**I think someone snuck some crack in my diet coke. I was chatting with Beth's girl scout leader and said "sure, I've got those 2 poncho's done that I said I'd make. sure! When were they needed again?" idiot. stupid freaking idiot. NEXT Friday night. sweet. Got um, NOTHING done on them yet. Good thing they're for young girls, as I should be able to crank out something.

Gus is missing....

and not missing in a good way as in "oh, wow, where-ever could he have gone..." while thinking "heh heh heh" in my mind as I secretly concealed the fact that I squished him, NO!!! Missing as in he was just sitting up there on the ceiling/wall crack and had been there for 4 days now so I thought I'd wait until Mr. Jeff left the house for a trip for a few days (TODAY). I go up to the office, glance over to see if he's still there and HE'S FREAKING GONE GONE GONE as in SOMEWHERE IN THIS DAMN OFFICE WITH ME and I don't know WHERE. damn damn damn damn DAMN I really HATE spiders. The thing so much as shows a shadow in here and he's toast.

OK major chills here, as I was typing, my hair flipped against the back of my neck and I freaked out. Swatting at myself and fell off my chair as the rollers don't quite stay on the little rollypad thingy. Sitting on my ass on the ground I realized I need to relax. I am bigger than the creepy crawly thing and it would be stupid to land on me, so relax max. I've still got goosebumps ick ICK ICK

Knitted away on my soleil with the beautiful egyptian cotton purple yarn, wonder if this puppy will fit? I HATE taking things off the needles onto waste yarn to try on, but I guess I'd better. Probably should measure gauge again to see if I'm anywhere near where I'm supposed to be. At least it's pretty. The lacy edge was knitted THREE times and still has two small blips, but I think I'd be the only one to notice so I don't care.

Off to work and to spider hunt. Enough of this nicey nicey woman thing. See where it got me? ick.

meet my officemate

Hello knitbloggers! My name is Gus. I currently reside in that little crack where the wall meets the ceiling in Christine and Jeff's new home office. Jeff is my good friend and named me. I cannot be killed as long as he's around. Christine looks at me with a gleam in her eye and a shoe in her hand. My days are numbered. If I decide to go to the other half of the office, the shoe and I will meet. I have been warned.

Can you freaking believe this? Seriously, this man of mine. He NAMED the spider. I said, "what is that spot up there? Is it dirt or is it a bug?" Jeff said, "It's Gus. He's my friend. You can't kill him." I have let the spider live for now. My new office is officially over here now, for 2 days Gus has stayed on his side of the office. He takes one long leg in my direction, and he's squishmeat. See how humanitarian I can be? or is it spideritarian? ick ick ick. The thing is not even tiny. He's like an inch long from leg to leg.

I made this sweet baby hat and need to post a pic. I've also got the first 2 repeats of the lace bottom edge of soleil and it's looking pretty dang good. I'm not the fan of cotton knitting as I am with wool or merino. It's WORK instead of gliding easily around the circs I'm always having to crank it around by hand every half turn AND it just doesn't feel so smooth and soft on my hands. I know, cry me a river, huh? It's too bad I like to WEAR cotton... I just can't see myself sporting a 100% wool tank top in the humid July KC weather.

Anyway, I'm off. Gus says "hey". Have a great weekend Ya'all!

busy busy busy

Where have I been? Holy crap it's been a long time since I was blogging.

I've been swatching my ASS off thinking of turning piles of these (click to see them in all their loverliness) into soleil in the purplish-blue wound ball of Classic Elite Yarns Provence Egyptian cotton, picovoli in the apricot knit picks shine cotton blend, and somewhat cowl in the lavender knit picks baby alpaca. Can we all say "mmmmmmmmmmmmm"? Can I get a woo hoo for startitis? WOO HOO baby. Yes, I'm still working on my panta and a cool traveling rib scarf that was meant to be worn with it, but peoples, I got me some new yarn.

Did I mention I got myself this?????? Denise Interchangeables? Oh lordy, I may never leave the house again. Unless I run out of chocolate (which I haven't yet, thanks to my cousin!) I never got them before as they cost $50. I ended up with a filled card at the Yarn Shop & More (imagine that!) and faced with the idea of buying two more addi turbo circs at $20 a pop, suddenly they seemed quite affordable. OH MY GOD how did I LIVE without these????? LOVERLY!!!

Weekend update...totally enjoyed the time to myself. Friday night was special for Joey and I as my daughter went to a lock-in with girl scouts and had a blast! I was cracking up at her description of the poor moms locked in with them. Apparently those moms were "kind-a cranky for some reason." Being locked in a church basement with 50 girls under 13, up until 2:30am and back awake at 6:00am.... "kind-a cranky" doesn't sound too bad. I'd have been massively psychotic, so I very smartly declined from volunteering. I'm smarter than I look.

Sat night the kids went to my cousins' house for a sleepover and I hit the town. Had a BLAST!!! and was a lame old woman in bed by midnight. Ah well. The best part of the weekend? ***those of you easily nauseated by excessive lovey-dovey stuff, click away now*** Best part of the weekend without a doubt was when my honey came home. Awwwwww. I know, I know. I'm a strong modern woman but there's just something amazing about being held by a man that loves you.

Jeff had been gone since Thurs with some old friends down to Tablerock MO. We stopped by his house before I took my kids to see Ice Age II (loved it) and he came home, took me in his arms, and held me tight, telling me how much he missed me, how much he loved me and kissed the crap out of me, then just held me. I could hear my kids laughing as they played in the backyard, the sun was shining, a fresh breeze blowing through the kitchen and my heart was full. THEN he offered to go to the grocery store for me when we were at the movie, and I just thought that was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. I just love that Jeff shows his love for me in these simple kind acts he does without even thinking of them. Last weekend, he went out while I was in the shower and drove to the gas station down the road to get me a diet coke to have waiting when I came down to the kitchen. You know, all the crap I put up with in the man department may have just been worth it to make me realize how good life is now.

OK, got to go. Entirely too much warm fuzzy crap for one day. See what happens when I quit blogging? cripes. I'm off to play with my new toys and new yarn.

OH and the amazingly sexy beautiful prarie tank I was making? I CAN do lace, I just can NOT do it when watching a movie. I frogged and reknit and frogged and reknit and decided the damn thing is NOT worth this much effort. I still have some poor deformed thing that resembles a snake coiled around the needles, but it will not be knit by me. nope. not in this lifetime. Hence the startitis.