I need a new project like I need another hole in my head

I CAN'T STAND IT!!! I've just got to start something else. Something NOW. I don't know what, but nothing is speaking to me. Oh, I have projects speaking to me, let me rephrase. Nothing is seducing me. A lot of projects are getting quite pissy and wanting attention, but they're just not getting any action. I gave up on all else and knit on my current mom & daughter chickami project (doing mine first since I need more yarn) and then will be able to have Elizabeth try it on and decide how to do the shaping on hers and how many stitches to subtract, etc. I also still have my first toe-up 2 socks on 2 circs from Chery Knits but they're just not doing it for me either. I'm nearing the point at which I get to start the heel and should be all aflutter, but I'm all a-blah here too. ***OH, it was pointed out to me by Teri that my beginnings of the little toes did not look like knitted vaginas. I very grown-up-idly said "DO TOO!" Teri, "DO NOT! They look like knitted VULVAS." Yup. I stand corrected. I have a few various other projects waiting half-way done as well. I want something new. Ah well.

OH I had the best weekend ever! Friday night was my kids' school's carnival and was actually a lot of fun for the adults as well as the kids. They even had a band of local cops who called themselves "Probable Cause." HAH! They were rockin along. Good food, jumping things, climbing things, good food, mariachi bands, good times.

Saturday since Carmen ditched us for her man, we did our knit-together at my house. There was much petting of yarn, knitting of socks and sweaters, eating of fabulous food out on our screened-in back porch of our little Weasley-ish house of many levels. It worked out perfect because my kids could run and play around the house and the neighborhood and I could sit & knit. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and it just rocked. Seriously my favorite knitting get-together yet. OH and we have to do it again because Jeff got all inspired and now we have PARTY LIGHTS hanging outside. He also washed the lantern hurricanes (apparently I blacked them up when I tried to start the fires. Me and fire are not a good combination) and added 3 more lights for my evening knitting, so I figure party lights are a good reason for a party, right? Johanna, Joanna, Gwen and I knit our asses off all afternoon and into the evening, then they continued the fun with a winding session after leaving my place. Teri even stopped by until her men got back from the Kansas Speedway.

Sunday we went to the Kansas Speedway for the Indy Car race. Someone donated their 4 season tickets to a cf kid family so Joey took us to the races. I've never actually been to a race before. Joey liked it, watched for a few laps and then laid down and went to sleep. Jeff watched, then went and brought back 2 margaritas, 2 hotdogs and 1 pretzel ($40). We brought our own snacks and water bottles or we'd have gone broke. My daughter and I had a blast trying to figure out the whole thing. She kept track of who'd lapped whom and who was in the lead and kept signaling me (we were all wearing earplugs) and just had so much fun. I had such a good time I DIDN'T EVEN KNIT! I'm not figuring on making a habit of the whole race thing, 200 times around a circle is about enough fun for me for a while. I liked that the Target cars were in the lead most of the race, not because of the drivers, just because I happen to love Target.

Tonight I learned that if you double a recipe for lasagne, you'd damn well better double the EGGS in the recipe as well. Yup, I served a lasagne so sloppy it should have been called lasagne soup for my mom's birthday dinner. It tasted great, but pretty much slopped right around the plate. damn. Ah well, everyone had 2nds, so it must not have been too bad. Lasagne, garlic bread, homemade guacamole (yes I KNOW it doesn't go with Italian, but the stuff I made Sat. was so good I had to have MORE tonight), salad, beer, birthday cake and chocolate chip cookies. Just roll me to bed. mmmmmmm

Enough typing, I'm gonna sit here and listen to some Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and KNIT! I'm listening to them all now in order to get ready for the new movie and the new book coming this summer. Yes, I am a dork. You should all know that by now. When does Charmed Knits come out? Sometime in May is all I heard.

Done

Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits
KnitPicks Options circ needles sizes 6 and 9
Yarn: Cascade 220 every inch of 2 skeins to make the smallest size, color heathery grey
I would have rather had another 2-4 inches on the waistline, but used every bit of my yarn. I did get a tiny bit below gauge, but liked the hand of the fabric and didn't want to make the jump to the next needle size, so I knew I'd be pushing it on yarn but had these 2 skeins sitting in the stash patiently waiting to become something.
Started 4/21/07 and ended 4/23/07. Very fast knit. Now it has to get ends woven in and then put into the cedar chest until cold weather comes to KC again this fall.

Various whining and a few cute pics

Ok, the as-short-as-a-rambling-woman-can-make-it version...

Saturday, no yarn crawl for me. Nope. I was ready, all damned dolled up and ready. Wearing cute heels, MERINO sleeveless top, jean capri's and carrying my big ass red leather knitting bag with THREE count them ONE TWO THREE books and two yarn projects to work on in between petting and buying yarn with my girls across Kansas. Not to be. Stupid flat tire, Stupid making it to Firestone only to be told it would take at least four hours to get patched, stupid boyfriend taking kids out to play (ok that part was nice, but still) and not answering his stupid cell phone meant I was WALKING HOME in my stupid heels, jeans capri's and merino wool sleeveless tank carrying a heavy-ass big ol bag. stomping along the road. WHO makes a wool summer top anyway? cripes almighty. I am an idiot. Get home, take shower, call the girls, just start relaxing and then Firestone calls to tell me they HAVE THE DAMN TIRE FIXED. I could have remained there, pleasantly knitting and then be driving my ass to Lawrence to catch the 2nd half of the day, but NO. I've already changed plans, arranged to be at home for when my daughter gets back from her girl scout trip, rrrrrrrrrrr. Get out the bike, ride it to pick up the stupid truck, SCRATCH the paint on Jeff's truck while trying to put the stupid bike into the stupid back of the truck (because I had to fold up one half of our truck cover and not just toss it in back like a normal truck, nope that'd be too easy. GRrrrrrrr

I was so pissed off between that whole episode that I decided to do my own damn yarn crawl right in my own stash. I found a sweater pattern in Fitted Knits, realized that since I now have a skinnier body to pair with the lack of boobiness which means it takes LESS YARN TO KNIT SWEATERS, pulled 2 skeins of grey cascade 220 and went to town. Here's what I've got so far.

I love the 2nd pic, it looks like I'm shooting flames out of my hand while shooting the bird. nice, huh? Wouldn't that be a cool superhero skill? Flipping fire while flipping the bird? Man, I could so use that in daily life.

Sat. evening we went to Jeff's sister's house for her 38th birthday party. We were jamming out to music and grilling burgers, kids having a great time. Here's my daughter swinging in the baby's swing. Doesn't she look like a flower child? 2nd pic is Uncle Jeff slam dunking little Jake with his sister trying to save him. Yes, it's the same boy that was hooked to the dog's chain in our yard last time. Gotta love Uncle Jeff.





Sunday was a flurry of planting, digging, watering, and playing kickball and knitting. Good times.
Yesterday I woke up with a feeling that something wasn't quite right. By 8:30am I couldn't freaking see. Damn migraines. Took an imitrex, went to bed for 45 minutes and when I could see again went to have my mamograms and sonograms done. I get these clusters of cysts in my boobs. Most of them are just monitored to make sure they're not doing weird things, but one has some cloudy goo in there with the regular stuff. It HURTS when you poke it, so my dr. wants to aspirate (poke my boob with a needle) just to see. ick ick ICK. You'd think with these little sacs of goo the girls would get, I don't know, BIGGER don't you? *sigh* saves on yarn. Dr. appt on this Thursday, I do this about 2 times a year just for shits and giggles. I'm very thankful the bumps are all not scary things, but I do get a bit pissy nonetheless. I must have looked pretty pathetic because I had THREE PEOPLE hug me. Not that I'm not loving hugs, but my head hurt too bad and I was too loopy on my meds to explain that I was pitiful because of my head and not worried about the various bumps in my boobs. Ah well. Went home, again started losing vision, half my face went numb including HALF MY TONGUE weird, huh? Took pill #2 later in the day and ended up pretty much floating through the rest of the day and evening. I slept a little but mostly laid there, not even feeling like knitting. How scary is that?

Yesterday Jeff's dad had prostrate surgery to remove some cancerous stuff. They took out his lymph nodes near the prostrate just in case and will do testing on all that stuff. The surgeon said it all looked very good and he is very pleased.

Too much shit going on in too little of a time frame. I'm going to see my Sox and the City Girls tonight for some knitting and to drool over what everyone else bought.

Thanks to everyone for good ideas on how to fix the bloody nipple/leaky boobs sweater. I think I'll either try duplicate stitch or just frog the damn thing because let me tell you, walking home in the sweaty sunny afternoon in the blue version of this same yarn and same sweater was about enough to make me think I was freaking CRAZY to use WOOL for a summer top. Even a spring top or a fall top, I think it was just not meant to be. We'll see. For now it's sitting in the cedar chest until I decide.

I just freaking knit a leaky boob sweater. WTF?

SO, I'm knitting along, LOVING every inch of this fun little funky picovoli made out of some hunters' cap orange-ish twisted sisters hand painted yarn. LOVING it. I don't try it ON as I knit it because I am a lazy knitter. I just made one out of the same damn yarn in dark blues and I was measuring gauge as I went along and holding it up to the other just to make sure. Yup, it does fit. Now, you can't really see it from the pictures, something about the flash and the inside shots just don't do justice to the fuxxedupedness of this sweater. Notice how the whole thing is amazingly cool on the color pooling? except that swath across the little boobies? Yes, I did see it as I knit, but I thought it would accentuate my little girls. Well, it does, it does it with a big nasty dark orange/dried blood color of a spot RIGHT on my nipple. No biggie, right? The sweater's made the same front and back, just turn it around. Sure. Why not? Well, you also can't tell this from the picture because the flash totally took out the colors on the pic, but let me assure you it is QUITE NOTICABLY looking like both my boobs are leaking. There's a funky splotch of darker orange running below both nipples that pretty much look like I'm lactating. nice. SO NOW WHAT? I love my sweater. It was of course knit from the top down, so if I wanted to frog it back, I'd have to do a lot of damn frogging. Yes, I know it's another reason to not skimp on the steps and try on my damn sweaters as I go. cripes almighty. leaky boobs or a bloody nipple? It's so hard to be fashionable when you're lazy. DAMN DAMN DAMN I haven't woven ends in yet (remember the lazy part?) because I may or may not decide to rip out the damn thing. DAMN DAMN DAMN

Yes, I know that when knitting with hand painted yarns you should ideally switch back and forth from one ball to the next to avoid color catastrophies. I know that. Did I mention that I'm a lazy knitter? That just sounds like a headache to me. I also know that you should try on your damn sweaters as you knit them just to make sure they fit and that you like the way they look. I know it. I know it. I know it. The scary thing is that I'll probably just wear it anyway.

I may or may not be getting to go on our local guild's all day yarn crawl. Cross your fingers for me. If I get to go, I'm leaving home around 9am and not coming home until 5pm! It all depends on Jeff's schedule and if he's wanting to run my kids around to their crap AND his kids to their crap and then be the only adult with the four loud loud loud children. I did just finish a pair of socks for the man and made a great lasagne dinner with leftovers in the fridge, so signs are looking good. I'll know tonight. If so, I'm gonna have a BALL!

Also, THANK YOU to the local Tues. night knitters that came out in force for my Tastefully Simple party the other night! WOO HOO! It was a blast and it was also VERY GRATIFYING to get to show Jeff's sister and cousin that I am not the only strange obsessed knitter in the world. SEE? I'm NORMAL. Ok, not normal, I mean see the pics above for that, but NOT AS CRAZY as his family thinks I am. Thanks ladies, you rock, but of course you already know that, right? YOU ROCK!

My very own little yarn crawl

OH I had such a good time, I feel like I just finished a nice long weekend. We headed to McPherson, hung out for a while in the nice spring air in the backyard drinking a few coronas with fresh limes. nice. Sun was shining, light breeze blowing, beautiful day. We drove to Hutchinson, KS to the airport there. They've got a cool little steakhouse and you can sit eating dinner watching the little planes land and takeoff from the window. Great evening. Since everyone (except me bwa ha ha haaaaa) had to work early the next morning, no tearing up of the town was done. *sigh* It was a great night. Snuggling in the motel bed later that night Jeff told me I am really a laid back fun girl when I'm not surrounded by the stress of children constantly. I said "huh, how about that." Now we're going to try to take these little mini holidays every few months just the two of us enjoying each other's company. OK, enough mushy crap. WANNA SEE MY YARN?

I visited an aunt there in McPherson and it was supposed to be a quick 15 minute stopover, but it was such fun that I didn't hit the road until over an hour and a half later than I planned. I had to be back in KC in time to pick up the kids from school, so there was some SERIOUS speeding and watching for state police traps enacted to make sure I got to my shops.

First stop was Lindsborg, KS, a very cute little sweedish settled town with a downtown that really should be studied over a couple of days. Did it in about 15 minutes, including a stop inside a local artists' gallery and a coffee shop. At the end of the main drag, the road runs into this lovely farm with a big ol' house and gardens and trees and this lovely little outbuilding that was once a garage and is now Laura May's Cottage. Very cute. How cool would that be to have your very own yarn shop in your YARD? too cool. I almost bought some bamboo cotton stretchy yarn for socks but then came quickly to my senses. no. I'm a wool sock girl. period. I did buy the new Monica Ferris book, Sins and Needles and 6 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool for no good reason at all other than I must have picked it up 4 times and I figured why not. The book cracks me up. They need to start setting the first of these little knitter/crafter mystery series in BIG CITIES. All these cute little knitting shop owners that live in small towns and have books and books of murders are gonna run out of people pretty damn soon to kill off. Ah well. I like them even though there's not usually a whole lot of plot. I was hoping for some local handspun or hand dyed stuff and she really just had a great selection of the usual goodies.

Tooling down the road, headed up to Salina, KS. My time schedule gave me exactly 26 minutes to shop and hit the road. I spend about 48 minutes and ended up actually taking flight to get home in time. Salina, KS to OP, KS in 2 hours and 6 minutes. It was a miracle. A knitter's miracle. Otherwise it would have been "oh, sorry Joey and Lizzie, please don't cry. Your momma didn't really leave you sitting on the sidewalk in front of the school so she could buy more yarn crack, really." There were A LOT of state police and sherrifs on the road so the yarn goddesses were doing their part.

I really REALLY liked the store in Salina, Yarns...sold and told If you find yourself heading across Kansas on I-70, it's worth the 6 mile trip south to stop in. The ladies were fun, I jumped right in on the oohing and aaahing and giggles going on with the local knitters' projects, comfy couches to sit & knit on and they have GOOD SOCK YARN! Can I get a woo hoo? WOO HOO! No lorna's laces or koigu, but a TON of opal and IT WAS ON SALE. It was not only on sale, it was the older stuff still at the older prices AND on sale. I got a skein of the stuff for 30% off of $15. How cool is that? They didn't have much of the multicolored or patterning stuff left, but a whole laundry basket full of solid colors, oranges, yellows, blues, and brick reds. I had to hold myself back since I'd already spent more than I was supposed to at the previous shop. They had a nice selection of Trekking XXL and cotton stuff and a few other sockyarns to boot. I also picked up a skein of Schafer yarn's esperanza (the bigger one) in Gertrude Ederle colorway and a Miss Priss in Indira Ghandi colorway to make some felted bags. I also picked up the new Interweave Crochet magazine and forced myself to put down the knitting books. They also had a TON of cascade 200 and just a great selection of all kinds of goodies. The shop is right downtown near a great Italian restaurant, it would make a nice stop on your trip.

I'm entirely too excited to be getting out of town.

No children. New yarn shop. My honey. Heading out to eat and gonna tear up the town. One of Jeff's clients ended up being a boyfriend of one of my wilder more fun cousins! We're hitting the town tonight! What could be better? Only if the road trip included me RIDING along so I could knit along the way. We're heading to McPherson, Kansas, which happens to be not far from Salina, KS and Yarns...sold and told. There's also a shop called Yarn Yard 2 in McPherson or Hutch, I can't seem to get the right phone number. I might just go and get the phone book when I get there.

We're heading out today, I'm coming back tomorrow and Jeff's taking off across Kansas for some other sales stuff.

Not much of any interest going on here people, sorry. Oh, I did have one thing that cracked me up from Easter Sunday. Jeff's boys are being raised half Jewish and half Christian. Their mom only recently started the Jewish training, so they've pretty much grown up with both Christmas trees and dreidels and the like. I got the easter baskets out and the Easter Bunny filled them with goodies for all four kids (his & mine). After the kids found theirs, David (Jeff's oldest) didn't seem very excited. Jeff said to bring him the basket so he could munch some of the boy's candy. David said "um, dad, there wasn't candy in it." I said "are you sure? Did you look in the grass and everything?" David said "no, there was just a box of yellow heads." YELLOW HEADS. After some snorting on my part, I explained that the yellow heads were in fact PEEPS. Yellow marshmallow chics covered in sugar. And the candy was below the box of yellow heads. I laughed until I almost cried. They'd had Easter Baskets every year, so it wasn't the whole "crazy gentiles" thing, they'd just never had Peeps. The poor boy couldn't figure out why the Easter Bunny had given him chicken heads. *snort*

I did actually finish Jeff's lastest pair of green boring socks. I was thinking about that whole 52 pair of socks in 52 weeks thing that's going around blogland. While a very good idea, a STRETCH for me would be ONE pair of socks per month. I'm doing my very own Christine's making a pair of socks a month thing. Pair #1 was done on April 15th. Hopefully pair #2 will be my toe up koigu things on the needles right now. I'm just being tempted to finish up my tank tops on the needles first.

Peace out people and LOOK OUT MCPHERSON, I'm THIRSTY and I'm fired up for a wild night. Then yarn shopping tomorrow morning before heading out of town. What could be better?

OH I totally forgot, Guess what I did this weekend? Ran the Lawrence 5K race with my cousin Kelly and Elinor! Ok, I walked and jogged. Elinor and Kelly jogged next to me during the whole thing. IT WAS SO GREAT to have done this! My cousin and I have decided we both need motivation to keep moving and not turning into slugs, so we're gonna do one race a month! WOO HOO! If you're in the KC/Lawrence/Topeka area, give a holler and come along. We do NOT go too fast, so even walkers wanting to get started, come along! (we always pick the races with the good food afterwards!) Thanks Elinor for inviting me out! It was fun, it really was.

Goodbye Millie!

First of all I must state that I am totally an animal lover. I do love animals. I love this one. But sweet mother of moses, has it really only been 6 days since this pooping and chewing machine with bedroom eyes joined our family? I had my doubts that this farmdog could handle life in the city. Ok, the suburbs. I was not a happy camper that Jeff just brought her home without thinking of the consequences. After a moderate freakout session, and being loved by this beautiful creature, I resolved to try. very hard. very very hard. Holy shit, is our house even still standing? It must be being held up by stilts.

She's about 6 months old or so the vet said. She's got her shots, de-wormed, de-earmited, bathed and de-ticked, thank God it was too cold for fleas. She won't go to the bathroom OUTSIDE. No, she saves it all up for INSIDE. I even tried taking some carpet remnants OUTSIDE for her thinking maybe her rear end likes the feel of the carpet. nope. SO, 6 days times at least 2 poos a day and pees. She also chews and eats. A lot. Not always food things. She HAS chew toys, rawhide bones, you name it, she's got it. Oh, she chews those too, just also things like a box of matches that were on a high shelf (I swear she must have FLOWN THROUGH THE FREAKING AIR to get them down), easter baskets (thank GOD I'd already gotten the candy out of them), furniture, shoes, a new disc for my computer (left on top of my dresser in my bedroom and the door got left open for 5 freaking mintues all day and then I heard the CRUNCH), walls, carpet, toys, an entire box of doggie treats AND MOST OF THE BOX apparently not on a high enough shelf since the dog can fly, plastic bottles, you get the point. OH, the best one was Jeff's little extra hard-drive that you plug in to the computer. I'm not sure when she snuck that off the desk but I found her just getting started, so it may be saved.

What's that? Why didn't we keep her OUTDOORS more? Well, she also pushes through fences, can fit under them in spaces you swear a baby rabbit couldn't fit through. We staked down the entire fence. Then she just dug through them and used her teeth to pull them out until she could again be free. Rebar stakes through the fence just made her decide to climb over the fence. She can't jump over yet, she climbs and then just about hangs herself on her collar which gives me a total heart attack. She doesn't run to run away, she just wants to roam around and then comes back and sits patiently on the other side of the fence wagging her tail like "dude, wasn't that cool?" and can't figure out how to get back IN to the yard. We live near a slightly busy road and it gives me more heart attacks and neighbors have pulled her out of the street, called me saying "oh, we have Millie in our back yard." Then we go to pick her up and huh, she's not in their back yard EITHER but trotting down the street happy as a lark. She gets out within MINUTES. I mean you can sit there with her and watch her and then poof she's gone. Jeff finally realized we can't teach her to be a city dog, it's just not gonna happen. Not. Gonna. Happen.

We did find a guy down the road from Jeff's friend in the country near where she was dumped who said he'd take her as a farm dog. Thank Heaven. Now I'm just waiting for him to come and pick her up. The decision's made. Now I just have to clean up the poo until he gets here. I can't leave her in the back yard because then she'd be GONE when he came and he's not coming by again, this is a one chance only kind of a thing. Jeff said to leave her in the garage until then, but then she chews up the kids' bikes and boots and I'm afraid she'd get into some kind of chemicals stuff. I've got her mostly barricaded in ONE ROOM and Miles is hanging out with her so she seems happy.

My kitchen floor is covered with big ass muddy pawprints, my basement playroom smells like warmed up death and candles and febreeze and our house looks like a shambles. I'm going to be cleaning until the end of time to get this place back to looking like a home and not a giant chewtoy/toilet. Most of the toilet business was in our basement playroom so I'll be doing some carpet shampooing and a lot of cloroxing and airing out.

She really is the sweetest thing, when she's not chewing or pooping or climbing over fences. I feel like such a horrible person, but at least she has a home with LAND LAND LAND to run on and enjoy and there's kids there too. I just think on my skills list the whole "dog rescuer" box is not checked. Goodbye Millie.

I have knit almost NOTHING due to basically running around after this damned dog. I'm gonna clean and then knit. Knit like the wind.

Furry Balls and Knitted Vaginas

I blame Chery. Here I am innocently knitting my cuff down socks one at a time, behaving myself mostly and WHAM. I'm totally floored that I am LOVING this 2 socks on 2 circs stuff. Unreal. cool, fast, and entirely too much fun to play with along the way. Come on, you other toe-uppers know you've done this too, fess up. After the first little pouchy-looking toes appear, they look like a very little bikini top. Being a very little busted woman, I HAD TO hold them up on my chest and model for the Tues. night knitters who promptly rolled their eyes at me. A few more rows and they began to resemble teddy bear ears, so again a modeling pose brought groans WITH the rolled eyes. I was informed that I needed to get out more. yes, I probably do. It's a good thing I wasn't this far along on the socks at the coffee shop. After knitting away all evening, they began to resemble, um, well, knitted vaginas. 2 knitted vaginas right there on my needles.

I must explain that I've been seeing too many cartoony versions of vaginas, uteruses (how do you not say that word and not make it rhyme with hippopotamussessess like on the Christmas song?) and fallopian tubes. Yes, my little girl is studying "health and development" at school and I thought it'd be a good time to explain all the joys of womanhood. I'm trying to have that great you can talk to me about anything relationship with my daughter and figured I'd better learn how the stuff ACTUALLY WORKS to give her a little smoother transition into womanhood. Mom was a 4th grade teacher in a Roman Catholic school and had charts and films and books and POSTERS out the ass. I learned by being sat down with her class (I was a public school kid). I didn't figure it out until much later and then went "ooooooooooohhhhhh THAT'S how that stuff got into there." I asked Beth what she'd learned so far, and her take on the whole thing was pretty much how I started out, mostly confused and utterly bummed about getting stuck with periods and cramps and "Mom, did you know that it HURTS to have a baby?" yeah. knew that one. I asked her if the nurse explained how the little wiggly sperm got into the egg in the first place (thinking cool, my job is already done for me) and she said the nurse said to ask their moms or another grown up woman to explain that part. SO enter some books. We did find a good one for the whole here-comes-puberty-now-what-the-hell-do-I-do situations at Target called The Care and Keeping of You. I highly recommend it.

ANYWAY I normally don't see female genitalia in my knitting, I just looked down at my needles and poof there they were. See, top down socks just aren't as much fun.



I've unloaded an obscene amount of needles and yarn on the destash blog. I've been behaving myself and not buying much in return. I've just realized my stash doesn't resemble the knitter I am now. I need NEW and IMPROVED stash. So far people have bought almost EVERYTHING I've sold on there. in minutes. It's freaky actually. I sold a bag of noro odds and ends thinking it'd sit a while since I think only 1 or 2 of the skeins was complete and before I even got the notice that it posted on the blog I'd already had 2 emails wanting it. freaky. I did another big haul and realized I have a few more odds and ends, but the thing that was taking up a big part of the room was all those hairy furry balls of partial skeins from "the furry stage." Boy howdy, did I knit furry shit when I started. Knit the SHIT out of it. If I knit it, it had to have at least a little furry trim somewhere. I did make some really cute felted bags and such but I just got so now I can't stand to knit with it, heck I can't even stand to look at it taking up room that could possibly be filled with SOCK YARN or MALABRIGO or other lusciousness. So, my bag o' furry balls is up for sale. Wish me luck unloading.

I couldn't help myself, I HAD to have this Elsebeth Lavold silky wool in a buttery sunflowery color I saw on destash. I've no idea what to knit with it but hopefully now there'll be some room in the cedar chest for it.

Remember sweet, pretty Millie our new dog? Let's just say that the next time Jeff rescues a dumped farm dog, we'd better have a damn FARM to put it on. The kids call her Millie, Jeff calls her pretty girl, I call her "that DAMNED dog." Enough said.

Introductions

OK, first pic is Miles, our dog we've had for a couple of years now. We love Miles, he's quite possibly the sweetest thing on the planet. AND he's a total nanny dog. If they kids are wrestling/fighting or even just doing something they shouldn't be, he starts barking at them, runs to me, barks his "the kids are in trouble" bark (much like Lassie's Timmy's-in-the-well bark) and they're totally busted. I love that. A tattletale-nanny dog. who cuddles. And doesn't eat trash, dig, get out of the yard, run away, chew anything he's not supposed to, smell or other doggy things.

2nd pic is Millie. Meet Millie. It's a good damn thing that Millie is cute and has a gentle soul. Otherwise my foot would be deep into that dog's backside. No, I don't actually kick dogs. Really I don't. I do have a seriously scary "NO, DOWN GIRL" voice that makes children and animals cringe in fear. It's a gift.

Millie came home with Jeff from the farm. I about put my foot up Jeff's back end as well as he thought this was a great surprise for me and the kids. Millie came to us thanks to some dumbass that had abused her (she just cringes down whenever a harsh word is spoken or anyone moves too quickly, poor thing) and then dumped her out by Jeff's friend's land. Another farmer drove her out and tried to dump her again, but she came back. She rode home with Jeff, bringing 38 ticks (that we've found so far), ear mites, worms in her poo, yes, I actually saw them wiggling there, a BIG ASS hunger, big paws and loose skin that looks like she'll get even bigger, no ability to go OUTSIDE and likes pooing and peeing INSIDE on the few minutes she's in the damn house, going under and over fences, chewing lots of things she shouldn't and being sweet as heck. Damn she's sweet. And cute. Seriously, a good thing or she'd be finding another home.

I tried to take her for a walk and she went trotting right along until the end of the driveway where she sat down. Wasn't.going.to.move.one.damn.inch.further. I'm sure she thought I was going to take her out and dump her too. Took Miles instead, showed her that we both came back home so we'll see how the next time goes. Since she came home over the weekend, we didn't have her to a vet yet (she goes this afternoon) or any tags. We got a collar, sharpie wrote on some duct tape our phone # and her new name. We went to Easter Sunday at Jeff's aunt's house and got a call that she was in someone else's back yard. Went to pick her up, Jeff's chatting with the lady about how sweet she is, yes, yes, and how she's in her back yard, when here trots Millie down the street towards us, apparently not wanting to hang out in her back yard either.

I hope she stays with us, I'm just not sure how well a dog that's used to roaming outdoors over acres will handle a little back yard. We'll see,

No pretty pics of the ty-dy matching chickami tops to post yet. Not that I didn't work on them, oh, no. First attempt I got about 5 inches into the damn thing, thinking, huh. This sure does seem bigger than the last one. yes, I'm using more of a worsted weight cotton yarn instead of my sport-weight cotton/silk blend, but I've got gauge. OH dumbass moment. I realized I actually had decided on A SMALLER GAUGE for the last one I knit. crap. frogged it. Wasn't smart enough to stop frogging after the sz 3 ribbing since that would have used the same damn needles. frogged the whole thing. Start #2 got going fine, I set it down a few times in the middle of the first row, picked it up off the floor where a dog must have knocked it down, it seemed twisted, so I untwisted it and kept right along. Anyone got this one? Yup, I'd twisted it my own damn self on the join and proceeded to do 1x1 ribbing for 7 rows before realizing, hey dumbass, you TWISTED THE JOIN. damn damn damn. Start #3 cast on, made sure to join properly, 4 rows into it, went to do something, came back and it was GONE. It's a good damn thing that dog is cute and sweet, because she HAD MY KNITTING IN HER DAMN MOUTH, CHEWING ON IT! OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's also a good thing it was cotton. NO damn dog chews on my wool, baby. I had a chat with Millie about how she will NOT TOUCH MOMMA'S KNITTING. Miles is looking at her like "are you CRAZY dog?" By now the frogged yarn was so kinked and curly it was pathetic. I can't cut it off because I think I'll need every damn bit of yarn to get both sweaters made, so I decided that ball was "the cursed one" (said curse-ED one with dark horror music playing in the background) and put it away into the drawer after gently rinsing the dog spittle out of it and letting it air dry. NOW start #4 on the new ball is proceeding well and I think I've finally learned NOT to leave the knitting on the couch or anywhere in dog reach. Wish me luck.

new needles

Oh my oh my I'm having fun with my new knitpicks interchangeable set of needles. But. I have a complaint. I know, it's amazing to think that I could complain about anything, now isn't it? You can't hook additional cords onto your existing ones so you can try on your knitted sweater in progress. I went back to the website and saw that, oh, duh, you have to BUY longer cables. Well, that sucks. I love that about my denise's, that I can just hook on more and go bigger and bigger. It's not really a problem, but it is an irritation. Now I have to place ANOTHER order and wait for it to get here. Anyway, I'm gauging my new ty-dy coton yarn for the mother/daughter chickami's. Here's a pic, but it doesn't capture the colors. There's all these blues and greens and even purples in there, kind of like Monet's water lillies painting all wound up in soft yarn. yes, SOFT cotton, who'd of thunk it.

OK, did anyone notice who stopped by the comment box yesterday? Bonne Marie herself, chickami's creator. I'm such a dork. I got all excited. Seriously, I love her patterns. They FIT they WORK and they are flattering and they're not riddled with mistakes. I have yet to hit one and that's a true knitter. I know editors and the printing system is to blame for most of the errors out there, but I always have much respect for a knitting designer who goes back and checks and then posts errors. I think that's why I'm such a fan of Bonne Marie, Grumperina, Glampyre and Wendy Barnard. Plus the whole knit circularly with minimal finishing is always good.

OK, enough knitting stuff. Anyone else have funky weird stuff happen yesterday? I think someone's planets are misaligned or something. I started the day by being cut off by a Barbie driving a big ol' pickup truck. I'm not bagging on blonds here, the chic seriously looked like a freaking barbie doll but without the pleasant vacant smile. Nope, my barbie had a foul mouth on her, whoooooo boy. I often do deserve a flip off or something for speeding or maybe not paying 100% attention, but I was just driving down the damn road. She whips in, I hit the brakes, then she whips around me and cuts off another person. At the next light, she rolls down her window and starts mouthing off at me. And flips the bird. I start laughing. WTF? seriously, you're flipping me off? I blow her a kiss and smile. Yeah. That kind of did it. It's a good thing I had to get on the highway or I'd have probably gotten beaten with a tire iron by a blond bitch with attitude.

Later I go to the grocery store. Weird things happen to me at the store. I was standing at the cheese area, trying to find Jeff's exact favorite kind of presliced american cheese (the boy is picky about his damn cheese). I was not paying much attention, suddenly this older lady HUGS ME. HARD. Then stands back, pats me on the head and said, "now, don't you feel better?" And I said "um, yes, I think I do. Thank you." She said "You just looked like you needed it. Always remember life isn't that big of a deal." Then she walked away. I was stunned. amazed. She was right, life isn't that big of a deal. I will remember that. I got my cheese and milk and peanut butter and headed to pay. I passed the deli counter and saw the same lady hugging some young man and saying the same thing. Then her daughter came running up, apologizing to the guy. She was freaking out, "mom, stop that." and on and on. The guy laughed at her. At first I felt like this amazing thing wasn't an amazing thing, that it was just some old lady with dementia and hugging issues. But then I realized, probably everyone DOES need a damn hug and needs to remember that life isn't that big of a deal.

I bought an extra few packs of gum and spent part of the evening teaching my kids to blow bubbles. Joey never quite got it and chewed up gum went splattering around our house, but you know what, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Because one can never have too many purple tank tops...

Pattern: Chickami Tank
Yarn: Frogtree cotton & silk blend, maybe 3 1/2 balls total, probably closer to 3 balls, but I didn't want to have to weave in any additional ends, so started new ball before I really needed to when I cast on for the top front.

I'm now going to make this in a MATCHING tye die cotton yarn for both my girl and me with some new yarn I just picked up at KnitWits in Olathe. My daughter still thinks it's cool to look like her mom, so I'm milking that as much as humanly possible. I'm gonna measure her chest & tummy and make some calculations and make her and I each chickami tops THAT MATCH. Can you stand the sweetness? I'm dripping with it.

My son Joey starts a children's drawing class after school today and is so excited. He gets a little sketchpad and a pencil and will also get to work with charcoal and other artsy stuff. It's funny, I always wanted to be able to sing and to draw. I can't do either for shit and both my kids were talented at this.

Anyone notice those buff arm muscles? HOLY CRAP I impress myself now. WOO baby. Still working on the thighs, but the arms are prettier, so they get kept in the pictures. :)

I heart my new macbook. I took my introductory little welcome to apple class and LOVE LOVE LOVE this thing. This post is officially brought you you by Christine's new toy. I cracked up because part of the class was how to set up other accounts on the laptop and I said "no one gets to touch this but momma." The cutesy little chic teaching me said, "just in case, don't you want to see how to set up something for your kids or your husband?" I said "no one touches this but momma." end of story. momma don't share her toys.

brew to brew 2007 survivor

SO, it really wasn't that big of a deal. Funny how different things were this time around. First of all, NEVER run the first leg. It's freaking EARLY (you start between 6am and 6:30am) it's freaking COLD and there's a lot of turns (hence the 2005 episode of getting lost and creepy hobo guys near the river). The first pic above is the before. Guy on the left is an engineer my brother used to work with here in town. The guy in the middle is my brother and I'm on the right. I'm so freaking glad he and his wife are back in KC and can hang out with us now! Will ran freakishly fast on his leg and I barely got out of the damn port-a-potty (still drinking my gallon o' water daily plus a few energy drinks meant I visited the portapotties on each stop). I hear "holy crap, it's Will already" and say "damn, shit, motherfucker" and some other lovely things. Almost fall over taking off my pants, throw my coat & sweatshirt to another teammate, grab my ipod and strap it onto my arm and take off running after smacking Will's hand. My shorts weren't even tied and I almost fell over trying to tie them and turn on my tunes at the same time. damn I'm graceful. I head off up the gravel road hill to the horizon and turn where I proceed to jog my ass off up up up hills in the strongest wind I've ever been a part of. I was doing pretty well, barely even walking. I come to the top of what I swear was the 22nd hill, see all these cars parked there. I think, hey, this is it baby and turn on the gas. I sprint for all I've got. burn baby burn, looking good, not hearing any applausing or woo-hoo-ing. Then I see it's just some farmer having a damn party. NOT the end of my race. Nope, I've got another freaking mile left. damn.

The half-nekkid pic of me is at the actual end of the race, slapping hands with our last runner. I was told later that my first words were, "hills (pant pant pant) wind (pant pant pant) fuck (pant pant pant)". It became a mantra. I was handed a cup of gatorade and an energy beer. Yes, an energy beer. Apparently Budweiser makes this beer with caffeine, various energy root extracts and fruity tastes. You'd think I'd love it, no? ick. Not for me. Of course I'm a frugal woman not in favor of wasting beers no matter the source, so I sucked it down. Take one for the team. That's me.

The brew to brew run is the BEST! Great volunteers, BEER at the end and great food, 10 legs of the 44 miler. Some people ran the whole damn thing. There was this lady that did it and finished at the same time as our 9 runners all together. That's a marathon PLUS! Insane. Plus the money raised went to benefit Cystic Fibrosis to help research for my Joey and the others out there fighting this disease.

I was so very proud of myself for getting out there. Maybe (I'm typing very quietly here) I could actually BE a runner. I know it's a scary thought. Ok, scary to me. I'm all pumped up about my 5K I'm gonna run in Lawrence on April 15th. If you're in the area and want to come out and jog (I'm not a runner yet, I'm a jog/walker for now) holler at me. I'm hoping to meet up with Elinor and head to the yarn barn in Lawrence afterwards. (She's on a yarn diet, so that may not be a nice place to meet up. Maybe we'll find a spot to sit and knit a bit and admire her beautiful daughter in person.)

I did get some uninterrupted knitting done and have about 4 inches started on my new picovoli in a wild bright handpainted orange medly from twisted sisters. I thought about picot edging on this one, but laziness won again. ah well. maybe I'll crochet an edge on afterwards.