My sweater's back!

Picture time! I had left my somewhat cowl over at Jeff's cousin's house on the other side of town and I have been without it for about 2 weeks now, just when it was getting good. I'm cranking away. Isn't it funny how at the beginning of a sweater, it seems to take FOREVER and then all of a sudden it goes into lightning speed? Anyway, here's proof that I do ACTUALLY sometimes put the stitches onto waste yarn and try the damn thing on. The only thing I hate more than taking stitches off the needles onto waste thread is a sweater that doesn't fit. I have finally learned my lesson. The picture is a small cut as I had a REALLY bad hair & face day yesterday as the fan went out on my air conditioner and it was in the upper 90's with about 90% humidity. Not good. Isn't that just the prettiest little seam? I'm still always amazed how that turns out. Yes, the neckline is looking a TAD BIT low, but it's supposed to be as the sorta-cowl thing on the neck pulls it all in. No worries. It's in the yummiest softest baby alpaca from knitpicks. LOVE that stuff!

Any resmeblence this picture may show to the Huck Shawl in the Merino Farms book is just a coincidence. I would not have started yet another shawl. No, that would not have made any sense whatsoever. Isn't it pretty yarn though? It's laceweight merino hand-dyed by a lady in our sunflower kntiters' guild.

And because heaven knows this is never a strictly knitting-only blog, here's some gratuitous family shots.



The welcome sign was waiting for us back at home, courtesy of Jeff and his two boys. Very sweet!

We got our Elizabeth back!

Well, the five weeks seemed to last forever! My daughter goes with her dad for the summer and it sure gets quiet around here with just Joey. We went to Salina, KS for a cousin's wedding and partied down at the Salina country club and the Holidome. Much swimming, drinking, dancing, ping-ponging, poker playing and eating was had by all. Good times, those family weddings. I am so lucky that I LOVE my family and all its parts!

Jim brought Elizabeth back Friday night to the holiday inn and we were VERY HAPPY! Then he opened his trunk and this stench of rotting fishparts hit us like a mack truck. I am NOT exaggerating here when I say ACTUAL BUGS flew out of the trunk. I don't know if I mentioned that the ex took my daughter and a new woman "friend" to Corpus Christi and South Padre Island about two weeks ago. Well, they picked up a huge ziplock bag of shells there. two weeks ago. Some of those shells still had critters living in them. two weeks ago. The "washed them off" aka rinsed once in gulf water. two weeks ago. Well, apparently those critters died and were rotting for two weeks in this same freaking bag. TWO WEEKS. I'm telling you, it was this HORRIBLE stench that you couldn't even be within 6 feet of this bag. THANK GAWD I brought my daughter an extra dress for the wedding and a change of clothes as I had to throw out the tote bag she brought her clothes back in as it reeked. I got a few trash bags and put everything inside to be washed and disinfected at home. cripes almighty.

I tried, I really REALLY tried to get those shells cleaned up. I went out and bought a cheapo foam cooler and a buncha bleach and had them soaking for two days and they STILL smelled horrendous. "We" decided to take a picture of the shells and throw them down the drain. OH it was bad. Funny part was it was a NEW CAR he stuck this stuff into.

My daughter and I wore our matching koigu foulard shawls at the wedding, it was absolutely cute. I probably won't get away with stuff like that much longer as she's so PRETEEN now. I'll make sure to upload a few pics in the next day or so.

I got a lot done on yet another shawl, (startitis strikes again) this one is EASY and I am using up some stash hand-dyed yarn, so it's not as bad as buying new yarn and then starting another shawl. really. it's not. I didn't bring my silk complicated lace shawl along as I knew I wouldn't get any untinterupted time to knit on it and I'd just end up frogging and getting all pissy.

I got my somewhat cowl back from Jeff's cousin's house where it's been stranded for TWO WEEKS. I cranked along on the bottom waist ribbing and have 1 of the 3 inches needed done now. I'm feeling much more soothed working on it and think this may have been part of my insatiable startitis lately. We'll see. The thing still needs the neckline and sleeves done, it's yummy.

the clap strikes again

WELL, after about 6 different attempts to find the perfect shawl for my best friend, I FINALLY figured it out. What is the most amazing, my most favoritest thing that I've ever made that wraps me in lusciousness and just happens to be the exact shape and weight and design that my friend needs? YES it's the clapotis! Also one of my favorite things TO knit, it's the perfect shawl! Now I've got to find the yarn and I'm gonna get going! I'm entirely too excited by this discovery! I feel all misty like I'm visiting an old friend. Making an old friend for a new friend....damn I shouldn't be allowed to write anything before 8am. It's not a good thing.

ANOTHER thing that's got me all aflutter is EVERYONE'S got their new issues out NOW! KNITTY has its new Summer issue out and have you SEEN the cute little glovelets on the cover? OH baby I'm gonna be making them! Crochet Me has its summer issue out and have you seen the cute t-shirt on their cover? Very cool! I don't think I'll be jumping in yet on that crocheting string thing, but I am loving the idea of modifying a tshirt with crocheted edges like that. AND MagKnits has its July issue up as well. Go out and wander, inspire yourself!

Shawlitis part 2

SO, great 4th weekend was had by all! We spent part of the weekend with mom & dad & my brother Will & his wife Raegan from Florida and the other part with Jeff & his boys and just had a GREAT time! I continued in my shawl startitis addiction and knitted my ass off. Almost finished my 2nd foulard out of the blue koigu (the big one in the pic) until I ran out of yarn, have one half ball left here at home and should have it done within a few days! woo hoo! I decided the first one was too small for my best friend Jildo and she wanted more of a rectangular thing anyway, so I am going to have matching shawls for my daughter and I....all together now, AAAAWWWWWWWWW! sweet sweet sweet.

The blue & green & purple thing was supposed to be a lovely start on Jildo's shawl, the Wave & Shell shawl, but due to a not so great yarn choice (needs to be something lacier or ribbony or something) it now looks like part of one of my grandma's old afghans, not quite the look I was going for, so it'll be frogged soon. I had run out of knitting things, so I just kept on going fully knowing I'd be frogging it. How sad is that? It was actually quite pleasant to be knitting as we were bobbing along on the pontoon boat with Jeff & the boys all fishing and the cool breeze and sunset. Ah well.

Anyone notice the little TINY orange thing is a bit, um, SMALLER than the last time it was photographed? Anyone want to ask me how many times that damn shawl has been started, achieved at least 30+ rows and then frogged when it was too knotted up to be unknit stitch by stitch? Go ahead and ask me. GO AHEAD AND ASK ME!!!!! SIX TIMES. 1--2--3--4--5--SIX times. I think on the final time I finally learned something. This is NOT a pattern to do around children. or boyfriends. or neighbors. or FIREWORKS. I thought I really had it on the 5th time, and one got stuck in the metal rigged-up launching thing that Jeff created as a teenager and went BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM! In the middle of which I grabbed two small boys and my bag o' knitted lace and took off for the safety of the cabin. I didn't choose the bag over the 3rd boy, he'd already high-tailed down the hill and dove into the boat for cover. (I'm not THAT bad. I'm sure I would have grabbed him AND the knitting should I have needed to.) I did leave the boyfriend causing the ruckus to fend for himself. Anyway, I think this time I will make it. I need to only knit it when I'm totally by myself listening to bad tv or maybe a book on cd. Yeah, that'd be good. Then I can count out loud and not be interrupted.

Got to get back to work, I was supposed to be doing that HOURS ago...gotta run!

I think I'm turning into a shawlaholic

Seriously. I'm packing for the trip to the Lake for the 4th weekend and I'm bringing THREE shawls, none of which is any longer than about 4 inches. I think I've got a problem. I hope to have SOMETHING to take photos of afterwards.

Happy 4th, hope you all get to go spend time with family & friends watching fireworks in the sky and hope my damn boyfriend doesn't blow himself or my child up. (I really REALLY hate the ones you set off yourself. I prefer things blowing up at a big distance to myself and those I love.) We went to Fireworks World in south KC. OH MY HOLY HELL this was the redneck center of the universe. Seriously. Over 50% of the women were over 300 lbs and many of them were wearing tube tops. I do not exaggerate. It was a trip! It's had all these ads on tv & radio about ALL KIDS RIDES FREE!!! The kids actually did have a blast. There was a dunk tank you could throw softballs at and the kids could get up and be dunked. I'm thinking something creepy is probably growing in that dark water, so my kid didn't get up there, but there were 2 boys happily going under over and over again while their parents shopped. Joey had a good time going down this slide set up on top of a mountain of hay bales and riding sleds. There were little old cars set up on a merry go round that some poor kid had to push around and around. There was free water and lemonade as it was about 100 degrees, some blown up jumping things, and the best part (one which I took a shine to after trying) was the "beat 'em up cars". They had two old cars with windows & windshields & mirrors removed, you put on a pair of big ol' safety goggles, picked up a sledgehammer and beat the hell out of them. I think I see where those crazy girlfriends on COPS shows go all nuts beating their cheating man's car. After the first tap or two I got the hang out of it and beat some serious frustration out on the side and hood of those cars. We left with a modest bag of boomers. Jeff has agreed to only do "the pretty ones" while we're at his lake place and save the more dangerous and violent ones for when we're at mom & dad's lake house.

Got to run, Happy 4th people! Happy knitting!

gossamer fairy guts

I recently joined a shawl yahoo group and stated that I was trying to make this VERY COOL Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl by Sarah Bradberry out of my laceweight hand-painted silk on sz 10 needles. One sweet knitter replied that it must look like gossamer fairy wings done with those choices. Let's just say it didn't QUITE turn out that way. About 50+ rows in, it resembled gossamer fairy guts. frog city. I really REALLY want to make that shawl, but I think it would be much prettier in a sport-weight yarn.

SO I'm determined to wear something around my shoulders while I'm on the beaches at Maui this fall, and what better than my sunset-colored silk yarn? dammit! SO I left on a mission and found a new pattern that was actually written for laceweight or sportweight and I think it's a MUCH better first big ass shawl for me than going off pattern yet. (I'm such a follower I NEED the direction). I cast on and made it through 29 rows of Fiber Trends' Shoalwater Shawl and it's a pleasure to knit. I am enjoying the heck out of it. I'm not going all brave and reading the chart included, no, not yet. I'm following line by line the written instructions on this baby. I don't have quite enough yarn (about 200 yds shy) so I figure I'll just try to stop earlier and then do the little picot cast off which looks like a BIOTCH to do, but I know where to find some of you experienced knitters to beg a mini lesson from. bwa ha ha haaaaa!

I am turning into quite the happy little home-maker

Seriously, who is this woman? She cooks! She knits! She crochets! She gardens! She even got out her sewing machine! Don't worry all, she also drinks, curses and pouts. She's a well rounded individual.

In one week I have made chicken enchiladas, lasagne (the shorter version), sloppy joes and had the man grill burgers and steaks. We even had a leftover night. I have never in my entire 37 years of existence had enough actual dinner material to have a leftover night. It was quite impressive. The man does most of the house cleaning (even scrubs showers!) so I'm able to pick the things I enjoy and do them.

Here's some pics of the little flower box in our front yard. I have an herb garden. I don't actually know what the heck to DO with them yet, but I have been picking mint leaves and adding them to my tea and think I need to get a good recipe for mint julep drinks and have them on our new screened-in back porch that the honey has almost finished building. It's freaking wonderful sitting out there reading the paper in the cool of the morning.

Here's my ONE BLOOM of the four big gerbera daisy plants that's still standing in the yard:

Our rabbit population is enjoying biting the heads off my damn flowers. Most of my plants look like this, green globs with stems sticking up.


Here's part of my super hardy double knockout rose bush.


And lest you think I haven't been knitting....here's some baby bibs. Click the image to see a close-up version.


I've also gotten busy on my somewhat cowl and have it ready to switch to size 4 circs to do the waist ribbing, but have no size 4 needles. cripes. THEN I left the damn thing over at Jeff's cousin's house where we went for a kid's one year old swimming birthday party (where his cousin saw me quietly knitting while everyone else is just sitting around after we ate and said "what is this, like an addiction for you?") So, no pictures of that. I'm heading over this afternoon to pick it up as well as stopping by the LYS to get a new circ. I have those denise interchangeable things, but they only go down to 5s. I still have to pick up stitches and knit the neckline and sleeves and waist ribbing, but I'm hoping to be wearing it soon!

Funniest damn thing I've seen. seriously

OH you need to go here and see this guy Judson Laipply's evolution of dance! You won't be sorry. Some serious flashbacks to the music came to me.

swimsuit shopping, oh the fun!

Well, I waited too long and now all the cute suits that cover and push and pull your body without looking like a grandma suit or a fat hooker suits are all gone from Target. damn. Now it's only XXL tops and S bottoms available. hmmmmmm. Not on this body. I went and found my Prevention magazine's swimsuit issue, and they do have a cute site where you can find suits to flatter your flaws and try them on virtually on a model you create. Prevention's Virtual Swimsuit The site is pretty cool, but it mostly gives you ideas of where to start.

I found my digital camera AGAIN and have now made a special spot for it. cripes. I'm like a little old lady with no memory left. I PROMISE to take pics this weekend as I've been cranking along on my baby bibs and such. I got tired of my cotton binge and thought I'd go back to the good stuff and work a bit on my somewhat Cowl sweater, and OH how I've missed my pretty alpaca yarn. Cotton can be so rough....nothing sweeter than a bit of fluffy soft baby alpaca running through your fingers. Ahhhhhh

Happy weekend everyone!

fun little post

From Vicki's post with a fun idea...

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me - it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you. So, any takers?

I'm totally overthinking myself on those damn baby bibs. I got too smart and thought I'd just knit the ends right in as I attached them all...I then realized that the little nubby ends poke through both sides as they get worn and washed. well crap. frogged again. I have reserved myself to just weaving in the damn ends and it's not that big of a dang deal. Get over it. It's still the cutest dang bib and I still do NOT have any pictures. One of the other knitters from our Sunflower Knitters Guild (Laura maybe? I'm so bad with names) said she had a pattern for a cute cotton hat that looked like a flower with little petals hanging down and she got it at the studio, so I may have to find that to go with the little bibs. HOW cute is that? (btw, these are not being knit for actual babies...I just thought they were cute as heck and I never have baby gifts ready when I need them.)

I exercised again today (didn't make it to Jazzercise, but did do a workout video and sweat off some poundage.) I made it through ONE and ONE HALF days of eating sensibly. Dang late nights kill me. Damn snickerdoodle cookies. Did better today, starting over.

Think I'll cast on again for a shawl with my new hand-dyed laceweight 100% silk stuff. Does that sound stupid to make a shawl out of stuff that is pretty much not wearable in any unusual weather? What else would you do with 1000+ yards of silk?

Let me just say....YARN CRAWL!!!

OH I had a good time! The Sunflower Knitters' Guild went yarn crawling from about 9am till about 5pm on Saturday! I'd love to say I had pictures to share, but remember how proud of myself I was that I found my lost digital camera? Well, when I cleaned the house for the big family dinner last week it got put somewhere that hasn't been found yet. Ah well. I spent too much money and had a great time! I will at least run over to mom & dad's and scan my goodies so you may drool electronically with me! Let's just say I got something at each place we shopped....Knit Wit in Olathe, Yarn Shop & More in OP, Lunch at a heavenly pizza cafe outdoors in the breeze, Cottage Knits in Mission, and ended the day at the Yarn Barn in Lawrence. Seriously, I've got to show you what I bought!

I'm on a new mission, ok, a not-so-new mission, but THIS TIME I'm SERIOUS! I've got about 90 days before this red-headed WHITE WHITE WHITE pale-skinned chic is going to be on the BEACH in HAWAII with my kids. I'm NOT going to be all icky in my photos, no. I've decided to use this excuse as my last ditch to get my butt in shape. quite literally get this butt of mine and the thighs attached to it in swimsuit shape. To look at me from the waist up, you'd think "oh that silly Christine, she's a skinny little thing..." (the waist up I'm a size 4-6). Let's just say below the waist I blossom into a size 12+, and I just found out my bmi or whatever percentage your fat is is over 33%. SO, let's just make this story shorter and say I'm on a mission to lose 30 pounds in 3 months. I'm so serious I even took before pictures. (before I lost the damn camera). I even made it to Jazzercise where I saw TERESA! WOO HOO lady you worked us HARD! I wasn't the only one sweating buckets, everyone in there was panting and working it! You are such the pro, I'd never know you just started teaching!

SO, back to knitting...I cast on and frogged and re-cast on and frogged again for a shawl with some hand-dyed silk I picked up at Cottage knits Sat. night, got too frustrated and decided for a "quick knit" and started the world's cutest cotton baby bib that looks like a little flower from a book I picked up One Skein. (buy it from Amazon as it's hard to find in the shops and is MUCH cheaper than the $19.99 I paid for mine) This little thing is adorable. I did finally get it figured out and knit, but there was some cursing involved as it was a gigantic pain in the ass rather challenging with short rows, wrapped stitches, hiding those wrapped stitches, attaching an i-cord (actually VERY cool to do) and TWELVE freaking yarn ends to weave in all on this cute little thing. TWELVE YARN ENDS. The first one I actually had to pay attention and count and crap, which I was knitting while talking with 6-10 yr old children on a boat in the middle of the lake of the ozarks and imbibing a few strawberry margaritas, so let's just say I knit the damn thing about 3 times before I got it figured out. NOW I'm just whipping those puppies out. I promise to scan a pic.

Jeff job update. We talked a bit more and he's decided to go for a career change and is applying for jobs and my dad's got some influence so we're using his connections as well, and things are much less stressful around here. Jeff actually took Joey to the lake on Sat. morning with his boys so I would have the whole day to go hang with my knitty people and have a breather. It was wonderful. I went down Sunday morning, had a day and night of lake-ishness, just about enough for me, and Joey and I came home today. The boy has learned that when I get overly pissy and stressful, he sends me out to do something with "those knitter people you go hang out with." I need to do more hanging out with knitter people as it is good for the soul.

I'm gonna Jaywalk it!

Yes, yes, I am aware that everyone on the face of the earth has probably already made jaywalker socks, but dammit, I just decided I needed to make them. You know that antsy-pantsy can't sit still don't wanna knit anything you got going on don't like what's on tv don't wanna do ANYTHING ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH kind of feeling? (humor me if you don't). For some reason the fact that it's 90+ degrees and about 80% humidity made me think of how I need wool socks. Pretty, sassy, obnoxious wool socks. It makes perfect sense to me. So last night in a fit of agitation I cast on and started off. No gauge was made, but I measured one of my in-progress-forever socks that I had almost to the toes and used the same dpns and yarn (opal handpainted LOVING that stuff!) and started in. I have heard a lot of bitching about people's socks being too small, so I'm making the bigger size. If they're too small on me I'll either frog them and start over after much cursing or I will just give them to my daughter. "Yes, dear, I made them just for YOU!" Anyway, I'm highly enjoying them. Have I said how much I love Magknits? Thank you thank you thank you for coming out MONTHLY! LOVE that!

Well, Jeff had another NYC interview with another water chemical company to do regional sales. I meant to write something yesterday but the blog entry was so long (hard to imagine me rambling on, isn't it?) that I thought that would be cruel. Plus, I had a feeling that something just wasn't right anyway. SO, the boy gets all gussied up, flies off to the big city at 5am, comes home in the same day at about 11:30pm (long day) and is not so excited about this company either. Apparently the owner didn't answer all of Jeff's questions to HIS satisfaction. I'm like, "um, sweetie" (see how supportive I can be?) "in an inteview, the OWNERS of the company interview YOU, not the other way around." Not in Jeff-world. In Jeff-world, Jeff interviews the employers and decides if they suit his purposes before we even begin to be nice. hm...k...well... I knit the CRAP out of my sock rib let me tell you. After some discussion we realize that Jeff isn't really WANTING a job now. I understand that. Really I do. BUT though he has money put away to last him until the end of the summer, you can't wait until then and expect the perfect job to just *poof* appear in front of you at the perfect time, ready to pay you well and let you work out of the house on your own schedule....can't you just see my little size 2 wooden toothpicks SMOKIN here?

Basically we talked it out and I did NOT put down the needles. He realized he's looking for more jobs in a field he hates, so it's probably not a good idea to continue that. We're going to look at another area of the science field and he's excited about that. I've volunteered to do the backup work if he'll give me a list of companies he'd like to work for and then we can move on from there.

I swear I was so freaking stressed out last night, if I didn't have those needles in my hands I probably would have been a screaming tearful mess of a thing. Somehow having the concentration of those little sticks and yarn kept me sane and grounded. I was able to COMMUNICATE and I think we even made some progress, but time will tell. Thank God for knitting. Oh, and Mike's Hard Limeades. especially that. Amen.

WOW it's been a whole week, where has the time gone?

Jeez. Life got nutty there, I know, I know imagine that...

First of all, PICTURE TIME! Yes, I FOUND the camera AND then found the battery charger and THEN found the cord to plug the damn thing into the computer. No, none of those things were in the same boxes, that would have made SENSE!

We've had family reunions out the wazoo lately, one more big one to come in July at Mom & Dad's lakehouse and we're about done. These are a few pics from Jeff's mom's side of the family reunion. We had a blast! First, I was VERY proud of my beer bread and spinach dip (Tastefully Simple mixes from my cousin, TELL me if you want some of this amazing stuff!) OH MY GOD I totally impressed the family! Every bite was eaten! One bottle of beer poured into the mix, stir for 30 sec's and toss into the oven for HEAVEN!!! That's the latest foulard in progress next to my tray. I am not only a dork, but a multitasking dork!

Jeff and I never do get pictures of us together, so I tried for some that day. We had FOUR taken in a row. This was the best of the bunch, we went through one where I looked like the wicked witch, one where Jeff looked to be grunting in pain, one which was just plain u.g.l.y. and this is what was left.


Joey had fun running around with Jeff's cousins' kids. Remember these old third-degree-causing lead-paint peeling slides from our childhoods? MAN those were the days!


We've had family in town, my wild aunt Dot, otherwise known as the Knitress! My other knitting relative, woo hoo! She is a trip! We compared notes and admired and oohed and aahed appropriately and had a blast! I think I got her hooked on the clapotis and she had a tank top I could DIE for! We hosted a big ol' family dinner last night and had a BLAST! We'd not done an official "welcome to OUR home" thing since Jeff & I officially moved in until now. I got hit with a big ol' migraine the day before, so was moving very slow and still couldn't bend over or pick up anything heavy until late yesterday evening. Jeff was a doll, vacuumed the whole house, picked up and finished moving furniture, basically worked his ass off and put Joey to work as well. It was sweet. My cousin's husband and Jeff were even DOING THE DISHES afterwards while we sat and chatted with our aunts and Joey ran around catching lightning bugs with the kids. Good times! My cousin & her family, my brother, his wife & baby, 2 aunts and Jeff and Joey and I. It was a house full! It's so cool having this KC outgrowth of family! LOVE THAT!

On knitting news, I was just ready to start the handles on this felted purse I'm making out of cascade. I actually FROGGED AND REKNIT the top half of it to get it "just so" since I read the pattern wrong. I kept telling myself, MAN this is awfully floppy & loose gauge, MAN....... FINALLY figured it out...can you guess it? KNIT ENTIRE PURSE WITH TWO STRANDS OF YARN HELD TOGETHER. crap crap CRAP! I am the queen of felting and thought of many ways to avoid reknitting the whole damn thing...make another one slightly smaller, whip stitch them together...etc. but I spent $50 on some stinking shelled bead things to stitch to the damn thing and I really like the look of the bag the way it's supposed to be, so I'm just sticking it into the chest and gonna frog it again later. damn damn damn. Back to some cotton dishcloths to cool my mind.

Karma can bite you in the butt

SO, guess who's going through a nasty breakup, heartbreak, and probably divorce? My ex-hubby. I got a call from him yesterday pouring out his heart and just sobbing. I really felt bad for him. She's fallen in love with an old flame through internet and chat rooms and loves her hubby (my ex) but loves this other man too, needs to find herself, clear her head, etc. (for those of you that don't know my life history, I was just starting my 8th month of a high-risk pregnancy where I was in early labor and bedrest and COULD NOT GET STRESSED OUT OR I'D POP BACK INTO FULL LABOR when I was sat down and told it wasn't my fault I wasn't as interesting or pretty as my husband's girlfriend--from the internet--, it wasn't my fault I was fat & didn't have the long legs, long hair and pleasing personality....etc. etc. and that he loved me but.... bullshit) ANYWAY, the man was sobbing to me what she told him which was WORD FOR WORD the same crap he gave me way back when. He really is having his heart broken and it's sad. I liked this chic, she's good to my kids and pretty good to him. I think he finally grew up and was becoming a good husband and father and got his heart tramped on. My daughter's out there in the middle of all this crap, but seems to be doing ok. They're staying with his folks for now. I have my fingers crossed for him, but it doesn't sound good. The irony of the situation didn't occur to me until I got off the phone. I didn't point out the irony since I'm not totally evil. Karma. don't mess with it.

Got tired of knitting beautiful amazing creations, so I pulled out some old peaches & cream worsted weight cotton from the craft store stash of long ago and knitted a couple of the lion brand dishcloths. I am loving them, now I can USE my knitting on a daily basis. It feels good. It's a cute pattern, 2 rows of knit 2 rows of k1,p1 with a 2 stitch knit border all around. It turned out quite textural and should be good for scrubbing and hold up well. First I cranked out a crocheted granny square dishcloth from a pattern on the yarn ball. It made up in a couple of hours, but was quite flimsy and don't think it'll last long. Knitted Dishcloths. It's a good thing. Damn I miss my Martha. I'm gonna have to find out if her show's still on in the afternoons or not.

I'm back

Whew. Tired ass out. Couldn't get onto blogger for anything last Friday, so just gave up and headed out of town.

Family reunion out camping at Lake Webster in Western Kansas with my dad's side of the family (aka the Calmer side of the family) and Jeff went along with Joey and I. Sent my daughter out with her dad to New Mexico on Friday morning at 7:15am. We'll see her again in 5 weeks. It's a heck of a long time, but she usually has a good time and Joey always gets to do special things as well, so it shouldn't be too terrible. It still sucks, though.

What a great weekend! Four and a half hours of knitting time on the way out was wasted making more of my plastic canvas camper-looking coasters for the various uncles & aunts but we ended up not needing them done until Christmas now. Ah well, I would've just put them off until then and freaked out during my prime-Xmas-gift-knitting-and-not-sleeping-time anyway. So, I did get some knitting time in the afternoons and evenings and on the way home when I wasn't sleeping. I now have another half of a foulard done (still the coolest pattern I've ever seen, you get to cram this beautiful shawl into a cute little knitted bag, carry it around in your tote and then shake it out and voila, beautaceous shawl appears...kinda reminds me of those old plastic folded things my grandma used to make me put on my head whenever it rained and we went outside, remember those little folded up packages?)

Anyway, tips for camping.....ALWAYS ALWAYS look down before you sit on a camp toilet. Don't just look down, PICK UP THE LID and look down. Big ass hairy spiders like to sit just below the rim. Good to know. Tip #2...do this looking when your small child isn't close enough to SEE the big ass spider or the boy will NOT sit down the rest of the weekend. Good thing he was a boy and could stand to pee or we'd have had a serious situation on our hands. Let's just say we stopped about 3 times on the way home to unload his system and leave it at that. We ATE and ATE and ATE (man my aunts can COOK! and those uncles can deep fry and smoke turkeys like NOBODY's business!) and drank and played cards and sat around. GOOD TIMES! Jeff seemed to fit right in, so that was a plus too! We take over a whole area of the camp site, ranging from the amazing super-campers with fireplaces, air conditioning, cable tv, etc to the old time campers that are doing good to get there, to tent alley. We were in tent alley, but Jeff's tent was like a mansion. We had all kinds of room and a nice breeze blowing through and almsot NO bugs made it in.

Got to run, SHOOT! I just forgot this am was the Sunflower knitters guild meeting, dang. I'll try to make the evening one.

I am truly a knitting goddess!

OH MY GOD! I totally GOT intarsia. Ok, it's not the stranding a million colors across the back intarsia, but I made a little square with a funky shape in the middle of it and IT WORKED! It's so flippin' cool I just couldn't hardly stand myself. I also FOUND MY CAMERA in a BOX!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!! Battery's dead, so I'm charging and LOOK OUT photobucket, pics are a-coming! I went and watched the help video at KnittingHelp.com and that was all she wrote, baby! There's NOTHING we women can't do with pointy sticks and fiber!

Has the Studio totally gone insane? OH OH OH I'm gonna be spending some serious time at 47th Street this summer! FREE HOUR CLASSES to brush up on your skills including: ribbings, cables, increases, decreases, gauge, creative cast-ons, picking up stitches, simple seams, etc. I'm also doing a class to learn how to line a felted bag and sew a zipper. PLUS they have this cool "Flash your stash" deal on Sunday, June 25 where you can set up tables and SWITCH, TRADE, BUY and SELL your stash with everyone elses!!! Go to the studio's site and check it out. You won't be sorry. They also got in more malabrigo, you know you wanna....go for it, you have GOT to try to this yummy yarn!

Weekend was the lake! BOTH lake places, going back & forth between mom & dad's lake house and Jeff's dad's lake house at the Ozarks. TOO much fun, kids were in the water almost the entire day and evenings until I forced them out. I swear I almost didn't recognize my kids. Joey was doing running cannonballs off the dock and Beth was flopping around with the fishes and turtles (and snakes though they didn't know it at the time, ick!--there was a family of black water snakes hatching & swimming around the other side of the dock ICK ICK ICK!). My wimpy little not-touching-anything-icky-that-water-smells-like-dead-fish kids turned into lake rats! I love it. You know, life is just nicer at the lake. Everyone's got their beer bellies hanging out in the sun, a beer in one hand, floating along and waving at each other. Sea doos, boats, tubing, family, it doesn't get much better than that.

I'm going to teach myself intarsia

I think I may have lost my mind, but I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it without having a million ends to darn in as well. I have an idea of the ULTIMATE MUST-HAVE FASHIONISTA accessory felted bag in my mind and have bought the yarn, and even some expensive beads (what is this $1/inch crap? I gotta get myself to the CRAFT STORE next time) and I'm gonna do it. I think I'll check out the KnittingHelp.com site for my favorite online teacher video and just DO IT dammit.

I know I have stated I'd rather poke needles in my eyes than learn intarsia but there's just too much cute stuff I've got to make. wish me luck. No I didn't finish everything else I was supposed to, it's 90 degrees and humid as hell so I felt like buying 100% wool! You gotta problem with that? All right then. PLUSSSSSSSSSS it's Malabrigo. yummmmmmmmmy yarn no less!

Knitter's thumb is better now that I put the sz 2's away for a bit and am giving it a rest. Maybe I'll do a test patch and felt the crap out of it and call it a coaster. Yes, that's what I'm gonna do. wish me luck!

He didn't get the job. :(

Well,

We got the call that the big ol' company that Jeff flew out to interview with decided not to offer him the job. I felt so bad for him. Of course, he heard the news 30 min's before I came home bouncing with joy over the whole Hawaii thing, so he didn't tell me until later so I'd still be all happy. I told him there's a reason for everything. Look what a fluke it was that he and I even met. We had to have all these weird things fall into place and the planets aligned just so for it to happen and it's just what both of us needed. He's got another interview next week scheduled and we'll get serious about getting that ol' resume out there again, but it still sucks. One good part of not getting the job is he would've had to travel A LOT and that would've gotten old fast. Of course, when he was traveling I could have been QUEEN OF THE THERMOSTAT and crank the air conditioning (HAH) but that doesn't make up for not having my honey around. OK, it's only 80 degrees and not yet too humid when I write this....if it were 90+ and sticky, I may not be so lovable--I'm a cranky biotch when I get hot and sweaty, it's not pleasant.

I started on the cute envelope holder for my shawl for Jill, but ended up giving myself knitter's thumb. My right thumb wasn't able to grasp onto anything, I was like an anti-evolutionary ape, couldn't hold a cup of diet coke or anything in my right hand, so had to NOT KNIT for almost a whole day. I never realized how damn often I've got needles in my hand. I waited in the drive thru and had NOTHING TO DO WITH MY HANDS...I sat with Joey while he ate lunch and had NOTHING TO DO WITH MY HANDS...waiting in line in the car to pick up Beth after school....NOTHING, after my kids and my cousin's kids were sleeping while I was babysitting watching TV with NOTHING I couldn't stand it any longer, got out the yarn and little sz 2 needles and DID IT ANYWAY! I had to move my thumb in all these weird directions to keep from dropping the yarn, but was using circs, which made things easier to pick up when I did. Somehow this wrangling around of the thumb made things better and I'M BACK BABY!!! (you must scream that part as George from Seinfeld in your head to get the proper feeling here.)

I'm now able to hold my diet coke this morning (glory of glories) but still have to watch how I move it around as every so often I get this weird stab of pain. Probably not good, but it's working. How weird is that that I was feeling all discombobulated and antsy without my knitting. What an addict! I couldn't even think straight without my hands doing their thing. Ah well, just think about this.....KNITTING on the beach in HAWAII! woo hoo! Ok, so I'm as obnoxious as a 3 yr old child on the same topic, but WOO HOO anyway! How good would one of those cool foulards be on my trip for me to tote around and whip out in the air conditioned chill of the hotel from the heat of the beach? Yup, I'm making a big size for me as soon as I'm done with Jill's. Maybe Beth needs a small one as well? Yes, I think she does. Poor Joey, boys get screwed on the whole knitting thing. I'm going to whip him up some of the hacky-sacks from the Mason-Dixon book so he gets something too. He's learning to juggle, and could probably use those for that.

I know Aloha means hello and goodbye, but how do you say HOLY COW in Hawaiian?

GUESS WHAT Joey got in a box delivered from UPS this afternoon???? go ahead, GUESS! WELL.......it was a big box from the Children's Wish Foundation International. I cut the tape, Joey opened the flaps of the box and a big ol' silvery balloon floated up in the air! It was attached to a beanie baby bear called Lanai and had a Hawaiian poem in it along with a letter saying Joey's wish was approved!!! How cool is that? Forget a boring old letter, NO they send a BALOON! very cool! We get to give them info about Joey and ideas of fun things to do, but they're taking care of EVERYTHING for us! They try to give kids with rough diseases a time to treasure that they can remember forever. (my son has Cystic Fibrosis--a genetic lung & digestive disease and he was referred by Children's Mercy) I am so excited I can't see straight. The kids are having a BLAST just thinking up things to do.

So far on our list of hopefuls is a helicopter ride over a volcano, playing on the beach, surfing lessons, metal detector treasure hunting on the beach, swimming with the dolphins (in an aquarium, not out in the wild in the middle of the ocean--too intense for my kids), riding the sugar cane train, the Drums of the Pacific Luau with fire dancers (Joey's in total awe of those fire eating and dancing guys, maybe he can meet one of them) and I'm checking out which resorts are the most family-friendly.

Went to the library to check out a few books on the islands and think that Maui looks the best for us, but don't really know yet. I also grabbed a few knitting books. The library at 95th and I-35 (Oak Park branch) has a HUGE selection of new knitting books, I was very impressed! Finished the medium foulard (from Morehouse Farm Merino Knits book) out of koigu...mmmmmmm...koigu.... for Jill, but haven't sewn in ends yet. HOW do you weave in ends when your knitting is all lacey and holey? I'm gonna work on that tomorrow. I've already cast on for the cute envelope case and am going to town. Pictures as soon as I find the camera! I'm SO making one of those puppies for myself too! Went to the Studio and met Miss Amanda (HI!) and got her hooked on my favoritious yarn ever, the MALABRIGO! She's going on the wild ride of felting....can't wait to see her get hooked! I tried to be good, but then had too much time to kill as Joey was playing with the owner's boy and I had all that TIME to look around. Picked up some unbelievably COOL shell/bead things and some cascade to make a cute purse. Like I need another felted bag! Ah well.

Then I realized, BEACH....SWIMSUIT...BUTT WHITE READHEAD (chubby tan people blend in. Chubby WHITE pale people stand out like there's a spotlight on us, we can't hide) so it's back to Jazzercise I go! Reese, when are you teaching??? I have had a nice start (remember the horrible tummy trouble of a few weeks ago?) I am still about 10 lbs lighter than I was and am fitting into clothes from over 2 years ago. Now I'm getting SERIOUS!

Actual knitting content

Well, since I still haven't figured out which box of crap my camera is in, I'm stuck scanning portions of my knitting. I've got about 2 inches past the join on the somewhat cowl, am LOVING this sweater. I'm going to put it onto waste yarn and try it on and hope it fits. It looks good enough when I hold it up to myself. Time will tell.

Here's a scan of the COOLEST fun shawl I'm making for my best friend Jill. I'm using KOIGU and loving the heck out of it. I'm using the pattern for the foulard with case pattern from the Morehouse Farm Merino Knits (my new VERY favorite book)and OH MY GOD it's the coolest thing. I'm making one for me too!


Ok, now for the color. Story provided by my dear friend Russell. Russell went home to his little town in Arkansas last weekend and was talking with his little nephew who goes to preschool. I think the kid's about 4. He got in trouble at school by saying "I'm gonna snap a knot in your butt" to this little boy that was bugging him. (said with a BIG ASS ARKANSAS twang) this is what his grandpa said whenever the boy needed a pop on the butt. He, understandably, got in trouble for saying "butt." So what did he say the next time the kid was bugging him? "I'm gonna kick your ass!" OMG I laughed and laughed. He said "teacher said I couldn't say butt so I didn't." HAH!

PS-->a few more finger crossings please, Jeff's out in NJ interviewing with the big boys for this company that may hire him. He'll get to still live in KC (whew) but will travel about 30-50% of the time. Just think of the frequent flyer miles....Hawaii anyone?