the list...

Because I'm not creative enough to have my own life list ready to go, here's the one floating around blogland. Feel free to copy & do your own.

Have you ever...

Bold the ones you've done...
1. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula.
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said 'I love you' and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
30. Asked out a stranger
31. Had a snowball fight
32. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
33. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
34. Held a lamb
35. Taken a midnight skinny dip
36. Taken an ice cold bath
37. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
38. Seen a total eclipse
39. Ridden a roller coaster
40. Hit a home run
41. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
42. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
43. Adopted an accent for an entire day
44. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
45. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
46. Had two hard drives for your computer
47. Visited all 50 states
48. Loved your job for all accounts
49. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
50. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
51. Had amazing friends
52. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
53. Watched wild whales
54. Stolen a sign
55. Backpacked in Europe
56. Taken a road-trip
57. Rock climbing
58. Midnight walk on the beach
59. Sky diving
60. Visited Ireland
61. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
62. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
63. Visited Japan
64. Bench pressed your own weight
65. Milked a cow
66. Alphabetized your records
67. Pretended to be a superhero
68. Sung karaoke
69. Lounged around in bed all day
70. Posed nude in front of strangers
71. Scuba diving
72. Kissed in the rain
73. Played in the mud
74. Played in the rain
75. Gone to a drive-in theater
76. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it
77. Visited the Great Wall of China
78. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog.
79. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
80. Started a business
81. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
82. Toured ancient sites
83. Taken a martial arts class
84. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
85. Gotten married
86. Been in a movie
87. Crashed a party
88. Loved someone you shouldn't have
89. Gotten divorced
90. Gone without food for 5 days
91. Made cookies from scratch
92. Won first prize in a costume contest
93. Ridden a gondola in Venice
94. Gotten a tattoo
95. Rafted the Snake River
96. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
97. Got flowers for no reason
98. Got so drunk you don't remember anything
99. Performed on stage
100. Been to Las Vegas
101. Recorded music
102. Eaten shark.
103. Had a one-night stand
104. Gone to Thailand
105. Seen Siouxsie live
106. Bought a house
107. Been in a combat zone
108. Buried one/both of your parents
109. Been on a cruise ship
110. Spoken more than one language fluently
111. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
112. Bounced a check
113. Performed in Rocky Horror..
114. Read - and understood - your credit report
115. Raised children.
116. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy.
117. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
118. Created and named your own constellation of stars
119. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
120. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
121. Called or written your Congress person
122. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
123. ...more than once? - More than thrice?
124. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
125. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
126. Had plastic surgery
127. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
128. Wrote articles for a large publication
129. Lost over 100 pounds
130. Held someone while they were having a flashback
131. Piloted an airplane
132. Petted a stingray
133. Broken someone's heart
134. Helped an animal give birth
135. Been fired or laid off from a job
136. Won money on a T.V. game show
137. Broken a bone
138. Gone on an African photo safari
139. Ridden a motorcycle
140. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
141. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
142. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
143. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
144. Ridden a horse
145. Had major surgery
146. Had a snake as a pet
147. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
148. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
149. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
150. Visited all 7 continents
151. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 5 days
152. Eaten kangaroo meat
153. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
154. Eaten sushi
155. Had your picture in the newspaper
156. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
157. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
158. Gotten someone fired for their actions
159. Gone back to school
160. Parasailed
161. Changed your name
162. Petted a cockroach
163. Eaten fried green tomatoes.
164. Read The Iliad 165. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read,
166. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
167. and gotten 'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
168. Taught yourself an art from scratch
169. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
170. Skipped all your school reunions
171. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
172. Been elected to public office
173. Written your own computer language
174. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
175. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
176. Built your own PC from parts
177. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
178. Had a booth at a street fair
179. Dyed your hair
180. Been a DJ

The new and improved bikini

OK, through a great amount of sheer will I have decided not to burn the sexy little knits book I purchased with my gift certificate. It is important to me that I didn't pay my own cash money for this book since it has pissed me off to such levels. Even with Teri's help, the top of the knitted suede bikini just looks like crap. It doesn't conform to my bod, it just kinda hangs there with a BLAH feeling to it. SO, I'm donating the book (with my own warning label of errors with NO posted corrections) to the local knitting guild. I have found a NEW cooler, sexier piece that I WILL make and WILL wear on the beach at least once on my big Maui trip. Nexstitch's teenie weenie bikini! It, unfortunately, is NOT knitted. It is crocheted. Well, not quite crocheted, TUNISIAN crochet. I'm not sure what the heck that means, but it's got fantabulous little movies to watch and learn. I just so happened to have the long afghan hook needed from a stash of metal knitting & crocheting needles I got from my Aunt Janice (bless her heart she died of breast cancer years back and was the one who got me started on my big ol' infatuation with all things fiber...cross stitch, crochet and now knitting). I'm about 4 rows in and am surviving. I already had blue berroco suede yarn, so I'm good to go. Got to run and find the weird hook things that hold it together. I'll post pics soon.

Because I am the Knitting Virgin, I am not a knitter who just instinctively recognizes when a pattern is going wrong. I now always google for errors on any new books or projects just in case. My perfect example of a GOOD responsible author is to do as Debbie Stoller has on her Stitch N Bitch books. I post these not to show she has errors since almost ALL knitting books come out with errors. It's just going to happen with that many people and machines involved. Responsible, lovable authors post their damn corrections out on the web. I LOVE my SNB books and I'm telling you, I love Debbie Stoller even more now. Here's the links to her books' corrections just in case you are a closet SNB-lover too.
Stitch N Bitch the knitter's handbook corrections and SNB Nation corrections
the Happy Hooker Crochet SNB corrections

That's what I'm talkin' about.

My goals for the weekend are to FINISH my sizzle sweater and get a boob or two done on the bikini!

What I heard this morning that made me snort in a most unladylike fashion...

"It's a sad day." *sigh* was said by this lady next to me at the bank this morning. The teller said "oh, why, did someone close to you die?" "No, my children are all back in school" *sighhhhhhh*

I thought she was kidding, so of course I said "YEAH! HAH!" and then this loud laugh/snort thing came out of me. Ummm. Yeah. She was serious. I think she also is suffering from a frontal lobotomy, but that's just me. I was like "let's break out the booze people....WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!! It's 8:10am!!!" This is my first summer as a "stay at home mom" sorta. I was also having to WORK at home and entertain children and all that. I have been counting down the days, the hours, the minutes until my freedom. It's also good for the kids, don't get me wrong. They had a BLAST and loved their teachers, but Lady, seriously, there's more in life than being all verklempt because your children are not hanging at your sides every moment of the day. Let the little birds fly a bit. You still get them at 3:00pm. No worries. After getting looks of death from the lady as well as all three tellers (who are too young to have children and know the joy of the first day of school ANYWAY) I went on my way and enjoyed the crap out of my quiet morning.

I've now got CONNECTED SHOULDERS on the sizzle, and am ready to sew the sides. WHY can't I ever figure out that damn mattress stitch? It always makes me sleepy. I think I'll bring it along to the Yarn group tonight and find someone to take pity on me.

Here's the parting shot this am before we walked to school. Yes, those are berbera daisies grown by MOI taken to the teachers on the first day. Who wants apples, anyway?

Results of the 3 day diet

Well, it wasn't a 10 lb loss miracle, but it was a good jumpstart on getting the numbers on the scale to start moving. Morning of Day 4....153.2, so 5 pounds gone. I'm sure it was mostly water and other icky things, but still I feel better, ate a lot of roughage and protein and am going to try to eat normally for a few days and do it again. My overall opinion on the deal is "mehhhhh whatever." moderately ok, but I'm a believer basically.

On to more important things....KNITTING! I'm steadfastly trucking right along on the sizzle sweater, not doing ANYTHING else until it's DONE (so not like me, the multi-project-wonder) but I want to see if it fits!!! I'm almost to the top of the shoulders and ready to join the thing. Then a bunch of seed stitching borders around sleeves and v-neck and I'm wearing it one way or another.

I haven't done a thing on the sexy little knits bikini once I got the top triangles done and started in on the bottoms as I got fed up with the entire concept. I think I'll just crochet a bikini as it will probably have a better fit. I'll get my corrections done and forward them along to those interested but otherwise I'm about ready to tank the entire book. I hear there are errors on the other items I was looking at doing too, and they're just not cute enough to warrant that much effort on my part. (Hey, the 5 lb skinnier me is just not as patient as before.) Anyone wanting the book, email me and let me know. I'm done with it.

We heard from the foundation on our Maui trip!!! WOO HOO BABY it's getting close to beach time! We've already received 2 junior metal detectors for the kids to go treasure hunting on the beach, we'll also get boogie boards & life jackets rented for the week for my 2 kids, a family ticket to a big ol' luau party, a 6 hour boat ride with 2 snorkeling locations, private surfing lessons for the 2 kids for 2 hours, and the rest of the week is ours to wander around the beach. I'm trying to figure out what the new flying restrictions are, this NO bringing water on-board, no hand-held electronic devices, etc. is going to be a pain with that long in a plane with 2 kids, but hey, we can make it through anything! I've got to get some good knitting projects picked out to take along. Anyone heard anything on the ol' knitting needles controversy with the new restrictions in place? I'm guessing socks with wooden dpns should be ok. I'll have to check the rest of the stuff. Teresa, have fun on your trip!!!! I know you'll come back all relaxed and tan and beautiful, heck you're going OVER looking all relaxed and tan and beautiful!

Later Gators, we're off to the CF clinic for a last checkup and extra school forms and other fun stuff like that!

Knitting again

I'm BACK! I knit along, all excited with myself, last night about 12 rows on the front of the sizzle. It's just about long enough to split for the neckline and add another ball of yarn. I took the kids to the dentist's for the before-school-cleanings and said, wait a minute, WTF? I'd MAJORLY screwed it up about 12 rows before, where I started last night. cripes almighty. Though I know there are many perfectly logical ways to deal with this, I am a bit of an anal knitter, and this is the FRONT of what should be a sexy sweater that I really want the front and back darts to match for shaping, etc. Basically, the entire time at the dentist was spent frogging and now I'm back where I started AGAIN. *sigh* It is looking cool, though and I'm so glad to have my fingers holding needles again. I get a bit tired in the wrist so take many breaks, but it's still KNITTING!!!!!

Anyone ever heard of the Cleveland Three-Day Diet before? It was supposed to be a big hoax from the 70's, but Karen (wife of Trapper John across the street) swears by it. She said she did it 3 different times and the 2 times before she turned 40 it took off 10 pounds in 3 days and she kept it off. The 3rd time it was after she was 40 and it didn't do much but make her pee a lot. You're supposed to flush your body of toxins, etc. I think it's basically a lot of protein and fiber and water water water which does seem to make me FLUSH a lot, but I don't know if it's a bunch of toxins going down there or what. (sorry, bathroom humor is very lame, but I've been stuck in small surroundings with only one girl and four boys, that's the best I've got) I thought what the heck, why not jump start the old' diet/workout plan because bikini time is coming up in 3 weeks...

Is it a fluke? or is it the best thing to come out of the 70's besides the songs "It's raining men" and "I will survive"? Only time will tell. Starting weight yesterday am 158.2. This am I weighed in at 155.4. I'm sure it's all water, but it was fun to see the numbers go down anyway. I'm getting tired of tuna, but haven't gotten too hungry yet. I'll let you know how it goes. I know I KNOW those fad things never work, but let me believe anyway! I have lost about 9 pounds on the sensible eat less and exercise more B.S. logical plan, but we all need to believe in MIRACLES, don't we? I am proud of myself that I no longer have any backfat. (how sad it is when your back boobies are bigger than your front ones? Can we say "ick"?) My tummy is smaller, and I just have those good ol' thunder thighs. I am pretty happy with how I look, I do have more energy, I'd just like to see the numbers go down, is that so wrong? I also think I've come to terms with realizing women are sexy no matter what they look like. It's in your HEAD and your ATTITUDE. I felt GOOD hanging out in my swimsuit at the water park for the first time in my life. I didn't really care what anyone else thought (a first for me). I just had FUN with my family and didn't worry about it. "Yay Me!" as my daughter would say (Damn Disney shows---any other parents of tweens recognize that quote? It's either "yay Me!" or "aw, snap!")

Back from Branson

Well, I had hoped to have a picture of my completed, or at least almost-completed sizzle sweater to show you all after my trip. I mean, 3 hours down there, 3 hours back as well as misc. time spent sitting around relaxing, right? Unfortunately the only time I spent knitting was on the way down, due to this...

This is what's left 2 days after "the incident." The incident came about due to my normally wimpy-not-letting-go-of-mom's-leg son deciding he was suddenly a man and RIDING HIS FIRST REAL ROLLERCOASTER. I about crapped my pants when he wanted to try it. We'd already done the American Plunge or something (like KC's Log ride but BIGGER hill) where I'd screamed like a little girl and he ENJOYED the big hill. SO, we try the powder keg. LOTS of hills, LOTS of speed, including the fastest I've ever gone up a hill and absolutely the fastest I've ever gone down. This ride had ME hurting, he was very brave until about half-way through, so I reached over and held onto him with all my motherly might and he lived. After walking off the ride, I started feeling this throbbing pain in my wrist. Somehow I'd burst the vein blood vessels in my right wrist and it was black, purple and sticking out by at least an inch and a half. I about passed out on the spot when I saw it. CREEPY nasty thing. We got a paramedic walking through to check it out, who gave me a baggie of ice and a towel and told me to take some anti-iflamatory pills. It's now just a nasty looking old bruise and a bit sore, but at the time, let me tell you, it HURT and I couldn't hardly move my hand. I was so pissed once I found out I couldn't HOLD A KNITTING NEEDLE!!! I can just type today, am going to try to knit very slowly maybe tomorrow. Much ice, aleeve and Mike's Hard Limeades later it was feeling mostly numb and I was doing fine.

Pics from the day...


The last pic is of this quaint Hillbilly Fortune Teller, spin it and read what it says. Mine said "You drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Damn straight.

OH and the high pressure timeshare spiel...Lordy Lordy! We barely made it out of there alive. Jeff had promised the kids they could be as obnoxious as they wanted. They kept offering to take the kids to the "movie room" or the "kids playland" but we were smart. Their final guilt trip when they had heard "no thank you" 4 or 12 times, was this guy who with a straight face tried to give us a hard time saying "but don't you want to be spending quality time with your children every year, don't you deserve that as a family..." while our kids were (swear to God) standing ON TOP of chairs and tables and jumping off, popping balloons, throwing crayons and belching. I looked at him and said "sir, we take vacations to get away from these monsters." and smiled. He handed us the checkout ticket for our free hotel rooms and we waltzed right out. I highly recommend obnoxious children if you ever find yourself in a timeshare situation. Rent them if yours are too well behaved.

We're off to the OZ again...

Apparently we just can't get enough. This is our first official vacation with the entire brady bunch together. We're heading to Branson, MO to go to "steal your dollar city" aka Silver Dollar City and some big ol' water park. We're doing one of those **groan with me now** DEALS where you go to this horrid 90 minute brainwashing presentation about timesharing in the Ozarks and they give you a hotel room and tickets to the attractions. **GGGGRRRRROOOOOAAAAANNNNNNN** I'd rather fight a hoard of Lake scorpions. Ok, not really. I was totally NOT in the decision process when Jeff signed up for one of those "great deals" as I think they're run by satan's junior army and hate the very idea of them. Ah well, what could go wrong?? HAH!

Seriously, I'm better prepared for this weekend's adventures! I've got extra cashola for if the great deal suddenly falls through, I've got lots of yarn packed, sunscreen, swimsuits, white trash tank top to sweat my arse off in at the amusement park, and LOTS of ALCOHOL!! They were actually out of my new favorite thing on the planet at the local liquor store, Mike's Hard Limeade, so I had to settle for some cranberry/lemonade crappy ass thing, but I'm tough so I can survive. We've got captain crunchberry cereal and milk for the kiddies and Mike's hard cranberries for momma. I already told Jeff he's driving, I'm totally white trashing-it all weekend long. NO hot rollers are going along (yes, I'm still stuck in the 80's get over it, I like my big hair dammit) no curling iron, just one tube of mousse and a ballcap and waterproof/sweatproof mascara and lip gloss. and yarn. what more could we need? OH B.C. Gotta have that. Don't need any more little mouthy children running around, we've been blessed enough thank you very much. LOVE my kids and Jeff's kids, but OH LORD we don't need any little "surprises" do we?

I'm off early in the am, won't post again until at least Sunday night, have a good week! Four loud children and Jeff and me in a big ol' red cadillac driving through the winding carsick-inducing roads (the only thing around here with enough seat belts for the whole gang). Wish me well! I hope to have lovely pictures of my finished Sizzle sweater to post...Finished up the back mostly, put it on its holders and such. It looks to be the right width for me, but it sure is looking LOOOONNNNNGGGGG. Hope it turns out. I'm not gonna stop and count and figure things out as that would just piss me off. I'm just gonna knit. knit and purl. and knit some more. That's it. No thinking, just faith. Lots of faith. Lots of cranberry lemonades. (can you tell I've already dove into the cooler? cripes almighty it's gonna be a good weekend!)

Lake critters and knitting bags

I'm still moving slowly today, thank God for Imitrix! I think it just wipes me out to be around 4 children all the time (we're almost to the end of Jeff's big 2 weeks with his boys and my 2 kids--they all get along most of the time but it's a LOT of kids in a small house). I end up getting stressy and pissy and then migrainey and it's not a pretty picture. How did the mothers of the 50's and 60's do it back when families were all 4-6 kids each? I thought on it last night in an imitrix-induced haze and figured it out. ALCOHOL! Seriously! LOTS and LOTS of alcohol. Plus, mothers could just open the door Saturday morning and kick her children outside into the neighborhood to not be seen again until dark. Each family had a lovely little wetbar on the dining room buffet, happy hour every afternoon to evening....The words inside this card read "Monica, dear, that was a precious little story. Now, be a sweetheart and fix mommy another drink."

SO, this weekend before the total stressybiotch set in, I was knitting along on the sizzle sweater, having myself a good time while children were jumping into the lake, running around after salamanders and tubing, etc. When Sunday late morning came around, I picked up the dirty clothes from the floor, shook things out in case any little baby spiders were trying along, picked up the sizzle from the ground, and WHAT do you think fell out of my knitting bag? Go ahead, guess!


Only, this wasn't a picture of the actual critter. (I was afraid it would eat me so I wasn't gonna go get my camera so I found an image of the bugger online. Apparently Missouri is home to the striped scorpion. lucky us.) After much heeby-jeeby-ing and screaming and a few curse words (ok, more than a few) I realized I was the only one in the house with this monster (AT LEAST 3 INCHES LONG no less). The kids and Jeff & my dad were down in the water at the dock. Mom was sleeping upstairs. I was freaking out, couldn't find anything to smash it with except one of my flip-flops. After smacking it twice, I swear to God I heard it say "BRING IT ON BABY" and it flexed its curled stinger tail and came TOWARDS ME! (I'm covered with chills even just typing this crap, ICK). So, for once being thankful I have big feet, smashed the critter with my 9 1/2 size foamy flippies until it was no longer moving, then gave a huge ROAR of the mighty knitter protecting her yarn. Could you imagine if I took the critter home with me and stuck my hand in to pull out my yarn? OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

Did a few more rows of the back of Sizzle last night, don't exactly know when to bind off the middle neck and start the shoulders, so I put the whole thing on an extra circ needle and am going to hang onto it until I get the front of the sweater done and figure it out then.

I think I've had quite enough of nature for the summer. Nature is best admired through the glass window of an airconditioned vehicle. Less creepy. And I went and found a true love of a nature boy. I'm doomed.

sizzlin right along

SO, while shopping with my best friend Jildo the other day, I came upon a pair of shoes ON SALE for $20 at the Jones Store. The color spoke to me. I am normally not a red-wearing person, but I am trying to get more color into my life (hence the purple sweater just completed and the orange-phase of this summer). I pulled them out of the box to put in the closet (they've been in my trunk for a week at least) and HOW COOL IS THIS????? The same exact color as the cotton yarn I got for my sizzle sweater? How cool is this? very.

The back of the sizzle. I'm knitting it on needles 2 sizes smaller than those needed to get gauge on my swatch. I don't know why the 4" square turned out fine, but the sweater is much larger stitches. I don't really care any more. I'm just making it. I'm also making 1 size smaller than I need, I figure the cotton will stretch sideways and this is one that I'd like to be form fitting. I may curse a great deal if my little experiment doesn't work out, I may have to find a skinny minny to take the sweater off my hands when I'm done, but so far, holding the back up to me seems to fit ok, cross your needles for me! I should finish up the armholes soon but have a stupid question...it says to knit until the armhold depth is 6". Is that measured around the armhole or straight? I don't know. I'm gonna just knit and hold it up against my body until I like the look of it. The sweater is going remarkably fast even though it's good ol' stockinette stitch and I do not enjoy the purling along every other row. I'm such an in-the-round knitter. I thought very seriously about knitting it in the round until the armholes and then going back & forth, but that took too much darn thinking. Maybe if I like it, I'll do it on the next one.

Survived the lake with 4 kids, but ended up fighting a migraine today so am going very slowly.

Gore doesn't look so crazy now, does he?

Geez, global warming anyone? anyone? OH we had a big rain and thunderstorm last night and this morning is positively lovely outside. I sure hope the rest of the country gets this cooler weather soon. It's scary seeing all these people DYING from the heat right and left.

I cast on for Sizzle last night with my red cotton and was debating back and forth on what size to make. ALL my cotton sweaters I've made (ok so I've made ONE, but you get the point) turn out bigger than they should be. I made a REAL gauge swatch. A big one, almost 4 inches square. I even WASHED it. Seriously. I was doing laundry anyway and threw it into the batch. I measured and measured. I changed needles and did it AGAIN. I think the planets must all be out of alignment now, that's probably how we got the cooler weather. It's just wrong, I tell you, for me to be that frikkin organized. wrong wrong wrong. WELL I got gauge SPOT ON and started in. I knit and even measured as I was knitting along and held it up against me and realized after about 4 inches of the back that it's um, TOO WIDE again. cripes almighty. I've heard over and over that cotton sweaters end up migrating wider and wider as they're worn and washed and I want this one to be form fitting, so I picked up some needles 2 sizes too small and frogged and recast on. I'm just finishing the seed stitch border on the back and am about to start the stockinette stitching, I'll check it in a while and see what happens.

I also have the first 3 inches of lace pattern done on the bikini bottom front. I am adding about 2 1/2 inches to the front AND back to see if it can actually cover the goods (have you SEEN the picture of the bottoms, even on skinny minny models it made me cringe). Call me crazy, but though I AM making a teeny weeny itsy bitsy bluu-uu-uu-ue suede bikini to wear on the other side of the earth where no one knows me, I'd rather not make people cry. Thanks to Rina for sending her notes along for what she did on the dreaded bikini. Her completed one looks GREAT!

Got to go, work is calling, headache is headaching and the kids are bouncing off the walls. Not much knitting ahead today, but we're heading to the lake, so I'll hopefully get something done this weekend.

The reformed cotton hater drops some serious cashola

Who IS this woman? The changes us newbies go through on this yellow brick road to total knitting obsession are really amazing. This same woman who burned her first set of wooden doublepointed needles in the grill and danced a little heathen "death to pointy sticks" dance now is soothed by the process of picking up a sock or sleeve working with a series of sticks. This same woman who gave away all her cotton sock yarn because the very touch of it in her hands creeped her out and made her very pissy now went to a big ass yarn sale and spent $200 on COTTON!!??!! WTF? COTTON? Well, it's really pretty cotton. It's weird. I've spent the last few evenings poring through old magazines (mine and Teri's too thanks babe!) and books and it's like they're brand new to me. The patterns I am attracted to now don't even resemble the ones I originally bought the books or mags for in the first place. Maybe I'm growing as a knitter and as a woman. Stranger things have happened.

Enough sappy stuff, we want PICTURES!!!! Right? Well, you're getting them anyway. Click the pics to get them bigger and in all their glory.

My shopping spree at the Studio... I got a Rebecca magazine that I swear I have, but couldn't find the damn thing. FULL of cute cottony sweaters and tanks, another pattern book with cute cottony and nylon/acrylic crap cute sweaters, 3 hanks of pink/orange/grey/purlple cotton for a sweater for my daughter (no pattern picked yet), 2 hanks of blue hand-dyed looking stuff for a little tank for me (no pattern picked and only 400 yds of yarn, so it'll have to be something pretty basic and little), the red is for Sizzle, the blue berroco suede is for the Sexy Little Knits bikini, and the hand-dyed lovliness is 2 hanks of about 840 yds each, destined to become something amazing, I just don't know what yet. It hasn't spoken to me other than to tempt me to spend more money than any woman should buy for fibers that did not come from an animal. Isn't it lovely? HOW heavy would a sweater of that become? I'm thinking I may have to do a little top and return the other one, but I want to make sure I have enough yardage first.




Though this looks like a really ugly bikini, it's actually the parts of cleo from knitty, a summer tank-ish top made out of 2 strands of knitpicks cotton/acrylic blend.


Teri helped me chart the Blue Suede bikini top as it SHOULD HAVE BEEN in the Sexy Little Knits book. Thank you thank you THANK YOU TERI!!! Again, I'm not bitter, I understand errors in printing, you should just POST THE DAMN CORRECTIONS ON THE INTERNET if you publish a book so knitters like me don't have ugly veins pop out in their temples and foreheads at 2am. Seriously, Ms. Designer Lady, you are a published author, you are an amazing successful fashion designer, you are freaking SKINNY TOO, please be nice enough to post the corrections. That's all I'm saying. I took it a step further and actually charted out the whole thing as since I'm making the teeny tiny size on the tops, there wasn't room for repeats and this way looks pretty good. I've still got to attach all the strings and ties and such and do the bottoms, and since the "LARGE" size on the bottom is about, oh, 6 inches too skinny for me, I'll be doing some charting there too. I'll post my chart once I get it officially printed and scanned so others searching out there may have somewhere to start.


OH my daughter is working on her first circular needles project and has about one inch done on her first felted bag with a beautiful malabrigo in blues & greens. Very cute!

Frickin Errors

OK, I totally understand how a new knitting book could be published with glaring errors. I do. I understand. BUT I don't understand how there can be NO LIST of corrections out there. Dammit! I spent $21.95 on my Xmas giftcard at Barnes & Noble for Sexy Little Knits by Ashley Paige. I love the book. I even started the Blue Suede bikini (YES, A BIKINI DAMMIT) and was ripping and frogging and thinking and hurting my little head and getting quite pissy late into the night/morning. I thought to myself , "no worries love" (I must think with an English Accent when I get tired) "I'll just google it in the morning and get the corrections and be all shiny happy people again." WELL GUESS WHAT????? NO FREAKING list of corrections can be found. I'm running up against a bunch of corporate hoo hah trying to get an email or contact info for the designer or the publisher or anything. Any suggestions would be appreciated as I really want to make some of these designs, but am not sure enough of myself to see mistakes as I go.

See, my master plan was to:
A) Buy berroco suede on SALE at the Studio
B) Knit a bikini
C) Tell boyfriend about said bikini
which would then force myself into serious workout mode to get this bootie and thighs in beach mode (not normal people's idea of beach mode, just enough for myself that I don't embarass myself or get tossed back into the ocean by being mistaked for a beached whale, you know how it can be)

I'll probably bring the book along to beg for help from Teri and the other more talented knitters in the knit group and get suggestions from them.

Serious Yarn Sale

OK Kansas City area knitters, 25% off of ALL YARN IN STOCK at the Studio Sun 30th and Mon 31st of July. ALL YARN IN STOCK and they have some serious KOIGU and MALABRIGO and a buttload of the cotton blend yarns I'm gonna have to get for whatever dang sweater/tank thing I decide to knit next!

Get yourself there. Spend some dollars. Have some fun.

The Studio
1121 W 47th St
Kansas City, MO
(816) 531-4466

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?????? OH I'm in love! Glampyre has outdone herself this time. UNBELIEVABLE! I've found my next obsession sweater!!! I'm not sure my pocketbook could survive the suggested silk yarns, I may have to do some serious substituting or some serious yarn dieting to get this stuff.

Editor's note added Sunday evening...
OK, So I went to the sale....and SAVED $65+. Do you know how much $$ you have to spend to save $65? Too much. I had entirely too much fun this afternoon. HOOOOO momma! Pictures later. I haven't even taken anything out of the big ol' bag. Big ol' crammed to the top bag. SO not only yarn is on sale, EVERYTHING they've got in the store is 25% off. EVERYFREAKINGTHING. needles, patterns, books, YARN, you name it, if it's there, it's on sale.

I need some inspiration

I'm searching for my next big project. I have the multitude of half-sies hanging around, they're all fine for sitting down and working on for an hour or so, but nothing that screams KNIT ME! You know the project, the one you're dreaming about while working, thinking about while driving, the consuming project, the one you can't wait to get the next two inches done on the current stitch so you can move to the next one, the one that makes you crazy...or is it just me? Ah well.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I want to make some form of a summer tank/shell/sweater thing that just makes you go "WOW!" I don't want too much, do I? I've considered Cleo from knitty, but how would that work on a bustless girl? Chicknits chicami the fitted version with thin straps at the end of the pattern, Chicknits Ribby Shell, Knitty's Knitty's honeymoon cami, and on and on. I think I'll probably do Wendy's Sizzle because I liked her last pattern so well, but I don't have any yarn that is working on this to gauge without being too see-through, so I'd have to go shopping. Did anyone ever knit the Knitty Ribbon X-back tank and actually be able to WEAR it? All I ever heard on the knitalongs was that it stretched too big or started out too big, etc. I think a trip to the Studio is in order to go roaming through all the Rebecca magazines and see if anything in there inspires me. For now, I guess it's back to my half-finished first jayhawker sock. If anyone has the perfect project for me please holler!

Dear Lord, I think I need to design my own.

I may never take it off

OK, so the neckline isn't actually tacked down yet and there are still about 5 ends to weave in, but I'm WEARING this thing and it is amazing!!!! This looks better than the pictures below. I need to either A) get off my lazy ass and FIND OUT HOW TO USE THE DAMN delay button thing, or B) find someone else to take my picture of completed items. Boyfriend is an amazing man. He can build almost anything and is quite the creative person, but does not take the best pics of me in stuff. SO I think I'll just start taking my stuff along to knitting meetings and have other knitters take my pics! GOOD IDEA and it takes less effort that way! WOO HOO!

Until I have a decent pic, here's what I've got.

The yarn I used was from Knitpicks, the baby alpaca in some heathery purple and it DOES NOT ITCH, not at all. I've been wearing this around the house now for at least 2 hours and it is absolutely yummy. I'm also quite proud of myself for COMPLETING an item and HAVING IT FIT!!! I do like the low neckline (there is a tiny bit of cleavage, not visible in the pic since us flat girls have to have our arms held "just so" for the shadow to appear and holding my arm out at a strange angle to get the camera to take the pic doesn't do justice to this pretty sweater. Such is life.

Some cool things I found while wandering through everyone else's blogs.....
OH OH OH I found my next item to make...beer can purses and hats!!! I have pictures of my dad wearing one of these puppies, actually it was made into a crocheted orange and brown cowboy hat from budweiser cans. How stylish is that? Stitchy McYarnpants' beer can alley. It's a good thing.

Also, for the crocheters out there, Annie's Attic'sfree pattern of the day. You've got to print it out as they replace it each day.

I'm struggling for an idea of what to knit next. I can feel the startitis kicking in. Maybe clapotis for my friend Jill since I promised her a shawl/wrap forever ago. I think that plus a diet coke tote bag and a beer can hat for the lake could be the trick. Better get drinkin'!

And, I've got to say, go see the cake Vicki made for her boyfriend. OH Lordy Lordy, what happens when the boy turns forty?

It's in the 80's wooooooo hooooo!!!

SO, the big ol' nasty heat has broken for a few days. It's actually LOVELY outside. I went outdoors this am and ALMOST GOT A CHILL. unreal. I was feeling bad after complaining of being without air conditioning for a day and then watched the news and saw hundreds of thousands of people still without power or air in St. Louis after the heat and storms last week. I felt about this big *holding out fingers*. *sigh* good luck to them. I think I'll take the kids on a bike ride to the library this am before it gets hot and nasty this afternoon.

I did almost no knitting this weekend and it is driving me CRAZY!!!! We had a great family weekend, hanging around at the house, working on projects, doing laundry, bike riding, etc. My cousin took my children for the night, BLESS HER and her brave hubby!!! Sat. night Jeff & I went out for dinner at a very good and not expensive mexican restaurant called Mi Conchita on 95th St. just west of I-35 and had EXCELLENT food and hand-made GOOD margaritas and then went to Jerry's Bait shop (dive bar in Lenexa, KS) and had some beers and listened to some live music. It was a very nice night!

I'm only about 2 inches of ribbing on one sleeve away from FINISHING my somewhat cowl sweater and I can't stand it! I have to WORK and FEED CHILDREN and things like that which are REALLY cramping my knitting style and I'm gonna find a way to finish the damn thing TODAY!!!! Pictures promised and everything. Last night I was going to spend some time knitting, but we had Jeff's sister & hubby & little kids over for dinner and by the time I got everything cleaned up and kids put to bed it was almost 10pm. Jeff had to get up at 6:30am this am to go tour 2 plants he gets to choose from if he takes the JOB OFFER he was given. I was trying to be "supportive woman" and so I very sweetly turned off the lights and went to bed with my man at 10:15pm so we could get up early. OH OH OH my knitting was calling me last night!!!

What was that, a JOB OFFER?????!!!!!????? YES!!!! Actually he gets to choose between 2 locations to be a lab manager for one of 2 plants. It was a VERY good salary offered and a great company, good benefits, etc....... all is great......except the boy would have to go to work every day. every. day. and at 7am. and it's at least a 40 min drive to either plant. (I know the rest of the world works every day M-F or worse but my boy has been in SALES where you can work whenever you dang please and worked from home and actually didn't work but 25-30 hrs a week if that, so this is a major change for him). He still has one more job interview this Thurs. for a sales position but I'm really hoping he does the manager thing as it's SO much more stable than sales and it's such a good offer. Thanks for all the crossing of appendages people! It's been a long few months, finding a job is hard work around here!

Our Hawaiian vacation is finally becoming real. (My son was awarded a wish from the Children's Wish Foundation and we're going to Maui for a week) We leave in about 30 days!!! I'm thinking my silk lace shawl may NOT be done in time since it's still the 4 inches long it's been for the last 2 weeks, so now I'm on track to exercise and find the perfect portable project to take along on the trip... What a great excuse to go shopping, no?

the Knitting Virgin is much happier now

When momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. It's amazing how much prettier the flowers look when you get to stay INSIDE in the COOL AIR to look out at them. I'm sitting in 79 degree cool again, thank the stars above. Jeff was amazed that the big ice storm where we were without power for 14 days in the cold was no big deal for me (other than the thawing hornet/wasp invasion incident) and one night without air conditioning almost sent me over the edge. (I truly was millimeters from passing into total-psycho mode) I told him that's because when you're cold, you can always put on more blankets, sleeping bags, etc. and START A FREAKING FIRE, but when you're hot and miserable you can only get so nekkid and you're still freaking HOT. Above 90 degrees, my brain starts melting. Anyway, we're all much better now. The sad little air conditioner is limping along and we hope to make it through the rest of the summer with it. Last night I drove home from babysitting in a truck with AIR CONDITIONING to a house with AIR CONDITIONING and saw the outdoor temperature was 95 at 11:45pm.

I'm in the final stretch on the somewhat cowl. Last night I finished one sleeve and the neckline, so I'm one sleeve and a bunch of ends needing weaving in from completion. TOO excited! OH how I love my baby alpaca yarn, it's so unbelievably soft and glides through my fingers.

Jeff may have a job offer, CROSS YOUR FINGERS PEOPLE, but it's a job where he'd have to go to work every day. EVERY DAY. I know, I know, but he's gotten used to the whole office from home and work when you feel like it sales jobs so this one would be a tough adjustment. Some other guy at the company called to see if HR had contacted him yet, so it sounds like the offer's on its way. Jeff's got one more interview next week for a big ol' sales traveling job, so we'll have to see what happens. The steady every day job is a really good company, so I'm hoping the offer is a good one. MAN it's hard work getting a job! Again, thanks for all the good wishes and hope, it's been a long few months and the offers are getting slimmer and farther away. If he'd only move to the north, south, east or west of here, he could take his pick of jobs, but I'm thankful he's wanting to stick it out here in kc.

the good, the bad and the ugly

The good...
WE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING ONCE AGAIN and it's only 1:50pm!!!!!! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet mother of mercy. ANDDDDD we didn't have to replace the whole unit, only part of the compressor so it only cost us about $260.
I spoke too soon.....we have a new capaciter but only moderately cool air is coming out of the vents. It's just craptastic around here. It's gone down ONE DEGREE in the house in the 2 1/2 hours we've had the supposedly fixed air conditioner. I know it's hot, but seriously, something's still freakin' wrong. Called air conditioner man, he said to see what happens when the sun goes down and it cools down outside, see if our house cools off any then and call him tomorrow. WTF? I'm thinking that would be mother nature, not our freaking air conditioner. cripes. May have one more night spent on the office floor, but we'll call it "camping out". Kids'll love it.

The bad...
The blazer's air conditioner is NOT the part that would have cost us $287 including labor, nope. They're very very very sorry but it's the part that with labor will cost us $680. I don't care anymore, I just want to be able to drive my truck without getting out of it with wet pants. Do you know how embarrasing it is to be stuck to BLACK fake leather seats and then have sweat spots across your hind end? not pretty.

The ugly...
All this has been very hard on my hair. When I have a bad hair day (and I've now had TWO in a row), it's not a good thing.

welcome to summer in kansas city

So, you know how I said the blower on my air conditioner in my truck went out last week? No real biggie, got it to the dealership yesterday, drove Jeff's truck when I needed to. Though it was 102 in the shade and humid as a motherbugger, I could just stay in my nice slightly cool house. (boyfriend was born on the sun and it's our compromise to keep the house between 79 and 80 degrees or he freezes and any higher and I get REALLY REALLY crabby. R.E.A.L.L.Y. crabby. it's not pretty) No biggie, right? just stay in our house. Yeah. That's the ticket.

So, for some unknown reason, I decide yesterday is the day to get back on the ol' exercise track (fall trip to Hawaii is one month closer and I'm only 3 pounds lighter) so I go work out, create more sweat than is humanly possible. Then I figure, wtf, why not load up the pickup truck at mom & dad's with more crap of the kids to load over to our house. why the heck not? More sweat. I lug it all in myself since Jeff's outside working in the ungodly heat laying carpet in our screened-in porch (I told you he was born on the sun). I somehow can't seem to get cool. I'm getting a bit crappy, even a bit bitchy though that is hard to imagine. So, by about 10pm I'm getting downright nasty. I finally take a cold shower and am STILL hot about 10 minutes after getting out. I stand directly on top of the floor air vent in the kitchen and realize the air blowing out is not cold. my heart almost stopped.

Yes, we have no airconditioning left. We test breakers, we pour cold water on top of the unbelievably HOT outdoor air unit. It starts chugging, but still no cold air. THANK GOD Jeff spoiled me and gave me a tiny window air unit for the office on the top floor (since he was tired of me being cranky and bitchy all the time when I worked up here.) He is a good good man. I lugged the kids upstairs and the three of us slept on the floor with that little air conditioner chugging its heart out all night long. Kids slept well, I'm working on about 2 hours sleep.

I sat on our bed with Jeff trying to relax and watch some tv. not only could he not touch me since the heat was unbearable, I couldn't even touch me. If my arm rested against my leg, it was HOT.... It was so hot I couldn't even bear to knit. THAT's hot. Now, I'm sure some of this truly was in my head at this point, as the house was only 84, but mental or not, I was miserable.

I lugged myself up to sleep on the floor between the two kids and curled between our two big desks and just laid there most of the night.

Jeff's already got a guy ready to come over and used the whole "house full of children" thing to get them over hopefully today. He is a good man. He also slept like a baby for the first time in months since we turned on the air. I think his body temperature is 102, not 98.6 like the rest of us. cripes almighty.

One neat thing, my daughter woke up early and I heard her turning pages. I looked up and she's going through about 4 of my knitting books. She picked out the one tank top out of the Hollywood Knits that was the reason I bought the book and said "Mom, I wanna make THIS!" How cool is that?

GOD I hate humidity. How did I ever survive childhood without air conditioning? I think that's why I'm occasionally scatterbrained. My good sense part of my brain cooked itself. Everyone cross your fingers that the air-conditioning man can do something soon!

****added note**** Thanks for all the offers of air conditioning! So far we're doing ok, with that little baby window unit cranking away and the kids are playing in the basement where it's still about 78. We're just avoiding the entire middle of the house for now. If it gets rough, we've got mom & dad's old basement apartment that I vacated to move here, so we should be ok. THANKS ladies!!

Lake-in'

Much knitting was accomplished (almost done with the somewhat-cowl neck deal, I tried, I really tried to count and make it even, had enough of it and said WTF a few beers into it and half-assed it. I'm NOT going to count now, I'm NOT going to measure, I'm just going to hope. hope is always good.), much beer was drank, much catching-up was caught up, fish were pulled out of the lake, too much food was ate, and good times were had by all. I even did a few cannonballs, where I realized that I am not quite built for that as I got enough lake water up my nose so far I think it went directly into my brain. It was so hot and humid that even my eyelids were sweating. I spent most of the weekend floating around in the water, just loving every minute of it. I am so lucky that I LOVE my family! We have a great time for any occasion. Here's a few highlights...

off to the lake again

Well, we're off again to the Lake of the Ozarks, or as Jeff calls it, "the O.Z." so trendy, that boy. The great "Schieferecke Splashdown" is being hosted by my folks and about a 1/3 of the immediate family is coming out, should be about 30-40 people crammed into mom & dad's lakehouse. We're staying the nights at Jeff's folk's place to help make room. (it was that or camp in a tent in the 100+ heat and ungodly humidity and up on the hill with the TICS--not me, nope)

I get to knit for 2 1/2 hours down and 2 1/2 hours back and I'm bringing my sweater that's almost ready to be cast off at the waist and then I get to pick up stitches and do the cool half-cowl neckline and sleeves and I may bring along the lace shawl just in case. I haven't done one stitch on it in over 2 weeks.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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!