A colonic is not actually an organic version of a gin and tonic

See, the things I'm learning just amaze me. Seriously. One of my friends said she was discussing "the bet" (my bet with Jeff) with one of her friends who works in the health care industry. She said "OH, tell her to get some colonics, but be careful because they can be addicting and you can lose too many electolytes." I said, MAN, anything that can help you lose weight AND be addicting HAS to be good. I asked what exactly ARE colonics? Well, they're herbs and water. cool. I like herbs and water, I said, what, like a whole-foods version of a gin & tonic? nope. not even close. OOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhh. yeah. kay. maybe if I'm really close and need a couple of pounds to go over the limit, but otherwise, I'm gonna stick with my fake-chocolate tasting ex-lax when things need some help.

TMI? sorry people. I just try to educate anyone else out there as clueless as me. The rest of you can just shake your heads and say "oh, how does she not walk into walls every damn day?"

I finished the lacy-look section of the top of my green gables sweater. See how her lacy part is these pretty rows of stitches between the openings? Yeah. Mine is working up a bit fuxxed up. They kind of zig-zag in a most peculiar manner but I think I like it. It's like organized chaos in a knitted top. To achieve this bit of design structure, you totally forget whether you were doing the A or B section over & over and just wing it. Yeah. Looks like it should be this one. Then you try to count, realizing you're totally off and think, um, sure, this one will work now. Voila. Pictures soon. My old laptop died and I haven't found the driver cd for the work computer yet.

I've grown to a new level of my exercising. I no longer hate it with every fibre of my being. Now it's more of a "well, I guess so" instead of "NOOOOOOOOOOOO PLEASE MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPP!" I haven't hit that whole "runner's high" crap I keep hearing about but I almost enjoyed my workout with trainer man yesterday. I think those people who run FOR FUN or work out and get happy with it have some extra crazy gene or something I was born without. I'm making terriyaki chicken breasts with buttloads of veggies and wild rice tonight. Free range, veggie-fed, no chemicals-added chicken. I now add local bee pollen and sprouted wheat germ to my whole grain cheerios in the morning. I cook, I clean, I exercise, I knit, I even STEAMED ASPARAGUS last night. How scary is that? I am the new superwoman. rrawrrr.

Know what else I learned yesterday? TINK is knit spelled backwards. Duh. I TOTALLY did not know this. I always thought it was a Brittish, polite, old-way of saying un-knitting without cursing, kind of like they say "a bit wonky" to mean "totally fuxxed up". How cool is that? Tinking is un-knitting. who'd of thunk it? Am I really the only one out there who didn't know these things?

An interesting video called The Last Knit that was posted about on the lace knitting yahoo group I belong to. I got a kick out of it. The obsession...Ah, we've all been there.

Moving in the right direction

136. It's working. I'm tired. ass. out. My trainer is really a great guy. He seems genuinely excited to see me make such a change in my lifestyle. He's more about the "learn to eat healty for life" rather than the "just make it to the bet goal" but hey, those healthy people are all about that. No worries. I'm still chugging right along, reading labels and eating right. I've gotten the kids involved in exercising at home and they're having a blast thinking up exercises they learned at gym class and making stuff up. We had a head-standing contest that was the funniest thing I've ever witnessed. Kids were loopy as hell, as soon as I'd get one leaning against the wall and the other started, it'd be dominoes, feet and legs flying off every which way. good times.

I am still knitting, in fact, I'm having some serious bouts with startitis. Not only do I have my daughter's cardigan/shrug/bolero thing on the needles, (almost done with one sleeve and one sleeve to go), but also a pair of socks for Jeff out of mountain colors yarn (loving it so far), my orangina that is still only about 6 inches long and NEVER getting any longer--I've hit that weird knitting limbo that happens when you knit and knit and NOTHING HAPPENS, the roses tank top is sitting there looking at me waiting patiently to get longer than its 4 inch start, I'm trying to decide whether or not to frog the market bag I've had on the needles for ALMOST THREE YEARS NOW because I think the yarn would be enough to make the wicked sweater and I just don't see me using the market bag should I ever finish the damn thing, AND I cast on TWICE for green gable with some wild multicolored hand-painted cotton yarn I got at a Studio yarn sale about a year ago.

Why twice? Well, the woman who has never twisted a joined ring, no, I think I did once, but then caught it after ONE ROW like any good knitter would, had a DOUBLE TWIST in my joined stitches. Then knit for FOUR FREAKING INCHES. FOUR INCHES. yes, yes I did. I couldn't believe it. You think somewhere I would have found at least ONE of the damn twists, wouldn't you? Ah well. Now it's about one inch along, no twists in sight, added to the pile of knitting just waiting for me.

I guess starting a buttload of new knitting projects and a new exercise and eating plan wasn't enough for me, because I'm also signed up for a beginner's quilting class at the Prairie Point shop and it's been fun so far! I've never done anything in moderation before, so why start now? Six weeks from now I should have a cute six block small quilt ready to hang on the wall.

That's it around here, sorry to be boring, but that's all I got.

Lose-the-Bootie Camp, Knitter Style

Joey update: THANK GOD no more puking. Sometimes I think childbirth was easier than dealing with a barfing child. He's feeling much better today.

Six weeks from yesterday is my d-day. My bootie camp officially starts tomorrow.

Either way, SIX WEEKS LEFT. After my triumph of breaking the 140 barrier and getting to 138, I've been stuck. stuck stuck stuck. 138-142 every damn day. I need to get to 125 to win the bet. I mostly thought I could do it, but didn't really believe until yesterday. I ran into my old trainer at the gym. He's gone into business for himself and is creating a boot camp with another trainer to run in the spring. I'm going to be his guinney pig (sp?) and get cheap rates and he BELIEVES he REALLY DOES THINK I CAN DO IT!!! I've got to eat, sleep, breathe, work, sweat and drink lakes of water but I CAN DO ANYTHING FOR SIX WEEKS, right?. I've got workout day #1 tomorrow. I'm going to train 3 times a week with him, do cardio 6 times a week, and eat the diet he gives me. I'm going to NOT DRINK ANY BEERS OR MIKES HARD LIMEADES until March 2nd. Holy crap. He did tell me he's not taking away my diet coke. He said he's seen how much his girlfriend lives for hers, so I'm down to one a day. period. I even told him he can have one of my "before" pictures of me on the beach in shorts (quite scary I must say) and can use it for promotion of his boot camp, as long as we get the results we need and I have a totally hot "after" shot and good hair.

In addition to the training workouts, homework workouts and other crap, I can't sit on my butt knitting for hours on end. I just looked at him. I said, "You know, you can take away my beer, my limeades, my chocolate-coated everything. You take away my yarn, I might shrivel up and die, but only after I wrap you in yarn so tight you resemble a big-ass cocoon. Let's find another option, shall we?" SO we decided I may, in fact, sit on my ass and knit but not for more than 30 minutes at a time. Then I have to get up and JUMP ROPE for one set of commercials or 3 minutes. 30 minutes of knitting, commercials of squats, 30 minutes of knitting, commercials of deep knee bends, 30 minutes of knitting, plank yoga position where you alternate stretching out one arm and the opposite leg straight out in front of and behind you while not falling over and shaking mercilessly, 30 minutes of knitting.

I'm also supposed to go to bed and SLEEP and not stay up knitting into the night. I actually was able to turn off my light at 10pm and we went to sleep not too much later. Sex is always a nice way to burn calories, and Jeff is happily helping with that part of the equation.

My trainer called today just to say he was so excited and knows I can do it and to give me a cardio homework assignment to be ready for tomorrow.

He and another trainer are working on planning a boot camp for the spring but also should have some VERY REASONABLE (less than half what the best plan at the gyms I was looking at charge) individual and small group session pricing. They'll do most of the sessions near 135th and Nall in south Overland Park, KS. We could be workout buddies!!! Once the craziness is over, let me know if you want some info on these guys. I love that he takes my very own personal situation and sets things up for ME, not some cookie-cutter of what the standard should be.

OK, my personal fitness tip of the day...
BUY yourself an mp3 player of some sort. Get Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. (make sure you don't accidentally buy some damn karioke version that SUCKS by mistake) Play it over & over while doing the quickstart on the eliptical machine. If you keep your feet moving to the beat, you get slow, fast, crazy fast, slower, fast, etc. throughout the song, mixing things up and keeping your muscles from getting used to anything. I can't seem to figure out how to do the pre-programmed workouts, plus I've got to have my feet moving to the beat or I fall over.

Get the American Idiot song from Green Day. Play it while cruising on the stair-master. In a 20 minute session you can easily go one mile while pumping to this music. I get the most burn not from just stepping to the music, no, anyone can do that. I do more of a step-bounce, step-bounce, step-bounce, step-bounce thing. If you really get cranking, you add a hip swing and pump your fists, it resembles a weird version of cross-country skiing. If you get going a bit too much, you may or may not make scary noises while the machine actually wobbles back and forth (which seems to scare the skinny minnies on the machines next to me).

Make sure before hitting "shuffle songs" that your children's music selection is NOT on your ipod. There's nothing worse than craking along on the stairmaster, hips swinging, arms pumping, sweat sweating, legs pumping and you hear the screams (I keep mine cranked LOUD while working out) of the hamster dance song from Radio Disney. I about fell off the damn machine.

Barf and Koigu don't mix

Whooooo boy. It was a close one. I've been fanatically knitting away on my daughter's tween's dream bolshrudigan, my first attempt at sweater designing with help from Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker. I mean, I was CRANKING along on the thing. I figured out why,when knitting a ruffle around the entire edging, that maybe it's best not to do a double ruffle. Double ruffle = knit regular one round, knit front & back of each stitch next round (doubling stitches), knit regular one round, knit front & back of each stitch next round (doubling the doubled stitches). Let's just say that I had every damn length of my adjustible needle set added on and it was still so crammed with stitches that I had to stop and hwang them around after each 10 or so stitches. TOO DAMN MANY STITCHES. I couldn't unknit it, I had to pull it off the needles and woooooooo pull out the stitches. I'd just decided my hands, eyes and head hurt too much to work on it any longer, so I put it into my basket and set it on the counter next to my bedroom's bathroom door.

*duh, duh, DUUUHHHHHHHHHHH* (foreshadowing music here)

At about 11pm, little feet padded into the room with a "my tummy hurts" and then seconds later, SPLAT....SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!! (repeat over & over). Joey had gotten the barfs. Projectile vomitting from the doorway of the bathroom that covered the entire room, the door, towels, walls, etc. ICK doesn't even begin to describe the horror. The only saving grace was that the knitting basket was about TWO INCHES away from the beginnings of the splatter. I'm telling you, it's a good damn thing. It would have been thrown away, basket and all. I don't care if I'm 5 balls of koigu kersti into the thing or not, I don't do well with barf. If the kid hadn't made it to the bathroom and exploded on my bed, I think we'd have to move. period.

I can handle everything else that comes out of a child, you name it, I've cleaned it up. Barf just isn't one of those super-momma fighting skills I was blessed with. THANK GOD FOR JEFF. After sticking Joey into the shower, he used the nearby towels I'd grabbed and wiped up all the visual traces for me, took them down into the washing machine. I just had to lysol & clorox the room without breathing or thinking of it.

Joey's feeling better now. Hopefully it was a one-big episode. We all had our flu shots, so I'm hoping that helps kick this in the butt.

I've become a lady of the night

NO, not in the extra-curricular, street-walking, earning extra money for yarn way, no, no, no. More of the can't-go-to-sleep-yet, just-a-couple-more-rows, why-isn't-there-anything-on-tv, maybe-I'll-listen-to-a-few-more-podcasts, HOLY CRAP when-did-it-become-2:30am kind of way. Sleep and creative knitting do not go together, there's just not room for both. I don't know why my most energetic, thought inspiring, fastest knitting must come after midnight. OH it's hard to get up in the am. The fact that Jeff has been traveling has made these night-time knits a little easier, I don't have to worry about keeping anyone up.

Last night I had a knit-piphany. I had been going through books and books and books and internet patterns and all sorts of things and even PURCHASED another freaking book to get a pattern to make a cardigan/bolero/shrug kind of thing for my daughter. I was printing shit out at 11:30 last night to get ideas. I'd even worked about 2 inches of 90 stitches back and forth stockinette stitching for the back of a pattern for her, but it just wasn't speaking to me. Actually, it WAS speaking to me, it was sounding like a petty, obnoxious pre-teen being bored. Seriously, the yarn was bored with the pattern and no matter how hard I tried to look at the cute, pretty little pattern there in the book, it wasn't good knitting. Life's too short for that crap. If I'm gonna knit something, I'm gonna enjoy the living crap out of it or I'm not gonna knit it. Period. That's my new philosophy.

I have been recently been bitten by the Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker bug. I've been reading and reading and chuckling and just loving the hell out of those little pictures and stories that go along with the inspiration that is EZ's work. So, at 12:30am, I decided wtf and cast on for my very own inspiration. I climbed up on top of the desk in my kid's room, leaned out over my daughter's very high bunk bed and measured the back of her neck and also where a raglan seam would be from her neck to her armpit. I rolled her back over, "no, honey it's not time to get up yet, go back to sleep, you're dreaming, your momma's not really measuring your armpits in the middle of the night, what a silly dream you're having."

I'm going to make the world's cutest pre-teen bolero/shrug/cardigan ever knitted on the face of the earth out of koigu kersti that decided it didn't really want to become my friend's clapotis. I'm even keeping pattern notes so if it works I may have an actual pattern to post here. I think I'll call it the tween's dream bolshrudigan. Wish me luck.

STILL 138 lbs, hanging in there. Still sucks. I miss real food. Ah well. Just thinking of my reward helped me put down the nutty bars box after giving one to Joey. PUT.DOWN.THE.NUTTY.BARS.AND.BACK.AWAY.SLOWLY!!! If I have a taste of the good stuff, it's all over. I've now realized I cannot do ANYTHING in moderation, especially eat good food. Nope. It's now been so long since I've had a taste of actual good stuff that the Kashi rice/peanut/fake chocolate CRAP bar I pulled out of the pantry actually TASTED GOOD. That's the secret of those "healthy" people. They don't actually ENJOY running, sweating and eating cardboard-flavored things with raw veggies all the time, THEY JUST DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER. Secretly part of me wants to run up behind them and cram hershey bars into their mouths just to see the light of day dawn upon them, you know, bring them back to reality. Now I really wouldn't do that. I just THINK about it, that's all. It would be a waste of good chocolate.

I wasn't very clear on the previous post, I didn't actually lose all the weight in the last month, I just got SERIOUS in the last month and went from eating sensibly and exercising more to TOTAL FREAKOUT STATUS. I actually was the 168 closer to early October. 18 pounds to go and 6 and a half weeks left. Holy crap. If I somehow get there sooner, I can end this insanity. It's really sad that the whole losing weight for "living healthier, living longer" theory wasn't enough of an inspiration for me. I have tried for that off and on for the last 20 years. Nope, it takes serious cash and the threat of public humiliation in great humidity go get my ass moving. Hey, whatever works.

Dear Dieting Goddesses:
I appreciate the fact that I'm able to try on dresses in the very low single digits. I really do. I love that I can now wear a SMALL or even an EXTRA SMALL top. I don't mind that my already tiny boobs are getting smaller because the thrill of actually WEARING a SIZE FOUR dress to the holiday parties was quite possibly the biggest thrill of my life. The fact that it was an A-Frame style doesn't really bother me at all. I think I showed great restraint by not actually spray painting the size tag across the back of the dress. The fact that I am still wearing a SIZE 12 EASY FIT pair of jeans doesn't really concern me. I'm just a titch concerned that if I go down any smaller in my upper body I will have to buy my bras at Target's training bra aisle and I will start to resemble a weeble-wobble. What do I have to sacrifice to get the thighs to go down JUST ONE FREAKING SIZE? I've already sacrificed chocolate, I'm down to one or two diet cokes a day, I'm drinking green tea and eating crap that bears turn up their noses at. I'm SWEATING dammit. Can at last 3 or 4 of the remaining pounds come off the lower body? PLEASE? Pretty please with fat-free-sugar-free cream and splenda on top?

Caution: a few CURSE WORDS and actual knitting content

OK, so the bet's still on. 125 lbs by March 1st and I get $2500. If I don't hit the weight target, I sweat my ass off all summer long pushing a crappy half-broken down NOT self-propelled lawn mower, bag the grass and other various lawn duties while Jeff AND THE NEIGHBOR MEN sit in our driveway drinking beer while sitting in lawn chairs. Kansas City in the summer? Can we say 8th level of humidity hell? Sweat, blowing grass bits and flat hair on a redhead? Not a pretty picture.

At the beginning of the bet, it wasn't so unthinkable. I was about 155 lbs and a bit cocky (hard to imagine, isn't it?) The bet was started with 6 months to go. How hard could that be? Um, well, somehow 155 turned into 168. seriously. from 168 to 125? OH and in 3 months left. nice. Half-way through December I got seriously serious. eating better. exercising. ick. i hate that crap.

I'm now at freakishly healthy levels. Living like this could totally kill a normal woman. I start my morning with a glass of water with lemon. fiber and fruit. snacks are nuts and berries. lunch is veggies and beans. I do pilates in the morning. I either take a quick bike ride or walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon. more veggies and nuts and berries with beans of some form for dinner. work out at the gym with weights at some point in the day. It's all gonna be worth it. you know why? I hit ONE FUCKING THIRTY EIGHT POUNDS today. It's been a LONG DAMN TIME since I've seen the other side of 140. I was so happy I about hugged some poor old nakid woman putting on her swimsuit that was standing near the scale at the gym. I had to actually put my hands into my pockets to keep from picking her up and spinning around the locker room.

I don't have to maintain the weight, I just have to HIT IT. Then I'm licking the cream out of at least half a bag of oreos. Double stuff oreos. I think 135-140 is a much more reasonable maintaining goal for me.

Working my way through the STR socks, MAN they're fun. I just love watching the patterns that magically appear.

I had a good ol'd KICK IN THE ASS from the knitting goddesses last night. I was feeling my usual super powers after turning the heel on my STR sock, set it down, sighing at my amazing abilities. I picked up my start for the roses top. I had made a mistake in the lace edging at the bottom and was able to slip a stitch off the needles, follow it down a while, CORRECT the bugger, loop it just so with YARN OVERS, SSK's and various knit stitches through SIX ROWS. I was FREAKING SUPERKNITTER. Seriously. I should have had a malabrigo cape fluttering in the wind behind me and glorious hair to boot.

I started thinking. You know, my blog was started for my trials and accomplishments as a beginner knitter. I thought to myself "I am no longer a beginner knitter. I knit SOCKS, SEE mistakes, FIX mistakes, knit lace patterns, knit sweaters that occasionally FIT, I am knitting guru extraordinnaire." Yeah, anyone else out there been there done that? Know what's coming? a big old BITE IN THE ASS. After correcting the lace mistake and admiring it, I spent the next hour finishing the first ball of yarn and looked at the pattern again. Yeah, I've read enough about other's troubles with missing those little words "at the same time" that I've trained myself to read the entire pattern before starting a few times through. I didn't miss any at-the-same-time's. Nope, I missed "with the bigger needle..." Yup. The lace pattern needs to be knit WITH THE BIGGER SIZE NEEDLE. That gives it the pretty shaping where it's a little wider than the rest of the sweater without having to do decreases, etc. nice. I had no heart left to frog it, so I very calmly slipped out the needles and set it into a baggie and put it back in the damn drawer.

My sacrfice to the altar of the smart-ass knitting goddess. I am back to humble "beginner knitter" status. I am now half-way through the first repeat of the leaves on the right sized needles. Part of a violent femmes song kept drifting through my head as I re-started...."third verse, same as the first."

Beer-drinking, gun-toting sock-knitting momma! Don't you want to send your kids to play here too?

Joey asks a little friend over to play on Saturday morning. Sweet boy, one of those uber-Christian types. My family is happily Christian, I'm not bagging on them, it's just important to the story line. I like this overly-going-to-Church-functions DAILY family because though they are quite involved in everything, and you know they are, they don't flaunt it in your face. ANYWAY, the point is, the boy's from a bit of a sheltered home.

He comes over, the boys are playing like boys do, running around throwing balls at each other and walls, causing lots of havoc and noise. After a bit, I send them down to play video games and legos in the playroom in the basement. On the way down to the basement is our family room/den. It's the manly room. We've got deep red walls, leather big-ass couch, wood stove, pictures of Jeff's cows, his stereo, etc. Along with all this is an old cowboy lamp with an actual (but disabled and not able to shoot anymore) real live cowboy's revolver hand-gun as part of the lamp that you can remove. I come down to the little boy saying, "Wow, your mom lets you have guns on your tables? Cool!" nice. STIKE ONE

Later, they come up to the kitchen for a juice box. I'm preparing some beer bread from my Tastefully Simple stash from my cousin. The beer can is sitting on the kitchen island next to my bowl and spoon. Oven's pre-heating. The boy keeps watching me strangely as he sips away on his apple juice. After I pour the beer into the mix and then into the pan and throw away the can, he says, "OH, you're not DRINKING the beer?" It's 10:00 in the morning. STRIKE TWO

As visions of the horror-striken face of the mother as the little boy tells his mom "Joey's mom has guns AND beer at his house!" I figured I'd better send her boy home with a disclaimer so she wouldn't think we were the spawn of satan. She laughed and smiled and said "oh, I totally understand, no problem" but then she said "hey, I have an idea, why don't the boys play at OUR house the next couple of times?" STRIKE THREE

(OK, so our house was the scene of various shot-gun blasts blowing chunks of our yard into oblivion on new year's eve, but those guns are for hunting and are locked up away from children, not sitting out on the coffee tables.)

Ah well, life goes on. I'm now the 10am-beer-drinking gun-toting hoodlum momma of 1st grade. who knits. socks. Beer-drinking, gun-toting, sock-knitting momma!

On a side note, Joey's perking up a bit and his coughing wasn't so bad last night, signs that the new medicines and increased vest therapy seems to be working to fight the lung infection.

Feeling much better today, thanks!

You guys are so wonderful. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts and prayers. I am feeling much more normal today, or as normal as I ever feel I guess. I think everyone needs a big cry day every so often. It's been a long time since I've just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry myself silly. It's healing. It really is.

I felt much better about the world after sucking down TWO 32 ounce diet cokes and half a burrito bowl from Chipotle yesterday. I somehow made it through my haze and got my work done and went to pick up the kids from school. Seeing Joey and Elizabeth come bouncing out of the school just like any other day made things suddenly make sense. He's still the same kid he was the day before I knew he had this damn infection, no different. no sicker. Just the same. It's just more stuff to do, no big deal.

This pseudomonas infection came to represent a line in the sand for me. I always knew in my mind that Joey had CF, but until he got the first infection of this crap, I didn't really know it in my heart. It's just the first tiny step on that long road of sucky things to come. Just a baby step. It doesn't mean we're going running down that path, I have been a pretty damn stubborn person once or twice in my life and I'm raising some pretty damn stubborn chilren as well. We will do what we have to and get on with life. Life's too short to be pissy or worried or to knit with crappy yarn. period. Get on with it. LIVE DAMMIT. See? I'm back, baby.

Jeff was a doll. He was busy out working all over the city and not around all day and then had bb practice with his older boy in the evening. By the time we got all the kids to bed, he took me, put me in my pj's, brought a box of tissues and cuddled me and let me cry and cry and cry. Then we watched the 30 year reunion of Mash and I cried some more. I think I lost 3 pounds yesterday just from fluid loss.

When Joey was at his cf checkup, he made a friend with a girl his same age that had just been through all this stuff. I talked with her parents last night and it really helped me see through a lot of the confusion also. I really did feel comforted reading all your nice comments and emails. Thanks guys. I really needed it.

The biggest sign that I was totally freaked out beyond all recognition (FOBAR is not nearly as much fun as FUBAR you know) was that I didn't even want chocolate. How scary is that? 2nd sign? The only knitting I had handy was a swatch square and I knit an ENTIRE 4 inches of swatch for yarn I want to use for the roses top. I didn't even MEASURE it yet to see if it works. Damn, that's freaky enough for me. I'm gonna go measure it now. Normally I try to swatch big, I really do, but am doing good to do an inch and a half or two inches before I just get too impatient.

Just say NO to subscribing to podcasts while thoroughly depressed. I'm not even sure how many bluegrass casts are now on my ipod. I can't even believer there ARE that many bluegrass podcasters out there. It boggles the mind.

I love you guys, I really do. Thank you for your help and prayers. It's helped more than I can say.

well crap.

As some of you know, my son Joey has cystic fibrosis. It's a genetic disease that affects the lungs, digestive organs, in his case sinuses, and eventually causes problems with the rest of him. It sucks. For the past few years, he's been so healthy that we pretty much forget about it. He just takes a few extra medicines, does his "shaking" a vest that uses air vibrations to shake the piss out of him which helps break up congestion in the lungs. His last few checkups have been so good. We've always been told Joey's "the healthiest cf kid in kansas city." Well, not anymore.

It's nothing huge, nothing horrendous, but it's just dropped me like a rock today. I got a call from the CF Clinic at Children's Mercy where we go for his stuff. The throat culture he took showed pseudomonas aeruginosa. It's a antibiotic-resistant bug that gets into cf lungs and causes problems. Most cf kids catch their first case of it by the age of 10, and it keeps coming back over and over and stronger and stronger throughout their lives. It's not the big bad cf infection, that's the B cepacia, which you don't even want to hear the word when you're a cf parent, let me tell you. That's the bad one, that's the one who's parents are supposed to be crying and freaking out, not for the regular pseudomonas.

To fight the pseudomonas, Joey will take a series of 2x a day inhaled super antibiotics called Tobi (Tobramyacin) that targets this particular bug along with an oral medication called cypro. He comes in more often for tests and such and there's good hope that he'll be able to almost irradicate it since they caught it so early. It will come back over and over and be harder to get rid of each time and will eventually damage his lungs. His lungs are very good, operating at 98% function, which is better than most normal people's lungs. The tobi will help preserve lung function and it's all a great exciting thing because these drugs didn't exist a few years ago and cf kids would get sick and die very young. It's all very exciting, but it still really really SUCKS.

I was so proud of Joey's health, I just kept telling myself and everyone that would listen, "oh, yes, he has cf, but he's so healthy now, we're just going to keep him that way." "No, you would never know anything's wrong just to look at him." I think I knew something was brewing because he's just not been quite himself for the last month. He just didn't have the umph he normally has. I don't know why I'm so shocked, but I feel like the first time he was diagnosed as an infant. That horrible feeling that the baby you're holding has something wrong that you can't fix. I think I'm freaking out because this is really the first sign that he's just like the other cf kids. I'm afraid I was feeling a bit superior or super-blessed or something. "Yes, Joey has cf, but he's never had pseudomonas..." kid of biting me in the ass now, huh?

We've got a good game plan. We've got medicines called in and on their way. We'll increase his vest treatments and get the stuff done in a way that will minimize the time he spends having to sit around doing meds. We're going into clinic on a monthly basis to test the levels of the pseudomonas to make sure we're getting this first batch gone as quickly as possible. He's got a great care team at CMH and they're very aggressive in their work and love Joey as much as I do. I won't be one of those parents who lets the kid become "the sick one", he's still just Joey. It's all positive, they caught it early, his lungs are so good now they're not even going to have to hospitalize him for iv antibiotics or anything.....blah blah blah. I believe it, I'm just feeling kind of crappy, have a headach and am OUT OF FREAKING DIET COKE!!! and have a big project due at work. damn damn damn

I'm going to finish the damn project for work, take myself out to Chipotle for some damn guacamole and chips and steak burrito bowl and BIG ASS damn diet coke and then sit down and watch Little House on the Prairie on the Hallmark Channel later this afternoon and knit my damn socks.

I really am feeling better and it's really not a big deal. I just feel like most of you guys are my extended knitting group/circle of friends and I needed to vent bigtime. Thanks for listening. Thanks for keeping Joey in your thoughts and prayers. I deeply appreciate it.

Socks that Rock and a White Trash New Year's

I totally couldn't wait for the Jan 1st start date for the 2007 L&V Sock Marathon. I mean, come on! My first ball of Socks That Rock are sitting there just taunting me. What's a girl to do? I kirchenered up the toe at about 1:00am this morning before finally shutting off the light and going to bed. I started this yarn on pomotamus, made it about 2 inches and my eyeballs started itching from the inside out. Frogged it, started monkey with it. Got about 3 inches, realized though this yarn is beautiful and loverly, it looked like monkey barf in this pattern and frogged it. Yes, I frogged THREE INCHES of size 1 work on the damn thing. I think I'll have to stick with mostly solid colors for that pattern. Decided I liked the swirly way it turned out just in plain old ribbing at the top of the socks I'd tried, so here's sock #1. Knit with 65 stitches cast on, 2X2 rib, slip stitch heel and decreased down to 28 stitches before kirchenering the toe. LOVE IT! The bottom is actually prettier than the top, but I'm not coordinated to take that picture on my own, (fell off my rolling office chair). My boyfriend is mostly understanding about the sock knitting addiction, but would probably have me committed if I asked him to take a picture of the bottom of my foot. You'll have to use your imagination.

I'm going to try to get out to a couple of yarn shops to see what yarn they suggest for my roses top I posted yesterday. The pattern calls for Harrisville Silk & Wool Yarns, but it doesn't come in that many colors and it just didn't speak to me. Yes, my yarn does talk to me. Yours probably talks to you too, you just need to listen closer, drink a lot of diet coke and stay up way too late at night.

I've got a house full of boys today. Jeff's boys are here for the day while their mom's at work and Jeff had to go in to the office. Joey's running around with the other 2 and they're having nerf gun wars, playing trains and building forts with pillows. Elizabeth's due home tomorrow afternoon. She's flying BY HERSELF for the fitst time, ever. Her dad didn't quite plan well enough with all the big storms that have hit New Mexico, so instead of leaving EARLIER and driving her back, he's going to put her on the plane. It's a direct flight and she flew with us to Maui in September, so she should be fine. Her momma's nervous as hell, but she's fine.

Got to get back to work, better close.

Happy New Year!

Editor's note: I totally forgot details of Xmas and our white trash new years!
Santa was very good to our house this year! Joey got a new bike, Elizabeth an ipod (she's all about the music, baby), David a train set and new scooter, Ben a monster sized lego set, and they all got TONS of presents. I got a very pretty pendant with an emerald and three little diamonds hanging on a gold chain with matching earrings from Jeff and a little wooden jewelry box from Santa. I got Jeff a chief's sweatshirt and a wine caraff (how do you spell that anyway?). Santa brought him a carved wooden cow and a bag of beef jerky. His herd of cattle is growing, they bought another cow and a calf a while back (the momma cow that chased me, remember?)

We twanged in the new year with a Hee Haw marathon on tv and old country music albums on the record player during commercials. Yes, we really did. It was at least six hours of Hee-Haw. We had the white trash new years eve. Fire was blazing in the wood stove, beer and steak in our bellies, and shotguns galore were shot (into the dirt at least) at the break of midnight. The only thing missing was squirrel stew and a granny in a rocker spitting chaw. Jeff found a can of something minty and chaw-like so I guess that'll do. The house was so hot at one point (88 degrees) that I went up to the attic to cool off. When I came back downstairs, both Jeff & Joey were sitting in their UNDERWEAR on the couches and each one had a guitar and were strumming along. I swear by all that is holy, I sat down and laughed until I about wet my pants. NORMAL people were shooting off pretty fireworks that we gazed at through the smoke and haze and SMELL of gunpowder in the air around our house.

Here's my newest project

OK, so I just bought the pattern, and am just starting to think about what yarn to use. OH OH OH I'm excited about this one! Calista's site has such lovely designs.

I'm also going to be working my way through my 4.3 MILES of sock yarn that I've accumulated. Lime N Violet's sock marathon is starting in January 07, and I figure what a perfect time I've picked to become totally addicted to socks, socks, SOCKS! Four point three miles is a LOT of freaking sock yarn. That doesn't count the ugly stuff I'm going to be getting rid of, either.

Pat from the Yarn Shop & More has a friend that works at one of the local women's safe houses. (the kind where abused women and children run away to) She said some of the women have shown interest in starting a small knitting group and she's taking donations of stash and needles (mostly worsted or heavier and probably mostly superwash or acrylic). I have a bunch of duplicates of wooden straight needles (I can't remember the last time I used straights, now that I'm circular & dpn-woman). I'm saving some for my daughter as she's still every so often picking up the needles and working on projects, but thought giving the extras would be a great way to give a little something to someone who could really use it. If you have stuff you'd like to donate, leave it at the Yarn Shop & More with Pat's name on it and she'll see it gets there.

HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!!! You've been such a great part of my 2006 that I want to thank you all! All you readers & commenters, you lurkers, you friends & family, you bloggers yourselves, have a safe and happy 2007.

sock yarn, sock yarn, everywhere!

First of all, I had so much fun meeting another blogger and sock knitting goddess at the big sale! Chery has promised she can get me not only comfortable with continental knitting, but also toe-up socks and 2 socks on circs at the same time. I'm not holding my breath, but do like the idea of learning continental knitting. I only went back into the store one time after Chery left, somehow a bundle of Schaefer Anne sock yarn had to come home with me too.

OH what a fun sale. I did well, ended up SAVING enough money on the 30% off part to more than pay for one of my skeins. I saved $31. I'm not focusing on what I spent, because SOCK YARN DOESN'T COUNT! Right? right.

Schaefer Anne Sock Superwash Sock Yarn, 1 skein, 560 yds. Dark purples to almost black.

Artyarns Ultramerino 6 yarn, 1 skein, 274 yds. Oranges and yellows.


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock superwash sock yarn, 2 skeins, total 430 yds, blues/teals/purples


Remember the beautiful brown socks I made of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn for Jeff? They were so beautiful, but they were not strong enough for regular wearing and he ended up partially felting them in his boots and I got them since they've gotten a tiny felting all over (on purpose) and now they're my house socks. ANYWAY the yarn colors are beyond luscious, the feel of this yarn is unbelievable. I thought I'd give the bearfoot superwash sockyarn a shot since it was highly recommended by Chery, who has the best husband EVER! He wears any and all colors of socks she makes for him, even pinks and oranges. He LOVES his socks and encourages her love of fibres. He was sweet and happy and I enjoyed meeting him as well! Here's the colorways I thought I'd try for Jeff and my son and myself (hopefully I can do short socks for me and still have enough left for Joey on one of the skeins). I've still got a skein and a half of the mountain goat left, I'm thinking they would make a very soft and pretty scarf.

Mountain Colors Barefoot Superwash Yarn, 1 skein, 350 yds, color Obsidian


Mountain Colors Barefoot Superwash Yarn, 1 skein, 350 yds, color Moose Creek


I'll post better pictures soon, I just wanted to get back to work! I swear, my work gets in the way of my KNITTING dammit!

Merry Merry Everyone

Guess what I'm wearing to the Christmas parties? Nope, not the pretty little black dress that I wore to Jeff's business party, nope, my MONKEY SOCKS!!!

Have I said how much I love these socks? They're my new absolute favorite! Now I need to figure out what pattern to use for my new socks that rock yarn. *sigh* life is so hard...

OH, did you see the Holiday Google picture? KNITTING Kangaroos? How cool is that?


Merry Knitmas everyone! I'm sure Santa will be very good to me this year as I'm doing my shopping on the 26th at KnitWit's big ass yarn sale. Get yourself there. If you can't, just come by the blog and drool over what I get. I'm so excited! Bigger than usual bonus from the bosses means YARN for momma. I'm going to try to be there at 11:00am 9:30am so if anyone wants to come say "HELLO CHRISTINE, My, what a lot of sock yarn you have..." and introduce yourself, come on by!

Hope you all have wonderful weekends spent with family and friends.

It's nice to see some things never change. (and BIG ASS YARN SALE)

Driving home from the grocery store this morning I passed some groups of high school students waiting for the bus. It's raining this morning, not a downpour, but a steady rain. One group of girls were waiting, chatting away, each with their colorful umbrella above their heads. The next group was a bunch of boys, who were too cool for weather. No umbrellas, no hoods up (theirs were apparently being used as rain barrels), and not one coat was zipped up. Idiots. It's so nice to see that high school boys are just as stupid today as they were in my day. It made me think that I still may have a clue as to what it means to be a teen when my daughter gets there. I'll still be totally screwed as all mothers of teenagers are, it just gave me a glimmer of hope and made me laugh.

At the Christmas exchange at the sunflower knitter's guild meeting on Monday night, I scored these beauties. I LOVE THEM! I may have to frame one set of 4 and use the other set. Knitter's Coasters. very cool. I took Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book Knitting Rules, which I just bought myself and LOVE. It's a good read and has some very good info to use as a reference to go back to. I'm even inspired to DESIGN my VERY OWN SOCK PATTERN sometime in the new year.

Still knitting away on monkey, my new socks. I am IN LOVE with this pattern. It's not too hard, it's fun and interesting, it's even empowering. Yes, socks that are empowering. Maybe it's secret monkey power or something, but the finished product is something that makes me feel like I can do anything. Anything. I'm ready to turn the heel on the 2nd sock, made myself put them away last night before I started. Once I start a heel, not a damn thing's getting done other than the heel. It's too magical.

SPECIAL NOTE!!!! BIG ASS KNITTING SALE!!! Tuesday, Dec. 26th at Knit-Wit, the shop at 1815 S. Ridgeview Road in Olathe, KS. ALL yarn and kits are at least 30% off, some 50%, and there's the famous $3 boxes. I'm not sure what the $3 boxes are, but you can bet your butt that I'll know come Dec. 26th! If Santa doesn't bring you what you want, go shopping! Jan really has an amazing amount of beautiful yarn inside that little shop of hers. Every time I go in, I find new things to pet and drool over.

I just found another free online magazine for knitters and crocheters! If you already knew about them, WHY didn't you TELL ME? I'm such the magazine addict, and FREE online magazines are my bestest favorite EVER! It's a fun read. If there are others out there that I don't know about (and have posted in the sidebar) PLEASE TELL ME!!!

Still knitting along

And because it's just so damn pretty


Thanks Darra, my satan sticks now have a home! I hope they bring you much joy and little hand poking.

You know, they're right...this stuff DOES rock

Holy crapamighty. I finally figured out what happened to my socks that rock yarn I ordered. My paypal account still has my old po box address on it, so the kids and I stopped by and GOT MY YARN!!!! Now it's pretty much just hung out with me day and night. I don't want to stuff it into one of the stash drawers or cedar chest. nope. I don't just want to start some boring regular sock pattern with it. nope. So I figure if I just keep looking at it and squooshing it (Oh LORDY this stuff squooshes good) something will occur to me. My loverly boyfriend Jeff keeps telling me I'm getting a bit "overly yarn obsessed" lately. I keep telling him "OH I'm nothing...you should see some of the others..." but that argument doesn't seem to work when I was seriously considering taking a picture of it riding shotgun in the truck with me on errands yesterday. It may have spent the night on the pillow of Jeff's side of the bed (he was traveling) last night, but that's only because I fell asleep with about 14 knitting books, patterns, magazines, and other yarn from the stash strewn across the bed.

I'm cranking along on my koigu blue monkey socks and think it's a very cool pattern. The repeat is easy to remember, it's so interesting. Every few rows you do SOMETHING ELSE rather than just the k2, p2 ribbing I've been cranking out lately. Oh, right, my last sock was a k3,p1 rib. woo hoo. I've been bit by the creative sock bug.

Order was restored to the world (or at least MY world) when I finally ceremoniously put the damn additurbo 4" long metal sz 1 dpns back into their little packet and put them AWAY in the drawer after only stomping on them twice. At first I thought, "oh these could work..."then I thought, "maybe they're right for someone else, but not quite right for me..."then I thought "Sticks of Satan, be GONE from me, you DAMN metal instruments of torture!" If they were wooden, I would have burned them. They really REALLY started pissing me off as I tried and tried to knit. I got a pair of 5" long (which is just the right length I've found for my sock knitting) rosewood needles and the knitting is just so much quicker and easier and my hands aren't sore any longer. much much better.

It seems so strange not to be freaking out about crafting all my Christmas gifts this year (I'm crafting NONE for the first time I can remember since I was about 10 years old. seriously.) But then it occurred to me that this means I have to actually SHOP and BUY THINGS. Ah well. We're having a much more scaled back holiday season this year, with only a few people (mostly children) getting actual gifts, but there's the teacher gifts, etc. that I need to sit down and figure out the list and hit the shops.

ANYONE WANTING MY SATAN STICKS email me with your snail mail address and they're YOURS (free)! I'll stick them in the mail and get their bad mojo out of my house. I'm an additurbo circ lover, but will stick to my rosewood and ebony dpns or nothing.
Note: The satan sticks now have a home! Thanks Darra!

Knitty's up!

MAN I love the day each Knitty episode comes out. Even if it's one like the sex in the knitty episode where I was tempted to knit, um, NOTHING, I still get all aflutter when I see my little image tag has changed to the new season's magazine! This one has many that are calling my name. I've even cast on for Monkey socks with two different balls of yarn. I love this girl's sock patterns! WOO HOO!

Magknits has its December issue out too and has some good stuff, I love the scarf pictured on the cover. Crochet Me has its winter 2006-2007 has been up for a little while. I just saw the Halloween/spooky issue of Anti-Craft. Go out there and browse and get all inspired.

Here's my monkey socks starts.

The one on the right was the first attempt, on some VERY vivid opal and size 2 dpns. Working up quickly and lovely, except I couldn't get over the fact that the way those colors combined in the pattern was starting to look exactly like the beginning of a migraine for me. The flashing of violently pink, yellow, green & whatever in an orb-like pulsing shape in my vision whether I open or shut my eyes forecasts a very very bad time a-comin'. I thought this would be just tempting the goddesses of fate, and put them away. Frogged and put them in the drawer. In the bottom of the drawer. In the dark. far, far away. No migraines, please.

The pretty thing on the left in blue is some koigu. I'm afraid it'll work up bigger and just have this thing about refusing to swatch for socks. Nope. Not gonna do it. I'll swatch my ass off for sweaters, tanks, what-ever else, but not socks. Though I have had to frog a few starts, I normally have enough completed socks in different yarns that I pretty much know what stitches per inch I get on the different yarns...Except I've never knit a koigu kpppm pair before. I've done Koigu Kersti (the dk weight) but not the little bitties. I thought and thought and figured I'd better start with 1's since I was just barely at gauge with the Opal 2's and the koigu seems to have more texture and heft to it. The yarn shop had NO lantern moon sz 1s and I've lost 2 of the set of my only pair. I was talked into trying out the new mini additurbo dpns. I do love the addi circs, but am not so much a fan of these little babies. They're 4 inches long. That part I thought would freak me out, but really, kind of cool. Stitches don't slide off (unless you put your big ol' FOOT through to try it on, um, lost a few stitches there this morning, but they picked right back up again), but they take some getting used to. I have to hold them differently because I kept getting a sore spot in my left hand where I was getting poked with the end. Though they were slick without being slippery, I'm still gonna stay with my lantern moon ebony's or dark wood. There's just a different feel to the wood. warmer? maybe? I don't know. It just feels better to me to knit my socks with the slicker wood than these metal toothpicks.

My sock experiment with the striping of the 2 koigu kersti balls left over to make a pair of socks is turning out much like the pile of dog barf I cleaned off the floor after Miles was trying to digest legos. It wasn't pretty. The picture (of the sock, not the barf) turned out too dark, so you won't have to look at it. It's funny how two balls of yarn can look so good sitting next to each other, but when knitted together the hand-painting can sometimes turn out so horrid.

OH, and I'm totally buying the Tilli Tomas yarn for the Sahara sweater. I'm gonna do it. It's gonna be my Christmas present to myself. Now I just have to decide what color combo to do and what sleeve length. It's going to have to be either sleeveless or the short cap sleeves cause that's just another chunk of change for the long sleeves, plus the combo of a clumsy woman with big ass bell sleeves is just asking for trouble.

Oh Tilli Thomas, Oh Oh Oh

WHY OH WHY are you so freaking beautiful? Nothing else compares. damn damn damn. First of all, you're unbelievably expensive. That I can deal with. Ms. Queen of Yarn Rationalization can handle that. I can't afford you, but dammit, I could have found a way. Now it's unethical to knit with you. cripes. I have found some other lovely yarns that could work....artyarns regal silk, Knitpicks Andean silk, there are a few others, but dammit, I want the Tilli Thomas stuff. I was going to be just fine, until I saw THIS...Tilli Tomas Exotica. For the love of all things yarny, I must have it. It's got CHUNKS of funky beads! CHUNKS people! I was fine ignoring the sequins. I'm not much of a sequin kind of girl. I was fine ignoring the seed beed looking yarn, if I really had the patience, I could slip a buttload of seed beads onto any yarn and knit away. no big deal. But chunks. Chunks of turquoise looking things. That's more than I can take. damn damn damn.

You know SOMEONE's still buying the damn stuff. Can I be a quiet little hypocrite in Kansas who knits with it and wears it to only non-knitterly events? Can I knit with the stuff and not blog about it? Create something so beautiful as the Sahara and NOT post pics?

I've been cranking out hats for Caps to the Capital SaveTheChildren.org and a warm hat and scarves for the Dulaan Project to work on my guilt at even THINKING of purchasing the sacred yet damned yarn. Maybe if I spend as much money at Sarah's Yarns as I would spend on the Tilli Tomas, that would help my guilt? Yeah, right. I can't afford that idea either. Can you tell I'm an old Catholic girl? Guilt knitting as substitute for spending time on my knees saying my hail mary's? Ah well. It'll help keep some kids warm, so that's what matters.

Good thing I'm poor right now or I'd be SO knitting and wearing that yarn....I'll try to hold out until after the holidays and then see how I feel.

I'd feel much better if I had received my socks that rock that I ordered a few weeks ago. I know they charged my paypal account some time back, but no squishy to-die-for yarn has appeared on my front step yet. Waiting for that skein is worse than a kid sitting by a "do not open until Xmas" present.

Aren't they beautiful?

No, not my kids, my SOCKS!!! (though the kids are cute too, no worries)

The color's actually more like the brown in the 2nd photo. Koigu Kersti 2 1/4 skeins, 2X2 rib on sz 5 dpns. EBONY double points. Life's too short to use crappy needles. I will eat macaroni from a box just so I can get away from those DAMN bamboo needles. I get more splinters and scuffy areas on them. These ebony babies just GLIDE the yarn along. They're like BUTTAH baby. More socks for Jeff (my bf). Like a good boy he also admitted they were quite pretty, but drew the line at actually petting them like I did. Socks for this man have to be very VERY muted and understated. aka brown. black. grey. That doesn't leave a whole lotta yarn falling into the shopping basket. This Koigu is gorgeous. It has just a few flecks of lighter colors, giving it a depth and oh, it's just stunning. Go ahead, pet them virtually. You know you wanna.

I have most of one ball of this left and one ball plus a few extra remnants of a green/brown medly of Koigu Kersti so I think I'll try to widen my horizons and make striped socks. Yes, I know. The excitement is just about too much to bear. I'm actually increasing the amount of yarn ends ON PURPOSE for a creative purpose.

TWO SNOW DAYS and then the weekend along with about 5 inches of snow on top of an inch or so of ice made for a few great afternoons of sledding!! I should've taken action shots from the bottom of the hill, but then I'd have had to walk back up to the top again. I took a few runs down the hill, our best was the last run, where we ALL THREE were on the sled and proceeded to FLY down down down and beyond the end of the hill and ended up dumped into the big slush pit next to the road. Kids were fine & dry in their snowsuits, but momma had a wet, cold ass, so it was TIME TO GO HOME! I do love the snow. It's absolutely beautiful around here!

I love Kansas!

Where else could you have your kids playing outdoors in SHORTS in 73 degree weather on Tuesday and the world covered in ice and sparkling white and in the 20's on Wednesday? I would absolutely go INSANE living in California or somewhere pretty where the air was always mild. Ok, so I'd enjoy the hell out of myself in the sunshine, but still, I'd eventually miss the changing of the seasons.

Kids are on a snow day today. It's supposed to snow a little bit this afternoon, we're supposed to miss the brunt of the storm, which is predicted to dump a foot of snow in the Ozarks. I'm working up in the office to the sounds of the kids playing go fish downstairs, the fire is burning in the woodstove, the house is toasty and I have wool socks on all three of us. It's loverly.

I did what any other good midwesterner did preparing for the storm...gassed up the truck, brought in extra wood into the garage, bought extra water, batteries, food and toilet paper at the store, (why do people always go running for the toilet paper at times of crisis?), charged up the cell phones, drove to the apple store at the Plaza (I killed my 2nd ipod shuffle), charged and loaded it full of music and my podcasts, on my way home from the plaza, my car somehow ended up driving right past the Studio (LYS). Normally the yarn store is ON my list of emergency preparedness sites, but I've got so STINKING much yarn now that I was actually thinking that I did NOT need to go there. It felt really strange to be driving PAST and AWAY FROM the yarn store when the sleet was raining down. I resisted all urges to go in JUST IN CASE, but even if the entire city was frozen in 14 feet of ice for 6 months, I'd still not run out of yarn or projects. I was strong and did NOT stop. Man, it was hard.

I got the green one of THESE along with a cool clear cover that will show off the stylish Martha Stewart/baby poop green that is my very favorite color in the world.

We ended up with just a light coating of ice outdoors and all is well. There's no reason for the poor little shuffles to have died, I loved them so, but it just wasn't meant to be. Apparently I'm the ONLY ONE in the greater kansas city area that's had ANY problems at all with them. They gave me credit towards the big green monster and I love it. It, too, is loverly.

Working on another pair of socks for Jeff, he wears the heck out of the two pair I've made him and I think it's sweet. It's such a nice feeling to knit something you know will be loved and WORN! He's traveling and due back tonight.

Sahara is out! I'm there, baby. I mistakely said it was by Glampyre as it resembled the Simple Knitted Bodice a bit, but it's by Wendy Barnhard, my other favorite designer, she of Knit and Tonic fame... Sizzle, Somewhat Cowl, and on and on and ON! I really REALLY won't use the damn Tilli Thomas yarn called for, but want something a bit slinkier and prettier than the Elsebeth Lavold silky tweed I used last time. Anyone got any good ideas of a yarn substitute? My knitting funk is officially over!

Big weekend, lots of pictures!

Wooo boy! First of all, a big THANK YOU THANK YOU to my cousin, who took my two children while her inlaws were coming over for their house ALL NIGHT! WOO HOO! I got to go out with grown ups! For Jeff's 40th birthday, he wanted to go to a club that had THREE grateful dead genre bands playing. For those of you non-dead-heads, those songs each last about 20 minutes and don't always have words, and you apparently can't dance WITH the music, you have to dance to the special music playing in your head. We went out with a bit of a biker-kinda crowd, so I was all decked out in my K-mart morning after Thanksgiving sale special black leather & sweater material shirt over a black tank and jeans and HIGH SPIKY black heels. I even broke out the $50 boob job since it was a special occasion. Picture below is my daughter Elizabeth's happy birthday Jeff card made of pipe cleaners. How creative is that kid? I'd never of thought of that.

Saturday we woke up and drove out to Jeff's friend's farm to meet Jeff's cows. We spent the entire day chasing chickens, finding eggs in the nests, climbing tree houses and petting horses and cows. I also learned that not all animals on the farm are cute, sweet and particularly enjoy human beings. One of the horses bit my damn antenna right off the truck (see the red arrow pointing to the stubby little nub that's left.) It was METAL and encased in PLASTIC! WTF?




OK, now the cows. See the pretty cows all eating in a row? Very nice cows. Picture #2 is big momma cow stopping eating to check me and my camera out. Not quite sure of me.... Picture #3 is as I sneak around the side to get a picture of her and her baby calf and the other little one. Notice momma cow's ears? They're pointing BACK. This is a good thing for a city girl to know. Ears going back, RUN LIKE HELL WOMAN! I ended up running for my damn life and having to jump onto the back of the pickup truck (about a 6 foot high leap) to save myself. I barely made it. DAMN! Don't mess with big momma! She even SNORTED at me when she turned and sauntered off.







ACTUAL KNITTING CONTENT:
I have always heard knitters talk about what their particular yarn wanted to be. I honestly thought you guys were all crazy. Until Friday. I have been in a knitting funk lately, went through all my stash and pulled out the lovely hand-dyed 100% silk yarn I'd picked up to make a shawl. It should have grown up to be the shoalwater shawl. I'd started that thing EIGHT times. yes, eight. I thought this was the moment. I'd learned, thanks to Teri, how to read lace charts and was actually DOING it, but it just wasn't clicking. The yarn was being quite obstinate, and NOT getting any bigger. I can't describe it any other way. It was getting pissy. I put it aside, and then went wandering around blogland. It struck me suddenly, my yarn wanted to be Orangina from Glampyre! Now it's behaving itself and growing quite quickly! I'm going to be pushing it on yardage, but you make the lace part of the back, put on waste yarn and then make the lace part of the front, join in a circle and knit the waist ribbing in the round. I'll just knit till I run out of yarn! TOO freaking excited and BACK in the knitting happy place again!


OH, and I ordered some of this. And I totally signed up for their 2007 Socks that Rock club, about 30 seconds after posting that I was interested in finding out more about it. I haven't even TOUCHED this yarn and I can't live without it. So much for the knitting funk.....I'M BACK, BABY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eat, drink, KNIT, and be merry! You know, like I do every day!

Three socks, an OH CRAP and the best damn lemon cake I've ever had

Well, it seems that I thought everyone was crazily bouncing around like a pinball during the holiday season, but most of you already had more sense! GOOD FOR YOU! I'm loving my stress-free start to the season. So much so, that I'm knitting even more socks. Just because I want to. I finished the first sock wars sock I'm making for me. I'm making them longer than the original pattern and used up all but about a foot of the first ball of koigu kersti. I'll cast on the 2nd one later this afternoon.

I completed my daughter's 2nd sock and sewed in the ends RIGHT AWAY! And even sewed in the ends on Joey's 2nd sock that had been dangling there waiting patiently for the last few weeks. As I admired the pretty colorful future feet warmers, I noticed something. Not a little error, no, those don't bother me too much anymore. I tell myself those add to the personality. Those things are like when I forget to do a decrease on one side of the toe, I no longer frog back and reknit the entire round (yes, sadly I used to do this). No, I just sanely decrease on that side twice in a row. No biggie. I almost don't even see the uneven decreases. really. No, this WAS a biggie. I took a picture, but it doesn't do justice. I'll take one with Beth trying them on tonight.

I knit one sock about a month ago. I pulled it out to compare the length as I went along, but really didn't pay all that much attention to it. I knit one heel flap with just plain ol slip 1, knit across and then slip 1, purl across and the other heel flap with slip 1, knit 1, slip 1, knit 1, repeat across. So she has this beautifully textured and THICKER heel and one smooth as silk THINNER heel. nice. The anal knitter in me seriously considered frogging down to the heel and REKNITTING it. I convinced myself that would be STUPID. Then I actually started casting on for ANOTHER SOCK to reknit the entire thing, that way I wasn't frogging it. Since I only have enough yarn for ONE more sock, MAYBE, that wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. I forced myself to put the damn sock in the drawer and give it to my daugher, who noticed the sock heel immediately. I told her I did it on purpose because that way her one heel that she's always getting sore will be more cushioned. She was so impressed with her made-to-order socks. :) (My daughter drives me insane and instead of using the BRAKES on her bike, slamms one foot down, often resulting in a sore heel).

Jeez, I seriously didn't think I was that freaking anal. so sad. I've come a long way, baby. I used to frog entire projects down to the first few rows to correct some tiny little thing. Now it's just a part of the creative process. You know, you'd think my house would be cleaner if I was such a perfectionist, wouldn't you? cripes.

Jeff, sweet boyfried of mine, is turning FORTY!!!! We had his birthday party last night with his family over at our house and had a blast. I made the WORLD'S BEST LEMON CAKE...and I don't normally care for lemon cake. Here's the secret family recipe, shhhhhhh don't tell or they won't let me into the family!

CAKE:
1 pkg lemon cake mix (pick out one that has less oil than is called for in this recipe, one with 1/3 cup would work best)
4 eggs
3/4 cup veggie oil
3/4 cup water
1 small box INSTANT lemon pudding

GLAZE:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons veggie oil

Put ingreedients for cake into bowl, mix on slow for 30 seconds, on med speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan (I use reynolds' wrap easy release foil and it's AWESOME), bake as directed on box and do the toothpick test to determine doneness.

Mix glaze a few minutes before pulling cake out of oven. WHILE THE CAKE IS STILL HOT just out of the oven, take a fork and poke holes all over the entire cake top. Pour glaze on and this way it will soak into the cake and be LUSCIOUS!!!

Unbelievably good. I just had some for breakfast. Hey, lemons are a fruit, right? Ok so lemon flavoring probably not so much.

NO SOCKS FOR YOU!!! I'm not gonna knit one damn thing for the holidays. Not. gonna. do. it.

I was sitting at my folk's week-early Thanksgiving dinner last night and my mother, bless her heart, love the woman, but she's making me grey early (payback for my teens and 20's I know), anyway, the woman was making fun of the socks I knit for Jeff. Here's the love of my life, WEARING the socks I knit for him with all the love in my heart. They were the very first pair of socks I ever made and it warms my heart to see him wear them. I love that about him. Mom was cracking up because they were so wild and colorful. They were in the plainest, most blandest colorway of artyarns I could find. I'd pointed them out to mom because she had mentioned she'd like to try a pair of my knitted socks with the thicker wool and I wanted her opinion on the style of the stitching. I had been shopping around to try to find just the right yarn for her, worsted but superwash and soft, and was getting ready to spend money and time on this gift of love for the woman.

THEN she told the funny story about the wrist warmers I made her last year. She wore them to school and one of her students asked her about them. She told the girl her daughter made them for her. The student asked "Was she too poor to make the rest of the gloves?" OH the whole table laughed. My mom had tears running out of her eyes. I chuckled, ha ha funny funny.

The old Christine would have been wounded. Upset. This new and improved Christine realized it just makes life easier for her. Hence the Seinfeld Soup Nazi theme....NO SOCKS FOR YOU!!! Then I came to a realization..... this could be scandalous in a knititng blog, but here it is...

I'm not knitting one damn thing for a Christmas present! Not gonna do it. Seriously.

I came to that realization last night. Every freaking holiday season I make my self crazy, shopping, running around, buying massive amounts of yarn, counting down the time not just to the day we're celebrating with each person, but the TIME of actual present opening, knitting, crocheting frantically until the last possible moment the finished beast gets stuffed unceremoniously into a bag with a piece of crumpled up tissue paper (recycled from holidays past) crammed on top of it. Normally I have about 4-6 separate holiday celebrations at different homes in different cities on different days. My sense of holiday spirit isn't one of "joy to all" but "GET OUT OF THE GAWDDAMN WAY I'VE GOT TO GET TO MY FRIKKING BAG DAMMIT!!!! I CAN'T GO TO SLEEP YET, THERE'S STILL 4 AND A HALF INCHES TO GO ON THIS DAMN THING!!!....." rinse and repeat. and repeat. and repeat. and repeat.

I'm not very pleasant when I get stressed. It's not pretty. I had an actual ephiphany on the drive home. What if I actually ENJOYED the holiday season this year? Simplified our lives down to what matters? Family. Friends. Food. The whole baby Jesus Christmas story? All that good stuff. What an amazing idea. Could I do that? Is it against some rule of knitting if I'm not bleary-eyed and raving like a lunatic by Dec. 21st? Isn't it?

For example, off the top of my head, last holiday season I made...6 pair of wrist warmers, 4 scarves, 2 felted bags, a dozen felted crocheted flower pins, 24 plastic canvas coasters (6 sets of 4) with plastic canvas holder box things, a crocheted capelet, a knitted toddler poncho, a crocheted and then woven afghan for Jeff, and a lacy baby blanket crocheted for my nephew's baptism in early January. I am not one of those craft the whole year in preparation for Christmas people. Nope, I had a NOVEMBER start for most of those babies, and actually started many in the middle of December. I didn't sleep, I hardly ate, I was a raving lunatic. No joy in the creation, almost no joy in the giving. I've been like this since I can remember way back in my childhood.

I will still be knitting and crocheting, don't get me wrong. I haven't lost my entire damn mind. The things I've knitted or crocheted or sewn for others give me as much joy to create as it does those who receive the gifts. All the rest of the year, I knit socks or scarves or gloves or whatever and can think about the person I'm creating the item for instead of how many minutes I've got left to cram this thing together. I do actually make things with love in every stitch, as corny as that may sound. I pulled out a few items I'd like to finish that I bought in one of my late December runs to the craft store, LYS, etc manic trips. I'm working on a crocheted blanket for my son (that I started LAST Dec. 15th) and would like to finish that matching doll & child quilt for my daughter. If I happen to finish them in time for Christmas, I'll give it to them then. If not, I'll give it to them on a Tuesday or a Thursday or whatever day it happens to be finished. For now, I'm going back to my socks. With no stress whatsoever.

this N that

Did you hear that Glampyre has another sweater out? I love the look of this one, Sahara and will probably have to make it also (but not with the Tilli Thomas $$$$$$$$expensive yarn! I'm going to have to make this the LAST belled sleeve sweater I make. I LOVE the look of them, but the combination of my clumsiness and those big ass sleeves on the Simple Knitted Bodice are not a good thing. Things I found I could not do in my SKB...ice a chocolate birthday cake, reach across the table without picking up many food items and a flaming candle from the centerpiece, KNIT with dpns (ends kept getting stuck in the sleeves), the list goes on. The look really is fabulous, so I just kept whipping the sweater on & off all day. I think this is more for the going out to dinner in not for the living my life in kind of sweater shape. Yup, gonna think about this one. If I do it in different yarn, I wonder if it'll look different enough from the skb? who knows.

Still in my "not sure what to knit" funk. I just really have this overwhelming need to knit, but can't get excited about anything. SO, I cast on another pair of socks. Now on the needles are Elizabeth's 2nd sock in 2X2 rib with lorna's laces sockyarn and a pair of those socks of doom in the same colorway of koigu kersti that I made for my target, this lovely greenish brownish yarn.

Good links:

From the Pointy Sticks podcast,
Heels by Number a chart for how many stitches to make your heel depending on how many you cast on. I love this one, that way I can kind of wing my own pattern without having to do the math!

an online knitting & crochet magazine, only has one free pattern per issue, but has some good reads in their features and such. The archives are fun to read through too. Here's a link to the knitted swiffer cover. How cool is that? Environmental AND functional!

My new podcast faves (there's many, many more goodies out there, that's just what I've got time to post today.):

Sticks & String



I'm a total idiot. No, really. I didn't realize I could listen to podcasts WITHOUT an ipod. Apparently you can just go to their sites and click the LISTEN button on their posts and listen on your computer! Duh. Well, if any of you didn't realize that, go do it. It's fun, wonderful to knit to and feels like you're sitting at your local stitch N bitch group!

Other tidbits:
Knitting Pattern Central Crochet Pattern Central>

Personal stuff, life is quite boring right now, thank you very much. I kind of like it that way. Kids are busy in school, boyfriend is loving his new job, but working very hard and my job's still cruising right along with the flexibility I need to keep sane. We've been burning a fire in our BIG old fireplace stove insert thing for the last week and it's so nice to have a warm and toasty house without hardly using the furnace at all! I also love the smell of wood fires in the cool autumn air. mmmmmmm. Makes me want to knit more socks. cripes. Got to get off the socks.

An apple a day keeps bitchy momma away

I love you i-pod,
Oh yes, I do...
I love you, i-pod,
And I'll be true...
When you're not with me,
I'm blue..
Oh, i-pod, I love you!

I'm all shiny happy people holding hands....b-52'n it! YES! I went to the KC apple store on the plaza and they were going to order me in a part and I could leave it to have it fixed, when the guy at the genius bar (tech help that does NOT talk down to the general public) said, wait a minute....and ended up REPLACING it with a very brand new little baby ipod just for me! WOO HOO! It was just past the 14 day exchange/replacement deadline, but he said it would only mean a little more paperwork, which would be worth it to see me really happy. OH MY GOD! I went home, plugged it in and I'm all happy and calm and NOT BITCHY! woo hoo! I'm sure my family will now breathe a collective sigh of relief also! How did we ever survive back before this technology?

I'm totally buying a Mac laptop for my next computer. They have CLASSES for free and they're FUN and I just LOVE that place! I've been happy dancing my little heart out here!

Still can't decide what to knit next for a project. I'm just in a holding pattern, nothing is capturing my excitement now. Just socks. More and more socks. I'm half-way done with Beth's 2nd sock in some mixed berries colorway of Lorna's Laces sockyarns on sz 2 dpns. Basic 2X2 rib pattern which does show off the colorway nicely.

I feel this need to make a sweater, but not sure which one. I think it's the fall weather that puts me in the mood. Jeff was traveling last night so his side of the bed ended up entirely covered with yarn and needles and books and magazines. I had a ball just sitting half-listening to the news and junk on tv while I just perused and browsed. I used to just knit anything and everything. Now I have to have that special feeling to find just the right project. I played and reorganized the stash, I've got about 10 balls of 100 yds each of bulky 4 stitches to the inch on 10 1/2 needles yarn in blues/greys colorway, I was trying to find just the right thing for it. I thought probably top down raglan something, but not sure what. Maybe I'll make something for Elizabeth for Christmas, a cardigan or something. I've been toying with the idea of the ribbi cardi for a while now, maybe that would be good. I've still got to make Jeff a sweater someday and I want to find some washable wool for a kangaroo pouch sweater for my son Joey.....just kind of in a what to knit funk. Ah well, at least I can listen to my podcasts!!!

Maybe I'll just go roaming around blogland and see what you guys are all making and get inspired.

freaking ipod

i-pods, i-pods, freakin frackin ipods
i-pods, i-pods, eat them up, yum.

So the damn thing quits working. Not entirely, just enough to PISS ME OFF BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION!!! I get myself nice and hooked on some knitting podcasts. SERIOUSLY enjoying myself. I'm even out in the yard raking leaves, exercising in the out of doors ON PURPOSE because I enjoy them so much. WALKING, heck, I even JOGGED for 4 minutes straight the other day. (my old record was 2 minutes straight) ALL BECAUSE OF THE DAMN PODCASTS.

You know, if it just totally quit, it would be one thing. No, this little bastard is just screwing with me. It'll work perfectly well for about 20 minutes sometimes. Then just shuts off. Nothing. I turn it off, wait 5 seconds like it says on the stinking website, turn it back on and, um, NOTHING. Oh, wait. sometimes I have this cute little red blinking light just blinking its ass off at me. nice. Other times it'll work until I hit the pause button once, then it won't come back on. Each time I plug the little booger back on its little pad thing and it will reset and work for anywhere from 8 to 45 minutes before finding a new and different reason to shut off and DO NOTHING.

I've gone through ALL the steps it gives on the website. I've got the most up to date version of the software. I've reset the damn ipod four times. Each time it works for a little bit. I click the little stop the thing for a safe unplugging each time. rrrrrrrgggghhhh Not fun.

I'd call for help, but you only get one phone call. Hmmmm like getting arrested, huh? The one phone call I actually already did, but the help desk guy was so frustrated and couldn't get it figured out and felt sorry for me and erased my call off my record so I get one more. woo hoo. He hadn't even seen one of the new mini shuffles yet. nice. I'm going to have to head down to the Apple store on the Plaza tomorrow and beg for help. I love this little thing, but it's really getting on my nerves. Can't tell, can you? It's almost enough to make me want to switch to the original shuffle instead of this teeny tiny new shuffle that I love. Maybe it's not so great to buy the newest little toy since apparently all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

ANYWAY, thanks for the bday wishes, we had a lovely weekend. Elizabeth did her jump around and go crazy party on Friday night with all the girls in her class and Joey and one of his friends. Thirteen 10 year old girls all giggling in the small party room after the crazy time was a thing to behold! Fun was had by all.

Sat. Jeff (my boyfriend) took Beth to the Oak Park mall to shop together for her present from him. They were gone for almost four hours. I love that man, hell, I couldn't of done the mall with my daughter for four hours and I gave birth to the kid. He came home looking like a war veteran, quite shell shocked but proud of completing his duties. He later said, "I didn't even know there were that many stores in the mall." Apparently he survived Libby Lu's, Limited Too, Children's Place, Gap for Kids, Dillards (both north and south), Claire's Boutique, the candy shop and more that he couldn't even remember. They came home with the cutest little denim jacket that's fitted and has dark blue eyelet lace around all the edges and a little silver necklace with a dolphin pendant and a handful of scrunchies. They also bought ME a beautiful very fluffy very warm and squishy and wonderful and GREEN robe that I loved!

Sat. night the boy took me out to dinner at the remodeled EBT restaurant where we got to eat in one of the elevator rooms, very cool. We listened to some jazz there while eating and then went over to BB's Blues & BBQ over on 83rd and Troost. I really did MUCH better on the whole not-drinking-like-a-stupid-20-yr-old thing. I only had 2 glasses of wine at dinner, quite respectable. And at the Blues room I was sticking to a couple of beers. Then, somehow, my brain shut off and the shot (that JEFF was trying to buy me and some friends at the table) suddenly I thought, you know, I think a shot called an oatmeal cookie WOULD taste good. Sure, why not? At least I kept it to the ONE shot, and then one hot damn later. OH and did I tell you I didn't have ANY of my fabulous chasers pills? It's been so long since we've gone out on the town, I totally forgot I needed them. Only a moderate hangover with light headache and a little shakiness on Sunday. Considering I thought I was going to DIE the day after the bday last year, this year wasn't too bad.

Beth had her first concert with this singing group she's in and it was FABULOUS! Then dropped Joey off at a birthday party, ran home and cleaned the bathrooms, Jeff had sweetly vacuumed the house and dusted and decluttered, and iced the bday cake for our joint bday party for Elizabeth and me with all our family at our house at 7pm. Let's just say it was a LONG weekend but a very sweet and fun one.

Finished one sock for Elizabeth and need to work on the other. I have all kinds of projects roaming around in my brain, but none of them seem ready to be worked on, so I'm just sticking with my socks for now.

NaKniSweMo & Happy Birthday to my favorite girl in the world!!!

OK, so I didn't do the nanowrimo this year, but thought this was the coolest thing ever! Ok, so it's half-way through November, but what a great idea. Go knit yourself a sweater!

I *heart*

Just leave me with some needles, some yarn and my ipod. I'll be happy. And some chocolate. And beer.

OH Big ass sale at the Studio here in KC! This weekend, Nov 11th and 12th is Cindy's Son Matthew's Sale where everything is 25% off if you bring a hand knitted hat or gloves for an infant, toddler or child to dontate. You could whip up a little hat in NO TIME! Go get you some stuff.

Anyone thinking of doing the January knitting weekend retreat at the Elms? There's info on their fall class schedule. I probably couldn't do both the getaway and the socks that rock club, I'm afraid the socks club may win this one.

Happy birthday to my daughter Elizabeth! She turns TEN years old today. Double digits, baby! I swear it wasn't so long ago she was this little tiny baby with bright red hair that stuck straight up and the biggest blue eyes you ever saw. She's turning into such an amazing young woman. I'm so proud to be your momma Elizabeth!

How to know when it's time to shave, 2 stories

Story #1...I get more compliments on my clapotis. I wear it all the damn time. Yes, it was 80 degrees in KC today, but this morning was a little bit chilly, so the clap came out with me. A woman stopped me to ask about the lovely scarf I had around my neck. She oooohed and aaaahed and then said, but how did you get all the little bumps in the design? Pill city. Yup, it's time. Disposable razors, here I come. I feel like such a real knitter. I knit, I frog, I block, I shave.

Story #2...I was kicking through the at least 12 inches of oak leaves on the street on my way up the hill to pick up the kids after school this afternoon. We live on one of those streets with GORGEOUS big old oak trees up and down both sides of the road. Every color of brown and gold, piles and piles and absolutely more than a foot deep everywhere you go. I kept feeling this tickling, itching on my shins. I thought some creepy bug was on me or something. I jumped, looked down and FOUR leaves had been speared by my leg stubble. Jeff's been traveling, so I've gotten a bit lazy lately on the whole leg shaving thing. If I can't see it, I don't worry about shaving it. My sight must be really going because in the sunlight of the afternoon, those leg hairs were SERIOUSLY long and spiky. Good lord. Good thing I didn't use up all those razors in the pack.

Ok sock fanatics. Have you seen this? Rockin Sock club for Socks that Rock? $210 for the year of 2007. That splits up to $34.33 per pair for socks that rock (supposed to be the most sought after addicted sock yarn in the world), patterns and shipping & handling. You can sign up now and not pay until January. HOW COOL IS THAT??? I keep thinking. How can I rationalize this to myself? hmmmmmm I do spend a buttload on sock yarn.... I do enjoy myself a good pair of socks....$34.33 really isn't all that much, considering how much I've spent already on sock yarn of all kinds....plus you get other cool stuff like an emergency sock yarn keychain (I don't know what that is, but I'm sure I need it desperately)....hmmmmmm what do you think?

Quick post

First of all, wasn't the sun shining brighter today? Wasn't the air fresher and children's voices floating on the breeze? Ahhhhhhh, the world just went a bit more in alignment. ROCK ON YOU PEOPLE FOR GETTING OUT THERE AND VOTING FOR A CHANGE!!! I was so stinking excited when I got the morning paper and saw all the voting results. Oh, Phill Phill Phill, so NOT sorry to see you go. Paul Morrison, a man who is known for PROSECUTING CRIMINALS and not using his office for his own personal agenda is now on the job. Ok, enough. Just know that I did a happy dance and you can rhyme a lot with "Phill with 2 L's", especially if you get creative.

OH MY GOD I laughed on this one, remember the tubey from Knitty? My first sweater that I LOVED? This chick made a matching DOG TUBEY SWEATER for her own. Man, if I didn't have kids, I'd totally make my dog a tubey sweater. My poor little dog is gonna be COLD outdoors again this winter, he's in line behind two children and a boyfriend awaiting sweaters.

The podcasts? OH MY GAWD how did I LIVE before this? I've just been knitting my ASS off and cracking up and loving the crap out of them!!!! Thanks for the suggestions ladies! I'm hooked. Teri, you should TOTALLY make your own podcasts! I sat there on the couch, feeling like I was sitting in a group of friends knitting away while I was listening to them. Made me miss my Thursday night group I'm on the fringe of. I'm gonna try to make it this week! Good thing I've not figured out how to go back and listen to back episodes yet, I might never have those earplugs out!

Holy crap, this is what happens when you don't clean since the mid eighties...

As I was cleaning out and trying to pare down and LABEL and ORGANIZE my unbelievable amount of craft CRAP I came across these...

I totally forgot these were even in there! Buried in the bottom of one of the big ass heavy tubs of stuff were these quilt tops!!! I'm so excited! The white and purple squares set were started when Elizabeth was a toddler, I thought I'd give them to her, one for her and one for her dolly. Well, um, she's turning TEN YEARS OLD this weekend. So now I think it'll be Xmas presents. The larger one is larger than a lap quilt, but not big enough for a twin sized bed. More of a nap-size snuggle quilt. The tiny one will be for her favorite stuffed animals or a pillow, depending on how motivated I get. I need to get some batting and I found the white muslin I had bought for the backing. I've never made a binding and don't really know how to finish the damn things. (I'm not only the Knitting Virgin, I'm a Quilting Virgin as well---no freaking idea of what I'm doing!) Maybe I'll hit the library for a book. The pattern was from a magazine and is long, long gone. The big green & cream log cabin mess is from one of those quilt-in-a-day classes I took also in the 80's (bet you couldn't tell with the big ass FLOWERS everywhere, huh?) I now hate the colors and the prints, but think I should finish it anyway since it was my first quilt attempt and we could always use it for extra warmth. Maybe some other day. For now it's going into the smaller tub marked "ugly quilt attempts" with a few strange hand-pieced things I'll photo another day.

Some actual knitting was done around here as well, here's a close-up of a headband done with some leftover lorna's laces sock yarn in ??? color, I find every skein tag but these. I swear they self destruct as soon as I start knitting. Link was in the earlier post about left-over sock yarn ideas. I actually blocked it! (my first piece that was blocked EVER!) Wet the thing, swooshed it around and then rolled it in a towel, stretched & pinned it out on the carpet and voila! a blocked piece of knitting! cool beans. excpet I knit it a bit too long, so I may give it to Beth for a belt instead.



I'm ipod-ing my little heart out. What knitting podcasts do you guys like? I'm just starting to roam around looking for them.