La Lovely La Lana Wools

Oh I had a great day. A long, tiring day, but a great one. I'm all proud of myself. I went on an adventure all by myself. Yeah for me. :) I have no problem hanging out by myself, I enjoy the solitude once in a while. A day of shopping, or a dinner out is great. Driving across the country by myself was freaking me out. I almost turned back at Santa Fe. What if I got a flat tire? I kept seeing these vehicles on the side of the road. FREAKING me out. Then I got into the mountainous areas and kept seeing those big ass boulders and rock slides up against the edge of the road. Only slightly nervous since there were those net things holding most of them back, and would hopefully catch any that started. No worries. Until the netting ran out and the mountains got closer to the road. Then these signs kept appearing almost as often as the No Passing signs. nice. I must admit I had a repeating prayer each time I saw one. "Dear Lord, please don't let me get squished like a bug, Amen."


I made it to Taos, stopping along the way to see a few museums and buy some ground up red chili to take home. I spent about 3 hours wandering around the shops and had a great time petting and admiring the yarns in La Lana Wools. I ended up getting 2 skeins of light blue local alpaca yarn (which came with a free hat pattern) and a pattern for a very classy/sexy silk vest. I priced the yarn and even if I bought only the number of skeins the pattern recommended for the XS size, it would have cost me $90. It's tiny. Yeah. I figured $15 for the pattern was enough of a splurge for me. I then had the lunch of a lifetime at Michael's Restaurant for about $6 and am STILL FULL and it's 10:20pm. If you travel to Taos, you've GOT to eat there. I had a bean burrito smothered in red chili and it was so freaking good. MAN I miss the food back here. (I used to live outside of Alb. for a couple of years when I was first married about 14 years ago.) The Jaywalker got a little longer on this trip up to the mountains. I'm turning the heel tonight on the first one and it's really looking good.


After a VERY long nap yesterday afternoon, I drove to Village Wools in Albuquerque. It's got a new location on the east side of town and has such a pretty view. It's HUGE inside now. I wandered but really wasn't tempted by too much only because I was saving my money for Taos. I did find a skein of the purple yarn I made the roses tank top out of. I wasn't able to make the beautiful roses that go up the front of it as I was short on yarn. I'd ordered another skein from the Studio but they never got in my color. $10 for that. I'm excited to finish that project officially. I also picked up a Dale of Norway pattern booklet with kids sweater patterns that look like a good start for some projects for my kids.

Then I went out to the world's coolest spot for the Albuquerque Knit Night, this coffee shop/restaurant/pastry place that was just a great spot. You could have a decent priced meal that tasted heavenly, artsy fartsy or plain old hamburgers & fries, Sam Adams beer and a couple of wines also, a great patio to sit out at and it just rocked. If we had a spot like that for our KC Tues crew, we'd have knit night every night. Here's the sign from their Harry Potter book night. I instantly was in love with the place before I even went inside.

I had a great time. The ladies that were there welcomed me right in and I think I was there for at least 4 hours. How can you not bond with women that love the fiber? It was amazing. You can go to any part of the world, sit down with people that share this obsession with knitting and crocheting and connect. It really is an amazing thing. There were some seriously beautiful socks in process, including one pair that was CROCHETED with cascade fixation. One lady brought out quite possibly the cutest toddler sock I'd ever seen in my life. I was totally fondling strangers' yarn and it was a normal thing. HOW COOL IS THAT?

This restaurant just cracked me up. I mean, when I think of family outings, I guess I never thought of combining family with TAQUILA! God, I love New Mexico.


A few more random pics. We head out tomorrow. It's a good thing I'm not this close to these shops very damn often. The amount of local or at least NM and Colorado fibers that are hand spun or hand dyed or just grown local are so tempting. SOoooooooo tempting.

Knitting around Old Town Albuquerque

Well, first of all, let me just say I WON'T be spending lots of money in the yarn shops now. Not very lucky at all. crap crap crap. Ah well.

In honor of my southwest trip, I pulled out this sock yarn to take along for the trip. After knitting about 2 inches of the cuff in my normal K3,P1 ribbing, it was looking icky. Frogged it and cast on again but this time in Grumperina's Jaywalkers design. I'm using Artyarns Supermerino 4 and size 1.5 dpns. I took myself out to Old Town this morning and bought a little jewelry, wandered around, people watched and then wandered into this old adobe church that was very cool inside. It was so peaceful and pretty (windows open and door open and outside was 85-90 but inside was lovely. I sat and knitted for a while and people watched in there too. Here's a few highlights of the day. How cool does this turquoise and brown yarn look with the adobe and turquoise accents in the architecture? Very. The rug is one that was in this amazingly beautiful (and unbelievably expensive) Peruvian clothing shop's dressing room. I tried on a $158 white cotton sundress that was sooooooooo pretty and sooooooooooo out of my price range. The rug was lusciously soft and cute as hell. Baby and momma llamas.

I'm back in the motel room for a little siesta, then off to Village Wools yarn shop and am going to meet up with some knitters for the Alb. Knit Night at a coffee shop. Tomorrow I'm heading to Santa Fe and Taos and anywhere else I wander to. I may even HIKE a little bit. Maybe. Jaywalkin' across NM.

Day 1 NM Vacation rocks

So, NO KIDS, nice hotel room, NO KIDS, no boyfriend, NO KIDS and a plethora of yarn shops with unbelievable amounts of local hand-dyed, hand-spun luscious yarn. How could this not rock?

Dropped Joey off with the ex-hubby, hugged on my daughter, chatted with the ex-mother-in-law (who likes me ever so much better now that I'm not in the family) all about trading quilting patterns (to her) and knitting ones (to me).

I visited my first yarn shop of the trip (I'll have to wait until the way home to hit the Wichita, KS shop). Good Fibrations in Edgewood, NM (east of Albuquerque) and it was really REALLY nice. It's probably a good thing I don't live nearby. The classes, oh the spinning classes they have, the beautiful drop spindles and spinning wheels, THE YARN, neat little places to sit & knit and walking in the door felt like home. Oh, and the best thing? It's Christmas in July and everything in the store (except the big spinning wheels) is 20% off, ON SALE!!! I made it out under $50. I've got to pace myself. Even though vacation yarn doesn't count, it sure does decrease the funds needed to live on.

Spoils of the day are a skein of OnLine Supersocke 100 Sierra color sock yarn. 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamid. Very sqooshy and good manly colors, black with grey and red throughout. 3 skeins of the world's most heavenly fiber, also known as Drops (Garn Studios) Alpaca, 100% alpaca 50 grams, 180 meters each skein. I have no idea what kind of weight this is, it's not light enough to be laceweight, maybe fingering? Between fingering and dk? All I know is it's SOOOOOOFFFFFTTTTT and very pretty. It's a good thing there were only 3 skeins in the purple color. NO FREAKING IDEA what to make with it. I may just walk around rubbing it on my face. Or I could make a scarf.

I also grabbed 2 patterns, one for this cool meitered little bag and one for a scarf written for 2 skeins of the garn studios alpaca. I'll probably go wandering around the free patterns on Garn Studio Site and get ideas.

I promise to have actual NM pictures to post tomorrow. I got in kind of late this afternoon. Two and a half days left. I'm taking myself and a sock-in-progress out to dinner and then may have to head to a casino to play a little poker. I'm not wanting to spend too much $$ on gambling, that's YARN MONEY, but if I happen to hit a few good hands? Let's just say Taos may not have to be a look and drool only trip. Wish me luck!

Countdown....3 days to LEAVING FOR NM YARNY VACATION!!!

I'm going through my projects and stash, finding yarn you didn't know you had is like Christmas all over again! I cast on for yet another project. It must be, oh a WEEK since starting the last. I don't kow how I contained myself this long. Adult ADD Knitter anyone? yes very much, thank you.

Cast on for this one last night and knit the first ball. Pure & Simple's Neck Down Hooded Tunic for Women with stash yarn. I've got 10 balls of Teseo grey/black/blue yarn and it calls for 1010 yards, which will be close since each ball only has about 98 yards. Hope the thing won't have to be knit without the hood or with short sleeves.

I was trying to drop into ravelry and add a few things, but apparently the rest of you slackers were all ravelry-ing while you should have been working and it was making my pictures load slower! I was ravelry-ing my ass off working diligently as usual. Did you know you can put your books on a bookshelf there too? ooooooooohhhhhh I'm gonna take my laptop along on the vacation and spend some time updating completed projects in there next week.

And, didn't you know it, but my little addiction to the free bags at the makeup counters is finally paying off! This is my organizational system for double points and circular needles. Bags courtesy of Bare Escentuals and Clinique. Love that!


The three noisemakers and I took a trip to a bowling alley yesterday and stopped off at the new Bass Pro Shop to run around and see what there was to see. Buffalo, Mountain Lions and Bears, Oh My!

A little yarny vacation just for me!

Well, I found my sport. Seriously. TENNIS! It's the ONE sport (besides monster dead weight lifts and jumping on a trampoline) that has an advantage for the large thighed woman. We loaded up the boys and had an uber tournament. Jeff got to go last because, as his boys put it, he was the "Champion MAN." I snorted and then whooped all their butts. I hadn't picked up a racket for at least 18 years, but it all came back to me. Let's just say there was a little bit of singing and thrusting/dancing and singing of "Champion WO-man! Oh Oh OH! Champion WO-man!". It wasn't pretty, but it was almost dark. I didn't even MIND exercising, sweating my ass off or running around the court. Freaky. We're gonna do more of that!

I'm also all pumped up as I've created a little yarny vacation just for momma! WOO HOO! My ex-husband lives in NM and usually only takes Elizabeth out for Christmas and summer breaks. Joey really wants to go out and see his dad and grandparents, so Joey and I are road-tripping out to Albuquerque from KC on Sunday and then we'll bring Elizabeth back to KC afterwards. We're going to break up the drive (13 hours) on the way out and back and then spend 4 days and 3 nights in Alb. He'll hang with his dad, sister and grandparents, I'll hang with NEW MEXICO YARN SHOPS! Sweet mother, can't you just hear those cash registers ring? caCHING caCHING caCHING! I'm going to hit a cute shop in Edgewood, one in Alb. and 3 or 4 in Santa Fe and also TAOS. I'm also planning on eating myself silly. Navaho tacos? Soapapillos? Guacamole? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Guac and yarn? Does it get any better? I'm having entirely too much fun deciding what projects to pack.
Knitting/Crocheting I've worked on lately: Teal socks, yarn from Crafty in a Good way. 3X1 ribbed, top down. How pretty are they? More work on Joey's crocheted ripple blanket. That's about it.

You know, if you didn't actually KNOW ME you'd think I was an outdoor girl. We headed out to the farm (Jeff's best friend's land where their 12 cows and about 9 horses live) to check things out, help put up new fencing and look at a lovely little 40 acre farm with barns, outbuildings and AIR CONDITIONING that we might want to buy. The beautiful farm was SOLD. nice. Still available is the armpit place directly across the road from Jeff's, um, colorful friend. Yeah. Good guy, but very interesting. There is one more beautiful farm on 60 acres with trees surrounding it and its own lovely pond and a pretty sheltered 20 acre pasture that could SO be supporting sheep when we retire out there. Yes, retire out to a farm. In the middle of nowhere. ME. The plan is to find a place now, work on it every couple of weekends and MOVE TO THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, KS and live there. with animals. and no shops. My rule is I want CENTRAL AIR, not a crappy ass window unit, internet access and running water. You laugh, but the place Jeff's favoring? holy crap. 130 yr old house that's been sitting empty since around 1950. No, not empty. Trash and animals are living inside. nice.





Joey's first horseback ride went very well. We rode Red, a sweet but slightly stubborn horse that was HUGE! Jeff is riding Lightning, named for the white mark that runs down her neck. She was only saddle broke a week ago and this was the 2nd time anyone'd ridden her. That's the horse that ATE the antennae off our truck a few months back. Joey and I went to lunch at the only local business, a general store up the road and Joey got to learn how to do this seated pedaled knife sharpening stone contraption. This amazing 92 year old man was in there telling stories and Joey just ate it up. He worked the pedals for the old man who sharpened his pocket knife. I don't know who had more fun, the old man finding a willing audience or the little boy worshipping the old man's wisdom. Very cool. Did I tell you there was no airconditioning there? Apparently very few people have it. Some have one window unit. Sweet mother, I'd better have a way to get back to the city periodically. And lots of yarn. lots and lots of yarn.

I'll leave you with a cool shot of the side of Jeff's friend's chicken house. It just looked amazing in the sunlight with the shadows. The chickens don't actually use it much because "somethin' or other got in there and et them up." yes "et them up". There's one rooster and one hen left. Joey found an egg hidden behind a tree, and it was like he'd found gold. Very cool.


Oh my, I just saw a link for a NEW YARN SHOP opening July 24th in Wichita, KS. Looks fabulous. Oh, wow, we're stopping in Wichita on the way out to visit the ex's grandma (the one who still loves me). Hmmmmm, maybe we'll be stopping in there too! Twist Yarn Shop.

Best sock yarn collection in the city and YARN SALE DETAILS

Oh my holy hell. KnitWits in Olathe, KS. I just went out there for 2 balls of yarn to make sure I had enough to finish the sleeves on the first boyfriend sweater for Jeff. I know she's got good stuff. I know that. She's always had sock yarn. I know that. But OH. MY. HOLY. HELL. The woman now had sock yarn all over her little shop. Artyarns 4, a whole basketload of gorgeousness, Mountain Colors Barefoot yummy, Lucy Neatby, cases of it, Lorna's Laces sockyarns, dk weight and the silk/merino stuff too, I saw opal and I think Trekking, but didn't let myself go look because I was trying to get out of there without spending my vacation yarn money before I left KC. She's got crates of the most beautiful Claudia Handpaints. CRATES of it. She's got Crafty In a Good Way sockyarn so scrunchable and beautiful it hurts. Then, I glanced down at this plastic bag holding spun sunshine. Schaefer Anne in colorways that I couldn't even touch or I'd buy them. Thank God she hadn't unpacked the bag yet. That thin plastic was the only thing standing in the way of my bank account getting much lower. Did I tell you about the damn $3 boxes? FIVE boxes full of yarn for $3/skein. Big boxes. I got 7 skeins of dark grey and 6 skeins of burgandy acrylic blend stuff to make Joey a sweater and a blanket with the leftovers. I'm telling you, it's worth the drive. Just email me first to ask for better directions. Everyone I know has gotten lost on the way and it's really simple. really. You just have to get the right lane at the right exit. Did I tell you she had extra yarn IN THE SAME DYE LOT that I needed? How awesome is that? Here's Jeff's armless sweater. Gonna start on the first sleeve tonight. He tried it on at the lake and IT FITS!!! WOO HOO!

Other signs of knitting around here include 3 more hats. The cream one being modeled by me is the brown sheep hat my best friend Jildo wanted and we got the yarn from that cute shop in Manhattan, KS. It's going out in the mail tomorrow. My modeling shows why I'm not meant to wear knitted hats. Tank tops yes. Knitted hats no. Hats seem to make my long face look even longer, which is why I've usually just got a scarf wrapped up around part of my head. I've also made a few more for extras around the house with all these kids. The red & black one shows the jogless join I tried.



I finished my mountain colors barefoot socks (that were supposed to be Jeff's but SOMEHOW I totally screwed up and made them my size......subliminal wanting here or what?) I've also started a pair of toe-up mountain colors in another color for the boy and am making them HUGE so they should fit. What? Measure his foot? Calculate? Naw. That's too easy.


I did survive the lake. It was a blast. Joey went down early with my folks to their lake place, I went down on Monday, spent the night there and then we went over and joined Jeff and his boys where they did, in fact, pee outside every chance they got. I was happy because I got lots done on Jeff's sweater, we ate great, good weather, and no one got blown up with all the fireworks (always a challenge for my overprotective instincts as a mother). We took a boat ride to Ha Ha Tonka, a state park in MO right on the lake. It has a freshwater spring that comes surging up from the caverns below and funnels about 58 million gallons of water each day into the Lake of the Ozarks. The picture below shows the bright blue water and then it merges with the dark green lake water. The kids took turns swimming through the icy water that is REALLY MOVING and then got smart and started using the tube to float down the current. We went hiking around in our swimsuits over the mountain and there's even cool old stone castle ruins up on the top. Did you know Daniel Boone was born in that part of the ozarks? Very cool. GREAT lake vacation.



And because many of you think I'm exaggerating when Jeff comes home and is actually SHIVERING when it's below 80 degrees in our house. It's FREAKING HOT and HUMID AS HELL but the lowest our home gets is 80 degrees. ok, the lowest our house gets when Jeff's HOME is 80 degrees. Let's just leave it at that, shall we? The scary thing, is that 80 is actually a compromise. He usually doesn't even turn on the air until mid-August if at all. I think he was born on the sun. I don't mind heat OUTSIDE. Summer is supposed to be hot. But INSIDE is supposed to be cool and livable. cripes almighty.


OH, and I went to the Harry Potter movie at midnight last night. I'll just say I loved it and OH MY MY MY those Weasley twins are growing up quite yummy.

OH OH and I almost forgot.....YARN SALE AT THE STUDIO...
Gumball Sale on Sunday July 15th and Monday July 16th from 10am-6pm. When it's time to check out, you put your coin into a gumball machine. Depending on the color you get is your discount. Discounts from 15-75% off. Extra 15% off from 10am-noon both days. I called and the sale includes yarn, patterns AND NEEDLES. I'll probably be there around 11am on Sunday. Come and say hey and tell me to put the damn yarn back! I've got vacation yarn shopping in NM in 2 weeks.....

Off to the lake

Sorry no post people, too much to do in too little time. I'm off to join the band of boys at the lake. With my daughter in NM with her dad, it's just me and 5 boys. and my knitting. :)

Over the weekend I knit two stocking hats and finally figured out the damn crocheted ripple deal. On the THIRD freaking frog and rip session, I got it. Now one side isn't getting continually smaller and one side isn't growing larger. It's probably not the official way to work it, but it's working for me. I really cranked along last night and now have about 2 feet done. It's going to be a Christmas present for Joey I think.

Got to run, the new knit shop ROCKS! More details later. Go check her out!
C

Getting felt up at the pool (in a knitterly fashion, relax)

OH I love finding knitters. Lately they've been just coming out of the woodwork. I'm not doing anything different, I knit wherever I go. I'm "that knitting mom" when I'm sitting outside school or in pta meetings or in traffic (only at red lights, no worries). My main on-the-go knitting project is a plain old 3X1 ribbed pair of socks, something I can cram in a bag and pull out when I need to. I get into the water and play for a while, but the kids have more energy than I do, so after a while, I head to the lounge chair in the shade and pull out my knitting. I took my lacey tank top (pictured yesterday) along last time I took the kids. I sat there lounging, watching the kids and knitting away. After a while I noticed this mom looking more often and I smiled. She came over to admire. She said she's also a pool knitter, but today she was finishing up a book and didn't have her yarn. I showed her my project and she just lightly petted it with a look of longing. I offered her the ball and project and she SQUOOOOSHED it good. THAT'S a knitter. I loved it. We chatted, we compared, we squooshed, we bonded. I love that shit.

I meet my share of "Oh. You knit. I knit too" people who just stand there LOOKING at you. They're all very nice. They may knit, but they're not my kind of knitters. My favorite people are KNITTERS. Knitters who can't keep their hands off any fibers in the surrounding area whether it belongs to them or not. Nothing's more fun than being offered up a new yarn to feel up. LOVE THAT. Maybe it's just me. Do I offend other knitters when I ask if I can pet their yarns? I think that's the highest praise, to get a "ooooooh yeahhhhhhh" from a person squooshing the fiber I'm using. Maybe I just like being around people as nutty as me, it makes me feel normal.

Speaking of squoooooshy, Check out what Chery brought me back from Estes Park, CO Fiber Fest!!!! Oh holy crap, you just have to take my word for it, but this stuff is heavenly. Great squoosh factor, dyeable, 700 yards of cormo sheep wool. I can't decide if I want to dye some of it first, or knit and then dye or leave natural. It could make 2 pair of socks or a pretty wrap.....oh the possibilities. Did I say my favorite kind of knitter was one that let you feel up her yarn/feels up your yarn? Oh no. My favorite knitters are the ones that bring you heavenly presents of yarn and THEN you get to squoosh all her stuff. Not only did the woman teach me to do the 2socks on 2circs toe-up thing, but she gives me presents? oh yeah.

Here's what's on the needles right now except for 2 pairs of socks that are out in the car and I'm feeling lazy. Jeff's sweater is slowly getting longer, I've got about 20 more rows and then I have him try on again and decide if it's time to start the bottom ribbing. I'm going to be pushing it on yarn, damn I should have bought more at first. I may head out to KnitWits to see if they've got any more of this dye lot in the back. cross your fingers, otherwise I'll do the sleeves in another dye lot if I have to. I've also started a basic rolled edge hat for my best friend out of some brown sheep worsted (love that yarn) and that's the 3rd start of a crocheted ripple blanket for Joey made out of some big ol' pound things of acrylic crap. I've got some off-white and some variegated blue/green/offwhite/brown stuff. I'm learning that when you crochet the last stitch and then you make the chain 3 and turn, your damn blanket gets one stitch longer each time. nice.


My knitter's elbow is now hurting not only when I knit cotton yarn too long, now it hurts when I knit anything. Actually it hurts when I don't knit too. I'm teaching myself how to knit continental and spending more time crocheting to try to give it a rest. It sucks. I do the whole stretching and resting and knitting with my hands in different positions and such, but it's just not working.

Heading to the lake in a couple of days. Bringing one of those ugly floaty things that keep your glasses from sinking to the bottom of the lake. Jeff's going to have his boys for 8 days down at his lakehouse, which is pretty rustic. Since my daughter is gone with her dad for 4 weeks, it's just me and all those boys. Jeff's two and my one and Jeff. They don't bathe when they're "lakin' it". They barely brush their teeth. All peeing is done on trees. (They HAVE a bathroom, it's just not as much fun as peeing outdoors) I think I can handle about 2 1/2 days of this testosterone and then I'm running for civilization. It's a good time, but about 2 days is good enough for me.

Oh, and GUESS WHAT?????? KC has a new knitting shop!!!!! WOO HOO! Teri, the yarn whisperer, also is apparently omnipotent. She knows all, she knits all. She found out about a brand-new just opening shop! MisKnits is located at 3904 Terrace St in KC MO. They just opened up on Monday I think. I'm heading over this morning and will give you guys all the goods.

OH, One more enabling thing.....DSW has their monster shoe sale going on right now. 80% off a bunch of stuff plus triple points if you're a member (which you can sign up for free and then get your bonus points.)

Damn I hate being poor. I'm going to have to behave myself. Mostly. But I need something special to help me get through the whole boys peeing on trees thing, right?

Every little girl needs a little trophy

Well, I did some serious knitting on Saturday out at the KC Soap Box Derby race in KC! My girl raced two years ago, but it was pretty much go down the hill, lose, repeat and go home. This was a whole different girl driving a whole different car with a whole different attitude! She's such a quiet, gentle soul. I loved that fact that after a run or two down the hill and winning them all brought out this competitive, fiery girl (yet still polite as heck and gentle). I haven't figured out where that gentleness came from yet, but I do love it too. The girl ROCKED! She won and won and won and won until there were two undefeated kids left in her division. She finally started driving with a few tiny wobbles (later we found that her steering cable had come loose but you can't do any fixing or adjusting once the race has started) and she just barely lost and then ended up taking THIRD PLACE!!! Can I get a woo hoo? WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!! I was so proud of the way she hung in there and raced against these kids (only 5 of 19 were girls) and just was such an elegant champion. The trophies are HUGOMONGOUS because this is the big season-ending race (her first for the season since we just got going again) and the winners of the two divisions go on to a week in Akron, OH and race in the world championships. The trophy is only 2 inches shorter than Joey. Elizabeth just about died when she went up and claimed her trophy and saw it was one of the three big monsters. We thought she'd get this nice, normal sized thing since it was 3rd biggest on the trophy table, but we didn't realize the 1st place trophies were in another area so she got the big dog. The car was a kit put together by Elizabeth and her grandpa (my dad) and Dad and some of his car-mechanical-engineer friends tweaked and worked on it hours and hours and hours. Elizabeth practiced and worked on learning to drive the lanes to get the best speed and least wobbles and they all just did great.

Here's a photo of the almost finished Coquette Lace tube top from Stepanie Japel's Fitted Knits book. I'm loving it, but will need to add some elastic thread sewed in around the top and may have to add straps. It's made of cashcotton, so I'm expecting it to get wider and then drop like a motherbugger once I wear it. I'll also wear it with a neutral colored bra, this black one looks funky through the lace pattern. Love this book! I just realized this is the 3rd project I've made from this book (sleeveless turtleneck top and ribbed shrug) and I love them all. I've NEVER made 3 items from one book before. I've also not posted anything about the last 2 projects in the fitted knits blog. Bad blogger. I'll get there.

Survived camp but only barely

Monday at camp sucked. sucked hard. Let's just say rain, rain, rain, tiny bit of sunshine that baked the 100% humidity for a little while then torrential rain and wind. more rain. Oh and 26 boys in our troop where everyone else had 6-12. Also two schools joined together and the boys in one school were a titch more rambunctious than the other. I got punched in the side of the throat by an 8 year old the size of a 15 year old. His mom was there. He said he was "trying to tickle" me. His mom said, "oh those boys!" I thought I did well in not saying what I thought of her child and I also didn't pick the child up by the throat. Because boy scout moms are not supposed to do that I'm guessing. I had a good raincoat, so the only part of me that was really wet and miserable was my feet. They were squishy from 9am till I got home at 4:30pm. Let's also explain how much fun I had because I FORGOT MY FREAKING SOCK PROJECT. Sitting on the bus waiting to leave at 7:30am with no knitting. Riding for 20 minutes with no knitting. SItting under the shelter at lunchtime for an extra 45 minutes in the downpour with no knitting. Getting onto the bus early also in torrential rain and sitting there for 40 minutes before we left with no knitting. 20 minute ride home with no knitting. Combine the whole no knitting thing with squishy feet and psycho children (and some very nice and cute boys as well) made for one pissy ass momma.

Tuesday was much MUCH better. No rain, KNITTING and early in the morning I put the fear of ME in the few boys that I was trying hard not to pummel with my highly honed mom looks and one boy I even said if he didn't quit kicking and running away from the group and punching boys I was going to make him walk all over the camp holding my hand everywhere we went and I'd have one of the other moms kiss him. The rest of the day was smooth as silk. The moral of the story? Well if your kid is a pain in the ass, don't send him to camp with me. Joey and his friends had a ball. They shot bb guns, slingshots, did crafts, played games, went for hikes and just had a blast. I have to say my favorite part of Tuesday was ARMPIT FUDGE. mmmmmmmmm For those with kids that like to go camping, this is a must make! In a sandwich baggie you put 2 tablespoons of cream cheese, three little pats of butter, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, I think it was 2 table spoons of cocoa and a splash of vanilla. Smoosh the air out, seal well and wrap up and squish together to mix. In order to properly mix it all up, you've got to melt it down a bit. You stick the baggie in your armpit. Open the top and eat with a spoon and it's HEAVEN. Armpit fudge. It's a good thing.

What was I working on so dilligently at camp? I had my trusty mountain colors barefoot socks for Jeff. Now I've only made the boy worsted or dk weight socks on larger needles. I'd never made him a pair of the sz 1 beauties I make for myself. I didn't measure his foot, nope. I'm a sock knitter. I know how to do these things. I just cast on and went. I also didn't make them toe up so he could try them on. Nope. I was lazy, already had this yarn wound into a pretty cake, I just went to town. Did I have him try them on mid-way? nope. I was cocky. The knitting goddesses sure do like to bite cocky knitters in the ass, don't they? You think I'd have learned, wouldn't you? Well, I had him try one on after it had been bound off, kirchenered and ends woven in. I'd also started the heel flap on the 2nd sock. It looks like I now have an almost completed really dark and manly pair of socks for myself. cripes. They're actually much more dark grey/black with a little bit of dark red here & there than the pic shows. They're comfy. I've got one more ball of barefoot and I thnk I'll be winding that sucker into two balls and MEASURING his damn foot.




And the thing that looks like a dead orange animal laying on my bed? That splash stuff is kicking my ass. Why is it beginner knitters gravitate to that stuff? I think it's hard as hell to knit with. I was trying a drop stitch thing, but it's not working out. It's gonna have to be frogged and started over but after a few days' break. It is soft and looks better in person, but it still looks like a dead orange thing. I'm going to find a cute pattern for this wrap one way or another.

And the score is.....Knitting Virgin 134 -- Moths 1

I finally got smart and started bringing my own damn lawn chair to the multitude of baseball games we attend for Jeff's two boys. Not only does my butt not hurt from the metal bleachers, this also allows me to be antisocial and knit to my heart's delight. I can avoid being crammed in like sardines and having to small talk with the exwife and also sit back a-ways from the more intense parents. Let me just say HOLY CRAP PEOPLE relax. They're TEN YEARS OLD. This is not the major leagues. HOLY CRAP! Most of the team is from the boys' private school and let's just say a few of the parents are living their lives through their boys a little bit. Just a little bit.

So, while pleasantly knitting away on my really orange socks the other evening in the grass way on the other side of the dugout with Jeff there was an attack. I was divebombed by a kamikazee moth in the center of my forehead. Seriously, this was an attack. Not a randomly flitting around moth flying into my face, no. This thing came at a direct dive from far in the sky and nailed me right in the center of my forehead so hard the thing DIED, or at least stunned itself, fell onto the ground not moving and then I stomped it dead. Jeff almost fell out of his chair laughing. He then explained that the word is out. The moths are out to get me now. I laughed and said bring it on furry critters, I can take it. THEN Jeff irritated me no end by wondering out loud if it was actually a pregnant momma kamikazee moth who was dropping eggs on my yarn before the crash. I laughed a little. Then thought. Holy crap, is that possible? No, no, no. That's silly. No reason to go running home to the microwave. It's fine. I just am thinking a little microwaving once the sock is knit wouldn't hurt anything.

I swear some days I must smoke crack when I'm not paying attention. I'm not much of an outdoorsy girl. yes, I have gone camping a lot lately and have been heading to the lake and doing outdoorsy things, but it's because of the family and honey. I would be perfectly happy looking at the great outdoors through a window from the airconditioning. Ah well. Somehow back in April when it was lovely outdoors I decided it would be FUN to volunteer for Joey's cub scout day camp. Doesn't that sound fun? Well now it's in the 90's, I'm a readhead and sporting a lovely sunburn from TWO HOURS in the sun while wearing slathers of sunscreen and has got to be in the 80% humidity lately. I think when I volunteered I was thinking a couple of hours, should be fun. We have to be at school at 7:30am and don't return until 4:00pm. crap almighty. I've got my water bottle half filled and freezing and my lunch made and my raingear packed. I'm also bringing sock yarn because you just never know. At least there ought to be some knitting time on the bus. Fuxxing outdoors. I'm going Monday and Tuesday. Joey goes Wed & Thurs too. Tomorrow's forecast is for afternoon storms and high humidity.

OH and last Thursday I went to Wamego, KS to visit my best friend in the world, Jildo! We went out for lunch at Chili's in Manhattan and then I talked her into going to the local yarn shop Wildflower Knits and picking out some yarn for me to knit her a hat and a wrap. The girl had never been into a yarn shop before and I totally corrupted her. We petted almost everything in the shop, tried on all kinds of fun samples and decided on some pretty light brown lambs pride worsted for a winter hat and some furry stuff for a shawl/wrap thing. The woman chose furry stuff. I told her only because I love you this much will I knit furry crap for you. It's not actually furry crap, it's very soft and snuggly and in the prettiest orangeish colors of a fiery sunset. But it's furry. BUT Oh we had fun in that shop! I think we must have been in there for over an hour, not too bad for a non-knitter. I gave Jildo a sqaure shawl I'd made from beautiful blues of Koigu that can be worn as either a triangle shawl or a lap blankie. She seemed to like it. It's such a great feeling knitting for people that you love and that appreciate it!

Cross your fingers (or your needles) for no rainstorms in KC tomorrow. Fuxxing outdoors.

Powered up and ready to roll

YES! I found the freaking power cord! (and there was much rejoicing...yeah...yeah...yeah) Monty Python Holy Grail quote, I am that big of a dork. Well, the power cord was still plugged in to the wall in the corner of the office crammed under the big bookshelf full of knitting books and magazines, etc. I totally forgot I was working on the floor last week or so when I last caught up on reading blogs. cripes. Then the camera's cord mysteriously appeared AFTER I went out and dropped $30 at best buy to get some card reader thing since it was cheaper than buying a new camera cord. Man, I'm worse than a little kid. I have ONE DRAWER that my car keys have to immediately get placed in. If they don't go in there, they are GONE. I was working off Jeff's spare set of keys that I wasn't supposed to know about for 2 weeks last time I lost my keys. I now have a drawer for power cords of all sorts. Ok, so it's half of my bra drawer. It works. The good thing is that I'm BACK!!! LOTS of blogs to read and catch up on now.

I promise to post something interesting later, for now I'm just happy to get back to posting! WOO HOO! Here's what I've been working on lately...Completed my two-toned ribbed shrug from the Fitted Knits book. I've already worn this thing 15 times and LOVE IT! Next are two hats made from stash yarn Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Worsted Superwash wool. Joey chose the one modeled by me for his new winter hat (made from Chicknits free hat pattern, the one with the folded brim actually fits me too, but as you can see, I have yet to find a hat that I look good in, so with the super stretchiness of ribbing, will work folded up for my nephew, a toddler. Colors are army-ish looking and look cute on little boys, but Joey's not around for modeling, so you get stuck with my head. He wants gloves made with the remaining yarn, so I'll give them a try. In the 4-item pic are some unbelievably beautiful hand dyed fingering/lace/? weight cotton that followed me home from Cottage Fibers on our knitterly weekend. I don't have any freaking idea what I'll do with it, I just had to have it. AND it was on sale. No idea of yardage, but 4.1 oz for 30% off of $20, can you blame me? It had to be mine. The red tube is a diet coke cozy for my best friend Jildo to check out. I'm using cascade fixation (the stuff with elastic in it) and using the pattern from Knitting with Balls. The dark thing is a freshly turned heel and leg of the first sock of mountain colors bearfoot that is still slowly progressing. The orange is what I cast on to take to the stitch n pitch game this weekend. LOVING IT! Lucy Neatby yarn in vibrant orange and pattern is Hedera. I realized I am, in fact, an idiot. I kept thinking I had the pattern memorized but not quite getting there. So, let's just say this leg will have some wonky lace. I am an anal knitter, but I draw the line at frogging lace socks. Not gonna do it.

OH I had the best knitterly weekend! For the official KIP day, my girls went from 8:30am till probably around 8:30pm. I missed out on the whole getting-lost-almost-getting-carsick fun, KnitWits, the farmer's market (my kids and I did a run-by and fast checkout of the art vendors and told my kids "look for knitters!" but we didn't quite hook up with the girls. I dropped the kids off with my cousin and was kid-free for the rest of the afternoon. I ate really good greek food at the festival, got some knitting and chatting of knitting and gossip in, took the world's longest short-cut across the city to Cottage Fibers and then headed for home. The rest of the gang finished out the day with dinner at the Blue Koi. I finished my day sitting a few seats in front of Jeff's ex-wife facing into the setting sun trying to work on my hederas while sitting through a two hour baseball game.

Sunday I went to the Royals Stitch N Pitch game with my knitterly girls again. HOT HOT HOT and sweaty woooooooo boy. But let me tell you, it was a great game! The Royals won 17 to 5. For those of you non-basebally or non-KC, the Royals really REALLY suck lately so it was quite a feat. The tote bags rocked. I love them. The stuff inside, not so much. I'm not complaining, it's just that hearing about the awesome yarn and needles and accessories knitters got in different parts of the country compared with what we got... ah well. The bags are cool and the day was fun! I'm thinking we need to have knitting be a major part of more weekends around here.

Kids are surviving "camp mom" and I guess this mom is too. I'm trying to work in the am and have succeeded in getting my kids all excited about the reading challenge at the library. Then we either go to the pool or somewhere else on a field trip, farmer's market, bowling, hiking, whatever I can find.

Here's a view of Turdy. Yes, TURDY. I asked Beth why she named her little friend after poo and she didn't even realize that Turty sounded like TURDy. He came to visit our neighbor yesterday and the kids (after a few tears) accepted that it wouldn't be fair to make Turdy live in a box when he could be outdoors with his little turtle mommy and turtle daddy and turtle brothers and sisters we carried him down to the creek. Am I evil or what? Poor kids. I'm sorry, but we just got rid of a PET CRAWFISH that stunk higher than heaven. I'm drawing the line at having ONE DOG as the pet population from here out.



Also Summer Knitty is out. I'm gonna go check it out and see if there's anything I can't live without. OH YEAH, you know I've got to make the backless tank top, and how cute is that skirt on the cover? I think it has my daughter's name all over it.

Shortest Knitting Virgin Blog post EVER

OK, so apparently my power cord to the new laptop is WITH the camera cord which are apparently NOT IN THIS FREAKING UNIVERSE! I have actual pictures of actual completed items, people.

No time, almost out of power. The countdown's on.

In a nutshell, weekend ROCKED. Mountain Colors Barefoot is totally my new preferred camping/outdoorsy sockyarn. No koigu wimpies allowed. I love my koigu, just not in the great outdoors. Family is great, played poker and drank, OH LORD how I drank with my uncles and cousins and tore it up with my little partner in crime cousin K till 4am. Yes, 4 freaking am. Then I went in and slept on a thin layer of canvas on top of soggy dirt. Not quite mud, not quite dirt. Still, it was a good thing. The food, the KNITTING I got done, if I had pictures and power cords, I'd be showing you. The kids got Jeff and my younger cousins and brother Will & his young wife Raegan and about 20 some people out there and had a full contact two hour kickball game. I had a two hour nap and it was good. In the game, Jeff got drilled so hard in the head that he had blood in his smile when he got up saying he was ok. My sister in law Raegan had a serious bruise on a shin, kids all seemed ok, the teens and 20 yr olds tore up the 30-40 yr olds.

Going to the stitch n pitch this weekend with some of my girls, woo hoo!

I'm leaning towards keeping the orange glasses. Everyone but Jeff and my brother like them. The orange is growing on me and I don't notice the green so much. I figure I can just wear contacts if I feel like I'm clashing too much. Jeff came home from his business trip and told me I looked like that old guy that owns the Oakland Raiders. Art Shell? Thanks babe.

Almost out of power, I've cleaned most of this damned house looking for those things. Wish me luck! I finished my two toned ribbed shrug from Fitted Knits and LOVE IT. damn cords.