I apologize for all the armpit shots. Aren't you glad I shaved?

I didn't realize it was getting so bad until I started organizing my finished objects pics on my flickr account. Holy crap. One or two shots from that angle look artsy. Two or three could be flattering and even make me look like I have a chest. But, seriously, after clicking through about 12 shots of my pits at the center of various knitted objects is enough to make anyone sick! I swear by all that is knitterly that I WILL find out how to use my damn timer on the digital camera. sheesh.

Anyway, I pulled out this chickami that had been victim to bad colorpooling and frogged it back to the end of the purple stripe (about 5 inches), did some fancy schmancy reworking of the yarn and now have a finished object that I will actually WEAR. Ok, so probably not any time soon since it's getting chilly and winter's on its way, but it's done! So instead of doing a round from each ball of yarn or something else that you're supposed to do to avoid bad colorpooling, I just MADE it stay purple long enough to cover the girls by hacking off any and all purple from the ends of each ball of leftover yarn and then let it go all colorwonky like it wanted to. The back totally doesn't match and I don't even care. It's artsy. Just like the pit shot.

Specs:
Pattern: Chicakmi
Yarn: Ty Dy from Knit One Crochet Too
Needles: 3's and 6's

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all your excitedness for me on the whole getting married thing! I'm still just happy as heck. Also how sweet is my dear friend Chery? She's making me a wedding shawl to wear over a sundress for the wedding. We're doing a very simple ceremony without a lot of fuss, so that made me feel so good to know I'll have this special, beautiful thing to wear. Then, every time I look at it in the future, I'll remember both the day and the sweet woman who made it for me.

The neatest thing happened while I was in MisKnits on Saturday to show my knitting friends the new ring! Tracey came up and introduced herself and her very sweet family. It turns out she's a knitter that bought a bunch of my noro kureyon yarn back on the destash blog. She was shopping with her husband and adorable daughter and HAD a felted bag that she made from that very yarn WITH HER!! How cool is that?


Since I've not posted much lately, here's the pics from the Bed & Breakfast weekend with Jeff. We went to Council Grove, KS and stayed at the Cottage House Bed & Breakfast in their anniversary suite. It was such an amazing weekend. We saw every one of the 23 historical sites and even went out south of town to go hike around the wilderness on a beautiful Kansa tribe trail being created. We also took every backroad we found on the way there and back, so really saw some beautiful country. On the last shot, you really need the audio. I was running through this grass that was up around my knees and shouting "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME SNAKES!! PLEASE DON'T EAT ME SNAKES!!" as we'd disturbed one sunning itself earlier on the hike and since the man I'm now marrying doesn't seem to be able to keep on any trails as marked to save his life, we go through the scenic route everywhere we go. No snakes got me, no ticks either *whew* and I survived the hour and a half hike and even peed outdoors without any unpleasantness. It was a good day for me in the outdoors.






Of course I'm starting more sweaters than I can possibly complete, but I can't help it. The fall weather gets in my blood and I have to start knitting sweaters. More and more sweaters! I cast on and went to town on the start of Glee with some knitpicks Andean Treasure 100% Baby Alpaca lilac yarn that I am recycling from my frogged somewhat cowl that turned out with freakishly long armholes (I must have lost my mind in the middle of the raglan increases and just never stopped). I've already gotten about 2 inches below the sleeve stitches and am excited to see how it turns out. I won't post a picture as it looks like every other just-started raglan sweater.

I'm off to hide from reality a while and knit away for an hour while listening to some Harry Potter on CD. I'm now working my way through listening to the audio books and have just started book 6. Too many people wanting too much from me today...work, schools, laundry, gardening, work, phone calls to return, etc. I'm gonna hide and knit for an hour.

Boyfriend sweater curse THIS!

No, I'm not actually married already, but the boy got on his knees, asked me to marry him and put the ring on my finger. *sigh* How great is that? I'm going to be an actual wife with an actual husband and a house full of kids. The plan is we're going to get married on a boat in Bimini (somewhere in the Bahamas) by his uncle, who's a ship captain of a small charter sailboat/yacht thing, sometime in February. OK, so I'm a total goof and I just love saying the word MARRIED! I keep flashing back to the whole bit from that movie 16 Candles....."she's getting mallied" "married?" "Yes, MALLIED!" Who'd of thunk it? Jeff got us each simple bands of titanium. At one point in the proposal as he was explaining the metal is so strong it can't be cut even to be sized, he explained that the strength of the metal represents our strong bond for each other. *sigh* OK, so I asked him later if the reason for the titanium wasn't also because that way I couldn't break or warp the rings as I have a tendancy to break almost everything I touch eventually and he admitted that was a perk too.

Jeff was amazing. He had a sweet, goofy grin on his face and it was just wonderful. I wish I could remember exactly what he said, but I was so happy and teary and goofy myself. One of my favorite bits was that he told me later that night that he'd carried both rings around the entire weekend we spent at the Bed & Breakfast and just didn't find the right moment. I laughed and said there were at least 42 perfect moments where we were being quiet and happy and romantic and all. His perfect moment at home really was the perfect moment. Just before bed, I was sleepily knitting just one more row and set my yarn aside. He looked at me, told me he had a suprise for me, went and pulled something out of the closet, brought it behind his back and came and got on his knees next to the bed. It's funny as most of our evenings are spent with the two of us getting sleepy, me knitting, him reading or watching tv and snuggled up next together for a little bit before we turn out the lights. It really was the perfect moment.

WEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm just still giddy as heck. Jeff didn't want to wait for February and we're both wearing our rings now. Kids are all happy and we presented it as just one more bond that makes our family strong and nothing changes, we're still all one big ol' family.

How cool is that?

Yarn Sale & Swap tonight (Monday 10/15)

Howdy all! I've got some pics and stories of my fabulous weekend, but my laptop is being posessed and pissy so that'll have to wait for another day. I didn't get to wear the newly lengthened sleeveless tneck as it turned out that Sunday was a lovely, beautiful WARM freaking day. damn nice fall days. I'm ready to wear my wool dammit! Ah well. Back to the good stuff....

Sunflower Guild Yarn Shop & Swap
TONIGHT, Monday, October 15th
5:30pm Setup
6:30pm Guild Meeting
7:00pm SHOPPING and SWAPPING!!!

AT Waddell & Reed (first floor west cafeteria training room)
6301 Glenwood Street
Mission, KS 66202

You don't have to be a guild member to shop, you do need to be one to set up a table and sell or swap. I'll have part of a table. Mine will have some sockyarn (even one skein of Socks that Rock) and other goodies and even a bag of free stuff. There's a silent auction for some of the good stuff that members donate to earn money for the guild too. I think it should be a great time.

Remember! Only YOU can prevent KPB (Knitter's Plumber Butt)

KPB, just say no. I pulled out the lovely tank, knitted another four inches of it and it still is just past the waist, but in a comforting, fitting way. I freaking LOVE this sweater now. I'm wearing it on Sunday to Jeff's grandpa's big family birthday party with my hair up and some seriously dangly silver earrings and a bangle or two. LOVING this with jeans. I'd knit it up originally in April 07, used every ounce of the 2 balls of cascade I'd had and it just almost came to my waist. It looked very sexy as long as I stayed STANDING UP. From now on I'm doing the sit down KPB test on every stinking sweater I make. I stand, measure, admire, then SIT MY ASS DOWN and in a normal fashion, not sitting primly upright like I never do in real life, just when I'm trying on a sweater to see if I can stop knitting it yet. Having a small waist and not so small lower body makes for the lovely extra bagginess at the back of the jeans. Not a problem unless you are wearing a top that stops just ABOVE the gap. One little slump or lean in any direction and it was seriously not a good look for a 39 yr old woman. Now I can sit and wiggle around and slump and slouch and LIVE in this thing.

Specs: Pattern from Stephanie Japel's fabulous book Fitted Knits, Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest, size XS (I got a little smaller gauge on sz 6 & 9 needles with Cascade 220 and went ahead and knit it up to get a smaller than the S size. (no boobies means a lot less yarn is used, who'd of thought there was a perk to having a size half A cup chest?) Total of 2.25 balls of cascade for a sweater? (not having sleeves also helps!)

I've unraveled SIX INCHES from each of my sleeves on the simple knitted bodice and am hoping to add the leftover yarn on the waistline to AGAIN make the waist a bit longer. Anyone see a pattern here? Cripes. I figure as soon as I think I'm done knitting something I will just automatically knit 4 inches more. It is looking good and should be wearable by the weekend also. I'm getting ready for the cool weather! Bring it on, baby!


Also, I finished my aunt Dot's socks and got them in the mail! WOO HOO! Now both ends of her will be cozy in knitted loverliness. I had SO MUCH yarn left over. MAN those crafty in a good way skeins have a buttload of yarn. I could've made full length legs on them. Ah well. I'll probably make a baby hat out of the rest of it. Regular old 3X1 ribbing with my traditional slip stitch heel and kitchenered toe.

Artwork from our refrigerator

I guess it's a move up from "Hello Crazy Butthead" that we've been sporting for the last month or so. I'm guessing this one is also courtesy of the two 10 yr olds as when I opened the freezer and said "what the heck?" much giggling was heard by David and Elizabeth around the corner and then they were so proud of their work. "Did you see it? *giggle* about the cows? *giggle* *snort* *giggle* Can you believe it?" (snorts were my daughter. I'm afraid she's inherited that ladylike gesture from her momma.)

The ONLY thing I knitted this weekend was my Aunt Dot's socks. She's the one I made the Shedir hat for and is having mostly good days fighting her breast cancer. I thought I could just whip out some socks for her to boot. I mean, if your head AND feet are both cozy the rest of you has to feel better, right? Well, I got the foot and toe done on one pair and just turned the heel on the second one. I forgot that you just don't "whip out" a pair of size 11's. Dang. I know that's not a big size, don't get your dander up people, it's just that I'm not used to knitting that long of a foot. I think I should have enough yarn, weeeee! We'll see. I do love Crafty in a Good Way sock yarn. Gorgeous colors, good feel, good wear and a buttload of yardage. I'm going to keep going on these puppies until they get done and try not get distracted by any other projects. Wish me luck.


The kids have been busy bees picking up bags and bags of acorns. Yes, acorns. Jeff's paying a penny per acorn. The kids are amassing gallon ziplock bags full of them. We've got tons of old oak trees in our front yard and the ground was literally covered with at least 1-2 acorns per square inch. So far he's forked out over $40, which comes to 4000 acorns. It boggles my mind. Then I thought, hey, a couple bags of acorns could get me some new sock yarn! I may have to get picking myself. I think the idea was to give the kids a way to NOT be bored and to earn their own money as well as clearing out the soil a bit for Jeff's fall fertilization/aeration and whatever else he does to the yard. He takes them to his friend's farm and they plant them and throw some out for the deer. Anyone got any ideas of what to do with all these acorns? I've heard of recipes for making acorn pancakes but that's probably not going to happen around here. OK, how weird is it that the recipe page for the acorn pancakes has SQUIRREL recipes on the bottom of hte page? very, very weird. Yes, Jeff has grilled a few squirrels, but I draw the line at cracking and pounding out thousands of acorns when I can buy flour at the damn store. I'm not living off the land yet, dammit. That country shack is still just a shack. I don't go country until it has running water, electricity, air conditioning and "those innnernets" as the local folk call it. Seriously, I'm not making fun. The guy up the road was all excited because he was getting his woman "those innernets" to make her happy.


This was waiting for me this morning from Joey. My favorite flower, a sunflower, done up in iron-beads. The kids spend hours placing these little beads just so on a spiked template and then have an adult iron and fuse them all together. He had told me he was making it for his teacher, could I iron it for him? Turns out it was for his momma. Good kids, huh?


Now that I've finished watching my EZ dvd's I really REALLY want to redo Jeff's neckline on his sweater and add short rows in the back of neck and then decrease in like they say to do. That would be insane, right? I should just leave well enough alone, right? Put down the needles and back away from the sweater, Christine. It's done. Leave it alone. right?

Help! I've cabled and I can't get up!

OK, so I could get up, I just don't seem to be able to walk away from this new project. YES another project. It's fall, my prime time a.d.d. startitis time. It doesn't look like much yet, but I knit almost an entire ball of calmer last night. YES more freaking cotton yarn. This isn't as bad as 100% cotton yarn, but it's still cotton. Damn. I HATE weaving ends on cotton. I don't know why, but it makes me crazy. Pattern is the start of Fifi. There's not that many cables, it's mostly ribbing with some CF4 twisty things every so often. It's absolutely a pattern you have to pay attention to survive, so since the whole gang is here tonight, poor little Fifi will have to wait until next week to get much more done on her. She's being modeled upside down on my feet, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but she's a pretty, pretty little thing. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.

OK, the sign that maybe I need to get out a bit more....I dreamed I was complaining about not knowing how to sew in ends of my calmer so it didn't show so badly (I had to do Jeff's sweater's ends under his arms or on the back and you can SO SO SO see exactly where I did it. rrrrr) to Elizabeth Zimmerman. She pushed her reading glasses down on her nose and took my Fifi and told me "That's why I knit with WOOL, dear." She was just threading a blunt needle to show me how and I woke up. DAMN! Yes, Jeff was traveling last night so I must have fallen asleep while knitting and watching my EZ Knitting Workshop dvd. Too bad I didn't sleep just a few minutes longer, huh?

Finishing my ass off here!

It fits. It freaking fits. Can you believe it? Survived the boyfriend sweater. So far. The picture sucks because the weather around here has been cloudy and rainy whenever we've had the time to take the picture. Jeff wanted to wait and take an artsy photo with trees and leaves in the background, I got tired of waiting and wanted a damn picture. Hence in the dark on the back porch. Ah well. Artsy will follow later.
Specs:
Pattern...Manly Maze from No Sheep for You
Yarn: Rowan Calmer 2 1/2 balls more than yardage calculated originally. (Thank God for yarn shops and knitters on Ravelry)
Needles: sz 7's and 5's circs and dpns
Started: May 2007, knit away until the sleeves, got bored, quit knitting until the first cooler weather arrived, started again, realized I was running out of yarn, freaked out, begged, borrowed and bought more yarn in the same dye lot, finished the motherbugger.
I think it may even be a sweater worn in public and not just an around-the-house kind of sweater. It rocks. After I danced the holy-shit-I-finished-it dance (much thrusting and jazz hands may or may not have been involved here) I got such a feeling of accomplishment that I felt like the best knitter in the world. I highly recommend fininishing a fitting sweater. It's a good thing.

I sat down and finished Joey's blue toed socks, which turned out so cool they had to be renamed. They're now the Sk8er Boy socks.
Specs:
Pattern: my own derived from bits from about 5 other patterns I like. CO 60 stitches on 3X1 ribbing with slip stitch heel.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces one ball of Pioneer and one half ball of denim
Needles: sz 1.5 dpns
Started and Finished: September 2007


I haven't actually finished this one yet, but I have cranked out a lot of knitting on it. It's actually got almost one sleeve done from yesterday and today but I didn't want to take another picture since it's not too exciting yet. I'm hoping to finish it soon and put it away for my daughter's birthday. Cascade 220 rocks.

Eenie, Meenie, Miney Mo. Catch a Knitter by the toe!

So, driving through the parking lot last night after dropping the kids off for an activity I saw this Trekking covered TOE sticking out the window of a minivan. I thought, hmmmmmm. That's either a knitter or someone well loved by a knitter. After stifling the urge to go running up and actually grab the woman by her knitted toe, I approached calmly and saw a woman enjoying the beautiful weather and KNITTING God love her. I'm usually "the knitting mom." Everyone around here is used to it and not only are my kids always told "your mom's over there" before they even get near me but I think people are starting to use me as a reference point. I heard one kid talking on her cell phone to her mom, "Yeah mom, I'm on the side of the school next to the knitting mom. Ok, see you soon." Seriously. I'm like a fixture of the sidewalk or something. Most kids meet up with their parents by the tree, the playground swings, or the side gate. Nope, this girl meets up at the Knitting Mom.

ANYWAY, one would think that this would pull any closet knitters out of the woodwork, wouldn't it? I never, ever see knitters around town except at knitting shops. I was just thinking it was cool as hell to run into an actual knitting mom right there in my own neighborhood. After comparing notes on sock yarns I squooshed the offered poncho in progress, handed over my son's blue toed socks for her to pet and we went on our way. What could be a better evening? Beautiful weather, full moon rising up gloriously in the sky and KNITTERS. Love that shit.

I finished Jeff's boyfriend sweater last night around midnight and finished sewing in the 27 ends. TWENTY SEVEN ENDS. Damn. And they're cotton. (well Calmer cotton blend anyway) The man is an "I don't want a WOOL sweater" kind of a guy. I told him not to worry, his next sweater would be "a blend." Yes, it'll be a blend of THIS SHEEP and THAT SHEEP'S wool. Spit splicing? Oh yeah. Or at least sewing in a couple of ends of Cascade 220 versus all those damn cotton thick crappy 50 gram balls and some even had 3 or 4 knots in them too! rrrrrrrrr

OH, yeah. After the thrill of finishing the thing I of course tried it on myself. (Jeff was traveling and not home last night) Starting to admire it in the mirror I notice a glaring, eye-popping, freak show of an error. The damn raglan perfect pretty accented raglan seam on the left front has a serious WONK in it. funky, damn wrong diagonal wonk. Also the collar rolls a bit. Not panicking I calmly take it off and pull like hell to straighten out the wonk. It makes a tiny bit of difference, but then wonks back its own way. rrrrrrrrrrr I'm taking it in to the guru's that hang out at Knit Wits in Olathe for help. I'm sure I can fix it up with a darning needle and yarn, but I'm getting more irritated and don't trust myself to get it right yet. I'm going to present it to Jeff on Saturday if I get it all fixed up. damn boyfriend sweaters anyway. At least I broke the boy in well by making socks first. He loves them and wears them all the time and is very appreciative of how well they feel and look. Hopefully the big BRIGHT RED sweater will work out and he'll actually wear it. It's not like I was smart and made a neutral sweater for the boy first. Nope. Let's make it bright freaking red with black colorwork. Yeah. Let's do that and then any little mistake will SCREAM out for all to see. Nice. If I can fix the wonk, I'd even wear it myself. Pictures once the boy tries it on. I promise. (Oh and I ended up with almost an entire ball of Calmer left.)

It's my party and I'll frog if I want to, frog if I want to, froooooggggg if I waaaaant to....You would frog too if it happened to you....

Ah well, another one bites the dust. Try as I could, this sweater just didn't work for me. It looks fabulous as long as I stand in a strange leaning fashion. If I actually WEAR it and sit down or stand normally, the baggly lines at the back just drove me nuts. I either needed to knit a smaller size overall or make some more damn adjustments in the waistline. I have a teeny tiny waist. That's a nice thing, except it helps to accentute the NOT so teeny hips & thighs. Ah well. I just need to REMEMBER that fact and make adjustments on my patterns. Duh. Ah well.

My big quest to finish the first boyfriend sweater is a decision not to cast on for anything else until it gets done. Yeah. Some of you knitters are good with that, it just doesn't work for me. I do now have two sleeves, although one turned out about 2 inches longer than the other, so I need to frog back to the last decrease round and reknit the ends. I'll cast on for the neckline hopefully tonight while watching some tv.



So, of course I wouldn't have cast on for two more projects, no. That would be bad. Yeah, right. After realizing the sleeve error, I figured I'd done enough to earn a cast on for another project. Knitting Pure & Simple's Neckdown V Neck Shaped Cardigan #241 (scroll down to the green one with the tie on the lower left). I'm knitting it up in a purple Cascade 220 heather yarn for my daughter and want to make one for me in a blue also.


I also swatched, didn't get gauge and had to go smaller needles on an acrylic yarn I'd bought on sale for a Wonderful Wallaby hooded sweater for Joey. The gauge at the bigger size was feeling a titch tight, but on the smaller needles and sleeve I started to check gauge, it felt like iron. Plasticky iron. I think I could even hear it squeeench when I rubbed it. I think that may have been yarn snobbery guilt at clothing the rest of the family in natural fibers. I mean, what if he wandered too close to a campfire? He'd melt in a horrible puddle and the rest of the family would stop smouldering as soon as the flame was removed. Yeah. I'm gonna go look at some cascade 220 superwash and try again. I found a very cool Wonderful Wallaby FAQ site and am going to cast on for this probably tonight too if I find the yarn. The whole campfire thing? Over-imagination? Not really. Jeff is a LARGE bonfire making man. We don't do the little start with twigs and dry grasses, slowly adding bigger twigs until a nice, safe fire is going. Nope, there's usually a bit of gasoline and a large "WHOOOOOSHH", then flames to the sky and people for miles around come and gather together whenever we camp out. Yup, my boy's gonna get some good ol' flame resistant natural fiber wool. I'll use the acrylic for an afghan.

Also worked a little on Joey's blue-toed socks. I had one ball of Lorna's Laces in the same colorway I used to make his first pair of socks last year. Wow. Have I really only been making socks for a year? No, my first pair were for Jeff for Valentine's day in 2006, so I guess that's about a year and a half. HOW did I survive drive thru's, red lights, waiting at doctor's offices and the like without my car-sock projects? Anyway, these are turning out less fugly than I thought. He thinks they look good, so I guess that's all that matters. I'm not really sure if the one ball of yarn will last even with adding in blue toes and heels. Yes, I KNOW that dividing up the ball and knitting toe-up would allow me to then stripe blue at the top should I need it, but that would just be too damn easy and make too much sense. Yes, this is probably the same thinking that enables me to make entire sweaters and weave in ends and wear it for a while before deciding I need to frog it. Ah well. That's just one of my quirks. I've learned to live with it and even enjoy the suspense......will I have enough yarn......will I make it? Boy, I need to get more excitement in my life.


Don't you just dig the funky 70's bathroom counter we've got?

Ta Da! Introducing my aunt's Shedir!

Damn I enjoyed knitting this. Ok, as long as "enjoyed" means cursing, grappling without a cable needle, cursing, grappling with a cable needle, cursing, then amazement as the patterns emerged, excitement and then HOLY CRAP I'M ACTUALLY KNITTING THIS THING sets in. Yes, I'd do it again. In a while. Someday. There's a few cables that disappear a stitch off from where they're supposed to, but the crazy anal knitter in me was silenced and I think it's lovely. I really think my aunt will like it. Thank you for all the good "healthy boob" thoughts!

Specs:
Pattern: Shedir
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in pretty dark blue. I used just a bit more than one ball.
Needles: circ and dpns for sz 4 (pattern called for sz 3 and since I knit a bit tight, I just went up one size and *gasp* didn't swatch. It's a HAT and is stretchy. After I got going I measured and it was ok. If I would have had to frog it, I'd have considered it good practice on learning to cable.)

I'm trying VERY VERY hard to finish Jeff's boyfriend sweater. It turns out I wasn't actually running out of yarn. I was getting worried thinking that I'd bought an additional 2 balls and then still wasn't going to make it and a lovely knitter from ravelry saved my butt and sent me a ball she had in the same dye lot and everything. Well, um, I'm just disorganized. I will most likely need that last ball but, well, I found the other 2 balls buried under piles. I'm not what you would call an organized woman. Here's my knitter's version of a home makeover.....

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Yup, I'm a piler. After the piles start growing too large, to do NOW pile.....to do LATER pile.....Filing pile....etc. The piles get moved into a drawer or box and then once in a long while I pull it all out, organize EVERYTHING and PUT EVERYTHING AWAY and then enjoy my beautiful empty counters and drawers and do it all over again. I think it's easier with the yarn solution.

2 balls of fun fur away from being a total redneck

Seriously, it's getting creepy around here. You be the judge. I'm a common law wife of a squirrel grilling (and eating) man. All weekend I drove a truck with a trailer pulled behind full of a kid's race car and a buttload of tools and actually KNOW HOW TO USE MOST OF THEM, have short broken off nails, STILL have some grease and oily crap way under those broken nails, my cuticles are shot to hell and I got to where I didn't even MIND peeing in the porta-potties. At one point I even snorted under my breath when I had to lift another kid's car up onto the trailer since the mom was a pretty blond thing in cute heels and with big hair who couldn't dream of touching a car, let alone PICK IT UP. At one point in the weekend I found I'd even tucked a greasy rag into my back pocket and was walking around like that.

I used to be one of the pretty moms with big hair and short cute heels that matched my outfit and pedicured toes. Now I'm starting to resemble Goober from Mayberry. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? If anyone sees me with a can of chaw and two balls of fun fur slap the SHIT out of me and sit me down with some koigu, ok? Pretty please?

Anyway, the weekend was FABULOUS! The girl is really becoming quite a driver and it was so much fun. She's such a competitor now that it's much more fun to race. She's such a gentle soul that she has lots of parents and even kids rooting for her. Soap Box Derby racing is such a great family event and the kids really are cheering for each other and helping each other out and still fighting it out for every partial second. SHE ROCKS! 5th place Saturday and 4th place on Sunday.

It was also cold as hell, so the fact that I'm a knitter came in handy. At the last minute, I threw in some wool hats, gloves, scarves and winter coats. THANK GOD FOR WOOL! Even my mom of "oh, I'm not really a fan of wool" was loving the lorna's laces superwash worsted weight ribbed hat I'd thrown in. I was actually toasty in my alpaca hat, wool fingerless gloves (had to be working on the car all day, so no fuzzy fingers allowed), koigu socks and clapotis. My daughter raced in her new crafty-in-a-good-way socks and we were all bundled up and mostly cozy in the 40 degree cold wind blowing day.

We stayed in mom & dad's rv camper and OOOOOOOhhhhhh that's the way to camp. The KOA campground we stayed at had a nice playground, free mini golf and even these fun bikes the kids could run around on. Great weekend even though I only had about 4 hours TOTAL for knitting. It was too damn cold the first day and also Omaha runs a seriously efficient race. At our home track in KC there's a lot of down time, sitting around, KNITTING time. I didn't hardly turn around and Lizzie was racing again. So, only had time for a couple rows on Jeff's sleeves. I did spend in between times de-pilling and picking fuzz off my clapotis. I felt very Elizabeth Zimmermanly as I remembered her writing about spending a pleasant afternoon defuzzing a knitted jacket when she was camping in the cold with her hubby.




Though I missed the great Harlot weekend with my knitting friends, and am still just a teensy tiny bit unbelievably jealous, I was there in spirit as I took along her book KNITTING RULES and re-read it realizing that woman is not only funny but smart. I love her book. Can't wait to hear all about the fun I missed.

A knitting weekend of sorts

Not the FUN ultra knitting weekend the local knitting girls are going to, nope. They're heading off early Sat. to Wichita to see the Harlot, eat, knit, SHOP at the new shop there called Twist, knit, eat and have fun. OOOOOOhhhhh I'm jealous. Ah well.

My weekend will be spent driving the blazer, hauling a big ass trailer with my daughter's soap box derby car in it. We're hitting the road! Omaha, NE here we come! Mom & Dad are taking their rv camper, so we get to camp out in style. MY kind of camping. We've got a 2 day race ahead, with pleasant evenings and afternoons with almost nothing to do but KNIT!

Here's a quick update as I've not finished packing and have a ton of work to do before I leave.

I'm a cabling queen now! I'm just to the part of the shedir where I start decreasing. I've now learned both to cable, and to UNCABLE. Good to know.

I'm done with one sleeve on Jeff's boyfriend sweater, taking it along to hopefully finish up the other one and the neckline so he can wear it in the chilly weather that's setting in around KC.

Finished Jeff's mountain colors barefoot socks and like a doll, he grabbed them up and wore them immediately. It wasn't really cold enough to wear them so he suffered for it, but claimed he loved them and they're the most comfortable socks he's ever had. I'll knit that man socks forever for wearing the bits out of my socks.





I've got to do some fixing up of things around here before winter sets in. The sleeves that were a touch long on my simple knitted bodice have now stretched out to absurd. I'll shorten them.



I also accidentally felted the crap out of my world's coolest tank top made from twisted sisters merino. damn. Now it's going to get cut and made into a vest somehow.


Knitting packing, does anyone else go a titch overboard? I'll have 2 evenings of knitting time plus some during the day on Sat. and Sunday. I've got along Jeff's sweater that needs another sleeve and neckline and tons of ends woven in. I've got 2 balls of sockyarn with a sock in progress on each of them (first sock on both). I've got my aunt's shedir hat in progress along with an extra ball of rowan calmer as it looks like I may need to break into the 2nd ball. I've also stuck in an extra ball of sock yarn JUST IN CASE. Yeah, because any sane knitter would figure of COURSE I'll finish the sweater, the hat, the two socks in progress and their two mates not even cast on and then be sitting around going crazy because I don't have any extra yarn packed. I've also got to entertain two children for that knitting time, so I'm guessing maybe the hat will get done and part of one sock. We'll see. Happy weekend!

Those magical three little words...

No, not "I love you." No, not even "oh well FUXX!" No, that's what I exclaimed after I realized I'd totally missed the three magical little words of WITH SMALLER NEEDLES. As in, "with smaller needles, cast on XXX stitches," then follow lace chart and knit your butt off for half the back of the sweater. damn damn damn. Yes, I have been known to not see those little words until about 3 or 4 inches of the start of a sweater before. Yes, I should probably have LEARNED my damn lesson, but didn't. I didn't realize until after 8 full lace repeats and 12 inches of the back of my silky wool sweater was complete and the pattern said "switch to larger needles." damn damn damn.

Am I the only one that needs all knitting designers and publishers to print those words in really BIG BOLD type and underline it and surround it with asterisks? Even in one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's books, I think it was her Knitting Workshop, she even said NOW PAY ATTENTION and told whatever it was that she wanted to stress. damn. Ah well, I am not a knitter afraid to frog, I've frogged many, many sweaters that weren't working out, or were entirely knitted and finished and didn't work out. But this time I just couldn't do it. I think my standards of anal-knitterly-ness have just gotten a bit less psycho level. I convinced myself that rather than an attractive, slimming waistline that would have been provided had I paid attention to the damn directions isn't really what I wanted. No, I wanted a loose, baggy waistline. Really. I do. I really REALLY do.

damn damn damn

The voices in my head

OK, it's more of ONE voice but she's quite vocal. I'm not Sybil, my voice is mostly harmless. Don't worry. I think it's because for most of my almost 39 years on this earth I've had the unfortunate habit of saying EXACTLY whatever pops into my head whether it's appropriate or not. This has provided more than a couple of interesting situations. I think my voice came about as a result of trying really hard to keep my mouth shut until after I think about what it is I'm about to spout out. I still go around inserting hand-knitted-sock-covered foot in mouth, but ONCE in a while the system works.

Anyway, my little voices have been quite active the last few days. Riding along in a carpool to the zoo with some other moms on our way to a field trip the woman driving asked if I knew how to get there. I said, "well, I always take I-435" and she said, "Oh, I don't believe in highways." I said, "Oh, I understand not wanting to drive on highways." She said, "no, I don't BELIEVE in highways." I couldn't even knit. I sat there with frozen hands and my mouth shut tight. Inside my head was a screaming, "but it's RIGHT OVER THERE! Can't you see it? The thing with all those cars and trucks driving on it? It's not the tooth fairy, IT'S A REAL ROAD MADE OF TAR AND EVERYTHING!" I just smiled, said "huh, you don't say" and picked up the sock needles.

Today I was in a mood that I just couldn't sit still and work any longer. I had to get out and knit somewhere. I took myself to a pizza shop in downtown OP. After eating a piece of pizza as advertised "as big as your face" I sat and lounged and read another chapter of EZ's Knitting Workshop, just enjoying the heck out of myself. As I walked out on the sidewalk towards my truck and saw an OP police car with lights a-flashing. I noticed the side of the car had "PARKING ENFORCEMENT" printed on its side. The siren started to sound. The voice in my head said "well Lawd-a-Mighty, it must be a parking enforcement emergency." (Apparently the voice in my head speaks like a southern belle when my belly's stuffed to bursting). Chuckling to myself, I begin to walk towards Yarn Shop & More to see if I can get another couple of skeins of a cascade 220 yarn I'd bought a while back. Then I realize the damn siren is for MY TRUCK! Apparently the sign that said 15 MINUTE PARKING and was directly in front of my windshield somehow didn't get noticed. The police-looking man (are Parking Enforcement Officers even cops?) came up and explained I'd been in a 15 minute zone for over 45 minutes. I said "WHAT? I didn't see anything about a 15 minute zone!" but it didn't matter. I passed the time waiting for him to complete his damn paperwork by working most of a slip stitch heel flap. The officer walked up and whistled, remarking on what good eyes I must have to work with such little thin dark yarn. I smiled politely. Then he said, "yeah, you'd have thought that would've helped you see that big parking sign, huh?" and handed me the $40 ticket. The voice suddenly turned from southern belle to white trash momma on the tv show cops. I think my brain even invented some new curse words today. I sat there for a while calming down and finishing up my heel flap. The officer finally came back and knocked on my window, asking when I was planning on vacating the 15 minute spot. I explained sweetly that I needed to finish "just one more row" and I'd be right on my way. Voice? She was saying "BITE ME Smartass, I'll leave when I damn well feel like I've knitted up $40 worth of heel flap." I like my voice.

Shedir update...Now I'm thinking maybe it would have been smarter to start my first cabling project with a project with maybe ONE cable that went straight up and down. Ah well. Why make life easier? I'd rather do something with 42 cables. Ok, so it's not quite that many but it damn well seems like it. I've given up (for now) on the whole cabling without a needle thing. Maybe someday in the future. I'm working with a little cable needle and can now see actual cabling action happening. Though the rate of knitting may mean that my aunt's hair all falls out and grows back in again before it's done, it'll get done somehow.

In another fit of startitis, I cast on for Tilia, the cover sweater in Elsebeth Lavold's Designer's Choice Book Eight in some golden silky wool from the stash. I'm about 7 repeats of the front done and am really liking the look of it.

And those voices in my head? Well, after my trying time with the parking enforcement officer and not finding any of the dye lot of cascade 220 at the yarn shop, I listened to the voice and drove myself out to Knit Wit's in Olathe. HOLY CRAPAMIGHTY it's like the sock yarn center of the universe now. Seriously. Claudia Handpaint, Crafty in a Good Way, Lucy Neatby semi-solids and her cool hand-painted colorways, Shi Bui, Schaefer Anne, Regia, Lorna's Laces, Mountain Colors, four other kinds I'm totally mind-blanking here but they were COOL. Holy crap. It's not my fault if the voices said BUY SOCK YARN!! YOU NEED MORE SOCK YARN!!! right? And I'm not totally single-white-female-ing Jo if I happen to buy the exact yarn she got for her birthday if I'm using a different pattern and I use it for a gift, right? It's the voice's fault, not mine! Now aren't we all glad my voices just say "buy sock yarn" and not "kill kill kill" like other voices?

Now, honey, you know momma doesn't approve of cursing, right? Well, go ahead and KICK HIS ASS!!!

Quote for the day. My daughter Elizabeth raced her soap box derby car (the kind you build and ride down the hill inside, not the little wooden toy ones) on both Saturday and Sunday. This is the best sport EVER and builds family unity, friendship, self-confidence and is the best example of good sportsmanship I've ever been a part of. These kids look out for each other, shake each other's hands (without anyone telling them to) and really root for each other. Except for one obnoxious boy from out of town. The boy made one of Beth's friends cry on Sat's race and after racing MY little girl, messed with her too. Uh huh. He was mouthy, obnoxious and rude the whole way from climbing up out of their cars to the ride up the hill. You race each opponent two times to determine a heat win. Each child runs down each lane with 2 of their wheels and 2 of their opponant's wheels. Then they switch wheels and switch lanes and do it again. The one with the best overall differential (which is timed down to a .000 level of a second) wins and they go on into the bracket. My girl got out of the back of the van that transports the racers back to the top of the hill in tears. I really REALLY wanted to get in the face of this obnoxious boy, but refrained. The other 2 racers riding back to the top of the hill were older kids from the higher division. One of them was a sweet high school girl who said she told Beth not to worry about anything that boy said, but that he brags and is mouthy to everyone. There's not a lot of girls that race. I took Beth aside, we talked just a little bit and I explained that he probably wins a lot on the 2nd time down because he upsets the other drivers and the best way to get back at him? KICK HIS ASS! She giggled, then did kick his butt enough to win the overall time and went on to race great that day and finished up 4th place! She had a blast.

Thank you all for your good thoughts this last week. It's been a doozy. I sure went through the stages of grieving. I'm not good at that. We're all mostly healthy and mostly unbroken now. Jeff's back to work and though he's moving slowly, we somehow got all the kids moved around in our Weasley house (many split levels and rooms everywhere). Jeff finished the remodel of the half-attic room, his oldest boy is moved in there. Elizabeth now has her own room and it rocks. The two younger boys are sharing a room, but with how me moved the furniture it seems bigger than before. I had no idea we have so much freaking furniture!

I've also been doing a LOT of knitting to help my sanity. I've had lots of worries and we had some additional crap hanging over our heads with this accident that was adding stress to everything. All of that seems to have worked itself out to the best. I knit one and a half socks in Mountain Colors Barefoot and this time used sz 2 dpns, which seems to fit so they will actually get to be Jeff's. I also got cracking on the boyfriend sweater, have almost one sleeve and am waiting on a knitter from ravelry (I LOVE KNITTERS AND OH HOW I LOVE RAVELRY!!!) who is sending me a ball of the yarn in the exact dye lot I need since I'm again running short on yarn. Damn cotton yarn. He's getting his next sweater in wool as God intended. And I was in a state of general anxiousness that only was made better by casting on with more sock yarn. I cast on some Crafty in a Good Way sock yarn in the Evening colorway that will end up either for me or my daughter. I have to make Joey some more socks before I give another pair to Elizabeth, so I may be casting on more soon. These are being knit up with my new Hiya-Hiya sz 1.5's that I'm LOVING!!! We ordered them from Twist the new shop in Wichita, KS. These needles ROCK! They're aluminum but HOLLOW and light as heck and they rock. MisKnits here in KC now has them also, go check them out!




I also picked up 2 balls of Rowan Calmer yarn for my aunt, the Knitress. My aunt, the one in California who KNITS has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Damn. She had a biopsy, a lumpectomy and then they had to go back for more and a 2nd lumpectomy. She's now walking around with a hole in her boob that they're purposely keeping open and then letting heal? I don't get the whole explanation just know that she's seeing a team of doctors and has great spirits. I asked what I can do for her and she said to ask my knitting friends to all think "heal, hole, HEAL!" thoughts for her. So let's all send the Knitress happy healing boob thoughts, ok? I figured a pretty blue shedir hat would be a nice gift. The fact that it's full of freaking cables and I've never actually MADE a cable before doesn't scare me in the least. Ok, at least not very much. How hard could it be?

no pics today

Well, another wild and wacky week has gone by here at Christine's house. Holy crap. I'm just drained. Sitting Tuesday night at our little coffee shop knitting night with just three of us knitters there I get a phone call from Jeff (my boyfriend). He's been in a wreck in the Ozarks. I ask "are you ok, baby?" "no, I don't think so." ugh. In a nutshell, he was going around one of those lovely hard turns on ozark roads with no shoulders and his tire slipped off the edge of the road, throwing him into a spin. In a nutshell, he went spinning down the sharp ditch and hit a tree, totaling his company car. And almost totaling himself.

He has a broken collarbone from where the seat belt was going across holding him in his seat. He's in some pain and moving slow, but he's alive and I'm so very, very thankful.

I'm also thankful for the good friendship of knitters. Holy crap. I'm trying to figure out how to get my kids looked after, get packed up and get myself the 2 1/2 hours down the road to pick him up from the hospital. The Jo's (Johanna and Joanna) swing into action. They offer to come watch the kids until my folks can get there. Then later I hear from Jeff again and his boss is going to drive him home so I don't need to go. I'm walking about in a daze. I call the girls, letting them know they don't have to come over now. They bring me food, sit and knit with me and keep me calm until Jeff came home. It's amazing how much knitting and companionship can help bring you back to the level where you can deal with whatever comes your way.

The day after the wreck we drove down to the OZ to get everything out of the car at the salvage yard. I am SO FREAKING STURDY and just perfectly calm in a crisis. ROCK SOLID in a crisis. Afterwards, I freak the hell out. I made it through the whole unloading thing, he had a LOT of crap in the car with his sales tools and demo stuff. I wish I'd have brought my camera, but I'm actually glad I didn't. After we got back into the truck, I just was in shock. I know these new cars just crumple up. I know that. But the tree's shape (a damn big tree too) was left in the car about 2 feet in front of the driver's area. The ENGINE crumpled up and was GONE in this big circle shape that was bigger than the entire driver's seat area and dash. 2 feet.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't cry. I just sat there. I had to wait about 15 minutes before I could even drive again. For the rest of the day on Wednesday I just could hardly talk at all. I just went through the motions. I was able to pump myself up enough that when we went to pick up my kids from my folks' house (dad had picked them up from school for me) I was able to talk about their days at school and put them to bed.

Then yesterday I was mad. Mad at everyone and everything. It wasn't pretty. I finally had a big ol' "come-apart" as Jeff refers to my little mini breakdowns I have routinely. He was patient, kind, loving and listening without saying much (I think the boy has finally learned that it's usually best to keep his mouth shut when I'm ranting and raving). Today I think I'm mostly back to usual.

I needed to cast on something though. That always helps. I'm using up the leftover crafty in a good way sockyarn from my daughter's teal pair to make some better than booties socks. Today I'm back knitting and just thankful that we're all here and we're all mostly healthy. Thank God for small miracles.

So, besides bathing in flea and tick shampoo all week, what've I been up to?

It's taking me a while to get back into the whole swing of school, homework and chasing kids around. My kids can each have ONE activity plus scouts. I don't know how those uber-parents do it. I go insane with running around just one night a week. Elizabeth's singing in the KC children's choir again and Joey's playing soccer. I do a little running with Jeff's two boys as they're over scheduled beyond belief (not our idea). One good idea was putting my son on Jeff's son's soccer team, so we're cutting down on a little craziness by that combination. I used to make excuses for missing deadlines and forms and payments and all that crap. Now I just say, "I'm extremely disorganized but I mean well" and smile sweetly. So far, so good. I think I'm caught up for today anyway.

I finished Elizabeth's socks! She loves them. I'm very happy and love them too. I sure wish I had more of this colorway! It's from Andrea's Crafty in a Good Way sockyarn. Have I told you lately how much I love this yarn? OH it's pretty, feels good to knit with AND feels good to wear! Specs: sz 1 dpns, co 64, knit for 1 inch in 1X1 rib, knit cuff and top of foot in 3X1 rib, slip stitch heel flap, decrease down to 28 stitches, kitchener together, sigh lovingly, weave in ends, sigh again. purty.

I also cast on and frogged an almost completed mitten. I'm so very proud of myself for STOPPING before finishing the entire freaking item and then frogging as is my usual method. I do love this Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn, but have no freaking idea what to do with it. My first venture was to make Jeff socks. They were beautiful, but felted in his boots and then further with each additional wearing. I ended up lightly felting them all over on purpose (since mostly just the feet were felting which was looking funky) and now they're very thick and warm super socks for one of the kids to wear out in their snow boots. I've tried the mitten, but I'm just not a fan of mittens. You'd think I'd have realized that before BUYING a pattern and then knitting one, huh? I really wanted something to make with this yarn besides a scarf. Maybe a hat? It's soft and lovely looking but making me crazy. I've got one skein of dark brown (bark brown colorway) and one of black. I guess it's back into the stash for this stuff.


I also cast on and am turning the heel on a pair of Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks for Jeff. The last ones that were supposed to be for him turned out too small and are mine. (and I love them so) I'm using sz 2 needles on these and they seem to be working up larger. I'll wait till I get the first one done and have him try them out to see.



Can you tell we had a LONG weekend with all the kids? Due to the calendar working out with our weekend with the boys last weekend, and then we get them for Labor Day and then again next weekend, this jar may just be filling up soon. It's a dollar per infraction.

For the squeamish among you, please click away now...
TICK UPDATE:
Thanks to my dear friend Susie, I realized maybe I should take a closer look at the little critters I got myself into last weekend. I had a few bumps that weren't quite like regular bug bites. I did some searching on the internet, and let me tell you, I found many ways of AVOIDING the seed ticks, many many things I'd rather not know about them, for instance, they mate, then burrow into your skin, then lay 3000-6000 babies. EACH momma seed tick is possible of laying THOUSANDS of babies. I wasn't able to determine if they lay them in your skin or not, I'm thinking they drop out and lay them nearby like on your bed or leave them to crawl around on the "host" aka "ME" or something equally as lovely. They also carry both lyme disease and rocky mountain spotted fever. After talking with three different nurse lines and getting three different stories I called our vet. He suggested I buy some flea and tick shampoo for big dogs and wash my whole body in it a few times in the week, soak in almost scalding hot tubs and to not worry too much about the whole thing. yeah. ok. I also did my own version of hack surgery and got rid of the bumps with tweezers and cursing. I pulled one little critter out of a bump on my neck. nice, huh? And let me tell you, I smelled LOVELY for the whole week. I guess part of the magic of the shampoo is it leaves you smelling so chemically horrid that critters die just by breathing the fumes of me. I think I'm over most of the freakout now. I also learned that should anyone find themselves in my position of seeing the critters crawling over ones legs, you should use the sticky side of tape to remove them. I figured a sharp rock and newspaper, fingernails and a shower helped, but didn't do the trick. Next time I'm bringing duct tape to the great outdoors.

We've sent in our bid to the realtor. The place really does have potential, but there's a buttload of work that'll be done before I go hiking off anywhere.

Finally, a much better image to close with. A circle of friends. Tuesday night knitters. We'll sure miss you Gwen!