Donna Knits and Spins

Namaste

2009-05-29T16:15:00.003-04:00

The Diva at Diva Knitting is having a contest! You could win a free Namaste bag (but please don't, because I want to win!) and other neat goodies. Check it out here.

Happy Spring

2009-03-20T09:03:00.002-04:00

In spite of the fact that my head feels like it is three times the size it should be, I'm very glad that Spring is officially here. The cold weather has gotten me down this year, even though we didn't have that bad of a winter. I don't know if it is my "advanced" age (ha ha--44 is not old), or the pain of shelling out so much money to SCE&G, but winter was rough. Here's hoping that Spring doesn't immediately roll into a blazing Summer! :)

Husband and I have an "art" project of sorts for the weekend. He's going to play Michelangelo and paint the ceiling of our family room. It's been in need for several months now, and we're both eager to have it done. I am most likely going to take on the back stairs stairwell, a job that's been waiting since, oh, last summer, and my office wall which was torn out during the Plumbing Disaster of '08. Unfinished projects annoy me, so having these things done will be a relief.

Daughter has plans to help out with the tech crew at her HS. The big Spring Musical is coming up in just a couple of weeks. They are putting on Fiddler on the Roof. Her school has an outstanding drama department, and the productions are always top notch. They have a great director in the drama department, and he always calls on his buddies from college to help out with productions. For example, they have a professional lighting director from Chicago who's done the lights for the past several years. Not many HS kids get to work with professionals, so this is truly a bonus for them.

Since this is a Knitting blog, I'll tell you about my latest project. I'm working on the Waffle House socks knitted toe up using magic loop. I'm quite pleased with this pattern and with how the socks are turning out. This is my second attempt at toe up sock knitting, and my first attempt at magic loop. So far, so good!! I love the yarn--Silja sport weight. It looks quite similar to that used in the pattern, but I did not plan that. There are really only two problems with this sock. 1. The yarn is almost exactly the same color as my Knitpicks Harmony needles and blends into them if I'm not sitting directly under a light. 2. The socks are a tad bit too narrow for me, so they're going to be daughter's socks instead of mine. I'm working with a US size 1 needle and will work these socks again but on a US size 2. That should give me a nice pair of socks without my having to fiddle with the pattern. I will get some photos of my work in progress over the weekend and share at some point next week.

It Shouldn't Have Taken 20 Years

2009-03-15T08:41:00.004-04:00

Daughter is at that age now when it's time to start thinking college. I must say, however, that for this child, thinking college has been something she's done her entire life. Education has always been an important thing for our family (and for husband's family and for my family before we were "us.") Daughter has also always had a keen interest in art and has known for years now that she wants to study some form of art in college. She's gone from fashion design to interior design, and now, finally, it looks like graphic design is what she wants to study. We took her on her first college tour two years ago when she was an 8th grader to Savannah College of Art and Design. She loved it.

Thanks to Facebook, I've gotten back in touch with students, professors, and administrators from my and husband's alma mater, Coker College. The memories brought back by talking to these people made me want to share Coker with daughter. So, when we found out there was an open house coming, we registered. She was not quite as excited about the whole thing as I was, needless to say! She was more excited about a girls' getaway and staying in a hotel than she was about seeing the place I called home for 4 years of my life.

Thursday afternoon, we left for our drive to Coker. The closer we got, the more excited I got. Although we arrived in the semi-dark and it was cold and raining, my first stop had to be at campus. Seeing the campus stirred up so many emotions in me. I didn't expect it at all. We couldn't do more than take a quick look, though, because we were both cold, tired, and hungry.

Friday morning arrived, again cold and overcast, and we got ourselves ready for the open house. Coker has changed so much since I graduated in 1987. There are new buildings on campus. The road through it is now closed to pedestrian traffic (hurray!). There are so many new faces in the faculty. Still, the feeling remains the same. Coker is a very special place, particularly for those of us who were students there.

Daughter was able to meet several professors, including a woman who made a huge impact on my life, Dr. Patricia Lincoln. Seeing Dr. Lincoln was probably the most special part of the visit for me. She has barely changed after all these years--still the same personable, upbeat woman. I did take the opportunity to tease her a little about those "forced marches" she used to lead us through in her classes! Any biology student of Dr. Lincoln's can probably relate to that!! As I shared with Dr. Lincoln in an e-mail, although I may not be working in ecology or evolution, the foundation I got in my education at Coker certainly prepared me to build what I like to think is a very successful career in the biological science arena. But, enough about me, let's get on with the open house and daughter's experience!

We picked up information about several of the majors at Coker, found out about what some of the extra curricular opportunities are, heard from professors about the academic environment, and heard from a student panel about their Coker experience. The emphasis all morning was on the importance of the individual, about professors and students who really are able to get to know one another due to the small size of the school and the classes (10:1 stuent teacher ratio). The Coker president told us that this is a small school by design and will always be a small school. Given that daughter is attending a small high school now, this is right up our alley. She's the kind of kid who needs to know everybody and have everybody know her. Most importantly for me, we heard about financial aid, and I found out that if things remain the same with daughter's grades and if her SAT (when she takes it) is as good as her PSAT which she's taken as a Sophomore, then she's very well positioned to get some of the most generous scholarships Coker offers. For the first time, I've felt like maybe we can swing paying for college after all.

Finally, after the presentations were over, parents and students split up for campus tours. This is the part I'd been anxiously waiting on! The campus still looks pretty much the same with a few exceptions. There is now a fabulous library/technology center. This place even has a coffee shop! There's also a great new performing arts center. Back in the late 80s, the Governor's School for Science and Math built a dormitory on campus. It's still there, but now inhabited by Coker students (the high schoolers have a new facility off campus). As a mom, I was pleased to see that security in the dorms has been increased. You now have to have a scan card to get into any of the dorms, and you only get those if you are a resident. Not even commuter students can access the dorms. The amphitheater behind Davidson has been filled in, but the students still enjoy using that space for pick up football or soccer games or just lounging in the sun. The SUB still looks just like it did back in 1983-1987 when I was a student at Coker.

The best part of the day for daughter was meeting with art professor Jean Grosser. Daughter was able to show Ms. Grosser some of her art work to date and get some objective feedback. She was also able to observe a class for a little while, get a personal tour of the building, meet a senior graphic design student who's working on his senior show, and see some of the work other students are doing. She was impressed and said to me afterward that some of the work she'd seen was even better than what she had seen at the art college.

Why did it take me 20 years to go back to Coker? I thought that holding onto the past meant not embracing the future, but I was wrong. There's nothing wrong with a visit now and again to where you came from as long as you grow and move on to what your future holds. I plan to make many more trips back to Coker, regardless of what daughter's decision about a college may be. I do take it as a good sign that on her evaluation she wrote that Coker was homey and a cozy place. It's a good sign that she wanted to stop at the bookstore on the way home and pick up some Coker gear. She has been wearing her new hoody since the minute we got in the car to come back home. She told me she likes Coker and can see herself going there. The thought that we may have a second generation Coker student thrills me. I do know, however, that this is entirely her choice. She needs to pick the school that is right for her. I think Coker's small size and friendly environment will play a big part in that decision, but we still have many more small colleges to visit. Here's hoping Coker wins! ;-)

On My Toes

2009-03-11T17:25:00.003-04:00

My first toe up sock attempt is completed. I'm not thrilled with the results for several reasons, and my crappy photograph isn't helping matters much.

Let me just say that Judy Becker's Magic Cast On is indeed magic. I found printed instructions for this, but it didn't click until I watched the video. If you are on Ravelry, join the Up With Toes group and check out the group pages for more info on this cast on and other goodies related to knitting socks from the toe up.

The yarn I used was Tofutsies which is 50% Superwash Wool, 25% SOYSILK brand fiber, 22.5% Cotton, and 2.5% Chitin which is made from shrimp and crab shells. The yarn was pretty in the ball and soft. However, it wsn't very much fun to knit. I found it to be very splitty, particularly when I was wrestling 5 DPNs while knitting the toe increases. (Yes, I have heard of magic loop and will try it next time.) I have another brand new ball of this stuff in a darker pink/red color that I'm willing to swap. It was around $16 at the LYS. Make me an offer if you're interested!

I used the Widdershins pattern from Knitty for my socks--the plain version, not the cabled version. It's not a bad pattern, but I had some trouble with my wraps and turns and then knitting my wraps. That's not the fault of the pattern but due to the fact that this was my first time wrapping and turning. I think that will improve.

This was definitely a learning experience, and one important thing I learned is that I need to learn to knit socks with magic loop or two circulars if I plant to carry the project in my purse. I took this project on a business trip and was afraid the needles were going to get snapped in my purse.

Another thing I want to learn is a heel that doesn't have a heel flap. I'm not a big fan of the flap.

Now, on to Kitty News....... The three little kittens (aka Mocha, Socks, and Fluffy) are trying to get along. There has been less and less hissing and growling. In fact, all three of them were sitting within 5 feet of each other earlier today. Of course, they all seemed to be ignoring one another, but that's a cat for you.

Kitty Love

2009-03-10T10:25:00.002-04:00

I am waiting patiently for all 3 cats to start getting along. Mocha has become more tolerant of Fluffy. He is hissing less at her, and the two of them have actually been in a room at the same time now. Socks is still not completely sure she wants a sister, so she's still hissing and growling a little at Fluffy. Don't think Fluffy just takes it either. She gives it right back to Socks!

Fluffy is such a sweet thing. I know someone spoiled her at one time, and I just wonder how it is she came to be a stray cat. Fluffy loves to be with people. She sleeps on the foot of the bed at night and is up in the morning with whoever gets out of bed first. I just need her to learn that jumping on counters is not acceptable kitty behavior!

We have a vet appointment this afternoon for a checkup and initial vaccinations. Fluffy traveled pretty well from my grandma's to our home (2 hour trip), so I'm hoping she won't be too upset getting to the vet. Hopefully there will not be any big, loud dogs in the office when we go!

My new Knitpicks 40 inch circular needles came yesterday, so I'm planning to try magic loop tonight. I still have about 10 rows of ribbing to do on a sock, but that shouldn't take long. I want it finished before starting another project. Photos coming soon of the first toe up socks!

Trying to Spring

2009-03-09T12:09:00.002-04:00

I am trying my hardest to spring forward, but I'm not sure it's working! I felt like yesterday was a total waste what with the "lost" hour and all. It usually takes me a week or so to adjust to time changes, and spring is harder for me than fall. Not sleeping last night didn't help. Just as I had nodded off, I heard Fluffy on the kitchen counter and had to go get her down. (She's not allowed on counters or tables, but maybe her last family didn't care about that?) From that point on, it was TossandTurnville all night long. Guess who slept on my feet, quite soundly, I might add? Yep, Fluffy.

The kitties seem to be getting along a little bit better today. There is still a lot of hissing and growling, but I'm betting on them being buddies by the weekend. I have set up a litter box for Fluffy, because she wasn't happy about the communal cat potty. Of course, I didn't realize this was a problem until after we'd found poop in the tub. At least she went in the bathroom and in a spot that was easy to clean up and disinfect.

We had a nice visit yesterday with Daughter's boyfriend (yes, the same one). We had out first cook out of the season, and then they watched a movie and played Wii bowling. Fun times.

I'm still knitting away on my first toe up sock. It's not perfect by any means. I am having some problems with the wrap and turn. My knitted wraps are looking twisted, not all nice and neat like they should. I'll keep practicing but may also try a different heel.

Meet Fluffy

2009-03-08T13:47:00.002-04:00

Daughter and I drove down to see my mom yesterday for her birthday--65 years old! We had a nice time visiting. Both my grandmothers as well as my brother and several aunts, uncles, and cousins all live in the same town where I grew up, so I got to see several people.

A kitty had wandered up to my grandma's house, and my grandma wasn't able to keep it. She is elderly, already has one cat, and just cannot take on another pet. So, it was either we take Fluffy, or she has to go to the pound. What do you think happened?

Meet the newest addition to our family:

She wasn't too anxious to have a photo shoot just yet. Fluffy is still busy exploring the house and having hissing contests with Mocha and Socks.

However, Fluffy, thinks the upstairs belongs to her. Here she is having a snooze in the bed:

Fluffy has been living outside for a few weeks now, and it's pretty obvious she's not an outdoor cat. She's a little dirty, but husband doesn't want me to traumatize her with a bath until she's feeling more comfortable in our house. We do have a little vet visit to take, and that's going to be traumatic enough.

Hello

2009-02-21T12:08:00.001-05:00

Anyone out there? It's been a while, hasn't it? Life has been busy--surprise! I celebrated my 44th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Last week was husband's 44th and daughter's 16th!

We enjoyed a long weekend at HHI to celebrate together. It was fun being at the beach again. We've not been down since the end of August, way too long ago. It was cold and a little drizzly while we were there, but even a "bad" day at the beach is a good one in my book. Like they say "if you're lucky enough to live on the water, you're lucky enough."

The Truth Is Out There

2009-02-02T11:04:00.002-05:00

There has been a BIG kefuffle on a couple of popular on line knitting communities the past several days regarding a semi-well known indie dyer and pattern designer who has been accused faking her own death. Supposedly, this person even set up sock puppet accounts and continued to post to one of these comunities after her death, going so far as to post in her own condolence. I just don't know what to say to that. What would make a person think it's OK to pretend to be dead? It's OK to put people through sympathetic pain about your supposed illness and death? I believe in Karma, what goes around comes around. I don't think it's ever wise to joke around about something like your own untimely death, but this person took it much further than a simple joke. That's so not cool. This morning, I was reading a topic in a group devoted to this person's designs and went back into old ones to see where so many trusting people had written how sorry they were for this person's death, how sad they were for the friends and family left behind, and how obvious it was that this person was well thought of in the on line community. Reading those heart-felt posts and knowing that there was an incredibly good chance that this person is still alive and kicking made me sick to my stomach. Hearing that the person very likely read and participated in this or a similar topic absolutely disgusts me. What is wrong with people?

It's That Time of the Month

2009-01-28T15:16:00.002-05:00

No! This isn't about that time of the month. It's the time of the month when a blog update is due. (Be quiet! I know daily blogging with gorgeous photos is preferable, but I'm not super woman like Turtlegirl!)

Life is...OK. We are still working on getting the house back together, but it's a far sight better than it was a month ago. We still have the ceiling in the family room to paint, and daughter still is not completely moved back into her own bathroom, but it's coming along. It didn't help that I had to be away the first week of the month or that I have been knocked down with a nasty cold the second week of January. That tends to put one behind in those things that need doing around the house.

I do have some bittersweet news. Patti and Rebel had to find a new home. I'm sad that they are gone. They are such good sheep and so pretty. I'm happy to say they are living on the farm with our friends Shea and Jim. I know the sheep are much happier there with plenty of space to run around and new sheep friends. I'm also confident knowing Shea will loves these little guys and take good care of them.

I've been doing some knitting, but daughter absconded with my camera for her advancded digital imaging class, so no photos. I completed a pair of Peekaboo mittens using some Cestari yarn that husband gave me for Christmas several years ago. Here's a Ravelry link to the pattern. These came in quite handy last week when it was so cold here.

I'm still working on the Serenity blanket. It's getting pretty big now, so I'm only doing 2-4 rounds per night on it. There's just not much time between dinner time and bed time to do anything.

I cast on a pair of Fetching mitts for daughter yesterday and am almost done with the first one. She loves black, so I'm using some black Encore for her mitts. These should be done by the weekend.

My other project is planning a tea party for daughter for her upcoming 16th birthday. Anyone have any good recipes? I must have pigs in a blanket (her favorite party food), cake of some kind (probably a home made chocolate cake), and possibly chicken salad (bought from the local deli) in puff pastry shells. We're planning for a small, intimate gathering of her closest girl friends.

Achy But Happy

2008-12-30T16:06:00.002-05:00

There are only three tasks standing in the way of my home being back to normal:

1. Daughter's bathroom needs to be painted, and this should happen this weekend. We had to wait for the ceiling treatment to "cure." Once that room is painted, her shelf and copious amounts of health and beauty products can be returned to their proper place rather than in my sun room.

2. The wall in my office needs to be sanded and painted. I will try to get at that this weekend, but if not, the huge book case is covering the worst of it.

3. The building supplies need to be removed from the sun room so that I can finish cleaning it. It's presently half cleaned which is a far cry better than what it was. Husband has been put on notice that it's his job to remove these supplies for me so that I can clean.

I'm very happy that things are almost in place so that we can all take a deep breath and relax! I'm also pretty darned certain that never again will I hire people to do work in my house. I'm convinced that most men and some women are slobs! I cannot get over the slopped paint on the floors and general mayhem that was left here all because someone (not me!) thought it was fine to slop those things on tile floors rather than take the extra 15 minutes to spread paper or plastic before mudding and painting the ceiling. I am very thankful to have a husband who is capable of being tidy and who takes pride in a job well done rather than raging through like a bull in a china shop. This is one of the many things I owe to my dear departed mother in law. She raised her boys well. OK, let's put that soap box away.

I will take some photos this weekend to share. It's been way too long, and I have several little things to show you. For instance, I know you're all dying to see my relaxation corner that I've added to my office. And what about those cool hats I knitted for my darling bald headed husband? I've also started a new shawl/scarf project using a hank of "souvenir yarn," a mohair boucle in lovely shades of aqua, brown, and purple. I can't believe how soft this yarn is! The last mohair boucle I used was a bit scratchy, but it was also a heavier gauge yarn that the one I'm currently using.

Tomorrow, I should have the house to myself. Daughter has plans to go to the movies and ice skating, and husband is having an outing with his "girlfriend" (who's old enough to be our mom and a really cool knitter/spinner). I plan to do my holiday cooking and prepare a little family New Years Celebration.

Still Plugging Away

2008-12-29T10:00:00.002-05:00

Saints be praised, there have only been the three of us in this house since Friday afternoon. I am delighted not to have a plumber or handyman of any sort here with me. May it be a looooong time before I have to have them here again.

We are slowly getting things in order in the house. Yesterday, we cleaned the office and dining room. I've put my Dutailier glider and ottoman in the office. My chair is not as plush as the ones they make now. I got it during my 7th or 8th month of pregnancy with daughter (who's almost 16). That chair was a lifesaver. While I was still pregnant, it was just about the only place I could find any comfort for my poor, aching back. After daughter was born, husband and I both spent many hours rocking her in that chair. I love it for the physical comfort factor and for all the happy memories it brings back to me. I'm glad to have room to use it again. It had been sitting neglected in daughter's room previously.

The downstairs is shaping up. Daughter still has a bunch of stuff in the sun room, but I'm hoping she'll tackle that today. We have an old book case in the den that needs to go somewhere else--Goodwill? My final chores are to get tehe sun room and laundry room mopped. I think husband dusted the laundry room already, but if he hasn't, I'm sure he will if I ask nicely. Oh, and then there is the kitchen upstairs. Isabella bunny is currently living in a cage in the eat in part of the kitchen, and the table is still covered with daughter's school books from her exam studying. Now that her room is in order, she can take those away. One step at a time, and we're getting closer to our goal of having our home back.

A Bit of Respite

2008-12-25T13:56:00.002-05:00

Finally, we're able to use half of our downstairs space--a bedroom and the family room. They are slowly coming back to order. The sunroom and laundry room are still an absolute disaster, but we're hopeful that today we'll clear at least some of the things out of the sunroom and into the bedroom. Then, we can tackle the upstairs! I feel that we'll be able to have things fairly well under control by the end of day tomorrow.

There is still repair work to be done, and that means one more day of enduring strangers in my house. I don't care how nice people are, it's unsettling to me to have outsiders in my home. Given that this has been a solid month now, it's a wonder I'm still sane.

We'll see some merriment today in terms of enjoying a nice meal. I've cooked a ham, my great aunt's broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole, and my parents' sweet potato casserole. As soon as daughter and husband finish assembling one of her Christmas gifts, I'll pop rolls into the oven to brown and we'll have our little feast. The sweet potatoes are usually a dish I only do at Thanksgiving, but since it's been such a hellacious month, I thought it would be a treat to have them again.

Daughter was delighted with her gifts. She got a drafting table and stool, a purse and wallet set, and her favorite cherry cordials. We're setting up an art studio in her room. One end of her room will be devoted to the art, television and book shelf, and the other end of her room will be the sleeping and relaxing area. I can't wait to help her finish it.

Well, That Didn't Work

2008-12-24T17:46:00.001-05:00

The counting blessings crap DID NOT WORK. I am back to full scale bitch, skipped right past the whining. I'm not happy, but I will spare you the details.

Enough Already

2008-12-23T08:57:00.003-05:00

I'm going to try not to whine today and focus on my blessings instead.

1. I have a house, and although it might be in disrepair right now, there's still a roof over my head, electric lights, running water, heat when it's cold, and airconditioning when it's hot.

2. I am loved. I'm fortunate to have a wonderful husband and daughter, other family, and friends who care about me.

3. We all have our health.

4. Both my husband and I have good jobs and are able to pay our bills, keep food on the table, and support a nice life for ourselves.

5. I have enough yarn, patterns, and knitting needles in my collection to keep me going for a long, long time!

There are plenty more blessings, but for now these 5 will hopefully help me focus on what is good in my life rather than in whining about what is wrong.

Same S#!t, Different Day

2008-12-22T18:28:00.002-05:00

And the whine goes on. I am sick to death of everything going on around me. I want everyone to whom I did not give birth or to whom I'm married out of my house. I wish that all the sanding had been done today so that I could at least have started cleaning up some of this mess. I have nothing else to say, and certainly nothing nice to say.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

2008-12-20T15:52:00.002-05:00

Joe says he'll be all done here with our renovation work by Wednesday. I hope he's right. He's a wonderful man, but I'm ready not to see him every day! I'm ready to have my home, my sanctuary back in order.

I cracked a whip over daughter today (figuratively) and had her go through the boxes and bags of stuff out of her room. I was hoping for a few more bags full to go to Goodwill and a few less bags full to either store in the attic or return to her room. Oh well, every little bit of de-clutter on her part helps. In all this, I've seen just what an addition the child, scratch that, the young woman has for cosmetics and health and beauty products. She certainly doesn't get that from me!

I took the ham out of the freezer today to thaw for Christmas. I'd bought a picnic ham back during Thanksgiving thinking The Boyfriend would be with us, but when that plan changed, I decided to freeze the ham. I'm hoping that husband will de-bone it for me, and I'll bake it with a honey mustard glaze. I'll also do some of the veggie side dishes that didn't get made at Thanksgiving--a nice squash casserole, maybe another of husband's favorite sweet potato casseroles, some fresh green beans....Mmmm. I'm hungry thinking about it.

We missed our guild meeting in Atlanta today because daughter dear has been ill. She ran a 102 degree fever Thursday and woke up with it yesterday along with a terribly sore throat. I wasn't about to risk that this was strep, so off to the docotor we went to find out that it's just a viral throat infection and nothing to do for it but wait it out. The fever is gone today, but she's still stuffy in her nose and has a little sore throat. By some miracle, Boyfriend isn't sick. He must have super immune powers or something.

If I Could Turn Back Time...

2008-12-18T10:02:00.002-05:00

Any Cher fans in the audience? If so, you know where I got the subject line for today's post. Don't we all wish at one time or another that we could turn back time? If that were possible, I'd turn the clock back to Monday. Of course, all that has been accomplished during this week would remain completed, but we'd get another few days in the week to do all those things still outstanding. I'm particularly thinking about all the work Joe and Beth still have to do on our house. Joe feels that things are going more slowly than he anticipated, but I'm quite impressed with how much is done. Daughter's room and bathroom look like they just need painting (which Beth is working on). The family room is getting new lighting as I type this, and then it's a matter of putting in the new sheetrock, painting the ceiling, and touching up the walls. The laundry room hasn't been touched, but that's not my biggest worry. My office wall is patched and just needs another coat of "mud," sanding, and touch up painting. If we can get daughter's room finished and move her and all her belongings back in, then I can attempt to start putting my upstairs back in order.

I mentioned yesterday that I was so happy to have re-connected with friends from high school and college. One of these friends is Jenni. She has always been an amazingly wonderful person, and I'm sad we haven't kept in touch since graduation way back when. The happy part is that now I've found her again. She is a pastry chef! Isn't that cool?? You've got to take a look at Jenni's blog. She has information on all kinds of yummy things that I want to try to make. Jenni makes it all sound so easy, too.

Seven Things

2008-12-17T17:22:00.002-05:00

Jeannie tagged me for this....here goes. Thanks for the much needed diversion, Jeannie!

The Rules
1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs
4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. Being Mom to my beautiful daughter is my greatest joy in life.
2. I love the peaceful sanctuary my house usually is--it's not that way right now due to all the plumbing and repair issues, but it will get back to normal soon.
3. I love snow and true winter which we don't really get here in the south.
4. I'm not willing to move just to get snow and true winter!
5. Mexican food is my absolute favorite, especially the Fajita Salad at Monterey's.
6. I'm hopelessly addicted to playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on Nintendo DS.
7. It's been great re-connecting with old high school and college friends on Facebook recently. I sometimes wish we could all go back to those carefree days.

Now, I'm going to link to Cristi, Beverly, Vera, Carolyn, Sandy, Shea, and Jenni.

Dust in the Wind

2008-12-16T08:30:00.002-05:00

I really need to take some photos of this place just to show you what a mess our house is. There is not one room that isn't in some way impacted by everything that's going on here. We moved the majority of daughter's things out of her room last night so that the lights could be installed in the ceiling, the wall repaired where the plumbers cut it, and the painting done. We've come to a conclusion: our daughter is a pack rat. She's also a slob. This girl is so meticulous about her appearance, but it seems her bedroom is another matter altogether. We're going to have a serious de-clutter session before anything returns to her bedroom.

We're very fortunate to have Joe here looking after the repairs. Our friend, Lisa, is the one who helped us find him, and we are thankful! He's such a nice guy, pleasant to have around the house, and very good at what he does. I'm excited about how things are starting to shape up so far and am desperately grasping to a thread of hope for what the eventual result will be.

Roller Coaster

2008-12-15T17:09:00.002-05:00

I feel like I'm riding the proverbial emotional roller coaster these days, and it very often is that harrowing straight drop where you scream uncontrollably and think you might die. Those nice little zipping up and down short hills parts that I love so much on real roller coasters are strangely missing from my life right now.

Believe it or not, the house looks even worse than before the plumbers pilaged it. The thing is that now, even with entire pieces of sheet rock missing (as in whole sheets gone), I do think we're making progress. Still, I cry and wonder how we're going to pay for all this. I wonder what kind of Christmas we're going to have this year (and how am I going to pay for gifts, minimal as they may be). Husband and I always manage to land on our feet, so I have to believe that will be the case with this, too.

Daughter's mid term exams start tomorrow. I'm so proud of the effort she's put into studying. She even passed up a chance to go to Moe's with friends today and instead opted to come home and study. That's out of character but appreciated. I know she'll be ready to see Christmas break come. I just hope that the house is in decent enough shape for all of us to enjoy break and get some much needed rest.

Is There a Light at the End of This Tunnel?

2008-12-14T16:11:00.004-05:00

The plumbers have finally gone, saints be praised. They left us Friday afternoon, and I was thrilled to see them go. On Friday evening, a man who may well be our savior appeared at the door to give us an estimate on the repairs to the walls and ceiling. We are very pleased to have him helping us out. We're having him do some painting and a couple of other small fix ups for us as well. One nice thing that I'm very excited about is that we're getting cannister lights installed in the den, and there will be dimmers on them. That means (or should mean) that when some people are watching TV or movies down there, I can also sit with them and enjoy my knitting. Some folks seem to think TV should be watched with the lights out, and I simply don't agree!

Daughter is delighted that she'll get to change the paint color in her bedroom. She's going with a nice hot pink color. We almost came to blows over paint color. Her first choice was a horrible "old bruise" purple and if not that an "artificial grape flavor Kool Aid" purple. Horrible!! She is also getting some additional lighting in her room including a set of track lights in one end which is becoming her art studio. We figure that while there are holes in the ceilings already, this is a good time to install lighting.

Once we recover from the financial blow that this whole ordeal has dealt us, we're going to have more work done on the house. There is still plenty to do that we've not had time to do ourselves, primarily cosmetic fix ups. Patty and Rebel, our sheep, are putting in their baaaahs for new fencing and a little barn as well.

I'm still feeling pretty down and depressed about this whole ordeal. Anyone who knows me well knows that Christmas time is not my favorite holiday in the first place. It hasn't been since I lost my dad 8 years ago. I have to force myself to go through the expected motions for this holiday. In fact, were it up to me, we'd just completely ignore December 25 and just keep on going. I am also a person who likes things neat and orderly. Things are far from that right now. My home is my sanctuary and escape from the crazy world, and now it seems the crazy has invaded in a big way. I don't like it. All of this is not making me a very fun person to be around right now.

Knitting...hmm...I seem to remember what that is. I'm still plugging away at the alligator scarf for my brother. It's very close to finished. I've worked the recommended number of "body" rows for the scarf, but it seems short to me, especially considering it's going to a 6 foot tall guy. I plan to do an additional 4"body" row sections and see what that brings me. I'm guessing this scarf should come out to be 6 feet long once it's completed.

Facebook has been a lot of fun lately. I've found or been found by several friends from high school and college. It's been entertaining walking down memory lane a bit. I have several photos to scan and share with everyone.

One good thing has happened to us in all this crap. Husband and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary on Friday. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Here's to a lifetime yet to come.

This is My Life...Covered in Plastic and Plaster Dust

2008-12-07T13:20:00.002-05:00

For those of you who haven't heard the whines on Ravelry or Facebook, let me give you the Reader's Digest Condensed version of my woe. We found out last week that there's a leak in the hot water lines (copper pipe original to the house which was built in 1962) which are buried in concrete somewhere under our house. The options were to dig into the floor and try to find the leak--no guarantee that there were not multiple leaks--replace the hot and cold water lines downstairs, or replace the pipes throughout the house with brand new PVC pipes. Because we only want our house torn to bits one time, and because the cost in price between replacing half the pipes and replacing all of them was not that great, we are getting all new pipes in our house. It's going to cost a fortune by the time we pay the plumbers and then pay someone to come in and repair the damage caused by the plumbers. They are having to tear into ceilings and walls to get to where they need to run the new pipes and to access some of the old ones. It's a freaking disaster in this house right now. There is white plaster-like dust everywhere. Most everything is covered in plastic. Daughter has been displaced from her bedroom because she has a bathroom in there and it's torn apart at the moment.

This is very unsettling. First, we didn't have the money just sitting around for this major repair work. Second, it's Christmas and I want to be cleaning up and decorating for the holiday, not living with plumbers in my house (very nice ones, I must add) and a mess all over. I "wasted my time" yesterday by vacuuming out the sun room, the laundry room, and the downstairs den so that we could have some sort of normalcy around here. The state of semi-clean won't last long. The plumbers are due back bright and early tomorrow morning and likely will be with us the rest of the week. They said that the time consuming part is running the pipes. It took them 2 days to demolish our house. I just hope there's no more cutting of sheetrock or drilling of holes in wood. *sigh*

Thanks to a local friend, I've found the name of someone I hope can do the repairs to the sheetrock. He and his wife both are currently out of work due to layoffs, so I hope that we can get him to do the work we need done. They need the money, and we need the help.

The sheep fencing is currently on long term hold. I'm sad about that, but we need water and no leaks in our house's foundation more than they need a fence. Husband will just have to muck out their enclosure on a regular basis.

I am retreating from the world for a bit until my home and sanctuary are in a more stable place. See you all sometime when the dust settles (literally and figuratively).

We Survived Turkey Day

2008-12-01T12:36:00.002-05:00

We survived Turkey Day. It was just the three of us which is really what we prefer--nice, low key and no stupid family politics. Thankfully, almost all of the Thanksgiving food is gone. We're down to just some turkey salad now, I think.

We took in a Black Friday sale at the LYS, Sassy Knitter, on Friday and that was fun. I'm not yet in the mood for "real" Christmas shopping so no trips to the mall for me. I'll eventually venture out to buy some gift cards, but that's about it. As in years past, we'll order what we can. It's easier to get exactly what you want that way. This Christmas will be a no frills type Christmas--no going overboard on big, expensive gifts. I'm just looking forward to the time off more than anything.

I knit and felted a Christmas stocking for daughter's boyfriend this weekend. It only took a few hours using this pattern and some Patons Wool. I'll try to get a picture later. The stocking is currently drying. I did alter the pattern a bit (surprise) and made a longer foot. It doesn't look too stocking like as the pattern is written. My modification is much better, naturally! ;)

Coming Up For Air

2008-11-08T17:39:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. In the past 4 weeks, I've been out of town on business for three of those weeks. I'm finally home for a while with probably nothing more than a day trip or overnight here and there until March. That's good, because while I'm loving my job, I'm also very tired.

We are now shepherds having brought home two 6 month old Shetlands from SAFF. I didn't know we were getting sheep, nor did I know they joined the family until almost a week after they arrived. See, I flew from Asheville to Raleigh the Sunday of SAFF and didn't get home again until late on the Thursday after. It wasn't until the Friday after SAFF that I found out we had sheep!! In the left side of the photo is Rebel, a little ram, and on the right is Peppermint Patty, a little ewe.

Let's see....after SAFF came Halloween. Daughter and her boyfriend went out begging candy dressed as the devil and the grim reaper. They were cute and had a great time. Did you know the devil wears Converse?

And....after Halloween, came election day. I waited in line for 2 hours to vote and would not have missed the experience for anything in the world. I am thrilled at the outcome of the election and very glad to see that America has come to her senses!

Now, I'm home for a while, exhausted beyond belief, but happy and still loving the new job. I'm looking forward to settling into a more even routine at work and not having all the meetings. Most likely, I'm home until sometime in March when I have a team meeting, hopefully in Puerto Rico!!!

Just Call Me Cinderella

2008-10-03T13:44:00.002-04:00

I've been on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor in my office today. I wish I had little singing wildlife critters and birds to help me out the way Cinderella did. The floor looks great, thanks to elbow grease, a teflon scrubby, and good old Murphy's Oil Soap. I scrubbed years of grime off that floor, and it is gleaming now.

Slowly, I'm moving furniture back into the room. My old poor excuse for a desk is in there, because I had to have some place to put the new computer equipment. I'll wait until tomorrow to get husband to help me lug the big ass file cabinet and book shelf back in. My goal is to have things back in the room and the house cleaned before my flight to training. I sure don't have much time, so perhaps not sleeping is in order for the next 24 hours.

We're going to see a marching band half time show tonight--two shows if we are lucky. Common folk call it a football game, but being a former band geek myself, I know that it's really all about the band. And that big hunk of grass out there, it's a marching band field. The band is just nice enough to let the jocks run around on it tossing a football and feeling all important! :)

Tick Tock

2008-10-02T08:36:00.002-04:00

Time is running out--my free time, that is. In just 4 more days, I'll be back amongst the gainfully employed 9-5ers once again. I'm excited about that, and a little scared.

Work goodies continue to arrive daily at my front door. Good stuff came yesterday--a 4 in one fax/copier/printer/scanner. I've always had laser jets previously, but this one is a photo quality color ink jet. Hopefully it will work well. I'm excited that it has a flat bed scanner! I also got my BlackBerry Curve. It makes me feel stupid, so I guess I will have to run the tutorial to figure it out. The SIM card wasn't installed when the thing arrived. It was inside the phone but just rattling around. It was not obvious to me where the card went, and the manual was no help at all. After about 15 minutes of Googling, I finally found instructions for installing the card. I'd like to think that I'm really not that stupid, and that omitting instructions for this was just a mistake by the BlackBerry people.

Today, my laptop is supposed to arrive. I was hoping that it would be a MacBook, but that is highly unlikely! :) I'm also allowed to purchase a carry bag for the laptop, so a trip to TJ Maxx is definitely in order. I saw some really stylish designer bags there last week. I have some very utilitarian computer bags, but being a bag ho, if someone tells me I can buy a new one, I will do that!

Daughter's Sophomore class is fund raising to earn money to pay for Prom next year. They've sold homecoming t-shirts for the big game weekend, and they are having a cake raffle this weekend also. I'm going to make my famous (ha ha!) Kahlua cake. It's so yummy!!

Good Things Wednesday

2008-10-01T13:37:00.002-04:00

Last night, husband hung the new ceiling fan in our home office. It looks great--short blades, ceiling hugging, and white so that it blends in. I need to pick up light bulbs for it, as we forgot to buy those. The old fan hung way down and had an ugly gold ball globe on it. It really made the ceiling look low.

I picked up the new paint (gratis, thanks to Lowe's excellent customer service), and painted the walls in the office today. We still need to do the trim work on the molding and paint the door. Husband is also going to paint the inside of the closet with some white paint to make it appear a bit brighter. The primer alone has improved the looks of the closet walls tremendously.

I am hopeful that we can get the furniture and things moved back into the office on Friday. My first official day of work is Monday, and even though I'll spend the first week out of town at training, I don't want to come home to the mess that is currently our home!

Once everything is in place, I'll take pictures to share. Right now, the card reader is goodness knows where, so I cannot get any pictures onto the computer.

Deliveries have been arriving steadily this week for work. I've gotten a big box of office supplies from Staples (our company's preferred office supply provider) and a box of letterhead envelopes. I don't have letterhead stationery yet, but maybe that will come soon. Something is coming via Fed Ex today, too. I'm not sure, but think this may be my computer equipment or at the very least my new printer. The good thing is that all these things are supplied by the company at no charge to me. Of course, if I were to leave this job, then everything would need to be sent back.

My travel itinerary and agenda for the week of training has also arrived--finally! I am a person who likes to plan ahead, and it seems that the travel arrangements were made rather last minute. Oh well. I'm very excited about the training and about meeting my co-workers.

I've signed up for a RAK group on Ravelry, and posted my first wish list this morning. Someone has already contacted me about sending one of the patterns I was wishing for, and I've been in touch with another lady about some needle felting wool she's looking for. I think this is going to be fun. I've participated in Secret Pals on line before, and those can be disappointing sometimes. RAK swaps seem a lot better, in my opinion.

Pleasantly Surprised

2008-09-30T10:42:00.002-04:00

The bad paint story has a good outcome! I posted a complaint in the feedback section of the Lowe's website thinking that was that and I'd never hear anything more. A couple of hours later, I got an e-mail from a customer service person saying the store manager of our local Lowe's would call me within 24 hours. Last night about 8 PM, the phone rang, and it was Lowe's. The manager was willing to do whatever it took (short of professional painters coming in and re-doing my room!) to make the situation right. We agreed to a complete refund for the two gallons of paint, 2 gallons of replacement paint at no additional charge, and a 5 gallon bucket to mix the two together to ensure no problems with the color this time around. I went in this morning and got all that taken care of. Now, all we have to do is get the room painted and move the stuff back in. I'll be so glad to have that done! My office things are currently scattered throughout the house, and it's making me nuts! I don't do well when the house is a mess.

I'm in the "back to work" countdown! This is my last week of freedom. Ha ha! A huge box of office supplies arrived yesterday--the basic paper, pens, scissors, envelopes, file folders, etc. It's a pretty complete home office supply setup. My computer equipment and Blackberry should arrive on Thursday. I'm most excited about that! Next week, I'll be in NC for orientation/new hire training.

There's nothing going on as far as knitting, spinning, or crochet. We are, however, going to SAFF after all. I really didn't care one way or another if we went and actully had two other things going on that same weekend. Husband and daughter really seemed to want to go, though, so they've made reservations for us in Hendersonville for the weekend. I'm not all that excited about the festival itself, but it will be nice to see friends that I don't see very often. Leave a comment and let me know if you're planning to be there!

So Annoyed

2008-09-29T08:41:00.002-04:00

I am so annoyed, frustrated, disappointed, and just plain pissed off. My husband spent the entire weekend working on our home office in preparation for my new job that I start next week. We emptied everything out of the room, he primed and painted the walls, and I went in this morning to prime the baseboards and hopefully get them painted today. I noticed streaky, dark roller marks on some of the walls and called him in. He thought perhaps the paint wasn't dry in those areas, but that just didn't make sense. He finished painting early yesterday afternoon. It looks like the two gallons of paint we bought do not in fact match. The base paint had the same dye lot, and the colors were mixed and purchased at the same time at Lowes. In the 20 years that we've been married and painting our own walls, we've never had this problem. More paint is going to have to be bought and more time spent re-doing a project that should be complete at this point. I have become the queen of complaining about poor customer service lately, and you'd better believe that I gave Lowe's on line feedback an earful this morning. My experience has been that complaints at the local level do no good whatsoever, but taking it to corporate gets a response. There's really no fix for this problem (well, they could comp us the paint it's going to take to re-do this mess), but I feel better having gotten it off my chest.

Dragonfly

2008-09-20T09:42:00.003-04:00

Fall is definitely in the air, at least according to the morning temperatures. We've been enjoying some early morning time on the deck because of this. The deck really is most pleasant in spring and fall, before the heat and humidity of summer in SC set in.

Here's a photo of a dragonfly waiting for the morning sun to warm its wings enough for flying.

The latest issue of Spin Off magazine features handspun Baby Surprise Jackets. I have some beautiful purple yarn that daughter spun a few years ago, and we've been wondering what to make with it. I think there is enough to make a BSJ and will try that sometime this weekend. It would be nice to have a little jacket that perhaps one day she can tell her child, "I spun the yarn for this, and your Grandma knitted this sweater." Of course, I hope "one day" is still very far in the future--maybe 10-15 years from now! I'll check the stash for the yarn and share a photo of it later.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

2008-09-17T09:08:00.003-04:00

I witnessed history last night, and it was so cool! The boys' soccer team from my daughter's HS beat their arch rivals 1-0. It was great! Last time our team beat theirs was 2005. We had fans screaming, moms texting their soccer player sons who were on the team last year and are now away at college, and excited teenage fans rushing the field at the end of the game. I would not have missed it for the world. I'm not a big sports fan except for HS sports. There is something special about watching people who are playing for the love of the game rather than seeing those over paid professional athletes or even the college teams. Go Cavs!!

Sorry there aren't any pictures. I forgot my camera, but then again, seeing as how I was on the edge of my seat all night, it's probably best that the camera stayed home.

The new car is still fabulous. It drives like a little dream. This is the smallest car we've ever owned, but it has the best ride, handling, and pickup of any vehicle we've had. I know we're still in the "honeymoon phase" with this car, but if it continues to be as great as it is now, I think we've become Volvo people. We did a lot of research on Volvo cars before making this purchase, and I think we made a very good decision.

Daughter has been driving on the interstate highway this week. She drove us all the way to school yesterday and today and drove home yesterday afternoon. It will be a while yet before she takes her road test and becomes an independent driver, but I'm feeling more confident about her taking that next step. I am concerned about the construction mess going on with the interstate. It's nuts out there, and unfortunately, the most direct route to school is the interstate. I don't even like driving out there, and I have been driving for almost 30 years!

There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting or crocheting going on. I really should finish up my Eyelet Cardi, but I'm so bored with it. :( I've been tempted to frog it, but it is sooo close to completion. Maybe I should set up some sort of reward system for myself for finishing the damned thing. Next time I'm tempted to make a primarily stockinette stitch anything, will somebody please beat some sense into me?

Insert Catchy Post Title Here

2008-09-12T09:13:00.002-04:00

It's an overcast Friday morning, but I really like overcast, gray days. I'm hoping we'll get a bit of rain today. The forecast for the past 3 days indicated we'd be having rain, but so far there has been nothing but insignificant drizzle.

I'd hoped to share a modeled finished object photo with you today, but husband and I don't seem to end up at the same time in the same place this week. It's been a busy week, primarily due to the whole test driving, talking a deal, and buying the car thing. Because I'm really proud of the way the cabling turned out in this hat, here's a hat only shot. The designer calls this hat Love Nugget, but the X and O cables remind me more of Hugs and Kisses.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I didn't care for the long ribbing on the original pattern, nor do I like the look of turned up brims. I shortened the ribbing by half on my hat. The fit on this is perfect on husband. He likes a hat that just covers his ears, and this one does that.

I'm lucky to have a bald headed husband. Besides the incredible hotness factor that bald men seem to have (Sean Connery, ladies??), I'm also able to feed my hat knitting addiction. Next on tap is this great hat from BrooklynTweed. Now, to find the perfect yarn for it.

Speaking of yarn, I received an order from Angelika's Yarn Store this week. I'll be using this Cascade 220 (color 8907) to make this tunic top for daughter.

If you've not shopped with Angelika before, give her a try! I've ordered twice now, and the service has been stellar! My orders arrive quickly, communication is great, prices are great.

I spoke with the HR/Recruiting guy at my new company this morning just to make sure the background check and all that was going smoothly--so far so good! I guess it's just a matter of counting down the days now. I'm excited, a little bit scared, and just plain anxious to become a productive member of the working world again--especially now that we have a lovely new car payment! Husband and I are going to re-do the office before I start working. We need to rip out the old yucky carpet, take down the icky drapes, and paint. We really have not touched this room since we moved in (other than to set up computers) and it needs help. It's the only room in our upstairs that still has carpet, and I know there are gorgeous hardwood floors hidden underneath. I will spend a good 8 hours a day in the office come October, so we want me to have a nice, pleasant space.

That's about it for me! I probably won't blog again until next week. We have a soccer tournament at school this weekend, and I have several obligations surrounding that. Enjoy your weekend.

Pretty! Shiny!

2008-09-11T10:38:00.003-04:00

We decided it was time to add another car to the family. Price, quality, and safety ratings led us to this little beauty:

Daughter has bonded with it, and who could blame her? She's driven it more than anyone else in the family since we picked it up last night and even took her first drive on the Interstate this morning.

Re-Joining the Working World

2008-09-05T14:02:00.003-04:00

I GOT A JOB! Yes, it is true. I found out Wednesday night that the company I interviewed with a few weeks back has opened up some more management level positions in my region, and guess who they want to hire! I'm beyond thrilled. The job is a perfect fit for my skills and experience, and the company seems fantastic. I have a month before my start date, and I plan to enjoy my free time.

Life has been non-stop busy this week what with attending soccer games (daughter is cheering, not playing) and going to parents' night at school. It's going to be that kind of year, I think--just plain busy. At least the things we're doing are fun things.

Tomorrow, daughter may attend driving school. I just realized that it's required for a SC restricted license, and a nearby class happens to have an opening. The sessions include an 8 hour class and then an additional 6 hours of driving (in 2 hour blocks spread out over 3 days).

Life is nothing if not interesting!

Frog on Rusty Railing

2008-09-03T08:48:00.002-04:00

The temperature was pleasantly cool this morning, so husband, Mocha Cat, and I enjoyed a cup of coffee out on the deck. It was a nice way to start the day. Mocha was intoxicated with cat nip and unwilling to be photographed in that state, but I found another willing animal participant. I give you Frog On Rusty Railing:

Isn't he cute? Of course, you can also see how terribly in need of a paint job our deck railing is, but how about focus on the cute frog instead? He's some sort of tree frog.

I have been knitting again and am currently working on this great hat from Metapostmodern Knitting. I'm using charcoal grey Patons Classic Merino, and of course, being a true knitter, I've changed up the pattern. Personally, I find the ribbing to be too long and don't like the look of a turned up ribbed edge. It looks a bit too "little kid" IMO. So...instead of knitting 3 inches of ribbing like the pattern says, I've only done 1.5. It looks much better that way. I am not sure if I'll make any more mods or not; probably not. The hat is coming along nicely and working up fast. The cables would have probably shown up better in a cream color or other light color yarn, but there was charcoal grey in the stash...

I also have a kitchen project going on--scuppernong jelly. Our grape vine has produced a few grapes this year and I wanted to take advantage of that. The vine has to be trimmed back this winter which means we likely will have no grapes next year. I cooked the grapes last night and extracted the juice. Today I'll cook and jar the jelly. The grapes on the vine smell so good, and the aroman in the house last night while they were cooking was intoxicating! Speaking of intoxicating, I may also try to make some scuppernong wine depending on how many more grapes I'm able to get from the vine.

We took a short (little over 6.5 miles) bike ride last night. The weather is getting perfect for it, and with nearby access to a good bike trail, we have to take advantage. I really want to ride along the canal, but that's a weekend day trip kind of ride. I also probably need a different bike for that. My bike seat sits up very high even adjusted to the lowest point, and I have to lean over the whole time to keep my hands on the handle bars and hand brakes. That is a bit painful on the arms and back, so a more appropriate bike is on my wish list for one of these days.

The first home soccer game of the year is this afternoon, and I'll be there cheering on the boys and the cheerleaders. Soccer is one of my favorite sports to watch, so this will be a fun afternoon. I'm making marshmallow rice crispy treats to take for the girls' snack.

Hope

2008-09-02T14:09:00.001-04:00

Please keep me in your thoughts, say a prayer, light a candle, sacrifice a virgin......... I should have some news by the end of the week. Hopefully it will be good news. Yes, this is job related.

Spinning Our Wheels

2008-08-31T12:43:00.002-04:00

We enjoyed a nice family bike ride this morning. The weather was great--not too hot and a little bit of breeze along the way--and the scenery was excellent. We took the Greeneway trail from Pisgah Rd. all the way down to the 13th Street bridge. We've not ridden the trail in a long time, and there have been some positive changes to it. One great example of this is that there's now a loop route that meanders close to the banks of the Savannah River. We were treated to the site of a mother dear and her two babies just a few feet away from us on the trail. They took their sweet time moving from the trail to the woods. A little further along we saw a great blue heron and some turtles basking in the sunshine.

Bush Endangering Women's Rights

2008-08-29T07:32:00.000-04:00

Subject: 25 days to protect women’s health

George W. Bush has launched a new assault on birth control and reproductive freedom.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed regulations that could seriously undermine access to basic reproductive health services -- including birth control and abortion.

Instead of striking a careful balance between individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care, the Bush administration has taken patients’ rights and their health care needs out of the equation.

This far-reaching proposal doesn’t need congressional approval. But, it can’t go forward without allowing for public comment. That’s where you come in.

The deadline for public comments is fast approaching -- September 20 -- and we have to generate intense opposition to these dangerous regulations.

I just sent HHS my comment urging them to stop efforts to block women's access to basic reproductive health services. You can do the same here:

http://action.aclu.org/hhs_comment

Sad

2008-08-27T08:14:00.002-04:00

News on the job front isn't good. Turns out there were not enough openings, and I didn't get the job even though the interviewers were very impressed with me. I'm too sad and disappointed to say anything more.

Waiting is a Bitch

2008-08-26T10:29:00.002-04:00

I'm currently waiting ever so (im)patiently to hear about a job interview I had last Wednesday. The job sounds perfect for me, and the company is good, too--great benefits. I wish they'd make a decision soon! Many of my friends who were caught in the layoff this summer have already either gone back to work, found jobs, or decided this was a good time for a career change and are going back to school to learn new things. I'm anxious to get back to work soon, too.

We enjoyed this past weekend at the beach. The weather was nasty Friday on our drive down and again on Sunday, but Saturday was just gorgeous, except for strong surf and winds on the beach. We rented bikes anyway and enjoyed a couple of rides along the beach and also did some swimming in the ocean. We went down to South Beach and Harbourtown in the afternoon and looked in the shops. It was a fun, relaxing weekend. Husband and I have decided that our retirement dream is to sell our house and beach villa and buy a home in Sea Pines. I could be happy downsizing if it meant we'd get to spend 365 days a year at the beach. Husband found a sign that sums up my feelings on the matter: "If you are lucky enough to be at the beach, you are lucky enough."

I've done no knitting or crocheting in weeks, but I did pull out the sewing machine yesterday afternoon. Does sewing a torn zipper on a sleeping bag count? Daughter is going on her annual class retreat this week, and our sleeping bag zipper had come loose from the bag itself in a spot. I managed to get it fixed up good as new, so she will be set.

The Meaning of Life

2008-08-19T08:32:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted last. Let's just say I've been enjoying having a life again and having that life not revolve around work and sitting in front of a computer. It's actually quite refreshing and something I hope to continue with after returning to gainful employment!

So....I've discovered the meaning of life. It's very simple actually, and you can discover it, too, if you just head to the beach, rent a bike, and ride your cares away. I cannot think of a more blissful experience (short of marrying my best friend back in 1987 or giving birth to our gorgeous daughter in 1993) than that.

Daughter and I had a wonderful week at the beach last week. We've made it a bit of a tradition to spend a week at HHI every summer for some mom-daughter bonding time. We usually do this the week before school starts and toss in some back to school clothes shopping at the outlet malls as well. I cherish this time with daughter. She's getting older by the second (aren't we all?) and slipping further and further away from me in her quest to be an adult. I hope that one day she'll have a daughter of her own and will be able to share one-on-one time with her own child.

Knitting, crocheting, spinning, and all things fibery are on hold. I've found other things that are taking my time and attention now such as the stack of great books I bought at our local library for just $1 or 50 cents each and this addictive little Nintendo game called Animal Crossing. I'll get back to the needlework eventually, but not right now.

Tomorrow, before the crack of dawn, I head out on a job interview. It's been great having the summer off, but I'm ready to start earning some money again. I do not like to worry about every penny I spend, and while we are not destitute, having two incomes in the family is essential. After all, we've got college to pay for in another few years. Wish me luck with the interview. I have a good feeling about this one and hopefully things will work out. Employers don't usually go to the time and expense of flying someone in to interview unless they are considering making an offer, so that's promising!

I'm Going to Bootcamp!

2008-07-29T20:52:00.003-04:00

Yes, you read that right. I'm heading off to bootcamp in October--belly dance bootcamp that is. I've been muddling this over for a few weeks now, and it happens that the workshop falls the same weekend as homecoming at my daughter's school. You moms can probably relate that we always seem to sacrifice for our kids, and all too often they don't appreciate our efforts. This just causes us to feel sad and let down. Well, I'm avoiding that altogether in this instance by devoting the entire weekend to me for a change. I've dreamed of being a belly dancer for years. Daughter and I have been to a few lessons the past couple of months, and that's been great fun. It's also shown me that dancing is not easy! My mind knows what my body should be doing, but getting the body to cooperate is another thing entirely. I've talked to Jeannie about some private lessons, and maybe that combined with an intensive weekend of training will get me more comfortable with my body and the moves involved in dancing. I'm hopeful!

The three of us and daughter's boyfriend went to a great dance exhibition at the local library tonight. The fantastic dancers from Alchemy performed. They were so good. You can tell by watching them that they truly enjoy what they're doing.

The Joy of Finishing

2008-07-24T08:38:00.002-04:00

I'm going to start out this morning's post by asking you to stop by and visit Steph. She posted on Ravelry that she'd just finished her first lace project. In fact, she's so excited about this that she's hosting a little prize drawing. Isn't that sweet? Go take a look while I finish drinking my coffee. I promise to be here when you get back, and I'll even put on a fresh pot of coffee to share with you.

Steph says on Ravelry that she's rather new to knitting and crochet, so that surely plays at least a part in her excitement. Don't we all get excited about completing a project, especially if that project held some sort of challenge for us? Even a simple dishrag excites me some days!

Last night, I completed a crochet shopping bag. It's a very simple mesh bag and worked up quickly. When I make this again, I'll increase the length of the bag. It's nice as is, but I think it would be more functional if it were longer. I'll have to find the link to the pattern and share that with you.

Doing It On the Cheap

2008-07-23T09:18:00.003-04:00

I picked up a few crafty goodies yesterday and was able to save money on just about everything thanks to the Sunday sale paper coupons. My first stop was Jo-Ann where I found a nice little case for my crochet hooks. It's smaller than I had in mind, but it will do just fine for now. I also found safety eyes for stuffed animals. My friend Jeannie mentioned that Jo-Ann had them, and since I'm becoming addicted to amigurumi, these were a must.

A couple of weeks ago when we visited The Courtyard yarn shop in Hilton Head, one of the owners showed me an ad for a new book called Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet. I've been on the look out for the book locally and finally found it at Michaels. Thank goodness for the 40% off coupon, because I got this book for less than Amazon's price, and I didn't have to wait for shipping. The projects are so cute! I can't decide which one to make first.

Here are some photos of my new loot:

Another of my favorite passtimes is playing video games on my Nintendo DS. I got my first DS (a pink one which was given to daughter) and 3 games through a swap on Ravelry a few months ago. Most recently, I've swapped yarn for the game Zelda and the Phantom Hourglass and the guidebook (cheat book) for the game. I'm currently invovlved in another swap for the game Animal Crossing which I believe is a Sims type game. Both of these games are ones I wanted but hadn't purchased yet. The sell for around $25-$30 each, so swapping yarn that had been in the stash for a while and paying to ship that to my swap partners was well worth it to me.

Daughter and I are still working on her bathroom renovation. I got side tracked by other things and also had to wait for husband to take down the door and trim the bottom of it before I could paint it. I finished painting the trim work yesterday, so now all we have to do is get the towel bars hung up and hang a new cabinet. Daughter has decided that she doesn't want to put the door back up, so we're thinking of making a curtain to cover the door. Before you go thinking she's going to have no privacy, let me tell you that her bathroom is accessible only through her bedroom. If her bedroom door is closed, she's got all the privacy in the world. Daughter's bathroom is about the size of a large walk-in closet, so taking the door off will give her more space in there or at least the illusion of more space. We were not successful in finding fabric at Jo-Ann yesterday, so maybe Wal Mart will have something she likes.

Stopping In for a Moment

2008-07-15T17:07:00.003-04:00

Daughter had her wisdom teeth removed yesterday morning. She's doing surprisingly well, but I guess when one is doped up on pain pills, things go OK. I've been sticking to the every 4 hours pain med dosing because it's easier to keep pain at bay than to get rid of it once it really sets in. She's been able to eat soft things like jello, pudding, ice cream and soup without chunks, and I'm really working to get her to drink water. Daughter doesn't hydrate well enough in the best of times, and this is particularly concerning to me while she's recovering.

I've not been able to focus on anything too detailed so far as knitting or crocheting, so I've been working on small things. Today I finished a set of 4 crocheted coasters in dish cloth cotton, and I'm working on an amirigumi bee for daughter. The mascot of the art college she dreams of attending is the bee, so I thought this would be a cute little item for her. I bought the pattern from Mygurumi and highly recommend this seller. She's located in Germany. Her pattern is very well written. The seller e-mailed it to me and it was in my mail first thing this morning. We've exchanged a couple of e-mails, and she's so nice and willing to answer any questions about her patterns. All of her patterns are cute, and I'm tempted to buy the hermit crab and turtle patterns as well. Then there's the bunny, and the fairy doll, and the pigeon. I want them all! :)

The Artist and Her Work

2008-07-13T12:40:00.002-04:00

Thank you all so much for the very positive comments about daughter's art work. We are so proud of her. It really does make us feel good to hear others, many of whom are complete strangers, say good things about her work. While I've not had time to photograph works in progress or newly acquired thrift store yarn, I do have some photos to share from daughter's art show.

Here she is with Elmo. This piece was really popular at the show and it is a treasure to us. I'm going to see about having it framed, probably in a simple black frame.

This photo shows daughter with the poster she made in Graphic Design. The assignment was simply to make a "wanted" poster. Daughter's says "I stole your number. Now answer your phone." She explained that the first sentence was written out like a phone number while the second sentence was in the format of an e-mail address. Clever. I like how she used the smilie faces for the letter "o." Daughter is known for her smiling face, so that really suited her well.

Finally, here she is outside her beloved "O. House" where she lived for the past week. Daughter really enjoyed the dorm life experience. She's such a social person. Her roommate was a really sweet girl, and the two seemed to get along very well. I hope she's as fortunate when she goes off to college for real!

Daughter is already talking about next year and a return to the summer sessions. She would also like to participate in the Rising Star program which is a 5-6 week session for rising high school seniors. The kids live on campus and attend two classes during the time. They earn college credit for the classes. I guess I'd better start saving my money now!

Home Again

2008-07-12T19:35:00.002-04:00

We got back from HHI this afternoon. I'm exhuasted and glad to be home even though we were not gone that long. Riding in the car makes me tired!

The art show last night was great. It was nice to see the work all the kids had done and to meet some of daughter's new friends. Of course, it was also great to see daughter work on display. Her drawing professor told her he'd gotten a lot of good feedback on her Elmo drawing.

I will try to post more pictures later in the week--too tired for that now. Daughter is having all 4 wisdom teeth out on Monday, so send some good thoughts her way. Depending on how she does, I may be off line for a couple of days looking after her.

Beach Blogging

2008-07-11T15:33:00.004-04:00

Greetings from Hilton Head Island.

We enjoyed some thrift store shopping today. You never know what you might find! At our first stop, I found a huge bag full of wool yarn imported from Sweden. It felt like wool and was in some great colors--gold, burgandy, green. The price was $10, quite the bargain. The yarn was from a rug kit, and I think the pattern was still there. I gave dibs on it to a lady from TN who was going to use it for weaving. I also found a nice but small padded blocking board marked at $5. It was too small for any of the projects I make, so again, sold to the lady from TN! It made me happy to see these things find loving fiber homes without it costing me anything. My score from this thrift store was Louisa Harding's Swallotails pattern book. Retail on it is around $18, and I only paid 50 cents.

At our next stop, I found two complete skeins of Cotton Fleece (one hot pink and one bright orange) for $1 each and some blue Bernat cotton for 50 cents for two skeins. I'll probably use it for knitted or crocheted shopping bags. Husband bought a bag of 10 skeins of dark beige mohair (not fuzzy) yarn for $5. I also picked up two knitting patterns (priced at 2 for 25 cents). One is a Penny Straker sweater pattern called Child's Nashawena #C886 and the other is a Cabin Fever women's tank top pattern Lace Checks #253. Not a bad haul!

We made a visit to The Courtyard and saw some great summer yarns there. I was so tempted, but given my current state of unemployment, I resisted and just walked away with the latest copy of Crochet Today and a new crochet hook. Yes, I'm proud of me and also glad that we're not going to be on this island tomorrow in case my resistance starts to crumble!

Daughter's art show is this evening, and I'm excited about that and about seeing her.

All Done

2008-07-10T10:33:00.003-04:00

I finished the beaded necklace last night. It's far from perfect, but I still think it's pretty. I'm wearing it tomorrow night to daughter's art show with black pants and a red blouse.

It has been so long since I've beaded anything--at least three years, probably. I need to buy some clasps or get some wire to make my own. The link that I posted yesterday has tutorials for making your own wire clasps.

There's not much else interesting to post today. I managed my 30 minutes on the elliptical again today even though I didn't really want to. I feel that I owe it to myself to do this and there's no excuse anymore of not having time because of work!

Daughter phoned last night to say she's still having an excellent time and does not want to come home! She's in her element (art school) so why does that surprise me at all?

Tickle Me Elmo and Then Just "Bead" It

2008-07-09T09:19:00.003-04:00

Warning. This post is picture heavy! I'm trying to make up for the severe lack of pictures in the last several posts.

Technology is a fabulous thing, particularly cell phones, text and picture messaging. On Monday I got a rather mysterious picture message on my phone, supposedly from daughter. Here's what she sent me:

Yep. That's Elmo, but not of the "tickle me" variety. Further texting indicated that daughter had been instructed to hang Elmo upside down and then draw him.

Yesterday, the following picture message came my way, and it brought tears to my eyes:

Isn't he great?? I think she did well with capturing the light and shadowing. If you look back at the original photo, you'll see how the light is aimed towards Elmo.

Daughter really summed it up yesterday when she sent me the message "I'm learning stuff, but in a fun way." I'm glad she's having this opportunity. She almost backed out of applying for the summer program, but someone (mom!) insisted she at least send in the application and then take it from there.

The artist and her boyfriend....that lip ring is a fake intended to freak his parents out.

Yesterday was a much better day for me than Monday. I got up with a purpose in mind--the purpose was merely not to eat everything in sight and not to sit around like a slug! I achieved that. Today is working out pretty well so far, too. Both yesterday and today I've gotten in 30 minute workouts on the elliptical. The first 15 minutes are not easy, but I keep pushing myself. It's worth it. I want to drop a few more pounds before September. My belly dance class is performing at a local festival, and I'd like to look good in my choli!

Speaking of belly dancers, here's a photo from Riverfest of my favorite belly dancer.

You probably noticed the lack of knitting in this knitting blog. I'm still plodding along on my eyelet cardi, and it is a plod now--plain old stockinette for miles and miles. UGH! It's going to be gorgeous, but I think I'm going to save it for car knitting even though it is very large at this point.

Instead of knitting, I've been netting--bead netting. I'm working on a very simple choker style necklace. Here's my beading setup:

This is just a simple magnetic dry erase board (the same one I use for knitting charts) on which I've attached the pattern. The little tray is from the art department at Michael's and is intended to hold paints. I'm using a beading needle with a gigantic eye running down the center of it. This is very easy for my tired old eyes to thread! Here's a close up of the necklace:

I worked 11 inches on this in just a few hours yesterday. I'm probably aiming for a 15-16 inch necklace, so this should be finished today. The pattern came from this website. I saved a copy many years ago, but it's still there on page 18! Take some time and look through the 35 pages of free beading patterns!!

My next beading project will be an African netted necklace.

One Step Further

2008-07-08T10:13:00.003-04:00

This is a big week for daughter. She's spending the week at art college (yep, genuine college) studying still life drawing and graphic design, and taking one step further out of the "family nest" and into her own adulthood. She's living in the dorms, has to get up on time to get ready, have breakfast in the cafeteria, and make it to the bus stop to catch the two buses that will eventually land her in her first class. The kids attending are all high schoolers (rising Sophomores and up) with more supervision than a regular college student would have, but they are still very much on their own. It's a good experience, I think, for them and for us parents at home.

Daughter is so excited about being away from home at COLLEGE and about the classes she's taking. She texted me this morning that she's learning a lot but having so much fun at the same time. Shouldn't learning be fun? I think so. I'm very hopeful that this experience will play a part in helping her decide whether she wants to attend a strictly art college or if she wants to go the liberal arts route with a major in the artistic field of her choice. She's made several changes over the past 3 years about what artistic field she wants to study--first fashion design, then interior design, and now graphic design. I imagine there will be more changes to come over the next three years before she actually steps foot into her first true college class. At least she's moving towards majors that will not only allow her to have a good time with her work but that will also help pay the bills!

This morning, I took one step further away from my fat behind, I hope. I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical with a goal of doing at least 15-30 minutes a day going forward. I'd done so well with Weight Watchers but had gotten slack in May and June due to insanely busy schedules in our family. It's time to get back on the wagon, and the wakeup call for me was my day-long boredom grazing yesterday. It was so quiet and lonely in the house without daughter around, and I could not focus on any one task (except for the hour I spent playing Rock Band on Wii). Instead, I ate, and ate, and ate. If it wasn't nailed down or healthy, I ate it. UGH! Wish me luck. This morning I've been better behaved, having a bowl of whole grain cereal and coffee for breakfast. There are boneless, skinless chicken breasts thawing for dinner, and lunch will most likely be a turkey breast sandwich on whole wheat with a cup of yogurt on the side and some fresh fruit.

Daughter's boyfriend spent the evening here last night. Poor kid. I don't know what he's going to do in August when he goes off to college and daughter is here. At least he'll be only a couple of hours away and can come home to visit regularly. Having found my true love at 18 years of age, I will not discount the depth of feeling between daughter and her boyfriend. Since my crystal ball has been in the shop recently, I can't predict what their future holds. All I know is that right now they love each other very much. If they've been fortunate enough to have found their one true love so early in life, they have my blessing.

Peek A Boo

2008-07-02T12:38:00.003-04:00

The property our house sits on is gradually sloping from the back yard to the front. I suspect that they graded the lot a bit when the house was built many years ago, because there is a retaining wall made of landscape blocks edging the back yard along the parking area. Look who we found in a crack in the blocks yesterday.

We've not seen much more of this little guy than his (her?) head, but we suspect he (she?) is an Eastern King Snake, a non-venomous snake native to our area. From what we've seen so far, this particular snake is small and probably young. I don't mind having him around, because king snakes eat venomous snakes such as copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes. I will, however, either avoid walking up and down the steps that are part of the retaining wall or else use extreme caution when doing so! As long as Snakey doesn't surprise me (aka scare the hell out of me!) all is good here.

Daughter had mentioned a few weeks back that she saw a snake head poking out of the retaining wall, but we thought perhaps she'd seen one of our other little guests instead. I'd never seen an Eastern Fence Lizard until we moved into this house. They are all over the place here!

I'm still working along on my Eyelet Cardi and am almost in the home stretch! It is a rather boring blob of off white at the moment, so I won't bore you with a photo.

The Boob Holder in sari silk has gone bye bye. The yarn was just not working for this pattern although the colors were gorgeous. I have instead decided that this yarn may just work for a purse.

Inspired by my new friend Jeannie, I'm going to give crochet a shot once again! I picked up a couple of hooks and some thread at Wal Mart, and I am planning to work on some jewelry of some sort or other. The pattern on this page is the one I'm going to try. There are also a few other interesting projects on the page.

We're planning a big July 4th! Daughter is belly dancing with our beginner class on Friday night. This is her first public appearance, and I think she's the youngest dancer in the group. I'm really proud of her--she picked up the choreography so easily and is doing quite well. She also looks cute in her dancing outfit!! With luck and determination, maybe I will be ready to dance this fall. That gives me time to put together my own outfit most of which I plan to sew myself.

Serious Doubts About This Sari Silk

2008-06-24T09:35:00.003-04:00

I've been knitting along on the boobholder but am having some serious doubts about the sari silk yarn. It is beautiful--the colors are so vibrant. However, the quality is sub-par IMO. There are some very thin areas in the yarn--lots and lots of very thin areas no thicker than a single thread. This will not hold up over time and wear. I don't know what brand the yarn is. It came to me a couple of years ago in a yarn swap. There are better quality sari silk yarns out there, though. I think this particular batch is destined to become the fringe on a fringe belt. (Take a look here for some fringe belt examples.) I think if I put enough strands together and perhaps twist them, they'll hold up sufficiently as part of a fringe.

Daughter and I went to belly dance class last night. It was great. I had more fun this week than last week. I was more relaxed and chatted with some of my classmates. Believe it or not, I can be a little reserved and shy in social situations. There's an exhibition dance on July 4, and the class seems to be focusing on learning the choreography for that. Well, it's going to be a while before I dance in public! I hear that we'll be dealing more with the basic elements of belly dancing after the 4th, and that's exciting to me.

Daughter plans to dance in public on July 4! She's picked up the moves very easily and is doing a good job. I'm impressed. We've been putting together her outfit--long, full black skirt, aqua harem pants to wear underneath, jewelry, a fancy headband and flowers to wear in her hair, coin scarf for her hips, and a type of blouse called a choli. I sewed the choli myself using a purple stretchy crushed velvet. It turned out very well.

I know a picture speaks a thousand words or something like that. I'll try to get some photos for you before long. For now, there are some walls calling to me saying that they need to be painted!

Friday

2008-06-20T11:40:00.002-04:00

Even though I'm not working a paying job right now, there is still something magical about Fridays. I'm excited that we've got the weekend ahead of us to relax and do whatever we want--with a dose of chores thrown in, of course.

I'm still working on the bathroom painting project. I think I dislike this project because the room is about the size of a large walk in closet. It's cramped in there, and I don't enjoy being there. *sigh* I'm about to go down and put on a coat of primer and hopefully will get the wall color on this evening. Daughter is going over to her boyfriend's house, so I'll have some peace and quiet to do painting.

Thanks for the understanding about PITA guy and the textbooks. I ended up selling back three of them to the textbook company for the same amount that I'd suggested to PITA guy for ALL the books. You know, it would be a different story if this family didn't have the money to afford the books. If there were true financial need there, I'd gladly give the books to them. He was just being petty.

Did I mention that I'm making a Boobholder? I have several hanks of sari silk yarn and never have found a project for it. This project is working out well in the yarn. I'm almost to the point where I'll take all the stitches to waste yarn and see if the fit is right in the sleeves. I think I have enough yarn to continue increasing if necessary, so no worries there. This yarn doesn't really have a dye lot, and the dramatic colors are what makes it interesting. I'll try to get a photo later.

If you haven't made the Boobholder and are going to, please note that there is an error in row 14. It says to purl that row. Really, you should knit 5 on either end and purl the stitches in between to maintain the edging properly.

This Week's Accomplishments

2008-06-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

I've managed a few things this week, things that have been put off far too long!

Monday: You know that carpet tack strip thing that gets nailed around the edges of a room to hold down wall-to-wall carpeting? We have an abundance of it still needing to be removed. I managed to take it all up out of one of the bedrooms. Don't even get me started on why someone would choose to cover up beautiful hardwood floors with carpeting! I also got the strip out of the hall closet.

Tuesday: I continued eradication of the carpet strip in the master bedroom but still haven't finished that. There's furniture and junk to move and I haven't decided yet that I want to do that!

Tuesday was also the day that I vacuumed the upstairs (best way I know to remove dust and cat hair), mopped the kitchen, and re-arranged the furniture in the living room. I now have a cozy reading area far enough away from the television and noisy teenagers.

Wednesday: I painted the ceiling in daughter's bathroom and bought groceries! I also cleaned out the refrigerator in the kitchen (still need to clean the one in the sun room) and cleaned out the pantry. I even had time to try some yummy new recipes for dinner.

Thursday: This has been errand day. I returned books to the library--why on earth does the library not open until 10 AM?? I had to use the drop box instead of being able to go inside. I also went to Wal Mart (aka Hell) to pick up some caulk to use in daughter's bathroom renovation and returned a couple of items to Target.

This post would not be complete if I didn't stop and just bitch for a few minutes. At daughter's school, starting in middle school, we have to buy text books. A parent of a child a year younger than ours has called several times about buying our used books this year. (I swear, the guy is practically stalking me. If I don't return his calls immediately, seems like he's calling again.) Well, fine and good, but he keeps hemming and hawing about what he needs, the price, etc. I set a very reasonable price for the books (about 1/4 of what I paid for them) but he still wants to bicker. Sorry, dude, but I'm not giving these to you! This guy has succeeded in pissing me off now, so the books can sit on my shelf until they dry rot before he's getting them. Some people just seem to think the world owes them, and that pisses me off.

Tales of the Recently Unemployed

2008-06-16T12:02:00.002-04:00

Yes, it has been April since I last blogged. Life has been interesting to say the least. Work was horrible. It was a constant "when is the next shoe going to drop" situation. I had become physically ill at the thought of stepping into my office. I'd sit in my chair on Sunday nights dreading having to go to work on Monday morning. It didn't help matters that my work is in my home. I was a regionally based manager working from home. When the job is enjoyable, this is an ideal situation. When the job becomes unbearable, it is a hell from which there is no escape.

My lucky break came on Tuesday when I received a phone call from the department VP informing me that my position at work was "redundant." That's business speak for "we don't have enough work coming in so we're laying off you and 12 of your friends." Trust me, people, it is a blessing in disguise! I'd been expecting this, but the timing was about a month earlier than I thought it would be. I've been in layoff situations with companies before, and it's usually the first ones out who are best off. That's when there's money (in most cases) to pay at least a small severance benefit. My last day of work was Friday, and I truly feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. I can breathe again.

So...what's a recently unemployed girl to do with her time? I plan to have a life! I want to enjoy my family and friends and just do some things for me!! I actually had the energy on Saturday to get together with a couple of friends for a WWKIP. I'm going to belly dancing class tonight--first time! I'm working on a couple of home improvement projects. I'm also re-connecting with long-lost friends with whom I worked at previous jobs. As the t-shirts say "Life is Good."

A Night to Remember

2008-04-22T17:51:00.002-04:00

Daughter accompanied her boyfriend to his Prom this past weekend. They had a wonderful time, I hear. All I can really tell you is that they both looked absolutely fabulous. See for yourself.

After hanging out with us for a bit and being subjected to photo after photo, daughter and her date went out for a romantic dinner at a very nice local restaurant. The restaurant is on the 17th floor of a building downtown (one of our tallest buildings, by the way) and overlooks the river. They happy couple (I can't reall call them kids, because they just look so grown up!) were able to watch the sun set while they had dinner. After dinner, they danced the night away at another riverfront location. I understand from daughter that boyfriend was the perfect gentleman all night--opening the car door for her, dropping her off at the door to the prom location so she wouldn't have to walk through a gravel-filled parking lot, offering her his arm so that he could escort her into prom properly. What more could a 15 year old girl ask for? On Saturday morning at about oh dark thirty, they headed to school to meet boyfriend's classmates for a bus trip to Six Flags Over GA.

They were both exhausted when they got back home Saturday night, but I think they've stored away enough happy memories to last them a life time.

Sometimes You Just Strike Gold

2008-04-11T14:11:00.003-04:00

There is something to be said for owning a home that's almost 50 years old. While there are old, outdated things that need special attention, there are also little gems just waiting to be discovered. Take for instance, our back stairs. We knew that the stairs themselves were hard wood (covered by disgusting carpeting) but until this afternoon, we had no idea the landing in front of the back door was also hard wood. Gold, I tell ya....we struck gold! We've taken up the carpeting on the stairs going into the den and the one on the landing. I'm waiting for husband to pull a couple of nails for me before taking up the nasty linoleum from the landing and giving the floor there and the stairs into the den a nice going over with some Murphy Oil Soap. I will probably tackle the stairs coming up into the kitchen from the back door next weekend. My hands are so covered with blisters (burst) and cuts from the carpet tack strip that I don't think I can take much more pulling nails and staples this weekend.

Our project for the day was painting the den, but as you can see, it's taken a bit of an unexpected twist. The den is such a dark cave (a half basement--the walls are half way below ground) and a coat of light colored paint will certainly help brighten it up. Rather than feeling exhausted by the home improvements, I'm feeling energized and ready to take on another project before too long--perhaps painting the dining room or one of the bedrooms........ First things first, though, and let us get through the den project.

We purchased a new TV (Hello, HDTV) and sound system for the room and have a Wii game system that is supposed to be delivered today. (Hello, 21st century.) Thus, all the spiffing up that we're doing downstairs.

Spring Break?

2008-04-04T08:28:00.004-04:00

Ah....I've been waiting for this for a while now, but it's not turning out quite like I'd thought it would. "It" is Spring Break. Daughter is off all next week and the following Monday, and we'd thought we'd go to the beach for the entire break. That was before there was a boyfriend! Now, all bets are off. Give me one good reason I'd want to spend 12 days in a 600 square foot condo with a moping teenage girl who misses her boyfriend? Also, I checked the weather for HHI, and there are going to be thunderstorms until Wednesday. UGH. I love the beach in all kinds of weather, but I'm thinking we'll postpone this trip until perhaps a little later next week.

So, I'm going to change my vacation request at work and concentrate on getting a few things done around the house. There is one project in particular that I'd like to finish--daughter's bathroom. She has a mold situation going on that is going to require heavy duty bleaching, stripping of the wall paper, paint, and probable cursing and praying on top of that. We bought some new lighting for her bedroom a while back, so I'm hoping that can be installed this coming week, too. We shall see.

I haven't said much about the high school musical daughter was in. It was AMAZING. It really is a thrill to see everything come together in the end and know that all the hard work the director, choreographer, lighting and technical people, the cast, and all the parents put into this paid off in the end. I wish I had time to be more involved, but I try to do my part where I can. The drama kids are great, and I really enjoy being with them. Maybe next year my schedule will allow me some more time to volunteer. There's a DVD coming out for the show, and one of the moms (who is an outstanding photographer) left three disks full of pictures at a local shop so that anyone who wants can go in and buy reprints or have the photos printed into an album. I will probably get an album as a momento for daughter.

That's about it......I'll try to get some more photos taken and posted to the blog. The weather hasn't been very cooperative. Someone asked if the new camera meant more pictures posted, and I'm hoping that's the case. Don't count on them being knitting photos, though. I'm kind of missing my knitter's mojo at the moment and haven't been inspired to even pick up needles for at least a week or maybe more.

Smile!

2008-03-31T11:51:00.002-04:00

I got a new toy this weekend--total impulse buy! I've been growing more and more unhappy with my current digital camera. It was advertised as having motion stabilizer, but I've continually had problems with a lot of shake in my pictures. It's very frustrating when I'm trying to photograph school activities or action shots around the house. For close up work or still life type things, this camera is just fine, but my life is more active than those kinds of things. So....we took a little trip to Wolf Camera just to look. An hour later, I walked out the door with this and this. This is on order, and I should have it Wednesday.

I absolutely love my new camera. I've been looking at Nikons for the longest time, especially when they did that Picture Town promotion with Georgetown, SC a couple of years ago for the Nikon D40 model (my camera is a D60, the next model up and new release for 2008). I tested out the camera Saturday night on closing night of daughter's high school musical. Of about 150 pictures I took, only 1 or 2 were out of focus. I was shooting under less than optimal conditions, too--funky lighting, fog machines, strobe lights, fast moving dancing teenagers. I'd attended the show Thursday night (opening night) and about 1/3 of my photos were crap.

I am planning to take some classes at the local Wolf--they gave me "tickets" for 18 classes, so I should be able to get in some good training. If that doesn't meet my needs, the local art institute also offers digital photography classes.

Here's a sample photo of some azaleas in our yard. More pictures to come now that I have a jam up camera!

Whew. Saturday!

2008-03-22T14:38:00.002-04:00

I took half a day off yesterday (only worked until noon) and it felt like Saturday. Today really is Saturday, so BONUS!!

In the very near future, there will actually be knitting content on this...ahem...knitting blog. I finally finished my Taupe Gable (aka Green Gable). I ended up lengthening it by 1 inch before working the ribbing but did not change the sleeves at all. The fit is great on the sweater, and I love the color. I'm planning to wash and block it tonight, so perhaps there will be FO photos soon.

In gaming news, I've snagged a copy of the out of print Tetris for Nintendo DS. Tetris has been one of my favorite video games for years, and I'm really excited to get it for the DS. I got my copy through a vendor from e-bay.

My Own Taxi Service

2008-03-17T19:25:00.002-04:00

My days and nights are spent playing taxi driver to a 15 year old. I'm getting tired, people! Thankfully, the play opens in 17 days and then it will be DONE and we'll be just a week away from Spring Break. I am living for Spring Break. So, here's the run down on what we've been doing, besides living in the car.

I've become so addicted to the Nintendo DS Lite that I had to buy my own. Mine is cobalt blue and black. I gave Daughter the pink one because she was enjoying it so much. Pink is more her color than mine anyway. We've added several games to the collection. My favorite is Super Mario Brothers. We figured out how to link our machines so that the two of us can play it at the same time--that was some fun!

Daughter and I, a friend of mine and her daughter, and a couple of other girls from school are going to a concert next month. The band we are seeing is Switchfoot. I could not pick them out off the radio, but it's been ages since I've been to a concert. Also, Daughter loves this group. I think she's excited. This is her first concert, and we have fifth row center seats!

Knitting? What's that? Spinning? Never heard of it. Given my progress on either activity, it would seem that way, wouldn't it? I haven't touched knitting in over a week, and spinning, well, the wheels are gathering dust. Maybe one of these days....maybe tonight for the knitting.

Fabulous Monday

2008-03-10T15:49:00.002-04:00

Yes, like most people, I typically do not like Mondays. Today should have been especially horrible what with that whole springing forward thing this weekend. I hate time changes, especially the springing forward bit....but I digress.

So...the first great Monday thing is that my boss phoned me today. I work remotely from home as do the majority of people in my department, and the boss just doesn't usually call to shoot the breeze. Her news was that I'm receiving a big bonus at work for the past year and that the bonus will be deposited this week. Hot diggity! I'm earmarking a certain amount of it for daughter to go to the SCAD summer program if she's accepted. The rest will go to bills and such because I truly do not need anything right now.

The second great Monday thing is that I weighed today and am down 3 pounds since last week. That is with all the eating out Mom and I did this weekend and the bottle of wine I drank almost all by myself. All that walking around the outlet malls on Saturday must have helped!! My total weight loss since mid-January is 12 pounds. Just 5 pounds more to personal goal number 1!!!

Beachy Weekend

2008-03-09T19:09:00.002-04:00

Mom and I spent the weekend at HHI to celebrate her birthday. I drove down Friday morning (in the pouring down rain and horrible wind) and picked up some groceries for us so that we wouldn't have to do that once Mom arrived. (She lives much closer to the beach than I do.) I swear the wind blowing in off the ocean was blowing horizontal to the ground while I was unpacking the car. It was terrible!!

Needless to say we stayed in on Friday evening, which we had planned to do anyway. There was no way either of us wanted to venture out into that weather again. I made us a delicious chicken mean from my new Weight Watcher's cookbook. The chicken was delicious and only 4 points per serving. We also had sauteed yellow squash and salads to round out the meal and Slim-a-Bear ice creams for dessert. (Skinny Cow is so much better than Slim-a-Bear!!)

Let me digress a bit and talk about the cook book. It's great! I picked up a copy at Wal Mart without even looking through it--it was shrink wrapped, so I couldn't thumb through it. There are many great recipes in the book, particularly interesting things to do with veggies. I am big into filling my meals with veggies, because they are so low in points, even when you fancy them up a bit. The book also has several recipes with an "international" flare such as Greek and Italian dishes. Mom liked the book so much that she picked up a copy for herself.

OK...back to the beach weekend! We did a traditional girl thing on Saturday--shopping. The weather was sunny, but it was still cool and windy. We made the best of it. We picked up some great bargains, too--some tops and a sun dress for daughter at Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch outlet stores, three pieces of clothing for about $30. I don't mind buying the name brand clothes if I can get them at a deal like that. My score of the weekend was cashmere sweaters marked down 75% off retail and then another 30% off that price. I got one sweater for $17 and the other for $30, both of them for daughter. I found several in my size, but they just didn't look all that good on me.

We had lunch at Cornerstone Grill in one of the Tanger Outlet Malls (there are two in the HHI area), and it was pretty good. It was packed, and service was slow. That's the problem when you have exactly one eating place in a big outlet mall. Dinner was much more satisfactory. We ate at The Old Oyster Factory and had a beautiful view of the sun setting on Broad Creek. The service was excellent and our food was to die for!! We both had a local game fish (very fresh!) which was one of the specials of the evening, and we shared a spinach salad. Yes, WW went out the window a bit yesterday, but I don't care. It was a special occassion.

Now, I'm back home again and tomorrow the old grind starts over. I'm counting down the days to Spring Break and a week at the beach. It's 26 days away in case you wondered!

Best Swap Ever

2008-03-06T09:43:00.002-05:00

I completed the best yarn swap EVER this week. I traded a variety box of yarn (including enough for 2 different sweaters) for a Nintendo DS Lite and 4 game cartridges to go with it--all in nearly brand new condition. I really liked the yarn I sent, but it had marinated in my stash far too many years. It's nice knowing that it now has a new home. I believe the previous owner of the game system feels the same way. Do you think I've had time to enjoy any of the games?? That would be a resounding NO. A certain teenage member of the family has taken it over.

I'm still plodding along on my Taupe Gable aka Green Gable top. I screwed up the waist shaping on one side and ripped back to re-do all of the shaping again. I'd tried dropping just the screwy side, but it came out looking even worse. I'd rather loose a few days by frogging than end up with a sweater that has a mistake in it. I am so close to finishing this thing--maybe 5 more inches in length to go then the sleeves to finish off. The pattern is written with cap-like sleeves, but I'm going to add about 1-2 inches length to mine. I like a little more coverage. I'm also adding length in the body of the sweater for the same reason!

WW is still going great. I've lost 9 pounds so far and am now wearing my "skinny" jeans again! This feels so good!! Just another 8 pounds to go, and I'll have met my first personal goal. No, I do not intend to tell you what that personal goal is because it's PERSONAL! ;-) Ultimately, I want to loose another 50 pounds. I heard an interesting tidbit on TV the other night. For every pound of weight an overweight person looses, that's 4 pounds of pressure off the knees.

TGIF

2008-02-29T14:19:00.002-05:00

Let's try this again....Blogger must have been hungry, because it devoured my post with no warning.

I am a bag ho--there's no denying it. I just cannot resist the sweet call of a new purse or bag. My latest addiction are the creations of clm_n_rudd on e-bay (she's a fellow Raveler, too, but I found her on e-bay). I have one of her small project bags, and it holds a sock project or other small item perfection. This week, I won an auction for a larger bag and am anxiously waiting for it to arrive. The prices on these bags is great, and she doesn't ream you on shipping costs. The quality is also great.

When's the Last Time I Blogged?

2008-02-27T13:58:00.002-05:00

I think it is obvious that there is a lot going on in my life that's keeping me away from the blog. Do I need to repeat again that work is busy and family life (aka life with a busy teenager) is also busy? I didn't think so!

Here's what's going on in my world...

Kat has reminded me that she's patiently waiting to see a picture of husband's birthday present. Here you go!

I met husband in August 1983, and I think that's about the time I first heard him say that one day he'd own a baby grand piano. Well, almost 25 years later, he has one. It is beautiful to look at and even more beautiful when he plays it. Ladies, it was on sale, clearance sale, so how could we resist??

I'm still doing Weight Watchers, still enjoying it, and last time I weighed, I was down 8 pounds. That's pretty good! My jeans are fitting so much better these days. In fact, once again, I have fat pants and they are pretty darned baggy on me. I have zero time to get out to an exercise class, so the exercise has been brought to me. One of these now lives in my sun room.. We opted for the E-95 model. I love it!! It's so much easier to take 15 minutes out of the day here and there than it is to try to fit in a trip to the gym.

A few weeks back, I was desperately searching for somehing to knit with some Cotton Ease. I decided on Green Gable by the Zephyr girls, but I need a bust size larger than the 40 inches that the pattern I had went up to. I looked on their site and saw that the pattern had been changed to add more sizes. A quick e-mail to them asking if I should buy a new pattern resulted in them just e-mailing me the revised pattern. How's that for customer service? I didn't expect them to just give me the pattern at no charge, but their doing so has certainly won my customer loyalty 1000%! I was already a fan, but this was just such a pleasant bonus.

My top is in taupe colored Cotton Ease, and it's coming out pretty well. I'm up to the waist shaping now, so if I really put my mind to it, I could finish this off over the weekend. That probably won't happen because I also have a couple more projects in the works.

For example, I'm working on this cardigan by Knitting Pure and Simple. The pattern was making me nuts for a couple of days--I couldn't get past row one. I posted for help on the KP&S group on Ravelry and got help directly from the pattern designer. How cool is that?? I'm making my cardigan out of rose colored Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that was in my stash. So far, I seem to be getting gauge, so this should be a successful project.

I am also knitting lace, The Maple Leaves Lace Scarf by HeartStrings Fiberarts. The pattern is nice and fairly simple. It's not charted, which I would prefer, and I've just not taken the time to chart it. It's still working up pretty quickly. I'm using some Knitpicks laceweight yarn that has been in my stash forever--KP Shimmer (70% alpaca/30% silk) in the Stained Glass colorway.

Yes, I'm aware there are no photos of any of these works in progress, but do you really want to see pictures of blobs? That's about what all these things look like at the moment.

For daughter, drama practice continues with a vengeance. The show opens on March 27 and runs through March 29. They are expecting sell out crowds which is not an unusual thing for spring musicals at our school. We have an amazing drama teacher who puts heart and soul into the productions. He has a way with the kids that gets them just as excited as he is, and it pays off. He also has a great coreographer, musicians, and a professional lighting tech who work with him. We have to go this weekend to find more costumes for daughter. I'm heading for the big Goodwill in search of 80s clothes.

Driving practice is ongoing. I will not yet turn daughter loose on the interstate--it scares me sometimes--but I let her drive around town which just thrills her to no end. I'm not quite as terrified of her driving anymore. She is improving, and practice will just make her better.

What a Day!

2008-02-22T09:51:00.002-05:00

I think I may need a "do over" on yesterday. It was a bad day (insert gray clouds, thunderbolts, and other similar images here). It all started out with internet problems. I noticed the the 'net seemed a bit sluggish when I came into work yesterday (I work from home) but didn't give that much thought. Then, my phone started going out (phone service is through the cable company just like Internet service). By 2 PM, I was stranded with no Internet and no office phone. You cannot imagine how frustrating this is unless you are a remote employee who depends on these two services to keep you connected to the rest of your company. I tried to make the most of it by reviewing some documents I had on my hard drive, completing some outstanding filing, and that kind of thing.

Not only did I have these communication problems to deal with. I was also dealing with the local mall-based sporting goods store about delivery of an elliptical trainer that I purchased Saturday. The store contracts with a local delivery company to do their delivery and setups. I paid an additional $100 for this service, because the elliptical is a whopping 200 plus pounds, and I wanted burly men to carry it into the house and set it up for me. Well, after four days, I still hadn't even gotten a call from the delivery service nor could the store get a response from them. The store agreed to refund my delivery charge and let me pick up the machine myself. So....

Husband and I hopped into my Explorer and headed over to the mall last night to get the machine we weren't far from home when the "check engine" light came on, and he smelled an electrical smell in the truck. We turned around, went back home, and got his pickup truck. Did I mention it was pouring rain and cold?? We set off again to the mall, got the big honkin' box loaded and came back home. It wasn't too bad unloading the box--we've moved so many times that we have got this moving heavy items thing down pat. I plopped down on the sofa in the sun room and noticed that the box said "carton 1 of 2." That couldn't be good since we only had one box sitting there. A call to the store confirmed that yes indeed, we have another box to pick up. By now, it was almost time to pick daughter up from drama practice, so we headed back out, went to school to get her, stopped at the mall to get the box, struggled to squeeze it into the Civic (still in the pouring rain and the cold), and decided we needed to eat out. It was almost 8 PM by now. We did manage to end the night with a nice meal at Macaronni Grill (I had hardly eaten all day, so I don't think I did terribly with my WW points) and finally dragged into the house after 9 o'clock last night.

This morning, we planned to take the Explorer to that nice dealership out near the mall for repairs. I was also going to take daughter by Starbucks for a coffee on the way to school, but she decided to have a clothing related hissy fit this morning (insert images of a pouty teenager who has "nothing to wear" in spite of the jam packed closet and clothing flying all over a bedroom) because she can't find an appropriate outfit to wear to school. We got a bit later than desired start to school, so I didn't even mention Starbucks (not that a hissy fit throwing person NEEDS a treat). The Interstate was backed up because of an accident, it was pouring rain, and I was driving the Civic which I hate--too tiny, too close to the ground, and you can't see shit out of it. We did manage to get off the highway and take an alternate route to school. Daughter may possibly have gotten there on time, but I'm not sure. Meanwhile, husband was stuck on the highway trying to make it to the dealiership in the Explorer....

He and I finally met up at the dealership and dropped off the truck. They just phoned that it's going to take $1100 to fix my baby. That's cheaper than a car payment, and I do love that truck. Hopefully by noon today, the truck will be all better and back home where it belongs. It has almost 125,000 miles on it and is 8 years old, but I'm not anxious to trade it in.

I hope that the day will start looking up soon. So, how has your week been?

I'm a Survivor

2008-02-16T17:52:00.003-05:00

We held daughter's b-day party last night. About half the kids we'd invited weren't able to come (it's winter break at their school, and a lot of them had out of town plans), but the ones who were here were among her closest friends. That made it really special. It was nice having the kids here.

Today, daughter took me for a drive and we ended up at Starbucks. She bought me a coffee, and we sat for a while and looked at some new magazines we'd gotten this morning and chatted. I feel sure this is one of those "life time" memories and hopefully the first of many of these kinds of outings.

Daughter's driving skills are getting better. She's getting more confident with each passing mile. :-) She's not bad at all for someone who has only driven for 4 days now.

The Moment She's Been Waiting For......

2008-02-14T09:18:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a big day as you can imagine--daughter was 15. It was a very emotional day for me. I can't believe my baby girl is so grown up. The highlight of the day was taking her to have her driver's permit exam. She was bouncing off the ceiling, but that's pretty much how she's been for the past two weeks just thinking about taking the exam. I watched her take the test (I was in the waiting room and the walls of the exam room are glass), and she danced after every correct answer. The test is on a computer, so there's instant feedback as to whether you get an answer right or not. The beaming smile when she walked out of the exam room was enough to tell me my worst fears had been realized--she passed. Wait....I thought that was my worst fear. My worst fear (to date!) was actually the drive home when daughter drove me. I swear there are fingernail marks in my car seat from my grabbing it in shear terror.

You'll Always Be My Little Girl

2008-02-13T10:43:00.003-05:00

Fifteen years ago today, I was blessed to give birth to the most beautiful and perfect baby girl the world has ever known.

Today, that little baby turns 15 years old. My, how the time has flown. Sweetheart, you are even more beautiful and perfect to your Daddy and me today than you were so many years ago. We are so proud of you!

Just Words

2008-02-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

Things on the knitting front a pretty quiet, so there are no photos to share. I don't think you want to see photos of me working or driving a kid all over town, and those are the things that have been taking my time lately.

This week has been spent chasing down all the documents needed so that daughter can take her driver's permit test next week. I never got a copy of her birth certificate other than the souvenir one they give you at the hospital. After I figured out which county she was born in, that was an easy task! I always thought the hospital was in Columbia County, but it's not! About 13 years ago, we got daughter's social security card, but of course it is nowhere to be found now. We filed for a replacement yesterday (takes 2 weeks to get the card) and had them print a letter which should suffice as far as the DMV requirement for proof of SSN. I have to tell you, the SSN office in Augusta is amazing. The place was packed, but they have a great computerized "take a number" system that seems very efficient. You choose the reason you are there, the machine generates a need specific call number and you are routed to an employee who only works with that particular need. We were done in 45 minutes. I was impressed.

I've officially been doing weight watchers for 3 weeks and have lost 2 pounds each week for a total of 6. I have eaten anything I wanted and have not felt at all deprived or hungry. I'm doing points, so if I want a treat, I budget for it. I've eaten out at Chic-fil-A and even had the friend chicken sandwich with no negative impact to my weight. I've eaten dessert many times. It's great. I am not currently in an exercise program, but we're shopping for a Stairmaster. Going to a class is just not an option with my schedule, but I can easily steal away 10 minutes here and there to do the Stairmaster. Another benefit of buying a piece of equipment is that all 3 of us benefit from it.

Checking In

2008-01-30T16:24:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling particularly annoyed today--this week in fact. I think it's due to exhaustion. The more hectic schedule daughter has, the more exhausted I become. (Cheerleading and drama suck away time in a big way!) Almost 43 year olds have a hard time keeping up with almost 15 year olds. *sigh* It's hell getting "old."

The only knitting I've been up to lately is wash cloths. I finished off a Hello Kitty wash cloth earlier in the week but need to block it a tiny bit. Hello Kitty's little cheeks aren't showing as well as they could, so I dare not photograph her yet. I'm currently making a spiraling circular cloth and praying that I have enough yarn (maybe half a ball?). I love the pattern--short rows which are tons of fun. Wash cloths are a nice diversion while I figure out the next big project.

We are fast approaching Family Birthday Week here. I start things off next Thursday, then husband and daughter pick it up within a few days. In less than 7 days time, all three of us have our birthday. No, we did not plan it that way. Husband has gotten his b-day present, and it was delivered yesterday. It's very big and something he's wanted almost his entire life. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow. My gift arrived today, but I am not going to open the box until next week. I know what it is (helped pick it out) but still...it needs to wait.

Now daughter....what do you give the kid who has everything?? The BIG deal for her this year is that she can take the exam for her driver's permit. Winter break starts the day after her birthday, so I've taken off a couple of days so that I'm available to take her out driving. We're also planning a birthday party for her--just a few friends, both boys and girls. That should be fun.

Remember Me?

2008-01-24T16:00:00.001-05:00

I've had very little time or inclination to blog lately. Work has been busy; life has been busy. I have one finished object but no photo yet. I finished up the Naughty/Nice scarf for my brother on Sunday evening. I just need to pack it up and drop it in the mail to him. He should be pleased with the scarf. It turned out great.

I'm working on a Wonderful Wallaby for daughter but without the pocket. What woman (even a gorgeous almost 15 year old slim and trim woman) really needs a belly pouch? I will keep the hoody as those are particularly appealing to the young and the young at heart.

I've also started Si Capitan, a great hat pattern by Rosi G. The only chunky yarn in my stash was a wool yarn, but it seems to be working just fine--not too scratch. I was on a business trip earlier in the week, and this was my travel knitting.

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It

2008-01-15T19:21:00.001-05:00

All the cool kids are doing it, "it" being Weight Watchers. Beverly is my only blogging friend who I'm aware is on WW, but I also have two good friends at work who are doing WW. I started today. I'm going it on my own without meetings. The closest meeting is probably 20 minutes away, and I just can't see myself being faithful in meeting attendance. I'm not a "joiner" anyway. So far today, I've done pretty well and still have about 7 points to eat before I reach my daily limit. That's pretty good. The Curves diet last year made me more aware of food, and that's helping me make choices with WW. However, the Curves diet was very restrictive. I didn't learn how to eat because it was very regimented. WW seems more like a lifestyle change, and that's what I'm looking for. Wish me luck.

I hope knitting content and photos will return to the blog this week. I'm not feeling well, so no promises! The Naughty/Nice scarf is still in progress, but I'm heading into the home stretch of the second chart for the second half of the scarf. Just one more chart to go after that. I really wish this was finished and around my brother's neck given the cold snap we're having. Oh well....in good time.

Natural Stash Enhancement

2008-01-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

*happy whistling tune filters through the air a la "Smiling Bob"*

I enhanced my stash this past weekend at Hook 'n Needles semi-annual "everything in the store is on sale" sale.

I simply could not resist the Fiesta Yarns La Luz--especially since it was 35% off. This is 100% spun mulberry silk and it is to die for! The color is called Vintage Rose, and I have 660 yards of this yummy stuff. I think it may become the Fibertrends Spinner's Shawl.

Daughter had been wanting black fingerless mitts, and we finally found black yarn that was as soft as she wanted and appropriate for the pattern she wanted. This is Louisa Harding Grace Silk and Wool and it's 50% merino wool 50% silk. It is heavenly and will make a lovely pair of Fetching.

My other acquisitions were patterns. I picked up Fibertrends new Angel Lace Shawl and Knitting Pure and Simple V Neck Down Cardigan for Women #994.

I'd started the Central Park Hoodie for daughter, but there were a few too many complaints for my liking posted to Ravelry about mistakes in the pattern. I decided instead to go with Bonne Maries' pattern Twist. You just can't go wrong with one of her patterns! I am hoping to cast on for this sweater over the weekend. I need to make significantly more progress on the Naughty/Nice scarf first.

Works in Progress

2008-01-09T11:08:00.001-05:00

Fetching has become my "mindless knitting." This is my 4th pair in less than a month. These are not finished yet; I still have the thumbs to work on both mitts. I've given away two pairs (before getting photos); daughter is in possession of the original pair; and this one is all mine. I used Encore for this pair. The yarn was left over from a pair made for my grandmother. (She, who never likes ANYTHING, loved her Fetchings!)

This is the first pair of Fetching that I've made strictly by the pattern. The other three were all made longer in the finger portion, and Grandma's were knit plain in the palm rather than K4 P1 ribbed. I used the pattern recommended Debbie Bliss yarn for daughter's mitts, but opted for machine washable Encore for the others.

My other current work in progress is the Naughty and Nice Scarf from Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. This is a (late) Christmas gift for my brother. Can you see the dancing lady?

How about now?

This scarf is made in two halves that are then joined using a 3-needle bind off. I've completed the first half and am about 1/3 of the way into the second half. This is an easy knit, and the charts are very easy to follow.

We made a trip to Columbia over the weekend to take advantage of Hook 'n Needle's semi-annual sale. We did not run rampant in our shopping, surprisingly. I'll share pictures of newly acquired stash later in the week. We were pleasantly surprised to run into Kat and Beverly and her mom at the store.

We also managed to stop by In the Loop but weren't really able to do a lot of looking around. They were having a class, and it was hard to get to the yarn for all the students gathered around learning fair isle. From what I could tell, the store carries some nice things.

Daughter is quite artistic, but not in love with the fiber arts the way husband and I are. We wanted this outing to be fun for everyone, so we took her to her version of heaven--City Art. She gave the store the ultimate compliment--it's as good as Ex Libris in Savannah, and closer! Her only complaint is that we were in Dad's tiny car and unable to buy any of the very large canvases she wanted. She still made out pretty well with two 12 X 12 canvases (these have a thick edge, and that is apparently important), a tube of acrylic paint, a package of oil pastels, some large sheets of drawing paper, and a very snazzy wood box/easel combination to store her acrylics and brushes.

SAFF Project: Complete

2008-01-08T09:23:00.001-05:00

We were presented a challenge at Ravelry--knit something with your SAFF 2007 purchase. I took it a step further and spun then knitted something with one of my SAFF purchases. The "Black Watch" fiber made a lovely yarn, and I wanted to make a little something for myself with it. There wasn't much yardage (no, I didn't measure the yardage), so a scarf seemed like a suitable option--I don't wear hats, so those were out! Yarn Harlot has a nice, simple One Row Handspun Scarf pattern, and I decided to give it a try. The pattern worked well with this heavy worsted weight yarn.

My scarf is about 6 1/2 inches wide and 56 inches long. It is so snuggly! Unfortunately, just as I finished this thing up, the weather took a turn for the 70s! No need for a scarf just now, but I hope there will be some cold days to come before spring.

Happy 2008

2008-01-03T10:32:00.000-05:00

There are no pictures to share, but on the knitting front, I have several projects going. I have started the second half of the Naughty/Nice scarf for my brother. This is an illusion knit scarf from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch--the naughty is that there is a naked lady pole dancing hidden within the scarf.

I'm also working on Harlot's one row scarf using some handspun fiber from my SAFF stash. The yarn turned out well if I do say so myself.

Finally, I've cast on for the Central Park Hoodie for daughter. I'm barely started with it, but it seems to be an interesting pattern.

Today is my first day back at work after a rather lengthy Christmas vacation. More detailed posting to come in the near future!

In the Pink

2007-12-19T12:53:00.000-05:00

My mom has gotten spoiled to getting hand knit or hand woven gifts for Christmas. I really had no plans to knitting anything for anyone this year, but the woman is a genius when it comes to dropping the most gigantic hints. "I really want something fuschia." "I don't have any fuschia scarves." The woman gave me life! How can I refuse her a simple scarf?

Behold, the Opera Scarf knit from two hanks of Rowan Summer Tweed.

Two hanks of this yarn resulted in a scarf that is 5 1/2 inches wide and 68 inches long. I used a US size 11 needle.

Here's a detail shot to show you the stitches.

I love the pattern, the yarn, not so much. It is 70% silk and 30% cotton. I found it a bit unforgiving to work with -- no elasticity which I think is to be expected given the fiber content. Mom should be pleased with this scarf, and that is the ultimate goal anyway.

I recently purchased a wonderful book--The Knitter's Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn by Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review fame. I love the book. It's very informative about different fiber types and yarns, and it has some great patterns. In fact, I made the kitties some toys from patterns in this book--a knit octopus for Mocha and a knit fish for Socks. I'll get pictures of those later; these are Christmas gifts for the kitties.

Wildlife Wednesday

2007-12-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

Do you see what I see?

I'm hiding. Go away.

Maybe if I ignore her, she'll leave.

I don't see you!

That's it. I'M leaving!

Like the RoadRunner

2007-12-11T11:25:00.001-05:00

That blur you see passing before your eyes is me! Work is absolutely INSANE this week, more so than usual. We're having a lot of "change" at work, and it's causing a major upheaval for about 500 people. Oh, boy is it fun to be a manager when this kind of thing is going on.

So here's the scoop on my "real" life (not work!).

The Christmas presents are all purchased with the exception of something husband has to order and a gift card I have to pick up at Belk's for my grandmother. Not one darned thing is wrapped.

The Fakemas tree is up (that would be the artificial tree) and thank goodness it has built in lights. Nothing else is decorating the plastic delight, and if it's up to me, that's the way it will stay. I hate artificial trees with a passion, and I'm even less motivated to have it up and decorated when the temperature is in the 80s and the AC is running.

I haven't written a single card and likely will not. I mailed out between 20 and 30 Christmas cards last year, and we didn't get any back. So far this year, we've gotten two--one from the paper carrier and one from the realtor who sold us this house two years ago.

I finished off the Koolhaas hat last night and it looks good. I do, however, think that perhaps there was something a bit off with the decrease section. It looks a little different than the pictures I've seen, but not in a bad way.

We are expecting a hatching of chicks this weekend. The little hen is setting half a dozen, and we have another half dozen in an incubator. A box of eggs appeared in the mail yesterday, so looks like we're going to have us a chicken ranch around here. Yee haw.

Judy: I owe you an answer about Klaralund. My sleeves came out longer than I would like. I *think* I followed the length information in the pattern update, but don't really remember. If you have normal length arms, I'd suggest going with whichever length is shorter.

Bev: Maybe let's try a weekend between now and the first of the year at Starbucks for teen knitting?

My Day

2007-12-09T17:10:00.000-05:00

This day hasn't really gone as planned, but I'm not complaining. I woke up bright and early at 7:30 (that's early for Sunday morning) with every intention of sitting and knitting all day long. Well, you know they say the highway to hell is paved with good intentions, right? Look out, Satan, I'm on my way! Maybe the things I have accomplished will delay that trip a little.

I was out of town on business last week, so the sour dough starter got neglected until last night when it got fed. I mixed up a batch of dough first thing this morning, and the loaves will be formed and left to rise overnight tonight. Hopefully huband will be willing to bake them when he gets up in the morning.

After indulging in two cups of coffee and toast for breakfast, I peeled way too many apples and put them in the crock pot to cook into apple butter. Mmm. The house smells great. Too bad it's so warm today and not really and apple buttery kind of day. Maybe the temperatures will be more seasonally accurate later in the week.

While this domestic goddess spirit was still upon me, I whipped up a chicken pot pie using the less artery clogging version of Paula Deen's Lady and Sons Restaurant recipe. Yummy! I've been working on this recipe bit by bit, omitting the puff pastry, switching from heavy whipping cream to half-and-half, now down to whole milk. Next step--2% milk and possibly even down to skim milk. The pie is still tasting great and a big hit with my family.

Finally, after lunch today I've managed to vegetate in my recliner and work on the Koolhaas Hat that I started during my trip last week. The hat pattern is very easy, but it looks complicated. It's featured in the Holiday edition of Interweave Knits (which is sold out, so shame on you if you didn't buy it!). I'm working the hat in KP Wool of the Andes in Evergreen.

This weekend has also been a movie weekend. Daughter and I picked up the Pirates of the Carribean third movie last night. It was pretty good--how can you go wrong with Johnny Depp? This afternoon, I watched Dirty Dancing (again!) on cable. I love that movie--such a classic. And how can you go wrong with Patrick Swayze??

Friday!

2007-12-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

I've been in VA on business since Sunday evening, and boy, is it good to be home now. I was fortunate enough to see VA's first snowfall of the year, and that was exciting. There was barely a dusting of snow, and it didn't stick, but it was still fun for me to see it. We don't get much snow here in SC!

Very little knitting was accomplished on this trip. I have a "problem" of falling asleep on airplanes the minute I'm seated, so there's usually not a lot of knitting going on in the air. Our days were totally filled with training, and lunch breaks meant time to check work e-mails and voice mails and deal with whatever was going on back in the office. By night time, I was too beat to do much!

I am the very happy owner of the much coveted Alan Dart Noah's Ark pattern book now. This seems to be the next big thing in the online world. I didn't battle it out on e-bay for a copy; I merely placed an order for the back issue of Simply Knitting that included the Noah's Ark patterns. I love Alan Dart's work, and he certainly did a wonderful job on these patterns. I may knit an ark and animals for my grand child to be--who probably won't be on the scene for another 20 years or so! (That's fine by me!)

This weekend, I'll try to get completed photos of my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I really love that pattern and highly recommend it. (See Knitty.com for the pattern) Also, I want to go to Michael's to stock up on more Paton's Merino which is on sale again! I need to knit myself another sweater.

WTF Wednesday

2007-11-28T17:49:00.001-05:00

My title suits this post much better than WIP Wednesday would. You look at the photo below, and I guarantee you, you'll say WTF??

This is my "Girl's Best Friend" sock (Knitpicks pattern). It's curling worse than my hair on a rainy day in July, too, so it's very hard to photograph at this stage. I believe that curling sock, unlike my hair, will be lovely when worn.

The yarn is Silja that I bought several years ago at SAFF. Hey, Ravelers on the SAFF group, I wonder if this qualifies as knitting something from your SAFF purchase! LOL! I love the yarn. It's so sproingy. The color is more a mulberry in real life, but this is a hurry up and get it posted kind of picture taken indoors.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2007-11-27T09:49:00.000-05:00

Michele Gerard knows what he's talking about, and his quote I used yesterday still applies. HOWEVER, moving on!

I have a FO to share today. This is the Cap Karma Hat with modifications by Jared at Brooklyn Tweed. Like Jared, I wasn't too fond of the abrupt change from the cables to plain stitch at the decrease portion of the crown. I like the way Jared tweeked the original pattern to carry the cables all the way to the top!

I whipped out this hat with just a few hours knitting time, so, this may be a pattern to keep in mind if you need a last minute Christmas gift. I used about 2/3 of a ball of Brown Sheep Nature Spun, and the color is Eucalyptus.

People are particularly stupid today. I can't talk to any more of them.

2007-11-26T11:05:00.001-05:00

The title pretty much sums up my feeling on the on line forum world today--not limited to one particular site either! Actually, I've been thinking this for the past several days. Maybe it's all the turkey people ate over the holiday weekend that did them in. I should stop reading the local "whine line" in the paper, because that just makes me think that I live in a very racist and biogted area, or you'd think that if your only view of our area was the local paper whine line or letters to the editor.

We won't even go into details about the people at work. Let's just say it is a good thing I am regionally based, or some of those folks may just end up hanging by their toes after I got hold of them.

Geez.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T11:23:00.000-05:00

I have no intention of coming near the computer tomorrow, maybe not even all weekend, so I want to take time now to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. We traditionally keep Thanksgiving for just the three of us--no big family meals or travel or any of that. I make the traditional holiday feast which provides plenty of leftovers to get us through most of the weekend at least until we get sick of turkey! It's nice to have the time to relax and just do whatever we want to do.

We attended the girls' and boys' varsity basketball games last night at daughter's school. Daughter had to be there with the cheerleaders, so we decided to make a family night of it. It was fun. Both teams won their games by a healthy margin which just added to the fun. I tried to get some photos, but for some reason most of the pictures I take in the gym turn out blurry. Maybe it's the funky lighting? I need to pull out the camera manual and see if there is some setting I can change.

My Mr. Greenjeans is coming right along. I'd love to be able to finish it up over the weekend. Here's a progress photo, but the color is way off!

I love the yarn--Paton's Merino in Cranberry. I snagged a bunch of this yarn when Michaels had it on sale for $3.50 a ball and have enough for three different sweaters.

Oh, if you are on Ravelry, I have organized a CSRA Knitters group. Feel free to join us. I sent out a lot of invitations to the group but may have missed some people.

Monday Morning Fiber

2007-11-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that fiber had been purchased at our guild flea market sale. Here's my loot.

The lemon yellow ball is 4 ounces of merino. I have no idea why I needed yellow, but the color was so pretty that I had to have it. It only cost $5, so that was also incentive. The multi colored hank purchase was all Hockeymom's fault! I wouldn't have gotten it except she got some and made it sound so good! The goal is sock yarn. We shall see how that plays out. This is also 4 ounces, and both of these were purchased from Gale Evans.

Here we have 8 ounces of lambswool/mohair blend. It is soft as a cloud. I have no idea what this will be, but it needed to come home with me.

I got some spinning done last night and finished up with some fiber purchased at SAFF. Tonight, I'm going to try to ply it and then decide on a project depending on my yardage. Photos will be coming soon!

Sunny Sunday

2007-11-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

How's that for an original post topic? I looked out the window, and it just seemed obvious. Today is a gorgeous, sunny day, though I'd be as happy if it were pouring buckets. GA/SC is still in a severe drought, and we could really use the rain. We drove up to Atlanta yesterday for our guild meeting, and it was painfully obvious from looking at the lake on the way how water deprived the area really is. One of our guild shepherds was talking about the hay shortage and having to haul in water to keep her flock going. Anybody want to take up rain dancing? What could it hurt?

We had a wonderful time at our guild meeting yesterday and got to visit with a lot of friends. It was especially nice to have some time to sit and chat with Hockeymom. Claudia was there, too, and I don't know which other bloggers. Yesterday was the annual flea market, and I managed to escape without too much financial damage.

After the meeting, we headed back toward home with, of course, a stop at teenage girl heaven (aka THE MALL) planned. We'd not eaten lunch prior to the guild meeting and all three of us agreed that shopping on an empty stomach was not optimal. We had a wonderful steak dinner at Bugaboo Creek Steak House. We'd never been to this restaurant or even heard of it. The decor was warm and cozy, kind of a Canadian Rockies thing going on. I wish we'd had room for dessert, because that giant chocolate chip cookie topped with icecream served in a cast iron skillet looked mighty tasty.

With our stomachs pleasantly full, we went in search of "dress clothes" for the girl. We made out pretty well on the sale racks at Macy's, splurged a tiny bit at Dillards, and finished up the evening with a stop at DSW Shoe Store. I think we did well.

A Different Kind of Fiber

2007-11-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

Years ago, I used to bake sour dough bread. It was delicious. Unfortunately, life interefered, free time was non-existant, and my bread starter died. I also managed to lose the recipe somewhere along the line. At some point in the not too distant past (read, a couple of years ago), I found a recipe that sounded very similar to the old bread recipe. I stashed the recipe away and finally made the time a week or so ago to pull it out and get the starter going. That thing took off like gangbusters and it smelled so good--sweet and alcoholic at the same time.

I mixed up the dough last night and left it to rise. It did really well, part of the dough managing to escape the confines of the bowl! I have three loaves set to rise right now, and if all goes well, we will enjoy freshly baked bread with dinner tonight.

Getting Better

2007-11-12T14:28:00.000-05:00

Even though it's Monday, things are looking up from a fibery perspective. I took a little trip to Michaels on Saturday evening and scored Patons Merino at $3.50 a ball. I bought enough to make a Mr. Greenjeans for me and one for daughter. Mine will be in burgandy, and hers will be in leaf green. I may try to get back by Michaels to get another color. The $3.50 sale is off, but they are supposed to have all yarn on sale this week. I swear to stay clear of anything "ick-rylic." Natural fibers only for me from now on!

Husband managed to get my Lendrum going again yesterday. I didn't take time to spin this weekend, because I wanted to finish off a pair of sock for daughter and get started on Mr. Greenjeans. Mr. Greenjeans is a great pattern so far. It's knitting up quickly. I also like the yarn, so that just makes it even better.

That's about it....it's just another Monday. Lucky husband had today off for Veteran's Day, and he's spent it outside mowing the south 40. The yard looks tremendously better. We didn't have any grass, but the leaves were out of control.

Disappointment

2007-11-09T08:38:00.000-05:00

I finished up the Boogie Vest this week, and man, am I disappointed. First, when "they" say that bulky weight yarn looks bulk on bulky weight women, "they" are telling you the truth. Second, the neck shaping (or lack thereof) on this vest is not apparent in the photos provided in the pattern. The neck opening as written was much too wide, in my opinion. I ended up closing another 1 1/2 inches on either side of my vest. Third, and this is entirely my own fault, the yarn I chose sheds like crazy. I'd recommend that you stay clear of Bernat Alpaca unless you particularly like walking around looking as if you rolled in the dog's bed.

I don't have any photos of the lovely vest, but here's an idea of how it looks on me and what it reminds me of. Pretend the vests in the photo are not open on the front but pullovers.

Milking This Thing for One More Day....SAFF

2007-11-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

I am loving this. I've gotten almost a week worth of posts out of one fiber event! Here are the remainder of my SAFF photos, all taken at the Ravelry meetup. I know you wish you were there! ahem, yes, Judy and Bev, I'm talking to you! Mark October 24-26 on your calendars right now!

Is that the elusive ESC there in the denim shirt?

Jane from Peachtree.

This is Rachel in the white shirt and Jen aka Meangirl by her. I don't think Rachel has a blog, but she's oneofestelles on Ravelry.

My Boogie vest knitting is all done. I finished it up last night. This was a really quick knit. I'm going to try to get the shoulders attached today if work doesn't go to hell in a handbasket (which is par for the course at my job). Looks like I'll make my Nov. 17 self-imposed deadline to get this vest in wearing order. Pictures will come later.

It was 30 degrees when we woke up this morning. This is awesome. I'm ready for cool temps. I had to break the ice on the bird bath this morning (a very thin layer, but still, it was ice). The furnace guy comes tomorrow for our annual inspection. I'm almost ready to build a fire in the fireplace, too, but that means I need to get the chimney sweep out here first. Ah, fall and winter! I love it!

SAFF Ravelry Meetup

2007-11-05T08:49:00.001-05:00

This post will be picture heavy. The photos are from the Saturday Ravelry Meetup at SAFF. E-mail me or leave a comment if you know who everyone is! I don't have all the names.

Claudia on the left, and I think that's Brett The Yarn Doctor beside her.

That's Sandy in the white shirt, and Katey to her right.

Pam, Amie, and who is that in the white shirt?

I blogged Zonda blogging her sock.

Cristi with her set of Wendy Knits patterns.

Zonda blogging Cristi.

Kat spinning something gorgeous.

Wow...I've got so many pictures left, looks like I can squeeze one more post out of this! More to come!

Look At All the SAFFy People

2007-11-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

First, let's address the comments. (I don't have a fancy schmancy commenting system that lets me e-mail folks.) Bev, yes, that lace weight yarn at In Stitches is calling my name, too. So is that yummy silk with the beads (that isn't Tillie Tomas!).

Zonda, brilliant minds, dear! I was thinking that the Boogie vest could easily be worked in the round. I want to make another one, too, in a more fun color than charcoal!

Cristi, Cristi--me? Point a finger at you because of garter stitch hell? Never! ;) Actually, Donald has an inexpensive knitting machine, and we're thinking of whipping up a couple of jackets on that.

Next, on to new business. My Boogie vest is close to being done! I finished knitting the back and am about a quarter of the way done with the front. The chunky yarn combined with size 10 needles makes for a quick knit. My goal is to have this thing done in time to wear to Guild on Nov. 17.

I mentioned that I'd picked up The Knit Stitch this weekend. I don't know why I avoided this book for so long. There are a lot of neat patterns in it. Yes, you'll be in garter stitch hell to make any of them, but the results are pretty cool. I think I'm going to have to add The Purl Stitch to my collection, too. We have a new to us book shelf, so maybe there's room to slip in a couple of new books, eh?

Now, on to the SAFFy people:

Please, Mom, no more photos!

All smiles on Sunday, probably because she got a new sweatshirt.

Vera and I both had on socks made from Trekking XXL color 100!

More to come tomorrow.....Ravelry Meetup (Saturday) pictures!

Froggy Went A Courtin'

2007-11-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

Ester has annoyed me, so she's heading to the frog pond. Tell me, on what planet is 84 divisble by 11? None? That's what I thought. The set up row for the cables is 11 stitches. Eleven goes into 84 seven times, but you have 7 left over. The designer recommended I re-count my stitches. Well, I'm not exactly stupid. My stitch count is spot on.....so, ribbit, ribbit and on to something else with the Malabrigo. I am *thinking* another Klaralund....The nice folks at Yarn Paradise are going to mail out three more skeins of yarn to me on Monday! :)

My Lendrum also has me annoyed. It's not acting right for some reason. Maybe the wheel wants to be back in Asheville spinning. Wouldn't that be nice? My resident man who can fix anything is going to try to get the wheel going again. He suspects there may be something in the Woolie Winder making it act up. The treadling is really hard, and the yarn take up is nil. That's not at all like my Lendrum. Hopefully, we can get things back in line so that I can spin a bit tomorrow.

Husband and I both needed a little break from life today, so we headed out to our favorite LYS, In Stitches. Barbara has some drop dead gorgeous new yarns in--silks and cashmeres, and mohairs, oh my!! Husband said he'd love to just take a day and go sit with Barbara to knit. She's such a nice, low key person. I can hear Bev now saying we need to come to Knit Night. We're trying!!

We also made a quick stop off at Michaels for some bulky weight yarn. I know, I know. I'm experimenting with this and felt somewhat better about spending just $3 a ball on the yarn there to see how I liked the pattern. I am using Bernat alpaca, an acrylic/alpaca blend. My vest will be in charcoal grey which is a nice go with anything color. Zonda, is this the vest you were wearing last weekend?

Thanks to Cristi, I have Einstein Coat on the brain, so...off to Borders. I picked up a copy of The Knit Stitch and found that there is a lighter weight version of Einstein in the book. Lucky me, I have enough yarn in the stash to make myself one!! I'm going to cast on for that as soon as the vest is finished.

It was chilly here today, so I wore Klaralund out on our little shopping trip. Two people stopped me in Borders to ask if I'd made the sweater myself and to say how much they liked it! I also got loads of compliments from Barbara and when we stopped by the other LYS.

Yes, I know...no SAFF stuff today. Maybe I can get those photos uploaded tomorrow and treat you all to some people pix.

Oh, Linda, you left a comment that we may live near each other. According to mapquest, we are 2 1/2 hours apart. If you are looking for nearby knitters/spinners, you may want to look towards Atlanta. I'll e-mail you some info about the next Guild meeting!

Show Me the Goodies

2007-11-02T14:50:00.000-04:00

I've finally found some time to take photos of my SAFF loot. I told you I'd been very good about not blowing the budget. I mainly bought fiber to spin.

All of my fiber came from a lady named Tina Evans who is in our spinning guild, the Peachtree Handspinner's Guild. Her fiber is heavenly!

This is a mix of Blue Faced Leicester, Cotswold, and Mohair. I got 8 ounces of this. The colors are black, green, and blue. They remind me of the Black Watch tartan colors. This picture isn't that great, because that mohair just wants to shine in the light! The color is much more rich in person.

Here's how it looks spun:

Next is another Blue Faced Leicester, Cotswold, and Mohair mix, this time in brighter colors of pink, orange, and deep lavendar. This must have been a popular color, because Tina only had 6 ounces left on Sunday, and I got it all.

Finally, here is some Cotswold, BFL, and sparkle mix. You can't really see the sparkle in the photo, but it is a coppery color that goes well with the brown and purple wool.

I did not buy any yarn at SAFF, but I did sneak out to Yarn Paradise to spend a gift certificate I've had since last Christmas. I ended up with 5 skeins of Malabrigo worsted weight. It was intended for a shrug pattern a bunch of us bought at SAFF (Susan's Shrug by Maggie's Rags), but the yarn seemed inappropriate for the pattern. Instead, I'm knitting the Ester shrug from Knitty. The knitting in this photo is not Ester. The yarn has since been frogged, balled, and knitted into the first few rows of Ester.

I don't have pictures of Daughter's stash. She really didn't get all that much either--primarily spinning fiber including a silk brick! I won't share photos of the two Christmas gift items I bought either, so you'll have to wait until December for those.

This weekend, I'll post photos of the most divine yarn bowl in the world and of some of the most divine people that I had the pleasure of meeting at SAFF.

SAFF, Of Course

2007-10-30T10:52:00.000-04:00

I have one opportunity each year to attend a fiber festival, and that's SAFF held in Fletcher, NC. The "big" festivals are just too far away and at the wrong time of the year to make it possible for me to get away. That's OK. SAFF is all I need.

I hadn't been terribly excited about going this year. After all, how much fiber and yarn and how many spinning wheels does a girl need? I know some people just can't have enough, but since I did a clean out of my yarn closet last week, I know I have enough! What can a girl never have enough of? FRIENDS, and that's the reason I wanted to go to SAFF this year. This was the chance to see old friends and meet new ones. I've got to tell you, it certainly was fun to meet so many new friends and see that you are all just as wonderful (if not more so) in person as you are on your blogs. More on that later....

We headed out on Friday afternoon and arrived in Fletcher after SAFF had closed for the day. We settled into the Bates Motel aka the EconoLodge Asheville Airport and then went in search of dinner. We decided on the Wanpen Thai restaurant on Hendersonville Rd. The food was good and so was the service. It was very relaxed and quiet, probably because we were there at almost 8 PM.

I won't bore you with complaints about the hotel. Let's just suffice it to say that we made a huge mistake in booking this location. The room was miserable--cramped, musty, moldy, just ick. When we booked the place 6 months ago, we didn't even know if we were going to be able to make it to SAFF, money was an issue, etc.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early (actually, I don't think any of us had slept much) and headed to IHOP for breakfast. We had absolutely no wait time to be seated (arrived at 7 AM) and our food was on the table in no time. The service was excellent, and the food was delicious.

We were at SAFF before the official open time, so we staked out a spot in the spinning circle, chatted with some friends from Peachtree Guild, and then enjoyed the day by shopping, relaxing, and visiting. The highlight of the day was the Ravelry/Knit Blogger Meetup, and I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Here's a photo of one of the lovely and interesting ladies I met during the weekend.