Donnaland full of yarn and dorkery!

Maybe back?

2010-09-22T23:05:00.001-04:00

Ok so I might be back to blogging. I don't know. It just means more things to remember to do each day, but then I do get to show off my knitting. So stay tuned I may just start blogging again.

Knitting Olympics

2010-02-12T18:35:00.002-05:00

Yay the knitting Olympics start today. I signed up to keep myself occupied and busy while my husband is away. I will be knitting over the knee socks, and a pair of socks to give away. I went to the yarn store today, and that was interesting. I always come out with way more than I intend to buy. I just needed two skeins for socks, and look what came home with me.

The two sparkly pink yarns in front are going to be for the over the knee socks. Now some of you non knitting peeps may think I am jumping on the crazy train for hand knitting over the knee socks. Well, handknit socks fit better, last longer, are warmer, and for pete's sake we just had two feet of snow fall. I need over the knee socks. I better do a good job to as these are some mighty expensive socks. Shhhh don't tell my husband.

I am also knitting a pair of gift socks. Either for my mom or my husbands, fellow soldier's girlfriend. My husband asked me special to make socks for the soldier's girlfriend, so it will most likely be those. I don't know what yarn for those yet.

Before starting the Olympics in a few hours, I had to clean off my knitting stand as it looked like this:

There are two sweaters and a pair of socks on there. Also in the living room are two other pair of socks I have started and a lace shawl. Yes I do think I have ADD.

So check back over the next 17 days for progress shots, and to see if I made it and won the gold!

Finally back

2010-02-09T11:01:00.002-05:00

Hi 1-2 people who might read this. I decided to bring the blog back. I left for awhile since I was so busy with life and stuff. Mostly been hanging out on Facebook or Ravelry when I have the chance to computerate.

Been very busy with work as well. I love my job, but darn if I don't get super stressed from it. Like today I made the decision to cancel work in the office since we have two feet of snow and are going to get another foot. So I have two new trainees working from their home for the first time today. Really I think everything will be fine, but I will stress none the less.

Life: my husband has had a lot of away time for the National Guard lately. He will be leaving tomorrow for 6 weeks, and that is stressing me out. My kids act like a couple of knuckle heads when left alone. I am finally 2 months later recovering from some elective surgery. Fibro still rules my life and this week it has been making itsself very well known to me.

So anyway here are some pics from this past weekend when we had all of the snow. I did finish a pair of socks, and in the next post will have some knitting pics. Until then it's good to be back here!

The lovely snow

Thalia posing on the couch. She is sooooooo cute!

My husband with our other piggie Harley.

The piggies are too much fun. They are very vocal about what they want, and it makes me laugh to hear all the sounds they make.

craft project from the weekend. I started sewing a new purse with matching knit bag.

my son after shoveling snow. He is getting bigger every day.

My daughter with her pink hair. It was purple, and blue, and red, and..........LOL at least it is not permanent it grows out.

For real this time!

2010-02-05T11:41:00.003-05:00

Ok bringing back the blog for real now. Stay tuned for knitting pics, cute pet pics, and updates about my job. Back to training a new class! Yay now have 10 team members. OK back to work for now.

Test photo

2009-10-27T17:25:00.000-04:00

Working on it.

2009-10-27T17:16:00.001-04:00

Ok working on bringing the blog back. I updated the template and such. Changed a few links etc. I will be adding some current pics and a post soon. Stay tuned for knitting content and my blabbing about it and what is going on in my world.

2009-09-20T16:49:00.001-04:00

I am alive! Haha I just gave up blogging for a long while. On my list of things to do it was way at the bottom. I am still knitting. Just been dealing with fibro and life. September has not been a great month. Have had my meds changed 4 times, been sick with a virus, both kids sick and husband sent out of town. Yuck. I really am going to try and make Sunday's blog day, but don't hold your breath. LOL

Oh Yes I'm Still Here and Still Knitting!

2008-11-23T19:00:00.003-05:00

Wow it's been so long since I blogged. Sigh So many things to do I guess blogging has just been on the back burner. Besides I just did not have a lot to blog about. Still working for a job I love. It has been rough the past couple months, trying to get my team where they need to be, but all in all I love it. I hope to stay at this job for a long long time. I thought it would be fun to show a view from my work chair.

That is my work on the computer. As you can see my desk looks quite messy, but really it's not. I just like to have all the things I need within reach. Also I may have mentioned in earlier posts that working from home is new for the company I work for. Right now they are looking to add more and more at home agents. Some people like to work from home, and some don't. Here are my reasons for loving working at home.

1. No one sees what I look like. I wear pj's or sweats every day for work. LOL sometimes I don't even brush my hair until half way through my shift.

2. No travel. I save both time and money. Gotta start work at 7AM? No problem, roll out of bed at 6:45 and I'm ready to go.

3. I get to be here with my kids. They are teenagers, and so it is nice to keep an eye on them. Plus I get to eat dinner with my kids every night even if I am working, I just take a break when dinner is ready.

4. I have fibromyalgia, and it is so much more comfy and less stressful on my body working from home. I have a shiatsu massager on my chair. I can get a massage all day at work. Plus I can heat my hot pack up as often as necessary.

5. I hate packing a lunch. Now if it's break or lunchtime, I just go to the kitchen and find something good to eat.

6. I can do other activities while working. While taking calls I have knitted, wrote out my bills, watched TV, listed to the radio, beaded, read magazines, and done other crafts.

So you may have gathered, I love my job!

Yes I did mention I knit while working sometimes. I am a team lead, and have lots of other responsibilities, but I do spend time answering phones and can knit between the calls. So what have I been knitting you may ask? Well I took pictures to show you! (all 1-2 of you that may read this LOL)

First up socks for a co-worker in MI. She already has a pair of socks knit by me and requested another. Man I need to get these in the mail!

Next a pair of socks for me. This is patons kroy socks. Very nice to knit with. I made these because of the fall colors. These need to go in the wash. You can tell I have worn them. I just decided to put them on the blockers for the pic.

Next a hat for a co-worker. I also made a scarf, but it has already been given to her. This is a Jo Ann Fabrics yarn. I forget the name. Wool cotton and nylon. Very soft and plushy. Modeled by my very angsty teen daughter.

Next a hat for my son. He designed the eye on the hat and I duplicate stitched it for him. He likes it and wears it every day.

Lastly, my current knitting. A pair of socks for my husband, and a pair of fingerless gloves for me.

Today is a very special day for me, and here is why:

It's my birthday! My daughter made my cake from scratch. It is banana cake with cream cheese frosting. We had peanut butter panic ice cream with it. In the picture I am wearing my gift from the kids. They got me new pj's and a pair of slippers. Want to see what my husband got me besides making pepperoni balls and taco pizza from scratch for me?

A super sock yarn sampler from one of my fave Ebay sellers. Woo Hoo I can't wait to start some new socks with all this yarn.

So that is all. Just been working knitting and doing life. Here is a last photo of how I am going to spend the rest of my birthday.

Sit around in my new pj's and knit!!!!!!!

3 Day Weekend

2008-08-31T12:11:00.003-04:00

Ahh just what I needed, a mini vaca. So not much going on, just the usual work, family, and fibro. I don't have much to say, but I do have pics! Enjoy!

A finished object! Simple socks two at a time cuff down magic loop size 2 needles. This pic makes my feet look even smaller in relation to my fat legs. Ugh.

Proof that I do still knit. This was taken at my husbands family reunion a couple weeks ago.

Another pic from the reunion. This is what happens when my husband and neice play bingo.

My daughter and me. Notice her hair is now blonde. Also notice she is my clone. We have the same profile. We look so much alike it's scary. She is only skinnier than me. That and she has her dads eyes.

Like a true woman my daughter changes her mind all the time. Now she is red. She wanted this color for school.

Finally a way to keep up my humor at work.

Well that is all for now. I gotta get ready to take my kids shopping. Fun and excitement!

Life's been good to me.......

2008-08-09T23:35:00.002-04:00

and keeping me very very busy! I know it has been forever and ever since I posted. It is all good though. I found a job I absolutely love and works well for me. It has just been very hectic and time consuming lately. My job's main office is located in Margate FL. I had the opportunity to go to that office in July. It was awesome. I learned a lot which is the main reason for going. Everyone was so nice and it was great to finally put faces to the voices! I spent a week there. The office is about 10 miles from the ocean! Yes I had a chance to go. I went about 7:30 in the evening, so it was very nice not hot. So that was great, but took me away from home for a week. Since then is has been busy busy busy. We moved to a new office. Yay much nicer than the old. So I have been working on getting things set up in the new office. Plus we hired a new agent, that I trained. Now we are looking for two new agents. Blah I don't like doing interviews. So hopefully in a week I will be doing another training class. Things are finally coming together with the hiring and new office though so it should not be so hectic.

My family keeps me busy too. My daughter decided to dye her hair blue! I pick my battles, and dying hair is not permanent so why not. My son driving me crazy with his ADHD. My husband putting up with me as usual.

I still knit really I do! Just not as much as before. Maybe I'll manage another post this week with pics! So all in all life's been good to me!

Flying into Ft. Lauderdale.

My kids are getting so big.

You might want to sit down for this.

2008-05-15T09:24:00.003-04:00

Seriously I am about to flash the stash. I'm warning you there is a lot. I really really should avoid all yarn stores for oh a couple of years or so. Because honestly what I am about to show is the yarn stash. Not the fabric stash, bead stash, or scrapbook stash. I really need to show some constraint. NAH LOL! Ok here goes. Description to follow each pic.

This is the acrylic stash not to bad.

Lace stash again not too bad.

Sorry for the blur. Bin on left cotton, cotton blends, and knit pick palette. Bin on right wool, wool blends.

Ok serious sock stash. I think I have enough yarn to make anywhere between 80-100 pairs! Umm somebody may have a sock yarn fetish.

Novelty yarn stash! But before you wonder, my husband has no room to complain about my large stash. Check out his legos:

Yeah say it with me holy s(%t! Now you know why we had to have an extra bedroom. Believe it or not that is the guest room as well. We have a futon in there that can be folded out. Also in the room a dining room table my husband and I have to share:

Finally a finished object:

This is my daughters new amiguri from I made her. The cellphone is there for scale. She named the frog Javietta. It was Javier but my daughter decided he was a she hence the earing and necklace. Also my daughter insisted on a hot pink sweater with frog buttons. OK no one can ever say I don't love my kids. Now my son has a drawing of the "creature" he wants me to make for him. All I can say is my son told me "he needs to have an orange jumpsuit made for him". Oh boy stay tuned for that one.

Well hope you all enjoyed the stash flash. Until next time. Knit knit knit knit knit and knit.....

Nope I didn't run away, I'm still here.

2008-04-24T14:41:00.003-04:00

Things have just been a bit crazy around here. I am trying to catch up with the house and crafting and life in general. I went through a pretty bad time at the end of March first of April. I have fibromyalgia. Somedays are good days and some days are bad days. It varies and there is no rhyme or reason. Well about 6-7 weeks ago I ran out of one of my meds. I decided not to fill it or take it anymore. Well that was not a great idea. It was an antidepressant med. I started going downhill and just not dealing with the pain and crap that comes with fibromyalgia. It got really bad toward the end of the month. I just did not want to deal with the fibro anymore. I tried to get to my Dr. but they were all booked. They suggested going to the ER. Well by the time I got there I was just done. I did not want to go on. So the hospital recommended I admit myself for a few days. I ended up going into the hospital for 5 days. The reason I was admitted is because they have more control over my meds and the ability to change them and see how I reacted. So I did get my meds all straightened out. And honestly I feel so much better. I have a better medication regimend and see a specialist who is helping with the fibro. I really have not had any physical changes, but emotionally I feel better and can deal with the physical much better. Big sucky thing about the hospital, NO KNITTING.

So anyway I am doing much much better. It's kind of weird but I have just really starting to realize just how bad I was before going to the hosp. So anyway, I am still here. Just trying to catch up like I said. Soon I will post a "stash flash". I hit a LYS going out of business sale and went a little crazy. LOL all told I did save 67%! Ok I will post soon I promise. I'm just catching up and I just got a promotion at work! So I love my job. Working at home and a promotion. Ok so see ya soon!

To many crafts not enough time!

2008-03-25T13:56:00.004-04:00

Ok some one needs to sloooooow time waaaaaaaaaaay down. I have a lot of crafting to do and not nearly enough time to do it in. Knitting, crocheting, sewing, and other. I told my kids as punishment they are going to learn crafts and that way I might get some stuff finished around here. Hehe they said that was too cruel. So anyway I do have a finished object to show. It is my daughters Easter dress. I finished it 10:00pm Saturday night. Nothing like cutting it close. Here it is:

She looks crabby because she was sick. Both my kids were sick actually. They were at their dads for the weekend, and they keep the heat really high plus the smoke a lot in the house. So my kids were icky for the first part of Easter. Here is my son. He had a migraine.

Besides the kids being icky for the first part of the day Easter was very nice. We spent the early afternoon with my mother in law and had Easter dinner there. Then we went to see my brother and sister in law. We brought our nieces and nephew home for the night. So my kids had a great time visiting with their cousins. Next time hopefully they will have more time together though.

So now really cool bag alert. Found this "6 pack" back at a Trader Joe's grocery store. So perfect for sock knitting on the go. Check it out:

I have four pair of socks, notions and patterns all in there. I love it! Just grab and knit on the go.

At home right now I am knitting a new clapotis. I received a lovely yarn surprise yesterday in the mail from Teabird. I added the yarn with some of my own and am making a spring clapotis see:

Finally talking about lots of crafting needing to be done. This is a pile of fabric all with projects ready to go sitting waiting to be cut and sewed. I should seriously be banned from buying any more yarn or fabric!

LOL just a bit of fabric. Oh and the not buying yarn thing, I have a local yarn shop going out of business. Well there goes staying away from yarn!

Ok have a great day!

Still knitting and crocheting

2008-03-11T23:19:00.003-04:00

Just been really busy with work. We were bought by a larger company and so much crazy has ensued. That is finally calmed down. I have been knitting lots of stuff just not been taking pics or posting. But here is a pic of some handknit/crochet goodies that will be on its way to my mom tomorrow.

A pair of Hedera socks and a happy froggie! The socks are made from Knit Picks essential in the color gulfstream. As per usual they were made two at a time magic loop. The froggie was crocheted using a pattern from a new book I bought which I forget the name of. The shamrock was just something I threw together after making little green hearts. I hope she likes everything.

Hehe most people just have a "mouse" on the desk, but here we get all crazy and have a mouse and two rats on our desk. This pic was taken while the rats were having their cage cleaned. They came to hang out with me while I computerated.

Well see ya next month haha!

He's all mine! I am so lucky!

2008-02-15T12:22:00.003-05:00

I know I'm a day late but that seems to be the case all the time now. Anyway this is a brag about the sweetest most loving man ever my husband. Not just on Valentines Day either, but everyday. I don't know what I would do without him. I really can not express in words how much he means to me. I can just say I really love him and look forward to spending the rest of my life with him. Ok I am having brain fog today so how about some pics. Speaking of my husband, here are a couple of pics of my presents from yesterday. As usual he went way overboard and spoiled me.

Beautiful roses!

The baby sock monkey is from my husband and the purple monkey from my kids. My husband also got me a chain (necklace) since my old one broke, and make strawberry rice crispie treats. Yummy! Plus the kids got me a box of chocolates. Such a sweet family.

So Valentines for me was good. Both my husband and I had to work but were off Wednesday so we took the kids and went to dinner. My daughter had a pretty cruddy Valentines Day. She went to the school dance, but because of her (evil nasty I really don't like this girl) friend her boyfriend may have broken up with her. I know it's just typical teenage angst, but to her it was the end of the world. Poor thing she called me at work and was so upset. I really felt bad about not being home for her. Sigh sometimes working sucks.

Speaking of work, things are a-changing. Our wee little company was sold to a really big company. So we have all been training on a new system. I work at an answering service. So it is kind of stressful and exciting at the same time. We switch to the new system next week, so the stress will be high until we all know we can work the new system.

Ok couple of pictures to end the post. First one is what I found after washing my clapotis in the washer. It is superwash so should have gone ok. Oooops. Guess what I'll be working on later. And finally a pic of my husband and one of his "babies" Opal. Have a great day!

Bursting at the Seams

2008-01-24T19:11:00.000-05:00

Aacckk that is what I feel like. I did not have work tonight, so I had dinner with the kids. I made spaghetti, and I swear I ate so much I feel like I am going to burst. I should know better, but I love spaghetti sooooo much. Ok so anyway long time no post again. I am just too tired to post most of the time. I never feel rested enough. So with that thought a pic of a new book I bought the other day.

They say it is good to be informed. I have only just started this book, so I am not sure how much info it will really have that I don't know already. I guess I am just looking to maybe find that magic cure that will make it all go away and give me my life back. Ok blah blah and boo hoo here is another book I got to lighten the mood.

I loved this book. Cracks me up. I also got this book to help continue my passion for knitting socks.

I can't wait to try some of these new techniques. Very interesting. Speaking of socks, I have completed another pair.

These socks are for my husband. He loves them. He wore them almost as soon as I finished them. They are the conwy pattern from Nany Bush. I followed the pattern exact except I went up a needle size. Per my usual they were done magic loop two at a time. The yarn is Lorna's Laces color mineshaft. I have another pair of socks on the needle right now as well.

I know they are hard to see. They are the no purl monkey pattern done with Jitterbug yarn. I love love love the color. Also on the stand is Knit Picks Essential in ????. They are going to be Hedera for my mom. And in the background, yes that is some Noro sock yarn and wonderful gift from Cheryl. I can't wait to try it out. Finally a pic that says I may be a bit obsessed with knitting socks.

Those are all hand knit socks in the laundry room waiting to be washed. The white bag is so full of socks that is why the others are on the floor! Well guess I better get to washing. See ya all soon.

Oops uh here is the pics I was to have posted a month ago.

2008-01-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

Holy Cow time is flying by! It's already 20008! Anywho I have been knitting in between the busy. I even have pics to prove it! Here we go:

Three pair of socks finished. From left to right: rainbow stripe socks my own pattern two at a time magic loop size 1 needle. The yarn is pacapeds colorway tyedye. These socks are awesome, very soft and quite warm on the feet. The middle pair is Rock-n-weave pattern from BMFA done on size 5, 2, and 1 circs. I really like this pattern, the socks are so cute! The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill in sugarmaple colorway. Finally, my favorite socks from the 2007 rockin sock club by BMFA. Lenore is the colorway as well as the pattern. Pattern was from the Yarn Harlot. Done two at a time magic loop size 2 needles. Love these. Such a pretty pattern. Will definately make more of these. Now some close ups of the socks:

Socks in progress:

Uuummm I forget what the yarn is (stupid me losing the ball bands five seconds after I take it off). These are simple ankle socks for my son. He likes them so far.

A finished purse that needs felted. The yarn is from JoAnns. Came in a kit. I love the colors.

The Rat Race scarf from Morehouse. Love love love this! It is being modeled on our pet rats play area. The yarn (forget what it is from Morehouse) is lovely and very squishy. The little red beadie eyes make this scarf. Here is a close up of a rat:

Novelty scarf for me:

Novelty scarf for daughter and cute kitty hat:

Better pic of her hat:

I know I don't have many specs and such for the pics, but honestly it is a miracle I even have pictures and posted them. Just feel like I never have any time anymore. I have not seen friends in months! Plus with Christmas things got real crazy here. Christmas was great though. Everyone got what they wanted. I got a Zune which I am sooooo happy with. Plus I got a Christmas bonus at my job that is destined for a Knit Picks order! Ok nuff blah blah blah. One last picture for ya. My favorite pic from New Years Eve at our house:

My husband and Opal spending quality time together! Til next time Happy New Year!!!!!

TaDa!

2007-12-04T13:49:00.000-05:00

Magically I have appeared from the great beyond!!!! Ummm no not really. I've just been absent because of the busyness. Work, play, home, family, fibro, it just seems to suck up all my time. I am online most everyday checking blogs and ravelry, but just never seem to get to blogging. I have been knitting lots though. Since my last post I have finished my Lenore socks, two pair of mittens, a scarf, a hat, started two pair of socks, and another scarf. Hopefully I can talk my daughter into taking pics later and I will really try and post soon. Been doing a bit of sewing too. I finished a new "blankie" for me. I swear I use my blankie all the time. With having the fibro I feel crummy, and I am always cold, so it is like my comfort blankie. Lately I have been taking turns with it and the electric blanket. Ever get so cold you feel like you will never be warm again? I do. And uugghh it really wracks my body. I end up hurting from shivering. Crazy. Today it a bad fibro day. I've only knit a bit on my socks, straightened up the laundry room, and folded two baskets of laundry. I feel horrible. Sigh it is so crazy I am making my kids go to the store with me when they get home so they can lift the few things I am getting. Well Ok nuff boo hooing. Hope to have some pics soon! Have a good day!

Tagged!!

2007-11-03T12:06:00.000-04:00

I was tagged by Yvonne for this really awesome meme. So here goes:

1. What’s your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word “yarn” is singular. Just pick one. I know it’s hard.) Hmmm I have knit many socks with many yarns this is a hard one. Right now I will say Socks that Rock. For one thing I love their colors, and another one of their yarns (Lunasea) was named by me! :)

2. What’s your favorite type and brand of sock needle? I love my knit picks circs. I don't know what I would do without them.

3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down or sideways? I knit them both toe up and cuff down. I prefer cuff down though.

4. Do you knit both socks at once or just one at a time? Two at a time!!!!! No second sock syndrome!!!!!

5. What's your favorite toe and why? I like a basic decreasing toe that gets kitchenered. I am weird, but I like to Kitchener.

6. Favorite heel? I would say the flap. That is the heel I use most often.

7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks? Depends on the yarn. I like both equally well.

8. Who do you knit the most socks for? Me me me me!!!!

9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them? I only had one pair with a boo boo and I darned them because they were a gift to me from another knitter.

10. Do you only wear hand knit socks? Yes I do! I am spoiled. I love love love hand knit socks. The colors, the patterns, just everything about them.

Bonus Question: What pattern, if any, is your basic “I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks” sock pattern based on? Do you keep it written down or memorized? My basic pattern is one I created. It is just plain stockinette done on size 0 or 1 with 64 stitches. It is memorized. This pattern is mostly for oooooh I like that yarn I want a pair of socks now!

Okay time to tag people: Jenn, SJ, and Leslie. Leslie you can leave yours in my comments.

Hehe I loved this meme. My friends will testify that I love knitting socks. They have given me the undeserved title "sock queen". In fact here is a pic of socks in progress:

And here is a pic of my other work in progress. I finally started Lady E. This pic does not do justice to the color. I can not wait to finish this.

That is my stand that sits next to me when I knit and yes it is always that messy! Have a good Saturday!

Still here and still knitting

2007-10-31T12:15:00.000-04:00

Nope I did not fall of the face of the Earth. We have just been really busy around here. My husband recently started a new job. Plus I have been working for 2 months now. My husband and I both have evening jobs. So it is crazy around here between seeing each other and the kids. Right now we both leave for work before the kids get home from school. This means less time with them, and they are having to make their dinner. I am not really happy about this, but we both need to work, so I guess this is how it will have to be. I really like my job. My co-workers are nice and the job is such a perfect fit for me. I can wear whatever (sweatpants woo hoo) I want, don't have to fix my hair all nice, and no make up. Plus I can do whatever I want as long as I answer the calls. This means knitting, reading magazines, and watching TV. I have been working Sunday evenings which are usually boring. I am their all by myself because it is slow. So not only is there not much going on, but I get lonely. Sigh, that would be the only drawback though. Ok ok enough about work, how about some pictures!

As most knitters know we are just at the end of Socktoberfest. I completed three pairs of socks.

These first socks are for my mom. The yarn was dyed by my mom while she was here on vacation. The pattern is from "Favorite Socks". I can't remember the name. The were done on size 2 knit picks circ magic loop two at a time. I really need to get these in the mail for her.

These are for my husband. He wanted some heavy warm socks for hiking or playing in the snow with the kids. They are also from the book "Favorite Socks". The yarn is cascade 220 I had in the stash. They were knit on size 3 knit picks circ magic loop two at a time.

These socks are for my son. They go just above his ankles. He wore them to school on Tuesday for crazy sock day. They are Opal rainforest in the snake colorway. They are basic stockinette socks done on size 1 knit picks circ magic loop two at a time.

I really wanted to have these done for today, but it was not meant to be. This is the newest shipment from the Rockin Sock Club. I love love love the yarn and pattern. The yarn is socks that rock in "Lenore" and the pattern was created by the Yarn Harlot. I had the cuff done the other day, but because I have fat legs I had to rip and redo on a larger needle size. I am now further along than the pic. I have started the pattern repeat for the legs. I can not wait to finish and wear these. Up next is a pic of our babies. Just like human babies they eat, sleep, poop, and play. I have renamed their cage the "pooping palace". I swear it is amazing how much they can eat and poop in one day.

And finally in honor of Halloween, my son being silly with one of our costume masks. Have a spooky scary Happy Halloween everyone!

Long time again

2007-10-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

Seems I keep getting more and more behind on this here blog. Oh well I guess that is how it goes sometimes. Just been busy as usually with life and work and stuff. Some updates: still knitting just no pics. I finished a pair of socks yesterday and mended a pair. Rearranged my KIPs so as to work on just socks for Socktoberfest. So that is knitting. Over the weekend we went to Kennywood for a Military Aprreciation day. It was awesome. The park was open only for friends and family of military, so the park was not uber full. We were able to ride everything we wanted. We also got to stay for Fright Night which was an event. I am not a Halloween scary stuff in your face kind of person. I survived though. The "fun" part was we had 5 teenagers with us. Four were girls. Girls who really like to scream at everything. All in all we all had a good time. The most exciting news is we have new family members! Yeppers we got two new babie ratties. They are teeny tiny. Both are girls and their names are Opal and Gizelle. See how cute out babies are:

Nala the big girl! She is a fat rat! She was given to us by someone who could no longer care for her. She is still adjusting to life here.

Pandora our sick baby. She looks kinda goofy cause she is sick. We give her meds every morning and evening. Plus she has a bald spot from her surgery.

Finally a couple shots of the new babies.

Back in Black

2007-09-19T10:02:00.000-04:00

No not really but it sounds good. Been a while since posting I know. But I have been busy, working, and sick. My parents are in town this week staying with us. I love when my parents come to visit. We usually only seem them 2 weeks each year. 1 week we visit them and the other week they visit us. My mom can be silly like me so we have a great time. My dad always looks so lost and bored. He got a job two weeks out of high school and has worked ever since. He never misses work so when he is off, it is like he does not know what to do. So far we have gone shopping at the fabric/craft store, sang kareoke at the house here, watched some tv/movies together, and Friday we are going to the casino to gamble! Woo hoo!

Other than that I have been busy cleaning at the house and working. I had some issues with work a couple of weeks ago and almost quit, but after talking to the boss I am staying. I just basically told him I could not handle some of the stress that was coming at me. So now I am just going to work 3-4 days a week evening hours. Part of it is just from feeling sick and cruddy. Last week I hurt my back again (sigh) and was having a bunch of pain issues. After much speaking with the DR and run around at the pharmacy I have changed meds again. Now I am using a Duragesic patch. I put the first one on last night, and so now I am going to see how that works. So now I will need to schedule a couple of DR appointments to get everything set. Whew what a lot of blabbering huh? Well ok now I am getting to the knitting part and with pictures.

First up I got a new book:

I love it. I have only read about half because I want to make it last. Next is some finished socks:

These are my own pattern, yarn is STR medium weight in "Fire on the Mountain", size 3 knit picks circs, magic loop two at a time. Next up my current socks in progress:

I wanted some new black and gold socks for game day. Plus I wanted to do something interesting. The yarn is Dale of Norway. They are looking good, but are kind of a pain I think. I am not sure I like this stranded thing, but they will be awesome. Plus I am going to put in an afterthought heel so it gives a bullseye effect. Another project on the needles:

This is a baby sweater. I thought it looked cute on the yarn label so that is why I am making it. It is some acrylic yarn from JoAnns. Not sure what. Next up a very cool thing made for me by my husband:

Yep a homemade yarn meter. Seen in a catalog for $52, price for mine? Under $15 for the supplies!!!!!! Yes I am really excited about it. Now I just have to do some sanding and maybe varnish it, and it will be ready to use. Finally, a beautiful finished object:

My Adamas Shawl!!! I love it. It is so pretty. There are a couple of small mistakes, but I am satisfied overall. Now I am jonesing to start another shawl. Maybe if I get some of these other projects done. Besides knitting I have finished sewing a dress and have fabric to make some shirts for me. Ok well gonna go now. Hopefully next time I check in I will have some more finished objects.

ZZZZZhuhwhaZZZ

2007-09-07T22:17:00.000-04:00

Yikes work is fun and I sit all night answering phones and knitting or something else to keep me busy but still tiring. I really like my job. Not keen on the hours, but everything else is great. I love the evening people I work with. Other major non knitting or crafting thing is I have had all my meds changed around again. Sigh maybe this will be the mix that works. I am on Trazadone. Finally huh Martha? So far it does seem to be helping. In other med news. I was in the ER about three weeks ago for kidney stones and had to have an IV. Well the spot on my arm where they put it in just did not seem to be healing right, so they sent me yesterday to have it checked for clots. Nope none there yay! But, it might have an infection. If not taken care of, it could be bad. So now I have some crazy ass weird antiinflamatory antibiotics to take. So hopefully that will soon be healed.

Ok on to the knitting news. Remember the lizard scarf from a previous post? Umm not a scarf anymore. I was just not loving it. So now it is becoming socks. I should have them finished in a day or so. I am also still working on the lace wrap, and have started a baby sweater. I am such a sucker for baby knits. Also guess what arrived at my house today? This and this and this (jewels) to make this from this. Also one of these. I swear I will never get all of this finished. I guess I'll have to die trying! LOL later ya'll

Quick and Fast

2007-08-28T21:30:00.000-04:00

Ok gonna make this a quick one. I am tired. Work is going well. I am finally getting the hang of things. Saturday was sad. I got my first death call. I work for an answering service. We answer for Doctors, funeral homes, handyman services, really all kinds of stuff. On Sunday I talked to Edgar Snyder! Ok ya have to be from "Picksburg" to understand I think. It was pretty cool. Nice guy. Basically I delivered a message that he was late coming in from NY. So it can get interesting. Friday evenings are super busy. So much so that you want to pull your hair out. Sat and Sun are pretty slow in the evenings. Tonight was so-so. Not busy, but not dead either. So anyway here are some pics I have taken in the past week or so.

I took this picture after my last post. It was the middle of the night and I could not sleep. While I was heating up a hot pack in the microwave, I was watching the nightlight in the kitchen. I wondered how it would look if I took a pic, and here it is. Also last week was HOT! The humidity made it just icky here. We don't have AC here. Want to know how hot it was?

It was so hot that I had to eat my "melts in your mouth not in your hands" m&ms with a spoon cause the candy shell was "sweating". If you ate them with your fingers, they left sticky candy color on you.

My work project. All knit all the time. It is a lizard scarf, or will be when it is done. I did some work on it over the weekend at work. Tonight I just read when we were not busy. Christine by Steven King if your curious. And finally a cute picture.

Pandora licking a popsicle stick. She is so funny! Poor baby had to go to the vet on Monday. She had two overgrown teeth and overgrown toenails on her hind feet. So off to the vet to get the teeth and nails clipped. I still think it is so strange to watch her get her teeth clipped. It does not hurt her, she just does not like being held all trapped in a towel. Well that is all I got for now. I need to go veg in front of the TV for a while. Later!

ZZZZZZZZ

2007-08-23T00:45:00.000-04:00

All you need is love so sayith the song. Hmmmm? I would settle for some sleep right about now. I am totally sick of this crappy ass sleeping issue I keep having. Can not sleep at night. When I finally do fall asleep, I can barely drag my ass out of bed in the am. In fact if I have no where to be, I find myself sleeping an extra hour or two. Well sort of. The sleep (if you can call it that) is full of extremely intensely weird dreams. They are beyond description. Some are just insane, and some very terrifying. In fact I am starting to have night terrors which involve screaming and flailing about. Oh yeah my husband loves that. Oops sorry whining again, but it's late and I am tired but can not freakin sleep!

In knitting news not much going on. I have been working on my Adamas shawl at home. For my take to work project I am working on a scarf. It is pretty funky. It will be lizards joined head to tail and is being knit with STR in the fire on the mountain colorway. I will take pics soon to post. I know this may come as a shock to some, but I have NO socks on the needles! I really want to finish Adamas is why. I do have some planned for the needles though. I am going to do a Harry Potter triple. Three patterns inspired by the Harry Potter books. Speaking of which I have lost interest about a third of the way through the last book. So I still don't know how it ends. Right now the book of choice is The 13Th Warrior aka Eaters of the Dead by Michael Criton (sp) (it's late I can't spell). I have read the book about 3-4 times already. I really like it. Yep I like the movie too. In fact I think after I finish the book again I will watch the movie. Ooops rambling.

Work. Well not much to talk about there. I am learning and I like it. Not keen on the hours, but I think this is a good job for me right now. Well guess that is enough bore for now. If ya actually made it this far leave me a comment k. I have been out of the loop and been feeling all alone.

Tired

2007-08-16T12:46:00.000-04:00

Whew I am tired. Between work and Physical Therapy and house stuff I am tired. It's good though because I don't mind getting tired out when I have actually done stuff. So far the job is going well. I have 25 hours for this week. Yesterday I started answering phones, and I did ok. Tomorrow hopefully the whole system at work is up and I will be answering for 7 hours. That should give me a ton of training. Nothing much else going on. P.T. is ok. Does not really seem to be helping yet. I have been trying for the past week to get my craft stuff cleaned up and organized. It is a total disaster right now. See:

That pic is pretty messy and that was after I put a bunch of stuff away! Here is my yarn. It is in all the plastic bins.

This is the best shot I have of my sock yarn stash. I am way to lazy/tired to get it out and make it pretty for the pic.

So what do you think? Do I need more yarn? Hehe. I do use it see:

These are the newest finished socks. I wore them to work Tuesday, and they are super squishy and comfy. The yarn is Panda Cotton. I love this yarn it works up so nice and sqooshy! The pattern is one I found online and it is called "Fly away home". I did not continue the pattern on the top of the sock, because these socks are meant to be worn with tennis shoes for walking. As my usual, they were completed two at a time magice loop on size 1 knit picks circs.

One final pic for today. The cute shot. The girls were getting their cage cleaned and they decided to hide together. Funny thing is they are hiding in Nala's fish bowl. I swear they live by the "I can't see you so you can't see me" idea and "If I am inside something even though it may be clear or see through, I am hiding". I just thought this pic funny.

Wow Wow Wow!

2007-08-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

Yay today is a good day! I got a job! I am going to work for an answering service. Evenings, weekends, and Holidays, but that is ok. It's a start. I have not had a job since November of 2003 when I was fired on my birthday for being sick! Long story. Anyhoo I will be able to wear whatever to work, and can do other things (knit) while I am not busy answering calls.

Other good stuff! I recieved my sockapalooza socks. Kelly sent me an awesome package.

The socks are STR Purple Rain done in the Crosshatch lace pattern from MSKS. I love them! My favorite color is purple and they fit and look awesome. She also sent a go knit bag, a yummy smelling candle, sticky notes, a counting bracelet, and some absolutely beautiful yarn from the knittery! Holy sock spoiler Batman! Big thank you to Kelly for the awesome package!

Finally another pic of my socks from yesterday. This is a better pic.

More Socks

2007-08-07T12:46:00.000-04:00

These are the new finished socks. They are Jitterbug yarn, Monkey pattern with plain foot, magic loop two at a time size 1 knit picks circs.

This were a fun quick knit. It is quite warm right now so these will have to wait until fall to be worn. Nothing else much going on here. Gonna put in a application for a job so I can get out of this house. Blah!

Well have a great day!

So how's it going?

2007-08-03T12:59:00.000-04:00

Our house looks like it has been hit by a tornado. This weekend is a community yard sale, so we have been getting ready. We have a lot of stuff. My husband and I combined two households when we moved in together. I still can not believe the amount of stuff we four people here have. Yikes! So here is hoping the weather will be nice and the stuff will sell well. After all this yardsale clutter is out I am planning to move furniture and scrub all the carpets and stuff. Give the house a nice superclean. Plus I want to do it while the kids are still home so they can help me.

We have had 5 different DR. apointments this week. 3 were eye exams for the kids and my husband. Husband needs new expensive glasses, son needs none, and daughter is getting two pair of glasses and trying contacts. Sigh we were at her exam for 2 hours! Wednesday I went to the DR. and they drew pretty lines on me and gave me a bunch of shots in the back. It HURT very much. That is getting better now. Yesterday I had to go to the DR office to pick up my TENS unit. It is a handheld machine that I connect to me with electrode pads that give electronic pulses to my muscles. It worked real nice last night. So now I am hoping that my insurance will cover it, because it is $$$$.

Other than the above nothing much going on. I have been knitting. Here are a couple pics of completed socks:

The top pic is my sockapalooooza socks I knit. I just need to finish one more item and get the socks in the mail. You can see my giant cucumber (14") in the background. The second pair is the socks I knit for my dad. They just need put in the mail. They are posing on Harry Potter number 7. I was behind on my Harry reading, and so I had to read 5 and 6 which means I just started 7 a few days ago.

Here is a pic of the morning glories taking over my back porch:

Finally, a pic of a recent guest here. This is Cookie, and he belongs to my friend Cheryl. We got to babysit him while she was on vacation. The kids and I really loved having him.

He looks like he has evil red eyes, but he was a sweetie. So adorable I was thinking of getting a guiny pig. Well that's all for now.

Pow! Right in the Gut!

2007-07-26T13:43:00.001-04:00

Hi! Thanks so much for the comments on my last post.

Yesterday was an interesting day. It was my third anniversary (YAY!). I am really lucky to be married to the most awesome man in the whole world. Unfortunately life does not care what day it is. It likes to sneak up and wham right in the gut when you least expect it. And it did. So anyway blogging is definately moved to the bottom of the list. I will probably blog in spurts, but not regular. Right now personal matters take top priority. Since the day did not go as was planned my husband and I will be going out this weekend to celebrate our anniversary.

Right now for knitting I am working like crazy on my Sockapalooza 4 socks which need to be mailed next Tuesday! They are beautiful. Plus I am still working to finish the socks I promised my dad.

Well thanks again. Bye.

Back from Vacation!

2007-07-24T18:44:00.000-04:00

HI! Vacation was fun fun fun. I love going to visit my parents. We also went to visit my brother and sister in law and nephew. This is the first time I saw my nephew. He is 10 months old and such a cutie. I wish we lived closer. I would have that boy so spoiled though. We did a lot of fun stuff. Did too much fun stuff towards the end of vacation and got home really really tired.

So now I am trying to get back to the everyday routine again. I have a bunch of stuff I want/need to do around here. In fact I am thinking of giving up this here blog. I just don't know if it's worth it to keep it. Right now it just feels like another thing on my list to do. I don't know. Plus I may have finally found the right Doctor for me. I had an appointment today and I am really feeling like maybe things will change for the better. For that to happen though I am going to be starting PT and aqua therapy, plus getting some trigger point shots. I am thinking things are gonna get a bit busy with that and the fact that I have to get two teens ready for school. Oh Well. I will finish up with a family reunion photo. Last time we were all together was December 2005!

Gonna Go Back In Time

2007-07-15T11:37:00.000-04:00

A High School Meme, borrowed from Heather.

1. Who was your best friend? Michelle, Crystal, Heather, Melissa, Jody, Kristina, and Barb.

2. What sports did you play? Haha me sports? Haha

3. What kind of car did you drive? I did'nt. I did not get my license until after I graduated.

4. It’s Friday night, where were you? Friends house.

5. Were you a party animal? Nope.

6. Were you considered a flirt? No.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? After it stopped being mandatory, no.

8. Were you a nerd? People thought I was, but they were way wrong.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No.

10. Can you sing the fight song? Uumm it involves pounding a drum and chanting. (see #12)

11. Who was your favorite teacher? Mrs. Brady

12. School mascot? Indian Warrior

13. Did you go to Prom? Yep.

14. If you could go back and do it over, would you? I doubt it.

15. What do you remember most about graduation? It was on the football field and my heels kept sinking in the ground.

16. Where were you on senior skip day? Morain State Park.

17. Did you have a job your senior year? No.

18. Where did you go most often for lunch? The cafeteria. Our school was in the middle of nowhere. Did not have anyplace to go.

19. Have you gained weight since then? Yeah.

20. What did you do after graduation? Looked for a job.

21. Who was your Senior prom date? myself. No date :( .

22. Are you going / did you go to your 10 year reunion? I don't think so.

23. Who was your home room teacher? I really can't remember.

24. Who will repost this after you? I have seen this so many places probably no one.

Hehe this was a fun meme. My school was in the middle of BFE. Seriously other schools joked about deer on the football field and the really funny thing is my school bordered a state gamelands so there really were deer on the field at times. The best thing about the school being in the middle of nowhere, is the views out the windows were beautiful. You could actually watch the sun rising over the lake and little animals frolicing around. The one thing I kinda wonder about is our mascot was an Indian Warrior and with todays political correctness (ugh) did they have to change the mascot? Hmmm?

ETA: Because I was curious, I went on a search and yep they are still the warriors.

Finished Object and Cute Ratties

2007-07-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of my daughters socks I finished. She took the picture.

The pattern is from Favorite Socks. It is the embossed leaves pattern. They were knit two at a time magic loop top down size 1 knit picks circ. The yarn is Tofutsies. I really like this yarn. It works up real nice. I have a pair I made for me and they come out of the washer really nice. They make nice cool comfy socks for summer. As for other knitting, I am just working on my Dad's socks. We will be leaving Monday morning for vacation to visit my parents. I am planning the knitting I am going to take because we will be driving. This means 12-13 hours each way! Yay lots of knitting time.

The next pictures are some cute pics of our rats. My daughter and son were playing with the rats and got them to do some really cute stuff. While we are on vacation, Nala is going to stay with Heather and be taken care of. Pandora will be traveling with us. She was at the vet on Monday and we found she has a chronic condition. The keeps getting abcesses on her face from her molars. Don't know why. It is not common in rats, just more common in cats and rabbits. Because of this condition Pandora needs to take antibiotics every morning and evening. Plus if the abcesses break open, we have stuff to treat them. She should do well even with this condition. The big thing to watch for is an abcess that makes her teeth hurt so much she does not want to eat. So the little fuzzy gets to travel with us. Hope you enjoy the pics!

2007-07-09T14:42:00.000-04:00

Stitch-n-Pitch!

Yesterday was the stitch-n-pitch game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh PA home of the Pirates. Some words to sum up the day: humid hot, sweaty, fun, loud, freebies, yarn, needles, expensive food and drink. I went to the park with my husband, my kids, and three knitting friends, Heather, Betsy, and Cheryl. We had fun, but man oh man was it hot! Are seats were great seats, close to the field, but we ended up moving up to get some shade. There was a huge difference in temps. A lot of people were moving up to the shade. I am happy to report the Pirates won the game! Woo Hoo! We all got freebie bags for attending the event. The bags had needles, yarn, guage markers, patterns, and a book. After getting home I bargained with my daughter and we split up all the yarn we brought home. My son kept a few of the items, and my husband kept none. So here ya go, some pics of the day taken by my husband.

Free Smiley Cookies from Eat-n-Park! Look it's a pirate! I love smiley cookies.

Cheryl trying to stay cool before we went in the park.

The view of PNC Park as you walk over the bridge to get there.

J, SJ, Jenn, and MWP were at the game.

Me and the kids watching the game. Niether my daughter nor I knew our picture was being taken. I find it weird funny scary that her and I have almost the same strange look on our faces. People claim she is my clone. Hmmmm?

Me being silly behind Betsy and Heather!

Couple pics of the game.

And now some knitting picks!

Its all about the socks. The top pic is my husbands finished socks. They were made with Socks That Rock lightweight colorway "in the navy". The were knit two at a time magic loop. The pattern is from More Sensational Knitted Socks.
The next pic is all the socks in progress. The green are Embossed Leaves for my daughter out of Tofutsies, the bright pink/red are mine out of Jitterbug, and finally a pair for my dad out of Wildfiber. I really like to knit socks. Sometimes I do knit other stuff though see:

This is the Mr Dangly I made to take to my nephew. I loved this pattern. So cute! Ok pretty long post for now. Tomorrow if I feel like it, I will blog about my rat Pandora's vet visit today and progress on the socks.

2007-07-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

My blanket:

This is a picture of my blanket. Some people might think "what the", but I don't care. This blanket was a kit I bought a few years ago and put together. Nothing fancy or expensive, just a fleece blanket. This blanket sits on the back of the couch behind me for whenever I need it. Usually I just use it if I get chilled. It is my favorite. Over time it has become a bit more the more worn and used it gets. It is stability (always on the couch) warmth (from whatever makes me cold) soft (for when I need comfort). This blanket has become the sick and sad blanket to. Anytime I don't feel well I cover up with my blanket. The blanket has gone to the ER several times with me when I've had kidney stones. It is always cold in the ER. The blanket went to the ER with my son when he was dehydrated. The kids know this is my blanket and they use it every chance they can when I am not using it. So needless to say this blanket is kind of important to me. Some of you may look and say what is up with the bottom? It looks like there is a piece missing? You are right. That piece was removed this morning. I needed something warm soft and very special. I needed it for my rat Ophelia. Ophelia had been looking like she did not feel well the past few days. This morning I was holding her in my lap and with my daughters help given Ophelia some medicine to make her better. Well I guess Ophelia was sicker than we knew. Ophelia died this morning right in my lap while I was holding her. The piece of blanket was taken off for her. To some people she may have been just a rat, but to us she was one of our little furbabies. I could not just put her in any old fabric scrap. I gave her a piece of my blanket. So now my blanket looks like my heart, with a piece missing. We all loved Ophelia and will miss her so much. Here is the last picture of her I have. It was taken last night as she sat on my blanket looking out the window.

as time marches on by

2007-07-02T18:41:00.000-04:00

OK first off I am in search of a time stopper. I know it really don't exist. I just wish time would slow down or I had more to show for the time I have spent. I am really just feeling so far behind this summer. I don't think I am getting anything done. I know I am but well it just seems like time is moving a whole lot faster than me. Since this is a knitting blog, I have been working on and finishing knits! No pictures though:( . I finished my husbands socks with just a tee tiny bit of yarn left. They were knit out of Socks That Rock and yes he loves them. As soon as they came off the needles, he tried them on and wore them to bed that night! And you know it's gonna be a good day when in the cool morning air 4 out of 4 members of the family have on warm toasty hand knit wool socks! Speaking of cool mornings, I am loving this weather we are having in SW PA! Mid 70's during the day and low 50's at night. Very little humidity. This is absolutely my ideal weather. I love it. OK, back to knitting. I have finally quit procrastinating and finished my part of the round robin projects. So absolutely cute. In fact I am so enamored of the Mr. Dangly toy that I am making one as a gift for my nephew. In two weeks we will be in GA! We are staying with my parents and will be visiting my brother, sis-n-law, and my nephew who I have not seen in person yet. Oh yeah I am excited. So finally in knitting news I am working on a Mr. Dangly (pictures to follow in the next few days) and some embossed leaves socks for my daughter. I also have a couple of dishcloths as my take along knitting. Uh-oh now I have to start thinking about what knitting to pack for the trip to the family! We are driving. 13 hours. Makes me weary just typing that. So anyway I do have some pics to show you. Just some stuff that I have been working on and such.

The ratties! Nala is not adjusting as quick as we would like. She is not fond of our rats at all. She has scrapped with our bigger rat Ophelia. Nala is in a cage on top of Pandora and Ophelia's cage. I think I am going to have to move her away from them for a bit. Nala is still very hesitant about being petted. Plus she really really likes to chew plastic. She has chewed the litter pan and tried to chew her food bowl. My husband has a cute pic of her on his phone. She likes to bury herself in the bedding in her fish bowl. Very cute. The next pic is of our little "sickie" rat Pandora. She is doing so so much better. She really likes the medicine she has to take so that is good. She is also eating hard food again. She just needs to grow the fur back on her side and gain some more weight. Our other rat Ophelia is doing good. She is absolutely back to her pre-surgery self. She is a big fatty ratty! Plus she tries to intimidate Nala by puffing up her fur and that is really funny.

The morning glory's are trying to take over the back porch. I am planning another pic in about a week because I swear they grow 3-4 inches a day! I have run cotton yarn all up and down from the lattice to the fence behind the morning glory's. I am "training" them to grow up and all over the lattice. I so love my morning glory's. I brought seeds from the plants we had at our old house and planted them last year. Then I collected those seeds and plus they just come back each year. Next year I plan to landscape around the front porch and plant morning glory's there.

My itty bitty garden. It is growing very well as you can see. Plus a pic of a guest in the garden. We saw him out there last night. Well that is all I have for now. I must go knit! Oh yeah and look for the time thingie to slow it down for a little while.

Current WIP and a new family member

2007-06-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

Ok I will start with the new family member first cause some of you may be thinking? What? Did we miss something? Nope. I belong to a freecycle group, and someone was looking for a good home for their pet rat. This lady had become pregnant and was going to school. She said she just did not have time to spend with her rat like before. So I emailed and called, and now her pet rat Nala is here living with us! She is a beautiful rat see:

She is an albino hence the pink eyes. Her fur is very soft and silky. She is still quite nervous around us. She just arrived Friday night. She is finally letting me pet her a bit and is taking treats. Her biggest upset is her cage. She came in an aquarium. She had a glass water bottle that kept leaking into her bedding. Plus she likes to chew plastic which is why she had the glass bottle. Well I moved her into a cage and hooked up a plastic water bottle on the outside so only the spout is in the cage. She is drinking water and now not getting it all through the cage. I used some of her bedding and ours combined for the cage floor. Plus I put her "fishbowl" in the cage for her. She has a clear bowl that looks like a fishbowl. She likes to get in there and sleep. She is just the sweetest little rat. Our rats were very interested in her in fact so interested I had to move Nala's cage away from theirs so they would leave her alone. I let them have together time last night, and Ophelia our bigger rat was trying to show that she was the boss and was trying to intimidate Nala. So they are apart from one another. I will give them a bit of time each day together to see if they can get along and live together. If not, Nala can stay in her cage while Pandora and Ophelia stay in theirs.

Ok I know knitting blog where are the knitting pics right? Here they are:

From the top, the round robin projects I have to work on today, my daughter's socks, and my husband's socks. So yes I have been knitting. It is nice a quiet around here. My kids went to stay with their dad (my ex) for the weekend. They left yesterday and will be home tomorrow night. My husband has drill this weekend, so he is away during the day. He should be home around 5-6 today. I am hoping he feels like going to dinner. Yesterday he was very tired so we hung out at home. Funny cause while the kids were gone we played the Wii and watched cartoons. Really wild and crazy huh? Well the washer and dryer stopped, I gotta go do laundry. Check out the post before this one to see the awesome stuff my monkey pal sent me. I wrote the post on Friday, but for some reason it did not get published until today. Gnomes!

Wow look what I got!

2007-06-22T15:17:00.000-04:00

This is the package I recieved from my monkey pal. Really bright monkey socks, sock blockers, stitch markers, yarn, and a monkey! Way cool. I've actually been getting quite a lot of packages this week. I recieved some ladybug nightlights I ordered months ago, my STR June kit (OMG BEAUTIFUL!), a necklace, and a few other things I don't remember. Just waiting on one more package to arrive here. That would be a package of legos for my husband. I just love packages. Speaking of packages, I have one that needs to be delivered soon. Plus I have to finish two projects and deliver them. Yay for packages!

I feel so behind.

2007-06-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

I really feel like I am behind on everything. It seems like time just keeps flying by along with deadlines I made for some stuff around here. Nothing important, just annoying. Like my blog. I feel like I have not posted in forever. So anyway today a long post with lots of pictures if blogger will allow!

This is Pandora in the kitchen sink. We were trying to get her to soak her tail because it became very dry and icky while she has been sick. Poor Pandora, this weekend we noticed that she had a lump on her face between her eyes, and also looked like she bit her lip. We decided to take her to the vet today just for a check up and to see what was up with the lump. First the vet weighed her and she lost a lot of weight. She is really just skin and bones. We have been feeding her baby food because she could not seem to eat. Well the vet said the lump was probably a sinus infection. She took a quick peak at her teeth and said they were a little long and crooked from not eating. Rats teeth grow really really fast. The vet said she would have to clip the teeth. Yep clip them! The vet wrapped Pandora in a towel and held her under one arm while clipping Pandora's teeth. That was when the vet saw the real reason for the lump and the not eating and stuff. Pandora has an abscessed tooth! Eeewww poor baby was probably hurting. We now have a new antibiotic to give her. Thing is the vet said this will take weeks to heal! So for now new meds and canned doggie food to eat. Poor poor baby. At least she likes eating dog food!

New sockies for me! Made with tofutsies. Size 1 magic loop two at a time toe up. Baby cable rib from SKS. I do not like toe up for one reason. I can not get a good cast off that is stretchy! Aarrgghh. Anyway so how do I like the tofutsies?

What's that I see in the living room stash basket (not the many other stash holders!)? Yeah two more balls of tofutsies! One for my daughter and one for me. I really liked this yarn. And if I continue to make anklets, I will have enough for maybe 5-6 pairs from 3 balls!

One of my current WIP. Fingerless mittens promised to some one long ago. Sorry they are so late. :( I also have a pair of Socks that Rock socks on the needles for my hubby. He deserves the socks. You will understand why later in the post.

Yay! I received my round robin project*! It is a nautie (Picture taking with movie I borrowed from my sis in law for scale of size). Plus I received the parts of Mr. Dangly to work on. So now I have to finish Kate! Cheryl we should get together later this week so I can give you Kate and Mr. Dangly! Thanks everyone (Stick, Cheryl, Heather, Yvonne, and Dani) who worked on my nautie now named Neo Squidgim Nauteloid!

My husbands desk. Light to see with check. Pencil holder with pencils check. Printer to print important stuff check. Laptop to process important stuff check. Lego guys on lego horses check! Hehe I thought this was a funny picture because of the lego guys sitting on the laptop.

So what exciting things should you do on your husbands day off with the kids?

Why build weapons of course! The first two pics are of the marshmallow guns my husband made and painted for us. These were really simple. PVC pipe and fittings. A little spraypaint and your ready. Yes the do work. Really really well. There were marshmallows on the chair the window sill in the kitchen on top of the cabinets in the laundry room under the desk and everywhere.

The bottom pic is my husbands swoodle! A swim noodle sword! Ok so maybe I would not be behind if I did something other than make homemade marshmallow guns and stuff. Whew I said this was gonna be long and full of pictures!

* I could not find the links for the round robin projects. When I do I will post them in case anyone wants to make their own!

Here I am!

2007-06-14T13:36:00.000-04:00

Nope I did'nt run away or get lost. We have just had a very very hectic past few days and week. Today is the first day things are back to "normal". In my last post I talked about our pet rat Pandora and how sick she was. On Sunday my husband and I had just about given up on her. She would not eat, drink, take meds, or anything. We were at a loss as to what to do. She had been kept in a smaller cage by herself away from her sister because she was so sick. Well we finally decided to just put her in with her sister to see if that would help. All day Sunday no progress. She just acted all goofy. Her sister kept holding her down and grooming her as she was not taking care of her self. We had to go away Monday overnight. When we came home Tuesday evening, she was looking much better, and she was eating and drinking! We are so happy. And today she started to drink from the water bottle in the cage. Tuesday and Wednesday she was only drinking water from a saucer. She is still very very weak. We are continueing her meds and feeding her baby food. We are just so happy for her health returning. We think putting her back with her sister was a good idea. It seems her sister was helping take care of her by grooming her lots and lots.

Like I said we went away Monday and returned Tuesday evening. We took an overnight trip to see some big water:

Yep we took the kids for their first visit to Niagra Falls. They liked it. We walked over and saw the horseshoe falls and the bridal veil falls over on Goat island. Then we checked out some shops in the area. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Took the kids swimming at the hotel. Walked down to the American falls at night to see them all lit up. On Tuesday we went to breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Next we went and got in line to ride Maid of the Mist. I think the kids really enjoyed that. We then walked around taking more pics, visited a few more shops and then headed home. Very nice little overnight trip!

You would think that yesterday (Wednesday) would have been a nice day to relax from the long driving of the days previous. Nope yesterday we did this:

We celebrated my babies 13th birthday! Yikes that makes me old! It was not too bad. Just a bit of running around in the am to get supplies and stuff. My daughter invited 4 friends over. Only 3 came, but one has two sisters, so we had 6 giggly girls here for about 3 hours. Now you can see why I am just getting back to normal today. Plus Tuesday after the trip home my body decided to give up. Everything was swollen. My feet and ankles were huge! Plus my back just decided I was to remain in an upright postion. I took a shower, and had to have my husband dry my legs and feet because I just could not reach them. I am feeling much better today.

And yes there has been knitting here. First off finished monkeys and second tofutsies growing more each day.

The monkeys are for my monkey pal sock swap. I just have one more small item to sew for her and I can get the package in the mail.

The tofutsies are growing from the toe up with a gusset and heel flap. This is a new to me heel so I am anxious to see how it turns out.

Last but not least a picture of some shopping I did on Saturday. We had a crazy shopping day which means we get a little crazy spending a lot of money. Usually we have crazy lego days. This time everyone got some stuff. (Oh by the way big THANKS to my husband who works so hard that we can have crazy shopping days once in a while!). My husband got some legos of course. He opened one on Saturday, but is saving the others for Fathers Day as they are his gifts. My son got a new Bionacle (lego), my daughter got a new (horribly ugly) Bratz doll, and this is what I got:

At Knit Wits I bought a skein of linen yarn not shown in the pic and two balls of Wick by Knit one Crochet Too. I really want to try some socks with the wick, but it is heavier weight than I normally use for socks. It may be some sport or hiking socks. Not that I hike! Lastly we stopped at a Antiques store and I found the stitch markers and the buttons. The stitch markers were never opened and the price marked is $0.29. The buttons came from Kaufmans in downtown Pittsbugh. I have no idea the price or how old they could be. They were just pretty so I bought them. Well that is enough for today. I have a few things to do to get back on schedule. Later!

Long time no blog

2007-06-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

I did'nt run away, I'm still here and still knitting. The past few days have just been kinda hectic and stuff. First off my pet rat Pandora had surgery last Thursday. Well Saturday she became very very sick. We took her to the vet Monday and she went again today. She has a kidney/bladder/urinary tract infection and a respiratory issue. Monday they had to give her fluids and we were to continue with antibiotics. Well she was doing better, and then yesterday she decided not to take any water or food. So back to the vet today. She got more fluids today. Plus they sent us home with the stuff so we can give her fluids at home. And we are to still give the antibiotics and benadryl. The way we have to give the fluids is by injecting liquid from an iv bag into the scruff on the back of her neck. I think I can do it. It will be easier than going to the vet every day. We just need her to not be dehydrated. She needs to flush her system. Tomorrow will be the first time I give her the fluids. I practiced on a towel at the vet today. Sigh I just hope she gets better.

Other than that, my husband is back home. YAY!!! The kids have been pretty good. I had another med change. Aarrgghh! I am sleeping better, but can not wake up well in the am. I am like a zombie and tired. Plus I have been having major pain issues. Blah. Like I said I have been knitting though. I finished my clapotis, and have the heels turned on my monkey socks. Today was yard work day. My daughter took a few pics of the garden and the morning glorys growing out back of our house. Here are those pics, plus my knitting.

Feeling hot hot hot

2007-05-31T16:23:00.000-04:00

It's hot. We don't have AC. I really need to get AC. The fans just are not cutting it. I have been knitting though. Wanna see?:

These would be my monkey socks for the monkey sock swap. I had some issues with my monkey socks. This is the third yarn I have used. I like them so far. I am just starting the heel flaps. The yarn is from Brooks Farms. It is a 60 wool 20 silk 20 viscose blend. Very nice but a bit splitty. As you can see I am doing two at a time magic loop on size 1 knit picks cirs. As for the clapotis, no I have not given up on the love. I just need to have the other skein of yarn wound, and have not got to it yet. Maybe tonight. My daughter and I will be the only ones home and so far our plans are to go out to dinner, color our hair, and make a new canopy for my swing. Should be a great time. My son is on a school field trip and will not be home until 11:30 or so. They are spending the day in Pittsburgh. They will be riding the incline, visiting a learning center, The Carnegie Science Center, Touring PNC Park and finally ending the night watching a Pirates game. Is it just me, or does that seem like a lot for a field trip? Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids. Woo Hoo now I can spend all day every day with them. In other news our second pet rat had her surgery today for tumor removal. She did great. She is already home and resting. I think she is a bit groggy still, but other than that looks great.

more progress

2007-05-29T20:35:00.000-04:00

I seem to have an obsession with the clapotis:

I have been working on this and only this for the past couple of days. I really really like how it is coming out. I can not wait to be finished. In order to finish it, I had to order another skein of yarn. Well it arrived today with some others to keep it company on the journey:

From the top: Socks That Rock lightweight colorway "In the Navy" which will become socks for my husband. Socks That Rock mediumwieght colorway "Cracked Canyon" for the clapotis. Silkie Socks That Rock colorway "Midsummers Night" to be as yet undetermined. Finally, Socks That Rock lightweight colorway "Chapman Springs" to be socks for me! I love yarn shipments! Well that is all I have for today. I need to keep working on clapotis.

Progress

2007-05-27T14:17:00.001-04:00

I am making progress on some of my projects. I have been spending a lot of time knitting because the kids have been pretty good about helping around the house. First up is secret project number 1. The recipient (my mom) knows about this so I can show it.

This is a wee little hedgehog. He is posing on one of our many bookshelves. Isn't he cute? I know my mom will love him. I swear this pattern is super easy and flies right off the needles. Making it with large needles or small needles did not seem to matter. His just needs his stuffing hole sewed shut, a bit of finishing on his face, and then packed in a box ready for his journey to GA.

This is a current shot on the progress of my monkey socks for the monkey sock swap. I have tried three yarns and two needle sizes so far. I think these are going to work out. I hope so because I have to mail them by June 15Th.

Finally, my clapotis. I could not wait and had to start this last night. So far it is going very well. I can not wait to finish this project. Well that's all folks. Have a wonderful Memorial Day. Make sure to remember all those that are lost to us and those who are fighting so hard for our freedom. Bye!

PLEASE TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS BLOG I NEED HELP. WE RECENTLY BUILT A BOX TO GO AROUND OUR OUTDOOR SWING. WE FILLED IT UP WITH PEA GRAVEL TO MAKE IT NICE LOOKING. OUR NEIGHBORHOOD STRAY CATS ARE USING IT AS A LITTER PAN. DOES ANYONE HAVE A SOLUTION TO KEEP THE CATS OUT. I AM AT MY WITS END.

So sweet to have little feet

2007-05-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

Another finished object!:

These are my newest socks. Anklets made with one skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy. It is 96% cotton and 4% elite in a 200 yard skein. I was really hoping to get a pair out of one skein, and I did with just a tiny little bit left over. These were made on size 2 knit picks circs magic loop 2 at a time from the toe up. I just made up the pattern as I went along. I used 56 sts around, but think for the next pair I could go down to maybe 52. This yarn was very nice to knit with and the socks are comfy. This is the first pair of my summer socks. Next up is going to be a pair made with Tofutsies. Then after that some bamboo. I am trying some different yarns to see which I like as summer socks. Before I can begin more socks though I have some secret knitting to do. 2 projects that should not take to long.

Thanks to Betsy who came over and hung out yesterday. We had a great time. We knitted, we ate, and we Wiied! Now Betsy knows how addicting Wii can be. Nothing much going on today. I have to put my foot down with the kids as they are not listening very well. Plus I received a call from the school today about my son. AArrgghh there is less than two weeks left of school. Why oh why can't he be good? Now I am off to take a sun bath. I know it is not good for the skin, but my body is achey and the sun feels soooooooo nice. Maybe I just need to buy a heat lamp who knows!

Here froggie froggie

2007-05-21T20:21:00.000-04:00

Ok so I was going to post a pic of the socks I started out of the yarn I was supposed to resist. The socks looked really good, but alas I frogged them. They just were not fitting like I had hoped nor were they very flattering on my fat legs. So now the yarn is back in a cake. I was thinking about what socks I might like to try instead, but I have a better idea. The yarn is STR in cracked canyon color. I have had quite a few comments about how the yarn is "just your colors". So I decided since the colors look so nice on me I should not have them on my feet, but up around my neck. So I did what any normal knitter would do. I ordered another skein and am going to make a clapotis. Hehe my friend Betsy started clapotis and my friend Yvonne just finished one and they both look awesome so now I am going to copy them. I might of sorta kinda ordered a couple other skeins of yarn while I was on the blue moon sight. Sigh I must stay away from the internet late at night when I am tired and weak holding a coupon for 10% off! So now I am waiting for the yarn to arrive. Currently I am still knitting on my adamas shawl. I have about 85 rows done now. It is going to be beautiful. I am also knitting some monkey socks for my monkey pal knit along. Finally I can't stay away from Blue Moon yarns so I am going to make a sweet treat for my feet! I have some sock candy I wound up to start a pair of anklets. Each skein has about 200 yards or so and I have two different colors. I am going to see if I can get a pair from each since I have small feet. I think these will be perfect summer socks.

In other news I think I am finally calming down. My husband left Friday for two weeks. I stress out sooooo much while he is gone. Plus the kids were off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today. My kids always tell me I am really mean when my husband (their stepdad) goes away and ask why. I think it is a combo of stress and the fact they try and see how much they can get away with while he is gone. I am looking forward to them going to school tomorrow. I can relax for a bit not worrying about them. Plus one is 12 and the other is 14, so they are being typical teens. I swear my son's friend WHO LIVES ACROSS THE STREET called here 20 times this weekend. Plus they were outside hanging out together and talking on the computer! Holy cow! My daughter started calling his friend his brother because they were together or talking so much. So anyway it will be nice to be alone for a while. I am very lucky though because so far I have been able to talk to my husband on the phone every day and text him. I don't know how families with soldiers overseas handle it. Ok before this gets long and drawn out meaning really boring here is the only pic I took today:

Ophelia looking much better with her fur growing back.

Sorry for the lack of links, but I am just too tired (lazy) to do them today.

Nothing to see here

2007-05-20T00:46:00.000-04:00

It is either too late or too early. I just know I am tired. This is the second night my husband is away. He will be gone for two weeks. It makes me crazy. I don't know what I would do if he had to go away longer. So anyway I am tired and trying to pass the time surfing the web. I think I need to go to bed though. Tomorrow I will have pictures of the socks make from the yarn I was supposed to be resisting. Sigh so much for self control. Have a good night all.

Nothing!

2007-05-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

That is what I am doing today. Or rather what most people might call nothing. I have been knitting, eating seriously bad for me food, watching 80's music videos on TV, talking on the phone, and reading tabloid magazines! Aahh yes this is the life. But alas now I must "work" as I have been tagged by stephieface. Here goes:

The rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts/ Habits:

1. I agree with stephieface. 80's music is my favorite.

2. I like to wash, dry, and fold laundry.

3. I like to see just how much money I can save by bargain shopping. (see bottom of this post)

4. I will not pay full price for food, clothing, or hygiene items. I have to have a coupon, or they must be on sale. Though I see nothing wrong with paying full price for yarn. Priorities people.

5. I have fybromyaligia and chronic back pain. I am soooooooooo sick of being sick.

6. Before knitting I had no friends. I visited family, buy no friends. Never talked online with anyone or called anyone. I just stayed in my house and was miserable.

7. I am a TV addict. I have it on all the time during the day when no one is home. I am either watching it, or listening to it while I clean and etc.

8. (I stole this one from stephieface) The song my husband and I chose as "our song" is In Your Eyes by Peter Gabrielle. Yes we listened to the lyrics.

OK now I am going to tag: Heather, Cheryl, Yvonne, Natasha, Lucy, Jenn, SJ, and You! If you've already been tagged oops sorry.

Ok so now on to the bargain savings part of my post. Yesterday I went to pick up my son's script at Wal-Mart. While I was waiting I did a bit of shopping. I needed to find some shorts for my daughter for playing outside this summer. Have you seen what is in the girls department? !!!!!! They have lots of what we refer to as "hoohoohuggers". I swear why can they not make clothes for girls who are not allowed to dress like Hoochies? Recently we went bra shopping and could not find but 1-2 bras in the GIRLS dep. that did not have padding! It makes me crazy because my husband and I are apparently the only strict parents around. We refuse to let her dress like a pop tart. I have had people tell me "well that is what all the girls are wearing". Uuumm ok but not my girl. Holy Crap I already keep saying I'm gonna buy her a chastity belt. Kids are growing up way to fast today. But OK back to the point. I decided to look in the boys dep. to see what they had to offer. I ended up buying boys shorts for my daughter and my son. They are cotton and come to the knee. Perfect for running around outside. While in the boys dep. I saw they had a lot of clothes on clearance. Well check it out this is what I came home with:

For my daughter 3 long sleeve casual shirts (girl dep.), 4 t-shirts, 4 play shorts, and a skirt.
For my son 3 long sleeve t-shirts, 6 short sleeve t-shirts, and 2 pair of shorts.
The total: $71.04!!! That is average $3.09 per item! I ran in to my neighbor at the store and we were talking about kid clothes. She was telling me you can get good name brand clothes on Ebay. She was saying I should check it out and she did not know what names my daughter was into. Names!!! Hahahahaaha! I will not pay stupid prices nor go out of my way and expend extra effort just to buy my kids "names". 1 I don't buy them for me, 2 they outgrow every thing so fast, they don't understand "take care of your clothes", and 4 I have more fun stuff to spend money on like Vacations. When my kids whine and cry because they don't have fancy pants name brand clothes I will tell them "fine then you stay home and not go on our 3-4 mini-vacations we have planned". Whew OK I am rambling.

To finish my long drawn out (maybe boring) post I leave you with a pic of some very bad yarn.

This is socks that rock medium weight in cracked canyon colorway. Why is it bad? Because it keeps tempting me to cast on and start a new project. So far I have resisted and have worked on my lace shawl, but I think I am getting weak! OK next post I will talk about "is 1% really worth an extra $4?". Bye!!

Just everyday kind of stuff

2007-05-15T09:29:00.000-04:00

That is what I have been doing. Cleaning the house (dusting straightening and vacuuming), yard work, etc. The kids were at their dads for the weekend so it was pretty quiet around here. Saturday my husband and I were building some stuff to landscape the yard. Sigh! We just are not carpenters, and do not work well together. We got the things done, but it was tense a few times. After that we decided to go out to dinner and do some shopping, and that was nice. Yesterday was bargain day here. I went grocery shopping and saved $40 by using coupons and buying sale items! Plus I turned in a survey to the place where we bought the van, and for doing so we got a free tank of gas. The van has a 20 gallon tank and when I took it up there was a gallon in it! Woo Hoo almost $60 in free gas. Today I have to gas up the hubby's car. I have an 80 cent discount where we grocery shop so that will be nice. My pet rat Ophelia has a vet appointment today. She is getting her stitches removed and a check up and a lice treatment. When I took Pandora Friday the vet told me she had lice. Of course I freaked out. She said it is not transferred to humans, only between animals. We are guessing Ophelia brought it home from when she was at the vet for surgery. Speaking of surgery, Pandora goes for her surgery on the 31st. Hopefully these will be the last vet visits for a long time. Other than that this week will be spent getting family members ready for trips. My daughter has an overnight field trip for school she needs packed tonight for. Plus my husband's schedule was changed. Aarrgghh the military can make you crazy sometimes. He was supposed to leave at the end of May for a month of schooling, but now they say no school, and oh yeah you are going to AT (annual training) which means he is leaving Friday for two weeks. So I will be helping him pack and get ready to go. Just crazy.

In knitting news I am working on my shawl (Adamas pattern) shown in my last post. I am trying really hard not to start any new projects and get some finished. I have a pair of socks I really really want to start, but so far I have resisted. I did start a pair of socks that are for an online swap. They are monkey socks and so far they are going great. See:

Well not much else going on I just gotta get moving on a few errands today. Bye!

Done, Done again!

2007-05-11T09:34:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo I am just whipping out the finished objects around here. This is the best benefit of being a homemaker. Yesterday's "work" consisted of taking my husbands car to the garage and dusting and vacuuming. Going to the garage is not the most exciting, but I always wait while the work is being done. Saves having to drop of the car with my husband and going back to pick it up. Yesterday was an oil change and a state inspection. Insert weird interesting fact about me here: I have a PA state inspection license! Yep, but I can not use it because I don't work in a garage. So the work was to take about an hour. Yippy an hour of knitting. Plus I finally put some music on my phone so I was listening to music and knitting. Now if they could only get some comfy chairs in there! The rest of the day was spent dusting and vacuuming. No big deal, but it is HOT. I think it jumped right into summer a bit to soon. We don't have AC which is a point of contention around here but anyway. So I would clean about 15-20 minutes and then sit and knit for 15-20 minutes. Love this work at home thing! Ok so on to the finished objects!

Simple stockinette stitch ankle socks modeled by my daughter. They are a tiny bit big for her because she has such tiny skinny legs. The yarn is Autumn House Farms sock yarn in Hattie's Zinnias colorway. They were knit two at a time magic loop on size 0 knit picks circs. Love the colors in these. Now for more socks.

More socks in Autumn House Farms yarns. This is the heavyweight sock yarn in Mountain Lilac colorway. They were knit two at a time magic loop size 2 knit picks circs. The pattern I made up. They were knit from the cuff down with a short row heel and toe in garter stitch. The sock pattern is from More Sensational Knit Socks. I continued the pattern all over the sock. These are meant to be squishy comfy house socks, and they are. Here is another pic showing the bottom of the sock and its pattering.

I don't think there will be many more quickly finished objects around here as this is my current WIP:

A lace shawl! There are 140 rows, and I have 44 done. Long way to go. Oh and remember I mentioned the heat around here at the beginning of the post? This is how you make sure your pets don't get overheated:

Buy them their very own personal fan! Yeah we really love our little fur balls!

Just so Tired.

2007-05-08T16:36:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it was the trip away from home, or my med changes. I have been sooooo tired. Yesterday I took a 3 hour nap. Today I slept in 4 hours. Sigh and I am still tired. I hope this passes soon. So have not been getting much done because of the tired. Today I did just a couple of things, and then layed on the couch watching a movie (The Doors) and knitting. Here is what I am working on:

It is a pair of ankle socks made with Autumn House Farms sock yarn in Hattie's Zinnias colorway. I love the colors. They are so bright and pretty. My other socks in progress are also Autumn House Farms. They are heavy weight. Ok now on to Maryland Sheep and Wool. I had such a wonderful time. I left Friday and came home on Sunday. I went with a group of friends. Heather, Betsy, Leslie, Cheryl, and Yvonne. Unfortunately Cheryl had to go home early because of some health problems. We missed you Cheryl. I had such a good time with these ladies. Ok now on to the pics of the purchases:

First up from the Fold my Socks That Rock purchases. Let me tell you we got there at 8:20 on Saturday, and the line was already formed. I think we were maybe 20 or 25 in line! Just to get in and look at the yarn! Anyway Saturday I bought two skeins of Socks that Rock in medium weight. Fire on the Mountain and Cracked Canyon. Fire was a skien I had admired from online and just fell in love with in person. Cracked Canyon's colors were just so lovely I had to buy it. I stopped back at the Fold on Sunday which was kind of empty from the frenzy of Saturday. I spotted two skeins of Sock Candy. I had heard about this yarn, but never seen it or found how to order it. So yep I had to buy them both. I forget the colorways. So check it out!

Next up is some sock yarn and some lace weight from another of my favorited MDSW booths. Tess' Designer Yarns. I loved both of these colorways, so got one in sock weight and one in lace weight. The lace weight is also machine washable!

Some very pretty yarn from Brooks Farm is next. This is sock yarn in a silk/wool/viscose blend. I really liked this color. I think it is destined to be lacy knee or thigh high stockings.

A couple of "different" sock yarns to try. The new tofutsies with soy silk and chitin and some Regia Bamboo. I can't wait to try these out.

I had another picture from Sheep and Wool but it somehow dissapeared. I bought some lace weight Zepher Silk/wool blend in purple and some dpns in size 0000! Yep going to try some very tiny stitch socks.

Last but not least the newest books I bought. I got these last week at Barnes and Noble. I really like them both and hope to use some of the patterns in the near future.

Ok now I msut go make dinner. Have to feed the family. Hopefully this tiredness will go away. I plan to try and hang with Natasha either tomorrow or Thursday. Have a good day all.

Home.

2007-05-07T08:57:00.000-04:00

I'm home. Had a lot of fun. Just was very tired cause I can't sleep well away from home. I'm still tired today. So hopefully if I get caught up on rest, I can post some pics of my lovely new yarn. Ok gotta go snooze some more.

Nothing much today.

2007-05-04T10:04:00.000-04:00

I am getting ready for MDSW. Going with some friends. Hope to meet up with some other friends. Too excited to do anything really today.

Done Done Done and Done!

2007-04-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

Knit knit knit, sew sew sew! I finished four things last week! First of all I finished my daughters dress for her medieval festival. I really procrastinated about this. She needed the dress Friday, and so I started work on Wednesday. It was not a difficult project, just a lot of work. The pattern pieces were huge and I was working with 7 1/2 yards of fabric. The bottom of the dress it 11 feet around! But it was finished Thursday night and my baby looked awesome for Friday:

The festival was nice. We got to see all the students dressed up and the whole school was decorated. It was kind of funny to see some kids idea of medieval wear. There was a girl in a flapper dress! Plus all the girls wearing these big puffy dresses feel the need to wear high heels which was interesting. I made my daughter wear flats because she definitely inherited my clumsiness big time. All in all it was very fun.

I finished some socks for me:

This is knit picks naked yarn that my husband and I dyed with neon food coloring. I love how the colors turned out. The socks were done on size 2 magic loop two at a time. I forget the name of the pattern, but it is from More sensational knitted socks.

I finished some socks for a co-worker of my husbands:

These are Lana Grossa Megaboot stretch. Loved this yarn. It looks rough, but it is very soft. The pattern is heelless sleeping socks for Knitting Vintage Socks. Size 2 magic loop two at a time. I did this pattern because the socks are going to be a surprise, and I know these will fit any foot.

I finished a cute little baby hat and sockies:

This little set is being modeled by my daughters doll. It is my own made up pattern. The yarn is dreambaby DK. I love this yarn. Size 3 needles all magic loop. I don't know what I will do with this little set yet. Maybe just put them away for now.

I started new socks yesterday:

Do your feet ever hurt and get tired? Mine do ALL THE TIME. These socks are for me to wear around the house. They are being knitted to a tight gauge and will have pattern on the top and sole. I trying to make them so they are very squishy and comfy when worn. The yarn is Autumn House Farms heavy sock yarn in Mountain Lilac colorway. Loving this yarn. The pattern for these is also from More Sensational Knitted Socks. Size 2 magic loop two at a time. I have actually worked on these quite a bit more since this pic was taken. I know have the heels done on both. I did a short row garter stitch heel. Very nice a squishy and easy.

Ok last but not least photo. My furry little surgery girl:

Not a very good picture, but she really does not pose how I want her. Go figure! Anyway you can see the incision is from her side all the way up and down her front paw. She is doing awesome from the surgery. The incision looks messy, but she is healing well. She has torn a couple of stitches in her armpit, but they seem to be doing ok. I have had some positive and some negative feedback on getting surgery for just a pet rat. We here are all very very glad we got the surgery. She is doing wonderful. She is very playful and much happier. These are our pets, and we just feel we should do all we can for them. If we had a cat, dog, or whatever we would do the same. Wednesday our other rat goes for a check up and then will be scheduled for surgery. We are hoping she has the same amount of success as her sister.

Ok well this is pretty long and full of pics, so I'm gonna go knit for a while and talk myself into the fact that I have to mow the lawn today. At least my son will help which is good. And my daughter is going to help by planting flowers. My husband gets out of yard work, but that is because he left today for a work trip and will not be home until Thursday. Sniff sniff. Well ok have a good day everyone!

Crazy!

2007-04-25T09:35:00.000-04:00

Well as I reported quickly in my last post the weekend was lovely. Then Monday came and the craziness started. My husband was off which was good. We planned to clean the rat cage in the a.m. If you don't know we have two rats. Ophelia and Pandora. They are the sweetest little girls ever. In February we noticed a small growth on Ophelia. The vet said it was a mammary tumor. These tumors are very common in female rats. We were given a few options. One get surgery and have the tumor biopsied. The vet who explained this wanted an insane price. Or we could just leave it and watch her to see how things went. From what we understood, the tumor could grow large and the biggest problem would be that Ophelia would just have trouble getting around because of the size and location of the tumor. OK we decided to wait and see. She seemed to be doing well acting normal and everything though the tumor was getting quite large. About a month ago we discovered our other rat was developing a tumor. Sigh genetics it seemed was after them and it sucked. Still they acted normal and happy and healthy. Well last Friday Ophelia started bleeding from her tumor. When we looked at it, it looked like maybe she scratched it open or maybe her and her sister had a little fight. Well Monday when we went to clean the cage, there was a lot of blood and her wound had grown. We immediately took her to the vet. The diagnosis was the tumor had become necrotic and was dieing. She either needed surgery or to be put to sleep. After discussing all the options, and seeing two vets, Ophelia had emergency surgery on Monday afternoon. We had to leave her at the vet so we were sooooooooo relieved to get the call she was OK. I got to go pick her up yesterday. She is doing awesome! I hope if I ever have surgery I recover as fast. She is running around and climbing very well even though she has a 3 inch incision. It's as if she is finally free from the weight of the tumor and can zoom around now. We are soooo happy we got the surgery. Our biggest concern is we did not want her in pain or suffering. The surgery was expensive, not as expensive as the first vet had quoted, and since we could afford it with the budget, it was the right thing to do. Ophelia should recover fully. There are just a few unknowns. One: she will most likely grown more tumors. How many or how long it takes we just don't know. Two: what her life span will be. Average life span for a rat is about 2 years. Some have lived 4-6 years. Ophelia is 1 1/2 years so we are hoping she can at least live out her average expected life span. Because this was so scary, we are taking Pandora in for a consult and then surgery to remove her tumor before it gets so bad. Some people may think this is quite excessive to spend this much on two rats, but they are our pets. We love them, and they love us. So we feel why shouldn't we give them the best chances to have a happy normal life? OK I know this is a knitting blog, but I just had to blog about Ophelia and Pandora because they are so important to our family.

Other crazy news: Monday my daughters elementary school had to be evacuated because of a bomb threat. !!!!!!!!! My daughter has a medieval fest on Friday for which I need to make her dress. Yes I said make it. I don't even have the pattern cut out. I will get it done though. Sometimes working under pressure is good! And yes I have been knitting. Still the same socks but knitting none the less. Well now I should go cut out the pattern. Have a good day all.

Superfast!

2007-04-22T17:16:00.000-04:00

Quick little post today. Weekend is going wonderful. See my pretty yard after I mowed it yesterday? I love the sunny weater. Got together with some knitting friends today for lunch and knitting. Awesome. Ok gotta go enjoy the weather more!

I'm a Monkey Pal!

2007-04-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

Monkey Sock Swap TWO Questionnaire

The basics:How long have you been knitting? About 3 years.
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? A step above Intermediate I would say.The measurements:
Shoe Size: women’s 6Foot circumference: 9.25
Foot length: 9.25
Yarn Preferences:What colors do you love? Every color!
Do you prefer solids or variegated? Either
Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn? Natural fibers that can be machine washed. I wear my socks a lot and hate to hand wash.
What colors would you never wear? I would wear any color!
Knitting Gadgets Favorite needles. Plastic, metal, bamboo or wood? I love love the knit picks options.
Are there any knitting accessories you don't have in your collection but would like? Mmm a new needle gauge thingie. My mind has gone blank on what it is called.

Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US? I will send my monkeys flying any where!
Do you have any allergies? Nope I just don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke

Afternoon Delight.....NOT!

2007-04-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

Don't know if anyone actually reads this here blog, but I will ramble on anyway. Wednnesday was a very bad day for me. I had a major breakdown. I am sick of being sick and my self esteem has left all together. I just broke down and cried and cried and cried. Let me tell you I am not a pretty cryer. I looked horrible. My eyelids hurt for 24 hours. I also managed to give myself a migrain which really helped. I did still go knitting Wednesday night trying to just be normal and continue on. I hope I did not say or do anything stupid. I don't really remember a lot. I do know I thought I was going to not make it home because my head hurt so bad. I did make it home though. Absolutely exhausted. I slep in until 9:30 yesterday. I would have slept longer but my husband was home and had me get up and eat. I felt like poo most of the day. To make things even more wonderful my period started. Woo Hoo cramps! Yesterday was also my husband and son's birthdays so I was kinda mad at myself for not feeling better. They had a good day. My husband made the cake. He used the Better Crocker cake inside a cake pans and made a yellow cake with chocolate fudge ice cream in it. Plus chocolate frosting. Yummy. I thought I was getting better as the day went on, but nope another migrain. Uugghh. All night I felt weird and icky. My husband got me some meds about 2 in the moring. I did get up at 7 this morning with my kids. No headache for now and I feel a bit better. Just really really tired. I think I will go outside later. The mysterious orange ball is back in the sky. Maybe I just need some sun therapy. My husband is working just half a day today. But he then leaves and won't be home until maybe tomorrow night. Blah I hate when he is away. So ok enough of this depressing crap. If you do read this blog and are still here, thank you. Now for some pictures.

This is a pic of my new "baby"

I love her! She is an 07 Chrysler Town and Country. I loved my concord I traded in, but she was getting old and falling apart. She already had blown a motor, busted her compressor for the AC, was getting a jumpy transmission, losing her spring, and started making a horrible screeching noise when you pushed the unlock button. I owned a caravan before the Concord, and now that I have a new one I realize how much I missed it. Our new caravan has the stow and go seating. Awesome. I could hide my kids in the stow and go compartments! Plus all power doors. I love that I don't have to open the lift gate manually. So much better on my body. Ok enough about the new caravan. How about a pic of some new socks I am knitting:

These socks will be for a co worker of my husbands. I had to buy this yarn the other day, because I did not have anything in my stash!!! Haha!! I asked my husband what colors his co worker liked. He said I don't know, but she wears a lot of black. I think this yarn fits the bill. Speaking of sock yarn stash. Here are a couple stash pics. This is only the yarn in the living room! Yeah there is enough for 10 pair of socks in the living room!

Finally here is a pic of my son waking up the other day. I still can not believe he turned 14 yesterday!

Hehe pictures like that are why the children run when my husband and I have the camera! Ok well I better get some stuff done around here. When I am having a bad time I get obsessive about making things neat and organized. Have a good one!

Here!

2007-04-17T19:58:00.000-04:00

I'm here. No pictures today. I am tired. I did some shopping and then hung out with Natasha for a while. Got some stuff I needed shopping, and I got to drink coffee, eat chocolate, and watch Knitty Gritty with Natasha. Then I took the kids to Wal-Mart. They had money burning a hole in their pockets. Plus I had to get my sons scrip filled. The pharmacy was uber busy so I had to go back after dinner. Dinner was pretty yummy tonight. I used a recipe on the back of the stuffing box and the whole family loved it. Best part is it is a one pan toss in the oven and bake it dish. I have been knitting. I have two little baby sockies and a hat done. Plus I am working on my socks still and bought yarn to make more socks as a gift today. So I better go get busy with that. Hopefully I won't be lazy and I will post pics tomorrow. Have a good night.

2007-04-15T13:42:00.000-04:00

First off a couple of pictures today. The first picture is my nephew Karter who lives in GA. I have not met him yet. I just received new pics of him today. In this one he is using the blanket I knit for him. The second pic is one my daughter took of her Bratz. All text after that pic is her blogging as my guest blogger.

Today was a relaxed kind of day. We got a new car. Its a Town and Country,dark blue, and its stow n go. Its got lots of buttons. Its about as big as the concord. Its also a new 2007.
Karter apparently likes his new blanket my mom made him. he looks so cute with it. I cant wait to see him. We're going to GA. this summer to see my grandma and pappy,ant Kim,uncle Mike, and cousin Karter. While we're down there we are going to see Stone Mountain. At Stone Mountain they have laser light shows. Stone Mountain is a very beautiful place.
The pic of my Bratz is they're at a dance party.Whats funny about Bratz is you dont change there shoes, you change they're feet. the shoes are attached to the feet. I guess they took the saying "you'd lose your feet if they weren't attached to your ankles"seriously,LOL! when you take there "feet'' off all you see at the end of there legs are pegs.Bratz have so many clothes some of them don't even stay on. Well I hope you had fun reading this blog today,remember to keep on blogging!

FO Socks and a Guest

2007-04-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

I finished knitting the felted hedgehog for my son's birthday last night. Now I just need to felt it. All in all I thought this was a very quick and easy knit. Very clear instructions. The only part I thought was a teeny bit rough was knitting the fuzz for his back. Holding 1 strand of wool and 1 strand of novelty yarn not so tough, but the novelty yarn has no stretch at all so a bit rough with all the short rows. I can not wait to felt this guy which is going to be named Firebe by my son. My son plans to use Firebe as a little pillow, cause he is turning 14 (YIKES!) and does not want to have a stuffed animal, just a pillow. Hehe! Here is two pics of the finished Firedbe. As SJ noted in the comments the other day it looks like he has boobs. I am not sure why. I followed the pattern exactly as far as I know. I plan to fix the boobs when I felt him.

Here is a close up shot of my current WIP socks. I was trying to show the pattern. I'm not sure I succeeded.

And one last photo for today. This one is for Jenn. A picture of some of my daughter's Ugly, slutty bratz dolls. Uugghh! I think they were all dressed in the photo. Last weekend my daughter went to her dad's and came home with two more of these ugly things.

I am not sure but I think my daughter has about 20-30 of these dolls. I am not real keen on them, but I guess as long as I remind my daughter she is never ever gonna dress like the dolls it's ok. Plus she does not like Barbie any more at all. Speaking of my daughter she is going to be a guest blogger on here this weekend. Lately she has been all about mommy and me time. I think it will be very interesting and insightful to see what she has to say. So until next time, buh-bye!

Not So Crabby

2007-04-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

It is amazing how marshmallow peeps and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs can make some of the crabbies go away! Not so amazing is how fast they cling to my hips. Sigh it's Easter candy though and I have to eat it before it goes stale right? Also finished, almost finished, and socks make the crabbies go away too!

I finished the baby booties Monday night. I like the bright colors. Very cute.

Almost finished is the Fiber Trends felted hedgehog. My son wanted one for his birthday which is next week on Thursday. So yesterday I thought I better get started so I can get it done in time. Hah no worries here. This pattern works up really fast. The body, head, arms, and legs are all knit as one piece. You then pick up stitches to add the paw pads, and finally pick up stitches all the way around the back and knit his fur. I only have a bit of the back left to do, then into the washer. By the way, my son picked these colors.

Socks! What could be more fun than knitting socks? Knitting socks from the yarn my husband dyed! Woo hoo! I love the colors. I think the pattern might be getting lost, but it's OK I like it and I am going to keep it.

My knitting was starting to stress me again, so I reevaluated yesterday. I put a couple of in progress things away for awhile. Someday I will finish them. Plus I cast on for the above socks because socks are my favorite things to knit. After I finish the hedgehog, I am going to start on a pair of knucks for my sis in law. I am really trying to keep WIP down to a minimum. Gives me less stress. I just feel like I am getting behind and will never get anything done. Thing is the only project with a deadline is the hedgehog. Everything else can be done whenever. I do have some sewing I want to finish by the 4Th of May, but it's OK if I don't.

Okay something icky that may be TMI. I tend to get ulcers in my mouth a lot. Annoying as hell. Usually when I notice one I can expect a week or so to get better. Couple of the days hurt like ^%$#, but they finally go away. Well I have one that just is not getting better. I think the problem is the ulcer is located between my gum and cheek and my denture is rubbing on it. Yep I have an upper denture. Never know it to look at me. Anyway I never ever go without my denture. Nope no way no how. I take it out clean it and put it right back in. The past couple of nights I have been sleeping without it though to try and heal the ulcer. Still not getting better. So now I have to keep the denture out all the time unless I am eating. I hate this. I look stupid and sound stupid. Of course the kids think it is funny. OK like I said maybe TMI. One final thought for today: Why the #%$) do "they" feel the need to take my junk food and make it healthier for me? My pringles yesterday, NO TRANS FATS! Uugghh!

Tired and Crabby

2007-04-09T10:33:00.000-04:00

What a title huh? Well it's true I am tired and crabby today. I do have a couple of pics though. First off I was a winner in the first contest over at the Rockin Sock Club. I received my prize on Friday. It is a skein of the yarn I named. Lightweight Socks That Rock color Lunasea.

This next picture shows some finished socks. I finally took a picture of my first Rockin Sock Club socks. They are the inside/out in Monsoon. I changed mine a bit from the pattern as I was not fond of the cables. I just continued the ribbing up the sock and made a garter stitch ruffle to match the heel and toe. Nice and comfy. They are medium weight so they work well for house socks but not in the shoe socks. The other socks are Austerman Step socks I finished last night for my husband. Very nice to work with. He said he likes them, they are comfy. I took the picture right before this post. My husband is off from work today so yeah we are sitting around in our PJ's!

Our Easter was very nice. Spent the day visiting family. Well that is all for today. I'm going to go be crabby some more.

Meeting Crafty Blog People In Real Life!

2007-04-02T20:18:00.000-04:00

Yay! Today I got to meet and hang out with Natasha! I had a great time. I went to her house to help teach her to sew. I got to meet the cats and see her studio. Plus she sent me home with cool stuff! Wanna see?

Yarn she dyed, naked yarn, dyes for yarn, and yarn samples. It is on the back of the couch so everyone (my family) could see it as soon as they came in the door. I also borrowed a couple of books about dyeing. I dyed yarn yesterday with my husbands help.

The newly dyed yarn hanging in the laundry room. I love the colors. Very bright and pretty.

No pictures of the dying in process, but a pic of the kitchen where it took place. So when am I going to knit the new yarn? Well maybe after I finish all this:

Can anyone say ADD? Hehe! Sorry for the crappy post. I am tired and I have a headache. Just wanted to post a few pics and say I had lots of fun today.

Interview with a squitchinglady.

2007-03-29T09:52:00.000-04:00

I saw this on SJ's blog yesterday, and so I asked her to interview me. Here are her questions and my responses.

1) What was the first thing you ever knit? Tell us about it -- what was it made of? Did you use it? How did you start? My first project was a dishcloth knit out of cotton. Yes I used it because they are the greatest dishcloths. I used to be a telephone operator, and when we were slow we could work on crafts and such. Another operator taught me how to make the dishcloth.

2) If someone gave you a lot of money to go on yarn shopping spree,what would you treat yourself to and what would you use it for? Hmm I think I would buy a bunch or naked yarn and dyes and dye yarn for all my friends. Sock yarn to be specific.

3) What knitting project is your "someday" project? (By this I mean what project would you love to do one day that would really challenge you and make you feel truly accomplished as a knitter?) I have a circular lace shawl I would love to do. I have the yarn and the needles. I just don't have the confidence to start it yet. I think when I finally finish it, I will hang it on the wall and show everyone that comes over!

4) What is one of your life's ambitions (in addition to completing the knitting project mentioned in #2)? Really right now to raise my children through their teen years. Teach them the necessary life skills, manors, and self responsibility that I think many people are lacking. Help them discover what they want to do in life and encourage and help them all I can. Also to always be thankful for all I have, especially my wonderful amazing husband.

5) Which person or people, living or dead, do you most admire, and why? Hmm I thought about this and I have to say I really admire our military men women, and their families. These soldiers are working so hard to protect our freedom. They have sacrificed so much and the thing that really amazes me is they volunteered for this. I really want to say thank you, but that is not really enough. Also the families of deployed soldiers I admire for their support and sacrifices. It is not easy I know. Big thank you to my brother in law who is a SGT serving overseas right now, and a big hug to my sis in law and nieces and nephew who are here at home. Also thank you to my husband SGT 1st Class serving here at home. I love you!

Here is a pic of my husband and his brother from a couple weeks ago while my brother in law was home on leave. My husband is the one holding the camera.

OK couple more pics of what is going on here. The first is my current socks. The second is the really cool Lego dragon's lair my husband made the other day. Enjoy!

Crap!

2007-03-28T11:13:00.000-04:00

Remember the picture of my hubby's socks I posted yesterday? Well now they are completely frogged and the yarn wound back into a ball. I tried just to rip them back to the point of non fitting, but when you knit two socks at a time from one ball, you just end up with yarn everywhere in a huge mess. Sigh. I swear every time I try to make socks for my husband I have problems. These fit good in the leg, but the foot nope no way not even close. The plus side to this is I can start them over in a new pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I picked up my book yesterday, and I love love love it. I think Charlene Schurch is a genius with socks.

In other crafty news, here is pic of my daughter in her newly accessorized bedroom chatting on the phone in typical pre-teen behavior. I finished making the canopy yesterday afternoon. It is just some tulle, ribbon, and the inner circle of a wooden embroidery hoop. Pretty simple to make except for threading the tulle over the hoop. She is very happy about it and hugged me and thanked me over and over. Ah how sweet. Now I just have to decide what to do with the curtains. I am just not happy with them right now. Must go think that over....

Short Attention Span Still Here

2007-03-27T08:07:00.000-04:00

Still moving between projects and life quicker than should be allowed. Sigh! I know this is why I feel like I never have anything done. I am doing to much at once! I did update the side bar. I finished another book. Problem with my reading is the same as everything else. I tend to read 3-4 books at a time. I have them all over the house and pick them up and read a bit here and there. I have no problem keeping the stories straight between the books. I also finished my STR Rockin Sock Club Socks for February. Of course I did not think to take a pic before throwing them in the laundry. So a pic of them will be available after Wednesday also known as laundry day.

I do have some pics today though. My husbands socks, a little baby sockie, some kool-aid dyed yarn, and some jitterbug that will be socks for me.

The husband socks are from Sensational Knitted Socks. I forget what pattern. Austerman Step yarn. This is very nice to work with.

The baby sockie is just a quick knit for distraction to feel like I am getting something done. The yarn is Cascade Yarns Kaleidoscope DK. Acrylic and nice to work with. The booties don't have a home. I think they will go in the "hope someday way in the future I get a granddaughter stash".

I seriously have no brains sometimes. The kool-aid yarn turned out awesome, but you can't see that because I did not take a before pic. Aarrgghh! The yarn is some Opal I bought online. When I got it, I was like eeewwww this is ugly. It was an off white with black, bright blue, and rust. Iicckky. I tried a new method for dyeing. I sort of followed some online instructions and sort of made it up as I went. I got out my crock pot. I added 1 cup of vinegar, 10 cups of water, and 10 pack of black cherry kool-aid. I stirred the ingredients well and then added the yarn. I did not pre soak the yarn. I just added it and turned the pot on low for half an hour. When I came back, the yarn had ate all the color from the water and I just rinsed it in cool water and hung to dry. This method I highly recommend for single color dyeing. Very easy and no mess.

The last pic is Collinette Jitterbug. I am making socks for me. I am going to make shimmer socks. Pretty pretty. The colors in the pics are a little bright. In real life they are a touch darker.

Exciting news: I received notice that my copy of More Sensational Knitted Socks is in. Woo Hoo! Now if I could get this headache gone, I could go get it. Plus I need to fabric shop because I am going to make some new summer clothes for me. I am sick of what I am seeing in the store not fitting, being really ugly, or costing way too much.

Ok kind of rambly. I am going to knit and try to get rid of this *&^_)(# ^%$&( #%*(% headache I have. Have a good day all.

Welcome to Short Attention Span Theater!

2007-03-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

And I wonder why I never seem to get anything finished. It might have something to do with my short attention span. Right now I have six projects on the knitting needles, one on the crochet hook, two sewing projects I want to finish, the wedding scrapbook that will never be done, and I am reading four books. I wonder why I drive myself crazy and stress about things. Oh well I am just not one of those people who can only have one project at a time.

Here is a couple of pics of finished things well almost finished.

I know they are not great pics. I tried to make them better but well. Anyway the top pic is my sons bedroom window with his redneck curtains. I made them from a flat sheet and a pillow case. I did not measure really. Just kind of held the sheet up and said mmmm I will cut here. They turned out really nice and do match his bedspread. The bottom pic is my daughters window. For now I just took a piece of eyelet fabric and sewed it into a valance. There will be lime green tulle for the sides and a ton of tulle hanging from her ceiling like a canopy kind of thing. I have to wait for help with the tulle because I almost got tangled in it yesterday. I think there is maybe 9 yards or so. It is freakin long.

Here is a pic of my purchases from knit wits the other day:

On the right are two skeins of cascade 220 and a novelty yarn from crystal palace. They will become a felted hedgehog from fibertrends for my son. The red in the middle is to add to some sock yarn leftovers here for a pair of socks. The pink is Lana Grossa. I never tried it, but wanted to in the future. The rainbow looking yarn is from Cascade as well. 100% acrylic. I just loved the colors. I am planning some baby sockies out of it. So much for the yarn diet!

Last night I had a nice time. I went and met the Hurricane Knitters at Barnes and Noble in Fox chapel. I seen 40 man! hahah! Worked on my rockin sock club sock. I hope to have them finished today. My new goal is to get my needles empty and not have so many projects.

Good great and awesome news from yesterday! Some sad news as well. If you read my blog you will know I have two pet rats. One of them had developed a mammary tumor. It is continueing to grow. Does not seem to hurt or bother her except for getting in her way. Tuesday night when I was playing with the rats and feeding them I noticed the other rat is developing a tumor as well. Of course I cried. Since they are siblings we believe it could be genetic for them. The rats average a life span of 2 years. Ours will be two near the end of summer. Sigh it is so hard to see my babies with the tumors. I will be way upset when they do pass on. But I will never regret having them and will do my best to see they have the best life they can with us. They will have no doubt they were loved and cared for very much by my family. Umm ok have to go wipe my eyes now. Have a good one everyone.

I'M A WINNER!!!

2007-03-21T17:12:00.000-04:00

I was one of the winners in the Socks That Rock Rockin Sock Club name that yarn contest!! I am so excited. We had to come up with a name for yarn that had to do with the theme "Tides". I chose Lunasea. After voting mine was one of the four winning names! Woo Hoo!

Rockin the socks........

2007-03-20T09:07:00.000-04:00

just not rockin the cables. I have been working on my Rockin Sock Club socks. I finished the short row heel and began the cuff which is a 2X1 rib with a 5/1/5 cable. Uugghh I did not like the cable. To me it was too bulky, I could not knit it loose enough, and I kept dropping stitches. So I frogged back and I am just going with a 2X1 rib. I will knit until the yarn is almost gone then add an increase round and knit a few more rounds to form a small ruffle and wear the socks with the cuff turned down. Besides the cable issues, I really like these socks. Very comfy and squishy. I also found the downside to knitting two socks at once from one ball/cake. When you frog about 12 rounds, where do you put the yarn you pulled from the inside? I just sora wound it up on the cake. Wanna see the mess and the socks:

See the flame fabric in the pics? Those are my new sleep/lounge pants. I don't like to wear long pants in bed, but when I am hanging out at the house with no where to go I love to wear them. I made the flame pair last week. I also made a new pair of sleep pants for my husband. His are brown. Not nearly as bright and loud as mine. I love to make sleep pants because they are so easy and comfy. Everyone here in my house has a couple of pairs at least. My niece saw mine over the weekend and loved them. Guess I will be looking for a pattern for her size and making some for her.

We had a wonderful awesome weekend. My husbands brother is home on leave from Iraq and so we went to visist. We left Friday about 1 and came back home Sunday at 12. We had so much fun. Friday my husband, kids, and I went with my brother and sister in law and nieces and nephew out to dinner and some shopping. Saturday they celebrated my nieces birthday. Two of my husbands other brothers, his mom, and sis in law and niece and nephews came over. So it was a nice day with all the family there together. I found a new addiction that can be dangerous. Wii! Oh wow that was the first time I ever played and it was awesome. We were taking turns playing sports. What fun. Now I would like to get a Wii for here. I don't think that will ever happen but I could hope. Saturday night we went bowling. So Sunday my arm felt like it was going to fall off, but still it was an awesome time. At least I had an awesome time. I love family get togethers like that.

So the past few days have been filled with sewing, knitting, and hanging with the family. Today is shopping. I am on a quest to find a sheet set for my picky daughter. Then I will have to make her some curtains and a net/tulle hanging thing for over her bed. She picked bright green. I think I may go blind before I'm done. Plus I am going to the yarn store. I have to go because they called to let me know they have new sock yarns in. May I be strong enough to not go crazy buying. So until next time.

knitting update

2007-03-13T10:55:00.000-04:00

Don't worry no rants today. Just knitting pics and updates. First up are the socks I am knitting for my husband. They are being knit out of Austerman Step. I had to frog these things 3 times because I was not happy with the pattern/size/gauge. I think I like them now. I am doing a twin rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks (Oh joy did you see Even more Sensational Socks will be available soon? Yeah I have it on hold!). The needles are size 1 knit picks circs. I am knitting magic loop two at a time. I did not split the yarn ball, I am just knitting from each end. Yes I know this will cause them to stripe oposite, but that is ok.

The next picture is my socks from the Rockin Sock Club. I recieve my kit Thursday. I am also knitting them two at a time magic loop. The toe was done on size 1's and now the sole is on 0's. I will do the heel on 1's and the cuff I am not sure yet. This is also with out splitting the ball. So far they look quite similar in their patterning though one would think they would be oposite as well.

This last picture is some buttons I bought last Friday at Jo Ann's. I had intended to go in buy the mouse buttons I needed and leave. Ha right next to the mouse buttons was a display for these buttons at half price. So I bought these for use in some knitting projects. They are being displayed by my new sheep that Betsy brought me Saturday when she came over to knit. She also brought the kids these really cool eggs that you put in water. After a day or so they "hatch" and there is a duck inside! I would have taken a pic, but my camera is acting up.

This past week/weekend was the days of packages! On thursday I recieved my Socks that Rock club kit. Friday I recieved my swivel sweepers I ordered. Finally on Saturday I recieved my order from knit picks. I had ordered Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road and some more sleeves and needles for my options kit. Now I have all the needles I need....I think! Well I better get off of here and go do some work around this house. Laundry and grocery lists and shopping.

All done!

2007-03-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

I have some knitting pics to share today. Finished objects. First forgive me because I need to rant a bit. I have been feeling really cruddy again. Mostly just tired and achy. I am really sick of getting sooooo worn out from soooo little. Today for example I carried one basket of laundry and pushed one cart of laundry to the laundry room and sorted them. I have four loads. After carrying sorting and starting a load I am totally wiped out. I just want to crawl on the couch and veg. Really pisses me off, because I feel really guilty that I can not get anything done it seems. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I have been hemming and hawing for a long time about going to a support group. It might be nice to meet other people who feel the way I do and understand this feeling of "I am such a slacker I can't get anything accomplished". I just don't know though. I am trying to be more proactive about my health though. I am doing super on making sure I take my meds every day on time. I am making and keeping DR appointments. I have one in April in fact. I see a GP and so I think they are going to tell me I need to see a specialist again. A ruemetologist. I had one before, but he left. I really did not feel he helped me much. I am going to really try to "go out of the box" and look for anything that can help. So anyway in the spirit of trying to take better care of me I have switched to diet soda. I LOVE Pepsi, need Pepsi. It is sooo much empty calories though. Do ya all realize how much diet soda sucks? I am doing diet wild cherry Pepsi which tastes pretty good cept for the aftertaste. This brings me to something that really ticked me off the other night. My husband was going to the store and I asked him to bring me Oreos. Mmmmm love Oreos. He brought them home and he and I ate a few. I thought hmm these don't quite taste the same there is something wrong here. I looked at the packaging for any thing new. Still the same package. I thought it was just me, but my husband said no something is different. So we read the list of ingredients. It seems they have taken away the trans fats! AACCKK GGGRRR! Really ticked me off. I don't buy cookies because I expect them to be healthy and good for me. I am the most pissed that I don't have a choice. Why oh why does the man, big brother, government, whoever think they have to make these choices for me? I am getting really sick of this BS. Why do they do this? I don't know but my theory would be people who whine and carry on that this or that is doing this or that to them. Grow up and grow a brain. Everything that happens to you is not someone elses fault. You should be intelligent enough to understand that there are consequences for all actions. For example if you eat lots of oreos you will get fat. Grow up and realize that "hey maybe I should be responsible for myself and make some healthier choices. Now I do not particularly want to live without junk food, but I do know I can not eat it all the time and expect not to get fat. It all boils down to personal choices and taking that responsibility on yourself and not expecting someone to do it for you!

Ok I'm done I think. Hehe! Sorry but I just had to get that out and my husband does not need me whining and ranting to him every day. I try to be pleasant and cheerful to him since he spends all day working and just wants to relax when he comes home. So now finally on to the knitting! I have some finished objects to show:

Yep. Since I had made the thong, I decided to make the bra too. I used the pattern from Interweave knits, but modified it. Mine has ribbon straps and buttons on the back. As with the thong I did not use the specified yarn and was concerned with gauge. If I had to guess I would say this bra is a 36 B. I'm not sure though because there is no way it would fit my boobs!

My sis in laws mittens finished. I will give them to her Sunday. She is uber excited today. She is on her way right now to pick her husband up from the airport! He is on two week leave from Iraq.

My fetching mitts all finished and the neck warmer thingie I made. I just need to get two more buttons for the neck warmer. I will get those at Jo Anns. This yarn is sooooo soft. silk/baby alpaca. Size 5 knit picks needles for mitts and neck warmer. The neck warmer is done in seed stitch.

The secret son project. Still no work has been done on this other than pulling out the navy wool I will need. This is all the colors in the project. I am just bored with it. I am working on the mmm lets say appendages. BORING! Hopefully maybe I will feel the need to get moving on this.

Last but not least Chops holding the baby sock blocker with its new sock. The yarn is Autumn House farms, color is Hattie's Zinnias, size 0 knit picks magic loop, toe up. That is my husbands leg they are posing in front of. The army pj pants were made special for my husband by my mom as a Christmas gift. Pretty nifty huh?

Ok well I see this post is way long so I will end for now. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a pic of my sons new curtains. It involves a pillow case and sheet all cut up and sewed. I just can not get a good pic during the day. Bye all.

Thumbless In Pennsylvania

2007-03-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

He he take a look to see what I mean by the post title:

This has been whats on the needles for the past couple of days. The red items are the fetching fingerless mittens. All they need is the thumbs. The rest of the red yarn will be used to make a neck warmer. It will have the cute little mouse buttons on in. I think the yarn is by Catalina. I know it is a silk baby alpaca mix. The green mittens are for my sis in law. The pattern is from the book Not Just Socks. She asked me to make her mittens and said she did not care what color. Since her favorite color is green I used this Knit Picks parade yarn from the stash. Just need thumbs on them too. I don't think my sis in law is very worried about her mittens right now though. Her husband (my hubby's brother) has been serving in Iraq, but is coming home tomorrow for a two week leave! Yay we are all excited to get to see him. Check out her myspace page to see her, her husband, and their kids. I can't wait because Sunday my family and I are going to a Soldier Salute fopr my husbands unit, and them we will be driving up to see the in laws! Yay.

Here are a couple of pics to show I have passed on the crafty gene to my kids. Unfortunately not the knitting one. My daughter loves oragami. All the time making things. On my knitting stand, I have a monkey, a bird, a ladybug, a bunny, and the basket for the bunny. This picture is an oragami cup with pencils. The other pic is my son's home-ec project. He made a horse. Very cute!

More Pictures

2007-02-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

I think my post from yesterday was pretty boring. Now I'm not promising today's will be any more exciting, but I do have pictures!

This first pic is of a secret item I am knitting for my son. Not secret to him, just to blog world. Secret because it is a rather unique and interesting item and I think I will try to write out the pattern and maybe submit it to an online knit mag. Take a look:

This next picture is my current socks in progress. They are After Bertha from Socks, socks, socks. They will be for my mom. I forget what the yarn is. My mom likes shorter socks, so I think I may have enough of this yarn to make a pair for her and a pair for me. Yay!

Finally, do ya ever get the feeling you are being watched? The rats were giving us sad rat eyes tonight while we were eating dinner. The had that "we are so deprived and starved look" tonight. That is complete crap. They are soooo spoiled. Anyway I finally got up and got them some dry pasta to eat so they would quit staring at us. Some nights they just totally ignore us while we eat and other days are like today. This picture shows where their cage is in relation to the dinner table.

Look in the back ground, and you can see their cage. Well I guess that is all for today. Oh yeah just wanted to say thanks to Cheryl and Betsy. We had lunch together and it was fun and just what I needed after being icky the past few days.

No I did not fall of the face of the earth

2007-02-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Just been tired, busy, lazy, and sick. The past few days have been very horribly painful. I don't know why, but my back and legs were just aching sooo much. I was very tired and achy this morning and had a fever. I slept for five hours and woke up feeling better. So hopefully whatever it was is gone. I have been knitting. I have a whole long list of stuff I am making and want to make. Today I mostly knit on the socks I am making for my mom. I am using a pretty blue/green/sparkle sock yarn and using the After Bertha pattern. I got that pattern out of one of my new knitting books. Last week I bought both Socks socks socks and Favorite Socks. I love sock pattern books. I have three books on hold waiting for their release date. This yarn diet thing is going well except I keep wanting to buy books. Here are some random pics I took last night and today:

My sock yarn stash all layed out while I was looking for a specific yarn. No that is not all the sock yarn I own. That is why I am on the yarn diet. Here is a picture of the rest of the yarn that lives in the bin with my sock yarn. Mostly wool for felting and a bunch of Knit Picks Pallette.

Finally a couple pics of the fur babies. This is how they look at night when I close their cage door and leave to go to bed.

They get all sad and stare out between the bars. Last night they were particuarly mopey and giving sad rat eyes at me.

OK that's all I've got.

I see London I see France.......

2007-02-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

....I knit a pair of underpants!! OK everyone sing! hehe check these out:

This is the pattern in the current Interweave Knits for the knitted thong. Nope I did not knit these to wear them. Number 1 they are not my size and number 2 ewww a piece of crochet yarn up the butt and eeewww and reason number 3 the yarn is 70% alpaca. Really I knit these just to understand and see how they were constructed. I think knitted lingerie and underthings could be a good idea. I knit socks so that I can fit them to me perfectly so why not other things? The thong was a quick knit. I made it today in between laundry and housework. The yarn is some left over knit picks shimmer I had in the stash. I don't even know if I am close to gauge because I was knitting them just for fun and to see how they were constructed. OK here is another finished object for you to view:

These are my newest socks for me. I finished them last night. They are Trekking, toe up, short row heel, size 0 knit picks circs, magic loop, two at a time. Just a generic sock. Plain stockinette and then 1X1 ribbing. I finished the cast off at the top of the cuffs to give them ease and so they can be rolled down into cute ankle socks. When I was ready to cast off, I knit in the front and back of every stitch for one row, did two rows of purl stitches, and then cast off in knit. These are very comfy socks. OK that's all I got today.

PS Yes the underpants are hanging from a hanger on the wreath hanger of my front door. And yes I did take them down after the photo.

Not missing any more.

2007-02-18T17:42:00.000-05:00

I found out yesterday I was missing something very important to knitting. A knitting mascot!

I found "Chops" yesterday while visiting family and friends. Chops was purchased in a shop owed by my husband's friend Pete called Benjamin Beetle Clothiers in Butler PA. If you are ever up there, stop in and check it out. Very cool store. Anyway Chops is a Grateful Dead Bear. I have some smaller ones my husband gave me as gifts a few years ago. I just thought Chops was so cute and he is purple, my favorite color. OK finished objects to show!:

My dad's birthday socks are done! There was "only" 14 ends to weave in on each sock! Aacckk, now I know why I like to knit socks with only one color. The socks are being modeled by my husband along with the other gifts for my dad. See a theme?! My dad has everything. He does collect some John Deer things so I made John Deer socks. I forget what the yarn is (oops). They were done on size 3 knit picks circs magic loop two at a time. The pattern is the chain rib from Sensational Knitting Socks. I think my dad will like them.

A really simple winter hat for me to match my coat. It is knit with Lion brand Woolease. Size 6 Knit Picks options needles magic loop method. Finally a picture of my "cheap" flowers. I bought these at Wal-Mart for 50% off the day after Valentines Day. I love a good bargain!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

2007-02-14T19:22:00.000-05:00

Now lets see what would be a good picture for Valentines day?..........I know, a heart!

heh heh! This is the heart pillow from Vogue Knit 1's love edition. I finished this afternoon just in time for Valentines day. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease and the needles were size 8 knit pick options. This heart is soon going to be on its way to my parents house. They will enjoy it. I plan to make more of these in the future, but with different yarn and smaller needles. I am hoping to make one close to "real" size. How cool would that be? So how is the weather in your area? Ours is cruddy. Snow, ice, freezing rain, uugghh. The kids have been home for the past two days and so far on a delay for tomorrow. My husband went to work today and found out the office was closed, so he came home. I like winter and snow, but I just wish the roads were OK for driving. My Valentines day was very nice. My husband stopped on the way home to buy me a long stem red rose, and that was not all. I also received a pair of ruby earrings from him. What a sweetheart. My daughter gave me her yellow stuffed sheep. Also I ordered a gift for my husband Sunday, and it arrived today! Yay great timing. If your curious, it is a digital picture frame for his desk at work. Other than that, I spent the day knitting and baking a chocolate cake. Mmmmmm! OK couple more knitting pics. The first are the socks I am working on for my dad. The second is the socks for me. And the third is my rose. Have a great Valentines Day!

Fiberfest Fun!

2007-02-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

Yay! The Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival was great. I took my daughter and met up with Betsy, Cheryl, and Sandie. I also saw SJ, Jenn, Jenn's friend Dana, and a few others I recognized enough to say hello to. My daughter and I had a great time except my daughter was very very upset we did not bring a bunny home. Now she wants a bunny for her birthday. I told her we already have pets and are not getting any more right now. I know ya wanna see some yarn right? I tried not to go way crazy at the festival. I tried to stay with purchases of items I could not readily get here. So here is what I got.

From my favorite booth at the festival. Interlacements tiny toes beaded scarf kit. My daughter really wanted me to buy the kit. Plus I am not sure what the other yarn is called, only that it is 100% wool, was a show special, and told me that it wanted to come home with me and be a Lady Eleanor wrap. I really just wanted to move into the interlacements booth. Such lovely lovely yarn.

From Autumn House Farms some sock yarn in a color called Hattie's Zinnias. Some jitterbug I said I was not going to get because the yardage for the price was a little high. I just could not leave it there though. I just loved the colors.

In the front some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in brights. I have never knit with this, but have been wanting to for a while. I also had an order of yarn from Diva Knits arrive at my house while at the festival. Three balls of Opal Rain forest in the colors: frog, caterpillar, and snake. Hiding under the yarn balls is some roving my daughter really had to have called party in a bag. She wants to learn drop spindle. Heather we will be calling you for lessons!

The other yarn from Diva Knitting, some Catalina 70%baby alpaca/30% silk. Hanging from the TV because isn't that where everyone keeps there yarn? Seriously though my daughter and I were winding yarn Saturday night, but my swift has a horrible squeak so we did not wind this yarn yet. Must wax the swift!

The above mentioned items made possible by my totally awesome wonderful husband who works so hard and does not mind my fiber obsession.

What's new?

2007-02-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

So how is your day? This is what I was just working on:

Woo Hoo! Living the exciting life around here. Yes you looked at the picture right. I iron in my bathroom. This is one of my favorite rooms in the house. Our master bath. It is huge! Okay here is some knitting pics:

The first pic is my messy knitting area. I swear I organize it every day. The second photo is more socks for me because the 14 pairs I have are just not enough. The last photo is heart parts that need finished and sewed together. I need to finish the heart and pair of socks hidden under the stuffing to send out next week. They are part of a gift package for my mom and dad. And last but not even close to least:

My prize for winning Lucy's blog contest. I love it. Not pictured is the tea she sent with it. I actually don't know where that went, and I may have to interrogate peoples that live here. The angel is made from a TAMPON! It has a very cute poem relating to aunt flow. That really cracked me up. I am not sure what I am going to use the peach yarn for, but the grey will go with some red I have to make me another winter hat to match my winter coat. She hit the proverbial nail on the head the with the book she sent. Woo Woo! Thank you soooooo very much Lucy! Ok have a good one yunz guys.

Oh yeah any of you Pittsburgh locals going to the knit and crochet fest? I am with my daughter and a couple friends. I''ll be the one telling my daughter "I love you, now get off me and shut up for two second will ya?"!

Movie stars and dancing rats!

2007-02-05T15:50:00.000-05:00

What a title huh? Since this is a knitting blog, yes I have been knitting, just no pictures today. I do however have pictures of a movie star and dancing rats here at the house. The first picture is my daughter. I thought she was looking like a movie star: pretty blond hair, really skinny, huge sunglasses, and antisocial t-shirt. Hehe! The rest of the pics are of our pet rats getting rice crispie snacks. They look like they are trying to dance in a few of the pics. Take a look at how they have awesome balance to stand on the cage bars. Ok enjoy, I'll try and have some knitting pics soon.

I'm Done!

2007-01-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

If you read Cheryl's blog, you would get the impression I am a knitting machine. Ha! Not really, but I do have 4 finished objects to show!

Sorry for the crappy pic of my socks. I was doing my laundry today and snapped a picture before I threw them in the machine. (I wash all my socks in the machine and hang them to dry). This pattern is the Huanuma Bay pattern I found online. Size one knit picks circs two at a time magic loop. The yarn is hand dyed by Natasha. Love the color on these. So bright. These were modified only in that they are anklets.

The "Pink Peppermint Puffball" sweater. Once again sorry for the pic. You can see the water going in the washer to wash the sweater. Ok my friends said the sweater looked good. Yay! I like it, very soft and comfy. More specs on the sweater in my last post.

My favorite daughters new hat. She wanted a hat to match her winter coat and the mittens on her. (Mittens are store bought long before I learned to knit). I think the colors are pretty good considering I pulled the yarn from my stash! I made this hat using the guage info on the ball band and help from the Yarn Harlot's third book. The pattern is baby cable rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. (Love that pattern!). Size three knit picks circs magic loop method. She loves the hat and wears it! Woo Hoo! Score for mom!

Finally a poopy picture of me in my new Kittyville hat. I finished this today while I waited for my husband to do PT. I love this hat. Once again, stash yarn! Cascade 220, pattern from Stitch and Bitch, size 7 knit pics options magic loop method. After seeing this hat and the ties that hang from it, my husband came up with a very good idea for a hat that my son really wants me to knit now. It will be secret for now as I don't have yarn in the stash for this. All I'm sayin is I need some Encore in dark and light blue. Stay tuned.

So ok maybe a bit of a machine. Now I am working on knitting heart pillows from Vogue Knit One magazine. I can't wait to finish them. So awesome. I'm gonna make three.

Saturday was an awesome day. Got to go knitting with my friends at Heather's which is always a blast. Good food and great company! Plus, Heather and I made a deal and I got the most beautiful sock yarn ever. She was a member of last years Socks That Rock Club, but I was'nt. I so fell in love with the Titania's Revenge pattern and yarn. I have the yarn rolled in a cake, and I want to knit it to have the socks, but then not knit it because it is so pretty. Lucky for me I signed up for the club this year. I have been showing this yarn cake to my family driving them nuts asking "Is'nt this the most beautiful sock yarn ever?". Haha they are going to run and hide when my first club shipment arrives.

Lastly I am a winner!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I won Lucy's blog contest. Go read her blog. She has the cutest doggies. I am partial to Eros. Maybe I could talk her into letting him be the prize? Well......I guess not. Ok gotta go knit some more. Later y'all!

My favorite...

2007-01-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

This here is a shout out to my daughter Sami. Sami I just want you to know you are my favorite daughter (this is the point where Sami says "but I'm your only daughter but it's ok cause you're my favorite mom) and I love you more than I could ever say. You always feel the need to be right with me (like practically stepping on me while we are shopping) and that makes me feel really good. But please please please the next time you are sick stay away from me or I will be forced to loundy exclaim "I LOVE YOU BUT GET OFF OF ME!".

In all seriousness I am going to have to avoid the sick people in my house. I feel like 10 day old horse pooh. I have this cold/flu whatever it is again. I took medicine this morning and felt like I was out of touch. Needless to say not much is getting done around here. I did finish the "ugly" sweater last night. See last year a group of my friends and I decided to have a sweater knit a long. Well we kinda fizzled after the initial this is gonna be great faze. Like I said in yesterdays post I had all but 1/2 a sleeve knit and sitting around here. I am getting together with my friends this Saturday, and I am going to wear the sweater. After I judge their reactions, I may or may not post a picture. Here is the info I have on the sweater: it is knit with two strands of Sensations Boucle in pink, the original pattern was for a tank and shrug, I have big boobs and am coving them in a double layer of puffy yarn! Even though the pattern called for a tank and a shrug, I made them into a sweater by fudging the pattern. My favorite daughter said "oh its looks nice mom". I'm still not sure if she was trying to suck up after the breathing on me and making me ill part of this week, hence the need to get reactions from my knitting friends. I am slowly working my way through a pair of socks which I hope to finish for Saturday also. And just because Sami is my favorite daughter I am going to make her a really cool sweater. Also the pattern is not in my size and I really really want to knit it! Here is a link to the sweater. The pattern is not ready quite yet so I have some time left to convince my daughter that a very technically difficult sweater does not need be knit in black even if the word goth is in the title. Ok I am off to go stare at the wall (I have darvocet for pain management) and maybe get some knitting done. Have a great day everyone!

Sick again!

2007-01-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

Aacckk I am getting sick again. My husband was sick last week, my daughter stayed home Monday sick, and my son is sniffling. No wonder I am getting sick again. Plus I feel as though I could have a kidney stone. The other day I organized my stash and UFOs. I decided I need to finish some stuff. I have a sweater I started last year at this time. I had the front, back, and 1 1/2 sleeves done. So I finished knitting yesterday, and now am putting it together. I think it could be the ugliest sweater ever. More on that in future posts. So thats pretty much all I have been knitting. Other than that, spending a lot of time organizing our 80 bazillion photos on the computer. I've missed PT twice this week. Once on Monday because my daughter being home and today because I had to take my pet rat to another vet. I have decided we are going to not have the surgery, but wait. We love her and want whats best for her, but her expected life span puts her at having about 6 months. The surgery is just too much money, and plus I just can't have her stitched up. She would be in pain and I would feel really bad. Some of the tumors are beniegn and just grow to a certain size. The only problem the rat would have is maybe the tumor is big and in her way. If it is cancer, then it will probably come back and she would have to have surgery again. I have decided to let her live the rest of her life as is. If she starts to have problems and look as though she is in pain I will have to make the decision to have her put to sleep. I have been so worried and upset about her. Now I am just going to love her and her sister and enjoy them until the end. Wow depressing huh? Ok well really I don't have much else to say today.

Messy Knitting Area, Progress, and New Purchases

2007-01-19T23:19:00.001-05:00

Here is a pic of my knitting area. Pretty messy right now cause I have a few projects going on.

Nah not pills in the pill bottle, stitchmarkers. As you can see everything is just jumbled up. Here are some progress pics. First one is my moms secret socks in the Haunama Bay pattern, and the second is my Sweet Mary Jane sweater.

Last but not least my recent purchases.

I got scarf style the other day at Jo Anns. I used my 50% coupon on it. Very nice. I have about three patterns I really really want to do. The yarn I picked up today at Kathy's Kreations. The multicolor is a random ball from the discount table. May make some anklets for me. The green and yellow will be socks for my dad. See my dad's birthday is coming up and I had no clue what to get him. Finally I decided since he likes John Deere Tractors, I would make him John Deere socks! I have a couple ideas how I would like to design them, so stay tuned.

Blah Thursday.

2007-01-18T12:12:00.000-05:00

Nothing much going on here. I have a headache for the second day in a row. Feel like s&*t. I am just miserable all around today. I have been knitting a bit here and there. I turned the heels on my socks and am in the gusset decreases. I have added another eight rows to the lace sweater. I have also been reading. I am on my third book of 2007. I thought I would keep track of how many books I read this year in my side bar. I am also keeping track of socks knitted and all finished objects. I did not do this last year, so I am trying this year so I have an idea of all I did in the year. I don't really have any goals just knit and enjoy it. Ok well that's all I have. Nothing much.

Oh yeah Ophelia is scheduled for surgery at the end of Feb. We are still not sure if that is what we are going to do or not. We love our little furbaby and want the best for her. It is not guaranteed she will make it through surgery (the vet has never lost a pet yet), plus even if the tumor is removed it is very likely she will grow another. Surgery may prolong her life. Right now we are just watching to see how fast this tumor is growing. We may have to make the decision to have her put to sleep. I am really sad about this whole thing. The average life of rats is two years, and fuzzheads are about 18 months right now. We will do whatever we can to make her better, while at the same time not let her suffer.

Socks so bright I have to wear shades!

2007-01-15T16:13:00.000-05:00

Take a look at whats on the needles:

The purple in the back is my lace sweater I am working on. It is coming along nicely. It is only a four row pattern repeat, and two of the rows are all purl. I was even able to work on it today at the kids dentist apt. The sweater requires the use of many stitch markers. I am always getting annoyed at my plastic markers and flinging them every where. My solution is to use metal jump rings, and so far they are working awesome. The socks are in the front. The yarn is really really bright and cheerfull. I ordered the yarn from Natasha's Luxe site. So glad I did. I ordered 4 ozs, but because of an address mix-up Natasha sent me 8 ozs. There is about 1,000 yards I would guesstimate. These socks are going to be a surprise gift for my mom.

Whew am I tired today. I was out for most of the day running to apts and shopping. I had to be a pt for my shoulder this morning at 8:40 and my kids had dentist apts at 11:00. Plus we had some shopping to do. A bunch of the shopping was for our pet rats. They needed more food, bedding, litter, and disposal bags for the litter. I have some really sad news about my rats too. Saturday night just after 10:00 my husband and I had put the kids to bed and were watching a movie. The rats were out of the cage on their play table as usual. I also had their board out for them to run on. I noticed that Ophelia looked "funny". I told my husband, and he went over and checked her. He said yes she looks like she has a cyst/tumor on her chest. I immediatly started crying. We checked our rat care books and found that this is a common problem that can occur in female rats. So tomorrow I have an 11:30 apt for Ophelia. She will probably require surgery. I am really worried and scared. So please all you animal lovers say a little prayer for her k? In the following picture Ophelia is the one holding my hand and the other is Pandora. They are having a cheerio snack.

Working it out.

2007-01-12T14:32:00.000-05:00

Yeah I keep fooling with my blog trying to work it out and fix it up the way I like it. I am sort of getting it. Anyway not much going on here. I finished my daughters fingerless mitts, but they might be to small. Boo Hoo. We'll see what happens after blocking. The only projects on the needles are two lace projects. I am so wanting to cast on socks though. Maybe this weekend. Well that is all I have for today.

I am all better now.

2007-01-09T18:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, whatever bug I had really had a hold of me. Today is the first day I have felt really well since last Tuesday. I was able to go out and get groceries today which was nice, but people were driving like a bunch of Buttclowns. I was glad to get back home. I have pictures today too! The first is my socks that rock.

Socks that Rock in Neptunite medium weight. Magic loop method two at a time on knit picks size 2 circs. The cuff pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, the heel is eye of partridge, and the foot plain stockinette. These are very nice warm socks.

This is a picture of our furbaby Pandora. Her and her sister Ophelia have a new "trick" they learned. If you come near the cage to pet them, they will jump up and sit on your shoulder. They do this because they want to go to the kitchen and get cheerios to eat. It is so funny because normally they don't like being held all that much. They will sit on your shoulder though time and time again to go for a walk to the kitchen.

Finally I have a meme from SJ. I have been sick so I have not had a chance to post it. I am still working on it and will post soon.

Still rockin the sockies.........

2007-01-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

even though I feel like poop. I am not feeling better much to my disappointment. I had really hoped today would be better, but it is actually worse. I now have a lovely fever and the shakes. I was napping for a while and now I am computeratin cause I am bored. Here is a couple of pics I did take. The first one is my rockin sockies. Oh I love these. In the background you will see my sick blankies. They are warm and fleecie and a must have for when I am sick. The second picture is as close as I'll get to flashin my sock stash this week. I just don't have the energy for it. For goodness sake half my house is decorated for Christmas still and half is not. I have had no energy to take stuff down.

I did paint my nails this morning before the shakes hit me. It makes me smile every time I look at them. Amazing what happiness comes from such a small thing. I have to try and rest up this afternoon. My kids are going to their dads this weekend and my husband and I are supposed to go out to dinner. Thank goodness the kids dad is picking them up. It is a 180 mile round trip. Uugghh. Oh yeah in my last post Jenn said I should eat lots of ice cream. I'm on it. Yesterday I had two servings and probably will today. It really does make my throat feel better not to mention my belly. Well have a great weekend ya all.

Viral Bronchitis?

2007-01-04T17:01:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is, but it has a nasty little hold on me. I think it might be the flu really. I am all achy and sore throat and bit of a cough. So no pictures today. Must save energy for the important stuff like reading tabloib magazines and eating icecream. Seriously that is what I did this afternoon. I think I'll try and get some knitting done tonight. Maybe pictures tomorrow if the nasty flu lets go.

Are your socks rockin?

2007-01-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

Mine are! Woo Hoo I just paid my membership fee for the 2007 Rockin Sock Club. I am so excited. Also I am knitting some socks that rock right now. See:

This is socks that rock medium weight in Neptunite. I started knitting them last night, but they were too big and had to be frogged. Now I have 56 st per sock and am going to try and find a pattern for them.

I am also going to be knitting this*. I started by making the little bag which is the guage swatch. So far I have guage, but have to check it after blocking.

In my basket you can see the yarn for Mary Jane, and my daughters fingerless mitts. The mitts are coming along pretty good. Adamas is still the same as I have not been working on it. Gotta get in gear cause my New Years resolution is to knit more lace. I did finish the socks for my son. He likes them. Well I gotta go make dinner and do some laundry. I will leave you with a pic of what my husband has been doing.

* I could not find the link. It is the Mary Jane cardigan sweater from Knit Picks.

Tagged

2006-12-31T13:35:00.000-05:00

Yay I'm it. I was tagged by SJ a few days ago, but since we were out of town, I am posting now.

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Just in case ya wanted to know:

1. I have an unhealthy obsession with reading/watching tv programs about serial killers. I have many books on the subject. I guess I just want to really know why they did it.

2. I love to make up silly words. I call it Donnaese. I don't know why I make silly words, other than it is just funny. At least to me.

3. M&M's and Skittles. I only eat M&M's in multiples of 2's and Skittles in multiples of 3's. Very weird I know, but that is the point of the list.

4. I have vacuum OCD. I could vacuum my house 4-5 times a day. I am keeping it under control though. I keep it down to every couple of days. There is fuzz and string on the dining room carpet which is driving me crazy, but I just vacuumed a couple days ago and if I pull out the vacuum my husband will give me those looks.

5. I like symmetry. So much so that it really bugs me if I try a new hairdo with a side part. Can't stand lopsided hair on me.

6. I take my purse everywhere. I can not go away without it or I will feel funny the whole time I am gone.

Ok so now ya all know how strange I really am!

I survived Christmas!

2006-12-28T13:10:00.001-05:00

No it was not bad at all. In fact it was great! I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. We spent Saturday with my husbands family exchanging gifts which was a lot of fun. We had a buffet style lunch and then did the exchange. My niece got a Barbie with a pooping dog from us! Haha we did not notice when we bought it that the dog pooped. Everyone thought that was pretty funny. My daughter got quite a bit of make-up and bath products. Oh yay just what a 12 year old wanna be pop tart needs. Sigh gonna have to do a face check on her before she leave the house now. I got an awesome gift from my sis in law. A smores maker/dessert maker kit. I can't wait to try it out (New Years Eve). She thought I would like it, and said she thought it might be nice to have when I go to my knit get togethers. Very thoughtful. Sunday my husband I just hung out at the house all day. My kids father came down, took them to dinner, and exchanged gifts with them. They were very happy and so was I because sometimes things with their father is not what I would like it to be. My son got a huge (way freakin huge) nerf gun. It was taken away within an hour because he would not quit shooting the missile in the house. My daughter got a CD player and CDs. Very good.

Christmas Day was great. We spent it here just the four of us. The kids got MP3 players as their "big" gift. They loooooooooove them!!!!! I am so glad we got them for them. They were happy with all of their gifts. My husband got lots of Legos. Big surprise huh? I also bought him a set of T-Fal cookware. Perfect gift for him. He loves to cook and is an awesome cook. He used the cookware to make breakfast and dinner that day! I got fabulous gifts. From my husband, money for the Socks that Rock club, a watch, and a freshwater pearl set. Bracelet, necklace and earrings. He is that wonderful. My mom and dad gave me money which I used to by the Knit Picks Options needle set. My daughter got me a purple sweater, and my son got me a ball of Noro. Sigh what thoughtful gifts.

The knit pics needles: AWESOME! I love them. The case is not so great, but the needles and cables I love. I have used them the past three days. The Noro became a cravat from this pattern. Ok I have blabbed enough. I will leave you with a few pics.

Another squirrel I made this week and a felted mouse which will be filled with fluff and cat nip to go to my moms cats.

My son holding the cravat I made with the Noro he got me.

Progress on my son's socks. The only other project I have worked on this week. No progress on the pirate mitts or Adamas. I must get busy though because I have a New Years resolution project to start. Woo Hoo. Have a Happy New Year everyone. I must get busy because tomorrow we are leaving for an overnight trip to my father in law and wife's house. That is where the new squirrel is going to live!

2006-12-24T14:49:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!

Updates Woo Hoo!

2006-12-21T08:19:00.000-05:00

I have some pics to update the blog. Really I have just been taking care of stuff here at home getting ready for Christmas. I think I only have two more presents to wrap. After I sew them that is! That is the mission for today. So here we go on update pics:

The fingerless mittens I am working on for my daughter. This is the second project I have done stranded knitting, and I think it is coming out OK. The pattern is a combo of 3 or 4 that I put together. The yarn is knit picks Palette. Needles are knit picks classic circs size 0.

These are the socks I am making for my son. Garter stitch rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. Size 1 knit picks classic circs. Yarn is Opal Krocodile.

I've started my Adamas shawl, and this is the progress so far. I am really enjoying this pattern and can not wait to finish it. The yarn is knit picks shadow I believe and the needles are bryspun size 4. I "hope" to have this finished by the new year, but we will see.

I just made this sock this morning while keeping and eye on the kids as they got ready for school. I got the sock blocker key chain from Cheryl as a Christmas gift. It is so cool!

This was my Christmas gift from Jenn. She and I had one another in a gift exchange. Last night I traveled to her knit night in Fox Chapel to exchange gifts with her. I had a nice time. I met other bloggers and knitters. The only ones I can remember to link to are SJ Jen and Amanda. I have an awful time remembering names. This is an awesome gift Jenn! I have been talking about getting this forever. Now I don't! I looked through it already and found some patterns I will definitely try.

Well I believe I will go take a nap now. Sigh I slept in way late yesterday and the day before. Today I got up at 6 to keep an eye on the pod people aka my kids. My meds I take in the am make me very tired it seems. So I'll have a nap and get sewing. Hope ya all have a great day!

Go Donna Go!

2006-12-15T12:04:00.000-05:00

Woo Hoo finished another pair of socks! I am so loving two at a time magic loop! Wanna see?

Like I said magic loop two at a time on size ones. Lannett superwash yarn. Plain stockinette with a few purl rows thrown in for fun. Very warm and cozy. Also just for SJ, the squirell with him eyes and crooked nose. Sheesh I can not embroider.

He is all wrapped, packed, and on his way to GA. I think my Dad will love it. Heehee. So next up on the knitting list: A pair of fingerless mitts for my daughter and socks for my son. Also, I have two more Christmas gifts to make. They are sewing and should not take long. Well gotta Go go go!

Just Pictures

2006-12-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

I really was

2006-12-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

Seriously I was going to make a good post today with pictures and everything. My husband took the camera with him though. So no pictures today. Not really a lot going on any way. Friday I went to the doctor and came home with 6 prescriptions! Sigh I really wish they could figure out what the heck is wrong and how to make it better. Also on Friday my kids were to go to their dads for the weekend. I was going to take them. I know traffic is always crazy, so I decided to get my daughter out of school a little early and by the time I got home with her my son would be home and we could be on our way by 3:30. Hah! We did not leave until 5:00. This was due to the fact that the latch on the bathroom door broke while my son was in there. So he was stuck in the bathroom for an hour before we could figure out how to open the door with out breaking it down. Crazy huh? Saturday I got to eat lunch with some really wonderful men and women. It was my husband's National Guard Christmas party. It was very nice. Sunday Betsy came over and we sewed and knitted and had lots of fun. Monday I knitted, and wrapped gifts, and did laundry, and other "fun" household stuff. Yesterday I had to take my son to the doctor. He has Bronchitis and so he is home with me again today. Today I must finish my last holiday gift. It is a felted squirrel from Fiber Trends. He is almost ready to felt. I just have to be quick because he needs to be in the box of gifts that is headed to GA! Other than that just knitting on my socks from the last post still. Well have a good Wednesday.

Amazing

2006-12-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

I'm still here if anyone still reads this. I have just been experiencing another knitting life changing moment. I have had three. The first was learning to use dpns to make a sock. I have wanted to make socks forever. Even before I knew how to knit. I was a crocheter, and I tried to make a crochet sock. I had not discovered yarn shops yet. My first sock was crocheted out of red heart worsted weight. Oh yeah It was hideous. I then learned to knit. I thought I should really knit a sock. Well not knowing much, I tried using the old alumiun dpns. Uh can you say slippy? I got so frustrated with stitches falling everywhere that I gave up. Then I discovered yarn shops and bamboo dpns. Ah loved bamboo. It held on to the yarn and let me knit a sock. I was smitten. I loved to make socks. Then came the second knitting life changing moment. My friend Yvonne showed me magic loop! Oh joy and rapture. I loved making socks even more. By now I was addicted to addis because they were slippy and let me knit quick. But then I grew to hate my addis because they tarnished. My yarn sticks and won't go and aarrgghh. Then knit picks saved me with their new circs. Aahh love them. So pointy and shiny and slippy. I thought making socks can be no better. Then the other day I had the third moment. I sat and read the tutorial prepared by Kenny, and now...... TWO SOCKS AT ONE TIME MAGIC LOOP! Yes I may seem crazy, but I am in love, lust, whatever. How cool. You knit you finish and there are two socks done and ready to wear. Love you magic loop and now even more with the two at a time socks. Now I can really be the sock queen my friends claim I am. Want to see the socks I have been working on?

Some of the prettiest socks ever. They are snowflake lace pattern. So wintery, but yet really more for spring because they are so lacey. The yarn is Regia plus cotton. Lovely yarn. Can not wait to finish these.

These will be plain stockinette stitch socks. Very warm and comfy. The yarn I got on vacation in California. I think it is called Lanette superwash. Very nice. And finally a picture of a finished object.

Convertible all done and blocked. Very long time to finish this. I started in May! It is not as long as the pattern calls for because I used a different yarn. I am happy with the finished size though. The yarn is Morehouse Merino. So now of course I want to cast on for another lace shawl. Really I don't know why. I don't think shawls will look good on me, but they are so pretty. My New Year's resolution involves a lace shawl. It will be very difficult, but well worth it. I told my husband it will be so nice I will hang it on the wall for all to see. Well I guess that is all for now. I must go knit more socks. Oh I am so helplessly addicted. Please help. Send yarn. Sock yarn.