Today's Show is brought to you by the Letter 'B'

I feel like I'm hosting my very own episode of Sesame Street... And I'm also getting this in just under the wire. So without further ado...

'B' is for Birthday


Here is my little Emily on January 26th, 2001. If I remember correctly she's not even and hour old in this picture.


And here's Miss Emily now...


Collectively now....Awwwww!!!!! My baby turned five this week. She's very upset though, because she has to wait until the Fall to start kindergarten. Poor thing. Poor me. I love my baby hurricane, but she needs full time school. But then I got a little sentimental about things. My baby turned five this week. I'm not having anymore. And even if I wanted to, I can't. (Looong story there, but I found out after Emily was born that I should never have been able to get pregnant. I'm a medical mystery ya'll.) But I digress.... I'm just a tad bit sad about my baby turning five. And yes, I keep repeating that, but people.....My baby is five. *sniff*

'B' is also for Breast Cancer...

Here's my Mom, a survivor. Breast cancer has touched my life way too many times.


My Mom will be a 4 year survivor this May. My Aunt Rosie (Mom's sister) is also a survivor. Aunt Rosie's daughter, (my cousin) Rose Mary...She too is a recent survivor. And then there's my Mom's other sister, Aunt Mary. She lost her battle to it in 1989. We also have a close family friend who is a recent survivor. Needless to say, even though I am only in my late 20's, I've had my share of mammograms. I have two Aunt's and a cousin who make sure of that. I hope this disease doesn't touch your life....But Ladies, just in case, get those boobies squished!


And now for something less serious...

Let's talk about obsession. Addiction. Or maybe just Luck.

That, my dear readers, is Vesper sock yarn. We have from l-r: Aqua Melon balled up and ready to go; Crew; Newly acquired Paisely which will be wound and turned into Jaywalkers starting tonight; and what's left of the Neopolitan after I finished the last jawalkers. Can I just say, I seriously love this yarn! I'm obsessed, and even though I have all this, I am patiently waiting for the new colors to make their appearance.


Last but not least, how about a FO? Here's my Essential stripe pullover. I'm really pleased with it, although next time I'll make the sleeves smaller. You can't see in the picture, but they are quite baggy. I would definitely use this pattern again, only less stripes. That way there are less ends to weave. If it weren't for the ends, this sweater would have been completed three weeks ago.


Now if only I could get motived to seam the t-shirt sweater that is blocked and waiting...

4 Things...

I've been tagged..

4 Jobs You've had in your life.
coffee shop chic
grocery store cashier
home care provider for elderly couple (I miss them.)
babysitter (haven't we all at some point?)


4 movies you could watch over and over. (This was hard to chose just four...)
Jewels by Danielle Steele
Empire Records
Pirates of the Caribbean
Sweet Home Alabama


4 Places You Have Lived
Ansbach, Germany
Bertchesgaden, Germany
Newark, Ohio
Virginia Beach, Virginia


4 TV Shows You Love To Watch (Again, it was hard to pick just four.)
Grey's Anatomy
Alias
Sex and The City
Two and a Half Men


4 Places You Have Been On Vacation (I haven't done a real vacation, ever. Just week-ender's)
Nags Head, North Carolina
Wildwood, New Jersey
McKinney, Texas (In Laws house, not sure if it counts as a "vacation")
Virginia Beach, Virginia (Obviously when I didn't live there)


4 Websites You Visit daily
Hotmail
Bloglines
Cute Overload
Kpixie (stalking for Vesper. Seriously.)


4 Of your Favorite Foods
German Chocolate
Stir Fry
Cheesecake (without a doubt)
Red Pepper Sauce on Pork Tenderloin


4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
The Ocean
Knit Night with my Girls
Yarn shopping (Duh!)
Germany


4 Bloggers You Are Tagging
Emmy
You
You
You

If you want to do it, have at it. There's no one left to tag out there.

Knitting Olympics

Yes, I'm late to the game. It's been blogged about everywhere, by everyone. I'm not even going to link to it, because everyone else has. I danced back and forth wether I would do this or not. I even have three projects that would be a challenge, but that I could probably pull off. IF I wanted to.

I have always thought of myself as a product knitter. You won't see me knit a sock yarn with four different patterns/needle sizes to see what I like best. I cast on knit and finish. I don't rush through my projects, but I don't exactly take my time. And knitting, for me, is my stress reliever. It takes the edge off, and I get some great wear-ables at the same time. So this Olympic knitting should really be a walk in the park for me. I could do it. It might take a little more push, and a little more sleep, but I could do it. But do I really want to? I mean, if I start pushing myself to get it done...And then the stress kicks in because I "might not" finish by deadline. And then what would I do to relieve the stress brought on by my stress reliever? (Yeah, I'm over thinking this. So what?) And then will I be enjoying the process? Wait! I thought I was purely a product knitter. Turns out, there's a little bit of process in me after all. I think I'll call myself a produss knitter for now.
So I've decided not to do Olympic knitting. Who knows, the night before I might change my mind and if so, I can just silently knit along.

I'm in a mini-knitting funk right now. I finished knitting the pieces for the Ella rae t-shirt. They are blocked and sitting on the table waiting for assembly. The pattern says to seam with the backstitch. I don't like it though.... And I can't decide if I want to graft it together, or follow the instructions. And since I can't decide, it's just sitting there. And I have nothing on the needles. Nothing. I don't want to start my next sweater until this one is done. I have so much sock yarn, that I can't decide which one I want knit next. I'm obviously suffering from icantdecideitis this week. And I'm still sick *whine* And that party we are having tomorrow for Emily...It's up to 14 five year olds now. Stuffed into a little Burger King, and all the parents too. What. Was. I. Thinking?

I'm also supposed to be setting up a knit along for Salina. A certain blogger said she wished someone would set one up and my big mouth said I would. I want to, I don't mind the work. But I'm so sure that no one will sign up for a kal by me, that I can't motivate myself to even get the info together. I'll think on this a little longer.

I did sign up for Socakpaloooza. I still need to put the cute ass button on my sidebar.

So you see, I'm just a whiny, complaining, non-knitting gal this week. And to top it off, I feel the need to buy something. Some knitting somethings. So I've been wandering all my favorites sites, and nothing is screaming "Buy me". So what do you want to buy right now or should I say, what have you bought lately? Maybe that will help me not buy anything. Who knows....

I'm so not in my head today, as evident by the ramblings in this post. I think I'll go curl up with my favorite blanky and a good movie. Wait...I don't like to watch movies without knitting. Which brings me back to what to knit. *sigh* It never ends.....

***Yes, I know life could be SO much worse. Just let me think that my problems are that bad for now.

I'm alive....for now

So, I had like three different posts for the last week. Shocking I know. But I never got around to it because my whole family was hit with some mutant bug thing. The fever is gone, but we are all just a coughing away. My thoughts are all scattered right now (as usual). I have to entertain 12- five year olds this Saturday at Burger King so I'm trying to get things together for that. And I'm trying to get ready for my sock class in less than two weeks. I have one sock knitted up for it, but need to write out my pattern and some information sheets I want to give out. I wanted to talk about the Knitting Olympics. Will I or won't I? And I still need to set up the Salina Knit along I'm going to host. *I'm going to feel real dumb when no one signs up for it* But right now, I'm in a drug induced haze, thanks Dayquil, so I'll just show you all the new stuff I got. (I feel like a braggart, but I swear I'm not!)

***Picture Heavy***


Remember the box seen here? How about I show you what was in it?

That's 15 skeins of Mission Fall 1824 Wool. 7 skeins of a rust color and 8 skeins of a clay color. One skein of Cascade 220, a bag of coilless safety pins (love those) and the book is Noro Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton book 2. You know, the one with the Klaralund pattern.


Also in the box were these awesome candles. There's eight of the lavender vanilla votives, and then the three tins. Plus some really awesome fruity tea. (Awesome is today's theme I suppose.)


but wait! There's more.... A bunch of knitting notecards, a picture frame, notepads, a sheep bookmarker all the way from Ireland, and this kick ass journal. You see the pinup girl in the red swimsuit? The red part is actual beads. Love it! I collect journals, but I don't write in them. Yes, it's weird. I just love to look at them. But this one, I think I might make it my FO journal. Just to keep a little record of my knitting, since I can't remember what I knit a month ago.


But wait! There's still more!
This really cute chenille bear (which the daughter has stolen from me). And quite possibly my most favorite things in the box: Silver Fairy earrings from Ireland! I looooove Fairies. *My brother is supposed to be designing a new tattoo for me of a Fairy knitting....I only asked him to do it a year ago.* A cute Irish Sheep pin, again, from Ireland. Did I ever tell you (SP) that I am Irish? And some cool beaded stitch markers.


Here's a close up. The charms on the stitch markers say: believe, love, hope, peace and dream. And notice the one on the left? It's a little sweater on knitting needles.


SP6 you outdid yourself!! This box was well worth the wait. Thank you for everything!


I'm thinking I should rename my blog again. How about "I bought more yarn, again"? If I were to go through my archives, I bet over 50% of my posts are stash acquisitions. So of course, when I saw this new "a-long", I had to join. It's the "Buy More Yarn" along. This should be fun, and way too easy!

And to make sure I don't disappoint you, here's some more new yarn.


My first two Rowan books/mag. I got #37 to knit butterfly, and three balls of kid silk haze in the most beautiful baby pink for it. (This was bought with my X-mas money so Thanks Mom and Dad). Rowan Vintage style book to knit Salina, and 7 balls of Rowan Felted tweed in Herb for this one. I have always wanted to knit with tweed yarn, and this one feels/looks great. It has flecks of white, navy blue, and grey, so pretty!
Those other two skeins of yarn...The green one is Vesper Sock Yarn in Crew. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it for myself or give it to Emmy. I love the bright green, but not sure about that dark green. I would kill for some Vesper in Paisley (hint-hint).

That other ball is an amazing find.... It's schaefer fingering weight yarn. It's an exclusive yarn from The Knitting Chocolate. I don't even know what it's called. The label simply says "content: champagne -- 75%merino, 25% silk" . It's not even listed on the schaefer website. So what's so awesome about this yarn? That ball is 930 yards of silk/merino and it cost me all of $32!!! For 930 yards! I was going to make family socks with it, but now I'm thinking it would work better for something else. Don't know what though.

Phew! One last thing....It looks like bloglines is picking up my feed finally. I didn't hear from their tech support for five days so I -emailed them and basically said "Why hasn't the problem been fixed, it's been 8 days?" And they wrote back saying they would reset the feed, but that might not work. Well, it did. What I want to know is why it took 8 days to do that? And why I had to write them more than once to "remind" them. *sigh* At least I don't have to use the old blog for updating, for now.

The Sweater Song

"If you want to destroy my sweater
Pull this thread as I walk away (as I walk away)
Watch me unravel i'll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floorI've come undone..."

20 points if you can name that song and the band.

So here I was, cruising along on the t-shirt sweater watching Grey's Anatomy last night. And before I knew it, the back piece was done as well. So I pin them together to see how it's going to fit and my pieces aren't measuring up. I then decide to rip back part of the back piece to see where I messed up. Here's where we were when I finally went to bed at 1am


Here's where we are now

I don't know how I messed this up, but I did. If I put the pieces together as if to seam there was nearly I two inch difference. If I put them together back against a front, they line up. With a measuring tape I found that there's an inch difference; I counted rows and found a three row difference. My gauge is five rows per inch. Yes, I know how to measure and count. Clearly something isn't right and since I don't know which piece is wrong, I have to start all over again. At least I know I can knit this up quickly. I did the front piece in one day (it took ALL day but still). I'm a little frustrated, just a bit though.


Last week I saw this really cool bag in Knitters magazine. It's the first bag on this page. I love it, but can't spend that much on a bag. NO big deal, I can make one. Haha. here's my attempt:


Really it's not that bad. It's tad shorter and a tad wider. It's just plain ol' chocolate brown fabric that I found, and I sewed the pink ribbon on it. Added a pink lining and two inside pockets and voila! And it cost me all of $5 dollars. I can fit 8 balls of the Atacama yarn in it with some room leftover. I would still like the "real bag" but for now this will work.



I bought that book I mentioned in my last post. I couldn't resist a 20% off everything sale at knithappens. I also ordered 7 balls of Rowan Felted tweed in Herb to make Salina. I'm going to start a small knit-a-long for it so stay tuned for details.

Bloglines is still having issues. I finally got a reply last night from their tech support. It took 4 days all so they could tell me "We appreciate that you have brought this to our attention. We have forwarded your information to the appropriate technical department for further investigation, and regret any inconvenience" It's a good thing I don't pay for this service. Wonder how long this will take?

We're of to Grandmom's house for a wee visit. Translation: Break for Mommy. Yay!

Great Minds think alike because 'A' is for...

Anniversary!

Today was the one year anniversary for our knitting group so of course we had to get together for some knitting and great food. We hung out at Becky's amazingly warm and cozy real log house. I swear, I didn't want to leave. I don't want to get all sappy about it, but I really love the gals in my knitting group. They've been so good to me this last year. And anyone who can put up with my incessant talking...well they deserve medals for that.
Here we are:
Top row, left to right: Sandy, Becky, Pam, and Emmy
Bottom row, left to right: Lindy, Me, and Beth

I promise Emmy and Pam don't always look grumpy, it was bitter cold out there! And we're all wearing semi-matching scarves. We played a little game, Emmy describes it well. She also explains the "Great Minds Think Alike" title of tonight's post so go to her blog for details. Sorry folks, but I'm do darn lazy to type it all out after emmy already did :) I am quite amused that we even had the same ideas for pictures. Speaking of Emmy, here she is. Gotta love blogging the blogger.




Here's the cake I brought. Nothing fancy but it sure was good. It says "Knit 1, Purl 2". Not very well written but not bad for store bought.


And now onto other things...A little hodge podge if you will.
I think I have my jaywalker problem taken care of. I give more details when I'm sure of them.
Sock class details have been taken care of and I am absolutely thrilled with how it worked out. (Except the yarn....But that's a story for another day.) We start in February and I can't wait.
I have finished the front of the Ella Rae t-shirt and suspect I will have the back done tomorrow. I'm to the armhole shaping now. It's knitting up really fast!
I still need to take pictures of everything in that bog ol' secret pal box. As soon as I can, you'll see em'. (And I need to e-mail SP and thank the girl! I promise I will soon.)
I'm coveting this sweater now, it's called Salina, and made with Rowan Felted tweed. Any thoughts on this yarn? I've almost ordered the book 10 times tonight. I put it in my shopping cart, close the window, google the book, put it in my cart...Repeat.
I did some kick ass stash enhancement too. New silk sock yarn, and a lace project in the works.


I had planned on blogging all this stuff the last couple days. Instead, I've been trying to get bloglines to pick up the feed for this blog. Argh! Until someone can get it working, I'll use the
old blog to let you know of updates. Sorry folks. It sucks. Trust me, I know.

I feel like I'm leaving something out. So many things I wanted to mention....Not so many brain cells left at midnight to do it. Oh well... I'm off to bed. Those gals wore me out today!

I am so freakin pissed off right now!

Edit: It's now 5:50pm on Thursday, I posted right around midnight....But does bloglines pick up the feed? Of course not.


O.K. First off, in retrospect I know this is something little, and I need/will get over it. But right now, I need to vent! And knowing there are knitter's out there who will understand helps me.

I've mentioned before that I can be anal about things (Ohh that's gonna get me some nasty google hits). One of my so called issues, when I go to bed, everything has to be done. Clean house, toys put away. (I admit I have been slacking lately on the housework but none the less) I don't like going to bed when something's unfinished. So here I am, just about midnight and look what I have:

Jaywalker #2 almost complete using Socks That Rock Alina. First off, I hate pooling, but I can live with it if it isn't too bad. It would be nice if the pooling at least matched though. As you can see, it doesn't. That's not what ticks me off the most though. You see that strand of yarn to the right? That's what's left. A whole 25 inches, and I have 26 rows left (four regular and then the toe decreases) Clearly, my small size 6.5 feet are really not so small after all. I have heard of people running out of STR but I was sure I wouldn't, seeing as though all my life I got picked on for having small feet. Liars.
So what's a girl to do? Do you realize how hard it's going to be for me to get to sleep tonight? I don't have anything in my stash to use for the toes. I don't want solid color toes. of course, two toes is better than no toes, no matter how you get them.

And you know what gets me? My "formula" is nearly identical to Cara's.

Size 1 addis. Check.
76 sts cast on. Check.
12 rows of ribbing and 25 repeats. Check. (Although I did 6 ribbing and 28 repeats, it comes out the same.
Foot measurement of 8.5". Wouldn't you know, mine measure 8.5" sooo Check.

AND YET I RAN OUT OF YARN!!!!! WTF!!!!!

So like I said at the beginning of this post...there are worse things, and I'll get over it, eventually. In the meantime, I'm giving the evil eye to the other skein of STR I have, that's already wound into a ball. Clearly, it won't get used anytime soon. Which sucks, because I like the STR yarn A LOT.

I'll leave you with this picture for now, so I can go stew on this a little more.

What's this you ask? My final SP6 came this week. Emily was dieing to see what was in it. Are you?

Welcome to my new Pad

Hello. Glad you found me, again. Pull up a chair, get comfy, have a good look around. Like my new look?

There is a sidebar full of buttons and archives and such on the right. When I posted it all shifted down the page. Not sure why, I'll have to fiddle with it later.

Most of you know I have been wanting to redesign my blog for months now. It took awhile, but I managed to find a designer that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and Michelle (I as going to link her, but the site seems to be down right now. I'll edit when it comes up.) was great. I found the picture in the header, and told her what colors I wanted. And the rest was all her doing. It's amazing how well she captured my personality. The swirlies are totally me. Take a look at the girl in the header. Do you see it? There's a shadow of a ball of yarn with knitting needles. What a neat extra touch, huh? I am totally loving the new look. So....What do you think?

I wasn't going to blog this week-end. I've been sick for two weeks now, and just not feeling all that great. The technical diagnosis is labyrinthitis. My Dr. is stumped as to why I'm still feeling symptoms though. Today I haven't had any problems, yesterday was really bad. It's kind of amusing...As a child everyone called me Dizzy Lizzy. And now I really am. But anyways, like I was saying. I wasn't going to blog this week-end, but something happened. Something so good, I had no choice but to blog about it.

A few weeks ago, the girls and I drove an hour to a new knitting shop in Emporia, Knitting Chocolate. We had a blast. I've heard stock has doubled since our last visit, which could be bad news for the hubby, hehe. Melissa (The owner) is a really nice gal, very easy to talk to. So I did. And it came up that I love knitting socks. *I wouldn't say that I'm a pro, but I like to think I'm up there in sock knitting land.* Melissa mentioned wanting to offer a sock class and needing a teacher, and would I do it. Of course, I said I would love to. In retrospect, I never really expected anything to come of it.
So today, Pam (from knit night) gives me a call from Knitting Chocolate. Melissa wanted to know if I had gotten her e-mails about the sock class, which I haven't. And then Pam says, "Oh. Well she needs to know when You want to do them because she has nine people signed up already." NINE people, already! And now my head is really spinning. I mean, sure I knit socks, and it can't be too hard to teach. But me? ME? I am going to go see Melissa Thursday to work out all the details, because, yes, I do intend to do this. But people, I am scared shitless! What if I suck at teaching? What if I confuse them? Give to much info? Not enough info? What if they hate the class? Will I meet their expectations? I'm haunted by visions of knitters throwing double points at me screaming for their money back. I have never been to a knitting class, so I don't know how to go about this. I know it can't be too hard, but...Oh, my head.

And this is where you come in...I really need some help here. I don't know where to start. Is there anything I should know as a "new teacher"? Anything I should/shouldn't do? Melissa said she was going to get some Cherry Tree Hill Supermerino Worsted, so we can start out on size 4 or 5 DPN's. Works for me, I think I have a good free pattern I can use. That's all I have for now.I don't even know what to ask you guys, so I'll leave it at this.... What would you want out of a beginner sock knitting class?


Oh, and one more thing. Look what I did this week...


Jaywalkers #2, with Socks That Rock Alina. I am so loving this yarn!