The Postman always rings twice

Finally, the post the computer ate!

I was the lucky recipient of two packages on Monday. Yay for yarn in the mail!

The first is a delightful "thank you" gift from Jill for participating in her "You Knit Too Much" Contest, which I was woefully bad at. Thank you Jill! I love that it is a little bit sparkly!


And I received my birthday gift from Grandma, well, from Grandma's money! :) The lovely ladies at KPixie whipped this into the mail. Five skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Espresso for Licorice Whip. Yum. And enough Bartlett yarn to make Demi from Rowan Vintage Style. Mmmm. Wool.



I also purchased some yarn at the LYS last week on knitting night. Some yummy green Ella Rae to make the green hoodie from Knitscene, and a ball of Trekking (and a new set of sock needles!), because apparently I cannot leave the store without Trekking. At least, that's what the hubbo says.

Sadly, it is way too freaking hot to even consider knitting with wool yet. It is still over 100 degrees every day. We're over halfway to the record (69 days set in 1980), but we may cool down. Here's what the local weather says: HEAT ADVISORY until at least 7pm Friday. Partly cloudy and very warm Thursday night. Low 80. Afternoon heat indices will likely be 100 or higher both Friday and Saturday afternoons. Shower and t-storm chances return to the forecast Saturday night through Tuesday. Thursday was the 40th day this year with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher. This moves 2006 into a 7th place tie with 1951 in years with most 100 degree days. Sixth place currently belongs to 1952 with 44 such days. We should reach 42 100 degree days by Saturday. But after that temperatures should say below 100 for the forseeable future.

Please God, let it cool down. We had near 100 degree days in October last year. Yech. I'm so sick of y'all discussing how it's "cooling down," or "too cold to leave the windows open at night," or that you're "feeling fall in the air." I'm feeling Heat Advisories and upset children who can't go to recess. So really, keep it to yourself unless you have some to share. Really.

Q is for

(I know. I promised knitting. But I was up way too late last night and I just don't have it together for a lengthly post this morning. Besides, I'm still catching up.)





Q is for Quilt. I know, completely unoriginal, but c'est la vie. My Dad's mom made this quilt (right mom?), as well as crocheting several afghans for us and doing other crafty things. My sister has a "matching" one, hers has a pink border. I love this quilt and really want to find a place to hang it, so it can stop living under my bed. Perhaps when we move and I have my own craft room.....One can dream.

P is for Paper

(I had a big post typed up for today and Firefox shut down as I was loading pictures. And yep, I hadn't saved it. Sigh. Tomorrow.)

I'm woefully behind on the ABC along. Please forgive me.


P is for Paper. I love paper. Notecards. Notepads. Sticky notes. Lined notebook paper. Notebooks full of paper. File folders for holding paper. Yum. And I can never throw a unused piece of paper away. As a result, I have an entire file box filled with half used notebooks and notepads. I don't feel badly about this. I love paper.

The last of the celebration

Whew! We wrapped up birthday week on Saturday with a lovely gathering of friends, and some most excellent gifts! This year we asked that everyone make their gift, and we received some wonderful things (including a story written and illustrated by my BIL & SIL based on hubbo and I's relationship. It's great.).

From Kerri - a felted purse all of my own that I didn't have to knit! And isn't the button great? I love it.


And Jen designed these fabby blog business cards for me! I love them and now need more of an excuse than ever to go to a wool festival/knitblogger meetup/etc. just to pass them out! She even designed the girl to look like me! I love them - what a great idea! Hey Jen - tell us in the comments where you got them!


And finally - one of the hubby's gifts - this made me laugh so hard. If you're not a cycling fan, you may not get it. The label says, "To be used only if you're A sample is positive & you are a manly man that produces naturally high testosterone-epitestosterone ratios from your own organism and because, gosh-darn, you worked hard for your stage win and you deserve to win. Not to be confused with Tyler Hamilton's B-Sample that was quicklly freeze dried to allow him to retain his Olympic Gold Medal." Too funny. this is also funny, if you need a gift for that cyclist in your life.

OK. Really. I promise, I've been knitting. I just need to take some pictures of it. Soon.....

Birthdays that Rock

I opened my final birthday week gift on Thursday night, as I ran out the door for knitting (Yay for knitting group! I cannot tell you how much better it made my week to sit with some fiber-lovin' ladies and knit. Oh, and the yarn I bought helped too!).

All I have to say is that my hubbo rocks. I ripped off the wrapping paper to see this.

Good try honey at that label removal, but as soon as I saw this, I knew what was in the box.

Yeah, I think he's a keeper! (BTW, it's STR mediumweight in the County Clare colorway. Yum!)

To cap off birthday week, I came home to not one, but TWO packages yesterday! What a way to celebrate my survival of the first week of school!

My One-Skein swap buddy sent me my final package - the item we had made from one skein of yarn. And she was kind enough to include a few other goodies too!

She made me the spiral rib bag from the One Skein book - something I had been eyeing! I love it and cannot wait to put it to use! She was also fortunate to attend Stitches Midwest last week, and sent me some souvenirs from her visit! I love the keychain sock blocker sock kit and cannot wait to knit those up! But of course, the highlight was the lovely birthday gift she included - ANOTHER skein of Socks that Rock (lightweight in the Watermelon Tourmaline colorway. Dudes, am I spoiled or what? My swap buddy was Knit Chick and she totally spoiled me! (Go visit her, scroll down and check out all the STR that she got at Stitches! Gorgeous!) Thanks so much! I love everything you've sent!

And, if that wasn't enough, I got my goodies from my Knit Sock Kit Swap buddy too!


My buddy was Shari who sent me a lovely box of goodies! She made this oh-so-cute bag, with all kinds of pockets inside (I love pockets!), slipped some stitch markers inside (perfect for socks!), and sent some yummy candy and a fabby moleskine notebook (the hubbo is totally jealous of this item!). And to top it all off she sent a skein of All Things Heather sock yarn. Yummy! Thanks Shari - I love everything!

I'm so excited to have all this fabby sock yarn from smaller dyers to knit up - I'm on a mission to try every kind of sock yarn. Think I can do it?

So now comes the burning question - if you had all this beauty in your lap, how would you choose what to knit next?

You say it's your birthday

Happy Birthday to Me!

I received a wonderful birthday gift today - no, not a day off of work (really, wouldn't it be great to work somewhere where your birthday is a holiday? I used to. I miss that.).

Better.

Yarn.

Not just any yarn. Yarn dyed especially for me by Ms. Dye-o-rama herself! When we got home from our trip, I told hubbo that I really wanted some of Jamie's fabby yarn, and how dumb was I that I didn't order someup and have her deliver it in person. When we were discussing the birthday extravaganza later that week, I said "Well, I'm sure you could email her and tell her what colors you wanted and she would dye it for you." "Really?" "Sure!"

And she did.


Thank you to the hubbo and Scout for such a lovely skank of yarn. Me loves it. I really want to knit it up now, but isn't six pairs of socks enough? Really. Six pairs on the needles. I know you haven't seen them all yet. I'm working on it. But soon. Soon my very special birthday yarn that no one else in the whole world has will be socks for me. Soon.

In other news, Cocoa has decided that it is her birthday too.


Well, lacking that, Mom's wrapping detrius makes a really good hiding place.


I'm totally invisible.


Seriously.


Apparently, it's National Hide in Mom's Stuff Day. Who knew?

Yellow and Blue make Green

Thanks for all the birthday wishes - the big day is actually tomorrow (Wednesday), and birthday week is in full swing.

For those of you who didn't read the blog last summer, the hubbo and I celebrate "Birthday Week" to make our birthdays "a little more special" since they fall back to back. Yep. Mine's Wednesday and his is Thursday. Same year and everything. Sometimes I like being the "older woman!"

When we made a quick trip to our LYS on Saturday, he picked out this skein of Trekking for himself. I should rephrase that. He picked out this skein for me to knit socks for him, as he still hasn't learned how to knit.

It's a bit crazy for my husband who only seems to like "plain" socks and boring, solid or minimally striped/plaid clothing. Perhaps he was thinking of birthday week, as this is what he gave me yesterday.


2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Daffodil. He said he chose them because they were "colors I knew you would never chose for yourself." He's right. I do tend to stick to "my" colors. Yet I find these skeins very pretty, and I'm super impressed that he listens to enough of my ramblings to chose something *not* on the "birthday list." Good job honey! Today I got my very own copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting. Cannot wait to sit down and read it cover to cover.

Must go do some school work so that I can try to avoid it tomorrow night.

Long time gone

Long time.....no post. My apologies. Work has be a *bit* overwhelming, to say the very least. In fact, I did no knitting for about one week. Yikes. I guess 14 hour days actually in the classroom/meeting, and then a few more hours at home make it difficult to fit in the knitting time.

School started today and I am struggling to stay awake, and it's not even 9. I really miss my knitting.

But I did get some goodies in the mail!

My August Birthday Swap Pal sent me my lovely birthday goodies! My pal was Lisa in Memphis, and she did a great job!


Yum, yum, yummy! I love all of it, but I have to admit that I especially love the black sheepy tape measure and the tins. I love containers of any sort. There's something so satisfying about putting things away. Ahhhhh....


I also have a belated Saturday Sky picture for you.


Can't quite tell what that is? Does this help?


YES! It's RAIN! It only rained for about 5-10 minutes, but it was a nice break. Of course, it was still 100+ degrees on Saturday, and we're steadily working toward breaking the record for 100 degree days. We only stayed at recess for 10 minutes today because it was so stinkin' hot outside. Blech.

And finally, what did I get (early) for my birthday yesterday?

I promise, I have some knitting content. I'll try to show you soon! No promises about bloggy updates though. I'll aim for a few a week. Stay tuned - there has been knitting!

Two posts in one!

Stupid blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures last night, so you get Saturday's and Sunday's posts all in one!

O is for Olivia.

I love Olivia - delightful illustrations and great stories. Please, if you have young children (or are just a big kid at heart), check out these books!


And my sky. Just as hot as last Saturday.

Go visit Nettie, my One-Skein Pal who loves her footies! Yay!

Updates from the water department - They tore a huge trench in the street at the end of our driveway this week (and put down lovely metal boards for us to drive on. Just a bit scary.). Then on Friday they poured new curbs. I asked one of the guys if they were still planning on tearing up our yard, and he said yes. "But y'all are laying new curbs today." "Yeah. We'll have to pour them again after we tear up your yard." Good plan. Gotta love the city.


And for Scout's UFO meme.

Top row: One husband sock waiting for a mate, Kyoto, one dishcloth of a set of three.
Next: Trekking sock almost to the heel flap, Log Cabin sock yarn blanket, Leaf Lace, Clappy, Branching Out, and the pink blob.
Next: Mom's shrug, new purple cotton sock, grey sock, Log Cabin blanket, Baltic Sea Stole, Hubbo's xmas sweater and sheep back.

Yep. 16. Yikes.

Not nearly enough knitting done this weekend, and we go back for teacher inservice days tomorrow. Where did the summer go?

Meme-a-licious Friday

I'm tired. I got nothing. How 'bout a meme?

Courtsey of Keohinani

I smoked a pickle because I like to keep it gangsta. How 'bout you?

Birthday::
January-----------i married
Febuary-----------i lied to
March--------------i stole
April--------------- i ate
May----------------i bitch slapped
June---------------i kissed
July----------------i killed
August------------ i smoked
September-------i choked
October---------- i played with
November------- i watched
December--------i love

DAY [NUMBER] YOU WERE B0RN 0N =]
1-------a spork
2-------my friends pants
3------- myself
4-------a football player
5-------my true love
6------- p diddy
7-------a lawn gnome
8------- snakes on a plane
9-------a banana
10-------my best friends boyfriend/girlfriend
11-------a ruler
12-------an ipod
13-------my neighbor
14-------a sandwich
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------bigfoot
18-------a spoon
19-------a monkey
20-------a mexican
21-------a ninja
22-------a fireman
23-------a noodle
24-------a gangster
25-------1000 people
26-------your mom
27-------an alien
28-------a squirrel
29-------my science teacher
30-------a hobo
31-------my uncle-

C0L0R OF Y0UR SHiRT ;]
White-------Because dat bitch took my taco.
Black--------Because that's how I roll.
Pink---------Because im in love
Red----------Because the voices told me to.
Blue----------Because im sexy and i do what i want.
Green--------Because I hate myself.
Purple--------Because i love snakes
Gray---------- Because i keep it gangsta
Yellow--------Because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange----Because i hate my family.
Other-------Because i was high
maroon-----Because i was drunk.
teal-----cuz it was illegal
Brown-----Because im emo
Caramel----cuz Charlie told me to.
Striped------cuz ur mom said so
black & pink----Because i am kool like that
none-----cuz im so sexy
bathing suit----- cuz im to kool for t.v

Please. I need a laugh. Leave your answers in the comments.


One more, just for kicks....this time from Grandi.

Accent--Um, I'm from the midwest. We don't have accents.
Book I like--Anne of Green Gables
Chore I don't care for--Most of them.
Dog or cat--3 dogs, one cat.
Essential electronics--Computer and TV
Favorite movie--Princess Bride
Gold or silver--Silver
Handbag I carry most often--All of them! I rotate a lot.
Insomnia--lately quite a bit.
Job title--Teacher
Kids--1 stepdaughter - 8.
Living arrangements--House.
Most memorable moment/time--Getting engaged & married.
Naughtiest childhood behavior--Bossing around my little brother and sister.
Overnight hospital stay--None.
Phobias--Large spiders, heights when I'm not strapped into something.
Quote--"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt.
Religion--United Methodist.
Siblings--2 - Sister (25) and brother (23).
Time I wake up--Ugh. 5 am.
Unusual talent--I got nothing....
Vegetable I refuse to eat--Peas, lima beans and cauliflower.
Worst habit--Degrading myself.
Xrays--Teeth and a few broken/sprained bones/tendons.
Yummy stuff I cook(or make)--I make a mean box of Shells and Cheese.
Zoo animals I like most--Elephants and kangaroos.

Consider yourself tagged if you wanna play!

Making a list

Behind again....

July Goals:
1. Finish Leaf Lace Shawl. NOPE
2. Some progress on pink blob. IN TIME OUT
3. More progress on Baltic Sea Stole. YEP!
4. Finish first pair of Trekking socks. YEP!
5. Finish one sock for The Husband. YEP!
6. Finish One Skein Swap gift. YEP!
7. Finish blue socks. RIPPED
8. Start purple socks. RIPPED
9. IF Leaf Lace is finished, start another lace project. NOT DONE
10. IF blue socks are finished, start another pair of lace socks. NOT DONE
11. IF good progress is made on other projects, start Log Cabin Blanket. STARTED
12. Work on Kyoto if time allows. A BIT DONE


I thought I had failed miserably this month, but there are a lot of completed items on that list! Woo Hoo for me! So, what to do this month?

1. Finish Baltic Sea Stole.
2. Start neutral (grey) socks.
3. Finish hubbo's second sock.
4. Start hubbo's xmas sweater.
5. Work on Log Cabin blanket.
6. Knit and felt sheep.
7. Finish mom's shrug/bolero.
8. Try to finish Leaf Lace.
9. If time, restart blue and purple socks.

I also need to make my Christmas knitting list. Yikes.

I only managed to read one of "my own" books for "Read what you have July." I'm a loser. I hope to read more, but my time will not be my own in a few days when school starts. Pooey.

Where's Leaf Lace?

So, the 5th challenge for the Amazing Lace is to "hide our knitting in plain sight." Well, he didn't know it at the time, but Miles helped me out with this one. On Saturday I left him home alone (well, alone as in no humans. 3 other dogs and the cat.) for about an hour. The knitting was shut away in the drawers. The knitting bag was zipped closed. Not so much when I got home.



Yikes. That's prety much all I can say. He pulled out every project, tore open every ziploc bag, pulled apart skeins, pulled out needles, etc.

But can you find Leaf Lace in this nightmare?

Yes, a few things were harmed. However, nothing was permanently ruined except for a skein of laceweight that got pulled out of it's "skein" - I haven't had the guts to try to fix this one, though I did fix all the others. And I did have to buy a few more sets of needles. And this is only a portion of the chaos. There is more not pictured, as I could only handle so many pictures through the tears. I'm better now.

Damn it's too hot for wool

I've been working a bit in fits and starts on some goodies for the Christmas basket.

I finished this scarf up a few weeks ago and it shall live in the basket until December.

Yarn: Tahki Dazzle (discontinued?) Color 005, two balls
Needles: Sz 15 Clover bamboos
Pattern: just a generic garter stitch scarf
For: secret!
Dates: July 8-9
Mods: n/a
Thoughts: I like these colors, though they're really not me. Good thing then that this isn't for me.






I started this to be a scarf, but ran out of yarn. Solution? Cravat/neck warmer!

Yarn: I think it's some sort of Mountain Colors product, but I have no ball band, and it was gifted.
Needles: Sz 15 Clover bamboos
Pattern: generic garter stitch
For: secret!
Dates: Early/mid July - July 29 (really only worked on for about two days)
Mods: n/a
Thoughts: I decided when I was running short of yarn that I would just add some buttons from my button stash to the edges, then it can be as tight or as loose as the wearer likes!







I also finished up one husband sock. Thank goodness for movie theater trips - that's about the only time these got worked on! I knit the leg during the Da Vinci Code, turned the heel and did the gusset at home, and knit the foot during Pirates. Yippee! Now to make the second one......





I also finished up one set of dishcloths for a "special order." Pretty exciting, eh?

Trekking to the ballgame

Trekking to the ballgame
Originally uploaded by jenn_tx.

Last night Jen and the lovely owners of our new LYS Yarns Ewenique went to the ballpark for Stitch 'n Pitch night. Hubbo and I enjoyed some delightful hot dogs and got goodie bags full of yarn, a set of needles and a notions holder. Annemieke and Dru Ann even made the paper! And, even better, Annemike, Dru Ann and Barbara (the coordinator) and I were on the local televised broadcast! The Girl keeps telling me that I'm a "movie" star, but I'm just grateful that they didn't interview me, just showed us knitting.

The sock trekked along of course. Allow me to introduce you to my new sock - Trekking XXL (can't remember the colorway), but it reminds me of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with a hint of pink. Love it.

N is for

Needles

Saturday Sky

It's hot. Too bad you can't really capture that with a picture.



You also can't capture the swirls of dust the water department are spouting into the air. I was so excited to have the day off from listening to the BANG.BANG.BANG. that goes on ALL. DAY. as they tear up our street. Honestly. They've been working on it since Monday. But no, back all day today. Don't they know it's Saturday?

Friday FOs

I managed to finish up two pairs of socks in the past few days. Yippee for socks (the only thing I seem capable of knitting this summer)!


Pattern: Cabled Footies from One Skein
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted
Needles: Sz 8 Clover DPNs
Dates: July 2-25 (on and off)
For: My One Skein Pal
Mods: I didn't make the toes as pointy as the pattern calls for.
Thoughts: A bit baggy around the ankles. But cute! Hopefully will make lovely warm house socks whenever it cools off.



Pattern: Generic sock pattern
Yarn: Trekking XXL 100
Needles: Sz 1 Chiagoo DPNs
Dates: June 1 (or so)-July 22
For: Me!
Mods: None
Thoughts: I think it's funny that one of these socks is brighter than the other. Ah, the joy of the Trekking! Love them!

In other sock news, I apparently have a sock curse. I restarted the purple Koigu socks as the Mermaid socks from Cool Socks, Warm Feet, and it was too small. Drat! I'm thinking a wee socky break might be in order. Of course, I have some plain vanilla socks on the needles, but I may work on some other items before I go back to the socks.
I'm also a bit burned out on Project Spectrum. I've been badly neglecting it for several weeks, and my time is about to vanish when I go back to work on Tuesday. So I may not pressure myself to finish up these last few pairs of PS socks. We'll see.

What else can I get off the needles this weekend? Stay tuned!

Mail call

I spent a good portion of yesterday evening packing up boxes to mail today.


I packed up the goodies for my August Birthday Swap pal (no pictures for you!), for my One Skein Pal (pictures tomorrow!), and for my Knit Sock Kit Swap. Oh you wanna see something?



I made my pal a little drawstring bag with a hook for her to wear on her belt, got some lovely Cherry Tree Hill yarn for her kit (along with a notebook and tape measure), and a stitch marker. A very special stitch marker.


Get it? A foot for her socks? Yeah, I'm a dork. I'm actually very excited about this, as I've been looking for feet charms for a while and found some in Durango. Yippee!

In other excitement, my Dye-o-rama pal has started knitting up the yarn I dyed for her - go see!

I'll be back tomorrow with some actual finished objects! Don't drop dead!

A tale of three socks

I apologize for my blog absence - a lot going on and not a lot of internet access. One more round of catch-up this month!

While I was gone, I was working on several pairs of socks. Sadly, three pairs did not make it home in sock condition.

The purple toe-up footie was too big, and I was concerned about running out of yarn. RIP.

The purple Jaywalkers were too big. RIP.

And I really wasn't happy with my blue feather and fan socks. They fit a bit tightly and I just never wanted to work on them. So I listened to that inner voice and RIP.

They shall be reborn, but perhaps not anytime soon. Too much on the needles right now.


In other excitement, this now lives in front of my house. Yowza.

Come and get it!

It's free pattern time! Remember way back when I showed you my felted bag for my knitting class? Well class ended today and I've got the pattern for you!

Flap-top Felted Bag


Materials: 1 skein worsted weight 100% wool, approx. 200 yds. (I used Lamb's Pride for the sample.)
1 pair size US 10.5 needles
Darning needle


BAG:
CO 40 stitches. Work in garter stitch (knitting every row) for 144 rows. BO all stitches.

STRAP: CO 100 stitches. Work in garter stitch for 10 rows(remember to allow for some shrinking during felting). BO.


FINISHING:
Fold bottom of bag up approx. 2/3 of the length of the bag, or until desired size. Remainder of bag length will be flap. Using mattress stitch, seam folded sides. Sew strap ends just above folded area on each side.
Felt bag until desired size. (Use a lingerie bag so that the strap does not catch on your agitator). Remove bag from washing machine, place on plastic bags with flap folded down. Allow to dry. For a fuller bag, stuff with plastic bags while drying. For an optional closure, attach a button or snap to the flap when dry.


MODIFICATIONS:
For a larger bag, cast on more stitches and work more rows. May take more than one skein for a larger bag.


Copyright 2006. Not for commercial use.


Enjoy!

Drive by blogging

I'm off to catch a plane in a few minutes, but wanted to give y'all a yard update.

They are finished, for now.

Yesterday, with more green powder, they discovered that our bathroom line is seperate from the kitchen line. Apparently this is NOT. GOOD. They said that "someone" will be out "soon" to re-lay our pipes. Yippee.


I'm not sure if they'll be tearing out the old pipes, but they left this lovely trail of spray paint behind.

Thanks to everyone for their sympathies. Yes, we know that the city will repair/replace everything they tear up. This happened to us a few years ago when we lived with hubbo's mom and they tore her street up (though she was not in such a bad place as us - she just had to have a few sprinkler heads replaced).

The really bad part of all this? School starts in 3 1/2 weeks and because of the way our neighborhood is laid out, there is one road to the school and one from (one way streets during school hours). We live on the road to school. Over 75% of kids that go to our school get there via carpool. I can only imagine the nightmare ahead.

I'm off to Indiana for my little sister's wedding shower. I should be blogging from the road, but perhaps not with such frequency. Back soon with actual knitting content!