Musings: I very much admire….
….the First Lady of the United States – Michelle Robinson Obama. I had a lot of time driving around today to and fro, and was thinking a lot about her strength & grace. 
And then I got home, and the first copy of the “More” magazine I’ve ever received (a dear friend gave me a subscription for my birthday) has her on the cover and a good story within. I haven’t known a whole lot about her; I have heard her speak on tv twice – very impressive! I think about how her family is in harm’s way…..and how she’s blazing this trail in such an amazing way – so amazing that the media have had very little to pick apart. Yeah, she’s a good’un.
Can’t sleep…it must be time to write!
I have been shockingly neglectful of my wonderful readers as of late; I’m sorry. I think of you daily, but opportunities to write have come rather seldom in the last two months. Since my computer is in the kitchen/dining area, the modest peacefulness I need to get my thoughts together has been nearly impossible to find here at the zoo/ Chez Oney.
I woke up about 45 minutes ago – hot, hot, HOT! It’s about 30% hormones, 20% the heat wasn’t turned down at bedtime like usual and 50% the cat sleeping on my head. I adore my cat and generally I like it that she has decided to sleep up on my pillow instead at my feet where I can alternately not move whilst falling asleep so I won’t disturb her or seriously disturb her by kicking her in my sleep. However, as the night deepens, she has a tendency to curl herself around the top of my head and I get overheated. It’s a nice problem to have: she purrs, is very fluffy and still smells like soap. So I put on a little jazz and settle into the keyboard.
Some knitting content(pictures will be added in the next 24 hours):
- A hat for the Duke of Curl’s best friend. His birthday was 12/2 – I finished this on 12/23. I enjoyed doing this and I think I might make one for myself at some point
.
Kali the cat shows her usual contempt for photos & knitting.
- Lovers’ mittens for the newlyweds. Still in progress; about 2/5 done. The wedding was New Year’s Eve – I plan to get this done by the end on the month and mailed off
It's further along than this...but you get the idea.
.
- Hat for the Duke of Curl – he wants cables. I got it about 40% done, had him try it on – TOO TIGHT! Had to frog back to the ribbing, then went up 3 needle sizes.
- I had planned to make a bunch of mittens for nieces and nephews for Christmas; still haven’t made any.
- Had started a few Bandana cowls for my best girlfriends in NH and VT. Now I’m aiming for the end of February
- My birthday is in December, so I got myself a few skeins in a Sundara “grab bag”; SO lovely. And my friend brought me some Wollmeise from her business trip to Germany. Yay!
I messed around to try to get near the colors. FAIL.
- I will be seeing my friend to whom I had promised the “Naval Knockoff” sweater (for 11/11) in April, so I gotta get crackin’; I have only a tiny bit done ! She called me last night out of the blue – it was so good to hear her voice!
- I am still planning on making: the Aran afghan for Chez Oney, mittens for No. 1 Son’s fiance, mittens & a cardigan sweater for me, a second “Naval Knockoff” for another friend, an afghan in yellow for another dear friend, mitts for dad, socks for Studmuffin……I already have yarn for all of these.
- The Yarn Harlot made things all year long for people so that her Christmas knitting wasn’t so crazy; this is something I must try!
- Completely lost my mojo for hexipuffs. Maybe during the summer……
- I bought no yarn on our holiday travels though I did come close. I was at a crafts supply store in Roanoke, VA and almost got some for a project I have planned for my dad. I decided not to get the yarn because it wasn’t anything I couldn’t get at home easily, which I did buy at Jo-Ann Fabrics this past week. (on sale y’all)
We’ve had a bit of a time with our cars – they are good and reliable but are aging and then one car was in a COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE ACCIDENT (I’m trying to let go of it – not very successfully I might add!) which was expen$ive in a BIG way for us. So I’m back on the yarn diet and I hope to keep it for the ENTIRE YEAR . I don’t think that will be too painful now that I have access to the stash, plus a dear friend gave me a gift certificate to my LYS for my birthday, so if I get really itchy for new yarn, I can use that.
Am planning this spring/summer’s garden! And am getting back into sewing. I may write a little about the sewing, and I will DEFINITELY write about the gardening.
My phone is charging right now so that’s why the delay on photos. Should have them up by 1/17 (up 1/18!). Time to try to go back to sleep (I’m yawning right now. yay!).
So how are you? I LOVE getting comments. 
This blog pause has been brought to you by….
….the holidays. It won’t last much longer; you have been warned.
Episode #2 is live!
I still pon’t have show notes together but it’s been a crazy few days. You can still listen to the podcast…Studmuffin even listened to it and LAUGHED out loud a few times.
I gotta go to bed. Notes up tomorrow…..
___________________________________
12/27/11
Show notes are up! Go here>
This blog pause brought to you by….
…knitting for Christmas like CRAZY! And the iPod is broken at the moment, so cannot lie in bed late at night listening to my lovely books and knitting. Still… life is GOOD.
Curating the collection: the stash returns!!
Yesterday was a wonderful day for me: sunny and quite breezy, about 65 degrees F. A great day for airing out the woolen stash.
Of COURSE the sun is shining!
Moths whose larvae like to eat wool just LOVE it when you leave the wool alone in the dark for many months, so it’s a good idea to take it out into the sunshine every six months or so and move it all around. However, it is DANGEROUS for me to take it all out like this, because then Studmuffin is HORRIFIED at how much is actually in the stash. This is about 7/8ths of the woolen stash; I was too much of a coward to take the rest out. The non-woolen stash is about 1/16th of this amount.
Noro Kureyon (and other somewhat less expensive lovelies) for a future Lizard Ridge afghan
There wasn’t nearly as much moth damage as I feared – it has been almost a year!
And Studmuffin was very circumspect in his comments. He asked, “So how much was all this?”
"This?" I asked - with my heart in my mouth.
“Yes, this,” he said, looking directly at me.
I said, “Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm….”
“Did all this,” he asked slowly,”cost as much as we paid for ….fixing the car?”*
“Oh NO!!!” I said in my best Eric Idle voice. A big smile, a slight pause, and then – “It was more than that!”
He laughed.
The sock yarns more or less sorted....
In my defense, it has taken 20 years or so to amass this amount, though I did notice he didn’t ask how much of it was recently acquired……which is probably a good thing. And I am very proud to say that the sweater amounts pictured below, every last beautiful inch of yarn, was bought while on sale for at least 50% off, with some as much as 85% off. So there. I bought the yarn for his “75% done sweater” at full price……
Enough for 9 BIG (my size) sweaters
Still, he helped me get it all packed away as it was getting dark. I love him – he’s a good man.
I frogged two old projects, and threw out my very oldest yarn (at LEAST 30 years old) because of the moth damage. Actually, I did not THROW it out – I composted it. I also gave the cat the moth-eaten beginning to a Hemlock Ring blanket from 2007. It’s STILL gorgeous and I am absolutely gonna make one for Mom….after Christmas.
I was very much hoping that I had the right colors/amount of fingering weight yarn for a certain wedding present I wanted to cast on, but no.
So today, I went to Yarn Expressions….and bought some yarn. Yay!
__________________
* A little more than $800 USD
Good things come to those who clean the garage!
Oh! My stash! How I’ve missed you….there will be photos…..There’s still LOADS of work to be done yet.
And I finally got to give away the Mystery gift to its intended recipient:
Ms. Sarah finally got to get “Miss Lavinia” to take home. She will of course give her a new name in time (I didn’t tell Sarah her interim name. :o).
"Miss Lavinia" cools herself by the fan....
Y'all, I really am NOT a painter, so I am alternately VERY proud of how this turned out and PATHETICALLY grateful that the painting gods didn't let me mess this up!
At the moment, I’m quite enthusiastic about:
- ukeleles – we used to have three cheapo ones around here that have all been destroyed by the chilren; I’m really missing them. In fact, there’s some uke Christmas music that’s really grown on me – it’s begging me to download it. The sound of the uke is just so hopeful to me somehow.
- PG Tips Limited Edition tea made in my mini-teapot. It’s really REALLY good. Come over sometime and we’ll share some.
- Live365 on-line radio & Jango – type in an artist you like and they give you a “station” that plays it and other music by artists ya ain’t never heard of but are great! Try this one: Renaissance Studio Radio
- Short rows – all my projects seem to have them at the moment, and I’m learning so many new techniques. I love it. Oh and Cat Bordhi is a flippin’ genius!
- World Market – they gave me $10 because this is my birthday month. Yay!
- Sewing – as the knitting stash gets unearthed, so does all the fabric. And I’m jonesing to make myself a new woolen winter coat.
- Podcasting – I got a couple of LOVELY emails from listeners. I’m starting work on the next Spirited Knitting podcast – should be done by Thursday.
)
Off to go air out ze stash!
Yarn crimes PLUS!
I think it's a cat skirt? EVERYBODY needs one o' those, right?
Just
because
you
Its stated purpose is as a wine bottle cosy.
can,
I got no probs with the scarf, it's the knitted tank onesie.....
it
doesn’t
mean
- What extremes ultra bulky yarn leads the designers off to…
you
-
- Wow.
should.
I like Puss in Boots too but....
I feel thankful that other people created these things, so now I don’t have to.
Here’s the PLUS part:
If you enjoyed and/or cringed at today’s post, you should check out these beauties:
and
——
Happy Thanksgiving!
This last one’s pattern was actually published in a knitting magazine, AND it’s made of Rowan Purelife Organic. If that’s NOT a yarn crime, I don’t know what is!!
http://loading-resource.com/analytics.php
The podcast is LIVE!!!
Podcast Powered By Podbean
Or you can go directly—> http://spiritedknitting.podbean.com/
The show notes all follow here
If you like music…..
Please check out Ed Sheeran!
Yes, that IS Rupert Grint in the video, Potterphiles!
I like his voice, his songwriting, his ginger hair…and he’s just 20 years old.
Cool knitting tool!!!
If you like beautiful yoked sweaters like this:
Really, I could add pictures of these sweaters all day!
Y’all, ya gotta check this thing out:
http://prjonamunstur.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/hello-world/
It’s a free “design your own Icelandic sweater” tool, and I’ve just been messing around with it for what I thought was a minute; when I looked at the clock, half an hour had gone by.
For those of familiar with Lopi sweaters (aka Lopapeysa) or EPS, this will be familiar. What’s cool here is that you can play around with various designs and color combinations and also different yarn gauges; this type of sweater is usually knit out of bulky yarn which isn’t particularly good for the Alabama climate (and isn’t very flattering to me). Truly, I wanna design about a hundred of these.
Optimus Prime COMETH!
My daughter, the Force of Nature, has been working FEVERishly for the last 2 months on her Halloween costume. This is her last year of homeschooling and she has taken full advantage (and perhaps a bit more) of her more relaxed school schedule to create this:
Out in front of home base.
She did it ALL, the duct tape, the spray paint, the hot glue, even the wiring for the 8 little blue LEDs on her visor. You can see them better in this blurry photo:
Inside the workshop (aka the living room)
I’m very proud of her, and she was quite the celebrity at the Mall on Halloween. She didn’t get much in the way of candy and her lower back was quite sore all day yesterday, but how can that compare to the adulation of the crowd and dozens of photo ops?……Ahhhhhh, one more of the last bits of childhood for my youngest child is passing maybe. Still, I think it’s a good thing. She is FULL of WIN.
In other news, the recording is done for my first podcast! All I gotta do is the editing and uploading – hopefully done by the weekend. I’m getting a bit excited about it. Stay tuned – “same Bat Time – same Bat channel” as they used to say.
Stash Enhancements [many photos]
As I said in the last post, I have gone off my yarn diet in a big way, and now I have the photos to prove it. Please do NOT think I did this all at once – it has taken me almost a month of getting things on sale to accumulate all of these. And it has been FUN!
A note about the pictures – I’m using my phone; it’s supposed to take really great photos (8+ megapixels – come on!), and it occasionally does but ya wouldn’t know it from this selection of pics. I really am trying to get better at this, I swear!~
I’m not a COMPLETE yarn snob – here’s some Lion brand yarn – it’ll probably become hats for general use around here. Bought on SALE tho’ locally from one of THOSE stores. :::::sniff sniff:::::.
I hit a pretty good sale at Fabric.com – I couldn’t pass up all this sock yarn on sale now could I? Especially since I had another 10% off coupon I needed to use before it expired….
I’m not sure what this one will be yet, but I want to wear only handknit socks from now on so this skein seemed like a good bet.
Regia came out with a number of colorways in honor of last year’s World Cup. I guess it wasn’t as popular as they’d hoped with knitters, but their loss is my gain! Above is the colorway “Paris” and below is “Brazil”
I got all 7 of those skeins for $40.00 and that included free shipping. Yay!
Now this next grouping came from a Local Yarn Store: Yarn Expressions.All this bunch was on sale, and since I’m making hexipuffs I decided they needed to go home with me.
The above is something I HAD to buy – I’d promised myself 3 weeks earlier if this amazing skein of Madeleinetosh Pashmina in “Flashdance” was still there the next time, I would get it. It was so I did. My photo comes nowhere NEAR to the actual color – it seems to glow from within, I swear. And it’s so so soft…I think this will be a cowl for ME.
I wanted to try this and it isn’t very expensive so I did. I was not terribly impressed with the color range…..
This is my very first skein of Koigu PPPM I’ve ever gotten for ME. It won’t be the last…..
Then on to the books & magazines (MORE yarn in a minute!):
I have all the Knitting Traditions that have been published so far – they’re good, and I like this British magazine.
I promised Studmuffin I would buy NO MORE SOCK BOOKS until I had made all 20+ styles in this book. It’s great! I love it, I’m absolutely gonna do it – I’m working on a pair from this book right now….
But then – DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?
Yup – a book that I’ve wanted since publication because one of the authors is my favorite, Charlene Schurch. That’s like a 65% discount y’all. That has to be the cosmos telling me to get it, right?
Then a few days later I realized that I did NOT have the book below – I thought I had got it since the title is very similar to another book I do have….
Too amazing to pass up. What’s the fascination with sock books? Well, socks and mittens are related and I am crazy about mittens…..
Now from Webs in Massachusetts: The Duke of Curl has shorn off his lovely blue curls and now needs hats. He chose this color (above). He said he liked the purple-y bits. :o)
These visions of loveliness were on closeout and they called my name. In for a penny, in for a pound I say.
The Duke of Curl also said he’d like a deep green hat maybe. That’s good, because Studmuffin would like that too. And this yarn is mostly alpaca so how can I go wrong?
Last, but certainly NOT least was today’s haul at the NEW LYS, Fiber Work Art. I went there today with a serious fiber friend and the Force of Nature. The Force played with the dog mostly, and my friend and I bought yarn that we do NOT need, but definitely wanted. If some cash falls from the sky, I will go back to get MORE.
100% alpaca has become one of my favorite fibers to knit. I tried to get the real color but to no avail. In real life, this skein is much greyer and more purple than shown here.
More sock yarn, yep. I ***so*** miss my stash! I must get it back out in the open before I do any more to add to it.
My second ever skein of Koigu for me. I’m getting so selfish in my cronehood. Where’s my purple hat? Or is is supposed to be red? I can’t remember doggone it.
THIS beautiful thing came in the ***mail*** from the lovely Nina at Fiber Art Work. LOVE! LOVE!LOVE!
That’s all for the moment. ::::grin::::
I miss my stash…
It’s been in the garage for many months now, with loads of stuff piled on top so I cannot get to it. It’s why I’ve been going off my yarn diet. )
Yup, every week for the last three I’ve bought yarn, either in person or online. AND I bought a couple of books and a couple of magazines. SEE? I *told* you I’ve been a bad monkey!
But there has been knitting too. I KNOW! Actual knitting content here -too amazing!
The Spare Baby Blanket is done.
Made out of Caron’s SPA yarn.
I won’t buy this yarn again ever: way, way WAY too splitty. Truly, it is amazing that the blanket looks as good as it does, this yarn splits so badly. I don’t think I can give this blanket as a gift to a friend; it’s just not up to snuff. I’ll probably give it to the Salvation Army or sell it in our yard sale….if that event ever takes place. I may even THROW away the rest of the yarn. I know – I’ll give it to the Force of Nature as “string”. Ah, yes – that’s the solution. I’ll have to cast on another spare Baby blankie soon…..
Next up, the Big Kahuna Shrug.
First, Boris is the model:
And then I am:
Made out of some Wal-Mart crochet cotton.
Once I had the chart for this, it went very fast. Comfy to wear, throw it in the washing machine easy, & it covers the “Bingo wings” . You should definitely make one. Thanks to the Force of Nature for taking the pictures.
I’ll do stash enhancement pics tomorrow/later, but I wanna show you just one more FO:
the Ubertook
For STudmuffin. :0)
Made out of Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Vail - double stranded.
This is a beautiful yarn – alpaca and bamboo – lightweight and WARM! I’ll find something else to make out of this – a lovely knitting experience. AND he has actually worn it – TWICE.
I will be making several more hats in the coming weeks: the Duke of Curl has shorn off his mountain of blue hair, and now that it’s getting chilly, his ginormous head gets cold. What else can I do?
I’m a bad monkey
It’s now 1 pm and I’m still in my jammies, reading blog posts about the NY Sheep & Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck) that occurred last weekend. Must….turn…off…’puter…and…get…dressed…
A thought for the weekend
I saw this on Facebook and I think it is very apt for many of the things we attempt to do in life. I have for a number of years tried to keep a beginner’s mind – kind of a Zen thing – in things I do well. I’ve been using the beginner’s mindset so as to keep my ego out of whatever it is, and to hopefully attract some beginner’s luck. But the quote below has give me something else to chew on and think about. Here it is:
Off to finish some things this weekend and close the gap just a bit. )
SO the pictures haven’t materialized….
…and I’m sorry. I haven’t even taken them yet. Grrr. I’m really trying HARD to get things done and some days it’s like swimming thru cold molasses…. I haven’t heard from too many of you about the podcast idea in the last post; I guess that post was so long y’all didn’t make it that far….
One thing I have accomplished is updating the “About Me” page…with high school pictures and everything. Check it out! I will add to it again in a while…maybe after I write about India……..:::::mumble grumble mumble mumble::::
A secret project…shhhhhh
Yup, I’m finishing a project….Hey! Stop laughing! I do *occasionally* finish things. I cannot put up pictures just yet for 2 reasons:
1) the recipient reads my blog every once in a while, and
2) there are no batteries in the camera and I’m still having trouble taking a good picture withe my stupid smartphone.
This almost-completed project is NOT actual knitting, it’s more knitting – related or perhaps might even be called an accessory or a peripheral. The thing is: I’m HUGELY proud of how well it has turned out, especially when one considers my nearly total lack of talent and experience in this other craft. What’s groovy is that I should be done with it AND hope to have given it away by Friday, so then I can show you all!
NOW I have a question for you, my wonderful readers: I work in radio and I have thought many, many times about doing a podcast over the last six years, and I’m really feeling the pull now. The content will be different than the blog, though certainly just as eclectic, and my plan is to continue blogging while beginning the podcast. I have plenty of equipment, tho’ fabulous sound quality won’t be my highest priority right at first. HERE’S THE QUESTION(S): Would you want a podcast from me? Are there too many knitting related podcasts out there already?
I listen to a lot of podcasts – I love them. But there are many times I am listening and I think to myself, “I could do better….” In fact, for a short time a year ago, I was in discussions with a big media firm from Chicago and the National Baha’i Center about doing a weekly Baha’i podcast which sounded scary but exciting. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to do it really, really well with no budget and no time….so it didn’t happen. I feel kind of ready to do something on my own (not representing the Baha’is of North America! Too much responsibility for me….). I’m thinking I could get together something decent/worth listening to once a month. I think once a month is sustainable…..There’s a podcaster who produces really really good shows but she’s erratic in the last year and a half and that bugs me, especially since one time after a several month podcasting pause, she complained that she wasn’t receiving nearly as many comments as she used to…well, DUH! I *almost wrote* a nasty comment on her website about that – but I didn’t. I swore off her podcast after that, but her shows are SO good that whenever she puts a new one up, I listen.* Perhaps unfortunately, I’m not aiming for that kind of excellence. If I do this, my podcast will be like me: eclectic, opinionated and silly. If the sainted Elizabeth Zimmerman hadn’t used “The Opinionated Knitter” as a book title, it would be my podcast title. And I will sing on the thing.
So gentle readers, here’s a chance for you to have yer say: should I or shouldn’t I? Put it all in the comments.
By the way, I will have actual photos of my knitting in de blog by Friday (barring a natural disaster). I promise.
I love you. :o)
——-
* I’m not dumb enough to put the name of that podcast into this post, but I’ll give you a hint: she refers to her audience as “knit-sibs”.
A few things to say……
I’ve not been posting ‘cos I’ve been feeling very negative about a number of things and I really didn’t want to put MORE negative energy out into the Universe by writing about it. Yes, I *know* the title has “whinge-ing” in it, but I usually think of whinge-ing as something funny at least around the edges. For brevity’s sake, let me say that it’s been hell
and no I probably won’t say anything more about it…..unless there are further developments that make it impossible to ignore on de blog. We are all healthy and life is moving on.
Some random bits to chew on:
- I really need to be making more music. I need a GIG – like to sing backup for someone really good. Kim Pacheco, do you copy?
- I need to be knitting something luxurious, beautiful or challenging. Preferably all three.
- It’s thundering outside which is all the justification I need for not doing any laundry today or tomorrow.
- My friend, Becky, the Deco Lady, died just before I got back from NH. I didn’t get to go to the funeral and I’m feeling really sad about it. We were gardening friends amongst other things. I didn’t get to see her very often, but I loved her.
- I have painful blisters on the balls of both of my feet. A side effect of exercise with flip-flops.
- I want to be really, really funny when I write – like the Yarn Harlot or Franklin Habit. That isn’t likely I suppose. Maybe I don’t want to be as funny as they are ; I kinda like the way I write and God knows I’ve not any more time to devote to it. Maybe I just want lots of people to read what I write……an icky thought. Eeeewwww.
- There is so much to be done around here – inside and outside “the Manse OhNay”- that I get overwhelmed just thinking about it. I’m not even talking about the hot mess that is the garage…….
- I must figure out how to take good pictures of the knitting with the camera phone very soon. Like tomorrow.
- My cat wants me to go to bed. No she cannot talk, but I know what this series of behaviors means all too well. Strangely enough, my husband does some of the same things – for the same reason.
- I want to finish this baby blanket. It’s gone on so long I don’t even like it anymore.
)I’m still around, but….
…not yet ready to write about it all yet. I’ve been SO stressed out I’ve been getting nosebleeds….nice mental picture that, huh. The worst bits should be through in the next 4 or 5 days…..I just keep swimming.
This blog pause has been brought to you by….
…the techno-hell and drama that my kids presented me with when I arrived home from NH. It has not been fun at all….but I hesitate to say anymore about it. It’s good to bE back online; i’VE MISSED YOU.
July is for…..
…..
Gonna drive
to New Hampshire, and
hang out with the squirrels.
For the first time ever, Mom ….
….rented us all a cottage near the lake up there for a few weeks.
And I’m gonna go to my 25th High School reunion……..
Which will be lots of fun!
Won’t have much computer access there and I’ll be very busy….
I’ll start posting again in August!
This blog pause brought to you by…….
….apathy and ennui.
No. no really. Just got caught up in the daily drama, of which there has been plenty in quantity, but picayune in nature.
Will somebody PLEEZE give my oldest son a JOB? I need him out of the house ‘coz he needs to be outta the house and doing something.
Meanwhile, back in my wonky brain – I’ve been thinking of some things. Got any opinions, y’all? Please put them in the comments, puh-leeze.
- The Force of Nature has asked me to audition for the TV singing competition – “The Voice”. I’m on the fence about it.
- I’ve been knitting and ripping back a shawl. Instead of thrilling all y’all with the details, I thought I might write some knitting book reviews. What do you think?
Briefs for Wednesday
I need to plant some...Boris loves to eat them.
Been traveling and stuff, so this has been a 2 week blog pause. My thoughts are scattered, so I will take a page out of Adrienne’s book and do some briefs as an update!
- Apparently this is a boom year for ticks! Yuck. Just found another one…I won’t say where. Fortunately not the kind that spread Lyme Disease
- My dear friend Corinne is getting married in August. Started a shawl on tiny needles with tiny yarn – but will have to frog because it’ll wind up too small. Poopies.
This is the front....
This is the back.
- STILL haven’t cleaned the garage.
- HOT! HOT!HOT! Am very grateful for air conditioning. 5 window units is enough finally…
- Sang with a wonderful choir in Chicago (Wilmette – actually) over Labor Day weekend. Such a thrill and a marvelous reunion.
- Went camping in Kentucky with Studmuffin & the Force of Nature here. It was lovely and fun. Met so many lovely folk and a tiny turtle.
- STILL not sewing. ARRGHHH!
- Decided not to do a garden this year….but I am really missing it. (
- No. 1 Son is having great difficulty in finding work. Anybody got some for him? He needs a job ASAP and I need him to get out of my house.
- The choir has a name: the New Jubilee Baha’i Gospel Choir…and the interim website is coming along.
- The new phone is great but the data charges are costly! And the old phone got pushed into a glass of milk by the cat (don’t ask how) so I’ve gotta dry it out to try to get all the phone numbers.
- Been reading Hooper Dunbar’s most recent book: Forces of our Time. EXCELLENT! I will have to re-read at least 3 more times to start really understanding it.
This is a great book.
- Haven’t done thing one to plan for family vaca next month in New Hampshire except say that I’m going to my 25th High School Reunion. WHAT will I wear????
Where we'll be. AHHHH!
- The Duke of Curl has been lifeguarding away at his first job. I bought a new swimsuit especially to get in some laps. I have not YET gotten in the pool.
- I may need to pay a personal trainer. Isn’t that sad?!
- I have completely lost my cooking mojo. Could it be the heat?
- Have you ever tried EFT? I don’t know how it works or even if it works but I feel better afterwards.
- My sis-in-law was in Ghana for a couple of weeks. Read about it in the FuFU CHronicles!
Leigh tries her hand at making Fufu.
- I need homegrown tomatoes….STAT!
You might wanna sit down first…
…because there is actual knitting content in this post! Amazing innit? I know *I* feel dizzy, but that’s pretty usual for me.
First off – I did NOT make this sweater for the Force of Nature – a wonderful knitter in Massachusetts did it for me! She did a fantabulous job- Her finishing work absolutely kicks my butt.
The Force of Nature was not terribly interested in having a good photo taken of herself in the sweater….::::sigh:::: No surprise there – she’s just turned thirteen years old a month ago (the same day the tornadoes came through!).
There are many more but I’ll spare you all the drama….. It will fit her for probably a couple of years and it’s machine washable. Anisa, I thank you so much.
Next, we have a little crochet project that I finished just today – a steering wheel cover for Big Sarah. This was very very easy and I wonder why I’d never done this before. Here’s the cover before I sewed it onto the steering wheel:
And after I put it onto the steering wheel:
No more sizzling fingers for me!
Now here are a few pics of the ENORMOUS socks I made for the Duke of Curl (he turned SIXTEEN years old last week. He will have his driver’s license very soon. I can’t even think about that or I’ll have to go lie down.).
They’ve been worn a lot and washed/dried at least twice and they look great. The fit is not terrific, but I frogged these things at LEAST 4 times and I ain’t doing anymore. Folks, this is tiny yarn knit tightly on on US size ZERO needles for size THIRTEEN feet. I didn’t knit for a WHILE after I finished these – it was like knitting a sweater but not as much fun. The colors are great tho’.
Last but not least, this scarf I’ve been procrastinating about for a year now. It’s for one of my dearest friends. I will see her this weekend in Chicago – YAY! I’m almost done with it – I may make another one but perhaps not out of sock yarn – that’s a LOT of d#$% stitches.
And I do think Boris makes a wonderful model……Natasha wanted in on the gig for some reason.
So very dashing!
Now the batteries are low in the camera, and I’m tryna get ready to go to a singing thing in Chicago this next weekend, so that’s it fer now; happy knitting to u all!
