Monday morning injury

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I had a lovely birthday yesterday…almost NO housework done, STudmuffin served me breakfast in bed and I got to knit and watch tv by myself for several hours among other things. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Last night I started working in earnest on the Klimt-y Babette blanket for my mom. It’s crochet so it goes fast. However, I did so much crochet that my wrist is really sore today. I had to go dig out my wrist brace and everything.

SO in hopes that I can continue to work on this very belated birthday present (Mom’s birthday is in early October), I’ve decided to learn how to crochet with my LEFT hand. YouTube to the rescue! It is rather frustrating that I cannot just switch over what my right hand knows how to do to my left hand; there will be much practice involved. OK, now where’s the Advil?

I may not post much more this week as I need to rest my hands. ::::sigh:::::

Have a blessed day!

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Yarn Stash Enhancements

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Since my beloved LYS is having its big holiday sale, and I don’t yet already have enough yarn to actually  cross the “pathology line”  into  hoarding,  I’ve been to shop there twice since last Saturday.  Here’s the goods (crappy cell phone pictures all, I’m afraid):

This was what I went for today – more yarn to finish baby blanket # 804.

More Noro Kureyon for the potential Lizard Ridge blanket (ye, Virginia; there are still colorways I haven’t yet acquired….)

To the left Socrates sock yarn (the tan stuff): 400 yards of alpaca-bamboo blendy- goodness. All the rest is Jil Eaton’s MinnowMerino (oh yum yum yum!!!)

Prevous 2 pics – Saturday’s haul.  Below are today’s gains..

Another Kureyon AND a Kureyon sock weight – I could NOT resist!

The Purple is Dream in Color Smooshy sock in “Visual purple”  (a squee deserving 30% off)  and 2 skeins of Comfort which is supposed to be an amigurumi monkey from Creepy Cute Crochet.

Technically the Soxx Appeal and the Comfort yarns above are not my stash, but the Force of Nature’s stash, but that would be splitting hairs I think.  And just to mix things up, I got a pattern too.

Since into each life, some acrylic must fall – I went to another store and got these to make my darlin’ friend Niki a quick hat for her 60th birthday tomorrow. Cat hair included for no extra charge.

The reason for all this yarn pr0n? 1) I had some $, 2)Yarn Expressions was having the sale and 3) no one is getting me prezzies for me birthday so I gotta do it meself and 4 to infinity) I’m glad to be alive.

Happy Birthday to me! On Sunday I’ll be fortyone-derful!

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Scraping the bottom of the clip art barrel….

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While I was wasting my time/honing my skills/avoiding housework this afternoon with the nearly-incapacitatingly-addictive “Bejeweled Blitz” game on Facebook: one minute of seeking to match brightly colored objects as fast a you can – it’s only a minute so why not play again? And Again? And then 3 hours later…..

But oh yeah!  on Facebook, in case you do NOT know, there are small ads along the far left or far right hand side of the screen. This one caught my eye:

I mean….how is this picture appropriate for the headline of the AD? Is the guy supposed to be a college student? What’s with the facial hair? Is this yer average scholarship recipient? Or maybe he’s the guy who wrote the AD and wanted a little recognition of his similarity to George Carlin 40 years ago? Or maybe of his hirsute-y goodness? The mind boggles….I would of course love to see your ideas for captions et al, dear readers (all 5.4 of you!).

Back to Blitzing….I wanna make 200,000. To heck with real life. )

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Weekend wrap-up

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I’m hoping to post more frequently by posting shorter…..  Brevity is supposed to be the soul of wit so here goes:

• The whole family ate a 4 course meal at the Melting Pot Friday night.  Kids had much fun, the food was excellent, but it put a serious and unplanned crimp in our finances; not a good time of year for that!
• Massive food shopping onslaught to restock the bare cupboards.  You know things is bare when yer eating the canned pickled beets you bought by mistake several years ago. STill, this situation allowed us to defrost the chest freezer and the fridge freezer and forced me to be much more creative in trying to prepare balanced meals for the fam.  Madrassian lentils and tinned peaches anyone?
• We have a mouse in the pantry.  So far, only Studmuffin has seen it and he wants to do away with it, but I think it may become an unintended pet since the Duke of Curl was absolutely HORRIFIED that we would even think of trying to trap &/or kill it.  Stay tuned….
• The power steering pump seems to be going bad in the Van of Reknown, so now it kinda sounds like the monorail at Walt Disney World only louder. This’ll have to wait fer a bit (see “Melting Pot” above)- fortunately it can, but we may have to wear earplugs while driving it.
• My mother told me she’s not gonna get me a present for my birthday.  I told her she’s off the hook; after all she’s been giving me presents longer than anybody, including the gift of my life.  I really do feel this way, but I admit to having mixed emotions too.  I love getting birthday presents; I think birthdays are important and I’ve never gotten presents for my birthday on any kind of regular basis from Studmuffin and children ( it might average out to maybe 1 present every 5 years or so).  Studmuffin doesn’t enjoy receiving gifts himself and so really doesn’t get the whole gift thing in a very basic way. In other years I’ve bought my own presents, but I don’t wanna this year for some reason ( perhaps the Melting Pot budget pothole?).  I have a couple of very close friends who remember my birthday (and I of course remember theirs – I *love* giving gifts).  I can’t say that I’m hurting or anything…there’s just maybe a bit of angsty regret around the edges.
• My most excellent LYS is having its big holiday sale and I went and got beautiful things on Saturday AND stayed within my budget. Yay! Once I find the camera, I may take some pictures….
• I’ve mislaid the mitten I’ve completed for my mother-in-law.  I must find this TODAY. She’s off to Austria SOON.
• The printer is still not working, and last night we discovered that my ‘puter doesn’t even have a dedicated printer port on the back of the CPU, so I cannot just plug it in to my computer. Grrrr.
• I’ve not gotten the Christmas music out yet.  I must be depressed or something.
• My house smells like Chez Catpee, because….
• My elderly cat, the Amazing Bluto, is dying.  He’s not eaten much of anything since Friday, he’s not getting outside in time to relieve himself so he’s been doing it all over the house (usually when I’m out), and the other cat is following suit.  Bluto’s been with us so loong he has several nicknames and he answers to all of them:  Blue-dee-doo, Blutofsky, Boo-ba-licious, Boobles, The Frumious Boo and Boobie.  He’s obviously near the end, and yet he’s still clawing his way up to sleep on our bed (since he can no longer jump) and purring away.  Of this I’m glad – he’s not in any pain and he’s had a wonderful life with us but it’s still a sad time.

How’s that for brief?  Perhaps photos tomorrow……..And I love reading yer comments!

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Blogging will resume…..

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…in a couple of days.  We got back from West Virginny late Monday night, but I’m still snowed under with minutiae and over 500 emails.  I’m off to the radio station in a little bit; I hope you’ll listen sometime.  )
I’m wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving a week late.  Better late than……

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New yarns/project, procrastination and technology follies

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Yesterday, I went on a yarn acquiring expedition to the fabulous Yarn Expressions to get yarn for yet another baby blanket.  I’m using the free pattern for the Moderne Baby blanket from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book.

I’d seen a really beautiful color combination in a finished blanket on Ravelry that was inspiring me

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NaKniSWeMo #4

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***If yer in the group on Ravelry, you pretty much already know what I’m gonna say.  )***

SO I’ve been knitting and knitting; 50 rows a day is rather too ambitious I realize, not only timewise but in how much serious knitting my hands can handle without too much protest.  I’ve been averaging more like 10 to 15 rows a day.

Sorry this is so blurry

I think the stitch definition is good here, though the color isn't very true to life.

Another knitting obstacle

At least Kali appreciates good yarn!

I’m probably not gonna make the 11/30 deadline, but I’m pleased with my progress anyway.  Now where’s the Advil?

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Loads of stuff to blog about….

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…unfortunately I’ve been knitting so much my hands hurt, so ix-nay on the yping-tay. And I have a cold. And so does the Force of Nature AND the Duke of Curl. And Bluto the cat has a sinus infection and something gunky going on with his eye…. I know: too much information.

Hopefully, we’ll all improve in a hurry and I’ll be back to writing SOON!

 

Meanwhile, you’ll find some absolutely hideous ( and NSFW I might add) handcrafts at Regretsy.com

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NaKniSweMo Post #3

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The sleeves are done!  Sleeves are done!  Sleeves are done!!  Gotta do a happy dance:

Doing both sleeves at the same time is *fiddly* – yes, I know a VERY technical term that is – but I love the fact that I didn’t have to keep notes to make an identical sleeve that now must be knit; it is already done.  I think this is they way to knit sleeves FOREVER and always, Amen.

Here they are – the color’s pretty accurate too.

I’m happy with corrected cuff pattern, and I like how the “dots” break up all that stockinette.  This is the unblocked version; I will block them today.  I’ll block all the components before the final seaming together, then steam block the finished cardigan.

I have now cast on for the back and am several rows into the pattern – enough so I can see the motifs and keep my place on the chart fairly easily.

Can you tell I’m happy to get the sleeves done?

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NaKniSweMo Post #2

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After knitting nearly 2/3 of the  sleeve I cast on, I made several realizations:

• I had read the chart wrong so the cuff, although pretty, was not correct.  I decided to push on – I could always do the second cuff the same way and call it a “design feature”.
• The sleeve on the larger (#9US) was gonna be ENORMOUS.  I decided to push on anyway – the fit will be ” extra – generous”; only if I run out of yarn would I re-knit it.
• My LYS had size 7US Addi Lace needles in stock ( they do not usually stock them) that would greatly facilitate the knitting of this cardigan, thereby avoiding 1) waiting for the needles to arrive & 2) paying shipping costs.

I decided to FROG the sleeve and start over.  I knew I had to do it; this would fix the cuff problem and would make everything easier.  The Addi Lace needles have nice POINTY tips that would make the twisted stitches much easier for me to do, and the size7US would make the cardigan bigger but not enormous as the 9’s were threatening to do ……still it was depressing and I lost my knitting mojo for a couple of days.

HOWEVER, with the Addi Lace needles in hand, I cast on for BOTH sleeves (a la Magic Loop) and am now merrily chugging along.  I’d meant to knit both of the sleeves at the same time from the very beginning – though flat &  not in the round as true Magic Loopers would do; I guess I forgot all about that in the frenzy of casting on the first time.

I’d figured that I needed to do 50 rows a day to get this thing done – that was BEFORE frogging and I realize that I counted the sleeves separately, so now I don’t really know how many I need to do each day……but if I get 50 rows done a day, that’ll be just great.  The hands are pleasantly sore at the moment, and tho’ I might not have this sucker done by Dec. 1, it won’t be too far off of that date.

I should have some pictures by next time.  Keep yer fingers crossed!

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NaKniSweMo Post #1

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The "victim"

Materials

( I wrote most of this last week… there have been problems, frogging, re-casting on and progress; hopefully another NaKniSweMo post to follow soon!)

Learn all about NaKniSweMo

Basically, you knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in the month of November.  I decided to do it this year because:

• I need goals/deadlines to accomplish things
• I’ve never made a sweater for myself
• I’ve never made a cardigan
• I’ve only done a tiny bit of Austrian Twisted Stitch before
• yarn is from NH; so am I

I’ve had this yarn marinating in the stash for at least 2 years.  In a couple of other stashed wool yarns, I’ve noticed moth damage lately, so it’s definitely time.  I’ve been looking for the right pattern for this yarn for a long time, then I ran across a gorgeous pattern by Candace Eisner Strick (who is a genius & a favorite knit designer of mine).  It tuens out, she wrote this pattern FOR this yarn. SQUEE!

Because of the moth damage, winding the 9 hanks into yarn cakes took darn near  forever.  I will say this yarn spit-splices beautifully and that has mitigated the moth damage.

I knit the swatch on the suggested needles and came really close to gauge but didn’t like the fabric.

swatch on US6 needle

Mods:

• adding 1 extra garter stitch to “valleys” plus I need it bigger, more wearing ease

• instead of stockinette only past the cuffs on the sleeves, decided to do a subtle seed stitch – every 6 rows every 5 stitches a purl make it more interesting.  I saw it on another sweater someplace on Ravelry

So far I’m really liking the fabric I’m making on the bigger needles and it’s not so hard on the hands to stitch.  The yarn is such a lovely color – the pictures I’ve given you so far are just not right!  The yarn does have cashmere in it but so far I really cannot feel it – I’m hoping it softens up a lot during blocking.  Lots of  vegetative matter/little burr bits in the yarn;  I’m deciding to treat them as a sign of the sheep from whence the yarn came and the artesans who spun it and so on.

Wish me well!

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Catching up a bit

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First off, I did finally make the Shepherd’s Pie a la Cracker and so here’s the recipe:

Shepherd’s Pie a la Cracker

• 3/4 lb. to 2 lbs. of ground beef *
• 2 cans of corn
• instant mashed potatoes (I like ‘Idaho Spuds’)
• Worchestershire sauce
• Ketchup
• salt and pepper
• paprika

In a pretty large skillet, brown the ground beef.  Once browned, you may drain the fat if you’re all siditty like that.  ) Swizzle Worchestershire sauce all over the meat, give it a rather healthy sprinkle of salt and pepper, then drain the ‘juice’ of one of the cans of corn into the meat mixture (you can add the juice from both cans but it just increases the cooking time, so I don’t usually).  Drain and discard the juice from the other can. Then add at least 1/4 cup of ketchup to the meat and stir; more ketchup is better. Bring this all to a medium/hard simmer over medium to high heat.  You want to reduce the liquid by about 2/3.  Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally.

While meat stuff is simmering, make yer mashed potatoes.  I usually make an “8 servings” amount, which usually occasions some math on my part because the box usually lists 6 servings then jumps up to 12 servings.  NOTE:  measure out yer potato flakes first, so you’ll know if’n you’ve got enough to make 8 servings.  If you don’t, adjust accordingly.

Once yer potatoes are done, the meat mix is usually done too.  Sprinkle both cans of (drained) corn over the meat, then spread mashed potatoes over the whole thing (like icing).  Add a few jaunty dashes of paprika on top.  Reduce heat a bit and let the whole thing warm through (about 2 1/2 mins).

Serve hot….with a bottle of ketchup on the table to0.

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* Use a fattier blend for real flavor and authenticity or better yet: get the ground beef in the plastic tube.  Also, the amount is variable – it depends on what you’ve got on hand.

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I can almost hear somebody out there saying, “Big deal.  So what makes it ‘a la Cracker‘?”  No, it’s not the addition of okra or anything like that.  For me it’s 2 minor things and 1 major thing:

• the use of instant mashed potatoes
• using the ‘juice’ from the canned corn
• the liberal use of ketchup as an ingredient (this is major)

I think anytime that ketchup is a serious ingredient in a recipe, then that dish has wandered into the “Cracker/White Trash Zone”.  It’s a little like the Twilight Zone except there’s some Lynyrd Skynyrd or Led Zeppelin playing in the background and  large quantities of alcohol are involved.  Oh yeah, less shaving and fewer suits too.  That doesn’t mean the food isn’t GOOD, ‘cos it IS.  If yer not too snooty or watching yer cholesterol, give it a try.  It’s yummy.

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Sarah said that she needed pictures and how can I deny her?  I haven’t done my hair today so that’ll have to wait, but here’s the Lizard Ridge Blanket so far:

I love the colors....

12 skeins of Noro Kureyon are here at Chez Oney and yes that is enough to start work on it.  However, I have a BUNCH of stuff on the needles right now, and several more things to make ASAP, so it’ll have to wait (and I’m planning on making and completing a whole sweater during November – NaNoSweMo for you jargonheads).  And I’ll keep on acquiring Kureyon at my beloved Yarn Expressions at the rate of approx. 1 skein per week.

 

My fingers ITCH to cast on......

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Introducing: Domo-kun!

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Warning:  silliness to follow

For a number of years, I have been enamored of the mascot of Japan’s main tv network.  His name is …..

Domo-kun!

He’s been making inroads into the hearts and minds of North Americans lately; last year Target made him a centerpiece of their Halloween campaign, so you may have seen him around.  A number of years ago, I got Studmuffin a Domo t-shirt; it was harder to explain back then who Domo-kun is.  Wonder where that tshirt is?

You might imagine with a name like “Mr. Thank you”  (that’s my translation of his name), he’s got a lot to do:

Like terrorizing the countryside….or

…taking a dance class from over-caffeinated flowers…..or

…reveling in a field of pumpkins.

Even with his busy schedule, he’s made time for a visit to Chez Oney!

Turns out, he’s into yarn…..

He’s gonna help me show the stuff I got when visiting Louisville, KY 2 weekends ago.

Let’s see what’s in here…..

OH BOY!  ATARI!  (that means “Victory”  in Japanese)

Oh this is nice stuff: 80% superwash wool/10% nylon/10% CASHMERE fingering weight? Domo approves!

He says, “It’s so pretty and soft…”

It looks good enough to eat, doesn’t it?  Well DON’T.  Much better for knitting with.

Domo-kun recognizing excellent yarn when he sees it….I think he wants it for his own. No Domo!  I *know* it’s Japanese yarn, but you’ll just have to get yer own.  Sorry…

Wait….WHAT”S THIS???????

A new creature?

Domo-kun says, “Ummmm….I gotta go.”

This is our new cat, Kali.  She’s named after the Hindi goddess of destruction and rebirth.  And no, I did not name her. )

Anyway, she spent most of her first month with us under one of the kid’s beds.  She’s come to be much more out with us in the last couple of weeks as she is still pretty timid around the dogs.  If she can’t get out, she likes to pee on my laundry, and for a while there, she was using “The Individual Formerly known as Homeschool Kid’s”  open dresser drawer as a litter box. Hopefully, we’ll get all these issues worked out and soon….

She’s rather sweet and her fur is very soft.  I hope to get a picture of Kali and Bluto together so you can get an idea of what a BIG cat he is….still King of the Pets here at Chez Oney.  Kali did not want her picture taken…

“Do I *have* to?  Well, perhaps with a suitable inducement, I might permit a couple…”

“Ah yes,,,,PET me!”

I wish I could’ve gotten a better picture of her eyes; they are very pretty and golden.  Unfortunately, my digital camera met with a catastrophic accident this week, so I’ve just got the cell phone pix.

The kids were hoping that a younger cat would be interested in playing.  Kali is about 3 years old, but she’s not interested in playing at all.  Now if there’s a SPIDER coming across the floor – she’s FIERCE, but she will NOT play otherwise.  She adores being petted, and especially likes smooshing her paws on my squishy bits but doesn’t sink her claws into me.  One intersting thing: Kali is the ONLY cat I’ve ever known that did NOT like canned cat food.  Canned tuna?  Oh yes.  Fancy Feast?  No way.

Natasha woke up limping pretty heavily this morning – I’ve no idea what’s wrong with her;  can dogs sleep on something “wrong”  like humans do?

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Some music for the weekend

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Ok, ok I could NOT get the widget to work properly, so you’ll have to go to the mirror blog to listen. Sorry.

LISTEN HERE

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Just checking in….

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Hey y’all! I’m loving almost all of the comments (I’m certain youi can guess which one I don’t care for….), and **The Kid Formerly Known As Homeschool Kid** is enjoying the attention. I’ll keep things brief until the end of the contest, but I did want to say that if you are at ALL interested in knitting, crocheting, spinning and/or weaving, you really really really need to join the Ravelry website. It’s free, there’s no spam, and the pictures of all the amazing things people all over the planet have made or are making is a feast for the eyes. One of my favorite things is to look through what projects my Ravelry friends have been “favoriting”; I limit myself to only 15 pages of those a day…..
www.ravelry.com

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Knitting is happening……

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….and this week is fall break from school…so I may have some time to write!

>>>>>>Scroll way down past the pix for the contest<<<<<<

Today I got a used book in the mail:

Kaffe Fassett’s Glorious Knitting (from 1985, not the 1999 one).  Everything is SO gorgeous!  His stuff is always an inspiration to me. This book was very inexpensive…which leads me to believe the seller did not know what they had!  I’m not complaining……

Just DELICIOUS!!!!  Most of these pictures are not from the book – I ganked them from a bunch of web sources, and they were knitted by regular, normal people.  This gives me MUCH hope!

And I got the remaining yarn that I need to start this:

The Austrian Stitch Cardigan

With this yarn:

I can’t start on it until I get a few more things done, but I WILL be making this this winter for me.  The yarn has marinated in the stash LONG enough!  I also think this will be a fun knit and I will get a lot of wear out of a cardigan like this which is VERY important to me.

Works in Progress (stuff I’m currently knitting):

1. Baby Blanket for Anne & Dennis’s baby girl

Yarn: Miss Babs in Aubergine

2. Norwegian Slippers for the Force of Nature, myself and for No. 1 Son

Yarns:  various  feltable 100% wools  YOU SHOULD MAKE YERSELF SOME OF THESE! Easy & fun!

3. Toe Up Socks for Homeschool Kid. Simple mistake rib pattern

Yarn : Happy Choices

4. Adamas Shawl for Dilsey

Yarn:  Malabrigo Sock in Rayon Vert  This stuff is HEAVEN to knit!  I’ma HAVE TO make a sweater out of this stuff someday.

5. Babette Blanket fer Mum

Yarn:  various machine washable worsted acrylics in shades of yellow, gold, brown and various accent colors.

I may cast on a hat or scarf or two this week as quick gift for friends I’m going to see this weekend.

CONTEST /  A NOTE ABOUT HOMESCHOOL KID:

He’s not homeschooled anymore!  As of August 10th, he started regular high school so he needs a name change. For the blog.   Time for a contest!

Please submit prospective names in the comments – the name I choose for him will win a $14 gift card to Starbucks. If you live someplace without Starbucks, I’ll contact you directly and we’ll work it out.  Please feel free to spread the news about this little contest far and wide; Contest ends on October 31st, 2009 at midnight Alabama time, and the winner will be announced when I get around to it (probably during the following week).  My choice will be completely arbitrary and humor is encouraged.  )

A few things to know:

• he’s a boy
• he’s 14 years old
• he’s got a fabulous sense of humor – very funny
• he adores video & computer games
• he’s a bit dorky (like his parents) and wears glasses
• he’s not good at sports, but great at dancing
• he’s a little shy
• names of the other family members in the blog are:  Studmuffin (husband), No. 1 son (oldest boy), The Force of Nature (youngest child and daughter)
• He’s on the chubby side, 6 ft tall and growing
• he has a big head of curly hair  (not only is his hair big, so is his head.  It’s REALLY big)

Have at it, y’all!

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I do have a mirror blog on LiveJournal, so please realize you might not see all the comments/entries.  If the winning name is submitted more than once, whomever submitted it first will win, though I might be nice and send the other submitter something too – I haven’t decided.  You can submit more than one name, and you can show yer support for names that others submit.  No profanity please!

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Just a phase I’m going through…

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My parents used to say this ALL the time about us kids…did yours?  I try not to say it about my kids (at least within their hearing) because it always made me feel somewhat belittled, even though I know that was not my parents’ intention when they would say it about me or my brothers.

I notice that I go through project phases in my knitting. A couple of years ago, it was hats; I think I made 36 or so hats from September to March.  Most were from quite different from each other and used different patterns – I’m not overfond of making the same thing again and again, which is why I don’t think I could craft for profit in a happy way.  I was obsessed with hats…..

Then came mittens and not just ordinary mittens – OH no!  Really gorgeous stranded knitting Latvian kind of things.  I didn’t make quite so many of those – maybe 7 or 8 pairs – mainly because I got into creating my own designs.  What fun!  And I was obsessed – eating, sleeping, dreaming about mittens for months.

I made a small foray into shawls but it wasn’t exactly obsessive like the other 2 phases.

Now it’s blankets and afghans; I’m crazy about them.  I think about them all the time…..

There’s gonna be a Lizard Ridge Blanket happening and a Babette Blanket fer Mum, probably another one for me as well as finishing the Kilim Throw I started a while back.  Oh yes and all the baby blankets I’ve been making.

I like this phase; I hope it lasts til I finish all these blankets.  I hope the next phase I go through has something to do with sewing myself some clothes……..

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Ravelry pattern links:

Lizard Ridge

Babette

Kilim Throw

Cabled Baby blankets

my projects Ravelry links:

Babette

Kilim Throw

Baby blanket 1

Baby blanket 2

Baby blanket 3

Practice blanket

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Picture explaning pt. 1- LONG OVERDUE GRATITUDE

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DO YOU SEE THIS?

AND THIS?

AND THIS?

THIS IS EVIDENCE OF FRIENDSHIP OVER AND ABOVE THE CALL OF DUTY!!!!!!!!!!

This is NOT the first time – she’s a repeat offender, y’all.

Sarah, I love you.  REALLY I do.  It’s all I can do not to stalk you…and that was before you spun this for ME!  I wanna have you (and yer darlin’ hubby) over to my house for dinner on a weekly basis….and that was even before you spun this FOR ME!!!  I haven’t told you this before because I’m afraid  1) I’ll scare you and 2)  I’ll stick my foot in my mouth and mess everything up big time, but I wanna be yer BFF. Would a tattoo be going too far? OK, maybe it’s only a girlcrush.

BUT SARAH SPUN THIS….FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT’S MINE. Mine mine mine mine mine mine. tee hee!

::::doing a happy dance:::::::: MINE!! Made for me!

BIG gratitude.  MAJOR gratitude!

Just LOOK at those colors!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

This doesn’t even begin to cover it; there are no words for how I really feel.

XXXXXXXOOOOOOO

Y’all, go visit her blog here;

she’s a delightful person, an exsquisite knitter and she spins like an angel from heaven!

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Yarn crimes!!

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The (by far) most popular segment here at knitting and whingeing is back….with a vengeance!

Before the horror begins, let me say that Target has learned something from their horrible blunder with last fall’s yarn crimes. I was at a coffeeshop on Monday and I saw a lovely short cardigan on another customer.  Its construction/stitch pattern was a little unusual and I told the young lady how pretty it was, and I asked her if she made it.  She said no – she got it at Target.  I’m actually thinking of buying one so I can copy it in my own size. Sorry I don’t have a picture…. Kudos to Target!

Now, on with the show!

This actually appeared in a magazine I usually respect.  If it has any worth at all (other than laffs), I guess it would be that 1) somebody got paid to make this, write the pattern, photograph it, and so on and 2)  I now know that I can design stuff for this magazine because if this made it in…well, well, well!  I can make crap like this too!

Who in the hell would 1) take the time to make this?  Or 2) actually put it on their head to wear?

The other thing I wanted to share with you is that there is someone else (well there’s probably others but this is the one I’ve found)  who puts yarn crimes on her blog.  She’s MUCH better at this than I am though there are a few overlaps you’ll notice.

WARNING! (this is the aformentioned ‘vengeance’ part)  DO NOT DRINK ANYTHING WHEN YOU CLICK ON THIS LINK! Unless you dig snorting coffee thru yer nose…

Oh and it’s been a very long time since I gave you this link to “Stitchy McYarnpants” – the catalog of older bad knitting.

You might wanna take some Excedrin and/or put on some shades before you peruse that site….

Enjoy.

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A New Theme

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The Force of Nature helped me pick out this one. 

We’ve been enjoying our homegrown watermelons; the Force of Nature weighed the last one and it was 27.8 pounds!  The tomatoes have been VERY disappointing this year……BUT we have WATERMELONS!

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Back in town…

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Will be bloggin 4 real in the next 36 hours……

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Pictures and no explanations

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I wanted to get these up but cannot do everything justice.  Check back in a coupla days and hopefully I’ll have captions and stuff.

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SQUEEE!!!!!!!!!

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Classic Elite Yarns, one of my favorite yarn & pattern companies, has put a ton of their out of print patterns up for sale via download on Patternfish! YAY! YAY!YAY!

If you like ganseys, cables, colorwork, you REALLY owe it to yerself to check them out.  Plus they (Classic Elite Yarns) *just* published Jared Flood’s book (it is SO fabulous – I saw it today at Yarn Expressions) and they get much kudos fer that too. Dammit, can the man make anything that doesn’t turn out absolutely amazing?  Us mere mortals (OK maybe just this one) tremble with awe and a wee bit ‘o envy…..

Finding these patterns available almost makes up for the fact I nearly broke my nose (in a very stupid way) today. Picture the scene:  I am at the dining table/homeschool table, busily cutting apart Russian flash cards, as the Force of Nature is whining away about her handwriting assignment.  I drop one of the flash cards on the floor; I lean over to get it…

I lean a bit too far and in slow-motion ……:::imagine long door creaking sound here::::   or better yet-play this:

long fall

-I tip over and bonk  the bridge of my nose on the edge of the seat of the other ‘puter chair (and fall on top of dog, Natasha).  Much blood ensued.  I did hear a “crunch” and thought the honker was broken for a minute…but it was just cartilage noise at the time of impact.   I’m glad it isn’t broken;  my schnoz already makes enough of a statement without the help of new ridges, flatspots or deviations.

Friends and neighbors, always remember and never forget to keep a bags of frozen peas in the freezer.  I’ma take a coupla Tylenol, then I’m off to bed.

Oh yeah – I need to post a silly picture:

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Back in town…

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…for ONE day. :::sigh::::

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A clevah mashup – Buffy does her thing

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Enjoy! I promise a *real* post by Thursday…..

more about "Jezebel – Buffy Shuts Down Edward Cul…", posted with vodpod

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