It's Party Time!

Thing 1 is 8 years old tomorrow! We had her party today and it was so much fun! This is the first year we went with the all-girl party and we had a manicure party. It was a blast-we had fish, bears, bunnies, bees, puppy prints, and butterflies from a nail art book, jewels, glitter, nail stickers-the works!!

Thing 1's French manicure

Thing 2's puppy paw prints

The girls were all so sweet and a few of my best friends came over as "stylists" and we just had a great time. It was honestly the best time I've had at a kid's birthday party-lots of fun, lots of giggling, lots of talking+very little mess or effort=great party! I cannot believe how fast we have gone from tiny fists wadding up cake blobs to beautiful, sparkly french manicures, but I have loved all of it. I am blessed to have had 8 wonderful years with my sweet girl!! Happy Birthday, honey!

(Now, if I could just get her to take an interest in knitting with those fancy fingers...)

Come Back Later-Elves at Work

Hi y'all. As is quite apparent, I've fallen way down in the blog posting department and I cannot promise anything exciting in the near future. I am feverishly trying to finish the Christmas gifts I am knitting so I cannot spare even a few moments for writing. So instead, I will share something that sums up my heart, not just at Christmas, but always. Come on by in the New Year if you can and have a WONDERFUL Christmas, remembering the One who is The Gift :)!

Will the Christ Child Come?

Written by Gaye Willis

One Christmas we had an interesting experience that I would like to share. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning! We waited excitedly for the next night's surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set. Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ's birth. On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, all but the Baby Jesus. My 12-year-old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate dinner in the minivan, watching and waiting, but no one came. Finally, we called him in to go through our family's Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed, we checked the front step - - no Baby Jesus! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they dropped the Jesus and there wouldn't be anything coming. Somehow, something was missing that Christmas Eve. There was a feeling that things weren't complete. The kids went to bed and before I went to bed, I again checked to see if the Jesus had come - - no, the doorstep was empty. In our family, the kids can open their stockings when they want to, but they have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Even before they opened their stockings, each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the Baby Jesus had come. Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd effect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feeling of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child. We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree. He handed me a small package from my former visiting teaching companion. This sister was somewhat less-active in the church. I had been her teacher for a couple of years and then, when she was asked to be a teacher, she requested to go with me. I had learned over time they didn't have much for Christmas, so that their focus was on the children. It sounded like she didn't get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package -- new dish towels, the next year's Relief Society lesson manual -- not much, but something for her to open. I was touched when at church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation. As I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in giving me a gift. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the Baby Jesus! He had come! I realized on that Christmas Day, that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don't expect. The spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for Him to come, expecting the dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying of feet" but He came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude and love. This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Savior. We will most likely find Him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship and service that we give to each other. This Christmas, I want to feel again the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that, I want to open my heart to Him all year that I may see Him again.

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."Matthew 1:21 NIV

I Am In Love

Oooh, this is so beautiful. I. Must. Have. It.

I'm It

Cate tagged me for this meme. Here are the Ye-Shall-Not-Break-Me Rules (that I copied right from her blog, too!):

*link to the person who tagged you

*post the rules

*name 8 things others don't know about you

*link to 8 (give or take a few) other bloggers

1. I hate hate HATE (did I mention hate?) pet hair/fur and freak out about having it on things but I LOVE animals and love having pets-it is a problem, a huge problem.

2. I am extremely sensitive to smells and cannot function in what I consider a bad smelling situation. Inversely, I really love smelling good smells. The more I type "smell" the weirder this is getting to me.

3. Without my glasses/contacts, I am well beyond legally blind. (this works well with #1)

4. I am very VERY afraid of the dark (yes, STILL. There COULD be something or someone under my bed...you don't know)

5. I like to please people and if I think I have not or I have upset them, I will think about it obsessively until I can figure out something to DO about it-I cannot just let it go. This can also be a wee problem at times.

6. I do not like exercise for the sake of exercise, even though I want and try to like it. That right there is the first time I have openly admitted my true disdain for exercise and fearing I will offend someone or seem like a lazy fatso, I am obsessively contemplating deleting it (see #5).

7. I NEED to be creative, and along with this goes my NEED to look at and touch beautiful things. If I do not do something creative for a while, I get really cranky and feel "oppressed" a bit. This does not mean my created things always turn out well and when they do not, I get even more cranky and am not nice to be around.

8. I will often get random words or names stuck in my head for days on end and cannot get them out and no one else seems to have this same problem-songs, yes, words/names, not so much. It IS an oddity I suppose.

So there ya have it-8 random things about me! This was good timing because I just feel blogged out-nothing I want or need or desire or feel like writing about. I'm cruising right along with Christmas gifts, although I have replaced a few handknits with, gasp!, store bought gifts. I'm alright with it.

I will leave you with a picture of our Thanksgiving crowd (minus a few sleeping children)-my sister and I made dinner for our 2 families, my mom, and a bunch of Indian guys here for grad school. It was totally different than any other year and it was fantastic! They were so nice and friendly and just so enamored with all the food and the kids-it was so cool to see it from the perspective of a non-American! What a blessing-I am so thankful that nearby Virgina Tech brings the world to us right here in little old Blacksburg.

By the way, Kimberly, Leslie, Lynne, Miranda, and Laura--you're it!!

Holidays Are For Knitting

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

If a Child Barfs in the Forest and Mom is Too Tired to Care Anymore, Does That Make Her a Bad Mom?

Well, we have come out of the rubble of barf-covered laundry and we have been victorious. It wasn't pretty and raised some serious questions aimed at Murphy and his ridiculous Law--why did this spectre of vomitousness decide to reveal itself when the Husband was out of town? why did this illness occur on the ONE nite I let Thing 2 have RED fruit punch in the last 6 months? why do they only throw up on the things that are hardest to cram in the washer and dryer like comforters and pillows? The Husband escaped unharmed and I think I did, too-but I did have a little tummy tornado this weekend that could have possibly been food poisoning-and I only threw up once, a major feat as all of my girls hit all-time record numbers of throw ups. Anyway, these are not the pretty things of which I made reference in my last entry so without further ado, here are some of the things I've gotten done recently:

2-Needle Norwegian Mittens, adapted from this pattern. I changed the cuff to corrugated ribbing and the thumb pattern and decreased the overall size by removing part of the chart. In hindsight, I thought it would be easier and faster to do them on 2 needles rather than DPNs, but purling in stranded colorwork left a bit to be desired and slowed me down way more than I intended. The second mitten is just past the halfway mark so it will definitely be ready to give the Thing 1's teacher for Christmas before their break in 3 weeks.

This is a picture (before I had all the ends woven in) of my rapid-fire, bias knit Hokie Scarf knit in 3 hours because 1. I needed one for the game, and 2. I needed a break from the stupid purling of the stupid Norwegian Mitten (did I mention I am not so much with the fair isle purling love right now???) It is made with Lion Brand Thick and Quick which, despite it's acrylic content, I LOVE because it is super squooshy, has beautiful colors, is not at all plastic-y due to it's wool blended in, and it is machine washable-perfection in a yarn that will be worn to the football stadium which is a wee teensy bit on the nasty side in the cleanliness department.

Finally, here are some pictures of what appeared on my deck a few days ago-completely uninvited. I am not ready for this kind of stuff yet. The good thing about living in Blacksburg is that I don't have to be-yesterday and today were in the mid 60s!! However, it is rumored we may have a re-enactment of this silliness in the next couple of days. I suppose if it is to be crazy cold, it may as well snow so it is a least a little prettier, ya know? I hate the cold, even if it does give me a reason to knit, but the snow is OK-it is pretty to look at and if I am going to be miserable and freezing to death, I might as well enjoy the view from behind my scarf.

Hibernation

I will come out of my hibernation soon, I think. I have several knittyish things finished-a Hokie scarf and a Norwegian mitten and a half. However, all 3 Things had a nasty stomach flu, nicely spaced out with each one getting it within 24 hours of the last one, so that it has been an endless week of laundry, bleaching, lysoling, and no sleeping. I have blog things in my head but for a little bit that is where they will stay because I am too tired to do much of anything. And I do not want to short out the keyboard when I fall face down on it, asleep and drooling-that would be bad. Hope you are all doing ok and are germ free-I'll post pictures of pretty things soon!

Traditions

Here are some of the Christmas things I am working on:

A pair of 2 needle Norwegian mittens, a vintage pattern found on the internet and adapted to things the way I wanted it. I added a corrugated ribbing cuff because it looked a lot nicer than the cuff the pattern called for which was all stripey, and not in a good way. They are a Christmas gift for Thing 1's teacher. I think she deserves something nice as this is her first year and she is doing a great job. So, I decided to look for a mitten pattern that would not be boring and would take me a little more effort. In my knitter mind, this shows more love and care because I'm not just whipping out any old simple thing. However, in my knitter reality, this usually turns into me getting angry and ending up in tears and wanting to throw the item across the house and my husband saying, "You could just buy her something" which then makes me upset at his insensitivity and misunderstanding of my knitter's pride and then I am in a huff. Ahh, the true spirit of Christmas....it's our little family tradition. However, these mittens will not defeat me-so far they are nice balance of not boring and mostly easy, even though they are a little slow to knit for me because of following a chart that is really old and grainy due to its vintageyness.

Next up, mass produced Sunday School teacher gifts:

Standard Salt Dough ornaments, made with the Things, which will be painted and made pretty some time before Christmas. Of course, this follows our next holiday tradition which consists of mom (aka ME!) finding a nice ornament that she can make together with her daughters, making memories and lovely gifts all at the same time. This then leads to it being WAY more complicated than any instructions could ever possibly tell you, mom doing most if not all of the work, the kids getting up and leaving because they are bored with the project after 5 minutes, and a colossal mess for mom to clean up and mom being all tired, sweaty and again, in a huff (a theme here??). But memories are being made, I tell you!!!! The recipe makes a HUGE batch of dough, I still have half of it left. So, tomorrow, we (read: I, while the kids are at school) will make 50 million more ornaments. These will be to replace the ones we caught on fire yesterday when trying the "bake them in the microwave" directions. Do not try it!! It is a farce! We caught the skirt of an angel on fire-smoke everywhere-NOT a pretty sight...or smell. You know that will be what the girls remember-damn memories. They get you every time.

What special Christmas memories (or "shouldbeforgottens") do YOU have? Share them in the comments!

You Say It's Your Birthday!

It is Thing 3's birthday today!! She is ONE YEAR OLD!! Where in the world did the year go?! How is my newborn already 1? We have spent a good bit of time remembering what we were doing last year at this time. I thought I'd share a few pictures:

That's me, in labor (nice cankles!), at about 7 or 8 cm dilated with NO drugs whatsoever, thank you very much. Just proves the relaxing powers of knitting :). Ok, that and I have a really weird body that does not mind labor and likes to just dilate away with very little major pain and then have babies come flying out in record-breaking time that causes everyone to hyperventilate and almost pass out (well, mostly just me but maybe a few of the eleventy-five nursing students who got to witness this lovely experience, too). She gave us several scares along the way during the pregnancy and then came out upside down and with the cord around her neck, but she was healthy and beautiful, just like her 2 older sisters. Here she is, brand spankin' new, with her big sisters:

And here she is today, my sweet little monster who continues on her search and destroy missions all day long: What a miracle. She still takes my breath away. Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Stashy or Scary?

Go here-tell me what you think.

Yowzers!

All Yarn, All The Time

I just can't get away from it! My daughters had Field Day at their school on Friday and since I have the small Thing 3 to tote around, there wasn't much I could do to help out that day. So, the day before I had spoken with the coordinator of the events to see what I could do at home to help out. She went rummaging through her supplies and asked, "Would you mind winding me some balls of yarn for a craft project? Is that something you would be OK doing?" I laughed right out loud. Yeah, I'm not sure if I could do that. I'm not comfortable around mass quantities of yarn-hahaha! Yarn finds me, I tell you! (even if it is Red Heart scratchyville yarn) So here is the result of my labors:

75 Mini-skeins of Red Heart scratchyville yarn

The older kids used them to make these. It is called "yarn painting" in the most recent issue of Family Fun magazine. Don't you just LOVE them?!? My kids didn't make them at Field Day because they are younger but I think we will be doing some at home.

As for knitting, I have some ripping, cussing, and finishing to do and hopefully pictures to show in my next post. Enjoy the crunching of the leaves beneath your feet today-and go paint with some yarn! Whee!

Look, It's The Goodyear Blimp!

I am distracting you from my non-finished knitting by posting a yummy recipe for Fall comfort food goodness, at the request of Laurie and a some folks over at Crazy Aunt Purl. If you have never been to a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and tried fervently not to eat your weight in hash brown casserole, well, I am sorry for you. But here is your chance for redemption! This is a recipe for a lower fat, lower calorie, just-as-yummy-tasting version. It is practically health food, I tell you!! (OK, if you have huge issues with cheesy potato indulgences being called health food, you may just want to move along - now. There is just no place for that kind of attitude here.)

Hash Brown Casserole

1 large pkg frozen Whole Grain hashed potatoes (haha! just kidding-like there are whole grain ones....seriously, you fell for that?! just messing with you-it's healthiER, but don't be crazy!)

1 can reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup (you can sub in cr. of mushroom, too)

1 C. reduced-fat sour cream (not fat-free or the creaminess turns to jelly-ness. ew.)

1/2 C. finely chopped onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 C. shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese (if this is too "fake" for you, do part reg. cheddar)

1/4 C. melted fake butter of your choice

1 1/2 C. crushed reduced-fat Ritz-y type crackers

Mix together all ingredients EXCEPT melted faux butterish stuff and cracker crumbs. Put in a 2-quartish casserole dish sprayed w/ nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs and drizzle melted butterish stuff over the top. Bake at 350 for 35-45 min. until bubbly. Get on some sweatpants, grab a large plate and fork, and choose your knitting project and TV selection ready while it is baking. Remove from oven, get to the couch, and snuggle in with the delectable, creamy, comforting goodness that can only be produced from the proper marriage of potatoes and cheese. Enjoy!

PS-Didn't even miss the lack of knitting did ya'??

PPS-Oh my gosh, now I want to eat potato casserole like NOBODY'S BUSINESS!! Darn you, blogosphere...

Inventory

I have just not had much to blog about for a good while, you know? I did not do a whole lot of knitting this summer for many reasons-I didn't have as much time because everyone was home from school all day, we were running around a lot doing "stuff", we were traveling, etc. Also, I have a hard time knitting much in the summer because it is just HOT and so if it is not cotton, I don't really want it touching me and I don't always love knitting with cotton because it hurts my hands a bit. So anyway, I didn't have much knitting to blog about. So, here it is October and I have been knitting a lot more and so now I am not blogging much because I'd rather spend the small (VERY small!) amount of down time I have actually knitting instead of blogging about knitting! But I haven't totally given up the blogosphere yet so here's what's flying around on the needles and hopefully flying off the needles SOON:

One Skein Wonder--this is the 3rd or 4th attempt, not because it is difficult, I just kept trying to make myself use some stash yarn. I have a lot of yarn around my house, too much some silly people might say, but oddly enough I had no yarns that really WANTED to be this sweater. I liked the colors of a few but of those I actually cast on, one wanted to be another sweater and another was a yucky scratchy acrylic that no matter how hard I tried to like it, it just made me kind of want to throw it far away. So I made a short detour to my LYS and picked up a beautiful skein of super soft, lovely Araucania Aysen that has definitely decided it wants to be this sweater. It should be done in a day or so, depending on the level of craziness in my house.

Circular Vest-this is coming along slowly but surely. It is soft and nice and I really like the pattern but I made a mistake while knitting this at the Dave Matthews concert and I tried to let it go but after several more rounds, I just couldn't stand it anymore and had to rip back a good bit and fix it. Moral of the story-if you are just a little bit of a perfectionist cannot live with mistakes, just fix them right away so you are not extremely angry while ripping back 8 or 10 rounds (rounds that get bigger as you go, btw). Also, the needles I am using for this are garbage so it is making it hard and frustrating to do the p2tog's. I am considering a needle switch before going further but we will see.

Etc.-I still have the Mystery Stole hanging around but I am just not in a lace mood these days. I have just been way too exhausted to do any "pay attention" knitting plus, like I said, I have limited sit down and knit time so most of my knitting is done on the go these days and lace with beads is no good for this. I also have 2/3 of the squares done for my mitred square blanket but I just don't feel like doing it much anymore, even if it was supposed to be a gift. Poor baby, I better just go get him a book or something before he goes off to college... Speaking of college, I still have one Hokie Bird sock hanging around without a buddy-how embarrassing!! I have got to make that other one before the end of the football season or I may end up a lonely single mom. And speaking of onesies, I still have one Peekaboo Mitten without a buddy-good thing it is still 90 STINKING HOT degrees in October so I can buy some time for that guy. I hate UFOs, they stress me out because it is just one more thing I feel like I HAVE to do. Quit pressuring me, you yarn sirens buried in the depths of random, cobwebby baskets and bags! I have decided I will ignore them for now. There, I feel better already. Whew!


Finally, I have made a list of my Christmas knitting and I am getting excited about that stuff so hopefully I will have more to show and talk about in the weeks to come! Knit on, friends!

Handy

Here are the pics of the finished (and even shipped!!) Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting:

Here she is, blocking in progress

And here she shows herself finished and folded and ready for wiping damp little hands!

And here is a picture of Thing 3 sporting her very first piggy tails, because why wouldn't you want to look at her cuteness??

I just love baby hair!!

Phew!

I FINALLY finished that stinking Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason Dixon Knitting-for Mom's birthday that was, ahem, a month ago. I don't know why (well, yeah I do-'cuz when you do not actually knit something, it seldom knits itself-funny, that knitting.....) but it just took me forever and I really wondered if it was worth the effort at all. I mean, a towel?? Can I not purchase one of these items at any one of 27 nearby stores? Ahh the curse of the hand knitter-why buy when you can KNIT it?! It is handmade! A one of a kind, made with love (and some grumpiness and maybe a little name calling, too, but we will just play forgetsies with that, 'k?)! So I plowed on through and now that it is done, I am glad. Mom deserves something special, even if it is a wee smidge late-ish. It will be blocked and photographed tomorrow and I will throw it on up here on the old blogeroosky. I know you are on the edge of your seat with anticipation....try to hang on till then!

Madge, I Soaked In It!!

I'm the charter member of the Blue Mom Group. Yuck. We did some tye-dyeing yesterday and my fingers took a beating. We were shooting for orange and maroon shirts for the game (the blue was from something else, just fyi) and here is the post-dyed, pre-uncoiled state:

It sure appeared that it was going to be Hokie colored from this point. We each did a t-shirt and socks and I got really excited to do the rinse and wash phase of this shenanigan. I was having these grand visions of the Things all in their matching shirts at the game and I was just plain giddy. Well, the socks did not really WANT to be orange and maroon:

No, it is not your monitor-they are pink and purple. Really. Not sure what quite went on with the little interaction between the fabric and the dye-good thing I have lots of little girls around these parts!! The Things were thrilled so that ended up being a happy little accident. However, now I was worried because Thing 2 chose her white Little Hokie t-shirt to dye and I thought, "uh oh, that will NOT look good pink and purple!" It actually turned out ok but the maroon ended up a little purple:

All the other shirts turned out the same purplish maroonish weirdish color and dark orange which was as good as we were going to get so I figured I'd go ahead and wash them and dry them so the girls could see the final product. They are currently in their SECOND go around in the washer as the first time they came out orange, a significantly faded purplish maroonish weirdish color, and.......light salmon. White is gone. It's not so good looking. They are in now with some color safe bleach and we'll see what happens. I admit-I do not have high hopes for them to become stunning Hokie apparel. Do you ever have those projects that just start out one way in your mind-usually in this way: "ooh! how fun! what a crafting adventure! this is going to be GREAT!!" so you set merrily about your project and they turn out this way:....5 days into the "1/2 hour" project, "WHY?! why do you hate me?! what did I do WRONG?! maybe if I just wash/knit/paint/stitch it again one more time it will work, right???(2 more days later......)!#$% bleeping bleepity piece of trash!" That happens to me a lot, um, every once in a while, too.

But I DO have one picture of some finished knitting for a change! Here are the Jitterbug socks modeled by Thing 2 who said "can you hurry up and take the picture? these things are itching me really bad!" She has inherited my "love" of wool socks-as much as I like to look at them and I like to knit them and I WANT to wear them, I cannot very often because they are just too itchy, even with nice wool. (Although, just fyi, I did wear these all day the other day and they were not too bad overall in the world of itchyness) Well, of to check the washing machine again-wish me luck!


PS-any ideas how to get this stuff off my hands????!!

Coming Unraveled

I just got my invite to Ravelry-I have no real clue what this means but it seems to be something good......

Just To Tide You Over

I have been out of town and then under the weather for a few days so I am trying to get caught up on the explosion that is my life so I will just share some pictures from last week until I can get it together enough to write something more interesting. Forgive the less than stellar pics-they are from our cell phones.

Dave Matthews/John Mayer/Phil Vassar/Nas concert for Viginia Tech.

Me and the Husband at Dave Matthews/John Mayer/Phil Vassar/Nas concert for Viginia Tech. (See tiny Dave Matthews back there?)

Me knitting at Dave Matthews/John Mayer/Phil Vassar/Nas concert for Viginia Tech. No event is above a little knitting. Or a lot-it was a really long concert.

Oh, and have you seen these??? I LOVE THEM AND I WANT THEM!! Just saying.

Cheap Cheap!

What a week I've had! It has been a bargain hunt extravaganza and I love it! First, I found a GREAT new shop just 10 minutes away called The Upscale Attic which is an upscale consignment shop for home decor and furnishings-LOVED IT!! It was set up so nicely, the owners are really friendly, they had great things and the prices were reasonable-pricey a bit because the things they had were really nice but not at all "expensive just to be expensive", make sense? But, they had a"Bargain Basement" backroom in which I got 2 of these beautiful wooden Windsor chairs for 12 DOLLARS EACH! And the gorgeous crewelwork pillows on the chairs are also from there and only 8 DOLLARS!! Hello?!? I love bargains!! Speaking of bargains, next stop was the sale at Mosaic where I scored gorgeous yarn for a Christmas present (which shall not be shown since the recipient lurks about from time to time), 2 SUPER CUTE books, also for Christmas gifts galore for the Things and all the cousins (there are many-we're a disturbingly fertile brood): and got more than enough of this yarn for next to nothing (75% off!!): to make this sweater, which I love and hope to be able to finish in just a few days. Then, I got a brand new pair of Birkenstocks on eBay (love me the eBay!) for seriously little cash-they may not be the fanciest shoes in the world but they are so stinkin' comfortable that I really do not care-I'm over fanciness as a shoe requirement at this stage of my life!! Plus, they show off handknit socks so nicely in the Fall and Winter (yup, I even wear 'em with socks, it's true!) so it's a double bonus. Last but certainly not least, albeit a bit gross and will be limited to possibly once a year or less, was my grocery store bargain where we got smoked turkey legs on mega sale because it was the first HOKIES football game-we won!!-which we had for supper and Thing 1 thought was hilarious, mostly because they were as big as her head: Whew! All this hunting has worn me out! I'd best go lie around and do nothing for a bit, except maybe some knitting of course. Gotta get a move on all those Christmas gifts....

PS-I am fully aware of the absurdity of knitting things for Barbie but if you saw the ADORABLE patterns and the excitement on the Things' faces about the possibility of Mommy's handknits for their dolls, you would've caved, too-just sayin'.

Ooh Ooh, I'm a Weener!

Woohoo! I won the contest at Gina's place. So, now, what to do with 2 skeins of Koigu?? Leave me a comment with your favorite Koigu use, besides petting it and cooing at it as you pass by.

"Hello my Pretty...."

I'm just practicing.

You Know You Knit Too Much When...

I was driving home this morning from dropping off my girls for their second day of school. I was feeling happy because so far everything is going well and they seem excited about their teachers and classmates and the baby was sleeping in the back of the van so all was well in my little world. I was coming down the road and saw the usual random object in the middle of the road and as I drove by I saw that it was a brown wig. I thought, "That's weird. I hope it was not one that had actually been in use at the time!" But then, my true inner knitting kook surfaced and I thought, "Wait, WAS that a wig? it might have been a skein of brown yarn! Was it??" and for really longer than I should have, I actually considered turning around to drive back by it TO SEE IF IT WAS YARN. What is wrong with me, people!? As if, even if it were in fact yarn in the middle of the road, I would want to use it? I mean, I thought it was a WIG for heaven's sake and as previously noted, IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. Really now, I am not desperate for yarn or anything-I have many baskets full around the house and a long list of projects waiting in the wings (one of which is MS3 without the wing, btw-I have decided the wing is not for me). But for a moment I really thought "Oooh! it could be YARN!" like God had just decided to drop me a skein on the way home. In the middle of the road. I need some more sleep-and maybe a little less knitting.

Or maybe I need to go check something out in the road, um I mean, outside-I'll be back in a minute.....

Forget to show up? Moi??

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!
Take this quiz!








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Progress!

Alert the media--I finally have some knitting to report! Here is a picture of the beginning of my birthday gift for Mom:And I have fallen prey to the seductive quickknittyness of the One Skein Wonder from Glampyre Knits and I am thinking of making it with this lovely yarn: Finally that brings me to Mystery Stole 3. I was previously at a standstill with my MS3 Stole because of several reasons. One, I just kind of got bored with it and knitting in general (gasp! can it happen?! yes it can, especially in HOT summer. Wool=ick to me) and needed a break. Two, I lost my little beading tool (also know as a weirdly bent piece of fishing line) for the 50 thousandth time and decided perhaps it would be easier to actually get the right tool for the job (what a concept!) and had to order and wait for my microscopic crochet hook to arrive. Here it is, a size 14, 0 .75 mm hook pictured with a size 4 knitting needle (and my old-lady looking wrinkly fingers) for scale. It makes the size 4 look gigantor. The last reason I put MS3 aside is that in the course of the clues it was revealed that the theme for this year's stole is "Swan Lake" and that one end of the thus far gorgeous stole was to be....a wing. Hmmm. It turns out the opposite end from the pointed end is a curvy, semicircle shaped, feathered "wing" of some sort and while I think her designs are beautiful and had really been enjoying the whole mystery aspect, that might just be too mysterious for me. I am not sure a wing is really what I want and so I have decided to wait for some finished stoles to be pictured before I knit further into swan territory. I am having a hard time getting excited about all that lace knitting only to have it be something I am not really thrilled to wear or look at. I guess I like symmetry more that I realized. So here is where I have reached before I decided to play it safe and let the bolder knitters out there "wing it" before I make my decision.
And last but not least, I am just about to finish my jitterbug sock but alas, no pictures so you will have to check back later. In the mean time, I will be hastily preparing for the first day of school which is in 5 days!! Agh! Now I have TWO in school, one in second grade and one in Kindergarten so it will be just me and Thing 3 at home this year. Maybe I will have more time to knit?! I already have plenty on the menu, though, to keep me busy so it should be an exciting year! Have a great weekend!

Scratch That

Ok, I have tried on the red shrug I knitted last week and I'm not so much in love with it as I thought. I think it is a sign, too, that when I went to take a picture of it to share my misery with y'all, my camera was dead as a doornail. Oh well, no red thing for you. I am still slogging along on my Mystery Stole but have set it aside for a bit as I'm not in a lace mood right now. I want something with stitches I don't have to think too much about (i.e. garter or stockinette). This is a cute shruggy thingy from the newest Mag Knits that I may attempt in the near future when the "I need to complete something NOW!" bug bites again. It has really interesting construction and is just a cute little "extra" for when you need to put something over bare shoulders, should it EVER get cool enough to need such a thing again. I am almost finished with my Jitterbug socks (an aside-when I typed that at first, I typed "jitterbut" and then that had me laughing for a good few minutes-I'm easily amused...) finally and should have pictures of the pair when I get my batteries re-charged for the camera. I am also getting ready to begin a stealth birthday gift from the pages of Mason Dixon Knitting and it is knit with linen which I've yet to knit with so I am excited about that. I won't say more because the intended recipient just may be lurking about (yeah, Mom, I'm talking to YOU!) but it is available in both a chevron and squares pattern for those of you who have the book and want to know what I mean! Tell me, what's your favorite quick knit for when you need a "finished product" fix?

Drumroll Please!!

Hey, y'all! I made something! Like, from start to finish even!! Can you believe it?! I have been knitting along on my Mystery Stole but I am behind by 2 1/2 clues and kind of wanting a break-hmmm, I think that could be the summation of my life these days-but that's not the point here... I'm also sort of stalled out on my Mitered blanket because I really just got kinda bored with it for now. I'm definitely a product knitter and to be knitting knitting knitting on several projects and have nothing to show for it so to speak has been really just annoying to me. I just do not feel as if I am getting anywhere with anything and I know, when one does not spend any time actually knitting, it is often hard to get things done (funny that correlation there...) but still, I feel like it has been an eternity since I have finished anything. I have turned the heel on the second Jitterbug sock, but that was just a "background" project anyway so I decided today was going to make something and finish it, no matter what. And you know what that means-gigantor needles, big yarn and a holey ("lacey" makes it sound much nicer-I'll go with that from now on) item. I grabbed my size 50 (yup, you read it right, I've got 'em and I use 'em, too-wanna make something of it??) needles and some pretty yarn that had sat in the stash awaiting some one skein wonder magic. Add a road trip to Pittsburgh for 5 hours and a desire for something to wear on my shoulders with a backless top and voila! A lacey red shrug to wear to a cocktail party I get to attend with the Husband this week up here in the 'Burgh, which is incidentally also my hometown. The Husband got to come here for work and it is a great treat because we get to do tons of local stuff and also have Grandma here to keep the Things while we get to go to some neat parties and events ALONE-woot! I did my little shruggy poo out of Knit One Crochet Too Tartelette and Truffles held together-one skein each-and it is basically a big old floppy rectangle, knit till I ran out of yarn, and then folded in half with about 5 inches sewn together to make "sleeves". I will post pictures of it tomorrow when I have daylight for photographing but I just was so stinking excited to get something started and finished all in one day. I was inspired by Gina's successfully quick-knit little sweater but didn't have time to get ahold of that pattern and plus it was warmer than I needed so I decided to grab some yarn and sort of make one up as I went along. It's a bit floppy and is very simple, but it served it's purpose to renew my love of creating someTHING and not just slogging along in the "process". Yay me!

I'm a Survivor

Just....barely.............awake....

I made it through the yard sale-after getting to bed at 1:30 a.m. the night before and waking up at 3:51 a.m. listening to the sounds of a monsoon and laid awake praying the tarps were covering everything they needed to cover. Then I was up at 6:15 trying to look awake after my 3ish hours of sleep and got almost everything uncovered and dried off when folks started arriving. So much for 8 a.m....... However, all's well that ends well and between my sister and I we made a little under $400-and most of it was mine so woohoo!

I'm off to knit for a few precious minutes if possible before completely falling asleep on the sofa-if I even make it to the sofa. Perhaps I'll just lie right here on the floor and go to sleep right now. Tomorrow's my birthday so I'll need my rest for all my HUGE plans!! (when did birthdays start consisting of shopping for school supplies for my kids, cleaning the bathrooms and working in the church nursery? I wanna go back to being 7 or 8......) I'm not so sure tonight is the night to work on my MS3 stole-remember, as the old saying goes, friends don't let friends knit lace when they are stupid tired (ok, so it's not that old of a saying, I just made it up right now-but it COULD be old, you know, eventually).

Hope all of you had a great weekend!

Trash to Treasure

I've decided to have a yard sale this Saturday. This is a big deal to me because I LOATHE having yard sales-I've never even had my very own one ever and I hate them. I would much rather just give all my stuff away to Goodwill and be done with it. However, we have amassed a humongous quantity of unnecessary stuff as well as a humongous quantity of things for which we need to pay and the 2 have added up to the dreaded yard sale. Why do I hate them? I don't know-I have gone to many a yard sale and have gotten some things I needed at them, but I don't go as much anymore. Plus, they seem like a lot of work and not much money in return and honestly, I have other things I want to do on a Saturday. However, I am hoping I will not have just junk and I will clear out a little space and will make at least some money in the process. I admit, I even thought about selling some of my yarn in it and then thought "Get hold of yourself, woman!" See?! I am irrationally distracted with financial concerns right now!! (Selling my yarn... what am I coming to?? Silly crazy lady...)

Anyway, I am still plugging away at my Mystery Stole and am a little bit behind but slowly making up some ground. I also picked up my mitered squares the other nite and have done a bit more on that-even though the baby it is intended for is now 3 months old and not getting any smaller. Oh well, maybe he just needs to get a little mitered square washcloth instead of a whole blanket! I am also about 1/2 way through my second Jitterbug sock, too but have no idea when it will be completed. I don't know why but I am just not getting much completed with my knitting. Well, I take that back, I know why-because I only sit to knit at about 10:00 at night which only gives me a little time unless I decide to stay up super late-which I sometimes do, but it catches up with me after a few days. I've also been in a blogging funk so my posts have been sparse and not super interesting-I just don't have much going on except more house projects (latest addition=fence for the ridiculous beasties that refuse to believe they should be contained and think it is their right to run away at any given moment) and more housework (I know I've mentioned my love affair with laundry a few (hundred) times....). So, I will try to spice it up a bit and snap out of this funk. I'll see if I can get anything knit that is picture-worthy. Until then, I'll be in my basement pricing my junk that will hopefully turn into someone's treasure. Old lawnmower, anyone? How about some toys? Winter coats? Anyone? Anyone??

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I have been a busy bee this summer and haven't had a lot of time for blogging so I just thought I'd show you what I have done. I painted Thing 3's bedroom FINALLY-a nice sunny yellow that warmed up the stark white walls. We added some cute little counting sheep above her crib and have some pretty pictures to frame and hang up as well. I finished it up this past Sunday and just sort of left everything in a heap at the top of the steps to clean up "later". Well, "later" became yesterday when I finally got around to it and so I began gathering up drop cloths and rollers and the 3/4 full bucket of paint to go downstairs. At that point, something unfortunate happened.

The nice, sunny, warm yellow doesn't look quite as good when seeping into your carpet. Really not good at all, in fact. And, apparently, paint multiplies when spilt to become eleventy five gallons when you though it was only not even one gallon. That small black plastic item in the top right of the picture is about 2 inches long, to give you some idea of the scale of this disaster. Also, no amount of sweating, repeatedly saying "oh no, oh no, oh no" and cussing causes this quantity of paint to be removed from the very plush carpet (that I did hate, incidentally-and yes, it really WAS an accident, HONEST!!). This is how it looked after 2 hours of "clean up" :

The evidence is now in the trash can and garage-I hope my neighbors thought nothing of me hauling out several bags and a big roll of carpet. (But when was the last time they saw my husband??) The silver lining in all of this is that we were planing on replacing all of that carpet with hardwood anyway, EVENTUALLY. Eventually has arrived. Anyone know any good contractors?