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?

Seat Belts Save Lives

I have nothing new on the knitting front and so I thought I'd pass this on. Keep an eye on Janice and her maniacal laughter....


"Janice, it ain't funny."

My Dog (almost) Ate My Homework

If you are interested in adopting either of the above pictured felons, please let me know. They are no longer fit to live in my home. The one in the black mask is the main culprit and therefore the first one to be placed on the Most Unwanted list. I was upstairs sorting laundry (what else?) and he had been alone downstairs for a mere 5-10 minutes. I had an uneasy feeling because I had left my knitting out on the couch and while normally this is a non-issue, he had been sniffing around it the night before and put his dog lips on it once or twice so I was concerned. I sent Thing 2 down to check on him and she came up and very silently but urgently motioned for me to come downstairs. I asked her what was wrong and she just said, "You need to go down there." I have to confess, I got a little more panicky than one really should about string and pointy sticks at that point and tried to race down the stairs as rationally as possible. I'm not going to lie to you-it wasn't a pretty scene. There was green laceweight yarn EVERYWHERE. The sweet little doggie of mine had taken the ball of yarn and apparently did several laps around the table with it as the table was well-wound in yarn. My container of glass beads was also missing. However, the worst part (or maybe the best?) was that my lace stole was no longer attached to the ball of yarn. As fear welled up in my throat, I choked out the words, "Where is the rest?!" to Thing 2, my super-helper who had gotten the varmint away from the knitting int he first place and actually collected up the yarn from around the table for me while I was blinded with panic. She pointed to a crumpled wad on the table, thankfully with the needles still attached. I took a deep breath, chanted "it's only the first section, I can re-knit it if necessary" repeatedly (if I say it enough, it will be true, right? RIGHT?!), and gathered up the strewn yarn into a blob, hunted down the beads which were wedged under a chair and thankfully still in the closed container, and spread out the stole to survey the damage. Thankfully, there were only a few "stretched out" yarnovers here and there and a few misshapen area that miraculously stretched back almost to their rightful places with a bit of coercing and most likely will be just fine with blocking. However, it took me over 2 HOURS to untangle what had been separated from both the knitting and the ball and I ended up with four little mini balls of yarn that I ended up joining with a felted join into one semi-mini ball which would be easier to keep up with. Now, I can hear you saying, "why untangle that?" but I have JUST ENOUGH yarn to do this stole and I cannot afford to lose ANY of it-and I'm pretty sure the dog knew that, because dogs are that way. He's trying to break me I tell you. The knitting now stays locked up-although the !#$%* dog is the one who really should be locked up. His brother is on the bad list for not stopping him and just for being canine in general. Dogs are bad. You can't turn your back for one minute. And they smell bad and eat gross things. Call me a species-ist if you like, but they are no good. Stay away. Protect your women and children, and most of all, your knitting.

Bring Out Yer Dead!

Ok, so I lied. I did NOT post pictures of my lace on Tuesday but it is because I was mostly dead for part of Tuesday and all of Wednesday due to some horrible allergy/sinus abomination. There is nothing like being so stuffed up you cannot breathe and having sinus headaches and being just generally cold-like in July. It just kinda ruins everything, ya know? Not to mention knitting lace while taking Benadryl (which I normally avoid like the plague but it was just THAT BAD) is a particularly risky move. (I prefer "risky" to "stupid" so indulge me a minute...) I was really so miserable and the Claritin was not helping and it was the 4th of July which I really LOVE and I didn't want to miss the parade, cook out, and fireworks-they may be small town but I still love 'em! So I thought, "Hey! I'll just take a little Benadryl-it normally doesn't make me sleepy, in fact it usually makes me a bit jittery! I should be good!" WRONG. Oh my goodness, I'm not even sure what happened on Wednesday but I'm pretty sure I missed most of it. I was there but not there. That picture is of the 2 older Things and their cousins so I guess I was at the parade after all-who knew? I slept a good bit of the day, involuntarily, and what's that you are asking? Wasn't I responsible for young children? I think so--but I just turned on the TV, removed any obvious choking hazards, and passed out on the sofa. No joke-and I really never do that. The kids thought it was great-Thing 1 discovered Bob Ross painting on PBS and thought it was the coolest thing ever (what's not to love about a man w/ a huge afro dropping happy little trees hither and yon?) . God was merciful and all 3 Things are alive and well, but the lace didn't see much progress those 2 days. I really like knitting lace probably the best of anything and I am really enjoying this project and had not made a single mistake, but in the few minutes of the drug-induced stupor in which I tried to knit a row or 2, I made about eleventy billion mistakes and so I just gave up and went back to sleep. Needless to say, I didn't get completely finished with the 1st clue but I should tomorrow just in time for the 2nd clue. Plus we are going on a little road trip to visit my in-laws (and their in-ground pool complete with diving board-woot!) so I should be right on track unless the dreaded allergies return with a vengeance in which case I will go throw myself off the new deck because I just cannot take it anymore. We'll see how it goes. I will leave you with a crummy picture of the lace stole so far-it was night when I took it so the lighting stinks, but you get the gist of it.

It's a Mystery to Me

I needed a little break from miter world-I am having trouble getting the last few squares done for my baby blanket for some reason. Mostly I am sick of looking at cotton primary boy colors-I want to look at pretty stuff! So, I finished the Jitterbug sock and did in fact cast on for the second sock (right in church as a matter of fact! Nothing but holy socks for my feet!) but then I decided to do a project I had told myself I was not going to do. I wanted to do it. I REALLY wanted to, I just have so many other things in the line-up to knit first. Nonetheless, I caved-I am knitting the Mystery Stole 3 from Pink Lemon Twist. This is such a great idea! It is a series of "clues"-she gives you one a week-that are actually parts of a lace stole pattern. You knit each part as you get it but you have no idea what you are knitting until you finish it (aside from the fact that it is a lace stole-duh!) This particular one is knit with beads in the lace, too, which I had not yet done and now LOVE! I got the first clue on Saturday night and found some Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight in Sage that I decided to use but I still needed to get the beads because they are used on the 1st stitch. On Sunday, I went out to get my beads and after just a tiny bit of looking (and by "tiny bit" I mean looked in every blasted store in the NRV that is open on Sunday that carries beads, even going so far as to look in the jewelry section to see if there was anything I could dismantle and use the beads, and trying for the life of me to read tiny labels covered up by UPC codes right where the size of the beads was listed and maybe a little skoshe of cussing and muttering to myself and having a grand conversation with yet another "unusual" person (is it me?!) in the bead aisle ) found some pale green, irregularly cut glass beads that would do nicely because apparently seed beads in the size I needed do not come in any sort of colors that are attractive to anyone other than clowns. I like the beads by themselves but I'm not yet sure on the yarn. I do wish they were a bit sparklier-they sort of disappear in the yarn but I'm hoping when the whole thing is done with all the beads they will be just the right balance of sparkle and beauty-rather than sparkle and cheese which is never a good combo but far too easily obtained I'm afraid. Anyhoo, I am halfway done with the first clue and it is so fun and I love the beads and the lace and I have no pictures because I am tired. I will hopefully put up a picture tomorrow of the finished Clue 1. I am finally knitting something I WANT to knit and I am having such a good time! I heart knitting again! (like I ever really stopped....please!)