Hey shorty, it's yer birthday!!

Today is my spawn's 6th birthday. I was lazy this year. I let him pick out his own birthday present. He picked out a bunch of Hotwheels and one add on for his track. I also let him pick out his own birthday cake. It isn't very easy to go shopping without the little turd anymore.

He so was not happy when he opened up the bag from his aunt and uncle. My future sister in law always buys him clothes. hehe I don't know why she finds it so hard to shop for a little boy. He is easy. Does it have wheels? If so, he will like it. LOL You would think my brother would have some memory of what a little boy likes. He was one not too long ago. :OP

I made my only contribution to their impending wedding. I reminded Kelly of a hotel that has a nice reception hall. Most of their guests will be from out of town. This way they can drink as much as they like and just stumble to the elevator and hope they hit the right floor. I just hope my mother doesn't bug them too much about having the kid in the wedding. I so don't want them to feel forced to have him in it. Lord knows I do NOT want to be in the wedding. They are thinking of having the wedding next May. So that gives me about 10 months to make my self presentable for just attending. I was unable to make a statement at my grandmother's funeral because of my phobias. There ain't no way I would be able to stand up in front of a crown of people in some hideous bridesmaid's dress. NO THANK YOU!!!! hehehe

Ok, lots of mail and blog reading to catch up on. I'm also planning a shopping trip for tomorrow. I really need to get a package sent off to my secret pal. I need some supplies though. Laters.

Gonna be scarce for a bit

I'm not going to be around much for the next couple of days. We are having a garage sale at my mom's house. The only good part of that is that it isn't going to be at my house this year. LOL I'll be lucky to make about $50. Last year I went through all of my things and got rid of a whole bunch of stuff. What didn't sell went to either Goodwill or WIC. This year I barely had enough to halfway fill the back of my truck. The only things I've been buying this last year have been clothes for my kid and yarn for me.

Speaking of the kid. He had t-ball tonight. He had a total blast. One of the girls on the team was totally pestering him. She was putting grass on his head and down his back. Then she was tickling him. The boy is a total tickle bug. One of the boys kept stealing his hat because the kid was wearing it backwards. They fooled around taking each other's hats for a bit. Then the other boy got upset and I guess the kid was calling names. I didn't realize at the time that he was. I just thought he was having fun pestering the hell out of the other boy. The other boy's mother got upset and asked the kid if she was going to need to come talk to me. I ended up having a talk with the kid about keeping his hands to himself and behaving while he waited his turn. He did a great job hitting and is getting pretty good at catching. Well as good as a nearly 6 yr old can be. hehe

Well I didn't get home until 10, so I'm gonna head to bed. I should have left the folk's house at 9 but I was tired. hehehe Was hoping that my dad would keep the kid over night. I can't wait until he stops crawling into my bed as soon as I'm asleep. If I'm awake I send him back to his room, but it never fails that he is in my bed when I wake up.

Talk to y'all on Sunday.

Better late than never

Yes I know it is after 1am, so it is technically Thursday. Y gotta understand. When I take pictures, there is more to it than just snapping a picture. My camera doesn't aline very well. I have to take like 5 pictures of each thing so that hopefully one will be centered. hehe Then I have to edit the pictures in PSP. I've got to adjust the levels and the hue. Plus I took a pic of myself and that entailed a half hour or so of messing around to see if I could figure out how to edit out my double chin. I didn't do half bad of a job at it. No you don't get to see it. :OP I have my hair back and look like a blob.

Anyways, here are the pictures I promised.


Isn't it cute?



I just love it so much.



Yup, I couldn't help myself. I had to add some pony beads I bought for scrunchies.

Here is a picture of the sheep fabric I snagged.

I think it is going to make a cute bag. I still want some jammies though. hehehe

Hope they suffice. Someday I'll hook up the webcams I've got and see if they take a better picture. Now I'm off to create the spreadsheet that I promised to have done yesterday. hehehe

Thank you Secret Pal!!!!

I have the most awesome secret pal. I picked up the package she sent yesterday. I was a bit taken aback when I saw just how big the box was. WOW!! Now I know why they didn't put it in one of the big mailboxes. It wouldn't fit. LOL

I love everything that she sent"
2 skeins of Noro Kureyon in color 147. Sooo pretty.
A pair of Fiddlestitcks bamboo needles, US8. My first bamboo needles.
The Spring 2005 Cast On. I've never actually seen a copy in person. hehe
A copy of Zen and the Art of Knitting. Tre cool.
A gorgeous gel candle with shells in it. (Pictures tomorrow I promise)
A bright pink bead storage box. So needed.
A mini red Sharpie. I love it!
A great card with flipflops on it and a sweet note inside.

She sent all this in a really cool turquoise gift bag that has transparent dots and silver swirls on it. I am so keeping this bag and using it for knitting projects. hehehe It is much too cute to toss. I loved the matching tissue paper too. My son had fun crumpling it up. He totally enjoyed the opening of the box. "What's that? What's in there? Wow that's a lot of stuff." hehehe Of course he was in a good mood to begin with. He got a letter from a friend with stickers in it. :O)

I promise that I'll take some pictures tomorrow. I spent the morning at my mom's house. She was having my dad's recliner and a replacement headboard delivered. I did not enjoy being woke up at 8:30. I had trouble sleeping last night so I was just a tad bit tired for the first half of the day. We had to run to Wal-Mart for groceries after we left Mom's. I went through some of the remnants and found the cutest blue flannel with white sheep all over it. hehehe I so wish that I had enough to make some shorty pajamas out of it. But alas I have a huge ass. LOL There was only a yard of it anyways. I'm going to make a bag with it I do believe. I also got some white and burgandy fabric. Just your basic plain woven stuff. I'll use the burgandy to line the blue, black and burgandy knitting bag. The white will be for the sheep bag and the messenger bag I'm still working on.

Ok enough yabber blabber. hehehe Oh, I added my geek code over on the right. Yeah I'm a geek. Tough shit. :P I actually enjoyed taking accounting and computer classes in high school and college.

Thanks again Secret Pal!!! Laters y'all.

Hey y'all

Gotta love the post office in this pissant town. My secret pal e-mailed me the other day to let me know that she sent me something in the mail. I figure, 'no problem'. There are 5 large boxes that the post master will put a key in your box if you have anything that is too big for your particular mailbox. I get there yesterday and find a little paper that says 'Sorry we missed you'. Ummmm were they expecting me to be sitting inside that tiny little box? Hell they are only open until like 9:30 am on a Saturday. So tomorrow (or should I say this morning? lol) I will drag the kid over to the post office. I've got yet more eBay yarn coming in the mail.

Now hush, I don't have any winning auctions and only 3 that are even active right now. :OP I'm still wanting to buy one of those huge ass skeins of chenille though. One place has a 4 pound skin of peach for about $12 plus shipping. They have a bunch of the peach and a bunch of green 2lb skeins too. No, Jon, I haven't looked up worming yet. I'm a stubborn Taurus. I do shit even when it is stupid. That would be how I ended up living with my kid's dad. Thankfully he has the smarts to stay the hell out of Iowa.

Anyways, I worked on the cable scarf a bit today. I figure I'll just use up the one skein of yarn and then call it quits. I've got a couple more skeins of it if I decide I want it longer though. I just wish I could do this scarf in some wool or cotton. It would look so cool all blocked out. As it is, I'm using some crappy old acrylic that I got eons ago in a bad eBay auction. At least I like the color. I also worked on the sock project bag. I've added in the second color. I figure it will be navy, black and burgandy. I don't have any green in the particular yarn I'm using. :O(

I swear tomorrow I'm going to to work on the sweater. Yes I have a problem with actually finishing projects. I get most of it done and it sits because I'm afraid deep down that it will end up looking like shit. I just enjoy the making part. hehe I do want to finish this one though. I ripped out the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater. That was interesting to say the least. I kind of had to do it because there was a big ass whole on one side where the ribbing ended and the body began. Don't ask me how I managed to do that one. I have no clue. I'm going to redo the bottom of the sweater in seed stitch. I much prefer how that looks to the ribbing.

Has anyone else noticed how sucky Bloglines can be? I swear it hasn't been letting me know when some blogs are updated. I knew beforehand about the troubles they were having at JenLa with Bloglines thinking they were updating like every 5 minutes. I just check them out once a day. Plus I just realized tonight that I didn't sign up with Bloglines for a couple sites I read all the time. I was so behind at Iowa Chicks Knitting. I guess every couple of days I'm going to have to go down the list of blogs that I read.

I swear I'm so addicted. It is always fun to find people that I read commenting on other blogs. I even found my secret pal commenting on a blog yesterday. hehehe I had never visited her blog until I got my information from the host. Then I see her commenting. hehe I'm trying to not be such a dang lurker on blogs and at least saying hi. I'm amazed at the number of people that visit my blog. Not many are return visitors. sniff sniff Guess they don't find me funny enough. Well that's just tough. :OP I make Sue laugh so I'm happy. waves to Sue Hell I'm just glad that a few of you comment. At least I don't feel like I'm totally talking to myself. Not that there is anything wrong with talking to yourself. Not that I do that or anything. Nah, I'm normal. Well kind of. They haven't tried to commit me in 11 years, so I guess I'm ok. Aren't I? hmmm Will have to ask the shrink when I see her next. Now she is an interesting one. She is maybe 4'5". I have no clue how to pronounce her name let alone spell it. She is the sort you just want to pick up and put on a shelf. hehe Collect all the cute little clothes to dress her up in and pose her. hehe

Seriously though, the counselor that I go see, says I'm just peachy. Has she even scratched the surface of my deep problems? Ummmmmm NO!! There is one person in particular in my life that drives me absolutely bonkers. I can not avoid this person because he is a family member. The counselor's solution to this is to leave when he gets me mad. Yeah O.K. whatever. I have serious issues with dealing with real blood and guts people in every day situations. People scare the shit out of me. Counselor lady knows that I am into Yahoo groups and blogging but she keeps bugging me to make some real friends. Yeah and I'm supposed to meet people where? I'm no longer in school. Not that anyone I went to school with has ever tried to return any friendly gestures that I made. I don't work. I don't have the energy to volunteer anywhere.

I'm actually going to apply for a job at a sub shop either tomorrow or Tuesday. I may apply at the new pizza joint too. I just don't know if they are going to be interested in hiring someone who at first is not going to be able to work more than 2 or 3 hours at a time and not every day. I'm not to up on the idea of working with food again after over 10 years away from it. I'm just afraid I'll gain more weight when I'm trying to loose some. My chickenshit brother finally asked his girlfriend of 5 years to marry him. I know I'm not going to be asked to be in the wedding, but it would be nice to be able to wear something nice and not look like a damn tank.

Okies that is wayyyyyyyy more information than I'm sure anyone really wants to know about me. This is what happens when I stay up too late watching Maximum Exposure after everyone else has gone to bed. hehe Time to set up mail to download and get my happy ass to bed. Laters y'all.

I hate nature

Well today I did my part in the whole knitting in public deal. I took my son to the park so that he could get some fresh air. He is too much like his mom. It doesn't bother me to not leave the house for days on end. So long as he has cartoons to watch, he doesn't care either. Of course he does have to have his nanapapa time. When he talks about my folks, he always runs their names together. We have to visit at least 3 times a week so that I don't have to hear him ask if we are going to see them.

Anyways, we walked the 4 blocks or so to the park. He had fun climbing on the equipment while I sat on my ass and knitted on the bag I'm designing. It is a take off of a crocheted diaper bag I came across. I just liked the shape. It is sort of like a messenger bag. After about 20 minutes, I just couldn't take the sun beating down on me. There are no benches that are in shade in this park. So I swallowed my pride and sat in the wood chips under the jungle gym. My physical therapist is not going to be happy with me. I killed my back leaning on the post. But it was better than sitting in the sun. I have mentioned that I'm like the whitest white woman on the planet right? Next to me, Michael Jackson still looks like a black man. LOL No, I'm not an albino, but I do not tan. I only burn. Bad. And easy. Yup I had a sunburn on my arms after only 1 1/2 hours outside. lol

The walk home really sucked. The hill wasn't that big, but man it was hot. There is no shade at all on the way to my house. I eased my agony by pestering the hell out of my son on the way. hehehe I just love knocking in to him while we are walking. It drives him nuts. hehe The best part of having a kid is having someone to bug.

I wish I had brought my knitting along with me later in the day. Well I had it at my mom's house and she decided to spring a t-ball program for the kid on me. He wanted no part in it when my mom was trying to talk him in to going. All I had to do was tell him to pick up his blocks so that we wouldn't be late. He actually listened for once and ran to get ready and get in his seat.

When we got to the ball field, he once again was not interested in taking part. After about 5 mins of badgering him, he looked at my mom and said, "Fiiiiiiinnnnneee, I'll do it". hehehe Mom looked at me and said, "He sure is his mother's son isn't he?". hehehe He even picked up my habit of saying 'whatever' when I'm not really interested in what someone is saying. I think he really enjoyed playing with the other kids. He did have a meltdown when an older boy kept fielding balls that my son wanted to get. He ran off the field and wanted me to take him home. I talked him into trying again and one of the dads really started helping learn the game.

I've decided that I'm really going to finally call the number and try to get him in the Big Brothers program. He so needs a man in his life. He loves my dad, but my dad would rather run off and do stuff for other people or sit in the kitchen and drink than actually spend some real time with the kid. It is a total replay of my childhood. I swear the man didn't spend hardly any time with me until I got my learners permit. Then I became Dad's taxi. I spent a good 3 years of my life sitting in bars with old farts. I got back at him though by demanding lots of change for video games and pool. LOL

All in all, I spent more time outside today that I've spent in the last month. LOL I've got a sunburn on my arms, my cheeks, forehead and a tinge of pink on my legs. Yep, I ventured out in public in shorts. I wore one of the pairs of shorts I got at St. Vinnies the other day. I had been worried that they would be too small or look like lycra shorts on me. They actually are quite comfortable. I think the next time make the trip to redeem bottles, I'll stop off and look for some more shorts.

Man I got to jabbering tonight. I really need to get my burnt sore tush in bed. Well it's my neck that hurts and not my tush but you get the idea. Oh and Mush, I know I need a new camera, but what do you expect from a camera that I paid about $40 for? lol Someday I'll be able to afford a nice one, but for now this is all I got. I've got a couple old webcams that I'm going to try and get working. Maybe they will be able to take good stash photos. If anyone knows of a nice rich guy that likes big crazy blondes and likes to buy them expensive stuff, point him to me. I had me a rich one a few years back, but I went and fell head over heels for a dumbass loser and lost the rich guy. Oh well, at least I got a great kid out of the deal. LOL I guess the kid is better than the money, but damn I sure would love a new camera. hehehe

Disaster averted

I really thought tonight was going to end with me being totally ticked. I have had no luck in finding the disc for my camera. The camera came with Arcsoft PhotoImpressions. It is a sucky little program that I only used to take the pictures off of the camera. I managed to go to the web site for Vivitar and found the drivers for the camera though. I used PSP to snag the pictures I took today. In the process, I lost the pictures of the old yarn I won on eBay. But I have some of my recent purchases.


Here is a pic of the Kureyon that I got a couple weeks ago. Yes, my camera sucks that bad. You can get an idea of the color though.

Here is the recycled silk and wool/silk. I already wound the wool/silk into a ball. I'm working on winding up one skein of the silk. It is not fun. lol It is twisting back onto itself like crazy. I'm going to be making a bag with it. I'm going to cheat and do it in crochet because I know I can get the shape I want in crochet a lot easier than I can in knit. Oh I know it is possible to do it in knit but I'm lazy dang it. :P

Here is the pink wool I got the other day. I've got two cones like this one. I'm leaning towards doing the ribbed v-neck pattern that I found the other day.

And lastly, here are a couple pics of the green chenille. It is very thin, but I think I can work up something interesting with the red cone of chenille I've got. Oh and Jon, there is something good to say about being ignorant of things. I get to ignore you. hehe j/k I have no idea what worming is. I've heard it mentioned before, but I've not looked it up. Teach me master Yoda. hehe Seriously, there is a lot I don't know about different yarns. Remember, for the longest time my only yarn suppliers were Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart.

One of these days I'll snatch my mom's camera to take proper pictures of my stash. First I've got to dig it out of it's various hiding places like the garage, under my bed, in my closet, various stacked containers, and other closets in the house. hehe At least I don't have yarn hidden in the trunk. That of course is because I don't have a trunk. hehe I drive an old Bravada. I had to put a new battery in it yesterday. The positive post fell out of the battery when my dad tried to take it out. That kind of explains why I have been having troubles with the battery going dead for the last 7 months. (told ya I was lazy :P)

Ok, I've got tags to make and mail to read. Oh and don't forget blogs to catch up on. hehe

What a weekend

I spent wayyyy too much time with my folks this weekend. I went over Saturday to watch the race and do some knitting. I swapped back and forth between working on my cable scarf and the Caron So Soft knitting bag. I've ripped that bag back so many dang times I'm surprised that the yarn hasn't fallen apart. hehe Maybe I should have used a pattern. ???

I got a load of yarn in the mail on Saturday too. Goodness I love that Cascade 220. I got a skein of 8400. It is a real nice gray. I also got a skein of Jamieson's Soft Shetland in Anthracite. It is a nice gray with green and blue in it. It's not quite as soft as the CC220 and not as much yardage, but it is real nice. I got those both from the same seller. I also got 27 skeins of Nomotta Friska. There are 2 skeins of hot pink, 10 of dark blue and the rest is baby blue. It's 95% wool and 5% nylon. I'm thinking it is fingering weight boucle. I've never heard of the yarn before but well I couldn't pass up getting 27 skeins of yarn for about $20 including shipping. My other win was 2 cones of SchussPlus DK wool in dusty rose. There are about 2850 yards on the 2 cones. I'm just looking for the right sweater pattern now. I've got one I like but it is for worsted yarn. I do have another V-neck pattern that I might be able to adjust a little bit. I've only got to add about 3 inches to it.

I've still got some sea foam green chenille and 300g of recycled silk coming. I've got some dark red chenille already but not enough for a sweater. I'm just trying to find enough of another color to work up a stripe pattern. As far as the silk goes, I just really want to give it a try. I've heard some good and bad things about it. We shall see. Oh and yes, I'm slowing down on the whole eBay thing. I tend to go hog wild and bid bid bid for like 2 weeks and then take 6 months off. hehe I'm looking at some peach and green chenille though. They are 4 and 2 lb hanks of yarn. I've got about 9 days to decide if I want to buy a skein or not. They have a whole bunch of it.

I promise that tomorrow I'll get my sucky camera out and take some pictures. I'm hoping that I won't have to reinstall the program on my pc. This thing is a pos. I guess that is what I get for building my own. hehehe Ok time to go get some stuff done before heading to bed.

I'm a cheat

I really do envy those people that only work on one of two projects at a time. Things really must get done faster for them. I started yet another project last night. I found a very simple cable scarf and am using up some yarn I got off of eBay over a year ago. I've never done cables before and this sweater is just an excuse to give them a try. It's a very simple 6 stitch cable. I gave it a go without using a cable needle, but I guess I pull too hard on the yarn because I keep loosing my stitches. LOL Oh well, I don't mind slipping the stitches onto an extra needle.

Forgot to tell y'all about the books I picked up the other day. I got a copy of Folk Shawls and a copy of Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves.

I picked them up and St. Vinnie's for $1.25 each. I think I got a pretty good buy. hehehe I'm really liking a lot of the patterns in Folk Shawls. I'm really wanting to make one but I've got way to many projects going right now. I'm not as enamored with the other book. There are a couple designs that I like but I'm in no hurry to do any of them.

Well time to get a move on. I've got knitting to do. hehe

I can't search worth crap

I checked the mail today and there was a box there waiting for me. When I saw how small it was, I got a bit confused. All the small orders that I've paid for have already come in. I thought to myself that if this was the 20 skeins of red wool that I won off of eBay that I got screwed. LOL Well it was the yarn. Boy howdy did they squish that yarn into the box. The box doesn't show the measurements, but it is the USPS flat rate box that costs $7.70.

The yarn is Pingouin Pure Laine No4. It is a nice soft dk weight wool yarn. I guess laine is French for wool. Pingouin doesn't sell it's yarn to the US any more according to one blog I was just looking at. I tried doing a search on Google, but the only results I got were French blogs that mentioned the yarn and eBay auctions for it. Yes there are care instructions on the labels, that wasn't what I was looking for. It feels like a nice yarn and I was curious if I could find some more. hehe

I keep telling my son that I'm going to fill the house totally with yarn so that he will have to swim through it to get to the bathroom. :P I told him that today when he started asking what was in various boxes in my room. I've only got 3 boxes out in my room, but there are about 4 boxes in the closet. I've got an under bed storage box with yarn in it and I just brought my tall storage carts back in from the garage. I moved them there when I had to put up the Christmas tree. I needed to make room out in the garage for the couch that my mom bought for the family room in the new house. Don't ask me where we are going to put it when we have a garage sale here next weekend. hehe

I'm thinking that in the next couple weeks I'm going to have to dig out all my yarn from it's various hiding places and take inventory. It will be at least 2 weeks before I get to it though. I've got to get my butt moving and get stuff together for the garage sale. God I hate garage sales. hehehe I'm going to get rid of a lot of crap this time. I've got about 20 storage totes out in the garage with stuff I can't fit in my apartment. I've got to get rid of some of it. I've got tons of little statues and crap that my dad has given me. Only reason I've kept any of it is because they were gifts. You can't sell gifts can you?? hehehehe I'm still debating on if I should sell the velvet painting of an indian and wolf that my brother gave me years ago and I've never hung up. I am not sure what part of it I like less. The crappy frame or the velvet painting itself. hehe Actually I do like the picture but I wish it wasn't on velvet. I'm big on all things having to do with wolves. Heck my son's middle name was supposed to be Christopher-Wolf. For some reason the hospital wouldn't put it on his birth certificate though. Lord knows I've seen much weirder names out there.

Well time for me to get moving. I need to hop in the shower real quick and run in to buy cookies. I just found out today that my son's class is going to celebrate his birthday tomorrow since it falls in the middle of June and Thursday is their last day. I just really don't want to go back out in the stinky heat again.

I'm pitiful

Here it is a Saturday night and I'm sitting at home alone and blogging. Ahhh the joys of being single. ehhhhhhh but I'm in a good mood. :P I got the wool that I won off of eBay. What I took as being white, is actually natural wool. So tomorrow I'll be doing a small swatch and testing to see if it will felt. There is a nice big skein of black that I'm sure will felt. I just might get out the camera and see if it still works. hehehe It is too dark in the house to try and take pics tonight. What I really want to do is steal my mom's camera. It is a real nice one and takes great pictures.

I also got my box of yarn from Herrschners too. I'm surprised that it arrived so soon. I think it took over 2 weeks last time. The peach yarn is a little brighter than I would have liked, but oh well. Mom keeps trying to get me to wear brighter colors anyway. I would rather just live in gray t-shirts though. :P I got the 2 pairs of US3 circulars in the box too. Now I'm ready for when Mummsie decides to give her tutorial on how to do socks on 2 circs. Yeah I know there are tutorials on the web. I've got one saved, but it is nice to have someone to bug when I get stuck.

Speaking of bugging people. I've got a question about some wool yarn I won the other night. Yeah I'm addicted to eBay, so bite me. :P Anyways, I won an auction for 20 skeins of bright ass red wool. My questions is on how difficult would it be to dye it a tad darker. I'm thinking of using either brown Rit dye or a dark red. I know I'm going to have to test before jumping in on all of the yarn, I'm just wondering if I should dye it before I make something with it or after. I should have enough of it to make myself a sweater and one for my son. Hey I don't have a daughter to dress up so he is my victim. hehehe Actually, all I've made him so far are some slippers. Oh I've crocheted him stuff, just not made him anything other than knit slippers.

Oh, and if anyone could tell me where to get the buttons for the Amazon wish lists, I would be very grateful. I've searched that whole damn web site for anything at all and came up empty handed. :(

Ok enough blabber for tonight. I've got zounds of mail to go through and I want to get some shares sent to my PSP groups. Niters

hmmmpphhhh

Jon you are such a pill. Just rain on my parade and destroy my dream of a white and black bag. sniff sniff roflmao j/k Once you said something, I did remember hearing that white wool doesn't felt well. *sigh* I forget just what colors I have coming though. I suppose I could pull up my eBay stuff and look, but well that would make to much sense. :P

I'm still trying to find the right pattern. I'll probably just wing it though. I know you have to knit the bag up about twice as big as you want it to be after felting. I think. hehe I've only been knitting for about 15 months so pbbbbllllltttttttttt. I'm supposed to still be dumb about most knitting stuff. I'll do more reading before I actually start making the bag.

I've made quite a bit of progress on my sweater lately. I've divided for the front and back and I've got a bit done on the front. I was going to work the front and back at the same time, but I didn't have an extra skein with me last night. I started working on the back today but realized that purling while using the exercise bike isn't really all that easy. hehehe

Oh and I bit the bullet today. I started a new yahoo group for crafty people in my area, DubuqueLandCrafters. The only group I found at MeetUp was inactive. I'm not paying almost $20 a month to start a group. Yahoo is free. Hopefully, I'll get some people to join. You have no clue how sucky it is to not know anyone that knits or crochets. I've applied to join Iowa Chicks Knitting, but have heard nothing back yet and I don't think any of them live to close to me.

Oh well, I'm gonna head out in the living room and knit awhile and try to find something to watch on tv.

Secret Partner 5 questions/answers

OMG!!! She is posting twice in one day!!! hehehehe I am a sheep that follows the flock. lol I had to think about it for a few on if I should join Secret Pal 5. I miss doing exchanges though. I can't wait to find out who my partner is. :O)

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Well I don't have a real LYS here in eastern Iowa. For the first time yesterday I actually held real wool yarn for the first time. hehe I use Red Heart all the time to make different things. I like some of Lion Brand's yarns, but I'm not a big fan of Homespun. I think I've used all of that yarn that I ever want to. :OP I also don't like the really out there novely yarn. I don't like eyelash and fun fur. That stuff is maddening.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I don't spin, but I've been crocheting for 20 years now. I learned how in junior high.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
No not really. My son does have asthma though.

4. How long have you been knitting?
I've only been knitting for about 15 months.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I have an Amazon wish list. I don't know how to get one of those buttons I keep seeing on all the blogs. I've looked several times on the Amazon site. I'll get a link posted asap though. Be warned that there is a whole bunch of stuff there. I'm very new to knitting and I only have like 2 reference books. Plus, I really created it to keep track of books that I want to buy at some point and so that my family will have a clue as what to buy me for christmas. I'm tired of power tools and household items. lol

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
I am a total nut for vanilla. I also like apple cinnamon.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Sometimes yes but I don't eat a lot of sweets. I don't like the real dark chocolate but I do love fudge. Man I gotta get my mom to make some, but I know she won't cause we are on diets. LOL

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Mostly I just knit and crochet. I have done counted cross stitch off and on, but I haven't touched any in quite awhile. I'm also learning to sew again and I've got some parts together to try making stitch markers.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like most kinds of music. It is easier to say what I don't like. hehe I'm not real big in to rap although I do like some of it. I don't like jazz, old country or disco. Basically for country, if it was recorded before about 1990, forget it. lol My computer is set up for music. I've got way too many speakers hooked up. hehe

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
My favorite color is hunter green. I have no preference as far as color families and what not. I do have a few colors that I don't care for much: bright yellow, bright orange and lime green.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live alone with my almost 6 year old son. We don't have any pets at this time.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
Like every other knitter, my dream would be to own a yarn shop. Heck I would love to have a farm and raise some sheep and llamas so that I could spin the wool. hehe

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
I don't have much experience with different yarns. I do like working with softer yarns though.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
The only ones I can think of are Lion Brand Homespun, eyelash and fun fur.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Socks are a big thing for me right now. I'm also obsessed with finding larger sized sweater patterns. I've got one sweater going and plans for at least 3 more. hehe

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
So far, socks.

17. What are you knitting right now?
1 pair socks, a knitting bag, 1 sweater, 1 vest and two scarf/shawls.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
One word: YUCK!!!!!!!

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
I used to only use straight needles but I find myself using circulars and dpns more now.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I've only used bamboo crochet hooks, never needles. I almost exclusively use aluminum, but I make many of my own dpns from dowels. My favorite brand is Bernat Aero. I love to search for them on eBay. I really don't like plastic needles. I'm always afraid they will break.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
I love them. I'm having fun using 'real' sock yarn finally. I've made a few pairs of bed socks with worsted weight yarn.

I am very much looking forward to getting to know my secret pal and figuring out who is sending to me. :O)

My brain has died

Ok so maybe not all of my brain is gone. But I seem to have killed off a few brain cells again. To be totally honest, it isn't all my fault. First I did suffer a head injury. Yes it was 11 years ago, but the effects are still very present. Second, I gave birth to a kid that could drive a saint nuts. Third, I'm blonde. LOL Well, the blonde is some what chemically enhanced, but that isn't my fault either. (seeing a pattern?) I let my hair go back to it's natural dark blonde and my mom had a fit. She said I didn't look right and kept asking when I was going to lighten it again. In her defense, I've been lightening my hair since I was 18 and I'm now 33. (still sends a shiver of doom when I say I'm that old. hehe)

The reason for this post is the package I got yesterday. My order of yarn from BusyHandsYarn. I didn't notice when I placed the order that the store is in Canada. Not a real big deal in the long run. I had convinced myself that I had ordered some Cascade 220. Ummmmmmmm that isn't what I ordered. I ordered some Noro Kureyon no53. hehe Don't ask me why the heck I had it in my head that I ordered Cascade 220. I can't answer that one. I did remember that I ordered yet more sock yarn and a nice sweater pattern. The pattern is Sirdar #5993. It is a raglan done with DK yarn and has 4 sort of fake cables down the center front. I'll have to adjust the pattern to be a little bit larger, but it shouldn't be all that hard. The main body pattern is quite easy looking.

I also realized, that I didn't order enough of the Kureyon to make a bag on it's own. My mom had me on eBay looking for my uncles reborn doll auctions, so I did a search for some wool yarn. I won a lot of 11 skeins of yarn for about $15 w/shipping. There are 4 skeins of white and then some brown, black and dark red. I'm really hoping that it will work for felting. I'll make the bag from the white and black and use the Kureyon as an accent. I'll knit up a small swatch of the white and black to make sure it will felt before I bother making the bag.

I received 2 other packages yesterday also. I got the set of sock dpns I ordered from Chappy. You should really go check out her auctions on ePier. She has lots of knitting needles and sock yarn from Bernat. Also if you like counted cross stitch, she has TONS of patterns and kits. I dunno how she keeps up with all her auctions. My head spins when I go through them. hehe I've got another order in with her for a Delta Burke sweater pattern. In fact, she is going through her patterns and looking to see what other DB patterns she has available. It will be nice to knit a sweater pattern that I won't have to alter. LOL

The other package was a belated birthday present from Allyson. :O) TY sweetie for the fun program. It's a program to help make tags for my always list.

Ok, it's nap time for bonzo. I'm about ready to fall over.

weekend update

blahhhhhhhhhh heh

Actually my weekend wasn't too bad. Just wish I had spent a little more of it at home. Saturday there was a birthday party for my great aunt. She turned 75 this past week. My brother and I don't go to too many family functions, so my mom made it a point that we had to attend. It actually wasn't too bad. I saw a bunch of relatives that I haven't seen in quite awhile. I hadn't seen my uncle since last summer. Just ignore the fact that it takes about ohhhh 20 minutes to get to his house from my on a dang highway. Has always been like that though. My mom embarrassed my brother to no end by telling everyone that we are waiting for him to propose to his gf of 5 years. LOL He has the ring and his gf knows it. He just hasn't found the right moment to give it to her. He was going to last weekend but she was in a car accident. Some twit ran a stop sign and totaled her car.

I kept my poor son out too late Saturday night. I don't have cable and I really wanted to watch the Nextel race. Was fun watching a couple of the drivers get all pissed off at each other. LOL I know most people don't think it is a sport, but it is more difficult than it looks. You try making only left hand turns for 500 or so miles all the while dodging other drivers while going 150 miles and hour or faster. hehe

I did do some sock knitting this weekend. I also did a bit of work on my sweater. I've got about an inch to go before dividing for the sleeves. I've also been messing with a bunch of other little stuff that will probably be ripped out in the end. It doesn't bother me to rip stuff out over and over. Especially when I find it in a bad and have no clue what pattern I was using. That is if I was using one at all. LOL I swear I'm going to buckle down and finish a few projects.

Thanks for the offer of wool Jon. I've got some Cascade 220 coming in the mail though. I actually thought it would have been here yesterday. *sigh* I just want to make myself a felted knitting bag. I do have an old school bag I was using but lately it has been the trusty ole Wal-Mart bag. hehehe Plus I want to know what the big fuss is about felting anyway. I also just ordered a bunch of Caron Perfect Match to make myself some sleeveless tops. Yeah I know it is acrylic but with how messy I am it is for the best. LOL Plus I got enough yarn to make 2 tops and I got 2 circular needles I am needing for making socks for about $30. Perfect for my budget. :OP

Ok enough yabbering for tonight. I need to go load the dishwasher before I forget again.

Yeah, it's over !!!!!!! lol

My birthday is officially over. *bleh* Ok so it wasn't horrible. The neck roll that my new physical therapist gave me helped me sleep pretty darn good last night. Went to my folk's house for dinner. Mom made grilled pork chops and fried potatoes. One of my favorite meals. She bought a small cake too. I had a lil piece but she sent the rest home with me. Not a good thing when you are tryin to loose weight. LOL She bought me a couple lil bunny figureines as a present from my boy. He got a kick out of giving it to me. :O)




Which flock do you follow?
this quiz was made by alanna

I finally made it to the new Borders that replaced the Walden Books in the mall. They have a good assortment of knitting magazines there. No that wasn't the first thing I went and looked at. LOL First I checked out the kids section. My son is just learning how to read. Then I went and checked out the knitting mags. I picked up a copy of the spring Knitter's. There are some patterns in there that I might actually be able to make without altering. hehe There are a couple that I like that I'll have to make bigger though. Some are a tad bit weird looking like Chipotle Waves. I do think with a lil tweaking that it could look ok though. I would do the sleeves in solid knit though. The main waves I would just do in shades of green and not the wacko ones.

Jon, the reason that I don't have any wool is cause the nearest store that sells wool is about 1 1/2 hours from my place. The only craft stores in town are Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Closest thing to wool I can get my hands on is Wool-Ease. I'm not real fond of the stuff. The yarn sections keep getting smaller too. I know there have to be people around here that knit and crochet but I dunno where the heck they are. If I do find a few, Borders has a cafe in the store. I

Making progress

I've made a bit of progress on my sweater. I'm getting close to the point where I'm going to have to make a decision about the sleeves. I'm working on a few different small projects too. I guess I'm feeling a bit scattered lately and the number of projects I've picked up is showing it. LOL I've got a sock on the needles that uses some old yarn I got in an auction. I think I'm going to rip it out though and use smaller needles on it. I've got some very very thin yarn that looks more like sewing thread than anything else. I've wound a bunch off the cone into different balls and I'm using 5 plys to work up a scarf/shawl for my brother's girlfriend. The thread is gray, so I'll probably dye the scarf when it is done. It will probably end up being dark green or blue. I took a filet crochet chart and took it into PSP and duplicated it. I'm knitting the pattern up 3 repeats wide and I'll keep repeating it until I get it long enough or just get sick of it. LOL

I'm also testing a stitch pattern on some crochet thread and using size 0 dpns. It is pattern 232 out of The New Knitting Stitch Library by Lesley Stanfield. Right now it is just one repeat of the pattern between some seed stitch. I just want to know what it looks like worked up in the thread. If I like it, I will work it up with more repeats to make it wider. I may just make it wide enough to be a dresser scarf. I really need to make my mom some more doilies for her tables. Maybe I'll get some white or cream thread and use this pattern to make them with. I'll knit the middle and then crochet an edging around it.

Also on the needles is a small sock bag. I'm really just testing an idea. I've seen directions for doing socks on a circular needle and it looked kind of interesting. What I did was knit the bottom of the bag back and forth and then picked up stitches around the edge. It is kind of a take off of a felted bag that I saw somewhere. I've been searching for yarn and patterns too much to remember where. LOL Since I don't have any wool to felt with, I'm just mucking around with some seed stitch and doing it much much smaller. I didn't save the instructions, so I'm not sure what I will do for a strap.

Can't think of anything else interesting that I'm working on. Well at least nothing that isn't going to be ripped out. hehehehe Oh and some good news, I found the cable for my camera. Did I take any pictures with it yet? Nooooooooo Just be glad I found it. :P My folks bought me a new toy this morning at a garage sale. Dad found an electric start snow blower that was pretty cheap. It is a good thing cause I don't think my poor back could take shoveling my drive this winter. I'm in physical therapy now trying to strengthen it. I'm going to feel like a dork using the blower though cause it has one of those big plastic dealies to keep the snow from coming down on you. Dad seemed upset when I said something about taking it off though, so I guess I will leave it on and give it a try.

Oh well enough rambling. I've got some knitting to do and the kid is wanting to go grocery shopping. Not my fault he ate all the bread. hehe

I feel so jipped

At about 12:30 I remembered that I was supposed to be having company coming at about 1:30. So of course I had to go running around the house picking things up. I am a horrible housekeeper. Part of it is my health and my back but I'm also just so lazy when it comes to cleaning. LOL Any real amount of cleaning house tends to make my back just ache something fierce and I end up getting so dang warm I wanna just die. Well today I cleaned like crazy for and hour and then folded a big pile of laundry. I sat down to do the laundry at about 1:30 and was wondering where the heck CJ was at. So I'm folding and it is getting later and later. Well finally at 2:00 I came in here to mess with mail some more and I discover an e-mail from CJ. She only e-mails me at an address I hardly ever check. 99% of the e-mail there is junk, so I check it usually only once a week. Well CJ is sick once again. I swear she is sick every other week with either bronchitis or pneumonia. She is the only person I know who is sick more often than me. hehehe So I worked my ass off getting the house clean for her and she isn't even coming over. hrumph

Thank you Mush for the comment. I just realized I've been to your site before. hehehe I don't know if I found you through Iowa Chicks Knitting or through Jon. I haven't joined ICK yet or commented. I'm lazy like that. I've been searching for any shops within like 3 hours of Dubuque that have halfway decent yarn for a halfway decent price. I've got a nice little driving trip all planned out for if I ever with Powerball. hehehe

I think I have an idea of what you are talking about Jon. I'm just not sure how many stitches I would use for the underarm. I like my sleeve with a lot of ease and I just keep seeing myself making a sweater where I can't lift my arms. LOL I'll give it some thought though. I've only got enough of my sweater done to cover my tush. I've got a ways to go til I hit the pit area.

Ok I've gotta go hop in the shower since I got all sweaty again from cleaning up the house. It is has finally gotten warm here again. Like they say in Iowa though, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. I'm off to my mom's house for awhile too. Dad always flips if he doesn't get to see the rugrat often enough.

This and That

Well I got my sock yarn yesterday. I'm starting to think maybe I knit a bit loose. I was playing with the Kroy whick calls for 3s but I was using 2s. To me it seemed a little loose. I guess I just need practice with actual sock yarn. All the slipper socks I've made are with worsted weight yarn. Later on, I'll scan the yarn so that y'all can see what I got. I think I did pretty good though. I got 6 skeins of sock yarn for about $18 and that included shipping.

I'm constantly searching for new sources of yarn. It really sucks having no money though. I see all this great yarn but I can't afford to even buy like 1 skein of it. Might as well forget about making a sweater out of anything other than acrylic right now. I'll keep searching and dreaming though.

Another thing I'm having trouble with is finding patterns that go big enough. I don't look like I'm all that big but when I check my measurements against most patterns I still will have to add like 10 inches in the bust. *sigh* I would get a bust reduction but hell then my tummy would be more obvious. roflmao. I'm working on trying to loose weight but I've been so ill and my body is so sore that it is hard to do any physical stuff. The doc is sending me to physical therapy starting next week though. I sure hope it helps. If I could just walk without limping like crazy I would be so happy. The limping makes my back hurt even more. Ok enough talking about the bod. Y'all probably think I'm a whale now. lol Most people think that I weigh less than 200 lbs though. God I wish I did.

Ok more on the knitting and stuff. I got a bunch of work done on my sweater last night. I think it nearly doubled in size. Oh and before I forget, Jon suggested that I look in Interweave Knits for a Debbie Bliss pattern for hints on my sleeve problem. Well I'm not sure which issue Jon was looking at, but I picked up the summer issue. The only Debbie Bliss pattern I saw was a shrug. I didn't see one project that was really done in the round. Well ok that gross looking green thing was in the round but I can't imagine that was what Jon meant. LOL So now I have a fairly expensive magazine that has no patterns in my size. grumble The baby patterns are kind of cute though and I have a feeling that if I really tried I could adjust a few of the patterns to make them fit me. Thank God I'm fairly good at math.

I've updated my links section too. I have more blogs to add but I forgot. LOL I've added the Yahoo groups I belong to and my personal web sites. Most everything has to do with PSP, but my crochet site does have a few free patterns that I designed. I've got a couple more patterns that I really should type up and put on the site. I'm just too lazy. :OP

Ok I got stuff to do and people to bug. Laters

blehhhh

Can't decide if I'm in a bad mood or a good one. LOL First the bad cause it is only a little whine. I ordered a bunch of sock yarn a little over a week ago and it still hasn't made it to me. I order computer parts and I get them in like 2 days. Yarn takes over a week. wtf??? I've worked in warehouses before. It doesn't matter what is in the darn box, so long as you have some sort of system for when you shelve stuff it shouldn't take too long to find 6 skeins of yarn and put them in a box. Plus I got 2 skeins each of 3 yarns. It isn't like I ordered 20 different skeins of different yarn. Heck even that shouldn't have taken more than 10 minutes to find. *sigh*

Ok the whining is done. I've made a fair amount of progress on my sweater concidering I haven't spent all that much time knitting on it. I've got about 5 inches done. I've tried it on twice to make sure I'm going to be able to pull it over my head and it will actually fit around my fat ass. I'm definately going to have to make it long enough to fall below my backside though. The ribbing is just a bit snug on the wideness that is my rear.

I've come up with an interesting way to 'pick up' for the sleeves. I put that in quotes because I'm not actually going to be picking up stitches. I got this weird idea saturday night real late while my pitiful dateless self was knitting on my sweater. What if I was to work the edge stitches; where the sleeve will meet the sweater, twice? I'm thinking that may or may not eliminate that weird edge I always get when I pick up the stitches for the gusset on my socks. Ok, so I've only knit a couple pair of socks but I'm trying. :OP

Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a total scatterbrain and will forget my great ideas that I have late at night if I don't immediately write them down. Well I couldn't figure out quite what to write down that I would be able to decipher the next morning. So I grabbed some yarn I had under my desk and a couple dpns and started on another slipper sock. I know yer wondering what the heck a slipper sock has to do with my sweater. Well I figured I better try out my bright idea on a sucky little sock before I try it on my sweater. Plus it is going to be quite awhile before I get far enough in my sweater to try it out. hehehehe So I whipped up the beginnings of a sock real quick up to where the heel flap starts. At first I was knitting or purling each of the edge stitches in the front and back. I quickly realized that I was going to have way way too many stitches, so I frogged back. Then I decided to only work my extra stitch in where I'm slipping a stitch at the beginning of the rows. I worked the stitch as if I wasn't going to slip the stitch but didn't pull if off the left needle. I put the new stitch on a stitch holder, slipping off the right needle. Now I slipped the first stitch onto the right needle. I still ended up with the right number of stitches on my needles but had that extra floating stitch I put on a holder on each side of the heel flap. Once it came time to pick up the stitches for the gusset, I just slipped the stitches off the stitch holder and knit them onto my right needle. I did add a stitch in the corner where you go to the instep stitches though. I did end up with an uneven number of stitches from one side to the other, but I just knit two together when I got around to the extra stitch. I think it looks pretty good. There is still a bit of a ridge but I think that is more a product of the heel flap trying to curl in. I'll do some more testing before I put it to work in my sweater though.

Many I'm a yabber butt tonight. I guess it is cause the only people I've talked to today are my mother and my son. Well since early this morning anyway. Not easy to have a conversation with a soon to be 6 yr old who can't remember what he had for lunch by 4pm. Although today he seemed to remember having pizza. Wish I could get the turd to eat pizza. It is one of my favorite foods. Anways, I scanned one of each of the slipper socks I got finished in the last couple of weeks. I had to send them in to the knit-a-long that I was doing. Take a look.


You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

I still haven't found the cord for my sucky digital camera. I haven't used it in a year. I much prefer using my mom's camera. Unfortunately she doesn't have an imaging program on her computer and for some reason, the disks I burn from her computer will not work on mine. Forget the fact that we are running the same dang operating system. *sigh*

Ok I'm going to bed. I've got crap to do tomorrow and it is obvious that no one is going to sign in to msn and chat with me. sniff sniff