Knit and fall back in it

OU beats Texas Tech

2008-11-23T10:28:00.002-06:00

Yeah, they did. Beat them like a rented mule. They did.

Wish you were here?

2008-11-02T20:11:00.002-06:00

Here's two good reasons to wish that you were in Tulsa, Oklahoma today:

1. The weather...high temp today was 85F/29C

2. Gas is $1.93 per gallon.

Those are also the first two items on my thankful list, here's the last one:

3. I didn't have to work today, so I got to enjoy the beautiful weather.

When the going gets tough...

2008-10-02T20:32:00.002-05:00

The tough go shopping. And that's what I did today...all day. A little retail therapy will cure what ails ya, I'm here to tell ya.

It started at Coldwater Creek, it was a big Fall sale, I had to go in a look, didn't I? And look I did. I walked out of there with 2 sweaters, 2 shells, 1 blouse, and a necklace. Then I wandered down to Chicos Holy cow!!! It was another Fall sale. 2 more blouses, 2 pairs of pants, 1 pair of earrings and another necklace. At JC Penney they were calling it a grand opening sale, which I don't really understand, but I bought a pair of shoes anyway. Then, and you'll never believe this, but Famous Footwear was having a Fall sale, so I got another pair of shoes and 4 pairs of socks. While I was in Claire's I was advised by the ever so helpful sales staff that it was a buy 2 get 1 free on all of their earrings, so I picked up 3 more pairs of earrings there. My last stop was FYE where I bought a Kid Rock CD. And that was pretty much all I got done today.

Thankfuls:
1. I'm thankful for my parents, they do so much for me.
2. I'm thankful for the beautiful Fall weather we're having right now.
3. I'm thankful for Fall sales!

I've been inspired

2008-09-29T04:24:00.010-05:00

I took a break this summer from my knitting (not to mention a short break from reality) but I'm feeling much better now!

Sue started a mitered square project using left over bits of sock yarn and I just had to try it myself. I started playing around with the odds and ends of sock yarn that I had left over, I knew I would never have enough to make a throw of any size but I was having fun playing in the wool. Mom donated her left over sock yarn and it got a little more interesting. Sue and Emma donated some more bits and pieces and that's when it started becoming an addiction. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of the yarn that they contributed, but that doesn't mean that I didn't love every bit of it. This project wouldn't have gotten very far without it, thanks to both of you.

I mentioned this project to Julie who said that she had some leftovers that she could part with and she sent me this:

That is what's left after 15 pairs of socks PLUS a brand new skein of Spunky Ecclectic and a very nice card...just because. Thank you so much, Julie. I don't deserve you.

So anyhoo, this project has taken on a life of it's own. I can't seem to put it down. This picture was taken a few days ago, at that time I had completed 91 squares.

You can click on the pictures to get a better look. I love how all of the crazy colors and patterns look like they belong together, even though they don't. When you start a square you don't know how it's going to turn out until it's done and that's what makes this project so hard to put down.

I'm still thankful:
1. I'm thankful for all of the prayers and good thoughts and nice comments and emails I have received over that last several weeks.

2. I'm thankful for the last 14 years, regardless of the ending.

3. I'm thankful for leftover sock yarn to occupy my time.

The knit has hit the fan!

2008-09-03T06:29:00.003-05:00

Things are out of control around the knit house these days. I need to step back and take deep breath, so there won't be much going on here for a little bit. I'll still be visiting your blogs so that we can keep in touch.

If you have a minute, you might say a prayer for the residents of the knit house, both current and former.

She's got legs

2008-08-20T19:15:00.005-05:00

It seems I started something over on Buck's blog when I made a comment about chubby legs that then bled over onto Becky's blog. So I feel obligated to participate.

Check out these gams...stems...pins...getaway sticks:

This picture was taken in May 1967 - and you'll have to do the math yourself.

While I was looking for the chubby-legged picture I came across another picture that I have always found odd:

To the far left is my granddad Omer, then my daughter Kate holding her cousin Leslie, my sister Penny behind the stroller, in the stroller is a family friend Trenton, then my mother Joyce, and me on the far right. This picture seems odd to me because, while we have always been a pretty close-knit family, we look like a bunch of strangers in this picture. No two are looking at each other, or even in the same direction. We're not talking or posing. And I don't even know who took it, I'm assuming it was my dad but I don't even remember it being taken. Judging from the ages of the children and my hairstyle, I would say that this was taken around 1993.

I'm thankful if nothing else:
1. I'm thankful that fat legs are cute for at least part of our lives.
2. I'm thankful I don't still have that big hair.
3. I'm thankful that I had 30 years with my granddad.

Oh, for Pete's sake

2008-08-16T19:10:00.002-05:00

I woke early this morning, about 6:ooam-ish, we watched a little news and had some waffles and a little coffee, things were going well, we were going about starting our Saturday. Then, the clutz that I am, was attempting to walk and carry things in my hands and talk at the same time. I may have even been trying to chew gum, I don't know, but a series of unfortunate events resulted in a US 7 (4.5mm) bamboo knitting needle getting stuck (about 2" of it) in my left heel.

Here's how the conversation went:

Robert: Oh jeez.
Amy: I can't pull it out, you pull it out.
Robert: I don't think we should pull it out, I'm taking you to the ER.
Amy: I can't walk, pull it out.
Robert: I don't think we should pull it out, I'll carry you.
Amy: It hurts, pull it out.
Robert: (grasping the knitting needle like he is considering pulling it out) I can't get ahold of it, it's slick, I don't think we should pull it out, I'm taking you to the ER.
Amy: Bobby, it hurts, please pull it out.
Robert: (reluctantly) OK, Let me get something to get ahold of it.

He leaves the room and comes back with some pliers.

Robert: (grasping the knitting needle with the pliers) This is not a good idea, we should go to the ER...are you ready?
Amy: (takes a deep breath) Yes

With one smooth motion Robert swiftly removes the knitting needle and Amy feels instant relief.

Amy: (suddenly feeling flush) I'm gonna faint.
Robert: Lie down

Robert holds Amy's feet higher than her head, at the same time applying pressure to the wound on her foot. After a few minutes the nausea subsides and the color returns to Amy's face.

Robert: Are you OK?
Amy: Yeah, thank you.
Robert: I peed a little bit.

So, how was your Saturday?

Now I've seen it all

2008-07-30T18:59:00.002-05:00

Have you guys seen this? Snoop Dogg and Willie? And if I know my cute boys (and I think I do) I would say that is Brad Paisley in the reddish hoodie and ball cap playing lead guitar.

What a strange collaboration. Willie is 75 years old, shouldn't he really consider settling down a little? Seriously, just a itty-bitty-tiny-little bit. What are they talking about anyway? Medicine?? I don't get it.

1. I'm thankful that Willie can still be Willie at 75 years old.
2. I'm thankful that my daughter told me about this video, because I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
3. I am thankful that September is just a few weeks away.

P.S. When I went to Brad Paisley's website to get the link I found a video there with him and Andy Griffith.(!) Holy smokes, has the world gone crazy?

We're dealing with a lot of stuff here!

2008-07-21T19:47:00.012-05:00

I have seriously neglected blogging, both reading and posting, but I've been (as a very wise person once said) up to my @$$ in alligators around here. It's been a very busy summer so far.

There have been birthday celebrations:

One for Robert.

And one for my country.

There were ballgames to win:

There have been moderately successful attempts at staying cool in the Oklahoma heat:

There has been yardwork and wildlife to deal with:

Some soft and cuddly.

Some, well...not so much.

There were some more acts of kindness:

Ann from my knitting group made this hat for Dona. Thanks again, Ann. I have sent it off to Dona and I know that she will love it.

There has also been a (very) little bit of knitting:

This is another square for the Holly B and Tracy B blankie project. I loved that pattern, it was so quick and fun and easy that I decided that I would use some of the DK weight cotton I had sitting around here and size 3 needles and use the same pattern to make a pretty face cloth. However, that attempt did not go as smoothly as my first attempt at this pattern. It ended badly.

And there was this:

It may or may not become a finished object, we'll just have to wait and see how it goes. I took that picture in the house and those colors are not even close to the actual colors. Maybe if it becomes a finished object I will try harder to get a better picture of it.

Then there were some other things that weren't worthy of being photographed, like trying to get our house ready to put on the market so we can move back into Tulsa. I have decided that I am tired of working here for myself...by myself and I am trying to decide if I want to go back to work in a normal job or go to back to school, and doing what needs to be done in order to do one or the other. If there were pictures of these things, they would look a lot like me pulling my hair out. I've never been good at life-changing decisions.

Let's see if I remember how to be thankful:
1. I'm thankful to have so many career and housing options open to me.
2. I am thankful that Robert hasn't strangled me during this life-changing decision making process. Bless his heart. He's a saint.
3. I am thankful he won't be going back to Iraq in September.

This one goes out to the one I love

2008-06-28T08:29:00.003-05:00

Today is Robert's birthday.

I am so lucky to be his wife. He is my rock, he's my soft place to land, he is my friend, he's got my back. **He's a cowboy wrapped in a genius, wrapped in a dream, wrapped in another cowboy**

Happy birthday baby, this one will be better than the last one, I promise.

**That was a line from the tv show "Frasier" the person that said it was talking about Dr. Phil.

Groovy (?!)

2008-06-21T14:38:00.010-05:00

When I mentioned what a moron I was for knitting my square for the Holly and Tracy's Blankie Project before I dyed the yarn. It was suggested that a tie-dye square would be cool.

I knew that tie-dying the lacy leaf pattern square wouldn't work, so I had to make another square, just plain stockinette stitch and then I tried to tie-dye it.

It became abundantly clear that I know nothing about tie-dying, however, that didn't stop me.

Oh yeah, that's really groovy, Amy. But just look at that lawn, that Robert knows how to keep a beautiful lawn, I'm here to tell ya!

Here is the Lacy leaf pattern square now that it has been turned green:

It's kind of a sage color, but you'll have to take my word for it because I couldn't get an accurate picture of the color to save my own life.

Becky posted a picture of a moth on her blog today (maybe yesterday) and since I had a very similar picture I thought I would post mine too. I don't think this is a moth, I'm calling it "undetermined type of winged insect".

For my last photographic entry, here is something I saw while out running ~~amok~~ errands this afternoon.

I'm gonna get all thankful now:

1. I am thankful for my beautiful niece, Leslie. Happy Birthday, sweetie.

2. I'm also thankful that she doesn't ever have to say "But I'm almost 18" again.

3. I'm thankful that it has stopped raining.

I'm going to grow some flippers

2008-06-16T08:22:00.004-05:00

It's unusual, Mid-June, to have this much rain around here.

Holly B, Tracy B and the Zombie Prom Date Knitters have a fun charity knitting project going on. If you're looking for a project, go on over and check it out. They're looking for 12" squares made from worsted weight washable wool in any shade of orange or green. Tracy lost her sister to cervical cancer and they are making a blanket in her honor to donate to the Hope Lodge. Go on...go check it out.

I decided I would make a square for them, I knew I had some bare superwash wool that I could dye green or orange so I got it out and made a swatch to figure out my gauge, then I started playing around with a pattern, before I knew it the square was done - and it is not green or orange. What a loser! I always do everything bass-ackwards. I guess I will pull my head out and do something that will cause it to be green today.

It looks like this right now, we'll see how it turns out.

Hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on around here other than that.

Here's some things that I am thankful for today:

1. I am thankful for places like the Hope Lodge.
2. I am thankful that the high temperature in my area today is 79F/26C.
3. I am thankful that I live on a hill.

I've been tag-teamed

2008-06-09T21:00:00.002-05:00

I have been tagged for this meme by Tracy B. and by Kristina Miss-I've-Been-On-Vacation-For-The-Last-Two-Weeks B. so I guess there's no way out of it.

1. What was I doing ten years ago?
Laying the groundwork for my self-employment and blissfully co-existing with a teen aged daughter. Was that sarcasm? Surely not.

2. Five non-work related things on my to-do list for tomorrow:
Non-work related? Does that include housework? If it does then, I got nothin'

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
Popcorn, anything with cheese in it or on it.

4. Places I have lived:
Tulsa and Sand Springs - which is basically Tulsa

5. What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Nothing that I didn't want to do, bah gawd!

6. Jobs that I have had:
A Waitress
Temporary Staffing Specialist - for a for a work-today-get-paid-today labor hall
Sales Representative for a collection agency - I only did Sales/Customer Service, no collecting for me!
Background Investigator

7. Now I'm supposed to tag some people, but since I just did the tagging thing about a week ago it probably wouldn't be in my best interest to do it again so soon.

Thankful list:

1. I am thankful to have had all of the jobs that I listed above.
2. I am thankful that I am not still doing the first three jobs on the list above.
3. I am thankful that the girl and I both survived her teenage years.

I'm going to write a strongly worded letter.

2008-06-06T12:13:00.003-05:00

Who is responsible for this weather?!? I am sicktofreakindeath of all of the thunderstorms and high winds and broken limbs and and and. And as soon as I can figure out where to send my formal complaint you can bet that I will send it. I was in the process of writing a ~~rant~~ er, I mean ~~whine~~ um...post about the weather last night when another storm came through and knocked out our electricity. It was out until about noon today. I turned on the local news just to learn that there is another storm on the way. It's already looking dark off to the west, it may be too late to start composing that letter now.

Here is a picture that Robert took last weekend during one of the storms:

OK, I'll stop complaining about the weather.

Every so often I find myself in a situation that makes me say, "WHUT?" Yesterday was one of those times.

I do a lot of work for a company called United States blah blah, they normally just use their initials and call themselves U.S.x.x. I had to make a phone call and I identified myself as a representative of U.S.x.x. The woman on the phone asked me to spell my name, I did. She asked me again the name of the company and I repeated U.S.x.x. She then said, "Can you spell that for me?"

Um...no...I don't think I can.

Now, to be thankful:

1. I'm thankful that the weather hasn't really been more than an inconvenience to me, even though I've complained like it was a big deal.

2. I'm reminded again how thankful I am for electricity.

3. I'm thankful that, because of the rain, the high temperatures in this area have stayed in the low 90s.

Congratulations Graduates!

2008-06-03T06:32:00.004-05:00

On Friday I went with my parents over to Ft. Smith, AR to watch my oldest niece, Leslie, Graduate from Southside High School. The ceremony was held outside, in their stadium. It was a pleasant Spring evening, the weather was perfect.

Leslie is a member of the National Honor Society, received the President's Award for Educational Excellence, and graduated with Honors.

She will be leaving her home in Ft. Smith in August to go to Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX where she has received over $40,000 in scholarships.

During her senior year she played Princess Winifred in her high school's production of "Once Upon a Mattress". This part has been played by Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman. This part requires singing, dancing and comedic timing and she pulled it off like a pro.

So I've established above that she is smart and talented, you can see in this picture that she is beautiful as well. This one has it all, she does.

That is not the only graduation our family had this year, though. My youngest niece, Madeline, graduated from Sonshine Preschool. At her graduation ceremony they performed "The Hoochie Coochie Song" and "Jesus Loves Me" they not only sang the latter, but signed it as well. Madeline will be staying at home and attending the 4-year-old program in August.

We seem to have more than our share of smart, talented, beautiful girls in this family.

I have some finished knitting projects to show, but my camera is a piece of crap and I apparently don't have the intelligence, patience, or emotional stability required to operate Robert's camera. We'll have to wait until he gets home so I don't cause any harm to his camera or myself.

Let's see...what am I thankful for today?

1. I am thankful for blue skies with no storm clouds.
2. I am thankful for Bo Diddley. Rest in peace.
3. I am thankful that Robert has a camera for me to use, even though I can't seem to figure out how it works.

Meme

2008-05-25T21:40:00.022-05:00

Becky tagged me for one of the most entertaining memes that I have ever done.

Here's the deal, you have to answer the questions using only pictures or graphics, no words.

1. What is your current relationship status?

2. What is your current mood?

3. What is your favorite band/singer?

4. What is your favorite movie?

5. What kind of pets do you have?

6. Where do you live?

7. Where do you work?

8. Who do you look like?

9. What do you drive?

10. What did you do Saturday?

11. What did you do Sunday?

12. What's your favorite TV show?

13. Describe yourself.

14. What's your favorite candy?

Now for the tags, in no particular order:

American Bea
Norwegian Bea
Tone
Kathy
Holly
Tracy
Kristina - I know you're on vacation...you can do it when you get back.

In the spirit of this meme, my list of thankfuls:

1.

2.

3.

Another beautiful weekend

2008-05-19T13:16:00.006-05:00

The weather this weekend was so pretty, it was another perfect opportunity for outdoor activities. MAYFEST!

We weren't the only ones that thought this was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening, look at all these people:

We enjoyed all of the music at the various stages, we checked out all of the artist's booths. It was probably the best Mayfest I have seen in recent years.

Since we were downtown we had dinner at Billy's on the Square. Billy's has been a long time favorite of ours, but we just aren't downtown much anymore and don't get many chances to eat there.

We spent a good part of Sunday in our PJs, not doing much of anything until evening. My parents took us to dinner at Charleston's in Brookside to celebrate my birthday, which is today. It's also Julie's birthday. You should hop over and read about her fabulous birthday present celebration and wish her a happy birthday.

Robert got me the most beautiful (and delicious) birthday cake from Ann's Bakery. If you've never had one of Ann's cakes, you have to try it. It's hard to beat Merritt's but Ann's does it every time.

Is that not the the prettiest cake?

Last week I won an amazing skein of sock yarn from Butternut Woolens in a contest on Chrispy's blog. My camera has stopped cooperating and I cannot get a good picture of it. I'll have to figure out how to use Robert's camera and get some pictures soon.

What am I thankful for today?

1. I am thankful that my husband thinks I'm an angel, even though I'm not.
2. I'm thankful there was nice weather for Mayfest.
3. I'm thankful that I live in a place where I'm entitled to my own opinion and (even though they might want to) no one can shoot me for expressing it.

Such a fabulous weekend

2008-05-12T12:47:00.008-05:00

It all started on Friday, the mail brought two packages to my door. One was from
Bea and it contained this beautiful pair of socks and some chocolates for Dona.

The package has been forwarded to Dona and I just know she will love it.

The other package came from Holly just for no reason at all, just because she is such a sweetie. I don't know what I did to deserve her. Check it out:

Two balls of Hempathy in a beautiful dark red color, that's her knitting group's official t-shirt - Zombie Prom Date Knitters, Girl Scout Thin Mints, and a ball of Reynold's Smile, which by the way has already been turned into this hat. No pictures of it right now, it's soaking.

I had some good knitting time this weekend and I finished some WIPs that have been hanging around here.

This Quant is one of my Pay-It-Forward (Honest to goodness, I haven't forgotten about that commitment, the other two will be coming soon) projects and is ready to be shipped off to it's new owner.

These socks were made with Opal Sock yarn and they are a birthday present for a dear friend. She'll be very lucky if she gets them, I want to keep them for myself.

These two skeins of Tempted sock yarn were a Mother's day gift for my mom. I wish I could have bought her 100 skeins, but these two will keep her busy for a little while. I love shopping for yarn, even if I don't get to keep it.

I am going to have to make myself several pair of socks because my Mother's Day gift is the hands-down best way to showcase handknit socks, Clear Chucks! Aren't they great?

We spent such a fabulous day Sunday with friends and family celebrating Mother's Day. I wish every Sunday could be like that.

My weekend was great, but it wasn't so much for the people in Picher, OK who lost their loved ones and homes in a tornado that almost completely destroyed that whole town this weekend. That little town is in my prayers.

Createcraft wants to know the story behind everyone's blog name, why did you pick that name, what does it mean to you? There's no real exciting story about my blog name, no significant meaning. It is derived from the colorful old redneck Oklahoma saying, "Well, I could just sh*t and fall back in it." It's an expression of surprise or shock and I just always thought it was funny. So I just tweaked it a little to fit my application.

That's all I've got for now, time to be thankful:

1. I am thankful that my mom is the one that I call Mom.

2. I am thankful that Kate is the one that calls me Mom.

3. I am thankful for Zombie Gear in the mail.

Oh, I oughtta...

2008-05-08T16:04:00.008-05:00

...tell you right now who the winner of this little contest is, but I'm not gonna do that. Not yet, first I want to tell you how much I love all of the blog friends I have made over the last 100 posts, some of which I speak with, via email, on a daily basis and I feel like I have known them forever. There are others that I am just becoming acquainted with and am anxious to get to know better. Then I am going to tell you about an Oh, I oughtta story of my own.

Imagine, if you will, a rainy spring day a couple of years ago. I had taken my only nephew and my youngest niece to McDonald's for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch experience. We dined on the finest that McDonald's has to offer, played in the Play Place until we couldn't play anymore and were on our way to the car to go home and (hopefully) take a very long nap.

As we approached the door we encountered a man with two children who appeared to be about the same age as my niece and nephew. The man held the door open for us and his children and we all stepped out onto the sidewalk. Just as we were all about to cross the parking lot to our respective cars, another car driven by a very young, inexperienced driver came screeching (yes, I said screeching) around the corner of the building and narrowly missed hitting the man, the four children, and me.

If it had just been me, I probably would have just watched him pass and gone on with my day, but there were four little kids and you don't do anything to endanger children when I am around. Besides, how would he have lived with himself if he would have hurt one of them, or worse? So I felt it was my duty to yell at him to slow down in the parking lot.

I won't repeat what he said to me, all I can say is that I hope he doesn't kiss his mother with that mouth.

It was at that point that my brain said, "Oh, I oughtta..." but before my brain was able to complete that thought my right arm took control of the situation and hurled the go cup full of iced tea that I was carrying. It landed smackdab in the middle of the back window on his car. Now, I don't know if you have ever thrown a paper cup full of iced tea at anyone (seems a lot of people haven't), but when it hit the back window the paper cup collapsed, the lid popped off and iced tea went everyfreakinwhere. It was like a little caffeinated, artificially sweetened hand grenade. It was beautiful.

The potty-mouth-punk-kid stopped his car and got out. The man asked me (told me) to take all of the kids and go back inside. He said something to him and the kid got back in his car and left. The man then came in to get his children and (laughing) told me to get in my car and go home without throwing anything at anyone else. I told him I would, and I did.

So there you have it, that is about the sum total of my bad-assedness. Now we'll move on to the real reason we're all here...the contest.

And the winner is...

From the great state of Michigan...

The beautiful...

The talented...

wait for it...

Tracyb

Email me with your mailing address so I can got your pink/brown/purple/copper yumminess in the mail to you right away.

Here's what I'm thankful for:

1. I am thankful that no one was hurt that day in the McDonald's parking lot.

2. I am thankful for men that will stand up for helpless children and loud mouth women in McDonald's parking lots.

3. I am thankful that I'd already had enough of that iced tea.

Sweet revenge

2008-05-02T20:39:00.008-05:00

This past week I was flipping through an old creative writing book and I came across an interesting exercise.

Write a story based on this mixed proverb: Revenge is bliss.

We've all seen the pictures that have been circulated and recirculated via email where one person has made another so angry that they have resorted to spray painting nasty comments on their house or car, or hired a plane to tow a banner defaming the person that made them angry, or hurt their feelings, or whatever. We've all heard the stories about women so scorned that they've used superglue in an unnatural manner. I'm sure we've all had situations in our lives that have made us want to behave badly, I know I have.

I'm not a very good bad-ass, though. Whenever one of those situations has come up in my own life, I always say, "Oh, I oughtta...(do whatever)" and I'm pretty good at coming up with ideas of things that I oughtta do. But when it comes right down to it, I am just a big wuss. I don't have the kahonas to actually do it, but I do get some degree of satisfaction just thinking about exacting a little payback. There are a couple of very lucky people in this world because of that, I'm here to tell ya.

Here's where it gets good:

Since my next post will be my 100th and May is my birth month we're gonna turn this creative writing exercise into a contest. The winner's name will be drawn out of a hat, here's what you gotta do to get your name in that hat:

You'll get one entry for leaving a comment telling me about a situation in your life that made you say, "Oh, I oughtta..." and you'll get another entry for finishing that sentence...telling me what you thought you oughtta do. You'll get a third entry if you actually did it.

The winner will get this pinkish-brownish-purplish-coppery goodness:

Also known as two skeins of Rowan Tapestry:

Which is not only good-looking, but fun to fondle too. I found all sorts of beautiful projects on Ravelry using this yarn. Oh, I oughtta...get some of it for myself.

In your comment you've got to make sure I know how to get in touch with you in case you're the winner, an email address or your Ravelry ID or something, K?

Now, no post would be complete without a list of thankfuls:

1. I am thankful that I am such a big wuss, otherwise "Oh, I oughtta..." might have led to "we, the jury, find the defendant..." at one point or another in my life.

2. I am thankful for having a husband that doesn't provoke such anger AND he has the ability to calm me down when I do have one of those "Oh, I oughtta..." moments.

3. I am thankful for The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel.

On a beautiful Saturday in April

2008-04-27T12:26:00.018-05:00

The weather yesterday was beyond gorgeous and Robert and I just knew that the only thing to do was to be outside. We decided to go to the ArtWalk festival at RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks.

We couldn't have asked for a better day, we had lunch on the patio at Los Cabos with a beautiful view of the river and City Plex Towers on the other side:

There were lots of things and people to see. There were several different groups of musicians playing along the walk:

We saw some of the areas more talented residents:

This guy's name is Yusuf Etudaiye and he has a pottery studio in McAlester, Etudaiye Studio. The weather yesterday was very pleasant but I don't know how he survives the Oklahoma summers with all that hair.

Here is a crappy picture of some of his work on display at the festival:

As with all of the pictures, you can see a little better if you click on them.

We saw some of the areas cutest residents:

And we saw a few of the areas more colorful residents:

Yes, those are fishnet stockings...(?!)

We named this woman Boobie McBooberson:

And this guy looks like he might be Northeastern Oklahoma's very own version of Dog the Bounty Hunter:

And finally:

I know, I know, I'm horrible. But doesn't it seem like some of these people were just begging for attention? So I really didn't have any choice but to oblige them, now did I?

Maybe I better just stop now and get thankful about a few things:
1. I am thankful for festivals on the river.
2. I am thankful for being able to spend an amazing Saturday afternoon with the man I love.
3. I am thankful for sweet tea with lemon.

Springtime at the knithouse

2008-04-24T19:25:00.013-05:00

Everything around the knithouse is really starting to look like Spring. The hillside behind us is all budding and green:

The bunnies that live in the yard are frolicking about:

They are free to frolic without fear in our yard as long as they don't wake Blowfish:

To quote four-year-old Madeline, the bushes are getting very happy:

She took the above pictures of the azaleas, they're a little wonky, but she's four.

There hasn't been a lot of knitting at the knithouse lately. I've been pretty uninspired, knitwise. The patterns that fit into my most recent skill level are not challenging enough anymore and the ones that fit into the next skill level are frustrating. I don't know what I need to do to get past it. I guess I'll work it out somehow.

I'm working on some plain stockinette socks for a friend using some really pretty Opal sock yarn:

The yarn was so pretty, I felt like a simple pattern would work just fine (and it is) but I also think that this would make some very pretty Jaywalkers. What do you guys think? Should I keep going or start over with the Jaywalker pattern?

When I went to the LYS to get the Opal sock yarn for my friend's socks, I found some Berroco Sox in my favorite colors and had to pick it up, just for the sake of having it.

Maybe I'll break out of my knitting slump and make something fabulous with it. Either that or it will sit on the shelf in the spare bedroom until it's so old that it has become way too fragile to try to knit anything with it. Yeah, that's most likely what will happen.

What am I thankful for today? I am so glad you asked:
1. I am thankful for lazy dogs that sleep on old rugs in the backyard.
2. I am thankful for 80F/26C days.
3. I am thankful that the trees and bushes are getting happy.

Where have I been?

2008-04-14T21:38:00.008-05:00

Jeez Louise, I just realized that it had been more than two weeks since I had posted anything here. What is it that has kept me so busy?

Well, there was the tax return that, no matter how long I waited, would not do itself. That always takes about three times as long as I want it to, and at least twice as long as it would take anyone else to do them.

I did find a little time to do some knitting here and there. I made this hat for Emma's friend Robbie who is busy right now fighting breast cancer:

This was based on the Robin's Egg pattern that I found on Ravelry. I made a few minor adjustments to the pattern because I was using a worsted weight yarn instead of the chunky yarn that the pattern calls for. I used Knitpicks Bare Superwash Merino, which is really much softer than I ever expected and washes up very nicely. I dyed this myself. One of the things I love about handpainting yarn is that I get to come up with my own names for the colorway. Finding the perfect name that accurately describe the colors is such a fun part of the creative process. I am calling this one "Green".

By the way, Emma is having a contest on her blog right now, she needs help redecorating her bathroom, pop over and help her out if you have a minute.

I made this hat, using the same yarn and pattern, for my parent's friend Darcy who had surgery today for an aneurysm:

I am calling this one "Pink".

I don't wear hats and therefore I never knew how much fun they are to knit. I have just become a hat knitting freak lately and I love it.

I am working on another Quant for my daughter's friend, Sparkle. Isn't that a cool name? Who could resist making a handknit gift for someone named Sparkle?

I entered a contest last week on Maglia, I won 700 yards of the most beautiful yarn. It's 60% Sea Cell and 40% Silk from LuLu's Yarns. The colorway is "Fregene" just north of Rome, Fregene, once a simple fishing village, is a quick getaway from Rome and an upscale alternative to the congested beaches of nearby Ostia. Throughout the summer, actors, soccer stars and the Roman gentry go there to feast in waterfront restaurants, to dance until the wee hours and, most of all, to tan themselves on the beaches. Fregene is a beautiful name, but I probably would have called it "Blues, browns and oranges". :) Just kidding, Lu, thank you so much for this amazing yarn:

No post would be complete without a list of thankfuls:
1. I am thankful that it stopped raining for a few days.
2. I am thankful for beautiful free yarn in the mail.
3. I am thankful for crazy young women named Sparkle.

Angels among us

2008-03-30T21:13:00.007-05:00

In this loooong overdue post I would like to extend my heartfelt thank you to everyone that has sent chemo caps for Dona.

Here are the pictures of the beautiful hats and links to the angels that sent them:

This one came from Tone

A beautiful cap crocheted out of cotton and a felted candy bag with yummy Norwegian chocolates.

Kristina knitted these beauties:

And from the amazing and talented Marianne came this cozy little number:

I received the most gorgeous Amanda Hat from Julie. It is made out of dark red Malabrigo and is heavenly. I have to apologize to Julie because Blogger won't let me upload the only picture I have of the actual hat.

I finally finished the hat I was making out of the Alchemy Silk Purse, I'm sad that I am done, that stuff is just stupid soft.

On Friday evening I went to Ft. Smith, AR to watch Leslie (my oldest niece) play the part of Princess Winnifred in her High School's production of Once Upon a Mattress. She did such a great job. I am so proud of her.

While I was in Ft. Smith, I saw Dona and was able to deliver all of the hats to her. She was so excited and thankful for them. She and I both are overwhelmed by the kindness. Her surgery went very well and she is recovering at home. She will begin her chemo therapy in a few weeks.

I forget sometimes to be thankful, I need to work on that. Here is the current list:
1. I am thankful for rainy Saturday evenings at home.
2. I am thankful for Marshmallow Peeps.
3. I am thankful that I have a husband that genuinely loves me.

Thanks!

2008-03-18T12:16:00.002-05:00

Chemo caps and goodies for Dona have been rolling in steadily. I will get some pictures together soon. Dona was so thrilled when she got them. Thanks to everyone!

I am still working on the cap that I am making out of the Alchemy Silk Purse. I had to frog the whole thing this morning. sigh. It's not a difficult pattern and I have even done it before. I don't know what my problem is this time. Maybe I just love that Silk Purse so much that I don't want to be done with it.

Satan thy name is Alchemy

2008-03-08T18:28:00.002-06:00

If you have never had any Alchemy Silk Purse, you must stop what you are doing right now and go out and get some. Whataya waiting for...GO ON!

Calling all knitters

2008-03-01T08:19:00.003-06:00

This is a picture taken last summer of my sister Beth (left) and her best friend Dona. In this picture they are showing off their very first felted bags. They get together at a coffee shop every Monday to knit.

In November 2006, Dona was diagnosed with colon cancer. She did everything that the doctors suggested, including chemotherapy and was cancer free. A couple of weeks ago they found two spots on one of her lungs. She is going to Dallas this week to meet with an Oncologist who seems confident that they can remove these spots, unfortunately she will have to have chemotherapy again.

That's where you guys come in. I would be thrilled if anyone reading this would join me in making some chemo caps, or comfy socks, or anything else that might offer some comfort to someone having to endure chemotherapy...again.

Now for my thankfuls:
1. I am thankful for chemotherapy, even though the process is dreadful.
2. I am thankful for hazelnut flavored coffee.
3. I am thankful for sunny, warm Saturdays in March. (the high today in Tulsa is 73F/23C)

Knitting and gifts and stuff

2008-02-18T21:06:00.007-06:00

My daughter came in and stole, yeah, I said it, she STOLE the Quant that I had made for myself last week and then she called and asked me to make one for her friend. So I am using the yarn that I bought to make another one for myself to make one for her friend. I guess I will have an excuse to go back to the LYS again.

I have also started Foliage. It looks blue in this picture, but it is actually silver.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. My sweet Valentine brought me some of my favorite cologne.

I got one other surprise today, a wool winder and a swift.

I am not going to say here who bought that for me, if you want to know you will have to email me at collier39(at)cox(dot)net.

I don't know what I did all week

2008-02-10T18:16:00.000-06:00

I didn't really get much of anything done last week. I finished the little pink and brown project bag, so that is a WIP off the needles. I started another, though. I am making the Goldielocks Shawl with that beautiful blue Fleece Artist that I got from Kristina and I have continued to work on my Secret of the Shawl ii project. I seem to take one step forward and two steps back on that one. I haven't thrown in the towel yet, though.

Here's a knitting tip that I learned. I think it is worth sharing:

To minimize then number of ends that need to be woven in at the end of a project simply take the tail and wrap it around the working yarn before each stitch. This tucks the tail in neatly on the back side of your work.

I realized that I have neglected to be thankful in my last couple of posts, I need to watch that.

Here's today's list:

1. I am thankful that Tuesday is knitnite, seems like forever since I have gotten to go.

2. I am thankful for my Valentine.

3. I am thankful for quiet Sunday afternoons.

Did I work on any of my WIPs this weekend?

2008-02-03T21:56:00.000-06:00

Of course not. I didn't work on any of the lace, I didn't finish the project bag, I didn't even touch the house socks.

I started something else all together. I finished this one though, it was a fun pattern and I had some really fun yarn to work with.

The pattern is Quant from Knitty Winter 2007 and the yarn is Adriafil KnitCol Trends - 100% Lana Merino Superwash. (I would have put a link to the website here but it is in Italian and I didn't think it would be much help) I used size US 8 needles and it took about 6 hours start to finish.

And speaking of really fun yarn, check out what the mailman brought on Saturday:

It's Fleece Artist GoldieLocks, it's incredible and it came from Kristina. I have some of the best blog friends anywhere, I don't deserve them. Thanks, KB.

The WIPs have taken over

2008-01-30T19:09:00.000-06:00

There are way Way WAY too many WIPs hanging around over here. I have got to stop starting and start finishing.

I joined Secret of the Stole ii KAL and here is my progress on that as of a couple of days ago. I am a little further along now, but I am still in danger of getting behind if I don't get busy.

I am enjoying the pattern. I am using Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud it is rather nice to work with, very soft and light. This pattern seems better suited to my skill level than the Swallowtail Shawl. Speaking of which, here it is in progress:

I'm using Alpaca with a Twist for this one and I'm in love with it, it is beautiful. I am hoping that by the time I finish The Secret of the Stole ii I will have gained the skills that I need to finish the Swallowtail.

I have a TV knitting project that needs to be finished. A little project bag. All it needs is for the attached I-cord to be finished, a strap and to be felted. Maybe I can finish it this weekend.

It's just some cheesey Hobby Lobby wool that works so well for felting.

Next is the first in a pair of house socks. I'm using Berocco Comfort and have applied the cable and rib pattern from Fetching to these socks. I don't have a picture of it right now, I am about 75% done with the first sock and then of course I have to make the second one.

That's all of the WIPs I have right now to share, but I have some beautiful yarn that I would like to share:

AND

These both came to me all the way from Norway. Tone sent them to me and I have to find just the perfect thing to make. She is such a sweetheart and a genius of a knitter. Whatever I pick to make with it I am sure will not hold a candle to anything she knits.

Here's what I am thankful for today:

1. I am thankful for sweetheart Norwegian women that send beautiful Norwegian yarn.
2. I am thnkful the Montgomery GI Bill.
3. I am thankful for the snow that we are supposed to get tomorrow, even though it will probably be gone by Friday.

First the prize and then the winner

2008-01-28T19:40:00.001-06:00

Thanks so much to everyone that played along in my little trivia contest. Here are the the answers.

1. August or September 2007 - either month is acceptable because I finished them in August while on vacation, but blogged about them in September when we got home.

2. Ford EXP

3. For everyone to be home for Christmas. And diamond earrings.

4. Blowfish

5. Iraq

6. Brickknithouse

7. 24 years old

8. Lemon

BONUS - I don't remember

A lot of you got all of the right answers, so we resorted to drawing a name out of a hat. Here is what the winner will receive:

I am so in love with Malabrigo this stuff is like a cloud, it is so soft. My favorite LYS just started carrying it, yay for me!

And the winner is...

Emma

So Ms. Emma, how you wanna do this? I can mail it to you...I can bring it to you...I can bring it to knitnite...I can take with with me to Crow Creek one day after work and you could meet me there and get it...it's your call.

Blogbirthday contest!!

2008-01-24T07:52:00.000-06:00

To celebrate my blogbirthday I have come up with a little contest. Here is how it's gonna work:

Below are some questions about me. They aren't hard questions, someone that has never met me can easily find the answers right here on my blog. You will get one point for every question that you answer correctly and you can get additional points for sending others over to participate. All your friends have to do is tell me that you sent them.

At the end of it all the person with the most points will receive whatever it is that I get at the yarn store today, it's gonna be something cool...just don't know exactly what yet. A tie will be settled with a random drawing.

Email your answers to collier39(at)cox(dot)net.

Good luck!

1. When did I finish my first pair of socks?

2. What was my first car?

3. What did I want for Christmas?

4. What is my dog's name?

5. Where did my husband spend last summer?

6. What is my Ravelry ID?

7. How old is my daughter, Kate?

8. What kind of pie did I bake for my MIL for Mother's Day last year?

BONUS (worth two points)

When asked about my natural hair color, what is my reply?

The points will be totaled up and the winner announced on Monday (01/28). Thanks for playing and thanks for making this blog so much fun for me!

Pay It Forward

2008-01-22T05:59:00.000-06:00

I used a random number generator to help me pick three people to received handmade gifts. 9, 5 and 1.

The 9th, 5th and 1st comments were left by:

Turtle

Julie

Cole

Email me at collier39(at)cox(dot)net with your favorite colors I will start on my Pay It Forward projects.

It's been kinda crazy around here the last several days and by crazy I mean pitiful and pathetic and whiny and sick, but I won't bore you with the details of our last few days.

Be watching, I haven't forgotten about the blogbirthday contest, I am just a day or two behind.

On Saturday I got some beautiful yarn in the mail from Norway, more about that and some pictures later. Thank you, Tone.

I'm way behind on blog reading, I'll catch up.

Today I'm thankful for:

1. The unbelievably helpful, caring, friendly surgical staff at Southcrest.

2. Tamiflu.

3. Sprite.

Go ahead...make my day

2008-01-14T08:27:00.000-06:00

Hobbygaasa has bestowed upon me a great honor:

In true spirit of this little award, I will name 10 people that make MY day.

Let's see, there are the great knitting friends I have made at knitnite:

Annie
Eric and Tony
Sue
Marianne
Emma
Kathy

And then there are the great non-local knitting friends I have made:

Kristina
Angie
Tone
Jaye
Cole
Julie
Shanna
Bea

Well, I guess that's more than 10. How can I shorten the list? I don't think I can. There are SO many others that make my day also, but they don't have blogs (or read this one for that matter) so I will have to think of another way to let them know that I am glad to have them as a part of my life.

I read about this on Marianne's blog. Have you seen this out the in the blogiverse?

The main idea of the plan is to do something nice, in this case a handmade gift, for 3 random people over the next six months in the hopes that those three people will do something nice for three random people, etc. etc.

Here is how this is gonna work, leave a comment, tell all of your other blog friends to leave a comment and I will pick three people at random from the comments and send them (sometime within the next six months) a handmade gift. You are probably safe in assuming that it will be knitted.

Next week is my blog-birthday. Wake the kids and phone the neighbors because there is gonna be a contest, there are gonna be prizes. I don't know yet what the contest will be (feel free to email me if you have any ideas) but you are probably safe in assuming that it will be all about me.

Finally, here are the three things that I am thankful for today (besides the people listed above, of course):

1. I am thankful that I have been able to work from home for the last nine years.
2. I am thankful for Kettle Corn.
3. I am thankful for my dog, Blowfish.

Lots to be thankful for

2008-01-08T07:51:00.000-06:00

My knitting group is so much fun. It is a great group of people, you would have to look long and hard to find a kinder, more generous group of people. We meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month and I always look so forward to going.

I can't go tonight though, my Uncle (dad's brother) Chuck had a mild heart attack earlier this week and had a heart cath and a stint placed yesterday and one of my daughter's friends had a baby girl yesterday. So tonight I am making the hospital rounds.

I hope my friends at knitnite have fun tonight and I will see them next time.

Three things I am thankful for today:
1. I am thankful that there is such a thing as a MILD heart attack.
2. I am thankful for brand new baby girls.
3. I am thankful for my knitting group.

It's so little and cute

2008-01-03T21:37:00.000-06:00

I have a lot A.LOT. of girl birthdays in the next couple of months so I thought I would start working on a pair of Fetching for each of them. Some of the girls having birthdays are little girls so I had to come up with a smaller version. Introducing Little Miss Fetching shown here next to the larger version for perspective.

It cracks me up, it is so little and cute. I can't wait to see them on their little recipients.

Let's see...what am I thankful for today...

1. I am thankful that the forecast for Sunday is 69F (20C) and sunny.

2. I am thankful that my sisters have little kids because the holidays just aren't the same without little kids.

3. I am thankful for people that thrive on drama and devote all of their spare time to keeping everyone around them in a constant state of unrest.

Alright, alright, #3 might have been a little sarcastic (a little) so I will come up with an extra one.

4. I am thankful for the people that I met through this blog that I would have never in a million years had the opportunity to get acquainted with otherwise.

As if I were someone important

2008-01-01T20:05:00.000-06:00

I found a new (at least new to me) yarn this last week and I am going to review it here for you as if I were the Yarn Harlot or the Keyboard Biologist or somebody.

The yarn I found is Berroco Comfort.

50% Super Fine Nylon and 50% Super Fine Acrylic
about $6 for 210 yards
Worsted weight

I am not a big fan of the synthetics as a rule. However, it has a very nice feel to it, not at all scratchy and has a pretty good memory. It is machine washable, so it is good for gifts for busy people and non-knitters that don't understand our obsession for the alpacas and the llamas and such. It seems to soften up even more with washing.

This one tends to split rather easily and requires a little extra care when knitting to prevent that, but overall I think it is worth it.

I hope everyone had a happy, warm, safe, comfortable holiday.

This year I am going to start focusing on the great things in my life, so each time I post I am going to find 3 things that I am thankful for. I have stolen this idea from Cole.

1. I am thankful my family is my family (I have seen some of the alternatives and sheesh)

2. I am thankful that I know how to knit.

3. I am thankful that I was born after the discovery of electricity.

What I want for Christmas

2007-12-20T14:59:00.000-06:00

Hobbygasa presented a challenge on her blog yesterday to post a list of the seven things that you want for Christmas.

For as long as I can remember, I have not been able to sit through the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas" without being reduced to a big blubbering pool of tears. It gets worse every year. So that's made me realize that what I really want for Christmas if for everyone, everywhere to be home for Christmas. Every man, woman, child everywhere. I want them to be where ever it is that they consider home for Christmas. I don't want any family to look at an empty chair around their holiday table.

Oh yeah, and maybe some diamond earrings. ;)

I'm spoiled

2007-12-15T16:34:00.001-06:00

I am the first to admit that I am spoiled. I don't think I have ever tried to deny that I am spoiled. I have made my peace with it and I am OK. I am spoiled.rotten.

What is it, that has spoiled me so? Electricity. Electricity and all that comes along with it. I love heat, hot water, lights, cable tv, my DVR, high speed internet, phone service. I love using my washer and dryer, my dishwasher, hairdryer, refrigerator...I could go on and on.

Having had no electricity for the last four days I have had a lot of time to think about how much I love these things.

In my last post, I mentioned that we had gotten a lot of this:

Turns out that was a bit of an understatement. We did not get a lot of ice, we got a freakin' butt load of it.

That tree is pretty much destroyed, as is this one:

I won't bore you with the rest of the pictures. We have over 40 trees in our yard and there is not one of them that didn't suffer significant damage. We will be cleaning up limbs for the rest of our lives. The neighbors across the street have a tree limb in their bedroom.

I heard one report that stated there were 600,000 homes and businesses across the state of Oklahoma without electricity last week. We were without from Sunday night until Friday evening, but there are still a lot of people without power. I pray for strength for them until their power is restored. It's quite tiring.

Enough of the negativitiy. I have decided that the power outage has thrown me seriously off of my Christmas knitting schedule. I have put the mystery project aside for now. I have got to spend my time a little more efficiently for the next week, so I went to my LYS and got this:

Isn't that a pretty little multi-layered yarn cake? It is all Cascade 220 and it is going to be three pretty little felted purses for three pretty little girls.

A little of this and a little of that

2007-12-09T21:39:00.001-06:00

Our cold, freezing rainy Sunday consisted of a little of this:

I spent a lot of time enjoying my fireplace today. There are few things that I find more soothing than a fire.

And a little of this:

Did a little knitting on the mystery project, which by the way, is kicking my @$$. It's grudge knitting at this point, I am going to finish it just to prove to myself that I am smarter than a piece of yarn.

And a little of this:

We had to have some cocoa to warm ourselves up after we cleared all the ice off the steps.

And a LOT of this:

Ice...it's everywhere and it continues to rain off and on. One of our smaller trees got so heavy from the ice that it was completely uprooted. We have limbs down ALL OVER our yard and the evergreen tree is bent almost in half from the weight of the ice. Our power was out for a couple of hours this evening and I know of others whose power has been out most of the day. It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days, I am hoping that it will turn to snow, it's easier to deal with than this ice.

Who's responsible for this weather?

2007-12-09T06:12:00.001-06:00

Meteorologist Frank Mitchell says we are going to have dreadful cold, freezing rain all week, but he isn't blaming the Canadians for it.

I've started something new

2007-11-26T08:30:00.000-06:00

I can't say exactly what I am working on right now, because if I am successful it will be a Christmas gift. But I can give y'all a hint. I am knitting from a chart for the first time ever and the pattern is from IK Fall 2006 issue.

I bet Marianne has already figured out what it is.

KB and Hobbygaasa already know what it is...ssshh, don't ruin the surprise.

May as well be thankful for it

2007-11-22T07:38:00.001-06:00

On this Thanksgiving Day I am especially thankful for cold Canadian air:

Unless I am a total moron, that is something like -3 or -4C

The Canadians are coming!!! The Canadians are coming!!!

2007-11-21T05:06:00.000-06:00

A finished object and an attitude adjustment

2007-11-17T19:48:00.000-06:00

First of all I would like to introduce the beautiful and talented Miss Odessa:

I couldn't take a good picture of her to save my own life this evening, but she is done. That pattern was a lot of fun, I like knitting with beads and I am sure I will do it again. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and it is the color of dark chocolate. I think it made a beautiful background for the beads, even though you can't tell it in the crappy picture.

Odessa really is a quick knit. I got side-tracked for several days and didn't even touch it, but it could have easily been knit in 2 or 3 evenings. The results are most definitely worth extra work caused by the beads.

This little attitude adjustment was on Jaye's blog the other day and it made me feel a little bit better about my thick, unruly, freakishly curly hair:

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

"Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today."

So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

"Hmm," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today."

So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

"Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail."

So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.

"YEAH!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary,
for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Happy Thanksgiving. Please be sure to take a few minutes to remember how much you have to be thankful for this week.

Another blog survey

2007-11-12T08:46:00.000-06:00

I found this on KB's blog and I thought it would be fun. Actually I am avoiding work and grasping at anything I can find to keep from doing what I should be doing.

If you decide to use this as an excuse to not do what you are supposed to be doing, then by all means let me know so that I can read your responses to the questions.

0. Your name?
Amy

1. First thing you wash in the shower?
Hair

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?
I'm too old for hoodies

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Yep!

4.Do you plan outfits?
Fashion sense like this just happens, baby. You can't learn this or plan it.

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?
I think I am fi'in to sneeze.

6. What's the longest you've been with someone
I have loved Robert my whole life.

7. Do you say aim or a-i-m?
Depends on the context, If I were going to say something like "I aim to please" it would not make any sense for me to say a-i-m.

8. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?
I don't usually remember my dreams. I remember dreaming, but I rarely remember about what.

9. What are your pets' names?
My dog's name is Blowfish

10. What are you craving right now?
More coffee

11. Do you floss?
Yes, but only half-heartedly most of the time.

12. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?
That hideous smell.

13. Do you go tanning?
Occasionally

14. Who do you talk to most on instant messaging?
I don't know, someone work related. Probably Debbie Ford.

15. Would you dance to the taco song?
Probably not in public.

16. Have you ever counted to 1,000?
I am sure I have at some point in my life, but I haven't lately.

what happened to 17? I skipped it while I was counting to 1000
heh heh heh

18. Where do you want to live?
In a self-cleaning house

19. When did you graduate?
1984

20. Have you ever met a celebrity?
I had dinner at P.F. Chang's one time with Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood. They were actually at the next table, but it was kinda like we were having dinner together, wasn't it?

21. Do you like cottage cheese?
No

22. What are you listening to right now?
Something is on the TV

23. How many countries have you visited?
Two

24. Are your parents strict?
Um, not really

25. Would you go sky diving?
I think I would

26. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?"
Yes

27. Would you throw potatoes at him?
No, what purpose would be served? My Mimi always said, "You'll catch more flies with honey."

28. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in?
My wedding ring

29. What is your house decorated as?
I don't know

30. Do you rent movies often?
No

31. Who sits in behind you in your math class?
I don't have a math class, I am an adult.

32. What was your first car?
Ford EXP

33. What's your natural hair color?
I don't remember.

34. Can you count backwards from 74?
um, yeah.

35. Who are you going to be with tonight?
Robert

36. Brown or white eggs?
Either

37. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
Alaska

38. Ever been on a train?
Yes.

39. Ever been in love?
Yes

40. Do you have a cell-phone?
Yes

41. Where do you work?
I am self-employed. I work from my home or my sister's home.

42. Do you do your own laundry?
Yes. Well, I don't always do it, Robert does it some of the time.

43. What is your best friend doing tomorrow?
He will probably hang out around the house until about 11:00 and then he will go to the hospital.

44. Who is your idol?
Idol? None come to mind, really.

45. Ever have cream puffs?
Yes

46. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?
I don't think so.

47. What was the last question you asked?
What do you want for breakfast?

48. What was the last CD you bought?
Probably Rod Stewart's American Classics. I think that was the name of it.

49. Boys or Girls?
No more for me, thank you. I have had my share.

50. What is your bus number for school?
I had to walk to school at least 10 miles each way in deep snowdrifts with the wind howling. Barefoot, and I didn't have a coat so I had to wrap myself in newspaper to keep warm.

51. Is your hair curly?
Freakishly curly. Thank God for flat irons.

52. Last time you cried?
Yesterday afternoon when Robert and I were talking about a particular experience he had in Iraq.

53. Ever walked into a wall?
Of course

54. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don't know, but I am pretty sure that this is not it.

55. Have you ever bought anything from Pac Sun?
Not that I can recall

56. What's your favorite food?
Bueno Chilada from Taco Bueno

57. Favorite time of the year?
Fall

58. Favorite color?
Blue

59. Where is your significant other?
I don't know, probably in the bedroom messing with the DVR

60. Do you have any tattoos?
No

61. The next person you'll hold hands with… will it mean anything?
Why would you hold hands with someone if it didn't? I'm confused.

62. Do you sleep with the TV on?
Yes

63. Where was your default picture taken at?
At a place where we don't end sentences with prepostions. OMG that was hateful, wasn't it?

64. What's the last movie you watched?
I don't know, I usually get sidetracked when I try to watch a movie at home the last time I went to see a movie I saw Mr. Woodcock. I love Billy Bob.

65. Do you like your life right now?
Yes

66. Who's your number one fan?
Probably Blowfish (the dog)

67. What is your favorite animal?
See #66

68. Do you have good vision?
No, I have horrible vision.

69. What's your favorite t.v. show?
My Name is Earl

70. Can you hula hoop?
I haven't tried in a while, I probably couldn't fit my enormous ass inside a hoola hoop right now.

71. Could you ever forgive a cheater?
I don't see myself forgiving a cheater, but I try to never say never.

72. Do you have a job?
Yep. I have to pay for my knitting habit somehow!

73. Do you believe in God?
Yes

74. What are you wearing?
Blue t-shirt and jeans

75. Who's your best friend?
Robert

76. Have you ever crawled through a window?
Yes

77. Can you handle the truth?
Of course not.

78. What was the most recent thing you bought?
eh, I don't know, groceries probably or maybe lunch at McAlisters.

79. How often do you talk on the phone?
Constantly when I am working, other than that, not a lot.

80. What color is your carpet?
Green

81. Do you hate/dislike more than 3 people?
I really, really try not to hate anyone (some people make that harder than others). Mostly there are just people that I don't particularly care for. I don't necessarily dislike them, just don't really like them either.

82. Do you like bowling?
Yes, I don't do it very often, though.

83. Are you sarcastic?
Oh, right. Me? Sarcastic? Whatever.

84. Have you ever slapped someone?
Yes, but not recently.

85. Do looks matter?
It depends on who I'm looking at!

86. Do you use chap stick?
Carmex.

87. Are you too forgiving?
Yes and no. I will forgive a lot of things, but once I'm done, I'm done.

88. Do you own something from Hot Topic?
What is that? I guess not.

89. Do you own a gun?
A BB gun.

90. Have you made a prank phone call?
Many times. That was before Caller ID and *69

91. Have you ever been in a castle?
No

92. Do you like your hair?
I love my hair since the invention of the flat iron.

93. Do you like yourself?
Most of the time.

94. Are you emotional?
Not openly, I try to have my breakdowns in private.

95. Are you sick of doing this survey?
Um, a little, yeah.

96. When was the last time you talked on aim?
I don't know, last week sometime.

97.Did you meet anybody new today?
No, but it is still early.

98. Whats the closest thing to you thats red?
Madeline's red chair.

Knitting with beads is fun!

2007-11-07T19:48:00.000-06:00

I decided to knit with beads for my November Do Something New project. I gotta admit I have wasted a lot of time being afraid to try it. It is a lot of fun, and pretty too. I chose Odessa from Mag Knits
and am knitting it with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK color 18021 (dark brown).

It is a very quick knit, I am about halfway done with this one and I am sure I will make more of them. Oh, I will definitely knit with beads again.

I got my invitation

2007-11-06T16:46:00.001-06:00

My Ravelry ID is brickknithouse. It will take me forever to get my stuff organized, but tell me your Ravelry ID so that I can look you up too.

It could be any minute now

2007-11-06T11:08:00.000-06:00

I just checked the waiting list for Ravelry:

You are #41733 on the list.
256 people are ahead of you in line.
11813 people are behind you in line.
76% of the list has been invited so far

This jury ROCKS!

2007-10-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

Here's the whole story:

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_re_us/funeral_protests;_ylt=AkRWUFb5AdBLIw3nQdzr2xys0NUE

I am really not sure where this church gets their information, I have read His book and in it God CLEARLY speaks AGAINST hating ANYBODY.

Whatever.

Brandon and Madeline don't know anything about spreading hate, they just want to say Happy Halloween!

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

2007-10-30T12:04:00.000-05:00

Not much knitting going on around here for the last week or so. I finished the match to my left-handed Fetching and have worked a little on a sock for my sweetie.

I have had an allergy attack of unprecedented proportions so for the most part all I have done for the last week is sip cough syrup through a straw and pray for the sweet release of death. Robert claims that I have done a considerable amount of whining too, but I don't recall any of that. I've lost my voice so even if I could whine it would be unlike me to do so. He is crazy and must be making that up.

My parents are on vacation this week, a cruise of the western Caribbean with 5 other couples. They will be in Montego Bay tomorrow, Grand Cayman on Thursday and Cozumel on Friday. I am sure they are having a great time. They will be back in Galveston Sunday morning and home Sunday night or Monday.

It's back to the couch for me, with my cough syrup and tissues.

Addictions, memes and other stuff

2007-10-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

First of all:

I am 58% Addicted to Coffee

I was a little surprised, I would have thought it was worse than that.

Secondly, I was tagged by Julie for a book meme, it goes a little something like this:

Open the book you're currently reading to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence on the page, then tag 5 bloggers.

The book I am reading right now doesn't have 161 pages so I just opened it to a random page (page 92) of New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi and the 5th sentence is:

"Stitches with vertical compression, like slipped stitch patterns or garter stitch variations, are well suited to this pathway."

Who should I tag...hmmmm...

Emma she'll do it for sure - she LOVES her some books

Kristina

Annie

Tina

Tina or as Madeline would say 'nother Tina

I tried to tag people that I hadn't tagged for anything before.

And lastly, I finished this in just a couple of hours yesterday:

Of course it is only one and I have yet to start the second one, but I was really surprised at what a quick knit this was. I am thinking that this might be a good project for the llama yarn that my oldest, er I mean, my lifelong friend gave me.

The pattern is Fetching from Knitty. It calls for a heavier yarn, the llama is a sport weight, but I think it can be done with a few adjustments.

Have you ever done anything that you had previously sworn you would never do again?

2007-10-17T15:04:00.001-05:00

I do it all the time. I stand up in front of God and everybody and swear that I will never participate in (whatever) again. I am telling the truth when I say it, I fully intend to never do it again. It becomes a personal commandment...for a little while. Then something happens to me, I don't know what it is. I guess I just can't help myself, maybe I am weak, maybe this behavior is indicative of some sort of mental illness, I don't know.

What is it, you might wonder. Which self-imposed barrier did I crash through this time? It was the Seasilk...Seasilk and the Montego Bay Scarf. Modeled here by my youngest niece, Madeline.

The details:
Montego Bay Scarf
By Amy R. Singer
Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Knit with Handmaiden Seasilk in the Ocean colorway
Size US8 straight needles
Approximately 80" long by 10" wide

This picture better shows the details of the pattern:

Lace knitting still does not seem to come very naturally to me, but I will probably do it again. I am too hard-headed not to.

A VERY pleasant surprise

2007-10-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

Last week I got an email from my oldest friend. I better be more clear, she is not my OLDEST friend, I have friends that are older than her, but she has been my friend longer than anyone else. We met and became fast friends when we were four years old. That's 37 years ago for those of you who are counting.

Anyhoo, so I get an email from Dana wanting to get together for lunch and we agreed on a time last Friday and we met at Local Table. The time with a dear friend and the incredible food would have been enough to make it a great afternoon, but she brought me this:

This stuff ROCKS! 200 yards of 100% Llama, sport weight. She claims that she is not a knitter, but anyone that can recognize and appreciate yarn like this has most definitely got an "inner knitter" and I am going to try my best to help her wake it up.

This is a very special yarn, given to me by a very special friend and I would like to find a very special project for it. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Noolie is pretty cool

2007-10-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

Noolie is so cool, I think we should change her name to Noolio or LL Nool J or Nool and the Gang (wow that one came from the dead file). Not only did Noolie devote her time to walking with Betty's Boops in the Light the Night Walk to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but she raised nearly $800 by herself.

Another cool thing about that is that she had a contest and gave US prizes for helping her with her fundraising efforts. Believe me I did very little, but I still received this in the mail yesterday.

Thanks Noolie, for rewarding my little (and by little, I mean pitiful) contribution to your effort. You are the one that deserves the prizes.

If you think you're having a bad day...

2007-10-08T19:45:00.000-05:00

You should go over to Jaye's blog and see what kind of day she had today. It was enough to make me want to slap someone and I wasn't even there! She could definitely use some happy thoughts if you have a couple to spare.

Here are the Regia silk socks I started a couple of weeks ago for my SIL:

The pattern came from a book titled Knit Socks - 15 Cool Patterns For Toasty Feet by Betsy Lee McCarthy, they are called, "Low-Roll Sporty".

We had a nice weekend, we went to the Fair, did some shopping, went to dinner with family for the P-I-T-A's birthday celebration. I hope your weekend was as pleasant.

My favorites

2007-10-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

This is a contest for SP11. A list of my favorites:

Actor - That's tough, if I were judging solely on sexiness it would have to be Kevin Costner

Actress - Meg Ryan

Animal - Dog

Band - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Georgia Satellites, anybody classified as "Southern Rock"

Book - I don't read a lot of fiction, I like to read biographies and knitting books of course.

Bubble Bath - I like any kind of scented bubble bath

Candy - Chocolate

Color - Blue

Flower - Tulips...or Glads....maybe Irises...well, there's roses, of course...I don't know, what's not to like about a flower?

Food - Anything Mexican

Lip Balm - Beauticontrol Skinlogics Platinum Lip Protection

Lotion - I like any kind of scented lotion

Movie - Bull Durham - Kevin Costner is just too good-looking

Song - Amy's song, written, produced and performed by my husband, for me.

TV Show - My name is Earl

Vacation Spot - Any - a bad day on vacation is better than a good day at work

There you go, now you know even more about me. It's hard to have a blog and remain mysterious, ya know?

OMG I feel really old today

2007-10-01T07:58:00.000-05:00

Today is my daughter's 24th birthday.

She was the cutest baby, she had these chubby little cheeks and the biggest, brightest smile. Her blue eyes just danced when she smiled, they still do.

She was always a very smart kid. It seems like she was born talking, and she is still talking...and talking...and talking. She has always been an over achiever when it came to school and work. She is focused, hard-working and you'll probably never meet anyone more goal-oriented. She bought her own home ALL BY HERSELF before she was 21.

She is very funny, she has always got a funny story to tell. She is good at finding the humor in the not-so-funny situations too. She is also quite a writer. I think she should start her own blog, she claims that she doesn't have time. So she works full-time and is a full-time student, I am sure that she is not doing much of anything between midnight and three a.m. She could use that time to blog, right?

So happy birthday today to my beautiful, smart, hard-working, funny, pain-in-the-ass kid.

Love you, Kate.

I need some color advice

2007-09-28T19:23:00.000-05:00

I haven't had an actual FO in what seems like forever, I need an instant gratification project so I am going to make a new purse using this:

I have several choices of colors to put with it. I have always thought blue looks nice with orange and yellow, so I could put these together:

There's always red, that goes well with orange and yellow for a very bright alternative:

I have brown for a more subdued look. Kind of an autumnal, changing leaf kinda thing:

If I combine it with black I would get a very Jack-O-Lanterny effect:

And last, but certainly not least is white for the illusion of candy corn:

What would you do?

Alright, alright, I know when I am whooped.

2007-09-22T18:18:00.000-05:00

I may be a lot of things, but I am not too proud to admit when I have been defeated.

The Montego Bay Scarf was not my first adventure in lace knitting and it was not my first failure either. But it is going to be my last, by gawd

It has become abundantly clear to me that I do not have the skills, the intelligence, the patience, or the emotional stability to knit lace. That's fine, I have accepted that and made my peace with it. I'm OK. But never, ever in a million years, not even to save my own life will I ever attempt to knit lace again.

If you are ever around me and hear me say that I am thinking about knitting lace I want you to crack me in the kneecap with a ball-peen hammer. That would be far less painful.

Here is what the Montego Bay Scarf looks like right now:

Piece of crap.

I've been tagged

2007-09-20T13:48:00.001-05:00

I have been tagged by Tina that I met on the
Do something New KAL for the 7 weird things about myself meme. I did this a few months back and I just am not sure that I will be able to find 7 MORE weird things about myself to share. I'll give it a shot, it won't be easy. ;)

Here's the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post rules
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird
3. Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names
4. Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog

Here's the randomness that we call Amy:

1. I am right-handed but I play pool and swing a bat and golf club as if I were left-handed.

2. I am the middle child.

3. I have a very good sense of north, south, east and west, but I have to stop and think about right and left EVERY TIME! Could this have something to do with #1?

4. I found my first gray hair when I was 23 years old.

5. Morning is my favorite time of the day, until some *sshole wakes me up.

6. I really don't care who our next President is. I am not very impressed with any of the choices so far and I find all of the political bickering a complete waste of time.

7. I have watched Bad Santa, Bull Durham, Son-in-law, and Breakfast Club so many times that I have them practically memorized.

There you have it, you know me just a little bit better now. I am not going to officially tag anyone. I did that to you just a few months ago, but if you are reading this and want to participate, consider yourself tagged.

On the knitting front:
I am making pretty good progress on the Regia Silk socks. This stuff is heavenly. They are gonna be some comfy socks. I am also still working on the Montego Bay Scarf. I still VERY MUCH love the Seasilk, but me and lace knitting just doesn't seem like a very natural match. I won't give up yet, but I fear that I will have the wonkiest looking scarf ever knit on this planet. We'll see, but it's not looking too good so far.

Truly, madly, deeply

2007-09-17T21:26:00.001-05:00

Happy anniversary, baby.

Mr. Woodcock and socks

2007-09-16T20:14:00.000-05:00

Despite lukewarm reviews we went to see Mr. Woodcock this afternoon. We both really like Billy Bob Thornton and we thought the movie was hilarious. If you don't care for his brand of humor, you won't like it at all because it is classic Billy Bob. It was not quite as "wrong" as Bad Santa, but every bit as funny.

We went to dinner last night for my SILs birthday. This is what we bought her for her birthday.

**NOTE** That is my brand-new kitchen counter that the yarn is sitting on. THANKS, DAD!

SIL picked a pattern out of a book of socks for me to make for her. This yarn is awesome. It will be a comfy pair of socks. To my relief she pick a fairly simple, quick to knit pattern. Pictures soon.

I also started my Montego Bay Scarf with the Sea Silk. I have only done about five pattern repeats so far. Pictures of that soon too.

I will leave you with a quote from Mr. Woodcock:

"One of my swimmers got through, your mother's got a little Woodcock in her."

What a fun group!

2007-09-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight was knit night at the library and we had a good group, most of the regulars were there, except Emma, Eric and Tony. Don't know where they were, but whatever. I'm sure they have some excuse blah, blah, blah. (hee hee)

Starting on the left is Kathy, Sue, Ann, Esther in the corner with her wheel behind her, Marianne, Eva, Janet and Tina who were both there for the first time tonight, Cindy, Joyce and Madeline. Several have blogs of their own, links are on my sidebar. Go ahead, check them out.

I *so* enjoy my knitting group, I hope we can meet for a long time to come.

OFF TOPIC
I sure do wish the NYC skyline still looked like this:

I will never forget the sorrow, fear, panic, pain, anger, and the thousands of other emotions that I felt September 11, 2001.

OMG!

2007-09-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! It's here!

This stuff...OMG! I can't even tell you what this feels like. And the color! OMG!

You gotta love the mailman

2007-09-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the mailman brought me this:

Yeah, no bills, no junk mail just a box with two skeins of Patons Decor, a pretty grayish blue wool/acrylic blend, some hand cream, mints and a couple of pirate pencils. It was a prize that I won in a drawing at Do Something New KAL

It doesn't suck being me!

My goodness, I have done a little shopping

2007-09-07T20:14:00.000-05:00

I guess that vacation got me in the habit of spending money, 'cause that seems to be all I have done this week.

I went to the LYS and I got this:

It is Trekking XXL #188 "Shades of Gray" in the LYS and in my sister's house it looks like grays and black, in my house and most definitely in this picture it looks like grays and blues. It is too rainy to go outside and check it in the natural light, it is very pretty either way. It is on it's way to becoming a pair of socks for Robert. That is if I don't get too tired of knitting before I get them done, he has big-ass feet...size 12.

And while I was there I bought two of these, which will be a pair of socks for me.

It is Panda Cotton in the "Choclate Almonds" colorway. I sure do like the "Rosewater" colorway, may have to go back and get some of that too, since I am in the mood to spend money. I'm just sayin'.

Then I picked up this:

This one is Berocco Love It Colors in the Hotel California colorway. This one is going into the mail with a handful of other treats to SP11 spoilee. She said that she likes pinks and greens and what's not pink on this ball of yarn is most certainly green. Seems to be just what she asked for.

Yeah, and that's not all. I got on the innanets and ordered two back issues of Interweave Knits that I didn't have and just couldn't possibly live without...AND...a skein of
This! AAAAAAAHHHH! I am so excited to get this, I can't wait. I got this in the "Ocean" colorway.

Since I am now in the mood to add pics to this post I will add another vacation pic. Robert took this one standing on the beach in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico. the water there was green, but it was a very pretty green. When the sun hit it is seemed like it was glowing.

We sat at a bar on this beach and drank Coronas (we needed a break from the Margaritas). It sure was hard to leave, I don't know what paradise is like, but it's gotta be something close to this.

Oh, what a time we had

2007-09-01T21:30:00.000-05:00

We are back from our vacation and it was unbelievable. We had such a wonderful time. I took this picture as I stood on the deck last Saturday afternoon.

I was unable to get a picture that accurately depicted the color of the water. I cannot think of a word to describe the shade of blue. It was so beautiful. As far as I could see was this beautiful blue water and I remember wondering when I took this picture, how deep it was. That evening the Captain made an announcement about the weather and told us that we were about 355 miles out to sea. He told us blah, blah, blah we are traveling at 19 nautical miles blah blah and the ocean depth is 10,400 feet. Ten thousand four hundred feet. As far as you can see X 10,400 feet deep = a lot of water. I don't even know how to figure out how much water that is. I wish I could describe that shade of blue, it was beyond gorgeous.

During our vacation we got a lot of sun, had a lot of margaritas, got a lot of rest, had a lot of margaritas, and did a little knitting, had a lot of margaritas. I finished my first pair of socks. And had a lot of margaritas.

I wish I could say that I will get a lot of use out of them, but my daughter absconded with them as soon I got them finished and laundered. I only hope she gets a lot of enjoyment out of them. Maybe I will get to keep the next pair.

SP11 questionaire and another opportunity to help

2007-08-22T20:43:00.000-05:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? The only thing that I am not that fond of is acrylic. And I am not totally against it, some forms are fun to knit with, just don't care for the stiff scratchy stuff.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I keep my needles and hooks in a disorganized pile.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? My mom taught me the basics when I was a kid, I didn't have a long enough attention span for anything more than that at the time. I picked it back up about 2 or 3 years ago. I would say my skill level is intermediate, maybe remedial intermediate, intermediate minus??

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? No

5. What's your favorite scent? I seem to like scents that have names like Rain, Fresh Linen, you know, stuff that smells clean, I guess

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? CHOCOLATE

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I have done a lot of things, knitting seems to be the one that stuck. I have done that longer than anything else and I don't seem to be getting bored with it.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Yes, I can play MP3s. I like Classic Rock, Southern Rock, Country, 80s/90s hits

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I like them all.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? Husband, dog, me

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Scarves, mittens

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I am having fun with my first pair of socks right now, I will definitely be making more, I like felting/fulling, I am going to try lace in the near future.

13. What are you knitting right now? My first pair of socks.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? More than anything.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
It depends on what I am knitting, some projects need bamboo, some require straight needles, etc. I have used them all(well, maybe not plastic).

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? No.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? A couple of months

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. Specifically Christmas Eve, it is a very special tradition in our family.

19. Is there anything that you collect? Yarn, needles, patterns, if you can call that a collection.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I have a subscription to Interweave Knits and Creative Knitting. Someone was telling me about a book called Knitting Sensational Socks (I think that is the title) they said that there were some very handsome men's sock patterns in that book.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Lace is next.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Sort of, I have knitted one and a half socks. My foot is 9.25" long.

23. When is your birthday? May 19

24. Are you on Ravelry? Not as far as I know...what is Ravelry?

As I mentioned in the title, another opportunity to help has been brought to my attention. Florence Knitingale has organized a blankie project for the families of the miners and rescuers that lost their lives in Utah. There is a button for the Miner Blanket Project on her sidebar. If you have a little time and a few yards of yarn to spare it seems like a very simple, painless way to show them that they have been in the thoughts and prayers of people everywhere.

We are leaving on vacation Friday morning and I have not packed one thing, haven't even done any laundry. Our big suitcase is somewhere between here and Balad, Iraq. Tomorrow after I get my nephew off to school I have to get my haircut, my new driver's license, get a suitcase, pick up prescriptions, do laundry, pack everything. I sure do hope that I work well under pressure 'cause tomorrow is not going to go well if I don't.

I have managed to knit a little bit

2007-08-21T19:24:00.000-05:00

Even though I have had my hands full this last few days trying to get Robert settled back in and getting things ready for our vacation next week I have managed to make a little progress on my second sock. I was kinda disappointed at first because there was NO WAY to make the stripe pattern on these two socks even look like they were pretending to match. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it match exactly, but I wanted them to match somewhat. The more I knit on this second one, the less it matters. I am falling in love with the little mismatched buggers.

I am not sure why it was so important to me that they match, I guess since it was my first pair I wanted them to look like I knew what I was doing. That in itself kinda cracks me up. It is the rare occassion that I look like I know what I am doing.

Now for the "tug at your heart/purse strings" portion of this post:
Light the Night Walk is an effort to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Julie is walking to raise money in her friend Betty's name. If you feel moved to help her I know she would appreciate it. Just click the Light the Night button on her blog to donate.

Another quick update

2007-08-18T19:03:00.001-05:00

He's baaaaaack!!

Quick update

2007-08-16T15:58:00.000-05:00

Robert's not home yet, but he is OUT of Iraq which makes me very happy. He should be home sometime in the next 36 hours.

Four cousins on the beach

2007-08-12T23:21:00.001-05:00

Is this cute or what?

If only I were one-legged

2007-08-07T21:37:00.000-05:00

A recap of last weeks very uninteresting details

2007-08-06T07:37:00.000-05:00

Monday - On the way to the library the alternator went out on my car. It was hot, I had kids with me. Good times. A tow truck picked up the car and my father picked the kids and me. Before Robert left we put four new tires on the car so that I wouldn't have to deal with that while he was gone. So the car is sitting in the shop with four brand new tires. Remember that point, it will become important later. So anyhooo, my dad takes me out to get Robert's car, and the rest of the afternoon is spent messing with the details of fixing the car. We didn't make it to the library.

Tuesday - Pretty uneventful, best I can recall.

Wednesday - We finally make it to the library. We read a couple of books while we were there and checked some more out to bring home. So we're walking out of the library and I notice that I have a flat tire (Robert's car, mine is still sitting in the mecahnic's shop with 4 brand-damm-gawd-new tires on it). UGH. Once again, it's hot and I have kids with me. More good times. Three hours, $165, and two new tires later, the kids and I are on our way home when my cell phone rings. It was my daughter, calling to report that she had been sitting at 66th and Lewis waiting to turn left when a car ran into the back of her truck. Thankfully it was just a minor fender-bender. The lady driving the other car was 87 years old.

Thursday - Pretty uneventful, best I can recall.

Friday - The insurance adjuster calls to inform my daughter that there is "some question of coverage" that needs to be cleared up before he can proceed with her claim. He said that the lady that hit her had recently lost her husband, who was the primary driver of the car that hit Kaytee and when the husband was removed from the policy the car was removed also. He had to find out of the car was supposed to be removed or if it was just inadvertantly removed when the driver was. Whatever...I don't know why we thought for even one second that dealing with an insurance company would be easy.

Saturday - Pretty uneventful, best I can recall.

Sunday - This was a good day, we went to dinner at Senor Tequila's for my dad's birthday.

I got involved with Do Something New KAL and I have already gotten started on my something new for August. SOCKS! Can you believe it? Me...knitting socks??? Well, I'm doing it. I don't have any pictures right now, and would be embarrassed to post them if I did because it is such a plain, simple pattern, but it's going pretty well. I have turned the heel and have done the gussett already. I am following Knitting Pure and Simple's Beginner's sock pattern #216 using Trekking XXL #84 in shades of green, brown and yellow. They are nothing compared to the socks I have seen all of you do, but it's a start. My September Do Something New project just might be lace, that is if Marianne is all moved and has time to help me get started. That might have to wait until October.

Happy Monday everyone, I hope your week sucks less than mine did last week.

A funny for Friday

2007-07-26T21:59:00.000-05:00

You know, I get about 3gazillion (3gazillion - that's a three followed by a billion zeros for those of you that aren't familiar with how much 3gazillion is) jokes emailed to me every week. Most of them aren't funny, a few are what you would call "groaners", but once in a while I get a good one. I just have to share it.

It goes something like this:

A big-city lawyer went duck hunting out in Texas. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.

The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm going to retrieve it." The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here."

The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial attorneys in the United States and, if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own."

The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in Texas. We settle small disagreements like this . . . with the 'Three Kick Rule.'"

The lawyer asked, "What is the 'Three Kick Rule'?" The farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurred on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times, and so on, back and forth, until someone gives up."

The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney.

His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees!

His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth.

The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow patty.

The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said: "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."

The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah, I give up. You can have the duck."

Oh my goodness, I just crack myself up somethimes.

I am knitting on something, I plan on having it finished this weekend. If it works out the way I want it to I will post some pictures. I am not working with a pattern, though, so it could just as easily go badly.

Please take a second to answer the poll I have added to my sidebar and by all means encourage others to answer it too.

Have a good weekend!!!

Any time of the day???

2007-07-24T21:09:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Stitch-ay Woman's blog

You Are an Afternoon Person

You can find energy any time of the day ... or night!
You prefer to be out and about when most other people are.
Very early mornings or very late nights aren't really your thing.
You're practically solar powered, and the afternoon is when do best.

Are You a Morning Person or Night Person?

I definitely am an afternoon person, they got that part right. To say, though, that I can find energy anytime of the day might be stretching it just a little.

Some people are just always thinking of others

2007-07-21T18:43:00.000-05:00

I wish I could be more like that. I would like to be able to look past my own "problems" and do something to cheer someone else.

Marianne can do that, she is, in fact, very good at doing that. Despite the fact that she is trying to pack and move two separate households, I got a very sweet card and some pretty stitch markers from her on Friday. (The picture sucks, I didn't have my camera and had to use my phone.)

They came at the perfect time. I was having a complete melt-down, prozac moment, freak-out, breakdown, whatever...it was a bad day...choose your own label. My husband always says that I am the "brother" in my family, we don't have any real brothers and I was always the tom-boy, the scrapper, the tough one (again, choose your own label). I have never been one to wear my heart on my sleeve, or let anyone know that I was worried or scared or that my feelings had been hurt. Because of that, the people around me don't really know what to do on those ocassions when I do have one of those melt-downs. It just made for a bad day for anyone in my path.

Anyhoo, I want Marianne to know that her little act of kindness was a bigger deal than she would imagine. Not only is she kind, thoughtful, and generous, but her timing is perfect. She tells me that those stitch markers come in very handy when one is knitting lace...we'll have to see about that.

There's a bag lady born every minute

2007-07-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of my sister, Beth (left) and her friend Dona with their first felted bags ever. I bet these are not the last ones they make.

OMG! It's been over 48 hours without rain!!!

2007-07-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

Holy smokes I can't believe it. I am speechless.

A well deserved thank you

2007-07-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

My No Sheep For You partner (still unknown to me) sent me a very pretty skein of King Tut Cotton this weekend. The label lists the color as #310, but it looks like ballet slipper pink to me. It is very pretty, I will have to find just the perfect thing to make with it.

Thanks again!!
And now for the Oklahoma weather report for Monday afternoon 07/16/2007:

Yes, I was driving and taking pictures at the same time again.

My first fair isle project is complete

2007-07-09T20:29:00.000-05:00

I stepped waaayy out of my comfort zone on this one. I knew that this pattern was obviously fair isle and I was ready to jump in and learn. But this pattern employed several techniques that I had little or no experience.

First, of course, was the fair isle. I loved it every minute of it and will do it again. There was a provisional cast on that I had seen Marianne do it before but had never done it myself. I will definitely use this again, it was not hard to figure out and the results are soooo much prettier than picking up stitches. Then, I had to use DPNs to knit the strap. I am still not a huge fan of this method, but I am no longer afraid of it. Lastly, there was an attached I-cord. This was another technique that I had never used before, but will use again.

If I had been able to read this pattern before I bought it, I probably wouldn't have. I certainly am glad that I did. I learned a lot of new stuff and got a really cute new purse out of the deal.

Here she is:

And the inside:

The pattern is the Lexi bag from Knitwhits.

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T18:10:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and happy 4th of July.

I have been doing a little knitting the last few days and here is photographic proof:

A baby gift. I t is just a simple garter stitch blanket knit on the bias. I am using a crazy scarf yarn that I wouldn't ordinarily use, but it was so soft and I fell in love with the colors. Also it is super bulky, so I thought this would be a quick, fast and in a hurry baby gift...until I got sidetracked by this:

This is my first real attempt at fair isle and OMG I am having so much fun with it. I have been afraid of it until now and I just decided to quit being such a baby and do it. Before I finish the pattern I am going to have to face another of my demons, DPNs!!! (gasp) I hope my enthusiasm for the finished project wins out over my fear of DPNs.

Rainy days and Mondays

2007-07-02T12:42:00.001-05:00

Some people can knit on two projects at the same time, me, I can drive and take pictures. Maybe someday I will see if I can chew gum at the same time too.

Princess Madeline has pneumonia (sp?), she feels at least as bad as she looks, poor kid.

The weather's not perfect, but I wish you were here anyway.

2007-06-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

Today is my sweetie's birthday. He is the answer to my prayers, my dream come true. He has been a son to my father, a father to my daughter and everything I could have ever asked for in a partner.

He is strong, funny, generous, handsome, courageous, and a talented musician. He is my heart. My life would have been much different if I had never met him and I thank God for him every single day.

I didn't get to spend this birthday with him, he left yesterday to go to Iraq. Happy Birthday, baby. I am counting the days.

Finally finished

2007-06-24T21:19:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the Sweetheart Shorts, can I get a WOO HOO?

They are done, ends are are woven in, and laundered just in time to go off to Iraq. I used Knitpicks Shine Sport and if you have never knitted with it I have got to say that you need to. I loved the feel of it when I was knitting these shorts, but it didn't compare to the way it felt after it had been washed. Really soft, I think it would make a nice camisole.

Here is a picture of my hand painted yarn. I don't know yet what I am going to do with it. It was fun and I will do it again, I just need to get a better place to do it than my kitchen. It's kinda messy.

I tried handpainting this afternoon for the first time

2007-06-22T19:49:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to try hand painting for quite a while. I read some books and everything that I could find on the internet and decided that I was ready to try a simple experiment this afternoon. I found a lot of helpful information and had fun playing around today, but there is one very, very important part of the process that I did not see mentioned in ANY of the things I read. It seems to be a very well kept secret among hand painters, but I figured it out for myself this afternoon. I will share the secret ingredient with you, even though hand painters across the globe may be angry with me for putting their well-guarded secret out on the internet for anyone to see. I have to warn you that I have not perfected the formula, I may have used too much of it, or maybe not enough, I am going to have to keep trying trying until I know for sure. Now without anymore stalling I am going to show you the one thing (quite possibly the MOST IMPORTANT thing) you will need to make your hand painting experience a pleasant one...

Being my first attempt I didn't get too tricky. No sophisticated patterns or anything like that. It is a study in pinks and browns and I will post some pictures once it gets dry and I can wind it up.

It will be interesting if nothing else and it was an excellent excuse to have a couple Rolling Rocks. You should never, for the love of chocolate, pass up an opportunity like that.

2007-06-15T21:29:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Julie's blog and thought it might be fun.

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird.
A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone.
You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are.

You get along well with: The Ring Finger

Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

"and possibly downright weird"??? I resemble that remark. Snort.

What a busy day I had and other randomness

2007-06-14T19:35:00.000-05:00

My goodness, I hit the floor running today. By 12:15 this afternoon I had been to the base and gotten my military ID card, to Kinkos for a passport photo, downtown to the passport office to file my application, had breakfast with my sweetie, to the tire place to get four new tires (because we had a flat on the way to the base), and to the health department to get a replacement for my birth certificate. All by 12:15! Whew. I didn't do that much the rest of the day, went to the grocery store, did some laundry and some knitting.

I didn't know this until today, but you can go into the Tulsa County Health Department Office at 3rd and Utica and walk out ten minutes later with a certified copy of your birth certificate. I figured it would take several weeks to get it, I was impressed.

When we were at dinner Saturday evening we noticed that the sky was turning black (all of the guys in the restaurant were fine, none were harmed) and we decided that it would be a good idea to get back home. When we got home we found this in our yard.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but this limb is about 20'long and was about 5" or 6" in diameter. Our dog was looking at us like "Whatever, I didn't have anything to do with it."

Madeline helped me bake some cookies for Bob, Brice and Brandon. She was very helpful and kept a very close watch to make sure they didn't burn.

I have finished the Market Squares Bag, well I haven't actually finished it, but I have finished knitting the body of the bag and have felted it, I just haven't figured out exactly what I want to do for straps. I am thinking about something using this cotton filler cord, purpley wool yarn and these four silvertone D rings.

I am still working on the Sweetheart Shorts. I have bound off one leg and I just have the other leg left to do. I will post a picture of them and the Market Squares bag when I get them done.

We have a new addition to our family, Emilia, this is not a very good picture, but you can see how sweet she is anyway.

I have started a blanket for her, I'm using the basic log cabin pattern, except I am going to make the blanket one big square instead of a bunch of little ones. The corners look a little wonky to me, but I think I can remedy that when I weave in my ends. Believe me, there are plenty of ends to weave. It is about 15" across right now so I still have a ways to go on it.

I've created a monster!

2007-06-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of the Market Squares Baq in progress. In.progress. Infreakingprogress. I have completed only 10 of the 15 tiers in the pattern.

Of course it will be felted, but it is still going to be a ginormous bag. What the hell am I gonna do with this thing?

Let's see, I could pitch it like a tent and rent it out by the week, or fill it full of peanuts and hang it around an elephant's neck, or smuggle a small adult into the movies in it, or hang it on the flag pole and have it be only the second man made object to ever be seen from outer space. Maybe I could strap it to my back and go parasailing. A carcover? A tablecloth? One of those big windsock thingies at the airport? I don't know what I will do with it. I do know that if I fill it full of stuff it will be too heavy to carry around. Maybe you guys can think of a good use for it. Think about it, let me know if you come up with something.

Bow to the Master

2007-06-05T07:02:00.000-05:00

I realize that some of you don't realize who you are dealing with, so I looked my name up in the dictionary and posted the definition here for you.

Amy --

[noun]:

A master blogger

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

You may show your respect by sending gifts of yarn and knit related gifts, the Master has left the building.

This double life thing is not for the faint of heart

2007-05-31T21:03:00.000-05:00

I have got to admit, this life of lies I am living is kicking my ass. Working on one thing when I am alone and another when others are around. It's not easy.

Luckily for me (that's sarcasm for those that didn't pick up on that) I have chosen two veerrrrrry slow projects between which to split my time. I am knitting my fool fingers off over here and I don't seem to have made much progress on either one.

I will get to take a break from those projects tomorrow, though, I am spending the afternoon with four kids under the age of seven. Their parents will be home about 6:00pm and the liquor stores are open until 9:00pm. This weekend is going to involve a lot of tequila. I may not get back to my knitting until Monday.

I'm living a double life

2007-05-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

When my husband is home, I sit and knit on this Market Squares Bag from Bags-A Knitter's Dozen. I started it as a "stashbuster" to use up some of the wool I have piling up around us. That pleased my husband and he sits here as I knit on it, confident that God is in his Heaven and everything is right with the world.

This bag is going to be a fairly big bag. I am not sure what I will use it for, maybe a shopping bag or to carry sunscreen and stuff to the pool. I usually don't like bags this big but I am IN LOVE with entrelac and had to make it just for that reason alone.

But the minute my husband leaves for work, or mows the yard, or takes a shower, or a nap, my alter ego takes over and I start working on my top-secret project. It is a project that I started several months ago. I was unhappy with it and frogged it. Eric even referred to it as the "Red Cotton Beast". My husband's birthday is coming up at the end of June and I decided to give it one more try. I am sure you have guessed it by now, it is the Sweetheart shorts.

This secret mission has been without incident so far and should be accomplished by my deadline. If you should happen to see my husband, consider yourself sworn to secrecy, lest I release a jar full of moths into your stash closet.

I don't think we're in KS anymore...

2007-05-24T18:11:00.000-05:00

A family in trouble...

2007-05-22T15:09:00.000-05:00

There is a family in my neighborhood that has found itself in a terrible situation. I don't know all of the details, and of course I couldn't divulge them if I did, but Tim, Janet, Leah, Tanna and Olivia could use all of the prayers, well-wishes, and good thoughts that they can get right now. Please remember them when you get a chance.

Whew, what a busy weekend

2007-05-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

Saturday was my birthday and between family and friends I was kept plenty busy all weekend. We got up early and went to IHOP for breakfast, went and did a little shopping, I got two new pairs of shoes. I got the black ones and the blue ones. The store didn't have any of the red ones or I would have gotten those. We went and spent the afternoon downtown at Mayfest. It was a beautiful day, the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Then we went to Pei Wei for dinner. We were going to go to the Driller's game Saturday night, but we were just too tired after running around all day and pigging out at Pei Wei just made us sleepy.

Today we went with family to Billy Simms Barbeque for dinner and back to my parent's house for homemade ice cream and strawberries and chocolate shortcakes. At Billy Simms Barbeque I had the "Smoked Jayhawk" but I thought it tasted like chicken.

My sweet husband has spent a big portion of his free time lately trying to get me a Wii game console for my birthday, to no avail, so I got an IOU for that, my parents gave me a $100 gift card for Macy's, my sister and her family got me a $50 gift card for Williams Sonoma, and my daughter got me a beautiful silver bracelet.

I finished the Kool-Aid purse. As you can see it is a very small purse, perfect for a little girl. I had made two more little roses, but though that was just too much for a purse this size.

I will be glad to get back to work tomorrow, I need the rest, and I don't think I will have to eat again for several days.

I hope you all had a great weekend, I sure did. I have the best family and friends in the world and they all made my birthday very special.

Big brother, big bear - little sister, little bear and a MEME

2007-05-15T21:12:00.000-05:00

Here is a cheesy photo of the Princess and Mr. T-Ball with their bears.

Emma tagged me on her blog for a meme.

Here are the rules:

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about
themselves. Those tagged need to write in their
blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need
to tag seven others and list their names on your blog.
You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in
their comments so they know that they have been tagged
and to read your blog.

So here I go 7 random things about me:

1. I am getting tired of knitting those bears.

2. Someone once told me that I am the female version of my husband. We couldn't be more alike if we had been twins. The person that told me that was right, we are a perfect match for each other.

3. I don't really fit into the category of Democrat or Republican either one.

4. I believe in God and I am what you would call a Christian, but I think organized religion is a big ol' crock of doodoo.

5. I have never knit a pair of socks. Or even a single sock for that matter.

6. My parents have been married for almost 47 years.

7. I will be 41 years old on Saturday (05/19).

Now I am supposed to tag seven people, but I don't know seven people with blogs, so I can only tag five. Sorry.

Marianne

Sue

Mrs. Q

Julie

Eric

Warshrags, lemon pie and the orange thingy

2007-05-14T19:28:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. I did. We got to spend time with our mothers and then had a late dinner with my daughter after she got off work.

My MIL was in the hospital last week and was diagnosed with Lupus. Lemon pie is her favorite, so I decided to make one for her for Mother's Day...the first one I have ever made. It wasn't necessarily the prettiest pie ever baked, but there was a lot of love in it.

I have made a couple of the garterlac warshrags, they are just too much fun to knit. I wish the blue one had photographed better. It is really kind of pretty in the solid color, puts more emphasis on the pattern.

And finally the orange pile of parts is beginning to look like a bear. He is gonna be about 25% bigger than the ones I made with Cashsoft DK, but that works out since he is for a bigger kid.

I think I fixed the problem I was having with my last post

2007-05-03T06:39:00.000-05:00

You should be able to see the pictures now. I don't know what I did wrong, but maybe I have gotten it fixed.

Here is another WIP. I have been interested in Entrelac for a while now but hadn't tried to learn it because it seems so complicated. I found the pattern for this "garterlac" dishcloth and it is going pretty smoothly. It is not at all as confusing as it seems once you get going on it.