Angelia's Knitting

I've Moved...

2009-11-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

Check out my new blog, Knitting the Fabric of Life

I'm still around...

2008-07-08T12:01:00.003-04:00

...in case you were wondering. I know it's been over a YEAR since I last posted. What can I say? I have no real "excuse" - just, you know, life.

In that time, I started a new job. :-) That's a really good thing! I love my job - it's one of those where I like going into work in the morning, and am not itching to leave in the afternoon. Life is too short to have a job that you hate, don't you think? The company I work for works with those affected by alcohol and other drug addiction and/or mental illness. It's very rewarding to see people get their life on track.

The QP will be starting 4th grade (already!) the end of August. This past year, she played softball for the first time. She enjoyed it and was pretty good at it. She plans on playing again next year.

I'm sure there's more to tell you but I can't think of it right now. I don't even have any pictures for you today.

MAKE it a great day!

MD Sheep & Wool...a month later!

2007-06-14T15:50:00.000-04:00

Yes. You read right. I'm finally going to post about MD Sheep & Wool.

Three of us went. Me, my Mom & a friend, Melissa. Melissa's Mom was planning on going, but was sick that day, so she stayed home.

We left early enough that we could stop for breakfast. :-) Oh! And we went to the Sheep & Wool Festival on Sunday, instead of Saturday. I'll tell you what. Sunday is now my favorite day to attend the Sheep & Wool Festival!

Last year, we went on Saturday and there was so much that I missed! You see, I'm not fond of big crowds. If I have to fight through 40 people to get near enough to a stand to see what they have, I'll just walk on by until I come to a less crowded stand.

We walked into the Sheep & Wool Festival and looked at a few of the stands. Melissa was in the fairgrounds about 10 minutes when she came up with a great idea: we should go together on a spinning wheel. The wool fumes and sensory overload must have already taken over. You see, neither of us know how to spin. And, quite honestly, neither of us had spinning wheel money that day.

Our next stop was the MDS&W merchandise building. Last year I'm sure we waited in that line for over an hour. This year, it was a short line, and we spent maybe a half hour in line. The kind people in line behind us took a picture of us. Notice that Melissa thinks she's funny...

After we got our MDS&W merchandise, we stopped at The Fold's stand. There was still Socks That Rock yarn - as well as other yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It was tough deciding what to get - and I'm sure all three of us could have spent all of our money at just that stand!

The weather was nice this year. It was windy & a little on the cool side, but I'd rather have it cool when I'm going to be walking around. Last year was very warm & I thought I was going to pass out when I got to the center of the large exhibit hall.

Eventually, we took a little break from the fiber & went outside to get some fries and drinks. We sat outside to rest and eat and drink...and we also took pictures of our goodies so far.

Here's my Mom with her Trekking yarn. She decided that she wants to knit some socks.

Here's Melissa with her stash. She has some Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn around her neck, is holding more yarn and...some roving.

Meet her Jacob. She & I both bought 4oz. of Jacob roving from Tannery Spring. Why? Well, because of the pretty colors and it's sooo soft! I know we don't spin! And no, we did not get a spinning wheel.

After we bought our Jacobs, we went into the main building. In there, we saw that Interweave Press had a stand (something I totally missed last year!). I renewed my Knits subscription and was talking to the lady who was waiting on me. It turns out that she was none other than Amy Clarke Moore, editor of Spin Off magazine! When I mentioned to Amy that Melissa & I both purchased this Jacob roving, but don't know how to spin, she promptly pulled out two cd drop spindle kits for us (she's such an enabler). So, now we have the means to spin our Jacob roving!

I have already played with my drop spindle. I've "spun" the fiber that was included in the kit. I'll save those pictures for another day. I'll just tell you that my spun fiber is...interesting.

Here I am with my goodies...see my Jacob?? Oh! And for renewing my subscription at the festival, I could pick a free magazine, so I picked Spin Off.

My Mom decided to have fun with the camera. She went a little crazy, taking pictures of me & Melissa, while we drooled and walked around with our mouths hanging open.

Then Melissa took the camera, and she took some animal pictures...

Now on to the pictures of my goodies...

This is Peace Fleece.

Here are some buttons I bought.

Some yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Don't ask me what yarn this is. I can't seem to find the ball band. I swear I have every ball band from every yarn I've ever used - I just can't find this one! But this yarn is soooo...nice! I'm not sure what I want to make with it, but I had to purchase it. I'm sure you understand.

That's all for now. Yes, I still have some fo's to show you...as well as the result of my spinning.

MAKE it a great day!

More to come...

2007-05-13T17:20:00.000-04:00

I'm still here (lol - isn't that how most of my posts have begun lately??). I have alot of pictures to post. I just haven't been able to find the spirit - you know - the spirit. The one that "moves" you.

I have some beautiful garden/flower pictures. I'm such a slacker this year with blogging, that I haven't posted any spring flower pictures yet!

I also have some pictures from Maryland Sheep & Wool. We went a week ago. Yes, we went on Sunday instead of the more popular Saturday. I have to tell you, I prefer Sunday!

I've also been knitting. I even have some finished items!

But. I'm still waiting for that spirit to come & move me to blog.... :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T17:19:00.000-04:00

To all the mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day!!! :-)

The field trip

2007-04-14T20:02:00.000-04:00

Well, we had our "field trip" to The Mannings today. If you ever go, you too will say The Mannings. We were there for three hours! My Mom & I had been there before. The two women we went with had never been there.

I took my camera along, to document this wonderful event. Didn't take a single picture! I was too busy looking, touching and ooohing and ahhhing. There's Koigu and Regia silk, cotton and wool. There's Trekking - even the Trekking the Yarn Harlot showed on her blog recently. There's Lopi, Mission Falls and Brown Sheep and Wool in the Woods and Debbie Bliss and Claudia's Hand Painted and Gems Opal and Lily Chin and Manos del Uruguay...and so much more! There are 4 rooms filled with yarn and books and notions and spinning wheels and looms and patterns...and oh my! It's so amazing! And get this! When you get to the register, if you give them your contact information, they keep track of what you buy. So if you run out of a yarn, you can call them, they'll be able to tell what yarn, color & dye lot you bought!

So...sorry - no yarn shop pictures. But if you're ever in my area & want to go, let me know! For you, I would force myself to go there again. :-)

But here's what we (me & Mom) came home with (I didn't get pictures of what the other two women bought).

The Yarn:

*Lopi (in two colors)
* Regia Cotton
* Gems Merino Opal (this is going to be my Mom's 1st pair of socks)
* Manos Cotton Stria - Manos del Uruguay
* Bamboo Splash from Wisdom Yarns (this is for the QP, who has decided that she needs some bamboo yarn)
** and a program for the 2007 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival - anyone else going?

The Patterns:

*Fiber trends - Felt Flock (felted knit sheep!)
* Fiber Trends - Bathroom Blossoms (washcloths & soap sacks)
* Fiber Trends - Felt Alpacas & Llamas
* Fiber Trends - Options Jacket
* A Dozen Dishcloths To Knit
* Not A Celebrity Scarf

Oh! And I finished one of the Ball Band Dishcloths from Mason Dixon Knitting. I finished it a week or so ago, but didn't take any pictures of it until today. I used Sugar & Cream cotton yarn. I'm really into cotton right now. Well, cotton, linen, bamboo & soy.

*I tried to finish this post last night. In fact, I had it all but finished - then my computer decided to act up & the browser shut down. So now it's Sunday & I'm finishing the post...again.

MAKE it a great day!

Where did the time go?

2007-04-13T14:51:00.000-04:00

It's been over a month since I posted anything! Can you believe it?? To my one reader that's left, I'm still alive! :-)

I've been knitting. I've even taken some blog pictures. But then I don't get them loaded and too much time goes by, and before you know it, it's been over a month!

Here's a brief rundown of the last month:

*The QP turned 8!

* I had a throat infection, and then had an allergic reaction to the anitbiotic. The rash still is not gone.

*The QP started playing TeeBall. Her 1st practice was last week. She likes it, and says her coach is awesome. I volunteered to be a Team Parent. The TeeBall glove the QP got is "signed" by Derek Jeter. She thinks he's going to come see one of her TeeBall games. :-)

* Right now, I'm busy knitting things for the auction at the QP's school the first weekend in May.

Tomorrow, me, my Mom & two of the women from my church knitting group (the Nutty Knitters) are having a field trip. We're going to this store. If you're ever within a two hour drive of this store, you have to go! It's incredible!

A few weeks ago, my Mom decided to knit a hoodie for the baby of one of her co-workers. She found a pattern she liked, which called for Lion Brand MicroSpun yarn (the yarn she wanted to use for the hoodie).

This was her first sweater. It was also her first time knitting in the round with two circular needles. She did that rather than knit the sleeves flat & then seam them.

She finished it and last night, we went to one of our local yarn shops (which does not have a website) to get the buttons. Aren't they cute? And the blue is almost the exact same shade of blue as the yarn.

She gave the hoodie to her co-worker today. I can't wait to see how it looks on the baby!

That's all for now. I need my rest for the big field trip in about 12 hours. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

My "Poor Me" Story

2007-03-07T14:24:00.000-05:00

Yes. More snow. What you can't see in the last picture (I took these pictures from inside the house - I'm refusing to go outside & acknowledge this stuff!), is that it is still snowing. It's been snowing all day. Schools were cancelled today. The QP has been home all day. Here's where the Poor Me part comes in - today is my birthday. And it's snowing. And school was cancelled. And I'm home...all day. Yippee.

In case you don't remember from last year, March is a busy birthday month here in Blogland:

Maribel ~ March 9th

Iraida ~ March 10th

the QP ~ March 12th :-)

Margene ~ March 14th

Yay for the March Pisces babies! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Fun with second graders.

2007-03-01T16:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I helped out in the QP's class. I do this every Wednesday. I help during their "Writing Center". It's very entertaining and interesting. If you've never read stories written by second graders, you should!

This week, they're learning when to use: 's and s'. The teacher was going over the "rules" for using those two things. She gave some sentences as examples, and then asked the class to give some examples.

The QP raises her hand, and gives the teacher this sentence: "Angelia's Socks That Rock yarn is awesome." I started laughing. The teacher was a little confused. The class was also confused. So we had to explain what Socks That Rock yarn is. The QP also had to say that I got mine from my Secret Pal - which only added to the confusion!

That's my girl! 7 years old, and knows that Socks That Rock yarn is awesome!

MAKE it a great day!

Some finished items.

2007-02-24T16:22:00.000-05:00

Do you remember a while back, when I mentioned intarsia knitting? Well, this is the first intarsia square.

I'm knitting the Mod on Mod Afghan, from Yarn Play by Lisa Shobhana Mason. I have some other squares finished by now, but haven't taken pictures of them yet. There are five yarn colors in this afghan. I'm using 4 - Mission Falls 1824 Cotton colors, and 1 - Wool in the Woods Cotton color (which is the varigated color you see in these pictures).

I love this afghan! There are 4 square patterns. The afghan consists of these 4 squares, in 5 rows. There are 5 colors of yarn, and each square has a different color combination. The squares knit up fast - they are 39 stitches wide and about 72 (I think) rows long. The intarsia keeps the stockinette interesting. I love using the cotton yarn, too. I can't wait to see all the squares put together!

Maybe 10 years ago, I bought this bedding set. Blue comforter, green flat sheet & pillow sham, purple fitted sheet and pillow sham. I love these three colors together.

I recently won this yarn from Pippi Knee Socks. The colors she put together for me almost exactly match my bed set (which means that I love them!). It took me a while to realize this. In fact, this is how much I knit before I realized the colors matched:

This is a Moebius scarf. It's my own pattern of knitting & purling.

Last Saturday, I happened to catch the Knitty Gritty episode that featured Cat Bordhi. I loved the lace pattern she showed for a scarf. So I ripped this scarf out (frogging a Moebius is not fun!), re-wound the yarn, & Sunday, cast on for the lace scarf. As I'm writing this, I am about 8 rows shy of finishing the scarf. So I'll have the FO picture in my next post. It's so pretty - I just love it, and can't wait to wear it!

A month or so ago, I signed up to knit chemo caps for kids with cancer. The kids love the eyelash yarn. This is a picture of the first hat I finished. I mailed all of the hats today & didn't get a picture of them. :-(

I ended up finishing 5 hats, my Mom did one, & two of the Nutty Knitters each did one - for a total of 8 hats.

The hats are a quick knit. Keeping in mind that they're for kids with cancer makes them knit up even faster. :-)

A local radio station is collecting Preemie hats for Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center/ Penn State Children's Hospital this month (February must be hat month!), so some of the Nutty Knitters & I knit some of those as well. We made 8 Preemie hats. I made 2 and two other women made the rest. I dropped them off today. They will be going here. I forgot to take pictures of these, too.

I think that's about all I have for today. It's still below freezing here. And the forecast is for more snow tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll be a little bit, and won't cause any problems with the morning commute on Monday.

MAKE it a great day!

My winter wonderland.

2007-02-21T17:51:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, February 13th, it snowed here. It snowed all day. The schools closed early. Evening events were cancelled. It kept snowing.

Then came the freezing rain. About 3 inches of it. On top of the snow.

Then it snowed some more and there was also sleet. Schools were closed on Wednesday (Valentine's Day). It kept snowing.

The temperature dropped (to less than 20 degrees - usually around 16 degrees, with a wind chill of negative numbers). The snow finally stopped (maybe Wednesday night). Schools ended up being closed all week. Two of the major highways had major problems and were closed. There was even part of a day that a section of the PA Turnpike was closed due to a wreck.

It was crazy. So we stayed home. We played in the snow. We shoveled the icy snow. I took alot of Advil (I basically was shoveling boulders - icy snow boulders!).

The picture above shows the start of a fort/igloo thing for the QP. That's as far as it got.

This picture shows the "mountains" (as the QP & the two neighbor girls called them) that were formed by the snowplow plowing the parking lot of the church that's next door to us.

See those deep footprints? I made those Tuesday or Wednesday, when I walked through the snow. See those footprints that are barely there? Those are the ones I made the day I took these pictures (it was so cold that you could walk on top of the snow - it was all frozen).

A picture of the side yard. You can see the "mountains" (on the right hand side of the picture)that are alongside the church parking lot.

The house. This picture is the view of the back of the house.

It's hard to believe that the sky was this blue and this pretty but the temperature was below 20 degrees!

Because of the cold temperatures and the ice on top of the snow, road crews had a tough time clearing the roads. The city of Lancaster had these awful, bumpy, ice chunk covered streets. It was actually easier to get around on the "country" roads than it was to drive on the city streets (which is unusual).

The QP finally went back to school on Tuesday (they had off for President's Day). This made us both happy. :-)

Yesterday, the temperature was almost up to 50 degrees - so there was alot of melting snow. Today it was pretty warm, too - in the mid 40's. That helped out alot with the city streets. We can no longer walk on top of the snow - the snow's pretty slushy.

MAKE it a great day!

My SP9 Rocks!

2007-02-19T22:15:00.000-05:00

On Saturday (I think), a package arrived for me in the mail. It was my final package from my Secret Pal!

The picture above, shows most of what the package contained. There was a cute dish towel (if you look closely, you'll see the sheep on it), some hot cocoa packets, a small package of some flavored coffee, a cute little tape measure (which I needed), some stitch markers (I LOVE stitch markers!), some house socks (they are soooo soft), some Opal sock yarn, a needle case for dpn's (I needed one of these, too!) and some novelty yarn (this may end up being a hat for the QP - she loves this yarn!).

My secret pal also sent some goodies for the QP. I didn't get a picture of them, because the QP took all of her goodies. She sent a Valentine's Pez dispenser (the QP loves Pez!), a coloring/sticker book, and some Hello Kitty candy. Thank you, from the QP. She was so excited to get stuff, and she had to open everything right away (I think the candy is gone by now).

All of those things were great.

But what REALLY thrilled me was this:

SOCKS THAT ROCK YARN!!!!!

I have lusted after STR yarn for about a year. I have never bought and/or used any. I wasn't able to join the STR club last year or this year & have been sad because I really wanted to . But now I have my very own STR yarn!!!

This is my very first STR yarn! I'm sooo excited! I keep fondeling it. I haven't wound it into a ball yet because I like to look at it as it is in this picture. I keep it on the nightstand by my bed. It is soo soft, and smooth and beautiful! I have an idea of what sock pattern I want to use this on, but I won't tell you just yet.

Thank you SP!!

It's been an incredibly long week (lots of snow & ice here - and school was closed early last Tuesday & then cancelled Wed-Fri). Then the kids had off today for the holiday - it was a very long week! and this package arrived at the perfect time!

I'll have knitting updates for you tomorrow (I have the pictures taken, uploaded into my computer and everything).

MAKE it a great day!

My discovery

2007-01-30T16:07:00.000-05:00

As you may have guessed, I'm not the most up to date person on gadgets and technical things. In my defense, it was the way I was raised.

My Dad is one of these people who never buys electronic stuff when it first comes out. His reasoning? Because in a short period of time, it'll be obsolete.

We didn't have cable tv until the mid-late 80's. We didn't get a VCR until around the same time period (and the only reason we got one, was because my Mom went out and bought one). My Dad didn't get a computer until the late 90's. So, you see, it's how I was raised.

So, for Christmas, my Mom gave me an iPod (she won it at her work Christmas party). I love love LOVE it! I can load all of my favorite songs onto it and listen to them. I like songs from several different decades and genres. With my iPod, I can play all of them - randomly! It's so awesome.

Well. I was reading Dave's blog. He asked his readers to tell him which podcasts they listen to. Then, a few days later, he mentioned the women at Lime & Violet. That gave me an idea. I could load my audiobooks onto my iPod and listen to books while I"m knitting.

I spent about 5 hours on Sunday, listening to The Magician's Nephew (from the Chronicles of Narnia) while I knit!

This got me thinking that I should check out this podcast thing & see what all the fuss was about.

Why didn't anyone ever tell me about these things????

I mean, sure, I've read about podcasts - like when Grumperina talked about the It's A Purl, Man podcast - but why didn't anyone ever tell me how much I would like them???

I love them! I spent something like 6 hours yesterday, loading podcasts into my iTunes. I now listen to podcasts while I knit (did you know that it makes your knitting go quicker?).

So far I have about 300 songs and almost 60 podcasts on my iPod (some of the podcasts are video podcasts). I figured that my iPod memory (or whatever it is) would be at least half used up (I have the 30GB iPod). I've only used a little over 2GB!

I know some of you are probably shaking your heads. You have to understand (and with that last paragraph, you probably do understand) that I have no concept of giga bytes. I also have no concept of square feet (as it pertains to a living space). So if you tell me that you just bought an 8,000 sqare foot house, I have no idea if that's alot of space or not. Same with computer terminology. I had no idea that 30GB is so much!

I know I've been promising knitting pictures. I have taken some - I just need to load them onto my computer. I haven't had time to do that because I've been downloading podcasts! :-) Actually, since I now have these podcasts, by the time I get pictures on my computer, you may have 50 finished objects to look at - or alot, anyway!

MAKE it a great day!

And now it's winter.

2007-01-22T11:46:00.000-05:00

Remember a few weeks ago, when I posted about how spring-like the weather was? And how the trees had buds on them? And spring flowers were coming up?

Yeah. Well. Now it's winter here in South Central Pennsylvania. We got some snow yesterday. Just a "dusting", really. But this morning, most of the schools had a two-hour delay. I think the delay was because the roads were icy early this AM. By the time I took the QP to school, the roads were just wet. Some were even dry.

The QP was so thrilled this morning. She got to help clear the snow off the car. She said it was the best day ever. She feels very grown up now because she used to "just sit in the car" while I cleared off the snow & ice. But now she can help me. How long do you think it'll take her to decide that clearing snow off of cars is NOT fun??

I was happy for the school delay because I was up until 2AM. Why? Myspace. Is anyone else addicted to myspace? You see, my best friend lives in California. I get to "talk" to her online alot more often now - thanks to myspace. The only problem is, California is three hours behind PA (which means it's barely late for her but really late for me!). Oh. And then we were also "talking" to a guy we went to high school with (I started high school in CA and finished it in PA - so this guy is from the school in CA). I need to take naps during the day, or something!

That's all I have for today. I've been knitting, but don't have any pictures (the sky has been greay here for days). I can't wait to show you some of the things I've been working on (there was some intarsia involved!)!

MAKE it a great day!

Hat knitting.

2007-01-16T23:29:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been "into" knitting hats. I really like to knit them. They're quick and easy. They're useful.

Today (yes, I'm behind on my blog reading - and missed out on ALOT) I read that there's a woman who is collecting chemo hats for kids in the Boston area. The kids love hats made from eyelash yarn (like Fun Fur). Well. A few weeks ago, I was going through my stash. I have quite a few skeins of Fun Fur (from when I first started knitting), and I wondered what I would ever do with it all. Now I know! I'll make some chemo caps for kids!!

As if that's not enough, Cara (January One) is donating some prizes (Socks That Rock yarn!). Click here to read Cara's blog entry about the prizes. Click here to learn how to sign up to knit the caps.

So, go! Sign up to make some hats! Use up the Fun Fur you have laying around (come on now, I KNOW I'm not the only one who has some!).

Stay tuned for some finished objects, some new projects, and some intarsia knitting!

MAKE it a great day!

Wait, what's this?

2007-01-09T20:43:00.000-05:00

Why, it's 2 items that are finished! Can you believe it? I know. I'm having a hard time believing it, too.

This first item is a French Market Bag (or Basket, can't remember it's exact name). The pattern is from Knitty (sorry - don't have the link). The yarn I used is a wool/alpaca blend. The outside that you see is actually the inside, but I liked the nubby texture better than the smooth texture of the actual "outside" of the bag. So I turned it inside out and now the inside is the outside (did ya catch all of that?).

I now use this bag as my "knitting bag". Anytime I go somewhere, I grab this bag. It holds alot of stuff. Here's what I have in it:

*Knitter's Companion (book)

*various knitting patterns

*sock that I'm knitting

*baby bib that I'm knitting

*yarn & needles for a hat I want to knit the QP

*2 "notions" bags

* Magic Loop instruction book

*a pack of Puffs to Go (it's still allergy season here!)

And there's still plenty of room!

This baby bib pattern is from the Mason Dixon book. I love it! It's so simple. I've already cast on (& almost finished) another bib. It's knit using cotton yarn (I used Sugar & Cream). You can easily make one bib out of one ball of Sugar & Cream yarn. **I still have to add a button, but other than that, it's finished!

That's all for today. More finished items are on the way! MAKE it a great day!

Springtime in PA

2007-01-06T19:05:00.000-05:00

Hello. Happy New Year. And welcome to Springtime in South Central Pennsylvania! Temperatures today were in the high 60's with some areas getting up to 70 degrees (F).

I took a walk around the yard today, and look what I saw:

Buds on the red maple tree.

Flowers poking up through the dirt.

Buds on the pussy willow tree.

Buds on the walking stick tree.

Buds on the other pussy willow tree - in fact, I think this one even has a little pussy willow (if that's what those little fuzzy things are called).

We went to the park, so the QP could play on the playground. My Mom & I had our knitting along, of course. The park was crowded.

Here's the QP. She doesn't look too happy here because the friend she was playing with (who happened to be a girl she knows from summer day camp) had to leave.

Yes, it was a beautiful April spring day! But wait! It's only January! That means that my Mom's birthday and the Farm Show are coming up. One (or both) of these events usually bring us snow (it's a fact!).

So, break out the inhailers, the antihistimines, the antibiotics, and the decongestants and buy facial tissue by the truckload because this never-ending allergy season still isn't ending!

MAKE it a great day!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T22:03:00.000-05:00

Sexy & Romantic glitter graphics from www.sexiluv.com

Wishing you the best in 2007! See you next year! lol

Finished Object

2006-12-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

I finished something! Woo-hoo! Well, it was supposed to be a Christmas present for my Dad - but it wasn't finished until last night. I may still give it to him as a belated gift.

I started it in plenty of time but then, well, Christmas stuff got in the way. Shopping, wrapping, cooking , preparing, etc. Somehow, the time got away from me & all of a sudden, it was Christmas morning & I'd only knit about 2 inches of the hat (at this point, I realized that there was NO WAY I would have it finished to give to him on Christmas).

So, after the presents were opened Christmas morning (and all of the QP's toys were taken out of the packaging - which is ANOTHER story!), I picked up the hat & knit. Christmas evening, we went to my cousin's house for our family get-together. I knit while I was there. Last night, I knit while watching tv. And then the hat was finished. I really like the pattern - very simple & quick & a great "guy" hat.

The pattern is one that I found, & printed , not long after I started knitting. It's called the Late Christmas Hat (hehe!). I used size 7 KnitPicks Options circular needles (one for the body of the hat, and then two needles once the decreases started). The yarn is Patons SWS (soy wool stripes), in "Natural Navy".

The yarn is kind of fuzzy, so I'm not sure I'll like how it looks after the hat's been worn. We'll see. It feels silky & smooth. I love the colors. I bought some of this yarn (in a different color) a few months ago, to make mittens for the QP. I made one mitten & then ripped it out because I had the thumb in the wrong place. I may make her a hat out of her SWS yarn, instead of the mittens. She was enjoying wearing this hat today (I think she just likes to take things from my room - shoes, yarn, knitted items, etc). **despite how the hat looks in that one picture, it's not lopsided at the top - that just shows my lack of photography skills today. :-)

Is anyone doing a New Year's finish up some of your wip's kind of knit along???? (just asking - because I'm thinking that I really should finish some things I have on the needles - and I know I can't be the only one!)

MAKE it a great day!

Happy Wednesday

2006-12-20T21:41:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday. For those of you who celebrate, only 4 days or so til Christmas. Hard to believe it's almost the end of 2006!

I haven't been doing much knitting. There's so much to do this time of year. Especially if you have kids. Then you have your stuff and their stuff to do! It's crazy.

I "discovered" myspace. It just so happens that one of my best friends is also on myspace. She lives in California (which is 3 hours behind the time in PA). I've been able to "talk" to her more within the past week or so, than I had in a while.

I also got an ipod (early Christmas gift). I can't believe I never got one before now! These things are so awesome! The things can hold 7,500 songs!! 7,500!! That's a hell of a lot of music! I have almost all of my cd's downloaded. I love it, because every song that's played is a favorite. It's like having the perfect radio station. No commercials and every song that you like!

I think that's all I have right now. MAKE it a great day!

Thanks SP9!

2006-12-09T18:17:00.000-05:00

I got a package from my SP! The package arrived Wednesday. I can't tell you how happy that made me. I've had a shitty week & the package really helped.

First, there is this card. A yarn card. Who knew there were such things? The yarn is Schaefer Yarn. My SP says that she recently tried this yarn & likes it. I've never tried it.

This was my package. Some Regia sock yarn (I love it!). It's blue (my favorite color) and it looks like it'll have thin stripes of color (red, yellow, a different shade of blue). Very cool. I love the bold colors. There are three tins of hot cocoa. Yummy! Two Lindt Lindor truffles - they were gone within 20 minutes of opening the package. A beautiful glass ornament. A bag of dipping pretzles & a jar of raspberry honey dipping mustard (which is almost gone!). There was also a cool, quilted change purse (which may become my "notions" bag). My SP sent me stuff that'll take care of my knitting obsession & also my snack urges. What a great SP!

Thank you so much SP!!!

That's all I have for today. Not much going on. It's Saturday - and it's cold outside. Now I'm off to read my book (or, maybe get some Christmas knitting finished) while the QP watches tv.

MAKE it a great day!

Easy come, easy go...

2006-12-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

I'll be so glad when this year is over! Remember how I had a new job? Well, now I don't. I was told it wasn't working out. I'm not really sure what didn't work out. But, well, it was within the 90-day probationary period, so they can do that.

Now I get to start looking again. Yippee. Interviews and wearing pantyhose! What's not to like?!?

Can you tell I'm in a pissy mood? I won't "talk" too much tonight because, well, if you can't say anything nice, and all that. I'm just tired of bullshit. And I'm tired of people's bullshit.

So, onto the knitting...

Here ( to the left, to the left) are my KnitPicks Options needles. I love them! It's such a powerful feeling , having a full set of interchangable needles! I feel I can knit anything!! I do need to get more cables though. And a few more needle tips (there are certain sizes that I use alot, so I'd like to have more than one set of those sizes). To the right, you see KnitPicks yarn!

Yes. A whole mountain of yarn! Yarn for felted bowls, stockings, socks, Moebius items, PICC arm bands. Lots & lots of yarn!!

I also got the tools to needle felt. I didn't take any pictures of them. But I've been playing with them. I don't have any roving, so I've been using wool yarn. It's so much fun!

Here we have a felted bowl. The pattern is from KnitPicks. No, it's not one of their free patterns. But KnitPicks patterns are only $1.99.

It's knit using sock yarn. I have to work on the lid (I'm going to block it again). It's a little too small for the bowl (and not quite round). This yarn color is called Pansy. Don't the colors look like those you'd see on a pansy? See how the colors swirl? I think they look so cool. It was intersting knitting this, because you have to match up the colors and then have them off by a few stitches. I have two more hanks of yarn that will become bowls (each hank makes one bowl & lid).

Here is my 1st Moebius basket. This was a really quick knit. I used KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Bulky & Bulky Hand-Dyed yarns. I have enough left over to make another basket (with the colors reversed).

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the basket. I kind of doubt I'll keep it - I don't really have any use for it. Maybe it'll be a Christmas gift. I don't know.

Betcha had no idea that I joined the Knit Unto Others kal. I mean, how could you have known? I never blogged about it. I still don't have the button added to my blog. But yeah. I did join it. And I actually have been doing some knitting for others. Here are two things that I have pictures of.

The first, a red scarf...can you guess what that's for? Yep! The Red Scarf Project. I have more red yarn in my stash, so it's likely that there will be more red scarves.

The second item, a Prayer Shawl. This is one that I just started.

It's going to be a triangle shawl. The pattern is from the Prayer

Shawl book. I'm using Lion Brand Homespun. This yarn was sold as "mill ends". I love the colors in this yarn. The red/oranges remind me of a sunset or something.

I find the mill ends at my local AC Moore. They are sold with three skeins in a pack. The packs usually have at least two colors in - so you have to buy at least two packs (sometimes three), to get enough of the same color yarn for one shawl. This yarn came in a pack with one other color. I managed to find a pack with two skeins of this color and one of the other color, and then another pack with two skeins of the other color and one of this color. So I only had to get two packs of mill ends & I'll be able to knit two shawls. The beautiful thing about mill ends is that the bag (with three skeins) costs about $5. With a 40% off coupon, it ends up being $3 something. A little over $3 for yarn for a shawl is a great price!

Well, it's time to get the QP to bed. She's been watching a movie & I'm sure it's finished. Tonight was a big night for her. Her class participated in her school's Christmas program. It was all music. The kids were from kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade. It was nice. No Frosty the Snowman or Jingle Bells. Only Christmas carols (she goes to a private school). I have an intense dislike for "Christmas" music - the kind that's been playing, non-stop, on at least three different local radio stations since before Thanksgiving...but that's another post! It's still time for me to get the QP to bed!

MAKE it a great day!

Updates

2006-11-30T21:40:00.000-05:00

Boy, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I have quite a few pictures for you, but they are still on my camera. I'll post them another day.

I have some finished objects and some new projects. I've been knitting a good bit. Knitting and felting. I finally got the KnitPicks Options needle set. I love them!!! That's why I've been knitting so much! They are so smooth and quick! If you haven't tried them yet, go to KnitPicks & order some.

I haven't posted much because I've been job hunting. You know. Sending out resumes. Making follow-up calls. Going on interviews. Sending thank you notes. Making follow up calls. All that fun stuff.

The good news is....I have a job!! I started on Monday (the 27th). I'll be working most Saturdays. I'll have off Wednesdays and Sundays. It's at a local wholesale produce company. I'll be doing some customer service/order taking (as needed) and also helping with the A/P A/R and other back office type stuff. I love it. It's enough different jobs to keep me occupied (and busy - so that the hours go fast) - and it's things I like to do. The best employee benefit - a discount on produce!! Yeah, there's medical, vision, 401k and all the usual stuff - but a discount on produce - I think that's so cool!!

That's all I have for now. It's my bedtime. The QP & I have to get moving early now in the morning.

I'll post pictures for you soon.

MAKE it a great day!

An eventful weekend.

2006-11-12T23:24:00.000-05:00

This is Smokey the Cat (that's his full name). I call him "cute cat" when he's doing things like this (he likes to be called cute cat). I haven't figured out how to take pictures of him in the house without making his eyes glow-y. Anyway, this "pose" was too cute! He had one paw up to his face & the other curled up. He often lays on his back like this, once the QP's in bed. He's 8 years old.

Here's my Socktoberfest sock. The broken finger really cut down on my knitting (and blogging!) time. I decided that I really didn't like how the stripes were looking so....

I frogged the sock. I did re-start it, I just haven't taken any pictures yet. I like the new pattern I'm doing much better!

In finger news, I saw my family doctor for a follow-up visit. She referred me to an orthopedic doctor. I saw him this past Thursday. He said that I no longer have to wear the splint, but still have to keep the finger taped. It's taped to my ring finger. He said these things usually take 6-8 weeks to heal. I can start moving it, but can't do anything major with it (like lifting weights). Thursday I knit my sock for several hours (with the splint on, I could knit one, maybe two rows and then my hand hurt too much). Friday, my finger was pretty sore. I can feel it when I've been knitting too much/too long. The finger's still swollen, but doesn't hurt as much as it did at first.

Yesterday the QP, my Mom & I went to one of the local alpaca farms. They were having an open house. The weather was perfect. Here's what we saw:

This baby was chewing/licking the opening to the feed bag.

Another baby.

The QP had to feed an alpaca, first thing. She said it tickled her hand.

The alpacas tend to move in a herd. It is an amazing thing to watch. The farm has over 60 alpacas.

Here they are, moving in the other direction. See the many shades/colors? They are beautiful!

I liked this one, with it's white forehead. It is owned by a boy who's in the 4-H club. He boards the alpaca at this farm.

The QP got to hug many alpacas!

After we were there a while, she got the chance to walk one around. Her name is Samantha.

Here's the QP, hugging Samantha.

And there were free kittens. No. We did NOT bring one home! Smokey would NOT like another cat in his house, sharing his people!

The open house was today, too. I'm glad we went yesterday, because it rained and was cold today!

Oh! The farm also has a store that's open year-round!! They sell sweaters, hats, gloves/mittens, scarves, shawls, stuffed toys , yarn and wool to spin!!!! The prices are reasonable. I WILL be returning to purchase some yarn!

MAKE it a great day!

Thanks SP8!

2006-10-21T16:54:00.000-04:00

Here are the long overdue pictures of my final SP8 gifts. Everything was wrapped (it's so much fun to unwrap things!).

There was yarn. Some Bernat Soft Boucle (because blue is my favorite color), some Trekking XXL sock yarn (which I've never tried!), and some Knit Picks sock yarn (because I love KnitPicks!).

Some stitch markers in a cute little blue fabric bag (the picture I took that showed the bag didn't show the markers too well). I love unique stitch markers! They are so much fun to use!!

Lots of other goodies - a cute pumpkin container, a notepad, a calendar & some notecards. The postcard (the card with the rose on it) is what my SP used to write me a note, revealing her identity.

The QP even got some stuff! She just loves getting presents. She doesn't quite understand the whole Secret Pal thing, though. She keeps trying to guess who sent her stuff (out of the people she knows). I tell her it's nobody that she personally knows & then she just looks at me, confused.

Thanks Karla!!!!

And now Secret Pal 9 is in full swing. I've received my match (the person I'm to spoil), so I'll be reading her blog over the next week or so, to learn about her. And I've been contacted by my Pal (my spoiler). I'm so excited!

That's all for now, as typing is somewhat of a challenge with no middle finger. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

A sad day at Angelia's Knitting...

2006-10-16T21:21:00.000-04:00

I uploaded these pictures in reverse. You can kinda see the swelling of my middle finger - and the brusing on the underside of it.

Yes, it's a sad, sad day - well, actually, days - here at Angelia's Knitting. I broke my finger. I can't knit too easily (I may soon do some knitting even though it hurts my hand!). Some people are saying my finger is liable to take 6 weeks to heal! I don't wanna hear that! 6 weeks! I'm not going to not knit for six weeks!! And I don't want to talk about how I can't do my arm workout now - just when my arms were starting to get little muscles!

In addition to the knitting, there are a whole lot of things this complicates. I'm left handed - and I broke the middle finger of my right hand. I didn't think that would be a major problem. Well, I discovered that I use my right hand for alot of things: opening doors, cutting with scissors, pulling up the zipper on pants, washing my hair, blow drying hair, putting my hair in a ponytail, putting makeup on...you get the picture.

How did I break my finger, you ask? Well, I was shooting some baskets at the gym, went to catch the basketball, and it hit my finger dead on. As soon as it happened, I knew it was broken (the same thing happened to the ring finger on my left hand when I was in 9th grade - but with a football, not a basketball). I went to the doctor later that evening. This was last Wednesday (Nutty Knitter night). By then, the finger was black & blue & swollen - and, of course, painful.

So that's my sad story. It's a short story tonight because, well, typing without using your middle finger, is not that easy! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Sock History Questions

2006-10-10T19:54:00.000-04:00

Here are my Sock History questions for the Socktoberfest that Lolly's having. I know they're late!

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

I taught myself - with the help of the Magic Loop book. I knit my first pair of socks at the end of last year (I think - or else the beginning of this year - I know it was cold outside).

What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?

My first pair was made using Regia 6 ply sock yarn. They've held up well - considering I've only worn them a dozen times or so. :-)

What would you have done differently?

Nothing. My first sock was my "practice" sock (the tension was all over the place!), then I knit two more to make the actual pair.

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

I've only knit that one pair. I did get a skein of Trekking from my Secret Pal, so I'm excited to try that.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPN's, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

I knit my pair of socks using the Magic Loop method. I recently tried knitting a sock on DPN's and don't care for it. I currently have a sock started using 2 circulars. Crochet is a language I don't speak, so no, I don't crochet my socks.

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)

I've only ever done flap. It works well for me.

How many pairs have you made?

1 1/2 - remember? I've knit three socks! :-)

Secret Pal 9 Questionnaire

2006-10-09T19:18:00.000-04:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'm not very fond of acrylic, although I do use it on occasion. I prefer natural fibers. I would love to try some Socks That Rock and Koigu yarn.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Right now - a decorative oval Kleenex box. :-)

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting for a year. I consider myself intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No, I do not.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
I only use bath products from the company I work for (Arbonne). I don't use candles - too many allergies.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
A sweet tooth??? Am I a woman?!?!? Chocolate!!!

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I stamp, scrapbook, cross stitch. I don't spin, but would like to learn how.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I like 70's and 80's pop (including disco), R&B, some Rap. I don't have any way to play MP3's.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Blue is my favorite. I love bold and jewel toned colors. I don't like pastels much - especially not pink!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have a 7-year old daughter, a cat and a goldfish.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear hats, scarves and mitten on occasion (like, when it's really cold & I have to wait for my daughter's school bus). I don't wear ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I like to knit & felt bags.

13. What are you knitting right now?
A sock (2 circs), 2 Prayer Shawls, a baby blanket, and 2 scarves.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I probably prefer circs - it depends on the project. I like aluminum for socks and bamboo or wood for most anything else. No plastic.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I own both.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Almost a year old.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I don't have a favorite holiday.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn? lol!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Books: Yarn Harlot's last two books (I have "At Knit's End"), Mason Dixon's book, Cat Bordhi's Magical Knitting book, anything by Ann Budd or Elizabeth Zimmerman or Meg Swanson. Needles: I've been lusting after KnitPicks needles! The interchangable circs, the regular circs, the dpns!!!! I have a subscription to Interweave Knits.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Needle felting! And spinning!

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I do knit socks. I wear a size 10 shoe. My foot is 9 1/2 inches around, and 10 inches long.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) March 7th.

Sunday ramblings

2006-10-08T18:02:00.000-04:00

First, let me thank my Secret Pal from the SP8 swap - Karla Cardell. She sent me my last package and it was so awesome! I did take pictures, I just don't have them uploaded yet. I don't have the link to her blog written down, either. I'll give you all that info in another post. Thank you Karla!!! And the QP thanks you, too, for everything you sent her!!!

I've been knitting. I'm knitting my first sock using the two circular method. To me, it's very similar to the Magic Loop, except that you're using 2 circs instead of one. I also bought some sock yarn to use with the Magic Loop method - so you may be seeing quite a few socks from me soon. I'm still working on 2 Prayer Shawls, and a scarf for the Red Scarf Project, a baby blanket, and the Shell Counterpanes I mentioned in a previous post.

Thank you to everyone for the good thoughts & wishes in regards to the Amish school shooting. The county is still reeling from the event.

I'm told that it was even front page news on the BBC. Wow. I think most of the reporters are gone now. The funerals are now over. There were some tense moments when there was talk of a church group protesting at the funerals of the Amish girls. The group was offered an hour slot on a Christian radio or TV show, so they took that instead of protesting at the funerals. This same group has been protesting at military funerals. I'm not linking to them. I think it's incredibly tacky and disrespectful to protest at a funeral - no matter what your belief - so I am not going to give them any extra publicity.

A woman tried to get into one of the Amish funerals (they were closed to the public), dressed in what she thought was "Amish" clothing. The first reports were that it was a reporter. We later found out that it was a tourist. When I first heard of the incident, I wondered where the woman got "Amish" clothing. You see, even though the Amish dress very plainly, it is hard to copy their clothing. There are so many details that most people don't know about (like the lack of buttons, or the color of the garments). Anyway. It was tacky of this woman to try to get into the funeral.

There are quite a few charity events under way in this county for those involved in the tragedy. There was an auction. There will be a chicken bar-b-que (I spoke, at some length, about chicken bar-b-que's in the county in a previous post). Originally, the people in charge of the bbq planned on selling 500 chicken dinners. They have sold over 3,000!! Incredible! Several of the hospitals and doctors (and people/groups involved in the medical aspects of this tragedy) have written off the medical bills for the Amish girls. There will still be bills, but at least some of it's being taken care of. Local banks, churches, convenience stores & other places are accepting monetary donations. As I mentioned before, there are funds for the Amish families and for the family of the shooter.

Amish people attended the funeral of the shooter - to show their support for his wife & kids.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if we all looked out for, and took care of one another?

Well, that's all for tonight. I'll get back to you with pictures, links and my SP9 questionnaire.

MAKE it a great day!

A county turned upside down.

2006-10-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

I wrote briefly yesterday about a shooting in one of the local Amish schools. I first saw the news on my computer's homepage. There was one paragraph to the article. I then went to the website of a local TV station. They had more information. Click here to read what they have now. The evening newspaper today had a HUGE headline - and most of one section of the paper was about the school shooting.

This is one of those events that I know I will always have a clear memory of where I was and what I was doing when I heard about it.

I'm told that national newspapers and TV channels picked up this story, too. Pennsylvania's Governor was here (in the county) today to give a speech or something.

Let me tell you a little about the Amish. (You can click here to read more about them.)

First, there are different sects of Amish. Some are more strict than others. The group of people who sent their kids to the school where the shooting took place are Old Order Amish. They are the strictest. They don't drive vehicles. They travel in horse drawn buggies. Sometimes they will pay a person to drive them in a vehicle (long distances, or in the winter) - like a taxi service. They have no electricity or telephones in their houses. They don't use buttons on their clothing. They attend one-room schoolhouses. They take turns hosting church - there is no specific church building that they attend - they just go to each other's houses. They speak a form of German, commonly called "Pennsylvania Dutch". They call non-Amish people "English". They are a very close-knit group and it's rare for an English person to be invited into an Amish house. They are pacifists. They don't fly or have their picture taken. They don't "join the church" until they're young adults. They do not hunt, or join the military, or own guns. They take care of themselves.

I'm not saying that they don't have some of the same problems the rest of the world has. There is rape and incest and spousal abuse and even drug use. And "Amish" kids - before they join the church - tend to be pretty wild. The boys, especially, are encouraged to "sow their wild oats", because once they join the church, it's all straight & narrow. But the Amish community takes care of itself.

Yesterday, a man (who has three children ages 7 and under), went into an Amish schoolhouse, told all of the boys to leave the schoolhouse, barracaded the door, tied the hands and feet of the girls and shot them in the back of their heads. Apparently, he had planned on molesting them, but the police showed up & he had to act faster than he had planned. So he just shot them - and himself.

Here are some facts:

*5 girls are hospitalized - in several hospitals in PA and Delaware
*5 girls are dead
*2 of them died in the early hours of this morning
*The two who died this morning were 7 years old and 8 years old
*The other girls who died were 12, 13 and 7
*There were 10 families who sent their kids to this school
*7 of those families have a wounded or dead child
*The girls who were sent to the hospitals went by helicopter - the Amish don't fly, so the parents had to find someone to drive them to the hospitals
*Hours went by before the parents knew if their child(ren) were alive or dead. The Amish don't have their picture taken, so the parents had no images to give for identification of their child(ren).

This happened 5-10 miles from where I live. I cannot imagine not being able to go to the hospital with my child, and not even knowing if she's dead or alive. I cannot imagine having to decide to take my 7 year old off of "life saving" equipment so that she could die.

I can only imagine the hell all of the families are going through. The Amish families and the family of the man who did this.

The Amish community has set up two funds. One for the families of the school children. And one for the family of the man who shot their children.

I have to wonder if I could be so forgiving, if my child were dead? Would I be able to forgive the shooter? I do believe that I would see that his wife and children are victims of this, too.

Because of the actions of this man, his wife and children will have to deal with the hatred and insensitive comments of others. The Amish community is now in the national spotlight (which they do not like) and pictures of Amish people are being published all over the place (pictures - against their religion). Children are dead or traumatized.

The whole county has been turned upside down, because this could have happened at the school of anybody's child(ren). It could happen at any school. How do you look your child in the eyes and tell her that she's safe in her school - when you know, deep in your heart, that she's not safe at all? We usually tell our children that monsters aren't real. They don't have to be afraid of monsters, when, in fact, the biggest monsters are people, just like us.

That's all for now. I'm so sad and so troubled by all of the school shootings - it seems like they are more frequent than ever. And this one. Well, it could have just as easily been my daughter's school that this man walked into yesterday.

So hug your loved ones extra tight and be sure to tell them that you love them. :-)

Hi...my name is Angelia

2006-10-02T11:28:00.000-04:00

Hi! My name is Angelia - and this is my knitting blog. I live in Pennsylvania and have a 7-year old daughter. I call her the Queen Princess - or QP, for short.

I thought I'd introduce myself, since it's been so long since I posted anything. Why haven't I posted? I don't know. Every time I thought about doing it, I realized I really didn't have anything to say - and didn't even have any pictures to post.

I've been doing a little knitting. Not much.

The Nutty Knitters are meeting again (we had a summer break), so at least once a week I'm knitting a prayer shawl. I currently have two on the needles.

One of the women in the Nutty Knitters does Civil War re-enactments. She's currently working on a knitted Shell Counterpane. You knit the individual shells & then sew them together to make the counterpane. I'm helping her with the knitting. This is a picture of the first shell I knit & blocked. I like the pattern. It looks very cool when put together, and the shell knit up fast. Luckily, I won't be the one sewing the things together!!

I have also been attending the weekly SnB meetings. It's a fun group. My Mom & I go to SnB while the Queen Princess is at her Brownie Girl Scout meeting. One of the SnB'ers, Heather, recently started her own blog.

((I had this post written & somehow it got lost. So now I have to try to remember what I wrote. Plus, I just saw on the news that a gunman held some Amish kids hostage at their school - TODAY. That's some crazy shit! The Amish are pacifists. And here a gunman comes in & holds school kids hostage! He shot himself before the rescue people could get into the school - damn coward!))

Almost three weeks ago (it'll be three weeks on Wednesday), I joined a fitness club. I had received a free week's pass & went there to check it out. I ended up joining. I've been there every day (Mon-Fri) & two Saturdays (when the QP had a playdate & I had "free" time). I've also signed up for a personal trainer. I call him Killer. I'm convinced he's trying to kill me! I meet with him once a week. He pushes me to work harder than I would if I were on my own (plus he knows ways to use the weight machines that are especially painful - and, I guess, effective - but painful).

To date, I've lost 5 pounds and about 8 1/2 inches. Not bad, huh? I have quite a few pounds to go. :-)

I'll leave you with a picture of a flower. I don't know the name of the flower, but this particular plant used to belong to my Great-great Grandmother. The flowers only bloom at night, and they only bloom once. The next morning, the flower is drooping & closed. I love how they look - and they smell nice, too.

That's all for today. Now I'm off to see if I can find out some more info on the Amish school shooting. I can't even express how crazy that (the shooting) is!

MAKE it a great day!

2nd grade!

2006-09-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of the QP on her 1st day of school. She was so happy to start second grade - she got the teacher she wanted and she was excited to see her friends again. I think she also likes the routine of school. There are 14 children in her class, and 13 in the other second grade class. I love the small class sizes.

This past Wednesday, the QP went to the salon & got her hair done. It was in serious need of trimming (she spent the summer in chlorine!).

She decided to try a relaxer. Here is the end result. She loves her new "do". She couldn't stop touching her hair, for hours after it was done.

I think it makes her look older. *sigh* Where does the time go??

Well, this is a busy weekend for us. And a busy week, coming up. Sunday school is starting at church. There's a beginning of the year PTF meeting at the QP's school. Brownies have started up. There are Fall fundraisers for both school and Brownies (I feel like every time I see someone I know, I'm trying to sell them something!). This weekend is my Mom's family's family reunion. Ahh, the drama of Fall!

Enjoy the weekend & remember to MAKE it a great day!

Whatever Wednesday (on a Thursday)

2006-08-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

Do you remember several months ago, when we had the Backyard view thing? Where everyone took a picture of their backyard? And it was still winter, so there weren't many people who had any plants blooming? No? You don't remember that??? Well, click here to see my entry. Anyway. This is an aerial view of one of the gardens in my backyard (I hung out the bathroom window to take the picture).

This year, this garden is the finch garden. The yellow finches love the cone flowers and the black-eyed susans. If you were to walk by the black-eyed susans, dozens of finches would fly out.

What initially made me want to take a picture of this garden is that there were three finches (males) sitting on the black-eyed susans. They flew away as soon as I put the screen up (to hang out & take pictures). I think there is at least one finch in this picture, but you can't really see him.

In the lower left, you can see part of the QP's pool. It's a round, above-ground pool (about 10 feet across). It's 18 inches deep. You can also see the shed, the bird feeder & two of the birdbaths. We have three in the yard, but one is in the way-back yard - by the vegetable gardens (that often feed the groundhogs).

This garden gets really wild in the summertime. There actually is a little walkway through it - it's just overgrown right now! Click here to see how it looks in the spring.

I was going through pictures that I took & I realized that I never showed you my sock pair. Way back when (last year, or the beginning of this year, sometime), I knit a sock. Well, the first sock I knit was my practice sock (meaning that the tension was off & it looked wider in some places than it did in others). The second sock was cool. I finally finished the third sock (which made a pair of socks). These are those socks.

See how the stripes match??? When I bought this yarn, the lady at the yarn shop said she was never able to get this yarn to match on the second sock. I was determined to have the socks match. I can't wait to be able to wear them!! Yay Fall!!

In other news, the QP started 2nd grade last week. This is her first full week of school. She loves it. There are two second grade teachers, and she got the teacher she wanted. Alot of her friends from 1st grade are in her class. Life is good for the QP.

That's all I have for today. MAKE it a great day!!

And the winners are...

2006-08-28T22:53:00.000-04:00

Did you know that yesterday was Sunday, August 27th, and the end of my contest? I didn't. Until last night, when I realized what the date was (I lose track of dates - and time). That meant that I had to pick the winners of my yarn - naming contest. It was hard. I liked ALL of the names! And, before I go any farther, I want to thank everyone who entered the contest. I appreciate your help (I suck at coming up with names for things!).

Like I said, it was hard to pick the winning names. So I came up with a very sophisticated winner choosing system. As people left comments, I wrote down the yarn names (one list for each yarn). Then, tonight, I wrote all those names on little pieces of paper (a different color paper for each yarn). I put each group into the glass cube (shown above), shook it, and pulled out a yarn name. **it wasn't til I'd pulled out the three names that I put all the names into the cube - just in case one of the winners doesn't claim their winnings**

See! I told you it was a sophisticated system!

So, here we go! The first yarn (previously called Yarn #1), is this yarn:

It's new name is:

Nancy submitted that name. Congratulations, Nancy!

The next yarn (which used to be called Yarn #2), is this one:

It's new name is:

This name was submitted by Trek. Congratulations Trek!

And the last yarn (yes, it used to be called Yarn #3):

It's new name is:

libraryminion submitted that name. Congratulations libraryminion!

** To all the winners, please e-mail me your name & address, so that I can send your prizes to you. Nancy, I know I have your address, but please re-send it, so that I don't have to try to remember where I put your it. My e-mail: hlthyskincanbyrs(at)verizon(dot) net - you all know to replace the (at) and the (dot) with the appropriate symbols.

What did they win, you ask?? Well, this is a knitting blog. So they won .... YARN! I'll be sending them some local yarn. It's from Lancaster County Yarns & Wools. It is hand-dyed 100% merino superwash. I'll be sending each person approx. 400 yds of it. That 400 yds is enough to make a shawl - and I'll be sending the shawl pattern, too (not that anyone HAS to make a shawl with the yarn, but in case you do WANT to make the shawl). And, I'll probably add some other little goodies to the package.

Anyone wanting to purchase Blue Lagoon, Periwinkle Ocean, or Mosaic Mayhem, e-mail me at the address listed above. All three yarns are:

100% merino wool, approx. 400 yds., 7-8 sts/1" on #1-3 needles (2.5mm-3.25mm). I'm selling each skein for $9.00.

Again, thank you to everyone who submitted names. MAKE it a great day!

Some updates in blogland.

2006-08-23T22:36:00.000-04:00

Well. Now I know that I'm not the only one who likes reading the KnitPicks catalog. I mean, if enough people do something, then it's considered normal, right???

I'm still only looking at that needle set and that bag set. Someday. Someday I'll own them. *sigh*

Let me tell you about some things that are going on in blogland. First, Norma has posted information about the Red Scarf Project 2007. If you're not familiar with the project, read about it here. Last year (well, it was actually the beginning of this year) Norma (on short notice) was responsible for getting people to send in quite a few scarves (read through her archives to find out the details). She was also mentioned in some knitting publications (again, look through the archives because my detail memory is shot). So get out any left over red yarn you have around your house and knit some scarves!

What? That's not incentive enough for you? Well, how's this? Scout is going to be giving away some of her awesome hand-painted yarn to someone who makes at least one scarf for the Red Scarf Project (I think you have to post a picture of it on your blog - check out her blog for the details)! If you've never seen her yarn, take a look through her archives (and visit her shop!) - you'll be drooling! She also made a cool button that you can add to your blog. Click here for details.

Karen, from my Stitch. And. Bitch. group (haha! I said the words!) started a blog. Please pay her a visit to welcome her to blogland - you know how we all like to encourage others to join in our little obsessions (like blogging, knitting, dyeing, etc,).

I leave you with a picture of the QP. We went here on Monday (we have season passes), so that she could play in Duke's Lagoon for a few hours. I thought that most of the tourists would be gone by now, but NO! I guess their kids' schools don't start any time soon. It wasn't too bad, though. By 5 PM, about two thirds of the people had left the Duke's Lagoon, so it wasn't quite so crowded (and loud). **ok - I'm leaving you with two of the same picture, because I cannot figure out how to delete one of them!

Thank you to everyone who's entered my contest! There are so many great names that I'm not sure how I'm going to choose the winners. If you haven't entered, you still have time. :-)

That's all I have for today. MAKE it a great day!!

Stitching, bitching, and is it just me??

2006-08-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

Yep! I said it! Stitch. Bitch. Haha So Fast So Sleazy! I said those two words! Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!

Yeah, I'm still a little upset about that whole copyrighted term thing.

Anyway. Last night I went to a meeting of the Lancaster SnB group. There were (I think) 9 of us there. It was so much fun! The group is great - very welcoming and friendly. There's a nice age range of the group members. Very fun. I'll be there next week. Maybe I'll get some pictures of the group to share with you all.

Now for the "Is it just me?" part.

Is it just me - or does anyone else read the KnitPicks catalog? I got mine in the mail a few days ago and it looks worn already (from me constantly going through it). I look at the yarns, the new, expanded line of dye-your-own yarns, the patterns, the books, the bags, the notions, the needles, oh my! I love KnitPicks.

I've been drooling over their interchangable needle kit since I first saw it. Now I'm also drooling over the KIP bags and purse. The purse attaches to the knitting bag - so you only have to carry one item! I love that!! I love bags anyway (I'm a bag-lady!) - and those look so awesome!

I wonder if KnitPicks has an online wish list thing like Amazon? I need to check that out. There are soooo many things that I would add to a KnitPicks wish list.

But really. Do any of you look through the catalog over and over?? Is it some weird illness that only I have??

MAKE it a great day!

Some long overdue updates

2006-08-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

A while back, Nancy had a contest. The prize was three skeins of Lopi yarn, and the book, Knit One, Felt Too. Well, I won that contest. I made this bag from my winnings.

I liked making the bag so much (and I had more than half of the yarn left over), that I made a second bag. It's finished, too, but somehow I deleted the pictures of it. It looks just like the first bag (but with different stripe sequences). :-)

I love these bags! They are so cute. They were very quick to knit. The pattern calls for several solid colored yarns, and then you add some beads across the top - and one of these days I want to make the bag just the way the pattern is written - it looks really cool. But since I had this Lopi, and the Lopi does this cool stripey/pooling thing, I figured that was interesting enough.

Both of these bags are going to be presents. Did you notice in the top picture, how well this yarn felts? It feels so solid. It's great! I did "trim" the hairs a little (on the bottom of the bag and around the edges).

This is how much yarn I have left over after knitting the two bags.

This is a baby blanket that I'm working on. A friend of mine had the yarn. She knows how to crochet but never got around to making the blanket. She asked me if I would like to knit a blanket. I've never knit a baby blanket, and that's one thing I wanted to try, so I agreed. The yarn is Lion Brand Baby Soft. I'm using the pattern from the label. I'm knitting with a strand of white yarn and a strand of yellow yarn. I like it. I like the pattern (how it looks), and it's easy for me to remember. The yarn's ok - I'd like to knit this blanket with some awesome yarn sometime. The label also has patterns for matching booties, hat and sweater. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to knit the other items.

**Special thanks to Ann for telling me about "lifelines". I did have to frog some of this blanket. But since I am using lifelines, I only had to frog a few rows.

This is a close up of the blanket. The colors look pretty washed out in this picture.

That's all I have for you today. I need to fill out some paperwork for the QP's school. She starts this coming Wednesday. Since she goes to a private school, parents are encouraged to volunteer at the various activites the school has throughout the year. Which means alot of paperwork at the beginning of the year. :-)

Remember to enter my Yarn Naming contest (see the previous post for the details) !!

MAKE it a great day!

Thanks SP8!

2006-08-13T17:13:00.000-04:00

Thursday (I think) I got this wonderful package from my Secret Pal. I couldn't believe all the stuff she had in that box! There are 6 skeins of yarn, some Forbidden rice (I've never tried it, but rice is a good thing, in my book!), mulling spices (yum!), lime Tic Tacs (they're gone - the QP and I finished them the same day they were opened!), a Clover yarn cutter (I've been wanting to try one of these), a magnet, some cinnamon Listerine strips, and a scarf and a hat that my SP made! WOW!

As if that isn't enough, look what the QP got:

She loves this purse! And inside were several crafty kits and a key chain that hold s a photo.

Thanks SP!!!

In other news, I'm going to be selling the following 3 skeins of yarn. Anybody want to help with the naming of the yarn?? How about a contest?? A yarn naming contest.

Leave me a comment with names for the yarn (one name, for each yarn). I'll pick the three names I like the best and those people will get a prize. I don't know what the prize will be yet (I'll let you know). I'll give you 2 weeks from today. The contest will end at midnight (my time) Sunday, August 27th.

YARN #1

YARN #2

YARN #3

*if you have any questions about the yarn (like colors in the yarn), e-mail me at hlthyskincanbyrs(at)verizon(dot)net

Oh yeah. You may have noticed that I didn't blog for over a month? Well, there's been all kinds of drama in my family & life. Added to that, it was hellishly hot here (I mean, at 9PM, it was still 90 degrees most nights). In PA, we don't just have heat, we have heat with humidity (so if it's 90 degrees, it feels like 110). With humidity, you can sit (not moving) in shade and still sweat! We do not have central air in the house. We don't even have window units. Just fans...to blow the hot air around. I just couldn't bring myself to sit in front of the computer (I'm convinced the computer throws out heat). That's my reason. Those of you who were caught in that heat wave understand what I'm talking about. Those of you who live someplace where you have nice weather, I don't wanna hear about it! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

K is for...

2006-07-07T21:04:00.000-04:00

Kyra!
This is one of my favorite pictures of Kyra. I LOVE that toothless smile!

Kyra was born Friday, March 12, 1999 - at 9:29 AM. She weighed 8lb, 8oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Once she was born, a nurse asked her dad & I if she had a name (at the time, we were looking at Kyra - she was screaming). We both said, "Yes", and went back to looking at our daughter. A few minutes later, the nurse asked, "What's this baby's name?" - we both answered, "Kyra". She didn't have a middle name until later that weekend.

When Kyra was a baby & we were out places (like restaurants), people would often stop to talk to her and remark on how she had bright eyes and was so happy. I attribute the bright eyes and healthy-look to breastfeeding. :-)

The pictures above were taken June 11,1999. Kyra was one day shy of 3 months old.

The picture above, and the one below show some of her "church" outfits. The child never wore the same outfit to church two weeks in a row (one of the local dress factories used to have an outlet store here, so I could get dresses for Kyra for $5.00 or less). She was about a year old in these pictures.

Here she is, sitting on my Grandma's favorite chair. Kyra always put things in here mouth (honestly, it still hasn't stopped!).

Kyra & her Daddy. We were hanging out in the park that day.

Here's Kyra at her 4 - year birthday party. She had a Mermaid themed party at a local children's museum.

Somewhere around this time, she became the Queen Princess Kyra (my daughter didn't want to settle for being one or the other - she wanted to be both!).

Here we are in 2004, in New York city. I forget where this picture of me & Kyra was taken.

Kyra & her Daddy on the Staten Island Ferry (it's free, and you get a nice, cool breeze!). Kyra was watching for whales and seals and dolphins.

The diva!

These pictures were also taken in NYC - but later that same year. We were visiting Kyra's Grandma, Aunts, Uncle and cousins. This is Kyra's Aunt Didi's church. We had to take pictures, because this was the first that the whole family had been to church together in years.

This picture was taken in May. This is my child, acting silly.

This is her "cute" pose.

And here we have Kyra in her pool.

Kyra is outgoing, kind, caring, very sweet (she shocked a server in a Manhattan restaurant once when she asked if she could give her (the server) a hug). She's very compassionate (the downside to this is that she often cries when others are hurt). She still amazes me, every day. You expect to be amazed by the baby things, like walking, talking, etc. But I am still amazed by her - she is so smart, so kind, so wonderful, so beautiful. Kyra's also very observant. She grasps things sometimes, that I wouldn't expect a 7-year old to grasp.

Before I had Kyra I thought that parents determined how the child turns out. And to some extent, they do. Certainly you teach your child, do your best to help them to be a good person, try to keep them safe. I think that most parents do the best they can - or at least try to. Now I believe that parents are here to help our children to become the person they are supposed to be. We're just here to guide them. Often, I think I learn more from her than she does from me. Having her has helped me to be a better person - that's something that I didn't realize would/could happen when you have a child.

Before I had Kyra, I thought that love songs were written with adult love in mind. Once I had her, I thought that surely they were written about the love I felt for that baby. I loved her when I first found out I was pregnant but somehow I fell deeper in love with her once I "met" her. And I don't think I'm explaining this right - maybe it's something that just can't be explained.

When I first saw her, I thought she was the most beautiful baby. I still think she's the most beautiful - not baby anymore - just, the most beautiful!

Thanks for "listening" to my raving! MAKE it a great day!

I am so behind!

2006-07-06T15:29:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember that I signed up for the ABC along. Some of you may know that the last letter I did was "I". Most bloggers are now on "M" or "N". Why am I so behind? Well, I got stuck on "J". I just cannot think of anything for "J". I'm going to skip it and move onto "K". The good news for you is that over the next few days, I hope to get caught up (that means I'll be posting more than once every two weeks). :-)

I've been knitting. Here's a list of what I've been working on:

I used up almost all of the yarn I won from Nancy (BronxGirlKnits). Remember? It was Lopi Alafos - from Iceland! I knit a bag (which would then be felted) from the book I also won from Nancy (sorry - I don't have links today - isn't it enough that I'm actually posting???). I liked the bag so much (and had more than a skein & a half left over), that I decided to knit a second bag. Same pattern. Same yarn. Well, I have felted those two bags (oh - no pictures today, either). I'll get pictures taken of them so that you can see how wonderfully they turned out. I also felted another bag (this one was my own "design") - that bag's story will be told another day.

I started a swatch of the yarn that Lucia dyed for me in the Dye-O-Rama Swap. I know I told you (in a previous post) that I love that yarn. But now that I've knit some of it? I LOVE it even more! The colors are SO. BEAUTIFUL. After each row, I have to stop and look at the colors! And the yarn is amazingly soft. And there's ALOT of it. I am so lucky! Thanks again, Lucia!

I got some new dpn's. Size 000, size 00, size 0, and size 1. Yep. To make socks. I'm doing a swatch of some Regia sock yarn (that I've had for a while) on the size 000 needles. Can I just tell you that these needles are like metal toothpicks. I find myself holding the needles so tightly that I have to make myself loosen my grip because I'm afraid I'll bend them!

In non-knitting news. If you're interested in Longaberger baskets, my Mom is selling a set of (7 baskets, I think) through Auction Inn on eBay. There are about 4 hours left - the last I checked, the price was around $95 (still a great price for 7 baskets!). Anyway. If you'd like to bid, head over to Auction Inn's website (just Google Auction Inn). It's under Current Auctions, then Collectibles.

That's all for today. MAKE it a great day!

Rainy days and Mondays...

2006-06-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. It's Tuesday. And neither rainy days nor Mondays usually get me down. But lately it's been raining ALOT and I'm tired of feeling damp.

I suppose you've noticed that there are pictures of yarn in this post? Well, that yarn was dyed for me by my Dye O Rama Swap buddy...Lucia! She lives in Massachusetts and they've been having alot of rain. She e-mailed me to let me know that my yarn would be a little late because of all the rain - she wasn't able to get outside to dye the yarn (see her blog for details).

It was worth the wait! The colors are rich and deep and soooo beautiful! Blues and teal/dark green, purples...it's beautiful! The yarn is nice and soft. And there's alot of it!

I think I'm going to use the yarn for the Simply Lace socks from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits.

The pictures don't do the colors justice. It was raining yesterday when I took these pictures, so the light wasn't that great.

Lucia also sent me a jar of pink peppercorns. I've never tried them, in fact, thought I'd never even heard of them. I was looking at the jar one day and it came to me. I grew up (for about 7 years) in Southern California. There are these pepper trees all over the place. They have pink peppercorns growing on them. The reason I didn't think of this right away? Well, I never really believed they were pepper. I thought it was just a name or something, because I'd only ever seen black peppercorns.

So I now have some pink pepper. The label states that the "taste is characterized as delicate and aromatic rather than the traditional pungent "spicy" flavor associated with black and white peppercorns". I can't wait to try them!

That package arrived last Thursday. Friday, I got another package! Here's what it contained:

I won this from a contest that Nancy had (by the way, today is her birthday, so go wish her a happy birthday - her best friend, Maribel created a wonderful tribute post to Nancy, so visit her blog, too!). I didn't originally win the prize. But the woman who did win, didn't respond to Nancy's e-mails about her winnings. So Nancy pulled another name (actually, her son pulled the name) - and it was my name!! This Lopi yarn came from Iceland (read Nancy's blog to learn more about it). The colors are beautiful. The book is awesome. That night, I had to knit a swatch (I felted it Saturday, but don't have a picture of the felted swatch).

Sunday, I knit this bag (I got the pattern from the book). It took me about 10 hours, total, to knit this bag. I think it's so cute. I washed it once last night, but need to wash it another time (it's not fully felted yet).
Last night I cast on for a second bag (because I had more than a skein & a half of the yarn left over and I like this bag so much!). I'm about half-way done with the second bag.

Oh! And if you haven't heard, Cara is having a drawing for lots of awesome prizes. She has a registry at Heifer International. For every $10 you donate, your name gets entered into the drawing once. She has raised $13,467.00 so far! You can donate to the registry til the end of the month (I think, check out her blog for the details).

That's all for today (hopefully someone's still reading my blog!). MAKE it a great day!

I'm still here.

2006-06-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

I'm still here. My life has been incredibly boring lately. I haven't been knitting (for several weeks, now). I haven't even checked my e-mail and/or knitting blogs every day. In fact, days go by where I don't even turn my computer on.

I guess I'm waiting for my Grandma's memorial service (which will be July 15th - yes, a month & a half after she died). The QP's been having a rough time with my Grandmother's death. It's hard to explain death to a 7 year old. All she knows is that she misses her Nan. For any person, it's hard dealing with your own grief. It's even harder seeing your child sad/upset/crying. I think that having the memorial service such a long time after her death just prolongs everything. The service (to me) is some type of closure. Having this drag out for a month & a half means a month & a half with no closure.

Anyway. Thank you, everyone, for your warm wishes, condolences, etc. Your comments/thoughts/prayers mean alot to me. Normally I e-mail those who leave comments to my blog, but, well, I just haven't felt like e-mailing. Just like I haven't felt like knitting. Or blogging. Or doing much of anything.

But, I wanted to thank everyone - and to let you know I'm still around (even though I haven't been knitting or even taking pictures).

In Memory...

2006-06-07T09:38:00.000-04:00

This is my (maternal) Grandmother. She was born May 1, 1920. She died around 9:30 PM June 5, 2006. She was 86 years old. She's survived by:

2 siblings (she was one of 6 children)

3 children (she had a total of 5 children)

6 grandchildren

11 great-grandchildren (out of 12 great-grandchildren)

This picture was taken at Christmas time. It is me, the QP, my Mom, my cousin (her mom & mine were sisters - her mom passed away in 1988), and my cousin's daughter. And, of course, my Grandma. Four generations.

Here is my Grandma with the QP and my cousin's 4 children.

The QP & I lived with my Grandma for about 2 years after the death of my Grandfather. She & the QP were very close.

For the past two years, she's been living in a nursing home. She didn't like it there. When her last bit of freedom (being able to leave the home & walk to her daughter's house, less than a block away from the home) was taken away from her, she refused to eat. Then she wouldn't get out of bed. Within a couple of weeks, she died. Her youngest daughter was her power of attorney while her son was on vacation (he & his wife left for Colorado around Memorial Day - knowing my Grandmother was not doing well). She had one of the nursing home nurses call my Mom (her sister) to tell her that their mother had died. Before my Grandmother's son left on vacation, he and his sister planned on having a memorial service for my Grandmother in July (when he's back from his vacation). The service is scheduled for July 15th. They didn't include my Mom in the planning at all.

My Grandmother would be apalled (is that how you spell that word??) at how some of her children are acting.

Needless to say, it's a rough time.

Thanks SP8!

2006-06-05T17:57:00.000-04:00

Saturday, I received a package from my wonderful SP8! It contained two balls of Filatura di Crosa Primo (100% new wool) yarn, a cute heart pictures frame, a bookmark, some sticky notes, some gum, and a wonderful note. Everything is blue (since that's my favorite color). She also included a Polly Pocket and a mini Madame Alexander doll for the QP. The QP loves both of the dolls - and didn't already have either one! And I love my presents! Thank you, SP!

I cast on (that same day!) for a Horseshoe Lace scarf - that's why you only see one yarn ball in the picture. I'm almost half-way done with the scarf. I don't have pictures of it yet.

MAKE it a great day!

Here it is!

2006-05-31T09:54:00.000-04:00

Here are all three skeins, hanging to dry. I dyed these on Saturday.

This...

...and this...

...turned into this. This was the first skein. I think I was a little stingy on the dye because I knew I had two more skeins to dye, and wanted to make sure I had enough (mixed up) for all of them. I could have mixed up more dye, but didn't want to.

This...

...and this...

...turned into this. See the pinkish/purple? In real life it pretty much looks purple. That's from the blue that I used. It "bled" and turned this purple-y color. It looks cool.

This...

...and this...

...turned into this. This is the third skein I dyed. I used plenty of dye on this one. This is the yarn I'm going to be sending to my Dye-O-Rama Swap pal. She wanted water-y colors for a certain pattern. I like it. Again, it reminds me of the colors in the water around the Florida Keys. I was born in Key West (although, we only lived there til I was about a year old), so that's one of my favorite water examples.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my dyeing. I am now out of dye-able yarn, so I won't be doing any more for a while (I have the QP's school AND her summer day camp to pay for - which doesn't leave me with too much yarn money!).

Today, I'm putting away our fall/winter clothes. It's been in the high 80's and 90's here all weekend (and Monday and yesterday). Very yucky! It wouldn't be too bad if it weren't so damn humid, too! Oh well. This is how the weather is in Pennsylvania.

MAKE it a great day!

My brain's pattern...

2006-05-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy.

You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts.

People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused.

But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

I saw this on Ann's blog. It was hard for me to decide which picture to pick, but my eyes kept going back to this one. Turns out that this pretty well describes me. I've been told I'd be great at poker (since people have a hard time "reading" me). Although, I can't say that anyone's ever told me that they're impressed with my imagination. :-)

I did some dyeing today. 3 skeins. With the new dye colors. They're still drying. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow. Maybe I'll even get them re-wound tomorrow. Maybe not. It's supposed to be hot here the next few days. I don't like the heat & humidity - well, that's not true. The heat's ok. I HATE the humidity. It's gonna be a long summer for me (no air conditioners or central air in the house).

MAKE it a great day!

Watery goodness

2006-05-25T22:08:00.000-04:00

Look at what I got today! More dye!! You know what that means...this weekend (if the weather's nice) I'll be dyeing some more yarn. Yay!! Do you see the names of the dyes? I'm going to attempt to dye some watery looking yarn. Blues and some greens. Yarn to remind you of the water when you drive through the Florida Keys.

Oh! And I realized today that I can dye my own yarn and then knit one of the awesome lace patterns out there. That way my lace will be the exact color(s) I want! Sock yarn should work for lace, right?

Aren't these stitch markers cool? They were made by one of the Nutty Knitters, Melissa. If you've read the Nutty Knitters blog, she was one of my models in our great shawl photo shoot. She brought these stitch markers along last night & showed them to us. I think they're so pretty!

See this bag? This was made (for me) last night by the QP. One of the other women had her daughter along. Well, the daughter had all this craft stuff & she showed the QP how to make this bag. Cool, huh?
The QP came over and demonstrated how to use the bag (maybe she thinks I don't know how to use bags??). She put the yarn (that I dyed) into this little bag. This particular skein of yarn is a small skein (it's the result of me cutting the yarn while trying to wind it because it was so tangled that I couldn't do anything with it).

Well, I'm off to bed. I am going on a field trip tomorrow with the QP's class. They are finished with school next Friday (which is a half-day, and they have off Monday, for Memorial Day). This school year went by really fast!

MAKE it a great day!

Just for Dave...

2006-05-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

When I was creating the last post, I thought about adding the lilac pictures. I didn't add them because I thought maybe you guys are sick of flower pictures.

Then I looked at the comments this morning & saw Dave's. Now I have to wonder if he's been hacking into my computer to find out what flower pictures I've taken but haven't posted yet...

But there you go, Dave. Lilacs. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Intention

2006-05-23T20:39:00.000-04:00

Every week I have the intention of posting every day (well, at least 5 days out of the week). What happens, you ask? I don't know. My life just isn't that exciting. I don't knit (and finish items) especially fast. And I'm not witty enough to make a great post out of something mundane. And then there's the thing with the camera.

Last weekend I donated 2 hat & scarf sets and one felted knit bag to the auction at the QP's school. I even made nice little "Angelia's Knitting" sleeves to hold the hat/scarf sets together. The sleeves also listed fiber content, care instructions, and hat/scarf measurements.

Have you seen them? No? Well, that's because I didn't take any pictures of them before I turned them in. There I had a nice post - all those finished items - and I forgot to take pictures! Duh!

In other news...I got a beautiful postcard from my SP8 today. It had a rose on the front. Very pretty and very sweet! Thanks SP!

I'll leave you with some pictures (since this is such a lame post!)...

This is the wisteria. If you remember the Backyard Greetings meme several months ago, you'll remember that this was bare. The day that I took these pictures, the wisteria was buzzing (from all the bees that were at the flowers). It was a little unsettling to walk under this buzzing wisteria, but I was willing to walk into danger for the sake of providing you all with wisteria pictures.

The wisteria flowers, up close.

I'm not sure what these flowers are. They're growing up the side of the shed. When we first got this shed, the QP was pretty little. You can't tell from this picture, but it kind of looks like a little barn. The QP kept talking about this cow. It took us a while to realize that she thought it was a barn & that a cow was living in it.

This is a close up of the shed flowers...whatever they may be!

MAKE it a great day!

Where does the time go??

2006-05-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

It's been a week since I dyed this yarn! Here (finally!) are the rest of the pictures of it. These are the two skeins I dyed. I used the same colors of dye but look at how different they turned out.
The first skein. This one reminds me of harvest colors. I like the richness of the colors (I don't care for pastels - I like bold colors).

Here it is, knit. I don't love it. I think there are too many colors - or maybe I just don't like varigated yarn - or there's too much green. I don't know. I just know that I don't love it once it's knit.

The second skein. I only had a little yellow left in my squeeze bottle. Instead of having sections that were just yellow, I mixed it with the blue and with the red. I really like the colors in this skein. They remind me of sherbet (except for the blue part) or of a flower (leaves & all).

Here's the second skein, knit. I like it better than the 1st one - but still don't love it. Again, I think I just need to use fewer colors. Picking one or two colors is really hard for me - that's why I end up with this yarn of every color! Oh well. That's why these were my practice yarns!

Friday was the chicken bbq at the QP's school. The kids had an early dismissal - they were done at 11AM. Because this is the school's biggest fundraiser, 100% family participation is expected (that means that parents are expected to volunteer their time and to donate things). I donated 2 scarf & hat sets, 2 "spa" baskets, a felted knit bag & helped at the "Sweets & Treats" stand from 11-2. In case you don't know - that's the baked goods stand. We had all kinds of yummy things to sell! I made chocolate chip cookies and whoopie pies (to donate to be sold).

Whoopie pies are 2 round chocolate cakes with a white icing filling. The cakes are about the size of a cookie, maybe a little bigger. Some people make pumpkin whoopie pies (the cake is pumpkin) or red velvet (the cake's red velvet & the filling is butter cream), and some make a peanut butter icing filling for the chocolate whoopie pies. The most common flavor is white icing and chocolate cake. The whoopie pies are wrapped in plastic wrap & sold individually.

Today, the school held a "country breakfast", a candy drop (a small plane from a local airport flew over & dropped candy out for the kids), a "country auction", and food (fresh sausage sandwiches, hot dogs, pork bar-b-que (which is not the same thing as the chicken bbq - the pork is similar to sloppy joes), french fries (the fresh cut kind), cotton candy, popcorn, ice cream and baked goods. They also had a bouncy castle ( you know - those inflated castles that the kids can jump in) and a clown making balloon creations for the kids. The QP and I spent several hours at her school today.

I had every intention of posting earlier in the week - but then the days just got away from me - and before I knew it, it was Saturday night! I don't think I even turned my computer on after Thursday afternoon!

And the QP only has 8 1/2 days of school left! I am so not ready for her to be out of school!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend and remember to MAKE it a great day!

A Colorful Weekend

2006-05-16T08:15:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, I did some dyeing. The first three pictures are of the 1st skein I dyed. I used Yellow, Copenhagen Blue and Cherry. These colors created this "Rainbow" yarn. I haven't taken pictures of this yarn knit yet. It's been rainy here, so I haven't had any sunlight to take pictures in.

The sun was messing with me the day I dyed & took the pictures of this yarn - it kept going behind a cloud. So I had very few "good" pictures. The yarn above does not have a black section - that's actually blue.

This is the 2nd skein I dyed. I was running out of the yellow dye (that I had mixed up), so there's no yellow in this skein. What yellow I had, I mixed with blue and red. This skein has alot of magenta, purples, blues and greens in it. I haven't wound or knit a swatch with this one yet.

Again, the light was funny - so that section is actually more blue than it looks.

A few weeks ago, Fawn had a contest on her blog. This is what I won! Can you believe it? I can't! I never win things!! It's a felted cell phone cozy, and the flower has a (hair) rubberband on the back - so I use that for the QP's hair. She also sent some stickers for the QP. Wasn't that sweet? The QP loves stickers! Notice the stationary she used - "Deery-Lou The Cheerful Fawn" - cute, huh? Thanks Fawn!

MAKE it a great day!

"I" is for...

2006-05-15T10:01:00.000-04:00

Iris

These grow in the back yard.

Can you see the spider?

The purple iris grow along the south side of the house.

That's all for now. I have to finish getting things ready for the auction at QP's school this coming weekend. I'm donating two "Spa" baskets, two hat/scarf sets, and a lined, felted bag.

MAKE it a great day!

Maryland

2006-05-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

I know this post is a long time coming. What can I say? Saturday, all day, was MDS&W. Sunday, I was recovering (and had a baby shower - for triplets - to attend). Yesterday, well, I had to get the SP8 questionnaire posted. So, today I'll tell you about Maryland.

My day started at 5:45 AM. My Mom & I were meeting the others from church, at the church, at 7:30 AM. The QP spent the day with her Grandpa. She was upset that I was leaving for the day (even though she would have hated the sheep & wool festival!). 7-year olds!

We were all on the road to Maryland by 8 AM (don't even ask what happened to the "we're leaving at 7:30" thing!). We didn't have much traffic till we got off the fairgrounds exit. Then, we just followed the masses into the fairgrounds. We had three vehicles in our group, and we got separated at this point. Thankfully, we all have cell phones! My Mom got a close parking space. In fact, we were parked before anyone else in our group. We were parked, maybe 500 feet from the fairground entrance (my Mom's lucky like that).

Well. Let me tell you. I walked around (all day!) with my mouth hanging open. There was yarn and fiber EVERYWHERE! Any kind of yarn. Any color. Some had crazy prices. Some had regular prices. And some was cheap. Then there were the spinning wheels and the looms. And sheep. And alpacas.

Our second stop (the 1st was the bathroom), was the line for the Sheep & Wool souveniers. I'm not sure how long we were in that line (I'm really not a time person), but it had to have been an hour. It was ok - because we stood there and talked, and ate (there were all kinds of food stands close to the line).

**Little did I know, that this was how the entire day would be - waiting in lines.**

Next year, we're shopping first!

Once we were finished there, we got some more food & drinks and headed over to the border collie demonstration. It was already packed. But was interesting.

After that, we headed over to the main exhibit hall. This is where we got split up. The place was PACKED. And in the center of the building, it was so hot. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out. I took my bottle of water out & drank some, and felt a little better. Then I got to the end of the building and there was a little air coming in, that helped.

My Mom & I went through 2 more buildings and then it was almost time for the blogger meet-up. So we went to the meet-up area and sat on the grassy hill. Bloggers came pouring in and soon the little group turned into a bigger group. No sign of Cara, though (I was looking for the shawl). Then we found out that there was another group of bloggers, farther down the hill. So we combined with that group. Now. If you look at the sidebar on Cara's blog, you'll see that about 50 bloggers were signed up for the meet-up. There were way more than 50 people there! It was amazing! It was a huge group. Of women (I don't think there were any men). Talking. And knitting. And wearing and/or carrying knit items. And shopping bags full of fibery goodness. And yes, Cara and her shawl. I saw it (and touched it!). Heather and her friends (sorry - I don't know everyone's names) had these wonderful (bright!) shirts that had their name on the back and their blog name! What a great idea!

If you look at the picture to the left, you'll see Cara's black shawl laying on top of her bag. She was off, talking to people.

Me, the introvert, was a little overwhelmed by all these people I really didn't know. So I stood and took some pictures. My Mom & I left after maybe an hour (she doesn't read blogs). Anyway. I don't really know who's in the pictures I took! So if you're reading this, and recognize someone, let me know!

We wandered around the festival for a little longer. We left around 3 PM. We were tired and hot and grimey feeling by that time. We didn't see the others from our church at all after we were split up in the main exhibit hall. I'll tell you what - we were sooo happy for that close parking space when we left!! And can you believe that as we were walking out, there were still people walking in?!?

On the way home, we stopped at an Italian restaurant a few miles from the fairgrounds, so that we could sit down and eat. And cool off.

We got home around 5:30 PM. The QP and her Grandpa had gone out to eat. I guess, by that time, she was over being upset that I was not with her for the day!

So, overall, the S&W was great. Crazy packed with people. But amazing to look at all of that yarn! It would have been waaaay more fun if I'd had several hundred dollars to spend, but it was cool. I'll have to plan better for next year!

I bought a few things. I bought 3 skeins of sock yarn. No. Not Socks That Rock sock yarn. I didn't know which stand had it, and by the time I found out who was selling it, they had pretty much sold out. The sock yarn I bought is Filatura Lanarota Country Sock. It's 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. We'll see how I like it.

I also bought some yarn that's a merino/alpaca mix. It is sooooo soft. I have about 200 yds of it - not sure what it's going to be yet. It's a beautiful lime/purple/white color. I love the color more, every time I look at it.

That's all for today. Tomorrow, maybe some finished objects...

MAKE it a great day!

Secret Pal 8 Questionnaire

2006-05-08T08:55:00.000-04:00

1.) What is your favorite yarn(s) to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'd like to try bamboo yarn, soy yarn & Koigu. I don't care for Red Heart and I'm "boycotting" Lion Brand because their dye lots are so screwy.
2.) What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I store them in plastic bags, or in my big knitting bag.
3.) How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting since fall, last year. I consider myself intermediate.
4.) Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No, I don't.
5.) What's your favorite scent?
Citrus.
6.) Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Yes! Favorite candy would have to be chocolate! I also like marzipan.
7.) What other crafts or do-it-yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Right now, it's all about knitting. Although I am in the Dye-O-Rama Swap, so I'll be dyeing real soon. I don't spin...yet.
8.) What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3's?
R&B, 80's, 70's, yes, even disco. I don't think I can play MP3's.
9.) What's your favorite color? Or - do you have a favorite color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
My favorite color is blue. I like bold colors. I like blues, greens, purples, reds, orange and yellow, black & white. I don't care for pastels (especially pastel pink).
10.) What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have a 7-year old daughter, a cat and a goldfish
11.) Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear scarves, hats, mittens and gloves. I don't wear ponchos.
12.) What is/are your favorite item(s) to knit?
felted bags and socks
13.) What are you knitting right now?
(3) prayer shawls, (1) sock, Irish Hiking Scarf, (2) hats
14.) Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes!
15.) Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Straight, circular, dpn - depends on the item I'm knitting. I like bamboo, wood, and aluminum.
16.) Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a swift - no winder yet.
17.) How did you learn to knit?
Mostly self-taught. I learned alot from Vicki Square on one of the Knitty Gritty episodes.
18.) How old is your oldest UFO?
Old. At least 8 or 9 months.
19.) What is your favorite holiday?
I don't have a favorite holiday.
20.) Is there anything you collect?
Umm, yarn?
21.) Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Yarn Harlot, Mason-Dixon and Wendy Knits new books. Oh! Also the dyeing book (Dyeing To Knit - or something like that). Size 0 or 1 circs with a 40" cable. I subscribe to IK and KnitSimple magazines.
22.) Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Lace. Fair-Isle.
23.) Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I have knit 3 socks. My foot measurements are: 9 1/2" around the instep and 9 3/4" from heel to toe (size 10 shoe).
24.) When is your birthday (mm/dd)?
March 7th.

Maryland Sheep & Wool tomorrow!

2006-05-05T12:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, tomorrow is the Sheep & Wool Festival. This will be my 1st...I'm soooo excited. Even more so, because I almost wasn't going to be able to go. Yes, I know. It's only once a year. An unbelievable event. But, you see, money's tight right now. And I'd hate to be there and have no money!! But some things happened - and now I'm going! Yay! A few of the Nutty Knitters are going. My Mom & I are going (by the way, if you check out the Nutty Knitters blog, my Mom knit the "Charcoal" triangular shawl). It's going to be our Mother's Day present to ourselves! Yippee!! Cara's having a blogger meet up tomorrow afternoon. Life is good.

Speaking of good...guess what I got in the mail today??? Yep! Yarn. 5 skeins of Knit Picks "Color Your Own" sock yarn. That's about 2,200 yards of dye-able yarn! Woo-hoo! But I won't be dyeing tomorrow. No sir. I'll be in Maryland - looking at fiber, yarn, and I can only imagine the rest of the goodness I will see. I'm putting my camera into my bag now, so that I don't forget to take it along. I'm putting the extra batteries into my bag too (I won't need them now - but I guarantee, if I forgot them, I would need them!).

Yesterday I went to one of my local yarn shops and bought some dye. Only three colors for now. Red, blue, yellow. Ahh, the power of having those three colors! I can create any color with them! I can create any color - that's the power - but I do plan on buying other colors. :-)

Oh yes. And I told you last night about some finished objects. Well, I still haven't taken pictures of them (saving the camera batteries for Maryland). Possibly Sunday? Or, maybe I'll be so excited from the Sheep & Wool Festival that I'll totally forget about them til next week. I mean, Cara's gonna be there...and Norma...and Wendy...and other people that I just don't know about yet!

I'm off to get my bag ready for tomorrow. Enjoy the day. For those of you going to the Sheep & Wool Fest tomorrow, I'll see you there!

MAKE it a great day!

The matches have been made!

2006-05-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

The matches have been made - for the Dye-O-Rama Swap!! Woo-hoo! I received the info for the person I will be dyeing yarn for. I e-mailed her. She e-mailed me back. She sounds fun. She's new to dyeing, too, and is very excited about the swap.

Yesterday I ordered the yarn. I'll be using Knit Picks Color Your Own yarn (fingering weight). I also bought some dye (from AC Moore). Went to Nutty Knitters last night. Realized the dye was the wrong kind. Had to return it today. So then I went to one of the local yarn shops. I bought the right kind of dye from them. I also got some tips from the woman who was helping me. I only bought three colors (that's all the cash I had on me). I need to go back and get some more colors - I have this beautiful color combination in mind for my swapee! I plan on doing some test yarn first. That way I can get the hang of dyeing, before I do the "official" yarn for my swapee.

I also heard from my Swap Buddy (the person who will be dyeing yarn for me!). S/he sounds great. Asked me questions as to my color and fiber preferences. I'm so excited! My very own custom dyed sock yarn! How awesome is that?? What sock pattern do you think I should use? Or should I wait to see the yarn first, to see what pattern it "calls" for??

As if all that isn't exciting enough, I'll soon have my Secret Pal 8 match! Tune in (probably tomorrow) for my SP8 Questionnaire.

Oh! I also have some FO's to share with you! Can you believe it?? I was actually knitting! I still have to take the pictures. I'll probably post them this weekend.

That's all for tonight - I have an early morning meeting tomorrow. Have to get some beauty sleep! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

"H" is for...

2006-05-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

Hyacinths

They always make me think of Spring. Probably because they are one of the first flowers to bloom in the Spring here. I also love how they smell.

All of these are from my yard.

My Mom had hyacinths in her wedding flowers. She & my Dad were married in March (I was born on their first wedding anniversary).

MAKE it a great day!

A Busy Weekend

2006-05-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

Friday night, the Queen Princess was in the Spring Program at her school. This program was put on by grades K-2 (she's in 1st grade). It was a musical. They did the program at a school assembly Friday afternoon, and then Friday evening for parents, grandparents, etc. She was so excited Friday night! She talked the entire way to the school. Here she is, ready to go into the school.

She had a reading part (only two children from her class had reading parts). She did very well. She loves to read and reads with expression.

Saturday, the QP's Brownie troop was in Lancaster's American Spirit Parade. We were part of a group of 6 troops (1 Daisy, 2 Brownie, 2 Junior, and 1 Cadette). 6 or 7 girls from the QP's troop participated. I walked alongside the troop, pulling a wagon containing a cooler, the first aid kit & jackets. For those of you familiar with Lancaster, we lined up for the parade behind the prison (the actual parade start was the YWCA - there were ALOT of groups in the parade!), and we walked to Buchanan Park (close to F&M College).

Here's the QP when it was her turn to carry the troop flag. The girls were switched, so that each girl had a chance to carry the troop flag. They also rotated the girls in the color guard (which always consisted of 1 Cadette, 2 Juniors, 2 Brownies and 2 Daisys). The QP was part of the color guard for most of the parade.

For those of you not familiar with Girl Scouts, there are different age/grade levels.
Daisy - grades K-1 or 5-6 years old
Brownie - grades 1-3 or 6-8 years old
Junior - grades 3-6 or 8-11 years old
Cadette - grades 6-9 or 11-14 years old
Senior - grades 9-12 or 14-17 years old

The parade was fun, but long. Luckily, we weren't walking non-stop. We met at noon. The parade was to start at 1PM. We actually started moving at 1:30. We finished around 3:45. There were alot of groups signed up this year, plus we were walking through the city (so the parade would stop every so often to let vehicle traffic through the cross streets). The weather was beautiful. Warm, but not too warm. Sunny & clear. There was a little bit of wind. The girls did a great job. We walked at least 2 1/2 miles. They hardly complained.

Sunday afternoon/evening, there was a Girl Scout Roller Skating event (which was rescheduled from February). The QP doesn't know how to skate very well. I don't skate at all. She had fun, though. People who are learning to skate can go to the center of the rink. She spent most of the time out there, with one of her friends.

A busy weekend. I managed to do a little knitting yesterday afternoon. I'm workign on finishing the scarf/hat sets for the auction at the QP's school (in a few weeks).

Oh! I updated the Nutty Knitters blog with some shawl pictures.

MAKE it a great day!

More Mild Than Wild...

2006-04-28T21:45:00.000-04:00

You Are More Mild Than Wild

You're confident, and you really aren't concerned with how "hot" you are.

Other people's ideas of what's sexy don't concern you. And this is exactly what makes you attractive.

Are You Hot?

I took the "Are You Hot" test and the results are that I'm not that hot. But that's ok - like the Blogthing says, other people's ideas of what's sexy don't concern me. :-)

I actually took this "test" a few days ago. Tonight, I was reading Norma's blog and her post made me think of this Blogthing.

When you're a teenager and you're not one of the cool kids, you still want to be one (at least a little bit). You try to do little things to make you cooler - even though it'll never work. I mean really, the only time a teenager changes their social status drastically, is in the movies!

I was never one of the cool kids. I'm not very good at mindlessly following people. I never had the latest styles. I'm very much an introvert, so heavy partying never appealed to me.

But now. Now I'm older. And now I don't really care what others think. I do what I like to do (knit, read) and I spend time with people I like to be around. It doesn't matter if other people think it's odd that I knit everywhere I go. Any time I'm out somewhere, knitting, I run across another knitter (or someone who'd like to knit) - and I know that they get it.

Well, time for bed. The QP's Brownie troop is in a parade tomorrow and guess who is walking along with them, pulling a wagon? Yep. Me. Yippee! 1st, 2nd & 3rd graders, walking miles & carrying flags. Should be interesting.

MAKE it a great day!

More Springtime Goodness!

2006-04-25T22:14:00.000-04:00

Yes. More garden pictures. You can never see too many flower pictures, right? I'm amazed at how the gardens change every day. Now that we've had rain, thing'll really start growing.

I just love pictures of flowers with raindrops on them!

Here's a view of the garden. You'll notice the red tulips I took pictures of (last week?). Just since I took these pictures (on Sunday), the pink and light yellow tulips are open.

Here's the wisteria. It's starting to get flowers. When it's in full bloom, you'll wonder how that thing it's growing on (sorry - can't think of what it's called) stays standing!

Here's a front view of the "way back" garden. This is beside the wisteria. We call this garden "Tabitha's Garden". Tabitha was our cat. She had to be put to sleep several years ago (old age; her kidneys were giving out). There's a stepping stone in this garden that lists her name & birth & death dates.
Here's the back view of Tabitha's Garden.

Sunday I was outside taking pictures.

Early Monday morning (4AM - yes, I keep track of these things) I woke up with an intestinal flu (at least, that's what I think it was). Vomiting and diahhria (never can spell that word!) every hour for 11 hours. Talk about fun. Vomiting is my least favorite thing to do. I mean, I never get drunk because I don't like to vomit.

Thankfully, my Dad got the QP to school, picked her up from the busstop, after school and got supper for her. I slept (in between trips to the bathroom) all day. When it finally stopped, I waited another 3 hours til I tried ice chips. I was soooo thirsty by this time. Oh! And I was running a fever all day. Teeth - chattering, shivering cold. The kind of cold you can't get warm from because it's inside you.

Luckily the QP is not really young. I laid on a futon in the living room (with 2 shawls, 2 throw-sized blankets, 2 bed-sized blankets (one of them, wool) and a sweatshirt jacket on - and I was still cold!) and dozed in & out while the QP watched TV til it was time for her to go to bed. I don't know what I would have done if she were younger & needed more attention. I was so weak and tired. I don't remember ever feeling as bad as I did yesterday. I usually don't get these kinds of things. I have allergies & tend to get sinus infections, but never get colds and rarely the flu. The last time I had the flu was 17 years ago! And when I went to bed last night, I had this terrible headache. I woke up every hour or so, all night.

Today I feel better. I ate today, and have been trying to replenish fluids. But now I hurt. My whole abdominal area hurts, my throat hurts, when I take a deep breath it hurts, and my head still hurts, off and on. And I still feel weak & tired.

So, while all that was going on, I missed alot of stuff, here in Blogland. Here are a few of the things I missed.

Scout had a Colorway Contest - it's ok - I don't win contests, anyway!

Carole had pictures of an event at Classic Yarns in Grafton.

Franklin talked about his dreams and Dolores mentioned purchasing a bikini.

Dave showed some awesome pictures of Boston & also of his hand-dyed yarn.

Grumperina introduced us to King Rraarrrr!

MAKE it a great day!

Ramblings...

2006-04-23T22:31:00.000-04:00

I saw this link on Norma's blog. Watch the video & listen to the song. Very interesting. I've often wondered why more of the "mainstream" artists (now) don't have politically conscience songs. I know that Prince's last album (Musicology) had some politically conscience songs, but I haven't heard many other artists singing about what's going on in the world right now.

Sorry - sometimes I think I should have been in my 20's in the mid-late 60's. Of course, since I feel that (in the US), we're going back to the 50's (with laws and things), then does that mean that I'll have my chance to do the whole 60's thing in 10 years or so?

Yes well. This is supposed to be a knitting blog. I haven't been doing alot of knitting lately. I need to get to work on the items I'm donating to the auction at the QP's school. I looked at a calendar today - I only have about 2 more weeks to get the stuff finished!

It rained here most of the weekend. We needed rain - in Pennsylvania, if it doesn't rain every week, we have a drought- I grew up in Southern California, so this type of drought thinking still seems odd to me! I mean, in SoCal, you can go for months or years without rain. Different worlds.

This afternoon, the rain finally stopped, so I went outside and took some more garden/flower pictures. I don't have them uploaded yet, though. Maybe I'll get that done tomorrow.

MAKE it a great day!

Dye-O-Rama!

2006-04-20T22:17:00.000-04:00

The Dye-O-Rama Swap sign up is officially open - so go sign up!! It will only be open for 48 hours. Hurry! What?? You don't know where to go to sign up? Click here to go to Scout's blog, and follow her links to the sign up page. While you're there, check out some of the amazing yarn she's dyed. I can't wait to start dyeing yarn!

MAKE it a great day!

Spring has sprung!

2006-04-19T10:41:00.000-04:00

A while back, there was the Backyard Greetings along. Click here to see mine, if you don't remember it. At that time, my backyard was pretty boring. Well, Spring has sprung and the gardens are starting to get interesting! Take a look at the pictures.

The tulips in the morning.

The garden, as it looks in the morning.

The tulips in the afternoon.

The garden, as it looks in the afternoon.

This garden is in the "way back" yard. On the right side of the picture is a huge wisteria (it's not blooming yet - just wait!).

Behind these bushes is the parking lot of the church that's next door. The forsythia (yellow bush) is actually on the church's property.

These cute little shoots are ferns. I took this picture to record how much (and how quickly!) they will grow. This whole area is ferns - they grow around a tree - and they get huge!

I hope you enjoyed your little picture tour of my backyard. I'm sure I'll have more pictures as Spring & Summer go by.

As some of you know, Wednesday nights I have Nutty Knitters "meetings". A group of us get together & knit (or crochet) Prayer Shawls. Well, tonight I started a Nutty Knitters blog. On it, I plan to show shawls we've completed, tell about the group, have some Nutty Knitter pictures (if the group members agree), and let people know how they can contribute. Click here to visit the blog - be sure to check back often - I'll be updating it as I get new information.

MAKE it a great day!

Some randomness

2006-04-17T22:28:00.000-04:00

I hope you all had a great weekend. The Queen Princess had off school Friday & today. She was happy to have 4 days off. The party for her classroom on Thursday went well.

Now for a bit of randomness (since I don't have any really exciting things to share with you!).

I finished my second sock- S A TUR DAY... NIGHT! - remember that song, by the Bay City Rollers?? If you weren't alive (or weren't very old) when that song was out, don't tell me! Anyway. I finished my second sock. This one is an ankle length sock & I have about half a skein of yarn left over (I don't have a scale, so I don't know exactly how much was left over - I'm just guessing about the half a skein). The knitting is much more uniform on this sock (see the picture showing both of the socks). I love the leg length. I want to finish its mate by Wednesday, so that I can wear the pair to my Nutty Knitters group.

Last week, I was visiting a neighbor. She was in the process of making Easter eggs. She takes styrofoam eggs and pins sequins & beads all over the egg. They look so cool. She's an artist (she does watercolor, acrylics and pencil drawings) and has a good eye for color. She doesn't knit, though. Anyway. She was talking about selling these eggs in one of the local gift stores and said that she needs a way to present them. This got me thinking about felted knit baskets. So I went home, got out some wool yarn, and started to knit a basket. The picture shows the end result. It's a little too floppy for me. So I'm thinking of ways to add some stiffness to the sides, bottom and handle. Any suggestions?

My next basket will be a little smaller. And probably without a handle. I'm thinking these would be great for Christmas, Easter, everyday gift baskets. I'd just use different colors. I'm also thinking that some needle felting would look nice on these (random designs, tulips, eggs, flowers, stars, etc.). I also have some wooden beads which would look nice, sewn onto the basket.

Years ago, I got some wooden beads from a great-Uncle. Well, from his estate, when he passed away. The executor wasn't interested in trying to sell these things (beads, string for the beads, patterns). My great-Uncle had TB as a child & spent time in an institution. While there, he made beaded things (bags, purses,etc.). One year I made Christmas ornaments from some of the beads (using a portion of a pattern for a beaded purse). Recently I was shopping for clothing for the QP and noticed that alot of the clothing had wooden beads on - and that there were even beaded purses. I still have alot of beads left. Now I think of ways to add them to my knitted items.

I always have projects in my mind. Things I see. Things I think of (like the felted basket). Things I think of changing/adding/deleting from a pattern. I can never just knit something. My mind always thinks of ways to tweak it - or of other things to make, using a certain technique. I have more projects in my mind than I'll probably ever be able to finish.

Having said that, I plan on joining the Dye - O - Rama Swap that Scout is starting. The official sign-up will start Thursday, April 20th at 6PM (MST). Sign-ups will be accepted for 48 hours. There will also be a website just for the Dye - O - Rama Swap. This will be so much fun! I've been wanting to try dyeing yarn, and this is the perfect opportunity. The button for the Dye - O - Rama has been moved to the bottom of my blog (it was fighting with the blog text). If you're interested, be sure to sign up on the 20th!

Is anyone going to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival? If so, Cara has arranged for a get-together of bloggers. It will be on Saturday, May 6th at 1:30 PM, at the Stage Area. If you want to participate, let Cara know.

That's all for tonight. MAKE it a great day!

I'll try this again!

2006-04-13T16:03:00.000-04:00

I had this post all typed out, links all added, all ready to go, last night. Then I couldn't post it! My blog is not cooperating with me lately!

First, you may notice the Dye-O-Rama button on the sidebar. Scout has been dyeing all this beautiful yarn and she wants to draw others into her addiction. :-) So, I joined. I mean, who doesn't need another addiction???

Second, I saw this meme on Vicki's blog (yesterday, I think) and thought it was cool. Here's how it works.

Do a Wikipedia search of your birthdate, minus the year; list three interesting events, three people who were born, and three people who died on that day.

3 Events
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone.
1969 - Golda Meir elected as the first female Prime Minister of Isreal.
2005 - Mass protest outside the National Assembly of Kuwait building for women's voting rights in Kuwait.

3 Births
1946 - Peter Wolf, American musician (J Geils Band)
1952 - Ernie Isley, American guitarist (the Isley Brothers)
1952 - Lynn Swann, American football player (and running for PA Governor)

3 Deaths
322BC - Aristolte, philosopher
1967 - Alice B. Toklas, American companion to Gertrude Stein
1986 - Jacob Javits, American politician

Now I'm off to play in the sunshine/warm weather! MAKE it a great day!

G is for...

2006-04-12T09:10:00.000-04:00

Meet Goldie. Last summer, my parents took the QP to one of the local fairs. She came home with Goldie, this aquarium, gravel, plants, fish food, a net & a book about caring for goldfish.
When we first got Goldie, she was very small and part of her tail looked as if it had been bitten off. The tail grew back and Goldie is now huge.

The QP is responsible for feeding Goldie every day. I take care of changing the filter & cleaning the aquarium. Smokey (our cat) likes to sit on the floor and look up at Goldie. He doesn't try to get at her, just watches.

I'm one of the room parents for the QP's class and I'm in charge of the Easter party (tomorrow afternoon). So, today I'll be baking cupcakes, filling plastic Easter eggs for an egg hunt, and getting food for the party.

MAKE it a great day!

Remember the needles...

2006-04-07T12:47:00.000-04:00

Remember my most excellent Secret Pal gift of a full set of hand-carved, wooden knitting neeldles? Remember how very awesome they are? Well. They came from Gracie & Company. My SP, Michele & her hubby, Scott, have the company. Scott makes the needles.

Anyway. Gracie & Company is having a contest and you can win a full set of hand-made knitting needles!! Click here for the contest rules.

Go. Check out Michele's blog. Get the contest details! Win your very own set of wooden knitting needles!

MAKE it a great day!

It's a sock!

2006-04-04T15:04:00.000-04:00

Remember the sock I started? Well, here it is - finished! And yes, that part of my desk is always that messy.

I knit this using the Magic Loop method.
The pattern: "Winter Socks" from the Magic Loop booklet.
The yarn: Regia Crazy Color - 6 fadig (whatever a fadig is).
The needle: US2 (2.5 mm) 40" Inox circular. I used up most of the skein for this one sock.

There will not be a mate to this sock. Here's why:
1. When I started the leg, I was knitting kind of loose. The stitches got tighter & more uniform as I knit the sock. So when you lay the leg out flat, it's wider in one section than in the rest.
2. I prefer a shorter leg. I like socks that end around my ankle.

I've been wearing this sock, though. Yes, just this one sock. I wear one of my regular socks on the other foot. Don't laugh! With my sneakers & jeans, no-one can tell.

I decided to have this sock as my "practice" sock (I guess it can hang out with that "practice" mitten I made!) and knit two more (with shorter legs). I've already cast on for the first. I may soon be casting on for a sock from "Sensational Knitted Socks", too. And then there's always the Jaywalker...so many socks to knit!!

Enough for now. Today's my Dad's birthday, so we're taking him out to eat. Plus, there's a Science Fair at the QP's school tonight.

MAKE it a great day!

It's Flash Your Stash Day!

2006-04-01T15:50:00.000-05:00

Here, we have the Queen Princess pushing the sock yarn on the swing. They were having fun.

The Fun Fur didn't want to be left out of the fun, so they all jumped on the other swing. It was windy enough that they didn't need to be pushed.

This is the Knit Picks yarn - they're a close-knit group!.

The discount yarn and the odd Sugar 'n Cream ball went for a walk in the garden. They decided the leaves needed some additional color.

The Noro Kochoran and the Nature Wool were hanging out in the apricot tree...

while the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Peru DK were in another branch of the tree.

Here's a closeup of the scarf I knitted for the auction at the QP's school...

and here it is, again, hanging out with various skeins of yarn.

The Lion Brand Homespun simply relaxed on the chair.

That's it for the stash's fun-filled day outside. It was quite windy and we had a few accidents. Like the Kochoran being blown out of the apricot tree. And the basket being blown into the grass. But, all-in-all, it was a fun time outside.

I have three more pictures for you. Two are of the "empty" Stash Home. The left side & the right side. The other is of the Stash Home, once everyone returned from their exciting outdoor adventure.

Those of you who had to spend this past week photographing your stash - you don't have to laugh at mine! :-) Maybe next year it'll take me a week to get it all photographed.

MAKE it a great day!

F is for...

2006-03-30T20:27:00.000-05:00

This is my attempt at getting caught up on the ABC Along. Many of the flowers in the pictures from today were not up when I first started taking pictures for this post (2 days ago). Spring is so amazing!

MAKE it a great day!

Acts of Kindness

2006-03-29T20:33:00.000-05:00

Every day, here in blog-land, I'm amazed by the kindness, the caring, the support, the love that's shared - often between people who've never met. Understand that when I say "Blog-land", I'm talking about knitting blogs - I really don't read any others. Hell, there are so many knitting blogs, who has time to read any others? :-)

I haven't had this blog very long, but already I've "met" such wonderful people. People I feel a connection with. I've met people who used to live in Lancaster County, who used to live in PA, who live close to my relatives in NY, who live where I used to live...you get the idea. Right from the start, I had people willing to help me learn how to add things to my blog - people I didn't know & still haven't met in person. And if you look around, it's going on throughout the knitting blog community. It's amazing. And so wonderful.

Now I'd like to share another act of kindness with you. Several days ago, Wendy gave us a tour of her bedroom, in preparation for the "Flash Your Stash" on April 1st. In her post, she mentioned having some yarn that she will never use, doesn't like, and wonders why she ever bought. Some of the yarn happened to be a kind that I've used for Prayer Shawls. So I left a comment, saying that it works well for the Prayer Shawls & she could send it my way since she doesn't like it. I was semi-joking because I didn't really think she would send the yarn to me. She e-mailed me, asked for my address, and said that she would send it to me. She wanted me to tell her a little about the shawls so that she could see if she had any other yarn that would work.

Well. I got the package today - look what was inside. 12 skeins of yarn! Some Wool Ease, some Micro Fiber, some Crayon, and some Cotton Tots.

I figure I will be able to make at least 3 shawls from all of this yarn (I'm going to double some of the colors). As soon as I opened the box, I pulled out some needles and started to play with the yarn.

The pictures show two shawl color combination possibilities. And, since I just love to start projects, here's the start of a shawl. This is the Microfiber and the Cotton Tots. I'm using size 10 1/2 needles.

Thanks Wendy!

That's all for tonight. I have a sinus infection, can't breathe through my nose, sound like a seal when I cough, and am tired. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep well tonight. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

More FO's...

2006-03-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have more finished objects to report. But first, let me go back...waaaayy back...back in time... :-)

Remember the chicken bbq/country auction fundraiser for the Queen Princess' school? I'm donating several (knitted) items for the auction. I have a felted knit bag that I'm donating. The bag's been finished for some time, now. It's just waiting for me to finish the handles.

Saturday, I decided to make a lining for the bag. I'd purchased some fabric pieces at one of the local fabric stores and I had a design in mind for the lining.

I love bags. But I like them to be useful. So when I'm considering buying a bag, I look inside to see what featues it has. One of my favorite purses is t his (in Nantucket Navy). I also have this tote bag (in Sherbet). I love both of these bags because there are pockets around the inside. I can put my wallet, cell phone, keys, pens/paper, lipgloss,etc. in these pockets and then the center is free (for a book, or for knitting). I can carry alot of stuff in one small bag. I especially love to use these bags when I'm flying somewhere.

That made me think about the lining for this bag. And about what I would want in a bag. So I started sewing (remember, this is my 2nd time using a sewing machine - I'm happy to report that I didn't stab any fingers or thumbs this time!). I made a lining with lots of pockets. 4 sides of pockets. Two big pockets, several that are sized for a pen (or knitting needles!) and several medium sized. The pictures show these pockets. Not too bad for my first lining. I learned alot about sewing while working on this lining. Now comes the fun part - sewing it into the bag. Wish me luck!

So that bag is almost a finished object.

What I did finish is a shawl. This is one of the patterns we use for the prayer shawls, but I didn't make it for the PS ministry. This one is a gift for a friend of mine. It's made out of Knit Picks Crayon, which is 100% pima cotton. I used size 7 needles. It's a very light feeling shawl and is so soft.

Update on the Prayer Shawls. The second shawl I made (which was my first triangular shawl) was given to someone - to a woman who recently had thyroid surgery. We've given out 3 Prayer Shawls in the past two weeks. We currently have 2 more "in stock". I'm currently knitting two - one is a rectangular shawl & the other is triangular. I hope to have both finished by our next PS meeting (which is after Easter).

Remember this post? Our first Prayer Shawl recipient? Well, I was talking to her on Sunday. She told me that the Pittsburgh Pirates were dedicating one of their upcoming games to her son (he was a Pittsburgh fan-football & baseball) and that her grandson is going to throw the 1st pitch. How cool is that?

Sunday I started another garter stitch scarf. This is in the QP's school colors & will be donated to the upcoming auction. I plan on donating at least 2 scarf/hat sets. The scarf is almost finished. The second scarf will be yellow with black stripes. I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease - 2 strands - and size 10 1/2 needles.

MAKE it a great day!

Pictures...maybe

2006-03-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

These are pictures of my 9'10" scarf - some of the scarf is hanging down the back of the chair. I'm going to make several of these (no, not as long as this one!) to donate to an auction (fundraiser) at the Queen Princess' school. Every year the school has a Chicken BBQ/Country Auction fundraiser. It is their biggest fundraiser.

For those of you not from Lancaster County, the bar-b-qued chicken they make here is unlike any I've found anywhere else. They don't use a barbeque sauce - they use vinegar (and I think) salt water.

Chicken barbeques are very common in Lancaster County. The fire companies usually have them (our fire departments are all volunteer, so they have fundraisers). Some churches also have them. And I've seen at least one Boy Scout troop that had one. You can buy the chicken (usually half a chicken) or buy a dinner. The dinner is usually a small carton of something to drink (like Turkey Hill iced tea - which alot of Lancastrians swear is the best iced tea), chicken, a baked potato, a roll, butter, cole slaw (usually Pepper Slaw- also called Pepper Cabba ge - which is not the creamy kind of cole slaw) and a dessert (cupcake or brownie).

But you didn't come here for a Lancaster County food history lesson, did you? You came for knitting pictures. Here are some more.

This is the felted needle case. I used Paton Classic Merino yarn. The true color shows up best in the bottom left picture. That was taken right under a lamp. The picture on the top left was taken on the dining room table (the light's not as good there). The pattern is a free one from Paton's. There are three flowers - bottom right picture - on the outside of the case (which didn't show up well in any of the pictures I took). The beads (on the flowers) are some seed beads which are left over from Odessa. The tie is made from DMC floss. Not the regular DMC floss, this floss was more like thin cording. I braided 6 strands of it together & then sewed it to the back (when open) of the needle case.

Yay! I was able to upload all of the pictures!! Woo-hoo!! 2 finished objects and pictures! What a great week.

MAKE it a great day!

Finished Objects

2006-03-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it??? I have some finished objects!! Woo-hoo!!

The first finished object is a garter stitch scarf. I first learned about this type of scarf here (look at the post for December 13th). I had some yarn that I bought when I first got into knitting (which means that I randomly purchased this yarn without knowing about dye lots or how much yarn I would need for anything). When I cast on the number of stitches the Yarn Harlot recommended, the scarf didn't seem long enough. So I cast on more. 250 stitches in all. The finished scarf is something like 9feet, 10inches long. What I learned from this experiment? Don't second-guess the Harlot! :-)

My second finished object is the felted knitting needle case. Remember this? The miles and miles of never-increasing stockinette stitch? Well, apparently it did increase, because it was finally long enough to felt. It felted sooo nicely! The yarn is Paton's Classic Merino. I only had to wash it once - and it was felted solid. Love that!

I had the case all (hand) stitched, all I had to do was put the tie on and add the flowers when I made an awful discovery. The needles got stuck on the wool as they were going into the case. So I thought about that, and decided to add a lining - a fabric lining. I ripped out all of the stitching. Instead of hand-stitching the case (and lining), I decided to sew it with a sewing machine (my Mom has one). I've never - do you hear me? NEVER - used a sewing machine before. But, how hard can it be to use a sewing machine to make a straight line?? Right?

I did manage to get the case sewn. In the process, I injured my thumb. No - I did not sew my thumb! It got stabbed with my scissors as I was trying to cut off some of the millions of threads that are left when one uses a sewing machine to sew straight lines. Don't ask me how it happened. I don't really know. I think I had picked up the scissors to use them, and somehow the (very sharp!) point ended up in my thumb and blood started oozing out. No - this was not the first time I'd used those scissors. I've had them for years and have used them in cross stitch as well as knitting. I blame the sewing machine (I know that's not logical - but how do you explain it??). Now this wonderful, simple (or so I thought!) needle case has a blood spot (a very small one) to go along with the uneven stitching.

What's that, you say? Pictures? Oh, yeah, I have pictures - of everything...I just can't seem to upload them. And, since this post is dated March 21st and it's now March 22nd (because of the damn pictures not uploading), I decided to post it without any pictures. Perhaps someday you'll be able to see my 9-foot scarf and my exquisitely sewn (but you have to promise not to laugh at the stitching!) needle case...and my poor, hurting thumb. :-(

I leave you with one more thing:

Stay tuned! For more information on the Wild Goose Chase, check out JenLa's blog.

MAKE it a great day!

A quick post...

2006-03-20T23:09:00.000-05:00

I had another post planned for today but am having trouble uploading pictures to my blog. Maybe tomorrow everything will be working.

In the meantime, go to Michele's blog to congratulate her on the birth of her 1st child - a 10 lb, 1 oz boy! Yes, you read that right. Ten pounds, one ounce! For those of you who don't live in the US, or who are men, most women cringe when they hear of a 10 pound baby - that's a REALLY big baby! She has some pictures posted and he's so cute!

That's all for today. I'll try posting my other post tomorrow. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

"E" is for...

2006-03-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

...EVERGREENS! There are these huge evergreen trees growing all around my house. They grow on both sides of the front yard. They form a line in the back yard. So we have the back yard and the way back yard (the vegetable gardens and compost pile are in the way back yard). These trees shade the house from sun in the summertime. They help to block wind and snow and rain. When the wind blows through them, you feel like you're in a mountain forest where there are no people. These trees are also home to birds and squirrels (and spiders) .

The first picture (top left) shows the trees along the side of the house - so you can get some kind of idea of the height of the trees. Are you proud of me? I actually remembered to rotate the picture before I uploaded it! There's a church next door to my house, so to the right of those trees is the church parking lot. The second picture (right) shows the trees in relation to the height of the church - that picture was taken from the QP's bus stop.

These trees are wonderful for blocking wind and for shade trees - but there is a downside to them.

There's always alot of yard clean-up (see bottom left picture)to do in the spring. Plenty of branches, twigs, needles and pinecones to rake up. I tried to upload a picture showing the twigs that end up on the ground, but Blogger isn't cooperating with me today. All of this yard "waste" gets added to the mulch pile, for later use on the gardens. It's our yard recycling program. :-)

That's it for today (and I know my "E" entry is late!). MAKE it a great day!

An Update

2006-03-13T09:11:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes/prayers/good thoughts. The weekend was pretty busy. I don't even remember if I got online at all.

Anyway. My Mom got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon. The blockage had moved & the doctor started her on real food. She didn't throw it up, so they released her. Still no word on what caused the blockage and/or how it can be prevented in the future (she's had these "episodes" almost every month, for the past 2 years - although, usually they clear up within a day or two).

Last night, we went to the Olive Garden for the Queen Princess' birthday. That's one of her favorite places to eat. She was excited to have the servers sing to her. I have pictures of her (making silly faces) before we ate, one of her as she was being sung to( with her cake from the Olive Garden) and one picture of her holding the cake I baked for her.

Last night I made & decorated cupcakes for the QP to take into school today. There are three kids in her class with birthdays either the 11th or 12th of March. Friday, the class celebrated the birthday of the boy (who's b-day is March 11th) and today they'll celebrate the QP's and the other girl (who's b-day is March 12th). It's funny that we (the Mom's & babies) were all in the same hospital, 7 years ago, within rooms of each other & now, 7 years later, the kids all attend the same school. The hospital opened up a Women's & Babies hospital the end of the year that I had the QP. When the QP was born, Maternity was still at the main hospital. That section is now regular hospital rooms - in fact, the room my Mom was just in is 2 rooms down from the one I was in when I had QP.

No knitting updates. I didn't do much knitting this weekend - except a few inches of a Prayer Shawl while I was waiting with Mom Friday as she was being admitted to the hospital.

Now, I'm going outside (it's in the mid 70's here today :-) !) to knit some endless, never-increasing stockinette stitch (the felted needle case).

MAKE it a great day!

When it rains...

2006-03-10T22:49:00.000-05:00

I got some money for my birthday. So I had the belt replaced in my car (it had needed it for a while and finally, the car wouldn't start - so I hadn't driven my car in 2 months). Which was cool. I have my car back. I'm happy.

Tuesday my Mom gets sick. Throwing up, abdominal cramps. Something she's had damn near every month for about 2 years. It usually goes away in a few days. The doctors never could figure out what was wrong. The GI (gastroenterologist) sends her to the surgeon (who did some hernia surgery 2 years ago on her), surgeon sends her to OB/Gyn. OB/Gyn thinks it's hormonal & will stop after menopause. Last night , she still wasn't able to keep anything down (not even water). My Mom had Crohn's disease and had her colon removed 20 years ago (she has an iliostomy). With all of this, dehydration is a serious thing. She went to ER last night. They took x-rays and sent her home. Today she called her doctor's office (to find out about x-rays) - they had to have someone call her back. Several hours later, they call back & tell her they want to admit her to the hospital. There's an obstruction in her small intestine. She still can't keep anything down. I took her to the hospital (around 2:30 this afternoon). She gets an IV - so at least she's finally getting some fluids in her body. She won't be allowed to eat or drink until that blockage moves.

My Dad picked the Queen Princess up from the bus stop (after school). They hung out (did yard work, went to eat) and then came to the hospital.

We leave the hospital around 9PM. I turn on my car and the "Service Engine Soon" light comes on. So, now I won't be able to drive my car until I get that checked - and who the hell knows when I'm gonna be able to do that?!?

The Queen Princess cries because her Grandma is in the hospital. And to top it off, it looks like she'll be in the hospital Sunday (which is the QP's birthday).

It should be a fun weekend. Makes me want to ask "what else could happen???" - but I'm too afraid that something else will go wrong!

Anyway. Thanks for "listening" to me whine. :-)

I need your help...

2006-03-09T23:57:00.000-05:00

I've always been an artsy-creative kind of person. I've drawn, painted, used pastels. I like to make cards and do scrapbooking/memory books. I've done some things with beads (wooden, plastic, glass). I've used rubber stamps and embossing powder. I've done counted cross stitch & even latch hook rugs (the rugs, I did when I was young). Now, knitting. Spinning and weaving really interest me, too but I don't have alot of space or alot of money - so those two things are kind of on hold. Lately I've been thinking that I should have a sewing machine (mainly because my hand-sewing sucks and a machine would be quicker and should look nicer!). But sewing machines nowadays are kind of...scary. I mean, there are sewing machines that run on Microsoft Windows!

Here's where I need help. What should I look for in a sewing machine? What bells & whistles do I need? And what brand(s) are good? I just want a basic sewing machine. One that, well, sews. You know. Straight lines. One that's pretty simple to use (I've never used one!). One that doesn't cost a ton of money. Oh! And one that's not huge (remember my space issues). I know alot of you sew...so, any suggestions????

By the way, a quilting magazine was given to me. I looked through it, at the sewing machine ads, thinking they might help...they were NO help! In fact, I'm more confused now than I was before!

Lent-Along Update: I haven't been doing much knitting. My arms/wrists/hands have been hurting me (even when I'm not knitting), so I've been doing minimal knitting. Maybe my tendons (or whatever) are still healing from the Killer Shawl??? I refuse to think that it's some kind of serious damage. Because, really, some days, I think knitting is what keeps me sane and calm - so I refuse to think that perhaps I won't be able to do it!

Enjoy the weekend...and MAKE it a great day!

Thank you!

2006-03-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, e-mails, e-cards, blog listings, hugs and dances. :-) You all made me feel so special!

I went out to eat last night with my family. We also had birthday cake. The Queen Princess was more excited about my birthday than I was (when you're almost 7, birthdays rank right up there with Christmas). She asked (before we went out to eat) if we could tell the server it's my birthday so they could sing to me (they don't do that where we went, luckily!). I told her no. I don't like to be sung to in a restaurant. She still told the server it was my birthday.

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday. Last night, I was able to read for a little while after the Queen Princess went to bed. I didn't read for long, though, because I was tired (old age, ya know?).

So that's it for today. No knitting. No pictures. No finished objects (or even newly started ones).

Just a BIG thank you, for making me smile on my birthday!!

MAKE it a great day!

March ~ the busy month

2006-03-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

Your Birthdate: March 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy.

And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you.

Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights.

You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice!

Your strength: Your self sufficiency

Your weakness: You despise authority

Your power color: Maroon

Your power symbol: Hammer

Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

March is a busy month for my family. Today is my birthday and my parent's anniversary (yep! My Mom was in labor on her 1-year wedding anniversary). The Queen Princess' birthday is the 12th. One of her Aunt's birthday was yesterday (the 6th). Her cousin's birthday is the 13th. I have two cousins & a friend with birthdays on the 9th. Oh! And my best friend's daughter's birthday is on the 17th.

Here in blogland, there are more March birthdays:

Ken - March 3rd
Maribel - March 9th
Iraida - March 10th
Anybody else??

Don't even ask how old I am today - I don't want to talk about it!

You may have noticed the Lent-Along button on my sidebar (while you're looking at the sidebar, check out my Flickr and put a pin on my Frappr map). Kimberly had a great idea for a way to get some UFO's finished. Read all about it - and sign up - here.

Here is a picture of my unfinished objects. Just one picture. I didn't feel like taking one of each object.
*(top left) ~ that wonderful piece of never-ending stockinette stitch will one day be a felted knitting needle case
*(top center) ~ a hat I'm knitting, using Lion Brand's Magic Stripes yarn
*(top right) ~ my Magic Loop sock
*the sock & the hat are laying on a knitted bag which will be felted, as soon as the miles of I-cord handles are finished
*under the needle case, you'll see an Irish Hiking Scarf - this is the "matching" scarf for my Odessa
*(bottom left) a felted knit bag that's already been felted - it's just waiting for the I-cord handles
*I'm also working on two triangular shawls - but since they're an ongoing thing, I'm not really considering them unfinished objects

That's it for today...MAKE it a great day!

Backyard Greetings

2006-03-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

It's Sunday. Time for Countrygirl's Backyard Greetings meme. Participants are to take a picture of their backyard so that everyone in blogland can take a "trip" to each others' backyards.

I have to tell you, this is not the time of year that my backyard looks its best. It is much prettier in the spring/summer! Plus, the light is not very good in the winter (the position of the sun & the tall evergreens pretty much block out the light in the backyard in the winter). So keep those things in mind as you look at the pictures. I'll have to take some more pictures once spring is here, so that you can see how beautiful everything looks.

I like my backyard. It's quiet (except for the birds & the wind whistling in the tall trees). It feels like you're miles away from other people, traffic, etc. But it's not. I love to sit outside and read (or knit) while the Queen Princess plays on her swingset or in her sandbox.

The backyard has several flower gardens, several vegetable gardens, a swingset and sandbox, a small shed, several birdbaths and birdhouses and lots of grassy area. The wildlife include squirrels, chipmunks, birds, bunnies, ground hogs and an occasional deer or oppossum.

The first picture ( left) is of the yard as seen from the breezeway. I took this yesterday afternoon. All of the other pictures were taken this afternoon. The wind thing (that red, blue and yellow thing) is in one of the flower gardens. This garden is amazing. Things start to grow. Then one day (all of a sudden) every growing thing in this garden is huge! You can no longer find the path that winds throught he garden. In this picture, you can also see the swingset - and that red thing by the tree is the sandbox. Back behind the swingset is where the vegetable gardens are. Last year they were mainly a restaurant for the wildlife.

The next picture ( right) is of the yard as seen from the back (looking towards the house). The two trees that are closest are in one of the flower gardens.

The third picture ( left) is of a wisteria. This is so beautiful when it blooms! There's a church next door and we've had several people come over to have their picture taken under the blooming wisteria (wedding pictures, etc).

The last picture is of the pussywillow tree and the amazing blue sky today. The pussywillow are not quite open - but it won't be long. The sun's out, the sky is this incredible blue & it's cold & windy. You gotta love March!

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed your tour! Enjoy the weekend and MAKE it a great day!

Happy Friday

2006-03-03T16:14:00.000-05:00

You Are 68% Open Minded

You are a very open minded person, but you're also well grounded.

Tolerant and flexible, you appreciate most lifestyles and viewpoints.

But you also know where you stand firm, and you can draw that line.

You're open to considering every possibility - but in the end, you stand true to yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

I love these things. Sometimes they're pretty true and other times they're off the wall. This one is pretty true about me. I like to be places where there's a mix of people (you know, diversity - different races, religions,different styles,people from different countries/states/cities - you get the picture).

This is probably due (in part) to my Dad being in the Navy when I was growing up. By the time I finished third grade, I'd lived in 4 states and 5 cities. In fact, I went to 3 schools for third grade (in 2 states). One question that people ask me, that I never really know how to answer is "Where did you grow up?" or "Where are you from?". I mean, I live in PA now - but I don't consider it my hometown (even though I've lived here for almost 20 years!).

Wow. I've lived here for almost 20 years! 2 decades! That's a long time.

Did you ever do that? Not realize how much time has passed until you figure out how many years it's been? Take my best friend, Lana. We became friends in 7th or 8th grade...that was something like 22 years ago! I mean, we can't be old enough to have been friends for 22 years! Don't mind me, it must be my Soon-To-Be-A-Year-Older-Self-Reflection!

Ok...on to other (less depressing!) things. You know how I love colors, right? And yarn. Well, there's a new online yarn store. Sundara Yarn. She hand-dyes the yarn. Click here to see all the pretty yarn colors. I'll wait while you check it out.........aren't the colors AMAZING??? I think I was drooling when I first checked out that site. How do you choose a color when they all are sooooo beautiful (stunning, amazing,vibrant,wonderful)??

Check out Countrygirl to learn about the Backyard Greetings meme. It happens this Sunday.

Oh! And in case you haven't noticed, I've added a Frappr map to my blog. Take a moment to add your pin so that I can see where you are! Thank you!

MAKE it a great day!

Wintery mix...

2006-03-02T07:21:00.000-05:00

The "Winter Weather Advisory" today is calling for a "wintery mix" of weather. For those of you not on the East coast of the USA, that means we could have snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain - pretty much whatever. Schools are on a 2-hour delay this morning. So the Queen Princess is still sleeping. I, however, have to wake up on time - to find out if there's a school closing or delay. Poor me. :-(

I have alot of things planned for today, too. Now they'll have to be shuffled around because of the delay. Boy, I miss winter in Southern California!

But anyway...I found this thing (sorry - don't know what it's called) on Ann's blog. Here are the results I got when I entered "AngeliasKnitting" as a "her". Check out Ann's results, too...her's were pretty odd!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about AngeliasKnitting!

Tradition allows women to propose to AngeliasKnitting only during leap years.
AngeliasKnitting is the largest of Saturn's moons.
AngeliasKnitting is picked, sorted and packed entirely in the field!
The first domain name ever registered was AngeliasKnitting.com.
AngeliasKnitting can't drink - she absorbs water from her surroundings by osmosis!
AngeliasKnitting is often used in place of milk in food photography, because milk goes soggy more quickly than AngeliasKnitting.
AngeliasKnittingicide is the killing of AngeliasKnitting.
AngeliasKnitting can jump up to sixteen times her own height!
The condom - originally made from AngeliasKnitting - was invented in the early 1500s!
AngeliasKnitting can clean her ears with her tongue, which is over thirty-nine inches long.

Crazy, huh?

Feeling creative? Want to win an awesome prize? Visit Jay's Craft Room to learn more about the Jay's Craft Room Celebration Challenge. I'm trying to get my brain un-stuck, to come up with something I can do so that I can enter this challenge. Did you see the yarn he has in the prize??

That's all for today. 2-hour delay means that I have extra knitting time today! :-)

MAKE it a great day!

Tuesday Meme

2006-02-28T17:09:00.000-05:00

Nancy tagged me for a meme (thanks, Nancy, for an easy post).

Here's how it works: Open up your MP 3 player, set it to "shuffle/random play", and list the first 10 songs that come up. No matter what they are.

Cool, huh? Just one problem...I don't have an MP 3 player. I know! I know! I live in the technology dark ages! What can I say?? (my birthday's coming up in a few days...just saying) ;-) So I asked Nancy if I could use cd's, instead. She said ok. What I did was pull 30 cd's off the shelf, mix them up, close my eyes & pick out 10. Here they are...

1. Duran Duran - "Greatest"
2. Public Enemy - "Fear of a Black Planet"
3. Sacha instrumental - "Sunrise Tears Begins the Future"
4. Boys II Men - "Cooleyhighharmony"
5. Salt 'N' Pepa - "Very Necessary"
6. Fleetwood Mac - "The Dance"
7. LL Cool J - "10"
8. Rod Stewart - "If We Fall in Love Tonight"
9. Elton John - "Love Songs"
10. KRS-One - "I Got Next"

Nancy also tagged Maribel, so visit her blog to check out her listing. Because I find music interesting (hmmm...maybe that'll be my "M" post...), I will tag some people for this meme. I am tagging Kimberly, Fawn and Michele.

MAKE it a great day!!

The wait is over...

2006-02-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

I know! I promised an update earlier than this. This weekend just got out of control. Now it's Sunday. Yesterday, the Queen Princess' school had a spaghetti dinner (fundraiser) and then the middle school kids did a play - "Dr. Dolittle". I helped with the set-up for the dinner. My parents & the Queen Princess came to the dinner & we all ate & then watched the play. The kids did a great job! Think about it. A musical. And middle school kids. But they pulled it off. It was funny. The actors had great expression & reactions. I'm so impressed. They had to have worked very hard on the play.

If you look at the sidebar, you'll notice that there are some "Angelia's Knitting" buttons there. Kimberly made them for me (since I'm button-challenged). Thanks Kimberly!!

Good news! I finished Odessa! I finished it Friday night. I wore it around the house all night. You have to knit this hat! It is so awesome!! When you wear it, it looks like it's tight, but it's actually very comfortable. The pattern makes it fit a wide range of head sizes. It looks very complicated, but isn't.

Dammit! I did it again with the pictures! Ok - you know the drill - just turn your head to the side to view that one picture. One of these days, I'll remember to rotate the pictures!!

I haven't done too much knitting this weekend. I did take a shawl along yesterday (in case I had "wait" time) and I knitted a little bit. But my wrists & arms are still bothering me, so I haven't been knitting for long periods of time.

Seems like there was something else I wanted to tell you. Now what was it??? Hmmm. I told you about Odessa, about my new buttons, about my sore wrists and arms...

Oh! I know! The gift from my SP!! f.pea guessed that the packages were corndogs. But they weren't - good thing, too - 'cause I don't eat corndogs. The packages contain something much more useful. I'm told that these were made especially for me! :-) Wow. MADE FOR ME!!! I'd been to this website and saw these items and NEVER thought I'd have a whole set!! I keep unwrapping them and touching them and looking at them...what?? Oh! Sorry! I didn't tell you what they are!

A full set (US size 4-35!) of hand-carved, wooden knitting needles! They came from Gracie & Company. My SP's hubby made them! They are so awesome! When they clank together, they sound like wind chimes. So they feel and sound great! I now have EVERY needle size! I can knit ANYTHING!! :-) Of course, now I'm going to have to get an awesome needle case to store them in (the one I'm "making" - that's been on the needles since last year - just isn't good enough for these needles - these needles need a special case)...and I probably won't let anyone use these (they can use my bamboo needles). So, now I look for things I can make on straight needles. In fact, I started a prayer shawl on a pair of these needles ('cause I had to use them!) and moved it to circs when the needles got too full. Isn't that a wonderful gift?!? Thank you SP!!

MAKE it a great day!!

D is for...

2006-02-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

Done (I know, I know...but I couldn't think of another "D" thing)!! I am done with my mittens. I finished them Monday. I knit another left hand mitten & then knit the right hand. That first mitten I knit? I'm calling that my "test" mitten - see the picture below. I've been wearing the mittens all week. They keep my fingers nice & toasty. Now the Queen Princess wants a pair...just like mine. I think I have enough yarn to make her a pair (after all, her hands are smaller than mine!).

The top left picture is of the completed pair of mittens. The picture on the right shows a close up of one of the mittens. The bottom left picture is of my "test" left-hand mitten and the "real" left-hand mitten. Guess which is which. :-)

Tuesday night I cast on for Odessa. I knit. Had to stop for supper. Knit some more. Had to stop to get the Queen Princess to bed. Once she was in bed, I knit some more. Then, finally, I had to stop because, well, it was 1AM...and my alarm goes off at 6AM.

Yesterday I met with a new customer. The woman was pregnant with her 3rd child, due any time, and she wanted to meet with me to try on makeup & skin care products! She was having contractions during our consultation. She had her baby last night. :-) As luck would have it, by the time I was finished with her, it was time for the Queen Princess to get home from school (I meet her at her bus stop). Then she needed help with her homework. Then we went to eat (we eat out on Wednesdays & then go to Nutty Knitters). I did knit a little of Odessa while I was waiting for the food. After supper, Nutty Knitters. I made a deal with myself that at Nutty Knitters, I can only knit a Prayer Shawl...so that means no Odessa knitting. I didn't have a chance to knit any more of Odessa last night.

This morning I helped out in the Queen Princess' class and then came home and did some work (rather than read knitting blogs all morning!). Tonight's Brownies...so sometime this afternoon, I need to knit Odessa!!

If you haven't knit this hat, try it. It is such an awesome pattern (I was praising Grumperina and her wonderful pattern creating skills last night to all the Nutty Knitters - she's a genius; a knitting Goddess)! I love, love, LOVE knitting those beads on! I'm so amazed (with each and every bead) that it WORKS! After each row, I stop and look at the knitting. The pattern! It's amazing!! What's even more amazing is that while the hat looks very elaborate and complicated, it's a very simple pattern (even I can remember the pattern!). When I bought the beads, I wanted to make sure I had enough, I now realize that I have enough beads to make 3 or 4 Odessa's! :-) **see that stitch marker on Odessa? That's one of the ones my SP sent me. Isn't it beautiful? It makes knitting more fun! And see the beads?!? They make knitting more fun, too!

In other news...Blue Moon Fiber Arts (home of the Socks That Rock yarn) now have a Sock Club! Go here to learn more. I learned this from Cara's blog - you know she has connections at Blue Moon!

Also, go here to welcome Maribel to blogdom. She recently started her own blog (she claims it was peer-pressure from me & Nancy - whatever!).

Guess what??? I got mail today!!! Mail from my Secret Pal!!! I'm not going to tell you what I got (in this post). I'll show you some pictures & let you guess. I will tell you that my SP is so awesome! Do you know that she's (very) pregnant, having contractions and actually may have already had that baby?!? **I heard from my SP since I wrote this. The baby has not arrived yet.**And still, she makes sure that I get my gifts! Isn't she gonna be a great mom?!?!?

I was so excited about this package that I didn't even open the book package that came in the mail today too. It's a knitting book. I opened my SP gift and played with it until it was time to go to the bus stop to get the Queen Princess. On the way home, I realized that I completely forgot about the book!

The white box was inside the Priority Mail box. Inside the white box, I found a letter (ok - the letter was attached to the outside of the white box) & the 3 blue packages. Any guesses??

That's enough for today. MAKE it a great day!

Secret Pal strikes again!

2006-02-19T18:43:00.000-05:00

Friday, the Queen Princess had off school. She wasn't feeling well (sinus infection). So we were home all day, with me being her nurse.

Then the mail arrived. And guess what? I got a package from my Secret Pal!! She sent me a card, some stitch markers she made (I have a talented SP!), and some beads. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the beads for yet, but they are beautiful. The pictures, I'm sure, don't do them justice. As if that's not enough, she tells me that there's another package on its way to me! How awesome is my SP?!? Thanks SP (sorry for taking so long to let you know I got the package!)!!

Now on to knitting. Sit down...I actually FINISHED some items! Can you believe it?? I'll bet you all thought I just knit and started new projects and never finished anything!

Remember the Killer Shawl? It's done. Off the needles. Turned into church. Ready for the next needy person (and another triangle shawl has been started). It is such a quick knit! Less than a week (and there were 2 whole days I didn't work on it at all!). You can see it in the background of the 1st picture of the gifts my SP sent me. I didn't take a picture of the completed shawl - I was just too excited to have another shawl finished.

Speaking of the prayer shawls. Wednesday night I found out that the first shawl I finished had been given to someone! It was given to a woman who's husband recently died. It was presented to her at the funeral. She is an older woman who is not in great health. In fact, she got out of the hospital the day of her husband's funeral. She will have to live in a nursing home (her husband took care of her) now. I'm told that she likes the shawl, the softness of it, and the color.

I love to knit. Sometimes, I think I HAVE to knit. Knitting is something I'd do even if there was no need for the items I knit. It's an amazing feeling when something you've knit goes to someone else, and helps them.

I watched Knitty Gritty a few weeks ago. They were making Fluffy Cuff Mittens. I liked the mittens & thought they looked like something I could do. With all of my increasing of stash, I had some yarn that would work for the mittens. So yesterday I knit one. Yes, one. I'm not happy with the size of this mitten, so I'm calling this my "test" mitten (excuse the pictures - I'm left-handed, the mitten is for the left hand ...and it's not that easy to take a picture of your own hand!). Tonight I'll probably cast on for the left mitten (for real, this time) & then do the right as soon as I finish. I liked making it - it was a quick knit for me - and the first time I'd ever knit in the round using dpn's (I've only ever used circs before). Black & red do not match my coat (I had the yarn in my "stash", you see) but they are my high school's colors.

In other knitting news...

Sock: I'm at the heel part of the sock. I need to be in a room by myself, where I'm able to concentrate, to do that. I haven't had that time to myself yet.

Irish Hiking Scarf: I haven't worked on that for a long time. I just haven't felt like doing cables.

Odessa: I decided to use the same yarn that I'm using for my Irish Hiking Scarf. That way the two will "match". I know, I know. Cabled scarf and Odessa do not match, but I'm going to wear them as a pair. They both will match the color of my coat! Oh! I have the beads on the yarn...so it won't be long til I cast on for Odessa!

Felted Bag: I knitted a bag, using some Nature Wool and the Wool of the Andes (from my SP). I'm finished with the knitting of the bag. I'm working on the handles (I just haven't felt like knitting i-cord lately!). Some day, soon, that bag will be finished & felted.

That's all for now. Enjoy the weekend...and MAKE it a great day!

Snow Knitting

2006-02-15T11:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon, it started to snow here. I recently purchased the Prayer Shawl book. It has several shawl patterns. I found a pattern for a triangular shawl. I decided to try it. So I tried it on some yarn I had. I liked it. Alot. So I grabbed a skein of Lion Brand Homespun & cast on. I knit all that day and night.

Sunday I woke up and it was still snowing. I knit all that day (except for the hour or less that I spent out in the snow with the Queen Princess). I finished one skein and moved onto the next (the pattern calls for 3 skeins). I was up to over 100 stitches on the needles (you cast on 1 and then increase, after the 7th row, you increase 1 stitch every row). See how long it is? There are so many sittches now, that I can't straighten it out on the needles. I have to show one flat section at a time. See the edges? Isn't that so cool (for those of you who are experienced knitters, humor me!)?

Monday I woke up and my hands and wrists and forearms hurt. I didn't knit Monday...or Tuesday. Today I worked on my sock while waiting for my daughter's 1st grade assembly to start. I have not worked on that shawl since Sunday.

Learn from my mishap, people! Do NOT (no matter how fun and how quick a knit it is for you!) knit for 2 days without breaks! Pace yourself! Take breaks. Often! Or you may end up like me...unable to knit for 2 days!

In case you're wondering, no, I'm NOT in the Knitting Olympics. It's just that the shawl was such a quick knit for me. I really like the pattern. It has a yarn over each row, and makes these cute little holes up along both sides. It's all KNIT STITCH. I can do that FAST! The other pattern I'd been doing (k3,p3 and then knit into the purls and purl into the knits) was BORING to me. I don't love that pattern. But I do love this triangular pattern! Sadly, it doesn't love me (when I knit it for 2 days!).

Here are some pictures of the socks (ok - I like to say "socks" but it's really only ONE SOCK - although I may learn that knit 2 socks at the same time method) I'm working on. **Before you laugh at my sock, please remember it's my FIRST sock...and that I've been injured by the Killer Shawl.** I'm not happy with it. Here's the thing. The pattern calls for 8 inches of k1,p1 ribbing. I don't like doing that. And eight inches of it?!?!? No way! So I decided some of the sock leg (is that what it's called??) can be stockinette (in the round, that means ALL KNIT stitch!). So I look at my sock and there's a dimple kind of thing going on. It looks like it's where a knee had been. And the stockinette looks wider than the ribbing. But I keep knitting. I frogged this damn sock too many times in the beginning - I am NOT doing it again! Then the stockinette stitches get tighter. Nice, even, beautiful stitches. But not as wide as before. I'm getting close to that 8", so I switch back to the ribbing. Guess what? Now that's tighter, too! Beautiful, even ribbing stitches. But not AS WIDE as the top. And, to top it all off (haha! jokes! i still have jokes!), the cast on row feels too tight - not enough stretch. I cast on slingshot method. Is there a better method to use for socks?? Never fear, I will make that cast on row fit...but for the next pair (and maybe even the mate to this sock), I'm sure there's a better way.

Ok. The sock pictures: top left, The Yarn. Underneath that, the rows I finished (this was my 4th or 5th attempt at this sock). The pictures on the right show the sock as it looks today.

And I will leave you with a picture of the Queen Princess. This was taken today, at the "reception" following the 1st grade assembly. She's showing me the gap where her tooth used to be (it fell out the end of January, I think). The two 1st grade classes did skits, a Noah's Ark thing (the Queen Princess was one of the children who held up the Ark), read (1st graders! Reading in front of an audience! Amazing!), and recited some of the Bible verses they've learned so far, this year (in case you can't tell, she goes to a Christian school). They did a wonderful job...and really enjoyed the "reception" afterwards.

Tonight, Nutty Knitters! I'll get to "show off" the Killer Shawl. My Mom & I are the first ones to try a different shawl pattern (we're such trendsetters!). I should be able to knit tonight. Yay!

MAKE it a great day!

C is for...

2006-02-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

This was a hard one. There are so many things that are a part of my life that begin with the letter "C".

Counted cross stitch. I used to do counted cross stitch. I now knit. Since knitting is more of an addiction for me, I will probably always knit. Plus, it's more portable than cross stitch. But with both crafts, it's exciting to see an object emerge from (a blank piece of fabric, from yarn).

Crafts. I love all kinds of crafts. In addition to knitting & counted cross stitch, I also like to scrapbook, rubber stamp, make cards, draw, do things with beads, sometimes work with polymer clays. Craft stores are very dangerous places for me! You see, I get "new" ideas there and find yet another craft I want to try.

Cats. I have a cat. He's 15lb. He was a stray. I think he's part Maine Coon. His name is Smokey. He was too young to be away from his mother when we got him, but his mother hadn't returned to the kittens in a few days. So the people (who had the house where the kittens were born) found homes for the kittens, fearing that something had happened to the Mom. We fed him baby animal formula in a tiny bottle. I don't have any digital pictures of him to add to the blog. He's about 8 years old. Before him I had a blue point Himalayan. She was my cat for 13-14 years. Her name was Tabitha. She had to be put to sleep because her kidneys were failing.

Cookies. There aren't too many cookies that I don't like. I love when people bake cookies for Christmas. I don't love to bake cookies. I love to eat cookies other people bake.

Cheesecake. I love cheesecake. I make an awesome one. But I only make it if I'm going to a party or something. There aren't enough cheesecake lovers in my house to justify making one just for us - well, me.

But what I picked for "C" to stand for is....COLOR. I love colors. I like to color in coloring books. I like to paint and draw with color. The make-up line in my business is referred to as "Color". I like make-up, too (although my make-up routine has become much simpler as I've gotten older and also since I now use awesome skin care products & have less need to hide my skin).

One of the hardest questions for me to answer is, "What's your favorite color?". When I was a child, my favorite color was blue. I still love blue. I'm just hard-pressed to pick ONE favorite color. I pretty much like them all! My favorite colors are bold colors. Pastels, to me, seem washed out. Wimpy colors. Colors that don't want to stand out. Don't want to be noticed. And don't want to offend anyone. But pastel colors do have their place. They can be very soothing.

Oddly enough, I usually wear neutral colors. Some day, I want to buy a winter coat that is a bold color (like red or bright blue). Something that's not practical, that doesn't "go" with every outfit. Something that maybe only goes with one outfit.

I was born in Key West, Florida. My parents & I moved from there when I was a year old. My Dad was in the Navy, so we moved alot in my childhood. I didn't get to "see" Key West until I was 17 or 18. My Mom & I drove there (from PA). It is so beautiful to drive through the Keys. You never knew the ocean had so many shades of blue! And the sunsets! They are so beautiful. I took so many pictures of Key West sunsets, trying to capture the amazing colors. It didn't work out too well.

In Southern California (where I also lived) there were also wonderful colors. The ocean. And the ocean was different colors, depending on where you were. The mountains. The desert. The sunsets.

I now live in Pennsylvania. Flying over my section of PA looks like a quilt. You have the farmland that looks like fabric blocks. In the Spring, there are all kinds of colors...grass, trees, flowers. In the Fall and Winter the colors are different. The tree trunks start to look darker than in the Summer or Spring. In the Fall, you have the bold colors of the leaves. In the Winter, sometimes snow. I love the look of snow on trees.

And then there's yarn. It's so wonderful to be a part of knitting now. At this time in history. Right now, we have so many options...fiber options, color options, needle options. I'm a person who gets bored knitting the same color, same yarn, same pattern all the time. With knitting, I don't ever have to be bored. I can find a yarn in pretty much any color I want. Or, I can dye my own yarn! I can knit with wool, cotton, silk, bamboo, soy, cashmere, alpaca, angora, human-made fibers. "Fur", ribbon, and other novelty things I don't even know the name of. Yes, I know the whole "natural" vs. synthetic fiber debate. What I'm saying is that I'm a creative person and at this point in time, I never have to be bored with yarn!

I have to admit, though, it is hard for me to pick out yarn. Since there are so many choices. I followed a pattern for the first felted bag that I made. The pattern called for Noro Kureyon yarn. So I went to my LYS. They have a huge shelf full of Kureyon. All the colors! It took me a good hour to decide which colors I wanted to buy. Even then, I got 2 different colors (for 2 bags).

Oh yeah. I also like to use colors in e-mails, on the blog, and in printed items. I am not a person to have everything in my house the same color. The dining room is blue. Pretty close to that shade of blue. The living room is green (a little darker than this green) with a red paisley kind os border. The bathroom is pink and maroon (the tiles and tub & sink and toilet were already there). I compensate for all this pinkness with rugs that are a forest kind of green. And a shower curtain that has greens, maroon, pink, and tan. The bedroom walls are all white. But the bedspreads and curtains are different colors.

When I look at colors, I don't think "blue". I think "blue, with a little grey added" - or whatever. I like to think of what colors I'd put together to make that particular shade.

So that's it. "C" is for colors.

MAKE it a great day!

Increasing my stash...

2006-02-04T17:10:00.000-05:00

I know, I haven't been posting alot lately. That's because I've been working on Increasing my Stash (after all, I have Risa to try to keep up with! )

Thursday I went shopping at my LYS (sorry - their website's not working right now). I bought "The Magic Loop" booklet (Sarah Hauschka's method, written by Bev Galeskas) and "Socks on Two Circular Needles" by Cat Bordi, "Classic Socks" pattern by Yankee Knitter Designs, 40" circular needles size US2...and (10 skeins of) yarn! The yarn I bought was mostly sock yarn: Regia multi effekt color (2 skeins), Regia crazy color (3 skeins), Skacel Trampoline stretch (2 skeins). I also bought 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran in a green that's not really olive. Guess what I'm going to be making????

Yes! You guessed it!! Socks. I'm learning to make socks, using the Magic Loop method. I cast on Thursday night. I frogged that Friday (after I'd knit several inches). I cast on again. I frogged. I cast on again. The picture is of this cast on (I'm using the Regia crazy color). I refuse to make a mistake on this one. I will not have to frog again!

Thursday I also placed an order at KnitPicks for some yarn (increasing stash!). The order arrived today! Can you believe it? That was so quick! 36 skeins of yarn (that's alot of felted bags!). By the way, it was my Secret Pal who got me hooked on that Wool of the Andes. I don't have pictures of that yarn yet. Today was rainy all day - not a good day for pictures.

Grumperina has released her beautiful hat pattern. She has named it Odessa. There are several knit alongs for Odessa. I joined this one. Today I had to go back to my LYS to get some yarn for Odessa. Had to. It was love at first sight, when I saw that hat! Sadly, the 4 skeins of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran (no pix yet) I bought today, will not work for Odessa...too thick. Tomorrow, maybe, I will hunt down a suitable Odessa yarn.

Kimberly, at The Giving Flower, has opened her store. She hand-makes stitch markers. They are so awesome (if you already read her blog, then you know she's very talented!)! She doesn't have the shopping cart working yet, so e-mail her if you're interested in purchasing anything.

MAKE it a great day!

I've been tagged...

2006-01-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged for the "4 Things" meme by f.pea (head over to her blog for an update on the So Fast So Sleazy story).

Here it goes:

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Bakery counter-person at a grocery store
2. Teller
3. Office Clerk - at a car dealership
4. Handled calls at an in-bound call center for PA's Driver & Vehicle Services

Four movies I could watch over & over:
1. Grease
2. Wayne's World
3. Shrek
4. Lord of the Rings series

Four places I have lived:
1. Key West, FL
2. Long Beach, CA
3. Imperial Beach, CA
4. Great Lakes, IL

Four places I have been on vacation (vacation?? what is that??):
1. Catalina Island, CA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Ocean City, MD
4. New York City (NY)

Four websites I visit daily:
1. my website
2. many, many knitting blogs
3. site meter
4. my bank's website

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Pasta
3. fresh-from-the-garden peas & green beans
4. locally-grown cantaloupe

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. San Diego
2. California
3. someplace warm with an ocean (and low-no humidity)
4. SoCal
*are you starting to see a pattern with the places I'd rather be??

Who am I tagging? Anyone who hasn't done it, and wants to. Be sure to let me know, so that I can read your answers.

I've been knitting...I have no current pictures. I started another bag. I'm using Nature Wool (in blue), and the "Cloud" yarn I got from my Secret Pal. I love that yarn! (thanks SP!) It is as soft as a...cloud! I'll be sure to take pictures before I felt the bag. I knit alot of the bag yesterday (I was stressed and pissed - which makes me knit really fast) but my hands & arms kinda hurt today (the downside to fast, pissed- off knitting!), so I haven't knit as much today.

MAKE it a great day!

2006-01-24T14:11:00.000-05:00

So I have buttons on my blog...but they don't link to anything. Any suggestions on how to do that???

More about the Boycott of So Fast So Sleazy (Don't you just love that term? I stole it from Scout's Knitted Swag): go here to sign up in support of the boycott.

That's all for now...I'm trying to put links on this blog (just when I think I may kind of, somewhat know what I'm doing with HTML codes, I find out I know NOTHING!)

MAKE it a great day!

Free to Stitch. Free to Bitch.

2006-01-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

That's right. I'm Free to Stitch. I'm Free to Bitch. But I'm NOT free to Stitch-N-Bitch or Stitch & Bitch...I don't even think I'm Free to Stitch and Free to Bitch.

In case you haven't heard, there's this NYC sewing company that claims that they own the rights to the term Stitch & Bitch. For more information, go to the freetostitchfreetobitch website.

Hundreds (ok - I don't know the actual number) of Yahoo Groups were recently notified that they are no longer allowed to use StitchNBitch (or any variation of those three words) as their group name because this sewing company owns that term. I belonged to such a group. We are now called SnBLancaster.

Most (if not all) of these groups were started because of one of these books by Debbie Stoller. The groups are simply a way for people to get together to knit (sew,crochet,etc). The groups did not profit from the name. My guess is that there were so many groups by that name, that whenever a search was done, the groups popped up first (instead of the sewing company's "cafe").

Interestingly enough, this sewing company now offers logo'd knitting needles . WTF??? I can't have a Yahoo group using that name, but they'll take my money for knitting needles (I didn't even look to see what the needles are made out of - probably plastic)?? I don't think so! As if that's not enough, the Yahoo group moderators (of the shut down groups) were invited to join the sewing company's "forum". There are something like 6 pages of Stitch & Bitch messages that were sent out (to each group, in each state)saying "Anybody interested in meeting up?". Click here to see for yourself.

Cafe Press has put together a ban. They also have logo'd items we can use without being slapped with a lawsuit (Free to Stitch. Free to Bitch) click here. While there, you will learn about how the money that's raised will be spent.

This post was brought to you because I'm Free to Bitch...now I'm off to Stitch!!

Oh! If you want some cute Free to Stitch. Free to Bitch. banners and/or buttons for your blog, go here.

MAKE it a great day...and feel free to join the ban!

Buy More Yarn...

2006-01-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

Last night I was reading (knitting) blogs, when I came across Carole's. She has been ridiculed for her tiny yarn stash. She only bought yarn that she had plans for. She had no idea how to buy yarn without a project in mind (being a new knitter, I can relate to this!). If this is something that's hard for you to do, too, click here to go to Carole's blog. There are some wonderful stash-building tips in the comments section. So she decided to start the Increase-Your-Stash-Along. I joined right away. Click here for the rules...and the winner's prize.

I took pictures of my yarn "stash", so that you had an understanding of why I joined the Stash-Along. I pulled the yarn to the front of the cubes so that it wouldn't be too dark for pictures (so, those cubes aren't full of yarn, what you see is all that's there). I also have 5 skeins of Lion Brand Homepspun which are not pictured (I stocked up on the Homespun when it was on sale the day after Thanksgiving, since it's what I use for the Prayer Shawls). I'll keep you updated with "Increased Stash" pictures...the Stash-Along goes until April 1st.

Wednesday night was the Nutty Knitters "meeting". I was very close to finishing my 1st Prayer Shawl...but I didn't get much knitting done that night (I was talking too much...and showing my button "stash"...and looking at other's knitting projects). So Thursday night I finished the shawl (at my daughter's Brownie Troop meeting). Here are pictures of the finished shawl (Sorry about the one! I forgot about rotating the picture before I blog it!) - modeled by my daughter (the Queen Princess ). I asked her if she wanted to be my model. She said, "Sure...what's a model?" While she was in a modeling mood, I had her model a shawl that my Mom finished (it's the blue shawl). This shawl has Fun Fur at the edges, instead of fringes. The Fur used for this shawl was one of the Fun Fur Stripes yarns. By this time, the Queen Princess was getting bored with the photo shoot (plus, something very important was on TV - probably a commercial).

I cast on for the next Prayer Shawl. This time, I'm making it with the Fun Fur on the ends (I don't like putting fringes on, and tying each fringe!). The Homespun color is "Tudor" and the Fur is "Ivory". The Queen Princess says that it looks like a rainbow. I don't think the pictures quite do the colors justice, but you get an idea.

In other news...You'll notice by the button on the sidebar that I am a Knitting Olympics spectator. To find out more about the Knitting Olympics, click here. To get a Knitting Olympic button for your blog, go here.

The Goddess, Kathy, has done it again...another fabulous creation. Check out Sarit's Hat. Kathy has posted the "ingredients" for this hat. She's making a second hat to test the pattern before she posts the actual "recipe"! I can't wait! I'll be making a trip to the yarn store this week to get the yarn & needles I need to make this hat.

MAKE it a great day!