I'm Still Here!

I have not abandoned you, I promise. It has been a busy few weeks and now that we have Big Boy off to play in the sandbox it is quieter. LOL! I just made a joke! I have managed a little knitting in between sleeping, eating and keeping Piglet out of trouble - a task that isn't nearly as fun as it sounds!

Montego Bay is nearly finished and I have to say, this is the easiest knit ever. I can even work on it with Piglet around because there is no way to screw up the pattern. I still have to cut the fringe and I have to admit, I'm a little scared. I have never made fringe and the thought of cutting this beautiful yarn into 200 pieces makes my eyes roll into the back of my head.

I started a little sweater for Piglet. It is in Cascade 220 and the cable pattern is from Stitchionary 2. I think the color will bring out his blue eyes. Of course when I make the size that will fit his chest and fit over his melon sized head, the arms are very long. I am already at the length of his arm and still have a bunch more increases to do. I guess I can roll up the sleeves.

I did a little stash enhancement over the weekend. This is Claudia Handpaint Silk Lace. Can we all say YUM! There is a little story behind this yarn. I bought it in hopes it would make a nice stole to go with a dress that I may or may not fit into, for a wedding that I may or may not be invited to and may or may not attend if I am invited. Make sense? Well, can't fault a girl for being prepared. Well, as I was squeezing my butt into the dress and trying to figure out if I need to lose weight or just buy some of those suckitallin underpants I realized that I already have a stole that would look great with the dress. Yep, I have Print O' The Wave - a stole that created a lot of headache for me and has not been worn yet. Since this whole wedding deal is going to end up giving me a headache (it is a long story that includes small towns, family, friends, a church and a partridge in a pear tree!) I think the stole would be appropriate! Piglet figured the bee would help enhance the colorway "Walk in the Woods". The funny thing is, this colorway is not really me. But, each of the colors in there are! Still, it caught my eye and would not let go.

Speaking of the little monster... he had his very own cup of ice cream last night. He was so disgusting that I would not bring him into the house and instead "bathed" him in his swimming pool!

Buttons, Buttons... Who's Got The Buttons?

My Tangled Yoke is complete (and all the details are in my Ravelry page) and is just waiting for me to drag my happy ass over to the JoAnn’s and buy some buttons. I would like to say that there is no hurry and the sweater wearing days are over for a few months, but around here, one never knows.

There has been knitting and un-knitting (I believe you professionals call it frogging?) ‘round these parts. I sent the Lady Eleanor packing and in its place I have Montego Bay - a pattern that is simple to memorize and will take 1/4 of the time. It looks pretty and I think I may make a second one in a stashed yarn as a gift. As it turns out, Amy had this in mind all along when she bought the yarn.

I also started Sizzle a few weeks ago. And, just to keep my fellow SnB’ers laughing, I frogged it. It was justified. Really, it was. I used Main Line and found it was just too heavy for the pattern, and the summer. Of course I would have known all this if I had done a little research on the yarn and pattern before just diving in.

It has been a crazy few weeks here in the Knotty house. I need a t-shirt that says “I survived the Grandparent invasion of 2008”. My parents came to help out with yard work and Piglet (‘cause the two do not go well together!). Of course he managed to get sick while they were here and I lost my “parent of the year” badge because I refused to take him to the emergency room for what ended up being two new teeth. Sigh Then Big Boy came home. His second training was cancelled and he will be here until May 18. After that though, we are on our own. The not so little Piglet has been keeping us hopping. We have new words and skills every day (well, if you can call trying to throw your sippy cup in the toilet a skill) - his words this week are “school”, “ow”, “out”, and “uh-oh”. Of course he doesn’t use any of them in the correct context but at least we have more variety than “hi” and “gogogo” a million times a day.

Last week Big Boy’s parents arrived to drive me nuts visit with Piglet. They seem to be under the impression that I would enjoy visiting them while Big Boy is gone. I hate to burst their bubble but I have no intention of even answering their phone calls for the next six months, let alone hopping on a plane with kid and baggage!

And speaking of nuts… knitting seems to be full of them. I have now managed to read all 10,000 posts in the MCY thread and am waiting in anticipation for the day the undead Danielle is finally caught. Add to that the great Mystery Lace mystery of 2008 and you have yourself one hell of a train wreck. What can I say, it is better than anything on television these days!

So, what is next on the knitting calendar? I am going to do a sweater for Piglet in these colors from Cascade 220. I plan to do an all-over pattern from Vogue Stitchionary but I haven’t decided if I should do a v-neck or a hoodie.

The Lady is a Tramp!

What else can you say about a pattern that is working its way through your stash? A pattern that you think will be perfect for a yarn but then leaves you hanging for a better, more expensive yarn? A pattern that looks fabulous in the dark but come the light of day its a double bagger?

Yes folks, the Lady Eleanor has once again made her way to the frog pond. I spent many months working on it in the lovely Sea Silk that Amy sent me and I did find it beautiful, but, that itty bitty yarn in an entrelac pattern became a chore. The yarn is gorgeous and deserves something light and airy - like strawberries needing angel food cake and whipped cream. I think it will be most happy as the Montego Bay.

It has been a crazy few months around our casa. Big Boy has been in Texas and was supposed to go to Wisconsin before heading to Afghanistan but at the last minute he was sent back home for three weeks. We are happy to have him here! On Tuesday our Calvin had a cancerous tumor removed. We are still awaiting the results of the biopsy and are hopeful that they got it all and we will have our little Chow Pei for a few more years. It is hard to watch the babies age.

My parents visited this week and spoiled Piglet rotten. He has enjoyed having attention 24/7 and I enjoyed the slight break. Next week the in-laws will visit. I am VERY glad that Big Boy will be here to act as a buffer.

Artifacts

A few weeks ago at SnB I was mentioning this pillowcase that showed up in my mailbox. It belonged to Big Boy when he was a child and his mother has held on to it for… well… too many years. She seemed to think that I would want it for Piglet. Big Boy knew it was on its way and yet neglected to tell me until I was standing in the middle of the kitchen holding it by one corner and saying, “what the fuck is this thing”. At that point he laughed until I cried. My Big Boy still drools like a five year old so you know it was even worse when he was five. Yes, that is a stain... only one of the many stains.

Not to mention, the pillowcase has been starched (yes, MIL did and still does have the maid starch her sheets and pillow cases - sleeping on them is a great way to get your skin exfoliated) so it now has this weird feel to it.

As I was talking about the pillowcase Lindsey remarked that she would like to see photos of “the bowl”. This baby was a wedding gift and I have tried repeatedly to get rid of it but somehow, it still lives. I have asked the movers to drop it but they refuse and instead drop my very expensive desk that I love. It is hand made of some sort of indestructible pottery (the people in tornado alley should build their houses from it, it’s that good!). I can’t give it away because it has our names and wedding date on it. If you know of anyone else with our names and wedding date, give me a holler and I will happily pop this in the mail to them. You can hang it on the wall with the nifty little hanger on the back.

Last night we were without power for over two hours. It was windy as all get out and apparently some lines went down a few blocks away. This was not been a fun time because A) I am not a back-to-nature kind of gal and I really enjoy television and B) I am scared shitless of the dark, especially when I am home alone. Now, I have three giant dogs that are absolutely worthless in this sort of situation. Calvin could care less about me; I am only here to serve him. Annabelle is as afraid of the dark as I am and follows me around like Velcro. She does however enjoy the flashlight and will chase the beam of light around occasionally running into a wall and giving me some entertainment. Baxter, well, he ate a book yesterday so he was sleeping off his fiber hangover.

I want to say thanks for all the suggestions on ways to amuse myself that will not land me in jail. I would love to take a pottery class but our adult ed system here seems to neglect those of us in between diapering years. If I needed my GED though I would be all set. I live in an area with a very high dropout rate so I guess they figure that folks need to be working on something other than bowl making. I am looking at taking a jewelry making class at the local bead store, but I have to wait until Piglet is enrolled in daycare. And of course I have to make sure that it doesn’t cut into my budget for my girl’s trip to Vegas! Think Piglet can exist on Ramen noodles?

Oh My Eyes Hurt!

Because I have been looking at this...


Yes, that is a stitch holder in the middle of my lace panel. Why? Well, that is a good question. The other night around 10:00 I was working on Print O' The Pain in My Ass and realized I was working the wrong row of the chart. I did what any other good knitter would do... I tinked until I dropped a stitch. I picked up the stitch and kept going. Or. So. I. Thought. I heard a little popping noise and my heart sank. Turns out when I picked up the stitch I missed the part where it had dropped down and released a K2tog and each of those stitches dropped to a K3tog. Now, I have 5 loose stitches. ACK! I took it to SnB last night where the gals were nice enough to give me tips on how to fix my giant sink hole. Not one would take a bribe to do it for me though.

So, what is a girl to do during a crisis? She shops! My Big Boy was out of town this week and I was having a hard time sleeping so I was on Ravelry when one of those horrible ads showed up. Horrible because they make a girl do wild and crazy stuff, alone, in her bed, with a computer, at midnight...



The yarn is from Spritely Goods and is the Sylph in Watermelon Tourmaline colorway. I have no idea what its destiny is... other than to make me smile.

An Itch From The Clap?

I think I mentioned in my last post that I had a bout of contact dermatitis. Oh, how it itched and burned with no apparent cause. And, no apparent cure. I tried antihistamines, I mixed antihistamines, I stopped using soap (don't worry, I didn't sweat!), I changed detergents and even changed my coffee, and I took down my Christmas tree. Still. No. Relief. I itched... I burned... I didn't sleep. A second trip to the urgent care resulted in a cute 25-year old doctor who apparently didn't want to live to see 26. He told me he didn't see the red but since I knew my skin better... then he left the room before I could hit him with Piglet's goldfish crackers. I guess someone told him that you don't mess with a woman who is sleep deprived because he came in with a miracle cure. Prednisone. Yesterday I started thinking that I still needed to figure out what was causing my pain so that I didn't have a repeat episode once the performance-enhancing drugs ran out. I thought and I thought and just before my hair caught on fire it came to me... THE CLAP...



I know you are all totally confused now right? I had been working feverishly on Clapotis for weeks. I have not itched since I washed and blocked it and basically, got it off my skin. I know what you are thinking ('cause I am psycho psychic)...

• Yes, the yarn is cotton/silk - I suspect it was something in the silk that made me itchy.
• Yes, the yarn has been in my life for over a year (thanks for the reminder) BUT, I only touched it a few hours total and not a few hours every day. And, the project was never large enough to cover my legs, etc.
• Yes, the yarn has been worked, washed and reworked. So, it is possible that it has something to do with the Euclan reacting on the yarn or my skin. Plus, when I washed the Clapotis there was a faint color in the water. At first I thought it was some bleed from the yarn but now I think it may have been something else in the yarn.
• Yes, I wear clothes when knitting. However, I often have on my jammies and this thing ended up being long enough to drape across my legs and a bulk of my itching was on my legs, knees and ankles.

Here are the details of the Clapotis:

• Yarn: Noro Lily Multi (now discontinued) in a yellow/pink/green/orange colorway. About six skeins.
• Needles: Size 6 Options
• Pattern: Clapotis
• Mods: I added extra repeats to make it long enough to be worn as a wrap. I think I did 24 straight rows instead of 12. It is super long.
• Who: It is a gift for a friend.

Oh, I have some yarns and needles for sale over on Ravelry. Check out my sale/trade goods!

I'm a Rainbow ?

So I took this test that I found over on Janna's blog. I don't think it is accurate. Is it because I like to pick flowers?

You Are a Rainbow

Breathtaking and rare You are totally enchanting and intriguing But you usually don't stick around long! You are best known for: your beauty Your dominant state: seducing

What Type of Weather Are You?

How Organized Are You?

Your Score: Big Bird

You scored 72% Organization, 53% abstract, and 71% extroverted!

You are very organized, both concrete and abstract, and more extroverted.

Here is why are you Big Bird.

You are both very organized. You almost always know where your belongings are and you prefer things neat. You may even enjoy cleaning and find it therapeutic. Big Bird is never sloppy and always under control... pretty good for a 6 year old bird living without a family.


You both are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract thinkers. Big Bird can be quite dreamy at times and has no problem using his imagination. At the same time he is also practical and can be methodical in his search for answers to questions. You have a good balance in your life. You know when to be logical at times, but you also aren't afraid to explore your dreams and desires... within limits of course.


You are both extroverts. Big Bird gets along with everyone. He makes friends easily and always has a positive attitude. You definitely enjoy the company of others, and you don't have problems meeting new people... in fact you probably look forward to it. You are willing to take charge when necessary or work as part of a team.

The other possible characters are

Oscar the Grouch

Bert

Snuffleupagus

Ernie

Elmo

Kermit the Frog

Grover

Cookie Monster

Guy Smiley

The Count

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Coffee Swap!

My package arrived from Amy! I was completely overwhelmed by the goodies. So overwhelmed that I hit post when I loaded the photo instead of draft like I intended!! My package included:

• Candlelight Coffee House Blend and Caramel (from our SnB meeting spot in SA)
• Texas Chewie Pecan Pralines
• Double Chocolate Crisps
• 2 Biscotti cookies
• Creamy dark chocolate cookie
• White chocolate amaretto cookie
• San Antonio coffee mug wtih 3 different flavors of Kona coffee
• Handmaiden sea silk yarn in Amethyst
• Stitch markers in the same color as the yarn

I took the yarn to SnB tonight and practically had to handcuff it to myself to keep the girls from *stealing* it!

Amy, thank you for making my first swap so memorable and thank you for having this special package on a day that was really sucky!

Thank y'all for the thoughts and prayers. I just can't talk about it right now. I'm not sure if I could even form the words to talk about it. Big Boy and I are fine, but it affects my family and therefore affects us.

Memory Lane

In the past few weeks I have spent a lot of time thinking about my childhood; the good, the bad, the ugly and the down right insane. I was reading Joan’s blog and her topic took me down memory lane. Do you know what a Fiddlehead is? My mom and my grandfather loved fiddleheads. They would head to the river together to pick them and then we would have them at dinner. Well, everyone but me would eat them for dinner. They always had them the same way – butter and vinegar. The article Joan’s blog entry refers to talks about many recipes for fiddleheads but we were havin none of that fancy eatin in our house! Even better, my Grammy eats dandelions.

It is amazing the things we remember from our childhood that makes us wonder what our parents were thinking. Piglet and I were cruising through the children’s section at Barnes & Noble and I saw books that I loved as a child and it brought back memories. My parents were really strict about a lot of things. I had read most of Judy Blume’s books when my mother found out that several didn’t meet the standards of her friends and from then on they were banned. Of course she didn’t bother to read the books before banning them. I didn’t read a lot of the classics (except the Laura Ingalls Wilder books) because they were the books of the heathens. So, I read the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary. I owned them all and read them many times over. Children today have so many more opportunities than I had. We didn’t have Borders, Barnes & Noble or Amazon. We had one bookstore in town and I don’t think it had “story time”. We had one public library but we didn’t use it because libraries were for hippies (I grew up in the 70’s) and poor people. We were neither. My elementary school had a library – it had most of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

I grew up in a small town and my parents grew up in an even smaller town. I am grateful that I got the hell out of dodge! But, it has made me more aware of what we do for and to Piglet and it has made me more understanding of the ignorance that comes from living in an isolated state.

Thinking about growing up started me on another search. I have a high school reunion this summer. I won’t say what number but it is definitely into double digits. It led me to find old classmates on Classmates and Myspace (ack! I felt dirty just going there. If the police are reading this, I am not looking for a prom date!). I never did find anything on my reunion but I don’t know if I would go anyway. Many years, states, jobs and friends later I still feel intimidated by the popular kids. I was not one of them. What would we talk about? “Remember when we…” I didn’t have that with most of my classmates. Most of my friends were at church. I knew a lot of my classmates my whole life but didn’t go to school with them until high school. It was weird being the old and new kid all at the same time. It was a small world. Kids didn’t just move in and out of our town. By high school they had been in school together for nine years. Truth is, I don't really care what any of them are up to. I hope Piglet gets to be in an environment that holds old friends but opens to new ones without question.

We are going home in a few weeks. Home to a world that rarely changes. Home to a place where people are fascinated that we don’t live there (and our town has more than one stop light). Home to a place where I lived most of my life but I don’t look or sound like people who have lived there most of their life. Home to a parent who remembers events totally different than I even though we were both there. Home to a house I didn’t grow up in. Home to a place that isn’t really home.

Stash Enhancement

On Friday afternoon we were privileged to see the Prince’s motorcade as he made his way to Norfolk. Here is the start of the motorcade (Big Boy suggested that the Prince was riding a motorcycle with the troopers)…

Here is the motorcade…
This photo made me really miss Texas and the wide open highways!

Here is the truck we nearly owned. Big Boy is fond of tailgating…

During our trip to DC this weekend I did a little LYS shopping and stash enhancement. The store had a display of the Monica tank from Knitty and it was just too cute to pass up. I picked up some blue and white Cotton Fleece – it isn’t pictured because I had already balled it and cast on for the top. I also picked up a few shades of brown Cotton Fleece to do a sweater for Piglet. The other stuff is an order from Elann and it all has a plan (so did everything else in the stash when I bought it!). The red will become another Crumpet’s dress, but this time with beads. The Austermann Mayfair Color will become the Turtleneck Tube Vest from Fitted Knits. The Highland Silk will become the Cozy V-neck Sweater from Fitted Knits. I have wanted the Ribby Cardi pattern for a while now. I have plans to make it with a button band instead of a zipper – unless someone wants to sew in the zipper for me :-)


And now what ya’ll have been waiting for… Piglet’s five month photo.

What The F***?

I will have a Piglet update later this afternoon but for now...


This was posted as a pattern over at The Anti Craft. Now, while I may make one as a gag for a bridal shower or a hopelessly single friend I can't imagine using it for the purpose of this quote "delight your boyfriend". Big Boy would likely think I had lost my mind and have me committed.