More of the White Stuff

Today is the 23rd. It's still snowing. There was a brief, almost full day respite yesterday, but the clouds moved back in in the evening and the snow flies again. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow. But Christmas and the day after are supposed to be clear. Then comes the dreaded "wintry mix" on Saturday but hopefully I will be downstate and miss that whole mess, although when I come back I may very well not be able to get up the driveway.

Sweater is cranking along. About halfway through the body. I love knitting in the round.

Camera is sort of missing again, thus the lack of pictures, but I'm sure I'll find it soon. In case I don't get back to the computer for a while, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Super White Christmas

First let me just mention that the above picture was about six inches of snow ago.

In Detroit, if it snowed before Christmas you would cross your fingers that it would stay cold enough that the snow wouldn't melt before Christmas day. There is no way the snow if melting here before Christmas. It could be a whopping 50 degrees and the snow still would not have time to melt before Christmas because there is so much of it! Check this out, we've had a Winter Storm Watch posted in the corner of the local tv station all weekend long! It say "Winter Storm Watch for NE Michigan until Monday". One of the many things I've never experienced in my 40 years of life until I moved up here. (Like paying with a personal check at a restaurant! What?!?)

Anyway I've come to terms with the snow. There is no doubt it is beautiful. And when it snows it doesn't seem so cold. And it's pretty cool to sit in front of the fireplace (gas log - I'm allergic to the real stuff) and watch the fat flakes falling in the woods behind my house. Very Christmasy.

I'm rocking along on the Wisteria sweater. I love it. I'm knitting it with cheap circs, the kind that the cable turns in on itself, but since I'm almost done with the yoke chart, the weight of the sweater is making the cable stretch out and now it's fun!

Feeling Groovy

Why? Because I spent two hours tying knots in fleece. Fleece blankets are flying out of my ears. Not really, just these two and a MSU one for my son. But trust me that's a lot of knot tying.

And so to reward myself I picked up this.

It's Wisteria from Twist Collective. My friend Terry got me a gift certificate to the Twist Collective and made me this cool slouch hat which look just lovely modeled on the unwilling Sophie. ("Mom, please don't put pictures of me on your blog!")

I wish I could stay home and knit it. But I have to work. I debated calling in sick but none of my excuses sounded good enough.

Oh, by the way, I'm totally reading Twilight. Edward and Bella. I think about them whenever I'm not with them. What is the mysterious power this teen novel holds over the middle age women in the world?

My Own Yarn!

I finished a scarf knit from yarn I spun and dyed! How cool is that? And it doesn't even look too bad!
I started an Odessa with some yarn which I mistakenly thought was Malabrigo sock yarn. It was really Malabrigo silky wool, too good for my feet. Not for my head though!

I got a package in the mail from the Loopy Ewe. My first. You could say my Loopy Cherry has been popped, but that would just be juvenile and gross, right?
And here's a funny and something to be wary of if you have children who will someday drive in the snow. You might think they are so little and it's far away and such, but trust me, yesterday my boy was 2 and now he's almost 17, so just sayin . . .

There is this stupid kid in our sub, who is 17 (not my kid) and drives a little gold pick up truck like a maniac. Seriously, I drive my car like a little old woman around these winding, snowy, roads which are bordered by like 2 feet high snow walls and trees. All it takes is a little too much gas and it's over people. I mean like stuck, getting people to help dig you out or you are stuck 'til the thaw.

Well obviously he was going TOO FAST around the curve and buried himself in a 2 ft snow pile! I'm hopin' I can take a picture, it should still be there. I'm pretty sure he hit the tree (he's not hurt) and had to be towed out by his older brother! My son saw the aftermath, thank goodness, although his little Toyota Camry would have probably just bounced off the snowbank, no way would it have climbed up it!

The moral is if you get your kid a car, get a little one with airbags and tell him not to be stupid and please drive SLOWLY, and cross your fingers and hope for the best because really, that's all you can do! Yikes!

Guess what?

I think it stopped snowing. Cross your fingers, knock on wood, do whatever you have to do. I'm venturing outdoors, no snow is currently flying and only "flurries" are forecast. It's still brutally cold but I knit, so I have scarves and stuff to combat that!

Ode to White

Oh White

You are everywhere

The sky above

The ground below

Over the water

Flying through the air

Go the F*&^ away!

Seriously, it's the second snow day in a row here. Everything is white. The mailbox is almost covered. People put little orange balls on the antenna of their cars so the snow plows don't plow them over. There seems to be a temporary lull right now, I see an yellow orbish shape through the blinds, could it be the sun? I've got to go, I need some vitamin D!

Look What I Got!

Holly,(scroll to 12/23) Kristin (scroll down to Valentine's Day), look what I got!
Yep, the much awaited (or dreaded?) Amish Friendship Bread! I only say dreaded because I'm not sure I know enough people to give it away to! I do however, love watching it grow, especially when it starts moving of its own volition across the countertops, remember Kristin? My neighbor gave it to me, I'm sure she was searching her brain for people to give it to too.

Look what else I got. That's the snow I was telling you about. Guess what? It's supposed to snow six more inches today! Last night at our library party people were telling me how unusual this is, for it to snow everyday for like three weeks. Uh huh. That's exactly what people told me when I moved up here in February and it snowed everyday for like three weeks.
I know the west side is getting hammered too, and even some places over by Detroit, so it's really not just Northern Michigan, it's Michigan. Why do we choose to live here again? Because it's pretty, right?

And here are my boring socks. Pink. They are ok, they'll probably go in one of the girls' Christmas stockings - I'm pretty sure they are over Santa, although we tell all of them if they tell us they don't believe, they aren't getting any gifts, so we live under the pretense that Santa still visits the Bedford home!

Off to smoosh my bread!

Socks on a Sunday

I finished my socks. Basically, while watching House and doing a couple of loads of laundry, I knit a sock in a day. Amazing. For me anyway. I don't know if that's a good thing or it means I'm too obsessed with knitting. Or House.

Started another pair of socks of which I have no pictures. They are pink. Stockinette. Boring, but nice to knit while watching tv. I stalled on the shawl. Not because it's hard or anything, but I'm in no hurry. And I do need to finish the secret mitten swap mittens. I fear I may be knitting mittens for a giant. I'm at the thumb gusset and wonder if they might not be woman sized. Maybe they would fit the Ogre over at Holly's house? A reknit may be in order.

It's still snowing here. On top of the railing of the deck rests 21 inches of snow according to my hubby. That's cumulative for the whole season so far but still . . . I don't think I've ever seen a winter with that much snow, that I can remember anyway. My poor little Chevy Malibu moves like an old lady with a cane trying to make the turn out of our subdivision. I'm all for good gas mileage and not polluting the earth, but I think I might need something with four-wheel drive.

Gotta go to the work party today after work. We are supposed to eat and then decorate the library, but I think I may just eat and beat a hasty exit, seeing as how I still have to decorate my own house.

Anyway, hope everyone had a nice weekend. I'll try and take some pictures of the snow for those of you who don't often get the pleasure of such beauty. :)

Three Things

The three things I'm doing today :

Knitting - working on sock #2 - I switched these to just plain stockinette socks - does anyone else hate cable needles as much as me? Especially with socks?

Spinning - bought this lovely fluff downstate. Lovely brand name fluff - Louet - they have fluff up here, but not as nice.Watching House - I love House and Target had a whopping sale on it Black Friday. My niece works at Target so she picked us both up seasons two and three.
Combined, it makes a perfect snowy day off Wednesday chez Tracy.

Snow

3.

2.

1. Look what I found this morning when I opened my front door. (pic. 1)

Guess what? It's a snow day.

Check out my deck,(pic 2.) and just FYI the branches on this skinny tree by the deck are so weighed down with snow they are leaning over the edge of the deck and oddly enough they look decidedly phallic! No pictures, this is a almost g-rated blog!

Back in August, Holly and I bought yarn to do a knit along. Yummy Briar Rose Wistful yarn. I've been knitting my socks and mittens and squares and waiting for the right time to start a knit-a-long, and I just can't wait anymore. Holly can just catch up with me later. (pic 3)

Anyway, the pattern calls for 700 yards of yarn and I only have 500. So I took out one of the repeats in the pattern (which the pattern tells you how to do, yay!) and I'll maybe take a couple out of the length. Anyone think that will be enough? I'm clueless, just rushing headlong into a project when I know I don't have enough yarn, that's me!

Well the kids are still asleep so I think I will go knit until the chaos begins!

And can I just say Internet Explorer sucks ass, it won't let me move the pictures around! Back to Foxfire for me!

Yarny Stuff

There has been knitting ,

and dyeing of yarn,

and mittens! One finished, another on it's way! I did have to frog the second one because apparently I thought I had two right hands (I put the thumb in the wrong place).
We are going downstate and my ability to access the internet will be greatly hampered, thus I bid you all a Happy Turkey Day! See ya when I get back!

What I Wish I Could Do Today

. . . instead, I have to go to work. Oh well, gotta feed the habit somehow!

The George N. Fletcher Alpena County Public Library

. . . or some variation therein. I'm not quite sure of the order of the words. Anyway, here's where I work. This is the circ desk (technically the only place I'm allowed to "work" but whatever . . .)
Here's the reference desk, that's Meg behind the computer. She is one of my library knit friends.
And this is the Monday night knitters, a recently started knit group at the library. I've been twice. It's fun. Although when asked about good yarn deals and I told them about the sweet Cascade Heritage available in Tawas for $12.50, they blinked. I don't think they thought it was a good deal. I'll have to turn them on the good stuff, that's all.
Yesterday I went to my first book club meeting. My kinda book club. Wine, food, a little book talk, and a lot of other talk. We were supposed to read anything by Geraldine Brooks, and may I highly recommend Year of Wonders. It was awesome. It was funny because as I was being introduced to people, I totally recognized one of my son's teacher's names, because I didn't get to talk to her! I was like "Oh, you're the biology teacher I didn't get to talk to!" and she was like "yep, when I heard the name I thought he was yours" and on the plus side she said he's a good kid and doing well. I didn't press her further because I'm sure teachers don't want to talk shop outside of school. But that's totally Alpena for you. I'm hanging with the kids teachers, another thing that doesn't happen so much downstate.

Anyway, I'm off to finish squares and plying. Soon I'll be able to enter the oh so fun world of dyeing my own yarn!

square weekend - plying week

I finished two more squares this weekend, plus one that I was experimenting with and seems to fit the proportions.

So I decided to take a break today and ply my spun yarn. Fun! And while I ply, I'm watching Chuck! I love Chuck, he's totally cute and the show is funny. I believe I am fully converted from abc to nbc. Chuck, Heroes, The Office. What more could you ask for? Plus, while I usually watch Thursdays episode of Grey's Anatomy online on Monday, stupid Firefox won't let me. Does ABC have a deal with Microsoft or something?

Oh well, off to fold laundry, play and watch cute boys on the internet!

The Squares are Coming to Eat My Brain!

I am stalled on squares. I don't have it in me to make one more square. To cast on, knit a bunch of rows and then realize that no way in hell is this pattern going to be 12 inches square. Are you feelin' me Holly?

I need your help. If anyone knows of a foolproof 12inch square knit pattern that isn't like rocket science, because I've never claimed to be a rocket scientist (the closest I came was rocks for jocks in college, which I did quite enjoy, possibly because of the cute jock with awesome hair who sat in front of me) send it my way, please!

I only have until December 15th. I finished 6, but need five more. I have five pitiful looking specimens who are nowhere near the right size just staring at me. How do people have the patience to knit squares so big?

And I have to go to the dentist today. They are going to tell me that I need to have a tooth pulled and two dental implants. Yuck. Do you know how much implants cost? I do. $3000 dollars for one! I know because I had a tooth pulled about 5 years ago and that's the number they gave me! I said no thanks, I'll live with the hole. But now the tooth next to the whole needs to come out so I will either have a ginormous hole in my mouth (it's molars so you can't see them, but I need some to chew with) or go bankrupt because my teeth suck.

I need the knitting gods to give me some powerful mojo to make this all go away!

But really, have a nice day! :)

Tawas Bay Yarn Co. . . . .

Rocks! Yes, it's an hour away, but I've found my new lys! They had everything! Tons and tons of yarn and even an annex, which is open on Saturdays and it's where she sells stuff on clearance!

We were taking a trip to West Branch to visit the outlet stores and I insisted on stopping by the yarn store. I made a haul! I can't show you all of it, because some is secret, but look what I found! The elusive Cascade Heritage sock yarn. I've never before seen it in the wild, only on the internet. They had both solids and handpaints, I got one of both!
They are so soft, especially considering that they weren't super expensive as sock yarn goes.

Oh and they had every kind of needle you could imagine! Addis, dpn's in all sizes, stuff I haven't seen up here at all!

And people sitting around knitting and chatting, telling me about the best stores in West Branch and discussing the pros and cons of dpn's vs. two circs vs. magic loop (we all agreed we like our dpns!) I could have stayed all day except I had a teen, a husband and two pre-teens in the car who kept texting me to hurry up.

Today I found some Red Heart to make the Special Olympics scarfs. Wally World actually had stuff I was looking for! Read more about the Special Olympics scarf project chez knitwithsnot!
And on a sad note, look what Bits did to my yarn! I need this skein. It's half of a project that I'm half done with. I don't even want to think how long it will take to unwind.
And on a happy note - Bits is doing well. He opens his mouth, yawns, barks, eats whatever you give him (unless it has the painkillers he's taking in it, in which case he turns up his nose and glues his jaw shut - only my nephew can get him to take it) They put him on anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics just in case, they weren't sure what was wrong, but he's back to his old self so keep your fingers crossed for him!

Bits

Bits can't open his mouth. He won't eat. He yelps when you force his mouth open. He won't play because he's afraid to pick stuff up. He won't take treats. He will lick peanut butter off your finger. But we are worried. Of course I googled jaw pain in dogs and came up with a bunch of hideous things it could be. The internet is not a good thing for hypchondriacs. So I'm taking the little dude to the vet this morning.

If you are the kind of person that prays, could you send a shout out for him? Or if you don't pray, send out good thoughts into the universe. I'm personally doing both. He's the life of this house. The personality, the one that will just snuggle up in your lap and let you love him. We need him around.
Thanks.

Virgin Voter

We voted! I took my nephew to vote this morning. He was a virgin. I documented the occasion. Here he is pre-vote (I don't think he's seen daylight on a Tuesday this early in a few months at least)

Here he is after we voted! He got a sticker, it's on his hat.
Here is how much knitting you can do when you are in line at 8:30 in the morning in Alpena on voting day

Pre vote


Post vote
We didn't have to wait in line at all! Honestly? I would've like to knit at least a few stitches. Oh well, at least the sock came with me. It will always be my 2008 election sock.

I Live in the Land of Camo

We went to a wedding this weekend. The bride was beautiful, her dress was gorgeous. The bridesmaids wore gorgeous deep purple gowns, and the 3 little flower girls wore precious little white dresses. Guess what the guys wore under their tuxes? Camo patterned vests and ties! They actually looked nice! Not my choice necessarily, but not bad. I so wish I had brought my camera. Oh and guess what the favors were? Little mini feed bags filled with candy corn! Even the couples two month old son had on a little tux with a camo vest! Joe was especially impressed with the baby's shiny little tuxedo shoes.

It's bluck up here. Rainy and gross. It's warm and that makes it worse. Cold and bluck is ok, but rainy, warm and bluck just enhances my seasonal affective disorder. I don't even want to knit. All my knitting is bluck. Oh, and to top it off? There is no school today. And loads of laundry.

But tomorrow is voting day. I know I will be in a better mood. Hopefully the best sort of mood at 8:00 p.m. when the polls close!

Hope everyone is having a better day than me!

Is it Winter?

Yesterday, it snowed. Well really it snowed Tuesday night, . . . and freakin' stuck to the ground! Oh and it didn't melt until about noon! People, it's October! It's also Northeast Michigan so I shouldn't be surprised and in my head I'm not, but in my heart I'm not ready. My heart is still in Southeast Michigan, where maybe, maybe (but probably not) it will snow around Thanksgiving, or really, closer to Christmas.Thank goodness that's not my car - I have a garage now that you can actually park cars in and you don't have to scrape snow off of them! This is some poor soul's car in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. I used to live in Kalamazoo. It didn't take me long to get used to it's crazy lake effect snow winters, in fact I liked them. I was younger then.


Behold my birthday present. It feels dirty, because it's all hidden like in my garage. It should be out on the lawn because truly, it's not dirty to be a Democrat. I know lots of other Democrats and they are fine upstanding citizens. Maybe that's my mission up here, to teach the poor Republicans that Democrats are people too.I'm so excited to vote! I'm going to drop off my daughter and go get in line at the Word of Life Baptist Church (that's where I vote, which I also find weird - downstate you vote at schools, not churches)and wait to pull the lever, or fill in the dots, or poke the holes, however you do it in Michigan now! I'm smart, I can figure it out!

I just got back from Knit Night at the Library! It was the first one and about 20 people showed up! Awesome, I didn't bring the camera because I didn't want to freak people out, but I'll bring it next time, because apparently the fact that I was knitting lace freaked people out. In a good way. But I felt like a show off, which I'm totally not. I spent a good portion of the evening telling people that they too can knit lace, all ya gotta know is yo, ssk, and k2tog and you are hooked up.

(It's actually much farther along than that, I just haven't taken pictures of it recently)

Yesterday was my birthday and guess what I got? I'm totally going to take a picture of it tomorrow because it's too dark to take one now, but . . . .

I got an Obama/Biden yard sign! Yay me! Unfortunately I can't post it in the yard because of stupid association rules, but I put it in the garage window so everyone can see it. People are already giving me the evil eye. I live in the Republican haven of Northeast Michigan. But I refuse to keep my mouth shut or my opinions to myself. So there!

I also got a tee shirt that says "Obama Mama". Lovin' it. Now you all know where I stand, don't hold it against me. I live with a republican and he still likes me most of the time. (Although in this election he's voting with me, first time ever!) So I'm ok. Really.

Oh, and Saturday night? Got my first roadkill. Well, it wasn't technically mine, since I wasn't driving, but it was the first roadkill I've experienced first hand. We were coming around a curve, fairly fast (faster than I would've liked but Joe's boss was driving so who am I to say anything) and the porcupine just sort of walked into the car. Boom. Gone. Then the other passengers spent the rest of the ride looking for eyes. People, this sort of thing does not happen where I come from. Street lights. Miss them.

Oh and I also got invited to be in a book club. Fun! But even the book club in run by a republican, although she is a teacher and she kept herself so neutral that I assumed she was a democrat and totally embarrassed myself expressing my opinions. But the invitation still stood so she musn't have minded too much! Things are looking up in the Northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula. But I still miss home.

It Wasn't Lost

The camera wasn't lost. Savannah was peeking over my shoulder and saw that I thought it was lost and quickly informed me that she knew exactly where it was, in her room! I should have known, little camera hog that she is. It's what she wants for Christmas, a tie blanket and her own digital camera. Hmmm. . .

Anyway, here are some pictures of fluff . . . well it used to be fluff now it's string! Well actually it's the fluff that's left to be spun and the spun fluff too and my gorgeous spindle from Spinsanity. Speaking of . . . my birthday is Sunday and my husband is now in Lansing. I've been asking him every day if he's gotten to ThreadBear yet to buy me a new spindle, because every girl needs more than one you know!I made a good dent in that fluff ball, because I knitted away on the lace last night (that's it sitting behind the fluff and only have 20 more rows or so to finish! So while I was watching America's Next Top Model, I spun!That's the cool sock I was telling you about. It's a pattern called Simple Pleasure from my friend Terry Ross. It's just two rows repeated but with this yarn, I think it looks so cool! The yarn is kind of brownish with hints of green and purple and it's white Panda Silk that the owner of the lys overdyed. Silk apparently doesn't take dye well so the white shows through. The effect of the dye, along with this pattern reminds me of knights in armor! I love it. I wish I was a better photographer so you all could see what I'm talking about.

Well I've got to go to work today. No knitting for me. :(

The Camera Ran Away

Once again, my camera is incognito. Do you notice a trend here? It's a bummer too because I started a cool pair of socks with neato yarn and they aren't beige! I'll take a picture when I find the camera. It's sure to show up.

Today I've promised monogamy to the lace project. It has fallen by the wayside, due to my new love affair with the fluff. I've spun almost 8 oz. of beige fluff. It's all wrapped around coffee cans and coke bottles (one pepsi bottle snuck in there, the traitorous thing!). I think I'm going to google plying today when I can't knit lace any longer and read up before I try it again.

I was gonna go get my haircut, but who wants to do that on your day off when you know you could be knitting? I'm really letting myself go here!

Off to look for the camera.

Huntin' Season

Today I saw a sign that said to me "Welcome to Northern Michigan". It was attached to the local fruit market and it said:

"Complete Deer Processing Done Here" (no of course I don't have a picture, I have not yet learned to keep my camera in my car to take advantage of such bloggable moments)

At first I thought, being the southeast MI girl that I am, now why would the deer need to be processed? It's not like you can OWN a deer like a pet or anything, they don't need licenses . . . oh . . . they mean processed, like bologna. Yikes.

Now I'm not getting on a soap box or anything, because I like meat just as much as the next carnivore, although I prefer to get my meat all nicely packaged and anonymous from grocery store. I'm just not a hunter. And here I am in the middle of hunting land. My husband keeps warning me that soon I will see dead bambis adorning the roofs of people's cars. I honestly don't know how I will deal with that.

And it's not just bambis. Some guy from my husband's work, got a bear license and killed himself a bear. He says they make pretty good jerky. Although he just got a little bear, supposedly the big ones are better meat. Surreal.
By the way, did you know if you google images of bears you get the most interesting content? Why? I don't understand. I've never called it a bear!

The Spanish Award for Spreading Friendship

Holly gave me an award! For spreading friendship around the world! How sweet! Even though so far I've only spread it mostly around Michigan, Oklahoma and Canada, I still think this whole blogging thing is really cool.

So I've got to send this award to other people who I think are doing the same. I'm new, so I don't know if I can think of the required eight people but here are a few who fit the bill for me.

Kristinknits - she introduced me to this whole blogging thing, love her!

Megbean - she of the awesome spinning and knitting, my Alpena Library buddy

Terry Ross - Oh awesome designer of socks, my first friend in Alpena, met her on Rav

Ok, I also would like to give an extra shout out to FatCat, Spinsanity, Amy and Kristina whom Holly also awarded with this award! That makes seven. I'm still searching for number 8!

Fluff Turns to String - Who Knew?

Here's what's left of my fluff

Here is what it became!
I had 8oz. of fluff, I wonder how much yarn it will make? I'm thinking if I ply it, it will be between dk and fingering weight. Yes, it is still suffering from a slight thick/thin problem, but I'm getting more control every time I pick up the spindle. I love it!

It's so nice to be back in the library. You wouldn't believe the things you miss. Like the smell of a drunk. It's not so much on the breath, but an odor of alcohol that just wafts off the body!

Or people returning books that smell like smoke and have cat hair stuck to them with some unknown substance.

Or realizing that the entire juvenile picture book section is just as messed up at this library as it is everywhere else.

It's like home! (Not really, because the Blair Memorial Library will always be my library home and nothing can compare. It's the best library ever, I swear. All that stuff I mentioned above? You only experience that if you work in a library. Patrons of the BML only see the good stuff. Promise! If you ever visit Clawson, stop in and ask for Kristin or Elizabeth and tell them I sent you. Really.)

Feelin' Kinda . . . Eggshell?

Everything I'm working on today is eggshell. Maybe. It's that off white color that can't be described . . . or can be described, like, a thousand ways, you know, like Eskimos and snow.For example, above, you will see my first official big ball of fluff, from one of the LYS's. The owner said it drafts easily, and she was right. It's just like the fluff Spinsanity sent me, it drafts awesome! So awesome, I'm not even really spinning the thick/thin sort of yarn, just the slubby kind!
Now, I have a lace horror story. Those of you who are faint of heart should probably stop here. It was ugly. I don't have very good photographic documentation, but I think I can accurately describe it. See the largish hole below?
Well, I was happily knitting along, having pretty much memorized the repeat, watching some awesome episode of one of my tv shows (this was so traumatic I've forgotten which one) when a largish puppy running at full throttle lunged across my lap ripping the needles right out of my hands!

I sat there, with my hands in mid air, in total shock. I was desperately afraid to look at the yarn. I took a very deep breath and picked it up. And entire repeat plus had slid off the needles. And no, I did not have a life line. I think I stopped breathing. And then I started swearing. I probably called the puppy some names he really didn't deserve. And then , as if the lace were my own baby, my momma instinct kicked in. I became calm. I grabbed an extra needle and picked up what I thought looked like stitches and to the best of my ability, I counted the stitches before and after and managed to figure out where in the repeat the horror began, and restitched it! While it's not perfect, I think when blocked maybe the person it's being made for won't even see it. She's not a knitter so it's ok.
Lace pictures look like crap until you block the stuff. I've got five more repeats plus one more smallish chart and I'll be done! Then I'll get the good stuff for you!

Now I should really go make the lemon bars I promised my children. I promised them last night only to realize I had no eggs. I had a small revolt on my hands. I promised after school the lemon bars would be waiting for them, and I fear for my life if they are not on the counter. If you don't hear from me soon, maybe someone should call Alpena and check! :0