Thursday, January 31, 2008

Tag! You are It

I got tagged by ClaraRunner

Here are the rules:
-Link to the person who tagged you.
-Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours.
-Post the rules on your blog.
-Share the seven (7) most famous or infamous people you have met. Or go with the original 7 weird things about yourself.
-Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.
-Include links to their blogs.
-Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I never meet famous people. I have to live vicariously through my husband, who has met Isaiah Thomas and went to the Martha Stewart and Oprah shows. He actually spoke on Oprah, from the audience, back in the 80's, on a show about psycho ex-husbands. His sister's ex-husband attempted to kidnap and murder her and spent about 15 years in jail. He's out now and he hasn't tried to kidnap her again so everything is copacetic. Anyway, I'll go with the seven weird things about me.

1. I have panic attacks. Wicked ones. This probably isn't weird because I meet more and more people who suffer from the same thing. They can be debilitating. Once I left an entire cart full of groceries in the middle of the condiment isle in Kroger because I just had to GET OUT!!!

2. I am a hopeless reality television addict. I love it. All of it. I love Survivor, Amazing Race, Project Runway, Biggest Loser, I Love New York, Rock of Love, The Real World, Real World/Road Rules The Gauntlet, Wife Swap, Celebrity Intervention, the list goes on and on. I am shameless (witness "I Love New York" oh and Flavor of Love :))

3. I have to pick up a penny if it's heads up or I will spend the rest of the day wondering what luck I have squandered. I have a feeling that superstition is somehow related to the panic attacks, you know, neuroses and all.

4. I've been with my husband since middle school, or as we called it back in the day "junior high".

5. I am thirteen years younger than my closest sibling. I was an accident. My parents like to call me a "happy mistake" but for goodness sake, my mother was on the pill when she got pregnant with me. Accident is more apropos.

6. I love spam. Not the crappy e-mail kind. The yummy faux meat kind! In college, my favorite thing to eat was fried spam cut up in little chunks mixed together with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I would still eat it today if I weren't worried about my arteries and my fat butt.

7. I didn't go to my first rock concert until I was 35 years old. I think, I can't remember how many years ago U2 toured. My husband got me tickets for my birthday and it was absolutely the best time I've ever had. The only other concert I have ever been to was a Tammy Wynette concert. While I respect Tammy, nothing could compare to U2. LOVE them.

So now I have to tag 7 other people. I'm not sure I know 7 other bloggers well enough to tag them! I'll tag the few I feel comfortable tagging.

Kristinknits

Knitwithsnotforyou

Ok really that's it for now. I'm very new to the blogosphere and while I read lots of people's blogs and really love them I'm not sure if etiquette would permit me to tag them. But read these two. Good pictures and funny commentary. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

It's All About the Sweater

As the title implies, it's been all about the tangled yoke sweater of late. That's because I've been HAT ATTACKED! by the Zombie Prom Date Knitters from Ravelry! It starts on February 9, so I've been bustin' my butt' trying to get as much of the sweater done before then that I can. Because come Feb. 9, I am all about the hat baby! So here's what I have so far . . . . .
This is the back and the sides. That's my cute little lamb measuring tape on their too. Next comes the sleeve . . .


It's almost done. Then I have to knit one more and attach them to the back. Then comes the crazy cable part and I know I will be doing hat attack before I get to that!

My husband went back up north today and he took my dog! She is our dog really, but she loves me best. But he's all complaining and stuff because he doesn't have anyone to talk to up there or anything. Whatever. What would I call that? Oh, let's see, . . . a VACATION! No, I'm sure he's lonely, I would miss my kids too. But here I am stuck with one kid with a fever, one with an attitude and one who won't stop talking. Alpena, alone with my dog, looks pretty good from here. Oh, here's a picture of my dog.



Her name is Nona (short for Wynona, I was going through an unfortunate country music phase) and she is fifteen years old. Those are cataracts shining from her eyes, I'm pretty sure. And she's all skinny and bony now, and her muzzle is all gray. But she still gets all happy when we come home from somewhere, or we show her her leash. And there is nothing wrong with her nose cuz I swear she can smell and unopened can of moist dog food from three rooms away. Anyway, she's on her way up north with Joe, where I hope she will find all kinds of new smells and dog friends, and make the way easier for me and the kids.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

A Different Way of Life

So my husband came back from Alpena for the weekend. We are moving up there, he got a great job, so for a few more weeks he's commuting and then we will all go up. I think we may be in for a culture shock.

He found out he has to wear the gear from his company for work. You know, like polo shirts with the logo and such. And they encourage you to wear their stuff outside of work too, like baseball hats. So he digs baseball hats and ordered a nice navy blue one. His boss saw the order and said "Oh we have some hats here, you don't need to order one". Now, I tried to take a picture of said hat, but the batteries on my camera died. And before I describe it, let me just say, I am not dissing on hunters or anything, we just are not hunting kind of people. The hat was blue with the logo in the middle. However in a swirling design and the edge of the brim and around the back of the hat . . . . camo. He was told that the men in the company like to wear the camo hats. He just politely agreed and took the hat, ever the diplomat, and gave it to his crazy stepfather who has a fondness for such things. (That's not what makes him crazy by the way, but that is a post in and of itself.) He's waiting for his nice staid navy blue hat to come in.

Did you know that kids in Alpena get the first day of hunting season off from school? It's called harvest day. See, that just wouldn't happen in Oakland County. Different. And our real estate lady, who really is one of the nicest people I have ever met took great pride in telling me about her daughters' first buck. See, that just creeps me out a little, because I am not a gun person. I have not raised little gun people. And I am moving to a place that sells guns at the Wal-Mart. I'm not sure I will be completely acceptable in the community, since my stance on firearms is not going to change.

Hey on a brighter note, tonight is the finale of Amazing Race! I can't wait. I'm still knitting stockinette on the Tangled Yoke Sweater, so that's what I'll be working on tonight. Hopefully I'll get it done in time to wear it in the great white north!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Random Thoughts

Hey, wasn't that the title of that SNL skit? You know, the one where the thoughts are supposed to be all deep and said in that new age voice (I forget who said them - oh wait, I think it was Phil Hartman) but are totally ridiculous? Perhaps my post will be as such tonight!

Here is my pretty argyle scarf as modeled by my middle daughter. She has a future in the modeling biz, don't ya think? ; ) (Is that supposed to be someone winking? I am so not hip with the internet lingo - as evidenced by the use of the word lingo)



Ignore that little piece of black yarn that unwove itself. And ignore the red eye, I thought I had the camera automatically programmed to take care of that!

I only used one skein and a little of each color of Cascade 220, instead of the two skeins called for. The pattern is for a man, and we are not men, we are not even very tall women and two of us are children so I figured a man-length scarf might be kind of over the top.

Oh and look at this :
Once again, I must ask you to ignore the fact that you can't really see what the pin says, so I will just tell you.

It's a little button that says "Knit 'till I die" with two little skull and crossbones and the yarn with the needles through it. Kristinknits got it for me! How cool is she? Love her! Oh by the way, she knit the cutest thing I've ever seen, so make her blog about it. I know she's all busy with that crazy wedding stuff, but she's got a minute or two to spare somewhere I'm sure :)

I'm almost done with the ribbing for the Tangled Yoke Sweater, but I can't manage to get a good picture of it. It's kind of off white, and my pictures all read WHITE with no definition so it looks like a white line on top of whatever I tried to take pictures of it on. Anyway, it's very fun to knit. It's on size 5's which aren't too small, and not to big and unwieldy like, you know, size 15's or something. (I've got tiny little hands although they are a little chubby)

I must finish my sock before my husband comes home. He can't know I've been knitting on this sweater yet, and there is no way he will believe I have made so little progress on the sock if it were my only current project. He 's supposed to be home tomorrow night so I better get movin'. Wish me luck.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Oh the tangled web we weave . . .


See that ? That is a bag full of wooly goodness from Ewe-nique Knits. It is a secret bag, paid for with a check that shall not be discovered until someone checks the bank statement. Thus the woven web of the title.

The tangled part comes in when you discover what the yarn is to become. The tangled yoke cardigan from the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. Here's a picture.


I realize that this picture totally sucks. Can't figure out how to turn off the flash. I tried to provide a link, but apparently I suck at that too. So, if you want to see how cute it is and you haven't already, google it. It's all over the knitting web.


I'm so excited about this one because I went to the store looking for the called for Rowan Felted Tweed. I couldn't find it. So I just started looking for something that came close to the called for gauge of 4" = 24 stitches with size 6 needles. Or so I thought, I wasn't 100% sure. This yarn, Elisabeth Lavold Silky Wool says that with size 6 needles you should get 22 stitches to four inches. Close enough that I figured I could change needle sizes and make it work.

At the counter there was a lady buying the same yarn for a sweater and checking her swatch for gauge. Hers was 18 stitches to four inches, doubled on size 8's. I got nervous. But I had 10 skeins and the yarn was pretty so if it didn't work for this sweater, I'm sure I could make it work for something. (I truly abhor the math involved in knitting, just let me say. )

So I got home, jumped on ravelry and lo and behold, lots of people have made this sweater with the same yarn! Yeah! And they all made smaller sizes with about 6 or 7 skeins, so I think it will work! I want so badly to cast on, but I've got to hide the yarn for a few days. You know, so when it shows up and the husband asks "Is that new?" I can say, "What this? No I've had this for a while." So I'm going to finish up my scarf before I even swatch. Although I have wound up a skein of the yarn. I couldn't resist totally. That would just be wrong. The yarn would feel unloved and that is so far from the truth.

Have a good weekend everyone :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2008



Well, there is a picture of my mohaw hat. Can you see the perfect fabric that the felting process created in the black part of the hat? And the beautiful fringey parts and how they all sort of knotted together in exactly the right manner? Sort of like a mohawk with dreadlocks. Or are you just looking at Jennifer making the "Ozzy" sign all cute like that? She was doing her best rocker imitation. (We had to tell her how to make the Ozzy sign though:)) I think this picture is very cute, and I hope she doesn't get mad at me for posting it.



This is my Christmas present from my husband. It's Heather from Schaefer yarns. It's red, yes, but what doesn't show in this picture is a pretty little stripe of purple too. I'm knitting it up into a pair of socks. For me, since it was my Christmas present and all. Oh and look what else her got for me . . .
How cute is that? It's a tape measure. The tail is the tape part! You push on it's tummy to make the tape curl back up. I love it! I love that he got me yarn stuff (even if my girls told him what to get!) He rocks.

Well now that I've figured out how to cut and paste pictures to make them go where you want, and found the cord to hook up my son's camera with, I'm sure I'll be blogging more. (His camera is so cool, I wish it were mine!) So I'm off to knit and take pictures of knitting and to watch and listen carefully for any interesting blog fodder.

Toodles!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Pictureless

I don't have any new pictures! I mean, I have pictures, but they are on my son's camera and I can't find the cord to hook it up to the computer. He's 15 and since it is Sunday at 11:45 a.m., obviously he is asleep. Waking him up is not worth it. Trust me. I'll just post pictures later.

I've been doing a lot of knitting. I finished the mohawk hat from Pretty in Punk. I made it out of black cadena (from knitpicks) and some worsted weight wool (also from knitpicks, I forgot what it was) but I doubled it to make the fringey things on the mohawk. It turned out really cute! It was the second time I've felted something, the first time nothing really happened! I know I used the right kind of yarn, it was Cascade 220, so it should have shrunk more than it did, but this yarn felted perfectly! I made it for one of my library friends. She is really tall and skinny and has an awesome eclectic sense of style. She can totally pull off this hat. Kristinknits took pictures for me, at the library, but she hasn't emailed them to me yet. (that's the first time I linked to something from a post, how cool!)

I'm also halfway done with the argyle scarf from Son of a Stitch n' Bitch. It's double knitted. While reading blogs and ravelry comments (getting carried away here I am!) I've noticed that many people don't enjoy double knitting. I guess I'm weird, because I totally dig it! It did take awhile to get the hang of it, but now it just goes so fast, and it's so much easier than intarsia, but with the same effect, with the bonus that both sides are the right side! And I like how thick and smushy the fabric is. My scarf is going to be for me and my daughters to share, so I don't think I'm going to use all for skeins of yarn, (the girls need to be able to walk without tripping over the ends!) but I still need to make it a little bit longer.

Also working on some plain ribbed socks out of Koigu. I love knitting with that stuff. It's so smooth and the colorway is gorgeous. Pictures soon I promise.

I've discovered that I can't knit and watch the Republican debates. I get too angry and start yelling at the television. I forget that I'm supposed to be following a pattern. Those people, it's like they are living on a different planet. A planet where healthcare is not an issue, where Mexican immigrants don't qualify as human beings, and 23 American boys dying in a month is an acceptable number, no wait, not acceptable, but considered a success for the surge in Iraq. I don't mean to ramble and shove my opinions down people's throats, I just don't understand. Ok I'm off my soapbox.

Oh and I bought the most awesome book! Knitting New Scarves! The patterns are crazy! But after reading through a couple and looking at the great instructional pictures that come with the patterns, I think I might be able to pull some of the easier ones off! Must. finish. argyle. scarf. before. casting. on! The pull is great my friends. Help me to resist!