The Dogs Ate My USB Cord

Seriously. You know, the cord that makes the pictures go from the camera to the computer? A chewed up mess. And of course, the only way to get a new one is to order it from online. So no pictures from me.

It's ok, because really, all I did this weekend was work on supersecret project #1. Can't show pictures of it anyway! Also finishing the Heather socks.

I'm supposed to meet some Alpena/Rogers City knitters for lunch on Thursday. Met them through Ravelry. I don't know what I would do without Ravelry! Knitters are a kick ass bunch of people!

Better go clean up the house. Laundry out my ears, vacuuming to do, puppy mess to clean up. I need a job!

Movie meme

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.


Don't feel like you have to do this one if you read it, I just thought it sounded fun and I know someone (kristinknits) who will totally kick ass on it! Well, some of it anyway!

1.I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. - Say Anything! Guessed correctly by hollyb!

2. Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides... there isn't going to be any war. - Gone with the Wind guessed by hollyb!

3.Don't worry, I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm gonna do, which is, you know, FLIP OUT!- Jerry Maguire guessed by Kristinknits!


4.I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all. - 10 things I Hate About You guessed by hollyb!

5.Oh Sam, let me take a look at you. Fred, she's gotten her boobies. - 16 Candles guessed by - you guessed it - hollyb!

6."Hey Goose, ya big stud!"
"That's me honey"
"Take me to bed or lose me forever"
"Show me the way" - Top Gun guessed by hollyb (but you should look at the comments cuz her answer on this one was funny!)

7. Miss Truvy, I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair. - Steel Magnolias - guessed by hollyb! Who must be some sort of movie quote savant!

8.I just went out there and performed sexual favors. Six hundred and thirty-four blow jobs in five days... I'm really quite tired. - Erin Brockovich guessed by Kristinknits!

9.John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know why at the time. It was very old - torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line, every curve. I came across time for you Sarah. I love you; I always have - Terminator guessed by your friend and mine - hollyb!
ok, that didn't leave much , but there are two left. Any takers?
That's it, can't think of another movie. And I've posted three times today. Does that tell you a little bit about how much time I have on my hands? And I still managed to knit! Bonne Chance!

yarnalicious day

My husband took me to lunch, I told him I was going to the yarn store and he didn't say no (not that I would've listened and I didn't say I was buying anything, although . . . I did!) And I come home to a package from the legendary zombie slayer herself, with my tee shirt and membership card! The day looks up. Here is some documentation.Tee shirt,
official membership card (with daper gentleman and his prom date, I'm guessing)

sock yarn with which to make the mini-argyle beret (because the stash yarn just wasn't working, ok?)
And some pretty homespun with which to make the second part of the previously mentioned super secret project! The brown yarn. The red? Oh, it was free! The yarn shop was having a sale, buy 4 skeins, get one free! When you walk into a yarn shop on the spur of the moment, and they are having a SALE, it's destiny telling you you must buy yarn. (At least that's what I plan to tell Joe next time he checks the checkbook!)

Thank you to Hollyb for the cool zombie swag! Have a nice day!

I was in a foul mood when I posted last. I'm in a better mood today. Not a great one, mind you, but better. This whole moving thing is just hitting me.

I went to the library with my girls. I volunteered my services (that means working for free) and have not heard back from them. These people don't even want me to work for them for FREE! That stings a little. Same thing at the hospital. Called the volunteer office, left message, haven't heard back. Whatevs. I'll knit.

Working on three projects. Still working on the Christmas yarn socks, one done, will cast on next one later today. (I will I swear). Started a wavy gravy scarf. I thought I had more Pastaza though, and I don't, so it will be a short scarf. But cute!(gratuitous shot of super-cute great-nephew with scarf (sorry , couldn't help myself!)

And working on new top secret project. I can't post about it, so that means that one of the two or three people who read this blog know they are getting some hand knits in the future!

Gotta go, Joe wants to take me to lunch!

Happy Easter (or is it?)

It's lonely up here. I can't remember the last time I spent Easter without my family or my husband's family. No one came to visit, and frankly, this pisses me off a little bit. I mean, come on people! It's three hours away, we have a new house. If it was me, I would want to see my sister's new house. But whatever, I get it's the holiday, people want to relax. (Can you sense the hostility?)

I frogged the mini-argyle beret. Why? Because I was knitting it, in the round, and I kept coming up short some stitches. Different amounts of stitches in every round! That was not supposed to happen. There was something like 192 stitches, and I just couldn't stomach the thought of going back through the five or so rounds I had and finding where I screwed it up. Solution? Riiiiiipit!

So I cast on for another sock. It's called sock of kindness - which ok, I will admit, I need some of right now. I'm using my Christmas sock yarn, Schaefer Heather. I think it looks kind of cool.

I want to knit a scarf, but an easy one. And I'm limited by my stash, so it has to be one that doesn't use up a lot of yarn, because I only have like two skeins of any kind of yarn in my stash. I was thinking about the basketweave scarf from Stitch-n-Bitch Nation, but when I was browsing I saw Wavy Gravy. I have some pretty Manos del Uruguay Orange yarn and some Cascade Pastaza cream colored. I think those two might look pretty together in that scarf. I think I'm going to try it. Wish me luck.

Joe is letting the girls cook again. I don't think chefdom is in their futures. Poor things, every recipe they try to follow never turns out. They must have inherited my cooking gene. Right now they are fighting, because Sophie thinks she is the boss of the kitchen and she has ousted Savannah. Savannah, who believes everything should be fair, (like is Sophie gets two pairs of socks for Easter, she better damn well get two also. Yesterday we went to Gaylord to explore and told them they could each buy one thing. Sophie bought sun glasses for $12.50. Savannah picked out a shirt on sale for $7. She tried to say she should get the money for the difference, but we pointed out that we had said one thing, and had not specified the price. It took about a half hour of negotiations to get her to stop! But we won.) is complaining loudly to her father that even though she is eating sugar straight from the jar, she should still be allowed to participate because Sophie is! (Sophie mind you, is not eating sugar from the jar)

I'm going to go throw the stash, find some needles and start my Wavy Gravy scarf. I should be well on the way by the time Big Brother comes on tonight. I'm excited for tomorrow, my friends, the ladies from the View will be back. I need to get out of the house!!!!!!

Spring Break Stir Craziness

This is what little girls do to dogs over Spring Break when they get bored. They dress them up in princess costumes.This is what mom's do (well me, anyway) when the noise gets too loud. I lock myself in the bathroom and finish the mock cable wave socks.
This is what puppies do when bored girls try to hold them too much. They hide under furniture and end up getting stuck.
And this is what dad's do when they come home from work and are faced with a bored wife and children. They pose the puppies for cute pictures. But the puppies always turn their heads and the pictures never turn out as cute as the actual dogs!
I started some socks with my Smooshy yarn but didn't like them. So I'm making the mini-argyle beret with sock yarn. You can find it on Ravelry - I think I've got the name right for once! It's cute. Solid gray and variegated purplish colors. I'll post a picture once I get past the ribbing.

Now, while the girls are busy making chocolate chip cookies (with too much salt and baking soda - they undertook this project by themselves) I'm going to watch the last episode of Survivor on the computer. See ya!

Sock Insanity

This is my pretty Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, all wound up in a ball. It's very autumnal in colors. I was looking through ravelry for a pattern that would show off the colors and found one that I have! I think it's called "Mock Wave Cable" or something like that, anyway it's in the book "Favorite Socks". Here they are started . . .
and here is one finished! I've got one repeat left in the leg of the next one and of course, the whole foot, which seems like it takes forever. Honestly, when you are knitting the foot of a sock, doesn't it feel like you are knitting for a giant's foot? And then when you measure it, there's nothing there! It's endless! But I love it, and thank goodness, my feet are average sized.
This is the beginning of my moving monkeys. They are done. But they are not where I put them, so photographing them is impossible until they are found. That very well be next winter. Why? I'm going to go take a picture of all the crap we have to unpack, and then perhaps it can be understood why I will not be undergoing a massive sock search at this time!
I titled this post "sock insanity" because yesterday I added a full page of sock patterns to my queue in Ravelry! It would have been more but a couple were in German or something I couldn't decipher. And, now that I'm almost done with my Cherry Tree Hill socks, I feel the need to purchase more sock yarn. This is problematic. I have two great skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy just staring at me, and I fully intend to use one to make my next pair of socks. But I think this must be what it's like to be a crack addict . . . if I use one skein, I've GOT to replace it! I mean seriously! I feel all fidgety! Like I keep staring at the keys to the car and contemplating the route to the yarn store when I should just be happy with my smooshy (not to mention the five or so other skeins of stuff in my stash!). The other problem being, I'm unemployed. No money. Yes, the husband makes some money, but he is loathe to spend it on yarn when the skeins of Smooshy are staring him in the face also. He doesn't understand. He says things like "Why don't you use up all of your yarn first and then you can go yarn shopping?" And also, this whole economy thing is freaking him out. This morning when he heard about that big bank going under, he started talking louder and excitedly about things I do no understand. He said, numerous times "This is big . . . I mean really big" with his eyes all agog. I just asked him if we were ok, and he said yes. That's all I need to know. That, and when can I buy some yarn from the Loopy Ewe online?
Oh, and this is the front of the house. I would call it our house, but I'm not going to do that until we sell our house (that really isn't our house because the bank owns it) downstate. Oh my gosh, I said downstate. Anyway I don't want to jinx it, because I kinda like this house.

Oh yeah, Happy St. Patrick's Day! May your clothes be green and your corned beef be tasty!

Pictures!!!

Pictures! This is part of my backyard.
This is the view out of my front door.

This is my new camera, with which I took the preceeding and proceeding photos! I am camera shy, thus the shot of me trying to edge my way out of the photo!
And this is some of the yarn I bought on my first expedition to the my new lys! It's called "Fun" from Ironwood Yarns, in Nevada. It's super bulky, but has super thin spots too. I don't know what to do with it. Some people on ravelry have it stashed, but there are only two projects and neither appeals to me. I guess I just have to wait until inspiration strikes.

Working on some socks from Favorite Socks. Wavy cables or some such title, with my other lys purchase, a really pretty skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock. Fun stuff. Pictures of that tomorrow and pictures of my finished "moving monkeys". The shawl is winging it's way to hollyb so she can give it to the Threadbear people, so no pictures. That's ok, because it turned out so small . . . . Someone will enjoy it though, I hope.

self-control may be overrated

I'm displaying much self-control today. I am not buying the camera that I really, really want. Today. I'm not casting on for the cobblestone sweater, even though I've finished the monkey socks and the charity shawl (although it is quite small, more of a shawl for a child, but chock-full of good thoughts anyway). I've come to the conclusion that self-control sucks!

I have no camera to take pictures of the finished shawl and finished monkeys! The shawl will be flying away to E. Lansing before I can document that it actually existed! The socks will still be here, but they never look as pretty, once they've been washed, and I'll have to wash them because I'm wearing them right now :)

I'm not so upset about the cobblestone because I have some of the cool new Noro sock yarn, and I'm going to cast on a pair of jaywalkers as soon as I'm done here. Won't the jaywalkers look cool with this yarn? Noro stripes in such an attractive way, I can't wait to see them. The yarn in the skein looks like it wouldn't be so comfortable as far as socks go, but I've heard many people say that it softens up considerably once you wash it.

Well, writing about it is making me lose the self-control to finish this blog entry so I believe I'm going to have to cut it short! Maybe next time there will be pictures!

The Great Wet North

Well, I'm here. And it's wet. White and wet. Inside and out. It's raining right now,which I don't so much mind because it means the temperature is above freezing and I'm all about that. But guess what? It's gonna turn to snow later. That's outside.

Inside why is it wet you ask? Oh, because I live with two puppies and an incontinent old lady dog. My husband said the puppies got it, you know, that they would totally pee and poop outside. And they do. They also pee inside. Right after they've peed outside!!!! Help. Our backyard has no fence, it drops down about 20 ft. to a creek and there is a massive great dane who lives next door. This wasn't a problem a week ago, because both puppies were too small to go off the deck. Now one is big enough and he wants to explore. Fine, except I'm not exploring with him because there are feet of snow out there! So when he goes out all I am doing is yelling at him "Step away from the edge mister!" and he gets distracted and can't poop. What am I going to do? And Nona, my old dog, she's protesting. "Hello? Why do I have to poop and pee in all this snow? Really? I don't think so" . You can totally see her thought process. Then inside you turn your back and there is a huge puddle of pee.

We are getting an electric fence. Today. That should help with the puppies. It may kill Nona, I'm not sure. How much of a zap can an old dog take? But I will not have my new house smell like dog urine. I'm drawing the line!

No camera, no pictures. My son is still down south till the semester ends and his camera is with him. I think I'm going to buy myself a camera with my last check from the library. I'm going to research it on the internet like a good girl, instead of buying on impulse, like I normally do. Impulse buying should only apply to yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I'm about halfway through my shawl. I dug it out of the moving boxes last night. I am almost to the heel of my second monkey sock, but I'm gonna set that one aside until I finish the shawl. Then, I bought new yarn for a cobblestone sweater. It's a men's pattern, but sometimes I like a big,baggy sweater. It reminds me of my youth. Back in the late 80's that's how we wore our shirts, nice and baggy. Don't worry, I'm not going to relive the 80's, I've seen some pictures on ravelry of the cobblestone on women and it looks nice! I'm so excited, but I will control myself. I shall not cast on until ..... well, until I need to.

Gotta go let the dogs out!