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!